How to not look like an idiot when posting online

Taken from a WSJ comment section, this is the best way to not appear stupid on the internet:

"Here is a novel thought. When you are going to state a theory or premise; test it first. For instance, if a light bulb flashes and the thought arises from the recesses of your less than agile mind, "I will suggest a link between small government and adultery", quickly jot down the names of famous politicians caught with their pants down. If the names you write down, Sanford, Ensign, Clinton, Edwards, Spitzer, Hart, McGreevy, et al, are not consistent with your premise; abandon the post so as not to appear silly."

Credit for that goes to  John Cunnane, whoever that is.

The article being commented on was: An Economy of Liars, and while the comment is more or less irrelevant, the article is dead on concerning the economy.

WHAT ARE YOU WANT?

I love fansubbers that don't TLC (Translation check), QC (Quality check), or edit sometimes.

House of Five Leaves

So I haven't actually watched any of this show myself, but I've read a lot of comments on it, and there seems to be a lot of argument over the unorthodox character design.

There are two main camps here. First, you have the pretentious morons who seem to love the show, but won't say more than how much they love the character design. This group also claims it to be "art", and yet contrasts it against other shows, such as Angel Beats, which is apparently not art? If you consider one anime to be art, you have to look at all anime as art. Now, some art is good, and some is bad, but you can't have it both ways. The most common assertion they have of the other side is that "They are 7 years old and have no taste in art."

The other camp are the shallow idiots, who claim the character design is "ugly", and can't seem to grasp that not everyone has the same taste they do. Indeed, they are willing to write an entire show off based entirely on it's character design. Now, they do have the right to do that. It's perfectly normal to make a snap judgment on whether you'll watch something based on how it appears. It's anime for god's sake, it's not that important. The problem with this side then, is not that they dislike the show due to appearance, it's that they feel the need to go and post online about how hideous it is. I even saw one person go so far as to say it made him nauseous. Why is it people can't just quietly dislike something and let others enjoy themselves?

The funny thing about this argument is that both sides have the same argument, in essence: "If you don't like what I like, you're (insert shallow or pretentious here)." Now, I am personally not a huge fan of the character design. I hear it looks better in motion, and it might. However, the character design isn't even the reason I haven't watched it. I haven't watched it because I can't find it for the life of me. Not that I really have the time to watch *another* new show this season.

Google vs Apple vs Microsoft

Since this seems to be the "war" the tech world wants to talk about, this quote sums up each company (and their shortfalls) pretty well. Taken from a comment to a Gizmodo article of similar name: Link

"If Microsoft had the bomb, they’d stuff it with so many useless features that it could never fit through the bomb bay doors.

If Apple had the bomb, they’d make it so friendly and easy to use that they’d have to remove the warhead to fit in all the neat stuff.

If Google had the bomb, they’d realize that killing the people below would diminish the advertising audience, so they’d launch a blimp with “Bang” on one side and targeted ads on the other."

(Above quote was edited for spelling)

K-ON!! Season 2

It's K-ON!!(Yes, the !! is part of the title), and thus awesome. Review over.

Seriously though, season 2 seems to be shaping up much like season 1 did, although if it's 26 episodes long, it might get stale.

K-ON!! is awesome, but I really liked Sora no Woto better. They had pretty much the exact same production team/studio, which is why K-ON skipped a season.

I liked Sora no Woto better in part because it wasn't such a moeblob show. I'm not being very fair there, K-ON did develop into more than moeblob later in it's first season, but they seem to have lost their momentum or something. Really episodes of K-ON can do two things: focus on music, or focus on moe. The first two of season 2 focus on moe, and the show is much better when it focuses on music.

For those not anime-savvy, a moeblob show is one in which at least the main character (In K-ON all 5) is not so much a person as a blob of moe. It's probably best you look that word up on Wikipedia or something. Technically, moe translates to "budding", and moe can be roughly translated as "a turn on" depending on usage, but it's very hard to describe accurately. It's one of those things you just kinda pick up from watching a lot of anime. Not even Japanese otaku can define it in less than an essay and do it justice.

In fact, a real definition of it is widely debated in the anime community, particularly in Japan. I would agree with Joseph L. Dela Pena when he argues that moe is a pure, protective feeling towards a female character, without the sexualization of lolicon. But even that doesn't really capture it.

Dance in the Vampire Bund

So I finished Vampire Bund finally. It wasn't great, mostly because it moved way too fast and all of the character development was rather arbitrary.

It had a lot of potential, but kinda fell flat after episode 3 or 4, which is pretty common.

I suppose I shouldn't expect much from a show best described with 3 words: Naked, Loli, and Vampires. (Okay they never really show any nudity, but it's like the heroine is allegic to clothes or something.)

Sakuracon 2010 AMV Contest

So after reading on the forum a bit, I've come to realize I was not the only one that had a problem with the AMV contest this year. It also helped me realize what my big problem with the "Best in Show" winner was: It wasn't an AMV, and according the the rules of the contest, shouldn't have even been allowed in the contest.

An AMV is an Anime Music Video. While Ginta Reviews a Movie was certainly hilarious and well lip-synced, it wasn't an AMV, because there was no music. According to the rules of Sakuracon's AMV contest, 70% of a video must be video with music playing in the background. Let's face it, when people voted for Ginta Reviews a Movie, they weren't voting for the video itself, they were voting for the sound clip associated with it. It could have just that sounds clip with a still image of a random anime character and still won. How can you really say a video is "Best in Show" when it was nothing more than admittedly well done lip-syncing? I saw several videos that did an amazing job of showing a clip or even a still image that captured the particular part of the song that was playing at the moment. Ginta Reviews a Movie had little to no "interaction" between the video and the "song", something I consider essential to a good AMV.

I almost want to say that comedy videos should be ineligible for the Best in Show prize, or there should be some kind of weighted judge vote to counter the audience in situations like this. I say this because the video that wins Best in Show is almost always the one that won the Comedy category, at least in the years I've watched the contest. Now, this is mostly because the majority of people really don't care for "serious" AMVs at all, so a lot of them only vote in the comedy category.

I also think that when the videos are shown to be voted on, they should not display the name of the person that created it. This would be to avoid people voting for their favorite creator as opposed to the best video. In the re-showing and showing the winning videos there would be no issue with this, as votes are already in.

Katanagatari

Katanagatari is at first glance both very generic, and very unique. The basic premise of the show is fairly normal for it's genre. It's set in medieval Japan, and follows the journey of Yasuri Shichika, the 7th head of the Kyotouryu, a style of martial arts designed to combat swordsmen, effective to the point of being considered a sword art itself. With Shichika is Togame, a relatively high ranking strategist in the Shogun's army. Their goal is to gather the 12 Deviant Blades created by legendary swordsmith Shikizaki Kiki.

Now, that does sound like fairly generic martial-arts shonen, and to a degree it is. However, the characters, writing, and beautiful if unorthodox art style more than make up for it. Another bonus is that rather than releasing one 20 minute episode per week, creating things such as annoying cliffhangers, episodes ending mid-battle or just before battle, etc, it is airing as 50 minute long episodes once per month for 12 months, likely focusing on a different "Deviant Blade" each episode.

Having watched three episodes, I can tell two things. First of all, while the character design takes some getting used to (it's honestly the reason I hadn't watched it until now), it is very refreshing when compared to other more popular styles. Second, the method of airing one hour long episode once a month works quite well, allowing for each minor story arc to begin and end within a single episode, preventing large cliffhangers that annoy everyone (I'm looking at you Code Geass!).

I'm going to be looking forward to the next few episodes of this show.

Arakawa Under the Bridge

If Durarara was last season's "omgwtf" show, Arakawa has the potential to be this season's. The main character is the heir to a very rich and powerful company, and his family has the motto "Never be indebted to anyone." When he falls into a river and almost drowns, a girl named Nino saves his life. When he asks her what she wants to repay the debt, she says she wants him to fall in love with and live with her. The twist? She lives under a bridge and is batshit insane. She claims to be from Venus.

In fact, the show has the feeling of everyone except the main character being completely nuts, be it Nino or the "Village Chief" whom he has to meet (and get a new name from) in order to live on the riverbank. The village chief is man that seems to live in the river, wears a kappa suit, and insists that he's a kappa.

Seriously, this show has the potential to be one of the funniest shows in the past year, possibly rivaling Bakemonogatari, although that is unlikely, due to the sheer awesomeness that permeates Bakemonogatari to it's core.

Mayoi Neko Overrun

If Kaichou wa Maid-sama is a fujoshi show, Mayoi Neko Overrun is the opposite. It hasn't got a ton of fan service, but it's definitely there. The main character, Takumi Tsuduki is the childhood friend of one main heroine, Fumino Serizawa, and the adopted younger brother of Otome Tsuduki, who runs the Stray Cat patisseire where he works. He is often in charge, as Otome is frequently out of town. Both Takumi and Fumino are technically orphans.

The other heroines are Chisa Umenomori and a mysterious cat girl that Otome brings home at the end of the first episode, but is not yet named.

So far, there's really not much of a storyline started, so it's hard to tell how it will turn out. Although, the only way Fumino could be more tsundere is if she was voiced by Kugimiya Rie.

Kaichou wa Maid-Sama

Kaichou wa Maid-Sama is the first "fujoshi" show I've watched this season. Basic premise is that the main character is the student council president (seito kaichou, or kaichou) at a mostly all-boy school (something like 80% male) and works part-time as a waitress in a maid cafe because her father left her family with a ton of debt. Of course, being overworked and a helpless girl, the first boy that finds out about this is of course the hottest guy at her school, and is worried about her.

Do I need to continue? Can we all see where this is going? I thought as much. Honestly, this has to be one of the most generic shows I've ever seen. At first the main character is all panicky about being found out, but then she seems to be starting to like the guy. Like I said, fujoshi show. Am I going to watch it? Oh, probably.

Fujoshi is pretty much the female equivalent for the word otaku, by the way, despite otaku being a generally gender nonspecific term. It translates to "rotten girl", but like the word otaku, it's mostly used to describe anyone that is very interested in anime/manga/games, and in the case of fujoshi, yaoi.

B Gata H Kei

So another new show this season is called B Gata H Kei, and it really needs very little explanation.

The basic premise is that the main character, Yamada, (They never give her first/given name) is the most beautiful new first year at her high school, and she wants to find 100 fuck buddies but she has never had a boyfriend, let alone lost her virginity.

This is for one very... odd reason. She thinks that despite her otherwise amazing appearance, her vagina looks funny/strange, and would turn off any guy that sees it, or at least make him laugh. This is compounded by the fact that she thinks any guy she tries to have sex with will laugh at her for being a virgin.

Her solution? Find what she calls a "cherry boy", or a virgin to lose her virginity to and build her confidence. When she finally finds one (Like 2 minutes into episode 1) who sits next to her in her class, she proceeds to mock him for his virginity, throw him in a closet and show him her boobs (With her bra still on, so not really I guess), steal one of his schoolbooks, and get him to rub her stomach. Either she's quite insane, or simply the most awkward person on earth.

Now, the show never really explains why she is so obsessed with sex, except that she's 15 and given her goal of wanting 100 fuck buddies, aspires to be a whore. I guess it's important to have goals?

Honestly, as retarded/ecchi as this show sounds, it's much cleaner than you might imagine. It's clearly trying to build up a real relationship between Yamada and the boy previously mentioned, and will likely evolve into a fairly average shoujo, albeit one that is so focused on sex it could easily turn into porn.

Will I watch it? Probably. But remember I also watched Kampfer, which had the rare quality of being consistently terrible.

New (To me) Anime

So I got ideas for several shows I wanted to watch at Sakura-con, and for me that means downloading them.

I've seen parts of about half of them, but the others are more or less completely new to me. I've only seen one of these shows in it's entirety, and that's Noein.

So I'm now downloading:
Noir - Seen about half of it.
Noein - Seen all of it.
Hellsing - Seen bits and pieces of it here and there.
EF - A Tale of Memories - I saw the second season of this, and managed to actually follow it without even realizing there was a first season.
Tsukuyomi Moon Phase - Heard of it.
Karin - Known as Chibi Vampire in manga.
Kamichama Karin - Never even heard of it, stumbled upon it looking for Karin.

While the legality of downloading anime is another rant altogether, I will say this: If I wasn't able to download it, I probably wouldn't watch anime at all, and thus would not be interested in supporting those that make money off the sale of it's merchandise, so there.

Note: The fact that like four of those anime involve vampires is something of a statement about how it's relatively easy to make a good vampire show, and not have it be retarded like Twilight.

Angel Beats

So I finally got a chance to watch the first episode of a couple of shows airing this new season.

The first I watched was a show called Angel Beats. The first episode opens with the main character waking up with amnesia, in a world a nearby girl named Yuri (Who happens to be aiming a sniper rifle at something) calls the afterlife. He confirms that he is unable to die after essentially asking Yuri's target to prove he can't die, at which point she stabs him in the chest.

When he wakes up, a few minutes of exposition take place and a few basic ideas are put into place. In this world there are three types of beings: the "dead" students at the school, the "npcs" which seem to be there to make the world seem more real, and "Angel" as Yuri refers to her. Angel also appears to be the student council president of the school this all takes place at.

Basic plot is that the dead people have two choices: follow Angel's wishes by following along with regular school life eventually being "erased", or resist Angel by joining the "Afterlife Battlefront", a group of "dead" students who don't want to be erased. The main character, Otonashi, chooses the later. (At least for now, he makes a point of telling himself he isn't really a member)

One thing I noticed is that the characters of Yuri and Otonashi are like much mellower versions of Haruhi and Kyon from "The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi" (Otonashi being more accepting of his situation, and Yuri being less... Haruhi). Yuri even looks a little similar to Haruhi. In the above picture is Otonashi (Left), Yuri (Center), and Angel (Right).

I think this show could have a lot of potential, as long as it doesn't have too much filler or fall into the same pit that Kampfer did, and largely ignore the main plot. The animation for the show is also very high quality, but high quality animation can only make a good show better, it can't make a bad show good. One deciding factor could be what the nature of the world they are living in turns out to be, as well as the nature of Angel.