Over the years, we’ve already seen some lovely creations by Japanese confection maker Ginza Cozy Corner with Disney themes, including sumptuous mini-cakes inspired by Disney villains and characters from the mega-hit film Frozen. This time, to celebrate the “Girl’s Day” festival called Hina Matsuri coming up in Japan next month on March 3, the folks at Cozy Corner have once again come up with some sweet magic, this time in the form of small cakes symbolizing some of Disney’s best known gals. It’s the “Petit Gateau Disney Girl’s Collection” featuring nine of Disney’s female stars, from Minnie Mouse to Elsa, transformed into bite-sized treats that should be both sweet to taste and a delight to look at!
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What did you have for lunch today? If you’re anything like me, it was probably nothing special – just something to keep you going until the end of the day. Oh, how wonderful it would be to be blessed with the skills (or a skilled family member) to make outrageously accurate kyaraben, i.e. packed lunches intricately designed to look like various characters! Lunch could be so much more entertaining!
Since not all moms are adept at creating kyaraben, some kids have taken their decorative lunches into their own hands. And by kids, I don’t just mean girls…
Sumo wrestlers and Disney fairy Tinker Bell are not two things you would think have much in common. Yet their uncanny similarity is exactly what netizens in Japan have noticed, following a series of photos published recently on the Internet.
Aside from the costumed characters and colorful parades, one of the things that makes Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea so popular is the stellar customer service they offer. Even in a country where service is almost universally prompt and polite, the Tokyo Disney Resort goes above and beyond the norm in providing an unrivaled level of hospitality to guests.
As a matter of fact, Tokyo Disney Resort employees are so dedicated that not only will they make sure you enjoy yourself during your stay, they’ll even help ensure you have a safe trip home, as one park attendee recently found out when the parking lot staff performed a spot check of her car and alerted her to a potential safety hazard.
Disney enjoys broad popularity with Japanese children, with tykes across the nation regularly getting excited for the studio’s animated films and begging their parents to take them to Tokyo Disneyland. This isn’t a recent development, though. Disney’s been a hit with kids for decades now, and while the age of many fans who grew up watching Mickey, Minnie, and their pals has changed, that doesn’t mean their love for the cartoon characters has.
That’s why this spring a new branch of the Disney Store is opening up in Tokyo, and while the staff won’t be turning away little girls at the door, it’s really being designed for adult women.
With winter break over, students in Japan are looking at a straight shot with no major breaks until the end of the school year in spring. For teens in their third and final year of high school, that means it’s almost time to take the big step of going off to college or finding a job, both of which mean probably having to cut back on silly hijinks.
That’s why when one Japanese 12th grader found an empty classroom, she couldn’t resist the temptation to let loose with youthful exuberance, especially since she knew it might be one of her last chances to do so. She didn’t take advantage of the lack of adult supervision to vandalize the school, though, but decided to beautify it with some awesome Frozen chalkboard art instead.
It was revealed in December 2013 that the Captain EO ride at Tokyo Disneyland will be replaced by the interactive attraction Stitch Encounter. The wait is now over as the Oriental Land Company which owns Tokyo Disneyland announced that the much-awaited new attraction will open in July 2015, right in time for the summer vacation this year!
Okay, I have a confession to make here – that whole wedding fever that some women get, where they obsess over the minute details of “their” special day? I’ve never really gotten that. I mean, do you know how much weddings cost? It’s a lot of money, and it’s gone in a day. Call me a pragmatist, but I’d rather spend that money on a down payment for a house or on an awesome trip. I also can’t help thinking that it sometimes veers more towards celebrating the bride rather than the union of two people. (It’s no wonder women in Japan have started having solo weddings!) Still, a wedding is a centuries-old tradition, and lots of people love the spectacle and ceremony of it. And what better theme could there be for a glitzy wedding than “Indian Disney Princess”? Canadian formal attire company Wellgroomed Designs have come up with nine concept gowns focusing on specific Disney princesses, and they look amazing!
“How is your cosplay so perfect…?” “How did you escape from the movie screen?!” “Are you ACTUALLY Hiro?”
For Filipino artist and self-confessed “cosplay dork” Jin, questions like these are a regular occurrence. Already an internationally recognised cosplayer, when promo images for Big Hero 6 were released last year, Jin began to get messages from fans pointing out an uncanny resemblance to the film’s central protagonist Hiro Hamada. Which is pretty interesting, seeing Big Hero 6 is a Disney movie and Hiro is, of course, computer-animated.
Intrigued, Jin tried it out – and has been cosplaying Hiro ever since. Fast-forward a few months and Jin and friends continue to produce incredibly realistic, beautifully produced photos of cosplayed Big Hero 6 scenes. Join us after the jump as we take a look!
Late last year shower specialists Oxygenics released sets of shower heads featuring the faces of Disney characters Mickey and Minnie Mouse. They were warmly received by moms in America, who immediately saw them as a way to get kids motivated for bath-time and praised their easy water-pressure controls.
People in Japan saw the character shower heads quite differently, however, with some even going as far to call them “demeaning” and saying that “I don’t know if this is appropriate for children.”
While I’m not exactly a huge Disney fan, I have to say that Big Hero 6 was easily one of my favorite movies of 2014, and I’ve fast become a big fan of the bubble-like Baymax. There’s probably a mathematical formula to prove how adorable his head is, but it looks like Jin Kim, character designer for the movie, has found a way to up the awesome level by combining Hiro and Baymax with a certain iconic Japanese film…
Taking up cosplay as a hobby takes a pretty significant time commitment to put together that perfect costume to dress up as your favorite video game, comic book or movie character. And for those of us without the, ahem, natural assets to boost our cosplay game, buying all those wigs, fashion accessories and snowman apparel can make the hobby an extremely expensive way to spend your free time.
However, this innovative cosplay enthusiast from Thailand doesn’t let his limited budget get in the way of making some creative, and frankly, kind of creepy costumes. We’ve spotted him before, but click below to see his latest creative, if not incredibly cheap, take on Dragonball Z, the Teletubbies, Taylor Swift and much more.
There’s just something soothing about the face of Baymax, the caretaker (and superpowered) robot that plays a prominent role in Disney’s Big Hero 6. Baymax looks like a big pillow to some people. Others say he more closely resembles Japanese dumplings, or the rounded discs of mochi used as New Year’s decorations in Japan.
Or, as these photos show, you could also duplicate Baymax’s inviting aura of soft plumpness with a white T-shirt and large pair of breasts.
While I was growing up, my family never got that involved in the discussion over whether the idolization of Disney princesses is a healthy thing or not. With three boys and no girls in the family, most of my parents’ time was instead channeled towards more immediate topics like telling their sons not to aim for the face during their regular battles in the backyard with their stockpiled arsenal of plastic battleaxes and broadswords.
As an adult, I can sort of understand both sides of the debate. On one hand, a little fantasizing seems harmless, and in and of itself, there’s nothing inherently wrong with little girls being drawn to such trappings of the princess lifestyle as a luxurious home and elegant clothes. On the other hand, criticisms about overemphasizing the value of comfort and beauty have some validity too, as if left unchecked those desires can turn into sloth and vanity.
As a matter of fact, one talented artist thinks Disney’s leading ladies make excellent stand-ins for all of the seven deadly sins.
Last weekend, my wife and I decided to go to watch Disney’s Big Hero 6, which had just opened in Japan under the title Baymax, after its marshmallow-like central robot character. As we made our way into the theater, she asked me if I had a pack of tissues, adding, “I heard the movie is really touching.”
This kind of took me by surprise. Sure, most Disney films have a heartwarming side to them, but wasn’t this movie about a team of superheroes and their robot?
If you’ve seen Big Hero 6, you know by now that it does a solid job of handling both action and emotional scenes. You probably wouldn’t get that impression from the tender Japanese ads for the movie, though, which is why many Japanese moviegoers were pleasantly surprised to find that Baymax isn’t just sweet, but also pretty awesome.
Remember when we recently had a little fun with the Disney’s Frozen pastry buns that have gone on sale all over Japan? You know, the ones oozing with cream and chocolate (mmm) and featuring the annoying face of that goofy snowman (grr) that’s absolutely everywhere right now? While we certainly enjoyed mangling Olaf’s face with a big knife whilst maniacally humming “Let it Go”, it seems that one Twitter user has an even better idea for dealing with that pent-up Frozen frustration. An idea that involves re-purposing the buns into something more aesthetically pleasing! Since we’re all about that silver lining (and since generally, we enjoy our food more when it doesn’t look like a murder scene) we had to investigate! It turns out that it’s actually pretty simple to change goofy Olaf into another character with a little more pedigree behind it – Bert from Sesame Street! Read on for the step-by step guide!
If Frozen struck a deep chord with you, it’s been a good year. Even now, months after the film’s home video release, it’s still got a hold on the imagination of animation and musical fans, and this week Japanese convenience store Family Mart started selling steamed buns filled with chocolate and shaped like Olaf, the Disney hit’s comic relief living snowman.
Family Mart did a fine job recreating Olaf’s look, and we’re sure moviegoers who were tickled by his antics are thrilled to have the character seemingly leap off the screen and into the palm of their hands. Plus, in a rare case of simultaneously being able to please a movie’s fans and detractors, the Olaf bun’s uncanny resemblance to its inspiration means it’s the perfect effigy for Frozen haters to unleash their resentment of the film’s success on.
Whether you sing Let it Go as a daily ritual, or just the thought of hearing that song one more time gives you brainfreeze, you can’t deny the pervasive popularity of Disney’s 2013 hit movie Frozen. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Japan, where Frozen can be found on everything from water bottles and chips to reasons for divorce.
For some people though, that’s not enough: they need to recreate Frozen with their own hands.
What do you think of 3-D movies? Personally, I’m not a big fan as they somehow tire my eyes. While I have to agree that the effects do make some action and fantasy scenes more dramatic and exciting, I’m totally happy sticking with the 2-D versions, not to mention that those are cheaper to watch at the cinemas too.
But I’m sure there are people out there who love the extra impact and wished that every movie was available in 3-D. It’s probably impossible to remaster every past production in 3-D, but some imaginative cyber citizens have found a low-cost method of eye-trickery that makes 2-D animations appear as if they’re coming through the screen. It’s eye-opening what a few white lines can do!
With a large music market and some of the world’s highest prices for physical releases, Japan has been very slow in adapting to digital distribution. Rights holders are finally warming up to the idea, though, and it doesn’t look like it’s ruining the industry in Japan. What downloadable music does seem to be doing, though, is splitting the country’s pop music market into two distinct parts, as the lists of Japan’s top 20 single downloads and CD purchases for the year are almost completely different.