The World Ends With You

The World Ends with You is a DS action role-playing game about a boy who wakes up with no memory of his past or himself then travels around the shopping district Shibuya in Tokyo to unravel some of his questions. The main character takes on a name of Neku as he finds friends and joins forces with people to fight monsters and completing missions given to him by the game master. Later he finds out he is dead and is fighting to possibly return back to the living world. As you walk through the city you find out that you are a ghost and can see the living world.

What I find interesting about this is that not only is the art interesting but the concept of the afterlife becoming a game of revival and truth. I enjoyed how the game took place in a real life setting of Shibuya 104 where it is known for being a high fashion area. With this in mind the designer used this and created an option to buy clothes with certain brands named after the zodiac with each zodiac given a different style of clothing. I also enjoyed the punk style of the art as it tries in with the concept of trying to rebelling against the game. What makes this game interesting is that there is a balance of detail between what the game want you to see and what they want you to pay attention to. Certain elements are a shadow when you aren't suppose to play attention to it whereas the ones that you need to pay attention to are in great detail.

The concept of the game of life becoming a game is interesting because you are technically dead already but you still fight to stay alive within the game world. Also I find it amusing that life becomes a game after you die as though even though you are dead you still want to stay alive. Though this game is similar to many other games it become quite popular because it's appealing art, twist to the plot and different fighting style.

Kou Shibasaki - Mukei Spirit (Intangible SPIRIT)

This is a music video of Kou Shibasaki's Mukei Spirit (Intangible SPIRIT). What I find interesting about this video is how they used stop motion with various pictures. I also enjoy the transitions to each scene and how it feels like a never ending story. At the beginning of the video it seems like you are looking at a picture within a picture making it feel never ending but then what makes it even more interesting is how the picture appears to be ripped as the woman (Kou Shibasaki) walks way. I also find it interesting when Shibasaki is singing at 1:48 when her face is being fragmented with close up pictures of parts of her face. It is interesting because in a normal music video you would see a person just singing which is boring however in this video it takes a normal seen an does unusual thinks with it i.e: fragmenting it. I also find it interesting at 2:31 as it appears like Shibasaki is going back and forth the 2 scenes. This scene seems like she is traveling between a fictional world of darkness/spirit and reality which makes it interesting because it could mean she is in a dream.

Necomimi

These cat ears are called Necomimi by Neurowear.


These moving car ears are not your typical cat ears you find from the dollar store, they are cat ears that move according to your thoughts or mood. How is this done? Well. the cat ears react to the electrical impulses in head muscles. Humans show emotions by changing their faces or displaying a certain body language, now they can also use their cat ears to display how they feel.

What I find interesting about this is that the cat ears can move according to a person's brainwaves. Though I find it interesting I also find it quite strange because when I first heard about this it felt like there are people want to become more like cats. Humans with cat ears are usually seen in animations where the person is half cat half human which is fine because it is fictional. However, in this case having cat ears are life like almost seems like human's crazy fantasy to be something they aren't. Thought this is an interesting toy for kids I can't imagine how much it would cost for one let alone who would want to wear it on a daily basis as shown in the video.

iPhone cookies

If you've heard of the iPhone you should know about the new iPhone that just came out — it's the iPhone cookie!


If you want to get a gift for someone and an iPhone is too expensive get the iPhone cookie. The iPhone cookie is identical to the iPhone in looks and size except that the cookie is edible. The iPhone cookies are made of a chocolate base and decorated with icons in icing. These cookies can be bought at the store Green Gables Sweets & Cafe in Aizumi town of Japan. The bakery sells the cookie for 2730 Yen a piece (~$32.50 CAD) which is less expensive then an iPhone but is expensive for a cookie. Though it is expensive, the cookie is quite popular and is given to people for gifts.

What I find interesting about this is that the cookie is pretty much identical to the iPhone which makes it pretty attractive compared to a typical chocolate cookie. The cookie looks so appealing that I wonder who would even eat it? Now a days food, especially deserts or snacks are being shaped to various shapes to attract customers to buy the product. In this case the baker turned the popular iPhone to a cookie to attract customers to buy their products.

The Converse :Canvas Experiment: Video Game

This a commercial for the brand Converse.


This commercial uses Chuck Taylor All Stars which are converse shoes to recreate classic pixel games. It is 4m high, 5m wide and consists of 480 shoes. To create the color switching of the pixels the shoes that where used were have black and half red. This canvas was created to be a recreation of the game seen at 0:07, the pixels were recreated as shoes and was rotated each time to change the color of the pixels.

What I find interesting about this is that the recreation of the games is very alike. Also I would never have expected shoes could be used to create a real life arcade game. Shoes are seen as protection for our feet or even a decoration for our feet, it is rare to see a game using shoes. Not only are the shoes interesting but how a 2-d pixel game is create to become 3-d. Now a days, more and more games are in virtual 3-d, however this plays with real life 3-d shapes instead of virtual but still uses a 2-d plane to look at.

PUMA House

Walking can take you anywhere, just grab a pair of shoes and go! In this case you can go to the Puma house in Tokyo.




This is the Puma House in the Aoyama district of Tokyo designed by the creative studio Nendo. The Puma house is a multipurpose area to advertise the brand Puma, this area is also used for exhibitions, fittings and product launches. The brand Puma is popularly known for it's relation to sports and athletics. This building is created to show a sense of movement with the shoes, this is done by creating staircase like shelves for the shoes. Why did the designer create movement? Well, this is because Puma is mainly known for it's relation to sports and athletics, with this they used the concept of constantly moving around.

I find this design interesting because it uses the similar concept of people walking up the stairs. Whenever you see some go up the stairs you tend to pay attention to their shoes more then usual, with this in mind, the design uses this to attract attention by repeating the staircase shape in the design of the building. Also the way the shoes are placed makes the shoes look like they are moving up the staircase by themselves. The movement of the staircases every keeps the audience's eye moving around the building with no specific focal point keeps the audience interested for a long time.