 Greetings from J-ListMonday, February 8, 2010 This weekend was the opening of The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, and since I'm one of the few people in the world who can say it's his job to watch anime, I went to check it out. It was excellent, with many twists and turns that Haruhi fans will surely enjoy. I'm a big fan of hardcore science fiction stories, and have read just about every book about time travel ever written, from Guns of the South to The Time Ships to Time After Time and even To Say Nothing of the Dog. It struck me while watching the Haruhi film that Western-style stories about time travel (or time dilation in space) are relatively rare, and the anime series that do deal with these themes have clear Western inspirations. In the case of Haruhi, many of the "future Mikuru" ideas are lifted from the Hyperion books by Dan Simmons (this is actually the book Yuki gives to Kyon in episode 3), and the Haruhi-as-Godhead story harkens back to the classic Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life." Gunbuster is essentially an homage to the awesome SF books Ender's Game and The Forever War, with skimpy uniforms added for fan service. When Japanese do create "timeslip" stories, they tend to be simpler, about a character who goes back in time to buy a red straw hat for his future girlfriend, or the well-trodden genre of modern Japanese person going back to Japan's "Warring States" historical period. Western time travel stories are about Deloreans man's mastery of technology and looking at society through different lenses, while Japanese time travel tends to be a device to put dramatic pressure on different characters.  
Anime features many "false" dialects that no one actually speaks; Haruhi Suzumiya is back in a new movie. Like other languages, Japanese comes in various dialects. Some of these are regional, like "standard" Tokyo speech or the more colorful Osaka-ben (Osaka dialect), while other speech patterns are based on sex, as illustrated by different first and second pronouns for men and women. One interesting aspect of the language is the existence of "fake" dialects which show up in anime or manga but which are never used naturally by any real Japanese person, ever. One of these is ojosama speech, a special way that pampered rich girls like Cerina Iori Flameheart from Ladies Versus Butlers speak to indicate that they're well-bred. Instead of saying yoroshiku, a casual way of saying "Nice to meet you," they'll use the more refined-sounding yoroshiku-teyo, which is no more authentic than a sign advertising Ye Olde Bookshoppe. Then there's the rough "old man" speech used by almost every elderly male character ever animated, in which the phrase so da ("that is so") always changes to so ja. (Aside: in Japanese versions of Star Wars, Yoda speaks this standard form of "old man" speech, which is quite a shame considering how much Yoda's unique dialect to his character adds.) Yet another example of a stylized dialect of Japanese in anime is the "kid speech" of characters like Rika from Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, who adds nano desu to any sentence, making her sound more feminine and cute. Learning Japanese through anime is a fun way to expose yourself to new vocabulary, but it's important to realize that the medium does have its limitations.    
J-List is loaded with fun products for Haruhi fans. First, we've got several outstanding T-shirts, like our popular "No Normal Humans" T-shirt that has gorgeous kanji, or the popular "I Would Die for Haruhi" shirt design. Churuya-san, a cute-ified version of Tsuruya from the series, is another popular shirt (nyoro~n). We love the detailed Haruhi Figma toys made by Max Factory, and we have all the best figures on the site for you to browse. Finally, I can't help but recommend the excellent magazines that are loaded with free stuff, like Nyan Type or Megami Magazine, available by revolving month-to-month subscription from J-List.
Today's New Items
|  Nyan Type vol. 5 Vol.5 of the instantly popular Nyan Type, the brand new magazine dedicated to super-cute anime and bishoujo characters, is here. Great for fans of Megumi Magazine, since it's loaded with free posters. View Product |  Dengeki Daioh Feb 2010 Then enjoy another issue of the popular Dengeki Daioh ("Electric Shock Great King"), featuring some of the best manga in Japan, from Shakugan no Shana to Yotsubato to Toradora and more. Free "Index" keychain in this issue! View Product |  Girls Graph (Girl, Illustrated) Pie International publishing presents an amazing compendium of bishoujo "moe" art, featuring dozens of Japan's highest profile creators. Not only is every page of this heaven for the 2D art fan, the book is entirely in English! View Product |  Oyari Ashito Chronicle Master of Bishoujo character design Oyari Ashito is back with a limited edition full color artbook featuring 100+ gorgeous art pieces from his previous works ranging from the years 1997-2009. Love the "sad eyes" in his characters. View Product |  Bee Kawaii earphone ~ Blue We've got a new color of the cute standard earphones shaped like little bees, which work with your standard music players, computers and iPhone. They're kawaii and also very affordably priced. View Product |  NARUTO DX Evolution Pencil Case If you haven't used one of the deluxe pencil cases from Japan, you don't know what you're missing. With many compartments and ways to organize all your writing instruments, these pencil cases make learning tons of fun for Naruto fans. View Product |  Restocked Games for Sony PSP I am happy to see the popularity of the Sony PSP as a platform for dating-sim games, and today we're posting fresh stock of L no Kisetsu ~ Double Pocket and Like Life Every Hour, two excellent visual novels for you. View Product | |  Haruhi Figmas Restocked See fresh stock of one of the most popular figures we've ever carried. We have Haruhi, Mikuru and Yuki all restocked, and ready for any pose you want them to make. View Product |  'No Normal Humans' T-Shirt Do you hate normal humans? Would you prefer to hang around with espers, time-travelers and aliens? If so, then we recommend our popular original anime T-shirt, which has been one of our best sellers in recent months. Designed by Rios, the guy who made that incredible Haruhi Kinetic Animation YouTube video (click the link to view it). View Product | |  J-List Reserve Subscription System If you're in the market for a really excellent monthly manga, we recommend Shonen Ace, a massively thick manga that features just about every red-hot story you want to read, from Haruhi Suzumiya to Macross Frontier Keroro Gunso and more. Comes with cool figures and other stuff each issue. View Product |  Awesome Cosplay Eye Patch Restocked J-List loves cosplay, and wants to help everyone feel the joy of becoming your favorite anime character, just like I did when I made a Totoro costume for San Diego Comicon 1987. (I was a bit ahead of my time.) Today we've restocked those awesome eye patches for anime cosplay. View Product |  Authentic 'Socks Glue' From Japan Also, for all those who love "Zettai Ryoiki," which is the space between the top of the a girl's over-knee socks and where her skirt begins, we've restocked the Japanese "socks glue." Also goes great with "loose socks." View Product |  New Snacks from Japan Awesome new snacks from Japan: Meiji "Chopan" chocolate treats in two new flavors for Spring, plus Meiji Lychee and Grapefruit gummy and a fun Doraemon snack treat. View Product | |  Lucky Cat Canned Bread ~ Green Tea Our Akihabara Bread-in-a-Can is a hit, as many customers pick up this wacky treat which you can usually only find in Akiba. Today see fresh stock of the Lucky Cat themed bread that's Green Tea flavor. View Product |  Rice Burger Maker ~ Gyutto Pon Instead of making a hamburger for dinner, why not try your hand at a rice burger, using onigiri-style flat pieces of rice instead of bread? It's delicious, and easy to make with this handy tool. View Product |  Chirashi Sushi Style Round Bento Box One of our favorite dishes is chirashi-zushi, literally a "tossed salad" of sushi fish over vinagered rice that's just delicious. Here's a new bento box that would be perfect for this, or for any lunch with foods you want to keep separate. View Product |  Other Restocked Bento Boxes Then enjoy fresh stock of the smash hit DX Simple men's Bento, which is elegantly designed, large enough for any appetite, and non-kawaii. Also see the colorful Bento Special Gift Set restocked. View Product |  Hello Kitty & Cinnamoroll Bento Items Then see fresh stock of several popular Sanrio bento items today, including the basic Hello Kitty Face Bento Box, one of our most popular lunch boxes ever, plus the matching Cinnamoroll Bento Box. View Product | |  Fun Onigiri Shapers Also: the extremely fun ball-type onigiri maker that you can use to make perfectly round Japanese rice balls, great for creating that Death Star Onigiri you've always wanted. View Product |  Nyan Nyan Nyanko Artbook What's the cutest thing you can do with cats? Turn them into illustrations of food, which is what the San-X company has done with their popular Nyan Nyan Nyanko character series. The popular book has been restocked. View Product |  Studio Ghibli 2010 Schedule Books Then: fun for Studio Ghibli fans, in the form of the last-ever stock of the popular 2010 schedule books for Totoro, Ponyo and Kiki's Delivery Service. They're frankly the most awesome things you've ever held in your hand, and awesome to use all year long. View Product | |  Bilingual Study Books For anyone studying Japan's language or culture, we've restocked the excellent series by JTB, including A Look Into Japan and Living Japanese Style. View Product | | |  Restocked Traditional Items Then see some random restocked traditional items, including a miniature Jitte and Katana Display Set, Lucky Cat for bringing good luck, "Maiko" style comb for ladies, Lucky Frog netsuke phone strap, and a very wacky way to clean your ears, Japanese style. View Product | | | | |  Fun Stationery Items Then see fresh stock of the Naruto Coloring Book that our customers love, more Japanese pens including those pens with straps so you can attach them to things, plus the "Faces Stamp" for expressing your emotions anywhere. View Product |  Restocked Japanese Snacks Finally, we've restocked some awesome snack foods from Japan, including Fujiya Heart Chocolate for Valentine's Day, Xylish Hyper Cool Caffeine Gum, Sugamo Daifuku Mochi, Yamayoshi Wasa-Beef Potato Chips, and the fun Lucky Star gift cakes and cookies. View Product |
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