Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link. Final Fantasy XIII Clear Poster Mini vol.2 Full Set Here's a cool item for Final Fantasy fans: a set of beautiful printed "clear posters" (standard posters) similar to the vertical banners the company has been displaying around the world. Available individually or as a complete set. Black Rock Shooter Mug Cups Then, two Black Rock Shooter coffee mugs to choose from, how cool is that? A black and a white cup are both in stock. From Cospa. Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Visual Complete Guide You know what I want? A Higurashi/Gundam crossover parody called Higurashi no Naku COLONY. Until then, I have this fine artbook for me to gaze at. with a massive 160 pages! Also: the just-released Higurashi DS game! Bishoujo Figure Yearbook 2009 This outstanding book documents *all* the gorgeous prepainted figures that were released in 2009, making it a superb item for collectors and fans in general. Top quality photographs representing every anime figure, a super book. Queen's Gate -- Destined Kunoichi Kasumi The awesome Queen's Gate Kasumi book is in, featuring sexy artwork of one of our favorite video game girls. Use it as part of the Queen's Blade book-based RPG combat system, or just stare at the beautiful art for hours. Pixiv Girls Collection 2010 Artbook The Pixiv online art community in Japan is a fantastic place, creating some of the most breathtaking artistic images for us to enjoy. We've gotten in the brand-new Pixiv Girl's Collection artbook today. Other Restocked Photobooks See some other restocked artbooks too, including the oh-so-delicious Queen's Blade Evil Eye Visual Book plus more Moe Moe Encyclopedia books, which document the world around us through kawaii anime girls. Evangelion iPod nano Case -- Rei Ayanami The Evangelion cases for iPhones and the current iPod nano are a smash hit, and we've gotten in a new Rei Ayanami version of the latter. "Your iPod won't die...I will protect it." Horo Plush, Chopperman USB Toy The cutest wolf-girl in all anime-dom is of course Holo, and this is a plush toy of her complete with furry ears and tail. Also, got that Chopperman USB toy in stock today. Revoltech Queen's Blade Cattleya Figure Also, got that sexy Revoltech figure of Cattleya in stock, made with dozens of points of articulation so she can be placed in any pose you like, even fairly ecchi ones. Comes with the hugest sword ever wielded by a female, too. Haruhi Suzumiya Cosplay set Long Sleeved Type We have a new size of the popular Haruhi uniform in, size L, so that almost everyone can enjoy an awesome cosplay experience at the summer's anime conventions. Mousse-chan Fuwa Fuwa Paper Clay Set Got a deluxe new Fuwa Fuwa Paper Clay mold toy set, which lets you make your very own cute house with tons of decorations for it. The molds can be used again and again and with other kinds of clay (or dare we say, chocolate?). Awesome New Snacks from Japan Today's new snacks include traditional sakura rice crackers and traditional diamond-shaped Hina Okoshi snacks, plus a new flavor of the hilariously named Collon, plus Fit's Gum, complete with a link to the new CM starring Nozomi Sasaki. Restocked Sake, Beer Food Drops Then see fresh stock of the popular traditional "food drops" candies in Sapporo Beer flavor, plus Sake, Hokkaido Baked Potato w/Butter, and ukiyoe Green Tea candies. High-grade Sakura Genuine Lacquered Bento Box Set Once again I'm really impressed at the high quality from Haokya, with this lacquered bento box with sakura petals and deluxe chopsticks w/case included. Very nice styling. 'Hana-zen' Bento Series Restocked Also posting fresh stock of one of our popular Hana-Zen bento series, which combines beautiful traditional design with outstanding functionality. Bear Kawaii Kid's Rice Bowl Enjoy rice in style with the two cute rice bowls we are posting today. Cute images of a bear or cat on the side, and they won't break if dropped. 'How to Bento' Books We love to carry books that help you enjoy your "bento life" more, and we've got many fine ones in stock now, including how to make decorated rolled sushi or traditional Japanese sweets or kawaii character bento. Hello Kitty Bread Shaper & Deco Powder Stencil Got another awesome Hello Kitty item from Japan. This is a "bread shaper" that can cut bread or toast in the perfect Hello Kitty shape. Then add the face with cocoa powder using the included stencil. Kawaii Bento Items Level up your cute bento life with these Hello Kitty bento items. See our Die-Cut Mayonnaise Cup and Spoon Set, the Hello Kitty Furikake Bottle and Mickey Mouse 3D Egg Shaper. More Ghibli Plush Toys Fans of Hayao Miyazaki, browse the restocked plush toys we have for you today, including the Plush Keychain Sets featuring Totoro and other characters, plus the Soot Sprite and Cat Bus decorations for hanging in your car. Rilakkuma Deodorizer San-X's popular character "Relax Bear" is back, and he's ready to make your car or home smell nicer! Just place this room deodorizer in a place that you'd like to smell nicer, and commence relaxing. Zebra Green 'Check Set' ~ Best for Memory Retention Enjoy this new version of the popular Zebra Check Set study system. Here's how it works: highlight ideas you want to memorize, then hide the page with the plastic sheet to test yourself. Ink erasing pen also included. Who Invented Natto? Bilingual Encyclopedia of Japan Another outstanding "bilingual book" that presents English on one page and Japanese on the other, this is a discussion of various concepts from Japan's culture or history. Very interesting reading! SOS-Dan Mug Cup, Eva Tote Bags Awesome products for anime fans today, including your very own SOS-dan coffee cup ("For Haruhi's use only!"), plus Evangelion tote bags featuring Asuka and Rei -- kawaii! Ranka Lee & Sheryl Nome DX Figure Set of 2 Macross Frontier is an outstanding anime, and here are two figures for your collection. Featuring Ranka and Sheryl, two of our favorite anime singers. Preorder now and we'll ship it to you in June when it's released. Mio Akiyama 1/8 Figure Maid ver. ~ K-ON! *Preorder* Then taste this awesome prepainted figure of Mio from K-On! doing her maid cosplay, with her Moe Moe Kyun! pose. This will be popular so we recommend you preorder it. Prestige vol. 65 Sep 2009 Another issue of Prestige, put out by the popular JAV studio, which presents their top models and lets you sample them to see who your favorites are. 220 minute DVD included, too. My Girlfriend -- Shiori Tsukimi The awesome Shiori-chan will be your virtual girlfriend in this new glossy photobook from Japan. In all the amazing photographs she delights your senses in every way. Other Restocked Photobooks Got some superb photobooks restocked for you too, including Tsubasa Amami's popular glossy hardcover photobook, plus Tomoka's Pure Heart offering. Enjoy! Yuri Hime Wild Rose Restocked I'm personally a big fan of yuri, the anime and manga of girls in love with other girls, and today we've restocked the entire Yuri Hime Wild Rose manga series, with great "hard" themes. TENGA Flip Hole, Hole Warmer, e-Rotar Massager Even more stock of the popular TENGA Flip-Hole, which is incredibly well-designed and popular with our customers, plus the compatible TENGA Hole Warmer, for that realistic feeling. Plus the most excellent designed Japanese "rotar" [sic] for the ladies. New Cast Off Figures We have the dreamy Kanu Uncho "cast off" figure of her eating ice cream on a summer day, plus the not-to-be-believed figure from OH! Great, creator of Tenjo Tenge. Enjoy both! Japanese Eroge In Stock J-List now carries Japanese import games, and we've restocked that awesome Real Kanojo virtual CG dating-simulator. Also, the highly enjoyable DS eroge dating-simulator Love Plus.
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 Black Jack I've heard it time and again. "I can't afford to add Black Jack into my manga budget!" or "I keep meaning to try reading Guin Saga but somehow I never get to it." Well, you guys are out of excuses, because Right Stuf is having a sale on all Vertical manga, novels, and nonfiction books: 33% off.  Chi's Sweet Home v1 And not only can you buy books that are already out, like nine volumes of Black Jack, the entirety of Dororo, or The Worry -Free Bakery: Treats without Oil & Butter (a strong recommendation from me for health-conscious chefs). You can also pre-order upcoming books, including the first two volumes of Chi's Sweet Home. I know how many of you have been watching the episodes streaming on John's blog.Also available that you might consider: the Parasite Eve novel (read it, loved it, nothing like the story of the game), Buddha, Easy Japanese cooking: Donburi Mania (we cooked from it!), and pre-orders for Twin Spica and Peepo Choo.Good times all around whether you like sci-fi, horror, comedy, ecchi stuff, cooking, or, well, anything at all, really.
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  <object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/991ugfaioiQ&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;hd=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/991ugfaioiQ&amp;hl=en_US&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505" wmode="transparent"></embed></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param></object>A friend linked me to this video last night--  no, it's not a new Chi's Sweet Home-related project, but I think it will warm the frozen corners of our cold bitter hearts just the same: Chii is a Shiba Inu in Japan, but not just any Shiba Inu. She's a smiling Shiba Inu. Chii only smiles for her master Tanaka-san, but what a cute smile it is! It's really interesting to watch actually, she flattens her ears when she does it. I wonder if that's part of how the muscles in her face work-- she also squints her eyes. It's a ^_^ face!       D'awww!
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With a nod to David’s excellent license request for Doubutsu no Oishasan, I started wondering why there aren’t more critter related titles available on bookstore shelves.  Cats seem to be all the rage these days, especially on Twitter,  due to the upcoming release of Chi’s Sweet Home (Vertical). Nothing against Chi, because I am [...]
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I told myself I wouldn’t, but I caved. I watched the first episode of Chi’s Sweet Home (Chi’s New Address). It’s pure, unadulterated fluff. Maybe it’s a cat-owner thing. (Ha! “Owner” my ass! Cat owns you, it’s like Soviet Russia.) But oh my god, Chi is the cutest thing ever. [...]
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Ed Chavez has announced a new Vertical Vednesday set for this Wednesday, January 13 at Kinokuniya NYC’s Cafe Zaiya (6th ave between 40th and 41st sts in Manhattan), where he will be discussing a new Tezuka title acquisition by Vertical Inc (publishers of To Terra and the upcoming Chi’s Sweet Home), as well as the [...]
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Episode 23: Chi, Returns <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/swflash.cab" width="640" height="426"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> </param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> </param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"> </param><param name="quality" value="high"> </param><param name="movie" value="http://www.crunchyroll.com/swf/StandardVideoPlayer.swf"> </param><param name="flashvars" value="config_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchyroll.com%2Fxml%2F%3Freq%3DRpcApiVideoPlayer_GetStandardConfig%26media_id%3D528634%26video_type%3D0%26auto_play%3D0%26aff%3Daf-78579-fkru"> <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" quality="high" src="http://www.crunchyroll.com/swf/StandardVideoPlayer.swf" flashvars="config_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchyroll.com%2Fxml%2F%3Freq%3DRpcApiVideoPlayer_GetStandardConfig%26media_id%3D528634%26video_type%3D0%26auto_play%3D0%26aff%3Daf-78579-fkru" width="640" height="426"> </embed></param></object> "I'm not tiny! I'm Chi from Chi's Sweet Home"   Did Chi just break the fourth wall?   Episode 24: Chi, gets invited in <object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://fpdownload.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/swflash.cab" width="640" height="426"> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> </param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> </param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"> </param><param name="quality" value="high"> </param><param name="movie" value="http://www.crunchyroll.com/swf/StandardVideoPlayer.swf"> </param><param name="flashvars" value="config_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchyroll.com%2Fxml%2F%3Freq%3DRpcApiVideoPlayer_GetStandardConfig%26media_id%3D528636%26video_type%3D0%26auto_play%3D0%26aff%3Daf-78579-fkru"> <embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/go/getflashplayer" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" quality="high" src="http://www.crunchyroll.com/swf/StandardVideoPlayer.swf" flashvars="config_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchyroll.com%2Fxml%2F%3Freq%3DRpcApiVideoPlayer_GetStandardConfig%26media_id%3D528636%26video_type%3D0%26auto_play%3D0%26aff%3Daf-78579-fkru" width="640" height="426"> </embed></param></object>   Don't do it Chi, resist temptation!  Need more Chi?
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Day 2/365 From the anime series Chi's Sweet Home & Chi's Sweet Home: Atarashii Ouchi, Chi is a little gray and white kitten whom we meet for the first time when she is still with her mother. Chi being an energetic little kitten wanders away from the litter and sadly gets lost. But soon a little [...] Related posts:365 Days of Anime Characters: Day 1/365 Dio Eraclea 2 Days out of 4 of my Anime-Planet Christmas Marathon Review of 2009 Anime Part 2 ~Summer~
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So 2009 has come and gone, and 2010 is now underway. Exactly a year ago today I picked my 5 favorite anime of 2008. So now it’s time for me to decide which of the 2009 anime I enjoyed the most… Below is a list of all the 2009 anime I’ve finished watching. I count an [...]
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It's the end of the year so it's time to review what happened and evaluate it. It can include absolutely anything, and of course it also includes anime and anime characters. And that calls for character top 10. So here come my favorite girls from anime series of this year. To make it really an authentic 2009 Top 10, I decided to omit sequels to anime from previous years. Therefore, there are no Hayate no Gotoku, Minami-ke, or Spice and Wolf characters. Neither Mikoto and Kuroko from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun.First comes the bass guitar playing, shimapan wearing, easily Akiyama Mio from K-ON! Despite her shyness and fear of ghosts and similar stuff, I find her very cool and composed. She stands out as the most capable person from her after-school tea time club, and she can even write nice lyrics *Fuwa Fuwa Time echoing*. Furthermore, her hair are black and long, and her upset expressions are adorable.2.Akaba ChizuruChizuru is the Secretary of the Student Council at Hekiyou Gakuen, and besides that, she seems to be doing a lot of shady business and earning a lot of money. She is the most mature person in the Student Council, and this appearance is made even more striking by her fondness for sadistic acts. Abusing, belittling, teasing, whipping, all of that is in her list of favorite activities. However, she has a cute side to her as well, which can be observed either in the morning, or when she gets hold of the Student Council President. When she enters her "sweet mode" and wears sheep costume at the same time, the cuteness level rises over 9000.3.Senjougahara HitagiAbusing, mysterious, and even calling herself tsundere. That's the Stapler Girl. She almost always has a "weapon" on her, so everyone had better be careful when dealing with her, taking her hot temper into account. Still, you can't deny that she's cool and sexy.4.Ogata RinaRina is a 19-year-old singer, and one of the so called savior-goddesses of the male lead character, who should have just died like Makoto. Rina is elegant, often lonely, because she's occupied with her work, and her voice is fantastic, which isn't any big surprise as she's voiced by none other than Mizuki Nana.5.Shiina MafuyuMafuyu is an ultimate treasure as regards character personality. She's a combination of a hard-core fujoshi, and a gaming addict. Her ordinary day could be described very easily. When the lessons end, she goes to the Student Council Room and plays games, then she comes home and plays games until late in the night. Then she goes to school and sleeps through the lessons while dreaming about yaoi. Don't be deceived by her cute and sweet looks. If you become her target of fantasies, it's the end for you. Nevertheless, I cannot resist her sweet, innocent look. *Alarm notice: WARNING! Signs of overheating!6.Frederica BernkastelNot much can be told about this Witch of Miracles. Her powers allow her to make anything come true as long as its probability of happening is not equal to zero. Bernkastel can put on an icy, calm expression, but she's cunning and mischievous in reality. This side of her can scare the wits out of you, yet there's something charming about it.7.Nakano AzusaNyaa~n!8.Sangou ShizukuStudent Council President and an idol of students' hearts, irrespective of gender. Shizuku is another of the cool, long-haired, audacious characters, which I like. Like every such character, she has a hidden, lovable side to her.9.Sakurano KurimuAnother Student Council Pres. However, unlike Shizuku, she's childish, short, childish, moe-blobish, childish, dumb, childish, slow, childish, sluggish, and also infantile ^^ Though such characters usually irritate me, there's something about Kurimu that I like. Maybe her pride for the traits she thinks she has, but actually doesn't at all. Or it may be her absolute stupidity and incompetency that I find lovely about her for whatever reason. Or, and that's most likely, it's the sparkle in her eyes and occasional enthusiasm.10.KuchinashiShe doesn't talk.... No, that's not the reason why I've put her in my top 10. She bears a great weapon, an electric fan, and she gives off a refined, captivating fragrance. By the way, she uttered an attack name once.So, that's my lineup. I guess you could summarize it in two words: moe and elegance.On another note, have a nice New Year's Eve! I hope you start off the New Year on the right foot.
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