Fanime 2012 Haul (a.k.a. the coolest SWAG ever)

I bought this art-book bundle that came with a free art bag, wall scroll, and cute card of Sena from Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai. The art was done by a Chinese circle that also included some Japanese artists. The drawings look really nice! Sadly, I can’t find any more stuff from them on Pixiv, since they’re predominately Chinese. Some of the pages are really ecchi, but hey, it was a nice deal for $25. If only I was able to find an artbook of my number one Kobato, everything would have been perfect!

http://blog.sina.com.cn/fromover
http://xixiong.taobao.com/

Along with the art book, I managed to snatch me some Haruhi Playing Cards.

Continue reading Fanime 2012 Haul (a.k.a. the coolest SWAG ever)…

K-ON!! 18

The majority vote for Mio as Romeo is just asking for some disturbing speculations about the fantasies of Mio’s fans.

It’s cool that they can see the rather obvious Slap Slap Kiss relationship friendship between Mio and Ritsu, though. Even if I always thought Ritsu would be the man of the house.

Continue reading K-ON!! 18…

NGE scene that doesn’t work out in *any* language

NGE fans are sure to remember this scene, especially if they watched the English or German dubs. Asuka speaking German and “Japanese” in three different language versions: Japanese, English, and German.

According to German fans, Yuko Miyamura’s German sounds terrible and incomprehensible. Given Asuka’s German descent and the fact that she was raised in Germany, it makes no sense for her German to sound so terrible.

The English dub is also pretty strange. While her German is much better compared to the Japanese version, Asuka says Shinji is thinking in Japanese and says they’re switching back to Japanese… while speaking in English. ADV couldn’t make her say “English” without bending Shinji’s nationality in some way, of course, which is understandable. Doing so would make Asuka fluent in English also, which would… gaaaahhh.

The German dub is the most hilarious one. EVERYTHING is in German, so when Asuka says they’re switching the language back to Japanese, they’re still speaking in German.

Is your mind blown yet?

Sometimes, things aren’t meant to make sense in anime. This was one of those moments where you had to kick logic to the curb. Because no matter how much you think about it, it will never work itself out. The best solution is to shrug it off, laugh, and continue to enjoy the show.

Enough with my German rambling: SWITCH LANGUAGE BACK TO JAPANESE.

The Lucky 7 Anime Gimmicks. Learn them. Love them. Hate them.

1. moéblobs
moéblob \’mō-ā-ˈbläb\ noun, moéblobs

noun
A person, usually a female character, that is considered cute and/or beautiful by many (“moé”), usually men. However, most of the time, they serve no purpose to the overall story and are created solely for the purpose of inducing erections for adolescents going under puberty, horny men, and/or 30-year-old virgins (see: fanservice) and in some instances, lolicons (see: loli). In rare cases, they are guys (see: trap).

Example: Mikuru Asahina from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a moéblob.

Not to be confused with moéblob ANIME, which are usually filled with a shitload of win if you’re looking for cute stuff.

Example: Potemayo is a moéblob anime.

Continue reading The Lucky 7 Anime Gimmicks. Learn them. Love them. Hate them….

ADV, The #1 Producer-Distributor of Furniture. Wait… what?

Really bizarre, I know. Well, this explains why they dropped the US license for Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (not a big lost, since we’re getting it anyway).

But this still saddens me nonetheless, since ADV Films (despite some stupid decisions here and there) was one of my favorite dubbing companies. Seeing them slowly going the way of Geneon is pains me deep down. Luckily, they’re managing to hang in there in the mean time… But seriously, furniture? Layoffs? Looks like they’re seriously stuck in a deep sh*thole…

While I’m not 100% certain that it’s a problem that’s really causing enough impact in order for this kind of thing to arise, I strongly believe that anime downloads on the internet will eventually lead to the certain death of the anime industry. In the United States, and other English-speaking countries for that matter, most anime is really niche compared to Japan (not counting those mainstream ones, they obviously make some decent profit being syndicated on television), with the fandom mostly being made up of geeks and Asians like myself [<--- cultural thing], so most companies survive through DVD sales rather than merchandise sales (the usual merchandise that are released here: some official artbooks and a soundtrack here and there). The common misconception is that fansubs help garner some attention to people who’ll become fans of the product, and buy the product when it eventually gets licensed into the US. Right? Wrong. While it’s true that fansubs help anime companies determine if a series has a viable market in order for it to be a success, would the “fans”, in the end, buy it?

It’s true that most HONORABLE fansub groups take down their subtitled episodes the minute that the series they’re subbing gets licensed, but some people still have the downloaded episodes in their hds. Quite a few of them go as far as to upload them onto YouTube/Veoh/crunchyroll/some other streaming video service, and the commentors are usually begging for more, rather than treating that single upload as an advertisement to buy the actual product (most refuse to buy anything). And when said videos are deleted…

Chaos ensues. Companies are flamed.

And the series eventually gets re-uploaded for more pirating pleasure. If you take into consideration the countless sh!theads who have the strange notion that any of their favorite series that get dubbed in the US become the bane of man (especially since the original version is obtainable through DVD releases)… this brings up a very good question: If these people can get something easily for free, why do you think they’ll be guaranteed to buy the legit products? If they hate the company for “ruining” their lives (or anime, i.e. the sh!theads), for that matter? Would they go out of their way to buy any merchandise that the company coughs up? DVDs are essentially a tool to test the waters to see if the series is a hit or not, only then would the company start making the merchandise, raking up the cash. Obviously, they won’t waste money on merchandising off the bat. If you think about it, supporting the company is just as beneficial to you as it is to them – all the real gems that you recieve relating to the series you supposedly enjoy would only appear then. Alas, it’s human nature; greed drives them to get the free variation of a product rather than a priced one.

Bottom line: anime is not a right, it’s a privilege. Hate dubs? You can always switch to the Japanese audio track. No money? Get a job. Too cheap? You’re not a real fan, sorry to say. If you are as you’re willing to claim to be, just halt those torrents for a while and get out; spend a few bucks on your favorite anime series. It’d probably do companies like ADV much better rather than the money they get while… selling all that extra office fodder. Seriously.

Characters of 2007

A lot of us are looking back at which series are the most memorable this year for a variety of reasons – the quality of the storytelling, originality, niche gimmicks (moé, lolita, Shōtarō-characters, A Drill That Will Pierce Through The Heavens, unnatural boob measurements, etc.), and all that other shit. HOWEVER! To me, what really makes or breaks a series in being truly memorable, it all depends on the characters. In most cases, I would probably remember a series for a lifetime based solely on the characters (or a specific character) rather than the quality of the storyline or how deep it is (of course, if it’s THAT good than it’ll probably be the other way around!). The story could be utter crap for all I care and I’d still remember it if I really like the cast and their character dynamics. In my opinion, if an anime/manga has a story/concept that’s as cliché or horrible as saving a princess who gets her butt kidnapped by an evil witch/evil giant turtle yet has some top-notched character dynamics, then it would probably rank at the top of my list of favorite anime. Likewise, if the story is built FANTASTICALLY yet the characters are flat out boring, then it wouldn’t leave as much of an impression on me despite it having an excellent plot.

Or the character could be just be an utter jackass and the series will be memorable based on how much I wanted to shove a knife down their throat and throw him/her (most likely a HIM…) into a pit of acid…

To get down to business, this post will chronicle some of the characters that has made a big impression on me this year. Based on categories ranging from good to bad to OMG I WANT TO RIP HIS EYES OUT THAT DAMN MAKOTO, the cutest to the most inspiring to THE MOST SUPERLY AWESOME BADASS THAT HAS EVER WALKED DOWN THE PATH OF ANIMU… You name it.

(I’m obviously leaving Bacanno! out of this, since honestly, I can’t choose just one notable person from its large cast of characters)

Continue reading Characters of 2007…

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann ep. 01 “Pierce the Heavens with Your Drill!”

Didn’t plan to watch it at first, but then I noticed that my watchlist was lacking some major mecha action. So I thought I’d try out Gurren Lagann.

Continue reading Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann ep. 01 “Pierce the Heavens with Your Drill!”…