Happy Halloween from Hatena! Today in the Hatena office most of the staff came to work dressed in Halloween costumes and we had a big Halloween party. To celebrate the occasion, one of our employees made a pumpkin carved with the Hatena logo, and our engineers and designers even went so far as to replace all of the stars on Hatena with pumpkins for a limited time. We've also decided to devote this whole week"s edition of our blog to Flipnotes about Halloween.
For several weeks I've been writing this blog and I realize that I never properly introduced myself. My name is Aaron and my main job at Hatena is translating all of the great stuff that is made by the Hatena team into English and other languages. However, I also write this Flipnote Hatena Weekly News blog every week in English which is loosely based on the original Japanese version by (id:reikon).
Thanks to the help of Dr. Zoom and MdM) you can also read a translation of this blog in German or Italian. Please be sure to check out the translations of the blog and give them some stars for all of their hard work.
If you are interested in helping us translate the blog to French or Spanish please get in touch with us. Please note that this is a volunteer position, but your work will be very much appreciated by all of us at Hatena and the Flipnote Hatena community.
Also please let us know any feedback you might have about our blog by posting your comments in the box at the bottom of this blog entry.
And now.. prepare yourself for some spooky and scary stuff!
We had so many excellent Flipnotes posted by users from around the world for last week's topic "Halloween" that we're going to devote the whole blog this week to introducing the best ones. At the end of the blog we'll introduce our new topic for this week.
We recommend you have some Halloween candy while reading our blog -- but please be on the lookout for any zombies, witches, werewolves or other Halloween creatures who might be lurking around!
The best of last week's topic: "Halloween Flipnotes"
As of today, there were 1,981 Flipnotes (a new record!) posted by users from around the world for last week's topic "Halloween Flipnotes" and we've done our best to introduce some of the best Flipnotes from below, which we hope you'll enjoy.
You can see all of the Flipnotes posted by users for last week's topic at the URL below (be sure to set your content preference to Worldwide to see Flipnotes from all regions):
http://flipnote.hatena.com/ch/11538438303373977975
You can also see the Flipnotes for last week's topic posted from your own region by entering the command
via "Command Search" from Flipnote Hatena on your Nintendo DSi.
"Halloween Flipnotes" from the Americas:
★ Check out this cool Flipnote of a pumpkin carving by Rokkon (id:jewely564), which is one of many spin-offs created from the "Pumpkin Carver" Flipnote that has become a Flipnote Hatena phenomenon started by one of our favorite creators, Fred (id:blankenburg).
★ We liked this well-drawn animation of a female Zombie by Sylvia (id:SylviaSoul) that we hope doesn't scare you too much.
★ We also really enjoyed the catchy song and cute animation in this Flipnote by ShinyEevee (id:ShinyEevee), which we're sure will make you laugh. (You can double click your mouse on the Flipnote to open the Flipnote in a new window and see the lyrics.)
★ This short and simple Flipnote titled "Happy Halloween" by %Hunter% (id:xhuntercx) has scary sounds and images that might just give you a nightmare if you watch it too many times.
★ We liked this case of mistaken identity in "Apples Are Lame"by Mohamed (id:Mohamed), where an apple thinks that it is something else. At Hatena we like both pumpkins and apples, however.
"Halloween Flipnotes" from Europe and Oceania:
★ This funny Flipnote about a skeleton by harry (id:jago12-345) is a lot of fun. Be sure to check out his other Flipnotes too!
★ Enter a world of horror in this Flipnote by Eeyore (id:LouLou), with nicely drawn transitions and all kinds of scary stuff that perfectly captures the spirit of Halloween.
★ We also liked "Ghostkerchief" by Trunks (id:TrunksBriefs) about a cute little ghost with a surprise ending.
★ This short Flipmote of an animated bat is one of many cute animations by ☆ManOwaR☆ ("id:x-files2) who submitted a series of nice Flipnotes for this week's topic.
★ This Flipnote by Chiara (id:Felidae6630) of a pumpkin carving is amazingly well drawn -- maybe even better than our Hatena symbol jack-o-lantern.
★ Leonardo (id:leomckitten), one of our favorite creators, made this humorous Flipnote about a trick-or-treater who gets an unexpected treat. We especially liked the facial expressions on the character.
"Halloween Flipnotes" from Japan:
★ This Halloween themed Flipnote by Erekudosue (id:ereku27) shifts quickly from idea to idea, and has extremely well done animation and sound. Good job!
★ Sota (id:parapara-sota) made a funny Flipnote of a ghost coming out of his body that we thought was a lot of fun.
★ This funny Flipnote by Sky (id:Sukai), who is one of the top Flipnote creators in Japan, tells the story of a chubby trick-or-treater who says "Trick or Steak" instead of "Trick or Treat".
★ We liked this beautifully drawn Flipnote by Sankyakuo which tells the story about a witch who drinks a potion and changes into an angel for one day. She proceeds to fall in love, but time is short before she changes back into her original form.
This week's topic: "Links"
This week's topic has many possibilities, and is more challenging than other topics we've done in the past. This topic is about the way that things or ideas are connected together.
For example, you could make Flipnotes about connections of people, words, sounds or ideas that link together in some way visually, audibly or conceptually. The main idea is that whatever you create in your Flipnote links together in some way -- please feel free to experiment. We are looking forward to seeing how far your imagination takes you!
Post your submissions about "Links" by entering the command
You can also check out the current Flipnotes about this week's topic at the URL below (be sure to set your content preference to Worldwide to see postings from all regions):
http://flipnote.hatena.com/ch/11538368069532996154
We'll introduce some of the best Flipnotes from around the world based on this week's theme in next week's Flipnote Hatena news blog.
Hatena Request Channel
Do you have any ideas about how we can improve Flipnote Hatena? Please let us know by posting a Flipnote with your ideas to the Hatena Request Channel.
You can post your ideas and feedback by entering the command
You can see the current submissions to the Hatena Request Channel the URL below (be sure to set your content preference to Worldwide to see Flipnotes from all regions):
Thanks for taking the time to read our blog, and please add a star if you enjoyed it!
Also, please let us know what you think about the Flipnote Hatena Weekly News blog by posting any comments you might have in the box below.
