Are you a true otaku? Take a look at these quick tests to see if you can see what you're supposed to. If you can quickly recognize which anime character you're supposed to associate with these images, congrats! You spend too much time watching anime. Only one of these gave me a hard time, though if I lived in Japan I'm sure it would've come to me much more quickly. See how well you do by checking out the rest below:
Susan Boyle, the woman with the sensational singing voice that took the world by storm over the summer due to her performance on Britain's Got Talent, has been confirmed to sing the theme song for the anime movie "Himitsu Kessha Taka no Tsume The Movie 3 ~http://takanotsume.jp wa Eien ni~." Her most well associated song "I Dreamed a Dream" (see above) will be the theme for the film based on a popular web-based Flash series. Boyle will also be releasing her first album in Japan later this month, while the movie is due out on January 16, 2010.
Boyle singing for a whacky Flash-animated Japanese movie? What part of this made sense to anybody?
Despite the horror that was Haruhi season two's Endless Eight, the DVDs continue to sell like hotcakes. Kadokawa recently released the second Endless Eight DVD (third Haruhi Season 2 DVD overall), & just like the first one, it's been selling very well. Proving that the followers of Haruhi-ism will buy anything that features their goddess. In its first week, it sold well over 12,000 copies, placing it as the third highest DVD of the week.
While we're talking about the DVDs, it should be pointing out that the DVDs for Bakemonogatari have been doing surprisingly (or rather unsurprisingly) well. The second DVD took the top spot once again, selling over 18,000 copies in its first week on sale. Not only that, but the Blu-ray version sold so many copies that it's now the highest selling anime Blu-ray of all time, even surpassing K-On. Here are the top 10 DVDs in Japan for last week:
It turns out the new Mai-HiME Blu-ray set in Japan will contain brand new animated shorts. A high-def Blu-ray boxset for the series was announced sometime ago, & is due to come out January 27. It was already confirmed to have all 26 episodes of the original 2004-2005 anime series, along with the shorts that came on the original DVDs.
Now it's been announced that two brand new OVAs will be packaged in the set as well. Titled "Black Dance" & "the Last Supper," together they total a mere 4 minutes. Still though, it's brand new Mai-Hime for the first time in 5 years (not counting the various spin-off series of course). & in glorious HD to boot. Though this isn't the first time a new Blu-ray set of an older series was announced to contain brand new material.
It was a little over a year ago when Toonami came to an end & when Cartoon Network put an end to their Saturday night action block. Well it may not be Toonami, but CN is finally bringing back action to Saturday nights. A brand new block will start this Saturday from 7pm-10pm (Eastern/Pacific).
As evident by most of its programming though, it's aimed toward a younger crowed then Toonami was. Only the first hour will contain anime, & its not Naruto or DBZ stuff either- Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's & Bakugan. The real treat however lies at the very end of the block- the long awaited return of Justice League Unlimited! Reruns or not, it's still great to have Justice League back on Cartoon Network. Here's the schdele for the new action block:
Shonen Jump's long running "To Love-ru" manga was forced to come to an early end a few months ago. But creator Kentaro Yabuki has already revealed that he'll be starting work on a new manga in one of SJ's sister magazines, Jump Square. & it's starting really quickly too, as in the February 2010 issue, which goes on sale in January.
Even manga-ka who get right back up on their feet after ending one manga usually wait at least a year in between stories. But for Yabuki there'll be a mere four months between the final chapter of To Love-ru & the first chapter of his new series (which hasn't been revealed yet). & considering it takes awhile to get through the approval process at a magazine, it means he had to have had the new story ready even in less time that. Where did you have the time to come up with the plot & characters & whatnot? It's pretty clear that the guy was not ready to stop doing manga. Just a shame that it's a new story & that To Love-ru seemingly wont be getting any continuation.
The very popular & extremely awesome Japanese fanart site Pivix has announced that they'll be hosting a Twilight art contest in honor of the upcoming American movie sequel "New Moon." But wait, that's not the best part. Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (the character designer & manga creator for Evangelion), Hideo Kojima (creator of the Metal Gear Solid video game series), & Ryuji Gotsubo (illustrator of the Japanese versions of the Twilight books) will be serving as the official judges of the contest.
So yes, in a nutshell, the guys being Evangelion & Metal Gear will be judging Japanese fanart of Twilight. All three judges are said to be big fans of the teenage girl angst novels. It doesn't get much weirder than that!
It's one thing to talk about the top seiyuu of today, but talking about classical seiyuu is another matter entirely. The survey masters over at Oricon recently asked the Japanese public which voice actor would they consider to be a legend. The results were nearly all seiyuu of older generations, ones who've voiced infamous characters of anime's past. Nobuyo Oyama, the original voice for the still ongoing Doraemon anime (though she no longer voices the titular character), came in at #1. The only real oddity on the list was one of the two that tied for 10th place:
I never really got into DC ~Da Capo~, but it does play an important part in anime history for being one of the first moe series out there. The first series debuted back in 2003, back when moe wasn't as common as it is now. Then came DCSS ~Da Capo Second Season~. & then there was DCII ~Da Capo II~. & then DCIISS ~Da Capo II Second Season~. Yeah. There's also been OVAs too. Needless to say, there's never been a prolonged period of time with no DC. & now the time has come again.
Ero-ge company Circus has revealed their plans DCIII ~Da Capo III~. Like the first two DC one & two, Da Capo started out as adult visual novels. Just like the Key series & many others, these hentai games were made into non-adult anime series. But not only is a DCIII game in the works, they're already talking about an anime series (probably two anime series again) & beyond. Check out all of what Circus has in store:
In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.
RSS feeds again
If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.
If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.
Enveloped in postcards
Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.
Photos of the week
If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too! ( Read more... )
Who knew Tristan had such an angelic singing voice? Probably because he's black in this episode & was born with soul. Odion will surely be okay now that the gang has that & the power of friendship! Except for the fact that Melvin keeps trying to kill him with his Millennium Lightsaber. Although his hugs seem a lot more dangerous. & in the second episode, Ishizu doesn't just break the fourth wall. She completely shatters it into a million pieces. She also puts Kaiba in a very tough predicament. His only way out of it now is to kick her in the nads.
Arise, Chicken, arise!
That wasn't the only Aqua Teen Hunger Force reference this time around. The Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future plays a pretty big role in the second episode, explaining to Kaiba the vague details of his ancient past. Hopefully you've all seen ATHF to really appreciate this bit. LittleKuriboh is no less than amazing as he portrays the Cybernetic Ghost (both in voice & dialogue) perfectly as if the Aque Teen staff worked on it themselves. Bonus points for using actual footage from the Millennium World saga.
Tristan with giant breasts might be the scariest thing ever.
What was truly notable about these two episodes was that LittleKuriboh really started to use background music to a great extent for the first time. Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged has gone 42 episodes with little to no BGM, & the few times it did play was as part of a joke or something. But this time LK added some really nice BGM for no other purpose then to make the scenes feel more intense or cinematic. Very nice touch. More below:
Two separate anime magazines in Japan, Megami & Dengeki G's, surveyed their readers about who their favorite anime character was. Despite how both magazines cater towards otaku, the readerships for both are still different. Megami's readers are fans of bishoujo anime, while Dengeki focuses on ero-ge (hentai video games).
Despite their differences, one thing remained clear- no matter what kind of otaku they are, all otaku love the girls of K-On. Even while every other girl on the Dengeki list is from a hentai game, a few of the K-On girls still manage to get enough votes to be on the list. You can compare & contrast the two lists below:
Disney’s Buena Vista Home Entertainment has revealed that the American DVD release of Hayao Miyazaki's Ponyo will hit stores on March 2, 2010. Three different versions will be available- regular DVD ($29.99) 2-disc special edition DVD ($34.99), & Blu-ray ($39.99). While the regular version will only hold the film, the special edition will come loaded with special features. It also comes with a very cute Ponyo plush toy. The Blu-ray version comes with the same bonus features, but strangely enough it does not come with the toy. Usually Blu-rays have more goodies than DVDs, not less. Glad I don't own a Blu-ray player so I don't have to worry about that.
All in all, Ponyo made over $15 million dollars in the American box office for its entire run, earning it a very sold #5 slot in the top grossing anime movies of all time. Surpassing even Miyazaki's Oscar winning Spirited Away by about $5 million, Ponyo has been pretty successful. Though considering how much time, money, & effort Disney put into releasing it, they were probably hoping for even more.
Apple's approval process for their iPhone App Store doesn't make any sense. They can disapprove the most ridiculous things (like if they contain a swear word or two), & yet somehow an application known as "Asian Boobs" gets the thumbs up. Not only did it get through their ridiculous system, but it's actually a top seller right now. & it's like Apple hasn't banned cheesecake apps in the past either.
For only $1.99, this app contains thousands of photo galleries of hot Asian models, & while revealing to different degrees there's never any real nudity. It's also updated pretty frequently with new pictures, so you never run out of girls to ogle over. While all East Asian ethnic groups seem to be present & accounted for, Japanese girls seem to dominate the most. Here's the actual description of the app from the publisher:
It's still early on in the Fall anime season, but 2ch has already conducted an online survey asking what the best series of the season are. This is all based on early impressions of course, & can't really compare to the previous list of Top 10 Anime of Summer 2009, which was conducted after the Summer season came to an end. Also unlike that list, this one seems to focus exclusively on titles that debuted during the Fall, & not any series that's running new episodes during this time, meaning shows like Needless & FullMetal Alchemist: Brotherhood aren't eligible.
Season two of Darker than Black took the top spot, which I was personally surprised by. Only the top 5 series really got any substantial vote count, with all the other titles getting low support & close in numbers. Tied for last place, though, were Fairy Tail & season two of Asura Cryin. The top 10:
The extremely popular Love Plus moe dating game for the Nintendo DS seems to be causing trouble between some gamers & their IRL loved ones. Most recently & severely, it almost caused one couple to get divorced. While cleaning the house, one Japanese housewife noticed the blinking light of a DS coming from her husband's bag. When she opened it, she was shocked to find out the type of game her spouse was playing. She likened the game to her husband having an affair, since he technically was "seeing" other women in the game.
When confronted about it, the husband was forced to explain the game to her, including how it involves him dating & doing ecchi things with high school aged girls. The wife kept the game & the DS after this, & got her friends together so they could play the game to get to the bottom of it all. At first they admitted it seemed pretty harmless, but then one character showed up & everyone agreed she was a true threat to their marriage.
After this, the husband was forced to sell "Love Plus" & even his DS. His wife kept all the money. He was then forced to pay for a special New Years vacation to make up for it all. Three of the wife's friends discovered their husbands also owned the game, & had to suffer similar consequences.
It is said that "Love Plus" fans are among those most likely to buy the new Nintendo DSi LL, since its larger screen allows for more kissing room.
Subscribing to Megami & Nyantype magazine gives me more anime posters in a single month than I know what to do with. While I can plaster room after room with the near infinite amount of posters I've collected over the years, there's still one place these paper sheets cannot tread- the bathroom shower.
Fortunately, leave it to Japan to create a new technology which solves even that problem. Okay, it's not really that revolutionary to cover a poster with protective plastic to protect it from water, or "water". In fact not too long ago I saw a "Strike Witches" shower poster for sale (*cough*). But this particular shower poster, featuring the character Izumi from the upcoming ero-ge "Sekirara," does have a unique feature to it that seperates it from other wannabe shower posters on the market. Running hot water over the poster makes Izumi's bathing suit disappear. Somewhat NSFW result picture:
I usually don't read scanslations or anything of the current manga chapters of Naruto in Japan. I just read the English version in Shonen Jump for the most part. But with the big event that happened in the latest chapter, it's hard to ignore stuff like that.
Our video coverage of the Windows 7 launch in Japan continues! First up is this pretty funny commercial starring Takuya Kimura from the legendary J-Pop group SMAP. Combine this with the awesome idea of Nanami-tan & Microsoft really is doing a good job at reaching out to the Japanese & their interests in pop culture.
But then you see stuff like the video below, which shows a Windows 7 presentation booth in Akihabara. No one seems to be even giving the display or the poor girl giving the presentation a second thought:
FUNimation's parent company Navarre Corporation recently reported that their sales were down for second quarter of the 2010 fiscal year, but their profits for the same time period actually went up. This includes Navarre as a whole, & they didn't report how Funi is doing just on its own. But it's publishing division, which includes FUNimation among others, was down 26% compared to the previous year. Navarre says though they're "still optimistic about Funimation and its future" & blames the decrease on general decline in the overall DVD market, not just anime.
Furthermore it was stated that FUNimation now commands 56%-60% of the total American anime market & is "still the market share leader." CEO Cary L. Deacon even went so far as to say Funi has "a first look at all opportunities in terms of licenses. We’re seeing them all, we have an opportunity to bid on them all." So basically he's saying Japan goes to FUNimation first to get a title licensed, & if they pass then they look elsewhere. Deacon also said that Funi is being "pretty selective" overall.
Personally I think this is all a bit of an exaggeration. I'm not saying FUNimation isn't the king of the American anime world, because they are. As such, I'm sure they do get first dibs on a lot of titles. Japan knows that anime is suffering in the US a bit, & if they want their title to sell then why not give it to the best? However, Viz Media still gets first dibs of any anime that's based off of a Shonen Jump title, & more recently I think that now includes Shonen Sunday & Ikki titles as well. That's a lot of titles that Funi can't access first, & very popular ones to boot. & I'm sure Bandai Entertainment, despite their tough times right now, get first dibs on any title involving Bandai Visual in Japan. This of course includes all things Gundam. & to say that Funi is being selective? I don't really believe that. I mean, "Strike Witches" & "Dragonaut"? Only a select number of hardcore otaku are really gonna buy those titles.
An upcoming hentai video game in Japan features a character that looks an awful lot like Azusa "Azunyan" Nakano from this past Spring's hit moe series "K-On." A lot like her too, & I doubt it's a coincidence. It's not too surprising that the creators would want a character that resembles her, & this isn't the first time ERO games have made a lookalike of a popular character. After all she's a very popular loli from a very popular series, I'm sure many otaku will be getting this game for the sole purpose of banging Azunyan.
The name of the game, by the way, translates to "The Dance of People from the Future who Don't Know the Proper Method of Child Production," or "Rondo" for short. Don't ask. The character, known as Kana Mutsuki here, doesn't sound too much like her though, as evident from the voice samples on the official website. She's also not a DFC like Azunyan since she has boobs. Small boobs, but boobs nonetheless. But what she DOES have is a nekomimi modo (cat ears mode), just like our favorite young guitar player. Evidence:
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