Societal Impressions of Otaku, Gyudon, and Saikano Ultimate Edition

SOME CONTEXT : If you understand otaku, oteiku and all that just skip down to the main point

Here in America, Otaku has two meanings. The first is a "badge of honor" positive happy title for a anime fan. Used like : "OMG I'm such an otaku!!!!! I watch 50 episodes a week!". Cartoon network and shonen jump create many of these fans. Those people annoy me but are generally harmless and a lot are good people on the inside. Hereby referred to as oteiku because a lot of them simply can't pronounce otaku.

The other meaning is closer to the Japanese one : a nerdy introverted person who spends a lot on thier interests and likely has encyclopedic knowledge on thier favorite fandoms. Often having to try to explain their purchases to confused non-otaku friends and learns to keep quiet around non-otaku because explaining gets old. Stereotyped as socially-inept and a failure in life (not true in many many cases!) and close to the virgin DnD comic book nerd of American lore. The book/film Densha Otoko shows this well. Commonly but not exclusively used for anime fandoms. You can be a military otaku or a train otaku or any type of otaku your passion leads you to. Not a badge of honor: a fairly negative term.

For the sake of this blog I'll note Akiba-kei, Akihabara-type. A subset of otaku that hang around in Akihabara and like anime/games/etc. I prefer the term Akiba-kei when describing myself because it is more specific, less negative, and avoids possibility of confusion with oteiku.

THE MAIN POINT

I went to Book Off with Aki and I got the Saikano Live Action Ultimate Edition DVD. It will probably suck but I can't buy the standard edition for Saikano. I love it. Brilliant series. Aki bought a Junjo Romantica Boy's Love artbook (18+; Nice art ^_^). Then we went to Yoshinoya because it was a) right behind bookoff b)cheap c)not a burger. Aki takes the artbook inside and is paging through it while I order food. She's talking to me about the art when a lady employee walks behind our cashier:

Lady Employee : "Oh! Otaku! Shes a Japanese Otaku!"

Us: "........................"

Cashier: "Oh they're otaku. You're an otaku aren't you??"

We just kinda freeze at this point. They continue giggling or whatever (its hazy)

Me: " Uh... Yeah I'm an otaku... ^^;" *tries to laugh along and holds up Haruhi wallet* "Here's the money."

*gets change and sit down*

Yeaaaah.... the staff up right up laughed at us. For an artbook. An no it wasn't a "hey you like that stuff too?" kind of thing. I've gotten that at bookoff and its very different (and nice to see other eroge fans! :D). This was more of a "lets make fun of the stupid people" thing. Right to our faces, not in the breakroom later, but "oh they won't mind! if we talk about them while they try to buy lunch!". I don't think I've ever gotten worse customer service anywhere. I've been treated with more respect when getting lunch in cosplay.

But its Yoshinoya so I'll go back XP

UPDATE: Email customer service is gonna open a cup of whoop ass. After this post, I just forwarded it to them and said I like beef bowl. XD (cause its so good!)

Dear Ms. [name removed]:

Thank you for contacting Yoshinoya America, Inc.

I apologize for any inconvenience. It will be reported to the Store Manager at Kearny Mesa, as well as the District Manager right away so they can take the necessary precautions to prevent this from happening again.

We appreciate your feedback to continually improve our products and services.

Please do not hesitate to contact us in the future.

Thank you for choosing Yoshinoya and have a nice day.

[name removed]
Customer Relations Specialist
Yoshinoya America, Inc.
customerrelations@yoshinoyausa.com
[phone number removed]

LOVE SONG〈2002〉Saikano Artbook

LOVE SONG〈2002〉 (Big spirits comics special): 高橋 しん: Amazon.co.jp: 本

Another great find at Book Off! I went in to sell books and plump my wallet but instead found this gem for 14.50$. Now, I know the Amazon page says 'used and new' (and not shipping outside Japan) from 250yen BUT the copy I found has all of the first press bonuses (and the obi but I don't care about them), the first copy on Amazon with all of these items is 2800yen. Also the CD-ROM was unopened :D

What it comes with:
*A large gorgeous artbook by Takahashi Shin (duh XD)
*A4 size plastic card of the cover image with the logo disappearing depending the angle (lenticular)
*CD-ROM with voice clips, trailers, music, and comic to storyboard comparisons.
*B2 size double sized poster with a drawing by Takahashi on one size and the same image in the anime's style on the other.
*A special letter "by Chise" on her trademark diary paper (and a note saying said paper can be bought at Animate countrywide)

This is an amazing book.

Miku mania and top 5 bishojo

Well as you all know I finally bought the Miku nendoroid (2nd wave). She is amazingly cute, nendoroids consistently exceed my expectations despite this being my third.

Then I bought a copy of Livetune feat. Miku because CDJapan had the LB! long strap I've been infinitely backordered on with HLJ.

Then, (with a generous deal from my dad who admires all things in comic stores) I bought Kei Illustrations which among lots of pages of amazing art, has all of the offical Vocaloid2 drawings. It also smells of rosemary.

My top bishoujo (atm)
1) Hoshino Yumemi
2) Chi
3) Komari Kamikita
4) Chise
5)Hatsune Miku

Saikano Supplementary Volume : You and the Two of Them at the End of the World (?)

最終兵器彼女 外伝集 世界の果てには君と二人で

Bit shaky on that title translation ^^; but yes, this is a supplementary volume of Saikano!!! I found it unsuspectingly at my local Book Off (still one copy in stock at San Diego branch!) Several color parts for every story as well as a Saikano illustration gallery make this a nice buy :D

Stories included:

• わたしたちは散歩する （We go on a stroll) Chapter 4 : This is Shin Presents! 4 koma series chapter four. The chapters are seemingly not connected.
  
• 世界の果てには君と二人で。。。(Long title I am not typing it out）：This is a long story with a long name I haven't tried to power through yet. New cast and subtitle: "The Last Folk Song on This Little Planet" Set during the time of Saikano.
  
• LOVE　STORY,　KILLED. ： This one was published a couple years back around the anime announcement and quite a few fan translations can be found on the net. An excellent story.
• スター＊チャイルド　（Star Child) : Again I have not read this story yet (as I am lazy and have eroge to play) but seems likely to be an aftermath story.
  
• ギャラリ　「最終兵器彼女の世界」(Gallery : The World of She, The Ultimate Weapon)　Color art SinPre has made of Saikano since the release of Love Song 2002 artbook.
  

Don't expect to find this in English any time soon despite that Viz hold the license for the original 7 books.


She, The Ultimate Weapon, or Saikano is an amazing romantic seinen manga and I would highly recommend it to all mature fans but just as a reminder, Takahashi Shin puts the graphic in graphic novel as this series (including this supplementary volume) contains serious depictions of war and sex (sometimes together). XP

YesAsia goodies

A package came:

Nanatsuiro Drops Comic 3 : No suprise its the third volume. Jurisia (?) from the pS3 version is in it and thats kinda odd but its exactly what I expected. More 4 koma this time ones I haven't seen and a bonus chapter. (volume 2 had the strips from G's Festival which I have in large color pages already)

Shining stars bless * : Kaori Utatsuki's debut single. Kotoko provides some vocals also I think. The OP theme from Nanatsuiro Drops anime and a unplugged version of "I'm home". Karaoke of course. I opted against the Special Edition since a region 2 music video DVD didnt thrill me enough for YesAsia's markup.

Saishuu Heiki Kanojo ~The Last Summer Festival~ : Saikano drama album. I'm listening to it right now. Fun stuff but side stories all the same. Insert book had the transcript which is nice. Oddly the spine and obi had the title as "The Last Summer Vacation" despite the story starting with a school day. The fault of lazy quality checkers.

Kanon & AIR: Sky : This is an anthology of Kanon and Air sidestories and crossovers by Rei Izumi/Idumi. Izumi draws Hibiki's Magic (written by Jun Maeda) currently and has previously drawn .hack//The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet and the insert art for Natsume Kyosuke Fuurai Ki (Little Buster! Visual Guide Book). She seems to have a very friendly relation to Key and is drawing a corner for LBEX in Dengeki G's right now. This is a larger than average comic (like the Dengeki Comics EX line) and has nicer paper than any Japanese volume I have. Textured cover and a decent amount of color pages scattered throughout. A nice book!

Back from Japan!

I am back from Japan. Lots of fun, it is a very beautiful country especially Iwate prefecture.

Here is the manga/anime/moe/VN related loot list if anyone is interested:

• Gadget Trial - Like New for a bit over half price
• Higurashi no naku koro ni, and Kai and Rei. :3
  
• 2 Little Busters! trading microfiber towels
• Moe sound drop : maid
• Mugen Puchi Puchi moe version : Imouto
• Saikano dogtags (super cool)
  
• Foam leeks

And this is not technically a "Planetarian merchandise" but the fans of it ought to be interested. At the Miyazawa Kenji museum in Hanamaki I acquired a music box that plays "Song of the Rotating Spheres" composed obviously by Miyazawa Kenji and was used in Planetarian extensively.

Photos after massive work catchup.