All at once, Japan is apparently able to engage in PR, government business, possible subtle parody of goverment business, children's toy and entertainment advertising, blog fodder creation, and the warm mainline cultural moment of giving a beloved classy lady her due. Japan has started appointing cartoon characters to its government.
First, there was this:
This robot cat is called Doraemon, and he is happy to have just been appointed Anime Ambassador to the World. He is shaking hands with the Foreign Minister of Japan, Masahiko Komura. Our analog would be Ms. C. Rice*. Seems Masahiko Komura's trying to exchange a knowing look with Nobita, friend of Doraemon, but, from this angle at least, it looks to be unreciprocated.
Then today:
Naturally, Hello Kitty is now the Tourism Ambassador, specializing in China and Hong Kong. According to one article, she will have 11 other goodwill ambassadors to help her do her job, which is probably a good idea. Although of course.... this is a class act whose 2D disembodied head alone has moved millions of units of merchandise in many markets all over the world. I'm kind of surprised she had time to come and collect her certificate. Nice of her to dress traditional though.
*AHR did this mock-up to give an idea of what it would look like if anything like this were to transpire over here in Americaland.
Pobrecita's just happy to have a friend.
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Every Thursday on Geekanerd, Johnny (our resident Web Game Addict) offers up his pick for the best new game of the week.
Feel like getting your slap on? Well now you can with Rose & Camellia (from Nigoro), a Japanese Anime/Punch Out based slapping game. Now the game is in Japanese, and I don’t know how to read or speak Japanese, but I believe the gist of the story goes like this. You’re a little girl in feudal Japan who needs to slappity-slap all the other women in your quarters. Story aside, Rose & Camellia features beautiful graphics and a wonderful and funny game concept. Check it out!
Game Play:
The controls are really easy but difficult at first to get the hang of. Every once in a while, an attack button will appear to on the bottom right. Click on it then swing your mouse over the opponent’s face. When your foe is about to attack, an evade button will appear on the bottom left. Click on that then swing your mouse the other way. Once you have successfully evaded a slap, a counter button will appear in the bottom right. This has the same function as the attack button.
Strategies:
In playing this, I realized that the most important thing to master is the art of evading and countering. Attacking leaves you open to counterstrikes. If you never attack but just successfully evade and counter, you will have no problem beating the game. When the opponent is close to dying, attacking becomes much easier.
Thanks Johnny! Check back next Thursday for more Geek-Approved Web Games.
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Summary only...
This robot cat is called Doraemon, and he is happy to have just been appointed Anime Ambassador to the World. He is shaking hands with the Foreign Minister of Japan, Masahiko Komura. Our analog would be Ms. C. Rice*. Seems Masahiko Komura's trying to exchange a knowing look with Nobita, friend of Doraemon, but, from this angle at least, it looks to be unreciprocated.
Pobrecita's just happy to have a friend.
