Vegeta, How Many Page Views Has Project Haruhi Gotten?
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Video Game Review: Red Faction Guerrilla
Stop! Hammer Time!
Nothing good ever happens on Mars. It always seems to be Earth’s whipping boy, so you have to wonder why anyone would willingly go there. It’s covered with sand and rocks, it’s colder than Earth, the entire place has an red-ish orange hue (except of the ice caps, obviously) and–according to Wikipedia–it has the largest dust storms in the solar system. How could Mars possibly be more fun than Earth?
Well, if it’s anything like Red Faction: Guerrilla, you can destroy every vehicle and structure in sight with a hammer, explosives and a good deal of reckless abandon. That’s a pretty compelling reason.
Lucky Star Girls Destroy Mind With Macross Cosplay
Sometimes in life an event just knocks you over, completely leveling all logical thought, leaving you babbling incoherently until you do something to alleviate the problem. This mental jaw-drop occurs for me whenever I see these new figures of the Lucky Star girls I adore cosplaying as characters from another favorite anime, Macross Frontier. Moe blindside delivered right to the eyes.
Uncanny Valley, Thy Name Is Miku
Have you ever heard of the uncanny valley theory? It states the following:
As a robot is made more humanlike in its appearance and motion, the emotional response from a human being to the robot will become increasingly positive and empathic, until a point is reached beyond which the response quickly becomes that of strong repulsion. However, as the appearance and motion continue to become more distinguishable from a human being, the emotional response becomes positive once more and approaches human-to-human empathy levels. —Wikipedia
Basically, the idea is that we tend to find things that too closely resemble humans, but are clearly not, repulsive. So, for example, a stuffed animal or anime moe girl, due to their stylization, would be considered cute and likeable. A zombie or dollfie, however, would not.
A group of Japanese scientists with the YAMAHA corporation recently debuted their HRP-4C Miimu robot, and decided to dress her up like Hatsune Miku and have her ‘dance’. The result, visible in the video below, falls squarely in the lowest part of the uncanny valley.
K-On Dethroned!?
Previously posted by Ryoko, we saw K-On! enter the record books with 33,000 Blu-Ray and 8,000 DVD sales for volume one alone. Today we hear of this record being broken by another anime, Bakemonogatari, with over 29,000 Blu-Ray and 15,000 in DVD sales. This lands it at 44,000 total sales to K-On’s 41,000.
Bakemonogatari is an anime by Shaft, now rather well-known for it’s artsy style and 24 minute slideshow for episode 10. Apparently the latter wasn’t enough to label it a lost cause.
As Bakemonogatari is not the moe-blobbery of K-On! and many other recent anime, we can only hope that it’s popularity will serve as a shoe to the hindquarters of the anime industry. So far this information has only been found on Sankaku Complex, so it should be taken with a pinch of salt; but if true then more reliable sources will be available soon.
-via Sankaku Complex [NSFW]
Miku, K-On! and Good Smile Themes for Google Chrome!
Google Chrome’s theme feature recently went live, and among the dozens of themes offered are some interesting otaku-related choices.
These Chrome themes join dozens of others available on Google’s website, including such geek-oriented choices as Super Monkey Ball, Ratchet and Clank and Bayonetta. It seems like the folks at Google are just as big of nerds as we are!
These themes can be activated simply by visiting the theme page in Chrome and clicking on the “Apply theme” button. Here are the relevant links.
Now if Google would only add live bookmarking and Rikaichan to Chrome, I would drop Firefox faster than a flaming vulpine.
Zaku Curry Noodles
What better way to show your loyalty to Zeon than snacking on these possibly delicious Char Aznable Spicy Curry Noodles? The noodles mimic Char’s cometary qualities with spicy and red peppers, with just a hint of cheddar cheese flavor thrown in for good measure. They even come with their own reusable glass Zaku II cup!
KyoAni Wants To Turn YOUR Idea Into Anime
Kyoto Animation, the studio behind Haruhi, K-On! and Lucky Star, has announced a new contest aimed at independent authors and artists. The Kyoto Animation Award invites anybody, whether pro or amateur, to submit their work in one of three categories: novel, script or manga. The top entry in each category will win a prize of ¥300,000 and have the possibility of being animated by KyoAni. Runners-up will take home ¥100,000. The contest rules do not mention any restrictions on the location, nationality or professional status of the entrant, nor on the genre or content of the work itself. However, the entry does have to be in Japanese. (Thanks to Dazza for pointing that out.)
So, is KyoAni actually trying to give some aspiring author or artist their big break… or have they simply run out of ideas?
The Quest for the Domo-kun Slurpee
I recently read on ANN that 7-11 had begun offering Slurpees and other products featuring NHK’s famous mascot, Domo-kun. Like any self-respecting otaku, I knew I had to see this for myself. After a protracted battle against my hikikomori nature, I managed to undertake the quarter-mile trek to my local 7-11 in search of the legendary Domo Slurpee. This is what I found.
(I apologize in advance for the crappiness of these photos. My camera kung-fu is not strong.)
Black Rock Shooter and Project Diva Trailers Released
The first trailer for the Hatsune Miku / Studio Ordet collaboration Black Rock Shooter has been posted on YouTube… and it looks AWESOME.
As you may recall from one of our previous posts, Black Rock Shooter is an anime project being developed by Yutaka Yamamoto’s Studio Ordet, and is based on the popular Hatsune Miku song of the same name. It is currently slated for a Spring 2010 release. The project will be directed by Shinobu Yoshioka, an episode director from Haruhi, Lucky Star and Kannagi, as well as one of the many Kyoto Animation employees who left the company in 2007 and joined Ordet.