Well we are currently a few episodes away from the end of Season 2 and as such, I thought I should mention a few things going down the pike. Much like last year, I am going to take a prolonged break as I will most likely be very busy during the Christmas season. Afterwards, I will be spending about a month or so getting things ready for Season 3.
As hinted in my Fate/Stay Night Review, Season 3 will be more focused around an ongoing storyline as I review anime titles. Let's just say the figure in the black cloak will be back! I also want to start other types of reviews from top 10 lists to a new segment called Weird Japan!, an interactive segment of the show which invites viewers to vote for which video clip featured in the episode that you think is the weirdest. I have also been wanting to review video games for a long time but I still don't know how to rip gameplay footage into a video format. Hopefully, we will see more of these in upcoming episodes. I have a lot of plans for Season 3. Let's hope for another great year of The American Anime Otaku!
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Weird Japan!
After I am finished with my review of Death Note, I thought I would take a quick break at reviewing anime and do something I have been wanting to do for a while. Back in March of this year, I had the idea of taking a comical look at some videos showcasing some of the weirdest stuff to ever come out of Japan in a format somewhat similar to the Nostalgia Critic's commercial specials. I intended it to be the first installment of a regular segment of the show, but I decided to postpone it after the earthquake in Japan fearing it would be distasteful posting it so soon after the earthquake. Instead, I did a somewhat rushed and relatively short review of the anime To Heart which was going to follow afterwards. So rather than my review of Chobits, which I was originally going to do, I am thinking of setting some time aside to finish this project first. At least it gives me more time to plot out what my review of Chobits will be like.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
F**k Youtube!
I regret to announce that as of this week, I have left Youtube for good. Actually, no. I don't regret it. In fact, I say good riddance! I stopped posting my reviews to my Youtube account after getting two of my reviews removed over Youtube's paranoid copyright policy. After posting a couple of parody shorts here and there, I thought it would be okay to start posting trailers to my reviews on Youtube, but alas, they finally got around to removing my account entirely. Well I say, What the ****?! You give me a copyright complaint for under less then twenty seconds of copyrighted material, and yet you allow some kids to upload entire episodes of Spongebob Squarepants and not give a damn?! How hypocritical!
Second, what the hell happened to Fair Use? I did a ton of research on Fair Use Policy, both in the US as well as in Japan even before I posted my first episode. I read that it is okay to use copyrighted material in trans-formative works such as a review, parody, educational, or other works of that nature and my videos clearly fit within the boundaries of such works. Plus, if that were to be the case otherwise, then things like Let's Plays, video remixes, AMVs and certainly doujinshi would also be illegal. However, Japan is full of people selling doujinshi yet the producers of such original work the doujinshi is based off of could care less! Third, most of you who know me very well know that I will not review an anime series if I do not own a physical copy of that particular show to be fair to the people who made said anime. Plus, any money I make from this is from things I have made myself or from running advertisements on my site.
Finally, Youtube purposefully made it difficult to restore your account with them if it is removed and quite frankly, I don't have the time and energy to go through all the hoops and loopholes in order to get my account back on Youtube. And when Youtube removes a video or worse yet your account, they don't give you a full reason why they removed it nor do they give you any proof of such.
Now I know why the Nostalgia Critic decided to leave Youtube and I wholeheartedly agree with him. Bottom line, Youtube is overly paranoid with their copyright policy, hypocritical, and difficult to deal with to get your videos back online if removed. Screw em! I am done with Youtube!
Second, what the hell happened to Fair Use? I did a ton of research on Fair Use Policy, both in the US as well as in Japan even before I posted my first episode. I read that it is okay to use copyrighted material in trans-formative works such as a review, parody, educational, or other works of that nature and my videos clearly fit within the boundaries of such works. Plus, if that were to be the case otherwise, then things like Let's Plays, video remixes, AMVs and certainly doujinshi would also be illegal. However, Japan is full of people selling doujinshi yet the producers of such original work the doujinshi is based off of could care less! Third, most of you who know me very well know that I will not review an anime series if I do not own a physical copy of that particular show to be fair to the people who made said anime. Plus, any money I make from this is from things I have made myself or from running advertisements on my site.
Finally, Youtube purposefully made it difficult to restore your account with them if it is removed and quite frankly, I don't have the time and energy to go through all the hoops and loopholes in order to get my account back on Youtube. And when Youtube removes a video or worse yet your account, they don't give you a full reason why they removed it nor do they give you any proof of such.
Now I know why the Nostalgia Critic decided to leave Youtube and I wholeheartedly agree with him. Bottom line, Youtube is overly paranoid with their copyright policy, hypocritical, and difficult to deal with to get your videos back online if removed. Screw em! I am done with Youtube!
The Reasons Why I Haven't Reviewed A Gundam Title
I'm writing this article guessing that you're wondering " It's been almost forty episodes in, and still he hasn't reviewed a Gundam Title." Well, here is why. First, is that the Gundam Series is a huge series with over fourteen TV shows and countless movies. It is intimidating just picking out which one of the Gundam shows that would be the best one for a review. Then there is the snowball effect. Just picking one Gundam title to review will have other people wanting me to review their favorite Gundam title and quite frankly, watching and reviewing all of them is a phenomenal task. Then there is the time it takes to watch and review a Gundam title since each of them usually consist of two seasons, each containing about 24+ episodes each which would possibly be stressful on my schedule. Since I release a new review about every couple of weeks, I would find trouble in watching shows that consist of more than thirty or so episodes. For instance, For me to review Gundam Seed would require twenty-two hours for me to watch in less than a week in order to fit the time needed to write the script, record the audio, select clips of the show I want to use in the review, film the necessary footage needed and edit them all together, which takes about another week to do. And that doesn't include other daily things I need to do! Last and not least, I just haven't gotten around to watching a Gundam title yet and if I decide to review a Gundam title would take a good deal of planning in oreder to give the review some justice. There is one Gundam title I am thinking of reviewing, but it's not a title that you would expect. If you want to know what it is, you'll just have to wait until the premiere of Season 3 to find out!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Anime You Will Never See In The U.S.- Kodomo No Jikan
Oh my God! This thing should be illegal! I know I've made fun of pedophiles from time to time on my show and I know that this is the anime's intention as well, but this anime take's things way too far. If there was a mainstream anime title that was so inappropriate for distribution in North America, this thing not just takes the cake, it takes the entire bakery!
Kodomo No Jikan follows a young Third Grade girl named Kokonoe Rin who has a crush on her 23 year old teacher, Aoki Daisuke. No joke. And if that wasn't creepy enough, she constantly tries to find ways to seduce him! When she is not fawning over her teacher or spouting countless lines of innuendo, this little whore is usually threatening him with blackmail. The other characters are just as screwed up, from Rin's best friend to other characters that I don't exactly know who they are because I couldn't stand watching more than one episode.
So as you could imagine, this anime is rife with controversy. For example, two of the four television stations that were supposed to air this in Japan removed the show off their schedules prior to the show's air date. For the remaining stations that decided to air it, the show was heavily censored whenever it was broadcasted. If I had my way, the show should have never been aired at all let alone be made. The controversy surrounding Kodomo No Jikan wasn't just concentrated in Japan either. When the manga was picked up for publication in the US by Seven Seas Entertainment, it was soon dropped after the publishers discovered the relationship between the two characters in the story; namely an elementary school student and her adult teacher.
Kodomo No Jikan is just another entry in the long line of low-brow fan-service comedies. Except this time around, some sick f**k decided that children are free game to sexual objectification in the animated medium. As a result, this anime is practically suitable for no one and anybody caught with this should be hauled off and carded. No anime distributor in their right mind would ever be caught dead distributing this and that is why, quite thankfully, you will never see this licensed in the US anytime soon!
Kodomo No Jikan follows a young Third Grade girl named Kokonoe Rin who has a crush on her 23 year old teacher, Aoki Daisuke. No joke. And if that wasn't creepy enough, she constantly tries to find ways to seduce him! When she is not fawning over her teacher or spouting countless lines of innuendo, this little whore is usually threatening him with blackmail. The other characters are just as screwed up, from Rin's best friend to other characters that I don't exactly know who they are because I couldn't stand watching more than one episode.
So as you could imagine, this anime is rife with controversy. For example, two of the four television stations that were supposed to air this in Japan removed the show off their schedules prior to the show's air date. For the remaining stations that decided to air it, the show was heavily censored whenever it was broadcasted. If I had my way, the show should have never been aired at all let alone be made. The controversy surrounding Kodomo No Jikan wasn't just concentrated in Japan either. When the manga was picked up for publication in the US by Seven Seas Entertainment, it was soon dropped after the publishers discovered the relationship between the two characters in the story; namely an elementary school student and her adult teacher.
Kodomo No Jikan is just another entry in the long line of low-brow fan-service comedies. Except this time around, some sick f**k decided that children are free game to sexual objectification in the animated medium. As a result, this anime is practically suitable for no one and anybody caught with this should be hauled off and carded. No anime distributor in their right mind would ever be caught dead distributing this and that is why, quite thankfully, you will never see this licensed in the US anytime soon!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Anime You Will Never See In The U.S.- Akikan
Welcome to my first installment of Anime You Will Never See In The U.S. So, how can you tell when an anime's plot is going to end up being rediculous? When it involves empty cans of soda turning into magical girls when someone drinks out of it, that's what. I knew from episode one this anime was going to turn out to be bottom of the barrel shlock, so let's just say there were no disappointments whatsoever. So, what is this anime ultimately about? Nothing but twelve episodes of trying to find out if steel cans are better than aluminum cans. That's pretty much it.
It turns out that Japan produces two types of cans, aluminum and steel. The Japanese government decides that it is too costly to produce both types, so they decide to pull out some magical pixy dust from God knows where, turn the cans into magical girls, and have them duke it out in some bizarre tournament to see which type of can they will continue to produce. I really wish I was making this up.
Enter Kakeru Daichi, your typical perverted high school student that no girl in her right mind would want to be around, except for his childhood friend Najimi Tenkuji. He ends up buying one of those cans, a melon flavored can of soda, from a vending machine to reveal a young girl aptly named Melon and the rest is pretty much history.
The show is primarily a fanservice comedy, however they also try to throw in some romantic drama element about the cans becoming romantically attached to their owners and vice versa. You know, if this is some contrived message about recycling, I think I would rather dump my trash into the nearest storm drain thank you very much. On top of that, the humor in this show ranges from occasionally funny to absolutely tasteless with scene after scene full of cringe-worthy innuendo.
Atop of that, we also got a mix of characters that range from incredibly bland to absolutely disgusting; complete with a government official who is an admitted homosexual pedophile who fantasizes about doing his thing with high school age boys. There is also one character who is so bland, he literally fades in and out of existence! Now that takes talent!
Akikan literally means "empty can" and boy does it live up to it's name! The characters are forgettable, the humor is extremely low brow, and the story, what ever little there is, is boring and uninteresting. I don't know anybody who would be stupid enough to purchase a license to this anime and quite frankly, this is one anime title you will never see in the U.S.!
It turns out that Japan produces two types of cans, aluminum and steel. The Japanese government decides that it is too costly to produce both types, so they decide to pull out some magical pixy dust from God knows where, turn the cans into magical girls, and have them duke it out in some bizarre tournament to see which type of can they will continue to produce. I really wish I was making this up.
Enter Kakeru Daichi, your typical perverted high school student that no girl in her right mind would want to be around, except for his childhood friend Najimi Tenkuji. He ends up buying one of those cans, a melon flavored can of soda, from a vending machine to reveal a young girl aptly named Melon and the rest is pretty much history.
The show is primarily a fanservice comedy, however they also try to throw in some romantic drama element about the cans becoming romantically attached to their owners and vice versa. You know, if this is some contrived message about recycling, I think I would rather dump my trash into the nearest storm drain thank you very much. On top of that, the humor in this show ranges from occasionally funny to absolutely tasteless with scene after scene full of cringe-worthy innuendo.
Atop of that, we also got a mix of characters that range from incredibly bland to absolutely disgusting; complete with a government official who is an admitted homosexual pedophile who fantasizes about doing his thing with high school age boys. There is also one character who is so bland, he literally fades in and out of existence! Now that takes talent!
Akikan literally means "empty can" and boy does it live up to it's name! The characters are forgettable, the humor is extremely low brow, and the story, what ever little there is, is boring and uninteresting. I don't know anybody who would be stupid enough to purchase a license to this anime and quite frankly, this is one anime title you will never see in the U.S.!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Idolatry 101: The Idolm@ster review
Finally, we get an Idolm@ster anime that's true to the game and doesn't involve giant robots! Oh happy day! Well anyway, This week we are going to take a look at the Idolmaster. I have been waiting for an anime adaptation of this game for a long time and I was really disappointed on what happened with Xenoglossia. Long story short; I think I'll stick with Strike Witches thank you very much.
Unlike Idolm@ster Xenoglossia, the recently released Idolm@ster anime is based off of the original game. Well actually, it is based off of the second game in the series. For those of you who are not familiar with the game, I'll bring you up to speed. The Idolm@ster is a arcade game in which you play as the manager for a group of girls aiming to be the next AKB48. From what I have seen of the game, the game is all about scheduling and the player can customize their idols in many ways and have them perform in dance routines.
Going back to the anime, this anime has a very large cast of characters that are introduced in a rather neat and organized way. However, because of the large cast of characters, I won't have enough time to talk about them all. The characters in this show have very diverse personalities and it is incredibly funny to watch the way they interact with each other. I often found myself laughing at some of the many ways the characters react to certain scenarios.
I may have only seen a couple of episodes of this anime, but so far, I like what I saw. After watching this, I am definitely looking forward to seeing this anime (and the game for that matter) being brought over here to the United States. If this anime gets enough attention, maybe Bandai Namco will bring both the anime and the games over here. It's your call, Bandai Entertaiment!
Unlike Idolm@ster Xenoglossia, the recently released Idolm@ster anime is based off of the original game. Well actually, it is based off of the second game in the series. For those of you who are not familiar with the game, I'll bring you up to speed. The Idolm@ster is a arcade game in which you play as the manager for a group of girls aiming to be the next AKB48. From what I have seen of the game, the game is all about scheduling and the player can customize their idols in many ways and have them perform in dance routines.
Going back to the anime, this anime has a very large cast of characters that are introduced in a rather neat and organized way. However, because of the large cast of characters, I won't have enough time to talk about them all. The characters in this show have very diverse personalities and it is incredibly funny to watch the way they interact with each other. I often found myself laughing at some of the many ways the characters react to certain scenarios.
I may have only seen a couple of episodes of this anime, but so far, I like what I saw. After watching this, I am definitely looking forward to seeing this anime (and the game for that matter) being brought over here to the United States. If this anime gets enough attention, maybe Bandai Namco will bring both the anime and the games over here. It's your call, Bandai Entertaiment!
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