dannychoo.com - Danny Choo : Anime, Figures, Idols, Gundam, Otaku and Events from Japan

Anime Haters

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:26:00 +0900

According to this poll at Japan Probe, 31% of their readers (who took the poll) are scared of anime fans - quite a large number which prompted me to search for "anime hater" - to my surprise, I find that there are quite a few folks out there who really hate anime - they also hate folks who watch anime too.

One of the first search results was for a "anime sucks" petition which has comments like...

"Anime is lame and TOTALLY GAY!!!! It is made for Japanese school girls and pervy old men. If you are niether of the former and you like anime, then you are gay and should be ashamed of yourself."

"I agree with this with all my heart! Death to ANIME!!!"

"If your over the age and still watch anime your a pathetic loser. that SH#T needs to stay in japan."

"Anime is the reason why every good cartoon from here in america and all the world have gone down in ratings and been forced to be cancelled,Damn you Japan and your stupid alien bug-eyed girls with big breasts and mini skirts!"

And if you are interested in hearing more from anime haters then the search terms "anime sucks" brings up 41,000 results.

The lady below talks about her hate for "anime obsessed creatures" - she disabled video embedding so you need to go you YouTube to watch it.

RoastedSand would like to "share his rant" with you below.

Brad below talks about how "Anime is stupid in my opinion."

And hulkamainiac92 has some advice for anime fans below.

While I respect the opinions of others, I do find it interesting that some folks dislike other folks for hobbies or interests that one may have - reminds me of the hate mail I get telling me how I shouldn't be spending my money on figures or writing about Japan.

I didn't know about this subject until I done that search - was you aware of anime hating and what do you make of it?

BTW, the group of Haruhi on the desk is just some of the Haruhi figures I have - one more in the car. Uploaded to the wallpaper pool.

Oh and that petition just reminded me - please do not post gay-ist comments - we should not use language that discriminates against folks who are gay/straight, black/white, male/female, prefer 2D/3D girls etc ^^
By Danny Choo on 2008/04/20 20:26

Mirai's Sister

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:15:00 +0900

Those who have been following Mirai-chans story will know that she has a younger sister. With your feedback, this is what Azami sensei and I came up with.

Will be working with sensei over the next few weeks to fine tune her looks and uniform.
Her sisters name is tentatively named Kako but we will be changing that after going through your your feedback.

And while we are on the subject of little sisters, I notice that there are more and more female readers joining us of late and was wondering if Mirai should have an older brother - and if so what should be look like?

As you may have noticed, there are still bits of the site running on the old platform with the old UI which includes Mirai's page. As soon as I get that page onto the new platform, you will be able to find all of Mirai-chans bits n pieces in one place - at the moment its all over the gaff.
I also want to put all the fan-art there too. Which reminds me - I have collected a ton of fanart since the last time I published them and have them in a folder ready to upload. If you have send in artwork, could you do so again - just want to make sure I dont miss anybody. Will publish them next week.

Above: And this is what the initial sketches of Mirai-chan where like.

Above: The new mirai mark for ecchi stuff ^^;
By Danny Choo on 2008/04/13 19:15

Code Geass R2

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 09:59:00 +0900

The Geass girls (and boys) are back taking the prime time 5PM slot on TBS - the start of the second season Code Geass R2 aired last Sunday.

Those who have seen the first season and still have yet to watch EP1 may find these screencaps as spoilers in which case you may want to have a look at idols instead.

Description below straight from Anime News Network.

It's been one year since the failure of the Black Rebellion and the supposed death of Zero. Britannia has assigned Area 11 a "correctional education" status, where Elevens are made an example of by brute force, to try to prevent any future uprisings and suppress rebellious thoughts.
Unsuspecting high school student Lelouch, oblivious to his rebellious past as Zero, stumbles upon a scheme on his life and the life of a mysterious woman known as C.C., who reveals to him his forgotten purpose and his "true" self.
Destroying his assailants and declaring himself Zero once again, Lelouch sets out to finish what he started.

While the quality of many anime titles deteriorate over time, one of the things that I really appreciate about Code Geass is the quality of the production - the story, BGM and animation have been great so far and R2 EP1 looks like more of the same goodness. The high quality could be because of the extra sponsorship from Pizza Hut and internet provider Biglobe - the ad placements in the anime are incredibly unnatural - maybe they do that on purpose so that you notice them.

A few comrades who work in the anime business tell me that its difficult to keep the production quality high throughout an entire series due to high production costs. This is the reason why many shows start off with great quality (to pull in the punters) and then slowly become crap over time but as long as the story is good then the punters (theoretically) stay on. A good example was Speed Grapher - enjoyed the whole series but the quality of animation became seriously dodgy at times.
How important is the quality of animation for you? Do you drop shows if the quality drops?

And in case you was wondering - animation companies make barely nothing by just airing the show on TV - the money comes from DVD sales, merchandise and licensing.

Anyway, back to Geass. If you like Mecha, nice girlies, nice boys and a story on a grand scale then Geass is right up your alley - well worth investing some time to check it out.
OP below.

Code Geass R2 EP1 part1. All parts subbed in English.

Code Geass R2 EP1 part2.

Code Geass R2 EP1 part3.

By Danny Choo on 2008/04/10 08:59

To Love-Ru

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 11:11:00 +0900

The show that I've been waiting for ages went on air last week - To Love-Ru which is pronounced in Japanese as "Toraburu" meaning "trouble."

Been looking forward to this show ever since I started to slowly go through the manga although the trailer did have some dodgy animation.
The show did start with some extremely dodgy animation but soon picked up after seeing the girls Lala and Haruna.

The show is described as "an ecchi love comedy" where a pink haired girl called Lala runs away from her home planet fed up of her father trying to arrange marriages for her. Lala lands on Earth and warps into a bath where the main guy in the show called Rito is caring for his dolphin. Lala falls for Rito and decides they should get married. But Rito has been in lurve with not his dolphin (well only at night) but with the purple haired girl called Haruna...

Those who have been reading the manga will notice that while the story mostly follows the manga, there are some bits here n there which are different. The one thing that you wont see in the Anime version no matter how hard you try looking is the pupil of those huge bouncy eyes...
Overall I rate this show 9 out of 10 dolphins - minus one dolphin as the animation could be better.
OP and ED below.

The whole of EP1 below separated into 3 vids.

By Danny Choo on 2008/04/08 10:11

Destiny Haruhi

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:23:00 +0900

Introducing the ZGMF-X42HZ Destiny Haruhi.

Until I started to play around with the Figma series by comrades Max Factory and GoodSmile, I wasn't too sure about the elbow joint in particular which looked kinda large in photos. The joints however don't look at all bad and I think its the way the light bounces off the joints in a photo.

This Figma is actually Yuki's body - the Haruhi one that is due out has bigger eyes ^^;

The Destiny parts are from my GFF Destiny. I used some Blu Tac to keep on the wings and other bits n pieces. I think I want to keep Haruhi like this so I got an excuse to get the MG Destiny.

What I like about the Figmas is that they are portable which is why I carry her around with me most of the time.

You can look for the Figma series and GFF Destiny on one of the following recommended dannychoo.com partner sites. As for the blu-tac, if you cant get hold of some then just start to save the bogies from your nostril.

Added a couple of these images to the Wallpaper Pool too.

By Danny Choo on 2008/04/07 10:23

Code Geass

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 00:33:00 +0900

Now that April the 1st is over in *all* time zones, we can resume with the regular articles starting with the last bit of the Tokyo Anime Fair 2008.
Before we start however, I should probably go over all the lies I've told so far ^^;

The first was Miracle Mirai - thanks to NitroPlus and Azami sensei for pulling this together in such a short time. And thanks to you for deciding the pose. Am preparing wallpaper and will stick it in the wallpaper pool soon.

The other April Fools was the MegaTokyo one. Many thanks to Fred for this one.

Other lies were, Suddenly acquired Candy Girl which is actually a photo taken by a friend of mine, Good Smile Udon, Sekai Days, Irem Zoo, Gundam live action movie (sorry), Zelda movie, and the final one was Tenga Giveaway where I only received 1 sample from Kanojo Toys. The good thing is that Tenga Giveaway post has 173 comments filled with links to health related sites - enough for a life time.

As you know there are readers from all over the world here and I wanted to make sure that everybody got a share of the April Fool shenanigans - not that any of you fell for any of the lies anyway - or did you? ^^;

Back to the TAF. Tis a case O Zeon mobile suits.

Case O Geass mechs.

More Geass mechas. Cant wait until this Sunday afternoon where Geass R2 finally comes back. Been missing the Geass Girls a lot.

Case O Geass goodies.

More Geass goodies.

And more.

The Keroro mecha "God Keron" - a review of this here.

SD Gundams. I know there are many Gundam modelers out there but any of you like the DS range too?

Gundam 00 card goodies.

A close up.

The ship with a name I cant spell unless I look it up.

HG Gundam goodies. Seems like the HG range are getting better in terms of articulation.

More HG goodies.

I must admit I'm behind on my Gunpla - this is a 1/100 and not an MG right?

Exia face kinda small.

GFF Exia.

Hmmm. I think I'm in need of a Bandai office tour.

Gundam trading figures.

Coolsome MS Igloo 2 poster. Has anybody been enjoying the igloo series?

By Danny Choo on 2008/04/03 23:33

MegaTokyo

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:35:00 +0900

Some of you may have already read at MegaTokyo and Anime News Network about MegaTokyo's acquisition of dannychoo.com.
A few words from Fred Gallagher below after the jump.

I am thrilled that our acquisition of dannychoo.com has closed.
With dannychoo.com, MegaTokyo now has the ability to use dannychoo.com's Mirai Gaia platform to launch localized versions of MegaTokyo with ease enabling us to make MegaTokyo a truly global household brand name.

As you may already know, MegaTokyo with the help of Japanese publisher Kodansha will be releasing Japanese language titles of MegaTokyo. dannychoo.com's Mirai Gaia web application will enable us to instantly create not only Japanese but French, Spanish and other localized online communities with a push of a button and at extremely low cost due to the automation and artificial intelligence systems available in the platform.

This acquisition also means that we will be able to bring you even more MegaTokyo - 3 times a day! The automation tools of the Mirai Gaia platform mean less time preparing content and more time available to do the illustrations.
We will also be working with Azami Yuko sensei to pro actively introduce Mirai-chan into MegaTokyo as one of Piro's secret admirers.
All the MegaTokyo websites will be merged into a global site entitled "Gaia Tokyo" and the user database for Mega Tokyo and dannychoo.com will be merged together to form an account that we are calling "Orion."

Danny will continue to serve as website manager of dannychoo.com for the forseeable future and will be reporting directly to me.

You can read this message and more at MegaTokyo. A further press announcement by Kodansha will be released later today.

I met Fred a while ago when he was in talks with my comrades at Kodansha. We discussed the business opportunities of the acquisition and agreed that it was in the interests of the users to go ahead with the move.

For dannychoo.com this means that the 5.1 million USD will be used to further develop the Mirai Gaia platform which will enrich the user experience and increase discoverability features for the first time visitor.

For those who read MegaTokyo regularly will notice how Fred (kind of) dropped a hint about our parnership by sketching me in armor in "A Better Choice" below.

Please don't be alarmed at this move as you can rest assured that the schedule of figures, office tours and other otaku shenanigans will continue live from Tokyo by me ^^;
I would like to thank all who made this possible and especially thank readers of dannychoo.com.

By Danny Choo on 2008/04/02 19:35

Anime Merchandise

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:30:00 +0900

Next up from the Tokyo Anime Fair are the goodies that you can either buy or receive.

After lunch I forgot to go back to this stall to pick up these mini dakimakuras - they are small n cute! Sold for about 1,500 yen at the show but usually retail for about 2,700 yen. Gah.

Very comfy CLANNAD pillow.

Mini dakimakura of Konomi-chan.

More sheets and dakimakura to keep you company on those cold ronery nights.

Girl with red hair is nice - name that girl.

Ikkitousen girls and co.

More pillow action.

ToHeart wall scroll.

Happiness pencil board. I think I want this to be the next pose for Mirai-chan.

More pencil boards. For those who dont know, these are hard plastic boards called Shita Jiki which are traditionally used by students to place under a sheet of paper for when they are writing or drawing.

I used to wonder why these are so popular with otaku and then came to a conclusion why - this is why.

Tezuka goodies.

Mirai to be printed on toilet paper is the last thing I would authorize ^^;

Naruto Gachapon goodies.

This is what I set out to the show with.

And this is what I came back with ^^;

If you are going tomorrow on the last day then make sure you go through every nook and cranny to pick up all the goodies available.

All this stuff was free. Good Smile were handing out Penguin Musume stickers which will only be available at the show - or Yahoo Auction after I guess.

If you have a blog/site with a reasonable (100 unique daily) amount of readers, just turn up on business day and hand in a business card to get in. No need to pre register although they say they require it.

Press folks got free drinks too - Akibaos who I was with picked up 4 bottles ^^; Not sure if they were handing them out today though.

The Tokyo Anime Fair is just about the only major anime event (that I know of) but I know that there are anime events all over the world. Good Smile will be attending some in the US soon too.
What sort of anime events are there in your region and how good/bad are they? Have you attended any before and will you be attending any this year?

By Danny Choo on 2008/03/30 09:30

Anime

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:28:00 +0900

Next we take a look at some of the new anime shows for the next and future seasons.

First up is Vampire Knight - a load of nice boys who look like girls - or they could be girls that look like boys. I hear Admiral Akbar. Vampire Knight starts April 7th.

The press kit that I got says that a new series of Blue Dragon starts in April but also says that its showing now - me confused. OP below.

Natsume Yujin Cho starts in July. Not much detail on the official site and didn't see a trailer but it looks very Hagaren to me.

Special A was at the Gonzo booth - looked like one for the ladies as its full of nice looking lads.

Blassreiter by Gonzo and NitroPlus airs next month.

The director of Ghost Shell SAC and Innocence brings us The Sky Crawlers - out in theaters across Japan on the 2nd of August.

Line Barrels makes it from manga to anime. Dont know much about it but its got huge mechas and nice girlies = must watch. The trailer looked good too but I forgot to record it ^^; Airs this Autumn.

Haoh continues the Fist of the North Star series. Not sure if its set before or after but I see a nice girlie who looks like Juliet = also must watch.

Soul Eater airs 7th of April - a BONES production.

Starting in April is Library War, Allison and Lillia and Oinarisama. Allison and Lillia PV below. Girls and planes - count me in.

Disney wants in with Robo Crosser - due in spring 2009!

More handsome lads in Kyo kara Mao - Airs on April 3rd. Dont know anything about this show but a search on YouTube brings up an OP for the "second season" below.

The Ikkitousen trailer they had showing looked pretty much like a hentai video...

Ryoko's Case File makes it to anime - airs this summer.

More Soul Eater goodies.

Cant wait until next week for To Love Ru. "Oppai Banzai" as they say in this part of the woods.

Necro Dragon - no relevant search results...

Xamdou another BONES show.

Hmmm. Most of these shows are manga > Anime just like this one - title is Kannnagi.

Has nice girlies which cant be a bad thing.

And a lookie at the manga version.

Disneys Hatsune Mickey.

Lighting was quite dark which my camera (or I) cant handle very well orz.

Crystal Blaze airs next month. Guns and naked girls? Sounds good to me. PV below.

Some 3D show by RedRover called Dandy. Merchandise looks cool ^^;

Tetsuwan Birdy that we talked about yesterday.

By Danny Choo on 2008/03/29 09:28

Production IG

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:08:00 +0900

Next up from yesterdays Tokyo Anime Fair is a new show called RD Senno Chosashitsu being brought to us by the folks who gave us Ghost in the Shell - Masamune Shirow with Production IG.

Set in 2061 where humans can share their thoughts through some sort of network. Peoples memories go missing and wot not which sounds very Ghost in the Shell - a good thing! Goes on air next month.
The trailer below which I took yesterday.

And this is Holon - an android who appears in RD Senno Chosashitsu.
Shes produced by Kokoro who are in the android business and you can see a bit of her in the clip above. Another one of Kokoro's androids below which you may have seen before.

By Danny Choo on 2008/03/29 01:08