Otaku  breakdance in Akiba in 2006. The  suzumiya haruhi moves are simply great!!
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Osaka Tsutenkaku Tower Robot visits Tokyo Tower and Akihabara: moeeee!!!

via ameblo.jp/tsutenkakurobo - mainichi.jp

If you like manga and came to Tokyo to celebrate the New Year's Eve you can't miss the otaku midnight countdown held by Toranoana in Akiba (the shop will be open till 2 am!)
^_^

OK, I think Apple should wake up and start doing some MOE promotion like Microsoft!!! I love OSX but with a Moe cutie like this I fear I will buy Windows 7 next time I make my pilgrimage to Akiba...
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Yesterday I went to the Otaku Encyclopedia party with Danny Choo and his CGM comrades held by Kodansha in "Steven Nagata land" (that's how Danny renamed Akiba)! This new book is written by the real super saiyan Patrick W. Galbraith and will be out in october so don't forget to reserve your copy!!

Me drinking beer @ the party photo taken by Super Steven Nagata!

Twitter summary: @dannychoo  @kenbrady  @papadimitriou @stevenagata @jonnyli @drzuco @frankiebit @imorpheus

On Tumblr I found this beautiful photo of our loved Akiba before the barbarian invasions changed our paradise forever...
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Sputzkaizer, the same guy behing the Fate/Stay Night DS version has just released Touhou DS: a Nintendo port of one of the doujin games related to the legendary Touhou Universe created by a Japanese game maker ZUN who actually is in charge of all the graphics, music, and programming of these danmaku shooting games. Strange fact is that ZUN actually works for TAITO but it seems that the company that inveted the Shooting Games with Space Invaders was niot interested in this (super succesfull) project... 
_

I saw this and I tought: they finally made an Evangelion girl's entry plug vibrator... seems that this is just another 2 GB memory stick...   they event released a new hello kitty virbrator so why not an official Evangelion vibrating Entry plug?!  mah...
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大きな地図で見る

(via GrandeBanzai) Google Street View hitted Japan and so now we can see Akiba even when we are abroad!

Japan Probe posted a great story about otaku hunting for the idiots that, last sunday, were joking around akiba after the tragedy. I'm sorry to admit it but I support 2chan users efforts!!Youtube video here.
Meanwhile, the legendary otaku editor Patrick Macias, is doing a great series of posts about this tragedy.

UPDATE: Konami cancelled the MSG4 launch event... seems that the image of Solid Snake overlooking the stabbing rampage in Akiba has touched other people than me...

During the sixities Manson never killed anyone (almost personally), the good thing in this case is the fact that we don't have an "otaku guru" telling people to kill everyone... that guru in a certain way has been Shoko Asahara. He has never been an otaku guru but, before the sarin terrorist attack, he was in synch with the otaku subculture... Now the akiba killer is just a crazy guy who choosed Akiba since on Sunday there isn't a more "media dense" area in the World. There isn't a group behind him, nor a subculture supporting his hate/killer instincts, he just wanted his 15 minutes of fames, so it's pretty impossibile to stop this kind of tragedies...

20 years have passed since Tsutomu Miyazaki. In all these years the otaku culture permeated the Japanese society (and jpop culture) so, this time, I think the "Otaku is  socially dangerous" meme will not get grip in the Japanese mediasphere almost not as before... I feel this bloody sunday is more the otaku "September 11" than anything else...

Spotted this on Akiba Blog...

Who is the real figure? Julie (aka Amano Ai) or the Revoltech Dunboard?!

The winter edition of Wonfes has just opened. I always been a fan of the Tshirts designed by Hironori Oooka but in the last couple of years I think he is not inspired as before, but maybe it's just me...
Winners of this edition Wonder Showcase are:


WSC #040
Haruki
BORN 1982.01.30

[Genocide Kitten]
http://www.hekill.com/




WSC#041
Kouji WAKITA
 BORN 1974.01.20

[カノン]
http://cannon.blog.bai.ne.jp/



WSC#042
Yusuke MASAKI
 BORN 1981.04.09
 
[桜前線]
http://sakuzensen.web.fc2.com/

Akiba Blog celebrated St Valentine day starting the operations of the english edition of this famous Japanese blog. The main sponsors is Himeya online shop that is runned by old friends so I wish them the best! Go Akiba go!!!

(via Samurai Girl) For less than 10$ Julie bought a very special fukubukuro box from Super Potato. She found a total of 76 Famicom, VirtualBoy, Saturn, Dreamcast, Super Famicom, Playstation, Gameboy, Pc-Engine games in the box! I think this is the best fukuburo ever found in Akiba!!


If  you like  a post on Beside Games you should click on the  GOOD button. You can click one time to 16 times! Of course for this I gave to Julie 16 clicks!!

(via Akiba OS) After Hatsune Miku, Moetan will get the AV parody treatment too! Moe(ru)Tan DVD will be realeased in February from Ifrit.

On December 30 Cave hold the second annual year-end Cave Festival at my favourite Japanese game center : Akihabara's HEY arcade. I visited the event before going to Comiket (the second day of Comic Market is always Yaoii oriented so there is no need to rush) and at 10.10am the place was already full with a waiting line of 6 hours. I picked a DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou T-shirt and a (not so popular among japanese players) Muchi Muchi Pork! soundtrack (with a bonus DVD).


Inoue (DeathSmiles) during the authgraph session.


At the  Cave Festival there were just 3 games to be played: all the action was at the second floor of  HEY were are present near ALL Cave shooting games.


At the second floor of HEY the most popular game was DeathSmiles. If you love shooting games this  Game Center is a must visit during your next Akiba pilgrimage.  All the arcade cabinets are set at high volume so the sound generated by dozens of games together is something unique that reminds me the sonic waves of  gabber/speed core raves!  Ruuush!!!



Before leaving for Comiket I took the Cave's anquette (feedback form)  handed out in front of Hey.

Yesterday, in Akiba, I spotted this two guys seeling some really cool T-shirts inspired by the Japanese online community 2channel. If you want to see more pictures you can visit Akiba blog (thanks to my camera that died after this shot I couldn't take more photos of these T-shirts)...

All Japanese visit almost one temple during oshogatsu. I'm an otaku so this year, before the Fukubukuro hunting, I visited the Akiba little shrine instead of the famous temples In Asakasa or Harajuku.

Fukubukuro (Japanese: lucky bag, mystery bag) is a Japanese oshogatsu (first days of the new year)  custom where merchants make grab bags filled with unknown random contents and sell them for a substantial discount, usually 60% or more of the list price of the items contained within. Fukubukuro was invented by Ginza Matsuya Department Store in late Meiji period and has since spread to most retailers. These bags are usually snapped up quickly by eager customers, with some stores having long lines snake around city blocks hours before the store opens on first or second January.
Akiba shops sell their Bukubuko too. Usually the biggest shops had the most interesting ones, but this year Akibao, Super Potato and other "underground“ shops displayed the most interesting Fukubukuro!  This year even adult shops like M's Entertainment or Love Mercy got their own bags full of adult toys!

Today walking in Akiba (near the Yodobashi "Death Star" Camera megastore) I found a really cool HD DVD promotional both focused on the release of the brand new Transformers HD DVD. The HD DVD Promotion Gruop is doing its best to fight against Blu Ray and push customers to buy HD DVD players during this Christmas. I tried the Toshiba Vardia RD-A301 and I'm really impressed by this HD Hardisk recording, HD DVD  recorder. People who will buy this the RD-A301 before 31 January 2008 will get a free Transformers HD DVD and limited edition Voyager-class Starscream (Starscream Vardia Red Model) in a a special red and gold paint .
 

This week three new special "Moe Pickels" will be released in Japanese otaku shops (actually, as always, March Rabbit in Akiba will have these products in exclusive for few days). Each package is illustrated by MM Works and contains a special card. There are three Ousozai Tans: Aki Kirishima, Eric Watanuki and Renko Kariya. I'm still don't know which heroine is my favourite, but "otaku sensor" tells me that all these moe pickels are going to be really popular in Akiba!
If you are an hikikomori like me you can even buy this moe pickels (at 630 Yen) on Kappo100.com

(via MikuMiku) Intel will held a special event on December 22, 23 and 24 for "Core 2 Extreme Processor". Special guest will be the super kawaii voice actress Saki Fujita the voice of Vocaloid 2 Hatsune Miku). It would be cool to see events like this in USA or Europe!

If you are going to Winter Comiket, that's going to be held at the end of the month, my osusume is this brand new Moe Taxi service from RakuRaku Taxi. 
 

I just found out that also the cult Akiba shop M's Pop Life Department got a great selection of sexy Christmas costumes. (old "sexy xmas" post here). M's is my favourite audlt shop in the world. What makes this shop unique is that it has been created to attract  sukebe oyaji like me but also couples interested in discovering new ways to have fun sex. The Japanese artist Mizuno Junko has collaborated with several project produced by M's (actually I think this kind of collaborations are way cooler than the "traditional"  marketing projects made by KidsRobot or other so called streets brands). 
If you don't know this Akiba sex temple you should take a look to this  great reportage by Akibamap (translated by Sweat Pink blog).

Akiba Channel has just started a new experimental projet: The Akihabara shops Google map.

This beautifull Gundam 00 illustration is from Mugen Kidou doujin circle that will exhibit on 31th December during Comic Market (don't miss the great  "how to guide"  created by our friends at Heisei Democracy.)
Today the Club 54 has released Wan Ryumin Niujoku another doujinshi dedicated to the female characters of Gundam 00.
There is just a month till next Comiket so doujin world is starting to fight for visibility and releasing "major" doujing manga before the event seems a technic to attract more customers at its own circle table during Comic Market (コミックマーケット).



Akiba blog has posted some very NSFW photos here, here, here, here, here and here.

Now we only need to start to save up for the Comiket 3 days doujin marathon shopping!

Akiba map spotted Iwata Aya: the very first Ecology Idol... now I wait for her Gravure DVD with Aya cleaning Akiba streets with different costumes!

We are again in the time on the year when we stop downloading japanese porno from Javtalk and we take the dust off the Sega Saturn to play once again Christmas Nights... This year is a little bit special since the Christmas anthem Jingle Bells is celebrating the 150th annyersary so the japanese cult label Vap on 28th November will release a "compilation album" (translated page here) with the collaboration of some of most famous Japanese otaku artists (like the new Akiba Sperstar Aya Hirano (wiki)  "Love Gun" from Death Note and Lucky-Star).
The cover has been created by the Japanese "Horror Comedy" genius Ren Oshikiri (if you can't access the page outside Japan you can try this proxy) who works for the weekly magazine "Rude Rude" and has illustrated many tankobon and CD jackets.


(from wiki)  JINGLE BELLS

Dashing through the snow

In a one horse open sleigh

O'er the fields we go

Laughing all the way

Bells on Bobtail ring (Or Hear our voices ring)

Making spirits bright

What fun it is to laugh and sing (Or What fun it is to ride and sing)

A sleighing song tonight

(chorus)

|: Jingle bells, jingle bells,

Jingle all the way;

Oh! what fun [joy] it is to ride

In a one-horse open sleigh. :|

Although less well known than the opening, the remaining verses depict high-speed youthful fun. In the second verse the narrator takes a ride with a girl and loses control of the sleigh:

A day or two ago

I thought I'd take a ride

And soon Miss Fanny Bright

Was seated by my side,

The horse was lean and lank

Misfortune seemed his lot

He got into a drifted bank

And then we [we—we] got upsot.

|: chorus :|

In the next verse he falls out of the sleigh and a rival laughs at him:

A day or two ago,

The story I must tell

I went out on the snow,

And on my back I fell;

A gent was riding by

In a one-horse open sleigh,

He laughed as there I sprawling lie,

But quickly drove away.

|: chorus :|

In the last verse, he picks up some girls, finds a faster horse, and takes off at full speed:

Now the ground is white

Go it while you're young,

Take the girls along

and sing this sleighing song;

Just get a bobtailed bay

Two forty as his speed

Hitch him to an open sleigh

And crack! you'll take the lead.

|: chorus :|

Akiba Noodle has just released the very first Akiba instant Ramen. This shop on the Akihabara main street is getting more popular everyday and this new instant ramen is probably going straight on the top of Akiba bestselling omiyage (the crazy market created from scratch by the figure maker Toypla with the Maid cookies).
If your are into instant japanese instant foods you can't miss Akiba Noodle blog!

(3.11 Update) There are Akiba Ramen report on Akibablog and AkibaMap too.

Akibamap found this Famicom Ufo Catcher in friont of a DVD shop on the Akihaba main street. It looks like the ufo catcher in Osaka retrogame shop Tanteidan.

Doujin event Sunshine Creation 37  has featured several doujin dedicated to our beloved virtualoid idol Miku chan!
These are some photos taken by seiyunews:

Today, M4125, a new Maid PC, has been presented at Akihabara Maid Cafè Maid Station. The core of this new otaku fetish PC is the infamous Mini ITX developed by : a 17 x 17 cm low-power motherboard form factorVIA Technologies. Mini-ITX has similarities to ATX, microATX, FlexATX and BTX form factors, but is significantly smaller: 170 mm (6.7 inches) by 170mm.
There iare many photos on Akiba Blog.

Yesterday Broccoli held a conference at UDX in Akiba to announce the new AKIHABARA GAMERS (AKIHABARAゲーマーズ本店) shop that will be opened during 2008.
As stated in this official PDF the new shop will be located between Medialand and the actual Gamers shop in akiba. The old building has been torn down few months ago and recently that corner has been used for street promotions like the Red Bull free giveaway held recently...

After the last week Tokyo Game Show the "Otaku Season" is officially over so I decided to post a preview of this otaku documentary   shooted and edited  by our friend Antonio Mariani during the Wonderfestival (the DVD should be out in the next months). It features tons of garage kits, dolls, cosplayers and a (very) short interview with the legendary Danny Choo (and in a couple of scenes you can spot the superstar otaku photographer Julie from Samurai Girl photobook)!

Today One Seg TV Segnity is finally on sale in Akiba ( One Seg refers to terrestrial digital TV broadcasts aimed at mobile devices).  This portable Digital TV has been presented in January by the giant toy maker Takara Tomy Co. during the Toy Forum 2007.
What makes this product special is the fact that this device features a "tsundere voice system". Tsundere (ツンデレ, Tsundere) is a Japanese term for a personality that is initially combative, but becomes loving and emotionally vulnerable. When you first turn on Segnity you will be welcome with a tsun tsun (cold) voice message: 'Gonna watch some TV, huh?'  When the brightness is lowered, a cold voice says, "This is daaark!".
After you use the device more times the voice becomes gradually attached to you and start to be kind and warm and, for example, switching off Segnity prompts the phrase: “What?! Are you really going away?” as if the Segnity is sad that the you are leaving. There are 33 different voice samples and on October 28 will be realeased a software that will let you customize the voices auploading you favourite tsundere anime character voice trought the Mini SD card slot.

NSFW: Cosplayers vacumbed in a futon plastic bag (vacum bed) is a new fetish spreading among japanese underground. It's a variation of  Rubber fetishism and Total enclosure fetishism (a form of sexual fetishism whereby a person becomes aroused when having entire body enclosed in a certain way).  HPsart just posted a video where a cosplayer of cult anime character Suzumiya Haruhi is vacummbed in a Futon bag...

Ievan Polka,

NSFW: Last weekend I visited Akiba Fetish World shop where I found the famous Model Train Crush fetish DVD. The coolest part of this shop are the displays: our favourite are the Shibari rope Barbies! In the next days I will post more photos of this unique shop where you can buy fetish DVDs dedicated to Giant Women, girls getting shaved, and baloons play ...