With the finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender coming up this July, I got to thinking about how I happened to get into the fandom at a fairly opportune time. Part of that is just luck and timing in terms of when I discovered the program. The other part of that is the fact that, since this is an American production, there wasn't a time-lag between when I "discovered" it (perhaps in its English-licensed release) and when it started in Japan.

I notice that when I discover fandoms, especially those based on manga, I'm a little "late to the party" if you will. By the time I get there, the comm's dead, or the fans already know the ending because they've been keeping up with it since it was first scanlated. So, there's very little action.

And, let's be honest, most folks like being, if not the first, then an early discoverer of something. Or at least picking up on something at the height of its popularity (we are social creatures after all and "following the herd" isn't necessarily unheard of). No one likes being the last fan...

But, for those of you "in the know," how do you go about discovering a new title, either anime or manga? Is it sheer luck, or do you look purposefully for them? Is it relying on your friends that just so happen to be on the cusp of everything?

I've only been actively reading manga for a little more than a year now, so I'm curious as to how you discovered Love*Com before its English debut or Death Note and Honey and Clover before Viz got a hold of it...

So, a couple of weeks ago, I went to a new media and technology conference for universities. It was interesting...in its own way, I suppose. Anyway, the CTO of Six Apart, the company that used to own LiveJournal, spoke about the future of social media. Afterwards, I went up to ask him a couple of questions, namely to ask him why Six Apart sold LiveJournal. From what I've witnessed, there doesn't seem to be a change in attitude regarding the new management company. In fact, people might be unhappier than not, for all I know. *shrugs*

Anyway, he smiled at me and explained that LJ was full of people who would never be happy with what they (Six Apart), as a company, could do for them. He also mentioned the word "drama."

And, TBH, I've got to agree with him. When I page through different LJ comms or individuals' profiles, there seems to be a lot of bitching about this (to most) free service that allows us to share our love of whatever. Oh, yeah, and people protest a lot for reasons that don't necessarily make sense...or that they fully understand. But, maybe that's just me?

And the ATLA fandom alone has been full of wankery since the NYCC trailer was released, along with the two eppies of "The Boiling Rock." The ship "war" is getting pretty silly billy and has caused some community defections, massive butthurt, and pissed off folks on both sides of the supposed "war." (I use quotes because I think it's fairly lame-o ranchero to call what's going on a war because, you know, we're in an actual war...)

So, to quote Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?" And, to quote myself, when will the seemingly endless stupid end? :/

Or, two movies that I'm interested in...

So, it's hit the blogosphere that Leonardo DiCaprio is producing a live-action version of Akira. Ain't It Cool? News and The Anime Blog are reporting the leads with DiCaprio as Kaneda and Joseph Gordon Levitt as Tetsuo. As both leads are great actors (I love Levitt from Third Rock from the Sun), my only beef is that the story, as envisioned by hired director Ruairi Robinson (a first-time feature director, no less), will take place in (as reported by the Hollywood Reporter) "New Manhattan," a city rebuilt by Japanese money, as opposed to New Tokyo. I wonder how will that affect the storyline, or is it just more palatable for American consumers to see the movie take place in a familiar U.S. city?

What do you think about a live-action Akira? Sound exciting or are you already dreading it? Is the Year of the Rat all about making "new" (and mostly live-action) versions of our fav anime (see: Speed Racer, Robotech, the CG Astroboy, etc.)?

The Hollywood Reporter also had a report on the new Wolverine (he of X-Men fame) movie. For the ab-tastic version, visit The Beat. So, there's lots of pretty faces and some interesting namedrops to fill out the cast of the film, which takes place 17 years before the X-Men movies. will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas fame stars as Wraith, a mutant who can go translucent, and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, a wisecracking mercenary. Oh, and let's not forget Liev Schreiber as Sabretooth, a mutant with bestial superpowers. Anyway, I'm most excited to FINALLY see the introduction of Gambit, one of my fav X-Men (played by relative unknown-- according to The Beat-- the ab-tastic Taylor Kitsch of NBC's Friday Night Lights).

Any other X-Men fans out there? I got into the cartoon in the 1990s and the comic books. I'm "meh" when it comes to the movieverse, but it's done a lot better than a lot of other comic book-based franchises (see: The Incredible Hulk). While I worry that they'll butcher the story about Wolverine, I figure it's WOLVERINE for goodness' sake-- how could it be bad? I'll still most likely pay the $10 to see Hugh Jackman take another shot at the role...

I don't think I've mentioned it here, but the hubby got a gigantic (46") LCD HDTV with all his birthday/Christmas money. So, of course, we had to get the hi-def cable to go with it. Oh, and did I mention the PS3 that plays Blu-Ray discs? And don't forget the Blu-Ray version of Paprika that he got for me...

( Why Rena spends too much time on her ass... )

Anyway, those are my newest obsessions. Now I lie in wait for Sony Pictures and Disney to release all of their back catalog on Blu-Ray, especially since Disney has the U.S. license for all of Hiyao Miyazaki's movies.

Now, off to my night class!

I just realized that it has been some time since my last LJ post, so you've been forewarned that this will end up being a looooong post (use of LJ cuts employed where necessary, though). I've been crazy busy with work-- it's like all of our university's faculty have decided that they MUST get a news release written about their latest event, study, class, etc. and it has to go out ASAP. Not to mention other end-of-the-year work-related stuff (updating lists and getting our year-end clip report together) and, oh yeah, grad school!

As far as grad school goes, the first semester is almost over! Just two more weeks and then finals. I do have a paper that I've been researching for some time-- it's supposed to be a test-drive on my master's thesis and I've been reading a lot about active audiences, my topic of choice. Active audience research is pretty much focused on fandoms, which is why I find it interesting, especially the research done on fanfic writers and fanartists. ( But it's weird being a subject of study... )

Anyway, I'm insanely thankful that my first semester of grad school is nearly at an end and am happily looking forward to winter break. Speaking of being thankful, I decided to compile a little list that I'm dubbing: ( Fangirlish Things to be Thankful for This Year )

Speaking of newfound manga addiction-- I finally got my copy of Manga: The Complete Guide! It took a few weeks to get it mailed, but I did pay less than $12 for it, so who am I to complain? ( Here's what I loved (and found a little annoying)... )

In conclusion, life is good and is about to get better! Hope all my American friends had a great Thanksgiving and that everyone enjoys the upcoming holiday season and that you get everything your otaku-, nerd-, or geek-oriented heart desires!

So, I just put in my vacation requests for this summer and couldn't remember the dates of the San Diego International Comic-Con and hopped onto their page really quickly. Of course, I couldn't help but check out the programming page to see who was already lined up...And of course, I practically started jumping up and down in my little office out of excitement-- then I realized that my office is in full view of the rest of our office and would only serve to embarass myself moreso than I already do.

However, I'm uber excited for all of the film panels on Saturday, as well as the informal Animation Day on Thursday (I am SO glad I'm taking off both Thursday and Friday for Con!)...Not to mention this little extended interview with a certain Masi Oka of "Heroes" fame!

I'm definitely checking my mailbox for my latest "Update" newsletter when I get home tonight! XD

So, I was just traipsing along in LJ, glancing through updates from my friends when, lo and behold, I come across this shit...Looks like some moralizing group is organized enough to have LJ strikethrough/permanently disable user accounts and communities based on "questionable" adult-themed posts and interests. Even something as innocent as mentioning "Death Note" in your interests seems to be enough to get deleted (although I've heard that people that have had accounts deleted for such reasons DID get them back, with no purging of their entries). So, read through the aforementioned post, lock down any "questionable" posts, delete any "questionable" interests, and back-up your LJ (instructions on how to do so are available via any of the links in this post).


UPDATE

 Looks like LJ has posted an update on Strikethrough...Now THIS is how you handle online controversy and I applaud LJ management for taking the right steps to explain this to the LJ community. Now there's just making sure everyone's in step together, not to mention managing the media...