While it’s my first time actually doing stuff in Tokyo, it felt oddly familiar like my childhood home. Minus the stench, stray animals, and insects. And the relatively lower price of living. I actually don’t have a lot to share with you guys in terms of pictures, so you’ll have to make due with a couple [...]
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I went down to Suntec City on the 4th July to pay a visit to TGX 2009 and check out the cosplayers there. While I wasn't really expecting much, show stealers in the form of two groups of K-ON! cosplayers, among others, showed in what I suspect is the pre-Cosfest warm-up run which will happen next week end. Plenty more pictures after the jump.
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Those who missed the first issue of Nendoroid Miku Hatsune can rejoice ^^ She is back again due to the increasing amount od demands ^^ Reissued Nendoroid Hatsune Miku by GoodsmileCompany. Hatsune miku is nicely sculptured with nice details CUTE!! Show Time? >.< miku nendoroid can do quite the amount of posts ^^ Also comes with a tsundere [...]
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After offering what was perhaps the best single episode of anime I've ever seen in its fourth instalment (high praise indeed I know, but I genuinely mean it), episode five of EVE no Jikan (or Time of Eve if you'd rather) was always going to struggle to reach those dizzy heights. While it may not have entertained or moved me in quite the same way, it does still however prove masterful at its
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Before I start talking about the Eureka Seven manga adaptation, I’d like to explain what Eureka Seven is as a franchise. Eureka Seven was designed by Studio BONES and Bandai to be a sort of multimedia franchise that reaches out and expands beyond the normal frame of any single anime or manga series. You have [...]
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A K-ON! doujin that you have to read!!! hahaha It’s pretty funny!! All hard work goes to Wings of Yuri!! Thank god we had them around!! ^_^
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Mikatan updated her Blog with preview images of the upcoming “Nendoroid Reimu Hakurei” from Touhou Project by Good Smile Company ^^ Unfortunately, she’ll be Comiket 76 event exclusive item and will be sold on August 14th, 2009. Via Mikatan’s Blog.
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Negima! 257 SPOILER Images魔法先生 ネギま���Chapter 257 (Images)Here's what I know many of you have been waiting for -- the original-sized, sneak-peek images for Mahou Sensei Negima! Chapter 257 SPOILER Images as brought to you buy anonymous Japanese fans (click pic to make bigger, y'all).There were three batches of images with one repeat. Since I'm doing them as a single post, I didn't post the
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Katt: I have been so bad with blogging this anime! Terrible! Technically I should be blogging from episode 9, where I stopped, but then I’d just take even longer to catch up. Let’s just pretend that those past few episodes never happened and start anew at episode 13, okay? I have nothing else to blog, [...]
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Another part of our awesome wallpapers collection. It's time for the 5th part. It contains series like D.Gray-Man, Hellsing, One Piece, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and other shit I don't recognize ^_^you can download part 5 HERE
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It’s probably too late. 14 years passed after all. Although the film remake have recently been premièred, I still feel like telling an already well-known story. And nevertheless — here are they, my impressions on the epic, original, and too moralful anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. The Good Until episode 25, The Embassy of the New Era was [...] Related posts:The TruthXam’d Lost Memories: Episode 15Toradora: Episode 10 & 11
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I was never a big fan of open-world games. Period. I guess I enjoy more of a linear game where all the objectives are straight forward and there are no irrelevant side missions. I wonder if that’s the reason Grand Theft Auto could never hold my attention for more than a week. Enter inFamous, a game [...]
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Because most of you have not yet seen all of Mouryou no Hako, I won’t be talking about the mystery aspect of the show. All I have to say is that, most likely, you will be disturbed and blown away by the end. Aside from its absorbing and disturbing mystery, Mouryou no Hako has something [...]
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Vanguard Princess is a high-quality doujin 2D fighting game that was suddenly released by Sugeno Tomoaki. The quality of the game is amazing considering that its free, but the major selling point is that it ...
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Reading time: 4 - 6 minutes This is definitely the best OVA so far of Detective Conan. I just love the idea it introduced to the series since it can be viewed as the “bad end” for it. The series introduces the concept of Conan/Shinichi failing in pursuing the Black Organization, in which he lived for almost 10 [...]
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Endless loop of this? Noticing the title, you guys would have probably noticed why did I condense 3 whole episodes into one single post. Why did I do that? Simply because if you’ve watched any of the above mentioned episodes, you would have watched all three of them. Yes, all three. Exactly the same… story-wise. I know, I [...] Related posts:Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu 2 — Episode 2, Revealation of OP!Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu Season 2 — First ImpressionsHaruhi Re-run’s 8th Episode Listed As New Episode
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Secret Recipe is made up of two one-shots. It’s nothing WOW WOW but if you like Milk Morinaga and is suffering withdrawal symptoms, then hopefully this will help a little! I decided to recommend this as it’s a fairly cute one-shot in typical Milk Morinaga art style. The story is simple so I won’t bother elaborating. [...]
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Moderator: Ken Hoinsky, founder of MX Media LLC - Subtitles for digidistro, 90% of simulcast market right now ANN's Justin Sevakis VIZ Media's Kevy Vona Rob Lewis, from Dare Fusion Josh Allard, from Dare Fusion Kun Gao, co-founder of Crunchyroll.com Let's begin! QUESTION: What are the obstacles for digital distribution? Is it difficult to convince Japanese companies still? Simulcasting originally started with GDH just over a year ago (April 2008) and VIZ with Naruto Shippuden, and everyone jumped in after that. People don't think of it as the first option so it doesn't get the attention it deserves. Japanese companies are very conservative, and still no one has figured out what to do with TV. VIZ Media faces the problem that they have so much catalog content that people want to see and there are manpower and production issues. Getting the Japanese companies onboard isn't difficult because they know it's necessary but they want to see a lot in place before moving forward, so contract negotiations are lengthy. Sevakis notes that there's a lot of red tape for older shows that weren't created with digital stuff in mind, because all those people who made it didn't have digital royalties in their contracts. QUESTION: A common complaint is worldwide rights, especially for fans in Europe. VIZ's Kevy says it SHOULD be worldwide, because it's the Internet for crying out loud, but there's still a lot of contract difficulty. Crunchyroll's Kun agrees, and it impacts their business significantly. But licensors can still make more money licensing to local TV distributors, and there's no way for digital to compete with that-- right now. On ANN they stream video from various sources, sometimes sub, sometimes dub...what's the language preference for people online vs what people buy on DVD? And is a dub simulcast possible-- and possibly profitable? Sevakis says that they cater to hardcore anime fans who actually care about the industry and who generally prefer subtitles. But the great debate rages on, he says. As for simuldubs, they're probably not viable yet but they will be. WHy no mention of Kurokami? Granted, I don't know if it's doing well, but it IS actually going. I wish a Bandai rep was here. Also worth noting: no FUNi rep. Unless that guy I didn't catch the name of is FUNimation. Obviously Naruto is a huge title, and it's up on quite a few sites. Do customers behave differently than the ones that buy the DVDs? Vona says it's early in the game to know, but there's a split down the middle and they're trying to provide what they can, but obviously it's cheaper and faster to do subs first; dubbed content takes months and is expensive, so probably no time soon for simuldubs. But they are trying a model with putting dubs up for a temporary period to see what the reaction is. Kun says that their fans skew to the more passionate side and definitely favor subs, and HE finally brings up Kurokami, and it turns out Hoinsky is the translator on that show. But yes, the economic hurdle is large but for big shows Kun thinks it will eventually be the case. QUESTION: Fansubs. Are these digidistros actually having an effect on piracy? Vona says it's hard to quantify with actual numbers, of course, but big subber Dattebayo "graciously" stepped out of doing the fansubs, which was nice. But people will seek out whatever is available, and the content is on so many mainstream providers (iTunes, Amazon, Xbox, PSN), so for VIZ it's more important to reach new fans, not the older fans. Kun notes that the number of illegal streams went down by 74% according to a study done by Justin Sevakis, coincidentally, but he thinks that while the alternatives are important, it's also important to educate the fans. Rob Lewis disagrees, says that fans don't care about doing the right thing, but that if they can expect to see the shows they're excited about legally for sure, they won't bother seeking the pirated stuff. QUESTION: Is merchandise something your companies are considering? Crunchyroll being digidistro, they definitely care about merchandising-- if they can see, as they're watching a show, that they can go and buy something, they can engage deeper into that brand very easily, and it's easier for merchants as well. It's a big focus for them now, making their site a platform for all of the merchants to dig into. Lewis says that traditionally the media is really a branding platform. Kun notes that there are a lot of channels you can get the content on, but the one that fans identify with more are the ones that become stronger for fans to work with. QUESTION: Speaking of advertising, what are the difficulties in selling adspace? Sevakis notes that the economy is a problem, Internet ad sales are down for the first time ever, and that's because everyone is suffering right now. With video advertising specifically, it was such a new technology and so untested and risky that it was hit harder than some areas, but it's slowly starting to prove its worth. For anime specifically, one way to monetize ads specifically is the bottom third of the screen ads-- people hate them, but it's one of the main ways to produce ads. But...for anime, that's where subtitles go. It's a huge problem. It's also an immature market, there are compatibility issues, and a lot of this will get sussed out over time. Lewis noticed that Hulu has inserted commercials rather than doing the bottom third, which people don't seem to mind. For original content there's placements in the shows, but we can't insert that into anime (insert pizza hut joke here). Kun says that instead of doing lower third they do upper third so as not to block subtitles. But the economy and educating advertisers are the two most important factors; anime is still not mainstream so advertisers don't really get it yet. Sevakis notes that the demographic is a 50/50 male female split, at the high school and college age, one of the biggest demographics advertisers want to hit, but advertisers have a LOT of trouble reaching them, because they don't watch the radio as much, they don't see ads on TV as much. Sevakis thinks that those eyeballs will be a hot commodity going forward. QUESTION: One area we haven't touched on: production, especially for simulcasting. What's it like? Lewis and Josh Allard say that it's not that different than the TV industry, but the market is still young and getting to that audience in an innovative and effective way has been a challenge. Hoinsky notes that every day he works on the translations for these simulcasts, and the big thing is deadlines. He wants to let us know how short the timeline is between the show getting produced and it airing in Japan, and sometimes it's only a day, hours has happened before. if you're LUCKY you can get a script ahead of time to get started, but it's very different from DVD projects where you have all the material out and you can work from beginning to end. But with a simulcast show, you'd like to think they get to know stuff far ahead of time, but it's not the case, so one translator who did Wolf's Rain DVDs, there's a character who you don't know is a woman until the end of the show, so he had to revise the script. You couldn't DO that for a simulcast, because the episodes would already be up and viewed. Crunchyroll deals with that in Tokyo mostly; they do most of their post-productionn stuff, and it's all about time delivery. Traditionally there have been cases where the animation studio literally finishes an hour before it airs on TV and they ship it via some guy on a bike to the TV station. As people prepare for that, they're trying to get the materials in advance (like a week) which is a good amount of time. They wouldn't be able to simulcast 18 titles a week from Japan without that. They have a panel tomorrow at 11am, and you can find out more about the titles then. Vona notes that getting everything QC'd for spelling and things is a lot of work and the turnaround time can be really aggressive even for catalog instead if simulcast. When you're working on DVDs first you've got a major starting point, but otherwise it's hard. Hoinsky adds that they got 65 episodes of Shugo Chara! to translate and get online in five weeks for the simulcast launch. It requires a lot of dedication and good infrastructure. Justin adds that Japan loves sending physical tapes by overnight Fedex, which gets really expensive, and there's no reason to do that with the Internet being so awesome. But they still love doing it, so it is an educational process. Like...I know you like handing it in in person, but FTP is cool too. Shawne Kleckner noted yesterday that you can replicate the effect of TV broadcast in Japan, but the content can't stay online indefinitely because it harms DVD sales. Can you live on digital distribution alone or do you need DVDs to survive? Kun starts noting that they only do digital distro, so it's here to stay, but he's biased. And yes, he thinks eventually it will completely replace DVDs. Why schlep to Blockbuster? Drive 30 minutes, rent it, drive it back the next day...or watch it on a computer immediately. No contest. The challenge is finding the new business model. Bandai Japan does a good job, they give Gundam the show away and they sell the models. That wouldn't work for everything, but digital will replace TV streaming, he says. For VIZ, they're trying to use online and streaming to further DVD sales, and there are a lot of types of fans-- those who are happy watching it online and those who prefer to collect physical copies, so that market will still be there for some time. We'll see where it goes. Justin says they've researched it and what's happened over the last few years, the demographic has shifted younger, and they're not as interested in collecting DVDs-- which is probably true even beyond anime fans. In '01 DVD was the hot thing, and we're only eight years later and the psychology is already shifting. It's not as important to own it physically anymore. As a seller, you're constantly competing against everything that came before. The first episode of Super Mario Bros. is as legitimate a possibility as the latest episode of Naruto. Lewis notes that there isn't just one option, either or, you can get a show on a major network and monetize, THEN you go to DVD and sell it at Walmart, and then it goes on iTunes, VOD, Vcast, etc. QUESTION: Digital Distribution-- security. What's being done, how secure is it? Poor FUNimation. I wonder if they were going to be at this panel originally? I have no idea. Kun starts by noting that every step at the process needs security and it takes a lot of planning and foresight. But Crunchyroll has launched 30 seasons of shows with no leaks, so if you understand the technology and develop a process, you can keep things safe. A lot of their process is proprietary so he can't talk about it publicly. Vona notes that it's a shame when any leak happens because so many people worked so hard to make things happen. It's a huge priority for VIZ and they take it really (really really) seriously, and Justin says everyone uses Adobe Flash except Netflix, so there's only so much control that's possible. But like everything else, someone will eventually find a way to hack just about everything. Just throw the kitchen sink-- every protection possible --until Adobe comes up with more to tack on. Kun says that people don't realize that any compromise affects the entire industry-- it's not just one company, every Japanese licensor freaks out and might stop all simulcasts when ANY one company has a problem. QUESTION: There's been a shift in music to non-DRM music. Will that happen with anime? Kun says that music is a different product than video; there's more reuse with music, so you pay more to download a full copy and not have DRM so you can add it to your portable players. But with video content, it's usually just a one-time use, and Flash is sort of a DRM in its own way, to protect the video. QUESTION: One common complaint iiiiis...hi-def! Video quality isn't great. Is that really the general feeling of the audience? Is HD that much more in demand-- and that much harder to do? There's a lot to consider, says Kun; for simulcasts, the content cannot leave the TV station, they have to broadcast it. So you have to work with TV stations to handle post-production encoding the video, but they don't do TV so they don't understand a lot of the encoding process. If it's in 1080p, it's a 30gb file, too big to transfer online. Encoded properly it becomes 1-2gb, which is more manageable. And then streaming the video, it would cost 3-4x more to broadcast that, which is why they offer hi-def only to paying customers. Lewis says that it helps determine what's a "high-quality" site, and if they can pick HD, they'll pick HD-- so it's on the networks to make that work. Sevakis says that as technology gets better we'll see more of that. Much of the video is higher than DVD quality, and you'll see better quality as the cost of bandwidth drops, and...how are we going to get HD streaming onto people's TV sets rather than computer screens? And that's all she wrote. 'Cause she had to go to FUNimation!
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Uuuuhhh… Ok. To make things quick and less retarding, I’ll sum up the review with only one word– then use it a hundred times or something. You may already have an idea. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. Uuuhh. [...]
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Good Evening All, Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control, my computer has not broken down, but the fan has been causing some extremely annoying whining which I cannot really ignore. Therefore until the weekend is over, I cannot access any of my software to make images, not be able to watch any anime basically cause this laptop doesn’t have all my files. After this, presentations and exams are taking up most of my time until Thursday. To make up for it, I shall do a few more manga reviews then normal. Look ...
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