Otaku no Podcast

We did it!

Donald Burr — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 06:41:01 +0000

You took down your sites. You overwhelmed your elected officials with messages of opposition. Some of you even took to the streets. And, by golly, you did it: SOPA and PIPA are starting to lose support on Capitol Hill. Whereas last week only 5 lawmakers were in opposition, after today’s actions, that number has swelled to an impressive 35 opposing. And the thing only needs 41 “no” votes to effectively be stalled.

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.

No related posts.

ChibiCast #0025 – Stop American Censorship

Donald Burr — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:00:05 +0000

Stop American Censorship

Watch this video on YouTube

Moving to a new server; there may be some podcast/website issues over the next week or so (Updated)

Donald Burr — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:51:38 +0000

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: Anime Los Angeles starts tomorrow!

Donald Burr — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 23:28:46 +0000

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.

Otaku no Podcast has its first sponsor!

Donald Burr — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:02:09 +0000

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’s TWiT 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.

Video #0013 – Japanese Classic Cuisine: Curry with Rice

The Ghost in the Machine — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:20:28 +0000

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.

Sponsor: MozyPro Online Backup: Simple, Automatic & Secure Backup: http://mozy.com/pro

INGREDIENTS:

For the roux:

3 tbsp. Butter
1/4 cup flour
2 tbsp. garam masala (or curry powder)
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper, add to taste
black pepper, add to taste
1 tbsp. ketchup or tomato paste
1 tbsp. tonkatsu sauce or worcestershire sauce

For the curry:

2 tsp. Oil
2 Onions, sliced thin
2 lb. chicken thighs, cleaned and cut into chunks
2 carrots, cut into chunks
4 cups water
2 yukon gold potatoes, cut into chunks
1 apple, peeled, cored and pureed
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. garam masala
1/2 cup peas

METHOD:

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium low heat and add the onions. Saute the onions until they are golden brown and caramelized (about 30 minutes). Turn up the heat to high, add the chicken and brown.
Add the carrots, and the water then bring to a boil. Skim off any foam or oil that accumulates at the surface then lower heat to medium and add the potatoes, pureed apple, salt and garam masala. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until you can pass a fork through the carrots and potatoes and the meat is tender.
For the roux, melt the butter over medium low heat. Add the flour and garam masala, stirring until you have a thick paste. Add the cayenne pepper and some fresh ground black pepper and incorporate into the roux. Add the ketchup and tonkatsu sauce and combine. Continue to cook until the paste starts crumbling. Remove from heat and set aside until the meat and veggies are ready.
To make the curry, just ladle about 2 cups of liquid into the roux then whisk until it’s smooth. Pour this mixture back into the other pot and gently stir until thickened. Add the peas and heat through.
Serve over rice or noodles.

ChibiCast #0024 – We can has advertisers!

Donald Burr — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:15:05 +0000

We can has advertisers! PC dating-sim games @ J-ListRelated posts: Episode #0024 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Taliesin Jaffe ChibiCast #0022 – The Otaku no Podcast (almost) Labor Day Telethon of Doom! ChibiCast #0022 – Nominate us for the 2011 Podcast Awards!

Anime Secret Santa Review: Le Chevalier d’Eon

Donald Burr — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:30:59 +0000

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.

LCdE tells the tale of Eon d’Beaumont, a knight in the service of King Louis XV of France, who discovers, to his horror, that his beloved sister Lia was murdered in the line of duty. Determined to find her killers and bring them to justice, he journeys into a shadow world of shifting alliances and strange and powerful spiritual energies.

Story:

The story of LCdE is based on a historical figure. That is to say, there were actual people that existed named Eon de Beaumont, King Louis XV, etc. And that’s about it. However, the story portrays the milieu of pre-Revolution France rather well, at least to a layperson like myself. (Disclaimer: I am not a history major. I’m not even close to a history major. In fact, I could be way off.)

There is a fairly balanced mix of action, political intrigue and the supernatural, although it perhaps leans a bit more towards the political intrigue side of things. There’s a lot of intrigue, backstabbing, maneuvering and general skullduggery going on, and sometimes it’s a bit hard to keep track of it all. This is one that will probably require more than one viewing before you “get it.” However there was still enough action to break things up and keep them interesting. The pacing felt, for the post part, adequate; however it did seem to drag in places, especially toward the middle of the series.

Characters:

The characters were, for the most part, believable, in that their reasonings and motivations actually made sense. When D’Eon was made aware of his “special power,” he obviously struggled to come to terms with it, rather than accepting his situation straight away as happens so often in situations like this. There were no incongruously “cutesy” characters: even the plucky sidekick Robin was depicted in a realistic manner. The core characters of D’Eon, Durand, Robin and Teillagory have a good camaraderie about them, a sort of Three Musketeers vibe. (The anime in fact acknowledges this, with one episode titled “The Four Musketeers.”) Unfortunately, with the exception of D’Eon himself, there isn’t as much character development as I would have liked to see. There are also an awful lot of side characters, and keeping track of Lord So-and-so and Duke Such-and-such, and what their various machinations are, can be challenging. It might take you more than one watching to finally get things straight. I would’ve liked to have seen some backstory for some of these as well.

Animation:

The artwork and animation of this series really stands out, although it is not without its faults. The opulence of aristocratic life is captured well in the palace interiors and exteriors; however the level of detail is somewhat inconsistent.

It is obvious that the animators gave extra attention to the action/fight scenes. Not only are they well-animated, they are also well-choreographed. We even see characters using some fancy footwork, which is very important in fencing.

The clothing and costumes really stand out and are very well done. Perhaps too well done, in fact – so much detail was focused on the characters’ costumes that their faces were somewhat neglected, resulting in sort of flat, bland countenances.

Sound/Music:

Note: I watched this series dubbed, so my script/VA related comments apply to the English dub. I will update this review once I’ve had a chance to listen to the Japanese audio.

The dub was, on the whole, adequate. Definitely not one of the better dubs I’ve listened to, but neither was it the worst. I did rather like the voice of the older D’Eon, who narrates the story; it has a haggard, world-weary quality that’s appropriate to the character.

I did have a slight beef with the language. For the most part they spoke in formal language that felt appropriate to the situation (“thees and thous”); however they often broke into slang and colloquialisms (usually when the main characters are talking amongst themselves). But maybe this is the way they really talked, or it could be a case of something getting lost in translation, so I could be completely off base here.

Music, on the other hand, was well done. The grand operatic pieces appropriate for the ballrooms and palaces of aristocracy, and the fight scene scores had an appropriate level of tension to them. Sound effects were also appropriate to the situation depicted and well done.

Bottom Line:

LCdE was definitely enjoyable, and I am glad that I decided to watch it for Anime Secret Santa. The stunning visuals were a feast for the senses, and the interesting, if somewhat confusing story held my attention enough to keep on watching. As other reviews have pointed out, if you enjoyed LCdE, there are other, perhaps better executed period pieces that you might also enjoy, two often-cited examples being Rose of Versailles and Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo (both of which have also been recommended to me in the past; I’ll have to put them on my list as well). But I’m glad that I watched LCdE and consider it time well spent.

Characters: ★★★½☆

Story: ★★★★☆

Animation: ★★★★½

Sound: ★★★★☆

Overall: ★★★★☆

Le Chevalier D’Eon

Funimation Prod 2010, DVD, $17.39

The 12 Days of Kurisumasu returns for Christmas 2011!

Donald Burr — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:30:52 +0000

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.

The 12 Days of Kurisumasu

Cool Find: Square Credit Card Processing System

Donald Burr — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 03:18:44 +0000

Are you an artist that sells regularly in your friendly neighborhood anime convention’s Artist Alley? Or are you a small to mid sized dealer in anime/manga related goods looking to sell your wares at your favorite anime convention’s dealer’s room? Maybe you’re a cosplay photographer looking for a way to monetize your photography skills. Or perhaps your anime club or anime convention has an anime swap meet, where people can go sell their used stuff that’s cluttering up space in their room, and you’d like to give that a shot sometime?

Odds are, you’ve probably had the burning frustration of not being to accept payment from a potential customer. Either they, ahem, don’t happen to have enough cash on them (if they even have any at all), or they try and foist a check off on you – and you know how risky that can be these days!

But what if none of the above applies to you? No no, don’t stop reading yet. I’m sure that you’ve had something like this happen to you: you’re out having lunch/dinner/snacks or bar hopping with friends, but when it’s time to pay the piper, your “friends” conveniently are unable to pay you… “…oh, oops, looks like I don’t have enough cash on me. Can I pay you back next Tuesday?” Or what if you’re going to an anime con with friends and sharing a hotel room? You want to get their money as soon as possible from them, before they “accidentally” go blow it all in the dealer’s room…

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could accept credit cards? Just about everybody has either a credit card or a debit card (one that’s linked to a bank account) these days. Unfortunately, accepting credit card payments has, until now, been reserved for the big time business person. You’d have to set up a special merchant’s account with your bank (that costs money). You’d need to buy or rent one of those big clunky credit card processing machines (that also costs money). And you’d have to pay monthly fees to maintain your merchant status (and yes, that also costs money).

But now there’s Square.

Co-created by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey (who are famous for another technology they created that’s gone big time, a little service called Twitter, Square is, to put it simply, credit card processing for the rest of us. You don’t need any special merchant account. You do need a bank account (this is how they send your payments to you), but it can be a regular old checking account at any US bank.

After you create your Square account and add your banking info, they will ship you — for free — a small device that plugs into your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad or Android smartphone’s headphone jack. This little gem is a real credit card swiper. Download their free app (for iOS or Android). When you’re ready to take a payment from someone, you fire up the app, type in the amount of money you’re charging them (you can even add a picture and/or description of whatever it is you’re selling, assuming you’re selling something), and swipe their card (they accept the big 4 credit card companies: Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover). Then hand your phone (or iPod touch, or iPad) to the buyer. They sign their name on your device’s screen, and enter either a phone number or an e-mail address. The Square software automatically sends them their receipt (either by SMS or e-mail). And you’re all done!

There are no monthly fees, and the Square reader is free. They charge a 2.75% fee per transaction (so, if you sell something for $20, their “cut” is 55 cents). This is actually fairly competitive with what regular credit card merchants pay, and is actually cheaper than PayPal’s fees. And there are no hidden fees or other funny business. Every few days, the money you’ve accumulated (minus Square’s cut) gets automatically deposited into your bank account. Easy peasy. And at any time you can log in to your Square account and get an up-to-the-minute accounting of your sales history, and can even download it in a form that you can easily import into a spreadsheet so you can perform all sorts of weird data analysis on it.

More and more, I’m seeing these devices in use at conventions, either by artists doing business in artist’s alley; smaller dealers/vendors; and average schmucks like you and me. (Why, one of our co-hosts used it at a convention recently to accept payments at their dealer’s room table even!)

Set up an account today and they’ll ship your reader right away. In the meantime, download the app for iOS devices or Android devices. Check out the videos below the cut to see Square in action.

Episode #0028 – PMX 2011

Donald Burr — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:28:55 +0000

In this episode, the Otaku no Podcast crew get together and give their impressions and review of Pacific Media Expo (aka PMX) 2011. And, of course, we also bust out the anime picks.

Sorry for the delay in getting this episode out (as well as the delay in getting out our other PMX coverage in general). Blame it on a combination of a rather nasty case of Con Plague, an extra busy month of work, and the Thanksgiving holiday.

Today’s Theme: “Oath Sign,” by LiSA, OP to the 2011 anime Fate/zero. Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!

Links to stuff that we talked about:

Otaku no Podcast YouTube channel (PMX videos are finally starting to go up)
Photo Gallery (PMX photos will be going up as well)
Notes, slides and video from our podcasting and photography panels
Doing some holiday shopping? Let us help you with that…
The 12 Days of Kurisumasu (last year’s post, but the link is the same)
Otaku no Podcast app updated to version 2.1
SongTweeter
Pray for Japan (watch the trailer)
Allegiance – A New American Musical
We Heart Japan
Comikaze Expo
Codenamed: Epic
Guidebook App for iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry
PMX Charity Roast of Sir Richard Epcar to benefit Lupus LA
Video #0012 – A First Look at ComiPo! (Updated)
Google SketchUp

Our Picks:

Me – Clannad (DVD, Blu-ray); STEINS;GATE (Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!); Mawaru Penguindrum; Ready Player One (book, audiobook)
Michelle – Culture Japan and Otaku-Verse Zero (Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!); Canon Vixia HF R20 Full HD Camcorder; Zoom H2 Handy Recorder; Acer Aspire One AO722-0473 11.6-Inch HD Netbook
Avi – Chihayafuru (Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!), Mirai Nikki (aka Future Diary)

Clannad

Artist Not Provided. Section 23 2010, DVD, $40.88

Clannad

Section 23 2011, Blu-ray, $46.00

Ready Player One

Ernest Cline. Crown 2011, Hardcover, 384 pages, $12.75

Canon VIXIA HF R20 Full HD Camcorder with 8GB Internal Flash Memory (Black)

Canon, Camera, Too low to display

Zoom H2 Handy Portable Stereo Recorder

Samson, Electronics, Too low to display

Acer Aspire One AO722-0473 11.6-Inch HD Netbook (Espresso Black)

Acer, Personal Computers, $380.00

Doing some holiday shopping? Let us help you with that…

Donald Burr — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:42:52 +0000

Yep, folks, it’s that time again. The holidays. Time to brave the elements, hunt for a parking space at your local mega mall, battle armies of crazed shoppers, spill some blood, only to find, after all that trouble, that the Super Whiz Bang Gadget (or toy, or whatever) your (insert name of whiny child, relative, etc.) wants is all out of stock. Lovely.

Hey, here’s an idea: instead of sharpening your swords and suiting up in your battle armor, why not make it easy on yourself and do all your shopping online? And, whaddaya know, we can help you with that!

We are enrolled in a number of affiliate programs that offer a wide variety of items for sale (not just anime). For every purchase you make through an affiliate, we get a small percentage. And it costs you nothing extra.

Probably the most well known is Amazon, whose selection of goods for sale is truly awe-inspiring. Books; DVDs and Blu-rays (yes, even anime ones); audiobooks; household goods; computers, cell phones, and other electronics; clothing; sporting goods; shoes; you name it, they sell it. Shipping is fast (and you can even have them gift wrap and ship a gift directly to its recipient — handy!), and their prices are surprisingly reasonable. Simply use the Amazon search box on the right hand sidebar (it’s called the AnimeFinder™ but it allows you to search all of Amazon’s catalog), search for something, and click buy, it’s as simple as that.

Not your cup of tea? No problem. We’ve got quite a few other affiliates to choose from, including:

The Right Stuf, who sell anime as well as related items (character goods, wall scrolls, manga, etc.);
CDjapan, your source for those hard-to-find import CDs, including Jpop/Jrock/visual kei, anime and video game soundtracks, etc. — and they also sell some anime related goods (figurines, etc.);
J-List, “your friend in Japan,” who sell a mind-boggling array of anime-related goods; anime DVDs and Blu-rays, manga, figurines, calendars, and more; Japanese cultural items including bento boxes, chopsticks, kitchen gadgets, and more; items to help you learn Japanese; visual novel and dating-sim games for computers and game consoles; Japanese snacks and drinks; and, ahem, “that” kind of stuff as well;
and Crunchyroll, in our opinion, the best deal in town when it comes to watching all-you-can-eat high quality streaming anime while supporting the companies who produce it.

So if you are in need of doing gift shopping this year — if nothing else, perhaps a gift for yourself even — yet the thought of holiday shopping gives you the screaming heebie jeebies, relax, we’re here to help. (And in return you’ll be helping us as well )

Announcing my new app, SongTweeter

Donald Burr — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 04:29:47 +0000

I hope you’ll excuse me this little bit of blatant self-promotion, but I wanted to advertise my latest and greatest iOS app, SongTweeter!

One common thing on Twitter is to share whatever music, podcast, etc. you’re currently listening to, usually using the “#NowPlaying” hash tag. I was looking for an easy way to do this, and so decided to write an app. This app is small, and it does only one thing: lets you tweet whatever song/podcast/etc. you’re currently listening to. You can optionally add any text of your choice (e.g. the aforementioned #nowplaying hashtag) before and/or after the song title; and you can even optionally include album artwork.

Go download it for free in the App Store today! It’s compatible with any iOS device running iOS 5 or later, and is a Universal Binary (works natively on both iPhone/iPod touch and iPad).

Download it now for free from the iTunes App Store

Otaku no Podcast app updated to version 2.1

Donald Burr — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:57:01 +0000

We are pleased to announce the availability of Version 2.1 Build 63 of the Otaku no Podcast app, available now in the iTunes App Store. This release includes some bug fixes as well as quite a few new features.

FIXED: Improved loading performance.
FIXED: Some screens weren’t being properly resized when an ad appeared or disappeared.
FIXED: Ads now disappear immediately when you purchase ad removal.
FIXED: Improved the speed of scrolling in the Tweets tab, and added graphical indicators showing tweet type (standard, @reply and retweet).
NEW: Improved accessibility for VoiceOver users.
NEW: Added support for localization. We need translators! If you’re willing to help us translate the app into your native language, please contact us (use the “Support” link).
NEW: Added support for AirPlay for audio and video podcasts.
NEW: Audio playback position indicator now shows elapsed time and total track length.
NEW: Episode title and album artwork are now displayed on the lock screen and the multitasking audio controller. (iOS 5 only)
NEW: Added support for AirPrint. You can now print blog posts or podcast show notes of interest.
NEW: Calendar Detail View. Tap on any event on the Convention Calendar to get more information, including location and URL.
NEW: Tapping on a tweet now allows you to e-mail it, @reply to it or retweet it.
NEW: Added an About dialog box.
NEW: Added settings dialog with an option to include chibicasts when displaying latest audio podcast.

The PMX 2011 Meta-Post of Doom!

Donald Burr — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:16:35 +0000

You’re probably wondering “gee, where the hell has the Otaku no Podcast crew been?! Surely they must be back from PMX by now!” Yes, in fact we have been back for a few days; however one of us is more or less incommunicado while she’s helping to housesit for a relative…. and I have contracted the Dreaded Con Plague of Doom. (Remember, people: Emergen-C. LOTS of Emergen-C.)

I hope to be in a well enough shape to record our inevitable PMX wrap-up podcast episode this weekend. And I’ve started finally ingesting the video and photos we took while at the show, and hope to have those posted over the next week or so as well. But in the meantime, I’ve started gathering up other peoples’ PMX-related postings, in particular photos and videos, and present them here for your enjoyment.

(Note: I will be constantly updating this post as I find more peoples’ photos and videos, so check back often! And if you know of any PMX 2011 photo and/or video posts that I don’t, please let us know so we can update this post.)

ChillyWillyTube’s PMX cosplay video
Mike Rollerson’s PMX 2011 Photos (Facebook) (Flickr)
Ani.me PMX Photo Studio photos (Facebook) (Flickr)

Going to PMX? Got a smartphone? Get the PMX schedule on it with Guidebook!

Donald Burr — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 05:45:36 +0000

One of the benefits of today’s modern smartphones is easy, instant access to the data you need wherever and whenever you are. As anime fans and con-goers, this is especially desirable for us. Not having to fuss around with clunky paper-based schedules is something we’ve dreamed of for quite some time. And thankfully, a company has risen to the occasion and has created a solution for us – Guidebook.

The Guidebook app, available for free on both iOS and Android, is beautifully and elegantly designed. With it you can access convention schedules, exhibitor info (dealer’s room), main event info, maps and more. As you browse through the list of events, you can mark events you’re interested in and add them to your own personal schedule list. And, best of all, you can configure the program to warn you before an event starts!

If you’re part of a group organizing an anime convention, you might want to contact then about getting a guide made up for your event. From what I hear the rates are quite reasonable. In fact, at one point they were making guides for smaller organizations for free.

Speaking of guides (yes, I’m finally coming to the point), PMX, which is coming up in just a few days now, now has a guide in Guidebook! If you’re at all interested in going, and own an iOS (iPhone, iPod touch or iPad) or Android smartphone or tablet, you’ll definitely want to go grab the shiny new PMX Guidebook guide!

Download the free GuideBook app today for iOS or Android. Once you have the app installed, run it, click the “Download guides” button and search for the “Pacific Media Expo” guide (also free).

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Reminder: PMX is this coming weekend!

Donald Burr — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 20:19:50 +0000

This is just a heads-up – PMX is coming up this weekend – Friday through Sunday, November 11-13, at the LAX Hilton:

Hilton Los Angeles Airport
5711 West Century Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90045
1-310-410-4000

Check out the PMX website for full details on the guests of honor and the various events that will be going on (there are a lot of ‘em!). Also, the schedules are now online and can be downloaded in PDF format as a print-ready black and white or color version.

And, as I mentioned earlier, we will be running three panels/workshops!

“Otaku Podcasting for the Complete n00b,” Friday November 11 at 5 PM in LP2 (Los Angeles B) is basically the same old podcasting talk we gave at AX, Fanime, and Anime LA. If you’ve seen it already, you don’t need to come, but why not do so anyway to show your support? And if you don’t know what in blazes I’m talking about, then please come on by! If you’ve ever wanted to know how we run this dog and pony show called Otaku no Podcast, we will show you how it’s done, and you’ll learn that it is not only easy to do, but cheap as well. (which is why even weirdos like us can do it).

“Con Photography 101,” Saturday November 12 at 12 noon in LP2 (Los Angeles B) is for all you costly photographers out there. Ever come home from a day of shooting at con only to be met with pain and disappointment when you load up your pictures and look at them? Well, we’re here to help! If you’ve seen this talk before, you may still want to come anyway, because we’ve reorganized it somewhat. We’ll be focusing in (heh, pun) on tips and techniques for point and shoot camera owners first, but we’ll also cover what you DSLR owners can do as well (and why you point and shooters might want to upgrade). Besides, there will be swag!

And finally, Otaku no Podcast co-host and noted doll enthuses Michelle “Ms. Geek” Klein-Hass will be putting on a Dollfie Dream/Obitsu Doll Panel on Sunday November 13 at 2 PM in Workshops (Marina).

Online pre-registration is still open as well, and will be open throughout the con (trust me, folks, it’s a real time-saver). Prices are $50 for a full 3-day adult membership; $20 for a single-day adult membership (Friday or Sunday) or $35 for Saturday; $15 for children 12 and under; and children 5 and under get in for free. (Children must be accompanied by a paying adult). A 20% group discount is also available for groups of 5 or more who register together.

ChibiCast #0023 – Shoutout on Mac OS Ken Live

Donald Burr — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 22:45:07 +0000

Shoutout on Mac OS Ken Live J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for youRelated posts: ChibiCast #0003 – This is M-M-Ma-Max Headroom ChibiCast #0004 – last test message. yesrly. ChibiCast #0009 – pre-FanimeCon test

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Another way to help Otaku no Podcast – Buy Me Stuff!

Donald Burr — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 23:22:22 +0000

I have come up with yet another way to help the podcast! If buying stuff from our affiliates, or donating, is not to your tastes, then why not buy me some stuff?! (Why you would be willing to do this instead of buying stuff for yourself, I have no idea, but a guy can dream, right?)

I’ve put up a public wish list on Amazon and will be filling it with things.

Here are my promises to you:

Every item you see is on this list because I need it for something relating to the podcast. Either it’s an anime or video game I want to review, or it’s something I need, for example, a new shock mount to replace the one that I have right now that’s on its last legs; or supplies that I need for giving a panel or workshop at an anime convention (e.g. office supplies, printer ink/toner, etc.). You get the idea.
For all anime/video game type products, I promise to put up a review of it, either as a blog post/article or as part of a podcast episode. (This of course only applies to anime, video games, etc.; I don’t think you’d want to see a review of the latest HP LaserJet toner cartridge or something like that.)

Either way, whatever (if anything) people are willing to get me off this list means less money I need to spend out of pocket, which I can use instead towards paying for other things that the blog/podcast needs (equipment, servers, bandwidth, web hosting, etc.). And, of course, you will have my undying and eternal gratitude, not to mention the continuation of this blog and podcast.

View the wish list here or by clicking on the “Otaku no Podcast Wish List of Doom!” link on the right sidebar, just below the AnimeFinder™ (patent pending).

PMX 2011 preliminary schedules are now up!

Donald Burr — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 19:37:08 +0000

Good news everyone – the PMX preliminary schedules are now up! They’re available in PDF form as a print-ready black and white or color version.

I would like to point your attention at 3 panels in particular. (Yes, as you might have guessed, we will be running some panels of our own!)

“Con Photography 101,” Saturday November 12 at 12 noon in LP2 (Los Angeles B) is for all you costly photographers out there. Ever come home from a day of shooting at con only to be met with pain and disappointment when you load up your pictures and look at them? Well, we’re here to help! If you’ve seen this talk before (yes, we’ve given this one before as well), you may still want to come anyway, because we’ve reorganized it somewhat. We’ll be focusing in (heh, pun) on tips and techniques for point and shoot camera owners first, but we’ll also cover what you DSLR owners can do as well (and why you point and shooters might want to upgrade). Besides, there will be swag!

And finally, Otaku no Podcast co-host and noted doll enthusiast Michelle “Ms. Geek” Klein-Hass will be putting on a Dollfie Dream/Obitsu Doll Panel on Sunday November 13 at 2 PM in Workshops (Marina).

For more information on PMX, including guests of honor and other events, check out the PMX website. Online pre-registration is still open as well. Prices are $40 for an Adult Full (Fri-Sun) membership (before Nov 5th) or $50 (after November 5); $20 for a single-day adult membership (Friday or Sunday) or $35 for Saturday; $15 for children 12 and under; and children 5 and under get in for free. (Children must be accompanied by a paying adult). A 20% group discount is also available for groups of 5 or more who register together.

Cool Find: ProPlayer Video Player for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad

Donald Burr — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 00:56:00 +0000

Those of us that have collections of anime videos on our hard drives (unlicensed only, please; and please support the creators by buying the title when it becomes officially licensed in your region, blah blah blah) are presented with a problem when we want to enjoy said content in places other than sitting right in front of your computer. I’ve been on a quest of sorts over the past few years to find tools to help with this scenario, which I’ve written about before. And, indeed, products like Air Video, Meridian Media Player and the WD TV Live work beautifully and allow us to free ourselves from the confines of our computer monitors.

But what if you want to enjoy your content when you’re out and about, away from home, and on the go? The WD TV Live isn’t an option for obvious reasons, and Air Video doesn’t work either, because you’re not within range of your WiFi network and your home computer. If you’ve got an Android phone, Meridian works well. And, indeed, it worked quite well for me, while I had an Android phone. But then, in January (or was it February? I forget) Apple announced that the iPhone was coming to Verizon.

Now I don’t want to get into any smartphone/OS holy wars here. Suffice it to say that, much as I liked my Android experience, I still prefer iOS devices and iPhones. The UI is more refined, the phone performs better and the battery lasts much longer. But, alas, there is no Meridian player for iOS. Yes, I could use something like the excellent (not to mention free) HandBrake to convert my video files and load them into iTunes, but that is a clunky extra step to have to go through. What I liked about Meridian was that all I had to do was mount my phone’s SD card and drag my video files onto it.

Well, I’ve finally found something comparable in the iOS world: ProPlayer. It can play just about every video file format under the sun, including those oh-so-pesky MKV files, and it supports one of the most common subtitle file formats (SRT). You can load your video content onto your device using iTunes’ app file sharing mechanism — not as easy as Meridian/Android’s drag-and-drop, but not too bad. And once the files are on the device, you can use the ProPlayer app to organize them in folders. You can even password protect certain folders of your choosing, for, ahem, “those” certain types of files that you’d rather your mother or girlfriend not see.

Now for the bad news. Unfortunately it doesn’t support the other most common subtitle file format, SSA/ASS. You can work around this by loading up said subtitles in an external subtitle editor program such as Jubler (really good, and it’s free too) and save them out in SRT format. It doesn’t support FLAC (lossless) audio tracks (but fortunately those are fairly rare, and can be down converted to AC3 or MP3 if needed). And it doesn’t support multiple audio tracks, which you don’t see very often “in the wild”; however if you’ve made rips of your own anime DVDs and preserved both the English and Japanese audio, it will only play the “first” audio track that it finds.

It is compatible with the iPhone 3GS and above (including the new iPhone 4S), iPod touch (3rd generation or later), and iPad, and can be purchased on the App Store for $2.99, a fantastic price for such a capable piece of software. Go grab it today on the App Store.

The Reverse Thieves announce the 2011 Anime Secret Santa project!

Donald Burr — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:45:04 +0000

The Reverse Thieves have just announced their 2011 Anime Secret Santa project!

If you don’t know what in blazes I’m talking about, go back and read our post about it a couple years ago. But, for the lazy, here’s the Reader’s Digest version: basically, you e-mail your name, blog title and url, and a link to the list of anime you’ve watched (from sites such as MyAnimeList or Anime-Planet (both are free)), and the Reverse Thieves will randomly pair you up with another participant. You then look thorugh that participant’s list of anime and then suggest to them three anime that they might enjoy. Only — your identities are kept secret until the very end. The whole idea is to help get some inter-blog anime review participation going on, as well as broadening peoples’ horizons and getting them to maybe step out of their comfort zones and try something different.

We had a great deal of fun participating in years past, and with any luck we will be participating once again this year.

Unfortunately this almost slipped under my radar, and so I missed this when they announced it over a week ago. Which means that you have until the end of today (Wednesday, October 12) to respond if you’re interested in participating. Just e-mail your name, your blog’s name and url, and the link to your anime list, to secretsanta.rt@gmail.com with the subject “Secret Santa Participant” But remember, you only have until the end of today, so you better hurry!

Otaku no Podcast App v2.0 is out; Android app coming soon

Donald Burr — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 01:21:07 +0000

We are pleased to announce that a brand new version of the Otaku no Podcast app is now available in the app store!

New features include:

Completely rewritten from scratch. Faster performance, and follows the iOS user interface design more closely.
No longer asks for your location. (Note: The location prompt was due to a mistake on my part when creating the first version of the app. No actual location data was ever collected or stored.)
Supports Push Notifications – get notified instantly when new podcasts or blog posts are published
Lets you listen to and/or watch the latest audio and video podcasts, as well as previous podcasts
Supports background audio and remote audio control
Option to let you view blog posts in Mobile Safari
You can now share interesting blog posts and/or podcasts with others via e-mail or Twitter (Twitter sharing requires iOS 5)
New Con Calendar – check out our upcoming anime convention schedule
Contact Us now lets you send us e-mail as well as call our voice mail line (requires an iPhone) or via Skype (requires the free Skype app be installed, available for iPhone/iPod touch and iPad)
The app is now ad-supported, using Apple’s iAd ad network. We feel that these ads are reasonably unobtrusive — they don’t bog down your phone, or jump out at you and annoy you like many other ads do. However, if you wish to show your support for Otaku no Podcast directly, there is an option that will allow you to remove all ads from the program for a small one-time fee.

Of course, with a rewrite of this magnitude, there are bound to be a few bugs still. If you run into one, we’d appreciate it if you could let us know about it.

Go grab the app today (it’s free). You can also check out a video (also embedded below the cut) on how the app works.

Finally, for all you Android users out there, don’t fret; my friend is hard at work on an Android version of the app, which should be out in the Android marketplace soon.

RIP Steve Jobs

Donald Burr — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:51:18 +0000

I hope you’ll forgive me this non-anime-related post. But I feel that we have to acknowledge the loss of a true visionary. In a statement released late today by the Apple board of directors, they announced that Steve Jobs has passed away.

I won’t say very much, because not only am I still in shock, but I really have nothing to add to what has already been said – there are far better bloggers and news outlets out there that are doing that, and I’ll link to some of them at the end of this article.

Even so, I can’t help but voice a few thoughts myself. (Because that’s the way I roll)

Love him or hate him, agree with him or disagree with him, I don’t think there’s a single person on this planet who would deny that he made a significant impact on the computing landscape. He brought the user friendly to computing. And let’s not forget his impact on the music industry. Before the iPod came out, MP3 players (those few that existed) were big, clunky, complicated, and had battery lives measured in minutes. Now, with each successive generation of iPod and the inevitable copycats, we end up with better products — both the iPods as well as the copycats have improved. And the iTunes Music Store finally dragged the recording industry kicking and screaming into the age of digital music. Only Steve could have got them to agree to drop DRM. And his creations have directly affected many other industries — desktop publishing, digital video, telecommunications… I could go on and on.

Many people have asked me why I use Macs and Apple products. My more frugal friends ask me why I insist on paying 2-3x of what the “other guys” charge for their tech. My Open Source advocate friends ask me why I persist in using a closed system. Well my answer is simple: Apple products do what I want and need them to do, and they do it well. I’m not necessarily saying that the other tools are bad — they serve the needs of many people just fine. But for my particular mindset, I just couldn’t think of doing it on anything other than a Mac. Apple kicked off the whole digital video revolution with products like iMovie and Final Cut, and while there are now some competitors in the space, I still think the Apple tools work better. The same goes for audio editing and digital photo editing. Yes they are more expensive than their PC alternatives. But they are built to last. I’m notoriously hard on technology, and I have managed to turn lesser (PC) laptops into nonfunctional, broken pieces of crap. (Just about the only laptop I haven’t managed to thoroughly destroy is the classic IBM Thinkpad.) Whereas my poor MacBook Pro has been dropped God knows how many times (trust me, it has the battle scars to prove it), yet still performs just as well as it did on day 1. It goes even farther than that. There are many people out there — including a certain Otaku no Podcast co-host — that still have more aged Macs that still perform beautifully (albeit a bit slowly by comparison), and these people use them every day.

And there is one thing I cannot help but respect him for: he had the — well, there’s no other word for it, “balls” — to tell us “You’re gonna do things my way.” This can be summed up brilliantly in the “Think Different” ad campaign. He wasn’t always right — Apple has certainly had its share of titanic failures — but even still, out of the ashes of those failures came the seeds for later successes. Take the Lisa, for example. A technologically revolutionary machine, yet a commercial failure — but it formed the core (if you’ll pardon the pun) of the Macintosh. Or his NeXT machines — again, a failure in the marketplace, yet the operating system at their core went on to become today’s Mac OS X.

Either way, the world has lost a truly remarkable individual. Our hearts and prayers go out to Steve’s family

Important note I have decided to donate all affiliate income earned during the months of October and November to cancer charities.

Some stories from around the net:

Page announcing his passing on the Apple website
Apple press release
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s note to employees
Statement from Steve’s family
Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement speech
Kind words from his technological rival Bill Gates
A really touching eulogy from, of all people, Gizmodo (Gizmodo and Apple have had a very antagonistic relationship. Way to show some class, guys.)
Reflections from Brian Lam (he’s the guy at Gizmodo who was responsible for the whole iPhone 4 scandal)
A tribute video by Gizmodo
A very fitting tribute on the front page of BoingBoing
Picture of Steve leaving the keynote stage for the last time at this year’s WWDC
LA Times article
A touching eulogy from technology columnist Andy Ihnatko
Words from President Barack Obama
A picture of Steve doing what he loved to do
Article on Steve’s passing from Crunchyroll News (There, I made this post anime related! Take THAT, on-topic post police!)
Tributes to Steve Jobs from Pixiv artists (Pixiv is sort of like Japan’s answer to deviantART. And, oh yeah, +1 to making this post anime-related! )
Libsyn’s tribute to Steve Jobs (Libsyn is a file hosting service used by many podcasters, including us!)
Tribute image by designer jonathan mak
Steve Jobs tribute page from ScreenCastsOnline
Tribute article written by TUAW blogger Michael Rose
Tribute articles and videos from Wired
Steve’s friend and Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak reminisces (The last 3 seconds really choked me up)

No related posts.

Otaku no Podcast is once again an Amazon affiliate

Donald Burr — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:23:40 +0000

Earlier this year, we wrote about Amazon’s decision to terminate its California affiliates (of which we were one) due to the new CA sales tax law. This, of course, spurred me on to search for more affiliate programs, resulting in the new affiliate links you may have seen from various places such as Right Stuf, Crunchyroll, Best Buy, CDjapan (still pending, cross your fingers), and others.

Well, apparently Amazon reached a compromise with the state, and Governor Jerry Brown signed a new law that requires Amazon and other out-of-state retailers to start collecting sales tax starting in September of next year. And, hot on the heels of that news, Amazon announced it has officially reinstated its California affiliates. So you should once again start seeing Amazon links popping up across the site. (Fortunately I have been too busy/lazy to remove all Amazon links when they terminated us. Now I don’t have to. Win!)

But that doesn’t mean we’ll be dropping our new affiliates. For one thing, some of them carry stuff that Amazon doesn’t. (Such as import CDs in the case of CDjapan, Crunchyroll memberships, etc.) But also, whenever I post a product, I’ll do my best to find you the best deal on it.

So, what are you waiting for? Come forth and consume! (Moichandising! Moichandising!)

Otaku Call to Action: Please Take our Listener Survey!

Donald Burr — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 02:38:31 +0000

Listen up, folks – I need your help here. We need information on YOU, the people who listen to our podcast and view our website. I’m gonna level with you: the purpose of this survey is to help position this podcast in various ad networks. As I’ve mentioned before, I run this whole dog and pony show out of my own pocket, and, with the economy being the way it is, any source of income to help me in this is greatly appreciated.

The survey is pretty much standard demographics collection fare: highest level of education completed, average household income, types of podcasts you are interested in. Pretty standard stuff. However, we WILL NOT ask you for any personally identifiable information (name, social security number, etc.) So in other words we’re only collecting statistics in aggregate (i.e. our listening audience in general), NOT on a specific person by person basis. And the information you provide will NOT be sold. (Check out the privacy statement for more information)

If, having read all of the above, you’re still willing to help out, then I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Seriously. You rock. Just click on the survey link in this post, or on the Otaku no Podcast website, and fill it out. It’ll only take a few minutes of your time (it took me only about 2 minutes).

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

Mikunopolis CD, DVD and Blu-ray releases are coming soon; pre-order today!

Donald Burr — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:05:35 +0000

Those of you that missed Mikunopolis, the awesome Vocaloid concert that took place at this year’s Anime Expo, listen up! The release dates for the concert videos have been set!

But first, the bad news. These are only going to be released in Japan. Why they chose to do this, I have no idea. If rumors are to be believed, Sega is doing this deliberately to punish those who illegally uploaded video from the concert. (Please note that we attended Anime Expo as official members of the press and that our videos were shot from the press area with permission.) Actually, the first rumors indicated that they would not be releasing the concert footage at all. Whether these rumors are true or not, we don’t know; but the reality of the situation is that if you want ‘em, you’re gonna have to import ‘em.

And now, the good news. This is going to be a multi-media release – it’s coming out in CD, DVD and Blu-ray! Each will include all of the songs performed at the concert. In addition, the DVD and Blu-ray releases will feature some extras, including a special booklet, photo of Hatsune Miku, and a “making-of” video.

The CD will be released on November 30, at a price of ¥3,150 (about US$40) and the Blu-ray and DVD will follow on December 21, at ¥6,300 (about US$80) for the DVD and ¥7,350 (about US$95) for the Blu-ray. (Welcome to the world of Japanese media pricing.)

(Important note: the Blu-rays are region free (meaning that they will play in any Blu-ray player anywhere in the world); however the DVD release is Region 2, meaning that, unless you live in Japan, you will need a “region-free” DVD player (or a “region free” hack for your computer-based DVD player) in order to play it. Fortunately region-free DVD players can be easily obtained.)

You can pre-order them today from Play-asia (CD, DVD, Blu-ray) and CDjapan (CD, DVD, Blu-ray).

Note: We have applied to become a CDjapan affiliate. So please use the CDjapan links

Winter 2011 anime at a glance

Donald Burr — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 05:55:11 +0000

Yes, it’s true! @cowboybibimbop strikes again! (You may remember him from the Autumn 2011 anime guide we wrote about a while ago.) Well he’s back with a new guide, this time showcasing the Winter 2011/2012 anime lineup.

Go take a look at it here or below the cut.

(Note that he’s actually created a separate Twitter account, @animucharts, specifically for news and discussion relating to the charts. So if you’re on Twitter, you might want to follow it for the latest and greatest.)

ChibiCast #0022 – Nominate us for the 2011 Podcast Awards!

Donald Burr — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:45:06 +0000

Nominate us for the 2011 Podcast Awards! J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for youRelated posts: Nominate us for the 2011 Podcast Awards! ChibiCast #0022 – The Otaku no Podcast (almost) Labor Day Telethon of Doom! Episode #0022 – Anime Expo 2011 (Part 2)

Nominate us for the 2011 Podcast Awards!

Donald Burr — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:49:05 +0000

I wasn’t gonna do this, but then I figured: Why not?

Every year the People’s Choice Podcast Awards asks you, the podcast listening audience, to vote on your favorite podcasts in various categories. And, just for the halibut, I thought, why not have everybody vote for Otaku no Podcast? I do need your help for this though.

OK, so here’s what you do. Head on over to http://podcastawards.com/. Scroll down to the “Cultural/Arts” section, and fill in our name (Otaku no Podcast) and URL (http://otakunopodcast.com/). Scroll down to the bottom of the form, and enter your name and e-mail address (I really doubt they’ll spam you, but if you’re paranoid, you can always create a free Gmail account). And hit the “submit” button. That’s it.

You only have 5 days to do this (until September 30) so hurry up!!

We probably have more of a chance of winning the lottery or being visited by intelligent aliens from another planet than winning this, but we might as well try, right?

Now, go forth, my armies of evil minions, and vote! Your Supreme Leader commands you!

ChibiCast #0022 – Nominate us for the 2011 Podcast Awards!

Episode #0027 – Otakuthon 2011 – Stu Levy talks about “Pray for Japan”

The Ghost in the Machine — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 14:24:07 +0000

Otakuthon 2011 has come to an end. Thanks to everyone who participated! It went very well IMHO, and we will definitely be doing something like this again.

In this, our first excerpt from the Otakuthon, we sit down with Stu Levy to talk about his latest project, the documentary film Pray for Japan.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting more excerpts from the Otakuthon.

Today’s Theme: “Asunaro,” by Ken’ichi Suzumura. ED to the Summer 2011 anime Heaven’s Memo Pad (Kamisama no Memocho). Watch it on The Anime Network.

Links:
New Audio-only and Video-only Podcast Feeds are now available
Video #0012 – A First Look at ComiPo! (Updated)
New York Anime Festival, October 13-16, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center, 655 West 34th Street, New York, NY 10001
Anime Vegas, November 11-13, at the Alexis Park Hotel, 375 E. Harmon Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89169
Pacific Media Expo, November 11-13, at the Hilton Los Angeles Airport, 5711 West Century Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90045
Pray for Japan on Facebook
Pray for Japan on Twitter
Pray for Japan on Kickstarter
Pray for Japan official trailer

Video #0012 – A First Look at ComiPo! (Updated)

The Ghost in the Machine — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 14:29:41 +0000

In today’s video, we take a first look at an exciting new manga creation software program, ComiPo!. This program, originally released in Japan in December of last year, has gained popularity thanks to the Internet, and so the company that created it made an English version, which is set to be released on September 15.

Updated: ComiPo! is now on sale via digital download from the following retailers for US$49.95:

Comradz – https://store1.esellerate.net/store/checkout/CustomLayout.aspx?s=STR1349875028
Crunchyroll – http://www.crunchyroll.com/comipo
ComiPo! Info – http://comipo.biz/

For more information and to find out how to purchase ComiPo!, check out the ComiPo! website. Be sure and also check them out on Twitter and Facebook!

ComiPo! website: http://www.comipo.com/en/
ComiPo! on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ComiPo_Info_en
ComiPo! on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Manga.Maker.ComiPo

Many thanks to Web Technology Com Corp, the makers of ComiPo!, for giving us the opportunity to test it!

Watch this video in HD on YouTube (in case the embedded player doesn’t work; also it’s higher quality)

Cool Find: Alice in Musicland – A Vocaloid Musical

Donald Burr — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:52:09 +0000

Happy Monday, everyone! (Sighs and groans of protest emanate from the audience) Yeah, I know what you’re thinking: it’s a Monday, what can be good about that? Well, I’ve found something that will put a smile on your face, especially if you’re a Vocaloid fan. Hell, I think you’ll get a kick out of it even if you aren’t into Vocaloids. So grab yourself a bottle of MORNING RESCUE!!!! and read on!

I know, I know, a lot of you are probably yelling at your screens “Vocaloids AGAIN??!” Vocaloid fever has certainly swept the world, and there are quite a few people who just Don’t Get It™. I know a few of my friends fall into this camp, same with certain podcasters out there. I think what a lot of these naysayers are getting hung up on is that they are thinking of Hatsune Miku & friends as replacements for human singers. After all, when you look at events such as Mikunopolis (which was AWESOME!!! by the way), us anime fans can’t help but draw parallels to those famous virtual idols of anime such as Eve from Megazone 23 and Sharon Apple from Macross Plus.

Well, I think people who are thinking like this are missing the point. The way I see it, the Vocaloid characters are, to put it bluntly, window dressing. The real win here is the Vocaloid software itself, which, when you think about it, is an amazing technological achievement. And it’s the final component in the amateur song creator’s toolbox. Think about it. We now have computers on our desks (and in our backpacks and book bags) that are powerful enough to allow us to create music. High quality microphones are inexpensive and easy to set up, and with technologies such as MIDI, it’s easier than ever to bring music into the digital realm. But even if you’ve never touched an instrument in your life, you can still create great-sounding music thanks to “loop” and musical instrument synthesis software such as GarageBand, Reason, Acid, etc.

But the one thing that’s been missing is the human voice. Because, let’s face it, not all of us have the best voice out there. (And only Bob Dylan has the chops to pull off the whole “singing with a less than perfect voice” schtick.) So yeah, you might be able to create an awesome song, but you weren’t able to give it a voice. (It’s not like you could call up Hikaru Utada or something and ask her to record your song for you.) But now that Vocaloid is out there, your musical toolbox is complete. And there’s quite a selection of voices to choose from, one to suit every mood — Hatsune Miku, Kagamine Len and Rin, MEIKO, KAITO, etc., not to mention their APPEND versions, etc., and more planned for the future.

In fact, Vocaloid has spearheaded a huge upsurge in doujin music. If you look on places like YouTube and NicoNicoDouga, you’ll find all sorts of people using it in new and interesting ways. (And, yes, old and derivative ways as well.)

OSTER Project is one such person. She has a wide ranging body of work, both original and cover songs/arrangements, and has worked on non-Vocaloid projects as well, including themes for net games and other material meant for actual human singers. And she has recently released a truly amazing work. Taking songs from her fourth album Cinnamon Philosophy, and borrowing heavily from classic Disneyesque musicals, she released a truly amazing video, “Alice in Musicland,” that takes our favorite Vocaloids and mashes them up with Lewis Carroll’s classic “Alice in Wonderland.” The result: A truly amazing work that (IMHO) will appeal to even non-Vocaloid fans, because it appeals to one of our core ideals, the happiness and unity that music can bring to the world.

Watch it on YouTube or via the embedded player below the cut.

Bravo!!

Go check it out now or take a look below the cut.

Autumn 2011 Anime at a Glance

Donald Burr — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 23:35:17 +0000

Twitter follower @cowboybibimbop has put together a really sweet (and well done) graphical overview of the Autumn 2011 anime lineup.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

“We Heart Performing for Japan” Charity Event to benefit Japanese disaster relief set for October 1

Donald Burr — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:21:53 +0000

We Heart Japan, a charity organized by several individuals including anime voice actress Stephanie Sheh, will be holding another charity event next month in Southern California.

We Heart Japan made news earlier this year when, less than 1 week after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, they organized an event that, in spite of its hastily put together nature, managed to raise a very impressive $13,000. (OK, fine, I’ll say it…)

Well, they’re back for another go. We Heart Performing for Japan is coming to the Theatre of Arts Arena Stage, 1625 N. Las Palmas, Hollywood, CA 90028, for one night only, Saturday, October 1, from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Headliners include Mari Iijima, known as both the acting and singing voice of Lynn Minmay from the classic Super Dimension Fortress Macross (and its American adaptation Robotech); also, the English cast of an “unannounced classic anime series” will be reuniting to perform a live reading of an episode (a little birdie landed on my shoulder and whispered in my ear that it might be Cowboy Bebop). Other guests include Beau Billingslea (BLEACH, FRANKLIN & BASH, NARUTO); Steve Blum (COWBOY BEBOP, FINAL FANTASY VII, GURREN LAGANN); Melissa Fahn (DIGIMON, FLCL, BLUE DRAGON); and Wendee Lee (BLEACH, THE MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA, MAGIC KNIGHT RAYEARTH). Prizes will be raffled off throughout the evening as well.

Tickets are $40 for general admission and $60 for premium/reserved seating (which includes an exclusive gift bag) and must be purchased online. All proceeds will go towards the Japan NGO Earthquake Relief and Recovery Fund, a joint venture between the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE/USA) and JCIE/Japan dedicated to supporting relief efforts in Japan.

Come out and show your support!

It’s time for the Otaku no Podcast Live Call-in Show of Doom!

Donald Burr — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:11:04 +0000

Edit 2011-09-08: Thanks to everyone who participated! Everyone had a good time, and we’ll definitely be doing something like this again. Keep an eye on the website for an announcement of when the next one will be. I’m editing the recording I made of this event and I’ll be putting it out as a series of podcast episodes over the next few weeks.

Well, September 1 has finally come, meaning that this upcoming weekend is Labor Day. Time to kick back and relax, fire up the grill, enjoy the last dog days of summer… and, oh yeah, take part in the Otaku no Podcast Live Call-in Show of Doom!

As I mentioned before, this is something I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time. Basically, I am envisioning a sort of live group call-in show where hosts, co-hosts and guests can drop in and out at will. What will we talk about? Whatever you want, and whatever strikes our fancy. The summer 2011 anime season, anime conventions you’ve been to, your favorite (and not so favorite) anime/character, whatever…

We will be “on the air” through the afternoon and evening, starting at, let’s say, around 4 PM Pacific time, and going on until either we have nothing left to talk about, everybody else has left the call, or we’ve all passed out. (These times may change – I’m still waiting to hear back from some potential participants to see what times work for them. If I have to change the times, I’ll update this post.)

Now, it should go without saying that for something like this to really work, we need your help! Call in and join the discussion, won’t you? Now’s your chance to tell the world about why (insert name of anime) is the greatest in the world (or sucks worse than a sack of wet gym socks), or what your latest doll or figma acquisition is… anything goes, providing that it’s even vaguely related to anime (or manga – this is something I don’t know that much about, but would like to learn more)

Here’s how you can participate.

Via Skype:

If you have Skype installed on your computer, in most cases, clicking this handy link will launch Skype and automatically dial in for you.
If that doesn’t work, just open Skype’s “dial pad” and dial in this number: +9900827047586112 This is a free Skype call and you don’t need to be subscribed to SkypeOut for it to work.

Via phone:

(201) 793-9022 (long distance)
(888) 350-0075 (toll free)

Please use the long distance number if possible. This shouldn’t be a problem for most people — most cell phone plans these days have free weekend calling as well as free long distance, and for those using landline phones, reasonably priced “phone cards” (MCI, Sprint, etc.) can be purchased at many grocery/drug stores as well as Costco. If this is not doable for you, then you can use the toll-free number, but since this service costs us extra, we’d prefer it if you didn’t.

Once you’ve joined the conference:

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are asked for the Conference Room Number, it is 7586112.

You will be asked to speak your name. It doesn’t have to be your real name – feel free to use whatever you go by when on the Internets.

If, once you join, all you hear is cheesy elevator muzak, that means you are the only person in the call. Congratulations. You can either wait around for someone to join you, or better yet, keep an eye on our Twitter; we will tweet when we start and stop the live call.

If all you hear is silence, then either we are all off doing something else, or we’ve all passed out, or there is something wrong with the conference call. Be patient, and again, keep an eye on our twitter to find out what’s going on.

If you just want to listen in…

If all you want to do is listen in, we’ve got you covered there as well. Our streaming Internet radio station Otaku no Radio will be interrupting its usual broadcasting to bring a live simulcast of this event.

If you already have a program capable of playing Shoutcast radio streams (iTunes and Winamp are two popular free ones), this link should launch your player and tune in to the stream. (If you’re a Google Chrome user, you might need to use this link instead.) Otherwise you can listen in directly on your web browser (assuming your computer, tablet, or other listening device of choice supports Flash) by loading up the Flash based stream player.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

New Audio-only and Video-only Podcast Feeds are now available

Donald Burr — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:10:48 +0000

When I started putting out video podcasts a few years ago, I was worried that this decision might meet with some controversy. After all, video files are large and consume lots of bandwidth, which some people just can’t or won’t want to download. (Especially these days, when many internet service providers are imposing data caps.) However, I was pleasantly surprised when I failed to receive one single complaint. Still, in the back of my mind I fear that someone is secretly plotting my assassination in retaliation for the heinous crime of forcing them to download my (admittedly cheesy) video podcasts. Well, in an effort to head that admittedly far-fetched problem off at the pass, and to provide an extra bit of convenience and choice for you, our audience, I have implemented separate audio-only and video-only podcast feeds! Now YOU get to choose what content you get!

If you want to continue receiving both audio and video podcasts, you don’t need to do anything. (Truly the lazy man’s solution, which is why it’s my favorite. ) The “default” podcast feed that you’re currently subscribed to will continue to carry both audio and video episodes.
If you want to receive only the audio podcasts, then you can subscribe to the audio-only feed (iTunes link). (Useful if you use a podcast client on your smartphone, since most people don’t watch video on those tiny screens. Also useful for those standalone Internet radio gizmos that are popular with some people out there)
If you want to receive only the video podcasts, then you can subscribe to the video-only feed (iTunes link). (Handy if, for example, you want to watch them on your iPad or big-screen TV, say using an Apple TV or Roku box for example, since playing audio-only stuff on large screens like that doesn’t really make much sense.)

The combined (main) feed will remain available on iTunes as well as the various other podcast directories where we’re listed. I’ll be submitting the separate audio- and video-only feeds as well, so they should start appearing in search results soon.

Announcing the Labor Day Weekend Otaku-thon of Doom!

Donald Burr — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 21:32:44 +0000

Summer is coming to an end, which for many people unfortunately means it’s Back to School time. (I feel your pain) It also means that it’s time once again for the infamous MDA Labor Day Telethon. I remember watching this with my parents for years when I was a kid, groaning at the lame jokes, and watching the various performers.

Thinking about this gave me an idea — how about we hold our own Labor Day event — a Labor Day Otakuthon, if you will? No, I won’t be crass and ask for your donations (though if you do I certainly wouldn’t mind). Instead, I am envisioning a sort of live group call-in show where hosts, co-hosts and guests can drop in and out at will, and we can talk about anything that strikes our fancy. (This is actually something I’ve been wanting to do for a while now.)

We can talk about what we think of the Summer 2011 anime season so far. We can talk about the various anime conventions we’ve been to this year. We can sing the praises of our all-time favorite anime, or lampoon and ridicule the worst anime in the history of mankind. Whatever!

I was thinking that we could do this on Labor Day weekend, which is Saturday and Sunday, September 3rd and 4th this year. No, we won’t be going all weekend long – I don’t want to completely emulate the MDA telethon (which in its heyday lasted as long as 21-1/2 hours!). I was thinking of doing this for a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday (to give as many people as possible on both the east and west coasts an opportunity to join in).

I’ve already lined up a few co-hosts who will be joining us. But for this to really succeed, we need you! If you’ve got a reasonably good computer and Internet connection, and a decent mic or USB headset, you can participate using Skype (which can be downloaded for free). Or you can join in by dialing a (toll free, in the US or Canada) telephone number.

If you’re interested in participating, drop us a line letting us know around what time(s) you might be available that weekend. I’ve also set up an editable web page where anyone who is interested can suggest topics of discussion; also please list the days/times that you might be able to join in there.

Look for another blog post closer to the weekend in question (sometime next week) that will detail the specific time(s) we’ll be operational, as well as instructions on how to join us by Skype or phone.

Episode #0026 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Maki-san of Obitsu

The Ghost in the Machine — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 08:25:53 +0000

We conclude our Anime Expo 2011 interviews with a chat with Maki-san from the doll maker Obitsu. We talk about Obitsu’s products as well as their plans for the future.

This concludes our series of Anime Expo 2011 interviews, but is not the end of our AX 2011 coverage. There are still some videos that we’ll be putting up, as well as photos, so keep an eye on our YouTube channel as well as our photo gallery.

Today’s Theme: “Kawaru Mirai,” by Choucho. OP to the Summer 2011 anime Heaven’s Memo Pad (Kamisama no Memochou), now streaming on the Anime Network.

ChibiCast #0022 – The Otaku no Podcast (almost) Labor Day Telethon of Doom!

Donald Burr — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 06:00:08 +0000

The Otaku no Podcast (almost) Labor Day Telethon of Doom! J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for youRelated posts: Announcing the Labor Day Weekend Otaku-thon of Doom! ChibiCast #0022 – Nominate us for the 2011 Podcast Awards! It’s time for the Otaku no Podcast Live Call-in Show of Doom!

Watch Angel Beats! online at The Anime Network

Video #0011 – Asian Classic Cuisine: Mapo Tofu

The Ghost in the Machine — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 21:10:29 +0000

Last week, one of my favorite recent-vintage anime, Angel Beats!, was released on DVD and Blu-ray. In honor of this release, we return to the Otaku no Podcast test kitchens where I show you how to make “Tenshi” Tachibana Kanade’s favorite dish, Mapo Tofu.

Watch this video on YouTube (in case the embedded player below doesn’t work)

Angel Beats Complete Collection

Artist Not Provided. Section 23 2011, DVD, $32.49

Angel Beats! Complete Collection [Blu-ray]

Section 23 2011, Blu-ray, $38.78

Buy Angel Beats on iTunes:

Ingredients:

15 -16 ounces tofu, regular
1/2 teaspoon salt
water, for parboiling tofu
3 ounces ground pork
1/2 cup green garlic chives, chopped in 1/2 inches (nira)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon chinese chili bean sauce (toubanjan or doubanjiang)
1 tablespoon chinese brown bean sauce (tenmienjan, tenmenjan, or tenmenjiang)
2 teaspoons fermented black beans, chopped finely
1/4-1/2 teaspoon ichimi togarashi pepper or 1/4-1/2 teaspoon japanese dried red chili pepper, minced
1 teaspoon chili oil
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 tablespoon sake or 1 tablespoon dry sherry
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon szechuan peppercorn (optional)

For the cornstarch paste:

1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon water

Directions:

Cut tofu into 1 inch cubes. Heat enough water in a large saucepan, add 1/2 teaspoon salt and tofu pieces. Bring to boil and cook tofu on medium high heat for 8 to 10 minutes and remove from heat. Precooking tofu in water prevents tofu from breaking apart easily later. Set aside.
While tofu is cooking, make cornstarch paste by mixing 1 T cornstarch and 1 T water. Set aside.
Set wok on high heat for 1 minute until hot. Add 2 T vegetable oil and swirl the pan, then add ground pork, stirring to separate
When ground pork is browned, add Chinese brown bean sauce ie tenmenjan, tenmienjan, or tenmenjiang, Chinese chili bean sauce ie toubanjan or doubanjiang, fermented black beans, and ichimi tougarashi or minced dried red chili pepper. Continue to cook for 1 minute.
Add chili oil, drained tofu pieces, chicken stock, garlic chives, soy sauce, and sake. Stir fry gently for 1-2 minutes.
Add cornstarch paste to thicken and add sesame oil. Swirl gently and cook for another 3-4 minutes on medium high heat. Sprinkle Szechuan peppercorn on top.
Serve with steamed white rice.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Episode #0025 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Peter Payne of J-List

The Ghost in the Machine — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 02:39:52 +0000

Our Anime Expo 2011 interviews continue! Today we interview Peter Payne, founder and head honcho of one of my favorite online sellers of stuff, J-List. Be sure and check out their incredible catalog over at J-List (includes adult/NSFW products) or J-Box (just the PG-rated ones).

Today’s Theme: “Sweet Drop,” by Puffy AmiYumi, OP to the Summer 2011 anime Usagi Drop (Bunny Drop). Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership today!

Announcing the Otaku no Podcast Tumblr blog

Donald Burr — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:59:42 +0000

We here at Otaku no Podcast pride ourselves on always being at the trailing edge of technology and trendiness. So, in that vein, we are pleased to announce that we have finally set up our own Tumblr.

Tumblr, in case you’re unaware, is a sort of microblogging platform that lets you post quick little snippets of text, images, videos, links, quotes, and audio. Think of it as a short-form blog: something that kind of sits in between a full-on blog posting here at otakunopodcast.com, and a really short tweet or Facebook post. Basically, this will be used for things that are kind of cool (well, at least I think so), but aren’t deserving of a full-on blog post at Otaku no Podcast (I wouldn’t want to clutter up the home page even worse than it already is…) Fun screenshots from anime I’m watching, cool or funny YouTube videos I run into, etc.

You can follow it via RSS feed or just follow our Twitter since I’ve set up Tumblr to post to Twitter whenever I put up a new entry.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Episode #0024 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Taliesin Jaffe

The Ghost in the Machine — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 21:33:38 +0000

Our Anime Expo 2011 interviews continue! Today we interview the multitalented Taliesin Jaffe, where we talk about some of his various projects, as well as a road trip of epic proportions.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Episode #0023 – Anime Expo 2011 Interviews – Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo

The Ghost in the Machine — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:05:18 +0000

We begin our Anime Expo 2011 interviews with a chat with webcomic artist Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo.

I recently made a guest appearance on the Nigorimasen podcast. Go listen to it today!

Today’s Theme: “Stone Cold” by FictionJunction. OP for the Summer 2011 anime Sacred Seven. Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

Listen to my guest appearance on the Nigorimasen podcast!

Donald Burr — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:16:29 +0000

It’s been a while since my last guest appearance on another podcast (glances meaningfully at the Cartoon Geeks), so when Tom Langston of the Nigorimasen blog and podcast sent out a call for guest co-hosts, I was more than happy to respond. And that is how I found myself sitting around the virtual Skype roundtable on an uncomfortably warm Sunday afternoon along with Tom, Hisui of the Reverse Thieves and Patz from Insert-Disc. We talked about the Summer 2010 anime season and what shows we’re watching (or not) as well as Otakon, which I really do want to make it out to one of these days. (It’s just that pesky lack of money/time thing…) Go listen to it today!

Cool Find: My Anime Girlfriend

Donald Burr — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 00:53:58 +0000

C’mon, admit it. I’m sure that, at least once or twice in your life, you’ve wondered what it would be like if you could date your favorite anime character. Well, as the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for, because you might get it, and it might not be quite what you’d imagined it to be…

My Anime Girlfriend is a fun series of web shorts that details the life and adventures of Sid, your plain old everyman, who’s been extremely unlucky in love. One day his well-meaning colleague sets him up with Yuruki, a cheerful and very animated girl. And thus begin their misadventures in life and love, while taking on various anime tropes and stereotypes along the way.

This fun series is brought to you by the writer & executive Producer of Comedy Central’s Ugly Americans, and features Patrick Shepherd, John Gemberling, and the voice of SNL’s Abby Elliott.

Unfortunately there are only 4 episodes made so far. This is a really neat idea and I sincerely hope that the creators will continue with it; there is certainly no shortage of anime tropes and stereotypes that can be explored in any number of doubtlessly entertaining ways.

Go check it out today! Video of Episode 1 below the cut.

(Thanks to Twitter follower @predederva for this most excellent Cool Find!)

My Anime Girlfriend Channel
Get More: Atom.com | Funny Videos | Tournament | Upload

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

Episode #0022 – Anime Expo 2011 (Part 2)

The Ghost in the Machine — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 17:56:09 +0000

We conclude our coverage of Anime Expo 2011 with part 2 of our usual panel-style review/wrapup of doom. Anime Expo 2011 coverage will be coming out over the next few weeks, as I have tons and tons of audio, video and photos to go through, not to mention all of the news and announcements that came out at the con!

Today’s Theme: “Magia,” by Kalafina, the ED of the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Links to things we talked about:

Stitcher SmartRadio app
Otaku no Podcast YouTube channel
California Conventions Blog
AM2 Con Blog Hacked, Con Still On
The Battle of the Cons: Anime Expo vs. AM2
AM2 Sets a Record in 1st Year Convention Attendance and Celebrates the End of Its 2011 Event with the All Girl J-Rock Band Scandal
Convention Report: AM2
So How Did AM2 Fare on the Same Weekend as AX 2011?
Virgin Mobile MiFi 2200 Mobile Hotspot
Pray for Japan (Facebook, Trailer on YouTube, Kickstarter)
Japan fundraiser brings kids into the fold
PIAPRO
Mikubook
Mikunopolis
Otaku no Podcast YouTube channel with video from Mikunopolis
OtakuVerse Zero
Culture Japan on Crunchyroll (Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!)
NicoNico
Crunchyroll (Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!)
Win MsGeek’s NicoNico T-shirt
Crunchyroll Dance Party
Gallery of Fantastic Art (GoFA)
Guidebook (get the free app on iTunes or Android Marketplace)
SCHED
AX Live (view past episodes on YouTube)
AMV contest winners
Masquerade Winners

Our Picks:

Donald – K-ON! Volume 1 ( DVD, Blu-ray); Volume 2 ( DVD, Blu-ray); Volume 3 due to be released sometime later this year; Highschool of the Dead (on DVD, Blu-ray and ); Midori Days; Haruhi AniPoke App for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad (free on the ); Nagato AniPoke app ; Mikuru AniPoke app ; Ramen Fighter Miki on Crunchyroll (Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!); Square
Avi – Puella Magi Madoka Magica (license announced at Aniplex’s AX panel; due out sometime in October)
Michelle – Pray for Japan (Facebook, Trailer on YouTube, Kickstarter); Apple iPod touch 8GB MP3 Player (4th Generation – Latest Model) – Black; Otaku USA Magazine
Danny – The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya; Trigun: Badlands Rumble

We are now a Crunchyroll affiliate!

Donald Burr — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 01:06:28 +0000

We are pleased to announce that we are now a Crunchyroll affiliate!

Crunchyroll is quite possibly the best thing to come around for us anime fans, and is the easiest and cheapest way of enjoying 100% legal streaming anime while supporting the companies that create it. They actively go after the latest and greatest anime titles, as well as maintain a back catalog of over 200 titles.

You can access most of the site for free. But if you pay for a Premium membership, not only do you help support the people and companies that create anime, you also get access to some cool extras. For one thing, you get access to the full back catalog (only a subset of the older titles are available for free). You also get — and this is the big one — same-day simulcast. Yes, on the same day that any given anime episode comes out in Japan, you can watch it on Crunchyroll, complete with English subtitles. You also get access to high-quality HD (720p and 1080p) streams. And not only can you watch Crunchyroll on your computer, but with a Premium membership, you also can use their apps for iOS (iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad), Android, as well as set-top boxes by Boxee and Roku. And finally, if you’re a fan of live-action Japanese or Korean dramas (“dorama”) they’ve got those too.

What will all of this cost you? Very little. For an anime- or drama-only Premium membership, you pay the low low price of just $6.95 per month. Or if you want both anime and drama, that’ll run you $11.95/month. Better still, if you’re willing to pay for multiple months in advance, the price drops to as low as $4.99/month!

So what are you waiting for? Get a Crunchyroll Premium Membership today! If you sign up through any of the CR links/banners on our site, we’ll get a little cut (it doesn’t cost you anything extra), which goes towards keeping the website up, paying for server and bandwidth, equipment for the studio, etc.

Did you miss Mikunopolis? We’ve got you covered!

Donald Burr — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 04:37:30 +0000

Are you sad that you missed out on what was quite possibly THE event of the new millennium? Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered. We’ve uploaded our video from the Mikunopolis concert to our YouTube channel. Go check ‘em out today!

But first, the bad news. Unfortunately, the press weren’t exactly given the best seats in the house — I suspect they saved the best angles/camera positions for their own use. Also, due to the nature of on-camera microphones, the sound quality isn’t exactly world-class. (I did use a shotgun mic so the quality is probably a bit better than your garden variety camcorder.) Also, they only let us record the first 6 songs (the first 7 if you count Project DIVA desu), and while these first few songs were awesome, the ones that came later were even more spectacular.

And the good news? These videos will still give you a taste of how incredible this show was to behold. You’ll get to see and hear how terrific Miku and friends (and especially their backing band) were.

If you really wanted to see the live show in person and are bummed that you missed it, don’t fret! I have a feeling that Miku and friends will be returning to the States before too long. Keep an eye on the Mikunopolis site as I’m sure they’ll announce future concert dates and locations there. (Of course, as soon as we hear about any possible future Mikunopolis dates, we’ll be sure and tell you as well.)

Also, I understand that they will be releasing an official concert DVD (and Blu-Ray too, hopefully) later this year. We’ll definitely let you know about it when it goes on sale, so keep an eye on the Otaku no Podcast website as well as our Twitter and Facebook accounts. (Or, if you’re the impatient sort, you can get the Blu-ray of the Japanese concert today, thanks to our good friends at J-List/J-Box.)

Finally, this is by no means the end of our AX coverage; there is still tons more to come. Besides the second half of our recap/review podcast episode of Doom (which should be going up tonight), there are tons more interviews, video and photos, which will be going up over the next few weeks to come. So stay tuned!

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Episode #0021 – Anime Expo 2011 (Part 1)

The Ghost in the Machine — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 23:48:20 +0000

We begin our coverage of Anime Expo 2011 with part 1 of our usual panel-style review/wrapup of doom. Anime Expo 2011 coverage will be coming out over the next few weeks, as I have tons and tons of audio, video and photos to go through, not to mention all of the news and announcements that came out at the con!

Today’s Theme: “Cagayake! GIRLS,” the theme to K-ON! Season 1, as performed by the Vocaloids. Be sure and check out the super-cool VOCA-ON! remake of the K-ON! opening animation with Vocaloid characters instead of the usual K-ON! girls!

Links to things we talked about:

Our Picks:

Video #0010 – How to PROPERLY enable Japanese language support in Windows

The Ghost in the Machine — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 20:33:07 +0000

While attempting to play with the free ComiPo! trial recently, I discovered that I apparently didn’t fully and properly enable Japanese language support in Windows. This video shows you how to correctly set up Japanese language in Windows.

Watch this video on YouTube (in case the embedded player below doesn’t work for you)

Cool Find: ComiPo!

Donald Burr — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:56:55 +0000

“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.” Or so the old saying goes. And if the act of “teaching” includes blogging and podcasting, then it’s especially true in my case. You see, I can’t draw worth a darn. And that explains why I write about anime and manga rather than actually create it. But, as is true for many people I’m sure, there are still stories bouncing around in my head that I wish I could either animate or draw. (Or maybe I just want to make a cheap rip-off or parody of some already existing property.) Luckily, for people like us, technology is here to help, at least as far as “drawing” manga is concerned, thanks to a new program called ComiPo!.

This software lets you place 3D models of various manga-y characters in various standard outfits (school uniforms, etc.) in various poses, add speech bubbles or action text, and place them on a variety of backgrounds. And because the models are 3D, you can easily pose them any which way you want. It really has an impressive list of features. The software is currently still under development, but they have released a free trial version that’s good through November 30, 2011 which can be downloaded from their website. (Look for the big red download button about halfway down the page.) The software should run on almost any fairly modern PC, and appears to work with Windows XP and later versions. (Mac users – sorry, there doesn’t appear to be a Mac version; but it runs beautifully under emulation software such as Parallels, VMware Fusion and VirtualBox.)

You’ll need to enable Japanese language support in Windows. I previously showed you how to do this in my Kanon installation video, but it turns out the steps I showed there were incomplete. I’ve made a new video that shows you how to properly enable Japanese language support.

Unfortunately the software is in Japanese (duh) and no English translation (or tutorial) has yet been put forth; ~~I’m sure that there are groups working on this~~ Newsflash! The creators of ComiPo! have announced that they are working on an English language version of the software!! For now you’ll have to resort to the tried-and-true technique of “click on something and see what it does.” You also might want to check out the official demo video to get an idea of what you can do with the software, as well as episode 8 of Patrick Macias’ and Yuu Asakawa’s (English language) show Otaku-verse Zero, who also showed off ComiPo!; the segment starts in at around 03:00. Japanese culture blogger Danny Choo also wrote about it and you might find some useful tidbits in his post (as well as in the comments to his post). He also featured ComiPo! in episode 11 of his show Culture Japan. (The segment starts in at about 26 minutes.) There’s also a community site (in English, fortunately). And, the makers of ComiPo! have set up an English language Facebook page where Facebook users have helpfully posted their own English language tutorials on how to use the software. Sugoi ne!!

Demo videos below the cut.

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

ChibiCast #0021 – Random-Updates-a-Gogo

Donald Burr — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 19:00:11 +0000

Random-Updates-a-Gogo Related posts: Possible trouble with AudioBoo and social media updates ChibiCast #0020 – The between episodes episode ChibiCast #0022 – The Otaku no Podcast (almost) Labor Day Telethon of Doom!

You can now listen to Otaku no Podcast on Stitcher Radio!

Donald Burr — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 02:31:23 +0000

In our continuing efforts to ~~take over the world, bwahahahh!!!!~~ bring Otaku no Podcast to the widest possible listening audience, we are pleased to announce that we are now available on the Stitcher SmartRadio app.

Stitcher is an award-winning provider of news and talk radio for your mobile phone. With the free Stitcher SmartRadio app (available for devices running iOS, Android, BlackBerry OS, and HP/Palm webOS), you can listen to your favorite radio programs and podcasts – anytime and anywhere you want.

Stitcher has a truly wide variety of programming available, from the media industry’s premier content providers — tech news, sports, talk radio, business, entertainment, and much more. It’s the easiest way to stay connected to your world while on-the-go. You can easily create your own personalized audio stream, with only the content that you want, and listen to it anytime, anywhere. With over 5,000 shows available on Stitcher, you’re bound to find something of interest to you. And if you’re having trouble finding something to listen to, Stitcher’s recommendation feature can help you out.

So go download the free app today!

Anime Expo 2011 videos are hitting the Otaku no Podcast YouTube channel

Donald Burr — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 19:10:11 +0000

First of all, yes, I am well aware that there are no Anime Expo Day 2-4 updates. I’m sorry, but I just wasn’t able to get them done. By the time we got back to our hotel room each night, it was too late and we were way too tired to write anything even remotely coherent. Besides, bandwidth was pretty much crap, so even if I did write something, it would be next to impossible to post it. This weekend we’re planning on getting together to record our Anime Expo review/recap episode of doom, panel-style as usual, so that will serve as our final AX update of doom.

But the AX coverage doesn’t stop there! Besides recapping the veritable cornucopia of new anime licenses, releases and other news to come out of AX, we will also be posting, over the next few weeks, audio, photos, and videos that we took while at Anime Expo. The first such fruits of our convention-going labor are now up on our YouTube channel. We were able to sit down and chat with MegaTokyo webcomic creator Fred “Piro” Gallagher and voice actor, director, script adapter, former child actor, and all-around multitalented guy Taliesin Jaffe about their various projects and other sundry topics.

Go check them out now!

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Anime Expo 2011 Day 0 & 1 Report

Donald Burr — Sat, 02 Jul 2011 19:12:20 +0000

Anime Expo 2011 Day 1 has drawn to a close. Actually we’ve been here since Thursday, aka Day 0. So at long last here is our writeup!

Day 0 was spent mostly getting here, followed by press interviews. We had the great honor of interviewing Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo fame, as well as the multi-talented Taliesin Jaffe. Those should be hitting the podcast feeds along with our inevitable panel discussion recap episode of doom.

We then trekked over to the LA Convention Center for press badge pick-up. We had a bit of difficulty finding it, but were eventually able to get there. Fortunately there was only a short line, not like the line of gargantuan proportions that was the pre-reg badge pickup line. Press badge pickup went pretty smoothly.

We were in a rather unique situation in that we are both press, as well as disabled. They weren’t really expecting this odd twist, and it took us a while to get referred to the proper people. Coordinating badge pickup, ticketing, etc. for the disabled is still one of their weak points; there was an awful lot of walking back and forth involved. However we can’t fault the staff, as everyone was friendly and willing to go the extra mile to help out. The AX staff is making a conscious effort to educate their staff and volunteers on good customer relations.

Unfortunately the same can’t be said for convention center staff. For one thing there is still a definite shortage of them. Last year this lack of personnel led to a rather disastrous accident suffered by one of our panelists; fortunately, so far, knock on wood, we’ve escaped unscathed this year. However one run-in with con center staff left a decidedly sour taste in our mouth. Due to physical disability we had to take a taxi to the convention center, and as the driver was pulling up to the hall we wanted to exit at, a con center staffer rushed up and accosted us saying that we couldn’t even pull up there. This greatly angered our driver, so much so that he even offered to give us a reduced fare if we called him when we needed to return to the hotel.

We didn’t make it to the con until late afternoon, and as a result we missed a few industry panels, at which some rather interesting announcements were made.

First up, the NIS America panel, NIS America is a company better known for its English localizations of popular Japanese tactical role playing titles such as Disgaea and Phantom Brave. What many people don’t know (well, at least what I didn’t know until now) is that they also license some anime titles. And they came out with two rather interesting announcements in that vein. They announced that they have licensed Kimi ni Todoke and Dororon Enma-kun for North American distribution. Kimi ni Todoke came as a welcome surprise, and I so called this one in our 2010 wrap-up episode. KnT is an absolutely sweet, endearing story and one that anyone, not just shoujo fans, will heartily enjoy. Expect it to come out in two sets of 13 episodes each, with the first box shipping sometime in October, and the second one shipping at some unspecified later date. However, it’s the licensing of Emma-kun, a strange and rather poorly rated horror-comedy, and a rather old one at that (originally aired in 1973), that has the anime blogosphere flummoxed. Ain’t it Cool Anime News remarked, rather incredulously, that “that’s about the least expected anime license ever,” while Narutaki of the Reverse Thieves quips, “This might be the most poorly thought out license of the year.” There’s no news about release dates, only that they hope to have more information by next year’s Anime Expo. So don’t expect this one anytime soon.

Next up is Right Stuf/Nozomi Entertainment, who announced that it has acquired the license for more of the (original) Dirty Pair as well as Dirty Pair Flash, Gasaraki, and Martian Successor Nadesico, along with the Gekigangar 3 video. This is welcome news for us old school anime fans. I’m particularly looking forward to the re-release of Nadesico, as this is a great title for relative newcomers to the genre which I have been unable to recommend since it’s been out of print for a while.

At the Aniplex USA panel, we learned the exciting (but not terribly surprising, at least IMHO) news that Puella Magi Madoka Magica has been licensed. (Although this was suspected for a while now, since they registered the domain for an apparent US Madoka Magica website late last month, and the site went live early this morning and was noticed by sharp-eyed net stalkers.) This series has been generating quite a bit of controversy on the intarwebs, and has turned the whole magical girl genre on its ear, and it’s no surprise (at least to us) that it was snapped up — the only surprise was that it took them this long to do so. They also announced that they picked up the license for Blue Exorcist; the first of four DVD volumes will ship in October, with the remaining volumes tentatively scheduled for January, April and July of next year.

Viz announced that they will be releasing Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva as well as Bleach: Fade to Black – Kimi no Na o Yobu, joining the over 9,000 other Bleach properties out there. Bleach is due out on November 15 on both DVD and Blu-ray, while no details of the Professor Layton release have been announced yet.

Finally, FUNimation announced a veritable cornucopia of releases, including Deadman Wonderland, Steins;Gate, Baka to Test, B Gata H Kei (to be known as “Yamada’s First Time”), and Asobi no Iku yo! (previously known as “Bombshells from the Sky,” but apparently now to be called “Cat Planet Cuties.”) They also added DVD, Blu-ray, digital and broadcast distribution rights for the anime “C.” B Gata H Kei, in particular, is a fun and funny story about a girl, Yamada, and her quest to garner 100, ahem, “sex partners” before she graduates. Scandalous as this plot may sound, IMHO there is comparatively little hanky panky in the actual show — yes, maybe some mildly suggestive scenes, but nothing compared to a certain other infamous title. It plays out as more of a saucy and funny romantic comedy. Hopefully its US release won’t generate the same controversy it did back in Japan.

The one panel we did make it to was the Hatsune Miku Keynote, hosted by Hiroyuki Itoh and Wataru Sasaki of Crypton Future Media, the creators of Hatsune Miku and other Vocaloids, and the #1 music software distributor in Japan. To say that Crypton, et al created Vocaloid is somewhat of a misnomer; Vocaloid is a software speech synthesis engine developed by Yamaha, who licenses it to other companies (such as Crypton) who then take it and marry it with voice data to create a unique singing software. (Hatsune Miku was created based on voice data sampled from voice actress Saki Fujita.) Vocaloid, the software, is neither an anime, nor a character. In fact, Crypton’s earlier Vocaloid-based products were sold as plain old software, with no Hatsune Miku-like character. Hatsune Miku, in fact, was created as a marketing tool to make the software appeal to a wider audience. And boy, did it work. Hatsune Miku and friends now enjoy worldwide popularity thanks to events such as the Hatsune Miku concerts. This year’s Anime Expo marks the North American debut of the “Mikunopolis” concert; previously only highlights of this show were shown at the New York Anime Festival.

To be completely honest, they also owe their popularity to the Internet and the creative people that take these tools and make cool new things based on them. And they know this very well. In fact, in a move that’s completely counter to how agencies here in the west handle things (I’m looking at you, Hollywood, MPAA and RIAA!), Crypton freely encourages fans to take their works and make derivative works based on them. They directly attribute Hatsune Miku’s popularity to video sharing sites such as YouTube and NicoNicoDouga, which bridge the gap between those people who create and listen to music, normally independent and isolated. These sites facilitate what they call the “chain of creation” – where someone creates something, posts it for others to see, and then people see it and create their own derivative works – truly an example of the long tail philosophy at work. They’ve created a website, Piapro, to facilitate this sharing of music, lyrics, and video. There is only one hard and fast rule to this site: if you post something, you must let others derive from it; And if you modify something, you must acknowledge the original creator. A brilliant example of the Creative Commons license at work. Crypton themselves provide the original permission for people to derive from their content. (Not only do they tolerate people deriving from their work, they actively ENCOURAGE it.) Take, for example, MikuMikuDance, which we’ve written about before; a really powerful 3D animation program that could be sold for real money, yet is freely given away, to encourage fan creativity. They realize that increasing popularity leads to merchandising opportunities such as CDs, books, and even cookies(!). Of course there is the famous Sega Project Diva games, where they consciously made every effort to use user-generated content in the game — costumes, character designs, even loading screens. Compared to Hollywood’s top-down creation process, the Hatsune Miku universe demonstrates a more bottom-up approach, a new way to create work. And Crypton is very conscious of remaining sensitive to the creative community’s needs. Case in point: their newly-created social networking site Mikubook, a social networking site that allows users to recommend videos, illustrations and music to their followers, with emphasis on Vocaloid-related products. Users can also connect with other people easily, and can log in to the site using their existing Twitter or Facebook credentials. Although this site is still in an early beta phase (it was birthed only one month ago), work on it is progressing rapidly.

And finally, the highlight of our evening: the Anime Music Video contest. I say this all the time, but the entries just keep getting better and better. Unfortunately there were once again a few (in our opinion) mis-categorizations: some videos in drama that felt more like comedy, which, we think, is rather unfair to the rest of the competition in that category. And there was one video in particular that pretty much nailed it in terms of emotional content and matching the music’s mood with the anime content, but I just couldn’t vote for it because of a glaring technical error, a field order problem that caused all motion to appear strangely stuttery. This year also marked the debut of a new category, “Fun,” that is basically a catch-all for anything that doesn’t really fit anywhere else. Being a new category, however, its entrants were ineligible for the “Best of Show” prize. However (again in our opinion) some of the best (certainly the more funny) of the videos were in this category. There were also some, shall we say, not entirely safe for work entrants, especially in comedy. This has been a concern for some of our co-hosts in years past, in that exposing children to these type of videos might not be such a good idea. The AMV staff have finally acknowledged this, and are apparently going to make the AMV event an “18+” event starting next year.

That about does it for this update. Busy schedule tomorrow, including what could quite possibly be the highlight of the entire con, the Mikunopolis concert!

Otaku no Podcast is now affiliated with The Right Stuf; get your anime and manga fix here!

Donald Burr — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 05:51:45 +0000

By now you all know that, for many years, we have been a happy member of the Amazon Affiliates program – that is what powered our wonderful AnimeFinder(TM) search box, as well as the product links in the various podcasts and other articles here (such as when we review an anime, or choose one as one of our Picks, etc.). This has been (IMHO) a great relationship for both you the audience and us the podcasters: you get to acquire anime (and other products) at a decent price (their selection is pretty good and their prices are not too shabby), and we get a little “something” for your business. And, while small, these little “something”s really do add up. (Example: our most recent affiliate payment helped me put together a cheap, but pretty sweet mobile studio rig for the interviews we’ll be doing at Anime Expo.)

Sadly, as the man said, all good things must come to an end. Recently my home state of California signed a new budget, one of the more controversial parts of which institutes a sales tax on all online purchases, even if the business in question doesn’t maintain facilities in California. As a result, Amazon has decided to terminate all California-based associates’ contracts. (Apparently, at least according to Amazon, Governor Brown has signed this new legislation, though I can’t find any news articles confirming this.) It’s thought by many that Amazon is doing this just so that they can raise a ruckus, make a statement, whatever. Still, this is bad news for us, as we are now left without a small, but reasonably steady income stream.

Fortunately, however, not all affiliates programs are “wussing out” or grandstanding like Amazon is, and so I am pleased to announce that we are now an affiliate of The Right Stuf. The Right Stuf, aside from being an anime distributor in their own right, runs a truly awesome store that sells a huge variety of anime, manga and related goods (and not only titles that they own the rights to either). They regularly have some pretty amazing sales, and of course there’s always the by-now-infamous Shawne’s Deal of the Day. They’ve been in the business of feeding the otaku need for many years, and are second to none when it comes to customer service. They’re good people.

So please click through to the Otaku no Podcast Anime Store of Doom! and buy something, won’tcha?

In the meantime, we ask that you please don’t make any purchases through any of the links in our past postings until I’ve had a chance to go through and update them to point to Right Stuf. Seeing as how I’m busy with Anime Expo this weekend, that probably won’t happen for another 2 weeks or so. We’ll update this article, as well as post announcements to Twitter and Facebook when that has been completed.

Remember, too, that we are a Friend of J-List, and we will get a small “something” thanks to any purchases you make from their simply awe-inspiring collection of anime figures, t-shirts, calendars, snack foods, traditional Japanese culture items, and ahem “those” kind of products too (this does not cost you anything extra). Check out all that J-List (includes some NSFW products) and J-Box (100% work-safe) have to offer, and be amazed. Also, remember that clicking on our Google ads helps as well.

Got questions for the AX Guests of Honor?

Donald Burr — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 21:12:52 +0000

Yes, it’s that time again, time for another Anime Expo. This time we’re actually going to try and bring you some actual coverage. To that end we have set up our new liveblog, which, after hours of experimentation, I have determined to be much easier (and much less vomit-inducing) than live video streaming.

And this is your opportunity to ask a question of one of the Guests of Honor. We’ll be in one-on-one interviews with Fred Gallagher of MegaTokyo and Taliesin Jaffe, who’s been involved in one way or another with more anime projects than I can count; and we’re gonna try to get interviews with Danny Choo and Hiroyuki Itoh and Wataru Sasaki of Crypton Future Media (yes, the Vocaloid people). However there may be other opportunities to ask questions of the other Guests of Honor too.

So, got anything you want us to ask? Then post them in the comments here. We make no promises, but will do our best to get your questions answered.

Announcing the new Liveblog of Doom!

Donald Burr — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:17:14 +0000

As you may (or may not) know, for a while we have been experimenting with livestreaming video from various anime conventions. And after hours of experimentation, I have come to one inescapable conclusion:

Livestreaming video is hard.

For one thing, it’s almost impossible to hold a cameraphone steady, which is painfully evident if you’ve managed to sit through any of our livestream trials. (Contrary to what it may seem, it is not our intention to induce nausea and vomiting in our audience.) I suppose I could put together some sort of eXtreme steadicam type rig, but (A) I don’t have the money to do so, and (B) I’m lazy. There’s also the fact that all cameraphones have really crappy sound. Which means that, most of the time, it’s almost impossible to understand what the speaker/panelist/GoH/whatever is saying; it usually ends up sounding something like this: “Mmfffrrf mrrrfff mrr mfff mff mrrrrfff.” And, of course, unless you happen to travel with a backpack-mounted studio lighting kit (which I don’t), the only thing you have to work with lighting-wise is the (often lousy) lighting found in most convention center rooms; so even if I could manage to get a rock-steady shot, the video would most likely be of inferior quality as well.

So, yeah, livestreaming video is hard. So how am I to achieve my goal of bringing you live on-the-spot convention coverage? One word: Liveblogging.

Yes, the very same technique that many tech bloggers have successfully employed to bring coverage of tech conference keynotes and so forth will now be put to use to bring you the latest and greatest anime news from whatever con we happen to be attending. This is being brought to you thanks to the excellent free liveblogging service CoverItLive. If you head to our livestream page you will now see a lovely new “Liveblog of Doom!” widget. When we are at an event and are liveblogging it, you will see our pearls of wisdom scroll by just as fast as my fingers can type them. And there’s no need to obsessively hit your browser’s “reload” button either; the CoverItLive widget does all of that hard work for you, so all you have to do is sit back and watch. Unfortunately the service is ad-supported, so you’ll have to sit through the occasional advertisement video. But in general I’ve found the service to work pretty well.

How will you know when we are liveblogging an event? For one thing, you can take a look at our con calendar. This will list the events that we are interested in. However that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll be at each and every event listed here (the usual disclaimer about the fickle nature of convention scheduling, plus my unpredictable stamina level at any given moment applies). However when we do decide to livestream, we will of course update our Twitter.

We hope you enjoy this new method of convention coverage. If you have any comments, or are having trouble getting the CoverItLive widget to work for you, please drop us a line.

J-List is a peaceful island of Japanese pop culture for you

Cool Find: Western Digital WD TV Live

Donald Burr — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 15:11:58 +0000

This is sort of a half-Cool Find, half-review type article.

For the last few years I have been on a quest — a quest to free my anime from the confines of my computer screen.

Many others out there have shared this quest, I’m sure. After all, although watching anime on your computer is nice (especially with the mega-HD resolution monitors of today), it’s still nice to get away from the computer every now and then. Maybe we want to consume our anime while out and about; fortunately there are devices and software that make it relatively easy to do so, such as iPods, iPhones, iPads, Android smartphones/tablets and the Archos 5, and software such as Meridian, Air Video, and Crunchyroll for iPhone or Android.

But what if we want to enjoy anime on the big screen, using your home theater system?

This is particularly desirable nowadays, when more and more anime are being made in HD quality with multi-channel surround sound. The problem however is getting your anime to the big screen. You could hook your computer up to your home theater system, but that’s a rather clumsy and complicated solution, and most computer interfaces aren’t well suited to the “lean back experience” you get in a home theater setting. With some special software, you can use most current-gen game consoles as media streaming devices. However I’ve found that setting up this software can be tricky at best, and downright impossible at worst. Or you could get one of a variety of media center set-top boxes. Unfortunately picking the right set-top box is challenging, mostly due to the wide variety of formats that downloaded anime comes in these days. Add to that the complexity of multiple audio tracks and subtitles, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for pain and disappointment.

Well, I have tried just about every set top out there and have found one that is just about perfect — the Western Digital WD TV Live.

It’s a pretty small thing, about the size and weight of a small paperback book, and will easily fit in even the most crowded A/V shelf. It doesn’t give off a lot of heat either. With connections for component and composite video, digital optical audio and HDMI, the WD TV Live will easily hook in to your other devices. It also has a USB port, which is used for expansion (more on that later) as well as storage — the idea being that you can plug in a USB hard drive full of media and play that. But that’s not what we’re really interested in: we want to be able to stream our media off of our home network. For that, the WD TV Live has a built-in Ethernet port. The WD TV Live is also capable of accessing WiFi, but that requires a USB WiFi adapter, sold separately. You can access your files off of your network using the Windows file sharing protocol, which fortunately pretty much every other OS speaks.

The user interface is functional, but a bit on the klunky side. Accessing some functions requires you to scroll through several levels of menu items. But it’s not too bad. It doesn’t have the elegant simplicity of an Apple product, but it isn’t the worst I’ve seen either. You’ll get used to it in no time.

Now here’s the good news: the WD TV Live plays just about every video format under the sun. H.264, XviD, DivX, MPEG 1/2/4, WMV… it plays ‘em all. I threw every oddball file I had at it and it played them beautifully. The only file it was unable to play was one particularly large (over 8 GB) MPEG-4; but that could have been because it was a bad file (I have problems playing that file on my computer too). And, best of all, it supports those pesky Matroska (MKV) files! Files with multiple audio tracks are supported. And subtitles are supported as well, in all the common formats (SSA, ASS, SRT, SUB, and SMI), both in “sidecar” files (subtitles in their own file) as well as embedded as part of the MKV file. Unfortunately some more advanced subtitle functions don’t appear to be supported (different fonts, colors, on-screen positioning, etc.) but the subtitle support is good enough to where I’m happy. (A press of a button during playback will bring up a menu where you can easily switch between audio and subtitle tracks.)

The WD TV Live also supports playback of audio and photos, but I don’t really see that as this device’s real strength. (I suppose you could use it to show off your latest anime con pics, or listen to your favorite anime OST’s or whatever.) However it also supports streaming content from several online sources, including Blockbuster, Netflix, Pandora, Flickr, YouTube and several others. Netflix, in particular, is of interest to us anime fans, as they now have a rather impressive collection of anime available for online streaming, and that collection is growing every day.

Finally, let’s talk price. At $80, I think this is a really good deal for what you get.

Overall I am quite happy with the WD TV Live. My quest to unleash my anime from the confines of my computer, and bring it to the big screen, is now complete.

Pros:

Supports just about every video format under the sun (including MKV containers)
Supports subtitles, both as separate “sidecar” files (SSA/ASS/SRT) as well as embedded in MKV’s
Supports most of the popular Internet streaming video sources.

Cons:

User interface is a bit clunky, not as elegant as an Apple product
WiFi support only with purchase of a separate WiFi adapter
only supports Windows networking (SMB)
does not support some advanced subtitle attributes (fonts, color, etc.)

Overall Rating:

Rating: ★★★★½

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Anime Expo 2011 programming schedules are now live!

Donald Burr — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 21:40:22 +0000

As Murphy’s Law would have it, mere hours after we released our latest episode, the fine folks at Anime Expo go and release their preliminary schedule. Would’ve loved to talk about it on the podcast, but what can you do? shrug Anyway, go forth and peruse the schedules for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. (You’ll need the free Acrobat Reader, as these are PDF files. Or Mac and iOS users can use their device’s built-in PDF support.)

Speaking of iOS devices, the AX staff are planning on releasing an updated app for the iPhone, and are also working on an app for Android devices as well. Keep an eye on the Anime Expo website as well as their Twitter for an announcement when those are ready.

We here at Otaku no Podcast have begun going through the schedules and have started filling out our convention schedule with events we are interested in. You can look at our convention schedule on the brand-new Con Calendar page.

Only 17 more days to go…!

Episode #0020 – Convention Survival Guide, 2011 Edition

The Ghost in the Machine — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 13:43:40 +0000

Well, the summer con season is in full swing, and as usual, we’re late to the party This week we give an update to our famous convention survival tips, which should hopefully help you have a more enjoyable con-going experience. And of course we bust out our favorite anime picks as well.

Today’s Theme Song: “FIGHT OR FLIGHT,” by Yū Kobayashi. Second ED to the anime Dragonaut: The Resonance.

Our Picks:

Michelle:
- There is a ton of anime available to watch online, completely legally and (oftentimes) for free. Some of our favorites include Crunchyroll, Hulu, and Crackle. Also, many anime distributors run their own streams.
- Animation Runner Kuromi
Me:
- K-ON!
- Clannad and Clannad: After Story
- Royal Space Force – Wings of Honneamise

Clannad: After Story – Complete Collection [4 Discs] -

Includes:Clannad After Story: Episode 11 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 10 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 9 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 8 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 6 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 4 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 18 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 17 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 16 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 15 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 14 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 13 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 12 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 1 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 3 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 2 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 24 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 23 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 22 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 21 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 20 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 19 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 5 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 7 (2009) Clannad After Story: Episode 11 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 10 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 9 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 8 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 6 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 4 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 18 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 17 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 16 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 15 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 14 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 13 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 12 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 1 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 3 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 2 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 24 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 23 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 22 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 21 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 20 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 19 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 5 No synopsis available. Clannad After Story: Episode 7 No synopsis available.

TEST LINK: Clannad Complete Collection