• With my Japan trip about a month away it’s time to Japanic! It’s my first time traveling internationally in eight years and I’m rusty. But this packing list and this one are two of the best I’ve found so far and are giving me a little bit of confidence that I can be ready.

• The creators of Psycho-Pass teamed up with a consumer electronics company to make a super realistic transforming Dominator. Watch the demo and you tell me if you think it’s worth $700.

• First Gurren Lagann, then Kill la Kill, and now… Space Patrol Luluco? Our first look at the surprisingly simple and cute new anime from Studio Trigger. HT Zoe!

• When a Japanese TV personality had an affair with a married musician, he went on with his successful career while she took all the blame and saw her career destroyed. And this is 2016. Looks like it’s not only idols who have to keep spotless personas in order to find professional success.

• Remember my Monday post about watching/reviewing Zeta Gundam last week? In case you didn’t see it, my review went live around the same time.

• While we’re on the subject of me, a reader asked me for an email script for reaching out to an anime scholar he wanted to interview, and while I was writing my suggestion I thought, wait, haven’t I done this before? So I halved the price of Niche Journalism Workbook to $5.

• And finally, this vaguely accurate History of Japan video is the seapunk primer I never knew I wanted.

Photo by Osamu Kaneko