Mahou Meido Meganekko

Several weeks ago, I was browsing around my animé pusher’s blog when I ran across a post about the trials and tribulations Robert had gone through trying to get a simple advertisment placed. It seemed that Newtype, which bills itself as the USA’s premeire animé magazine, had a problem with how racy the original image was that he’d submitted for use.

This is the image:

Note the extremely skimpy panties. What you can’t see at this resolution is the tiny crease in their center. The “camel toe,” as it is called, shows up in the racier anime fanservice; Yumeria, Godannar, and DearS are three that I know have featured them, far more graphically. (In fact, I almost didn’t post this shot from DearS, because it’s borderline NSFW.)

Well, Newtype didn’t like it and demanded changes, only they weren’t really clear about what they wanted changed. After several back and forth e-mails and two revisions, Newtype finally agreed to run the revised picture. Note that the original is within their written policy on art. Robert was a bit frustrated with the unclear instructions and not very friendly/businesslike manner in Newtype’s e-mails, so he used them in a blog post expressing his annoyance. I read the post, and would have termed the e-mails from Newtype “very brusque, but not quite rude.” I definately didn’t think much of the customer service or friendly manners of their editor.

The change requested? I’d have guessed lengthening the skirt to hide the panties.

Nope.

Remove the crease?

Nope.

It was just to widen the panties to cover those little ass bulges to either side. That’s all. But the editor of NewType is apparently repressed, and he couldn’t say that outright.

On the other hand, he was apparently able to express himself on other matters. Specifically, he was not amused to see a customer publicly discussing frustration with his directives. So, if you visit the post now, all the e-mails and the altered versions of the art are gone. Instead there’s a note:

[UPDATE: As of Aug 14th, 2006 the remaining text and graphics of this post have been voluntarily removed by me at the request of the Editor of NewType USA. A final edit may be in order, I haven't decided yet.]

In a further comment, replying to Steven DenBeste’s logical question “why do you have to cater to him?”, Robert remarks,

Indeed, especially considering the way I was asked. I’ll be making a seperate post soon about what happened and what we’re going to do about it.

Well, I think I can answer that question. Robert “has” to cater to the editor of NewType because NewType thinks it’s an Old Media Giant, one that can treat the customers any way it wants to. Well I’ve got news for them: Old Media Giants are dinosaurs. There isn’t anything between the covers of their magazine that I really care about. I’m not the type of person to read E! Magazine, TV Guide, People or any of the other gossipy rags going on about the entertainment industry or any niche thereof. And frankly, I hate having to put up with their stupid advertisement at the beginning of so many DVD’s.

I’m certain that not everyone shares my opinion on the uselessness of such media rags, and it has a lot of readers (for the niché, that is). And they do have at least some of the power to treat customers as rudely as they wish, muzzle their complaints, and suppress negative word of mouth if they want to. But that doesn’t make it right or engender good will in the community. The New York Times is no role model, and acting arrogant and unaccountable isn’t any way to do business.

(edited for clarity at 12:35)

I kid you not. It’s an article about the insane popularity of YouTube, which now hosts over 2,000 clips on The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzimaya, whether from the series or parodies of it, such as the famous Gundam Robot ED. Of course, being an American news magazine, they had to get it wrong, calling Melancholy a “cartoon aired on a local TV station.” You’d think someone with the name of Akinko Kashiwagi would know better. This is supposedly a scan of the print article, but I’ve seen one claim it’s a fake (nothing to support it though.)

Baka.

Hat tip to Anime on My Mind.

Edit: it’s noted that 10,000 animé DVD’s sold is considered a smash hit in Japan, but MHS is running five to seven times that! I really think we’re going to see a second season come 2008….

Sigh.

US
– 08/29/2006 4:44 P.M. BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

HAGERSTOWN, MD, US
– 08/29/2006 7:24 P.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
– 08/29/2006 6:32 P.M. ORIGIN SCAN

NEW STANTON, PA, US
– 08/29/2006 11:05 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN
– 08/30/2006 3:12 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN

MAUMEE, OH, US
– 08/30/2006 9:35 A.M. DEPARTURE SCAN
– 08/30/2006 8:18 A.M. ARRIVAL SCAN

HODGKINS, IN, US
– 08/30/2006 12:44 P.M. ARRIVAL SCAN

Your package is in the UPS system and is on time with a scheduled delivery date of 09/05/2006.

This time, I put the order in Sunday night. And it’s still going to be a Tuesday, thanks to the holiday.

I just added two more websites to the links at the left, and bumped three. Welcome aboard to Riuva and Baboon Pirates! Sayonara to OfftheKuff, Ann Coulter, and People’s Republic of Seabrook. Ann’s “crazy conservative lady” act has gotten old, OffTheKuff has fallen into total soc-lib moonbattery, not to mention supporting Carol Alvarado, and I’ve never been able to figure out PRoS — got bored with trying. Parody or serious? Enh. Who cares anymore?

The main thing that got an update is the Collected Anime Reviews page. I’ve done a number of articles that never got added to it, and entire sections of my collection were still missing. I added a lot of the AWOL series and more commentary on series that I haven’t done full reviews of, in addition to fixing a few other things. I also updated my animé order, seeing as I sent in a new one yesterday. Hopefully winging (or rather, rolling) its way too me soon will be:

Dual: Parallel Adventure (boxed set) — I checked out several reviews and all of them agree that it’s a cross between Tenchi Muyo and Neon Genesis Evangelion, yet one that could stand on its own. This tells me that either it’s obviously true, that the reviewers all copied each other, or they all took payoffs from Pioneer. If it’s the latter, am I too late to get in on that gig? It’s got a really cool OP theme; reminds me a bit of Neutron Dance from the first Beverly Hills Cop movie.

Godannar #6 & 7 — This will finally finish off this series. I’m not really expecting a lot besides fan service, but it would be nice if a mediocre series finished strong for once, instead of the pattern of crappy endings I’ve been running into lately with Scrapped Princess, Mars Daybreak, etc. Well, I wouldn’t argue that Divergence Eve ended badly. It was one of those shows that you reach the end and go “Whew! Oh my God, what a ride!” Don’t think I want to repeat it; in fact I haven’t brought myself to rewatch the first scene yet. Or seriously think about ordering Misaki Chronicles. I haven’t seen a horror movie this disturbing since Alien3. And this was much better.

Starship Operators #2 — Speaking of sub-par endings, this sure had one. Oh well, the middle of the series is pretty strong.

Ok, today, lets take Inukami (literally, “dog-god”). Preferably someplace far away, because I found it to be quite aggravating. I had some expectations for it after seeing Riuva’s review, but this show just didn’t cut it. There’s simply no there, there. If you’d rather watch this series with no foreknowledge, beware, because I’m going to get into spoilers. Except they’re not really spoilers, because as of ep.11, not a damn thing has really happened, except Youko is getting along with Kouda’s ten inukami, and everyone despises Keita as a pervert when they aren’t appreciating him for his better qualities. Yawn. The opening song and animation advertises an action-adventure with magical girls, romance, and maybe a little fanservice. Perhaps it would be a nice show — if that’s what they had made. What the viewer gets is nothing like that.

	Youko, from the opening credits. Lots of action scenes of her or Keita laying down rightous butt-kicking, or looking somberly at the moon.
	Our first sight of Youko in the show itself. Isn’t she just the cutest thing?
	And they seem to get along just grandly. Forget it. After about two more minutes of teasing, it’s going right downhill.

(more…)

Two of the several animé fansubs I’ve downloaded recently are Inukami and Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan. (The latter translates as “Beat-to-Death-Angel Dokuro-chan” and it’s about that bad after the first couple of episodes). What caught my attention was that Dokuro-chan sounded really cute, and that I liked Hikari, the theme song to Inukami. After some thought, I decided that the lyrics were nicely romantic at the start, but the tune, while above average for the medium, wasn’t that great. It was the soft voice that I liked, so I checked out who the singer was. Lo and behold, the singer of Hikari (and voice of Yoko/Youko), Horie Yui, was also the voice of Dokuro-chan. I kept reading, and it turns out she’s got a very long resumé, some of which I recognized.

Have checked out but not bought or seen:
Ayu Tsukimiya in “Kanon” (video game, special, and both series)
Bottle Fairy (TV) : Theme Song Performance (ED) (eps 7 - 9, 13), Theme Song Performance (OP), VA of Sarara.
Love Hina as Naru Narusegawa in all versions; OAV Theme Song Performance; X’mas Special - Silent Eve Theme Song Performance (ED)
Negima! Theme Song Performance (OP3, OP8, ED4) and VA of Makie Sasaki
Immortal Grand Prix (TV 2) as Fantine Valgeon (actually, I’ve seen parts on CN).

Stuff I really liked:
Sister Princess : Theme Song Performance (OP) & VA for Sakuya (she was the clothes-horse that kept coming on to Wataru.)
Mars Daybreak as Megumi Higashibara (the kid psychic).

And that’s just a fraction of her listings. She was even a minor character in a Cowboy Bebop episode.

I had really liked the OP for Sister Princess; it was one of the best things about the show. She’s definately someone to watch (or listen to, I suppose). I’m bumping Negima! up from a “maybe one day” to a “perhaps soon” just on her basis. I need to find out if her character’s minor, or has enough screen time amongst the 30 girls in that show.

And yeah, she’s cute.

The last few weeks, I’ve been off my stride, and not producing much for either Houblog or blogHOUSTON. At first, I thought it was just work wearing me down, but lately, I have realized that I’m not sleeping well at all, and am extremely lethargic. Worse, when looking back at some of my older articles, I found myself thinking, “I wrote that? It’s good-well reasoned, covers all the bases, has smoother transitions — that was me?” I look at my recent stuff and I see disjointed thinking, abrupt transitions, and large gaps in logic chains. I’ve got two incomplete articles pending, and I need to write several more. White’s trying to overthrow Prop.2, and the Housing department needs digging out with a backhoe, but I can barely budge myself to fix supper when I get home. I don’t know what to make of it.

I’m struggling at work — rather unmotivated, getting things done only because I’d hate myself for not getting them done, but I don’t really feel any enthusiasm for it.

Does anime really rot your mind? Or am I not well? Sometimes I think I need a keeper. Maybe a cute little dog-girl.