News For Your Weekend (July 3)

KWEH!

Here are some things that you may have missed this week.

Kodomo no Omocha (Kodocha), a shoujo manga that ended 17 years ago, is getting a new chapter. http://en.rocketnews24.com/2015/07/01/classic-shojo-manga-kodomo-no-omocha-getting-first-new-chapter-in-17-years/

Hello Kitty fans may want to keep this in mind: the American branch of Sanrio is planning for a movie to be released in 2019. It is still a while from now but one can anticipate? http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-07-02/sanrio-american-branch-plans-hello-kitty-film-for-2019/.89990

Japan Today has a short article comparing the cultures of Tokyo and Osaka. http://insight.japantoday.com/deep-japan-tokyo-culture-vs-osaka-culture/

Did you know that Japan has a long history of ring wrestling? Our favorite hotpants-wearing, sunglasses-sporting, tight vest-dressed Hard Gay was a professional wrestler. The Japan News recently reported about CharaExpo 2015, a wrestling expo held in Singapore. The event was even attended by Maon Kurosaki, a regular in the anime song circle (she is part of the band Altima). http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002237572

For the foodies (and people with sweet tooth) out there, there is a new dessert trend in Japan. You may know that Japanese love melonpan, a sweet bun made to resemble the skin of melons or cantaloupes. No, they do not taste like melon but are still delicious. This article talks about combining fresh warm melonpan with vanilla ice cream. Oh, excuse me. Let me wipe some drool off my beak. http://ajw.asahi.com/article/cool_japan/style/AJ201506270018

Here is one for you fashionistas out there, specially those who have interest in Lolita fashion. This is a report of Yuko Ota who co-founded Kitaloli, a company that manufactures and sells Lolita dresses. http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002216454

NHK World reported a talk about a favorite heavy metal band of ours, BABYMETAL. They were discussing how the band created such a huge cultural impact and established themselves as a musical icon from Japan. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/culturesports/20150626.html

I wrote briefly about how a master katana smith kept his love and passion for the craft going. For those of you who love the weapon, you may want to check out this news about decorative katana. The exhibition is called ‘The World of Edo Dandyism: From Swords to Inro’ hosted at the Nezu Museum. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2015/06/30/arts/edo-samurai-knew-look-sharp/

If you followed Nintendo‘s E3 presentation some weeks ago, you would know that there are puppets of Nintendo’s key personnel: Reggie Fils-Aimé (Nintendo America COO), Satoru Iwata (Nintendo CEO), and Shigeru Miyamoto (game designer of Mario series, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, and more). Those puppets were created by the famous Jim Henson Studios, the company behind Sesame Street‘s and The Muppets puppeteering. After E3 was over, Miyamoto visited Jim Henson Studios and some amazing moments occurred: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ANzA2fQ8Gc and http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2015-06-30/nintendo-miyamoto-tezuka-visit-jim-henson-studios/.89913

Also about Nintendo, Digitimes reported that the company’s next console, dubbed Nintendo NX, will begin pilot production in October. http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20150702PD204.html

This is mostly an image gallery but I think the idea is great. A group of famous manga artists were commissioned to illustrate a series of Japanese history books. http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2015-07-01/top-manga-anime-artists-illustrate-educational-book-series/.89855

That’s what I have for this week. Have fun reading!