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The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has appointed me as Creative Director for a project of theirs called Mazer where I am leading a creative process on how consumers can contribute more to the anime industry.
As you know, its tough for anime companies to recuperate costs for all the reasons listed in this post.

Folks register on the Mazer and chip in ideas which I manage - I then fuse ideas together to form a method which can be purchased by a company who will have rights to materialize that idea into a product or service. The auction and thereafter process is managed by the government.
Folks who submit good ideas will also be recognized by the government which will lead to good things ^o^

One idea that a few folks submitted which I've also been thinking about too is to have a anime production fund which anime fans can contribute to - a bit like Kick Starter.

Folks would donate anything from 1 USD and depending on how much they donate, the donator would get some form of perk - name in credits or even a cameo. Companies would also be able to donate funds and get their logo in the anime somewhere - a bit like Tiger and Bunny.

The anime production would go ahead when the fund goal is reached. To give you an idea of how much funds can be raised - this project on Kick Starter raised over 3 million USD. I guess this is like looking for investors for a project but on a wider scale.

What other ideas do you have for consumers to contribute to the anime industry? Would you donate funds to an anime production budget? If so what sort of anime would you like to see made?

There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Oh, if you want to participate at Mazer - just click on "English" in the top left corner and signup for an account which you can authorize with a Twitter, Facebook or Google+ account.

Updated with feedback on Facebook.

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Every March the 14th is "White Day" which is today.
To make more monies from Valentines day, the Japanese invented "White Day" as an excuse for men to buy candy to give to women in return for the chocolate that they received - theres even an official White Day site.

The reason its called "White Day" is because the color of sugar (white) is the main ingredient for candy which was traditionally given on White Day - source from Wikipedia. These days however, one does not have to give candy and can be white chocolate or marshmallows or condensed milk?

The term "Giri Choco"[義理チョコ] is used to describe chocolate that is given as an obligation - like to ones superiors or boss. If you are managing ladies in Japan and receive chocolate from them then its probably not because she likes you but because she expects a pay rise come next evaluation season.

Has this White Day thing caught up in other parts of the world?

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White day was invented to as an excuse to sell more chocolates - what day would you invent and why?
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The Japanese government has been promoting Cool Japan since 2010 and ever since, various industries in Japan have had a keen eye on the rest of the world - some have taken action while others remain cautious.
This week, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) held the Cool Japan Conference where they invited about 90 of Japan's top corporations and content producers for a business matching session.

I had the honor of being invited to talk at the meeting along with the likes of AKB48 producer Yasushi Akimoto and Yukio Edano - currently the Minister of Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry but formerly the Chief Cabinet Secretary.

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Since the Japanese government started to notice my shenanigans, I've been working for them on various projects. Recently, they have assigned me as a Creative Director for a project called Mazer which I talk about in this post.

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Checking out the map after getting out the station. The whole of Kasumigaseki is filled with government buildings.

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The pass to get into the headquarters of METI and my thumb which has been chewed by a dog.

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Meeting room filled with a few hundred people - this view of folks at the front of the room.

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Load of press folks too.

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Sanford R. Climan is the CEO of All Nippon Entertainment Works - a company that is backed by the government - their mission is to bring more Japanese content overseas and make sure that costs are recuperated and profits are made.

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The flow of the meeting is simple - content producers give a pitch and the large corporations decide whether they want to do business with us. The government will then match us up and we do wheelings and dealings - win x win.

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Sega Toys is first up to give their pitch and is the exact opposite of what my product Moekana is aiming to achieve - using characters to teach English.

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A ton of folks at the back too including Kadokawa, King Records, Nico Nico and Good Smile Company - I was asked to blur this photo though ^^;

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I've never given a pitch of this scale before - and I had to do it in 5 mins ^^; I've only really started to give talks in Japanese ever since I started to work with the government.

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A quick going over my background - mentioning that I worked at Japan Airlines as an Engineer, Amazon as Website Manager and Microsoft as a Product Manager was a mouthful and took up time so I now combine everything into this slide and just mention that most of my previous work has been IT related without going over the company names as they can read it on the slide.

Japanese folks usually only do business with those who have a reputable background or through an introduction so this slide is important to have at the beginning. If you are giving a talk of any kind, let your audience briefly know what you do and what your background is which will help them decide whether they want to stay awake for the rest of your talk ^^;

One of the reasons why this meeting is so important is because the government is making the introductions for us.

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The company that I setup after I left cooperate life is called Mirai Inc - the mission is disseminate Japanese culture throughout the world through various means such as web, TV and other media and products - this is done under the Culture Japan brand.
My job is to establish relations with various Japanese companies and work with their teams to produce content - web, print, mobile applications, products, events etc.

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Talking about how I use social media to disseminate information.

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Going over the type of information that I share - pop culture, tradition, food, fashion and so on.

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Talking about user engagement.

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Going over my TV show Culture Japan which is broadcast in Japan, America and Asia.

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Talking about the events I help organize around the world which includes Anime Festival Asia and Anime Expo. Also talk about Culture Japan Night.

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I talk about the web platforms that we provide for companies like Good Smile Company, Bushiroad, Kadokawa, King Records, Konami, Ascii Media Works and so on.

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The last thing I talk about is character development - specifically Mirai Suenaga who helps me with my mission.

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I didn't get time to update the collage of Mirai-chan cosplayers ;-;

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Lastly I mention The 1st product of my Japanese learning series - Moekana.

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I finish off with a summary of how companies in the audience and I can work together. Done in less that 5 mins and a very very dry throat!

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The surprise guests - AKB48 Producer Yasushi Akimoto and Yukio Edano - currently the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry but formerly the Chief Cabinet Secretary. If you followed the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis then you will certainly recognize him as he was the one who gave all the official statements on TV in his blue jacket.

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Edano-san and Akimoto-san are here mainly to give a pep talk to the manufacturers encouraging them to work with content producers together to bring Japanese products to more people around the world.

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Akimoto-san's final words of advice is "Collaboration is key" and gives an analogy. It does not matter how healthy a carrot may be for a kid - if the kid does not like carrots then s/he wont want it.
But what you do is add apple juice - its taste may be appealing to that kid who didn't like carrots - a successful collaboration.

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Akimoto-san talks about how more and more young folks are wanting Korean products - music, cosmetics, fashion, electronics etc etc.
I speak, read and write Korean and have always been interested in Korean culture - but I dont get much opportunity to consume Korean content apart from all the Koren drama that wifey watches ^^
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Hmm who do we has here?

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Tis the Good Smile Company big boss Aki Takanori. But I cant talk much about why he is here or I shall be impaled on the nearest spear.

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My talk is done but Fuji TV want to interview me before I run back to base.

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My hair has finally grown back from being bald for the past few months - Yes I shaved most of it off ^^;

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Heading back to base.

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Later that evening on my favorite news program - World Business Satellite (WBS). They cover the conference too.

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Whenever there is a Cool Japan conference, the subject of Korea is always brought up. The title in the top left corner is "Growing the overseas market - learning from the Korean boom."

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WBS didn't mention company names because they would have been speared too ^^; But I guess you can get a good idea after they mention companies from the field of anime, music, electronics, food manufacturers and airlines.

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It looks like WBS likes my Mirai Millennium ^^

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Content Producers X Manufacturers.

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Just some of the collaborations that Mirai has been involved in - Mayo Chiki!!, Twin Angel, Sonicomi and Culture Japan TV. Got more planned this year.

What sort of collaboration between content producers and makers would you like to see? For example recently there was Lagrange X Nissan.

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You read what it was like for me when I was living in the UK - the Internets didn't exist back then! If I wanted information about Japan, I pretty much relied on two Japanese book shops in London where I picked up magazines, books and the occasional snack. There was hardly anything about Japan in local newspapers or TV.

These days however, you've got places like JList which can send just about anything to all corners of the world - including health material which I had to get from a newspaper ^^;;;

But how about brick and mortar stores? Are there shops readily available in your neck of the woods that sell japanese stuff? How about your local TV or newspapers - information available about the Japanese news you care about?

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There is a poll embedded in this article.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

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Is you being a fan of the Idolmaster girls but dont really want the console versions? Got an iPhone or iOS device handy? Then you maybe happy that Bandai Namco Games are releasing Idolmaster Mobile for the iOS later this month and its going to be free.

As a producer, you choose one of the girls and work with her to make her famous throughout Japan. The interesting thing about this game is that its location based meaning that you will get offers from various locations - you take your idol and physically go to that location to complete the offer such as TV appearance etc. Sounds like a good way to get folks to get out n about ^^;

Even if you are not in Japan, you can still use it as a clock and play with the girls. I'm guessing that they may restrict it to the Japanese iTunes store but a Bothan spy tells me that there is a way around this.
Not sure how much of it will be playable without enabling the app to know your location though.

Check out the game below.

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Uchimizu [打ち水[うちみず]] refers to the action of sprinkling water on the streets in the summer and has been a tradition in Japan for many many moons. The water keeps the dust low and cools off the immediate area.

The Uchimizukko Daishugo event has made this tradition more interesting by getting legions of maids to do the watering. The pink maid in this pic wearing glasses was my fave out of the lot ^o^

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12.30 infront of Akiba station. Organizers are prepping for the event.

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Purified water used to cool off the streets.

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Maids getting ready for action.

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More maids.

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Another maid in armor.

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These are called Oke [桶[おけ]] - water pails which will be filled with water.

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Suspicious character on the right.

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More maids get ready for the event.

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Maid invasion!

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All these maids are from different cafes. Never been to a maid cafe before so couldn't tell you who's who. Below is a list of some of the cafes who participated in the event (in Japanese).
アキバ一丁目劇場、＠ほぉ〜むcafe、お〜ぶ、Cafe Cute M、キューティーリラックス、QUEEN DOLCE、Cos-Cha、JAMアキハバラ、SweetTrip、ハニーシープ、ぴなふぉあ、MistyHeaven、メイキュア、メイドステーション、メイフット、Merry Heart、モエシャン、癒あmaiden、ユナティコストレーガ、LittleBSD、LittlePSX、ロイヤルミルク

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Gah, its the pink maid (in the middle). I didnt notice how cute she was until I looked at the photos. I could hardly see through the helmet (I only see green ^^;)

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Brownie points to whoever can name all the maid costume/cafes.

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This event has to be the biggest maid only event. The girls are waiting on the bridge to head down an escalator.

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And at the bottom of the escalator are a load of salivating men pointing their...camera.

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The maids reach the bottom of the escalator and pose for the lads.

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This is Rio Hatsune who was this years image girl for the event.

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Traditional style maids.

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Cute!

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All the girls have assembled at the event ground and grab a pail full of water.

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The water throwing/sprinking takes place a few times throughout the event. Its the pink maid!

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T'was very windy and the girls had a tough time keeping their skirts down. There were many gusts of wind where upon the girls would squeek "kyaaa!".
The lads around me all went "ahhhhh, kawaiii!!"

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Folks from the audience who wanted to participate could do so too. But its boring watching them throw water...

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...which is why I kept my eye on this lot instead.

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Was packed so didnt get to move around and only got pics form this spot.

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A shot of the lads.

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People who attended the event may have noticed that the organizers set up equipment to measure the temperature, wind and height of water being thrown. After water has been thrown and if there was a breeze (which there was), then the temperature would have temporarily cooled down.

I think the heat being generated by the excited men alone prevented any type of temperature cooling though.

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Image girl Rio.

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Video below that I took of the event - first few seconds is blank for some reason.

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Located in West Tokyo is an area called Koenji [高円寺[こうえんじ]] - a very cozy residential area filled with Shotengai. Shotengai [商店街[しょうてんがい]] are streets filled with shops which cater for the residents living nearby - restaurants, grocery stores, supermarkets, pharmacies, barbers, post offices, book stores, game centers and izakaya (pubs).

Areas like Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Shibuya are not called Shotengai and are usually referred to as Hankagai [繁華街[はんかがい]]. Hankagai are usually located around major train stations in non-residential areas.
Koenji has a large population of young folks. There are many one room apartments/mansions and food and clothing is generally cheap. There are also many cheap second hand clothing stores and zakka (life style products) to be found.

Koenji is also where you can enjoy the Awa Odori [阿波踊り] festival which takes place every Summer - this year to take place on August 25th.

Koenji would be a great place to see a slice of life in Tokyo and you can get there by getting off at Koenji station [高円寺駅] on the JR Chuo line [中央線].
[gmap=35.70549, 139.64988]

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Spent sometime in Koenji which had so much to explore that we didn't manage to cover everything in the few hours we spent there. Most of the photos in this post are of the Shotengai around the station. I love looking at Japanese store fronts. I remember when I first came over to live - would learn Japanese just by looking at the hiragana, katakana and kanji on the store fronts.

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Many folks say maids are not cute. Don't know what they are talking about.

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Evening draws in on Koenji.

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Many Shotengai are pedestrianized between certain hours to allow folks to go about their shopping without having to dodge cars.

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This store buys your unwanted games and DVD's from you. This store says that they will pay generously for your stuff but I've come across a place which offered me 1 yen for a DVD!
What do you do with your unwanted media?
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As you walk down a Shotengai, the amount of shops will gradually start to disappear and you will usually end up in a residential area.

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Gee! now at 68 million views!

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Yakiniku [焼き肉[やきにく]] is where you cook meat yourself on the hot plate or grill infront of you. Most Yakiniku places will have other Korean dishes available.

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Many estate agents these days have these big touch screens outside to enable folks to search for properties/rooms. Apartments in this neck of the woods going for about 57,000 yen - 180,000 yen which range from single rooms to two floor apartments. How does that compare to your region?

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Notice the poster on the right with "AKB" - restaurants will usually show TV screencaps of famous folk who have been to their establishment - in this case, the AKB girls have previously been here for a TV shoot.

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Dindins! Think this cost about 500 yen.

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Some ice cream, whipped cream on waffle to wash everything down ^^

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We got Tesco's in Japan too.

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More places to visit in Japan listed up below.

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Culture Japan Season 2 was broadcast in Japan on Tokyo MX TV during anime time - after Dacapo and before Working!! it was also broadcast in America on Mnet. Now its due to be broadcast in Asia - but not without being screened.

This post highlights "problematic" areas which I have been asked to remove do to broadcasting regulations in Asia - specifically Malaysia and Singapore. I just wanted to let you know beforehand why the Asian broadcast will have Mirai marks all over it and that it wasn't my intentional doing ^^;

Anyhow - the first "problematic" scene is this - apparently Mirai-chan's left "pupil" is showing. We are replacing this 8 seconds with something completely new though.
You can see the whole OP below.

I'll leave the actual quotes below each screenshot - for this one it was "Shape of nipple visible on girl’s left breast" (All episodes)

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Episode 2

"Amiami poster of 2 girls in scanty bikini wear"

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"Poster of scantily-clad Soniko in loose kimono clothing at left corner of screen"

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"Poster of girl with loosened yellow bikini top almost exposing her breasts"

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"Poster of girl with exposed panties just behind Danny Choo in photo"

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"Figurine of Arsene in scanty clothing (in Good Smile ad)" (All Episodes)

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Episode 3

"Close ups of scantily-clad Arsene figurine and talk about her voluptuous figure and bust"

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Just thought I'd include this because this is something they approved - but how is that different from all the other bikini shots that they didn't approve?

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Episode 4

"Almost nude poster of Mirai at front of table"

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"Autograph on almost nude poster of Mirai"

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"Almost nude poster of Mirai on right side of screen in the background"

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Episode 5

"Danny and Mimori looking at poster of Sunico (poster next to it has a scantily-dressed pink-haired character)"

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Episode 10

"Pictures of scantily-clad/almost-nude Mirai on boxes on left side of screen"

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"Picture of almost-nude Mirai on pillow on the sofa"

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"Picture of almost-nude Mirai on pillow on the sofa and on boxes behind Danny"

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"Girl in very scanty bikini on Sonicomi cover"

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"Mirai mouse pad with wrist cushion that are her boobs"

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Episode 11

"Man flipping illustrations of scantily clad girls in sexy poses (esp the ones girl in red outfit)"

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That "Red outfit" ^^;

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All of this is the works of CDS who are not safe for Malaysian or Singaporean TV it seems ^^;

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"Danny showing scantily clad Mirai"

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Episode 13

"Scantily-clad Mirai picture on pillow"

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"Scantily-clad Mirai picture on pillow and close up of almost nude figurine"

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"Scantily-clad Mirai picture on pillow and Mirai mousepad (intermittent scenes)"
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I'm beginning to think - even if we can officially get anime and merchandise distribution to your neck of the woods at about the same timing as Japan, regulations in other countries will still mean that folks would want the original stuff.

A Japanese figure maker mentioned that they would have to make the strands of hair on figures blunt if they wanted to release figures officially in certain countries due to regulations.
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How about manga - been given over the cleansing in your neck of the woods? I know that in Singapore they do this before printing but in Malaysia they do the censoring *after* the printing - with a marker pen ^^;
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Anyway, if you would rather watch Culture japan Season 2 without the edits, then you may want to see what somebody accidentally uploaded to the Internets...

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Up for pre-order now is the TV animation version of Black Rock Shooter in figma form. She's due out this July and will retail for 3,500 yen.
Love the way her Rock Cannon opens up!

Have a lookie at one of the following trusted retailers if you are looking to buy.
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/
http://www.amiami.com
http://toylet.net
http://hlj.com
http://hobbystock.jp
http://kidnemo.com
http://jlist.com

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There has been quite a few BRS figures out - how many do you have?
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Recently noticed a direct relation between how often I can write stuff for the site and how many milestones that my company achieves - unfortunately meaning that the more I achieve, the less I can write as my time is taken away to complete my goals. I'll never give up on writing though as its important not only for me to continue sharing but also because this site serves as a record of my life so that I can look back at what I've been doing.

Recently I've had more offers to produce and present on various TV shows in Japan and around the globe - have accepted a couple and one will start in Japan in a few weeks - its a morning show this time round. Will post more details on that soon.

Also working on a product called Moekana - a new way of learning Japanese! Good Smile Company are distributing the product which should be with you next month. Have also been doing more work for the Japanese government which is always fulfilling.
Am also working on a load more products and wot not that will be revealed all in good time ^^;

Anyway, this post contains photos of the office taken between October 2011 until the end of Feb 2012.

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This photo taken back in October in the midst of producing Culture Japan Season 2.

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Back then my MacBook Pro 17" was my main machine - the iMac was used for editing the show. I need at least two machines for my work - When the iMac is rendering, it cant do anything else at all! I need another machine so that I can continue with mail and wot not.

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This camera angle was used to film the studio section which we would shoot in the office.

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On a regular basis, stuff falls from the ceiling and blocks me in the office - but thats OK because you are taking some of it off my hands - Will announce the winners this weekend.

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If you are wondering about the Mirai mousepads - should be some still available.

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Was still quite warm back then in October - nice breeze through the window.

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Here I'm currently rendering Episode 6 of Culture Japan season 2 - one of my fave episodes where seiyuu Mimori Suzuko and I go cutting folks in Osaka with an invisible katana ^^;

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Grabbed one of these Moshi Mini DisplayPort cables so that I could use the iMac as an external monitor.

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Another iMac arrives - 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7, AMD Radeon HD 6970M 2048 MB. Need more power for running Final Cut Pro X.

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Upgrading the memory to 16GB.

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Playing about with layout ideas for a wee bit.

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Back at the time, was thinking of using the MacBook Air as my main machine. Its also an i7 on SSD meaning its fast but starts to wheeze when using Skype which is a shame.

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First thing to do is to copy my home directory and settings over from my MacBook Pro 17" to the iMac. If you turn on your Mac with the "T" key held down, it boots up in Target mode meaning you can mount it on any other mac as a HDD.

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Playing about with more layouts.

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And this is what I settled with - the old iMac is currently being used by somebody else for editing and wot not.

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December - during the festive season, the elves come out to play.

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During the cold seasons, the air conditioner is always on to heat up the room which gets dry - the machine in the bottom left of the photo is a moisturizer that prevents us from drying up and looking like Pruneface.

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Our CTO Chris at the controls who is currently working on the new version of Mirai Gaia.

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All the girls gather for a dusting down.

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I dont get to dust the girls as often as I'd like to but I try not to leave it too long - dust on figures accumulates oil in the air which is why figures can start to get sticky.

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Horrid!

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I use a cooking brush that I picked up from a 100 yen store to dust down the girls.

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Its time to get rid of some boxes. I usually keep some around for a wee bit until I know that I'm going to keep the figure forever - in which case I throw out the boxes for recycle.

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All cardboard boxes should be opened up and folded flat.

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All plastics should be separated out and recycled too.

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When I first visited Japan, I loved anything and everything that had Japanese written on it - I even took these rubbish bags back to London and put them up on the wall in our bathroom so that I could read it when having a pee ^^;

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Snaps of some of the girls after a dusting down.

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Some figures get a dirty nose after a while either from dust or handling - just like our Yoko here.

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When you get paint transfer marks or dirt on your figures, use some paint thinner with a cotton bud to wipe it off.

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Yoko without a grimy dirty nose!

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Looks like Yuzuko has some paint transfer from her skirt on her belly - will fix that up with a dab of paint thinner.

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Cute bottom!

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And from time to time our furry friends come out to play - no not your lil bro but cute spiders. I always end up spending a few mins trying to catch them so that I can let them out the window.

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Captain Liliana.

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I cant wait to add my characters to the Nendoroid collection!

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These photos taken in January.

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Added a new set of shelves for some Gundams.

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Our Dyson looks like its about to kick the bucket.

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Feb was full time production on Moekana.

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More stuff falls from ceiling!

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I speak and read Korean but I cant type without a Hangul keyboard. Here I've taken some Hangul keys and am about to stick them on to my Japanese wireless keyboard.

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My Korean keyboard is wired and does not have the English/Kana keys that I use for Japanese input.

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Now I have the best of both worlds - you can see the "英数" key next to the space bar - on the other side is the kana key.

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Looks like Yuki just woke up.

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These photos taken late February.

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Poster for the Yuzusoft title Dracuriot! We made their website and will be working together on doing more stuff soon!

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When I get time I need to get that Mirai-chan dakimakura cover into production. I've engineered it to be really soft to the touch just like the Mirai Mousepad!

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At this moment in time, I had no idea that this office...

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...would end up looking like this - we moved out...

Read more from the Desk Diary series below.

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Announcing the winners of the last giveaway which about 2500 of you entered! I did mention that I was going to only pick one winner but seeing as so many of you entered, I thought I'd pick a nice round number - 3! ^^;

Winners are:-
#economi from Korea (Madoka)
#Quaestor from Brazil (Konjiki no Yami)
#Kenpol from Inside a Test Plug (Taiga Aisaka)

Winners - please contact me at [support at dannychoo dot com] and give me your name, mailing address and phone number - I will pass onto Hobby Search and they will send you your spanking new figures! You must contact me from the mail address that you used to sign up your dannychoo.com account. Also mention your dannychoo.com account name and the figure that you won.

As mentioned - all these figures will be sent out by the online figure store Hobby Search - if you didn't win anything this time round and really want the figures then you can order them from Hobby Search and have peace in mind that you have ordered from a trustworthy source ^o^

If you would like another chance in winning something then all you have to do is answer the following polls for me regarding your figure buying habits. Use the polls to vote or add an option and follow up with a comment.

Once votes are in, I'll do another giveaway!
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Filming at Fujisawa high school this time last Friday for Culture Japan.
You've seen what high schools look like in 2D anime and I have always wanted to show you what it looks like in 3D real life. The great folks at Fujisawa High School let us go to film their classes, sporting activities and most importantly the Keion-bu [軽音部] (after school music activities) which was just like the anime - live action K-ON!

The whole experience at Fujisawa was fascinating - I kept pointing at things saying "its just like anime!"

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The visit to Fujisawa really made me want to go back to school ^^; I sat in a few of the lessons and wish I could have participated as a student instead. In many of the lessons, I saw the teachers encouraging the students to participate in discussion and interact with each other. From what I observed, the students are extremely diligent, creative and enjoy working in groups.

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We were assigned 3 students from the keion-bu who we followed around for the day.

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This is one of our assigned students - snap taken after we interrogated her locker - watch the show to see whats on the top shelf inside!

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We also got to look around the embroidery class too. Regret selling my Postbed machine as I need it back again.

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Some of the classes such as embroidery and cooking require a change of shoes.

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Just like anime! *points*

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In the grounds marking the landing spot before the Imperial Shuttle arrives.

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Baseball storage.

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Saw many examples of teamwork being exercised through the baseball activities. While filming on the pitch I kept thinking about the anime series Touch.