Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is worthy of its amazingly ridiculous title, and Konami wants to make sure everyone gets a chance to try it out. Thus, a new price point has emerged, putting Revengeance at an even more tempting $29.99 and throwing in some free DLC for good measure.
The DLC Konami is offering includes the playable campaigns for both Jetstream Sam and Blade Wolf. Now anyone who has access to the game will be able to get their story modes for free on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.
Revengeance first hit Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 back in February. If you're still not sure it offers enough rowdiness to be worth even a meager 30 bones, you can head back and read the tag-team review by myself and Nate "Merciless" Ming.
On September 10, 2004, CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather dedicated five minutes of the telecast to address the brewing controversy around a 60 Minutes II report he had aired two days earlier. Featuring disputed documents from a former commander in the Texas Air National Guard, the 60 Minutes II report detailed the lingering questions about President Bush's service in a coveted state-side Guard unit during the height of the Vietnam War and how, despite his no-show service, Bush was awarded an honorable discharge.
Within hours of the report, conservative bloggers raised doubts about the documents' validity. The next day, mainstream outlets began airing their own doubts. With the network's credibility on the line, less than 48 hours after the initial report, Rather and CBS responded with a detailed defense of their reporting on its evening newscast, even though the Guard report aired on a different program, 60 Minutes II.
Rather's public defense was just one of many, high-profile actions the embattled network took in an effort to answer critics at the time. By September 20, CBS stopped defending the Guard report. It apologized for airing the segment and announced the creation of an outside panel to investigate what had gone wrong in the reporting process. In the end, four senior CBS producers were let go, 60 Minutes II was canceled, and Dan Rather was soon out as the Evening News anchor. (Rather still stands by his memo reporting.) However, CBS' independent review could not determine if the controversial Guard documents were forged. It did conclude however, there was no evidence the Guard story was driven by partisan considerations inside CBS.
CBS's frantic corporate response to the Guard controversy (which included blatant kowtowing to its partisan critics; see more below) stands in stark contrast to the network's utterly passive, non-response to the widening controversy surrounding the heavily-hyped60 Minutes report that aired on October 27 about the terrorist attacks on the U.S. compound in Benghazi in 2012.
That report has been plagued by problems, including obvious conflicts of interest and the more recent revelation that its star witness told contradictory tales about the terror attack and what he did as it unfolded that night.
The difference in the two crisis responses is striking in part because the underlying Guard story that CBS told about Bush failing to serve his duty has been proven to be true: In the spring of 1972, with 770 days left of required duty, then-Lt. Bush unilaterally decided that he was done fulfilling his military obligation and walked away from the Guard. That means CBS could have omitted the disputed documents from its Guard report and still told an accurate story about Bush's non-service.
But CBS's dubious Benghazi report revolved around already debunked allegations about why no U.S. military forces from outside Libya were sent to save the Americans at the besieged Benghazi compound. In other words, CBS's witness controversy is attached to an-already inaccurate Benghazi report, which makes the recent 60 Minutes' transgression more serious than the one that triggered the Guard frenzy.
Journalism veterans tellMedia Matters that CBS must address the glaring problems with its Benghazi report and the growing newsroom scandal. Yet the silence persists. So it's worth pondering why CBS responded so quickly, and energetically, to conservative critics in the wake of the Guard story, and why CBS feels comfortable ignoring those who point out gaping holes in its politically charged Benghazi report.
If CBS appointed another review panel this week, it would have a lot to examine.
CBS News' source for their discredited report on the Benghazi attack, Dylan Davies, accused Media Matters of conducting a coordinated smear campaign against him, while simultaneously admitting he falsified statements about his experience of the Benghazi attack.
On October 27, CBS' 60 Minutes featured "Morgan Jones," -- The Washington Post later revealed his real name, Dylan Davies -- a supposed "eyewitness" of the September 2012 attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities, who claimed that during the attack he scaled a wall of the compound, personally struck a terrorist in the face with his rifle butt, and later went to the Benghazi hospital to see Ambassador Chris Stevens' body.
The story he told CBS wildly diverged from the account he gave his superiors in an incident report that was obtained by TheWashington Post. According to the Post, Davies had previously filed a report with his security contractor employer saying that he "could not get anywhere near" the compound the night of the attack.
Now Davies is lashing out at his critics for identifying the inconsistencies in his various accounts of the attack. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Davies accused critics of conducting "a coordinated campaign to smear him":
Davies said he believed there was a coordinated campaign to smear him. This week, Media Matters, a progressive media watchdog, sent a public letter to CBS News asking it to retract the 60 Minutes Benghazi piece on the basis of the Washington Post article. On the Fox News Channel, reporter Adam Housley claimed on air this week that Davies asked for money in exchange for an interview. Davies denied this charge. 60 Minutes has stood by its reporting.
But in the same interview, Davies admitted to falsifying his incident report of the Benghazi attacks, undermining his credibility and calling into question his various accounts of the attack.
According to The Daily Beast, Davies explained that he had lied to his supervisor at the security contracting company Blue Mountain Group, "because he did not want his supervisor to know he had disobeyed his orders":
Davies said the version of the events contained in the incident report matched what he told his supervisor, called "Robert" in his book, who is a top Blue Mountain Group executive. Davies said he lied to Robert about his actions that night because he did not want his supervisor to know he had disobeyed his orders to stay at his villa.
The Daily Beast has redacted the true name of Robert out of his concern for his privacy.
"He told me under no circumstances was I to go up there. I respected him so much I did not want him to know that I had not listened to him," said Davies, referring to Robert. "I have not seen him since."
Davies also wrote in his book that Robert had instructed him not to go to the compound under any circumstances. Davies called Robert after going to the hospital, he said, but before his first visit to the compound on the night of Sept. 11. Davies says he told Robert the ambassador was dead but did not tell him what he was up to.
[...]
Executives at Blue Mountain Group, including Robert, did not respond to emails requesting comment.
In addition to his interview with CBS and the incident report, Davies claims he discussed the Benghazi attack with FBI and State Department officials. He has also written a memoir of the night titled The Embassy House. According to Davies, the incident report is the only account that is inconsistent, but his admission that he purposefully disobeyed and misled his employers calls into question the validity of his current version of the events that night.
Fox News revealed they had previously interviewed Davies as well, but ceased after he demanded money, a charge that Davies denied. Foreign Policy also reported that Davies' memoir was published by "Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, which is a part of CBS Corporation, which owns 60 Minutes -- a fact not disclosed in the 60 Minutes story."
For more on conservative media myths about the September 2012 attack, read The Benghazi Hoax, the new e-book by Media Matters' David Brock and Ari Rabin-Havt.
Orson Scott Card will not be seeing any profits from the Ender's Game movie. According to The Wrap, his deal was a straight payment for the movie rights, and that's it. So seeing or boycotting Ender's Game doesn't affect him or his money at all. Just FYI.
The Pacific Justice Institute (PJI) is a California-based anti-gay group that was recently caught fabricating a story about a transgender student harassing other students in a female restroom. The revelation is just the latest in PJI's history of manufacturing horror stories about efforts to protect LGBT youth in California schools - stories that are regularly touted on Fox News.
What Is The Pacific Justice Institute (PJI)?
PJI was established in 1997 by the organization's current president, Brad W. Dacus. According to the organization's website, PJI specializes in "the defense of religious freedom, parental rights, and other civil liberties."
While PJI bills itself as a generalist religious liberty advocacy group, the organization specializes in combating efforts to protect LGBT youth, especially in California's public schools. Since its inception, PJI has worked to stifle even the most modest efforts to make schools more welcoming environments for LGBT students, including:
Lobbying against a bill to ban ineffective "ex-gay" therapy for minors
Warning that "Name Calling Week" is secretly a plot to advance "overt pro-homosexual messages"
Attacking "Harvey Milk Day," named in honor of the gay rights icon, as forcing children to "focus on sexuality for an entire school day"
Claiming that letting students access LGBT websites at school would "increase access to porn"
Falsely stating that a bill requiring LGBT history to be taught in public schools would result in "LGBT indoctrination"
Advocating for students who speak out against homosexuality during the anti-bullying "Day of Silence"
Criticizing proposed curriculum to teach students not to use homophobic language
PJI's focus on LGBT youth is likely a product of Dacus's leadership. According to a 2009 profile on the group in the East Bay Express:
Such issues are of special interest to the institute and Dacus, who with his wife Susanne is the author of a book informing public-school teachers, students, and parents of "strategies to practically and legally evangelize your school." Titled Reclaim Your School, the book calls separation of church and state "the big lie" and covers everything from pastor visitations to special school-hours Bible study through which, Dacus writes, "a large number of students ... make commitments to receive Christ by the end of the year." [emphasis added]
Dacus gained notoriety during the 2008 battle over California's Proposition 8. While acting as an official spokesman at a "Yes on 8" rally, Dacus was filmed comparing the defeat of marriage equality to the defeat of Nazi Germany:
Since then, Dacus has become a mainstream voice of anti-LGBT fear mongering, peddling his beliefs to whatever major news outlet will have him. His commentary ranges from mere conservative misinformation - like claiming that overturning the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) might legalize incest - to outright homophobia and transphobia. He's called homosexuality "dangerous" and "destructive," claimed that "ex-gay" therapy is necessary to save youth from a "path of death and destruction," and asserted that LGBT History Month is a "serious propaganda month" to "market homosexuality" to young children.
In a study published last week at PLOS ONE, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania examined the language used in 75,000 Facebook profiles. After analyzing how people talk on social media and what they talk about, the researchers were able to make predictions for different ages, genders, and certain personality traits.
For example, the researchers found that they could predict a user’s gender with 92 percent accuracy. They could also guess a user’s age within three years more than half of the time.
One of the study's novel discoveries was that Introverts were more likely to talk about Japanese media like anime and manga.
Abstract
We analyzed 700 million words, phrases, and topic instances collected from the Facebook messages of 75,000 volunteers, who also took standard personality tests, and found striking variations in language with personality, gender, and age. In our open-vocabulary technique, the data itself drives a comprehensive exploration of language that distinguishes people, finding connections that are not captured with traditional closed-vocabulary word-category analyses. Our analyses shed new light on psychosocial processes yielding results that are face valid (e.g., subjects living in high elevations talk about the mountains), tie in with other research (e.g., neurotic people disproportionately use the phrase ‘sick of’ and the word ‘depressed’), suggest new hypotheses (e.g., an active life implies emotional stability), and give detailed insights (males use the possessive ‘my’ when mentioning their ‘wife’ or ‘girlfriend’ more often than females use ‘my’ with ‘husband’ or 'boyfriend’). To date, this represents the largest study, by an order of magnitude, of language and personality.
....
Our open-vocabulary analysis yields further insights into the behavioral residue of personality types beyond those from a priori word-category based approaches, giving unanticipated results (correlations between language and personality, gender, or age). For example, we make the novel discoveries that mentions of an assortment of social sports and life activities (such as basketball, snowboarding, church, meetings) correlate with emotional stability, and that introverts show an interest in Japanese media (such asanime, pokemon, manga and Japanese emoticons: ˆ_ˆ). Our inclusion of phrases in addition to words provided further insights (e.g. that males prefer to precede ‘girlfriend’ or ‘wife’ with the possessive ‘my’ significantly more than females do for ‘boyfriend’ or ‘husband’. Such correlations provide quantitative evidence for strong links between behavior, as revealed in language use, and psychosocial variables. In turn, these results suggest undertaking studies, such as directly measuring participation in activities in order to verify the link with emotional stability.
Words, phrases, and topics most distinguishing extraversion fromintroversion and neuroticism from emotional stability.
While many of our results confirm previous research, demonstrating the instrument's face validity, our word clouds also suggest new hypotheses. For example, Figure 6 (bottom-right) shows language related to emotional stability (low neuroticism). Emotionally stable individuals wrote about enjoyable social activities that may foster greater emotional stability, such as ‘sports’, ‘vacation’, ‘beach’, ‘church’, ‘team’, and a family time topic. Additionally, results suggest that introverts are interested in Japanese media (e.g. ‘anime’, ‘manga’, ‘japanese’, Japanese style emoticons: ˆ_ˆ, and an anime topic) and that those low in openness drive the use of shorthands in social media (e.g. ‘2day’, ‘ur’, ‘every 1’). Although these are only language correlations, they show how open-vocabulary analyses can illuminate areas to explore further.
The internet is filled with sequentially numbered, attention-getting listsicles all claiming to be the authoritative judgment on the top fifteen party schools to visit after you master your five best workouts or the twenty-five movies you must not fail to see with the ten people you meet when you die. And here at Let’s Anime we’re just as lame, even though our focus is classic Japanese cartoons. So here’s an exhaustively researched, completely subjective and arbitrary list of the Top Ten Least Essential OVAs That Honestly, You Don’t Need To Watch. You can safely go on about your life without ever having wasted your time watching these 1980s Japanese anime OVAs; other than filling the shelves of neighborhood video rental shops, they are inconsequential in every sense of the word. Some of them are bad, some of them are boring, and others make no sense whatsoever, their only common denominator being their total uselessness. And remember, like every other stupid list you find on the internets, this is completely arbitrary, subject only to the reviewer’s whimsical notions, and may not reflect your personal taste or reality in any way whatsoever.
Headbands are an essential part of your 1980s fashion
Cosmos Pink Shock - 7-21-1986 This one’s a lightweight and knows it, but the great Toshiki “Iczer One” Hiranois here at the height of his powers, giving us the story of Michi, a space leotard girl who blasts across a goofy universe in her ship, the Pink Shock, in pursuit of her boyfriend. It’s got good AIC animation, some gags – not great gags, but gags nonetheless – and cultural references that we didn’t get in the 80s because our knowledge of Japan was limited to Robotech, ninja movies and metal robot toys. It’s the OVA equivalent of a 12” remix by Bananarama or the Mary Jane Girls – a perfect artifact of its time whose greatest virtue is being a perfect artifact of its time.
Dead Heat - 8-7-1987In the future, auto racing is known as ‘FX’ and the drivers don’t drive cars, they drive car-robot hybrid vehicles, and they don’t just race, they grapple with each other as they go around the track. Seems like a lot of mechanical engineering simply to replicate roller derby, but who am I to argue with the future? This Sunrise OVA is of interest mostly to people who for some reason are unable to watch either roller derby or auto racing, and who wonder if our hero Makoto will win the big race so he can take his surprisingly male-looking girlfriend to a love hotel. If you had a dedicated 3D compatible VHD player with 3D glasses, you could watch Dead Heat in thrilling 3D, with the exciting bonus of witnessing an extra character who was only visible in 3D. Legend has it this character holds up a sign marked with the Japanese characters for “sucker”.
Makoto and "girlfriend"
Elf 17 - 1-4-1987 Based on the manga by Atsuji Yamamoto, Elf 17is a cutesy lightweight romp through the galaxy as our title character, the strongest little teenage girl elf in the universe, teams up with the eccentric zillionaire prince Mascot Tyler and the battle-suit otaku K.K. as they battle their way through the pro-wrestling areas of outer space. This airy trifle comes complete with giant walking tanuki statues and a Mitokomon reference, and it completely misrepresents Yamamoto’s manga work, which started off kinda lurid and just got more lurid with time. Later Yamamoto works include “Battle Goddess” and the super bloody, ultra lurid “Arnis In Sword Land.” Yamamoto also provided the story for another completely non-essential OVA, Ultimate Teacher.
Ruu, aka Elf 17, will kick your ass
Phantom Gentleman aka Dream Detective Gentleman (Mugen Shinshi: Boken Katsugeki Hen) - 2-21-1987 Mamiya Mugen is a famous detective, a famous, kinda girly-looking kid detective, who works in a weird retro 1930s Japan. Strange kidnappers target club dancer Atsuko “Akko” Fukune - but Mugen is on the case to protect Tokyo’s exotic dancers! This 49 minute video mixes cutesy character designs with what you’re led to believe is going to be some kind of detective story but instead detours into magical relics, mythical monsters, and Indiana Jones-style adventure, but all the busty dancing girls or archeological destruction can’t help make this inexplicable film any more explicable. If we were Japanese we’d be familiar with the popular Mugen Shinshi manga by Yosuke Takahashi, but his eerily sensual pen line failed utterly to make the transition to this anime.
underage drinkin', underage detectin'
Roots Search - 9-10-1986This one is bad and it should feel bad. Roots Search, aka “Life Devourer X”, is like something a dollar store or a truck stop chain would produce to cash in on what they heard was the exciting new “Japanimation” fad, like something you find hundreds of dumped at a Goodwill for a tax loss; poorly animated, badly designed characters wander through various spaceships having ESP visions and dodging a horrifying vagina dentata alien that murders astronauts. And then it just ends, denying the remaining few viewers any sort of closure. This one is by some of the same people that brought us Crystal Triangle, another really terrible OVA that at least has an ending.
Good Morning Althea - 12-16-1987 This might be the exact point where Japan just gave up and decided to just throw mechanical designs at their OVA projects in the hope that the resulting confusion would resolve itself into some kind of interesting pattern. This is the sort of OVA you watch without subtitles and naturally assume that what’s going on makes sense and is in some way purposeful and of interest, and then later somebody fansubs it and you find out that the pattern your brain attempted to impose upon it actually made more sense than what was originally intended. There’s a spaceship, there are robots, there are people in robots fighting other people in robots from another spaceship. Somebody wakes up.
rise and shine Althea
The Humanoid - 3-5-1986If you spent any time in the 1980s you’ll recognize his work: the shiny airbrush work of Hajime Sorayama appeared on the covers of Playboy and Heavy Metal and on album covers for bands like The Cars and Aerosmith. And if you find the idea of a shiny metal woman interesting enough to support a 40-minute animated video, then The Humanoid is for you! Antoinette, the sexy robot in question, was built by Dr. Watson on the planet Lazeria, which is about to be destroyed by the evil Governor Proud, right when Dr. Watson’s daughter Sheri and her hunky fiancé Alan arrive. Terrible timing! Luckily, this all happens when Antoinette’s sexy robot heart starts to have robot feelings of love, and she uses her sexy robot power to save the day. This 40-minute time-waster has lackluster character designs, cheesy 80s ballads, and an inexplicable obsession with coffee.
Digital Devil Story (Megami Tensei)- 1987 Based on the Japanese horror novel series by Aya Nishitani, this one’s about a student computer genius, who’s also the reincarnation of an ancient Japanese deity, who uses his giant clunky 80s mainframe to summon up some horrifying devils. This involves some not-bad animation of a well-endowed teacher’s frilly brassiere heaving up and down as she becomes the conduit for horrifying monsters from another dimension to invade our world. Then giant piles of red goop start crushing students and a big blue hairy devil named Loki fights our student computer genius hero, who fights back with his reincarnated girlfriend and his magic sword and his pet devil animal throughout several alternate universes. If you want lots of mid 1980s computer technology and lots of scenes of people staring intently at old-fashioned CRT monitors, followed by hairy devils and magic swords, this is the one for you! The Hiroyuki Kitazume character designs aren’t bad, if you’re into that sort of thing. Apparently there are a lot of video games based on this novel, and I suspect they aren’t very essential either.
Chojiku Romanesque Samy – Missing 99 - 7-5-1986 Let’s see, what we have here is your typical everyday story of a typical anime schoolgirl who finds out she actually has amazing mystical powers that not only transport her into an amazing fantasy world but give her amazing super battle armor that doubles as a bikini. Raise your hands if you’ve seen this all before. Can she survive the attack of the reconstructed demon beast warriors in time to reveal her true Bodhisattva nature?
Girls Detective Club (KatsugekiShoujoTanteidan) - 11-25-1986 You’d think that a video starring three high school girls armed with automatic weapons battling an evil girl-genius with a giant flying battleship would be jam packed with the same sort of excitement and flash that made Project A-Ko such a success, but you’d be wrong. This stunningly boring piece of junk – from TMS, shockingly enough - limps from nonsensical setup to nonsensical setup, never explaining who these girls are, why they have a detective club, why one of them lives in a mansion filled with machine guns, or why this was animated in the first place. It feels like a Cream Lemon with all the sex removed, like an episode of Urusei Yatsura without gags, fun characters, or pleasant design, like a half hour of your life without anything productive or fulfilling accomplished. What purpose Girls Detective Club served other than clogging shelves down at Tsutaya Video is a mystery which I suppose we’ll need to hire a Girls Detective Club to solve.
get detecting, you
What’s that? I didn’t mention The Wanna-Bes or Twilight Q or Twinkle Heart or even Twinkle Rock Me Nora? Didn’t see your favorite least essential OVA listed here? Ready to take this to social media and tell the world how Let’s Anime arbitrarily ignored your favorite least essential OVA in its totally subjective list? Sure, why not. Make sure to let us know what YOUR time-wastingest OVA is, or was; maybe we can get another column out of ‘em.
I think everyone who saw the schedule has about the same though, “Why would I want to go to a panel about and AmerimangaHe-Man?” OK. I might be the only person who had that thought but I think most people who saw these panels assumed they were about some mediocre OEL manga titles with some talented American comic artists forced to ULTRA-ANIMIZE their artwork to try to capitalize on the long over manga boom. The only people who would be interested in the panel would be someone who was interested in one of the artists involved outside of the Masters of Animanga project. But that was not the case.
In actuality Kazuo Koike, Takashi Okazaki, Sin’Ichi Hiromoto, and Masao Maruyama were all on the panel. A panel of two well-known manga artists, one legendary manga artist, and one anime producer whose career is almost as old as modern anime itself. This was a surprisingly high-profile line-up. I think most major cons would love a row of anime and manga guests like that. And here they were not getting anywhere near the attention they deserved. There was some signage about it around the con so it was not totally unadvertised but I think the name alone turned away 80% of the people who would have normally flocked to such a panel.
These panels put on by Wikia win the award for worst names ever. I honestly think they were preventing people from coming; I know I skipped over them in the schedule at first. A name like Kazuo Koike shouldn’t be buried in the fine print and yet there he was.
Mr. Koike is one of the few manga-ka known by comic fans and could have easily filled a room to just chat about Lone Wolf and Cub. Instead, the Wikia panels were focusing on their latest venture which one might describe as hyper fan-fiction.
OK. Let me answer the one question most people reading this post want to know: Is Kazuo Koike the eccentric nut-job I expect him to be? The answer is YES.
As I have mentioned on the blog before some of the best Japanese guests are the old Japanese guests because they have gotten old enough that they no longer need to play as many silly political games. Therefore they can just shoot from the hip on any number of subjects that a younger professional would have to give generic non-answers to. Kazuo Koike proved he was the prototypical old Japanese guest.
Mr. Koike was sort of a hurricane. On both Wikia panels for the con he was the star of the stage. He would frequently interject on any subject that was brought up and the moderator was more there as a speed bump than any sort of driving force behind the conversation. Mr. Koike even grabbed the microphone to make the last statement on occasion.
The only person who really could stand toe to toe with the legend was Mr. Maruyama. The problem was Mr. Maruyama seemed sleepy on Friday. He was mostly very quiet and did not really answer any questions with major gusto. I assume a mixture of jet lag, fatigue, and the fact that he is not a spring chicken all combined to his somewhat muted presence. But after some rest (and probably some good food and alcohol) he was right up to speed on Saturday.
Takashi Okazaki and Sin’Ichi Hiromoto on the other hand were much more subdued both days. Most of the time they seemed content to let their seniors answer any questions they were not directly asked. Takashi Okazaki definitely had a real enthusiasm where as Sin’Ichi Hiromoto was much more laid back.
Wikia’s project which teamed fans with well-established creators to work on stories was, in concept, rather intriguing. A first, it sounded like a mentorship, but it was much larger than that. It involved hundreds of fans contributing to the Wikia site and growing stories out of the tidbits the creators set before them.
Luckily there was a video before the panel laying this out for me because I did not even know this project was happening. As an active participate in the anime and manga community, you’d think I’d have more knowledge of the project, but I didn’t. Perhaps I had just ignored it, on the other hand I don’t remember anyone I know mentioning it either. This project has gone pretty far with character designs and major plots having already been established, yet I can’t say anyone is really talking about it.
This was also reflected in the questions fans had. No one really seemed to have any interest in the project, but had lots of questions for Mr. Koike about his long career with a sprinkling of questions for the rest of the panel.
The Wikia representative asked questions pertaining to the project to start off the Q&A. This is where oddly enough, Mr. Koike decided to talk about how he doesn’t like doing collaborative work! He likes making all the decisions and not worrying about the opinion of others. Mr. Maruyama picked up on that thread and discussed that in anime production there is a lot more compromise because it isn’t just the manga-ka and the editor making choices.
Mr. Koike was very talkative the entire time which was a treat. He even regaled us with a story about his coming to San Diego Comic Con. Apparently, he tried to enter the United States with a samurai sword in his luggage. As you might imagine, customs detained him, asking questions for well over an hour. As one point, they finally just said, “Why did you try to bring this sword anyway?” and Mr. Koike simply replied “I am the creator of Lone Wolf and Cub.” They let him go.
The power of Mr. Koike.
He had some advice to a young artist wanting to make a career in Japan. Mr. Koike stated firstly that you must know Japanese inside and out, not just be able to speak it but really get the nuances of the language. He said he has had many Western students but they all eventually give up and go home. Then he amended at the end that perhaps in a few years that will not be the case considering how English is spreading and becoming a requirement for so many students.
We learned many things over the course of the two panels. Some of it was even occasionally about the Masters of Animanga project. I did not ever remember this existed. I mostly know Wikia as the place I go for very specific wikis about one show like the Type-Moon Wiki or the Index Wiki. I never really ever thought about the site having a community or doing projects like this. It is not that these things don’t happen but they were never something I pay any attention to.
But the idea of the project is to have well established manga creators give the Wikia community a premise for a story. Then people could contribute their own pieces to the story in an exquisite corpse style of writing. The three stories were The Fading Light: A Tale of Zan, Red Bat and TAO: Rize of the Ying-yang. The project has just ended so Wikia flew out some of the people involved. Sadly Yoshitaka Amano could not be there for the panel.
There are two vital facts you must take away from the panel. The first is that Masao Maruyama is a confessed lolicon. When Mr. Hiromoto asked why Mr. Maruyama wanted cute girls in his story he jokingly confessed it was all to satisfy his lolicon tendencies. The audience exploded with that statement in part becuase the translator bluntly interpreted that as pedophile. The translator tried to back peddle a bit after saying that but Masao Maruyama owned his statement like a boss.
The second is that Kazuo Koike considers Mad Bull 34 a pleasant lighthearted comedy with some dashes of sexy as opposed to his normal darker stories If you look at his body of work that all makes sense but I think it is still an amazing telling remark about that sort of writer and human being he is. We also learned from that same question that he is currently watching Castle and Criminal Minds and is a fan of police procedural shows in general. I personally believe the watches Castle for sexyNathan Fillion.
The most important part of the discussion was Kazuo Koike insistence that good characters will lead to good stories. When ever he was asked about writing stories that came up. He did note that trying to punch up a bland hero is useless. A good writer will flesh out a great villain with strong reasons for what he is doing to get the best story. It did make me wonder how much of the character based focus on modern anime comes from Kazuo Koike drilling this ethos into the students of his school. I’m sure he is not the sole reason for this shift but I do suspect he is a strong influence on the trend as well.
I appreciate Wikia bringing over some amazing guests, these are creators that have had major influences everywhere including in the United States. I just wish people had been more aware of who was going to be at these panels. I realize Wikia wanted to promote their project, but I think they missed out on bringing more people into their events by the way they were advertised.
In the end I learned more about the Masters of Animanga project in perpetration for this article than I did at the panels themselves.
But all of that was unimportant. The real value of the panels was being able to talk to manga-ka about their art. With more anime cons not willing to shelling out the time, money, and effort to bring over anyone in the manga business these opportunities are increasingly valuable.
Also I just relish the fact that I was able to directly speak to Kazuo Koike and other people who have disregard New York Comic Con would have dearly loved that opportunity. Schadenfreude at its best.
Move over G.I. Joe with your "Kung Fu" grip. After revolutionizing the field, Chara-ani has scheduled a second "New Bust Material" Senran Kagura figure. The busty ninja girl game/anime/manga series' Asuka will be followed by Ikaruga with the two figures coming in December and February respectively.
The two 1/8th scale, 19cm figures go for 12,000yen each.
Whether or not you're among the folks who consider Super Castlevania IV one of the series' best, you've at least got to admit the music is incredible. Besides, the localization also includes enemies like "Fred Askare" and "Paula Abghoul," so there's that.
The Belmont family's impressive Super Nintendo outing is getting ready to live once again on the Nintendo Wii U eShop. It's heading to Virtual Console just in time for Halloween on October 31, so relive some of its frights in the trailer below.
So far there's just an announcement and a small Berg Katze teaser on NTV's website, but a second season of unique superhero anime Gatchaman Crowds has been confirmed, with the title "Gatchaman Crowds Second."
Staff, schedule and other information are expected at a later date.
Another year of New York Comic Con bites the dust and with it comes the fourth installment of the Plus Prop Challenge. Started in 2010, the Plus Prop Challenge is based on walking around Artist Alley and getting various artists to draw the same character… with a prop. That character with another object. What that object is is completely up to the artist, making it a fun creative exercise.
For those of you who have no idea who Mayor Mike Haggar is, he comes from the Capcom video game series Final Fight. In it, he’s a semi-retired professional wrestler who went into politics and got elected Mayor of Metro City. The place is overrun with street crime, so Haggar’s gotten tough on it while proving that he won’t be swayed by bribes or threats. Then one day, he gets a message that his daughter Jessica has been kidnapped by the Mad Gear Gang. Rather than give into the ransom or bowing to the Mad Gear and their leader Belger, Haggar decides to take action. He gets Jessica’s boyfriend Cody and their mutual ninja friend Guy to join him in taking the streets and beating the shit out of everyone getting in their way, from militant nutjobs with grenades to transvestites to an entire family of Andre the Giants.
Haggar would go on to appear in a couple Final Fight sequels and a one-on-one fighting game spinoff for the Sega Saturn that nobody played. He showed up as a playable character in Capcom’s wrestling classic Saturday Night Slam Masters and its sequel. For years he’s only shown up in cameos until being brought back into the spotlight with Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
I’ve found that about 2/3 of the artists were familiar with Mike Haggar. Let’s see what they came up with.
Thanks again to all the awesome artists. Makes me want to smash open a drum with a pipe and feast on the delicious turkey simmering inside.Similar Posts:
Kill la Kill, the new anime from the creators of Gurren-Lagann and Inferno Cop, is pretty much living up to the huge amount of hype surrounding it. For me, there are a few areas pertaining to the visual element of the show which really stand out.
1) Kill la Kill excels at creative sight gags.
When it comes to works that are humorously absurd, often times we say they succeed despite themselves because the humor is because it takes itself seriously and doesn’t realize its own power. In contrast, we then say other works fail to capture this glory because they tried too hard. I find Kill la Kill generally hits that sweet spot where the humor is clearly intentional, but doesn’t go overboard in extending its jokes, so it’s even more possible to appreciate its cleverness.
Two scenes from episode 3 stick out in this respect. The first happens at the beginning of the fight between Ryuko and Satsuki, when their combined willpower literally blows away the surrounding bystanders. It’s a pretty typical sight in anime which wants to establish the sheer power of its primary characters. Then, in the next shot, Kill la Kill extends that sequence to the point of absurdity by having the bystanders’ bodies continuously flying through the air. The shot lasts for about 5 seconds, and during that time it’s easy to wonder if there are more bodies being blasted away than were actually standing there moments before.
The second is after the battle, when Satsuki says to Ryuko that in order to fight her she’ll have to go through her goons, her goons’ goons, and her goons’ goons’ goons. Kill la Kill sets the image up in a somewhat abstract fashion, much like one of those old dramatic Dezaki Osamu painted stills (which I just found out recently is called a “harmony” shot thanks to Anipages). Then, as the show switches to a bird’s eye point of view, you realize that Satsuki and all of her minions are actually standing there like they’re posing for a group photo.
These sight gags stretch their conventions just far enough to pull you out a bit, but neither of them overstay their welcome. Both of them use the screen to create strong images, which brings me to my next point.
2) Kill la Kill has strong image composition.
The series uses a lot of the extreme poses key to a Kanada Yoshinori-style animation, but even in still shots and pans Kill la Kill exhibits a lot of intelligence and creativity which both enhances the mood of the show while also encouraging an appreciation in the animation (or lack thereof).
This shot of Ryuko and the tennis club captain from episode 2 literally consists off two figures sliding and changing size against a background. There’s little to no animation, and yet the moment helps to create tension because the initial image of the two standing away from each other on the tennis court gradually turns into a face-to-face confrontation with the net acting as a visual separator between the two. I find it really impressive because it was able to do so much with so little, and it’s a trend you’ll see throughout each episode.
In the same episode, Ryuko confronts Satsuki. Satsuki begins to swing her sword and she grows to massive proportions on-screen to convey the idea that she’s a massive threat and that she’s much more powerful than she looks. Obviously from the context of the show she’s not actually getting bigger, and this sort of visual representation reminds me of two things.
First, is an American football manga mentioned in Fred Schodt’s Manga! Manga!, where a tiny Japanese player blasts through a massive American roughly five times his size. Second, is Fist of the North Star, and I don’t just mean the giant mohawk thugs. That series often exaggerates the size of Kenshiro’s foes yet shows them to be relatively even in size moments later, just to transmit danger.
3) Kill la Kill makes a lot of anime references but doesn’t overdo it.
This point relates heavily to the first.
Kill la Kill makes numerous references to old anime each episode, but doesn’t depend on them for success. In episode 1 Mako can be seen performing a Kinniku Buster from Kinnikuman on her little brother, but it’s never referred to by name, and there isn’t any sort of big fancy scene where she jumps from the air and lands with an impact. They save those moments for the actual fights.
A lot of the anime and manga references involve Mako, which makes me think that this is part of her purpose as a character. In episode 3, she goes to “shield” Ryuko but more to give a strange speech about how Ryuko should get naked. During that lively sequence this shows up:
That’s right, Kill la Killi threw in a Space Runaway Ideon reference (see 14 seconds into the video). Evangelion is known to be inspired in part by Ideon, and to have ex-Gainax employees bringing it out doesn’t surprise me too much. Again, the reference doesn’t linger too long, is more about the ridiculousness of Mako as a character, and is actually a little easy to miss.
There’s also the recurring use of stars blinking in and out in Kill laKill. It reminds me of the opening to Evangelion, right before the title logo appears, and I really suspect that it’s intentional.
Actually, I think Mako herself is an anime reference, as her hairstyle and position as the main character’s best friend immediately reminded me of the character Maki from Aim for the Ace! Ryuko’s messier hair even somewhat resembles Aim for the Ace! heroine Hiromi’s style relative to Maki’s. That Mako’s first name is written in Katakana like Maki in the Aim for the Ace! anime, that she is a tennis club member, and that her membership sets up the conflict in episode 2 all point towards this being likely.
In each case the references aid the show but do not dominate it. If someone fails to get certain references (and given the amount it’s going to happen to pretty much everyone, including me) then it doesn’t unravel the humor or make the series any less visually strong. If a reference does get through, it is capable of becoming not only a matter of spotting the homage but also considering how Kill la Kill relates to that older work. For instance, there’s this interesting relationship between Kill la Kill, Gurren-Lagann, Aim for the Top! Gunbuster, and Aim for the Ace! that I’d like to unravel in terms of how these shows approach similar ideas.
I also have other thoughts about the narrative and thematic elements of the show, but I’ll save those for another time. If you want to check out Kill la Kill though, it’s being simulcast from a variety of sites: Crunchyroll, Hulu, and for international audiences, Daisuki.
It comes up every time a "casual" or "kiddy" game (basically, any game that isn't about killing people) hits the market:
"Hardcore" gamers only play games like Call of Duty or Assassin's Creed or, you know the drill--hyper-realistic graphics and gritty action! Well, the studio that originally made Call of Duty, Infinity Ward, doesn't see their franchise that way. In a recent interview with OXM, executive producer Mark Rubin talked about Call of Duty's intended audience:
"We have an enormous amount of players who are more in the casual game space, but they play a lot. It's kind of a weird, ironic thing to say; They aren't hardcore gamers, or even gamers, but they play Call of Duty every night. And those guys are going to continue to play regardless of platform. So I think not only will we continue to engage with that existing player base, but we'll take next gen and see how far we can go with it."
I'm, uh... kinda with him. I recently came off a long hiatus for both The King of Fighters XIII and Call of Duty: Black Ops II. I play a lot of games, and practically live off them before I write reviews, so I constantly rotate back to older games that I dropped after the review got published.
For Black Ops II, I wander onto Team Deathmatch after fooling around in Create-a-Class, and walk off with a 9.1 K/D (my current record is 12, my average fluctuates between 2 and 3), while in KoFXIII, it took me around a week getting comfortable remembering priority and matchups, bringing my execution back up to par, and some very ruthless losses before I could get back into fighting shape. CoD felt very disposable and pick-up-and-play, while KoF (and just about any other fighter, really) required investment and practice.
Maybe Skullgirls will be next in the rotation
But then again, maybe that's just my experience with it--I remember the original Call of Duty on PC being a very ruthless and hardcore-oriented WWII shooter that required forethought, but I'm also of the belief that the series has since taken off in a lighter, more accessible direction, while other shooters (like ARMA) fill the niche. What do you think? Is Call of Duty "for the casuals" now, or are we just missing the hardcore appeal?
The National Rifle Association's media arm, NRA News, attacked an academic study on gunshot injuries to children by conspiratorially suggesting that the study was part of a "kids and anti-gun hype" movement to ban firearms. NRA News host Cam Edwards further dismissed teenage victims of gun violence by falsely stating that they are culpable for their injuries because of their supposed involvement in criminal activity.
The NRA is notorious for blocking scientific research into the causes and prevention of gun violence. During the 1990s, the gun rights organization successfully lobbied for legislation that prevented the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in practice, from researching gun violence. While the legislation -- which prohibited CDC funding "to advocate or promote gun control" -- did not technically ban research on firearms, it was widely acknowledged in practice to have a chilling effect on the CDC's research priorities. The Obama administration advocated for $10 million in funding for the CDC to study gun violence in January, noting that "research on gun violence is not advocacy."
An October 18 interview on NRA News demonstrated how the gun lobby handles scientific studies when they are actually forced to confront them. During that segment, Edwards hosted Dr. Timothy Wheeler, founder and director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership (DRGO), to attack a study in the November edition of Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
DRGO often attacks research conducted by AAP, accusing the organization of being "motivated by deep-seated prejudice against gun owners." The organization told NBC News that its "mission is to expose the poor medical scholarship -- and the anti-gun bias behind it -- held out as truth by organized medicine and medical journalism." DRGO is a project of the Second Amendment Foundation, a group that recently caused controversy by announcing plans -- since altered -- to hold a "Guns Save Lives Day" on the one-year anniversary of the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting.
During his appearance, Wheeler, along with Edwards, suggested that the Pediatrics study -- which chronicled nearly 30,000 gun fatalities and 155,000 serious gunshot wounds in children between 2001 and 2010 -- was part of an effort to "hype" child gun injury in order to ban firearms.
The only way the non-anime sites can interpret this show is to just...pretend it's not sinister
Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai (Wanna be the Strongest in the World) - Episode 3 - “I Give Up!”
These are hard times for Hagiwara Sakura. She’s been on a ten match losing streak and succumbed to the dreaded Boston crab every time. It’s got to the point where even her most die hard fans are starting to lose faith. They say she’s changed, that she gives up too easily. All have abandoned hope except for one ardent supporter that still believes in the plucky, pint-sized pop princess (and I‘m not talking about myself). He’s the guy who was seen in floods of tears at Sakura’s pro debut . He supports and defends her at every turn. And given her bad form and muscular chest, she needs all the support she can get.
Throughout the episode, Sakura keeps on tasting defeat. The crowd are getting sick of the repetitive finish in her matches and their apathy quickly turns to anger. As Sweet Diva go from strength to strength without her, self doubt begins to creep into Sakura’s psyche. Has she made the right decision? She’s not cut out for wrestling and not sure if Sweet Diva will accept her return. Sakura’s between the proverbial rock and a hard place.
In the midst of all this, we finally see a match with the BWQ Champion, Toyoda Misaki. They put her over as a big star before a match with Yumbo Yamamoto, a wrestler akin to Dump Matsumoto. In the vein of Dump, Yumbo has her own stable called the League of Brutes, and similar to Gokuaku Domei, these Brutes don’t mess around, interfering whenever possible. During the match we are introduced to some specialty moves, like Yumbo’s Iron Claw, the Brutes Five Point Nightmare Hold (Basically each member pulling a body part), and Misaki’s bridging sleeper suplex. It’s after this match where Sakura vows to be more like Misaki. And why not, she's the most fascinating character on the show, with her singing star backstory and demeanor that straddles the lines between heel and baby face, always keeping you guessing.
This was probably the best story so far with an excellent cliffhanger. It continued putting heat on Sakura, setting up her eventual comeback later down the line. The previous two shows had unexpected finishes, but were relatively formulaic. “I Give up!” broke out of the pack with neatly woven threads and a strong theme. The theme being the title itself. Sakura gave up in all the matches, her fans gave up on her, and she desires to give up pro-wrestling. Although, I think Misaki, in a tough love Chigusa Nagayo kind of way, isn’t giving up on the transcendent cutie just yet, and neither am I.
NPR media reporter David Folkenflik writes in his forthcoming book Murdoch's Worldthat Fox News' public relations staffers used an elaborate series of dummy accounts to fill the comments sections of critical blog posts with pro-Fox arguments.
In a chapter focusing on how Fox utilized its notoriously ruthless public relations department in the mid-to-late 00's, Folkenflik reports that Fox's PR staffers would "post pro-Fox rants" in the comments sections of "negative and even neutral" blog posts written about the network. According to Folkenflik, the staffers used various tactics to cover their tracks, including setting up wireless broadband connections that "could not be traced back" to the network.
A former staffer told Folkenflik that they had personally used "one hundred" fake accounts to plant Fox-friendly commentary:
On the blogs, the fight was particularly fierce. Fox PR staffers were expected to counter not just negative and even neutral blog postings but the anti-Fox comments beneath them. One former staffer recalled using twenty different aliases to post pro-Fox rants. Another had one hundred. Several employees had to acquire a cell phone thumb drive to provide a wireless broadband connection that could not be traced back to a Fox News or News Corp account. Another used an AOL dial-up connection, even in the age of widespread broadband access, on the rationale it would be harder to pinpoint its origins. Old laptops were distributed for these cyber operations. Even blogs with minor followings were reviewed to ensure no claim went unchecked. [Murdoch's World, pg. 67]
In the book's endnotes, Folkenflik explains that "four former Fox News employees told me of these practices." It's unclear whether these tactics are ongoing.
Oh look, the Dark Horse that actually releases manga I want is still around
Hiroki Endo's violent sci-fi manga Eden: It's an Endless World ended its Japanese run 2008. It's critically acclaimed. It made the New York Time's best seller list. However, the last time Dark Horse released a volume was August 31st, 2011. Finally, the next volume has been solicted.
Endo and Attack on Titan's Hajime Isayama have more than a bit of mutual admiration, and it doesn't hurt that Endo's follow up to Eden, All Rounder Meguru is built around the Isayama's subject of mixed martial arts.
Eden: It’s an Endless World! Volume 14 TP Hiroki Endo (W/A/Cover) On sale Mar 26 b&w, 232 pages $12.99 TP, 5" x 7" Hiroki Endo’s epic manga series returns to blow fans away with a 232-page volume crammed with jaw-dropping battle sequences and strange sci-fi twists! Several years after our last volume, Elijah is still on a mission to free his sister from the Propater organization’s clutches, but an older Mana has some skills of her own—and a lethal bodyguard to boot!
A new volume of Hellsing creator Kohta Hirano's Drifters is also scheduled for March
Drifters Volume 3 TP Kohta Hirano (W/A/Cover) On sale Mar 12 b&w, 216 pages $12.99 TP, 4 1/2” x 7 1/4” Heroes from Earth’s history—“Drifters”—battle to determine the future of an enchanted world facing the onslaught of the malefic Dark Lord and his own Earth warriors. Allied with the native elves, samurai warrior Shimazu Toyohisa forges a daring plan: an alliance between elves and dwarves, both sworn enemies! • One of the most anticipated manga series of recent years. • Wild, action-packed series featuring historical characters such as Joan of Arc, Hannibal, and Rasputin! • Listed as one of Da Vinci magazine’s Top Manga of 2013!
------ Scott Green is editor and reporter for anime and manga at geek entertainment site Ain't It Cool News. Follow him on Twitter at @aicnanime.
The ad lists the 3DS XL Bundle, which packs a full game download for A Link Between Worlds with a snazzy gold triforce-emblazoned system, for $219.99.
Hopefully we'll hear an official announcement from Nintendo soon. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds hits North America and Europe on November 22.
Boo. While I knew this would be settled out of court, I really wanted it to go the distance so a judge could say "you don't own Macross, Harmony Gold!" thus removing one of the three barriers to getting more Macross released in the US.
So there's an outfit called Sukoshi Con, or Destination Anime, or Gaijin USA, or something, that runs events in several states including Georgia. The only way I know about it is because somebody from the organization posts a lot on the AWA message board promoting their different one-day and two-day and three-day anime events.
It's kind of, I dunno, a little presumptive, so far there have been 16 Sukoshicon posts from this user and not one post about AWA, or Japanese cartoons, or anything, other than pimping their show.
Their latest post is an ad for their Indiegogo campaign. Yup, another anime con is resorting to crowdfunding to support their con lifestyle of con-culture conventions because they have to have cons even if they can't fund the con they want to have without asking people for money - I mean, asking people for money above and beyond selling tickets and dealers room tables and artist alley tables, which they already do.
Here's their pitch (which will soon be gone from the AWA message board). Bolding is mine.
We are currently excepting contributions threw this web site from anybody that wants to contribute check it out if you give so much you get something in return.
$25.00 gets you a Photo signed autograph of guests and name in program book.
$50.00 gets you 1 day pass to a Sukoshi Con convention of your choosing (effective January 1 2014) Photo signed autograph of guests and name in program book.
$100.00 gets you a weekend pass to a Sukoshi Con convention of your choosing (effective January 1 2014) Photo signed autograph of guests and name in program book.
$250.00 gets you VIP weekend pass to Destination Anime 2014. Weekend pass to a Sukoshi Con convention of your choosing (effective January 1 2014) Photo signed autograph of guests and name in program book.
$500.00 gets you Professional Photo Shoot with Destination Anime guest of your choosing. VIP weekend pass to Destination Anime 2014. Weekend pass to a Sukoshi Con convention of your choosing (effective January 1 2014). Photo signed autograph of guests and name in program book.
$1000.00 gets you Lifetime Pass to all Sukoshi Con conventions. 1 night room stay comped at Destination Anime 2014. VIP weekend pass to Destination Anime 2014. Dinner with Destination Anime guests. Professional Photo Shoot with Destination Anime guest of your choosing. VIP weekend pass to Sukoshi Con convention of your choosing (effective January 1 2014). Photo signed autograph of guests and name in program book.
$5000.00 gets you Lifetime pass to all Sukoshi Con conventions. 3 night room stay comped at Destination Anime 2014. VIP weekend pass to Destination Anime 2014. Dinner with Destination Anime guest. Professional Photo Shoot with Destination Anime guest of your choosing. VIP weekend pass to Sukoshi Con convention of your choosing (effective January 1 2014). Photo signed autograph of guests and name in program book.
there are a limited number of these to get but only if you get the amount of money associated with each one.
What You Get
In addition to our existing lineup of guests and events for Destination Anime 2014, our $20,000 goal will bring you in:
4 Voice actors 4 Cosplay guests 2 music guests Full LAN gaming room Game Shows Dedicated inflatable room (??) Promotional/commemorative merchandise Additional convention space Additional production equipment (lighting, staging, sound) How would you like to get autographed signings from our guests, or even dinner and professional photo shoot with them? Free weekend passes to Destination Anime, or any Sukoshi Con production? How about lifetime membership and free hotel stay? Take a look at our funding tiers to see all the perks we're offering! Every little bit of money helps, and there are great perks for you at every level.
All funds received-regardless of how much funding we raise-will go directly into the above-mentioned content. You may now be asking, "Which guests are going to be brought in?" Over the course of the campaign, we will announce the new additions to our lineup.
So What's the Dilemma? Conventions are our passion. We eat, sleep, and breathe them, spending the bulk of our work hours developing new concepts and ways to improve your convention experience. However great our planning is, though, first requires substantial funding. Convention organization requires an immense amount of time, resources, and capital. The costs associated with running a single event can quickly become staggering, and Sukoshi Con produces at least 4 per year.
That old adage, "It takes money to make money," is certainly true in our line of work. To pay for guests/advertising/venue, we need money. To make money, we need attendees. To get attendees, we need guests/advertising/venue. Additionally, conventions receive the majority of their revenue day-of-show, while the majority of expenses are incurred before the event even happens. Suddenly, convention planning can become a vicious cycle of finance juggling. Our budget decides EVERYTHING. With your contributions, we can plan in peace, free from the worries of budget restraints.
Free from the worries of budget restraints! And not unrealistic at all. In fact many businesses operate free from the worries of budget restraints. Let's see, there's... uh... um.... well, I'm sure there are a lot of businesses that do. Or did, until they ran out of money.
Let me be frank; I have no problem with crowdfunding in principle. I DO have a problem with for-profit businesses using crowdfunding to finance their unsustainable business practices. Even if it does involve dedicated inflatable rooms, whatever the hell those are, and "autographed signings", which I assume is an autograph that is later signed. I believe this is taking unfair advantage of the goodwill of the fandom community; goodwill built up by decades of fan conventions working within their budgets and delivering on their promises.
NPR contributor Cokie Roberts left out many of President Obama's major successes when she said that his only real first-term accomplishment has been the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Among these accomplishments are the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the rescue of America's biggest car companies, and the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
During a discussion on the October 17 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe about why Obama refused to entertain Republican demands that would gut the ACA in exchange for agreeing to avert a government shutdown, Roberts argued that the health care reform law "was his only real accomplishment" in his first term:
ROBERTS: Look at his first term. What was his only real accomplishment in that first term? This legislation. ... To give up his only really big accomplishment as President of the United States, that is something that he was not going to do.
While the ACA is one of the president's major accomplishments and is projected to reduce the United States' uninsured population by 25 million people by 2023, Roberts' statement ignores several of Obama's other significant achievements.
ARRA, also known as the 2009 stimulus, was passed weeks after Obama became president and succeeded in boosting the economy by several percentage points and creating the equivalent of several million jobs, according to economists and the Congressional Budget Office.
Later in 2009, President Obama helped General Motors and Chrysler transition through bankruptcy, a move that experts estimate saved well over a million jobs. Without the federal assistance that Obama authorized, the companies would have been liquidated.
Roberts also failed to mention the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011, which represents a major foreign policy accomplishment by the president. Other notable foreign policy achievements include ending the U.S. military presence in Iraq, beginning the drawdown of the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, and assisting in the overthrow of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.
President Obama also signed significant consumer protections into law with the passage of new credit card regulations in 2009 and the 2010 financial reform law that created the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau. Another of Obama's significant regulatory accomplishments was his push for the regulation of greenhouse gasses after the Environmental Protection Agency determined that they were a pollutants that threatened human health.
The first bill Obama signed into law was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which expands opportunities for women to sue over pay discrimination. He also seated two female Supreme Court justices in his first term, including the first Hispanic justice, and oversaw the end of the discriminatory "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, which banned openly gay Americans from serving in the military during his first term in office.
The guy who wants to obliterate him some imouto 'gine outranked Eren Jaeger, I see how it is
This weekend, Tokushima's Machi Asobi 11 event hosted the ceremony for the winners of Newtype's third annual anime awards. Prizes recognized the best in anime over the last year, as selected by the magazine's readers. Unsurprisingly, Attack on Titan cleaned up, but Majestic Prince did quite well too.
Direction 1. Attack on Titan's Tetsuro Araki 2. Majestic Prince's Keitaro Motonaga 3. Girls und Panzer's Tsutomu Mizushima 3. Psycho-Pass's Naoyoshi Shiotani 5. Tiger & Bunny the Movie: The Beginning's Yoshitomo Yonetani
Tokushima Prefectural Governor Kamon Iizumi presenting award to Tetsuro Araki
Screenplay 1. Attack on Titan's Yasuko Kobayashi 2. Majestic Prince's Reiko Yoshida 3. Psycho-Pass's Gen Urobuchi
Character Design 1. Love Live!'s Asako Nishida and Yuhei Murota 2. Tiger & Bunny the Movie: The Beginning's Kenji Hayama and Tokuhiro Itagaki 3. MJP's Hisashi Hirai
Original Song 1. Attack on Titan's "Guren no Yumiya 2. Tiger & Bunny the Movie: The Beginning's "Linear Blue wo Kikinagara" 3. Love Live!'s "Bokura wa Ima no Naka de"
Female Character 1. Attack on Titan's Mikasa Ackerman 2. Steins Gate's Kurisu Makise 3. Psycho-Pass's Akane Tsunemori 4. Madoka Magica's Homura Akemi 5. Railgun S' Misaka Mikoto 6. Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! The Movie - Rikka Takanashi Revision's Rikka Takanashi 7. Sword Art Online's Asuna 8. Yamato 2199's Yuki Mori 9. Monogatari's Hitagi Senjyogahara 10. Oreimo's Kirino Kosaka
Male Character 1. Steins;Gate's Rintaro Okabe 2. Monogatari's Koyomi Araragi 3. Tiger & Bunny the Movie: The Beginning's Kotetsu T. Kaburagi 4. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's Joseph Joestar 5. Attack on Titan's Levi 6. Psycho-Pass's Shinya Kogami 7. SAO's Kirito 8. Attack on Titan's Eren Jaegar 9. Majestic Prince's Izuru Hitachi 10. Gintama: The Movie: The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yorozuya's Gintoki Sakata
Studio 1. Wit Studio 2. Dogakobo × Orange 3. ufotable
TV Anime 1. Attack on Titan 2. Majestic Prince 3. Girls und Panzer 4. Psycho-Pass 5. Love Live! 6. Free! 7. JoJo's Bizarre Adventure 8. Gargantia 9. The Devil is a Part-Timer! 10. Sword Art Online
Macross Frontier's galactic fairy has a new dress design and Japanese lolita brand Angelic Pretty turned it to reality available for fans. This is part of the Oshare Macross F9 event currently going on at the Marui Annex in Japan and pre-orders are open until October 31st at Angelic Pretty's Shinjuku location only.
The set includes 5 pieces, the dress, the corset, the collar, the cuffs and the hair clips for 50,400 yen.
The design came from the Hyper Dimensional Amusement Park event at Tokyo Dome City Atractions as you can see in the poster above.
Sheryl will also have another branded birthday limited necklace with Japanese brand THE KISS due around her birthday on November 23rd. This year's necklace is titled "Secret Heart Necklace" and priced at 25,200 yen.
NPR media reporter David Folkenflik writes in his forthcoming book 
