Hats off to Kotaku‘s Brian Ashcraft, who recently was approved for permanent residency in Japan. Bash (as he’s affectionately known over yonder) penned a handful of reviews for us back in tha’ day, which I’ll get around to re-posting in his honor. Anyway, congrats Brian!
I’m not sure what to make of this one. 75-year-old Tran Trong Duyet, who held Republican Presidential nominee John McCain prisoner for five years in Hanoi, Vietnam, says he would cast his vote for McCain in the upcoming election and refers to him as an ‘old buddy’. Mmm-kay… “If I were an American voter, I would vote for Mr. John McCain,” [...]
[rating:1] Well friends, this may very well be the last edition of Yaoi Menace. I think I found the book that will put me off the genre forever. Yaoi: Anthology of Boys’ Love Volume 1 from Yaoi Press is a collection of three short stories brought to life by international teams of writers and artists. Also, it sucks. Hard. No, [...]
A self described ‘film enthusiast, [...] passionate student of Eastern philosophy, and an admitted Nipponophile’ Patrick Galloway is the author of the book Stray Dogs and Lone Wolves: The Samurai Film Handbook out now from Stone Bridge Press. Mr. Galloway was recently kind enough to chat with us regarding his new book, and future plans. Yellow Menace: Congratulations on your [...]
I loves me some Max Fleischer’s Superman…hands down the best non-comic representation of the Man of Steel. Here’s a fun little oddity courtesy of the Internet Archive, a wartime short entitled ‘Japoteurs’ in which Supes takes on the YELLOW MENACE! Yeah, it’s more than a little jingoistic (and racist), but definitely worth a look.
If you live in New York City, or plan to be there this weekend, just a heads up: the Lincoln Center is hosting a retrospective of anime maestro Satoshi Kon’s work, dubbed ‘Satoshi Kon: Beyond Imagination‘. It’s things like this that make me wish I still lived in New Jersey (sniff). The New York Sun gives prospective attendees a glimpse [...]
Cute Japanese girls plus ESL education = funny…right? Morning musume English lesson3Uploaded by hyottokoman
My fascination with all things Olivia Munn continues unabated. I’m not exactly sure what this whole Overnight Vlog thing she’s got going on is, but the YouTube clips she’s been posting with cohort Asher Levin are pretty funny. Oh, and this one has Karen the IT-Stripper…bonus!
The International Tribune takes stock of Japanese batsu game shows, known for their degree of humiliation and punishment, which are about to make the leap to American shores. I have a sneaking suspicion that, like Iron Chef America before it, adding hapless gaijin to the mix will simply water down what was once a fascinating phenomenon. I could be wrong, [...]
A sequel to last years’ monsteriffic k-horror flick The Host is due in late 2009 as a joint effort between Korean studio Chungeorahm and China’s Stone Man Films. The sequel will reportedly take place in China (man, that monster gets around!) Original film, which was seen by more than 12 million people and grossed some $60.6 million, was a monster [...]
I think most of us can wait another 20-30 years for our robot sex. After all, by then the robots will actually look and feel like real people…and then you won’t feel like you’re sleeping with a toaster, or in the case of Sega’s new E.M.A., a de-furred Furby. But not the Japanese! No, they have designed the E.M.A. (or [...]
Remember those Bible-inspired manga that released in triplicate earlier this year? Tom Baker (the journalist, not the Time Lord) of the Yomiuri Shimbun dissects the books. His finding? They neither work particularly well as manga, or as bibles. Surprise! As for artwork in the books, Shamoon pointed out that Lee’s “Manga Bible,” coming from South Korea, is more accurately described [...]
Well, it looks like one nutbag made it through the dragnet Japanese police made this week which nabbed 12 would-be knife-wielding maniacs. Kotaku is reporting that a policeman in Akihabara was attacked and injured while checking bags in the district. The officer only received minor wounds to the hand. Not sure if this is even worth reporting, really, but it [...]
While I’m on the subject of GenCon, I should mention that Mazinga and I will once again be covering GenCon, which takes place August 14-17th in Indianapolis, Indiana. Although GenCon is ostensibly a gaming convention, the last three years have been decidedly Anime-riffic, with Funimation and the folk behind Robotech making big appearances. I expect this year to be much [...]
Here’s a little treat – back in 2004, Mazinga and I interviewed actor Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead, The X-Files, The Devil’s Rejects) at GenCon 2004 in Indianapolis. It’s truly one of the best things that’s ever come from running the site – Mr. Foree was a gracious and charming interviewee, and I was happy to have stumbled across [...]