Queen´s Blade TV Series “episode 00″ for preorder!

The Promotional train for Queen`s Blade is running and at full speed.  The “Episode 00″ DVD for the series is available for preorder.

It has promotional material and a glimpse of what is coming. According to ANN, it has some special features like a complete version of a promotional video for the Queen’s Blade anime, an exclusive audio “radio program” featuring voice actresses Ayako Kawasumi and Mamiko Noto, and special interviews with the main cast. Click the image below for details.

Update: Additionally, Media Factory uploaded a promotional video for the upcoming Episode 00. Media Factory will sell the DVD at the Comic Market 75 event at the Tokyo Big Sight convention center at the end of this month.

Price is around 1,000 yen (USD 10.00)! This DVD lasts about 1 hour and the release date is December 31, 2008! For details of its content, click here / For more detailed information, visit the official Queen`s Blade website!

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Gallery: Macademi Wasshoi! Sexy Image

From Megami Magazine 104. The image is from Macademi Wasshoi! I think both look sexy but I dont know if the series are popular. This is an update from this post!

Magician’s Academy revolves around Takuto Hasegawa, who attends a magic academy that is not marked on any map. During a summoning spell exam, he accidentally creates a girl named Tanarot, who happends to hold enough magical power to destroy his country, but fortunately Tanarot professes undying loyalty to her “creator.”
Source: ANN

I think I will give this series a try. The image sold that idea!

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Queen´s Blade Female Seiyuu list confirmed!

If you still have any doubts about the solid production values of Queen`s Blade upcoming TV anime series, think again because once you see the elite voices behind the anime characters, all doubts should vanish.

According to the latest edition of Hobby Japan (Jan`09) the list has been confirmed and here are the voices behind the girls of Queen`s Blade!
Click the image of any seiyuu to check her anime acting background!

Other seiyuus that are in the cast:

• Ayaka Saito as Ymir/Yumiru
• Eri Kitamura as Alleyne/Allean/Arein
• Mikako Takahashi as Nowa/Noa
• Miyū Takeuchi as Aldra
• Rie Tanaka as Nyx/Nix
• Ryoka Yuzuki as Cattleya
• Sayaka Ohara as Melpha
• Yui Kano as Irma
• Yuki Kaida as Echidna/Ekidona
• Yuko Kaida as Risty/Listy

Many of the seiyuus portrayed here are TOP rated among anime fans so Queen`s Blade is a must watch for the upcoming anime season! For more information and scans of the magazine, visit this site.

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Japan`s bicycle graveyard / The curse of Colonel Sanders!

Here is a photo that caught my attention.

A barge full of bikes pulled from the infamous Dotonbori river in Osaka. Now I wondered why this website called the Dotonbori river “infamous”.  I did some research about the river and found an interesting Urban Legend about it!

The river is in fact man made, it was carved through the area in the early 1600’s, being built as a drainage outlet for land reclaimed in the area. Today it is the focal point of the area. The Dotonbori Bridge is where people meet after huge sporting victories like the Soccer or Baseball. People usually get a bit too excited and some even jump off the bridge into the murky canal below.
Source: Happy Jappy

In 1985 a statue of Colonel Sanders was broken off the local KFC and thrown in the river when the Hanshin Tigers won the Japan Championship Baseball Series. They faced the Seibu Lions and took their first and only victory in the Japan Series, largely due to star slugger Randy Bass,a gaijin (foreigner) player for the team.

The rabid fan base went wild, and a riotous celebration gathered at Ebisubashi Bridge in Dotonbori, Osaka. There, an assemblage of supporters yelled the players names, and with every name a fan resembling a member of the victorious team leapt from the bridge into the waiting canal. However, lacking someone to imitate MVP Randy Bass, the rabid crowd seized a Colonel Sanders (like Bass, the Colonel had a beard and was not Japanese) plastic statue from a nearby KFC and tossed it off the bridge as an effigy.

This impulsive maneuver was to cost the team greatly, beginning the Curse of the Colonel.Urban legend has it that the Tigers will not win the championship again until the statue is recovered.

After their success in the 1985 series, the Hanshin Tigers began an 18-year losing streak placing last or next-to-last in the league. Brief rallies in 1992 and 1999 brought hope to fans, but they were soon followed with defeat.

During this time attempts were made to recover the statue, including sending divers down and dredging the river, but they all failed. Fans apologized to the store manager, but the statue remained in the canal and the Tigers “cursed”.

2002 World Cup

Although the leap into Dotonbori canal and the Curse of the Colonel is usually associated only with a Hanshin Tigers victory, in 2002 when Japan beat Tunisia in the World Cup, some 500 fans jumped into the canal as a celebration, in spite of heavy police security.

In addition, a Colonel Sanders statue was taken from the storefront of a KFC in nearby Kōbe, and its hands were cut off supposedly in imitation of Sharia law.

2003 Central League

In 2003, the Tigers had an unexpectedly strong season. Their chief rivals, the Yomiuri Giants, lost their star player, Hideki Matsui, while the Tigers gained a pitcher Hideki Irabu, who had returned from playing with the Texas Rangers. The Tigers won the Central League to qualify for the Japan Series, and many newspapers speculated that the Curse of the Colonel had finally been broken.

Fans were enthusiastic about winning the Central League, and repeated the celebratory leap into Dotonbori Canal. However, instead of the individual leapers representing the players, over 5,300 fans plunged into the canal.[1]

Many KFC outlets in Kōbe and Ōsaka moved their Colonel Sanders statues inside until the series was over to protect them from rabid Tigers fans. The newly replaced Colonel Sanders statue in the Dotonbori KFC branch was bolted down to prevent a repeat of the incident.

The Tigers lost the Japan Series, this time to the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, so the curse is presumably intact.

Death in the canal

For 24-year-old Hanshin Tigers fan Masaya Shitababa the 2003 celebration was a tragedy. He drowned in the canal, with all reports being that he had been shoved in by the revelers. To prevent future incidents, the Osaka city council ordered the construction of a new Ebisubashi bridge, beginning in 2004, which will make it more difficult for rabid fans to take the celebratory leap should the Curse of the Colonel be broken and the Tigers win again.

Read about the URBAN Legend of the KFC Colonel Sanders curse here!

Bicycles / River Photo: Quirky Japan Blog

It seems there are lots of stories in Japan about the Colonel Sanders.  A very popular character indeed. I think Ronald McDonalds is pretty famous as well.

Now back to the original news, surveillance cameras took pictures of some people throwing their bicycles in the river. Check the suspects…

…Please don`t throw trash to the rivers!

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