Otaku, No Video

Last night during the live Friday Anime Buffet, Mikenter mentioned that he played a game of Blood Rites with some friends. Blood Rites is a tabletop role-playing game that I developed about a year ago, channeling some of my darkest interests into a setting and system that forces hard moral choices.

It’s not for everyone. You play a naked savage in a primitive world, who has to spill blood to create magic. That said, I promised I’d post it for everyone to see, so you can now download Blood Rites for free. It’s a 19-page PDF.

lain (c) Yoshitoshi ABe, Geneon

I’m changing a few elements of Otaku, No Video based on user feedback and observations over the past few months. So, forgive a post full of ”inside baseball,” but I want to at least get this documented.

New Live Shows

Otaku News Live! is now splitting into three shows:

1. Brent’s Anime News Corner is coming back! This will be a short, weekly live show during which I run through the latest anime and manga news. No tangents here, unless they illuminate the story. This will be much more like the evening news. After recording it, I’ll post the video to YouTube.
2. Otalku is an upcoming talk show devoted to intelligent discussion about big issues facing otaku: Are fansubs ethical? What should we do about lolicon? Is it better to buy discs or watch legal streams? How has moe changed storytelling in anime? Matt, miniman, and I are still discussing this and working out a good time to do it.
3. Otaku News Live! will remain as it is, with one exception: During the show, we’ll cherry-pick interesting news stories and talk about them, instead of running through every single news story.

I’m also thinking of doing an informal live Q&A session once a month. Just a chat with everyone.

The YouTube Videos

When I asked The Ultimate Question a few months ago, I received a broad list of suggestions. Very little in the way of consistent feedback. However, one of the most common suggestions was a request for more reviews.

I think I’ve resolved that. I’m now regularly posting two reviews per week, one anime and one manga. I’m also posting primers regularly, with a one-week gap between each set of primer videos.

One note on that: 2011 will be the year of Gundam. I plan to review just about every piece of Gundam animation ever made by the end of 2011.

However, I know that some of you aren’t big mecha fans, so I’ll be careful to intersperse that with review of non-mecha series.

StreamSuki

A few weeks ago, I launched StreamSuki, an index of free, legal anime streams. This really excites me. This lists of all the anime streaming on all the major anime streaming sites out there (Crunchyroll, Hulu, Funimation.com, official YouTube channels, etc.). You can search for shows and browse by title, genre, and year released.

Even better, it works automatically. It will remain up-to-date without any human intervention.

Not sure how this fits in with O, NV, but it’s really cool.

The Chat Room

I’ve given up on this. While the text chat room on the main page of O, NV saw several visitors per day, they’d rarely speak.  When they did, nobody else was around to continue the conversation.

So, I’ve replaced that chat room with Justin.tv’s chat room. You’ll have to log in using Justin.tv or Twitter. I’ve no idea if this is a good idea, but it’s better than the stasis of the old chat room.

The Blog

I wrestle with the blog. I have a goal to write three short posts per week: a ”snap review” on Monday, a response to an aniblogger on Wednesday, and whatever I want (anime/manga/light novel-related) on Friday. This supplements the automatic video posts.

My actual output has averaged two posts per week. So, I think I’m going to switch to two posts per week, dropping the weekly snap review. The snap reviews tended to mirror my YouTube reviews, so they’re not of much interest.

The Forum

The forum’s quiet. I’ve wrestled with this, too. I’d like to galvanize the forum, but I can’t think of interesting things to post.

I like the forum, and I want it to continue, but it needs a jump start. I’m lost here. Suggestions, anyone?

Twitter

Yes, I’m on Twitter! But I don’t use it much. I resolve to fix that.

I am thinking about how best to approach Twitter. Much of the interesting otaku debate I saw on Twitter 6–12 months ago has evaporated.

So, that’s the state of things. Feedback is always welcome.

"Two brothers 3" by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr

A few weeks ago, I created a forum on this site. I wanted to make a haven for intelligent, thoughtful discussion about anime, manga, and Japanese culture. I also wanted to experiment. I wondered if anyone would show up.

To my surprise and delight, people did show up.  The forum quickly filled with dozens of posts a day. While it’s quieted down since then, the level of thought and attention to detail in each post has improved.

Moreover, we really are discussing interesting topics, from which Miyazaki movie most deserves a sequel to what anime you’d show to a 12-year-old who’s never seen anime to the anime that changed your life.

I’m literally thrilled by this; I occasionally get goose bumps about it. I’ve also made some significant mistakes in curating the forum; mistakes I’ve paid for and am still working to correct. It isn’t easy.

It is a very interesting place. Will you stop by and join us?

I want to meet:

Crispin Freeman, American voice actor (Alucard in Hellsing, Prince Turnip in Howl’s Moving Castle, Itachi in Naruto, many others) and anime mythology expert. If you’ve seen Crispin, you know he’s smart, poised, and an amazing font of knowledge about mythology. He describes himself as an ”information junkie,” and he’s used that to develop a series of lectures on mythology and its relation to Japanese animation. Fascinating.

Adam Sheehan, the ”face” of Funimation. I’ve actually chatted with him briefly in the halls of conventions a couple of times, but I’d love to sit down with him and a couple of beers. He named his daughter Lain, for Pete’s sake. How awesome is that?

Fred Patten, super-otaku. His book Watching Anime, Reading Manga opened my eyes to the long history of American anime fandom. And judging from his writing, he’s just plain reasonable. He basically created American anime fandom back in the late 1970′s.

Vic Mignogna, American voice actor (Ed in Fullmetal Alchemist, many others). I spent a fair number of hours watching videos of Vic at various conventions. He strikes me as an open, kind guy with solid boundaries — a perfect combination of attributes for a popular American voice actor.

Who would you like to have a beer with?

© Otakorp

I will be at Otakon in Baltimore this year, especially since one of my panels has been accepted and another wait-listed.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been told when or where the panels have been scheduled yet.

I’ll definitely be giving the History of Anime panel, where I’ll spend an hour stepping through the major phases in anime’s evolution, starting with what happened in Japan in the early 20th century, through Astro Boy, Mobile Suit Gundam, Akira, and up to today.  I hope to leave time for Q&A at the end, but based on my current walk-throughs of the material, I suspect it’ll take a full hour.

The Amazingly Obscure Anime panel covers about 30 different anime that get criminally little attention, despite being released in America or fansubbed.  This is the panel that Nick and I ran at last year’s Anime USA, to a packed room.  I’ve no idea of the chances that my poor, wait-listed panel have of getting fully approved and scheduled.

I’ll post again once I learn all the details.  If you’re there, please stop by and introduce yourself!

The following anime changed me on a personal level:

• serial experiments lain
• Rurouni Kenshin
• Tenchi Muyo!
• Kiki’s Delivery Service
• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
  
• Boogiepop Phantom

Haruhi Suzumiya (c) KyoAni, etc.

I’ve been posting very little on this blog, and no this is not a whiny apology.  I have a reason:

Things are going pretty much okay.

Anime’s being licensed and released, no companies are going bankrupt, there’s a burst of new anime this season, and, generally, there’s not much to talk about.  I’m watching anime and reading manga, and making videos.

I’m sure there’ll be more excitement in the future.  But for now, things seem pretty calm.

I just might be feeling this way because I’m no longer reading ANN twice a week.  Just maybe. 

But, hey, we don’t need to be jabbering away in righteous indignation all the time.  Sometimes, we can just relax and get back to the core of our hobby.

Right?

By nekozumi. Used by permission.

Let’s get one thing straight: I think Naruto and Bleach are fine anime series in their own ways.

I’ve read fair chunks of the manga for both Naruto and Bleach. Enjoyed them; there was some interesting depth in both.

But they didn’t fully grab me.   And here’s the problem:  each has hundreds of episodes.  That’s time I could spend watching dozens of other anime series.  It’s not that I’d hate to watch Naruto; it’s that there are so many other anime to watch. Practically speaking, I have to choose.

I also have the problem of being an anime reviewer who’s posting two reviews a week. I simply don’t have the time to watch Bleach and other anime.

So, to all you Naruto and Bleach fans, have fun! All the best. Unfortunately, I won’t be joining you.