Quite some time ago I found mention of an independent documentary that analyzed the concept of doors. I’ve done plenty of searching to find that movie, with no sucess, but I think the concept is interesting. Doors are an important part of our life, no? They give us plenty of non-verbal cues that dictate our actions. An open door signals “come in”; the closed door connotates “stay away”. If we lived in a world without doors then our privacy would be destroyed and everything would be on display for the world to see.

To stretch this to somehow relate to anime, I consider the internet a world without doors. The concept of “open” and “close” doesn’t apply here. Privacy doesn’t exist. There is no cue on the Internet similar to a closed door ergo the doors are always open.

So be careful what you let those open doors lead too.

Aim and Fire

Nichijou and A Channel are both proclaimed slice of life series airing in the Spring 2011 anime season. While both are slice of life, the main difference between the two is the approach to humor. While A Channel draws humor from daily situations and the normal interactions between the main cast of girls, Nichijou presents a seemingly normal life and then interjects it with zaniness.

I’ve chosen these two anime (and their manga counterparts) to illustrate the genre of slice of life as a whole. I read SoL manga fairly often and I’ve noticed two distinct types. There is the ‘Regular format’, referring to the panel layout that most manga, of any genre, follow, and the four panel (4koma) manga that has become so popular these days.  Nichijou follows the regular format while A Channel uses the 4koma style.

A Channel is a good representative of the 4koma sub type (I would have used K-On in this comparison, realizing its popularity, but I am not very familiar with the anime or manga). It follows four girls, as most 4koma (and SoL in general) do: Tooru, Run, Nagi, and Yuuko. Both interact and play out their lives in strips containing four panels. At the end of every strip is a joke generally centering around the eccentricities of one of the characters.

I draw attention to A Channel because it is a great representative of how humor generally works in 4koma. Since there are only four panels to tell a story the characters must clique and be simplified to allow for easy interaction. The standard 4koma stereotypes are here: Tooru, the emotionless one, Run, the wacky girl, Nagi, the smart one, and Yuuko, the shy one. Such personalities are repeated in many 4koma with little variation: Lucky Star, K-On, and Azumanga Daioh (although you could argue that AD started many of these cliches) all contain elements of these tropes.

The simplified personalities allow the jokes to roll in more quickly. By establishing the backbone of every character’s personality, the author of A channel can allow their interactions to build on this already established character instead of wasting precious pages making them from scratch. In the 4koma manga, space and planning is key. The rule is not to waste a panel, to allow it to contribute to the joke, and to allow each strip to help fill out the characters. It’s a sub genre of efficiency, much different from the laid back atmosphere of Nichijou.

Nichijou follows, technically, a wide array of characters but the main trio consists of Mio, Yuuko, and Mai (pictured above). The series follow them as they play out the very odd episodes that compose their lives. In terms of humor, planning, and excecution Nichijou is very similar to other SoL manga that follow the ‘Regular’ format, such as Yotsuba&!, Strawberry Marshmallow, and Aria.

Since there is no four panels that must tell the story, the plot of Nichijou’s various episodes are allowed to wander and the characters, while starting with tropes, evolve and interact very differently than those of A Channel. The jokes are longer and more drawn out, being allowed to run through one chapter instead of one strip, and the characters seem to contain more quirks, since they can grow throughout the chapter.

Nichijou still has its tropes but the characters and humor are more inventive compared to the ‘classic’ humor used in A Channel. While I’m not one to critisize the 4koma sub genre, I feel that Nichijou is a better comedy for this looseness. While the meandering can seem off putting it allows more material to be put into the sketch. I suppose that Nichijou can be compared to Saturday Night Live, which is composed of sketches, and A Channel can be compared to America’s Funniest Home Videos, which is composed of clips. Is one inherently funnier than the other? That all depends on the person watching it.

May the flames of moe burn in your favor!

 There is an entire world of anime most fans are unaware of: the realms of 2chan and Nico Nico Douga. NND deserves it’s own post but it’s basically an anime centered version of Youtube. 2chan is the japanese forum that inspired the infamous 4chan (and if you don’t know what that is then you aren’t missing out on anything). Most of the memes, such as the carmelldansen, danjo, etc, originated from NND or 2chan. And every year 2chan hosts a massive tournament: Saimoe. Saimoe is an elimination tournament that pits hundreds of characters against each other. There are very few rules to qualify a contestant: basically they must be a girl from an OVA, ONA, or anime that was produced from the end of last year’s Saimoe to the beginning of the current year’s tournament. These contestants are put into progressively smaller blocks where characters win by getting the most votes. It’s fairly simple.

What isn’t simple is keeping up with all the voting. Saimoe spans from the beginning of August to the middle of October so faithfully recording each match up is a huge pain. I usually only pay attention to the finals and the winner (random fact: Taiga [Toradora] won last year’s Saimoe) but this year I’ve decided to attempt to follow the entire tournament. Since Saimoe is almost an entirely brand new concept to a host of anime fans I’ll start by explaining the elimination process.

When all of the contestants are collected, through a process I’m not too clear on, someone makes a chart. This chart contains all of the challengers of that year’s Saimoe. Since there are so many people the characters are divided into blocks: this year there are eight blocks, A-H. These blocks are still too big to use for voting so they are then divided into samller groups of four characters. There is then a massive voting campaign in that group. Two groups from different blocks (i.e block A and B) are run at the same time. When all of the smaller groups have been finished the winners advance directly to the first round of the tournaments. Every character that placed between 13th and 39th go to the second preliminaries. The whole process is again repeated for the second pre-lims with the winners advancing to the main tournament. At the end of this about 288 characters will be in the main tournament.

Okay, the pre-lims are messy and annoying to keep up with. Thankfully it gets much easier to keep track of from here. In the main tournament characters are placed randomly in eight different groups consisting of thirty-six people. The groups then are thrown into a series of three rounds that knock out one character. The group winners are then pitted against each other in mano y mano matches. This continues and eventually the winner is crowned Saimoe Queen (not really but I think it fits). Hooray!

Looking at this you may be thinking ‘this is awfully serious for an anime tournament why go through all that trouble?’ And that, my friends, is the beauty of Saimoe. The tournament is entirely made and run by pure fan devotion. Saimoe, like scanulations, is a labor of love. It amazes me that a few otaku (actual shut-ins, probably) can put together this amazing tournament. There’s no justification for Saimoe’s existence other than ‘I wanted to do it’ so people are free to scoff and critisize it. And the best thing about the people that participate in Saimoe is that they don’t care what other people think. Saimoe is and always will be made for nerds. It seems like an exclusive group but it’s not all that hard to join.

For those interested in participating in the glorious nerdom that is Saimoe here are some helpful links. First, a guide that explains the rules in a simple, non-paragraph format. Second, if you are actually interested in voting in the tournament then here is a guide to voting. For the codes to today’s matches (explained in the voting guide) go here. Keep in mind the site where you actually vote (2chan) is entirely in Japanese but no one cares if you write in English. Also, here is the english guide to Saimoe. Use it, learn it, love it. And if you’re not interested in voting but would still like to check out the tournament, Moetron provides up to date information in english on the tournament.

Characters of Saimoe 2010 courtesy of Saimoe.org

Click to view the full chart. Now, if anyone’s curious as to my picks for blocks A and B (posts will updated once a new block is set up) here they are:

Group A: *Miki Noda (G.A), *Yuno (Hidamari Sketch), *Nagi (Hayate the Combat Butler)

Group B: ~Yin (Darker than Black), ~Togame (Katanagatari)

(It’s amazing that all my characters for A passed and the ones for B failed. I know Togame has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the tournament but I still want to see her in the finals)

* means that they’ve passed their group match

~ Means they’ve lost group match and are going into second prelims

So go, my fellow anime fans! Revel in the nerdiness that is Saimoe! And you might just enjoy it.

This does ont look suspicious to you at all? Seriously!?

Shiki is by far the most entertaining series of the season. The horror series takes place in, as all good horror does, the remote countryside. The remote village of Sotoba has a population of only a few thousand people, including one fashionable Megumi. Megumi isn’t the main character past episode one but she does catalyze the whole series of events. So, to keep myself from spoiling the series, I’ll be describing the plot of episode one only. As far as main characters go Megumi isn’t very likeable but she dies at the end of this episode so we only have to pay attention to her for twenty minutes. 

The episode opens with Megumi walking down a countryside ride in her oh so fashionable pink clothes. She’s stopped by a few villagers that tell her the latest town gossip: some statues in the town are being destroyed. Megumi could care less about this and less about the village entirely. Megumi hates village life and her only dream in life is to go to college in a big city and be scouted for modeling. There are, however, two things she does like about her current home: the grand European castle that sits atop a hill, called Kanemasa by the villagers, and fellow high school student Yuuki. Megumi is obsessed with both and she is constantly peering into Yuuki’s house from the forest behind his home. Yuuki could show less interest in Megumi and has not even looked at her despite her tries to talk to him. Both Yuuki and Megumi have one thing in common: they both desperately want to leave Sotoba. 

The episode veers away from Megumi and Yuuki to a series of strange deaths in a remote area by the village, Yamairi. Three people have died: the first was a middle-aged woman they determined died from natural causes. The other two are the woman’s husband and neighbor who have grotesque bodies but no wounds to speak of. The young local priest Seishin Muroi disovers the bodies and contacts the local police. The police determine that two of the dead were the victim of wild dogs and that the woman had died three days after her husband’s death. As the husband and wife were found in the same room this is very perplexing. 

The next scene is again of Megumi trying to mail a love letter to Yuuki. Her friend, one-sided on the friend’s part, catches her in the act. Megumi again laments about how much she hates this village and runs away. She runs straight into Yuuki, who is standing at the bus stop, staring into space.  She tries and fails to catch his attention until she mentions how much she wants to leave the village as well. The scene ends as Yuuki looks at her and Megumi deliriously smiling. 

Shoot ahead to that night. It is twelve in the morning when a woman who lives on the edge of Sotoba with her mother is awakened by bright headlights and a blaring horn. Annoyed, she stumbles outside to see a moving van with two cars behind it. Probably the cutest villain to ever exist steps out of one of the cars and apologizes to the woman for waking her. Her asks her where Sotoba is located and the woman replies that he’s found himself right in the middle of it. She finds out that the man and his employers (he’s a janitor of some sort judging by his uniform) are moving into Kanemasa. Dun dun dun. 

The next morning Megumi is walking by Kanemasa and day-dreaming about having a life there. Her friend comes up to her and says that she head a few old women gossiping about the house. Apparently a family of three lives there: mother, father, and a daughter. She also calls the house strange which throws Megumi into a rage. Angrily she stalks up the hill leading to the house. Nearing the house she feels someone’s eyes watching her and decides to impress them by strutting like a model. She fails at this and sprains her ankle but it appears to have worked as the door opens (which is the scene in the picture I used above). This is the last we see of the cheerful Megumi. 

When she does not return home that night the village organizes a search party for her. They find her, knocked out, weakened, and a sickly grey, but still alive. The doctor, Toshio Ozaki, diagnoses her with anemia. In what is the best part of the episode Megumi has a psychedelic nightmare that showcases warped images of what happened to her. It’s impossible to understand the picture slide show but it is fun to watch. Megumi dies the next morning which sparks a chain reaction throughout the village. 

This episode covers about the first chapter of the manga. I hope the anime moves faster because the manga has quite a few chapters. Besides Megumi, the main characters are Yuuki, the young priest, and the doctor. None of them are very sympathetic: Yuuki comes off as a self-absorbed jerk and the other two aren’t explored enough to sympathize with. Besides these four main characters the rest of the cast is the entire village who are thankfully unnamed unlike in the manga. There isn’t a lot of character development in this episode in the first place: the Kanemasa’s aren’t introduced and neither of the characters besides Megumi are explored in any depth. This is about the case with every horror series: can we really sympathize with Rena from When They Cry? Character development isn’t important here, the plot is. 

Having read some of the manga I thought I would know about everything that the anime can throw at me. This was mostly true except that the anime presents a few other things that I never caught in the manga. The main mystery is the focus on dogs. There is a scene of them in Megumi’s search party and they were believed to be involved in the three villagers deaths. Not only that but the janitor we see working for the people in Kanemasa has hair that is drawn to look like dog ears. 

Moving away from plot the art is fantastic. It has elongated bodies similar to that of xxxHOLiC but more appealing. Colors are bright and bold with thick lines. Eyes are drawn with an interesting style: a ring of a bright color circles the pupils, making the eyes look really creepy. The backgrounds are also nice; artists seem to put a lot of work into series that take place in the country side. As for music, well, the background stuff used in the episode itself was good but Shiki has some of the worst openers and closers I’ve ever heard for a horror show. The imagery for both tracks is great but the songs are extremely off. Maybe it’s just me but the guy singing in the opening seemed more suited for a shounen and the ending song was something out of a dramatic romance. I was really disappointed since I was hoping the wonderful singers of Umineko’s opening would return. 

Basically, this show is a great suspense and is really like nothing else offered. Watch it if you like scenes like this: 

Female Cast of Amagami SS

 Amagami SS originally started as a PS2 dating sim game and was adapted into an anime. It follows Junichi Tachibana who is looking for love after having been stood up on his first date two years ago. Each girl gets an arc, a number of episodes focusing on them. Each arc will reset to the beginning after the previous is completed. This gives the feel of a real dating sim game. It’s a venue that allows for smoother viewing then series like Kanon or Air, which threw each arc after the other without much transition. The girls above are the datable cast of the anime. From left to right: Nakata Sae, Nanasaki Ai, Ayatsuji Tsukasa, Sakurai Rihoko, Tanamachi Kaoru, and Morishima Haruka. Quite a sizeable cast that I hope gets enough attention equally.

The first episode is both an introductory episode and the beginning of Morishima’s arc. However, the primary function is introducing the characters which are basically thrown at us. The first we see is Tachibana Miya, Junta’s little sister. Unlike most little sister’s in anime Miya is neither too sweet nor annoying. She’s just. . . there. It’s unclear what role Miya will play in the anime but she does seem concerned for her brother as implied later in the episode. Miya runs upstairs to convince her brother to get dressed. We find Junta in . . . a closet, which he has decorated to look like the night sky. It’s apparently his relaxation place where he can think about the day’s events without being interrupted. Most of the time, anyway.

While Junta and Miya are walking to school we get a quick snapshot of all the candidates walking and talking with their friends. Junta’s friend Umehara Masayoshi is also introduced: the classic hormone crazed teenager. The last candidate introduced is Morishima, a very popular girl at school who is known for rejecting every guy who confesses to her. As this is her arc, she is the character that Junta already has a slight crush on. She also is the one who gets the most attention: we get a few scenes of the other candidates but there is little to none explanation of their relationship with Junta. However, this is Morishima’s arc so all can be forgiven.

Junta eventually bumps into Morishima at the library and she forces him to carry some of her books. He also meets Morshima’s best friend, who is unnamed at this point. Morishima thanks Junta for helping her and walks off with her friend. embarrassed by her compliment Junta realizes he wants to give himself a second chance at the love he never had two years and plans to ask Morishima out. This actually happens within the same episode when Junta meets said girl by the fountain. They talk for a bit until, completely out of the blue, he confesses to her. Morishima is happy that he did this but rejects him, saying he’s not her type. Junta seems to go into a daze as she walks away. When he arrives home, in an actually emotional scene, he crawls into his closet planetarium and closes the door.

As you can see, the plot moves fairly quickly. Junta has already confessed and been rejected by Morishima. This by no means implies that her arc is over but it is an interesting direction for her arc. Instead of a heartfelt confession at the end of the arc most of it will be focused on getting Morishima to fall in love with Junta. It’s a different approach that I haven’t seen any other anime take. It’s a welcome relief to what I thought would be a mediocre dating series.

Morishima

The characters are fairly unique. I have a hard time remembering names regardless of a character’s appearance but no character looks alike. Each character has a different but believable hair style and color. In fact, all of the characters have realistic hair which is a welcome surprise compared to other harem series. Not only that but nearly every character has wavy or curly hair which is an extreme minority in anime (and, as someone with natural curls, it makes me happy). The designs are both cute and sexy: they actually look the age they’re supposed to. There is no cliché busty or flat chested character each girl has their own distinct body type. It may seem perverted to pay attention to this but in most harems characters are defined by their bust sizes. It’s nice to see a show that gives each girl a realistic look.

The animation is also pretty. Each character moves fluidly and it complements the designs nicely. Some of the scenes, such as the one of Morishima and Junta by a fountain, are beautiful. The backgrounds aren’t anything really extraordinary but they do look nice for school backgrounds. The voices of each girl are also pleasing to the ear. None of the girls sound too sweet or annoying. The only character whose voice may cause some cringing is Sae. However, there was only a small clip of her voice so it may sound different when her arc rolls around.

Despite the wonderful animation and characters there was a scene that annoyed me. At one point Morishima states that she’d like to get closer to Junta’s sister and Junta imagines a creepy scene of Morishima and Miya taking a bath together. It was a really unnecessary addition that felt both creepy and out-of-place. Disregarding this scene, though, there is little, and I mean very little, fanservice in this series. There are no close ups of bouncing boobs or panty shots. The closest we get to any fanservice what so ever is a scene of Morishima when she falls on the ground. I hope the anime keeps up this trend as I get really tired of endless fanservice.

All in all this was an enjoyable anime that, while it didn’t break any boundaries, was very fun to watch. I’ll be sticking with this one.

Sumer 2010

At one point I was hesitant of doing a season preview on here: after all, everyone does it and wouldn’t I look somewhat stupid doing it by myself? And then I took a look back at my old blog, where I did a Summer 2009 preview, and you know what I thought? Who cares! I didn’t care back then, I shouldn’t now. Here is your preview. The format for this basically takes after every other preview ever. I’m not that creative. I will be linking to the original source and whatever trailers are available for the series. All the information here was taken from Anime News Network, My Anime List, and Wikipedia. Let’s roll. 

 Shiki

 July 

Trailer 

Summary 

“Sotoba is a small, quiet village where life has always been peaceful. Natsuno Yuuki, who moved from the city, hates it. However, recently a strange rash of mysterious deaths has begun to torment the village, and an epidemic is suspected. As various investigations continue, the truth behind the deaths becomes clear. The town is being attacked by vampires.” (Anime News Network) 

This sounds like a horror series worth getting into. When They Cry got repetitive, Umineko just never interested me, and Ookami Kakushi felt more like a comedy than a horror. This series could actually succeed as a horror. The art style is perfect for this type of anime: the gangly designs automatically make everything more creepy. Not only does the trailer look great but the source material is strong as well. Depending on how they pace the series it could turn out really great. 

Kuroshitsuji II

July 

Trailer 

Summary 

“A sequel to the first Kuroshitsuji anime, about a 12-year-old English noble and his impeccably skilled butler, who happens to be a demon. The new series will introduce butler Claude Faustus and master Alois Trancy as the principal characters.” (Taken from the guide) 

I didn’t like the first season of Black Butler. I never even bothered to finish the first season. Why am I watching the second season? Because it starts with a brand new slate! You only need to understand the basic concept of Black Butler to watch the second season as, due to the first season’s ending, this anime will not tie in heavily with the previous season.  Also, there is no source material to screw up! The creator’s can make the plot go whatever way they want and I won’t drop the anime due to comparisons with the manga. This is a double-edged sword: no source means no predestined structure but that means that the anime could easily slip into the lame and confusing category. And while the new butler isn’t as hot as Sebastian was at least the new master looks interesting. 

Nurarihyon no Mago

July 

Trailer 

Summary 

“Rikuo Nura, is 3 parts human and a quarter Demon, lives in a house of spirits with his grandfather, The current clan head of the Nura youkai. Rikou is set to be the next clan head, despite the fact he dislikes his demon side. He soon come to terms with his demon blood and decides to take his position as young master of the Nura house. However there are those who will certainly not allow it to be easy.” (Anime News Network) 

Look at that stylish picture! Seriously, the anime looks beautiful, with sleek character designs and coloring. The animation seems smooth in the trailer as well. Apparently this is a Shounen Jump series which probably means a lot of fighting. Depending on how the fights are choreographed it could be entertaining. I’m not a fan of long running, episodic shounens though, so hopefully this series will have an overreaching plot and will wrap up quickly. Or it could turn out to be a spunky slice-of-life series. I hope this is the case but I’m not holding my breath. 

Amagami SS

July 

Trailer 

Summary 

“ A second-year high school boy finds himself uneasy during Christmas time due to an experience in the past. However, this year at Christmas, he gets his last chance to ask out a graduating female senior named Haruka Morishima — or one of several other classmates. The story of the anime will be arranged in an omnibus format, with each heroine getting her own version of the story animated. Each heroine will sing her own version of the ending theme song.” (Anime News Network) 

At first this didn’t interest me at all. Then I noticed two things. The first is that one of the girls has really awesome hair. I mean, how often is it that you see curly-haired girls in anime? The second reason I became interested in this is that the summary reminds me of Kanon. I’m fairly sure it won’t be as mystical and emotionally draining as Kanon but the style the anime is told through reminds me of it. Hopefully it will have a connecting plot line like Kanon did as well. Basically, as long as this isn’t a super fanservice series then I’m willing to give this genre a try. 

Mitsudomoe

July 

Trailer 

Summary 

“The somewhat precocious and sadistic girl ‘Mitsuba’, the somewhat lecherous muscle girl ‘Futaba’, and the somewhat mysterious girl ‘Hitoha’. Better known as the (mischievous) “Marui Sisters”, this is the story of how these three triplets go about their days in Class 6-3 with their cute yet wild antics.” (Manga Updates) 

This is the requisite slice of life series. When it comes up, I have to at least give the first episode a try. The trailer makes me wary of the anime’s ‘humor’: I never found a bunch of girls beating up on a hapless guy very funny. If the series can steer clear of this gag then I might enjoy it. At least the cast looks colorful. I’m also fond of the art style; it really brings out the moe factor without being over bearing. 

And there you have it. This is all I’ll be looking at for the summer season. At least two of these will eventually fall off my radar and will be forgotten but they all look interesting on the surface. The summer banner should be up soon.

By uiti

 There are many popular and expansive imageboards on the internet that feature various works from Japanese artists.  Some of the most popular include DeviantART, PIXIV, e shuu-shuu, and Danbooru. When I use the word “imageboard”, I mean a website that is primarily dedicated to images, even if it can be used as a social networking site, most people simply use it for artwork. So, the imageboard that shall not be named, 4chan, won’t be referenced here. While I love these imageboards to death, and use them very frequently, all of them have annoying setbacks that hinder image searching.

I’ll focus on DevianART first. Even if you don’t have an account there, you’ve probably visited DeviantART once or twice. This website is the primary English-speaking (sometimes non-English speaking) imageboard. Everything from poetry to flash games can be uploaded and found here. Not only that, DeviantART functions as a social networking site, allowing users to friend each other and join clubs. But sometimes those regulations can get annoying. First, the icon size is only 50×50, which seems too small for such an immense site. Second, DeviantART has strict, but vague, restrictions regarding mature works, and what constitutes mature is left up to interpretation, personal choice, and the honor system. The description when uploading something that describes what is generally mature is barely a few words long and only states things along the lines of “nudity, extreme violence, and sex”.  But what crosses the line into mature territory? Obviously it’s evident in works on the extreme end of the spectrum, but what exactly constitutes bring mature? Pictures containing panty shots, side boobs, or a character with an arm cut off? It’s a murky business, and one that could easily get your picture reported if you fail to mark an image as mature that someone considers mature. Even pictures rated mature are not guaranteed safety from being deleted, as that ambiguous “I saw something that offended me on DevianART” excuse crosses all boundaries. Not only that, but there is not an appeal system regarding the deletion of pictures. The picture will simply be gone one day, and you can’t do anything about it except upload the picture again and hope it isn’t deleted again. There is also the presence of bad artwork that seems to be in every corner of the site, but I won’t get into that.

This leads me into my second imageboard, PIXIV. I consider PIXIV the Japanese equivalent to DeviantART, although the former only accepts flash and image creations, not poetry, games, stamps, etc. PIXIV also functions as a social networking site, although being as I can’t speak Japanese I haven’t had a chance to explore this function. This brings me to the most prominent problem with PIXIV: the language barrier. Catering to a large Japanese audience, the site doesn’t provide English translations for anything unless a specific user purposefully uploads something into English, which doesn’t happen very often. Also a problem is the search function, which yields many results for broad categories such as “Vocaloid” or “Hetalia” but gives only a few images to specific series entries such as “Umineko”. I don’t think it’s a problem that I can’t type in Japanese, pictures appear with their Japanese tags regardless if I type in English, rather that the users who upload images just don’t submit many illustrations involving lesser known series. Not much I can do about that. But one of PIXIV’s most redeeming qualities is the lack of perverted, or all out pornographic, pictures.

Danbooru is the English translation of PIXIV. They do not accept works from users on the site and only allow uploads of images from PIXIV or various other Japanese imageboards. Because it’s an English website the board is easy to navigate and get involved in. The tagging function is easy and usually yields many results. But I have two major problems with Danbooru, and the number one issue is the overabundance of porn. The site mentions that in the rules for uploading images that they do not except grotesque images, usually involving characters with genitalia more than two heads large. This seems a pretty extreme rule, and since there aren’t many images that are like that, things like outright porn comics can slip through the cracks. And I’m not just talking one or two, I mean comics that can fill up three whole pages of search results. My biggest beef with this is not that it’s porn, though, it’s that there’s no such thing as a mature rating, like DeviantART has. I realize that sometimes the content of mature images can be vague, but is it really so vague to simply list a rule that says ”all images showing genitalia on a person must be marked mature”? I’m tired of getting nonstop images of porn when I look for images. The second problem I have with Danbooru is that they ask for a subscription to their website to be able to search more than two tags. I’m not paying money just to search more tags, and there’s not enough content I’d be happy with if I got the subscription, but for sites like e shuu-shuu, which allow people to search the image boards using unlimited tags for free, it’s kind of annoying.

The last main imageboard I’ll talk about is the E Shuu-shuu (or sometimes just listed as Shuu-shuu) image board. Have you ever seen an anime picture and were curious about its origins? Look no further than this site, which lists thousands of images like that and usually include the source, character, and artist who made them. The site, once it’s been used a few times, is pretty simple. Clicking on the search function yields a host of boxes, and the most commonly used ones are character, source, artist, and description. Description is where you enter tags that fit the image you want to find. A handy-dandy drop down box appears whenever you type a tag in that shows the tags that are available on e shuu-shuu. The drop down box usually explains slang terms in tags, but you might want to catch up on your definition of nekomimi before using the site. Source is used for series searches, and the fields for artist and character are pretty self-explanatory. And while I use this imageboard a lot, there are some setbacks. The first is in the rules, which state that no picture can be uploaded without a female character in it somewhere. Sorry, if you wanted to search for anime guys you’ve got to find a different image board. The second problem is the over abundance of Touhou images, which clog up the site and are guaranteed to add three more pages to the search results simply because half of the images uploaded have a wide range of tags accompanying them. Get used to Touhou if you want to use e shuu-shuu. but, e shuu-shuu has very strict rules regarding perverted content, and all of the images are pretty much safe for work.

I know these aren’t all the image databases that exist, but these are the ones I use most often. As you can see, each has their redeeming qualities but with that comes some problems. Which is why I find the best way to go is to link directly to the artist’s website, but that’s just me.

By 碧茶

 Now I won’t have to scrounge the Internet for photos for my posts! For those who aren’t in the know, PIXIV is the Japanese equivalent of DeviantART, except almost entirely composed of anime pictures.I suggest registering for this website instead of its English counterpart, DANBOORU, which just seems to be people taking the most perverted pictures from PIXIV and uploading them there. PIXIV is suprisingly sparse in pererted images, which is great when I just want to look for cute Vocaloid pictures (like the one above).

If you are interested in getting a PIXIV account and can’t read Japanese, then there are some great tutorials available. The one I found most helpful was Vocaloidism’s turorial, which labels the images that you see. It’s much easer to understand for me than just text. However, there are a myriad other tutorials available. Just google ‘how to register for PIXIV’ and you’ll find them.

Also, since no tutorial mentions this, your verification e-mail that PIXIV sends you to complete registration should arrive right away. If it doesn’t, that means PIXIV doesn’t register your e-mail as an actual e-mail address. This has happened to me. For example, if your e-mail after the @ sign ends in ‘sbcglobal.net’, then PIXIV won’t register it. If you don’t recieve the verification e-mail, then you need to sign up for an account with something that ends in ‘yahoo.com’ or ‘gmail.com.’ These are the most common, so they’re pretty much guarenteed to work.

Clue: Black Butler Style

I normally don’t do manga chapter posts, but I figured what the heck. I do read manga online, at least Black Butler. For anyone who cares, Yen Press is releasing volume one in January, which I will push over old ladies to get my hands on.

So, as anyone who keeps up with this series knows, nothing has really been happening after the Circus Arc ended. Well, there was that previous chapter with all of Arthur’s foreshadowing to future plot events, but to really advance the plot. The previous few chapters were all fluff chapters, and while I do appreciate the break in seriousness, I really wanted to move on to the next arc. I was fooled, by the very misleading splash page, that this would be another fluff chapter as well. Thankfully it wasn’t.

Cast:

A bunch of arc-centric characters show up. This new cast (and there are a ton) are Georg von Siemens, that strange femine German guy we saw in chapter 37 (I think), Carl Woodley, Patrick Phelps, Grimsby Keane, Irene Diaz, and Arthur (whose introduction was technically last chapter). The regular cast, Ciel and his crew, are there, as well as, surprisingly, Lau and Ranmao. God, that’s a ton of people. Thankfully, it looks like most of them will be gone before the chapters over, anyway.

Plot:

Ciel decides to have a party, for reasons not disclosed (I assume they will be told later, if he had any). He invites lots of famous people in the business world, chats with them a bit, and goes to bed early. The chapter actually focuses more on Arthur (who is better than Ciel, anyway), and his thoughts of the various socialites littering the party. A fight breaks out between Georg and Grimsby over Irene, and Grimsby, being an idiot, decides to make it violent by hurling a wine bottle at Georg. Sebestian saves the day with a flamboyant cover-up and Georg passes out in a deunken stupor. He is carried to one of the rooms, and some hours later many of the guests rush to his room as the sound of someone’s screams echoes throught the halls. Sebestian kicks open the door CSI style, and the guests see Georg lying in a chair…with a big stab wound in his chest. Apparently this is a prelude to a big murder mystery, as the foreshadowing at the end of the chapter tells us.

Did I menton the entire time there is a storm raging outside?

Thoughts:

Firstly, I hate the sudden influx of new characters. I had a hard enough time keeping track of the regular cast, now there’s all these new people? It’s like Umineko all over again. By the end of this arc, I’ll be identifying each character by their screams. In fact, a lot of the characters are pretty forgettable, but maybe that can be attributed to the fact that two of them are middle aged men, one of them’s a gay (no one in Victorian England who has eyeshadow and sparkly hair has a girlfriend) movie director, a wimp, an annoyingly naive chick, and Arthur. Okay, Arthur can be excluded.

That’s basically the highlight of this chapter’s characters: Arthur. He kicked William off the top spot of my favorite characters. He’s just so…not awesome, it makes him appealing. Not to say that he’s a wimp, no that award goes to Patrick, he speaks French, doesn’t freak out at the sight of muder, and he’s an author. Totally awesome. There’s just..not enough words in the English language to describe my love for Arthur. And he’s guarenteed survival, due to the narration he provided us last chapter as a flashback.

I was disappointed as to the lack of Ciel in this chapter. We get a few shots of him (one of which was fairly perverted), and we learn that he speaks French. There is even less shots of Sebestian, who gets one full page spread (just one? Really Yana?) and maybe a headshot here or there. Like I said, most of this chapter takes place from Arthur’s point of view. Not that there’s really anything wrong with that, but there is a significant lack of eyecandy.

This chapter wasn’t as enthrolling as the chapters I remember from earlier arc beginners. Maybe I’m just tiring of reading Kuroshitsuji, or it was just the amount of filler chapters before, but I just really wanted to skip to the end to see what would happen. Thankfully, the next arc looks like it’ll have my interest, as we get a murder myster, Umineko style. Murder mysteries are always good, though I can’t stop making references to Clue in my head. They both took place in Victorian England, Georg reminds me of Colonel Mustard, and both casts of characters were rich socialites. Unlike Clue, though, it looks like we’ll get to see multiple characters die. Which is always a good thing.

Things I want to see next time:

Arthur fanservice, and more Ronald. I mean, what’s with Yana giving a preview of a shinigami that’s possibly even gayer than Grell, and then not useing him. He had so better be the cause of someone’s death. Keep the look out for a possible lawn-mower victim, and cross your fingers.