1. No, seriously, WTF? Do you remember my whole Zac Efron is Kira thing? Well, every so often I still get a comment either of the original posts of this theory, generally from people who got linked to it much later and find it amusing. But lately the post has taken on a life of its own, with a group of people roleplaying various Death Note characters and Disney kid actors. It’s terrifying. You can read it here…if you dare.

2. You Will Be This Guy No Matter How You Try Not To Be. Over at Topless Robot, former animeOnline rock star Bryan Hartzheim doles out the ten most common gaijin types you’ll find in Japan. My personal favorite is “The Obnoxious Europeans Who Masquerade as Americans.” DAMN YOU, EUROPE!

3. The Mainstream Media’s 4chan Obsession Continues. I can only imagine that moot has been begging for interviews or something lately, but the New York Times now has a piece on 4chan. I can’t really go into the details because I seem to be having trouble getting through to the NY Times today, so here’s hoping you have better luck with it.

4. NatsuComi Cometh. Comic Market 74 (2008 Summer) is very nearly upon us, so ComiPress favors us with a history of Comiket.

The end! And now, I will do something terribly unusual: I will go sit outdoors and watch a bunch of sweaty guys hit balls with sticks and run around a vaguely diamond-shaped field, in an effort to celebrate my dad’s birthday. You kids have fun with the above while I cheer for the Giants.

I was just fooling around a bit more with the new Playstation Network VOD stuff and decided to buy myself an episode of AstroBoy.

I know a lot of people are unhappy with the price of Bounen no Xamdou– $2.99-$3.99 for a 24-hour rental that must take place within 2 weeks, for a single episode –but I wanted to make sure no one was writing off the PSN VOD entirely, or even just as a possibility for anime.

AstroBoy episodes appear to be download-to-own (or at least aren’t marked as rentals) and are $1.99 an episode. I don’t know if the DRM is the same, or even how to check that sort of thing (short, I suppose, of actually sitting here for an hour and trying to transfer it around to as many devices as I can), but I’d guess that it is. Still, a better price, no?

That said…I’ve expressed this in a couple of places but I wanted to share it here too. If you’re interested in Xamdou, I highly recommend going ahead and paying for the first episode, even if it’s more than you’d usually pay for that sort of rental. Why? Because it signals to Sony and BONES that we’re interested in it.

I just think that if they get moderate success with this system then I think we’re more likely to experiment with different pricing structures than if it fails outright. I can understand not wanting to pay prices akin to DVD costs for a mere rental for the entire series, but I think a show of support for this first episode would help express the idea that “you’re taking a step in the right direction, even if you haven’t hit exactly what we want yet.”

Just a thought.