Fake hologram lady from the future, from Japan, from space plays gig

I would say it was strange for a 10 foot cartoon hologram to be playing a live gig with thousands of screaming fans but then again I do want to see the Gorillaz live (although they have real people on stage now...). It's nice how she acknowledges her band, plus some people in the audience appear to have glowing leeks...

In case you were wandering Hatsune Miku is a Vocaloid character who is apparently very popular. :P For more information on Miku's gig click here.

Murdoc Dancing with Madonna!!! (Whether that's a good thing I don't know...)

Video from Japan

I still haven't finished my homework but I have, however, finally got the small amount of footage I took in Japan online. The footage is cut fairly badly and is mostly of live bands playing at the 六本木Superdeluxe (a venue in Roppongi), but nonetheless here it is.



For anyone interested the bands (in order) are:

Che-a

Sunset Drive

BALLOON88

natccu

BO-PEEP

and the live band in the park LANCER>>Bee (I got a signed CD off them ^^)

One man-ime...

I've had this poster on my wall for about 2 years, but until today I'd never actually watched the anime. センコロール (or Cencoroll in English) was a strange little film that only lasts for about 25 mins. The plot seems to be a small part of a bigger story. It's a nice little watch if you enjoy having a "huh?" feeling after watching something. What's particularly impressive is the anime was written, directed and animated almost entirely by one man. It's only 25 minutes of your time, I suggest you check it out.


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Location:私の部屋

Twitter actually tuns out to be quite interesting

Through twittering I've discovered, Suda 51 is working on a new IP (woooooooooooo! I like this BTW) and this website has awesome No More Heroes 2 T-shirts, as well as a lot of other kool stuff. Now I just need to work out if they'll send to the UK.

JET Application

The JET application is up, finally. http://www.jet-uk.org/

Hmm that was a short post...

...ADVENTURE TIME!

Aristocratic slapping...

I was browsing though the sites I had bookmarked in firefox and I came across this gem, Rose & Camellia. The premise is that you play as a woman who has recently lost her husband. The player has to slap their way though the dead husbands aristocratic family and eventually claim their house. That's about it.

I less than three Super Meat Boy!

I have found a new love... Super meat Boy. I never thought a game where I die so much, could be so much fun. Meat Boy is hard (Some people get stuck between a rock and a hard place, Meat Boy is that place.) and hard games usually frustrate the hell out of me. Meat Bot doesn't. I don't know whether it's the controls, the speed or the replays that show all my pathetic attempts, but I think (at least based on mechanics) this may be my new favourite game. Sorry old default favourite, Parappa the Rapper, your 2D/3D/whatever charm is no match for Meat Boy's raw, bloody gameplay...

In other news, I'm enjoying my Japanese lessons and I also got a language exchange partner so I can practice speaking. I also went to the Barbican with my mum to the Future Beauty: 30 years of Japanese Fashion which was pretty interesting. I ended up buying a DVD, which I thought was a documentary about street culture, which had strange textless menus. After some confusion it turned out to be a sort of documentary with no words. It did make me quite nostalgic about Tokyo. I was going to say more stuff but I'm tired so I wont. The End.

A nice chill song from 8OTTO for you.

フィッシュストーリー

I just finished watching yet another amazing Japanese film brought to the UK market by Third Window Films. The film in question is Fish Story, set over 4 decades showing how one punk song (which just so happens to have been inspired by a badly translated novel) can help save the world. I also indecently love the said punk song and hope it reside on my iPone as soon as possible. ^^

Anyway yes I highly recommend this film to people who... like this film but don't know yet because they haven't seen it yet.

Weekend of expo-ditions

Well today I went to another expo after yesterdays Eurogamer. Today was Hyper Japan (a Japanese culture expo) and I had a good time hanging out with a few of the old members of the anime society. I ate some takoyaki and bought some DVD's and had some fun. ^^ Oh and there was a big chopper. Anywho time to go out.

...I also found out about a manga (called 聖☆おにいさん) about Jesus and Budda living in a flat together in Japan, I have to read this.

Also "Jesus is in the game!"

¥1,800 (£13) down the iTunes drain...

I just spent ¥1,800 on an album on iTunes (because I'm tired and really shouldn't still be awake) and only 2 of the songs are in Japanese (which wouldn't be a problem if I wasn't only listening to Japanese music) Oh well life goes on I suppose...

This was one of the Japanese songs BTW.

Versailles

Takeshi Murakami, founder of the Superflat art movement (and one of my favourite artists), is having an exhabition at the Château de Versailles. This is amazing! His art clashes with the traditional décor so much and I love it. I have to go to France and see it!!!!

To celebrate here's a ridiculous, Japanese, rock opera, visual kei band who just happen to also be called Versailles. (Yes, all the members of the band are men, even the ones in dresses.)

Pink Tentacle

I was partaking in one of the most dangerous time wasting internet pastimes of Stumbling Upon , when I stumbled upon an amazing website called Pink Tentacle. Pink Tentacle is a blog focusing on Japanese art, design and generally interesting stuff; new and old. The vast collection of pictures and videos have to been seen and I recommend you take a look. For now heres a selection of what can be found over at Pink Tentacle.

"Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good."*

My recent adventure into the literary land of books has taken me though the pages of Jake Adelstein's Tokyo Vice. I first discovered Jake Adelstein via his contribution to to the Yakuza 3 reveiw, reveiwed by three Yakuza, on BoingBoing. When I was in a REAL LIFE book shop (not a common occurrence for me) and saw a book by the same guy I had to buy it.

Tokyo Vice is about Adelstein's life working as a reporter for the Yomuri Shinbun (a Japanese news paper) reporting on the disturbing underworld of Japanese organised crime. Adelstein's detailed accounts and great pacing make for a gripping and fascinating read. Adelstein has certainly lead a fascinating life, at times reading the book I almost forgot it wasn't a work of fiction. If you like crime, or reporters, or Japanese culture (and don't mind reading about the seedier side, no cute cartoons or origami here) then I definitely recommend you check this book out.

*The quote in the title of this post is from the book and refers to being good at things, not "good" in a morality sense.

If I was a bunny I would be a happy one.

I've just made an amazing discovery, Robo Geisha (a film I've been wanting to see for over a year) is coming out on DVD IN ENGLAND!!!! ON MONDAY!!!!!!

The film is by director Iguchi Noboru (井口昇) who also directed Machine Girl. Neither of the films are for the faint hearted (or people who like things to make sense for that matter) but I'm a sucker for things that don't make sense so they're right up my street.

Anywho here are the trailers for both films for you to enjoy (or not as the case may be).