So apparently a few people on that 2ch site are kind of angry at doujin circle Hachimitsu Kuma-san over a recent job posting on the circle’s site as well as on their mixi.

In essence, they are looking for someone to do odd jobs for them, basically filling in whatever need they have at the moment. A few more details:
*Must live within an hour of Omiya city in Chiba prefecture.
*Must be able to be on call even after midnight on days off.
*Will work for free. (this part is only mentioned on the mixi posting.)

Sounds like a dream job, right?

Well, apparently those nay-sayers at 2ch don’t think so. What a bunch of negative nancies! They’ve even gone so far as to post a lot of copy/pastes making some pretty harsh allegations about Hachikuma-san’s business practices, but you can find those on your own, or I’m sure some other blogger will post them as The Absolute Truth, cause 2ch kopipe is never wrong. Anyway, any of you folks out there thinking of applying?!

(via katoyu–)

Hey, reader, this doesn’t have much to do with the rest of this blog, but hear me out for a second.
The other day, I went to a doujin fair; you know, like Comiket?
Well anyways, there were an insane number of people there acting fairly normal.
Then I looked in the guidebook, and it said “no cosplay” in the rules.
What is this? How could this be?
Why would you come to an “anime convention” if there’s no cosplay?
It’s 700 yen, 7-0-0 YEN for crying out loud.
There are even entire families here. A family of four, coming to a doujin fair?
That’s when it hit me: this was not an “anime convention”.
In fact, there is nothing in Japan remotely resembling an “anime convention”.
Panels? Screenings? Aren’t these things really just a waste of time?
Maybe some people have no computers and spent their last $30 to watch some Mazinger-Z and listen to fat women talk about yaoi.
Maybe some of the congoers have no access to YouTube or Hulu, and are unable download podcasts.
But I’m betting most people come to meet other anime fans whom they already know.
I’m betting most people are doing something that they could do in private, but are doing it in public instead.
I’d like to interrogate these people. I’d like to interrogate them for roughly an hour.
I want to ask them, “are you sure you didn’t just pay $30 for the privilege of being an utter attention whore?”
Yes, you, wearing your T-shirt with the witty meme on it and talking awkwardly with other anime fans.
Do you really think you’re any better than the 8-year-old who wears his Naruto headband to the grocery store?
Actually, you’re worse, because you are a grown adult.
Why did you come to the anime convention?
Did you want to buy some shlock in the dealer’s hall?
Did you want to see funny costumes?
I’m going to show you how it’s done in Japan. I’m going to show you how the veterans do it.
In Japan, people have something called “modesty”. That’s right!
That’s right, modesty. That’s the vets’ way of convening anime fans.
You’ve gotta choose your purpose before you hold a meeting.
Do you want to get together with Internet friends?
Or do you want to see cosplay and buy merchandise?
It’s gotta be one or the other. Take your pick.
If you care about friends, you shouldn’t be coming to a convention at all.
Maybe you think the convention will give you and your friends something to do.
Here’s the reality: you will spend hours watching anime, which you can do at home.
You will spend less time going to panels. Maybe one of them is held by Surat. The others are pointless.
The time in between these two things will be spent looking at Penguin-of-Doom cosplayers and teenage boys.
Usually you can’t even drink at the convention.
Idiot! Why did you go in the first place?
So, don’t do such a thing.
You will waste your time and money.
If the thought even enters your mind, you should slap yourself out of it.
Here’s the way the pros do it: “offkai”.
It means a meeting, offline.
You and your friends can meet somewhere actually interesting, like someone’s house.
You will not play dress-up. Got it?
If you want to watch anime, you can do it there.
If you get bored of each others’ company, go to the zoo.
You saw it in Honey and Clover so you know it can be done.
This is the meaning of “offkai”.
Sometimes it just means a meeting for lunch at a family restaurant.
If you want to be Japanese really bad, you can do that too!
If your friends are from around the country, though, maybe that’s not such a good idea.
So, plan your “offkai” specially.
And what if you want to cosplay, or buy merchandise?
What they have in Japan is not an “anime convention”.
It’s called a “doujin fair”. Get it right!
Even English Wikipedia hasn’t figured that out yet.
The words “anime convention” or “animekai” are never used in Japanese.
What do you do at a doujin fair?
Well, you make your own artwork and bring it to sell.
There will be anywhere from 10 to 80 rows of artists selling their stuff.
You should be unassuming. Dress like a normal person.
If you can’t get your work printed with a cover, make a book on your copier.
Cosplay should take place outside the artists’ hall, if anywhere.
But, there’s a difficulty here.
There’s no such thing as a doujin fair in America.
Because your artwork blows.
You didn’t practice enough.
If you really want to, you can try to buy hall space and start a doujin fair.
But this takes a lot of money and time.
I wouldn’t recommend it for beginners.
So what this all really means is that you, my dear reader, should just stick with the anime music video contest.

I wasn’t going to post this originally since it seemed too out there, but now that Hagaren’s cast has changed I feel marginally more comfortable posting these completely unsourced rumors from a random 2ch post, many of which have already, by pure chance, come true! via yunakiti since I am a busy adult with no time to actually read 2ch

Munto will be 9 episodes long ○
Basquash getting aired on 10 channels across Japan, is 2 seasons long ○
Strike Witches S2 in 2010, based on the light novel ○
April Haruhi airing will be a mix of season 1 and season 2, aired in chronological order
Shangri-La will be 2 seasons long
Asura Cryin’ will be 2 seasons, one in Spring, one in Fall
Seitokai no Ichizon airing in July ○
Omamori Himari getting an anime adaptation ○　(this, Seitokai, and SW s2 were posted in late January)
Railgun getting an anime in 2010
The Final Negima OAD won’t be produced by SHAFT (? i might be reading this wrong)
Mangrove doing Seiken no Katanakaji
Many changed voice actors for the new season of Hagaren ○
Wolf and Spice s2 in July, 12 eps in all ○

I guess we have to sit back and see how this pans out! Maybe it’s all part of Kadokawa’s master plan. even this very blog post.

Now, recall that RapeLay was released in 2006, but mysteriously became big news starting on May 28.
Yesterday the investigation culminated with EOCS changing its regulations, by brute force, without a joint vote, to outlaw naughty games.
Who could have such political sway?
Especially with Taro Aso being a bizarrely intense force for promoting anime and manga,
and the Diet in general being completely ineffective since Koizumi retired.
The softhouses came up with a creative answer to this question.
Somehow, somewhere, a cabal of foreign politicians had convened to ban rape games.
They decided this without any evidence whatsoever.
Furthermore, since there was no public evidence that anyone outside Japan cared, this must have been a secret conspiracy!

Nevertheless, the softhouses responded with angry English messages.
Minori, who had always been xenophobic, blocked access to their website altogether, saying:

Now we will tell you the short detail about the reason why blocking you to this website, because of we, all Japanese EROGE makers were facing at the problem, the crisis of “Freedom of speech”.
Currently, The bill that allows to limiting the content (It is censorship. Isn’t it?) to all EROGEs is being discussed in the Diet because intellectuals and politicians said “Japanese EROGE were being problem and troubled with the foreign country.

Without a shred of evidence for this claim, they blocked all foreign access.
Meanwhile, VisualArt’s, who could use a foreign intern to fix the grammar of their name, posted the following message on their website (or it was hacked by an angry wotaku with the same intention):

PLEASE PLAY THE GAME OF YOUR COUNTRY IF YOU PRAY FOR THE WORLD PEACE!:-)?

Apparently dooming us to Leisure Suit Larry for the covert actions of the secret conspiracy of foreign politicians.
But over on Canned Dogs a link was posted to New Komeito’s English news website.
The news story is dated May 30 and reads: “New Komeito is actively pushing forward a ban on video games featuring sexual violence, consulting with police and inspecting Akihabara, the so-called mecca of electronic gaming in Tokyo.”
New Komeito (rhymes with “tomato”) is the political arm of Soka Gakkai, known as SGI in the United States.
Soka Gakkai is a “new religion” (新宗教) in Japan.
They believe in many bizarre things. They think they are the only true branch of Nichirenism, which is itself a diseased form of Buddhism.
They must believe that if they ban some kinds of ero games, then Japan will have a pure Western/Godly/Buddha culture.
Yes, the Diet in general is ineffective, but Japanese people cannot deny that new religions are quite effective in what they do.
So, do not turn your sights on foreign fans of your games, who eagerly translate your games into their own languages.
Instead, I demand that eroge makers target Soka Gakkai with the same ferocity they have targeted foreign audiences.
Oh, what’s that?
You only want to criticize people who are far away?
You’re too scared to talk about people who live close to you?
Well, how about that!

Some of my friends noted that I had sent ANN’s Answerman a thing in 2007 and he never published it, so I cussed him out on the ANN forums. Thanks to Gmail here it is. It’s kind of hilariously obvious trolling, and I guess he just didn’t take the bait, but I thought you might to read it anyway. Just skip this if you don’t care.

You know, there is one thing I really hate about anime fans. You know
what it is? I hate anime fans who hate on things.

I’m guilty of it. We’re all guilty of it. Most of us have read so much
randomly directed hate on the Internet that we have been fooled into
thinking that people will swayed by the presence and loudness of our
opinions, or believing that we need to whip them out of our pants to
show everyone how angry we can be. Nothing can be farther from the
truth. Reasoned criticism is great–I’m not questioning that. But when
you put down subtitles, or certain genres, or proclaim the inferiority
of some production studio, you are adding to the noise and drowning
out the signal.

It doesn’t matter if you run a blog, or write a column, or even if you
work for a licensor. You are, in fact, a nerd with an agenda. And
you’re pissing people off.

Take this example: Imagine you’re hitting it off with someone at a
con. This is an absurdly improbable situation, but stick with me for a
minute. You’ve met someone at a con, a friend or a possible
significant other, and you’re getting along pretty well. Feel free to
fantasize about this. You both discover that you like seinen anime, so
you recommend your new friend watch Honey & Clover. And then, all of a
sudden out of nowhere, your friend says “God, I hate Honey & Clover. I
can’t believe you watch that, it’s boring and plotless and horridly
ugly.”

How would you feel if a relative stranger dissed something you like so
dismissively? Maybe they’re trying to show you how sophisticated they
are, or demonstrate that they aren’t afraid to have different tastes.
They might feel like they’ve accomplished something in the
conversation. But you just feel kind of upset, or even annoyed. Such a
comment never gets you on someone’s good side–remember that the next
time you get the urge to put down someone’s musical tastes!

In real life you don’t have to think too hard to demonstrate to your
friend that he’s made a mistake. A comment like that is followed up
with a flurry of body language, probably some defensiveness on your
part, and then your friend would back down and move on. But on the
Internet, we don’t have that. All we have is some person who posts
“Honey & Clover is such a poorly produced schlockfest!” or “Nymphet is
the greatest manga ever made!” on a forum. No body language– no
modesty. Only a big, nasty opinion. You are powerless against their
ability to rant on the Internet, and if you leave it alone they will
have all the attention to themselves. All you can think is, “I can’t
let that one go!”

The temptation is to respond to the flamebait in kind, or use logic
and rhetoric to put them in their place. But you can’t win. Anime
arguments are based solely on our prejudices, not on the facts we
ground them in. You can argue back and forth, but the opinion will
merely manifest itself somewhere else. The Internet is too big to
declare victory, and the only way such debates end is when both sides
get tired. The proper response is to acknowledge your differences and
move on.

It doesn’t even matter if someone is trying to put down all anime.
“Anime is a cartoon, and cartoons are for children!” The correct
response is not “But Miyazaki, etc.” Your opponent will become
technical and escape the jaws of reason. The correct response is “So?”
This is just some random person. They don’t control your life. They
cannot force you to change your opinion.

The Internet has a lack of measured discussions analyzing anime and
games, and a severe overload of volunteered, useless opinions. If
you’re not observing particular issues, but simply making personal
judgments, detach yourself from the need to make the world over in
your image. Feel free to shut up and watch the anime.