Otaku Dan: The Life of an Anime Fan

Well, this post is mostly going to be about random thoughts that have come to me and there are going to pictures that are not related to the random thoughts of mine.

I have been seeing raise of daily hits to my blog for the last 2 weeks which is pretty cool. To be honest, I'm very grateful that my blog is growing and I feel very happy for that. I hope that after Metrocon, my blog will grow drastically because I'm going to be hosting a How to start an anime blog panel and a panel covering the entire Gundam franchise. I will be pasting out my business card(I just contacted Chun about the new design of my cards) to anyone I meet at the con. Who knows, something good can come from that.

For that last couple of years, my wisdom teeth have been coming out and I'm not in pain like some people go through. What sucks is that I'm constantly bleeding from were those teeth are coming out of. I'm actually looking for a new dentist that takes my health insurance so it won't cost me a leg and an arm to get those teeth removed.

I have been meaning to get some more action bases for my Gundam model kits to display them in some cool poses like the one below. I really want to start build model kits again but since college is taking up a lot of my time, it would be impossible. I may build one when I start summer vacation which starts by the end April. There are 3 kits that I want to build and they are HGUC Nu Gundam, HGUC Sazabi, and HG Gundam Exia.





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Finally, the long awaited 2009 anime spring season is here. I have seen a lot of excited people out there looking forward to this season after previous winter season which was considered to be a little disappointing. This is the final list with the dates of the new anime series that are coming out soon.


My going to watch and may watch list has change from last time

What I'm going to watch:
K-ON!
Fullmetal Alchemist
Hayate no Gotoku 2
Hayate no Gotoku 2 OVA
Queen's Blade
Cobra: Time Drive
Lupin 3rd VS Detective Conan
To Love-ru OVA
Spice & Wolf 2: Amber Melancholy
KissXsis OAD

What I may watch:
Dragon Ball Z/Kai
Saki
Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan
Soten Koro
Natsu no Arashi
Shangri-La
Sengoku Basara

I have been thinking of doing episodic reviews for K-ON! and/or Queen's Blade, I should go for it. So, what are you going to watch this spring season?

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For the last couple of figure photo shoots, I have been having some trouble with the lighting. What I have been doing is that I have been using one light bulb instead of 2 and I have been manipulating the brightness of that one light bulb. While I was reading some articles at Digital Photography School, it hit me. The perfect solution for my problem was so simple.

My diffuser is made up of a box and tracing paper. The tracing paper was good but not good enough at making the light softer. What I did was that I used the physical principles of a lightbox and applied it to the diffuser, meaning that instead of using tracing paper, I'm using white fabric to make the light much softer.

I'm using an old white t-shirt as my white fabric

now it is completely covered

I'm using some paperclips to make sure that the light does not escape

I'm doing the same thing to my second light bulb

now, lets look at the results:

The normal diffuser on its own

diffuser and second light bulb with the t-shirts

If you look at the second picture, the lighting is much softer than the first picture even thou I'm using 2 light bulbs. I'm planning to visit Joann Fabrics to buy some white fabric and make a slip-on cover for the second light bulb. So, what do you think of my crazy but yet effective idea?

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Yesterday, on a whim I went manga shopping at Books-A-Million because I have nothing better to do on a Friday night. I was just watching Attack of the Show and in the middle of it, I put some pants on and went out. Before I got to the store, I decided to grab a bite at Wendy's.

I ended up buying Claymore volume 9 and 10 and I picked up Crayon Shin-chan. The reason why I picked up Crayon Shin-chan is cause I have seen the anime in Spanish years ago and on Adult Swim, I have been wondering how the manga was. Holy crap, the first page had me laughing out loud at the store when I was reading it at BAM and what I like is that just one volume has over 30 chapters. I also found a new manga that I'm going to pick on my next pick to BAM, it's called Uzumaki. It is so weird and creepy that I was thinking twice about but when I saw it has gotten great reviews and it is only 3 volumes long, I have to pick it up soon.

So, how often do you buy manga?

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Yesterday, I got my Adsense check for the month and I went out to buy a copy of Anime Insider and Otaku USA. When I finally got home, I decided to visit Anime News Network and I saw the saddest ever, Anime Insider is ending its publication after 8 years.

I'm actually surprised that Anime Insider is ending it's publication because it is the number 1 anime magazine in the United States, it has great articles, and a low price of $4.99 USD. Wizard Entertainment is the company behind Anime Insider and they have not given a reason why it is ending publication, I suspect that it is economic related. It was about a year ago when Newtype USA died because economic reasons.

The last anime magazine around is Otaku USA and I'm hoping that this magazine survives the coming ages. Right now, the U.S. anime industry is not looking pretty right about now and it worries me. So, what do you think of this matter?

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The format war is a never ending battle between the different media formats to see which format will reign supreme. Every single time when a format becomes king, in a few years, its empire will fall as if it was nothing. This war greatly affects us because if you don't adapt quickly, you will be left in the dust. The current war is between the DVD and the Blueray but in reality the war is between physical media and the digital download.


Physical media has been around for a very long time but the internet came in, it has not been the same. Lets take the newspaper for example, it has been around for centuries and it was the only way how people got the news until the radio and television came along. Sales drops for the newspaper but it was going still going strong until the internet stopped it in its tracks. The newspaper is still being printed but in a few year it will be a relic of the past because anyone can get the latest news in a matter of seconds for free.


DVDs and CDs will have the same fate as the newspaper. There are a lot of DVD rental services that are now offering streaming and/or download services because they know that people will stop getting DVDs. Think about it, would you prefer to drive to the store, hope they have a copy of the movie you want, wait in line, and drive back home or pay $5 USD and have the movie streaming on your TV. Microsoft stated that the Xbox 360 will not get a blueray adapter but they will focus on the Netflix downloading service instead. I would not be surprised that in 10 years, store's movie section will not be around and will be replaced by media downloading machine section.

I will admit it, I like physical media but I know that it will not be around anymore and I'm going to enjoy it as long as I can. So, what do you think of the Physical media versus the digital download war?

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Today I really was not going to do a figure preorder post but after the figures I saw, I had to blog about it. First up is Real Arrange 002 Ikki Tousen Ryomou Shimei by D zou(diskvision). This has to be the nicest Ryomou Shimei figure I have seen, the detail of this figure is absolutely beautiful. This figure is coming out in june for the price of 13,110 Yen.

This is Nendoroid Priecia by Good Smile Company. Priecia originates from the H-game, Prism Ark,. I have not played Prism Ark but I have seen reviews and screen shoots, let me say Priecia is hot. I would have to say, this nendoroid has a lot of detail to it. This figure will come out in July for the price of 3,619 Yen.

The next 2 figures you should know who they are by now, Figma Mikuru Fighting Waitress version and Figma Tsuruya Culture Festival Maid version. Thank goodness I skipped the regular versions of these 2 Figma figures. They are both coming out in May for the price of 2,261 Yen each.


The last one in the list is Shihodo Narika Choko Sennin version by Alter. This character originated from Choko Sennin Haruka, I don't know much of that anime but the figure looks good. This figure will come out in July for the price of 7,410 Yen.


Out of all of these figures, I'm getting the 2 figma figures for sure. So, what are you going to get from these great preorders?

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About a year ago I made an anime con survival post, this time I'm going to educate everyone on how one should act at one. The reason why I'm doing this post is because it's that time of year when all of the big anime cons are starting soon. I have been to my share of anime cons over the years and I have see almost about every and the thing I most commonly see is people acting like idiots from running around screaming at the top of their lungs to disrespectful to other people just because they can.


First of all, the hallways are not your playground. I have seen people sitting, dancing and acting like a fool in the middle of the hallways. these hallways tend to be crowded with a lot of people and there is a big chance of getting hurt. Don't glomp anyone that you may not know because there is a chance that person will kick your head in or charge you for assault(it has happened). This one is for young women who can be easily fooled, don't go alone with a guy to his hotel room because he probably was something devious in mind. It does not matter if he is cosplaying as your favorite anime character that you have had fantasies about, he is still a creep.

Don't drink alcohol or do drugs at an anime con. On 2 different occasions, I have seen the consequences of this and it is not pretty. One time, I saw this guy drunk picking fights with people and when a security guard when up to this guy to confront the problem, he punched the security guard and was arrested. The second occasion was when this girl was having a bad trip on acid. I mean she must have been seeing some weird stuff because she was freaking out and was taken to the hospital.



People, just be on you best behavior because when you are not, you are making everyone around you look bad. I'm not saying not to have fun but to do it in a smart way. So, bad anime con experiences have you had?

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Yesterday, I gave my bookcase away to my younger sister because has been needing one for all of her books and junk that 12 year old girls have. Since, I was feeling much better, I went out to Wal-Mart and I bought a new one.

This is the new bookcase and it cost $36.04 USD (and that's including tax). I have meaning to buy one for a while but I was going to wait until I would have to start double stacking my manga.

Particle board rocks

One hour and a nap later, it is complete. It seems that now I have to fill it up because it looks so empty and sad.

Welcome home

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While I was erasing older some older files that I will never use, I discovered a folder with all of my original pictures including all of my figure photo shoots. Since I was feeling much better, I sat down and picked the best 16 pictures out 150. The problem that I have now is that I can only submit 5 pictures to the Picture This contest at Metrocon, this is where you all come in. I would like for all of my readers too pick their favorite 5 pictures and I will tally up the results.






So, which are your favorite 5 pictures?

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Well, I'm still sick and I don't feel like writing a post for today. I have been throwing up everything that I eat and drink, every single time I sneeze, my body feels like needles are being shoved into me, and I been awaking up with a fever. I managed to make this 2D girls post between the blacking out. I hope you enjoy this post.

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