It’s interesting to observe the way trends in anime rise and fall. One season might see several similar “harem” shows, complete with the trademark blonde tsundere girl with twintails, while another might feature multiple “magical battle high school” series competing for fans’ attention. This season we’ve got a plethora of magical girl-kei shows like Soushin Shoujo Matoi plus the dark Magical Girl Raising Project, as well as several shows with a focus on…oppai? There’s the ridiculously voluptuous Narusawa from Occultic;Nine, a show many fans will watch because of the semicolon in its name (it’s part of the “Science Adventure” universe that includes Steins;Gate), plus the charming Tawawa on Monday, a short series that grew out of a one-page manga that aimed to make people feel better about Mondays by showing cute busty girls while they made their morning commute. The show has lots of “plot” to offer fans, as well as a fun Internet meme called the #TawawaChallenge!
It’s well known that the Japanese love rice, and they do eat it with nearly every meal, but they’re no slouches when it comes to making exotic varieties of bread, too. Introduced by the Portuguese in the 16th century, pan (as its called, no relation to shimapan) comes in many shapes and sizes in Japan today, some of which are a bit odd. There’s shoku-pan or normal sliced bread, awesome “curry bread” with spicy curry inside, yakisoba pan, a roll with delicious chow mein-style noodles shoved inside, or “ichigo whip-sand,” sandwiches made with whipped cream and strawberries, sold in convenience stores. Most of us don’t think of bread as being sweet, but many types in Japan are, including melon-pan (vaguely melon-shaped), and honey toast, essentially a loaf of bread that’s been toasted then covered with honey or syrup plus fruit and other good things. My favorite Japanese bread innovation would have to be the variations of “Bacon Cheese France,” or French bread with bacon and cheese baked inside.
Great news! We’ve started this year’s Ecchi Lucky Bag early this year. In Japan there is a fun custom where stores sell a secret sealed “lucky bags” filled with unknown contents to customers. This year we’re coming out swinging with our best awesome lucky bags yet, filled with tons of great products accumulated by the J-List staff all year long, a huge value for you. And there are no duplicated products with the new J-List Box boxes, so you can order those separately and never worry about getting duplicate items.
