Grand Theft Auto 4 was released in Japan.

Grand Theft Auto 4 localized by Capcom was released in Japan on October 30th.

Grand Theft Auto 4 was sold 10 millions in the world until September 6th. And, Grand Theft Auto series was sold 700 millons in the world.

Foreign video games often have a poor sale in Japan. But Grand Theft Auto 3 was sold 300 thousands in Japan. Maybe you feel the sales is low, but it is more than other foreign video game's sales.

I will look the sales of Grand Theft Auto 4.

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Metal Gear Solid: Lupin III Style

Today I will introduce a video related to Metal Gear Solid from YouTube.

[GIF]Metal Gear Solid - Lupin III Style / メタルギアソリッドでルパン三世OP


This movie is based on the opening song of Lupin III. (I wanted to show you the opening song of Lupin III for comparing. But I couldn't find it. Maybe, the video was removed because of copyright issue.)

I was amazing when I watched this video. Because last image said below.

---

Tools for making this video
- Windows Paint
- Easytoon(Line drawing of video)
Only hand painting by thses tools and mouse
- Giam
Saving from GIF animation to avi

Resolution
- 512x384

File size of gif animation
- 8.27MB

Total images
- 576

Making period
- one-and-a-half months

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These images that is used in this video was painted by mouse only! I won't paint images well like this video.

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PSP-3000 was sold 141,270 units for 4 days.

According to ENTERBRAIN, PSP-3000 was sold 141,270 units in Japan from release date (October 16th) through October 19th.

It is less than PSP-2000 was sold 250,702 units for 4 days. It feels that PSP becomes less popular recently.

But, PSP became best-selling game marchine in Japan for the first half of the fiscal year.
The reasons includes Japanese game players like to play multiplayer games(For example, Monster Hunter) and we can play them everywhere by PSP.

I'm looking forward to hearing the selling for the second half of the fiscal year.

About PSP news (Japanese)
http://www.famitsu.com/game/news/1219183_1124.html

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Mamoru Oshii will make a movie about Musashi Miyamoto

Last week, Mamoru Oshii and Production I.G announced that they will show a movie about Musashi Miyamoto in Japan in summer of 2009. The title is "Musashi Miyamoto: Souken ni Haseru Yume(宮本武蔵-双剣に馳せる夢-)".

Mamoru Oshii is one of the famous directors that make anime movie. He made "Ghost in the Shell(攻殻機動隊)", "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence(イノセンス)" and "The Sky Crawlers(スカイ・クロラ)". These anime received a high evaluation.

Musashi Miyamoto is a famous samurai who lived in Edo period in Japan. I looked for 3 things to which Musashi Miyamoto relates.

• Duel of Ganryujima(巌流島の決闘)
  Musashi Miyamoto dueled with Kojiro Sasaki on Ganryujima that is a small island. This is the most famous in duels Musashi fighted. Musashi was too late for the duel to set Kojiro's nerves on edge. Musashi won the duel because Kojiro lost his cool.
  


• Ni Ten Ichi Ryu(二天一流)
  This is one of swordplays. Musashi Miyamoto completed it in his later years. Ni Ten Ichi Ryu recommends two-sword.
  


• The Book of Five Rings(五輪書)
  These are books of the art of war. Musashi Miyamoto wrote these books in his later years. These are organized into 5 books(ground, water, fire, wind and void). Ni Ten Ichi Ryu is also written in these books. For details, please visit The Book of Five Rings that is posted on Wikipedia.

about Musashi Miyamoto: Wikipedia

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Booth Babes at TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008

I took a lot of pictures of booth babes at TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008. I post some better pictures.

ELECTRONIC ARTS

docomo Booth - docomo is the most famous wireless carrier in Japan.

KONAMI Booth - There were many beautiful booth babes at this booth!



LEVEL-5 Booth

!!??

DeNA Booth - DeNA is a well-known company that manages the website for cell phone in Japan.

SNK PLAYMORE Booth

TECMO

!!!!

CAPCOM

KOEI Booth

SQUARE ENIX Booth

Other Booth


and 2 videos.

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Shigyaku Keiyakusya Fausts and Hunter x Hunter

I posted about only TOKYO GAME SHOW on my blog recently. I want to post about 2 manga.

First, A new manga started on Weekly Syonen Magazine.


The title is "Shigyaku Keiyakusya Fausts(弑逆契約者 ファウスツ)".Yasushi Hoshino who writes this manga wrote "Legendary Gambler Tetsuya(哲也 ～雀聖と呼ばれた男～)".

This story is about a book that has a secret of immortal. "Shigyaku(弑逆)" means that someone kills his father or his master. I don't know why this manga has the title yet.

Second, "Hunter x Hunter" which I love restarted Weekly Jump from last week!


I was so glad about that. But, I was a little sad at the same time. Because, Hunter x Hunter restarts for 10 weeks only...

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The showing of TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008

TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008 was finished on October 12. I heard that the number of visitors to this event was the highest ever.

I will show you the data of visitors and some videos that I shot.

Quote from Famitsu.com

TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008		TOKYO GAME SHOW 2007
Date	Number of visitors	Date	Number of visitors
10/09/2008 Business day	27,305	09/20/2007 Business day	29,783
10/10/2008 Business day	24,178	09/21/2007 Business day	32,390
10/11/2008 Open to the public	71,639	09/22/2007 Open to the public	64,795
10/12/2008 Open to the public	71,166	09/23/2007 Open to the public	66,072
Total	194,288	Total	193,040

Compare to TOKYO GAME SHOW 2007, the number of visitor is declining on business days.
But, the number of visitor is increasing on public open days. I think that a lot of people who likes video game went to the event for playing the intersting games(e.g. Monster Hunter Wii, Bio Hazard 5, Last Remnant and Star Ocean 4).

And, I saw many foreigners in this event. I think that the foreigners who like video game become more interested in this event because E3 was scaled down.

I I shot the video showing TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008 from upstairs.


I walked from the entrance to a half of the floor.


There were many cosplayers and people who take pictures of the cosplayers.

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TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008 started !!!

I introduced CAPCOM and SQUARE ENIX that exhibit video games in this show. And, I will introduce other Companies and video games that are popular in Japan.

• ELECTRONIC ARTS
  FIFA 09(PS3, Xbox 360)
• FromSoftware
  Tentyu 4(Wii)
• KOEI
  Shin Sangoku Musou Multi Raid(PSP)
• KONAMI
  Silent Hill Homecoming(PS3, Xbox 360)
• LEVEL-5
  Professor Layton and The Last Time Travel(DS)
• NAMCO BANDAI Games
  Taiko no Tatsujin Wii(Wii)
• SEGA
  Phantasy Star ZERO(DS)
• SNK PLAYMORE
  King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match(Xbox 360)
• Sony Computer Entertainment
  Gran Turismo 5 Prologue Spec III(PS3)

Do you notice something when you see the list?

Nintendo doesn't exhibit video games in TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008.

Unfortunately, Nintendo haven't exhibit video games in this show. I heard Nintendo never exhibit because the site is too far for the people who lives local area.

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TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008 will be held tomorrow!!

I introduce some video games that SQUARE ENIX will exhibit.

There are many kinds of Final Fantasy in TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008.

• DISSIDIA Final Fantasy(PSP)
• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time(Wii and DS)
• Final Fantasy XIII(PS3)
• Final Fantasy Versus XIII(PS3)
• Final Fantasy Agito XIII(PSP)
• Final Fantasy XI(PS2, Xbox 360, and Windows)
• Final Fantasy VII Advent Children: Complete(Movie by Blu-ray)
• Final Fantasy IV The After: Tsuki no Kikan(Cell Phone)

The Other video games which I'm interested in will be exhibited in this show.

• Last Remnant(Xbox 360)
• Crono Trigger(DS)
• Dragon Quest IV(DS)
  

I'm looking forward to visiting SQUARE ENIX booth in TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008.

SQUARE ENIX website for TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008(Japanese)
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/tgs08/

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TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008 will be held in 3 days!

Today, I introduce some video games that CAPCOM will exhibit. We will be able to play the trial version of them.

BioHazard 5:
BioHazard series is a famous video game. I heard that the video of this game is exhibited for the first time in the world!

Gyakuten Kenji(Miles Edgeworth: Perfect Prosecutor):
Reiji Mitsurugi(Miles Edgeworth) who is a character of Gyakuten Saiban(Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney) is the main character in this game. We can play a part of the story.

Street Fighter 4:
This is a famous fighting game. The preliminary match of national convention will be held in this event!

Monster Hunter 3(Wii):
Monster Hunter series are very popular games in Japan. We can fight various monsters which look like dinosaurs with our friends. There are only round-based monsters until previous title. But, I saw some underwater monsters in this title.

CAPCOM website for TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008(Japanese)
http://www.capcom.co.jp/tgs2008/

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TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008 will be held next week!

TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008 will be held in Japan from October 9th through 12th. It is a biggest game's event in Japan.

Unfortunately, the public can't enter the event on Business days(October 9th and 10th).So, I will introduce the event to you in the following schedule.

• 6th - 8th: What company and video game do participate in TOKYO GAME SHOW?
• 9th - 10th: What happened to the event on the day? I will introduce from various articles for the event.
• 11th - 12th: I will go to the event and introduce what happend on the day.

Please check this blog out every day if you are interested in TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008.

TOKYO GAME SHOW 2008(You can see this site in English.)
http://tgs.cesa.or.jp/

Nintendo will release NINTENDO DSi in Japan on November 1st!

Nintendo anounced new portable game machine which is called "Nintendo DSi" in Japan yesterday.

Nintendo DSi site:
http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/dsi.html

It is different some following ways from Nintendo DS Lite.

• DSi doesn't have GAMEBOY ADVANCE cartridge slot. It has SD memory card slot instead.
• DSi has 2 cameras(inside and outside) offering 300 thousand pixels. We can take images and modify them. We also move images to SD card.
• DSi has a function of music player. We can listen musics from SD card.
• We can download some DSi softwares for free or fee.
• One of downloadble softwares is DSi blowser. We can surf the net by wireless LAN.
• Display size - DSi:3.25-inch / DS:3-inch
• DSi is 2.6mm thinner than DS.
• We can play DS and DSi softwares.

DSi will be released in Japan on 1st November 2008. And it will be relased in other countries in 2009.

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A new manga started on Weekly Syonen Sunday

Weekly Syonen Sunday have started serializing a manga since this week.

(Weekly Syonen Sunday is one of popular weekly manga magazines in Japan. It is set to be published every Wednesday. "Kekkaisi" that I like is written on this magazine.)

The title is "ARATAKANGATARI(アラタカンガタリ)". I think ARATAKANGATARI is a coined word. It is about a boy's story in Japanese mythical world.

This manga is written by Yuu Watase. The popular manga that she wrote is Husigi Yugi. She have written the manga for girls. This time, she start to write this manga on weekly manga magazine for boys.

I looked forward to read next magazine when I read this manga. Because, She is good at drawing and I like the story of it.

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He is so cute!

I often watch videos at Nico Nico Douga and YouTube.

(Nico Nico Douga is a popular video site that in Japan. We can post various videos and audiences can comment on the running video.)

I have a lot of favorite videos.
Today, I want to introduce one of my favorite videos.

Do you know "Kirby" ?
He is a game character of Nintendo.

In this video, Some Kirby is dancing bravely. But, I think that it looks so cute!

This video was posted Nico Nico Douga at first. And, someone reprinted it on YouTube.

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