Otaku Dan: The Life of an Anime Fan

Celebrating the 15th anniversary of the hit series-turned-international anime franchise Rurouni Kenshin, Aniplex of America Inc. announced today that it will be releasing the Blu-ray disc versions of the OVA (Original Video Animation) series and movie in North America, through RightStuf.com and Bandai Entertainment’s The Store on the same day as Japan.

Aniplex of America Inc. announced today that its breakout anime hit show Durarara!! will make its U.S. network television debut on Adult Swim in June. The 26-episode Durarara!! series is slated to air during the cable network’s Saturday evening programming block, strengthening an already robust line-up of popular anime shows. Subsequent episodes (in English language dub) thereafter will be made available online through AdultSwim.com.

In this episode, Lauren and Dan share some embarrassing weeaboo stories.

Note: this episode was recorded on 5/26/11


Sites mentioned in the episode:
The opener is Seize the Daylight by ParaDox
Know Your Meme
Weeaboo Stories
Anime USA


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Yoake Mae Yori Ruri Iro Na -Crescent Love- is the first anime that I have tackled in the Anime Spring Cleaning Challenge. This anime is based off of a visual novel that goes by the same name and it first aired in the fall of 2006. This is an interesting show that I have been wanting to watch for a really long and I finally got the chance.

Many years had past since the great war between the Earth and the Moon. Tatsuya Asagiri is just your regular high school student that has dreams and aspirations to visit the Moon. One day when he returns home, he learns that his home will be hosting a Lunar exchange student. The person that will be staying with him and his sisters is the one and only Princess Feena Fam Earthlight. Will a romance rinse between Tatsuya and Feena? Will an intergalactic war be revived?

The story, I found it to be weak. Imagine the story of Romeo and Juliet but strip all of the interesting parts, inject it with generic harem anime troupes that you have seen countless times, and throw it into space. This is what this anime is.

The characters of this anime are pretty forgettable. Most of the time I would forget who's who. Tatsuya has the personally of wet toast, I have seen this type of character so many times that I don't even bother remembering his name. Only two characters did stand out for me, Feena and Natsuki. Natsuki is Tatsuya's stereotypical childhood friend that lives next door. She exhibited all the classic signs but, she did something different that got me by surprise. SPOILER TIME: She is interested in tatsuya and she's aware that so does Feena, but Natsuki backs off from pursuing Tatsuya because she knows that he has no feeling for her. That was a jaw dropper for me. SPOILER TIME IS OVER. As for Feena, she's pretty cute and I wouldn't mind owning a figure of her.

This anime is known for its animation and not in a good way. Seeing scene shots of the original broadcast version is horrifying, its uglier than a cow that has been dead for five weeks in a river of feces. AS for the DVD version, it looks much better because it was completely redrawn. They're still a few scenes that look bad and chopping, but it can be ignored.

Damn, seeing the original broadcast version and the DVD version side by side, its like night and day.

Final thoughts, play the visual novel instead because you get a more deeper experience, the characters are more developed, and you get to see most of the female characters in the process. The next anime that I will be watching for the Anime Spring Cleaning Challenge is Project A-ko and Project A-ko VS.

Today in Kicking it Old School, I'll be covering an anime series that has one cool dude that all the women want and all the men want to be him and an adventure that spans cross the universe. I'm talking about Space Adventure Cobra.

Johnson is your mild manner fellow who works for a trading company in space. One day, his robot maid Ben(a trash can on wheels) suggested that he should go to the trip movie company, they specialize on making custom dreams the customer wants while they're sleeping. Johnson being like any normal man, he asks to dream about having a harem beautiful and exotic women and being a space commander. However, he gets another dream that seems too real for him.

Johnson dreams about being Cobra, the legendary space pirate and exploring the cosmos with his partner Lady Android. The dream ends with him being a wanted man by the pirate guild because he shot Captain Vaiken in the eye. After having such an interesting experience, Johnson drives back home but he crashed into a familiar face, Captain Vaiken. Johnson mentioned to Vaiken that he looks just like the guy he saw in his dream. Vaiken starts to question Johnson if he knew anything about Cobra, because of that Johnson lifts his left arm and shoots Vaiken with the psycho-gun, a laser gun hidden under a prosthetic arm. When Johnson returns home, he remembers that he is Cobra and that Ben was Lady Android in disguise. The both of them resume their adventures across the galaxy.

This series is dated. It has a 70s vibe to it which to some people, they may find it boring because it looks old. I find that to be a stupid reason not to watch a good show like his because they're use to bright colors and weak storytelling. For its time, it had a great story and fast pace action.

The manga, movie, and original anime never got licensed in the States. However in recent years, two OVA series and a thirteen episode series have come out and they are free to watch on Crunchyroll.

Damn it! I had a Kicking it Old School post ready and I deleted it by mistake. As of right now, I'm in a pissed off mood to rewrite the whole thing. For the time being, here's a back-up gallery of Kirino Kousaka from Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai.

Hey look, Weekly Pictures is back. The reason why it happened was a combination of two things: being lazy and being really lazy. Yeah, I suck. Now that I have the motivation again, here's the comeback post of Weekly Pictures.

I started watching Brighter that the Dawning Blue thanks to the Spring Cleaning Anime Challenge. I watched the first half of the show so far and I'm enjoying, I will be doing a review of it when I'm done. The next show that I will be watching will be Project A-ko and Project A-ko VS.

I hate dusting my figures. My reason behind it is that it takes me four to five hours just to dust them and they're still filthy. I finally snapped and took all of my figures into the show and washed them. It took me an hour get them clean, 30 minutes of washing and 30 minutes of air drying. This method is so much faster and I'm glad that it works.

I gained four pounds during my vacation, I feel pretty crappy about it. I started working out again by using P90X Cardio DVD. I have been trying to run everyday as well. I'm being very careful not to injure my right knee.

Lately, I've been catching up on video games that I need to beat. Most of the games that I'm currently playing are on the Wii and PSP. The one game that I'm mostly focusing on is No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle, it's a fun game but I had a problem with it recently. What happened was that I was about to beat a boss and the game glitched. I haven't played since that happened, I should get the game resurfaced. I'm still playing a ton of Team Fortress 2 and enjoying the replay function.

More figures have appeared in the month of May and they are looking great. So many figures that are up for preorder are worth getting. Come on in and check out these new figures that are up for preorder.

Nendoroid Alleyne by FREEing. This figure will be coming out in August for the price of 2,833 Yen.

Misaka Mikoto & Little Sister Set by Penguin Parade. This figure will be coming out in September for the price of 7,920 Yen.

Shirai Kuroko by Penguin Parade. This figure will be coming out in September for the price of 6,120 Yen.

Kumashiro Maya by MegaHouse. This figure will be coming out in late July for the price of 5,780 Yen.

Pirate Captain Liliana by MegaHouse. This figure will be coming out in late August for the price of 6,630 Yen.

Nendoroid Kawashima Minami by Good Smile Company. This figure will be coming out in September for the price of 2,833 Yen.

Kiriya Nozomi by Kaitendo. This figure will be coming out in early August for the price of 5,525 Yen.

Serizawa Fumino by Kaitendo. This figure will be coming out in early August for the price of 5,525 Yen.

Naoko-san & Misuzu by Chara-Ani. This figure will be coming out in early August for the price of 7,270 Yen.

First of all, that Maya figure by MegaHouse is amazing. I never thought anyone would release a figure of her. Another figure that looks great is Pirate Captain Liliana, the main thing I happen to like about her is that she's a full cast-off. As for everything else, they look great. So, what are you planning to preorder?

This gallery is featuring Yui Hirasawa from K-ON! I hope you enjoy.