Otaku & Anime

Stop Motion Street Fighter

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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Ube Mascot Character Looks Like Pikachu

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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Original Ultra Seven Mask Stolen

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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More Chinese Plagiarism of Japanese Anime?

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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Part Of The World (Hikikomori Song Parodies Little Mermaid)

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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Lady Gaga’s “Anime Eyes” Require an Explanation

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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