Yuriko Koike on NicoNicoDouga and YouTube
Written by Jeshii on 2008.09.16 – 12:00 -
In case you haven’t been in the Japanese government loop, Fukuda has resigned and there are a bunch of people who want to be the next prime minister. One of the many is 小池 ゆりこ (Koike Yuriko). If she were to actually become prime minister, she would be Japan’s first female prime minister.
She’s not really a front runner, but she does have an interesting strategy. She is using ニコニコ動画 (NicoNicoDouga) and YouTube to post videos of herself talking about the issues (or riding in jet planes). Why stand on top of a van in Shibuya when you can be on ニコ動… standing on top of a van!
I’d love to see her do well. Advancement of women and all that. But I have one major problem with her ニコニコ動画 videos; no comments! Comments on ニコ動 give you a sense that others are watching it too. So watching her comment-less videos (commenting seems to have been disabled) makes it feel like she is unpopular.
So, Yuriko-chan, let’s start seeing some commenting, huh? I’d love to see some “wwwwwwww” comments stringing across when you get out of that F-15!
Tags: government, nicovideo, society, video
Posted in government | 1 Comment »
Shin Yamato Damacy: Ep. 2 – Is love really blind?
Written by Jeshii on 2008.09.15 – 15:50 -
In this latest installment of Shin Yamato Damacy, Luka follows Brian and Makiko on a date!
Brian doesn’t know much Japanese, and Mariko seems to be refraining from too much English, but its off to a good start as Brian shows himself to be a capable, かっこいい (kakko ii) guy!
From the previews, I see some similarities in this date to me and my wife’s first date. Could this be love?! Can’t wait for the second part! XD
(See also Ep. 1. This episode is also available on YouTube.)
Tags: friends, gaijin, girls, gunma, Japanese girls, shin yamato damacy, video
Posted in blogs | 1 Comment »
A Better NicoNico Douga English Guide
Written by Jeshii on 2008.09.15 – 12:26 -When I post videos, I try to find the YouTube version for our ニコニコ動画 impaired friends, but I highly encourage everyone to visit the site and attempt to watch them. It improves your Japanese and is much more fun than watching a boring non-commented YouTube video.
So, for those of you without an account, there is a pretty good guide on how to sign up and watch videos over at Asiajin:
English guide for Nico Nico Douga, part 1: How to register
English guide for Nico Nico Douga, part 2: How to use
And if you already have an account, here is your reward:
Tags: blogs, nicovideo, translation, video
Posted in Internet | 1 Comment »
IOSYS or Productive Fandom?
Written by Jeshii on 2008.09.11 – 18:05 -
IOSYS is a music/art group that makes some awesome videos that are pretty popular on 2-chan and ニコニコ動画 (niconico douga). I think the videos are generally flash, but then they get put on YouTube and such.
Probably the one that I encountered first was 魔理沙は大変なものを盗んでいきました (Marisa wa taihen-na mono wo nusunde ikimashita). Marisa is a character from the 東方Project (Touhou Project). IOSYS generally just uses characters from Team Shanghai Alice games to make their songs/videos.
Strange connection to recently news in 魔理沙は大変なものを盗んでいきました (which has been around for a while)… at around 1:43 she says 「あなたとはちがうから」 which was echoed by 福田’s whole あなたとはちがうんです thing. The comments on the ニコニコ動画 version reflect this. XD
Before I knew about this one, someone had already used the song to remix an episode of my old video podcast Yamato Damacy. Originally a 15 minute short film, this is the MAD (remix) version:
I laughed so hard the first time I saw that, I thought I was going to die. So when I found out what the song was in the background, I was already hooked.
Anyway, IOSYS will have been around for 10 years next month. Go visit their website and check out the Movies section or go buy a CD. You won’t regret it.
Tags: anime, gaming, iosys, music, video, 東方
Posted in music | 3 Comments »
Is perfume breaking up your marriage?
Written by Jeshii on 2008.09.10 – 19:00 -
Perfume, from your wife
So remember I was taking about perfume, the wildly popular elecropop girls trio?
Well, looks like perfume are so popular, they are starting to break up marriages.
The story comes from
a thread on the message boards over at Yahoo!知恵袋 (Yahoo!chiebukuro). My translation of the initial post is as follows:
My wife is pressing the “perfume” question.
Hello. I’m a 29 year old married man. I don’t have any children.
It’s not like I’m really big into music, but I download and listen to a lot of different kinds of music. It doesn’t matter if it is Western or Japanese and I enjoy music from any genre.
The other day, a friend of mine recommended I give perfume a listen, but although it was music that was fairly off my particular radar, I gave them a listen and really liked it. The music videos are also quite spectacular, so I really started to get into them and started to buy DVDs on Yahoo! Auctions and collect all the CDs I could.
When I recommended them to my wife, she quietly listened and said “This is some interesting music, huh?” But then, one day, I asked her over dinner, “Who is your favorite out of the three perfume girls?” She responded angrily, 『殺すぞ』 (korosu zo, “I’ll kill you.”)
“Who gets these girly DVDs and CDs at this age?! You are always listening to it everyday! You pervert!” Among the verbal abuse, she overturned the table. Since then, my wife has started to curse the very thought of perfume. If they show up on TV, she will change the channel. If their music is the background of a commercial, she will mute it just for that commercial. She does this all with a blank face. It’s scary.
One day, when I came home from work, I found that almost all the pictures on perfume CD covers had labels put over the faces of かしゆか (Kashiyuka) and のっち (Nocchi). Somehow, あーちゃん (A~chan) made it unscathed. When I asked my wife what she was doing, she replied with the question “Which is more important, our life together or perfume?”
We aren’t very wealthy nor affluent. It seems my hobby of trying to buy CDs and DVDs had ticked her off. In the end, she hit me with these conditions. “Put all of your perfume stuff on Yahoo! Auctions, and stop listening to perfume completely. If you can’t do this, I want a divorce.”
Up until now, I had a lot of CDs of young girl bands/singers in pretty heavy rotation, and I bought some DVDs, but my wife had never said anything before… And how come あーちゃん was the only one to make it out without being covered in stickers? But I’m not in any position to be asking these questions right now. I have to get rid of the CDs and DVDs by the end of the month. This is really harsh…
To the wives and women out there, is there some way that I can peacefully end this thing? My wife is the same age as myself.
Thank you for reading.
On a side note, my real name is Yasutaka.
(Translator’s note: That last thing about Yasutaka, the DJ who produces and makes perfume’s music is Nakata Yasutaka.)
Poor guy. But, I gotta say, if is wife is that upset about it, he must be totally otaku-ing out on perfume.
But that is a good question… why perfume? And why not A~chan? Maybe it is just her cryptic way of saying which one is her favorite?!
Tags: A-chan, bbs, cd, divorce, dvd, electropop, Japanese girls, Kashiyuka, marriage, music, Nocchi, perfume, society, Yahoo, Yahoo Auctions, yasutaka, ystk
Posted in Internet, music | 21 Comments »
Ninja Drug Warriors!
Written by Jeshii on 2008.09.09 – 15:10 -
lol… Japanese culture has pervaded the world enough that unenlightened anti-drug warriors were going around dressed and equipped as ninjas. The story goes that two guys, Tadeusz Pertkiewicz and Jesse Trojaniak went around in black suits with swords and ninja stars to clean up the neighborhood. When they left a warning letter, violating the first rule of the ninja to never been seen, they got arrested.
What it really looks like is that one of the guys couldn’t get over his ex, and when she started smoking weed with her new boyfriend, they got all righteous. Seriously guys. Get over it.
Now a drug dealer fighting robot… much cooler and probably not as illegal.
Tags: america, drugs, lol, ninja
Posted in non-japan | No Comments »
Fukuda Kirby!!!
Written by Jeshii on 2008.09.08 – 14:24 -Oh 福田康夫 (Fukuda Yasuo)… he went from Prime Minister of Japan to viral web meme in two seconds flat after he made the comment 「あなたとは違うんです」 (anata to wa chigaun desu, “I’m different than you”) during his resignation speech. There are a lot of good memes around, but my favorite is the following nicovideo one:
Someone aught to draw a Kirby with that look. Then again, what powers would Kirby get from eating Fukuda? Bitter resignation powers?
Check out Pink Tentacle, Tokyo Mango, and Japan Probe‘s coverage for more Fukuda Fun™.
Tags: 福田康夫, Fukuda Yasuo, gaming, government, Kirby, nicovideo, politics, video
Posted in government | 2 Comments »
Hatsune Miku: Virtual Idol
Written by Jeshii on 2008.09.04 – 22:30 -
The title may read like a bad anime series title, but 初音ミク (Hatsune Miku) is not fictional. Well, she doesn’t really exist, except for in ニコニコ動画, but she is the closest thing to a real virtual idol that I can think of.
Let me give you some background. Yamaha came out with a singing virtual vocalization program. It was released in Japan as Vocaloid. People started to make videos of it singing things, associating it with a cute anime girl character, and now all of this is exploding on ニコ動.
Imagine all those people who do karaoke on YouTube, but with a sense of shame. Why not have a virtual proxy sing songs for you. It’s so meta.
I’m still amazed that they can even get a computer voice to sing. And the fact that this idol is a community created thing and not some corporation’s mind control world domination plan (yet…) is something that makes me feel good about the world. The future really is here!
Here are a few of my favorite 初音ミク songs:
1. ワールドイズマイン / World Is Mine (an original song)
2. みくみくにしてあげる♪ / MikuMiku ni shite ageru♪ (an original song)
3. Ievan Polkka
4. ﾄｩﾙﾄｩﾙ☆ﾀﾞﾀﾞﾀﾞを初音ミクが歌って踊る / Hatsune Miku does Tunak
There are lots of covers and original songs, so go seek out your favorites!
Tags: anime, character, cute, music, nicovideo, technology, video, vocaloid
Posted in technology | 5 Comments »
Tunak vs. Capsule
Written by Jeshii on 2008.09.01 – 19:00 -A new remix video from the guy who brought us IKZOLOGIC… Tunak vs. Capsule. Enjoy.
Tags: capsule, music, nicovideo, remix, video, ystk
Posted in music | No Comments »
