Classic Japanese prank reel

Japanese Acrobats

(Via JapanProbe.com): "This clip of Japanese acrobats was apparently filmed by Thomas Edison in 1904:"

Photos of a sleeping, overworked and underpaid Japan

...So underpaid in fact, that they can't even afford a home.

Not really. But there appears to be a reasoning for this Nihon narcolepsy.
Danny Choo has written an article on his site about this phenom:

Sleeping in Tokyo is safe and easy. And if you do it in public, it is also cheap. There seem to be a few primary reasons for public sleepers: tired from work, passed-out drunk, in-between shifts for delivery or taxis, and homeless. The first three types are fair game for photos, I think.

Here we see some folks dozing at a McDonalds between bites of fries. You can see some more pictures of Japanese sleeping... wherever, in this Tokyo Asleep Flikr album.

Try getting away with that in New York!

Fashion?

So it seems that Japan has a new taste in shoes.

It's quite literally is a work out, but if you're willing to try, then go for it!

"The latest rage in Japan, ballet heels, Royal Queen Platform boots, and Pony Play..."

Comments, pictures, and more.

Big Band Mario

I like the Mario costume walking around.

Ditto... er... Dango. Same thing.

Remember when Teenlink posted the "Dango Daikazoku" ED music from Clannad, or possibly you've seen the series yourself. The video is pretty cute and melodious.

If you enjoyed it, you should check out the Pokemon version of it. Cute!:

Aww.

Japanese TV: Iceless Skating Rinks

Plastic made by Mitsubishi!

The Office: Japanese Version

lol- from SNL

Someone give them a trophy...

Ladies and gentlemen let me present to you the live action cast of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: The Movie!

Click for larger views.

Well, actually, they're just some really, really good cosplayers.

But I would totally hire them if I were directing this movie... if it existed.
See more at Behoimi.

Japanese TV: Pan-kun plays Jenga!

From Shimura Zoo, via JapanProbe.com

700 Japanese Themed Animated Gifs

Oh man. I expect to see these used in Chatango. Except they won't be... animated.

700 on one page!!

Japanese TV: Robot Apartment?

Strange video about a Robot apartment. Kami maybe you can help us out?

Japanese TV: UFO Crab Catcher

I've tried these before. It's really hard because the grasping arms are set really lose. You can pick one up, but they are so flimsy that they can't support the weight.

Anime Restructuring, Schmanime Schmestructuring: The Solution

You'll have to forgive me for how late coming this is. I just didn't want to be the 1000th post!

In the last segment, we presented the problem of a busting anime industry. Next I have presented my solutions in solving this “crisis”.

The industry knows how we are getting our series. We download more often than we buy.
For example, Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu torrents of the promo episodes of the R1 release of the series were made available on the ASOS website when the anime was first being readied for release. They know fans downloaded it using those methods before the anime’s release and even placed a poll on the website to see if downloaders themselves would still BUY the series.

The problem with the download model, especially in SHnY terms, is that the series got great buzz, so much, that people watched it right away. No one could wait for the release. Anime licensors will have to take note of this trend as well. If we are unwilling to wait for a series to become licensed, we download it as soon as subs come out, or if we know the language well enough, the raw. The production companies should adopt a model of releasing four episodes, give or take, to test the waters with foreign markets, and tie in some sort of globally recognized product advertisement (ie Coca~Cola, Toshiba) between segments of the anime, so that the production companies will still make money on freely distributing episodes. Think of what Gonzo is doing (<-- read that!) for Tower of Druaga (for whatever reason), but if they decided to have a sponsor as well. Then, licensors will have to decide whether to pick up the series depending on initial interest in these first four episodes. But how will they do that?
Continuing the trend of direct-to-sub downloads, licensors will have to immediately produce subs as they come out, and host them with downloading agents like iTunes. That means no waiting for poor dubs and DVD production!

Again, that's not to say we should do away with DVDs. There is a rising market in BluRay now. The discs have excellent storage capacities! In some cases, an entire series could come out on a BluRay disc then. This will be for people who do not care about seeing a series immediately, or liked it so much, they want to buy a tangible copy.
Could you imagine!?! No boxes? No Sera fuku T-shirts with my L*S limited edition volume one box!?!
Wow, just look at that...

But even as I say that anime licensors and companies do know how we get our series, I am surprised that I don't see more anime on iTunes. There are really only a handful of shows on it, and even then, they are hard to search, because they are not tagged as "anime"!

As for myself, downloaded copies are not my preference as I like to have a physical collection. But that's not to say that if I could save much of my money on what I would have paid for DVD production and voicing labor (ie: The standard $8 for four downloaded episodes on iTunes instead of $20+ for four on a disc from my media store), I may rather invest in figurines and merchandise instead and take downloadable PDF guides in place of cover art and DVD inserts.

I find it's all lies anyway. There isn't going to be a massive restructuring if any. My local media stores won't stop buying mass quantities of series, or expensive Pocky, Ramune, and wall scrolls. If anything, there will be less anime produced as people demand less quantity and more quality, not less sold.

I do see a future in direct to iRecord boxes (why can't I ever size a decent looking picture on here) or DVR downloads, where people can still watch things on their televisions. I would be extra happy if there could be a menu screen that looks like a DVD shelf where you can select your downloaded series off the shelf and play it, and still yet impress your friends with your digital collection as opposed to your physical.
One other such method would be to have a kiosk station, wired to the internet, which lets you buy and burn your media to a disc and you can walk out of the store with the episodes of a series of your choosing. If you wanted the first ten episodes of a series, maybe the kiosk will print a professional paper casing or guidebook with your burned disc. These will certainly be a potential source for anime purchases, and not just for anime or videos either. DVD production would be instant, to your preference (Love Noein but hate episode 5? Don't buy it!), and merchandise would not have to sit on shelves if unsold, nor would it be out of inventory, ever!

It is certainly not as if anime is going away. People of course will say it is because in pointing to companies like NEWTYPE USA and Geneon and possibly ADV, infamous anime “institutions" that closed in this past year, that we can see anime coming to an end. Companies fail from time to time. Geneon was doing well, it was loved by much of the Otaku base, but we can’t say anime was surely its downfall, though you are welcome to show me otherwise. As for NEWTYPE, magazine news has gone out a long time ago. I never cared for how much content came in these magazines compared to the price even. It was information overload and even tended to be reviews of series I read about in other mags or online. And that’s the thing, the internet is the fastest and most suitable way to look at the content YOU want instead of wating for a magazine to print and hoping most content isn't something you already read. NTUSA delivered far too much content in an age if 'instant satisfaction' for it to last, especially after the rise of comparable magazine, Otaku USA, which was cheaper and still came with a preview disc like NTUSA. Competition is all that matters.
In the meantime, ADV, which looked like it was on the verge of collapse, after several titles were removed from its website from sale, has recently bounced back to full strength, or from what we can tell...

That is my take on the burst anime bubble, if you have a counter opinion or support of my argument, please leave a comment!

おめでとう！

1000 JAPAN Blog Posts!

I'm not sure if the count on the Japanese Blog includes the posts from the old Blogspot...
But Congradulations either way :)
Here's to 1000 more!

In an attempt to make this special... I spent a Nice chunk of time putting together a Slideshow Tour of Various scenic places in Japan... Starting from the South (Aichi Prefecture) to up North (Hokkaido Prefecture).



P.S. Comments are appreciated...



EnJoY!

' '
U

Update from Kip:
See, we aren't lying!

Anime Restructuring, Schmanime Schmestructuring: The Problem

Nearly every anime blog or news source I go to nowadays I seem to find that the anime industry is "restructuring" that it has faced some kind of slowdown that it hasn't seen yet since the "genre" took off after the millennium. This blog from RIUVA is what pushed me to finally do this little soapbox.
I call BS!

After an initial swarm of folks looking to begin collections to impress friends in the West in the start of the anime boom (and by the way, it's not like the boom has ended the following is still exceptional, just not bonkers exceptional like the media producers want), I know that there will need to be a balance in these upcoming years, but I blame the source for fueling the fire.
More series began to be turned out at that point to a growing popularity of anime, well before the torrents, YouTubes, and Ani-Pocks of the world began uploading this stuff to their websites. If I could point to a specific place in time where the anime industry initiated this downward spiral, I would say its Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou, AKA: His and Her Circumstances. That was the last sincere anime to be produced before both East and West got barraged by vampires, ninjas, and moe, themes that would translate no matter what across borders.

Probably surprised by the fact that collecting and fighting with imaginary animals would be so popular with foreign audiences (Pokemon of course) the industry took a gamble and began exporting like crazy.
Since then I can think of only a few really smart and well done anime that have been produced and shipped with the intention not of becoming the next big craze and merchandising to the extreme. Death Note is one such series, and, unfortunately, it fell victim to overmarketing and productization, and, for now at least, it is still riding that bubble in both markets. I continually praise Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, because it took a boring genre and completely turned it on its head. Though I've never cared to watch Azumanga Daioh, I could equate it to what that series has done to the high school comedy honorably, which, however, lead to more knockoffs and worse spoofs. Hopefully SZS will call in an era of smarter and less obviously funny comedies and the like, however much of a knockoff they are.

Getting back to my point, early on, these kinds of duplicate series flooded the market, most obviously what Digimon and Yugioh was to Pokemon, and were obviously intended to garner the interest of Westerners.
Here's where the restructuring will have to take place, if even, there is one necessary. While I'm fine with series like Gundam and Macross making spinoffs of their name, they managed to make "smart" new anime with unforgettable characters. Those names will be recognized outside of Japan, while new kids like Haruhi and Konata will stick up like fresh flowers in the grass, even if the grass is really nice and has an even cut. But fear series made to be like Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu and L*S. These will be the duplicates that will only find an interest in the diehards that liked these series so much they want to envelop themselves in these kinds of stories. Heck, I'm a SHnY fan and not a L*S (which is a duplicate series almost in it's own rite) fan even!

But that's not not say that there is no place for duplicates. Which leads to my next point... the solution.

Watch for part two of my editorial on the analysis of the imminent "Anime Restructuring" for my solution to this problem in the industry. While people point to beloved institutions like Geneon and NEWTYPE disappearing, find out why, once again, I say BS!.

Update: That top picture is supposed to be representative of fansubs, but I suppose I haven't mentioned them yet since I decided to make this a two-part post... XD


In the meantime, we have big news in the next post! Stay tuned to the J-Blog for a big Ani-Pock milestone!

Simpsons Manga Makes Big Appearance on Free Comic Day

If you remember a while back when we were featuring many "if it were an anime" posts in the J-blog, one such "if" discussed was a Simpsons manga.

Now that artist, Spacecoyote, has been featured in a free comic, given out on, when else, but free comic day!
...Which was actually this Saturday.
The comic plays up the manga influence in this free issue dedicated to the long-running animation. In the left panel Homer describes protecting his son's honor and other such things found in the samurai code, while in the adjacent, right panel, he notes that the comic is formatted wrongly, because you were really supposed to read this panel first. Funny.

Read more at Anime News Network.

Japanese TV: Chamelon

80th Grand Prix of Kasou Taishou second prize.

Japanese TV: Bandage Cinema

More from the 80th Grand Prix of Kasou Taishou !

Japanese TV: Orangutan Conductor

From Kasou Taishou!


Watch more Kasou Taishou episodes on Ani-Pock >>

Japanese TV: Japanese astronaut tests boomerang in space

During his free time on the International Space Station, Japanese astronaut Takao Doi, 53, “threw a boomerang and saw it come back,” an official at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency said. The newspaper Mainichi Shimbun reported the astronaut, who threw the boomerang at the request of Yasuhiro Togai, a world boomerang champion, said he was “very surprised and moved to see it flew the same way as it does on Earth.”

Japanese TV: Men who were handsome 50 years ago

(Via JapanProbe.com): A panel ranks old men based on how handsome they were 50 years ago:

Tokyology Documentary

(Via BoingBoing.com): Today on Boing Boing tv, a sneak peek inside TOKYOLOGY, a new documentary exploring contemporary Japanese pop-culture hosted by Carrie Ann Inaba. Oh, what adventures await: sneak behind the scenes at a Japanese Rock TV show that pretends it's shot in Los Angeles, cruise Harajuku, go clubbing with goth girls in Shinjuku, shop for shoes with Lolitas, experience the madness of the Tokyo Anime Fair, visit a video game company, browse the streets of Akihabara, and meet anime creator Yoshitoshi Abe. More info: http://tokyology.tv/