Famitsu reports that a whole throng of people showed up for the recent Monster Hunter Portable 2nd tournament held in Tokyo. If you look at the image above you'll also notice something. For those of you with testosterone, look, girl gamers (the one with the pony-tail and the mickey mouse bag) with PSPs!

Primal instincts aside, PSP Fanboy reports that the attendance for that tournament was around 6,500 people. A mighty impressive figure. Based on the images that were on the Famitsu, there was an art gallery, side games that offered prizes, and even a corner for the Monster Hunter card game. There was even a developer "Q and A corner" where 4 people from the production team answered questions from the fans in attendance.

Capcom notes that "Monster Hunter Fest" will continue and more tournaments will be held in Osaka, Sapporo, and Nagoya. The finals will be on the 10th of June, and will happen to Tokyo.

Yes, those who have their issues with the game (camera control, etc.) would say that if the game had infrastructure support, the need to meet up with other systems physically wouldn't be needed. However huge gatherings like this are not only fun, but also emphasize the popularity of the franchise, highlighting the user-base that the PSP has.

For more info on the event, feel free to head to the lengthy Famitsu report yourselves. Just run the "VIA" link below through an online translation engine of your choice (Google, Babelfish, etc...) and see for yourselves if you can survive the Engrish.

   

More screens of the event after the Jump!

Not really news, but a little something for those who're loyal to the hit game for the PlayStation Portable. Kotaku's Brian Ashcraft has been going around the fan-pleasing Monster Hunter Festa in Osaka as of late, and he's been taking images, videos and what -not.

His latest revelation to the wide wild world of the interwebs involves several masterful works of Monster Hunter related art. Behold:

    
    
  

Yep, the game's actually big enough for people to care about the concept art. Cool isn't it?

Capcom may be putting a Wii-fied Okami rumor to sleep, and Clover Studio will soon be closing up shop, but don't think that this will be the end of the team that has brought us the likes of Viewtiful Joe. On the contrary, this may just be the beginning.

Much like how nature has cycles of life and death, the wilted clover slowly comes into our sight again in the form of the SEEDS development house that is taking root on the web. Their website does not carry any ongoing development news at the moment, but it is recruiting members to their ranks.

What does strike us is the current roster working at this new studio: Directors Hideki Kamiya (Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe and Okami) and Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, and RE4) are noted to be involved on SEEDS' roster, as are Nao Ueda, Mari Shimazaki, and Masami Ueda - all of whom were also part of the development crew for Okami. This studio also takes root in Osaka (Clover Studio's home base), and will be under the command of former Clover president Atsushi Inaba.

And in case you're wondering, they're now hiring planners, programmers, designers, sound people, and promotional staff. Must love dogs.