First, an update on our new website. After several days of toil as we imported our customer data — a challenge since we were moving to a totally new platform and needed to bring over all products, customer accounts, existing download codes — the new J-List site went live on Friday…though it quickly developed serious problems from a high traffic load. We made the decision to revert back to the existing site while we give the new servers a proper shakedown. While you wait, enjoy our new Megumi mascot and a $10 off coupon! (And if you didn’t do it yet, screenshot your existing wishlist before the new site goes live.)
One new anime I started watching last week is Gakkou Gurashi, which means “Living in the School,” though the official English title of the show is is “School-Live!” It’s about a group of cute girls and their teacher who are living inside their school for some reason…which we eventually learn is because Japan was the site of a zombie apocalypse. While many of the characters are interesting for various reasons — for example, the dedicated teacher Megumi (no relation), who tries to instill some sort of normalcy in her students despite the undead shuffling outside the school — my favorite character would have to be Yuki, a cute and ditzy girl who seems to have convinced herself that everything is normal as a way of coping with it all. While it’s not quite season two of another zombie anime we’ve been waiting for, the series is written by Norimitsu Kaiho of Nitroplus, so it carries with it the promise of quality that company is famous for. I’ll certainly keep watching.
Having been a teacher of ESL in Japan as well as a parent to two kids who passed through the Japanese school system, I’ve certainly spent a long time observing schools in Japan. One important “secret sauce” for education here is competition, which kicks in when students choose which high school to take the entrance exam for. High schools aren’t part of compulsory education, instead operating like miniature versions of universities, with famous schools offering excellent academic programs, while others might teach useful trades like business or agriculture. (There’s even a high school that trains students to work as commercial airline pilots…they should totally make an anime about that.) Students in some schools also face competition in their own classes, when test scores are ranked openly for everyone to see, as seen in a recent episode of Umaru-chan. While my son’s high school ranked the students’ test scores publicly (he was always in the top three), I personally don’t think I could have managed that level of pressure in my own school life.
The new J-List website is still a ways off, but we have a brand-new version of Megumi, our kawaii mascot, and to celebrate we’re going to give everyone a $10 coupon that you can use for any purchases of $40 or more. Enjoy, and thanks for being an awesome J-List customer!
