Alright, let’s see here. I love beer. And I definitely love robots. So when I found out that Asahi has unveiled it’s very own beer serving robot (dutifully named Mr. Asahi), well, I started wondering if Asahi’s marketing guys had been sneaking into my apartment and reading my diary. Now, granted, Mr. Asahi will likely never be as great a bartender as Sam Malone, but those are some big shoes to fill. Hey, at least he won’t keep pestering me about leaving my keys after I’ve had 8 or 12 beers in a row* or about how I should stop staring at the waitress even though she’s already splashed two drinks in my face. I mean, geez. Really, so long as he is able to refill the pretzel bowl and tell a joke or two in addition to cracking open ice-cold Asahi, I think we’ll be good.

*Please note that New York-Tokyo does not endorse or encourage drinking and driving in any way. Have a safe 4th of July weekend.

Asahi Beer Robot (via Ubergizmo)

Image via Trusted Reviews.com

By Stewart Smith

Want a collective eight minute look at two of the six animated short films in the upcoming Batman: Gotham Knight DVD? Of course you do. This thing still doesn’t hit for another two weeks, unfortunately (July 7, to be precise), but it keeps looking more and more fantastic with each glimpse. It’s a little odd hearing Kevin Conroy raise his “Batman” voice up an octave or two from the way he delivered it in the original Batman: The Animated Series (I guess they wanted Bats to sound younger to keep in line with the film?), but it’s still cool having him reprise the role.

Five Minutes In Gotham (via MTV.com)

Batman: Gotham Knight Exclusive Clip (via Best Buy.com)

By Stewart Smith

On a hot summer Thursday in June, throngs of eager MGS4 fans spent hours in front of UNIQLO’s flagship SoHo store in wait for a glimpse of the creator of the famed Metal Gear Solid franchise, Hideo Kojima. As part of the MGS4 world tour, Kojima Productions and Konami made a stop at the UNIQLO store to promote limited edition MGS4 t-shirts, and to promote the highly anticipated game.

Catering to the fans, Kojima and voice actress Yumi Kikuchi dedicated 2 hours to signing over 300 pieces of fan memorabilia; including everything from the original Metal Gear cartridge for the NES to a bag of wasabi-flavored Doritos! Kojima, being very humble and gracious, penned his signature and shook each patrons hand. Yumi Kikuchi was as equally kind, smiling and thanking each fan to pass through. For those lucky enough to make it, it was a very rewarding experience.

If you missed the event, be sure to check out NYT’s own photo gallery after the jump!

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Coming together like Voltron, four Japanese companies are joining to step up the competition with South Korea in the field of robotics. Try and quell your immediate fears of a Matrix or Terminator-esque takeover though, most of these robots will mainly be serving the young and elderly sans-humanoid form, at least for now. All this hoopla seems to be coming from a recent “robot legislation” law that passed just recently in South Korea, so perhaps much of our future coverage of the industry here at New York-Tokyo will be coming out of Seoul. Either way, things are about to get veeerrrrry interesting in the field of robotics.

Japan Robot Startups Join Efforts (via Yahoo)

By Jesse Mann

You may remember our posting from some time back about Kali’s veiled tribute to Mega Man 3 on Big Dada, and now another indie MC named Random has made an entire album in homage to the the blue bomber. Entitled Mega Ran, Random takes loops from some of the most beloved tunes from the original Mega Man Series, and adds some pretty beefy production underneath clever and endearing rhymes. It’s clear this guy has some major love for Capcom’s classic series, and even Capcom themselves have thrown their support behind this guy! Having given him an official license to promote his work, it’s now available for sale on iTunes and CDBaby.

Random’s “Mega Ran” is Blowing Up (via Capcom Blog)

By Jesse Mann

Director Satoshi Kon, famous for such twisted classics of Japanese animation as Perfect Blue, Millenium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers, will be in New York for two film showcases. Along with the Beyond Imagination retrospective at the Lincoln Center, New York-Tokyo and All-Nippon Airways are presenting his most recent film, Paprika, along with a special appearance and talk by director Satoshi Kon himself. This screening is FREE with RSVP! Hit the jump for more info and to RSVP.

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Check out this video of robot band The Trons performing “live.” Guitar, keys, drums, and something vaguely resembling vocals are all covered by this ragtag group of modified appliances and unfinished robotic hands. They even have their very own Myspace page! I wonder if a spam bot created it for them…

Robot Rock Group Readies for Next Gig (via MAKE Magazine)

By Jesse Mann

For those of you who are not familiar with Sandy O, Sandra Day O’Connor is an American jurist and was also the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court. Since the average American apparently can’t even name the three branches of the United States government, many may not know her. But they will soon. You know why? Sandy is going to change the face of entertainment and politics; by creating the most politically and socially concentrated video game ever.

On June 4th 2008, Sandy had spoken at the Digital Games For Social Change summit regarding the opportunity to open up the average Americans to explore social / political issues through video games. Alongside video game education advocate James Paul Gee of the University of Wisconsin, Sandy is planning to release Our Court by next fall.

No real information has been released yet but you can imagine that it will be something along the lines of Final Fantasy meets Judge Judy – replacing the monsters and battles with laws and cases. But who knows, maybe Sandy will include some surprises here and there; like a First Amendment case in which a magical unicorn is being accused of promoting illegal elixir use. Seriously, that would rule. I love unicorns.

Sandra Day O’Connor: Game Designer (via Wired)

By Taeko Saito

Metal Gear Solid 4 hits this week and I honestly can’t remember the last time I was this unbelievably stoked for a video game. Metal Gear Solid is my favorite game of all time and this final entry in the MGS series looks to answer every question and tie every loose end that’s been brought up since the series first began. But if you’re like me, it’s also been a while since you’ve played the entire series through. And given how complex the series’ story has gotten by this point, a refresher would be most welcome and thanks to an incredibly comprehensive post over at the influential NeoGAF forum you can have just that. This sucker’s got everything you could want to help prepare you for MGS4 with story recaps, character bios, screenshots, trailers, control scheme rundowns, avatars and so very much more.

And if that wasn’t enough Metal Gear for ya, be sure to check out the exceptional retrospective that Gametrailers has put together. The first five parts can be found here with the sixth and final part airing today.

MGS4 Primer (via NeoGAF Forums)

MGS Retrospective (via Gametrailers)

By Stewart Smith

Japan Cuts, a festival focusing specifically on Japanese film, has announced their lineup and released a wicked promotional trailer by NYC based visual artist Motomichi to help spread the word. Click above to view it.

Japan Cuts will be taking place at the Japan Society from July 2nd to July 13th, and will be screening films in conjunction with Subway Cinema’s New York Asian Film Festival from July 3rd - 6th. July is certainly shaping up to be a great month for Japanese film in New York!

Japan Cuts (via Japan Society)

By Jesse Mann