dannychoo.com - Danny Choo : Anime, Figures, Idols, Gundam, Otaku and Events from Japan

Featured Anime Voice Actor ,Seiyu: Mamoru Miyano

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:58:00 +0900

Welcome to another weekly post about famous Seiyus , anime voice actors. This is just a fun little post that will hopefully surprise you to see who does the voices of your favorite characters and you might find out it's the same person for a bunch of them. This week's Seiyu is Mamoru Miyano. Mamoru was born June 8th 1983 in Saitama, Japan. He is most famous for doing the voice of Light Yagami in Death Note. Light isn't his only very popular voice though. He was also the voice of Tamaki Suou from Host Club and you can currently hear him as the voice of the fan-girl favorite, Zero Kiryu from Vampire Knight. He's also a popular video-game seiyu as he is the voice of Kingdom Heart's Riku. Recently he's also been working closely with game developer Koei on some of their recent projects with a role in Kiniro no Corda already under his belt. Fan-girls will get ticked if I also don't mention the fact that he played Renji Yanagi in the Prince of Tennis Live Action Film. It's no surprise with such title roles he was nominated in Japan's Seiyu awards for his role as Light Yagami. This role did recently give him the award for best actor at the 2008 Tokyo International Anime Fair. Click Here to see more info on him via wikipedia of course.
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/07/15 04:10

Clove 2, Wireless Typing With One Hand

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:01:00 +0900

Stumbled upon this interesting gadget just recently via Engadget. Pretty cool amateur invention, looks very much like the old Nintendo Power Glove. If you could beat the learning curve of this, would you honestly find use for it?

By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/07/14 05:13

Yet Another Dragon Ball Movie Banner

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 09:21:00 +0900

I was about to end my day online but I just had to show you all this. I know, many of us otaku are very scared about the Dragon Ball movie and we are all pondering how bad Hollywood will screw it up. Lets just hope for the best though... right ^^? Anyways, in the picture you can see Bulma (top left), Goku (front and center), Chi Chi (Goku's right)..who BTW we haven't seen before this and is the better of the actor choices, I feel; Master Roshi...Chow Yun Fat, Mai(top right, also first time seen). Also if you look at the very top you will see the eyes of Piccolo for the first time who we all know is being played by James Marsters aka Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/07/12 08:33

Batman Gotham Knight Anime Collaboration

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:42:00 +0900

If any of you watched just one episode of well..anything on Cartoon Network you should have caught a commercial for the new batman animated collaboration that just came out today. A quick look of the obviously amazing animation lets you know its indeed anime. Similar to the Animatrix, this is a 6 episode mixture of a couple Japanese anime studios including my favorite studio responsible for Death Note, Final Fantasy VII: Last Order and The Boondocks, Madhouse. Other studios involved with this project include Production I.G. and Studio 4C being directed by greats such as Shojiro Nishimi, Futoshi Higashide, Hiroshi Morioka, Yasuhiro Aoki, and Toshiyuki Kubooka. Of course leave it to Japan to animate Batman into something of awe (finally). There is a contest currently going on at the official site here where you can win by discovering all 6 exclusive videos.
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/07/09 02:54

Featured Anime Voice Actor: Vic Mignogna

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:54:00 +0900

Welcome to another weekly segment on anime's most famous voice actors both English and Japanese. This week is none other than the English voice of Edward Elric, Vic Mignogna. Vic was born in Greensburg Pennsylvania in 1962. As stated before, he's most famous for his voice as Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist but he also did the voices of Virgil from Trinity Blood, Brolly from DBZ, Fai Flowright from Tsubasa Chronicals and even Luffy from One Piece. As of yesterday it became official that he'll even be the voice of Tamaki Suou from Ouran High School Host Club. More of his voice works here on the wikipedia page of course. Vic is well known to be a joker and just a great otaku himself. At conventions he tends to create the anime commercials for the conventions and usually will bring in random fans to help. He even worked with Steven Blum on an anime parody similar to Budweiser's "Real Fans of Genius" also called "Real Fans of Genius." It of course pokes a bit of fun at convention otakus in a fun way including such titles as "Ms. Bewildered Con Mother," and "Mr. Hallway Sleeper Guy." Wonder if he'll come up with the oh so needed "Ms. Too Damn Big for that Cosplay Girl.".... Just kidding ^^;; I got the honor to meet with him back 05' at I-Con and caught him flirting with the some of the girls since apparently he's seen by many of the female otaku as a good looker. At the end of one his panels he gave a wonderful speech about college in general and living your dreams. He shared many of the same views I have about the whole college system and being in business for yourself by branding yourself and learning to run your own life. He urged students (since this was at Stony Brook University) to go by their dreams and not be in a subject just to make their parents happy. He of course further implemented that what I already knew about not being controlled by a boss in a job. If any of you ever go to a convention that he attends, be sure to attend his panels. Vic does have an award for Best Actor in the American Anime Awards but despite his celebrity status, he's a very humble guy. Check out his official site here and his fan club, named Risembool Rangers from FullMetal of course. Update: I also forgot to mention that on the same panel with Vic I was also able to meet with none other than Brad Swaile, the voice of Light Yagame from Death Note and Quatre from Gundam Wing. Check out his handy work here on a post by user: zoniku
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/07/07 02:06

Pantsu Shirts

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:43:00 +0900

As of yesterday one of my product dealers came out with this shirt. For fans of pantsu by far. Who wouldn't mind wearing this shirt?
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/07/03 04:55

Featured Anime Voice Actor; Seiyu: Megumi Hayashibara

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:08:00 +0900

Welcome to another weekly summery on famous anime voice actors, aka seiyus. This week I've finally posted a non-gaijin Seiyu and most probably the most famous of them all, Ms. Megumi Hayashibara. Hayashibara was born on March 30th, 1967 in the Kita (northern) part of Tokyo, Japan. As you can see from the mini-picture collage I made of her, her most famous roles are that of Rei Ayanami from Neon Genesis Evangelion and Faye Valentine from Cowboy Bebop. Other roles she has done voices for include Musashi (Jessie) from Pokemon, Haruka Urashima from Love Hina, and female Ranma Saotome from Ranma 1/2. Ms. Hayashibara is also a famous singer with many of her songs becoming major hits in Japan. Most recently she did the Slayers MEGUMIX CD, so she also does the music for some anime titles. She is also the host of Tokyo Boogie Night and Heartful Station, two very popular radio stations in Japan that also with feature works from other Seiyu. On top of that she even has an autobiographical Manga called Ashita ga aru sa, aka Megumi-Toons. In short, she by far lives the dream of many otaku. if you can read Japanese, check out her website here. More info on her and credits to this post go to: Wikipedia Anime News Network imdb
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/07/01 05:20

Featured Anime Voice Actor: Richard Ian Cox

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:52:00 +0900

Welcome to another weekly segment about famous anime voice actors both English and Japanese. This week's feature voice actor is non other than Richard Ian Cox. Richard is most famous for of course his role as the voice of the famous dog-demon, Inuyasha. With the Inuyasha manga finishing its final chapter in Shonen Jump yesterday and with a possible continuation of the anime, Richard is the perfect voice actor to feature. I also have a funny story to tell related to him, that I'll mention later. Born on October 3rd 1973 in St. Asaph, Wales, Richard Ian Cox is actually a rather prominent TV actor even if you don't include his wide array of anime dubs. His first claim to fame as stated in his wikipedia page was when he co-stared with Mickey Rooney in the early 90's adaptation of Black Stallion. His other TV roles include Dr. Brendan Gaul on Stargate Atlantis, the helicopter pilot in the 2007 Ghost Rider movie and even The Outer Limits. Anime roles include Inuyasha (of course, Ranma Saotome: Male version from Ranma 1/2, Itta from .hack//ROOTS and even Zaacro + Spice from the original Ocean Group Dub of Dragon Ball Z...yes the same dub that includes the famous Vegeta dub with "Over 9000!" Zaacro and Spice being Garlic Jr.'s minions in Dead Zone I believe. Richard also did voices in non-anime like My Little Pony and recently Care Bears. Currently he directs "South Delta Secondary School," a theater production. Chances are he'll do the voice of Inuyasha again as there might be more episodes now that the manga is complete. I got a chance to meet Richard Cox back in 2002 at I-CON 22 at Stony Brook University in New York. He was very nice to the fans and his normal voice is exactly what you hear when you hear Inuyasha. He doesn't change it much for the role. Here's where the funny instance happened: That year Danielle and I cosplayed as Tidus and Yuna from FFX and during the contest we played out the kissing scene in front of a whole crowd. More embarrassing yet was that the first row consisted of Richard Cox and the entire Viz crew! (Image of us just before or just after the kiss (kinda forgot ^^;) at the bottom of the original blog post) Later in the day we attended Richard and Viz's dubbing workshop and Richard singled us out stating that there's no kissing in there.. in a nice and funny way. Danielle even got to dub as Sango during it which was pretty cool. Chances are Richard would remember that if I meet him again and even though its been 6 years ago since then, only my hair got shorter, so he'll remember. He'll also probably question why he goes to those conventions. ^^;
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/06/24 01:04

Featured Anime Voice Actor: Steven Blum

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 06:00:00 +0900

Welcome to my weekly segment about famous anime voice actors both Japanese and English. Ever listened to an anime and said to yourself, "I've heard that voice before." Chances are you are correct. What better way to start off this weekly post by talking about a voice actor that probably ranks among the most heard English anime voice actors of all time. Steven Blum, born April 28th, 1965 in Santa Monica, California has been in a slew of anime, video game, non-anime titles and a surprise one that is not mentioned in Wikipedia. (I'll mention later). Currently he does the voice of Kyōshirō Tōdō on Code Geass. He is probably most famous though for his voice as Spike Spiegel from the anime classic, Cowboy Bebop. Other notable roles include Orochimaru from Naruto, Tom from Cartoon Network's Toonami segment, Roger Smith from Big-O, Vincent Valentine from Final Fantasy VII Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus, and even some voices in Halo 3. Steven Blum also did a documentary about his voice acting called, "Adventures in Voice Acting." I have not seen it but like other otaku, I would like to be a voice actor too so that might be worth the watch. The one mention that you don't see on his wikipedia page, in which you can get his very large list of works from, as of this post is that he also does the voice in the 7-11 commercials. I have yet to meet him in person but he does go around to conventions and the like even though he apparently isn't a big fan of anime. He does respect it though (and hopefully the fat paycheck it should bring him). -Info thanks to imdb and wikipedia -Picture photoshopped by me. (update: Looks as if the "Oh thank heaven" 7-11 note is now on wikipedia.)
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/06/17 05:12

Anime.fm Completed

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:50:00 +0900

In a previous post I mentioned that I got anime.fm up and running. As of today I finished getting all the play-lists and other features on there. Of course there is always more to add but I can finally say I have an operational website. Hope you all enjoy ^_^
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/06/02 06:02

PSP Makes Use of DualShock Controller

Sat, 31 May 2008 06:10:00 +0900

It would have been cool if I had this when I played through Crisis Core. Awsome hack by Acidmods member Blizzrad that makes it so he can play any game on the PSP with a DualShock Controller. Image, video and story via Engadget.

By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/05/31 05:22

Anime.fm is Up and Running

Wed, 28 May 2008 05:14:00 +0900

I got the basic version of Anime.fm up today. Right now I have an anime playlist on there with much more on the way including a blogroll, amvs and more music categories. The banner is a photo-shopped version of Jorge Chang's "Anime Music" picture.
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/05/28 04:26

To Heart 2: Sasara Kusugawa Swimsuit w/ Maid Outfit Figure

Mon, 26 May 2008 19:51:00 +0900

Fans of the To Heart dating sim won't be disappointed with this figure. This beauty is made by Griffon. As of yesterday it went up for pre-order for us here in the US along with a whole slew of new figures....most of them won't come out till about x-mas time here but there's always the option of importing them once they come out in Japan ^_^. Sasara will run you about 7000 yen, (~$75) though. A few more images can be found here on my blog.
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/05/26 19:03

Final Fantasy VII Tifa Version II Resin Figure

Tue, 20 May 2008 01:19:00 +0900

This is an old figure and tough to find now but its of my #1 favorite anime/game girl of all time, Tifa Lockhart. A while back I posted some pictures of this prized figure. Tifa's has been the centerpiece on my desk since 2002 and is my #1 figure, followed closely by Mirei-San. Kotobukiya created her back in 01' and she's made of resin. I also have Yuffie and Aerith but Aerith died...I mean broke on her way to me due to how fragile resin can be. (Yes, I need to dust her off even more and my pics could be at least a little better ^ ^;)
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/05/20 00:31

The Gackt, FFVII Genesis Connection

Sat, 17 May 2008 05:09:00 +0900

For any otaku who didn't know, Japanese music artist Gackt is in fact Genesis from FFVII Dirge of Cerberus and the recent Crisis Core game. Character designer Tetsuya Nomura is a big fan of his work and had him create his song "Redemption" for Dirge of Cerberus. If I'm not mistaken, Gackt even did the Japanese voice for Genesis in Crisis Core. It is also rumored that FFVIII's Squall was also based on Gackt. It'll be great to see him again when Square-Enix makes the next installment in the Complilation of FFVII series. I also attached the Redemption video for you all to see.

By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/05/17 04:21

Ghost In The Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG Motoko Kusanagi 1/7 Scale PVC

Fri, 16 May 2008 01:09:00 +0900

Finally out in the states is Alter and Vice's Motoko Kusanagi figure. This 1/7 scale figure really looks identical to Motoko in Ghost In The Shell 2nd GIG. Runs about $80 though but I wouldn't mind having it in my collection. A few more pics of her are here on my blog.
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/05/16 00:21

Popopure Maid Café Lets You Dub Anime

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:35:00 +0900

That's correct; at this new Maid Cafe in the Otaku shopping district of Akihabara you can dub a scene in an anime. If there are not enough people to play the roles, the maids help you out and just before you leave you receive your own copy of your work. More info on it here at my blog .
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/05/14 21:47

First Picture of Justin Chatwin as Goku

Tue, 13 May 2008 03:56:00 +0900

Well, here it is..the first picture of Justin Chatwin as Goku. I don't know what to say about the Live action DBZ movie in the works... I really hope it doesn't suck. More DBZ movie info here at my blog.
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/05/13 03:08

Sengoku Rance: Suzume 1/8 Scale PVC Figure

Sun, 11 May 2008 01:10:00 +0900

I simply love the way this figure looks. Stinks that we got to wait till October here before she comes out. That's what I get for living in the US ^ ^;. Anyways, I have some more pictures of Suzume on my blog.
By Chuck Gaffney on 2008/05/11 00:22