The funniest thing for me about this clip is that I actually remember watching it on TV when it originally aired (maybe in 2002), before I ever met Patrick.

Momus does a round-up of YouTube videos of comedian Miyuki Torii in action — her comedy persona is that of a deranged woman — but more surprising is the gravure video of her he dug up. I’d seen old clips of her doing regular “tarento” stints, but didn’t know about her gravure past.

One thing he doesn’t report is that Torii apparently does in fact suffer from psychological issues, with her scarred wrists the remnants of past suicide attempts. It’s been quite a successful year for her though, with her comedy career really taking off at the start of the year. I think the first time I saw her perform was on 99′s GuruNai Friday night TV show, on the “Omoshiro Sou” segments late last year.

Me and my wife talk about this a lot, but comedy duo 99 really have quite an eye in terms of comedy talent. It’s not just that they’re my favorite comedians — I’ve been following them for over 10 years now — but I’d say that at least 80-90% of the new comedians that make it big first broke on either one of those GuruNai segments, or even on Mecha Ike, in the annual “Kuwasugi” parody corner.

Some nice new IDs for MTV Japan by W+K Tokyo.

NHK have posted all five shorts for the third season of their ANI-KURI series online (the first two seasons are available as well). The third season has quite the line-up of directors: Shoji Kawamori (MACROSS), Satoshi Kon (PAPRIKA), Mahiro Maeda (BLUE SUBMARINE NO. 6), Michael Arias (TEKKONKINKREET) and Makoto Shikai (VOICES OF A DISTANT STAR). Via Anime News Network.

I’m a big fan of the TV series LOST — it’s the one show I watch religiously, every Friday night with my wife, as soon as a new episode is out — and here’s a surprising merch tie-in, Kubrick figures of the main characters from the show. Now, as much as I love Kubricks and their generic one-size-fits-all shape, I do have one question: which one is Kate?

Last night I started watching the sequel to 2004′s beautiful cell-shaded CG film APPLESEED, 2007′s EX MACHINA, and I’m loving it. They’ve managed to one-up the original film by creating a look that’s more detailed, yet still uses cell-shading (can’t say yet if the story will match the original though). I’m also rather happy to see that the previously announced (back in 2005) TV series is still on track, also to be CG, and will be directed by Romanov Higa, who created that cool URDA web animation from a few years back. Anime News Network has more on the new series.

The extended trailer above is for EX MACHINA. The music at the start is by Sketch Show, who created the soundtrack for the film.

Over at Neojaponisme, Marxy dissects CURRICULUMACHINE, a very funky Japanese children’s show from the seventies. Sure wish I’d grown up watching that!

Starting today and running all week, NHK World TV’s TOKYO EYE is running a special episode to celebrate 1 year on the air, with a selection of segments from throughout the run. I’m told the visit I did to Cow Books in Nakameguro is to be included, and I expect you’ll see Patrick Macias and Matt Alt as well. Check here for the broadcast schedule.

The latest segment I did for the TOKYO EYE program is currently airing in this week’s episode (#48, you can see the broadcast schedule on NHK World here). It covers the Sanya area, which has long been known as an area with cheap hotels (frequented by day-laborers mostly), but in recent years has turned its attention to backpackers and budget travelers — most of the hotels/hostels offer rooms for as little as 2000 yen (even 1500 yen if you don’t mind cramped quarters). Unfortunately, as with the last segment I did, I won’t be able to put it up on YouTube.

I really like NHK’s mascot Domo-kun, and so does Mimibots it seems, according to this JoshSpear.com post.

I’m told that the “My Private Tokyo” segment I did a few months back for TOKYO EYE on Higashi-Ikebukuro pocket parks will run again along with some other segments covering disaster prevention (September 1 is disaster prevention day in Japan). It will air September 12 on NHK WORLD, and September 19 here in Japan on the NHK Chijo-Digital Educational channel. You can watch the segment here, or see photos of all the pocket parks here.

This week’s episode of TOKYO EYE (#40) — it starts airing today — is the one which has me in the studio for the entire taping, and features the longest segment I’ve done yet, about 10 minutes long, on the creative use of space in Japanese architecture, featuring a few examples of what Atelier Bow-Wow calls “pet architecture.” The most exciting thing about the piece is that we were able to shoot at the now quite famous Moriyama House, and it’s in fact the first time the home has ever appeared on TV. When you watch the show, you’ll recognize the Coffee Saloon Kimoto, as well as the motorcyle and scooter showroom pictured above. This exclusive does mean that I won’t be able to put it online as I’ve done with my past segments. The broadcast schedule is listed here, at the bottom of the page.

Here’s the segment I did for NHK World’s TOKYO EYE program, as part of their “My Private Tokyo” series, on the pocket parks of Higashi-Ikebukuro (I wrote about the show here, and have photos of each here). As you can see, the idea here was to be a bit more wacky, which helps explain my, huh, “genki” demeanor.

As I mentioned in my post about the this week’s “My Private Tokyo” segment I did for NHK’s TOKYO EYE program, I took a photo of each of the 11 pocket parks, which you can view in this Flickr photoset. Pictured above are the Higasa park and the Sun Sun park.

I did another “My Private Tokyo” segment for the TOKYO EYE program on NHK World, and it airs this week starting Wednesday (see this page for the broadcast schedule). In it, I visit a collection of wacky “pocket parks” (called tsuji-hiroba) in Higashi-Ikebukuro. There are 11 of these tiny “theme” parks, and I took a picture of each, which I’ll try to post later this week. I’m going to be doing more segments for TOKYO EYE as well, and I’ll post more details as they get ready to air.