Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by EXCELLENCE!)

Kon Satoshi is dead. No one will see him ever again. He will never make another movie. Ever.

I think what’s hitting most of us the hardest about this whole deal is how shocking it is. No one was expecting that there would be a day in 2010 where Kon would die. This is to say, his death was untimely. He was only 46–younger than my parents!

Putting aside the obvious personal loss to his family and friends, for people like me who only know him as a director, the weirdest thing (second to him dying so early on) is that he will never make another movie ever again. With only four films under his belt, one TV series, and a new film in production, his career was cut way too short. Certainly he’s had his fingers in a variety of other sinister soups, doing animation work and script work on a number of projects; but the stuff that was actually 100% him was short in number, and will never be seen again. That really sucks.

Truth be told, I’m not able to call myself a devoted Kon fan, but I have enjoyed all of his output that I’ve seen, which is basically everything that has his name beside the word “director,” except for Perfect Blue. Like most other people, I also feel that his death is gigantic blow to the anime industry. Kon undoubtedly had his own unique vision when it came to movie making, one marked  by characters rendered in a semi-realistic style, along with a pension to bend that established reality into whatever his imagination could conjure up.

Is anime dead? No. I mean, I still have all my fun otaku-centric stuff coming at me at full speed. But anime is no longer on the map, and while Hosoda is making great movies, I’m not sure how many people are going out to see ‘em! Kon’s movies were things you could show to any seasoned movie goer, and they’d probably enjoy it. I can sit down with my parents and watch one of his movies with no reservations. Anime is shoulder deep in the shit right now, and the industry needed a man like Kon to make movies that would help bring the industry back above water and thrive.

Whether you loved his work, hated his work, or were just indifferent to it; it is a fact that his death is a severe blow to the industry. It is also a fact that Kon’s storyboards–which he’d keep working on for a year and change per movie–are amazing.

I’ve not been very vocal on the whole Handley issue on this site simply because every other blogger, podcaster and Twitter superstar has beaten the issue to death. However, upon FUNimation’s announcement regarding their editing of SHAFT’s Dance In The Vampire Bund for US release, I feel that something something has to be said. I realize that what I’m saying has been repeated ad nauseum by pedos and non-pedos alike, and considering my preoccupation with the underdeveloped female form, I understand that there will be a certain degree of bias here. But whatever.

No matter how objectionable a drawing is, in the end it’s simply that–a drawing. Whether it’s a dude fucking a dead girl in the brain, a guy getting torn apart, or a man having his way with a young child, no matter how gross one may find such things, they’re drawings, and they shouldn’t be illegal. I’m not even going to push the “artistic expression” angle. Yeah, a lot of the stuff you find in LO does have a high degree of artistic merit, but in the end a lot of the people who partake of this stuff just want to jerk off. And that’s fine, they’re just drawings.

Honestly, considering how harmless drawn imagery of a man and a young girl having sex is (it’s not uncommon for the girls in LO to give consent, strangely enough), I’m surprised that the iron fist of the law hasn’t come down on far more grotesque drawn imagery. Take the types of violent and sexual imagery I mentioned in the above paragraph–why aren’t people losing their shit over that? I’ve flipped through a bunch of comics–both American and Japanese–where some pretty awful stuff is going down. Heck, violence of that same level happens in Hollywood movies. Why isn’t that stuff banned? I mean, I find some of it offensive. I know this is an argument that’s been made countless times, but how is grotesque violence okay and relatively benign imagery of two people having sex not? Especially when they’re just drawings. I mean seriously, these guys should be arresting people for owning Waita Uziga books if they’re to throw poor Handley away for drawings of fake girls getting fucked.

Again, I know this has been beaten to death and has already been communicated in a far more eloquent manner, but there is no victim when an issue of Comic LO drops. No one is hurt in the making of that publication. Real children are hurt in the production of real child pornography, and those criminals are the ones we should be after. The people who partake of cartoonish depictions of minors engaged in sexual acts are sometimes people who do prefer real children, and sometimes people who  just like drawings. I personally just like drawings. However, if one were to make our harmless fantasy drawings illegal, who are they protecting? If anything the dudes who like real kids will just go out and rape real kids, and guys like me will have to tread cautiously when looking at something that hasn’t harmed anyone in its making.

Anyway, enough of that. You’ve heard it all before.

As far as FUNimation’s decision on Vampire Bund goes, I can’t blame them, but they’re going to be lucky if the first volume can push 50 copies. If that. Honestly, I think they could have left that one problematic scene in and no one would have noticed. The US release of the manga got away with that scene, along with all the others where every lovely detail of Mina’s wonderful body is put front and center. Heck, the manga is probably dirtier than the anime considering just how often Mina is naked. The only real graphic depiction of Mina’s naked body in the anime is that scene. Yeah, you wouldn’t be able to show a grown man rubbing oil on a naked little girl on US TV or even release something like that on DVD. If it involved a real child. Like I said above, these are drawings. Who cares if there’s some scene in a cartoon where a kid is naked. It’s totally harmless.

Since this Vampire Bund license was likely a tie-in with their Baka to Test license, they were low on options. And we are living in a world were a man has been arrested for owning comics. But I still think it’s dumb.

Yesterday I got this Kannagi DVD that for some reason came with some random Mobile Suit Gundam stickers. Lord knows for how long these have been sitting around the Bandai offices!

Here’s a sexy picture of Hachikuji by tooo.

Happy New Year!

Remember how back when Bakemonogatari was announced, there was news that the show was too long for its TV broadcast, and the remaining three episodes of the fifteen episode series had to be streamed online?

Well, I just got some SUPER SECRET INFO from my industry contact in Japan, and he told me I could spill the beans on the whole deal. See, SHAFT won’t be streaming anything. They’re going to be doing something better–each of the web episodes will be put up on their website free for download, with no DRM. Expect the file names to look something like this: [ＳＨＡＦＴ]化物語第十三話「つばさキャット其ノ参」.mkv

In addition to this, each of the episodes will be subbed into English–BY SHINBO HIMSELF. What this means is, Shinbo will simply be typing in all the English he knows into each of the episodes. By the last episode, the sub script will be composed entirely of misspelled quotes from American movies. I’ve seen these scripts, and they’re pretty awesome.

Anyway, look forward to it!

Original Post

For people who don’t know anything, here’s some context.

This comic more or less happened because I’m something of a fan of conspiracies, and am a big fan of Shinbo Akiyuki. Oh, I guess it also happened because of that Haruhi thing that happened a few days ago (which I’ll expand upon below.) The artwork is mostly fine, but I probably should have varied the colour values a bit for my horrible Soultaker/Tsukuyomi imitation panels. Oh well.

As I mentioned in the previous rant, there was anticipation that a new episode of Haurhi was going to air on Thursday. And, well, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past couple of days (or, conversely, if you’re having sex with women and living a normal life) that new episode did air, and all of the crazy 2ch people in Japan went nuts, while all the people in my manga club were like “oh, it was new? I guess I should watch it.”

This new episode opens in Haruhi’s established slice of life style, and, of course, after about five minutes Back to the Future happens and a bunch of questions from series 1 are answered, and new ones are raised. Needless to say I liked it, especially because Mikuru got to show off her time traveling powers, Mikuru got to be extra cute, and I just happen to like time traveling stories. All it needed was Dr. Emmett Brown! Or some ghost from Showa era Japan. Or a girl who can leap through time.

The current rumour is that the next couple of episodes will be old ones, and then another new one should show up. Once they get through the old ones (with some new ones mixed in) the rest of the run should be completely new. Of course, that’s a just a rumour. While we did actually get a full episode this time, I don’t think it’s beyond KADOKAWAXKYOANI to keep us waiting even more. Because they’re dicks.

Next week I’m probably going to go back to one comic a week. Two comics a week was fun, but I simply can’t handle it. Too much stress for something that’s supposed to be fun. See you all next week!

１５分前

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２５：００時(ｷﾀ━━━━━━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━━━━━━ !!!!!)

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おわった（　￣∀￣）

YOU BET IT’S HAPPENING.

Hear that, Daryl? That shitty shit you like is still being ignored, but awesome stuff like STRIKE WITCHES is getting another season! Oh wait, I like that shitty shit Daryl likes, too. Oh well. MORE STRIKE WITCHES.

First Nogizaka Haruka, and now this! It would be great if Kure-nai got a second season as well, but given the way that ended, it’s probably best left alone. Now all we have to wait for is… Haruhi season 2!!

Yup.

That’s right, folks! It could happen!

I don’t really care either way, though. It’s a lot cooler to be swingin’ single in both the 2D and 3D worlds. I mean, seriously. Marriage is such a drag.

Nagi celebrates by taking off her clothes