Japan Envy: Pizza Delivery Chain Tie-in Merchandise

Here’s another thing about Japan that will stump me for all eternity: American pizza chains are actually cooler over there than they are in their home country! Sure, some may argue that squid ink pizza doesn’t sound all that appetizing, but this time I’m not talking about the pizza itself, but rather all the awesome freebie tie-in merchandise American chains like Pizza Hut and Domino’s get in the land of the rising sun.

First of all, here’s what spurred me to write this post in the first place: Pizza Hut is currently having a campaign until October 21st where if you buy a kid’s crispy pizza, you get a Rilakkuma bowl for free:

200 lucky customers will get their pizza in that adorable box!

For the curious, the pizza contains the following ingredients: sausage, sliced potato, corn, parsley, mayonnaise, and tomato sauce. As it’s a kid’s size, it’s only 15 cm big, but is priced pretty reasonably at 500 yen (about $6.40). More importantly (why would anyone order Pizza Hut for the food?), here’s the bowl that comes free with every purchase:

official site

Unlike a lot of these campaigns, obtaining the bowl isn’t a matter of buying x amount of kid’s pizzas to collect stamps or points, but you’ll actually get a bowl with your very first order. If you’re a sucker like me who’d want to have both bowls, it’d still only set you back about $13 –– a pretty good deal for two little pizzas and two adorable bowls, if you ask me!

Though it pains me that I can’t partake in this awesome campaign, I think this is a fine occasion to share my own pizza delivery tie-in merchandise experience. And what better franchise to feature a tie-in than with Pokémon?!

This Pokémon x Domino’s Pizza campaign was going on back when I was in Japan in 2009, and my host mother was sweet enough to order me one! And it came with not one, but two awesome freebies:

Plastic tote bag – front
Plastic tote bag – back (note the Domino’s logo and the Arceus;
this promotion coincided with the release of the film Arceus
and the Jewel of Life
An adorable pouch! I use it to carry my camera 
Close-up of pouch detail

Oh, I have no doubt moving back to Japan would make me go broke… from buying so many pizzas for their adorable freebies!

Corpse Party: 2U Demo Impressions

Or “I literally couldn’t fit the whole name of the game in the header.” Excuse me if I continue to shorten Corpse Party The Anthology: Sachiko’s Game of Love – Hysteric Birthday 2U to Corpse Party: 2U, as any other alternative is just far too long.

Now that that’s out of the way… Some of you may remember that I was quite enamored with Corpse Party when XSEED Games released it in English last October. Japan is quite fond of the series, as well –– it’s spanned a manga series, as well as a direct sequel titled Corpse Party: A Book of Shadows, which is currently only available in Japan (c’mon, XSEED!) and, well… Corpse Party: 2U. 
“That’s right, a romantic comedy. High school romantic comedies are really
popular right now, right?”
Since Corpse Party: 2U is a spin-off of the main series, some knowledge of the original source material helps, but is not necessary. Instead of following in the footsteps of its two predecessors, 2U features next to no horror elements, throwing away the scares in exchange for over-the-top fan service and harem anime-style antics. The basic premise as introduced by the portion of chapter one included in the demo is that Sachiko, the namesake of the charm that causes students to be transported to the hellish alternate dimension that is Heavenly Host Elementary, wants to do a romantic comedy with the students trapped in the school. Thus, this game is firmly rooted in light-hearted comedy, though series fans will notice some morbid undertones and references to things less than pleasant. There’s even a flashback to a certain character’s iconic death from the original Corpse Party!
I have to say I’m more interested in the gruesome death scenes than I am
in seeing teenage anime girl cleavage. 
The main problem I have with Corpse Party: 2U largely stems from the discussion I had on fan service the other day. Though there are elements of female fan service in the original Corpse Party, it largely fit  with the disturbing themes (even then, there were a number of misplaced panty shots that really missed the mark, in my opinion). Though this may have not been the intention of the creators, I felt some of the fan service elements, particularly in the scenes involving the game’s youngest female character, actually enhanced the horrific nature of the game. Put all the characters in a comedic situation, however, and the fan service just becomes over-the-top. 
Yes, this is an actual scene in the game. No, it was not in the demo.
I’ll admit, I was not able to finish the Corpse Party 2U demo. It was just too slow starting (there was nearly 20 minutes of the characters arguing about who should be the protagonist of Sachiko’s proposed romantic comedy), and I did not find it humorous in any way. At one point, Sachiko offers to let the students see if they can try and survive the halls of the school in order to gain freedom for themselves and a comrade of their choice, which does allow the story to advance slightly, but overall there was just a lot of uninspired chatter between cutsey female characters that will only appeal to an extremely limited audience. 
This is around the time I really started wondering why I kept playing…
Though I wasn’t really planning on picking up Corpse Party 2U, the demo has cemented my decision not to do so. The series is at its best when it remains firmly within the horror genre –– putting familiar characters in a harem-like setting may appeal to a limited range of fans, but it certainly doesn’t appeal to me. I’m sad to see this series delve into fan-fodder territory, and I hope they return to their horror roots for future installments. 

Japan Envy: Totoro Cream Puffs

Japan has the art of cute edibles down to a tee, if you ask me. Not only do they have everything from Dragon Quest to Sailor Moon-themed cafés, but there’s an edible version of practically ever Japanese character you can think of! Case in point:

Shiro-Hige’s Cream Puff Factory! They specialize in none other than Totoro cream puffs. They’re almost too cute to eat!

I love how the one on the left is looking upwards!

The different things on their heads represent what flavor’s inside, too. The regular green leaf is the straight-up vanilla cream custard, while the brown leaf indicates a seasonal chestnut flavor available from October through December. In addition, there’s strawberry cream (pink flower), peach cream (hat with a pink ribbon), and chocolate cream (hat with a blue ribbon). They’ve even got a special Christmas Totoro:

I think I need to make a special trip just to eat these. I mean, even the storefront and map found on the website oozes charm (the shop’s location is indicated by a white Totoro!):

Definitely make sure to stop here if you’re in Tokyo!
That’s it! Time to plan my next trip to Japan.

801 Day: A Celebration of Yaoi

These days, there’s a holiday for just about anything, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that there is a dedicated yaoi day. Yaoi, or boys’ love, is also written as 801, hence August 1st, or 8/01, being the obvious date for an international holiday celebrating the love between men as drawn by women. Why 801? In Japanese, the shortened pronunciation of the word for 8 is “ya,” while 0 can be read as “o” (how’s that for a western influence?), and 1 as “i.” Ta-da!

I’ve written a post on boys’ love visual novels before, but since today I’m going to be discussing the manga variety, I thought it’d be worthwhile to go through the terms “yaoi” and “boys’ love,” since I know a lot of my readers aren’t really that familiar with the manga side of things.

Yaoi originated as a term that was largely used to describe dōjinshi, or fan comics that usually parody existing works by “slashing” male characters and depicting them in loving, often explicitly sexual, relationships. When officially-published works started making their way over to the US and other countries, publishers and fans latched on to the term “yaoi” and began to use it to describe any manga that was drawn by a woman for a female audience and depicted male-male relationships.

Boys’ Love, on the other hand, sprouted up in Japan in the late 90s, I believe, and quickly came to be used to describe the genre as a whole. Often abbreviated as BL, it refers to all officially-licensed works that are written by women for women and deal with male homosexual relationships. Since BL has expanded from manga to other forms of media in recent years, this term can be used to describe anything from anime to video games, as well. Even so, yaoi still remains the predominant term to describe the genre outside of Japan.

The first boys’ love manga I ever purchased! Notice how
it’s labeled as a “yaoi series.” (published by Digital Manga
Publishing in 2002)

I’m sure you’re all wondering why I feel the need to be a party pooper and give a lesson in semantics when I could be posting gay porn, right? (or maybe not…) Well, I figured I’d actually take this opportunity to make it official: I’m doing a PhD on this very topic! Yes, if all goes well, in 3 years, you can all call me Dr. Anne Lee, boys’ love specialist.

I first realized the study of boys’ love (and other manga, by extension) was an actual legitimate academic pursuit when I took a course titled “Homosexualities in Asian Literature and Film” in my freshman year at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I’d been interested in continuing my Japanese studies to the graduate level since high school (what can I say, I’m a book worm), but the thought of extending a hobby of mine into the academic sphere seemed unthinkable. Little did I know manga studies is its own area of research, and that there was even a manga studies degree being offered at a university in Japan! Boys’ love studies, too, has been growing in popularity in recent years, with scholars looking at everything from why women like to read narratives that appear to exclude them to how boys’ love acts as a feminist forum!

So on this 801 Day, I wanted to take a little time to reflect on how far I’ve come, and encourage everyone out there who’s ever though their interest was too weird or niche not to give up hope. It may sound a little cheesy, but it’s true! I’m just at the start of my degree, and it’s a whole lot of work, but it’s all worth it. Plus, I get to buy all sorts of awesome books in the name of research!

A sampling of the books on my desk right now.
Death is a  collection of short stories by Banana Yoshimoto,
and the top two manga volumes are actually Antique Bakery
by Fumi Yoshinaga

So thank you, 801! Without you, I wouldn’t be where I am today! Yaoi banzai!

And a big thanks to @ladyriven for whipping up such an awesome banner! 

Thoughts on Fan Service in BlazBlue

Fan service. Anyone with a passing interest in Japanese media, be it manga, anime, or video games, has probably encountered fan service in some form or another. Fundamentally, fan service is anything added to a product with the intent of pleasing fans, whether it be excessive violence, sexual elements, etc. (or anything catered towards a specific fandom), but in recent years it has come to be most often associated with titillation – think panty shots, skimpy clothing, and pin-up-like poses. 

Swimsuits are a common sight in anime magazines
As a self-proclaimed feminist and someone who pays very close attention to representations of both men and women in the media I consume, I consider myself fairly in-tune with fan service and its various forms across Japanese anime/manga and video games. I want to start off by making it clear that I don’t believe there is anything inherently wrong with fan service (who doesn’t like products that are specifically catered towards their demographic?), but I have a very hard time coming to terms with the level of excessive female fan service in majority of popular anime/manga and video games today. 
One series that is particularly notorious for gratuitous fan service of the decidedly female variety is BlazBlue. And, funnily enough, I consider myself a fan of the series. Now I’m sure we could argue all day about fan service and sexism in fighting games –– after all, they’re generally the go-to games for pointing out sexism in the industry –– but I think an equally worthwhile discussion is how we, as individuals, come to accept our interest in media that clearly has elements that rub us the wrong way, for lack of a better phrase.
Here are a couple of official illustrations of two female characters from the series:

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I absolutely refuse to play as either of these characters purely on the basis of aesthetics alone. I understand that the studio behind the BlazBlue games has a demographic they are catering towards, but I also know there is a large community of female fighting game players, as well. Sometimes that’s hard to believe, especially when BlazBlue is riddled with things like this:
A common character illustration from BlazBlue‘s story mode
And would you believe that I’m not even going to touch the huge amount of fan service outside of the illustrations, such as continuous references to the various female characters’ cup sizes in in-game dialogue? Honestly, it’s impossible to address it all. 
I think the thing that surprises me the most about BlazBlue is that it isn’t some obscure visual novel or a manga series aimed specifically at horny men who want to look at pictures of girls in their panties all day. This is a popular fighting game that a wide range of people play, and yet it’s full of sexualized depictions of its female characters and racy dialogue. 
So why do I play it? Well, it’s fun, of course, but every time I turn the game on I find myself cringing at something or other. I can’t help but ask my self, “Why does this need to be here?” Is fan service so fundamentally integral to BlazBlue? Can we just chalk it up to the Japanese being their usual whacky selves? Thinking about all of this is giving me a headache. 
I honestly don’t know where to end this discussion, as I can’t come up with an answer as to why BlazBlue and so many other popular games feel the need to sexualize their female characters to such an extreme extent. More importantly, if I don’t like how women are represented in these games, should I just stop playing them? There are so many different types of people playing video games than just straight men who enjoy this narrow idea of fan service, so why isn’t there more media acknowledging this? 
In closing, I’d like to highlight the very small amount of male fan service found in the BlazBlue universe. There’s not much, to be sure… 
An official CD featuring a male character with an open shirt
in a sexy (?) pose? Gasp!
An actual in-game CG. Arc System Works must be aware that this character
has a number of female fans…
A fan illustration. Proof that BlazBlue is subject to more than one
type of gaze.
For more discussion of fan service in manga, see Manga Bookshelf’s Fanservice Friday series. Those interested in a more academic approach to fan service in anime and manga would benefit from reading Keith Russell’s The Glimpse and Fan Service – New Media, New Perspectives. Unfortunately I could not find any discussions of fan service in video games, but if there’s something I’m missing, please let me know. 

Taste Test: Kyoto Matcha Kit Kats

I’ve been meaning to do a post about these ever since a friend of mine brought me a pack back from Japan, but the truth is, I’m not really sure what to say for a Kit Kat taste test. I know, have some matcha flavored Kit Kats!

What exactly is matcha flavor? Basically it’s a fancy name for the fine green tea powder that is traditionally used in tea ceremonies. In recent years, however, it’s also come to be used in all manner of sweet treats, including those delicious green tea lattes you know from your local Starbucks!

These matcha Kit Kats are a little special in that they feature Kyoto-specific packaging. Each major city in Japan has their own regional Kit Kat flavor, and sometimes even multiple flavors, depending on the season. Why don’t other countries do that?!

Now the box may be fine and dandy, but what about what’s inside?

Individually-wrapped Kit Kats, of course! Though you can find bars on store shelves in Japan, boxes containing multiple “snack” sizes are generally more popular.

Look at that lovely shade of green! Yummy! I’m getting hungry just looking at it. 
Taste-wise, these Kyoto matcha Kit Kats are pretty much what you’d expect if you’ve ever had any green tea-flavored concoction. If you’ve only ever had a cup of green tea, imagine something a tad more robust in flavor (But seriously, go out and get a green tea latte right away! They’re delicious). Straight up matcha is actually quite bitter, but luckily matcha flavored desserts have the added sweetness in them to balance it out. In the case of these Kit Kats, it really is quite lovely, and surprisingly refreshing for a chocolate wafer treat!
I’m under the impression that standard green tea-flavored Kit Kats are available in many places outside of Japan, so try checking you local Asian grocer to see if you can find some. Who knows what other wacky flavors you might find!

Disney Protagonists x Pokémon

Artist Kuitsuku has a series of illustrations featuring Disney characters with Pokémon that are bound to put a smile on your face, and in honor of Kingdom Hearts 3D (Disney/video game crossovers! Get it?!)   I’d thought I’d share some of my favorites. I’m surprised I’ve never seen a Disney/Pokémon crossover before!

the full set can be viewed here

The Scraggy/Peter Pan combo is definitely my favorite! I love that the illustrator took a scene from the film itself, rather than having the characters in the more generic poses shown above.

I definitely hope she continues with this series, perhaps with Mulan with a dragon Pokémon? Or perhaps Alice with Buneary in place of the white rabbit?

Are there any Disney/Pokémon character pairings you’d like to see? How about the other way around – animals from Disney films paired with Pokémon trainers? So many possibilities!