Japan – Page 2 – bluemist anime blog

Meido Flu Strikes Millions: Details on CNN

This is more or less the first time I’ve ever seen CNN run an otaku-based feature on cable television (news article in the link above). I’m quite sure there ‘were’ more I have not seen, because really, the report seemed to emphasize not only on the recent “maid cafe boom”, nor the otaku, but also the unknown fact that this so-called “otaku economy” is a 4 BILLION DOLLAR industry! Investors… we’re talking to you.

That aside, this seemed like a pretty lighthearted feature. Less emphasis was made on otaku being the social misfits. Otaku = geek is a bit right on the money, as opposed to anime = pr0n (media people know more stuff than politicians sometimes). Casual viewers of CNN may have been in shock seeing geeky people being served by skimpy-outfitted maids, but I guess this is one way of showing the world that there is this whole reverse side of Japan other than being the ‘cool’ nation of Asia. But who knows, as maid cafes go mainstream in Japan, maybe these otaku stuff will also become ‘cool’ to other cultures around the world… and even follow suit. Densha Otoko wasn’t a wasted show after all.

So what would be purpose of the report, other than people going to Japan, wait 30 minutes on a maid cafe queue and try to be otaku for a day? Me? No matter how much I like anime and those other semi-otaku stuff, I just couldn’t/can’t/won’t fit in that kind of crowd. I’d laugh all the way through inside the cafe. Even if I don’t intend my genuine laugh to be insultive, those otakus will transform into yakuza gang members and give me a heavy beating. Wouldn’t want that to happen right?

unless……
(I was half-hoping Atika Shubert to try one of those maid outfits during the report… so… er… just kidding.)

Ns’ Aoi

Ns’ Aoi

Usually I follow only the highest-rating jdorama, but since this season’s #1 jdorama doesn’t seem too interesting to me (it’s the overworked story of Saiyuuki), I’m gonna pick some less popular series that may have potential. Pretty girls are a plus.

How about a pretty nurse?

Ns’ Aoi seems to be based on a manga, which I don’t think has been licensed nor translated. If anything, I can say that this is an equivalent of your usual “great teachers” (GTO’s Onizuka and Gokusen’s Yankumi), except that she’s a nurse in a hospital. Misora Aoi is a newbie nurse at this hospital. All seems fine, until she realizes she has some problems with many of the staff there. As an institution, this hospital has some interestingly weird “politics” going on. And that sometimes saving lives doesn’t seem top priority. As our idealistic main character, Aoi-chan goes to great heights and performs duties beyond what a nurse is set out to do, all for her patients.

Nurse me too! Ehem… err…

Ishihara Satomi topbills this drama, and is one hawt girl indeed. Nothing else seems to be special, so I’m not expecting big things.

AOI-CHAN OF THE WEEK
Ep 1:

Ep 2:

Ep 3:

Ep 4:

Ep 5:

Ns’ Aoi Bishoujo Tracker?
Hmm… never thought I could see some remnants of [Densha Otoko->densha-otoko-bishoujo-tracker] in this series… remember this guy?

Nurse and other figurines… an otaku in a hospital

Is that a magazine front page of the horrifying Amenaideyo anime?

Showing off his kawaii Nurse-chan again

Not just about a bunch of drawings: The Live Project

Hello again!

I’m proposing a new project of mine, aptly called the Live project. This way, I will feature anime or related stuff that doesn’t necessarily need to be just animated or drawn. I had a few of those featured already, so I was thinking that I could make a collective again, much like the [bishoujo project->summer-of-bishoujo] I have.

Most of the time, I would feature stuff from jdorama, since aside from those I don’t get too much live action videos. Maybe movies too. So do watch out for content! Bye for now.

You can catch the Live project at this URL:
[http://bluemist.animeblogger.net/live/->http://bluemist.animeblogger.net/live/]

Densha Otoko and Daicon IV

Densha Otoko is a jdorama that actually has an animated opening sequence. While this OP looks kinda pointless (read: a bunny girl riding on a flying train greening the world and then out into the depths of space), it does have its roots.

As many already know, the Densha Otoko OP is paying homage to Daicon IV, a sleek opening animation that was featured in the 22nd Japan Science Fiction Conventions, way, way back in 1983. Some concepts are similar, and the exact same song was used (Twilight by Electric Light Orchestra). Despite its age, I think it stands the test of time. I really felt compelled to write this up because… Daicon IV was AMAZING! I really wondered why it’s just now that I watched this short animation video.

Densha Otoko’s Mina character is a bunny girl similar to the Daicon bunny girl, but notice that Mina has some orange carrots in her costume. Daicon is a word play on “daikon”, a white radish. Well, bunnies like carrots and radishes.

The mix-up of stuff in Daicon IV was amazingly crazy. You see the bunny girl not only kick robots and sci-fi monsters, but also have a lightsaber battle with Darth Vader! Even references to superhero comics like Batman and Robin are there, as well as transforming mechas and sentai stuff. It all mixes together to create imaginative chaos. No less from the masters… the animators of the Daicon videos were actually from Gainax! Gainax was officially founded because of these videos, so thank Daicon for it. Okay, fine, I will watch He is My Master someday… promise.

The part I really liked was the nuclear explosion. My jaw dropped in that, I can’t believe this is 1983 stuff! I guess despite technology animation still needs creative minds to visualize an awesome scene.

Daicon videos here

Densha Otoko: Bishoujo Tracker

Watching new jdorama series Densha Otoko, I got to see a little glimpse at the sometimes heavenly, sometimes horrific world of the real otakus in Japan. Akihabara streets, doujinshi shops, maid cafes, and bedrooms full of bishoujo posters and mecha figures. Otakus taking pictures of cosplaying girls, performances, and seiyuu interviews.

For this jdorama, I think GONZO lent a hand at the CG and animation production. I don’t know if this is an actual anime series, but here is an anime within the jdorama with a character called Mina:

On the backdrop of this jdorama you will see a LOT of posters, figurines and stuff based on numerous otaku-related stuff, but one thing I noticed… there’s a lot of Memories Off paraphernalia seen throughout the first episode! So I was thinking that maybe bishoujo game companies like KID (company which releases Memories Off games) have some sort of agreement with the production of this series. And indeed, game soft companies like Princess Soft, Riddle Soft, Studio e-go, and other companies written in Japanese are shown in the credits, along with some anime companies like Sunrise and Gainax. Maybe just a “Thanks To” credit, but in any case, the number of times Memories Off was seen in the jdorama is staggering, as if it’s really a marketing ploy.

As the episodes go by, I noticed that more and more Shuffle stuff is seen instead. Also, Sgt. Keroro is also referenced predominantly as one of Yamada’s (the Densha Otoko) favorite anime series.

This post is an attempt to show various random sightings referencing bishoujo and related stuff located within the Densha Otoko jdorama series. Please click on each link to see some shots.

For more information on Densha Otoko, see Random Curiosity.

Episode 1
Posters of what’s probably Aoi Nishimoto’s bishoujo designs (of Shuffle fame)
So familiar…
Shuffle and Memories Off
A Mina PS2 game, and a REAL Memories Off PS2 game!
Close-up of Memories Off PS2 game
Otaku room
Izumo 2 poster
Same otaku room with different angle
Memories Off pillow

Episode 2
Evangelion and Shuffle figurines
Curtain!
Another Memories Off pillow, this time…

Episode 3
More unknown stuff in one otaku room.
Flight attendant figurines

Episode 4
Probably another game featuring Aoi Nishimata art
New forumer here, seems to be bishoujo game otaku.

Episode 5
A Nerine (Shuffle) pillow!

Episode 6
A Nerine paper bag
Izumo 2 game box
Clearer view of one poster which I thought was from a game I know, apparently not.
Isn’t she just so out of place there?
More Shuffle.
Maid-san doujinshi?
Another Shuffle pillow!

Episode 7
On a gamesoft shop
The Memories Off game
Yet another view of the otaku room, new Shuffle poster sighted

Episode 8
At last, I found out what game this is
A Memories Off figurine
Asuka, swimsuit edition
Rei figure and Mina game

Episode 9
Shuffle
More Shuffle
Even more Shuffle
Completely unrelated, but I just had to smile seeing this…

Episode 10
This one’s the EVA fan

Episode 11
Nothing in particular

Special (Guitar Otoko)
Megumi Soma (Memories Off) among others
One of Densha’s otaku friends’ otaku room… which is Shuffled…
Shuffled…
… and Shuffled even more
Still can’t get enough Shuffle? Densha Otoko is over, watch Shuffle instead.

This is a [Summer of Bishoujo->] feature

Anime On Location: Reverse

This is the reverse of my [Anime On Location->anime-on-location] feature.

So this time… how visible is anime in real life? How often would you see your favorite anime drawings in normal streets?

This post is a collective of links and images which feature some real pictures where animated art blends with our normal lives. Be it posters or anime-related places, I will try to see if anime is visible anywhere else aside from TV and movie screens.

This is gonna be an ongoing collective so if anyone wants to contribute other material related to this, just comment in this post. Please do also contact me if some of the links are already down. It’s kinda hard to find this kind of content though.

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Comic Market 68
http://www.galge.com/galge/nomember/sbp/topics/05/08/12/index.html
It’s one of Japan’s biggest and most popular comic conventions. Everything otaku-related can be seen, heard, felt, and ‘sold’ there. They definitely wouldn’t want to miss being there…

Sights of Akihabara
http://www.akiba-bound.net/?p=36
http://www.jefflawson.net/anime/archives/002411.html
http://www.tyth.net/wordpress/?p=115
Fellow bloggers visit Akihabara. Exponentially better than our local Chinatown, but a lot more expensive of course. This is the real stuff.

He is My Master Promotion Gig
http://www.livejournal.com/users/pedolicious/71859.html
http://blog.livedoor.jp/geek/archives/24932011.html
This is possibly one of the anime marketing gimmicks where I can never comment to negatively nor positively. A TON of girls wearing HiMM maid cosplay gives promotion cards for the anime’s recently released DVD volume. Sure, Akihabara otaku folk will be shouting with oohs and aahs while armed with their top-of-the-moe-line digital cameras. The rest of the regular Japanese walking public, however, may be disgusted.

Moe-bus
http://oki2.jp/bus/index.html
This link shows a lot of Japanese public transportation buses which were painted with anime and bishoujo game related pictures as advertisements. Sure it’s nice, but don’t dare take a picture with your favorite bishoujo, lest other commuters label you a weirdo.

School Rumble Live!

I watched on video a certain School Rumble Live Concert, and it was quite good! Seiyuus, singers and some bands sang numerous songs featured in the anime series and also the drama cds as well. Too bad no sign of Yuko Ogura was found, maybe she’s too mainstream to be in such an ~~otaku-filled~~ event. Instead, we get all the girls singing her Otoko no Ko Onna no Ko ending theme.

One performance in particular, School Rumble 4 Ever, was so great! Four of the girls danced and sang that incredibly catchy female rap song.

I enjoyed this one better than the Love Hina live concerts, probably because there are more cute and young seiyuu here. The songs are great too. [Yui Horie->horie-yui] may have stuttered a bit during her Scramble performance, but the live rendition of that School Rumble OP is as catchy as ever. Maybe my only complaint is that there is too much unicorn table, while too less Mamiko Noto.

Anyway sorry that I can’t bring you the songs nor the concert video itself, so I have boring screenshots. Spicing it up a bit is the seiyuu’s respective character that they voiced in School Rumble, and a bit of other anime info.

Ami joined Yui also as the Ichijou twins in both Futakoi series.

Yui Horie, she’s appearing in so many series these days.

She currently plays Kanade-kaichou in Gokujou Seitokai.

You would probably know her as the legendary “Lain.”

Mamiko, another seiyuu with an unmistakable cliched voice working in many series these days.

Nao in My Hime. Different style, eh?

You guys would probably know her as Nono in Top wo Nerae 2 but I didn’t watch that.

I dunno how she belongs to School Rumble, maybe a minor seiyuu, featured in a drama cd/ost, or maybe a guest. Anyway she is also one of the singers in the Mahoraba OP.

They have a lot of songs scattered around the drama cds of School Rumble. Because of this, they had the most songs performed in the concert.

Anime On Location

Of course, not all places in anime worlds are virtual. Some of them are artistic renditions of real places in Japan, others are completely based upon the place.

This post is a collective of links and images which feature some locations in Japan which have been rendered in animation through various anime productions.

This is gonna be an ongoing collective so if anyone wants to contribute other material related to this, just comment in this post. Please do also contact me if some of the links are already down.

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Locations of NANA
picture1
picture2
picture3
picture4
Nana Navigator Nana (arrgh ok, the Nana anime navigator who happens to be named Nana too) reports about Jackson Hole, the cafe that some characters of the [Nana->] series hang out in. This is actually a real cafe in Japan, with the same design. I capped some shots of it.

Locations of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
http://haruhi.sonnabakana.com/file.html
http://kanai.dw.land.to/location/haruhi.htm
Nice comparison shots from the Suzumiya Haruhi anime and the real deal.

Locations of Ichigo Mashimaro
http://www2.wbs.ne.jp/~misscast/location/ichigo_marsh/marshmallow.html
Interesting stuff. The manga settings were derived from these places, so hopefully they would be rendered in the new anime as well.

Locations of Kamichu!
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sgtpepper/20050711/p1
Pretty nice, a couple of comparison shots of the town of Kamichu.

Locations of Mahou Sensei Negima
http://forums.animeblogger.net/viewtopic.php?t=99
Maestro4k has some interesting shots over at the forums, real places where Negima’s Mahora Gakuen locations are seemingly inspired from. Look at the Library Island, it looks very similar.

Locations of Futakoi Alternative
http://www3.plala.or.jp/happyhobby/2koi/2koi.htm
This town seems to be called Nikotama. Looks… desolated. How did the guy take pictures of the streets without any people in sight? Probably early morning.

Locations of Uta~Kata
http://matthew.animeblogger.net/archives/2004/12/07/utakatas_setting.php
http://www22.ocn.ne.jp/~autumn/tabi_utakata.html
It is said that Uta~Kata takes place in Kamakura. Matthew has some pictures up, while the Japanese link shows more pictures of Kamakura, with matching Ichika and Manatsu figures showing up sometimes.

Locations of Initial D
http://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/~eg9/gallery.htm
The tracks on Initial D are amazingly based on real-life mountain passes in Japan. If you do get to Japan and drive these mountains, don’t even dare to try driving like Takumi. Just enjoy the view.

Locations of Onegai Teacher/Onegai Twins
http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~smith/article/log/20030825.htm
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~kazeyama/one2sato/one2sato.htm
These two sites compare real-life counterparts with the corresponding animated backgrounds. The resemblance is absolutely impressive.

Locations of Love Hina
http://www.geocities.com/myksvoll/photo1.htm
This is a nice page about real-life locations used in Love Hina, including an actual Hinata Sou.

Locations of Air
http://htc.moon.st/ota/05041601.html
http://tarax.flop.jp/alive/log/000660.html#more
I found this interesting site which features the real-life locations for the bishoujo game and anime Air. Those Misuzu and Minagi dolls will guide you through the places, with the corresponding screenshots for the animes. The site also seems to feature other locations for bishoujo games like Fate/Stay Night, so check them out as well. The second link goes to the same location, this time… a real-life Misuzu acts out scenes from Air?? Find out how they did it…

Shibuya
Shibuya is a popular shopping and entertainment district. It is where lots of gals hang out and shop around. It’s the perfect setting for the anime Super GALS! Kotobuki Ran.

Shibuya 109

A popular building for those fashionistas…

Hachiko Park

A park with a dog statue named Hachiko. Hachiko was regarded as Japan’s most faithful dog because it patiently waited outside Shibuya station for its owner every day, even years after its owner died.

Tokyo Big Sight

The Tokyo International Exhibition Center, more known as Tokyo Big Sight, is Japan’s largest exhibition and convention center. For otakus, this means a haven of comic and anime-related conventions being held there, the most popular being Comic Market.
Anime:
Comic Party
Comic Party Revolution
Genshiken

Kyoto
Kyoto, being one of the most popular tourist destinations, would obviously be used by countless other anime series. Whenever there is a field trip in an anime, Kyoto is a preferred tourist spot.

Kiyomizu temple

Kiyomizu is a popular temple in Kyoto because of its great height and view.
Anime:
Love Hina
Mahou Sensei Negima
Sensei no Ojikan