Zac Efron is Kira.com.

Those of you with slow-updating DNS servers may not be able to get to it until tomorrow.

Yeah, I didn’t need to trick up that headline, it’s pretty funny in and of itself.

The above video features “I’ll Be Waiting,” the recent release off of Lenny Kravitz’ new album, which will now serve double duty as the theme song for L: Change the WorLd. (Don’t bother watching the video; it’s just shots of Kravitz…just listen.)

Yes, it’s already been released in the U.S. I was a little worried when I heard it because most of Kravitz’ music just doesn’t seem like something that would suit a movie about L– a little too much of a “cool”/badass feel. This song doesn’t have that problem. It’s a nice tune, pretty but not too pretty, so the mood of the song is okay…

But the lyrics are very, very, very romantic. It makes me suspicious that they’re going to hook L up with some kind of Mary Sue. Which is bad enough in and of itself, but when the actress who plays the heroine of the flick is only 13…oh, god, wait, is Misa going to be in this thing? If those bastards ruin my L by sticking him with that bimbo I’ll stab them in the face. (Or write them a very nasty letter, I guess.)

Okay, this isn’t newsy at alll, but I just wanted to say that in the last couple of weeks I seem to be getting an awful lot of comments on the old “Zac Efron is Kira” articles (here and here).

It’s all rather terrifying because some of them take the idea rather seriously, and others seem to actually think that by leaving a comment at my blog they can somehow get through to Zac Efron.

So I just thought I’d break the news that I am not Zac Efron, have no connection to Zac Efron, have never spoken to Zac Efron, and will not make any attempt to forward notes on to Zac Efron.

So, like, quit it already.

Current Mood:  Snuggly

I’m sure you’ve all figured out that I’m a complete anime nerd, but did you know that I am also a complete dork for the holiday season? It’s true. I like it when stores start playing holiday songs, even when it’s the week before Thanksgiving. I like giving people presents. I like getting them even better. And I love hot cocoa and cider and eggnog and all those other goodies. And I like decorating. Especially decorating a Christmas tree.

I told a friend I wasn’t going to do this, and then I did it and blogged about it. I worry that I take geekdom to new heights sometimes.

Channel News Asia reports that Odex is back in court with PacNet in Singapore today, trying to prove that although they are a sub-licensee, they have the right to take PacNet to court to try and force them to give up info on subscribers who downloaded anime.

But even if Odex loses the appeal, apparently Odex’s lawyer has announced that currently undisclosed Japanese companies have made an application to join the suit as complaining parties in the event that the courts maintain that Odex isn’t the right party to go after the downloaders.

No date has been set for the appeal’s ruling, and the names of the companies who have potentially signed on to the suit have not been revealed.

I was going to write an open letter to anime fans regarding fansubs one of these days, but now I think I can convey the same information by linking Justin Sevakis’ awesome open letter and quoting a line from this response editorial:

You, the [Japanese] studios, can get the scripts into the hands of an English translator long, long before the fansub groups have ever seen them…Remember that ultimately, all a fansubber can offer is subtitles. You can one-up them. Tie something to [a] membership.

Allow me to add to this one point:

Fansubbing and downloading fansubs (or even fan-uploaded raws!) ARE ILLEGAL.

I’m not going talk about the ethics of them, and I definitely think that the anime industry needs to wake up and take positive action towards meeting the demand that fansubs meet rather than negative action towards closing down fansubbers, which is a waste of time.

But that doesn’t make fansubs legal. They are a violation of international copyright law. Stop making shit up to say that it isn’t.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I think Death Note is a bit overrated– all except the art, by Hikaru no Go artist Takeshi Obata. Obata is now also doing a manga based on the video game Blue Dragon, but now he has a new project: Hello Baby, with Masanori Morita as the writer. Morita is best known for the unlicensed 42-volume manga Rokudenashi Blues, which he did both writing and art for.

The new project will be serialized in Jump Square, the new anthology that’s replacing Monthly Shounen Jump. I don’t know anything about the plot yet, and I also don’t care, because Obata’s art is that awesome.

So I’ve seen all the recent postings about the popular shoujo manga Vampire Knight getting an anime, and I kept thinking: “jeez, wasn’t that announced months ago?”

So finally I went through my aO archives (yes, I have every article I ever wrote for aO) and found…nope! I wonder if I got it mixed up with Rosario to Vampire? Except that I read Vampire Knight and the two series are really very different, so I can’t see how I’d get ‘em mixed up. Maybe it’s one of those things where there had been rumors for ages? Hmm…

Well, anyway. Hey look, Vampire Knight is getting an anime! And stuff.

Active Anime somehow scored an interview with GDH International president Arthur Smith about “the current state of the industry.” (GDH, by the way, is Gonzo Digimation Holdings, the company that was formed when Gonzo merged with Digimation in ‘99.)

In the interview, Smith– who has been in the industry since ‘00 –says that “Internet piracy is the single biggest global threat to the anime industry.” He goes on to offer that “we understand that fans are really keen to see our shows as soon as possible (and that is really appreciated!!) but illegal file sharing and postings on streaming sites like YouTube are destroying our industry.”

In fact, he makes the situation in Japan seem pretty desperate: “the whole industry in Japan is beginning to realise that we can’t stand by…otherwise the entire industry will disappear….that’s how bad things are!!”

Eep.

You know, I kinda figured that the west would like maid cafes, but “Jenny” at BlogTO reports that the iMaid Cafe in Toronto, the first Japanese-style maid cafe (or maid cafe at all, I think) has now closed after only a year in business. And I didn’t even manage to get there…