Brush up your Japanese with time traveling Ojaru-maru

D3 Publisher picked up the license to Ojaru-maru, an anime series about a noble boy who jumped 1,000 years into the future (i.e. our present) with the help of a magical stick. It’s a collection of mini games on the DS and usually that would be uninteresting. However, one of the mini games has players identify objects and write what they are in kana (not kanji). In another mini game players chat to Ojaru-maru by speaking one of three canned phrases into the DS microphone. From the screenshots, it looks like Ojaru-Maru DS goes through some of the basics, which may make it a useful tool for those learning Japanese.

There are ordinary mini games in Ojaru-Maru DS too like spotting differences in pictures, coloring and whack-a-demon. But I doubt anyone is going to import this to bonk Akane, Kisuke and Aobee on the head.