L’s Heroine Chosen

08/10/07 2045 hours
fukuda_mayuko.jpg The heroine of the upcoming Death Note spin-off movie revolving around super-sleuth L has been chosen: 13-year-old Mayuko Fukuda. (13? Puts the damper on any romantic relationship…I hope, anyway.) Fukuda is an experienced actress nonetheless, having worked in the industry since she was four years old - she had a role in Kamikaze Girls (not sure what role), and she had another unknown role in the drama adaptation of Chibi Maruko-chan.
Posted by gia in Dramas, JP News, Movies, News* Comments (2)

Manga for the Blind

07/24/07 0844 hours

Okay, this is really too awesome not to mention.

ANN has a short feature up about a group called the Illustrated Braille Club, who translate manga like Chibi Maruko-chan into Braille for blind readers.

“But how is that worth anything?” you ask. “They can’t see the pictures!” But oh, you’re so so wrong. the system actually uses raised dots for the illustrations so that they can be “seen” with a finger. Which is a really awesome idea.

I don’t know much about blindness; it seems to me like even made readable via raised dots the images may only have meaning for those who weren’t born blind, e.g. those who have seen and can interpet the pictures. (Correct me in the comments if I’m wrong, by all means, since again, I don’t know much about it.) But it’s still a really cool thing to do.

Posted by gia in Gossip, JP News, Manga, NewsComments (0)