Two things I love to do - watch anime, and rank things. Naturally, ranking anime is just my cup of お茶, so I figured I sum up some of my favorite anime of the year, and maybe give you a heads up in case you didn’t get around to watching a particular series. I’ve taken into consideration all regularly-airing TV series that have had at least one episode air in 2008 (no straight-to-DVD, no OVAs), and I’ve limited the number to 15 because we’d be here all day if I didn’t stop there. More »

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Like many obedient Asian kids, I grew up learning an instrument - piano, in my case. I learned my scales, I did my dozen-a-days, learned a couple songs and eventually did a few recitals. But then, some time in middle school, I just stopped. It’s not that I didn’t like doing it, but there was just no passion. Playing piano was only mindless fun for me - the same as playing soccer during summers, the same as drinking ramune at the night markets - fun to do and fun to reminisce about, but I wouldn’t miss it. Still, a strange yearning egged at me whenever I passed by a piano store at the mall, or heard piano music being played while taking a piss at the local fancy restaurant (hey, details matter). Or whenever I was in Taiwan and it was trash day - those damn trash trucks always blast a butchered midi version of Fur Elise to let the aunties know they’re coming, kind of like how the neighborhood kids start jumping around like rabid snowmen when the ice cream truck rolls around. More »

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There’s a lot that goes into the construction of a great anime character - some people might like the nekomimi, the maid costumes, or even the rare glimpses of the 2-5 Split - but if you ask me, the absolutely most crucial part of an anime character is the voice. Don’t get me wrong, all the hair ornaments and knee socks are vitally important, but without the right voice to bring it all together, well, it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. After all, you can get all the cute character designs from reading manga - anime is all about the sounds, baby. More »

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Why do you watch anime? The intense imagination, the wondrous fantasy worlds, the deep plots woven with romance, drama, and suspense? Maybe for the big robots, the big swords, the big hair, and the big charcoal eyes? Or maybe comedy is your bag of chips, no matter how painfully weird it gets. Whatever your taste in anime however, there seems to always be one constant to almost all genres - the smokin’ hot girls. More »

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Alright, this is about the weakest possible link to Asian culture, but hey, everyone likes free stuff! Dr Pepper, that love it or hate it soda, said way back in March that if Guns N’ Roses released their “Chinese Democracy” album by the end of 2008 (the album has been in production for the last decade or so), the soda company would give “everyone in America” a free Dr Pepper.

Well, the time has come, as the release date for Chinese Democracy has been set for November 23 (hey, this is huge news to GNR fans!) To claim your free soda, go to the Dr Pepper website on November 23 and fill out the form, and you should be getting your coupon for a 20 ounce bottle of sugar and spice within 4-6 weeks.

If you’ve never heard GNR’s stuff, click the more link below to see why Dr Pepper thought it was worth it to stake potentially millions in revenue… More »

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“Hey boss, can’t make it to work today, caught that nasty IAS bug that’s been going around…”

Yeaaa, imagine the possibilities. Chinese doctors have now officially defined internet addiction as a sickness. The cause? Spending more than six hours a day online, with symptoms like difficulty sleeping or concentrating, yearning to be online, irritation, and mental or physical distress.

Well, no kidding. As with many immature medical theories, they lack a sort of specificity that prevents an accurate diagnosis, should it ever come to that. Found in Chapter 1, page 598 of “Owning Newbs, Anime Bewbs: A Guide to Internet Lifestyle” by Dr. Jerry, a more specific list of common ailments can be found: More »

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Leave it to the Japanese to utilize technology for the sole purpose of dressing it up in a maid costume. Dennou AR figures from Geisha Entertainment utilize your webcam and a little cube to project the image of anime girl “ARis” (Alice) on your screen. We’ve seen similar applications before in the ARToolKit Hatsune Miku (which, prior to this, was the coolest thing I had ever seen), but Geisha has taken it a step further with the addition of the magic paddle, which allows for some limited abuse harassment interaction with ARis. More »

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Oh man oh man it’s finally out - the latest installment of the DJ Max Portable series on PSP - Clazziquai Edition! Loaded with songs from Korean Acid Jazz/Electronica/R&B fusion band Clazziquai, DJMPCE isn’t the “official sequel” to DJ Max Portable 2, but rather a side title of the main series (similar to Guitar Hero Aerosmith). With new modes like 2 button and 4 button FX, CE is geared towards newcomers that might have been scared off by the difficulty of the first two games.

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, DJ Max Portable is what I would call “DDR for your thumbs”… or better yet, a much more polished version of Beatmania. Notes fall down from the top of the screen and you must push the corresponding button at the right time - proper timing results in a song that sounds on-rhythm! Clazziquai includes 2 button (up/left and triangle/circle), 4 button (left, up, triangle, circle), 5 button (left, up, right/square, triangle, circle), 6 button (left, up, right…), and 4 button FX (adds R and L) modes to suit your skill level as you familiarize yourself with the gameplay. Trust me - it’s not easy when you first start out, but once you get the hang of it, pushing those buttons and hearing the notes becomes some kind of aural crack…

What really makes DJ Max special is a combination of great songs, amazing gameplay, perfect execution, and endless replay value. That, however, doesn’t make Clazziquai Edition perfect - it’s far too easy, there’s only 48 songs (compared to the 100+ in DJMP2), the note charts aren’t as fun - but make no mistake, it’s still a fabulous game with great music. More »

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Any basketball fans out there? Excited for the upcoming NBA season? I sure am – I’ve been saving my lunch money for one of those huge HDTVs and getting NBA League Pass from Comcast so I can watch every single NBA game from my room. Not that I don’t love the hometown Warriors, it’s just that after our star player Baron Davis decided to jump ship, I haven’t been… meh… the W’s are gonna suck this season. I wanna watch good games with good teams!

Which got me wondering – how many Asian players are currently on an NBA roster? You might have heard of Wang Zhizhi, the first Asian player in the NBA with stints on the Mavericks, Clippers, and Heat, or Yuta Tabuse, Japan’s (shorter) version of Michael Jordan who played sparingly with the Suns. Little-known Sean Chen made it as far as the Sacramento Kings’ preseason roster, but was cut at the end. Remember that huge guy in Rush Hour 3? 7’9” Sun Ming Ming has dabbled with the NBA as well. However, there’s only three currently on an NBA team roster – perennial all-star Yao Ming, second year player Yi Jianlian, and rookie Sun Yue. More »

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Sony’s recently-released third revision of the PSP touts a better, brighter screen, but at what cost? While the new screen eliminates the ghosting (smearing) effect with lower latency, an arguably worse problem seems to have popped up - interlacing (jagged appearance). The issue is systemic as it has been reported in all PSP-3000 units, and the interlacing effect is so prominent it can even be seen while navigating the PSP’s XMB operating system, not to mention any game with any sort of… motion. Joystiq reports that the problem is slightly less noticeably when the “Wide Color Space” option is turned off, but turning off the only reason to get the new PSP isn’t exactly the best fix.

When asked about future patches to fix the issue, Sony replied that the interlacing is a “feature” of the new LCD, and there are currently no plans to get rid of it in a firmware update as it is hardware-derived.

I’ve been looking to get a PSP Brite to replace my 1st generation fatty, but as one that opted for the PSP instead of the DS for its graphical superiority, this is the worst kind of news I can get. Did Sony seriously not think this was an issue during their testing phase? Or did they just not notice it? At any rate, calling a fault a “feature” is not convincing anybody, and I’ll be switching my attention back to the PSP-2000…

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Here we go again - Japan’s ministry of health has ordered its retailers to stop distribution of all frozen beans imported from China, after a woman fell ill eating beans with 34,500 times the legal limit of pesticides. The woman is fine - she checked in to the hospital after vomiting and feeling “numbness in her mouth” after eating a dish made with the beans, and was released following an overnight stay, but given the recent milk powder debacle, the ministry of health wanted to take no chances.

Tests by the Tokyo government revealed the high pesticide content of the beans, which were manufactured by Yantai Beihai Foodstuff in Shandong Province in eastern China. Investigation results showed no problems in the manufacturing process, as the detected pesticide (dichlorvos) has never even been used by the company, deeming the contaminated batch of beans an isolated incident.

Here’s where the story gets even weirder - a pinprick was found in the package, suggesting that the beans may have been sabotaged after leaving the manufacturer. It’s unlikely that the pesticides would have remained in such high concentration had it been a manufacturing error, as the beans are washed and boiled before being frozen, which would have likely diluted any residual pesticides.

Is somebody deliberately trying to soil China’s reputation? While the government has cleared Yantai of any wrongdoing, the damage has already been done, in the wake of toxic toys, deadly dumplings, and the malignant milk powder. It’s clear that Chinese manufacturers need to get their act together and prioritize the safety of their products over the extra bit of profit margin, but deliberate acts of culinary terrorism isn’t helping the cause.

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I’ve got one too many turbos in my car to be seen as eco-friendly, but even punk drivers like me feel the burn on their wallets at the gas station. The energy crisis is affecting everyone, and while gas prices are somewhat subsidized by the government in China, there will come a time when our oil wells dry up. As China is poised to take over the US as the largest consumer of oil, the race for alternative energy is now hotter than a bowl of bi bim bap swimming in Blair’s 16 Million. More »

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