Ben Bernanke caused the Akihabara massacre!

The Japan Times is a bit confused this morning.
(For the last seven hours or so anyway. I first saw this at around one in the morning.)

Update: They finally fixed it later this morning. The new headlines now correctly state that Japan and the U.S. will use Bing to solve the Futenma situation.

Triple Rangers - Magnitude X トリプルレンジャーズ～マグニチュードＸ 本編

The "full" movie is now up!



http://ameblo.jp/588416/entry-10591665572.html

SASUKE Mobile Site closing

Not that it matters to people outside of Japan but the SASUKE Mobile Site (315 yen a month!) will be shutting down on August 31st. For now it looks like the 筋肉モバイル (Kinniku Mobile) site will stay up. It's the more active of the two, as it covers the Muscle Musical and features new content on a fairly regular basis.

It's possible that Monster 9 is pulling the plug too quickly. There is nothing to promote between SASUKEs so naturally there won't be much interest in the site. Unless they want to devote a site to stalking the All-Stars, New Stars and Lee Enchi they don't have much to work with. Seeing the All-Stars at some event is nice but pretty meaningless in the long run since it's just generating interest among those who are already fans.

Frankly, I'm not that surprised that the site is going down. Monster 9 tends to have ADD when it comes to marketing. SASUKE Matsuri? Only held once. The SASUKE Library app? Only for 23. Two SASUKEs have gone by since then. And it was pretty useless. SASUKE Challenger? Once you finish it there's no incentive to keep it on your apple device much less play it again (unless someone figures out how to get the Extra Stages). The SASUKE website?　It hasn't been updated in months. Poor Yuuji doesn't get to have his picture up with Nagano and Akiyama.

Just get a weekly TV show already.

Japan finishes 9th in 2010 World Cup rankings

Here's something I'm sure I'll be hearing about on the news for the next few days.

By virtue of holding off losing for the longest amount of time, Japan finished on top of the teams knocked out in the 2nd round of this year's World Cup to finish 9th overall. The top four followed the matches and were followed by Argentina, Brazil, Ghana and Paraguay. The US was 12th and England was 13th, which has caused much dismay there.

While the Spain/Netherlands shootfight final ended up with the 4th highest rating for a soccer match in the US, it only got an 11.4 for the first half and a 15.4 for the rest of the match which is not surprising since the game started at 3 in the morning and didn't finish until around 6 AM. The Japan/Denmark Group Stage match that was on at the same time got a 30.5/40.9.

A surprising run by Japan that was quite fun to watch. I caught three of the games (Netherlands, Denmark, Paraguay) at a public viewing at the Ginten Plaza with friends.



Links:
CBS with the final ranking list
Asahi article on the ranking
Japanese Wiki article about the Japan matches and the final

Triple Rangers - Magnitude X: See Hitoshi Kanno do some...stuff! トリプルレンジャーズ～マグニチュードＸ～

Actor and one-time SASUKE participant (SASUKE 19) Hitotsugu Kobayashi 小林博嗣 has gotten together with SASUKE New Star Hitoshi Kanno 菅野仁志, frying pan abuser Shinya Kishimoto 岸本真弥 from SASUKE 25 and some other guy named Nakajima 中島 to put together a video called Triple Rangers - Magnitude X トリプルレンジャーズ～マグニチュードＸ～. This is just the trailer, the full "film" is coming!



Will it be any better (or worse) than Toyohisa Iijima's classic Break Out?

Check out Hitotsugu Kobayashi's blog for photos of our heroes and more!

And just because, here's the Scott Pilgrim trailer. Book Six comes out later this month!

Monster 9's new address

In an effort to avoid endless SASUKE entries from people, Monster 9 is moving into the shiny and new Ao Building where they are creating "a higher standard of living like you've never had before."

But since annoying people is a pastime of mine, here is their new address:

〒107-0061
東京都港区北青山3-11-7　Ao 13F

〒107-0061
Tokyo-to Minato-ku Kitaaoyama 3-11-7 Ao 13F

Not sure how it compares to their old digs but this building is less than two years old and if you want to live the dream of working near Ushio Higuchi, here you go.

Maybe M9 just got tired of being surrounded by the Amuse and Symantec people.

M9 news release.

Japan vs Paraguay garners a 57.3 rating for TBS

Japan's round of 16 match against Paraguay on June 29th earned TBS a 57.3 rating, making it the 6th highest-rated soccer match of all-time and the 12th highest-rated TV program of all-time.

The ten highest-rated soccer matches are:

Ranking	Match	Date	Channel	Rating
1.	Japan vs. Russia	June 9, 2002	Fuji TV	66.1
2.	Germany vs. Brazil	June 30, 2002	NHK	65.6
3.	Japan vs. Croatia	June 20, 1998	NHK	60.9
4.	Japan vs. Argentina	June 14, 1998	NHK	60.5
5.	Japan vs. Belgium	June 4, 2002	NHK	58.8
6.	Japan vs. Paraguay	June 29, 2010	TBS	57.3
7.	Japan vs. Croatia	June 18, 2006	TV Asahi	52.7
8.	Japan vs. Jamaica	June 26, 1998	NHK	52.3
9.	Japan vs. Australia	June 21, 2006	NHK	49.0
10.	Japan vs. Turkey	June 18, 2002	NHK	48.5

The twenty highest-rated programs of all-time are:

Ranking	Program	Date	Channel	Rating
1.	14th Kohaku Uta Gassen	December 31, 1963	NHK	81.4
2.	Tokyo Olympics	October 23, 1964	NHK	66.8
3.	Japan vs. Russia (Soccer)	June 9, 2002	Fuji TV	66.1
4.	Destroyer vs. Rikidozan (Pro Wrestling)	May 24, 1963	Nihon TV	64.0
5.	Fighting Harada vs. Eder Jofre (Boxing)	May 31, 1966	Fuji TV	63.7
6.	Oshin	November 2, 1983	NHK	62.9
7.	Japan vs. Croatia (Soccer)	June 20, 1998	NHK	60.9
8.	Fighting Harada vs. Alan Radkin (Boxing)	November 30, 1965	Fuji TV	60.4
9.	Tsui ni kaeranakatta Yoshinobu-chan	July 5, 1965	NHK	59.0
10.	Munich Olympics	September 8, 1972	NHK	58.7
11.	Yukutoshikurutoshi	December 31, 1963	NHK	57.4
12.	Japan vs. Paraguay (Soccer)	June 29, 2010	TBS	57.3
13.	Fighting Harada vs. Bernardo Caraballo (Boxing)	July 4, 1967	Fuji TV	57.0
14.	Tabiji	March 9, 1968	NHK	56.9
15.	The Beatles in Japan	July 1, 1966	Nihon TV	56.5
16.	Ohanahan	September 19, 1966	NHK	56.4
17.	Arigatou	December 21, 1972	TBS	56.3
18.	Ashitakoso	January 31, 1969	NHK	55.5
19.	Bolshoi Circus	July 16, 1963	NHK	55.3
19.	Mayuko Hitori	October 5, 1985	NHK	55.3

Yes, I know that some of the soccer matches are not on the all-time list. I don't know why.

Source:
http://www.videor.co.jp/data/ratedata/junre/11soccor.htm
http://www.videor.co.jp/data/ratedata/all50.htm