Posts Tagged “Japan”

I received my first legitimate press release in the site’s inbox this evening and it did not seem exciting at first. It was sent by the The New Media Group and announced a collaborative content-sharing service to launch this December with Nico Nico Douga where Nico users will be able to view content from 20 “official providers” including as TNMG’s IPTV platform World On-Demand, MTV Japan, Avex, Bandai, and Livedoor. Wait, Bandai?!?

Yes, the anime and tokusatsu producer-slash-distributor is listed as one of many partners involved in this project (unclear if it is specifically Bandai Visual, Sunrise or both) so I have a little excuse to write about this. Frankly, there aren’t many juicy details except that Nico reportedly has 9.3 million Japanese (and secret foreign?) subscribers and commands either 2.3 or 2.9 million daily unique users, depending on whom from TNMG is trying to impress people. Simon Godden, President of e-learning service Teacher Tom Japan, thinks “this [deal] is a home run” so it must be great, right? Um, it guess it would be nice if you wanted to leave streams of comments on top of official music videos and foreign content as well as the swath of Touhou, IM@S, and Miku MADs that currently inhabit the site.

At any rate, you can read the entire release after the jump to get a few more optimistic quotes from executives focused on expanding the global reach of their managed brands.
Read the rest of this entry »

So I was scanning my local paper while eating Rice Krispies and a pear for breakfast (the “snap, crackle, and pop” sound is a novelty that will never fade for me) when I spotted the above in the Cost Plus circular and decided I HAD to scan it for a jocular post.

Firstly, I don’t think Ramune is very new at all considering I’ve seen at local supermarkets for a few years. Secondly, the phrase “Japan is just wild” demonstrates the kind of naive fascination that comprises the average consumer’s perception of the chain. Thirdly, I would rather wait until I go to Japantown to buy Ramune for about a dollar a bottle and instead indulge on an 80-cent bottle of Jarritos that has twice the volume.

On a more positive note, I did learn that lychee was a flavor and (from the back page) that they have 6-packs of Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale for sale, which I am considering trying closer to October. If you care to see the above listing in its full-page context, you can see it after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry »

Inventorspot (via Mahalo) reports that a number of companies such as Geo and Dibra are offering extra-wide contact lenses that are tinted prominently on the outer ring to mirror the big-eyed look familiar to those with 2D complexes. Contact lenses in cosplay are not new to me since The Contact Lens Company (yes, that’s their name) had a booth in AX’s dealer hall - those are strange on their own because the irises don’t appear to move and sometimes freak me out. These appear to be more general use lenses as they work like clear contacts and you can have them made to order. It’s just…*sigh* why aren’t normal sized eyes good enough? I know it’s Japan and some women want to appear younger but really?

P.S. If I had the choice between wearing glasses and wearing contacts I’d spring for glasses because I have an aversion to touching my own eyeballs and might have trouble putting in contacts. Plus you shouldn’t lose glasses as often. Thank goodness I have fine vision so I don’t have to deal with either.

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 »

[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 »

It’s been a while (about nine months) since I’ve composed a This Week in Akiba post, probably because I check out each entry that week and from Oct 29th to Nov 4th, there were about forty-seven. I picked out nine that I thought were interesting enough to share with you.

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 »

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.