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For those of you who have had experience with the Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament scene, “KEN” should be a familiar name to you. That’s right, the long-standing international champion of the game, Ken Hoang, is going to be on starring in Survivor: Gabon, which starts airing Sept. 25 on CBS.

His bio on the CBS webpage reveals some interesting facts about Hoang, including the boast that he climbed Mt. Fuji when he was only 20 years old (he’s 22 now). Supposedly his strategy on the show will bank on his opponents underestimating his lean stature, and he’ll also employ his ability with “mind games.” Protip: wavedashing won’t save you from stampeding elephants.

[Joystiq]

Note: We’ve been informed that Gurren Lagann won’t be dubbed, only subbed. Good news!

Note 2: Ok false relief, the series will indeed be dubbed althought the cast has not yet been announced.

Someone finally picked up Gurren Lagann in the US. The Sci-Fi Channel will be airing Gurren Lagann on Mondays starting late July. The show will apparently be aired in one hour blocks during the Ani-Monday block. I have to say it though, this has mixed feelings all over it.

We should be ecstatic that someone other than Cartoon Network picked it up, just imagine the whole Naruto-Bleach demographic taking on a liking for Gurren Lagann in full scale. Actually don’t imagine it, its too painful. Then again its going to be dubbed and like most American dubs, it will most likely suck. It will also be localized to a certain extent and that could go either way, when anime gets Americanized it can be pretty traumatic. Bottom line is that having more people experience Gurren Lagann can’t be bad, its like a punch to the face for the tired spirit. Spin on!

[ANN]

In this Japanese TV ad you will see a woman getting nearly fondled by a mass of tentacles while she applies itch medicine to them. You wont find that so weird, proof of how jaded you have become by Japan. Worse even, you just might recognize this is as a reference to the earliest tentacle hentai in the world, a wood carving from 1820 called The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife. I wish I could say the ad is the weirdest thing in here, but no, its the fact that its not weird at all anymore. You’re probably wishing there was a second part where they actually get down to business, aren’t you? What have we become?

[Pink Tentacle]

Honey & Clover is a currently airing drama in Japan, based on Chika Umino’s manga of the same name. It centers around a small circle of friends who all attend an Art university. Things start off pretty simple, but soon complicate themselves because of that age old thing called ‘love’.

Read more!

The official Japanese TV spot for Super Mario Galaxy has been released and it looks all kinds of awesome. Japanese TV spots for video games look and work better than the shitty TV spots the Western world gets. They really do sell the game to you and the Japanese announcer sounds as though he whole heartedly believes in the game and that you should go out and buy three copies of it. Check it out. This game looks like heaven. If heaven were overweight, wore a cap, dungarees and had a moustache.

I’ve just ordered 2 of Super Mario Galaxy copies on amazon. I’ll also be buying my Grandfather a copy of this game. He doesn’t own a Wii. Shoot, he isn’t even alive! But I’m buying him a copy anyway because Super Mario Galaxy looks THAT good. After watching the video I refuse to believe the Wii is a GameCube 1.5. That shit looked like it was running on an Xbox 360!

If Nintendo are on a mission to make out like the dismal Super Mario Sunshine never happened, then they’re doing a grand old job. I may actually trade that piece of shit in to buy this game.

News in Japan are serious business. You don’t mess with the news, its all about the Nikkei, the latest technology advancements, the aging of the Japanese population and, of course, reports on cat rescues. Serious. Fucking. Business. Been a while since we last posted a Japanese TV clip.

[Japan Probe]

The last time we saw a Japanese anime TV ad it was designed to give you that warm fuzzy feeling. This time, however, its so trippy and confusing that you’d have a hard time trying to figure out what on earth sells with that. Not surpisingly its a fashion ad for Luis Vuitton. 

Awesome design, flashing colors, trippy patterns and a psychedelic panda, any more awesome and it would suck, but no, its perfect.

[Tokyomango]

News that MapleStory, the side-scrolling MMORPG, was getting the anime treatment have been known for some time now. But just recently did we learn what spot would it occupy on TV Tokyo’s schedule. The series will begin airing on Sunday, October 7 at 8:30 am (so expect subs somewhere around Tuesday), taking the place of epic shonen, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann.

But as many Gurren-Lagann fans say, Gurren-Lagann is too epic to end. Ever.

[ANN]

Nintendo products have been doing the rounds in a couple of Japanese dramas as of late. With the Wii remote and Mario Kart: Arcade GP making appearances in Proposal Daisakusen: Operation love and the Nintendo DS cropping up in Hanazakari no Kimitachi e. TV execs in Japan are already blaming Nintendo for the decline of viewers checking out television ads. So it’d seem that if you’re not busy playing Nintendo. Then you’re sat watching a drama that has Nintendo in it.

Branding with the Wii and the DS is seriously strong. Stronger than that of any other console Nintendo have put out in the past. It’s probably safe to say that the Wii and the DS are probably 2 of the biggest selling products in Japan right now. What better way for Nintendo to flog more units than to have J-idols brandishing their systems in J-dramas?! Nintendo officially own Japan. And you may not know it yet, but Nintendo own some of you reading this too.

TV advertising in Japan has hit an all time low, less than 9% of the viewers give a crap about the ads. And it sure as hell cant be because they aren’t entertaining, we have seen plenty of Japanese commercials around here. So what on earth could be making people watch less TV? Surely a Japanese TV executive must know! Oh here’s what they had to say:

“There are outside factors at work. One is people watching TV on their cell phones where we can�t track them, but the really big factor is the time people are spending on the Wii”

Oh, wow, so playing Wii Sports is more fun than watching a panel of random, talent-less TV talents comment on inane shit for minutes without end? I would never have guessed!

[Japundit]

Some crazy high school student in the Japanese drama Hanazakari no Kimitachi e - Ikemen paradise has only gone and cosplayed Gundam antagonist Char Aznable. I stand and applaud him, because he did an amazing job. You can barely tell the fella apart from the real Char. You really do have to squint and look closely to tell them apart. The cosplayer gets extra bonus points for camping Char right up to the eyeballs.

Last time we covered the scene of maid VS domina football it was a pitiful defeat of the maids who, despite their earnest efforts where unable to triumph over the strong domina team. This time however, the maids have a new weapon, a secret technique that allows them to garner the power their strenght. This is the power of moe.

Watch as the maids use moe, the ultimate cute sensation, to confront the dominas.

Oh yeah then there’s also some kind of prank they play on the domina team captain, something about bicycles or something, who really cares! So long as they’re dressed in PVC I’m happy!

Densha Otoko, the Japanese TV drama based on the story of a Japanese Otaku who saves an upper class girl from a drunk in the train and later falls in love with her, changed Japan and the Otaku image forever. Suddenly Otaku weren’t just awkward and geeky but also kind, caring and innocent lovers; some women actually started seeking Otaku for relationships! But really, how many Otaku would go out of their way to save a girl in distress from a drunk?

Japanese TV show Trivia Seed asked just that and set out to test 100 Otaku in a set-up situation. Watch as waves of Otaku face this challenge, including a crossplaying one, the results will surprise you!

Notice how the cool looking guy runs like a girl and the crossplayer is actually quite tough!

Near 70% of Otaku would risk their necks (and all the goodies they are carrying) to save a girl in distress. How about that? Seems bravery isn’t lost among our kind, what would you do in a situation like this?

Back in 2006 there was a TV series called Maid in Akihabra, a 6 episode story about, well, a maid in Akihabara. The TV series starred jpop idol Mako Sakurai as a desperate woman who’s last refuge is working as a maid in Akihabara. Its a short, fast paced series, with each of the 6 episodes lasting 15 minutes, and very entertaining. Now Japan Sugoi has posted the whole 6 episodes in flash format for your entertainment.

If cute girls and otaku heaven is your thing (and lets face it, you’re here, it is) go ahead and give it a watch, its no Densha Otoko but it wont disappoint.

[Japan Sugoi]