
Unusually, a (popular) web comic has had an anime version announced, in what may be a first. Axis Powers ヘタリア / Axis Powers Hetalia is published on the author’s homepage (it should be said that the author, 日丸屋秀和 / Hidemaruya Hidekazu, does have experience as a professional mangaka), and is freely viewable, though a hardcopy manga version has also been published.
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As part of the upcoming Olympic marketing event, some original promotional efforts have been taken up by Beijing entrepreneurs. Any resemblance to any Disney characters, or for that matter Doraemon or the like, is purely incidental. Regarding the not-Mickey statues: “They have holes in the ears, so it’s not a copy” we are assured.
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As if the last DVD didn’t have enough in the way of ecchiness, with the release of Kanokon DVD 2 the producers have truly excelled themselves, providing an anime which now boldly crosses the line…
A most entertaining development, and one I’m sure you will be interested to analyse in detail. See the below screens for details on just how far over the line, and just how boldly.
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Final Fantasy XIII to get a PC version? Yes, according to no less a source than Nvidia itself, unless this is some sort of misunderstanding; see below for their words.
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Some anonymous soul on 2ch entrusted his phone to a little shop in Chinatown who promised to carve him a fine rendition of Idol Master’s delectable Yayoi; the result could be said to be predictable.
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Looks likes Slayers Revolution beat the recent and rather vigourous earthquake (all the other channels there are showing reports of the earth struggling in vain to heave off the oppressive weight of Japanese cities), but otherwise its ratings have been notably abysmal, having gone from a respectable 2.5% at start to a pathetic 0.8%, at the very bottom of the pile… things are not looking good for the continuance of Lina and the gang’s adventures at present.
Perhaps the plan to sell the Slayers DVD edition at what works out at a steep ¥2,000 per episode will have to be rethought at this rate…
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The details of SP2 for 3D Custom Girl have been released. The previous patch certainly added some useful functionality, but this goes even further. Rather than being a mere bug fixing patch, functionality sure to revolutionise the creative potential of this title is added. Now you can realise cake of any dimensions, to say nothing of being able to create custom girls as slender or as voluptuous as you care to. Copious screens follow.
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The PSP is set to receive no less than three Idol Master titles (for real this time), set for release this winter. It may be more accurate to say three versions of the same titles, for “Idol Master SP”, as it will be known, will have versions subtitled “Perfect Sun”, “Wandering Star” and “Missing Moon”.
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A middle school girl (15) who stabbed to death her father (46) ignited a typical mass media firestorm of finger pointing, when searches of her room turned up copies of the ひぐらしのなく頃に / Higurashi no Naku Koro ni manga (“occult manga”), a notably bloody tale derived from the famous doujin game series, as well as a variety of other suspect titles, such as murder mystery novels.
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Ignore the story, it’s just about some AV expo in China where plenty of Japanese AV stars are in attendance.
What I thought really entertaining about this are the photos of the crowd. Some incredible expressions on display – every strain of wonder, amazement, yearning, and desperation evident.
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Two very interesting sites looking at the development of eroge in a historical context come to my attention. Firstly, and most strikingly, long time visual novel producer Alicesoft has actually officially authorised the distribution of many of their older titles (1990s) as abandonware; you can find them for direct download or torrent download, collected here. Secondly, there is a compendium of older eroge collected nicely with some CG (see below).
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Haruhi & co. convincingly illustrated in swimwear, with musical backing. In this case, who cares about the MAD? I’m sure you just want the Tsuruya-san BMP. Rest of the SOS-dan images below. Also the video.
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