Category Archives: manga

This is a Hokuto no Ken Joke

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Girls, are you having trouble coming up with a Halloween costume?

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Might I recommend the “Ogiue” costume.

Ogiue wears plenty of outfits throughout the series, so clothing-wise there shouldn’t be too much trouble. You can go with the classic hoodie from her first appearance, but make sure to wrap your arm in bandages to go with it. Alternately you can go for Ogiue incognito at Comic Festival. Wearing men-sized shirts is also Ogiue-appropriate. And there’s always the Renko cosplay option.

The hair of course is the difficult part and seeing as my hair is not long I can’t give any real tips. Perhaps you could construct a fude out of a spare large paint brush, or create some sort of fude clip to add to your existing hair. If this is too much trouble, don’t forget that Ogiue has other hairstyles, such as the high school hairstyle (perfect in conjunction with incognito Ogi), the junior high style, or even the heavy side bangs from volume 9.

And to top it off, secretly carry some yaoi.

Spandex of Future Past Dreams

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I wouldn’t really call myself a sentai or tokusatsu fan. Of course I grew up with the Power Rangers on TV, though I didn’t keep up with it too well, and even remember denying even watching it (and Sailor Moon). I’m enough of a nerd that I will say “3 3 5” in the middle of a conversation, and I watched episodes of Magiranger when I lived in Japan, but I do not self-identify as a sentai fan. So it’s with that history and mindset that I started watching videos of Super Sentai crossovers.

Having little nostalgia for Super Sentai, I find the almost familiar effect these crossovers had on me to be amazing. It doesn’t matter if I didn’t grow up eagerly awaiting the latest crossover every year. The acting and presentation tell me that it doesn’t matter, and that something can feel nostalgic without actually being so.

I think the main reason why Super Sentai and other such shows manage to garner their fanbases among even adults has nothing to do with people being unable to grow up, or that they’re using it to live in the past however temporarily. The actors in Super Sentai, be they the actors behind the masks or with the masks off, always show respect for their roles. Respect and talent. Can’t forget that second part, as no matter how much you respect it your Japanese 101 video with you speaking broken Japanese while dressed like a samurai won’t ever amount to much. But respect for the role is more important than talent, just by a little.

Being convinced that the characters take whatever it is they do seriously is a recurring theme in anime and manga, and it’s something I’ve found difficult to use as a reason to convince others to watch a show. While fighting anime such as Hokuto no Ken are the most common grounds for this sort of thing, you’ll even see it in shows like Maria-sama ga Miteru.

So I hold much respect for Super Sentai, for being what it is. They’re kids’ shows, but that’s no reason not to try. Try to watch it, try to make it, try again.

BIIIIIIIIIIIIG OOOOOOOOOOOOONE

I Would Like to See Artistic Use of Dithering

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Dither is, according to Wikipedia, “a technique used in computer graphics to create the illusion of color depth in images with a limited color palette.” In terms of otakudom, it’s a visual technique used in many early to mid-90s h-games when the maximum number of colors was 256, and is basically a way to make an image more detailed with limited resources. If you play the Phoenix Wright games, you might notice some of the backgrounds have significant dithering, at least the ones that were adapted from GBA titles. You’ll also see it if you enlarge any gif.

These days, with 16-bit, 32-bit, and “true” colors available, dithering has fallen by the way-side. Games as far back as To Heart and Kanon didn’t use dithering, and really there’s no practical reason to keep it up. People who want to get off on these games would undoubtedly prefer better colors, and those who play for the story and characters, it doesn’t make much difference. But where practicality falters, artistry thrives.

We’ve seen a “return to form” in anime and other media with varying degrees of quality. Megaman 9 showed the world what it meant to look 8-bit because your gameplay was suited to it. Bihada Ichizoku shows the world what it’s like when you make a show just to throw in super 70s shoujo designs.

So I want to see dithering used not as a substitute for better things, like a pirate attaching a pegleg, but as an intentional part of design, like a pirate carving his pegleg into an intricate horse shape.

Personal History of Drawing

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Something I put together because a friend did it a while back.

1995

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

The Moe Heroine and the Yamato Nadeshiko

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A “Yamato Nadeshiko” is defined as the traditional ideal Japanese woman. These qualities include being loyal to their husband, putting family first, modesty, and being skilled in domestic matters. Belldandy from Ah! My Goddess is a prominent example in anime and manga of a Yamato Nadeshiko, and the fact that Ah! My Goddess has continued to run for many years indicates that this type of character is relatively popular today.

Of course, the spotlight in recent years has been on moe characters, and while some character traits reinforce the idea of the Yamato Nadeshiko, others defy them. Key’s heroine of heroines Tsukimiya Ayu has loyalty as one of her important traits, but is also a clumsy tomboy whose cooking ability is on par with Homer Simpson pouring cereal. Tsundere characters such as Hiiragi Kagami are strong, capable, and put family and friends first, but are independent-minded and are anything but submissive. Aisaka Taiga from Toradora! meanwhile is a clumsy tsundere.

I don’t think the intentional increase of moe traits in characters is, at the very least on a basic level, “progressive feminism,” but I think it’s worth taking a look at how these characters relate to a concept with a long history in the society from which their fictional media are produced. In American fiction, particularly television and movies, there are certain stereotypes for female characters, particularly when it comes to romantic interests. The Girl Next Door can be considered a reaction to the Bombshell (or vice versa). Any time there’s a shy girl who turns out to be highly sexual, it’s actually just a simplified form of “what you see isn’t always what you get.” Though they are now recurring, even stereotypical concepts in fiction, their basis is in the trends of what most people want in their entertainment, at least as it pertains to female characters.

Granted, otaku are not “most people” in Japan or any other country in which they (or should I say we) reside. And when non-typical people look at something typical, I think there’s often a desire for something “different,” though perhaps not drastically so. But the line between “different enough” and “too different” is a very personal thing, and I think it’s the area in which disagreements regarding the validity of moe characters arises.

Bag + Coat

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Joke of a Day

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“Kana Middle Sister”

The Idiotic Protagonist

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I’ve been taught that the most dramatic stories come from having protagonists who have to do what comes most difficult to them with a fervent desire to accomplish their goals, and lacking intelligence is one way to stack the deck against the main character. You want your hero to struggle, to earn his progress. Protagonists in manga, particularly shounen manga, are often designed to not be the sharpest tool around. Be it Naruto, Goku, or any number of heroes who act before they think (or omit the second part of that combo altogether), the reason why they’re made to be dumb is to make them more of an everyman, to tell its readers, “Hey, this could be you.” However, with some readers an opposite effect occurs, and you’ll often see people gravitate to the supporting characters on account of the heroes being, at least in their eyes, bland or possessing little merit as characters.

In trying to make the hero an everyman, authors run the potential risk of making their hero a no-man, someone to whom the reader simply cannot relate, but I don’t think that’s the problem at hand. I have this feeling that some readers do not wish to see certain negative traits in a story’s most important characters. Sometimes it’s because they’re passive, other times because they’re idiots, and other times because they are totally moe.

There’s a division of sorts when it comes to making this kind of shounen-esque protagonist. Should you have a protagonist that acts as a stand-in for the reader, to allow the reader to be immersed in the world, to feel as if he or she is the one saving the day? Or is it more important that the hero be someone who is already skilled, someone the reader can look up to? Both are paths for readers to live out their fantasies through protagonists, both are forms of wish-fulfillment, but each is different in the types of interaction required by the reader, and people may prioritize one over the other.

I have to wonder if age of the reader factors into this division of stand-in protagonist vs larger-than-life protagonist. The stand-in protagonist is something that I think appeals more to that crowd of boys 12 and under who run around in the school playground pretending they can fire lasers. Meanwhile, the larger-than-life protagonist seems to appeal more to the rebellious teenage crowd. A magazine like Shounen Jump has readers well beyond its originally intended audience of young boys, and disagreements as to what makes a good main character in a shounen series may simply be a result of different groups reading the same story.

Non-fans, get out

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This is a somewhat personal rant that expands upon something I mentioned in my New York Anime Festival review, something that I’ve seen rear itself in multiple situations that I’ve encountered, and one that I feel I need to speak about.

At conventions one can see all varieties of fans, young and old, old and new, from all parts of the world and with different degrees and types of fandom along with sub-fandoms within fandoms. And it is at a convention that one can meet others and possibly become friends (or maybe more), meeting on the common ground of having passion for a particular subject. You can even end up having brief flings or one night stands at a convention and there’s nothing wrong with that. But to use the trappings of fandom, to pretend to be a fan for your own personal gain is something I cannot stand.

I am also not defining anime fan by number of shows watched, manga read, fanfics written, or what-have-you. I am defining fandom as I have in the past as having a passion for something, and even then I am not saying you need a sufficient amount of passion to qualify as a fan. Being a fan is a very personal thing. For that matter, I’m even fine with people who went to Akihabara after Densha Otoko came out, people who just wanted to see what was going on, who were maybe curious as to see what the fuss was all about. The breaking point comes from wanting to simply LOOK like an otaku without beginning to understand what being an otaku is all about.

This is not exclusive to conventions. I meet with a group for Japanese conversation, and there are people who go there not for Japanese conversation but simply to pick up women. The boggling thing about this is that there are plenty of places where people can meet and date and what-not, so why interfere with the task at hand?

The classic example of this situation is the guy who pretends to be Christian and goes to church to, again, pick up women. This is not what a church is for. Maybe your walk with God is strong, or your faith in Christianity is weak, but what you shouldn’t be is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Even if you’re someone who thinks Christianity is stupid and you go to a church just to question people’s beliefs, this is still adhering to yourself and not pretending to be something you’re not.

Through fandom of any sort, be it anime, sci-fi, fantasy, knitting, cooking, football, baseball, pro wrestling, eating contests, I could go on, one can get to know people. It can be a starting point for those uncomfortable with talking to strangers. It can be a source of friends and enemies all the same, but what I want to see is people who act like fans because they are fans, because they genuinely have an interest, big or small, in something. So when I say “Non-fans, get out,” what I mean is that if you go somewhere, and you have an ulterior motive so strong it can hardly be considered “ulterior,” then you need to reconsider whether or not you should be there in the first place.