To be fair and balanced, I’ve thrown a bone for the men and some balls for my ladies. First up , called “Nice Cup in Bra”, Triumph International Japan gives us the meditative relief of a hole in one. The 1.5 meter unfurling grass-green top exposes two cups which chant out “Nice Shot” with each successful putt. Want to complete the outfit and be a foe on the course? The bottom half of this cheeky skirt, emblazoned with “Be Quiet” on the rear, allows for easy removal to be used as an audience flag, signaling others to shush. You mean business.

[PinkTentacle]

And for my bros I give you, “Oda Nobunaga”. I know it’s a mouthful and at $100 bucks a pair a bit pricey, but what better way of strolling through your job as a salaryman, sealing the deal with the pride and nobility of the magnificent samurai underneath your power suit.

[Mainichi Daily News]

Being a language teacher in a foreign country is never easy, in a country as prejudiced and complex as Japan it’s even harder. Here’s a little video which pokes fun at the ridiculous and uncomfortable situations of an English teacher in Japan. It’s a bit hit-or-miss but I was cracking up one minute in.

Now if you excuse me I have to go call the police, there’s a lood party next door.

[Japan Probe]

This isn’t exactly a new entry in our long series of cosplay sells TV ads, but it is a derivative of one. Kyowa, a brand of backpacks in Japan, is taking a page from Aeon with their latest TV ad. In Kyowa’s ad we see a foreign aerobics instructor doing an energetic routine while repeating a tagline and… weird creatures dance in the back.

Aeon’s ad featured a cute anglo-japanese idol doing a dance along with little kids dressed as bears in the back. Perhaps when it comes to Japan and backpacks you better not mess with the formula. It’s almost like mad libs!

Foreign female dressed as NOUN does VERB while little PLURAL NOUN dance in the back.

I propose: Foreign female dressed as a zebra does pantomime while little ducks dance in the back. I’d buy that backpack! Now its your turn guys, show us your ideas in the comments!

[Japan Probe]

We’ve all heard horrible voice acting, for crying out loud, we love anime and there’s hardly a better example of horrible voice acting than english dubbed anime. Games are no exception though, specially during the days of the PSX and the early years of the PS2. Here’s a video compilation of some of Videogame’s worst voice acting moments.

It becomes pretty obvious pretty fast that bad voice acting is out there and there’s plenty of it, but that there’s also a huge amount of horrendous dialogue to begin with, specially Japanese games localized to english. Dear localizers, stop trying to sound like what you think a cool 13 year old sounds like. Now if you’ll excuse me “I have to stay alive and write this article before I die”.

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.

Finally a solution to a problem we could have easily solved by now if it weren’t for society’s double standards and ridiculous rules like decency and respect. No I’m not talking about solving unemployment through slavery, I’m talking about cold boobs.

The Japanese have taken it upon themselves to create the Bust Beauty Pad, a USB-powered bust warmer. Just plug it in to a USB port and insert the warming pads under your bra and soon the twins will be all cozied up. It probably also works on man-boobs too but… let’s not go there. Talk about trying to invent a better mousetrap, though! Last time I checked us men still had hands! And maybe you don’t know it Japan, but here in the western world some men are even willing to pay good money to solve this problem with this hands-on approach.

There’s supply, there’s demand. I don’t know, it seems like the free market could have solved this problem ages ago. Perhaps a cop and trade system is in order, see what I did there? Yeah I’m witty like that.

[Bust Beauty Pad / Via Tokyomango]

According to a Nintendo marketing employee, Wii is set to have a successor as soon as next year! Some info on the system are as follows…

• Wii 2 will feature a blu-Ray disc drive in a bid to prevent piracy.
• Support for 1080p resolution for both blu-ray movies and games.
• Due to release in the third quarter of 2010, in a worldwide same day release.
• Trade-in scheme for existing Wii owners to receive a discount on the new hardware.
• An announcement would come a month before release date, riding on the back of viral marketing to build hype.

If Wii 2 had the same specs as a GameCube or a Wii (they’re both the damn same anyway) then blu-ray space would be wasted. It could be telling that there is nothing what-so-ever in these key Wii 2 details regarding the systems’ graphical capabilities. Could you imagine if the Wii 2 was exactly the same as the original Wii, but with a blu-ray drive, HD support and nothing else!? That sounds like some shit that could actually fly at Nintendo. Just look at the evolutionary steps from the DS, to DSi, to the the DSi LL. Nintendo aren’t ones to fully embrace current technology. They always prefer to creep 5 years behind everybody else.

And as for the trade-in scheme? I cannot see Nintendo going for that. They made no effort to offer such a scheme for DS lite owners who would like to upgrade to a DSi, so I can’t see them doing it for their consoles. Nintendo are all about printing their own money. Not helping others save it.

A new Nintendo system with a blu-ray drive would be really cool. Even though Nintendo probably wouldn’t allow it to play blu-ray movies without a 16-digit blu-ray movie code.

It’s all speculation, but it’s rather exciting. A new Nintendo console with full HD output and a blu-ray drive would certainly make sense given the current games-scape – which is why I’m inclined to not believe it could happen. Because it sounds like way too much sense for Nintendo to actually go along with. I hope I’m wrong.

[Max console]

I first got news of  ”shocking” footage from GamePolitics and felt the muted CNN iReport to be nothing more than people up in arms. Watching animated videogame footage of people being mowed down, even if they are unarmed civilians is, what some might say sadly, not new to me.

We’ve seen controversy play out like in Six Days of Fallujah; the player needing to make a moral decision on the battlefield with the media and non-gamers (and some gamers) saying games about terrorism in ultra-high-def-realism is too soon. So going back to COD: MW2 found by way of TheEscapist I saw the actual gameplay, with sound.

That’s where my attitude changes; maybe I’m getting grandpa old because once I heard what was going on in the background it became much harder to keep my belief people just need to get a grip. I hope I don’t now fall in that crazy crowd. I’m not going to say this goes too far, but I think it certainly comes close to the line.

You guys know I’m all against censorship, especially in games so you tell me what you think…

[RuTube]

UPDATE:

Activision responds:

From GamePolitics

Players have the option of skipping over the scene. At the beginning of the game, there are two ‘checkpoints’ where the player is advised that some people may find an upcoming segment disturbing. These checkpoints can’t be disabled.

Modern Warfare 2 is a fantasy action game designed for intense, realistic game play that mirrors real life conflicts, much like epic, action movies. It is appropriately rated 18 for violent scenes, which means it is intended for those who are 18 and older.

About the events taking place in the scene itself, Activision explained:

The scene establishes the depth of evil and the cold bloodedness of a rogue Russian villain and his unit. By establishing that evil, it adds to the urgency of the player’s mission to stop them.

I’m not sure what I just watched, but Liberty City just got a new show. Found in your safehouse on cleverly named CNT, Princess Robot Bubblegum show be available at the end of this month. In this series you’ll be sure to get all the wonderful stereotypes we’ve grown to love about anime.

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]