Recently in Anime Category

Last night, I checked out the documentary Otaku Unite using the Netflix feature of my Xbox360.  While the documentary provided a few chuckles, it wasn't very interesting.

Part of the problem for me is that it feels really dated already.  It's hard to document something that isn't done yet and get a proper perspective on it.  When it was filmed (2002-2004, I believe), the anime industry was booming.  Translators had more work than they could handle, the shelves were packed with new DVDs, and everything was generally positive.  Since then things have changed.  The demographics at cons have skewed yet younger and the industry has had a bit of a... leveling out.

Also, the interviewees are something I took issue with.  A lot of the people interviewed were just downright boring and didn't add anything to the piece.  Being typical nerd fare - no offense meant there - they weren't terribly well spoken or extroverted.  That's not unexpected.  There were some more memorable personalities from the fan segment of the industry like Carl Gustav Horn (Who still looks like a nerdier Quentin Tarantino to me), but I think that some judicious editing and more careful choice of interviewees would've made it more watchable.

I also think that while the fan interviews were fairly representative of the congoing populace in general, it also didn't make anime fans (also known as "us") look too good.  The guy who considered any cosplay contest he didn't win rigged, for example. Or the Guy Cosplaying as Card Captor Sakura.  Or the creepy Yaoi-con lady.

In all, I'd say if you LOVE cons and were into anime during that period it's worth checking out for zero dollars.  That aside, I'd avoid it.

I've discovered a new form of crack that is highly addictive to nerds and people with an obsessive compulsive streak.  This drug, this horrible drug, is called MediaMan.

MediaMan is a media library cataloging application.  Meaning, you use it to track all your movies, books, cds, games, etc.  You can import your media through a number of methods. One title at a time, through a CSV file, or you can scan barcodes with your webcam or a barcode scanner.  I haven't been lucky enough to try the last two, but the first two have been pretty good for the most part.  The app searches Amazon for its info - you can even have it search Amazon Japan, though my success with that has been rather spotty.

Some other neat features:

• You can tag your library items with as many tags as you can come with
• You can import your own cover art
• You can export to PNG or to a very fancy HTML format - check my library out.
• You can do live searches within your collection (meaning, it searches your database as you type)

It's not without it's flaws.  It would be nice if I could display one tag set minus another tag set; say, all my anime DVDs that are only tagged as "anime" but not with a genre or any other info.  The piechart display could be more robust.  I wish Amazon searches would show more than 5 selections from each category.  With all that though, I will still say I've been discovering new features daily and I'm really liking it.  I'm definitely going to be plunking $40 on it this month.

The category list along the line has not only "Video Games," but also "Anime," something I've thoroughly neglected thus far.  That changes now!

I read a fair amount of manga both in my spare time and as a writer for anime.advancedmn.com.  It used to be that when manga came over here, it was mirrored over to Left-to-Right format.  Then, around the time Tokyopop busted out onto the manga scene, Right-To-Left became the standard.  This enhanced the authenticity of the release and also actually made less work for the Western distributor.  Along with this came the inclusion of a lot of Japanese words and honorifics to further complete that authentic feeling. 

At the same time, however, this change served to limit the audience that manga could be marketed to.  No longer is it just a black-and-white comic book, but it's now this foreign thing you have to read backwards, with names that end with "kun" and "chan."

That doesn't seem to concern most distributors.  The vast majority of manga wouldn't have an audience outside of that hardcore audience so familiar with the medium and its characteristics.  You're just not going to market Kuchi Kuchi Pachinko to a broad audience.  No, that's not a real manga title.

One example that bucks the trend is Dark Horse's Blade of the Immortal.  Dark Horse has been in the manga market longer than just about anyone else, and Blade of the Immortal is one of the longest-running US manga releases.  Before manga was cool, Manji was slicing dudes up left-to-right-style.  Artist and writer Hiroaki Samura didn't want to just sit back and let it go mirrored without his intervention, however.  In one of the best compromises I've seen, Samura requested that instead of just flipping the pages, he would actually reorganize the panels and even redraw them if necessary to allow a left-to-right read without losing his original intention in the change.

One instance of a flip-that-almost-happened concerns Tezuka's manga Black Jack, distributed by the passionate people over at Vertical.  Tezuka's estate wanted the manga flipped for a broader appeal in the US.  With manga as legendary and significant as Tezuka's, it's easy to see why.

Many of Tezuka's works have been flipped to good effect, including Buddha and MW.  In the case of Black Jack, Vertical argued - successfully - that this would compromise the manga.  For example, the doctor Black Jack's iconic scar would be on the wrong side of his face, they explained.  This would be akin to swapping the S on Superman's crest.  Yeah, sure, it's recognizable, but it's hardly the same thing. See Serdar Yegulalp's review of the book on AMN for a bit more about this.

Nowadays, flipping manga is mostly looked down on the same way editing anime is.  It's only done for mainstream appeal and it compromises the work.  However, due to the higher level of author control in manga, you're more likely to see authors exerting their control to influence how a book comes out here.

If I'm going to talk about my opinion directly, I'll say this: However the author feels it should be done is how it should be done.  If the author wants the book flipped for US release, then I see no problem flipping it, cases like Black Jack notwithstanding.

As long as the manga is coherent and faithful, then I consider myself lucky to be reading it.

What do you think?  Should the manga be left faithful at all costs?  Or is it 'down with those weird backwards books?'

As often as I wonder why Earthbound doesn't get more service states-side, I find myself wondering why other titles are ever made - why certain titles make it past the planning stages.

The most recent example of this is The Punisher: No Mercy, announced on the US Playstation blog as a PSN-only multiplayer-focused first person shooter.

Wait, WHAT?

I'm sorry, but Punisher, while about guns and killing, is not... about guns and killing.  It's about the person doing the killing, why he's doing the killing, and what the ramifications of it are.  It's about a psychotic focus on revenge, the other side of the coin Batman inhabits.

With regard to The Punisher, no one - outside of hardcore Punisher fans - cares about anyone except Frank Castle himself.  No one wants to play as Silver Sable, Bushwacker, whatever.  It's like they're making it because it will flop.  I can't imagine what demographic or market this is for.  Unless it has some insanely catchy mechanics, no one's going to care about a game like this with Unreal, Halo, Gears of War, and Counterstrike hanging around.

I just can't make heads or tails of why this game even exists.

Anyone want to weigh in with opinions - or more examples of games that just don't make any sense in the same way?