Fun Japanese Things

[Mal Shot First]

That song by Da Pump would probably be well-suited for a Dance Dance Revolution adaptation.

I hadn't seen anything from Series 5 of Lupin, but that intro is pretty awesome. The overall style kind of reminds me a little bit of the Venture Bros. intro... and the color-coded character introductions remind me of Cowboy Bebop. I like the Frenchified version of the theme song as well.

[Jubbers]

Watching episode 27 of Series 3 ("The Star of Alaska"), which already had some goofy bits (like Fujiko riding on a snowmobile... in a bikini... which she had been wearing while sunbathing in the snow-covered mountains?), has this glorious moment which made me smile:

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Lupin, wearing a robot suit for some reason, gives tied-up Jigen a cigarette, and lights it with his robot arm. He then holds up dynamite, which Jigen lights with the cigarette. Teamwork. Such love between men.

[Mal Shot First]

...and the color-coded character introductions remind me of Cowboy Bebop.

By the way, I fully realize how much Cowboy Bebop owes to Lupin, which is why I thought the similarity to the Cowboy Bebop opening was funny.

[Mal Shot First]

I'd sort of forgotten about it, but out of some dusty corner of my mind, a memory of a DDR-ized version of the Lupin III theme song came back. Turns out it was actually used in DDR 4th Mix (and probably a couple of other ones), with the prerequisite Eurobeat elements remixed into the original, natch.

[Jubbers]

Man, that makes me miss hanging out and playing video games together. Why do you have to live so far away?

I am slowly getting the Series 5 CreatorXCreator figures. The bases fit together like pie slices to form a circle. Just missing Zenigata and Jigen. This is the first time I've purchased Japanese figures before - normally the price tags on those dissuade me, but these are only like $20 a piece. I'm really impressed by the details and how well done they are.

Shitty cell phone photo:

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[Jubbers]

Finished series 3. Watching the series that appeared before Series 4 (so 3.5?) - A Woman Named Mine Fujiko. This series promised to bring back the sexuality that is apparently in the original manga (have not read yet) but lacking in other adaptations.

The opening is enough (very very NSFW) to show why this Lupin never aired on Toonami:

[Jubbers]

The video's preview image is also NSFW.

[The Swollen Goiter of God]

Goodness.

[Jubbers]

A current popular band - Kami-sama, boku wa kiduiteshimatta, or "Lord God, I have become aware..." - which, like some other bands, wear disguises and have released zero personal information about themselves. They have some pretty neat songs/videos.

[Mal Shot First]

The video is pretty cool, but the music doesn't really do much for me. It sounds a lot like the generic J-pop tracks they started including in the later DDR mixes, which was one of the reasons I sort of drifted away from those games in the mid-to-late '00s.

Generally, though, my familiarity with contemporary Japanese music is quite limited and probably fairly dated by now. Gackt is probably the only musician I could name, but the height of his popularity was 15-20 years ago at this point.

Speaking of Gackt, I don't think I've ever posted any of his music here. We'll have to remedy that!

[Jubbers]

Today I discovered that in 2005 there were a series of Lupin-themed study books for university entrance exams with very punny titles:

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Kanjigen - play on 漢字 (kanji) - and 次元 (Jigen)

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Gokuemon - play on 語句 (goku - words/phrases) and 五ェ門 (Goemon)

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Gendaibun - This one actually doesn't seem to be punning. It just says "modern Japanese composition," but doesn't seem to play on Lupin's name at all - I feel like saying "gendaibun" sounds like "rupan" is too much of a stretch

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Fujikoten - play on 不二子(Fujiko) and 古典 (koten - classical Japanese)

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Zenigata Kanbun - playing on 銭形警部 (Zenigata keibu - Inspector Zenigata) with 漢文 (kanbun - literary Chinese)

[Mal Shot First]

Have you seen this cosplay?

[Jubbers]

I had not - that's really good Tie-clip, the sideburns, and even has his trusty Walter P-38. 5 stars!

5th series should be wrapping up pretty soon - it's had some nice callbacks to the other Lupin series in terms of character and musical cameos.
And I should be getting my final two figures at some point this month. I preordered them together, so I have to wait for both to be shipped together - I think Jigen has arrived stateside - just waiting on Zenigata to catch up.

[Mal Shot First]

Jigen has arrived stateside - just waiting on Zenigata to catch up.

Isn't that how it usually goes?

[Jubbers]

The irony has not been lost on me

[Jubbers]

[Mal Shot First]

Cute.

Edit: Sorry, I meant "KAWAIIIII!!!"

[Jubbers]

I'm going to get a couple of volumes of what is currently a very popular series of electric guitar books when I next order things from Japan. The books are labelled either Heaven Training (easier) or Hell Training (super hard) and are by a guitarist named Kobayashi Shinichi. I plan on getting the Heaven Training general song book (themes from Rocky, Mission Impossible, Lupin, classical pieces, etc) as well as the Heaven Training anime song book (Evangelion, Sailor Moon, Haruhi, etc).

While googling Kobayashi, found this music video of his which has a weird dichotomy. Strange choice.

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[Jubbers]

This one is awesome, though it is something Goiter will never understand.

[Jubbers]

The video game I am currently playing:

[Mal Shot First]

More like bone appetit, amirite!

[Jubbers]

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And how! (This is from the end of the 1st of 22 storylines.)

[Jubbers]

Jigen has arrived stateside - just waiting on Zenigata to catch up.

Isn't that how it usually goes?

Zenigata has cleared Interpol hurdles and is finally on his way.

[Jubbers]

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Zenigata Keibu!

[Mal Shot First]

Daaaayum, Fujiko!