Nigorimasen! Blog

Pictures courtesy of Akibablog

The August 2008 issue of Dengeki Daioh hit stores in Japan yesterday and the 900-page, 35-work copies are so thick that a stack inside the Akihabara Gamers reached the roof. (Those interested in what’s inside the issue can read this post on Akihabara Channel.)

There were even some attached to the side of a sidewalk kiosk.
Read the rest of this entry »

No anime-equivalent pictures this time, just real life photos.

I just happened to be browsing the Twitter site Summize when I saw Tokyo was a “trending topic” and quickly found out there was a stabbing in the Akihabara district. The incident occurred around lunchtime in central Tokyo when 25-year-old Tomohiro Kato drove a 2-ton rented truck into a crowd of pedestrians, running over three people. He then got out of the vehicle and began to stabbing passersby with a survival knife. Initial reports described Kato as a gang member but those were later found not to be true.

[Coverage: BBC News | NY Times (via AP) | Reuters | CNN | Mainichi (English) | Akibablog (photos) | ize.ne.jp (w/ slideshow) | ANN (w/ updates)]

Read the rest of this entry »

The Japanese Schoolgirl Watch section of Wired Magazine highlights cute and/or strange items that are popular among the young crowd and March’s issue puts its spotlight on Miku Hatsune, the aquamarine-haired singing software mascot.

Miku Hatsune is one of Japan’s hottest new pop sensations. Since last August, the 16-year-old’s cute soprano voice has been near the top of the charts — the software charts. Hatsune, whose full name means “first tone of the future,” is a vocal-synthesizer app created by Yamaha and based on audio data sampled from anime voice-actress Saki Fujita. The program lets aspiring music nerds create pitch-perfect vocal tracks by simply entering the lyrics (in Japanese or English) and musical notes. The AI superstar can be heard singing dozens of tunes on YouTube. Strangely, though, no sign yet of “Mr. Roboto.”

There have been tens of thousands of re-renditions of anime and Japanese hits as well as originally composed songs. There is also a weekly updated NicoNicoDouga countdown of the most 50 most popular Miku “song videos”, a number of CD compilations of users’ creations, a poorly produced porn knock-off entitled Hatsune Miko (NSFW), a serialized manga running in Monthly Comic RUSH involving Miku, too many doujin to count, and plush dolls designed by that Nyoro~n guy.

So why aren’t Ren and Len Kagamine getting as much as attention? Is it the moe idol factor or simply because Miku was the first big hit? All I know is that I tried the software once and gave up because of my lack of musical training or sense of tone.

[via Japan Probe]

Last week Ian Lucas, a Labour member of the British Parliament representing Wrexham, called for the Union Jack to be redesigned to include the Wales red dragon and properly represent the region as a part of Great Britain. At first, submissions for possible designs sent into the Telegraph were mainly from within the country but then 2-channelers lent their assistance with some clever designs. There was the above entry with Louise from Zero no Tsukaima…
Read the rest of this entry »

I was walking around with my parents at Apple Hill today, looking at bunches of apples, pumpkins, and various crafts when I saw the headline “Manga comics losing longtime hold on Japan” in a copy of yesterday’s USA Today that was in a trash bin. So I made a mental note of it, checked out the article when I got home, and apparently there is a big problem of sorts. Sales fell the fifth consecutive year in 2006 and manga magazine sales are far from their 1995 peak of 1.34 billion with a figure of 745 million last year, about a 44% drop. The reporter noted that that high year was when Weekly Shonen Jump stopped carrying Dragon Ball. There were four likely causes given that primarily involve the habits of young Japanese people.
Read the rest of this entry »

ANN reports that BIGLOBE, a Japanese ISP owned by NEC, has teamed up with Toei to launch a subscription service wherein one can access “about a thousand” anime episodes from 15 titles by the production company for about US$13 a month. The selection will be refreshed every month with two titles being added and replacing two others, similar to video-on-demand from US cable television providers except this content is mainly going to be viewed on computer monitors.

The initial offerings for September include Sailor Moon, Fist of the North Star, Captain Harlock and Digimon Adventure (the first season). Looking at Toei’s production list, future additions could include Marmalade Boy, Mazinger Z, Cyborg 009, the 2002 edition of Kanon. I’m not so sure about more recent titles like Air Gear, Lovely Complex, or Pretty Cure but there is a possibility those could show up as well.

One of the rules in baseball that may not be obvious to casual baseball fans is that a batter can run to first if the catcher drops the third strike (i.e. the ball is not “legally caught”) and fails to tag him out when first base is open or when there are two outs. It still counts as a strikeout for the pitcher and the runner gets to stays on base if he reaches. (This has sometimes led to MLB pitchers getting four strikeouts in an inning.)

Well, during a tournament game between teams from Yokohama and Tokai, the Yokohama catcher dropped what would have been the third strike to close out the inning and the entire defense walked off the field toward the dugout. As the Tokai batter was walking back to the dugout, someone told him to run to first. He did and then went to second, then to third before scoring all the way home. The two other runners on base also scored, making it a three-run strikeout and expanding Tokai’s lead to 6-0.

At least the umpire was nice enough to explain the situation and outcome to the crowd.

[from Japan Probe]

To promote the upcoming release of the first Rebuild of Evangelion movie on September 1st, Frito-Lay of Japan started selling (on July 9th) bags of Doritos with a few different Eva designs featuring Rei and Shinji. The two single character designs can be found on both 50g and 90g bag sizes but only the Puchi Eva designs from the figurine series are on 50g size bags. The chibi characters get the smaller bag! This promotion isn’t that different from the cross-promotion branding that occurs when blockbuster films launch in America - examples from this year are Shrek 3 and Spider-Man 3.

An post on Japan Probe mentions that the tax office of Oharu in Hokkaido has put up for sale rare figures owned by a toy retailer who didn’t pay his taxes. The unopened figures included characters from Sentimental Graffiti among other ’90s love simulation games. The department uses online auctions site like Yahoo! to sell other seized items like cars and paintings and back in February, over 100 bids were made for four figures with the highest bid at 7,250 yen. Another ten sets are currently being hocked and bids will be accepted until May 1. Don’t ask me where, though - if you’re interested, you should be motivated enough to search for them yourself. Let this be a warning to all you collectors out there, especially if you’re running a business.

OK, on Friday I turned into the Education Abroad Office at my college my enrollment packet for a summer abroad program (Japanese Culture in Film) to take place in Kyoto, Japan, from June 29 to July 28. I was told I am fourth on the waiting list since it filled up quickly so I’m hoping people drop in the next couple months. Not damn likely but I can still hope.

So my backup plan for overseas learning this summer is Düsseldorf, Germany, during the month of August and taking a course called “Germany under Hitler’s Third Reich”. And I know a good amount of German so that might help me get around there better than not knowing kanji and walking around Japan. Still, I know a friend who was the first one to sign up for the Kyoto trip so I’d prefer to go there than Deutschland, at least for this summer.

Anyway, I set up a separate blog to document my attempts and experiences with the study abroad program. There’s only one post there now but it should pick up around mid-April as more stuff happens. Wish me luck, guys (and gals)!

Maybe the pure power of the aniblogsphere can influence the situation…or not…