Picture Perfect Paranoia

Even more stories of Japanese anime antiquity.

Historic 91-year-old anime discovered in Osaka - HDRJapan

MOSAKA — Footage of an animation film dating back to the Taisho Period (1912-1926) has been discovered here, and has been confirmed as the oldest existing example of Japanese animation ever produced.
The 2-minute animation, directed by Junichi Kou’uchi and titled “Namakura Gatana,” was the second animation film ever made in Japan and was first shown at domestic theaters in 1917.
It was purchased at an antique fair in Osaka in July last year by film historian Natsuki Matsumoto. The film was found in nearly perfect condition.
The historic footage was unveiled during a press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday, following restoration work by the National Film Center in Tokyo’s Chuo-ku.

So this sets the timeline even further back to the Taisho period, which according to this here article from Wikipedia, is “considered the time of the liberal movement known as the ‘Taishō democracy’”.

Interesting find, isn’t it?

Remember this?

Well, I’d figured I’d chip in my nominations before the deadline, ’cause I have this tendency to beat the deadline and all.

It’s been nagging the back of my head the whole day. So now it’s back to the study room for me.

BTW, if you’re curious about the said nominations of mine, here they are:

http://www.minaidehazukashii.com/
http://anime.jefflawson.net/
http://animeotaku.animeblogger.net/

I’ve been keeping a relatively low profile in the anime blogosphere, since I’m busy with my thesis and all, but hey, there’s got to be some way to keep this blog relevant.

So there’s a blog awards of sorts going on. I got notified of this via an email from the AnimeBlogger.net Site Announcements.

Herein is the opening paragraph:

Given the exponential growth of the anime blogosphere, the number of quality blogs with insightful opinions and perspectives are ever increasing. Yet a majority of the blogs out there remain isolated, lacking a sense of community and meaningful interaction. The Anime Blog Awards was created in order to bridge that gap by recognizing worthy bloggers and their achievements in various fields.

So recognition, notoriety or social networking are involved, huh? This I have to ascertain.

As of now, the people behind this event (which was scheduled on April 1st, so no it’s no joke) decided to remain anonymous - on the site page that is. It’s rumored that a Singaporean animeblogger by the name of Impz is one of the few people who set up the event. This remains to be uncertain.

However one thing is. Thanks to the “super-sleuth” done by Pete Zaitcev of Ani-Nouto (though he’s been rather humble about it), it has been confirmed that fellow animeblogger Mellow Bunny is behind the event.

I’m not claiming to be an Internet super-sleuth (as “metantei” was translated in Haruhi), but they aren’t really hiding. It says right there in the footer: “Modified for The Anime Blog Awards by mellow_bunny 2008.” It has AB.net Donation Drive gauge. And the e-mail was sent from 116.14.79.112, which resolves to bb116-14-79-112.singnet.com.sg (it’s a /15 block, but you can fuzzy-search your own server logs).

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.

So I know now what’s been happening.

Remember this?

Heh. Take that, Spam.

Well, no worries for me now, thanks to Maestro for helping me install the Akismet anti-spam plugin on this blog. Now I don’t have to check in every few hours to see spam on my blog, and to filter in “not spam” comments with ease.

Thank you ever so much, Maestro!

And now, for that upgrade…

Thanks to a certain individual, I had to be reminded of the day that is the answer to the now-profit-oriented Valentine’s Day. That is White Day.

On March 14th, exactly one month after Valentine’s Day, men who were lucky enough to receive gifts of chocolate have the chance to return the favor by giving the women who gave them gifts of chocolate a more expensive box of chocolate or sweets (for some reason or other, these return gifts seem to be priced slightly higher than those the women purchase). Again, the stores provide plenty of reminders of the approach of this day so that even the most forgetful man cannot say that it slipped his mind. The gifts of chocolate that men buy are in white boxes (after all, it is “White Day”) and come with separate shopping bags to put them in.¹

Now why the color white and not the opposite color of red? Don’t know, don’t ask. All I know is the certain “hidden obligation” men who have received gifts (whether in the form of chocolate or not²) from women they have or not have close relationship with have to reciprocate.

I have no personal pangs with the holiday itself. What I am rather discontent with is the fact that, like its “counterpart”, it’s being obligation“, to put it loosely. I am faintly familiar with the culture and I respect that. Let’s just put that thing into a proper perspective.

I just remembered that I have posted about Valentine’s Day before on this blog, and it’s a year or two ago. It’s a tongue-in cheek remark, and you can read it here.

All I have to say is that.

Oh, and speaking of colors, there’s another wacky holiday in the works. And it’s supposed to not exist if it werent’ for the notion of “commercialization”. Take a wild guess.³

References:

1. ¹Valentine’s Day and White Day in Japan By: Billy Hammond
2. ²MIT Japan Cultural Notes: White Day - March 14
3. ³Another Wacky Holiday for Japan - Japan Probe
4. http://www.merriam-webster.com/
5. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page

I’m sure you, and the general public, weren’t expecting something like this, were you?
Teeny-bopper deri-heru hanky-panky — the best little jail bait in Saitama - Mainichi WaiWai

There’s nothing particularly new about the problem of “enjo-kosai” — or “compensated dating,” as teen prostitution has been euphemistically referred to by its practitioners since first observed around 1990. But even Shukan Taishu (3/24) was aghast over the events that took place in Kuki City, Saitama Prefecture, last month.

On Feb. 21, the city’s juvenile police section pounced on — sorry, let’s make that “apprehended” — a 17-year-old girl we’ll call “Eiko,” on suspicion of violating the several statutes related to abetting prostitution by minors.

This goes to show that it’s not how young you are, but how savvy are you, when it comes to making business, no matter how shady it might seem on the outside. Also:

Reiji Toono, author of romantic novels read by teenage girls, including one titled “Another Love — The ‘Enko’ Life of a Middle-school Hooker,” tells Shukan Taishu that such a case, of a teenage madame running teen hookers, is so rare that even he was astonished.

“It’s not unusual to see a man living with a young woman force her into prostitution and rake off a portion of her earnings,” says Toono. “But it’s quite remarkable for a 17-year old girl to be so astute and wind up running the operation.”

The current law banning sex with females under age 18 provides for imprisonment of up to two years and/or a fine of up to 1 million yen for offenders. These penalties, however, do not seem to be much of a deterrent.

P.S.: Oh Japan. XD

Oh boy.

LDP moves to ban possession of child porn even if there is no intent to sell - Mainichi News

“When we drew up the original bill, we were aware of the need to outlaw simple possession of child porn images (without any intention of selling them), but the need has greatly increased as the Internet has spread,” said former Justice Minister Mayumi Moriyama, who heads the panel.

Juvenile abuse, kiddy porn victims hit record highs - Mainichi News

Arrests for child abuse cases last year rose marginally to be the highest ever on record, the National Police Agency said. And although arrests for incidents related to child pornography and juvenile prostitution declined in 2007, the number of child victims of pornography increased by 20.2 percent to 304.

The government seems intent to work in full force in eliminating “the bane of morality”. This won’t work, and will push the offended party underground.

Do you think their stance is not the right things to do? Would the move need some improvement?

Yeah, I know. Crappy title. But that’s besides the point.

While randomly browsing through Japan Probe, and with the help of a handy RSS addon from Firefox, I stumbled across this entry.

See for yourself. I have no comment at the moment.

For the benefit of those with dial-up networks, or those who want to save their RAM before loading the video, here’s the link to the video.