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anime & manga (Page 4)

Larger than life Doraemon doll will delight fans, terrify pets and small children

This day, 99 years from now, was (will be?) Doraemon’s birthday! And to celebrate, Bandai has decided to loose this behemoth Doraemon doll on the world to delight fellow Doraemon fans and send small children screaming out of the room and directly to the therapist. Especially after you explain to them that, don’t worry, it’s just a time-traveling robot cat with magic powers. He’s basically an adorable anime Terminator!

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Ghibli’s Miyazaki hints at possible Nausicaa sequel

For all of Studio Ghibli’s acclaim, the famed House That Miyazaki Built has never once put out a direct sequel to one of its works. While various thematic threads run through all of Miyazaki’s films, the man, for all his genius, apparently lacks the attention span to stretch a concept into two films. That or he was just really hates the idea of tacking numbers to his movies’ titles.

However that may change soon if comments Hayao Miyazaki made at a recent interview promoting his latest film and ode to tobacco smoke, The Wind Rises, are to be believed.

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Little Danbo cleans up and gets a job with exclusive BEAMS collaboration figure

The popular manga character and customizable toy Danbo has finally decided to move out of his parent’s house and get a real job, after spending his angsty teen years traveling Japan in search of enlightenment.

This collaborative figure from toy maker Kaiyodo and clothier BEAMS outfits little Danbo with chic, modern-casual business attire, preparing the box boy for his new career – we’re guessing somewhere in the logistics field.

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Eyes on the Prize: A Look at Japanese Pop Culture Trends Through Arcade Prizes 【October 2012】

One fun way to see what anime or game series are currently popular with kids and otaku in Japan is to visit an arcade and take a look at the prizes up for grabs in the crane machines, or UFO catchers, as they’re often called in Japanese.

Unlike North America, arcade culture is still going strong in Japan and UFO catchers are one of the main attractions. Always found on the first floor of arcades, these machines are stocked with the latest limited-edition figurines and plushies of popular characters, many of which can only be acquired as UFO catcher prizes (or on Amazon at obscene prices).

Japanese toy company Banpresto has announced their newest lineup of CRANEKING arcade-exclusive prizes, available this October. Check what toys are hot on the Japanese arcade scene below!

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Survey Shows 16 Out of 16 Foreigners Would Like to Date a Japanese Person, but What Would They Like to do on Their Dates?

In the midst of present day globalization, and with international marriages on the rise, how do Japanese people fare on the ‘international stage’ of dating?

We decided to find out by sending our reporter to Comiket 82 earlier this month and asking REAL LIVE foreign visitors if they would like to date a Japanese person.

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Why do Foreigners Like Japanese Manga so Much? We Head to Comiket to Find Out!

While manga is ubiquitous in Japan — just ride the subway in any major city and you’ll see people from all walks of life flipping through a comic book — many Japanese people are surprised to hear how popular manga has become overseas. After all, aren’t Westerners only interested in macho superheroes or short comic strips?

Perhaps that was the case in America before, but in recent years many major bookstores have begun to reserve more space near the front of the store for Japanese comics and in some European countries like France and Germany manga occupies a large portion of overall comic sales.

But why?

Earlier this month, we sent one of our Japanese reporters to Comic Market (or “Comiket“), the world’s largest self-published comic book fair and otaku mecca, to interview real live foreigners and ask them why they like Japanese manga so much.

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Why Do Foreigners Like Japan so Much? We Head to Comiket 82 to Find Out!

Many foreigners view Japan as some marvelous dreamland of technology and culture; a place where crazy is the norm and embracing fantasy in everyday life is acceptable.

But to Japanese people, Japan is just that place you were born. Everyone and everything is routine, and it’s often difficult to see why the rest of the world get’s so worked up about “Japanese culture.”

Earlier this month, we sent one of our Japanese reporters to Comic Market (or “Comiket“), the world’s largest self-published comic book fair and otaku mecca, to interview real live foreigners and ask them what it is they really think about this country.

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A Couple of Train Stations Create Their Own Cutie Gods in an Effort to Boost Tourism

Sadly with Japan’s many recent economic woes, visitation to the remote stations of Kofuku and Aikoku has been low.  So in an effort to drum up some visitors, the local communities did what anyone would do in this situation.  They made some gods.

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Hakone Opens an Evangelion Themed Souvenir Shop, Hopes They Don’t Get Overrun With Fans Again

Following the opening of Evangelion Store Tokyo-01, and with the release of the third installment of the reboot series, Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo, a new Evangelion souvenir shop is scheduled to open in the town of Hakone on 14 July.

Hakone, which serves as the backdrop for the Evangelion story (where it’s renamed as Tokyo-3), is happy to be home to the second official Evangelion store, called “Eva Shop” but is also hoping they don’t get a repeat of what happened two years ago.

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Life-sized Anime Figure Draws Criticism for Price, Creepy Face

A life-sized figure of manga and anime character Fujiko
Mine has been drawing criticism from fans on the Web. Comments have ranged from “Why did they make her like that?” to the more succinct, “Who the hell is that?” Apparently, she’s looking a bit off-color. Read More

 

Time limit, cutoff, due date. AKA “deadline”. Of course the concept applies to any number of jobs. But let it be said that the real experts on the subject are cartoonists / comic book artists.

These professionals truly know the possibilities of pre-deadline behavior. Today, we present to you 99 ways comic book artists find themselves approaching, or avoiding, their day of reckoning. See if you compare… Read More

Japan Self Defense Force Recruitment Posters Kill with Cute

In recent years, the Tokushima Provincial Cooperation Office of the Japan Self Defense Force has created recruitment advertising posters featuring cute, adorable illustrations, and it wasted little time in releasing this year’s version.

The posters depict a girl texting her Self Defense Force member boyfriend after she sees him on a news show, in uniform and providing natural disaster relief. “That uniform made you look twice as dashing as you usually do,” she texts lovingly. Read More

Free Umbrellas With A Purpose

Since March 8, you may have been seeing umbrellas around Tokyo printed with graphics for a new Xbox 360 and PS3 mahjong game.

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Spiderman-Themed Dumplings Set to Please,May Lead to a Surge in Bad Puns

Readers of this website are likely to be familiar with nikuman, the steamed rice pastry often made with meat filling.  In the past we have reported on the delicious slime shaped nikuman and Puyo Puyo themed nikuman. One thing to note about nikuman is that their name is made up of two parts niku (meat) and man (steamed bread) so that if you change the filling the suffix remains the same giving you pizzaman or curryman.

Universal Studios Japan took notice of how this is linguistically similar to the suffixes often used for superheroes in English and developed Spiderman (here the man would be pronounced kind of like a Jamacian accented mon).

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Pikachu Shoes: The Only Way to Get Your Boyfriend to Notice Them

Ladies, are you looking for something to liven up your wardrobe but not go overboard? Are you tired of the man in your life not paying attention to your new shoes that you spent hours choosing?

If so, then visit etsy.com for your next pair.  Here you can find sparkly and eye-catching designs that are too far over the edge of good-taste.  I guarantee your husband or boyfriend will compliment you on your 1-UP designed shoes faster than you could imagine.
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Traditional Japanese Sword Makers Commissioned to Create Real-Life Evangelion Weapons

Museums always struggle to find ways to attract younger visitors, so it’s not unusual to see a museum tie in an exhibition to some pop-culture trend.  Even the Bizen Japanese Sword Museum which you’d think is one of the “cooler” museums for the kids has had to come up with new ideas recently.

As a result anime fans may want to take a trip to Setouchi City in Okayama Prefecture this summer to check out the “Neo Japanese Sword Evangelion” exhibition.  This exhibition is a fusion of the hit anime series Neon Genesis Evangelion and the works of Japan’s finest traditional sword makers. Read More

Hello Kitty Hotel Rooms Ensure Sweet Dreams on the Road

So you’re taking a vacation to Japan via the Hello Kitty Jet to buy some Hello Kitty stationary, knick knacks, clothing, and accessories, but you don’t have a place to stay?  The Shinhankyu Hotel in Osaka has got you covered!

Starting March first they are making Hello Kitty themed Prince Kitty Rooms available, each decorated wall-to-wall with the infamous kitten along with her childhood companion Dear Daniel.  Everything in the room from the curtains to the sheets to the cushions is touched with the pink and white essence of Japan cutest cultural icon, all of which are exclusive designs for this hotel.

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