CANAAN is CANAAN, all caps, and not Canaan. LUCKY☆STAR has that star in the middle if you can manage to remember the keyboard code for it. Love★Com has a different star, though many will make do with Love*Com. s-CRY-ed is not Scryed. NieA_7 is not anything but. Baccano! has an exclamation mark. L’Arc~en~Ciel is L’Arc~en~Ciel and not L’arc-en-ciel or Larc en ciel. They are tildes, not hyphens, and make sure you capitalize that ‘a’. Dir en grey fans spot the new and the ignorant by chastising those that write Dir en Grey or, heaven forbid, Dir En Grey. Yoshitoshi ABe always has that ‘b’ capitalized; he is never Yoshitoshi Abe. Someone once told me that hyde, the vocalist for L’Arc~en~Ciel, is spelt in unassuming lowercase when associated with that particular band, but spelt as HYDE when associated with his solo work. This doesn’t always seem to be the case, but that’s one hell of a confusing thing to remember, huh?

You're doing it wrong!

Being a grammar nazi and supremely anal retentive in general, of course I always do my best to ensure I’m spelling things the way they were intended to be spelt, but sometimes, it’s just a pain in the ass, and sometimes, it’s just impossible to tell.

The stars in LUCKY☆STAR and Love★Com are are in many Japanese fonts by default, but they’re absent in most English ones, making it particularly annoying to find ways to type them. miyavi has changed his official stage name so many times, you’d have to be well-versed with his history to know which name to refer to him as during which part of his career, and with so many names. He’s been miyabi, 雅, MYV, and 雅-miyavi-, among others. Who wants to do a proper superscript when they write Tommy heavenly⁶? Or look up the not equals symbol every time they want to write cali≠gari? Same with whatever that weird German character is in Weiß Kreuz, though that’s more “it’s a different language” and less “goddammit, why does there need to be a funky symbol there?!” It’s hard fighting with the obsessive need to do things right and the overwhelming practicality in just not caring.

The SEED in Gundam SEED should be capitalized. I know this because Japanese magazines always write the SEED in capitalized roman letters, even when the rest of it is in kana. But many other series have the entire title “officially” in kana, and then it’s more or less up to translators to dictate how they’re romanized and how particular their spellings are. For example, I’ve seen people write both Beck and BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad. The latter is more popular, but the original (ベック) is all katanana with no subtitle, so who knows? Similarly, is プラネテス PLANETES or Planetes? Should SOUL EATER be capitalized? It is in the logo, but it’s also just ソウルイーター.

The fact that there is no real equivalent to capital letters in Japanese pretty much means that they can have a field day with it and do whatever they want. (They kind of do whatever they want with English anyway.) Most likely, they use it just as a means to stand apart. “SOUL EATER” may or may not be more dramatic than “Soul Eater” — do the Japanese percieve the capital letters to be like shouting like we do? Or is it just different, but not necessarily “louder”? It’s not that hard to remember that ELLEGARDEN, RURUTIA, and ONE OK ROCK are capitalized, or that angela and stereophony are lowercase if we don’t think of them as capital or lowercase letters. They’re just symbols representing a subject. A capital letter does not denote a proper noun and lowercase does not denote a common word. Forget all your rules and just recognize them as what they are. And all the other quirks they pull aside from capitalization/lack of, all the weird spacing and symbols — all just ways to stand out. They aren’t “weird” symbols; they’re just part of the name.

But then sometimes I get the distinct feeling that even the namebearers don’t care that much about how their names are spelt. It’s just all the neurotic fans like me making a big deal out of it. For example, Dir en grey. Only the ‘d’ is capitalized, right? That’s how it’s written on magazines and all of their albums until the Marrow of the Bone (2007), at which point it became DIRENGREY, though I’m not sure if that was an “official” name change or just a typographical choice reflecting musical changes. In any case, neither “Dir en grey” nor “DIRENGREY” is what Shinya, their drummer, wrote on the autographed drumpad he threw out into the pit when I saw them last November.

Nope. That says “DIR en Grey.” Kind of weird, yes? Not even “Dir en grey.” Geez, Shinya, learn how to spell your own band’s name! How can you expect self-righteous fans to yell at other, “less knowing” fans if you can’t even get it right? Maybe in the end, it really doesn’t matter at all as long as people know what you’re talking about, but that doesn’t sit well with the obsessive-compulsive. I don’t care if you capitalize things in odd places or don’t capitalize things or put stars in the middle of words that are impossible for Westerners to type. I just want there to be a right way to write things. Is that so much to ask?

For the record, I did not catch that drumpad (sadly). I just ran into the person who did after the show and got a picture.

Read it before you buy it? Or buy it before you read it?

For anime, how many of your DVDs contain series you haven’t seen at all until you bought them? The number of series being broadcast on television has been dwindling for a while, but more and more companies are streaming their goods online, in whole or part, so there are still plenty of legitimate ways of seeing a series at least partially before buying it (and in addition to DVDs, there are now also budding download-to-own schemes for various platforms). Does anyone walk into the store without an idea of what they want to get? Does anyone just decide to buy a title coincidentally sitting next to the one they intended to get, thinking that it kinda looks interesting?

For manga, there are less legitimate routes to sampling. There are companies that have begun putting their comics online, but they’re almost never in complete collections: some will have a few pages; some will have a few chapters. The few manga magazines we have left and scanlations fill in the gap… along with grazing in the manga section of the bookstore, i.e., sitting around in the aisle and reading the book at the store. How many people buy comics without at least flipping through them first? Who goes off of cover design and backflap synopsises only? Because a vast majority of series are contained over several DVDs or graphic novels, I find it hard to take the risk of buying a single volume of something I may end up disliking. It’s an investment every time I buy something; I don’t buy something without the intention of buying all of it. A four DVD anime series (approx 12-13 episodes) can run up to $100 if they’re particularly expensive. A twelve volume manga series will be least $130. That’s a significant lump of money. Thus, sampling beforehand is pretty much required for me.

Movies and other television shows work similarly. How many people buy DVDs of movies without first having seen it in theatres? Who buys TV dramas without having seen the television broadcast or online streams? Or from a rental? From watching a friend’s copy? There might be exceptions in the five dollar discount bin, but hey, I can buy a sushi lunch for those five bucks instead of picking up a potentially crappy movie that no one else wants either. Music is also similar. Stores have listening stations. Online stores have clips. There’s the radio, Pandora, and related services. Except the cases where they’re already very familiar with the artist, few people will buy an album without sampling it first.

Books might be the trickiest bit. Libraries make them some of the easiest to sample entertainment items ever, and some publishers will have excepts ranging from a page or two or an entire chapter. And yet, most people that read books from libraries probably won’t bother buying a copy of their own, perhaps because the rereadability of books may be less than the rereadability or rewatchability of other media, at least over a short period of time. All the same, book buyers may be among those that are most likely to spontaneously purchase something based only on a synopsis or a book review or a recommendation. Those things certainly influence anime, manga, movie, comic, music, and other buyers, but certainly not to the same degree. Perhaps because paperbacks are among the cheapest of media, book buyers are just be less picky and more willing to take a risk? There’s also much less commitment. Even books in large series are often self-contained enough to buy on their own.

Assuming those assertions are true, it’s interesting that the media that’s easiest to get free is also the media that’s most likely to be purchased without sampling. For the former, is it just a rereadability issue? For the latter, is it just the price point? Is it because library users and book buyers are just different kinds of readers? And are those readers just different from the consumers of other media? Would a book buyer that often buys books based on reviews buy a movie based solely on reviews?

And then there is the question, how many of those that sample anything actually end up buying? Do they not buy because they’ve already sampled or did they just never intend to buy at all? For many media, samplers are usually pirates, but I don’t actually think that matters much. Sampling is sampling, whether or not the means are legitimate. In the end, they can all be split into the following groups:

1) Those that sample something because it’s available. They have no intentions of buying anything ever. Most steretypical pirates probably belong to this group. They download everything because they can. They don’t ever intend to buy anything. If they can’t download it, they just won’t watch it. No big deal for them. They don’t care. These are the people that go into grocery stores and eat all the free samples without ever intending to buy the product. Companies don’t really lose sales over these people; these people were never their customers.

2) Those that sample something because it’s available. They don’t necessarily have intentions of buying it, but might if they really like it. Most respectable fans probably belong to this group. They might watch broacasts or download fansubs and scanlations or ebooks or whatever. They aren’t necessarily looking to buy something, but it’s never out of the question. They are not adverse to supporting those that entertain them. It’s within this group that much of the illegal sampling debates center around. The big question is: how many people are on the fence about buying but end up not doing so because downloading is just easier and cheaper? They might feel guilty, but they still do it. Morality VS Money is a difficult thing. But if they don’t sample anything at all, how will they ever be exposed to something they might want?

3) Those that sample something to decide whether they want to buy it. They buy it if they like it. They don’t if they dislike it. I don’t actually know many people in this last group, but I’m sure there are a good chunk of them. After all, they must be the bulk of people keeping various entertainment industries afloat. These are the people that want to buy things, but aren’t sure what to get.

Maybe the trick is just to put out more products that people actually like love so that more people in group #2 will be compelled to buy. It doesn’t really matter whether or not people are getting a hold of something beforehand if the product kind of sucks. Or maybe people should somehow, impossibly, be forced to not download things and then we’ll see how many actually stumble onto products on their own? Who knows?

One year difference? Riiiight.

Look at Kingdom Hearts. In the first game, Sora and Kairi are fourteen. Riku is fifteen. Sora and Kairi are innocent, completely good-hearted, and faithful to “the light.” Riku is insecure and jealous and “opens himself to darkness.” It’s true that it’s in Riku’s personality that his insecurities should leave him vulerable to negative influence, but why specify that he’s fifteen while his friends are fourteen? Why is that one year difference so significant? In Eureka seveN, Renton is fourteen. He is naive, immature, and is easily confused by things I wouldn’t expect a fourteen-year old to be confused by. In Bleach, Ichigo is fifteen. He is still naive to some extent, but more mature, quicker to act, slower to whine about things. The art depicting all of these characters is also very indicative — Sora, Kairi, and Renton are all drawn with much more child-like proportions (seriously, Sora looks like he’s maybe ten in the above picture). Their faces are round, their eyes are large, their limbs look fragile. Meanwhile, Riku has rather some rather muscular arms and Ichigo is very angular. Puberty is supposed to be an awkward time of gradual transition — things shouldn’t change so much in just a year. I don’t remember changing so much in a year.

The fourteen-year olds bother me a lot more than the fifteen-year olds because they often seem much younger than they claim to be. Renton acts like he’s ten. So does Sora. In both cases, the target audience is the actual age of the characters (and older) rather than the acting age of the characters, so why are they aged down so much? Why does Renton throw so many temper tantrums? Why does Sora have such an untainted, innocent quality to him? I have difficulty imagining any real fourteen-year old boy acting as either of them do. Fourteen is a rebellious age — you go out and do things rather than throw fits, and you are more open to knowingly doing “bad things” rather than maintaining a wholehearted “goodness.” There is little fluctuation in either of those characters’ personalities to indicate that they have even a few of the traditional qualities of teenagers. (Okay, I’m probably being a bit harsh on Renton, but Sora, at least, doesn’t really change.) It isn’t like Eureka seveN or Kingdom Hearts would change dramatically if their protagonists were declared ten-year olds instead of fourteen-year olds.

The fifteen-year olds are usually not so farfetched as fifteen-year olds (except when it comes to having power; fifteen year old pilots always beat the middle-aged pilots!). Then again, Sora is aged to fifteen in Kingdom Hearts II with minimal change in personality, but that’s just him.

This is about how old Sora acts. (Photographer: tofuguns@flickr)

In Sailor Moon, most of the inner senshi are fourteen when they’re introduced. Haruka and Michiru are technically sixteen at their introduction, but as they’re only one grade ahead of the others, it’s close enough? The maturity differences between the former group and the latter pair is striking and commented on several times in the series itself. A vast majority of the pilots in Gundam series are fifteen or older. Amuro Ray, Garrod Ran (Gundam X), all five of the Wing boys, and Setsuna F. Seiei (Gundam 00) are fifteen. Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala are both sixteen in Gundam SEED; I couldn’t find Domon Kasshu’s age (G Gundam), but he was probably seventeen or eighteen — Wikipedia mentions that Sai Saici was the youngest pilot in that series at age sixteen. Judau Ashta (Gundam ZZ) is apparently fourteen; I haven’t seen the series myself, but I wonder if the character is like the various fourteen-year olds described above. (If so, I wonder if that’s one of the reasons ZZ has a bad rap.)

Sailor Moon’s target audience is younger than Gundam’s, so it would make sense that the characters act younger, but Usagi could have just as easily been branded as a fifteen-year old. Similarly, more Gundam pilots could have been stated as fourteen and still act mature. The plus or minus one year would change nothing in the story — they are still teenage magical girls fighting aliens and teenage boys piloting giant robots. Why is the difference between fourteen and fifteen? Why not thirteen and fourteen? Fifteen and sixteen? Everyone between ten and fourteen acts “fourteen” (and by that, I mean ten); everyone between fifteen and their early twenties acts “fifteen.” In Card Captor Sakura, Sakura is ten — Usagi, fourteen, acts about the same maturity level. Setsuna’s fellow Gundam meisters in 00 are aged 23 (Lockon), 18 (Tieria), and 18 (Allelujah) — they all display about the same maturity level.

There are at least a few examples of characters who don’t fit in with what I’ve said; the only one I can think of right now is Yusuke Urameshi from Yu Yu Hakusho, who is apparently fourteen but acts older. Are there enough other examples to overturn my observations?

What?! He dies? Noooo!!

Spoiler warnings should never really expire either. It doesn’t matter how long something has been out. There is someone that hasn’t seen or read it. Most online communities have spoiler policies lasting several weeks or several months after a release, and that works fine for an contained group where it isn’t completely unreasonable to assume that most members have seen or read something. But for the general populace, it’s not good to assume anything. Case in point: Death Note is a huge franchise and many, many anime/manga fans have experienced it in one form or another by now. I watched the dub with several friends when it aired on [adultswim]. At the beginning of episode 25, one friend commented, “Oh, is this the episode where ******* ****?” Without thinking, she just gave away the biggest spoiler in the entire series ’cause she figured everyone already knew, right? Oh, snap, another friend had not followed Death Note prior to the dub’s broadcast. Experience thwarted! And apologies don’t erase that newfound, unwelcomed knowledge.

Especially with stories that are retold in a variety of medias, it’s impossible to guess who has read or seen what based on the fact that they’re a fan of such and such. The last Harry Potter book came out two years ago. Two years is a sufficient spoiler buffer for people who consider themselves fans, right? The book’s already been released in a majority of other languages too, so there’s no using that as an excuse either, right? No. There are still a ton of fans that only follow the movies (the misguided fools! The books are infinitely better, but movie fans are fans all the same), and the sixth movie doesn’t come out until next month. I can already hear the assholes driving by and yelling the popular spoiler at unsuspecting kids at midnight openings. Some people only read books or manga; some people only watch anime or movies. Don’t spoil something for someone by assuming they read and watch the same version of the series you did.

More recently, I was considering anibloggers who use Twitter to tweet briefly and semi-episodically about series they’re currently following, including myself. The tweets usually consist of vague exclamations in reaction to something that’s happening — presumably nothing spoileristic, but is what you think is a spoiler the same as what everyone else thinks is a spoiler? As noted, I’m currently rewatching Gundam Wing and I’m tweeting about it. Most are relatively harmless no matter how you look at them, but some of them, upon further reflection, could probably be taken as spoilers. Incredibly minor spoilers, but spoilers all the same.

The rest of this post contains minor spoilers of varying degree for Death Note, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Code Geass, and Gundam Wing, though as is the topic of discussion, some of them are debatable in their status as spoilers at all.

Are there universal guidelines for what is to be considered a spoiler? For Death Note, anyone who’s seen or read the series in its entirety can pretty much agree on what the one major spoiler is aside from the ending itself. It’s similar for the Half-Blood Prince. Both cases involve a death, but does that mean all deaths should count as spoilers? (Incidentally, is the fact that I’ve revealed that both cases involve deaths a spoiler in itself?)

Lelouch kills Clovis in the third episode of Code Geass. Clovis is an extremely minor character partially because he dies so early, but his death reveals very little to either Lelouch or the audience. Should Clovis’s death count as a spoiler? Honestly, the very premise of the series can imply Clovis’s death at Lelouch’s hands. Of course Clovis isn’t important enough to be mentioned in general summaries, but if you came into the series knowing that Lelouch intends to destroy Britannia, then you can pretty much guess that Clovis will be a target from the moment he’s introduced in the first episode. So if Clovis’s death isn’t a spoiler then, is it because the event takes place so close to the beginning of the series? Though Clovis is a much less important character, is his death like Yusuke’s death at the beginning of Yu Yu Hakusho or Goku’s death at the beginning of Dragonball Z?

But “close to the beginning” is also a tricky line to draw. Episode 8 of Gurren Lagann is highly spoileristic — is 8 of 27 not close enough to the beginning? Or does it count as a spoiler just because you can’t really see it coming like you could have for Clovis? Perhaps that’s what should define a spoiler then, something that you can’t see coming? In one of my GW tweets, I mention that in episode 7, Treize stages a huge coup de’tat . 7 of 49 is a bit better than 8 of 27 in terms of closeness to the beginning, but I can’t decide if the coup de’tat is something that you can “see coming,” especially considering how haphazardly paced the first dozen episodes in the series are. It’s also debatable as to whether the coup de’tat has a lot of lasting significance since the political factions of the series are also so turbulent.

There’s also the idea that spoilers don’t need to be confined to singular events — should character development and personality details be counted as spoilers too? Sure, if something in a character’s past is a big reveal (if you can’t see if coming), then it should count, but what about things like… the fact that Lady Une has a split personality? In the series, there is no “big reveal,” and even though you may not expect it, it isn’t very surprising. But still, should it count? It isn’t obvious until maybe episode 10, but I already can’t remember since I don’t find it to be that big a deal. Then again, if I hadn’t already seen all of GW, I might consider that a spoiler — I’m usually pretty high-strung about this kind of stuff.

Ahh! It's a spoiler! Run!

There are many degrees of spoilers, and I’m sure that what one person considers a spoiler might not be for someone else. For my paranoid self, I tend to avoid contact with anything discussing a series I’m interested in and haven’t seen yet. If I inadvertently take a look, I’m the master of skimming things quickly and not picking up more than I need, if anything at all. You can’t be too careful, after all. You only need to be spoiled once.

Note: You can use spoiler tags in the comments with <spoiler></spoiler>. Just kidding! o_O Beware spoilers in the comments! Woo!

(And for the record, this post is actually about 1200 words long. Darn.)

And yet, even with all the lulz, it’s still so epic when it counts. I’m still enjoying this way too much. Treize takes over the world in seven episodes in one of the most awesome coup de’tats ever. There are so many political things I’m noticing and understanding now that I didn’t even notice the first time around, and it’s just a lot fun to revisit something while simultaneously gaining a whole new experience. Nostalgia and sentimentality is undoubtedly what’s allowing me to forgive all of the more blatant flaws — I’d never accept such huge logic and realism gaps in a recent show, as evidenced by my dislike of Gundam 00, but for Wing, it’s all right.

But I never feel as if the nostalgia factor blinds me. Forgiving the flaws isn’t the same as denying they’re there, and besides, most good things have their flaws. It’s just your perspective that determines whether the good outweighs the bad, or if the bad outweighs the good. I’m only seven episodes into the rewatch, but right now, I honestly still think this is a great show. Wing’s storyline is strong and clear, and has many interesting concepts. Its characters are varied and relatively engaging. I still think the music is amazing. I still think the mecha designs in this series are some of the best in the franchise. These are the things that won’t change with time, no matter how many years pass. Good stories are good stories. Good art is good art.

The art and animation are a bit aged now, yes, but they still suit the story. That compatibility is much more important than the fact that it’s not as shiny by today’s standards. Of course it isn’t as shiny; Gundam Wing debuted fourteen years ago. But that doesn’t matter, just like it doesn’t matter that Nosferatu is a black and white, silent, German film. The medium still fits the story, and the story is still good. In that sense, I think that most productions, whether movies or television shows or anime or manga, can be considered “timeless.” It doesn’t matter when it was made; if it had a good story and the medium suited it, then it can remain accessible to any subsequent generation.

But then, what about the things that don’t hold up? Does that imply that they were never good stories in the first place, if the stories aren’t as good now as supposedly used to be?

Actually, I can’t think of many examples of (once) good stories that don’t hold up against the test of time. Most of the stories I loved as a kid I either still love now or still appreciate as something aimed towards kids. Some stories with overt social or political commentary or controversy might be more popular in one century than another, but if there’s enough story to go along with the opinion, I don’t think it’d have trouble remaining accessible. Just look at The Sound of Music or the Watchmen comic or books like Number the Stars.

Stories grounded in a certain time period also aren’t at a particular disadvantage either. As long as people have an understanding of the surrounding history and perspective, it isn’t really a problem. Shakespeare remains timeless despite the fact that his plays are centuries old and in a dialect that died somewhere along the way. The language might turn some people off, but the core of the quality of the stories are unaffected by neither time nor anything else. Can the stories still appeal to people if the language was updated to something more modern? Probably. It’s the same as when a popular novel is translated into several different languages, isn’t it? The story is the same. The story is still good. Everything else is secondary.

It’s kind of interesting to note also that there are a lot more things that I like more the second or third time around than things that I dislike the second or third time around. Second and third experiences allow for better understanding of the story involved, and understanding is essential to many experiences.

Many of the best anime and manga I’ve encountered are neither socially or politically charged or grounded in a specific time period, which will probably help them a lot. Some of them depend heavily on cultural quirks and current fandom (Ouran High School Host Club), and some of them are concentrated on ideas in technology that may well change in the future (Planetes, Ghost in the Shell), but as long as the people in the year 2500 take the time to understand where these stories are coming from, they can enjoy them just as we have. I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up still liking Gundam Wing a lot this time around, and if that’s the case, I don’t think that will change in another decade or two, or three, or four. Similarly, I probably still won’t like Gundam 00 in however many years.

Final conclusion? All good stories are timeless.

Further, “Sharuru” seems to be some kind of universally accepted Japanese version of “Charles” because Code Geass was not the only series where I heard the transliteration. Who decided that “Charles” should be “Sharuru”? If someone else decided that they wanted to transliterate it as “Charuzu,” would they be wrong? Are there multiple ways to import a name into another language?

For the reverse case, Japanese names into English, the answer seems to be yes. For FUNimatioin’s recent license, Spice and Wolf, they’ve decided to transliterate ホロ as “Holo” rather than the fan-preferred “Horo.” Since the Japanese use the same sound where Westerners distinguish between L’s and R’s, either version can technically be correct. Nevertheless, the らりるれろ sounds are more often seen as R sounds (ra, ri, ru, re, ro) than L sounds (la, li, lu, le, lo). And for Horo’s case in particular, I can’t shake the idea that “Holo” will invoke “holographic” first and “awesome wolf deity” second. Meanwhile, “Horo” is kindasorta similar to “Horus” an Egyptian falcon god.

And then there is the fun thing they do when they have English names transliterated into Japanese only to be transliterated back into English. Except that the two English versions don’t match. The best example of this is probably Simon from Gurren Lagann. The Japanese have no character for “si,” only し/シ (“shi”), and so, Simon was pronounced シモン (“Shimon”). When Gurren Lagann was dubbed by Bandai, they kept that pronunciation, presumably because of perceived fan pressure. The same can be said for Viral, which retained the “vee-rall” pronunciation instead of “fixing” it back to “vhai-rul.”

In Horo’s case, fan preference may be more legitimate since the name isn’t English to begin with, but in Simon and Viral’s cases, should Bandai have given in? Would it really have been that weird to hear the names pronounced “correctly”? I don’t really think so. And if they were going to play it the Japanese way, why didn’t they go all the way with Viral and leave it as “V/Biraru”? That’d be pushing it too far with the lip movements, I guess? It can be debated whether or not Simon and Viral were intended to be English names to begin with — even though they’re obviously not Japanese, it’s possible that they could be fantasy names instead. But they seem kind of plain for fantasy names, don’t you think? After all, Japanese fantasy has come up with names such as Zelgadis Greywords, Filia Ul Copt, and Yozak Gurrier, and even those are Western-based. I wonder if there really is a “right” or “wrong” way to pronounce Simon and Viral since it’s been passed through languages the way it has. I’m sure fanboys will swear to “Shimon” and “Vee-rall,” but are they just subscribing to the Japanese’s limited phonetics?

Still, as far as natively Japanese names go, I’m glad for the shift towards preservation of pronunciation. The Sakura in Card Captor Sakura was dubbed as “Sa-kuur-ah” with a long “u” sound. The more recent Sakura of Naruto has been dubbed more correctly as “Sah-kuu-rah” with a short “u.” And yet, Akira was dubbed years ago correctly (with a soft “i” sound), and most people I know still pronounce it with a hard “i”?

One last thing… who the hell decided that they could name their child “Light” — an obviously English word — and then assign it the kanji for “moon”? (月 “tsuki”) How does that even work?? Obviously, no one will intrinsically understand that “tsuki” should be read as “Light” (or ライト”Raito” since they can’t actually pronounce “Light”) because Misa didn’t know offhand. So did Light just spend his life ‘”correcting” teachers saying, “No, ma’am, you’re wrong, it’s not ‘tsuki’ like it is in the dictionary, it’s ‘Raito’!”? Says who?? Your crazy parents?

Why do they get to decide that “Light” can be represented by 月 “tsuki”? Why didn’t they just use 光 “hikari” which actually means “light”? Because Hikari is actually a legitimate name? (A female name, but a name nonetheless!) I guess they didn’t want Light to go through life being mistaken as a girl during rolecall, so instead, they made him special by giving him the wrong character for the translation? Maybe that’s why he turned into such a megalomaniac.

The mystery of Light Yagami, solved!

Then again, the forcing of kanji for an English word has happened for things other than names.

As far as the branding goes, my favorites list kind of makes me laugh. The only real point of unity is mecha, which I didn’t realize was something I cared for as much as I do until I compiled the list in the first place. What kind of person do I come across with such a list? Gurren Lagann is almost a cop out because there are very few people that don’t care for it; perhaps having it there makes me ordinary. Code Geass is something that might start some polarizing debates on the aniblogosphere, but the first season is almost universally accepted to be more worthy than the second. So maybe that makes me oridinary also. Gundam SEED seems to be hated on a grand scale and many Gundam fans seem to associate liking it with being ignorant. Stand Alone Complex is another title that faces little criticism, but a few dislike it for its rampant politics. So maybe having it there makes me look smart.

So, what does this list say about me on the whole? I am mostly an ordinary mecha fan that enjoys both testosterone-filled gar and intelligent political drama, but is ignorant towards the Gundam franchise. Not really sure if that’s the exact branding I would choose for myself, but I wouldn’t say the description is wildly inaccurate either.

Self-branding is an interesting thing, particularly when it’s of a social consequence and not a commercial one. Sites like MAL allow for the traditional judging that used to take place when you took a look at the books on someone’s shelf or what they’re reading on the bus. It might be bad to judge based on negative stereotypes, but the judging that takes place when you glance over someone’s favorites list is something that I’d consider to be nearly always useful. Whether comparing lists comes up with more similarities or differences is largely irrelevant as long as you aren’t derisively writing someone off completely for holding whatever series in high regard (that would be negatively stereotyping). There’s a difference between thinking, “Oh, this person likes mostly sappy shoujo titles, I guess we don’t have much in common,” and thinking, “lol, this idiot only likes mainstream shounen, what a useless newb.”

If there are only differences, well, no loss, and you’ve saved everyone time by not pursuing a conversation that would have likely led no where. If there are only similarities, then perhaps you’ve found a fangasm buddy with which you can merrily spout fanboyish or fangirlish nonsense with. The best list comparisons come up with both similarities and differences; they are the things that prompt conversations like, “I see you like such and such also, but also that you enjoyed so and so — what was it about so and so that you liked? I didn’t find it very satisfying.” And lovely discussions (or interesting debates) ensue and friendship, rivalry, and comraderie spreads across the Internet! Hurray! Judging is built into our social structure for a reason; it’d be a shame to cast it off completely.

It does make the self-conscious even more self-conscious though. Even online, you have an appearance. Picking the series that go on your favorites list is like picking a fashion to wear. And you have to find something that both satisfy you and your desire to be presentable to the public. Luckily, I’ve never been too bothered by the latter, so I’m fine with people thinking I’m an ignorant Gundam fan for having SEED as my favorite. When I commented on his aforementioned related post, ghostlightning mentioned that all the titles on my list are fairly recent, which might indicate that I’m a newer fan. I’m not, really, but oddly enough, the nostalgia factor hasn’t been that big for me. My old favorites include Gundam Wing, Yu Yu Hakusho, BECK, Dragonball Z, Cowboy Bebop (you know, the Toonami golden days!), and My Neighbor Totoro, but I can see that my love for them is mostly because of nostalgia and not because they’re actually better series than what’s on the list now. It might be unconventional to consider the new better on all aspects than the old, so maybe I’ll seem even more like an ignorant newbie, but hey, whatever, man.

My only problem is deciding what my “real” favorites are and correctly representing them on this damned list.

Back to my dilemma, huh? That favorites list needs updating. Who gets the empty fifth slot? And is there anyone already on the list that needs to be ousted? Here are the new contenders: Ouran High School Host Club, Nodame Cantabile, Mushishi, Planetes, and maybe even Lovely Complex. Score-wise, all of those series I’ve reviewed and scored with a 9 overall, except Love*Com, which has an 8. All of the series currently on the list are also 9′s, except for TTGL, which is the only anime I’ve scored with a 10. Sometimes I wonder about that 10, but if anything else, TTGL is the only series thus far mentioned that I watched three times consecutively in a month. I guess it still deserves that top spot.

Since Love*Com is the lone 8 here, maybe it should be dropped from consideration (especially since there are a lot of other series I’ve scored with 9′s that aren’t up for consideration here), but even though both its technical merits and story/character merits are lower than the competition, it’s a series that I’ve been rewatching random episodes from a lot lately — what does that count for? Perhaps it’s just a weird mood I’ve been in; after all, I don’t usually take so readily to standard shoujo. Should a favorites list represent a more stable subset of favorites, or should it be more flexible? Should Love*Com be represented above the others just because I’ve really taken to it lately? Should it change and drop off as soon as I get out of this phase? That begs the question of, just how often should a favorites list be updated? Is there really anyone e-stalkerish enough to check that often? Or is it more for your own satisfaction?

Personally, I think I prefer the more stable route. It’s too much trouble to constantly update something based on recent whims. Besides, the list is a better branding tool if it has series that stand up to the test of time, right? So Love*Com, as much as I love it, is out. That leaves four other series. What’s the next factor to consider? Mushishi and Ouran probably have the highest rewatch value out of those four. Both series are fairly episodic and allow for better casual watching. Planetes and Nodame are both wonderful, but even though Nodame is largely slice of life, it does have a linear story, which hurts its rewatch potential to some extent since it’s harder to jump in the middle. Planetes’s first dozen episodes are also pretty episodic, but the latter half gets very character-involved and plot-heavy. How important do I want rewatch value to be?

It must be important if it’s one of the reasons TTGL has the top spot, and even though it’s not the second season that’s on the list, Code Geass R2 is the only series I’ve followed as it aired that I watched three times per episode… one for every sub release (Chihiro/Nightspeed, gg, and Eclipse) because I was just that much of a fantard. And dammit if each rewatch wasn’t still fun. I’ve also seen the second half of Gundam SEED an obscene number of times… SAC I like to catch sometimes when it reruns, but since I stopped watching TV altogether, that doesn’t happen much anymore. Maybe SAC is the candidate for removal then…? If I swap out SAC, then I could add both Mushishi and Ouran, but there’s gotta be other factors, right? And even if I do do that, which of the new listees should be ranked higher?

I always gravitate towards character-driven series, so maybe series with characters I like better should have preference. All the series on the current list have strong characters that I love, though it might be worth noting that there are no TTGL characters on my top ten favorite characters list (then again, I also have problems with the items on that list; that can be another discussion altogether, though it would probably be very redundant). Mushishi would be out if it’s a question of character, not because Ginko is a weak character, but just because he’s very simple and doesn’t go through a lot of changes. It’s a hard fight between Ouran, Planetes, and Nodame, but I’d probably also drop Ouran there. Great, so the series with the greater rewatch value are exactly opposite those with the stronger characters. Woe!

This entry has gone on long enough; I’ll spare you the rest of my inner debate. But you understand my problem, right? I obviously haven’t updated my favorites list yet. I really don’t know when I’ll be able to figure it out. Picking favorites really sucks; I love all of these series! But I can’t very well not have any, can I? What would you think of me then??

I wonder why we do it.

Most replies will contain a list of things, but I find it a bit sad that the first response will almost always be “money.” At the moment, I think it might be the first on my list too. Part of it has to do with the current economy. None of us have had any luck finding regular jobs this quarter. No one is hiring. What’s the next best thing? Apparently hitting up the local cons and milking the weeaboos for all their worth. Or trying to, anyway. Because of various unfortunate conditions, I operated at a loss when I tabled at AWA this past September. Tabling at conventions is hard, even for the seasoned con-goers and artists. Most I talked to at AWA seemed to have had a pretty bad weekend in terms of sales and monetary profits. Barring certain controversial individuals, it’s hard to say that any of them are only doing it for the money. That’s the first argument in favor of fanart, right? No one’s getting rich off this.

And yet, it really seems like some try. It really bothers me when people go around asking, “What kind of fandoms are in at the moment? What should I fanart?” It seems like cheating if you’re not even involved in the community you want to profit off of. It definitely seems like cheating if you haven’t even seen the series you end up drawing from. I really think that takes away from it and tarnishes fanart’s “reputation” in general. It’s called fanart for a reason, y’know? If you’re not really a fan, why do you bother? Some say that it’s just marketing, and that part of marketing is knowing that sometimes you’ll have to draw things you don’t like. But this isn’t a job. No one is telling you to draw what you don’t like — just in it for the money? That seems almost like stepping on the toes of the companies that choose not to persecute us for borrowing their properties. Besides, marketing? What are you marketing? What kind of impression do you leave of yourself when you ask around for the current fandoms so you can try to profit off the associated fans?

For Otakon a year or two back, an artist I know took suggestions for fanart to make prints of. Among those she ended up with was Lelouch from Code Geass. I hadn’t seen the series at the time, but even then, I didn’t really take to the fanart she produced of him. It didn’t feel like most of her other work, which I’m a big fan of. It didn’t feel like her Bleach fanart (she’s a huge Bleach fanatic), and it didn’t feel like her Persona 4 fanart (same). Months later, when I finally saw (and loved) Code Geass, I went back to look at the picture she’d done. It looked terrible. With my newfound knowledge of the series, the art she’d produced looked ridiculously ill-fit. There was no love. It was obvious. I was actually really shocked at how obvious it was. Of course, this isn’t always the case. Some artists can pull of beautiful fanart from series they don’t know anything about, but the question is, should they? For the sake the fans who would want to buy it anyway?

I suppose companies, for the most part, see fanart as free promotion. It’s really no loss to them since there is no official equivilent of fanart that sales of fanart are taking away from. All it usually takes to justify the legality (or lack thereof) of selling fanart is to cite that fact, so maybe I’m being too idealistic when I get bothered by artists selling things they don’t love. I mean, I guess I’ve been guilty of it too (a pair of Naruto prints, but hey, at least I’ve seen/read the series? Silly self-justification?). Besides, as a friend points out — this sort of thing happens in every industry. Except this isn’t an industry. This is a niche community. Full of fans. Presumably. Yeah, customers are usually impartial — who cares as long as it looks good? Wouldn’t you feel awkward though, if a customer tried to strike up a conversation about a series featured on your table but that you know nothing about? And you, as a customer — wouldn’t you feel let down if your favorite artist fanarted your favorite series but somehow can’t remember the name of the character on the button you just bought?

Besides, even if money happens to be first on your list at a given time, it should never be the only thing on the list.

There are obviously other reasons to sell fanart at conventions though. A lot of people say “exposure.” Who are you trying to expose yourself to, and what do you want to gain from their attention? I find it interesting that many of the artists I saw at AWA had no personal website and a pretty minimal Internet presence in general. Having an occasionally-updated deviantART isn’t good enough. If you’re willing to invest the time and money in a table at a convention, if you’re really serious about your artwork and promoting yourself, in this day and age, I consider a website to be cruicial. But maybe that’s skewed by my heavy technophile background (ex-computer science major, represent?). If you aren’t just selling fanart for the cash, then not working hard in other areas is pretty inexcusable. Trying to make a name for yourself? It’d help if we could pick up a business card and look you up later. It’d help if you had some original stuff you’re trying to promote too.

Starting with fanart has led a lot of people into the industry they’ve long worked towards. Japan’s doujinshi scene is the obvious example. What did CLAMP start off doing? What did Maki Murakami start off doing? There are a few OEL artists that can also cite fanart as their claim to fame, like Nina Matsumoto. It’s possible, but really, just getting your art out there isn’t enough. You need to have original things for people to look at after you fanart gets your attention. For this year’s AWA, they’ve implemented a 50% fanart rule intended to encourage more original art — only 50% of your merchandise can be fanart-based. Most artists accepted this without argument and many praised the decision, and yet, a huge argument/discussion/stink started in the AWA forums anyway. Some people, apparently, have no interest in doing original art. This bewilders me.

Still, as far as the promotion thing goes. I’m not really sure what I’d be trying to promote either. I’ve got my (lameass) website (that’s in serious need of a remodel and major update), but I am ever webcomicless. My original characters float back and forth between standalone illustrations and school assignments, not fit for sale yet. Aside from money, what do I hope to gain from tabling at MomoCon? More watchers of my work? So that when I do eventually get off my ass and do something that warrants a fanbase, I’ll have more of an audience to tap from? Except that I’m not really sure that’s what I want my “career” to be, so maybe it’s just insurance?

A third reason to table is networking. You can meet a lot of neat people at conventions, many of them sitting behind tables. I should talk to them sometime. That’s how anyone gets hired for anything these days, right? You gotta know someone who knows someone who’s in a position to hire you or to influence a person who can hire you. To that end though, anime conventions are infinitely more useless than comic conventions. FUNimation’s PR guy probably can’t do much for you, though I wouldn’t say that he’d be completely useless to know. Same with Vic Mignogna. I’ve been told that attending comic book conventions is pretty much part of the job if you want to work in comics. I wouldn’t say the same is true for the manga or OEL scene though because there just aren’t as many editors or creative staff attention conventions (that OEL branches are getting slammed left and right now it seems, but that’s another post altogether).

Even if you don’t intend to work in comics or manga or whatever related fandom industry, I’m sure you could meet lots of interesting and useful people at conventions. Who knows, that guy dressed as Vash could be a creative director at some small business hiring freelancers. I guess if you don’t attend many other social events, an anime con is as good a place as any to meet people, and sitting behind a table full of art invites people to ask you about it, right? Maybe that’s what I convince myself I’m doing this for because sometimes, I really do lose sight of it all. The money helps, but it isn’t everything. I’ve got nothing I’m proud of enough to promote. So networking, right? That’s a kind of profit too. Maybe then I’ll actually have a job when I graduate.

Case in point, I love Kingdom Hearts — okay, it’s not an anime or manga, but I think it’s a good example because the fans are notoriously obnoxious. I think the first three games were excellent (I am sad that so many people forget about Chain of Memories), and I love the ending to KH2. I like almost all of the characters and enjoy what we do see of their in-game relationships. Does it annoy me that fangirls seem to like slashing every single male character in the entire fandom? (Regardless of whether they ever actually officially interact? lol@AxelxDemyx?) It used to a little, but really, I am a huge proponent of the “to each his own” ideal. I may not like what you like, but I will support to the death your right to like it. And since I’m active on deviantART and people like to bitch about various fandoms always getting frontpage attention: I may not like what you draw, but I will support to the death your right to draw it. And if it’s popular? Good for you!

I don’t really understand when people get disappointed that “overhyped” series aren’t as good as one may come to expect. It’s more of that giving power to the masses, which is kind of hilarious when you consider that most people would say that they don’t trust the masses. And it’s true — don’t trust them. Put your trust in people you actually know, then you can be legitimately disappointed when things aren’t as good as they’ve been described to you. I didn’t watch Haruhi Suzumiya because of its popularity; I watched it because several people whose opinions I care about recommended it to me. I was disappointed for those same reasons. Similarly, I didn’t start Naruto until two years after its debut and only because several bothersome friends kept suggesting it. I didn’t stop reading it last summer as any consequence of annoying fans; I stopped because I was tired of waiting for something to happen.

I also refuse to stop liking something because it’s popular or to be ashamed of getting into something because it got popular first. It annoys me to no end when people rag on Naruto for being popular or for its general fanbase being young and silly. Getting offended at kids being kids is stupid. Saying that they’re bringing down the image of anime in general is blaming them for the ignorance of the rest of the population (regardless of what is in the mainstream, people will use what’s popular as a stereotype for the rest of the community; I don’t really think anyone would be happier if the populace’s general impression of anime was crazy kids fighting giant robots in other giant robots or bounty hunters in space).

The moral of this post is to think for yourself! Who cares what everyone else thinks and does? If you like it, then like it. No shame, kids. No shame.

Unfortunately, at the end of that year and a half period, I found that I was developing a weird rash on my neck about where the necklace was hanging. I ignored it for a while, but it only got worse. I didn’t want to think it was the necklace’s fault, but it was kind of hard to deny. So I took it off. In about two weeks, the rash was gone. I put the necklace back on. The rash was back in another week. Damn.

I puzzled over it for a while, but then I googled around and found out about nickel allergy. I had never heard of it before, but I had never been a big jewelry person either. Up until this stupid Flamel’s cross, I had pretty much never worn necklaces. After reading about it though, I was sure that this was what it is. It’s stupid. Completely stupid. You can develop this allergy at any time in your life even if you’ve never had it before. And after that, you’ll be allergic forever. There is no cure! Now doesn’t that just bloody suck.

I was all kinds of pissed when I realized I pretty much couldn’t wear the necklace again without getting a rash, not to mention the small collection of other fandom-centric jewelry I’d gathered by that point. I think I have two or three KH-related necklaces, several random rings, and a Death Note bracelet, though that’s not all metal. Most of the normal jewelry I have is probably still okay. The birthstone necklace some relative gave me ten years ago is still okay because it’s surgical-grade stainless steel, but I never wore that anyway. It’s not fair.

Do they make fandom jewelry that’s hypoallergenic? I doubt it. There are a lot of fandom necklaces floating around the market, and a good portion of that is made up of bootleg designs. It’s pretty easy to tell that a lot of the stuff is made of piss-poor quality materials, but I imagine that most people, for the sake of their fandom, would be willing to overlook it if the design is accurate enough. I guess it was stupid of me to have left the necklace on at all times, but it would have been annoying to have to take the thing on and off all the time, and after a while, I would have just left weird not wearing it. I don’t think that I’m the only person to have fallen victim to this either. At the very least, I know of plenty of other people that wear the same damn fandom necklace all the time.

So what becomes of us? After we come down with this horrible, irreversible nickel allergy, what then? These days, my Flamel’s cross sits deep in one of my drawers, never seeing the light of day. I am sad for it. I want to wear it, but I can’t. I’ve thought about buying a hypoallergenic chain and just transferring the cross onto the new chain, but then the colors wouldn’t match at all, and if the cross itself touched my skin, it would still cause rashes. And every time another necklace comes out with a design I like, I’d need to buy a chain to go with it.

I think they should just make hypoallergenic fandom jewelry. It’s probably a generalization, but I think it’d make sense that people would be more likely to wear fandom-related jewelry for long periods of time, subjecting them to the nickel allergy. But at the same time, the people most likely to buy fandom-related jewelry probably include a lot of folks that don’t care as much for quality or health issues. They’ll snatch up the pretty design first and then suffer the consequences later. Like me! So where’s the incentive for these manufacturers to swap out their cheap, nickel-infested metals for the nickel-free stuff? There’s none.

So, to all you weeaboos out there who have yet to come down with this allergy, I’d suggest taking off your Squall Leonhart gunblade necklace now and again. It’s a sad, sad day when you discover that rash on your neck.