Here are some old wallpapers I found while cleaning. I believe they came from a Hotline server around the year 2002. Hope you like Ah My Goddess!
http://2chan.us/wallpapers.zip
Not sure I remember how to write in English at this point, but more contentful posts hopefully coming soon…
Shakugan no Shana III > Maji de Watashi no Koi ni Shinasai > Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon > Mashiroiro Symphony
Shana may actually have the worst script of the four, but at least it’s classically bad. The horrifying creature in Mashiroiro ensured it the lowest spot.
Speaking of horrifying creatures, I can’t seem to remember what the point of that scene in Fate/zero was.
My apologies for using this space for promotion, but I (as well as astrange) will be at Anime Weekend Atlanta from this Thursday to Sunday, and will be selling stuff at the flea market-style Super Happy Fun Sell event on Thursday from 7-10PM. I’m hoping that this will be an opportunity to get rid of some of the manga and such that’s managed to pile up in my house before moving forces me to throw it out, so most everything is priced to go. The caveat is that most of the manga being sold is in Japanese, but if that isn’t a deterrent for you (or you’re interested in some of the somewhat-exotic English-language stuff I’ll be selling), please come by, preferably on the earlier side of things! Unfortunately, table locations are first-come, first-served, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to find me.
Here’s the manga (all Japanese-language) that will marked at $2 for the first volume and $1 for every additional volume.
Another box of manga (and a few non-manga books, including Japanese study materials, and yes, those are issues of Garo and Ax), mixed English and Japanese, that will be on sale for slightly more, but still less than what it would cost you on Amazon:
I’ll also be selling off a chunk of my doujinshi collection (no 18+ stuff, rest assured) for around $5 a book. Genres I’ll be selling are pretty mixed, everything from Touhou to those Fist of the North Star parodies of everything that you see the covers of posted online now and then. Taking photos of those is kind of a pain, so just stop by!
Sad day in Ghibli history:
Nationwide box office
1 . Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
2 . Pocket Monsters Best Wish/Victini’s Black Hero (Double Feature)
3 . Kokuriko Saka kara
4 . Andalusia Revenge of the Goddess
5 . ＳＵＰＥＲ ８
6 . Some Pirate of the Caribbean thing
7 . Full Metal Alchemist
8 . Ogawa no Hotori
9 . I Am Number 4
10 . Anpanmanhttp://eiga.com/ranking/
My review of the movie. I’m not going to spoil it this time, I didn’t understand parts of the dialogue anyway. The artwork is really nice. The Quartier Latin is on par with the magic and attention to detail of Spirited Away, but in a realistic high school setting and not a fantasy world. You’re guaranteed to love the scenes of cooking breakfast, riding bicycles down the hill into the fish market, hopping onto fishing boats, etc. Many scenes focus carefully on the technics of an era before computers and machines: the cooking of rice in a wooden basin, the hand-lettering and hand-mimeographing of a student newspaper (the first time I’d ever seen that), and so forth. These scenes are set up mindfully to put the focus of the viewer’s attention clearly on the device that the characters are focusing on. This is an accomplishment in directing, and I guess Miyazaki’s son should take credit for that.
The writing, however, needs work. The one-shot shoujo manga has some… interesting… plot elements that don’t make sense when translated to a major, big- screen anime. The viewer ends up going home thinking, “Why exactly was this story turned into a film?” It doesn’t really seem to have any message that applies to our lives. However, it works as a nostalgic portrait of student life in 1960s. Perhaps that portrait was all the director was aiming for when he chose this manga, but my girlfriend and I were caught a little off guard by the unexpected resolution to one of the major plot issues, and the other one seemed like a formulaic Korean-style drama that belonged on the small screen, not the big one.
The character animation starts out inoffensive but by the end you might notice that the mouths and noses are somewhat sloppy, and the baby faces feel more like K-On than Nausicaa. I hope Ghibli doesn’t turn into a moé blob studio.
Oh yeah, and little kids will not understand this film. It’s all about romance, rebuilding after the war, and family ties; a charming story, but quite complicated. They would walk out of the theater confused as hell. That’s a decent reason why Pokemon would triumph at the box office.
If you’ve been to Anime Expo in the last two years, you might have seen the Vocaloid panel “The Sound of the Future”, by Masaki. (If not, you should go next year.)
This year kransom and I (plus mdl and stephieku) helped run the panel and did song translations. We still ended up an hour late, since the previous panel had way more corporate sponsorship, but here’s the playlist.
Most of these links are to the unsubtitled versions, since I forgot to ask if we could upload the translations, so contact us or watch this space if you’d like them. But you should watch them anyway!
1. honey and clover club by yuuyu and baker, video by nagimiso
2. Aku no Musume Trilogy by nazyo, NazekorewoP, Yuuki
3. DYE/Re:reflection+ by Treow, remixed by AVTechNO, video by heki
4. Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya! by daniwell, and the MMD version
5. Rondo of possible world by millstones, video by masataka
6. Strobe last by Powapowa, video by masataka
This one’s translated!
7. Sweet Devil and Electric Love by HachioujiP, video by wakamuraP
9. Memories (unfinished video) by SmileR, video by wakamuraP
10. Innocent girl feat. Kaai Yuki (international edit) by KagomeP and rlldi
I have no idea what this video is about.
11. Ameyumerou by HitoshizukuP and Suzunosuke
12. Flower Tail by yuukiss and 25 KAITOs
13. My world by KuchibashiP
(not actually related to the next song)
14. World is Mine video (unfinished) by Sadamasa Shiika
15. Last night, good night by kz/livetune
Finally, there were three new songs presented by the special guest producers:
1. Galapagos by Penguins Project
You can find the English introduction at his blog.
2. The Socialist by ZANEEDS
Japanese title: “What if Kagamine Rin read Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’”?
3. Boring Bowling by SunzriverP
It’s a song about bowling, because Americans love bowling. No translation just yet.
My AX report is that instead of Day 4, I went to the beach. I recommend you do the same!
Photos (featuring several returning stars) can be found here or on the sidebar —>
Not included in this compilation: Delta canceled a flight which caused the Mikunopolis attendees to miss most of AX including the 日本語でおk event.
They were shuffled around a bunch of airports to make it to LA in time for the concert and most people had a flight of over 1 day.
Around a year ago, the Japanese religious group Happy Science, which I’ve covered previously on this blog, put out a new anime movie called “The Rebirth of Buddha”. It was also screened in the United States. However, for whatever reason, I didn’t watch it at that time. I’ve only just got around to it, and it put a big smile on my face, so at long last, here’s the first ever English language review of this movie.
I should note that someone with a gushing opinion of this movie put it on BitTorrent, which combined with what I already know about Happy Science, gives me a suspicion that they might actually approve of non-Japanese people downloading and watching it. Here’s a DDL link too. I’m bad at concealing spoilers so you might just want to forego the review and take a look for yourself.
tl;dr version: Do you want to see an evil Heian period demon reincarnated as a businessman riding on a UFO made of bats interrupting a major league baseball game to duke it out with CG angels and some guy riding on an elephant? Then this film is for you!!!
Who is John Galt?
Well, I think it’s funny, anyway.
6.
Azunyan dies in every episode.
8.
Ritsu is black.
Illustration
11.
All the songs would have “Fuck” in the lyrics.
12.
There would be a laugh track.
4.
After School Drugs.
13.
After School Barbeque.
25.
All of them would have babysitting jobs.
29.
It would be dubbed in Japanese by Koichi Yamadera.
31.
After School Tea Party.
40.
There would be a very special episode about Ritsu’s pregnancy.
Is this Degrassi?
44.
Yui: “Shit! I cut my finger!”
61.
The first one killed would be a funny black guy who listens to rap.
64.
>>61
Azunyan?
68.
Mugi’s eyebrows would be salami.
??
77.
After HTT saves the school from being blown up by Islamic fundamentalists, they become heroes.
Cheerleaders: “We were wrong. You’re cool after all!”
83.
“Hamburger wa Okazu”
100.
There would be an annoying hairy alien living in Yui’s house.
106.
Sawako’s old band would have done Marilyn Manson covers.
113.
The club room would be covered in graffiti.
#114 is good but is beyond me to translate.
147.
Mugi would actually be a lesbian.
196.
Mugi’s shirt would have some nonsensical kanji on it.
202.
>>196
Don’t you mean Yui’s dressing gown?
I also went to Fanime, so I can explain some of this in more detail. Also take a look at my photos, they’re much better than last time!
I’ve left “doujin” untranslated for that 2ch feel, but of course they mean the Artists’ Alley. You are also missing out on some jokes because I can’t think of a translation for アメリカのおまえら.
Source: the News4VIP thread I went to an American Comic Market via hamster sokuhou
1: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:00:42.69 ID:9cXwo77C0
I don’t know if you could call it a Comic Market, more like an anime festival, but anyway there were doujin booths and industry booths.
3: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:02:26.65 ID:N8peOve80
Foreigners cosplay pretty openly, huh.
At Comic Market, you’re required to arrive in normal clothes and change on site, to avoid scaring normal people on the way there.
7: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:03:07.53 ID:9cXwo77C0
8: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:03:32.42 ID:S9I+C3lZ0
It’s so similar I’d believe you if you told me it was Japan.
22: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:07:46.01 ID:n/GQz7rH0
>>7
When I saw the pizza, I knew it was America.
27: Ninpochou [Lv=2,xxxPT]1 2011/05/31(火) 13:10:52.33 ID:0byQt2KO0
I’d like to know what’s different about the doujinshi over there.
35: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:14:11.70 ID:9cXwo77C0
>>27
People mainly sell posters.
I barely saw any doujin books, but somehow I got a Japanese Touhou doujin. There were some from Taiwan.
I don’t know what the Japanese book was. There was a dealer called Fairy Doujin selling doujin artbooks in Chinese that were good but very expensive. Hen Da Ne did not come to Fanime, so there was no Comiket content to be found.
32: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:13:01.97 ID:9cXwo77C0
There’s a lot of guys like Saizensen-kun in America too.
Saizensen-kun is the name of a famous sweaty photographer who was the subject of an old Internet meme.
47: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:17:22.65 ID:9cXwo77C0
The doujin area
Some little girls
I must have missed him.
57: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:19:13.38 ID:S9I+C3lZ0
>>47
The familiar sight of backpacks…
Wait, isn’t this just Japan!?
55: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:18:38.78 ID:viUDrtXA0
I laughed at the Vocaloid cosplay.
What are the popular manga and anime in America right now? I was under the impression they’d stopped showing Naruto and Dragonball.
58: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:19:44.69 ID:9cXwo77C0
>>57
It’s the same as you guys. They all like Madoka Magica and stuff.
62: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:20:41.95 ID:9cXwo77C0
By the way, all the Asians I saw seemed to be Chinese.
78: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:24:47.31 ID:mJZBDakd0
Does doujin art over there use American comics style?
84: Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:28:46.40 ID:9cXwo77C0
>>76
There was one with American-style Touhou.
But they weren’t selling doujin books, but posters for $15. And pins.
He means Miluda and Rabid Potato‘s booth. The pins are cool, but they were selling a book! You should go see them at AX!
123 Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:43:20.68 ID:G+wiPBwPP
This is the best part of your photo.
133 Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:48:55.84 ID:C+HWyze50
>>123
<Do you have a job?>
130 Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 13:47:16.62 ID:Hh8lsAH60
Has fujoshi culture made it over there?
Does Amazon list BL as a category over there?
The manga category on amazon.jp is actually named “Manga / Anime / BL”.
185 Anonymous 2011/05/31(火) 14:23:31.92 ID:9cXwo77C0
These are all the doujin I found…
The one on top is by kata. I think the rest are Chinese. I’m impressed he found that many… but how did he miss Potato Mill? Or Mill Potato.
I suddenly got bored translating. The highlights:
- Americans only do posters for art.
- Americans are really good at making costumes.
- American cameras are silent so it’s easier to take stealth photos.
- You can take pictures anywhere in America, but it’s forbidden in most parts of Japanese events.
As for myself I’ve never bought an artist print, because I have no idea what to do with it… they should really do more books. Well, plus all the artists outside the West Coast are just completely awful anyway.
As for Fanime, it was much better than Acen, but almost as programming-free. They had so many late panel changes that the schedule wasn’t printed until the second day, and Anime Hell disappeared this year. I spent most of it playing Twinkle Star Sprites and meeting Touhous.
The location and nearby food are really good, so convention recommended anyway.
Steps to attending Comiket:
1. Go to Japan.
2. Take the train to Kokusaitenjijouseimon. The rest is obvious.
There will be about 100,000 people ahead of you in line who all arrived at 5 AM, but don’t bother with that and just come at 10.1 Do get a SuICa so you don’t have to stand in the ticket machine line. Get a map, or else you’ll get lost:
Mine is a bad example, because I highlighted every single circle in the catalog with an interesting picture (or an especially silly name) and then went straight past most of them.
Day 1 is relatively relaxed, mostly being anime/manga magazine/video game fan comics without any of the major attractions (male-oriented works, female-oriented works, Touhou). I managed to walk around with a group (kransom, shii, world famous chiptune artist Chibi-Tech) without getting lost, which is impossible in the later two days.
There is nothing interesting about the process of buying things, which is all we did, so here’s some things that were bought:
From upper left: a Mazinger comic of some sort by blue labyrinth (also did a newer Shin Mazinger Impact comic that’s not as good), a Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou copy-book, a short Aria book by CramNuts, an SRW book by otentomaru, an ICO anthology that I can’t be bothered to actually read, and a Yotsuba! book by, apparently, Do well!!!.
otentoumaru is a great circle, but half of their books are Sanger/Irui and the other half are Sanger x Irui, and it’s impossible to tell which from the covers, so make sure to check inside first. Also, a few of these turned out to be reprints because I forgot to ask which was the new work.2
I’ve been checking catalogs for a few years and there were always a few YKK circles, but these days it seems to be down to one or two, so it’ll probably be gone entirely in the future. Unless it’s reduced to people doing increasingly strange joke comics like Lain.
For some reason Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei doujin exist but are universally very badly drawn.
Unfortunately never got a chance to visit cosplay, or do much of anything but walk around the East Halls all day for the entirety of the event. Maybe in the future… but do I really want to own any more doujin?
Shii’s report
I’m going to have to go back to my diary to confirm what I did on this day. … Apparently I did not actually write any coherent sentences in my diary when I was in Tokyo. Instead, I have scribbled the words “wait in line” and “Akiba”. This was the day I held everyone up by waiting in line at the VisualArt’s booth. Important lesson for future Comiket visitors: The best time to get in line for an industry booth is at 5am or 2pm. The worst time is at noon; this is when all the ronery otaku leave the artist’s halls and decide it’s time to stand by themselves for some Nanoha goodness. Anyway, I waited in line for 3 hours to pick up a CD for my friend Mike. Afterwards we all went to Yoshinoya for dinner. Did MVB mention that? No. OK.
Other exciting things. If you arrive at Comiket at 10 the line will be slowly vanishing as people file into the Big Sight. I imagine 10:30 is optimal arrival time if you don’t have any super important things to wait in line for. Also, if you don’t use some sort of software to plan what circles to visit, you are insane.
The Card Captor Sakura and Rozen Maiden selection in December 2010 was nothing to write home about, but there are good Azumanga/Yotsubato universe doujins that don’t get resold at Toranoana, so look out for those.
Impress your friends with Comiket knowledge!
Steps to succeeding at Comiket:
Repeat steps 1 and 2 until desired effect is achieved.