
Sanrio and X Japan have announced that they would be collaborating for the X Japan’s World Tour Live concerts, bringing their renowned Hello Kitty brand into a new world of eccentric hairstyles.
The new look Hello Kitty, or now known as “Visual-kei Hello Kitty” was created by owner Sanrio specifically for this tour.
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A man has been arrested after it emerged that he employed a 16-year-old girl as a sexy waitress in his “sex cabaret club”, where she worked clad in nothing but a pair of pantsu and an apron, known as “hadaka apron” (naked apron), a popular ero-fashion.
In addition to this, the club offered high contact services and patrons were free to grope the girl as she served them.
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With the recent court decision to quash the sale of DS hack devices, or “majikon”, Nintendo has been celebrating a “victory over piracy”, but voices are not unanimous in supporting the move, with some even suggesting it may hurt Nintendo more than it helps them.
Nintendo themselves claim a 3 billion dollar loss to the piracy…
Quoth a report on the subject by ITmedia:
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A recent survey confirms the already well understood importance of wealthy spouses to Japanese women, suggesting that perhaps falling marriage and birth rates may have some connection to the possibly unrealistic expectations of such women with respect to income:
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Gonzo parent company GDH has decided to change its name to Gonzo, after first announcing it would be sacking three quarters of the original Gonzo; it now announces it will disincorporate the original Gonzo completely, and take on the name for itself, “merging” the two companies.
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A man who ran a “sex party” club from an apartment has been arrested on prostitution charges. The club apparently had over a thousand members, and ran parties twice daily with a participation fee of ¥23,000…
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A recent article provides us with 16 patterns that women consider “unmanly”, and are the subject of much loathing.
These are the qualities Japanese women are thought to despise:
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Financially troubled anime studio Gonzo is set to undergo massive restructuring, sacking 100 of its 130 employees, rather than the smaller numbers announced earlier, with parent company GDH mandating a return to profitability within 5 years.
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Citing today’s changing market, video game company Taito has opted to “adjust” the prices of all games installed in their chain of Japanese game centers (known as Taito Station).
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Shogakukan, the mega-publishing house behind many famous manga magazines such as Shounen Sunday (and incidentally also an owner of North American anime/manga company Viz Media), announced the results for their 54th Annual Manga Awards earlier this week.
The winners of this year’s awards are all likely unknown to most international fans, but in past years the Shogakukan awards have been bestowed to popular series such as Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Inu-Yasha and Detective Conan.
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The news that Haruhi Wii dance game Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekidou’s opening day sales managed a pathetic 8,500 units, according to announced figures, has been greeted by fans not with horror but with derision.
It seems there can be no doubt now that Haruhi fans have dwindled precipitously, and that those that remain are more jaded than is convenient for the purposes of marketing to.
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A sparring match between top figures in both the Microsoft and Sony camps has lead to Sony castigating Microsoft’s “lack of longevity”, whilst Microsoft then shoots back, calling Sony an “out of touch” dinosaur of the previous generation.
What emerges is some very interesting speculation about the direction of the console wars, along with some good old fashioned brawling…
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