One thing about Spotify is that it doesn’t host too many songs by artists from Japan. But on the other hand the service does host a few interesting pieces from the same country, music that you haven’t discovered earlier. Such as this beautiful song by DaizyStripper.

Listen to their song Brilliant Days and… enjoy! ;)

Also available on Spotify (Swe, Fin, En, Fr, Sp only) for those of you who use it.

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Of course standing in line isn’t even a fraction of what it takes to get a celebrity’s well coveted autograph…

To acquire Kugimiya’s autograph at the exhibition, fans could either buy one of 50 NT$2,680 (US$85) Shana ceramic plate online, or line up at the convention hall for one of 100 more plates. The online plates sold out in just 30 seconds on December 30, as 80,000 order attempts almost brought the server offline. Fans then began lining up for the remaining 89 plates.

And, wait – we aren’t done yet. There’s more to the story.

…
Yes, how much – and what – are you prepared to do just to acquire an autograph? Personally I find other things in my life more important than a signature, even if it is one written by my favourite celebrity, so spending this much energy on it is out of question on my half. I think most of you think the same… right? ^_^’

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As always, these trailers never cease to impress me. Now I am pretty sure that I’ll have to get myself either a PS3 or Xbox 360, just to play this visual beauty. ^^’

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Want more? Youtube is the way to go.

By the way. Phantasmagoria announced some new releases recently. Head over to JaME World to read more. :)

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Kousaka Junpei -- our leading character who attends his second year in the upper secondary and who hates cats more than anything else -- has been cursed after accidentaly slicing off the head of his town’s cat statue, otherwise known as guardian deity of cats. His unjust award is the ability to talk to and comprehend cats, let alone the annoying duty to fulfill 100 requests given to him by his furry little friends -- otherwise his curse will turn him into a cat. Moreover this pesky situation, Junpei himself is highly allergic to his hate objects, and what’s more -- he has to keep his curse a secret from everyone or else disaster may fall upon both parts.

The first thing you may notice about Nyan Koi right from the start is that it is a harem to some extent (Junpei being surrounded not only by cats, but also a few girls with whom he have some small bonds with -- including Kaede Mizuno, his love interest, and his childhoodfriend Kanako Sumiyoshi). Now, if you -- just like me -- thought that Nyan Koi’s just another pure and typical ecchi-harem series in which the protagonist gets hit every sixth minute by girls who flash their panties in every situation, then wrong; The series is more or less an easy going one with only one important focus -- cats. The concept seems at least well planned and does offer some nice aspects of comedy that one could wish. I haven’t read the original manga by Sato Fujiwara yet, but after watching 12 episodes of this particular series I don’t think it is too exaggerated in any way but instead well balanced with humour rooted in Junpei’s everyday relation with cats while he tries his utmost to keep his secret. The outcome of most situations are pretty comical and fun to follow actually, but it may get annoying sometimes.

Animation by AIC looks clean though a few character designs could have been done better at a few moments. The soundtrack sounds okay overall. As said, nothing’s exaggerated about Nyan Koi, which would explain why it doesn’t suck too much while staying away from trying to appeal more than it’s capable of plotwise, which is one of the series bigger strength. But overall I think that this anime is something that everyone can enjoy. One episode a week is enough, otherwise it would be pretty boring. Don’t know exactly why. There’s not too much more that I want to say except that I enjoyed watching this series from A to Z. A second season seems to be on its way, and to be honest -- this is the first time I am looking forward to an anime comedy prequel. I want more!

By the way, did I mention that I love the opening? ^^

Score: 6½/10

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We’re half way through the winter! Just some months left to go before the spring makes its entrance. While waiting for the flowers to bloom, Crunchyroll have compiled a decent pile of new series that they’re going to simulcast the rest of this winter, series that are supposed to keep us from getting bored in these cold times. And correct, with one exception, it seems like we won’t get too bored at all. ^^

SO-RA-NO-WO-TO
Hanamaru Kindergarten
Durarara
Omamori Himari
Chu-Bra
Cobra

I’ll at least try out Durarara and So-ra-no-wo-to. Then we’ll see if I can spare some time for Omamori Himari. Now, before anyone decides to try this lineup out, I’ll just have to warn you for Chu Bra. At least episode 1 sucks so hard that there’s no way to describe it properly.

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Nothing out of the ordinary, just maybe except one little detail; Some people would probably say that the people behind this figure have succeeded with her legs, and to be honest – I’d agree. ^^’

Now I haven’t watched Clannad, so I want to ask – is it worth to spend some time on this series?

Pictures: HobbySearch

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I swear that I’ve never been surprised by anything that the Japanese have come up with for the past years, be it new groundbreaking concepts or oldfashionable junk. Chu-Bra!! belongs to the latter – junk, oldfashionable junk. Now, when I started watching this first episode I couldn’t draw my attention away from it’s quality and style. The very first thing one could, or should, say about its animation quality is that it doesn’t even look average but horrible as hell. The same goes for the design of everything, just to be exact. And there’s really no way for anything to get better from this point, especially not when you jumped into this series while knowing what would be served both artwise, and plotwise – and that you’d probably not like it at all.

Set in a middleschool filled with middleschoolers we get to know Nayu Hayama, who is our lead character. One could expect her to be a nice girl with high grades because of her glasses. And yes, she is really a nice girl with high grades. But one big difference between her and most other nice girls with high grades in other media would be her undeniable strong interest in female underwear. The thing with Chu Bra, as seen during the first episode, is that it obviously and strongly focuses on female’s underwear from so many idiotic angles as possible, meaning everything ranging from colours and characteristics of panties to which bra to choose, and why. Everything that this first episode stands for and accomplishes are pretty obvious, and so simple that it is abnormal, ridiculous and pathethic let alone perverted to the full extent at the same time.

It should be said clearly that Chu-Bra more or less is a series created to delight perverts that can never get enough of the embarrassing occurances of the ecchi genre re-introduced in it. I mean, Nayu tripping on her way to the podium only to flash her “adult” panties big time during the opening ceremony in the beginning of the episode and her disturbingly wide knowledge about underwear are just two of many more reasons why one could feel ashamed for even glaring at this crap. When anyone nowadays creates a series in which the characters flashes their panties every freakin’ minute and the basic function of the bra is explained shamelessly, then you know that they’re short on original ideas.

In any aspect from my view of seriousity, this first episode didn’t appeal to me at all. I even knew that weeks before the series premiered. But why the hell did I watch it? – Just for the lulz, and just to see if this embarrassing series takes the fansservice concept to new heights. Now then, let’s see; The worst part hasn’t been introduced yet – the well anticipated Underwear club. That’ll probably happen later on, but too bad that I’ll probably miss (read, skip) it due to lack of interest. And… I am better than this. Too bad that Chu-Bra probably will do well on the DVD-market in the future, even if it is without my help. ^^

There’s really nothing more I can say to describe how much this episode sucks, also due to embarrassing and abnormal occurances. You’ll have to watch it yourself to get a picture of your own, but I warn you – don’t, because Chu-Bra!! is just another annoying and embarrassing fansservice creation with no serious quality at all.

Score of ep 1: I-don’t-want-to-give-it-a-positive-score/10

Series dropped.

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What do we have, what do we have… here? During the past years we could read about new and interesting anime movies getting their opening at Japanese cinemas during 2009. Movies such as Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser and Major: Yujo no Winning shot, let alone the fourth Naruto Shippuuden and Evangelion: 2.0 but to mention a few, was highly anticipated to top the box office in Japan for 2009. And, they did. But who could ever have thought that Pokémon once again would have something to do with the fight? In fact, Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life actually made itself King of the Hill, while even earning over 700 000USD more than Hideaki Anno’s Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance.

1. Pokémon: Arceus and the Jewel of Life
2. Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (Not) Advance
3. Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser
4. Doraemon: Shin Nobita no Uchu Kaitakushi
5. Summer Wars
6. Major: Yujo no Winning shot
7. Naruto Shippūden: Hi no Ishi o Tsugumono
8. Precure All Stars DX: Minna Tomodachi— Kiseki no Zenin Daishūgō
9. Crayon Shin-chan: Otakebe! Kasukabe Yasei Ōkoku
10. The Rebirth of Buddha

Source and full details at ANN

I haven't been following the Pokémon anime for a while - no actually for several years - but it seems like the concept's still healthy and still running. I myself thought it was dead since long, and it really should be since the series nothing more than a chain of repeated events unworthy the attention it deserved when it was new. On the contrary, I still enjoy it as a game. ^^

Anyways, I really thought that Evangelion would be the movie to top the list, and that Naruto wouldn’t even make it because of the earlier movies follies (Sasuke’s obvious task to draw fangirls’ attention in the second movie, plotholes and uninteresting enemies and script, are just two out of many horrible examples).

Those of you who want to see the table of rankings and stats to get yourself an opinion of your own, head over to ANN.

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Now I can’t agree on that she produces the kind of music that I’ve listened to generally until now, but what caught me is her powerful voice and hard rocky charisma along with the stage performances in her videos. It looks and sounds so American that one could wonder if she actually was born in the far west. Nothing wrong, and really nothing bad about it though -- just quite the opposite in fact, from my own perspective because I’ve been a coward enough to not explore this explosive part of Japanese music before -- which has more or less become interesting as I listen to more music.

Her video of Brightdown seems to give me a strong impression of what kind of music she produces, the same goes for Reason which was used in the ED sequence of Gundam Seed Destiny. But as said, she do have a heavy rocky charisma shining out of her while she has an increadible voice. Also love the style in her music videos.

Actually she isn’t my type to 100 for the time being, but God knows if that fact may change.

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