Hello again from your friends in Japan!
My wife is a member of the Silver Age generation of Japanese animation, having grown up on the best anime of the 1970’s. While anime shows like Space Cruiser Yamato and Gatchaman and Mazinger Z are quite famous outside of Japan, the shows that are most loved by many Japanese of the era were those based on Western works of literature. These include A Dog of Flanders (an incredibly moving Belgian story of a boy Nello and his faithful dog Patrache; the scene where they ascend into heaven will bring instant tears to your eyes), or Heidi, Girl of the Alps (my wife can quote the scene where Clara gets out of her wheelchair from heart), or The Rose of Versailles (a popular manga and anime based on the French Revolution). While I certainly approve of the acceptance Japanese animation has received in the past ten years, I have to say as a parent and that I really miss the “old days” of anime that enriched and moved children, taught them about the great artists and composers of Europe, and made them curious about the outside world — you can’t say that about Digimon or Yu-Gi-Oh. However, a new anime series may be here to save us: Ashita no Nadja, the show that has replaced Ojamajo Doremi (our old favorite on Sunday mornings). It’s the story of a girl named Nadja, living in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, on a mission to find her mother, and it’s filled with beautiful imagery and classic “shoujo” romantic themes. We have high hopes for this new show! The Japanese site for Nadja is here: http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/nadja/index2.html
Each country has what the Japanese call a “kokumin-sei” which could be translated as a “national personality.” The Germans are good at efficiency and organizing, for example, while people from Italy generally adhere to a list of characteristics that make them inherently “Italian.” One aspect of Japanese people is the tendency for them to shrug off difficult decisions or challenges by saying “Shikata ga nai,” which means “It’s can’t be helped.” (A more colloquial version of this is “Sho ga nai.”) From national economic policy to the problem of men groping women on crowded trains to complaining about the price of lettuce this week, Japanese seem to be uniquely able to throw up their hands and say in effect, oh well, there’s no way to solve that problem so I won’t do anything about it. This is in contrast to Americans who (I have been told), are terribly optimistic about all things, always believing that a given problem can be solved if you just keep trying to find the answer, no matter what the problem may be. Living outside of your home country is fun, because you get to learn about your own “kokumin-sei” in ways that would be impossible if you never left home.
Remember we’re having a great $1 sale on all bishoujo games this month, including all games from G-Collections, JAST USA, Hobibox and more. You can combine this with our 20% discount for buying 4 or more games, making for a really great reason to check out all the titles we’ve got in stock for you now. The just-released Do You Like Horny Bunnies? is included in the special offer. Also, remember that JAST USA Memorial Collection and Milky House Memorial Collection are going to come back from the duplicators any day now. Why not preorder them now if you haven’t already?
For the new update, we’ve got some excellent products from Japan for you. They include:
- First, for fans of incredibly cute character goods from Japan, we’ve got some cute Japanese food plush toys from San-X, too cute to eat, believe us
- Also, an incredibly cool item, a deluxe diorama of Hello Kitty and Daniel, which comes with a rare Kitty watch for you to wear
- If you’re a fan of Morning Musume, the super-cute JPOP idol group that defines much of Japanese music culture, we’ve got some mechanical pencils that come with cute pencil leads
- For fans of Japanese snacks, some great treats, including a super-delicious new flavor of Every Burger, little chocolate cookies that look like tiny hamburgers
- For fans of Studio Ghibli items, a fun Kiki’s Delivery Service pouch from Sun Arrow, complete with funny English on it
- Also, delicious candy from Okinawa, as well as fresh stock of miso soup, delicious dried ika (if you have to ask what ika is, don’t ask, just eat it), and real wasabi
- We’re happy the Nostalgic SF Vehicle series is selling so well, and we’ve got another addition to this great set — three new vehicles in a “Premium Pack” from Konami, and full sets are available from us
- We love Japan’s pretty swimsuit idols like Sayaka Isoyama, and recommend her lovely hardcover photobooks, as well as other items
- For dog lovers, we’ve got several cute “doggie raincoats” that are so cute, and come in different sizes for your poochie
- Japanese usually prefer green tea to coffee, and we’ve got a great large-size ceramic cup perfect for your daily cup of healthy green tea
- For fans of the Japanese high school uniform, we’ve got fresh stock of the photobook that captures the charming uniforms from some of Japan’s most famous schools, great for cosplayers or collectors
- For Star Wars fans who missed out on the super deluxe Darth Vader PVC model from Kotobukiya, we’ve got three more in stock, although these might be the last we will be able to order
- For fans of the incredibly soft and cute blankets that are sold in Japan, we’ve lowered our prices on all our stock — we’ve got Hello Kitty, Totoro, Hamster Club and more in stock for you!
- For fans of Japanese anime figures we’ve got a super-cute Super Real Figure series of Rizel from Rizelmine, complete with stand and alternate faces
- Finally, find a fun denim pencil case, a funny Japanese sign that will keep Japanese salesmen away from your door, cute charms for your phone, fresh stock of sushi making sets and bento boxes, and more!
For our adult customers, we’ve got many new 18+ products. They include:
- For lovers of Japanese adult magazines enjoy several new magazines featuring great authentic couples in love hotels
- Also, a popular magazine + video CD sampler combo item, the new DVD Soft Catalog is in stock, with 2+ hours of top quality AV for you to sample
- For fans of the super busty AV star Marina Matsushima, enjoy her deluxe photobook, filled with her best erotic photos
- Also, Shino Harada’s sexy hardcover photobook is really cute, but just sexy enough that we’ve got to list it on the adult photobook pages
- For Ran Asakawa fans, enjoy fresh stock of her must-see-to-believe erotic photobook, which is one of our favorites
- For fans of Japan’s unique hentai artwork, enjoy great new erotic comics, including the reissue of Chosuke Nagashima’s “Work of Angels” and the fabulous Starting Over hentai work from “Hiyo Hiyo”
- J-List carries many different kinds of personal massagers (vibrators) from Japan, all uniquely in tune with the Japanese sense of sexuality — now we’ve got a cool new item, Cherry Bomb, a cherry-style personal massager for all ladies and couples!
- We’ve got some fabulous erotic DVDs for you today, including some super-long ones, starting with 4 hours of sweet sex from Ran Monbu, whose name sounds like the French pastry “Mont Blanc” when said in Japanese word order (region free)
- Japanese have an unending fetish for Race Queens and Campaign Girls, and now you can enjoy a whopping 7.5 hours of hardcore erotic action with these lovely creatures (region free)
- Asuka Sakamaki is an extremely erotic Japanese AV actress with a small body and hot sex, and she looks great in a new offering from Hayabusa Agency (region free)
- See the “24 hours bukkake” of Riho Nanase as she endures constant bukkake from men as she goes about her daily life (region free)
- From Soft on Demand and Deep’s, a great lesbian hentai anime on DVD capturing the sex of nurses in the “Lesbian Hospital” (region free)
- For the growing fans of high-end lesbian AV from Queer, another great performance in a new offering with strong “yuri” themes (region 2)
- Finally, find fresh stock of many popular DVD titles, including the smash hit Gold Bird, Akira Watase’s Dream Shower, Bukkake Angel and Gokkun Devil, Sena Sakura’s popular DVD and more Endless Lesbian.
We’re constantly improving the J-List website these days, planning and implementing new features for you. As always, if you notice anything odd about site, something that doesn’t work or works strangely, please email us right away. If there’s ever a problem checking out, you can use the secure email form to contact us, give credit card details and so on.
