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Manga Themed Nissan Commercial
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 23, 2009 in Comic Books, Japanese TV
I came across this recent manga themed advert for the Nissan Cube and was blown away — I really love how the design of this spot picks up on the conventions of Japanese comics from the black and white characters to the use of zip-a-tone patterns. Meito Air in Choco: Strawberry Fish Forever!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 23, 2009 in Hobbies and Collections
Being a vegetarian I had seconds thoughts before buying this fish shaped snack treat (called Meito Air in Choco), but the strawberry flavor theme intrigued me no end. The faux fish is very similar to a light weight wafer cookie and the guts of the fish had a creamy light filling. Although one side of faux fish was slightly damaged I managed to get a good scan of the flip side: Read more… A Commodore 64 on Your iPhone: An Exclusive Interview with Manomio
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 22, 2009 in Tech, Videogames
If you’re a retro computing fanboy like me on Saturday you were devastated to learn that Apple denied permission to the developer who created a Commodore 64 emulator for the iPhone. Now normally this news wouldn’t surprise me, but what broke my fanboy heart is that the developer jumped through all the right hoops: Not only did they get a license from the owners of Commodore but they even got positive signals early on from Apple. Read more… Holy Cow! It’s Phil Rizzuto for the Money Store
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 22, 2009 in Television
 Phil Rizzuto: An ace ball player. Shigekikkusu: Super Sour and Sweet Gummy Candy
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 22, 2009 in Design, Hobbies and Collections
At my local Korean food mart I came across these devastatingly sour and sweet candies from Japan called Shigekikkusu (シゲキックス) which are produced by UHA Mikakuto. I picked up two flavors, the first (shown above) was soda flavored and the second was cola flavored (shown below). The candies were small but packed a punch — the outside was coated with a light dusting of super sour dust, after a few seconds this wears off and you can taste the very sweet inside of of jelly like candy. Read more… Remembering Al Hirschfeld: The King of Caricatures in Action
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 21, 2009 in Comic Books
This amazing rare video shows illustrator Al Hirschfeld in action drawing a caricature of Paul Newman. Hirschfeld was born on this day in 1903 and lived to be 99 years old (he passed away in 2003). His legacy of drawing Broadway stars was so strong that they named a theater after him, and he honored his only daughter Nina by sneaking her name into each illustration (often doing it several times). What’s amazing to me about this video is that it was shot when Hirschfeld was 99 years old, yet the detail and quality of his draftsmanship looked as good as ever. Read more… Japanese Animal Crackers: Learning English with Flavor
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 20, 2009 in Design, Hobbies and Collections
Recently I was wandering through a Korean food mart and I came across this very cute package design for Japanese animal crackers: Aside from the captivating colorful characters the first thing that blew me away was that the crackers are actually teaching kids to understand English, not Japanese! I started to suspect that this was something just done for the American market, but the package actually comes from Japan (produced by Ginbis). The back of the box even had a cute mini-dictionary of animal names (my favorite touch are the cartoons of each creature next to the name): Read more… Tentai Senshi Sunred’s Cyborg Bunny Wuvs You!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 20, 2009 in Animation, Hobbies and Collections
Every character in the Nendoroid series of action figures always picks up that extra bit of moe that makes you want to take it home and adopt it: And in this case this Usakottsu cyborg bunny looks as cute as can be! Our demon clawed rabbit friend is from the light comedy anime series Tentai Senshi Sunred (天体戦士サンレッド). Usakottsu is available from entertainmentearth.com and sports interchangeable parts including demon claws. Here are the opening titles from Tentai Senshi Sunred although sadly our cyborg bunny friend isn’t in them: Read more… John Hodgman: The Great Nerd vs. Jock Debate and President ObamaJohn Hodgman is always fun to watch, but in his speech for the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner he really excelled. Hodgman roasted the president for being a nerd in a long illustrated slideshow that included Superman and Spock references! My personal highlight comes at the 9:29 minute mark where President Obama flashes Hodgman with a Vulcan salute:
Clockwork: A Homebrewed Stop Motion Robot Animation from Japan
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 19, 2009 in Animation
Clockwork is a short animated film that stars a cute robot girl named Hina. Being a caffeine addict the idea of robot making a morning brew caught my attention right away, but I have to say that the design of the robot is great and the animator did a great job of picking a refreshing soundtrack for this sweet little short. Here are some wonderful photos of Hina: Read more… An Early Japanese Cell Phone Advert
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 19, 2009 in Japanese TV, Tech
I don’t know the exact date of this advert but looking at a primitive cell phone my guess is that it’s from the late 80s. The spot is for KDDI who entered the cel phone business in in 1987 and are still going strong today. The music in the advert is by Yuming (Yumi Matsutoya) who hit her career high point from the late 80s until the early 90s which is why her music seems to dominate the spot. The Classic Cartoon Carnival That Came to Brooklyn
Posted by Joe Strike on Jun 18, 2009 in Animation
If you take the J train over the Williamsburg Bridge, get off at Kosciusko Street and walk a few blocks west, you’ll come to a storefront that looks like it’s home to a going out of business sale, with benches and various other effluvia out on the sidewalk. Inside is a bar and club called Goodbye Blue Monday that’s most definitely in business: the place is decorated not unlike Pee-wee’s playhouse or the home of some mad collector of antique TV sets, mountains of action figures and bizarro furniture (the rocking chair made out of two motorcycle gas tanks was pretty impressive). Read more… Edge of Twilight: Why Can’t Hollywood Do Something Half This Good?
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 18, 2009 in Videogames
This is the trailer for Edge of Twilight and while I can’t speak to the game play, the steampunk styled art direction in this Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 title looks nothing short of absolutely amazing. Even the voice acting and sound design on this trailer do a nice job of complimenting the visuals. In fact I hate to say it, but when you look at game trailer like this is makes you sad that nothing this original or interesting is being made in Hollywood these days: Read more… Yatterman Themed Stop Motion Origami Battles Promote Toshiba
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 17, 2009 in Animation
Toshiba is sponsoring an interesting series of Yatterman themed animated viral videos on YouTube which feature origami stop motion animation. Each episode of the series feature two two origami that engage in a videogame like battle. Shown above is Toushibakenmeka Dial vs. Queen, below that is Kosumiomeka vs. Densanda, and the third animation is Reizoukomeka vs. Bejitanku: Read more… Ice Age 3: Suffering from Freezer Burns
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 17, 2009 in Animation
Why bother to put Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs into theaters when it can go straight to cable? The first film was average but had some decent moments, but this latest one looks like it has freezer burn. There seems to be some sort of Land of the Lost plot going on in this “film” — and I bet that they scripted that before they knew the rebooted Land of the Lost would bomb. You know it’s been about fourteen years since Pixar released Toy Story and yet the other studios still seem to be playing catch up… Skottie Young Claws into Wolverine
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 16, 2009 in Comic Books
I love Skottie Young’s work, but I’ve been wondering just when Marvel would allow him to take a pass at one of their more well known characters and it looks like for Wolverine First Class #19 they’ve let him run with the ball. The first thing I love about this cover is that it has a sense of humor, too often Marvel covers (or DC) take themselves too seriously. Yet you get right away who Wolverine is despite Young’s cartoony approach. In addition to the usual great draftsmanship and page layout the coloring here is A+: The added zip-a-tone as a texture is nice homage to comics books of the past: Read more… Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 16, 2009 in Animation, Videogames
Tales of Vesperia: The First Strike (テイルズ オブ ヴェスペリア) is interesting is that it’s a prequel to the videogame Tales of Vesperia, but the twist is that instead of being a game it’s going to be an animated feature film. The film is due out in October this year and is being produced by Production I.G. Read more… Clergyman, Railway Enthusiast and Children’s Author
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 15, 2009 in Pulp Fiction
 Reverend W. Awdry Wilbert Vere Awdry was born on this day in 1911, his fulltime gig for many years was serving as a clergyman (he was known as the Reverend W. Awdry after all). But luckily for us in 1943 when his son Christopher was suffering from the measles he would make up stories about anthropomorphic trains to distract him from his malady. By 1945 these stories would be turned into his first book The Three Railway Engines which was the beginning of 26 books (the last published in 1972) which were known as the The Railway Series. But it wasn’t until the second book in the series that the title Thomas the Tank Engine would be used: Read more… Amazing Video of the Full Scale Gundam
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 15, 2009 in Animation
Up until this point I’ve guessed that everybody has seen photos of the full scale Gundam model in Japan which was created for the 30th anniversary of the show. But what I don’t think many folks have seen is a video of this amazing wonder, which gives you a much better feeling for the impressive scale of this wonder. Read more… Blingvaders: Street Cred for Fanboys
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 14, 2009 in Hobbies and Collections, Videogames
Nothing says 80s more than oversized hip hop jewelry — of course if you want to take it to the next step having your bling as a homage to Reagan era videogames will give you that nice extra touch of bling! And that’s where Blingvaders comes in: They’re oversized jewelry based based on the sprites from Space Invaders: Read more… AKBINGO! Jumping Rope J-Pop Style
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 14, 2009 in Japanese TV
AKBINGO! a variety show which features the J-Pop group AKB48 which has so many members that they actually divide them up into different teams. In this episode the competing diva troupes has a show down by jumping rope! The fate of the young lady who is hot by the rope? Well she’s forced to dress up in nerdy eye glasses and must face the taunts of her fellow team members: Read more… The Time Traveler’s Wife: New Trailer
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 13, 2009 in Cinema
I guess this Summer we’ll get to see if a science fiction romance film can have some luck at the box office! We reviewed the novel for The Time Traveler’s Wife just a short time ago. Here’s the official description of the film which stars Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams: Read more… It’s the Fit’s Soft & Long-lasting Gum Dance Contest
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 13, 2009 in Japanese TV
It was only a matter of time until virral video marketing found a way to Japan — in this case this ad campaign is for Fit’s Gum which is manufactured by Lotte. I have to say that the dance music is rather catchy and i like the added touch of the secondary dancers: The first who is a mannequin and the second girl in the dog outfit. By the way you’ll notice the ever so cute Akita Inu doggie in the lower right corner of one of the spots. Read more… The Star Trek Bib: OK Baby, Cool Him Until I Flag You!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 12, 2009 in Star Trek
Kirk: “You got Krako on ice?” Scotty: “Aye, he’s here. Mad enough to chew neutronium, but behaving himself.” So if your child is mad enough to chew neutronium here’s an unofficial (but very regulation looking) Federation styled bib which I suspect is more aimed at fanboy parents than their children: Read more… |
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