1. Patches hits the nail on the head with an astute feminist reading of Ouran High School Host Club, on why reverse harems don’t make the objectification of female characters okay.

2. Out of the 10 articles I’ve written in the past two days, half of them were about SOPA, PIPA and OPEN. Needless to say, I’ve been reading a lot on the bills, too. Here’s three I highly recommend checking out:

• What I wish Wikipedia and others were saying about SOPA/PIPA, which reminds us that the entertainment industry will never stop fighting.
• Why people are still failing to accept the true horror of SOPA/PIPA, a video games journalism slant on the bills.
• SOPA, Skyrim and My Little Pony— Infringement is Magic? Surprisingly, this is a Forbes article. Try to imagine living in a world where a dragon mod of Fluttershy couldn’t terrorize Whiterun.

3. Con or Bust is a project that helps send fans of color to science fiction and fantasy conventions which they otherwise couldn’t afford to attend. (via Team Valkyrie.)

4. I stay pretty up to date on memes, but I’d never heard of the “I know that feel bro” image macro until this week. I’m not sure if it’s the poor translation or the surreal spinoffs that make it so funny to me, but I’ve been quoting it ever since.

5. As an otaku, I understand wanting to live your passion. That’s why graphic designer Nubby Twiglet’s article on making lists, setting goals and doing what you love was the most inspiring thing I read all week.

1. DC Geeks just published their photos from Magfest 2012. This Pikachu car was in the dealer’s room. I wish I knew the story behind it.

2. My best friend, @TheHoffgod, just started a new blog, The 2012 Gaming Project. He’ll be playing 200 games this year for at least an hour each, and then writing up his impressions. His review of Ben There, Dan That, is delightfully surreal.

3. One of the commenters on my last post, matty, shared a link to Comic Book Resources’ take on Bandai and anime piracy:

This is exactly how people consume media nowadays. They sample, then buy. They don’t buy everything they sample, but if the samples are cut off, they won’t buy any more—and they might buy less. This is the new reality, and all the scoldings in the world won’t bring back the good old days.

4. The BBC’s report on booth babes at the Consumer Electronics Show transported me back to a simpler time, when men dealt with technology and women stood around looking sexy. It would’ve been quaint, if it hadn’t happened last weekend. I wish there was a way to comment on the video, because I certainly have a lot to say.

5. Listening to 2DTeleidoscope‘s latest podcast, “The Holy Land (Mini-Podcast 1 of 2: Akihabara and Comiket),” was like listening to a professionally produced episode of This American Life. Twelve minutes very well spent.

That’s right! I added a fourth column, though technically it’s just Otaku Links, the weekly linkspam post I did throughout 2010. Since I basically have to hang out on social media all day, I run across a lot of interesting things. I’d like to resume sharing them and I hope you’ll enjoy reading them, too!

1. On Beneath the Tangles, guest poster Hana wrote about cosplaying while being Muslim.

2. At Oishii Anime, Chii is blogging 366 Days of Anime School Uniforms. Today’s uniform is from Full Metal Panic.

3. MangaTherapy wrote a remarkable essay on the power of fujoshi in the otaku world. Though I don’t agree that otaku are always male and intrinsically opposed to fujoshi, I think he makes several good points about who holds economic power in the anime and manga world.

4. Proving that there is a Tumblr for every occasion, I present to you: Gunpla Problems. To prevent a few of these, I suggest browsing this Gunpla essentials list put together by redditor goodguydan.

5. Finally, the ultimate time waster: Double K, a comic that imagines Gurren Lagann as a buddy cop story.

Gooood morning! I have a lot to be happy about this Saturday — I’ve been playing Spyro the Dragon all morning, the weather’s looking up, and I’m seeing some real improvements in my foot injury! So I’m going to share the love with some great shout-outs to some cool people. This is not even close to a comprehensive list of cool people I know, but it’s definitely the ones who’ve sent me links most recently:

1) That gorgeous Peach illustration is by Megan Lara. Read Fan to Pro‘s interview with her here, or buy her Zelda Nouveau shirt here.

2) Speaking of Fan to Pro, I discovered it a month ago and it has become my go-to spot for geeky career advice, so much so that I asked author Steven Savage if I could write a few columns there! My second guest post about finding a job the geeky way is up. You can read the first one, too.

3) Check it out – Charles of Beneath the Tangles put up his Anime and Religion Survey results, illustrated with infographics by me! It was a really fun project, and I’m looking for more people with anime related data to collaborate with.

4) Another Charles, the Anime Anthropologist, has been seriously getting me back into Gundam Wing with his post on Duo as an ideological shinigami and his GW live-tweets. Follow him on Twitter to join in the fun.

5) I am reviewing Disgaea for Japanator, and — spoiler alert — it is the worst anime I have ever seen. However, Patches tells me that he’s reviewed worse — Itsudatte my Santa! If you’ve seen both, which is worse? Or do you have a new challenger to suggest?

6) I forgot to link to the third episode of O-talk, the podcast I do with Otaku Dan. Or I should say I did do, but I’ve been swamped with my job lately. He ended up doing episode 4 by himself, so give him some love!

7) And last — have you ever thought the product placement in anime is a little fishy? Check out It’s a SOMY! (via the_patches)

P.S. I started updating my Tumblr again, so if you’re interested in posts about my personal life and want to be Tumblr friends, come visit. Have a good weekend!

Can’t… not… post…!

1. I was interviewed on Fan to Pro, a great site for geeks who want to make something more of their hobbies! Watch for my column starting there next week.

2. The Xenogears orchestral CD will be out in February. What great videogame music!

3. You’ll be glad you took out 13 minutes of your day to watch this amazing short film: Lazy Teenage Superheroes.

4. Thing a Day 2011. What a good way to get back into drawing, making, or finally tackling that 28 page doujinshi!

5. I really enjoy fellow weeaboo Catherine’s blog, See Creatures. Except in her case, “weeaboo” means something more like “girl who dresses really well.”

6. Why the Internet chose cats. I’m a poodle person myself.

‘people who are dog people are probably doing things like throwing a Frisbee outside, painting a fence in suburbia, driving to a relevant chain restaurant or giving birth to children in a hospital setting , not going online creating Tumblrs.’

7. And last: stories like this one about 5-year-old Noah are why the Internet will never lose its magic.

P.S. Don’t forget to enter my anime giveaway!

I was a lazy blogger last Friday and didn’t post my regularly scheduled links. So that means you get a double helping today. Here’s everything I loved about the Internet these past two weeks.

1. The Chrono Trigger fan-made sequel has arrived. Will you play it?

2. I wrote about Katawa Shoujo again over at Japanator. It’d mean a lot to me if you took a look at it.

3. I wish I knew the top 55 geek movies to look forward to in 2011… oh wait. Here they are.

4. Meeting your favorite web-comic artist at a convention and not sure how to act? Zach Weiner is here to help. His list of “don’t”s are especially unfortunate!

5. All about eki-ben, the bento boxes available at Japanese train stations. I was researching this after seeing the delicious-looking train bentos in Summer Wars.

6. Startlingly beautiful post-apocalyptic dioramas. I especially like the one of the abandoned library.

7. A geek’s 1976 journal posted as a blog. Fantastic idea, and very brave for Steven to put himself out there like that!

Only watched the first few episodes, but I would wear this in a heartbeat.

8. The dumber something is, the funnier I find it. Lately I’ve really cracked up at Troll Foods and The Monkeys you Ordered.

9. Do gamers have the most vivid dreams? Signs point to yes.

10. Kotaku calls this video “The Secret Lives of Cosplayers,” but I would call it, “The Wacky Personalities of Cosplayers.” This guy must be a great interviewer!

11. How your website looks… under the influence. According to this, Otaku Journalist looks best when you are sufficiently drunk.

I know I’ve linked before, but this tumblr is so good!

12. I think I would have really enjoyed Boring Con 2010 in London. After all, one person’s boring is another person’s awesome.

13. I was very moved by this short story from The New Yorker called The Dungeon Master. I found it on The Essayist, which is a great Tumblr to go to for long reads.

14. Might I convert you to my new religion? I have joined the Gropagas and become a disciple of Lord Inglip. If you’ve ever believed that Captchas were sending you holy messages and/or have a good sense of humor, you may want to consider this way of life.

15. Are you guys on Anime Planet? I just joined and it is pretty neat. Check out my profile.

Sometimes I want to do a themed Otaku Links (like last week when I posted all How-Tos and the week before when I posted only anime items) and as a result, I leave out a lot of great links because they don’t fit. Here’s a bunch of those links. Happy Friday!

1. Eight great ways to spend 2011. I always say I’ll do something like take a photo a day, write every day, or draw a picture a day, but I never can keep up with it. Maybe once a week?

2. The 60 best new Tumblr blogs. Total timesink.

3. Japanese treadmill game show. And you thought you’d seen everything.

4. Geekosystem weighs in on the possible extinction of geekdom. I sort of touched on this earlier in the week.

Geeks will never have to worry about the mainstream taking us over. We would never trade being interesting and unique for being boring like everyone else. And now all those boring people want our stuff, which wasn’t cool enough for them before, and that’s really annoying.

5. The politics of enthusiasm. I would love my blog to be “a cabinet of wonder.” It’s already full of everything I like.

6. If Mario was a first person shooter.

7. And last, the Photoshop tutorial rap. I actually learned something!

(Picture is unrelated but still totally awesome.) Phasers Set to Stun by Anna Wu.

I love learning new things. So let’s take this week’s Otaku Links to pick up some new skills!

1. How to break into the videogame industry. Turns out just sitting there and playing games isn’t the answer.

2. How to be a holiday superhero to the geek in your life. Also from CNN, but this story is special because it quotes Colette!

3. How to play Magic without ruining your romantic relationship. A must read for M:TG fans. I’d say 50 percent of my arguments with John are about how much money is proper for spending on Magic cards (and the other 50 percent is arguing whether Kirk or Picard is the better captain.)

4. How to create a decent video game blog… from the author of Game Journos are Incompetent F*ckwits, who usually spends his time tearing video game blogs to bits.

5. How to quit being a weeaboo (but not really, it’s all parody). I just discovered this long dead anime blog and I am very sad it is gone.

6. How to deal if your half elf has an unplanned pregnancy. Or what to do about any other bizarre situations that might come up in your D&D game.

7. How to be a twenty-something. I wrote about this on my Tumblr since it really cracked me up but also got me thinking.

Got any how-to articles to share?

Let’s get back to the core of this blog. My links this week are all about anime fandom, all the time!

1. F*ck Yeah Anime Subs is rocking my world. If they ever allow submissions, I’ll send this one to them!

2. The twelve types of anime congoers. Which one are you? Is it bad if I say I’m both the Otaku and the Journalist?

3. 2-D Teleidoscope is my go-to anime blog of the moment. I love that nothing is off topic to this intelligent

4. The anime plot generator = hours of fun. I got this: “Magical salarymen run a syndicate of noble penguins to save Tokyo from evil Professor Tanaka.”

5. Over at Japanator, Pedro gives some anime logos a makeover. What do you think of the results?

6. One woman’s Akihabara maid cafe experience. (via @notitles)

7. And finally, Japan takes the anime version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles completely over the top:

Are there any awesome links from the anime blogosphere that I missed? I want to get more involved in reading other anime blogs and listening to podcasts, so recommendations would be great!

1. QRapping paper feeds my QR code obsession and gives your present recipients links to catchy rap videos. At $19.99 though, I would never use it for wrapping presents.

2. Just found out about something VERY cool in the December Geek Event Guide. The University of Maryland Gamer Symphony Orchestra is playing a free concert tomorrow (Saturday) at 2 pm. If you can’t make it, you can still listen to some of their mp3s.

3. Charles from Beneath the Tangles is conducting a survey about anime and Christianity that really made me think. I admire the niche he’s made in the aniblogging community.

4. I also found out from his blog that His and Her Circumstances is streaming on Hulu! I watched this my freshman year of college and it’s still my favorite anime romantic-comedy.

5. Finally! Now the only Uncharted news I am waiting for is to hear that Nathan Fillion will play Nathan Drake in the movie. I know they picked their cast, but they will CHANGE THEIR MINDS.

6. Mad Men D&D alignment chart. I could’ve guessed what Betty Draper was without it.

7. And last, the Dirk Gently trailer. I will watch the heck out of this.