Space Dandy!

I don't do much anime, but I read about "Space Dandy" on Lauren Rae Orsini's blog: "Why Is the Media Covering 'Space Dandy' While Other Anime Get Ignored?"

"The New York Times. The Atlantic Monthly. The two last places you’d expect to see critical reviews on a show with 'breasturants' as a major plot point." [Otaku Journalist]

I haven't been to a lot of breastaurants. I think the only one I've been to is Hooters. I've been meaning to go to the Tilted Kilt, but I haven't made it there yet.

"So perhaps there’s also reason to be patient when 'Space Dandy' gets off to a rocky start in its first episode, the only one available for review. Particularly painful is an early sequence in which the pompadoured title character, an intergalactic alien hunter, travels through space to his favorite hangout: a cross between the 'Star Wars' cantina and Hooters, where 'zero G meets double D.'" [NYT]

It sounds hilarious. It's not surprising that a clever, surrealist take on sex comes from outside the US. In America, the gender wars turned the bedroom into a battleground.

"Ironically, Space Dandy’s campy style—there is a literal boob monster in one episode—begs to not be taken too seriously, but with his pop-culture sensibility and cinematic directing style, Watanabe may be anime’s greatest chance of getting the respect it deserves." [The Atlantic]

Teledildonics Is Here

The New York Times has a piece on what's next in high-tech sex: "Sex Toys and Cybersex Are Enhanced by New Technology."

"Some of that has already begun to happen. Love Plus, a dating-simulation game developed for the portable Nintendo DS console, allows a player to caress another’s hair using a touch pad or to go on a flirtatious study date. Much like how Samantha is programmed to be adaptive to Theodore’s personality in 'Her,' these virtual sweethearts modify their personas in real time based on the player’s likes and dislikes. The game is popular among otaku, Japanese slang for reclusive computer nerds, who often post screen shots of their Samanthas online or go on real-life dates with their video-game console."

[NYT]

NSFW

When the internet says something is weird, that means something is weird. Not just weird. Internet weird. Thanks, Japan. [Bigredkev]

TURNING JAPANESE

Porn gossip and news blogger Mike South posted an interesting email from a reader about how the porn industry works in Japan. Apparently, when it comes to porn, the Japanese are doing it better than the American pornographers, who are floundering.

"You definitely hit the nail on the head in terms of the amount they release, it truly is staggering. When I did place an order with them and was given the spreadsheet to choose from it was unreal. They put out hundreds of titles a month, and I’m not talking about comps and recycled material, and the same girls all the time, it is all new content, new and different girls, and a wide variety of genres. More importantly, it is all quality because that is the model that Japanese corporations follow. If you need more of an example take a look at the auto industry. Toyota, Honda, and the other Japanese manufacturers dominate because of their quality, innovation, and new ideas. The American manufacturers simply can’t keep up and I think that template can be removed from the auto industry and placed over the adult industry resulting in a perfect fit. Lucky for the adult industry in America, they don’t currently have to compete with Japanese studios, otherwise I think it would be disastrous for the mainstay studios here. You are already seeing a little bit of this happening on the toy/novelty side with companies like Tenga."

There's also some interesting information on how Japanese porn stars are treated differently and the Yakuza's involvement in today's Japanese adult industry.

[Mike South]