Streaming Picks of the Week
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 Well rain and winter climes have finally hit, even here in sun-drenched SoCal. Decorations are going up in malls all across the world. And harried shoppers with that panicked look in their eyes are starting to prowl about. Must be holiday time once again!
Here’s an idea: Instead of spending hours on end stuck in traffic hell, jockeying for precious parking spaces at your local mega-mall, gearing up with sword and shield to do gladiatorial-style combat with crazed mobs of shoppers, and dealing with the inevitable Out-of-Stock Item Syndrome, why not do all your holiday shopping from the comfort of your own home? And, what do you know, Otaku no Podcast can help you with that, thanks to our large affiliate network.
There’s Amazon, who sells just about everything; CDjapan, for all of your anime/Jpop/etc. musical needs; The Right Stuf, home of outrageously outrageous deals on various anime goods; and J-List/J-Box, purveyors of many fine things from the land of the rising sun (including cough “those” kinds of items cough).
Remember that buying from any of our affiliates costs you nothing extra, but gives us a little extra “something” that helps us keep the lights on and the bits flowing. So not only will you be getting all your holiday shopping needs done in an easy and blood-free manner, but you’d be helping us out as well. Epic win!
Head on over to the How You Can Help page on our website for all of our affiliate links and search boxes in one single ultra-convenient location. And thank you; as always, you guys rock.
 Well, we are back from PMX 2012, and have managed to escape the dreaded Con Plague. Hygiene FTW!
Also amazing is that I have actually managed to start posting our photos and videos in a more-or-less timely fashion! CosFest (aka masquerade) videos are already up on our YouTube channel (including the ever-so-delightful Angel Hearts cosplay troupe’s halftime show); more videos, including some from the fashion show and maybe some panels (if they end up turning out OK after editing; lighting and audio conditions were far from ideal) will be going up over the next few days. I’m also working on photos, which will be going up on our PMX 2012 Flickr photoset within the next few days. (Of course you can view these in a much cooler fashion on our nifty Photo Gallery here on the Otaku no Podcast website.)
And of course what con journey would be complete without our usual panel-style wrap-up episode of Doom? Unfortunately that won’t be for a while yet as I’ve got to coordinate schedules with my fellow co-hosts; but rest assured that we’ll be recording this just as soon as possible, and it will of course be hitting the podcast feed as well as the website.
In the meantime, I invite you to check out our photos and videos at the sites linked to above, as well as the photo and video galleries of other PMX attendees I’m linking to below.
NOTE: I will be updating this post as I find more peoples’ PMX photos and videos. Also, if you have any PMX 2012 photo and/or video galleries of your own, please tell us about them!
Cosplay.com thread listing a bunch of PMX 2012 galleries
Cosplay in America’s PMX 2012 photoshoots, as well as other photos taken on his Samsung Galaxy S3 as well as a disposable camera (an interesting experiment)
David Ngo (DTJAAAAM’s) PMX 2012 photos
 One of the many announcements that we heard at Anime Expo (although they actually announced it a few days earlier) outed Neon Alley, a new 24-hour anime video service from Viz Media. At the time all we knew of the service was that it would be debuting on a “major game console,” and will show uncut, English dubbed anime TV episodes and movies, along with some form of original content.
Viz officially launched the service last week on the Sony PlayStation3. The app is a free download; however you need to pay for service for it to be of any use. Neon Alley costs $6.99 per month, which is pretty similar to the other streaming options out there. As far as I can tell there are no “pay X months at a time and get a discount” plans. You do get a one-week free trial when you sign up, so you have a chance to test the service before committing. The service is available only in the USA and Canada.
I haven’t had a lot of time to play with the service, so this isn’t a full review; however I did want to jot down some of my thoughts on the service, to sort of take a first look at it if you will.
Continue reading A First Look at Neon Alley
 A couple days ago I wrote about the 8th Annual Podcast Awards (you have voted for us, haven’t you? Haven’t you??!) Well now another company that we know and love has announced their first-ever podcast awards: the Stitcher Podcast Awards!
We’ve written about Stitcher before, and we have been available on the Stitcher platform for quite some time now. Stitcher is an award-winning provider of news and talk radio for your mobile phone. They have 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. (And yes, Otaku no Podcast as well) The app is free and is available for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and webOS (and probably a few others which I have forgotten). And they have decided to put on their own Podcast Awards! And it would be really awesome if you could vote for us!
The difference here is, you are free to nominate us in whatever categories you choose. We recommend nominating us in the Film & TV and Entertainment & Pop Culture categories. (Of course you’re also welcome to nominate us for Overall Show too!) You can also vote once per day. After voting, feel free to enjoy games such as 벳위즈.
You have until Friday October 19th, so get cracking! 🙂
Voting is easy and fast (probably will only take you a minute or so). Either click this link or the nice big Stitcher Awards graphic in this article (you can’t miss it). And, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, thanks for your votes; you are awesome!
 Even though it’s still beastly hot around these parts, the “seasons” (such as they are) continue their inexorable progression, and soon autumn will give way to winter. Which means, of course, that the holiday season (and the madness and mayhem typically associated with that time of year) will soon be upon us. It also means that, once again, it is time for the Reverse Thieves’ Secret Santa Project! (This almost flew under my radar last year. Fortunately this year I was a bit more alert and on the ball.)
I can hear it now; you’re probably yelling at your screens “What’cha talking’ bout, Willis?!” Well, my name ain’t Willis, and if you’ve been hanging around this blog and podcast for a while, surely you must know about Anime Secret Santa by now. (And no, don’t call me Shirley either) After all, I’ve written about it several times before, and we’ve even participated in it as well.
Basically the Anime Secret Santa project involves a bunch of bloggers (and perhaps podcasters too) who get together and put their names into a virtual hat, which the Reverse Thieves then proceed to mix up. They then pair off bloggers, and ask each of them to recommend an anime for the other to watch. The trick is that they don’t tell them who the recommendation came from. Once you have your anonymous donors’ recommendations in hand, you then proceed to pick an anime off their list, watch it and review it. Yes, exactly like that whole Secret Santa thing, which you are undoubtedly familiar with. (After all it’s probably been used as a plot device in at least a few Christmas-themed anime episodes…) The idea is to get people to step outside their comfort zones if you will, and watch and review shows they may not have considered before. It’s a great way to find out about anime that, maybe you might not have considered before, but ended up liking a lot. (Or maybe you hated it, and then you can write a really scathing review. There have been some pretty hilariously epic ones.) Plus it’s a lot of fun.
Want to participate? It’s pretty simple. First, you’ll need to set yourself up on one of those “keep track of what anime I’ve watched” sites, such as Anime-Planet (my personal favorite) or MyAnimeList. They are all free to join, and are pretty useful in their own right. Then, once you’ve listed all the anime that you’ve seen, e-mail your name, blog/podcast’s URL and the URL to your anime listing site profile page to the Reverse Thieves with the subject line “Secret Santa Participant.” (Also, if for whatever reason you would prefer not to have to watch/review fan subs, be sure and mention that in your email.)
All entries are due by Wednesday, October 10, so you better hurry! Check out the Reverse Thieves blog post for full details and where to send in your entry. Naturally, if the fates allow it, Otaku no Podcast will be participating this year as well. And we hope that you will too!
 Well, October has finally come by, and that means it’s once again time for the Podcast Awards! And, just like last year, we think it’d be really cool if you could nominate us!
It’s really easy and will only take you, what, maybe one or two minutes tops. Just head on over to podcastawards.com and enter our name (Otaku no Podcast) and our URL (http://otakunopodcast.com/) into the categories category for which you’d like to nominate us. We suggest you nominate us in both the Cultural/Arts as well as Food and Drink categories category. (You do know that we’ve done some food-related video podcasts, right?) (Update: nominations for multiple categories are against the rules. Please only nominate us for Cultural/Arts.) Of course you’re also welcome to nominate us for the People’s Choice category as well!
Better hurry though; you only have until the end of day on October 15th, 2012 – that’s less than 2 weeks from now!. So get cracking! And thanks for your support!
 Even though it’s still ridiculously hot here at Otaku no Podcast HQ, we must still acknowledge that, yes, fall is upon us. Which, for many, unfortunately means it’s Back to School time. (DO NOT WANT!!) But you can at least console your soul (and fill time which would otherwise be spent staring at empty space) with yet another season of new (and returning) anime!
Unfortunately my usual go-to source for the inevitable fall previews, Japanator, has yet to post their fall preview guide. Fortunately, other individuals and news outlets have jumped in to fill the void. ANN has an upcoming anime page, and a helpful ANN forum user has posted a fall 2012 preview chart. But the Master of All Preview Charts (as far as I am concerned) @cowboybibimbop has posted his masterpiece fall 2012 anime chart as well. (viewable below the cut, or by clicking the link above. Also be sure and keep an eye on his @animucharts Twitter account for updates.)
What am I looking forward to, you might ask? One word: Little Busters. (Okay, that was two words.) Naturally, since it’s based on a Key property, I’ve made a note to lay in an extra large supply of tissues. J.C. Staff will have to do an extraordinary job, they have some pretty damn big shoes to fill. I am also really looking forward to Robotics;Notes, the third installment in the Chaos;Head and Steins;Gate series (both of which I loved; Steins;Gate more so than Chaos;Head, which I thought was OK)
So what shows do you have your eye on? Let us know in the comments or on the Twitters (or the Facebooks).
Continue reading The Fall 2012 Anime Season is upon us!
 With the release of iOS 6, Apple’s latest operating system for their mobile devices (iPhone, iPod touch and iPad), Apple has removed Podcasts from the built-in Music app and broken them out into their own app.
Unfortunately their Podcasts app is not quite ready for prime time. It has some bugs, and more importantly, it has some limitations. The Podcasts app isn’t integrated with Siri, plus doesn’t work with some car iPod control systems or iPod speaker docks. Plus it has some other bugs, and in general isn’t quite ready for prime time.
But not to worry! I’ve found a little hack that you can perform that will bring Podcasts back into the Music app, and have put together a little video on the procedure.
Watch this video on YouTube or via the embedded player below the cut.
Continue reading Want to return Podcast support to iOS 6? Here’s how!
 In case you’ve missed my most recent upload to our YouTube channel, I’ve been busy (in what little free time I have) working on the next version of the Otaku no Podcast app. One of the new features I’ll be rolling out is the ConFinder, a neat graphical searchable database of anime conventions. You’ll be able to search near wherever you are (the app uses your location) for an anime convention. The conventions will be displayed on a map and will be easily browsable, and you can even add them to your calendar right from the app.
Of course, in order for this to work, and be as awesome as possible, I need to put together a comprehensive database of anime conventions. And for that I need your help!
So do you have a favorite anime con (or cons) you try and make it to every year, come hell or high water (or financial destitute)? Does your school’s anime club run a convention? Is there an anime convention in your city, or a neighboring city? Then please tell us about it! Whether it’s a large mega-con or a small fan-run con, we want to hear about it.
Fill out the form below the cut, or by clicking this link. And you have our eternal and undying thanks.
Continue reading Do you know of any good anime cons? Please tell us about them!
 Crunchyroll is, in my not so humble opinion, one of the best things to happen to the anime community (and the anime fan). Gone are the days when you had to agonize over whether or not you felt like buying the (highly priced) first volume of an anime DVD series, only to find that, ehh, you didn’t really like it, and so there’s $30 down the tubes. Now you can easily surf through hundreds of anime titles online, and watch whatever you want, whenever you want, while helping to support the companies that bring it to you. Karmic win!
The problem with that is that not all of us prefer to watch our anime on our computer screens. I mean, if you’ve got a nice shiny large-screen HDTV sitting in your entertainment center, wouldn’t you rather use that? Well, now you can, thanks to Crunchyroll’s brand-new PS3 app!
With this app, and assuming you have a Crunchyroll Premium Membership!, you can watch all of their available content, as well as easily access any series that you have in your Queue (very handy, that). Those of you without premium memberships can watch a subset of available content, including the first episodes of titles that Crunchyroll is currently simulcasting.
Unfortunately, the app currently only streams in 480P, and is only available to folks in the USA and Canada. But it does the job, and does it well, and they will be adding 720p and 1080p, as well as opening the app up to more international markets later this year.
Go grab it today! It’s available for free in the PlayStation Store.
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