Welcome to Bootleg News Reporter
A world dedicated to anime, manga, and Japanese news found on the web, so you don't have to go to more than one site.
Since the news being presented here is from other sites, they are not my original work and all credit goes to the original author. I'm really bootleging information, thus this world's title.
Well, hope these posts are useful and if you want to be a guest poster, please pm me.
Ok, I finally made a background^^ but I'm still tinkering with the header banner though. If you have ideas about the Bootleg's design, please let me know.
Hello my name is fallenangel8 I just join the bootleg news report team and this is my first post.
Nation’s Largest Convention Welcomes Famed Pokemon Director
On March 12 AX announced its first Guests of Honor Famed director Masamitsu Hidaka is the first addition to the hottest line up of Anime Expo® 2008 Guests of Honor for the highly anticipated 2008 convention July 3-6, 2008 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. More information can be found on the website www.anime-expo.org.
Mr. Hidaka was led to the world of animation during his job search efforts after unfortunately losing his job at an architecture design office in Fukuoka. Upon discovering his new career path, Mr. Hidaka moved to Tokyo and began his career as a production runner for an animation studio. Soon after, Mr. Hidaka made his debut as assistant director in DIRTY PAIR then later as the action director and storyboard artist in the OVA KIKO SENKI DRAGONAR. Mr. Hidaka was also in charge of action choreography and storyboards for the notable title MASHIN EIYUUDEN WATARU 2. Mr. Hidaka made his directorial debut with the animated television series JUU SENSHI GARUKIBA. Since then Mr. Hidaka has worked on other highly acclaimed titles including the POKEMON television and theatrical franchise, MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM WING (TV), AFTER WAR GUNDAM X (TV) and BRAVE KING GAOGAIGAR (TV). Currently, Mr. Hidaka is working as the Director for the highly anticipated GONZO television series LINEBARRELS OF IRON.
“I feel very lucky that GONZO offered me (the opportunity) to direct LINEBARRELS OF IRON(,) because when they came to me with this title, I was just looking for a mecha-anime to work on” states Mr. Hidaka. Upon reflection of his career in animation, Mr. Hidaka states “I was one of those lucky souls who (was) involved in the production of mecha-anime in the 80’s and 90’s when (the) genre was at its prime.Although the trend in today’s anime is character-oriented, I had been asking myself how I would be able to reassert mecha-anime without compromising marketability. I agreed to work on LINEBARRELS OF IRON because I saw it as the perfect chance to try doing just that. I hope to make a cool mecha-anime but add somewhat cute elements too.”
Hello, Welcome to the Bootleg leftovers: the Food Addition.
Since I was noticing a surplus of Japanese food related news, I dedicated this report to food.
Sexy Time With Your Food or Sex Up Your Food
I was hesitant at first whether to post this information, but couldn’t pass up the bizarreness of this information. I am sorry if this offends people…
From an article in the Mainichi Daily News, in the underground of Tokyo’s Roppongi district, there is a member-only club/ restaurant, where for a big fee, members can have sex with the animal of their choice and then have it killed, cooked, and served to the member and his/hers party. “Patrons pay up to 800,000 yen (around $7000) for the entire experience and must have an income of 20 million yen (about $175,000) to even get that far. Once inside, through multiple secured doorways, your dating & dining choices include chickens, dogs, pigs and goats - of either sex”
The original online article was comically called “New Restaurant Lets You Pork Your Pork”
With the controversial issue of Whaling on the rise in Japan, there have been many research papers that are about ideas such as making test-tube whale babies and cow-whale hybrids for livestock, to solve the whaling problem. These essays have been published by Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research over the past 18 years in respected scientific journals including "Nature".
Had enough of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy Potion drink,? Well now gamers can guzzle down Monster Hunter Drink from the much anticipated Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G game for the PSP. “The Monster Hunter Drink is produced by Hino Pharmaceutical and contains royal jelly, vitamins, and fruit flavors.” Bandai is releasing them on March 27th and will only be sold in 7-11 convenience stores up until April. Bandai expects to sell 50 million of them for it’s limited run.
What the crap is Royal Jelly? I’ve never heard of it till now.
What do you get if Mochi and Waffles had a baby? You get Moffles!
I love Mochi and I love Waffles, but how do I combine the two, simple a Moffle. “It’s the latest food craze! Sweet or savory, the moffle is a waffle made from traditional Japanese mochi rice cakes. The outside of a moffle gets crispy like puffed rice but the inside retains its chewy mochi-ness. While a number of Japanese food bloggers claim that any waffle iron will do (and the trial and errors are well-documented), one clever company has already branded itself “Moffle” and produced a moffle maker. Available on Amazon Japan, the Moffle moffle maker comes in single (¥6,800) or double (¥12,790) iron models in “milk white” or “milk pink.”” They are served in many ways, from fruits and ice cream to curry and cheese. It’s a meal in itself.
To me, a Moffle looks like inversed bubble wrap. To see pictures and read the article, click on the link:
Mega Mac hamburger is permanently added to the Japanese McDonald’s menu
In Japanese McDonalds, for a limited time they had the Mega Mac Burger on the menu, but it was so popular (It sold over 23 million burgers), that it is now apart of the permanent menu. The burger consists of 3 buns, and 4 patties accompanied by lettuce, cheese, etc.
Not only is it apart of the menu, they are also running two limited addition burgers, part of the Mega Mac Series, one Being the Mega Muffin and the Mega Teriyaki. “To keep things lively, the products are time-restricted both in dates and hours. The Mega Mac is available as usual from 10:30 in the morning, but the Mega Muffin is only available from opening time until 10:30, and the Mega Teriyaki from 7 p.m. until closing time. That, and both of these new items are only available from April 4th until May 8th.” There is also a site promoting the Mega Mac in Japan http://megamac.jp/
Obviously the documentary “Super Size Me” has had no effect in Japan…
Eva Coffee Cans Available Exclusively To Pachinko Parlors
This is old news (I’ve posted it before for the first time the podcast team wanted info), but the site Akihabanana has posted another article about UCC Coffee cans have the Eva girls dressed up as maid on it. It is for a limited time, to promote the Eva Movies and is only available at Pachinko Parlors.
Tommy Lee Jones Coffee Commerical
To end this report, I leave you a Boss Coffee commercial featuring Tommmy Lee Jones (K from Men in Black), which was part of a series of twelve commercials called "Alien Tommy Lee Jones". Where Mr. Jones plays a alien visting Japan and it's many cultural aspects. The funny part about these commericals is that he hardly says anything nor make any facial expressions in them.
This was also featured on Japanprobe.com a while back...
This is probably a huuuuuuge event for me. Mainly because I have been anticipating the release for this anime series for awhile.
Bus Gamer TV Anime's Promo Video Streamed
The Animate marketing website is streaming a promotional video (narrowband or broadband bandwidth) for Frontier Works' television anime adaptation of Kazuya Minekura's Bus Gamer action suspense manga. The series premieres in Japan on March 14. The story revolves around a team of three young players in Bus Game, a reality competition in which companies bet their portfolios on the outcome. (The "Bus" in Bus Game and Bus Gamer is pronounced "Biz" as in business.) The winning players also earn life-changing amounts of money, but they discover that some losers are killed in the process.
Minekura is supervising the anime which Naoyuki Kuzuya, a storyboarder on episodes of Shuffle! and XXXHOLiC, is directing. Tokyopop published one volume of Bus Gamer 1999-2001 The Pilot Edition in North America.
First before I start, I would like to thank 2short, Ryosuke Forever, and Nehszriah for all of their informative and dedicated work. Really, all of your work has turned out wonderful and truly makes this world! When I first made this world I would have never had thought it would turn out this great! Thank you!
Feature News
Akihabanana News site
The new bilingual otaku culture media site “Akibanana.com” was launched by G.I. Jane Inc. in February. The site provides news updates, information, maps, blogs, and forums about Akihabara, to provide what the alley ways of Akihabara is really like.
I originally heard of this site from this article on http://www.kilian-nakamura.com/blog-english/index.php/akibanana-launched-for-growing-global-otaku/and was intrigued, so I went to check out the site. http://akibanana.com/
The site is still in its beta stage and very young, but the site is fantastic! It is very informative, with the articles giving a lot of detail. It once again makes you wish you had the opportunity to visit Japan.
It made me foam at the mouth when I read about the preview of the second season of xxxHolic (which is called xxxHolic: Connections which premieres in Japan this April Hazzah :D) with Clamp being there for the preview. Here’s the link to the small article http://akibanana.com/?q=node/175
Akihabanana is a definite must see site!
Anime
Otaku Pilgrimages to Lucky Star Shrine Draw Criticism
This is old news about otakus making a pilgrimage to the oldest Shinto shrine in eastern Japan, Washinomiya Jinja, but they aren’t visiting it for the shrine historical notoriety. They are visiting it because it was featured in the anime “Lucky Star”. Hordes of otakus are flocking to the shrine, but the locals aren’t happy about it. Interviews of the locals, state that they do not like the “strange men” coming to town and “scaring the children”. The article is greatly detailed, from going over a brief history of the shrine, the anime Lucky Star, and detail accounts of the testimonies of the locals. I greatly recommend that you read the article.
Elementary School Breaks Guinness Record with a 118-Person Walk
“An elementary school in Shinjuku ward hosted a Guinness World Record-breaking 118-legged on march 8th.” The picture on the site, shows 117 people tied together around the ankles as they are about to start the race. The 118 person walk was consisted of students, teacher and parents celebrating the centennial of Ushigome-Nakano Elementary School. “The previous record was set by a group of consultants in the UK last September, which included 77 people.”
“TEC Japan has created the Tobidasu Menu (pop-up menu) to embed into restaurant tables. Customers can browse the digital menu by touch and then view individual items in 3D.”
This is really an article you have to see for yourself. Not so much for the written content, but for the pictures. Which I found to be confusing at first, till I realized it was just an odd camera angle. What caught my attention, was the “novelty function of placing a hamburger bun on the menu and removing it to reveal a delicious beef patty with all the trimmings.”. I thought that to be spiffy :D.
For those who love fashion, here is an article about fashion week in Japan. Once again there are pictures accompanying the article. One of the articles of clothing that caught my eye was the hat that looked like a sea urchin was attacking the models heads.
Sorry that I have not figured out what to do with this world's design. I'll have more time to, next week after finals.
Once again thank you reporters for all of your news and thank you (the viewer) for stopping by and reading our bootleg news.
-TrigunCat4
Video Site with Unauthorized Anime Gets US$4M Capital
Crunchyroll, a video-streaming website known for offering anime titles without authorization, secured a capital investment of US$4.05 million.
Venture capital firm Venrock reportedly invested the capital in San-Francisco-based Crunchyroll, Inc., with Venrock General Partner David Siminoff joining Crunchyroll's board of directors. Several websites that report on federal regulatory filings covered the investment in brief.
In an interview with the blog Kokoro Media, the site's unnamed founders state that their web traffic started attracting interest from venture capital in mid-2007. The company says that the site has over 4 million unique visitors and serves 50 million streams per month. The company unveiled its first legally authorized anime stream, a short from the Flash animated series that later became Eagle Talon The Movie - The Chancellor Only Lives Twice, late last month.
Crunchyroll is one of several websites that posts anime and other Asian content through a streaming interface, similar to YouTube, without authorization from or payment to most owners of its content. The site identifies the versions of many anime titles it hosts as fansubs from prominent subtitling groups. Nonetheless, the website claims that it abides by copyright law by removing several series upon request from the copyright holders. Recently, several fansubbers have expressed displeasure with the service, with some fansub videos specifically insulting the site.
The company offers higher-quality video to users who "donate" money for onscreen badges. The company stated that it intends to begin inserting video ads into full-length episodes, and intends to work directly with "a select number of Japanese firms" to acquire content legally.
Venrock is a venture capital firm formed in 1969 with offices in Menlo Park, California; New York City; Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Israel. Funded by the Rockefeller family fortune, the company has invested more than US$1.8 billion in more than 400 companies, resulting in 100 IPOs over the company's history. Focused on start-up tech-oriented companies, Venrock's past investments have included such companies as Intel, Apple, DoubleClick, and 3Com Corporation. Siminoff currently serves on the board of directors of 4INFO, Green Dimes, and Spark Networks.
Crunchyroll's domain name is registered through a third-party service without a publicly available contact name. Crunchyroll has yet to respond to ANN's requests for comment since yesterday.
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