Shown above is the GeGe no Kitaro Original Version posable figure which goes on sale in October. It’s amazing for me to think that the character of GeGeGe no Kitaro has been around since 1959 yet he’s never become well known in the United States. Kitaro is a demon spirit who was born in a cemetery; his trademark look is that he’s missing one eye which he cover up with his hair. Since his manga introduction he’s gone on to star in about six anime series, a PlayStation game and two live action films. Here are the opening titles from his 1968 anime series which hold up rather well: Read more…
Is it me or do you get the feeling that the team that designed the RIBA Robotic Assistance Bear had the entire robot designed — but then only after the fact slapped a moe looking bear head on the poor creature just to get some press? And as much as I love bears from a marketing point of view I just don’t think of them as a nurses best friend! Read more…
The Daruma doll (達磨) are a classic Japanese toy — you fill in one eye upon starting a quest, and then you color in the other eye once you finish. This cute digital variation of the doll actually stores 2 gigs of memory — which makes it the perfect companion for overachievers: Read more…
Like chocolate and peanut butter — the two tastes of iPhones and Pocky go great together! This ever so cute Pocky iPhone Cozy was designed by Yummy Pocket of Montreal, Canada. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 4, 2009 in Animation
After all these years I’m always amazed by how much I don’t know about anime: Case in point is the comedy series Ninja Hattori-kun which started life as a manga. Shown above is the opening title to the TV series based upon the manga which aired from 1966 until 1967. So looking at those opening credits you’d just assume that it was an anime series? Wrong! The opening titles were animated but the show is live action — but the show looks very strange as they have live action characters wearing manga like masks: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Aug 3, 2009 in Japanese TV
This new commercial in Japan for SoftBank is the coolest thing right now: It features the J-pop group SMAP (Sports Music Assemble People) with the powerful 1974 recording of The Loco-Motion by Grand Funk Railroad. I’ve got to say I usually hate when an agency grabs an old hit, but in this case they’ve done a nice of bringing it back to life! Read more…
This segment from a Japanese game show features quite a bit of silly cosplay. I’m not sure what show this is from, but it was titled “An Idol and a Pair of Geeks”. Two of the idol singers featured in this skit are Seira Sakurai and Matsumoto Wakana. My favorite part of this video come at the 4:21 mark where the singer is beating up the poor otaku while performing her song.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 29, 2009 in Japanese TV
From 1974 until 1978 NTV ran a children’s educational show called Karikyuramashin (カリキュラマシーン) which was inspired by Sesame Street in the United States. What I love about this show is that the music is quite catchy: The video above features the songs Twisted Uncle, Kya and the Awry song. Below are other video segments from the show which are now the treasured childhood memories of Gen Xers in Japan: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 26, 2009 in Animation, Fandom
I think this somewhat serious looking NHK news video is showing an cultural exchange program between the city of Osaka, Japan and Taipei, Taiwan. The cosplay maids are being deployed to the largest anime and manga event in Taiwan this week. Part of the exchange program is to help the local Japanese tourism trade which was down by 44% last year due to the avian flu and the recession. I think we should pray for the success of the cosplay maids in their diplomatic mission!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 24, 2009 in Comic Books
Weekly Shōnen Sunday (週刊少年サンデ) has been published every week since 1959 (although one should note that it actually comes out on Wednesday during the week, not Sunday). Looking back on their 50 years one of the high points of their history was the year 1983 when their circulation grew by leaps and bounds due to the fresh quality of the manga for that era: So to celebrate this they’ve released the book Shonen Sunday 1983 which gives you taste of the manga from that era. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 23, 2009 in Animation
On this day in 1966 one of the first full length feature anime films made it to the United States: That was none other than Garibā no Uchū Ryokō (ガリバーの宇宙旅行) which was translated to Gulliver’s Travels Beyond the Moon. The film was produced by Toei in 1965 and directed by the team of Masao Kuroda and Sanae Yamamoto, but what might make it interesting to current anime fans is that Hayao Miyazaki also worked on the film providing some uncredited writing and quite a bit of inbetween animation work. In the scene above we see young Ricky meeting Gulliver, and below is a scene featuring the Princess of the Star of Hope (who was voiced by Our Gang’sDarla Hood): Read more…
What you’re seeing is not in fact a normal lens cleaner, but in fact is shaped like ladies underwear. It’s the latest gimmick that’s packed with the latest issue of Megastore magazine which is a Bishōjo themed publication aimed at Japanese fanboys. The publisher brags that this is an industry first for lads mags — and as such if you’re easily offended you may not want to look any further:Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 15, 2009 in Animation, Fandom
In what seems to be a growing trend of politicians coming out of the closet to embrace their fanboy roots in Japan it seems that Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Shigeru Ishiba (石破 茂) has announced to the public that he is an otaku and proud of it! Ishiba made the announcement on a radio show in which he sited growing up with AstroBoy and being a huge fan of Space Battleship Yamato which is known as Star Blazers in the United States. Least you think that Ishiba is a slacker he did hold the position of Minister of Defence of Japan for a year and was up for the Liberal Democratic Party presidency in 2008.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 15, 2009 in Videogames
Sega’s Block People is an well done new arcade game — what makes it cool is that like a typical video game you have these cute creatures who need to crawl over blocks to get to their objective. But the twist that makes this arcade game is that the building blocks aren’t on the screen, but are in fact physical blocks that you have to place in front of the screen:
It’s always amazing to me what gems people can save from another era: In this case this vintage box of Meiji Creamy Candy from the 70s features a powerful Kimba the White Lion theme on the packaging. The strong use of primary colors really gives this little box a powerful roar: Read more…
Here’s the latest trailer for the Wii game Fullmetal Alchemist: Prince of the Dawn. What I like about this trailer is that while he pre-rendered animation looks great (when doesn’t it?) the actual game play scenes look pretty good too. This impresses me because as much as I love the Wii as a gaming platform it leave’s something to be desired in the rendering department. Here’s another video preview from a bit ago which shows more of the gameplay, including cut scenes: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 8, 2009 in Animation
This nicely done mini-documentary shows off the studio behind the anime series True Tears. The video starts off by showing off the real world town that True Tears, but then quickly moves to show the animators in action. It’s interesting to see that all of the drawing is done by hand, and the level of draftsmanship in those key drawings is just amazing. Here’s the opening titles from the show if you haven’t seen it: Read more…
The Japanese commercial is for the Monsters, Inc. attraction at Tokyo Disneyland which is set to open this Summer. I really love hearing the Pixar characters speak in Japanese, it makes them a bit more anime like for me!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jul 7, 2009 in Japanese TV
In 1989 Ray Charles recorded a cover version of the song “Itoshi no Ellie” by the Japanese band Southern All Stars for this TV ad. Of course he made it his own and renamed it “Ellie My Love”, the ad did so well that it sent the song to be #3 in Japan selling more than 400,000 copies. Here’s the full length song performed in concert: Read more…
RoboGeisha is an upcoming film from writer/director Noboru Iguchi (井口昇). The trailer for this film (which will be released in 2010) looks quite campy, although I’d have to say that’s what makes me want to watch it! Read more…
Everyone’s had that tingling feeling running (as they say) up and down one’s spine when they experience something awesome. Last night I saw a preview of Hayao Miyazaki’s new film Ponyo — and the feeling hasn’t gone away yet. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 30, 2009 in Japanese TV
Anna van! (Announcer Bang アナ★バン!) is broadcast on Sundays at midnight on the Fuji Television Network. The show is a bit odd because while it’s aimed at adults the studio setting looks like a kids show with the host talking to a sun puppet. This episode below is titled “Know the Future” and features palm reader who informs the well dressed ladies if they will be lucky at love, work or money: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 29, 2009 in Japanese TV
This late 80s greed-is-good coffee advert exerts a wonderful bravado for UCC THE Coffee. Doing some research I found that THE Coffee (with sugar!) is still being marketed to the public, in fact here’s the full line on the Japanese UCC website. Here’s another slightly less dramatic spot for THE Coffee from the 80s that I found: Read more…
