This past week in Japan there was a festival called Setsubun, which literally means "division of the seasons." During Setsubun, families take part in rituals to cleanse themselves of the evils of the former year and to keep away bad spirits for the year to come.
One of the rituals of Setsubun is called "Mamemaki" (bean-throwing), where people throw roasted soybeans out the door of their homes, or at someone wearing an demon or ogre mask (known as an "Oni" in Japanese). While throwing the beans, people chant "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!", which translates as "Demons out! Luck in!"
Throwing the beans is thought to purify the home by driving away evil spirits that bring misfortune and disease.
For last week's topic, Japanese users posted Flipnotes about "Setsubun", whereas users from the Europe and Oceania and Americas regions posted about the theme "Monsters". We hope you enjoy this worldwide mix of Flipnotes featuring monsters and demons, and if you feel scared, we recommend you try throwing some soybeans to scare evil away!
In this week's edition of the Flipnote Hatena news blog, we're going to show you some of our favorite Flipnotes based on last week's topic "Monsters" ("Setsubun" for users in Japan), and introduce our new topic for this week which is "Chocolate".
If you post Flipnotes about the weekly topic, we might feature yours here on the Flipnote Hatena Weekly News blog next week and give you some rare color stars -- post your Flipnotes and join in the fun!
Lastly, scroll to the bottom of this blog entry to see Weekly Frog Sightings where we feature original frog photos and illustrations from users like you. Post your original frog photos to Hatena Haiku (post to the keyword "Frog Sightings") and we might feature it here next week.
Read the Flipnote Hatena News blog in your language
Here is a list of the URL's that you can use to read the different language versions of this news blog:
- English:
- French:
- German:
- Italian:
- Japanese:
- Spanish:
Starting from this week, our new staff member Sacha (id:MilkShake) is posting the weekly news blog in French. We hope our French speaking users enjoy it.
Also, thanks to the help and support of MdM (id:MdMbunny) you can also read a translation of this blog in Italian, and id:Alex_BCN82 is now translating our blog into Spanish. Please be sure to check out the other language versions of the blog, since there are some differences between each version. It might be a good way to learn a foreign language too!
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.
The best of last week's topic: "Monsters"
As of today, there were 2,460 Flipnotes posted by users from around the world for last week's topic. We've selected some of the best Flipnotes from the past week 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/11540604308607640700
You can also see the Flipnotes for last week's topic posted from your own region by entering the command
"Monsters" Flipnotes from the Europe and Oceania region:
★ When there's a full moon, sometimes people change into werewolves just like in this Flipnote by gadoidao (id:gadoidao)
★ Meet "Ren" the scary monster with a creepy voice by Alucard (id:BloodWerewolf). Please don't wake him up!
★ Trudi (id:Trudi) posted this Flipnote of a strange demon with a mysterious transforming face. Nice work!
★ We liked this Flipnote by cool zoomy (id:mastergogo). What will happen when Patrick Pig meets a hungry monster?
★ This monster created by やDaniや (id:Danilson) looks beastly, both normally and upside down! Yikes!
★ You'll enjoy the attention to detail in this monster Flipnote by Nightspark ( id:Thunderstar11) titled "Evil Scheming". I wonder what the monster's planning to do?
"Monsters" Flipnotes from Japan:
★ The bean throwing character in this Flipnote by Yamaguchi (id:s10n) uses the special bean throwing technique called "certain kill" to drive away an evil demon.
★ The tough demon in this Flipnote by Itougin (id:GiN) can't be stopped by soybeans alone! We'd better do something before it's too late!
★ A soybean transforms in a cute little demon in this Flipnote by kasumi (id:kasu33), which is certain to make you smile.
★ A young demon gets hit by some soybeans, cries and says "Don't hate me just because I'm a demon" in this cute Flipnote by Natsu Mikan (id:natsumi-park)
★ A demon gets bombarded by soybeans in this funny Flipnote by Yuuto.
★ The demon in this Flipnote by Aka (id:nintendoDS) isn't scared of soybeans being thrown at him, and on the contrary, seems to think that they are tasty!
"Monsters" Flipnotes from the Americas region:
★ You'll be surprised by what comes out of the closet in this Flipnote by John #9 (id:John-9). Nice use of the Nintendo DSi Camera application!
★ This cute little tiger would never hurt anyone, would it? SoulReaper (id:SoulReaper321) serves up a surprise that will have you jumping out of your seat. This is a spin-off made from the original Flipnote by kioshilove (id:kioshirox)
★ Don't make kerious (id:kerious) mad. I don't think you'd like kerious when he's mad...
★ It's not good to be a carrot when there are monster bunnies around, as depicted in this Flipnote by Nic0leXD (id:nicoleXD). Nice work!
★ We liked the marshmallow chomping monster in this Flipnote by Kerry (id:igloo21377) and enjoyed the weird characters too!
★ Kuro (id:kurokuro16) reminds us to not pick on people or monsters which are smaller than us in this funny Flipnote.
This week's topic: "Chocolate"
Valentine's Day is coming up soon, so for this week's topic we'd like you to post Flipnotes about anything related to chocolate. See what you can create based on this topic, and post it to channel 8 from Flipnote Hatena on your Nintendo DSi.
We're looking forward to seeing your Flipnotes, and will feature some of the best ones next week here in the Flipnote Hatena Weekly News blog.
You can see all of the Flipnotes currently posted about this week's topic at the URL below (be sure to set your content preference to Worldwide to see Flipnotes from all regions):
Follow Flipnote Hatena on Twitter
We've started a Twitter account to keep you updated about the latest news and happenings at Flipnote Hatena.
Follow us at: http://twitter.com/flipnotehatena
Weekly Frog Sighting
If you are interested in having your frog photo featured in the "Weekly Frog Sighting" section of the blog you can post it on Hatena Haiku (post to the keyword "Frog Sightings") and we'll choose the best ones and feature them here.
Please submit only original photos/illustrations that you have created yourself.
Unfortunately, no one submitted any Frog Sightings photos this week. This might be because it's too cold outside to go searching for frogs, or perhaps the frogs are hibernating in many parts of the world.
So, we took some photos of our own that are sort of related to frogs. For this week's picture we have a size comparison of the new Nintendo DSi XL (known as the Nintendo DSi LL in Japan) with the Flipnote Frogs on their screens. As you can see from the photo, the big screen of the Nintendo DSi XL is nicely suited for creating and watching Flipnotes.
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.
