From Rekuru: With Japan being the second largest music producer behind the United States, the Japanese music market has a variety of artists to listen to. In the Jpop scene there are huge and popular groups like AKB48 or ARASHI. While big and popular groups have alot of talent to offer, like a variety of singing pitches and personalities, solo artists tend to get overshadowed, but these five Jpop female solo artists have managed to break through and become well known in the Jpop scene: More »

From Girlybubble: Today’s feature of Cute Phone Charms presents the Square Enix Kingdom Hearts Avatar Cell Phone Strap (Cloud)! Are you a fan of Kingdom Hearts? More specifically Cloud? Then perhaps you should check this cute cell phone strap out! The charm is in Cloud’s likeness and even comes with his signature sword. Though the face kinda scares me but it’s cute nonetheless. More »

From Wirebot:

Gizmodo Japan has captured some great shots of the Square-Enix booth at this year’s Tokyo Toy Show. As any kind friend would do, I am passing them along to all of you. My personal favorites are the Slime silverware and the Kingdom Hearts chibi statues. More »

A survey was conducted in Japan, asking 3,000 gamers what they’re favorite Square Enix game franchise was. Some titles that made it to the top 10 were surprising while others were predictable. More »

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In August Square Enix will ship out these totally cute Kingdom Hearts figurines for us to hold, showoff, play or whatever you do with your figures. More »

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From Wirebot: The director of the highly popular Kingdom Hearts franchise, Tetsuya Nomura, recently mentioned in an interview that three additional Kingdom Hearts games are currently in the works. More »

Miss something last week? Don’t worry. We got you covered — here are last week’s top posts: More »

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This cosplay of Ventus and Aqua from Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep is brilliant. The lighting, the angle, the costumes- I love just about everything in this crafty photo. More »

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There were many awesome games that were released this past decade and it was hard for me to choose which ones to put on this list. But I limited myself to games that came from Asia (more specifically Japan) and here is the list that I have come up with. Keep in mind that I have limited access to game consoles, excluding my Playstation 2. So most of the games on this list are from the PS2. More »

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Final Fantasy XIII is not the only highly anticipated game coming from Square Enix in a few months. The newest installment to the Kingdom Hearts franchise, Birth By Sleep, is almost out in Japan and will soon have a release in the United States as hinted by Jesse McCartney’s Twitter about the dub. More »

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From Wirebot:

Relationships are a common theme throughout life, no matter good nor bad, and in my view you have a relationship with basically everyone in this world (even if it’s the “I don’t know who that is” kind). Relationships also share common ground when it comes to video games, and not only are there simple relationships between characters in games, but some games are totally revolved around that relationship. Not all games have already pre-existing relationships though, and often times people have to work hard to get that ideal girl/boy in the video game. Here are some pretty famous video game relationships that everyone should know about! And if you don’t, well, here’s your chance to know about ‘em! More »

The highly anticipated PSP game finally has a set release date (although only for Japan unfortunately). More »

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Kingdom Hearts is one game series I couldn’t care less about. When I played the first one, I had fun with it, but I never bothered to complete it. For the next game, I bought the Greatest Hits version, but it sits in the box and collects dust. I will play it eventually. After all, I bought it purely for the fact of Captain Jack Sparrow being in the game.

Aside from that quirky info, I am an odd gamer. Instead of liking the actual game, there are games I find myself liking the soundtrack more than anything else. Kingdom Hearts happens to fall under that category. The music from that series amuses me greatly, and since it’s composed by Shimomura Yoko, that makes it even better. It’s even better when a piano arranged album is in the works. More »

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Okay, European video game music lovers! Save a spot on your social calendar (any calendars, really) for the Symphonic Fantasies Concert in Cologne, Germany during September 2009. This concert will feature music from Final Fantasy series, Chrono series, Kingdom Hearts series, and Mana (Seiken Densetsu) series. More »

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The Gameboy Advanced Kingdom Hearts game that tied KH 1 and 2 together is no on the PS2.

The game was released earlier this week on Dec. 2nd in stores everywhere for $29.99. The story is exactly the game as the GBA version only this time the graphics are much better. In addition to the GBA version, there are new features like new sleights and bosses plus four new mini games.

Within the same day, Square Enix also announced that 365/2 will be released for North America sometime next year. Wewt!

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Square Enix really knows how to impress an audience. At Tokyo Game Show, they featured four Kingdom Hearts trailers, one of which was the upcoming DS game: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

The trailer featured various mind blowing teasers that included Organization XIII members, the return of Riku and Mickey, various ass kicking and a new character, Xion. The drama didn’t just stop there, at the end the words “February 2009” flashed leaving me completely thrilled and depressed. Note that this is first to be released in Japan leaving the rest of us non-Japanese speakers to wait it out in the cold.

In addition to the DS game, Square Enix plans to release Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep for PSP and Kingdom Hearts 3 for rumored PS3, both of which are still TBA. More »

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Making this super quick as I am super busy! NYAF day 1 was amazing! All the cosplayers were so cute and luckily I could who most of them were regardless of my lack of Anime knowledge.

Can’t wait to see what tomorrow will be like since Saturday will be the busiest day of the convention. Sweet! I will have blog posts about today up later on so please be patient. We are all very tired but so pleased with the turn out.

Be sure to check out the gallery from the Cosplay Photoshoot Contest Day 1. Voting process will start Monday so get all your friends to vote for you! More »

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This is an archived blog post. Jason Linetsky is no longer a Ningin blogger.

I’ve been running a bunch of ideas for blog entries though my work-fried brain and came up with Cosplay Month! Following my first entry of the most popular characters of cosplay I’ve decided to continue with cosplay themed entries up until and including the New York Anime Festival!

Tonight’s entry highlights two really talented cosplayers I’ve found on my daily journies through the world of DeviantArt.com.

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This is an archived blog post. Jason Linetsky is no longer a Ningin blogger.

As the New York Anime Festival is approaching, I feel like it’s time to dust off the old black cloaks, repaint the 6 foot tall broad swords, and once again bribe your brothers or sisters to cosplay the opposite gender so you can go as an Anime couple. With that said, what better way to kick off this blog than to dive into that fun, yet sometimes very disturbing, world of cosplay! More »

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