TH Update - Anime suggestions recap

Now showing on Ani-Pock Anime:

Rizelmine Episode 8 [Download/Watch]
Pita Ten Episode 10 [Download/Watch]


Hello all! I got quite a lot of suggestions! As Kami pointed out, there are 30+ comments when it comes to anime but only one or two when it comes to the Japanese Culture posts. Whats wrong with you guys??? :D jk.

Ok your suggestions:

- Monster - Genres: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Police, Psychological Ratings: Very high Pocky: Unlikely due to genre.
- Zoids Genesis - Genres: Mecha Ratings: Medium Pocky: Unlikely due to genre
- Yu-Gi-Oh (First Season) - Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Shounen, Supernatural Ratings: Medium to low Pocky: Unlikely due to ratings.
- Kyuuketsuki Yuggi
- Godannar - Licensed
- Negima - Licensed
- Tokyo Mew Mew - Licensed
- XXXholic - Licensed
- Samurai Deeper Kyo - Licensed
- Blood+ - Licensed (Hi Meyume!)
- Fushigi Yuugi - Licensed
- Hunter X Hunter - Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Shounen Ratings: Very high Pocky: Candidate
- Shakugan no Sana - Unable to verify license status. Please post a comment if you can verify status.
- Kamichu - Licensed
- Gunbuster 2 (OVA) - Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Mecha, Military, Science Fiction, Shounen Ratings: Medium to high Pocky: Likely temporary cadidate since this is a 6 episode series.
- School Rumble - Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Shounen Ratings: Very high Pocky: Wrong genre for this anime round.
- Wish - Wrong genre for this anime round.
- Ragnarok The Animation - Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Romance Ratings: Medium to low. Pocky: candidate
- Serial Experiments Lain - Unable to verify licsense status. Please post a comment if you can verify status.
- Prince of Tennis - Wrong genre for this anime round.
- Nanoha Series - Genres: Magical Girl Ratings: Very High. Pocky: Wrong genre for this anime round.
- Mai-HiME - Licensed
- Choro Crusade - Unable to verifiy licsense status. Please post a comment if you can verify status.
- Slayers - Licensed
- DNAngel - Licensed
- Futakoi Alternative - Network availablity very low

TL also suggested Mar (Genres: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Shounen) which is also a candidate.

I will be reviewing the first few episodes of the above suggestions which I tagged as candiates. If you have any other suggestions for an UNLICENSED ACTION anime please leave it in the comment section. To check if a series is licensed or not, run a search on AnimeNfo.com .

Thanks for the suggestions!

Pocky

Possible Japanese culture update later tonight.

M Upate - Next anime series to be shown?

Breaking news! TL says...:

Today is one of the best pockers birthdays! Yuki Fumasaki! Maybe you dont know her, but I'm sure she knows you! She has her ways.. <.< >.>

Happy Birthday Yuki!!

Welcome back again! I will need your input on what anime to replace Bleach (ending today due to licensing. More info in a previous post), so please read on.

Now showing on Ani-Pock Anime:

Rizelmine Episode 9 [Download/Watch]
Bleach Episode 32 LAST EPISODE [Download/Watch]
Pita Ten Episode 10 [Download/Watch]

In this bog entry:
1. Site news
2. Anime suggestions needed
3. Pocky's Random JPOP MP3

Briefly: Site News

Flipbook on Drawing Board updated. Please continue to send in new art snaps!

Anime:

Important!

Please make a suggestion for an unlicensed ACTION genre anime series to be shown next on Ani-Pock.

Leave the suggestion in the comments section at the end of this post. No registration is requred, choose anonymous post.

Pocky's Random JPOP MP3:

"Planet Tokyo (2003)" [Download]
from: Puffy AmiYumi

Pocky Over and Out! (POO) XD

and make those anime suggestions now!!!!

SU Update - Japan in Photos, Tokyo Anime Fair...

Hello everyone! I'm home now, on my Spring Break vacation. My two goals for the website during the week are:

1) Get the drawing board flip book working and updated with new art. (Yes I have received a bunch of cool drawings in the email. Thanks for sending them in!).

2) Make more blog updates :D.

3) Bring back the polls!

And so we start with #2 and 3 !

In this blog entry:
- "This past week of Japan in Photos"
- Tokyo Anime Fair 2006
- Pocky's random anime MP3

This past week of Japan in Photos

A woman who identified herself only as Chika, visiting from Tokyo, reaches up to touch a Cherry Blossom along the Tidal Basin in Washington, USA. Organizers of the National Cherry Blossom Festival are trying to make the annual celebration more welcoming for visitors -- especially guests from Japan, the country that first donated the trees. (AP)

Reader Kamisori writes:

When spring is approaching people try and predict when the "Sakura" or Cherry Blossoms will bloom. They agree on a day and go to enjoy their "ohanami" or cherry blossom viewing :)
The parties usually involve many drinks and lots of singing... GooD Times :)


Team Japan player Ichiro Suzuki (R) has champagne poured on his head by teammates after defeating Cuba in the final game of the World Baseball Classic in San Diego. Japan won 10-6. (REUTERS)


Japan holds the championship trophy for the World Baseball Classic aloft after winning the final against Cuba in San Diego, March 20, 2006. Japan won by a score of 10-6. (Reuters)


Subway staff members offer a silent prayer at Kasumigaseki subway station in Tokyo on Monday, March 20, marking the 11th anniversary of sarin nerve gassing by the Aum Shinrikyo cult. Members of the doomsday cult released the lethal sarin nerve gas on subway trains converging in central Tokyo in 1995 that killed 12 people, sending thousands to hospitals and paralyzing the center of the capital. (AP)



A Japanese girl displays a new phone called 'Kids mobile', jointly developed by Japanese mobile operator Willcom and toy maker Bandai Co. during an unveiling in Tokyo March 16, 2006. The new children's handset will go on sale in Japan in June priced at around 15,000 yen. (REUTERS)Japanese girls display "kids' keitai", or mobile phone for children, jointly developed by Japanese mobile operator Willcom and toymaker Bandai Co., at an unveiling in Tokyo, March 16, 2006. (REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao)

Reader Kamisori writes:

Cell phones in Japan are more used then house phones...Even "Homeless" people in Japan have cell phones. Imagine the conversations "You're coner or mine?" :P

Even on a "Tourist" Visa, you can rent a cell phone from several of the major mobile phone companies (Vodafone, Docomo, and AU).

...and features:...

The phone includes features such as a location pinpointing technology known as GPS and a panic switch that triggers a loud alarm. When the alarm is set off, the phone automatically dials a pre-programmed emergency number, such as that of a parent, and transmits the phone's last known location. (Yahoo News Asia)

I think those phones are looking pretty cool. Some cell phone company should design units with "clear pockets" so you can slip in stuff you print from your computer. I'm not sure if the phones show above are doing that or they just have cute prints on em already.





Architect Kyohei Sakaguchi jumps off from a home built by a homeless man named Shoji under a bridge spanning over Tokyo's Tama River. "I have a sturdy house and I'm free to do what I like," Shoji said of his hand-erected, cubic home, perched on 1.5-meter (4.9-foot) high stilts to prevent flooding. A multitude of tools and other belongings hang from the ceiling to his home. "It's much better than going to a shelter," he said. (AP)


Takahiko Kozuka, who won the gold in the men's program at the World Junior Figure Skating Championships, and Mao Asada who came in second in the women's event, show off their medals. (Mainichi)


NHK and five commercial TV broadcasters in the Tokyo area have decided to build a new radio and TV transmitter dubbed New Tokyo Tower, in Sumida Ward by 2010, sources familiar with the project said Saturday. (JapanTimes)

Tokyo Anime Fair 2006!

The Tokyo Anime Fair, currently on its 5th year in a row, is taking place in the biggest venue it's ever been in, and some 250 companies from anime production and broadcasting to video game makers are assembled together. Cosplayers and life-size figures fill the halls of the venue, with characters from from old and new anime including Z Gundam, One Piece, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. (Akadot, Read more)

Pocky's Random Anime MP3 pick

"Loosey" (TV Size) [Download]
from: Bakuretsu Tenshi

Pocky over and out!

TH Update - Bleach licensed by Viz

Now showing on Ani-Pock Anime:

Rizelmine Episode 8 [Download/Watch]
Bleach Episode 31 [Download/Watch]
Pita Ten Episode 10 [Download/Watch]

Ironically, the image for TH update might need to change as Bleach has been oficialy licensed by Viz.

Viz Media has informed us that they have "secured from worldwide licensors, TV Tokyo Corporation and Shueisha Inc., the television, home video and merchandising rights to Shonen Jump's Bleach in the Americas, Europe and Oceania."

Viz is the Bleach master licensor and expects to announce television broadcast and other licensing partners "shortly." John Easum, executive vice president of Viz Media, stated, "Working together with Viz Media B.V. in Europe, we look forward to making Bleach a global success.”

No specifics about the home video release are available yet. (ANN)

Anime shown on Ani-Pock must be unlisenced and thus with Viz's announcement, this online showing must come to an end.

Thank you to the people who emailed me about this! (Yes I do read the emails, I just don't get a chance to answer all of them ^^) Ani-Pock is comittited to bring you great legal anime episodes when possible.

Now a Japanese Street Magic video:


Also thanks to Torazo for pointing out last weeks anime links were 1 off. Fixed on this entry.

Pocky

M Update - Missing blog updates??

Welcome back anime watchers! Hello blog watchers =D I have a bit of explaining to do huh? Story after the current anime showings:

Now showing on Ani-Pock Anime:

Rizelmine Episode 7 [Download/Watch]
Bleach Episode 30 [Download/Watch]
Pita Ten Episode 9 [Download/Watch]

Blog news: Where did FR, SA, SU updates go?

We'd like to think they all went to bloggy entry heaven, but...

Truth is, it is midterm week here at UC Berkeley!

Yes so that is why Kon ( He is the FR Update image) didn't get to come out and play. Since it is midterm week, I won't be able to do another blog update till end of the week. CP and Ryoko may update the blog however.

Anime updates, rest assured, will continue on time.

Update: I've managed to screw up the previous update. Now I have to refind that tea ad!! =((((

But please watch this clip in the mean time:



Basically this is "life sized" Japanese cooking. The water beneath him is boiling... and he is trying to cook the meat while being suspended.... XD

Info on Japanese Hot Pot:

Shabu shabu is similar to sukiyaki, which is cooked in a pot on the table. In both dishes, thinly sliced beef or pork is cooked with lots of vegetables. Meat for shabu shabu is thinner than meat for sukiyaki. It's said that the name of shabu shabu came from the action we make when cooking meat. Because the meat is thinly sliced, it only has to be cooked for a few seconds, saying "shabu shabu." It's like having a slice of meat swim in the boiling water. (japanesefood.about.com)

See you at the end of the week or the weekend!

Pocky

TH Update - Japanese Tea AD

Friday tomorrow! Maybe a guest poster???

Now showing on Ani-Pock Anime:

Rizelmine Episode 6 [Download/Watch]
Bleach Episode 29 [Download/Watch]
Pita Ten Episode 8 [Download/Watch]

WE Update - Past week of Japan in Photos

Japanese Culture: Past week of Japan in Photos

What's this?? More at 5 (hehe I'm in engineering lab posting now).
The little guy on top's name is "Tae"

A three-month-old Southern Tamandua, also known as an anteater, rides on the back of its mother "Tae" during a press preview at the Sunshine International Aquarium in Tokyo March 13, 2006. The baby Southern Tamandua was born last November, the first time an anteater has been born and raised at an aquarium or a zoo in the country, an aquarium official said. (REUTERS)

Anteaters tongues can be as long as 24 inches by the way.


A student who passed the entrance examination of prestigeous Tokyo University (Todai) flashes a victory sign as he is tossed in the air in jubilation at the campus in Tokyo Friday, March 10, 2006. A total of 2,768 students will enroll at the university in April this year. (AP)

If you have seen the anime/read the manga for Love Hina, then this is the university Keitaro, Naru and Mutsumi were after.


Japan's Gamba Osaka player Akihiro Ienaga, right, fights for the ball against South Korea's Chonbuk Hyundai player Choi Chul-soon during the AFC Champions League at Jeonju, south of Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, March 8, 2006. Chonbuk Hyundai defeated Gamba Osaka 3-2. (AP)

Just thought it was a good photo =) In other news, here is a NBA player getting his eye poked. Not for the faint of heart or those wanting bad dreams!

Mao Asada from Japan preforms her short program during the World Junior Figure Skating Championship in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tuesday, March 7, 2006. Kim Yu-na of South Korea took the lead in the short program after favorite Asada failed to complete a triple axel-double loop. The 15-year-old Japanese skater tried to become the first woman to pull off the tricky combination at an international championship, but she managed only a single loop after executing the triple axel. (AP)

Below, I will be featuring some photos from JapanStreet.com, which collects photos of Japanese fashion as it changes.

CITY : Osaka
LOCATION : Amerika Mura
OCCUPATION : Student
AGE : 16


CITY : Osaka
LOCATION : Amerika Mura
OCCUPATION : Student
AGE : 16

CITY : Osaka
LOCATION : Amerika Mura
OCCUPATION : NEET (Not in Education Employment Training)
AGE : 23

TU Update - None

Sorry, school work has picked up. I hate breaking promises =(

Pocky

M Update - Want to make a Ani-Pock T-Shirt?

Welcome back anime watchers. There were updates on Saturday and Sunday so check em out! Sunday's post was especially fun as they were comics drawn by two of the many Pockers out there!

Site News: Want to help make an Ani-Pock T-Shirt??

What do you guys think of an Ani-Pock T-Shirt? I found a place that can make them for under $10. At this stage, I need people who are interested in designing an Ani-Pock T-Shirt.

To submit an idea, just leave a comment at the end of this post. (no registration required!).

If you are also an artist that would like to contribute to the final product, leave your email in the comments section as well.

Just make sure to leave your email in a form such as : pockyrevolution [at] yahoo [dot] com so you won't get any spam.



As for today's Japanese culture bit, I'll update a bit later. I have some important errands to run today.

Pocky over and out!

SU Update - Comix by CP and AF

Ah Sunday, the day of homework.

Today we are going to be showing some awesome comics drawn by CP and AbbyForever (AF) about the King of Pocky World (me!) and the Queen, Meyume... Sorry its going to be random, the Pockers from PockyWorld would understand...


Ok so this image will be representative of me. The artists would like for me to point out the uber simplified body. ^.^'''


I don't remember how but the conversation got to eggs last night. That's Meyume on the left with the crosshatched strange red mark on her face. Artists comment: husband and wifey duel.


^_^


More breakfast scenes. This one drawn by AF !


Um thats cottage cheese. Only some Skype people will understand that. A few of the Pockers including CP and AF like to do audio chat. But on skype when it messes up, Meyume says it sounds like cottage cheese. CP didn't quite understand that so she drew up this. =D


Don't ask me how to we got to talking about laundry -.-'


It happens!!! Allthough my eyes don't get that big. Oh wait I really need to check my laundry right NOW!

"Meeting Uncle Teenlink for the first time."

AF said this was a mash up of me and domokun -.-'''


Sankyou to CP and AF for the drawings!!! Meyume and I loved them! There are more but I have 135 items on my desktop TT_TT. Very hard to find stuff...

Pocky over and out

SA Update - "Different" Japanese Inventions

Gah! I'm late! Sorry! I had a very important essay to write. Maybe I'll tell you about that essay someday.

Site News

Only one bit- if you are part of PW, I'm working on filterting members. TL will be in charge of this. Expect a different screen this evening.

Today on Japanese Culture: "Different" Japanese Inventions
Today we are going to look at some of those great Japanese inventions that just didn't make it. And first off with...

Subway chin rest!! This is real life saver for all those subway rides you'll be taking in Japanese! Allthough from what I know, Japanese subway trains are usually crowded and FAST moving. so thats probably why this product didn't suceed =D Next we have a slightly more useful invention...



Subway head support!! This is a problem I always have on airplanes. You start to fall asleep, your head tilts and then you wake up! Now I have no idea what that sign on her head says. Maybe it says "Wake me up when we get to the stop..." or maybe it says " Me > You". Who knows!! Some one help us!



Ok now this one is pretty useful huh? I think the reason it didn't make it is probably because the side parts don't fold well, and in high wind it probably doesn't do well either. Time for some Panchooos. Next up, getting hungry?


Have some bread using your handy dandy stick-o-butter! Or wait is that my glue stick... Theses are all really good ideas, you'd just feel awkward using them. Now what if you didn't want to eat toast...

Nooooodles! But they are hot =( Thankfully we have this noodle cooler. I think they'd make your chopsticks too heavy though... not to mention the possibility of droping the fan in the soup and making a nice mess. Speaking of messes, don't you wish you always had a napkin when you needed it?

No comment.

Thanks to CP for helping to find these thingies!