Wednesday, July 28, 2010

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.

Friday, July 16, 2010

Thursday, July 15, 2010

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.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

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

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

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!

Tuesday, July 06, 2010

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.

Thursday, July 01, 2010

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

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