I produce this show out of my own pocket, primarily because of my love of all things anime and Japan. If you feel so inclined, a small donation to help offset my costs (server, bandwidth, equipment, etc.) would be much appreciated. Either make a purchase through one of our affiliates, or use the handy donation button below.
In light of last week’s mass protest against SOPA and PIPA, two destructive pieces of legislation winding their way through Congress, I thought it would be a good idea to examine in closer detail the issues that are at stake. There is a lot of good information out there; but there is also a lot of FUD, rumors, and just plain nonsense. One of my favorite podcasts recently discussed this issue in great detail, but framed in easy to understand language, and they have graciously allowed me to rebroadcast this segment on the Otaku no Podcast feed. I believe it deserves a listen.
In this segment Nosillacast host Allison Sheridan and her co-host Bart dissect the technical ramifications of SOPA and PIPA, discuss the issues at stake, and explain why we must continue to remain vigilant.
So does this mean we can relax, that we can declare “Mission accomplished” ? Not on your life. The powers of evil behind will not rest until their goals are achieved. There is still so much that can happen between now and January 24, when voting is set to begin on these bills. Bribes can be circulated. Lawmakers can sneak loopholes and other tools in at the 11th hour. And even if SOPA and PIPA go down, you know they’ll be back with something else. And it might even seem reasonable. But, believe you me, it isn’t. (It’s a trap!). We must remain ever vigilant, and continue to educate and inform our elected officials. Please keep on your Congress critters’ backs — give them something to think about come voting day.
But not right this minute. Take a few minutes and give yourself a hearty pat on the back. Go hoist up an icy cold beer (or any other beverage of choice). You — we — made history today.
I’d like to take this opportunity to personally thank our listeners and website viewers for answering the call and for putting up with a little website downtime. You guys all rock. Seriously.
Update, early Saturday morning, January 14: If you are reading this message, then that means that the worst of it is over: the site is up and running on the new server, and all the data was moved over successfully. All that’s left now is tweaking things to get everything working “just right” and tuning for performance. Things may go down here and there for brief periods during the weekend, but the worst of it is behind us.
When I started this blog and podcast several years ago, I really had no idea where this would all be going. And, for the first year or two, our numbers (podcast subscribers as well as web site visitors) were pretty dismal. But lately I have watched those numbers climb ever so slowly as the days, weeks and months flew by, and they’re now at a pretty respectable level. Not quite OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAAAAAND, but getting there. So, yeah, we’re movie’ on up in the world. Unfortunately these larger numbers have begun to strain our resources, namely server capacity, as can be evidenced by the increasingly slow and sluggish Otaku no Podcast website. Clearly it’s high time to make some changes around here.
Actually, the first of these changes happened several weeks ago. As some of you may know, we’ve had our domain name registered through Go Daddy. I was reasonably happy with their service, and was willing to give them a “pass” on some of their more controversial aspects (their “sexy” advertising, etc.). But all that changed when it came to light that they supported the destructive legislation known as SOPA, a very disturbing piece of legislation that, if passed, could pave the way to loss of Internet freedoms and privacy. They have since backed down (somewhat – their language is still very wishy-washy); however this has eroded their credibility in my eyes to the point where I wanted to stop giving them my business. As of several weeks ago, all Otaku no Podcast-related domains are now off of Go Daddy and are registered through Hover.com, an excellent registrar who opposes SOPA. Over the next few weeks I will be moving my other domains (those used for personal means as well as other projects I’m involved in) to Hover. (Note: the Otaku no Podcast website has been hosted for quite some time at 1and1, who are on the record as opposing SOPA.)
Anyway, the real change will be coming over the next week or two, in that we’ll be moving the website onto a new server with significantly larger capacity (but still hosted at 1and1 – I’m quite pleased with their service so have no inclination to switch). At the same time, I’ll be doing some “behind the scenes” work, restructuring the code that runs everything, to make it run smoother and better (things that I’ve been meaning to do for a while now).
So, over the next week or so, as I migrate the site’s code and data over to the new server, you may start to see some strange things happen around here: silly “test” posts, missing pages, missing audio/video files, or perhaps even the dreaded “404 Not Found.” I’ll try and keep this to a minimum, but, in a move as large-scale as this, there are a thousand and one ways that things could go horribly wrong; so let this serve as fair warning.
(Of course, I’ve managed to say in 1,000 words what really only needed about 10. Such is the way with me. Oh well.)
Heads up, people – Anime Los Angeles is coming tomorrow to the LAX Airport Marriott
5855 W. Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045
1-800-228-9290
Guests include Chris Carson, Stan Sakai, Dave Merrilll, Kyle Hebert, Jon Allen, Lauren Landa, Stephen Weese, Panda Cubed, Jonathan “Jake” Tarbox, Kaiji Tang, Julie Rei Goldstein, Jessica Straus, Danielle McRae, Derek Stephen Prince, Craig Miller, and Mark Allen Jr. And of course there’ll be the usual anime con fare, including a rather nice dealer’s room, artist’s alley, musical guests, cosplay masquerade (and tons of hall cosplay too), dances, gaming (both tabletop and console), and oh so much more.
Pre-reg is sadly closed, so you’ll have to register at the door. Prices are $25 for Friday, $35 for Saturday, or $20 for Sunday. And with their “Parent-in-Tow” program, any attendee 14 years or younger can bring a grown up for free. (It doesn’t have to be a parent; it can be a sibling, other relative, teacher, guardian, etc.)
For more information, you can check out their website; however the latest and greatest information can be found in their awesome downloadable schedule, which you can get using the free Guidebook app (available for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Android, Windows Phone 7, and BlackBerry devices).
Unfortunately, through a strange twist of fate, none of the Otaku no Podcast regulars will be able to make it to con (contrary to what I said in our most recent ChibiCast). I may be able to attend one day (most likely Saturday) but that is still unknown. So con coverage this year may be, erm, somewhat lacking. Gomen nasai.
Greetings, and Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a great (insert name of particular holiday variant you celebrate), and we wish you all the best for a happy, safe, prosperous and fun-filled 2012!
In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve just published our first episode of the year. And you probably noticed something different about it: we now have a sponsor! The various podcast networks we publish through have begun offering advertiser opportunities to us.
But, before you get the wrong ideas and think we’ve gone all commercial and sold out on you, let me (hopefully) reassure you with the following three promises. Whenever I decide to put an ad in an episode, I promise that…
It will be short and sweet.
If you’ve listened to other tech podcasts, such as those on Leo Laporte’sTWiT network, they’ll operate similar to the ads he does: a brief “This podcast sponsored by X” message during the intro, and a short ad read sometime during the middle of the episode. By “short,” I mean 1-2 minute tops. And there may be an extra ad banner on the website. But that’s it. No ginormous background image plastered all over the home page, no over 9,000 hour long testimonials, none of that.
There will be only one ad per episode.
Unlike some of Leo’s podcasts (which sometimes have 2, 3 or even more ads per episode) I’ve decided to only put out 1 ad per episode. MAYBE, if the episode is really really long, I might put a second ad in it. But absolutely, positively no more than 2 ads per episode, and in 99% of the cases, there’ll be just 1 ad.
I will only accept advertisements from companies and products that I believe in, and that I believe offer a product or service of interest to you, the listener.
Ideally I’d love to offer ads from anime-related businesses (stores that sell DVDs/Blu-rays, figures, etc.); if you happen to work at such a company and are looking for a place to advertise, please get in touch . But until such a glorious occasion presents itself, you’ll probably be seeing and hearing ads for various tech related products and services, since most anime fans I know fall rather squarely in the geek/tech enthusiast mold.
Finally, lest you get the wrong idea that I’ll suddenly be “rolling in it” and buying yachts and taking trips to Tahiti or something like that, we’re not talking about a whole lot of money here. Again it’ll basically amount to just a little extra “something” to help keep the bills paid around here. (Besides if I were to take a trip, it would be to Japan, and not Tahiti or anywhere boring like that. )
Anyway, if you have any comments or concerns about all of this, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Here, at long last, is my Anime Secret Santa review of Le Chevalier d’Eon. I’d like to apologize for the extreme delay in getting this up.
Let me start off by saying that I’m not the kind of guy who goes for historical/period pieces. I don’t actively hate them; they’re just not my first choice when I find myself in need of entertainment, anime or otherwise. So, when my friend raved about Le Chevalier d’Eon (which from now on I will abbreviate as LCdE to ease the burden on my poor fingers) I took one look at it, went “Eh, that’s nice, I’ll have to check that out,” then promptly moved on to whatever was next in my queue. Fast-forward to the 2011 Anime Secret Santa contest, wherein one of the three series picked for me was LCdE. Something made me think “aw, what the heck?” and watch it. And I’m glad that I did.
Greetings, fellow humanoids. I hope your holiday shopping is going well. Wait a minute, you’re saying it’s not going so well for you at all? How unfortunate. Well I’ve got just the thing that might help: the return of the 12 Days of Kurisumasu!
In case you weren’t around for it last year (where have you been?!), here’s the scoop: starting on Wednesday, December 14 and going through Christmas Day, Sunday, December 25, I will be picking a cool new otaku-themed product each day and will be featuring it on our Twitter and Facebook. (They’ll also be posted on the 12 Days of Kurisumasu page here, along with a witty (well, at least I think so) writeup.)
Each product I’ll be featuring will come from one of our affiliate advertisers — Amazon, CDjapan, Right Stuf, J-List, etc. Yeah, I know what you’re saying, you’ve been waiting for the “catch” and it finally came. But as catches go, this isn’t much of one. Remember that purchasing through any of the links here costs you nothing extra but brings us a little much-needed income, which helps keep the lights on and the bits flowing.
What products will you be choosing, you might be asking. No real rhyme or reason to it, really. As long as it’s even tangentially related to anime or other otaku-worthy pursuits, then it’s fair game. That means anime DVDs (and even Blu-rays); calendars; figures; “things from Japan” (food, snacks, etc.); plashes; whatever. Hopefully, among this cornucopia of consumer goods, you’ll find something cool and out of the ordinary to give to any otaku-leaning friends/acquaintances you’re looking for gifts for. (Or even yourself…)
One last note: it has come to my attention that there are actually multiple interpretations of the “12 Days of Christmas.” There are some who believe, like I do, that they start on the 14th of December and end on Christmas Day; however there are some who believe that they actually start on Christmas Day, December 25, and go through the first week of January. Well, which one is technically correct or not doesn’t really matter anyway, because I make the rules around here, and I hereby decree that the “starts on the 14th and ends on the 25th” version is the right and proper version.
![[Play Now!]](http://media.otakunopodcast.com/images/PlayNow.jpg)
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![Image of Clannad: Complete Collection [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51VZMDfpCoL._SL160_.jpg "Clannad: Complete Collection [Blu-ray]")
In light of last week’s mass protest against SOPA and PIPA, two destructive pieces of legislation winding their way through Congress, I thought it would be a good idea to examine in closer detail the issues that are at stake. There is a lot of good information out there; but there is also a lot of FUD, rumors, and just plain nonsense. One of my favorite podcasts recently discussed this issue in great detail, but framed in easy to understand language, and they have graciously allowed me to rebroadcast this segment on the Otaku no Podcast feed. I believe it deserves a listen.
You 
Update, early Saturday morning, January 14: If you are reading this message, then that means that the worst of it is over: the site is up and running on the new server, and all the data was moved over successfully. All that’s left now is tweaking things to get everything working “just right” and tuning for performance. Things may go down here and there for brief periods during the weekend, but the worst of it is behind us.
Heads up, people – 
Greetings, and Happy New Year! We hope everyone had a great (insert name of particular holiday variant you celebrate), and we wish you all the best for a happy, safe, prosperous and fun-filled 2012!
. But until such a glorious occasion presents itself, you’ll probably be seeing and hearing ads for various tech related products and services, since most anime fans I know fall rather squarely in the geek/tech enthusiast mold.
In today’s episode we show you how to make another classic Japanese dish, one you’ve no doubt seen at one time or another: Curry with Rice.
No, your eyes aren’t deceiving you. Here, at long last, is my 
Greetings, fellow humanoids. I hope your 
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