Month: November 2016

  • The Castle of Cagliostro

    Continuing with my 80s anime run, last night I watched the Lupin the Third movie The Castle of Calgiostro. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, I’ve seen this movie countless times (and my wife even more), but it had been a while since the last time I watched it, and so it made for a fun revisit…

  • Dallos

    Next up in my 80s anime stroll — I’m not necessarily following the exact order given in the primer, and instead watching stuff when I’m in the mood for it — is Dallos, which has the distinction of being the very first OVA (“original video animation,” or direct-to-video, if you will) ever released. It’s also…

  • Daicon III & IV

    Following on my 80s anime playlist, I re-watched the two Daicon shorts, which I still find to be fantastic, especially the second one. These are animated shorts that were created for two conventions — Daicon III and IV — and have never been released commercially since they liberally borrow from all sorts of famous properties.…

  • Aim for the Ace!

    You may remember that a few weeks ago I shared a really great primer on 80s anime. Since I’ve been enjoying dipping back into some of those old series, I decided to go one step further and try following that complete primer, going through everything that is recommended. Since it sticks to movies and OVAs,…

  • Train of Middle Schoolers

    Just another reminder that you should be following Justin Epperson’s fantastic Instagram feed, for great photos of everyday Tokyo life.

  • Famicom Manuals

    As I wrote earlier, I’m a very happy owner of an NES Classic Edition, and I find it pretty neat that Nintendo has put online the original printed manuals for all 30 of the games included in the set. Even better though I think are the manuals for the Famicom. Picture, the cover to Japan’s…

  • Salaryman Art

    Over the years we’ve certainly seen quite a few art projects that find inspiration in the Japanese salaryman, yet this latest series of works finds its own voice. Produced by Hiroaki Ito — a salaryman himself — the realistic paintings tend to portray the various demeaning aspects of this cultural touchstone. See more examples over at…

  • Bake’s Kyoto Shop

    Bake sounds like a very interesting pastry shop/chain — read more about the company in this Spoon & Tamago post — and pictured here is its latest shop, located in Kyoto. Yup, those are Lego blocks that you see as part of the decor.