About Jon

Jon is a Japanese culture enthusiast, professional pervert and roleplaying fanatic who appreciates flexible gender identities. He enjoys science fiction, Gunpla, classical music and Red Stripe.

What If Starships Were Girls?

Many of you are probably familiar with the -tan meme, which delights in portraying various inanimate products such as Windows operating systems as anime-inspired moe girls. These -tan girls have been created for a variety of technology-related items, from popular gaming consoles to mobile suits, and usually come in one of two body types: buxom beauty or luscious loli. Recently, blogger Jonathan Wong posed the question “What if starships were anime characters?”, and answered it with four pictures depicting various starship-tan girls based on famous ships from the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises. When I saw this, I thought, “Hmm… what a lovely excuse to test out our new lightbox plugin!” Ulterior motives aside, enjoy the images!

First up, we have Enterprise-tan, based on the USS Enterprise design from the new Star Trek film.

Continue reading

Early Endless Eight Sales Indicators Poor

Although official sales figures for the Endless Eight DVDs are still forthcoming, early indicators seem to reinforce Kadokawa’s pessimism about the much-reviled arc’s market potential. In particular, Akihabara’s various anime-oriented stores have seen low sales, with one employee describing them as “mortal”. Whether or not this will translate into poor sales overall remains to be seen; however, it’s not looking very good at this point.

Despite this, Akiba’s shops still feature a wide variety of colorful Haruhi promotional material, some of it emphasizing the fanservice aspects of the E8 arc. The variety of swimsuit designs featured throughout E8 seems to be a particularly potent selling point. Pictures of a few of these displays can be found below. For a peek inside the actual DVD set itself, check out this post over on Cartoon Leap.

Continue reading

World War II, Now With Zombie Crusaders and Psychic Soviets

The year is 1942. The Red Army valiantly battles the Nazi German invaders for Mother Russia’s future. However, a secret occult order within the SS, known as the Ahnenerbe, is resurrecting zombies from the Order of the Sacred Cross (a.k.a. the Crusaders). With these new Crusader zombies, as well as the prince of darkness Baron Nadya on their side, Nazi victory seems inevitable. The only hope… Russian Military Intelligence’s 6th Division, who is enlisting the aid of Soviet teenagers with superpowers to fight this otherworldly threat.

Continue reading

Dragon Ball Kai Pancakes!

Dragon Ball Kai has been all the rage lately, with the show consistently holding the #5 spot in the Japanese TV animation rankings, right behind One Piece and several spots ahead of Naruto Shippuden (which ranks at #9). With this success, companies are racing to get a variety of tie-in products on store shelves, hoping to capitalize on the craze. Out of all these products, however, one stands out due to it’s sheer uselessness and, by extension, awesomeness. I am talking, of course, about the Dragonball Kai Mini Frypan.

No no no! Not that Pan!

That’s more like it.

I’ll let Project Haruhi’s in-house pitchman, Ghost Billy Mays, tell you why these frypans are so awesome.

Continue reading

Weird Japanese Ads

Japanese television is rife with unusual advertisements for a variety of products. Here are some of the stranger ones from recent months.

First up, we have dancing, singing kiwifruits that want you to eat them.

Want to sell ramen? What better way than with sexy naked ladies, tastefully censored by giant ramen cups?

Continue reading

Prime Minister Hatoyama Sings!

Japan’s new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is promising to reform Japanese politics, create economic growth and bring the country into a new age… but did you know he can sing as well?

In 1988, Hatoyama recorded a single called “Take HEART – Fly, Dove of Peace”, a tune with distinctly hippie overtones.

Continue reading

CGI Sci-Fi To Trailer Revealed

The second trailer for Fumihiko Sori’s To has been released, giving us a taste of what the director of the Appleseed film has in store for us now.

Kinda puts Gonzo’s CG to shame, doesn’t it? The original 90-second trailer can be viewed below.

Continue reading

Halo Legends Preview

Spike TV recently aired a preview of the short film The Babysitter, one of seven similar films that will make up Halo Legends. This particular film was animated by Studio 4°C, who also worked on The Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight.

Halo Legends is due for a Fall 2009 “limited release” (likely on Xbox Live) and a spring 2010 “full release”.

–Via Japanator

Aya Hirano’s First Dragon Ball Appearance

In the 21st episode of Dragon Ball Kai, Gohan and Krillin stumble across a small Namekian village under attack by Frieza and his men. The village elder bravely defends two children… and can you guess who they are?

Still don’t know? Here is another clue, taken from the ending credits…

That’s right! It’s Dende, voiced by Aya Hirano (Haruhi Suzumiya) and his brother Cargo, voiced by Satomi Satou (Ritsu Tainaka). Our favorite voice actors have made their Dragon Ball Kai debut! Unfortunately, neither Dende nor Cargo get any lines in episode 21, and Cargo is killed by Dodoria in episode 22. However, Dende does get a few brief lines in 22 after being saved by Gohan. A short clip of that scene, featuring Aya’s unmistakable voice, can be viewed below.

Continue reading

Extreme Japanese Office Chair Racing

Imoto and Daisuke Miyagawa were searching for the most intense thrill. They traveled the world, seeking the greatest challenge, a true test of their abilities. They wound up in Germany, where they discovered the ultimate extreme sport… a dizzying blend of strength, skill and pure adrenaline known as office chair racing.

A former champion office chair racer, Patrick, agreed to train them. He put them through a rigorous regimen, teaching them how to control their chairs and dodge obstacles

But is their training enough? Will they be able to win the big race?

Continue reading