Wednesday, May 27, 2009

moe maids and fan terms

This week I am taking advantage of information in Azuma Hiroki's book Otaku: Japan's Database Animals to include a few fan related terms.

chara moe キャラ萌え

meido or mēdo (maid) メイド or メード

shokkaku (antenna) 触角

As I warned last week these entries are a couple of days later than usual as I was at Fanime all weekend.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Fanime 2009: Anime and Manga For Grownups

At Fanime I did a panel called Anime and Manga For Grownups where I covered many currently available titles which I felt adult fans should be aware of and likely would enjoy.

I was very surprised how many at the panel had not heard of most of these titles.

One requested I post my lists so they could use them as reference material. I did not speak about many of the titles here but the full lists I had with me could be of use to fans.


Fanime 2009: Anime and Manga For Grownups - Anime

Fanime 2009: Anime and Manga For Grownups - Manga

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

My Fanime Con schedule

I am a guest at Fanime Con this year.

My schedule, which is subject to last minute revision, is:

[Edited Saturday 8:10 AM]

Friday:

Anime and Manga for Grownups - Marriott Salon 2 (Panels 2) from 7-8 pm

Saturday:

Older Titles for Newer Fans - Marriott Salon 4-6 (Panels 3) 1-3 pm

Sunday:

Anime for Parents - Marriott Salon 1 & 2 12-1 pm. (Open to the public no badge needed)

Monday:

Iron Fanime Panelist Edition - Marriott Salon 4-6 (Panels 3) 12-2 pm [EDIT]

Monday, May 18, 2009

Manga fundamentals

This week I have three entries for manga related terminology.

This week's entries written while listening to music by The Street Beats.

kyōfu manga (terror manga) 恐怖漫画

manga zasshi (manga magazines) 漫画雑誌

suiri manga (detection manga) 推理漫画

I'm beat, it has been a long week. I'll try to get things prepped as much as I can for next weeks entries soon. However week's entries may be a day or two late as I have a very busy schedule getting ready for Fanime Con

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Kabukicho

Kabukicho

Tokyo's entertainment center with everything from family fare to the very adult. Playground for Saeba Ryo in the City Hunter series and also seen in many films and anime.

Photographer Jim O'Connell has been taking pictures here for year.

For a Gallery of images see:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimoconnell/sets/72157600004314672/

For a slideshow of the images, sit down and click on:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimoconnell/sets/72157600004314672/show/

Warning, may not be workplace safe.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Oishinbo A La Carte

Oishinbo A La Carte is a manga series being published in translation by Viz Media. The basic story is about Yamaoka Shirô, and Kurita Yûko who have been assigned to a special anniversary project for the newspaper they work for. Their assignment is called The Ultimate Menu and their job is to research food and write about it. Add Shirô's knowledge of food and drink plus a years long conflict with his father and a variety of interesting situations and this is one interesting manga.

What they are doing which is unusual is they are not issuing the volumes in order, rather they are picking individual chapters and story arcs related to a theme and putting them together. This may sound dubious but it works as the reader gets to focus on one aspect of Japanese cuisine at a time. Hopefully some day we shall see a translation in the regular order but until then we have one interesting series to enjoy.

The first volume is devoted in general to Japanese cuisine so we get to see a variety to get us into the swing of things, then comes the second volume Sake. The sake volume is not exactly what many Westerners would expect as sake to the Japanese means any alcoholic beverage rather than Nihonshu, the brewed traditional alcoholic beverage of Japan. But don't let that put you off there is plenty about Nihonshu as well as other Japanese alcoholic beverages. You will even learn about proper storage and use with foods.

This is a title I think would work well with any adult manga collection, and would be popular with some younger readers.

Volume 3 will be Ramen & Gyoza (due May 19), and 4 will be Fish, Sushi,& Sashimi (due July 14)