Now that it’s the end of October and fall finally settling in, it’s time to share my thoughts on anything interesting during the month and of course, thoughts on any anime I decided not to cover.
Supporting Seiyuus in the Age of Covid19
2020 has been a precarious year thanks to Covid19 with failure in leadership, especially in the United States where the response is worse than a huge train wreck. Thanks to the whole pandemic, it’s been very difficult to even to import CD release from Japan because the Japan Post shut down sending of packages to overseas since April.
Recently, Japan Post resumed Air Mail service for non-registered mail, but I wouldn’t trust it due to Postmaster Dejoy sabotaging the USPS. I already lost one package because of his disastrous changes to the USPS.
While Japan Post resumed service for the most part to most countries, it’s not the case with the United States thanks to our failed response. If you haven’t already, mask up and go out to vote now in person if possible or drop off your ballot at your nearest official drop box to get rid of incompetent leadership.
Sadly, the only real option to import anything nowadays to the United States is to use a private courier. such as Fedex, UPS or DHL. Of course, that means your 3000-yen CD will be more like 5500 yen. Yes, I found out myself when I decided to import Ueshama’s 2nd album, Empathy.
With that in mind, this gives me the thought of how to support your favorite voice actors and actresses in the age of Covid19. After all, they suffered from the lack of work thanks to anime being delayed from the pandemic, especially during the spring and summer. You can support them by their social media posts, if they have a social media presence. You can also watch and like their videos, if they have a YouTube channel.
A second way besides importing stuff is buying music digitally. Sure, those Japanese iTunes account credit cost more, but it’s a lot cheaper than paying $25 in shipping for 1 album or a bunch of singles. However, there are some anime related songs that are on the United States iTunes store, which may be something to look at. There is a huge list of anime songs available on the iTunes store.
Also, there is another service, Ototoy, which you can also download Japanese music, even in a lossless format. From my experience, you can find pretty much anything from Pony Canyon and some music from Kings Record. They won’t have everything, but they do have anime music and seiyuu songs. Note that downloading certain songs require a Japanese VPN to purchase and download.
Speaking of which, the inspiration to share some thoughts about this is a post sharing some thoughts about what Ueshama is up to. I must admit, while I do like the characters she voices, but it’s kind of unfortunate that things didn’t work out, especially with the live concert.
リテラチュアのオフショットを公開🎉
今日はMVの川沿いのシーンのオフショットをお届け📷
早朝の撮影でしたが、素敵なシーンが沢山撮れました🙌
イヤリングもとても可愛いのでチェックしてください✨▼リテラチュアMVhttps://t.co/0DaKeolK7Q#上田麗奈 #リテラチュア pic.twitter.com/MkTlZlYPVs
— 上田麗奈 Artist official (@ReinaUeda_Staff) October 25, 2020
I must admit that besides the character roles for the anime I watched. This includes Hoshino Miyako from Wataten,Suzuya Moe from Koisuru Asteroid, Fuura Suzu from Comic Girls, Sekiya Naru from Hayamata. It’s kind of unfortunate that she gets a bit overshadowed from other seiyuu I pay attention to.
Of course, other music from other Seiyuus, most namely Minase Inori, Toyama Nao, TrySail (especially the case with Magia Record), Uchida Maaya, etc. takes away the attention. Even so, I bought her first mini album back in 2017 and I enjoyed it.
Also, I don’t focus too much on Seiyuus on social media and sharing their posts. But with all this working and staying at home, maybe I might pay some attention to the Seiyuu scene in the future.
Magia Record Gallery Mode, Very Disappointing. Fans Finds Solution
As you have known, Aniplex will be pulling plug on Magia Record English server. They eventually extended the deadline to the end of October. They recently rolled out the gallery mode and it’s very disappointing. You can only view the magical girl cards you have and the transformations. Sadly, you can’t view any of their Live 2D models or even replay the stories in the archive, even if you already downloaded them. I don’t expect that much from Aniplex given how they bungled this server.
Thankfully, the fans are stepping up and creating a better version of the archive. Still, it’s amazing what the Magia Record fandom can come up with to fix the shortcomings from Aniplex.
The Scanlation Controversy, Creator Pushed to the Edge and Cancels Series
In the past, it’s clear what stance I take on pirating Manga or reading scanlations in the past. In short, I do not condone it. Scanlations hurt creators since manga volumes are priced less, creators receive less when people turn to scanlations. Sure, unlike anime, manga struggles with the lack of localization for most works mostly because it’s not as popular compared to the former. It’s clear that most people would rather watch media instead of reading them.
This is where scalations hit a fever pitch. In a post written by Krystallina, a mangaka launch a series called Pink Heart Jam. Due to their works being uploaded, the mangaka lost motivation and pulled the plug on the whole thing.
Knowing how much piracy can hurt creators, I really don’t it anymore these days. Instead, I download eBooks of manga through legitimate sites, watch anime through legal streaming sites, and buy CDs or download them to support the Seiyuus or anime that I like.
It’s disheartening to have your works uploaded by someone. Believe it or not, piracy is a double edge sword. While it can in some cases cause some people who buy it, most people do not.
Obviously, these localization issues and some fans not wanting to wait are the issues. However, reading scanlations and defending it is just selfish. After all, artists need to earn money and scanlations really hurt creators who are starting out. Especially in the age of Covid19, this makes earning money off your work very difficult with most people out of work. Not only that, it costs money to create, print and distribute one’s works.
In the end, I would like to see the industry to eventually find a solution to solving the availability of localized releases of manga and light novels in digital formats. If they can provide a good service to either buy eBooks for an affordable price or a subscription service, maybe the impact of scanlation sites will go down.
Thoughts about Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club Episodes 2 – 4
We know that Setsuna or rather, Nana decided to disband the School Idol Club mostly because of what happened to Kasumi. She didn’t like how Setsuna is strict and not focusing too much on cuteness. Not only that, she apparently steals the nameplate sign for the club only to have the club disbanded. Either way, Kasumi is not giving up.
The third episode is the big bombshell episode. Yes, the former members find out that Setsuna is Nana. I guess this is bound to happen. Still, it’s nice to see Yu try to convince Nana to not give up her school idol dream. Sure, Nana felt frustrated that she upset Kazumi that caused her to disband the group. Thankfully, she gives it another try thanks to her. Still, it’s obvious that Yu is good at creating her own harem. She already has Ayumu and Kasumi already.
Lastly, we have the fourth episode, mostly about Ai, although Ai and Rina join the reestablished club. They also do some training and of course Kasumi gave a quiz. Also, we have some hints that perhaps the newly formed club won’t go for the usual 9-member idol unit. Still, Ai doesn’t know what to do in the school idol club since she used to be part of sports club, which primarily focused on playing games with rules. Eventually, she found the answer thanks to Emma that her positiveness is what the newly established clubs need after what happened.
Overall, while I don’t have much to say about Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, it’s a different and enjoyable take compared to the past two seasons. Also, it’s nice to see the girls having their own solo performance as well instead of the whole group performing. After all, the group formations are 4/3/2 in a part of the bigger franchise. Still, I wonder how the rest of the developments will play out as the girls figure out how to approach the reestablished club. We’ll find out more in the next four episodes.
Nevertheless, it’s interesting to find out the reason why Nana hide her idol identity through another identity. Yes, she is the student council president and she think it’s unusual for one to also be an idol. Then again, Dia and Eli doesn’t seem to care. Maybe it’s because being a secret school idol seems cool? Maybe. Still, I find it funny how Setsuna doesn’t seem to care now about Kasumi borrowing her glasses without permission.
With that, feel free to share your thoughts on the topics I shared this month. As always, we have done these posts since June. These posts come out towards the end of each month. Feel free to check them out:
- June 2020 (Initial Start)
- July 2020
- August 2020
- September 2020
- October 2020
