Icon Source: rainraven
It is Sai calling someone bro as he did in G Gundam’s dubs. Dreamwidth is a fork of LiveJournal by former LiveJournal staff. There are many forks, but Dreamwidth is the most popular with their users linking between the two sites. Pixiv source no longer exists.

Icon Source: reccessional
Fire Candy has amazing character art with a very wonderful rough style. Above is “manga coloring” and not official art or from a cover.

Icon Source: ukemilk
Original Source: Nico Nico Douga
The icon originated from a Nico Nico Douga video with the Vocaloid Kagamine twins Rin and Len.

Icon Source: kazimierzi
Aventura was a formally licensed and published manga by Del Rey before Kodansha took over their manga publishing. It sported some of the most dreamy and excessive character (especially hair) detail. Safe to say Del Rey had much more interesting manga choices with Q Ko-chan, Alive: The Final Evolution, and Yozakura Quartet. Kodansha’s US division is far too timid and does not bother much with manga outside big hits.

Icon Source: mensenhater
Original Source: momocan.egoism.jp (a little NSFW)
Most of my favorite avatars or what LiveJournal calls icons have action, posing, or a bit of emotion. Just a character’s face is bland and not very creative. It is Ken cross-dressing in what the blond Aigis android is known to wear in Persona 3.

LiveJournal is a giant from a long ago era where people created communities of posting user avatars. Users had the ability to upload more than one icon (avatar) and choose which they wish to use when commenting or publishing a blog entry. In a way the site is very much like WordPress.com in where it is a network of blogs, but community and networking is much more stressed. Users created communities for anyone to post entries to and used them for massive image heavy posts with often a hundred icons. The community may not be Facebook, but it remains active and worth the membership.

Forums Shaped My Reading and Writing
My earliest memories of being online have been with forums and perhaps much of that time has created preferences when online. It could be the other way around and just coincidence I did much foruming, but I would like to think it lead to some of my writing style. Subtle trolling, casualness, playful wittiness at the expense of others, keeping things to the point, and random off-topic derailing as examples of influence. I am known in some communities for my annoying, amusing, and confrontational one liners. At the very least changing things up with having to write more gave time to reflect.

Images Make a Page of Words Attractive
I love great detail and informative treasures, but at times I can find long blog entries of my interest not interesting enough to read. Images bring color to a wad of black text, tell the topic of a post often before any words, grab attention, and break up text. People like purdy thingies.

Episodic Blogging is Useless
Around starting a blog I took peeks at what other bloggers did in addition to the little knowledge I already had. Real soon I learned that blogging each episode of an anime or chapter of a manga makes for poor reading. Sure an epiphany or emotional response to an episode or story arc can be remarkable, but every episode just because is a waste. One could simply go out to watch the particular episode or manga. If one is already following a series they would either decide to keep going or see what they have as not worth it.

Writing, Grammar, and Speling
I am a product of a dysfunctional schooling system where much of my years in school dealt with golf carts chasing ditchers across campus, stabbings, shootings, and bomb threats. There were days where I’ve spent time playing Gameboy Pokemon in front of a teacher’s desk with the teacher there. Jumping into blogging for me meant having to learn as I go without help or guidance. Finding tools for spelling is easy, but the ability to write something interesting, coherent, and styled is a world of error. Proof reading is a friend.

Timing
A lot like a news outlet a blog can get extra traffic and kudos for being ahead of the rest. Knowing when your audience is active online and being first leads to more retweets on fast sites like Twitter and having the most attention from offering something undiscovered.

Casuals and Fanatics
Many people into anime and manga are just into it to watch and read. It is a segment of fans that include those that gain pleasure in critique, analysis, and writing. Some fans find gathering information and opinions useful in addition to the media, but most are satisfied with what their friends suggest or what they stumble across. Just being a fan is okay and I have learned to accept that.

Better Have Something Worth Saying
In real life I hate surprises yet I prefer to do things on a whim. With blogging I write when I have something interesting or an inspiration gained from an experience. With a schedule I would find myself writing just to write without much to share. I take notes in the form of a list of words until I gather enough for a topic or I inspire myself through watching or reading anime and manga when I’m most easily able to concentrate. If I were to kick up my watching of anime and manga, it would translate to better consistency.

Some thanks to Justin of OASG for inspiring this post.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone!

Every anime season comes accompanied with a competitive sport. Last season, animation studio Madhouse stepped up to take on the challenge with a card game played exclusively in Japan. I don’t mean Yu-Gi-Oh; I’m talking about Karuta.

Karuta is a game where the goal is to choose out of an array of fifty cards the second verse of a poem being read. The first to touch the card gains possession. But unlike Magic: The Gathering, the first to diminish his twenty-five cards wins the game. The concept is hard for many to take seriously, especially me, but like many sports before, once it is animated it takes on a new level of astringent discipline which is hard for anyone, especially me, to ignore.

Chihayafuru follows high schooler Ayase Chihaya, who dreams of one day becoming the Queen of Karuta. Considering the subject matter, it does  not seem like there would be many obstacles. However, with each episode the viewers are exposed to Chihaya’s weakness and shortcomings; and over the course of the series the viewers must watch as she works hard to improve and overcome. I don’t feel like explaining more of the story, since that would be completely pointless. Why waste time reading a blog when you can just watch it yourself? more…

Where do you think you’re going? This ain’t over.

This anime ended at episode 12. Yet it is still airing…

Many a people suggested this anime to me, based on two facts. One, they know nothing about me. Two, they assume I love eating shit. Now that we are done with the pleasantries, I can review this series more objectively.

Another healthy Saturday morning…

Sakura dormitory is an aging building where the outcasts of high school are incarcerated, simply because they are too gifted for their own good. Our protagonist, Sorata, is not one of those gifted students. Sorata found himself under the roof of the Sakura dormitory when he discovered a bleeding vagina where his heart should be. This self-righteous little dick decided to pick up stray cats and feed them. Rule number one when dealing with stray animals is to NOT FEED them. As expected, he grows attached to the little pussies and is eventually evicted from the main dormitory. The only place that would allow these little flea magnets to run amok and breed is the asylum known to all the student body, the Sakura Dormitory.

This only makes sense if you watch this crap.

Most of the running gags in this anime involve a standard slapstick called Tsukkomi and Boke. The intricate art involved in this Japanese-favored comedic routine requires detailed explanation and fine examples. I don’t have time for that, so I will apply minimal effort and butcher it as best I can. The “idiot” or “boke” will make a retarded statement, and the “fall guy” or “tsukkomi” will make a hilarious reaction along the lines of, “WHAT!?”

It’s… … … … actually not that creative.

Silly kid! Pumpkin panties are for toddlers!

So like I do with most sub-par anime, I became deeply engrossed and established high school social links with these fictional characters. I had a smile on my face at the end of the series, when everyone comes to terms with their own feelings. Yet the strangest thing happened two weeks later: Episode 13 came out. At first I was confused, since the beginning of the episode seemed to be a direct continuation of the story; but as it turns out everyone is suffering from a contagious form of amnesia. Nothing had changed to reflect the revelations of the past episode. No new relationships were spawned, no form of progress had developed, and the story had rescinded to an earlier part in the series where Sorata was still dealing with his own inadequacy and suffering from extensive jealousy towards the residents of the Sakura Dormitory.

I thought I had watched the episodes out of order, but I was wrong. This aggravating episode of pre-teen adolescence was the sequel to what I had assumed was character growth and self-discovery. My best guess is that someone out there is profiting by keeping this shit going. (Imagine that!)  I was starting to like Sorata by episode 12, but episode 13 reverted him back to the unlikable little dipshit that I always knew he was. As usual, without rhyme or reason, two hot girls are in love with the talentless little dunce. The only respectable male in this show — in my humble opinion — is Akasaka Ryuunosuke, who understands the dangers of unprotected sex and refuses the advances of slutty British hoes.

May all you boys grow up to be just like him!

Today’s Lesson: If you want to be popular with the ladies, be an irresponsible deadbeat.

Wait, so someone told me there was indeed a North American BD release of Kara no Kyoukai. It was back in 2011, and I don’t remember being deployed during that time, so I guess I just plain missed it. That sucks, especially since I had the money for it.

My only question… If it sold out so quickly, why does no one I know own a copy?

This must have been a very limited release.

[youtube width=”520″ height=”320″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFhFYTz3yeM[/youtube]

New Zealand protestors are speaking out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership while the latest round of negotiations happen there. This pact between countries is labeled a fair trade agreement in where more trade of goods can be made. In such a pact there is normally agreements made to remove or lessen fees, limitations, taxes, and similar. Drama over the Trans-Pacific Partnership is not so much about lifting barriers, but how the negotiation development is secret and what has been leaked are actually limitations on citizens in addition to business. Imagine many of the ideas that corporations and politicians thought of for SOPA and PIPA Internet censorship, but on a global scale without much public information. Governments and Internet service providers will enforce blocking of websites, removal of Internet access for individuals, and filtering to increase copyright restrictions with what has been leaked. Japan is one of the countries for encouraging to join in this agreement.

Flourishing and frequesntly imported self published manga known as doujinshi are a massive part of the animanga scene and has one of the world’s largest comic conventions devoted to it known as Comiket. At this time those creations enjoy the freedom of remixing characters from copyrighted anime and manga. The doujinshi market offers a way to become known to companies that publish manga and a way to develop their skills, but with TPP it will be hindered by enforcement with fines even without the copyright holder’s request. This agreement will perhaps include steps to make Japan’s copyright laws the same or much closer to America’s laws.

Copyright infringement is the norm for much of the anime and manga fan community around the world with illegal downloads, manga readers, and torrents. Greater regulation may happen rather than breaking down of the language, cost, and availability barriers. Voters and citizens may not know to what extent the agreement may go, as it may eliminate sites, blogs, or perhaps user pages from social networks. A link, photo, download, or a fan work may inspire a crack down on the site or the user of a site with vague or poor language.

The next Japanese general election will be held December 16th, 2012 with 63% of election candidate opposition to Japan’s Trans-Pacific Partnership participation. Action and discussion needs to happen instead of a last moment or brief spark of excitement that happened with SOPA and PIPA. It will not be easy with the passing of time for an agreement that has been in development for years, the secret nature of the negotiations, and the challenge of taking actual action.