Hello again from Japan, where the Three Little Pigs’ chant “not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin” has a different meaning entirely.
The end of March is upon us, and with it, the break-up of the four-girl band Speed. They’ve been an incredible force in the pop world in the last three years, and Japan is currently awash with little “mini-Speeds, second-rate pop singing/dancing groups that aspire to take Speed’s vacant #1 slot in the music world. It won’t really be vacant, of course, since Takako, Hiroko, Eriko and Hitoe all plan to pursue solo careers. (If you like Hiro, see her cute by ditzy shampoo commercial on http://www.cm-watch.com).
My son Kazuki is tickled that last year’s five-team show, Go Go Five, is living on as part of the footage of Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue. While many elements of the American version are the same — the irrefutable coolness to a four-year-old boy of a train that flies and transforms into a robot — I of course noted the differences so I could report them to all of you. For one thing, the original Go Go Five is a family — four brothers and their little sister, Matsuri-chan, and contain themes like families always stick up for each other” or “even if brothers have a falling out, they’re family, so they always make up in the end.” The American show choose totally unrelated characters to interact with each other, and of course the need to reflect all the mosaic groups that make up the U.S. — token black, token Asian, token female who’s smarter than all the men and knows UNIX — is reflected in the end product. Kazuki and I both agree that Red’s “Ladder Punch” (extending ladders that “punch” out of the fire engine mech) are totally stupid
In tonight’s update, we’ve got some nice new items:
- A nice magazine & dual-Video CD item, with a focus on the lovely Miura Aika (although the clips on the VCDs seem to be mostly Indies)
Great photobooks, including new items (Yamauchi Mihoko’s Brilliant and Asakura Megumi’s “M”) as well as back-in-stock items that had sold out before
- On the gouka-bon book, some extremely wonderful high-end S&M and fetish books (most of which are single issues and will sell out quickly, so hurry if you’re interested in these)
- New manga on the hentai manga page, along with more copies of some old favorites (December’s Girl and others)
- Twenty or so new dojinshi on the dojinshi page, including some of the very lovely Nozui Magic volumes
- New puzzles — a great tribute to the Toei Godzilla movies, and a large-size brilliant Red Fuji with Flying Cranes, on the puzzle page
- One of the baddest mechs ever to come out of Gainax — Gunbuster, on the Anime & Toys page
- The lovely swimsuit idol Ms. Shaku Yumiko, in her very popular idol video, on the idol video page
- New stock of Himo-Q, one of my favorite Japanese snacks (think long gummi string)
- Close-out prices on all our Pokemon stickers — see the cool metallic and embossed stickers on the cards & puzzles page.
I’ve got an adventure tomorrow — I’m off to a tiny town in rural Iwate Prefecture, near the top of Japan, for a wedding. Northern Japan is still a frozen wasteland in March, or at least it seems that way to my San Diegan-mind set. Until I get back, see you on the web!
