Early sales of the much anticipated PS3 Slim have already begun, and some have taken the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the internal layout as well…
Old power supply:
The new power supply unit:
The power consumption has supposedly been halved, along with the noise output.
Versus the Xbox 360:
The PS3 comes equipped with a “Reality Synthesizer”:
You can see more of the disassembly at source, as well as find out how to take the unit apart should you be so minded.
A doujin circle was recently forced to pull its assortment of ero-figures during Comiket 76 for being too hot for sale there.
As the figures are still readily available through shops such as Tora no Ana however, the opportunity to inspect what exactly it takes to be banned from the Comiket is too good to pass up…
The figures are the products of 希馬屋 / Keumaya, originally a more typical doujinshi maker before focusing on producing ero-figures that are sold at doujin events and via consignment shops.
During the August 14-16 event, this notice was placed on the Keumaya website, edited for brevity and translated below:
Notice of Comiket Figure Sale Supension
Due to the inappropriateness of Keumaya figures’ nether regions (i.e., crotch, groin), the sale of the figures at this year’s Natsucon has been suspended.
Taking into consideration the bother caused to the Comiket Preparation Comittee, special attention will be paid in the future to ensure that something of this manner does not occur a second time.
Again, I would like to apologize here for the nuisance caused to the gentlemen that had to come to the Keumaya circle booth.
Furthermore, the sales suspension only affects Comiket.
The plans for consignment sales at Tora no Ana for Chou-Kangofu (Super Nurse) Kotone-chan and Aku Mashi (Evil Witch Girl) Normal Ver. will continue as planned.
Plans for what to do with the event-exclusive GAL Mashi figure are still undecided.
News of the figures being banned from sale at Comiket encouraged one figure fan to order two of the figures being sold at the event for a closer look.
These are the 悪魔子（ノーマル） / Evil Witch Girl (Normal) on the left, and 超看護婦ペインキラー琴音ちゃん / Super Nurse Painkiller Kotone-chan on the right.
Kotone-chan also came with a small ero-doujinshi as a furoku, a sample page of which can be found near the bottom of this article.
Both figures look to be of a very good build quality, although the large-breasted Witch’s face might be off-putting to most.
The unassembled state the figures are sold as shows the detail paid to the girls’ ero features, which leads to the reason for the figure’s removal from Comiket:
As can clearly be seen in the above images (censored by the blogger), the Keumaya figures’ loins are indeed more detailed than the norm; more typically this area is either left less obvious or even bare, covered by a non-removable piece of clothing through which pubic outlines are hinted at.
It is not a surprise that the figure was removed from the Comiket – the especially ero figures of this sort are typically reserved for figure-only events where the decency guidelines for figures are more lax, though of course it raises the question of why differences between the events exist…
In any case, the figures are quite accomplished for doujin products, especially Kotone-chan here, and their banning by the Comiket authorities can only add to their allure.
Kotone-chan’s instructions leaflet.
More information on Keumaya’s offerings can be found at the official website.
Via Sore wa Watashi no Mougen Da.
The Democratic Party of Japan, Japan’s leftist opposition party, seems intent on continuing its long history as an opposition party, having announced that it will “solve” Japan’s impending economic collapse under the weight of an unrealistically generous pension system by raising income taxes for all Japanese by a staggering 15%.
The plan, part of their election manifesto, would see a uniform 15% increase in income taxes (disguised as a pension plan) across all of Japan’s already hard pressed workers, irrespective of earnings; the cash would apparently be earmarked for squandering by Japan’s rapidly growing elderly population.
The policies favoured by the ruling coalition are more concerned to avoid any further strangulation of Japan’s fragile economy with excessive taxation, and center on reductions in the amount of pensions payable, though there is some doubt they have the capability to undertake serious reform.
It seems no matter what incompetence the LDP is capable of mustering, the opposition parties are capable of worse, a pattern which seems set to ensure the LDP’s almost uninterrupted 50 year reign is to continue…
Via 47news.
The Democratic Party of Japan, Japan’s leftist opposition party, seems intent on continuing its long history as an opposition party, having announced that it will “solve” Japan’s impending economic collapse under the weight of an unrealistically generous pension system by raising income taxes for all Japanese by a staggering 15%.
The plan, part of their election manifesto, would see a uniform 15% increase in income taxes (disguised as a pension plan) across all of Japan’s already hard pressed workers, irrespective of earnings; the cash would apparently be earmarked for squandering by Japan’s rapidly growing elderly population.
The policies favoured by the ruling coalition are more concerned to avoid any further strangulation of Japan’s fragile economy with excessive taxation, and center on reductions in the amount of pensions payable, though there is some doubt they have the capability to undertake serious reform.
It seems no matter what incompetence the LDP is capable of mustering, the opposition parties are capable of worse, a pattern which seems set to ensure the LDP’s almost uninterrupted 50 year reign is to continue…
Via 47news.
Microsoft has responded to the findings that the Xbox 360 has a 54% failure rate with in a way which raises more questions than it answers…
An MS PR flack glosses over the failure rate, only saying that they have a good warranty and are trying to improve the design:
“Microsoft stands behind the Xbox 360 as a superior entertainment console with one of the best warranties in the industry. We are constantly improving the design, manufacture and performance of the console through extensive testing of potential sources of any problems.
Xbox 360 is pleased to maintain the title of ‘most played console’ and the vast majority of Xbox 360 customers have enjoyed a terrific gaming and entertainment experience since their first day, and continue to, day in and day out.”
Curiously, they don’t dispute the 54% failure rate itself…
Via Game Spark.
The new Xbox 360 release of erotic hostess love procurement game Dream C Club was heralded over the weekend by a promotional mini-caravan tour through Akihabara of an ita-bus (presumably the same seen before as the Chaos;Head ita-bus), itasha, and several maid-hostess cosplayers.
The game, a console hostess “eroge” somewhat akin to IdolM@ster (be sure to see the screencaps of the game’s delightful oppai grabbing scenes), is the latest in a long line of promotional Akiba ita-bus marketing stunts.
The ita-mobiles made rounds throughout the otaku metropolis over the whole weekend, but one particular event at a games store likely attracted the most attention with the vehicles parked and the cosplayers out and on full display.
Those fortunate enough to be walking by were handed these attractive business cards:
Via Akiba Souken and Dengeki Online.
The cards, not all shown here, each show one of the various hostesses, along with moe messages such as Reika’s “I’ll believe (in you) always. Your dream will come true.”
In addition to the many photos of the very visible vehicles, some videos were taken that show the ita-mobiles traveling around town:
The threat from Sony’s PS3 Slim seems to have galled Microsoft into action, for the Xbox 360 is set to receive a major price cut (for the Elite model at any rate) from $399 to $299.
The cut leaves the Xbox 360 Elite and the PS3 Slim on level ground (if we ignore the moderate technical edge the PS3 possesses), with both having very similar features, though the lack of BD capability or any shiny new design suggests Microsoft will be attempting to emphasise its larger library of titles even as it hacks away at the price of its notoriously shoddy console.
So far only US retailers have announced a cut, but presumably international price cuts will follow…
Via Hachimaki.
Sony has already begun its advertising campaign for the PS3 Slim, but Xbox fans have sought to highlight the advantages of their console with some guerilla Photoshop work:
This is of course a tacit reference to the astonishing progress the Xbox 360 has made in reducing the size of its power brick…
Sony itself has a rather curious TV advertising campaign, though it fails to include anything so crude as an actual game, or for that matter any details of the product itself…
Sony’s much heralded PS3 Slim seems an immediate hit, but any objective comparison seems to reveal its slimness is rather overstated, with shrewd marketing and the substantial price cut the real cause of attention.
The comparison above illustrates the sizes of the major recent consoles in some detail…
Of these units, perhaps only the original Xbox stands out as being excessive, with its lack of vertical design the main issue rather than absolute size.
Nintendo’s impressively compact devices are perhaps less impressive when their inferior technical capabilities are taken into account, though they are at least inexpensive.
By far the most impressive of these is the PS2 Slim, a unit Sony still seems keen to sell, with some speculating that their refusal to release full PS2 emulation for the PS3 is in fact a ploy to prop up the PS2’s viability…
Whilst the defining experience of western gaming is generally held to be some variation on dismembering an enemy whilst setting him on fire, the defining element of Japanese gaming is clearly schoolgirls being pursued by tentacles, with plenty of breast jiggle and low angles.
This breast jiggle, or chichi-yure in technical parlance, has over the ages been elevated to a fine art and a sophisticated technology, and the plethora of games exhibiting such oppai physics have exerted such fascination as to inspire the below series of breast jiggling game videos:
(If the tickered comments are getting in the way of your enjoyment of the oppai, you can turn them off with speech bubble icon; if the video fails to load, blame it on Hiroyuki’s disinterest in running an actual business and try reloading the page.)
Perhaps the real question is just how anyone collected all these…
Sony’s longed for PS3 Slim has been greeted rapturously, with the console topping pre-order charts at retailers in the Japan and US alike. Extensive details on the design of the device have become available, and are visible below.
Additionally, new firmware has been announced for release (to all PS3s) before the year is out, finally offering full PS2 compatibility.
The unit in detail:
The unit goes from 325×274×98mm at 5kg to 290×290×65mm at 3.2kg. Running noise is also decreased.
The PS3 Slim is due September at $299.
2ch pokes fun at all the progress the Xbox 360 has made over the years:
Sony on the other hand has been busy, perhaps out of desperation:
A direct comparison of the three models:
Microsoft’s next move is not clear; globally it has sold 31 million units as compared to the PS3’s 23 million, but with no new model available and prices already low, it may have difficulty immediately answering the PS3’s challenge with anything but its more extensive software lineup.
Microsoft also apparently denies any intent to cut prices to compete, though it is hard see what other option they might have…