Brandon Inada's Blog

So I stop by the ABC Store on my way home, you know, in search of a tasty beverage, and I notice they’ve got all these new, different flavored varieties of Calpico – mango, strawberry, lychee – I’ve never seen before.  They all sound pretty tasty (I like Calpico), except they’ve got Hello Kitty plastered all over them:

Clever marketing, I suppose (Hello Kitty-branded stuff accounts for nearly half of Sanrio’s $1 billion  annual revenue), and oh-so-cute, but I can’t bring myself to buy one, so I leave with a Vitaminwater instead, because I’m a guy, and guys just don’t buy stuff with Hello Kitty on them (it’s a guy thing), but vitamins are OK, also, water is OK, so I figure it’s cool.   

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Ah, Calpico.

 (non-Hello Kitty, canned variety)

If you’ve never tried it before, it’s good stuff – sweet, slightly tangy, and milky in appearance, not-so-much in terms of texture. 

It’s refreshing and pleasantly unlike most western, heavily carbonated soft drinks.

In Japan and other non-English-speaking countries, the stuff is still referred to by it’s original name, Calpis (Karupisu in Japanese), which to the untrained ear sounds an awful lot like “cow piss.”

Putting Hello Kitty on the label seems like a pretty smart move to me because when I think of Hello Kitty I don’t think of cow piss which is probably why they chose Hello Kitty instead of, say, a cute cartoon cow like this guy:

There’s been a lot of speculation thus far regarding a film version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, the precursor to the Lord Of The Rings trilogy.  For awhile, it seemed as though the movie might never be made.  (A lawsuit filed by Peter Jackson’s Wingnut Films against New Line Cinema has yet to be settled.)

Now it looks as though the project is once again on track, and so far, the news is promising. 

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Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of really angry pandas, like this guy:

(Now THAT is one hell of an angry panda.)

In the newspaper, on T-Shirts, plastered all over flyers, etc.

Pissed off pandas, grumpy pandas, surly pandas, …

Apparently, the guy who does these panda pieces goes by the name Angry Woebot. 

He also sometimes goes out in public dressed in an Ewok costume, but that’s besides the point.

His real name’s Aaron Martin, and he’s going to be making an appearance at Split Obsession in Koko Marina Shopping Center tomorrow at 5 p.m.  You can get your hands on a limited edition T-Shirt and/or print featuring the furious panda in the first pic.

The guy’s originally from Hawaii, which is cool.  And apparently he has a thing for pandas.  Also cool.

The pandas are nifty looking, but whenever I see one, it always makes me wonder:

Why so angry, panda? 

You’re a panda!

Alright, alright, the kid has a name, Michael Angarano, and apparently he’s done some television (24 and Will And Grace). 

I’ve never heard of him, but then I don’t watch TV. 

Anyway, here’s the trailer for The Forbidden Kingdom starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li,  together onscreen for the very first time (although you’d hardly realize it watching the trailer):

Not so sure about this one. 

I like the Monkey King angle (the Monkey King figures prominently in Chinese mythology), but the A Kid In King Arthur’s Court storyline has been done to death. 

Here’s a promotional trailer put together and released shortly after the film finished principal photography.

I definitely like the second trailer (chronologically, the first) better because it at least hints at some cool martial arts action, and there is one snippet of Jackie Chan’s and Jet Li’s characters duking it out.  

Also, there’s less kid. 

The temp music used in the second clip had me thinking the movie might have a bit more weight to it (like a Hero), but having seen the theatrical trailer the movie seems more like a wacky comedy instead (like The Tuxedo). 

Oh, well. 

Unless the next trailer leads me to believe it’ll be significantly worse than I’m already anticipating, I’ll probably end up seeing it in theaters, if only to see Jackie Chan and Jet Li together.

A recent trailer for Soul Calibur IV, the latest installment in Namco’s popular video game franchise, revealed two new playable guest characters – Darth Vader and Yoda - two of the most popular and iconic characters from the Star Wars universe.

Here are some actual screenshots taken from the game:

Previous installments in Namco’s popular game franchise included guest appearances by characters from other companies’ video games like Nintendo’s Link in addition to characters more commonly associated with other media (Image Comics’ Spawn).

Darth Vader will be playable on the PS3 version of the game only, and Yoda will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 port, so unfortunately gamers won’t be able to square off against each other, Jedi Master versus Sith Lord.