I produce this show out of my own pocket, primarily because of my love of all things anime and Japan. Unfortunately in this down economy, I need as much help as I can get. If you feel so inclined, a small donation to help offset my costs (server, bandwidth, equipment, etc.) would be much appreciated. Either make a purchase through one of our affiliates, bid on our eBay auctions, buy me something on my wish list, or use the handy donation button below.
Bitcoin Address: 14hYjheG9W7aWip7K wLPcfXxoXdALwDcma Total Donations:
0.01000000 BTC
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.)
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.
(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.)
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! 😉
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 Itâ„¢. 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.
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We are pleased to announce that a brand new version of the Otaku no Podcast app is now available in the app store!
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 
Earlier this year, we wrote about Amazon’s 
Those of you that missed 
Yes, it’s true! 
I wasn’t gonna do this, but then I figured: Why not?
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 
