The Cosplay! I actually think that more people were in costume than not. So, I was able to take a lot of pictures! For the most part, there were mostly people dressing up as characters from Bleach, Naruto and Death Note. Though, that was obviously expected… I decided to put up some of my favourites that [...]
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Upcoming fall series Kuroshitsuji has a website now, and on it is a 2-minute promo video. It requires Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player though, so I've uploaded it for those of you who have troubles getting it to play. Nitroplus game Chaos;Head is getting an anime adaptation this fall, and they've opened a new website for it. You may remember that last year around this time NTV aired a three-hour Death Note special that covered the entire L arc. Well they've announced that they'll be airing another one on August 22nd, this time covering the Near/Mello arc. Web series Axis Powers Hetalia is getting an anime adaptation. Junjou Romantica 2 has been confirmed to start in October of this year. The Queen's Blade anime adaptation now has a website. MOON PHASE reports that the Seto no Hanayome OVA will be released on November 28. Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter will start on October 9 in the Thursday night noitaminA timeslot. The Macross Frontier Superlive was last night, and mainichi.jp has pictures and a report from the event. Pretty much all the songs from the series were performed, including Kanno Yoko herself playing a piano version of Triangular to Sakamoto Maaya's singing. Nakajima Megumi and May'n finished the concert by performing the new OP Lion together. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the new OP will premiere on this upcoming week's episode. If you find anything that you think I should mention on any particular day’s Daily Dose, please send me an email with the words “ANIME NEWS” somewhere in the subject line. Image at left courtesy of あさの on pixiv (account needed to access)
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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. Sunshine Buddies Spiritual Stone. They never need batteries, they provide a relaxing environment for you -- could there be a better way of lowering stress than these Hidamari no Tami (Sunshine Buddies) toys? Comic Yuri Hime Reserve Subscription. Yuri is the Japanese word for artistically beautiful couplings between females in anime and manga, and we're happy to announce the start of a new "Revolving Subscription" magazine at J-List: Yuri Hime, a super manga magazine filled with wonderful manga, posters and more for you to enjoy. DORAEMON HIRAGANA Learning Book with HIRAGANA Chart. Do you want to learn to read and write hiragana, the most elementary writing system used in Japanese? This might be a good place to start, a fun study book from Japan. PANDA Mini Wooden Hand Massage Bar. While it may look slightly disturbing, this wooden panda massager is just the thing for taking main out of your neck or back. A well made item for massaging away stiffness. New Japanese Snacks. Here's something special for the Death Note fan who has everything: a box of delicious individually wrapped cookies that are flavored with the shinigami Ryuk's favorite food, apple. Great to munch on, and normally only available in gift shops in Akihabara, Tokyo! Also see Ramune and Cola Hi-Chew (!) and Lotte Plus X Gum -- Peach Mint. Graphic Art Style WAGARA T-shirt ~ SAKURA. Here's another made-in-Japan T-shirt that features a very nice graphic print of flowers with a beautiful sakura theme. A very pretty T-shirt for anyone who loves Japan. TAKUMI DX Lacquered Wooden Miso Soup Bowl ~ Black. This is a really well made large wooden bowl made for enjoying miso soup. There's so much to enjoy about traditional Japanese foods, especially when you are eating them out of a very high quality dish. Monokuro Boo Kuttari Plush -- Ramune, Pink. Incredibly soft plush toys for fans of Monokuro Boo, or Monochrome Oink. Super cute "ramune" color, as well as pink, back in stock now. DX SAKURA JUBAKO Bento Box ~ Brown, Pink. See fresh stock of our jubako (stackable) bento boxes with sakura themes, in brown or pink, both just lovely. Also, see fresh stock of the Sakura-themed soap dish for your guest bathroom. More Study Items. J-List is always happy to help people around the world learn more about Japan the best way possible, by learning its language. The Genki series, published by the Japan Times, is the leading Japanese textbook in the world, and we've restocked several of the books including the students CDs. New Check Set with Erasable Pentel Handy-line Slim (Knock type Marker). The "Check Set" memory aid that helps you learn any information better by highlighting the text you want to learn in green, then hiding it with the red sheet while you quiz yourself, has been restocked. You can memorize any information with this great tool. Back in stock! Wacky Japanese T-Shirts. Remember that J-List carries great original Japanese kanji and anime T-shirts. We've added XXL sizes of some of our most popular designs, including "I Would Die for Haruhi" and the super-cute "Nyoro~n" design. Japanese School Bookbag, Uniforms. If you happened by our booth at Comicon, you might have noticed the very nice high school uniforms for girls or guys that we displayed, or the Japanese school bag we also had up to show. These high quality products are made by Matsukameya, a famous company based on Nagoya, and J-List is happy to be able to offer their products to everyone. Revoltech No.60 Enki ~ Gurren Lagann *Preoder*. This is the awesome new creation from Kaiyodo's Revoltech line, a spiffy new toy that can be put into any pose you can imagine because there are about 10,000 points of articulation. Wow. Kai Harn 1/6 Figure ~ Bastard!! *Preorder. For fans of the classic manga Bastard!!, this is the character of Kai Harn, rendered in gorgeous 1/6 scale. Preorder now. Studio Ghibli items. As always, J-List stands ready to fill all your Studio Ghibli needs, and today we've restocked the "buru buru" (vibrating) Totoro in blue as well as the matching Cat Bus. Pull their strings and watch them vibrate, it's quite cool. Pinky Street My Melody, Kuromi Costume Set. J-List carries the super-cute Pinky Street toys from Japan, which feature "clothes" you can change by popping the head off one body and putting it on another. Don't forget to pick up the fantastic My Melody and Kuromi Sanrio Pinky Street toys before they sell out. REAL Blue -- Sola Aoi. Sola Aoi is the legendary AV idol whose wonderful performances have warmed a generation of hearts. Enjoy this dynamite new hardcover photobook featuring the red-hot lady as she shows you her perfect body again. Sekai de Ichiban NG na Koi visual fanbook. This is the official artbook from a popular game called "The Most No-Good Love in the World." The art is staggeringly beautiful, and you'll love every page. Nagisa Okamoto's Beach Volleyball Ero. Ever since beach volleyball took off as a popular sport in Japan, fans have wanted to see gorgeous women show themselves doing naughty things on the volleyball court. Here's a gorgeous release starring muscular Nagisa Okamoto's wonderful outdoor "H".
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The Japanese broadcaster NTV has announced that it will air the Death Note Rewrite 2: L o Tsugu Mono (Death Note: Rewrite 2: L’s Successors) special on August 22. The after story connection of people diagram: Like the first special, this new compilation will summarize a part of the 2006-2007 television anime series. Specifically, it will recount [...]
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If you've listened to spoken Japanese at all you've probably heard the word desu, often pronounced with the last syllable reduced so that it sounds like "dess." Linguistically speaking, this word is known as the copula, because it makes the noun and the verb in a sentence, er, want to have a romantic evening together or something; in more useful terms, it fulfills the role of "to be." It's really simple to use: if you want to say "I am John" just say John desu; if you want to state your nationality, just say America-jin desu or Canada-jin desu or whatever. The subjects of sentences are usually left off if the meaning is clear from the context, but if you wanted to clarify that you're talking about yourself and not, say, Michelangelo, you could say watashi wa John desu (As for me, I'm John). If someone pointed to an apple on a table and asked you what it was, you could say ringo desu, which would also be an appropriate answer if someone asked you who your favorite Beatle was and the answer was Ringo Starr. The desu sentence ending is a formal word, useful for making a good impression on Japanese you might try talking to; every Japanese verb comes in formal and informal versions, and the informal of desu is da, allowing you to say Eigo no sensei da "I'm an English teacher" if you were talking to a person below your station, like a teacher addressing his students or to a child or a dog. (As always, stay formal until you understand the nuances of informal Japanese, lest you offend your in-laws as Luicille Ball did to Ricky's parents all those times.) Since the word "death" sounds very close to desu when rendered into katakana (actually it's usually written デッス instead of デス), there is a world of puns that can be made about Japanese sentences ending in death. In Dragonball, there's a reace of Chinese space aliens (if memory services) who speak in kanji, and the kanji for です they use is 死 (death). Er, maybe you had to be there.If you want to see something really different, here's a bizarre movie someone made on Youtube mixing Sazae-san (the longest running show on Japanese TV, going something like 42 years now) with Death Note and Yu-Gi-Oh. The story is that the smallest kid, Tara-chan, gets a copy of the Death Note and kills his family, and then, oh, nevermind, it's too silly. My kids happen to watch it several times a day, is why I am bothering showing y'all. Note that at no time did I imply this was interesting. <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9Z7UGQjwlS8&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9Z7UGQjwlS8&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> 
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I really wished that Lost+Brain sprung up earlier on the time line before Death Note. Who can deny that hypnosis is definitely a more stylish way to take over the world, one person at a time, as compared to some lame notebook which falls from the sky? The main character of Lost+Brain begins as a carbon [...]
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VIZ Media’s NARUTO (Uncut), BLEACH and DEATH NOTE Now Available on the iTunes Store Complete Seasons of Action-Packed NARUTO And BLEACH And All 37 Episodes Of DEATH NOTE Available on iTunes San Francisco, CA, JULY 15, 2008 – VIZ Media, LLC (VIZ Media), one of the entertainment industry’s most innovative and comprehensive publishing, animation [...]
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Art used with apologies to J.J. VIZ is really shipping out the PR this week– the latest announces that VIZ Media anime titles are now available on iTunes. And they’re not starting with any second-tier titles: Death Note is online its entirety, along with the first season of uncut Naruto and the first two Bleach story [...]
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When Eiji passed by Antique, he saw the sign that they were hiring men and women servers for the shop, came in and announced that he wanted to work there. He was hired on the basis that he was not Ono’s type, which makes sense since it will make for a peaceful work environment. When Eiji tasted Ono’s choux a la crème, he begged Ono to make him his disciple, but Tachibana said that he was only hiring him as a clerk so the only thing that he cared about was him being able to sell cakes. But Ono said asked Tachibana to hire him as an apprentice. Tachibana, who gave up his dreams of having a cute waitress in a cute pink waitress outfit to keep his legendary patissier in his shop, had no choice but to give in to Ono's request. Eiji becomes Ono’s fanboy. They also discussed their reasons for pursuing the occupations that they have now… Ono became a patissier after following a lover to Paris to study. Eiji went after working in a bakery because he developed his love for cakes when his old coach always gave him some when he wins. And Tachibana came to start his own cake shop because most of the customers of such shops are women.Also, there is another side story about a to-be customer, Namiko, of Antique (they aren’t open yet) that Tachibana was trying to hit on by giving her freebies and her boxer boyfriend who has been a fan of Eiji when he was still a lightweight champ. The boyfriend, Tohru mocks Eiji for giving up his boxing gloves for an apron, but it was only because, as Tachibana and Ono explained, he was disappointed to find his idol has given up, only to have Eiji explain to his girlfriend that her giving up was the result of him possibly losing his vision if he continued. Namiko’s objective was actually to have Tohru quit boxing since his own coach trying to push him out of the boxing hall where he trains to the point of .giving up the baby that she was pregnant with. In the end, Tohru told her that he was not going to give up on boxing and that she will keep the baby… much to the disappointment of Tachibana. Eiji promised them that he will bake their wedding cake when he finally becomes a patissier himself.Seriously... I watch them for the cakes.I find myself liking Miyano Mamoru when the characters that he voices have a hint of moron (Tamaki in Ouran and even Kirie in World Destruction) – at the time I watched Death Note, I didn’t know jack about seiyuus. I don’t know, he just seems to be at his best when he does it because I thought he sucked at Vampire Knight or maybe it was because the Vampire Knight anime sucked unless the ending I had in my mind actually happened. Anyway, to make a long story short, I like him voicing the gourmand (with the way he eats??? of course, he is!) boxing baka.For some reason, one of the reasons I like this show is that all of the characters are the best at what they do. Tachibana was a successful salaryman, Ono is a legendary patisserie, and Eiji was a boxing champ. Well, I don’t know much a about Chikage yet since I didn’t read the manga. At least they’re not moronic losers.Ooooh!!! Me is so happy there are more cakeys in sight!!! ^^ MOAR!!! Yes, I am watching this show more for the cakes pr0n! It’s a good thing that the story’s not bad either..
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Tsugami Ohba’s, and Takeshi Obata’s, ‘Death Note’ is a synthesis of a brilliantly dislikeable protagonist and a wonderful exploration of what Moral Philosophy, the philosophy of morality, has been trying to grapple with since its inception: just what is justice? ‘Death Note’ is complemented by a brilliant battle between good and bad. So who is [...]
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