A weekly look into American otaku culture

So I was reading through the newly released 5th volume of Masakazu Katsura’s series I’’s last night, and I came across an amazing discovery. There is one scene in which one of the primary female characters goes in front of an art class and offers to model in the nude for them. After much protest from the teacher, she takes off her towel, and… and…

There were nipples!

….

やった (ﾟ∀ﾟ)！
(We did it!)

Now for those of you that might be a little confused as to why this nudity is such a jovial event, let me recap the controversy that surrounded this series when it was first released. The first volume of I’’s had featured the female lead in a topless photograph. The company responsible for the American release, VIZ Entertainment, had chose to censor the picture by pasting little black stars over her nipples. This act had sent the fanboys going crazy, and the company received a lot of flack for it. Yours truly was at the forefront of this protest, including my fist ever anime editorial, and a news item that was eventually picked up by a couple of big named anime news sites. The company’s only response was that the censorship was done with the Katsura’s approval, and in fact was done quite similar to how the author handled a topless picture in the 3rd volume of the series. There wasn’t much news after that… until now!

Of course, there is a major twist to this particular scene of nudity that many may argue that it’s not truly VIZ caving in to the pressure. Since I’m not going to spoil it this post, you can talk about it in the comments. But I feel that this twist doesn’t make much of a difference. It was a pretty explicit full frontal shot that went uncensored this time around. This proves that the online anime community can make a difference with the way our favorite form of entertainment is treated here in our home county. VIZ didn’t ignore our complaints and arguments about censorship in the US, and now we all get to enjoy our manga the way it should be. (^_^)

Okay, so the holiday season was really a big bust for me this year. Everyone knew what I wanted this year: anime and manga. But the problem is that nobody knew exactly what kind of anime or manga to get me. So they had a very simple compromise, just get me gift cards. I was getting them from all over the place. Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com… which is good, because I sure as hell used up those gift cards the very first night they were placed into my hands.

Also, I decided to treat myself for some pretty big Christmas gifts. The whole reason why I haven’t been updating this journal lately is because I was working hard at my paid internship. So now that I got the money, I might as well spend it, huh? And so here is all the new stuff I got in the past couple of weeks. It’s a combination of gifts, gift cards, and mostly my own personal spending:

Click to Enlarge

DVD:
World of Narue Complete Set
Happy Lesson Complete Set
Doki Doki School Hours 1
DearS 2 + 3
Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi 2 + 3
Elfen Lied 2 + 3
Psychic Academy 1
Mouse 1 + 2

Manga:
Negima 8
Pastel 1
Gacha Gacha 2
I’’s 5
Kamichama Karin 2
Fruits Basket 12
Battle Royale 13 + 14
Tokyo Mew Mew a la Mode 1
Girls Bravo 2
Ranma ½ 15 + 16

Other:
30 gig Apple iPod with video (for anime on the go)
80 gig external hard drive (to hold fansubs)
Electronic Japanese Dictionary
Ai Yori Aoshi bishoujo video game

That’s 15 DVDs, 12 tankoubon, and a whole lot of digital bliss for this fanboy. A very Merry Christmas indeed! I’m sure this will keep me busy for a while. (^_^)