Nigorimasen! Blog

Today I received a package containing a DVD I’m set to screen for the next five Wednesdays from Operation Anime, Funimation’s anime club program. I had to bike to the former club president’s apartment to pick it up because there was some error after I changed the shipping address to mine and it apparently didn’t take. (That issue has been sorted out, though, and future stuff should be sent to me.) Minor problems aside, this post is meant to show what kind of stuff you get in a typical shipment. Pictures after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

How not to show off an elfgirl poster

I ordered the Genshiken box set in late December as part of RightStuf’s Christmas sale, got it about a month ago, and finished watching it over the weekend. Before I got the anime in the mail, I had already started reading the manga and recently finished volume 2, the plot points of which are covered in episodes 2-7. It was very entertaining for me to watch as I was familiar with the various subcultures of fandom, like cosplaying and figure building, as well as the societal stigmas that such practioners may encounter in public situations.

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Fujiwara Sunao is a girl who dresses like a guy, casually rebels against the principal, and has the ability to manipulate water. She tries to keep her secret hidden while solving problems like dying birds and a single father unable to control his little daughter. Meanwhile, the class president Ikushima makes “advances” on her and the school nurse “Mr. Shizuki” has playful stalker tendencies.

I liked the stories and their morals as well as the art by author Setsuri Tsuzuki but most of the little comedy there was didn’t really connect. Then again, I didn’t expect much as it was labeled “Fantasy/Romance” so it doesn’t negatively impact it too much. I was already accustomed to woman-in-men’s-clothes gender subversion with Ouran so I didn’t have problems following Sunao but having to remember that the nurse was actually a man took a bit more work considering his pigtails. The rating of “Older Teen 16+” is applied because there are a couple pages where Sunao is naked and there is some contact between Ikushima and a fellow student.

The sun is out, flowers are blooming and the birds are chirping so it’s time for a slew of new anime to premiere in Japan. I’m actually gonna try to watch stuff this season because I want to stay somewhat current with what’s airing and being talked about. Anyway, here are five anime I am personally looking forward to watching next month.

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Vinyl FTW!

Okay, this is an off-topic, shameless self-promotion, so you’ve been warned! Later tonight at 11PM [2AM EDT/12PM GMT/2PM Singapore], I will be undergoing on-air training at my college radio station KDVS and will play about 15-20 minutes worth (5 songs) of music from their library. This is in preparation for my weekly spot for next quarter as a newbie DJ at the station.

My show will be titled “Angry Fruit Salad” and I’ll be playing rock, punk, folk, and indie music for 2 hours starting from 4AM [7AM EDT/12PM GMT/7PM Singapore] early Wednesday mornings. You don’t have to listen live, of course — shows get archived to the website minutes after they wrap up — but giving me some feedback on my first outing on March 28th would be greatly appreciated and would help me smooth over some first-time jitters of being on the radio and managing a live broadcast.

Feel free to post any requests and I will try to see if the station has it (probably not if the artist is mainstream). I will try to play at least 50% “currents” but that leaves me with room to put in stuff I found poking around the racks or something interesting from home. The rule for playing non-current music (that is, more than three months old and not in the “Currents” bin) on a weekly show is no more than twice from the same artist/band per quarter, which still allows me to play some of my personal favorites while forcing me to explore and find new music as I have been doing for the past couple months now. Wish me luck and I hope you tune in sometime!

P.S. I’m going to attempt recording another episode of Amateur Otaku Radio on Talkshoe at 1:15PM PDT tomorrow and talk about the upcoming spring season among other things. I’m not trying to compete with the Scattered Cels podcast but I feel the urge to make more episodes in a futile attempt to make money.

UPDATE (1:46 PM PDT): I got so frustrated trying to load the Talkshoe Java app and failing to log in properly that I decided, from now on, I’m going to just record AOR on my own and then upload it after the schedule TalkCast time passes. Sorry to anyone who tried to listen in this afternoon but I’ll try to compose the spring-related episode for the next couple days and have it up by Friday.

Not quite at that stage yet…

Almost everyone in the fan community dislikes 4Kids Entertainment for how they have handled titles like One Piece and some of them wish they would go out of business. Well, the company reported on Friday a $2.3 million net loss for the quarter ending December 31, 2006 and a $1.0 million loss for the year ending 12/31/06 (net gain for 2005 was $5.1 million), but they still have over $18 million in cash and $111 million in total cash and investments so they’re not going out of business in the immediate future. However, there is room for concern as their net revenue as steadily decreased over the past two years from $99.1 million in 2004 to $71.8 million in 2006.

Look at the first volume covers of Noein for Japan (left) and the US (right). Assuming you know nothing about the plot or characters, what impressions do you get about the series just from looking at the front of the box? This anime is different from a majority of licensed series in that its box art greatly differs from depending on whether it’s from region 1 or region 2 instead just sharing the same art and putting an English title and description over it.
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I don’t exactly remember how I came upon their site but Anime On Demand offers streaming fansubs outside a web browser and it works pretty smoothly. How does it work? Well, you first have to download a program from their website and then you should be good to go, provided you have a Windows 98 or newer system, .NET Framework 2.0 (the installer should include this if you don’t already have it), and Windows Media Player 9. If everything has gone to plan, it should look like this.

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Okay, guys. If you’re going to Fanime this year (May 25th-28th in San Jose), back me up on this if you can. I just submitted a fan proposal proposal for a fan panel on the topic of anime blogging and I would like more seasoned bloggers (I only have 10 months of “experience”) to join me, if the bid gets accepted at all. Even fledging bloggers are welcome as I want to provide a range of opinions and make it an actual panel and not a lecture. Co-hosts might also help diffuse the nervousness of me going to my first big-name convention.

My rough outline starts with a look back of the beginning of anime blogging as a segment of the blogosphere, the “boom” as it caught on, and a look into the future. I think I might also look at the Japanese blogging scene although that is tenative at this point. The next section will feature advice on what to do and not do when blogging. After that, I’ll cover hosting, the array of focuses and styles (e.g. figures, lolis, manga, parodies, rants), aggregators, and conduct. Q&A at the end if there’s enough time.

My damn scanner was being cranky so I had to go the analog route.

I stayed up all Sunday night trying to write a paper so I read the first volume of Chibi Vampire (aka Karin) while eating breakfast at about six Monday morning. I thought it was an enjoyable introduction to the romantic comedy story of a high school girl who is a “reverse vampire”. That is, the main character Karin likes the day, hates the night, and produces blood rather sucking it from people. Her “victims” become more energized than before when they were stressed out due to her infusions. Why she is different from the rest of her vampiric family has yet to be explained but I think it will be as the plot progresses further.
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