Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
anime (Page 260)
Despite being filled with man-eating giants and heartless bureaucrats, people around the world can’t get enough of smash hit anime and manga Attack on Titan. But while fans wait patiently for the rumored continuation of the animated TV series, production is moving ahead on the franchise’s live-action theatrical feature, which now has a filming location and an actor chosen to play Titan-hating protagonist Eren Yeager.
It’s April Fool’s Day, which means that plenty of anime companies are having a good chuckle with fake announcements, quirky crossovers, and more. Here’s Part 1 of our round-up; check back later in the day for more!
Did your mom ever tell you not to play with your food? She was probably right, it’s not a nice thing to do when there are thousands of people who are struggling to afford proper meals each day. However, if you’re able to create an art piece out of your food, then we guess you’re in a league of your own. Like these banana tattoo artists, or this banana engraver from Japan who creates stunning replicas of famous characters using bananas!
Goku, the protagonist of smash-hit anime and manga franchise Dragon Ball, is one of Japan’s most iconic fictional characters. Even decades after his 1984 debut, he’s still instantly recognizable and almost universally loved by comic and animation fans.
With 30 years of stories, there’s been plenty of time to flesh out the spiky-haired martial artist’s backstory. Still, Dragon Ball creator Akira Toriyama has kept one bit of his most popular hero’s life shrouded in mystery until now, as Goku’s mother will appear for the first time in a special one-off manga.
If any Hatsune Miku fans find themselves in China’s Guangxi Province, they might want to stop by the city of Yulin for an unexpected surprise, because it’s in this city that the Vocaloid singing sensation has gotten a fast food restaurant dedicated to her, though likely not in any official capacity.
Do you think Walt Disney ever scratched his butt in public?
Sure, it may not be the classiest thing to do, but sometimes when you’ve got an itch, it needs to be scratched right away. It doesn’t make him a monster, it just means, like all of us, occasionally his base urges won out against social propriety.
Still, it’s a little hard to reconcile the man responsible for Mickey Mouse having an itchy behind. Just like it’s a little shocking to learn that Osamu Tezuka, the creator of Astro Boy, kept a stash of sexy mouse drawings locked in his desk.
The Moon Animate, Make Up! project released a new scene preview for the fan-animated episode of Sailor Moon.
The project will reanimate episode 38 of the first season, “Fractious Friends” and use the English language dub. All animation positions are currently filled but you can apply to be added to the waitlist if a scene opens at moonanimatemakeup@gmail.com.
According to the project organizer Kaitlin Sullivan, the project is on track to be finished by late May or Early June.
It’s hard to think of an anime franchise that’s had a bigger impact than Macross. Aside from being a huge hit in its native Japan, the military sci-fi saga has provided no fewer than three gigantic boosts to anime’s international popularity. The original Macross, repackaged internationally as Robotech in 1985, provided many English speakers with their first taste of Japanese animation, a feat repeated by its 1994 direct-to-video follow-up, Macross Plus. Macross’ first theatrical feature, 1984’s Do You Remember Love?, is even largely credited with kick-starting the practice of fan-produced anime translations.
Now, the franchise is poised to bring in yet another crop of new fans, with the announcement that a new Macross TV series is on its way.
Anime Japan 2013 had plenty of booths at Tokyo Big Sight advertising the latest anime and hawking related swag, but some companies also took the opportunity to showcase new technology that might be of interest to fans of animation.
Japan’s infatuation with Natalia Poklonskaya, Crimea’s newly appointed and unusually photogenic attorney general, is still going strong. In the week since we first reported on it, fan art based on Eastern Europe’s comeliest stateswoman has continued to proliferate.
But how do Poklonskaya, and for that matter her anime-loving daughter, feel about the unique sort of attention she’s been getting?
It’s no secret that some of the most obsessive anime fans develop, oh, let’s call them “intense feelings” for certain animated characters. Peer deep enough into their psyches, and you’ll find a (dirty) laundry list of things they’d like to do to, or have done to them by, their favorite anime heroes and heroines.
Usually, these desires are kept private, but when a special even at the recently held anime convention Anime Japan offered an opportunity to make one of these fantasies come true, some fans couldn’t resist the chance to be stepped on by frilly-costumed anime girls.
Last weekend the Tokyo Big Site convention center hosted the inaugural Anime Japan animation exposition, which combines the previously separately held Tokyo International Anime Fair and Anime Contents Expo.
We were drawn to the show by the promise of being able to see the giant Ingram robot being used in the upcoming live-action Patlabor motion picture with our own eyes, so we headed for Big Site and dove headfirst into the crowd of fans and exhibitors, where aside from giant robots we found amazing cosplayers and anime-themed edibles, not to mention hordes of ravenous anime song idol fans.
Right now there’s no anime series with a wider fan base than Attack on Titan, and while that mainstream appeal has translated into merchandising such as fashion accessories and giant hamburgers, the truest testimony to the fans’ love for an animated series is cosplay of its prominent characters.
Japan’s pet owners can be just as passionate as its anime fans, though, and are just as enthusiastic about dressing their pooches up in eye-catching outfits. So perhaps it was only a matter of time until we saw Pomeranian Attack on Titan cosplay.
Projection mapping is a big hit in Japan. Used at festivals and big events, the colourful and creative light shows project moving images onto buildings and objects, bringing them to life with accompanying music and drawing in adoring crowds.
The latest object getting the laser treatment in Japan is a life-size Gundam figure in Odaiba, Tokyo. While the figure has travelled around and been subject to projection mapping over the past few years, a new tie-in promotional product that has crowds going crazy. It’s a simple little box that, when used in conjunction with your smartphone or PSP, fills up with lasers, sparks and music in an amazing 3-D light show you’ll have to see to believe.
It’s not every day you get to see an enormous robot being lifted up to tower above you. That’s why fans of science-fiction series Mobile Police Patlabor were excited to see an 8-metre high humanoid robot from the series being put up in the Toyosu area of Tokyo’s waterfront.
The robot in question is the AV-98 Ingram, which appears in the latest movie addition to the franchise, a live action series called The Next Generation Patlabor. Fans gathered to watch the robot, which is built “actual size” at just over 8m high, being raised into place on March 17th.
We’ve officially found the world’s coolest dad…and he lives in Brazil! Animator Robson Menezes dos Santos began working on a special animation video last August for his son Rasdael’s 9th birthday on February 9. And let’s just say that the results will blow you away faster than if you got hit by a Kamehameha. He even got the official Brazilian voice actors to dub a special birthday message for Rasdeal! Be sure to watch this awesome birthday present yourself- it’s over 9,000 one million levels of coolness!!
Thanks to the patient translation efforts of AltJapan Co., Ltd. co-founder Matt Alt, readers can now read, in English,most of the 90-page study on robot anime made available by the Japanese government. Titled “Nihon Animation Guide: Robot Anime-hen,” the original document was written by anime critic Ryusuke Hikawa, Sunrise head of cultural promotion Koichi Inoue, and writer Daisuke Sawaki, and compiled by Mori Building Co., which has previously also compiled reports on Japanese live-action special effects shows, movies, and other pop culture topics. In addition to these reports, the company also promotes media arts information, hosts symposiums, conducts surveys, and works on archive projects.
Commercials in Japan often portray Japanese products as being far and away the best in the world, and are so overly earnest in doing so they frequently make no sense. Anime is packed with cute characters who, again, make no sense. And a lot of J-pop songs are hyperactive melodies with lyrics that, you guessed it, make no sense.
So how is it combining all three makes for just about the perfect ad for Japanese meat?
Although the designs of smash hit anime Evangelion’s titular titanic robots are ingrained on the psyches of animation and science fiction fans the world over, early on it had a bit of an uphill battle. Compared to the lines of other mecha franchises like Gundam, the Evas were downright gangly. Evangleion’s war machines resembled slouchy adolescents, right down to their feet where instead of the knightly armored boots of their predecessors, the Eva’s appeared to be wearing ordinary shoes.
Now fans can bring things full-circle with a line of Evangelion loafers.
China’s don’t-go-to-Japan warning seems to be affecting Osaka’s Namba and Dotonbori neighborhoods
Japanese company selling bear-proof automatic doors
Viral 3D ice creams land in Japan… but are they worth the hype?
Unique inclined elevator in Japan leads to a town that inspired Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away
Studio Ghibli adds new Kiki’s Delivery Service music box to its anime merchandise shop in Japan
This Osaka laundromat wants to clean more than your clothes; it also wants to clean you
Foreign driver’s license conversion test passes plummet from over 90% to 33% in Japan
Design-your-own-Pokémon-T-shirt service launches at Uniqlo, dozens of species to work with【Pics】
It’s a hard rock life: NINGEN ISU’s Shinji Wajima talks about songwriting, working with friends
Brand-new Pokémon park opens in Japan with larger-than-life-size Lapras【Photos】
Japan’s human washing machines will go on sale to general public, demos to be held in Tokyo
Nintendo’s Kirby now delivering orders at Kura Sushi restaurants, but not in Japan
Japan considering raising international traveler departure tax even more than previously reported
Is China’s don’t-go-to-Japan warning affecting tourist crowds in Shibuya’s Don Quijote?
Is China’s don’t-go-to-Japan warning affecting tourist crowd sizes in Nara?
Studio Ghibli stamps lift your spirits with motivational phrases from Totoro
Japanese town suing resident for being a jerk
Is Kyoto less crowded with tourists after China’s don’t-go-to-Japan warning?【Photos】
You can now buy a Japanese train station clock in Japan
Japanese police attempting to clamp down on “zombie cigarettes”Japan’s human washing machines will go on sale to general public, demos to be held in Tokyo
Starbucks Japan unveils new Christmas goods and a rhinestone tumbler that costs 19,500 yen
Real-world Nausicaa Ghibli anime glider completes its final flight in Japan【Video】Brand-new Pokémon park opens in Japan with larger-than-life-size Lapras【Photos】
Japanese train company is letting fans buy its actual ticket gates for their homes
Is China’s don’t-go-to-Japan warning affecting tourist crowds in Tokyo’s Asakusa neighborhood?
The 10 best day trips from downtown Tokyo【Survey】
Naturally brown-haired Osaka student sues government for forcing her to dye her hair black
Japanese government considering tripling departure taxes to combat overtourismUnique inclined elevator in Japan leads to a town that inspired Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away
Survey asks foreign tourists what bothered them in Japan, more than half gave same answerJapan’s human washing machines will go on sale to general public, demos to be held in Tokyo
Japan’s deadliest food claims more victims, but why do people keep eating it for New Year’s?
We deeply regret going into this tunnel on our walk in the mountains of Japan
Studio Ghibli releases Kodama forest spirits from Princess Mononoke to light up your home
Major Japanese hotel chain says reservations via overseas booking sites may not be valid
Put sesame oil in your coffee? Japanese maker says it’s the best way to start your day【Taste test】
The top 10 annoying foreign tourist behaviors on trains, as chosen by Japanese people【Survey】
No more using real katana for tourism activities, Japan’s National Police Agency says
Starbucks Japan reveals new sakura drinkware collection, inspired by evening cherry blossoms
This Osaka laundromat wants to clean more than your clothes; it also wants to clean you
Foreign driver’s license conversion test passes plummet from over 90% to 33% in Japan
Design-your-own-Pokémon-T-shirt service launches at Uniqlo, dozens of species to work with【Pics】
It’s a hard rock life: NINGEN ISU’s Shinji Wajima talks about songwriting, working with friends
Brand-new Pokémon park opens in Japan with larger-than-life-size Lapras【Photos】
We predict 7-Eleven’s new Zero Cider Triple drink is gonna be the hit drink of 2022【Taste Test】
Kyoto’s “ikezu” culture of backhanded compliments explained in hilarious souvenir sticker series
Studio Ghibli releases new Spirited Away kami collection
Nintendo releases Metroid-shaped ice cube/cooking tray and Samus arm cannon pillow【Pics】
Japanese police are not messing around, with Patlabor robot mecha out on display 【Video】
Which Japanese convenience store has the best miso vegetable stick pack?【Taste test】
Duolingo to open first pop-up store Duomart in Japan for a very limited time next month
LoCoS: The universal language we’ll be using by 2065, according to legendary Japanese designer
