Anime goods available -part 5-

As I showed you last week, I go to Akihabara from time to time, but usually I have to rely on Wondergoo to buy manga, or something related to anime. There are 3 or 4 Wondergoos in my neighborhood, but each of them sometimes sells different goods. And this one in Moriya city, which is about a dozen kilometers away from where I live, is as big as the one in the center of my city. 

As I showed in this posting, the Haruhi movie was released in February and the anime shops across the nation are out to sell merchandise related to the movie.

I don't remember exactly, but a Japanese dish called "Oden" is said to have appeared in the movie. And this is "Ryoko Asakura's Oden". On the upper left you can see a sample of Oden. I don't know if it's good, but I think a Haruhi fan wouldn't care about its taste as long as it is related to the movie.

As you know, a series of manga sometimes has dozens of volumes, so manga shops sell them bundled together. And if you want to sell mangas, a secondhand bookstore would buy them at a higher price if you sell all the volumes as a set.

Anime fans should know that the second season of K-ON! starts this month. Those who live in the Kanto region would see the anime on the 6th. And what you see in the center are books that have drawings of the K-ON! characters. The white Hiragana says, "Welcome back!!". 

Any manga soon gets obsolete. And some of these mangas cost as little as a dime. But if you're a fan of old mangas, these should be bargains for you.

An anime called "Working!!" is going to be broadcast also this month. This is basically a comedy, and the story is about teens working for a family restaurant. I'm planning to see the first episode to see if it's interesting. 

I think I can get any information on any anime on the Internet, but when I drop by a Wondergoo, I find some anime info I didn't know. I think this is one of the advantages in living in this anime country. 

Haruhi movie (the content excluded)

  I think lots of anime fans have been waiting for the release of the Haruhi movie, and today, February 6th, I went to see it. I think it would be better if i don't reveal the content of the movie, as I don't want to spoil anything for you. So let me show you how a movie theater nearby was pitching the movie and so on. 

  

 When I came to the movie theater in January to pre-order a ticket, it was showing this board. Even in Japan, other American movies like Avatar are more popular, so I doubted many people were paying attention to this.

 

  

 I got this flier at the theater. You can see the same picture on the official Haruhi movie website.

  

 The back of the flier. The Japanese sentence in the center reads, "Ready? Of course, I am, because I'm a first member of the SOS brigade."

  

  I got this temporary ticket that I can exchange with a real ticket from February 2nd on. Nagato looks very good. It cost about 16 us dollars. If I had come here in December, I could have gotten a Haruhi bookmark as a giveaway, but I didn't know that >.<

  

 I was snowing on the night of the day when I could get a ticket and reserve a seat. So I was sweating I couldn't get here 'cause I didn't have snow tires. 

  

 ...and the one in the left is a ticket. When I came here, almost all the good seats had been snatched away, but G-17 is a seat close to the center of the theater, so it's still good.

  

 They were selling many Haruhi goods. This is a poster in which the brigade members are enjoying the cherry blossoms. Can't wait for the April to come.

   Most of you should know that this time the most featured character is Nagato. Without Haruhi, this anime wouldn't be this popular, but I think Nagato has played important roles in almost every episode, which explains her popularity.

  

 Many people would buy these Haruhi goods, especially because they are available only during this period.

  

 This is a poster that was displayed today, and I saw this for the first time. 

   When I came to see the movie today, I had expected to see otaku people only, but I mainly saw ordinary people who I would see at a shopping mall. There were people in their teens, twenties, and thirties. 

  

 It was going to be showed 5 times today at this theater. 

 

This Haruhi was standing in front of the door of the theater. Some people were taking pics of the Haruhi and their friends standing side by side. 

 

This memo pad was given to people who came to see the movie today. Basically everybody can get it, but the number of the giveaway was limited.

 

And I bought these bookmarks. They are made of plastic, so they won't wear out easily. I wondered why the three girls are wearing the Gekisou outfits, but I guess it's because the Gekisou figurines are more popular than the others.  

Hope everybody else in the world will see this movie too and hear what they would think of it =) 

Mall in New Year

When I dropped by a mall on my way home, it was crowded with people. And somehow the malls are where people get together in Japan these days. And I was also one of them.

 As I explained in the first posting for this year, we put an Ema on the bars at a shrine. But these Emas were fake and made of paper. Perhaps kids also wanted to do the same thing as people do at the shrine on New Year's.

 

The rectangular plate on the red gate (Torii) says "Loc shrine". This mall is called "Loc City" so they must have named the area after it. I went to a shrine on the 1st of this month, and as you can see in this pic, the shrines are so important to us especially in January. 

 

A very huge Pikachu, in which kids can jump and run around. The Japanese kids are so familiar with Pikachu that we often see pics or stuffed toys of Pikachu everywhere. I guess it is like The Simpsons as far as the popularity among kids is concerned.

 

It says "Pokemon DP Adventure Park", where kids can experience many kinds of Pokemon attractions. 

 

These bags are sold in the beginning of January and called "Fukubukuro", which means "Fortune bag". Take a look at the flier being hung. It shows what is included in the bag and it costs about 109 us dollars. Years ago, we couldn't guess what was inside but now they reveal what the bag has.

 

We Japanese are very familiar with this girl named Becky. She is one of the celebrities very active on TV. She has a father from England, which is why she looks like this. But she speaks Japanese mainly, and she can't speak English very correctly. Then again she's one of the hottest girls in Japan. 

 

 I saw some jigsaw puzzles in the electric appliance shop in the mall. Some of you might wonder why it sells Moe jigsaw puzzles, but it seemed to me they always cash in on what's very hot among young people. 

 

And Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion is still one of those hot things.

 

 

Now Haruhi is a fixture in Japan's shopping areas. Still I think many people aren't familiar with Haruhi, and Aya Hirano might be known to less than a third of our population. But a Haruhi movie will be released next month, by which we can see it's becoming more and more popular. 

I was going to show you only things related to New Year's, but ended up taking pics of some anime stuff as well. Like I said before not all the people are for anime, but at least Pikachu is accepted by the adult and preteen demographic. But Haruhi anime hasn't been watched by as many people. I wonder why people discriminate against Moe anime while allowing kids to see Pokemon. >.<

Anime goods available -part 3-(Light novel)

At the Wonder Goo again. The most popular light novels "The melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya".

Macross frontier and Gundam light novels.

Currently popular one. Its English title would be "My younger sis can't be this pretty".

These are all light novels. It would take forever to read them all.


---(This posting is the sequel to "Anime goods available -part 2-)---

It is said that young Japanese people don't read books(excluding manga) these days. But as some characters of Lucky Star (Kagami, Konata) indicate*, those young people read what we call "light novels" instead of regular novels.
(*In the episode 18 of Lucky Star, Kagami asks Konata to read a light novel at 7:11)

Some might say that since the light novel has some pictures on the cover and in between pages, it might not be defined as a "novel", but when you read through it you'll see it is not so different from conventional novels.

There are literally a countless number of light novels or "Lanove" at this Wonder Goo, and one can also buy secondhand Lanoves at fairly low prices. And the number of those secondhand Lanoves available is also countless.

If you're a fan of some anime, you should also read its Lanove to find out the difference between the two. And in my opinion, any Lanove will surely play a role in stimulating your intelligence more than a manga.

Anime goods available -part 1-

The entrance of a Wonder Goo. It opens at 10am and runs until midnight.

Figurines "Tsuruya-san" and "Mikuru" from "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya"

Cushion covers. They show that K-ON! is still really popular in Japan.

A Yui T-shirt. Isn't she cute?

Cases that carry a pass. Which one is your favorite?

In the posting "anime and manga" on August 3rd, I reported a little bit on a local shop that sells anime goods, but when I looked back I thought it lacked details. So I decided to go in the shop again to take a closer look at what is sold.

The shop is called "Wonder Goo" and it has several outlets in my prefecture. It not only sells anime goods, but also ordinary magazines, novels, video games, and even cosmetics for ladies. But I think they sell mainly entertainment-related goods which are hot among young people.

I think not all the young Japanese people are into anime and manga, so I wonder what ordinary people would think of those anime goods that are sold in this shop. However it represents one aspect of Japan, namely the otaku culture, which I enjoy tremendously.

Obon festival

People dance around the center stage, on which drums are set up.

We offer food for the spirits of our ancestors.

Yesterday I went to a nearby shrine where a traditional festival was being held. Such a kind of festival is held nationwide around the 15th of August. About three to five days period including the 15th is called "Obon", when people take vacation and it is believed that our ancestors' spirits come back to the world we live in. So the shrines in Japan welcome those spirits with "Obon Festival Dance". And we put offerings like food in front of a shrine or tombstone for the purpose of serving the spirits of our ancestors.

But there are many cases where this kind of festival is more like secular than religious. In these cases, people invite people in a city and stalls to a place around the station and let them participate in Obon Festival Dance.

I think you have seen the episodes "Endless Eight" of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya where the members of the SOS brigade are enjoying the Obon festival on a night and Yuki buys a mask from a stall.

Takoyaki

A stall that sells Takoyaki.

There were 10 types of Takoyaki to choose from.

Usually there are 6 to 8 Takoyaki balls in a package.

The inside of a Takoyaki ball. You can find a piece of octopus in the center.

I like to talk about Japanese food. This one, called "Takoyaki", is usually sold at a stall in a mall or chow hall. And when a festival is held in the premises of a shrine or park, we can spot a Takoyaki stall in there. A piece of Octopus is covered with dough made of flour, which should be later grilled on a hot plate.

Takoyaki is usually seasoned with sauce or soy sauce, with some mayonnaise on the top. The stall I went to today offered 10 types of taste and I chose the soy sauce taste. This food is also popular among foreign people who visit Japan.

If you're a fan of the anime "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", I'm sure you have seen this in the episode 7, 8 and more of the new season.

Here's the link to one of them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrWax6Lihf4

In it you can see Kyon taking one from the hand of Haruhi at 0:37.