DC Comics and one of their more xenophobic comic shop minions have apparently been caught playing with fire – their latest flier supposedly urges true American patriots to dump their slant-eyed yellow “manga” in favour of the all-American option of muscle-bound superheroes, by trading in traitorous foreign comics for a flag-rubbing DC Comics title.

More classic DC Comics titles along the same lines:

Statistics suggest the majority of Japanese men in their twenties no longer have any expectation of spending a romantic Christmas Eve having sex with their girlfriend, as has historically been the Japanese custom.

The survey on attitudes to Christmas, based on a sample of unmarried Japanese men and women in their twenties, reaffirmed two significant facts – that, bizarrely, the Japanese Christmas lacks the traditional Christmas spirit of high retail sales, having instead become a dating event in which couples get together for sleazy love hotel sex, and that young Japanese men in particular are now apparently doomed to sexlessness.

Asked whether they had a partner, 64.6% in total said they did not – 72.6% for men, but only 56.7% for women. Whether women are dating older and wealthier men, or younger men are simply totally lacking in drive, libido or money, is still the subject of much speculation.

Over 40% of those without partners reported that they intended to spend Christmas with family, and nearly 20% anticipated a lonely Christmas at home on their own.

As to where in fact they would be spending their Christmas if they did have a lover, some 21.5% expected to stay at home, whilst 23.2% expected to spend it at their partner’s home. A further 21.5% intended to go to a restaurant, and 11.3% to an illumination show.

The other major difference the statistics revealed was with respect to Christmas presents (meaning gifts for lovers rather than mere family) – men on average expected to spend significantly more on presents than women, to the tune of ¥20,514 for men and a miserly ¥12,935 for women.

28.2% intended this gift to be compromised of “accessories,” 11.7% clothing, 11.7% wallets or purses and 11% bags, making the majority of gifts fashion-related.

However, a thoughtful 4.3% did consider games an appropriate gift, along with similarly small proportions for perfume, flowers, make-up, watches, interior goods, home electronics, and travel.

A cheeky 12.9% seemed not to have grasped the true meaning of Christmas, responding that they would only be giving a worthless gift of “love” to their paramour.

Even otaku are shocked that Hatsune Miku’s legion of admirers has some how managed to bid up the price of an unofficially created Miku bride figure to ¥389,000 – their astonishment in large part stemming from the fact that the figure was created simply by swapping the heads of two stock figures…

The originals (¥8,650 for the Sega/Tony Miku head, and ¥7,980 for the wedding dress Tamanee’s body):

Online there is the usual disbelief and some spirited bashing of Miku fans:

“Easy money!”

“With breasts that size she’s not Miku!”

“I’ll not bother criticising this, instead I’ll just jump aboard the bandwagon and make one myself…”

“What happened to Tamanee’s head…”

“It says it was repainted but it doesn’t look it. Seems amateurish.”

“I’d like to give this a try. I have a Godzilla figure, how much could I get for that if I stuck Miku’s head on it?”

“What do you expect from otaku…”

“There used to be some great mods, but these are just rude to the sculptors.”

“Mikuota are so dumb…”

“10,000 for the figure and 380,000 for the painting. Seems reasonable.”

“You’d pay ¥390,000 for this, wouldn’t you?”

“For this, ¥100,000 seems fine by me!”

That bride Miku is a gold mine appears to have become quite well known to figure modders – witness the nearly identical performance of a previous iteration.

Japan’s ever increasing population of doll fanciers are once again busy spreading their fancy by the simple expedient of posting photographs of them online and telling others they can have one for as little as $500.

Just who owns who is an increasingly vexed question – 2ch leaves this warning to those who would succumb to their charms:

“At first I used to think all the doll fanciers were just creepy weirdos, but before I knew it there was a doll in my home…”

More Vipper wives.

Ero-moe MMORPG Tera Online seems to be not only the sexiest MMORPG yet, but also the most expensive, having already been written off prior to its launch with the news that it apparently combines a monthly fee of ¥2700 with item charges and the ¥7000 cost of the game itself.

The price is rather well hidden, for obvious reasons:

Some would say the game is worth it all the same:

However, most prospective Japanese players are ridiculing this pricing as a rip-off of the first order which has doomed the title before it even launched – although coming from the same country which has spawned and sustained the likes of IdolMaster their reaction perhaps deserves some sceptical consideration.

Whether the sky-high pricing will stay or be quietly revised with developers insisting it was not actually final and accusing their customers of jumping the gun will likely determine just how few people end up playing the game.

No firm subscription details for the much censored US release have been announced, although the game is available for pre-order now despite this.

Reportedly an Akihabara curry house is offering freebies to visitors who bring their girlfriends along to dine with them – with the caveat that the girlfriend in question can be a figure.

Those bringing their girlfriend (in the form of a figure) along to Mammoth Curry and placing her on their table will be able to claim a free drink.

Apparently the scheme was hatched upon when the venue (whose main claim to fame is a 1kg curry for ¥950) was running a more conventional “free curry for your girlfriend if you come as a couple” event for a week last year – this being Akihabara, soon many patrons were asking whether their girlfriend had to be real or not.

Those wishing to give it a try can make their way to Mammoth Curry in Akihabara, taking care to bring their girlfriend.

2ch appears to be well suited to this offer:

“They’re a bit late!”

“A doll! You’re high level all right!”

“What happens if you take a real girl with you?”

“You’ll be looked upon with cold, cold eyes.”

“The shop will think some kind of weirdo has arrived.”

“The other customers might start on you.”

“You’re creepy!”

Recent charity auctions held for earthquake relief have seen a number of mangaka selling autographed illustrations, with To Love-Ru mangaka Yabuki Kentaro topping the auctions with an impressive ¥1,223,000 – over $15,000…

The most notable auctions:

1. Yabuki Kentaro (¥1,223,000 – 100 bids) – “In any dark tunnel where you can’t see the way forward, there’s bound to be a bright exit.”

2. Nobuhiro Watsuki (¥641,000 – 84 bids)

3. Fujiko Fujio (¥500,000 – 159 bids)

4. Katsura Hoshino (¥401,000 – 49 bids)

5. Hiroyuki Asada (¥401,000 – 59 bids)

6. Norihiro Yagi (¥351,000 – 69 bids)

7. Tatsuya Endo (¥212,000 – 82 bids)

8. Ryuhei Tamura (¥136,000 – 42 bids)

9. Kosuke Masuda (¥126,000 – 66 bids)

10. Sukeno Yoshiaki (¥86,500 – 50 bids)

11. Namie Odama (¥60,500 – 54 bids)

12. Yoichi Amano (¥57,000 – 57 bids)

13. Hajime Kazu (¥51,500 – 13 bids)

14. Uchimizu Toru (¥30,611 – 26 bids)

A man has been arrested for the theft of Saten Ruiko in what must rank as one of the least well thought out robberies ever conceived.

Shizuoka police arrested a 47-year-old man on theft charges after he reportedly stole a figure from a local recycling shop; he apparently distracted staff by having them appraise some manga and DVDs, only to shove a figure in his bag and make for the exit.

Alarms at the entrance immediately alerted staff to his ruse, and when they caught up to him and asked if he perhaps had an unpaid for item on his person he showed them the figure – only to make a dash for it mid-conversation.

He escaped them, but as he had just left his membership card at the counter, including his real name and address, it was only a matter of time before police caught up with him.

Police identified the 20cm high figure as “Saten Ruiko” of the anime “To Aru Kagaku no Railgun,” valued at ¥6400.

The suspect is refusing to comment on the charges.

Aside from the theft itself (which seems so ill-planned it could only be the result of temporary Saten-induced mania), much comment has also been made about the police and media’s helpful decision to supply details down to the anime involved, evening mentioning Saten by name…

For those wondering, there are only two figures matching the description, with smartphone Saten probably the closest match – though stretching Saten seems the least inexcusable target for theft:

The confession of a hostess that her first time was with an “ultra-famous” mangaka at age 15 has lately been raising eyebrows online, though not nearly as much as the purportedly huge size of what he was keeping in his trousers.

The interview as published in tawdry rag Tokyo Sports:

Who are you?

Rumi, a 20-year-old hostess.

Body data:

164cm, 50kg, C cup.

Experience:

20 people, 8 boyfriends.

Who were the non-boyfriends?

Male friends and their acquaintances. People who hit on me.

Your first time?

15, first year of high school.

Who was it with?

That ultra-famous mangaka **************-sensei.

How did you end up with him?

He hit on me at Ohmiya. Seems he wanted to hit on a normal girl and came out from the centre of Tokyo. He spent 2 hours working on me and he was so persistent I finally gave in and did him. As you might expect, he was totally loaded, I was surprised to see he had ¥3,000,000 in his wallet!

Wow!

Right. He bought me ¥100,000 worth of clothes.

How was your first time?

It hurt quite a bit. Pretty normal play, now I think about it it wasn’t too bad.

The identity of her supposed conquest is not revealed, but there are only a handful of mangaka who meet the “ultra-famous” and “bags of money” qualification.

2ch is more interested in the size of the wallet mentioned than the identity of the mangaka or the tale’s veracity:

“A wallet with ¥3,000,000 in it…”

“That sounds physically impossible.”

“I want to see one! I want to see one!”

“With ¥10,000 notes that would be 300 though.”

“However you look at it it’s not possible!”

“How thick would that be…”

“What kind of idiot puts that much in a wallet anyway?”

“You can’t even bend a wallet with ¥300,000 in it.”

“It was 3x¥1,000,000 notes.”

“Somebody post a picture of a wallet with that much in it.”

“It was this:”

“Ahaha!”

“This is ¥1,000,000… what kind would you need to fit 3 million? That’s like 3cm, or 3 smartphones in your wallet.”

“You people have no imagination:”

“Looks like a pair of pantsu.”

“What is that, a kid’s wallet?”

“Here’s ¥3 million:”

“¥5 million:”

“You can easily fit that much into a wallet. How would anyone not know that?”

“It’s impossible!”

“You really can’t bend it at all with that much.”

“Why did this become a wallet thread?”

Fans of top visual novel studio Key have been rejoicing at the long awaited release of Rewrite – so much so that in one case a fan was driven to buy 20 copies, coming in at over $2000.

The scene at the initial release followed along similar lines:

An anime version would seem an inevitability, although given that Little Busters never managed this nothing is certain…

Rewrite itself is available now.

The latest example of “delivery terrorism” to strike down lonely otaku proves even the loveliest of objects can prove a curse when Shonen Jump decides to announce on the package that it is an oppai mouse pad…

“A-Course – Oppai Mouse Pad – Jump SQ.”

Ordering from such insensitive companies has the not undeserved reputation of playing Russian roulette with the recipient’s social life.

Chinese media are reporting that a youth was so desperate for an iPad that he sold a kidney to pay for one.

The 17-year-old boy, a resident of Anhui province, reportedly came upon online information describing how he could hawk a kidney over the Internet – just what he needed, as he was in need of cash to buy an iPad 2.

He arranged such a sale, and had the organ removed in a Funan province hospital, receiving some 22,000 yuan ($3,500) in cash. His surgery complete, he returned home with his new iPad and various other gadgets.

However, knowing him to be broke, his mother became suspicious on seeing what he had bought, suspecting perhaps that he was up to no good. She confronted him, and he soon confessed to having sold a kidney.

His mother immediately reported the matter to police, but the organ dealer was nowhere to be found and the hospital identified claimed it knew nothing about the deal and in any case had no facilities for conducting such an operation. The whereabouts of the kidney are unknown.

The youth has his iPad, but is said to regret having sold a kidney on the black market to get it. It seems unlikely he will see his missing kidney again.

The crazed fan who spent over $100,000 on 5,500 AKB48 CDs seems to have been outdone – no sooner had he been exposed than an earlier report about a similar creature who spent 20 million yen ($250,000) on AKB48, though he only bought CDs in lots of 1,000.

“Kachiyosu-san” is introduced as the manager of a video store who “uses most of his wages on AKB48,” having done so to the tune of 20 million yen.

Once again the fact that 20 million could undoubtedly buy an encounter with one (if not several at the same time) of these girls seems not to have occurred to him.

A crazed otaku fan of idol group AKB48 has been proudly showing off his ¥8,800,000 purchase of 5,500 of the group’s latest single.

The newly released AKB48 single “Everyday, Katyusha” retails for ¥1600 and sold 922,475 on its first day, securing Oricon’s number 1 spot.

Amongst the buyers, one fan posted on Mixi pictures purportedly showing himself with the 5,500 copies of the single he bought “to make absolutely sure Yuuko will win” (each copy contains a voting slip for a popularity contest for the girls of AKB48, giving him a possible 5,500 votes).

2ch airs a variety of alternatives to the obvious “crazy otaku” hypothesis:

“He’s crazy.”

“If you just offered this Yuuko girl 5 million yen to sleep with you she’d most likely go for it…”

“You could get a handjob from all 48 for that much.”

“How many times could you go to a soapland for that?”

“It must be a setup!”

“Perhaps this is stock for his own company?”

“AKB fans are truly insane.”

“It’s like a religion.”

“He’s got more money than you lot at any rate.”

“I’m jealous.”

“A real fan wouldn’t need to expose his purche to others!”

“What’ll he do with them all? A fan couldn’t just throw them away.”

“It doesn’t look like 5,500 – more like 500. His whole room would be piled high with 5,500.”

“Such greed.”

“You mean lust.”

“You get a handshaking ticket with one edition. Perhaps he intends to sell those to finance the purchase?”

“If you’ve got millions in the bank you can afford to play around, but he looks pretty poor…”

“With this much you could get a nice woman though.”

“With this much you could accomplish a lot. But he chose to use it on this…”

The K-ON! x Lawson Fair is well underway (again), driving moeblob fans into an instinctive buying frenzy as they are presented with masses of exclusive merchandise of all kinds, with competition in some stores so fierce as to require the goodies to be rationed out or reserved.

“I spent 2 hours making 8 trips on my bike to amass these…”

All available at the local Lawson convenience store.

Sony’s admission that 77 million PSN accounts are in the hands of hackers has been followed by scores of reports alleging credit card fraud as a result of the leak, which Sony dismisses with its assertion that there is “no evidence” of the cards being leaked, although they concede they “cannot rule out the possibility.”

Innumerable reports of credit card fraud are being reported as the result of the Sony breach:

“My American Express card was compromised over the weekend. This card sits in a drawer in my house for emergencies, but I did use it once on my PSP for an account.

Luckily American Express is very good at notifying me immediately after the first fraudulent purchase.”

“About two or three days ago, my bank notified me that I had gotten my own [credit card information] stolen, the one I use for my PSN account, and with it a ticket was purchased through a German airline for nearly $600.

They are still looking into the fraud charge meaning that right now I have a negative $500 in my account, with no good chance that I’ll be getting that back any time soon.”

“I also had an attempted fraudulent charge on my American Express card, about $8,000 going to some Japanese store. This all happened about when PSN started having trouble, so I’m betting this had something to do with it.

My advice: if you have your credit card info on PSN, watch your accounts like a hawk. I’m buying pre-paid cards from now on; you know, if I decide to ever spend money on PSN again.”

“I logged into my bank account just to check everything was OK and I found out there was some just over $2,000 in charges which I didn’t personally accrue.

There was a number of early transactions on the 23rd of amounts under $1, which they say is the usual kind of test run that fraudsters do and then there’s been a number of transactions of larger amounts, including domestic flights within Australia, bookings at Best Westerns [hotels] and what not.”

It must of course be stressed that this could all be sheer coincidence, or the result of blame for unrelated fraud unfairly being placed on Sony.

In fact, Sony does seem to claim all this is coincidence, though they do at least advise anyone silly enough to have shared their card details with them to treat them as stolen:

Q: Was my personal data encrypted?
A: All of the data was protected, and access was restricted both physically and through the perimeter and security of the network. The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken.

The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack.

Q: Was my credit card data taken?
A: While all credit card information stored in our systems is encrypted and there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility.

If you have provided your credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, out of an abundance of caution we are advising you that your credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may have been obtained.

There is already talk of billions of dollars of litigation, fines and compensation, to say nothing of the ruination of the PSN’s future business prospects, so it seems likely Sony will be reeling for some time to come.

Regarding when the PSN will be back up, Sony promises it will only be brought back when it is confident the network is “secure” (if this means anything coming from Sony), and provides the rather interestingly worded assurance that “we expect to have some services up and running within a week from yesterday.”

One fan of Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko was so taken with Shaft’s choice of heroine seating that he not only identified the designer chair in question, he went so far as to buy it and install it in his room for the full experience.

The chair is apparently a Finnish import and costs in the region of $1000 – it seems likely Shaft never laid eyes on the real thing but instead relied on the marvels of Google Images.

To top it all, the buyer doesn’t seem to like the chair very much:

“So, what’s it like?”

“You can’t hear much going on outside, it feels a bit strange. I don’t think you could sit in it for long periods.

I had to get it into my room on my own, that was tough…”

For those of lesser means but similar dedication, there is always the budget option:

A nude filter modded figure of virtual diva Hatsune Miku has fetched a rather impressive sum at auction.

There are some rather well-founded concerns that the ¥502,000 figure might not be a serious bid, but there are some quite credible looking bids in the $500-$1200 range…

The Japanese government has warned that Tokyo tap-water is contaminated with radioactive materials and that babies should not be allowed to drink it, prompting an immediate health scare as flighty Tokyo residents rush to buy up all the mineral water they can lay hands on.

The government admits radioactive iodine has been detected in Tokyo at a level of 210 becquerels per kg, significantly above normal levels.

It subsequently warned against babies or pregnant or nursing women from drinking this, immediately leading to panic buying of mineral water, with empty mineral water shelves and huge queues soon evident.

Fruit and vegetables from several prefectures have also been banned from sale after some exceeded government set (and exceedingly low) radiation limits.

Unfortunately, neither the government nor the mass media is highlighting the minuscule scales of the contamination or the highly precautionary nature of the health warnings, creating an immediate mass panic amongst a populace highly attuned to media scares and with virtually no ability to comprehend measurements of radiation.

In fact, it would be almost impossible to suffer ill-effects at the levels subject to warnings – the government estimates for a baby to reach the acceptable limit for radiation exposure (itself extremely low), it would have to drink 1 litre of tap water each day for a year.

Even larger scales of consumption apply to the amounts of contaminated foodstuffs which would need to be eaten by an actual adult in order to exceed exposure guidelines, let alone reach a level damaging to health.

Meanwhile, more level-headed physicians have pointed to research indicating more radiation may be involved in smoking a packet of cigarettes than in the levels currently subject to hysteria.

Nintendo’s much anticipated 3DS has been launched, but the reception is proving mixed – a great many users are reporting using the 3D mode for any length of time hurts their eyes, whilst Nintendo has issued an unprecedented advisory to “take a 15 minute break every 30 minutes of 3D play.”

Some 3DS players report eye strain in as little as 5 minutes of play, and there are a great many such reports. Just what size proportion of players is actually experiencing problems is as yet not clear, however. Nintendo fans will doubtless be hoping this is just a very vocal minority, as well it could be.

This is rather at odds with Nintendo’s official health advisory though – Nintendo urges a 10-15 minute break every hour for normal non-3D play, and an unheard of 10-15 minute break every 30 minutes for those using the 3D mode.

Whether sales will be as high as anticipated is also now a matter of some doubt – far from shops being left short on stock as with some other hit Nintendo hardware, Japanese buyers are reporting no difficulty acquiring the 3DS at all. Whether this is merely a commendable supply situation or an actual lack of interest amongst buyers remains to be seen.

[Update: some stores in central Tokyo locations eventually did report running out of stock, although it appears the 3DS is still well stocked in most other locations - in the absence of statistical data it is hard to draw valid conclusions, although it is apparently by no means a bad launch...]

Having invested so much in its 3D display only to find the feature is painful and potentially harmful to a seemingly significant portion of its customers may yet prove to be Nintendo’s undoing, although reports from those not experiencing actual pain are otherwise positive – not that the launch line-up is proving terribly tempting.

Lovable yet extremely unpopular akuma QB has been spotted throughout Akihabara slyly trying to coax hapless patrons into contracts of all kinds.

Some of the scenes in Akiba – virtually all of which have QB persistently beseeching passersby to enter into a contract:

“Soul jem.”

“Photography OK!

*In exchange for a contract”

“Keiyaku!!”

“Will you make a contract with me? Or have a cut?”

QB has apparently been making as much progress in the rest of Japan:

“Make a contract with me and become a mahou shoujo!”

“OK” “YES”

Fans of mahou shoujo anime Houkago no Pleiades are buying Subaru automobiles in droves (if 4 cars constitutes a drove).

2ch has seen at least 4 fans of the show posting up the receipts for cars they bought out of a sense of mahou shoujo appreciation, for models ranging in price from $15,000 to over $35,000:

The anime’s production was bankrolled by Subaru, and each character in fact owes subtle aspects of their design to Subaru models.

The direct proceeds from the sales of 4 cars are of course unlikely to fund the production of an anime, but the effect on brand awareness and perception amongst the car-shy youth of Japan may well make it a worthwhile investment as an advertising campaign, and certainly make Subaru the premier maker for anime fans (or those willing to make a $30,000 purchase on the basis of a cartoon at any rate).

Akihabara’s “pedestrian paradise” is back – the roads are closed to all but foot traffic on Sundays once again, and many thousands of shoppers packed the area in celebration.

2 years and 7 months ago the practice was cancelled on the rather dubious basis that the mass stabbing perpetrated by a crazed otaku could happen again (although the same logic would suggest banning any public space not dominated by cars).

A variety of eccentric and even erotic street performances were also aggravating police at the time, and with police being dependent on brothels and pachinko parlours for their income, naturally they had no-one else to crack down on but the throngs.

A network of surveillance cameras has now been put in place to keep cosplayers and mass murderers firmly under control, sufficiently reducing the perceived risk for the event to finally be reinstated.

All that remains is the return of a certain Akihabara exhibitionist…

One shop’s hardline approach to stopping otaku shoplifting includes publicly threatening to expose a shota-loving thief to his family and workplace if caught, a powerful deterrent if ever there were one.

The text of the poster:

“On the 16th a real nice guy stole 4 ero-anime DVDs from our shop.

We reported this shota-loving thief to the police, and when he is arrested we will hold him fully responsible and report him to his family and place of work.

What he stole:

Shonen Maid Kuro-kun

Ojou-sama wa Ecchi Suki 2

Kanojo x Kanojo x Kanojo 2

Dokuga – The Animation 4″

Shonen maid Kuro-kun for those unfamiliar with him: