I got a google alert for “otaku” that led me to this article at MediaPost about a couple of guys who are working to make mobile phones in the US more like the ones in Japan (i.e. awesome and useful). They specifically talk about the QR codes– you’ve probably seen them on websites; they look kinda like barcodes? Japanese phones can scan them to get you more information or content about the product/site/etc.

They say that they’re banking on “otaku,” as in obsessives, not as in anime and manga fans. They also say that “Hello Kitty became the original importation of Japanese pop culture,” which is an absolute lie; Speed Racer came to the US in 1967; Hello Kitty was created in ‘74. The fools!

Posted by gia in Misc • Comments (4)

First Virginia, then Tennessee, and now Massachusetts, there are Death Note lists everywhere, I guess. And the reactions are only getting worse.

In this case it was a boy (12 years old) and a girl (13), and they have actually been charged with “threatening to commit murder and disrupting school” by the cops.

And yet again, no one mentions the Death Note series. I guess that’s not entirely a bad thing, since it means the mainstream isn’t starting to associate manga with troubled kids and death threats or whatever.

Posted by gia in Manga, News, Western News • Comments (7)

Edit: Er, sorry for the HTML error there (stupid ’s and “s). Serves me right for not checking before I left.

According to WKRN Nashville, a couple of kids at Walter J. Baird Middle School put together a Death Note list featuring dates, times, and sometimes manners in which their classmates should die. Parents found out and got upset, including one anonymous parent in particular who suggests that this list could be a warning sign for those kids, like the ones that were spotted but generally ignored in the Columbine and Virginia Tech cases.

This is, for the record, separate from the Virginia high school that had a Death Note instance back in November. Like that kid, these new two in Nashville have been suspended, in this case pending a disciplinary hearing.

This article never actually mentions the Death Note manga or anime, although their use of the phrase “Death Note” in the headline suggests that they heard SOMEthing about it, since “death note” would be an odd way to phrase it in American English (you’d expect, y’know, “death list” or “blacklist.”)

Posted by gia in Anime, Gossip, Misc, News, Western News • Comments (5)

I got a google alert for this article from Media Life Magazine, which notes that Cartoon Network (and specifically Adult Swim) has made some serious gains in the 13-40 male demographic– in spite of, or perhaps in part because of, the WGA strike. The article denounces that idea, noting that it’s part of a trend for Adult Swim that began prior to and has been unaffected by the strike.

But on to the funny part:

The Adult Swim lineup consists of a rotating roster of animated shows, including former and current Fox hits “Futurama” and “Family Guy,” as well as network originals like “Robot Chicken,” “Metalocalypse” and “Shin Chan.”

…Okay, I get that Shin Chan hasn’t aired on any other stations in the U.S., but that doesn’t make it quite the same thing as a “network original” like Robot Chicken, which was created specifically for the network.

Silly mainstream media.

Posted by gia in Anime, News, Western News • Comments (1)

So I’m guessing you blog nerds have probably already heard about the GameSpot incident in which a a reviewer was fired, supposedly for giving a negative review to a sponsor’s game.

In response, Newsweek has a blog post about the relationship between game publishers and what they call the “enthusiast press,” which I’ve called the “Fanarazzi” here– the fans who blog on news and review titles within their favored niche. Like yours truly.

I have heard and experienced tales– and no, I won’t share specifics –of some sneaky attempts by manga and anime publishers in the U.S. attempting to create (or control) buzz about their products, and of course at aO we always had to be rather defensive about our relationship to FUNimation (who never, to my knowledge, really exerted any control over our editorial process). So the whole thing is really pretty interesting to me.

On top of that, ComiPress now reports that Kodansha, one of the biggest manga publishers in Japan, was caught with an employee passing himself off as a college marketing student doing research and trying to get visitor information and statistics from popular blogs. Tsk tsk, slap on the wrist, etc.

The Newsweek article is really interesting, I think– it draws a parallel of video game reporting to rock reporting, where you get to know your niche’s stars and you feel like one of the “cool” kids, so y ou’re more positive and upbeat in your reporting (like in the movie Almost Famous, extensively quoted in the article).

But on the other hand, fans who DON’T feel like they’re part of the “cool club” for whatever reason will absolutely devour a company that uses particularly deceptive tactics in their marketing. So companies run a rather stupid PR risk when they try it, I think.

Companies just aren’t quite sure how to deal with bloggers and the like– usually vocal tastemakers of their niche, a growing voice in news and marketing in general. But since we’re still in essence just fans, we’re completely unpredictable as a group, and there are too many of us to have an individual approach for each.

So, if anyone working in PR in manga or anime (or any industry with a heavy quotient of bloggers) is reading this, here’s my advice: be honest, and be respectful. Don’t suck up, don’t talk down, and don’t lie. That’s all, really. Individual bloggers may or may not like your decisions still, but at least we can respect you back.

(Note: Sorry this isn’t as well put together as I usually like; part of it is because I’m still at work and wrote this up in parts, and part of it is because this mac sucks and displays text boxes weirdly so it’s hard to spot and edit errors. Also, this keyboard sucks. Booo.)

Posted by gia in Gossip, JP News, Manga, News • Comments (5)

So I was reading through the November 12th issue of TIME, specifically their article on libertarian Republican nominee candidate Ron Paul and his growing popularity amongst nerds. I almost missed the reference, but then, there it was!

“He’s about something that American nerd culture can get on board with: really knowing one subject and going all out on it,” says Ben Darrington, a Ron Paul supporter at Yale. “For some people, it’s Star Wars. For some people, it’s Japanese cartoons. For Ron Paul, it’s free-market commodity money.”

Okay, it’s a pretty miniscule mention, but I can’t help but think: wow, we’re on the default list of obsessions now? I mean, c’mon, they could have picked model trains. Stamp collecting. Sports. But no, this Yale nerd picked anime. Huh.

Posted by gia in Misc • Comments (6)

Okay, I know I use those (X) + (Y) = Love headlines probably more often than I should, but really. This week Variety announced that they would be hosting a panel with TOKYOPOP on Saturday regarding film– no doubt thanks to T-pop’s Ikki Tousen project, as well as Takashi Murakami’s directorial debut –and now Variety has profiled TOKYOPOP CEO Stu Levy. Sounds to me like somebody made some friends!

Posted by gia in Gossip, News • Comments (1)

Yeah, they published my rant. *snicker*

So I talked a bit ago about a mediocre satire on anime that appeared in the Oregon Daily Emerald recently. I didn’t think much of it after that.

But today I got a google alert and learned that not one but TWO response articles have been posted on the site, both taking the original article at face value (did they even read it?). Unsurprisingly, neither is especially well-written, though given the writing skills of your average Internet user I guess I should be impressed that they got two comprehensible responses. Without further ado: “Columnist Uninformed about Anime” and “Claims about Anime Ridiculous.”

Now, you may have picked up on this– I am a total press whore. So naturally, I’ve written my own guest commentary about all the nonsense and submitted it. We’ll see if they actually publish it, but I figured I’d go ahead and reproduce it here, just for fun. So if you’re confused about what “satire” is, hit the jump. In retrospect, I just wish I’d thrown a “SERIOUS BUSINESS!” joke in there somewhere. Like the headline. Hmm… Continue Reading »

Posted by gia in Misc • Comments (2)

So, the Oregon Daily Emerald– that’s the campus paper of the University of Oregon, and no, I did not attend the UofO –has an editorial up about anime, titled “Japanese Anime Destroying American Society.” (Poor use of the journalistic dropping of ‘is,’ IMO.)

It’s a satire piece (either that or a very strange person wrote it), but the humor’s a bit weak. There are a couple of good lines, like “No matter who you are - whether you’re black, white, Asian, Latino, even Canadian - I don’t judge you by the color of your skin.” But few and far between.

Still, it’s kinda fun to see one’s hobby represented in the newspaper of one of the largest universities in one’s state.

Posted by gia in Anime, Misc, News • Comments (3)