ROCKET NEWS
 
Iconic character from Hayao Miyazaki anime is ready to terrify and/or charm you at mealtime.
Just about every Studio Ghibli anime features a plucky heroine who has an adventure, or at least a dramatic coming-of-age experience. Along the way, she generally meets a handsome, helpful y...

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Merciless warlords and noble reformers serve as inspiration.
The town of Seki, in central Japan’s Gifu Prefecture, was once Japan’s most prestigious swordsmithing center. Actually, that’s an honor it can still claim today, but the sword industry isn’t exactly what it used to be, and...

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ROCKET NEWS
 
Who needs a plain old Street Fighter II t-shirt when you could have shoes instead?
Street Fighter II has been making a comeback in popularity lately, with companies like Toyota awaking that old gamer’s spirit in potential car buyers and this viral video of an awesome drummer dressed...

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JAPAN TRENDS
 
The writer Manami Okazaki has carved out a solid name for herself in what are sometimes dismissively called “coffee-table books”, but are at heart lovingly conceived and designed photo books or art catalogues. Previous examples of her books include Kokeshi, from Tohoku with Love, a...

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April Fools Jokes coming out of Japan have a track record of becoming reality.
The largest example in recent years was the combining of Neon Genesis Evangelion and Shin Godzilla after both franchises shared director Hideaki Anno.
 
One illustration led to over a year’s worth of art ...

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JAPAN TRENDS
 
Anyone who has ever trawled YouTube will have encountered videos of cats.
And probably anyone who had looked at more than a few would have soon encountered a subgenre of the YouTube cat video: cats sitting on Roomba robotic vacuum cleaners as they move around the kitchen cleaning. ...

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ROCKET NEWS
 
It’s not like Pikachu really needed to be any cuter, but he’s gotten an adorableness upgrade anyway.
As with most Pokémon, Pikachu is completely naked in the original character design. However, the most famous Pocket Monster species has shown a willingness to dress up when the occas...

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JAPAN TRENDS
 
Sony has been developing an innovative new series of products called First Flight, a crowdfunding and retail platform for developing unique projects that you wouldn’t expect from the veteran yet staid electronics maker.
Examples so far include toio, a robotics engineering toy for k...

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ROCKET NEWS
 
Nintendo’s new retro system includes a never-before released game, plus some of the odder elements of gaming in the 16-bit era.
While its insistence on doing things its own way can sometimes make Nintendo a stubborn company, recently it’s been giving fans exactly what they want. Wan...

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Why let your plushies sit inside your room all day? Now you can take them out for a walk.
Namco has struck gold. They’ve created a bag especially for plushies so that you can take them with you wherever you go! The round-shaped bag comes with a strap that you can use by itself or to...

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