Archive for February, 2009
Japanese Finance Minister Drunk at G7
It is too funny to be true. I don’t blame him, considering the state of the Japanese economy, but a little class please..
Contraction in Japan’s economy surpasses Prime Minister Bakatarou’s popularity rate.
9.7% (approval rate) vs. 12.7% contraction in the Japanese economy. I should be crying but I can’t help laugh.
On a more serious note, there is an interesting note on that blog:
The article goes on to suggest that nationalization saved Japan’s banks. That’s not likely. Correlation is not causation. Japan started to “recover” when the global credit boom took off. Now that the credit bubble has burst, Japan is back where it started. No one has learned a thing from Japan.
I’ve been recently wondering whether or not the terrible quality of the Japanese media has a part to play in how no one learned anything from the Japanese lost decade. If there were effective and hard-hitting investigations into the problems plaguing the economy, wouldn’t there be more insight into how to deal with this economic crisis?
Magazine Review: Cosmode (The Cosplayer’s Magazine)
I was in a book store the other day when I was struck by this:
Basically, it was about 200 glossy pages filled with professional cosplayers. Of course, there was the inevitable amateur submission page, filled with people dressed in their finest casual anime clothes. I thought about the classic “LOL LOOK HERE” deal, but the costumes are unbelievably intricate.
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I never really liked Final Fantasy 9, but I remembered its superdeformed art style. I didn’t know it was actually possible for human beings to look like the characters in Final Fantasy 9, but I guess I was wrong. |
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Make up is probably a must for the dedicated cosplayer |
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I had a hard time understanding how a man over 20 could bring himself to do this to himself. To each their own I guess… |
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While I don’t care for the costume, these guys stood out like crazy against the “fake tough guy” nonsense that seems to permeate these otaku types. |
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HOLY CRAP WHY SO SERIOUS?? THAT’S ONE TOUGH DUDE. |
Final verdict? Surprisingly worth it for a 10 dollar magazine. I wouldn’t subscribe to it though (not being involved in the cosplay scene). I suspect a cosplay fan might enjoy it on more levels than I did. I did find the sections on costume creation and weapon creation to be quite interesting (to the point where I even considered building the weapon featured to the right – FF7′s Buster sword)