Otaku no Podcast » video

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)

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.

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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.

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

Cool Find: Meridian Media Player for Android

Donald Burr — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:52:11 +0000

Those of us with large digital anime collections, either ripped from DVDs that we own or acquired from, ahem, other sources (we’re not here to judge, let your own moral compass be your guide), are faced with a problem when we want to consume this content while out and about — or even just kicking back in your easy chair or in bed. Sure, you could go out and buy a dedicated video player such as the Archos 5; but why spend extra money when the odds are that you already have a device in your possession that’s perfectly capable of performing this function — your smartphone.

If that phone happens to be an iPhone (or its phone-less sibling, the iPod touch, or even an iPad), then you could either re-encode your anime (using a free tool such as HandBrake and stuff it into iTunes) or use the excellent Air Video player, which we’ve written about before. But what if you are a card-carrying member of the Android Army? Unfortunately Android is (in this author’s humble opinion) still behind the iOS in terms of video playback capability.

Fortunately, there’s an app for that — the Meridian Media Player app, to be precise. This app does a pretty good job of playing back any media format supported by your device’s version of the Android operating system. And the best part is that it supports all the standard subtitle formats that you tend to find out there (which of course is very important for us anime fans). (Pro tip: if you’re looking for subtitles, AllSubs is a pretty good source.)

Unfortunately, since Android is still kind of picky in terms of what video formats/codecs/bit rates that it supports, odds are you’ll need to re-encode any anime files that you have, ahem, acquired, in order to play them back on your device. HandBrake is an excellent, and free, tool that helps you do this. (HandBrake is also a pretty servicable DVD ripper, so you can use it to digitize your anime collection. Please, only for disks that you actually own. Don’t be a tool.) I’ve found that the “iPod” pre-set offers a reasonable compromise between small file size and decent video quality, that plays on all variants of Android (at least all the different devices/OS versions I’ve tried it on). Just fire up HandBrake, select your file, click the start button, and once your files are done re-encoding, just drag them onto your phone’s memory card, fire up Meridian Player, and you’re off to the races.

Meridian Media Player itself is free, but you’ll need the $2.99 Meridian Player Pro Verifier to unlock extra functionality, including subtitle support. (But hey, $2.99 is IMHO a reasonable price to pay for this functionality) Go download Meridian Media Player and the Meridian Player Pro Verifier from the Android Marketplace today!

Announcing the Otaku no Podcast YouTube Channel

Donald Burr — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:21:31 +0000

As you may know, we’ve been posting our videos up on Vimeo for a while now. This has been working pretty well, and I really don’t have much to complain about the service (other than having to pay $60/year for the increased upload capacity we need ). But, as the old blogger’s adage goes, you gotta go where the eyeballs are, and without a doubt, that has to be YouTube. With over 5 billion online video views from the US alone in 2008 (OVER NINE THOUSAAAAAND!!), that’s a heck of a lot of eyeballs.

And so to that end, we’ve set up our very own YouTube channel. Of course you’ll always find our latest and greatest videos there. But you’ll also see what we’ve been doing on YouTube — the anime/cosplay/Japan/etc. related videos that we really like, the ones that we commented on, etc.

Unfortunately, due to YouTube’s content length restrictions, you’ll only see the first 15 minutes or so of each video. (Which means that we’ll still be posting to Vimeo, at least for the time being). A YouTube Partner account removes this restriction, and we have applied for one; whether or not we will qualify, who knows? (If you happen to know any people over at YouTube, it wouldn’t hurt to put in a good word on our behalf, eh?)

So go check it out today!

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

Cool Find: Watch the classic 80s anime “Bubblegum Crisis” for free on Hulu

Donald Burr — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 18:46:38 +0000

I’ve been busy working up the next show, where I’ll FINALLY be completing my “Anime on the Cheap” segment I started over 9000 years ago (not really, but close enough), and so I’ve been exploring all the options available for downloading and streaming anime on the Internet. But I came across something that I really have to share with you right now, so here you go. Consider this today’s Cool Find.

Us anime fans truly live in a blessed time, thanks to the advent of computers, cheap (well, relatively speaking anyways) and fast (again, relatively speaking) Internet connections, and streaming technology. Gone are the days when you’d have to wait forever for a series to get licensed, and once it did, you’d have to wait over 9000 months between DVD releases, which you’d have to pay $30 or so a pop for. These days we live in a world where you can stream your favorite anime whenever and wherever you want, and — this is especially cool — often you can stream the latest and greatest series from Japan, literally minutes after they were broadcast there, and usually for free (or a very low monthly membership charge). (However, unlike most technology pundits, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that physical media is dead — I still buy plenty of anime DVDs (and now Blu-rays) — but it is definitely not the primary method of consumption any more.)

Of course, when you think online anime streaming, Crunchyroll comes to mind. They are indeed the darlings of the online anime streaming world, with a stable of many officially licensed shows and simulcasts, and an impressive list of partner companies and investors. But there are others. Not only do many of the anime licensors (FUNimation, Bandai, etc.) have their own streaming sites, but traditionally non-anime sites such as Hulu are now starting to stream anime. Hulu, the streaming site created as a joint venture between NBC-Universal, Fox, and ABC, has quite a collection of anime up for streaming, as it turns out. And they’ve just added one of my all-time favorites — and the title that got me into this whole anime thing in the first place – Bubblegum Crisis. Set in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo (called “Mega Tokyo”), this classic 80s cyberpunk/mech/fighting girls anime tells the story of the Knight Sabers, four renegades out to fight a battle against the evil Genom corporation (think Microsoft) and their humanoid robot “Boomers” that regularly crash and go berserk (again think Microsoft). The show is thematically similar to, and is strongly influenced by another traditional geek favorite, Blade Runner. The traditional cel-based animation is gorgeous (and has a characteristic that modern digitally animated shows lack IMHO) and the classic 80s pop/rockish soundtrack still sounds surprisingly good even today. This is truly a treat for the eyes and ears.

Unfortunately they are streaming the dubbed version of the show. While it’s not my favorite, it is at least reasonably competently done and definitely listenable, and is a darn sight better than most of the other dubs of that period. (But it has one major flaw: they sing the song lyrics in English.)

So go check it out today!

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Cool Find: Chad Vader

Donald Burr — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 03:01:37 +0000

A long time ago, in a grocery store far, far away…

Sure, life in the Empire looks pretty glamorous. You get a shiny powerful spaceship capable of destroying entire planets with a single blast. You get to rule over legions of subjects that cower at your might. You get cool powers that you can use to crush your enemies (and win over the ladies). And you can participate in cool dramatic lightsaber duels. Unfortunately it’s not always so… especially if you’re Chad Vader, the inept, less charismatic younger brother of everybody’s favorite Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Without the necessary skills to join the Empire, Chad is relegated to living his life with the goal of attempting to take over Empire Market, a grocery store filled with crazy, offbeat employees and even weirder customers. And thus forms the story of Chad Vader, a fun spoof of Star Wars (as well as many other sci-fi movie concepts) produced by indie filmmakers Blame Society Productions.

The story of how Chad Vader came to be is one of those great stories that illustrate the power of social media. Friends Matt Sloan and Aaron Yonda created the series for a short film festival, only to have it canceled after two episodes. Rather than giving up, however, they decided to release the series on YouTube… to tremendous success. Chad Vader has appeared on several notable magazines and TV programs, and Matt Sloan, who provides the voice of Chad Vader, was even selected as the voice of Darth Vader in a few video game titles, including Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. It’s even been favorably viewed by The Man himself, winning the George Lucas Selects award for the Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards of 2007. They’ve even published several DVDs of the series along with various other pieces of show-related memorabilia (Merchandising! Merchandising!).

Definitely worth a look, whether you’re a Star Wars fan or not. Check out Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3 (the current season) on YouTube.

Hentai PC dating-sim games at J-List

Presenting the all-new AnimeFinder™!

Donald Burr — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 21:30:08 +0000

Looking for some new anime to buy and watch? Do you need to find that “one more disk” to complete that box set you’ve been working on collecting for the last 5 years? (gotta catch ‘em all…) Are you bummed that you didn’t make it back to the dealers room on the last day of con to buy that series you really had your eye on? Maybe you’re into manga, and are looking to buy some of that as well?

We here at Otaku no Podcast are proud to present our latest enhancement to the already super crowded and confusing Otaku no Podcast website, that aims to help you do all of the above, and more. Introducing the all-new Otaku no Podcast AnimeFinder™ (patent pending), a handy dandy widget thingie that harnesses the awesome technology and inventory of Amazon.com, quite possibly Earth’s biggest online store, to connect you with the item(s) you seek, and allows you to buy them. Amazon has a truly mind-boggling selection of goods, from anime DVDs (even those newfangled Blu-ray thingies), soundtracks, manga, character goods, artbooks, and all manner of other stuff that’d make any otaku drool with envy. Their prices are often fairly competitive too (and let’s face it, if you live in some hick town without any good anime stores, any port in a storm, right?) and they ship practically anywhere, at fairly decent rates to boot. And, oh yeah, if you buy through us, we get a small cut of the proceeds. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, and the money helps keep the lights on and the bits flowing. Which, of course, is much appreciated.

Pro tip – you can use this to search for and buy things other than anime. So the next time you need some new shiny bit of computer equipment, or if you suddenly have the strong urge to completely upgrade your home theater system, keep that in mind, eh? ;-)

Hentai PC dating-sim games at J-List

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The TJX Crew Invade J-Town

Donald Burr — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 16:49:32 +0000

If you live in or near a city of reasonable size, odds are that it has a fairly sizable Japanese-American population, and that it would have some form of Japantown. Perhaps it’s nothing more than a collection of several Japanese or Asian markets or restaurants along a particular city block, or perhaps it’s a huge section of town completely devoted to Japanese-American businesses. Some of the more famous are San Francisco’s and San Jose’s Japantowns (San Francisco’s being one of my favorites), and Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo (which I still haven’t made it to, despite the frequent protestation of one of my co-hosts). Whatever your town has, though, it should be your sworn duty as otaku to visit such a place. Because you will find all manner of things that will interest you there — anime and related goods (Japan Video and Media remains one of my favorite stores to find this kind of thing, and I make it a point to stop in whenever I’m in the area); Jpop, Jrock, and other Japanese music; Japanese household goods; cultural items (decoration, bonsai, etc.); clothing (get your cosplay on!); and, most importantly, FOOD!!! It’s the next best thing to visiting Japan, and is a hell of a lot cheaper (maybe…)

The TJX crew recently visited Markham, Ontario‘s J-Town (map) and shot this nifty little video in which they sample such delicacies as yakitori (one of my favorites), Mitsuya Cider “ALL ZERO,” onigiri (I have fond memories of these – during our Japan trip in 2004, most nights we’d pick up a pair of these at a konbini and they’d serve as our breakfast the next morning); and “korokke,” or croquettes.

Be warned tho – watching this is gonna make you hungry! (A trip to your local Japantown should take care of that though!)

Hentai PC dating-sim games at J-List

Cool Find: How to register at Nico Nico Douga

Donald Burr — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:24:51 +0000

Nico Nico Douga is a sort of Japanese YouTube, and is one of the most popular video sharing sites in Japan. It’s a hotbed of otaku-related video sharing activity, and you can often find fun fan-made anime- or video game-related video content on it. (There’s tons of other weird, wild and wacky Japan-related video content on there as well, of course.) One unique feature that NND has over other similar sites is that when a user comments on a video, rather than the comments appearing as one long list below the video, comments are instead overlaid directly on top of the video, and furthermore can be synced to a particular time in the video. The whole effect is rather akin to VH1′s Pop Up Videos.

While the website is in Japanese, it isn’t really that difficult to find and view videos. (“see shiny looking video thumbnail? click on it.”) Registering for the site is another matter entirely, and unless you have a fairly good grasp of the Japanese writing system, you’re out of luck. Until now, that is. This excellent video from the folks over at Ichiro-Style (a site that I honestly hadn’t heard of until today) shows you the step-by-step procedure for registering, including translations of all the prompts. Wonderful!

So why not head over to Nico Nico Douga today and try it out for yourself? Registration is free (there are paid Premium accounts that give you certain unknown added benefits, but registering for one of those requires a Japanese credit card). All you need is a working e-mail address where you can receive the validation e-mail. Of course, if you’re afraid of spam or whatnot, you don’t have to use your regular e-mail address; you can always set up a free Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, or heck, even a Hotmail account.

PC dating-sim games @ J-List

Watch your downloaded anime on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad with Air Video (Updated)

Donald Burr — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 18:38:49 +0000

I hope you’ll excuse this slightly off-topic posting, but I just found something that I had to share with you.

We’ve all got anime on our hard drives. Might as well man up and admit it. OK, so maybe it’s anime you legally purchased through an online service like iTunes; or maybe it’s content that you ripped from DVD’s that you own (technically illegal under the DMCA, but we’ve never heard of individuals who only do this for their own personal use [and don't share the files they create] being prosecuted); or maybe it’s something that you downloaded via teh torrents (definitely illegal, but most anime companies have traditionally turned a begrudgingly blind eye toward fansubs). But I’m sure that many of us have some anime hanging around on their hard drives.

Playing this downloaded anime, however, can prove to be a problem. There are over 9,000 video formats out there. (Not really, but it sure feels like it!) And with different bitrates, options, etc., this can prove quite confusing for most computers to play. Add different audio formats (AAC? AC3? PCM? WAV? MP3???!) and different subtitling methods (SSA? ASS? SRT??!) and that makes the complexity even worse. Fortunately, for desktop PC’s and Macs, there are excellent “swiss army knife” video players such as VLC (Mac, Windows, and Linux/UNIX) and Perian (Mac only) that do a pretty good job of playing back the various video formats out there.

But what about portable devices? Devices such as the Archos 5 do a fairly good job of playing back the most common video formats, but many files still require transcoding, which takes lots of time and CPU power. But if you have an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad, you’ve got an even harder challenge, as these devices support a very limited set of formats (basically only MPEG-4 and H.264 of a certain resolution and bit rate). Also, with any portable device, your storage space is limited – anywhere from 8 to 64 GB for flash players, and maybe 250-500 GB max for hard drive based players. Which is a problem for those of us with, erm, larger anime collections.

What to do, what to do?

Enter Air Video. This fantastic app for the iPhone and iPod touch lets you stream video files from your computer over either WiFi or the 3G cellular network. The kicker here is that, if the file is in a format that your device can’t play natively, it will transcode it – on the fly! And it also supports the display of embedded subtitles. It’s pretty solid too. I’ve thrown just about every oddball video I’ve got at it, and it works perfectly.

The program is available right now for the iPhone and iPod touch. They’ve already upgraded it for the iPad and have submitted it to Apple for approval, so hopefully the iPad version will be out soon. Best of all, the iPad version will be a free upgrade to those who already own the iPhone/iPod version, so feel free to buy it now – the iPod/iPhone version works just fine on the iPad.

Get it today for the amazingly low price of $2.99 at the iTunes Store. There’s also a free version with limited features. You’ll also want to head over to the Air Video website to download the accompanying server software for your desktop computer (versions available for both Mac and Windows).

A few days ago I wrote about how the iPad will appeal to anime and manga fans. This, my friends, is a concrete example of that.

(UPDATE 04/09/2010: The iPad version of Air Video is released and is on the App Store, and once again, is a FREE update if you’ve already purchased the program. Just go to the Apps section in your copy of iTunes and click the “check for updates” button at the lower right corner of the window, and you should automatically download it.)

Gothic & Lolita Products, magazine subscriptions from Japan

What The iPad Will Mean For Otaku

Donald Burr — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 17:38:37 +0000

If you haven’t heard of the Apple iPad, which is due to hit store shelves tomorrow morning, then you’ve probably just returned from a long journey into another dimension fighting an impossibly tough foe on behalf of a civilization that considers you their only hope for survival. Or perhaps you were off frolicking with your mail order bride who turned out to be a powerful goddess who can grant your every wish (and get you into a ton of mischief while doing so). Or [insert other random contrived anime plot here].

In brief, the iPad is Apple’s answer to the tablet and netbook. Based on the iPhone OS, it’s a tablet computer that Apple is positioning to fill a perceived gap in functionality between a smartphone and a laptop computer. Since it’s based on the iPhone OS, and uses similar (though scaled-up) hardware, it has many features similar to the iPhone and iPod touch; however many user interface elements have been designed to take advantage of the much larger screen (a 9.7-inch (25 cm) LED backlit multi-touch display at 1024×768). And at $499 for the base model, the price is really quite reasonable considering the power and capabilities of what you get (IMHO of course).

Of course, reaction on the Internet to the device is bitterly divided. (Kind of like American politics. Sigh.) The true fanboys are lauding it as the best thing since sliced bread, while the haters are calling it “just a giant iPod touch.” But I think that the detractors are missing the point here. Yes, it IS a giant iPod touch. And that giantness is what makes the device work. There are things that you just can’t do (or you can do, but very poorly) on the iPhone or iPod touch because of its limited screen size. The larger screen of the iPad makes these applications possible. (Yes, she was right when she said “size matters.”) Here is why you, the otaku, should get really fired up about this device.

The first, and most obvious, is video playback. Sure, you can play video on your iPhone and iPod touch (or even video iPod). But you’ll probably lose your eyesight trying to watch it on that tiny screen. There are, of course, dedicated video players with bigger screens such as the Archos. But even those pale in comparison to the iPad’s generous 9.7 incher.

Where do you get video content then? Well, the iTunes Store has a fairly decent selection of anime titles, and at $1.99 per episode or roughly $35 for a full season, the prices are pretty reasonable. (Insert standard disclaimer about how different regions have different content in their respective iTunes stores.) Of course, you could always convert your own DVD’s into H.264 video files and load them on yourself, using tools such as HandBrake, RipIt, and AnyDVD. (Insert standard disclaimer about how, technically speaking, this is against the law thanks to the DMCA, but unless you’re planning on selling them, you probably won’t get caught, but it’s still technically illegal, and how you should only do this with DVD’s that you honest-to-God own.)

Then there’s always streaming video. Two major streaming video providers have already tossed their hat in the ring. Netflix, the uber-popular DVD-rental-by-mail outfit, has been offering streaming video to go along with its rental service for several years now; and yes, they do have some decent anime content. Not a whole lot, but it’s growing day by day. They now have an iPad app (free even!) that will let you stream any of Netflix’s streaming titles to your device. The best part is, if you start watching something on your computer, and then have to leave the house or something, you can pick up on your iPad right from where you left off, and vice versa.

And everybody’s anime streaming site Crunchyroll has also committed to creating an iPad app. Currently they have an app for the iPhone and iPod touch (also free!) that will let you watch any of their streaming titles; this app should work on the iPad’s compatibility mode, so you can get your Crunchyroll on until they finish their iPad-native app.

Also, it is rumored that Hulu will be making an iPad app too.

Of course, there are plenty of other sites out there that stream anime, legally or otherwise, including the websites of most (all?) of the big anime licensors (FUNimation, Bandai, etc.). The problem with these, of course, is that they use Adobe’s Flash, which the iPad will not support. But this won’t always be the case. The web is moving in its own slow, ponderous way to adopt the HTML 5 standard, which includes built-in support for streaming video, obviating the need for Flash. And the iPad supports HTML 5 perfectly. I suspect that once the iPad hits the masses, there will be a flurry of websites converting over to HTML 5. In fact, some of the big players have already done just that.

Are you into manga? Well then you’ve got reason to sit up and take notice too. Manga is definitely something that does NOT work well on an iPhone or similarly sized device. The screen is just too darn small. Either you have to squint and try to read micro-print on a full-page display, or you can zoom in and be faced with the prospect of having to scroll around to read everything. This is probably why those very few manga/comics forays on the iPhone failed so miserably. Of course there are e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook. Sure, they have bigger screens; but they are (so far anyway) only black and white, and the weird “flashing” effect when the e-ink screens refresh is off-putting to some.

Well, there are some exciting things afoot. Marvel Comics has released an iPad app (free!) based on the Comixology technology. And it looks really awesome. In portrait mode, you get the full page, though at about 80% of the size of a traditional comics page. Even so, text and graphics are crisp and easily readable thanks to the iPad’s excellent screen technology. But turn the unit on its side (in landscape mode), and a new viewing mode becomes available. You zoom into each panel of a strip, and tapping on the screen brings you to the next panel in logical order, all the while highlighting moments of dialogue or action. This is a fantastic way of viewing comics, and Andy Ihnatko, beloved tech pundit and well-known comics fan, really likes it. I’m sure that manga publishers will soon sit up and take notice.

If you’re an artist, you have cause to celebrate as well. Using the giant iPad screen and touch surface as an artist’s canvas is only natural, and with programs such as SketchBook Pro and Brushes, it’s really quite simple yet powerful. Several months back, an artist made a big splash in both the tech and art community, by creating a New Yorker cover using an iPhone. Imagine what you can do with an iPad! I wonder when we’ll start seeing people sitting at Artists’ Alley not with paintbrush or pen, but with an iPad instead.

And finally, with its large screen and native PDF support, the iPad makes an excellent PDF reader. When you consider that many anime conventions make their schedules, program guidebooks, etc. available in PDF format, this can be quite a handy thing to have. It’s admittedly a small thing, and wouldn’t make sense as the sole reason to buy an iPad; but if you bought one for any of the reasons above (or other reasons of your own, perhaps) it’s a nice extra.

Tablet computers are certainly nothing new – Microsoft has been trying to market them for years. But they have always failed miserably in the common consumer market. One possible reason why is because they were trying to extend the desktop computer metaphor onto the tablet, by using standard desktop operating systems (i.e. Windows). In taking their already-successful mobile iPhone OS and scaling it up to tablet size, Apple has done what Microsoft and countless other companies have failed to do — deliver a compelling tablet experience that just works.

Exciting times are upon us!

Click for J-List now!

“Anime TV” visits Anime Los Angeles 6

Donald Burr — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 07:29:28 +0000

Little did I know, but the folks over at Anime TV, Revision3‘s new anime show, paid a visit to the recently-held Anime Los Angeles 6 held last month. Either they hired uber leet invisible ninja cameramen, or I simply did not notice them thanks to my oblivious-to-the-world nature. More likely the latter. Anyway they highlighted some of the cosplay gathering action as well as a look at the dealer’s room and Artist’s Alley, and a brief interview with Guest of Honor Kyle Hebert.

You can download the video or subscribe to the podcast through the website, or watch the embedded version below. The Anime LA segment starts 8 minutes into the video. They also review the series Rental Magica.

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Mobile Suit Gundam now streaming for free on Crunchyroll!

Donald Burr — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:15:32 +0000

Attention Gundam fans! In honor of the impending Mobile Suit Gundam UC (Unicorn) Blu-ray release, everybody’s favorite streaming anime provider Crunchyroll is not only streaming Unicorn, but is also streaming the original Mobile Suit Gundam series! This stream is available free to anyone in the US, Canada, Europe (excluding select countries) and Russia.

Not familiar with the Gundamverse? (Where have you been??!) Here’s a brief synopsis describing the series. You can also check out the Wikipedia entry on Gundam (but beware – there be spoilers here!)

“U.C. 0079. The rebel space colonies of the Principality of Zeon launch a war of independence against the Earth Federation, using humanoid fighting vehicles called mobile suits to overwhelm the Federation Forces and conquer half of Earth’s surface.

Months later, the Federation has finally developed its own prototype mobile suits at a remote space colony. But when the colony suffers a Zeon surprise attack, these new weapons fall into the hands of a motley crew of civilians and cadets, and fate places a youth named Amuro Ray at the controls of the white mobile suit Gundam…”

And here’s the synopsis for Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn:

“The year is U.C. 0096. Three years have passed since the end of the Second Neo Zeon War.

It is said that the Vist Foundation manipulates the Earth Federation and Anaheim Electronics from behind the scenes. Hoping to create a new world, the Foundation attempts to hand over a certain secret to the Neo Zeon remnants known as the Sleeves. This will mean the opening of Laplace’s Box, which holds a great secret tied to the origins of the Universal Century.

The exchange between the Vist Foundation and the Sleeves is to take place at the manufacturing colony Industrial 7. This is the home of the student Banagher Links, who rescues a girl he sees falling through the colony’s zero gravity area. The girl gives her name as Audrey Burne and says she wants to prevent a war, spurring Banagher to step into the conflict surrounding Laplace’s Box—almost as if he is drawn in by his own bloodline.

Based on a story by author Harutoshi Fukui, the newest Gundam work dynamically unfolds against the backdrop of the Universal Century. It all begins with this first shocking episode.”

Video #0002 – The Sushi Experiment 1.0: Inari Sushi

Donald Burr — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:34:58 +0000

Welcome to our first ever videocast. Okay, technically this is our second videocast, but since the first one was an Anime LA highlights video I put together over 9000 years ago, it doesn’t really count. In this first videocast, we take a brief journey away from anime, and into the kitchen, and I teach you how to make Inari Sushi, a tasty treat perfect for munching on during anime watching parties. (I mentioned this in Anime on the Cheap part 1) And no raw fish is involved!

This is really an experiment for me. I won’t do these videocasts very often – maybe one every few months at best – so don’t worry, your bandwidth won’t be choked up with huge downloads every week.

Products mentioned in the video:

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

“Anime TV,” a new anime video podcast from the folks at Revision3

Donald Burr — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 05:29:24 +0000

Those of you with an insatiable desire to consume anime news in podcast form, take note – there’s a new kid on the block! Revision3, the Internet video programming network formed by many ex-TechTV personalities including Kevin Rose (of Digg fame), is now hosting an anime review show, Anime TV. The show, hosted by well-known American anime voice actors Cristina Vee and Johnny Yong Bosch, consists of panel-style discussions where the panelists talk about the various anime, manga, video games, etc. they’re into at the moment, and, as a group, review one particular anime series. They also occasionally feature other segments; for example in their first episode they “invaded” the US dub studio Bang Zoom Entertainment and took the audience on a tour of the facility and interviewed some of their key personnel.

My first impressions are that they sometimes take things a bit over the top, for example the whole “Anime TV… GO!” schtick. The panelists seem to have a good rapport with each other, and obviously we the audience will grow more comfortable with them as we get to know their tastes and personalities. I’ll wait to pass final judgment until a few more episodes have come out. I will say however that I’m pretty much in agreement with their verdict on Ghost in the Shell 2.0. The original animation was definitely cleaned up and did look crisper; however the transitions to and from the redone CGI elements were still a bit too jarring for my taste. If you haven’t seen GitS yet… for heaven’s sake, go do so now!! But if you already own the original GitS on DVD, it’s not really worth it to upgrade.

You can watch their first episode below, or subscribe via iTunes.

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How not to run an AMV competition screening

Donald Burr — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 09:49:25 +0000

Day 1 of Anime Los Angeles has officially drawn to a close. Due to various factors including my travel schedule (I didn’t actually arrive on-site until close to 2:30 this afternoon) and my body’s need for a sudden unscheduled nap (remember what I said about human frailties…) I only made it to one panel today, but it was an interesting one – all about anime conventions in Japan and how they differ from the typical style of anime conventions we’re used to in the Western world. I’ll post more on that later. However, the evening ended on a bit of a sour note… The Anime Music Video (AMV) contest is something I really look forward to at every anime convention I attend. Having tried (and failed) to make one myself, I know how hard it is to make an AMV – and how much harder it is to make a good AMV. The creativity of the AMV community simply astounds me. Plus it’s a great way to discover new anime – I often see scenes, characters, etc. that interest me and motivates me to go online and find out what series they came from.

Anyway, back to tonight’s AMV contest. For starters, they were late letting us in. No biggie there – late starts and line-ups are pretty much par for the course when it comes to an anime convention, and we’re used to that sort of thing. Once we finally got seated, however, the event didn’t start – they were running late. Again, no biggie, and at least they were running AMVs from previous contests on the big screen to entertain us while we were waiting.

Then things started to go south. Specifically, the computer that was running the AMVs started freaking out. Badly stuttering/pausing video, sound dropouts, Windows crashes (did I mention this was being run on a Windows machine?), and multiple occurrences of the Windows “USB device connected/disconnected” sound (which seemed to indicate problems with an attached USB hard disk – presumably the source from where they were playing the videos.) The natives began to get restless, and there was some jeering and heckling from the audience (some of which, I’ll admit, came from the Otaku no Podcast camp).

Finally, the MC, the inimitable Tadao Tomomatsu, appeared on stage to get the ball rolling. Only… it didn’t. Again, frequent video stuttering/pausing, sound dropouts, program crashes, etc. If it weren’t for his (sometimes corny, but always funny) jokes and entertaining stories, I fear the scene would have turned very ugly. While he vamped, the tech crew was busy trying to get things to work. Finally, they got it working more or less, with only the occasional slight audio glitch, and we proceeded through the Drama, Action, Comedy categories. But there wasn’t enough time to show the final category (“Pro,” for high-production-value videos, similar to the “AMTV” category in Anime Expo’s AMV contest).

So what went wrong here? Let’s do a little hypothetical post-mortem analysis here…

I’ll ignore the late start/late seating issues, as these are common at conventions. Clearly the main issue was technological in nature. What happened?

First of all, it turns out that the computer being used was the personal computer of (presumably) one of the A-LA staff. This was his (or her) gaming rig. It would have been far easier to use a less, umm, riced-out machine. Less complexity and all that. Almost any machine is capable of playing back video these days, even many lower-end notebooks (and even some netbooks).

Second, apparently the videos were being played back from a USB Drobo – a professional-grade highly redundant external storage device. Again far more complexity than was needed. It would have been much simpler to use a standard USB external hard drive, such as a Western Digital My Book. (Or even a USB thumb drive, which are pretty much bulletproof and highly reliable.) It turns out that the Drobos require specialized drivers for the best functionality – during one of the periods when Tadao was vamping, tech staff were frantically downloading the latest Drobo drivers and software.

Finally, it looked like the videos that were supplied for the contest were in a variety of different formats. Unfortunately there’s not much you can do about this. Working with video is a complex procedure, especially given the wide variety of formats that AMV source material comes from (retail DVDs, fansubs of various formats, and now HD video). You could attempt to use one of the video “Swiss Army Knives” – programs that attempt to decode and play back a wide variety of video formats. (in fact it appeared that they were using VLC, one of these type of programs.) Unfortunately sometimes even these versatile tools fail or generate undesired results. You could also enforce a “standard format” that all submissions must be sent as – say, for example, H.264 video with a maximum bitrate of 1500, and a maximum resolution of 720×480. The tools for converting between video formats (transcoding) are widely available and generally work well enough. Or – best of all – standardize on the DVD format. Most computers these days come with DVD burners, the DVD format is robust and reliable (it’s withstood the test of time), and it is very difficult to screw up computer-based DVD playback software. And if the unthinkable happens and the computer crashes or whatever, then all you have to do is hook up a cheap $40 Wal-mart DVD player to your A/V system and you’re back in business.

Lastly, I feel that most, if not all, of these problems would have been averted, or at least lessened in severity, if the staff had used Macs in the video preparation and/or playback workflow. I’ll acknowledge that Windows has done some serious catching up in the multimedia department in the past 20-odd years that it’s been out; however I still firmly believe that the Mac still has an edge when it comes to working with digital media, especially video. (and before you hit that “comment” button – I don’t want to turn this into a “my computer/OS is better than your computer/OS” thread. So stop right there. If you still feel the need, please do so by contacting us directly.) One of the conventions I spoke of last year, FanimeCon, used a completely Mac mini-based video playback system for all of their screening rooms, and (to my knowledge) did not have any computer-related video playback problems whatsoever.

I do feel I must give credit where credit is due, however. The staff did their darndest to ensure that “the show must go on.” And if it weren’t for the always-entertaining Tadao-san — like I said earlier — things would have turned REAL ugly. Finally, unlike Anime Expo of several years ago, A-LA actually had an AMV contest. They didn’t mysteriously lose their files or equipment, with no backups to be found anywhere.

I’ll post links to all of the AMV candidates (as well as links to their entries at AMV.org where available) when I’m less tired. Tomorrow’s looking to be a pretty full day, and in order to survive it, I really do need my beauty rest. Oyasumi nasai…

How to make Okonomiyaki, TJX style!

Donald Burr — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:23:27 +0000

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese food best described as a sort of Japanese pancake (or perhaps omelette), with various other ingredients (meats, seafood, vegetables, cheese, etc.) mixed in. It may be difficult to type, but it’s pretty darn tasty. Like many other Japanese dishes, it is enjoyed throughout the country, and each region has its own variation on the dish. It’s sometimes cooked in front of you Benihana-style, and sometimes the restaurant leaves the cooking to you – each table has a grill on it, and you basically get a bowl full of mixed ingredients that you can grill to your liking. The most well known ones comes from Osaka (where it is said that okonomiyaki was invented) and Hiroshima. In our 2004 Tokyo trip, we had the pleasure of enjoying some Hiroshima okonomiyaki during a break in our tour schedule. It was indeed mighty tasty.

In their latest episode (and their first video episode), the TJX crew demonstrate how to make this delicious food. Be warned tho, you might want to at least have some snacks nearby, you’ll get hungry watching it! Watch it here.

EDIT: If you want to “kick it up a notch,” (ha!) and you have some decent cooking skills and have access to a decent Asian foods market or specialty store, I found this recipe for completely made-from-scratch okonomiyaki. And if you’re a wimp and/or rather use the pre-made stuff, but can’t find it anywhere locally… well, you can order anything on the Internets these days… Amazon has both the mix and the sauce!

EDIT 01/05/2010: Locally-mirrored copy of the video removed at the request of TJX, because it was causing confusion. This video is theirs, and I ask that you please direct any inquiries, comments, etc. to them directly. You should be able to play the video directly from their website, but if you can’t get the video to play in their embedded player (like I did), there IS a link to directly download it (look for “Podcast: play in new window / download” below the black video box). Or you can subscribe to their podcast – I’m sure they wouldn’t mind having a few more subscribers Sorry for the confusion guys. Gomen nasai.

EDIT 09/27/2010: The embedded version is back!

The Japan Xperience: The Okonmiyaki Experiment from Ron M on Vimeo.

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

“Sekirei” series back for a second season!

Donald Burr — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:33:54 +0000

Sekirei is a fun series – nothing special, but fun to watch… and it has plenty of “eye candy,” if you catch my drift. If you’re interested, you can watch for yourself thanks to the fansubs.

The only problem was that its ending left… umm… much to be desired. Like most series derived from manga, it ended in the middle of the manga’s story arc (which is still running actually).

There is good news however. Recently it was announced that production on a second season of Sekirei was green-lit. Presumably this second season will finish up the manga’s story arc. Much of the cast and crew from the first Sekirei anime are returning, including director Keizou Kusakawa, writer Takao Yoshioka, character designer Shinpei Tomooka, musical composer Hiroaki Sano, and the Seven Arcs anime studio that animated it. Returning voice actors include Shinnosuke Tachibana (who voiced Minato), Saori Hayami (Musubi), Marina Inoue (Tsukiumi), and Kana Hanazawa (Kusano). No firm date (other than a rather vague “winter of 2009″) has been given for the release of this second series.

Here is the video announcing the new series. Translation of the on-screen text: (credit goes to I Eat Anime for the translation)

“Sekirei Project – Restart” “Commentaries on a beautiful war starts again” “Miraculous love story” “Old memory will be revealed” “Each others feelings that mingle” “Pledged bond with the loved one” “it has been decided to be produce as a new anime series on TV!”

Kyle and Rosemary

Donald Burr — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:41:48 +0000

Ok, this is a bit old news, but still both humorous and touching at the same time.

By way of the Cartoon Geeks, this lovely gem of a video tells the heartwarming story of a geek and a goth, locked in a forbidden romance that neither of their friends can possibly understand. Funny and touching at the same time. And a star studded voiceover cast to boot – the part of Kyle the Geek is voiced by none other than… Wil Wheaton!

Find more videos like this on Channel Frederator RAW

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

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Video #0001 – Anime Los Angeles 4

The Ghost in the Machine — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 20:55:09 +0000

Finally getting through some of the con video that’s filling up my hard drive. Here is the Anime Los Angeles 4 (2008) video I promised… uhh, a while ago. PC dating-sim games @ J-ListRelated posts: Episode #0005 – Anime Los Angeles 4 “Anime TV” visits Anime Los Angeles 6 Anime Los Angeles program guide is live

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