OTAKU RANT II

[paizuri]

AMV RADIO:
All I have to say the music on AMV radio is going down hill since
they made it that copyrighted music can't be played on it. What the
heck, all the footage of every amv (with the exception of a few is
copyrighted) I don't see the difference. There not making money off
the radio sation the same rules should apply.

Do you not know how conventional radio stations work? The record companies get paid royalties everytime songs of theirs are played on air. The way radio stations stay afloat is by selling advertising time to companies. They use the songs to get people to them and based on ratings and demographics (the more listeners, the better), companies decide to buy ad spots from these radio stations. The advent of internet radio stations didn't change this system. The RIAA still expects their due, and we'd rather not paint a big fat bullseye on a-m-v.org.

[Otohiko]

This is going off topic already, but in my view, it actually went UPhill since that particular motion.

[OtakuForLife]

No it's not off-topic, I talked about AMV radio in my first post...
As for hentai doushin that can be made outta anything...

[Otohiko]

Oh.


Well in that case, I've felt pretty insulted by the response to the whole idea of playing uncopyrighted music, especially the idiotic notion of unlicensed=bad.
Seriously. I didn't hear much difference in quality, and some of the stuff (like BEEF) was actually far more entertaining than all that copyrighted crap played before

[EmilLang1000]

Every year, there seems to be a steady climb in the number of Otaku, but - as is the case with most things - these Neo-Otaku (people that have joined the Japanese Invasion in, say, the past 3 years or so) have no knowledge of older animes. What I find is they often think I'm not hugely into Anime because "A," I don't watch the animes as often as I read the comics, mostly because I rarely like them as much as the comics, and "B" because I don't make it a point to see many newer animes; these are the people you'll see running around Otakon or the RIT Anime Club, showing off just how fast they can do the Jutsu symbols from Naruto, speaking Japanese more often than the people from Japan, and who have little or no knowledge of Classic Anime shows.
I don't know HOW many times I've brought up things like Galaxy Express 999, or Project A-Ko, or even things like Urusei Yatsura, and these Neo-Otakus have no idea what I'm talking about (of course, that never stops them from thinking I'm some kind of poser for not knowing every minute detail about animes made after 2002 )
I'm only 19, but I can't help but think "You darn wipper-snappers and you're new-fangled head bands and whats-its." I know that's sad, but these people call things like Ranma 1/2 OLD!!! No, it's not as new as, say, Samurai Champloo, but come ON! When I think "old," I think Starblazers, Harlock, Speed Racer (okay, so I'm none to great with my older Mangaka, myself - only Osamu Tezuka, Leiji Matsumoto and the creator of Cyborg 009 come to mind).
Those of us who started out the Anime revolution, who remember the good 'ol days when Kenshin was new, when the major animes that came to mind where Salyers, Harlock, Ranma, even stuff like Dragonball Z, and showed our friends those shows to get them hooked, are starting to seem like "old fogeys" or are shunned by the newer Otaku, because we watch stuff from the Golden Age of Anime rather than the newer stuff.
So, for any Neo-Otaku who want to better themselves by getting into the classics, here's a list of stuff made BEFORE 2001, that USED to be considered the best of the best:

Cowboy Bebop
Trigun
Urusei Yatsura
Ranma 1/2
Video Girl Ai
Slayers
Dragonball Z
Rurouni Kenshin
Ah! My Goddess
Fushigi Yugi
Lain
Robotech
Key the Metal Idol
Detective Conan
Inu-Yasha
Akira
Castle In The Sky
Princess Mononoke
My Neighbor Totoro
Kiki's Delivery Service
Ghost In The Shell
Nadesico
Gundam
Evangelion
Escafowne
Ronin Warriors
Yu Yu Hakusho
Wings of Honeamise
Record of Lodoss War
Starblazers
Sailor Moon
Dragon Half
The Quen Emerladas
Galaxy Express 999

Not to say there aren't very good series now, like Fullmetal Alchemist, Full Metal Panic, Naruto, and Samurai Champloo, but calling yourself an Otaku without knowing the classics is like calling yourself a Literary Expert without knowing what David Copperfield or the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is

[doughboy]

They may appear from time to time, but they are always "foreigners".

This ad was literally in every other train car of the Keikyu Line (Kanto region) and quite the photo op. As for black people in Japan, there's actually a whole lot more than you would think, but certainly not many (if even a single) with actual citizenship. Playing "spot the black person" is pretty easy, mostly around restaurants and bars.

All that the Japanese know of them is what's learned from MTV and rap music: that they like to screw (making dating them a status symbol), love cars, and have massive units. This might sound like an exaggeration, but the black people out there aren't exactly doing anything to dispell that myth. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the ride one guy had, it was a fucking monster truck and he was driving it through a side street most would consider a single lane. He made a whole lotta noise with that thing, rap music blasting, and almost ran me over (due to the thin nature of the street, not his speed).

Good times.

[OtakuForLife]

Wholley crap that photo is priceless
As for the classics of anime depends how far back you want
to go and what you concider classic. I concider alot of things classic
becuase I'm part of the watch the fansub movment. When I watch
new stuff that comes out it's hard to talk to the people who are still
watching DBZ or EVA for the first time. I think becuase the Anime
Commuity as a whole is expanding so fast now that toonami is
showing shows I'm just getting around to watching a rift will develop
in the Anime Community between the sub-genre peoples. Hopfully
anime cons will alevate the pressure for that sub-dividing. But hay
I'm probally taking this all to seriously, I guess it's my 18 or so years
of fandom catching up with me.

[OtakuMan22]

As for hentai doushin that can be made outta anything...

TRANSFORMERS!

Every year, there seems to be a steady climb in the number of Otaku, but - as is the case with most things - these Neo-Otaku (people that have joined the Japanese Invasion in, say, the past 3 years or so) have no knowledge of older animes. What I find is they often think I'm not hugely into Anime because "A," I don't watch the animes as often as I read the comics, mostly because I rarely like them as much as the comics, and "B" because I don't make it a point to see many newer animes; these are the people you'll see running around Otakon or the RIT Anime Club, showing off just how fast they can do the Jutsu symbols from Naruto, speaking Japanese more often than the people from Japan, and who have little or no knowledge of Classic Anime shows.

THANK YOU! Although I've never really seen many of those kinds of people at the RIT Anime Club. Those guys have been pretty well versed in their anime knowledge, especially the club officers.

Speaking of the RIT Anime Club, they are featured in NewType magazine this month as the anime club of the month! (And rightly so, for they should be the end all, be all anime club of all time!) :pimp pimp:

Back on topic, these Neo-Otaku as you so put (I love that name) are the kinds I find here on the forums... A LOT! Their worse offense at a-m-v.org is having the spare time to make lots of AMVs, but lack the anime knowledge to make good ones. One person can make 50 DBZ or Naruto videos, but NONE of them are good!

What's more, their lack on knowledge and understanding of anime and what it means can be found on forums ALL the time! Sure cons is a great way to get them into more stuff and open their eyes to the rest of the anime world...

...but...

The best thing I think any Otaku can do is be a senpai to the others. If there is ONE thing the Neo-Otaku should learn is respect for their elders, their senpai. (And yes, it's senpai, not seMpai, there is no solitary "m" in the Japanese language)

Think about it, if the older Otaku can reach senpai status, then the Neo-Otaku will listen, learn, and then go on to be senpai to other, younger Otaku and so on. If the older Otaku sneer at the younger ones, then it just makes Otaku-dom seem like an exclusive members only kind of place, akin to Mensa (and I've seen some of the snobby things Mensa can do. My Dad's a member)!

Neo-Otaku are willing to learn if given the resources to listen to. Granted, it may not be so easy on the forums because the really long, essay like posts that explain the subtle and not always visible nuances of anime and manga...

...KEEP GETTING IGNORED!

If it weren't for the fact that I get the occasional PM from someone saying they appreciated my help or learned something from my posts, then I would DEFINITLY not be here as much as I am.

And it's not like I'm just pulling stuff out of my butt here. I've read some of the many anime books that have been published over the years, such as "The Anime Companion" by Gilles Poitras, "The Otaku Trivia Book" by Ryan Omega, "Samurai From Outer Space" whose author's name I can't remember right away, and of course, I keep track of things on ANN, and read whatever anime and manga news I can from the books, the mags, and the anime bonus material.

Knowing is half the battle... BECAUSE KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

Sharing that knowledge is the other half!

~Otaku-Man

[OtakuForLife]

I loved the anime Companion ::thinks about digging that out again::
I also, have a book From Akira-Ghost in the Shell "I can't remember
the rest of the title" it basically took a look at anime thematicly
and try to analize each type for it's deeper values. I think it was done by
a college professor. I remeber the book enlightened me to several tracks
of reasoning for certin shows being so populare.

[OtakuMan22]

Ohhh, I remember that book. I picked that up a while ago. Good read. It had the Major on the cover... now what was the rest of that title...?

:snaps fingers as he tried to remember:

~Otaku-Man