"Wasei Eigo" (Made-in-Japan English) in Japan

One thing I like about the Japanese is how creative they are with language. The other day I was choosing bento lunches in a convenience store with my wife, and she described one as being very "volumey" (that is, having a large volume of food), which seemed like a cute word to me somehow. There's a grand tradition of twisting the grammar of English to make new words, called 和製英語 wasei eigo or "made in Japan English," and some examples include "nighter" (a baseball game at night), "career up" (getting a promotion at work) or "mayoler" (someone who loves mayonnaise). The Japanese also love to take English suffixes like the -tic ending in words like "dramatic" and mix them with Japanese in whimsical ways, creating words like 乙女チックotome-tic, girl + -tic, meaning feminine or girly, or 秋葉チック Akiba-tic, meaning "related to Akihabara subculture in some way." Anime has plenty of creative English words too, from Get Backers to U.N. Spacy to Shizuri from A Certain Scientific Railgun, who possess an esper power known as "Meltdowner."

Shizuri from Railgun is a "Meltdowner."

Things I Love About Japan: Kaiseki Ryuri

The Japanese love to make meals into something that's pleasing to the eye as well as the stomach, a tradition known as 食の美 shoku no bi or "the beauty of food." The ultimate embodiment of this concept is 懐石料理 kaiseki ryouri, the traditional cuisine of Kyoto in which a great deal of care is taken with the presentation of the food, including the design of the plates it's served on. Since the Japanese love their seasons so much, what you're served will depend on what time of year it is -- in the fall your meal with have a momiji (Japanese maple) motif, while sakura petals may adorn your food in the spring. Kaiseki meals are served in courses similar to fine French dining (which the Japanese also love, probably more than the French do), and courses include sashimi, tempura, grilled fish, rice, and a meat course. To be honest, it's not uncommon to have no idea what you're putting in your mouth when you eat kaiseki (at least one dish will contain a flower that you're free to eat, if you like), but don't worry, everything is good. If you're curious about Japan's amazing food culture, check the J-List site for some cool Japanese cookbooks.

Kaiseki ryouri and the "beauty of food."

The Optimism of Classic Anime

In the same way that the Doctor Who franchise tells stories about sweeping intergalactic events that always happen to center around Britain, anime is naturally focused on Japan. One of my favorite shows from the 80s is Aim for the Top!, a hardcore SF series by Evangelion creator Hideki Anno that's equal parts Ender's Game, The Forever War and the famous "Gainax bounce" (slightly NSFW), which tells the story of humanity's struggle against an alien race that spans 12,000 years. (The series is actually an extended homage to a tennis anime from the 70s called Aim for the Ace!, but that irony is lost on most fans.) Gunbuster is interesting because it shows the optimism Japan felt in the halcyon days of the 1980s, as its star kept rising and the land value of Tokyo was worth more than the entire U.S. on paper, before the bursting of the asset bubble changed all that forever. Another story with an exceedingly optimistic future for Japan is Space Battleship Yamato, which features a Japan-led world government that takes responsibility for saving the Earth from the evil Gamilas Empire and its radioactive planet bombs.

Gunbuster, a show about Japan's glorious future in space.

More Character Introduction from Yumina

The third character from the excellent English-translated ero RPG Yumina the Ethereal is Ai Okitsu, an eccentric girl who transfers to Jinbu Academy shortly after the Election War begins in the school. Despite her high grades, she surprises everyone by joining the underdogs of the Debate Club with you and Yumina -- could it be she's attracted to someone in the club? A quiet girl who doesn't talk much, she's surprisingly good at sports, and great at making dead-pan jokes, too. Visit the official Yumina site, or go order the game from J-List in shrinkwrapped package or Internet download form now!

2014 Anime Calendar Season Has Begun!

We were happy that 2014 calendar season got off to an early start with the Kantoku, Tony Taka and other calendars we'd posted last month, and now we've got more good news: the main bulk of anime calendars has come in and are available for order now. This year looks like it'll be a great one, with large, glossy calendars for fans of Hatsune Miku, Sword Art Online, Attack on Titan, Oreimo and more. Browse the newly posted Japanese calendars now and get your preorders in early!

The History of Shimapan, Ahoge and Imouto Fetish

It can be fun to try and trace the origins of anime-related memes. For example, if you use the phrase mai waifu to describe your favorite female character, you're actually making an Azumanga Daioh reference. The term moe, which I translate as "the warm, fuzzy feeling you get when contemplating your favorite female anime character," is thought to have come from the name of Sailor Saturn (Tomoe Hotaru). The striped panties known as shimapan are considered a fundamental element of anime today, but where did they come from? According to my exhaustive research, they were popularized by an anime called Stellvia of the Universe and took off from there. How about the nosebleeds that male characters get when they get excited? It comes from a 1970 Shonen Jump manga called Yasuji's Life Lessons for Messed Up Kids, and has been with us ever since. If you watch old anime series from the 80s and early 90s, you'll notice something odd: a lack of throw-away fanservice episodes in which all the female characters take a bath together for no reason, which is a tradition started by shows like Love Hina and Ai Yori Aoshi. Recently anime has been filled with stories involving imouto (younger sister) characters, from Oreimo to Nakaimo to Oniai and various popular eroge titles, but did you ever wonder where Japan's fascination with this subject came from? I believe the origin lies in a 1983 anime called Miyuki by Adachi Mitsuru, who also created Touch and H2. It tells the story of Masato, whose younger sister Miyuki (not related by blood) returns to Japan after living abroad for six years. Meanwhile, Masato gets a cute girlfriend who's also named Miyuki, and a love triangle between him and the two girls is launched.

Of course it can be hard to pin down where these concepts actually originate from, and there are often multiple theories. One design element that's used in hundreds of anime characters today is called 阿呆毛 ahoge, lit. "idiot hair" in Osaka dialect, which describes the single disobedient strand of hair that sticks up from the heads of characters like Saber from Fate/stay night, Rikka from Chu2koi, and the entire Araragi family from the Bakemonogatari/Monogatari series. A normal slang word in use since the 1980s to describe unruly hair, it jumped to the 2D world around 1990 in a minor manga series by Yamada Nanpei, then was used in a 1996 eroge by Leaf called Kizuato, which caused ahoge to explode in popularity. On the other hand, grandfather Namihei from Sazae-san has been defined by his single strand of hair since the show started airing in 1969, and even Superman has that famous finger of unkempt hair on his forehead. So who gets credit for "creating" ahoge hair? Like where those amazing Absolute Zone socks came from and why main characters always sit in this part of the class, it's a question we may never know the answer to.

It's fun to trace the history of classic anime memes.

Shodo, the Way of Writing Kanji

When I decided to minor in Japanese back at SDSU, I had to choose one Japan-related elective class in addition to my language courses, so I picked one on Japanese calligraphy. Called 書道 shodo, lit. "the way of writing," it's a method for making beautiful kanji words and phrases on paper, an art form with a very long history. Although you can buy liquid ink that's ready to use, our teacher insisted we spend the extra time to mix a solid ink stick (sumi) with water in our ink wells instead, which (she said) would help us compose ourselves mentally to create beautiful characters on the page. While most Japanese study shodo for a few years as children and some get really good at it, there's a big trend away from all kind of manual writing of kanji these days, thanks to the ubiquity of pasokon and sumaho (personal computers and smartphones) in modern society. If you're interested in Japanese calligraphy, we stock authentic fude brush pens you can use right away, and we also have a popular Customize Japanese Calligraphy Board service, in which our native Japanese employee will write any character or phrase you want on a sturdy Japanese shikishi autograph board.

Learning about Japan through calligraphy.

More Character Info from Yumina the Ethereal

Remember, we recently shipped Yumina the Ethereal one of the best ero RPG titles ever translated to English. One character I like is Kurokawa Kirara, who is president of the Debate Club and the person responsible for helping Yumina in her goal of becoming student council president. Her diminutive figure belies a powerful ego, and she often uses cunning ploys and underhanded tricks to lead the Debate Club to victory. Why is she really helping Yumina win the election? Visit the official Yumina site, or go order the game from J-List in shrinkwrapped package or Internet download form now!

J-List Will Be at Anime Weekend Atlanta!

If you'll be at the Baltimore Comic Con this weekend, be sure and stop by the "J-List East" booth (#111) and check out the excellent English visual novels, H-manga and T-shirts we'll have there for you. Also, J-List will be sending staff from Japan (including myself) to Anime Weekend Atlanta from Sept 27-29, so if you'll be at the show, please come and say hi, or come to our panel on Saturday night! We'll have limited stock of our dating-sim games in the dealers' room at AWA but no other stock, so if you were looking to get T-shirts, cosplay items and so on, grab them from the site instead.

Hayao Miyazaki is Retiring (Again)

Over the weekend the news broke that famed animation director Hayao Miyazaki will be officially retiring now that his newest release Kaze Tachinu (English title: The Wind Rises) is complete. I'll take this with a grain of salt, since the 72-year-old director has officially "retired" after every film since Princess Mononoke, but even if it's true this time, it's okay since no one has earned a long rest as much as Miyazaki-sensei. The Japanese love nothing better than to give honor and respect to any of their number who has raised the stature of Japan in the eyes of people around the world, and as creator of some of the most beloved animated films since Walt Disney, Japan is proud of Mr. Miyazaki indeed. Tonight I think I'll re-watch my Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind Blu-ray and raise a glass to Mr. Miyazaki.

Thank you, Miyazaki-sensei, for 30 years of great films!

Still Loving Space Battleship Yamato 2199

I continue to enjoy Space Battleship Yamato 2199, the reboot of the classic 1974 anime that was responsible for calling so many old school fans into the genre, including me. Two centuries in the future, humanity is under attack by an alien race called the Gamilas, who are dropping radioactive planet bombs. Using technology sent by Starsha of Iscandar, the WWII battleship Yamato is rebuilt into a spaceship that can travel the 148,000 light years to Iscandar to retrieve a machine that can clean the radiation from the Earth and make it green again. The reboot is excellent, paying just the right amount of homage to old school fans like me while updating nearly everything else, including the Gamilas (they're much more complex than before, with a Zentraedi-like language and new political intrigue), the technology (Gundam-style plugsuits for the crew) and more. One of the biggest changes is the additional of several female characters, including a busty medical assistant, a cute twintail cadet and a strict meganekko on the bridge. Also, an arc involving a captured male Gamilas fighter pilot was tweaked to make the pilot female. These changes were made partially to acknowledge the realities of the moe era we live in -- no modern anime can be successful without an ecosystem of figures and doujinshi for fans to get excited over -- but also to enable new stories to be told. There's a new female fighter pilot named Yamamoto who has a rather interesting love triangle with Yuki and Kodai, which would have been impossible in the original series. Rememeber, we're carrying all the Yamato Blu-ray discs, which come complete with English subtitles!

The reboot of Yamato is an otaku dream come true.

Kawaii Japanese Idols and the Things They Do For Their Fans

Ever since idol culture took off in the early 1970s, Japan has had an affinity for pop idols, extremely cute singers who represent the pinnacle of kawaii in Japanese society at any given moment. These days Japan's musical landscape is dominated by groups of idols like Perfume, Momoiro Clover Z and AKB48 with its many spin-off groups, and no matter how a person might resist their siren song, the constant bombardment from the Japanese media guarantees you'll find yourself gravitating to one group or another subconsciously. The other night I was flipping through late-night TV and caught an episode of HKT48 no Odekake!, a late-night variety show featuring the popular AKB48 spin-off group based in Hakata, Kyushu. In the show, the girls played a game of dodge-ball, and whenever a girl got tagged "out" she was forced to do something embarrassing on camera. This included touching strange objects like cold pasta or insects that were hidden in a box and a competition in which the girls had to pull plastic wrap across their faces until it broke, which caused their faces to become twisted and ridiculous in an oddly endearingly way. If you're a fan of Japan's idol culture, we recommend our iTunes Japan prepaid cards, which give you access to all the latest releases by your favorite groups.

It can be hard to resist the lure of Japanese idols.

The Main Character of Yumina the Ethereal

Last Friday we shipped the excellent new ero RPG Yumina the Ethereal, and we've been moving hundreds of copies out the door in both shrinkwrapped package and download edition. The main heroine -- named Yumina, surprisingly enough -- is a student whose grades are so bad she's doomed to repeat the year... unless, that is, she can get voted student council president, which will enable her to change any school rule. Can you master the challenging battle system and help Yumina achieve her goal? She might make worth your while. Visit the official Yumina site, or go order the game from J-List in shrinkwrapped package or Internet download form now!

New Sale: Triple J-List Points on all Manga, Artbooks, Photobooks, Anime Magazines...

This month we're having a great new sale, offering 3x J-List Points on all manga, doujinshi, artbooks and anime magazines. Whether you're looking to complete your Yotsubato manga collection or start the new WataMote manga series, or score some ecchi manga and doujinshi or maybe those How to Draw Manga books. Enjoy the new sale all this month! Browse the most popular manga, doujinshi and artbooks now!