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Daily Links: Clannad Malware, Tokyo Character Mall, Eva Goods

Man Admits to Hiding Program in Clannad Images Online

Masato Nakatsuji, the Japanese man accused of hiding a program within Clannad anime images on the Winny file-sharing network, admitted to the program's creation on March 18, the first day of his trial. The 24-year-old former Osaka Electro-Communication University graduate student was arrested on January 24 and charged with violating Clannad's copyrights and defaming another student, since Japan does not have laws against malware ("Trojan horses," viruses, and other malicious computer software). There have been other malware that used Kanon and Lucky Star images on Winny, but Nakatsuji has not been linked to those. Source: Nikkei

New Anime/Manga/Toy Mini-Mall Opens in Tokyo

The Tokyo Character Street mini-mall opened at Tokyo's main train station on March 8. The underground throughway has one cafe and 14 shops dedicated to anime, manga, games, and character goods. Everything from Studio Ghibli figurines and Gundam models to Domo-kun plush toys and Death Note paraphernalia is available, but without the long treks required at Akihabara, Nakano, Shibuya, and other otaku haunts. The shops include the NHK-Character Shop, NTV-ya, TBS Store, Fuji TV Shop, TV Asahi Shop, TV Tokyo Shop, Ultraman World M78, Ct no Kobeya May (for Sanrio goods), Jump Shop (Shonen Jump and its sibling magazines), Snoopy Town Mini, Tomica Shop (Tomy toy cars), Donguri Garden (Ghibli goods), Rascal Shop (World Masterpiece Theater anime goods), Lego Click-Brick, and tame cafe. Source: animeanime.jp

Eva Store Offers Misato's Cross Pendant, More Coffee

The official Neon Genesis Evangelion website announced this month that the official Misato Katsuragi Cross Pendant and more Evangelion coffee will go on sale. The pure-aluminum cross pendant costs 21,000 yen (about US$210) and comes with a serial number and special case. To mark the DVD release of the Evangelion: 1.0 You Are [Not] Alone movie remake, UCC Coffee is offering two new Evangelion variants of its Milk & Coffee cans in mid-April. The new designs feature a Rei Ayanami drawing from designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto and the cast from the deformed Petit Eva - Evangelion@School spinoff.

Life-size Haruhi Suzumiya Figure Offered in Tokyo

The Paper Moon doll-making company is accepting orders for a life-size figure of the title character in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya light novels and anime for 380,000 yen (about US$3,800). A sample of the 158-centimeter (5-foot, 2-inch) figure is on display at Asobit Chara City in Tokyo's Akihabara district. Orders submitted before April 10 will include a stand and a wig that duplicates Haruhi's long hair when she first entered the story's fictional school. Source: Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan