Jean Snow [.net]

Month: March 2017

  • Mobile Police Patlabor Reboot

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    I ended up watching a bunch of anime yesterday, starting with the “Mobile Police Patlabor Reboot” short, which I hope is going to lead into a new series of some sort. It’s only a few minutes long (about 5-6 minutes), but acts as a really great segment to re-introduce the concept of the series, and to…

  • Spring 2017 Anime Season

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    Looking at the lineup for the Spring 2017 season of anime, I gotta say there’s nothing much that seems to be for me — even less than the winding down Winter 2017 season (the only series that really grabbed me this season was Onihei). Of all the regular series debuting, the only ones I’m interested…

  • Corinthians

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    Very happy to see my buddy Ian Lynam, along with Renna Okubo, launch Corinthians, “a Tokyo art & design curatorial practice.” I expect great things from these two.

  • Gacha Catch ‘Em All

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    The “gacha” mechanic — a staple of popular mobile games in Japan — is getting more attention in the West these days, in part because of the release of Nintendo’s Fire Emblem Heroes, and here’s another blog post on Gamasutra to help you wrap your head around how it all works.

  • Papers, Please

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    The latest edition of my old “On: Design” column in the Japan Times is made up of a rather nice selection of paper-related goods.

  • Big Books

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    The Big Books series of giant fold-out books for kids by Mao Fujimoto looks fantastic. More details in this Spoon & Tamago post, where they can also be purchased.

  • Katsura Hashino

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    The latest episode of Toco Toco TV brings the series back to the world of games, this time focusing on game creator Katsura Hashino, best known for his work on the Persona series. There’s a lot of great examples of how Tokyo helped form the world you experience in Persona 5, as well as a little…

  • JoJo’s Bizarre Drinking Adventure in Osaka

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    I know next to nothing about JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure — despite it celebrating a 30th anniversary this year, I’ve never been particularly interested in checking out the series, although I have a few friends who seem to enjoy it quite a bit. One of these friends is Daniel Feit, who has written a really fun piece…

  • Trademarking Color Palettes

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    The blue, white, and black stripes of the Mono plastic eraser are indeed classic, and the Japanese government is now officially recognizing this fact, allowing the first trademarks placed on color palettes — along with the iconic 7-Eleven colors. More in this Spoon & Tamago post.

  • 2017 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts

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    Sure, who cares about the Oscars, but they are a platform for what is the biggest celebration of film during the year, and so seeing what constantly wins in the two animated categories continues to be an exercise in frustration. They seem to be treated as a purely technical award, and so whoever has the…