Girl power and gender-bending unite in Fumi Yoshinaga’s award-winning manga series Ooku. As history buffs know, the term “ooku” traditionally refers to the harem of wives and concubines attached to the Shogunate during the Edo period. Yoshinaga’s tale is set in the same period, but with one major difference: in her world, a mysterious plague has drastically cut down the male population, turning Japan into a matriarchal society where the female shogun keeps a harem of 3,000 male concubines. The popular ongoing story is being serialized in Hakusensha’s weekly Melody, but it was recently announced that the property is getting a big-screen adaptation, to be released in theaters October 1. The film stars Kazunari Ninomiya (of boy band Arashi) as Mizuno, a young man who enters the ooku after being informed he’s too poor to marry his childhood sweetheart (Maki Horikita; Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac). Kou Shibasaki (Shaolin Shojo) plays the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune.
The online community is abuzz with a pair of DRM-related news items. First up was the tweetstorm set off by Niwango’s Tomohito Kinose (@kinoppix), who wrote: “JASRAC director Sugawara says, tweeting song lyrics will incur JASRAC usage fees.” The idea that twitter-length excerpts could infringe on copyright was met with near-universal disdain, including a tweet by Square Enix President Yoichi Wada (@yoichiw): “Against… it’s the same as saying you can’t sing it.” Meanwhile, IT journalist Toshinao Sasaki (@sasakitoshinao) reports that Japan’s major publishing houses, famous for their refusal to jump on the e-book bandwagon, recently met with Amazon execs to hear their Kindle sales pitch. But the real news at the meeting was the several houses who didn’t attend—because, according to Amazon, they are already in talks to provide content… On the 2-channel front, users are aghast at the news that beloved manga Ashita no Joe is heading to the big screen with Tomohisa Yamashita (Kurosagi) playing the titular boxer. Fans decried the casting of a pretty-boy Johnny’s idol as the famous bruiser.
- Baka to Test to Shokanju 7.5 by Kenji Inoue (light novel; Enterbrain, 2010)
- The Lost Symbol (Part 1) by Dan Brown (Kadokawa Shoten, 2010)
- Shin Ningen Kakumei: The New Human Revolution, Vol. 21 by Daisaku Ikeda (religious; Seikyo Shinbunsha, 2010)
- The Lost Symbol (Part 2) by Dan Brown (Kadokawa Shoten, 2010)
- Shimei to Tamashii no Limit by Keigo Higashino (novel; Kadokawa Shoten, 2010)
- Dragonquest VI Official Guidebook (Square Enix, 2010)
- Maku Dake Diet by Chihiro Yamamoto (Gentosha, 2009)
- Kanjani 8 Calendar, 4/2010-3/2011 (Tokyo News Tsushinsha, 2010)
- Kat-Tun Official Calendar 4/2010-3/2011 (Kodansha, 2010)
- Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo 2 by Nagiko Umino (manga/textbook; Media Factory, 2010)
March 1-7. Source: Tsutaya (www.tsutaya.co.jp)
As the days grow warmer and the evenings get longer, more and more people will be moving the party outside. Yet one of the quickest ways to kill the buzz at an al fresco bash—second only to drinking all the booze, that is—is running out of food. Now, Domino’s has come out with a convenient little service that should go a long way toward solving this problem. By downloading the pizza chain’s free app, iPhone users can browse the company’s menu and quickly place orders for delivery. And here’s the kicker—instead of addresses, Domino’s uses the iPhone’s GPS to lock on to the delivery location, meaning that hanami partiers can order a pizza from anywhere in the city, whether it’s deep in Yoyogi Park or out by Tokyo Bay.
One of Japan’s most popular shopping traditions is tsumehodai, literally “all you can stuff,” where crowds of elbow-jabbing obaachan fight to cram as many items as possible into a prix-fixe plastic bag. The experience, obviously, is not for the faint of heart. But as happens so often in this digital age, a website has come along to offer shoppers a virtual alternative. Tsume.com is an online shopping portal that allows customers to experience the joy of stuffing jewelry, produce, snacks or household items into their digital shopping bags. First choose your bag size (¥1,000 and up), then simply drag and drop the items you want. A handy graphic lets you know how much space you’ve got left (“just a little bit more!”). Cram too much and the bag will rip, at which point you’re offered the opportunity to reassess your items and try again. We speak from experience when we say that even if you don’t buy, the challenge of getting as much as possible into the bag can provide hours of entertainment all on its own.
www.tsume.com
Channel Guide
- 1= NHK
- 3=NHK Educational
- 4=NTV
- 6=TBS
- 8=Fuji TV
- 10=TV Asahi
- 12=TV Tokyo
- N1=NHK1/BS7
- N2=NHK2/BS11
- Nhi=NHK hivision
- BSA=BS Asahi
- BSN=BS NTV
- BST=BS TBS
- BSJ=BS Japan
- BSF=BS Fuji TV
- BSN=BS NTV
- BSE= BS Eleven
- T= TwellV
- W=Wowow
- (M)=Movie
- (R)=Rerun
- (D)=Delayed telecast
The next time you start feeling sorry for yourself about the economic downturn—stop, reflect and be grateful that at least you’re not trying to support a family of 16. This week, TV Tokyo airs its fourth installment of Funto Nikki, a documentary special on the Watazus, a Shimane family struggling to provide for their two boys and 12 girls. The special features the graduations, college tuition bills and other trials that have impacted their lives from fall 2009 through the present day—including the addition of grandma to the household.
Airs Wednesday, March 24 at 7pm on TV Tokyo, channel 12.