In the never ending attempt to cut down cable costs I found a nice, and free, app called Boxee. It essentially aggregates all the video feeds (Netflix, Hulu, friends’ personal feeds) I’d typically watch in my browser and provide a platform to nicely display them on my TV.

A while back we broke news of Crunchyroll beginning to stream English subtitled anime shortly after airing in Japan. Now with an ever expanding lineup, Crunchyroll will be partnering with Boxee providing their feeds in the software. If you really like it, you can signup ($5/month) for the premium capability which will give you access to streams up to 720p with no advertisements. Try the 2 week trial.

Through Crunchyroll you are also able to access all the live action drama. I’ll also add you can save your favorite channels. So if one is, say in the mood for yaoi, you can get your fill with HD quality streams.

[Crunchyroll via Mashable]

*Little know fact, Boxee is the offspring of the XBMC project.

Well well, the freemasons must be hyruleans because there’s a triforce in the dollar bill! With any luck this will make the next National Treasure movie include a visit to Kakariko village and Dan Brown’s next book will talk about the hero of time and his lost sages. Ok, ok, I’m taking it a bit far but it’s a slow news Sunday. Now go look for a dollar bill and gasp in awe. Done? Now go show your friends.

[Wonderland]

As if we weren’t under heavy siege by Hollywood, a new production company by the name of Cerenzie-Peters Productions is looking to invest in getting more videogame and “asian manga books” into the silver screen. In fact, they’ve already raised $200 million dollars in capital with which they plan to go shopping for juicy franchises. This does not bode well.

Furthermore, the company only plans to spend $20 – $30 million per movie which means 2 things: First, that we’ll get 8 or 10 of these films. EIGHT OR TEN! Second, that this movies will have a humorously tiny budget, so the end result is bound to to look cheap.

So lets recap, we’ve got Dragon Ball Evolution coming out soon, then there’s the Akira project, Cowboy Beebop with Keanu Reeves, James Cameron’s Alita, and that Ghost in the Shell project as well. That’s 5 movies that already have us teeming with rage. Now we’re getting double that.

Brace yourselves, friends, cuz its about to get ugly…er.

EDIT: Woa! I messed up my movie names, although Keanu in GITS would be hilarious. I’d cast him as a Tachikoma.

[ANN]

Here’s a segment from Asahi TV, which tells the impressive story of Ugo, a small rural town in Japan which turned around its economy by having an Otaku makeover.

Takaori Yamauchi had the brilliant idea of getting some mangakas to design covers and labels for the local products with moe girls all over them. The result? The whole economy exploded in an orgasm of Otaku consumerism. Sales of rice with anime imagery went from 18 tons a year to 36 tons a month just on the first month the moe rice launched.

Other products include moe curry and moe strawberries. The whole fad even attracts Otaku tourism to the town! Forget sex sells, in the 21st century moe sells.

[Japan Probe]

In these times of economic turmoil and with the Japanese economy officially in a recession, its no wonder the Japanese are questioning the capitalist system. How strangely coincidental then, that a manga version of Das Kapital is being released next month in Japan.

Karl Marx’ complex ideas and dense discourse will surely translate well into manga form, hell if Shakespeare could be manga why not Marx. Next month the Japanese might find they already get the worst parts of communism, loss of individuality, a group centered society and a heavy dose of xenophobia, so they might as well get the shared wealth and cool hats that come with communism.

Lets just hope no one tells them there’s no room for designer clothing in communism, unless everyone wears that one design.

[Japan Probe]

UPDATE: Kotaku reports that Valve’s Doug Lombardi dismissed this as a rumor.

The Inquirer, reporting from the Austin Games Developers Conference, reports on heavy rumors that Google is looking to aquire Valve “any second now”. Google is said to be very interested in Steam, Valve’s digital distribution software. Call me crazy but while I can see Google running Steam, I cant imagine it doing games.

But who knows! At least Google releases software on time! We’ll keep you posted.

Thanks Sol!

[The Inquirer]

Well, that’s my interpretation of the story anyway. D+PAD picked up on this oh-so-exploitable offer: Gamescampus.com will supposedly pay $30.00 (US) to those who play their new free MMORPG Asda Story up to level 40 by September 4th and aren’t satisfied with their gaming experience.

Some small catches to this offer are: having to provide an address and phone number, and the fact that only the first 1,500 people who qualify will actually get the dough. Of course, cheaters will be disqualified.

I don’t know about you guys, but this is a risk I’m willing to take. I won’t have class for a few weeks and might as well try my luck with it. I’ve never been a fan of MMO’s, so I’m assuming I won’t like the game. Thus, it won’t be all fun and games (like grinding ever is).

In fact, I might even keep you posted on my progress in the game and let you know if I actually get the loot! So stay tuned for updates on this story.

[D+PAD / via N4G]

While some parents believe that video games are nothing more than time wasting money sinks, this interesting money sink from overseas just happens to be a video game. The BankQuest piggy bank allows Japanese children to go on an adventure using the money they save. Not a bad way to invest in new gear if I do say so myself.

The game consists of a 100 floor tower with over 180 different monsters inside of it. Needless to say you can’t get all that far without first investing a little money into your character. The game boasts over 160 items which total up to 10,000 yen. For 3,990 yen it’s a steep price for a piggy bank, but I can’t help wishing I had one of these when I was a kid. I’d even take one now to replace my Cup-O’-Change.

[Impress Watch via Wired]

If you thought we have it bad with  micro transactions, game cash shops and virtual economies in the western world you surely don’t know about the QQ coin. In China, a company called Tencent has a monopoly on virtual currencies, one so massive and shady that state regulators fear it may start to affect China’s own currency.

It all starts looking innocently enough. Tencent runs websites with all sorts of games where either subscriptions or items are bought with the QQ, Tencent’s virtual currency. Much like Second Life you can take your QQ and convert it back to cash, and this is where thing’s start getting shady.

Read more!

This painting above, made by Japanese artist Hisashi Tenmyouya, sold for over $615,000.00 USD at a Christie’s art auction in Hong Kong. The artist describes the painting as such:

I produced this painting for the exhibition, “GUNDAM: Generating Futures,” which was held at the Suntory Museum from July 15 to August 31, 2005. The work was later exhibited at the Ueno Royal Museum and other venues. In Japan there are many “Gundam-Otaku’s,” and their adoration of Gundam is intense. Therefore, I did not want to change their image of Gundam. By changing Gundam’s “mobile suit” to tattoos, I altered his body, and made him even more customized. I emphasized the very concept of the “mobile suit,” and by setting Gundam against a background of gold leaf from traditional Japanese painting, I emphasized Gundam’s samurai origins.

Tenmyouya has actually created more works in this vein combining Japanese pop culture to traditional Japanese art, you can see more of his work on his personal website.

Now if only I could convince someone that my notebook sketches of Princess Zelda eating a triforce sandwich are worth a tenth of what this went for…

[Bloomberg]