First, I should clarify that I have nothing against Pete Zaitcev; I like him and the stuff he writes. I just can never resist the opportunity to heckle him about his backwater “no comments” policy, especially when his excuse for not allowing them seems to be “well it’s just too much work”.

Of course it’s just my personal preference and I can’t reasonably force that on him, but I find it incredibly frustrating when I can’t just leave a comment on someone’s post to provide feedback. It also eliminates the interesting group conversation that helps enrich a good post and fosters online community.

This issue has already been beat to death, and I very much doubt that Zaitcev will change his ways, so I suppose I’ll have to content myself instead with gnashing my teeth in frustration and hassling him at every opportunity.

OK, so about Google PageRank. In my previous post I mentioned that one reason I removed my normal blogroll was because it’s damaging to the site’s ranking.

Pete responded to my comment with the following:

“UPDATE: Blogrolls do not “damage” PageRank. For one thing it’s impossible to “hemorrage” to begin with. We know that Google applies certain modifiers to the calculated PageRank postfactum, and some of them discourage link farms. However, there are also ad-hoc modifiers for dealing with blogs.” Read the rest of this entry »

I’m mildly surprised that CANAAN seems to have received a fairly mixed reception so far. It’s one of my favorite shows this season, not only for its gorgeous art and memorable characters, but also because of the strong emphasis on symbolism and metaphor used to portray the deeper elements of the story.

That said, CANAAN is not without its flaws, but I view as a similar kind of story to Darker than Black. It’s not necessarily about the world and the larger plot. It’s not about realism. It’s about creating an environment to develop interesting characters and to explore their personalities, motivations, and relationships.

I’ve often said that I hate being mollycoddled by a story. There are entirely too many writers that feel it necessary to beat you over the head with the script rather than allow you to engage with it at your own pace. I much prefer a story that leaves itself somewhat mysterious, that requires the viewer or reader to dig a little below the surface.

CANAAN certainly provides that in spades. While a lot of it may not have any particularly deep meaning, it’s pretty clear that the story is using several key metaphors to portray the relationships between the characters and to foreshadow elements of the overarching plot. Read the rest of this entry »

…has never really bothered trying to appreciate it.

(Click for larger version)

This post is in response to usagijen’s article / mini-rant about Tokyo Tower and aesthetics in general, which was itself inspired by a comment on ghostlightning’s latest Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 post where someone referred to Tokyo Tower as “overrrated”.

Both are highly recommended reading, by the way, whether you’ve been watching Tokyo Magnitude or not. Her post really helped remind me just what a significant place Tokyo Tower holds in Japanese history, as both a visual landmark and a symbolic one.

From her article:

“As for Tokyo Tower, well let’s just say I gained much more appreciation for it after watching the AWSUM movie ALWAYS ~Sunset on Third Street~, as I witnessed how this landmark became the pillar of hope back in the 1950s where people are starting out a new life after the war. It was a sign of a new era in Japan — an era of hopes and dreams, an era of a bright future (a bright ‘mirai’).

They built Tokyo Tower with the ambition of making it the TALLEST tower in the world, and other towers might have ‘outgrown’ it now, but you can’t take away the fact that it was successful back in its time. Having known its significance made me all the more realize that TOKYO TOWER IS BEAUTIFUL.”

While Tokyo Tower is a bit dated by today’s standards, and while it’s kind of a rip-off of the Eiffel Tower, you certainly can’t deny its major cultural significance. Even from just a purely visual, aesthetic standpoint, I still find it quite beautiful. In typical Japanese fashion, they even modify the lighting to different colors seasonally or during certain events to help give the skyline a different look. Read the rest of this entry »

Sheesh, I leave for a couple months and all the anime bloggers start dying off faster than the cast of a Key game. Or perhaps Higurashi would be a more appropriate metaphor, since true bloggers never really die, they just go nuts every once in a while and then eventually everything resets.

Speaking of which, I think we’re about ready to open up shop again here at Epic Win. It’s been a long and busy year, but fortunately things are starting to settle down finally. Having just finished the JLPT level 2 (bleh), along with a couple big deadlines at work, I’ve switched to consumption mode and am busy working through my to-watch backlog. Oh, and if anybody has any recommendations for stuff from this year you think I should be checking out, feel free to let me know.  Read the rest of this entry »

Meh is indeed my overwhelming reaction to the new season of Gunslinger Girl.

It’s not terrible, certainly, but I expected much better than mediocre from both Gunslinger Girl and from Artland. The art style is noticeably similar to Mushishi (which Artland also animated), particularly the shading style and the way they favor simple, clean lines for the characters. Now, that I don’t necessarily have a problem with, since the GSG manga also uses this style… but WTF happened to the budget for this project??

I know Artland is capable of much, much better, because the consistency and attention to detail in Mushishi was fantastic (episode 20 “Sea of Brushes”, for example). The animation in this first episode of Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- was just terrible, though. Where to start? Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Reader,

I am in the midst of a deep conundrum. I faithfully watched Clannad up until episode 9, the conclusion of Fuuko’s story arc. And I hated it.

I was too busy rolling my eyes to be able to shed any tears. Yet the rest of the blogosphere has been filled with nothing but “FU-CHAN BAAAAAAAAAAAW!!” and endless praise for the story. At first I passed it off as the Key fanboys doing their usual thing, but even Martin over at Concrete Badger, a true man’s man whose opinion I value, gave Clannad a favorable review.

Did I miss something? Am I doing it wrong? I feel like the characters in the story – as though I’m missing something important, but don’t know what it is. Quite honestly, I just don’t see what everyone else seems to be seeing. Read the rest of this entry »

Amidst all the furor over Japan’s newly implemented policy of fingerprinting every foreigner entering or leaving the country, as I was reading through the various comments on different blogs and news sites there was one particular type of reaction that stood out to me.

Many people were making comments like “That’s too bad, I was thinking of taking a vacation to Japan, but now with all these things I’m hearing, maybe I should stay away.”

Now certainly, Japan is not the magical land of rainbows and ponies and gumdrop smiles that your average weeaboo imagines it to be. In fact, sometimes it looks pretty bad. But at the same time, it’s also not all doom and gloom, racism and xenophobia, which is the impression that many people seem to be getting from all of the recent negative press.

So let me just reiterate a very important point:

Japan is still a wonderful place to visit.

Japan is a beautiful country with a rich culture and heritage and some of the kindest, most hospitable people I have ever met. It has some of the most breathtaking sights, most delicious cuisine, and best entertainment anywhere. It is also arguably the safest countries in the world to travel in.

Matsumoto Castle

Yes, if you are not Japanese you will generally be treated differently. This doesn’t necessarily mean in a derogatory way, however. On the contrary, the Japanese generally go to extraordinary lengths to be accommodating to guests in their country. Read the rest of this entry »

As tj_han recently demonstrated, among the subset of otaku known as “anime bloggers” there exist further subgroups which can be used for classification. Unfortunately, his list omitted a number of significant subtypes, which I feel are important to properly identify.

The same disclaimer applies here – all classifications and examples used in this article are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real persons or blogs is purely coincidental. Even if they have the same name and URL.

The Weeaboo

“ZOMG Japan is t3h CHOU SUGOI! I am more awesomer than u because I have been there and u have not!”

The Weeaboo blogger is a rabid fan of any and all things Japanese. He has usually visited Japan at least once and can speak some measure of Japanese. He declaims passionately about anything related to Japanese culture, and brooks no argument from those who he views as possessing inferior weeaboo qualifications (i.e. – have not personally visited Akihabara). He can frequently be seen employing phrases such as “Well my Japanese friend said that…” or “Actually in Japan it’s like this…”

Epic Win is a classic Weeaboo.

Note that upon reaching level 42, The Weeaboo may evolve into its third stage evolution: Read the rest of this entry »

DarkMirage’s recent criticism of Nyoro~n’s Gundam 00 translations sparked a flurry of criticism, mostly petty ad hominems telling him to get out of his parent’s basement, but also a few reasonable arguments defending Nyoro~n. After checking out Nyoro~n’s releases myself, I feel compelled to offer some defense of my own, on DarkMirage’s side of things.

Although I don’t usually watch fansubbed versions, I decided to download a few of these Nyoro~n subs to check out whether this was for real. I almost couldn’t believe that these so-called “translations” could actually be that bad until I saw it for myself.

At first I thought maybe it was just an isolated incident, or perhaps due to the extensive technical jargon that Gundam 00 employs. To double check, I decided to take a look at Nyoro~n’s subs for Gurren Lagann, a show which is much easier to understand and translate.

To my dismay, however, it’s just as bad! I feel sorry for the people who watched this thinking they were getting the real Gurren Lagann!

Take a look at the following comparisons: Read the rest of this entry »

Some of them, anyway.

After watching the recent OVA and reading through some of the manga, I have revised my opinion of Kojika somewhat. Read the rest of this entry »