animerevue

Nendoroid Neuro Nogami ~ Demon Detective Nogami Neuro *Preorder*

Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro (translated as Demon Detective Nogami Neuro) is a supernatural detective manga series serialized on Weekly Shonen Jump and have been developed in drama CD's and anime productions as well. This product of the Good Smile Company features the main demon character Neuro Nogami, who pretends to be the assistant of Yako Katsuragi (a 16 year old student detective) in order to keep a low profile. Made of ABS PVC, this super deformed version of the famed character comes to you...

Nendoroid Yako Katsuragi ~ Demon Detective Nogami Neuro *Preorder*

Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro (translated as Demon Detective Nogami Neuro) is a supernatural detective manga series serialized on Weekly Shonen Jump and have been developed in drama CD's and anime productions as well. This product of the Good Smile Company features the 16 year old school girl detective Yako Katsuragi, who is the cover for the main character Neuro's true nature. Made of ABS PVC, this super deformed version of the famed character comes to you in an adorable Nendroid version that...

I saw that super-cute Japanse idol/actress/singer Yuko Ogura (age 24) has been awarded the prestigious (?) First Gravure Idol Award from Sankei Newspaper's entertainment website "ZAKZAK." Yukorin, who was the girl dressed as a baby seal in the Youtube video with a polar bear you may have seen, got the award for being pretty much the single most popular bikini idol in Japan over the past eight years, and for breaking the iron-clad rule that a cute idol had to be, well, chesty in order to make it in Japan's cut-throat gravure idol world. (The term gravure comes from the word photogravure, a process for printing glossy magazines, but has come to mean sexy girls in bikinis in Japan -- no, I don't know what the heck is up with this word, either.) The Japanese are quite amorous of giving awards, and there seems to be no end to the prizes that can be given each year: popular idol/actress Yumiko Shaku recently won the "E-Line Award" from the Japan Association of Orthodontics for having the best facal profile, which includes a beautiful nose, jaw and chin. Literary awards are also rampant, and there are frankly so many -- the Yomiuri Prize, the Osaka Women's Literature Award, the Saitama Sports Literature Award -- that they all become kind of meaningles.

 

Whenever I'm in the U.S., I find myself doing things in a slightly more Japanese way, just as I'm not afraid to openly embrace my gaijin side when I'm in Japan. For some reason, Japanese drivers always park their cars by backing in, so that Japanese parking lots are made up of rows of cars lined up the same way, like expertly groomed teeth. I refuse to follow this custom when in Japan, and pat myself on the back as I recklessly park my car front end first, with the back sticking out, and make sweeping statements to my kids about not being afraid to be original and choose your own path in life, which is incidentally called going my way by the Japanese. Today I noticed that most of the cars in the American parking garage I was in were parked front end first, so naturally I had to pretend I was Japanese, backing my car into the space, just to be me. Incidentally, living in Japan will make you a much better driver than you would otherwise be. The space I was backing my car into was far too small for the vehicle I was in, yet I expertly maneuvered the car into the space, something I probably could not have done before going to live in Japan.

There are many good things about being in the U.S., like being able to order a taco without getting octopus, since tako happens to be Japanese word for that marine creature. It's nice driving for free on the freeways instead of forking over $25 or so for a trip as I do back home, and having three dozen Mexican restaurants within a ten minute drive of my house isn't bad either. My wife is enjoying American television, from the endless reruns of CSI on cable channels to reality television like The Baby Borrowers, which seems oddly to be made in a way that a former ESL student like my wife can easily understand it. Even American TV commercials have her giggling with delight, from the ubiquitous ads for lawyers (unthinkable in Japan, where attorneys are so rare that I've never met one in 17 years of living in the country) to commercials for products she's sure would be popular with housewives back home, like the Reynolds Handi-Vac bags with a device that removes the air from the bag before you freeze it. Just as Americans might be amazed at watching television in Japan with all its chaos, it's fun for us to sit back and soak up the American TV that we don't generally get to see.

(Actually, you're going to shake your head at me, but octopus is one of my favorite foods.)

Here are today's "really cool products" that I've picked out for you, out of the 30+ new items we've added to the J-List and JBOX.com sites today. Note that some products may be "not safe for work" but that all links will allow you to redirect yourself either to the J-List or JBOX.com websites. To see all the J-List products, check out J-List or the JBOX.com updated products link.