Studio Ghibli’s new animated motion picture titled Karigurashi no Arriety (The Borrower Arrietty) will arrive in Japanese theaters on July 17, 2010. Let’s look at the trailer:

The 80-minute long movie is an adaptation of the British fantasy novel “The Borrowers” by Mary Norton from 1952. The story talks about little people who “borrow” things from normal humans and keep their existence unknown. In contrast to the original story that takes place in England of the 1950’s, the film will be set in present-day Tokyo city of Koganei which is also the home of Studio Ghibli.

Karigurashi no Arrietty was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and produced by Suzuki Toshio. The theme song Arrietty’s Song was co-written and performed by French celtic harpist and singer Cecile Corbel. Here is the song in full:

Japanese publishing company Inforest has published an interesting yearbook that introduces 59 known and less known Japanese digital illustrators for the year 2010 who create art in manga/anime style. In the last few pages there is a short questionnaire where they asked professional artists which graphic programs they use, what operating system they have and which graphic tablets they use for painting.

What graphic programs do you mostly use to make artwork?
1. Adobe Photoshop (50 votes)
2. SAI (36 votes)
3. Corel Painter (7 votes)
4. Adobe Illustrator (5 votes)
5. ComicStudio (2 votes)

Do you use PC with Windows or a Mac?
1. Windows (54 votes)
2. Mac (4 votes)
3. Windows and Mac (1 vote)

Which graphic tablet do you use for painting?
1. Wacom Intuos (34 votes)
2. Other tablets by Wacom (24 votes)
3. Don’t use a tablet (1 vote)

Almost half of those who use Photoshop also use another graphic program in combination.

Among most common programs is SAI (PaintTool SAI) which is less known outside of Japanese market but is a very powerful tool, developed by Systemax (they offer a free 30-day trial version, the full version costs only 5250 yen or about $58). Don’t let their archaic web site fool you! A lot of artists swear that SAI from the illustrator’s point of view in many aspects beats Photoshop because it was made specifically for illustrating. They also say it’s very intuitive and lets them achieve desired results quicker. SAI has become so popular in Japan that there are even monthly magazines and books devoted to this program.

Here you can watch PaintTool SAI in action:

And here is yet another demonstration of PaintTool SAI from sketch to finished artwork.

Japanese airline company ANA (All Nippon Airways) last year made a bold step forward in the boring world of old school airline commercials with a refreshing new ad which is part of their The Art of Arrival campaign, designed by a British advertising agency Cuba.

What’s so unique about this ad which has also been shown in movie theaters in other countries, is that it was made to look like a cinematic anime cartoon that captures the joy of passenger’s arrival instead of promoting comfort during flying which is what we see in most other airline commercials.

Let’s have a look:

The concept is executed brilliantly from start to end and we can admit they’ve done a fantastic job squeezing such a variety of movement, animated scenes and sound into one single minute.

There is another version of this commercial where they replaced Beethoven with Gene Kelly:

The Art of Arrival even helped increase the airline’s international traffic by 5.3% during the holidays of Golden Week despite a 10% capacity reduction.

ANA is famous also for other (non-anime) commercials. Below are two ads which I have seen before on those small TVs in Tokyo trains:

They even dare to make ads with dancing airplanes:

So, you’re planning to fly ANA on your next trip to Japan? Speaking from own experience, I’ve flown with them before on route Los Angeles – Tokyo and I’ll say the flight was a very comfortable one in all aspects and their service was one of the best I’ve seen in airlines.

But alas, there was still no Beethoven to be seen anywhere upon arrival!

If you plan on visiting Tokyo and you’re into retro games from the 80s and 90s, then you definitely don’t want to miss a shop called Super Potato in Akihabara. It’s one of the few shops in the area that sells old school retro games, but it has the biggest selection and you will find almost any title ever made.

The shelves are packed with literally thousands of game titles for vintage gaming systems like Super Famicom (the mega popular Japanese version of Super Nintendo), Sega Dreamcast, Sony Playstation (first version), Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, GameBoy, WonderSwan and others. You can even buy the actual used consoles, not just games, of course all in working condition and most of them come with all the necessary accessories. They also sell individual controllers, joysticks, memory and expansion cards and a lot of other devices that an uneducated gamer won’t even recognize. The prices are pretty good overall. If you’re lucky, you can find some used Playstation games for 300 or even 100 yen (about $1!). For some rare titles, the prices can go up quite a bit. The bad news is — if you don’t understand Japanese — that most games are Japanese versions and you’ll have a hard time finding something in English.

Super Potato has 3 floors. In the 3rd and 4th floors they sell games, consoles and accessories, the 5th is a gaming room with arcade machines where you can sit down, throw in a coin and indulge yourself in blasting away the pixelated aliens from 1984.

If you’re looking for directions to Super Potato, scroll down this page to find out how to get there. The store also has a web site.

Used Sega Dreamcast systems, prices average from 3000 to 6000 yen.

A massive selection of cartridges for Super Famicom.

Narrow stairways, like most stores in Akihabara.

Arcade machines in the 5th floor.

Woah! Electric typewriters from the antique period!

You can get to Super Potato through this hard-to-see entrance, and then up the stairs or take the elevator on the left.

Super Potato Directions

The map below shows the shortest way to get to Super Potato if you start at Akihabara Station (follow the red line). First, exit the station through Akihabara Electric Town Exit, turn right and go straight to the main street Chuo Dori. Cross the street under the rail bridge, turn right and walk straight until you see a big yellow sign Jeans Mate in the first narrow street on the left. Go towards the entrance to Jeans Mate, turn right and go forward a few steps. You’ll see the narrow entrance to Super Potato on your right hand side. Click here for the exact location on Google Maps.

Super Potato directions map in Akihabara.

Multiple web sites are reporting that a Japanese man, who calls himself SAL9000, has official married Nene Anegasaki last weekend. It sounds normal, if Nene Anegasaki wasn’t one of the three virtual girlfriend characters in a dating simulation game Love Plus for Nintendo DS.

SAL9000 traveleved with his Nintendo to Guam where the wedding was held in a real church. During the trip, he took a lot of photos of them together and documented their adventures using iPhone. Upon return to Tokyo, he organized a small reception for friends, family and media figures. The reception was broadcast live on the popular japanese video sharing community Nico Nico Douga.

“Now that the ceremony is over, I feel like I’ve been able to achieve a major milestone in my life,” says SAL9000 in a letter for the web site Boing Boing.

Click here to see some of the newest photos of Nene in SAL9000 together.

Boing Boing has a short report about the happy couple:

Curious about the Love Plus game? Here’s the trailer: