Zak, a Japanese friend who is consulting for several robot companies, twitted me this brand new custom robot. It’s based on a plastic kit of HoiHoi San released last year by Kotobukiya. I love this kind of DIY  + “kawaii” projects as they can bring more people into robotics (like the classic Hina, the coffee maker robot, that I discovered last year and that recently has been featured also by Wired Italia)!
.

Young Animal (ヤングアニマル) is one of my favourite printed magazines in Japan. It's a semimonthly publication with about 288 black and white pulp pages of comics wrapped in about 20 slick pages of color photos of sexy gravure idols.
Young Animal was first issued in 1989 as Animal House but was renamed Young Animal in 1992. However, it may have begun as early as 1981 as a shōnen magazine entitled Gekkan Shōnen Jets, since manga serialized in Young Animal is later published in tankobon graphic novel form as part of the "Jets Comics" line, and since Shonen Jets was discontinued in the late 1980s (Wikipedia).
.

Via Asiajin - Japanese company A2c  released a new iPhone application which enables you to take pictures with 5 (ero) manga girls. “Kanojo Camera” (”kanojo” means girlfriend) is also sold to English market by $1.99. The English title of the app is “My Girls Camera” and looks like it will be an hit among eroge fans!!
.

(via John @ AN) Young Animal confirmed that the film adaptation of Shigemitsu Harada & Nobuto Hagio sex comedy manga series Yuria 100-shiki will be a live action feature premiering on November 20th. Hideo Jojo (Gachi-ban) is credited with screenplay, editing and directing. Yuria Type 100 will be played by AV idol Fujii Shelly. YES!!!

Some friends are working on GAKUGEIKAI: a new doujin manga that will be released during the last day of Comiket. Behind this manga there are a couple of famous mecha and videogame designers so I'm pretty sure it will be really succesfull!!! It's a shame that on 30th December, when Comiket will open I will be on a plane sipping a good sake while flying to London... _

Few months ago I discovered this Google Maps page that points to real places featured in anime and videogames (basically eroge). This kind of reality mix started over 10 years ago and has been featured several times by the Japanese cult magazine GAME LABO but the use of Google Maps takes this on a totally different level!

Just click on this  Google Maps page to find where you can find real places of Suzumiya Haruhi or your favourire anime...

 

 

(via Wii-tards)  Otadesho has translated the bonus/tutorial manga included with the Japanese versions of Soul Calibur 4. You can find the original Japanese version here
.

 

After the huge success of Vocaloid 2 "Hatsune Miku" (more than 25.000 units sold in 3 months) that stormed the Japanese music software industry, this week two new "manga" music products has been announced:
Audio Control 1 "Producer Pack" and Music Maker "Jam Band". The first one features an official collaboration with Crypton (Vocaloid 2 producer) and will be sold with an official Miku mousepad. Audio Control 1 an a high-end audio interface, with assignable buttons and a controller knob combined with advanced MIDI key commands, gives for full control of software applications (and of course can be integrated with Vocaloid 2).

"Jam Band" seems a customization of the popular Music Maker software from Magix.

Ksomisu = Kimoi + Omoshiori

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!

(via Danny Choo) The manga Sundome (すんドめ), created by Kazuto Okata and published by Akita Shoten, makes it to the big screen with the gravure idol Akane Suzuki as the main character.  Hideo Aiba (Atsuji Ninomiya) is a reserved and obedient high school student who spends all his energy on masturbating. When a new student, the super sexy Kurumi Sahana (Akane Suzuki), joins the same after-school club in which he is a member. Now I wait for a midnight drama adaptation so we can contemplate  "better" Akane chan!!
The cast of the movie includes Hana Tsugihara, Kenichi Takada, Takuma Sueno,  Kenji Yoshikawa, Yoichi Nukumizu, and Takatsugu Iwama.


Official site here.

This is the very first Amazon Japan customized toy. It will be relaeased on first December for 2200 yen (ca  13 euros). This collectors toy is a customization of original Revoltech Dunboard figure (on sale on J-List), from the manga Yotsuba,  produced by Kaiyodo and designed by Azuma Kiyohiko (of Azumanga Daioh fame) and Yotsuba Sutazio.

In Japan, among porno producers,  there is a  boom of videos inspired by succesfull anime and manga. Today Japanese mega porno factory Soft On Demand has annunced that on 22th november the new porno parody of Omamori Hirami manga (preview here) will be released. This DVD will be starred by AV idol "Yume Kimino" (ゆめ  君野 = ゆめ = "Dream"  きみの  = "Your") famous for the Suzumiya Harui porno parody..


Sample video here (NTSFW)

November issue of Wired is dedicated to Manga invasion of US market and "how Japanese comics are reshaping pop culture".
Back in the days when I wanted to be a (post) cyberpunk writer, after visiting Comiket I proposed to Wired an article about Comiket and doujin culture. Anyway, Daniel Pink has written a great article about doujinshi and is nice to see that this theme is still interesting after 10 years I proposed it to Wired! (just a note: it's the first time I read an article about doujin culture and the Comiket is not cited even tought it got 4 times the attendees of Comicon! ^_^')


If you read the article on Wired.com  there are a lot of comments that point out that "there is a version of anmoku no ryokai (tacit understanding) at work in America already". What probably it missed is the magnitute of doujin culture industry in Japan. One thing is a Star Trek fanfic distributed on the net and one is having several shop chains, like Toranoana, focused only in doujin (selfmade/homebrew) manga, music CDs and videogames (doujin game scene is so big that many doujin games has even been ported to consoles)...

(D-addicts.com)  Few days ago Doremi (homage to Ojamajo Doremi anime series) posted the (hardsubbed) episode 9 of Hotaru no Hikari (originally broadcasted in Japan  this summer between Jul 11 and Sept 12). This drama is starred by the super kawaii Ayase Haruka (offical blog / fan blog). Last year she appeared in the  Tatta Hitotsu no koi and she will be the protagonist of next year movie  CyborgGirl.

Hotaru no hikari is based on the Hiura Satoru’s manga (drama adaptions of manga is a new trend started a couple of years ago and it's helping to get a younger audience for dramas once watched only by "obachan"...) . 
Hotaru is a twenty-something OL (office lady) who works for a famous interior design company. It's a glamorous job but Hotaru's private life is totally the opposite of glamorous. She lives alone, and when she isn't working she's mostly lazing about her rented house in training wear. She's not interested in men. In fact, she isn't interested in anything. "I'd rather lay around than fool around," is her motto...  she has become what in Japan is called a “dried fish”.
Her landlord is a bar owner, and one day his son, who has just separated from his wife, decides to move into this house, not knowing that someone is living there. He is shocked at the mess, but not as shocked as Hotaru. He turns out to be her boss, Takano... This drama is damn fun and you can donwload all episodes right now so you don't have to wait months to see the end like the dramas of the fall season that has just taken off.

Wow! Finally the fall J Drama Season is started!  Wednesday at 10:00pm NTV has broadcasted the first episode of Hataraki Man, Hataraki Man: the new drama adaptation of the manga by Moyoco Anno, serialised in the seinen magazine Morning (adapted into a TV anime  broadcasted in Japan last year).
The story revolves around Hiroko Matsukata editor of a weekly magazine. She puts all she has into her work but despite Hiroko's prefessional success her life lacks romance (Wiki)...

Time to head to D-Addicts for a new season of Drama torrents!!

Oggi e' il primo giorno del Comiket: la fiera del fumetto (doujin) piu' grande del mondo.  Sul prossimo numero di GAMERS troverete un reportage completo, per il momento vi consigliamo di leggere il reportage di Shingo.

Su segnalazione di Massimo ecco la prima puntata dell'anime Doujin Work tratto dall'omonimo manga (fansabbato in inglese).
Si tratta di una serie imperdibile per tutti gli appassionati di doujinshi!
Se siete dei veri otaku qui c'è anche il secondo episodio.

MOE Scoop!!!
La Haruhi mania contagia anche le console Sony e, dopo l'annuncio della versione PSP, sulla rivista Famitsu sono apparse anche le prime immagini della versione PS2 che verrà intitolata Suzumiya Haruhi no tomado e sarà disponibile a gennaio 2008. Nel gioco si impersona  Kyon che tenterà di realizzare un videogioco insieme agli altri membri dell' SOS dan e il gioco creato sarà realmente giocabile!!
Chi non riesce a resistere, può tranquillamente acquistare uno dei tanti videogiochi doujin ispirati a questa incredibile serie animata.

 

(via Canned Dogs)

Finalmente è  estate e sta per iniziare la stagione estiva degli anime. Ovviamente per chi non vive in Giappone ci sono sempre i fansub e i raw... Ci sono serie per tutti i gusti... giusto per avere un motivo in più per trascorrere l'estate barricati in casa invece di far finta di avere una vita vera...

Armored Trooper Votoms: Pailsen Files  - Luglio 2007

Baccano!  Brains-Base - 26 Luglio 2007

Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan 2  Hal Film Maker - 11t agosto 2007

Buzzer Beater 2007 TMS Entertainment - 3 Luglio 2007

CODE-E  Studio DEEN - 3 Luglio 2007

Doujin Work  REMIC - July 3rd 2007

Fight Tension☆School  -  7 luglio 2007

Happy Happy Clover - 6 luglio 2007

Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai  Studio DEEN - 6 Luglio 2007

KARAS Story 4  Tatsunoko  - 22 giugno 2007

Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho  Artland - Luglio 2007

Moetan  Actus - 8 luglio 2007

Mononoke Toei Animation - 12 luglio 2007

Mushi-Uta  Beat Frog - 5 luglio2007

Nanatsuiro Drops  Studio Barcelona - 2 luglio 2007

Potemayo  J.C.Staff - 6 luglio 2007

Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei  SHAFT - 8 luglio 2007

School Days  TNK - 3 luflio 2007

Shigurui  MADHOUSE - 19 luglio 2007

Sky Girls (TV) J.C.Staff - 5 luglio 2007

Tetsuko's Trip Group TAC - 24 giugno 2007

Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpucho: Tou 2nd Act AIC Spirits - 27 luglio 2007

Zero no Tsukaima ~Futatsuki no Kishi~ J.C.Staff - 13 luglio 2007

Zombie-Loan XEBEC  - 3 luglio 2007

Il settore dei bishoujo games (meglio conosciuti come videogiochi hentai)  rappresenta un'industria con un fatturato superiore a quello prodotto da PS3 e XBOX 360 in Giappone. E' curioso che ci sia ancora tanta presupponenza da parte della critica del settore (escludendo GX avete mai visto un videogioco bishoujo presentato in modo intelligente e completo sulle riviste del settore?) come anche di molti videogiocatori che evidentemente alla vista di due tette sono più spaventati di un seminarista... 

Per scoprire il mondo degli hentai, oltre che correre in edicola e comprare GX è possibile visitare ottime community come Hentai Eye e  Flowers of Hentai che da anni rappresentano il punto di riferimento online per gli appassionati del genere. Per gli appassionati di anime hentai ci sono invece siti come Subitanime, Anidojo e Bakateam.

Il 30 aprile presso il Tokyo Big Sight si è tenuta la prima edizione del Comic 1: ennesimo spinoff del più famoso Comiket.
I ragazzi di HeiseiDemocracy hanno realizzato un breve video diario della visita di questo nuovo evento per appassionati di doujin. La vita di un vero cacciatore di doujin inizia la mattina presto...