The Real Reason We Watch Umaru-chan: Rooting for Ebina and Oniichan
While living in Japan is a lot of fun, it’s not perfect. One minor annoyance is the way films are sometimes released weeks or months later than in the rest of the world. The Blade Runner sequel is finally opening here, so I’m taking the day off to head down to Tokyo to see it with some friends. Everyone have a great weekend!
I continue to enjoy the new season of Himouto! Umaru-chan, about a high school girl who has the perfect life: she’s smart and attractive at school but transforms into a tiny otaku girl when she gets home, lazily wasting hours playing online games, watching anime and drinking Coca Cola while her oniichan waits on her hand and foot. The show is a lot of fun, especially the way Umaru interfaces with the other girls in the show, who are socially awkward and irresistibly cute. While Himouto! Umaru-chan is a fun slice-of-life show that all otaku types can appreciate, the real fun in the show comes from rooting for Ebina and Oniichan (Umaru’s brother Taihei) to start dating. Ebina is from Akita Prefecture, near the top of Japan’s main island of Honshu, where they really talk funny. So, are you rooting for Ebina and Oniichan, too?
We’re happy with the initial reaction to fans from our release of Eiyu*Senki – The World Conquest, the massive game of world conquest and harem building. One thing I love about Japan’s anime-related gaming world is how rich and varied it is, with amazing visual novels (in which you interact with characters through an unfolding story that changes based on your choices), RPGs (generally defined as a game that has stats that rise and fall and maps and combat in the gameplay), “raising” games like Littlewitch Romanesque (which just got a big price drop!), “idol management” games like Communication with Super Sonico, and more.
Eiyu*Senki is a world-sprawling game of strategy, conquest (of countries), and conquest (of willing female heroes as they join your harem). We knew this game was special, and worked extra hard on the Limited and Collector’s Editions, creating rare items for fans to buy and collect. I’m especially happy with how well the artbook came out, which is a translation of a beautifully detailed artbook in Japanese, printed in Japan to ensure maximum control over the print quality. To help you see how awesome it is so you can choose which version of the game to buy, we have a post on the artbook on our blog.
(Note that the first patch for Eiyu*Senki is posted, which fixes a game launch bug some were experiencing. More info here.)
We’ve had a lot of good news this week, what with shipping our popular strategy RPG Eiyu*Senki. Now we’ve got more good news: the start of J-List Fukubukuro season! Every year we make awesome grab bags available to our customers which are filled with wonderful anime toys and plush, traditional and cosplay items, plus the “naughty” products our customers love. See the new Fukubukuro grab bags here!
