Anime Screenshot Collections

Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts

September 21, 2011

What Makes Anime Popular?

What is it that makes Japanese animation popular, not only youth but adults as well? I remember a few years ago when I was a student at university freshmen and I am addicted to Japanese anime "Dragon Ball Z". In fact, it even gave the famous American cartoon "The Simpsons" a run for its money in my book.

What I find strange that the "Dragon Ball Z" is about 39 episodes per season, but if you want to write an overview of the whole season you can do in just about one paragraph. I think you can add all the meat from the whole season in just that one paragraph. Here is basically what I ...

...

So, back to the original question, what makes Japanese animation so popular? It could be this humble author's opinion, but I would say the action is still much lethal violence. The best example of "The Simpsons" is probably the most popular U.S. cartoon comedy based cartoon. In fact most of the newer American cartoons are based on a comedy or a mystery to some extent (Yes, Scooby Doo, I'm looking at you ).

In the 1980s America has its share of action cartoons like "Transformers," "Thunder Cats" and "He-Man", but in the late 80s came by the majority of American action cartoon. A big issue with "Akira" on video in 1990, and subsequently the mind blowing action / Gore, who came with him, most American cartoons fans immediately turned their eyes to Japan.Film stuck his "ghetto" at the door and made their debut in Japanese animation in the West.

in 1990-newer American cartoons such as "Batman" and "Superman" came out and were enjoying the majority of American action cartoon lovers, but only those few American cartoons had left much time for other actions of animation from Japan to fill gap. With the amount of older Japanese anime were translated along with Japan's fresh anime, there are plenty of Japanese components in the western market. Therefore, this author believes that the Japanese anime happened to come along to the west at just the right time, and now it will not be leaving here anytime soon. S.B.

September 07, 2011

5 Important Tips For Making Japanese Friends

1 Do not be aggressive - The Japanese are inherently "shy" when it comes to strangers. Japanese society is very rigid and follows the strict social traditions based on honor, pride and respect. Trying too hard to continue to Japanese friends who are not interested in you will never work. In fact, the best way to defeat the Japanese slowly over time, so it does not appear simply interested in sex or "showing off" type of relationship. In other words, do not ask for phone numbers for the first time to meet someone!

2 We're not talking about the Anime / Manga - Contrary to popular belief, most Japanese people are addicted to anime or manga. In fact, the word "otaku", which refers to someone who is worrying is dependent on the medium (the hentai) is derogatory in Japan. If you are "Otaku" type of person, you will probably scare away most reasonable Japanese people. They will probably think you're creepy.

3 Do not try to be Japanese - Also contrary to popular belief, not to "impress" Japanese girls or boys, knowing a lot of Japanese words and Kanji symbols. They can pretend to be impressed, but mostly they will think you're creepy, yet again. Knowing everything about Japanese history and the J-pop singers and movie only will you look like a weirdo for most Japanese. Remember, the Japanese are interested in foreign cultures, so that they remain a stranger! Learning fluent Japanese will only waste time and break your heart. (In fact, most people secretly hate foreigners or Japanese "gaijins" to "move" in Japan too long ... love visitors, or english penpals, but they hate each other "wannabe" ninjas .)

4 They have a purpose for sex - Japanese people, even those who are interested in a great party or in English, still prefer to have some sort of order to their relationships. If those who study abroad in America, for example, guys can help each other with a movable or errands, or practice English together, or have fun together if both do not have many other friends, etc. This kind of friendship where there is mutual benefit, has long term potential, even when a Japanese friend returning home. However, after the departure of Japanese just because they are "interested in their culture" does not sit well with Japanese people.

5 Find Japanese who are internationally oriented - Believe it or not, even though Japan is super modern country, many Japanese prefer to keep to myself. They buy Japanese products, watch Japanese television shows (generally), and wish the Japanese spouses and friends. That's what they know and trust. However, things are slowly changing, and there are many Japanese who have become very interested in learning English, working or living in other countries, even from non-Japanese people. These are usually Japanese men who have been more outgoing, or "abnormal" in their own country. Therefore, these types of Japanese may be too flirty, silly or crazy ... but at least are interested in you!

March 11, 2011

Earthquake

My knowledge of earthquakes is sorely lacking. I remember taking a physical science class in 8th grade, and learning all about how tectonic plates cause them--they stretch apart and then when the pressure becomes too much they'll snap back together and there's your earthquake. The more pressure, the stronger the snap, the bigger the earthquake. But my personal experience...well I've never been in an earthquake.

However, I think most of us probably know by now that Japan was just struck by a huge earthquake.

I began following the news about 3am my time (it was afternoon there) and listened, horrified and saddened by what was happening there. I went to bed at 5:30, knowing I needed sleep, but I'm up again now and back listening to what's happening from the same live broadcast source I was using earlier. If you're interested, it's here: http://yokosonews.com/live/. (I'm sure that link won't work in the future, but for now...)

Airports are shut down right now, flights canceled, some areas completely devastated. From what I've heard, if you were planning a trip you should definitely check on your area before you decide whether or not to cancel. If you were heading to Tokyo, put it off. Sendai, definitely cancel--Sendai is in terrible, terrible shape. However, if you're going to Osaka or Kyoto, you should be fine. Katz (the broadcaster, for anyone who didn't follow the link) says if you're going to somewhere that's in pretty good condition, to definitely still come, to cheer them up. I couldn't help smile when he said that.

Anyway.

I'd just like to say that we all need to keep the Japanese people in our thoughts, our prayers (for those of us who are religious).

That is all.

February 11, 2009

Kanu Unchou Maid Ver. - By GoodSmile

Hello all! I know it's been a LONG time since the past post, which was my first music post, but I swear I have a good excuse! Actually, I have a few. After classes ended last semester I was planning to make more posts here, but little did I know that I had less than a couple of weeks worth of vacation, and life off the internet took priority there. Christmas time came, and I got the new Nikon D40 that I asked for, so I have been doing a little experimenting with it, trying to get used to it. It's rather difficult for someone who has never used an SLR before, digital or not. Anyway, down to business. I recently purchased the maid version Kanu Unchou off of a Dannychoo.com member, drakanity, so I thought I would go ahead and do my first formal figure review on her, especially since I have a DSLR to take some nice pics with now. ^^

This Kanu figure isn't a brand new release or anything, but she is quite lovely. She's listed as a "Wani Books" figure, but she was actually sculpted by Good Smile Company, and I have as of yet to be disappointed with Good Smile.

Her skirt is castoff-able (pics at the end of the article ^^), but it's too bad that her top isn't. :p

I read multiple reviews on her before I decided to purchase, something I suggest everyone do before making a figure purchase, even if they are sure that they will like the figure. One review I read mentioned her boots, which happen to be somewhat of a vibrant, semi-dark color blue, which, of course, does not seem to match her outfit at all. This would be the only complaint I have -- as they look more fitting of Ryomou than Kanu, but it's most definitely not that significant of an error in my mind.

I love her maid outfit, it gives her sort of a more girlish, cute look, while retaining her strength and elegance.

In quite a few of these pictures you can see the way Good Smile sculpted her hair, which is quite amazing. Very detailed, lots of work went into her hair, and the entire figure at that.

If anyone were considering buying this figure, I would wholeheartedly recommend it. It's an excellent sculpt, paint job, and general figure design. Definitely worth the money.

Also, not much, but at least a little yoko-pai (side of the "eyes," if you do not know what I mean by "eyes" then you may want to visit dannychoo.com and do a little research) is exposed, always nice to see. ^^

Also, these are the first pictures I have watermarked. I'm not very experienced when it comes to digital photography, whether it be actually taking pictures, or working with them in a photo editor, but I tried my best to make a good looking watermark. I ended up watermarking each photo by hand, individually, for two reasons. One, I don't have a batch watermarker (anyone know of any for windows? ^^.) Two, I had finally found a good looking design/color combo for my watermark text, but it didn't contrast enough with the white snow, so I had to tweak certain images by hand to get the contrast right.

Well, I'll stop babbling on and finish this article off with the remainder of the photos. Any and all feedback on my photo taking/editing skills is welcome, as I am trying to improve however I can. Also, just a little heads up. Here start the cast off photos, not too risque though, so shouldn't matter for most. ^^

I had promised more music posts previously, and they most definitely will be coming. For now, posts will be unpredictable, just as my current school schedule is. x.x Also, I am taking a web design class, and my final project is supposed to be a custom designed web page. As such, I am thinking of using that project as an opportunity to improve this blog. I might end up overhauling the entire design of this site, and hosting it on my own in the (somewhat) near future.

I know I don't have very many readers, but what would you like to see on this site?

November 22, 2008

Update and J-Music

Above is "Last Song", a nice slower song from my favorite Japanese artist, Gackt.

Hello all, I know it's been quite a long time since my last update; I've been very busy with school. I've been doing English 1A, History 17, PHP programming, and an Internet class. This post is actually, in part, for the internet class, as part of what the instructor wants the class to do. My semester will be ending relatively soon, so I will most definitely take advantage of that and post quite a bit more.

Anyway, this post, along with another few posts will cover J-Music (J-Music stands for "Japanese-Music" for those of you who might not know). They will also, all have youtube video links. It will be a little bit each day since I don't have the time to sit down and compile large posts just yet. I hope these posts can expose J-Music to Western culture a bit more, maybe help break down some of the ideas that people hold about Japan, for instance, the idea that Japan is entirely traditional and doesn't have modern music and styles. I've heard that one out of many people before. ^^;

First, I'll start off with some J-Rock. There are many artists that are known quite well in America already, but there are many more which have almost no fan basis in America. I'll include a bit of both.

Another moderately slow song from Gackt, who, while being classified as mainly J-Rock, kind of isn't. He has rockish sounding songs, but many of his songs are actually slower. Another interesting thing to note, J-Rock could be metal, screamo, slower rock, just about anything that falls under rock, and is by a Japanese band. As such, some harder rock will be coming after Gackt. ^^

"Rain" by Gackt.

By the way, I've been trying to take some good figure photos for reviews, but I just can't seem to get good ones with a point and shoot camera, so I'll hopefully be getting a DSLR soon. *Crosses fingers for Christmas* xD

This is the last one I'll post from Gackt, and is also a faster song, more of what you might expect to hear when you think of "J-Rock". For those who may be interested, there are many sources of information about Japanese artists on the internet (along with artists of every other nationality), so I will post a link to some wikipedia information for each of them.

"Returner (Yami no Shuuen)" by Gackt.

Now for some harder rock. It might be a good idea for me to tell you all a bit about "Visual Kei" (lit. Visual Style in english.) Some people like this style, other hate it, but quite a lot of the harder J-Rock comes from bands that are Visual Kei (which can also be shortened to "Visu", something that I will be doing from now on.) One of the things that many people hate about Visu is the fact that many of the members in different bands look at least slightly androgynous. If people don't like this then that's fine, but there is no reason to judge how good a band is based upon their looks, even though Visu is based upon looks. xD

Here is a couple of videos from what is probably one of the most well known Visu bands, especially in America, Dir en Grey. They have had many different looks and styles of music over the years, but that helps to make them quite a versatile band.

Let me warn you now, Dir en grey does have screamo sounding songs, and some of the videos I link may not be entirely appropriate for younger audiences. :p

"Saku" by Dir en grey

Die en grey is actually a band that's been around for a while, they has their classic Visu days:

"Akuro no Oka" by Dir en grey

And, finally, my favorite song and music video by Dir en grey. This video is, to say the least, very crazy, most definitely not appropriate in many workplaces, and may be hated by many people. But I love it. ^^

"Obscure" by Dir an grey

Two or three more artists left for this post. Next will be a group called Maximum the Hormone, definitely among my favorites.

This first song is the second opening song for the anime "Death Note".

What's Up People! by Maximum the Hormone.

One of my favorite songs.

"Koi no Mega Lover" by Maximum the Hormone

I'll just post one up from this next band, the GazettE. I am only going to post one up for two reasons, one, it's their best song, and two, it's the only song of theirs that immediately comes to mind as one of my favorites. Not that their other songs are no good, they actually have many good songs, but none are nearly as good as this one, at least in my opinion.

Since I'm now running a bit short on time, this will be the last band for this post, more to come later. UVERworld, a band that might be known in America due to the use of one fo their songs in the anime "Bleach". That song is this next one.

"D-Technolife" by UVERworld.

UVERworld is a bit more of a softer rock band, not so metal sounding, but I love all types of music, hopefully everyone else might take this sort of point of view too. ^^

"Chance!" by UVERworld.

Last song of this post, it's a moderately slower song by UVERworld, nice to listen to. :p

"Kimi no Suki na uta" by UVERworld.

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed this post, and maybe became interested in some new bands, there are many more to come, and my posts will never be meant to be comprehensive, as there are so very many different bands out there.

November 10, 2008

Japanese Charity Fiesta & Bazaar

Just yesterday, I was at a Japanese charity fiesta & bazaar, organized by the Japan Club of Kuala Lumpur.

To say the least, I was disappointed.

This event was held at Hotel Nikko, and to enter, I had to pay an on-the-spot ticket fee of RM15.

Despite being a Japanese bazaar, there wasn't really that much Japanese stuff to buy. A lot of items there could be obtained locally. There weren't even any geta for sale. :(

Entrance to the ballroom

The place was pretty packed

This was, perhaps, one of the few items worth looking into- pottery.

Being a bazaar for the public, I did not expect to see any otaku goods here, but lo and behold, there was one table that featured some old otaku goods.

There were tons of books, magazines, and supposedly limited edition GitS shirts.

There were tons of old magazines, and a lot with Evangelion at the front page. There were also some CDs for sale there, though they didn't really look legit. ^^;

There was a vast variety of items, but, as I mentioned earlier, most of it could be obtained locally.

There was lots of Japanese food too, but even the food was the kind that could be easily found like food from Jusco, Yokomon, and Beard Papa.

While most other tables were selling out, this table remained unvisited. The food here was less unique, anyway

Needless to say, the food there was pretty expensive. All I had was this strawberry-flavor coated waffle that cost me RM3.

The strawberry flavor didn't come out very well, but the waffle itself was pretty good. Overall, it was an okay snack.

Though the goods there were not really worth looking at, they had some other attractions as well, such as this-

Demonstration of how to prepare tea in the traditional, Japanese way.

There were also three games to play, though I only saw kids playing them.

Had absolutely no idea how to play these game though.

Except this one, maybe

But the best attraction was this- try on a kimono(?) for a certain price, and have your photo taken against a backdrop (there was a nice backdrop which I did not take a picture of).

Of all the girls and guys on stage, this one little fella got a lot of attention from photographers.

Overall, my friends and I agreed that this event wasn't worth the RM15 entry fee. But since that RM15 is going to charity, it's all good.

Safe to say, I won't be attending this event anymore in the future.

September 13, 2008

Fall 2008 Anime List

The new Fall anime list is out! I would like to thank Denizen over at myanimelist.net for making this list. By the way, click for a much larger image. ^^

Which of these anime are on your to watch list? I have a lot of them on my list, but I'm most looking forward to Rosario + Vampire Capu2, Penguin Musume Heart 2nd Club, Clannad: After Story, Kemeko Deluxe, and Vampire Knight Guilty.

Found via dannychoo.com news items, posted by member, Sie Kensou.

September 04, 2008

Opening of Good Smile English site

As you may or may not have heard by now, Good Smile Company has opened an English version of their website. The website is being run on Danny Choo's web platform, Mirai Gaia. Danny was, of course, the first to announce this great achievement. In his post, he also made mention of the fact that he is now part of Good Smile's "International Strategy team", they are aiming to make figures more easily available to people all over the globe. Very good news for all of us not in Japan right now.

With such great a great achievement and, I'm quite sure, many more to come, I do believe we have much to look forward to in the otaku community.