Also included is the Genchoken CD on the lower left. The OVA box also came with this delightful image.
I am pleased.
Though based on that post from a few days back I’m sure you knew that already.
Category Archives: ogiue
Ogi Ogi Douga
While doing a search on Nico Nico Douga the other day, I noticed that my Ogiue and Tohoku-ben video had been uploaded to the site, albeit from an older version, titled as 【ニコニコ動画】荻上の東北弁
Good job, mysterious uploader, though I wish there was a way to give you the updated version.
DEFEATED Mk.II (NSFW)
Totally Not Work-Safe Warning: There’s a reason why I’m using a cutoff for the first time.
The Target of My Obsession Reflects Back Onto Me
I’m usually okay with it, but there are times when I wonder how to explain my fascination with Ogiue to people who are not otaku, or not familiar with anime and manga. There is perhaps a latent fear that it’s not something easily understood, or that I’ve taken my interest in Ogiue a step too far such that I’d prioritize her over a significant other if I were in a relationship.
…Then I realize that I’m worried about my obsession and sexualization of a manga character who constantly worries about what others think of her obsession and sexualization of manga characters.
Hmm.
Waiting in line, drawing the Ogi
This is something I did while occupying time yesterday.
Ogiue Maniax Wins Bronze at the Anime Blog Awards
Ogiue Maniax wins 3rd place for the Bloggers’ Choice Rookie of the Year at the Anime Blog Awards. Congratulations to Borderline Hikikomori and Animanachronism for winning Gold and Silver, as well as all the other winners.
I’d like to thank Shingo of Heisei Democracy and Shiro of Toward Our Memories for giving me the opportunity to make guests posts on their blogs many months prior to starting my own. I’d also like to thank One Great Turtle of Anime wa Bakuhatsu Da! for blogging alongside me the whole way.
I’d also like to thank everyone who nominated and voted for me, and in fact everyone who reads Ogiue Maniax. There’s plenty of new blogs out there and I’m honored that you consider me among the best.
And of course I’d like to thank this blog’s namesake for being Ogiue and for letting me be a Maniac for her.
I started Ogiue Maniax back in November and it’s really been fun. This blog has challenged me to think harder about the anime and manga I enjoy, the industry which runs it, and the community in which I participate, and I’m all too grateful for it. This blog has introduced me to new friends and created opportunities above and beyond what I have deserved.
I hope that along with everyone in the community and beyond that we can every day reach a greater understanding of anime and manga through not only intelligent discourse but simply passion for the things we love.
Which in my case is Ogiue.
Fan-generated Fiction as some call it
I recently listened to the Ninja Consultant podcast concerning the sexualization that occurs among fangirls, and the fact that this has become more prominent in recent times, with not only yaoi becoming a common sight at conventions but also modern works such as Dr. Who and Avatar: The Last Airbender being consciously aware of this fanbase. The topic of fanfiction comes up in the discussion, which is to be expected given that fanfiction and fangirls practically go hand in hand, but it reminded me of the fact that at the beginning of my own internet-based fandom I too was into fanfiction.
When I first began using the internet, my first fandom was a NiGHTS into dreams fanfiction site. I loved the Sega Saturn game to death (and still do), and I sought out other fans of NiGHTS. It was there that I found a site called “Nightopia on the Net” which would later change its name a few more times. It was here that I not only discovered other people with a passion for NiGHTS, but also stories that expanded upon the few plot details we were given as players of the game into a rich and vibrant (at least in my young eyes) universe. I’ve never read the Star Wars Extended Universe books, but I suspect the feeling was similar to anyone who is a fan of those, a feeling that the world given to us in these initial stories is so vast and unexplored that one can’t help but wonder what else is out there.
At some point, a few years down the line, I read fanfiction less and less. By this point I had been checking out fanfiction from various sources based on all sorts of series and would even actively seek out more unusual titles and concepts. Something in me began to sour, and I could no longer take fanfiction until I almost stopped reading it entirely. Back then, my reasoning was that I disliked the stories being produced for my fandoms, feeling that more than any sort of technical errors the problem was that the writers did not understand the characters. The characters’ actual personalities as displayed in their respective shows were nothing like the personalities displayed in fanfiction, and I asked (no one), “What’s the point of using these characters if you’re not going to actually use them?”
As mentioned in the Ninja Consultant discussion, it seems as if some works these days are simply there as fan fodder. Characters are given basic traits which appeal to the “shipping” side of fandom, and fans are free to ignore or cultivate any “evidence” as to whether or not their “One True Pair” could thrive. Setting aside any original creators’ desires to actively engage this line of thought, by all rights these are the people who are responsible for me leaving fanfiction in the first place.
But really was I, and am I, all that different?
Why do people enjoy pairing unreasonable characters together? To put it simply, it’s because they find the pairing to be hot. No big mysteries there. It’s what makes the Zutara pairing in Avatar so popular: a conflict of emotions, the fire/water dynamic, the idea that “if only they would get together, they would be great.” Of course, the conflict comes from actually getting them together.
Is there something wrong with this? Wanting to dive deeper into a world, to prove through fanfiction that there is so much more to a story, one can say that trying to find deeper subtext in the relationships presented is its own form of exploration. Hell, I can somewhat relate to making unreasonable pairings. I have a rather straight-laced friend who I would like to see date girls that would be all over him 24/7. Why? Because it would entertain me to no end.
Perhaps there is a threshold, and it is crossed when fans begin to believe that their opinions constitute the truth about a work, or even what should be true. This isn’t about creator’s vision vs spectator’s vision or anything of that sort, but rather to what extent people and groups begin to believe their own hype. Other than that, I think people are free to believe in whatever they want.
Even then, such a statement borders on the idea that there’s such a thing as a “right” fan and a “wrong” fan, and really, even if I find certain fans or their reasoning distasteful, I am just one person and I am not a judge of fanfiction. More importantly, I am not a judge of the heart.
After all, as Sasahara once said to Ogiue, no one can stop you from liking something.
Your Doujin Work Sucks
Hiroyuki, author and creator of Doujin Work, is not exactly a common name among anime fans. In some cases, I’d suspect that mentioning it would get more people thinking about To Heart than anything else. No, Hiryoyuki is probably better known around the internet for his comic involving a bespectacled teenager with a troubled past trying to get it on with a feline familiar. In other words, “A Cat is Fine Too.”
So here we have a man firmly rooted in the doujinshi “industry” making a comic about creating doujinshi. The story centers around a girl named Osana Najimi and her quest to create doujinshi. However, unlike Kazuki of Comic Party, who draws because he finds it incredibly fun, or Ogiue of Genshiken, who draws because she can’t help it, Najimi dives into the world of doujinshi for one reason and one reason only: profit. Her friends Justice and Tsuyuri are able to sell well at doujinshi events, so with a little practice the money-loving Najimi feels that she too can rake it in.
The only problem is that she sucks at drawing. Najimi has no natural talent, and effort does not seem to reward her much either. The work she creates sells mainly for the so-bad-it’s-good factor.
Hiroyuki’s style, born out of drawing doujinshi, makes much sense for a comic revolving around doujinshi. Overall, the manga (which is presented in 4-panel-style) is well-drawn and entertaining. The same cannot be said of the anime.
The anime adaptation of Doujin Work suffers from poor animation, though much of it is forgiven when taking into account the (presumably) low budget and fairly simple designs of the characters. There were also rumors floating around 2ch and the internet in general that working on the animation with Hiroyuki was a bit of a nightmare, and not in the good way. Even if this is just a rumor, the result is still a show that could have looked better and been better.
But that’s what makes it so interesting.
Here you have someone drawing a comic about a person who tries to get into the world of doujinshi with lackluster results. This comic is then adapted into an anime…with lackluster results. In a sense, the mediocre showing of the Doujin Work anime adaptation is the best possible outcome for it.
“Oh, but that wasn’t intended by the creator!” you might be saying. Well, not everything intended by the creator defines a work. Kind of like when an anime becomes a cult classic in spite of its quality and not because of it.
PS: I know the anime adaptation has a section which shows the voice actors of the anime trying to make and sell doujinshi, but for some reason no one ever bothered to include those parts in the available episodes. A sad loss.
Anime as context for learning Japanese
I’ve previously discussed using anime to support one’s Japanese studies, where I pointed out that it is very possible to do so.
Recently, this topic of discussion came up with a friend who also studies Japanese, and we determined that context can be very useful for learning any language, and in the case of Japanese that context may very well be the anime you watch. Just remembering a scene where a word is used can be enough to recall the meaning of something.
It might be looked down upon, but hey, whatever works, right?
Actually, more than anime and remembering vocabulary, I feel that making mental connections can be very useful in learning kanji. As an example, while studying with the help of flash cards I came across the word 油断 or “to be off-guard” and I immediately recognized it for one reason and one reason only.
Of course, don’t rely totally on anime, and don’t let it be the sole focus of your studies.
Japan Day, or Drawing Ogiue on Pictochat
I went to Japan Day with some friends, and I even met Erin and Noah, the Ninja Consultants and a bunch of other folks I had never met before, like James. Sadly, I got there a little late and missed many exciting activities, most notably the Free Food, though I noticed that the curry they were serving was not any curry but Go Go Curry, which is one of my favorite places to eat. Seriously if you haven’t been there you should really check out this robust and affordable Japanese curry. Unless you cannot eat milk or pork. Their menu does not deviate.
Anyway, I saw HALCALI with friends. The second song they performed was Tip Taps Tip. When HALCALI asked (in English) if the audience knew about the anime that Tip Taps Tip was an ending theme for, Eureka Seven, I let out a high-pitched “WHOO” with my arms outstretched.
Other than me, all I heard was silence.
Everyone in that audience: You suck.
All in all a good time, and I was able to have various groups of friends of mine meet each other. Between them I discussed fujoshi, learning Japanese, and of course anime, though not everyone participated in every conversation.
The most important thing though is that at one point during Japan Day I ended up Pictochatting with my friends…who were sitting right next to me.
Naturally I drew Ogiue.
But then I thought, maybe I should keep drawing Ogiue. Of course, I’d have to mix it up. I drew standard Ogiue, without the glimmer in her eyes, so what should I draw next?
Why, Ogiue in high school, of course. You can see her at the beginning of Volume 6 inside the TV behind the actual Ogiue.
Next I drew Ogiue in Junior High. My friend remarked to me, “I don’t like where this is going.”
Of course, we have no record of Ogiue prior to that, so I should have stopped. But wait! I had an idea.
So I drew a girl, her face obscured, holding a doujinshi, her first doujinshi, which she saw in 5th grade. Thus making it at least partially accurate.
Yes, I did just spend more time talking about a few minutes of drawing Ogiue on a Nintendo DS than the entire rest of the event.
OGIUE MANIAX 