1. Venus Angelic is a 15-year-old British teen who wants to look like a Japanese ball jointed doll. Her creepy-cute blog and YouTube videos blur the line between fandom and fetish.

2. Bakuman: The Manga Within the Manga. Remember in Genshiken how the characters’ favorite fictional anime became an actual anime, which became more popular than Genshiken? Cassie points out that the fictional manga discussed in the manga would actually make pretty great stories.

3. When I wrote about Richie Branson’s Gundam Wing album, I forgot to mention another notable Gundam-inspired album. Andrew W.K.’s Gundam Rock is a tribute to the original Mobile Suit Gundam.

4. Sex sells: how cosplay could die. This isn’t anything new, but it’s helpful to hear it again. Our society expects women to serve as decoration at all times, and female cosplayers are held to the same standards.

5. On a related note, Sakuraso writes about why she quit cosplaying. No surprise here; she felt as if she’d been participating in a beauty contest she didn’t agree to enter.

6. Steal this article. I love stories like this one: in order to figure out how Magic: The Gathering players can best protect their cards from thieves, Chas Andres actually interviewed some of the thieves themselves.

7. I was honored to be included in tRzR23‘s aniblog tournament. I explore a lot of general fandom topics on my blog, so I’ve always worried that I don’t “fit in” with the aniblogger community. I’m glad this isn’t the case!

Photo via fuckyeahotakon. Backstory located here.