Sabtu, 30 April 2011

Korean Idols Have Cartoon Character Doppelgangers?

Korean Idols Have Cartoon Character Doppelgangers?



Korean idols' resemblances to popular cartoon characters became a topic in various web portal sites. Which of your favorite idols have a cartoon character doppelganger?

On an online community bulletin, a collage of photos titled "Character Resembling Idol" was uploaded and illustrated many popular cartoon characters of Korean and North American shows compared next to idols!
Idols in the photos include 2PM's Wooyoung, 2NE1's Minzy, Big Bang's Daesung and Taeyang, BEAST's Yo Seob and many others.
The most popular reactions were of Wooyoung and KT's baby robot 'Kibot' as well as SNSD's Jessica's resemblance to 'El Captain'.
In addition, Daesung as 'ugly doll', Minzy as 'Strawberry', Yo Seob's 'Pocket Monster', SHINee's Minho as 'Six Tail Fox' and Taeyang as 'Mashimaro' were popular for being the most accurate for facial features!
Netizens commented, "This is really spot on", "Daebak ~~!!" or "They really look like this kk"
Which idols were the most accurate to their cartoon? 
http://www.gokpop.com/i1/news/2/7322-w8jeo3cx5b.jpg 

Ayumi Hamasaki Sets Oricon Record

Ayumi Hamasaki Sets Oricon Record


Ayumi Hamasaki sets a new record as she becomes the first artist to have 4 albums on the Oricon top 10 albums chart at the same time.
Ayum Hamasaki, one of Japans most successful and influential artists, has been setting records all throughout her musical career. Ayumi's record breaking career has reached another milestone. The artist has become the 1st artist to ever have 4 albums in Oricon's top 10 album sales ranking.
With the simultaneous release of her 4 new remix albums, it is no surprise that all of them have charted well. "ayu-mi-x 7 presents ayu-ro mix 4", "ayu-mi-x 7-version Acoustic Orchestra-", "ayu-mi-x 7 presents ayu trance 4", "ayu-mi-x 7-version HOUSE-" came in at numbers 3, 4, 5 and 6 respectively. Each album sold around 14,000 copies. "ayumi hamasaki Rock'n'Roll Circus Tour FINAL 〜7days Special〜" and "A 50 SINGLES 〜LIVE SELECTION〜", Ayumi's new DVDs, also charted strongly, taking the number 1 and 2 spots respectively. 

Royal newly-weds celebrate at Buckingham Palace

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have celebrated their marriage with dinner and dancing at Buckingham Palace, along with about 300 friends and family.


Prince and Princess William of Wales
The newly-weds travelled from Clarence House to Buckingham Palace together

The bride wore a white evening gown by Sarah Burton, who created her wedding dress, to the event.
The couple stayed at the palace after the reception, which lasted into the early hours.
It is thought they may depart for their honeymoon later, though details of their plans have not been made public.
The reception, hosted by the Prince of Wales, is believed to have featured Prince Harry's best man speech and Michael Middleton's father of the bride address.
A St James's Palace spokesman said the new duchess had donned a white angora bolero cardigan over her white satin gazar dress, which featured a circle skirt and diamante embroidered detail round the waist.
Her sister Pippa changed for the evening reception into a long emerald green sleeveless dress with a jewelled embellishment on the front and a plunging neckline.


Their mother, Mrs Middleton, wore a black capped sleeve dress, cut low at the front and back, with a tiered skirt.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh did not attend, having left for a private weekend away.
Clarence House spokesperson Paddy Harverson told the BBC he believed the duke and duchess could return to a relatively private life in Anglesey, despite the wedding spectacle.
Mr Harverson said: "I think it is because it'll be about striking the balance between their public lives...
"But the most important thing to remember is that he's not heir to the throne, he's second in line, and he's not a full-time royal, he's a full-time pilot working a normal job for the RAF search and rescue.
"And so he will be doing that most of the time and she, as his wife, will be with him, so in that sense their natural home, their natural place will be up in Wales. And I think people will understand that."
'Party mad'
Meanwhile, a spokesman for President Obama said that the White House wished the newly-weds "a lifetime of happiness together".
"The United States has no closer friend in the world than the United Kingdom," he added.
"On this occasion, the American people extend heartfelt congratulations to the peoples of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth and share in their hopes for a bright future for the royal couple."
The State Rooms, including the grand ballroom, were used for the reception.
The ballroom, measuring over 36 metres in length and 18 metres in width, is the largest of the 775 rooms in the palace.
It was added in the 1850s at the request of Queen Victoria and opened in 1856 with a ball to celebrate the end of the Crimean War - a war in which the previous holder of Prince William's new title, the 2nd Duke of Cambridge, served.
On Friday, pubs were allowed to remain open for an additional two hours beyond the conventional closing time; they will be granted the same flexibility on Saturday.
Millions of people across the UK marked the royal wedding with street parties, picnics and other festivities.
But one party in Glasgow's Kelvingrove Park resulted in 21 arrests as police attempted to disperse thousands of revellers.
The organisers described themselves as "royalist/party mad", but Glasgow City Council had urged people not to attend their "unsafe and unofficial" party.
One police officer was injured and several police vans had their windows smashed in clashes attributed by Ch Supt Bernard Higgins to "completely unacceptable" levels of drunkenness.
Source: 


Death Note Joins Netflix

Death Note Joins Netflix


Users of Netflix are in for a surprise of the supernatural and suspenseful kind. VIZ Media will be premiering the whole series of Death Note in its uncut and subtitled form on Netflix.
The thriller series will be available to watch instantly for subscribers in the U.S. starting today.
37 episodes long and animated by Madhouse, Death Note was written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. Light Yagami is Japan's star student, but he becomes bored with his life and the way the world works. However when he finds a Death Note, a notebook that can kill the person whose name is written in it, he comes across the book's former owner Ryuk who allows him to keep it. Realizing his purpose, Light uses the notebook to rid the world of criminals. But it's only a matter of time when L, the world's greatest detective, chases him down. With so much at stake, what is Light willing to sacrifice in order to achieve his goals?
Currently, other VIZ Media titles that fans can get from Netflix are Bleach, Naruto and InuYasha.

Kamis, 28 April 2011

Support Japan With Designing T-Shirts

Support Japan With Designing T-Shirts

Recently vlogger Hiroko from Hirokochannel uploaded a video in which she announced a t-shirt design contest, the profit made from these t-shirts will go to buy necessary things for the Tohoku disaster victims and to make new t-shirts to be sold on her website. To find out the details regarding this contest continue to read on...
The deadline in which the t-shirt designs needs to be in are on May 7th, 2011, and the mail to send the design to is: hirokochannel.contest@gmail.com, the file needs to be in Jpeg format or in IL data.
A total of three winners will be picked from these designs, the winning designs will all be announced in one of her videos.
All the profit will go to buy things that is needed in Tohoku and to make new t-shirts to be sold. The design doesn't have to be related to the disaster either.
Check out her post about the t-shirt design contest here

X Japan 2011 World Tour Goes to South America



Long-time metal band X Japan has just extended their World Tour into South America!
X Japan leader YOSHIKI announced via Twitter that the band will be heading to MexicoPeruChile, and Argentina this September as part of their 2011 World Tour. The band will kick off the tour in Europe on June 28th, move to Japan for the Summer Sonic Festival, then fly half way across the world to rock out in South America.
.
2011 WORLD TOUR
Jun 28 ........Shepards Bush Empire................London, UK [SOLD OUT]
Jul 1........... Zenith .................................... Paris, France [Ticket Info]
Jul 2 .......... Tivoli ..................................... Utrecht, Netherlands [Ticket Info]
Jul 4........... Columbianhalle.........................Berlin, Germany [Ticket Info]
Aug 13 ........Summer Sonic Festival ..............Osaka, Japan [Ticket Info]
Aug 14 ........Summer Sonic Festival ..............Tokyo, Japan [Ticket Info]
Sept 9 ........ Teatro Caupolican ................... Santiago, Chile
Sept 11...%.. VENUE TBA.............................. São Paulo, Brazil
Sept 14.........El Teatro................................ Buenos Aires, Argentina
Sept 16.........Scencia.................................. Lima, Peru
Sept 18.........Circo Volador.......................... Mexico City, Mexico
Ticket information should be posted on X Japan's official website soon. 


Oricon reveals Weekly Comic Chart for May 2nd



It’s that time of the week again! We’ve got the results for the Oricon Weekly Comic Chart for May 2nd.
Check it out below!
—–
1. “NARUTO”, the 55th volume – Kishimoto Masashi : (650,587)
2. “BLEACH”, the 49th volume – Tite Kubo : (425,882)
3. “GANTZ”, the 31st volume – Oku Hiroya : (204,938)
4. “GIANT KILLING”, the 19th volume – Tsujitomo/Tsunamoto Masaya : (133,264)
5. “FAIRY TAIL”, the 26th volume – Mashima Hiro : (132,359)
(Check the rest of the ranking here.)
—–

YouTube founders buy Delicious from Yahoo


Screengrab of Delicious homepage, Delicious
The founders of video-sharing site YouTube have bought bookmarking service Delicious from Yahoo.
Chad Hurley and Steve Chen will use Delicious as a key part of their next net venture called Avos.
The startup is thought to be based around tools that help people get to grips with the vast amount of information generated by web sites and services.
How much the pair paid to acquire Delicious has not been revealed.

Data deluge
Delicious describes itself as a social bookmarking system in which members flag and tag sites, articles and media they find interesting. These can then be shared with other Delicious users.
Its name derives from its desire to find the "tastiest" bookmarks on the web.
Delicious was acquired in 2005 by Yahoo and in late 2010 the web giant decided to sell it off or close it down if no buyer came forward.
Now Mr Hurley and Mr Chen have acquired Delicious to form part of the technology underpinning their new firm Avos.
Details about Avos and what it will do are scant. A statement from Chad Hurley following the Delicious acquisition said the company will aim to help people manage the information gushing from the web services they use.
"We see a tremendous opportunity to simplify the way users save and share content they discover anywhere on the web," Mr Hurley said.
The pair sold YouTube to Google in 2006 for $1.76bn (£1.06bn). Steve Chen left YouTube in 2008 and Mr Hurley quit working for Google in late 2010.
Delicious will continue in its current form until July 2011. Users are being asked to login to the service and agree to let Yahoo move their account to the new owners.

Rabu, 27 April 2011

SHINee's Japanese Debut

SHINee is ready to debut in Japan with their Japanese version of "Replay" on 22nd of June. Official photos have been released showing pictures of them with new hairstyles & hypster-styled clothing! Click on for more info...

SHINee's Japanese Debut

If you are in London, you can check them out at Abbey Road Studios as, they'll be performing their Japanese debut single on the day of the release.
As for the single release, there'll be two versions - limited edition & regular edition
Limited Edition: include a CD, DVD, a 68 page photobook, and one random trading card (there are a total of 6). It costs 2,500 yen, which comes out to be around $30 USD.
CD:
1. Replay
2. Hello
3. Replay [Korean ver.]
4. Hello [Korean ver.]
DVD:
● Replay Music Video
● Replay Teaser
● Replay Dance Music Video
Regular Edition: include a CD, a DVD, a 44 page booklet, and a postcard that is included for the “First Press” edition singles. This version costs 1,500 yen, which is around $19 USD.
CD:
1. Replay
2. Hello
DVD:
● Replay Music Video
● Replay Teaser
● Replay Jacket Shooting Sketch
● Replay Music Video Shooting Sketch 

L'Arc 20th Anniversary Tickets Still Available for Overseas Fans

Overseas L’Arc~en~Ciel fans can breathe a little easier. Tickets for their “20th L’Anniversary Live” are still available.

Popular rock band L’Arc~en~Ciel will celebrate 20 years as a band by holding a special 20th L’Anniversary Live. Domestic tickets for this two day concert went on sale April 23rd, and all 90,000 of them sold out in literally an instant. However, tickets for overseas fans have been made available.
Tickets can now be purchased for ¥9,000 (€74 / $109 USD) through NEXUS.
The concerts will take place at Ajinomoto Stadium in Chofu City, Tokyo on May 28th and 29th. Doors will open at 15:00, and the show will begin at 17:00. The first day’s performances will focus on songs released from their first albumDUNE, 1993, to their fifth album HEART, released in 1998. The second day will include songs from the simultaneously released albums ark and ray from 1999 up until their latest album KISS, released in 2007.
All proceeds from this 2 day event will be donated to relief efforts in areas devastated by the March 11th Tohoku earthquake. 

Britain's Got Talent helps Fast Car speed into chart

Tracy Chapman's Fast Car has entered the UK chart at four, 23 years after its initial release, thanks to the Britain's Got Talent effect.



Michael Collings on Britain's Got Talent
Michael Collings, a contestant on the ITV1 show, performed an acoustic version of the song and thousands of viewers later downloaded the original.
Meanwhile, Adele's 21 has reclaimed its UK number one album spot from Foo Fighters after one week off the top.
LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem is the number one single for a second week.
It beat competition from rapper Wretch 32's Unorthodox which was a new entry at number two.
On last week's Britain's Got Talent, viewers watched judge Amanda Holden compare Collings, dressed in a hooded top and jogging bottoms, to previous contestant Susan Boyle.
Chapman's Fast Car was previously a number five hit in June 1988. It was the biggest UK chart hit for the American singer-songwriter who had herself gained overnight success due to TV exposure - the song raced up the chart on both sides of the Atlantic after she performed it at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert at Wembley Stadium that summer.
There were other new entries in the singles chart for Beyonce, at number 18 with Run the World (Girls) and Starboy Nathan, at 23 with Diamonds.
Tinie Tempah went straight into the chart at number 33 with Simply Unstoppable while Pitbull's Give Me Everything was a new entry at 35.
Last week, Dave Grohl's band Foo Fighters ended Adele's record-breaking 11-week run at the top of the album chart with their new release Wasting Light.
This week, it dropped to number two while Adele's debut album 19 remained at number three.
New entries included Chipmunk's Transition, at 10, and The Fall by Gorillaz, at 12.
BBC Sound of 2011 finalist Jamie Woon's debut album Mirrorwriting was a new entry at number 15.

Senin, 25 April 2011

Japan Box Office Report – April 23rd/24th

GANTZ PERFECT ANSWER“, starring Ninomiya Kazunari and Matsuyama Kenichi, managed to conquer the throne this weekend.
It opened at 375 screens and mobilized a total of 423,675 people, thus the box office revenue came out to 551,610,800 Yen (6.72 million USD), which means that it had an even better start than the first “GANTZ” movie.
While the success of “GANTZ” might not be that surprising, there was a movie that surprised everyone by making its way into the top 10. “Hankyu Densha“, starring Nakatani Miki, Toda Erika, and Mina Mikaho, only opened on 23 screens in the Kansai region this weekend, yet it managed to mobilize more than 44,000 people, which resulted in a revenue of more than 58 million Yen (700,000 USD). On April 29th, it is going to have its nationwide opening day, and that should be able to keep it inside the top 10 for a at least another weekend.
The movie-adaption of Miura Shion’s award-winning novel “Mahoro Ekimae Tada Benriken“, starring Eita and Matsuda Ryuhei, also opened this weekend, and fortunately it barely managed to secure a spot within the top 10.
Don’t forget to check out the trailers of the Japanese movies that opened this weekend below the ranking!
-
Rank/LastTitleWeeks
01 (00)GANTZ PERFECT ANSWER01
02 (01)Detective Conan: Quarter of Silence 02
03 (02)Crayon Shin-chan:
The Storm Called – Operation Golden Spy
02
04 (03)Gulliver’s Travels02
05 (04)OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let’s Go Kamen Riders04
06 (05)SP: The Motion Picture The Final Episode~07
07 (00)Hankyu Densha01
08 (11)The King’s Speech09
09 (06)Tangled07
10 (00)Mahoro Ekimae Tada Benriken 01

Source: tokyohive.com

Results JpopAsia Awards!!

Results JpopAsia Awards!!


We've got the long awaited results for the JpopAsia Music Awards 2010!! Check out if your favorite artist you have been voting for won.

We have processed more than half a million votes from all international Asian music fans since the nominations started on 7th March. It was our first year to launch an awards of this scale and it was awesome! Let's make it even more awesome next JIMA in December 2011!!

For now enjoy the results!! Check it out!

Source: jpopasia.com

CLAMP's Gate 7 to Come to America

CLAMP's Gate 7 to Come to America

Dark Horse Comics has licensed CLAMP's newest manga, Gate 7, and will be releasing the series this summer according to CLAMP's official site.
The manga will also be be available in South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, France, Brazil Germany and Spain this summer.

Originally running as a one-shot in Jump Square this past fall, the series launched in the same magazine this past February. CLAMP's newest fantasy series features Chikahito Takamoto, a young man who visits a shrine during his trip to Kyoko. Once he gets to the shrine he meets Hana, Sakura and Tachibana, three people who have mysterious powers in a plane between the conscious, the waking world and the subconscious state of sleep. 


Source: jpopasia.com

Gantz Sequel Surpasses First Movie


Gantz Sequel Surpasses First Movie

"Gantz: Perfect Answer" has surpassed the success of the first Gantz movie at its opening day on April 23rd. Bigger sales and larger crowds have been reported.

Two days ago, April 23rd, the sequel of the first Gantz live-action movie "Gantz: Perfect Answer" has opened in theatres. 
Compared to the first movie, which successfully earned about 3.4 billion yen at its first day, the second one has recorded more than 4 billion yen.

Moreover it's been reported that the most people who attended the opening day event in Tokyo were women; mothers with daughters or girl friend groups in their teens to 40s.
The Gantz movies star Arashi's Ninomiya Kazunari and Matsuyama Kenichi and are based on the popular manga series of the same name.

Source: jpopasia.com