Picture Perfect Paranoia

Finally, I has a post!

Seriously, though. By now, regular readers of this blog may or may not get used to intermittent updates like this, but it’s a fact of life. Like fellow anime blogger Michael, I’m an official medical school student. Thus, updates like this.

Anyway, just to show you how out of the loop I am in the anime blogosphere: I have just heard/read that Read the rest of this entry »

There was a recent brouhaha over at Dynasty, and it’s about scanlations. Again. It’s an issue ad nauseum.

Read the rest of this entry »

Bush Signs Law Creating Copyright Czar | Threat Level from Wired.com

President Bush on Monday signed into law legislation creating a copyright czar, a cabinet-level position on par with the nation’s drug czar.

Two weeks ago, the House sent the president the “Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act”(aka “Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act”), a measure the Senate approved days before creating a cabinet-level copyright czar (Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator or IPEC) charged with implementing a nationwide plan to combat piracy and “report directly to the president and Congress regarding domestic international intellectual property enforcement programs.”

As if the Financial Crisis of 2008 isn’t depressing enough. Now we have the Internet Police being created.

I suggest rewriting this in Simple English so that even the layman consumer can read and comprehend what this law says about “copyright infringement”. Those are two big words right there.

Playing baseball with tanks and rocket launchers - JapanProbe

Last night, NTV (link) attempted to determine the speed of a baseball fired from the barrel of a tank. To conduct the epic experiment, they enlisted the help of the Cambodian military, which saw the TV show as a means of spreading PR about how Cambodia is now a peaceful nation with a professional military.

Cambodia’s military initially responded to NTV’s request by suggesting that the experiment be conducted with a rocket launcher (RPG) instead of a tank

Epic? Well, that’s a surprise.

Next thing you know, other countries might be interested in launching things other than baseballs and rockets into launchers unto unsuspecting audiences. Would that lead to a conflict rising? XD

Remember this?

Confused by the the title post? Well, you’re just as confused as I am now.

If you’ve been following this rather unimportant issue, read on.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s official folks. After months of speculation, Taro Aso has become the new Prime Minister of Japan. I said before that Total Otaku Support would be grossly exaggerated (Mark Twain’s rolling in his grave by now lol), and oh boy, I’m now eating my own shorts. I was wrong. There’s no doubt now that this choice of the citizens of Japan will bear witness as Mr. Aso takes on the lead.

Other bloggers that lave lend their voices:

• AkibaBlog
• Black Tokyo
• JapanProbe
• Kitsune’s Thoughts
• Sankaku Complex

LOL. Talk about unknown.

With the rate this “vanity page” is being set up, Alodia may have been known by now.

And here is a “notable argument” by one of the voters:

An appearance and a corporate sponsored award in one episode of a cable TV show does not merit notability. And do we really need a list of what character she cosplayed according by event and year? Most of these events go unnoticed even by the general population of Filipino anime/manga fans. Going by the rules of of (sic) WP:BIOL she has not won or been nominated enough times for the awards featured in this page (which i repeat are not notable enough by themselves).

See where this is going? I’d laugh myself off these fanboys and notability experts.

Looks like the Japanese will never run out of wacky ideas to think of.

Casio Exilim puts “makeup” on your picture - ForeverGeek

Take for instance the new Casio Exilim cameras that feature a “makeup function”. This new feature recognizes the face of the subject then automatically adjust the focus and exposure. Pressing a dedicated button will basically make the subject’s face look softer and smoother. It also softens the shadows that appear on the face. If I’m not mistaken this feature is actually a first and we should see future cameras coming out with this feature.

Notice the difference in the two pictures in the link above, and you’ll see some “touches” on the photo taken. Undoubtedly, people who are either conscious of how they will appear on still camera, or are simply vain, will find this camera feature a must-have.

Apologies for showing this late gesture of appreciation (due to RL), but many thanks to those who have participated in the survey I’ve created 9 days ago. Now let’s look at the results.

My parents…
	Response Percent	Response Count
Are a bigger Otaku than I am!	2.7%	1
Also read manga. We talk and share the stuff~	5.4%	2
Don’t know I read manga at all. Shhh, it’s a secret hobby	10.8%	4
Know I read manga, but it’s not something we talk about…	62.2%	23
Know I read manga and are repulsed by it and trying to convince me to stop	8.1%	3
Doesn’t know what manga is even though I tried to explain it a million times	0.0%	0
Thinks all manga is for children	10.8%	4
answered question		37
skipped question		0

It would seem that the majority of the respondents are at an understanding with their parents, apparently keeping their interest something not to be talked about in the open. I understand where you’re coming from. Especially when you live in a country that looks as a medium like manga as the Japanese equivalent of an American comic book. Sure, some of the manga that were being pandered ti the mainstream contain comedy, hentai moments, and the like, but a deeper probe into the subculture unearthens a yet to be discovered wealth of possibilities. They have been used:

• as a medium to introduce and familiarize the young generation with the Scriptures of the Bible
• as a medium to tackle the sensitive issue of teenage pregnancy

These and other uses suggest that manga already penetrated mainstream culture, but has yet to be freed from the stigma of being “just another import”.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

New York subway romance hits end of the line - Reuters

A modern-day love story of a man spotting the girl of his dreams across a New York subway train and tracking her down over the Internet has failed to have a fairytale ending with the relationship over.

For Web designer Patrick Moberg, then 21, from Brooklyn, it was love at first sight when he spotted a woman on a Manhattan train last November. But he lost her in the crowd so he set up a website with a sketch to find her — www.nygirlofmydreams.com.

Unbelievably in a city of 8 million people, it only took Moberg 48 hours to track down the woman, with his phone ringing non-stop and email box overflowing as usually cynical New Yorkers took sympathy on the subway Romeo and joined his hunt.

The mysterious brunette was named as Camille Hayton, from Melbourne, Australia, who was working as an intern at the magazine BlackBook and also lived in Brooklyn. One of her friends spotted the sketched picture on the Web site and recognized her.

But after finding each other, appearing on TV and getting international press, the couple took their romance out of the public eye, with Moberg closing down the Web site and with both refusing to making any more comments — until now.

Aw man, this could have been a true real life Densha Otoko life story in the making. Sadly, this doesn’t seem to be the case.

Apologies for being gone from the anime blogosphere for almost 2 weeks. Had my hardware fail on me, and thus it can’t sync with my internet connection.

Well, the problem’s been solved already, so here I am typing again. Read the rest of this entry »

From JapanProbe:

The crime rate is dropping in Japan, but media coverage of scary crimes seems to be at an all-time high. Today Asahi TV’s national news reported on a supermarket in Yamanashi Prefecture discovering knife slashes on 16 melons that had been on display in front of the store:

I don’t know what to make of this. Are these people suddenly getting stabby?{def}

Seriously? What seems to be the problem, I have no idea.

Original Link

Another Japanese Import - Maids Who Take Orders in Restaurants - NYTimes

“The concept started off as a club for the loneliest guys in the world,” said Patrick Macias, editor in chief of Otaku USA magazine. “Here at last was a place where single young otaku men could go and interact with kind women, and also get lukewarm hamburgers and lousy cake.”

Tout a fait.

Royal/T has less to do with fantasy play than with paying homage to certain eccentricities of modern Japanese culture. One wall of the cafe is stacked with anime DVD’s and manga comics, and most of the space is given over to the impressive Japanese art collected by Susan Hancock, who owns Royal/T. Works by contemporary artists including Takashi Murakami, Yoshimoto Nara and Hideaki Kawashima are displayed behind Plexiglas walls intended to recall figurine cases at shops in Akihabara. A boutique near the entrance sells prints by top Japanese artists and toys that are nothing if not “moe.”

Tout au contraire.

There’s the incomparable resemblance to those found in Akihabara, and in the motion to dilute the concept of moe for the American population unfamiliar or show disdain for the moe factor in such maid cafes, well, let’s just say it’s like setting up Hooters here in the Philippines, where you see none of the big-breasted women with captivating facades.



Also, it’s a Japanese version of Anna Miller’s. Make no mistake about it. It’s more “for the waitresses, rather than the food”.

I’m sure everyone is well aware of what has transpired at Akihabara. If you’ve been living under a veil of selfishness, you should reconsider your indifference and empathize with the rest of the world. Everybody else has done so, why don’t you?

I’m not going to delve more into this tragic happening, as every one else has already been talking about it.

Again, condolences to those who have been brutally assaulted by this false example of what makes us otaku. He may be one of us, but at this moment, by his unjustified action, he is now not one of us. He has gone into his world.

Even so, is this the way we want the transformation of the image of the Mecca to be?

Well, isn’t this an interesting development?

Free and Legal Anime on YouTube - JapanProbe.com

Starting in June, when Kadokawa finds its toons on YouTube, it will check to see if the person/company that posted the content is legit rather than immediately ordering YouTube to take it down.

…

…to encourage legit uses of its toons, while spreading the international word about them on YouTube and reaping profits in the bargain.

Do you think this is a wise decision on the part of Kadokawa? I think so too, and it’s a welcoming development in the world of the anime industry, where they are engaged in a legal battle with distributors of illegal content.

Original content by FuckedGaijin.