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The personal log of Peter, owner of JLIST.com, the home of "wacky things from Japan"

Friday, May 30, 2008

Jump Magazine 40th Anniversary Canned Coffee?

Manga is the name given to Japanese comic books, although most people over the age of 35 or so will use the word to describe animation on TV as well. The word literally means "whimsical pictures" and was coined by Edo Period ukiyo-e artist Hokusai (the dude who painted the famous Red Fuji and Great Wave Off Kanagawa pictures you may have seen) to describe a book of woodblock art he'd done. Although manga can be associated with obsessive otaku culture, there really isn't a single Japanese person who didn't grow up with a favorite manga that they still feel nostalgia for, whether they're an active fan now or not. On Sundays our rural liquor shop gets the new issues of the popular weekly manga magazines, a day earlier than the large chains and convenience stores, one of the few bones thrown to small retailers in Japan. I always marvel at the customers who stop by to pick up the new issue: elementary school and junior high kids, of course, but plenty of adults, including a businessman in a really nice BMW who makes small talk with me and, since we live next door to our city's mayor by some strange coincidence, the deputy mayor of our city. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Shonen Jump, the popular manga weekly, and Japanese canned coffee maker Roots is putting on a major advertising campaign for its new coffee called "Innocent Blend" (I am not kidding), showing panels from the great Jump comics of the past, from YuYu Hakusho to Dragonball Z to Saint Seiya all the way up to Death Note. So everyone celebrate manga by, er, drinking some canned coffee, or something!

Gokuh: "After he shook hands with me, he wiped his hand off when he thought I wasn't looking!"

L: "I hit the snooze button on my alarm clock twice this morning, and ended up being late."


Here are some more. This is from Kimagure Orange Road, the novels for which I translated back in the day. This is from the last volume when the love trianble between Hikaru, Madoka and Kyosuke (who is a secret esper) is resolved. The ad says, "I went to make a purchasae with my 'point card' but it had expired..."


Another favorite of mine, Video Girl Ai, which is 1000% times better than the short anime they made, although the anime had Noriko Sakai to make up for it. This is Ai saying, "This guy only makes jokes that make himself look bad." Which is very funny when read in Japanese, very funny.


For the Bleach fans. This says, "S- So she was really trying to break up with me!?"



8 Comments:

Blogger kim said...

Nice to meet you. I,japanese, have started reading your brog recently and enjoy it everyday. Thank you.
As I have noticed a bit, I contribute it.

Video Girl Ai is saying, "This guy only laughs at my joke that I make myself look bad by."

I`m sorry if there are mistakes in my english.

10:41 PM

 
Blogger Peter in Japan said...

Thanks for reading the blog, and welcome. Your English is fine!

So what part of Japan are you in?

10:44 PM

 
Blogger kim said...

I`m surprised for your fast answer. Thank you. And sorry for my answering late.
morning. I live in osaka. It`s cloudy here today.
I reached this brog when I seached for brogs written in english to study it.
You write about japanese many topics from your viewpoint. It`s very interesting, easy to read and contains very detailed storys about japan, for example hanako in toilet.
I`m pleased to know you who seem to like japanese food, comic, people and many things.
I look forward to read your brog everyday. Thank you.

11:22 AM

 
Blogger Peter in Japan said...

Osaka, that's nice, I've been down there a few times and eaten at "OO-takoya" (the 2nd best takoyaki in Osaka, I was told). It's good to use the web and blogs to learn English -- so many Japanese just study English for 6-10 years then never use it, ever.

So what do you do for a job?

6:43 PM

 
Blogger timo said...

to kim: I wish I could write Japanese as well as you write English; nice work!
to peter: wish you could sell that coffee on your site; looks good!

9:58 PM

 
Blogger kim said...

Good morning. Sunday.
I have not been to "OO-takoya"(in Namba?), but I love Takoyaki. There are so many Takoyaki shop in Osaka and one of them, "mon"("gate"), which is unfortunately during suspension of business now and will surely reopen soon, made Takoyaki of the baseball size.
http://janmaru.blog39.fc2.com/

After a few years` work, I am a graduate school student now and study neuroscience, so want to use English.

to timo: Thanks a lot. Famous web site in japan, "Logic Paradise", may help you to study japanese. It`s very interesting too. If you hope, I`ll recommend it.
http://logipara.com/

Please delete this comment if it isn`t allowed to paste web page adress in this page.

7:48 AM

 
Blogger Peter in Japan said...

Timo, yes, I wish we could sell beverages. It's kind of too hard to do logistically, and the shipping would be like 3x the product itself.

Kim, I'll eat that takoyaki next time I'm down there. I'd like to go to a baseball game at the Tigers/Koshien stadium since I'm always fearful they're going to tear it down and make a new one, since Japanese love 建設 (construction) so much. If possible I want to go a game there with my son.

10:47 AM

 
Blogger kim said...

You seem to like baseball. And I don`t have custom to see baseball game even in TV, and I have never been to Koshien stadium once. But I may be able to guide you to the place, when you are in osaka with your son sometime.

I want you to try big Takoyaki too. But that Takoyaki shop is during suspension
now, so when it reopen, I`ll make you know that.

4:17 PM

 

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