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Written by Brent
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Friday, 28 October 2011 09:44 |
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 A Japanese company, SSS, has created a new mascot girl in support of the Great East Japan Earthquake: Zunko Tohoku.
Apparently, the Tohoku area is famous for a soybean-based cake, which is Zunko's theme. The 17-year-old high school student specializes in archery, using a soybean-based bow.
There's even an Android app where you can play archery with Zunko, leveling her up and unlocking wallpapers.
Moreover, Zunko is copyright-free, so you can use her however you want.
Exactly how this will support victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake remains unclear to me.
Either way, hentai doujinshis featuring Zunko released in 3...2....
Source: ANN |
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Written by Brent
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Friday, 28 October 2011 09:22 |
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 I don't normally link to trailers, but this is interesting to compare the TV version to the OVA version:
Click here to jump to the website for the upcoming Black Rock Shooter TV series.
Click here for the first trailer for last year's Black Rock Shooter OVA.
Of course, the OVA had a much bigger budget and probably a longer production schedule than the upcoming TV series, in terms of production time per minute of footage released. So the question is: how can they make the TV series intriguing when they can't make it look better? Especially when the OVA was visually inventive on practically every level?
The solution: don't try to out-do the OVA. Tell a story, and concentrate on interesting camera angles, not amazing animation.
Looks like the TV staff is taking that approach. It doesn't blow me away visually the way the OVA did. But it looks interesting. |
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Last Updated on Friday, 28 October 2011 09:41 |
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Written by Brent
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Thursday, 27 October 2011 08:40 |
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Folks have been taking photographs of affected places all over Japan every 3 months after the earthquake:
Check out the full gallery. Amazing progress. |
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Written by Brent
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Wednesday, 26 October 2011 11:17 |
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The title says it all. 142,000 copies in a week. Man, Macross is popular.
Unfortunately, because it was sold via game retailers and not traditional ones, it won't show up in the normal Oricon rankings. |
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Written by Brent
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Wednesday, 26 October 2011 10:56 |
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 ANN reports on a Yano Research Institute poll of of over 10,000 Japanese. When asked, "Do you think that you are an 'otaku' or have you been called an 'otaku' by other people?", 25.5% answered yes. Even more shocking, this is only a 5% increase from last year, so 20% of Japanese were identified as otaku last year.
Now, Yano points out the new "light otaku" trend, which includes gamers and other casual fans--the ones listening to Hatsune Miku songs or playing Love Plus. It's a bit like identifying everyone in America who buys comics as a "comics fan."
Separately, Yano dug into the numbers to estimate the size of each segment of the otaku marketplace for 2011:
- Online games ($4.15 billion)
- Electronic comics ($921 million)
- Doujinshi ($897 million)
- Idols ($747 million)
- Adult videos ($709 million)
- Cosplay outfits ($439 million)
- Light novels ($437 million)
- Figures ($402 million)
- Plastic models ($349 million)
- Adult games ($332 million)
- Boys-love ($288 million)
- Railroad models, including dioramas ($210 million)
- Dolls ($182 million)
- Dating sims ($180 million)
- Pro wrestling ($160 million)
- Maid- and cosplay-related services ($126 million) [does this include cosplay cafes?]
Man. You gamers really are driving the market, aren't you? |
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