Just a bunch of random thoughts.

A Korean Liver apparently tried to make UO ramen by pouring UO fluids into instant noodle. What happened was the hot water vaporized the UO fluid, and it causes burns. As you can imagine, bad things happen if you inhaled it. Said Liver went into the ER for this reason, although he was smart enough to evacuate his home when the smells came so he ended up without much damage. As someone who enjoy UO kanpais let me be clear there are some responsible way to do this and please do not play with glowsticks in any other way. I also feel bad for proliferating this practice but I guess it cannot be helped to see…uh, the Darwin Awards apply? I don’t have a link to this because all this is screencaps shared on SNS. Do people even hyperlink anymore? Is this something that cuts into internet’s openness?

The trip to see ML3rd was technically a weekender. I took 4 days off, which is more than a typical weekender (this is like an Anisama weekender) and I spent the extra time to enjoy some company with the guys and to game airline fares (namely, having 3 layovers both ways). There is also much to say to ML3rd Makuhari trip than the two lives themselves. Will I get to it? Will I get to talk about Kawaii Kon? Sigh.

There is some thinking behind Japan’s aging and shrinking population, namely the young people of Japan and the shrinking workforce. There’s some hewing from foreign press or English-language news on this, mainly in terms of the economic, immigration policy or what have you. Enabling more elderly and women into the workforce is likely to have an impact with otaku stuff. Fujo pandering works will likely grow as more women get into the workforce, as there will be more disposable income available over time. The fact that anime and manga (and kakkin mobages) tend to target young people might be a counterbalancing point but this day and age adults enjoy them too (clearly) so I don’t think it’ll be a big deal. In a roundabout way, this also explains why Japanese cartoons target adults more and more, because where are all the kids at?

Speaking of kids, I’m enjoying Haifuri mainly for Mocho and the Trysails. If you drill into the cast for this show, it’s full of seiyuu who do idol works. Three of them are in Deremas, two from Nanasis, two WUGs, and vets like Kobayu…with Asumiss and Kanaechan (I don’t think they’re vets?). This is some serious seibuta material and enjoying it that way actually works. It helps that the story and concept isn’t bad. I’m blogging it at Jtor BTW.

I’m doing a panel at AnimeNext. I’ve gotten the skeleton of it down since early this year but sometime between now and then I have to flesh it out. It’s really about Bandai Namco and their management of IP… Okay it’s about IDOLM@STER but not the characters? Come and see. AnimeNext is in Atlantic City this year and that’s a bit of a pain to get to, but I’ll persevere. As long as they don’t schedule that panel on top of Kouno’s stuff… Excited about Kouno Megumi for sure. ZAQ concert is almost like icing at this point, but it does seal the deal.

Ahhh Chokaigi tomorrow will set my summer in motion. Probably.

Anime-wise I’m still trying to 1-ep everything. Definitely falling behind a bit, and not picking some stuff up. Like I don’t want to rewatch Unicorn but the TV series might get me to finish the OVAs finally. I’m also cleaning house on a few shows from last season. Like Dimension-W…need to marathon it soon.

With Anime North firmly in the front of the windshield, I think planning for it is going smoothly. We were able to book a venue and all in the nick of time, and hopefully the public-facing information for our offkai will be available this week…before whatever happens at Chokaigi derails us. Or whatever AX seems to have up its sleeves.

I saw some dubbed anime in theaters during FUNi’s screening of Empire of Corpses. The film itself is worth a watch. It mixes elements such as steampunk, zombies, and philosophy about animated corpses and souls with a good dose of BL. The sum is not my thing (and honestly I would not approach Empire of Corpses on those terms unless I am a marketing shill) other than the great animation and the philosophy stuff. The dub worked well because the characters and setting are international, with a lot of British and Russian characters. It still robbed me Houko in a funny role and Hanakana being the token female lead. Oh well. In a couple weeks they’ll show Harmony, which is something I am a lot more familiar with.

I am still jetlagged, mainly because work asked me to pull some late shifts since I returned from Japan. It’s not fun but I can live with it. Weekender training has some use after all.

Million Live Believe My Dream! event beckens. I am raking for two. Given how much I’ve spent on this game this month I think that’s the very least I can do.