From Ningin: One of rock acts from Japan that I’ve been particularly fond of is Ellegarden, and although their indefinite hiatus disheartens many listeners of the band (including myself), what’s been born from the ashes is definitely catching my eye. More »

Best known for their shorts and subsequent film of everyone’s favorite cheese-loving englishman and mute dog, UK-based Aardman Studios have come up with these short but sweet animations for the recently released Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks using the Nintendo DSI application Flipnote Studios. Below, for your viewing pleasure, you will find the Spirit Tracks animations as well as a few others they have made with the application. Very cute stuff. Enjoy. More »

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This is a test of Rekuru’s emergency broadcast system.

This is an unscheduled post, but I must warn everyone about a safety hazard related to an application found in all good Mac-fearing households, iTunes. In a truly bizarre phenomenon I recently stumbled over, anime songs have begun to appear on iTunes. And not just the theme songs of big shows like Naruto and Bleach, but Aki Hata’s brilliant Lucky Star character songs. Which is great. Or would be, if they were the actual songs and not cover versions. More »

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Need a great gift for someone special with a soft spot for Japanese cuisine? Here you can buy an automatic Takoyaki Factory Ton Ton cooker. Takoyaki, or “octopus balls,” are popular Japanese hors d’vours and can be quite difficult to cook properly - but not anymore! This little device flips each ball to cook them perfectly and evenly on all sides, but only if you time it right. More »

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Nostalgia Much like the Tin Woodsman, devoid of any heart. More »

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From Wirebot:

Finally, SquareEnix has released Final Fantasy VIII onto the PlayStation Network. The original PlayStation One game is available on the PS3 and PSP for $9.99 (a whole heck of a lot cheaper than the eBay prices are going for). I remember playing this game on my PS1, it was a ton of fun, but I don’t understand how people thought Quistis looked good at all haha. I apologize for the side comment.

Other games to arrive on the PSN include More »

It’s time to find out what did the best in the year of our Jpop, 2009. How many groups do you recognize, and how many have you never even heard of?

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Sapporo Breweries have announced the launch of SPACE BARLEY, a malt made with 100% space-raised barley. More »

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From Ningin: If you spend a bit of time in Japan, someone will inevitably ask you, “What is your blood type?” This will come out of the blue, during a completely non-medical conversation, and will make you feel very very awkward for not knowing. The Japanese are not asking because they want to harvest your blood for weird experiments, but because in Japan, your blood type determines your personality type. More »

So I was eating Chinese dinner last night; my fortune cookie said: “Quit talking so much, egghead.” To which of course I mentally added “in bed,” which might also be good advice. But in this spirit, here is a return to form with a good old-fashioned Top Five List on the subject of that greatest of time wasters, anime YouTube videos. And if you aren’t already addicted to them, you, my friend, are in for a treat. More »

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