Anime World Order Show # 69c – Doujinshi 101 with Zero-chan

Show 69 concludes with Clarissa and Zero-chan’s introduction to doujinshi. But since that would be ONLY an hour, we’ve got yet another news segment in front of it too.

Let’s News! (0:00 – 56:44)
No point in reintroducing ourselves since this is the third part of what is technically one episode! Note: the Deep Discount 20% off sale of madness is underway as is Right Stuf’s Geneon closeout. We’ve each spent so much money that we should set ourselves up as affiliates or something at this point.

Bandai Visual to be liquidated. Now let’s hope that Bandai Visual’s business practices don’t infect Bandai Entertainment’s. And speaking of companies on the rocks, Tokyopop to be Liquidated. Look forward to Tokyopop to redouble their efforts on getting Princess Ai out there in FORCE. Also, here’s an update on the layoffs that happened. Super Techno Arts has halted the distribution of the Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Anime in the US. Which doesn’t make that much of a difference since you couldn’t actually find the show anyway! And on the subject of Jojo’s, here’s what happens when religious fundamentalists WHO DIDN’T EVEN FUCKING BUY THE SHOW start complaining about religious insensitivity. Also, Bandai Entertainment talks about increasing episode count on their DVDs. Towards the Terra will get 8 episodes a disk and Gurren Lagann will get 9 episodes a disk for the sub only release as an example. ADV also confirms that there’s more ADV manga coming in the form of Yotsuba& and Cromartie. Woo! That just happens to be the two manga series that we care about too! Also, Gurren Lagann is getting on the Sci-Fi channel. Were people watching their Ani-Mondays (be careful, that link is dangerous)? Gaogaigar is getting the second half of the show released on DVD this coming August. This show sold so horribly that they dropped the dub. If you didn’t pick this up before there’s a box set for the first series coming out very soon too. Ed Chavez of the Mangacast podcast has put out a rather complete list of all manga that has been cancelled in the US [Update: link deleted as his site no longer exists!]. If you read a lot, chances are this is a rather annoying list (what happened to the rest of Exaxxion!?). Also, we tread in to dangerous territory by talking about a potentially incredible video game, Capcom vs. Tatsunoko! If you don’t know what the deal is with this well listen to the podcast and check out this list to see what could potentially be in the game. Maybe now you can see why we’re excited?

Doujinshi 101 (56:44 – 1:43:19)
Before we dive into the garden of madness, we play two highly appropriate voicemails. This segment might cover information that’s common knowledge, but think of it as an extended introduction to doujinshi in general. Please note that Zero-chan’s microphone sucks and it took a lot of work just to get the audio to where it is here. Foam windscreens and pop filters are a podcaster’s key to a brighter tomorrow!

Clarissa here, with a few links where you can get information about or purchase doujinshi. Some of these were mentioned specifically in the show but perhaps not all of them.

Doujinshi information:

What is the Comic Market? – Courtesy of Zero-chan, here’s a presentation from February by the Comic Market Preparation Committee that goes over a lot of info about the event.

Ketto.com – This site is Japanese only, so it may not be useful for many of you, but this site has a listing of probably every single doujin event being held. Unfortunately they don’t have anything before 2000 listed, but for anything recent or upcoming you’re good.

Akihabara Channel – For the English-only crowd, here’s one you can read. It only covers events in the Tokyo and Osaka areas, but that’s rather a lot of them.

Doujinshi Database – Gerald and I are contributers on this site and I spend way too many hours adding books, artists and events (pulled from Ketto) along with romanizing titles. Like most doujinshi stuff overseas, there’s rather a lot of porn, but it’s intended to be an info repository for all doujins. There’s a lot of non-porn getting added currently off listings from Toranoana and such, and if you want more non-smut info available please sign up and help out. There’s so many artists, writers and books we need all the contributions we can get.

Purchasing doujinshi:

JPQueen – This store sells commercial manga, anime and goods along with doujinshi and everything is in English. Their prices can be a bit high on some things but you can find some good deals too, and I’ve never had an issue buying from them.

Happy Otaku Site – This one’s been around for a long time now. I’ve ordered from him a couple of times, and he seems reliable. He stocks some older books and smaller fandoms as well.

Comiket Online Shopping Service – Buy through Comiket here, but honestly their prices are rather high and for fujoshi the selection is pretty bad.

Again, there are a lot of small stores online like Manga Store Kawaii, Kitty Cafe (what used to be the Aestheticism Cybershoppe for you longer-term yaoi fans) and the shop linked with the English version of Akibablog.

If you want to buy from sites like Yahoo! Japan Auctions or Toranoana (or Toranoana Princess Side) you’ll need a proxy service. There are a lot of these, many very small and mostly known of through word of mouth, so it can be difficult to find the best one. Rinkya is one of the biggest and most convenient, but their fees are quite high so you pay a lot for that. I generally use Celga; they’re a bit less convenient but their fees are somewhat lower.

As I mentioned, there’s also digital doujin purchases. I usually prefer to get physical books, because sometimes there are things that just don’t carry over into the scans. For example, I have a couple of Black Jack doujins with textured covers so they have a particular varied feel when you hold them; there are also some books with elaborate layered covers and such. But if all you’d be reading is scans anyway, and/or you can’t find the books, putting down a few bucks for one of these is a pretty good deal.

DLsite has an English version which makes things easier, but you can also purchase from the original Japanese version of DLsite, which sometimes has different items; anime blog Heisei Democracy has a guide for purchasing from the Japanese version. I had thought it was possible to purchase from Digiket but it looks like they may require a Japanese credit card or prepaid web money card.

We didn’t actually record a closing segment, so it’s somewhat of a mystery as to what Show 70 will be about. Expect a review of Tekkonkinkreet, and possibly–POSSIBLY–the second pillar of the Holy Manga Video Trinity of Suck. No guarantees though.

Anime World Order Show # 54d – Clarissa Isn’t Dead, She Was Hibernating (like Superman)

After a month of procrastination and being occupied with actual work, we conclude the super-extended Show # 54 with Clarissa’s review of Ai no Kusabi. Its DBR–Dudes Bein’ Rude–rating is quite powerful indeed. This hopefully concludes the “non-standard format” episodes of the last month and change, but once again, if you’ve never heard the show before, you may not want to start with this one since our other episodes aren’t like this.

Introduction (00:00 – 13:19)

It’s somewhat difficult to select emails that are appropriate to read without all of our powers combined to answer them, but somehow Clarissa manages to select three whole messages. First of all, we deviate briefly from the mansex theme of this episode to talk about hot girls making out with each other–more specifically, why yuri manga is so hard to find and whether there’s any of it that’s good. Clarissa mentions a few titles, then directs everyone interested to Okazu since Erica is awesome and can school people on this better than anyone at AWO. The question of whether or not YesAsia sells bootlegs is addressed (the answer appears to be no), and Clarissa points people looking for Japanese DVDs to CD Japan, whose prices are cheaper, though they don’t have free shipping and you should probably check which one ends up costing less with that factored in. We close with a listener who wants us to review Wings of Honneamise, Angel Cop and Legend of the Galactic Heroes. Also, is Koichi Ohata the Japanese Rob Liefeld? Perhaps you can help us answer that.

News (13:20 – 23:25)

Clarissa, unchecked by cohosts talking about things that don’t involve Dudes Being Rude, ends up talking about a lot of news that has to do with that. Sanami Matoh is doing more FAKE, and Clarissa hopes that if it gets licensed, it’ll get a translation she can read without stabbing her eyes out. Also, Yuu Watase may be doing her first Boys Love manga (or maybe just another shoujo-which-happens-to-have-gay-boys-manga) as part of another magazine, which will also feature Alexander Daiou. Finally, AX happened, which means lots of licensing announcements and other news. Clarissa talks a few new licenses, the continuation of Yotsuba&!, and the keynote about the manga industry.

Review: Ai no Kusabi (23:26 – 53:27)

Future societies on human-colonized worlds, genetic engineering, highly-stratified class systems, supercomputer leaders, sex slaves and hot mansex. Plus Kaneto Shiozawa in possibly his hottest role? It must be Ai no Kusabi.

Though Clarissa generally wouldn’t look to BL manga for serious science fiction literature, since well, that’s not really the point, this one is actually pretty neat for the interaction between society and human emotion/desire. But the main focus is still definitely on incredibly handsome men and their torrid affair.

Clarissa forgot to note over the course of this review that this show is solely responsible for her bulletproof kink of the indirect cigarette kiss. It’s only fair that others should be warned before watching. It could happen to you!

Also, for the record, this is the concept art of the bikes looked at during the episode:

Promo: Robotronic Dynamite! (53:28 – 54:58)

Since this episode is a veritable buffet of mansex, it’s only fitting that we endorse the gayest podcast ever, using an appropriately-themed promo. This ‘cast features Joseph Luster, who can currently be found in Otaku USA, along with the AWO.

Closing (54:59 – 59:13)

And thus ends the most ridiculous episode of this podcast ever. Which for us is pretty severely ridiculous. The next episode’s already recorded, so there shouldn’t be another crazy gap between this one and the next. Next up, our powers combine once again, but instead of Captain Planet we end up with Daryl’s review of the Sanrio film Sea Prince and the Fire Child, Gerald’s take on the classic Gainax series Nadia: Secret of Blue Water, and Clarissa’s initial reactions to MPD Psycho.