From Ningin: One shots are short stories, usually around 30 to 50 pages long. Many series usually begin as a one shot but they’re meant to tell an entire story within a single chapter. These are some one shots worth reading. More »

From Ningin: To prevent me from getting too jealous of Hoc getting to interview and see Boom Boom Satellites (BBS) live, kind reader May Young, has submitted live BBS performance videos from last week’s show at the Santos Party House. The quality of the videos is great, perfect for an instant rock party in your room. More »

From Ningin: The Tuesday night before Thanksgiving I attended a Boom Boom Satellites (BBS) concert in New York City. I had no idea who they were before the concert but quickly grew in love with their music. 12 hours later, they were in the Ningin office lounge hanging out with the Ningin NYC staff. It was kind of surreal because it’s not every day we have rock stars just kickin’ it in our office and at the time I’ve yet to fully recover from the wild night of partying. It was a great experience and I was able to learn a lot about them through a somewhat informal interview. Again BBS is a two-person band, Michiyuki (right) is the vocalist and guitarist and Masayuki (left) is on bass. Mimi, their manager helped answer a few questions as well. Enjoy! More »

From Girlybubble: I knew nothing good would’ve ever come out of a Paris Hilton endorsement of Hello Kitty. To me it was trouble from the beginning. Now that Hello Kitty’s recently turned 35, I feel as if she’s quickly approaching some sort of almost-mid-life crisis. For starters, she was recently snapped up by papz with an exposed heart-shaped nipple. Let’s not even start with the Hello Kitty nipple tassles. What’s next Hello Kitty, rehab? A sex tape? More »

When it comes down to it, a title can make or break an anime. You may not think so at first but when trying to find a new anime to watch amidst a sea of titles, an interesting sounding title can be more than enough reason to check it out. Of course, a bad title can do quite the opposite. Imagine how well recieved Cowboy Bebop would have been had it been called Super Happy Bounty Hunter Time! So with that in mind, I present five anime who’s titles can only be described as ill-conceived. More »

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From Ningin: It’s nice to see Sunrise working on turning a Gundam novel into anime. Their more recent series (Gundam 00, Seed, Destiny) just didn’t feel right to me. Hopefully this encourages more Universal Century stuff (the original gundam timeline) to get animated. It feels bad missing out on a huge chunk of the story just because I can’t read the novels/manga like Crossbone Gundam and Hathaway’s Flash. More »

From Ningin: Gackt has been busy contemplating what to do for his fans and for Christmas. How will he solve this problem? By spending time with his fans on Christmas, of course! More »

A theme I’m irresistibly drawn to is the contrast between the tedium of everyday life and the richness of the imagination. The Japanese term for “everday life” is nichijou, and it crops up fairly often in anime and manga taking place in the limitless suburbs surrounding big cities like Tokyo. A perfect vehicle of this theme is Studio Ghibli’s Mimi wo Sumaseba (lit. “If You Listen Closely”), and of their films it is, in spite of the greatness of Totoro, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, my favorite. More »

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One thing that can be said about the pillows is, they take themselves seriously. Avoiding two genres into which Japanese music often breaks down–bubblegum power-pop on the one hand, hyper-macho posturing on the other–the pillows have been crafting quality rock records since 1991. Which is not to say they don’t have a sense of humor, but no one could dismiss them as a novelty act; they remind me of one of my favorite Western bands, Oasis, and indeed, I always think the bridge of One Life is about to break into Don’t Look Back in Anger. More »

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From Ningin: Policemen in Nagoya, Japan have found a way to catch purse snatchers without involving innocent bystanders: by cross dressing as women. More »