Apr
23
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.
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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.
Apr
15
Again, another interesting thing popped up in my e-mail again. This time, it’s from Laura Hale and she’s co-maintaining a site called fanhistory.com. Now I really thought that it was all for naught, but it seems to be quite an interesting site on the history of online fandoms and how they were built. They have a short preview on how the fandom was born. And it lists almost all writers in fanfiction.net. Yeah, even feeble writers who haven’t written since 2002 *cough*. And it’s even more fun because it even lists like prominent fandom places, such as, in my case, the aoshimisao mailing list, an ML for rabid Aoshi x Misao fan. Of course… on the side even I enjoyed a bit of BL with Aoshi x Saitou, but in my heart of hearts I loved Aoshi and Misao.
I think their effort is as gargantuan as wikipedia itself so if you know one or two things about your fandom, feel free to make entries. If you want to… (lol) update your author profile (SERIOUSLY! IT’S BOUND TO BE THERE!) then go ahead and scribble it down and write the fanfics you have written that’s not in fanfiction.net. Or change your history altogether and place a different fandom profile for yourself. Even add a few info for those who are curious. lol. If you’re not there, adding yourself wouldn’t hurt, would it?
It’s quite nostalgic browsing through the site. I’ve been passing it to friends and it’s like “OH GOD! THOSE WERE MY FANDOMS!? WHAT WAS I THINKING THEN!?” lol. My generation of anime fans have seen how the internet and fanfiction has totally shaped anime fandom as we know today. So much has changed back then and even the community feels slightly different. Fandom History might be able to at least grab a bit of the old days back and make us ponder on how silly and innocent we were back then. When we were like what… crazy 16 year old kids!?! lol.
Apr
11
All for knowledge!
Filed Under News | Leave a Comment
I got an interesting e-mail from Dirk Haas, a Belgian psychology student at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. His research is about how people around the world view Japanese animation. Now, he is in dire need of Asian respondents. So if you guys live in Asia (or maybe you’re an Asian living abroad), please give him some help and answer his survey at www.toba.lu/memoire.
The thing is, you guys need a really good connection to view it. Those with dial-up connections might as well give up. But those with DSL or Cable or Broadband net, as long as your torrents are not running to get this’s season’s latest anime, take a shot in taking this survey.
I took the test earlier today and it turned out to be quite interesting… I’d like to see how this research goes all out. :3 If you guys have any questions about the research mail him at this address. Good luck Dirk!
Apr
9
Jump History and Fujoshi (4): Move aside Son Goku, it’s all about Rukawa x Hiei x Kenshin. TOTALLY!
Filed Under Features | 5 Comments
1990 to 1994 can be considered by many as one of the strongest periods of Jump. The title that carried this period was an epic intergalactic superhuman masterpiece named Dragon Ball Z. It was so popular that no one in this world could not have encountered this anime. However, despite its popularity, the fujoshis focused their attention towards the other titles that were also great but somehow fell under the cloud of Dragon Ball Z.
For the Fujoshi, Goku and his dragon balls did not spark a fire to their fragile fangirl hearts. Instead, they looked at the bishounens from other Jump titles. The era of androgynous men have come to an end. In this era, it was all about the handsome boys of Jump.
Apr
8
Getting the manga scene with Manga no Genba
Filed Under Features | 3 Comments
Another 3 day weekend meant time to reconnect with some discs lying around. My good friend Yue occasionally shares with me some video files she gets from friends online or from Nico Nico. This time, her disc contained something called Manga No Genba1, an NHK BS2 show that reviews manga and introduces viewers to the people and the inspiration behind some manga. The show’s hosted by a Amano Hiroyuki and just recently, Ooshima Mai of AKB48. The show’s got a laidback feel of featuring interesting manga that perhaps the whole family can read. Perhaps.
The show’s got three sections. First is the feature section, Yomite no Genba. They get to feature a manga that’s liked by a guest. In the screen cap here, it’s Yotsuba&!. This part is cute because they talk about the manga and they give a glimpse on what the manga is all about. While going through the manga, there are scenes that would even be voice acted just to put more life into the panels. It’s really nice because it’s like listening to a drama CD and then reading the manga together. After the summary, the guest and the hosts would talk about what they like about the manga and what makes it particularly interesting.
Then the next part is the production of a particular manga, Sakusha no Genba. They will feature a particular manga, show again a summary of the story (with voices!), and then how the manga was made. This time you’ll have a chance to see the mangaka at work. This is really a feature on the mangaka and the manga they’re currently doing. How they find inspiration for their characters and their story. It’s amazing! I had a chance to look at Agi Tadashi (writers of Kami no Shizuku!) and how they basically find a wine every damn week! IT’S AMAZING! They had like huge wine cellars in their home! And they’re wine drinkers too. It’s amazing! I also had a shot in seeing Liar Game in the works. It’s amazing how he meticulously plots out every round (and even had the editors’s help in the re-entry round). This is perhaps the section I treasure the most because it shows the hard life that some mangas live just to come up with the pages to write for this week. It makes you appreciate their hard work as well.
The last part is called M’s Cafe which is the recommendation of the readers2. This is short and gives only a brief idea on what the manga is all about and what to expect from it.
The show’s very informative and the hosts are not dumb and all about manga. Amano-san is an avid manga reader and is fond of the shounen genre so he too gives a word or two about some mangas. And really, in a show like this, it’s the mangas that do the talking. The mangas they choose are rarely mainstream and are often mangas about different topics like the clothing retail industry and wines. If you’ve got access to Nico Nico and understand Japanese, try to get a glimpse of Manga no Genba. Alternately if you have sattelite access to NHK-BS2, its shown from 12:00a.m.-12:30 a.m. on Wednesdays and 6 to 6:30p.m. on NHK-BSHi.
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Otaku Champloo is...
a small serving of bittersweet manga bits by a manga addict named Khursten.
She currently digs mangas about boys who live to be men. -
Feeds are Good!
