Cardcaptor’s Blog

I didn’t sleep last night because I marathoned chapter 152-206 of Mahou Sensei Negima. It was that good. Here’s why:

Designs
Costumes, beasts, cities, environments, and battle choreography. Detailed and beautiful.
Akamatasu-sensei sure get himself a group of assistants with l33t skillz. Continue reading “Negima is Awesome”

• wktk (wakuteka)
  Stands for ワクワクテカテカ (wakuwakutekateka). “Wakuwaku”is an onomatopoeia for being excited, and “tekateka” for gleaming. It is used to express the feeling of expectation for a good thing that’s going to happen soon, like when you’re waiting to watch a good video while it’s loading, or the state that Tama-chan is in below:

wktk Continue reading “Japanese(?) I Learned from Nico Nico Douga”

If you look at Wikipedia page on fansub, the first citation you’ll see is the article “Celebrating the Two Decades of Unlawful Progress: Fan distribution, Proselytization Commons, and the Explosive Growth of Japanese Animation” by Sean Leonard. (Grab the paper here.) I’m writing this post to record what I learned from the paper, and I hope I can help you save some time.

Why is this paper important? Well, as far as I know, it’s the only peer-reviewed article that directly deals with fansubbing and its copyright problem, exactly the quagmire that we are all in. The main contributions of the paper are as follows:

1. Despite being a legal paper, it gives a detailed history of how fansub started in the U.S. back in the 1980s, and recounts its relationship with Japanese anime companies. You might need this information to talk more deeply about fansubs. (You also get a lot of nice trivia on fansub history. For example, I was surprised to learn that an officer in the U.S. military was responsible for giving birth to a massive raw distribution network back then.)
2. It formally presents the argument that fansub helps the industry promote anime, and gives supporting evidences. This means that, when you argue with someone on whether fansubs help or harm, you can use the rhetoric of this paper in the argument. I’ll talk more about this below.
3. It suggests a practice that makes fansubbing of unlicensed anime legal, and justifies the practice in the light of theCopyright Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Now let’s get on with some details. Continue reading “Anime Readings #1: Celebrating Two Decades of Unlawful Progress”

It’s official!

The above video is full of lulz. First, a 15-year-old boy sent a postcard asking Yukarin “[...] Girls I like are 2D characters and Yukarin. It’s awkward to say that, isn’t it? Can you suggest a way to avoid the subject?”

Yukarin and the co-host went “Hmm… This is difficult.” And Yukarin said, “You see. I’m, like, 2.5D myself.” (LOL) Continue reading ““Nanoha-chan to Fate-chan ga Raburabu nan da yo!” said Tamura Yukari.”

The titular video, M.N.M.K. San Shimai wa Heibon Nanoka? (M.N.M.K.三姉妹は平凡なのか？　最終鬼畜南家 【みなみけMAD】), is probably the best recent Nico Nico Douga remix. See for yourself how AWESOME it is below:

Continue reading “M.N.M.K. San Shimai wa Heibon Nanoka?”

If I learned something from watching Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei (hereby referred to as SZS), then it’s the fact that SZS is not a great show to marathon.

While this picture has something to do with the content,
it is clearly a shameless attempt to attract readers.

Continue reading “Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei”

I gave a talk on Nico Nico Douga at Barcamp Bangkok on January 26, 2008. The event itself was fun and I got to meet a lot of interesting people, many of whom shared some obsession with Japanese media like I do. I’m posting here a revised version of the talk script and the talk slide, in Lessig style. (Yeah, I’m a Lessig fanboy.)

| View | Upload your own

Continue reading “The Evolution of Creativity: Nico Nico Douga and Doujinshi Subculture in Web 2.0″

I dig slice of life. Spice and Wolf should be slice of life, right? I don’t care about that any more. I’ll watch this show for Horo. She has all THE ATTRIBUTES. 250-year-old non-human who take a shape of a young girl? I dig that. Street smart? I dig that. Speaking like an oiran? I dig that. “Wacchi?” I dig that. Fox ears and tails? I guess I dig that. Staying naked for almost all the episode? Didn’t expect this, but YES!

I’m never wrong about assessing people. You are an ephebophile, a masochist, and a lover of furry. Continue reading “Spice and Wolf #1″

Over at his post on copyright, omo got into an argument with Avatar on copyright over anime. Avatar’s argument is that, since making anime is so costly, you cannot let people torrent anime like music, manga, or any other media. Animators has to be fed so that they get their jobs done before the next episode airs. Someone has to pay for all this.

True. But that doesn’t mean that free download should be more controlled. Anime studios (not distributors) may be able survive through other means. In fact, in Free Culture, Lawrence Lessig (who Avatar claimed was going to kill anime) suggested a number of ways to make money out of free content. (His context is music, but it should be equally applied to movies as well.)

This picture has nothing to do with the content of this post. It is merely a shameless attempt to attract readers. Continue reading “Making Money out of Free Anime?”

Yes, I’m still watching the series though my resolve to blog it is so really easily chattered. The series kind of went downhill for me because there has been nothing really happening story-wise. I’m also getting sick of Itsuki. Spewing kindness around to random human and ghosts makes him so unhuman.

But #13 is different. It’s about Honami and Addie! In their loli forms! Winnage! We also get some character development: Addie has been a bitch since then, and Honami’s strong resolve was due to the fact that she screwed up so bad before. All in all, nice animation and little conflict they build here in this episode.

My name is Adilicia Lenn Mathers, descendant of King Solomon. The only thing I can say now is “Forneus” (damn you lazy animators), but that doesn’t stop me from being an arrogant bitch. Continue reading “Rental Magica #13″