This animated Japanese commercial for Karno struck a real chord with me — the spot is so simple yet so very powerful. This advert is a real case of less is more as you have very graphic character designs accompanied by minimalist child’s sing song. Yet the story of a little girl crying and being cheered up by her mother offering her a candy is quite universal and heartwarming. People always identify the complexity of anime as a visual trademark, but having looked at quite a few educational animated segments from NHK I can tell you that isn’t the case. To me what sets anime apart is more than just the craftsmanship but also the storytelling. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 23, 2010 in Japanese TV
GummiX is the latest craze from Japan for kids: It’s a kit that allows you to make your own realistic bug candy. So it’s sort of like do-it-yourself gummy worms but allows you to cook up a wider range of more realistic critters. In fact the website shows kids decorating desserts with various candy bug toppings. Here are some screenshots from the official website to give you a better taste: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 22, 2010 in Japanese TV
The above ever so cute promo for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull features the official mascot for the Okayama Broadcasting Co. Apparently their mascot always exclaims Oh! in any situation including running away from a giant ball at an archeology site. There’s something so charming about the low quality animation being used on this spot which contrasts so well with a high budget Hollywood film trailer: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 19, 2010 in Animation, Tech
Anybody who grew up with Star Blazers is going to want to download this Yamato iPhone app right away! The app was released to promote the new Yamato film which came out last year — the only catch is that he navigation is in Japanese, so here’s a quick tour: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 18, 2010 in Japanese TV
What’s not in the Pocky commercial? We have dancing salarymen, cosplay clad maid cafe maids, pram pushing mums and a fleet of taxi drivers who all feel the need to express their enthusiasm for their favorite snack! Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 18, 2010 in Japanese TV
American tampon ads can have that “not fresh feeling” feel sometimes — however these two ads for unicharm are much more out there. The first one features a typical absorption theme but then ends with a zero gravity special effect. However the next advert doesn’t look like anything you’d see here in the States: Our protagonist is sleeping away happily while not being distracting by her stuffed doll collection which then animates to life and dances around her while she is asleep: Read more…
Square Enix Products had on display three beautifully crafted Bleach figurine prototypes. The figures weren’t painted, but I was impressed with how true they stayed to the character designs. Read more…
The devil is in the details, and this imported line of Star Wars miniatures were simply amazing to look at. This line of minitaures is imported into the United States by bcmini.com , here’s the catalog page: Read more…
The Japanese are crazy about the Gerry Anderson show Thunderbirds. This line of minitaures is imported into the United States by bcmini.com and I’ve got to say that the quality and beauty of these were amazing.
If you’re a neko loving manga fan you may want to get your hands on volume 8 of PoyoPoyo Observation Diary which includes a life-sized plush doll of the comic book cat hero Poyo Sato (who looks a bit hamster like to me). Here are some other images of the kitty in action (or maybe that’s inaction): Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 14, 2010 in Animation
There’s an old saying that behind every good joke there’s just a bit of truth: And the poster above seems to capture a certain contradiction about anime and anime fans which is interesting to say the least. I think part of the reason for this is that on a meta level most entertainment aimed ay kids is made to be so saccharine sweet that it seems that all of the life has been beaten out of it. For example if you look at the Disney channel so many of the shows look and sound like gentle sitcoms from a long past era — however my guess is that a certain number of kids want something more. In fact the best way to get a kid to read a book is to tell them that “you’re too young to read this book” and I think anime has that attraction to it. Read more…
Sure everybody is making a fuss over Google Buzz, but the minute I watched this Emoticon Sushi Roll video by vlogger Taro I knew that I was looking at the next big thing in social media. When he’s not reinventing web 2.0 Taro has a YouTube channel which introduces folks to Japanese cooking. Being an artist my favorite dish is his Edvard Munch tribute: Read more…
Sometimes some of the best game concepts are the simple timeless ones, and Jenga is a great example of this: The games designed by Leslie Scott a Swahili speaking Brit living in Africa who designed the concept in the 70s and then brought it to the London Ty Fair in 1984. Since then 2.7 billion Jenga blocks have been sold owing to the joy of destroying your own leaning tower of Pisa. Doraemon Darake adds a Japanese twist to this old favorite by replacing those dull wooden blocks with (you guessed it) every anime fans favorite blue cat! And then instead of merely pulling out cats you have to do the opposite and construct a cat tower using chopsticks: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 10, 2010 in Animation
A good friend just gave this poster to me and I have to say that just seeing it made my inner child scream for sheer joy! Also fans of Star Blazers should take note: Amy Howard Wilson (the voice of Nova) has announced that at the ICON science fiction convention this year that Eddie Allen (the voice of Leader Desslok), Ken Meseroll (the voice of Derek Wildstar) and Tom Tweedy (the voice of Mark Venture) will be in attendance! The convention takes place March 26-28th in Stoney Brook, New York.
When I first came across this spot for the GunBuster Pachinko Machine I assumed that it dated from the 80s when the show first came out — but it seems that it’s part of a larger promotion that allows retro anime fans to watch the cult series online for free at this website! Aim for the Top! Gunbuster (トップをねらえ!) was quite a success for Gainax in the early days and the studio would go on to make other hits like Evangelion, FLCL and Mahoromatic to name a few. GunBuster was very typical of the shows from that era and featured giant robots, oversized insectoid space aliens and four lovely ladies who wear hot pink short shorts which match the new pachinko machine: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 8, 2010 in Star Trek
This is the prologue to the original opening of Star Trek as it was shown in Japan. The funny thing about this version is that the Japanese voice actor for Spock seems to be slightly more emotional in tone than Nimoy (although I could be reading into this). And in case you were wondering what McCoy sounds like here is another clip: Read more…
I was pleasantly surprised to come across this Alfin Statue from Crusher Joe because I was convinced that I must be one of a handful of anime fanboys who still remember that amazing film. Yet sadly while most fans today know about Gundam or Yamato very few fans even know about Crusher Joe (クラッシャージョウ). So here’s why the film was important and worth getting your hands on: Read more…
For all of the advances with computer animation there’s something still charming about good old fashioned stop motion animation. This Honda advert from the year 2000 does a nice job of using candy to animate the typography for the ULTRA Step WGN. Although it should be noted that the candy in this spot isn’t mere decoration — it’s being used to emphasize both the range of colors the auto comes in and the fact that it’s a kid friendly mode of transportation. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 6, 2010 in Japanese TV
It’s someone surreal to hear the Snuggle bear (renamed ファーファ Fāfa) speak Japanese from this 1988 advert. Introduced in 1983 there was always something very creepy about this fabric softener mascot: I think it indirectly reminded many of us of the many horror films that featured puppets gone back like Talking Tina from the Twilight Zone and later Chucky from the 1988 film Child’s Play. Although anime fans should note that the original voice of the Snuggle bear was none other than Corinne Orr who provided the voice Trixie in Speed Racer and Nova in the third seson of Star Blazers. Read more…
As every Evangelion fan knows Rei Ayanami, Asuka Langley and their friends all go to the Tokyo-3 First Municipal Middle School which requires blue and white school uniforms with a cute sassy red bow! Well now fangurls who want to take a cosplay shortcut can now sport the official Evangelion Trantrip School Uniform which also includes matching socks (I love those little details). Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 4, 2010 in Animation, Tech
It’s always the silly things that amuse me: In this case it’s an iPhone application that turns your icon set into a grinning Doraemon. Apparently this is a free set of applications from Yahoo! Japan — which include Doraemon manga as well! Here are screen shots and there are iTunes links on this Japanese page: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 4, 2010 in Animation
As an adult I appreciate Hanna-Barbera, but frankly it was my childhood dislike of limited animation that drove me to admire anime. So I was pretty amused to stumble across the above the above clip of Secret Squirrel from 2 Stupid Dogs with a Japanese soundtrack, and much to my amazement I realized that because I couldn’t understand what was being said that the entire clip seemed cooler somehow. Now the funny thing is that the Japanese voices are clearly being used to a comic effect, however they seem much more downplayed when put next to the original American voice acting which sounds much more over-the-top: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 2, 2010 in Japanese TV
It’s heartbreaking to watch the sad saga of Tommy Lee Jones in this 2006 Japanese commercial for boss coffee — I’m not even sure why he’s crying while watching the singer on TV, but it made me sad to think of an alternate universe where he exists as a Hollywood ex-pat collecting parking tickets in Tokyo. Of course I should feel sorry for myself: I love Boss coffee too, but at $2 for the small cans I’ve been cutting back due to the recession.
Sure everybody is making a fuss over Google Buzz, but the minute I watched this 
Sometimes some of the best game concepts are the simple timeless ones, and 
