Owning manga can get you in jail?!

Well, I’m no expert of the law and I can’t say that I exactly fond of it, but can something harmless as manga get you thrown behind bars?! Maybe…

For those of you lost, I’m talking about a interesting case involving Christopher Handley, a fan of manga that could be facing some serious jail time–20 years worth behind prison bars. We are talking criminal charges, folks. I’m not going to be all subjective or objective on this thing, but to sum it up in a few and thoughtful words: WTF?!

FULL STORY HERE: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/editorial/2008-12-11/christopher-handley/jason-thompson

Something is not adding up here. There is no specifics released in this statement enough, well in my case to understand what is going on. As you can tell, American Law VS Japanese Law is VERY DIFFERENT and so is all the territory that comes with it. I am talking age ratings, age, censorship, and the whole Nine yards of what the public can expect and what is accept. In this case, something wicked is at work. Come on, the guys First Amendment right has been violated and pass-over faster than bad Family Guy Joke.

Like I said before, I won’t dive any deeper into this because of the facts and information not touching home enough for me to even explain or elaborate. Yet, one thing is clear: This something that should peak your interest. In what matter exactly? Well, who knows. Could mean the US more restrictive or know one giving a da** about personal rights. Whatever it does mean, you can be sure that this will be case that affects a larger base than smaller.

In the future, I will be doing some more intresting articles so I hope you guys will stick with me till then.

I almost had Hyakko poached from me, but we’ve come to an agreement, Kaze and I.

In my long absence from Yukan in terms of episodic blogging I suppose I have neglected Machiavelli’s rule of taking over the world by building settlements, and so far my settlements at Yukan seem rather dusty since I haven’t posted a review of some actual Anime in a while. Here are some short reviews of Anime series I’ve been watching since I’ve been expanding into other media such as radio spots and winning blogging competitions for the Sydney Morning Herald:

Welcome to the NHK! isn’t the newest Anime on the block, and it certainly isn’t the most wholesome I could be watching, but it is certainly entertaining and gives me hope that there are far more perverse individuals on this Earth than me, but as Sweeney Todd says, “We all deserve to die… even you Mrs. Lovett even I”. Rather than judging the characters of NHK too harshly, they serve as a reminder of what can happen if a man is pushed over the edge into madness, particularly when some of the madness is his own fault. Saki the nice girl is a sort of reverse Marla Singer from Fight Club, and really Welcome to the NHK! bears the resemblance of Fight Club for Japanese otaku people.

I have not read the NHK novel so the plot remains unspoiled and as of yet I am still wincing as I draw closer and closer to the ending, wondering when in a halfway series lull in the depravity the awful stuff starts to happen again. Please don’t spoil the ending of this series for me as I’ve never seen it before, besides, it’s more fun seeing me revolted at things I didn’t expect than for me to see it coming and lessen its effect.

Moving on there’s another series I’ve been following which I’ve been enjoying, called Strawberry Panic.

Baka-Raptor informed me of this one, and I hope the pacing picks up after the first two episodes. I haven’t watched an episode in a while so I forget the character’s names, but as far as I know from experience, when it comes to me interpreting Anime for the first time, unless the characters are already familiar, there’s a fair bit of “Ooh Blue Haired Girlie did this” (Lucky Star initially caused me some character identification problems with Tsusaka and Kagami, being a twin myself I finally felt the frustration of others trying to tell me and my brother apart). Basically Reddish/Brownish haired girl on the right of this picture (at least in the first two episodes) is being stalked by the senior white haired girl on the left, but the problem for her is that the Reddish/Brownish haired girl on the right is straight. Is it love? We don’t know yet, I’ve only watched two episodes, one of which involves a library chase scene.

One of the reasons I’ve been away from actual Anime episodic blogging is that I’ve been producing some “popular art” of my own for the first time in three months and so far I have a page of an illustrated short story. Maybe one day it will be collected into a graphic novel or something, but it’s not something I can really talk about in an Anime post. Even though it is Anime related, such pimping would be unprofessional.

Hopefully once I catch up with Hyakko Kaze and I will be able to settle our differences and blog the series together as nature intended, since with my lulzy sense of humor and Kaze’s skill of actually getting the character names right, who knows what we could bring to the Hyakko discussion table? As far as I know us two are the only ones who cared about Hyakko from the beginning, Issa-sa certainly didn’t give Torako and her friends a chance.

←[86] This is the only time I will ever whore post across many blogs. Forgive me. It’s justified because it’s for you! Copy and paste the link in a new window. I’m way too lazy to resave and reupload all those images.

This “discovery” is the product of a long line of meta posts that went around the past few days. I won’t bore you with the posts themselves. Usagijen and RyanA had an awesome thought, and to quote RyanA:

What would be really awesome, you may already be thinking this, is to have an aggregator of various reader/blogger’s lensing/noting (Shared Items in Google Reader). Unfortunately, this is more work for authors and asking readers to do such a thing is sort of fishy. If there were a sub-group of producers, not authors, that did this and that is all they did, it could be highly effective…. I wonder if any team-blogs have thought of designating that position to members.

This is a short guide on how to “optimize” your google reader experience. Of course, only those will gmail accounts will benefit from this, but if you didn’t use gmail, you don’t deserve to read this anyway.

With this, you will be able to have a feed inside a feed. And these feeds are customizable, but it all depends on the cooperation of bloggers, readers and lurkers alike to make their feed folders public.

In a nutshell, if you actively use google reader, which you should, you can select various rss subscriptions (blog feeds) to be in certain folders. I have a “MAL blog” folder which contains some blogger’s MAL “microblogs”. But I can also make this folder accessible to the public as a feed: you can then, through one subscription, subscribe to a massive number of selectively picked rss feeds. You can’t do this by just subscribing to Nano or Antennae.

What this means is that if every single anime blogger used google reader to create selective rss folders (a “Japanese culture blogs” folder, “seiyuu blogs” folder, “episodic blogs” folder), the general public, through a google account, can then subscribe to these long, carefully tailored blog lists. Here’s how to do just that:

1 – access your google mail home

2 – in the upper tab find under “more” find “Reader”

3 – access “manage subscriptions” button

4 – add folders to your rss subscriptions by clicking on “add to a folder” then “new folder”

5 – in the settings tab, click on the “folders and tags” button

6 – after you’ve created folders for your subscriptions, these folders will show up as RSS feeds themselves. To make these public or private, simply click on the rss logo and the setting will change itself.

7 – to the right of that same rss logo, click on “view public page” to see the page on which your rss subscriptions will appear

8 – when viewing this public page, you CAN THEN SUBSCRIBE TO IT!

9 – tada, you now have a feed inside a feed

Now, this doesn’t entirely address RyanA’s first post. No, now we have to get into shared items and notes within google reader, which is a godsend to the development of the aniblogosphere. This “device” would allow bloggers and readers to communicate on a totally different level we haven’t seen yet. By consistently taking notes on blogs in your reader, just as we “subconsciously” update our MAL lists (c’mon it isn’t that hard), you can make public your own Author-esque notepadding “blog”. Here’s how:

*** – you need to create a google reader profile first

1 – Go back to your reader and click on “all items”

2 – If your list does not look like that, you need to change the viewing settings. Use expanded view or list view, it doesn’t matter. At the bottom of each post you will see a “share with note” button. Click on it

3 – A window will pop up, asking to you take a note on the post.

4 – Click on “notes” under the “your stuff” tab. If it is collapsed, click on the + to expand it. You should see the post and then, if you click on it, the note you took on it.

5 – Go back and click on “shared items” and you’ll see the link that says “see your shared items page in a new window”, click on that link

6 – after everything, you should come to your shared items page. Notice that you can subscribe to that page with the RSS button in your address bar. There’s also an atom feed button on the right side underneath your abridged profile.

I have yet to see the cumulative effects of a large number of bloggers doing this, but in order for it to work effectively, bloggers need to make both their shared items page public, as in they need to post the link somewhere visible, in their about page or something. The second thing is for bloggers to actively create selective rss folders to which people can subscribe. There are only so many blogs out there, and this feature might become redundant if everyone is subscribed to all 498784353 blogs out there. If this reading-saturation ever occurs, subscriptions to shared notes subscriptions will take precedence as they hold additional content/notes/thoughts.

One point of this is to promote synergy. If readers want a microblog or notepad of sorts but don’t want to create a MAL or blog, you can do so with your email account. This can avoid the “stigmatization” or hype people receive when they create blogs. Ghostlightning is a good example. With the creation of his blog and MAL, he really does seem like a totally different person. His personality and individuality are concretized in various websites and aesthetic loci. Not to say that everyone should do this, the typical anon has a place in comments. I don’t know. All I know is that this is fucking cool.

It’s like Timezone only old school! 0_0

I couldn’t take any pictures myself because of copyright issues with the games at the Game On exhibition, so here’s some Google impressions of what the exhibition looks like.

Here is Donkey Kong and Galaxian. I love Galaxian and play it often, whereas I recall spending hours completing the Donkey Kong game in order to progress in Donkey Kong 64. There were plenty of old arcade games like this in the Game On exhibition as the exhibition is a showcase of the history and future of video gaming. I got to play on a few of these but didn’t get a very high score. Discs of Tron was another game I tried, and I found it entertaining but somewhat overrated. It’s like a throwing disc game where you generally have to hit the other guy off the platform, but you have to make sure you don’t get knocked off yourself.

This exhibition reminds me how annoying old arcade games used to be as I played them when I was a kid exploring the back of Timezone, because sometimes people would leave a game unattended in the middle of a game without finishing their game! Who does that? Clearly people at the Game On exhibition do, because there were plenty of paused games on consoles like the PS2 (Odin Sphere was an example of an abandoned and lonely game, as was the Dreamcast Tennis game). The Dreamcast looked so lonely and neglected, crying out for love. But it was playing a crappy tennis game so it got none. T_T

Oh Sega Dreamcast, you always did lose out…

While I was at the Game On exhibition I tagged along with a Romanian guy who was one of my brother’s dorm buddies. He has the biggest crush on Kasumi (the girl in blue in the middle) from Dead or Alive, so naturally he always plays as her when he plays Dead or Alive Ultimate. Even though he was getting his arse handed to him by his brother who was visiting from Romania, he insisted that Kasumi was awesome. Still, she has less dignity than Chun-Li from Street Fighter II Turbo, which I had a go at playing as Chun-Li with my brother who was playing as Ryu. My brother handed my arse back to me too, but not only that, he called Chun-Li a slut just to knock me off my SNAG guard.

I mean how is Chun-Li a slut compared to Kasumi from Dead or Alive? Chun-Li has dignity, and is awesome without having to expose too much chest.

I got the chance to play a real Game and Watch instead of just my newly acquired second hand copy of Game and Watch Gallery Advance. Sadly to say, Game and Watch Gallery Advance makes the Game and Watch games a hell of a lot easier to play than the original format. Donkey Kong on Game and Watch is a pile of donkey doo, at least on the original version. The presentation of the handheld in the exhibition was poorly lit because most of the playable handhelds featured were backlit, like the DS Lite, PSP and Game Boy Advance SP. The Game and Watch was left to rot in the dark by comparison, and I might have been able to play the damn thing had I better lighting.

I played some Final Fantasy VII, only to find that the graphics suck. Boy do the graphics suck, the story is great, but boy do these graphics suck. I mean look at the guy on the left’s arms, he looks like he has Elephantiasis or something.

After a round of Doom on an authentic Windows 95 PC, me, my brother and his dorm buddies decided to wrap it up with a try at the Steel Battalion mecha simulator. It was all your Gundam nightmares come true!

Who the hell can control 40 buttons? You’d need to be a hentai tentacle monster to play this!

Well that’s it for my Game On exhibition coverage, hope you enjoyed it. The exhibition was held at the State Library of Queensland and you can see it until February next year.

]]> http://yukan.dasaku.net/miscellaneous/game-on-report-from-an-exhibition/feed/ 5 http://yukan.dasaku.net/miscellaneous/weeaboo-ideology/ http://yukan.dasaku.net/miscellaneous/weeaboo-ideology/#comments Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:55:19 +0000 lelangir http://yukan.dasaku.net/?p=2993

←[75]

I don’t browse forums, 4chan nor the comments in RandomC, so I guess I’ve never been exposed to this mystical weeaboo that (to roughly paraphrase Shance) exalts himself from the rest of otakudom simply because he knows a few Japanese catch phrases.

As others have implicitly motioned, the raw watcher challenges the power and authority of those who learn a language through institutionalized means. In this case, the ideology of the school (very Althusserian) hails its subjects as more “established” or “proper” as those outside the discourse (the other; the weeaboo). It’s interesting to see how the power of the educational establishment – and some of it isn’t all as great as its cracked up to be – inculcates such thoughts in people. What if someone truly doesn’t have access to Japanese classes and can only fill their insatiable xenophobia and desire to learn through the media of that culture? Such is the state of many public school systems, especially in urban centers.

Although one point bloggers enforce is that the beginner of Japanese shouldn’t waltz around and proclaim an arrogant and naive fluency, bloggers owe it to the base of this digital social structure to propel and propagate the very essence which constitutes the entirety of the subculture – “disenfranchizing” one part “jeopardizes” the whole (or at least makes both those power and the whole structure look rather foolish). Many bloggers do not promote the essence of “Japan”, “multiculturalism” nor “second language acquisition” but their own status quo and hegemonic discourse that marginalizes everyone situated at its border.

The blog is an ironic soapbox. Serious Business.

Find out in this article.

I have gotten in trouble for making up words to describe already existing phenomenon before. Anyone who’s seen my Anime Eccentric article which attempted to give a name to the zaniness of some Anime knows that. But I believe Australian Anime fans sometimes are misclassified, and Aussie Anime fans who are not otaku but significantly entrenched into Anime fandom, need a new word, (not a fancy buzz word) to describe what these people actually are.

This is what Oztaku means:

Oztaku (adjective noun): An Anime fan who is Australian, often Anglo Saxon, who is not quite as obsessive as the Japanese otaku, but still knowledgable about their Anime and Manga hobby. This is not a word that has negative connotations like otaku does, and it is meant to describe Anime and Manga fans who are Australian who may not be comfortable with being called otaku because of the negative connotations. It is a mark of respect, and not to be used in a derogatory manner.

An example of an Oztaku: this guy I used to know from school who was an advanced illustrator of manga and a consumer of published manga. He was not an otaku by any means as he was highly social depending on whether he wanted to talk to you or not, and did not use his hobby to rebel against society. His hobby was closer to a social group than a counter culture.

Perhaps blissmo is not an Oztaku to the extent this friend of mine was as she goes on and off anime, and has repeatedly told me to get out more. Therefore she is not an Oztaku, as she does not define a significant portion of her daily life to the production or consumption of Anime and Manga fandom. HOWEVER, she is an Australian Anime blogger who contributes a large amount to the Aniblogosphere through her episodic reviews, therefore, I cannot say whether she is or is not an Oztaku unless she confirms or denies it.

Another example: the man who runs my local Anime figure shop in my neighbourhood IS an Oztaku in many ways, because Anime and Manga fandom contributes to his livelihood. Oztaku as a word particularly describes people who not only consume Anime and Manga, but actively create their own Anime and Manga works of art, or at least make their hobby part of their financial livelihood. In addition the Anime figure shop guy is well knowledgable about the best way to import Anime figures into his shop for the least amount of money, and such knowledge is used to make him a profit.

In a similar manner I am an Oztaku because I was recently contacted by a producer of a radio show for the ABC to talk about Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha, a manga epic biography of a significant religious figure, on a Religion and Politics themed radio show. How did I manage this? Well I actively researched if the show’s cast were interested in manga and whether they had had somebody talk about a Buddhist related thing on the show for a while, and deliberately linked the radio show’s website on my home blog in articles campaigning to have Tezuka’s Buddha featured on the show. Anyone who goes that far to get a decades old manga series mentioned in any way, shape or form on a Religion and Politics themed radio program for the ABC is most likely an Oztaku, because they interact with established media networks to promote Anime and Manga actively.

To sum this up, even though this is a word I just made up on the spot it makes a lot more sense than calling white Anglo Saxon people who don’t see their hobby as counter-culture at all otaku. Even non-Anglo Saxon Aussie Anime and Manga fans that I have known would not entirely be classifiable as otaku. We need a liberating word that empowers us in following our hobby but one that is recognisably Anime and Manga related, while at the same time relating to our geographical location. Hence, “Oz”taku.

This time on The Animated Spree: Frustration, Wuv, and more than moe.

What can be said about what an Anime nerd watches when he is in love? Until a week ago I didn’t realise I was even in love, but then I realised I’d been watching romance Anime without even knowing it. It creeps up on you, love does, and it enters your mind in ways you can’t imagine. For example the way I couldn’t stop thinking about how Yomiko Readman reminds me of how much I fancy a girl who has an uncanny likeness to her in real life. Or how Please Teacher, the only Anime series I’ve been able to complete watching in quite some time, reminds me of how wonderful, yet somehow painful, the road ahead will be if I ever manage to get past getting this girl’s phone number and through to getting married to her if it works out.

Will it work out if I start seeing this otaku girl who has stolen my heart? Maybe by contemplating the type of Anime I continually watch, I can figure out what messages have been implanted into my naive mind about love that are more than my fancy free emotional circuits can handle, and which ones have actual merit.

Lucky Star is good for a number of things, especially metatext visual memes like this one that describes many people’s feelings about the series. But I actually chuckled at some of the jokes, even though many of them went over my head. There are interesting conversations that build the foundations of this show. I have previously said that Konata is one of the most complex characters in Anime. That might not be correct, but she certainly has the most psychological complexes.

Why am I watching this if I’m in love? What is the point? What meaning do I get out of this? Isn’t there a real life Otaku girl I could be admiring instead of Konata? Well, let me explain. In every male Anime fan’s life, “the moment” happens. What that moment is, few fanboys reach. But what it is is this: “the moment” is when you realise you’re watching Anime to cheer on the characters instead of ogling pretty girls like Konata’s dad does. Are the Lucky Star girls worth cheering on? I like the show, but I admit I’ve never finished watching it. The character development is slow and sometimes events are inconsequential. It happens at a glacial pace, but over time the girls I believe are growing into mature women.

Which brings me to another Anime series with a ridiculous premise that actually has something to say about relationships. Please Teacher, when I completed watching it, gave me “the moment”. I came (no not in that way, get your mind out of the gutter) to watch a silly Anime about an alien teacher who happens to be hot, but I ended up rooting for Kei and being happy for the lucky bum. Mizuho Kazami matures over time as well, and when both Kei and Mizuho realise they actually love each other not because of the bizarre circumstances that got them hitched at the beginning of the series, but because they adore and respect each other due to their mutual attraction and willingness to work out their issues.

It’s one of those shows you think is going to be prolefeed from the premise but turns out to be something not quite the same as an Ernest Hemingway commentary on humanity but with a lot of nice, not too angst ridden, comments on the human nature of relationships. Love is universal, this series seems to be saying, and even if you’re from another planet you need a firm grounding in relationships like everybody else. That and the technically disabled guy (who suffers “standstills” or mini-comas) gets the girl, which was really inspirational for an Aspie like me. He gets the girl, because he’s willing to engage with other humans. He has to hide the truth about Mizuho being an alien, but he doesn’t hide the truth from a girl who’s falling for him when he doesn’t love her back. He doesn’t lead her on, and that’s why Mizuho realised Kei’s no cad.

I was going to use more pictures, but really I don’t think I remembered to take any snapshots from Please Teacher. So here’s a better pic from the Good Smile Company site of my Mizuho Kazami figure which sits in my room to represent the Anime that Mizuho comes from. Like the show, this figure is sexy but tasteful, with a sense of refinement but not being too serious that it’s depressing.

Because of a bizarre circumstance of Anime Amnesia I’ve forgotten to take lots of snapshots from series I watch, because this week I didn’t get a lot of time to take snapshots or watch Anime. Future installments of The Animated Spree will be more detailed, but my Anime Amnesia has prevented me from doing too much with this post. Believe me, I will do posts on Haruhi and Genshiken, but that will have to wait until I watch them again.

The Yukan Hiatus of 2008 has really put me behind in matters of Anime reviewing, and sadly because of that I’ve had to postpone a lot of my posts. Which I have now forgotten what details of the shows I want to write about. Oh well, next time, Blissmo, next time!

]]> http://yukan.dasaku.net/anime/the-animated-spree-what-a-man-watches-when-in-love/feed/ 3 http://yukan.dasaku.net/miscellaneous/sydneys-anime-and-manga-hotspots-revealed/ http://yukan.dasaku.net/miscellaneous/sydneys-anime-and-manga-hotspots-revealed/#comments Sun, 28 Sep 2008 09:42:56 +0000 newgeekphilosopher http://yukan.dasaku.net/?p=1605

Like Yomiko Readman here, if you want to get something, you want to get it the easiest way possible. See, there’s a reason why I used her screenshot. Ok, maybe it’s because I think she’s awesome, but I’m trying to make a point here. Yomiko, if you’ve read the Read or Die manga, likes a dip into Shonen Jump just as much as she likes a philosophical treatise to dig into. What I’m trying to say that in Sydney, anime and manga fans have many tastes which are catered to by different shops. You won’t find everything in one spot, no sir.

Just like how Yomiko speeds through every bookshop she can find to satisfy her lust for literature, Aussie Anime fans may do the same, albeit at a slower pace. There’s a number of shops I’ve been to in Sydney which I go to often, and those of you planning on visiting the city should take note (This means you, Baka-Raptor, in 2010 I’ll be saying “G’day” to you).

First of all, start with the Sydney CBD. It’s the most landmark orientated spot you can locate easily on a map. The main anime fan landmark is the Queen Victoria Galleries. This houses two notable shops, Books Kinokuniya and JB Hi-Fi.

Books Kinokuniya isn’t just for anime and manga fans, it has a number of items available for every bibliophile. You can also order in manga volumes here that aren’t in stock, and I like their ordering system because it allowed me to locate a copy of Read or Die Vol. 2 which was in my hands within three weeks. Compared to Amazon.com shipping which takes ages, that’s a pretty good service.

Aside from that they have a better manga section than Borders and a decent anime DVD collection on sale. Because Kinokuniya is in the CBD it’s a favorite for urban lunchers who want to pick up the latest One Piece or need that extra Fruits Basket hardcover. I kid you not, the manga section is a lot huger than the corner shelves which you tend to spot first suggests. You’ll really need the reaching stools to get to the Genshiken volumes. Another thing to note: if you like Junjou Romantica or Antique Bakery, Kinokuniya sells yaoi. Yes, this article passes no judgement on those who want that stuff, because no article of this kind would be complete without giving fangirls an idea of where they can get yaoi. Well, since there’s money to be made from otaku girls who frequent the manga section, yaoi is sold here. Last time I checked Antique Bakery manga is in stock, as well as Gravitation and independent publishers of the stuff.

Thank you Chris Sims for finding me this image.

Take a walk downstairs from the escalator and you’ll find the food court. Go right and you’ll reach JB Hi-Fi. Now here it gets interesting. JB Hi-Fi are famous for cheap DVDs and gadgets, but they have a stunning array of anime DVDs on sale, some of which are cheaper than they are in Kinokuniya. On the other hand, sometimes DVDs in JB are more expensive than some in Kinokuniya, so there you go.

Don’t worry, it’s not a particularly intimidating place, and you won’t get looked at funny if you’re spotted in the anime DVD section. Unless you’re in the spot where the hentai is on the day they’ve freshly restocked… best not to stick in that spot too long. (Note to foreign vistors: JB sells Region 4 DVDs mostly. You will need a multi-region player to watch them if you live overseas)

Anime DVDs in Australia are easy to come by thanks to JB setting up provinces in every town (there’s even one in bloody Leichardt now) and there are a number of titles available. Naruto fans will be happy to know that there’s complete seasons of the show available, but at the same time single box sets of complete series like Azumanga Daioh are available, and many Aussie anime DVDs have both English dubbing and Japanese audio track with subtitles. I just realised this by looking at the back of a DVD I bought last week. And who says Aussies don’t care about good translation options? What a country I live in…

Last shop I want to mention which is in Sydney is Anime at Abbotsford. Most people I know can’t find Abbotsford even on a map, so look it up in the street directory index which will help. This shop sells a number of anime figures and accessories, not only that but also non-anime goods as well. The owner is friendly and he has an online store if you want him to ship things overseas (local business plug much?). I’ve heard in several places that people want Rei Ayanami Revoltech Fraulein figures, but can’t find them in their local area. Fret not, Brad, who runs this place, has at least two of them on hand at any one time. Death Note merch can be ordered in here too, in a similar way to the way Kinokuniya does it but slightly different. Brad’s shop site is here.

Well, that’s my coverage of Sydney anime and manga hotspots, hope to see you Down Under soon…

Its the Clash of the Titans! (about which practically nobody on the blogosphere is interested in anymore).This post could be classified as tl;dr and as such, there’s a quick summary of my point at the end.

Naruto. A shounen that has existed in animated form for at least 6 years, garnering interest due to its unique take on ninjas, colourful and varied world, and odd yet likeable characters.

Bleach. A shounen that has existed in animated form for around 3 and a half years, garnering interest due to its interesting characters, beautiful, vivid colours and its engaing tales of souls and swords eternally retold.

Each of these anime, though not as excellent as what the best of the media form has to offer, are good in their own right, each bringing something unique to the table. For a while they were beloved by many fans, but then something came along and severely decreased those numbers.

Fillers.

As anime fans know, for long running series fillers are usually used to give time to the mangaka to move far ahead enough of the anime so that the show has enough material to continue on. This is all well and good, but the fact of the matter is, the writers of the show may be able to make the manga move, but most of the time they cannot write a good storyline to save their lives. The same can be said for both Naruto and Bleach; everyone remembers at the very least liking Naruto (and if you didn’t, you were’nt far from hearing about how good it was from its fans which seem to to be EVERYWHERE) until around episode 140, where the team behind the show decided to go on a filler arc. Perfectly reasonable.

What’s not reasonable is that it lasted for almost 2 years. 2 years of crappy plots and almost no character developement (I believe its the case that as fillers, they shouldn’t introduce too many new elements into the main storyline). I remember that there were around 3-4 episodes based on The Curry of Life. Seriously. Becoming known as the longest and greatest FILLER HELL ever, the anime lost most of its fans somewhere amid that shitstorm, and only persistent fans of the show (such as me) or FANS in general attempted to weather it in the hopes that we may be rewarded with either better filler or return to the plot. Remember, this took 2 years. What came, however, seemed to be not at all worth it. Naruto Shippuden was eventually, after a gruesome wait, announced and many believed it would be a rebirth of the animated franchise. Instead, we got good animation, a good storyline and horribly, HORRIBLY slow pacing. You know that there’s a problem with a show if the pacing seems to completely cripple the narrative. There’s no tension and a LOT of people standiing around staring each other down; at one point half of a supposed action-packed hour special meant the characters looking at each other for ten minutes. However, it was bearable as, at times, you got gems like this:

The entire episode was the one of the best fights I’ve ever seen from the series.

Alas, within two episodes, pacing was not the only problem; take this quote from Novastorm, one of the few blogs which was still covering the show, as an example of episode 28:

“I cannot believe how stupid this episode is. It’s so stupid it’s not even laughable. Gai’s team spends 20 minutes on figuring out that they are actually getting tired, as well as figure out that in order to defeat their duplicates, they need to become stronger than them. This is the kind of thing that’s plain embarrassing. And what’s more, they actually all get pinned down at the same time, and all manage to ‘get stronger’ (wtf is this?) at the same time and defeat their clones. Wow, way to go from episode 26 to 28. Hopefully Kakashi’s and Naruto’s fight will actually have some substance, and no filler-esque stupidity.”

Apparently, the series, by episode 26, had only covered 28 chapters of the manga; now THAT is slow.

So, a year later, the series has most likely lost a large portion of its original, avid following in exchange for the new wave of anime fans (or FANS, take your pick) who defend it to the last (hell, I may be one of them, not exactly defending the series but hoping for something better).

Now, moving on to the case of Bleach. The first 55 or so episodes of the show were great; engaging narrative, very good developement of characters and consistently good animation and style. And then came the Bounto arc. Now, I wasn’t aware that it was filler at the time, as I was not reading the manga and couldn’t really tell due to my, well, lack of common sense or intuitiveness. It could either be this or my naivety but I enjoyed  it. It wasn’t nearly as good as the Soul Society arc but it wasn’t anywhere near as horrible as Naruto’s FILLER HELL; the studio at least had the good sense to create a more in depth storyline than spicy food. Not many agree with me though. After getting out of this, though, the anime followed the storyline of the manga, and though still not completely up to its former glory, it still had good fights and great moments (and a much higher animation budget).

Up to the end of the Hueco Mundo arc (or rather, abrupt stop in the middle of the arc), it was clear which was the better series by that point. However, it was then announced there would be yet another filler arc for each series (when I found out, I almost let out a melodramatical “NOOOOOOOO!”; instead, I just thought “Crap.”) and at that point I thought “Screw it, I’ll at least read the manga so I’ll have something too look forward to”. And here we get to the main point of this article (took a while, right?).

At this point in the new filler arcs, I have actually changed my mind about which is the better series(at the moment, not in general); despite Naruto’s horrible track record and Bleach’s better one, that which is being done well by one is being handled badly by the other. I am going to compare them in 3 categories: Plot, Animation, and New Characters and Villains (These just seemed to be the most prominent things in both series which could be easily compared to each other).

Plot:

Bleach

At the moment, the plot of the Bleach filler is shallow, boring predictable. Princess Lurichiyo is heiress to the Kasumi Ouji family, but too young to fully take up the mantel yet. As such, a scheming adviser, Kumoi, wishes to take control by kidnapping (and most likely killing her and having a puppet ruler in her place. Fearing for her life, her bodyguards Enryuu and Kenryuu take her to the real world, but they are followed by assassins. Ichigo and the gang protect them, while at the same time Lurichiyo learns that she mustn’t be such a brat and Ichigo empathises with her lack of free will and understands her and really poor jokes occur. There’s a hint about something else happening, but nothing of it has materialised yet. On the Soul Society side of things, the new Captain Amagai Shuusuke has arrived, and all we know is he’s a lightweight drunk and his primary sub-ordinate, Kibune is working with… *gasp* the cruel adviser, Kumoi! (Hey, they had to make up some connection somewhere; it is called the “Brand New Captain Amagai Shuusuke Arc” and they haven’t focused on that aspect much).

The whole “naive, annoying person staying with someone to change their character” is uninteresting (though Kurenai handled it well, as it was more about characters than action, but I digress); throw in a standard kidnapping and an evil, ambitious advisor and it just gets, in my opinion, stupid. There is still some potential with hints about something deeper than just the coup, but unless this comes to fruition soon, I won’t have seen the point of including the assassins at all, as by this point they’re all dead.

Naruto

Years ago, half of the 10 Guardians of the Fire Country’s Feudal Lord attempted a coup and half stood against them. The rebels failed and were killed, but the winning side lost 3 of theirs as well. Now, a group of so-called Holy Warriors have stolen and used the bodies of 4 of the guardians for an as yet unknown plot (it was suggested they wished to kill all of Konoha, but that’s way too simple… Or is it?). A monk-in-training at the Fire Temple, Sora, is holder of a terrible power (possibly known as “The Death Claw”) and as such is (you guessed it) just like Naruto, isolated from the rest of the monks. So, naturally, Naruto befirends him. Sora then finds out that Azuma is the one who killed his father Kasuma, who was one of the rebels, and then joins the Warriors. Not only that, but Danzou’s relation to this whole affair is brought to the foreground.

Though Sora’s character isn’t that unique , its more likeable than Lurichiyo’s. Besides the usual “be friends, overcome adversity, try and forget hatred” spiel thats within Naruto and Sora’s reltionship, the other side of the plot with the Guardian bodies, the Warriors and Danzou’s Plans. There’s still a lot of room for plot developement here, and for the first time in ages I actually want to know what happens next in the show.

Animation:

Long running series always succumb to dips in animation here and there, be it character designs or just during any sort of action scene (such as the use of the infamous speedline). Its a given, but you just hope that it won’t harm the series too much. However…

Bleach

Bleach normally has consistently average to good animation, but lately its just been getting ridiculous. Maybe its because its filler and they really, want to save their money for when the go back to the main story in a few months (hopefully) time, but at the very least they should keep character designs consistent.

They’re almost in disbelief that they look so bad. Its hard to not notice these things. Here are two shots of Ichigo:

In one he looks, quite frankly, badass. And in the other he looks like a giraffe. (Well, I think so anyway) Also, his sword looks like a piece of toilet paper.

Thankfully, the infrequent dips are mostly limited to character design; the fights are okay and even take a step up now and again.

Overall, its not too bad but when it does happen, you REALLY notice it.

Naruto

Naruto has been surprisingly consistent with its character design throughout the filler. Maybe they’re just getting a bigger budget than the Bleach animation team (it is a larger franchise), but I’ve noticed that the Naruto designs and animations, though not always complex and detailed, are at the very least consistently average to good. I couldn’t find any particular standout-moments where it made me want to shut  my eyes and wish it would go away.

The trade-off seems to be with the action scenes; while not exactly bad they do lack detail. But then again they’re action scenes, and as long as there aren’t speedline backgrounds everywhere, I’m happy.

Those aren’t speedlines! Its just the wind >_>.

New Characters and Villains:

Bleach

The Princess and her Bodyguards

Lurichiyo, Enryuu and Kenryuu

Lurichiyo is, at the start of the arc, your basic Ojou-sama character; bratty, whiny and selfish. But now… she’s a bit better. A tiny, tiny bit better.She’s less selfish and inconsiderate but either we haven’t gotten deep enough into the storyline for her to complete change her ways, or she’s just not going to change much at all. Enryuu and Kenryuu are two boring characters and basically a joke. Enryuu doesn’t speak (strong, silent type) and Kenryuu’s a complete pansy. Think I’m exaggerating?

His flowers stop the opponents blade from working.

Unless the opponent can blow them away.

In which case he’s useless.

Which is most cases.

Kumoi and The Assassins Creed

The adviser, Kumoi is ridiculously 2D; it really seems like all he wants to do is take over the Kasumi Ouji family. Hopefully, there’s a hidden meaning to his motives, or he’s going to end up dying just like the assassins. Who are also 2D, by the way. Their leader, Nukui, says they’re doing all this as they have always been helping the family in the shadows outside of Soul Society’s rules and a young girl isn’t fit to run the family. Though true, I thought it might’ve been something deeper and more personal, but no. Its a shame, I quite liked his character until that point. The rest of the assassins were dead as quickly as they were introduced; most of them used too much power and they were absorbed by their weapons.

Amagai Shuusuke and Kibune

This side of the story is so much more interesting and its a shame they decided to intertwine it with the other side. Make up a completely new, better villain and they woldn’t even have had to take the others out of Hueco Mundo. There’s still some poor jokes (the entire squad chase a cat) but some of them at least serve some purpose (this improved their teamwork). Shuusuke doesn’t seem all that deep as a character, but Kibune’s double-agency (is that a word?) has been revealed so maybe its more intricate than it appears.

Overall, my greatest problem with the filler is that there are some things unkown, but what’s been presented is not surprising, nor interesting. We could only be at the beginning of a Bounto-length filler arc, so it still has a chance.

Naruto

Sora

Again, not the most unique character, especially due to similarities with Naruto, but his father’s death makes for a good vengeance story. He’ll most likely change back to fight off the Warriors with Naruto, however, so as long as they don’t lay on the friendhip thing too thick, he’ll still saty a good character. He’s also a bit of an asshole which made for genuinely funny confrontations with the other ninjas, especially Tsunade ^_^.

The Warriors

The Warriors, who I thought were going to be very unimaginative villains, turn out to be quite interesting. Their abilities were surprisingly varied; for example, a woman had the ability to use all five chakra elements by sucking it out of her enemies. Their Leader’s less PURE EVIL than Komui, and he seems to believe that killing the Hokage is really the best idea; it was the same for the past rebel Guardians. They at least have a good reason for doing what they believe, even if it is completely crazy what they’re planning to do.

There’s also the use of Danzou which seems to be developing (main plot and story developement in filler!?). It did feel like he was just a background protagonist and I’m glad they’re doing something with him here.

Thoughts Summary:

Anyway, what I’m trying to get across is that at the moment, Naruto has managed to do something I would have never thought would happen: be better than Bleach. This in no way concerns the entirety of the two series (Bleach would definitely come out on top if that was the case), but Bleach’s plot seems to just be wandering around as drunk as Shuusuke after some sake. Unless they truly mesh together, it’ll continue to be uninteresting.  There’s still a chance though, if whats hidden in the shadow is something epic (I use the term very loosely here), that the filler could become both complicated and surprising. (Now I think about it, we still don’t have an explanation as to why this is happening in the middle of the Hueco Mundo arc…)

Naruto, on the other hand, continues to engage me by being, well, good (I never thought those two words would end up in the same sentence again). It seems like it may be coming to an end in the next few weeks, as all the events seem to be coming to a head. Though I do know where the manga goes from here, the anime is more interesting to me right now. I’m in no rush, and neither is the show; its taking its time to develop things but not at a ridicuolously slow pace. It shows that good filler can be done in a long shounen series and I, for one, will be anticipating the next episode.

*Part of the screenshots were grabbed from Omni over at Random Curiosity.