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.
…

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

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: 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

Midseason Impressions – Part 1

November 5, 2009 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

Thought it would be a mediocre season… For the most part, this is true since there isn’t much to see, but I did managed to pick up a few series that interests me, but I’m hoping to add two more at least by the end of next weekend when I post the second part. I was orginally going to post a Midseason report next week, but since Kobato. Ep 5 is not airing this week, I decide I would since I have nothing else better to do at the moment.

Note that this does NOT cover series that are not airing… meaning Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu First Season, Kannagi, sola and Air will not be in this impression.

Series that is covered is:
Kampfer
Kobato.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Purezza
…

Category: Kobato, Nogizaka Haruka no HimitsuTag: fall season, midseason, opinion

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

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu Second Season – Episode 1 Thoughts

October 5, 2009 by Chikorita157 1 Comment

When there is a hot spring, you have to expect EXCESSIVE FANSERVICE?!

Well, that what I can say about this episode… This episode is basically one those episodes like Episode One of Clannad After Story with the Baseball episode, it’s a filler to reintroduce you back into the series and the characters. However, when you see a hot spring, you have to expect excessive fanservice, which isn’t exactly what I had in mind.

If I compared this episode to the one I previously saw in the first season, there is actually a big difference. Sure, the first episode only shown a moderate amount of fan service, but the amount presented in this episode is a bit too excessive. What does this mean with the high amount of fanservice, you can expect the decrease in quality of the story… For instance, you can compare the amount of fan service vs the quality of the story line can be pictured like a demand vs supply graph. For instance, As the quality of the story is high, the amount of fanservice is low and the amount of fanservice is high, the quality of the story is low and the equilibrium point being the equal balance in the story quality and the amount of fanservice shots. For the most enjoyment while maintaining the quality of the story, I rather have it at the equilibrium so that people can still enjoy the fanservice that that series provides while providing a good story.

Overall, I cannot rate this episode or give a full thought about how the whole second season is going to go due to the high amount of fanservice in this episode… I’ll leave it up to the next 4 episodes and hope that the fanservice is not excessive in the next few episodes and hope for the best that it will get better than this.

Verdict

Unrated, –/10

Category: Nogizaka Haruka no HimitsuTag: comedy, Diomedea, first impressions, moe, opinion

Nagisa, why she is the ideal girl, which screams moé! – Part 2

October 3, 2009 by Chikorita157 3 Comments

Nagisa during the progression in Clannad have overcome her challenges of reviving the Drama club and also made new friends, but unfortunately, she got sick again, which caused her not to graduate with Tomoya. In After Story, we will touch more on the path with her eventually marrying Tomoya and deciding on giving birth to a child.

During the course of After Story, the relationship between Tomoya and Nagisa develops further. Towards the end of summer, Nagisa became sick, which resulted in being held back for another year. While Tomoya wanted to stay back a year, it would be foolish to do so anyways.

During the next school year, Tomoya moves into a apartment and start working while Nagisa finishes her school year. Although she couldn’t get the Drama club up again, she still seem to survive the whole school year with friends from the music club. Nagisa during that period help make food for Tomoya, which proves that she still seems to care about him alot, especially about her being concerned about his left shoulder.

Although Tomoya didn’t make it to Founder’s Day due to his mistake, she didn’t mind anyways…

Another instance with her caring about him alot is the night after asking about the swimsuit, Tomoya was avoiding the question about his father and insists on meeting him one day. When Tomoya was about to get a promotion, it was cut off by his father’s actions which made Tomoya deciding to move away from the city, which Nagisa doesn’t want since she seems to like the city and wants to make him happy living in the same city instead of running away from his problems. In meeting his father at the jail, Tomoya starts getting angry at him and walks away. With him angry, Nagisa chases after Tomoya before he punches right hand to a wall, but couldn’t stop it and injured his hand. Nagisa having seen what he done, gets him to stop. In this scene, Tomoya gets engaged with Nagisa so that they will become strong.

After marriage that happened after Nagisa graduated, she takes a job at a nearby restaurant that opened. After saving her, the manager reveals that she is a hard worker. In contrast with Shiori, although she is weak, she still managed to survive to have fun with Yuuichi and also attend a whole week of school.

Oh noes! I bet the moe levels are very high!

And yes, the famous scene and she did the impossible…

Sorry, no hentai scenes in Clannad.. It wouldn't matter anyways

In her decision of wanting to have the baby, she seems to want a home delivery, although it’s not safe due to her conditions. The decision to have it at home is not only because she wanted to see and hold the baby after it was born, but throughout the course of her relationship of Tomoya, she have grew stronger as a person… but the only problem is that the changes of the city causes her to become more ill since all things can’t stay the same forever. Even though she is strong, the illness caused by the city changing so rapidly caused her tragic death which caused everyone to be crushed with devastation the fact that Nagisa herself through the course of After Story to become stronger, but unable to because of the bad luck. This is why most people can sympathize with her (maybe more so with the visual novel than the anime). Although she have overcome the hardest challenges and become strong with the help of Tomoya and his friends, she was unable to survive, until Tomoya collects the light orbs to help save Nagisa and also Ushio from the horrible fate. In comparison with Shiori and Misuzu, there is a reason why we can also sympathize with both. Shiori in a sense that she is rejected by her sister and had her relationship with her sister and being strong until her birthday. Misuzu is that she is a sweet and innocent girl, which is unfortunately stuck with a curse and dies in her aunt’s lap on the beach which made many people’s hearts crushed with a bucket of tears and she was given no chance to live, unlike Shiori and Nagisa although she was offered a reincarnation along with Yukito.

Next Post, I will conclude why Nagisa is the ideal girl and sum up both parts with the full argument.
Attribution Information

Fanart used in this post is by 小倉　脩一 (ogura shuuichi) Source

Category: Clannad, Clannad ~After Story~, EditorialsTag: editorial, key, moe, opinion

Nagisa, why she is the ideal girl, which screams moé! – Part I

September 24, 2009 by Chikorita157 3 Comments

After seeing a post about wifes and anime girls and watching the CLANNAD movie, it made me think about something about Nagisa and CLANNAD. In the previous two posts made a few months back that I mentioned about moe although I never really talk about moe or the so called moe competitions out there, but it’s quite evident I really like, Misuzu and Shiori. There is one character I haven’t touch that have both personalities of these girls I mentioned… Nagisa Furukawa.

Nagisa is the combination of Shiori and Misuzu in my opinion. Misuzu because the fact she is a shy girl and doesn’t have any friends because in the case with Nagisa, her friends have long been graduated and she is innocent. Then, why Shiori have anything to do with Nagisa? Shiori in the sense that Nagisa have a similar sickness, but her determination and unwilling to give up. Also, they both have a interest in drama since Shiori mainly watches drama while she was at home and Nagisa have a interest in drama with her determination of wanting to revive the Drama Club. Another thing with Nagisa and Shiori is that they are ordinary and wear plain clothing. If you notice the clothing that Nagisa and Shiori wears, you know why.

Nagisa is like Shiori and Misuzu in a sense… We take them for granted until they are gone. (in Nagisa’s case, in Clannad After Story Episode 16 until she returns in Episode 22).

Nagisa starts out in the beginning of the show as a shy girl and unable to walked the hill since her friends have graduated and she no longer have the courage to walk up the hill. With the help of Tomoya, she was able to walk up the hill on the first day of school.

Like with Misuzu, Nagisa seems to be alone...

Sadly, her illness causes her to get held back in her last year of high school and caused her loneliness. In today society, we rarely see that, except with quiet and shy people.

Unfortunately, a year too late... poor Nagisa...

Nagisa seems to show her determination to try and revive the club although the club seems to shut down when she opens the door with shaky hands and being melancholic after seeing the packed boxes, but she doesn’t give up. Next day, she makes a poster:

Nagisa loves dango. The Toei version of the poster seems more colorful..

Like with Shiori with her obsession with ice cream and Misuzu with her “extra thick peach nectar,” Nagisa continues the tradition with Dango because they are cute although not as popular as it was used to. Big Dango Family resembles a cheerful and happy world where people and famlies get along and flourish. This is important later on since CLANNAD is about families after all… and Nagisa starts one with Tomoya later on, but at a expense (which will be talked about next part). Also, the poster seems to bring out Nagisa’s personality, as her being innocent.

As with Shiori, Nagisa still waits for Tomoya outside in the rain without a umbrella.

Nagisa wanting to see Tomoya to play basketball waits in the rain, which in contrast is sorta the same thing with Shiori, which disobeys the doctors order just to see Yuuichi after school. Nagisa realizing that Tomoya can’t shoot and apologizes since she know that she was wrong and faints because of her illness.

Later on, Nagisa makes friends with Fujibashi twins, Kotomi and Fuuko and starts to warm up instead of being shy and lonely.

Another trait that Nagisa seems to have is she is naive. For instance, Tomoya grabs Nagisa and runs away from Sunahora. She protects Tomoya from Sunahora since she thinks he is trying to make Tomoya gay and admits that she is Tomoya’s boyfriend, which caused Sunahora run like a nut job. Although she doesn’t mean it, she eventually start having a relationship with Tomoya since the two seems to have a lot in common and that they both care about each other.

No! You not letting your finger on my Nagisa!

Tomoya reacting to someone who wants to help Nagisa after she fell and hurt her leg in Episode 16 of Clannad… Now there evidence that Tomoya does love Nagisa romantically. In the visual novel, the relationship starts right after Tomoya embraces Nagisa after the Nagisa gives up on the Drama Club since she want the choir club to keep their advisor.

With the growing of Nagisa’s relationship with Tomoya, she seems to care for him a lot more before she met him, even after she performs her play, she still cares about Tomoya and doesn’t want him to do anything wrong. For instance, with the PA calling for Tomoya and him running away, she chases after him and drags him back by pulling his arm. This proves that Nagisa, although she is ill is caring and also very determined, which is not the case with Shiori and Misuzu (they do care, but not the same as with Nagisa and Tomoya.). The way how she try to revive the Drama Club with the help of Tomoya, Sunohara and friends and her performance on stage shows her determination of achieving her goal.

However, her dreams of performing stage drama came at a price since Sanae and Akio have to give up their dreams to take care of Nagisa, which caused herself to become melancholic and also caused her to suddenly cry on stage after the curtains were lifted up after being reminded of Akio’s dreams of performing theater after watching a video of him performing before her performance. With the encouragement from Akio and Sanae, she was able to break from her depression and able to achieve her dreams that her parents have sacrificed.

After sweeping away her tears, she starts to perform her play, which is flawless… both in the Anime and TV show:

Wait, the costume Nagisa is wearing looks vastly similar to the Uniforms in Kanon...

Toei seems to glorify Nagisa with her wedding dress... Moe Moe Kyun?

Like with both the TV series and the movie, Tomoya officially confesses his love for Nagisa, which have been evident across the whole season (and also the Nagisa arc in the Visual Novel). Tomoya and Nagisa seems to be the dream couple… most say… but I still prefer Tomoya and Kyou… *runs*

Next time, we will discuss why she is the ideal girl in the 2nd part of the story, After Story.

Attribution Information

Fanart used in this post is made by moonknives,

Category: Clannad, Clannad ~After Story~Tag: editorial, key, moe, moe moe kyun, opinion

What Anime songs you play with Audiosurf?

August 4, 2009 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

While one other Anime Blogger mentioned Audiosurf and Audiosurf his whole music collection… I actually did the same…

What is Audiosurf anyways?

Audiosurf and it’s purpose is to “ride your music.” Just put Rock Band/Guitar Hero and put it on a F-Zero track and you get Audiosurf. Like Dance Dance Revolution and Beat Mania, the blocks in Audiosurf represents the beats in the song and it’s automatically generated, so the tempo and the blocks are created according to the song you chose to play. There are various modes, but the most easiest to get the hang on is Mono, which you hit the color blocks and avoid the grey blocks. If you don’t hit any grey blocks, you get stealth bonus, which is 30% bonus. Also, there are puzzle modes like Pointman, which you have to match a cluster of color blocks (red and yellow matches give you the highest points while the others give you lower points). Other modes have similar concepts to Pointman, but have different abilities. Audiosurf also feature Ironmode, which makes the song even harder, but sometimes, you can earn even more points.

Audiosurf is relatively cheap ($10) off Steam and have unlimited replay value depending on how good is your music collection.

Audiosurf runs great with the highest settings if you have a decent graphics card (My Unibody Macbook Pro plays Audiosurf with good framerates at native resolution).

What are the best anime songs to play on Audiosurf?

Most of the time, songs with a downhill pattern and high traffic (150 or higher) gives you more of a enjoyable experience. If you still get a uphil pattern, suggest adding [as-steep] to the song title (Suggestion: Just make a copy of the MP3 file and add that tag at the end of the song title), but it will create a different scoreboard.

Lia

Most of Lia’s songs work great with audiosurf since most of her songs are trance, which most of the time create high traffic and downhill patern.
Suggestions:
– Tori no Uta – (Air Opening Theme)
– Light colors – (Tomoyo After Opening Theme)
– Toki wo Kizamu Uta (Clannad ~After Story~ Opening Theme)
– TORCH (Clannad ~After Story~ Ending Theme)

Ayana

Same as above, although Kaze no Tadori Tsuku Basho have higher traffic count.
– Last regrets
– Kaze no Tadori Tsuku Basho

Suzumiya Haruhi

Suggestions:
– God Knows
– Lost my music
– Yuki, Muon, Madobe Nite
– Bouken Desho Desho?
– Hare Hare Yukai (any version)
– Koi no Mikuru Densetsu
– etc.

Lucky Star

– Motteke! Sailor Fuku
– Kaeshite! Knee-socks
– Koi no Minoru Densetsu
– Kosutte! Oh My Honey
-Yuuchou Sentai Dajare Ranger

K-ON!

– Cagayake! GIRLS plus the Image Song
– Don’t say “lazy” plus the Image Song
– Fuwa Fuwa Time (both regular and Yui version)
– Tsubasa wo Kudasai
– Practically all the Character Image songs.

Others

– motto hade ni ne! (Kannagi Opening Theme, although adding [as-steep] makes it more interesting)
– Shiawase Sagashi (motto hade ni ne! Image Song)
– Shoujo no Gensou ZTS Remix (Remix of Shoujo no Gensou, Clannad…)
– Little Busters! (Little Busters! Opening Theme, duh!)
– Megmeru (Clannad Opening Theme, depending on what version)
– Any of Touhou songs and remixes
– Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga (Pretty epic song and it’s 10 minutes long)

What songs you play in Audiosurf in your opinion that is Anime related that give you a enjoyable experience? If you don’t own Audiosurf yet, I suggest you to get it… it’s a awesome game (and it’s very addictive)!

Also, you can check out my recorded Audiosurf runs (mainly Anime and casual mono since Fraps kills the framerate alot) on my Youtube account.

Category: UncategorizedTag: final impressions, opinion, review

Anime Bloggers: Optimize your blogs for the iPhone!

August 3, 2009 by Chikorita157 3 Comments

As smartphones are getting more popular, more people are using them to browse the internet including Anime Blogs. Except from Ganbatte Forever and the blog you are currently reading (and yes, Anime Nano have a iPhone version of the website), I see a lack of easy readability on mobile devices like the popular iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberries, Google’s Android and the Palm Pre. Often, most anime blogs do not have a separate theme for mobile users. Unless you have a simple blog layout like Baka-Raptor’s, most cases, you have to zoom into the page in order to be able to read the content on the blog which can be frustrating (unless you have good eyes)… Not to mention, if you want to want to comment, it gets even harder just to type a comment since you have to scroll back and forth just to comment on a post… and most of the time, full pages will load slower if you are not connected to a Wireless Network with your Smartphone.

Some examples how most Anime blogs load on a iPhone:

Unless you have good eyes, you may need to zoom in just to read the content without straining your eyes.

However, there is a solution to this problem. The WPTouch plugin which work with most Wordpress blogs adds a iPhone friendly theme to your blog which will load when your blog is viewed on a iPhone/iPod Touch/Android/etc. However, this theme does not replace the current theme you are using and is completely independent. You don’t need to mess around with any coding or such and the mobile theme can be turn on/off on the bottom of the page if the visitor wishes to view the full layout.

WPTouch plugin is a highly recommended plugin for most anime bloggers and most should take advantage of it to give a better viewing experience for mobile users and it’s free!

Category: UncategorizedTag: commentary, opinion

What is a Harem Anime anyways?

August 2, 2009 by Chikorita157 3 Comments

I have been wondering… Why Kanon and Clannad or the like is labeled as a harem anime? Is it because it have a group of girls and only a minimal amount of male characters? It surprises me that in the game, you are only allowed to fall in love with one girl depending on what flags you have choose in the game…

For example, when I was playing Shiori’s arc in Kanon, the game does not give me another option to go on a date with another girl nor the choices I choose will allow that since the girlfriend is willngfully chosen depending on the flags you chose. Games like these are more on the melodrama/drama/one sided romance/slice of life opposed to a harem where you can date more than one girl. multiple dates and not having a definite girlfriend is key here. If the male lead willingfully chose his girlfriend, all bets are off and it isn’t considered a harem by definition.

The dictionary definition states for Harem:

Harem (noun) the wives (or concubines) of a polygamous man.
a group of female animals sharing a single mate.

This definition pretty much fits the classical definition of Harem (suggested reading on more about Harem from Baka-Raptor). Harem shows under the definition would be more like Shuffle!, Love Hina or Da Capo where the male lead dates more than one girl… When people consider Kanon a harem, just remind them the simultaneity requirement which is important in harem animes.

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, opinion

Sub-Only Releases? Is this the future of the licensed anime releases?

July 28, 2009 by Chikorita157

Although I’m not a big fan of subs because they disappear while I’m reading it and having to go back, I will prefer watching the dub just to get the story and rewatch it the second time with the Japanese voice… but most of that is mostly gone which is sad because the economic downturn which is expected for us to get out towards the end of the year causing licensors to hold back dub releases and just release sub releases.

Unless I’m currently watching a series like Kannagi which I only watched 5 episodes and they licensed it for a sub-only release, thats the only circumstance I will buy the discs because I believe that studios who make the anime should deserve kind of credit… but for something I watched already and only comes out with a sub-only release, I am less inclined to buy the release because there is no added value.

While I’m still waiting forever for ADV to ever release a Clannad dub, I might not ever see it even after a few years and I’m still angry about them changing their decision about the dub release and still waiting up to this day to release a dub and sub release so I can support my favorite anime and buy it even if it cost a little more. The problem is, sub-only releases makes it difficult to recommend a series like Clannad which is very good to someone who haven’t watched anime before. I have nothing against any dubs and I have a open-minded approach, but I still think that series like this should deserve a dub so that other people can enjoy it without the frustration of having to rewind to the subtitle they missed and get what the character is saying. I know there is a economic downturn, but once the economy recovers, they should think about the fans and do what the fans want so that they can pull in more profit… For the meantime… I will be waiting for those dubs until pigs fly.

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, opinion

Endless Eight in a Nutshell

July 25, 2009 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

While people are frustrating over watching 6 episodes of Endless Eight, I will just sum up Endless Eight as it would happen in the light novel. (Warning, contains solution spoilers)

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Category: Suzumiya HaruhiTag: Haruhi, Kadokawa, kyoani, opinion, strawberry sundaes, The Fiasco of Suzumiya Haruhi, why haven't it been done this way?, Yuuichi is a liar

The Fiasco of Suzumiya Haruhi: Endless Eight Continues and Fan Reactions

July 23, 2009 by Chikorita157 4 Comments

My reaction to Haruhi S2 Episode7... Was it susposed to end today? but it didn't. — My reaction to Haruhi S2 Episode7... Was it supposed to end today? but it didn't.

This episode that aired today was susposed to be the end all of Endless Eight and Kyon susposed to do his HOMEWORK for once with the crew, but it didn’t materialize… instead, Episode 7 have shown us what the last 5 episodes have shown… “WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!” Is Kadokawa’s evil scheme is to damage the reputation of Kyoto Animation for their masterpieces they made in the past… Surely, the likes of Clannad, a masterpiece that cannot compare to the epic fail of Suzumiya Haruhi Second Season.

But, it’s not Kyoto Animation that is getting the bulk of the blame this time (since they are controlled and paid by Kadokawa to animate the series), but now, I’m seeing the blame going towards Kadokawa who is milking the cash cow (Suzumiya Haruhi Franchise) and not wanting to bother releasing Disappearance or the other interesting sections of the light novel. If it was Kyoto Animation’s idea of making it six episodes long, Kadokawa have a eviler scheme and will try to make it eight or even the whole season if they wanted… Remember, Kadokawa is in control of everything, although Kyoto Animation have some say, Kadokawa will always come supreme…

What about the fan reactions?

Friends at Cartoon Leap expected it to end, but got more frustrated than ever.

CCY (the author of Mega Megane Moé) on Twitter have mentioned that the rating for Haruhi have tanked .75 after two weeks and .05 points right after Episode 7 have aired and still tanking.

Another blogger who is frustrated with Endless Eight created 4koma on the reaction of Endless Eight with Kyon picking up the phone.

Even I have raged, expecting Kyon and Company to do their homework at the end… to my surprise… it’s the same thing over again.

At AnimeSuki, the ratings tanked on the later episodes of Endless Eight:

Haruhi S2 would still tank with my ratings.

Akiko’s Jamu or Endless Eight?

In a poll made a week ago, I asked readers what they would do. The vast majority of them perfer eating the toast with Akiko’s Jamu instead of watching 6, maybe 8 episode of Endless Eight straight through… I can’t blame them though… The Jamu looks alot more appealing now, even if it doesn’t taste good.

What’s wrong with the picture? Have Haruhi “Jumped the Shark?”

Ever since Endless Eight started, we have thought that it would end on the second episode… Instead, the Endless Eight arc have dragged on for so long that people started to blame someone (Kyoani and/or Kadokawa) on the handling of the Haruhi S2 anime… Believe me, Endless Eight is what made the Haruhi series jumped the shark… It will never be the same ever again since expectations have lowered across the board… so, good luck on selling those DVDs, Kadokawa….

In conclusion, This is the worst stunt for Kadokawa to play… while hurting Kyoani’s reputation with it, but they will recover someday, but for Kadokawa… not so much.

Category: Suzumiya HaruhiTag: commentary, Kadokawa, kyoani, opinion, rant, The Fiasco of Suzumiya Haruhi

Commentary: Is Anime being abused?… Not really… but…

June 22, 2009 by Chikorita157 3 Comments

After seeing a new, stunning post in the “General Anime” section on AnimeSuki which is in a heated debate, I decided to put my analytical thoughts about the issue…

Is Anime really being abused? Not really, but Anime is a media form like any form of entertainment like movies, TV shows, etc and Anime is basically Japanese animation that focuses deeper topics instead of child cartoons and comedy like American cartoons are mostly about.

Although I have seen outstanding works like most of Miyazaki Hayao’s movies, any of Kyoto Animation’s Key anime adaptations, Suzumiya Haruhi, etc… but I have started to see Anime with some fanservice and then… anime with excessive amounts of fanservice/ecchi like Queen’s Blade which is the most notorious anime series that aired recently that every episode have this type 2 fanservice/ecchi which made the show 100x worse in most people’s eyes.

Why do I say it’s being popular in the WRONG way, you ask? Before, animators created their own creative stories with good characters, good plots, good development, somewhat realistic references, good setting, good plot devices, and many other things. But it seems that ever since 2005-2006, about 70% of anime has consisted of NOTHING but moe, lolicon, useless fan-service, ecchi, chest groping, people shoving their privates in other people’s faces, non-seriousness, lack of discipline, maid outfits, bunny outfits and fetishes!…and now it’s going to go WAY TOO FAR. The other 30% being the anime WITHOUT that useless stuff (such as anime from the like the World Masterpiece Theater).

I disagree to some extent… While some shows have some moe like Clannad for example, the storyline, animation, and character design proved it to be a beautiful series and the main reason why I consider it a masterpiece since it lacks type 2 fanservice… The problem that some people have is that some people think that if a show have moe, it automatically makes the series horrible without looking at the content deeper… which is why I see the same posters that complain continuously about every episode for the same reason for the reason to get people into a heated debate and people defending the series which I wouldn’t like to see, but it happens. While some series can have this content in the series, if the story line comes out stronger than the latter part the poster mentioned, the show can still be successful… as long they don’t use it excessively like Queen’s Blade.

This also brings the part that Miyazaki Hayao’s remark said that most anime today are unoriginal and uninspiring… like mentioned in a earlier post, but again, it depends on the viewer’s opinion what he/she deems original or inspiring… like I mentioned before:

There is always going to be a bunch of bad, unoriginal or uninspiring anime in every genre regardless… Another factor is that people’s opinions on a show is depending on the person’s tastes as mentioned before… so one person can say X show sucks while the other person thinks X show is good. So, I mostly disagree with this statement at the same time agree with some of his points of shows being unoriginal and uninspiring, but not applies to some since this is a matter of opinion.

Closing Arguments

Is Anime truely being abused? No, but the definition of Anime is animation originating from Japan… but the problem that most people are facing is the lack of masterpieces like the ones I mentioned before and the ratio between good and bad anime is off balence, like 80% of anime are bad and 20% of anime is good (7 or better). People got to realize that people have different tastes, so one person can say X show sucks because they don’t like that genre and another person can say X show is good because they enjoy that genre.

If you wish to read the full post I have mentioned, feel free.

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, opinion

Minagi and Kotomi: Two characters separated at birth

June 2, 2009 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

While I was watching Air, something kept bothering me about Minagi Tohno. Kotomi is very similar to Minagi in many ways except the story line which is similar to Mai’s. Although there are differences in appearance with Kotomi and Minagi, their personalities are very similar with minor differences.
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Category: AIR, Clannad, EditorialsTag: editorial, key, opinion

Shiori Misaka – Why she is my most favorite Kanon Character.

May 24, 2009 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

Shiori Misaka is probably the most unappreciated character in Kanon considering how many people like the other girls: Ayu, Nayuki, Makoto, Mai. Shiori that I felt after watching her arc made me appreciate her more because she is the most “down to earth” girl compared to the others in Yuuichi’s harem (although technically Kanon is not really a stereotypical harem anime.) The main reason why I also like Misuzu and Nagisa is they are vastly similar to Shiori because of their tragic endings and also they don’t have friends until the male lead comes.

There is many things I like about her… her rather cute appearance, her love for ice cream and hate for spicy foods, and her rememberable catchphrase “I don’t like people who say such things!” when Yuuichi says rude things about her. Beside from the point, her story is a rather tragic one and after watching it made me appreciate her more because what would happen if you were sick and your sister/brother forgot about you because they are afraid of you dying when they get too close to you. Yeah, that would stink a lot, but people need stay strong and have a purpose to live and helping others will… That what Yuuichi, as a jerk he his sometimes, helps to make Shiori happy and remend the relationship with her older sister.

If you like Misuzu and Nagisa, I see less of a reason not to like Shiori after watching her arc… unless you into more moe types, Shiori remains to be my most favorite Kanon character.

Attribution infomation

Fanart used in this post is made by moonknives. original source

Category: KanonTag: editorial, moe, opinion, Shiori fight~o

Editorial: Is Twitter end all to all of Anime Blogging?

May 23, 2009 by Chikorita157 2 Comments

Sorry for the bad editing… but it serves the point.

Twitter is a popular microblogging website that people write 140 characters on what they are doing or share something on the internet… Recently, more people in the anime blogopshere are getting Twitter accounts and we also created one too… (just click the Twitter icon on the top right hand corner to view our timeline) and it’s popular in Japan. Recently, something is bothering me because I saw a headline that blogging is dead because of the popularity of Twitter and social networks… but does that apply in the Animeblogosphere… the answer is not really… for several reasons:

Posting reaction posts and news takes too many characters

Blogging about anime requires alot of characters, and simply summing it up with 140 characters won’t cut it… Also, Twitter doesn’t allow you to post any pictures of any kind, although you can share a link to it… but what if you want to post something interesting about it… You can’t do that with Twitter!

Twitter is too limiting

Yes, Twitter have it’s limitations, but it’s more limiting that you cannot categorize your updates by anime series or tag them… nor you can format your posts or have people comment on them. You cannot even embed a MAD or someone playing anime music on the piano due to the lack of HTML input.

Although Twitter won’t replace Anime Blogging by a longshot, there are advantages:

Updates are instant: You can instantly share your blog posts to everyone and people might catch attention to it and read it.
Share interesting infomation: If you find interesting blog posts, you can share it to others by posting the link in your update.
Can potentially replace RSS and Anime Blog aggregators: Since updates on Twitter is instant, there is less of a need to use RSS and Anime Blog aggregators since you can follow the author of the anime blog and receive instant updates. There will be less of a need to use AnimeBlogger Antenna (which won’t index my blog posts) and AnimeNano to receive updates for blogs you subscribe to.

What is your take about anime blogging and Twitter? Do you think that Twitter will make anime blogging obsolete or help promote anime blog posts through Twitter?

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, opinion

Splash Page taken over by Haruhiism

May 22, 2009 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

Oh noes! Haruhi-ists took over my splash page for my Blog!

You might be wondering, why are you copying some websites who replaced their whole website with a SOS-dan logo? If I didn’t, Michiru would butt taunt me. Seriously…

Maybe not for that reason, but I wanted to commemorate that Kadokawa didn’t troll us again and the first episode of Haruhi Season 2 have finally aired as promise… Does that mean I will drop all the series I’m currently watching… Absolutely not… but I will be covering Haruhi Season 2, but no long synopsis since other bigger anime blogs are doing that already..

Category: EditorialsTag: aniblog tourney, AniBlogosphere, commentary, fandom, opinion, rant, strawberry sundaes

Editorial: Is Anime really for kids? Not really…

May 18, 2009 by Chikorita157 3 Comments

This is the most debated topic in the Animeblogosphere and Anime forums alike, is Anime really for kids because it’s implied that cartoons are for kids? Not really, but shows like Pokemon, Naruto, Dragonball Z and others make it seems like that. However, most anime are not meant for children, but teenagers or even adults.

The difference between a typical cartoon and Anime is that Anime focuses more on culture, art and often have deeper plots than a typical cartoon. Also, Anime ranges more in genres like action, romance, drama, slice of life, etc than a typical cartoon that usually focuses on comedy. Most cartoons are stereotyped as for children because a great deal are made are for children and most wouldn’t enjoy it because of it (with some exceptions). Although there are some Anime series that are targeted to children, a vast majority isn’t. These are shows that usually have intense violence with murder scenes (for example: Death Note, Higurashi, Elfen Lied, etc), which no parent would show this to a child (unless you have bad parents).

Another problem is that some shows are not understandable by young children. These are usually a drama/romance show that focuses on deeper feelings of people and different situations that a 13 year old or higher will understand more. It’s pretty much like making a 8 year old child watch a drama show like Kanon and expect them to understand it… Most likely the 8 year old would get bored and won’t appreciate it opposed to a 16 year old who watches it and will most likely appreciate it more. The child who won’t appreciate it is because the child haven’t mature enough in life and would likely enjoy something like Naruto…

Depending on the show, most shows are not suitable for children, but does it mean that Anime is not really for children? In some cases, no… as mentioned before, there are Anime that are geared towards children

What is your take on this? Do you really think that Anime is really for children or not?

Category: EditorialsTag: editorial, opinion

I have seen the light: Misuzu is the most moe/cutest Key Female Lead

May 15, 2009 by Chikorita157 Leave a Comment

If you thought Nagisa from Clannad and Ayu from Kanon is the cutest/most moe… you are sadly mistaken… After seeing Air Episode 1, I have seen the light… Misuzu is probably the most cutest/moe female Key lead I have seen. Some may ask, I thought you don’t care about moe? Well, yes… I don’t… but this is an exception..

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Category: AIRTag: key, moe, opinion