The Otaku Public Library Strikes Back

So yeah, Otaku Public Library has been silent as a tomb for a few months now.

As you readers may remember (all 3 of you), the last post here was about me nearly getting laid off. I wasn't, thankfully, but it seriously harshed my mellow. In addition to that, I can finally admit that I've been on a pretty serious job hunt that basically eat my brain; it's hard to concentrate on making spurious and ham-fisted Kurosawa references in regards to Durarara! when you have to crank out cover letters and bone up on a random library's mission statement for a phone interview the next day. Somebody call the "wah-mbulence", right?

Thankfully, these are no longer issues - as of October 11th, I will be starting at the Austin Public Library (in beautiful Austin, Texas) as their Youth Services Division Manager. Austin Public Library is the home of the very, very awesome Yomicon and I'm looking forward to working with some total otaku staff and kids.

I'm still in shock that I'm gonna be working such an awesome job in such an awesome town, but once that wears off I plan to bring Otaku Public Library back from the dead. Keep watching this space.....

Naruto, Haruhi, and Some Shameless Self-Promotion

What up anidorks? Yes, I’ve been pretty lax with updates as of late. Several work and personal projects have been eating up most of my work and personal time, so the free time to watch all 160+ episodes of Gintama* has been in short supply.

So what the hell else is going on here at Otaku Public Library, dare you ask? Well, I finally gave into peer pressure and began a serious, read-every-volume-I-can effort to familiarize myself with the Manga Series That Ate America, i.e. Naruto…and I’ll be gol-danged if it isn’t nearly as awesome as all the kiddies say. Granted, I still prefer the darker and funnier Bleach as a shonen action series, but I was honestly taken aback by how well-plotted and well-developed Naruto is.

Aside from that, the only other thing I’ve been seriously following has been Season 2 of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Yes, I did rag on MOHS as being a bit trite and gimmicky when I first saw/reviewed it, but my feelings have softened – and I also can’t deny it’s ruminations on the nature of reality and unreality is probably one of the more thoughtful and ambitious storylines out there. Is it still a little cheesy, forced, and a little too reliant on moe? Well, yes, but the deeper themes still shine through – and isn’t moe what hardcore Haruri-head (Melancholiac?) want anyway?

*****

On a more professional note, I have had the extreme good fortune to be asked to speak at the two New Jersey State Library Graphic Novel Collection Development workshops on August 25th and 28th. Comic publishers, school librarians, and public librarians like myself will be on hand to provide a comprehensive overview on how to select graphic novels for public and school library collections; I’ll be covering “Manga Collection for Complete Newbies”. If you’re a New Jersey-area librarian and want some quality advice on creating a dang awesome graphic novel/manga collection, I do hope you’ll join us.

Oh, and if you are attending America Libraries Association’s Annual Convention in Chicago this weekend, and are really, really dying to hear my views on cooking manga, harem comedy, and the blessed lack of tentacles in modern anime, then please stop by the ALA Open Gaming Night on Friday, 7pm – 10pm, at the Hilton Chicago. I’ll be the one looking like a 1970’s Scottish soccer hooligan (buzzcut, huge black glasses, red beard, permanently dour expression).

Toodles, y’all…


* Seriously, check Gintama out. I don’t know if I could watch all 4 seasons, but it’s still a sly, cynical, and satirical sci-fi/samurai situation comedy that’s a cut above the usual dross.

UPDATE: Bleach SOULs/Anime-themed Video Games/The End of Anime Insider

What up anidorks? I’m just checking in today, so no reviews. In all honesty, I haven’t really come across anything worthy of a review lately*, so rather than waste my time and yours enthusing about/savaging some nameless shonen action series, I’m just gonna ruminate on a few topics…

First off, devoted Bleach fans should do themselves a favor and pick up the Bleach SOULs. Official Character Book at their earliest convenience. It’s a great overview of the series present storyline up to Vol 21, as well as containing biographical info for all 80+ characters. Throw in an interview with Tite Kubo, glossary of terms, and a bunch of bonus manga and you’ve pretty much got a “must have” for Bleach heads (along with Kon-patterned underpants).

Secondly, the latest Anime Insider magazine is devoted a whole issue to “Video Games for Otakus”, a subject near and dear to my heart. In fact, they do a fine job of tabulating the “otaku quotient” (i.e. number of anime/Japanese culture – specific titles) for the current console systems. I’ve been struggling to find the system with the most otaku-friendly titles, and I guess it’s no surprise that (spoiler) the Nintendo DS wins out there. I’d suggest hot-footing down to the local newsstand to pick up a copy – not just because of the content, but because Anime Insider will be stopping publication as of this issue, #67. Another one bites the dust, sadly….

And speaking of anime-friendly video games, I’m dying to see a North American version of Sunday X Magazine: Taisen Action, Trigger Heart, a side-scrolling 2D fighter starring the characters from Japanese manga magazines Shonen Sunday and Shonen Magazine. The cast includes characters from Negima (awesome!), Fairy Tale, Air Gear, Cromartie High School, Inu-Yasha, Hayate the Combat Butler, and Kekkashi, as well as several other Japan-only series. If you simply must have a copy, its $60 and in Japanese…but I doubt that’ll stop some of you.

In any event, it’s a lovely spring day outside….and naturally, I plan to spend it indoors watching the original Tenchi Muyo OVA and playing Suikoden III (har har).

* with the notable exception of the awesomely funny (and disturbing gory) “magical girlfriend” parody series Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan, aka “Club-To-Death Angel Dokuro-chan”.

NY Comic Con 2009

Yes indeed, it’s that time of year again - New York Comic Con '09.

My buddy Christian from the QBPL invited me to present the “Otaku Collection Development: Taking Your Collection to the Next Level” panel with him on Professional Day, Friday Feb 6th. Christian covered vintage works: darker Tezuka (MW, Ode to Kirihito), J-Horror (Drifting Classroom), and hack-and-slash Samurai stuff (Lone Wolf and Cub, Lady Snowblood). I covered accessible but under-the-radar modern manga (ala Yakitate Japan, xxxHolic, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya), as well as modern fringe stuff (ala Welcome to the NHK and Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei).

Personally, I thought we did dang good, although a blogger flamed us as being sexist because we didn’t talk about shojo. Ouch. In our defense, we were sandwiched between two shojo-centered panels, and we felt like more shojo on our part would have been overkill (although some people obviously don’t agree). Besides, you have to admit that something about two burly 30-something guys with huge red beards talking about comics geared to 14 year old Japanese girls comes off a little....well, creepy. Eh, whatever.

In any event, the Con itself was ok, but way more crowded than I remembered from last year; I suppose folks are in need of escapist entertainment more than even. I ran into an old manga-loving coworker, which was awesome; she had been “relived” of her job rather unfairly (at least in my opinion), so I was happy to hear that she was doing well at her new gig. Unsurprisingly, I went bat-poop crazy in the retailer section and picked up about 20 manga; the volumes were only about $4 each because I bought in bulk, so I grabbed a random selection of stuff I’d been either meaning to read, or just looked appealing…

-Comic Party #1 and #3 (Doujinshi artist-themed slapstick comedy; way weirder than the anime it spawned.)

-Neon Genesis Evangelion: Angelic Days #1 (NGE re-imagined as a school comedy/drama…an interesting idea, that’s for sure.)

-Ai Yori Aoishi #2, 6, and 8 (cloyingly sweet Love/Harem comedy. What can I say? I just can’t keep my hands off this crap.)

-Lupin III #9 (Classic seinen heist high jinks)

-Martian Successor Nadesico #1 – 4 (lighthearted space opera; the dated art and “flipped” format make it hard to get into, but I dig the series.)

-Cyborg 009 #8 (old school action/intrigue stuff with big Tezuka visual influence.)

-Samurai Executioner #3 (1970’s hack and slash Samurai action)

-Onegai Twins (dopey Harem comedy that, of course, I can’t resist)

-Iron Wok Jan #12, 14, and 23 (Chinese cooking showdown; way more dark and intense than you would imagine a cooking showdown series to be…)

-Those Who Hunt Elves #7 (action/comedy/fantasy/adventure about a man, two women, and a tank trapped in the land of elves. Raunchy plot elements but far more goofy than echi)

I also picked up ADV’s Martian Successor Nadesico box set; dated as it is in terms of it’s sci-fi theme and animation, I liked the bit that I was able to get through Netflix so I didn’t mind coughing up for copies of my own.

All in all, a dang good time – and not nearly as stinky/creepy as the NY Anime Fest!

***

Otherwise, things are pretty chill here at the biblioteca publica dé Otaku. Aside from watching the excellent Toradora and the offbeat Akikan (teen boy’s soda can transforms into a beautiful girl who must battle other soda-can/girls for “can supremacy”), I’m taking a real shine to Paranoia Agent, a supremely creepy psychological/crime thriller about the manhunt for a baseball bat-wielding boy on rollerblades; expect a review of one of these series (or Comic Party) before long.

Changes Coming; Burnt out on Harem Comedy; Gary Gygax RIP

Otaku Public Library has been up and running (for lack of a better word) about 4 months now. I started it on a lark but now I’m feeling that it could use some improvement – basically, the writing is amateurish at times and the layout is pretty dull, and I feel I’m overdue to try and make some enhancements.

So, over the next couple of weeks I’m hoping to:

1) Make the layout and design of the site a little more interesting – what I have right now is a basic out-of-the box Blogger layout. Maybe add some actual color? Who knows...

2) Edit, rewrite, or delete some reviews. I have to admit there’s a lot of half-assed writing on this blog and I really ought to tighten up some grammar and rewrite awkward phrasing; in fact, one or two the reviews are real stinkers and perhaps ought to be deleted. Lastly, some reviews have misleading tags or no tags at all, so by improving those, the reviews will be easier to browse (I hope).

3) I’ve been pretty blasé about grabbing images from the internet to catch the reader’s eye, and I’m sure that most, if not all, of those images are copyright protected. I don’t see that as being that big a deal right now, because I highly doubt that the creators are on this website on a regular basis (or anybody, really….hahaha). Still, I may be changing some images here and there, and probably changing the out-and-out references to P2P downloading to something a little less blatant. Just covering my ass, y’all.

***

In any event, I’m “burnt out on Harem Comedy”, as the title of this post suggests. In a short period of time I watched (or read) Shuffle!, DearS, Love Hina, Suzuka, and part of Girl Bravo; and at this point I can’t stand to watch another crowd of pretty girls throw themselves at a lovable loser (unless that lovable loser is me, haha). I must admit that I have been digging on the very awesome School Rumble, but that’s more of a slap-stick high-school comedy with romantic elements. I’m working through the OVA as we speak, so expect a (very positive) review sometime soon.

***

Lastly, Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons died earlier this week. So much geek culture – anime and manga as much as any other element – has been influenced by his seminal fantasy Role Playing Game that I felt I would be remiss in not mentioning his passing; Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and countless other Japanese RPGs bear his imprint.

Odds and Ends and Updates again

So, I finally finished downloading the entire Welcome to the NHK! anime series via BitTorrent this weekend…and, after many weeks of anticipation, have finally begun watching the series in its entirety. I gave this series a pretty good review and I’ve been dying to see more. I’m under the impression the anime has a different ending than the manga, so I’m interested to see how they compare.

In other news, I’ve decided to continue posting on a once-a-week schedule – as time allows, naturally. I have to sneak in posts between my “real” duties at work, so don’t be surprised if I miss a week now and then.

Aside from W2TNHK!, Samurai Champloo (almost finished!), and the odds and ends that I’ve watched at the library Anime Clubs, I’ve been in a real harem comedy mood for the last couple of weeks. Hell, I’ve already made multiple entries for DearS, and I’ve also started in on Girls Bravo and Shuffle!. I know part of being an otaku/geek is embracing your eccentric interests, but I have to admit I’m sort of embarrassed to like these series…. I guess they appeal to the introverted 14 year old boy inside of me; and honestly, doesn’t most anime and manga – and by that thinking, video games, comic books/graphic novels, and sci-fi/fantasy in general – appeal to that mindset?

In any event, I’ll be putting on 2 Anime Clubs next week:
1) New Lots Library: Wednesday, Feb 27th @ 4:30pm
2) Arlington Library: Friday, Feb 29thth @ 4:30pm

By popular request, I will probably be showing Fullmetal Alchemist. I’ve heard a lot about this series from a number of patrons and would like to give it the old “once-over” myself.