Daily Dose of Kawaii - Right Stuf Xmas Video 2012

Right Stuf is now officially the most awesome place to work on the planet.  ;)

New Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi Anime

Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi fans, time to celebrate! Yokozawa's story is going to be made into an anime!

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-11-29/sekai-ichi-hatsukoi/yokozawa-takafumi-has-anime-in-the-works

Yokozawa Takafumi no Baai (The Case of Takafumi Yokozawa) began as an extra story in the Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi manga series. Since then, the story has continued in a series of light novels. The third volume was released in Japan today.

Yokozawa gets his own romance! (And he'll probably be the most tsundere uke ever!) I'll be waiting for this one.  =D

The Last Suncoast in America

... Well, maybe not in all of America. But I think it's the last one in California.

Suncoast video stores are now part of FYE Entertainment Stores. In 2009, FYE closed nearly all of the Suncoast branded stores. The one pictured above is located at the Del Amo Mall in Torrance, California.

Here are the store's anime shelves:

Ah, the days when there were anime DVDs aplenty on the shelves at your local store!

And stuff!

And look at this - "Anime New Releases." It practically brings tears to your eyes, doesn't it?

When I became an anime fan, it was already getting tough to find anime DVDs in local stores. There was still a lot of manga for sale at the bookstores, but the market for anime DVDs in local mainstream entertainment stores had peaked and was on the way down.

Today I bought an anime DVD box set at Suncoast. It felt a little funny and I didn't know why, until I realized that it was the first time I had bought anime DVDs from a store. Before today, I'd only bought anime DVDs from Right Stuf, Amazon or at anime conventions in the dealer's room.

So if you happen to see an actual real Suncoast store in your neighborhood, you might give a thought to buying a box set or some anime trinkets there every now and then just to keep it from extinction. I'll be doing that myself.

Happy Thanksgiving

... The thought of Hello Kitty cooking is kind of scary, isn't it?  ;-0

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Daily Dose of Kawaii - Shirokuma Remix

"Rough and Laugh," the second opening for Shirokuma Cafe, remixed and with dazzling art.

Watch it in full screen!

Digital Manga Goes All Digital?

Digital Manga Inc. has announced that all print releases have been put on hold until June 2013.

This includes Ai no Kusabi, vol. 8, which I turned in just last month for publication. 

My former clients as a freelance anime/manga editor: Broccoli. Aurora Publishing. Tokyopop. Bandai Entertainment.

Digital Manga? NOOOOOOO

DMI's announcement mentioned that they are "temporarily" shifting their focus to digital publications.

I don't know what to conclude from this, but the whispers of "reminds me of when Tokyopop..." are already starting.

An Open Letter to Hideaki Sorachi

Dear Gorilla Author,

I just read on Crunchyroll that Gintama will be in reruns for the rest of November.

To be fair, this was the deal. We all read that reruns would be part of Gintama's new season. But for weeks at a time?



I know drawing manga is a bother. I know it's a pain. And I know you want to be a cheese steamed bun. But please - let the anime production company make filler episodes on their own.

Why? Because Gintama has no plot to begin with, no continuing storyline. It's many one-off episodes and the occasional 3-5 episode story arc. For those of us who don't read the manga (like me - uh, sorry), we wouldn't even be able to tell they're filler episodes.

For all I know - since I don't read the manga - the Gintama anime has been doing this all along and I thought they were episodes based on the manga.

So please consider either letting the anime production people make more episodes on their own - or else - please write/draw faster.  ;)

Thank you - from one of countless American Gintama fans.

K - Anime Review

Is there ever a reason to watch an anime that is totally derivative?

The anime series K is a glorious pastiche of every shonen/supernatural/fantasy/school anime you’ve ever seen.

There’s a supernatural reality underlying Japan. Seven kings and their minions vie for supremacy, and meanwhile at an awesome fantastical school set on an island—

Wait. Where is this going?

Well, there’s been a murder. One of the Red King’s clansmen was murdered by what appears to be the reincarnation of another king.

But this schoolboy doesn’t seem to be aware that he’s a reincarnated king, and he doesn’t remember committing the murder either.

Meanwhile, there’s a naked cat girl who keeps following him and another cute girl at the school who keeps making him bentos for lunch and—what?

Can we start over?

From this description, K sounds like a mess, doesn’t it? The first episode introduced so many characters you couldn’t possibly keep them all straight, and the pacing of the story since then has slowed to a crawl. What initially looked like a retelling of Durarara!! with supernatural elements has turned into a school anime with a murder mystery at the heart of it.

There are seven kings altogether and we’ve seen two and possibly three of them so far: the Blue King, who arrested the Red King and currently holds him captive, and Shiro, the hapless schoolboy suspected of murdering Totsuka of the Red King’s clan and who is possibly the reincarnated “Colorless King.”

(I played the “guess the seiyuu” game with the huge cast of male seiyuu—since I watch so much shonen anime I figured I had a shot at guessing a fair number of them. Before looking at the cast list to confirm, I recognized Tomokazu Sugita as the Blue King, Daisuke Namikawa as Shiro, Daisuke Ono as Kuroh, Takahiro Sakurai as Kusanagi, Mamoru Miyano as Fushimi and Yuuichi Nakamura as Rikio. I completely missed Jun Fukuyama as Yata and Kenji Tsuda as the Red King. I think normally I would have recognized Tsuda’s distinctive deep voice, but in my defense the Red King hasn’t had any lines since episode 1—I just didn’t hear him speak enough. ;))

It was hard to tell at first who the main characters were supposed to be. With such a stellar cast it could have been any combination of two or three of them, but it’s turned out to be Shiro and Kuroh.

Kuroh is the knight to the former Colorless King. Before dying, the king told Kuroh that he must kill the next Colorless King if he appears to be evil, but if he’s not evil to serve him faithfully.

So Shiro, the amnesiac (possibly) reincarnated Colorless King, has to prove he’s innocent of Totsuka’s murder so Kuroh won’t kill him for being evil.

Um. It’s a lot to digest, isn’t it? And derivative doesn’t even begin to describe how much this anime has stolen from other animes. Witness the following:

This is Kuroh. He’s a humorless but somehow endearing knight who is beginning to grow attached to Shiro, despite the possible mandate of having to kill him eventually. Kuroh starts cooking for Shiro and taking care of his needs.

Er—just like a butler. Right?

Like Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler), whom he resembles. And who is played by the exact same actor—Daisuke Ono.

And then there’s Kusanagi from the Red King’s clan.

Kusanagi looks a little familiar, doesn’t he? Kind of like…

… Shizuo from Durarara!!. Not only does Kusanagi resemble Shizuo, right down to the bartender outfit, but he’s even a bartender.

I had a little trouble at first recognizing Mamoru Miyano as Fushimi of the Blue King’s clan.

Because, you see, he looked so much like Yukio from Blue Exorcist that I kept thinking it must be Jun Fukuyama playing the role.

On top of being derivative, K has too many characters and not enough time to develop them. We’ve barely seen the Blue King or the Red King since episode one, not to mention any of the other kings or their clansmen, and there’s been entirely too much naked cat girl for my tastes. But…

K has bishonen kings and great fight scenes and a cool set-up. It has an absorbing murder mystery and personal mystery (is Shiro the reincarnated Colorless King? and if so, why can’t he remember being king?) and most of all—a likable and engaging pair of protagonists in Shiro and Kuroh.

So is there ever a reason to watch an anime that is totally derivative?

Answer: Yes—when it’s this much fun to watch.

Supporting the Industry - What I Did in October 2012

In October, I attended Yaoi Con and spent the money one usually spends at conventions (hotel room, etc.).

I barely bought anything - and more on that in a bit - but I did buy Mr. Convenience, a yaoi manga, pictured above. I really like Nase Yamato's work, both her art and her storylines. She draws attractive but fairly realistic men in life situations you can actually believe most of the time (unlike the unrealistic - but still enjoyable - situations you often see in yaoi stories ;)).

I didn't buy Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi, volumes 6 and 7, at Yaoi Con but at a local Japanese bookstore. The point at which the anime ended its second season is in the middle of vol. 6. In other words, five and one half volumes = two twelve-episode anime seasons. So hopefully there will be a third anime season green-lit when volume 8 is released.  =D

I have a burning question about the following items:

What are these for? I bought them at Yaoi Con, by the way. What are they for? I know they're door hangers, meaning they're supposed to be hung on doorknobs, but do they have any other function? I just find it curious that anime character pictures would be put on... door hangers. It's Hijikata from Hakuouki so of course I'm not complaining in the slightest. ;)

And finally... my most treasured purchase at Yaoi Con:

Back at Anime Expo earlier this year, Viz Media was promoting its new online manga platform Shonen Jump Alpha by giving out great-looking blue tote bags with Shonen Jump heroes on the front. I think you had to sign up for a trial subscription of Shonen Jump Alpha so I mulled it over and then... went home. Then I said: "RATS - I FORGOT TO GET THAT BAG."

At the Artists Alley/Fan Market at Yaoi Con, I finally bought one from someone. (I didn't ask how she, uh, had four of them to sell...) It's like all my favorite characters on one bag. It's beyond cool!

As usual, I paid my Crunchyroll premium subscription fee in October. I also finished the final edit of Ai no Kusabi, vol. 8 for Digital Manga Publishing.

I didn't buy a lot at Yaoi Con. Not because there weren't nice things to buy, but I'm kind of saturated with anime merchandise and fan goods. There are still DVDs that I want and I will continue to buy fan art to support artists, but I find I'm not so much into the trinket things as I used to be.

With the trend toward online consumption of anime and manga, it's time for me to put more of my money in that direction to support the industry as it changes. This month I am finally buying a tablet so that I can read manga online. I'll post about it when I do.