Kittyball

I want a kittyball too...


I'd been watching these for a while, very cute.
These are done by an artist who has a penchant for turning Engrish phrases into pages from a children's book... for some reason.

BTW, the source image:


Take a look here for some more, tough guy.

Popular Anime May Not Be Shown in Rural Prefectures

A recent article from Sankaku Complex shows that some anime are not being shown in many cities or prefectures in Japan, far outside of especially large urban areas like Chiba or Tokyo.

The list has several qualifiers for what is considered newly broadcasting anime.
Here is the chart:

These are the late night anime being broadcast on regional terrestrial stations in April; in total there are 25 new titles.

There are some additional titles only aired on satellite.

Only newly airing titles are included – no repeats.

These are late night anime titles only. The likes of Naruto is broadcast nationally almost without exception.

23: Chiba & Saitama
22: Kanagawa & Osaka
21: Tokyo
17: Aichi
16: Hyogo & Tokushima
14: Kyoto
13; Ibaraki, Gunma, Tochigi
12: Mie
11: Nara, Wakayama, Gifu, Fukuoka, Saga
10: Shiga & Hokkaido
6: Okuyama & Kagawa
3: Miyagi
2: Niigata, Kumamoto, Shizuoka
1: Fukushima & Ehime
0: Toyama, Ishikawa, Fukui, Yamanashi, Okinawa, Aomori, Iwate, Akita, Yamagata, Kochi, Nagano, Nagasaki, Oita, Miyazaki, Kagoshima, Yamaguchi, Tottori, Shimane

Even though there are a lot of rules associated with this chart that indicate what is considered "newly airing", the results are staggering when you consider eighteen areas are not getting any anime that fit these categories, broadcast to their homes.
This is the land of anime after all.

A lot of overseas anime fans complain that they don't get as many new anime compared to what Japan gets, but as the chart shows, a lot of rural households may need to turn to satellites, DVD releases, or internet uploads of broadcast anime to be able to watch what the bigger cities do, just like the rest of us!

The article at Sankaku also notes that broadcast quality can differ from region to region in Japan with no uniformity between what is censored in one area to how high-quality the series appears on the screen because of poor technology. In some cases, a broadcast may not even be preempted for national disaster coverage!

If you can name the program on the TV in the picture, I'll give you a digital cookie!

Japanese TV: Lego boat

Ever dreamed as a child of building a boat out of LEGO's and setting sail? It's been done in Japan now. Watch!

Skip to 6:30 to see them tack on a propeller on the back (hover craft style), and skip to 6:49 to see the blocks coming apart!

Anime Insider Ceases Publication

After eight years of publication, Anime Insider magazine will be ending its publication.

According to Anime News Network, the close of the magazine was prompted by the parent company, Wizard Universe, which is more or less a media sales powehouse of comcs, conventions, card games, and, of course, magazines.

Anime Insider began as Anime Invasion in 2001, and went through many changes in its lifetime, including new publication schedules (from once a quarter to a monthly magazine), a fluxuating cover price until it reached the reasonable USD$4.99, and even some content change to better suit its readers.

Many AI alum have gone on to do other projects. Former Senior Editor, Rob Bricken, is among them. He just launched the safe for work, geek news website, Topless Robot. You can hear his take on the magazine closing here, and how much it impacted the lauch of his new site (fair warning, he does use one particular expletive once to accurately convey his feelings).

The 67th issue of the magazine just shipped earlier this month, it is believed a 68th issue will conclude the magazine's run.

You can read my thoughts on Anime Insider as a leader of anime news in an earlier post about the closing of NEWTYPE USA magazine.
I believed this was one of the anime news media's strongest institutions. I am more than surprised, and in a bit of denial that this magazine will actually go away!

Thanks AI, for eight great years, as Kip's number one news source (after Ani-Pock of course ;D ).

Moè is the New Face of Japan With These Ambassadors

In a press conference earlier this week, three young women were introduced as the newest "cultural envoys" of Japan.

They were dressed in outfits very unbecoming of a traditional country ambassador: polka-dotted shirts and frilly-updos, Victorian-style dresses, and even one young woman in a schoolgirl outfit, and she doesn't even attend high school any longer!

What's the deal? Japan is now exporting it's greatest natural asset is seems, moè.
According to Tsutomu Nakagawa, the head of the cultural affairs division at the Foreign Ministry, these ambassadors were selected because, "We want people abroad to know these kind of people exist in Japan and to feel close to them."

A Reuters article goes on to explain the outfits are "inspired by the characters in Japan's distinctive 'anime' animated films and 'manga' cartoon books."
Should'a known.

A year ago, it was announced that Doraemon would be the next special ambassador of Japan. Could this all have been a contrived effort of Japan's quasi-otaku Prime Minister, Taro "Rozen" Aso?

Top Bad Fansubs

You've been there before. You download some series, subbed by some unprofessional group, and you get fansubs like these:








And, of course, the legend:


This one's just for fun, click it for a larger view. This 'excellent' strategy is actually just an end-user agreement.


Some images came from here, but the provider doesn't seem to be hosting them anymore.
Though thanks to Google, you can see the rest for the time being.