A good anime, like any good artistic material, can move you, drive you, and stick with you for your entire life. Most of us only get to see the finished product (and maybe some behind the scenes footage from bonus features). While it is somewhat well-known that the working conditions for manga artists and animators are not great, one manga paints a brief picture on just how hard it can be.

Picked up on the Japanese blog Yaraon!, this manga, titled 90% Job Turnover!? The Truth About Animators is more than just an 8-page look at the job description of Japanese animators, but rather, a boots on the ground examination of the industry. The manga is short but it makes its point fairly bluntly: making anime is not for the faint of heart.

While this manga is not representative of ALL anime production studios, it does seem to reflect the general atmosphere. In the above gallery, you can read the manga, which I have translated from its original Japanese.

Click on the lower right of each image in the gallery to expand each image to full size.

離職率９０％！？アニメーターの真実という漫画 [やらおん！]

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In Japan, new Pocket Monster games means new logos. In the West, it does not. And that sucks!

As pointed out by a KnowYourMeme user, here's how the the logos for the Japanese versions and the Western versions of all the Pokémon games compare through the years.

That's right, the Japanese logos continue to evolve and flourish. The Western ones do not. (Perhaps, that is to keep the branding consistent for Western players?)

Chin up, it's not totally depressing. Western Pocket Monster fans will point out, the subtitles of each game do change. For example, check out the subtitles for Crystal, the ones for HeartGold, and the ones for Black. A lot of evolution there!

Evolution of Pokemon Logos [KnowYourMeme]

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Do not try this at home. Or at work. Or wherever. Microwaving a CD is dangerous. It's also beautiful.

Via Twitter user @ao_0356 comes this series of photos showing what happens when you fry a CD in the microwave. If the stills are not enough to satisfy your curiosity, here's a YouTube video showing how CDs light up when microwaved.

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As website Byoukan Sunday points out, this is like something out of a science fiction flick.

レンジでチンしたCD が格好良過ぎる件について [@ao_0356 via 秒刊SUNDAY]

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Nintendo's DS. With over 152 million units sold worldwide, the dual-screen portable console is without a doubt Nintendo's biggest seller ever. But now, 8 years after its initial release, currently being outsold by its successor, the 3DS, it seems the DS is almost completely ready to quietly disappear into the night from the Japanese market. Almost.

As of December 13th of last year, the last cartridge games for the DS, the Special Price version of Sega's Puyo Puyo!! and the Best Selection version of Momotarou Dentetsu World were released with no subsequent cartridge games listed in the upcoming column of Japan's gaming magazine, Weekly Famitsu. The following week, the DS was no longer listed in the weekly console sales charts of the magazine.

Although there seems to be no more physical cartridge games left on the horizon, there still appears to be life in the record-breaking handheld. At least 2 more DSiWare games are awaiting release. Weekly Famitsu's website (although not the magazine) lists the game Nazo no Minigame, a minigame-based RPG to be released on January 30th. The Weekly Famitsu magazine itself (although not the website) also lists the game Chara Pashya! Sugarbunnies, a photo manipulation tool that allows you to add Sanrio's Sugarbunnies characters to photographs taken with your DSi. The game has no stated release date but looks to be part of the Chara Pashya! series from Nippon Columbia.

It's nice that the DS is still getting some love. While most of the attention currently goes to the 3DS, the DS made the biggest splash and it did it first. After both remaining DSi Ware games are released, unless a new game is announced in the meantime, it looks like that could be the end of the DS' run in Japan. Say it ain't so.

Kotaku has reached out to Nintendo for comment on the current status of the DS. We will update when we hear back from them.

DS ゲームソフト発売予定 [ファミ通.com]

ニンテンドーDSいウェア『キャラ・パシャ！』シリーズ公式HP [日本コロムビア]

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This adorable infant knows what he likes: anime. In the above video, originally uploaded to Nico Nico Douga, the darling baby only stops crying when he hears the opening theme song for Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, of course, is an incredibly popular manga and anime that is getting a new fighting game.

Anime: start 'em young!

This video was originally uploaded to NicoNico Douga by user Karakara.

ジョジョOPで泣き止む赤ちゃん [m15294@YouTube]

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The competitive world of digital comics is about to get a lot bloodier. On January 23, at the Foreign Correspondent's Club of Japan press conference, the usually somber Mamoru Oshii spoke about his latest creation, Chimamire Mai Love (My Soaked In Blood Love or Blood-Stained Mai Love), which is a black comedy about a high school student with a fetish for donating blood and his strange friendship with Mai, a wandering Transylvanian vampire—who is too timid to actually bite anyone. When the two form a friendship—well, in situation comedy parlance, "wacky, bloody chaos ensues."

It's the kind of slapstick comedy that Oshii, perhaps best known for the Ghost in the Shell anime, said he has not done in years.

The story is told almost entirely from a first person perspective, with a minimal amount of animation, highly detailed drawings which are intricately colored, and some sparse sound effects.

When we asked Mr. Oshii why he thought so many Japanese teenagers were drawn to giving blood, the so-called 献血マニア (kenketsu-mania), he laughingly quipped, "I can't stand the sight of blood myself but I love getting IV transfusions. I get them whenever possible. It makes me feel great."

He then launched into a long monologue on the Japanese fascination with blood, including the practice of defining people's personalities by their blood types. "Blood is the only part of the body that we can take into ourselves and put back. It has no shape in and of itself. We can store it up and put it back—derive power from it... Like certain athletes," he added, making an oblique Lance Armstrong joke.

Oshii stated that part of the inspiration for the comic strip were his thoughts on blood itself and from wondering about how different types of blood would affect a vampire. He himself seems to have more sympathy with the vampires than with the serial blood donors but did admit, "I don't want to sound like a dirty old man but I don't think I'd mind having almost all of my blood drained out of me by a very attractive young vampiress."

You can download Chimamire Mai Love on iTunes.

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A new trailer appears for PagodaWest Games' Sonic-inspired iOS platformer, Major Magnet, making me wonder if maybe this new hero is the offspring of two older ones. Could Sonic and Robotnik have a baby?

He's got the speed. He's got the body shape. He's got a strong attraction to mechanical devices. Sure, they're both guys, but science is doing wondrous things with gene splicing these days.

Major Magnet is due out in late February. Until then, poke at its new website. Just poke at it.

Joanna Cassidy had a small role in Ridley Scott's classic Blade Runner. She was the mostly-naked robot lady with the snake. Well, according to Cassidy, the role was meant to be a little bigger, with the original script calling for a scene in which she did an exotic "reptile dance."

This scene was never shot. Yet bizarrely, Cassidy, now 67, has decided to act it out now on camera. And it's...a little weird. Especially since I'm pretty sure none of the Blade Runner versions have R. Kelly on the soundtrack.

At least this time she's got a real snake!

What Might Have Been: Snake Dance [YouTube, via Topless Robot]

Koch Media owns publisher Deep Silver (Dead Island). It now owns both the Saints Row and Metro franchises, along with the studios that made them. Fans have every right to be cautious about a management change, but while Koch said in a media release earlier today it "will roll out future plans for each franchise in the coming months", Deep Silver has since tweeted the following:

I mean, yeah, of course they'd say that. But in the absence of anything else, it's something for fans to hold on for while they await news of the future.

Francis Tsai is a concept artist who has worked for companies like Rockstar, EA and Eidos. Sadly, as we told you last month, Tsai was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease in 2010, and the condition has slowly taken away his ability to draw.

First he lost the use of his hands, so he learned to draw with his feet; when that was taken away, he promised to learn how to rig up a computer so he could draw with his eyes. Well, Francis' sister emailed us today to let us know these experiments have been a success.

The pictures you're seeing here were drawn by Francis using only his eyeballs. Using Tobii's "eye-gazing" technology, plugged into drawing programs Sketchup and GIMP, Tsai has been able to create these four images using nothing but the motion of his eyeballs. I'm at a loss for words.

You can purchase prints of these from Francis' store, with all proceeds going towards funding his medical care.

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