
Washinomiya, a site held sacred for being the real-life location of the Lucky Star‘s Hiiragi twins family temple, has seen the official opening of a Lucky Star themed cosplay cafe.
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A group of four train molesters who gathered en masse to overwhelm their hapless female victim were found to have been organising their actions on an underground forum, where they coordinated their assault and discussed tactics. It transpired that they did not in fact even know one another.
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A man who instigated a media frenzy after he stabbed and killed an elderly former vice-minister for welfare, and his wife for good measure, and then hunted yet another ex-minister, stabbing his wife, has finally been arrested.
He explains his motive for the spree as being infuriated over the killing of his dog at a government facility.
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Police have arrested two men for sharing sexually explicit videos featuring underage participants over the eMule P2P network, the first such arrests for using an international P2P network in Japan.
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A man (20) who helped a lost and tearful little girl (6) find her way to her grandmother’s distant abode has been arrested for child kidnapping, we hear.
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A schoolboy (15) so hated his cram school that he posted a bomb threat on their website using his PSP, demanding ¥100,000,000 in order to avert catastrophe.
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A court has ordered the employer of a dead live-in janitor to pay ¥4,200,000 in overtime payments to him, for time he spent drinking and indulging in his plamo modelling hobbies. The company did at least get out of paying the other 36 million yen demanded.
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The latest in development in the saga of Lucky Star Shinto took the form of a Lucky Star mikoshi, a portatble shrine hefted by matsuri (festival) goers in a devotional relay at the famous Washinomiya Shrine, lately known mainly as the shrine featured in the title, and the object of considerable attention from fans because of this.
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It seems that a salaryman (48), who used by his own admission at least two months wages in his devotions at famed Lucky Star shrine Washinomiya, is far from alone in such zealous devotion to the new divinities of our age. Still, supporting a shrine may be a marginally preferable use of his funds to playing pachinko, or buying certain OVA at ¥10,000 plus per hour…
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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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Lucky Star twins Kagami and Tsukasa Hiiragi have secured their own festival in commemoration of their birthday (7th of July), and an event on an impressive scale it is too. Naturally enough, the event takes place in 鷲宮町 / Washimiya, Saitama, and the now apparently given over to Lucky Star 鷲宮神社 / Washinomiya Shrine features heavily. Lucky Star Shinto, anyone?
Here is some English commentary on a rather good event report (and plenty of pictures of Lucky Star Shinto, as well as merchandising, in operation):
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“An evil influence came over me”. A man (62), who brazenly put his hand up a high schooler’s skirt and fondled her in the middle of a McDonald’s, was also a former principal, the latest in a string of such crimes perpetrated by school heads.
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