Sdtrk: ‘Cave control’ by Screaming MacGregor
Since Kokoro Company Ltd’s very own spokesmodel is at the Aichi World Expo 2005 right this very minute, they’ve updated their pages concerning your favourite Gynoid and mine (mostly mine), Actroid-chan, with two new movies (click on the Actroid banner, and click on the second link from the top that reads アクトロイド ムービー公開中, cos the URL redirects are making sport of me), and a handful of new photos. Apparently, as they have an Actroid-chan working each of the information kiosks at the Expo, Kokoro has developed three different versions — one for each entrance — plus a sexay new standing version that does the emcee duties in another part of the exhibit. Roger that, and drooling now. Yum.
Miyu-chan, the East gate entrance Actroid
Sakura-chan, the North gate entrance Actroid
Sara-chan, the West gate entrance Actroid
the MC version at Kokoro’s Robot Station exhibit
Also managed to find this link, on a Japanese robot developer’s blog, to a very brief .avi of the pre-Expo Actroid-chan. Very cute, but she seems a wee bit irritable! Which I guess would make sense, if you had people poking you once every ten minutes to see if you were ‘real’ or not.
‘Please stop poking me already; it’s rude’
And (copied and pasted from my post about it on the Doll Forum) can’t believe I forgot to mention this before: Tokyopop is translating a somewhat new six-installment manga series called ‘DOLL’. It’s a loosely-related grouping of various tales having to do with Androids and Gynoids — called Dolls, obviously — and how they affect the lives of those who own them, those who hate them, and those who love them. They’re by one of my new favourite manga-ka (manga artist), Mitsukazu Mihara, who used to do the covers for the Gothic & Lolita Bibles, until she apparently started asking for too much money.
Like I said, there’s six issues total; they’re up to No.4, which I just picked up the other day. Ace artwork, compelling stories, and all about a subject we love so dearly. Give it a look!
Finally, this is a fab article that ran in The Japan Times last year that might help to explain the rationale behind a lot of us who own, or are aspiring to own, an Artificial companion. Damnit, Japan’s got it all over us!
‘Shouting to hear the echoes’. The only Blog you’ll ever need, for unashamedly biased Android / Gynoid / Synthetik / high-end love doll development news
