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

Otakon’s been over for how many weeks? Two? Three? Four? Five? SIX?! I dunno, I haven’t been keeping count, nor do I have any concept of time. But what I do know is that this con has been over for a while, and a bunch of other cool cats already have their reports up. You should know how things run over here at Mistakes of Youth by now, so this punctuality shouldn’t be surprising.

I missed Otakon in 2009 due to being in another country while it was going on, and upon hearing reports of how fun that one was, I was actually pretty excited to get back to Otakon this year. And it wasn’t bad! Really chilled out. There were a few panels I wanted to go to–mostly run by friends and acquaintances–and between them was plenty of time to peruse the dealers’ rooms and socialize. Autograph lines were no problem, and I got to see a cool movie!

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Alrighty guys, ever since I’ve touched down in DC things have been a little quiet. I’ve been getting my shit back together, and honestly I’ve not really been in a mood to write. But in a quarter-assed attempt (not even half-assed) to get some content up on this blog, I’ve scanned some things for your viewing pleasure.

While cleaning out my room a couple of weeks ago, I found some pages from a magazine (of which the name escapes me) that I tore out as a child. As I remember, the magazine was going out into recycle, but I wanted to preserve the precious few pages of anime and manga related content that I could. Being the healthy 11 year old that I was, I also ripped out a Shadow Lady advertisement. These pages are relics from the end of the 1990s. Artifacts of a scene that I could barely interact with beyond the pages of magazines such as this and the Anime Web Turnpike. As such, I cannot provide the same commentary that a Colony Drop writer can, but I think these images speak loud enough on their own. They’re primarily listings for VHS tapes and manga released in comic book format, so they show their age, and it’s quite charming. As I mentioned before, some ads are included as well.

How about that Pokemon and that Dragon Ball, huh?

And as a bonus, here’s a questionnaire card I found in an VHS copy of the first Tenchi Movie. It is once again charming in how antiquated it is.

If you know anything about me, you probably know that I really enjoy doujinshi. And considering the limited scope of my Japanese linguistic abilities, I enjoy simple doujinshi. Doujinshi that doesn’t require me actually having to read it.

You know, porno books.

But as the years have gone by, my tastes have grown gradually more specific when it comes to both pornography and anime, so finding stuff that hits my sweet spots is difficult. I mean, I see no problem with getting it off to your run-of-the-mill rape book based on show-of-the-hour. Sometimes I like to do just that. But in the end, those books don’t really do much to hit my really specific kinks. I really enjoy anime–and characters in those anime–that tend not to be popular, and as a result doujinshi produced around those shows and characters are a rarity, and often times what we get is rather poor quality stuff. However, sometimes you find an artist who does exactly what you’ve been wanting, and does it extremely well.

Hitomaron is that kind of artist. As a fan of the beautiful young girls in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (I’ve been meaning to write an article extolling the virtues of their brilliant visual design and why they are just so sexy.) Hitomaron’s renderings of them push all the right buttons, where other doujin artists exploring similar territory fail. I first came across his (Her? Their?) work during my travels in the east, and was immediately taken when I saw his (then) newest release–Kagiana Gekijou Shoujo 5–sitting around in Tora no Ana. Further investigation lead to the purchase of Kagiana Gekijou Shoujo 4, and here I am reviewing them a year later.

Once upon a time, internet maestro Shingo (of the now dead Heisei Democracy) made a beautiful analogy regarding character designers whose specialty is adapting designs for anime versions of original works, such as manga or light novels. He compared them to when bands cover songs, and how sometimes you really like certain covers of certain songs. Sometimes you may even like the cover over the original. A similar thing obviously happens in the doujinshi scene, considering how a lot of it is composed of parody works. There are a lot of Zetsubou Sensei doujin that either try to shoot for the look of the original, or take things in their own direction, but very few artists take what was aesthetically pleasing about Kumeta’s and/or SHAFT’s designs and act upon them in the such a way that the result is unique and creative, but still has the same underlying feel carried by the original work.

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I dunno about you, but one thing I’m sick ‘n’ tired of is old guys complaining about things. I’m talking about those old guys who complain about young kids crowding the aisles of their anime cons. I’m talking about those old guys who complain about their anime not being like it used to be. Anime is the only real fandom I’ve been involved in across my 21 years on this planet, but I have a feeling these sorts of people lurk in the darkness of every single fandom out there. So it’s nothing new. In fact, it’s something very old!

And before anyone makes an ass out of you and me, I am not talking about the individuals who occupy some of the fine internet dwellings that I chose to adorn my blogroll with. Nor am I speaking of those jaded old bats I moaned about some moons ago (they’re annoying in a completely different way). What am talking about are fans of anime, roughly ages 30 and above, that are simply unable to act their age.

In an attempt to clarify even further, the guys at Colony Drop and the Anime World Order aren’t that much older than I am. But the main difference I’m trying to illustrate for you–the readership, who may not see one yet–between these people and the ones I’m complaining about is simply a cool head. The reasons  I read and listen to those two are a) they’re quite entertaining, and b) have well thought out opinions and reasoning. Even if their opinions may run contrary to my own, I can still listen to them, consider them, and appreciate their point of view.

The fans I’m sick ‘n’ tired of are ones who are unable to do this. They bitch and whine like children over the fact that things just aren’t how they used to be, offering nothing in the way of reason. Well, some of the arguments they put forth may be considered reasonable in their minds, but to a level-headed individual it comes off as nothing but noise. And it’s not even a matter of them simply lacking eloquence. You can lack eloquence but still put forth an argument that makes sense.

But what really makes these guys worse than the younger kids they’re complaining about is this: those kids are acting their age. It makes sense for teenagers to act dumb–they’re teenagers. They’re in a transitional stage of their life–slowly and painfully crossing that bridge from childhood to adulthood. It makes sense that they act without reason or thought. What doesn’t make sense is the 300 pound, balding, 50 year old loser wearing a faded t-shirt, his fingers covered in cheese dust from all the Cheetos he’s been eating, with his fat ass lumped on his computer seat, farting and burping once every five minutes due to the seven cans of soda he’s drank (he’s only been awake for five hours), typing up an angry rant on the internet about how his needs aren’t being served anymore.

That is of course the worst-case-scenario. And honestly? I’ve only just noticed fans like these at this past Anime Boston, and have come across only a few in my internet travels. So I haven’t seen many of them. Maybe they really are few in number, and this rant–which is not all that different from the rants I’m talking about–is unwarranted.

But anyway, somethings are–like the Japanese love to say–”can’t be helped.” Like kids acting like kids. However, some things can, and these types of people can easily help themselves. But they first have to realize how horribly broken they are. It’s not that difficult to slim down, go out, make friends, act socially acceptable, and think with a level head. If they did that, then maybe people would be more willing to listen to them, instead of writing them off as–in the words of some awful internet BBS–an “oldfag”.

And before I take off, it’s not as if the moe fan parallel to these guys don’t exit. They do! But I already talked about them.

Let’s get this out of the way first: I was completely let down by Anime Boston this year, but it’s more or less my fault. I seem to always forget that the previous outings at this con have been less-than-stellar, so I don’t know why I thought this time would be any different. Perhaps it’s because people spoke highly of last year’s event, or because I was excited about my panel. Anyway, it wasn’t a bad con at all. It was just… mellow.

I suppose I assumed AB would be the kind of party NYAF was. NYAF was actually a worse con that AB, but it had some high-level guests and a lot of people I knew in attendance. Don’t get me wrong. I really enjoyed hanging out with kransom, astrange and omo, who were both my roommates (staying in my awful apartment where the cold water wasn’t working for one night) and my con companions for most of the con. I also enjoyed seeing some other familiar faces from certain BBSs, and exchanged a few words with my friends at the MIT anime club.

But that punch NYAF had just wasn’t there. Socially, it was one of those things where I bounced around between many different groups of friends, but there wasn’t one big mass of people who all knew each other very well, like at NYAF. I was also somewhat tired. Speaking of social things, I exchanged words with the AWO crew for something on the order of two seconds, but other than that, interaction with that realm of fandom was mostly wrought with awkward stares. It’s like they think I’m creepy, or something! One guy kept insisting that I provoke a certain annoying internet personalty into being more annoying. This is a lie.

As far as actual con stuff went, it was alright. They had Uematsu, but I didn’t really care about him since I don’t play video games. His panel was actual fairly interesting regardless, though. Other panels ranged in quality, but were generally well done. I actually learned some things, which is a rarity. I specifically went to panels run by people I knew to some degree, whether it was through knowing them as internet personalities, or knowing them personally. The more educational panels put on by the AWO crew were quite interesting, but the humour ones lacked power. One could say, anime no chikara. I attended some panels put on by Alex Leavitt who I’ve spoken with in the past, and I took away a few things from his presentations. A friend of mine from MIT put on a nice Doraemon panel, which I surprisingly took a lot away from. Seeing someone who actually knows Doraemon in the flesh and talking about it was illuminating. I mean, that just doesn’t happen in America… knowing about Doraemon. Maybe I just don’t know enough Asians.

Ed Chavez of Vertical, Inc. put on some really good panels. The industry one he did for his company was good because along with announcing titles, he provided very juicy explanations as to why he personally liked each title. I had never been to one of his talks before, so it was neat to see him speak about manga, even if it was only in bite-sized chunks. He also ran a question and answer panel about manga, which consisted of him shooting questions at other panelists, them giving their take on the issue, and Ed expanding upon it. While the format was a little un-polished, I took a lot away from it since I don’t know anything about manga. Also, Ed’s just a cool dude.

Speaking of panels, my own panel went off better than I thought it would, but it could stand to be improved greatly. I hope it gets approved for Otakon, because I’m already thinking of ways to make it better.

As it’s plain to see from this report, this was Panel Con. Specifically Fan Panel Con. I’ve never really done Fan Panel Con. The kind of con I like is one part fan panels, one part guests, and one part social interaction with a sprinkle of Dealers Room on the side. While these panels were pretty good, the proportions were too off. I get tired of sitting down and listening to people after too long. I want to get things signed and shoot questions at famous anime people! Basically, there needed to be more guests I cared about. Like, I don’t know… Shinbo. But that’s just kind of selfish, I suppose.

Anyway, not a bad con. Just lacked chikara. You know, the chikara of anime. Anime no chikara.

Oh hey, I also spent some money at the con! More than I spent at NYAF, but I still spent under 100 dollars. After being in Japan, the prices in the Dealers Room do nothing but provoke a small chuckle from me. That said, I bough these two things while chuckling.

(Not even going to talk about wealth of con nonsense present there, since I’ve simply grown numb to that.)

Okay guys, first of all–the moe debate has been beaten silly. I would ask you all to stop arguing about it on Twitter, but since I don’t follow the full complement of muppets that enjoy having the same argument week after week, it’s not really bothering me. But it’s a fruitless effort on both sides, so just stop and do something else.

However, I’m not writing about the futility of the moe debate here. I’m instead addressing an unpleasant pattern prevalent across some (I hate to address them as “fellow”) moe fans. But before I expand upon this issue, I wish to make my point of reference clear: I am a fan of Japanese media. Specifically cartoons, comics and music produced in Japan. I am not just a fan of moe anime, but I enjoy moe anime, along with a host of other genres. I’m sure regular readers of this blog are already keenly aware of these fact, but since I want this entry to hit a larger audience, I figure it’d be prudent to make things clear.

But onto the main issue. What I wish to address here is the perceived creepy nature of the moe phenomenon by some. While some titles–let’s say Toradora!–may not be perceived as creepy by themselves, there is a large assortment official and unofficial goods that normal people may just find a touch strange. It’s fine to be a perfectly normal human being with a perfectly normal living space, a perfectly normal social life, and perfectly normal world view and enjoy moe titles such as Toradora. You can also be a hardcore fan of moe anime and enjoy Toradora!, and you’re the person I’m talking to.

So, when a guy on the internet labels a glamor shot of a crazy Taiga fan’s room–complete with the poster-covered walls, the bed sheets, the dakimakura and the army of Taiga figures–as “creepy”, how do you, Mr. Moefan react? Well, the reaction I’ve been witnessing amongst some is that of utter denial. Complete objection to the fact that this may be perceived as creepy.

What is or isn’t creepy is obviously a question of perception, but what you–Mr.Denial–have to keep in mind is that society has standards, and the majority decides what’s normal and what’s creepy. That’s just how it works. So when a dude on Twitter says that guy with the thousands of Idolm@ster figures is a creep, your reaction should not be one of pure shock. You should not be surprised that somewhere out there, someone finds this creepy. You personally may find this okay, but you have to keep the perceptions of others in mind.

I know where this comes from. It’s this complex. This desire for acceptance. This desire to defend your beloved genre and all the strings attached as its name is sullied by big bad Internet Bullies. I’ve probably felt like this once before, too. But listen–people think it’s creepy, and that’s a fact. Dakimakura are creepy. Bed sheets are creepy. Figure collecting is creepy. You are not going to convince the people who think these things otherwise, so stop pretending it’s normal, and that they’re the weird ones.

I live the moe otaku lifestyle. Heck, I’ve posted my room on this blog multiple times. I am fully aware that it is weird. Half the reason I post my room is to get reactions, actually. But listen. Just listen. Don’t talk back. If people calling the moe otaku lifestyle creepy really offends you, either ignore it or roll with the punches. But don’t outright deny the creepiness, especially right in the face of it. Because you know what? That’s even more creepy!

I’d like to think that all of these exchanges that occur over whether moe subculture is/isn’t creepy are mostly in jest, but after reading enough of these debates I’m getting the feeling that people are getting seriously angry on the Internet. Just stop. We can all get along! Just accept the fact that people find your kinks kinky, and laugh it off. Try to fire some stingers back at them, if you can. But just don’t take it seriously. There are far more important things to worry about.

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At Comiket Day 3 Nippon Banzai levels get shot into overdrive and manifest in completely bias incoherent ramblings in line. At Comiket Day 4, fatigue levels get shot into overdrive and manifest in simple incoherent ramblings. But it’s like that guy said, it’s all about catching that moment, that instant in our lives.

And you can listen to it, if you want!

We did end up meeting Kono Azure. Missed Ryu Moto, though.

Guests

• Chris (Hen Da Ne)
• Anonymous

Songs

• Opening Song– “Yume no Naka E” by Inoue Yousui
• Ending Song– “Ending Chorus: Beginning of the Universe” by Hattori Takayuki

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Once upon a time, there was a Comic Market. Unlike the previous 75 Comic Markets before it, this one was a little different: I was in attendance.

This is the first half of a two-part series that covers my adventures–as well as the adventures of those with me–at Comic Market 76.

Guests

• Mouse
• Chris (Hen Da Ne)

Songs

• Opening Song– “My Pace Daiou” by Manzo
• Ending Song– “I’m Feeling You” by Capsule

The anime calendar has been something of an addiction of mine for the past five years. It has gotten better over time–what was once four calendars a year has now turned into one–but I still love these things as much as I did when my set of coveted anime calendars arrived at my door during my senior year of high school.

For those who don’t know, the made-in-Japan anime calendars don’t really function as calendars. They’re giant B2 pads that contain seven pages illustrations; a cover page, and six other pages that cover two months each. Dates are shoved into a small area of each page, and aren’t easy to mark off to make a notes or something. These calendars are in effect a set of very nice posters that you change every two months, and what makes or breaks a calendar is obviously the quality of the illustrations at hand.

Generally the illustrations aren’t anything ambitious, but they tend to be a step up from generic stock artwork and sit more on level with anime magazine pinups. In the case of an otaku-oriented program like Sora Kake Girl, the pages of its respective calendar are all about the girls looking cute–often times in very little clothing.

The girls in Sora Kake Girl all sparkle with their own unique brand of cuteness, and each page does well to make sure their good sides are showing. These good sides are of course their breasts, butts and legs. Whether it’s Nami thrusting out her tight body while grinning maniacally, Itsuki adjusting her bikini bottom with her butt to the camera, or simply Akiha striking Japan’s favourite V-sign, each illustration is executed with professionalism.

It goes without saying that the quality of these illustrations is better than a random screencap. What’s on display here happily occupies the realm of DVD cover or Megami poster illustrations. The colours are rich and bright, and extra care is taken with the shading and lighting effects. The highlights glow, and the shades are made deeper with choice use of gradients. Dirty pencil lines are obvious up close, but that becomes a given when one’s room is filled with Megami posters. It’s nothing ambitious–like I said before–but it’s all well done.

There are some issues, however. Firstly, only five of the seven illustrations are originals (to my knowledge) and the remaining two are simply re-used Megami posters. They aren’t bad illustrations, but it is rather lazy. That said, the images are printed in the calendar’s larger dimensions, and their colouring comes out more brilliant than their respective Megami pinups’. Secondly, the paper isn’t really strong stuff. My Hayate no Gotoku and Zettai Karen Children posters from years previous were printed on more resilient stock. Because of this, the pages took something of a beating during shipping, and it shows if you look closely.

Putting those nagging issues aside, however, this calendar is a great buy if you’re both a fan of Sora Kake Girl and need a calendar for the year. It’s not the gold standard of anime calendars that Kyoto Animation calendars are, but it’s a nice set of cute T&A pictures to compliment all the others hanging up on your wall.

And since I couldn’t think of a good place to dump these, here’s some bad photos of each page. There’s no scan of this calendar to my knowledge, so if you want it, you have to buy it! Don’t worry! You still have until the end of February before that first page becomes useless!

Before I launch into this unorganized mess of thoughts, I just thought it would be prudent to inform you that this post is in fact an unorganized mess of thoughts. Enjoy!

After a year or so, OS (or that guy I used to talk to on AIM a lot) made a post on the latest incarnation of his blog saying he’s outta here. Gone for gone. Packing his bags. While his post in itself didn’t offend me, it was a comment left by Hung that inspired noticeable levels of rage. Long story short, OS has lost interest in anime, and feels kinda bad about it. His post is allegedly a look back to the “good ol’ days” of anime blogging (i.e. probably no more than four or five years ago), but it reads more like a giant apology for no longer being a nerd and instead taking pleasure in watching football and fuckin’ women. Hung–who never ever has anything good to say, really–weighs in with his far more bleak point of view, suggesting that anime is only something you do when you’ve got nothing else, and by god he doesn’t wanna go back!!

I see nothing wrong with losing interest in a hobby. I’m not the huge Star Wars fan I was when I was a kid, and I don’t feel bad for it. However, I do see something really negative in losing interest in a hobby, then showing disdain for it. Especially showing disdain on a blog about the hobby that you’re showing disdain for!

Every situation is different, but I can see Hung’s story plain as day without even speaking to the guy. This dude got into anime in college–at the very earliest, senior year of highschool–and was blown away at the fact that drawings filmed together in a sequence could tell actual stories! These cartoons weren’t concerned about whether or not it was rabbit season, nor were they about one-hundred-and-one talking dalmatians. They had real human characters, man! This shit had drama, this shit had comedy, this shit had MARTIAL ARTS, and it was all STRAIGHT FROM FUCKING JAPAN, MAN. This shit was so exciting, young Hung didn’t know what to fucking do. He did crazy things like start some fuckin’ anime blog and some fuckin’ anime blog aggregator. Dude was doing whole bunch of crazy things just because he liked these cartoons. Then after the 1000th summer season of love comedies and sad girls in snow, the dude got sick of it all. To put it all briefly, the dude got burned out.

My story is a little different. I discovered anime at the impressionable age of ten, watched a bunch of shit I should have and should not have, and I had a good time. There also wasn’t a lot available to me, so I couldn’t really binge on torrents or anything. But above all of that, I saw anime as simply an extension to my already very active enthusiasm towards animation in general. Anime wasn’t something new and weird that was automatically better than everything else. It was simply an addition to the types of media I enjoyed taking in. Okay, so it was new and weird, but not so much that I lost track of myself.

I’m not saying I’m better than the people who only got into anime in college, but I think perhaps my lack of access and early time of entry has positively effected my longevity as a fan. I think my gradual easing into the medium as I aged did well to defuse any disappointment I may have had a as result of noticing that all of these cartoons aren’t that wonderful, only some of them are. If anything, Hung’s case is just tragic, and it happens to a lot of ex-fans. That’s why there’s a lot of dead blogs out there. That’s why Garten finally stopped writing. “The Hung Method”, as it were, oftentimes leads to jadedness. This isn’t bad in itself, but shit gets personal when you start making your jaded nature known to other fans happily taking in this stuff. That’s basically what I’ve been trying to say across these 700 words and counting.

A jaded fan is someone who sees absolutely nothing redeeming in what he’s a fan of anymore. However, since he’s still a “fan” he sticks around and chimes in with his often uninformed and cynical viewpoint from time-to-time. (For an example, take a look at Hung’s latest masterpiece!) By all means, this person should get the fuck out and stop bothering us. But no, they stay. Hung is still around in some form, and Zac Bertschy and Justin Sevakis still work at Anime News Network.

In fact, I have to thank Zac and Justin for wonderfully illustrating just what distinguishes a jaded fan from other fans. Especially those fans who may be perceived as jaded because they come off as overwhelmingly negative and critical. It was in their episode of the ANN Cast where Daryl Surat guest starred. Before that point Daryl Surat was, in my mind, something of a jaded fan. This was before I came to the definition that I outlined in the above paragraph, mind you. But after listening to Zac and Justin talk about how just how awful everything is, then listening to their conversation with Daryl, things became very clear: Daryl is a huge fan. Daryl is excited about anime.  He just has very specific tastes. (Correct me if I’m wrong, Daryl.) It’s the same with all those Brazen Braggarts over at Colony Drop. Between reading their blog posts and speaking to them on IRC, I don’t think any of these guys are jaded, they just have very specific tastes. Even Sean, who is arguably the most cynical, and who I’ve argued with on numerous occasions (he wins because I can’t think straight) gets excited about some things.

In an attempt to bring this all together, the difference between the legions of jaded Hung-like fans who just couldn’t replicate that first high and our friends at CD and the AWO is fire. Passion. If you’re not excited about this hobby, you should just leave. Even if you disagree with them (I’m sure a lot of my readership does.) Daryl and CD have something to say, and they mean it with all their hearts. Hung doesn’t. This has fire. This doesn’t.

(And before anyone gets on my case for jumping on Hung, I’m simply using him as an example for an trend I’ve noticed across my time as a fan. He’s just the closest thing in my sights at the moment.)