Greetings from J-List! Tomorrow is 3.14, a day to celebrate the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, also known as π (pi). Japan being Japan, it’s also a day to celebrate oppai. Hope you all have a great Oppai Day!
I’ve been a fan of science fiction all my life, and one sub-genre I’ve always enjoyed is alternate history, especially books like Harry Turtledove’s Guns of the South. Alternate history is also a tool used in anime to tell more interesting stories, and shows like Strike Witches, Code Geass and Fullmetal Alchemist are all set in alternate timelines that are similar to our world, but different, too. Another good example is . You can buy it in shrinkwrapped package form from J-List, or via instant download (no waiting!) through the new JAST USA site!
One show I’m enjoying a lot is KimiUso, aka Your Lie in April, a fascinating anime about a young Japanese boy whose mother pressures him to become a genius pianist. He gives up playing when his mother dies, until one day he encounters Kaori Miyazono, an extremely talented violinist who bodily pulls him back into the world of music. Kaori is a girl who’s full of energy and vitality, somehow able to ignore the rules of life and music as if they didn’t apply to her. This is something the Japanese are uniformly envious of, since they belong to a society that expects everyone to click into place and not be “the standing nail that gets hammered down.” Usually “mold-breaking” characters who are far above the level of average Japanese at some skill are foreigners, or else a Japanese who grew up overseas or haafu (half Japanese), but Kaori is unique in that she fits this genre without being non-Japanese. Watching the show, I imagine I see some parallels with my daughter, who got quite good at playing flute at competitions despite never learning to read sheet music (she did it all by ear), and who’s able to speak English fluently without being aware of the formal rules of English grammar, as Japanese always are.
Remember, the long-awaited Hanachirasu [newly launched official site] is now in stock and shipping! This is an outstanding story of swordplay and revenge in an alternate Japan, and it’s one of the best titles Nitroplus has ever created. Now you can buy the game via shrinkwrapped DVD-ROM or DRM-free Internet download. Get your order in now!
