Category: Otaku Links

Otaku Links: Back to school

• Starting October 31, you can take a month-long online course on Japanese subculture at Keio University. Lectures will be in Japanese with English subtitles and span from the ’70s to today. What a great opportunity to learn more about fandom in Japan! HT Erica Friedman.

• As Mob Psycho 100 approaches its high-stakes final episode, I’ve been enjoying the goofy levity of the #RedrawReigen tag on Twitter. They all seem to be very in character, too.

• A guide to shopping in Tokyo. The Shinjuku department stores were nothing like malls here, and I spent an entire day in one when I was in Japan in March! I didn’t go to Tokyu Hands, but it sounds a lot like Loft, where I picked up small souvenirs (like notebooks and scarves) made by local artisans. It felt like I was bringing back something very Japanese without being overly cliché.

• Talk about a niche market. According the the Asahi Shinbun, “While the publishing industry as a whole suffers from a retail slump, the educational manga history book genre is bucking the trend and its releases are flying off store shelves.”

• Which anime do Japanese fans like best? In this somewhat confusing and stream-of-conscious video, Yuta and his friends interview people in Akihabara about their favorite shows. It goes to show that the alleged divide between Japanese and Western anime fans doesn’t really exist. For example, it’s a misconception that Cowboy Bebop is only popular here. HT Zoe.

• I listed my 10 favorite Char characters in the Gundam multiverse for Anime News Network. You might be surprised to see that only three are actually Char! Zac, my editor, went a little overboard with Char puns.

Photo by Antonio Tajuelo

Otaku Links: Exclamatory anime titles!!!

• Summer anime is winding down, and I’ve already got my eyes on what’s coming up this fall. Since I’m a sports anime fan, I definitely want to check out Long Riders!, a girls’ cycling anime, and rugby anime All Out!! (Side note, what’s with exclamation points in anime these days? Neither of these hold a candle to the upcoming Keijo!!!!!!!!)

• It feels like I post a new Colette Bennett fandom article every week, but I can’t help it. Her latest, What’s it like to be a trans Lolita, is an emphatic look at the intersection of fandom and gender identity.

• Love Live! isn’t exactly the deepest anime, but it’s been my guilty pleasure for years. Finally, Nick Creamer has written an explainer article I can show people about why I can’t quit Love Live‘s goofy bubblegum appeal.

• How do you make money as a novelist? Some Quora real talk from one of my first favorite fantasy authors, Mercedes Lackey. “Of all of the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, only about 10% make a living from writing.” Oof.

• I just finished Back Off, I’m A Ninja, the third book in Natalie Whipple’s YA triology. I rarely read YA but this self-published series ignores mainstream trends in exchange for a compelling story that somehow manages to touch on pretty much everything I like, from Japanese myths to Dungeons and Dragons.

• Did we kill hobbies by monetizing them? To celebrate the end of Japanese 301, some of my classmates and I went out for a drink, and I mentioned I review anime. “So do you still enjoy watching anime?” was the first question I got.  I do! But for some people, getting paid to do something fun can absolutely kill the leisure aspect of it.

• On the same topic: Why Flexible Working Makes Me 100% Happier. I work my “day job” even less than Emma does—four half days a week—but I still struggle to get everything done. I know that if I had a full time job there’s no way I’d be able to accomplish all the stuff that’s important to me.

Photo via Daily Dot

Otaku Links: A big week for anime

• Funimation and Crunchyroll have teamed up to bring more subs to Crunchyroll, more dubs and DVD releases to Funimation and generally more anime, the way you want to consume it, for everyone. I think this is great news! I already pay for both services so I guess I’ll be seeing the results of the partnership pretty soon.

• It’s rare that a single interview changes the way I review anime, but this Yatta-Tachi interview with Shingo Natsume & Chikashi Kubota of One Punch Man fame did just that. After the following comment, you can bet I won’t be referring to sloppy looking episodes as ones that “ran out of budget”:

“A lot of people have this common misconception that the quality of the actual animation is based on the production’s budget. But in Japan, the TV production world, especially when it comes to anime, generally they all have the same budget. There are really rare situations where some have a little less and some tend to have a little bit more, but nothing that is very drastic. So, in reality, it is based on the staff.”

• My friend Amelia wrote an articulate, provocative article on how moé shows can infantilize and sexualize characters at the same time. I love moé because it is often unintentionally subversive (the way New Game! portrays a successful all-woman game studio and Yowamushi Pedal shows that moé main character Onoda can be both tough and into princess anime). But it’s important to remember the construct our fantasies are built on. I touched on this once when talking about another one of my favorite moé shows: You are the only male character in “Love Live.”

• What if all the planeswalkers from Magic: The Gathering lived in a house together? That premise sounds like fanfiction, but it’s actually an official—and very absorbing—piece of canon storytelling.

• Really cool: master translator @80sanime translated a 1998 interview with Gundam creator Yoshiyuki Tomino, in which he thanked his female fans for first making Gundam popular. As a female fan, I feel validated!

• This was a great week for anime industry interview pieces. The flawless Deb Aoki interviewed Nami Sano, the author of Haven’t you heard? I’m Sakamoto. I was surprised to learn Sakamoto didn’t start out as a gag manga at all!

• And another! All about how animator Miyo Sato conceived and executed the oil-paint-on-glass ending sequence of Mob Psycho 100. More effort than I expected was put into making Reigen look sexy, it turns out.

• How an American can work in the Japanese anime industry. Colette is killing it with mainstream coverage for English-speaking anime fans over at the Daily Dot.

• And finally, What Does It Mean to Have a “Favorite Anime”? Isaac, who recently updated his list of his 25 favorite anime, explores what it is that elevates a show from cinematically and editorially good to something that touches us personally.

Screenshot via New Game!

Otaku Links: Living the otaku dream

Welcome to the last Otaku Links of the summer (or winter, if you’re reading this from Australia)! It’s a mix as always, but it’s heavy on some great stories of Western otaku breaking into anime-related industries despite the barriers:

• This American cartoonist doesn’t speak any Japanese, but still managed a very rare feat for a foreigner—tabling at Comiket. “Maybe a quarter of my buyers were Americans abroad or otherwise English-speaking foreigners living in Japan. Otherwise, almost everyone was Japanese,” he wrote.”

• LeSean Thomas is extremely unique among American media producers in that he’s co-produced a successful independent Japanese anime based on his comic, Cannon Busters. Ani-gamers interviewed Thomas about his previous work on the Legend of Korra, his work overseas, and launching an anime off of a Kickstarter.

• I loved US anime-inspired clothing lines, like OMOCAT and Boomslank. The latest to come to my attention is Dendo Apparel. Dendo is Japanese for “electric” and it’s a Boston-based line of shirts with original mecha on them, like the photo at the top.

• Have you been listening to Translator Tea Time on Organization Anti-Social Geniuses? It’s a podcast where manga translators Amanda Haley and Jenny McKeon talk about what goes into translating manga into English.

• In Defense of Inefficient “Hobby-Hustles.” I have tweeted that I have turned all my hobbies into businesses, and while some of them aren’t profitable, I still enjoy them. This article does a good job explaining why.

• Zoe tipped me off to these 9 myths about traveling to Japan. The article claims Tokyo being super crowded is a myth, which I disagree with, but I also didn’t heed this article’s advice not to go during the hectic cherry blossom season.

• Embarrassing fact about me: I was so nervous when I started reviewing anime for ANN two years ago, I begged out of reviewing Tokyo Ghoul because the pilot was giving me major anxiety. I’m glad I am not the only one who had a powerful reaction to this show. Otaku Journalist reader Jackson Wyndow wrote a thought-provoking post about how Tokyo Ghoul shows what it’s like to live with a mental disorder.

• Just for fun, this r/relationships story of nerd love gone wrong cracked me up. Here’s a hint: if your significant other holds a Star Wars themed party and you don’t recognize their costume, you’re probably just less of a fan than them.

Photo via Dendo Apparel

Otaku Links: Sampuru Size

By the time you read this, I’ll have already gone off the grid! After Otakon, I needed a vacation from my vacation, so I’m heading out to a friend’s lake house to go boating and play board games for a few days.

• The surprisingly gross history behind Japanese “sampuru” food models. Apparently, anatomical wax models for medical studies paved the way.

• The honest and gratifying story of how Josh “Comics Curmodgeon” Fruhlinger kickstarted, self-published, and actual made some cash on his DC-based geek social media fiction.

• Anime localizer Kara Dennison opens up about having epilepsy in a geek environment where people casually, jokingly call bad anime “seizure-inducing.” This hit me hard because I’ve absolutely said that without thinking.

• Aja wrote about what happens when shipping goes too far. It’s fun to imagine two characters in a relationship together, but what happens when shipping leaves the imagination and becomes a very real campaign to goad creators into making our favorite characters’ stories match what we want?

• What’s the deal with direct-to-video anime OVAs? Steve covers this often misunderstood facet of published anime and its impact on the market.

• So glad to catch up with Viga at Otakon. Her YouTube channel, where she reviews indie comics and gushes about idol anime, just hit 1,000 subscribers, so you should check it out.

• On Monday, I asked Otaku Journalist readers to plug their own projects. I was blown away by Jamie’s Anime Chicago, a 700+ person club—and academic symposium—in her home city! Their article on how the Tokyo subway compares to Chicago transit makes me want to go back to Japan immediately.

• Nathan is an indie game developer wrestling with the industry’s elephant in the room: “What do you do when you fundamentally loathe the behavior of so many of the players you’re supposed to rely on to buy your latest games?”

• Just discovered the Five Geek Social Fallacies through cartoon legend Iron Spike. This 2003 post helps us question some of the awkward social beliefs we might have. I’ve definitely believed these before, especially #4.

• Eight bloggers share their biggest failures. On an internet where I’m constantly reading bloggers’ monthly income reports that are 10x what I make, this is really grounding.

Photo via Fake Food Japan