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PKK Web Roundup: 06/26/09

ANIME

• Ouran High Host Club is a diamond in a pile of anime coal. It's also available subtitled, legally, for free on YouTube.

Tamaki bravely decides to drink commoner coffee.

MANGA

• TangognaT tells you where to get CMX manga for 37-40% off. I recommend Emma, Swan, Kiichi & the Magic Books, or Astral Project for starters.

• Manga to read: Dinosaur Hour, a manga that pairs science with the humorous notion that "the dinosaurs died out because they were just too stupid to live". Also, all of Deb Aoki's grown-up manga recommendations.

DRAMAS/TV

• Joo Ji Hoon (Goong, Antique) gets six months in jail for using ecstasy & ketamine.

• Korean girl group SNSD ("Gee") has a new reality show called Hello Baby, where the group babysits a 9-month-old child for a day. I'd love to see a similar show with a boy band (not necessarily Korean--I wouldn't mind seeing the Jonas Brothers change poopy diapers & get barfed on) and a higher ratio of babies.

Super Junior's Eunhyuk & Leeteuk showed us how much fun such a show might be when Alex tricked them into babysitting the quadruplets (part 1 & part 2). In fact SuJu members would be perfect, as they are many & hilarious. Pretty please, television gods?

Imagine the cuteness!

• Dangermousie found subtitles for 2003's Punch, which starred Shin Mina & Joo Jin Mo. It's a classic drama fronted by two popular stars, so I'm glad somebody made a subtitled version (*frowns in SBS' general direction*).

I've got more links to share & discuss (DMP's Web-A-Thon program, manga on eReaders vs the iPhone, impressions of the first 2 episodes of Partner, etc.), but first--bed! 

PKK Web Roundup: 06/12/09

I'm still working on longer posts, and getting distracted by shiny objects and food. Some links in the meantime (apologies for the Twitter overlap):

 MANGA

• Interesting article on the Chinese manga industry & government censorship (via @PreCur/Precocious Curmudgeon)

• Right Stuf has a 33% off sale on all Yen Press titles. Yen Press is one of my favorite manga imprints for its consistently high quality content & production values; for advice on what to buy, see There It Is, Plain as Daylight.

• Manga I want to read (links to reviews): Detroit Metal City (one, two, three, movie poster at right), Fire Investigator Nanase (one, two), and Nabari no Ou (one, two).

• I linked to it in my last post, but in case you missed it: John Jakala provides incontrovertible proof of Tokyopop's quality drop.

DRAMAS

• Lee Dong-wook's character in upcoming drama Partner is apparently arrogant & a little slutty (right). Which means now I MUST SEE IT.

• Another must-see: Dramabeans loved the first episode of Triple, the new ice-skating drama by Coffee Prince PD Lee Yoon-jung.

• Finally, Right Stuf has a rare 35% off sale on YA Entertainment's K-drama box sets. You can preview some series at Dramafever or Crunchyroll; I also recommend Hotelier, My Girl, Damo, & Sandglass.

ALSO

• Kate Dacey has described my idea of bookseller/buyer heaven: a real New England bookstore with a) tons of books, some out-of-print, all for 20-80% off and b) no coffee shop or overstuffed chairs. I want to work there *sniff*.

PKK Web Roundup: 06/02/09

OSAMU TEZUKA

• Largehearted Boy & his wife (who blogs at Fingertips) have a double giveaway: all 8 volumes of Tezuka's Buddha (deadline June 5), and volumes 1 & 3 of Black Jack (deadline June 3) (via @debaoki).

• DMP has put up an online preview of Tezuka's Swallowing the Earth (also via @debaoki).

MOVIES

• Hollywood may do a Death Note movie (via Manga Blog).

ANIME

• First (free, online, subbed) simulcast of One Piece indefinitely postponed after someone hacked Funimation's servers & posted the latest episode online. WTF, people?

P.S. Sorry for so many link posts lately: I'm working on a bunch of longer posts, but can't seem to finish any of them. Frustrating!

PKK Web Roundup: 05/30/09

MANGA

• I had no idea how vibrant the manga Twitter community was until I signed up for an account 3 weeks ago. Seriously, if you like manga/anime/etc., get a Twitter account. If you need help getting started, Lori Henderson has a great manga Twittering guide; for more general advice, try Everyday Tweet.

• Hulk manga (via @mykx)!

MOVIES

• Antique will play at the New York Asian Film Festival (via @debaoki). Very happy to hear it, considering Joo Ji Hoon's troubles.

DRAMA

• Otomen, a shojo manga about a seemingly macho guy who loves girly things, will be made into a live action drama (via @passivesoul).

• Good debate about streaming Japanese drama subs over at Yonasu. I just wish Japanese companies would embrace legal subs like Korean TV companies have (previously). 

NEWS/ISSUES

• Huffington Post has a good "for dummies" article on former President Roh Moo-hyun, who committed suicide in the wake of corruption charges (charges he denied, and which came from a bribery investigation led by his political opponents).

• Interesting Jezebel article (& comments!) on a female "hipster grifter" who succeeded partly because of the so-called "loathsome hipster Asian fetish."

FOOD

• Lisa of Tokyomango asks why don't Americans drink coffee in a can? My vote goes to our lack of hot vending machines, and the relative lack of vending machines here, period.

• Finally, I'm working on a series of snack-related posts. One post will be on chirimen-jako, or dried baby anchovies; I kept seeing them in cookbooks & T.V. shows and thus began to covet them. Turns out chirimen-jako have a dry, chewy texture & mildly salty taste (as well as lots of calcium). You serve them on top of rice or shredded daikon radish with a dash of soy sauce. I know they look scary (mmm, eyeballs!), but they're delicious:

PKK Web Roundup: 05/20/09

More bits and bobs as I catch up:

DRAMAS

• While I'd rather read Dramabeans' intro to The Sons of Sol Pharmacy House than watch the whole series (it's 50 episodes), it looks fun. Plus, as Sarah noted, it's one of those rare dramas that focuses on marrying off men. Ah, schadenfreude.

MANGA

• Shojo Beat magazine will cease publication after the July 2009 issue. While I love the Shojo Beat imprint line, I never bought the magazine. I prefer to buy volumes, and many of my favorite series (Skip Beat, High School Debut) weren't serialized. 

I'm also reminded of a quote from Matt Thorn's blog, about Japanese female manga readers:

"younger women readers report reading manga books far more than manga magazines but by the time they reach their forties, there’s not much difference between reported readership of manga books and magazines."

Here are Thorn's original articles (link 1, link 2); the articles are full of lovely graphs & commentary, so please click over. I've always wondered why Shojo Beat underperformed next to Shonen Jump, and that might explain it.

::via Kuriousity, confirmed by Manga Blog & others.

MUSIC

• I'm not crazy about 2NE1's debut single "Fire." Both the song and the official video are overworked & hyper. That said, I love that 2NE1 isn't playing the cutesy/sexy angle like every other Korean girl group. The individual members seem talented and I particularly like group leader CL (so sassy).

FUNNY/WEIRD

• Now that I have seen Bakune Young, I cannot unsee it. Thanks for that, Kurutta.

• I third David Welsh's fascination with Grandpa Danger. 

• Finally, here's another Japanese TV clip, where a man gets ready for work (dresses, makes coffee & breakfast, etc.) in less than five minutes.

PKK Web Roundup: 05/06/09

MOVIES

• Bong Joon-Ho's new film Mother comes out May 28th. The film stars Kim Hye-Ja (Goong, Mom's Dead Upset) as a mother trying to clear her intellectually disabled son (Won Bin, Taegukgi) of murder charges.

• Hit trendy drama Coffee Prince is being made into a movie (!).

DRAMAS

• Speedy Scandal (previously) will be turned into a TV drama. 

• Story of a Man looks amazing.

• Yoo Eun Hye will make her small screen return with the drama Lady Castle.

 MANGA/MANHWA

• Manga reviewer Katherine Dacey, formerly at Manga Recon & Precocious Curmudgeon, has a new blog.

• Kurutta posted creepy/lovely images from seventies shojo manga Kaze to Ki no Uta (excerpt at right).

• Finally, here's the Pluto/Astro Boy comparison everyone's talking about (from Xavier Guilbert's essay/review).

OTHER

• Mecha Mecha Media examined SMAP member Tsuyoshi Kusanagi's scandal, the possible causes & potential fallout (Kusanagi was found naked in a public park).

PKK Web Roundup: 04/27/09

I'm working on five posts at once (2 Ponyo-related), and consequently have not finished anything. Some links while I get it together:

FILMS

• Park Chan Wook's (The Vengeance Trilogy) new film Thirst comes out this Thursday in Korea. Song Kang-Ho stars as a vampire priest having an affair with his sick friend's wife; it's no spoiler to say things do not go well.

The government censored the original poster (right) for being "unsuitable for teenagers," and now people are buzzing about the film's frontal male nudity. Sounds like a fun, popcorn flick to me.

Read more about the film at Dramabeans.

DRAMAS

• Kim So Eun (Boys Over Flowers) & Ji Jin Hee (Dae Jang Geum, Spotlight) will star in a remake of Japanese drama Kekkon Dekinai Otoko. I watched a few episodes of the original (mostly for Abe Hiroshi), and it's like Monk, if Monk were a romantic comedy. I found it more awkward than entertaining.

MANGA/MANHWA

• Three recent reviews that looked intriguing: Evyione: Ocean Fantasy, The Color of Earth, and predictably, A Drifting Life.

WEIRD

• I had a crush on this guy in middle school.

• Finally, another amazing Japanese ad. They're saying "hoso (skinny) macho" & "gori (big) macho"; why, however, is a mystery. Also, is that Matsuda Shota on the left? :: (via watashi to tokyo).

PKK Web Roundup: 04/13/09

A quick round this time, must go to work:

• Amazon, stop being stupid (also here and here).

• Super-talented Lucy Knisley (French Milk) read the Twilight series and made a comic about the experience (excerpt right, via Inkwell Bookstore Blog).

• Lee Junki's being weird & sexually ambiguous again--does this count as news?

PKK Web Roundup: 04/07/09

 Time for another round:

• Boys Before Flowers has (finally!) ended, so Dramabeans compiled a list of current K-dramas to try. I'm leaning toward Return of Iljimae or Kim Sun-ah's City Hall, which starts April 29th.

• Megchan (who scanlates Saint Oniisan) has excellent taste. She's started translating two new series: Yasha, by Banana Fish creator Yoshida Akimi, & Kodomo no Kodomo, about an 11-year-old who gets pregnant just as her local PTA debates sex ed for elementary schools. Both the manga & the recent movie adaptation handle the subject sensitively, and it's an important, if disturbing, subject (one of my classmates dropped out at age 12 to have a baby, so it's not far-fetched).

• Complex Blog examines 6 Korean stars' crossover potential.

• Fox News fired columnist Roger Friedman for reviewing the pirated rough cut of X-Men Origins: Wolverine. For all the talk about how "reprehensible" his actions were, I don't think Fox cares about the ethics of reviewing pirated material. Instead, Fox honchos are furious that their movie leaked, and they want blood. By not only reviewing the movie but also bragging about how convenient it was to download the pirated content, Friedman basically stood in front of the angry bull and waited for it to gore him.

• Big Bang & 2NE1's CF song "Lollipop" joins Super Junior's "Sorry, Sorry" in the "what's wrong with me, I can't look away" category. It's an unholy (but oh-so-catchy) combination of Willy Wonka, the 1980s, "Gee," and a teeny bit of Dr. Seuss:

Be sure to hit the HQ button (lower right hand side) before playing.

PKK Web Roundup: 03/31/09

A few more:

• I have a deep love-hate relationship with the haiku, so I like this t-shirt (right, via the Inkwell Bookstore Blog)

• Holy crap. Spider Man will be a musical. A musical written by Bono & The Edge, directed by Julie Taymor (The Lion King), and with costumes by Eiko Ishioka. It could be amazing, it could be rotten, but either way, it will be EPIC.

• Here's a video of Kim Hyun Joong playing a guitar with his tongue. How was it for you?

• John Jakala reminds me how awesome Slam Dunk is by comparing Hanamichi with The Hulk.

PKK Web Roundup: 03/25/09

MUSIC

• Epik High's new bilingual site is up, with full song samples, band member blogs, and lots of other goodies. Their latest album, Map the Soul, will be available on iTunes March 27th.

• Several other K-pop artists (like Tasha & g.o.d.) will also get global iTunes distribution, thanks to an agreement with DFSB collective. Seoulbeats has the full list of artists & albums.

MANGA

• John Jakala at Sporadic Sequential made my week with this tip: save money on manga by shopping at Tower.com. I work at a bookstore part-time and my employee discount is 33% before sales tax, but Tower had certain titles for 37 to 45% off, no sales tax. In the words of Kyoko Mogami:

• Manga Xanadu pointed me to this photo comparison of manga in print & on a Sony E-Reader.

DRAMAS & MOVIES

• Twitch has a trailer for Joe Odagiri's latest movie, Plastic City.

• Antique (right), the Korean film based on Fumi Yoshinaga's Antique Bakery, is finally out on DVD. I'm still writing my review, but the short version is SEE IT. It's hysterical and worthy of the manga.

• Dramabeans has a good take on the Jang Ja-Yeon scandal [Jang Ja-Yeon was a young actress who committed suicide after debuting on the top-rated Boys Before Flowers].

• Dramabeans also has info on two promising new drama series: Kim Sun-Ah's (My Lovely Sam-Soon) new drama City Hall and Sandglass writer Song Ji-Nah's new series, Story of a Man.

• Finally, just because: a fan combined Boys Before Flowers footage with the Antique trailer:

PKK Web Roundup: 03/09/09

A few more:

• My favorite Asian drama ever, Nodame Cantabile, will get a 2-part theatrical movie release (and IamsoexcitedOMG). The movie will pick up where the special episodes left off, and will come out late 2009 & early 2010.

• Se7en's first U.S. single, "Girls," officially comes out March 10th (listen to it here). It's catchy without being much good. Even so, I'm pulling for him: Se7en's one of the most promising crossover acts out there, with his pouty lips, strong vocals, and dance skills (plus, he can speak English).

• Speaking of promising crossover acts: Epik High's next album will be bilingual (English & Korean), and they'll do a short U.S. tour in May (schedule TBA this Thursday).

• Finally, Omona They Didn't has a wonderfully shameful fan service post (excerpt below):

PKK Web Roundup: 03/02/09

I'm not dead, just working on some longer posts (including summaries for moldy oldie Star in My Heart). Some more web bits:

• Lee Min Ho won Best Newcomer at the Baeksang awards, but only after taking a tumble on the red carpet. The fan mash-ups (right) are brilliantly warped.

• For fans of Korean pop music: check out Pumashock's impressive remix of SNSD's "Gee." Also, this is what joy looks like.

• If you weren't already psyched about Fumi Yoshinaga's Ooku, Shaenon Garrity will fix that.

• And, if you haven't already subscribed to Pink Tentacle, DO IT. Where else will you learn about the tasty snack known as Sea Otter Boogers or find vintage Japanese gas attack PSAs (below)?

PKK Web Roundup: 02/14/09

Happy Saturday! Sorry I've been M.I.A. recently--had to sort out some computer issues. A few good links:

MANGA

• Publisher's Weekly has scans of After School Nightmare vol. 10.

• Yen Press picked up Yotsuba&!...

• and Digital Manga Publishing picked up shojo classic Itazura na Kiss.

• Plus, Viz has a nice pack of new licenses, including Fumi Yoshinaga's Ooku & All My Darling Daughters, Taiyo Matsumoto's GoGo Monster, and Natsume Ono's Not Simple. Same Hat! has gorgeous scans of GoGo to whet your appetite.

• Pink Tentacle translated Tatsuyuki Tanaka's beautiful, trippy short, Fifth-Dimension Treatment (excerpt below):

DRAMAS & FILM

• Lee Min Ki's new film Oishii Man, a Japanese-Korean production, looks charming. Lee plays musician who's developed hearing problems, and ends up falling in love with a local in Hokkaido. Official release date is February 19th.

• Two other countries have announced Hana Yori Dango drama adaptations: mainland China (though that may be a fraud) & the Philippines.

• As for the current Korean adaptation, Dramabeans uploaded & analyzed the scripts for episodes 1-4. Extended previews for episodes 13 & 14 are also now up.

• Finally, someone Simpson-ized the leads: