| 1:13am | Cultural notes | | | | I spent most of the weekend at the Walnut Valley Festival. It’s primarily devoted to acoustic string music, particularly bluegrass, but there were some items of interest to students of Japanese popular culture. • The second-place winner in the fingerpicking championship was Akihiro Tanaka,... |
| 4:54pm | Useless heroine | | | | A girl and her dog Recently I spotted something called Choujikuu Romanesque Samy: Missing 99 OVA on AnimeSuki. It was written and directed by one Seiji Okuda, who has worked in various capacities on anime ranging from Ponyo to Dream Hunter Rem, so I thought I’d check it out. Well, sometimes there... |
| 6:19pm | Checking in | | | | Highlights from the posts I don’t have time to write: • Taishou Yakyuu Musume is the first new show this year to sustain my interest beyond the second episode. In the first eight episodes of the story, the writers have kept the focus primarily on high school girls learning to play baseball... |
| 1:22pm | Secular religion | | | | A recent discovery: GOLEM: Journal of Religion and Monsters. It mostly concerns Western horrors, but there is an article on “The Religious Functions of Pokemon” here (scroll down a bit). I wonder what the contributers would make of Mononoke, or Mushishi. (Via Eve Tushnet.) | | |
| 1:12pm | Quote of the week | | | | I had to drive over 20 miles to reach a theater that was showing Ponyo. Meanwhile, every single theater in the area is showing another Disney movie about violent, flatulent guinea pigs. Now of course, Disney knows a lot about marketing animated films, and I’m sure that they will say that most Americans... |
| 9:37pm | Miscellaneous nonsense | | | | In lieu of a substantive post, here are some random links. For anyone who has ever operated a sewing machine: famous last words, cosplay edition. “Oh look, a Windows ME install disc!” (Via Eve Tushnet.) George Lucas is no engineer. (Via First Things.) Someday I may forgive Dale Price for... |
| 9:37pm | Miscellaneous nonsense | | | | In lieu of a substantive post, here are some random links. For anyone who has ever operated a sewing machine: famous last words, cosplay edition. “Oh look, a Windows ME install disc!” (Via Eve Tushnet.) George Lucas is no engineer. (Via First Things.) Someday I may forgive Dale Price for... |
| 8:31pm | An ordinary girl | | | | The 1985 OVA Leda — The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko, which Steven recently discovered, looked like fun, so I downloaded it.1 The story is straightforward anime fantasy: a high school girl is mysteriously transported to an strange world, where she transforms into a warrior in a battle bikini. Screen... |
| 8:31pm | An ordinary girl | | | | The 1985 OVA Leda — The Fantastic Adventure of Yohko, which Steven recently discovered, looked like fun, so I downloaded it.1 The story is straightforward anime fantasy: a high school girl is mysteriously transported to an strange world, where she transforms into a warrior in a battle bikini. Screen... |
| 1:33pm | 251 | | | | All the pictures from Anime Festival Wichita are up now. Update: here they are in video form: Click here to view the embedded video. The music is from the Oh! Edo Rocket OST. ***** Is there anything that doesn’t come in a Hello Kitty version? (Via Dustbury.) ***** Large green ducks. There’s... | | |
| 11:18pm | Memo to cosplayers | | | | 1. Underwear goes under your other clothing.1 2. Heath Ledger’s Joker might be a great character, but the makeup is ugly. 3. Please don’t shriek when you’re standing next to me. 4. An all-ages anime convention is not an appropriate place to lead your pet about on a leash. 5. Please... |
| 12:51pm | Anime anthropology | | | | The Field Guide to Convention Cosplayers The Old School Tribute Likely Cosplaying: - Lum from Urusei Yatsura - Anyone from Ranma ½ - Anyone from Final Fantasy II through V Defining Traits: - Looking really good in a classic cosplay - Unless it’s overly complex or revealing, being completely unrecognized... |
| 12:59am | Will the Vocaloids outnumber the Narutards? | | | | One can hope. The Wichita anime festival moved to a venue within easy bicycle distance this year. I’ll probably spend most of the weekend there with my camera. Here’s the first batch of snapshots. I’ll be posting all my AFW5 photos here. Update: The pictures... |
| 1:49am | Be like a duck | | | | Congratulations to one of the otakusphere’s outstanding members of Anatidae, quacking on .mu.nu for four years now this week. |
| 3:18am | Nope | | | | Anime Expo has come and gone. What got licensed? Denno Coil? Kaiba? Mononoke? Mind Game? Uh-uh. There was no mention of anything I’ve been waiting for. The titles that were announced all look like drivel.1 Steven has a different list, but he, too, was disappointed. I’m particularly annoyed... | | |
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