I seem to be the only one who likes Aki Sora.

I mean, sure the story went from sappy drama about forbidden love to full-blown orgies in the course of six chapters; and trust me, I was angry at how shitty the story became. Then I noticed a bulge in my pants and realized that not all anime and manga need to be good to be enjoyable. Of course, some crappy anime receive more popularity than it deserves, and that really grinds my gears, but that’s my disappointment with anime fans in general and doesn’t lie strictly with the anime.

I seem to have gone off topic. Oh yes, I masturbated to Aki Sora out of pure frustration and came to enjoy the series for its aesthetics, and how it indulges my more primal urges. After all, isn’t incest really just about getting your rocks off in Japan? My only complaint with the Aki Sora anime was that it sucked, and not in the good way. It seemed to focus too much on the boring slice-of-life bits rather than the sticky wet sex that usually accompanies Itosugi Masahiro’s artworks. I remember stroking my member to one particular chapter where Nami rapes Sora (No, I did not mix up the names) and as I climaxed I could actually feel the sorrow and regret emanating from the tears on Nami’s cum-soaked face. The sequence of events leading up to that heart-wrenching scene was a path convoluted with extraneous amounts of sex and semen, but it worked.

The ends justify the means, and since Aki Sora managed to figure out a way to pair-up the two I absolutely needed to join hips, and in a manner that wasn’t completely a waste of time, I have to give Aki Sora props. I don’t give a lot of crappy manga props, but Aki Sora deserves it. At the heart of the matter, Aki Sora is delivering fap material to young teenage boys across the globe with a story that doesn’t involve magical pixie dust that make dicks taste like candy. Very few titles can pull that off in a tasteful manner. So without further ado, I’d like to applaud Itosugi Masahiro on his most excellent Aki Sora.

Japanese Lesson of the day: kinshin soukan (????) – incest

If you’re not doing it, then you’re a horrible father.

Digital Manga Publishing last week announced the licensing of Erementar Gerad. Erementar Gerad or it’s other licensed name from Tokyopop and Geneon Elemental Gelade is an eighteen volume shounen that was originally published in Mag Garden’s Monthly Comic Blade. The new publisher is well known for their online publishing, Kickstarter program with funding from fans for physical releases, and their yaoi. Lots and lots of yaoi to where most manga readers including myself who aren’t into yaoi would overlook the publisher altogether.

In a land called Guardia there are people who can transform into weapons with another person to wield them. Some characters are much more okay with being weapons than others and some weapons wielders are more kind. Cou Van Giruet and Edel Raid partner Reverie Metherlance or Ren for short venture off to find a place called Edel Garden where the living weapons Edel Raids are created. Along their adventure they help others and get themselves in their own trouble with Ren being very special and very wanted for her power.

I must admit my fandom of Erementar Gerad comes originally from the anime, but surely this site doesn’t have any references or imagery to the anime or manga. Upon hearing of a publisher picking up the manga again my thoughts were mixed. In a way I’d gladly read something I’m into with much of it fresh from story differences and length since viewing the anime, but on the other hand I’m quite disappointed in there being a chance of not having a physical release if the digital version isn’t successful enough. A book release would be like buying something twice I’d imagine even though there are many Mag Garden manga I’d gladly buy for myself and for other people if I were able to. Perhaps more actively promoting manga I read more and with Twitter would be helpful and something that could relieve my contempt of cancelations. Hopefully well enough to have other manga favorites like Beyond the Beyond, rise R to the second power, Gamerz Heaven, The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok, The First King Adventure, or Momo Tama to return. Maybe something that wasn’t licensed before like Pangaea/Ezel, Carat!, or Flat even if Tokyopop technically briefly had Flat licensed. Brigid Alverson wrote up an interview with DMP on Erementar Gerad’s release information on MTV Geek. There in the lower part of the interview there’s an email for requesting the licensing of manga and I know it’ll be something I’ll do myself. There isn’t much manga being licensed or fantasy adventures licensed like Erementar Gerad or its sequel Elemental Gelade: Flag of the Blue Sky so being choosey would be wise.

Image source: Pixiv

Very large book publishers Random House and Hachette Book Group have decided to support and lobby for The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the US. If SOPA or its backup bill Protect IP Act (PIPA) pass it will greatly change the Internet in many harmful ways for websites all over the web and their users. Random House handles distribution for both Vertical and the American division of Kodansha while Del Rey is a branch of Random House and Yen Press is apart of Hachette Book Group.

The Senate version is PIPA and SOPA is House of Representatives and if either passes it’ll include ways for the government to order American Internet service providers to block domain names of websites, payment services like PayPal to close accounts, search engines to modify their search results to not include sites, and ad services like AdSense from paying out to domains. Under SOPA Internet service providers gain immunity from blocking domains independently without request including if they’re blocking competitors if they themselves deem them as copyright infringing. Both bills would remove the provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that protects web hosts if they make an effort to remove copyright materials upon request. Variations of fee, lawsuit, and prison penalties for unauthorized steaming and downloading of copyrighted materials are there too. All without being under the public eye and without any method to counter or dispute it before actions are taken.

Protecting copyrighted materials for artists is one thing, but this is an extreme and dangerous addition to already existing laws and abilities that can already be used against piracy. Many law professors already have declared the changes unconstitutional as entire sites would mean even protected speech is suppressed, burden of proof is on the accuser, and people are innocent until proven guilty. A blog or user of a site would have to be careful who they’re linking to that the site has original content or permission from copyright holders even if the site just has photos of a vacation, fan art, and screenshots. SOPA also means toying with DNS of domains which could mean a less stable Internet or even less secure, but neither SOPA or its sponsors address this.

Discussion of SOPA and PIPA isn’t enough and along with registering to vote there’s more. Contacting corporations who support these laws, canceling orders with SOPA and PIPA as cancelation reasons, not buying products and services from supporter and their companies, and contacting your politicians are more examples of taking action.

If you see any information as incorrect or have more ways to take action, you may comment here or on the forums and this entry will be edited. Merry Christmas.

Contact Politicians
Phone & email at AmericanCensorship.Org including email for US State Department if not in US
OpenCongress.org pages for SOPA and PIPA
Contact Publishers & Distributors
Contact page for Random House
Vertical info@vertical-inc.com and specific employees
Contact page for Hachette Book Group

On average, I spend anywhere between 2,000$USD and 4000$USD every year on manga. While I do occasionally purchase from domestic publishers such as Del Rey, Vertical, Yen Press, Tokyopop, Dark Horse and Viz; I primarily purchase a majority of my manga from online book retail shop bk1 or amazon. It’s not necessarily because the English line-up of manga is bland and lacks the presence of good titles. Actually, manga in America in current years has severely improved since the turn of the millenium. But I’m going off on another tangent… When you get down to it, I enjoy reading manga in my hand, and the monitor makes my eyes hurt.

I also hate piracy, but that would be rather hypocritical for me to claim.

My Japanese is far from proficient, but I can read most manga with no problem. And if I have no idea what the characters are saying, I just look at the pretty pictures and feel quite satisfied with myself. And yet, I still feel the need to download scanlation. I’m still working out the reasoning behind that. I own most manga I download the scanlations for, and in some cases I’m actually a bit ahead of the curve compared to the rest of the English-speaking world. Yet I still download scanlation.

So what exactly am I doing?

I guess I’m just not willing to give up on a major aspect of my adolescence. It’s also nice to read another translator’s take on a particular passage or exchange of dialogue. Sometimes I read scanlated works and think about how much of a better job I could have done on the translation, or sometimes I realize my interpretation of a particular scene was just plain wrong. It’s kind of refreshing to have scanlation, but I don’t condone it. I’m sort of a wishy-washy person. I don’t particularly find scanlation evil, but if someone boasts that he has read 90+ volumes of manga and hasn’t spent a single dollar on any one manga; then that just makes me really mad.

Occasionally, the way a translator presents a series can change my entire view on a series. Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, for example, did not seem like a series that I would be interested in. Then I went and read abcd’s translation and I could not stop laughing. It changed my whole perspective on the series. Perhaps scanlation is a necessary evil, not only for the Japanophiles who aren’t willing to sit down and learn the god-forsaken language, but also for veteran manga fanatics. After all, I probably wouldn’t have purchased most of my manga if not influenced by the scanlation on the Internet.

Or maybe I would’ve. Who knows?

So I finally started reading a manga called Ressentiment per my friend’s suggestion and I found myself hating real females again. I hate frustrating series like that. I can’t remember the last time I felt this burning utter hatred for the third dimension.

Then I finished up Kaichou wa Maid-sama to reaffirm why anime girls are superior. Only to find out that Misaki chose the WRONG MAN. Is there no salvation in this cruel world!?

Who would do the voices? If you’re weeaboo enough, then you already have a cast list in your head. So man up, and post it for me. Show me your dick, faggot! Here’s my list, and why I think the way I do. My reasoning is flawless. I’ll probably be so sad when I find out the actual cast list.

Madaraki Fran – Tamura Yukari
Damn right! I think Tamura Yukari has this careless evil nuance in her voices that’s been grossly under-exploited in anime. Maybe she’ll start breaking away from her typecast long enough to try this.

Madaraki Veronica – Hanazawa Kana
As we all know, Veronica is the tsukkomi to Fran’s bokke, and in my personal opinion, nobody would play a better tsukkomi than Hanazawa Kana. Or maybe she’s a bokke… Whatever, she has that duality in her voice.

Madaraki Gavrill – Tanaka Rie
Who knows if Gavrill will ever make an appearance after the hotel explosion. But if she does end up becoming a regular; then I know Rie Tanaka’s gotta do the voice. I can’t think of anyone with a better “psychotic bitch” voice ever since I watched Canaan.

Okita (the cat dude) – Abe Atsushi
There isn’t as wide a selection of male voices to choose from… so I’ll just go with Atsushi. Okita seems to be fairly young, judging from facial features alone, so I want someone relatively new. Yes, I don’t really care.

Officer Kuhou – Shintani Ryouko or Sawashiro Miyuki or [Insert Name]
Who cares who does her voice?

Adorea – Mizuki Nana
Mizuki Nana can voice anything that barely talks. So yeah, why the hell not?

Dr. Amatsuka – Jouji Nakata
I love the sound of Jouji Nakata’s voice. I think he should be getting roles that are closer to his age about now anyways.

Dr. Madaraki – Akio Ootsuka
I don’t know if the doctor will be getting a voice in the series, but if he does; if just for narration or letter reading purposes alone, it should be Akio Ootsuka. Why shouldn’t we have Black Jack doing the voice of a world-renowned biologist / mad scientist? Money talks.