Category Archives: English Language Modern Visual Fandom

September 19, 2013

New Idol Master CD Is Actually Worth Buying

By omo

newonion

Tokyo, Japan – Throngs of youthful men and women gathered at the 8th anniversary live tour of a popular music group this summer. What you might not have known is that this group is made up of voice actresses from a video game call The Idol Master [iM@S], where players manage a team of pop idols on the road to stardom.

The marketing for iM@S presents itself as a traditional, multimedia mix of goods, video games, CDs, DVDs and performances, but it is revolutionary in having such success in packaging fictional characters as effective idols not unlike famous acts like AKB48 and their ilk. In fact, because its niche upbringing as a 2005 arcade game, and then as a game for the relatively obscure console Xbox–Microsoft’s consoles are not well-distributed in Japan–iM@S attracted a very hardcore fanbase, at least at first.

“I’m glad we can get the same songs on one single album that used to be across four or five different albums.” Jon Tyler, one of many of the avid iM@S fans–who call themselves “producers” as fashioned after the role of the player in the iM@S games–remarked on the way Columbia Japan handles the CD releases of iM@S music. “It’s really a change of the times. The series got really popular right around the time I became a producer. At first, it was very hard to buy all the popular songs, since the average iM@S album, not counting mini-albums and singles, was about half vocal tracks and half either instrumentals or voice tracks like skits. Columbia knows that’s what people are after and accordingly spread out the top hits to get more sales.”

“It was difficult to get more than four or five of your favorites on one CD, for a lot of reasons. Another problem was that many of the album releases were based on characters or different parts of the video game releases. I think Scamco wants you to just buy the Blu-rays, or collect all the albums.” The candid statements detailing the steep curve, not only as a matter of the cost of being a fan, but the logistical complication one have to keep on top over time, as iM@S-related CDs are released almost monthly.

While for some, overcoming the labrynithe of release patterns and being able to finance their collections are badges of honor. For others, the difficulty to identify and purchase their favorite songs is a barrier to entry. Perhaps this is why Columbia Japan is finally producing these simple collections. For others, it’s a sign of something else to come.

“The so-called ‘Second Vision’ series of games and merchandises are coming to an end. I think this is why they are now releasing new SKU with good value.” Oscar Kha, a market analyst describes the overall strategy behind the iM@S releases in terms of the bigger, cross-marketing effort combining Columbia Japan and other publishers and studios. “During this campaign, the goal was to transform a relatively straight-forward video game IP into a sprawling franchise where monetization strategy is no longer limited to the typical console or arcade use cases, or the usual licensing and merchandising opportunities. The campaign begin to add some of the newer strategies such as mobile gaming and through live events. The timing is right to take the franchise to the next level, along with various market signals such as the next generation home consoles.”

Commenting on the future, Kha points out perhaps the most persuasive motive behind these affordable new releases. “Lowering the barrier of entry at this juncture is strategic as well, as it prevents too much attrition from the newer customers who became attached to the IP in the past couple years, and keep everyone engaged as the next campaign starts.”

THE IDOLM@STER
765PRO ALLSTARS+
GRE@TEST BEST!
-THE IDOLM@STER HISTORY-

COCX-38070 2500 yen (w/ tax) (Blu-spec CD2)
2013.09.18 on sale

PS. This is fabricated, yeah?

Leave a comment | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Idolmaster, Modern Visual Culture

September 16, 2013

In Fandom, the Grass Is Always Green

By omo

Haruka Saigusa

I may or may not be tsundere when it comes to “go to koshien” stories, but I do have a soft spot for anime characters playing recreational sports in fan recreations. When the fiction itself is not prose, that gets me over the hump of dealing with people’s slashes or whatever. So, for some reason, I’m reading the brief recaps from the Anime Studio Baseball tournament and I’m in stitches.

I mean, I guess because I also read Murrican Sportsball writing in my spare time, so I really could see how all of this can be threaded narratively into a hilarious story between two distinct but unrelated matching. The jokes not only write themselves, it’s so ripe that you can probably write jokes you didn’t even know that exists. Calaggie over there does a good job generating the scores and results (although I guess the game has started already, I can’t bracket them up at this point), and there’s a small write-up, but I feel like we can spin this out more. A lot more.

And this is where I can see myself doing something. A big thing about sports narration is explaining who everyone is and coming up with the story that threads the game together, the players together, and give context to what is happening. A big part of this anime baseball nonsense is knowing the characters. Even I don’t know everybody, but I do know many, so it should be fun to come up with something. Maybe that’s why I find this funny?

Like Minko putting up baluts inning after inning. Or Lulouch went 3 for 6 against a Iri, Ryougi Shiki, and a penguin. Tsunemori Akane’s bat is bigger than Tendo Akane’s.

The schedule, which is probably the most important thing, is here. The roster is posted on the team pages. Can Haruka handle the hot corner? Their first game rightly puts them against one of the toughest (sounding) lineup in the tournament: Pretty Cures & Salior Scouts. I guess we’ll find out next week.

As for the nuts and bolts, Anime Baseball is actually just a simulated sort of thing, using a simple dice rolling system called Home Plate. I can’t even find it on BGG, so I have no idea how it works. The roster is biased towards what the guy organizing the tournament likes, but it’s pretty representative anyway. I’m going to assume the play-by-play data is available but you’ll have to get @Calaggie to export it from iScores.

Lastly, something to think about.

PS. This isn’t all that different than those replay fiction that turns into light novels, huh.

1 comment | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom, Popular Culture

August 31, 2013

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

By omo

This is about Vic Mignogna’s ANNCast interview. Probably not the kind of material you’re expecting on this blog huh?

Yumi...go to the link for full size lulz

I think the key takeaway on the interview are two things. For people who are unaware of the Christian culture and the garden variety of non-denominational beliefs on the ground in the US, Vic’s spiel is actually a very professional and clean takeaway. In my own experience exploring where nerd and faith intersect, few has done it so cleanly while taking on any kind of mantle.

For people who are aware of all that basic stuff, Vic’s interview is more indicative of something you can read between the lines. I think this is just a fault of the world’s imperfections, but I believe in the freedom of not to like somebody. Someone’s summed it up better than I can in the ANNCast forum thread:

There are plenty of Christians in the English VA world (not surprising, since the industry is based around Texas), and most of them have a lot of fans and no haters. Many of them are completely open about it, and live their faith even at the conventions by helping with charity events and the like.

It’s almost like there were some other reason people didn’t like him. I wonder what that could be?

I personally have no opinion on Vic. He’s a fine guy and invariably I support his cause, implicitly or not. I don’t think any of this is really special either–perhaps in that given the size of anime/manga stuff in the US, something like this is bound to happen and it’s almost a little surprising that Vic is the only shining beacon of this sort of effort. There ought/should/could be more of it. I certainly prefer this over the street corner preachers at Anime Expo and SDCC. It’s never the message that’s problematic. It’s when the message hits the human. Both ways.

The tragic problem with Vic’s polarizing attitude/attribute is that there are not only a lot of negative rumors surrounding him, probably because there are a good number of people who genuinely don’t like him or otherwise think negatively of him, but also the whole religious angle makes it easy to attack him through his message. People will use his faith as a weakness, as when one wears one’s ideology on his or her sleeves, that is also subject to attack. The issue is compounded because it’s actually quite difficult to get to the bottom of it, as the issue is kind of tangential to his voice acting career and if Vic is doing a good job as someone who uses his soapbox to do what he does (which for the most part is the case), it’s just something that will get no press, because nobody is interested in how Vic lives, his good and bad sides, as it’s probably kind of boring and that runs the danger of giving Vic another soapbox.

In the end, people only care about sensational things, stuff like Sankaku Complex microcontent or when Vic is caught red-handed at doing something obviously non-Christian or whatever. It’s with that perspective that I find this ANNCast is actually really neat. Props to ANN for doing something outside the comfort zone for once (although you can tell they were somewhat unprepared). The snark, though, is questionable at best. I think that is just another kind of “insular barrier” that socializing on the internet invariably create–you only follow and are followed by like-minded people. Vic and the ANNCast guys are clearly not like-minded, despite being in a working relationship. So reporting on Vic’s faith is the sort of journalism that will bring good and bridge different circles of dialogues.

Leave a comment | posted in Christian Living, English Language Modern Visual Fandom

August 30, 2013

Random Product Ideas

By omo

Someone want to kickstart these things, please be my guest.

Hatsune Miku

Pressy Adornments. You may or may not know these headphone plug accessories, like the ones GSC is peddling at Magical Mirai. It’s a thing, basically. You may or may not know about Pressy, a newborn kickstarter that is doing very well–it’s really an Android app that acts like Tasker but has a physical hook with the headphone control button. In layman terms, it’s a new way to tell your smartphone to do specific tasks by pressing a button that is converted from your headphone jack, as physical buttons are more handy than touchscreen buttons in these use cases. Rather selling it as an app, these clever starter-uppers want to sell it as a headphone plug. So a very natural mashup is, well, headphone plug adornments that are also buttons, so you can use it with Pressy’s apps.

Ita-renzu. There’s itasha, there’s itachari, there’s Girls und Panzer and iM@S bicycle wear. There are “ita-cameras” such as that Evangelion Pentax Q10 from a while back. And I’m waiting for that eventual Tamayura Pentax Q10. Because, obvious. What we’re missing is stuff that goes on your zoom lenses, because those are typically the huge ones where there’s at least the space for some cool artwork. It’s kind of unfortunate that the Micro four-thirds format generally yield small lenses because Pentax is definitely into that stuff. Maybe Sigma can crunch some out for the usual Nikon/Canon mounts? Will NEX get some love? [Originally I had a typo in the previous sentence…a GaruPan makeover of your all-purpose … main Cannon zoom lens wwwwww.]

More relevantly, there’s room for converter kits. The issue here is that a lot of lenses don’t have uniform sized areas around the lens where it’s smooth. I guess this isn’t a big deal. Cameras themselves often don’t have much if at all any “empty space” for decorative artwork. It’s a technical challenge for sure.

PS. Speaking of Magical Mirai, it’s no coincidence that Project Diva F is now available in the US and Europe, even if it’s just the digital version from PSN for some people. It’s easy to say it’s time to put money where that mouth is, to point to Vita whiners that whine about lack of the Vita port and tell them that port for PS3 is as obvious as day as a choice. But that doesn’t really escape the reality that despite all the Miku love, it’s a phenomenon where curiosity and loudness take center stage over actual economic impact. Granted this is slowly changing, that while Vocaloids are no longer the most endearing cosplay options at American cons, it’s still a popular one, especially for kids! The net positive of the Vocaloid wave is for people like, well, kz or Dixie Flatline, musicians with actual careers in the making. And on the whole, people who love music.

Bundling Presonus Studio One (Artist version + bonus instruments) with the English Miku software is kind of just that–a product idea that hopefully will lead to something pretty cool for people who love music.

Leave a comment | posted in 3D-2D Modeling, Conventions and Concerts, English Language Modern Visual Fandom

August 20, 2013

Revising the Anime Blog Shape in the Sky

By omo

Hayano

I want to wake up one morning and see these kinds of headlines in my feed reader:

  • More Space Dandy details
  • The 10 best Imaishi sakuga clips
  • Animusictourney results
  • A Jason Miao-style thin slicing that doesn’t outright omit shows I think are actually good (I guess this could be mid-season slicing)
  • Maid cafe reviews that are actually recent
  • Otakon iM@S cosplay group photos
  • A post about fhana and how to actually get their music, comparing with supercell.
  • Panel transcriptions from Otakon
  • A < 500 word write-up of some facet of the anime industry from an insider
  • A > 2k word write-up of some facet of the anime industry from an industry otaku
  • Same-day reporting about Animelo Summer Live 2013 from the ground
  • An investigative report on Ruifan’s Chinese associates’ financial outlook and supply lines.

Actually this would be bad, because I’ll never get to work on time with that kind of a lineup.

 

7 comments | posted in English Language Modern Visual Fandom