The Anime Almanac

Scott Pilgrim artist Bryan Lee O’Malley is auctioning off an original Pilgrim art piece on eBay. O’Malley will be donating all proceeds of the auction to Giant Robot, a long running independent Asian American Pop Culture magazine that has facing serious financial struggles lately. The signed sketch is drawn in ink and was used in the fifth volume of the series and on promotional items.

An awesome art piece from an awesome comic going to a cause I think we otaku can fully support. While Giant Robot may not necessarily be all about anime and manga, it most certainly celebrates our sub-culture. Bidding for the 24-hour auction ends at 9:56 EST (6:56 PST) Thursday morning, so act quickly. You can also donate directly to Giant Robot by visiting this site.

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Kotaku writes a very lengthy and very fascinating article on how an event on the message board 4chan in 2006 gave birth to a very unusual amateur video game called Kawata Shojo, or “Disabled Girls.” The game is a Japanese-style visual novel about, you guessed it,  psychically disabled girls.

This article really surprised me because I haven’t stepped foot on 4chan in years. But I was active on the boards in 2006 and I vividly remember the night Damaged Goods began. I found myself fascinated with the poster’s highly detailed narrative. I didn’t believe a word of it, but still, I was hooked on the story. I couldn’t help but to think at the time that this was going to be the American version of Densha Otoko.

Well, it didn’t become the American version of Densha Otoko, and I thought the saga ended shortly thereafter. But apparently it still lives on after all these years in this video game, so be sure to check out the full story over at Kotaku.

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Hey Peeps!

So in my quest of ever expanding this blog and gaining new readership, I occasionally try out something different to test out the waters a bit. Last month, I experimented with the whole comments thing, since people have been telling me for years that it is necessary for every blog to have comments. But honestly, it didn’t make a difference at all in the month I had them open. So comments are gone again, and for the next month, I’m testing out a new feature on the blog: The Daily Almanac.

If you’ve been following my Twitter feed, then you pretty much know how I like to do anime news bits. I link to a webpage with a worthwhile news item, and then provide a line or two of my witty, thoughtful, and often sarcasic analysis. The Daily Almanac will essentially be the same thing, only not broken into 140 characters. These posts will be shorter and far more casual than my normal reviews and features.

Many other blogs do this type of reporting, and they all do it very well. Will my unique take of the day’s news stand out among everyone else? Well, we’ll find that out a month from now. So let’s get this started with all the news from today!

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Bandai has begun their huge Gundam push today by streaming a number of the classic series on various anime video sites. Crunchyroll will be running the original Mobile Suit Gundam series and ANN has the Z Gundam series. Bandai had already been streaming the Gundam 00 series on YouTube for the past year.

All this promotion is for the upcoming release of the newest OVA series, Gundam Unicorn. UC will be seeing a global release on March 12, and fans in America can buy the first hour long episode on Blu-ray from Amazon.com.

Yup, one episode with MSRP of $50. And that’s actually really cheap compared to the normal price of Blu-ray anime in Japan. That’s like the cost of an R2 anime DVD.

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FACT: Scott likes cute girls in short skirts…

On Site:

Scott from The Anime Almanac	Deb Aoki from About.com: Manga	Jon I. from JANAiBlog
DJ Ranma S from Anime Jam Session	Edward Sizemore from Comics Worth Reading	Michael Pinto from Anime.com
NYAF from New York Anime Festival	OutOfTimeProd from Out Of Time Productions	Greg
Vampt Vo from Ani-Gamers	Brigid from MangaBlog	Vince A
Hisui from Reverse Thieves	Dave from Subatomic Brainfreeze	Ed Chavez from Vertical Inc.
ANN_Bamboo	funimation	Reni Mimura from ReniReni.com
Patz from The Gaming Dungeon	Erica Friedman from Okazu	Carl from Ogiue Maniax

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So what’s the protocol for taking a photo inside of the bathroom?

On Site:

Scott from The Anime Almanac	OutOfTimeProd from Out Of Time Productions	Erica Friedman from Okazu
Brigid from MangaBlog	Jon I. from JANAiBlog	Deb Aoki from About.com: Manga
NYAF from New York Anime Festival	Vince A	Edward Sizemore from Comics Worth Reading
Greg	funimation	Michael Pinto from Anime.com
TOKYOPOP	DJ Ranma S from Anime Jam Session	Dave from Subatomic Brainfreeze
ANN_Bamboo	Narutaki from Reverse Thieves	Carl from Ogiue Maniax
Kyle Hebert	Peter Tatara from New York Anime Fest	Reni Mimura from ReniReni.com
Patz from The Gaming Dungeon	Ed Chavez from Vertical Inc.	Hisui from Reverse Thieves
bandaient

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“Well, Mell was swell as hell.”

On Site:

Scott from The Anime Almanac	Jon I. from JANAiBlog	Kim
Edward Sizemore from Comics Worth Reading	animevice from Anime Vice	Greg
Peter Tatara from New York Anime Fest	OutOfTimeProd from Out Of Time Productions	Alex from alexleavitt.com
Carl from Ogiue Maniax	DJ Ranma S from Anime Jam Session	Vampt Vo from Ani-Gamers
Toshifumi Yoshida	Narutaki from Reverse Thieves	Patz from The Gaming Dungeon
funimation	bandaient	Hisui from Reverse Thieves
Frederik L. Schodt from Homepage

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On site today:

Scott from The Anime Almanac	Kim	Jon I. from JANAiBlog
animenext from AnimeNEXT	Hisui from Reverse Thieves	Narutaki from Reverse Thieves
OutOfTimeProd from Out Of Time Productions	Greg	Erica Friedman from Okazu
funimation	DJ Ranma S from Anime Jam Session	Toshifumi Yoshida
Kyle Hebert	Vince A	Carl from Ogiue Maniax

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On site / Soon to be on site:

Erica Friedman from Okazu	Kim	Hisui from Reverse Thieves
Scott from The Anime Almanac	animenext from AnimeNEXT	Vince A
DJ Ranma S from Anime Jam Session	Narutaki from Reverse Thieves	Vampt Vo from Ani-Gamers
Kyle Hebert

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One time when I was getting a job interview for an entry level position, my potential employer took a good look over my resume.

“So I see you’re really into this anime stuff,” he said. Since I had run a number of anime clubs in college and minored in Japanese, it was a pretty obvious theme through out my resume.

“Yes,” I told him, “I collect Japanese animation and Japanese comic books.”

I am a little worried about bringing up this subject at job interviews. How would these potential employers interpret my hobby? Would they consider it unique and interesting, or would they think it was silly and childish?

But luckily for me, he seemed to have a very favorable impression on the medium.

“You know, the best book I have ever read about business and business practices was a Japanese comic book. I couldn’t believe how educational it was. I learned so much from that one book.”

And a week later, he hired me for the job.

So when No Starch Press sent me over their current selection of The Manga Guide to… educational series, I remembered what my boss had said about learning his trade from just one comic book. Can manga actually be used in education?

After reading through three books that have been released in the series, I can confidently say that yes, manga does make a great educational tool.

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The Japanese novel To the Ends of the Earth and Sea – the story of Mongolian leader Genghis Khan – recently saw two different adaptations. The first was an epic live-action film in 2007. A co-production between Japan and Mongolia, the Genghis Khan movie won over the critics thanks to its lavish Mongolian locations and its battle scenes involving thousands of actors. The movie went on to top Asian box office charts and saw a limited theatrical run in America before being recently released on DVD and Blu-Ray by our good friends at FUNimation.

Around the same time, Japanese publisher Flex Comics created its own manga adaptation of the novel and published the single-volume release in 2008. Thanks to Flex’s partnership with DC Comics and its CMX Manga imprint, the comic has been translated into English and is now available in the US to go along with the movie.

This story explores the early life of the future leader of the Mongolian Empire back when he was only known as Temujin. He encounters Jamuqa, a boy from a rival tribe. After saving each other from the attack of wild animals, the two form a bond between them as “blood brothers.” But as the two grow older, they must battle each other for tribal dominance and the glory of being the sole leader of the Mongolian empire.

With such a story revolving around one of the greatest conquerors in human history, you would expect the comic to an epic tale of blood, pride, and victory, right?

Unfortunately, this manga adaptation of Khan fails to capture any of the awesomeness of its real-life hero… or of the movie, for that matter.

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