Bethel Park Anime #26--1/2 Report 2008

Hard to believe just two short hours ago, Tekko 1/2 came to a close. For those of you who weren't (or were) there, he's my half-con report.

I didn't get there until almost 2, thanks to SATs, the need to find my costume, and my hilarious lack of ability to get around town. I tried to get from McKees Rocks back to MY OWN HOUSE and wound up in Kennedy. Where I then tried to get to Crafton, which I achieved, but wound up going to the West End Circle instead of 79 South. (which was what I wanted to do in the first place, from McKees Rocks, but I thought the circle was closed for construction)

Anyway, after a frightening experience in the circle which I never hope to repeat, I made it to the hotel, armed with duel disk and mullet wig. Yes, it is a wig. That is not my real hair. I was Jounouchi, not Joe Dirt, and not any other Yugioh character. (Jack Atlas? Duke? Bakura?) I would like to thank all the people who remembered me from previous cons. The one and only Tekko-Jou. I was genuinely surprised at the number of people who commented on the duel disk. It looks alright, I guess, but next to a real one it looks like a cheap piece of junk. People seem to like homemade things, though, so it was actually popular. Let's hope they like my attempt to make armor as much as the duel disk...

I met up with my friends, and scoped out the two-table dealers room. For 1/2, it was actually raelly nice to have some dealers. I picked up a Sailor Moon action figure for a friend, and my friends got some OLD-school manga. Not even book manga. Comic book manga! I didn't even know they made that. ^_^;;

We ran around looking at the various things to do. I talked a bit with some folks from last con (Kitty!L/Orihime, Aang/Cosmo, Sokka/Wanda) and then went to the game room. There wasn't any line on DDR, so I made a fool of myself on that for a bit. Then we went back to main events, where Uncle Yo was set to begin at 3:15. While waiting, I watched an impromptu anime charades going on in the corner. Basically it was "say a line, everyone guess the character". I felt the need to shout "WHO'S SO SMALL YOU WANT TO CRUSH LIKE AN ANT?" which was well-received. Then I immediately left the charades circle for the comedian.
Uncle Yo was hilarious. Five words to summarize ANY Miyazaki movie: A young girl eventually flies. AND IT'S TRUE! XD
I don't remember half the stuff he talked about now--Naruto ninjas not being secretive, hobo anime, The Dark Knight by Dr. Seuss, Light kill Near by addicting him to MMOs, WOWOW, shonen vs. shojo, and animaniacs Naruto names, to name a few. He's on youtube, he's on uncleyo.com, and he'll be at Tekko 7! Check him out!

After Uncle Yo, Con President Jim Gogol announced the currently confirmed guests: Greg Ayres, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Stephanie Sheh, and the legendary Johnny Yong Bosch! Sadly, Carrie Savage can't make it this year. She will be missed. I am VERY excited for Colleen, Stephanie, and Johnny. (Greg, too, of course, but I've never met the other three) Colleen is Riza Hawkeye and a director for FMA. Stephanie is Eureka, and Johnny is Renton!!! (Along with billions of other things) Eureka and Renton! Dude! The only thing better than that would be Vic Mignogna and Caitlin Glass for Ed and Winry. (or dare I say Wayne and Megan? But that dub is awful... HOLY SNAP, Megan is Rangiku?! I need to get a copy of Bleach! And find the Tekko guest wish list.)

Then more hanging out with friends, and meeting some new people. A fellow dressed as Near whose name I unfortunately forget approached me and we had a very interesting conversation about 5Ds, amoung other things. Then I went off to get Carrie's autograph with a friend, Yachiru, from anime club. She signed a mini-poster for Shuffle, and took a picture with me!

Back to my friends, and then to my car to retrieve my deck and Yugi-hair, since one of my friends agreed to wear it. I unfortunately did not witness this, but they went on a quest to find an ATM with Cosmo and Wanda, and she wore it outside the hotel. I wouldn't wear that thing outside the hotel. Heck, I didn't wear it at all. Kudos to you, my friend, for wearing the hair. (though perhaps it's less embarrassing when you're not a hopelessly obsessed fan of the series)

Come 6, I went to the RPG/CCG Room and played a match against... Ryan, I think, who was cosplayed as Sasori. With an interesting E-Hero/Synchro combo, he took the match 2-1. I had a couple of nice combos, but for the most part, my Amazonesses need work. It doesn't do much good to have a bunch of cards of the same type if there's no support. But it was immensely fun, and I got to overhear DnD discussions, in which Sid (aka Masquerade MC!) was participating. Uncle Yo also stopped in for a bit, but left before I could fangirl.

We finished the match after 7 (long match!) and I left to find my friends again. We talked a bit, and peaked in on the dance. Unfortunately, I'm neither a dancer nor raver, unless I'm heavly caffinated, and in the presence of a large group of people I know who are also making fools of them--I mean... 'dancing'. Yeah. "Dancing". Anyway, I usually don't do that, and the beginning of it was kind of lame, so we skipped that and headed to the video room, where we caught the end of episode 2 of Fate/Stay Night. It was cool-looking, though I've seen the "killed my mysterious magic bad guy and brought back to life" thing more than enough times before.

That ended quickly, though, since we got in late, so my friends decided to spend the last of their time in the game room. Rockband was COMPLETELY empty, so the three of us, along with a very kind... staffer? He wasn't wearing a green shirt, so I'm not sure. Anyway, a nice guy showed us how to play. (None of us had ever played Rockband, only Guitar Hero) It was fun, though I found that I epically fail at drumming on medium, and even more epically fail at singing anything I've never heard before. Despite what my mother and choir director think, I can't site-read. |D But it was still fun.

I walked my friends to their ride (because their stuff was chilling in my car and I had to get it out for them) and went back up to get in a quick game of SSBM with, amoung others, Uncle Yo! He was very cool, and I hope he MCs the masquerade when he comes for Tekko 7.

Then the game room closed, and I headed back to the dealer's room to pick up a Sailor Moon action figure which apparently are very rare, and therefore will make a wonderful gift for my Sailor Moon friend. Everything else was closed at this point, so I decided to watch the "rave", being a loser and wanting to stay until the very end. Which I did. And then I left, wearing my costume all the way home.

So that was Tekko 1/2 2008. Make sure you all register for Tekko 7, because it's going to be AWESOME! I was personally at the DLLCC last week, and it's perfect for this. HUGE hallways, big random open spaces for picture-taking, stopping to chat, resting, line-waiting, etc, balconies for hanging and pics, giant exhibit hall, and very nicely equipped panel rooms. Getting there was a breeze from the north--I just got off the Ft. Duquesne bridge, took the Convention Center exit, and I was there. Plenty of parking, and a good part of town. If anyone has any complaints about the DLLCC, state them, and I will tell you all the wonderful things about it. The ONLY thing is the price, which is, I think, $5 more. And that's hardly anything, compared to how awesome this place is.

I am so excited for Tekko now. If it weren't for the massive amounts of homework and college applying I have to do, I'd work on my costume non-stop. A few of the staff people I talked to yesterday said there was a lot of programming to fill, so I'm going to sign up for as many panels as I can. I have three planned so far: the 4kids dub/original one, another "everything you want to know about YGO", and a Miyazaki one. With all the stuff, you'll hopefully see me. See you at Tekko!

Bethel Park Anime #25--More Tekko 1/2!!

Tekko 1/2 now has a website!
On this beautiful page, you will discover that Tekko 1/2 also for the first time EVER has guests!! Carrie Savage, who is a great voice actor and a wonderful human being, is going to be attending! (Ms. Savage, I will never forget that you encouraged me in my career choice at autograph signings last Tekko. And I'm very sorry I wasn't able to purchase anything at auction. You were a wonderful auctioneer.) Her bio can be found on the aforementioned website.
Also, they've managed to score a cool-sounding stand-up comedian who specializes in geek stuff, and a CMU band. Of course, there will be a video game room, and a costume contest. As I said before, I'll be cosplaying Jounouchi (season 4, Doom, version) as always. Gotta get some use out of that silly foam duel disk I made, right?
A single panel room will be there, and the schedule is now up.


So, see you from 11:00AM-9:00PM on October 4th at the Best Western in Greentree! Detailed directions to the Western can be found on my previous entry about Tekko 1/2.

Don't forget to look for updates on the Tekkoshocon home page.

Bethel Park Anime #24--CLAMP

Since I've been reviewing a good amount of CLAMP works (and also plan to put up a Tsubasa review) I thought this would be a good time to do an article about them.

CLAMP began as a doujinshi circle. "Doujinshi" in America is mostly thought to mean a comic form of a fanfiction, but many doujinshi are original works. Courtesy of wikipedia:

The term dōjinshi is derived from dōjin (同人, dōjin^? dōjin, literally "same person", used to refer to a person or persons with whom one shares a common goal or interest) and shi (誌, shi^? , a contraction of zasshi, meaning "magazine")

Unfortunately, many doujinshi can be found at 18+ tables at conventions. I currently own one doujinshi, which I'm very happy to say is entirely explicit content-free (except that Mai pretty much always dresses questionably, but that's another story). Anyway, CLAMP started as a doujinshi circle. Whether they were original or basing their comics on other series, I cannot say.

There were originally 12 circle members, which was then cut to 7, and finally the 4 that currently make up the group: Ageha Ohkawa, Mokona, Tsubaki Nekoi and Satsuki Igarashi.

CLAMP generally errs on the side of shojo over shonen, though they're not quite as blatantly aimed at girls as, say, Yuu Watase. They have a very devoted fanbase, who take being a "CLAMP fan" very seriously. I have a friend that deems I am not worthy yet because I have not read enough titles. (Tsubasa, xxxHolic, Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits, Clover, Magic Knight Rayearth, X, Wish, and Legal Drug are apparently not enough.) It also might be because I tend to point out all their flaws. For example, artwork. CLAMP can draw gorgeously, but they still haven't mastered the art of drawing CLEARLY. Now, it may just be me being exceptionally picky about that. I'm not a FLCL fan. When I look at a panel, I want to know what's happening NOW. I don't want to have to study it and make out which line is the person fighting, and which lines are just effects or to make it look pretty. I'm of the opinion that things should be very easy to read.
Here's an example from a volume of Tsubasa I was reading recently. (SPOILERS!)

http://www.onemanga.com/Tsubasa_Reservoir_Chronicles/122/12/
http://www.onemanga.com/Tsubasa_Reservoir_Chronicles/123/10/

...maybe not the best example of unclear, but hopefully you get the general idea.

The other telling trait of CLAMP's work is their extreme plot twists. That also means that I can't give an examples without spoiling anything. Not only do they have shocking, confusing, and sometimes illogical endings and reversals, they save revealing things until the absolute last minute. Vague hints are given, but nothing telling enough to remotely guess what's really going on. This can be very frustrating to readers who like to have more than pretty artwork and a vague sense of the story line to get them through a series. Tsubasa, for example, spent 17 volumes trying to retrieve Sakura's feathers. Now... things have changed drastically, to say the least. They're still going for feathers, but not with the same cast of characters.

Tsubasa is unique enough that I'm going to take a moment to talk about it. The exact title is Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, the reservoir only being revealed (maybe?) in volume 17, and the opening sequence of the manga yet to be revealed at all. (with the new plot twists, more questions and no answers are added to that scene) Anyway, Tsubasa is a series aimed at those aforementioned devoted CLAMP fans. I do not know of any other series that have done this. In Tsubasa, CLAMP takes characters from other series of theirs, and puts them into different universes. It's not crossover with their other series, it's AU with other series characters. The main two protagonists are the well-known Sakura and Syaoran from Cardcaptor Sakura. Sakura's brother and Yukito also exist in their universe of "Clow". Sakura is the princess of a desert kingdom, and Syaoran in an archaeologist. They secretly love each other, and neither has confessed. Then a freak accident puts Sakura into a comatose state, "scattering her memories", and the high priest Yukito sends Syaoran to another world to collect them. Sounds like something out of a bad fanfic, right? Oh, wait... former doujinshi circle...
They are joined by original characters Kurogane and Fai, and old fan-favorite Mokona from Magic Knight Rayearth. If all that weren't enough, Tsubasa also crosses over with xxxHolic (pronounced "Holic", the Xs being a blank space like ___holic or [insert something you can be obsessed with] holic)

CLAMP is a well-loved, quirky group of artists, with a knack for torturing and pleasing fans at the same time. (Legal Drug, anyone?) Their works are celebrated, mocked, read casually, read devotedly, and known by many, many people. Who watched "Cardcaptors"? *raises hand* Any otaku worth their salt knows of CLAMP, and has generally read/watched SOMETHING by them. Cardcaptors/Cardcaptor Sakura is the most well-known, Chobits is the "best", and Tsubasa is the new hit. (FUNimation has a nice dub of Tsubasa out right now, and I would recommend it, along with the manga.) While certainly more shojo-y, CLAMP has something to offer to male and female fans alike. Go check them out!

Unfinished/current works

Name	Volumes Released	Current Status
Clover	4	Ran in the now cancelled Amie magazine.
Kobato (こばと。, Kobato ?)	3	Ran in Monthly Sunday Gene-X for seven chapters. Returned to publication in the November 2006 edition of Newtype magazine.
Legend of Chun Hyang (新・春香伝, Shin Shunkaden?)	1	The project was dropped after only a few chapters, though a recent interview has stated that Clamp would like to finish the work in the future.
Legal Drug (合法 ドラッグ, Gohō Drug?)	3	Not running in any magazine. According to Clamp, it will resume production soon.
Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle (ツバサ−RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE−, Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle ?)	24	Running since 2003 in Weekly Shōnen Magazine.
X/1999 (Ｘ, Ekkusu?)	18	Not running in any magazine since March 2003. Some social problems in Japan prevent Kadokawa from releasing further chapters. New chapters have surfaced on online manga sites.
xxxHolic (×××ホリック, Horikku?)	13	Running weekly since 2003 in Young Magazine.

Completed Works

Name	Publisher and Series	Volumes Released
Angelic Layer (エンジェリック レイヤー, Enjerikku Reiyā?)	Kadokawa Shoten Kadokawa Comics Series	5
Cardcaptor Sakura (カードキャプター さくら, Kādokyaputā Sakura?)	Kodansha KC Deluxe	12
Chobits (ちょびっツ, Chobittsu?)	Kodansha Young Magazine KC Deluxe	8
Clamp no Kiseki (CLAMPノキセキ, Clamp no Kiseki?)	Kodansha	12
Clamp School Detectives (CLAMP学園探偵団, Clamp Gakuen Tanteidan?)	Kadokawa Shoten Asuka Comics DX	3
Duklyon: Clamp School Defenders (学園特警デュカリオン, Gakuen Tokkei Dyukarion?)	Kadokawa Shoten Newtype 100% Comics	2
Magic Knight Rayearth (魔法騎士レイアース, Majikku Naito (Mahō Kishi) Reiāsu?)	Kodansha KC Deluxe	6
20 Mensō ni Onegai!!/20 Masks, Please!! (20面相におねがい!!, 20 Mensō ni Onegai!!?)	Kadokawa Shoten Newtype 100% Comics / Kadokawa Comics Series	2
Miyuki-chan in Wonderland (不思議の国の美幸ちゃん, Fushigi no Kuni no Miyuki-chan?)	Kadokawa Shoten Newtype 100% Comics Extra / Kadokawa Comics Series	1
The One I Love (わたしのすきなひと, Watashi no Suki na Hito?)	Kadokawa Shoten Young Rose Comics DX	1
RG Veda (聖伝, Sei-den?)	Shinshokan Wings Comics	10
Shirahime-Syo: Snow Goddess Tales (白姫抄, Shirahime-Shō?)	Kadokawa Shoten Asuka Comics DX	1
Suki Dakara Suki (I like, therefore I like) (「すき。だからすき」, "Suki; Dakara Suki"?)	Kadokawa Shoten Asuka Comics	3
Tokyo Babylon (東京BABYLON, Tōkyō BABYLON?)	Shinshokan Wings Comics / Wings Library	7
Wish	Kadokawa Shoten Asuka Comics DX	4

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clamp_(manga_artists)#Unfinished.2Fcurrent_works
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clamp_(manga_artists)#Completed_Works)

Reviews #4--Chobits

Warning: The following review is about a title rated 16+.

Chobits by CLAMP.

In keeping with the CLAMP theme, I'll be looking at one of their more well-known titles, Chobits. Our main character, Hideki, is a rural guy from Hokkaido who moves to Tokyo for cram school since he didn't get into college. He lives in a futuristic world where computers are shaped like people and called "persocoms". Hideki, barely having enough money for an apartment, has no hopes of getting one of these fabulous computers. Then he finds a very cute female one in the trash, takes it home, and just like that, he's got a persocom named Chi. Chi isn't a normal perscom, though. She has no operating system, no serial number, and no manufacturer. She's also super-powerful, but can't say anything but "chi". It's up to Hideki to teach her.

CLAMP's famous title for the most part lives up to its fame. Only 8 volumes long, it's short, but that's a nice change for CLAMP. It says everything it wants to, and nothing more is really necessary. It's one of CLAMP's best paced works--hinting at the ending before we actually get there, who'd have thunk it? It's still CLAMP, though, so it still holds out as much as it can until the end. It's quite obviously trying to make a statement about love, and I would assume such issues as same-sex marriage/couples. It just swaps gender for persocoms. (we've seen that CLAMP is not averse to shonen-ai with Cardcaptor Sakura) I do like the ending. I'm even okay with the various things that get it that 16+ rating--mostly Hideki's girly magazines, a couple of odd situations Chi gets herself into, and the whole ending. It all helped develop the plot and wasn't just pointless fanservice (though there was a bit of that with Minoru's persocoms) Overall, I really like this title, and would recommend it to any otaku mature enough to not giggle every time Hideki says "porn". ::rolls eyes::
Rating: A-
Good story, well-paced, good artwork
Occasionally unclear artwork (this IS Clamp) and fanservice

Reviews #3--Magic Knight Rayearth

Magic Knight Rayearth by CLAMP.







Oh, ha, the Mashin are the same as the guys' kudans in Tsubasa.

I'm now halfway through volume 3, and I have to say this is not one of my favorite CLAMP titles. I really don't like early CLAMP artwork in general because it's too confusing. Some of it is gorgeous to look at, but I have no idea what's going on. Overall, it's not that bad, but I'm an impatient manga reader--I want to be able to tell what's going on as soon as I look at the panel. No FLCL for me.
Besides the occasionally cluttered artwork, the story leaves something to be desired. Three girls are transported from Tokyo to another world, and discover they are the destined saviors of said world. All right. That has potential. But three girls constantly reaffirming that they have strong hearts and their new, amazingly strong friendship will overcome all odds--that gets tiring. That's coming from a girl who watched the entire Yugioh series--dubbed. That guy, I'm going to call him Fiyero because I don't remember his name, he was interesting. He added a bit of contrast to the high-school-girls-saving-the-world-with-super-special-awesome-friendship-powers. Not much contrast, since every high-school-girls-saving-the-world series has at least one of those guys (Tuxedo Mask; Aoyama, Ryou, and Keiichiro) but it's something.
Volume 1 was the girls landing in Cephiro and being trained by Clef. Volume 2 was mostly the quest to get that stuff to make them better warriors. Volume 3 so far has been reawakening the Mashin.
It seems straightforward so far. But, judging by CLAMP's reputation of not explaining things, and the summary I just read on wikipedia, it's not ending how you'd think. Maybe a little, since I've been suspecting something between Zagato and Emurade, but mostly not.

It's interesting, the designs are wonderful to look at, if a bit confusing, and the characters are developed. Whether or not you actually like those characters... (oh, please, bring back Fiyero! I can't stand Hikaru or Fuu preaching about friendship any more. Umi is slightly less annoying, but still...)
So far, a C. We'll see if the ending can bring that up.

EDIT: Well, I've finished volume 3 now, and I'd have to say at least a C+ or a B-. I really liked the ending, (and there was something about the second-to-last panel that really stuck with me) and I hope that the second half of the series is as good. I also hope that they'll tell us what's going on BEFORE the last 20 pages.

Bethel Park Anime #23--Tekko 1/2 2008

Tekko 1/2 has been officially announced!

From the tekkoshocon home page:

You asked for it you got it..

Tekko 1/2 returns, bigger and better than before!


October 4 2008 10:00AM - 10PM!!!

Best Western Parkway Center Inn
875 Greentree Road,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15220

This year promises to be bigger than ever.

Admission is $10 at the door.
If you pre-register for Tekkoshocon VII at 1/2 you get $5 off of your pre-registration!

Check back for more information as we ready Tekko 1/2's new web site

Here's the Best Western website, and the google map page. I'll be there after I get done with my SATs.

See you at the Western!

Bethel Park Anime #22--New Fullmetal Series

I would not have believed it if there hadn't be the alleged "leak" from Bones a few months ago. Wednesday, Anime News Network confirmed that there is going to be a second Fullmetal Alchemist series. I repeat, Fullmetal Alchemist 2!! According to the article, the series was announced on the just-released volume 20 of the FMA manga.

The most common rumor is that it will be something like Hellsing Ultimate. Hellsing had a short anime series, but the manga is still going. It was so popular that they made a second series, Hellsing Ultimate, which followed the manga very, very closely, and is still ongoing. They don't air it on TV, they just animate a block of it whenever they feel like it. Most Fullmetal fans are hoping the new series to pick up at about volume 7 of the manga and on, (about up to episode 26 or so, minus Wrath and Sloth, plus the stuff with Greed) where the anime got really different from the manga.

Volume 17 of the manga is set to be released in America in Ocotober.

Bethel Park Anime #21--Anime News Network

Hello to all my devoted readers! ...or my occasional viewers. Either way, you're great for taking time to look here. Leave a comment if you're reading this!

Sorry it's been so long since the last update. I went to Australia and had my wisdom teeth out, among other things. Which is why I also want to apologize for the topic of this article. It's kind of a cop-out on my part, since I don't feel like researching American "anime" and/or ComicCon, the other two topics I was working on. Instead, you get info about a place to distract yourself with until I post again.

Anime News Network is basically THE place for anime news in the English speaking world. ANN has very frequent, regular updates, and is conveniently RSS feed-able. They have columns, reviews, editorials, con reports, and more. Here are some of the more popular columns.

Hey Answerman

by Zac Bertschy
You got questions? He's got answers!

Shelf Life

by Bamboo Dong
Shelf Life takes a look at each week's releases and sorts them into shelf worthy, rental worthy, and perishable.

RIGHT TURN ONLY!!

by Carlo Santos
A look at recent and upcoming manga releases.

The Click

by Brian Hanson
Your weekly TV guide

Buried Treasure

by Justin Sevakis
Justin talks about old, rare anime.

The X Button

by Todd Ciolek
Todd looks at the world of Japanese and anime related video-games.

Spend a few days looking through ANN, and suddenly you'll find yourself a much more knowledgeable otaku.

That's all for now. More posts in the works, hopefully to be posted shortly. I recently had a very strong urge to finish all the AMVs I was working on, which resulted in two new videos, both of which can be found on the right-hand side of this webpage, under the heading "my videos".

Bethel Park Anime #20--Conventions

So, we know all about what happens at conventions thanks to Tekko 5 and Tekko 6, but Tekkoshocon isn't the only convention out there. Say you're on vacation this summer, and you're bored out of your mind. Your folks want to go to the beach, or look at some boring landscape or other tourist-y thing. And you're thinking, "boy, I wish there was some kind of anime thing around here".

Well, your wish may come true. I have here, thanks to wikipedia, a wonderful list of anime conventions all around the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anime_conventions

Of these, Anime Expo is by far the largest American anime convention, with more than 40,000 attendees last year! This year's current AX is being held at this very moment in Los Angeles, California! AX takes place on the July 4th weekend, and runs 4 days.

It's a fairly self-explanatory entry this week, so I'll leave it at that. Have a good holiday weekend everyone!

Reviews #2--Dramacon

Dramacon by Svetlana Chmakova.










A three-shot about a fictional North American anime convention. Chriss is a writer attending her first (and later second and third) convention, Yattacon. Tales of artist alley tables, hotel rooms, cute older boys, and crazy glomping cosplayers accurately portray the experience of a convention.

Volume 1
The three-shot begins. Chriss is being dragged to her first anime convention by her boyfriend who also happens to be her artist. Together, they write a comic that they're trying to sell in artist's alley. Derek, the boyfriend, is a complete jerk. He flirts with some girls and Chriss runs off crying to some random cute college guy that she happens to see. Shojo, anyone? Well, cute college guy tells her that boyfriend shouldn't be making her feel bad. But Chriss goes back to the jerk anyways. It's all quite frustrating, especially since all I care about is the convention. By this point it's quite obvious to me that the point of this manga is to get away from jerk boyfriend (I don't even care about his name anymore) and get to Matt, aka cute college guy. Through a series of extremely stupid actions on the boyfriend's part, Matt nearly beats him up, and Chriss winds up staying with Matt (and his friends and sister, and thankfully Matt takes the floor so I don't have to put up with any more fooling around in this volume)
Eh... it certainly wasn't my favorite. Matt's my favorite character for this volume, with Chriss a not-so-close 4th or 5th. Matt's sister, and probably the other girl at their table would beat her for likability.

Volume 2
Chriss is back for a second year of Yattacon, this time with a new artist. Matt is also back, with a new girlfriend. Chriss in understandably upset by this, but I still don't care that much. Beth, the artist, definitely was my favorite character. Also, we get to see a little more of Lida, the artist that everyone adores. (except for some obnoxious kid who I did not appreciate--why on earth would a kid wearing an alternate reality yuugiou shirt be so picky about manga? It's not like anyone who's a fan of something dubbed by 4kids is going to know much about anime) Masquerade is still not shown, but we get to see a little of the dance. So far, all of the details coincide with my con expereince. (except of course for the jerk boyfriend and the random college guy) Yes, it is PACKED in the dance/rave, and yes, people glowstick. (and wear ridiculous outfits!)

Volume 3
The end of the trilogy. Chriss and Beth stay friends with Raj and the cat girls, and they all stay together this year. More drama with Matt and Chriss, only now there's nothing holding them back except their own--mostly Chriss's--stupidity. Beth and Raj become the cat girl's OTP, and we meet Beth's family. Her mom is even crazier than they made her out to be, but her aunt and cousins are cool. (quoth her aunt's son "I want to be a ninja when I grow up!")
By this point, I'm really sick of Matt and Chriss because a) they start making out all over the room with absolutely no control over themselves (quote Chriss "we were soooo far gone") Sorry if I don't find that romantic. Then, Matt's a sardonic, sarcastic, funny-in-a-mean way kind of guy. We've known that since the beginning. So why does Chriss NOW have such a problem with it? Then, I totally agreed with Matt when he clawed the wall and demanded that she stop playing games. What's her problem? She was the one drooling over him the last two volumes--suddenly she gets mad at him when he says they're going out? Didn't like it one bit.
Beth and Raj on the other hand, were very cute. Beth just totally kicks Chriss's butt in every way a character can.

Overall, I'd recommend it just for the accurate portrayal of conventions and the cute and/or funny bits. The artwork was good and clear, especially backgrounds, which is always nice in a shojo. I'd give it a solid C. I've read better, and I've read worse. More better than worse.

BPA Reviews #1--My Favorites

I was going to switch my blog topics over to just reviews of anime/manga, but I keep thinking of other general topics that I want to address, so behold a new category of blogs: BPA (Bethel Park Anime) Reviews!

I realize that I never have really talked about my personal favorite animes, so in this first post, I'll list some of my favs, how I got into them, and what I like about them. Since I like them, that means I assume that other people should like them, and so I recommend these titles to anyone who reads this post.

Fullmetal Alchemist--I read the first two volumes of manga in November or December 2005, and I was hooked. I quickly read the next two volumes, and started getting the anime from the library. Almost any anime fan, and a good number of non-anime fans who have just seen it will tell you that FMA is one of the best animes in existence. Dubbed by FUNimation, it has one of the best dub voice casts that I've ever heard, which many fans claim is better even than the original Japanese. Vic Mignogna, Aaron Dismuke, Caitlin Glass, Travis Willingham, Scott McNeil, and many others star in this amazing show. (the first three of which I actually MET) Two of my favorite anime pairings are in this show, Ed/Winry and Roy/Riza.


Chrono Crusade - This is one of those titles I picked up off the library shelf just because it was anime, and I'd never seen it before. It was one of those rare cases where I wound up loving it to death. Due to the lack of library DVDs, I was forced to watch it online, but I own all the manga, so I don't feel so guilty about it. ^_^;; It's also a drastic misrepresentation of whatever church it's supposed to represent (they're dressed as nuns, but supposedly they're actually Protestant in the Japanese? I have no idea, but it's awesome, so I don't care) Chrono/Rosette is my favorite pairing from that one, but Satella is my favorite character. Read the manga if you don't like how things end with her in the anime.


Monster - This is yet another manga series I just picked up off the shelf because I was bored. It is, quite possibly, the best manga series I have ever read. No favorite pairings in this one, which ought to tell you how awesome it is, because almost all my favs have a pairing that I like. Definitely a series aimed at adults, and violent on top of that, so it's older teen rating is deserved. But if you're over 16, one of the best series I have ever, or will ever read. And not in a "ooh, it's so cute/it's a childhood favorite/it's a popular title". It's just GOOD.


D.Gray-Man - I don't quite remember why I started reading this. It was either another random shelf pick or a friend recommended it. I'm actually starting to lose interest in this one for some reason. For some reason, I really don't like Lavi as a character. Which is extremely odd, because I usually LOVE his type! (I went to Tekko as Jounouchi!) There's just something... I dunno, I don't like. Kanda also bugs me, but I always hate his type, so that's to be expected. Allen was the character that drew me to it, and Lenalee kept me reading. (which is maybe why I don't like Lavi--he's so obviously attracted to Lenalee, and I'm an Allen/Lenalee shipper) Anyway, Allen and Lenalee is my fav pairing from this one.


Cowboy Bebop - This one's a classic. It came up on tv.com in the "you might like this..." place when I was fav'ing FMA or something like that, and all the reviews RAVED, so I ordered the first DVD from the library. Didn't like it. Ordered the second DVD. Liked it much, much more. That summer, I wound up watching the entire series, and now I loved it. It's classic. I'm a big fan of Spike/Faye, but Bebop isn't the kind of thing where I'd want to mess with canon, so I don't pursue it too much. Dumb stuff like YGO, Bleach, Naruto, I'll make up whatever pairing I darned well feel like, but Bebop, FMA, Haruhi... I don't mess with stuff like that.


Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - A friend of mine showed me the Hare Hare Yuaki, and when I found out what it was from, I realized I'd heard of it, and had nothing better to do. I watched it in about a week. While I was supposed to be writing a paper. That's how good it was. Short, but good. As for pairings, I'm still deciding. Nagato, IMO, is AWESOME, but I can't really picture Kyon with her. Haruhi, is... well, Haruhi, but I most certainly CAN and enjoy picturing Kyon with her. Haruhi is practically canon, so I guess she wins. As I said in my other blog, do not watch these in chronological order! At the very least, do not watch episode 14 last!! It ruins the entire series if you do it that way. I LOVE the dub and all the special features, but I despise that they don't have a "Kyon order" release. Some people think the out-of-chronological order episodes is just a sales gimmick, but that's only because the episodes are number chronologically. If the show was presented non-linear but with chronological episode numbers, you'd have the same experience and no one would complain. I prefer the non-linear order because the pacing is better.


Hellsing - We watched this one time at anime. I spent about 3 episodes thinking Integra was a man, and the only thing I really liked was the violence. Now I've read all the manga, and I love it! Classic series, and a very nice NON-SHOJO take on vampires. (Kaname, meet Alucard. Alucard, meet the vampire that you're about to turn into a corpse) The anime is different from the manga, but Hellsing Ultimate (volume 1 cover featured to the left) is an OVA (original video animation) that follows the manga to a T. But warning: violence! Please, do not read/watch unless you're over 16. Seriously, it's violent. Really violent.

Shonen Jump - I'm going to lump most of these together, because found them all the same way. Bleach, Naruto, One Piece, and Hikaru No Go are some of my favorite Shonen Jump manga titles. They're all very common titles as well, which you can watch any old time on CN, so I'll skip the summaries, too. I love everything about the Bleach manga (except Chizuru and those random scenes with Orihime and Rangiku) but the anime is definitely lacking. First off, it seems like the anime never properly captures the style of the manga. Then, the episodes take entirely too long (an entire episode for the fight with Jidanbo?!) and the SCRIPT! The dub script of Bleach is the single worst non-4kids script I've ever heard. >_> "So what the heck exactly is this thing that you want to show to me?" I know that translations don't match the mouthflaps. Obviously. That's why you get scriptwriters, to adapt the translations into conversational dialogue. Part of the problem might be the time, too. I imagine Bleach is very much in demand, and they probably want it out very quickly.
I don't even watch the animes for the others any more. I don't get CN, and I have no reason to spend all that time watching something that I read anyway. Bleach I only watched because I wanted to see how it was changed.


Death Note - I thought this deserved a place of its own, because while I read it in SJ for the first time, I jumped on the fan wagon well before most of the country. Everyone loves Death Note now. What's not to love? It's an amazing series. (I finished it last summer, so feel free to comment with spoilers)




...and here comes the odd one... Yuugiou. Known better spelled Yu-Gi-Oh! here in the states. (yuugiou is the literal furigana translation, though) I was in about... what, 5th grade? My first thought on seeing the previews is "oh, this is going to be stupid". (and in retrospect, in some ways, it really was) So I never intended to watch it. One Saturday, there's nothing on, and I thought, "might as well check it out...". I remember that (at the time) I thought the theme song was really uber cool. So I kept watching. It was episode 6. (don't you love how much I remember about it? XD) Jouno-- erm, Joey vs. Mai. I watched the whole thing. I loved it. I also must not have paid much attention, because I remember having some very wrong ideas about the plotlines. Anyway, I watched intermittently throughout Duelist Kingdom, and became a serious fan around episode 20some, Yugi's duel with Kaiba. I didn't miss an episode till sometime in the third season. As of now, I've seen all 224 dub episodes and the dub movie. (...in theater...) The characters and plotlines drew me in, the card games kept my attention, and the pairings keep me a fan to this day. It's my "childhood" favorite. It's not that good of an anime series. I know that full well. But it's much better than the dub makes it out to be, and I HAVE seen worse. (the animation, though, at times is the worst I've ever seen--but at times is extremely well done.) Jounouchi/Mai is not only my favorite pairing from this anime, it's my all-time favorite pairing. Jou/Mai makes my life. Seriously. I don't care too much if you poke fun at Yuugiou, (especially the dub, it deserves to go die in a hole) but do not mess with my pairing. Picture to the left is the cover of volume 1 bunkoban, the manga re-release in Japan.

There's other series I'm fond of, like Fruits Basket, Shaman King, Eyeshield 21, Akira, and more, but I'll save those for individual reviews.

Bethel Park Anime #19--History of Anime

Aaah, I'm sorry it's been so long between updates! Especially since I know that there's people out there who actually read this! (Keep the comments coming! :D That's the only way I know if this is actually getting read)

I had a presentation about Japan for AP World Lit, and I chose to focus on anime. So, with my newfound knowledge, I'm going to briefly discuss the history of anime.

Anime in America is defined as "a style of animation originating in Japan that is characterized by stark colorful graphics depicting vibrant characters in action-filled plots often with fantastic or futuristic themes" (Cite). In Japan, anime is the word for all animation. Everything from Speed Racer to Superman to the latest Disney movie--those are all anime in Japan.

The Japanese have been writing long narratives with illustrations since the 12th century. Murasaki Shikubu's Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) is (one of) the first novels ever written, and illustrated copies of it were circulating in the 1200s, some 200 years after she wrote it. Illustrated stories like Genji were called emakimono. Shorter, more comedic illustrated stories were called giga.

In the late 1800s, the British magazines Punch and Puck were very popular in Japan. They strongly influenced a couple of fellows whose names I don't currently remember. One of them created Tokyo Puck, a Japanese magazine similar to Puck, featuring comic strips. The other fellow founded an organization for professional comic writers. Together, those men (I'll update as soon as I can look at the book where I got the information originally) and other artists of the time invented word bubbles and sequential panels.

The earliest known Japanese animation was created in 1917. It was 3 seconds long, and consisted of a boy writing the kanji for "moving pictures" on a board, removing his hat, and saluting the audience. (Cite) Some extremely influntial animators of the 1910s and 20s were Shimokawa Oten and Kouchi Jun'ichi.

In the 1930s, Japan was preparing to go to war, and most animations were commisioned by the military. By 1937, all animations had to be approved by the military. All animations of this time were extremely patriotic and usually depicted the Japanese military defeating other countires. The first feature-length animation in Japan was Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors in 1945. You may know Momotaro as "peach boy", the classic Japanese folk tale of a boy who goes on a journey and meets a bird, a monkey, and a dog. Well, this "classic" was actually invented in the 20th century.

After the war, the animations were no longer censored by the military. In 1948, Toei Animations was founded. Toei produced the first color feature animation in Japan, The Tale of the White Serpent, and would go on to release some of the most popular anime of all time, including Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon.

Osamu Tezuka, who deserves his own article, came on the scene in the 1960s. Tezuka, known as "the godfather of anime", "the grandfather of anime", and, at the time, "the Disney of Japan" quite literally invented anime as we know it today. Tezuka founded a studio called Mushi Productions to rival Toei. His budget was extremely limited, however. To develop plot and show characters' emotions without having to animate long, expensive scenes, Tezuka gave his characters large, expressive eyes. He found that large eyes show emotion much more easily. Nowadays, anime studios have enough money to animate any way they want, but they continue to use Tezuka's style. Even Miyazaki-sensei, who has extremely realistic characters (as opposed to the majority of anime) uses the traditional anime eyes to an extent.

The other distincitve trait of anime is wild, spiky hair. This also came about because of a lack of money, but was developed by manga artists rather than animators. American comic characters could be easily recognized by colors (i.e. Archie and orange hair, Superman and his red/blue costume) but Japanese comics had three colors: black, white, and gray. To make their characters distinctive and memorable, artists would draw crazy hairstyles. Manga is still published in black and white, but the hairstyles carried over into anime simply out of habit. Again, another one of those things define anime.

The 1970s saw more anime series. Directors such as Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki-sensei made their first films and directed their first series in the 70s. Takahata is probably best known for Hols, Prince of the Sun, and Heidi, Girl of the Alps; Miyazaki, for Future Boy Conan and Lupin III. Miyazaki's first feature film would be Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro.

The 80s saw a huge wave of mecha (and subsequent super robot and real robot) series. Space Battleship Yamato (1974-75) and Mobile Suit Gundam (1979-80) paved the way for mecha in the late 70s, and they were followed by Macross and far too many Gundam series.

The first anime magazines, Animage and Newtype were released in the 80s. Former Animage editor Toshio Suzuki would later team up with Hayao Miyazaki to create Studio Ghibli, one of the best and most successful animation studios in existance today. Their first movie together was Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Ghibli was founded with the money made from Nausicaa, and its first film was Laputa: Castle in the Sky. For more info on Ghibli and Miyazaki-sensei, here's the entry I had about Studio Ghibli or check out nausicaa.net. A quick edit to the info imn my post, though: while Ghibli animated Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies, they did not produce or release it.

OVAs or OAVs (original video animation or original animation video) started to come out in the 80s. Until that time, anime was either a TV series, a TV movie, or a feature film. OVAs are simply direct-to-video releases. (like Disney and their ridiculous sequels)

The famous film Akira was released in 1988. While it wasn't all that successful in Japan, it was a very good film, and started drawing attetion to Japan's animation industry. Nowadays, Akira is a classic anime film.

The 80s also saw many more Ghibli films, including Laputa, Totoro, Kiki, and Grave of the Fireflies. These films were some of the most successful of their time. Kiki was the top-grossing film of the year in 1989, and was seen by more than 2.6 million people.

The 90s brought one of the most celebrated mecha animes to date: Neon Genesis Evangelion. Its creator, Hideaki Anno, started off animating the god warrior in Miyazaki's Nausicaa. Besides Eva, other widely known anime series such as Dragonball, Sailor Moon, and of course, Pokémon came out in the 90s. Pokémon is actually based on a videogame, in case anyone wondered how they could get so many episodes off of a show with no plot. (yes, I'm a Digimon fan. Digimon was better than Pokémon in every way--plot, characters, animation, voice actors, plot, music, plot, plot, and more plot. At least that's my opinion)

2000s had another brief wave of mecha anime, including more Gundam and Eureka Seven. The anime series created in the late 90s and on become far too numerous to categorize. Everything you watch on CN or anime channels: Naruto, Death Note, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Trinity Blood, Fruits Basket, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya... almost anime on American TV today, which means almost every widely known anime, was started in this decade. A distinct new type of anime that has emerged, though, one that specifically targets otaku. An example of this would be Lucky Star, which reguarly references other anime series.

Also, anime's popularity has increased dramatically over the years. This is reflected in the animations of the 21st century, and in the quality of dubbing. Prime examples of American Anime would be Avatar: The Last Airbender and Peach Fuzz (American manga series run in select US newspapers) Also, back in the 70s and 80s, and even some 90s, anime was regulary hacked apart, edited, attacked with Mr. Digital Paint bucket, horrible revoiced, and served to American audiences. The famous Macross was actually combined with two other series and presented to Americans as Robotech. Nowadays, such a practice is condemned by hard-core otaku and fair-weather fans alike, though the otaku are often more sensible about it. There is one major dubbing studio to date, 4kids Entertainment, that still heavily edits, rescores music, and has horrible, over-the-top dubbed voices, but I'll save them for another time. Sensible studios like FUNimation, ADV, etc, censor extremely little, if nothing at all, and leave all the original music and names. Not to mention their exceptional voice actors.

So that's a basic rundown of anime. Hopefully you enjoyed it, and aren't about to fall asleep right now. ^_^;; I'll update as soon as I can with the bits of information that I need to look up.

For more links, in-depth descriptions, and pictures, check out the wikipedia history of anime: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_anime

Bethel Park Anime #18--Tekkoshocon 7

The date and place for Tekkoshocon 7 has been officially announced. Get ready, we're movin' on up! For the first time ever, Tekkoshocon will be held in the David L Lawrence Convention Center from April 3-5. (That's one week before Easter)
For any of you worried about walking around in Downtown Pittsburgh, it's really not that bad. The Convention Center is in the Cultual District, which is a very nice part of town. Pittsburgh in general is a pretty tame place, and though there are exceptions, I don't have any worries at all about the DLCC. And if you're wondering about walking around in cosplay, they welcome the animal people from AnthroCon, so I think we'll all fit in just fine.

The announcement can be read here. Check tekkoshocon.com reguarly for more updates on registration, parking, etc. Hope to see you all there!

In other news, Bethel Park now has an anime club called OWA (Obsessed With Anime). They meet Sunday evenings at the library. This week they're watching Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

Also, don't forget about BethelCon on July 20th!!

Bethel Park Anime #17--BethelCon!!!

Attention all Bethel Park anime fans!! The Bethel Park library will be hosting the first ever BETHELCON on Sunday, July 20th, 2008. The current time is 7-10, at the Bethel library. The con will feature lots of secret anime activities that we may or may not have planned yet. I will helping Ing, the head teen and childnren's librarian to plan the event. Any suggestions, comment this blog or email me at jaboura@einetwork.net.

Bethel Park Anime #16--Pictures

Deathcom, the professional photo people, posted their pics last week. Mine are still in the process of being scanned, so I thought while you wait for my few pictures, here's the ones that you really want to see.

All Tekko Stuff

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Masquerade

And again, because I love this picture so much, here's the biggest group pic I took at Tekko: CardGamesFTW!!!

Oh, and has anyone heard of Greg Ayres? Also known as bam2 on LJ.

Bethel Park Anime #15--Tekkoshocon VI

Hello, all! This past weekend, April 11-13 was Tekkoshocon VI! I attended all three days this year, and despite a smaller location and significantly less money, I had a fabuous time! Here is my extremely detailed Con Report for those who are interested.

I don't have my pictures uploaded yet, but here's a good one of me, two of my friends, and a random Otogi (Duke) and Bakura: http://www.cosplay.com/photo/1480271/

For those who either didn't go and want to find out what happened, or those who DID go and just didn't get enough, check out the Tekko forums and the Tekko VI Feedback forum. If you want to look me up on the forums, my name's ludus.

(also, here's a bit of positive feedback about one of my panels!)
More pics to come!

Bethel Park #14--Haruhiism

Okay, so I WAS going to write about Fullmetal Alchemist today... but then I watched the third Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya DVD, and changed my mind.

The Melencholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is the most additcting, random, fan-obsessed anime I've ever seen in my life. The entire series is only 14 episosdes long (which will change if they ever release the second seeason) and DOES NOT GO IN ORDER. I repeat, do not watch this series in chronological order!! There are two orders to the show, known as "Haruhi order" and "Kyon order". Haruhi and Kyon are characters on the show, and in the episode previews in Japan, Haruhi would say the chronological episode number, and Kyon would correct her the broadcast episode number. Kyon order is as follows: 11, 1, 2, 7, 3, 9, 8, 10, 14, 4, 13, 12, 5, 6. PLEASE SUPPORT THE OFFICIAL ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION, and either borrow from the library or buy the DVDs. Don't just watch them online and deny the creators their hard-earned money.

The show centers on Haruhi Suzumiya, as is evident from teh title, but is narrated by Kyon. His real name is unknown; Kyon is his nickname. Haruhi declares on the first day of school that she's "not interested in normal humans" and to let her know if someone is an alien, time traveler, or ESPer. Kyon winds up talking with her because he sits next to her in homeroom, and one of their short conversations sparks an idea. Haruhi creates the SOS Brigade ("Sekai wo Ooini Moriagerutame no Suzumiya Haruhi no Dan" or, the English version, "Spreading Excitement All Over the World with the Haruhi Suzumiya Brigade") a club dedicated to finding aliens, ESPers, and time traverls. (and apparently spreading fun all over the world)

I won't go into more detail for fear of spoilers. A much better summary of the series can be found on wikipedia, but SPOILER WARNING!

Every facet of The Melancholy Haruhi Suzumiya has a huge fanbase, but none moreso than its legendary ending theme song dance. The Hare Hare Yuaki ("Sunny Sunny Happiness") dance is unbelieveable popular. I personally learned it just for Tekko. The original animation can be seen here, the PS2 version here, the live-action concert version (keep watching till the end for Kyon and Koizuki) here, and for good measure, here's a places to help you learn the dance. Pictures. Keep searching youtube for more videos of people doing the dance if you want more.

The thing is so popular, they've even parodied it in another anime! Lucky Star Hare Hare Yukai.

Bethel Park Anime #13--Lost in Translation

I'll be starting on specific series soon, but I want to make sure I cover as much general stuff as I can first. So today I'll be talking about common things that are difficult to translate, or are just different in Japan.

Many anime series take place in or at high schools, as a large number of fans arein high school. There are a few major differences between Japanese and American high schools. Japanese high schools only last three years, and the grades don't have specific titles. Instead of freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior, Japan just has first-years, second-years, and third-years. This isn't too much of a problem with first or third years, but second years can vary between being translated as juniors or seniors. I can't think of any dubbed series offhand that simply use the Japanese system. For example, in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Mikuru, a second year, is said to be a Junior in the English version. I found it odd that Haruhiism DIDN'T follow the Japanese system, considering they didn't bother translating "golden week" holiday. Which leads us to the next translation problem.

Holidays. About the only things that are the same in Japan are Christmas and Valentine's Day. Japan is largely Shinto, so Christmas isn't celebrated religiously, but is still a holiday. Valentine's Day is similar to the American counterpart, but there is one major difference. Only girls give out chocloate to the boys they like on Valentine's Day. Exactly one month later, March 14, boys have to give a return gift. They call this White Day.
Another holiday that I just mentioned was Golden Week. I forget the exact details, but somehow there's about 4 holidays in one week, so the whole week becomes a holiday. I think it's at the beginning of the school year, August or September, so there's a chance it could be translated as Labor Day.
I forget the name of this one, and it's not exactly a holiday, but flower-viewing is another kind of celebration in Japan. If you've seen just about any anime in existance, you've probably heard the name "Sakura". Literally translated, it means "cherry blossom". The cherry trees in Japan are so famous both because of their beauty and the fact that they only blossom once a year for a few weeks. Yes, it's a Japanese cherry tree at the Jefferson Memorial. I believe it was a gift from Japan sometime in the 20th century.
Summer break is also very different in Japan. School goes till sometime in June, and then students get the rest of June and all of July off. However, they have work to do over the summer, and they go back to school at the beginning of August.

Since we're on the topic of schools, I'll go mention uniforms. Japanese uniforms were originally made to look like Western-style clothes waaaay back in the mid-19th century, and they've been pretty much like that ever since. Even public schools have uniforms in Japan, which is why you see so may uniforms in anime. Overall, they look pretty much the same, so I'm not going to describe them. Inuyasha, Fruits Basket, Bleach, Death Note, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Yu Yu Hakusho, xxxHolic, Carcaptor Sakura, Yugioh, Ouran High School Host Club, Kare Kano, and Slam Dunk are just some titles I can think of offhand that'll give you a good example of Japanese school uniforms.

Japanese legends and myths also have a hard time being translated. These don't pop up too often, though, so I don't know what happens when they do. I've only seen two instances of folk tales, and those were in My Neighbors the Yamadas (a Ghibli movie) and Yu Yu Hakusho manga. YYH was in SJ, so they had extra pages devoted to explaining the original myths. The first one I had actually heard before. It's about a boy... Urashima, I think, who saves a turtle. The turtle turns out to be a beautiful princess who takes him to her palace in the ocean. He has a fun time, and then she gives him a box and tells him never to open it. Either he leaves the palace and then opens it, or opening it makes the palace disappear, I forget which. But he winds up on land with the open box and when he goes home, 50 some years have passed.
Then there's peach boy. His parents cut down a tree and found him there inside a peach. When he grows up, he goes on some kind of adventure and meets a monkey, a dog, and a bird. I don't remember the rest. ^_^;; I'm not sure how they were handled in the YYH dub, so I can't go into much detail on those.

And finally, food. In bad dubs, like pretty much anything dubbed by 4kids, food usually tends to be "Americanized". The classic example of this is rice balls being turned into donuts, marshmallows, cookies (cough*OnePiece*cough), etc. Bento boxes are another thing that isn't usually changed, but are a part of Japanese culture and never explained. I guess they would be equivalent to a TV Dinner in America, since you can buy it at a convience store and it's a full meal, but they are often homemade and/or served at restaurants. Bento usually consists of rice, fish or meat, and a vegetable.
Other common Japanese foods and restaurant types are ramen, soba, and sushi.

Those are all the common translations issues I can think of at the moment. Next time, I'll start reviewing specific series.

Bethel Park Anime #12--Shojo

As I talked about Shonen last week, you might've guessed what this week's theme would be. That's right, shojo, or manga/anime aimed at girls. While Shonen usually focuses on fighting and lots of male characters, shojo tends to lean more towards relationships and female characters.

As with Shonen Jump, there is a magazine specifically for shojo, and it is called Shojo Beat. The North American magazine currently serializes Absolute Boyfriend, Crimson Hero, Haruka: Beyond the Stream of Time, Honey and Clover, Sand Chronicles, and Vampire Knight. All of the SB titles that aren't in the magazine can be found here. I don't read any of them, so I can't list them offhand like I could for shonen.

Other popular shojo titles not owned by SB are: Fruits Basket, and just about anything written by CLAMP and/or Yu Watase. CLAMP titles include Cardcaptor Sakura, Tsubasa, xxxHolic, x/1999, Chobits, Clover, Magic Knights Rayearth, Legal Drug, and I don't even know how many more. Now, not all consider CLAMP to be strictly shojo, but with the number of supposedly implied yaoi pairings like Domeki/Watanuki, those two guys from Legal Drug, Fai/Kurogane (none of which I agree with, especially that last one. Kurogane's in love with Tomoyo!) I find it easier to just consider them all shojos.
Fruits Basket is one of the best manga series I've ever read, let alone the best shojo. The description is so outrageous, I'm not going to bother writing it for fear that it would make you want to not read it, but it really is a great series.

Yu Watase is the author of such famous shojo titles as: Absolute Boyfriend, Alice 19th, and Fushigi Yugi. I read the first volume of Fushigi Yugi and one chapter of Absolute Boyfriend. They weren't really my taste, but they were good enough.

Characteristics of shojo manga are: Female main character; "bi-shonen" male characters (atractive men with a feminine look); the "Jane Austen" syndrome: two characters are obviously in love with each other and refuse to admit it and that is the only plot whatsoever; unnecessarily pretty/frilly/poofy costumes (Tokyo Mew Mew, Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, Kamichari Karin); yaoi; lack of backgrounds; and a number of other things that I won't go into. As you may be able to tell, I'm a bit biased against shojos. Probably because some of my friends force them onto me, and, me being the obsessed otaku that I am, I read them only to find that they're almost exactly alike. Example: Hana Kimi and Girl Got Game. Girl crossdresses so she can go to a boy's school. Example: Tokyo Mew Mew and Sailor Moon. Group of girls fight the forces of evil. (though I actually love both of those series ^_^; ) Example: Kare Kano, Nana, Imadoki, and about a billion others. Girl likes guy and/or guy likes girl but they go back and forth while juggling high school, sports, clubs, whatever eccentricities they have.

Now, this isn't to say that ALL shojo are like that. In fact, I could have said the same thing about some shonens, but I like shonen. ^_^;; In reality, all the series I mentioned are rather popular. It's just a matter of taste.

Bethel Park Anime #11--Shonen

Hello all! ^_^ After a month-long break, I'm back. Things have been awfully busy over here, but I'll try to update more often from now on.

Today our topic is shonen! There are two main classifications of anime/manga: shonen and shojo. Literally, shonen means "boy" and shojo means "girl". Shonen in anime context is an anime aimed at boys, and shojo likewise is aimed at girls. You may have heard of the magazines Shonen Jump and Shojo Beat. These magazines and subsequnet graphic novels are exclusively either Shonen or Shojo, and are the best examples of sterotypical shonens and shojos. Some people scorn SJ's mangas, but as their slogan states, they ARE the world's most popular manga. American SJ currently serializes Bleach, Bobobo, Naruto, Hikaru No Go, Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece, and Yugioh GX. They also used to run Shaman King, Yugioh, Yugioh: Millennium World (which came to its natual end, a first for the American SJ), Gin Tama, and Dragon Ball Z. Other titles that SJ publishes but does not run in the magazine are: Death Note, D.Gray-Man, Eyeshield 21, Knights of the Zodiac, Yugioh: Duelist (which in Japan is the same series as Yugioh and Yugioh: Millennium World, but Viz broke it into 3 parts in America so they could release it faster), Rurouni Kenshin, Hunter x Hunter, Beet the Vandel Buster, Buso Renkin, Zombie Powder, Legendz, Reborn, BLack Cat, Claymore, and many, many more...

SJ, while the most obvious publisher of shonen manga, is certainly not the only one. Viz, who owns SJ, has another line of Shonen manga that includes the famous Fullmetal Alchemist. The reason this is published as a Viz action title and not a Shonen Jump title is because they did not run in Monthly or Weekly Shonen Jump in Japan. Most mangas in Japan run in a magazine before they are transferred to a graphic novel. FMA, I believe, runs in Monthy Shonen Gangan.

Really, all manga publishers have some shonen to their name, but some titles (and authors) are more obviously shonen than others. Typical characteristics of shonen manga and anime are:
1. The plot is based on fighting/battling. (usually, but not necessarily physically, as we can see with Yugioh and Hikaru No Go)
2. FANSERVICE. X_x As a girl who likes shonen manga, I can't STAND shonen fanservice. Short skirts, low-cut shirts, random yuri hints are all telltale signs of an expected male audience. (Chrono Crusade or Bleach, anyone?)
3. Anti-hero(es). Not a villian exactly, but not a friend to the protagonist, either. Vegeta, Kaiba, Len, Hiei, Manjoume, Renji, Saito, whatshisface from Inuyasha... Kagu? and countless others that I can't think of at the moment.
This isn't really the best example, but if a series has men that are either very masculine, have scars and/or are not attractive, there's a good chance it's a shonen, since shojos typically have very girly-looking, "attractive" men.

The success of an anime series isn't determined by what group of people it's aimed at, but shonen seem to be extra-popular in America, especially with those who don't usually watch anime. We've gone through at least 8 shonen "waves" in my lifetime that I can think of offhand. The first, from waaaay back when, would of course be Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z. The next would be Pokemon. (which completley blew away the wave that could have been Digimon) Yugioh, unfortuantely, got in on Pokémon's success, even though the two are nothing alike. (the simimlarity between cards and monsters apparently was enough, though) Somewhere in there is Inuyasha. I'm not really sure where because I never watched it myself. ^_^;; Then there was a break for a few years when Yugioh went downhill. (robot talking monkeys, anyone?) Naruto was the next BIG hit, and is still going strong today. Fullmetal Alchemist was about the same time as Naruto, but was on much later, and is a much more complex (and BETTER) series, so I think appealed more to otaku than everyday tv watchers. Still, FMA made a big impact, though moreso on the anime community. Bleach was SJ's next big release, which is also still going strong. The most recent shonen anime craze would be Death Note. DN's only got about 38 episodes, though, so it'll only last a year or two.

In contrast, the biggest shojos to hit the states would be the old-school Sailor Moon, (thankfully not dubbed by 4kids, but still horribly edited) Fruits Basket, and... hmm... I guess DNAngel, Azumanga Daioh... but really, shonen dominates the world of American anime. My personal favorite shonen (and all manga, really) is Fullmetal Alchemist. I highly reccommend this series to anyone 13 and up. (Sorry, but it IS on adult swim) I'm also a fan of the other current big shonens, Naruto, Bleach, Death Note, and secretly am a big fan of the original (for the love of Ra, NOT the dub) Yugioh. Seriously, it's one of the worst dubs in the history of anime. Granted, the whole card game thing can get a little old, but there's some good story in there (underneath all the fillers...) and the original's got some great voice actors. Not to mention that Jounouchi and Mai are my favorite anime couple. (which, honestly, is the only reason I kept watching through season 4) It's certainly not a GREAT anime series, but it's better than some I've seen, and certainly better than the common opinion of it.

In other news, Tekkoshocon is quickly approaching. Head on over to tekkoshocon.com to register and get info! Aaron Dismuke (Alphonse Elric) is going to be there, along with Greg Ayres, Matt Greenfield, Tiffany Grant, and others!