Apparently Dreamworks Pictures is planning on producing a big-budget, flashy action/3D version of the classic anime Ghost in the Shell. They’ve signed on Laeta Kalogridis to write the script for the movie. Kalogridis is responsible for the script for the upcoming Leonardo DiCaprio/Martin Scorsese film Shutter Island. Of course, the Hollywood studios tried adapting Ghost in the Shell into a movie before, but to no avail. I wonder if Kalogri...

Halloween’s almost here, so I figured it would be cool to look at some particularly creative/neat Jack O Lanterns that I found somewhere on the Internet. Here they are: #gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } ...

Here are a couple video clips highlighting some of what went on at the New York Anime Festival a few weeks back on NTV Japan. They’re in Japanese but if you don’t speak that language you can still get a pretty good idea of what they’re talking about. The second clip concerns an American ‘Otaku’ who is proud of that title. He takes the cameras to his home and shows off his rather impressive display of anime items that...

A Japanese company has created some new eyeglasses that are designed to make the wearer blink. This can be important for those of us who engage in heavy video game playing, as we sometimes forget to blink. With these ‘wink glasses’, the wearer is forced to blink. Every 5 seconds of non-blinking, the lenses fog up, forcing the wearer to blink in order to clear them up. these can probably work well for gamers, but hopefully no one wear...

Apparently at the Hello Kitty Celebration last week at the Royal/T in Culver City, Paris Hilton said she wants a Hello Kitty car. Check out the video at this link. I’m sure you were curious what Paris thought about the whole thing. There’s also a photo gallery at that website from the launch party of the Hello Kitty 35th Birthday, take a look if you’re interested. As mentioned before on this blog, this celebration at the Royal/...

I go to 7/11 a lot. In fact, I’d say I go there much too frequently. The allure of cheap snacks and energy drinks is too much for me to handle most of the time, so I hit up the store multiple times per week. I’m not ashamed. Well, a month or so ago I noticed this familiar-looking brown character ALL OVER the store. I knew it was some Japanese character, but I wasn’t sure exactly what his/her name was or what it was from. Well, ...

Royal/T was packed Thursday night for the VIP party of celebrating the exhibition of Hello Kitty 35th anniversary. It was full of Hello Kitty stuff, VIP and media people. Over crowded. Including celebrities like Paris Hilton, Dave Navarro, Kimora Lee Simmons and her pretty daughters, Lenora Claire, and Yoshiki. “YOSHIKITTY” is selling @ Royal/T. I was so surprised that Hello Kitty turned 35 years old and by the amount of Hello Kitty m...

In celebration of Microsoft Windows 7 coming out, Burger Kings in Japan will be selling a Whopper sandwich with SEVEN patties (yes, 7!) for only a week. As this article at Endgadget tells, though, only the first 30 customers each day will get the Win 7 Whopper at ¥777, with the rest shelling out a cool ¥1,450 ($17.10) for the privilege. I’m not going to lie, I want to try this ridiculous burger. Crazy things like this appeal to me…...

SuperHeroHype recently sat down with Astro Boy stars Eugene Levy, Freddie Highmore, Bill Nighy and director David Bowers, for more pre-release promotional hype-creating interviews. They don’t really say anything shocking or surprising, but it’s still a cool little montage of interviews with part of the cast NOT named Kristen Bell (which seems to be the most popular interview subject about Astro Boy making rounds on the Internet). The...

This is a bit old but I just stumbled upon it over at JapanProbe. Yes. I wish i was cool enough to do this. here’s Pac-Man too, even funnier. Warning: there’s an F-bomb about midway through, so if you can’t handle a little rough language don’t watch it. It’s an amazing video, though. a2a_config.linkname="Mario Kart & Pac Man in real life = awesome"; a2a_config.linkurl="http://kawaiikakkoiisugoi.com/?p=1301"; ...

If you’re in the Los Angeles area and consider yourself a Hello Kitty fan, you won’t want to miss this. It’s the 35th anniversary of Hello Kitty this year, and thus the Royal/T cafe/retail shop/exhibit space in Culver City will host a Hello Kitty exhibit starting this Saturday October 23 and running through November 15. The whole event is called Three Apples: An Exhibition Celebrating 35 Years of Hello Kitty. Royal/T is the sa...

This is a strange promotion…..apparently a theater in Dallas, Texas held a screening of Astro Boy. After the film, any kids who got their hair cut to resemble Astro Boy’s look received a free T-shirt. I guess this is an interesting promotional tie-in in relation to the movie coming out this week, but I’m not certain how effective it will be to stir up more interest in the film’s release. At any rate, it’s a funny l...

The folks over at JapanProbe find the best videos….They posted this video of a few commercials for DoggyMan dog treats…and of course they’re irresistible to anyone who likes dogs. Check it out… a2a_config.linkname="Dogs are Cute"; a2a_config.linkurl="http://kawaiikakkoiisugoi.com/?p=1277"; a2a.init("page");

I came across this funny comic from David Nomisato that deals with some of the day-to-day experiences of people in the JET Programme, which is the exchange program where people spend a year or some amount of time in Japan teaching. It’s apparently quite an experience, culturally and personally. As the comic’s website states, Written, and illustrated by David Namisato, an illustrator, and former CIR in Ajigasawa-machi, Aomori-ken, Lif...

TonchiDot, a Japanese tech company, has developed an innovative new iPhone application/program called Sekai Camera. As this article from the Japan Times describes, Suppose you go to a nice restaurant, and you want to leave a recommendation for other would-be patrons. Using your mobile phone you can post an “air tag” for that geographic location. Your air tag could include text, an Internet link, a photo or even audio and video. Now s...