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Anime is available in more forms now than when I first became a fan, back when I was in high school.  As great as streaming is, I do remember the bad old days of taking an obscenely long amount of time to watch a low resolution, 2 minute video.  So I tend toward skepticism every time some new bit of technology is proclaimed as the greatest thing to ever happen.  Mostly because there are always bugs, and the lowest common denominator is hardly ever taken into consideration.

What the heck am I talking about?  Today, I’m talking about my tower.  It’s very slow, and not terribly reliable, although I haven’t had any problems with it lately.  I wasn’t even sure streaming would work well until I tested that out this past weekend, watching anime on Hulu and Crunchyroll.  To my surprise, both worked without a hitch.  Both sites ran 99% perfectly, which is great, because that means I can chip away at my 700-episode queue on Hulu, and watch some more current stuff on Crunchyroll.

What did I watch?  I’m currently trying to catch up on Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, but I don’t actually see that happening any time soon.  It really depends on my mood when I get home from work.  On Crunchyroll, I gave Durarara! a try – both because I finished Baccano! recently and liked it, and because Durarara! had been recommended to me.  I’ve watched 3 episodes and I like it so far.  It’s very intriguing and I actually like that the pace seems more laid back than Baccano!.  I just hope the ending doesn’t annoy me as much as the ending to Baccano! did.

So what would you suggest I watch on either site?  Or, what are you all currently watching?  I’m curious, and questions are a good way to end this relatively short and sweet post.

Seel! Wait, I mean Ciel!

If you follow me on twitter, you might remember that I complained quite a bit last weekend about sitting next to a guy wearing a skirt.  If you don’t follow me on twitter, that’s cool because I’m going to relate the entire story anyway.

This past weekend was Naka-Kon, a Kansas City anime convention running for its sixth year at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center.  I had applied to be staff this year, and I could be found at the Volunteer desk.  Whenever my director was away from the desk for a while there was usually another staff member sitting there with me.  One happened to be a guy cosplaying Riku Harada from D.N. Angel.  His costume was nice, it was just too bad that he completely acted like a guy.  Wearing a dress.  He would sit in his chair with his legs wide open, and then turn toward me to stare at what I was writing.  It was terribly awkward for me, mostly because I couldn’t leave, and I didn’t want to speak to him.  He’d already tried talking to me, but just quit after I didn’t show any signs of being impressed by what he was saying.

The funny thing is he’d talked to my roommate the day before.  Unfortunately that bit of conversation formed my initial not-exactly-positive image of him.

Him: Hey, you’re Rikku!

Roomie: …..yep.

Him: I’m Riku too!

Roomie: …..that’s cool. (shifty eyes)

Him: We should get a Riku from Kingdom Hearts, and (something I don’t remember), and make a whole group of just Rikus!!

Roomie: …uh….yeah.

Then we took our leave of him. Quickly.

I was happy to see a pretty complete cosplay group for Kuroshitsuji at Naka-kon.  I was surprised too, since the anime is (to me) pretty new, and not licensed (as far as I know).  I had personally just started watching Kuroshitsuji a couple weeks before Naka-kon, so I was especially tickled to see the cosplay group, and since I was working, sent the roomie off with my camera to get pictures of them.

Which brings me to my main-ish subject of this post: Ciel Phantomhive.  Starting Kuroshitsuji, I really didn’t like Ciel all that much.  He just seemed to me to be your fairly typical young, educated/smart, aristocratic, expressionless male.  In short, he’s better than everyone, and lets them know that they bore him.  It’s really overdone, so I’ll admit that I wrote him off.

Then I saw the episode of the anime where Ciel had to be disguised as a girl, wearing one pink and frilly dress.  That’s cause for chuckles normally, but it actually got me to like him.  The reason I started liking Ciel with his whole cross-dressing fiasco is that he was visibly uncomfortable with his situation.  His stance and expression showed his discomfort and the fact that he definitely did not want to be doing that.  Having to avoid his fiancee helped with the humor/discomfort.  For me, that made Ciel relatable.  He didn’t do the “cool guy” thing of showing absolutely no change in expression, and that’s why I now like him, at least more than I did.

Pac-Man the Eater of Souls

Funimation has been streaming a show on its website that I have really taken to. It’s a long overdue reimagined adaptation of the classic 80’s video game Pac-man, when translated into English is “Eater of Souls”, or more commonly known as, “Soul Eater”.

It follows the adventure of our favorite yellow circle as his girlfriend, Ms Pac-Man (no relation as far as I can tell) is kidnapped and taken into the “Society of Souls”, or “Soul Society” for short. There he evades capture from the spirits, or “ghosts” as they are sometimes called, all while trying to collect all the “Pac-dots” he can eat, and perhaps any fruit or pretzels that might come his way.

At one point he collects one of the four coveted “Power Pellet” and is then able to take on the main four Ghost/Souls, Shadow the Blinky, Bashful the Inky, Pokey the Clyde, and finally the leader, and toughest of the four ghosts, Speedy the Pinky. The problem is this power is limited and he goes back to being the one chased. Fortunately he has three more that he can get that will once again restore him back to being able to take them down.

Now mind you I may have dozed off during a good chunk of the series so I might have a few details wrong. In fact, I might be confusing this whole thing and might not have remembered any of it correctly. Hmm, maybe I should go back and rewatch it while awake.

Personal Fandom Musings

I tend to think of myself as something of a “middle of the road” otaku.  The strange thing is, I recently started thinking of how and when I started down this road known as “anime fandom.”  After listening to some podcasts, and reading some blogs, I realized that I was fairly self aware as a newbie fan.  Lots of fans declare they got into the fandom by watching Dragonball Z, and they didn’t even know of anime then, just that it was a cool cartoon.  I started with Pokemon early in the morning, as a high school student, and I knew that Pokemon was anime from the beginning.

How did I know that?  I thought about it for a while, then I remembered.  Before I was an anime fan, I was heavily into comic books.  I had a subscription to Wizard magazine, and I think I must have read some articles on the subject, as well as in the newspaper, strangely enough.

If you’re asking “why Pokemon?” the answer is simple and twofold.  I grew up on basic television, no cable, which means I didn’t have access to Cartoon Network until college.  There was nothing else to watch that early in the morning.  The other choices were the news, aerobics shows, and infomercials.  Also, given the choice between something entertaining and anything else, I will pick the entertaining show 4 out of 5 times.

So it’s a typical/non-typical start.  Quite a few of the fans I come into contact with are quite a bit younger than I am, so I feel out of place quite a bit.  It doesn’t help much that the con scene here in Kansas City is still quite small, so it seems like the grand majority of attendees are usually high schoolers.  Plus, I’m quite shy and I tend to avoid people.  Lately I’ve come to the somewhat uncomfortable realization that I’m somewhat of a hikkikomori, or shut-in, except I do leave the house regularly to go to work.  Since I started up with twitter, however, I’ve been able to follow a much bigger variety of anime and manga fans, and it’s been great.  There’s a lot of fascinating discussions and I’ve been learning quite a bit lately.  Enough to realize there’s a lot more to learn still, but also to realize that I’ve been steadily learning all this time anyway.

Granted, I hardly ever participate in the discussions.  I’m still more of a casual fan who watches anime mostly for enjoyment.  It’s always interesting to sit and write a review, though, and figure out exactly what it is that might have bugged me about a particular series, scene or character.  That’s mostly why I decided to blog.  Plus, I wished to work on my writing, see about keeping a schedule eventually, and dabble in a little website design if possible.  I like to do a little of everything.  That old saying is very true however: jack of all trades, master of none.  I believe this can work for me though, so I’ll be doing my best to prove that it will.

I don’t forsee an end to my anime fandom at present.  What I see possibly happening is that I simply change my focus.  At present, for instance, I don’t really bother to keep up with current releases, although I will admit it’s easier than ever with around half of each season being streamed.  In the future, I may keep up more with current releases, or I may still stick to my focus on older anime that I believe I should watch.  Perhaps I will abandon the chronological approach and focus on specific genres (like romance/slice of life) or properties (like Gundam).

This is more of a “I wanted to post something” than a post with a specific emphasis.  I was computerless for two weeks, so I feel that I will be catching up for a while, but I’m still here, I’ll be doing maintenance for a while, and I’ll still be posting.

Priestess Evolution

The inspiration for this particular post comes from a comment made on my last post, with the pictures of the Disgaea Palm figure.  When I made that post, I realized to my dismay that I hadn’t made a category for Disgaea yet, which was shocking because I will tell anyone that Disgaea is my top game ever.  Although I honestly didn’t mean to buy the DS version, but the bundle was just too good a deal to pass up.

Anyway, one of my favorite features of the entire Disgaea series is the character designs done by Takehito Harada.  What’s even better is that the core group of selectable group members is pretty much the same through all three games with some additions and a few modifications.

Such as the priest.  I’ll admit, she was a pain to keep alive in Disgaea.  It seems the way to level characters was for them to actually kill enemies, and she didn’t spend her time killing.  So she died a lot for me

The next Nippon Ichi game that I own that she shows up in is Makai Kingdom (which I started, but then I paused to finish Disgaea 2 then start Disgaea 3….yeah I need to finish that sometime).  There’s quite a difference in her design, although she’s wearing the same dress.

Yep, her dress is lower cut and she has LOTS of cleavage.  Not that that’s a bad thing, mind you   This trend continues in Disgaea 2.

The fact that the same character types show up in various games and sequels is a big plus for me.  It’s nice to see familiar faces and little sprites starting off a new story.  On the other hand, I also love that the character designs DO change, even if it’s just a little bit, so it’s not just the same thing, but a little bit updated while still being familiar.  That simple fact is the biggest reason I love all 3 Disgaea games so much…the sequels retain characters and settings from previous games.  The priest in particular is at her best in Disgaea 3.  Seems like there’s experience given for using her healing ability, which really helps her not die so often.

Quick Manga Thought: Shounen vs. Shoujo

In my pile of manga I bought a couple weeks ago is D. Gray Man volume 15, which I read today.

I had no idea what was going on.  I didn’t remember any of the events from the last volume, and had to piece what recollection I had from this current volume.

That’s the problem I have following shounen manga.  Once it gets past a certain point, it seems that the storyline gets too convoluted to follow easily.  I’m not saying this is true for every shounen manga.  It’s simply an observation from the ones that I have read.  It’s entirely possible that I’m not reading the right kind of shounen manga.

Anyway, convoluted plot gets to be a problem.  I’ve had this problem with Naruto also.  The only difference there is that I tend to lose interest and stopped following it entirely.  Twice.

As you may or may not know, I have a giant weakness for shoujo romance.  One of the major reasons is the difference from the shounen manga I have: I don’t forget what’s going on where.  The plots may be simple, but for these manga it makes all the difference to me.  I can pick up the next volume two months from the last volume and be back in the heart of it.

That may be the entirety of why I have so much more romance-y manga than action manga.

Side note: a figure post is coming.  Just need to edit a few pictures for it.

Fansubbing and Fandom

Ah, one of the ever-present debates in modern anime fandom.  Fansubbing.  Good?  Bad?  Destructive?  These are all good questions and all deserve consideration.  The interesting thing about fansubbing culture is that a large group of people attempt to justify their absolute ignorance of performing an illegal act.

Let me repeat that in different terms.  No matter what excuse is offered, fansubbing is and always will be illegal.  It’s a violation of copyright, plain and simple, it doesn’t matter which country’s copyrights.  It doesn’t necessarily take money from creators, but it sure as hell doesn’t net them any more money either.

As an artist, this has always greatly annoyed me.  Basically it’s some whiny mooch’s argument against actually paying for someone else’s work.

Which brings me to the main argument.  Most avid supporters of fansubs will say, “I can’t afford anime, this is the only way I can get it.”  You know what, deal with it.  There’s tons of things I’d like to have, but I have bills so I have to budget.  Grow up.

The argument that follows that is usually, “When I can afford to, I’ll buy anime.”  Yeah right.  That’s completely believable.  Hmmm….NOT.

You might possibly be thinking, why such a bitch tonight?  No particular reason.  This debate pops up from time to time and gets me thinking on my own fandom.

I started in high school.  The only anime I knew of at that time were the ones on television like Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, and Pokemon.  We had no cable/satellite television so I was completely unaware of anything that was shown on Sci-Fi or Cartoon Network.  I watched anime in the morning, and I bought tapes from the local Wal-Mart of the Sailor Moon movies and Gundam Wing.  That would be before DVDs started hitting the market.

I remember the tapes being around twenty to thirty dollars, and having two episodes, maybe three.  There was no big video stores around me, so I had to be content with whatever hit Wal-mart.

I get up in arms simply because I have always been more than willing to shell out money for anime.  In fact I am still more likely to buy DVDs than watch streaming anime, and I’m more willing to watch streaming anime than download it.  It’s not morality, honestly.  I am simply very lazy.  It’s easier to buy in DVD form, because I can watch it whenever I please, and I can leave it paused for however long I need it paused.  Streaming anime is right there on the website and doesn’t take near so long as downloading.  I also don’t especially like sitting for long periods of time in front of my computer screen, which I’ll admit is a personality quirk.

On to more stylistic arguments.  I’m usually skeptical of the accuracy of fansub translations.  It really only takes watching the same video subbed by two or more groups to show just how subjective it is.  There’s been particular instances when I really wonder if the translation is accurate or if it’s the slant the subber decides to give it.  I have a bit of an ear, and I just get more skeptical if a word I’ve heard translated as having a mild connotation is suddenly given an extreme connotation.  Besides which, I will always believe that translations done by people paid to do translations will be more accurate simply because of pride in their work, and desire to do more work.  Especially in the current economy.

It’s sad to see anime companies attempt to serve their fans better by streaming anime before it’s released on DVD here, and even simultaneously with their Japanese airing, and to see fans just ignore those efforts.  “Fantitlement” is what it’s called.  It’s very existence is unfortunate, since this very fantitlement could kill the industry.  If that happens, I will be one angry anime/manga otaku.

Weekend musing – How I became otaku

I made plans with Mom today to go to her house and clear out some more of my stuff having moved out about 2 years ago.  Understandably, she wants to clear space and fix up the house the way she wants it.  To get on something of a personal note for just a little bit, she does have her problems.  Those have caused problems between us for some time.  Like the fact that the first hour and a half or so of the day was spent listening to mom complain about her boyfriend.  I realize though that she needs a sympathetic ear, and since that’s something I CAN do, I’m alright with it.

So.  We get to packing up some of my stuff.  I spotted two signed posters that I grabbed off the wall, and now need to find places for in my room here.  The posters in question I got from Wizard World in Chicago years ago.  That was the first convention I’d ever gone to, and it’s focused on western comic books, not anime or manga.  I realize that anime and manga can be found wherever now, but that was our focus going.  I started out as a fan of western comic books, and eventually came across anime as more of a visual style than anything else.  I liked the visual style, so I started watching whatever was on, which happened to be Pokemon and Sailor Moon.

To be honest though I think the first anime I’d ever seen was Teknoman and whatever else ran on UPN years ago.  *goes to google*  Apparently the other show was called Space Strikers, and it was based on the Jules Verne novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  I remember enjoying both, but finding the flashback scenes of a little sister running along the beach and laughing to be annoying.

I took a few minutes from this post to try and find some kind of image or video for Space Strikers to post here, as I remembered that one of the crewmen was quite literally a giant dog, and I thought and still think that that’s great.  No luck.  No images, no video and I’m too lazy to do a really thorough search right now.  It doesn’t even appear to be for sale anywhere, at least not on amazon or ebay.  However, Teknoman has been released in boxed sets here two or three times now.  That’s pretty odd.

So what brings on the whole comics angle?  Well I found a great deal of my comics collection today, and will probably be going through it soon.  I might try and weed some out to sell, but whatever I do sell is probably not worth much.  And if you ask the DC/Marvel question the answer will always be Marvel all the way, just because.  I’ve always been more drawn to the Marvel superheroes on the whole than the DC superheroes, and part of the reason for that may be those old Superman cartoons I watched as a kid.  I remember them being terribly boring, and something I didn’t want to watch.  Before you get mad, please take into consideration that I was around say 5 to 8 years old and a girl.  Although that never stopped me from enjoying professional wrestling, but that’s a whole different subject.

I wonder if my childhood of watching wrestling and westerns instead of cartoons is part of why I’m so weird now.  It might help explain my progression into anime fandom a little.  As fascinating a train of thought as this is, I think I’d better cut it short and call this good.  Maybe I’ll explore this more in weekend posts.

Drawing from the well.

A recent trend in Hollywood has been to take ideas of yesteryear and revamp them, reinvent, and reimagine them. Many people are claiming that Hollywood is out of ideas and just reusing old properties and hope that the name recognition will get more people into the seats of the theater. This is true.

However, I like to think there is more to it than this. It offers some of these old properties a chance to be something they never could be before. Certain effects are capable today that if attempted even 5 years ago would have pulled you right out of the movie. Now it can breathe life into what was once thought impossible. Back when Transformers was first on the air it would have taken some real imagination to picture Optimus Prime standing there having a conversation with you. The space battles in the original Star Trek were obviously cheap effect, not the breath taking epic battles of the latest movie. Even the Cylons, what was once the joke of cheap effects, now have a menace that brings a little fright each time one of those toasters comes on screen.

Of course just because the special effects are better now isn’t the only reason we should revisit some of these older properties. It gives the chance for someone to bring in a new perspective to that property. For example, last year’s blockbuster “The Dark Knight”. After the Batman film of ’97 it really felt that perhaps the Batman film franchise was done for. There seemed to be a feel that the only way the Dark Crusader could be on the silver screen is with camp value attached. Christopher Nolan comes along and shows a vision of Batman that didn’t have that camp, and we as an audience didn’t have to suspend that much disbelief. Well, ok, maybe a little bit.

All in all I have to say I am very happy with the current trend of bring back some of these old properties and giving them a second chance. And for all of you nay sayers out there who are sick of all these properties coming back, I just want you to think of how many movies can be described using the phrase “This movie is essentially a retelling of the Shakespearian play…” The retelling of old stories isn’t exactly a new thing. We’ve been jacking William of his stories for quite some time, and that seems to work out pretty well. Why not tap into some other people and see how well their work holds up through the eyes of someone new.