The 3rd of four posts. The lead protagonist of the long-running grand manga/anime series One Piece, will appear on the cover of Men’s Non-No fashion magazine in their January issue. Monkey D. Luffy, the series’ main character, will be the first manga/anime character to appear on the cover in the magazine’s 24-year run. It is also Eiichiro Oda’s first cover illustration for a magazine that is not manga or anime related. Very cool! [More at AnimeNewsNetwork]

The first eight pages of this issue will showcase models who resemble various characters from the One Piece universe such as Nami, Robin, Zoro and Sanji.
This goes to show the status of the One Piece franchise. I say give it 5 to 6 more years, and One Piece will reach the level of influence, grandness and omnipresence that Dragonball had and still has. Oda explicitly states that his biggest influence was Akira Toriyama and his mammoth Dragonball franchise, so it isn’t far-fetched to say that One Piece will follow in his footsteps. They DID get together to create a one-shot collaboration, Cross Epoch. Sidenote: Doesn’t Luffy’s outer jacket resemble a something Gokou wears?

Another leading man on the cover of a magazine is Korea-superstar Rain on the Korean Allure magazine, promoting his latest blockbuster film Ninja Assassin. [More at AllureKorea]

Not much to say here. Asian men, feel inadequate? (:

-phibz.

Errgh. Arrgh.

Way to scare kids. If this were the States, parents would’ve sued the building management before Halloween.

I never really liked labeling Halloween as a holiday, because if it isn’t on a weekend, you don’t have the day off. In my book that’s not a holiday, just a day with a special title to it. Kind of like Valentines Day. But rest assured, if Halloween rests on a weekday, the weekend closest to it will have the craziest of sh*ts going down!

Luckily enough on this two thousand and ninth year, Halloween was on a SATURDAY! And the festivities were felt all around! To start off, I present to you..

The Heroic Melon Collective presents,
Random Antics Volume 11:
Zombie Walk 2009

Lester Calleja and Alex Chung were on their way to watch Zombieland when a hoard of uncanny started marching their way! Please subscribe to our Heroic Melon YouTube Channel!

Nothing is more awemazing than seeing friends bring out their awesome with their costumes, and congregate under the same roof. My heart goes to everyone who were there! Not just the four other homo-erotic guys in the picture below.

H to the M C.

-phibz.

PS: Follow us at Twitter.com/BananaTimes!!!

For the past two weeks or so, I’ve adopted a daily ritual. I’ve been somewhat traumatized by the horrors of Paranormal Activity as my threshold for ghost movies is not very high. And I watched it not once, but twice. So in order to ease the trauma and to have as much nightly rest as possible, my ritual involves watching the following to videos before I go to sleep:

And!!

SNSD, or So Nyeo Shi Dae (少女時代) means Girl’s Generation, which is another name they go by, is a 9 person girl band (but really there are only 8 members) from Korea. They have been my saviors. Thanks to them I don’t dream of creepy white chicks staring over me as a sleep, but rather I dream of 9 (minus 1) girls fulfilling all my wishes and fantasies of female manikins, pilots and sailors.

To the main point. One of the members of SNSD, Jessica, is set to act and sing in the leading role of the Korean Legally Blonde musical.

Jessica is the one in the middle. See how she is noticeably more eye-catching than the other two? And also how her hair is more orange than blonde? I don’t have a point here, just thought I’d point that out. Enjoy!

-phibz.

The Banana Times reporting from Hong Kong!

I have decided to continue the nerdiness and write another post about Anime and Manga because.. Well. Why the hell not?

Since I returned to Hong Kong from Beijing, I made sure I had my Canon Digital IXUS 75 in my pocket ready to capture some interesting images for myself and for the blog at any given moment. Ever since Hong Kong allowed unlimited customization on license plates, its been a lot easier to not only catch Anime/Manga references, but also easier to make fun of the locals and their English (I guess I used to be one? Not anymore? I’ve been Bananaized).

Helo Kity? So its hee-low kai-tee. Looks like something from Engrish.com

D…Gary-Man?! Another lost child of Engrish. Satoshi Tajiri is gonna be piiissed. Or rather, whoever came up with the English names for the Pokemon characters is gonna be pissed. How the fuck does Satoshi become Ash Ketchum? (ZOMG EVA REBUILD 1.0 DVD!!!)

Okay, this isn’t Anime or Manga related (a Winnie The Pooh manga would be kinda cool?) but its pretty post-worthy. Look how he judges us with his ignorant smile..

Okay. WSJ means Wall Street Journal, but it can also stand for Weekly Shonen Jump! The most popular manga magazine in the WORLD? Duh. I know its a stretch, but hey, it works. And what’s the deal of releasing the Wall Street Journal on September 11th..

Yamada! Hermes is EVERYWHERE in Hong Kong!
I know its a popular luxury fashion brand and its in a lot of places,  but the train man inside of me just had to take picture. And to end it off:

Suneo from Doraemon says FOK!

I have a few more days left in Hong Kong, so the search for more Anime/Manga references continues! Until next time.

Yes. This is where I am, where I grew up, where The Dark Knight was filmed (and yes, I did take this photo).

-phibz.

The globally renowned French fashion company Louis Vuitton and Japanese contemporary artist Takashi Murakami is releasing a sequel to their previous anime collaboration in 2003, Superflat Monogram. The sequel is called Superflat First Love to celebrate six years of working together between LV and Murakami. LV will launch their Multicolor Spring Palette lineup on the same day as First Love‘s world premiere on April 28th.
[Source - AnimeNewsNetwork]

Check it out – Superflat Monogram:

A higher quality of Superflat Monogram can be viewed at the Louis Vuitton Japan site. Click the Multicolor Spring Palette, wait for the introduction to finish, then click ムービーを見る.

I’m totally ignorant about fashion so I’m vouching for the animation side of things. It awesome. Murakami also directed the music video for Kanye West’s Good Morning. The soundtrack sounds very Wii-esque. Speaking of Wii. This is the game I’m buying next:

Its so violent! I love it! The commentators sound like The Sklar Brothers. MadWorld reminds me of No More Heroes, also a must-play. I think its the most underrated Wii game since the console was released:

The Banana Verdict:
out of 10.

-phibz.