Learn Japanese @ Japancast.net

今日、スコーンを焼きました。

（きょう、スコーンをやきました）

クランベリーのスコーンです。

みなさんは、スコーンが好きですか？

（みなさんは、スコーンがすきですか？）

私は大好きです。

（わたしはだいすきです）

実は、パンを作るのも好きだったりします。

（じつは、パンをつくるのもすきだったりします）

今度、写真をのせますね。

（こんど、しゃしんをのせますね）

I received a gorgeous scarf from my friend / student Melissa the other day!

先日、お友達でプライベートレッスンの生徒さんのメリッサさんから素敵な手編みのマフラーが届きました！

せんじつ、おともだち　で　プライベートレッスン　の　せいとさん　の　メリッサさん　から　すてきな

てあみ　の　マフラー　が　とどきました！

Thank you so much, Melissa!  You are such a sweetie!

メリッサさん、どうもありがとう♪

A scarf from Melissa! from Hitomi Griswold on Vimeo.

If you have not learned days of the week in Japanese yet, here is your chance

月曜日（げつようび）＝Monday

火曜日（かようび）＝Tuesday

水曜日（すいようび）＝Wednesday

木曜日（もくようび）＝Thursday

金曜日（きんようび）＝Friday

土曜日（どようび）＝Saturday

日曜日（にちようび）＝Sunday

Days of the week in Japanese from Hitomi Griswold on Vimeo.

Found this via Motionographer. Check out all the production storyboards here:

http://f.hatena.ne.jp/Tete/14.フミコ/

For an independent production – this is some amazing work.

Well, as far as I can tell these are all English translations, but if you love Manga, this is a pretty good deal.

Here’s the deal:

$0.99 MANGA & ANIME SALE
We are having a MASSIVE sale on all our individual MANGA and ANIME Titles!

Over 900 popular individual Manga & Anime books, have been drastically reduced to only $0.99 each. This limited time sale includes popular titles such as Cowboy Bebop, Gundam, Tokyo Babylon, Dragon Knights and more!

Most of these titles have a list price of $9.99 or more, but you can get them at BookCloseouts.com for only $0.99 each until March 26th.

Here’s the link:

CLICK

I’m always looking for interesting animation online – specifically Japanese animation.  Ga-Anime is a really interesting concept, and now they’re offering episodes online for free.  They’re fairly low-res, but you can’t beat the price!

Similar to comics, ga-nime will be composed of a series of static pictures accompanied by music and speech. This “limited-anime” approach leaves behind the complex plot and characters found in most anime, and aims to stimulate the audience’s imagination through various techniques such as the manipulation of time between each picture.

Usually creating an anime requires many staffs and an expensive budget, making it difficult for the artist to manage the project on his or her own, which results in a lack of creativity and coordination in most anime series.

Unlike anime, ga-nime will limit the number of images used in each series, allowing the artist to better integrate his or her own style and feelings into the project. This new form of media has immense potential for pushing the level of style and creativity found in artworks to a whole new level.    -Source ComiPress.com

View them online here:  http://www.ganime.jp/

If you’re a fan of anime figures, now’s your chance to easily purchase them.  Danny Choo has just announced the English version of the Good Smile Company website.

Danny is one of the most popular bloggers in Japan, covering anime, manga, toy shows and games.

I’ve always been impressed with the level of detail these figures have.

I will warn you, though.  Although many of the figures are quite tame, there are figures available in Japan that are from Ero-games, manga and anime.  They most certainly are rated R.

A quick check of the site and I found they do indeed give you a warning that says “mature content, 18 years or older” – so you are warned before going to a section that is NSFW.

Check out Good Smile Company.

If you’ve always dreamed of having huge eyes like the characters in your favorite anime, now you can!  Apparently this somewhat sketchy appearing site is now selling contact lenses that have a much larger colored area than normal colored contacts.  This gives the appearence of much larger eyes.

The site says:

Wanna get big watery shiny eyes without plastic surgery?  Always crave to get big eyes like Korean actresses and famous Ayumi Hamasaki?

I suppose if you’re really into cosplay, it’d be worth the $35.  Of course, personally I don’t stick anything in my eyes (but I’m a big chicken).

What do you think?

Over on the Japancast Social Site, I’ve asked everyone to make sure they have an avatar & upload a photo.  However, some people don’t want to use their photo for their avatar and don’t know how to make one.  I just found a site that will let you create your own avatar in manga style.  It’s easy to use and does a pretty nice job.  Here is an avatar of me.

So head over to http://www.faceyourmanga.com and create your avatar and then upload it to the Japancast Social Site!

From AWN News and Variety:

Paramount Pictures and Brad Pitt’s Plan B have purchased the rights to manga series MIKI FALLS, per VARIETY.

TV writer Sera Gamble will adapt the four-volume series from Mark Crilley. MIKI FALLS is about Miki Yoshida’s senior year in high school. When she tries to befriend handsome new student Hiro Sakurai she is met with resistance, but she stubbornly refuses to take no for an answer, leading to a surprising revelation about the secretive teenage boy.

Crilley is best known for the AKIKO young adult novels and comics. The first of the MIKI FALLS series, each of which is a calendar season, was published in May 2007 by HarperTeen.

Gamble is a producer on SUPERNATURAL on The CW and was a staff writer on EYES on ABC. She was a finalist on PROJECT GREENLIGHT for her screenplay CHEEKS.