Recently…

There seems to be quite the fuss about visual novels abroad, recently. From the worse ones dealing with really sensitive subjects in a really insensitive manner, the whole genre has become the sum of its worst parts, causing us to forget something really interesting: a lot of recent anime has been inspired by the genre. For my next post, I’ll be talking about the genre and what it’s done for anime, but in the mean time, here’s a comic after the jump about that:

Everyone, Grab The Mountain Dew

This is short, and I realize that, but I’m bored and in China. I’ve gotta amuse myself somehow, right?

In case some of you weren’t aware, and you really should have been, Zach has recently gotten himself over to Japan (Kyoto, specifically).

I don’t know about you, but for him, it’s basically a dream come true. This semester is like an academic wet dream for him, come to life. The difference? It’s not just in his pants. It’s everywhere.

That sounded wrong.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure we’ll all be seeing tons of new content from him. Zach will be on anime/manga/Akihabara overload, and I somewhat selfishly expect to benefit from it. Consider this a challenge to our favorite geek of all things Japanese; I’m not sure if it’ll see the light of day, as I’m just a contributor for the blog and have to submit everything for review from Zach, but if so, more power to him. That’ll mean Zach has balls… otaku balls. Made out of old crushed up old Nintendo cartridges, or decapitated pokemon, or something.

Anime: A Newb’s Perspective

Zach and I are doing guest posts on each other’s blogs this week. I run Tech + Lifestyle , a blog devoted to all things nerdtastic and geektacular (particularly PC gaming and hardware). Recently, we had the absolutely brilliant idea of switching for a post – a prince & the pauper sort of deal, if you will. I fancy myself the prince, as I’ve got way more views on my blog than he does. Anyway, here’s my take on anime, admittedly both generalized and biased. Read on if you dare…

I’ve got a slightly different take on anime than my friend Zach. He’s got this devoted, love all things anime, gotta-catch-’em-all attitude when it comes Japanese stuff. In fact, just about anything from that island nation is holy to him (except some of the really messed up stuff). If it comes in manga or anime form, even better. I’d like to think that I take a *slightly* more measured approach.

My first memory of consciously watching anime was in middle school -Dragon Ball Z, if you must know. It was a phase that ended rather quickly, in all honesty. From there, I experienced smatterings of Full Metal Alchemist, Outlaw Star, Cowboy Bebop, and the ilk, in large part thanks to Adult Swim.

It was only recently that I began watching anime with any sort of purpose or regularity. I think what kicked it off was an evening relaxing at my friend Raymond’s apartment. The son of two tel-com bigwigs, he lived in Japan from the age of two until around eleven or twelve. It goes without saying that he’s got a healthy selection of anime box sets, which I came across while looking for a movie to watch. I casually mentioned that I had seen a few episodes of Cowboy Bebop, and rather liked it. When I left, I had that and a couple other box sets under my arm, and I’ve been watching the stuff ever since.

Old Classics, Newcomers

Nostalgia...

Christmas break has been good to me. I got lots of presents, I earned money, and my grades weren’t bad either. Beside that, though, I managed to dive neck-deep into a new… err… old anime. But before I launch into my detailed rant about the greatness of classic anime, I would like to announce the addition of a contributor to the blog. In addition to my sparse posts, he’ll be adding his own views of anime, mostly as a newcomer to the genre. I thought he could provide a fresh look at some series anime fans have taken for granted and also find some new ones that they haven’t yet dug up.

That isn’t to say that an old anime fan can’t find series that have collected a pleasant layer of dust on them. On the contrary, over the break I was suddenly possessed to find the anime Touch, a cute and interesting sports/romance/comedy from the widely untapped resources of the 1980s’ anime library. More after the jump…