Japan Envy: misdo HELLO KITTY Campaign

I’ll tell you, Japan sure knows how to sell me food. From Rilakkuma Kit Kats to Totoro Cream Puffs, they know exactly how to appeal to my love of cute mascot creatures to ensure I’ll never stop craving their adorable sugary confectionaries. This time, Japan-wide donut chain Mister Donut has teamed up with Hello Kitty to offer the cutest range of donuts in existence:

source

Now, maybe I’m easily amused, but I really do love the simplicity of this campaign – all they’ve done is add a little pink (I assume chocolate) bow to some nicely-colored donuts and it’s instantly recognizable as a tribute to Hello Kitty. According to this article, the cupcake on a stick shown above (more colors can be seen if you follow the link) were designed with the Universal Studios Japan ride Hello Kitty’s Cupcake Dream as inspiration and will be available in green apple, strawberry, and orange flavors. There will also be four regular donut varieties, including “green apple whipped cream,” “green apple fashion,” “orange crème fraîche” and”pon de strawberry.” I think the question on everyone’s minds is: What on earth does “green apple fashion” taste like?

I’m most interested in this pon de strawberry! I bet it’s just as tasty as
it looks. 

In addition to these adorable donuts, the misdo HELLO KITTY campaign (that is the official name, capitalization woes and all) will be offering some limited-edition headphone jack accessories for customers who purchase 600 yen (approximately $6.20USD) or more worth of Hello Kitty donuts:

Also available in black, white, and red! (link)

I’ve always thought headphone jack accessories were a bit silly, but I don’t know if I can resist a polka-dotted Hello Kitty bow dipped in chocolate. If I could, I would buy the five or so donuts required to get said accessory, and I would enjoy every minute of eating all five or so donuts by myself. But alas, the campaign runs from April 1st until the end of May, which means I won’t get a chance to try them myself when I go to Japan in June…

So, what do you think? Is the misdo HELLO KITTY campaign a stroke of genius, or just plain weird?

Discussing the Kyoto Animation “swimming anime” sensation

Animation Do, a subsidiary of Kyoto Animation, released a very interesting 30 second video (hereafter referred to by the Japanese abbreviation for commercial, “CM”) the other day focusing on four young male swimmers that has gained an astounding amount of popularity worldwide. While I wasn’t planning on writing a whole post about it, as I didn’t think there was any discussion to be had, the huge outcry for the CM to be turned into a full-fledged series as well as the backlash by some fans against Kyoto Animation producing animation for a female audience has proven that it’s definitely not “just a CM.” In addition, there’s so much misinformation regarding this “anime” floating around that I thought it would be a good idea to clear up exactly what it is and why it’s got everyone so excited/angry.

In April 2012, Animation Do released two teaser images for a new project, one which included the phrase “Ore to omae no sa o oshiete yaru yo!” or “”I’ll show you what makes us different!” (pictured above). Fans immediately assumed Kyoto Animation was finally doing a series aimed at a female audience, contrary to their massively-popular K-On and Lucky Star, which contain much male-oriented fanservice and moe elements (though they remain relatively popular with female viewers, as well). People on English forums began dubbing the series “the swimming anime,” but there wasn’t a single word on the production until March 6th, 2013, when Animation Do released a 30 second CM featuring the characters from the original teaser.

Kyoto Animation has been known to release CMs with completely original assets, so it’s safe to assume that the project they were teasing was in fact a promotional CM for the company and not actually a new series. Further supporting this is the fact that the CM credits are listed with their other commercials on the company’s website, indicating that it is not a promotional CM for a new series (note: the title of the CM can be translated to “swimming club,” indicating it might be more appropriate to refer to it as that instead of “the swimming anime”). Even so, many fans continue to speculate that a series may arise out of this CM, and there are has been a huge interest in the swimming anime, including both extremely positive and negative reactions, since its release nearly a week ago.

On one hand, there are many (likely female) fans who have fallen head-over-heels for characters they know next to nothing about, fantasizing potential plotlines and pairing them off with one another in homosexual relationships. I’d like to think the vast majority of the reaction to the CM has been positive, as we can see petitions to make the CM into a full series popping up on major websites such as Crunchyroll and fanart from Tumblr to Pixiv. There’s even a cosplay contest!

The character designs as seen in the original 2012 teaser.

On the other hand, it’s recently come to my attention that there are a number of fans of Kyoto Animation that are not at all happy with the company targeting any form of media at a female audience. Actually, I can’t tell if these people are necessarily fans of Kyoto Animation, but there has definitely been a negative backlash from people saying it’s too obviously catering toward women, that it’s likely to be BL and is thus disgusting/should not exist (honestly, I’m surprised how many people have made anti-fujoshi comments…), or that Kyoto Animation is wasting their talent by drawing an all-male cast. They may be a minority, but they’re certainly a vocal one.

Finally, to top all this off, there have been rumblings over the past day or so that Kyoto Animation has seen how popular the video is and is considering making the CM into a full-fledged anime as a result, but I have not been able to find any sources that confirm/deny this.

Now, anyone who knows me probably already has a good idea how much I like the CM, but I have to say I’m honestly surprised at how many people are hoping/expecting this theoretical swimming anime to be BL. I will happily admit that I consider myself a fujoshi – not only am I doing a PhD on BL manga, but I love a good homosexual romance and am not beyond “slashing” male characters if the mood strikes. But, that definitely doesn’t mean that all the media I consume must be BL-related in some way. In fact, as I grow older, I’ve found I enjoy stories about ambiguous/queer sexualities more than straightforward BL, and would take a story with complex and interesting characters over a bland, cliché BL romance any day of the week. So, while I’m happy fans are interpreting the swimming anime as they like, I find it a little bizarre that everyone just assumes it will focus on homosexual romance, as if that’s the only way Kyoto Animation could possibly appeal to a female audience.

A fan-created relationship chart (source)

Indeed, many are awestruck by the fact that such a successful, well-known animation studio would dare to make a 30 second CM chock-full of female-oriented fanservice. I think anyone who watches the CM (and if you’re reading this post, I hope you have!) will agree that the animation is lovely, whether or not the content appeals to you personally, and in an industry that largely caters to men, I’m glad to see Kyoto Animation trying new styles and attempting to appeal to new demographics. The fact that the mere idea of a swimming anime full of attractive men is so popular shows that we still have a long way to go until anime aimed at audiences that aren’t stereotypical heterosexual men are on equal footing with the hundreds and thousands of series produced for and consumed by “mainstream” otaku. It would be wonderful if Kyoto Animation decided to make this into a series, but I won’t be getting my hopes up.

Update: The Daily Dot and The Mary Sue have both wrote very informative pieces that cover some things I haven’t, so you may want to check them out if you’d like to learn more. The Daily Dot provides particularly useful background on Kyoto Animation (both, however, put a particular spotlight on the Tumblr fandom). I’ve also changed my translation of “Ore to omae no sa oshiete yaru yo!” from “I’ll show you the difference between you and I!” to “I’ll show you what makes us different!” –– my initial translation was much too cumbersome.

Memos from Mamemura: Weeks 14-15

It’s time for another installment of Memos from Mamemura! These past two weeks have been relatively uneventful, as I’ve been busy trying to spruce up my town to (somewhat) match the high standard of all the lovely villages I’ve seen shared on the internet. Of course, as always, I’ve been continuing to partake in a number of Animal Crossing: New Leaf‘s more leisurely activities… 

Fishing and bug catching remain some of the best ways to make bells!

One of the things that continues to amaze me about Animal Crossing: New Leaf is the sheer amount of content – and not just in the number of ways you can customize your town or number of items you can collect. The villagers have a huge range of conversation topics, and I’m still finding myself surprised by new in-game events. This time, Bunjirou (Lobo) asked me if I’d accompany him to Layla’s house. What could that be about?

Follow the leader!

Apparently Layla invited Bunjirou over but he didn’t want to go by himself! It turns out he left his wallpaper at her place (I imagine that would be a rather difficult thing to do…). I’m not sure if this is a new feature to Animal Crossing: New Leaf or not, but I’ve never had a villager ask me to come with them to another villager’s house for an errand before.

March 3rd was a Japanese holiday known as Hina Matsuri, or “Girls’ Day.” Shizue greeted me decked out in the adorable kimono pictured above in honor of the event.

As with all “minor” holidays, there was a themed board to take photos with, but I couldn’t really get a good shot because a. I didn’t have a partner (preferably male, as it’s traditional to have one man and one woman in these arrangements) and b. I still hadn’t realized that you can press the A button to take a proper photo with these things! I can’t believe I’ve been playing for months but I still hadn’t realized that! Here’s what it looks like when you take a picture after pressing A at one of these signs:

Ah, so much better! I’m pretty embarrassed that I only just figured this out, but I’m happy that I did.

I was surprised to receive a mannequin from Asami (Sable) one day after I stopped by for a chat. I’ll have to set it up in my house one of these days…

But by far the biggest event of the past two weeks was my recent trip to an amazing Alice in Wonderland-themed village! I have a ton of screenshots, so I’ll try to keep the descriptions to a minimum, but be sure to keep an eye out for all the amazing little details the creator put into making it:

Dream Code 3300-0238-8542 for those who have the Japanese game and
want to visit!

All of the items I’m seen wearing in the above screenshot were picked up in the town, but since I went there in a dream I wasn’t able to take any of them back. My Designs can be saved and brought back with you, thought, so I made sure to grab the cute White Rabbit-inspired coat I’m wearing.

After 100 people visit your town, you can upgrade your train station! I don’t know if I’ll ever unlock that feature in my own town, though…

What kind of house is this? Looks a little scary… 

Eek! Creepy stuff! Not sure what this has to do with Alice in Wonderland, but it’s great. The little wolf head in the bottom left corner is actually the resident of the house.

Boil, boil, toil and trouble!
… and a graveyard in the basement, with dog house and all! 

Such meticulous gardening! Anyone’s who’s played an Animal Crossing game knows how time-consuming planting flowers and placing paths can be.
Oh, what’s this? It looks like the high court! 

And a church, complete with gorgeous stained glass! The one on the far right was definitely customized with a user-created design, but I’m not sure about the others. 
Blushing bride!

This mad tea party room was by far my favorite. Everything works so well together! I’m constantly impressed by the creativity exhibited by other Animal Crossing: New Leaf players.

Oh, and last but not least… Guess who I saw?

Mr. Resetti didn’t stop by to yell at me for not saving my game, but to thank me for building him a Reset Center. He certainly wasn’t his normal angry self! (I actually hadn’t had an encounter with Resetti in Animal Crossing: New Leaf prior to this)

Well, that’s all for this installment! As always, feel free to ask any questions about the game in the comments, and look forward for an update within a fortnight!

Beat the Backlog Club March Game Introduction (with bonus “What happened to February?!”)

Well, this Beat the Backlog project is going just swimmingly, wouldn’t you agree? Three months in and I have no completed games to show for it… but the more pressing matter is the fact that I completely jettisoned Harvest Moon: A New Beginning back in February! In the end, I think it was far too similar to Animal Crossing: New Leaf, as I just couldn’t get myself motivated to play it in addition to my daily Animal Crossing duties. How disappointing! That doesn’t mean I won’t come back to it in the future, but I think I’ll have to hold off until my Animal Crossing fever gone down. 
I’m not really sure what to do about February, but I’m going to keep moving forward. I did finally start playing Katawa Shojo, a free English bishojo visual novel (i.e romantic visual novel aimed at primarily a male audience) that was released to much acclaim last year, which I’ve been meaning to get to for some time. As such, that’ll probably replace Harvest Moon: A New Beginning as my February backlog pick, and I’ll endeavor to finish it sooner rather than later. Expect some impressions of it in the near future! 
So, with that out of the way, I’ve decided to move on to… Fishing Resort! I’m not exactly why I’ve felt so compelled to start it now, but since I’ve been so indecisive as to what I want to play recently, I figured it’d be best to go with my gut. So far I’ve put approximately 3 hours into it, and I have to say it’s quite fun and relaxing without being the completely open-ended kind of relaxing that Animal Crossing tends to excel at. Oh, by the way, all images used in this post were taken from my game, and I’ve even made a neat (if I do say so myself) little video that shows what the gameplay’s like!

Here are a few of my first impressions in convient bullet-point fashion:

✄ The game is very open-ended, with a number of quests and goals to complete, but it never feels like it’s forcing you to do anything. Love kayaking out into the open sea to see what you can catch? You can do that to your heart’s content! All fish you catch can be exchanged for points at the end of the day which are then used to purchase items such as new rods and lures, so you’ll never run out of supplies to fish away without a care in the world, if that’s what you so choose.

I may or may not have spent a whole day paddling around in a kayak

✄ Perhaps the most irritating thing about the game, however, is the day/night cycle. Every day, without fail, the game will spirit you back to your hotel promptly at 7 pm. While this isn’t the end of the world, it gets annoying having your marathon fishing sessions interrupted.

✄ There are a number of different areas in the game that you can travel to as you unlock the option to stay at different hotels. The first area is nice, but I’m already looking forward to seeing new locations and catching different kinds of fish! The prospect of new locations is a great way to motivate players to  complete quests and progress in the game.

✄ Of course, all of the best games have customizable clothing options, and Fishing Resort definitely fulfills that line on the checklist. It’s totally superficial, but I love saving up for silly items to clothe my avatar in!

The real question is whether or not I will stick with Fishing Resort longer than I did Harvest Moon: A New Beginning. Right now I’m confident that I will, as it’s proving to be a lot of fun and I’m getting a big kick out of the motion controls. Be sure to check back in about a week’s time to see how I’m faring!

We Heart Hobonichi Techo

For someone who loves planners to the point of having three separate planners for 2013 alone (no, I don’t use all of them, they just gravitate toward me naturally), I’m embarrassed to say I’d never heard of the Hobonichi Techo before it was announced that it would be getting an English version this year. I say this is embarrassing because the Hobonichi Techo has been somewhat of a phenomenon in its home country of Japan ever since it was first released in 2001. It also holds a special place in the hearts of gamers, as Hobonichi is the company founded by Mother creator Shigesato Itoi!

While I have my own personal yearly Rilakkuma planner tradition, there’s something very appealing about the community that has sprung up around the Hobonichi Techo due to its accessibility and quirkiness. The largest version of the planner has a page dedicated to each day, so people have started customizing their books in a wide variety of ways and posting their daily entries all over the place. It really is a joy to see what everyone is doing with theirs!

Still amazed at how popular Ted is in Japan… (source)
(source)

And now with the release of the English version, we’re not only seeing coverage of the planner on sites like Tiny Cartridge, but Tumblrs have sprung up to celebrate its greatness. I have to say, I just love the sense of creativity the community has and would love to be a part of it myself next year! If you’re interested in checking out more Hobonichi Techo pictures, I definitely suggest browsing the #ほぼ日手帳 tag on Instagram.

Memos from Mamemura: Weeks 11-13

What’s this?! Why, it’s the triumphant return of Memos from Mamemura! Instead of giving some sob story explanation as to why I haven’t been updating weekly (though I will point out that I’ve done more than one Animal Crossing: New Leaf-related post in the interim), I’m just going to quietly resolve to do better in the future and move on to what you’re all here for: the pictures!

Week 11 started with a bang on the 3rd of February with a uniquely Japanese holiday, Setsubun. Setsubun marks the change of seasons from winter to spring, and it’s said that evil spirits come out during this period, much like Halloween. It’s traditional for a member of the family to dress up like a demon (oni) and for everyone else to throw beans at them to ward off evil, shouting the phrase, “Demons out, luck in!”

If you’re interested in learning more about Setsubun traditions, I urge you to check out the link above (it has some lovely photos, including different oni masks!). As for how this relates to Animal Crossing:  New Leaf, players have the opportunity to choose either a blue or red oni mask and have beans thrown at them by the townspeople. You can also buy a box of beans to throw at unsuspecting friends who come to visit!

It was a lot of fun running around and capturing each villager throwing their beans at me. Chuuko had particularly cute dialogue; you can see the little yellow beans scattered about in the screenshot above.

Soon after, the adorable Maiko-chan appeared in my village for the first time. What a cutie! I was able to send her on her way to another village, and to show her thanks she sent me her picture in the mail the next day.

I finally got my act together and erected this lovely “Yaranai ka?” sign (pun intended)! For some reason I get a big kick out of my townspeople gathering together to celebrate such a silly thing. I have a bit of a Kuso Miso Technique theme going on, actually, as I’ve also taught Shimoyake to say “kuso miso” as his catchphrase…

I also went on my first dream visit to a stranger’s town – the gal who’s in charge of the gorgeous room pictured above was actually featured in the post I did on my designs earlier in the month. Her work (including the lace pattern shown) is amazing!

And lookie here, another new villager moved into Mamemura! Layla the penguin actually came from a friend’s town.

Even more interesting than the fact that villagers can move out of your friend’s towns and into your own is the fact that they actually remember the melody from the town they previously lived in! Here Layla put on a little performance and sang Fuukou Village’s melody for me.

Would you believe this was my first time participating in the monthly fishing tournament? I only got 3rd place, but I’ll take what I can get! (I’m usually too busy on Saturdays to take part)

Oh, what’s all this?!

Why, it’s Carnivale (known as Festivale in North America)! What a fun and colorful holiday! The main goal of the day was to collect different colored feathers for the fabulously-clothed peacock shown above in order to get the special furniture series only available during the festival.

Let me tell you, collecting feathers is hard work… Pavé asked for pink, and after searching at least 30 minutes without finding a single pink feather, I finally gave up. Luckily I was still able to score a couple pieces of this furniture series along with a rare rainbow feather (shown above).

The best part of Carnivale was seeing all of the villagers dressed up in their colorful garb, dancing and singing the town tune. Lookin’ sharp, Doremi!

I guess Carnivale got everyone in high spirits! The above screenshot was taken a few days later – it’s the first time I’ve seen two villagers so cheerful together.

These past couple of weeks saw a lot of firsts, including the first time I managed to catch K.K Slider (Totakeke) off DJ duty. During these times, it’s possible to get a piece of music from K.K and request songs. Here’s a picture of the single I got:

It’s really catchy! Love the album art.

It’s always fun to see all the different ways the villagers interact with the player, as well as one another. I gotta say, it was a little unnerving to walk into Layla’s house to the sight of her and Doremi staring right at me… Perhaps I caught them at a bad time? (Oh, and check out the album directly below Doremi!)

I’ve made a lot of progress on the museum! Here’s a picture of a finished T-Rex.

Prepare for trouble?!

And as you can see, I’ve been having a lot of fun downloading my design costumes for my character to wear. In fact, the café outfit with the pink checked skirt that you see in most of the screenshots, along with the “museum curator” outfit and Team Rocket costume above are all my design items made by various creators.

Tune in next week for the first days of spring in Mamemura and a few dream world town visits!

Update: I just realized I don’t have any Valentine’s Day pictures! Unfortunately the holiday isn’t really celebrated in Animal Crossing, so all I got were some chocolates from Shizue-san and a few villagers I’m close to. Sorry about that!

Fabulous Finds: Japanese Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire

Now here’s a game I never thought twice about picking up before now: Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire. Not that I have anything against the game, but as I’ve mentioned in the past, my time with the GBA has been very limited. After recently becoming enamored with the beauty that is Japanese GBA box art, however, I’ve spent my fare share of time perusing eBay for import titles that catch my fancy… and catch my fancy Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire did. One look at the cover and I knew I just had to have it!

Now, I’m not really a fan of pinball games, mainly because I don’t really understand the mechanics around pinball itself, but that doesn’t make this box art (and the in-game graphics themselves) any less appealing! I’ll be sure to actually give the game itself a spin on my GB micro in the near future, but for now I’ll stick to gushing about this adorable acquisition of mine: 
Kecleon is such a neat Pokémon – I love that he got featured on the front of
the box! 

I can’t believe how much detail is put into some Japanese GBA boxes. Not only is the GBA logo very unassuming, unlike what they did with the North American and European GBA cases, but nearly every side of the box has cute little touches, such as the Spheal and Sealeo shown above.

And there’s a Pikachu and Pichu on the other side!

Would you believe the inside flaps even have pictures on them? Take a look at this:

Such loving detail!

Let me remind you that this is a used copy of the game, but as everything that comes from Japan, it arrived in near-immaculate condition. It’s almost as if it was never opened…

Even the original fliers were left intact! I love little relics of the past such as these; it’s so fun to look at what they were advertising back in 2003. 
Side A
Side B
I have to say, I’m really enamored by the art style used to depict the Pokémon in this game! It’s very similar to a lot of the Pokémon Center art. The Pikachu looks a lot like the Pikachu design used on the recent 3DS XL, for example. 
I’m a little worried that pinball might be a bit tough to see on the micro’s tiny screen, but I’m determined to give it a shot! If all else fails, I can always switch over to my DS lite, after all. Expect a report on how it actually plays in the very near future! 
Oh, and what do you think of my new title, “Fabulous Finds”? I’ve been trying to think of a way to unify my “acquisition” posts for a while now. I’ve finally settled on Fabulous Finds, so I hope you all like it!