K-ON! PV Outfit figures

K-ON! has been one of those series that one gets obsessed about. For me I heard about the series in passing but never checked it out. It wasn't until i won the PV Yui figure from a UFO catcher, posted my winnings on twitter and then had people chime in how awesome the show…

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Rilakkuma 7th anniversary Bento

We recently had a chance to play a new demo of Mafia II–an open-world action game set against the backdrop of organized crime families vying for power in the 1950s. At the beginning of the demo, we saw Vito Scaletta–the game’s lead character–inside of his home just as he receives…

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Evangelion Movie figure UFO GETO!

The gameplay mechanics for Rising were made known initially at E3 2010, and are based around a concept known as “zan-datsu”, literally “cut and take.” Matsumaya and Kimura explained in Konami’s press conference that the “take” part revolves around Raiden literally taking power from enemies, a concept shown in the…

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Selling manga in Japan

Posted by atomicboyx On Monday, January 5, 2015 0 comments

Posted by atomicboyx at 6:23 AM 0 comments

Winter Comiket 2014 Japanese manga event

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I take my friend Eli to see the dojinshi manga event called Comiket!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comiket
This event is held twice a year. Once in the winter and once in the summer during long japanese holiday seasons.






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Interview: Gengoroh Tagame on his new manga series

Posted by atomicboyx On Sunday, October 5, 2014 2 comments

 For manga artists in Japan, many hope to debut in one of the national manga magazines, but Gengoroh Tagame has already had his work published for over 30 years, in multiple languages, around the world. Tagame has had an international impact, with the help of the internet over the last two decades, to become Japan's most known prolific gay erotic artist. This month he has his most notable manga debut. In "Monthly Action" magazine, the new series Otou no Otto (My Brother's Husband), kicksoff into the mainstream bookstores and newsstands across Japan. I was able to speak with Tagame-sensei to get some more background on this new series.

Cover art to the first chapter of "My brother's husband"

This month you have a new monthly comic in a mainstream magazine, what is this story about?
The story is about a man named Yaichi and his daughter Kana, who are visited by Mike, the Canadian husband of Yaichi’s twin brother. I'd like to write a story about modern day gay issues for straight readers.
 
This is a gay story in a mainstream, all genre magazine, was it hard to get it approved by the publisher? What were the difficulties, if any?I tried to do it once, several years ago. I was asked by an editor of well-known all genre magazine to draw manga them, and I proposed a story about modern day gay issues. The editor who called me pushed the story to his boss very hard. Finally, his boss, the chief editor of the magazine reject it. But several months ago, they started a new manga about a gay couple by female author who is a best selling Yaoi manga artist in their magazine. I felt I learned many things from this experience, but for now, I'll keep shut my mouth. Maybe you can imagine feeling. Anyway, from this experience, last year, when I was called from the editor of "Monthly Action" magazine, I did not propose a gay story at first. But through the many meetings with him, I felt a possibility to write a gay themed story in their magazine. Then I plotted the story very carefully, especially to think of the good readability for non-gay readers, and proposed it. They were in favor of my proposal very much, so this new story 弟の夫 (My Brother's Husband) started.
 
The awkward time between the straight twin brother and his brother's gay foreign husband.

You have been mainly creating gay adult themed comics for over 30 years, why did you decide to release this non-adult comic work now?
Actually, I've already released some non-adult comics this past decade. As I said before, I tried the same thing several years ago. But frankly speaking, when I finished writing 君よ知るや南の獄 (Do You Remember The South Island's P.O.W. Camp?), 外道の家 (The House Of Brutes) and 雄心〜ウィルトゥース (Virtus), I felt some kind of a period of my works. And on same time, I experienced trouble with G-men magazine too. Their betrayal hurt my love and trust for gay magazines and the Japanese gay industry, very much. So I started to look for new opportunities for myself. I've already done enough things for gay adult comics, so wanted to do some more new things for myself. To release non-adult comics is one of them. But I haven't thought to quit to drawing gay adult comics.
 
Many comic publishers release BL (yaoi) manga, what makes yours unique?
Because I'm an openly gay author who has had a very long career. Some of my books were released under a BL comic label, but I always have been thinking that my comic is a gay comic [not boys love]. There are many talented gay comic authors now, but there is no one who has had a long career and released dozens books as I have. 

Newsstand the day this issue of "Monthly Action" magazine was released.

You have many female fans in Japan, is this story targeted for them?
As I told before, the main target of the story is straight people who don't know about gay issues well. But of course, I'm coming up with various ideas to make the story interesting for female fans and gay fans too.
 
“Monthly Action” comic magazine is a mixed genre magazine, how do you feel the general audience will react to this story in Japan?
I wish that they will find something new from what they've never known before.
 
Do you think readers from outside Japan could relate to this story?
Yes. At least, I wish they do.
 
Do you have any other stories in other genres (fantasy, sci-fi) that you would like to create?
I'd like to create a historical story, especially one about ancient Greece.

 Tagame's website: http://www.tagame.org/home.html
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tagagen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gengoroh.tagame
Mothly Action publisher: http://webaction.jp/monthly_action/

This issue available on amazon.com: Japanese Manga Monthly Action Nov/2014
The lucky day that I was able to meet Tagame-sensei. He has an extremely busy schedule.
I bought my copy the day it was released!

[The interview is has been edited for some grammar/vocabulary errors.]

Posted by atomicboyx at 7:56 AM 2 comments
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Japanese bread scanner ?!?

Posted by atomicboyx On Sunday, July 6, 2014 0 comments

New bread scanning register in Japan!

I stopped by the bakery located within Nakano station ( I wanted bread items for dinner, and I don't have to pay extra for leaving the station). I basically have stopped by here once a week for the last month and a half. Today, to my surprise at the register was this strange board of light. It looked similar to what artist used
as a light board for drawing. 

At first I thought what is this, then the display panel my right shows the tray of food products I wanted to eat immediately. The panel then highlighted the shapes of the items and priced them accordingly. 

At this point the only thing needed of the staff is to just package the breads. Have any of you seen this type of technology in your area or is this special?

 Me what you think of this type of tech?


Posted by atomicboyx at 11:23 PM 0 comments
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Interviewed for Japanese tv!

Posted by atomicboyx On 0 comments

I have been living in Japan for over 5 and a half years. In this time I think everyone I know has been on Japanese tv for one reason or another. But still in all this time I had never been approached, until now! I finally (maybe) will get my 5 seconds of foreigner glory to be on tv! The show is called sekaibanzuku and it usually features foreigners who are asked questions about Japan and their own country. We were asked to reply in Japanese, so I did my best ask to I'm still hey shakey at best.

Some of the questions I was able to answer unaided but a few I had to turn to my friend for the simplified version of the question in English. At that point I was able to answer in Japanese. Some of the topics were, how are the train systems in your home city, how do the compare to Japan. Compare doctors in Japan and ones home country and finally, the most importantant one of all... Which is your favorite type of ramen.

So to potentially see me on tv check out the Japanese site http://www.ntv.co.jp/banduke/ if I can get the video I'll eventually post it.




Posted by atomicboyx at 11:08 PM 0 comments
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Limited edition cola float soda.

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Limited edition cola float soda. 

I'm always excited to try limited edition unique flavored  drinks and with each season change comes those drinks.

I very much love my ice creams floats, as they are also commonly found on family restaurants or karaoke drink menus. As per my usuall purchase of special drinks I took this one home with high expectations. This company had previously released some really good special flavored drinks, such as the sakuranbo (cherry) soda. 

When I opened this bottle you could smell a creamy flavor to the soda, which if it's a float I would hope had the smell. The smell was just right, not to powerful and natural (enough). 

Now for the taste, the first gulp seemed a tad sweet, but after seemed to become neutral. For the cola float flavor, it came out not bad but not good. It was a very non-memorable drinking experience. I was hoping for more of a creamy icecream tast but it wasn't there. Other float style sodas like the 'melon' float were quite tasty. For this cola float soda, if it were a take it or leave it, I'd just leave it.




Posted by atomicboyx at 9:26 PM 0 comments
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WTF - Japanese Cronuts!!

Posted by atomicboyx On Wednesday, April 2, 2014 0 comments

I am with @shiverz https://www.youtube.com/user/ShiverZ66 today with another episode of WTF Japanese snacks. We take on the release of the store bought Japanese CRONUT!! See if its a hit or miss.







Posted by atomicboyx at 9:47 PM 0 comments
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