A weekly look into American otaku culture

Okay, so I’ve ranted before about how VIZ edited one panel in the first volume of I”s., but I went out and bought it anyway. I still think I’m going to really like the series. But I was very surprised when I got the latest issue of Shounen Jump in the mail today. It turns out that they have a little I”s preview in this month’s issue. Now one of the biggest gripes I have about US Jump is that it only serializes action manga. Okay, maybe they snuck Hikaru no Go somewhere in there, but there defiantly isn’t any romance stories! After seeing the Japanese Jump magazine with Ichigo 100% in it, I really wanted to get some romances! So I thought maybe this is a huge change for VIZ and their US magazine. Maybe they’re thinking, as the Yu-Gi-Oh audience was getting older, they might be able to go more towards this mature direction. So I sat down all happy and started looking at the color pages, when a little disclaimer caught my eye…

“Some scenes in this preview have been modified from the original Japanese edition.”

Well no sh*t, we all know that they modified from the original version! But did this mean that they even modified it more? So I looked at the Jump preview and the graphic novel side by side, and oh yeah, they did some work!

The page numbers reflect those in the VIZ graphic novel, not the magazine.

• Page 6, Panel 2: Large “Ba-bump” sound effects added to cover up a bikini clad butt.
• Page 7, Panel 1: Large “Ba-bump” sound effects added to cover up a bikini clad butt.
• Page 12, Panel 1: “The only reason you got to ogle those creamy thighs…” edited to “The only reason you got to ogle that…”
• Page 12, Panel 2: “Whoa, her legs are wide open!” edited to just “Whoa!”
• Page 15, Panel 2: Large “Ba-bump” sound effects added to cover up a bikini clad butt.
• Page 15, Panel 4: “Just grow a pair and ask her out for tea yourself!” edited to “Just be a man and ask her out for tea yourself!”
• Page 22, Panel 5: “Please. I’ll do a spread…” edited to “Please, I’ll do a pose…”
• Page 22, Panel 5: Large “Ba-bump” sound effects added to cover up a swimsuit clad butt.

The changes are very puzzling to me… even though the “ba-bump”s were blocking the way, you still could make out a good deal of what they were covering. Again, like the stars from before, it’s almost as if they’re teasing you a little by this. Like some porno company saying, “You wanna see more? Buy the whole book!” Wow, who’d of thought VIZ was so naughty in their ways.

And where’s that disclaimer in the graphic novel?!? If anything, the one that says it’s been edited from the original Japanese version should go in the book! The disclaimer in the magazine should read, “Some scenes in this preview have been modified from a version of the book that has been modified the original Japanese edition.”

Well so much for VIZ going a mature direction, huh? They really don’t like that booty… it’s a damn shame.

Source: Ken Akamatsu’s Blog
Translation: Anime News Network

Today, April 3rd, 2005, is the wedding day of Keitaro and Naru. Relatives and friends from Japan and abroad, came to Hinata Inn at the seaside of Kanagawa prefecture to attend their wedding. Honored priest Seda conducted the ceremony. As usual Kitsune, Motoko, Shinobu, Suu, Mutsumi and Sara were busy with the preparation of the ceremony.

Congratulations! You really must not give up, no matter what!

First of all, WHY WASN’T I INVITED?!? I mean, nobody has known for a long as I have. I’ve been there with them from the very beginning. Hell, if anything, I should have been the best man!

Oh, Keitaro, what good times we had together. All those late nights studying to get into Tokyo U. Of course, that guy only had one thing on his mind… the ladies. He used to be a real jerk about it too. He’d always be like, “I accidentally walked in on Naru changing today,” or, “Su made a giant robotic turtle that destroyed the hot springs again,” or “I accidentally walked in on Mutsumi changing today,” or, “Motoko challenged me to the our 1,000th fight and kicked my ass again,” or, “I accidentally walked in on Kitsune changing today…” Gawd, that show-off!

But I don’t know about that Naru girl. Every time I’d see the ol’ Kei-ster, he’s always have some kind of new bruise or injury from her. I keep on telling him that a abusive relationship is not the way to go, that there are plenty of fish in the sea. I mean, I’ve tried to hook him up with that Shinobu chick. Sure, she might a little young, but she cooks, cleans the house, is extremely cute, but most of all, got the blue hair. How could you go wrong with that? But he keeps on going for that S&M queen Naru. Something about some promise or whatever. Hey, whatever floats your boat, ya’ know?

But there most be something there I don’t see that makes the guy go crazy over that girl. So I guess I’m happy that he’s finally getting hitched.

So here’s to you, Keitaro!

::lifts his glass:: Cheers!

Maybe now you will finally be able to see a naked woman without getting sent into orbit.

Well after a very nice and relaxing weekend with my girlfriend, I’m back for another week of school (boo!) and blogging (yay!). So let me just touch on a couple of points from the past couple of days.

First of all, “He is My Master” still isn’t out yet. (-_-). I’m looking at screen caps of the 2nd episode, and it’s reached such a level of cuteness that it’s torture now not to watch it. Just gotta keep calm, Scott. Breath in… breath out… you’ll be able to see it soon. ::sigh::

Though while I’m at it, that site that I just linked too, lolitron, is a fantastic anime blog. I don’t know why it’s not mentioned more, maybe he’s just shy or something. I came across it on a fluke with a web search, and it’s been wowing me ever since. This guy works hard to create a virtual picture book of screen caps with every episode he writes about. I feel that I’ve been practically watching the newest season of Girls Bravo through him. Everyone should check him out.

There’s a sale right now at Borders and Waldenbooks across the US. Buy 2 books of manga, and get the 3ed free! So I used that for gather up the latest volumes in my collection, as well as work on a serious black log I have on some series. My hall this week:

• Negima vol. 5
• I’s vol. 1
• SaiKano vol. 4
• Tuxedo Gin vol. 11
• Ranma 1/2 vol. 13
• Video Girl Ai vol. 9
• Candidate for Goddess vol. 3

Quite a nice load, if I do say so myself (^_^) That should last me for a little while, at least. If anyone wants to see my collection, check out this site. Forgive the crappiness of that site with all the ads and whatnot. I want to transfer it to here, but it’s been so intergraded with Mircosoft Word that I would have to go in and re-code it all by hand again. One day I’ll get around to it.

Also, my girlfriend got most of the Tsubasa series. I didn’t really have too much of an interest in it, but after scanning through the first volume, I started getting a little excited over it. Maybe I’ll check out the anime now… well either way, I’m gonna look forward to borrowing them from here when she’s done with them (>_<)

And finally, I checked out “Sin City” over the weekend, and it was quite an interesting film. I mean, it’s far from being a great film. It might not be decent film either. While being a guilty pleasure of sex and violence, the plot is filled with as many noir clichés that they couldn’t be too serious about it. But the style was amazing. Now I might not be a big fan of American comics, I love the underground stuff like Johnen Vasquez and his “Johnny the Homicide Maniac” series. So while I never read “Sin City” myself, I was quite familiar with the style. They pulled it off PERFECTLY on the big screen, it’s really amazing to look at and think about.

But it suffers the same way that anime and manga suffers when you put it into a live action medium. With comics and animation, you’re free to create anything out want and have anything happen. You can defy all the limits of physics and realitly. When you have real people doing these things, it just looks silly and ridiculous. So while the live action “Sin City” was an interesting take on American graphic novels, I think that it would have done much better as an animation.

But then again… at least it wasn’t like the Cutie Honey movie…

::shivers::