Ok ya’ll. We have a designer. We have a printer. We have a horrible attitude towards life and pretty much everything associated with it that we don’t like.

And soon we’ll have shirts! Yay! Something for every doujin ka, J-culture fan, and TG supporter is coming your way!

Which one will we do first? Hmmm…

For several years I woke up every morning and went to animeondvd.com to get news on anime, manga, and dvd releases. I adored their reviews as well. But since the site got bought-out (not really bought-out but restructured with support from mania.com), well, my eyes have been getting butt-raped by the sheer uuuuugliness of that site.

That’s not to say that AOD and company aren’t still doing a damn fine job, but really, I own a digital projector partially so I can watch movies on my wall and make myself feel better about being an efficacy-obsessed computer engineer/shut-in and partially because people keep making websites that seemed determined to drive me to blindness.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I found out that this whole “Web 2.0″ thing was a conspiracy by LensCRAFTERS, ADV, and the guys at Crunchy Roll.

Believe that shit.

Anyway, Animeondvd.com, I still love you. I just wish you’d change clothes. Hint, hint.

Awesome animation. Great CGI. A compelling and well-written story. Solid and tight direction. Superb voice acting. Some of the best music I’ve heard in years.

But, I hate to point out the obvious here… your main character? Seen that dude somewhere else!

Alto

Kanda from DGM.

Cuttin’ some sideburns does not moe make!

Banana Choco. French Toast. Pretz. Pineapple. Bitter Chocolate. Melon Pan (bread). Salt. Butter. Hokkaido butter. Roast. Chocolate peanut. Cocoa. Potato.

Sure, some were better than others, but I’ve tried ‘em all. My rotund ass has rocked more pocky than you can begin to imagine. I am a walking testament to dead carbs, sugar, and salt. I am a man driven by pushups, hatred, and whatever candy-coated stick I am chewing on at the moment. I think the only one I haven’t tried is SARS-flavored. I’ll get to it someday.

That said, here are a few flavors I’d like to see. Take a note, candy manufacturers, you can make some moves with this here handy list of pocky treats I’d gladly scarf down and barf up after my second tall boy:

Pancake

Strawberry Cheesecake

Linux

Hamburger

Baby Hamburger (DUDE I HAD TO USE THIS IMAGE SOMEWHERE AND THE DAY HAS COME!)

And, of course…

(wait for it)

(Just a bit more…)

(Ready?)

Chocolate Rain

GOOD NEWS!

OK, a quick post here because I’ve been reviewing stuff for a series of Microsoft exams and getting ready to go back to language school. But it’s good news!

A. We now have a special system allowing us to doll out coupons and discounts to you! Stay tuned for our next round of specials… we’ve got a lot of books piled up here, and more on the way, so I figured it’s as good a time as any to clear out some shelf space.

B. We ARE going to start accepting CREDIT CARDS FOR PAYMENT. After so many requests we figured it would be wrong to leave people hanging. Paypal is great (and highly preferred around these parts), but since we’ve worked so hard to set up shipping and delivery systems it only makes sense to allow more users access to our goods.

That’s it! If you’ll pardon me, I’m back to studying the relationship between rational database systems, php, and online commerce as well as NTFS file storage systems.*

* = This is a fancy code for ‘watching Macross Frontier. Our secret, ok?

A lot of people like candy. It’s understandable. Candy is one of the best things in the world, right now to Ravi’s character design, making out, Mika Nakashima’s adorably big nose, and this video.

Anyway, I had a taste of pocky here and there before I headed Japan’s way, but by the time I reached my home in the south of the country I was a full-blown addict. If it could be put on a stick, given flavor, and over-packaged by the good people at Glico… I WAS ALL OVER THAT SHIZZ.

Chocolate? OK, if nothing else is available.

Strawberry? My brand.

Pretz? Hell yeah, I’ll have a stick-Ritz, any day.

And who could forget the bittersweet day that they discontinued Choco banana? I left work and bought all of the rest of the available stock at 80 cents a box. I almost cried upon finishing the last one. Then I vomited. AFTER that I cried big, sweet, fake chocolately banana’d tears.

I’ve been working to curve it, but I don’t think it will go away. I’ve been running and exercising a lot. I’ve also tried to find other, more constructive things to do, like studying about computers or reviewing Korean restaurants in the smug tone of a jerk who’s actually been there but couldn’t manage to figure out how to say “hello.” Dumb shit, basically.

But every now and then the call of sweet strawberry, with its sexy red box and far, far, FAR too suggestive pink coloring reaches me and I break down. I’ll admit to a few days waking up shirtless, unshaven, and clutching an “empty” while in the fetal position on my bathroom floor. I’m not proud of it, but I’m not above it. But I’m going to beat this thing.

After this last box.

Dammit.

Summer is here, and a new city has taken TG into its’ heart. Yep, we’re Californians now, at least in terms of our marketing* department and overseas orchestrations.

And with SF comes a massive influx of Japanese and Asian-based culture. Sure, we’ve had conversations in Japanese in Korea, Thailand, and Hong Kong, but today a random one went down in good ol’ San Mateo while buying pocky at a local store. More on my pocky addiction later.

We’re beginning to design our clothing line as we speak. Expect big, funny, and heinous things. Also: gorgeous ones. We’ll keep you looking slick. Trust us. In the meantime, dig our Death Note t-shirts located here.

Off to bed with us now. We gotta work on that ‘Twilight’ book we’ve heard so much about, all the way not trying to think of that damned ELO song they used to open Densha Otoko with.

(* = “Hey guys, do we have to drop f-bombs in every post? Also, can we start having these meetings sober?”)

Shouting out to a new face in the crowded crowd (we’d start naming names, but we don’t get paid to blog… yet… *hint*), Tokyogetter.com would like to bring your attention to akibatoday.com. AT is dedicated to talking about business developments, new stores, and license rights from a business basis, as opposed to a strictly entertainment-based site. So far the site is very new, but it looks promising. They have blogs, videos, and interviews and it’s growing.

A few years ago, a site like this wasn’t easy to fathom. It’s kind of interesting to follow if you like to see what kind of fluctuations and trends affect the ever-so-volatile market. All altruistic intentions aside, trust me: if nobody gets paid to make Haruhi, nobody makes Haruhi.

And that would make Aya Hirano sad.

Swiped from a website you probably already read:

The Neu Bauhaus consulting firm has informed ANN that the Production I.G anime studio (Ghost in the Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire) will announce the details of its newest anime series at Otakon, the August 8–10 convention in Baltimore, Maryland. The new anime, whose official title has not been released yet, will feature character designs by Susumu Matsushita (written as “Shin Matsushita”). The series’ main characters will be based on Kyoko Kano and Mika Kano, two Japanese celebrities who are models, media personalities, and industry guests at this year’s Otakon. Production I.G is developing the anime in a partnership with the Fuji TV network, and plans to use its Otakon launch to present a global sales and marketing plan for the series.

These girls have serious ’star power’ in Japan, endorsing all kinds of stuff in all kinds of places. I’m not down on the concept per se, as they DO represent a certain degree of female empowerment that is still very rare, but by the same token these gals have been through more surgeries than House and Black Jack put together. You can read more about them on
Wikinerdica, natch, but it doesn’t elucidate much about their origin.

Some choice tidbits:

“Within Japan it is rumored that before becoming celebrities, they were high priced call girls for the jet set level.”

“Kyoko claims she was the potential wife of an elderly American billionaire after “five Hollywood actresses failed to win his heart”, but dumped him.”

They’ve also got another “sister” who ran off with a gang of their money. Finally some characters I can relate to!

Do you think Oshii can work that dog into it somehow?