Anime sword pizza coming to Pizza Hut with Fate/Grand Order crossover in China
When you think of a pizza, as any reasonable person with a healthy psyche does several times a day, odds are the image that appears in your mind's eye is of a round pizza. However, there's nothing in the definition of the word that says a pizza has to be circular. In some places, for example, you may encounter pizzas cooked on large rectangular baking pans.
So if a pizza can be any shape, why can't there be a pizza that's shaped like a sword, and not just any sword, but an anime sword?
That question was more than just a thought-experiment for Pizza Hut, and so the chain is getting ready to start baking Fate/Grand Order Excalibur Pizzas, inspired by the enchanted weapon originating in the Arthurian legend, but nowadays also intensely identified within the anime/video game fan communities with global mythos-encompassing Fate franchise.
However, the Excalibur Pizza will be coming out of Pizza Hut ovens not in the home countries of the chain, the sword, or the multimedia franchise, but instead in China, where Fate/Grand Order enjoys immense popularity. Pizza Hut China's choice of ingredients for the pizza, which incorporates cheese and Japanese curry flavors, is even a tip of the hat to the local Fate fan community's nickname for the Excalibur, a play on words with the similarity of 'cali' and 'curry.'
Pizza Hut China will also have a line of promotional Fate/Grand Order items, such as finger puppet figures and acrylic standees of Altria/Artoria, Ereshkigal, and Merlin, an Excalibur umbrella, and special illustrated pizza boxes.
The Fate/Grand Order Excalibur Pizza goes on sale August 4. Pizza Hut China is, by the way, managed by Yum China, which also runs KFC Hong Kong, which is currently distributing Gundam Wing mecha buckets that may or may not be used to hold fried chicken, so the ball is now in fellow Yum China brand Taco Bell China's court to form its own anime team-up.
Source: Denfamico Gamer via Hachima Kiko, Weibo/Pizza Hut China
Top image: Weibo/Pizza Hut China
Insert images: Weibo/Pizza Hut China (1, 2 )
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SoraNews24
a day ago
- SoraNews24
Anime sword pizza coming to Pizza Hut with Fate/Grand Order crossover in China
The Pizza of Promised Victory. When you think of a pizza, as any reasonable person with a healthy psyche does several times a day, odds are the image that appears in your mind's eye is of a round pizza. However, there's nothing in the definition of the word that says a pizza has to be circular. In some places, for example, you may encounter pizzas cooked on large rectangular baking pans. So if a pizza can be any shape, why can't there be a pizza that's shaped like a sword, and not just any sword, but an anime sword? That question was more than just a thought-experiment for Pizza Hut, and so the chain is getting ready to start baking Fate/Grand Order Excalibur Pizzas, inspired by the enchanted weapon originating in the Arthurian legend, but nowadays also intensely identified within the anime/video game fan communities with global mythos-encompassing Fate franchise. However, the Excalibur Pizza will be coming out of Pizza Hut ovens not in the home countries of the chain, the sword, or the multimedia franchise, but instead in China, where Fate/Grand Order enjoys immense popularity. Pizza Hut China's choice of ingredients for the pizza, which incorporates cheese and Japanese curry flavors, is even a tip of the hat to the local Fate fan community's nickname for the Excalibur, a play on words with the similarity of 'cali' and 'curry.' Pizza Hut China will also have a line of promotional Fate/Grand Order items, such as finger puppet figures and acrylic standees of Altria/Artoria, Ereshkigal, and Merlin, an Excalibur umbrella, and special illustrated pizza boxes. The Fate/Grand Order Excalibur Pizza goes on sale August 4. Pizza Hut China is, by the way, managed by Yum China, which also runs KFC Hong Kong, which is currently distributing Gundam Wing mecha buckets that may or may not be used to hold fried chicken, so the ball is now in fellow Yum China brand Taco Bell China's court to form its own anime team-up. Source: Denfamico Gamer via Hachima Kiko, Weibo/Pizza Hut China Top image: Weibo/Pizza Hut China Insert images: Weibo/Pizza Hut China (1, 2 ) ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
SoraNews24
11-07-2025
- SoraNews24
Japanese government urging citizens to use generative AI more
Government would be happy if you at least tried generating a mildly bawdy limerick. It's certainly hard to imagine life before generative AI came out. Without it, I never would have known what my microwave looked like if it were in a Studio Ghibli movie, or felt the lingering dread that anything I read or saw online is neither authentic human expression nor correct. And yet, despite these revolutionary changes to society, in its annual Communications White Paper Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications says that gen-AI is being underused in Japan compared to the rest of the world. According to the white paper, only 26.7 percent of people in Japan have ever used generative AI. While that nearly tripled last year's 9.1 percent usage rate, it's still far below other countries' rates, such as 81.2 in China, 68.8 in the USA, and 59.2 in Germany. One might be quick to assume Japan's aging population is to blame, but even when focusing solely on people in their 20s, the rate is still only 44.7 percent, and usage by business is only slightly higher at 49.7. Also interesting to note is that AI usage by people in their 30s in Japan is slightly lower than by people in their 40s, with 23.8 and 29.6 percent respectively. ▼ Feline usage, however, remains abysmally low. The white paper concludes that 'Japan is lagging behind AI-advanced countries of the world in terms of technology, industry, and applications, and further promotion of AI usage is needed in daily life.' Online comments from trending-news Internet portal Hachima Kiko didn't disagree, but felt that certain aspects of Japanese society may need changing first. 'I don't do anything like AI illustrations, but it's good for expanding on searches and proofreading.' 'I'm not surprised. We're struggling to get people to use cashless payment systems.' 'We should start by replacing everyone on TV with generated characters to end all the harassment and abuse there.' 'Using AI in game rendering can greatly reduce memory usage. I wonder if Japanese game makers are looking into it properly.' 'Japan needs to stop using floppy disks and fax machines first.' 'Maybe we just prefer the warmth of humanity.' 'That many people are using it in China?!' 'I think if there were a domestically produced AI, more people would get into it.' 'It's not important how widely it's used, but if it's being used properly.' 'In Japan, people who have used it to make money were arrested, and people who used it online were harassed.' In fairness, the people who were arrested were using AI to make money in illegal ways, so I don't think that's a valid argument that Japan has a stifling environment. If anything, it shows there are AI entrepreneurs here trying to make things happen. People just need to find more legitimate applications of it. That being said, I've recently had to deal with a few AI customer service bots from other countries and wasn't really blown away by their effectiveness. Maybe Japan can stand to be a little sluggish on AI adoption until it starts working a little more smoothly. Source: Communications White Paper, FNN Online Prime, Hachima Kiko Featured image: Pakutaso Insert image: Pakutaso ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!
Asahi Shimbun
10-07-2025
- Asahi Shimbun
China detains female erotica writers in pornography crackdown
Models present creations at a livestreamed Autumn/Winter 2020 collection show held inside a bookstore with no audience onsite following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, during China Fashion Week in Beijing, China May 6, 2020. (cnsphoto via REUTERS) BEIJING--Police in China have detained dozens of young women authors in a genre of gay erotica widely known in Asia as 'boys' love' during a nationwide crackdown on online pornography, lawyers and activists familiar with the cases say. The detentions since March have triggered debate on social media about the limits of free speech and the apparent sexist nature of the crackdown, while stirring sympathy for the authors, many of whom hail from low-income backgrounds. 'I just wanted to earn some money to ease my family's financial burden,' one author of such works wrote in a May 25 post on microblogging platform Weibo before it was deleted. 'I never imagined that 300,000 clicks and 4,000 yuan in royalties accumulated by those obscure words over time would become criminal evidence,' she added, referring to a sum equivalent to about $560. Police detained the women in the northwestern city of Lanzhou for violating a 2004 obscenity law that can carry jail terms of more than 10 years or life, though legal scholars want it overhauled to reflect changes in internet usage. The writers, all aged in their 20s and early 30s, published their work on Haitang Literature City, a niche pay-to-read online platform specializing in the erotic fiction genre, popular with women, that features relationships between men. The website is censored in China and can only be accessed by using virtual private network (VPN) software. One author detained in April earned royalties of less than 10,000 yuan ($1,400) that supplemented her income from a series of menial jobs, said her defense lawyer, who sought anonymity for fear of police retaliation. 'In a country that emphasizes socialist morality, people's concept of sex is influenced by the prevailing culture, so of course it is linked to freedom of speech,' the lawyer said. 'If these things cannot be written now, wasn't 'Dream of the Red Chamber' also obscene at the time?' they asked, referring to a famous 18th-century Chinese novel. Some authors may face trial as soon as this autumn if prosecutors decide to press charges, the lawyer added. Lanzhou police did not reply to a request for comment. In 2021, China's state media regulator called for the removal of content depicting 'abnormal sexual relationships,' a year after the official People's Daily condemned boys' love novels as 'poison' that could 'mislead young people on gender'. Reuters was unable to confirm the number of women detained, although lawyers say some were later released on bail. None could be reached for interviews and family members declined to speak, citing safety threats. In recent weeks, several have written social media posts about their experiences, only for these to be deleted later. One described being detained by police in front of her university classmates. Others said police interrogated them about their sex lives and sexual orientation. More than a dozen Chinese lawyers have publicly offered pro bono aid to authors and Haitang readers summoned by police. China cracks down periodically on content it deems 'immoral', ranging from LGBT-themed social media accounts to 'vulgar' livestreamers and influencers who 'flaunt wealth.' A crackdown on gay erotica last year saw more than 50 Haitang authors detained or fined by rural police in the eastern province of Anhui, according to lawyers. One well-known author was jailed in December for 4-1/2 years for earning 1.8 million yuan ($250,000) by publishing 'obscene works,' a court judgment posted online by her husband showed. The user did not respond to a request for comment. But the latest group of detained authors made just a few thousand yuan from their work, said an activist familiar with several cases who declined to be identified for safety reasons. In informal conversations, the defense lawyer said, Lanzhou court officials have called the stories 'disgusting and perverted' for their depiction of LGBT relationships. 'These websites are extremely niche and can only be accessed by insiders, whereas vulgar online content involving gambling, porn and minors is everywhere on short-video apps and social media,' one user wrote on the RedNote platform. Its 'Haitang' hashtag drew more than 205 million views and 1.8 million posts before it was censored in June. 'Men who write pornographic fiction enter the China Writers' Association, whereas women who do the same go to jail,' runs a popular RedNote meme. Many users said some perpetrators of rape, molestation and domestic violence received lighter sentences than writers of erotica. 'An authoritarian government can only use a one-size-fits-all approach to arrest authors,' feminist activist Li Maizi said of the anti-pornography campaign. 'They should implement a rating system to protect these creators rather than simply erasing them.'
