Author: Don

Call for nominations

Which episodes of anime series do you find most memorable? Which stay with you long after you put the DVDs back in their cases? Please mention them in the comments. If there are enough nominated, they will the subject of the next poll.

Some possibilities: the first episodes of Haibane Renmei and Mushishi; the last episodes of Serial Experiments Lain and Divergence Eve: Misaki Chronicles; the tenth episode of Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica; the third episode of Kamichu; the eighth episode of Paranoia Agent.

You can nominate more than one episode from a particular series. The second, third and final installments of Kino’s Journey each pack quite a punch, and are all worth mentioning.

Feel free to explain in general terms why a particular episode sticks in your mind, but beware of spoilers. For instance, I could note that “Happy Family Planning” in Paranoia Agent is a perfect fusion of slapstick and horror, but I would not mention anything about the characters or what they do.

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If you haven’t yet voted in the current poll, please do so. I’m going to let it run a little longer and see how long the leading couples remain tied.

Make your reservations now

The organizers of many smaller anime conventions, such as Anime Fest Wichita, are often slow to update their websites. This is inconvenient for those who prefer to plan ahead, so I’ve compiled information for a typical regional convention. This is by no means complete, but it should give potential attendees an idea of what to expect.

Classes, workshops and panels

Anime Taxonomy
The traditional division of anime and manga into the categories of shounen, shoujo, seinen and josei is of little use to the serious student of anime. We’ll develop an alternate classification scheme using as parameters magnitude of breasts, intensity of angst, quantity of blood, diameter of eyes, presence of kemenomimi, frequency of panchira, and potential violations of child pornography laws.

The State of Anime I
A discussion of the problems facing anime in the West and its chances of survival. The presenters place the blame squarely where it belongs: the insane Japanese system for financing anime, and the greed and paranoia of the license-holders.

Anime and the Significant Other
How to introduce that special person in your life to your obsession; tips on which titles to watch together first, what plushies are suitable gifts, how to suggest cosplay, and when to bring up Evangelion.

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Let’s Artist

The majority of the magazines in Richard’s box are Mangajin, Dragon and Newtype. The former two are perfect-bound, which makes it difficult to scan entire pages without breaking the spine. Consequently, I’ll be focusing on the Newtype issues. (I’m sure Steven is disappointed, since the Dragon Half manga was running in Dragon’s back pages.)

Before I start on Newtype, here’s a look at Vversion ((Or V Version, or Wersion, depending on how you interpret the flag.)), devoted primarily to OVAs. It’s 132 pages, including the covers, and roughly half of it is glossy color.

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Historical documents

My friend Richard has been following anime since the mid-1980s, when he was stationed in Okinawa. This past weekend he brought by a box of a magazines, many 20 years old or older. Most of them are Japanese-only, and I can’t read a word. However, I can look at the pictures, and there are lots of pictures.

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Birthday present

Johann Sebastian Bach was born 327 years ago today (or on March 31, depending on which calendar you use). To celebrate the occasion, Amazon.com is selling nine hours of his music for 99¢ for a few days. I recognized a few of the performers, such as Joseph Szigeti and Andras Schiff, but most I’m not familiar with. I expect that the Amazon offering is mainly good older recordings and recent recordings by lesser-known artists. It’s probably worth gambling a dollar on.

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I know what I want for Christmas:

Exceedingly miscellaneous

In the 1970s, Jack Thompson bought a tract of land in the Royal Gardens subdivision on the island of Hawaii and began building a cedar home there. He finished it in 1983. As he installed the second-story windows, he noticed a orange glow on the panes. The light came from the lava fountains that heralded the eruption of Kilauea, which continues to this day. Over the years, lava flows took out all his neighbors’ homes, one by one, until only Thompson’s was left. This month, a vigorous flow found his house, leaving little beyond a satellite dish embedded in six feet of basalt.

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The many flavors of cheesecake

To save you the trouble of clicking repeatedly on the lower left corner of Steven’s header, I’ve collected 915 of the images and assembled them into a convenient slide show.

The singer is Mayumi Kojima. She’s probably best-known in the anime world for “Poltergeist,” the memorable opening theme of the otherwise disappointing Ghost Hound.

Ducks and religion

I recently came across this graphic. It’s a nice thought, but there seems to be something missing.

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Daniel Pinkwater has made a number of his books available for free download, including this odd little story, “Ducks!”

[audio:http://tancos.net/audio/ducks.mp3]

Other books include Lizard Music, about lizards, pod people and a chicken; Borgel, a journey through space and time in search of the Great Popsicle; Slaves of Spiegel, about very fat space pirates; and, Young Adult Novel, about the avant-garde and fascism.

Yoctometers, yottameters and ponies

Two weeks’ worth of random stuff.

Of all the mysteries in Mouretsu Pirates, the most puzzling, and the least likely to be satisfactorily explained, are the Sailor Moon shout-outs. This Princess Serenity is anything but a ditzy airhead.

By the way, it is impossible to watch just one episode of Shingu.

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