Taro wins LDP presidency | PPGZ flies stateside

It’s official.  Taro Aso is the president of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which all but assures his ascension to become the next Prime Minister of Japan.  His victory is no doubt thanks to a last minute boost from this guy.

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Futanari, as explained by an online translation service AkibaBlog English.

Staying on the same topic, Yuribou has an essay on the relationship between yuri and futanari, positing the latter is a perversion of the former.  I can’t say I agree with the premise… yuri, despite current popular view of it, came into being as a genre for women.  Futanari, despite easy misconceptions by non-fans, is almost purely the domain of straight porno manga/anime for men.  Given such intrinsically desparate roots, I can’t reconcile the two genres in such a way.  Nevertheless the essay makes a very interesting point about the porno-fying properties of the penis.  There’s really nothing modest or demure about that organ, is there?  When that guy makes an appearance, you have a pretty good idea where things are headed…

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Missed it… Pink Tentacle has a follow-up on the doll dumping case that gained the Shizuoka police international fame as Clouseau-esque bunglers.  A 60-year-old man turned himself in to the authorities, explaining his action as the sentimental desperation of a widower who found years of solace in his artificial companion.  (Ironically, these high-end sex dolls retain resale value like a Toyota.  He could have easily sold the doll online.)

Imagine, had this incident involved a real, unconcious person, a similar course of action by the police would have led to his/her suffocation.  And now they may charge an old man with littering.  Boobs. (Found via Japanator)    

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The Australian offers yet another mainstream look at Japanese otaku, although this one has a bit more hands-on research than most.

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AnimeNation’s Ask John column once again tackles the topic of lolicon: is it alright to, or should I feel dirty?  No opinion to add (you all can guess where I stand)… I merely want to point out that, if you copied the entire post plus comments into Word using Times New Roman at a font size of 12, the resulting document would be just over 10 pages long.

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Speaking of which, The Cartoon Network indicated at Anime Weekend Atlanta that they are porting the Japanese-made Powerpuff Girls Z into the US.  Ai-yai-yai… this is just going to lead to a lot more people asking the same question above, isn’t it.

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Also at AWA, Gia Manry has a recap of Dark Horse’s panel, revealing some information on the publisher’s secretive CLAMP project, and a re-announced release for Oh My Goddess! Colors in 2009.