Who hasn’t had one of those days where a super hero team starts harassing you for no reason? I know it happens to me at least twice a month! This is also the story of Katori Shintaro, who never thought he was a good guy, but never thought he was a bad guy either. Especially not one bad enough to destroy the earth.

This skit came out years ago, before DDN even existed, for completition’s sake and due to the request of Sanime over in our chat, we’re posting it.

We’ve seen lots of people do their own renditions of Videogame themes but it’s much more rare to see someone do a remarkable anime music performance. Much more remarkable is it when it’s a whole marching band performing an anime theme!

Such is the case with Towson University’s TIGER Marching Band and their rendition of Cowboy Bebop’s Tank! a couple of weeks ago. You can almost imagine the geek fervor it must have taken to get the whole band to go along with it. It’s an arrangement for marching band so there are subtle differences with the original theme but this is something we definitely want to see more of!

These above are all of the voice clips included in the Nanami Madobe, Windows 7-tan, theme for Windows 7 included in some of the Japanese editions. Sounds for all your basic windows actions, including the dings, the beeps and the system errors. Boy oh boy, I don’t think I’d mind constant system errors with this. This is the official complaint deterrent for obscure errors only found by geeks, it turns errors into features and nerd rage into a moe-induced trance.

At last, a little update on that whole Kirsten Dunst doing mahou shojou cosplay we reported on a while ago. It has emerged that the shooting was indeed a music video. In fact she was singing the much cliche’d and ad hoc song ‘Turning Japanese’.

What’s more though is that the video is to be part of a much larger film based on Akihabara culture directed by Takashi Murakami, who long time readers might remember as the director of this excellent superflat Louis Vuitton video we posted back in 2007. The film is titled “Akihabara Majokko Princess”. Above you’ll find a couple of images of Muramaki, the first being him in front of a giant print allusive to the film, you can even see the legs of a giant Kirsten Dunst in her infamous cosplay, terrorizing the city. The other image… well lets just say it’s quite titillating.

[Arrested Motion]

Sure the US has a cool president right now but it doesn’t hold a candle to Japan’s Ex-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Not only did he impersonate Elvis on his last trip to the US but now he’s going all superhero on us by voicing Ultraman King in the next big Ultraman movie, Giant Monster Battle: Ultra Galactic Legend. He’ll be voicing the iconic Japanese superhero at the urging of his son (cool dad points too). His raspy deep voice fits perfectly to the King of the Ultramen. Perhaps Obama should take a passage from the book of Conan Obrien and try his hand at anime dubbing. Perhaps he can voice himself.

The western world has renaissance fairs, which mainly attracts men wanting to play with swords and live an idealized and unrealistic fantasy of a cruel and chaotic time. In Japan it’s women who are attracted to the feudal era of Japan, wanting to play with swords and live an idealized and unrealistic fantasy of a cruel and chaotic time.

Rekijo, or female history geeks, are a new trend in Japan that has seen tourism at historical sites increase by up to 30%. They are looking towards a time when people had stronger resolves and beliefs, a harsh contrast to Japan’s ever docile society. From the video it seems a bit odd that this is happening but one you stop to think about it, it’s no different than knights, pirates, soldiers or cowboys. Armed Douchebags.

See, it holds true that the mean guy always gets the girl, and in these cases, the dead mean guys from several centuries ago get the girl.

[Japan Probe]

While we’ve featured much weirder self-shot videos from Japan this one excels in the sadness category. Here’s a man who wears not one, but three different skimpy girl outfits while playing slap bass to a Hatsune Miku song. A song about having small breasts and pondering if drinking milk would fix it. He then performs breast increasing exercises on screen with amazing prowess, it’s clear he has vast experience in self-treatment.

There are men who see a moe character and are overcome with a lust and longing for the little girl. This man? This man wishes to be the little girl.

Also, Nice Boat reference at the end.

It appears the guys at Crypton were holding out on the technology for Miku’s live appearance on Animelo a couple of weeks ago. This time for Miku’s 2nd anniversary concert they pulled out the big guns and we finally got our 12 feet holographic Miku on stage. She even teleports around the stage which beats the hell out of jumping from speaker walls. Now all that’s left is a full motion android Miku and I wouldn’t put that that far off into the future.

Japan keeps pushing the line on what constitutes a live performance but all of the flesh and blood pop stars nowadays are manufactured anyway. If you ask me this just makes the process more efficient!

Well it turns out the only thing I got right about the ‘live’ appearance of Hatsune Miku on Animelo was the fact that it would be a giant Miku on stage. No holograms, no animatronics, no smoke and mirrors, just a big-ass LED screen and a video of Miku playing to some live musicians, a bit underwhelming if you ask me but then again Miku doesn’t have the budget that maybe Gorillaz had. She sang a couple of songs, both from her own repertoire and from Black Rock Shooter, good stuff but it really lacked more Miku on-screen time, after the middle of the performance you might as well had been watching a video.

Thanks Julie!

There’s no real reason to add functionality to cat ears, they are functional enough by themselves. It would be like adding a cell phone to a blender or good games to the Wii. It doesn’t need them and it would just feel wrong. But this case is a brilliant exception because it makes sense. See someone took a pair of cat ears and fitted them with earphones allowing you to 1) better ignore the mob of sweaty nerds stalking you and 2) do some caramelldansen in your own, very private rave.

It is also a marvelous addition to the USB maid cosplay from 2006, the one with the USB camera in the tail and the keyboard on the apron. This is a fashion trend that’s taking a little too long to catch on.

[Thanko / Via Boing Boing Gadgets]