Francesco, and editor for Hobby Media in Italy, sends me word of a new book he’s co-edited for an art book publisher there (Drago) called SAMURAI GIRL, covering the photography of Julie Watai, who you might have seen as an idol in the group Pikapika or in the pages of SMARTGIRL.

In the past I’ve posted monthly reports on the top search terms that lead to this site, and stopped a while back since it got quite boring — looking at June’s top 20, 8 are related to Samurai Champloo. But I think it gets interesting if you look at 21-40:

21. jeans – Anyone want to start brand with me?

22. gamecube+advance – I’m surprised my little post (proclamation of love) on this hoax got so much attention. I’d still love to see this really happen!

23. shojo+beat – Anyone pick up the first issue? I’d love to have a look at it, which I’ll be able to do next month when I’m in Canada for 3 weeks.

24. bape+shoes – I imagine it must be due to this neverending Bape thread (things seem to have died down on the Boa thread, but it still gets at least one new comment a month). And while on the topic of Bape, I stopped by the Bapexclusive shop in Aoyama the other day, and they’re it’s still closed for renovations.

25. mikako+ichikawa – Because, you know, I have a huge crush on her.

26. %b2%60%a5%d0%ae%a5%a4l – Could this be some code for Japanese text? I’ve never used any Japanese text in my posts, but maybe in some comments somewhere.

27. samurai+champloo+episode+download
28. samurai+champloo+direct+download – Sorry to disappoint all these people, but I never link to torrents on this site.

29. tokyo+street+style – Well, this makes sense, although I don’t think I use that particularly wording much, else it would probably be much higher.

30. bae+yong+joon+girlfriend – Hahaha… This is just ridiculous. Are these people looking to be his girlfriend? There must really be nothing in English on this guy, since I probably just mentioned his name once, and as a joke.

31. nagi+noda – It’s just sad that this is probably because of that post I wrote on the pakuri thing (from a Marxy post). I really am a fan of her work.

32. samurai+champloo+episode+downloads
33. samurai%20champloo%20wallpapers – It really is a great series, by the way, and I was quite sad to see it end. I’m hoping they’ll get around to making a movie, like they did for Watanabe’s COWBOY BEBOP.

34. erog – Meme alert!

35. anna+kaneshiro – Probably referring to a post I wrote on THE RETURNER, which stars Ann Suzuki and Takeshi Kaneshiro.

36. tokyo+blog – Bingo!

37. speed+grapher – Anyone been following this one? I’m still enjoying it, but I’m not as excited about it as I was at first. I probably wouldn’t care much if it ended at 13 episodes.

38. japanese+jeans – Jeans! Now!

39. pxr-5+watch – Following that post I wrote about really wanting one, the designer, Michael Young, actually contacted me and told me he’d send me one.

40. jean – The one and only.

Just to keep you up to date with what seems to be worth watching right now in the anime world. First of all, the excellent MONSTER continues with a second season (seasons are generally 13 episodes). Looks like things are going to heat up very soon, with Dr. Tenma’s ex-fiance now joining the hunt. The new show that follows MONSTER on Tuesday nights is called OTOGIZOUSHI, and it looks like it’s going to be a nice one. What first caught my eye was the quality of the animation, and after watching the first episode I can see that there’s something else there worth staying for. The series takes place during the Heian period (10th century), and seems like it’s going to feature some mysticism.

SAMURAI 7 is also still holding my interest, with some nice character designs, and a world that sees itself as a nice mix of old and new (the series is a futuristic take on Kurosawa Akira’s SEVEN SAMURAI). The only thing that ruins it is the godawful song that plays during the opening credits. Makes my ears bleed everytime.

I also checked out a new series called KURAU PHANTOM MEMORY, which is a definite strange piece of work. After being warned by a friend that I should steer clear, curiosity got the best of me and I gave the first episode a shot. Well, the first half looks like a typical shojo manga (girls comics), and then in the second half it turns into GHOST IN THE SHELL. Although I’m not really crazy about the show, I think I’ll have a look at the second episode, just to see where they’re heading with this.

And unfortunately, Kon Satoshi’s PARANOIA AGENT is now at an end, after 13 episodes. I’ll admit to being a bit disappointed with how it ended, leaving too many unanswered questions, and relying too much on the supernatural. Maybe a second viewing will clear things up.