YeinJee's Asian Journal

Remember the bizarre cosplay of Kirsten Dunst on Tokyo streets? Well, the music video is out (or leaked?), with Kirsten singing and dancing to The Vapors’ 1980 hit Turning Japanese. Slightly unsafe for work/kids with explicit anime images.

Titled as Akihabara Majokko Princess, the video is produced by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami and directed by McG (of Charlie’s Angels movie etc.) for an exhibition at London’s Tate Modern museum.

The video won’t last long, watch it while you can… And yeah, I’m loving it.

[Update] As expected the video is removed from Youtube. I’ve embedded with new vids for a few times, but I guess that’s it for now.

Beckii Cruel, a 14-year-old British who rose to internet fame in Japan dancing to J-pop and anime songs in her videos, is forming a girls group Beckii Cruel feat. Cruel Angels and set to release their debut Japanese CD in February.

Read the rest of this post »

Japanese town of Washimiya estimates that the Lucky Star anime has brought over one billion yen (~ US$11 million) into the local economy after the town’s main shrine, the Washinomiya Shrine, was featured in the popular anime in 2007.

The full economic impact of Lucky Star cannot be determined for certain; but the sales of related goods alone have been pegged at 70 million yen.

Visitors during the New Year’s holidays (Japanese would traditionally visit a shrine) increased from 90,000 in 2007 to 450,000 in 2010; that’s plenty of tourism money for a small town with less than 40,000 of population. LUCKY star indeed.

[via Animenewsnetwork][image by Hideki][Jp]

Interesting (or absolutely bizarre depends on how you see it) video of how some Japanese otaku celebrated their New Year’s Eve at a maid cafe and idol stage in Tokyo’s Akihabara… [video via Japanprobe]

Former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has found himself a new job… as a voice actor for an upcoming live-action Ultraman movie.

The full title of the film is Giant Monster Battle: Ultra Galactic Legend The Movie, to be precise lol.

Koizumi will lend his voice as the Ultraman King, an ancient Legendary Hero in the Ultra family. The film will open in Japan on December 12.

Koizumi is one of the most of popular postwar Prime Ministers in Japan. He retired in 2006, and the political arena has been in chaos ever since. The current PM Yukio Hatoyama, amazingly, is Koizumi’s 4th successor in just over three years.

[via Animenewsnetwork and Japanprobe]

After the highly popular life-size 18-metre Gundam model in Tokyo, another giant Japanese robot statue, the Tetsujin 28-go (lit. Iron Man #28), is set to welcome its visitors in Kobe following its completion earlier this week.

Tetsujin 28 was created in 1956 by Kobe-born Mitsuteru Yokoyama; it was one of the earliest giant robot characters in Japanese manga. The comic was later adapted into anime series and was aired in US as well, retitled as the Gigantor.

The Tetsujin 28 statue is located at Kobe’s Wakamatsu Park. It’s similar in height with the Gundam statue, but doesn’t have moving parts like the Tokyo counterpart. The Kobe robot is built as a permanent structure though, whereas the Gundam was disassembled after two months of exhibition.

If the trend keeps going, we might be seeing dozens of giant robot models across Japan in future… pretty fitting tourist attraction for the #1 robotic nation lol.

[image from the project's official website [Jp]]

Popular otaku celebrity Shoko Nakagawa, popularly known as Shokotan, will be performing at Anime Festival Asia (AFA) in Singapore on November 21-22, 2009.

AFA is one of the the biggest anime-comic-game conventions in South East Asia; first held in 2008, the event is back again in 2009 following last year’s success.

Besides Shokotan, other celebs that will be performing at the I Love Anisong concert are May’N, Aniki and Yoshiki Fukuyama. Other sections of AFA09 include cosplay, toys & games exhibits, and maid cafe etc.

The organisers held a press conference on September 1 to officiate the 2009 event; check out the coverage by blogger Darkmirage, Alafista and Double.

More details and updates on AFA09’s official website or Facebook.

Anime Festival Asia

Previous: Anime Festival Asia 2008

American actress Kirsten Dunst shot a video in Tokyo’s Akihabara otaku district in a seriously-too-colourful-and-wicked sailor costume on August 27.

The video will be used for an exhibition later this year at Tate Modern in London.

[Update] The music video is out.

[More images][via Japanprobe and 3yen]