So in commemoration of the Avengers movie opening tonight, I decided to browse through my old blog and pull up something that is no longer relevant. Note that this was written over six years ago.

Oh, and speaking of American comics… what’s with these Original English Language (OEL) manga that’s been filling up bookshelves in the manga section? Two years ago, I took it for a passing fad, but now every comic-book publisher appears to be releasing their own versions of “Home-Made Japanese”. Some of them steal the Japanese right-to-left format (I see no reason to do this since English should be read left-to-right.) and after reading the shitty stories within some of them I’m beginning to wonder if Americans are just trying to adapt all the wrong aspects of Japanese comics…?

The Hair
To quote the Shopping Blog on the thankfully-deceased Garnier’s Manga Head advertising campaign, “Looking for a wild new hair style? Garnier suggests a new style based on the popular Japanese Manga comics.” If you’re too new to the manga scene to have missed seeing the L’Oreal line making such beautiful asses of themselves, their “Manga Head” page featured images of poorly drawn dragonball-esque characters, possibly submitted by primary school students all across the United Kingdom, all with one unique characteristic: gravity-defying hair. Accompanying these awful flashy pictures were images of real people imitating the hair style with Garnier’s Fructis Style product.

So there we have it. Clear proof that one of the defining points of manga to the ignorant west are the buoyant hairstyles. There is a bit of truth to this; it would be be nigh impossible to find a manga in any shounen publication that does not make use of the pointy hair, the floating bangs or the middle antennae. However, fans of more true-to-life artist such as Ikegami Ryoichi(MAI THE PSYCHIC GIRL) and Marita Masanori (Rokudenashi Blues, Rookies) know this to be not true. […] Still, their knowledge doesn’t seem to extend beyond the scope of the hair.

The Eyes
If you were to make a comic and you wanted to call it a manga, but your Japanese vocabulary is very limited and you couldn’t draw a decent manga setting if hell came after you… how else could you affirm its status as a manga? The answer is of course, the eyes. Apparently having the eyes take up more than 40% of the face constitutes any drawn image as an official Japanese character. Sometimes giving them Japanese names like Sora, Tsubasa, Bob and the like makes them all the more authentic.

Big eyes are definitely a Japanese drawing trait, and it wouldn’t be a lie to say that the trend of bigger white:pupil ratio is influencing the drawing styles of many new and upcoming American comic artists. What separates them from the slew of other American manga-artists is that their work is still labeled “comics”.

So where exactly is the fine line drawn? I’m sure it must be the language barrier or in the inking. Maybe it is the Japanese’s heavy usage of tones to create atmosphere and moods, made obsolete in American comics because of our preference of having everything in color, or could it be…

The Setting
OELs are interestingly enough always about silly relationships, furries, vampires and goths, geeks, all of the above, or about the actual medium itself: Japanese anime and manga. In that sense, I guess there isn’t much differentiating them between their Japanese counterpart. Well, except for one thing….

The OELs are just fucking awful. A futuristic setting with samurais and gunslingers is fine… if you’re Japanese. If you’re an American, you’re better off making a story about Jedis. At least you’re playing on your own field then. It just doesn’t seem right. I used to expect class whenever I read American works, but these OELs are just killing me.

Americans are just too engrossed with making their comic more than just a “comic”, into something called “manga”, that they overcomplicate it with silly American wisdom when what they really need is something nice and simple. They could start off by making a decent story and calling it a comic. [M]any people in America have come to expect their manga to have depth (and pretty art), maybe with a slight scattering of humor throughout every chapter in moderate amounts to prevent it from becoming all serious and no play. The American “manga” I have read either take it too far with the humor, or go nowhere with the depth. It’s overall a bland read, and I sometimes stab myself at night so that I’d never pick up any american OELs again.

Anyways, It’s 6 in the morning and I’ve gotten sleepy. I’ll check back later and this post will seem very retarded in the afternoon.

And I now leave you with a picture.

Oh, so true...

Foooods... Gimme.

Eating and snaking is something everyone shares in common. Get ready to show off your tasty treats, get to know the community, score some fame, and hopefully find out what others eat that you might not have tried.

Prize:
1. An online $10 USD gift certificate for JBOX.com
2. Blog entry announcing the winner

The gift certificate can be used on either the jbox.com or jlist.com (NSFW) websites and they have worldwide shipping. Use it on anything from snacks, books, toys, apparel, and more.

Rules:
Must have a valid email address for your prize
Recipe must be something original (something of yours) you or your family makes
Does not need to be anime, manga, manwha, holiday, or Asian inspired
Does not need to be complicated or “cooked”
You must be registered to the forums in order to post your entry and to be able to answer questions
Contest starts now and will close January 4th and the winner will be notified by personal message on the forum
Entries are judged on creativity and if there is any meaningful story or history behind it

How to Enter:
Log in or register and post a new thread in the Om Nom Nom Nom food forum with what your recipe or dish is, how it came to exist, if there were any amusing stories behind it or holidays, and how to prepare it if preparation or steps are required. More details the better and even images help. Be sure to check for replies from members or staff to give more detail or to answer any questions.

Any questions about the contest itself can be asked on the forums, personal message, or by relying in this blog entry. Image source for the above image can be found here.

Good luck and happy holidays.

Apologies for the gallery index that’s a bit messy at the moment, but it is functional.

Anime Gerad’s community hits four. This site was under the name Netherworld Void was founded one night on May 17th 2006 and grew its blog as the main page in 2007.

-Most commented blog post Saya no Uta
-A few of many interesting forum threads include ASL, End of Newtype USA, and our most viewed thread Best Cosplay Examples.
-Most viewed image is a Guild Wars wallpaper
-Highest clicked link in the link directory goes to Spotting Bootleg Figures

Many thanks to EhNani, Serimorph, Tenkyuu kage, animemeg, Raven, reddeath26, Agamum, ultimavirtues, Fate, and many others.

Even though I no longer watch television…except at the gas station or grocery mart where they force me to, I know people who watch such media and it seems one thing holds true. The anime and manga industry doesn’t advertise often or well. Sure their’s pay per click ads on sites (along with manga viewers and streaming sites) and magazine adverts, but there really isn’t that much. Most of it is likely because the companies who publish anime and manga are small, so they don’t have the resources. That’s where arguments that those companies have enough money or are just in existance for money fall, but it’s possible. Video game companies were able to back when they were much smaller.

If ADV and others did advertise to larger audiences, what shows would they put their commercials with? You could have them with anime, but then how would you get people new into it? There isn’t exactly many kinds of media that would fit well. Clearly the Super Bowl would be out of their budget for Eyeshield 21. Perhaps they can get smart with smarter adverts with wide appeal, which would get people linking to it and uploading it to social media sites like Youtube. Nintendo, Apple, and others are prime examples of companies that can drive buzz without deep pockets or when pushed in a corner. That’s how many websites advertise. They don’t. The say, offer, do, or show something that creates buzz. Buzz on the Internet means people will link to you and show you to others. Easier said than done.

In Japan anime is shown on television so illegal downloading and sharing is less needed. Of course that’s not saying that it’s not done. Here in the US and the rest of the world we have to pay for it more often than not. One can say there should be more anime on television, but then that wouldn’t help the unlicensed and new. Not many newer series I’m into are licensed, minus Oh! Edo Rocket by FUNimation.

I’m not againts downloading anime, but just the only download movement that seems to be the norm when watching something the legal way should be. One is not supporting something they enjoy by downloading and companies don’t need to sit around watching torrent numbers all day to see what should be licensed. A good watch or read of the product is good enough. Then there’s also ratings and sales numbers in Japan. Advertising and buzz will help change that. There’s still people wandering around about how dubs are so awful, yet they haven’t bought a DVD in years. Dubs have improved, the DVDs do have subtitles, and that there is more anime out now that is released sooner and without dubbing at all. Maybe showing them otherwise would help.
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On a semi-related note, a manga trading link directory has been added.

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has started something new to help drive up donations. American comic artist Peter Kuper (of Spy vs. Spy fame) will be make a special piece of art that donators can have upon donating. If you haven’t heard, there a man in the US being charged with having obscene manga. You know, stuff with characters that look young but may not be. Either way the poor guy had people following him home after he picked up his package. Apparently manga is series stuff and requires people with guns and uniforms. If this is something you support, go check them out. It might be you next them they find someone to defend and you don’t want to face 20 years in prison like this guy.

Guess the first thing to notice is the site has a new layout and the forum returned to one of the previous look. They’re finished except for a few minor tweaks in Internet Explorer.

There’s a new Strawberry Marshmallow mood set, default Air Gear avatar, a thanks system, personal links and panel when logged in, a new help page, better quality Youtube embedding in posts, an Anime Gerad MySpace was added, and the user blogs have been removed.

And Kazuko is the winner! The Soul Eater avatar contest has ended. Two more contests coming up soon.