Editorials

AniTourney Review Part 2 (Day 4-6) Digest

April 24, 2010 by Chikorita157 3 Comments

No, really... I find reviewing blogs fun...

Going to do this digest today since I got bored and just wanted to review more Anime Blogs. Will be using the iPad Simulator’s Mobile Safari (still based on Webkit) instead taking a screencap of every window because of the inconsistent window sizes and blogs should be designed for a 1024×768 resolution. No ands and buts. Now onto the blog reviews…

Day 4

Match 7

A Product of Wasted Time

A Product of Wasted Time (an episodic blog) has a good layout design, pretty easy to navigate and such, except the large number of ads… well besides from that, the author seems to have decent content and frequently updates (from the number of posts made on the Archives). How about what the competitor is doing?
chaostangent

Chaostangent has a unique design which is very clean, appealing and original (the bottom shows his Last.fm, Youtube and Flickr profiles). His approach of blogging some can view as pretty good as he takes three episodes and write about them and afterwards, write a review in the end of the show’s running, which is pretty unique. Also, he posts rather frequently, so although some say it was a hard choice, the match goes to Chaostangent.
Match 8

見ないで! ひとり言 (mi nai de ! hitori gen)

The duo blog from jpmeyer and Hinano… who seems to RAEG a lot or focus too much on the negative. The overall design of the blog is good. Depending on the person, you may find the raeg funny or maybe not as your milage may vary. The notable feature from this blog is jpmeyer’s “what i was forced to watch this week” posts that many can find amusing, although lacking in some quality…
Caraniel’s Ramblings

Unlike the former blog, Caraniel’s Ramblings is less on the RAEG and negativity and more on the actual content. Comparing post quality, it seems that this blog is a little bit more higher quality than the former although the banner should of be design better, but the vote goes to this one as they seem to update more frequently, have better content and less RAEG…
Day 4 Results

chaostangent and Caraniel’s Ramblings
Day 5

Match 9
Just as Planned

Just as Planned has a clean and simple layout. The only flaw that I see with the layout is that the archives are missing. How I supposed to check older posts. The author posts fairly often and the author’s post seems to be very descriptive and high quality and is mostly an episodic blog…
Moe Check

Moe Check has a really good design and really navigable. Although the posts are good quality, the problem is the author seems to post infrequently, which slowly lessen the lead with design sadly. If only the author have posted a little more every month, it would get my vote, but the vote has to go to Just as Plan because the author of that blog posts far more often while maintaining good quality posts.

As the name say, Moe Check, the content is pretty persistent with that.
Match 10

Rainbowsphere

Rainbowsphere is very passionate with its eroge and hentai so much there is a post saying that he is not ashamed of his porno… Something that will turn me off (no, I have nothing against porno, eroge or such, but I find it… gross). The main problem with the blog is that it hasn’t seen an update since March 8th, which is almost like a month and being updated very infrequently, the chances of voting for it is very slow. The navigation is awkward compared to other blogs that have next and previous page on the bottom of the index of blog posts. The author should consider fixing that as well so that it will be easier to navigate towards pages and such.
JanaiBlog

Besides the fact that Janai on Twitter nagging about people not using licensed anime sources and this drama on twitter that causing myself and my friend on twitter to unfollow him (no offense) because of this reason… this shouldn’t be the big thing to be against of the blog because of something that happens on twitter. The design is pretty appealing, clean and navigable. The blogger focus primarily on the Anime scene mainly in America, so he focuses on issues that pertain to America and also Anime Cons and such… not that I would be interested in. The blogger also posts fairly frequently, so the advantage is clear… despite the shenanigans that happens on Twitter on theme design and productivity.
Day 5 Results

Just as Planned and JanaiBlog
Day 6

Match 11

Canne’s anime review blog

I seriously think the blogger needs to put more effort on the images as it look like something that came from MS Paint or something (hint: Use GIMP, Paint.net or Photoshop (If you can afford it). Besides from the fact of that, the content doesn’t reflect that at all. The posts are fairly good quality, but the blogger should really update more often! At least the author posts a few posts every month, I guess…Besides from that, the layout is clean and navigable.
COLONY DROP

I can say that the post quality is around the same as the former and they don’t update often. However, don’t like their design and what with this advertisement for Funimation… Ugh… I think I will vote for the underdog, Canne’s anime review blog. Also, they are missing archive links to older posts.
Match 12

Beta-Waffle

Although the color scheme and layout of Beta-Waffle is ugh, the content on the blog is pretty unique. They post comics that have to relate to Anime and such that they are funny… Only thing they should really improve is the theme and it will be all good.
bananaMuffin

bananaMuffin has a very appealing design to the eye and easy to navigate and has good quality posts and author posts fairly often… I don’t know… This is a tough decision… so what do you decide I should pick on this round? Its up to you now. The one that gets the most votes by next Monday is the one I will be voting for…

[poll id=”11″]
Day 6 Results

Canne’s anime review blog and Match 12 to be decided bananaMuffin.

Okay, this wraps up the long blog digest… Now, vote for what I should vote for on Match 12 and I’ll be on my way. Next digest will be posted on Tuesday with another 12 blogs to review.

Category: EditorialsTag: aniblog tourney, editorial, opinion

Anime and Japanese Music… and Favorite Artists

April 22, 2010 by Chikorita157 7 Comments

wpid-18648f0c31a0e0cb22fcd70d823533ae-300x240-2010-04-22-23-21.jpg — This is what I rather do than go to classes. :p

Like with most bloggers and such, I don’t spend all my time watching anime and such, but do other things like posting on AnimeSuki, tweeting, playing video games, writing editorial posts on my blog and even program stuff. For that, I need music to occupy myself while I am on my laptop. Even on the go, I will listen to music sometimes with my headphones with my iPhone 3GS, which doubles as a iPod. Since my return to watching Anime, my music collection was small, but it grew and grew as time went by… and I think I got what artists I seem to like personally… You don’t have to agree, but here they are (no specific order)
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Category: EditorialsTag: music, opinion

AniTorney Review Part 1 (Day 1-3) Digest

April 22, 2010 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

Now I have some time, I will begin to review Anime Blogs from Day 1 to 3. This means 12 blogs in total. As mentioned before, I will be reviewing the blogs from these criterias listed in this post.

Before going on, this review Digest will contain screenshots of the actual website and how they look on my machine, so slow connections, beware… I’m basing all content on quality, not the blogger’s overall opinion on issues and stuff.
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Category: EditorialsTag: aniblog tourney, editorial, fandom, opinion

Angel Beats! – Episode 2 Thoughts and Impressions

April 21, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

wpid-wpid-shot0001-angelbeats-ep2.EhNInUdwFCq5-2010-04-21-19-59.jpg — Time for our next big plan...

Nevertheless… this remains really interesting…

In continuation of this episode, the mission is to restock on weapons from the Guild underground. To get there, they need to get through the traps that are meant to repel Tenshi. Besides the “it’s a TRAP!” (not with boys crossdressing as a girl, but actual traps) moments that includes but not limited to a hammer, a laser trap that cuts your body (don’t worry, it doesn’t actually harm them after all), pitfall trap, big rolling bolder, falling ceiling, you name it! It is quite funny how some of these characters fell for these traps that I laughed… Well since they are immortal after all and only causes a lot of pain. Of course, our main character sees some, well you know for the first time and Yuri going all tsundere… well, dere with the blushing…

wpid-wpid-shot0002-angelbeats-ep2.Eeyn3AiJwZ08-2010-04-21-19-59.jpg — Nice and happy family... Too bad something bad happened to them. 🙁

And then, there is this flashback which is on the verge of tearjerking sad…. The robbers decide to break into her house and nearly wiped out the whole family. Yuri tries to find something they would want, but fails to bring down the large pot since she slipped down stairs and started to bleed. Along with that, she is the leader simply because she rebelled against Tenshi first. Soon, they arrive at the guild and she decides to shut it down since Tenshi already found out and wanted to destroy all the knowledge and then rebuild the guild elsewhere. The workers start with preparation to demolish the guild and Tenshi got there. Otonashi and Yuri stand Tenshi off until the workers finally donated the TNT to blow up the guild, although the cannon was a complete failure.

wpid-wpid-shot0003-angelbeats-ep2.lOS6a8FywAiB-2010-04-21-19-59.jpg — BOOM! The whole thing will be gone within minutes.

Overall, this episode still made me rather interested in the show. Although the pacing is a little off, I think it will get better in the later episodes. Except for some scenes in the flashback, the animation was a improvement over the last episode and looked more appealing. It seems that they finally got the OP and the ED done with song and animation, which looked and sound amazing. About the OP, of course it sounded a little different compared to other songs that Lia sung (yes, I listen to alot of her songs, not only her Anime songs as seen on Last.fm), but it’s is rather mature… The ED sounded rather peaceful and yes, this is what I got from it. It is obvious that P.A. Works is trying to push to become like Kyoto Animation as always. Anyways, I can’t wait for the next episode…
Verdict

8.4/10

Category: EditorialsTag: comedy, drama, key, PA Works

From OEG to the AniBlog Tourney… How it will help the AniBlogosphere and my Review Process.

April 20, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Back in November of last year, as you recall, there was this troll game called the “Otaku Elimination Game” that well RAEG about blogs and give no incentive to improve and also discouraged people in improving their blogs with their faux RAEG. Yes, I have written about the OEG back in November where I was against it. Several months later… the Otaku Elimination Game died off since they probably were fresh out of ideas and some of the blogs they were reviewing were not even Anime Blogs…

Now, fast forward to April 2010 and Scamp, the author of the The Cart Driver decided on doing a ISML type of contest with Anime Blogs where readers decide which blog is better. In some ways, there is a difference from the OEG since it’s not biased. It can encourage bloggers to improve their blogs from suggestions from readers and attract attention to a rather unknown blog. Sure, it is a popularity contest to some extent, but readers should pay more attention to the content, layout and design and functionality. I will be looking at blogs during this time to review them and see what I think about them on my sideblog. I will be reviewing them on the following:
Layout/Design

The layout is perhaps the most important for an Anime blogger or any type of blogger. This means the banner image and how the blog looks like a whole matters. The problem I see with some blogs is that they use a very common theme, which causes a lack if originality and such. I think most won’t have a problem with themes, although a few may. Another thing is banner images and how creative and how much effort a person puts in. In consideration, blogs with extremely big banners above 200 px in height isn’t a very good idea since not everyone has high resolution screens (such as mobile devices and laptops) and cause people have to scroll down even more just to look at the content. (the website should be designed for a screen with a resolution of 1024×768 as a bare minimum.)

Accessibility is another issue. How accessible is your blog on mobile devices? Devices such as the iPhone, Android and Blackberries are commonly used by people who want to browse websites on the go. With a lack of a mobile accessible theme such as WPTouch or Wordpress Mobile Pack, readers who want to read something on your website may have a hard time browsing your website and reading your content since they now have to do more zooming and stuff to read the text.

Navigation is the last issue I’m checking in layout and design. How easy is it to navigate your website. With a bare minimum, a blog should have categories/tags and also the archive which contains links to posts made in a specific month. Some readers may be interested in viewing posts in a specific month without needing to go to the next page to read posts that were made last month.
Content

Another important aspect is content. How much effort you put into making your posts and what kind of posts you make on your blog. I don’t care if it is an episodic, editorial blog or both, as long the content is good and the vast majority is related to Anime. Also, frequency matters as well. Posting only a few posts a month will make me less interested in your blog because of the lack of new content. Also, if a blog have a history of having too many hiatuses, I will view that the blogger isn’t putting too much effort in his blog and make me uninterested.

Quality also matters too. Publishing a lot of posts does not always equate to quality posts. As they all say, Quantity over Quality can degrade the blog as a whole, although I have seen blogs that publish posts frequently and have high quality and/or entertaining posts. Things like grammar and spelling is important since readers may get turned off by your posts if too many grammar/spelling mistakes are made. If you are unsure if you have made grammar and/or spelling mistakes, use a Spell Checker and read over your post before publishing it.

RAEG blogs, depending on the content can also be viewed poorly, unless the Anime itself is not good. RAEGing just to get attention to attract a mob of angry fans will not fly with me.
Conclusion

Besides the popularity aspect, I think the tournament will be a lot more helpful than faux raeg from the now defunct OEG. This is an opportunity for bloggers alike if they don’t win a round to improve their blogs upon the readers suggestions and make it so it will be more presentable for readers. Constructive criticism is key to encourage the bloggers to take upon the suggestions to improve their blog and the blogosphere as a whole.

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, opinion

AniBlog Tournament, The ISML of Anime Blogs

April 17, 2010 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

From my surprise, someone felt like doing something that the Anime Blogosphere haven’t done before… an ISML (International Saimoe League) like tournament, but instead with moe female characters, now with Anime Blogs and we are listed. As they say, if you want a blog to win, you have to campaign… so this is what I’m doing right now.
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Category: EditorialsTag: update

Is the Anime Fandom really getting Dumber? Not Really but…

April 17, 2010 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

It have been awhile since I have written a long line of editorials… but I think this is a pretty good question. This topic came to attention when I saw that thread on AnimeSuki. Haven’t said that. it depends. As most know, I have been a fan of Anime for a long time since the first anime production I seen from Studio Gibli, this is when I step foot into the Anime World. as more of these shows shown on TV, my interest for it went up. It wasn’t until High School that I started watching more, so I’m not exactly a new fan of Anime, it was something that was on and off, but never loss interest in. I have never participated in any Anime Clubs while I was in High School and still continued not to after my sister joined one in fall semester in college and well, not going on well and she stopped attending. Being in the Anime Blogosphere, I have seen less of the dumb part of the fandom and more of the more intelligent bloggers for the most case like to do what they enjoy most, watch anime and write their thoughts on it. Also I participate on AnimeSuki Forums (If you see me, give me a poke…) and Melative that also has a very good amount of intelligent fans who I converse with.

The problem lies in the mainstream Anime forums. AnimeSuki may be popular, but not as much so than Anime News Network and MyAnimeList. There lays the problem as now we are given a vast amount of fans and of course, there are going to be some newbies who are going to have very narrow taste in liking only Naruto and the such and don’t give a damn about other people’s opinion. This is the main reason I do not participate on MyAnimeList forums (except to develop the MAL client) and catalog my anime (until I gotten away from it and now use Melative to catalog everything!). When they see something that isn’t Naruto, they will likely rank it down on purpose… Then again, what is the purpose of rating an anime while its airing. However, the ratings to not stick and only ratings on people who watched the season in whole at the end only counts. Maybe some dissatisfaction perhaps?

The problem I’m seeing is not the fandom as a whole, bit maybe the person. As they all say, tastes are everything and people have shows that they like the most and some they do not like. I admit that I do enjoy most of the stuff I seen, but as recent examples, I have been dissatisfied by Kampfer and Nogizaka Haruka Second Season as a whole because of excessive fanservice, which led me to think that most fanservice anime aren’t that good. Open minded view is a key of balance and giving an anime a fair chance. I have done that for the most part and enjoyed it… maybe not with the case with fanservicy anime since I have been constantly disappointed by how it was brought out. With my dislike to fanservice anime, this come to the point that tastes are different for each fan and changes over time. Say that you initially didn’t like a genre you watch and over time you realized that you actually enjoyed it.

Back to balance and open minded view, newer fans and old should be more open, give a fair judgment and don’t compare shows with other shows. The most recent example with people who are comparing Sora no Woto to K-ON and thinking it’s moeblob anime… The problem with that kind of judgement is that people are warping their view and not looking at the content as a whole. People who think it is K-ON! will probably miss the overlying plot or the complete difference in character design. This is the same who call some anime “moeshit” and all those degrading terms without forgetting it and just watch and enjoy. As long a person become nitpicky at all the flaws and not looking at whats good, it always going to bring a negative view that wouldn’t be if the person didn’t nitpick at every flaw in the title. As my friend said, “Being negative just to RAAAAGE and FFFFFF isn’t funny or clever. Balance is the key to life, and there’s something beautiful even in the ugliest of places.” Unfortunately, I haven’t lived up to that quote since I have been rather negative on other things that are not related to anime. Also, I have seen a small amount of bloggers raeg because they like to bring attention… It’s okay, but it’s pretty obvious that it will bring out the bad of the fandom by disgruntled commenters depending on the content of the post.

Fanboyism is another problem. Rabid Fanboys are annoying no matter how you look at them. They will bash the show they don’t deem to be perfect and praise every aspect of their show even though there are flaws. Acting like a fanboy sadly does not bring any good except getting people annoyed and such and this can apply to anything, not just Anime. This was apparent in the console wars between Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft and Mac vs PCs and believe me, they get really ugly quickly and it is hardly open minded at all.

In conclusion, from what I have seen so far, for the most part the fandom isn’t getting dumb from what I seen. Maybe in other Anime communities and definitely MyAnimeList and ANN. However there are some controversial issues like Anime Licensing and Crunchyroll that brings out the bad of the Anime Fandom, but I tend to ignore it now since I don’t want to get involved, I buy my Anime that are licensed and I want to watch or want to own and it gets rather redundant since I don’t care where it come from, I only care about the content. Besides from that, I think it is a good thing for people to be more open minded on what they watch and stop comparing titles to other anime and write it off as such and such without getting the whole point of the plot or the gist of the whole show. Less RAEG (unless you are doing it for fun) and negativity would be a better goal of improving the fandom and also bring more intelligent discussion on what we love most, watching Anime.

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, fandom, opinion

Fanservice and Nogizaka Haruka, What the hell happened?

March 4, 2010 by Chikorita157 4 Comments

A while back in June 2009, I wrote a lengthy editorial on how fanservice can ruin the overall story of an anime. Well, this becomes a reality with Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu.

I have watch both seasons and the first season was far better besides a few panty shots is that they focused on the over lining purpose of the story. Yuuto and Haruka sweet romance and also her Otaku interest. However, the second season lost it’s purpose completely. Like Kimagure said on Melative, “sweetness replaced by pointless fanservice.” The second season of Nogizaka Haruka just proved what I have said in my editorial I wrote in June of 2009 that adding lots of fanservice makes the over lining story alot worse than it would without the fanservice. All I got from this is more pantyshots, boob groping and other stuff that shouldn’t be in the anime. If I want to watch a fanservice-oriented anime, I would of watched titles like Ladies vs Butlers, Kampfer or even Chu-Bra! I bet one minute that 90% of the fanservice seen in the second season is not in the Nogizaka Haruka light novels (yes, the Anime is adapted from the light novel…)

The problem with the route they taken is that it’s completely unnecessary and the story can do better without it, besides the other flaws besides fanservice. I felt that Diomedea is trying to use fanservice to try to attract more audience to the show, at the same time, alienating its viewers who liked the first season and be constantly let down by every episode. If there is ever a third season, Diomedea better shape up and not add the fanservice and bring it back to what the story is intended to be in the first place because viewers aren’t going to take this excessive, overdone and redundant fanservice and panty shots anymore. There are already enough fanservice laden titles out there already, Nogizaka Haruka is a series that doesn’t need to go down that path too. We already have other anime that does that.

Category: Editorials, Nogizaka Haruka no HimitsuTag: Diomedea, editorial, fandom, fanservice, opinion, rant, strawberry sundaes

Melative and Making Previews More Informative

February 25, 2010 by Chikorita157 7 Comments

Preview posts always had problems for not giving enough information or resorting to “chartfag” charts that become outdated when a stream of new information comes in, giving the readers not enough info on when the series will start, how long, what genre and so on. This leads people writing preview posts without enough information and just making noise for the sake of it.

There is a solution. If you familiar with Melative as I discussed a while back. The advantage of Melative that Melative has open APIs and a open Wiki format where the info can be edited by editors (and users can create their own versions of their pages) and add up to date information. Lime is what the whole thing is based on, well at least for the open Wiki part. I have suggested a Wordpress plugin where a user just enters the URL to the title page on Melative (in a certain format) and it would be replaced with the up to date information that is currently in the database that includes the picture, any context information (date of when the series will start, how many episodes, genres, etc.), links to other resources and of course the description. This approach is a lot more informative and takes the guess work on researching information on that title. This is how I done my “Upcoming Anime” page.

The usage is really simple. Copy the link to the title and put it in this format. For example

It should look like this:

With it’s advantages, there are some disadvantages. One of them is that the “melative-item” plugin will not work on wordpress.com or any other blog software that isn’t a self hosted Wordpress. This is because Wordpress.com does not allow third party themes and plugins. Second, this Wordpress plugin is still in development and not complete yet. Although the chances of it malfunctioning is low, the plugin can malfunction or do funny stuff, but it will not affect anything in the Wordpress database.

If you interested, you can download the plugin here. To install, just unzip, upload the melative-item folder to your Wordpress Plugins folder (/wp-content/plugins) and use the format I demonstrated above to show the information from Melative in your posts or pages. If you have any issues, report them on IRC, #melative on freenode. Also, the plugin will be available on wordpress.org in the future, so keep a lookout.

And this plugin pretty much made chartfag charts obsolete… for most bloggers. Also note that a melative account isn’t necessarily required to use the plugin, although you should take part in it and ditch services like MyAnimeList.

Category: EditorialsTag: anime blogging, blogosphere, fandom, melative, wordpress

Editorial: The Harsh Reality of the Anime Industry

February 22, 2010 by Chikorita157 8 Comments

With the last article, I decided to write a response to the author of “The Golden Waste” as he seems to be ranting about people not buying licensed anime for some reasons. Everyone should be buying licensed anime if they like the show and/or want to support the studio, there is no way around with that. However, the money that comes from both the Japanese and licensed Anime sales of DVDs is very small for the Animation Studios. We can argue or rant about dub versus sub-only releases, Crunchyroll and licensing companies as much we want, but it doesn’t change the fact that how much corporate greed comes from the Japanese Anime Industry causing the animation studios be left with peanuts in comparison with the American Music Industry.

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Category: About the Japanese Animation Industry, EditorialsTag: anime industry, commentary, editorial, greed, harsh reality, opinion

Editorial: US Anime Industry and Corporate Media, What is the Problem?

February 17, 2010 by Chikorita157 3 Comments

After reading this particular rant, I believe that it haven’t covered the most important area. Sure, Anime have gotten cheaper, but they remain more expensive than a whole season box of a US series like Heroes or Lost which have alot more episodes and I end up spending 40-50 dollars for the whole season. Sure the days of 3 episodes on VHS for $30 or 4 episodes on a DVD is over, but this is not the main focus on this topic, The main focus is the US Anime Industry and Corporate Media.

And believe me, I buy licensed anime on shows I want to watch and my sister owns a pile of licensed DVD releases.

The editorial fails to mention about licensed anime outside the US.How about Europe? Some series will probably never get to be licensed in other countries, which leave people who want to watch the series having to import, which cost more and requires another DVD player due to region coding. DVD region coding is another problem caused by corporate media.

With corporate media, you think you own the media, but you don’t. The anime you have on your DVDs are licensed to you, not owned. This holds true with streaming media in one particular postkimaguresan posted:
Ownership: This is the elephant in the room. When you watch a streaming show, you see it, and then it’s gone.

There is no freedom with corporate media. Their interest is to license the show, distribute it and make a profit, and while you at it, restrict your fair use rights with crap like digital rights managements, region coding, streaming, and other things. There is no freedom in this model, ever. Another point with big media is that the content creator gets shafted and get a very small cut of the profits sold from these licensed DVDs. Big media companies like Funnimation and Sentai Filmworks take most of the cut from the sale of Anime DVDs which leaves the Animation studios like Shaft, Kyoto Animation and the rest with so little profits. This is the same with music labels where the music labels like EMI, Warner and others get a big cut from album and digital music sales guess what the artist or even the composer get? A very small cut from it. The problem here is corporate greed and less profits from the content creators. On top of that, the greed comes in form of high prices on price gouging on Blurays (on lesser extent, DVDs) and DRMed media. On top of that, removing DRM from your media such as DVD ripping is illegal according to the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) because using such programs circumvent Digital Rights Management. Stuff like DMCA further take away our fair use rights away. What happens if our media gets scratched up and become unreadable, do we have to buy another copy of the media? I think this is wrong because anyone should be able to back up their DVDs because we own the media already, why can’t we since “fair use” allows us to make a personal backup copy. (Note, it’s technically illegal to rip DVDs in this Real Network ruling.)

The end of the day, no matter if we own the media, we are slaves to corporate media and with streaming, our freedoms are basically gone with this and the content creator don’t benefit from this at all. The only way you can surely support the series you like is buying related merchandise such as figurines, artbooks, albums, games, etc. The merchandise they sell usually generate more money than licensed DVD releases and remains a great way to support the series you like while still buying R1 releases.

Note: I do not advocate not buying the Licensed DVDs or resorting to illegal means to obtaining “licensed” DVD releases because of some of these reasons… You should still buy R1 Licensed DVDs despite this and expressing my opinion won’t change that, I will still buy anime that is licensed.
Further Reading
kimaguresan on Crunchy and Big MediaOne License to Rule Them All

Category: EditorialsTag: commentary, editorial, fandom, opinion

Melative Library, it puts all MAL Clients to Shame!

February 1, 2010 by Chikorita157 5 Comments

Melative Library is a Melative Client that came in the making after finishing MAL Client OS X on January 10, 2009 and evolved quickly shortly after the Unofficial MAL API broke and there was no usable API.
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Category: EditorialsTag: ditch MAL, editorial, melative, MyAnimeList, opinion

Editorial: Is Crunchyroll the cancer that’s killing licensed DVDs and Fansubs?

January 21, 2010 by Chikorita157 13 Comments

Although my fellow friend on Melative/IRC, kimaguresan is planning to write a article on this, I decided that I should share my own thoughts on why Crunchyroll is not only killing fansubs, but killing licensed DVDs and disadvantages.

Everyone can say that Crunchyroll is the best thing ever since you have to pay 6.99 a month to watch the latest episodes. I feel that Crunchyroll is a worse version of Hulu, which they are deciding on a paid model for some of it’s shows and older episodes. With Crunchyroll, you are stuck with low resolution video that you have to watch commercials and you can’t see the new stuff for a whole week… bummer right? How about people who are locked out of Crunchyroll and fansubs groups not subbing the show because it’s on CR? What is their only option? Crunchyroll rips?

I despise Crunchyroll not only because of their disservice to the anime community, but it’s killing licensed DVD releases. Between their poor quality translations and video quality (unless you subscribe), Crunchyroll is the worst choice compared to Licensed DVDs or even fansubs.

Let’s put aside that issue for now because their are other problems CR is doing… Once a anime gets onto CR, I feel that there will be no incentive for licensing companies to even license the series and put it on DVD or how about metered internet? Why the hell you want to stream if the ISP is going to give a 5 GB cap and charging $5 per 1 GB for overages? What if your area have no fast broadband internet and you are stuck with slow satellite or dialup internet? No one will be able to watch it since you can ‘t even get it on DVD since Licensing companies have no incentive of releasing it. This will be later discussed in the editorial, but let’s focus on how CR will make Licensors to not even bother licensing the series. This is evident because I haven’t seen any CR show get licensed and released on DVD “yet.”
Is Crunchyroll killing Licensed DVDs?
So far, yes because Anime usually have low replay value, unless the show is really good. Crunchyroll translate the anime and adds the subs within 24 hours and viewers watch it. Viewers will most likely watch it once and not watch the episode again, but why I am saying that Crunchyroll is killing DVDs? Since the viewers are going to watch it on CR anyways, why the hell licensors like Bandai Entertainment, Funimation, Section 23 (former ADV) and others would want to release the show onto DVD when they know that the viewers aren’t going to buy it? This means that noone will be able to own these titles that are on Crunchyroll ever…

Some people may ask, why you need physical media when you have streaming and videos you can get at the iTunes store? The answer is this, you don’t actually own anything and they are most likely infested with DRM, Digital Rights Management. This means you can’t put the anime on any device such as portable media players, Playstation 3, Zune HD, Smartphones like the iPhone, etc. With streaming, you don’t actually own the file at all and that uses bandwidth. Streaming video compared to audio is bandwidth intensive and with some ISPs like Time Warner Cable and AT&T trying to push for metered internet, why do you even want to stream from Crunchyroll anymore?

Another case against Crunchyroll, Metered or Capped Internet and Broadband Availability

Last year, some users have noticed that Time Warner wants to test metered internet in some markets, which caused so much outrage that someone wanted to pass a Anti-Metered Internet Bill. AT&T doing the same and Verizon pushing for metered internet. Metered Internet may be a stupid idea, but if it’s actually implemented, sites like Crunchyroll will get hurt the most. Then, most viewers are left without options since CR streaming takes too much bandwidth compared to just downloading the episode to a single file or buying a DVD. What if you want to show it again to someone else or you want to re-watch it? You have to use double the amount of bandwidth and it will eat up your cap even more. Video streaming is bandwidth intensive and can easily eat up your cap and cause expensive overages. Also, college dorms usually limits their internet with small caps, so it’s pointless to stream there either since you will lose internet access for a whole week.

This is the reason why streaming video is stupid. You can’t store the file for later viewing and you need a internet connection just to watch it. What if you on a airplane and want to watch some anime… well you can’t since there is no internet connection nor CR provides a file where you can play it locally. While you at it, streaming CR using a mobile broadband connection like AT&T’s Data Connect will probably rack up those overages rather quickly.

Another thing is broadband penetration. Not all areas have broadband, especially most places in the south and rural areas. DSL is not even suitable for any video streaming of any kind, unless you want to wait alot. These people who live in areas with lack of broadband options are often stuck with dialup, cellular or satellite internet, which is unsuitable for streaming. Like mentioned earlier, licensors are reluctant to license and release something on CR, so the users who lack fast broadband is left in the dark, unable to watch the series they want to watch. I think this is unfair because there is no other viable options for people to watch their anime with any method and CR is pretty much your only choice.

Not to mention, the average US Broadband Speed is 3.9 Mbps, which is not as fast compared to other countries…

So what should CR do to solve this?

Well, providing downloadable, non-DRM video files for subscribers of the episodes can be a start and also giving an incentive for licensors to license the anime and release onto DVD. This way, it allows more options and users don’t have to use their bandwidth just to play the episode over again and have something to own. In addition, they should try to negotiate so they can provide the service to everyone. Until they open up and stop making the same mistakes, I will be against Crunchyroll forever… (and I highly doubt any of this will happen.)

And if capped/metered internet becomes a reality… Crunchyroll is pretty much screwed.

Edit: Maybe I am a bit wrong… since Section23 announced a license for Gintama, which is on CR… So I know one thing, CR doesn’t kill licensed DVD releases, or perhaps just makes them less attractive for a DVD release, with some possible evidence from this video from Funnimation. However, there is still a lot I hate about Crunchyroll.

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, fandom, opinion

A reason I’m finally ditching MyAnimeList for Melative

January 17, 2010 by Chikorita157 6 Comments

With the recent outroar with the MyAnimeList switching to a new layout and breaking the Unofficial MyAnimeList API, what is there left for me? With the new layout being harder to use, no complete official API and my wasted 3 months in making my own MAL Client and being broken after that I have been felt betrayed, the feeling that MAL doesn’t care about the users and want to force changes on users and not have developers make their own clients.

I have also lost hope with the Official API which have been untouched for several months and still lacking in functionality. When I start using Melative more and more and after the change, I thought to myself… do we really need MyAnimeList anymore? MyAnimeList is simply what AnimePlanet and AniDB is… and they still can’t track other Japanese media such as J-drama, light novels and visual novels.

Melative is the key for the future… It supports a wide variety of media, will be federated in the future and also it’s more open, as it’s using open source technologies. This reminds me of one quote that a commenter, kimaguresan wrote:

I really think that not being open in this day and age will doom you at some point or another.

Everything is about open services and if services don’t provide a open and workable api, they are going to fail. I am feeling that this is true with MyAnimeList with the incomplete API and clients having to resort to HTML scraping because of the lack of a full API. No developer should ever have to scrap HTML just to make a client for a service. It’s just like Twitter not providing a API and developers having to scrap HTML to make their own clients. HTML scraping is time consuming work and it’s not for the faint of heart.

So why Melative succeed and MyAnimeList fails? Simply because of the reasons of not being open enough and forcing unnecessary changes like the layout design over fixing what is broken and a lack of a fully functional API. This is why MyAnimeList is not going to have a future as they are continuing to frustrate users over a change of something that it’s not even broken and making it worse than before. Just read the whole thread of users complaining about the new layout and wanting the old layout back and the new layout not working on mobile devices. I feel that MyAnimeList is just hoarding it’s users, keeping the users hooked to the service and force changes despite the user complaints, but keep them from abandoning it.

It’s not all about Melative, but the new open source project Kronblr which will remove the barrier of the walled garden and allowing users to have a federated microblog without needing to sign up for a new account and also follow users on different domains.

If you have the desire to ditch MAL for Melative, just read my previous post on how to use Melative…It’s all there with a MAL Anime List to Melative Importer (a Importer for MAL Anime/Manga list functionality is included with Melative Library, a new project I’m working on.)

Will I be abandoning MAL Client OS X? No, but once the API ever gets done and/or the Unofficial MAL API gets fixed, I will do some work on it.

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, melative, MyAnimeList, opinion

New MyAnimeList Style… Hell no!

January 12, 2010 by Chikorita157 8 Comments

wpid-My-Panel-MyAnimeList.net_-300x230-2010-01-12-22-41.png — Does this new style remind you of something? Yeah, the new Facebook.

This is annoying. The guy adds new stuff instead of fixing broken stuff. Makes me want to write my own MAL…
– FSX

This is something I didn’t realized when I woke up and after watching some anime, my MyAnimeList client broke for some reason… Well of course!

Earlier today, MyAnimeList, one of the popular Anime/Manga cataloging website looked different. I thought that this was a dream, but it wasn’t. I don’t care much about the new design, but I perfer the old design. This is bringing back memories of Facebook forcing it’s users to use the new layout, but the difference is that Facebook is more open to the developers… MAL on the other hand… well, it broke every MAL client out there since people are using it instead of the website, meaning less revenue from ads.

What the hell they are smoking? This is the main reason I actually HATE MAL… because they are not freaking open to the developers! WHY THE HELL UPDATE THE FREAKING LAYOUT WHEN YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE A FULLY IMPLEMENTED API FOR GOD SAKE! This is making developers life’s like myself even harder. Not to mention, the freaking API is so hard to use that it’s not even funny.

Suggestion, stop using MyAnimeList and go for the alternatives like AniDB or even Melative, which does Manga, Anime and even other media such as light/visual novels, dramas, etc. While I’m at it, I’m making a desktop client for it to make it even easier, so when I’m finished, there is no need to ever use MyAnimeList. Until whoever makes MyAnimeList cleans up their act and actually make a USABLE API for developers to use, they owe me 8 strawberry sundaes.

And yes, it’s an extension to the other rant I made about MAL and it’s APIs.

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, MyAnimeList, rant, reaction, strawberry sundaes

The Journey in Creating a MyAnimeList Client

December 17, 2009 by Chikorita157 8 Comments

MyAnimeList clients are at their infancy. Before the API came out, MAL Updater was your only choice and it only worked on Windows. The problem is that not everyone used Windows and used different OSes. MyAnimeList is a staple for most anime viewers and bloggers out there who use it to keep track what they are watching.

If you recall a few months ago, I have complained there was a lack of a MyAnimeList Client for Mac OS X. I haven’t checked hard enough and there was a program called iMAL that allows you to update MAL… The only problem is the program is very unstable and every time I tried to use it, it crashes on me… and I even recompile it and it’s even more unstable. Another alternative is AniChou, which is open sourced. The only problem there is the interface looks like crap (except in Liunx) and it was difficult to install since I have to install additional packages to make it work on Mac OS X. With that, MAL Updater has way too much features, the interface is cluttered and it’s closed sourced, which isn’t good. However, there was light at the end of the tunnel. Unofficial MAL API made this possible since the APIs are alot easier to use than the official API and they are planning to add Manga support right after they made some fixes to some search bugs…

After I complained about not being a really good MyAnimeList client for Mac OS X and discovering a easier API to use, I went to work and created this. I used RealBasic 2009 to create this client and wanted to make as close to a Mac experience as possible without having to learn Objective-C and Cocoa (and I don’t want to spend time trying to fix memory leaks). I was able to at least get the most basic features to work after three days of programming (you can check out some of the early screenshots I made of the program in early development). It took that long since RealBasic was a little different from Visual Basic .net and I haven’t worked on that stuff ever since I switched to a Mac in late 2006. Just within a week, I added status updating with 2.x and you could add new titles to the list, update them or even delete them for the list.

However, by the time I have used melative for my live micro-blogging when I go and watch some episodes of Anime… so guess what, I have decided to add melative support to MAL Client OS X since media is all about experience. MAL lacks the ability to express what you want to say about a episode you are watching. This reduces the need to update both melative and MAL separately, when you can do it the same time. If you have nothing to say when you go update, it will just sync the information you updated on MAL to your melative library.

The reason I didn’t add any additional features like auto-sorting of media files and skinning support since it’s unnecessary. Most people would use AnimeSuki, IRC, or even licensed retail discs anyways, so I don’t see the point of MAL Client OS X do the work since you have it done already. Skinning support is a niche feature, especially on Mac OS X and Linux. Rarely, you will see any skinned programs on those platforms and it’s too Windows-like and make things more complicated. MAL Client OS X is all about simplicity and not all about features. Having a lot of features in the world don’t make your program any better if the implementation sucks and not easy to use. This is the reason I created MAL Lite, a simple, lightweight, minimalist client for Windows and Linux as an alternative. Along with it, I made a GUI for MAL Updater OS X scripts so it will be a lot friendlier and people can scrobble their anime while they are watching it.

There is a reason I used RealBasic over Adobe AIR. For one, RealBasic can make native apps and uses less RAM as a result. Adobe Air, on the other hand is notorious for using a lot of RAM and is not native. Also, I can access the OS features with RealBasic and do a lot more than I could in AIR…

The future… Once manga support gets added, I will start working on adding it to the program. Hopefully, the program will hit the final stages with version 1.0, and by then, RealBasic 2010 will be out with Cocoa support…

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, macs, MyAnimeList, updates

Moments in Anime of 2009 – The Bad, The so-so and the Good…

December 10, 2009 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

2009 was a pretty dismal year for the economy in general, but not for Anime… I will be discussing several moments in Animes I watched that were good to the ones that are horrible. Let’s start with the bad, shall we.
…

Category: Clannad ~After Story~, Editorials, K-ON!, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, Seitokai no Ichizon, Suzumiya HaruhiTag: editorial, fandom, final impressions, review

What to expect in Key's new Anime Project, Angel Beats!

December 4, 2009 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

Having discovered the greener side of Anime and also Visual Novels of Key/VisualArts with my first encounter with Kanon remake by Kyoto Animation and soon after, the epicly long Bishoujo visual novel, Clannad, which was completely clean that I played for several hours (think of the Tetris Effect, I was so addicted to it.) Eventually, it led me to watch the whole Clannad Anime, no wonder I got hooked on them… The stories are beautiful with cute, beautiful girls filled with so much moe (more so with Kanon with all those verbal tics/catchphrases) and also great music that I keep coming back for more… That is pretty much why I played the original Kanon visual novel and finished Nayuki’s, Mai’s and Shiori’s arc within a few weeks or days in July… Not only that, but I picked up and started the Air anime, which I haven’t finished yet… I’m that dedicated.

As you remember a few months back, Key have announced a new project called Angel Beats! with the collaboration of Dengeki (if you don’t know, it’s a magazine mostly on Bishoujo games and related manga and light novel. Something that Ken will go crazy for.) Knowing their track record with Air, Kanon and Clannad, I have high expectations with this original work and it seems like it’s some parody anime since the main character oddly resembles Haruhi… but then again, it’s Key and they will probably slip in tearjerking moments underneath the comedy… which make us shred manly tears (or girly tears.)

What do we know so far… well, P.A.Works will be animating this. If you don’t know it by now, they recently made Canaan which was aired this summer and also True Tears, based off a visual novel… and Jun Maeda is back and character designs are being done by Na-Ga so you shouldn’t expect too much disappointed there. The question is, will they pull it off? Who knows… but I know one thing… It’s not going to be a total disaster like Endless Eight and Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season… now thinking about it gives me second thoughts about Haruhi’s future… Then again, Angel Beats may as well end up as being another Little Busters since that had fighting scenes, right?

Meantime, you can learn more about it at ASuki if you feel like getting the latest information. Anime releases next year in Spring 2010 and have 13 episodes. Can’t wait… and I seriously hope there is no Hirano Aya in it.

Category: Angel Beats!, EditorialsTag: editorial, key, P.A.Works, speculation

Otaku Elimination Game does show what’s wrong with the Anime Blogosphere

December 1, 2009 by Chikorita157

After the overwhelming response I had with the previous editorial I wrote on how the Anime Blogosphere is filled with posts that are not even closely related to Anime and filled with boring rehash of mostly news and photoshots of figurines, no wonder AnimeNano are filled with not so interesting or good quality posts. I decided to write a second part of the editorial… How OEG shows what’s wrong with the Anime Blogosphere.

When the Otaku Elimination Game post it’s first review of select blogs, people have shun it outright for being a troll blog, but they do bring a point…. Anime blogs are becoming less about Anime and more about pointless stuff like random Japan news, photo shots of figurines and how much RAM you use on your computer, etc… It eeems that these days, Anime Blogs are becoming way too personal and people are beginning to post personal experiences too much compared to the ratio of actual anime/manga reviews and anime/manga related editorials and commentaries. Sure it’s okay to add your own thoughts to news, but the problem is that news even though you add thoughts to your news can outrun your anime content.

The problem is that the Anime Blogosphere is filled with alot of not so good blogs, believe it or not… Sturgeon’s Law is alive… and 90% of the blogs you see on AnimeNano and in the Anime Blogosphere is crud … and most of these blogs die after a few months and never become active again… The problem is that fansubs have gotten so easy to obtain that bloggers want in and we see more quantity over quality. We seem to forgot that years ago when Anime Blogs are less about what it is today and more like spoilers… The problem is that people seem to not put enough effort in their Anime Blogs, which can we see from the overwhelming majority of not so good blogs on Wordpress.com, and most of these bloggers complain they don’t have enough time and end up not updating. We see way too many copycats of successful anime blogs like That Anime Blog, Random Curiosity, or even Danny Choo that Anime Blogs seem to have no uniqueness, which the OEG seems to be stressing greatly… Bloggers should be more creative and make their blogs more unique… perhaps making your own format and even doing something more creative… Innovation isn’t the problem, but quality of content and the number of copycat blogs out there…

Lastly, AnimeNano seems to be less about Anime and Manga, but more on pointless and uninteresting things about Japan and Anime/Manga/Visual Novel/Light Novel unrelated stuff. As pointed out, AnimeNano atleast doesn’t have Sankaku, but it still doesn’t make it any better because there is still blogs like Sankaku out there that doesn’t even talk about the stuff I mentioned… Anime Nano seriously need some kind of feature that allow you to flag that kind of content so that it won’t pollute AnimeNano… (No offense to anyone who operate that type of blog) or a better way, have a option to view Anime/Manga/Visual Novel/etc related stuff in one feed and another feed with Japan stuff, video games, etc.

The OEG should make people want to improve their blogs, not go in the corner and fear about their blogs being attacked and not doing something about it… Also, Bloggers should blog more, emphasizing on quality posts and make their blogs more unique from other blogs.

Note: I’m not against any kind of censorship whatsoever. I’m hoping I’m not beating a dead horse over this… but this will be the last post on this matter.

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, fandom, response

Editorial: What ever happen to innovation in the AniBlogosphere?

November 30, 2009 by Chikorita157 17 Comments

My view of the Anime Blogosphere in General...

The OEG attempted to jumpstart the half-dead blogosphere, but it seems to only cause people to question them or even outright show themselves as internet trolls by other bloggers and one blogger did their work for them already. The problem is that the Aniblogosphere in my view is alot less on Anime and Manga or anything exciting and more about just news on Japan, which we can get from ANN or even Danny Choo. We don’t need the same post on Final Fantasy XIII elixir… It’s already covered nor we need to know about random Japanese news or happenings… It’s been done by so many blogs that it’s not funny anymore… just look at the few posts I found on AnimeNano…

The same, old... news. Nothing interesting about it. — The same... old... news. There's nothing interesting about it.

Posting news is pretty generic and not exciting in my opinion nor it will help solve the ever troubling problem of the half-dead Anime Blogosphere. Bloggers should not only review Anime, Manga or even anything related to it, they should drive innovation and do something that haven’t done like a project or something that will interests the readers such as sharing your thoughts about other things like visual novels or making commentaries on characters or anime you have interest in or do something creative besides posting news… That’s Anime News Network’s job, not yours. I highly doubt you will get a lot of viewers that way… It’s not wrong or anything, but bloggers should tone it down a bit and start doing something innovative besides copying like Microsoft copying ideas from Mac OS X and KDE/Linux/whatever for example. That way, bloggers can be more happier that the Anime Blogosphere isn’t half-dead anymore.

Remember, it’s you that can reignite the Anime Blogosphere by innovating… It’s not my job to push you to innovate, it’s yours. Otherwise, it will stay like that if nothing is done and most wouldn’t like a half-dead Anime Blogosphere, would you?

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, fandom, opinion, rant

Editorial: Sad state of MyAnimeList and it's APIs

November 17, 2009 by Chikorita157 6 Comments

MyAnimeList is probably the most used site by most anime viewers and bloggers besides AniDB, melative, or Anime Planet to log all the watched anime and also manga, although not everyone read manga compared to Anime. However, I feel that MyAnimeList just like Facebook is cluttered and have too much going on and you have to log in just to update your list and most of the time, you forget to update that list. This is why there are programs like MAL Updater on Windows and MAL Client OS X on Mac OS X with a small number of other MAL Clients. However, MAL is not making it easy with developers to create these programs and I already have some trouble trying to figure out how to implement it.

The problem is that the MAL API is very incomplete. There is no documentation on how to obtain the list or even get the information of the Anime using the APIs. sliceoflifer made the Unofficial MAL API , which is the supposed replacement of the MAL API and also makes life easier since all the functions are there and you can easily implement the API. The problem is, there is no Manga support. With the Official MAL API, there is a severe lack of information on how to use the API and the lack of JSON support. Also, it’s buggy since in some instances, searching for titles like Kampfer does not even pop up any results due to the bad data spit out by the official MAL API.

MyAnimeList in my opinion is becoming too big and the developer APIs are left neglected for months and left to rot. MAL Updater is a closed sourced program and there is no native open source solution (No, AniChou does not count as native alternative) that would work natively on Windows or even a full Mac solution. The developer of MAL Updater have to resort largely with HTML scraping which is a pain in the neck to figure out and I commend him on his effort to do so… Why should developers be left having to do this time consuming process of making code to get rid of the HTML tags and convert it to XML? Does MAL want developers make more programs that would work with MAL and instant updating instead of resorting to the near-monopoly MAL Updater…

Another gripe is that their site is STILL not iPhone friendly or perhaps smartphone friendly… Most sites these days have iPhone versions of the website since the iPhone grew in popularity due to it’s powerful browser. iPhone friendly MAL would help since if some people watch anime on the TV and don’t have their laptop on or want to go to a computer just to update their status, they can do it easily on the iPhone. Why not jump on a iPhone solution for MAL, either a iPhone App or a iPhone friendly website… It shouldn’t be terribly hard to do since popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter already have one with their own iPhone apps.

Hopefully you take these suggestions seriously and help make MAL better, or I have to resort more with melative since it’s works alot better… (and why not join in on the fun).

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, MyAnimeList, rant

Editorial: Otaku Elimination, or Anime Blog Bashing?

November 8, 2009 by Chikorita157 9 Comments

Time for the Otaku Elimination Game... It's more like bash the Anime Bloggers.

What I didn’t know is that there is a game out there called the “Otaku Elimination Game” which someone check on the blog and criticizes on them. Looks good on paper, but the problem is the game is in my view is a personal attack on the bloggers than just giving constructive criticism so that people can improve on their anime blogs. After reading the first post, it’s more like X can’t microblog or y is a sheep because he uses a Mac and a iPhone or z liking the run-of-the -mill anime and characters.

Come on, get real… Personal attacks don’t solve anything or improve anything… It could be the same to internet trolling, let’s throw personal attacks because someone don’t necessarily agree with you… Not to mention, it’s very unprofessional to go on and attack someone personally because their blog have flaws or it’s something you don’t like… It went so far that Seinime at his blog took matters in his own hand and parodied the Otaku Elimination Game post…

If you really want constructive criticism, you should ask someone to look at your blog and have them make suggestions instead of participating in this pointless attack dog of a game… It’s no better than political candidates mudslinging each other with negative campaigning.

Update: It seems that they wrote a reply to this madness, but I still think they are wasting their time with their faux rage and insults instead of giving constructive criticism… Again, don’t feed their trolls, and they will eventually give up and go get a life. No point in wasting your time reading about them when they don’t know what the hell is a Otaku is or lists specifics what a Otaku should be.

You know that people would only take your so called “faux rage” or harsh criticism as an attack and they won’t probably care or give a crap what you say. Criticism is only helpful when it’s constructive and not harsh, so it can be more helpful and the person that give the criticism won’t look like a complete a-hole. That what I got to say about the whole Otaku Elimination thing, it’s completely stupid and a waste of time raging over. =p

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, fandom, opinion, rant

Editorial: Male Leads – Why I don't like idiots like Shutto.

November 4, 2009 by Chikorita157 6 Comments

Note: This Editorial primarily focuses on Romance and Harem animes in general.

The gripes of most harem anime is that most of the harems come with male leads that the viewer most likely hate. They are either losers, jerks or even perverts. The prime example of the unideal male lead is Makoto from School Days (which everyone seems to want him dead, which in the end he does in the last episode) or even Keitaro from Love Hina for being a pervert and a loser. Male leads like this makes me cringe and want me to stay away from harem anime.

With the viewing of Shutto Sutherland, the jerkass (and abides to the Screw the rules, I have money!) that was introduced in Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (first season) episode 11 and again in episode 5 of Purezza when he gets angry at Alice-chan and decides to bully her… Great god, there is a reason why I don’t like these types of male leads in harem anime. They seem to make you angry inside and want you to punch them for the horrible things they do. These type of leads make your blood boil and want to take a chainsaw out… Well… that what is the feeling I had when he was bulling her and also pouring grape wine on top of Yuuto’s head.
…

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial

MyAnimeList Updater… Why no Mac OS X Client? and the Alternative.

October 15, 2009 by Chikorita157 6 Comments

I watch Anime that I forget to update MAL... Why? There is no MAL Updater for Mac OS X.

I watch anime on my free time and I am often too lazy to log in to MyAnimeList and go through the hoops just to update what episode I’m watching. Like with Twitter, I want to instantly update my stuff through a client without needing to open up the web browser and log into MAL just to do that. There is actually a program like this called “MAL Updater”, but only for Windows…. That means that users that uses Mac OS X or Linux are SOL, unless you run it in Virtual Machine, but why would you want to do that since it takes resources just to run Windows….

Sure there are command line clients for Mac OS X and Linux, but they are no means user friendly for inexperienced users nor they are easy to use or feature rich as the Windows version. I’m complaining because why should users be shut into a Microsoft monopoly when the purpose of using Mac OS X and Linux is to get away from the Microsoft monopoly… but there is a alternative to all this MAL Updater madness… Melative (a combination of media and Twitter)… I have been using it for a few months now thanks to one blogger that does the same purpose and I have been helping with the development of melativemicro, a client that works on Macs, Windows and Linux. Besides, I don’t even use the social aspect of MAL anyways…

If Melative can have a cross platform client, how come MAL Updater can’t have a crossplatform client that have the same features to work on Macs and Linux instead of being stuck with command line crap that is hard to use and control and the Windows version only be locked into Microsoft? There are cross platform tools like Qt4, Mono, Realbasic, etc out there, so there is absolutely no excuse to make a client with the same feature set for all the OS. Until they make a full featured MAL Updater for Mac, I’m sticking mostly to Melative until that happens.

Update: In response to no MAL Updater on Mac, I decided to take the blue pill and build my own MAL Client for Mac OS X. If you want to track my progress or help out, join the club.

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, MyAnimeList, opinion, rant

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