Bringing you yesterday's news from Japan and Asia, today.
Naruto (Page 3)
It is always hard to let go of the things we love, which is why we have to take a look whenever Naruto is mentioned anywhere on the Internet. It doesn’t matter what it is, just give us more Naruto.
One tumblr teases the idea of what the ninjas of Konoha and the other hidden villages would look like wearing the latest fashions and gracing runways around the world. We guarantee you haven’t seen high fashion quite like this before. Team Kakashi, strut your stuff!
Fans of the internationally popular hit manga Naruto were dealt a huge blow when the series ended last November after 15 years of serialization in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine. Who would have thought that the story of a young ninja with high hopes and ideals (and named after a ramen ingredient, no less) would become such a success world-wide and go on to continue for 15 years?
Well, it did, and while Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto has been enjoying his well-earned rest since finishing the series, fans will be delighted to know that he apparently hasn’t been completely idle, as he publicly commented on plans for his next manga recently at an Apple Store event in New York!
Etsy, the online marketplace filled to the brim with unique handmade goods, can be an absolute treasure trove for people who want to stand out from the crowd with special items that can’t be found in regular stores.
Case in point: these amazing mugs from Californian seller Howard Le. From Naruto to Sailor Moon and Cowboy Bebop to The Legend of Zelda, there are dozens of Starbucks-esque mugs to choose from. And if none of them take your fancy, he’ll even custom make your order for you!
Masashi Kishimoto, who turns 41 this year, made it very clear last month that after 15 years of drawing his hit manga series Naruto he wants to take a break from the world of ninja. But being a manga artist and all, he’s constantly thinking up potential character and story ideas for the future. In fact, it turns out that he’s already decided on some details about his next big work–along with the fact that he intends to make it into a bigger hit than the story of the legendary Konoha ninja himself.
While visiting friends who were a part of the recent Naruto stage production, Japanese film and music star Gackt was left with a bad feeling. Having watched one of the overseas Naruto performances, the singer couldn’t help but notice the lack of people in the audience.
Gackt doesn’t rule out possible flaws with the play such as too much material crammed into a short time. However, as he wrote in a recent impassioned blog post, he thinks the real culprit may be the Japanese government and their Cool Japan promotional program, which he feels is anything but.
Time and time again we have professed the end of Naruto. While the original manga has certainly finished, there always seems to be something new for Masashi Kishimoto’s ninja clans. If you haven’t gotten your fill of Naruto yet with the new manga featuring Naruto’s son or the live-action theater production of the series, you should ninja run to the Adores building in Tokyo’s Akihabara. Their collaboration cafe is currently featuring the boisterous boy ninja and all his sneaky pals, but you better get there quick before the whole cafe ninja vanishes!
With less than four months to go until the film’s premiere, more and more information is trickling out about Boruto –Naruto the Movie-. Just last week, the voice cast was announced for the latest installment in the smash hit manga/anime ninja saga, and it turns out we didn’t have to wait long for lead performer Yuko Sanpei show her skills, as the newest teaser for the movie lets us hear the voice of Naruto’s son.
Along with throwing shuriken and climbing sheer rock walls, the art of seeming to disappear is an invaluable skill for a ninja. So maybe we shouldn’t be so surprised that even though you’ll no longer find Masashi Kishimoto’s hugely successful Naruto manga in the pages of comic anthology Weekly Shonen Jump, the franchise isn’t really entirely gone.
This summer, the ninja action continues, but previous lead character Naruto has earned a well-deserved rest. Instead, his son Boruto will be in the spotlight in a new theatrical feature. If you’re going to star in an anime movie, you’ll need a voice, and producers have just announced who will play Boruto, while also confirming that the new hero’s ninja father will also make an appearance in the film.
The rumors of Naruto’s death have been greatly exaggerated. Sure, last November marked the end of creator Masashi Kishimoto’s manga, after an amazing 15 years of serialization collected into 72 volumes. But while manga fans no longer get to see their ninja pals in the pages of weekly anthology Shonen Jump, elsewhere Naruto and company have been popping up all over the place.
The anime TV series is still ongoing, and last December’s The Last: Naruto the Movie isn’t as conclusive as it sounds, as there’s another Naruto theatrical feature scheduled for release in August. Then, of course, there’s the highly anticipated stage adaptation of the series.
And if all that’s still not enough for you, there’s an exhibition of Naruto artwork set to open in Tokyo and Osaka soon, with a sneak peak just a week away.
Fans of Naruto, the hit manga series that graced the pages of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine every week, were dealt a heavy blow back in November 2014 when the epic series ended after 15 years.
While they may have closed the book on the manga series, thankfully it’s not the last chapter in the Naruto franchise, as all our favourite characters will be returning, this time on stage in a live action spectacular set to tour Japan from 21 March 2015.
Yes, naruto stockings have arrived! But before you get all excited, we’re not talking about the hit manga and anime here, but about a different naruto — these stockings actually feature naruto the food. That’s right, these stockings are all about the naruto fishcakes commonly used as ramen toppings, and their unique design is sure to catch everyone’s eye!
Nengajo, or New Year’s greeting cards, are a ubiquitous part of the end-of-year season in Japan. Much like Christmas cards in the west, nengajo are sent to family and friends to update them on what you’ve been up to that year. In fact, there are so many nengajo sent at the end of the year that post offices in Japan have to employ students as temporary staff to make sure they meet the delivery deadline of January 1. While there are plenty of preprinted cards available from stationery shops, many people opt to make their own, personalised cards. A nice touch, but results may vary depending on the artistic skills (and sense of humour) of the postcard sender! To show you what we mean, we’ve put together a little list of the best of this year’s nengajo. Some of them are genuinely impressive, while others would make us cringe if the neighbours saw ’em!
As you’ve probably already gathered by browsing our front page today, fukubukuro season again! And for the 99.999999999 percent of us who couldn’t get the robot suit, every other store in Japan has something up for grabs.
This time we’re going to take a peek inside a lucky bag from leading fast food chain Lotteria as purchased by our own Hattori GO. Even though he’s not particularly a Naruto fan, he found himself very satisfied with his 2,000-yen (US$17) paper bag, so let’s take a look inside and see why!
Manga artist Masashi Kishimoto’s ninja saga Naruto finally came to a close last month. But after 15 years of being on the receiving end of the awesome artwork and heartfelt words of the Naruto cast, fans now have a chance to send some of their own with a nifty message-writing tool on the franchise’s official website.
Unfortunately, it isn’t very user-friendly. But just like how Naruto’s titular blond ninja never gives up in the face of adversity, so too have fans found a way to work around the clunky interface and come up with some powerfully cool creations.
While the gigantic robots and gratuitous nudity were certainly eye-catching, when I first started watching Japanese animation, one of the things that surprised me the most was the fact that anime characters could, well, die. Sure, American cartoons from Tom and Jerry to G.I. Joe were filled with explosions and gunplay, but while the violence was abundant, injuries were conspicuously absent.
Anime tales, though, have no qualms about knocking off their players. As a matter of fact, characters shake off this mortal coil so frequently that a recent poll ranked the 20 most memorable anime deaths.
Heads up! While animation sometimes allows for the miracle of resurrection, be aware that since this is a list of deaths, it contains spoilers for the following series: Clannad, Code Geass, Death Note, Dragon Ball, Fist of the North Star, Fullmetal Alchemist, Gintama, Hakuoki, Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure, Naruto, Neon Genesis Evangelion, One Piece, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, School Days, and Tengen Toppa Guren Lagan.
With the Naruto manga all wrapped up, we imagine a lot of fans are feeling sort of lonely. Sure, there’s an animated movie coming up, and you can still catch episodes of the weekly anime series, but with no more issues of the comic to look forward to, it must seem like the series’ cast of charismatic ninja have drifted just a little farther away.
Soon enough, though, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura will be just a few rows of seats away from their adoring public, as the Naruto stage play is set to open this spring, and producers have just announced the cast and released the first shot in-costume photo of the star of the show.
The serialized nature of manga means booming success can really sneak up on artists and publishers alike. When Masashi Kishimoto turned in his pages for the very first chapter of his new series Naruto back in 1999, he probably didn’t know he was about to create one of the most popular manga ever, but that’s exactly what he did.
Kishimoto didn’t just earn himself 15 solid years of steady work, though, but also the continual march of tight deadlines that come with writing and drawing a hit manga. Despite being one of the biggest names in the industry, Kishimoto had only found time to give one TV interview during Naruto’s serialization, but now that the series has finally come to a close, he’s appeared before the camera again, in a special interview held in the studio where he put pen to paper and brought one of Japan’s most beloved comics to life.
The Meitetsu Department Store in Nagoya, Japan has a distinctive mannequin outside its men’s department. Nana-chan is a popular meeting spot because she’s easy to spot in the shopping district — she’s 20 feet tall. The staff change her outfits monthly, but recently she’s wearing an orange jumpsuit that fans of a certain ninja will recognize.
If you’re a gamer who’s too young to remember when Sega made consoles or having six buttons on a controller was a big deal, you might look back on 8-bit video game artwork and chuckle. With everything made out of blocky pixels, it’s impossible to create the sort of fine details that modern hardware easily renders to differentiate one character from another, isn’t it?
Maybe not, as one fan has put his old-school pixel art skills to use to recreate 50 different famous manga heroes, all in the style of the original Mega Man.
Very few Japanese homes have installed carpeting. Older houses and apartments often have tatami reed mats, and in newer places you’ll usually find tile, wood, or rubberized flooring.
That’s not to say people in Japan can’t appreciate a nice bit of soft fuzziness between their toes, though. Even without permanent carpeting, many people will toss a carpeted mat on the floor to make their living or bedroom extra comfy, especially during the colder part of the year.
Of course, cold weather also means spending more time indoors, with extra time on your hands, and sometimes that patch of carpeting becomes a canvas for some seriously cool fan art.
McDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Studio Ghibli releases new action figures featuring Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind characters
All-you-can-drink Starbucks and amazing views part of Tokyo’s new 170 meter-high sky lounge
Studio Ghibli glasses cases let anime characters keep an eye on your spectacles
McDonald’s Japan releases a pancake pie for new retro kissaten coffeeshop series
Super Nintendo World expansion gets delayed for several months at Universal Studios Japan
Our reporter takes her 71-year-old mother to a visual kei concert for the first time
More foreign tourists than ever before in history visited Japan last month
Haku is…Chihiro’s dead brother? Studio Ghibli fans blown away by Spirited Away theory
We stress-test Uniqlo’s “Impressive Jacket and Pants” to see if they live up to their namesMcDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goodsMore foreign tourists than ever before in history visited Japan last month
Disney princesses get official manga makeovers for Manga Princess Cafe opening in TokyoAll-you-can-drink Starbucks and amazing views part of Tokyo’s new 170 meter-high sky lounge
Starbucks reopens at Shibuya Scramble Crossing with new look and design concept
Beautiful new Final Fantasy T-shirt collection on the way from Uniqlo【Photos】
Is the new Shinkansen Train Desk ticket worth it?
Foreign English teachers in Japan pick their favorite Japanese-language phrases【Survey】Studio Ghibli glasses cases let anime characters keep an eye on your spectacles
Beautiful Sailor Moon manhole cover coasters being given out for free by Tokyo tourist centerMcDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Studio Ghibli releases Kiki’s Delivery Service chocolate cake pouches in Japan
Japan’s bone-breaking and record-breaking roller coaster is permanently shutting down
New definition of “Japanese whiskey” goes into effect to prevent fakes from fooling overseas buyers
Our Japanese reporter visits Costco in the U.S., finds super American and very Japanese things
Studio Ghibli unveils Mother’s Day gift set that captures the love in My Neighbour Totoro
Domino’s Japan now sells…pizza ears?
New Japanese KitKat flavour stars Sanrio characters, including Hello Kitty
One of Tokyo’s most famous meeting-spot landmarks is closing for good
Kyoto creates new for-tourist buses to address overtourism with higher prices, faster rides
Sales of Japan’s most convenient train ticket/shopping payment cards suspended indefinitelyMcDonald’s new Happy Meals offer up cute and practical Sanrio lifestyle goods
Sold-out Studio Ghibli desktop humidifiers are back so Totoro can help you through the dry season
Japanese government to make first change to romanization spelling rules since the 1950s
Ghibli founders Toshio Suzuki and Hayao Miyazaki contribute to Japanese whisky Totoro label design
Doraemon found buried at sea as scene from 1993 anime becomes real life【Photos】
Tokyo’s most famous Starbucks is closed
One Piece characters’ nationalities revealed, but fans have mixed opinions
We asked a Uniqlo employee what four things we should buy and their suggestions didn’t disappoint
Princesses, fruits, and blacksmiths: Study reveals the 30 most unusual family names in Japan
Super Nintendo World expansion gets delayed for several months at Universal Studios Japan
Our reporter takes her 71-year-old mother to a visual kei concert for the first time
More foreign tourists than ever before in history visited Japan last month
Haku is…Chihiro’s dead brother? Studio Ghibli fans blown away by Spirited Away theory
We stress-test Uniqlo’s “Impressive Jacket and Pants” to see if they live up to their names
Muscly Japanese men fill stock photo site with hilarious poses in unusual settings
Disney princesses get official manga makeovers for Manga Princess Cafe opening in Tokyo
A Japanese vending machine perfect for samurai
New Japanese bowl-shaped donburi rice cooker cooks rice and toppings at the same time
What is Teru Teru Bozu? The tragic history behind the Japanese fine weather doll
New Japanese KitKat flavour stars Sanrio characters, including Hello Kitty
Is the all-you-can-eat KFC buffet in Tokyo really as good as they say it is?
Can you tell the difference between real beer and Japan’s happoshu quasi-beer?【Taste test】