TOKYOMANGO

Spanish Arale-chan clip features pink jumping poop

I just discovered this lovely little clip of a Spanish rendition of Arale-chan. It's not the original and I have no idea what they're saying, but I enjoy the fact that it features a pink jumping poop.

A couple of years ago in my MangoBot column on io9.com, I wrote this little explanation of Arale-chan and the wonderful things I learned about being human from this funny little robot girl:

Arale Norimaki Birth year: 1980 Who she is: A purple-haired, near-sighted girl robot built by a kooky professor named Norimaki Senbei (seaweed-wrapped rice cracker) to resemble a real 13 year old human girl. She was created by Akira Toriyama, the same genius manga artist who wrote the Dragon Ball series. Lessons learned: 1. To be fun and spontaneous. 2. To be honest about your compulsions. 3. That you can be female + completely non-sexual + still be the most powerful humanoid in the entire world. 4. How to launch pumpkin cannons and split the earth in half with one punch. 5. The art of the Japanese poop joke. (Even today, my favorite way to pick up my dog's poop is by poking it with a stick and then chucking it into the bushes or a trash can.)

Read Four anime robots that made me more human on io9

This week on MangoBot: Black Jack by Tezuka

This week on MangoBot, I wrote about Black Jack, the awesome sci-fi manga series about a ruthless mercenary doctor:

Mad scientists. Beautiful women who specialize in amputations. Supercomputers that threaten to starve an entire hospital full of patients. Tumors that take on human form. Sounds like a freakish B-list horror movie, right? Actually, these are all seminal elements of a classic cult favorite manga by Tezuka Osamu. Black Jack is one of his darkest yet most appreciated works, but it hasn't had much exposure in the US market until now.

Continue reading Black Jack, the Greatest Gory-Cute Scifi Manga Ever

5 Japanese monsters on MangoBot

This week on MangoBot, my Asian futurism column on io9.com, I wrote about 5 Japanese monsters I encountered before I turned 20. An excerpt:

When I was in elementary school somebody told me the story of Kuchisake Onna, a superhuman madwoman who lurks in dark alleys and asks you death trap questions. The former beauty wears a surgical mask to hide an Ichi-the-Killer-esque gash on both sides of her mouth inflicted by a crazed relative when she was a kid. She spent her whole life in utter misery and gradually developed a serious complex about her appearance. Eventually, she turned into a monster. Legend has it that she asks passersby if they think she's pretty. It's a trick question—if you say YES, she takes off her mask and says "Even now?" and kills you. If you say NO, she gets mad and kills you. If you run away, she'll run after you at lightning speed and kill you.

Read the full story

Last week on MangoBot: Tokyo's most dynamic 3D planetarium

Last week on MangoBot, I wrote a first-person narrative about my experience at Synra Dome, a newly opened 3D theater at Tokyo's national Science Museum that totally blew my mind out of this world. It was truly amazing. For details, please read:

My Virtual Journey on a Ribosome Spaceship and to the Far Ends of the Galaxy

MangoBot: How to buy figurines in Tokyo

This week on MangoBot, I wrote a guide to figurine shopping in Tokyo with a bunch of photos I took last week on my trip to Akiba. I also did a quick phone interview with blogger Danny Choo to get the deets. Here's an excerpt, and a link to the full article:

In Akiba, fans don't just buy figurines in boxes. A subset of talented geeks pick up kits and then fine tune the products into perfectly painted, customized collectors items that they then resell in little glass windows rented by the hour for about $500/week. Why buy figurines that have been modded by other fans? With kits, you often don't know what you're going to get inside, but this way you can pick and choose what character you're getting. The more skilled fans also add extra super-intricate coloring and detail to the standard finish, enhancing the aesthetic. It's kind of like getting any product customized—cookie cutter factory-made goods transform into one-of-a-kind collectors' items. Radio Kaikan, a famous seven-story department store built in the 60s, used to exclusively sell music components, but as the demand for music players dropped and the demand for figurines soared, the display of stereos have been replaced by rows and rows of figurine-encasing glass windows.

Read How to buy figurines in Tokyo: An Illustrated Guide