A Japanese TV news program reports on a new hotel that has opened in Chinese province of Anhui. It’s trying to appeal to young people who like Japanese culture:

Many of the rooms have anime characters painted on their walls. There is also a Hayao Miyazaki-themed room, with artwork that sort of resembles characters from Howl’s Moving Castle. The narrator comments on how the hotel doesn’t seem worried about getting permission from copyright holders.

There is also a room that appears to be based on a Chinese person’s image of traditional Japanese inns. There is a big painting of Mount Fuji, tatami floors, and futons. The futons don’t really seem like ryokan futons and there is a weird tatami table that can come out of the floor. The reporter compares it to a single man’s apartment.

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Here’s the teaser for the upcoming live-action adaptation of the popular Japanese comic series Thermae Romae:

The story is a comedy about Lucius, an architect of public bath houses in ancient Rome. During the manga, he time-travels to various modern-day baths in Japan. Through manga and essay passages, the author explores the two cultures in the world “that have loved baths the most: the Japanese and the Romans”.

There aren’t any well-known Italian actors who speaks fluent Japanese, so it looks like Fuji TV decided to select Hiroshi Abe for the role of Lucius. He sort of looks Italian…maybe? The movie probably isn’t meant to be taken very seriously, so I doubt many people will care that they’ve cast a Japanese guy as an ancient Roman.

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Toyota has hired French actor Jean Reno to star as Doraemon in a new series of silly commercials:

Reno’s debut ad shows a live-action story about the characters from the children’s cartoon. Nobita is now 30-years-old. Unfortunately, he has no car, so he can’t drive Shizuka to her violin lesson. Instead, Suneo takes her away in his cool Toyota automobile. Nobita begs Doraemon (Jean Reno) for a car, but why give a car to somebody who has no driver’s license?

Toyota has also paid for billboard advertisements of the Jean Reno Doraemon. The image at the top of this post can currently be seen on a big billboard over Tokyo’s Shibuya station.

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One of the most viewed clips on YouTube Japan today shows a Japanese announcer interviewing a Danish guy on the street in Akihabara:

He tells her that he is studying Japanese so he can better understand anime and manga. His favorite anime is “Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai” (My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute). She asks him what would give him a “moe” feeling, so he asks her to please call him “onii-chan” (big brother).

She does it, and he gives an appropriate “moe” reaction. He says it warms his heart.

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Parts of the 1:1 scale Gundam mobile suit are back on display in the Odaiba area of Tokyo:

According to Akihabara News, the Gundam will be on display until August 21st. (Open: 10am to 6pm / Admission Fee: 500 Yen)

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Here’s an update on Ecoha, the Ube city mascot that was criticized for looking like a copy of Pikachu:

• When shown photos of the Ecoha suit, everybody seems to think it’s Pikachu.
• The city has received 96 comments from citizens. 82 of the comments could be categorized as complaints about how Ecoha looks too much like Pikachu.
• After consulting with the Pokémon Company, Ube city has decided to ditch the current version of its Ecoha suit, and make a new one that looks more like the actual 2D character and less like a copy of Pikachu.

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Taiwanese YouTuber John Huang has created this awesome stop motion tribute to Street Fighter:

Check out his YouTube channel for other anime and video game themed stop motion videos, such as the Dragon Ball Gundam Battle and Mega Man vs. Transformers.

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Some people are claiming that a city in Yamaguchi prefecture based one of its mascot characters on Pikachu:

Ecoha is a character that was created last year to promote recycling in Ube city. Like the famous Pokémon character, Ecoha has big black eyes and red dots on its cheeks. When they made a mascot suit for Ecoha, it ended up looking similar to Pikachu.

However, when you look at the 2D versions of each character, it seems that Echo is quite different:

Ube city officials have acknowledged that there have been complaints about the resemblance between the two characters, but they have stressed the Ecoha is original and is not a copy of Pikachu.

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The original Ultraman mask that actor Koji Moritsugu wore in the 1960′s “Ultra Seven” TV series has been stolen:

Some time during the afternoon of July 25th, the mask disappeared from its display case in a restaurant owned by Moritsugu. He has made a public appeal for its return.

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A video compares scenes of the Japanese anime “Hikarian: Great Railroad Protector” with a Chinese cartoon called “高鉄侠”:

It is painfully obvious that the Chinese cartoon is a copying the Japanese cartoon. The discovery was made by Chinese netizens, who found clips of the cartoon online and questioned its origin after noticing that it used a map of Japan and its main character ate Japanese-style onigiri

Japan’s NTV sent reporters to the Chinese animation company that created the cartoon:

The side-by-side clips are shown to random Chinese people, all of whom seem to agree that it’s a blatant copy. We are also shown angry comments from netizens who disapprove of the plagiarism. The incident is compared to Chinese state television’s unauthorized use of “Top Gun” footage.

They visit the offices of the animation company (its English name is, ironically, “Creativity Pictures”). Its walls are lined with prizes and awards. Apparently it is one of China’s top 10 animation companies. Two animated series from the company are currently airing on Chinese television.

The vice president of the company tells them that the clips being shown on the internet are pre-production “samples” that were created during the planning phase for the cartoon. She doesn’t know how they made it onto the internet, but she claims that the final product will look totally different from the “sample” clips.

An online advertisement for the cartoon shows characters from the “sample” that copied the Japanese anime. When shown the ad, the woman claims it was for promotional purposes, and her company is currently working on a totally original bullet train cartoon.

NTV found a blog post written by a former employee of the animation company. He writes that government subsidies are handed out to companies that can create huge quantities of animation, so the company cuts corners by copying old cartoons.

An article from SearChina contains more excuses. A company representative questioned critics by suggesting that it wouldn’t make sense for a Chinese cartoon about new Chinese bullet trains to copy a Japanese cartoon about Japanese trains from the 1990′s.

The Chinese cartoon was originally scheduled to air on television in August. Now, for unexplained reasons, the air date has been pushed back to October.

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Grant Woolard has created this music video, about an otaku/hikikomori type who longs to leave his room for the first time (set to the tune of “Part of That World” from The Little Mermaid):

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After her recent MTV Japan charity concert, Lady Gaga gave attended a press conference. She kept her eyes closed for the entire 10 minute Q&A. Painted over her eyelids were big fake eyes. Most Americans would easily identify it has “anime eye” make-up, but, as this clip from Japan’s NTV news shows us, the whole “anime” thing apparently isn’t so obvious to Japanese people:

The reporter narrating the video wonders about the connection between Gaga’s make-up and Japanese culture. To get an answer to that question, NTV consulted the editor of a celebrity gossip magazine. She explains that the make-up is inspired by Japanese animation. Lady Gaga is apparently showing her love for Japan by copying the large eyes of anime characters.

Related image: Aoi Miyazaki as a 19th century non-anime-eyed princess in the NHK drama “Atsu-hime“:

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Former Prime Minister Taro Aso has been acting as an “anime ambassador” for Japan. Here he is delivering a sound bite about the gibberish language of Pokémon:

Aso observes that Pokémon only speak a language of “kyu-kyu-kyu” sounds, yet the entire world understands what they’re saying.

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FTV visits a hair salon in Akihabara that offers a special “wig cut” for anime and manga cosplayers:

It isn’t very hard to buy colored wigs, but sometimes it can be quite difficult to style a wig so it matches the wild hairstyle of your favorite anime character. Starting for about 5,000 yen, the hair stylists at this shop will help achieve cosplay wig perfection.

They order a wig to match Franky from One Piece. It’s a pretty advanced hair style, so it ends up costing 14,000 yen.

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A few days ago a couple Japanese netizens posted transforming robot parodies of AC Japan’s happy greeting PSAs. Since then, the “AC Robo” meme has taken off, spawning awesome fighting robot versions of almost every mascot character that appears in the commercial.

Here are a few that I’ve found on YouTube.

Great Arigato-usagi:

Great Konban-wani:

Konban-wani alternative version:

The boy and girl combine their powers to form a super robot:

A combination of several robos, plus an epic animated showdown between Arigato-usagi and Itadaki-mouse:

Konnichi-wan Dynamic version:

Super Sayona-lion:

Alternative versions of Sayona-lion:

Eternal Sayona-lion:

Ultimate Oyasumina-sai

Hyper Ohayo-unagi:

Sonic Tadai-manbou:

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Actor James Franco is being considered for the role of Kaneda in the American live-action adaptation of the classic Japanese anime film “Akira”:

Filmmakers Albert and Allen Hughes (The Book of Eli) are collaborating with Iron Man/Cowboys & Aliens co-screenwriters Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby on the live-action version of Akira, which shifts the setting from futuristic Tokyo to Manhattan. According to Just Jared, Franco would star as the leader of a biker gang (a character named Shotaro Kaneda in the original manga/anime), whose comrade is kidnapped by the government and subjugated to scientific experiments that cause him to develop dangerous psychic powers.

While Franco is arguably a more convincing choice to play the head of an anarchistic gang than Zac Efron, the 32-year-old actor seems a bit much on the mature side to star as an adolescent rebel. The Hughes Brothers movie might feature a significantly re-worked version of the Kaneda character, so that he’s more of a fully grown, Mad Max breed of ruffian than a futuristic James Dean type – if so, Franco being cast makes more sense.

Unofficial fan trailer for this movie:

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With new alterations, the park is now more confident that the giant robot is their own original creation.

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A Swedish court has ruled that it is illegal for people to own certain drawings of imaginary children:

A Swedish appeals court imposed a fine of 5,600 kronor ($864) on translator of Japanese manga on Friday because drawings stocked on his hard drives were considered child pornography.

The material was not made public, but the 27-year-old top manga expert’s sentencing by a lower court in June had raised the question whether it could be considered child pornography.

Lundström said the drawings, seized during a police search at his home, circulated freely in Japan and did not, unlike pornography, portray real children.

[via FG]

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The main street of Tokyo’s Akihabara area was turned into a pedestrian-only zone on Sunday, it is the first time that the “Pedestrian Paradise” has been opened since the June 2008 truck/knife attack that left seven people dead:

Around 150 people comprising ward officials, residents and members of the local shopping district association participated in patrolling the pedestrian zone. I was troubled to see that many of them were senior citizens living in the area. Wouldn’t collaboration among people from just one age group impose a great burden and make ongoing efforts more difficult? Winning over younger people seems to be one of the group’s more urgent challenges.

The approximately 230 people — including members of police and fire departments — involved in running the Jan. 23 pedestrian zone went around reminding people that street performances and bicycle-riding were prohibited. However, there seemed to be a gap in attitude between the local resident community, which has set up 50 security cameras and established self-imposed rules and restrictions, and pedestrians who come for the pedestrian zone and take safety for granted.

Some pedestrians were displeased with the presence of those in uniform and the new restrictions against performances. “The sight of so many police officers is intimidating and puts a damper on the mood,” complained one. Others said that they were disappointed that no street performances were going on.

As the clip from NTV notes, 50 CCTV cameras have been set up in the area since 2008.

It is unclear how banning street performances and spending a lot of tax money on security cameras would prevent another attack from a crazy person.

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Allow me to post about my appreciation for one of the newest YouTube celebrities on the net, Frank Evins (Perfume444). Frank is a diehard fan of the Japanese pop group Perfume, and his bizarre January 12th video birthday message to Kashiyuka (Yuka Kashino) has become an internet sensation:

Here is his bio:

PERFUME 444 CHANNEL IS NOT ABOUT PEOPLE SEEING ME…ITS ABOUT ME THANKING PERFUME FOR ALL THAT THEY HAVE DONE !!!

I have been to Japan in 2003 and 2005.. I play Drums so did 2 small tours in Japan. I LOVE JAPAN !!!! I miss it so much. The Japanese People are so kind and wonderful. I really feel like my soul is Japanese. About Perfume… I got into Perfume in early 2006. I was looking for Japan stuff on youtube, all kinds of music from Japan and I found Perfume. The song Akihabalove was the first one I heard. I fell in love with that song and the girls. I watched the beehive cam on youtube and watched them grow up. So my love for them is like a father daughter love. Not sex because they were so young at the time. Even now I still see them as big kids, NOT sex objects. Anyway…about the Music… I was hooked, It was so different then anything I heard before. my all time favorite song is Seventh heaven…It all ways makes me cry. I also love Secret Secret , Foundation, computer city, Macaroni, Edge , ” jenny in a bad mood ” wonder 2, Polyrhythm,Baby cruising love , Vitamin Drop, yes Its heard to pick just one song. A-Chan is my favorite. If I was 20 yrs old I would want to marry her. But Im not ! Im 55 yrs old. But perfume music makes me feel happy and young I wish I could find some one like A-Chan. She is the most beautiful person I have ever seen. her heart and sole are heaven ! The person that marries her will be the luckiest person on earth.

And an introductory video:

As he video spread around the internet, Frank attracted a lot of trolls who left comments mocking and insulting him. In response, he posted a video announcing that he would stop vlogging on YouTube. However, an outpouring of support from fans convinced him to stick with it:

After a tearful message of gratitude, he is now back to making cheerful videos expressing his love for Perfume:

Some random screen captures:

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We found this reel among my grandfather’s things after he died. Buzz Wagner was born and raised in Kariuzawa, Japan. He lived there in the 20′s and 30′s and came back to the states just before the War. His father was a missionary and a film nut. We’ve got some great footage from his life that I am currently assembling into a documentary. This animation must have been something my great grandfather picked up along the way.

However, we don’t have a clue what this is from or who created it. If anyone has any information about this film, please get in contact with me. Thanks!!

Subtitles graciously provided by Jon Nilsen

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Something very cool has been happening in Japan in the last few weeks. Someone, or several people, have been making donations of toys and school supplies to orphanages in the name of Naoto Date, the main character of “Tiger Mask,” an anime series that aired in the 1960′s:

In the popular animation, Naoto Date was an orphan who grew up in a welfare facility and donated money to the facility after becoming a professional wrestler.

“I suspect that someone around his 50s or so, had similar experience with Tiger Mask and sent the gifts for us. We don’t plan to search for him, out of respect for his feelings,” Matsuba said.

After the gifts were reported in December, child welfare facilities in Kanagawa, Nagano, Gifu, Okinawa Prefectures have received school bags or donations from “Naoto Date,” one after another.

The latest donation, a set of 7 pricey randoseru school packs, was made to an orphanage in Nagasaki. A note attached to the donation said it was from “Nagasaki’s Naoto Date (hibakusha).” The person who left the boxes was apparently an older woman:

The geographic spread of the donations seems to indicate that there are several people acting in the name of Naoto Date. All the press coverage given to the donations is probably helping inspire copycats.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the “Tiger Mask” anime, here’s it’s opening sequence:

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There is some new information to report about the giant fake Gundam that was built at Floraland park in Chengdu, China. It turns out that the first photos were kind of dark, and that it’s more yellowish than orange. Also, it’s supposedly a totally original product of a Chinese person’s imagination, not a copy of something.

An article in Nikkan Sports says that the amusement park is denying that it is a Gundam:

　遊園地では、こうしたパクリ疑惑に対し「模倣ではなくオリジナル。ガンダムのまねではなく、自分たちでデザインを考えた」などと主張している。しかし遊園地のホームページでは中国語でガンダムを意味する「高達」という言葉も、ガンダムに似たイラストとともに書かれている。

They say it is an original design that they made themselves without copying anything. However, the amusement park’s homepage labels an image of a Gundam-like mobile suit as “高達,” which is apparently the Chinese word for Gundam.

Here are some images from a blogger:

Oh, and these things have nothing to do with Ultraman. Totally original Chinese heroes, mmkay?

Here’s a report from Japan’s FTV:

The report confirms that almost every aspect of the Chinese giant robot is a copied from Japan’s Gundam. It also mocks the shoddy appearance of the Chinese robot, which is made with fabric.

The report includes the audio of a phone call made to the park, with a park spokesman saying it’s not a copy and he doesn’t see any resemblance between it and the Japanese Gundam.

FTV closes the report by comparing it to the infamous fake Disneyland. Its narrator wonders if the fake Gundam will still be around by Christmas….

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Al Jazeera’s English language channel filed this report about Tokyo’s new restrictions on “harmful” manga and anime:

Reporter Rob McBride visits Akihabara, the center of Japan’s “manga trade” to do some sensational reporting. They turn up at a bookstore with a camera crew and ignore signs on the door that ban the use of cameras. A shopkeeper appears and asks them not to film.

McBride concludes that it all must be part of a devious Japanese plot to hide the dark truth about dirty manga. Al Jazeera sneaks a hidden camera into the store to film what’s up, but doesn’t seem to find anything other than a few adult males browsing for comics, some of which contain 2D characters doing violent or sexual things. (Can’t find any children in the store? No sweat – just show random footage of elementary schoolers getting on a bus!)

Like many news reports about the issue, it does not report that there are already rules restricting the sale of pornographic manga and anime.　　Straight-up porn manga is already sold separately from the non-porn stuff, and this new restriction seems to be trying to expand the definition of “adults only” to include manga that might contain sexually suggestive or violent scenes.

Here’s a quote from ANN forum posting by user Cryssoberyl, someone who seems to know more about anime and manga than I do:

The people whose reaction is “this is just an age restriction, slap an 18+ sticker on and call it a day” do not understand how the distinction works in Japan and how it affects the marketability of a product.

In Japan, there is only “general audience” and “adults only”, and “adults only” works are, for most distributors, untouchable. Those 18+ stickers you want might as well be nuclear radiation warnings.

In Japan, “adults only” anime is not shown on TV. On any channel. Ever. No matter how violent or racy it may have seemed to you, no anime ever shown on Japanese television was officially designated as 18+.

In Japan, “adults only” manga are not sold in most book stores (both online and brick-and-mortar). As has been stated, 18+ manga works are almost always produced as magazines and anthologies, almost never as stand-alone tankoubon.

The results from this should be obvious. The marketability, and thus profitability, of “adults only” works are extremely limited. Publishing companies will not risk time, money, and effort on creating works that may be judged as such, and thus have their profit potential destroyed by the inaccessibility that comes with it. They will be forced to restrict themselves to works that they can safely market within the “general audience” sphere.

This is not an age restriction. It is censorship by way of enforceable lack of profitability – either you toe the line, or they make your stuff unsellable.

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The Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on Wednesday enacted an ordinance that vastly expands a law meant to restrict people younger than 18 from purchasing or flipping through manga depicting rape, sex crimes, incest and “sexually explicit acts and graphic images that are not acceptable morally.” By making previous rules broader and more clear, the Tokyo government will have the authority to deem more manga as “unwholesome books,” which restrict where and how they can be sold.

A group of 10 major Japanese publishers, including Kodansha Ltd., Shueisha Inc. and Kadokawa Group Publishing Co., said they will refuse to take part in the anime fair, which this year attracted more than 100,000 people, a record. The publishers said that the Tokyo government, led by Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, didn’t discuss the ordinance in advance with publishers and artists. Artists said the new rules will stifle their freedom of expression and creativity.

“We cannot help but say it is a vicious act that [the Tokyo metropolitan assembly] enacted the ordinance without full-fledged discussions,” said the group, which includes the Japan Magazine Publishers Association.

More info from the Telegraph:

“Ishihara has very cleverly pushed this through at the last minute, without any input from the publishing industry and by using lots of rhetoric about the ‘porn protectors’ in the opposition in the chamber,” Roland Kelts, author of “Japanamerica: How Japanese pop culture has invaded the U.S.,” told The Daily Telegraph.

[...]

“It’s a question of a breakdown of trust,” said Dan Kanemitsu, a translator of movies and comic books. “The Tokyo government already has the power to regulate anything that is deemed too sexual or likely to be harmful to youths, but this bill specifically pertains to material through the media of manga and anime.

“Both sides should have been able to talk about this a lot sooner and then it would not have felt like a sneak attack,” Mr Kanemitsu said.

The new law restricts comics and animated images that contain sexual images that are “unjustifiably glorified or exaggerated.”

And a little bit more from ANN:

The assembly also approved a non-binding supplemental resolution urging newly designated harmful publications to be carefully regulated, with the work’s merits based on artistic, social, and other criteria to be taken into account in the evaluation process.

The voluntary self-regulation clauses will go into effect on April 1 of next year, and the restrictions on sales and renting will go into effect on July 1.

The image at the top of this post is from a comic strip floating around 2-channel. Ishihara is shown a military dictator calling for the destruction of dirty anime, Akihabara, and Comiket. You can view the exciting and unwholesome conclusion to the comic here.

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The U.S. military has released the second part of its series of comics that explain the importance of the U.S.-Japan alliance using cute manga characters:

The manga, titled “Our Alliance — A Lasting Partnership,” focuses on the two main characters Arai Anzu, a Japanese girl, and Usa-kun, a boy visiting Japan from the U.S. The two characters explore and learn about the U.S. military in Japan. The new volume focuses on the role of U.S. Marines in Japan.

The remaining two issues, which will be written in Japanese like the first two, will be released in the coming months, according to a USFJ news release.

You can read it in Japanese here.

The manga provides a simple explanation of the historical circumstances that led to the alliance, as well as the role and duties of the Marines in Japan. On one page, the main functions of Okinawa’s major bases are explained:

Camp Hansen, Camp Courtney, Camp Foster, and the Ie Jima Auxiliary Airfield are represented by cute little characters. The controversial Futenma Air Station just gets a faceless helicopter.

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Japanese netizens are having a major lol-fest after a China-based blogger uploaded photos of a construction project being carried out at a theme park in Sichuan:

It’s a copy of Japan’s life-sized Gundam mobile suit (shown on the left). Although it is painted orange and is slightly smaller than the Japanese version, it is unquestionably a Gundam.

The weird use of orange seems to suggest that it is an unauthorized reproduction. Nobody seems to have been able to find out additional details, but it is already being compared to China’s infamous copy of Disney Land.

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Together with our partners at Avaaz, TckTckTck sponsored an advertisement in the Friday edition of the Financial Times identifying Japan as the main blocker of progress toward a fair, ambitious and binding climate treaty at UN climate talks concluding tomorrow.

The ad parodies an iconic poster for “Spirited Away”, the country’s all-time highest-grossing film and is being published in the international editions of the Financial Times, reaching a large readership around the world, including in Japan. 1000 copies of the newspaper are being distributed at the conference venues Cancun Messe and Moon Palace.

“Time is running out for negotiators in Cancun to agree a package of decisions that would give us a basis for a strong climate treaty next year in Durban, and Japan’s hard line position is putting the entire conference at risk”, said Paul Horsman, TckTckTck Campaign Director.

“Millions of people around the world are getting on with taking action on climate change. Japan needs to become part of this and help ensure the survival of people and ecosystems, while realising that a strong climate deal also benefits their own economic development. The country that gave birth to the Kyoto Protocol should not become the one that killed it”, added Horsman.

Sadly, their anger about who caused the death of Kyoto is woefully misplaced. Japan isn’t opposing an extension of the protocol because it doesn’t believe in reducing carbon emissions. It’s opposing the extension because the Kyoto Protocol is useless in its current form:

An extension of the Kyoto Protocol “does not serve our national interest nor does it rescue the globe from global warming,” foreign ministry official Shinsuke Sugiyama told reporters.

“Some criticized us as trying to destroy negotiations,” he said. “But I believe by the end our position has been better understood by the parties concerned and the people concerned, even if not 100 percent agreed.”

Japan argues that the treaty named after its ancient capital is unfair because it does not include 70 percent of the world’s emissions, with top polluters China and the United States absent.

The red dots in this graph represent countries that are not members of the Kyoto Protocol system:

Keeping the Protocol alive in its current form achieves nothing. The world’s top carbon emitters absolutely refuse to become members, and any cuts Japan and other countries agree to within the Kyoto system will meaninglessly small compared to the huge increases that will come out of countries like China.

Why waste money on ads that rip on Japan for wanting to replace the broken Kyoto system with a better agreement? If NGO’s believe something needs to be done about carbon emissions, they should work on getting a system in place that would requiring cuts from everyone, especially top emitters like China, the United States, India, and Brazil.

Note: The Cancun conference ended with a weak and general agreement that isn’t legally binding. The final decision on whether or not to continue the Kyoto system will be put off until next year.

[hat tip to Kela]

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Creators and publishers of anime and manga are uniting in opposition to a proposed bill that would the sale ban publications that authorities deem “harmful” to youth:

Ten comics publishers, including industry powerhouses Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan and Kadokawa, collectively announced on Friday that they are withdrawing from participation in the Tokyo Intl. Anime Fair, the biggest event of its kind in the toon biz.

Kadokawa earlier made an independent announcement that it was ankling the event, which is skedded for March 24-27, under the sponsorship of the Tokyo city government.

The publishers, which call themselves “Comic Ten Companies Association,” oppose a bill submitted to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on Nov. 29 that would tighten restrictions on so-called “excessive sexual depictions” in toons and comics sold to youths under the age of 18. Strongly supported by Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, the bill, opponents claim, threatens freedom of expression.

“We strongly distrust the position of Governor Ishihara and (Tokyo) municipal authorities, which lacks respect for comics and animation creators,” the group said in a statement.

Earlier this month, Ishihara made some remarks in favor of the ban, letting everyone know that he is disgusted by the idea of allowing homosexuals to appear on TV:

“Anyone who claims it’s not harmful to children to draw manga that features the sex life of married couples and the such are idiots. Tell them, ‘You need to go cool your heads.’” Ishihara responded to the Tokyo Parent Teacher Association’s December 3 petition in support of the bill by saying, “It’s not just about children. We’ve got homosexuals casually appearing even on television. Japan has become far too untamed. I’ll go forward with [this bill] with a sense of mission in heart.”

One of the top-viewed videos on YouTube Japan today shows Ishihara angrily reacting to a reporter’s question about Kadokawa Publishing Co.’s announcement that it would not participate in the fair:

Ishihara says he doesn’t care, but he probably should. If the bill passes assembly votes on Monday and Wednesday, the next Tokyo International Anime Fair is going to be like a ghost town.

To watch a lengthy Japanese discussion about the problems with Tokyo’s proposed bill, check out this video.

Update: The bill has passed the first round of voting. It still needs to pass a second round of voting on Wednesday, but it doesn’t look like there is much standing in the way of that.

A post by Brian Ashcraft has clarified some of the details about the bill:

But today in Tokyo, the second version of the bill went up for a vote and passed by the assembly with a final vote on Wednesday. As blogger Dan Kanemitsu points out, the ordinance is not national legislation, and is not a ban per se, but penalizes companies that produce material that is harmful to those under 18 years-old. Unlike in the U.S., companies that produce the material — and not retailers — come under fire.

The bill also does not target material that is 18-years-old and up as that material is already inaccessible to minors.

What’s also worth nothing is that the Tokyo government already has the power to dictate what, as Kanemitsu writes, is “too sexually stimulating for minors OR too sadistic for minors OR too likely to cause criminal acts among minors OR cause suicide among minors as ‘harmful material’, and force such material to be treated as adult only material.”

Regarding the new bill, the Tokyo government explains (via The Mainichi Daily News), “only manga and animation that glorifies or exaggerates illegal sexual acts will be subject to the regulations, and freedom of expression will not be violated.” This new bill attempts to define what is obscene — vaguely. Kanemitsu believes this is one way Tokyo is attempting to control what people read and view.

More importantly, the bill is directed at video games, anime and manga, but does not encompass novels, films, TV and photographs. Mediums that use real-life images are exempt.

So, it is not a literal ban, but by punishing companies that publish material that falls within its vague definition of harmfulness, it will try to force those companies to practice self-censorship. Tokyo is a very big market, and even if the bill doesn’t cover the whole country, many companies will only be able to produce one version of a comic book or video game, so the “censored for Tokyo” standard could become the national standard.

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A 25-year-old Chinese man has been arrested for selling unlicensed copies of anime girl pillow cases:

The man was attending vocational school in Japan, and said he used the proceeds from the pillow case sales to pay his school tuition. Police say he raised about 100,000 yen from the sale of some 200 pillow cases.

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Here are some other things said or written in pseudo-Japanese, which was obviously made via machine translation, in the video:
彼はKeyマスターです= He is the key master
やった！= Yesssss!
不幸= unhappiness [actually closer to bad luck]
かんつ= [gibberish that sounds like an English swear word. Perhaps one of these.]
super 騎兵= super cavalry
私を見て= look at me
1000幸せの涙= 1000 happiness tears
米= rice
笑うんち= the kanji for laugh+ poop
愚かな= foolish
nya!= meow
キャッハチャブ= Chibchub [I guess]
寿司= sushi
これは段はアニメキャラクターやジャック方法について映画を見るには、クレジットです= This paragraph is the credits for watching a movie concerning anime character or jack way

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A Dutch court has ruled that Cathy the rabbit, a character that is part of Sanrio’s Hello Kitty universe, is actually a rip-off of famous Dutch character Miffy (aka Nijntje):

The ruling came after Mercis BV, a copyright management firm representing Dutch children’s book author and Miffy’s creator Dick Bruna, 83, filed a suit against the Japanese company complaining that it has violated Bruna’s copyrights.

Mercis released a statement saying it is satisfied with the court ruling. It is set to file a damages suit against Sanrio if the Japanese company does not comply with the ruling, which is believed to equal a temporary injunction under the Japanese judiciary system.

The ruling determined that Cathy is an imitation of Miffy and called for immediate halt to production, sale and marketing of Cathy goods in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. It ordered Sanrio to pay 25,000 euros a day in damages in the event of noncompliance.

Unfortunately for the owners of the Miffy copyright, the ruling does not have authority in the many other countries in which Sanrio sells its products.

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If any of you out there attended the New York Comic Con & Anime Festival over the weekend and saw an older Japanese guy in a weird costume, chances are you were looking at a respectable correspondent doing some reporting for Japan’s ATV news:

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Softbank is releasing a special Gundam 30th anniversary version of its 945SH mobile phone.

Here are a couple videos of a press conference about the phone. Just skip through the pointless celebrity banter and check out the few seconds of the clips that are actually about the phone:

They seem to be hoping that mega fans who like building Gundam models will buy this phone. The phone comes with a variety of Gundam decal stickers and a charger that doubles as a stand for a Gundam model. The phone’s menus and sound effects are all Gundam-themed.

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Golgo, the elderly boss monkey of a group of macques on Takasaki Mountain in Oita prefecture has officially been declared dead:

The monkey had been named Golgo because he resembled the badass main character of the Golgo 13 anime/manga series. He was very popular with tourists who visited the mountain.

The park employees who feed the monkeys keep a file on every monkey and conduct a census every September. Nobody had seen Golgo since mid-July, so they are now assuming that he is dead. Golgo was 31-years-old, which is about 100 in monkey years.

P.S. – If you thought of this when you read this story, you’re cool:

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It looks like Hayao Miyazaki might be making a sequel to Porco Rosso:

The next Ghibli film by a young director has a girl as the leading character, and Suzuki suggested that Miyazaki can make a film after that one as a “hobby.” Miyazaki wants to make “Porco Rosso: The Last Sortie,” his previously introduced sequel idea which would be set during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Miyazaki’s first Porco Rosso film was set between World War I and World War II.

The July 2009 issue of Model Graphix magazine described the “Porco Rosso: The Last Sortie” concept in which the title character pilots a Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bomber from Italy. Miyazaki drew an irregularly serialized collection of manga and graphical essays called Zassō Note (Daydream Data Notes) in the same magazine from 1984 to 1992. Viz republished “Hikōtei Jidai” (The Age of the Flying Boat), Zassō Note’s 1990 prototype manga story for Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso film, in English in Animerica Magazine.

A picture of an SM.79 bomber, which would replace the red plane used in the original movie:

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Sakaiminato city in Tottori prefecture has been famous for Kitato town. It’s where Shigeru Muzuki, or the author of “Gegegeno Kitaro” is from.

According to SmaStation on TV Asahi, Sakaiminato is nowadays one of the very popular tourist spots in Japan.

Especially this year, the novel “Gegege no nyobo” written by his wife was featured as TV drama and it became even more popular.

There are as many as 139 bronze statues of characters from “Gegege no Kitaro” along the Mizuki Shigeru road and Kitaro-themed confectionery or bread are available.

The name of the airport was even changed from Yonago airport to Yonago Kitaro airport in Apr. 2010. The train that runs from Yonago to Sakaiminato is of course Kitaro-themed.

Sakaiminato started to boost the development of the city with Kitaro in 1993. The number of tourists was 20,000 people at the first year and this year it went over 1 million people.

Some interesting places to be checked out at Sakaiminato:

• -Mizuki Shigeru kinenkan (memorial hall)
• -Gegege no youkai rakuen (Gegege specter paradise)
• -Youkai Jinja (specter shrine)

As someone commented in the video, it’s hard to live in the city if one doesn’t like Kitaro. But I think it’s interesting anime characters can even make the small local town very famous like this.
Speaking of Kitaro, there’s Kitarojaya tea salon (http://r.tabelog.com/tokyo/A1326/A132601/13036786/) in Tokyo, too.

There’s also an event called “Gegegeten” (Gegege Exhibition) available this summer in Tokyo and Osaka if you are interested.

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Japan’s TBS news visits a gathering of otaku in China to report on how there is now a “boom” in the number of male fans who dress up like female anime and manga characters:

The cross-dressers were apparently influenced by television shows about otaku who do the same kind of thing in Japan. The publication of a Chinese cross-dressing cosplay manual is cited as evidence of this being a trend. It is also mentioned that a lot of Chinese netizens have criticized the weird activities of these otaku.

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The city tourism office ran a similar promotion last year, but they weren’t fully prepared for the enormous response from the otaku community. Posters that were not secured indoors were often stolen, and someone was even arrested for poster theft.

Posters were distributed to local businesses about a week ago, and some are already appearing on internet auction sites and selling for 80,000 or even 100,000 yen! In an effort to respond to the incredible demand from fans, the tourism office decided to distribute a thousand free posters. As the video clip shows, otaku from all over Japan gathered to wait in line. Posters were given out on a first come first serve basis, and a lot of people went home empty-handed. (One angry man shouted a complaint about how had lined up at 5:00AM and got nothing.)

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Meanwhile, in other Gundam-related news, ANA has put a “Gundam Jet” into service on its Haneda-to-Osaka route:

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Imamura, 56, whose real name is Kiyonori Imamura, is the voice of the character Enporio Iwankofu on “One Piece,” a popular anime.

Police accuse Imamura of displaying a total of four images of tattoos, showing either his genitals or his full body, from April 26 to June 12. Imamura has reportedly admitted to the allegations, saying, “I wanted to brag that I had gone even this far with my tattoos.”

According to police, over the last 10 years Imamura has spent from 4 to 5 million yen covering his body in tattoos. In addition to his voice acting work, Imamura also manages a bar for tattoo enthusiasts in Shinjuku, where he took the obscene photos.

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This time the 18-meter-tall robot will stand near JR Higashishizuoka Station holding a Beam Saber, a signature weapon of Gundam in a popular sci-fi animation series, according to toy company Bandai Co., which leads the project.

Bandai started the project to mark the 30th anniversary of the release of its plastic model series featuring Gundam and other combat robots and picked Shizuoka as the site for the exhibition starting July 24 as it has a key factory for components of the models dubbed Gunpla.

[hat tip to Martin]

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Just a little update on the progress of Hollywood’s live-action remake of the classic Japanese anime movie AKIRA:

A live-action “Akira” film is on the way courtesy of director Albert Hughes (“From Hell,” “The Book of Eli”) and newly hired screenwriter Albert Torres. According to producer Andrew Lazar, the first film will cover the first three of Katsuhiro Otomo’s “Akira” manga volumes, with a hopeful sequel set to cover the next three volumes.

It seems that both the writer in the director don’t particularly have a lot of great films under their belts. It’s probably best not to expect much from this movie.

Heck, it might even be as bad as this:

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Via ANN, I bring the news of a financial dork who likes anime dorks:

40-year-old economic commentator Takaaki Mitsuhashi campaigned for this summer’s House of Councillors election by hosting a “cosplay party” at the Liberal Democratic Party’s Tokyo headquarters on Saturday. Mitsuhashi previously wrote an economic analysis of the popular online bulletin board system 2channel, and he appeared at the party dressed as the calculating father figure Gendō from Gainax’s Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series. About 200 people participated in the party with Mitsuhashi in cosplay, karaoke, and other activities

You can see him bearded and belting our karaoke in this picture.

And here is some footage of him campaigning in Akihabara, where he speaks of strangely dressed people who’s culture is spreading throughout the world. He’s got a pretty good turn out for a politician on the streets.

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You are already dead.
–Kenshiro, star of Fist of the North Star

Atatatatatata!
–Also Kenshiro

This ad seems to be from a couple of years ago, but I couldn’t resist sharing. Here we see Kenshiro powering up; clothes bursting from the raw energy to reveal… a salary-man’s suit. Then he starts to hand out business cards like deadly punches. The subtitles up to this point say, “Getting the job! Townwork [a placement company's periodical], company-worker edition.” The next itteration of clothes-rippingness shows his new job as a delivery guy. The subs here say, “Change of career! Townwork, company-worker edition.”

This commercial requires a familiarity with the anime’s opening song, You は Shock, which I have embedded below.

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I’m not an anime fan, but I think Japanese anime can be more interesting than Japanese TV dramas.
Most of good animes have great stories and graphic depiction in details, but these days simple and easy animes are also becoming popular especially among young Japanese people in their teens and twenties.

Takanotsume

Another anime, Chi-Sui Maru, is so simple that it doesn’t even need speech.

I personally like Keihinkazoku better than Takanotsume.
My husband likes watching anime at animax cable TV channel, which is why I got to know it.

First I felt it was some kind of stupid anime that doesn’t deserve to be watched. But I liked that it makes me laugh and it runs only 5 minutes. It can be better than the cheap comedy show that doesn’t bring me laughter. How do you like these animes?

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Yesterday, FTV aired a feature report about the growing popularity of Japanese people seeking roommates to share the cost of living and enjoy a family-like sense of community. It included this segment about a “Geek House” for computer nerds:

Three men, all of them computer programmers, share the 2LDK apartment [2 rooms + a combined Living/dining/kitchen space] and split the 130,000 yen rent. (According to the Geek House’s website, there are actually 5 residents – Pha, Hikipuro, ykic, tomo3141592653, and iyoda.) They seem to spend their free time sitting around on their respective notebook computers, programming and chatting over Twitter. Since the apartment is near Akihabara, it is easy for geek friends to come visit.

Their shared apartment is part of the Geek House Project, which aims to set up similar arrangements across Japan. Their website is currently taking applications for Geek Houses to be set up in Kyoto, Aichi, and Sapporo.

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For those who are interested, here is a video of Corbel performing the theme song (“Arrietty’s Song”):

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In the two days since CNN.com posted the story on hentai games (specifically, the “RapeLay” video game), there have been thousands of comments, more than a million page views and many questions about how a culture can produce this genre of games and then quietly allow the industry to thrive.

She then proceeds to quote an associate professor of sociology at Temple University in Japan who says that Japan is a patriarchal society in which women are oppressed. Save for a vague line at the end of the article about the United States also having its own gender problems, we are left with the image of Japan as a sexist and repressed culture with a government that ignores or perhaps even aids in the oppression of women and the rape of hundreds of digital characters.

CNN also tried to stir up rage over the fact that the game, which has long since gone out of print in Japan, is available in pirated form on the internet. Even children might be able to download and play the game [thanks to CNN spreading the word about it, of course]:

On April 4th, Lah filed this report, digging up a story from several months ago about a Japanese guy who married a video game character so that she can add further comments on the “danger” such games pose to society:

[hat tip to Magus]

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“It’s obviously very difficult to curtail activity on the Internet. But the governments do have a role in trying to regulate this sort of extreme pornography of children, both in their countries, and through the Internet ,” she said, adding that they were calling for the Japanese government “to ban all games that promote and simulate sexual violence, sexual torture, stalking and rape against women and girls. And there are plenty of games like that. ”

Those games are known as “hentai games.” Almost all feature girlish-looking characters. Some of the games are violent — depicting rape, torture and bondage in detail.

Hat tip to Magus, who sent us the following comment in his link submission e-mail:

I last heard about RapeLay more than a year ago, and now it’s long past old news. But everyone’s favorite CNN Japan reporter probably decided that with US-Japan opinions not at their highest, now would be a great time to bring up the topic again like it was new.

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“Anime is a prime example of why two nukes just wasn’t enough.”

Levasseur has apparently apologized. It is unclear just how much damage this might do to his political career.

More Reading: The Red Hampshire has been keeping track of the reactions from anime fans on Twitter.

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