Have you ever fancied diving into the cyberspace in Ghost in the Shell "Solid State Complex" series? Well now you can thanks to some Microsoft Kinect technology attached to an Apple Mac Mini ^^;

A developer called Makoto Hara at dev company Kayac decided one day that he wanted to be in cyberspace. He got hold of the Microsoft Kinect and after attaching it to a Mac, his team then went and wrote this GITS SAC Cyberspace program. Took them about 2 months which included research while working with Production IG on visuals.

The setup can be experienced at the Parco in Shibuya (the one opposite the Apple store). Anybody can go along and try it out for free. Its been up n running for a while but the last day is tomorrow ^^;

Video below will give you a better idea of the game experience.

Parco are also having a Ghost in the Shell Solid State Society shop for a limited period until the May 8th which is filled with merchandise and artwork.

Time to take my first dive into cyberspace. Standing in the dont-shoot-me-please-no-please position enables the system to recognize your body which will let you control the game. The Kinect is in the top middle corner. For folks who are not familiar, Kinect is a device originally developed for the XBOX that recognizes human moment which is used to control whatever in the game.

Once in the dont-shoot-me-please-no-please position, the system only takes a few seconds to recognize your bits n pieces.

The aim of the game is to catch Tachikoma which runs around cyberspace. Some cyberspace and tachikoma action from the original series below.

First time playing with Kinect and was most impressed at the response. I did expect a certain degree or lag or failure to read my body motions but it was spot on which provided a smooth and pleasant gaming experience. Maybe time to get an XBOX if they decide to release a Kinect version of Street Fighter ^^;

You can shift your body left/right, lean back/forwards or step back/forwards to control your floating direction/speed in cyberspace. When Tachikoma comes into view, you would just try to grab it with your arm (or any other part of your body that has fingers/tentacles) which would shoot out some coolsome rings.

A most interesting gaming experience! Would be interesting if the playing area was on some sort of rocker to make the player feel more like they are floating.

Time to watch some other folks in action.

The Kinect is attached to a Mac Mini behind the screen. That Mac Mini then sends a signal (cant remember if WiFi or Bluetooth) to another Mac Mini thats inside the left box that you can see in the photo. That Mac Mini has two projectors connected which are in the left and right box.

"Connection is cutting" is the cooler way of saying "Disconnecting."

A reader comes all the way from Nakano after I tweeted for a small meetup.

The graphics are really nice. Code base is C ++.

Time to have a look around the rest of the shop.

Some stills from the SAC series.

Nice vacuum T-shirt packaging.

Motoko has very nice eyes.

The GITS SAC 3D movie is out in theaters across Japan now. Got a peek at the production when we were filming at the Production IG offices but had to keep schtum or our heads would have been cut off ^^;

Have loved the Ghost in the Shell series since the first movie. Need a Motoko figma.

Music by the awesome Yoko Kanno.

They got other IG related goodies in the shop too.

Quick snap with the developer Makoto-san, Aki-san and Ken-san.

Good Smile Nessa is gorgeous.

Lucky Break - a manga about a girl called Riku Nonokawa [野々川 陸]. She dropped out of art university after her fathers company went bankrupt. Riku ends up working part time in a bar where she meets an editor who discovered one of Riku's doodles on the back of a drink coaster.
The story is set in a design company where there just happens to be a load of cute girls working.

I'm a sucker for cute 2D girlies and while browsing through the Manga section at a book store the other day, a particular cover caught my eye - bottom right!

The artist and author is Taira Tsukune who illustrates some very cute girlies indeed. This girl is Chieko Funasaka [船坂智恵子] who is in the planning department and a designer herself too.
Me needs a blonde haired mascot.

Fubuki Dei [出井吹雪] also in the planning department. Nice eyes.

Kamaboko is the plushie bear that speaks to us from time to time.

First few pages are in color and in standard manga format.

Most of the manga however is in 4 koma format which are all strung together to form the story.

Reading manga was an essential (and still is) part of learning Japanese. Picked up a load of my Japanese from Ranma 1/2, Crayon Shinchan and Inuyasha. All these titles had Furigana which made it easy to look up kanji but Lucky Break doesn't have any which may be difficult to read for some.

During my learning Japanese years, I often would read manga on the train. What I would do was to fold the corner of a page where there were words or kanji I didn't know. I would look them up when I got home and would be reading the manga again out n about on the trains. If I understood the words the second time round that I encountered them then I would unfold the corner of the page or leave it to repeat the process.

Looking at cute girlies while studying seems to be a good combination.

What Manga are you currently reading?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Am thrilled to announce two of our newest clients at Mirai Inc - Kadokawa and Sega Sammy. We've just launched the official Japanese and English website for the up n coming Summer anime title Twin Angel ( http://twin-angel.tv ) which runs on our web platform Mirai Gaia.

They join King Records, Good Smile Company, Cospa, Bushiroad and Ascii Media Works (amoungst others) in using our platform which also runs sites like Figure.fm, Tsubuyaku.fm and this site Culture Japan too.

PV for the show below.

First met Sega Sammy at the Wonder Festival last Summer through an introduction of the Good Smile Company boss Aki Takanori. We then first worked with each other on some filming for Culture Japan TV last Summer.

Snap with my main men at Kadokawa and Sega Sammy. We've been working closely together on the Twin Angel for a while now which is a very speacial project for many many reasons ^^
I also discovered that the person who is writing the scenario was a colleague during my years at Amazon who has worked on other titles like Zero no Tsukaima - tis a small world!

For those who are not familiar, Twin Angel is an original series that was developed by Sega Sammy for their Pachislot machines 5 years ago. The story as follows.

Haruka Minazuki and Aoi Kannazuki are two students at St.Cherine
academy. Haruka is always filled with bubbly energy while Aoi is more mature and a top student in all her classes - but despite their differences the two are the best of friends.
The two girls look like any other girls attending the academy,
but the truth is they are hiding a little secret that they can't
let anybody know about...

During the day they really are just students at St.Cherine
academy, but by night they become the 'Twin Angels',
and fight against the evils of the town!

The lovely Angels are back, and it's time for them to get ready for some action!

In 2006 the Twin Angel girls Haruka and Aoi were created as
slot machine characters - back then cute slot machine
characters were not all that popular, but in no time the
girls became popular with both slot machine fans and anime
fans alike, redefining the genre of 'moe slot machines'.

In 2009 an OVA known as "Twin Angel 2" was released which
introduced a new girl to the series named Kurumi. It also
created some opposition for the girls by adding the powerful
Black Trader as well as a rival for the girls known as Twin Phantom.
The OVA created more fans of the series, both for it's characters
and storyline.

And now 2011...
The Twin Angels are set to become a full TV anime production!

And below is a peak at the Twin Angel world - bits n pieces taken from the OVA many moons ago.

The site is live at http://twin-angel.tv/ with the English version at http://twin-angel.tv/top/en/
Am hiring a reader part time who helped come up with the framework and I polished everything off in Fireworks. Wish I had more design sense ><
The little chibi characters you see running around are also commissioned from another reader Arayden. I discovered his talent through his postings at Figure.fm and occasional links in comments left on this site.

The other chap who worked on the site is my tech guy Chris Gaunt who I hired when he was a reader - I think he still is ^^;

The feedback from all our clients help improve Mirai Gaia - the new features are then available to all our clients which helps improve their various business conversions. It took quite a few years to build the platform which nearly left us homeless! ^^;

Kadokawa and Sega Sammy are very pleased with the site and so am I - although the menu at the top needs some design tweaking which I'll do next week.

Up until now we've done official English sites for anime titles for King Records but this is the first time we've done one for a Japanese title. I'm over the moon ^o^
Twin Angel comes in English too for a very good reason which you will find out when the new anime series starts to air this July.

The characters that appear in the anime are as follows.

Haruka Minazuki (Voiced by: Yukari Tamura)

Haruka is a student at St. Cherine Academy, but is also one of the Twin Angels - the 'Red Angel'. She has a bubbly personality, excels at sports and is even part of the swimming team at the academy... but she can also be a little bit careless from time to time. In battle her favorite moves always include kicks, including her best attack which is called the 'Angel Tornado'.

Aoi Kannazuki (Voiced by: Mamiko Noto)

Aoi is a student at St. Cherine Academy, and is also secretly one of the Twin Angels - the 'Blue Angel'. She has a very relaxed personality and excels at all of her subjects at school, although she can also be a little unpredictable at times. She is part of the archery team at the academy, but she isn't good at any other sports. In battle she puts her archery training to the test, with her strongest move being the powerful 'Angel Arrow'.

Kurumi Hazuki (Voiced by: Rie Kugimiya)

Kurumi is a young genius that transferred from her St. Bernardi elementary course in Italy straight into St. Cherine academy, completely skipping some grades due to her incredible intelligence. She seems to know about Haruka and Aoi's secret, and quickly tries to get close to them.

Tesla (Voiced by: Horie Yui)

Tesla is a charming lady with a wonderful smile. She always takes good care of her twin sister, Nine.

Nine (Voiced by: Ryouka Yuzuki)

Nine is Tesla's twin sister and always works together with her sister. She hardly ever speaks and has a soft side for animals.

Salome (Voiced by: Ryouko Shintani)

A mercenary employed by the evil 'Black Auction' organization. She likes goth-loli fashion.

Alexander (Voiced by: Masaya Onosaka)

Alexander works under Salome and absolutely adores her, following her around wherever she goes. Unfortunately for him, she just seems to ignore him constantly.

Have always wanted to introduce more of the Japanese culture Pachiko to the world and got the chance to do so for Culture Japan TV last year - was handy that I already had those contacts at Sega Sammy.
Here Saber is ready to film with her press pass while for some reason sitting on a piece of meat.

Tried Pachinko during my first visit to Japan and didn't get the chance to play until the day we were filming at the Sega Sammy showroom - got to play it to my hearts content!

This illustration is found at the bottom of the Pachislot machines which they stuck on a clear poster as merchandise. Very cute.

Sega Sammy make both Pachinko and Pachislot machines. Pachinko is the one with all the ball bearings while Pachislot is the slot machine. I'm currently working with Anime Expo and Sega Sammy to try and bring a few from Japan with me for you to play with - we'll leave them at AX and auction them off for charity.

Filming At the Sega Sammy head offices. You can see whats going on here at the 25 min mark in the digest version below.

Perfect for keeping warn during those cold nights.

A bunch of Twin Angel stuff which I stole from the Sega Sammy offices - incredible how they have poured effort into the girls and grew them from being just mascots to Manga, Anime and also announced today is the PSP game.

Kurumi's oppai mousepad is so small that its nearly flat ^^;

They even got figures which were made by Max Factory a while ago.

Cards by Bushiroad too!

Load of stuff to put up on the wall.

I cant wait until the show airs in July. Its going to be a very special anime indeed ^^

Located in the West of Tokyo is a ward called Nakano which is home to the Bushiroad Headquarters, Nakano Sunplaza and the Nakano Broadway shopping complex. Folks in the West of Tokyo who need to get hold of anime, manga, idol, figures, doll and doujin stuff can find a load at Nakano Broadway. Also discovered that there are a ton of places to eat too.

To get to Nakano Broadway, get off at Nakano station on the JR Chuo and Sobu lines and the Tozai line.
[gmap=35.70689,139.66566]

Was at Nakano a couple O weeks ago to watch Momoiro Clover at the Nakano Sunplaza. Tis the cherry blossom sakura season which were in full bloom - looked really lovely around the station.

The North exit is where you want to get out when you get to Nakano.

Gorgeous Sakura everywhere.

The tall building here being the Nakano Sunplaza.

After watching the girls in action, its time to explore Nakano Broadway a bit.

This is the long shopping arcade that leads up to the Nakano Broadway shopping complex.

Many restaurants are decorated with the sakura cherry blossoms.

Restaurants, pharmacies, hairdressers, music shops and wot not.

Bumped into a reader.

The place is much cooler spelled as "Nakano Broadwey."

There be a load of glass cabinets around the Nakano Broadway shopping center which contain rare goodies like these - telephone cards of idols. Mmmmm.

The railgun girls by Sega which are available as UFO Catcher goodies.

You can pickup some school uniforms here too. Would you be allowed to wear them in your uniformed school or do you have to wear standrd issued? Many high schools in Japan like Fujisawa High School gives students the option to wear pretty much what they like as long as it looks like a school uniform.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

More sakura around the corridors.

Mandarake is absolutely everywhere where you can get your grubby mitts on everything that's Japanese Pop Culture.

Must come back here when filming for the second season of Culture Japan TV. Currently working with Crunchyloll to make the first season available to you all.

Lots to see and spend your moolah on - you probably need a few hours in the shopping complex alone.

When inside broadway, take the steps instead as I think the escalators skip a floor or two leaving you confused like it did to me ^^;

We even get to drink some Sakura Latte at Excelsior Cafe.

That "Puchi Eva" logo looks too much like the Nendoroid Puchi logo.

This time decided to take a scenic route back to the station and discovered a load of restaurants absolutely everywhere.

Recently discovered that you can get shots like this even on a wide angle lens (7mm - 14mm) using the Lumix GF2 - turn on digital zoom x 2. Need to remove a wee bit of noise using Lightroom though.

Fastfood chain Lotteria. Not that many around compared to Mc Dees though.

Shio Ramen - I think I'll have some of that for dindins.

Om!

Nom nom.

Lots of small restaurants huddled together in the back streets of Nakano.

Plenty of personality among the old buildings, signboards and overhead cabling.

Poster for apartment rooms advertised for only 28,000 yen per month at E-room Navi. What they don't mention on the poster is the extra 18,000 yen that they charge as "membership." Still cheap though as they don't require key money, "gratuity" money or guarantor either. More about these terms in the Japanese Housing post.

Which of these ladies would you choose to keep you company on a ronery night? Read more about Japanese Hostesses.

Cuisine from all around the world available for noms too.

Another shot taken on the 7 - 14mm wide angle on 2 x digital zoom.

Ashita no Joe recently made it to the big screen as a live action movie.

Heading back to the station.

But before that, whats that smell?

Tis the smell of some Oyaki [おやき] being baked - perfect for after dindins dessert. They got a load of filling ranging from azuki, custard and flavor of the season - sakura.

Oyaki is kinda like a dumpling which smells absolutely gorgeous.

The rotary outside Nakano back in 1955 (Showa 30).

How many of you can read this kanji?

I chose the flavor of the season which they obviously do for a limited period - sakura.

The smell alone is enough to get people queuing up - it worked on me!

Folks mingling around together under the sakura trees.

Slowly but surely, Japan is getting back up on its feet after the Tohoku Kanto Earthquake. Its up to each and everyone of us to do our part in helping Japan flourish once again.

This photo taken from the Nakano Broadway post where you can see more of what you can expect to see and buy.
More places to visit in Japan listed below.

Released earlier on this year by Volks was Dollfie Dream Reimu Hakurei and Marisa Kirisame. These Dollfie's however are of the "DDS" variety or "Dollfie Dream Sister" which are a wee bit smaller than the standard Dollfie Dreams. The main difference is the poseability and joint designs which is completely different than the DD line.
Some how, A DDS Reimu just appeared at my hotel room and asked if I would take her back to Japan while I was in Hong Kong recently.

Many folks ask where to get hold of Dollfies. Unfortunately they are not always easy to come by. Volks USA is an option but many of their products are raffle based - even if you got the moolah to get one, you also need luck on your side. Many of the Volks Dollfies are released at events that take place in Japan - yep raffle based.

Yahoo Auction Japan is another option of looking for a Dollfie but you need to rely on the seller to ship outside of Japan.

If you are willing to pay a wee bit extra after finding what you want on Yahoo Auction however, you can use services like Japan To Door who will bid, buy and send stuff to you no matter where you live.

Another option is to simply ask Natalie at Dollfieworld. Natalie has got an army of comrades who attend each and every Dolls Party and can usually get what you want - all you have to do is to ask her in advance and pay her a wee bit on top for a cuppa coffee.
Natalie also has a shop in Hong Kong which you can check out if you are in town.

The elbow joints on the DDS means that you can bend the arms over 90 degrees without having to pull them out at the elbows sockets like the DD line.

Reimu arrives in Tokyo getting used to her surroundings.

Reimu's wig however looks better on Nanoha.

And Reimu looks better with different hairstyle.

Reimu heads up to the 3rd floor.

Hmmmm. Whats that wooden box thingy?

! Looks like a Dollfie sized wardrobe ^o^ T'was a prezzie from Kuraikawaii-san from Barcelona. She's got many folks in her family who are a dab hand at woodwork.

Reimu looks for something decent to wear.

Running out of space ^^;

Bottom shelf for shoes.

Shelf for bags.

Shelf for stockings and... chocolate?!

Skirts, jumpers and wot not.

And a shelf for the nice smelling frilly stuff. Mmmmmm.

Completely different inner frame. Much more sturdy but squeaks quite a bit.

Reimu's eyes seem...bigger?

As with many photos taken by Volks - was not a fan of Reimu until I started to see photos taken by owners. She's quite a cutie.

Looks like Reimu found something to wear.

At the top of the wardrobe is the food pantry filled with ready to nom nommies.

More Doll related posts below.

「創作造形©ボークス・造形村」©1998-2010 VOLKS INC. All rights are reserved.
「創作造形©ボークス・造形村」©2003-2010 VOLKS INC. All rights are reserved.
スーパードルフィー®、ドルフィードリーム® はボークス社の商標登録であり、その全ての権利を所有しています。

On Thursday June 23rd 2011, I will be speaking on behalf of advertising agency Dentsu at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly known as the Cannes International Advertising Festival). The venue is the Palais des Festivals and other companies speaking will be folks like Saatchi & Saatchi, Time Warner, Yahoo! Google, Facebook, AOL, Coca Cola, Fiat and more. My Bio bits n bobs are up on the official site.

I'll be speaking along with Akira Kagami who is the Executive Officer & Global ECD at Dentsu - this photo snapped with him at the Dentsu HQ in Shiodome Tokyo. The posters you see at the back are created by Dentsu for the previous years events and are plastered all over the venue - I've asked them to use Mirai-chan as she will be in various anime titles starting this Summer ^o^

Trailer for the event below.

• Ghost in the Shell
  
• Cowboy Bebop
  
• Macross
  
• Black Rock Shooter
  
• Kiki's Delivery Service
  
• Laputa
  
• Summer Wars
  
• Pokemon
  
• Haruhi

Would be interesting to hear what you would pick. In addition to the user generated poll below, make a list of 5 anime titles that you would choose too.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Ascii Media Works - the folks who recently bought us Oreimo and a load of other anime titles. They publish a ton of magazines n books in Japan are are part of Kadokawa group. We've already taken a look at the Ascii offices down on one of the lower floors and today we get to look at the goodies on the 5th floor - they got a load of their publications in a large meeting area displayed with a load of merchandise too.

This is comrade Yukina-san who I work with on Tokyo Kawaii Magazine. First met the folks from Ascii when they invited me to be on their radio channel early last year. Have been working with them on various projects since then - one of which will be revealed at Anime Expo 2011 and the other project is a book which I need to announce soon.

Oreimo goodies - wonder if they noticed that it all went missing when I left ^^;

Cute girls everywhere who let me take their photos.

How many of you watching Astarotte no Omocha? Lotte is a cutie.

Another cutie Erio in Denpa Onna.

Nogizaka Haruka has lovely eyes.

Edible merchandise - Oreimo Soba.

More Ascii Media Works related figures.

Load of Toaru stuff.

Ikemens remind me that I still have not started work on the character design for our 4th mascot.

Pantsu malfunction in the background.

More malfunctioning. But malfunction can be good sometimes.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Dengeki Bunko light novel series.

How many of you playing the Oreimo/Index PSP games?

Dengeki as you have guessed by now is part of the group. They also got Dengeki Hime.

G's Festival is Ascii too.

Nice bottom.

Have not told Dengeki Hobby that I used to scan nearly every edition of their mag when I used to write more Gundam articles ^^;

Most of the goodies here come with the various publications.

iPad2 not out yet in Japan but book stores are already filled with iPad 2 user guides.

Nyan.

Too many cuties all over the place - Dengeki Maoh and Dengeki Daioh.

Light novels are big business over here - very often the bookshops have a stack of them at the entrance.

The Feng eroge Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi. Also now an anime title.

Artwork book featuring the works of Hinamatsuri Touko.

Guidebook for the Oreimo game.

You dont know Monster Hunter 3 until you have the master guide book.

Thicker than a telephone book!

How many of you caught any of the Princess Lover series in either Eroge, Anime or Ero OVA form?

Computing guides like these helped while studying PHP, Javascript and other programing languages. Where do you learn most of your coding from? Class, Books, Internets or combination?

Notice many of the bookshops got these separators with cute girlies on them to help customers make a buying decision.

The offices got the huge RX78 and Zak to play about with.

I love Nendoroid Popura and have been carrying her around with me everywhere of late. I want the Mirai-chan Nendoroid to have the same face. Oh wait what am I saying? ><

The joints on the hands are rather awesome.

Huge Danbooru.

More Japanese office tours listed up below.

Up for pre-order now is Elsie from The World God Only Knows. Shes sooooo cute!
Shes 1/8 scale and due out this September by Max Factory - retails for 8,800 yen. More details at Good Smile.

Available for pre-order at the following trusted dealers.
http://www.amiami.jp/shop/ProductInfo/product_id/206831
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10146763
http://www.hobbystock.jp/item/view/hby-gcf-00004266

May also be available at the following stores soon.
http://www.kidnemo.fm/
http://www.archonia.com/mangashop/en/
http://www.jlist.com/home
http://www.hlj.com/

OP for the anime below.

There is a poll embedded in this article.

Was at Production IG yesterday where I met Kenji Kamiyama [神山健治] - Japanese anime director who has brought us Ghost in the Shell SAC, Seirei no Moribito and East of Eden.
He started his work many moons ago where he done background art for titles like Akira and Kiki's Delivery Service.

Kamiyama-san is also a fashion guru and mentioned that he has worked with a few brands to produce some wearable goodies. I jokingly mentioned that we should make some fashion accessories together. Or was it just a joke? Kamiyama-san currently works closely with Tomohiko Ishii at Production IG.
Folks who want to another source of Japanese learning can follow him on twitter > http://twitter.com/kixyuubann

Might as well start a new category of folks who I come across or work with in the Japanese Pop Culture field - creating the list below.

Other Production IG related posts below.

Meeting up with Tomohiko Ishii [石井朋彦] - anime movie producer who previously worked at Studio Ghibli but now at Production IG. He's produced titles such as Spirited Away, Gedo Senki, Sky Crawlers, Eden of the East and the recent Ghost in the Shell SAC 3D movie. He's currently working closely with Kenji Kamiyama on various projects.

He's also on Twitter and you can follow him on http://twitter.com/icitomohiko

Lunch with Ishii-san. This is a traditional Japanese dish called kamameshi [釜飯] which is rice in a hot bowl thingy. Photos that Ishii-san took below.
http://plixi.com/p/96620865
http://plixi.com/p/96623573

More folks in the industry listed up below.

Other Production IG related posts below.

Stick most food photos in the A Week in Tokyo series but sometimes there be too much - I'm either taking too much photos or eating too much ^^;
Following on from the Japanese Food photo post comes part 2 - filled with a load of great food that one can om nom in Japan - not only of the Japanese variety but food from many different nations too.

A report on TV this morning showed that the amount of tourists visiting Japan have dropped by about 50%. To folks who cancelled their trip to Japan - this is what you are missing out on. Un-cancel that ticket and come to get some noms.

More om nom listed up below.

What is your fave Japanese dish?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

When was the last time you are a Japanese dish?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Update - got a load of posts already! Signup and start mingling!

Playing some Weiss Schwartz with Terence from Bushiroad. Ever since I've been dabbling in trading card games (TCG), I often hear about how folks love the card designs but are ronery and have no like minded comrades to play TCG with. The thing is that there are probably quite a few folks out there who are nearby and want to dabble too.

What I would like to do is to have those of you interested in TCG to introduce yourself and post photos of your fave cards - or your whole collection over at the English Bushiroad site.

Let us know in which region you live in and leave either a link to your twitter or facebook account so that folks can contact you directly. You will see an "Upload" link at the top of the page where you can submit your photos. Your posts wont appear on the top page straight away until the Bushiroad staff have have gone through them.

Hopefully you will be able to meet some like-minded TCG comrades who live near you. As part of the self-intro fun, Bushiroad got 3 sets of TCG to giveaway - signed by all the Milky Holmes girls!

Winners will be chosen at random by the Bushiroad staff and they will send you your goodies - winners to be announced at the Bushiroad Facebook page. Deadline in a couple of weeks. Good luck!

#Just a quick note to mention that this contest is only available to folks who reside outside of Japan - Sorry!

And here are some of my wad which you can see more of in the Trading Card Game post.

Snapped at yesterdays Good Smile Company 10th Anniversary event. Real Action Heroes Black Rock Shooter. No details of release date yet but I can tell you that shes huge! At first I thought she was the Stop Motion version.
Details as I get em.

Has it been ages or has it been ages since the last figure giveway? The boss at Toylet has not been feeling too well of late and for some reason has set the prices for many catalog items to half price - have a lookie at their K-ON goodies and other figures.

The boss also wants to send one of you this gorgeous Good Smile Company Nadeko Sengou figure which recently came out. But he's only got one and asked me to think of a way to choose a who should get her.

The only thing I could think of was to let you guess who I'm thinking of from their list of deals:-

• Shes got oppai
  
• She has a nose
  
• Shes got a mouth
  
• Shes got blonde hair
  
• She carries a weapon

Akiyama Mio
http://store.toylet.net/292797.html

• Toylet will send your Nadeko to you directly.
  
• You can only answer once.
  
• Will announce the winner on my Facebook or Twitter.
  
• You got until this time next week to answer.
  
• Arms and installation is complete - good luck!

As for the figure - shes absolutely gorgeous as you can see. Shes 1/8 scale and comes with a removable coat and hat. The base is lovely too and the whole sculpt has a feeling of "Japan." Retail price is 9,800 yen.
More details and photos at Good Smile.

Its been 10 years to the day since Aki Takanori set up his company Good Smile Company and to celebrate, they held a huge event in the middle of Akihabara. The day was split into two parts - one for business partners in the early afternoon and the other for fans and consumers.
I went along and stayed for the early afternoon session and for a wee bit in the late afternoon.

We is being greeted by some ladies and the chap who sends me all those Good Smile posters that you see in the office ^^

The ladies wearing the latest in balloon fashion.

Checking in at the reception.

The traditional congrats flowers with names of the various companies displayed along with them.

The BRS ladies - folks who have seen Culture Japan Season 1 Episode 1 may recognize them.

A ton of noms - which I didn't get to eat much of as I bumped into a load of comrades - half of them were my clients too ^^;

Good Smile had *all* the figures they've made on display. They also make the Max factory stuff too but only had the "Good Smile Company" branded ones out.

Will post all figure photos in a separate post.

Big Boss Aki Takanori looking very smart.

Or maybe it was the 70th anniversary? ^^;

Doors just opened and folks are slowly starting to make their way in.

The Good Smile mascot - Gusuma Seijin.

Spoke to the boss of Indotei about making some vacuum packed Mirai-chan curry.

I wish I had eaten more ToT

This is Max Watanabe - the boss of Max Factory. We've been working on a challenging project of late ^^;

The balloon girls are starting to increase in numbers.

Indotei curry - orange curry on rice with a dollop of coconut.

Time for Aki-san to greet the audience.

The Balloon girls on stage ready to...

...give Aki-san a bite of their soft...
...sushi...

Up n coming Nendoroid releases. Photos in a separate post later.

The boss of Banpresto makes a speech - he used to be Aki-sans boss.

Was speaking to the Bushiroad staff about their boss Kidani-san when all of a sudden he appeared on the screen behind me! I obviously was saying all things good about him ^^;

The Milky Holmes girls left a message too.

Good Smile Company announces that they are opening a Shanghai office. They've also discovered a load of talented sculptors in Shanghai and will be working with them on a load of projects soon.

The Nendoroid Planet iPhone app will be available from the App Store at end of May - June. Will be a catalog of all the Nendoroids available and include some 3D models too. Shame Nendoroid Mirai didn't make it for the release of the app ^^;

PSP game Nendoroid Generations being worked on by Bandai Namco.

Good Smile talking about hiring university graduates. I need to talk about how university students look for jobs in Japan - tis a very interesting process.

Good Smile participate in a load of racing shenanigans too and they had a live feed of what was going on at one of the tracks.

Nearing the end of the first session of the day. The top lady at Good Smile makes a speech.

Then all of a sudden, the rest of the Good Smile staff get on stage. Aki wonders whats going on.

Everybody attacks Aki and hurls him up in the air.

Time for Max to give a speech.

At the back of the hall are all the GSC figures throughout the years.

Gorgeous illustration by Huke - Gumako in BRS style.

Nitroplus PR guy Joy Max wants to om nom Aki-san.

And then in the late afternoon, the hall is cleared for the consumer and fan session.

Picked up some goodies on the way out.

Box O Good Smile Goodness.

Good Smile headphones.

Watching how Good Smile have evolved throughout the years is always stimulating and am honored to be able to work with such a coolsome company.

What is your fave Good Smile Company figure to date?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

American Blu-ray release of K-ON! is being distributed by Bandai who sent over a copy for tasting. Its got English dubs and original Japanese too - some of the English dubs in action below.

My second encounter was Macross which was dubbed into Cantonese. Could hardly speak Japanese at that time but probably would not have minded if it came with original Japanese dialog and English subs.

Western movies are shown in the cinema over here in Japan as both subbed or dubbed. Children tend to go for the dubs while adults mostly prefer original English dialog.
"Jimaku" [字幕] means subs
"Fukikae" [吹き替え] means dubs

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

AKB48 had been encouraging folks to vote for who they wanted to be the next governor of Tokyo. There were a load of ads on the trains and on TV too - CM below.

The governor of Tokyo however remains as Ishihara-san. I kinda liked candidate Yujiro's smile.

Not many decided to run for governor - maybe because the result was already decided?

And then after the governor elections were the seat elections. Usually around election time, a load of cars drive around with loudspeakers where the candidate repeatedly shouts out their name. This process went on for many years but was different this time round. A "No Election Car" [NO! 選挙カー] movement meant that many decided not to do it as its just noisy, causes traffic jams and wastes tax payers money. More on this in the news report below.

Foreigners are not allowed to vote and many think that its unfair. I'm not bothered at all but if I could vote then I would go for number 12.

All the bingo boards have been taken down now but found it interesting when I first saw them. Anybody an stick up their candidate poster.
Do they do anything like this where you are?

Are you eligible to vote in your country and do you?
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Just a quick update on the Itamado stuff. Been working on experimenting with various materials and coatings for the product. There's a lot more to just printing them out and flogging them on the Internets which is why its taking a bit of time. Wanted to have them ready in time for Anime Expo but don't think I'll make it ToT

As mentioned before, Itamado sheets are designed to work not only windows in your house but also on cars too. This Choco Chip sheet has been laminated to protect it out in the weather.

By the way, I plan to have a small Itasha show during the Anime Expo season in July in Los Angeles. If you have a car and are willing to let me Itarize it for you then post a photo of your car in the comments below. I will pay for your car to get the Ita-treatment but I need your car from the 31 June - 4th July. Your car will be kept in a convention center (guarded 24 hours) and you wont be able to use it until after the convention. You will also need to wash it before Ita-treatment too ^^;
After I've picked out a few cars from the comments, you will need to follow the how to make Itasha instructions to measure your car. You can obviously keep the stickers on your car after the event.

I'll touch down in LA a few days before Anime Expo and we'll all meetup to work on the project. I'll also cover a vendor pass for you too.
While we are at it, if you got a coolsome bike that you want Itarized then leave a photo of it too.

Your mean machine will be Itarized with either Mirai-chan or a Kadokawa title which I will discuss with you. Yoroshiku!

Early versions of Itamado needed an extra sheet called "Application" to help you stick em up but the latest version can be applied on its own. Itamado sheets can be re-applied to a surface many times.

This is Mirai-chan in her new Solar Marine uniform which I'll talk about next week ^^;
We've discovered that its going to be difficult to cut around the illustration perfectly - hair is a challenge as its all over the place. Hair in the illustration I mean and not my hairs.
Thus there will be a small gap of black or white around the illustration. This introduces something which I have no experience with and that's Path Data. Path Data is needed in Illustrator format so that the cutting machine can plot a smooth path around the illustration.

As you can see from the photo - one Mirai-chan has a black outline and the other has white. Black looks great when its night but white looks better during the day ^^;
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Got some non-laminated ones to test too. Illustrations printed at this size need to be originally drawn in at least 350dpi. If you are an illustrator then you may want to consider to start practicing drawing at that dpi. The norm is A4 @ 350dpi. I previously used to ask for 600dpi but it seems that's only really used for monochrome printing.

Plan to make Itamado so that you can use em as posters too. As they are water resistant, you should be able to stick em up in the shower if you fancy.

Been playing about with the idea of using the dead space on an Itamado sheet to make iPad stickers too. This one of Mirai by Ikkyuu-san.

The sticker is also laminated which will protect the back surface - but not if you drop it though ^^;
There is a poll embedded in this article.

But cant do much about the Apple logo which shows through if you look at the back from an angle ^^;

Can also print iPhone stickers with the remaining dead space too - this sample came out too grainy.
There is a poll embedded in this article.

Little Devil Mirai by Yuu-san.

Hatsune Miku appears in a Toyota commercial for their Corolla car - not for the Japanese market but for the American one

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

After the Japan broadcast on Tokyo MX TV and the Asia broadcast on Animax Asia, Culture Japan is now available to the rest of za warudo on Crunchyloll.
For folks who are not beknowist, Culture Japan is a TV show that I direct and present on that introduces Japanese Pop Culture and the more traditional Japan. Filming Season 2 as we speak and will be on air on Tokyo MX TV and Animax Asia this October.

You can check out the Culture Japan Channel or jump to each episode below.

• Episode 1 - Shiori Mikami, Wonder Festival and Japanese Festivals
  The very first episode of Culture Japan, featuring Shiori Mikami as a guest in studio. This episode brings us to one of the biggest figure events in the world - the Summer Wonder Festival. We also take a look at how exactly figures are made in the Good Smile Company figure factory in China, and finally take a visit to a Japanese Festival.

• Episode 2 - Ninja Shenanigans in Edo Wonderland
  The lovely Shiori Mikami joins us once again as an in studio guest as we take look at Edo Wonderland in Nikko, where one can experience life just as it was in the Edo Period of Japan, as well as experience life as a ninja! We also take a look at otaku rooms from all over the world.

• Episode 3 - The Milky Holmes Girls
  This episode's guests are the wonderful Milky Holmes girls, who give us a look into the world of Milky Holmes and explain what it's like to be an anime voice actress. We'll also take a look at the festivities that went on at the Tokyo Game Show 2010.

• Episode 4 - Cultural Festival at Tokyo Metropolitan High School
  Asanon, the P.R Manager of Good Smile Company, joins us as a guest in this episode. We take a look at a Japanese cultural festival taking place at Tokyo Metropolitan Kokusai High School - there are loads of games to play, a ton of food to enjoy, and even some performances to watch!

• Episode 5 - Akihabara Tour
  In this episode we head out to Akihabara, the holy land of otaku. First we visit a 'clone factory', which prints out 3D clones. Next we head out to Hobby Station - a huge trading card store - where we take a look at what sort of goods they have on sale. We've also got coverage of the Volks store in there too.

• Episode 6 - Ita-G Festival
  In this episode we take part in the 2010 Ita-G Festival - an event filled with 'itasha', which are cars covered with cute anime characters - but there are also bicycles and even motorbikes that also look just as great! We even take a look at how these itasha are made, from start to finish. Afterwards we take a look at Japan's underground bicycle storage systems, and how they are improving space problems around Japan.

• Episode 7 - Fujisawa High School
  In this episode we visit Fujisawa High School and take a look at everything that goes on during a typical Japanese school day - from the various classes, break time, cleaning up the classroom and even afterschool activities, it's just like spending a day at a Japanese school for the day! Afterwards we take a look at a Japanese shopping street, where you can find all sorts of goodies, from food to 100 yen stores.

• Episode 8 - Japanese Archery and Pachinko
  In this episode we visit Yashio High School where we take a close look at 'Kyudo', or Japanese archery. We then head to the headquarters of Sammy, a company who create pachinko machines and are also the creators of the popular Twin Angel anime series. After learning a little about pachinko we then head out to a real pachinko parlor with the adorable Sammy girls and give it a go!

• Episode 9 - AFAX Special
  This week we visit Singapore and take a look at the 2010 Anime Festival Asia, which featured a number of famous Japanese music artists and voice actors, figures, cosplay competitions, trading card competitions and much more!

• Episode 10 - Shibuya Tour
  In this episode we are joined by the beautiful Eri Otoguro as we take a look all over Shibuya. We have a look at all sorts of places you can do some shopping - from the famous '109' building which is filled with all the most current fashions down to the popular otaku store 'Mandarake'. We even take at some of the wonders you can find in the Shibuya electronic stores.

• Episode 11 - Anime & Manga
  In this episode we make a visit to Production I.G. where we take a look at how anime is made - from the frame drawing to the coloring. We then visit Yuko Azami-sensei, an illustrator responsible for creating Danny's mascot character Mirai-chan! Finally we pay a visit to 'Web Technology', who are the developers of the software 'Comipo', which helps anyone make manga quickly and easily!

• Episode 12 - Food Samples, Dolls and Ryokan
  In this episode we take a look at how the various food samples displayed all over Japan are made. After that we head down to the headquarters of Obitsu, a company responsible for making absolutely lovely dolls, and they take us through the process used to make dolls. Finally we also head to a traditional Japanese inn or 'ryokan', where we take a look at how one should spend their day when staying in one of these traditional rooms.

Trailer for the first season below.