MetaFilter posts tagged with anime and manga

Finnish Fan Foments Flash Friday Fun

Monsieur Caution — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:04:08 -0800

Hapuriainen makes dress ups / character creators: Disney Girls dress up; Pokémon Trainer creator; Naruto character creator; W.I.T.C.H. Guardians maker; and 64 others. Full list:

See also: Hapuriainen's tutorial on how to create dress ups in Flash. Note: These may be useful as character designers for tabletop RPGs: Pokémon Jr.; Cute and Fuzzy Cockfighting Seizure Monsters and other BESM settings; Open Versatile Anime; HeartQuest (including Musical Mistresses, Steel Roses, and Livin' on a Dream); Witch Girls Adventures; a game of Breaking the Ice or Shooting the Moon focusing on anime-style characters; or a game of Primetime Adventures about the voice actors for the characters you create. See also the several forum-based Naruto RPGs. Previously: Paper Doll Heaven; dress-up & paper dolls; and FFF.

Kamehameha!

Athanassiel — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 23:49:52 -0800

Kotaku has an article about the latest Japanese schoolgirl trend: fake martial arts attacks à la Dragon Ball. The spoofed Kamehameha attacks aren't new, but the ubiquity of mobile phone cameras makes for some hilarious shots. Previously on Kotaku.

Toren Smith, 1960-2013

Sokka shot first — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 07:10:00 -0800

I had discovered the Animage comics version of Nausicaa, which provided my entry into the world of Japanese comics--a world which was to cause me to devote my life to bringing it to all English-speaking people.

Toren Smith, a brilliant editor and translator and one of Japanese comics' first and greatest advocates in the English-speaking world, is dead. Anglophone otaku the world over have Smith and the manga import company he founded, Studio Proteus, to thank for much of the existence of their hobby. In addition to his instrumentality in bringing titles like Akira, Domu, Oh My Goddess, and Blade of the Immortal to the English-speaking world, Smith and Studio Proteus translated much of Science Fiction legend Masamune Shirow's oeuvre into English, starting with Appleseed and continuing with Dominion, Ghost in the Shell, and Orion. Over the course of his career he became involved with über-nerd animation studio Gainax, who immortalized him in Gunbuster as "Smith Toren," a robot pilot aboard the Exelion. Of Studio Proteus's legendary and unimpeachable translation of Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, Smith said:

Above all, Tom, Dana and myself all agreed that despite all the hard work we were doing, we wanted our work to be totally invisible to the readers. We hoped that, when we were done, the English-language readers would never notice the translation, the sound effects or the lettering--they would simply read and enjoy this incredible story without ever thinking about the fact that it was translated from another language.

Captain Harlock: "The sea of space is my sea"

filthy light thief — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 20:30:26 -0800

"Few characters are as memorable as he: tall, black-cloaked, face scarred, eyepatch over his right eye, and ever-ready with his saber-rifle. He is the epitome of Leiji (Reiji) Matsumoto's male hero, an SF version of the wild-West lone gunslinger." The Space Pirate Captain Harlock is coming back in a new CG movie, a decade since his escapades were last animated, and back with Toei Animation, who first brought his one-eyed scowl to the small screen 35 years ago. If this is all news to you, read on for more of the mysterious man who fight's for no one's sake. Who is this Captain Harlock? The name may sound German, but in an interview, Akira "Leiji" Matsumoto outlined the origin of the character: the character was originally an English pirate who called himself "Captain Kingston," yet he received secret orders from the Queen of Spain to search for Napoleon's treasure. Mind you, Matsumoto was a kid at this time, and the later name "Harlock" came from "hārokku," a little made-up word that he would chant while he walked home from school. This rough creation first showed up in Matsumoto's first paid job creating manga, which followed from a contest he entered. At age 15, Mitsubachi no bôken (the adventures of a bee) was published by Manga Shônen, and somewhere in that publication, Harlock appeared in 1953. But it would be another 24 years until he was the star of his own universe. In 1977, Space Pirate Captain Harlock was first published as a manga, and would run for five volumes. The next year, the story was released as an animated series by Toei, and had a run of 42 episodes, setting Harlock, "a man of passion and activity" against "a corrupt and complacent government." This series is now available on Hulu and Crunchy Roll, but this is relatively recent. Before that, there were various distribution schemes, including a Robotech-like Frankenstein's monster of a show, creating a 65-episode show from Space Pirate Captain Harlock and another Matsumoto creation, Queen Millennia, which had its own 42 episodes, plus a full movie. [See: fansubbed Episode 1] Next came the movie Arcadia of My Youth, which told of the origins of Harlock, in a time where aliens have invade Earth and Harlock's crew battle against the oppression of the Illumidus. [In parts on DailyMotion: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4] Later in 1982, the movie was followed up with a 22 episode series, Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX, with Harlock and his crew exiled from Earth. The series somewhat segues into Galaxy Express 999 and the original Harlock series, Space Pirate Captain Harlock, except that there are some significant contradictions between the series. [YT: English fansubs of ep 1 part 1, part 2; ep 2 part 1, part 2] There was a US comic adaptation of Captain Harlock that tried to connect these series, but is considered by some to be non-canonical. It wasn't until the late 1990s that Harlock returned, in an as-of-yet incomplete adaptation of Das Rheingold, titled Harlock Saga. In manga form, there will eventually be 9 volumes, though only 8 are available in Japanese and translated to French, and fewer available in English. Bandai Visual produced 6 episodes in 1999, and US Manga Corps did a less than stellar job translating the series that wasn't even that interesting to begin with. With that, you might not suffer that much by seeing the episodes dubbed in French. [On DailyMotion: episode 1, episode 2, episode 3, episode 4, episode 5, and episode 6] (Space Pirate) Captain Herlock - The Endless Odyssey (yes, Herlock, the spelling of the captain's name changes a bit from translation to translation) finds Earth in a pretty good place, until an ancient civilization that used to rule the universe wants to regain its control. Enter Harlock/Herlock, for 13 episodes of adventures. [Fansubs on Rutube: ep 1, ep 2, ep 3, ep 4, ep 5, ep 6, ep7, ep 8, ep 9, ep 10, ep 11, ep 12, and ep 13] This was the last we saw of the true Harlock, until the teasers and trailers for the forth-coming CG music, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.... In the nebulous world(s) of Captain Harlock, there were a few spin-offs, some with tenuous relationships to the original space pirate. Gun Frontier wasn't a dramatic space opera, but rather a series of comedic western stories, with Harlock and Tochiro Oyama swapping roles of lead and side-kick (or maybe it's a western version of the Space Pirate. The manga came out in the early 1970s, and was turned into a 13 episode anime series in 2002. [The series is on Hulu] There was also the Galaxy Express 999, a rather epic 21 volume manga, and later 113 episode series [on Crunchy Roll, and a few on Hulu] and three subsequent movies (Bonjour Galaxy Express 999 [YT playlist, English subs], Adieu Galaxy Express 999 [review part 1, part 2], and Eternal Fantasy [unsubbed]). Then there was the relatively short manga and series [YT, English subbed, split in parts], Queen Emeraldas, focusing on the privateer Emeraldas, and her ship, Queen Emeraldas. So, you're generally up to speed with Captain Harlock, and you might realize there were a few ... conflicts. You're looking for continuity in the Harlock Universe. Here's the short version: forget it.

There shall be no schizophrenic doubling back here. I'm here to tell you that any exercise in trying to fit all the Harlock stories under one umbrella is rather like trying to fit all the penguins in Antarctica under one umbrella, which is to say 1. futile, and 2. pointless.

Or, it's all part of Matsumoto's plan.

Matsumoto stated in an interview that he thinks of the universe as a sphere, or a ball, where time overlaps. He regards the past as the distant future — which is to say that if you keep going forward eventually you'll come back to the beginning again, meeting your deceased friends along the way. It's a lovely concept, and it goes a long way towards explaining the worlds he has created, and the world that Harlock lives in.

However it runs, all roads lead to Harlock (source: Animerica Magazine July 1996 Volume 4, Issue 7). Even Danzig was a fan, telling Narduar that his look is not based on Captain Harlock, but he did make his own Space Pirate shirt, as seen on the cover of Walk Among Us, and later Rob Zombie was seen sporting Harlock's skull and crossed bones. Not much is known about the forthcoming Captain Harlock movie, except budgeted at $30 million, the most expensive ever in Toei Animation, a vague Fall 2013 release date for Japan, and a few of the people slated to be involved. The 45 second teaser trailer is the first official public clip, though clips from a 2010 pilot were shown first at Tokyo's International Anime Fair in 2010, which has a strict no photo policy. A 3:22 long camera recorded trailer clip was posted online in 2010, which might have been (one of) the clip(s) shown at early previews. Leiji Matsumoto's official Japanese website is dated, and the most recent Harlock press release from Toei Animation is from 2010, so the future of Harlock is fairly vague at the moment. Until then, there are volumes of manga and hours of anime, plus the TV Tropes page for Captain Harlock

Short Short Story

thermonuclear.jive.turkey — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 18:22:48 -0800

Manga artist Wisut Ponnimit has created a series of short animated vingettes that are sure to enthrall viewers (links are to the right). To get started, here's Back to Me (grab those tissues) , Morning, and Present. Prepare to say "awww".

Ghost in the Shell Arise in 2013

gen — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 19:27:22 -0800

Ghost in the Shell Arise 「攻殻機動隊ARISE」 (AnimeNewsNetwork) is the newest anime tv series based on Shirow Masmune's cyberpunk manga which debuted in 1989. The new GITS Arise TV show is produced by legendary Japanese anime studio Production I. G. which has produced all of the Ghost in the Shell animated movies and tv series. Fans of Major Motoko Kusanagi and Public Security Section 9 have been eagerly awaiting news of new developments since 2006.

AKIRA Fan Builds Kaneda’s Motorcycle and Rides for Charity

Blazecock Pileon — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 18:40:20 -0800

AKIRA Fan Builds Kaneda’s Motorcycle and Rides for Charity

They Check In, But They Never Leave

23 — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 08:03:45 -0800

Gokicha, a four-panel manga about the troubled life of a cute cockroach girl, has received an anime adaptation. The first episode features newspapers, cats, and human kindness.

Isn't this the library?

filthy light thief — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 13:15:02 -0800

Yomiko Readman is a librarian with amazing paper-manipulating abilities who works for a secret division of the British library, when she isn't a substitute schoolteacher. The division, run by the ancient Mr. Gentleman, is in charge of collecting and monitoring rare books throughout the world. And that's where the trouble starts. The R.O.D. world started with the first of 12 novels in 2000, followed by a manga series and then a three episode OVA (original video animation, usually short direct-to-video series). Each format covers different stories, with the OVA being the most dramatic, opening with a seemingly magical samurai attacking the White House. The samurai is an artificial human clone (or I-Jin in R.O.D.) of Hiraga Gennai, Edo-era samurai, pharmacologist, writer and inventor, showing off a greatly improved electrostatic generator. There are two more episodes in the OVA, then two further spin-offs: Read or Dream manga, which follows the three unrelated young ladies who can manipulate paper and work together in the Paper Sisters Detective Company; and the 26 episodes of R.O.D the TV, a series about three actual sisters with the power to control paper. If you're a bit confused about the appearance of characters in the different continuities, Wikipedia has a good breakdown of characters, with short biographies. Then there's the Read or Die Wiki, which has a lot of good information, but isn't organized all that well, and went dormant a few years ago.

GUTS, GUTS-GUTS

lemuring — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 17:33:14 -0800

Sombody once said,

"There is a beast with such succulent meat, it melts all over your tongue. There is a bubbling spring flowing with tastes of countless fruit juices, such as sweet musk melons and ripened mangoes."

It is the Gourmet Era. The era in which one will search for undiscovered tastes. [Hulu link for US-based viewers] Toriko is a Japanese anime and manga series written and illustrated by Mitsutoshi Shimabukuro. It follows, Toriko, a legendary Gourmet Hunter whose main goal in life is to seek the most precious foods in the world to create the ultimate Full Course Menu. [Non-Hulu Anime Series Link]

TETSUUUOOOO!!!....'s creator returns

sendai sleep master — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 00:35:26 -0800

In 1982 the manga, Akira (previously) , began its run. It would ultimately spawn a film that would lead the way for the growth of the anime medium outside of Japan. An attempted Americanized remake (previouslyer) was in production before being ultimately canceled. The manga’s creator, Katsuhiro Otomo, in the meantime, had taken a 20 year break from long-form manga. It was recently announced that this break was coming to an end and that Otomo would be working on a new long-form shonen series.

The Manga of Miyazaki

filthy light thief — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:21:54 -0800

If you recognize the name Hayao Miyazaki, it's most likely due to his anime films. But along with his involvement in animation, Miyazaki has produced some manga and illustrated story books. Part of the reason his work in still images is less known is lack of translation and distribution. That's where the fans come in, digging up and translating many Miyazaki works, back to his first published manga, which was a serious serialized work, in 1969-1970. Predating his first solo manga, Sabaku no tami (People of the Desert), there was a 1969 Puss in Boots manga, tying into the Puss in Boots movie (Japanese trailer with English subs; Japanese movie with Lithuanian (?) overdubbing), on which Miyazaki worked as a key animator. In 1972, there was a similar serialized manga of a movie for Dōbutsu Takarajima (Animal Treasure Island; Japanese trailer #1, #2, Swedish dub with moments of English). Shuna no tabi (The Journey of Shuna) is a short watercolor manga that was released in 1983, something of a proto-Nausicaä. Miyazaki released a book of image boards in 1983, including images of movies he had only dreamed of making. One of those stories was titled Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke). The story is vaguely along the lines of Beauty and the Beast, and includes imagery that would appear in future Miyazaki movies, including Spirited Away. The story line is a huge change from the movie as released. That same year, Miyazaki released a short illustrated story, Imouto he (For My Sister). I'll leave the 17 page story to stand on its own. From 1982 to 1994, Miyazaki published his serialized epic Kaze no tani no Naushika (Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind). The first two volumes were used as the grounds for the movie, but the story continued on for another 5 volumes of manga. In 1989 or 1990, Hikōtei Jidai (The Age of the Flying Boat) was published in Japan, showing a story that would evolve into the 1992 film Porco Rosso. In 1993, a US magazine focused on anime and manga published an English translation, 13 years in advance of the US release of Porco Rosso on DVD. Zassō Nōto (Daydream data notes) is a series of sporadically released graphic essays on Miyazaki's manga stories, mecha ideas, or movie ideas about tanks, planes, or battleships from the era before World War II. The essays were serialized from 1984 through 1990, and compiled into one volume in 1997. Some of the stories were broken out into their own publications, including Hansu no kikan (The Return of Hans), in 1994. Kūchū de o-Shokuji (Dining in the Air) is an illustrated history of in-flight food, published in 1994 in a Japan Airlines in-flight magazine. The manga is available in English in Starting Point: 1979-1996, a collection of Miyazaki's writings and interviews. Doromamire no tora (Tigers Covered with Mud) was a six-volume serialized manga, published from 1998 to 1999. A fan translator describes it as "one of the very best comics in the world involving pigs and tanks." In 2006, Miyazaki provided a new cover illustration and a 23 page manga, titled A Trip to Tynemouth, for a Japanese re-issue of British World War II ghost stories. Most recently was the 2009 manga Kaze Tachinu, featuring more love for old aircraft.

Doraemon with English subtitles

KokuRyu — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 17:35:54 -0800

Doraemon - the Hurricane Child (Japanese with English subtitles) Perhaps Japan's greatest pop icon, Doraemon is an earless robotic cat who travels back in time from the 22nd century to aid a schoolboy, Nobita. Originally a Japanese manga series created by Fujiko F. Fujio (a nom de plume of a manga writing duo formed by two Japanese manga artists) Doraemon would become probably the most popular anime series in Japanese history. A Daily Motion user has uploaded dozens of older Doraemon episodes, many with English subtitles).

Meet the Beat-Alls

Rhaomi — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:45:46 -0800

Ten years ago today, Cartoon Network aired a very special episode of The Powerpuff Girls. Though nominally a harmless kids series about three adorable kindergarten superheroes, creator Craig McCracken attracted an unexpectedly diverse audience (50% male, 25% adult) by sneaking in a surprising amount of violence and adult in-jokes -- and on that last point, this particular episode was king. Broadcast on the 37th anniversary of their debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, "Meet the Beat-Alls" was an extended and sophisticated metaphor for the rise and fall of The Beatles, cramming more than forty song references and dozens of visual jokes into only ten minutes of animated allegory. Catch the original episode here or read the transcript, but for the full effect, watch this remarkable YouTube mash-up that splices the referenced song clips directly into the audio track and plasters the screen with helpful annotations. Want more PPG goodness? You can start with the special "Powerpuff Girls Rule!!!" (part 2), a sly, hyperkinetic celebration of the show's tenth anniversary directed by McCracken himself that features every character (and totally subverts an important one). But as far as weirdness goes, it's hard to top Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi, a long-running fan-made webcomic which stars the trio alongside Dexter, Samurai Jack, Invader Zim, and tons of other network icons in an unusually dark manga adventure. Oh, and don't forget your plate of beans.

Neon Genesis Evangelion: (Hideaki Anno) Reborn Again (and Again)

filthy light thief — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 13:50:22 -0800

Neon Genesis Evangelion was an anime series created by Hideaki Anno, a rather mysterious and reclusive director who has declined most interviews and has been likened to Alan Moore in his attempt to up-end a major genre. Where Moore doesn't want to work on anything Watchmen-related, Anno has returned to NGE in a very major way with Rebuild of Evangelion, a tetralogy of films to re-tell the original story and present a new ending (again). Though the original goal was a television series, the character designer for the series-to-be, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, released the first "stages" of the related manga in December of 1994. The idea was that the manga would create support for the TV show, which was made into a 26-episode series that ran from October 4, 1995 to March 27, 1996. By the end of the series, the manga was not yet done with the original storyline. The manga mirrors the series, with it's own tangents and deviations from the TV series (SPOILERS), and it's still going, due to gaps of years between the release of some volumes. Volume 12 was released in Japan at the end of March, 2010, with the 13th and final volume to come out in the near future, approaching the 15 year anniversary of end of the series first televised run. As for the TV series, Anno was unhappy with way the series ended due to finances and censorship, and he had episodes 21-26 re-worked for commercial release. Each episode was remastered and cuts were reincorporated into the episodes. But the revisions don't end there. A series of three movies provided a new summary of the series, as well as alternative endings. There were further edits, with director Masayuki tweaking the summary movie (titled Death) for three different releases. And there is even a possible draft ending that wasn't filmed. All this resulted in ongoing debates about which is the real ending (SPOILERS). Even before the movies, there was a lot of commotion around the vague ending of the series, and Anno's comments toward otaku, those who obsessed over specific interests (most commonly anime and manga). A supposed "anime industry dropout" posted a text-only document that claimed to expose various behind-the-scenes secrets surrounding the Evangelion TV airing, Director Anno, Okada Toshio (Gainax founding member), and other Gainax/Neon Genesis Evangelion topics that were only rumors to this point. The document was in Japanese, and some fans translated the non-ranty parts, which provide an interesting look back at the world around Anno, Gainax and Evangelion. Hideaki Anno took a break from animation, which had been his professional world since 1982. He directed an unusual dramatic film called Love & Pop (1998), filmed almost entirely on hand-held digital cameras from various vintage points (in a bowl of soup, on a pair of chopsticks and attached to a model train). (See: on YouTube in parts [playlist], with English subs and a squished aspect ratio.) A couple years later, he directed a live action version of Cutey Honey in film form. In 1999, the reclusive Hideaki Anno agreed to return to his hometown and teach school children about animation. The 38 minute video shows a reluctant Anno get excited about animation again (YT playlist). Even if you don't know (or particularly care about) the world of NGE or anime in general, it's a personal look at a rather private (yet publicly known) individual, including a visit with his parents and former class-mates. Anno didn't stay away from anime forever, returning in 1999 as the series writer for Kareshi Kanojo no Jijō (His and Her Circumstances in English), which was originally a manga series. Then he was the supervising director for Petite Princess Yucie in 2002-2003. Then on February 17, 2007, Hideaki Anno released a statement about Evangelion returning to film. September 1st of that same year, Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone (SPOILERS) was released in Japan. As with previous NGE material, the movie was re-released as Evangelion 1.01 "with 266 enhancements", on DVD and back into theaters, and later remastered and re-released as version 1.11. The second of four films was released on June 27, 2009 in Japan, and elsewhere in the world in the following months. Again, the video release was re-numbered to version 2.22, digitally remastered and with additional "readjustments." The final two films have no proposed release dates as of yet. If the whole Neon Genesis Evangelion complex seems too complex, 303 Magazine has a good summary and review through 2.0. If you want more, try out the following fansites: NERV Archives, the extensive Eva Geeks wiki, general ephemera and translated material at The Evangelion Otaku Page, and detailed notes, cross-references and analysis of the first four episodes on Eva Commentary. Of course, with details you'll get spoilers. And in the "maybe, sometime" file: a few words and visuals from the Live Action NGE project that stalled out in 2003. Video tidbits: opening, full series, Death and Rebirth, The End of Evangelion; Classic AMVs: Rammstein's "Engel" by Kevin Caldwell, and Evangelion Opus (Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody (Live)", edited by Shonen Productions); New AMVs (featuring footage of the new films): Shadox Our Future (Celldweller - The Wings of Icarus, Digital summer - Morphine AMV), Jagdmeister (Rammstein's "Waidmanns Heil," edited by Cenit)

The Most Fired-Up Guy with the Strongest and Most Unbreakable Back

lemuring — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:40:56 -0800

Cromartie High School is a Japanese manga and animated series. It investigates poignant issues and themes in contemporary culture such as Internet Trolls, Denial, and Perception. Most importantly, it educates the viewer on what it takes to be an honest-to-goodness Badass.

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6

channel

Otakupocalypse

Ambrosia Voyeur — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:04:17 -0800

Localfilter: Today in Tokyo, legislation passed that will further restrict manga and animation "glorifying or exaggerating illegal sexual acts." Ten of the biggest comics companies are protesting the Tokyo International Anime Fair, sponsored by the city, responding that a focus on their mode of expression is unfair. Blogger Dan Kanemitsu reports.

What Do I Do With Those Damn Anime Kids?

Artw — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:32:03 -0800

Cartoonist and former high school teacher Sean Michael Robinson (flickr) on what to do with those darn anime kids.

They'er ugly! They're weird! They're tiny! They're terrible! And they're pink! They're Kinkeshi, er MUSCLE Things!

filthy light thief — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 07:05:23 -0800

"As a child, there was nothing to me more fantastic than than the M.U.S.C.L.E. toys. I don't know if it's just my love for the weird, or the fact that I like pro-wrestling that makes it so special to me, but there's something about a guy from outer space with a fin on his head who would fight against a walking, talking urinal. That's right, a urinal." In the US, they were known as Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere, or M.U.S.C.L.E., but they were basically bendable plastic duplicates of Kinkeshi, a line of collectable erasers from Japan. More than peachy-salmon colored minifigs, they were based on the world of Kinnikuman, which started as manga in 1979, then an anime series, and more, and more, and more... The creation of M.U.S.C.L.E. toys stems from two lines of Japanese products. On one side were keshigomu, Japanese erasers, as seen at the IWAKO USA Japanese Eraser Museum and the World of Japanese Erasers blog. The other side was that of the Kinnikuman manga, original created as something of a spoof on Ultraman and mainstream US comics (the first issue found unnamed "American super heroes" busy spending quality time with their families). With the move from print to video in 1983, along with merchandising including Kinnikuman Keshigumi, often abbreviated as Kinkeshi. Two years later, Kinkeshi came to the United States as M.U.S.C.L.E., focusing on the costumed wrestling aspect that became the setting of the Kinnikuman world as the series progressed. The word is that Mattel wanted a low-cost Japanese import toy, and Kinnikuman fit the bill, with a lengthy list of characters to port to kids who wanted ugly, weird, terrible, tiny collectible toys (along with a wrestling belt and stage, seen here and here). Mattel was able to specify materials and Bandai would produce the toys, and Bandai had the facilities in Japan or China to create M.U.S.C.L.E. men in a similar fashion to the Kinkeshi. Enough of these scholarly articles, onto the plastic dudes! Nathan's Muscle Blog provide quality images of the 236 standard run figures, as well as specifications of how they were originally packaged, and has the characters tagged by characteristics, plus other M.U.S.C.L.E. merch like the mail-away poster of 233 characters. 233? Yes, the poster didn't include 3 characters, two who were packaged with the wrestling ring, and Satan's Cross, who might have been too pointy, too "evil," or just fell off the map. And then there are the really rare characters, whose history his hazy at best. The M.U.S.C.L.E. Men (MUSCLE) Collectors Archive has more product photos, and Soupie's MUSCLE Colors Image Archive is just that - images of all known color variants of M.U.S.C.L.E. characters by MUSCLE numbers and Kinnikuman parts. And if this is all too serious, I-Mockery made their own character names and bios (covered previously). But you want more? How about the NES game from 1985 (GameFAQs review, Something Aweful takedown, or try it yourself at Nintendo8.com), Famicom game from 1987, or the overly difficult (warning: lots of complaining) Kinnikuman: Dirty Challenger (Super Famicom). And there are even more! But wait, have you seen the live fight between (Kid Muscle) Kinnikuman and Bob Sapp? Now you can! If that's not enough Kinnikuman/M.U.S.C.L.E. wrestling for you, some fans have made their own wrestling storylines. And for the girls? There were the C.U.T.I.E.S. (acronym for "coolest ultra tiny individuals on earth," though they were generally the same scale as M.U.S.C.L.E. men, not as small as Polly Pockets). Some M.U.S.C.L.E. scholars don't include C.U.T.I.E.S. in the MUSCLE Men universe, but other fans have included cross-overs in homemade M.U.S.C.L.E. wrestling videos. If this has left you with more questions than answers, check out the M.U.S.C.L.E., Exogini, Cosmix, etc. board on the LittleRubberGuys forum. (FYI: Cosmix and Exogini were lines of Kinkeshi/M.U.S.C.L.E. knock-offs from France and Italy, respectively.)

The Legend of Koizumi

KokuRyu — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 21:08:18 -0800

You’ve read about the best friggin’ manga ever on Mutantfrog and Wikipedia. Now watch it in Anime form (via Japan Probe) The premise of the manga is that international diplomacy is settled on the mahjong table, with real-life politicians depicted as masters of mahjong. The Japanese title is a parody of Junichiro Koizumi's slogan, "Reform with no Sanctuary" (聖域無き改革 Seiiki Naki Kaikaku).

Springtime for Slash

Countess Elena — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 14:43:34 -0800

Inglourious Basterds looks promisingly offensive, but it certainly doesn't appear to be the most offensive thing that could possibly be written as a comedy about World War II. No, for that, you'd have to have -- no, not Jerry Lewis, that won't do. Say it was based on a comic that was originally a webcomic. Say it was produced in one of the former Axis countries. And that it featured all of the major players as anthropomorphized stereotypes of those countries. And that these stereotypes were all young, attractive men who spent a lot of time with each other. Call it "Useless Italy" -- or, in Japanese, Hetalia: Axis Powers. (Actually, it can be pretty funny; I am not one to merely LOLJAPAN, but I laughed at these. And at least the kids are getting interested in history, right? [NSFW text.] See also: Afuganisu-tan.)

Otaku in Love

digaman — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:53:07 -0800

"Nisan didn’t mean to fall in love with Nemutan. Their first encounter -- at a comic-book convention that Nisan’s gaming friends dragged him to in Tokyo -- was serendipitous. Nisan was wandering aimlessly around the crowded exhibition hall when he suddenly found himself staring into Nemutan’s bright blue eyes... 'I’ve experienced so many amazing things because of her,' Nisan told me, rubbing Nemutan’s leg warmly. 'She has really changed my life.' Nemutan doesn’t really have a leg. She’s a stuffed pillowcase — a 2-D depiction of a character, Nemu, from an X-rated version of a PC video game called Da Capo." The New York Times' Lisa Katayama on "2-D lovers" in Japan, the latest outgrowth of otaku subculture.

The human whose name is written in this note shall die.

Soup — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:55:31 -0800

The manga series "Death Note." The first volume. The adapted anime series, newly arrived on Adult Swim. The Japanese movie trailer. Spoilers: Possible origins. The early press. Interviews with writer Tsugumi Ohba and illustrator Takeshi Obata. The controversy. The collectibles. The online Death Note. The last volume, finally released in the US and reviewed.

I am Tetsuo

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 01:49:41 -0800

Akira2019: a fan-site devoted to the classic Japanese manga and anime, offering up production cels, background info on the ground-breaking digital coloring technique used in the Epic translation, images, and film music.