I mostly know her as Marie from Nadia, Luchs from Saber Marionette J, and Mihoshi from Tenchi Muyo.

There’s something I don’t really get about conventions nowadays. I’ve noticed that the amount of pro cosplayer guests in the con circuit has really grown. It’s getting to the point that I sometimes wonder if the cost to bring them out is making some cons less able to afford other, non-cosplaying guests.

Wow. When it comes out in North America it’ll have been about 10 months since Europe got it. I was starting to think it would never get released in North America. It made no sense to me since the hard work (the translation) was already done, but we’ve certainly seen it happen before where games came out in Europe but…

Middle and high school in Japan carry bags that sorta look like the one in this picture (minus the Disney decorations).

One of the things I always found frustrating about Golden Week is that there ends up being multiple concerts and events going on that I want to do and I’m forced to pick and choose because things will inevitably be on the same day. Hey, Japan. There’s 51-52 other weeks (depending on the year) in the year. You don’t…

Tarako can do a good sound-alike of Monokuma. They picked a great replacement.

The best Sailor Moon game is the Sailor Moon Another Story RPG for the SNES. Too bad it never got an official English release.

We (if you mean the US) already did. Band-Maid was at SakuraCon in Seattle at the end of last month.

When I saw that, I was wondering how long will it be until we see some drone-owning otaku make this a reality?

One thing they don’t call out in Georgia is that if you live in the Atlanta metropolitian area you have the recurring expense of once a year emissions tests. This is only mandatory in the counties around Atlanta. If you live farther out, you don’t have to do it. The emissions tests are only $20, but that adds up.

It actually is like that in Japan from my experience though. Even in busy restaurants. But the Japanese workers don’t seem to move faster even if they’re busy, so maybe that’s why it’s so neatly wrapped. They’ll just give you the “thank you very much for waiting” line even if it takes a bit.

Same. Japanese DVDs are just a really high premium. You can get them used in Japan for cheaper than that, but the cheapest I’ve seen any of the sets is about 3000 yen (~$26 today). And that’s only for maybe the first set or two, with newer sets still costing far more than that.

No, it was an OVA (Original Video Animation). Means it was an anime that was direct-to-video. Direct-to-video in Japan doesn’t mean that the animation quality is worse, like it would be in the US. In fact, it’s usually better than TV broadcast anime was back then because they had a bigger budget per episode.

I like the idea of potential mods for it. But I’m not going to support it. I’d rather have console Rock Band.

Thanks for posting these. They’re great! I especially love the Sailor Moon and Fallout ones. They did a fantastic job.

The sakura flavor that Japan puts on everything in the spring tastes nothing like cherries. I think people think that because of the CHERRY blossom name.

Late April-Early May is Golden Week for the Japanese though. I highly suggest not traveling to Japan during that timeframe. That’s Japan’s busiest travel time of the year and everything’s crowded.

On one hand, I want to give them props for being creative and having their own unique recipes instead of being a same-old, same-old food truck. But on the other hand... they’re probably too unique....

The funny thing is, this happens not just on variety/comedy shows. You actually see it on Japanese news reports too, where you’ll see the reactions of the studio reporters while they are showing whatever news clip.

This is a weird Japanese New Year’s TV tradition, but it’s mildly fun to watch.