A Democratic American State Representative on the social networking site Facebook stated “anime is a prime example why two nukes was not enough” during World War II. These comments from Nick Levasseur are very recent, as the footage above aired on March 25th and 26th of 2010.
Speak for yourself
Linking to sources is fine, but most visitors came to visit your blog or site to know what your take is on something, not to read what Wikipedia or Anime News Network thinks.
Take a step back to have a better look
After writing your blog entry, don’t publish it yet. Take a step away for a few hours or even a few days. When you return the post will seem fresh and you’ll be better able to see mistakes, grammar errors, and areas that can be expanded on better.
Easy reading for tl;dr posts
Large detailed and informative posts can be amazing, but many times they aren’t easy to read. Perhaps try to have a summary of what is said at the start or end for readers to better know what the wall of text is about. Maybe bold key points or experiment with separating the different aspects of the post better.
Be easy to find…and easy to find again
Show off that you have RSS feeds, add a feature that allows people who comment to know there are new comments for entries they commented on, or have a Twitter to interact with readers and other anime and manga bloggers.
Know who you’re attracting
Most blog software, hosts, and such have ways of finding out which sites linked to you and what search engine terms people used to find your site. Knowing who your readers are can help you fulfill the needs ‘n wants of your current readership. If you’re an anime fan from Thailand, you can include bits or whole posts that effect your area. Having a post about a new manga scanlation group on a blog that mainly discusses licensed manga will be a turn off for many.
Be appreciative
Reply to comments, add a latest comment widget to a sidebar, comment on reader’s blogs, or contact them. To add to this, don’t make it difficult to leave comments with registrations or heavy duty spam prevention. You’re showing appreciation because you do appreciate what they say.
Be an epic win
Spice up your adjectives, be current, tap into nostalgia, decide to write casual or professional, give personal experiences, know when to add images, have contests, give things, and most importantly be an interesting writer. Feel free to take up designing graphics, using a digital camera, or take a trip to some interesting places like conventions and events.
You is a very short chapter sized shotacon manga with Kazuma and Kenji of the Summer Wars anime. Kenji is the aggressor and also seems a bit more developed than poor little Kazuma. The character designs are great for being what it is, but the tan line of Kazuma was a bit too strong when in black ‘n white. Pages become wonderfully noisy as sounds begin and the ending is sweet. It’s untranslated by the dojinshi circle Ego Dance with the author Nanamatsu Kenji. Worth checking out if you just watched the movie. Hopefully the anime will be licenced.
Even though the American constitution doesn’t protect obscene media as its goal, it does and will alway will because of subjectivity.
As selective enforcement grows, more and more normal well meaning people will be guilty of crimes that they may or may not know exist. That’s not to say one should be anti-government as government is only as good as the people who put leaders in power.
Manga is fiction, media, and art. If sexual material is deemed obscene then so should violence. So if one makes a murder crime movie, the buyers of the movie should be charged with the crimes relating to movie or the thoughts and planning of committing such a crime. Extreme example, but relevant.
One may say to themselves that they would have fought these charges to the bitter end, but then you may realize that you’re about to lose everything and that this effects your friends and family.
I believe anyone put into such a situation should not give in. Try to be respectful, but surely give them hell when someone says or implies something outrageous. Punishment of normally lawful citizens should not be accepted with this. Good intentions of people involved with this case is debatable. On one hand it’s just simply not knowing, but it soon become ignorance after a point in time.
Background:
Christopher Handley is a fairly long time manga fan who served the US Navy, managed to gather a collection of well over a thousand such books, a comfortable career in computers, and is in good will with his family. The guy also plays games online, but apparently that is not socially acceptable in the state of Iowa even in 2010. Before the official sentence, a push to ban the person from computers was made like how some places ban alcoholics from buying liquor. Makes one wonder how often such suggestions are made with actual pedophiles.
Basically his order of manga that he imported was inspected before being picked up and driven home. On the way home he has a face full of cops and serious biz dress up people raiding him. Roughly 80 of his 1200 manga were seen as offensive in the case with many of those being yaoi and lolicon. There has been information about how characters in the yaoi comics were pushed to be seen as underage.
CBLDF or Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is a consulting group that helps people charged with obscene comic related cases and the people representing them. The CBLDF believes comics should be treated as any other form of expression. If you’d like to find out more about them or if you wish to donate, visit CBLDF.org
The image above is more of an expression of emotion than anything else.
Feel free to drop a comment here with your view or post in the recent related forum thread about this case and how it impacts manga.
Pluto is an eight volume manga based on the Astro Boy series with a dramatic, mature, and mystery aspects to appeal to older fans. It’s a master piece put together by legendary mangaka Osamu Tazuka and Naoki Urasawa with Viz as it’s English publisher.
First volumes start off as a crime story that jumps into humanity and what humanity is. It’s post-war and robots have been given rights so they may live normal lives among people. Suddenly the greatest robots and the great human minds that made them are one by one taken down by a mysterious foe, but the story develops in such a crafty way that you have no clue what could happen next or that the cruel acts are much more serious.
Characters are drawn in a much less typical way to allow more emotional attachment to what the characters are feeling. European or Western looking people are actually just that. No lolicon here or perversion here, sir (or ma’am?).
One creepy and personally impactful moment in this manga was with Atom the Tobio appearing robot and his creator Dr. Tenma. They’re comfortablely sitting together with a meal and the genius father asks him a load of awkward questions. All of the questions Atom answered were those of a good boy, not the real Tobio.
Laon is a Korean manwha with a single volume out now from a set of six in English by Yen Press. A human like being sent to earth after a lost bet with a lady of an unknown relationship with the main character Laon. It’s name Laon may happy in Korean, but the the character lives with a low wage guy who is using the gifted creature. So Loan? Laon?
Art wise this manga changes quite a bit with how thick lines are, how clueless ‘n cute Laon can be, and the mood. One may say it’s inconstant, but to me that’s always been a strength when quality isn’t going down hill the further you go.
This creature has some neat powers that include turning parts of pictures to real objects, going through walls, and some less clique tricks that are hinted by what Laon is (a Korean fairy tale creature known as a gumiho). That last part about powers really had to be mentioned due to the couple very arguably minor mature pages, especially the part that suggest the act of rape. With that said, I don’t see this manwha a smut, but I am a bit confused to who the original target readership was upon it’s original release.
The potential of depth is fairly high. You will wonder who the cruel lady who made the bet is, what the bet was, and how Laon earned nine tails that were lost because of the bet.
One Fine Day has one volume currently out by Yen Press and has been in their manga magazine since the very first issue. The first thing you’ll notice is how insanely cute the magical world that’s in this story. A young man named No-Ah is living with and care taking of a kiddy dog (Nanai), mouse (Pritz Rang), and cat (Guru). The story is day to day like and… Screw it. The main thing to tell is how so damn cute they are and nothing the naughty bunch of cuteness can do makes No-Ah mad. The gang are drawn mostly as human kids with animal parts, but that’s basically what they are. Kids. Just so cute and not a single page goes without it.
To stir some more light hearted fun while keeping things interesting, the story does introduce a villain from No-Ah’s past. The fact that One Fine Day is so playful and continuously interesting at the same time makes it a neat read.
Tegami Bachi is an ongoing stylized fantasy manga by Hiroyuki Asada. Also known as Letter Bee, the story is of government letter carriers known as Letter Bee who risk their lives in a dark land called Amberground. A Letter Bee named Gauche Suede finds his letter to deliver, however this time it’s a living person named Lag Seeing. Lag is a special young kid who desires to become a Letter Bee himself and to know what happened to his missing mother. Lags mother was actually taken and is believed to be in the capital city that the artificial sun hovers over. Danger arises between cities as deliveries are often interrupted by large beetle like living armor known as Gaichuu that attack them. Luckily for Letter Bee, they are equipped with special guns (Shindanjuu) that fire hallow bullets (Shindan) that are filled with the shooter’s heart.
Wonderful characters and strong words are well supported by the many attempts to get emotions from the reader. Words like amber, love, and heart are used a lot. Volume one gives the impression that Gaichuu are remains of people who’ve corrupted their hearts and that taking of Lag’s mother was planned so Lag can become strong. Memories are openly revealed when a Shindanjuu is fired and that’s what makes Tegami Bachi special. I am emotionally attached to this world of endless night.
Each volume has lush purple, silver, and cream colors support the feel of the environment. Perhaps repetitive coloring is used on purpose for keeping a nightly vibe while you read. The artwork is stable and characters are fairly close to the mangaka’s colored illustrations. The author makes a pretty interesting comment about how he hopes you read Tegami Bachi enough to where pages are worn. The guy keeps his favorite books nearby whenever possible.
Volume one is out in English by Viz with two chapters. There is a 28 minute anime special from a Shounen Jump tour that was streamed officially with English subtitles titled Letter Bee: Light and Blue Night Fantasy. Hopefully the anime will be distributed by Viz soon after episodes air with the upcoming TV series this fall.
