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!

My cousin Daim wrote a nice piece of article in his *ahem* BLOG (http://www.daimation.com) detailing his preferences in selecting his favourite animation/movies. Had a nice discussion with my cousins last night, thought it was a great idea to come up with my own list! :) I invite everyone to do the same!

This is also in tune with the upcoming ahbonk.net Anime Awards 2009, so you will roughly know why I choose some shows over others.

Of course, this is just a writeup about my preferences. To each his own, I’d say.

First, let me tell you the most important factor in choosing the right show:

• As long as it’s not Micheal Bay’s Transformers, it’s good.

Wait, come back! It’s not the only factor…

I agree with Daim in a sense that music, story-telling and art are very important aspects of media. Unlike Daim though, it’s hard for me to put emphasis on one portion of media over the other. For example, I think that music is no more important than visuals, nor are visuals more important than story-telling.

For me, a movie with fitting visuals but bad story-telling is just as guilty as a movie with a good story but unfitting visuals. An anime with an epic soundtrack but ill-suited visuals ain’t gonna compel me to watch the show either.

Back to the Future is not Back to the Future without the characters, the tense music, the changing newspaper articles, the hoverboard and flying cars, etc. It is my favourite movie of all time because it manages to harmonize all its elements into one entertaining package. I agree with Daim: it’s the whole integration that’s important.

Maybe my experience as a multimedia and game developer influenced me to see the whole thing in a big picture.

I *do* agree though that one media element is harder to produce than the other. I think coming up with matching music score and sound effects is a difficult process, one that is super difficult and as a result is only considered as an afterthought.

So far it may seem like the easy way out of dissecting my interests, but I assure you I DO have a list of 3 factors that influence my judgement in media. They are:

• Entertainment Value
• Immersion
• Effort

Half-naked fat men are entertaining. End of discussion.

Nah, just kidding. Thin men are fine too: “I don’t believe in God, I believe in sciiiieeenccee.”

I watch animation and movies to be entertained. Of course how “entertaining” something is depends on the person, but I tend to not like shows that mope and “emo” around one single issue for too long. I’d take 20 repeated runs of Nacho Libre over one round of Winter Sonata any day (What? He’s blind now? COME ON!).

In other words, I wanna feel good after watching something. Sometimes it’s about being happy for the characters, or being struck in awe after watching an intense space battle/psychological thriller. The feeling could also be associated with the production rather than the movie itself, like “Man, I wish I thought of that, that was an awesome idea!”.

Without a doubt, the stirring of emotions play a VERY BIG role in entertainment value.

This is not to say I wanna see a rabbit hopping in the meadows and smelling flowers for two hours. You might think that I’m easily pleased, but to keep me entertained for two hours is not an easy feat, let alone for 26 episodes. If you just look at the story-telling element alone, there are already a bunch of stuff that needs to be considered.

Like the story arc, for example. To build for the feel-good moment, crisis of significant scale here and there is crucial. Even in slice-of-life comedies, characters need to have conflict to handle every now and then. It may seem basic, but a lot of popular anime/movies fail in this department.

Such as:

• One in recent memory is the latest Star Trek movie. Too much going all over the place without solving the crisis at hand.

• The latest One Piece movie, Strong World, in which all the crises were not much of a challenge for Luffy and gang. Villains were swatted down like flies.

• Anime series that rely too much on fanservice for entertainment. Yes I’m a guy, but my brain is bigger than my balls. I want something more intelligent, thank you.

• Don’t get me started on Haruhi’s endless eight!

• Back to the Future, Star Wars (NO, not episode I, II and III!) and in recent memory, Watchmen, rocked. The story flow, the characters and the action had momentum which made for a good ride.

• Gurren Lagann and One Piece manga, for its awesome seemingly impossible-to-overcome odds at every corner. Not to mention that they’re both funny AND full of thrills!

• Also, let’s not forget some feel-good anime, like Aishiteruze Baby, Azumanga, Aria, Hidamari Sketch, Ichigo Mashimaro and Cross Game. Considering all its one-way love relationships, Honey and Clover might seem like an exception to this rule, but it’s not. It’s heart-warming and beautiful, both story and art.

There’s more to Aria than just girls wearing white uniforms that hug… their curvy… body shape… mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

*slaps himself*

Similar to when I’m playing a game, I wanna forget the real world and be thoroughly involved in the world that I’m watching. It doesn’t only apply to fantasy worlds; I would love to be involved in that discussion room among 12 Angry Men, or shout out from the audience stand to support Ippo in Hajime no Ippo.

You see, when I was watching Aria, I was not only taken in by the future alternative of Venice, I mean, sure it was visually stunning and all that. But if it wasn’t for our lovely protagonist Akari’s commentary and her curiosity on exploring every corner of the city, I wouldn’t have found Neo-Venezia to be as beautiful as I do now. Dialogue and story helped a lot in sucking me into this fantasy world.

It’s common to think that visuals play the biggest role in immersion, but not for me. Aria would’ve struck me on a different note if not for the sound of the waves hitting the docks and the creaking sounds of the gondola. The Italian jazz BGM by Choro Club helped a lot in bringing out its romantic atmosphere. If not for all these, it could have easily been mistaken for a sci-fi show instead of a slice-of-life story of a girl who wants to be a full-fledged gondolier.

Read the Wiki. Just look under the Reception section and you can see all the praises by official sources to see what I mean. Here’s an excerpt:

“The series has been praised for its calm pacing, optimistic worldview, beautiful art, and, for the anime, the quality of the soundtrack.”

Let’s see. Story-telling, check. Visuals, check. Music, check. All of them work together to create, quote, “a masterpiece of storytelling and illustration, gorgeous to look at and a feast for the young imagination in its ability to present an inviting, fully realized world”, unquote.

My love for Venice, including a daily visit to a certain Venice photo blog, is all thanks to Aria.

This is why I love slice-of-life anime, especially the feel-good fuzzy ones. They pay attention to the smallest detail, which deepens the immersion ever further, at least for me. I’m in Tokyo now and I appreciate every little thing it has offer: the people, the dog statue in Shibuya, the sound of the wind chimes, the Sakura petals, the kotatsu, the music the pedestrian traffic light plays when it’s green, ginger ale (and how it’s pronounced). All of them have a high level of significance to me.

Anyway, nothing pisses me off more than that momentary knock-back that instantly transports me back to reality, such as:

• Plot Holes: You come back to reality and think, WTF. This is why I hated Deja Vu, a waste of Denzel Washington talent. It had more holes than my face.

• Character Motivation: I don’t mind characters being one-dimensional and all, as long as their motivation is set straight. Nothing is more unconvincing than a villain who wants to destroy the world for very childish reasons, like “mommy gave you more toys than me” (replace toys with money/empires, it’s all the same). Oh, and Star Wars Episode I, II and III are very good examples of epic fail in this context. *whuang* *whuang* *pshh arrrghhh* What have I done? … Yes master.

• Bad Acting: This is why I can’t stand some Malay comedies, they try to act funny but fail horribly. Remember Batman and Robin, anyone? I’m trying not to. Though game-related, some RPGs have horrible english dub that prevent me from playing them till the end.

• Inconsistent Art: I know that your company is laying off some people and you can’t push that beautiful art direction past episode 6, but I wanna forget about that (immersion, remember?). When characters and scenery look different in certain scenes, I end up trying to figure out what the heck am I looking at. Filler episodes are also a popular victim.

• Horrible Audio: IMO, music and sound effects make or break the mood of the show. The recent anime Fairy Tail had one terrible flaw that I just couldn’t forgive for the life of me. At the end of every episode, a super happy ending theme would fade in 5 seconds before the credits roll. So imagine the awkward feeling when I saw the villain almost killing the main dude near the end, having his sinister laughter overlapped by some hyper jingle. Good Lord, someone kill the director. At least Saki did a better job at this, fading in the right ED song to fit the end.

• Trying to Figure Out Which is the Autobot and Which is the Decepticon: ‘Nuff said.

A lot of creators want their work to be judged at face value, but that ain’t gonna happen. Nuh uh. Production value is proportionate to the number of people and experience, that’s a fact you can’t deny. If you see a solo-produced 3D animation beating a Pixar one in production value, please call the police. It’s a crime.

Makoto Shinkai is a talented artist. A rare one at that. You can’t believe that beautiful works like Voices of a Distant Star can be created by just one man (+composer friend and voice actress fiancee).

Even so, if he works with more people, can you imagine the lengths that he could reach? Just look at his next work, The Place Promised in Our Early Days, where you can see a huge improvement in production value as he worked in a team. Whether it’s a better movie or not is another matter altogether.

This is why I can’t help but consider the amount of effort that was put into the work. Though I’d be a little more forgiving, I will still consider its entertainment value and depth of immersion as important factors. I can tell you that there are a lot of one-man shows out there that fulfill these criteria, even more so than a whole slew of box office hits.

In other words, if solo-produced Film A was just as entertaining and immersive as studio-produced Film B, I would say that A is a better movie than B. Sorry, you can’t talk me out of this one :P Coz for me, it’s about surpassing or falling short of expectations.

This thinking gave birth to my great appreciation for independent (doujin) animation, manga, music and games.

Daim mentioned last night that he stays away from animated shorts in general because they are often a channel to show off the artist’s skills, with disregard to storytelling and audio. In short, it’s a “Hey look at this!” kind of thing.

Though I wholeheartedly agree with him, I say “why not?”. There are many who wanna show off but are just all talk and no action. A select few have chosen to do something about it, with passion. That in itself deserves my respect and a view from me. No matter how pretentious a piece of work is, it always has a story of tell.

This brings me to another related, albeit slightly weaker factor, intention. What is this piece of work intending to do, and did it succeed? You wanna show off how your art direction is related to child abuse? Sure! You have this crazy plot twist idea about the train not moving but the stations are moving instead? Why the hell not!

Once in a while I forgive the lack of plot richness if the creator did what s/he intended to do. For example, we all know that Advent Children isn’t the best example of story-telling device out there (in fact far from it), but I know what the creator was trying to make: an awesome 3D version of John Woo action while being faithful to the game. And it succeeded. I like.

———————————————————————————————————————————————————

Phew, sorry about that. Got carried away with all the writing, but that’s who I really am. And remember, there are always exceptions to the rule. It always depends on my mood, the hype, the current technology, etc.

How about you? What are the 3 factors that affect your judgement on entertainment? Let us know!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Was busy compiling my portfolio, went to the gym and had dinner in Matsuya… alone. Yet another ronery Christmas for me.

The other thing I did in the past week was surfing Pixiv, YouTube and NicoNicoDouga, so I compiled all the awesome Christmas stuff I found from Japan and put them in this post. I am Santa and you’ve been a good kid.

The picture above was taken in Shinjuku station day before yesterday. If you’re a romance anime buff like me, I fully recommend Kimi ni Todoke from past autumn. It’s such a sweet warm anime that you can snuggle up to it on cold winter nights. Moreover, it’s animated by Production I.G and has Noto Mamiko’s voice. Ahhh, Sawako in that hoodie…

Let’s start first with some Pixiv fanart that I deem the best of the 2009 collection.

A nice warm scene drawn by BoniiFuto ボニー太.

When you can’t get a reindeer of your own. Nice colouring by Fuuta フータ.

Starry sky on a holy night. Created by Guma ぐま.

Haruhi is up to no good again. Won’t be receiving any presents this year either. By 9tori ９鳥.

The colour combo look great, somehow this gives me an idea to create my own rendition of such kind. Created by 87 (yea that’s his pixiv name).

Should I be overjoyed and greet him, or follow my instinct and chase him? Drawn by hrt.

Awwww, look at what Chibi-Miku got for Christmas. Created by luu.

Wish a Godzillion wonderful moments happen to you too, Miya (the artist).

Poor Miku, I guess that’s the problem with having green hair. Drawn by Saku さく.

A nice sinister rendition of Santa by TREIZE.

See, I told you to buy a house with a chimney. Drawn by Takefuto 岳太.

Random and childlike, very nice! Click here to see it in original size. Drawn by Uryu うりゅ.

Now we move on to the videos!

Ah, Ranma 1/2. My first true anime love. This is the ending of the second OVA christmas special. Used to download Quicktime movies of all the openings, endings and DoCo music videos back in 1997. Do you have any idea how long each download took at that time? Nothing can stop a Ranma fan!

Remember Love Hina, the show that defined harem anime in general? Its christmas special had one of the sweetest anisong I heard, Winter Wish. No PVs available, so you gotta settle for this equally beautiful guitar transition. You can listen to the original song here.

When I think of Christmas and games combined, the first thing that comes to mind is Christmas NiGHTs for the Sega Saturn. Back to when Sonic Team was good *sigh*. Just fly around and collect stuff; such simple gameplay yet the whole thing has a strong concept, at least for me. Skip to 3:50 if you wanna see the gameplay.

Speaking of Sega, they released this Christmas promotional video for their latest game, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing. All was fine until the part the lady sang “Aaaannnddd a heeedgeehooog caaalled Sooooooniiiiiic”. So lame =_=;;

AND speaking of games, this was Sony’s greeting card to their business partners this year. Wish it snowed PS3 here. People might die but at least I’ll get a PS3 for free.

A beautiful short animation created by Mitsukawa Maboro. This guy does animation works (mainly in Flash) about a girl who’s very lonely. I dunno what the details are, but the video is definitely enough to stir up my emotions. Comes with Chopin’s beautiful music rendition too.

Ryuichi Sakamoto is one heck of a musician. He has made a name for himself by winning an Academy Award, a Golden Globe award and a Grammy award. Talk about being greedy lol. His most popular piece has gotta be this one, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Needless to say, it’s beautiful. In YouTube and NicoNicoDouga you can find many fan-made remixes and renditions of the song, shows how influential this dude really is.

For you people who like a more youthful vibe (read: handsome young men), then you can listen to this one, Exile’s Holy Night. The A Capella version is nice too.

Hey look it’s Gackt *hears many girls screaming*. Alright then, this song needs no introduction, it’s simply one of his greatest hits, December Love Song.

Rewind back to the mid-80s where we had Yamashita Tatsuro sing “Christmas Eve”, which became an instant hit. To an average Japanese, this song is considered to be the standard Christmas song. JR used the song to advertise their Christmas CMs as well. I’m sure some of you have heard the English version, but this is the original one. You decide which one’s better!

Or if you think that’s too much of an oldie (how old are you anyway?!), then you can go for the rap version. Eh, not really my type, but at least it’s by Kick the Can Crew. Like their songs when I was first introduced to them in my previous office.

Another beautiful Christmas song, this time by B’z. Even if you’re not their fan, I’m sure you’ve heard it some time or another. Don’t you just love that husky singing voice?

Bump of Chicken don’t only sing One Piece songs ok! This is a new down-to-earth Christmas song by them this year. Very soothing. The original MTV had its embedding disabled *grumble* but if you wanna watch it, click here.

Ok enough of guys man, sheez! An energetic hip rendition of Last Christmas by Foxxi misQ. So which one do you wanna see under your christmas tree tonight? ;)

Komaneko is a little kid’s show for Cartoon Network Japan, and they had this seasonal ending theme up, sang by Solita. There’s just something about the French language that triples the romance of a song, don’t you agree?

Wanna kick it up a notch with the “mengada” (roughly translated to English, “ARGH”) factor? I present to you little boys group singing Winter Wonderland!

Watch all the stupidity and humour that is the Japanese commercial in this compilation, all for this year’s Christmas. Look out for Nodame and Tommy Lee Jones!

How about a cute computer-rendered voice singing Silent Night? You know I can’t escape Miku’s charms rite? :D The PVs well made too.

And to end the post, we have Osaka sing Jingle Bells. Or should I say arranged to make it *look* like she’s singing Jingle Bells. Tomo (who doesn’t believe in reindeers) and Chiyo-chan joins in the fun as well. Esukareta~ Erebeta~ Sataaa Andagiii~

Have a Merry Christmas! Hope you’re not all alone and writing a blog post on this merry day.

It’s been years since I left /if / interactive. 3 years to be exact. Yet it’s impossible to forget the sweet and bitter memories I had there.

I think I’d be some fresh greenhorn if I worked elsewhere. No regrets at all; it was one of the, if not THE greatest life and working lessons to be learned. Design, working culture, different mindsets, even programming, I attained most of ‘em here. I absorbed a whole lot of new things, and I wouldn’t be where I am today without them.

Being the first company to have industrial working experience, people often ask me what /if / does. It’s hard to answer that question to a layman without sounding too descriptive. I wanna get away with just saying “they do cool digital stuff, the ones where you don’t use a mouse or keyboard”, but that just raises more questions.

Now I don’t need to. I just forward them to the newly created YouTube channel IF dot TV. It’s about time! Here’s their latest cool entry:

This is an application for Kent. Be a video disc jockey among many and use the iPod Touch to interact with the screen.

They also did work for Nike. Don’t pray pray! The video explains it all.

And how could we forget the orgasmic jellyfish xD Starting commentary by yours truly!

If you think that Malaysians are left behind in the creative industry, you better think twice. /if / will prove you wrong.

Don’t forget to visit their website and subscribe to IF dot TV.

Is this the future?! Nope, it’s the present. Released recently, Sekai Camera is an iPhone application where you can put tags and even comments on real world footage, utilizing the camera and GPS system. That’s Google Earth/Wikimapia on a whole new level. Been downloaded 100,000 times already, and counting.

Augmented reality just got better.

It’s getting closer to that cool tech you see in Higashi no Eden. Maybe Micchon programmed it. SHE’S REAL WOOT

The girls get to go to Paris, good for them! Girls wearing beret and hot pants shall rule the world.

I love cats.

End of last year, an interesting free online service called Myzo was born. It’s simply a slew of very unique variety shows, each between 1 to 5 minutes, shown one after another without stop, but you can switch “channels” easily. The videos include:

• Stupid short films and commercials
• Documentaries of all types, including how to sleep on a hammock
• Amazing feats involving tennis
• Example scenarios of irritating moments, like using the cellotape
• A cooking show with unusual conditions (e.g. cooking fried rice without waking your wife up)
• Intentionally unsync-ed national anthems of different countries, with corny graphics and effects with Japanese translation (Malaysia was not spared)

It’s like Japanese variety show, Warioware-style.

The videos are crazy random, which is part of the charm. They have that weird but professional and creative aura that surrounds them. Anyone who has played Metal Gear Solid 4 should relate it to the beginning of the game; you know what i’m talking about.

My favourite channel is ShuuChuuRyoku no Tsukekata 「集中力のつけ方」. To test how well they can focus on a certain job/game, they do it in a room of curious cats.

Yup that’s it. Hey, told you I love cats rite? I need no other reason to watch this!

Playing the Hyakunin-Isshu, a traditional Japanese game where you’re required to choose a card that contains the second half of a given unfinished poem. Love how the guy lifted the cat’s tail to see the cards haha.

Jigsaw Puzzle. Awwww there’s a kitten in the hood. *heart*

Playing Shogi (Japanese Chess). The cats added more challenge to the game at first, but later they just laid back and watched the game.

Calligraphy. Hard to draw anything especially with a cat wearing a maid suit blocking your way!

GOD, cats are so KEWT!

I used to follow Whose Line is it Anyway on Star World some time back, but I think I missed this episode. I just finished laughing like a madman at 2 o’clock in the morning. Thanks to Chen for sending me this one.

Poor Wayne.

Haven’t had a super crazy laugh-till-die in weeks! Everyone cannot tahan and bursted into laughter, even after the stunt!

Damn I miss this show. Too bad it stopped 2 years ago. I think it deserves a worldwide petition campaign! Who wants to sign up? :)

Ah~ it’s that volleyball show!!!

I was old enough to remember this japanese drama on tv2, around 7-ish (dinner time, nothing better to watch :P) focusing on a girl’s volleyball team. Thanx to my boss, Sweii, we have finally found the drama vid. It’s called Moero Attack!

Don’t you just love that 70/80s feeling? Haha. Oh yea, I miss that super somersault ultimate attack! If anyone can find that vid, please let me know.

A group of girls playing volleyball huh? I would appreciate it much more now :D

Tommy Lee Jones in Akihabara?!

Man, talk about awkward, hahaha. Love his facial expression.

Jack Bauer in Shinjuku?!

As 24 gets popular in Japan, it gets parodied in dramas, comedy sketches and 3 animes already. So Calorie Mate had an idea…

Hollywood Idol meets Japan Idol.

“JACK! This is the last one. Is it ok?” XD

English Anime Trailers, anyone?

Oh noes! It’s the attack of the dubs!

Gurren Lagann. ADV made it comedic, but in a totally wrong direction :(

Lucky Star. Actually Konata’s voice is suitable, though it reminds me of Bart Simpson. But Kagami is just not tsundere enough! Oh, and Miyuki’s voice actress needs to be shot, period.

Welcome to the NHK. Definitely one of the better ones. Maybe coz the characters don’t talk? XD Makes you curious about the show too. (This is a great show, btw!)

Pani Poni Dash. I’m very impressed with this trailer! It’s a really crazy anime, and ADV has managed to make it entertaining and not so annoying.

Paprika. Though not english dubbed, it’s the american trailer of Paprika. Satoshi Kon FTW! If you haven’t watched any of his shows yet, you’ll die a lesser being.

Romeo x Juliet. The pacing is nice and the narration is really good. Just the font :S

Utawarerumono. Love how the guy pronounced the title like he wanted to get it over with XD

Kanon. Man, Ayu’s voice is a little annoying (no american can beat Horie Yui!). But the best part is how the narrator pronounced “Hurai Suzumaiya”, what the. Practice first la!

Appleseed. Epic shows deserve epic trailers!