Gen X Otaku 1971: the OG blog

News brief

English: Podcast or podcasting icon Français : Icône pour les podcasts ou la baladodiffusion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So last night I started Part II of Attack on Titan, taking in Episodes 14-15.  I also started Episode 14, Collection 2 of Majestic Prince.

Tonight I'm looking forward to the first four episodes of FATE/KALEID LINER PRISMA ILLYA (rated TV-14) at Alamo Drafthouse Mason Park in Katy, Texas.  And am still wondering why this is a Sentai Filmworks dub and not an Aniplex/BangZoom! property like the rest of the Type Moon Fate/Whatever stuff.

Should be interesting, at any rate.

OH!  And this blog now has a (loosely) associated podcast...well, kind of.

I've basically been futzing around with the "Spreaker" app on my iPad (the web version of Spreaker is more robust, but I haven't tried using it to record a full episode yet) and playing around with recording my own anime podcast.

Anyway, here's a link to my 3rd and most recent episode:

http://www.spreaker.com/user/7429481/love-is-in-the-air

...where I talk briefly about my impressions of Toradora!, Flowers of Evil, and Say I Love You.

It's just me, recording solo for now, with some J-Pop/J-Rock songs for intro and outro music (I try to keep the music thematic to the anime discussed).

The general rule of podcasts are that the first 5 episodes are garbage, and I'm only on episode 3, so...take it with a hefty grain of salt.  I'm too lazy to go back and edit myself (If I really gave a shit I'd record it on audacity, say, where I really could edit well), I tend to record way late at night, so that's why the yawns here and there.  It's not because I'm bored of the material, it's because I'm dead tired.  It's just my dicking around with some easy recording software and blabbering on about Anime & Manga, only in spoken form rather than written form on this here blog.

I actually used show notes for Episode 2, and I was more "off the cuff" for Episode 1 & 3, which I think actually turned out better.  And even with show notes on Episode 2 I still missed some things I would've liked to have covered.  *Sigh*.  I plan to record as many episodes as the free account on Spreaker will allow, but as to when I record, that's going to be pretty irregular...but basically I'm trying to do recap shows when I finish one or more Anime series or movies.  As with this blog, I will typically spoil the hell out of the material, so please don't listen if you haven't completed the shows I discuss.  I'm only interested in podcasting to people who've already committed the time and dedication to the same shows I have.  But mostly it's a medium of self expression.  I don't actually care if I get many listeners; I apparently have a few followers of this blog and even one subscribed listener to my new-ish podcast, both facts that astonish me.

Anyway, I gotta motor here in a bit and get on down the road to Katy, Texas.  I may try to post a quick recap of tonight's screening if the mood strikes me upon returning home.

Futzing around on Spreaker, for Anime!

So for the sheer hell of it, I've been futzing around with the Spreaker "app" on my iPad, which actually records a better quality podcast than the Spreaker website, at least with some of my current equipment.  The only thing I don't like about the Spreaker app for iPad is that the record option on the microphone is always "push to talk", and it gets to be a pain to hold that button down constantly on one's iPad.  I'm sometimes shuffling my index finger from right hand to left just to give that finger a rest.  I'm basically trying my hand at an amateur Anime/Manga podcast on their platform.  It's just me, "flying solo", as it were.  I'm sure it's not very good, and that I'm probably very monotone and not interesting.  For my 2nd show I used actual show notes and I'm not sure it was any better than when I talked off the cuff my first time out.  I do like that I can fade in, fade out with J-Rock/J-Pop tunes from my iTunes playlist, that's pretty cool.  There's also a limited sound board on the iPad app version.  The website version has a more robust soundboard and a lot of podsafe music to sample & choose from.  I've just experienced some frustration in that Spreaker doesn't seem to like my most expensive headphones and won't record my voice when I use its microphone...though my webcam video capture software has ZERO issues with the very same microphone.  It works better with my cheap-ass Logitech headset, or surprisingly, with the built in microphone on my webcam, though it did require me to do some serious levels adjustments to clear out distortions and background noise, etc., since it's effectively a "boom" mic...I'd never use it on an open channel for 2-way communication (like for a Skype call or whatever) but for me recording by my lonesome, it ought to work out okay.

I first got exposed to Spreaker listening to The Sugar Land Skeeters road games on that platform.  Ostensibly they're supposed to cover the games on terrestrial radio in this area on 95.1 FM or 1640 AM radio, which is an Indian (Desi) cultural channel most of the time.  Last year they broadcast game coverage for home games as well, but since the home games are now on ESPN3, they only do radio coverage of the road games.  I'd tune in at the supposed time and get bupkiss...so I'd point my browser at the Spreaker site for KRBZ Sports and tune in to the web stream for the road game coverage while doing Facebook, say.  I created a Spreaker account with my Facebook credentials and downloaded the iPad app, too.

I'm more a blogger than a podcaster (and not much of a blogger when it comes down to it).  I'm an amatuer Anime fan who also likes to talk about and write about anime.  My 2nd episode was about Anime podcasts I happen to like and listen to...I think I did an okay job, but there were still shows I forgot to include, stuff I would've said differently with more preparation, etc.

If I think of another interesting topic to podcast about, maybe I'll try using the Spreaker website and my webcam microphone and having another go at it.  I'd miss having access to the J-Rock/J-Pop tunes I have in my iTunes library, though.  I doubt there's podsafe J-Rock/J-Pop out there on the Spreaker online library, though I'd love to be proven wrong on that point.

The first 2 episodes were fun, but another thing about Spreaker that differs from, say, recording in Audacity, is the fact that you feel the pressure to fill the dead air...it's not set up so you can just pause the recording in progress then pick up again when you've thought of something else to say...so to avoid a lot of "dead air" (which is disasterous for a radios show), you tend to fill it with blather that can be pretty inane or tangent inducing and it's way easier to trip over your own tongue than you might at first think.  You end up saying stuff that, upon listening back, comes across as more ambivalent than it did when it came out of your mouth.  Show notes help, but they sometimes also get in the way of spontenaiety and just speaking from the heart passionately, at least for me.  Of course there's always the option of recording first in Audacity then UPLOADING to Spreaker and maybe editing in stuff in post-production (intro/outro music, etc).

I remember learning a few things about doing videos for YouTube, too...there's using the web cam, but then you also intergrate it with still shots + voiceover recorded separately with Audacity and timed to fill the still video segment, etc.  It's fun but tricky.

I'm still futzing around with GoAnimate.com, of course.  I didn't post a narrated schedule for August but I've gotten back in my groove and did one for September that I'll post separately later.

Anyway, my main mode of expression about anime will probably continue to be this here blog.

 

Ani.Me is on Hiatus, so this blog comes OFF Hiatus

My favorite Anime News Blog after ANN, called Ani.Me, is unforunately now on hiatus.  They had a neat feature where you could join as a community member and had very basic but easy-to-use blogging software that I used frequently to jot down first impresssion after local Anime screenings at Alamo Drafthouse Mason Park in Katy, Texas.

As the notice on their website now states:
Sadly, as of March 2014, the current Ani.ME site is being closed. Hopefully we will find the resources to re-launch better than ever, but for now at least, we must take the site offline. Until we figure out what the long-term fate will be, we will still be active on our Facebook page and you can also sign up below to be emailed if/when we relaunch.

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I first noticed when the mobile app associated with Ani.Me stopped updating earlier this month.  I thought it was just an app malfunction and decided to head to the main site to get caught up on their anime news feed that the app seemingly wasn't loading any longer.  To my great surprise and disappointment, I found the hiatus notice above.

To be honest, I've never much cared for this Typepad blog platform, I still have sour grapes at being forced to migrate it from the much more user-friendly but defunct Vox.com; I tried to keep blogging here for awhile, but the time between posts grew longer and longer and longer.  When I discovered the blogging platform over on Ani.Me, I signed up on a whim.  When I saw how easy & basic it was to operate, I started blogging regularly.  Initially the idea was to compose rough drafts on the fly over there then clean them up and republish a better version here.  Eventually I just started blogging over there full time because of the ease and simplicity of doing so.  No graphics, sure, no fancy HTML or other coding, but such forced economy of expression was actually liberating for awhile.  And I do have to heap praise on the site's Content Director, LB, whom I still follow on Twitter, for always looking in on my blog and sometimes adding helpful feedback comments and other responses to my writings.  I was always very flattered by the attention.  I'm a regular correspondent to the 2Lazy2Botaku podcast and would sometimes send them links to my own Ani.Me blog compositions instead of a full email.

Ani.Me further writes:
"...We grew up watching anime and so our team started Ani.ME as a way to do what we love. We started to grow and for a while things were great. However the past year has been a struggle to keep the site alive.. For over a year, Ani.ME hasn't been able to make enough money to cover our server costs or our staff writers. To keep the site up, the founding team has been putting in money from our day jobs to cover costs and pay everyone, however, we can't afford to do so anymore. The site is a custom built platform and over time, things started breaking and we didn't have the funds to fix it. Also, many of you may have heard of issues with our lead editor and some staff writers. This was due to not being able to properly cover costs for the last few months. We hoped we could find a solution but so far, all options have been taking longer than we could bear. It would be unfair to not pay our writers. By shutting down the site, we can at least cover paying our writers for the work they've done up to now.

If you have enjoyed Ani.ME up to now, please do let us know. You can email our Co-founder Chris at [email protected]. If you want to help out, you can also make a donation using the Paypal button below. We will use any donations to cover staff costs and if we can, try to re-launch. To do so, we would need to be able to rebuild the site on a lower cost platform and find a way to make enough money to properly cover writers and hosting costs. Please know that we DO want to re-launch, and are working on ways to make it possible."

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Well, that's unfortunate to hear.  I did actually apply to write for them at one point in the past, but I knew it was a long shot, not least because my own viewing habits and preferences were in stark contrast to theirs.  I'm a dub fan, they're all about the bleeding edge of what's hot in Japan right now.  I suggested I could cover N.American DVD/Blu-Ray releases but they were looking for help managing coverage of each new season coming out in Japan, just staying on top of that firehose gusher of content.  I understood, no big deal.

They very recently posted new job adverts looking for a new addition to the writing staff, but alas, even if someone did get that job, they may still be waiting on their first and possibly last paycheck, at least for awhile.  ANN were looking for writers as well some time back but unlike with Ani.Me, I didn't bother to apply.

There's a local design store that has a weird name, the last part of which includes the words ...and Infinite Anime...which caught my eye.  I did eventually make it over to the place to look around and talk to the owner.   I wish him luck, but I'm afraid it's probably only a matter of time before he'll be forced to shutter his shop, unless the design side of his business keeps the doors open.

His main focus seems to be competitive Anime-style card games, which don't interest me in the least.  He didn't have any PVC figurines when I dropped by (though he said he was planning to pick some up at the then upcoming Anime Matsuri convention).  He had a few Anime titles that caught my eye and piqued mild curiosity, but way too much stuff on VHS and a lot on DVD that I've either already seen or own myself.  The only brick and mortar store I still buy Anime from (infrequently) is Fry's Electronics, and even their selection is dimished from what it used to be (though nowhere near as drastically anemic as Best Buy these days).

I have a FUNimation Elite subscription which I got for my birthday and use a lot of.  I also have a Neon Alley subscription.  That's going free come April 1st.  Apparently the "app" I have on my PS3 will cease to function entirely after that date.  This annoys me because while I knew the "live stream" channel would be going away, it was my understanding that the "catch  up" feature would be expanded as the main Neon Alley portal going forward and be free, besides NeonAlley.com

But the latest press release makes it sound like if I want to access Neon Alley via the PS3 in the future after April 1st, I'll be forced to do so via Hulu+.  This annoys me enormously.  I suppose I can make do with NeonAlley.com on my PC, but I shouldn't have to pay on PS3 either.  I could accept having to have Hulu+ for mobile access...iPad, iPhone, Android, etc.  But Neon Alley had earlier indicated that the Catch Up feature would expand to be the main feature via the app and via NeonAlley.com, and now it seems only NeonAlley.com via the PC will be a free portal and PS3 and PS4 access will be shunted over to Hulu+ EXCLUSIVELY.  WHICH SUCKS BALLS.

I do have an HDMI cable hooked up to my mom's PC, so it's actually not a huge deal to stream NeonAlley.com stuff to the TV (just have to put up with subpar computer speaker audio), but I'd rather I didn't have to.  I'd like to keep accessing Neon Alley via my PS3 native app like always.

The PS3 Crunchyroll "app" is very limited for non-subscribers, while the iPad version of the Crunchyroll app gives you full access, albeit advertising supported, not unlike Crackle.com in that respect.

I'm nearly caught up with all my Neon Alley shows at the moment (bearing down on finishing Fate/Zero) and even bought some on DVD when the price was right (LaGrange).

I'm very grateful for my FUNimation subscription since I need to cut back on my physical media purchases.  This year Sentai Filmworks is going to get the majority of my physical media budget since Anime Network isn't available on PS3 or Roku.  I do happen to have a Roku player and thus get full use out of my FUNI subscription.  The animation quality is sometimes lacking when a show first loads but this quickly fixes itself within a minute or two and isn't really much of a distraction.  I've watched some shows that were guilty pleasures that I will never own on DVD but am glad to have seen nonetheless (Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero).

And I will get through the original Ruroni Kenshin (dubbed) on Crackle.com one of these days.

Anyway, I'll be mourning the loss of Ani.Me for some time to come.  It was a fun little website.

 

 

Housekeeping & Thoughts on Anime Blogging

So I went back to fix a factual error in a post from 2011, but upon doing a keyword search I just up and removed what I discovered to be a double-post I did on the Full Metal Panic; I zapped the 2011 posting because I'd already gushed about it in 2010 but had forgotten about it.  I was factually accurate in 2010, but was going from memory in 2011 and slipped up a bit.  Word to the wise for bloggers: Don't rely on your memory.  Always check your sources and save draft versions of your posts.  Make sure you're factually accurate before you hit that dreaded "publish" button.  Yes, you could go back and fix it later, but that's sloppy and shouldn't be necessary.  Full on deleting a post like I did is kind of a douchey quick fix; The double posting I did would be forgivable if I'd posted with the same level of factual accuracy in 2011 that I did in 2010.  Wikipedia is definitely your friend when it comes to Anime blogging.  Wikipedia is also proof that merely giving a plot synopsis, even a very enthusiastic one, is NOT the same thing as actually reviewing a show.  Wikipedia gives great basic information on most Anime series...you're not going to outcompete them for views and they're a quasi Peer-reviewed source on top of that.  A review on a blog has to be more substantitive and thoughtful and personal.  You should try to express how the show made you feel, or try to get inside the characters' heads and truly empathize with them, or think long and hard about what the story's creators are trying to say with this work of fiction, what deeper truths they are attempting to convey and express.  That is roughly the substance of what criticism and review should be.  Plot synopsis is only of secondary importance and can be a distraction, and if you consistently spoil the crap out of shows (which is admittedly hard to resist, especially if you love a show), then the only people who will read you are fans who, like you, have already seen the entire series.

There is an Anime podcast I like called 2 Guys and a Mic, the title of which is bare bones purely descriptive.  Their "reviews" consist of painstakingly detailed plot summaries, so indeed the only episodes of theirs I listen to are for 1) shows I've already seen, to re-live the experience and 2) shows I don't ever plan to watch, just to get the quick & dirty version so I can be conversant with other fans.  I never listen to a 2GAM show for a series I'm in the middle of, or am planning to watch soon.  I dig their enthusiasm, but they're not as polished as ANNCast or even A3K's main show with Sean Russell and J.P.  Their shows remind me of my very early blogging style, and I'd like to think I've matured since then.

I'm starting to Blog a little bit on another platform, the website Ani.me, and to my great surprise, the Content Director of Ani.Me, L.B., has actually been reading & commenting on my posts there.  He even bumped one of my posts up to the front page on the website and mobile "app".  They're currently looking for paid writers and I am actually seriously considering it.  I need to submit writing samples and my resume & such.  I do have a full-time job already in a library, so it will be a challenge to accept a part-time writers position on top of everything else...but actually getting paid for my writing might be an added incentive to do it more. 

Like I said, I haven't applied yet, but I am strongly considering it.  I'm grateful to L.B. for all the interaction and was frankly surprised he was paying attention to little ol' me.

New Netflix features, and currently watching...

Netflix has added some nice features to their streaming options that I'd like to give them kudos for; but first I need to b*tch at them a little.  As some readers may know, licences for shows are not forever, and licenses for streaming in particular do expire over time.  Previously I've had shows I was watching get taken down and removed from my instant queue without any warning whatsover.  This happened to me for Trigun and for Gurren Lagann; Most infuriating with Gurren Lagann was that I went from streaming the English dub to having to switch to SUB-ONLY (Japanese) rental DVDs.  What the HELL, Netflix!?  Why  the HELL do you only have monolingual DVDs for rental!?  It's not like the bilingual editions don't exist!  I was so infurated I went out and bought the Box set of Gurren Lagann so I could finish this classic series.  I wrote a review to complain about this but Netflix always gives you a little slap on the wrist if you do stuff like that (you have to re-acknowledge the community guidlines, etc)  At least the Trigun rental discs are bilingual from Netflix. 

More recently, like within the past few months, I noticed that Netflix has started listing EXPIRATION DATES of shows whose licences are on the verge of expiring.  THANK YOU, Netflix.  This is a most welcome change as it now lets me prioritize my Anime viewing schedule with respect to streaming shows.  I recently had to race to finish the show Kiddy Grade (a very moe Sci-Fi story) and the old ADV films title Air Gear, which is a crazy racing gang show featuring mechanized roller blades.  I did manage to just finish both shows before their respective expiration dates with not very much time to spare.

I am still watching plenty of (mainly older) shows via Netflix DVD rental, but as I currently only have 2 disks at a time on my plan, I use streaming options for the times between receiving new discs...otherwise I'll work on my backlog of shows I've acquired on box set DVD/Blu-Ray thanks to being exposed to them at the weekly FUNimation screenings (and the montly Sentai Anime Night every 3rd Monday of each month) at Alamo Drafthouse Mason Park in Katy, Tx.

I just got back tonight from the final 4 episodes of the new series Freezing.  I own the box set but wanted to see the rest of this show on the big screen.  I learned from our host that there is also a few OVAs in the box set, so I will go back and watch those soon, too.  I won't go into a lengthy review now, but suffice it to say it was an evening well spent and the series finale did not disappoint.

I also recently acquired the (new) series LEVEL E on Box set after having seen the screening of Episodes 1-4 at Drafthouse.  The 2Lazy2Botaku guys really liked it, so I think it was a wise purchase.  I sure enjoyed the hell out of those first 4 epsiodes.  Definitely looking forward to finishing it later this year.

On Netflix streaming I'm currently enjoying/finishing up the FUNimation shows Black Blood Brothers, and Aquarion; from Sentai Filmworks I'm enjoying Canaan, which is super action packed and reminds me of a modern day, updated NOIR or MADLAX, both of which I loved very much back in the day.  I also added back Sgt Frog (Season 3) to my streaming queue; I used to have Crayon Shin Chan lined up on streaming but the license for that on Netflix seems to have expired.

I'm also making my way through the older series Blue Gender; Other shows in my queue include Guin Saga and Mushi Shi, but I find both of these shows kind of dull and not very interesting.  I was watching Hell Girl via streaming, but it too is now only on rental DVD.  It's an okay show, sort of like an Anime version of The Twilight Zone, but the stories are a little repetitive and formulaic after awhile.  They sometimes mix it up, but mostly it sticks to the same general, highly predictable pattern.

I do want to get back to Heroic Age eventually and finish it; I had gotten pretty far along with it on Netflix streaming but now it too is back to DVD only.  It's not a BAD show, but nearly every episode is just a set-up for a giant bio-Mecha fight, over and over and over.  It gets to be kind of tedious.  If not for an emotionally compelling performance by Caitlin Glass as the fair princess, I'd have no interest at all in going back to this show.

Another show I started but set aside but want to get back to eventually is Boogiepop Phantom.  It's a classic series albeit very f*cked up.  It's good, just very weird, slowly paced...the animation is kind of ugly, and there's a dearth of truly sympathetic characters, at least in the episodes I've watched so far.

Recently I finished the box sets of Ghost Hunt and Moonlight Mile.  Ghost Hunt is okay, but rather mediocre.  I recently finished the old ADV "joke" series Ghost Stories with totally original English dub script and that was WAY more entertaining, actually.  Many people hold up Ghost Stories as an example of a bad dub but I disagree.  Ghost Stories was wholly intentional, broke the fourth wall, etc.  No, a truly bad dub is Moonlight Mile...indeed the series as a whole is pretty terrible.  It has potential, and maybe the sciencey-space tech aspects of it are good and perhaps even accurate for all I know...but the storytelling in the show is slow & uneven and mostly pretty boring.  The show looks as though it has potential, and some of the mystery alluded to in the very first scene of Episode 1 is hinted at near the very end of the first season, but this show was so terrible in its first season that there's virtually no chance that any additional seasons will be licensed for dubbed North American release.  It doesn't hold a candle to PLANETES, which is a far superior space exploration show.  I will save my full-on hate for Moonlight Mile for a separate post at a later date.

Anyway, those are some of the shows I've been looking at recently...I don't update this blog nearly often enough, I know.  Sorry about that.