8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:03 — 1.9MB) | Embed
|
||||||
|
Video #0016 – Cool Find: Air Video HD: stream your downloaded anime, with perfect subtitles! ![[Play Now!]](http://media.otakunopodcast.com/images/PlayNow.jpg)
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.
![[View our eBay Auctions]](http://bayfeeds.com/images/Right_Now_108x45.gif)   
Bitcoin Address:  |
Twitter is once again proving to be a great source of coverage, and once again shows the power of social networking during times of crisis. Some online streaming coverage (in English) is coming courtesy of Anime Expo Live and Yokoso News. Additional sources of coverage include the English Al Jazeera (note this is NOT the same as the Muslim Al Jazeera propaganda machine), and these two Ustream streams. I’ll update this post with more information when I can. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in Japan and elsewhere that are affected by this terrible disaster. What more needs to be said? (insert standard ranty rant about how Haters Gonna Hate, etc.) Well, OK, I do actually have one comment. I must admit that I’m rather disappointed that Bandai is choosing to dole out K-ON! in segments. This first disk only contains 4 episodes, meaning that it will be split into a 3-disk run. I thought that kind of release schedule was a remnant of the early days of anime distribution; these days we’re used to seeing entire series come out in one box set (cf. Eden of the East, FLCL), or (for 12/13 episode series such as K-ON!) in at most two half-sets. I’m just hoping that Bandai will release these in fairly quick succession, instead of the 2-3+ months between disks that used to be common. Still, it is K-ON!, and if past history is any guide, this release should be pretty awesome, especially the Blu-rays. So what are you waiting for, go click “buy” already! 😉
The nice thing (well, one of the nice things) about Crunchyroll is that not only can you watch it on your computer (Mac or PC), but you can also watch on a variety of other devices as well, including the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad (we’ve written about these previously). You can also watch Crunchyroll on several Internet-connected TVs and set top boxes, including the Boxee Box. Well, if you own an Android-powered smartphone or tablet, rejoice, for now you can enjoy Crunchyroll on your device, thanks to the shiny new Crunchyroll app. With this fine piece of software, you can stream any of Crunchyroll’s titles, both current and older, on either your phone’s 3G mobile data connection, or over WiFi, and naturally includes subtitle support. In my testing the app has performed beautifully. Unfortunately this app will only work for you if you have a Crunchyroll premium membership – but at only $6.95/month, you really should have one anyway. You just can’t beat this price, and you get the warm fuzzy feeling of supporting the legitimate anime industry. Win! The app will run on any Android device running Android 2.1 (Eclair) or later, and is available for free in the Android Marketplace. Go download it today! Or, if you have one of those newfangled barcode scanning apps on your Android phone, scan the QR code below. 
I don’t know about you, but being an anime-loving computer geek, I’m always looking for new things to set as my desktop wallpaper. (Because there is nothing more boring than a plain unadorned computer desktop.) Of course you can take freeze-frames of scenes/characters from your favorite anime and use those as desktop wallpapers. And some of them even look decent, especially if you’re taking them from high-def sources like Blu-ray. But the vast majority of anime out there is in DVD resolution, or even worse, web streaming, and screen grabs from those look pretty craptacular, especially on today’s mega-HD resolution monitors. Besides, even if you manage to get a reasonably good-looking screen grab, it’s probably of a scene you’ve seen over 9000 times before. Wouldn’t you like your desktop to show something new — something original? The good news is that the Internets are here to help. There are tons of sites out there full of awesome anime and manga related imagery. One in particular that I found one day while randomly web surfing and/or Google searching is Konachan.com. This site is geared specifically towards anime themed wallpapers, meaning that the images there are in the commonly found monitor resolutions. When you visit the site you’re presented with a search box which you can use to start searching for your favorite characters or series or whatever. Or you can just hit “browse” and take a drink from the firehose. While browsing you can filter by tags, safety level (explicit or not), see the most popular images of the last day/week/month, view a history of what others have been doing on the site (posting, tagging, etc.), and even view a random image (Are you feeling lucky, punk?). Their advanced search page offers even more options: you can search by tags (including support for wildcards); search by image size (great if you want to avoid pictures that’ll look nasty and pixelated on your Xbox Huge monitor); and by rating (safe, explicit, or somewhere in between). You can even perform cross-site image searches, which lets you search several other popular image board sites, including Sankaku Complex, Danbooru, and others. Plus the site is named after my favorite Lucky Star character. What’s not to like about this site??! Some (most?) of the images here are probably reposts from other places like deviantART or pixiv. But some of it isn’t. And besides, having it all there in one place means you don’t have to search through all four corners of the Internets to find what you’re looking for. I’m sure that Konachan isn’t alone in this space and that there are plenty of other anime/manga themed wallpaper sites out there. Got any particular favorites? Let us know about ’em! Yes, I’m taking another break from audio podcasting. Today I show you how to make a classic Japanese dish that you’ve probably had many times before, Yakitori. Continue reading Video #0007 – Japanese Classic Cuisine: Yakitori Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:56 — 80.5MB) | Embed The Otaku no Podcast crew are back from Anime Los Angeles and give their usual panel-style review of this convention. Continue reading Episode #0018 – Anime LA 2011 Review Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:43:26 — 47.4MB) | Embed
First things first: if you attended either of our workshops (podcasting and photography) and are looking for the notes pages for these, here they are: Photography notes, Podcasting notes. Day 3 – the final day – of Anime LA was pretty low key. In fact I didn’t even make it to any panels. Most of the morning was spent getting much-needed rest, then frantically packing because we got up late and the hotel wasn’t granting late checkout, despite what one hotel person said to me last night when I asked. Then we waited for an hour or so before someone could come help us with our bags. I gather they had an Xbox Huge flood of people checking out at noon. Next time might I suggest that they do grant some late checkouts to some people; that way they can stagger the checkouts and not put too much load on the hotel staff. Sunday was the most low-key day of them all, but there were still a fair number of people there. Every year, Anime LA has a special “theme day” on Sunday to try and lure people to the con who might otherwise leave after Saturday. This year’s theme was Japanese New Year. There were a few panels and workshops on various things related to Japanese New Years, which looked pretty cool. I finally had a chance to make it to the dealer’s room. It was about the same size-wise as last year’s dealer’s room. Perhaps this is one way that the Anime LA staff manage the growth of the con. Lots of tables selling manga (whole walls of the stuff), along with character goods, plushies, a few weapons dealers, and figures (Figma, etc.). Seemed to me that there were more figures (and especially Figma type figures) this year than in years past. Maybe this is a precursor to dolls and doll parts/accessories starting to show up. (We think it’s only a matter of time.) One thing I did note however is that the guy who had a whole wall of DVD’s last year wasn’t there this year (at least I couldn’t find him). In fact I don’t recall seeing any DVDs for sale (if there were people selling DVDs, their displays were so small so as to blend in with the rest of the items for sale). Maybe this is another manifestation of the industry’s trend away from physical media. Which would be sad, because I for one still enjoy buying and watching DVDs and Blu-rays. Don’t get me wrong; streaming still has its place (and I do enjoy my Crunchyroll membership) but physical media shouldn’t be abandoned. Artist’s Alley looked quite lively. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to do anything other than quickly glance through the door. Pity, as I wanted to meet up with Cosplay in America again. Overall Sunday as a whole definitely felt like a “relax-a-con.” Lots of people relaxing and socializing. More so than other days I thought. And a nice, relaxing end to yet another really nice Anime LA. It’s amazing to me that, even at a smaller con like this, there was still way too much to see and do. Gaming, karaoke, fighting/martial arts/weapons demos, panels/workshops, concerts… I am also amazed, and glad, to see that, even in times of economic hardship such as we are in now, people (a lot of people, in fact) are still able to come to events like this and enjoy themselves — and that the organizers are able to successfully put on a large scale event such as this. Of course we’ll be getting together soon to record our thoughts on Anime LA 2011. Expect that episode to hit the podcast feed within the next week or 2. Finally, let’s talk winners. (Below the cut)
(no, it’s not what you think…) I’ve talked and blogged about Japanese food before, as have our friends over at TJX. In fact I’ve even made a video or three on the subject. (In all fairness, the TJX crew did this as well.) But there’s something missing from our videos, something that would give them that extra “bam!” — a cute toy poodle, perhaps? Meet Francis, the aforementioned toy poodle. In his series of videos, he (with the help of his unnamed human sous chef) shows you how to make a wide variety of traditional Japanese dishes — the traditional fruity sponge cake served during the holidays in Japan, to fried shrimp, nikuman (those steamed pork buns that the TJX crew have gone on about), mapo tofu (favorite dish of Tenshi!), and many more. You’ll definitely want to have a large supply of snacks handy while you watch these. In the video (below the cut), Francis shows you how to make the classic Japanese bento (complete with those cute octopus sausages that you see all the time in anime). Be sure and check out their YouTube channel to learn how to make even more traditional Japanese dishes. (thanks to our cohost Danny Barer for this cool find!) |
 |
||||
Copyright © 2024 Otaku no Podcast - All Rights Reserved This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Powered by WordPress & Atahualpa |
||||||
At 9:46 PM PST on March 10, an 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit approximately 125km off the eastern coast of Japan (Honshu) at a depth fo 10km, causing a 4 meter high tsunami to hit the coastal areas of Japan. Huge areas of the coast are literally being washed away. Sendai airport is literally flooded (pic). In Tokyo the quake appears to have caused minimal damage (mostly shaking buildings, frayed nerves and things falling off shelves, that sort of thing, although there are a few fires). But train and subway service is stopped. The government has called an emergency meeting.
If you like the idea of high quality “all you can eat” streaming anime that you can enjoy anytime, anyplace, then in our humble opinion, you can’t beat a 
