A blog that will cure your apathy and inspire your dreams...
Warning: All who watch anime, play video games, like J-music and K-music, and the like... ARE OTAKU!
Most people live life on the path we set for them. Too afraid to explore any other. But once in a while people like you come along...
Guess which anime has topped the MyAnimelist charts in just a short few months?
"Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi" - The Town Where Only I Am Missing, or simply "ERASED" as the English adaptation title, is a story about Fujinuma Satoru, a young 20-something manga author who has a mysterious ability called "Revival" - returning a few moments in time before a tragedy in order to prevent its eminent occurrence. Without revealing too much, a major catastrophe causes Satoru to use Revival to the point where he is sent back 18 years in time to prevent a tragedy deeply rooted in his childhood.
The concept in all honesty is not far from being cliche, at least in the world of anime. It is not the supernatural or over-the-top powers known to many anime which made ERASED an instant fan favorite. It is the nature of each episode, strongly intertwined and the tension / hype tools used to pull the viewer in that have made this show so popular.
Time to take a short departure from reviewing like an Otaku, and putting on my "Westerner" hat. Who here hasn't seen "Breaking Bad", "Lost" or "How to Get Away with Murder" - or any other popular "Serial dramas" that have pervaded American society of late? The premise of these shows is deeply based in reality, but a strong character takes a twist in his normal fate and becomes something more than they are - someone who drives their storyline, a thread in a multi-threaded theatrical puppet show, where everyone else's plots weave into their in a very strategic way to further the main story.
ERASED functions in much the same way: it is highly character driven but to the point where these characters drive their own plotlines with their actions. One small example we can take is of Katagiri Airi - the part timer who works with Satoru. She is unassuming until they delve into her backstory, and she forces herself into Satoru's life and helps him out. The same goes for Kenya, Hiromi, Jun, and Kayo - they lead organically disparate lives but their plots weave with Satoru's.
Another success formula that ERASED uses is the heavy plot twists and cliffhangers. You may think "All anime series' have cliff hangers at each episode," but ERASED uses them in a 12 episode series - and in a way which is deliberately used to increase tension instead of just make you happy / excited. Ring any bells? American Serial Dramas use the same tools. Amazingly, your fear of Walter White's last decision in BB is the same as Satoru's desperation in protecting his friends. It's not the same as the 800 episodes of Case Closed that do next to nothing to bring the viewer back into the story for the next episode.
What would the face of anime be like if all new anime focused on episode-by-episode crescendos, story tension used as a cliffhanger-y element, and crime-drama style character development? Would anime mirror Western Netflix binge-able serials or AMC's next big psychological drama?
Hi everyone! Here are some great anime quotes that I think show how cool anime really is. These are the memories that keep me an "Otaku" even when the times get difficult and there isn't really much time to marathon some anime. Anyway, instead of the rant, here goes!
"My house?!" Ken-sama to Gintoki
"Now that you have changed you can build 100 houses" Gintoki's reply, episodes 1-2.
"People need to live their lives with a clear conscience. When you want to walk a straight path, somehow you get yourself stained with mud. However, as long as we never give up, one day, the mud on you will dry up and fall off" Gintoki, episode 97.
"To be lost is an answer, so lets promise never to lie about it" Translation of the song "Ryuusei"/Artist-TiA, Naruto (original) ending 6.
Gintama is planning a super comeback for late 2012 and 2013. The anime is slated to return this October but there are no details as of yet, if the episodes will be completely new. Last time Gintama took a hiatus they re-mastered previous episodes under the name, Yorinuki Gintama-san. We'll just have to wait and see. You can watch Gintama on Crunchyroll!
There is also going to be another Gintama movie coming out sometime in 2013. Gintama creator, Hideaki Sorachi, has made the story for this film. The movie has been green-lit for production; we might see promotions for the movie in the upcoming anime! Sorachi has also released a picture of the story he's been creating for the movie.
This is very blogworthy advice actually...
Black Friday Weekend ONLY!
Crunchyroll is offering a deal for two days where membership is $50 off and you also get $10 credit for another daily deal!!! All for 50 dollars, that's around 4 dollars and change a month for premium access to Crunchyroll's anime and drama. They don't have everything, but compared to what I was paying that's a darn good price.
Crunchyroll.com is a great website to watch anime on. I, RPGHero, am a paying anime member of Crunchy. But anyone can watch anime for free on it, just that there's commercials.
After the recent earthquake in Japan, crunchyroll set up a fund and promised to match funds up to 5,000 dollars. Well including myself and all the members of crunchyroll we raised roughly $40,000 including Crunchy's match. I am proud of myself and the crunchyroll community for coming to the aid of Japan and raising so much money!
Hi everyone! As you already know RPGHero and myself (Deretsun) went to the New York Anime Festival in the city. The Comic Con was there as well but didn't interest me as much =P.
So now it's my turn to share my experience of my first big convention! yay! :)
So went on Saturday--the day the main events were supposed to happen. So I left early from a class and tried my best to get there in time for the 11:45 Hatsune Miku Concert. Keep in mind that this was my first BIG convention... the ConnectiCon couldn't compare in size... this is the Jacob Javits we're talking about here. And honestly--I do a LOT of planning--but I didn't see this one coming.... The LINE!
Here I was, thinking that since I had ordered it online I would just be able to walk into the Javits and redeem my ticket... but of course not! There was such a huge line that it's hard to describe. Let me show you:
So it started off around here by the sidewalk (left) and then curved around to the stairs (right).
Then drops back along the wall of the side walk and loops around further next to the building.
Haha--we're not done yet! (This is what happens when you combine two conventions!)
It then goes through that underpass and finally goes inside (left)... NOPE! Still not done! It then proceeds to go up the escalator and into this threatening huge zig-zag line inside! (right).
So I had got there at 11:50--thinking I'd be able to still catch the Miku Concert... yah... that didn't happen. The line moved pretty quickly but it was still huge and I got to the door of the Miku Concert at 12:35... It ended at 12:45 so I thought I'd be able to sneak in and take some videos but they wouldn't let me in since it was so crowded... and this was the main event I wanted to see too! That really annoyed me. （つまんないね。） There was an encore concert later at 8 pm but I couldn't stay that late.
So remember: if you ever want to catch an early event at a convention--get there EXTRA early! (1-2 hours atleast)
So this picture to the left was the Comic Con floor--it was much larger than the Anime Festival which was in the basement level and kinda pissed me off lol. Normally, (Or so I've been told) they split up the comic con and anime festival, but this time they were joined and made things even more crowded than it should have been.
Look at how closed in the Anime Festival floor was compared to it:
And although it was a pretty decent size it felt as if everyone was crying for more room.
So what exactly was at this convention? Wow, there was alot--from cosplays to crossplays (dressing up as a character from the opposite gender) and from miku concerts to voice actor panels! Up at the Comic Con floor they had a bunch of booths with a mix of games from Wii, Square Enix, etc. etc. + two out of the like 20 isles was related to anime stuff from posters to Miku CDs and from cosplay outfits to plush dolls.
More awesome cosplays:
Vocaloids Hatsune Miku (left) and Gakupo Kamui (right).
Naruto characters: Jiraiya, Shino, and a crossplay of Kiba
I thought that this Miku Cosplay was the best that I saw at the convention--but that's just me =P.
I enjoyed the Voice Actor Panel as well entitled "Voice Actors: East Meets West." There were english voice actors from the east to west cost of America and even further west was the japanese voice actor guest: Minori Chihara! Yay! I'm sure you guys must've heard her voice acting before! It's phenomenal!
My favorite character from her voice acting career history is Chiaki Minami from Minami-Ke! (which was an awesome and refreshing non-plot comedy anime that I recommend for happy comedy lovers =P).
Opening:
Here you go! ^^
There was a whole load of things to do at the con and I'm glad! At ConnectiCon I came pretty late and there was hardly anything to do once I got there--but this Con had events throughout the whole day--because, well... it was HUGE =P.
I went to a Crunchyroll announcement where they had Q & A about various things. It was pretty monotone and boring but once in a while you'd get a funny question like "When are you going to re-model your site? It's looking a little dated." lol... I did manage to extract unreleased crunchyroll news however such as that they will be hosting Tantei Opera Milky Holmes from Fall Season.
They also had a random stage for people to perform but honestly they were terrible lol. People were trying to sing in japanese but their frantic yelling just hurt my ears so I left.
Later, and I thought nothing else could go wrong besides missing the miku concert--I go to the Puffy AmiYumi (yes, they were there!) autograph area expecting a free autograph. But of course... things wouldn't go that smoothly. First I realize there's a line. Then I realized I had to actually buy some of their merchandise to sign (t-shirts, etc.) which were around $16-20 each. You would THINK it'd be free... to show appreciation for the fans.. but no! It just had to cost money and the stand just had to run out of Teen Titans shirts -.-
And that's not all that went wrong! I also had a bad experience on the Comic Con floor:
So I was interested in a game called Guild Wars 2 that's supposed to be coming out within 2 years. So I went to check it out. Little did I know how unorganized it was. They just tossed booths here and there and no one knew where anything was. On their little "guide" it was supposed to be at room 1A21 but then I found out that everything had a different labelling system such as 1811, 3010--there were no letters at all! So I had no clue at all where I was going and ended up not finding it at all which was pretty depressing--but I got over it! At an Aniplex booth they gave out free K-On! posters and later on I found a good Lucky Star poster that I bought. Here are my spoils:
Those posters were enough to make up for the autograph and miku concert and I went home happy :)
So that was the New York Anime Festival! If you are ever in town for a convention don't miss it! It's a great chance to be around your "species" if you're >= (greater than or equal to) an otaku. And if you're able to stay late--you might catch the Maid Cafe that I unfortunately missed :(
If you don't know certain things about T.M. Revolution like what his name stands for, how old he is, what his first band was called, and what his childhood sport was, and more then I highly suggest you follow this link to the Crunchyroll Article on him!
This blog, "The Otaku Reviewers", was started in February of 2010 on this very same platform, Blogger. At first, it was a venture into the informational and informal world of comics, anime, video games, and Japanese culture. In other words, just a random blog.
Over time, the founder of the blog credited with the pseudonym "RPGhero" was joined by two fellow bloggers and friends with the names "Chansu" and "Deretsun". Together the three bloggers looked up interesting Japanese culture facts, recommended new anime, talked about their own "otaku" interests, and traveled across the United States to various anime conventions.
There have been off periods when the blog ceased production of content and there have been times when there would be dozens of blog posts per week. The schedule varies depending on the lives of the people behind the alias'. However the pattern is that we always get back into the game with even newer information about Japanese culture, anime, video games, and other nerdy hobbies.
The motto of our blog is:
"A cure for your apathy and an inspiration for your dreams. ...Applies to Otaku, anime fans, J-pop junkies, and the like"
The purpose is to blog about cool stuff related solely to anime and otaku stuff. There's no other reason we're doing this.
If you like our blog, please support us in however small a way that you would like. We appreciate our readers!
