Yuumoushin.com (勇猛心)

I’m pretty sure that most of the people who read my blog (a few of my friends) watch the show. Wired wrote an article detailing the success of the show, which I wanted to share: “Fowl Play: Adult Swim’s Low-Budget, High-Geek, Stop-Mo Hit Robot Chicken.”

The opening of the article describes one of my favorite scenes:

The phone rings. It’s Darth Vader — calling collect. “Vader! How’s my favorite Sith?” Then, after listening for a few beats, the prune-faced politician slams a tiny plastic fist on his desk in rage. “Whaddya mean they blew up the Death Star?” He unleashes a flurry of V-chipped expletives. “That thing wasn’t even fully paid off yet! Do you have any idea what this is going to do to my credit?” The conversation ends with a sheepish Palpatine grumbling, “I love you, too,” before hanging up the phone.

If you haven’t seen the show, head over to YouTube and do a quick search for a few of the episodes. The ones that I find particularly funny – Voltron getting “served,” the magical unicorn, the Robot Chicken wars, and the Mario brothers Grand Theft Auto mock.

Comic books, for the most part, are considered something you do as a kid in the US (or something you do if you’re a “geek” or “fanboy”). While those same stereotypes definitely still hold true in Japan, seeing a company CEO or a popular politician, for example, reading a comic on the train doesn’t come across as anything out of the ordinary. Which is why I’m not surprised to see the “manga coffee can” make its debut:

Apparently, when the first 600 cans went on sale back in early August, they sold out in a matter of minutes. Between August 12th and 19th, over 40,000 cans were sold through vending machines. I wonder when we’ll get weekly Spiderman comics on coke cans?