The Otaku Diaries and the Social Otaku

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February’s Otaku Diaries entry over at Reverse Thieves explores otaku and socialization in all its forms, whether it be hanging with friends after school or work, or chatting with them online. It should be no surprise that the friends otaku tend to find online are fellow otaku; after all, you don’t “bump into” people on the internet, but rather typically seek out like-minded people, or at the very least ones who can understand your interests.

I still remember the first time I had access to real (non-AOL) internet. The first thing I did? Look for websites about my favorite video game, NiGHTS into dreams… I always figured that I was the one and only fan of SEGA’s greatest game, so imagine my pleasant surprise when I found out there was an entire online community devoted to NiGHTS. Of course I joined, and it provided me some great memories (as well as some drama, which was perhaps inevitable). Memories are mainly what they are though, as I don’t really keep up with anyone from that period in my internet life. Still, I remember the joy of being able to actually talk to fellow fans from all around the world and revel in our mutual love of purple flying jesters. It reminds me of when I first started using e-mail, when I was so excited to use it that every night I would write up a bunch of thoughts and send them to friends and acquaintances and classmates.

Some might argue that the fact that online friendships tend to start from just liking the same thing makes them particularly flimsy , while others might give the counterpoint that sharing that common ground can make online friends as close if not closer than “real world” friends, especially if those internet buddies are more comfortable opening themselves up through chatting than through speaking. Of course, the line blurs when online friends meet in real life, or close real life friends interact mainly online, and evidently blurring lines are getting more and more commonplace. Personally, I’ve met some of my closest friends from online, and I have friends dear to me that I’ve met in the real world too. At that point, the internet is mainly a tool and it’s up to the person how they use it, whether it becomes a way of connecting with others, or a method of disguise and insulation.

I’d like to make an aside at this point and clarify something I said in the Otaku Diaries response I made about relationships. There I said that sharing a hobby makes for a “weak and flimsy foundation” for a relationship, and some took it as me saying that finding someone because you both like anime is no good. What I really meant was that I think sharing a hobby makes for an excellent starting point, and even provides some mutual understanding, but that it cannot be the cornerstone of a relationship, which is instead built on trust and compassion for each other. I hope that clears everything up.

Now another interesting point that came up is the question of whether or not the participants had ever tried to bring others into anime, and the response was for the most part a resounding “yes.” This I think links directly into that desire of wanting people with whom you can share your hobby. What’s more intriguing, however, is a comment someone made.

Is it really right to assume that 75% of respondents actively trying to draw in new anime viewers is a good thing?

What we have here is the idea that bringing in new anime fans to the fold might be a mistake. Think about that: once upon a time everyone would have agreed that trying to draw in new anime viewers was a good thing, even if fans might not agree on who they thought was good to draw in. I think that the very idea that the desire to introduce others to anime might somehow  be detrimental to anime and its fandom speaks volumes about where we are at the moment, this state of being more widely accepted and yet still very much niche, even if it’s just one person’s opinion.

Is it really right to assume that 75% of respondents actively trying to draw in new anime viewers is a good thing?

Shinnikuman

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I don’t think anyone out there expected this, but there is actually a new volume of the Kinnikuman manga out. Released on the 29th of January, this manga is not Kinnikuman II or variations thereof, but an all-new release of the original series. Kinniku Suguru, not Kinniku Mantarou, is the star of Volume 37.

The time between this release and the previous one? Over 20 years! That’s some Glass Mask-level release schedule! Though to be fair Kinnikuman actually ended its story, and this I assume is just Gravyman.

I haven’t read it myself yet, but it is available for order on sites such as Kinokuniya.

If you’re unfamiliar with Kinnikuman, I recommend you check out my review, which lays out just how much a series like Kinnikuman wouldn’t really fly in today’s shounen environment. Still, I hope Kinnikuman Volume 37 proves me wrong.

The Personal Side of Giant Robot Fighting: Shinkon Gattai Godannar

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When it comes to Shinkon Gattai Godannar, everyone’s first impression is this:


Exhibit A

Followed by this:


Exhibit B

And they’re definitely right in that Godannar contains both, but unfortunately those are the only things they notice, and will often-times write the series off as trash. I’m here to tell you, however, that while those two elements featured above are ever-present, to the point that you’ll be seeing them invariably in every episode, what you see isn’t necessarily what you get. I want to try and set the record straight, even though I’m well aware that it is in many ways a futile effort and that Godannar is just about the most difficult show to convince people to watch who aren’t enticed by Exhibits A and B.

If it sounds like I’m being defensive, it’s because I am. It’s just that I know how difficult its shell can be to penetrate, and I’m tired of people writing the show off as some vapid exercise in fanservice. Don’t get me wrong, the girls in this show are hot, with character designs by Kimura Takahiro of Gaogaigar, Betterman, and Code Geass fame, but they only scratch the surface of what’s really there.

Aoi Anna is a 17 year old girl who is the target of affection of every guy at her school. She’s beautiful, buxom, has a great personality, and is a match for anyone when it comes to physical competition. But while many girls her age are dating, Anna already has a fiancee. And while many teenagers are only beginning to consider their future, Annas already has a goal: to become a giant robot pilot. Her husband meanwhile is Saruwatari Gou, a man widely respected as the greatest robot pilot ever known.

Gou, however, is not a hot-blooded, gung-ho, never-say-die teenager, but rather a 30+ battle-scarred veteran able to temper his ferocious passion in battle with experience and foresight. He once lost the love of his life, a casualty of his life’s duty as the world’s greatest pilot, and has sworn to never let it happen again. With the aid of giant robot teams from all over the world, Anna and Gou must defend humanity by piloting the mighty robot “Godannar” while also living together as a newlywed couple.

Godannar is a very atypical giant robot anime, something which becomes more and more apparent as the show goes on. For example, the enemy in Godannar is a race of grotesque creatures of unknown origins known as the “Mimetic Beasts,” and that is all you ever learn about them. They are not Dr. Hell or Zeon or the Vajra, they do not have a mysterious past to delve into or personalities to hate. Instead, the real function of the Mimetic Beasts is to act as a backdrop for the characters to develop their relationships and grow.

While the show features robots prominently, its real focus is on characters and romance and on the relationships and bonds that develop between comrades-in-arms, instead of the conflict, politics, and the character development through antagonism that you usually see in giant robot shows, real or super. It is a more personal look at the men and women who defend the planet by jumping in steel golems and punching aliens.

Yes, if you watch Godannar you’ll be getting a faceful of cameltoe on a regular basis, but if you think the show is going to be about a guy who walks into girls changing and then gets punched through the roof, then I am glad to correct your mistake. Unlike what you might expect out of a typical fanservice anime, the men and women of Godannar barely bat an eyelash at the skintight suits and giant breasts which populate every scene, as if such scenery is merely commonplace in the world of the future. Instead, the only female characters to whom the men of Godannar react to are the ones they care for the most, which only reinforces the true theme of the series: love.

And through it all, particularly with the sexual aspect of the character designs, what may be most surprising of all is how strong the female characters are in Godannar. Not only are they on equal terms with their male counterparts, being every bit as capable on the battlefield as the guys, but they are also full of confidence, intelligence, and compassion, and never are they forced into the role of the damsel. There are no Aphrodai A’s to rescue, and for that matter no Boss Borots to bumble along to reinforce the idea of how strong Mazinger Z is. Each character and each robot pulls their weight in the heat of battle, and every relationship is equal, even if they may at first appear otherwise.

Godannar can be a difficult show to approach and to get past that initial impression of boobs and metal, but if you want to see a show with very good characterization and relationship development which also plays with the common tropes of anime to create a stronger story overall, then I think you should check it out. I know that the series is not for everyone, and for those who are not as familiar with super robots the clever subversion of the genre which occurs in Godannar may be lost or a non-issue, but I think many more people would enjoy the series than are willing to give it a chance.

OEL Screentone Revelations!

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Long before Tokyopop started pushing the concept of “Original English Language Manga,” or “OEL” for short, something about western attempts at creating “manga” really bothered me, and not for any philosophical reasons. Something always felt off about the artwork, and I just couldn’t pinpoint why. Initially, I thought that it might be because the artists had no idea how to  draw “manga characters,” but I realized that couldn’t be the case, because 100 people drawing big eyes and small mouths “incorrectly,” so to speak, should result in 100 different ways to look not-quite-right. No, the thing that bothered me was something more consistent across the idea of “OEL” before it was called OEL. It had to be a shared trait.

Then last year while looking at OEL, something hit me: for some reason I was being bothered by the screentones. Again however, I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. I just knew it was something having to do with screentones. In fact, the initial draft of this post is from May of 2009, where the only contents of it was the title of the post, which read “BAD SCREENTONES.”

Finally though, through the keen of eye of the Reverse Thief Narutaki, my suspicions have been confirmed, and I now fully understand why OEL screentones had been bothering me so. I really recommend you read the article, but for the sake of summary: According to Narutaki, in manga, screentone is generally used for patterns or to pull elements into the background of a panel with shading primarily done in ink, but in OEL screentone is more often used for shading and used to excess, which ends up flattening the image.

I feel so relieved!

But this information brought with it a new question: Why is it, if OEL is trying to be like manga (which we all know it is), that it does something that manga almost never does, i.e. use screentone to shade to excess? There are very few examples from manga that would fuel this mass assumption on the part of these artists, after all.

That lead to another revelation: maybe the source of this trend wasn’t “manga” at all, but something closely related. Anime!

Anime is where you will find manga-style characters with some degree of shading, even if it’s a single tone to show a simple fold in their clothing. I can only conclude that the reason OEL shading looks the way it does is because the artists were influenced by the shading methods seen in animation, and then applied these methods to manga where they are in actuality quite foreign despite the fact that anime and manga are so closely related.


Ogiue Chika RANDOM STRANGER AT A DOUJIN EVENT

This is no surprise to me, as anime and manga are often spoken of in the same breath. Heck, I’m no exception, and you will often see me choosing one word or the other when referring to both, as after a while it gets irritating to write “anime and manga” every time instead of just “anime.” Still, it is a very good reminder that as similar as anime and manga are, they also possess a number of unique differences beyond the fact that one is animated and the other is not.

A Convenient Metaphor for You Anime Fans to Remember

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Fanservice is like chocolate.

Sure you might like it, perhaps even a lot, and sometimes it’s just the thing you’re looking for. But you can’t live off of chocolate alone, and any attempts to do so will only end in agony. Similarly, fanservice can be a welcome addition to anime, but if all the anime consists of is tits and ass, then it’s not going to be a complete, well-rounded experience.

Which isn’t to say you should never watch fanservice shows; it’s just that the satisfaction you get from marathoning To-LOVE-Ru is as fleeting as the one you get from gorging on a box of Russel-Stover.


If you want fanservice and a well-rounded show, go with Godannar.

Curry at Donburiya: Sauce and Rice, to the Next Level

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Let it be known that I am a proponent of curry. I’ve written many times about the fabulous Go Go Curry, but whether it’s Thai, Indian, Chinese, Malaysian, Caribbean, you name it, if you’ve got a curry dish then I want to try it. Still, there’s a special place in my heart for Japanese-style curry. In fact, all those Chinese-run sushi places that sprung up over the past decade? I think they should be making curry instead.

It is my delight then to discover that a place I’d already gone to for quality donburi (bowls filled with rice and other ingredients, generally some kind of meat + egg), the aptly named “Donburiya,” also houses a fantastically good curry as well.

I’ve talked before about how Go Go Curry differs from most Japanese curries in that its flavor is much bolder than the norm, and Donburiya’s curry is similar in the sense that it seems to have a more complex and spicier flavor than what I’ve come to expect, but without being “intense,” with layers of subtlety underlying the more immediate spiciness. The rice itself is on par with what they serve normally, which is to say “perfectly done” and the “hamburg” I ordered with it was very juicy, and the diced onion in the hamburg was in no way overwhelming.  If you’re not familiar with Japanese hamburg, it’s something akin to a salisbury steak or a meatloaf more than it is an actual hamburger patty. I also did not feel like I got cheated out of any hamburg at all as it was quite a hefty piece of meat.

That said, it’s also a sit-down restaurant so you have to pay tip, the dish itself costs more than what you’d get at Go Go Curry, and at the end of the day I think I prefer Go Go Curry overall just because it hits harder and I absolutely love the roux there.  Overall though, the biggest hurdles for curry at Donburiya are the donburi, and I’d advise everyone to try out those before they tackle the curry dishes, or for that matter the ochazuke (rice mixed with green tea or some kind of broth), which also by the way is delicious.

Basically what I’m saying is that you pretty much can’t lose at Donburiya, and if you’re looking a curry that’s more refined than what you’d get at Go Go Curry, I’d recommend this place in a heartbeat.

Stop Taking Anime Openings Off of Youtube

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Ever since Shin Mazinger, I’ve noticed that it’s been getting harder and harder to find anime openings and endings on Youtube. Oddly enough however, the song uploads themselves on Youtube go relatively unchecked.

What gives? I mean, I know the anime companies are getting more concerned about protecting their properties and preventing piracy, but I feel like having the openings on Youtube were some of the best ways to get people to notice shows both new and old. Why can’t fans keep their minute and thirty seconds of Durarara! opening from getting removed? It’s not like they’re entire episodes or even clips from the actual episodes themselves! There, I could see their point of contention, but I feel like this is different. I just want to show someone how cool an opening is without having them load the stream for an entire episode on Crunchyroll. Heck, they even do it for some decades-old shows! I’m tiring of this ham-fisted approach.

Basically, if companies are taking openings off of Youtube, I at the very least would like them to upload it themselves so that we may continue to enjoy it and they can continue to send copyright violation letters.

Stealthman

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This time in my own personal attempt at creating a set of Robot Masters I present to you Stealthman.

Stealthman, unlike Novaman, is not a product of my youth as an avid gamer but rather a recent idea. His gimmick, like all Megaman bosses, is in his name and as such I incorporated “stealth” design elements acccordingly.

The key features of Stealthman are the tapered edges all along his body, as well as his thin limbs which are unusual as far as Megaman bosses go. All of this is based on the principle that stealth aircraft are thin to avoid detection and lack rounded edges because those bounce back radar signals more easily. Now I know his design isn’t actually stealth-worthy what with him being a robot whose head is jutting out and all that, but it was more to give him the trappings of stealthiness. Also, if you’re wondering about the feet, he floats.

In battle, Stealthman would naturally cloak himself to avoid detection and then shoot bombs at you. Out of those two weapons, Megaman would be getting the “Stealth Cloak.” With it, Megaman would be able to slip by those enemies which tend to react to his presence, such as Mettools and any homing weapons. It would drain meter similar to Flashman’s Time Stopper except you’d be able to switch out of the weapon at any time. Megaman would be able to still fire while Stealth Cloak is in effect, but perhaps at a reduced capacity.

As for the sprite itself, it took quite a few tries in terms of color scheme to really match up to the drawing I made, but I think it turned out well in the end.

GONZO on Super Street Fighter IV, I Think They’ll Be All Right

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In creating the same-numbered sequel to Street Fighter IV known as Super Street Fighter IV, Capcom has opted to ditch acclaimed animation studio 4C in favor of GONZO to do the anime accompaniment to the game.

“Wait, GONZO? You mean those guys who ran out of money and weren’t even allowed to do Strike Witches Season 2?” Yes, those guys, but when you think about it they’re a really good fit for Street Fighter IV. Production IG would’ve been better, but you can’t have it all.

Let’s first get out of the way the fact that the Studio 4C Street Fighter IV anime was pretty terrible, and much less than what we’d expect out of a studio which prides itself on its creative animation. Looking back, it’s easy to see that it was simply the wrong studio for the job. Illustrating muscley men (and women!) beating each other up is not really 4C’s thing. GONZO on the other hand is quite good at it.

GONZO utilizes a certain style when animating for international audiences, one that combines the basic aesthetics of “anime” with a very American and masculine idea of “cool,” with the most prominent example being Afro Samurai, and that style just so happens to mesh well with Street Fighter IV ‘s. Looking at it relative to the rest of the series, SFIV looks the least like anime out of any of the games ever, and it’s a style that appeals to an audience that also consists of people who don’t like anime (or their image of anime) too much. It’s 3D, it’s “realistic” in an American comic book sort of way even if we’ve got some weird character designs, and it’s close to how GONZO rolls and vice-versa. If you don’t believe me, check out the trailer.

GONZO’s weakness as a studio has generally been utilizing money poorly and mediocre to poor direction on their shows leading to bad endings. But give GONZO enough money for the job and they’ll turn out something pretty-looking for sure. That’s why I predict that this GONZO SSFIV animation will turn out well. First, this is game industry money after all, and even if it’s feeling the effects of the recession it’s still faring better than the anime industry, and they’d be able to at least fund a one-shot bonus feature. Second, this anime will probably be a mere setup for the game itself, so there’s no need for an ending and thus no conclusion to sabotage. And even if there was an ending, it’s not too hard to predict. In fact, I’ll spoil the ending for you: Ryu punches Seth, everybody wins.

All in all, I don’t think it’s going to be the pinnacle of Japanese animation, but it’ll definitely get the job done.

I Played Mahjong with Real People and Also Ate Potato Crisps

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When it comes to playing mahjong, I am a very recent convert. I’m not good by any stretch of the imagination and I generally make bad decisions, but it’s generally fun and I like the way the game gives you the ability to make constant decisions so that you don’t feel entirely subject to the whims of fate and luck while  still incorporating those very same aspects into the game itself. But as fun as it’s been, I knew I had been missing out on the full experience by playing only against people online and against Char Aznable on my DS.

Then fortune struck. Sub of Subatomic Brainfreeze (aka Dave of Colony Drop), himself a newbie in the wild world of mahjong, notified me that someone was holding a live gathering in the NYC area to play reach mahjong, i.e. the Japanese style of mahjong used in all anime and manga. And so we decided to hit it up, see how we stacked up against these other players who more likely than not had far more experience than we did.

The first thing I noticed was just how tiny the Japanese mahjong tiles are. They are significantly smaller than Chinese tiles, almost to the point of being cute. The second thing I noticed was that playing live is awesome.

Having played against real people with real mahjong tiles at a real mahjong table while eating real Pringles, I have to say that I much prefer it to online mahjong. On a basic level, it’s like playing video games with people next to you on the couch instead of playing against them through X-Box Live. But more than that, I loved the feel of the tiles and the way in which I had to manually pick them up and discard them.

I also loved how there was more to go by than just people’s tiles, like their energy; I’m definitely no Akagi Shigeru, but I think anyone can appreciate that element of the game.

Speaking of Akagi, it turns out that almost everyone there had learned how to play reach mahjong because they saw the anime. Basically, everyone was a nerd and that is definitely an environment to which I’m accustomed. I’m waiting for the people who got into mahjong because of Saki to start arriving.

In the end, I played two games total, one East-only game, and an East-South game that was aborted early due to time constraints, getting second place in the first game and first in the second, scoring a few decent hands and calling, “Pon!” and, “Chi!” with gusto. Knowing my results you might think that I was being modest when I said I wasn’t good, but I really do mean it. I don’t know how to score, I can’t do multi-sided waits, and a lot of it I would chalk up to luck. Next time I play, I’m likely going to end up in last place. But that’s the way mahjong rolls, and it’ll still be fun as hell.