At least until Horriblesubs started routinely plundering Funimation and Crunchyroll, our hobby depended on a slender thread.
All the shows we watch(ed) were originally captured off broadcast by Japanese hobbyists who then posted their grabs onto Japanese torrents.
Next step in the pipeline was Americans who knew enough Japanese to be able to navigate the Japanese torrents, and repost them to English-language trackers. (Like LeopardRaws.)
And then various sub groups did translation and subbing. But ultimately it all began with those anonymous (I hope!) Japanese dudes who grabbed the stuff in the first place.
Or... bought BDs when they came out, took them home and ripped them, and then sold them back (at a discount) to the store. I gather a lot of that has happened.
Every once in a while we hear that the Japanese police have pounced on one such guy and he ends up in prison, but it keeps going without him.
But not always. Dog Days 3 is out now completely on BD, but only the first one ever showed up here even as a raw, let alone as a translation. That's disturbing.
Even more disturbing, to me, is that Nanoha Vivid never came out on BD at all. I wonder why?
(Perhaps it's also disturbing how comfortable I've become with being a pirate.)
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Ha! That chain is positively robust compared to the old old model. At that point you were relying on people to buy expensive laserdiscs in person in Japan (if you were lucky) or to make VHS copies from someone else's LDs (if you were less lucky) or to make VHS copies of someone else's VHS copies... then to time them using a genlock and a couple of VCRs, then to actually GET them you put some VHS tapes in the mail and, if your luck held out, months later you'd get an n-th generation copy translated by someone whose first language was, quite often, neither English nor Japanese.
The shift to digital massively reduced the amount of individual effort involved for everyone in the chain save the translator (helped them out too, but not so much).
I hear you on the pirate thing. Had a different opinion back in the day when the shoe was on the other foot, and I still certainly don't MIND paying for things (I subscribe to both Crunchy and Funi). But I don't mind hopping onto the torrents when the streaming doesn't provide, and while I'll go back and pick up discs later on, I don't do it a whole lot (of course I don't need to torrent much and most of that doesn't hit here anyway...) But in the absence of that, it's not like I'd be spending more...
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at November 08, 2015 01:25 AM (v29Tn)
I have never been tempted to vandalize my body that way. (Of course, I've never vandalized anything else, either.)
But of course, one of the reasons each generation has strange fashions is in order to scandalize the prior generation, which is one of the reasons I had long hair when I was in my 20's. (Also, because it was strawberry blonde and looked really good.)
So in keeping with that principle, I'm always a bit scandalized when I see a tattoo on a pretty girl, like this one:
This one is particularly annoying because it doesn't mean anything. Bad enough that she's vandalizing herself, but she's doing it with nonsense. It's not proper Japanese, and I think it doesn't mean anything in Chinese either.
As best I can tell it's this:
æ— ä½¿
Which isn't a proper word or sentence in Japanese.
使 is pronounced tsuka and it means "use" but it never appears in Japanese without a hiragana ending. (Such as 使ㄠtsukai which means "user" among many other things.)
So if æ— ä½¿ means anything at all, it would be "useless". Why would someone want that on their skin?
grumble dumb kids grumble
UPDATE: They say a sure sign that you're getting old is when you begin to obsess about the moral failings of the younger generation, and I passed that particular hurdle a long time ago.
UPDATE: I read the first kanji wrong. See comments.
1
A few things.
1) You don't have to be old to be bothered by tattoos. It's always ugly.
2) Tattoos on a Woman is a huge red flag. If it's the "tramp stamp" variety, make adjustments accordingly.
3) It's a trend for a lot of very ugly reasons that has little to with rejecting the previous generation. It mostly ties in with point #2, but I don't want to derail your post with a discussion of it.
I stand corrected. You're right about the first kanji.
It's still ugly.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at November 06, 2015 10:58 PM (+rSRq)
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Honestly, I was just surprised not to see facial piercings. Once they start decorating desecrating, they usually don't stop with just one style.
And, yeah, horribly-drawn kanji, by someone who owned a brush but had no idea how characters are formed. I've got a shovelware disc full of cheesy Japanese display fonts, and not even those managed to replace a single horizontal stroke with a pair of tentacles.
Although a proper tentacle-kanji font would be useful occasionally...
-j
Posted by: J Greely at November 06, 2015 11:34 PM (ZlYZd)
4
I've found that, when I need to work out a Kanji, it's normally best to go with Stroke Count. I've found this page pretty useful. If you can figure out the Stroke Count or the major Radical, you can work back most any kanij. No matter how badly written. (This has been important before)
Most of the trend, in piercings, has actually dialed back since the 90s. The belly-button one seems to be the "in" thing. When mixed with the side or shoulder tattoos, they're only visible in either beachwear or "really should be wearing more" party wear. Which just goes to the signaling acting as intended.
Posted by: sqa at November 07, 2015 01:32 AM (97YUU)
I've been using a program called "JWPCE" to identify kanji, and yes, it does support stroke count. There's also a mechanism for doing that at Nihongodict (click "Kanji Lookup").
I have been using stroke count for years.
Stroke count wouldn't have saved me this time. Both the right kanji and the wrong one I found were 4 strokes.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at November 07, 2015 08:08 AM (+rSRq)
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Once upon a time at the Duck U Bookstore, I asked a very pretty girl why she had gotten so heavily inked... I mean, she was working on a full sleeve, plus many others. Her response was "I want to personalize my body."
Which was probably the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It's your body, it's already "personalized".
I wanted to scream at her. Instead I thanked her for answering and gave her her change. Then I went back into my office and wept for the future of the world.
Posted by: Wonderduck at November 07, 2015 08:35 AM (a12rG)
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This post needs a mention of Stephen Lynch's "Tattoo" song (which is nsfw, an available several places on youtube). It does have a verse about bad Kanji/Hanzi tattoos.
Posted by: Mikeski at November 07, 2015 07:11 PM (hAtXl)
Neregate has started working on their guide for the upcoming Winter 2015 season. It's far from complete, but there are a lot of entries already. So what surprises do we have in store for us?
Never let it be said that they don't imitate as well as Hollywood does. Since a show about baritones (Euphonia? I never heard that word until just recently) was a success, now we're going to get one about flutes.
The unkillable yellow blob of a teacher is getting another series.
Mukashi mukashi there was a horror series called "SoulTaker". One of the characters in it was a cute girl named Komugi, and they ended up producing a comedy OVA about her called "Nurse Witch Komugi" which was mostly fan service. After which another OVA was produced. Now they're going to make a full cour series about her. Presumably it's still going to be cute-girls-doing-fan-service. (Reminds me of Triangle Heart and the Nanoha canon, but I doubt it will be that good.)
And... we get another GATE series. This is the only thing I saw that actively excited me, even though I know the story it's going to tell (from the manga).
"Ao no Kanata no Four Rhythm": there's a double-talk invention of shoes you can wear that permit you to fly. It spawns a sport where people compete. In addition to Our Hero the cast includes four cute girls with nice figures and short flouncy skirts, all of whom have flying shoes. So... how many panty shots will the series give us?
As I write this, the "characters" section of that web site has the four main girls but doesn't have Our Hero, so he can't be very important. Will we have an attack of Magic Skirts?
This could be the fan-service jackpot of the season or it could be a complete waste of time.
Magic skirts don't automatically ruin a series (see e.g. Mouretsu Pirates) but it means you can't rely on fan service to carry the show so you need excellent characterization and superb story telling (see e.g. Mouretsu Pirates). It isn't likely that this one will be that good (few series are), so if they also have magic skirts I probably won't watch more than one episode.
So, let's check in on the doings of our girls-who-are-not-Hinako, shall we? Exercise girl #4 is named Shion, and her thing is yoga.
Her thing is also being batshit crazy. She pretends she is a fallen angel, sent to destroy the planet, and her yoga poses are actions involved in hunting and destroying evil, or something like that.
One of the ways we know she's a fallen angel is that she has heterochromia. Except...
She doesn't, really. She likes to think that her left eye is blue, but if you look again at the first picture you'll notice that it's actually green. Turns out it's a colored contact lense and she was wearing the wrong one. Once she notices she quickly ducks off screen and when she comes back it's blue. And then we get more weirdness about how she was sent to destroy the planet but she's actually saving it.
This is the strangest one so far, and it makes me wonder what #5 (the last one) is going to be like.
According to the series web site, #5 is a meganekko, which could mean anything.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at November 03, 2015 05:32 PM (+rSRq)
3
No, that's something entirely different from a meganekko.
Posted by: Wonderduck at November 03, 2015 06:43 PM (a12rG)
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Ah, chuuni... I'll pass on the yoga, though, thanks all the same. I'd say "I'm not that flexible anymore" but I'm not sure I was to start with!
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at November 03, 2015 08:16 PM (/lg1c)
5
I used to be. Of course, now I'm at the part of my life where I get to enjoy the reason they call "hypermobility syndrome" a "syndrome". (Yum, naproxin!)
On the bright side, you get a CCW permit here in SC, you can carry a sword cane legally!
More plot than Hinanko, but I think they kind of lost track of the point of it.
Posted by: Brett Bellmore at November 04, 2015 02:35 AM (l55xw)
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I don't think there was ever a time when I could do this, but if I tried it now (since my stroke) I'd probably die.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at November 04, 2015 01:10 PM (+rSRq)
I stocked up on candy again this year, but I don't know why I bothered. I have never gotten more than one group of kids any previous year, and last year I didn't get any. The weather forecast is "heavy rain" today and tonight, and I bet I don't get anyone this time, either.
UPDATE: 2PM and it is pouring out. I'm sure I won't get anyone.
We usually have a group of ducks which winter-over here, but I haven't seen any for a couple of weeks and I think they went south this time. I haven't been feeding them for the last couple of months because I learned something.
It isn't the change of the seasons that makes them migrate, it's hunger. When the food fails, they head south. If the food doesn't fail, they don't.
Which makes perfect sense, but it means that when people like me feed them in September and October, we're stuck with them for the entire winter because we're responsible.
As to the rain, it's been heavy for about four hours, and the creek has risen about a foot and is moving fast. It's pouring through a hole in the most recent beaver dam that our handyman tore in it a few days ago.
It's still raining now but not as heavily. I still don't expect to get any visitors.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 31, 2015 03:29 PM (+rSRq)
There was a group of geese that wintered over here last year, and we had a huge group of them which were living in my part of the yard for most of the summer, with at least four groups of goslings. Then, one day, they just vanished. I guess the fledgelings finally were able to fly, and the whole group headed out for somewhere better. (There are a group of lakes a few miles west of here; that' s my guess as to where they went.)
About a month later a few of them showed up here again, for one day. And I haven't seen any since. I assume they've headed south too.
Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 31, 2015 04:06 PM (+rSRq)
You know, I keep reading J's horror stories about the crap that Amazon JP recommends for him, but I think they have got me wired.
I was just looking to see if they had the Mage figurine listed (they didn't), and there was a list of "DVD recommendations for you" on one of the pages.
The only real problem with it was that I already own a lot of it. First was Isshoni Bathing, and then several Aika and Rio Rainbow Gate disks, and Isshoni Sleeping.
Then there was a future release of Ani Tore EX on BD, and Seikoku no Dragonar, and some Ikki Tousen, and that was about three scrolls to the right. It wasn't until they started recommending yuri porn that they really were missing on my taste.
I don't understand why Aika R-16 was released on two disks; it was 3 episodes. Anyway, they were both in my list. (But I own a copy of the NA release.)
Also To Loveru Darkness, and Momo Kyun Sword, and OniAi (I wasn't interested in that one, but it's in the ballpark) and Queen's Blade, and is someone in Japan reading my mind?
It's actually pretty scary how good targeted advertising can get, especially since I've only bought a couple of things from Amazon JP. Apparently they're working along the lines of "People like you who bought Isshoni Sleeping also bought..."
UPDATE: I just checked my records and what I bought from them was the first two Rio Rainbow Gate BD's and all three BDs of Aika Zero. I own Isshoni Sleeping but I didn't get it from them.
So from that I guess they figured out that I like fanservice shows. Which I do.
1
No, it's Amazon US insane recommendations that I blog about; at the moment, the first 8 pages of Amazon JP's are cheesecake DVDs and photobooks, books on swords, and books featuring cheesecake and swords. I'm quite happy with this.
It's a difference in training; I've been building up a d0-not-want list on the US site for many years (with at least 25,000 items on it), forcing their system to resort to low-probability recommendations. But on the Japanese site, I make a small number of large purchases each year that are focused on specific types of items (cheesecake and swords, basically), and I've been much gentler with the do-not-want list.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at October 31, 2015 08:38 AM (ZlYZd)
2
Are Amazon JP and Amazon USA connected enough that they share customer information? If they are mixing in the stuff you've bought from American Amazon that could help their predictions.
Posted by: Boviate at November 02, 2015 03:40 PM (XRvFv)
3
My accounts are completely different on the three Amazons I use, and I've never seen any sign that they share customer data. I know the search engines for all of them are run by the same group in Palo Alto, but it looks like they don't cross the streams.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at November 02, 2015 09:11 PM (ZlYZd)
So they've announced the Mage figurine from the Bikini Warriors series. It will be available in January, in two versions. For about 13,000 yen is a regular version and for about 15,000 yen is a special limited edition, but I can't tell what the difference is between them; they both use exactly the same publicity shots.
I always thought the Mage was the cutest, and the figurine hasn't let me down. And, as expected, it's a castoff:
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http://www.animesuki.com/ is also available, but it's a wee bit annoying not to have tokyotoshoko.
Posted by: BigFire at October 30, 2015 06:05 PM (pNmmq)
2
Who would've thought that we'd get our first inkling about the resurgence in the Ukrainian fighting this way?!
[That was just a joke! I really hope I'm wrong.]
Posted by: RickC at October 30, 2015 06:11 PM (FvJAK)
A girl in Eastern Oregon has been diagnosed with Bubonic Plague (known historically as "The Black Death").
If you need me, I'll be hiding under my bed.
UPDATE: There isn't really any cause for concern. She got bit by a wild flea while hunting, and she's in Intensive Care undergoing treatment with antibiotics. They caught it in time and she'll probably be fine. Plague is a dreadful disease and she isn't going to have a fun time, but it isn't directly communicable.
But seeing this news report reminded me of the first FiresignTheater album.
...next time: more zombies! (sorry, I couldn't resist.)
Hey!
Posted by: Wonderduck at October 29, 2015 10:24 AM (a12rG)
2
Why does Itami's grenade seem to possess the same load of high explosives as a 81 mm mortar round? Or did his grenade set off the zombies' stash of explosives?
Posted by: cxt217 at October 29, 2015 07:55 PM (k1iQ0)
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I'm more impressed that the grenade fuze smokes, that's a detail seldom seen in old war movies, only ones I remember are Audie Murphy's autobiographical To Hell and Back (wrote the book, stared as himself in the movie, seems to have made sure the details were correct) and a B&W Battle of the Budge movie, although there might be more.
Posted by: hga at November 02, 2015 06:05 AM (5cTEf)
