Meri Kurisumasu メリークリスマス

"In recent years, thanks to the marketing prowess of the folks at Kentucky Fried Chicken, the Christmas Chicken Dinner has become quite popular. Many Japanese even make reservations for their "Christmas Chicken" ahead of time. People line up at their outlets to pick up their orders. As a result of KFC's brilliant advertising campaign, most Japanese now believe that Westerners celebrate Christmas with a chicken dinner instead of the more common ham or turkey."

"The Japanese celebrate Christmas Eve by eating a 'Christmas Cake' which the father of the family purchases on his way home from work (or his wife does in the case where he has to work on Christmas Eve). Stores all over carry versions of this Christmas cake and drop the price of it drastically on December 25th in order to sell everything out by the 26th. This has resulted in a rather interesting expression in which young girls are referred to as a 'Christmas cakes': marriageable until their 25th birthday and requiring heavy discounts to get married after their 25th birthdays."

 "The Christmas season comes during the month of the year-end parties. Company groups, hobby groups, sports groups, etc. often book a section of a restaurant to have drinking parties, known as 'bonenkai' [forget the old year parties]. This phenomena leads to streets, subways, and trains full of people in varied states of intoxication during this season.
Christmas lighting and displays are often up at the end of October and this year many stores have displays featuring Teddy Bears. There is also a trend developing for make-it-yourself presents.
The New Year's holidays, which constitute the main holiday season for the Japanese, come closer to the American-European idea of assembling family and friends. Christmas seems to be closer to the Western concept of St.Valentine's Day. "

 Excerpt from:
 http://tanutech.com/japan/jxmas.html

Three new shows have been added to the new Toonami line up. That makes a huge line up of all the best anime and cartoons out there. 13 different shows run from 9:00 pm to 5:30am starting every Saturday night!

New on the List:

Tenchi Muyo! GXP

A very clumsy high school student Seina Yamata lives with his parent in japan , while taking a bike ride he encounters a space ship crashing into a lake that knocks him out. He awakens to find the pilot of the ship and ends up (unfortunately) signing up for the Galaxy Police .

Sym-Bionic Titan

Sym-Bionic Titan is a new cartoon about two teenagers  facing your typical high school issues .....oh yeah they also happen to be able to form into a giant robot to fight aliens. Lots of martial arts and fighting , reminiscent of Samurai Jack  characters.

Thunder Cats

Thunder Thunder Thun.....hack...hair ball.....This version of the thunder cat has some amazing art, the characters are re imagined and look great while holding very true to the classic version. The story line is basically the same with a few minor adjustments on the story and some elaboration on how things came to be the way they are in Thundera.

Toonami has knock this one out of the park! Now ....I just have figure out how to stay awake till 5:30am!

PEELANDER-Z

Wow, my good friend Kim sent me some awsome shots of  PEELANDER-Z, the Japanese Action Comic Punk Band, performing at the Cider House in Knoxville, TN. Thanks Kim!

"At its live shows, Peelander–Z guarantees intense audience participation and a chance to exercise. You’ll see the band in colorful costumes reminiscent of Japanese anime, though they describe their outfits as their skin. You’ll also see The Red Squid, human bowling and all around insanity. A Peelander–Z performance is a rare occasion for the entire family to rock out and have a great time."http://peelander-z.com

Happy Halloween

Hello Boils and Ghouls,

Since today is "All Hallows' Eve" I'd like to share one of my favorite vampire tales with you. I'm sure you have watched the Vampire Hunter D series but if you haven't read the books you're missing out on a treat.

My favorite is "Demon Deathchase". D comes to America and is hired by a wealthy man to save his daughter from the Dark  Lord Meierlink ( a very powerful vampire). It is up to D to track the Lord Meierlink down and save the girl. D is quite the match for the Dark Lord and follows his trail of destruction to find that the Dark Lord has in cased himself and the girl in a impenetrable tomb just before sunrise. D must battle the Dark Lords minions, Werewolves and vampire alike to save the girl. But he is not the only on on the job. A band of tough siblings known as the Marcus family are fighting to collect the reward for saving the rich old mans daughter and won't let anyone stand in there way , including D.

Awesome series , you gotta read this .....hey you can watch TV all the time! Read a little ... its good for you. 

Happy Halloween,
DJ

Macross Plus

Macross Plus was a anime series released in the US in the 90's.  I got a hold of an old VHS Copy and watched the third installation of the series.

The story is basically a cross between "Top Gun" and 'Terminator"! Isamu Dyson and Zentradei Bowman are rival star craft pilots in rolled in a test program called "Super Nova" located on the planet " Eden".  One test flight leaves Dyson injured but it is played off as an accident by the curators of the project.

The Government organized program turns out to have another agenda besides testing star fighters, A programs called Sharon Apple becomes self aware and threatens the lives of whoever it encounters.


This series is really interesting , the plot was a little hard to follow since I started on part three. I think i got the gist of it though.

Later Days,
DJ

Fanboy Con = Awsome

Just came back for the a exciting day at comic con, usally today is a work daky but I decied to take this sunday off to check out the "Fanboy Con" in Knoxville.
Now In the pas I have exprest my distast for crappy con's and how every con I've been to latley .....has been terrible.

I have abolustly no complaint about Fanboy , It was awsome ! I arrive at the con about an half hour early and actually beat the crowd, I took that time to chat with some major anime fans at the door and wile we were talking Rodney Hall ( a cast member of the walking dead) came out to smoke a cig and I got a one on one with him, aparently Rodney lived in Knoxville for a few years and told me about a new movie he had been working on.

As the comic con open I imediantly head for the artist booth, It alot of fun to ask them how they got started doing art, some artist are just plain ol natural talet , some atttend art schools and some find there own technique . There were alot of great artis and they were all happy to speak with me .

Special shout out to :

Fantastic Story line : Bottomtownpress.com

The talented Amanda Rachels: inversepress.com

Comic Expert : Shawn Harbin: bsx22studiows.com

The Amazing Scott West: Alternacomics.com


After chatting with the artist, I got to check out the vendors at the show , There were tons of toys, memorabilia and collectibles at the con. I was impressed.

There was also Q&A session with the Celebrates, I listened to on set Star Wars stories from Stephen Costantino and Billy D. Williams' son. And how Micheal Berry Man started his acting career.
There is no mistake these guys are talented

Jason David Frank was at the con signing autographs , I didn't make it to the booth but I did attend his martial art class ! We went through striking and kicking drills as well as some martial arts work out techniques. About half way through the class I saw a man dressed in black watching us train....It was Adrian Paul ( Highlander TV Series) !

Later I went to Adrian's booth and spoke with him about martial arts, He got really excited when I mention martial arts and we talked for about 15 minutes about kung-fu, Adrian told me he had been trained in Shaolin Gung-Fu and a norther style of kung fu called Hung-gar. He showed me a few pointers on kung-fu's method of  blocking and punching. This guy isn't just an actor that portrays a martial artist , he is really into it.

Fanboy Con was a blast, I met tons of great fans and actors, if this con comes to your town you have to visit !  Grade A Comic con wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Later Days,
DJ

Press Play to watch a video of the show...sorry about the angle I'll edit the video later =)

Summer Wars

Hello,

I got my hands on a copy of  "Summer Wars" this week , I heard it got a anime award and thought I'd review it .

The movie is very well done with lots of action,comedy and touching moments in the story line.

The story is about a high school student (Kenji Koiso) and a young girl's (Natsuki Shinohara) who visit a family reunion for Natsukis granmother's birthday. Natsuski tricks Kenji  into accompanying her along to the reunion, she then talks him into pretending he is her fiance.

Kenji receives a code on his phone and uses his talented mathematical skills to solve the random problem. When he breaks the code it sets of an international computer virus that threatens life as we know it .

Things really turn for the worse for Natsuki's family. Kenji is arrested for committing a crime that to his knowledge he inadvertently committed. However, some how Kenji, Natsuki and her family pull together to save the world from a virus driven missile setting course for a nuclear power plant.

I  like the concept of OZ and how every one is connect the the world online. There are tons of Characters in the movie with awesome dramatic art scenes and epic battles. I recomend puchasing this movie.

Later days,
DJ