With a staff of only 3 people (1 character designer, 1 animator and 1 music composer), the doujin circle Kinema Kan is planning to bring the world of Touhou to life, with no less than an animated film on DVD. Feel the power of an independent circle. Here’s the magnificient trailer:

Everything looks absolutely polished, in a very mainstream anime way rather than the usual indepedent artsy type. The song is great and very Touhou-like, and even the background art is vivid and lively. Epic!

The DVD will be out on the March 14th Reitaisai, a super big event dedicated solely to the Touhou universe. One guy creates a game world of his own, and people follow through with animation and exclusive events. Powerful is a game creator today.

Just when I talked about the image of Otaku in Japan, out comes a video I got to know of recently on YouTube.

Channel News Asia goes out to the field of otaku cosplayers and finds out about the difficulties of maintaining their “weird” interest in a conservative Japanese society.

They sang the School Rumble theme song :) Here are the rest of the parts:

Part 2: Click here.
Part 3: Click here.
Part 4: Click here.
Part 5: Click here.

Hey, I thought my cousins and I held exclusive rights to the mustache joke!

So if you’re dating an otaku, are you worth any less?

Get ready for a long post!

I just read on my daily visit to Sankaku Complex about a girl complaining about her worth as an otaku’s girlfriend. She put up a Help Wanted post on a forum that went something like this (original Japanese version here):

“He’s 4 years younger than me, he’s boy-faced and really cute, takes care of his hair and clothes – he’s stylish.

He would talk about music, movies, the latest trends, and knew all about them; he was captivating so it was a natural choice to date him. With a younger boyfriend who’s really cute, every day was full of happiness for me.

After 3 months, his true self emerged. He’s an otaku.

Like the sort you’d see at Akihabara. He doesn’t look it, but he’s into anime and cosplay. I think he even goes to their events.

And on his desktop wallpaper he has gross anime pictures – pink and purple haired miko.

When I saw this, I was so shocked, I thought I’d cry!

He’s stylish and was introduced to me by a friend, but after finding out his true nature I’m really afraid people might think I’m the same. I wish he’d told me at the start he was an otaku.

I don’t have much experience of romance, I feel anxious about these things. And I have been wondering about marriage lately too.

My boyfriend is kind, I love him. But if my friends found out about him I get the impression I’d lose worth in their eyes.

Are women dating otaku worth less?”

I’m happy to see that replies to this so-called helpless lass have been pretty captivating and matured so far (unlike in many Internet forums). Most of them of course sided with the fact that hobbies differ from person to person and does not derail a man of his value.

I think humans (yes, that includes me) are very shallow creatures. It takes only one bad apple to make you hate apples. Twin towers gone, boom, Islam is a shitty religion in a blink of an eye. Some Christians want to call their God “Allah”, and bam, churches get burnt. In turn, pig heads turn up in suraus. It just never ends, this chain of immaturity. When will it stop?

Awwwww Hazmer, you really like me huh?
Then you must be a faggot.

And it goes down to the smallest of matters. For example, in this case, those who look down on a bunch of us who like anime. For me, it’s never wrong to respect somebody for their interests (e.g. I look up to my three cousins for their exquisite taste), but it hurts to know that some people just diss others for liking moe anime. Many forums are full of shitheads like this. Seriously, who the hell do they think they are? You liking Ludacris and me liking Hidamari Sketch doesn’t make you a better person.

Anyway, I wanna talk about the picture painted here in Japan.

From my stay in Tokyo for almost 1 and a half years, I can say this with full confidence and utmost certainty: Japanese people care about their image A LOT. At least moreso than the average Malaysian or westerner.

Nothing sums it up better than one of the replies posted:

「日本人は空気に影響されやすいと言われています。」

Translation: The Japanese are easily influenced by their surroundings. They’re affected by the environment around them, and in turn it affects their surroundings. You can easily see it in their media, where handsome men and beautiful ladies grace the TV almost 80% of the time. And as my cousin Dzaid puts it, and I agree with him, they KNOW it. They KNOW that they look good and they want to show it off, rather pretentiously I may add.

But it can’t be helped. Their emphasis on visuals dates way back. The Japanese call this trait Wabisabi, and it affects how they view their world. Just a simple bloom of a single Sakura flower represents many aspects of life: new love, new uniform, the dying of old habits, etc. It affects their art, from Haiku all the way to their current slice-of-life anime, where they elaborate on the smallest things. Autumn may just be a season to a foreigner, but it means a million and one things to a Japanese.

I think this might be my favourite aspect of Japanese culture, hence why I love slice-of-life shows to begin with.

To a Japanese, image begins with your own and how you conduct yourself in front of others. I studied Japanese long enough to know that the language is designed with image in mind. If you study the language with the mere intention of translating your English sentences, you’re doing it wrong.  There are many ways to say something, and you gotta look out for the circumstances that surround the situation.

The respect and humble speech patterns. Oh the horror. And this is only the beginning, yo.

For example, praising a book written by your professor compared to one written by your friend. If you think it just involves replacing words and grammar structures, you’re dead wrong. In Japanese society, you’re not in a position to judge your professor’s book, so instead of saying “I think it’s a very good book 先生の本は素晴らしいと思います。”, you say “Your book has been a great study for me 先生の本はいい勉強になりました。”. You won’t sound pompous, and in turn you honour your professor’s presence. Your image, his image.

And yes, the language changes its form when you talk to a superior, to a junior, to a friend, to a stranger on the streets, etc. Even within the same conversation to your superior, if you want to imply that your superior is eating, you have to use a totally different vocab compared to the one implying that you yourself are eating. Your superior is more epic, so him “eating” is an epic act that deserves a more epic phrase. Unlike many other languages which apply this during the olden times, this rule still applies to the modern Japanese conversation.

To not sound so arrogant, the Japanese hate to take full responsibility for anything. Their popular phrases include と思います (I think), かも (maybe) and たぶん (probably). Even if they KNOW they’re 110% sure, they bring it down to 50%, at most 80%. My Japanese sensei taught us that instead of saying “I can speak English 英語が喋られます。”, say “It’s not that I don’t speak good English, but… 英語が喋られないことはないんですが”. Don’t sound *too* sure that you’re good in English, and always say that you heard such comments from a friend.

You may think all this is a weird result of a layered society, but I think taking care of one’s image as well as others’ has always been the strong point of the Japanese. Good sense of humility, politeness, low crime rate and their clean streets are all thanks to this very trait. Unfortunately, it is also their very downfall.

Good thing about being a foreigner is that the Japanese sometimes put off their mask when they talk to you. “I hate the rules of the society”, “I hate acting, I wish I could speak my mind”. My senseis and friends have mentioned this before, and I bet my Miyako plushie that you will never hear that from a Japanese if you’re Japanese yourself.

Thanks guys.

Going back to the whole dating-otaku scenario, if you think about the circumstances, it’s not her fault for thinking that way. After all, otakus in Japan have always carried a bad image. No surprise really, we have otakus marrying game characters and dating anime pillows all the way to the public swimming pool, you know, the *very few* bad apples, so to speak. Magazines, forums, all forms of media have criticized the otaku culture for the longest time.

Saki has normal friends who know that she's dating an otaku. Reality might not be as forgiving.

Even if the lady in question thinks it’s not so bad, her friends will. The principal of “not caring about what other people say” is all good and dandy, but in Japanese reality it’s easier said than done. Can a Japanese lady live life knowing that others will condemn her behind her back? One could say “those who do that are not her real friends”, but she might end up with no friends at all!

We’re talking about a country where champion sumo wrestlers quit because of mere scandals here.

Otakus are mocked SO badly that when I was referring to advice from a book on writing Japanese resumes, it mentioned “if you’re planning to write ‘reading manga’ or ‘watching anime’ in the Hobbies section, you really lack common sense“. Even the anime Genshiken poked at this, with Madarame saying “Hmm, maybe I should write ‘appreciation for the arts’ after all”.

The Japanese are quick at judging people by their looks. You wearing an anime T-shirt is like you hanging a sign around your neck saying “You come near me, you will smell like me too”. If you’re a girl pulling a luggage bag in Ikebukuro, you’re most probably a Boy’s Love doujinshi lover and are to be avoided at all cost. I have one such classmate and she complains about hearing such comments all the time.

Sadly, this very thinking has also affected the west and also my home country Malaysia, especially of recent years thanks to all the bad apples. People who like moe anime are looked down upon by those who think they’re better human beings. “To each their own”, “whatever floats your boat”, “different strokes for different folks”, they all bear no meaning in today’s society, it seems.

My Japanese otaku friend and his non-otaku cousin had a fight recently as to what he will do with all his anime figures if he gets a non-otaku girlfriend. Of course, the general consensus is that in a relationship you have to accept someone for who he really is, bad parts and all. Ok so you hate Jennifer Lopez, but I ain’t gonna tear my posters down for you (example ok!). Sadly, this does not apply here in Japan. Best you keep all your figures in a box if you wanna keep going with the relationship.

And this is why a women being single in their 30s here is normal. According to a magazine, most Japanese agree that women here care too much about their partner’s reputation, looks and salary. It’s safe to say that this is one of the important reasons behind the horrible declining birth rate here.

Very unlike his dad Jimmy Choo, who's making designer shoes. Regardless, he's living his dream and is making a living out of it!

I can’t bring myself to become someone like Danny Choo, a person who openly admits himself being an otaku in front of many Japanese people. I love anime, A LOT A LOT. Does that make me an otaku? But in the Japanese mind, an otaku is someone who loves a 2D character on a romantic level, owns many anime pillows, gets held up in his own room without lights on, jerking off to some flashing anime panties. I don’t condemn these guys, but I’m not at such level of fandom. So what am I now? Still an otaku?

Should I even admit that I like anime to a Japanese the first time we meet?

When it comes down to it, I love this country for all its worth, but this is one aspect that I just couldn’t stand. On one side of the coin, their appreciation for the arts got me interested in their culture, but strangely enough it also pulls me out of it. Their emphasis on reputation and image knows no bounds, to a point where it has created a black hole void of personal freedom and expression.

Though seriously, otakus should also know their boundaries. Balance in life is important, being out of balance is what makes you a lesser human being, at least to the public eye. Expressing them is ok, but I’m sure many of you agree that forcing your interests on others is a big no-no.

Before I end this post, I should try to be a little more Japanese and conclude all the above with one big… “と思います！(I think!)”.

Btw, for those new to the site, I need to approve your comment once before it appears. Any subsequent comments need no authorization. If you submitted and your text disappears, don’t panic :) It’ll appear soon!

I felt sorry for the remaining five, so I’m changing this post to Top 10 OPs of 2009!

More OPs, more fun, amirite?

I said bye bye to all my PSD image files *sob*, so I had to create new headers and whatnot. I think it turned out better than I expected ;) I also changed the previous Best ED post to fit the theme.

Enough of my depressing techno babble, onwards to the opening sequences! As usual, I judged them based on the relevance to the show, artistic prowess, entertainment value, and of course music. So here we go!

+ Well well if it isn’t the OP everyone’s talking about, many parodies were made too.
+ KyoAni = nice animation. That’s all we need to know.

+ There’s never enough of Clamp, Madhouse and Sakamoto Maaya goodness in this world.
+ The keyword here is pleasant. Brings you back to the Card Captor days.

+ Short, sweet and simple. Pleasant song with equally pleasant art direction.
+ Shows Production I.G can do anything right, even romance shows.
+ Ok fine, biggest reason: Sawako’s in there.

+ Reminds me of El-Hazard, at least the second half.
+ Impressed with the usage of colours. Music is excellent.
+ Well-animated, you know, it’s a KyoAni kind of thing.

+ Very close to becoming 5th.
+ Duh, it’s Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Their OPs are always great.
+ Duh, it’s by Shaft. Their OPs are always great.
+ Once you know it’s a jab at a UFO cult in Japan, it becomes more interesting.

+ Sorry, am a sucker for designer motion graphic :P Visually stunning.
+ Not only is the music sung by Oasis, but it fits the sequence and show itself very well.
+ One of those OPs that you appreciate as you watch more episodes.
+ What can I say, Kamiyama Kenji and Production I.G make for a great team.

+ A top-notch shounen-anime-like OP with cuts in the right places and at the right time.
+ Ended up watching it many times, there should be an anime series about the OP. Wait…
+ Didn’t you know? When YUI picks up her guitar, magic happens.
+ Something you’d expect from Bones, and more. Cheers to them!

+ Shaft OP alert! They have established a style unique to them, which is already a feat in itself.
+ And as I think more about it, I would… Oooh, look at the pretty colours!
+ Not to mention pretty well animated too, on top of it being well art-directed.
+ Deep symbolism of the relationship between a sadist and a masochist.
+ Music is slightly irritating at first, but the more I listen to it, the more it fits.

+ An OP that wastes no time in telling you what the show is about.
+ A splendid representation of pure innocent love between two best friends.
+ Not overly done like many other anime OPs.
+ Soothes the mind, yet resonates the melancholy within you. Ok, I shut up now.
+ Props to J.C. Staff for such a wonderful piece of work.

+ I’m usually not into sci-fi OPs so much, but this was love at first sight. It’s a refreshing change.
+ Simple with no bells and whistles attached. Just a girl and her transforming bike.
+ Yet everything fits so well together, the music and visuals just play in seamless harmony.
+ It’s like saying “Screw characters showing up one-by-one, I’m gonna ride my bike”.
+ Again, Madhouse enters the number one spot in my Top OP this year. Props to them!

My favourite OP for 2008? Here’s something to refresh your memory on Madhouse’s greatness.

The power of fans fueled his work to a tremendous amount of doujin fan videos and illustrations that are aplenty on the Internet. Some fans created a PV called Bad Apple, which became a big hit in NicoNicoDouga and YouTube. I even made a post about it.

It was the number one most viewed video in YouTube for weeks upon its release. Then someone got nuts and printed the whole thing to make a stop-motion video. That video became popular too.

And very recently CNN picked up on it.

I know I told you many times, but I’m gonna say it again: Never underestimate the power of fans!

The stop motion video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=240Vq6tIxio. The camera angles follow the video to the tee, amazing! Someone sure had a lot of time in his hands.

After waiting for 4 episodes, the real ED is finally here!

Shaft-san, otsukaresama deshita!

Love the part where things light up and the 4 are in the center of the flying Sakura petals, all this with the chorus kicking in. It shows the 4 characters giving new life to their 2 new junior residents.

I love Hidamari Sketch EDs, and this one’s no different. It’s in Shaft style, yet it’s not as radical as their other works and not too moe-fied either. Though not as good as the previous ED (which won 4th place in AAA’08), it still has the same style and Marble’s music is still great.

God I love this show. Please don’t let it end.

I wasn’t the only one who got worn out after a week of hard work.

Yes, my great luck with computers has finally run out. My hard disk died out on me two days ago, bad sectors and all. It’s been rendered as completely unreadable. Luckily I backed up my work files, but all my photos (AAAAAAARGH) and my blog files are lost in the partition vacuum.

Downloaded all sorts of recovery software but just like the goblin jumper cables they don’t seem to work. Will send it to a data recovery center tomorrow or day after.

Meanwhile, I’m on my new hard disk so I have to start over. Starting with software. So don’t be surprised if the next posts on the anime awards do not follow the usual graphic format.

==================================================================

However, not all hope is lost! In-between trying to revive my hard drive and panicking for my digital life, I surfed through NicoNicoDouga on my mom’s netbook and found some cool vids :) It’s an entertaining Dame remix of Shaft and Kyoani anime OPs and EDs! By the way, in English “da-me” means useless, just like my hard disk =_=

They should make more remix videos like this!

(Daitai) Shaft Studios OPED Remix (i.e. a great 11-min artsy feast for your eyes):

Well look at that, it’s my favourite anime studio, Shaft! To be exact, it’s the remix of works by Shinbou Akiyuki till April 2009 (no Bakemonogatari for you), who’s the director for most Shaft series. The video includes his pre-Shaft productions as well. Was really hit in nostalgia by Starship Girl Yamamoto Yoko!

Couldn’t find the non-Nico-comments version though, gomen.

KyoAni remix (i.e. a wonderful rendition of fluid animation, all in one go):

Complete with Full Metal Panic, Key shows and oh, who could forget Haruhi and Lucky Star. It’s the latest DameMixx creation and includes shows until December 2009, so it’s pretty updated. Btw, my favourite KyoAni show is Air :)

Just a little hint, a few of the above are gonna make to my Top 5 opening ;) Look forward to my next post!

Here’s to this hard disk not being another da-me one.

You haven’t lived life till you write a game design proposal in Japanese!

Some game companies need applicants to write a 10-page game proposal (Square Enix needed 2 pages). So I quickly picked up a game design book in Japanese and randomly searched for game titles in the Japanese wiki to obtain some game tango. Words like:

仮想世界 (kasousekai) – Imaginary world
新たな領域 (aratanaryouiki, not zettai ryouiki ok!) – New territory
世界観は信じさせること (sekaikan wa shinjisaserukoto) – Immersed into the world
探索する (tansakusuru) – Explore/Go on a quest
ソーシャルダイナミクス (sousharudainamikusu) – Social dynamics
多人数同時参加型オンラインRPG (taninzuudoujisankakeionrain.R.P.G) – Massively Multiplayer Online RPG

Woo, what a mouthful. And not to forget レベルアップ (reberuappu) – Level up!

After that, it was off to Microsoft Word! I averaged three hours of sleep per day for the past week thanks to this bugger. But finally I’m done. I have to say, I’m proud of myself (ehek) coz when I asked the teacher to check the document, there were less mistakes than I expected. Pretty minor too. I seriously couldn’t believe that I could write a proper proposal in Japanese, but I did :)

Stuff like active and passive verbs still haunt me to this very day though.

Of course, nothing communicates better than drawings. My ugly drawings, that is ^^;;

At least I’m improving (I *think*). Following all my friends’ advice, I used my eyes to follow shapes instead of tracing. Whoa, I sound like an expert :P Greater emphasis on “sound like”.

I’m proposing a new MMORPG mechanism that’s categorically different from WoW, coz in the game design world, if you can’t beat ‘em DON’T join ‘em. Few of you might know what I’m talking about, but for the rest it’s a secret hehehe.

Now that I have patted myself on the back, let’s see whether game companies would pat my back as well. Wish me luck.

Meanwhile, it’s time to get that much needed 8-hour sleep (maybe more?). Good night everyone.

Time to get the Ahbonk.net Anime Awards show on the road!

First up are the ending sequences, meant to cool the audience down after 20 minutes of economic talks, concert shows and hot stapler action. As usual, they are judged based on their music, creativity and entertainment value. From number 5:

+ Storybook art feel is nice, though not as nice as the first season’s.
+ I like the song, moreso than other people on the Net it seems.
+ Horo is kewt, super-deformed or otherwise.

+ First off, this series has a different richly animated ending sequence for EVERY episode!
+ So think about it, this nicely produced ending was only for one episode! How cool is that!
+ Flying panties soaring the skies, silencing the world in their glory. You don’t see that everyday.
+ Song is soothing (end up laughing at the seriousness of it all), and the animation is very well-done.

+ Well what do you know, another Shaft Studios masterpiece. Figures.
+ Though nothing much is happening, it has a lot of hidden references to the events of the show.
+ With beautiful art direction to boot.
+ After Sony published his Miku album, Ryo (Supercell) was invited to compose for this ending. Also, Nagi sang a lot of anime tunes at home and posted her voice on NicoNicoDouga. To think that she was invited to sing for this ending… it became a hit collaboration between two doujin musicians. Love the music!

+ Kamiyama Kenji and Production I.G (which also resulted in Ghost in the Shell: SAC).
+ It’s not only an ending sequence, it’s an art piece.
+ I know, having paper-cut art direction is nothing new. Still suitability and implementation counts.
+ The music goes really well with the whole thing. Or the whole thing goes really well with the music. Ah whatever, they both rock.

+ The ending sequence is the only thing worth watching in this crappy show.
+ Yet, the ending made me curious about the show itself (regrettably).
+ I have a soft spot for old skool RPGs :) Superb effort on the art, plus a lot of sprite references.
+ It presented a lot of fantastic fantasy elements (tower, flying whale) in a minute and a half!
+ They even made the nice song RPG-like, which turned the sequence into an entertaining package.
+ The timing is great, ended up watching a lot of times and getting impressed each time.

Honorable Mentions:

+ Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood (ED1): Click here for ED
+ K-ON: Click here for ED
+ Maria Holic: Click here for ED
+ Seitokai no Ichizon: Click here for ED
+ Cross Game (ED3): Can’t find it online :(
+ Nodame Cantabile Paris-hen: Click here for ED
+ Inuyasha Final Act: Click here for ED

It’s that time of the year again! Top 5 ending, opening, moments, characters and anime shows by me in the next coming weeks! 2009 was quite a weak year for anime (for me anyways), but it had a few shiny gems planted here and there.

Took a while to montage the above pic! Can you name all the 35 anime I watched in 2009 in the above picture? If you can’t, leave it to figure.fm. I uploaded the pic and nearly all were identified in under an hour :O http://www.figure.fm/post/en/6863/Challenge+Tag+that+2009+Anime.html

今年もやる！ahbonk.netアニメ賞２００９、スタート！
なんかバナーを作りたいと思って、上のモンタージュになった。なかなかいい感じと思う！
バナーのとおりに、観た２００９年のアニメは全部３５つで、去年超忙しかったｗｗｗ
ところで、その中、いくつ知ってるかな？