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

Girls the Wild’s is a manhwa about a school in Korea run by a white man.

I’m sure the artist meant “Girls of the Wild” and probably a play-on words with “Girls Gone Wild”. But nevertheless, it’s a decent Korean webcomic with a point-blank generic harem theme. I don’t know whether I like it, but it’s definitely something for me to pass the time with.

The art’s nice, and that’s probably the only thing that matters.

I’m actually a bit disappointed because the beginning chapters seemed to hint at a serious storyline with actual depth. Then all of a sudden, it’s like all those flashbacks were meaningless because the girls turned into formless amoebas that exist only to fill the character molds they were ripped off of.

To make the formula even more formulaic, our protagonist Jae Gu is a pathetic loser who gets bullied. It’s not entirely clear which route he’ll choose: Either learn to fight ala Kenichi, or continue to grovel in submission and act cute so his cute upperclassmen can fight his battles for him. Either way, it’s unrealistic. I don’t know what happened to his balls from early on in the series when he stood up to the most powerful female in Korea.

All I can say is… meh.

I think no matter how this story pans out, I’ll continue to be disappointed with the protagonist…

Today I was confronted with a situation straight out of hentai manga. I was at the laundromat because I’m too cheap to buy a washer and dryer when a slightly older, but attractive in certain lighting, female asked if I had a cigarette to spare. Being the kind Samaritan, I offered her a fag and we had ourselves a long conversation full of the awkward pause and silence that usually accompanies my interaction with women. As it turns out, she was in between jobs; and from the way it looked she was living out of a car. I have no idea why she was at the laundromat, since she didn’t seem to have any articles of clothing other than the five jackets, gloves and jeans she was wearing; and she wasn’t washing any of them.

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Though she never admitted to the bit about living out of a car, what else could I assume since she clearly did not have a place to stay.  It was from that conclusion the idea manifested itself in my thoughts: What if I were to invite her to stay the night at my place? I don’t live in a mansion, but I have enough floor space to house another living being, so why not a human? In my hentai-deluded fantasies this could mean hot and steamy farm sex:

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In reality, it would be more like I’d wake up to find my television, computer, microwave and silverware missing. Then later find out I have AIDS. Still, the possibility that she’d feel obligated to have sex with me was just too much of a tease to back off from. After all, it’s not completely clear that she’s homeless, or in need of shelter and food in any way. She does have a car, so she must have some money to fill it with gas, correct? Once my clothes dried, I did the only safe thing I could and walked away from the situation. Now, two hours later, this sad decision still eats away at me.

I find it strange, now that I’ve situated myself in Virginia with a stationary mobile home, and a kick-ass low-wage job; that I’m being so indecisive about buying a washer and dryer set; when without a second thought I easily fork over 850$USD for manga and a WACOM tablet. A washer and dryer is something I actually am in dire need of and can be used for years down the road; and the other is something I may never touch, much less use.

I guess it has something to do with my huge pay-cut, and the fact that clean clothes never seemed an issue to me in such cold weather. I don’t sweat so why should I care?

Oh yea, something something SOPA… but in more important news, Twinkies may disappear off the face of the earth.

Imagine how beautiful and magical it would be if all across America people took two dollars out of their wallet and marched to hostess HQ to drop it at their doorstep? We’d call it the march of Twinkies and forever immortalize hostess in the pages of history. Then the president can fly down in Air Force One and declare them a national landmark and keep it alive with tax money.

Maybe I should go back to covering real news. About… anime or something?

The American government today took down the file sharing site Megaupload, a site where people can upload and download files for free or with paid subscriptions for better speeds and features. Companies, celebrities, people sharing perfectly legal files, and people who share pirated media there including anime and scanlations of manga used the American hosted site. The Federal government is charging the executives of the site with more than $500 million US dollars of lost revenue of copyrighted content and have been arrested along with several other employees who reside outside the US. Official Department of Justice response can be found on justice.gov which is or was down when writing this along with many other sites by denial of service attacks from Anonymous.

Removal of Megaupload has interesting timing since attention of Internet censorship laws SOPA and PIPA have grown after sites like Wikipedia and thousands others blacked out their sites in protest. It would be pretty easy to suggest that Megaupload isn’t a good example of sites that shouldn’t be protected since majority of its use surely was involving copyright infringement, but perhaps it will create an example of what’s to come. There was no due process for the site’s removal as actions were taken with no way for the company or people behind Megaupload to dispute their case. It could have been a blog, news site, or a small hole in the wall. Perhaps having one larger site taken down before any sort of voting in a governing body will create enough stir to stop SOPA, PIPA, or future laws while showing how this can affect people outside of the US.

With one of the largest file sharing sites gone there’s still the issue of the lack of new licenses for manga, innovative ways of distributing product, and other ways of pirating taking its place. There are currently a lot of sites out there with broken embedded videos and links to manga chapters with many of those links to countless little known anime and manga that were never translated or licensed by Western or even Japanese publishers.

Publishers and distributors of media need to adapt and provide better service to combat piracy as opposed to lashing out against their own consumer base. I cannot argue against the removing of Megaupload, but I know for myself that SOPA, PIPA, and Megaupload’s removal won’t get me to buy more than I do. It instead makes me question the morality and ethics of buying. The next time I tell someone of something wonderful to watch or read, I may just stay silent on how to buy it or if there’s a sale and reluctantly concede to arguments about buying versus pirating when in discussion.

This censorship problem can be seen much larger than what it may appear. It’s the merging of government with corporations and Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision by Supreme Court of the United States making way for more laws like SOPA and PIPA to come.

I moved to Virginia. I’m writing this through my Motorola Xoom tablet so I have to stop after every sentence for the buffer to catch up. So you’re probably wondering how I’ve managed to keep up with anime… Actually I haven’t. Actually, I hadn’t been keeping up with anything save History’s Strongest Disciple Ken-something-or-other, which I secretly enjoy reading. I guess the fact that I capitalized the title on a keyboard as laggy as this means I like it, or I am a neurotic perfectionist.

I’m looking for a place to live and so being a crass procrastinator I ended up watching War Horse. Those trailers were misleading, that goddamn horse is cursed. Nearly everyone who rode on its back died an untimely death. Clearly the message or moral or whatever is that horses make good glue.

So just