Men, If you’re looking for something to harness those hirsute man-boobs, I’ve got just the thing for you. Japanese internet retailer Wishroom has a selection of bras designed just for men…better jump fast, though - I hear they’re going quick.

Since launching two weeks ago on Rakuten, a major Japanese web shopping mall, the Wishroom shop has sold over 300 men’s bras for 2,800 yen ($30) each. The shop also stocks men’s panties, as well as lingerie for women.

“I like this tight feeling. It feels good,” Wishroom representative Masayuki Tsuchiya told Reuters as he modeled the bra, which can be worn discreetly under men’s clothing.

Wishroom Executive Director Akiko Okunomiya said she was surprised at the number of men who were looking for their inner woman.

“I think more and more men are becoming interested in bras. Since we launched the men’s bra, we’ve been getting feedback from customers saying ‘wow, we’d been waiting for this for such a long time’,” she said.

I love animals. I really do. For instance, cows taste really good when ground up and placed between two slices of bread with lots of fixin’s (as they say across the river). Honestly, i don’t think I’ve yet met an animal that I didn’t like better on a plate (cats and dogs notwithstanding, but that’s a cultural thing - I’m sure they taste fine).

PETA are animal lovers too. But they don’t love them enough to eat them. In fact, they are so averse to show animals their consumptive affection that they can’t even stand videogames that simulate eating animals.

And what does said videogame company say in its’ defense? Read on.

As the old saying goes: “If God didn’t want us to eat animals, he wouldn’t have made them out of meat.”

This is in no way related to Asian Pop Culture, but we do have quite a few ties to Kentucky - Mazinga and AnaKhouri both have roots in the Bluegrass State (actually, I do as well, but they’re a generation or two removed), and our HQ is just across the river from Kentucky. Plus, when I read something this inane, it practically begs for intarwebs intervention.

A Lexington, KY high-school student was recently arrested and charged with felony terrorist threats based on a short-story his grandparents found tucked in his bedroom. Apparently, the story involved a high school overrun by zombies. Yes, zombies.

Winchester police say William Poole, 18, was taken into custody Tuesday morning. Investigators say they discovered materials at Poole’s home that outline possible acts of violence aimed at students, teachers, and police.

Poole told LEX 18 that the whole incident is a big misunderstanding. He claims that what his grandparents found in his journal and turned into police was a short story he wrote for English class.

“My story is based on fiction,” said Poole, who faces a second-degree felony terrorist threatening charge. “It’s a fake story. I made it up. I’ve been working on one of my short stories, (and) the short story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school over ran by zombies.”

Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. “Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it’s a felony in the state of Kentucky,” said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.

…and just like every other super-reactionary post-9/11 police force (I’m analogizing you, Boston), called on on the inane stupidity of their actions, they entirely cast aside common sense in favor of blind enforcement of the law.

Seriously - doesn’t the Lexington law-enforcement apparatus have anything better to do than harass 18-year-old amateur writers with zombie fixations? Even the prosecuting attorneys want the kid’s head on a platter - his bond was increased from 1 to 5 grand due to the ‘seriousness of the charge‘.

Here’s an idea - call the Winchester, Kentucky police department at (859) 745-7400 and (politely) ask if this is for real.

I mean, it can’t be - right?

Sometimes I wonder if the media (Yellow Menace included) does too much to prop up negative stereotypes of otaku behaviour…and then I read this.

A Japanese woman addicted to comics turned to the internet to look for someone to kill her parents after they asked her to clear out her cartoon-filled room, reports said today.
The 36-year-old woman, who was unemployed and lived at home, filled up three rooms with several thousand comic books and videotapes she had collected with an allowance her grandmother sent her, news reports said.

She reportedly became angry after her parents told her to throw away some of her comic books to make space for her sister who was planning to move in.

“I was told to throw away what was precious to me since I was a child. I felt frustrated and angry and wished that my parents would disappear,” she told police, as quoted by Jiji Press and the Sankei Shimbun.

In all fairness, most otaku are (relatively) well-adjusted human beings. This child-woman is clearly fucked up. Sure, I did my share of squabbling with my parents - when I was 17 (and dosed up on loads of 80’s hardcore punk). Don’t think I ever wanted them dead, though.

While Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling is ensconced in some evil lair, reclining naked on piles of cash wrenched from the pockets of millions of impressionable children (or, rather, the parents of millions of impressionable children), Warner Brothers is rubbing their backsides after losing a court case to block the release of a Bollywood film bearing a suspiciously similar monicker.

Though Hari Puttar - A Comedy of Terrors sounds like a sleazy ripoff, in truth the film’s name is -allegedly - simply an odd coincidence.

The court said in its ruling Monday that people who have watched the Harry Potter movies and read the books would know the difference between that and an Indian Punjabi film called “Hari Puttar — A Comedy of Terrors. ”

The producers, Mirchi Movies, said the Puttar movie bore no resemblance to the famous boy wizard franchise. Hari is a common name in India and Hindi for God, while “puttar” is Punjabi for son.

“It’s clearly great to have won this case,” Munish Purii, Mirchi’s chief executive told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “We are hoping for a good release although the timing of the Warner case distracted us from marketing.”

David Hasslehoff has been cast in Beverly Hills Ninja 2. Really, do I need to add funny to that? It is it’s own punchline. One wonders if Hasslehoff is to be applauded for not taking himself so seriously, or looked down upon in sadness as he tries to make another month’s rent (because it’s clear to me that his America’s Got Talent gig only pays him in beer).

Looks like all the fearmongering  regarding the operation of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider has finally borne fruit. Inspired by numerous reports that the ginormous particle accelerator could potentially jump-start black holes which would then consume the planet, 16-year-old Chayya Lal took an overdose of medication to avoid dying in the ensuing cataclysm.

Chayya’s parents said she had spoken of her fears about the “Big Bang” experiment.

“Chayya had asked me a number of times whether the world would end as they were saying on television,” her father Bihari told the Hindustan Times.

“We tried to divert her attention and told her not to worry about any great disaster,” the Mail Today quoted him as saying.

The Mail said the local police inspector had raised doubts about the reasons for Chayya’s death and had vowed to investigate.

As sad as this is, I have to amusedly wonder what one has to lose if the world is going to end anyway? Why kill yourself when you’re convinced the entire world is going to be swallowed whole by a black hole? Dead is dead, ain’t it? And why choose certain-death over maybe-death?

A little forethought goes a long way…

Golly gee willikers!

A rash of underage suicides has moved a Shanghai bookstore to ban the comic believed to be the source of inspiration. ‘The Rabbit Who Wanted to Kill Itself‘ (shouldn’t that be ‘The Rabbit Which Wanted to Kill Itself‘, since ‘itself’ implies non-personhood? Sorry…) reportedly prompted a slew of teen suicides, as well as a sales surge in psychological self-help and suicide-prevention tomes.

“The comic used to be popular among young readers,” said Zhu Bin, public relations officer at the book city.

In the story, the rabbit comes up with various ways of killing itself, including pouring sulfuric acid to its head, jumping off a building and sticking its head into a revolving door.

Zhu also said that since last Wednesday, the sales of books on teenage psychological guidance have soared, as parents are becoming more concerned about the mental health of their children.

“In the past, reference and exercise books were parents’ favorites. However, last weekend, the first weekend after the new semester started, there was a sales rush on psychology-related books,” he said. “Some even sold out.”

This is probably nothing to get your feathers ruffled, but I wonder why Sonic Youth’s one-record deal with Matador specifically excludes Japan from distribution. I’m sure there are probably really banal business reasons why Matador wont cover Japan, but I’m curious nontheless.

Actually, this is just an elaborate means for me to post that there is in fact a new Sonic Youth album coming out. Booyah!

After a two-decade stint with Geffen Records, Sonic Youth has signed a new deal with indie label Matador Records.

The veteran rock act’s label debut is due next year. The one-album deal is worldwide except for Japan.

“They have a tremendous amount to do with why I’m actually involved in this stuff,” said Matador co-owner Gerard Cosloy, who previously worked with the band in the 1980s at Homestead Records. “The number of bands on Matador who they’ve made an indelible impact on, both musically and personally, is a pretty long list.”

Who could bring style and grace to the Voltron live-action adaptation better than Queer Eye for the Straight Guy director Max Mankowski? NO ONE. I *dare* you to refute that. When I think of giant multicolored lions that combine into a large humanoid mecha in post-apocalypse NYC, I think of persnickety grooming tips and bitchy queer fashionistas.

All kinds of awsomeness awaits us, friends.