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#otaku culture: You'll see some familiar phrases in this list of 60, compiled by publisher Jiyu Kokuminsha. Buzzwords, political stuff, hot news, all just like in our country...but completely different. I've pic...

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#News: Publishing titan Shueisha has apparently decided that the time for selling manga on your phone has come. According to NHK, popular titles like Dragon Ball will soon be available (for a fee) via a...

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#The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi: It's time for more Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya news! The official website for the film has confirmed that Haruhi will disappear for 150 minutes, on the previously announced date of February ...

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#News: As you may have noticed we have been following the Noriko Sakai trial, and today we found out another bit of news about it you may be interested in if you have been following too. According to Ca...

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#trailers: There's few things in this world more awesome than Gintama. Alot of us like the anime and manga, but a full blown movie? It sounded like the BEST THING EVER when it was announced. And now we have...

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#News: On June 8th, 2008 Tomohiro Kato drove a rented truck into a crowd shopping in Akihabara, killing three and injuring two. He got out and, armed with a dagger, went on to stab twelve more people, k...

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#News: Looks like Major's been busy. Two new manga series based off the hit anime Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex will be making their way to Japanese shelves this December. Ghost in the Shell: ...

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#TV and Film: Yoshitaka Amano's Toy Story-esque story about the secret life of vegetables in a New York kitchen will be making its way to the big screen. This is actually the first I'm hearing about ...

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#News: I love watching general news reports of parts of Japanese culture that are familiar to the otaku. The reason why is because while it's directed at people who know nothing about it, there's someth...

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#News: So you've just finished watching your imported Ponyo DVD, and you need your Ghibli fix. You could pull out your Miyazaki DVD collection and watch his films for the hundreth time... or you could h...

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#top stories: The silly and lovely To Love-Ru just wrapped up in Weekly Shonen Jump, but artist Kentaro Yabuki is fully prepared to launch his next manga already. How soon will we see it? Try January 4th. Ther...

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#OVA: Okay so this isn't exactly a full length animated film, but it's the next best thing. Saiyuki Gaiden, the previously manga-only prequel to the Kazuya Minekura classic, Saiyuki, is appar...

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#Viz Media: Details are sketchy, but it seems as though Gin Tama fans are in for a treat, and I'm not talking about just another OVA. Orichon is apparently reporting that the series will ...

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#News: It's been about 4 years since the last season of D.C. ~Da Capo~ aired on Chiba TV, but it looks as though another season might be hitting the air sometime next year. Reportedly, Circus--a studio ...

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#ZOMGWTFBBQ: Police swarmed Tokyo's "Yamanote Circle" after an outbreak of demons angry mob started causing trouble on the trains and stations. Ironically, the mob was around to protest the Yamanote...

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#News: “She died in late September. She wasn’t well before that and I asked her if she wanted to go to hospital but she said she didn’t need to go.”That's what a Fukuoka City man...

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#News: How'd you like to read all your news right to left, complete with talk bubbles and little sounds floating around the page? Perhaps now, you can. If you haven't already heard of Manga no Shimbun, ...

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#News: If you don't get that...well, don't worry about it.These girls don't look anything like the Japanese girls I regularly look at on the internet. Of course, "bodybuilder" usually isn't am...

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#News: A man traveling from Dallas Fort Worth International to China was reportedly arrested while in transit at Narita airport by the Chiba police the other week. Apparently he mana...

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#world news: A child abduction case between Christopher Savoie and his ex-wife Noriko is making something of a splash in the US press. The couple, whose marriage began to break down after thirteen years in Ja...

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#travel: Those of you looking to visit Japan might want to hear about this. I'm sure you've probably been told stories, or have read the countless reports of women being molested on crowded trai...

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#weird news: The legendary Takeru Kobayashi, known mostly for his amazing ability to scarf hotdogs while maintaining his relatively small physique, has once again blown his competition out of the water, regai...

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#weird news: In college, I had a judo instructor who was almost as ripped as this guy. What blew me away was that the man had muscles in his back that I didn't even know existed. It was a pretty dis...

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#videos: Okay, this is getting a bit ridiculous. I've been trying not to talk about Noriko Sakai for the last several weeks but I really can't help the fact that she's pretty much dominated the headlines ...

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#politics: Well, color me shocked! It seems that Japan, the nation we all know for its homogeny and resistance to outsiders is making a huge change in its attitude. In a recent talk with a South Korean lawm...

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#News: The last few days have marked a sad, tragic time in the manga world, as one of Japan's most beloved manga artists, Yoshito Usui, was confirmed dead at 51.Usui was reported missing from his hometo...

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#weird news: As if the relative stigma against foreigners wasn't enough, now Japanese people are getting something else they can hold against filthy gaijin, as fake tourists have been ripping off stores in Os...

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#TV and Film: You know what happened, right? Drug charges for possession, a massive scandal surrounding the Japanese singer and actress. Now she apologizes in front of the press. How do you know this is big n...

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#weird news: Times are hard, and everyone's having to find new, humiliating ways to make ends meet. It seems that goes the same for organized criminals.It's not like it used to be for the yakuza. All the glam...

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#News: If you were serious, and I mean really damned serious about getting married, you might be interested in coughing up the cash for one of Japan's marriage hunting sessions. Once enrolled, both men...

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#weird news: Japan is no stranger to major disasters, particularly earthquakes. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 illustrates that point over the course of a series, and just three weeks ago a pair of groundshakers rock...

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#seiyuu: Yikes! The adorable, popular (Haruhi, Kodomo no Jikan, Blood+, fate/stay Night) bespectacled seiyu Mai Kadowaki was sent the above message from a fan. Some fan! It seems that threatening letters ...

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#News: Check out the ADV Films webpage. News has been dropped. The Animu world is freaking the freak out. Me? I'm already thinking about discounted DVDs!It seems that ADV is closing up shop, effective t...

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#world news: Susan Boyle. Remember her? Portly Scottish lady, sings quite well, surprised Simon Cowell? Yeah, that Susan Boyle. While her fifteen minutes may be up in most parts of the world, the wave is appr...

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#weird news: When it comes to making otherwise mundane things fun to watch, Japan seems to have a key ingredient in mind: melodrama.From using overly dramatic reenactments and cheesy background music to d...

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#News: Remember when we told you about the nerdy white guy McDonald's Japan has selling cheeseburgers for their Nippon All Stars campaign? I thought he was hilarious, others didn't. Now the situation ha...

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#ZOMGWTFBBQ: Jellyfish. Ew. Why? Why were these creatures created? You can't do anything with them, but they can f*ck you up. I'm glad I don't have to deal with them. Japan does. And if what experts are sayin...

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#News: This as*hole is so 2009. On actress/singer Aya Ueto's Wikipedia page (presumably the Japanese one), someone updatesdthe article with an entry titled: "I'll toss a hand grenade at the site of...

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#weird news: Hey, it works in video games!Some motorcycle guys were out having fun in  Sakai City until one of them ran into a police motorcycle. After the collision, the guy tried to bolt, but was caugh...

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#News: Look, I find even making the little paper cranes to look nice to be pretty difficult. And that's on normal human-sized paper.  I can't even imagine folding a piece of paper with more square ...

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#Video games: It's not quite over yet. In a press release regarding a July 23rd meeting of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the United Nations listed a ban on...

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#weird news: Shabu shabu is addictive, but it isn't amphetamine. A Forbes article on druggie J-pop star Noriko Sakai incorrectly called the delicious dish a drug, though. From the article:Amphetamine cry...

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#politics: For those of you who don't already know, former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is my jam. The man does what he wants: visits to Yasukuni, privatizing the post office, playing mahjong with Putin...

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#weird news: A man in Tokyo attempted seppuku, aka ritual disembowelment, by stabbing himself in front of the Diet building last Monday. Unfortunately for him, he didn't succeed--it wasn't...

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#travel: I don't know why an airport would need a rickshaw service, but if any airport is going to have one, it's going to be a Japanese airport.Go from space age to stone age at Haneda airport as you ge...

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#weird news: Yakuza are scary, I get it. But you shouldn't just let them go and run away, especially when there's a crowd of 50 of you there to help. But, that's what happens on the streets of Japan, I guess....

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#videos: When asked about how he would feel should the US president (current or otherwise) apologize for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Morris R. Jeppson, one of the last surviving Enola Gay crew ...

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#ZOMGWTFBBQ: Above you can see a drug awareness video put out by Japanese authorities in the wake of the recent scandal involving singer/actress Noriko Sakai. Sakai disappeared for a brief period following ...

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#News: It seems like I can't go a week or two lately without hearing a bit of sad news from Japan. The other week I heard about the loss of rock starlet Kaori Kawamura who finally lost her lon...

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#ZOMGWTFBBQ: Have you ever went in the out? Went the other way down a one-way street? It's usually a problem that you quickly rectify, usually for fear of injury or death. One Japanese driver went the wrong w...

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#News: It's hard for me to call him injury prone, but it certainly seems like he is. Yoshiki, known in the past for his unorthodox manner of drumming--no doubt leading to his current condition--has post...

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#News: It's terrible, really. Kaori Kawamura was one of those women who managed to make a name for herself in a genre of music dominated by men. Aside from the fact that I found her incredibly beautiful...

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#shoujo: I'm a lady who loves her sexy men so it's always exciting when they make an anime out of a series I'm a big fan of. Every anime season, I'm always hoping for a great shoujo manga to be adapted in...

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#News: If you plan to be asking for directions at one of Japan's ubiquitous koban police boxes, it might be best to leave your shiv behind. A 74-year-old tourist got nine days in lockup for having a kni...

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#San Diego Comic Con: Well apparently the Bandai panel tonight is going to be more of the same that we've seen at Anime Expo and Otakon, though with no confession sessions or fun surprises. Speaking to Robert Napton, ...

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#TV and Film: If you recall when the cast for the live-action adaptation of Harold Sakuishi's manga Beck was first announced, we still hadn't heard who would be playing the female lead for ...

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#OVA: It looks as though there'll be a third season of Black Lagoon after all. Unfortunately it might be limited to an OVA, but that's understandable considering the speed at which the manga is being r...

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#politics: Those who fear slippery slopes may find a brief opportunity for relief, as the legislative tsunami triggered by the rape game controversy seems to have subsided somewhat in the wake of greater po...

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#News: A 13 year old in Shimane prefecture went ahead with a plot to murder his father last week, after having written several notes about how he planned to carry out the stabbing. It was...

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#politics: Saying that Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso is an unpopular figure is a bit of an understatement.  The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has dominated Japanese politics for the past half centu...

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#TV and Film: As evidenced by...well, everything I've ever watched, Japanese girls can get their scream on. In the above video, their built-in scream ability is being honed as a self-defense mechanism. Should...

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#weird news: In spite of all efforts by the creative industry to educate them, Japan's police still have no idea how to conduct proper law enforcement.Cops finally getting laser-guided paintball launchers ...

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#ZOMGWTFBBQ: Or, at least one guy is. A few years back, I wrote a string of seven or eight articles calling attention to multiple cases of Japanese trash men and other authorities finding money in the trash. ...

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#ZOMGWTFBBQ: If you haven't heard yet, a global recession is underway, and people are losing jobs right and left. Just being able to have part-time work is a blessing in some circles (i.e. mine), and more and...

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#politics: With the fate of fetishistic eroge all but sealed for the time being, the front is beginning to expand beyond the world of 2D illustrations, particularly in cases regarding loli and other underag...

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#videos: This past weekend proved to be quite a busy one for millions of Americans out there with the 4th of July celebrations and the lovely guys and gals at the Modern Method network are also busy--- WI...

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#weird news: The global economic downturn's been affecting everyone, and the people of Japan are no exception. They just left their own recession relatively recently. Credit is harder than ever to come by, an...

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#YA HA!!!!: Just as it seemed that all the emerging eroge news of late was bad eroge news, a ray of light pierced the darkened skies, assuring English-speaking eroge fanatics that yes, they would still be ge...

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#weird news:  And you thought political advertisments in the US were sensationalist or fear-mongering? Try this one by Japan's Happiness Realization Party, the political organization run by the Happy Sc...

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#Places: If anime, manga, videogames and countless other works of fiction have taught us anything, it is that love conquers all. None can deny its power, or resist its clarion call. Love cannot be stopped...

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#News: The hammer falls on eroge makers and their customers this October, if leaked fax notices are to be believed. According to info leaked from notices sent to various developers and retailers, the ne...

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#Tokyo: The Man came down hard on Roppongi, with more than two hundred police officers and immigration agents scouring the popular Tokyo nightlife district for illegal foreigners. After a lengthy search ...

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#video games: As the fight for deviancy continues two more H-game distributors have raised the drawbridges and filled the moats. Eroge outfits Yuzu Soft and VisualArt's have begun issuing blanket bans of forei...

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#News: Dale let you know how to get yourself a quick drink in the face or a kick to the pants with a list of what not to say to Japanese girls. Well, let's say you managed not to trip yourself up, and h...

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#Rant: The inquisition continues. As the eroge landscape slides further into the dark ages, new developments may threaten to accelerate the process. One of the most disturbing incidents so far involves ...