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I’m really tired so this is going to be really short:

Zun showed up at the very end of FN2009, and the MC asked him if he could give any information about Touhou Seirensen: Undefined Fantastic Object. After dodging the question for a few seconds with “get the demo on Sunday, you can find out then,” he let slip that

“It’ll be better than Chireiden”.

Thanks, 神主. Of course, this was a few hours after an audience poll of “what’s your favorite Touhou game” where about the same number of people raised their hands for Chireiden as they did for Bunkachou (StB), which is to say very few. Other interesting facts learned from the audience surveys: the vast majority of people play on gamepads, and maybe 30-40% of the crowd was in their teens. damn kids in my fandoms.

He also mentioned that the game will be very “pop”, but I guess we’ll have to wait for the demo to find out exactly what that means.

All the bands were great, but some were more great than others. Also, the Makuhari Messe apparently uses a Bosendorfer as their in-house piano?? wtf

The Gallery of Fantastic Art is one of those places in Tokyo that I keep meaning to go by that I never actually bother taking the train to. Either they’ve been in between exhibits or I just plain forget about the place, which is really sad considering that I’ve been checking their website on and off ever since I started being interested in Range Murata.

As the name would suggest, GoFA is a small gallery that displays, well, fantastic art. If you go to AX, you may be familiar with them, because it seems like they run a gallery there every year. Anyway, “fantastic” basically means anime/manga illustrators, mostly from artists who you’re likely to see in Wanimagazine pubs (ROBOT, Gelatin) like Murata, Yoshitoshi ABe, Miggy, Okama, and Kei Toume, but also some older artists such as Go Nagai, Mizuki Shigeru, and, as you probably have guessed by now, Tetsuo Hara. More on that in a second.

The gallery is a bit tucked away, but still incredibly easy to get to. All you have to do is take the subway to Omotesando station and walk straight out the B2 exit until you hit the Aoyama Oval Building, which is a big oval-shaped building (surprise!) with a Citroen showroom on the first floor. Take the door on the left of the elevators and the door after that to get to the stairs, walk up one floor, and you’re there. Entry is only 500y, and the ticket is usable for a free coffee or tea at the cafe downstairs. (A 300 yen value!)

So yeah, Fist of the North Star art exhibit. It was basically everything I could have hoped for, though it’s a fairly small space. There’s a modest merchandising table at the entrance with a few dvds, magazines, and other goods for sale (I bought this), as well as some anime cels and some larger framed works for sale, including prints from the crazy “7 Artist Ten” (展) project. There’s also life-sized Ken and Yuria figures staring you down as you come in. Some pictures can be found here.

As far as the Tetsuo Hara part of the Tetsuo Hara exhibit, they have prints of the original manuscripts for the entire first chapter of the Fist of the North Star manga, as well as some manuscripts of later famous scenes. Some full color prints by Hara are also on display. All of it looks great, although staring at the famous spread of Raoh raising his fist to the sky made me realize that the proportions or maybe the perspective of the scene seems a little off. Oh well.

If you can make it this Sunday, they’re going to be giving away 3 A1-sized promo posters of the event, since it’s the last day of the exhibit. I’d totally show up, but Reitaisai. Future shows include Kei Toume from 3/20-4/5, Takada Akemi (char designer for KOR, UY ovas) from 4/29-5/10, Abyukyo from 5/16-5/24, and Range Murata from 5/29-6/14. It’s a really nice place to spend an hour or so, and the free drink is a great added bonus. I’d consider taking someone there if I had friends. Not to mention, it’s in the Shibuya area, so you can get some shopping done afterwards, at Mandarake of course. Maybe writing this post will remind me to actually go back next time they have an exhibit on and I’m in Tokyo!

The Hiroshima Financial Times reports the opening of a brand new branch of Hiroshima’s Maypretty maid cafe, this one for “novice otaku” (オタク初心者). Located near Hiroshima station, they claim to have toned down the overall otaku-ness of the place, opting for calm, white walls and regular music and soundtracks as opposed to the main Ootemachi branch’s pink palette and anime songs. The menu features maid cafe staples such as omelettes with ketchup drawings on them and oversized cokes. Their blog can be found here.

I guess trying to attract new blood is good and all, considering the recent maid cafe mass extinctions, but I’ll stick to Schatzkiste. Oh wait, they close in 10 days ;__; On the other hand, I’m going to Hiroshima on a school trip in a few weeks, this might call for some maidbloggin’!

via moeplus via 2nn.

There is currently an event planned in the area in the old Rocket 5-Gou building (the empty lots on Chuo-dori where the kebab trucks and r4 vendors were over the winter) from the 26th to the 28th of the month for the purpose of gathering support for the revival of Hokoten, the opening of the main strip on Sundays that began in June 1973 and abruptly ended after the tragic events of June 8 last year.

The Akiba-Guide blog (the friendly folks in maid costumes outside of Gamers that hand you maps) has some details about the event, which currently includes petitions to sign, fundraising for live security cameras, and possibly an exhibit of photos from the old days of Hokoten and Akiba in general. If you have any such pictures, they’re looking for people to submit them for the event at the email address found in the post at the link above (info@…). They’ll also be there to listen to ideas and opinions for/against a revival of Hokoten, and they’ve already spoken to a number of stores in the area about their ideas. Akibamap reports that the event is also planned to take place on 3/1, 3/7, and 3/8, so if you can’t make it this weekend, maybe next. Hopefully I’ll be able to make it on the 28th before/after Eizo Onsen Geisha 16, and I hope some of you will think about dropping by, too!

Follow-up to The Real Reason to Go to Japan Media Arts Festival: It’s Art, So It’s Not Embarrassing:

Strike Witches DVDs now have a sticker on the box advertising the fact that they were nominated. How dare they cover up the commander’s face with this trash sticker!!!

Japan Meda Arts Festival has opened up their yearly exhibition at the National Art Center in Tokyo, and while I’m sure some lesser people will go to see the installations of the works that actually won awards, there is now a reason for the devout to go:

2ch reports that they’re screening Strike Witches twice a day. You know why? Cause it owns.

Very minor news since I have a bit of spare time: As of this Monday, doujin chain Melonbooks has changed from their old and busted paper + stamp point card to a much fancier solid plastic card with barcode. Instead of 500y/point, 20 points for 500y off, it’s 500y/25 points, 1000 points for 1000y off. If you can’t crunch those numbers in your head, that just means the numbers got bigger now that they don’t have to stamp each point manually. Honestly, I’m normally not much of a Melonbooks kind of guy, but it’s really the only choice for new doujin goods I have here in Kyoto. Also, this post would be totally non-notable, but I heard reports from one guy that they kind of sprung this on him, and that they didn’t transfer his old points to his new card, so if you’re going and you aren’t super proactive about getting Japanese store clerks to actually speak to you instead of mumbling under their breath because they don’t think you speak The Language, have your old point cards and some form of ID with your age on it ready. (apparently, the new cards are also used to check if you’re of age, not that they ever actually do that in Japan for anything. except for taspo :argh:) You also get 25 points if you register by 3/31, and you get 50 points whenever your birthday rolls around. You have until 1/31 of next year to transfer points at a store, and after that you have until 1/31 of 2011 to contact support and transfer points that way.

Minor other notes that will probably affect exactly no one reading this blog: if you have online points and want to get a point transfer certificate, you have until the end of the month to order them. Starting 4/1, you’ll be able to transfer online points to the new card system. Also, handing over your personal information is optional, but all they seem to jot down is your birthday for age checking+point bonus, it’s not like they’re making photocopies of your gaijin card or something.

More info for people who can make it to Akiba this week: Toranoana Honten is running a Fate/Zero Tribute Arts gallery exhibit until the 8th up on the event space floor (6f), and they’re even selling some event-limited swag there, like the limited edition Rough Material book that was only sold at C75 that I waited in line for two hours for. Assholes. The first round of illustrations is up until the third, then the second round up until the eighth. Wish I could make it :(

AkibaOS has pictures.

So apparently a few people on that 2ch site are kind of angry at doujin circle Hachimitsu Kuma-san over a recent job posting on the circle’s site as well as on their mixi.

In essence, they are looking for someone to do odd jobs for them, basically filling in whatever need they have at the moment. A few more details:
*Must live within an hour of Omiya city in Chiba prefecture.
*Must be able to be on call even after midnight on days off.
*Will work for free. (this part is only mentioned on the mixi posting.)

Sounds like a dream job, right?

Well, apparently those nay-sayers at 2ch don’t think so. What a bunch of negative nancies! They’ve even gone so far as to post a lot of copy/pastes making some pretty harsh allegations about Hachikuma-san’s business practices, but you can find those on your own, or I’m sure some other blogger will post them as The Absolute Truth, cause 2ch kopipe is never wrong. Anyway, any of you folks out there thinking of applying?!

(via katoyu–)

This is a bit old, but for any of you movie nerds out there living in Japan, Theatre Shinjuku is doing a bunch of anime film screenings from the 14th until the 27th. Of course, I go back to Tokyo on the 28th, but that’s school for ya. I have to admit, despite the name being pretty lame, these are some very cool animes that they have selected, like Akira, Roujin Z (with a director q+a session afterwards!), Blood the Last Vampire (ditto), Utena: Adolescence (interview here, too!), Tokikake, Jin-Roh, 5cm/sec, Haruwo, Paprika, Perfect Blue, Urusei Yatsura: Beautiful Dreamer, Lupin: Secret of Mamo, and Hell’s Angels. Timetable can be found here, and general info about the event here.

via animeanime