Category: Features

A friendly reminder for earth day.
Yotsuba and Danboard, the environmentally friendly robot, wants to remind you some environmentally friendly tips that otakus like you and me can do to make the earth breathe every now and then.
- Turn your PC off tonight. Make it rest. Someone will still be seeding those torrents tomorrow.
- Got some old issues of Shounen Jump or Ace lying around that you just bought for knack but never read? Tear them up to pieces and use it as bed for your cat or dog.
- Reuse all those amazon and yes asia boxes. You can store all your undisplayed figures and outgrown mangas there. lol.
- Stand up from your desk and have a walk at the park. Turn off your PC while you’re at it. 😉
- Use a bike going to work pray that somewhere in between your home and work, you go into a time slip.
- Don’t use your aircon for a day and give some lovin’ to the earth by opening your window for fresh air.
We otakus can take a part in saving the environment despite our dependency on technology and material things. It’s the least that we can do before some alien further destroys our earth and we go to an epic journey of finding a way to get rid of them.
April 23, 2008
This weekend’s bacterial invasion

We had a three day weekend in Manila and I was caught by surprise when my mailman knocked at my door last Saturday telling I had a package. He gave me TWO big boxes of things. One box, we won’t be really concerned about, but the other… WHOO BOY! It’s too cute to pass up.

Let’s just say that last Friday, there’s a riot in Akihabara for something yellow and something cute. As announced sometime ago, those who will buy the Limited Edition of Moyashimon Vol. 6 will receive a 40cm A. Oryzae stuffed toy. Months ago, I was struggling between getting this or getting the DVD stuffed toy. The DVD stuffed toy was a palm’s width and when you press it, it says “Kamosuzo!” It was cute and all, but somehow at the last minute, I backed out and didn’t decide to buy it. On the other hand, there was that 40 cm. cuteness which I thought was too big for you to actually enjoy as a bacteria. Time came and went and I was supposed to cancel my order again at the last minute, but my reliable vendor has already shipped it. I was partially aghast, then thoughts of “Imma sell it when it arrives.” came to my head.

Then it arrived Saturday, just a day after its release in stores in Japan. YES!! ((This is why I love BK1)) I’ve got this huge box and when I opened, the cutest and LARGEST A. Oryzae just popped out and I can totally hear him/it screaming “Kamosuzo!!” It was too cute to pass up that I literally washed my hands and my face just to cuddle the BIG BACTERIA!

A. Oryzae was so cute!! He was so cute that all my thoughts of selling the damn bacteria just disappeared. Funny how it had a big big box for Oryzae and right at the bottom was the manga for volume 6 of Moyashimon plus a clear file that served both as book cover. Sweet. Really sweet.

A friend of mine has told me that I’m picky to buy mangas for because I always enjoy the limited edition stuff. Well, partially true. The Japanese have a knack for creating GREAT limited edition stuff. I mean, for a doll bigger than my head plus a manga and a clear file, that’s got to be the best 2,500 yen (1000 peso) buy that I have ever bought!! My word of advice, if you love a series too much and YOU KNOW they’re releasing something that is limited edition and it’s to your fancy, buy it without regret. It’s bound to be good.

I’m totally happy with my moyashimon buy! :3 Had I known moyashimon when volume 4 came out with those chibbi bacteria figures, I would have bought it. ><;; But this deal is good enough for me. I wonder if US Publishers would ever release limited goods like this with their manga. I’ve heard about the Naruto cabinet, but other than that, have there been fun ones released with the manga? The Japanese Nodame comes out with a special audio CD for their supposed ‘art book’ that contains feature on the music and stuff. Volume 18 came with a keychain. Hmm, I wonder when US would start having cool stuff like that. I might be buying more english mangas if they do. I’m such a sucker for stuff that way. XD

February 25, 2008
A history of the fujoshi love affair with Jump

I’m sure many of you are reading through Strangerataru’s Illustrated Guide to Weekly Shounen Jump. It briefly looks into the rich history of popular and significant titles in Shounen Jump. Upon reading it, I cannot help but feel completely nostalgic. Particularly even more nostalgic with regards to how Jump has ‘nurtured’ a fujoshi culture throughout the years. A lot of the titles mentioned in the article have been been important breeding grounds for fujoshis. Whether young or old, they all started somewhere. And many of these fujoshis would start their first doujins out of inspiration from a Jump title.

Feeling inspired, I’m writing a series of posts that looks into the relation of Jump’s top titles and how this magazines have helped culture a demographic that fantasizes their heroes as lovers. We’ll look at how Jump has unknowingly set fire unto the hearts of girls and made them grab their pens and wrote page upon page of parodies of their favorite Jump titles. Just like Strangerataru, we’ll look at it through the periods and see how they stumbled upon fujoshis, their nonchalance towards the culture, and eventually how they embraced and acknowledge their following. So, let’s look at it this way.

1. 1968-1979: Innocent Beginnings
2. 1980-1984: The Captain Tsubasa Fantasy
3. 1985-1989: Men and their poses and cosmos
4. 1990-1994: Move aside Son Goku, it’s all about Rukawa x Hiei x Kenshin. TOTALLY!
5. 1995-1999: You can’t shake them down.
6. 2000-present: Giving it up to fujoshis

To start things off, we’ll look at the beginnings of Jump and the beginnings of Fujoshi culture. And so our story begins in 1968 until 1979.

(more…)

January 12, 2008
Fangirling Nodame much…

Well, I never had a chance to really read anything interesting lately because I’ve been busy at work and I’m far too exhausted at home to actually grab a manga and start reading. Although, in between watching some television series, my hands got to work — sanding, sculpting, painting, and polishing some customs for my dear fangirling heart. The need to be crafty took me over and in the end, I ended up creating possibly the two and only anime customs I’ll ever do for my collection.

For some while, I’ve been toying with the idea of creating some Nodame customs for my pinky:st dolls. I love Nodame to pieces and Nodame pretty much owns my reading and listening lately — like the past 3 years. lol. And yes, rabid fangirl much, the only series I’m willing to spend quite a lot on… not unless they’re releasing Kaworu Nagisa dolls… or something similar to that. But yeah, my hands likes to get busy and I ended up creating some Nodame stuff.

Nodame was made with the pink dress, piano bag, and mongoose mask. Chiaki, on the other hand came with his long-sleeved polo shirt, a suit, an orchestra suit, and a casual black shirt (that yellow stripe has been stripped!). I’m still asking my friends if they’re willing to give their violin cases. I’ve been tempted to have some toothpicks It was such fun creating it. Chiaki’s by far the hardest due to his hair and his face. lol. Before it was painted I was thinking “He reminds me of Cloud.” But I guess it all sorted out in the end. I have the kind face Chiaki and here’s the snarky faced Chiaki. lol. I KNOW! I feel like a rabid fangirl, but it’s true! Nothing beats having to play with your own Nodame and Chiaki. Mukyaa! <3

Perhaps the final straw of my Nodame fangirling was my weekend project. Actually I started this 6 months ago when I didn’t have a sewing machine yet. I was trying to handstitch Nodame’s bag. However, as I had to stitch larger pieces, it become more taxing. So I stopped until I managed to save some money for it. And well, yeah. The piano bag. Fixed and made, although on the wrong cloth, but still fixed for enjoyment.

Yes. My fandom and my hobby owns me. If this ‘crafty’ bug keeps up, as my friends bet, I might start making own Masumi already. lol. I hope not! Although I don’t mind!! XDD In the meantime, enjoy the other images I have of my Nodame customs. God, being a fangirl can be scary much. lol.

October 8, 2007
Looking forward to Jump Square!

Last week’s highlight for me, other than receiving some great mangas from a friend (and my Touch OST! ;w;) is looking at the line up of Jump Square. To be honest, as much as I owe a lot of my fandom to Shounen Jump, recently, the titles in the magazine has gone quite stale. Maybe I just grew up. Young Jump is fine, but can be a little brutal on my end. Could Jump Square be just the right amount of adventure, humor, and maturity that I’m looking for?

The manga has quite a lot of things to look forward to. First would be 3nen Zgumi Ginpachi-sensei! After giving my heart and spleen to Gintama (and I think half my brain), this crazy spinoff of the series is definitely something to look forward to! 3nen Zgumi Ginpachi-sensei takes the characters of Gintama and puts them in a classroom setting. Gintoki is now Ginpachi-sensei and he usually leads the class in insane homeroom activities. It has been published as a novel, but I’m not so sure if this means that the novel will extend into a manga series now in jump square or it probably means that it will have some stories written like short novelettes for the series. I’m betting on the latter one since Sorachi is a lazy monkey. XDD So yeah, this is one reason to read Jump Square.

Next would be Gag Manga Biyori. Another genius of a manga short is making a comeback. The humor and crazy puns in this series is gold. Again, it’s old man’s humor and may involve some cultural studies, but its a great way in looking to what a gag manga is like in Japan. <3

The other mangas are still rather questionable as I really haven’t read them before (but they do look nice). Nobuhiro Watsuki will have his story, Another Tale of Frankenstein, continued here. I wonder if it will rise to Rurouni Kenshin. Takeshi Obata will be drawing again, but this time with Masanori Morita. I don’t know if this will be good or what but if a mangaka works with another mangaka (and without corporate intervention!) maybe… just maybe… Obata will definitely bring to life his New Hope award from the Tezukas. A new popular anime, Claymore, will also be in this magazine and might be the magazine’s carrying story. Yoko Kamio of Hana Yori Dango fame will be writing for the magazine as well. There is a ‘Tales of’ story released in the magazine too… so… it could be fun. Could be.

In short, Jump Square is trying to show that Shueisha’s line of shounen mangas is more than just Shounen Jump. The inclusion of Yoko Kamio might be there to even appeal to some mature female readers out there, perhaps in the same way that Yoshinaga Fumi writes for Morning. Could this be Shueisha’s answer to the popular Morning or Afternoon? Well, we’ll see on November 2 if they match up.

August 13, 2007
Happy Yaoi no Hi!

Fujoshis run wild because today is your holiday! Today we are celebrating Yaoi no Hi, an otaku holiday derived from the 801 combi that represents ‘ya-o-i’ in Japanese culture.

To celebrate things, they’ve released Tonari no 801chan2 in Akiba! Tonari no 801chan is a book based on the mangas done by Ajiko Kojima in her blog. Her comics are hilarious, but the book has more extras on 801chan’s crazy fujoshi antics. lol. I think a DVD with their stories will be released soon. September 5? The premise is the story of a guy who has a fujoshi girlfriend and how he gets by in getting along with her. There is also another novel, Fujoshi Kanojo, which has already sparked the interest of movie makers. lol. I guess the Densha Otoko craze has now turned to the fujoshi side.

Speaking of which, Mangacast announced before that Mediablasters is licensing “Mousou Shoujo Otaku Kei”. I had the chance to read the manga thanks to a friend and love it to the core. It’s the story about this guy who fell in love to this fujoshi. The fujoshi is… really weird to an extent. She’s quite hardcore with nothing but her pairings and her doujinshis at the center of her universe. How the guy tries to win the girl’s heart is hilarious! XD I learned a lot about fujoshi culture, and laughed my heart out when the girl said “Can you call me Shinji-kun instead!?” XD People curious about the fujoshi life should try getting this manga. Honestly, reading it is like listening in on how my fujoshi friends and I babble like mad idiots about our favorite series and BL seiyuus. It’s really nice. If you know the fanfare (e.g. Hagaren no Oujisama = overkill!! XDD) the series is a lot more fun. I wish Mediablasters does a good job with translating it. Although, I must say, even if they translate it, I won’t get to buy it because novelty titles such as this one rarely gets here. *sigh* otaku life is so hard on this side of the planet. I wish I lived a few degrees higher.

p.s. If you guys don’t know what a fujoshi is, here’s a great explanation! (yes! New site to troll!)

August 1, 2007
Remember 07.07.07

SEVEN Pilipinas brings us 707 International NANA Day ?????? Philippines at R&B Music Venue, Metrowalk on Juky 7, 2007. ?????707????? will feature local J-pop inspired bands playing songs and music from Ai Yazawa??????s NANA. Performing at 707 are 3 Day Trial, Armada, Do??????Ahou, Ducklings, Himitsu Heiki, NEOtaku, PPF All-Stars, Progeny, Rtschrck, Sourei, This Side Up, and X versus Zero.

The event will also feature a Cosplay Competition, a Fan Art Competition, and a Fan Video Competition. Competition rules and other can be found at the official website, powered by PORNGENY.COM.

This event is for the benefit of to RockED??????s program Rock de Rehas, a project that aims to improve the living conditions of prison inmates.

707 International NANA Day ?????? Philippine is brought to you by SEVEN Pilipinas and its Official Media Partners: ClickTheCity.com, Yehey.com, NU 107.5 FM, Baranggay LS 97.1, Pulp Magazine, Burn Magazine, and PSICOM (Otakuzine, Cosplay Mag, and Game Ex).

This event is also supported by OngakuSociety, Team Kyoudo, and Fandom Cafe.

June 26, 2007
Manga Kissa 10 in Multiply~!

Manga Kissa 10 is on Multiply!

Well, what do you know. My favorite manga cafe is now online and people can now browse through their humble little store. They also did a google and checked the people who wrote reviews about their store. I’m not quite surprised that mine was there. *fufu* I’d pimp their cafe anytime I want.

Anyway, they’ve stacked new mangas in their shop and they now have a suggestion box, asking people what titles they would like to read in the shop. I naturally placed “Nodame” and “Kekkaishi” up front. lol. god, I have yet to get used to writing in Japanese. lol.

Among the new mangas up in their shop is Nana, the rest of Death Note, 20th Century Boys, and Monster. There were a couple of other shoujo titles in the shop, but since I lack knack for oggly shoujo smut that day, I really didn’t check it out. ^^v I’ll take note of it next time.

March 21, 2007
Yes! It’s all Jump’s fault!

I have a bad habit of reading my feeds too late. And thanks to that, I get late on the news. ^^;; So, the new year started with Comipress putting the news about the special relationship with Jump and fujoshi.

Fujoshi is what we, foreigners, would actually call ‘ yaoi/bl fangirls’. These are fangirls who have graduated from shoujo and are now crawling to the darkside and embrace Man x Man (Sometimes… Man x Boy ^^;;) affections. Because “what else could be prettier than seeing two hot boys getting at it?” To me, it’s one of the steps to otaku-dom. Among other things, it is indeed a true crawling to the darkside because well… yaoi and bl tend to be lewd in nature. It’s a little embarassing, nonetheless a very interesting experience. ^_~ You can read the technicalities of it in an earlier Comipress article

Now, going back to the article, I honestly wouldn’t wonder why Fujoshi would complain to Shounen Jump about the fanservice they give in their jumps. Honestly, have you guys been reading jump lately? Have you browsed through tenipuri!? I swear that series is GAY! If Tenipuri was one of the reasons that brought a large girl fanbase to Jump, I’m telling you, it’s the same reason why more girls are reading other things than Jump nowadays. God. -_-;; How gay can jump get!? There are just some titles that are too gay to mention. Maybe the girls are having an overdose of stuff from Shounen Jump

(more…)

January 24, 2007
ARMAGEDDON AND UTOPIA IN NAOKI URASAWA’S 20TH CENTURY BOYS

This was a paper I submitted for my Japanese Literature class. I thought of sharing to people what I have learned about 20th Century boys using the fantastic theory in Japanese Literature.

It was at the summer of 1969 that Kenji, Yoshitsune, Maruo, Otcho, Keroyon, and Donkey made a pact of true friendship. In an open grassy field, the boys built their secret base. They tied leaves together and set traps along the way. In it, they shared mangas, music, jokes, and dreams. In crumpled papers, they drew fantasies of saving the world from a giant robot as well as saving the world from a deadly virus. They were nothing but children’s dreams, foolish childish dreams. In that base, they explored a world outside their limited reality. They had their own world inside that fortress. Anything of their world remained in that fortress and that very base protected the boy’s dreams of the future. At their hideout, they held a sign which became a symbol of their true friendship. Anyone who knew that sign was a true friend. Little do the boys know that 30 years after, the sign would haunt them again. A ‘true friend’ appears and asks the boys to play a little game — a game that would bring their dreams into reality.

In his 10th work, Naoki Urasawa explores the relationship of 7 boys and how their dreams and their realities all intertwine to create a new world, to the benefit of one, and to the horror of the six. 20th Century Boys (äºŒåä¸–ç´€å°‘å¹´, Nijuu Seiki Shounen) is a brilliant tale of how our actions in the past can completely change the future. Change is even an understatement. Change in 20th Century Boys brought about a complex revelation of how a forgotten face makes himself present by creating into reality the utopia that a band of boys created. It is this alienation and utopia that we will explore in this paper. Through the eyes of 20th Century Boys, we hope to see how modern writers today envision their utopian future. Could there be really a utopia? Or is one’s utopia another’s nightmare?

(more…)

November 12, 2006