Otaku International

Hulu.com adds an anime channel. It currently offers Mushi-Shi, Naruto and Death Note. Hulu promises that it will add more anime like Bleach, Basilisk, Black Blood Brothers, School Rumble, and more. The videos are of high quality and interspersed with 10-second commercials. That’s right, there are now five anime shows on Hulu. You can get classics like Speed Racer and Astro Boy, as well as more modern series like Naruto, Mushi-shi and Death Note. Even better, both Death Note and Naruto remain in their unspoiled, un-dubbed glory.

Like Hulu, Joost.com also offers streaming anime from Viz.

News Via: Japanator

For any Otaku or plain old Anime watcher out there, I am sure you have heard the term “Moe” countless times, but what exactly is Moe? It’s one of the most important words in Otaku culture today. Moe is used to describe anything from a really cute girl, a situation. Now for starters I have a pretty decent generic answer from answers.com that states moe is:

“Moe”. pronounced “mo-eh”/ literally ‘budding’, as with a plant) is a Japanese slang word originally referring to fetish for or love for characters in video games or anime and manga. For example, 眼鏡っ娘萌え, meganekko-moe, “glasses-girl moe”, describes a person who is attracted to fictional characters with eyeglasses. Since then, the term has come to be used as a general term for a hobby, mania or fetish (non-sexual) — 鉄道萌え, tetsudou-moe, “train moe”, is simply a passionate interest in trains. A moekko is a character who could be considered stereotypically attractive — youthful and cute.

Now that may be true to an extent but Moe has broadened a bit more in our usage today.

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Yes we all know that many Otakus out there already have their own unique fashion known as Cosplay, however, this is only used during those special occasions where donning a weird costume is accepted. You can’t exactly walk down the street dressed like a Shinigami without being looked at as a weirdo. What I am talking about is plain old fashion with the Anime touch and flare, these are acceptable even on our normal everyday errands.

Let us begin with some apparel from the Soul Eater collection:

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For all of those who remember Toonami for what it was, something that provided us with Anime content for our growing desires. For those who can remember the great shows aired there such as Gundam Wing, DBZ, Outlaw Star, and etc; will surely miss it. Cartoon Network has sadly broke the news that as of today, the 20th of September, Toonami will end all scheduled programming, and die. As the years went by, many of you may have noticed that Toonami was being less and less appreciated, such as being pushed onto the midnight Saturday lineup. And it was also sad that they started to have less and less true Anime content that we all enjoyed; it degenerated to the point of practically being a Naruto only lineup. However, let us remember it for what it was, a show that use to bring us great Anime content when no where else did. You will be missed Toonami!

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It’s that time again, that is correct my good friends. The Weekly Idol Update, and this week we have the beautiful Nao Nagasawa!! Don’t going enjoying these pictures too much now. *wink wink*

Nao Nagasawa (長澤 奈央, Nagasawa Nao?, born January 5, 1984) is a Japanese actress, singer and model. She is currently active as a model and also as one of the leaders of girl’sBOX activities along with Kayo Aiko and DRM (formerly dream) member Hasebe Yu. The three have formed a special pop group known as Kingyo in July 2007. She has since released a best album and girlsBOX-related album in March 2008.

Like always, no nudity but it is considered sensitive material and therefore should be considered NSFW.

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As you all are well aware, the current Anime boom is a great phenomena here in America and not to mention many other parts of the world. Since the early 1990’s, we have had a steady increase in both Anime availability and fanbase due to the rise of the internet. Back in the day, it was pretty hard to find a lot of Anime titles let alone finding ones with subtitles for us Non-Japanese speaking individuals. However with the rise of the internet as well as various fansubbing groups, we managed to overcome this problem and thus began the rise of the Anime (Otaku Culture) Boom here in the US (worldwide actually). However, the internet may have helped increase the Anime fanbase, it may have also caused some problems as well. The American Anime industry isn’t exactly at its best, of course it also no where near that of the Japanese industry (Japanese Anime fans have been around since the early 70s). So what can we do to save the American Anime Industry?

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Looks like Microsoft’s strategy to cut prices on the Xbox 360 is already paying off in Japan, with Famitsu reporting that the 360 has outsold the Wii for the week of September 8-14.

According to the figures, the 360 sold 28,681 units to the Wii’s 27,057. Keep in mind that the price cuts were introduced on September 11.

Walking through most game stores in Japan this week, you can definitely tell that retailers are anticipating a larger demand for the third-place console.

News Via: Wired