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August 2011

Christianity in Anime

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      As with much cultural media that comes from overseas, some of the content that is displayed in these works can be deemed to be offensive in other countries. A classic example of this is from the anime Space Battleship Yamato, renamed Star Blazers when it came to America due to the fact that the battleship Yamato was obviously named after the Japanese battleship used in World War Two. This whole adaptation can be seen in many other countries that participated in the war, such as Italy (part of the Axis) and France (who was the first to surrender, rather quickly I might add) titled the anime “La Corazzata Spaziale Yamato” and “Yamato, le Cuirassé de l’Espace” respectively. However Spain titled it’s anime version “Estrellas Luminosas”. So censorship in order to prevent cultural problems has appeared in times previously. Now however, with greater connection between Japan and the U.S. less is being censored from foreign releases. So now we get into the main topic. There are few anime out there that have strong Christian themes such as Neon Genesis Evangelion but there are many different anime that only use them as a base or small theme such as Hellsing or other vampire anime. The latter seems to be becoming more popular with some anime and manga having angels who are obviously based (and sometimes even named) after biblical angels, and also includes devils, but the devils can often be the good guys, only in anime. Or even the more subtle references such as having a moe nun (1/2 lbs. Gospel) or having a church be a focal point in the story, although it has become an orphanage ( Ef ~ A Tale of Melodies).
     Obviously with such information exchange as we have today we aren’t going to get much if any extremist religion in anime, but it still appears readily enough in anime and manga aimed for children and young adults where it is not the focal point in itself, it is just a base to build the rest of the story upon. For example Hellsing the cross is used as a weapon against the vampires but I doubt many crosses appear in the recent vampire love novels that have been flooding the shelves. In this way people may argue that it is because Japan does not have a strong Christian base, and while this may be true as only 2.0% of Japanese are Christian, in the information age countries must be very careful about what they release knowing that other countries will see it. The Japanese do not shy away from the Shinto beliefs that their country was based upon either, featuring them much more prominently than Christianity. So Japan is relatively open to displaying religions in a not so good/pure light (moe, ecchi, hentai, bad guys, world destruction just to name a few from anime.), and how does that effect which anime move over to the U.S.? In the end not much it seems. Anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion was still a huge hit in the U.S., the anime A Certain Magical Index and Blue Exorcist was licensed and released by FUNimation, Wolfwood the gunslinging priest still captured the hearts of more fans and fangirls during the Trigun: Badlands Rumble, and other instances where anime that danced along the fine line of insulting Christianity have been accepted. And we all know that somewhere in the house we have a body pillow with a moe nun on it, right?
Sincerely,

~Folium

P.S. I am an Atheist and don’t pretend to be an expert on on Christianity or Religion in general. If there is any problems with what I have written please contact me at msnbliss@gmail.com, thanks.

 

Fairy Cube by Kaori Yuki, Volume 3

Anime & Manga Reviews & News #1: Fairy Cube and D Gray Man

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Hello, faithful addicts of anime! I’m very pleased to meet you all, and super psyched be a part of the AAA blog. I’d like to kick back with you guys each week with a few reviews of my personal favorites, new and old classics-and even the stuff that should be labeled DO NOT TOUCH-in the world of  anime and manga. As I continue to blog, I hope you’ll check some of the titles that may be a little less familiar to you. In any case, I hope you guys all dig the reviews! Here we go:

 

Manga Review: Fairy Cube by Kaori Yuki

Ian is not quite like the rest of his classmates. He’s always been gifted with the power to see spirits and fairies that are roaming around in our world. However, nobody but his old childhood friend Rin believes in “Ian the Liar”. After a series of tragic events, Ian is dead and his “Other Self”, the lizard spirit Tokage, has taken over his body and stolen Rin for himself. Ian burns with revenge, risking everything for vengeance, even that which isn’t his to sacrifice.

Overall, this is a good manga, albeit a bit confusing at times. This 3-volume miniseries by the artist of Godchild and Angel Sanctuary is elaborately drawn and paced like a mystery slasher film. The character designs are nice to look at, the scenery is positively beautiful, and the characters themselves are generally very complex and lovely.

Now for the drawbacks. It took me until my third read-through to fully understand the antagonist’s motivations, and even then the conflicts weren’t fully explained. And while I do enjoy the manga”s pacing, the panels are a bit too small at times, which makes the action read faster and it becomes more confusing if you don’t take the time to stare at all the details. And who wants to do that?

Overall, it’s a decent series, and even if you don’t get it at first, it’s a short enough series so that you can just re-read it if you didn’t quite get it. It’s a nice series, it covers a lot of faerie culture, so I recommend giving it a shot if you’re a fantasy fan.

 Anime Review: D Gray Man, manga by Katsura Hoshino, anime by TMS, dub by FUNimation Entertainment

 

Allen Walker is a guileless fifteen year old with a depressing past: his adopted father, fresh from the grave, scarred his left eye, which sealed Allen’s fate as an Exorcist. Allen joins the Black Order, a gathering of Exorcists from around the world, who are trying to rid the world of Akume, a weaponlike demon creature that is born from the grief of a loved one. Allen, the angst-ridden Yuu Kanda, cheerful Lavi, caring Lenalee, and the eccentric Komui Lee, to name a few, are hell-bound on a mission to destroy the Akuma and collect a mysterious substance known as Innocence, which gives the Exorcists their incredible fighting powers. To make matters more complicated, fighting the Black Order every step of the way are the mysterious Millennium Earl and Noah family. 

 

As confusing this premise seems, this is an unusual anime with a lot of great aspects. There is drama, humor, and each character had their own unique desires and ambitions and aren’t afraid to step out and fight for what they want. A lot of characters have some interesting and even funny quirks, such as Allen’s penchant for gambling (and cheating), Kanda eating only soba and calling Allen “bean sprout” (“short stack” in the dub) because he’s short. The show is never predictable, full of unusual plot twists and arcs that involve some pretty weird stuff, such as a town that lives in a never ending time loop when only one townsperson notices(think Groundhog Day). The battles are intense, the antagonists alternating from just plain weird to being completely scary, and the whole anime is wrapped up in a bow with gorgeous, smooth animation and character design and a killer soundtrack. Seriously folks, if you haven’t heard your fill of this title by now, it’s a must-see, and if you’re a music addict (like me) in addition to being an anime addict, a must-add to your MP3 player. (Here’s the Season One opening theme: Innocent Sorrow)

 

Well, thanks for reading, fellow Addicts, and I’ll see you next week for more anime and manga to recommend (or just remind you to steer clear of)!!

This is DJ, signing off! Have a nice one! Ja-ne!!~

94

Episode #94

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Otakon 2011

Episode 94: (Right Click and “Save Target As” to Download)

[mp3player width=177 height=20 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml file=https://www.aaapodcast.com/aaapodcast_episode94.mp3]


 

– Opening –

Opening Song:

Sekai wa Odoru Yo from the anime Kimi to Ikoku Meiro no Croisee by the artist Youmou to Ohana

 

New Forum Members:

Awesomesauce, lord_zarfax, foshizzel, akachan_00, Mad_hash, Grim-Noir, t’akyoura77, incomparablemrwu, paul + brandy, Yupa, Pro Golfer Saru, Darkwave1062, walboro, purplecarp, yingchun, boss coffee, dreyzok, gundamwing2k11, jannypan, xanatos gambit, bhatnagar.ashish001, zerofate, jh226, alleybell

Trivia

Answer: Gurren Lagann

Correct Answers: Grisly Bear, Yellowdays, lil2nutty, mr. wolf, solrogue, macrossdresser, animefan55, thaivun, pryxer, robertthecrimson, the blacktiger, GNDM-Exia, Kiddtic, apocalipse369, negimudkip, yupa, erisan101, stopthehumens

Week Winner: Apocalipse369

Happy Birthday To:

YellowBarron, BoringKittens (32), Kapwan (26), elvenbladerogue (24), BravoGangUS (19), Mitsugi!(26), geekzy (46), ateseusesque (44)

The A.A.A. Mailbag

Submitted by: Z-Comix

Question: 

So recently I was Checking out the prices for tickets to Otakon 2011
since I live a Metro ride’s distance from the Baltimore Convention
Center. I the price of tickets was already biting into my personal
money, but then I factored in the price of a hotel, travel expenses,
food and poket money for cool stuff I might wanna get at the Con, the
price became much larger that I had first percieved. With cons being
out of state, and real-life to attend to like jobs and bills how do
you guys save/budget you money and time for Cons? Thanks, and hope you
guy have a good rest of the show!

A.A.A. Fantasy Football

Learn More here

Otakon Contest Winner

Andrea H
“I can’t just name one thing amazing about Otakon, because everything about it is awesome! You can literally do EVERYTHING here! Gaming, going to panels, dancing, concerts, and meeting your favorite voice actors are just some of the things that make you love to be there :)”

 

 

– Main Topic –

Otakon 2011!!

  • Otakon attendence and organization.
    • Record Attendance and attendance growth.
    • Overall good organization for a con but some organizational problems
      • Terrible organization of the Uemtasu events.
        • Q&A
        • Autographs
  • Panels
    • Late night voice actor panel
    • Remembering Satoshi Kon
    • Funimation Industry Panel
    • Gundum 00 Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer
  • Rave
  • Movie Premieres
    • Hoshi wo Ou Kodomo (NA Premiere)
    • Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (NA Dub premiere)
    • Trigun: Badlands Rumble (NA Dub Premiere)
    • FMA: Sacred Star of Milos (NA Premiere)
  • Press Events
    • Makoto Shinkai Press Conference
    • Play Clip of our questions from the Press Conference
  • Dinner Events
    • Sushi Restuarant
      • Bob Guardian
      • Brandy and Paul
      • Grim Noire and wifey (Shanghai)

 

– News Break –

– Impressions –

Blood-C – Mitsugi
R-15 – Roukou
Mawaru Penguindrum – Chiaki
Blade – Roukou

 

– News Break –


– Reviews –

The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya – Collective

Trigun: Badlands Rumble – Collective

 

– Closing –

Closing Song:

“Koko kara Hajimaru Monogatari” from the anime Ikoku Meiro no Croisse by the artist Nao Tōyama

 

L Lawliet’s Review-o-Rama: Nerima Daikon Brothers

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Helloooooooooooooooo AAA! Are you ready to rock and roll? How’d you like to make some quick cash with some fellows in snazzy outfits, a panda, and a radish farm, huh? Ladies and gentlemen, introducing the one, the ONLY…the Nerima Daikon Brothers!

Nerima Daikon Brothers is one of those shows you can marathon in one day, and repeat the process just to make sure that you watched what you thought you watched. What did you think you watched? A ridiculous, hilarious trip into sane insanity, if that makes any sense at all. As mentioned before, the plot revolves around the titular band-made up of big-dreamer daikon-farmer Hideki, money-grubbing gold-digger Mako, and pretty-boy part-time host Ichiro. They want to build a concert dome on their daikon farm, but they don’t have the money to do it. This is usually due to the money being blown by one or more of the band members, through one zany incident after another. They attempt to get back the money by thieving it, which leads to even zanier incidents. Along the way, they meet an…interesting cast of characters, and do quite a number of showtunes while they’re at it.

The series is only twelve episodes long, and it was directed by Watanabe Shinichi, who previously worked on Excel Saga, Pani Poni Dash, and other anime series. His trademark craziness is apparent in this show, and his author avatar, Nabeshin, as he does in various other shows, makes an appearance, which I’ll get into later. For now, let’s rock right in and talk characters. Oh, and for the record, I’ll be going by the English dubbed version. I’ll explain why in a little while.

Characters

Alright, let’s give a big round of applause to the Nerima Daikon Brothers themselves!

In the middle, we have Hideki, a young man with a big dream: to see crowds gather to listen to the band play at their own, personal concert dome. He’s very driven in this regard, as much of what he does is for the sake of the dome, and he’ll take any chance he can get to get the show on the road. Hot-tempered and hellbent, this is one farmer you don’t want to take lightly.

Coming up on the left is Mako, a conniving money-grubber (and money-blower). All she wants in life is to be famous and to own a lot of Dom Perignon wine. She sabotages her own efforts, though, by spending all of her and her bandmates’ cash on things like pachinko or plastic surgery. She is the object of Hideki’s affections, despite the fact that they’re cousins, and she continually rejects him by saying the constitution doesn’t allow it (protip-it does in Japan). Sneaky and scheming, you’ll want to keep a close eye on your wallet around her.

Last but not least, on the right, we have Ichiro, a silent-but-deadly type who works part-time at a host club. He’s the straight man to all of the others’ antics, and he talks in a monotone, quiet voice. He usually is the lone voice of reason in the band, not that the others will listen. He’ll willingly go along with what they do, but he’s occasionally the center of trouble himself.

Oh, and the little guy? That’s Pandaikon, a panda adopted by the band, Ichiro in particular.

Now, occasionally, the band gets into some trouble, always involving money. Who do they turn to? Boys and girls, give a warm Nerima welcome to…

…Pops! Or, as we know him, Nabeshin. In this series, Nabeshin appears as a rental shop owner who loans the band whatever they need, in exchange for a song. These rentals range from rocket launchers to underground drills. Sometimes, they get the band into further trouble-but they always come through in the end.

Now, to get right down to it, the band performs a lot of criminal actions. So, who do you call when there’s crime in town?

Inspector Gadget Widget, of course! This femme fatale begins investigating their crimes partway into the series, and ends up getting roped into their shenanigans. With a wide variety of gadgets and gizmos at her side, she’s a force to be reckoned with. Unless she comes into contact with Pandaikon. Then she’s all mushy.

Aside from these guys, there’s not many recurring characters aside from the villains of the last few episodes. So, there ends the band roll call. Let’s move onto the  meat of the show-music!

Music

Now, I mentioned earlier that I will be referring to the dub of NDB in this review. That’s because I find that it is more entertaining to watch than the original Japanese version. That’s not to say it’s bad-but it has more of a wacky charm to it in the English release than in its native language. A lot of dialogue and jokes get lost in translation, so some changes had to be made.

For instance, the theme songs are to the same tune, but while the Japanese is more low-key and similar to other anime theme songs, the English version seems to have more effort put into it, more like a Broadway showtune. Here’s a comparison of the two:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUXkboV7BHM&feature=related

 

 

^Japanese

^English

The songs in the episodes of NDB are all English dubbed, with the exception of one song in the final two episodes.  It’s an understandable change-you can’t have English-speaking characters suddenly speak Japanese (with one exception in the final episodes.)

Other times, the English dub just sounds better-and that’s a big deciding factor when music’s a heavy aspect of the show. For example, compare the Japanese version of NDB’s “Money” song-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMCKMk3WudY&feature=related

-to the English version.

It’s more peppy, more engaging, and downright funnier. It’s the better song for the show.

The leads in the English dub really gave it their all, and it shows. The show wouldn’t be the same if they had done it half-assed. They manage to take ridiculous-sounding (and sometimes downright offensive, but forgivable in the delivery) lyrics and make them pure comedy gold.

One last thing before we wrap this up-the big disclaimer.

WARNING! WARNING! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

NDB is a fairly adult show. It’s got references to various kinds of sexualities, incest, and swear words up the wazoo. If you can’t handle stuff like this, this isn’t the show for you. If you can, then it’ll be just fine. Just thought I’d mention it. Don’t want people going, “YOU NEVER TOLD ME THEY SAID F$%K! I GOT IN TROUBLE BECAUSE FAMILY HEARD IT!” or anything like that.

Are we clear? Good. Then enjoy the show.

Final Thoughts

NDB takes you on a rockin’ roller coaster of a ride, with its memorable cast and catchy tunes. But, at twelve episodes long, it leaves you wanting more. Many of the plots are formulaic, and the music is even repeated often, but that’s not something that should put you off. All in all, it’s worth the time, but don’t think too much while watching it.

I’m gonna give Nerima Daikon Brothers 4 1/2 dancing pandas out of five. Keep rockin’, keep farmin’ and let the music play.

SB-lt

Anime of Yesteryear presents: “That Little ol’ OVA: Sol Bianca”

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Darkness. That seems to be the last thing I remember before blacking out on a depressing friday night to a whiskey and coke binge, holding on to my obscure anime VHS collection to pass the time. All I remember was popping in one of my personal favorite OVA’s with space pirate babes in red armor, neon monofilament wires dancing through laser fire to the hypnotic movements of feminine physique, and the occasional tyrant getting his holy butt handed to him by these valkyries of cosmic space. When I came too, I found myself waking to these pirate goddesses (minus the kid in the ponytail. I don’t do the loli complex, sorry kid) who were nursing me back from my hungover depression, and began to tell their tale of plunder, adventure, and the occasional stop to drop off a kid on some backwater planet in the (un)known galaxy…

This it the tale of that “little ol’ OVA” of Sol Bianca. This is my first anime review, and my first blog post for the AAA Podcast. I’d figure I would just start by talking about the anime a little, add some detail here and there, and then give my background and opinion on it. I don’t know if that is how “things are done” in the anime blogging review world, but this is my blog and I call the shots. So if you want out, use that lazy hand of yours and move the mouse to the back button at the top and left click. So now that those “people” have left and some of you are around to read this, good for you… or bad, eh whatever.

Sol Bianca takes us into space somewhere, which we see a ship captain determining the quality of gold he has in his hands when outta no where, we see neon lines cut the ship into parts and are boarded by people in space armor armed with monofilament wire and guns. It is then realized that these people are pirates… that happen to be women. After the pirates take the cargo off the ship on to their ship, the “Sol Bianca,” they happen to stumble (which I mean use a gun to shoot off a cargo lock) upon a stowaway by the name of Rim who wants to go to the planet Tres… which is all he says the first 10 some minutes. The pirates are not- OH GOOD GOD, I forgot to introduce you to them! We have Posh Pirate, Scary Pirate, Baby Pirate, Sporty Pirate and Ginger Pirate, which make up the Spice Girls-er, the pirates of the Sol Bianca (ok so there show names are April, Feb, Janny, May and June). Each have their own unique personalities as Feb being the drunk one and captain, April being second in command (and doing well, most of the work) Janny the tomboy, May being the youngest one and the only one who can pilot a mech, and June being the computer wiz.

"If you wanna be my lover, then you gotta get on this ship"

So yea, the all girl pirate band don’t seem that interested to help there unwelcome guest, but Rim states on Tres there is something called the “Golden Box,” which holds all the secrets to the universe. And as a nice consolation prize, there is a ton of gold and sparkly crap they can have to hang around their necks. Enchanted by Rim’s offer, the girls set off to Tres to get the box and help Rim reunite with his parents (that was another reason he had to get there). Along the way they happen to run into Emperor Batros space force, headed by Tres dictator Batros. The girls use interdimensional travel to get past the ships and land a cruiser to the planet with April, Janny, June and Rim. After on the planet for less than 5 minutes, they get captured and sent to Tres “pound-me-in-the-vag” prison ( don’t worry, there is zero rape in this anime, you can relax now). In the meantime, May and Feb are chilling out in space to get the ship repaired and outta sight from Batros forces due to their last encounter. While that is happening we see Batros take Rim and the others to where the Golden Box is, and Rim finds his mom, in the same state as Han Solo was in Return of the Jedi as a “carbonite ice cube.”

We cut to April, Janny and June about to be beheaded in front of the planet for the shear purpose of Batros proving to everyone not to mess with him when April gets a call that Feb (hung over at this point) stating in good faith that she will rescue them. This begs to question, how can someone in space rescue someone on a planet within say… 2 minutes give or take? Well lucky for them, on the girls looting spree at the beginning of this anime, they get a long range space sniper rifle, which some hundreds of miles above the planet, Feb will attempt to snipe Bartos army in her condition. If this doesn’t spell awesome and crazy at the same time, I really am not sure what will for you guys.

So with “pinpoint” accuracy ( I cannot stress that word “pinpoint”), Feb is able to get her shipmates out of a bad situation by using something only Golgo 13 hasn’t been able to do yet, even if he was sober to do it. What happens next… you guys will just have to find out.

"Alright guys, not to alarm you or anything, but I might be looking at the wrong execution. Where are you located again?"

I am gonna try and cut these OVA stories a bit short for you guys so it can leave you on a cliffhanger and going “OHMHAIGAWD WHATS GUNNA HAPPEN NEXT? I SO GOTTA SEE THIS!” Well, that is how I have it planned out in my mind so I don’t spoil it and your left with “eh… sounds ok” and go back to tweeting or whatever you do on those phones your parents gave you to shut you up.

This anime I gotta say has really good character chemistry and great animation for an OVA at the time which makes it so unique to me. It has plenty of action to go around and its just a good ol’ hour long fun anime to watch. But I wanna get into my personal story on how I came to this anime and why it is my favorite. Back in high school (sophmore year in 2002) I was at a new school with new friends. During this time I borrowed whatever anime I could lay my hands on at the time (I saw Eva for the first time on half sub/dub VHS tapes, that is how the big dogs roll up in here son) from my fellow “otaku” classmates, which became good friends with during those couple of years. One of my friends recorded anime off the Encore Action channel about 2001/02 or so, before I met him, and on his tape was Grappler Baki, Tekken (which I could NOT WATCH, and still can’t to this day) and this little unknown gem called Sol Bianca. I remember popping this in my my brothers VHS/8” inch portable TV in my room on a school night (chances are it was on a school night) and within the first 5 minutes I was hooked. By the time it was done, all I wanted to do was think about that anime and somehow getting my hands on it. The version I saw that I remember was the dub version, which seems is incredibly hard to track down for some reason (can’t find it online either).

It wasn’t until about a year later I would say, that I was at my local Coconuts (a video store set up just like Suncoast, only it was overtaken by FYE a couple of years later) and going through the VHS bin I saw it, my first love on VHS, subtitled and still wrapped up in plastic. And like love, it always comes at a hefty price, for 30 bucks. This was some time before the VHS market crashed and tapes were cheap as dirt. But I didn’t care, because I wanted that copy before someone else had the chance to get it. So on that day I bought my copy and went home that night and watched it, and have not regretted getting it since that day.

Sol Bianca is my personal “first love anime,” which to everyone of us our first love is either the kind of anime that maybe the world shuns on or the kinda people put up higher on the pedestal than what it needs to be. But it was “that” anime that made you fall in love with japanese animation, or try to spend months sometimes years tracking down those animation cels for your collection for something maybe 10 people at most may know about, or too many. Yea, its not that great an anime, I have no problem admitting that. And yea, the sequel and revamp OVA that came later isn’t really that good, I have to admit that too. But this one is just special to me, and has yet to break my heart through another bad remake or someone taking a huge dump on it in the industry. It came to me a the right moment and started me off to the person I am today… writing an anime blog on the A.A.A. Podcast. If I can compare Toonami to my anime fandom as climbing up the small hill on a bike, then Sol Bianca was the very beginning inertia to propel me down a large hill of anime fandom at full speed.

I guess to sum me up, I’m a 90’s kid who became an anime fan without really realizing it. I am probably considered a first generation Toonami fan, and it kinda came into full circle from there. I am a fan of history and the past, so older animes are kinda my thing, because everything today just seems so generic and the same ol’ bullcrap to me. If you liked my review, fell free to comment and check out my personal blog at http://animeofyesteryear.blogspot.com/.

images

Never Finished Darker than Black…

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The character I've named myself after.

…Yet I’ve chosen my blogging pseudonym to be Shion after Suou’s one-eyed brother from the anime. I like the name, possibly because it sounds similar to my real-life name, so I picked, but I’ve only ever watched maybe ten episodes of Darker than Black before dropping it and watching something else. Anyways…

Hello fellow Anime Addicts Anonymous podcast listeners and enthusiasts! I’m a student studying at UC Berkeley way over in sunny California and I’ve been an anime and manga buff for a great many years. It was only quite recently that I was exposed to the Anime Addicts Anonymous podcast hosted by the very amazing and funny team of Mitsugi, Chiaki, Roukou, and Kimiko, but I was instantly hooked. I’ll admit it upfront right now; after listening to a few of the ‘normal’ episodes, I went and downloaded every single hentai episode onto my iPhone and had to hold my stomach inside of myself from laughing at Roukou’s drunk antics, Chiaki’s steamy hentai impressions, and just the plain fact that I was listening to reviews of hentai, of all things. Luckily for me my brother didn’t choose that day to sneak up on me and snatch my earphones away to find out what I was listening to (an annoying habit of his).

For most of my life, I have lived here in California, where beautiful sunny weather is such a commonplace that most Californians take it for granted. I grew up around my fellow Asian-Americans, so exposure to anime was something that could not be avoided. The very first generation of Pokemon (what are they on now, like thirty?), Digimon, Dragon Ball Z, the original Yu-Gi-Oh, and Miyazaki’s epic films were all every-present staples during my childhood. All of them hold a dear place within my heart as fond memories, but in middle school I began watching anime that could be described as less ‘kiddy’ (if I remember correctly, it may have been Ouran High School Host Club). Don’t get me wrong though, a ‘kiddy’ anime doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t enjoyable; it’s just intended for a younger audience. On occasion, I’ve watched episodes of Digimon: Xross Wars and Yu-Gi-Oh Zexal and found them to be quite entertaining and nostalgic.

Anime is only one of a few hobbies of mine (*gasp*), but it is a passion I have indulged in much longer than my other hobbies, including writing fanfiction, running and exercising, or gaming. It is a passion that I see myself holding on to in the coming years and decades, where I may even pass it along to my own children eventually. Some of my friends, and especially my parents, see it as childish and silly. It’s clear that they equate anime with American cartoons, a comparison which I find quite insulting, both to myself as well as the anime industry as a whole. I think I can speak for anime-watchers in general when I say that anime is a way of life, something that we may all have been introduced to as children but which we never outgrow. What I love about anime and manga is how effectively they are able to convey a story, the depth of the characters, and the importance of the morals that anime teaches to those who watch it. Anime is not merely a form of entertainment or a time-sink; to me, watching a good anime conveys the same sorts of feelings I get when reading a good novel.

Another great aspect of being an anime enthusiast (I’m gonna refrain from using the term ‘otaku’) is the wonderful and lively community that has built up around the anime world. First and foremost in my mind are the groups who sub every single episode of every single anime that makes it across from Japan. To those amazing volunteers who provide a service that they really ought to be paid for providing, the world of anime that we all know and love would certainly have a much smaller audience; their services are greatly appreciated. Then, of course, there are those people who form the websites and online groups where anime enthusiasts gather to discuss and share their thoughts and opinions. Our very own aaapodcast.com is one among a sea of many. Anime enthusiasts, of course, love to talk about anime. What the hosts of the podcast do is simply their way of sharing their passion for anime. For others, writing reviews, drawing fanart, writing fanfiction, role-playing in online forums, and cosplaying are only the tip of the iceberg. Personally, I am one of the writers.

In the past, I wrote reviews and fanfiction. Now I am taking the leap into blogging, where I hope to write about anything anime-related that is on my mind. This first entry has touched upon a few things I’d like to delve deeper into when writing future posts. I haven’t decided on a specific structure yet, if I even want a structure in place at, or what I’m going to be focusing on in my writings, but I hope you’ll all join me in sharing my passion for anime and manga through my online writings.

songforjapan

Song for Japan

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Hey guys. I know this one is a bit late on the draw, but I just learned about this song at my trombone lesson this morning. These are some of the best Trombonists from around the world playing a song for the tragedies in Japan earlier this year. The harmonies from the groups in here really move me and speak to me, so I thought I’d pass it along for everyone who cares to read this to enjoy.

 

 

Best,

Phil Bohn

toarumajutsunoindex

“I Will Break this Illusion of Yours.”

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Hey gang. I’m about to leave on a 4-day biking trip down to D.C. with my dad, so I will not be posting for the rest of this week, but I hope this makes up for it. I will also be live tweeting the journey, so follow me @lamperouge98 to see some cool pictures and follow me down the East Coast. As usual, comments, requests, etc. are appreciated. I’m leaving it to you guys. You pick the next anime I review. And I’m giving you a week, so you have plenty of time.

 

http://youtu.be/t5XJvGM42gc

 

Best,

Phil Bohn

dantalian

Two Summer Impressions 2: Book of Secrets!

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Hello again everyone. I’m here doing two more impressions from the Summer Season, one of which I like, one of which I don’t. Which one is which? You decide! Actually, wait…I already decided. Hope you enjoy it anyway.

 

http://youtu.be/H4xoVV582lA

 

 

Best,

Phil Bohn