I don’t usually read visual novels (the only one I’ve finished before this was Planetarian), but with so-called “horror” anime *cough* Another *cough* turning out to be more mystery than horror, I wanted something that could invoke at least some sense of fear. That’s when I heard about Saya no Uta (Song of Saya).

Written by Gen Urobuchi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Fate/Zero), Saya no Uta is an eroge visual novel published by Nitro+ in 2003 and is well-known for its horrific storyline and scenes so grotesque and brutal that they make your stomach churn. Being an eroge, it does have some XXX scenes, but they’re not essential to the story and if you don’t want to see them, you can read the censored story on Youtube.

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A Taste of Animethon (ATOA) took place this here in Edmonton this weekend and I took this opportunity to try out some event photography. From the last Animethon, I learned that I needed a good flash and a wide-angle lens to better deal with the conditions at Grant MacEwan (the place where Animethon and ATOA is held). I have neither and I didn’t want to spend $500 on them so I borrowed some equipment instead. I used a Canon T2i with a 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM lens and 430EX flash. It was my first time using this set-up so it took a while to get used to and some pictures didn’t turn out as well as I wanted, but some of them still worked out. Anyone who is here just for cosplay pictures can scroll to the bottom.

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Inspired by Justin and Kuuki’s blog posts, I have decided to participate in the Japan Blog Matsuri. If you are unfamiliar with the event, it’s similar to the My History with Anime project, but every once in a while it gets a new topic. The topic this time is “Reasons to Visit Japan” and is being hosted by A Modern Girl.

If you’ll recall, I’ve already visited Japan in 2010 and stayed there for a month. Being in Japan for that long turns the idea of sightseeing and sushi-eating into a chore so I won’t bore you with things like “oh, you should see X temple and Y tower”. Instead, I’ll tell you the REAL reasons why you should visit Japan (ie: experiences you won’t get anywhere else):

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One of the great things about spring cleaning is that you always find things that you’ve completely forgotten about, like this, a box of Maid Cookies.

Some of you newer readers may not know this, but I travelled to Japan for a month last year and brought back a bunch of goodies, this was one of them. I found this unique product in a store in Akihabara, in fact, almost all of the large anime stores were selling it. Prices ranged from 600-800 yen, but I can’t remember what I paid for it.

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In response to Yi’s fun project idea, I’ve gone back through all of my old anime posts and put together a collection of the times when I’ve overthought something and was wrong. Since I’m on the topic of overthinking, I’ve also included some posts where I’ve just completely taken things out of context. These posts go back to when I first started blogging in 2008, so most of the series I cover are complete. If you haven’t seen them and plan on watching them later, be warned that there are spoilers below.

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When you visit any online anime community, you will see a lot of Japanese terms being thrown around such as moe, ecchi, shounen, shoujo, yuri, and yaoi. Sometimes terms are used incorrectly or their meaning has been twisted but those have become the norm for English-speakers, some examples include hentai and otaku. All of these terms have been around for a long time, but when I look at them, I notice that something which was found in almost every anime discussion has practically died. What I am referring to is the term “kawaii”.

OK, maybe it isn’t actually dead, but it certainly isn’t anywhere near as popular as it used to be, at least from my experience.

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Those of you nendoroid collectors will probably already know of the Miku Support version nendoroid that Good Smile Company (GSC) is releasing soon. It’s basically a remake of the original Miku nendoroid with an extra face, flag, and pompoms included.

What I find more interesting are not the extras, but how GSC is marketing and selling this new nendoroid. According to the product description, the Miku Support ver. was created to help with relief efforts in Japan after the massive earthquake and tsunami. How exactly will selling a nendoroid help with relief efforts? Well, GSC claims that 1000 yen from every nendoroid sold will go to the Japan Red Cross. Not to mention, the new Miku will be sold for 3000 yen, a bit less than most nendoroids.

That sounds like a pretty good deal right? Not only do get a discounted Miku, you’ll feel good knowing that some of your money is going to help people in need. It also paints GSC in a positive light, forfeiting a portion of their profits in order to help others, but is that really what’s going on?

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I would like to propose a project. If you are reading this, there is a 99% chance that you watch anime, and I know that many of you have your own blogs. Since we all enjoy the same thing, I thought it would be nice for everyone to share their history regarding when/how they discovered anime, how it has become a part of their lives, and how they think it has changed since then. It can be as detailed or as short as you want, and it can be about anything anime-related such as: your favourite series, why you watch anime, difficulties in getting anime, collecting anime goodies, anime conventions, cosplaying, and drawing.

If you have a blog, simply write about your history with anime and send me the link. I will add your link to the list below and a new project page I created with links to everyone participating. If you have a banner you would like displayed, send that in too. In return, I simply ask for you to spread the word and link back to this post. If you don’t have a blog and would like to participate, worry not. Simply email me with your screen name and history, and I will create a page for you. I will also add links to any profile pages you may have (ie: Twitter, Youtube, MyAnimeList, MyFigureCollection). I look forward to reading everyone’s posts.

The list so far:

@fkeroge’s History with Anime

2-D Teleidoscope’s History with Anime

Arctic Kitsune’s History with Anime

Arianna Sterling’s History with Anime

Aya’s History with Anime

Bobbierob’s History with Anime

Cutfilm Tovent’s History with Anime

Ephemeral Dreamer’s History with Anime

Fabienne’s History with Anime

Fabrice Requin’s History with Anime

Falling Cirno’s History with Anime

Fangzhao’s History with Anime

Hoshiko’s History with Anime

Janette’s History with Anime

Justin’s History with Anime

Kai’s History with Anime

Kuuki’s History with Anime

Lovelyduckie’s History with Anime

Meltedpoo’s History with Anime

Miette-chan’s History with Anime

MkMiku’s History with Anime

Persocom’s History with Anime

Quentin Lau’s History with Anime

Radiant’s History with Anime

Rilkar’s History with Anime

Ritsu’s History with Anime

Riyoga’s History with Anime

Seinime’s History with Anime

Tsurugiarashix’s History with Anime

Tuan Vo’s History with Anime

Valence’s History with Anime

Ydolon’s History with Anime

Yi’s History with Anime

Yuribou’s History with Anime

Zyl’s History with Anime

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Nopy’s History With Anime:

If you’re a regular visitor to my blog, you’ll know that I love anime, but what got me started with this addiction? Like many anime fans my age in North America, my first encounter with anime was the original Dragon Ball series which aired for a short while in the mid 90′s before being cancelled due to poor ratings. Shortly after, Sailor Moon hit the airwaves and took the cartoon world by storm. I remember seeing newspaper articles describing the Sailor Moon phenomenon and finding Sailor Moon merchandise in every asian and toy store in the city. I was also swept along with the Sailor Moon craze. That cartoon (I didn’t know what anime was at the time) had everything: pretty characters, neat powers (at least to a kid), plenty of action, a bit of controversy, and a good story. In fact, I liked Sailor Moon so much that I spent whatever loose change I could find on the ground on Sailor Moon stickers, cards, temporary tattoos, and posters (loose change bought you a lot back then).

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Animethon is an annual anime convention held in Edmonton, Alberta. It’s marketed as the longest-running anime convention in Canada and usually takes place in August. For those who can’t wait a whole 12 months between Animethons, there’s also a sort of mini-convention called A Taste of Animethon (ATOA). This is held halfway between Animethons and is a scaled-down 1 day version of the actual event. As regular attendees will know, Animethon always takes place at Grant MacEwan University (formerly College, formerly Community College), and this year it was held yesterday, February 12.

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Know this: if I disappear from the online community, it’s because refuse to pay more for internet access than people in third-world countries.

I know this is out of the ordinary, but it is of great importance to me. This post is a message to all of my Canadian readers, who, according to my site stats for this month, make up the 2nd largest group of visitors.

If you haven’t already heard, the Canadian Radio-television Telecummunications Commission (CRTC) has decided to give the ISP oligopoly the ability to charge customers up to $2/GB of bandwidth usage beyond the 25GB cap per month. When you consider that Canada already has one of the highest internet fees in the world, it’s ludicrous that a government body set up to protect consumer interests would do something like this. Add to the fact that the major ISPs have decreased bandwidth usage caps recently, and it feels like we’ve been left to the wolves.

So what would compel the CRTC to make such a decision? The arguments being made are: Canada is a vast country and needs lots of money to support the infrastructure, and the current lines are being congested by heavy internet users. Sure, Canada is the second-largest country in the world, but every schoolchild knows that 85% of the population lives within 300km of the Canada-U.S. border, a significantly smaller area than ISPs make it out to be. Secondly, the infrastructure to support the internet was built and is maintained using taxpayer money. It doesn’t make sense that we have to pay for something that private corporations use and they in turn charge us to gain access to it. I’m not going to go through all of them, but plenty of counter-arguments and issues have been presented in the last few days:

http://openmedia.ca/

http://www.antiubb.com/

http://www.dslreports.com/r0/download/1621527~7113613720f25003c7128aa38c32efe5/CRTC-2010-802-Vaxination-Petition.pdf

If you do not want to have the honour of paying the highest cellphone fees in the world AND the highest internet fees in the world, then I implore you to take action and speak out against this injustice. The Anti UBB site has a list of actions that you can take to do your part. I am currently preparing letters to send to Industry Canada as well as my local MP. I also encourage everyone to sign this petition to have the CRTC’s decision reversed. Let your voice be heard!