A weekly look into American otaku culture

Recently I’ve decided to moderate the comments posted to my blog for first-time commentors. While I understand that this confuses and annoys a couple of people, I’ve found that it’s really the best way to go. Don’t believe me? Well, check out this little gem then someone attempted to post last night about my review of Maburaho:

“Manuraho is do fucking hot every time that i see her my dick goes realy hard and i have to fuck my grilfriend you should do an episode were some one fucks maburaho, and if you do send the episode to my mail.”

Now, at first I would write that off as a practical joke, because I do get fake comments like that sometimes. But I really believe that this guy is serious. He came to my site through a google search for Sexy Maburaho, which surprisingly has me as the top result. He also left a legitimate email address for me to send him an episode of Maburaho having sex. Gee, I wasn’t even aware that there was a title character in the series! Maybe I should re-watch the whole thing.

So here’s a helpful tip for all of you new and budding bloggers. You might run a very smart and sophisticated site, but chances are that you’re going to have a lot of very stupid people stumble upon it. So if you give them a chance to add something to your site, please be sure that you have some kind of control over what shows up and what does not. Commenting is a great feature, but these vulgarities can really bring down the content quality of your blog. So don’t be afraid to say no to them. It’s your blog, you can do whatever you want with it.

I also want to take this time to announce that I’m back to a regular update schedule now. Sorry for the people that check my site regularly only to discover that I haven’t added anything new for over a week. But now that I have broadband installed in my house, I’ll be able to have enough access to make the kind of posts that I used to make. I’m planning of setting 4-day deadlines for every post. That means that you all can come back on July 1st for my next post, then July 5 for the next, then the 9th… you get the picture. If my schedule gets too hectic over the summer, I might change it to 5 or 6 days each, but I’ll allows tell you when my next post is. I’ll keep the next date posted in my right toolbar under the hit counter. I’m expecting that when school starts again, and I have a lot of free time to myself in my dorm room, my updates will be daily or bi-daily.

So what can you expect on Friday? Well, how about a little something about a show that another blogger really seems to like?

One of the first things I blogged on this site was a secret FLCL project that the guys at Synch-Point were working on for the US market. Since then I’ve been following them trying to find out just what they could be thinking of. Well, yesterday they sent out the press release announcing just what it was.

***

Takara USA launches a new line of female collectible dolls called Tokyo Posse. The first properties in this line will be a pair of fashion forward figures that are “must-haves” for fans and collectors of Japanese pop culture and anime. Haruhara Haruko and Samejima Mamimi from the ultra-popular anime series, FLCL (Fooly Cooly) will make their debut in September 2005.

A limited number of Tokyo Posse dolls will be available prior to the September launch date at Anime Expo 2005, Comic Con International 2005, and Otakon 2005 at the Broccoli International exhibits. A limited edition FLCL Medical Mechanica “Employee of the Month” mug will be included with purchase of these “exclusives” while supplies last.

Takara’s new Tokyo Posse line will feature the extraordinary details and workmanship that has made Jenny a fashion doll icon. Tokyo Posse is geared toward older anime/manga and Japanese pop culture enthusiasts. FLCL aficionados will appreciate the painstaking replication in accessories like Haruko’s knee-high boots, scarf, goggles, and helmet and Mamimi’s school uniform and book bag. Both dolls include stands.

***

o_O?

After doing some research, what this basically means is that they’re coming out with FLCL editions of the Jenny doll. The Jenny doll is the Japanese equivalent of the Barbie doll, only with bigger eyes (of course ). So my initial impression was “What’s the point of an FLCL Barbie?”

But as I thought about it a little more, I think this might be a really cute collectable. I’m not so much of a Haruko fan, but I really like Mamimi. They say that they’re going to be available at Otakon this year, so maybe I’ll check it out with my own eyes and see if it’s any good. But I do have to admit, that Medical Mechanica “Employee of the Month” mug does sound very nice. I think I’m more interested in the free giveaway then the doll itself!

Now if they would only color the hair the right colors, then these dolls would be much better.

In the constant evolution of this blog, I’m doing away with the copywrited likenesses of Di Gi Charat and Ichigo 100%. I needed original art to make this site look good, and so I recruited my favorite artist in the world, my girlfriend. She asks me what I wanted, and I guess I was inspired by Fred Gallagher of Megatokyo to turn a nerdish otaku into a cute anime character.

And so I present to you the official mascot of my blog: Chibi-Scotty!

チービースカッティー

I LOVE the way it looks! I’m hoping she will draw me more cute pictures of him. She really is a great artist. You can check out most of her earlier sketches on this website. I’m really trying to encourage her to do more anime sketches, so if you like what you see, please comment! (^_^)

My day starts off with a train ride into the city early in the morning. I somehow managed to get the last advance ticket, but more people wanted to come see the premiere with me. So I take the subway to 53rd and walked into the Museum of Modern Art. Tickets were still not going to be on sale for another three and a half hours, but there was already a line of anime fanboys and fangirls waiting there to get them. I was the 20th person.

As I passed the time on line reading my girlfriend’s shojo comic called “Happy Hustle High,” I managed to get into some conversations with the people around me. They weren’t anime fans, but Miyazaki fans. Highly educated college and grad students who’ve traveled around the world. New York was just another stop for them, and they wanted to see the man who was so highly regarded everywhere. This was quite a different audience then the kids in the front of the line reading manga and talking about the last convention they went to. I was in the middle of a very interesting line.

But two hours later, the museum staff determined that the line was too big for the amount of tickets they had. The show was now sold out even before anyone bought anything! So they started selling to us. As the 20th person, I had my three new tickets in my hand and was out of the door in no time at all. It was noon in NYC, and I had 5 hours to kill before my girlfriend and her friends arrived to join me. So I walked around.

A look down the shounen section in Book Off! NYC

Every time I got into the city, I always have to stop buy my favorite place. It’s a Japanese book store called Book Off! They have a whole floor filled with un-translated manga imported directly from Japan. They divide it into a shounen, shojo, and adult section. And the best part is that half of their inventory is only a dollar per book! So I always check it out to see what they have stocked on the shelves, and then buy a lot of books for really cheap.

After Book Off, I wandered around the hot city. Reading manga in the park… playing video games at the Toys R Us in Time Square… getting an ice cold Frappachino at Starbucks… then I made my way to New York Penn Station to pick up my cutie. We went back onto the same subway line I took earlier, and we waited outside in line for the actual movie. We were 3 hours early, but we were only the 6th people on line.

Jenn, sporting the cool Domokun t-shirt, plays some old-school Pokemon Blue while waiting on line at the museum.

In less then an hour of waiting, we start seeing some pretty fancy cars pull up. Then Japanese television reporters gathered out side and set up their cameras. Who were they going to interview? Why, the fans waiting in line, of course! (^_^)

Japanese TV reporter interviews a Miyazaki fan waiting on line in front of us.

Of course, the reporter caught a glimpse of the cutie on line wearing the Domokun t-shirt, so she brings her camera crew to us. My shy girlfriend refused to speak on camera, so yours truly did all the talking for the both of us. The woman was Japanese and couldn’t really speak English so well, so we had some problems understanding what she was asking. Be I answered questions about why we were there and why we liked Miyazaki so much. And finally she asked a question which reminded me of every single Japanese interview I’ve ever seen.

“So, are you excited?”

Yes, very, very excited!

Finally, a large black van appears, and out steps the man himself. I whip out my camera, but only manage to get that back of his head.

And then he went inside the museum to greet the press that was in there. At this point, I had to use the bathroom, so I went inside of the building to find one. I talked to the security on duty about my problem, but ultimately they turned me away saying that the area was restricted to press only. But while I was waiting, I watched a little of Miyazaki’s press conference. I couldn’t hear anything, but I was still in awe seeing the guy with my own eyes. I wanted to snap a picture right then, but I know that if I did, I was going to get my ass kicked by some pretty big bodyguards. So I went back outside, where now my girlfriend’s friend, Angie, had arrived with her friend and an order of Chinese food. Mmm… so the four of us dig into some dumplings as more limos pulled up to the entrance.

Legendary Hollywood actress and voice of the Witch of the Waste, Lauren Bacall, arrives at the premiere.

After a little while of waiting, we hear, “Here he comes! Here he comes!” We look over to see Mr. Miyazaki come through the rotating doors. I guess he went back to his van to pick up something, because he went out of sight for a little. Then he came back into the entrance. Chance!

The only good picture of Miyazaki I could get.

Not long after that, they allowed us to enter the theater. However, they were going to confiscate my camera. Crap! So we took one last picture while waiting in the press area.

Jenn and Angie pose in the press area right before entering the theater.

Being so far up in line, we had our choice of any seat in the theater. So we sat at what I felt were the best seats in the house- fourth row, dead center. After everybody was seated, a round of applause went up as Miyazaki and producer Isao Takahata made their way to the front of the theater. Some woman from the museum gave an introduction to the guest and the film. After another round of applause, the guests left, the lights went out, and the film started.

When the Japanese reporter asked me why I liked Miyazaki, I think I had a very good answer:

“I like him because there’s just a great feeling of magic and imagination to his films. His films are for children, but every one of all ages can enjoy them. He brings out the child in all of us.”

Howl’s Moving Castle holds very true to this. With a movie set to such a serious themes, there is a level of magic that you can’t help but to smile at. The protagonist, Sophie, lives in a world similar to that of World War II England, only with wizards and witches. A young but simple hat shop worker, she encounters the Witch of the Waste. The evil witch puts a curse on Sophie to make her an old woman. The poor girl then goes on a quest finding a way to break the curse. On her journey, she encounters the wild cast of characters. There’s the pretty boy Howl, his cute little assistant Markl, and the hilarious fire sprite Calcifer.

There’s no doubt about it, Billy Crystal’s performance as Calcifer wins over the dubbing of this film. Disney does an fantastic job at taking great care of this release. They work side-by-side with Studio Ghibli during the whole process to ensure that the film sticks as close to the original while still being suitable to an American audience. The translation is fantastic, and so are the talented Hollywood actors doing the vocal work. With something like Miyazaki and Disney, I really find no need to complain about dubbing in anime. It couldn’t be any better.

And this film is very Miyazaki in all ways, showing off a lot of the conventions that the director is best known for. A strong female protagonist, the backdrop of war, and the pleasures of being in flight run through out the film. Those who are familiar with his past work will be recalling the same kind of emotions that we all experienced before while watching his movies. I couldn’t help but to think to the grinning Totoro with Turnip-head, the scarecrow character in this film. That’s the kind of magic I was talking about earlier.

But there is something that completely kills the whole film. If you recall Miyazaki’s first film, Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro, it ended with something like this:

“Well, looks like I gotta go arrest him now.”
“But why, Mr. Zenigata? He didn’t steal anything this time.”
“Yes he did, ma’am. He stole your heart.”

::sniff::

What’s that?

Do I smell cheese around here?

Yeah, I think I smell something really cheesy.

Without giving away any of it, I found that the ending to Howl’s Moving Castle to be very similar in terms of corniness to the Castle of Cagliostro. Mononoke Hime didn’t have that. Neither did the childish Spirited Away or Totoro. It is because of this fact that I cannot claim this to be the best Miyazaki film ever. It’s actually pretty far from the best…

But this is still a must watch for anyone who can sit back and enjoy just what makes anime so special. It’s not the best Miyazaki film, but it’s still one of the best films of all time. If you live in or near a city, you must catch this playing on the big screen. It’s definitely worth it.

But I just wish I got some more face time with the man himself. But still, I’m not to surprised at this at his shyness at all. I’ve heard about it before. Maybe next time I will be considered a member of the press, so I will be able to meet him. Hey, you never know.

So I told my girlfriend right before I posted on Thursday that a lot of people will be pissed off at what I had to say. I know that my website’s target audience was the fansub community, and I was flat-out telling them that they were wrong. So I got a lot of negative feedback from a lot of people, and let me just take this time to retort and clarify some things said.

First of all, of course, there is no absolute. Nothing is all bad, just as nothing is purely good either. Maybe this is where a lot of the misunderstandings came from. But anyway, to clear it up, the point of my previous post was that I believe most of the fansubbing community doesn’t support the industry the way that they should be. There’s a code out there that says when a series is licensed, you delete the fansubs and purchase the legit DVD when they come out. But from what I’ve been seeing around the community, with websites such as Baka Updates and all the a-holes asking for the latest “Samurai Champloo” torrent on internet forums, it appears to me that this code is dead. What the hell, people?

Now, that’s not to say that everyone out there is wrong. As I said, most people are screwing over the industry, but this does not mean everybody. Do I have any evidence to back that up? No, of course not. Like I would have the resources to do so! But supposedly the US anime companies have done the research and they do have the factual evidence to support it. Maybe I might try to contact them to provide me with the actual data. I do know the evidence exists because I actually brought up the question at panels at Anime Boston this year.

But all the evidence you really need is right in front of you. Look at yourself and figure out if my claims are true. If you really do delete the fansubs and buy the legit DVDs, buy the manga, or even just watch the shows on American television, then I believe you can call yourself a fan of anime. And if everyone in the fansub community was like that, then the market would be great. We would have lower DVD prices and more content available on TV. But most of the community is not like that, and instead claim that I’m full of shit instead of admitting to their own downfalls. So let me just clear up some things that some very disrespectful people have been throwing at me.

First of all, it was said that I’m hypocritical for not buying any DVDs myself. Really? That’s strange because if you look at the toolbar towards your right, I have links to my on-line cataloging of my DVD collection and manga collection. To sum it up, I have around 130 disks of Anime DVDs, 275 books of manga in English, and 80 books of manga in Japanese. Now, I would estimate that the average cost of these things would be $20 a DVD, $10 an English book, and $3 a Japanese book. If you plug in those numbers, my collection is worth over $5,500.

Am I rich? Hell no. But as long as I was gainfully employed, I could afford a DVD or a couple of manga books per week during my high school years. When I got to college, I was no longer able to afford as much, so I had to drop collecting my DVD series and some of my manga series. However, I still kept and eye out for large sales at my local bookstores and went on manga shopping sprees when they came around. For DVDs, I started my own anime club and worked out deals with companies to get their products in exchange for my cooperation in “pimping it” to my club. I still earned the DVDs in that respect.

But supporting the industry doesn’t have to be restricted to just that looking at how much money you fork over. Considering that many of you are in college, you have cable TV supplied to you as being part of your dorm room in most colleges. For others, I’m sure that your parents pay for cable at your house. Use it. Watch the great programming on Adult Swim like Ghost in the Shell or Paranoia Agent. You not spending any more money, and the ratings turn into success for the industry and interest in putting more content on TV.

Now as far as my position on fansubs are concerned, I believe it’s okay as long as you follow the code mentioned earlier. The reason I watch fansubs is because you cannot get these series in the US. The Japanese DVDs are too expensive, and you don’t have the option of seeing these shows on TV either. And besides that, the DVDs are region coded and un-translated. They intentionally make it so you can’t watch them in the US without turning to illegal methods! However, once a company picks up a series for US distribution, you can no longer justify watching bootlegged versions of these series with these reasons. If you are a fan, you are now obligated to support the series legitly now that you have the power to do so.

I do delete the series once it’s licensed. In fact, I usually delete them before they’re licensed . So far, there’s only five series I’ve downloaded that’s been licensed:

Girls Bravo
DearS
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
Psychic Academy
Ah! My Goddess! TV

I mentioned the first two in my previous post, and mistakenly put that “Sometimes I doubt I will buy them.” That’s because at the moment I’m currently unemployed, so I will unable to do so for financial reasons. But God, I wanna get them! If I can’t pay for it, I’ll earn them in other ways. I’ve been trying to get a hold of Geneon to work out some kind of deal of promoting these two series on this site. But if that doesn’t work out, I’m about to start a new job so I’m pretty sure I will be able to afford them. But besides that, I do currently own all the DearS manga that’s out right now in the US.

As far as the other series go, Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo is going to start airing on Cartoon Network this fall, and you can bet your ass I’ll be watching that every day and telling all of you to watch it with me. The releases for Psychic Academy and AMG are still pretty far away, but I believe with the help of this site, my situation will be better when they do and I’ll gladly buy them with no issue.

So I hope that this cleared up exactly what I was pissed off about, as well as disprove many people’s claims at my hypocrisy. This is my blog, and so I can freely express my opinions and feelings on whatever I want. I respect your views and opinions as well, and therefore I never delete a comment from a reader unless it’s blatantly disrespectful to my other readers. However, I leave up all the comments that are blatantly disrespectful to me to show just how one should not react to something. If you don’t agree with me, then let me know so, but still be respectful to my views as I am to yours. Satoshi and Kabitzin at SeaSlugs have both done so in a very tasteful manner, and so I really commend them on that. There is a clear difference between constructive criticism and simply being an asshole. Please remember that.

So, my stance is still the same. If you rely solely on fansubs for your anime entertainment, then you are leeching off of the industry. And you don’t need facts to prove this, just take a personal look at yourselves and fansubbing friends. The industry is on the decline right now, and it’s up to us to restore it to it’s former glory and make it better then ever.

I’m doing all I can. How about you?

Thanks to Satoshi for bringing this article to my attention. According to this report from Wired Magizine, the illegal practice of fansubbing and downloading anime off of the internet can be a beneficial thing to the market.

***
As noted by Japanese entrepreneur Joi Ito, fans of the Japanese anime series Naruto regularly post translated episodes of the show to BitTorrent, which attracts more fans to the series.

The relatively obscure program has spawned a global following in online forums, internet relay chat channels and fan sites.

With box sets and special edition DVDs, Ito wrote, the copyright holders can make a tidy sum from fans prepared to “spend thousands of dollars on one show.”
***

Whoa, whoa, whoa… now hold on here. I think that someone is misinterpreting something here. They’re saying that Naruto is going to become a huge success in terms of DVD and box set sales BECAUSE of it’s popularity in fansubbing? Someone is in for a rude awakening…

I’ll put it very bluntly right now: how many people who download the Naruto fansub will buy the DVDs when they come out? I predict that number to be less then 1%, with the rest of the 99% will spend their time bitching about how much it sucks on DVD.

Make no mistakes about it, fansubs are killing the anime market for the US. If you don’t believe me, think about just how many anime DVDs have you purchased recently compared to the number of shows you’ve downloaded for free. I for one will admit I haven’t bought any of the shows I’ve watched fansubbed yet. Now I would like to think that the reason for this is because none of them have been released yet, and when DearS and Girls Bravo come out this summer I’m going to buy them. But since that hasn’t happened yet, I can’t really claim I will really do so. Sometimes I begin to doubt that I will.

But I do know that one thing’s for sure, I see a lot of people still fansubbing and downloading series that have been licensed in the US, and it pisses me off like you wouldn’t believe. Now how can you justify that as being any better then people selling bootlegs on street corners? What a blatant disrespect to the artists and people working so hard to entertain you people.

Now let’s take a look at Naruto, the most popular anime buzz on the internet at the moment. There’s no doubt that people are loving it. When I attended Anime Boston this year, most of the cosplayers were from the series. I’m sure that these guys have watched all the episodes, but just how much money did those “fans” contribute to the people who made the series? A plushie or two? Sure, the anime series is not yet available in the US, but the manga has been out for some time. However, if you look at the sales in that market, Naruto isn’t even close to doing well! The fansub community doesn’t even support that market either.

However, what Mr. Ito said in the article was correct that the show is bound to be a huge success in the US. It has the kind of appeal that makes it so popular to a mass market. This is evident in Japan and the fansub community. So when the series is released to mainstream America, odds are that it will be a hit even with the non-anime fans. It will thrive on the television, action figure, and video game market, much like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon did in the past. You will also a small portion of those fans picking up a volume of the manga and discovering how cool it is to read from right-to-left. And so they’ll buy the next one volume, and the one after that, and then they’ll try out some other series. That’s the next generation of anime fandom right there people!

And what will the fansub community think about Naruto then?

“It’s too mainstream. I don’t like it.”

So don’t keep up the denial that fansubs are good for the industry. Naruto is probably going to be very popular and will help the industry grow. But it’s going to do so by “selling out” and bringing in fans willing to watch shows on TV and buy DVDs. Unless the fansub community actually goes out there and support the series in these ways, then we’re doing nothing more then leeching off of the people that bring them the entertainment we love.

(Follow-up Post)

Source: Anime News Network

Hayao Miyazaki will be present for the North American premiere Howl’s Moving Castle on June 6 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

The premiere will be the highlight of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata: Masters of Animation, a 13-film exhibition & tribute to Studio Ghibli’s two principle directors, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.

In addition to Miyazaki, Emily Mortimer (Sophie) and Christian Bale (Howl), Jean Simmons, Lauren Bacall, and Billy Crystal are expected to attend the premiere.

***

“It might be faster if you walked,” says my dad as we’re stuck in mid-town Manhattan traffic. He was right. I called the Museum right before we entered the Lincoln Tunnel coming from New Jersey, and they told me that they only had 9 tickets left. Of course, the moment we get into the city, traffic just doesn’t move for us.

So I jumped out of the car and ran for five blocks. I finally found the entrance to the museum. I was directed to the information desk, 2nd of the left. While waiting in line, I saw a family of Asian people taking a picture of themselves holding tickets and smiling. I knew what they were smiling about. Oh please, please tell me that you still have tickets for the premiere Monday night!!!

“We have one left, sir.”

One?!?

My immediate feeling was disappointment, because I wanted this to be an event that I shared with my girlfriend. But on the other hand, I didn’t just run five blocks in hot Manhattan weather to come home empty handed. So I bought the last ticket. I talked to the women, and if I came really early on Monday, I would be able to get a second ticket. But still, I felt pretty bummed out.

As we drove back home, that disappointment did start to go away as I slowly began to realize that I was going to an event with Hayao Miyazaki. I once read an article called “The Beginner’s Guide to Anime” in which they said, “This is Miyazaki. Get to know him for he is your God.” Now, I thought this statement was a little exaggerated. But now that I think about it, they might be right. Everything that this guy has done has been gold. Nausicaa, Castle in the Sky, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and most of all, My Neighbor Totoro! And then you also have to remember that he created the two highest grossing Japanese films in history with Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.

Holy crap, I’m going to see the God of anime!

And so I’m very excited about this. I’m hoping I will get the chance to meet the man himself. I’ll be taking along a digital camera so hopefully I can get good shots and write up a nice little report on Tuesday for all of you. But in any case, this should be a wonderful experience for this anime fanboy.