Last night, John and I finished rewatching the Gundam Zeta compilation movies. While the 50-episode show originally aired in 1985, at least half of that original footage was digitally reanimated in 2005 for the movies.

The result is unintentionally hilarious. Each scene’s animation style slides forward or backward 20 years, seemingly at random. One moment, faces and machines look smooth and polished, the next they’re scribbley and hand drawn.

For example, here’s protagonist Kamille originally drawn in 1985:

And here he is digitally reanimated in the same scene.

While we can credit some of this animation improvement to modern technology, a lot of it has to do with the fact that, in 2005, the Gundam franchise saw more value in spending time and money on animation than it did 20 years before. I think we can agree that the above capture was never on the cutting edge of animation, even at its time.

After all, it didn’t make economic sense to put big productions on Gundam Zeta. The creators were already taking a big risk with the show. Nobody expected Gundam Zeta — or any show like it — to be as big a hit as it was.

Since its inception, anime has changed a lot. It’s certainly gotten easier on the eyes. As it’s gotten picked up in America, it’s also gotten easier on my wallet. And even when I don’t purchase anime, I can watch it on Netflix or cable. Because whether we admit it or not, anime is mainstream now.

Let’s take a look at another show I’ve been watching lately, Tiger and Bunny.

In terms of animation style, this show is as advanced as you can get. No more of the low level production values of Zeta in the 80′s — today’s anime is no gamble; it’s good business. That goes especially for Tiger and Bunny, where you’ll be viewing advertisements whether you’re watching the show on Hulu or not.

In Tiger and Bunny, corporations sponsor heroes, like namesakes Tiger and Bunny, to fight crime. Heroes are highly evolved humans with special powers (more like X-Men than Newtype) who beat up bad guys while brandishing advertisements all over their suits. But while heroes are made up, these ads are for real companies. Bunny, for one, shills for both Amazon.co.jp and Bandai whenever he dons armor.

It doesn’t matter whether you think this is a clever product placement or a total sell-out. It’s still a complete game changer in the anime world, where companies once preferred to invent fake brands like Somy than step on any corporate toes. Until recently, anime wouldn’t have been able to give the big guns anything on their return investment. But clearly, that’s all changed.

At Otakon, I attended Anime News Network’s panel on anime journalism. One of the panelists said, “Anime has always been cheap and weird. But that’s part of why we like it.” But now that anime is lucrative and conventional, will the longtime fans stick with it?

I think we will. If you’re anything like me, you’ve been spoiled by today’s convenience. I certainly don’t miss swapping VHS tapes with my friends. And while it was fun in middle school to create my own Gundam Wing school supplies with a color printer and lots of glue, today I prefer having the option to buy official merchandise.

If you’re nostalgic for the anime of the past, try watching Gundam Zeta without the digitally remastered scenes. When you get over its vintage novelty, you too will develop an appreciation for how far anime has come.

P.S. You can still vote for my SXSW panel submission: Trekkies, geeks and furries oh my! Covering fandom. I’d really appreciate it!

Did anyone else watch the Golden Globes? I always find it hilarious that half of the commentary is simply about the clothing people wear to the award show. What if that was the only way we judged TV?

On that note, I’ve been an awful anime fan and have been too busy with my new grown-up job to watch a single episode of anything from the winter season. So let’s see if fashion really matters — I’m going to take a stab at judging six winter series simply by the clothing styles I can see from the screen shots.

(All photos are from Japanator.)

Fractale

I bet this girl is extremely annoying, just by her clothes. Why else would she have the red pigtails with flowers in them? Also, that is way too much jewelry to wear with an already busy Eastern outfit. It’s odd that none of the other characters wear anything close to this, so I’m guessing there’s time-travel involved. Either that or some very customizable avatars.

Freezing

Oh my gosh, it’s Sexy Hellsing. What is with this “historical moe” look? This blonde looks like Dorothy Catalonia from Gundam Wing got cast in Ladies vs. Butlers. It looks like this anime takes place in the 19th century and involves a lot of fighting, and even more gratuitous cheesecake.

Gosick

I bet this anime is creepy. The girl is dressed as a Gothic Lolita. Lolita fashion is associated with dolls, and in Japan, dolls are creepy. Even though nobody dressed like these two ever in any time period, I think this is supposed to look historic.

Also, I think she’s a tsundere? There’s something Taiga-ish about her with the short stature and the long hair. And dat face.

Level E

With both sexes wearing boring button-down shirts, my first impulse was to say, “slice of life anime.” However, slice of life characters are just plainly dressed, not eyesores. These characters are simply TOO fugly and it makes me suspicious.

Since their haircuts remind me of 90s anime, this, combined with the clothes, makes me think this is a sci-fi anime. And if that is the case, she’s an alien (who inevitably came to Earth naked) and he lent her his unfashionable clothes. At least that means there’s potential for some sartorial statements on her part later.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Schoolgirl outfit? Check. Cute mascot bunny thing? Check. I don’t need a transformation scene to know this is a show about magical girls. I cheated a little with this one — Otaku Dan told me a bit about it, plus the title makes it obvious — but I think I could have picked it up just from the clothes.

Several times I have considered creating an Anime Fashion Critic tumblr to point out the wacky clothes that anime characters wear, but exercises like this make me reconsider. Doesn’t it seem like clothing repeats itself in anime? If I was anywhere close to right on these, you know I have a point.

It’s finally ready! The not-so-secret project that Dan and I announced last week is up and ready for download on iTunes. Get it here!

In our first episode, recorded on January 8, we talked about the winter anime season and about what happens when fanservice gets excessive. This podcast is only 20 minutes long since we’re still working to perfect our rhythm and pacing. Good podcast chemistry comes with lots of practice!

We already have a couple ideas for future recordings — topics in fandom, anime reviews, maybe even an otaku advice column — but we’d love to get some feedback. Feel free to leave yours in the comments.

I’ve been pretty quiet here for the last 24 hours or so, and maybe, just maybe, that’s because I wrote and posted three major reviews on Japanator! Check them out below. And yes, there will be giveaways for the first two soon!

Summer Wars

When tradition meets tomorrow, the best possible result is Summer Wars.

Mamoru Hosoda’s new classic takes its inspiration from Japan’s rich past as well as our wildest dreams of the future. He takes samurai and virtual reality, hackers and hanafuda, and blends it all seamlessly together.

Our hero is Kenji Koiso, the Michael Cera of mathematical geniuses. When we first encounter him, he’s a high school student working as a code monkey for OZ, a virtual world that has become more ubiquitous to global life than Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr combined. He drops his job to take a trip with his friend Natsuki (a pun on natsu, or summer, as a Japanese speaking friend pointed out) to the countryside to help out at her great-grandmother’s 90th birthday celebration. The night he arrives, he receives a mysterious math problem on his cell phone and it’s only second nature for him to solve it. The next day, he finds himself wrongly accused of hacking into OZ, and it’s up to him and Natsuki’s enormous family to keep the virtual world from turning the real one on its head…

Read the rest at Japanator.

Super Gals!

There are only a few reasons that a person might be compelled to watch Super Gals!

Perhaps your first taste of anime came from Toonami, where Sailor Moon was the shoujo series to watch. Because Gals!, also a show aired in 2000, delivers a similar art style, complete with loads of eyelashes and impossibly long legs on each teenage character. Even the dubbing is akin to Sailor Moon: loud and energetic. This reviewer was definitely feeling the nostalgia in these regards.

The difference is, these teens aren’t out saving the world. They’re just out having fun in Shibuya…

Read the rest at Japanator.

Princess Jellyfish

Beauty is a disguise. A boy can become a princess by donning a flouncy wig and wearing the stylish clothes his absent mother left behind.

Beauty is a tool. No matter how ugly a businesswoman is on the inside, her outer appearance can get her anything she likes… or so she thinks.

Beauty is elusive. Even if an otaku sees it everywhere — in pretty dresses, in stylish women, in the sinuous tentacles of a jellyfish — she still finds it hard to find any of it in herself.

Princess Jellyfish is a show about the beauty in everyone. Each person in the show has it, but it is sometimes hard to see at first…

Read the rest at Japanator.

I write a lot of anime reviews, but I still think it’s a difficult task. Especially since I was trained in journalism, not opinion writing, and it still seems unfair to post my own beliefs about a series as fact.

One thing that helps me is to show the series I have to review to my friends so I can get 7 or 8 perspectives instead of just my own.

If you’re reading this and you’re an anime reviewer, do you have any tips for writing fair and accurate reviews?

The title of My Girlfriend is the President! is completely literal. After aliens invade Earth, they brainwash mankind and replace the presidents of various countries with schoolgirls. Word of this ridiculous eroge has been spreading since 2009. By now, everyone’s had a few laughs at its expense.

But is that all there is to it?

As I’ve written before, in order for there to be parody, there has to be an awareness of the original subject matter. That’s what differentiates My Girlfriend is the President! from other eroge, and even most anime and manga. If an anime is going to address politics, it tends to make up its own, like in Code Geass or the Gundam universe. My Girlfriend, on the other hand, uses the same global political structure that we have now (minus the aliens of course.) Eroge, anime, and manga are supposed to be an escape from reality. This goes completely against the status quo.

I’m especially interested in the villian of the game, a lolified version of the Pope. How will she be portrayed? And while we’re laughing at her antics, is the underlying message that the game’s creators have an issue with this, or other, global leaders? Basically, I’m not sure if this game is true parody or actually disguising a serious message about global politics.

It would be interesting to find out just how much My Girlfriend imitates reality. For example, whether these loli leaders have matching personalities to their real world counterparts. Now, anyone can find that out since J-List has made the game available in English.

Or maybe I’m just thinking too hard about this. Watch a My Girlfriend parody video below for a laugh. (Edit: video was removed. Just watch the game’s teaser here.)

The novelist John Gardner once said that every story comes out of one of just two basic plots. The first is when somebody leaves home and goes on a journey. The second is when a stranger comes to town and changes the lives of the inhabitants forever. Squid Girl is exactly that, even if we don’t realize it until the end.

The Squid Girl universe, minus Squid Girl, is an exercise in patience. While Squid Girl was terrorizing those around her, we wanted nothing more than for her to lighten up a bit, to leave them in peace. Suddenly, in her absence, it’s hard to care about their feelings at all. Through the duration of the series when the spotlight was on Squid Girl, I wanted to see much more character development about the Aizawa family — what is the cause of their unusual family unit? Have they gone through hard times? — suddenly nothing mattered without her. Surely their lives were interesting before Squid Girl; Eiko’s temper, Chizuru’s feats of strength, and Takeru’s gradeschool curiosity could have made a lively slice-of-life anime on their own. But once Squid Girl entered their lives, they changed. Rather, she changed them.

Even Squid Girl’s return, nearly a year later, isn’t enough. Minus the tentacle hair, minus the “da geso” peppered speech, minus the larger-than-life proclamations of subjugation, even Squid Girl can’t fill the hole left by the Aizawas’ memories of Squid Girl. Poor Takeru lashes out at this girl he sees as an imposter, demanding that the “old Squid Girl” come back.

At the moment when all seems lost, the familiar old plot comes circling around. A stranger comes to town. With her oversized hat and monochromatic clothes and eyes, she seems to be an oceanic comrade of Squid Girl. Without revealing a word about herself, she provides the advice that Squid Girl needs to return to herself. Who is she? Does it matter?

You already know the ending to Squid Girl before I tell you. It’s the only ending the show could have. Let’s focus on what is missing: the other possible plot, the journey. Squid Girl came to town a stranger and changed lives. But then, once we got to know her and she was, in fact, just one of the townspeople, she left town again for the ocean floor. What happened there? Remember, at this point she has no squid powers to help her adapt underwater.

The journey, like the mysterious adviser’s identity, will probably never be revealed. There’s nothing deep about Squid Girl. But there’s some comfort to be taken in that fact that Squid Girl follows the same literary plot line as told through time immemorial.
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Note: I’ll be on vacation for the next couple days. See you soon!

It’s the end of the year, so that means it’s time to set New Year’s resolutions! In this post, I’ve done you a favor and thought them all up for you! (I bet you’re so happy about that, amirite?)

These resolutions aren’t the boring ones you say you’re going to do every year, like working out every day or eating more veggies. These are the ones that, if you do them, will make you a happier otaku. And why do we make New Year’s resolutions if not to make our lives better?

So check out my list:

Photo by Trey Ratcliff.

10. Visit Japan. Or, if that isn’t an option, start planning a trip to Japan for sometime in the next five years. Open a special savings account. Research the Japanese cities and attractions you’d like to visit. Start learning (or keep practicing) your Japanese. If you’re in the Washington D.C. area, you can sign up for the Global Language Network for a chance to get free Japanese lessons at GWU — it’s a randomized lottery.

Photo by bananagranola.

9. Bring Japan to you if a trip is completely out of the question. Visit a Japanese botanical garden — here’s a list of the top 25 in America and an exhaustive list of most of the Japanese gardens all over the world. Several US and Canadian cities also have Japanese tea houses and cultural centers; Google your city plus “Japanese tea house” to find out. Go to a Japanese restaurant that has traditional seating or food other than sushi. In DC, I suggest Hama Sushi, which has a tatami mat room, or Cafe Japone, which is the only restaurant I know of that serves onigiri! Another thing to visit in DC is the Japanese Embassy. For the low budget and/or middle of nowhere otaku, try cooking your own Japanese food or check out some books on Japan at the library. There are a lot of options!

Photo by Keitii Keitii.

8. Marathon an entire series in one night. Do it with a new series or one of your old favorites. By watching everything back to back, you’ll get a better understanding of the story as a whole. Stock up on Pocky and Ramune and turn the lights off for the best atmosphere. This can be done with likeminded friends or alone as a test of willpower. The Otaku Journalist does NOT recommend you try this with One Piece or Bleach!

Photo by Alex Leavitt.

7. Attend an anime or sci-fi convention. This should especially be on your list if you’ve never attended one before! It’s a great way to familiarize yourself with not just the topic but the fandom that surrounds it. Figure out all the inside jokes! If you’re still not sure why the #animeconprotip hashtag on Twitter is so funny, attending your first (or second, or fifteenth) convention should help.

Photo by Elliot Trinidad.

6. Make friends with like-minded otaku. This is easier than ever now. Have a specific fandom? Create a forum/Yahoo group/Facebook page and advertise it. Have a specific location in mind? Try Meetup and start planning IRL activities. Keep in mind that these groups might already exist, so all you have to do is join! If you’re in DC, chances are you’ll meet a slew of otaku at DC Anime Club meetups or anything on my Geek Event Guide.

5. Try a new genre. Maybe you’ve always sworn off moe anime/first-person-shooters/playing a Blue deck/playing an elf character because you had a bad experience or just never had the chance to try it yet. This year, end that! If you don’t like it, you never have to do it again. And if you do, well that’s something you would have never known until you tried.

4. Make a J-list or Amazon wishlist. (You can view mine here and here to get started.) It’ll help you decide what sort of things interest you and then, depending on your budget, hone them down to what you like the best. You’ll be introduced to new shows, books and games that you might not have considered. It’s a great way to expand your horizons under the guise of mindless window shopping. At the very least, it’s certainly relaxing.

3. Give back to the community. The best way I can think of doing this is volunteering at your nearest local anime convention. As a convention volunteer myself, I’m continually amazed by how much work goes into running a convention and how important every volunteer is to the whole. If you’re busy, you can limit your volunteer time to just during the event. Don’t like cons? You could try participating in Child’s Play or Cosplay for a Cure, two very nerdy (and very kind) charity groups.

The Seventh Doctor (aka the best doctor) fanart by Kevin Bolk.

2. Create something. Write some fanfiction, if you like to write. Sew a cosplay if you’re crafty. Try your hand at drawing your own manga if you’re so artistically inclined. Other ideas: Photoshop spoof Magic cards, edit an AMV, create your own 8-bit game, sculpt deco jewelry for Lolita clothes. Next, join DeviantART to show off your skills!

1. Start a blog. This year, I’ve found that this is the best way to explore and enjoy my interests and to meet tons of amazing and likeminded people. If you share your interests and you’re enthusiastic, people will notice. If you need help getting started, click here for Bluehost, which is what I use for this site. You can even email me if you want me to walk you through starting a blog — I think the world needs more otaku bloggers!

How many items on the list have you already done? Which ones do you plan to do this year?

Mini Squid Girl figures, which won’t be out until March 2011.

Lately, I’ve been thinking of buying my first anime figure ever, even though I’ve been admitting for the past year or so that I don’t understand the figure collecting craze. What’s changed? Thanks to my position at Japanator, I’ve started watching recent anime releases. And with recent anime come shiny new figures. It just turns out that when I was watching the old stuff, figures weren’t made or had already sold out.

However, once I started looking around, I realized that most figures are female characters, and these figures are MUCH too sexy for my tastes. I was hoping to find a cute figure, like my pink Gundam SD, to put on my nightstand. What’s a girl to do? In my case, I wrote to the quintessential female figure collector, Frances Delgado, aka Dancing Queen, of How A Girl Figures, one of the most popular figure collection blogs online and the only one written exclusively by a woman.

I asked Frances what it’s like to collect figures when it seems most figures are aimed toward male collectors. I also listed a few anime I would really like to have a figure from, including OreImo, Squid Girl, and Honey & Clover.

Frances explained that the reason I’m having trouble finding a “cute” looking figure is that yes, figure collecting is a male dominated world. She said that while she adores sexy figures, “Fret not, there are some amazing figures that we girls can still collect that are free some the overly-sexualized depiction of woman that most figures are today.” She added that more figure manufacturers are recognizing women as collectors and just beginning to cater to our interests.

For now, Frances suggested that I start considering Nendoroid figures, which are known for their cuteness. She suggested this one of Kirino from OreImo. I love how it comes with multiple faces for different looks.

I also especially liked Frances’ suggestion of an Alter figure of Hanamoto Hagumi from Honey and Clover. Hagu’s expression is very charming and, to me, Miyazaki-esque.

However, the one I like best of all is this yet-to-be-released Kuroneko Nendoroid figure, which I found on Danny Choo’s Figure.fm. I like her way better than Kirino in the show so this would definitely be worth the wait!

I really appreciate how Frances, who has tens of thousands of readers, took time out of her schedule to answer one blogger’s email. I’ve learned a lot about figures in the process. If you’re interested in learning more about figures, I definitely recommend her blog.

If you’ve followed my Tumblr, you know that I did indeed manage to apply to 30 jobs in as many days. But since I haven’t found a job yet, I’m going to keep going through December.

It’s fitting that I finished watching Welcome to the NHK at the same time as I finished NaNoJobMo. I say this because NHK had a lot to do with what I’m going through right now. I’m going to talk plainly, so if you haven’t finished NHK yourself, let this be your giant spoiler alert!

Still want to read my pseudo-review? Okay. There’s two parts of NHK that I want to discuss.

First, I think the message of NHK is that being a hikikomori NEET is not a disease, but a privilege. Not just anyone can hole up in their room playing games all day and being served food. A NEET needs enablers to pay a stipend so they can stay fed, clothed and under a roof. When these things come unraveled (as they do for two different NEETs in the series), the afflicted are suddenly able to find the strength to leave the house and start working a job, any job.

This applies to my life by reminding me how lucky I am. Like Sato throughout most of the series, I don’t have to work anything bigger than my job at the gym right now in order to survive. I can afford to spend an entire month applying to jobs without worrying about whether I’ll eat today. I wouldn’t say I’m a NEET since I would rather be working, but it’s the same premise.

Second, I was very affected by the eroge sub-plot. I loved when Sato and Yamazaki decided to create their own dating-sim video game. It may have been a porn game, but it’s something that Sato got really into creating. When Sato spent late nights working on the eroge script, his realization was my own — “As long as I am working toward something I care about, I am not a NEET.” In that moment, Sato has found his career.

It’s a beautiful turning point in the series. Even though the eroge never amounts to anything profitable, what matters is how much he cared about creating it. This is how I feel about my various blogs: this one, NaNoJobMo, and Japanator. Even though I haven’t found a job yet, I’ve found a rewarding career.

Readers, do you have a job that is different from your career? Also, what did you think of Welcome to the NHK?

I haven’t been at all quiet about it, so you guys know I’m hunting for a job. Not as well as I should be — about two applications a week. But still, at this part of my life, it’s what I consider my full time job.

I call myself the otaku journalist. However, the longer I’ve searched, the more those two parts of my identity have split. I used to keep this blog on my portfolio site, but divided them. I used to have one business card for my blog and for my job hunt. Now I have otaku-specific and professional cards. And just today, I’ve decided to take my anime and game experience (my Kotaku internship and Anime USA marketing position) off of my resume.

Why? Because I’ve had more than ten face-to-face interviews, and still no job.

In an interview, I usually have less than 20 minutes to describe myself as a potential employee. When my anime and videogame experience is listed right there on my resume, it allows my interviewer to shortcut to a negative portrayal. Even in 2010, many people still have negative connotations about American otaku. It’s not too different from the way it’s harder for a World of Warcraft player to get employed.

How employers see me after they look at my resume.

And like pink hair or cat ears, these parts of my resume especially stand out. They always lead to a conversation and to awkward mispronunciations of the word “Kotaku.” I worry that while discussing my experiences at these work environments, I’ll appear too passionate about fandom to the interviewer, and less passionate about the job at hand. It’s only natural — if you’re a movie buff but you work as an plumber, it’s normal that you’d talk more expressively about The Seven Samurai than about kitchen sinks.

There’s a lot of reasons why I might not have a job yet, but it feels good to cross one possible reason off the list.

While I’d like to one day work in an environment where my interests are not only tolerated but shared, it’s less likely to happen in this job market — you saw my article about employed anime journalists. Anime isn’t my only interest, and I’d be happy with a career that fulfills any one of my interests, whether they be writing, journalism, film editing, web designing, or building infographics. Honestly, these interests bring me just as much pleasure, but make far less readable blog content.

One day…

Readers, do you keep your hobbies and your work completely separate? Or do you display Gundam models on your desk and swap Cowboy Bebop DVDs with your coworkers?