Congresswoman Katherine Clark (D-Mass) is calling on the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice to do a better job of handling cases of online harassment - particularly those that target women. Clark took a particular interest in GamerGate and activities that have been associated with the Twitter hashtag because Boston-based developer Brianna Wu is in the district she represents.
Expect bowls of tonkotsu sometime after the summer.
Famed Japanese ramen chain Ichiran has been toying with the hearts of New Yorkers for years, but earlier this year the city received official word that a lease had been signed. Today, DNAinfo pinpoints that lease. It's at 132 west 20th Street and the team is already at work designing the outpost — likely with its signature solo dining booths. Ichiran is famously fastidious. There's only one type of ramen on the menu (a deeply flavored pork-based tonkotsu that can be ordered in different levels of intensity and chili oil), no phones are allowed, and all orders are placed at, and paid for, at a machine. "Our mission is to deepen the flavor of every bowl, each one of them involving the work of over 40 specialists," says the chain's website. The restaurant will open this year, but the team told Grub Street recently, "not in the summer."
Pass this location regularly? Snap a picture and tell Eater about it at tips@eater.com
PlayStation has premiered the first episode of its original series Powers online, free to watch. Based on Brian Michael Bendis’ comic book series, Powers follows Christian Walker (Sharlto Copley), a former superhero who now works for the LAPD apprehending people who didn’t get the memo about great power(s) coming with great responsibility.
[Click through to watch the pilot]
A new trailer posted yesterday gives an idea of the season-long arc: People are creating, trading, and taking drugs that allow them to alternately become “powers”—that is, gain superhuman abilities that they’ll invariably use for the wrong reasons—or take away other people’s powers.
But just like energy, power can’t just disappear—it has to go somewhere else. Christian and his new partner Deena Pilgrim (Susan Heyward) will figure out where the f—- (because PlayStation has the freedom to include R-rated language and other material) it is. Oh, and Eddie Izzard seems to be lurking in Christian’s head via a Harry Potter-esque lightning scar on his back.
Watch the pilot below:
New poster for “Digimon Adventure Tri” anime tv series with Atsuya Uki (Cencoroll) as character-designer.
kateI somehow missed this entire explosion.
There’s no question but that in American culture the predominant view is one that is rich, white, male, straight and Christian. And while “The male gaze” is pretty well known, we’re getting to learn about the “white gaze” as well. Have you ever wondered what it looks like? Now we know. Except it’s from New Zealand AND America.
Shocking isn’t it? Here is some more of that toxic white gaze:
The gaze in question is Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club a newish webcomic by New Zealander Katie O’Neill and American Toril Orlesky. Or rather it WAS, because despite praise and anticipation, the duo pulled the plug on the comic after a mere 13 pages after it was accused of cultural appropriation because it was a comic set in Japan with Japanese story lines that was by two white kids from across the globe. And also because one of them responded to a troll on Tumblr in a way that the Tumblr police deemed inappropriate. Here’s that crime again.
Deb Aoki has heroically (and I mean it HEROICALLY) compiled the entire saga, which played out on Twitter, in one epic epic Storify. Normally I would embed it, but it’s so huge and epic it would crash your browser. Anyway I cannot recommend enough that you read the whole thing because the wise Aoki takes this molehill and tackles an entire mountain of the question “Do You Have to Be Japanese to Make Manga?” which is a huge one that this Storify doesn’t answer…but it does raise more and more questions.
For the digest version, shortly after MSBC began running, an ANONYMOUS questioner on Tumblr asked on O’Neill’s tumblr:
Anonymous asked: God damn this is why I hate it when ignorant white people like you try to make stuff about Japan just because it’s trendy. Learn how to write kanji that isn’t so awkward before you even think about making a story set in the place the language is from. 嫌なら自分の文化を使え それとも世界で他の文化が色々があるんだろう。
Hey! I actually have a BA in Japanese and speak it with some fluency (though it’s been a few years since I graduated), and the kanji in the logo is based off a font I got from a Japanese website! Thanks for your concern, but if you’re basically saying that white people should only write about white people that’s kind of messed up. We’re always going to be open to criticism and concerns, so if we get something wrong let us know!
O’Neill’s answer was deemed to be flippant and somehow racist (even when other people pointed out that ANONYMOUS wasn’t that great with Kanji either.)
Things intensified on the twitter and tumblr of cartoonist Iasmin Omar Ata, theirself the author of a well-received webcomic Mis(H)adra:
Anonymous asked: oh my god thank you for calling out msbc i’ve been side-eying that project since forever….
hey! i’m glad you’ve noticed the issue, too. honestly, i’m shocked at how people haven’t really called out the creators for a) their blatant cultural appropriation, and b) the awful “it’s fine” response to that ask. the whole thing is garbage and unfortunately is just another reminder of how toxic the ever-present white gaze is. i hope that soon we can do away with this kind of thing in comics because i for one am up tohere with it.
Orlesky and Ata also hashed it out on twitter:
@shoujoshitlord this is so god damn transparent and shitty I can’t even believe you’re serious right about now
— ☆IASMIN OMAR ATA☆ (@DELTAHEAD_) March 3, 2015
And even if they had a point, Ata was definitely being a jerk about it. The response did not fit the crime.
UPDATE: When I wrote the above I was unaware that Ata was responding to these now deleted tweets by Orlesky:
@Comixace i just want to ask one question: were you aware of these tweets when you wrote yr article? pic.twitter.com/FOVca74B8p
— ☆IASMIN OMAR ATA☆ (@DELTAHEAD_) March 5, 2015
Given that Ata’s rather forceful response was to a different matter, I apologize for the “jerk” comment.
While some people—even Japanese people—said they saw nothing wrong with MSBC, unfortunately, O’Neill and Orlesky decided to pull the plug on the comic even though it is not clear from anyone anywhere aside from anonymous trolls what they did wrong:
Note on Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club
As I’m sure you’ll know, last month we launched our webcomic, Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club! We were very excited about it, however we absolutely do not want to hurt anyone with it and we are concerned that this is unavoidable. From the outset we tried to be aware of issues such as cultural appropriation, fetishization and stereotyping and did our best to avoid them and write in a nuanced manner. We hoped that extensive research and experience living and working in Japan would be enough to make a portrayal that wasn’t hurtful. We can see now this was incorrect and not possible, and we don’t wish to create a comic that will hurt people, so it seems the solution is to simply stop. We sincerely apologise to anyone who was upset by it.
Thank you everyone who had faith in our comic skills before we even started, and who has given us kind feedback about the art especially! It means a lot to us that people feel this strongly about us as creators, and we will absolutely be working together again in future! Feel free to keep following the strangestarcomics blog if you’re interested in our other projects!
Now I’m willing to write part of this off as young, insecure cartoonists who are still figuring things out and not really being able to take possibly faulty criticism well. There are lots of tweets around that subject on the Storify above. I know we live in a time of identify politics where cultural appropriation is a terrible crime. Of course that didn’t stop Osamu Tezuka from culturally appropriating Walt Disney and Robert Louis Stevenson to invent manga in the first place, or Naoki Urasawa from drawing a manga about half English half Japanese insurance inspector, or any of a thousand other example of the cross pollination that makes cultural exchange a wonderful thing. Culture isn’t a bag of potato chips —you don’t chomp it up and then it’s gone. It’s an ocean that flows and ebbs and freezes and evaporates and becomes different things everywhere.
Which isn’t to say that, YEAH, people from one culture can misunderstand and fetishize people from other cultures. And it’s good to point that out.
But did Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club ACTUALLY DO THAT???? Japanese-New Zealand Cartoonist Jem Yoshioka wrote about this and this is possibly the most well meaning and infuriating document I’ve read this month.
Yoshioka runs down a FAQ of why she agrees with O’Neill and Orlesky shutting down the strip, but fails to explain any reason why the critics were correct. For instance.
In the case of MSBC too much hinged on the Japanese setting, so they have decided it’s best to stop making it.
WHAT NOW? Because a story is set in Japan and that setting effects the story it is bad? God forbid she ever watch Lost in Translation.
Also, here’s a great straw man:
Isn’t this exactly the same as when Japanese people write about western countries or white people?
No. Western countries and white people occupy a significant place of power within our global world, economically and culturally. To put it simply, the whole world is drowning in white culture, so it’s not culturally appropriative to write a story about white people or set in a western country. There’s a strong power imbalance in favour of western countries and white culture(s).
If anything I find this attitude MORE dismissive of Japanese culture than a wee tribute. Hundreds of millions if not billions of people are influenced by Japanese culture, billions more by other Asian cultures which are strong and thriving and, yeah, ignored by Westerners who think that US culture is the be all and end all of world culture. That just isn’t true. Posing Japanese culture as a timid weak hothouse flower before American aggression is just an insult to Japan, as American children clutch their Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers cereal spoons while playing with their Transformers.
But then we get to the meat of the matter:
What are the issues with MSBC specifically? It seemed fine to me. I’ve seen way worse stuff get made.
MSBC doesn’t necessarily look like cultural appropriation. The kanji is correct, the landscapes are representative of real Tokyo landscapes, and while there were a couple of inaccuracies around the reality of the voice acting industry, that’s an acceptable leap to make for the sake of storytelling purposes (see all movies ever that feature computers, science, engineering or hacking as plot points).
OK so aside from being an actually awkward story, nothing wrong here.
However, even though it was respectfully well-researched and executed, MSBC did personally make me feel a bit weird. MSBC intentionally draws on anime and manga tropes, which can be problematic and reductive in their representation of women, gay men and often focus on specific elements of Japanese culture. There is also a lot of white western readers of this material who are still early on their journey of understanding the difference between respect and appropriation, often with a heavy side of racial fetishisation and overly romanticised ideas of Japan.
Now what tropes would those be that were revealed in the 13 pages of Masou Shounen Breakfast Club? The TROPES that CAN BE problematic and reductive.
Not were. It isn’t shown that MSBC used these tropes in any problematic and reductive way. Just that they COULD HAVE BEEN.
It’s fine to use these tropes, but it’s important to take the overall environment into account when writing them as a white westerner. While Katie and Toril were obviously aware of this when working on MSBC and worked hard to make sure they didn’t fetishise or stereotype, the genre itself and the wider effect it has within the community makes it difficult to achieve that.
Get that now? Because other people fucked it up, Katie and Toril probably would too, so they had to shut things down after just 13 pages before they did it. Once again, no actual crime, we’re talking total pre-cog here.
For a lot of people MSBC won’t be considered anywhere near appropriative or fetishistic, and that’s just where you are on your own journey. For me personally it does approach a line that makes me uncomfortable. I would have kept reading anyway because I enjoy the storytelling and illustrative style, but I think that feeling would have stayed with me the whole way through. The weird thing is that if they had kept going I likely would never have said anything about how I felt, because I would have been too scared of being instantly shot down about it, feared I was being silly and felt I’d never be able to properly articulate my issues. I am overjoyed to know that Katie and Toril are the kind of creators who are respectful and listen to this kind of feedback this seriously.
Yoshioka seems like a very nice, reasonable person, and I totally dig her art, but…what exactly is the crime here? The comic made Yoshioka feel uncomfortable because…feelings.
Got that? She was sure that someday she would get upset by the way that these two were sure to fuck things up. Two non-Japanese people—even with knowledge of Japan—doing a comic set in Japan was fetishistic no matter what the context or content. Just the concept was enough to ensure that lines would be crossed.
If O’Neill and Orlesky decided to pull their comic because they didn’t want to hurt even one person’s feelings, well then, okay. I get it. Hurting feelings is bad. I also suggest that they get out of any creative endeavor in the future because all great art hurts feelings, causes feelings and in general shakes things up. It isn’t safe and it isn’t afraid. Under these rules that Yoshioka lays out, no great comic would ever have been completed because some element of its creation MIGHT have been used incorrectly in the past.
If you have been reading my writings for any amount of time, you know that I’m a fan of multicultural diversity, and of multiple viewpoints and creators of every sex, religion, creed, race and sexual orientation getting a chance to tell their stories.
I’m also a huge fan of cultural context for stories that examine how the preconceptions of a work of art are reflected in the execution. But I never want to see these criticisms used to PROACTIVELY SILENCE ART.
The problem with a lot of the sociological criticism that we’re seeing now is that it sets up a Zeno’s Paradox race against some kind of Platonic ideal that has never been proved to exist. Nearly all art has a cultural context that insults SOMEONE. If I take all the anti-MSBC arguments above and reduce them to a fine gravy, it DOES come out that no one should ever write or draw a story about a culture or place other than their own because they might get it wrong. White people should stick to white people (aka the status quo), black people should stick to black people and Japan should never write a story that takes place in another culture (because I’ve read plenty of manga that fetishized some bizarre element of American culture.)
Fetishishing is wrong, orientalism is wrong, appropriation for cool points (Hey Iggy) is wrong. But absorbing the rich cultural stew of the entire world and trying to express it in your own art and comics is not wrong. And as far as I can tell, that’s the crime that O’Neill and Orlesky were convicted of in tumblr court, and that’s a shame.
Concept art for Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club.
Update: Shea Hennum has a further commentary to all this, and suggests (as many on Twitter have) that my own white gaze does not allow me to criticize those who were offended or hurt by the problems with MSBC. Fair enough. Whatever hurtful element is in this webcomic is something that my cultural upbringing has rendered me immune to, and no one has communicated the exact nature of the offense so that I can share the outrage. It was also suggested that I was reinforcing a culture of oppressing non-white opinions by arguing with people of color over their perceptions of racism. While I would LIKE to live in a world where people can discuss different viewpoints on matters of cultural appropriation without validating repression, I am sadly aware that we don’t live in a world where that is the case. It is easy for me to pretend otherwise, and much more difficult for people of color, and I do want to acknowledge that.
In the end the creators of Mahou Shounen Breakfast Club decided that they could not tell this story in a way that wasn’t hurtful, and that’s their decision. Hopefully they’ll go on to create more comics that gain notoriety only for their excellence.
[The first version of this post misidentified Toril Orlesky as being from NZ rather than from the US, and Iasmin Omar Ata as male. I regret the errors but it doesn’t change a thing I think because I judge people on their behavior not their identity.]
kateClick through to read the whole thing.
A THRILLING ADVENTURE AWAITS!
This comic is longer than the usual and won’t fit in a photoset. Fortunately, you can read in full here!
Evening reblog for those who missed it this morning! Adventure for everyone~
It’s kind of sad to think that with the Sapporo Snow Festival over, the event’s awesome Star Wars snow sculpture is demolished and melted. Thankfully, if you’re still feeling the icy allure of epic science fiction and low temperatures, there’s another way to combine the two, and this time in the home, with your very own R2-D2 fridge droid!
The newest addition to online retailer Hamee’s catalogue of novelty goods is made to stand guard in your fridge. Once you open the door though, he’ll move, light up, and talk.
Well, while there’s no denying it makes sounds, we’re not sure those noises technically qualify as “talking.” Still, your ears will instantly tell you who’s waiting inside the fridge as surely as if he announced “It’s me, R2-D2!”
As product manager Atsushi Yamashita says in the video, life can be lonely for singles who live by themselves. “I wanted to make something that says ‘Welcome home!,’” he explains, “Something that makes it feel like you’ve got a family member living with you.”
▼ Should we call him Uncle R2?
Visually, this is an impressively faithful recreation of the Star Wars robot, featuring an intricate layout of bumps, ridges, and markings.
But what sets the 4,320-yen (US$36) “talking fridge gadget” (which can be ordered here) apart from an ordinary figurine is the way it reacts to light when you open the door of your refrigerator. The unit comes loaded with 15 different audio clips ranging from “Greeting” to “Message for Obi-Wan” and “Argument with C-3PO.” The samples are taken directly from the Star Wars films, which seems to be what the promotional video is getting at when it touts the product’s “real sound.”
▼ That aint no fake “BEEP!”
You can also make the robot “talk” by pressing the action button on the top of its head. However, R2 isn’t just here for friendly companionship (and possibly to munch on your leftovers). He’s also got a secondary role of reminding you not to waste electricity. Leave the refrigerator door open too long, and he’ll produce an angry squeal on par with the one he lets out when being peppered with TIE fighter fire.
▼ “Grab your bell pepper and get out!”
The compact unit is powered by a pair of AAA batteries, which Hamee claims will keep the droid going strong for roughly three months.
As any Star Wars fan knows, despite his cute, unassuming appearance, R2-D2 is constantly surprising those around him with his hidden abilities. Hamee’s fridge bot is no exception, as Yamashita says that locked away somewhere in its programming is a “secret voice.” He doesn’t provide any clues as to what exactly it is, though, so until we hear otherwise, we’re going to go ahead and assume it’s the complete discography of love crooner Barry White.
▼ “My darling, I…🎶”
Sources: IT Media, Hamee
Images: Hamee (edited by RocketNews24)
Origin: R2-D2 is ready to chill with your groceries as a cool talking Star Wars fridge droid 【Video】
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.
The latest Tomorrowland trailer has bathtub rockets, fighting robots, assassins in creepy masks, and all manner of shifting gears and brass countdown clocks. And it actually tells us a lot more about the movie.
[Watch the trailer]
To be fair, Disney’s new action/adventure is still rather vague. We know that the near-future is messed up, nigh apocalyptic, and that the bright and wonderful future is thisclose to being lost forever. So, some sort of retired/exiled inventor (George Clooney) teams up with a troubled kid (Britt Robertson) via teleporting pins and the aforementioned technology to go back to Tomorrowland.
“What you saw,“ Clooney tells Robertson, ”was a place where the best and the brightest people in the world came together to actually change it.” But now it’s in danger—possibly from Hugh Laurie’s shady character—and with every second that ticks away, this future land and tomorrow time becomes less and less of a possbility. Does this movie feature time travel or alternate universes, or just some awesome simulations? Hard to say, but this is the most engaging trailer yet:
Tomorrowland comes to theaters May 22.
If you've ever wanted to dine like Don Draper, or at least reenact the Burger Chef family scene, your chance has finally arrived: AMC and nycgo.com are collaborating on a week-long Mad Men-inspired dining promotion.
From March 23 to 29, restaurants like the Gander, Ristorante Morini, and Tribeca Grill will honor the final season of the show with a sweet deal: a two-course prix fixe lunch, or two cocktails, for the era-appropriate price of $19.69.
Just make sure you don’t down one too many martinis before climbing 23 flights of stairs. You wouldn't want to pull a Roger Sterling and waste that cleverly priced meal, would you?
Read more posts by Brooke Marine
Filed Under: foodievents, mad men, mad men dining week, new york
There could be "a grand opening to announce by late summer/early fall."
It's been almost a year since Chick-Fil-A teased New Yorkers with the promise that they would finally get a real outpost (or many outposts) of the fried chicken chain in 2014. Now it's 2015, and there's still only that one, largely inaccessible Chick-Fil-A Express in the NYU dining hall. But not for long.
Or at least, so a representative tells Thrillist. If she's to be believed, Chick-Fil-A will open in NYC "later this year," and though it's "premature for us to confirm further details," there could be a "grand opening to announce by late summer/early fall."
If and when Chick-Fil-A finally scatters its chicken biscuits across NYC, it will do so with an eye towards millenials (the most coveted demographic for every fast food giant). This, according to plans outlined by CEO Dan Cathy last year, will involve open kitchens, natural wood decor, and an attempt to do away with corn syrup, preservatives, and plastic.
So keep an eye out, and send any signs or rumors of incoming millenial-focused fried chicken chains to tips@eater.com.
5,000-square-feet dedicated to all things burger.
Bareburger's organic burger empire is growing, reports Commercial Observer. The mini-chain just inked a deal for its 17th, and largest, outlet in New York City — 5,000-square-feet in Midtown dedicated to all things burger. It will take up two floors, and occupy the space on 52nd Street that used to hold Opal Bar & Restaurant. The team signed a 15-year leas, so clearly they plan on sticking around for a while. No word on when the outlet will open, but Eater has reached out. Stay tuned. Update: Bareburger says to expect a late-spring or early-summer opening.
kateWTF I don't even.
Drinking a glass of milk should feel clean and wholesome, but according to a new FDA report, milk might contain an unauthorized antibiotic — or six. The agency spot-checked several thousand dairy farms and claims that it found a half dozen drugs in a small but nevertheless alarming number of samples.
Why it'd take so long to discover the antibiotics? Since these drugs aren't supposed to be used on dairy cows at all, routine tests don't even check for them. The drugs include ciprofloxacin and sulfamethazine — both "totally illegal" to give to dairy cows — and others that are never supposed to enter the food supply. Farmers are motivated to use the drugs because they keep the animals healthy, and allow them to grow bigger and faster.
While the percentage of samples with drugs is rather low, the fear is that antibiotics like ciprofloxacin can cause major problems with bone and muscle growth. And to make matters worse: Since the FDA survey was "for research purposes" only, samples were anonymous. That means, at least for right now, the agency can't conduct follow-up investigations on particular farms.
[Salt/NPR]
Read more posts by Clint Rainey
Filed Under: food safety, antibiotics, fda, milk, news
Nobody — and we mean nobody — does Comic-Con quite like Marvel. In 2006 Marvel Studios held their first ever Comic-Con panel (announcing the Captain America and Thor movies) and has returned every year since. They've ruled the roost with dynamic, exciting presentations that mix showmanship with big announcements. But, that's all about to change. Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn confirmed last night that, for the first time in nine years, Marvel Studios is skipping Comic-Con.
Last month, we got our first peek at the brand-new statue of Hachiko, in which Japan’s most famous dog is reunited with his loving master after almost a century apart. But while Hachiko’s legendary loyalty is inspiring, we weren’t waiting 100 years to see the statue for ourselves.
With the piece now installed and open to viewing by the public, we made the trip to the campus of the University of Tokyo, and we’ve brought plenty of photos and video that we shot while looking at Hachiko through both our viewfinder and a constant stream of tears.
Hachiko’s new statue can be found on the grounds of the University of Tokyo’s agriculture campus. This isn’t because Hachiko had super intelligence to go along with his peerless commitment to owner Hidesaburo Ueno, but because Ueno was a professor of agricultural engineering with the school for more than 20 years.
But while you’ll have to pass a grueling test before you can enroll and take classes at the university, the campus itself is completely open to the general public. So even though our Japanese-language reporter Yoshio’s college days are over and done with, on the morning of March 9 he grabbed his camera and headed out to see Hachiko in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward.
The University of Tokyo has multiple campuses, but if your goal is to see Hachiko, you’ll want the one for the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences/Faculty of Agriculture (website here). The statue isn’t tucked away in some back corner, either. Right after you walk through the gate, you’ll see the happy pet and owner on your left.
▼ “Hey, buddy, wanna go get some yakitori?”
▼ “Woof!”
Yoshio arrived before noon, but even still, he wasn’t the only one who’d come to pay his respects, as there was already a handful of visitors snapping pictures.
▼ Hachiko’s likeness is anatomically correct.
▼ Ueda’s professor’s bag, meanwhile, is gender-neutral.
After noon, the number of sightseers gradually started to increase. One woman Yoshio spoke to even laughed that, “The school is probably going to start getting a ton of people coming just to see the statue, so it’ll be rough on campus security, having to manage all the crowds.”
▼ Hey, he’s a popular guy.
While the woman was probably right about the statue becoming a new landmark in Tokyo, during Yoshio’s visit, everyone was well-behaved. After all, people tend not to get too rowdy when they’re being moved to tears and/or smiling from ear to ear.
If you’re an animal lover in Tokyo, the original Hachiko statue in front of Shibuya Station, where the Akita Inu waited every day for his deceased master to come home from work, is still a must-see. But if you want to remember Ueno and his pet as they were in life, when being reunited at the end of every day was a cause for celebration, you owe yourself a visit to this new monument, too.
Related: University of Tokyo Faculty of Agriculture website
Photos: RocketNews24
Origin: Hachiko’s new statue is now open to the public, and we’ve got pictures and video from our visit
Copyright© RocketNews24 / SOCIO CORPORATION. All rights reserved.
After debuting February 24th, Viz's hardcover release of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Part 1 - Phantom Blood - Vol. 1 by Hirohiko Araki quickly climed to the top of the New York Times' manga best sellers list. They describe the book "The beginning of the globe–spanning and multigenerational exploits of the Joestar family are translated into English for the first time."
Printed in North America for for the first time, the Phantom Blood release, the bookwill be followed by a fall release of Part II - Battle Tendency
A digital version of JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURE: PART 1 - PHANTOM BLOOD Vols. 1-3 is available now for $10.99 each (US/CAN) across all platforms serviced by VIZManga.com and the VIZ Manga App. The free VIZ Manga App continues to be the top application for reading digital manga and features a massive library of the most popular series in the world. The digital edition is be similarly available on digital storefronts for the Kindle, iBooks, GooglePlay, Kobo, ComiXology, and Nook.
The Times full list also includes
| THIS WEEK | MANGA | WEEKS ON LIST |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | JOJO'S BIZARRE ADVENTURES: PHANTOM BLOOD, VOL. 1, by Hirohiko Araki. (VIZ Media.) | 1 | |
| 2 | HIGH SCHOOL DXD, VOL. 4 by Hiroji Mishima, Ichiei Ishibumi and Zero Miyama. | 1 | |
| 3 | AKAME GA KILL!, VOL. 1, by Takahiro and Tetsuya Tashiro. (Yen Press.) | 6 | |
| 4 | ATTACK ON TITAN, VOL. 1, by Hajime Isayama. (Kodansha Comics.) | 87 | |
| 5 | JUDGE, VOL. 6, by Yoshiki Tonogai. (Yen Press.) | 1 | |
| 6 | BLACK BUTLER, VOL. 19, by Yana Toboso. (Yen Press.) | 6 | |
| 7 | DEADMAN WONDERLAND, VOL. 7, by Jinsei Kataoka and Kazuma Kondou. (VIZ Media.) | 2 | |
| 8 | DRAGONAR ACADEMY, VOL. 5, by Shiki Mizuchi. (Seven Seas Entertainment.) | 2 | |
| 9 | UNOFFICIAL HATSUNE MIX, by KEI. (Dark Horse.) | 12 | |
| 10 | ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM, VOL. 2,by Yusei Matsui. (VIZ Media.) | 4 | |
-------
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.
: : Within - Perry Dixon Maple
Opening March 22nd 2015, Gallery Nucleus is having a tribute exhibition for the awesome world of Korra & Avatar: The Last Airbender! I had so much fun stylizing “Team Avatar” for my piece. Hope you guys like it! My aim was to combine strong bold graphic shapes with elegant accenting detail, something I see as being a strong part of the harmony between strength and elegance that exists within the Avatar universe.
If you are in the LA area come drop by the show! I’ll be at the opening so please feel free to say hi!
A new superhero has arrived to save the people of Osaka from evildoers. This is great because just the other day some savage left an empty can in my bicycle’s basket while I parked it.
Unfortunately for me, his beat is just on the Rapi:t express train running between downtown’s Namba Station and Kansai International Airport. But if you happen to find trouble on the way to or from KIX there’s only one name to call out for help: Rapi…Ra…Rapee-itl-dee-yer!!?
Thanks to the Japanese spelling we can get a good sense of his name. In Japanese the “t” is pronounced like “toe” so the ending would be like “-toldier” very similar to “soldier.” However, even knowing this it’s still a bit of a mouthful to say “Ra-pee-tol-jer” and without a working knowledge of Japanese katakana one would be even more in the dark.
Also, as you probably assumed, the errant colon in his name is because of the Rapi:t train that he represents. This is a rapid service from Namba to the airport that will get you there or back in a little over 30 minutes. Its name is German for “rapid” and the “i:” is an approximation of the International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for an “ee” sound.
Of course when making a mascot aimed at foreigners it’s important to have a catchy name that takes two paragraphs to explain. But that’s not all to Rapi:tldier’s charm! His head is also modeled after the locomotive of the Rapi:t and he’s sporting a cape with leopard print lining. This is a pattern beloved by many an upper-middle-aged Osaka woman.
Okay! Now that we’re all up to speed, please watch this 20 minute video showing us The Birth of Rapi:tldier.
Pretty awesome, right? In the off chance that you didn’t watch the entire video, Rapi:tldier was built by Doctor H of the Osaka Secret Police. (Hey, if they’re good enough for Nazi Germany, Nigeria and North Korea, why not Osaka too?)
▼ You know it’s the secret police because they have a sign on on the gate and flags that say “welcome.”
This cyborg’s prime directive is “to defeat goblins.” Osaka residents probably recall Mayor Hashimoto’s campaign promise to reduce goblin shenanigans by at least 27% throughout the city.
Then, one day an idol named Yumi was asking a man in blackface directions to the airport.
Little did she know, that was just a mild-mannered racist disguise to lure her in. He was actually Gokibler, the goblin king of cockroaches. He and his Mexican wrestler thugs injected Yumi with cockroach extract to make her into his love-slave.
▼ Rent on hideouts in downtown Osaka is through the roof at the moment forcing villains to do their evil deeds out on the street in broad daylight.
Then a bunch of stuff happens and Rapi:tldier is forced into early action. He dashes to the scene while passing by many of the lovely facilities and attractions Namba Station has to offer potential tourists.
Then he reserves a seat on the Rapi:t and all of its efficient luxuriousness.
They fight.
And the cockgoblin is defeated causing Yumi to revert back to her regular self.
In all seriousness if you haven’t watched the video, it’s very cute and I do seriously recommend it. It’s endearing that the staff of Nankai Electric Railway (at least I hope that’s just the Nankai staff) did the entire production in English.
In the meantime Rapi:tldier will be making appearances at various international travel events to promote Osaka and their train. Keep an eye out for him and be sure to practice how to pronounce his name in case you ever do run into him.
▼ By the way, we’ve been receiving thousands of emails wondering how to get a Rapi:tldier wallpaper for your iPhone or Android device. Don’t worry, they’re available on his website!
Source: How To Enjoy Osaka, Namba Keizai Shimbun (Japanese)
Video: YouTube – How to Enjoy Osaka (Nankai Railway)
Origin: Osaka railway creates superhero to attract foreign tourists, makes name unintelligible to them
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kateDoesn't look like there is an English version of the crowd funding site. Interesting, will this be the first big thing crowd funded exclusively in Japan?
I used to be a freelance web designer, but have since been hired full-time and no longer take commissions. This is a conversation that has happened on several occasions.
Client: Hi, I’d like you to develop a website.
Me: Sorry, I’m no longer freelancing.
Client: What if I pay?
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) isn't just a thorn in the side of Wall Street banks. She's also happy to go head-to-head with the Obama administration when she feels the president's team is part of the problem.
Right now, the issue fueling a dispute between Warren and the White House is student loan debt. Last week, Warren sent a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan alleging that his department is not using many of the tools at its disposal to help Americans who are struggling to pay back student loans. In particular, the department has authority to help students duped by predatory for-profit colleges, and Warren says they're not using it.
A new Bluray release of The Last Unicorn, labeled “The Enchanted Edition”, is coming to North American home video on June 09, 2015 from Shout! Factory. The new version features a new video transfer and new special features.
The Last Unicorn is a somber fantasy tale in which a unicorn leaves the protection of her enchanted forest to find her people, who have seemingly disappeared from the world. She's aided in her journey by a bumbling magician and a headstrong scullery maid. For a children's movie, it deals with some surprisingly mature themes, such as love and loss. It features the voice talents of Jeff Bridges, Mia Farrow, Alan Arkin, and Christopher Lee, among others.
The Last Unicorn is based on the book of the same name by American fantasy author Peter Beagle. Produced by Rankin / Bass, the film was animated by the Japanese studio, Topcraft, which also animated Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Topcraft went out of business in 1985, but many of Topcraft's animators went on to join Studio Ghibli.
I'm looking forward to this release. The Last Unicorn is one of my favorite works of animation of all time. It's a unique and beautiful film.
Source: Shout! Factory official home page
Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.
This film is part of the 2015 New York International Children’s Film Festival
Studio Ghibli is by far the most famous and well-regarded Japanese animation studio, but over the past two years Ghibli has been defined instead by a sense of finality. Director and co-founder Miyazaki Hayao, known for the Academy Award-winning Spirited Away, has declared the challengingly self-critical The Wind Rises to be his last feature-length film. Though not saying anything to that degree, his fellow co-founder, the 79-year-old director Takahata Isao (Grave of the Fireflies), might very well end his career with the artistically beautiful Tale of the Princess Kaguya. For a long time people have been speculating as to what would happen once Studio Ghibli lose Miyazaki and Takahata, leading people to ask who might be Miyazaki’s successor. The problem, of course, is that “the next Miyazaki” is a weighty title that no should be burdened with carrying.
Nevertheless, this is perhaps the challenge that faces director Yonebayashi Hiromasa and his latest film, When Marnie Was There, a book adaptation that has the distinction of being the last Studio Ghibli film in production, at least for the time being. However, while Yonebayashi’s films for Ghibli undoubtedly utilize the “Ghibli look” that is derived from Miyazaki’s personal drawing style, what becomes clear upon watching Marnie (as well as Yonebayashi’s previous film The Borrower Arrietty) is that Yonebayashi’s directorial style is unmistakably distinct compared to the veterans who originally founded and defined the studio.
When Marnie Was There centers around a 12-year-old Japanese girl named Anna, an adopted child who suffers from asthma and perpetually feels like an outsider among both her classmates and her family. Her adopted mother, concerned for her well-being, decides to send Anna to live in the countryside, where the fresh air should be good for her. However, even in a different environment, Anna still continues to feel alone, until she comes across an old, mysterious mansion and a blonde girl named Marnie. She immediately connects to Marnie, while also feeling that there’s something oddly familiar about her.
When I think about both Marnie and how it feels different compared to other Ghibli films, the first word that comes to mind is “haunting.” This is not to say that the film is dark or depressing, and though weighty in its own way, it also feels different from something like Grave of the Fireflies or even Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Much like Arrietty, I find that the film, though basking in its gorgeously rendered environment and all of the little details that go into it, is much more introspective. The narrative conflict is less a manifestation of our inner struggles (as so many films and anime are), and more just a straight-up look at Anna’s own emotions. While Miyazaki cast Anno Hideaki, director of Neon Genesis Evangelion, in the starring role of The Wind Rises, it’s Marnie that feels almost like a Ghibli take on some of the themes of Evangelion. Anna’s somber worldview and her initial resignation towards her lack of sense of belonging make clear that her circumstances are emotionally complex, made all the more difficult by the trouble she has communicating with others.
It wasn’t until the end of the film that I came to realize what it was Anna was searching for, and though I assume this was fully intended given the mysterious air surrounding Marnie and Anna’s relationship, I had jumped to numerous erroneous conclusions while watching. Perhaps it’s my own experience watching other anime, but the friendship between Anna and Marnie appeared to be so intimate that I wondered if Anna and Marnie’s difficulty fitting it might come from the repression of lesbian sexual desires, now let loose through a time-space paradox. I wondered if Studio Ghibli would be so daring, and when taken individually I think these scenes can still evoke that sort of impression, but ultimately it’s nothing so bold. That certainly doesn’t make it a worse movie as a result, though it leaves me to consider what would happen if a studio as renowned and with such international presence as Ghibli indeed made an animated movie with a lesbian protagonist.
Overall, Marnie fits into the rough mold of a Ghibli film, with its attention to environment and space and its story of a young girl learning about herself and about life in general, but it really stands on its own by speaking to that feeling of not being able to quite fit in, and having the solution amount to more than just gaining confidence. Whether Yonebayashi continues with Ghibli or some other studio, I’m looking forward to what he does next.
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Republicans are preparing a bill that will make impudent the Federal Communications Commission as it relates to net neutrality rules. Led by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn. - pictured, left) and co-sponsored by 31 other Republican lawmakers, the legislation "will put the brakes on this FCC overreach and protect our innovators from these job-killing regulations," Blackburn said in a statement.
At this point, I'm not sure how Gotham Academy could get better. I mean, it's already exactly what I have always wanted in my life but never knew I could get, a teen drama with mysteries and secret passages, where Batman occasionally shows up and obscure villains from the TV show are running the library. That's a level of perfection that I could've only dreamt of a year ago.
But if I had to make a suggestion for how it might be better, I'd probably suggest getting Babs Tarr, the ComicsAlliance-favorite artist of Batgirl, to do a cover, or maybe getting Adventure Time designer Joy Ang to take a crack at the characters, or maybe have everyone spend an issue talking about how terrifying the Joker is. These are all things that are happening. We are living in a magical time.
kate"The country's first electric grid was strung up by Thomas Edison in Manhattan's Lower East Side in the 1880s, and some parts of it continued to operate into the 2000s."
New York wants to get serious about solar power. The state has a goal to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, and it's already among the nation's solar leaders. New York ranks ninth overall for total installed solar, and in 2013 alone it added enough to power more than 10,000 homes.
While that's great news for solar companies and environmentalists, it's a bit of a problem for electric utilities. Until recently, the business model of electric companies hadn't changed much since it was created a century ago. (The country's first electric grid was strung up by Thomas Edison in Manhattan's Lower East Side in the 1880s, and some parts of it continued to operate into the 2000s.) Utilities have depended on a steady growth in demand to stay ahead of the massive investments required to build power plants and the electric grid. But now, that tradition is crumbling—thanks to the crazy growth of rooftop solar and other alternative energy sources and some big advances in energy efficiency that have caused the overall demand for electricity to stop growing. Meanwhile, utilities in New York are also required to buy the excess power from solar buildings that produce more than they need—a policy called "net metering".
But here's the thing: Even the most ardent climate hawks agree that we can't afford for utilities to go out of business altogether. Someone needs to maintain and manage the grid. Hardly any solar homes are actually "off the grid," since they still depend on power lines to soak up their excess electricity during sunny afternoons and deliver power at night. In fact, net metering is a key factor in making solar economically viable to homeowners.
The question of how to aggressively slash carbon emissions without completely undermining the power sector (and simultaneously raising the risk of blackouts and skyrocketing electric bills) is one of the big existential questions that climate-savvy lawmakers are now trying to figure out. And last week in New York, they took a huge step forward.
Under a new order from the state's Public Service Commission, utility companies will soon be barred from owning "distributed" power systems—that means rooftop solar, small wind turbines, and basically anything else that isn't a big power plant. (There are some rare exceptions built into the order, notably for giant low-income apartment buildings in New York City that small solar companies aren't well-equipped to serve.)
"By restricting utilities from owning local power generation and other energy resources, customers will benefit from a more competitive market, with utilities working and partnering with other companies and service providers," the commission said in a statement.
The move is part of a larger package of energy reforms in the state, aimed at setting up the kind of futuristic power system that experts think will be needed to combat global warming. The first step came in 2007, when the state adopted "decoupling," a market design in which a utility's revenue is based not on how much power it sells, but on how many customers it serves. (Remember that in most states utilities have their income stream heavily regulated by the state in exchange for having a monopoly.) That change removed the incentive for utilities to actively block rooftop solar and energy-saving technology, because lost sales no longer translate to lost income. But because utilities could still make money by recouping the cost of big infrastructure projects through increases to their customers' bills, they had an incentive to build expensive stuff like power plants and big transmission hubs even if demand could be better met with efficiency and renewables.
Now, under New York's most recent reform, a utility's revenue will instead be based on how efficiently and effectively it distributes power, so-called "performance-based rates." This, finally, provides the incentive utilities need to make decisions that jibe with the state's climate goals, because it will be to their advantage to make use of distributed energy systems.
But there's a catch, one that had clean energy advocates in the state worried. If utilities were allowed to buy their own solar systems, they would be able to leverage their government-granted monopoly to muscle-out smaller companies. This could limit consumer options, drive up prices, and stifle innovation. That, in turn, could put a freeze on consumers' interest in solar and ultimately slow down the rate at which it is adopted. But if small companies are allowed in, then the energy market starts to look more like markets for normal goods, where customer choice drives technological advances and pushes down prices.
"New York's approach to limit utility ownership balances the desire for more solar with the desire to have competitive markets that we expect to continue to bring down the costs of solar," said Anne Reynolds, director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York.
The upshot is that solar in New York will be allowed to thrive without being squeezed out by incumbent giants like Con Edison and National Grid.
"This is as exciting as the Public Service Commission gets," said Raya Salter, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York who worked with state regulators on the plan. "These are bold, aggressive changes."
The policy puts New York on track for a new way of doing business that many energy wonks now see as inevitable. In the past, the role of electric utilities was to generate power at a few central hubs and bring it to your house; in the near future, their role will be to facilitate the flow of power between countless independent systems.
"We need to plan for a primarily renewable system," said John Farrell, director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which advocates for breaking up the old utility model as a key solution to climate change. "We want to pay [utilities] for doing things we want, rather than paying for their return on investment for the things they build."
So far, the response from utilities has been receptive; a spokesperson for Con Ed said the company looks forward to developing details for how the order will move forward.
The change in New York could become a model for other states, Reynolds said. Regulators in Hawaii are already considering a similar policy.
"Everyone is watching to see what's happening here," she said. "It's really a model of what a utility could be in the future."
