Mice Designed by Famous Anime Artists

Roland writes "Japan Gadgets reports that eminent Japanese animators Masamune Shiro (Ghost in the Shell) and Hajime Katoki (Gundam) have decided to apply their creative design skills to a new line of limited edition optical mice. Due to be released in Japan in late November, each of the two mouse designs will be available in black, silver, and white and come with a special printed insert of an interview with the respective designer." Definitely thinking outside the box... not sure about the ergonomics, but points for aesthetic ;)

Comments

Argh

[Anonymous Coward]

Ghost in the Shell
Slashdotted all to Hell
Better mice than Dell

ok guys, lets not all go there at once.

[rudiger]

i know how much a lot of you people like their anime, but a /.'ing in less than 6mins? thats determination.

Aesthetics aside...

[Drunken Coward]

Despite looking "hi-tech" (since when did that become a noteworthy style?) these things look like they'll be hell on your hands/wrists/arms. Carpal tunnel syndrome is a very real problem, but unfortunately many people are under the false impression that it is caused by keyboards and not by mice. I'll stick with my old mouse and not leave my health up to the whim of fashion, thank you very much.

But why only the optical version? Optics in mice has yet to develop enough to become sufficient for higher end graphics work (hell, even Logitech is still making "old-fashioned" roller ball mice). Accuracy is important- why are mouse manufacturers neglecting pay attention to such a significant number of potential customers?

Re:Aesthetics aside...

[0x0d0a]

I've used, the slightest debris on the mouse area can render the mouse useless until you clean it.

I purchased a 3M Precision Mousing Surface and have had any problems since. Quite impressive little device.

3... 2... 1... Slashdotted!

[seldolivaw]

Oh well. I'll bookmark it and come back in a few days. When is Slashdot going to get a clue and develop an automatic cache of pages it links to before posting the story? That way we could actually see the sites, instead of having to grub around for ad-hoc mirror sites.

Re:3... 2... 1... Slashdotted!

[Persnickity]

I've asked this same question before and got shot down. Of course, the FAQ entry is two years old at this point:

http://slashdot.org/faq/suggestions.shtml#su900

Seems like someone would have taken the time to look into it and implement something by this point.

Idea:
Alternitive to the check for no ads method. Cache the page at post time, but don't point to the cache unless the site goes down. Then you can point back to the original site once it comes back. Basically, only show the cache while the site is down.

Re:3... 2... 1... Slashdotted!

[photon317]

Or in the case of no ads, he states the problem is the site might change. Well, Slashdot stories on the front page aren't *that* many a day. Run a little caching daemon that checks for an update to slashdot's copy every 30 minutes or so. Expire sites out of the slashdot cache when the story is 3 days old. Surely they have the disk and bandwidth for that, they just seem to have trouble actually coding it. I think the big problem here is CmdrTaco getting some perverse pleasure from the /. effect.

Also @ Cosmo Games

[zebadee]

Have a look here(not /.ed yet!)

Sell-out

[mumblestheclown]

"limited edition mice?"

Are you kidding me? Talk about sell-out.

A simple rule: if it says collectible or limited edition on it, it's guaranteed to be overpriced, and usually crap. ("collector's edition McDonald's Scooby Doo Frosted Mugs"). Have you ever seen a "limited edition" item on HSN that you could turn around and sell for a penny more to anybody who is not an even bigger fool?

Those who pay for slashdot premium should demand their money back on the basis that this was, very clearly, an advertisement.

Pretty but expensive

[Albanach]

The mice (not /.ed but in Japanese) are very nice, but Y7500 that's circa 40 GBP or $60 US which is a bit steep even for a designer mouse, no?

You guys don't get it..

[phrackwulf]

Most of you aren't raving Manga fans. It said in the slashdot article that an interview with each of these two author's comes with the mouse. If it's DVD or has any type of pictures, it's worth the money to Manga fans. Shirow Masamune is the most reclusive "comics" artist in Japan. There is one known photo of him as "Shirow" and it was published something like ten years ago and is impossible to find. This guy is a hero to the "Otaku", Japanese kids with an obsession for printed manga and anime. "Shirow Masamune" is a pseudonym so getting anything like a live interview would be priceless to them (hell, me).
And here you guys are complaining about ergonomics.

[-)

Definitely not for the real world

[redNuht]

Some designs (and designers) are only fit for anime.

At least it's not a Hamtaro mouse...

Re:Sell-in

[cqnn]

A simple rule: if it says collectible or limited edition
on it, it's guaranteed to be overpriced, and usually crap... IN AMERICA

You overlook that other countries do not need to abuse those terms
like we do in the US. Much of the time (in the Japanese Anime
merchandise market) buyers are used to a character or product brand
being used all over the place. The "Scooby-Doo" mugs would not be
considered collectible, precisely because nobody would conceive of
not having mugs, pens, posterboards, lunchboxes, T-shirts, etc...
without the characters plastered all over the place as standard promotion.

In that environment, an extra effort is often made for higher quality
or some form of intrinsic value to be added to a "limited edition" product
to insure that it is set apart from the standard deluge of promotional
items. This becomes even more applicable in an area where the promotion
is taken outside the normal area of expertise of the company, character, or
creator.