Remember the popular horse riding simulation machine named Joba (here and here)?
Well, it seems that some fan clippers could not help imagining what it would be like to watch their favorite female video game characters riding an equestrian contraption. Some of the kind of NSFW results after the jump.
Do you know the Japanese Pinky Promise?
It’s a similar to the “Make a promise/Hope to die/Stick a needle in your eye” song I learned while growing up. Hook your pinky with someone else’s and chant the song, which goes, “Pinky Promise, if you lie, I will make you swallow 1000 needles.” (If you want it in Japanese, it’s Yubikiri genman, uso tsuitara hari senbon nomasu.) You then say Yubi kitta! (I break the pinky connection!) as you pull your fingers apart, and you’ve made the most excellent promise you can make in Japan, at least if you’re in elementary school.
The Pinky Promise shows up quite a lot in anime, often to show a promise made between characters while they were younger, although the origin of the custom is somewhat less innocent.
Supposedly, the Pinky Promise began back in the Edo Period as a gesture of devotion that prostitutes would make with their favorite customers. The “cutting” of the pinky signified the women severing her own finger as a sign of eternal affection for her partner, essentially saying that she loves him enough to commit shinju, or ritual lovers’ suicide with him.
Kind of adds a new dimension to watching your favorite cute anime series, doesn’t it?
It’s funny how how tenuous the meanings of seemingly basic words can be. In English, the word “friend” is pretty straightforward, meaning someone you are somewhat well acquainted or friendly with.
Most of my English-speaking “friends” are close in age to me, but I certainly could have a friend who was 25, or 45, or 75 if I wanted to. It’s not uncommon for someone who is only a passing acquaintance to be labeled “friend,” too, for the sake of convenience or to avoid being rude.
In Japanese, however, the word tomodachi (which literally means “those who you go with”) and it has a more “close” feel to it than the English word friend. Tomodachi in school years are almost always the same age; otherwise you’d use the term senpai (for upperclassman) or kouhai (for underclassman), which are quite different concepts in Japan’s vertically-oriented society.
Once, my son was playing dodgeball with a boy he’d known since preschool — they’ve played together for years. I talked about the boy with my wife, using the word tomodachi to refer to my son’s friend. My wife corrected me, saying the boys weren’t friends in that sense, but were instead osana-najimi, translatable as “childhood friend,” a concept that comes up in anime and bishoujo games quite a lot, referring to someone you’ve been very close to since childhood, and it seems to be both more and less than the English word friend. “An osana-najimi is different from tomodachi,” my wife explained to me. “They’re always there, and you don’t even notice them after a while. You get so used to being with each other, it’s like air.”
Japundit reader Colin Fletcher writes in to alert us to a report about a maid coffee shop that has newly opened in Culver City, California.
Sandra Westwood, who oversees the cafe, worked most recently at the restaurants Bread and Brown Cafe in Manhattan. Earlier in her career, as a fashion model in Japan and Paris, she discovered the finer points of serving tea, from a customer standpoint. Ms. Westwood spent nearly a year designing the Royal/T menu and training the staff with Danielle Kurtz, formerly of Simpatica Catering in Portland, and the chef Chris Cooke, a veteran of Izakaya in Tokyo and Megu in TriBeCa. “Most of the food at maid cafes in Japan comes out of the microwave, which we don’t use here,” Ms. Westwood said.
Royal/T, which opened in May for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea, also serves curry rice bowls, salads seasoned with yuzu and Japanese-influenced desserts. There are Yoko Moku butter cookies and a layered mousse cake with sesame and red bean paste. The heart-shape chocolate lollipops, from Roni-Sue’s Chocolates on the Lower East Side, can best be described as adorable. But then, cuteness is the whole point at a maid cafe.
A brand new bakery opened in Tokyo on May 5th. The shop is called Shirohige no shou cream kobo (which means White-bearded’ cream puff workshop).
A perfect opening for Kodomo no Hi (Children’s Day), the shop sells cream puff Totoros and sold out of them in the first ten minutes of opening!
The store has the unique recognition as being the only store officially recognized by Studio Ghibli and is filled with illustrations from Miyazaki Hayao’s nephew.
For those in Tokyo, it is advised to call in advance, since the shop sells a very limited quantity everyday and sell out fast.
I hope this is still open when I finally get out to Japan again- I have a soft spot for Totoro (and sweets!)
Japan’s defeat in World War II was a huge emotional blow to the country which is still felt today. Although more than sixty years have passed, the subject of the war is still in many ways “taboo,” and not discussed very often outside of certain specific situations. (Kind of reminds me of growing up in the 1970s and asking what that Vietnam War thing was all about…no one seemed to want to tell me.)
One interesting mechanism the Japanese have evolved to allow them to deal with the subject of war has been an unlikely one: animation. While the traditional image of a “soldier” used to be tied to black and white photographs from the historical Pacific War, this has changed somewhat after three decades of popular culture in which the idea of “war” was more likely to be defined in sci-fi terms, such as the One Year War of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, in which spacenoids living in orbital colonies fight for independence from Earth.
While it’s not generally possible for Japanese to wax romantic about the real war, which they lost, you can probably find fans within a certain age range who could tell you about the First Battle of Jaburo between Char Aznable-lead Zeon forces and the Federation in great detail, or a Space Battleship Yamato fan who can get misty-eyed about the Battle of Saturn, when dozens of Andromeda-class battleships were destroyed by the Comet Empire.
If you asked Japanese who they considered the most respected “military heroes” of the country were, you might find some who would answer Amuro Rei or Bright Noah or Captain Okita/Captain Avatar, the legendary characters from these war-oriented anime series. It’s not unlike the original Star Trek, which was able to tell stories about race relations and other difficult topics that couldn’t be discussed in the 1960s unless they were disguised as science fiction tales far off into the future.
Popee is a brilliant series of animations that is longer being made, apparently because of complaints that it might be bad for kids. It is no more violent than Tom & Jerry, but certainly creepier and incomparably esoteric.
For better or worse, my daughter loves these. The same animator also made a series called Stain, well worth watching.
I’m currently in love with this watch by LA based designer Tokidoki. The designer, Simone Legno, is actually from Italy, but with a keen eye, and a sense of humor (not to mention a Japanese girlfriend), he’s created a world of charming characters that remind one of the playful sensibility pervading the world of anime. No wonder he has a devoted cult following.
This summer is supposed to see the launch of several new Tokidoki products, including a special bag for Sportsac and a collaboration with Onitsuka Tiger. I’m really curious to see what the items will look like!
If you are in New York you might like to know that the Brooklyn Museum is hosting an exihibit of the work of Takashi Murakami.
Who knew that the first Louis Vuitton boutique in Brooklyn would touch down smack in the middle of an exhibition in one of the borough’s most venerable art institutions?
But there it is, at the Brooklyn Museum, bright and gleaming and blending seamlessly with its setting: a sleek, stylish and sometimes silly survey of the work of Takashi Murakami. Mr. Murakami, who is frequently called the Japanese Andy Warhol, is an astute manipulator of visual languages, artistic mediums and business models. The boutique will sell Vuitton bags, wallets and other accessories dotted with the signature Murakami jellyfish eyes, red cherries or pink cherry blossoms for the duration of the exhibition.
More on Takashi Murakami here
New York Times report here
Thanks to David Sanchez
Last July, Natsuki Matsumoto rummaged around at an Osaka antique store and made a wonderful discovery- short, silent anime films over 90 years old- the oldest ever found.
The National Film Center in Tokyo has restored both anime films: “Nakamura Katana”- A 2 minute silent film about a samuari and “Urashima Taro” based on an old Japanese folk tale of a fisherman.
Junichi Kouchi and Seitaro Kitayama, the creators of the films, are considered the pioneers of anime.
The two films will be a part of a film festival beginning in April at the National Film Center.
From CBC News:
Japan has created an unusual government post to promote animation, and named a perfect figure to the position: a popular cartoon robot cat named Doraemon.
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura appointed the cat as “anime ambassador” at an inauguration ceremony Wednesday.
I always expected that the first American anime/music video hit would come from Utada Hikaru–I thought it would be a great way for her to showcase her talent and capitalize on the whole Japanimation fascination that seems everywhere these days. And I still think so (Hikki–please hurry up! Can’t you, like, hire Miyazaki or something? You know that would drive the Americans crazy.) But, no, it seems the Britney Spears has beaten Hikki to the chase–in being first, at least. I’d argue that Utada Hikaru is vastly–and authentically–more talented. But I digress.
Here is Britney’s new music video, in which she stars as an anime character who awakens from a cyborg slumber, beats up bad guys, and sets off a bomb. If you know your anime, then you’ll recognize all these tropes.
I’ve been unable to find out who did the actual animation, though the direction was done by Robert Hales, a British graphic designer and director who oversaw the intriguing VR-meets-pop-star video that made up Justin Timberlake’s “I Think She Knows.”
Are we entering the Idoru age where an out of shape popstar with mental health problems can still be a star, at least virtually? Or is this just going to go down as another cool thing that white people like? Is this another Gwen Stefani cultural appropriation thing? Or is it just . . . a fifteen-seconds of fame type thing. What do you think?
remember those blow up jumping castles that you had at your birthday party as a child? well leave it to japan to pervert those too.
boldly going where only ash (satochi) has gone before
in what is one of the more disturbing trends in contemporary japan, the maid cafes and other perverted male otaku hang outs have spawned a new branch of cafes for female otaku, ones based one gay comic book porn. that’s right, women who want to indulge their childhood fantasy of young effeminate men dressed in high school uniforms flirting with each other, engaging in oral sex, or brutally anal raping each other finally have an outlet for their fetish.
now if you’re anything like me, your fist reaction to this article might be, oh say, wtf? but apparently in japan’s never ending quest to cater to every possible kink, they have stumbled across a sizable subset of female otaku that just can’t get enough of yoai manga and doujinshi. as a consequence proprietors sensing an opportunity for profit have created bars and restaurants much like the one featured in this article. run by a woman by the name of emiko sakamaki, the place goes by the name of edlestein (named after a yoai comic set in a german high school) and features a staff of young cosmetically enhanced men. according to her and others the market is driven by the atmosphere of female indulgence that has been of which japan has, until this time, been bereft of, combined with the popularity of anime and manga, complicated by the desire for relationships which transcend traditional gender roles, all united by a sample population of young to middle aged single women who appreciate the unparalleled beauty of a fragile young teenager being raped by other men (preferably in groups).
While strolling through Utsunomiya Station with the charming and delightful Mrs. JP today, we spotted a pair of real live kigurumin (girls who wear a type of pajama-suit that resembles an animal and sometimes cartoon characters) strolling along off in the distance.
Much to the dismay of Mrs. JP, I was off in a flash, digging my trusty EXILIM digital camera out of my pocket as I trotted through the station. I introduced myself to the girls and they kindly agreed to pose especially for you, dear JAPUNDIT readers.
I was originally tipped to the following video of a Japanese anime about whaling thanks to a comment by JAPUNDIT reader vittel in last week’s Open Thread.
I was able to find a another version with English subtitles. Though the English is a bit funny and obviously written by a native speaker of Japanese, I am sure you will be able to get the gist.
Once again America ends up the villian. . .
Meanwhile, in Australia, they have a look at the lighter side of the issue.
Some J-netizens are calling the above “racist.”
The Internet truly is a wealth of knowledge, both useful and otherwise.
Today while surfing around, I found out the meaning of Pikachu’s name. . .
Apparently it comes from the Japanese, pikapika, which means to glitter or sparkle, and chuchu, which is the sound a mouse supposedly makes in Japan. Put it together and you get Pikachu, meaning “sparkly mouse”, or more appropriately “electric mouse” because of the lightning bolt stuck up his bum.
I feel so much smarter now!
