So, as part of my job (and something that I like to do), I read about four newspapers daily. And today, the New York Times Dining Section has an interesting little story about a maid cafe in Culver City, California.

Thankfully, the reporter spoke with an expert in otaku culture -- Patrick Macias, editor of Otaku USA magazine. He talks about otaku and the concept of moe, and the article mentions cosplay, as well. The cafe sounds interesting in terms of the Japanese pop art on display (I'm an avid appreciator modern/post-modern art), and it seems to have a tongue-in-cheek sensibility while still paying homage to, as the Times puts it, "certain eccentricities of modern Japanese culture."

While I personally, as a feminist, find the whole "moe" fad a little distasteful, I like how the cafe owner places her cafe, Royal/T, in perspective, stating: "Our maids don’t call customers master and the girls are sweet rather than flirty...We want customers to come in and feel like they’re in Alice in Wonderland, not Hooter’s."

Looks like Time magazine finally figured out that movies based on graphic novels make big money...Check out the story here.

Obligatory references to the big movies that have come out so far this summer, as well as those yet to come, including Iron Man, Wanted, Hellboy 2, The Dark Knight and The Incredible Hulk, among others. Thankfully, the writer speaks with folks that show the other side of the coin -- the flops and misses, like Bryan Singer's Batman and Robin, and the idea that banking on graphic novels as movies subverts the creative process in some ways.

With the success of comic book-based movies this summer, Tokyopop's latest move and Disney's creation of Kingdom Comics (which is mentioned in the article), I think it's an interesting time for the comics biz in which they have massive pop culture appeal, but declining readership of their primary product line -- comic books (well, if this post on Heroes Con is any indication of what's going on industry-wide).

So, after all the controversy surrounding "The Pact," Tokyopop's easy-to-read contract for new OEL creators, it seems the publisher has decided to split into two companies and lay off 39 of their 90-100 employees. There will be the publishing side and a movie/multimedia line (think cellphone manga and their MySpace TV page), aka Tokyopop Media.

Another little noted fact: TP is pulling out of both San Diego Comic-Con International and there are rumors swirling as to whether or not they'll be at Anime Expo.

Oh, and there's more: looks like TP has burned a lot bridges in Hollywood, which may not bode well for the newly christened Tokyopop Media...

Anyway, looks like we'll be seeing A LOT fewer manga titles out of Tokyopop, if nothing else. How do you think this bodes for the manga industry? Is it because of bad biz decisions on TP's part, or is this a peek at what's to come?

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...

The past year has seen Hollywood studios jump at the opportunity to produce live-action versions of our fav anime and manga properties, including the recently announced Ghost in the Shell, which will be exec produced by a certain Steven Spielberg, Akira, which is being exec produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, and the in-production Dragon Ball Z.

But, with the massive box office failure of Speed Racer, which came in third in its opening weekend (up against comic book flick Iron Man and the critically panned Ashton Kutcher/Cameron Diaz vehicle, What Happens in Vegas...), will studio heads rethink their plans regarding these flicks based on popular anime and manga?

( My personal/professional thoughts on the matter... )

Anyway, how do you think this affects M. Night Shyamalan's live-action adaptations of Avatar: The Last Airbender, if at all? Any thoughts on how this might affect the other anime- and manga-based flicks?

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...

So, I started and ended yesterday with delicious baked goods. During the start to my workday, my co-worker mentioned that she made my pumpkin muffins recently. For those not in the know, I love baking and make a mean pumpkin and cranberry muffin. It was a nice treat to hear how she and her boyfriend enjoyed them during the holiday break. It also reminded me how I need to get in the kitchen and whip up some deliciousness during this upcoming rainy weekend.

Of course, I went through the rest of my day as I normally do-- work, lunch break where I watch a J-drama and eat, more work, go home, and then head out to a meeting for a professional association I'm involved with. So, I get to the meeting place in Mission Valley a little early and decide to go next door to my local manga shop, Rising Sun Creations, to see if they put out their new stuff yet. When, lo and behold, I found all four volumes of Antique Bakery sitting there shrink-wrapped on the front table and on sale for $25.99!!!

Now, I've been wanting to get into cooking manga for some time because I love food. I also love goofy humor-- I was a huge fan of the original, straight-from-Japan, and horribly dubbed Iron Chef. Unfortunately, I'm already currently reading a lot of different series right now and don't have the inclination to start reading Iron Wok Jan or Yakitate!! Japan. But, I had heard lots of good things about Antique Bakery (thank you Manga: The Complete Guide!) and had been searching for it for the past couple of weeks. It's only four volumes and features lots of interesting tidbits about baking French pastries...

So, long story short, I got it for a total of $28 and started reading it last night. I've been enjoying scratch-and-sniff covers, small doses of shonen ai/yaoi (which I've actually never read before), and mouth-watering pastries since, along with laughing out loud for healthy measure. The sub-plot is also interesting and I'm looking forward to finishing volumes three and four tonight.

Unfortunately, it's also made me want to go get a chocolate croissant or something from the local cafe, along with a nice cafe au lait or something along those lines...

It seems like everywhere I look, someone's pregnant. My aunt's having a baby next month and a friend of ours is pregnant, too. Not to mention the whole Jamie-Lynn Spears' thing. While, normally, I don't pay any attention to celeb news (no, really), this celeb pregnancy has been hard to ignore because of the media repercussions. Since I work in the media, I try to keep abreast of media-related news. And, sadly, this has been a big deal.

While Nick is supporting Spears through the ordeal, many have said that they need to do something more so that it doesn't send the wrong message to their key demographic, 9 to 14 year olds, including possibly canceling her show "Zoey 101." Granted, I could care less about her horrible little TV show, so I wouldn't be upset if it were canceled. But it's the last season of the program and filming's wrapped, so why cancel it?

And there's talk of Nick bringing in one of their big guns, reporter Linda Ellerbee, to do one of those thought-provoking after-school specials/news hour discussions on important topics. Oh, and did I mention the Spears' mom, Lynne, got her book deal, wherein she gives advice on being a mother, has been cancelled by her Christian publisher? Well, duh...

So, like I said before horribly trailing off-topic, everywhere I look, someone's pregnant. Even when I'm least expecting it...

( Even in my manga! SPOILER ALERT: Dramacon and NANA )

After hearing all the fanfare and news about the New York Anime Festival, I really regret not going. I had a free roundtrip from the airline I frequent and could've had the days off. Alas, finals are nipping at my heels, so it would have been fun, but bad for the whole grad school thing. Ugh, responsibility wins out again...Anyways, on to the manga and anime news from the festival (and, of course, my somewhat snarky thoughts on it)! ( The awesome, the interesting, and the controversial... )

Speaking of finals and distractions (like why am I posting in LJ right now when I could be working on a feature article or reading through my research paper that's due this afternoon one last time?), I got a shipment of manga last week, including more delicious volumes of Mayoko Anno's Happy Mania and Yayoi Ogawa's Tramps Like Us, aka Kimi Wa Petto. ( Where Rena's guilty pleasures=josei manga )

Speaking of Tramps Like Us, I downloaded torrent files of the fansubbed version of the Japanese TV show Kimi Wa Petto (I know, I'm a bad little pirate, aren't I?), but being unskilled in such things, I have NO idea how to watch them. So, hypoactive will you PLEASE show me how to download these properly so I can watch them over winter break? ( Wherein I beg my abfab cousin to help me... )

Well, I guess I should get going. I've got a feature article to write and I really should read through my research paper one last time. For anyone following my trials and tribulations in grad school, I did my paper on media fandom and its growth through the 1900s to the present, with a little exploration of fan fiction. I'm considering the topic for my master's thesis, especially since there's a ton of literature that I haven't had the chance to read yet. I really only scratched the surface of the topic in my paper.

There's quite a bit of descriptive research on media fandom, fans in general, and fan fiction. Also, there's a ton of literature on slash fic and reasons for its existence, which I found a little surprising. On the other hand, I suppose since it's such an interesting genre within fanfic it's really not that surprising that academics would study it. Anyway, if anyone's interested in reading my research paper, I might post it here somewhere. Any takers?

Imagine you're a manga blogger and you get this e-mail from a college student, asking for somewhat confidential information about your blog...He's asking for thinks like numbers of recent hits, why you choose what you do to discuss, etc. But there's this sneaking suspicion that somethings not legit...Oh, I don't know, like maybe it says Kodansha Information System Dept. at the bottom of the e-mail?!?

So, yeah, some arse of an employee actually did this at Kodansha. But what's the big deal, Rena? So what if he did a little lying to get the info--it's not like the info was top secret to begin with...

( Why lying is bad for the industry... )

So, while I have no explanations as to why this person did what they did-- there's no excuse for pulling stunts like these, especially in this type of media environment. There's no such things as secrets in the age of the Internet...Any lie you tell (as a PR person or marketer) WILL be exposed, one way or another.

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!

In the wake of the pre-emption of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kai and the cancellation of Kodomo no Jikan, aka Nymphet (remember the brouhaha over its English manga translation?), in Japan, and the worries of the Taiwanese regarding Death Note, I got to thinking about some concepts that I've been discussing in one of my grad school classes. Namely, the concept of media effects, or how a medium can affect its consumers.

In a discussion on an anime/manga review blog, the writer sums it up easily: Do anime and manga influence kids? The recent "pulling" of a couple of shows that can be argued as influential makes it seem as if network TV execs certainly think so (at least in Japan). And can you blame them when stuff like this and this happen?

( So here are my thoughts... )

I don't know if it's just now that I've noticed it, or the fact that the media is reporting on it more, but it seems like manga is "the next big thing" when it comes to making something boring or old seem hip.

( Can studying for your SATs or reading Shakespeare or the Bible be exciting in manga format? )

Alright, so I'm not the biggest fan of live action interpretations of cartoons-- mostly because they fail miserably...Exhibit A: The Flintstones, Exhibit B: Popeye, Exhibit C: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-- yup, all based on American cartoons and all HORRIBLE.

Now this doesn't mean that all anime --> live action films are horrible, at their worst they are, but at their best, they're funny and entertaining in a slightly cheese-filled way.


While I meditate on the possibilities, I'll wait until Comic-Con before I make any decisions...Warner Brothers is hosting a panel, so we'll have to see how that goes...

Subtitle: My brain needs an 'off' switch

I hate that when I wake up early, there is no chance of getting back to sleep...Unfortunately, I'm still stupid enough to think that I can get back to sleep. So, I just lay there and try to clear my mind of thought...But as soon as my mind cleared this morning, a rabid little plot bunny leaped across my brain (and this was like a killer bunny, a lá "Monty Python and the Holy Grail").

( Funny thing was, this was a bunny bent on Bleach )

And while I'm glad my imagination's still at work, I realize that sometimes it just works overtime when it doesn't really need to. Especially when I have more than enough extracurricular, non-fandom activities taking my attention right now-- like the two committees I'm on for our local professional society and my wedding in September...

( So, I'm just concentrating on small fanfic-ish stuff-- think drabbles and oneshots... )

Oh yeah, and I want to get caught up on all my current manga/anime addictions, as well as draw up my plan of attack for Comic-Con in July!

Ugh, time to get off the fanfic crazy train (at least for a little while)! XD

So, I got a new laptop last week and have been adding on my bookmarks for my fav sites on the internets, when I ran across an ad banner for a new fanfic site, FanLib...


Then I read this article about the whole FanLib debacle...Looks like they have MASSIVE corporate backing and it's turning the spotlight on not only fanfiction, but also fandom in general. And it looks like fanfic writers/readers are already shunning the very new site-- with good reason, too. This also translates into a story of how corporate backing can ruin any good thing...

So, in the month or so that I've been writing the end of my little AU fanfic, "College Daze," I've found myself second guessing my writing. Maybe it's the fact that I'm not "feeling it" or whatever, or that I'm trying too hard for perfection...


In other news, I've found myself becoming addicted to "Fruits Basket." Yup, the cute little shojo manga where people turn into animals from the Chinese zodiac. It's almost embarassing because I'm otherwise mostly interested in shonen stuff-- i.e., "Bleach," "Death Note," "InuYasha," etc. But, it's got an interesting dark element to it that just pops the otherwise pink bubblegum bubble of the story...and I'm a total sucker for a little romance, especially between an angsty boy and a helpful girl (sound like anyone else you know? XD)...Maybe this is just the undying influence of my first anime love "Sailor Moon"?

So, I finally had some time to finish chapter 12 of "College Daze!" After what I will lovingly refer to as "the workweek from hell" (where I worked at least 9 hours each day and, since I'm salaried, will not get a penny more for doing so >:[), I had some time this weekend to put this next-to-last chapter together and edit it during my lunch break today.

( It's a little bittersweet to be almost done... )

Anyways, I know that beyondthemoor is giving chapter 12 some sweet beta love right now, so I'll be able to upload it later this week!