“Anything you can do I can do better!”
“I can do anything better than you!”
“No you can’t.”
“Yes I can.”
“No you can’t.”
“Yes I can.”
“No you can’t.”
“Yes I can! Yes I can!”
Category Archives: English Language Modern Visual Fandom
Straight Flush
Putting Manabi Straight behind is like putting behind a very heartful conviction behind you; it’s just not healthy. Instead, I think, it’s a good way to do it is to commemorate it through rewatching :)
The thankful, yet unfortunate fansubbing effort is a good way to do it, and for every episode that I rewatch I can spend more time picking up things I missed the first time. I think one of these days I gotta start from episode 1 again just to relive the experience full well knowing the full revelation.
Hopefully the new season of shows will match the joy I get from watching this charming little thing.
But before the spring season hits and Haruhi Suzumiya on your screen turns a year old, this is a very good way to end a full run of 4 seasons; from one high school life to another. In some sense this is the “unappreciated” gem of last season, but I don’t know how many people can appreciate this kind of show. It’s going on my all-time favorites list!
New York Comic-Con 2007 – Not Enough Pancakes
I haven’t been to a honest-to-goodness scifi/comic con since forever, so I figured why not when a couple old friends invited me to go with them this past weekend to the NYCC. Unfortunately Friday was my only free day that weekend and one of my friends can’t make it, making the ordeal a little less worth my while. I think it worked out well because the other friend I went with was someone I just didn’t talk to much after we parted ways however so long ago. Old friends got lots to catch up and all. Even if I had to buy a weekend pass as a result.
Friday is suppose to be the less crowded day, mostly because unlike an anime con, a larger part of the demographic works. Even if they go straight to the con (which opened at 4 for non-industry folks), they probably would have waited at least an hour on line after they have gotten to the convention. If they gotten out of work at 4:30 and took their 30 minutes of NYC commute-time to get there (30 minutes being generous), I would still have them beat by 2 hours.
The con itself is inside Javits Center, which is actually HEUG (bigger than BCC, where Otakon sits). But I think the con only uses about half of it. Lines weren’t so bad Friday, and that’s only because unless you wanted to go to the panels (and there weren’t really any interesting ones Friday), there’s only one thing to do.
Actually, there are a bunch of panels that I would go, but they’re all industry only. Poop. I think the only panels I sat in on was the TAN panel for 5 minutes, and most of the Stan Lee talk. He is a jolly old dude who doesn’t deserve half of the fame and glory he gets, and I like him for saying so. Very charismatic guy. I was in the TAN panel for 5 minutes only because it was mostly full of rambling from chatting girls who appeases TAN viewers (I get TAN but it cost extra so I avoid it) and have nothing substantive to say.
Yea, I spent most of my time in the exhibit hall. It feels a lot more professional because there are a lot more “pro” vendors with nice displays compared to even big anime cons. You’re talking about basically all the comic book studios and publishers, plus people like ADV and Viz. I think Brocolli had something there? I stole some pens, heh. AAA had a display of some kits, but nothing super fancy. One vendor actually had store some cool kits (like both Fate figures). I would’ve picked up a copy of Puerto Rico (as it’s the flavor of the week with the board gamers I hang out with) except the one vendor that carried these kind of things didn’t have it.
What else was amusing? Some Korean manhwa booth gave out random samplers and made reference to gay sex? I didn’t catch that. Actually there were some other funny stuff, but most of them involve my uncanny friend, so I better not share with you all as he’s probably overly sensitive about people talking behind his back on the intarweb. Oops.
Wizard of the Coast booth was fun. They made you do their game demos (or watch at least) for a chance to win some fairly good prizes. I got away with the Eberron settings book. Their Star Wars miniature game looks fun too, so chalk one up for lure with loot. I think they even had their board games and collector edition PHB as prizes. I’d say that’s worth the $20-30 and made my trip even.
Sadly, there are not much in terms of pictures. Just from my pinhole phone cam. I didn’t even take many pictures. Hit up Google or something for actual pics, I guess. There were a handful of costumers on Friday; some pros and some casuals. I like this cute girl in imperial navy officer outfit, for instance. Some girl cosplayed V and I noticed it’s a girl right off the bat? The quality of cosplaying is higher partly because, I guess, there were more pros at it, and only people who knew what they were doing wore something… including this random kid who walked around as Optimus Prime and a boombox.
Wish I could have:
*came back on Saturday and attend the Suzumiya Haruhi panel
*were into gaming to catch the significance of the game-related booths were
*go to the industry panels
*see Colbert
*not catch a bad cold on the next day and be unable to post this blog entry until today
She Is Hawt, Attack Run, Merry Christmas
That fuzzy road sign to the right corner says “West 34th St.”
If you’re familiar with American traditions, you’d know that New York City is a special place to be this time of the year. To me most of that magic is nonexistent, or rather, disassociated with the holiday season as much as just what happens. The city is lit up with lights, new store displays, multitudes of shoppers and tourists, and there’s the brisk, biting Arctic air. I think if any one of those is missing, it’s just isn’t the same. Because this happens every year, and pretty much I make at least one run during the holiday season, it is just a matter of course.
But this time there was no biting Arctic air. I really missed that.
Walking around midtown hot and bothered, I turned to the thought of Patricia Jaa Lee and her Haruhi “LOL I am playing Haruhi” job in the viral promotional video. And yes, she is actually pretty hot. I thought she was just a typical young actress back during her Power Ranger days (about 8 years ago, so in her early 20s). If you know me well, you’ll know I almost never make these kinds of comments, out of some kind of progressive notion of feminism respect and that I just don’t feel comfortable sizing up real life girls that way. And to be honest, she isn’t THAT hot. But compare her to Aya Hirano is really comparing a typical voice actress with a typical Hollywood actress…and that’s who they are. In other words, no comparison, sirs. I think the candid camera aspect of the video also helped, but it’s a whole different class.
Now that I’ve returned with various loot (like Kanon 2002 OST 2…and a first print copy of Heaven’s Kitchen…and some Shiina Ringo CD…and a calendar and a gift). I’ll put my mind towards the effect of aging and improving a person’s skill in the useful arts. A lot of people may think ill of the lolicons especially with all this Hongfire talk. Why? It’s not that we just want to protect kids–that’s fine and all, but these people just have it wrong. It’s like suddenly there’s a group of people telling the world, for them, 2 plus 2 is 733.61. Sure, it doesn’t hurt anyone, and on their job application and exams they very well can pretend that they can add 2 to 2, but it’s all besides the point. Some amount of aging is good! People are like wine, sometimes, y’know? They get good, then turn sour.
Well, to be fair, let’s give Aya Hirano a few years. I think there’s still some promise there.
The Reason for the Season, or the Real Melancholy for Me
If I haven’t made my Christian leanings clear to you yet, well, I probably won’t in this post.
I’m here to give thanks, in a way, and show some appreciation for the various people and entities that made this blog, this network of blogs, and all its readers and contributers stick together as a loosely associated community that, believe it or not, has meaningfully affected my life this past year. Doubly so for those who bear the brunt of my run-on sentences. Thank you.
But just thanking thankless fansubbers is not what I’m good at. If I were to dwell on that I’d quickly give into friendly jeering and mockery at our mutual detriment. Instead, I’m going to do it, with help with (and thanks to) Henry Jenkins, with a short article published in Reason Magazine.
Sure, when you boil it down, Jenkins’ article says nothing we fans haven’t heard of. It’s a rehash of the same argument I vaguely nodded to every time I debate about copyright and piracy’s empirical effects. Yet, at the same time it’s a celebration; it paints a concise picture to the historical example how a bunch of crazy retard fans paved the way for the fact that half of the anime blogs are chasing the disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi and its reappearence. Just why did sos-dan.com sold out? Or ANN and Anime on DVD? I don’t know; but it’s only made possible through the road fansubbers have built.
Legal, illegal, ethical, unethical–that’s all besides the point. It’s unrealistic to expect everyone to see eye to eye on the issue in all of its nitpickery details. I’m going to just say that copyright law is arcane and ambiguous to even lawyers; and unless you’ve given it a lot of thought and self-education it’s hard to make heads or tails out of it. In fact, that’s part of the problem–people don’t know what they’re doing, so we’re in this mess.
But as much as manufactured culture expands through the growth of industrial media and technology into the arena of everyday life, it’s only because people are living safer, healthier, wealthier, and more leisurely. The product of a society less bothered by the drudgery of the Nine-to-Five is a society freed from the chain of necessity as a bar to creativity. This society gives freer and appreciate more what they have been given (so I argue). We might think this newfound freedom disturbing, but America has had at least 40 years of experience in this culture revolution; Japan is still struggling seriously, along with much of East Asia, Middle East, and parts of South America. Places like China and India are only a decade or two behind. What’s troubling about this revolution is that it occurs in the meta–it isn’t what people do or say, but the framework, the mass-market behavior and trends, and how businesses conduct themselves to be profitable; and ultimately, how people think and react to certain stimulus 3 years ago just isn’t going to be the same 3 years in the future. It’s not just a new school of thought or a subject matter, but demolishing entire perspectives and challenging the fundamental ways we think. From Superstring Theory to understanding why YouTube is worth 1.6 billion dollars, all these things are revolutionary in varying degrees.
Copyright law is just one of the major battlefields in this changing society. For the first time ever fans can import foreign cultures through distributed subtitling efforts (well, save for those people who do all their fansubbing by themselves) and promote an information good to audiences wide and far. We’re no longer in the SVHS days, folks, even if that information model was first put together during that nostalgic period in my life. Cheap broadband, anime clubs and cons, and fun fun websites just made it so much more accessible and easy, arguably, for a little Palestinian girl.
I guess revolution and battlefield might be extreme and loaded words to use, but if you’ve got 10 minutes left after reading Jenkins’ article, spend it here and hear it from some Open Source folks worrying about just where our culture are going. It’s dated, and it’s for Open Source folks, but it characterizes what’s at stake very well.
Alternatively, you can chalk up my crying wolf to my own personal experience this past half year; I’ve read more on this topic than that is probably healthy. Lessig and his company of copyleftists make a variety of compelling arguments. But much like the internet, it’s hard to see how it all translates into our daily experience; yet likewise I’m sure whichever genius that does will profit greatly along with society generally. It is a source of melancholy.
Anime is here because it was made free. We are blessed; and it’s only natural to extend this blessing to those trapped still. Even if that means making a funny nod at the doujin culture in Japan, so be it. Thank you for partaking in this subconscious act of civil disobedience; no matter as a fan or a subber or just someone clamoring for attention. No matter if you’re ill-intended or well-intended, we’re all in this for the long haul.