We are just having fun reviewing and discussing comic books, graphic novels, manga, anime/animation, music and movies that we have recently read, listened to or watched.
Square Enix has begun streaming the long version trailer for the Gunslinger Stratos 3 game. The game has a May 12 Japan release date and will more than likely get a North American release date since others in the series have been distributed in North America, however there is no date yet for such a release. Thanks to Square Enix’ for streaming the trailer:
The above bronze will be welcoming guests at the new Hakodate-Hakuto Station come March 26. The Hakkaido Line will connect Honshu, Japan’s main island, to Hokkaido, it northern island in the town of Hokuto. The current Oshima-Ono Station is being remodeled and named the New Hakodate-Hakuto Station. The towns name Hokuto roughly translates into “North Star” hence the bronze statue from Fist of the North Star that will be welcoming passengers as they arrive at the New Hakodate-Hakuto Station.
If you are going to be in the Ikebukuro, Japan area you will want to visit the Animate Cafe starting November 17th. Starting on the 17th the Cafe will have a special themed menu from the cast and creatures from the upcoming Digimon Adventure tri. Besides have special menu items the Cafe will be giving out complementary items as well. If you order a food item you will receive a Digimon bookmark and if you order a drink item you will receive a Digimon coaster. Cool promotional.
This would be so cool to attend, but alas I won’t be able to. If you happen to be in Japan on July 20th, you might want to look into it. On July 20, the Japan Screen Music Symphony Orchestra will be in concert to share how music is one of the driving forces in anime. Selections will come from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Attack on Titan, Neon Genesis Evangelion and other lesser know anime. The concert will be held at the Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Shibuya, Tokyo.
Sometimes you just have to have fun. A company in Japan has fashioned a tank vase inspired from the anime Girls und Tanks. The vase is from a scene in which character Hana Isuzu made such an arrangement. This vase was limited to only 100 pieces and quickly sold out on pre-order, for 12,960 Yen or approximately $108. I don’t know if I would spend that much on this, but it is a fun item to see made.
We are back! After two weeks of re-carpeting, we are back! To begin the new posts we have a fun one. At the Tokyo Marathon they coordinators had a life-size Patlabor AV-98 Ingram on hand to cheer on runners.
This is just to cool! Look at the scale of this snow sculpture! This was done this year at the 66th Sapporo Snow Festival, in northern Japan. This sculpture is entitled “Snow Star Wars” and was done by:
The snow sculpture, Star Wars, is made by the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force: the 11th Brigade; the 1st Snow Sculpture Producing Unit, the 11th Artillery Unit, the 11th Reconnaissance Company, and the 11th Antiaircraft Artillery Company.
They did a tremendous job! If I read the credits correctly the photos are by Kimimasa Mayama.
Yano Research has finished a report that gives the digital content numbers for the last year in Japan. In the digital book category, approximately 65 Billion Yen or 540 Million Dollars was spent on digital manga. This accounts for 80% of the overall digital book market. If only people in the United States would shed the concept of comic books only for kids, we could have a bigger interest here.
The Japanese Retailers seem to have the coolest connections than anywhere else. The 7 Eleven’s in Japan has teamed up with Bandai again for a store promotional. Starting mid-January the stores will begin selling an exclusive Gundam model kit. Which is pictured above. If we could get our stores to do promotionals like this it would be really cool. For the full story and additional photos follow the link back to AnimeNewsNetwork: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2014-01-20/japanese-7-elevens-get-another-gundam-kit
Just way to cool! Honda show of it’s MSX125 (Known as GROM in Japan) during the Tokyo Auto Salon 2014. The concept bikes had the color schemes of each of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I’ve always like purple so I would take Donatello’s themed bike. Beautiful job guys, looks like you had fun building them.