This ranking survey from goo Ranking asked what is the most successful anime adaptations of Weekly Shonen Jump magazine’s manga.
My anime series watching is very limited, but I recently got a free year of Amazon Prime, and it’s got Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba if you prefer) included, so I’ll have to give it a watch, once I finish with Taka no Tsume (Eagle Claw), which is 5 minutes of wonderful silliness.
Particularly in the prewar era, Japan decided that Western sports should have native Japanese names, so this ranking survey from goo Ranking looks at Japanese names for sports that it would be impressive to know. Most of these names have faded into history with the usually English name imported into Read more…
The following list is the result of a ranking survey from goo Ranking of famous original PlayStation titles that people would like to see remade.
As I’ve never actually played any PS1 games I cannot comment on the list, but here’s a gameplay video with English subtitles of the third in the series of the first choice:
“Greasy Spoon” is perhaps an exaggeration for some of these places listed in this goo Ranking survey into Japan’s tastiest set meal chain restaurants.
The basic features of a set meal in Japan is usually one main meat dish like pork cutlet or boiled beef, with rice, miso soup and pickles, and maybe a small salad or other side dish, all often for under 1,000 yen. Here’s a sample from the rather nice (but over 1,000 yen) Obon no Gohan chain:
Number 2, Ootoya is just about my favourite price/performance-wise on the list, and is far from the greasy spoon I in the title. Last time I was there I had a very quiet and relaxed time with basil grilled chicken on a large salad bed plus the above side dishes and self-service soft drinks, posh tea bags and freshly-brewed coffee for just over 1,000 yen.
On the other hand, places like Sukiya, Yoshinoya and Matsuya are rapid gob-stuffing pit stops (convince me otherwise!) that as someone very sensitive to chewing and slurping noises quite frankly scare me!
What’s your favourite chain?
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This ranking survey from goo Ranking looked at movies from the 1980s that people want to watch in the cinema again.
I’m familiar with all the Hollywood movies listed here bar Big (I’ve only seen snippets), and about half of the Japanese ones. Top of the list, Back to the Future, interestingly had a now-cancelled Japanese manga version planned:
以前発表しました僕が作画を担当するBTTFのコミカライズについてご報告です。
編集部の方々には八方手を尽くして頂きましたがそれでも尚、作中に数多く登場する著作物の権利の交通整理がつかず、現在企画が中断してしまっている状態です。楽しみにされていた方々には申し訳ございません。 pic.twitter.com/uAGUuVJnUR— 村田雄介 (@NEBU_KURO) September 16, 2018
The Japanese titles of the Hollywood movies are mostly straight transliterations, but some turn out a bit funny; An Officer and a Gentleman is A Journey of Love and Youth, Karate Kid is Best Kid, Coming to America is
Go to New York, Prince of the Stars, and When Harry Met Sally… is Premonition of Lovers.
The Japanese titles are mostly direct translations, but the Kitano film Violent Cop literally translated would be That Man, Being Violent.
What 80s film would you most want to see on the big screen again?
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This fun little ranking survey from goo Ranking asked Japanese to choose who they rated the most as Japanese living legends of rock.
My top pick would be number 5 here, Southern All Stars, but there’s a good number of groups I’ve never heard of. One that caught my eye was Yabai T-shirts Yasan, in English “Dodgy T-shirts Shop”, who have a post-punk pop feel and rather silly lyrics, like this ode to Bluetooth Love, and sillier videos like this one:
Who’s your Japanese top rock band?
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Whenever (if ever…) tourism opens back up again, one must-visit place for many foreigners is a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant, so this survey from goo Ranking into Japan’s most favourite conveyor-belt sushi chain may be useful for ideas of where to go. This video might also give you tips on how to behave whilst there:
Note that in Japanese, the “conveyor belt” part of the name is pronunced as “kaiten” (or sometimes “mawashi” or “mawaru”), so I have kept the original Japanese rendering in this translation.
Despite having been in Japan more years than I care to remember, I’ve only once been to a sushi place and I stayed clear of the whole raw fish section…
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This survey by goo Ranking into which Japanese prefectures Japanese wish they had been born and brought up in was conducted last year, but they only got round to publishing it a few days ago.
Not surprisingly, Tokyo is the most popular, and I presume people were mostly voting for the main metropolitan area, not the suburbs. Hokkaido being second is not a surprise either, although the winters are too harsh for my tastes. Kanagawa, in particular the prefectural capital of Yokohama, is the best of the top three for me. The photo above is apparently from Yokohama, although a bit before my time.
If I had been brought up in Japan, I’d want it to have been Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture (9th here), as it’s a compact city with easy access to the countryside, and for a long time has been very international.
If you had been born in Japan, where you would you choose?
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Let’s find out with goo Ranking what Japan’s favourite crisps (or chips, if you are so inclined) are.
Back in Scotland, it was Walker’s, and usually cheese flavour, but now in Japan it’s sour cream and onion, and Calbee is my favourite brand, although Koikeya’s Pride Potatoes are not bad too.
Now there’s a thing – I’ve never seen Smoky Bacon despite that being a standard UK flavour, and Vinegar is a rarity in crisps yet is a fundamental in many Japanese dishes.
The Calbee adverts can be quite entertaining (these are for Consommé Punch)
Now here’s a topic with the ability to start fights, goo Ranking asking Japanese to choose the easiest to use stock console controller.
I was never a console person; I once had a Sega something or other, but all I really remember of it was too many buttons.
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