a blogger called Jaalin confessed his confusion. He links to other people.

But the thing is.

I am Jason Mraz. [here's my entire life story condensed into a single image, since it's basically worth over nine thousand words]

I have a huge fetish for K-ON. I even tried to write down a lot of the music. Well, the music kind of sucked, but it has a lot of moe, so you can see why I like it.

I wanted to incorporate the sounds of K-ON in my new single to try and bring out a new evolution in western indie music! That would be a lot of fun, right? While the music in K-ON sucks, my music is good, so it balances out. Not only that, but the strange asian music that thinks that it is western brings an exotic blend to my music. I wish to share to all of you otakus my new music that blends east and west, better and less better, my music, and K-ON’s music.

I see shit sucked so hard Steve Jobs wouldn’t let lolikit use the iPhone even if lolikit paid him. Too bad because I think there was an app to fix the fail.

Being bored as all hell I decided to play this lolikit fellow’s game which I have to say sucks…its more of a grind than World of Warcraft and no where near as funny since he goes out of his way to try and top Leeroy Jenkins and FAILS. Still I guess it is to be expected from an arrogant indy studio seeking to charge 60 USD for episodic gaming, no wonder why Gabe Newell told Studio Lolikit to take his shit to elsewhere. So in this game you go back to fucking high school, the paradise of weeabo dipshits who want to make up for their lost four years and yearn to go back to being some prick who could suck off his parents’ money. For a game that is so in love with high schools it certainly leaves out the best thing you can do in High School as an IRL Troll. All in all typical hippie bullshit I have come to expect from denizens of the People’s Republic of Berkeley. Doubly so for a trustafarian like this self proclaimed Dr. Lolikit (must be a lame attempt at riding Dr. Mario’s coattails) who plays himself in the game but was probably too high to do any voice acting for his tweeker looking furry ass.

I liked CJ better when she wasn’t a part of the master race…come to think of it I liked her more in her last game…

So instead of giving you choice you get to be some pink haired scrawny little girly man instead of something cool like a Space Marine or a Master Chief Petty Officer with rebounding health you know something original… I suppose that since this lolikit is a hippie it was too much to hope for some genuine badassery and instead we get a festival of mediocrity of remarks that might seem snide to civilian dipshit but to an enlisted guy like me it seems too fucking polite. Also since the main douche of a protagonist’s name is in red font it is clear that CCY is just a lousy cover for CCP, I bet lolikit thought he was very clever but I have fought the Red Menace since 1989 I know how the enemy works. Hell even the pink hair was a dead give away to lolikit’s allegiance to Code Pink… Despite the sexual spectacles this game is “sexy” like like a prudish fat yaoi fangirl…the sad truth is that there is no sex! Hell there isn’t even any sexy violence! I played for 100% completion in order to be Korean enough for Starcraft 2 when it comes out and still there was hardly any blood spatter to be found…

Hey Owen the scouter only breaks at 9001, it can run negative numbers real well…though I admit penalizing you with a negative for every time you fap is a bit harsh.

Gaming is normally about getting an experience you’d otherwise couldn’t have like blowing up people into little itty bitty pieces while getting Amnesty International crying enough tears to flood the world. Not here though, as it seems to be a game for the auteur, a game not made so much to give a player a good time, but a game made for the creator as a chance to show off how great he is and to wank off to himself. Five minutes in we already see the Marty Stu character of lolikit himself insinuating that he gets to bang one of his students, as usual some big breasted blue eyed blonde haired bimbo, I suppose it is a statement on how much he adores the Master Race (furries in Mein Deutschland indeed). If I wanted to hear about other people having sex I’d watch pr0n instead as at least I can forgo the nasty hairy hippie and have some hawt girl on girl action, but in CCY17 the game doesn’t give you a choice and in order to curry favor with HE WHO SHALL NOT BE NAMED cuts out the sex. I would have given lolikit more points for putting in his little fun time in the chem lab, that way he could be where he rightfully belongs…in jail for distributing child pornography like the Jap fag that he is.

I asked Alphard and Liang Qi to pass judgement on this game as well…I was severely punished with airsoft pellets for wasting their time…

Unlike a good game like say Halo 3 or Duke Nukem Forever CCY17 is actually a shitty visual novels made for weeaboo who can’t really play games and can’t beat Nintendogs. As such it’s a boring little game with dialog boxes out the ass and crappy one click combat in which there are no satisfying kills to speak of (Killing this Scott character seemed more like community service since there was no Achievement, come to think of it there were no Achievements period). Instead of a PvP kill count to track how much shit you are not killing you get three numbers which make no sense, I suppose you have to be as high as lolikit to find them funny.

Owen is also the lamest villain ever as he is obviously a lesser version of the famed Jackal from Far Cry 2. Owen is a shirtless hippie while the Jackal is a learned arms dealer, the gulf in evil is quite jarring in that Owen might as well be making friends with furry forest creatures and sing to birds. Speaking of shitty characters while beautifully designed were a blatant attempt to hide the truly hideous visages of almost all of the characters. I may not personally know them (well I do know Impz and they certainly did not even begin to scratch the service in his regard though I suppose the artist was simply too overawed to do a realistic depiction…which is of course forgivable), nor would I want to, but judging from how the Aegis Combat System is always identifying them with transponder code 7700…along with a huge radar cross-section I suppose that they are quite large… Also for a group that would knowingly try to ride Krauser II’s coattails they certainly don’t look the part, and I am sure that a few laws were broken in the process. I can only hope Krauser II rapes lolikit 11 times as recompense for trying to make money without his permission.

Who in their right mind would want to learn how to suck gold balls out of garden hoses? Also flashing gang signs are we now lolikit? The Glee Club isn’t a gang, you don’t even have guns…THUG LIFE indeed.

While one would expect this to be a full game it turns out to more insidious than an EA franchise as at the very end they promise to bring in more sequels and to bring you the shittiest DLC that would make Oblivion’s Horse Armor look like a bargain. The game is a total rip off despite the pretensions to choice it seems that despite going her or there will always lead you along the same dull paths (all paths lead to incomplete). Also for some reason we have to do stupid shit like troll club when there isn’t a manly mecha fighting club, riflery, EOD, or CQC club. At the end of the day CCY17 is not worth 60 USD for the PC, and there is a very good reason why this isn’t on WiiWare, 360 Arcade, or PSN, namely shit sucks. It’s linear, boring, the one click combat has been done better elsewhere, the writing makes Gears of War look like a Pulitzer Prize winner, and it’s over priced for an episodic game. In short Dr. Lolikit is the Uwe Boll of gaming in that his adaptations suck even when he wrote the original, for the self proclaimed “Serial Troll” the game spends an awful lot of time sucking up to people. Although, since he is a hippie he probably thinks that showering his targets with praise and adoration, and giving their egos a blowjob that he’s “trolling them.”

Ugh…do we really have to white knight this chick? Can’t we just strap a bomb to her and let her blow up the principal’s office…

I am being overly mean, the game is quite adequate in it’s beta form and is held back more by restrictions of the visual novel genre than any lack of elan on the part of the developers. Still I hope this actually sees completion as it would be sad if after all those donations it turns out that Studio Lolikit is just another 3-D Realms and takes forever to deliver their game. I suggest playing it for a laugh here or there, but there is still reason to hope that Studio Lolikit will actually survive to complete this project.

In any case the hippie wanted suggestions on how to make the game better so being a veteran gamer I might as well tell the weed smoking hippie how to stop sucking. Well here goes…

To that dirty old hippie in need of a shave and a haircut:

1.    Needs more weapons and dynamic fisticuffs like Fight Night Round 4 (Don’t tell me you suck more than EA, hippie.) because if I am going to kill Scott I want it to be on screen with my fists breaking his fragile face bit by bit.
2.    Needs more mecha, no seriously stop making homage to crappy harem animu and go with the best genre hippie.
3.    Needs more yuri, it’s fine if he wants to fantasize about other men, but if you want more people to play put in something for men, and all men love yuri. Other wise this game is stuck trying to appeal to fat yaoi fan girls with yaoi paddles, and without lurvin scenes Studio Lolikit will be filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy before Christmas.
4.    You’re an asshole until I’m in the game.
5.    You’re an asshole until Calawain, EO, and lelangir are in the game.
6.    Make Impz more trappy, because right now what you have, while splendidly drawn, does not do his trappiness justice.
7.    Needs Achievements.
8.    Liang Qi-sama wants Wii controls and the ability to import her Mii.
9.    Alphard onee-sama thinks your one click combat sucks you need something more FPS, like V.A.T.S.
10.    Music is lacking you need to level up that deaf lazy chimp of a composer to Yoko Kanno level. Also start with using The Winner when turning Scott into a bloody mess and have the ending theme be 10 Years After, trust me it will make your game better.
11.    Needs genderbending.
12.    Less furries.
13.    If IKnight is not mecha, it ain’t IKnight.
14.    MOAR Quicktime events.
15.    Get a better writer, at time of writing Rhianna Pratchett is kicking your ass.
16.    Seriously how could you not go with a beat’em up?
17.    Let us pick from a number of protagonists other than CCY, he’s a commie and boring as hell.
18.    Your M Rating is misleading, it should be rated E for Everyone like your Marty Stu, call ESRB and get it changed.
19.    How dare you insult Impz by implying that this Omo can be anywhere near as trappy, we all know he’s a fat American Pig…
20.    Needs Prince Ali to kill people randomly to keep the excitement going.
21.    Your physics engine sucks more than Havoc, nothing even bounces…

Dude he looks like a terrorist without the rag over his head…not a terrorist straight out of hell.

Killing this fool was oddly unsatisfying, I could not bust a cap in his ass watch his blood spurt out in interesting patterns, worst of all there was no Achievement unlocked…thanks for sucking the fun out of killing people lolikit you fucking hippie.

That hardly does Impz justice…just saying.

Recently, ANN of all places posted this interesting article of a survey conducted in Japan on which anime characters the respondents wished to marry. Most of the characters on the lists shouldn’t be particularly surprising, and its somewhat tilted toward currently running shows, but it’s amusing nonetheless.

For those of you too lazy to click, here’s the waifu list:

1. Mio Akiyama (K-ON!)

2. Hinagiku Katsura (Hayate the Combat Butler)
3. Taiga Aisaka (Toradora!)
4. Rukia Kuchiki (Bleach)
5. Yuki Nagato (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)
6. Azusa Nakano (K-ON!)
7. Chrome Dokuro (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!)
8. Sheryl Nome (Macross F)
9. Yui Hirasawa (K-ON!)
10. Asuka Langley Sohryu (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

Three of my top 5 waifus are shared (namely Mio, Hinagiku, and Yuki, and not necessarily in that order), but none of the rest approach top waifu status for me. The other members of my top 5 would be Rin and Kagami, of course. It’s unfortunate how fickle fans are, as the majority of choices are from currently running shows. Toradora was likely still running when this survey was conducted, and Macross F only ended a few months ago with a movie coming up. As for Eva, Anno is currently releasing all of those new movies that I haven’t seen…

Husbandos:

1. Kyouya Hibari (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!)

2. Gintoki Sakata (Gintama)
3. Toshiro Hitsugaya (Bleach)
4. Mukuro Rokudo (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!)
5. Sougo Okita (Gintama)
6. Date Masamune (Sengoku Basara)
7. Tsunayoshi Sawada (Katekyo Hitman Reborn!)
8. Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach)
9. Sebastian Michaelis (Kuroshitsuji)
10. Toushirou Hijikata (Gintama)

What also amuses me is the popularity of the Gintama men. I mean, the show’s humor is very, very low brow, with tons of toilet and sex humor. I would have figured that females would be turned off by that kind of material. Perhaps they are just so enamored with the sexy men that they don’t care? Is that like me watching K-ON because of Mio even though I find the quasi-plot to be dull and often just stupid?

Well readers, what are your thoughts and selections?

First Alphonse Elric I’ve ever seen = WIN.

I am rather amused to admit that this past weekend (August 8th – 10th) taught me something very interesting about myself: three days with no Internet access and no way of checking THAT is enough to drive me up the wall. I really, truly adore you traps, Net vamps, digital boob-chasers and lolis. It’s great to be home!

If you can’t guess from the title, I’m back from my annual trip to the United States’ second largest confluence of fanboys and fangirls — the one, the only, OTAKON!!! According to a recent article by Anime News Network, Otakon 2008’s attendance hit a record high of over 26,000 full-time attendees. This figure does not include the drifters, who typically boost the headcount to upwards of 60,000.

Being something of a veteran who has faithfully haunted cons since the ripe young age of twelve, I have to say that this year’s Otakon was a very different experience. For the first time, I approached the con from an acutely journalistic standpoint, focusing my attention on Q&A panels and industry announcements instead of leaping headlong into the usual ‘watch-anime-till-my-eyeballs-rot-and-fall-out’ routine.

Um, WHAT? And the eye in the middle was glowing red, too! INSANE!

Nothing beats watching the Baltimore harbor be invaded by legions of otaku. Like the monsoon, or seven-year cicadas, Otakon is a highly-anticipated (and dreaded) force of nature that unfailingly sends downtown Baltimore into a panic, year after year. For the restaurants, street vendors, and small businesses in the periphery, Otakon is a field-day; for local residents, it’s a nightmare.

Coincidentally, a engaged couple had planned a decently sized wedding (around 30 to 40 people, I’m guessing) in our hotel, complete with tuxedos and live music in the ballroom. Well, surprise surprise, the Radisson Lord Baltimore just happens to be one of the hotels that publishes a discounted con rate every year. You can imagine their horrified facial expressions while seeing hordes of cosplaying otaku shuffling in and out of the hotel lobby all night long. It was priceless watching a guy dressed in a tux awkwardly worm his way into an elevator full of sweaty fanboys holding cardboard swords. Talk about bad timing.

Speaking of bad timing, my decision to change this into a reconnaissance mission was rather poor timing on my part for two reasons: 1) the attendance number was through the roof and 2) the Otakon staff were stricter than ever about following safety codes to the letter, conditions that translated into hour-long lines congregating in front of panels that consistently shut out about half of their would-be participants. I’m talking about lines stretching WAAAY down the bigass hall connecting the two sections of the Baltimore Convention Center, all just to squeeze into a tiny room for official Bandai announcements or the like.

Behold, the legions of FANDOM!!!.

Apparently, the days of standing in the backs of the rooms and crowding the entrances are over. Otakon’s upgrade was a double-edged sword; on one hand, the Otakon staff did its best job to date in keeping things orderly; but on the other hand, you were S.O.L. if you didn’t have a DSLite to keep you occupied (thanks Extrange!) and a wristwatch to keep on top of the schedule. Events started on time, drinking water was abundant, the air conditioning was on full blast; things moved like clockwork. My advice for Otakon 2009: get a DS and headphones, bring a watch, plan to dine in the Harbor, and reserve a room at the Days Inn as early as possible, which sells out fast because it is right across the street. Why, I’ll be reserving my room tonight .

This post will include the best of my cosplay pictures (please don’t hate me for being a horrid photographer), a few tidbits about my experience and massive purchases (*w00p w00p* FANBOY alert), and most notably, a transcription of my notes from the industry panels, the highlight of which was an open discussion/clash of the titans between famous fansubbers and U.S. licensing companies. Skip to whatever tickles your fancy.

Maipeisu’s Highlights and Other Fun Stuff

So, here is a quick rundown of the activities I made it to, with some brief impressions…

[Friday (08/08)] Freedom Project Episode 1-2 (HD theater), Media Blasters Q&A (industry panel), Kappei Yamaguchi Q&A (industry panel), avoided the Naruto Fan Panel like the plague, GaoGaiGar Episodes 26-32, Ultimate Hellsing Panel (fan panel), and Friday Night Fan Films. Friday was probably the most difficult day because I was struggling to use my nearly-defunct cell phone to keep in touch with my two friends, as well as ramming my skull like Eva Unit 00 against the harsh realities of lines, room capacities and fire hazards.

Checking out Media Blasters was tons of fun. They are definitely one laid back anime company, and it was very reassuring to infer from the discussion that true fans were at the helm of their important marketing decisions. The truth is, the big boys in the anime market are not always the big fans. Business is business and numbers are numbers, so if you can produce results, that’s all that really matters. However, for MB, licensing anime thankfully does not seem to be all about profits. More on the Media Blasters panel later.

Code Geass’s finest, complete with Pizza Hut.

Yamaguchi, a PROLIFIC seiyuu who has performed a long list of famous roles like Ranma, Inu-Yasha, and L, was surprisingly down-to-earth for a voice actor who has worked so extensively in the anime industry. I’ll admit, I expected a very different type of individual; his youthful enthusiasm took me by surprise. Yamaguchi-sensei gave some very interesting responses to deeply personal questions about his experiences, such as a brief tale about how he accidentally locked himself out of his hotel room, nude, during a business trip for one of his earlier roles, and how on a human level, he strongly relates to certain characters he voiced.

Oh, and GaoGaiGar is a fricking AMAZING ‘transforming robots’ mecha anime that is required viewing for all fans of big robots. The designs and mechanoid fusions are outstandingly intricate. After listening to Ms. Mulroney go on and on about it and seeing a few episodes only hours later, it probably won’t be long before I grab the box set.

[Saturday (08/09)] Masao Maruyama Q&A (industry panel), AMV Contest (main events), the long-awaited Fansubber and Industry Discussion (industry PLUS fan panel), Saturday Night Fan Parodies, and Excel Saga Episodes 22-26 (after a hard decision to skip out on The Machine Girl and the infamous “drill bra”). In my opinion, which possibly contradicts that of the populace, 2008 was one of the first years in which the Upbeat and Comedy AMV categories were stronger than the Action and Drama ones.

Factually, this was probably the first year that Otakon copped out on the Parody category because their legal counsel advised against displaying several of the entries… at least this is the first year I recall it happening. My favorite video, the champion of the “Upbeat” category, was an amazing mash-up of various anime called “Word Play”, and was set to “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” by Daft Punk. Another goody, a yaoi-parody set to Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” entitled “The Harassment of Kyon” took the grand prize for 2008’s AMV submissions. Regardless of what you may feel about the song (wink wink), it definitely deserved the recognition it received.

Not sure who the HELL this is, but I had to get a snapshot of her anyway!

Masao Maruyama’s second panel (the one I made it to) was probably much less crowded than the first, but it was nonetheless engaging. Maruyama-sensei’s outwardly carefree demeanor and sanguine disposition belie his identity as Madhouse’s renowned animator giant, a man who was worked on an endless list of extremely popular and successful titles. He walked in and sat down a row away from me so casually, I thought he was another attendee until he climbed onto the stage. Although this is the first time I’ve seen him speak, he is a frequent guest at Otakon, with 2008 marking his sixth appearance.

After a brief DVD preview of some upcoming titles, Maruyama expressed that he is a HUGE Stitch fan and is very excited to be working on the Japanese rendition of Sutichi; he also explained, in response to a question about his feelings on working with Disney, that because Walt Disney was like a father to Osamu Tezuka (who in turn was like a father to him), he is also very honored to be involved in the project. I scoff at Stitch in the Fall Preview (as you will see), but having been moved this man’s charm and humble insight, I am now more than willing to give it a chance. The DVD preview of Stitch was cute in a way that was both Japanese and heartwarming the way a good Disney film ought to be.

[Sunday (08/10)] Bad Anime, Bad! (fan panel), Urusei Yatsura TV, State of the Industry (industry panel), and the (perhaps) most-awaited ADV Announcements (industry panel). Bad Anime, Bad!’s victim this year included Vampire Wars, which amounts to little more than a supernatural action plot clothed scantily in an utterly illogical vampire romance. I’m definitely watching it for lulz!

Since no one else showed up for the State of the Industry panel, it metamorphosed into another Q&A for FUNimation. Good for me, because I got squeezed out of the first one. Also, I burned an hour pwning an octopus monster (on the new FFIV DS) waiting to get into the ADV panel, which turned out to be a bit of a letdown. My condolences to all the fans who waited patiently to hear substantive news from ADV; we will need to hold out until AWA 14 for the big scoop. More on this later.

Very cool. These types of cosplay are quite rewarding for con shutterbugs like myself.

The gaps between events listed above were spent either running back to the hotel to make onigiri (thanks again, Extrange!) with my handy-dandy, kawaii Zojirushi rice cooker that I decided to bring to the hotel; slithering across the 25K square foot dealer’s room hunting for rarities; or waiting hour in line for panels that I may or may NOT have gotten into. Those that I missed I will conveniently omit from this post out of a mixture of disgust and despair.

The Spoils of Battle

And out of sheer embarrassment, I am NOT going to discuss the amount of money I spent nor the full extent of my purchases, especially when I have bills to pay and owe someone money for accidentally backing into their car O_O;. Twenty-five thousand square feet of space transforms Otakon’s dealer room into nothing less than a bazaar of vendors, with a bazaar-appropriate amount of garbage and ripoffs lingering at every turn. But therein lies the adventure in the whole experience; getting lost in the dealer’s room for hours on end hunting for that special thing that catches my eye is a must-do for every Otakon.

I subsisted almost entirely on a diet of freshly-made onigiri, water and Japanese snacks. Bringing the rice cooker to the hotel proved to be an excellent strategy to save food money typically wasted on the $10/slice pizza that’s sold in the convention center. My friend, a native of Japan, taught me how to make onigiri for the first time.

No, I am not the type to hurl wads of cash at the first Nyanko-burger plushie or ugly PVC figurine sporting non-separated ‘flesh mittens’ for hands that I see. As much as possible, and leaving aside the obligatory DVD and manga purchases that I feel I owe the industry, I aim for rarities, relics and “true” collectibles. I long for the good old days of laserdisc boxsets with gatefold art, and cheaply-priced animation cels. Nowadays its all fake katanas and Star Wars posters.

A classic. Couldn’t resist the radiant yellows and amber reds. This is not the kind wall scroll made for public consumption, but a kind manufactured specifically for conventions; I was in the mood for Ranma after hearing my friend rave about the manga and listening to the original seiyuu’s praise for the anime

Fortunately, I found some interesting things. My highlights for this year’s purchases were a brilliantly yellow Ranma 1/2 event wall scroll, an even larger, vinyl Urusei Yatsura event poster (probably the only of its kind in the world), a Record of Lodoss War draft cel of The Grey Witch (the lady first possessed by the crown, rather) called a dokan if memory serves, and a Yoshitaka Amano artbook for Vampire Hunter D. I had NO idea that the same genius that drafted the characters designs for Final Fantasy 6 was responsible for Vampire Hunter D as well. Supposedly, this artbook is now out of print. Needless to say, these lovely goodies have found a new home with MP.

Another classic. Urusei Yatsura is a fantastic show, by the way.

News Updates

Finally, the good stuff. These are the news bytes that I gleaned from my note-taking in the panels. I’ll save the best for last.

[Media Blasters Q&A] Listening to representative Meredith Mulroney bubble on enthusiastically about Voltron, old school mecha anime and the Alteil card game probably made Media Blasters the most interesting of the industry panels that I made it into, and definitely gave me a clearer perception of Media Blaster’s niche among U.S. licensing and distribution companies. They are on record for admitting that they have successfully weathered the rash of recent Internet fansubs by selecting titles that are either less well-known or not in danger of being fansubbed into oblivion before a legitimate product can be pushed past Japan’s red tape and into domestic markets.

This includes (obviously) old-school mecha anime such as GaoGaiGar and a slew of yaoi/yuri that other companies are too chicken to lay their hands on. Kudos to Media Blasters for enduring the blistering financial climate of the U.S. anime market. Although not verbatim (due to me taking notes with my DS), here are a few paraphrased questions and answers that popped up during the panel:

Show ▼

Before the question and answer session, the company played a preview of a dubbed release of Seirei no Moribito, a masterpiece fantasy anime produced by Production I.G. that I plan to review in the near future. Seirei no Moribito will be airing on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim this fall. In addition, they also heavily promoted the Alteil card game and are currently working on Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan, Magical Witch Punie-chan, Kujibiki Unbalance, a yuri manga entitled Maka-Maka and another manga called Akihabara@DEEP.

[ADV Q&A] Word has it that many people came to Otakon 2008 just to see what big news ADV had to drop in this panel. Well, the big news is that ADV was unable to announce one single anime title other Indian Summer due to binding contractual agreements; the disclosed list consisted of five live action titles. …So much for my hour-long wait. ADV also noted at least twice that they would be able to reveal more during Atlanta, GA’s Anime Weekend Atlanta Convention, which is only about a month off. At any rate, without further delay, here are some of the questions and answers:

Show ▼

ADV has plans to license five live-action titles including Attack Girl Swim Team vs. The Undead, Cruel Restaurant, Gluttonous 1 & 2 (a double release), Female Prisoner Epsilon, and another Kunoichi movie. The remaining animation titles will be announced sometime in the next month or so.

[Fansubber and Industry Discussion] What could have easily degenerated into a bloodbath was actually a surprisingly well-mannered, moderated discussion of the effect of Internet fansubs on the anime industry, both in Japan and in the United States, as well as a bit of brainstorming for possible resolutions to the conflict between legitimate anime distributors and illegitimate fansubbers. As expected, the massive Panel 4’s auditorium was packed to the very last seat with curious otaku gathered round to witness the bizarre and yet exciting spectacle of industry giants and Internet giants coming together for 90 minutes of civil discourse. A sight to see, indeed.

It would have been incredibly unrealistic to expect this panel to produce a neat resolution. The Internet is large, the Earth is large, and the problem, too, is large; one that runs far and deep, and portends rippling consequences for many different layers of the industry. Yet, while none rose to slice the Otakuan Knot with the same grace and singularity of Alexander the Great, what we all gained from attending was a broader perspective on the present condition of the worldwide industry and an understanding that each of us — corporate high roller, torrent-hording brat, or otherwise — shares a common interest in Japanese animation and that we should assume some degree of responsibility in our conduct if we want to see the tradition continue.

For example, this means that fansubbers should be aware that animators deserve to be remunerated for their hard work, and at the same time, companies need to be equally aware of consumer demands, and ready to adapt accordingly. In the world of economics, the consumer’s preference reigns supreme. I do not think this is a matter of right and wrong so much as it is a clear comprehension of the facts. One consensual observation that emerged from the discussion is the fact that the industry is in a state of flux, and that innumerable things will continue to change over the next few years.

Guests included YaoiBoy and GetFresh of LiveeviL, Interactii of Dattebayo, Hisho of Shinsen Subs, Marketing Director Lance Heiskell of FUNimation, John Sirabella, CEO of Media Blasters, and another MB representative henceforth known as (7) because I do not have his name handy at the moment. Questions (scripted beforehand) and answers follow:

Show ▼

A few other interesting facts were traded here and there, such as how the fansub groups represented in the panel do their utmost to control the spread of torrents from their websites, try to remove shows from the Internet once they become licensed, and the reasons why doing so is beyond their control most of the time.

It’s rare that we do any real news posts on THAT, but seeing as how there was a huge pile of crap that occurred in the R1 DVD market as well as some scattered news on the other side of the Pacific I figured I’d post something. Plus I’m kind of bored right now. And Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans!

1) Fullmetal Alchemist and Darker Than Black Second Seasons

Through some apparent incompetence, a list of animators was released by Bones regarding these two continuing shows which are probably in their infancy. Both are awesome action shows in their own right and something to look forward to. While I only have one rumor source on this, a cut-out of a French anime magazine has been floating around 4chan the past day or two with at least the news on FMA as corroboration. (Canned Dogs)

2) ADV Implodes

For those of us who purchase R1 DVDs this didn’t come as much of a surprise, but ADV pretty much sputtered out this weekend. While they won’t give the whole scoop, we all knew it was coming when back a few months ago they lost Gurren Lagaan and were barely able to re-negotiate for their other titles. They’ve officially broken from Sojitz, their Japanese licensing partner, meaning they’ve lost just about everything from the past two years. This includes shows currently being released, like the Kanon Vol. 6 order I have that will sit open eternally. (AoD, ANN1, ANN2)

3) Funimation Takes Over The World

In what’s probably a brilliant business move, Funimation saw the opportunities brought about by ADV and Geneon’s demise and struck deals on a stack of their licenses. While the deal with Geneon is more a partnership where Funimation calls the shots, Funimation just straight out gobbled up many of ADV’s former licenses including the aforementioned Kanon. This makes them by far the top dog in the R1 market in terms of market share, although Bandai is doing it’s best to catch up. Who knows how long it’s going to take them to release the ADV stuff that’s already partially done, they could very well just start over on shows like Kanon and Welcome to the NHK or halted Geneon titles like Higurashi and Black Lagoon. Hell they even picked up Saimono, a show a lot of people on this blog follow which doesn’t have a full set of English fansubs. (AoD, ANN)

4) Hayate no Gotoku! Gets Licensed

Totally didn’t see this coming, I wouldn’t have thought a relatively long-running otaku comedy would make the journey across the sea. But I’m thankful nonetheless because I want to see this show in all its DVD glory. Now Bandai has been doing pretty good with the liner notes in their Lucky Star releases so hopefully that means they might do the same for Hayate. And with the recent push for boxsets (in chunks of 13 episode for their release of Code Geass at least), there’s a good chance it will come in that much more affordable form. (AoD)

5) Nico Nico Gets Canned

The big bad anime industry just dropped the bomb on Nico Nico, and they have signed an agreement where Nico Nico will remove all fan videos with copyrighted material in them as well as the shows themselves obviously. This pretty much removes all reason for people to go to Nico Nico, and it’s a sad day for those who frequent it. (Canned Dogs)

6) Gonzo Ending In Trainwreck

SEE WHAT I DID THERE? Cuz you know, Gonzo shows always end in a trainwreck, amirite?! So Gonzo’s parent company is in danger of being de-listed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange unless they can become profitable within a year. That means making something along the lines of $30 million in profits with Strike Witches and the second season of Rosario + Vampire carrying them. Good luck with that. See what happens when you trainwreck perfectly good series? Nobody buys your DVDs. (AnimeNation)

Our friendly store in Singapore, KKnM, is having a little vote in order to find who is the best! Basically, for every 30 bucks spent at KKnM, you get to cast one vote for the coronet or melon pan. At the end of the contest, a lucky draw from the winning side determines the recipients of the prizes.

Rather than listening to me, why not just check out the site and figure it out for yourself. Happy times!

I wonder whether I should buy something this weekend…

There are 4 days left before nomination closes! Go nominate if you have not!

In addition, we hope that you can link to the site on your blogroll. We have provided some banners (click here) and will be glad to receive user-made banners for everyone’s use. Do check the site often and thanks all once again.

Off from the diplomatic talk, I cannot wait for the voting phase to come. It’s so exciting since it’s the first ever Anime Blog Awards \o/.

p/s: I did the last 3 brown banners. If you do not use them, you will turn to a trap. Diss it and YOU will turn to a very ugly trap. Use the banner and a green haired loli will love you even though she will love me much more. Sorry, I am just that great with green haired lolis. In addition, Ranka is mine.

Extrange’s Sneak Comment: Shush, Impzie-chan! Ranka was dibbed by me way before you did. RANKA IS MINE! BWUAHWUAHWAH!

Change it once more and you will die. — By Impz’s orders.

For those who haven’t heard already (or didn’t read the tiny hint I gave in my previous Soul Eater post), Soul Eater is set to air on two different days each week. On Mondays, the regular daytime version is released, and on Thursdays a “Late Night” (LN) version will be released. Although everyone kept calling it an “unedited” version (which has been pissing me off soooo bad), this is not the case. The LN version features additional content. Now you’ve all read what I thought about Soul Eater episode one (it’s was awesome!), and I just finished watching the RAW of the LN version. So how do the two add up and what differences are there? As of right now, not many.

As I watched the episode I only found two major differences. One, there was a very breif clip where Shinigami said a few words and then it showed a close-up of Blair’s well-endowed rack. Two, at the end of the episode there was a much longer preview that showed scenes from what I believe should be the next 2-4 episodes. Now, there could be differences in some of the dialogue, but as I’ve stated many times, I’m not fluent enough in Japanese to pick up the differences without paying very close attention.

So is the LN version anything to get super-excited about? Not really, but I have to admit, I did get kind of excited about that extended preview…nice shots of action from Black Star, Death the Kid, Maka, and several others. The LN version itself wasn’t all I’d hoped it be, but it has managed to get me even more excited about the next episode…screw H2O, Soul Eater rocks your soul! (as for what version I’ll be following…it’ll be whatever the best sub group is following)

There are only a few shows that have yet to premiere (or that don’t have RAWs yet), those being: Kaiba, Junjou Romantica, Golgo 13, Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, and Nijuu Menzou Musume. I doubt we’ll be covering Golgo 13 extensively, but the rest of those shows should have a decently sized entry committed to them.

Some shows have aired and we haven’t written anything on them yet. For the most part this is because they were either horrible, or the first episodes just didn’t catch us in a way that made us want to put in the extra effort to write about them on top of all the work we’ve been doing for the shows we are interested in. 30+ shows is a LOT. We are working on a “Spring 2008: Leftovers” post though, in which we we’ll briefly touch on those series we have missed. Look for it sometime Saturday/Sunday.

Library Wars was the hawtness and there will be a post on it later tonight when Impzie wakes up. Go watch it and be ready to rant about it with us!

Thanks for reading and I want you all to be ready to post some massive feedback come Saturday. I’m planning on posting a small questionnaire to our readers about the new season, ideas you may have, things you want and don’t want, etc…so start brainstorming (don’t post here…wait until Saturday!!)!

Click on the image or click here. It’s only a short survey to find the basic demographics of AnimeBlogger.net readers. It will take no more than 1 minute of your time, so please do it! Thanks!

As you probably know by now (I hope you do), The Anime Blog Awards have started. However, I do not think that you want to read the same brief information that is spread by the other anime blogs that have released news about this. I hope that you will spread this article around, and convince people that this is not just another case of a “popularity contest” but an attempt to celebrate the good blogs through peer review. Below are some of the comments left about problems of the ABA, and how I attempt to answer them.

I hope that no one is offended by quoting them in my entry. It’s merely for illustration purposes. In addition, if you didn’t know, the ABC’s Owen’s dorama is all a joke. However, due to the joke, we have discovered a very important thing about our beautiful tsun tsun princess. Owen might be out-spoken and mean, but SHE does not mistreat women.

With that serious off-topic out of the way, let’s resume normal service.

Why advertise this on your blog?

Well, I can understand why the voters are limited to bloggers, because otherwise blogs like Random Curiosity would just take away every prize imaginable. It’s indeed a bit elitist, but most readers just keep to one or two blogs, and it would just turn into a strange popularity-contest. Jeff does have a point, though, as posting on your blog does seem a bit strange of an advertisement.

– From Psgels commenting in Animenano forums

My answer: Reader involvement will come at the stage of voting. We have a blogger’s choice awards where bloggers vote first. We have the reader’s choice where the public will vote too. Hence, there is involvement, just not now. The whole intention of spreading the news is to remind everyone about this, to churn out some interest. It’s going to be hard to gather any anticipation by readers if everyone posts at the same time. So, I do hope that all of you give it some chance or awareness by posting about this awards. We will also be posting up information about this reader’s choice soon.

The nominations are done by bloggers because we do not want an extreme case of popularity where we have a very limited number of blogs in for nominations. There’s a much higher chance that public nominations will result in an overly skewed distribution of popular blogs being nominated than it is already.

I am not interested and do not care!

After visiting the site, and sifting through the list of participants, I’ve noted that not a single animeblogger from the Philippines is participating. Well that’s kind of an odd one, since I’ve seen glances of anime fans waiting for their passion for the hobby to unfold. Oh well, at least it’s certain that I won’t be in, as you know.

My answer:If everyone gives a nonchalant behavior because “I ain’t gonna win”, “I don’t care” and “Awards are popularity contests”, “I am too popular for this award!”, the awards will not work. That might be a reason why everyone has been deterred from trying to make an awards. The truth is that this award not only celebrates the good blogs, and also through many of its design, promote new and good blogs. As nominations can be changed, your nomination at a good blog might change the landscape of another new blog. It’s not just a popularity contest or something that deliberately creates dorama. The structure attempts to limit it, if you think about it carefully.

These organizers are not credible!

What disturbs me about the nominations:
1. I never heard of 90% of the nominated blogs, and 95% of the participating blogs.
2. Riuva was nominated in almost every category. Bah!
3. I have no idea who’s doing this and what their credentials are to be doing such a thing. And they don’t tell you.
4. I can find no entries before 3/18/08 at this site; in fact, their registgration didn’t exist before then
5. The message: “We need money. Badly. Donate Now.”

I think I’ll be steering clear of this…

– Ubu roi commenting in Kawaii Menace

My answer: We are not a shadow group since it’s decently obvious who is in this. We are not trying very hard to be secret. It’s just that we do not want to put bias on anyone on nomination. For e.g. “Oh shi-, Impz is organizing this, so we should put that anime blog in one of the nominations if not he might be meh.”. I want to avoid the situation and reveal the committee after everything is over officially. However, we have revealed it on the front page of the website due to various concerns about transparency and how we are doing it to up our pagerank.

Exploration is the key. We hope that the awards will allow participants to be exposed to other anime blogs in existence. On diversity issues, it’s impossible to control the nominations. We cannot say something like “you cannot vote popular blogs, you must hate them and vote for only indie blogs”. There is a reason for blogs’ popularity in general, and that is good content after getting initial traffic from other blogs’ hyperlinks. Blogs are popular because they are good at marketing themselves coupled with great content.

This idea behind the project has been floating around for at least 9 months. It is the first time that anything has been created for the anime blogs, and I welcome you to join. If no one bothers about the community (like how 90% of all anime bloggers cannot care less), someone else has to pick up the slack. Our aim in this project is to expose anime bloggers to others in order to know more. We wish for new bloggers to have some chance to promote themselves, the older bloggers to update themselves and the good bloggers to gain recognition. It will not be possible if everyone are just happy within themselves, dismissing it without giving it a chance to survive.

This is just a popularity contest

Most awards nowadays like these are made of popularity contests and nothing else. Firm decision you made, one I commend.

– Panther commenting in Furu Anime Panikku

My answer: Well, it depends. There’s always an element of popularity in awards, but We try our best in this event to promote new blogs as well. Quite a few functions on the site facilitate new blogs, and we are intending to create a “Sundance” version (for less popular blogs) to celebrate the blogs that deserve more attention. If anyone’s excuse is that someone is not inside which is why this anime blog awards is in shitstorm, I have four words to offer. Less talk, more action.

We are going to have the Indie version (for newer blogs) after this in the near future. Requirements will be set in a way (it’s in the preliminary stage) that popular blogs cannot be voted. That will give anime bloggers two award ceremonies to look forward to in a year. This, I believe, will make it worthwhile for everyone. It’s in our long term plans if it works well and we have many anime bloggers involved in this endeavor.

You said you want to include small blogs!

What we’ll probably see, however, is a skew towards the popular blogs anyway with the “top 5″ rule. Is there a better way to include smaller blogs? Probably. Do I know of one? No. But this is the kind of thing you could’ve discussed in an open forum instead of keeping things closed to your small group so that it would at least seem more “fair” when the rules have finally been announced.

My answer: The intention to get the newer blogs is part of the plan, but we cannot start off with the “Sundance” version because we want to get everyone involved in this thing first. Without any recognition or precedent, no one will be that involved. We need to run through it once to show some form of credibility, or whether we can do that.

Stop spamming!

This morning I received an email from those guys doing the awards. To their credit it was directly addressed to me, by name, even though the body of the email was obviously a canned message. Did you receive such a thing? I’m wondering how widely they cast their spam net.

My answer: Yes, I(Impz, you can do a google search on anime blog to find out who I am) emailed all of you. I made the effort to go to each blog personally. I didn’t do any special crawling/spamming methods. I make the effort to find each blog one by one, trying to find social isolates that are not linked well by other anime blogs. Every single email is addressed by the blogger’s name and it really frustrates me when people do not have a contact page/form. I am trying hard to reach every one of you to make sure that it’s a community effort. It will not go down as just some concentrated circle-jerk congregation of anime bloggers where everyone knows each other. I want to reach out to everyone, even if I don’t read your blog.

It’s just an attempt to circle jerk

It is indeed easy to see the whole thing as a circle wank of the top-level bloggers because it’s obvious that the popular blogs will win the category they’re in. This causes some people to start automatically building a massive inferiority complex which results in behavior somewhat like your average tsundere-girl; claiming hard not to care or give two shits about the whole thing, but still being obviously interested.

NovaJinx’s answer (not mine, because he gave a perfect answer): As for my opinion on Anime Blog Awards as a small scale blogger, I do understand that for the most part it’s an already set game. However, even though there is no way I can get anywhere close to winning in the categories Jinx! is in (big thanks to Bitten for the nomination), the ABA is a precious opportunity for me to market my blog. Impz, the sort of main man behind the ABA, hardly has expressed this too many times and I very much agree with him. The function of the ABA is not only to recognize the obvious top-level blogs but to help smaller blogs to get some publicity.

The committee are just super friends!

If you don’t mind I would like to know who else is among this ABC (I’m guessing I could just check the Anime Blog Awards as I think that is the group of Superfriends that I noticed seem to be supporting and voting for each other in the rather laughable competition that just screams trouble ahead) and if possible just a touch more about it because this might change my perspective a little bit.

My answer: My choices are the committee members are to complement my skills. Mellow_bunny and Akai are recruited for their great technical expertise. Owen S is perhaps one of the most brutally honest people I have met, and will be a good enforcer against stupidity. In addition, he is decently famous in the anime blogosphere. TheBigN is calm and collected, able to pick up the pieces after a major argument between Me and Owen (which happens very darn often). In addition, he provides a different view point and not that well defined compared to me and Owen S. I hope that clarifies why I choose the committee members this way.

Conclusion

Using the kind words from TinyRedman, Anime Princess, Batezi and Sea Slugs, I hope that the above “FAQ” will shed more light on the awards. I personally hope that heavyweights such as Memento, Jason Miao, Random Curiosity, DarkMirage, Lolitron, The Anime Blog and Moetron will join in the nominations. I do not want to exclude anyone, be it newbies or popular blogs alike. Without the heavyweight of our blogosphere to support this, this just feels somewhat empty and sad. I do not want any blog to be completely isolated within their own community. This is a community-driven awards ceremony for ALL BLOGS. It is up to you, the community, to work it out.

I also hope nice bloggers such as Jeff, Hinano and others who sometimes visit my humble blog will have fun with this award too, since the voting style minimizes the popular/whining element that plagues other awards such as SaiMoe and SaiGar (who died prematurely). Animeblogger.net bloggers should also participate too, considering how Maestro is attempting to make ab.net a community. There will always be dorama and people who hate awards, but I hope no one will be deterred simply because you dismiss it without giving it a chance to survive. Do not forget too about the reason why we all started blogging. It’s because it is fun and created for you, the anime blogger. Fun is the name of the game for this award.

It’s only fun if you, the anime blogger, is there to bear the witness.

Rawr.

Here’s a quick news update for those who read the FR: I got so pissed at Bleach and Narutard this week that I didn’t even bother writing a Friday Ramble…would’ve been more or a Friday Whine ‘n’ Complain. Even though it just started, there will be no FR during the month of April. I’m devoting all of my time April to check out the new shows, sort out my subbers, find (subbed) air dates, and figure out how I’m going to handle the series I’ll be covering. Also, if things get weekend heavy, I may change the FR to a different day. Who knows? We’ll have to wait for April to see. Also, as far as what would have been the final one for this month, it won’t be showing on account of no more Bleach until April 9th, and no more Naruto until April 3rd (bastards…well, not so much you Naruto). I’ll be posting my first ONE-Shot War sometime this week instead, and then…Spring 2008!

Speaking of Spring 2008, that’s what this post is all about! I’ve been checking every 2-3 days for new trailers and PVs and just general media on the animes debuting in April, and there’s finally enough promotional material out to make a decent “visual preview” post. This includes the “best” pv/trailer I could find for each anime (best = contains animated footage from the anime) as well as the updated air dates. Dates and times are Japanese based and taken from the FansubWiki. I only included new animes series, not sequels (with the exception of Code Geass R2 so you’d all STFU), and I included a quick thought of mine pertaining to each trailer. Nothing crazy, just a little something to, as always, show you I *kinda* care.

Videos and comments are linked/embeded within the spoiler tags under the titles (you can figure it out!). I invite the other THAT bloggers to post their two cents, just make sure you don’t edit anything in the Visual Editor or you’ll f*** stuff up (I found out the hard way).

AHHHHHHHH!! I’M MEGA-EXCITED ABOUT SPRING 2008!

Thursday, April 3rd

Macross Frontier
Show ▼

Allison to Lillia
Show ▼

To Love-Ru
Show ▼

Kure-nai
Show ▼

Friday, April 4th

The Tower of Druaga ~the Aegis of Uruk~
Show ▼

Itazura na Kiss
N/A

Amatsuki
N/A

Saturday, April 5th

Kanokon
Show ▼

Blassreiter
Show ▼

Kamen no Maid Guy
Show ▼

Sunday, April 6th

Zettai Karen Children
Show ▼

Code Geass R2
Show ▼

Nabari no Ou
Show ▼

Wagaya no Oinari-sama
Show ▼

SA ~Special-A~
N/A

Neo Angelique Abyss
N/A

Monday, April 7th

Soul Eater
Show ▼

Vampire Knight
Show ▼

Monochrome Factor
Show ▼

Tuesday, April 8th

Crystal Blaze
Show ▼

RD Sennou Chousashitsu (Real Drive)
Show ▼

Himitsu Top Secret
N/A

Thursday, April 10th

Kaiba
Show ▼

Library Wars (Toshokan Sensou)
N/A

Junjou Romantica
N/A

Saturday, April 12th

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki (watch it with the sound off)
Show ▼

Nijuu Menzou Musume
Show ▼

Welcome to the wall of text. Ugh. Hopefully I’ll have my banners down nice and neat by the time April rolls around. Anywho, on to business…

The second on my list of (two) features I have planned for THAT, is the ONE-Shot War. I originally had this planned to be a somewhat different feature, but the original just came across as too boring or typical to satisfy my eccentric tastes. So I poured a bit of toxic goo on my idea, and the ONE-Shot war was born.

NOTE: The 1SW (for short) is intended to be a looooong post. Why? Because this is something I only plan on doing once a month. See this as the one time a month that I’ll climb down off my high-horse of sarcasm and attempt something semi-serious.

Origins

Back when I was focused on my new Spring 2008 geared blog, I was trying to develop some unique and interesting concepts to use. I mean, everyone does episode summaries and screen shot posts, etc. Sure I was bound to do that too, but I wanted to be different. So a concept popped into my head one day called “Would I Have Watched it Today?”. The premise here was to go back and re-watch the first episode from an older anime from the perspective that it had just come out or was going to come out with the new season. After watching it, I’d rate/judge it with today’s standards and see if it could still hold it’s own against the newer animes that have come out since it’s time.

That’s the concept that I poured toxic goo all over. From that, I decided it’d be more fun if I set things up from a different perspective. Instead of just reviewing the anime, why not do things as if there were TWO similar animes and I was having to choose which one of them I was going to blog/watch during the “upcoming season”. In my opinion, this makes it less of a boring review, and more of a battle to see which anime is going to grab my attention and time based solely upon the first episode. A battle of first impressions, if you will.

How does it work?

The 1SW is composed of 5 parts: Inspiration, Style, Sound, Intrigue, and The Showdown. Inspiration is a quick description of what inspired this month’s battle and why I picked the shows I did. Style, Sound, and Intrigue are rated sections in which each show scores points on three different components that make up each category. The Showdown is the final battle where the points gained from the other sections are tallied along with my personal rating to determine who wins the 1SW.

The rated categories

All rated categories are based on a 10 point scale, with 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. If more than one thing goes into each component (ie: OP & ED), each item is given an individual score, added to the others, and divided by the number of items (ie: OP score = 5, ED score = 7, then (5+7)/2 = 6 final score).

Category 1: Style (Visual)

The components for the style category are:

• Character Design & Expression (CDE) – The overall appeal of the anime’s characters, and the quality of facial expressions/animation.
• Color and Attention to Detail (CAD) – Are the colors visually appealing, are there a variety of colors used, does the anime show lots of details or the minimum, etc.
• Quality of Animation (QoA) – How much effort went into the actual animation outside of just the artwork.

Category 2: Sound (Audio)

The components for the sound category are:

• OP/ED – How good are the opening and ending themes, am I still singing them? Did they match up to the animation well?
• Voices (VOX) – Appeal of the character/voice combinations.
• SFX/BGM – Sound effects and background music.

Category 3: Intrigue (Story/Plot)

The components for the intrigue category are:

• Memorable Characters (MC) – How many characters did I get attached to within the first episode? How many characters am I interested in seeing more of?
• Setting (SET) – How enjoyable the world that the characters and plot dwell in is.
• Plot (PLT) – Is this story going anywhere? Do I even care after one episode?

Conclusion and Opinions

If you made it through the wall of text, I applaud you. If you didn’t and you just skipped down here so I’d STFU, well…your opinion is wanted as well. The ONE-Shot War is a lot of work and it’s bound to be a big post. It’s an idea I’ve concocted that I’d love to do once a month, just as something different. At the same time, if you, the readers, the people I’m here for, don’t give a rat’s ass about it, I’d rather focus my efforts and attention elsewhere.

This month, I’ve planned a “ONE-Shot War: Fullmetal Alchemist vs. Shakugan no Shana” post, but here’s my question: Do you want to see it?

AnimeBlogger.net has always been supportive of new writers all over the world to establish their blog for free. As we continue to expand and include new bloggers to the anime blogosphere, we have reached a point where advertising dollars are not enough to pay for the hosting services.

Hence, we have decided to appeal for donations to cover the taxes and hosting fees of AnimeBlogger.net. The first goal is to raise US$1600 to cover three months of hosting and the taxes applicable to AnimeBlogger.net. When we have secured that amount, we are looking into adding another server in order to accommodate more writers, which is where the second goal comes in. If we reach our second goal of US$2200, we’ll be able to add another server.

If you are wondering how you can donate to us, there are various ways. First, you can directly donate to the site via Amazon or Paypal from our donations page. Second, you can buy AnimeBlogger.net merchandise. As an incentive to those who donate, everyone who donates more than $5 will be entered to win a prize. Currently we have a sponsor that’s paying for two AnimeBlogger.net shirts for winners. You can also contribute any anime-related items as prizes for the lucky draw.

AnimeBlogger.net needs your help. Everyone is integral to the support of AnimeBlogger.net. Every little bit counts to hit our target, be it $1 or $100. You will make a difference. Thank you and please continue to explore our anime blogging community!

This is an official release from the “WTF! Be warned!” committee, issued in an attempt to warn you, the established THAT animeblog readers (and authors too), of a potential menace that may be infiltrating your minds in the near future. In fact, this creature may have already gained a foothold in THAT and could be in the process of warping blogging as you know it! Contained in a list below is every detail our investigative committee has been able to gather about the subject, please be on the lookout and report any suspicious activity immediately.

Name: Rieuzedx – from what we’ve been able to gather, this name has no real meaning. In fact it seems to be the result of rolling one’s face across a keyboard a few times.

History of anime preference: It seems that our suspect began watching anime unknowingly. Unable to distinguish between normal tv cartoons and the odd Japanese ones, it was a complete accident that he stumbled upon the path that has led him to become one of the largest threats to anime blogging today. Once he developed a taste for what he now calls the “other” cartoons, he developed into your typical shounen watching teenage male. We believe his tastes have broadened, but are unable to pinpoint to what extent and to where.

Please be on the look out for these other distinguishing features:

• Suspect appears to be in his early twenties, experts believe him to be around 21.
• Suspect appears to enjoy self-inflicted pain, often watching every anime he can for no reason other that to say he watched them, or in the unreasonable hope that someday, they may get better. This includes such current crap as Naruto, where you end up watching each episode 2 more times in another episode.
• When caught temporarily and questioned, the suspect revealed that he was no longer just a shounen whore, commenting that his tastes had broadened and that while he could not state what he does like, he knows what he does not like.
• A few favorites in the list of things he does like include FMA, Gurren Lagann, Ouran High School Hos…*rip* *tear* *shred* AHHhhhhhhhhhhh!!….help…me…

MUAHAHAHA! It is I, Rieuzedx!! BE AFRAID!!

There’s my attempt at a semi-creative introduction for myself @ 8am when my face is still unable to move itself and my stomach is screaming at me to “go and eat something you retarded bastard!”. If you haven’t guessed already, I’m Rieuzedx, and I’m going to be the latest on the list of people that you, as current readers/writers, have to put up with. Looking forward to it.

As far as the comment in the title about ninjas and fox-manchicks, go check out the Spring 2008 preview, where I added my thoughts to the series. You’ll understand the ninjas and fox-manchicks thing when you do. I’d appreciate it if comments concerning anything I may blog end up back at this post, but I’ll be checking them both, so if you’re lazy like me…no worries.

Extrange’s Sneak Remark: In spite of having a girlish avatar, Rieuzedx is a guy. I already rap…er checked that factor. Maybe this is competition for Impz’ trappyness?