Japanese movie promos are the best! Twitter shows off the most enticing anime movie freebies

Japan gives moviegoers some pretty cool reasons to watch movies in the cinema.

With the advent of huge TV screens and great audio systems, moviegoers have been able to avoid high prices for cinemas by recreating a theater experience right in their own homes. Who can blame them? Why should we sit in a crowded room with sticky floors while people text and talk their way through an entire movie?

But Japanese movie studios are doing a pretty good job of enticing people to go to a movie theater by offering some really great promotional goods. This practice has really excelled with anime movies as viewers have received amazing tie-in materials often made by the creator of the series.

Take the recent Naruto movie Boruto – Naruto the Movie as an example. The first two million viewers across Japan received an official movie book titled Naruto – Hiden・Zai no Sho by Masashi Kishimoto and featured the story of the day Naruto became Hokage.

The movie One Piece – Strong World, which came out in 2009, gave the first 1.5 million people a tie-in manga called One Piece – Zero written by series author Eiichiro Oda.

▼ Pictured here on the left with the promotional manga
from the One Piece movies Z and Gold as well.

In 2017 people who watched Fairy Tail – Dragon Cry walked away with a 200-page booklet by Hiro Mashima that featured the storyboards used to make the movie.

For the 2016 Detective Conan – The Darkest Nightmare film, series creator Gosho Aoyama wrote a thank you letter for the release of the 20th movie. Viewers also received a special serial code with an illustration as well as autographs and messages from the main cast on the back.

The animated Genocidal Organ movie handed out bookmarks with the main characters and key visuals in three different varieties. Viewers were also able to download phrases said by characters via a QR code.

And Nintendo showed off their mastery of these giveaways during the theatrical release of Pokémon the Movie – Hoopa and the Clash of Ages back in 2015.

Attendees who brought their 3DS could receive Hoopa in either Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire or Pokémon X/Y. The first three million people also got a Hoopa original Pokémon card and a Hoopa for the arcade game Pokémon Tretta.

▼ Raise your hand if the only reason you went to see
Pokémon the Movie 2000 was to get the Ancient Mew promo card!

With these types of goods offered at the movies, we could definitely see why people are willing to go out to watch their films. Seems like a win-win deal, especially if these giveaways will basically guarantee at least three million people see a movie.

Although it probably helps if the movie is any good. We couldn’t imagine even giving out freebie Attack on Titan beauty masks could have saved that film from disaster.

Source: Naver Matome
Featured image: Twitter/@iRis_a_himi



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Foreigners in Japan sound off on the top four quirks of the Japanese job-hunting system


Looking for a job here in Japan? You better prepare yourself for these four quirks.

After years of grueling study, fresh graduates in Japan get to emerge from their caves into the big working world. Most of us can remember our first baby steps towards a future that doesn’t involve drinking ourselves silly into the wee hours of the morning. Those first steps can be daunting, particularly for foreign students in Japan who have to navigate a myriad of customs as alien to them as the local cuisine.

Japanese research organization Disco, which conducts surveys on job-hunting foreign students in Japan every year, recently polled them on what the biggest oddity of the Japanese job-hunting system was.

What stood out the most, being cited by 38.9 percent of the respondents, was the observation that all job-hunters wear what is known as a “recruit suit”. While you might think it’s an ultimate weapon of a suit guaranteed to land you a job, it is essentially a standard black suit with a white shirt.

▼ You’re good to go.

In Japan, blending in rather than standing out is the social norm. There’s even a Japanese saying that goes “The nail that sticks out gets hammered down”. Some of the foreign students couldn’t help but wonder why everyone was dressed the same way, and that there should be a bit more personality involved, especially since you’re trying to stand out among your competitors. Even in a socially conservative country like Japan, where conformity is often the norm, there are students who dislike such “recruit suits,” but on the bright side, you won’t end up stressing out on what to wear for interviews.

The second-highest ranked quirk (chosen by 38.5 percent of respondents) was the notoriously rigorous job-hunting season. April is the time when companies welcome new employees in troves with open arms, but the groundwork has already been done long before. University students in their junior years attend job seminars at prospective companies, and those in their senior years go through interviews while school is in session. Such a serious approach to work and perhaps the lack of fun in general probably irked some foreign students.

The third peculiarity (chosen by 33.1 percent of respondents) was the recruitment of students into companies in huge batches just once a year. Systematic training of new employees in April occurs simultaneously in an almost factory-like manner. This is in stark contrast to western companies, where hiring takes place throughout the year. Missing the April intake drastically reduces your chances of attaining a job, and many students who fail to find full-time employment in the primary hiring period end up working part-time jobs or just spinning their wheels for a year to catch the next recruitment wave.

The fourth quirk (chosen by 31.9 percent of respondents) was written examinations. The examinations vary by company and can range from personality to general knowledge tests. They are quite demanding, and there are loads of books and applications to get you prepared for them. A common complaint is that the Japanese written exams don’t necessarily seem to prove your job capability.

▼ Just when you thought you took your last examination of your life in university.

The Japanese government aims to accept 300,000 foreign students by 2020, placing great emphasis on their smooth transition into Japanese companies to boost the current aging workforce. There has been a recent surge of newly graduated job-hunting foreign students in Japan. In 2015, foreigners who have successfully switched from student visas to working visas exceeded a record 15,000. The reality, however, is that only about 50 percent of job-seeking foreign students manage to find jobs here.

From a foreigner’s perspective, there are indeed many weird customs to get used to in Japan. Job-hunting is no exception, but perhaps further measures to make the job-hunting process smoother are in order.

Source: Sankei News via Otakomu
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Pakutaso (1, 2)



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Pigeon that looks like a Nike shoe spotted in Japan

Has the clothing brand has done the unthinkable and permeated the lucrative animal kingdom market?

The business world was shocked this week when a pigeon was spotted wearing the famous swoosh symbol of sportswear maker Nike. Although ever-present on various walks of life from professional athletes to Mafiosi, this may the first time an animal has donned the swoosh as a part of its natural plumage.

The image was captured by Twitter user Akihiro Tomiyama on 26 April with the caption “This pigeon totally looks like a Nike shoe.”

Perhaps its shoe-like appearance provides a Darwinian example of why pigeons have not embraced the Nike swoosh in the past. After all, doing so runs a higher risk of being stepped on by overzealous sneaker fans and crushed. However, there is possibility pigeons have shunned Nike in the past on ethical grounds.

To find out, SoraNews24 asked the pigeon if it agreed with wearing the brand of a company notorious for its exploitation of developing countries, thus reducing jobs in the countries that they primarily do business leaving a negative economic impact.

The pigeon refused to comment, and instead walked around in circles nervously bobbing its head at the ground.

Taking that response to mean that the pigeon community may not be 100-percent behind the Nike pigeon, it’s difficult to say whether this look will catch on or not, but the bird’s sudden fame seems to suggest it may.

And it’s about time. With the pop-pom pigeon craze dying out and Hatoful Boyfriend pigeon-dating-simulator having run its course, pigeons are in serious need of a new gimmick to offset the occasional crapping on our heads.

Source, top image: Twitter/@Tom_0816



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Curry incense lets you reach Nirvana deliciously


Achieving enlightenment doesn’t usually stimulate your appetite, but it just might with this special incense!

It is no secret that aromatherapy does wonders for your mental well-being. You can use it while meditating, doing yoga, or to cover the nasty smell emanating from your kitchen. Who doesn’t want to spend an evening reading a book with mellow lavender scents wafting on the breeze? Before you know it, you’ll be drifting off to Kirby’s Dream Land, and assuming the book you were trying to read has nothing to do with your academic performance at university, you’ll wake up feeling more refreshed than ever before.

In some parts of Asia, paying respect to your ancestors is performed by burning incense. Offerings (food) are provided to appease or request blessings. Borrowing from that traditional custom, one company offers to combine the spiritual and culinary world through their “collaboration incense”.

Kameya, which manufactures candles and incense, has just released a delicious addition to their strong lineup: a curry aroma incense.

▼ Opening the box releases a potent whiff of curry fragrance.

So as not to betray your expectations, Mini Curry Fragrance Incense, as it’s officially called, uses  real Indian curry spices such as cloves, cinnamon and sage to craft an authentic fragrance. The spicy aroma carries with it a hint of sandalwood, much like a good old-fashioned incense. It’s now available through Rakuten for just 680 yen (US$6.10) for a 50-gram (1.8-ounce) package.

▼ Tingles your nostrils but leaves you salivating.

Whether it’s used for meditation, paying respects, repelling mosquitoes or testing the limits of dieting, you can be sure the recipients will be sent into curry-heaven. Just be careful not to use it to supplement a lack of ingredients when cooking dinner.

Source: PR Times
Images: Rakuten/Anshindo



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Japanese zoo penguin falls in love with cutout of cute anime penguin girl

Humans aren’t the only ones who can have affections for 2-D characters.

We’ve seen penguins form adorable relationships with their trainers before, but we’ve never heard of a penguin falling head over webbed-feet for an anime girl before.

Until now, anyway! Grape-kun, a penguin at the Tobu Zoo in Saitama Prefecture, has been melting the hearts of tens of thousands online after it was reported that he had his own heart melted by a cutout of Hululu, an anthropomorphic penguin from the anime Kemono Friends.

Here’s some tweets from the official Tobu Zoo Twitter account:

▼ “He really does like her.
Today too, he’s been staring at her since morning.”

▼ “His name is Grape-kun (the one on the bottom right).
He’s 20 years old, an old man in penguin years. He really likes her.”

For those unfamiliar with Kemono Friends, it’s a recent hit anime in Japan that stars a cast of zoo animals turned into cute moe girls. There are several penguin characters on the show, and Hululu is a Humboldt penguin, the same species as the infatuated Grape-kun.

The zoo has set up 60 cutouts of the anime’s characters throughout the park and is having the voice actors do park announcements, all to try and bring in more visitors.

▼ Some of the zoo’s other Kemono Friends cutouts with their respective animals,
who seem slightly less enthusiastic about them.

The promotion appears, however, to have had some unintended consequences… such as causing love to blossom.

▼ “The Humboldt penguin wouldn’t look
away from Hululu and was so cute.”

▼ Grape-kun! Where are you looking?!

The love story between old-man Grape-kun and cardboard cutout Hululu has plucked at the heartstrings of the internet, so of course that means fan art had to be created.

▼ “I wish they could talk to each other.”
Oh god… the cute… Grape-kun’s smile… I can’t take it!

Unfortunately though, it seems that just like all the great love stories, Grape-kun and cardboard Hululu’s story does not have a happy ending. Because Grape-kun was so obsessed with being around Hululu all of the time, he ignored his feedings, which worried the zookeepers since he was so old.

So in order to make sure he would not forget to eat anymore, he’s been isolated away from Hululu for the time being.

▼ Looking at this photo you can hear the sound
of a thousand hearts breaking at once….

Is this the end of Grape-kun and Hululu’s romance? Only time will tell, but the zoo is planning on keeping up the Kemono Friends promotion until the end of June, so we’ll see how they deal with the situation.

Perhaps just letting Grape-kun cosplay a bit like some other penguins would go a long way to soothing that aching heart.

Source: livedoor NEWS via Dorkly
Featured image: Twitter/@tobuzoo7



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