NEWS UPDATE: Axis Powers Hetalia Cancellation January 16, 2009

Okay, so big news here. I’m still in the middle of writing up the Winter 09 Anime List so I’ve been at least trying to keep up to date on the new series-es.

So, if no one has payed any attention to the anime net sphere over the past 2 weeks or so, they wouldn’t know about the big controversy surrounding Hetalia.

Hetalia is  a gag story on several political situations, covering a lot of World War II, with personified characters of countries, such as Germany, US, etc. Cue word: gag. Apparently, a lot of Koreans didn’t get it and found the character of Korea to be insulting, thus a petition to ban Axis Powers Hetalia was created online. So far, it has accumulated 15000 and rising signatures on the petition. The TV station that was supposed to broadcast Axis Powers Hetalia cancelled the airing of the show due to pressure and bad international publicity. However, in the anime’s website, it has said that it will still be distributed via mobile phones (sucks of us here in the West who have sucky low-tech cellphones).

Like DAMN. Before I get any hate messages, I want just want to say that Hetalia pretty much makes fun out of everyone. Even Japan is shown as an otaku boy, which I don’t think really truly describes a huge percent of the Japanese population. And Italy pretty much acts like an idiot-crybaby throughout the thing. I even bet those who signed the petition signed just to have something to argue about and not even know about Hetalia or even at least researched a bit of info on the situation before signing. I am aware of the tension between Japan and Korea. However, I just think its ridiculous that Hetalia gets cancelled over some nationalists saying its insulting to them when the whole series insults all the countries in it (via stereotyping and otherwise). It’s for gag.

That of course is my rant. I was trying to vent while being diplomatic and I know I failed. The Japan-Korea thing has been going on for quite awhile and I think nationalism had a big part on this controversy which I can’t argue with ’cause I don’t have a nationalistic bone in my body since it leads to argument and spending energy. Too late now though, since its cancelled. Oh, life how you disappoint me (in many ways other than cancelling Hetalia and Double Arts).

My Socials class was talking about how if Bush (yes current Bush) was the leader of China and SNL was a Chinese show, all the members of SNL would be hung… or something along those lines. Just goes to show how the ability to take jokes in Asia is way different than the West.

This whole thing is sorta giving me a sense I’ll do bad in my  examination.

image from 和菓子菓子 on pixiv

Oh Woe is Me October 5, 2007

Long story short: My harddrive blew up on me.

It burned, crashed my CPU, and died. It died taking along everything with it.

I’m kind of sad. My friend even suggested giving it a funeral.

As of right now I’m still at a loss of what to do. While I did a burning marathon of most of my stuff, most of my manga, anime, and 5 years worth of valuable links are lost. In exchange for losing everything, dearest father will be buying me a laptop and 100GB harddrive. I’m still not sure if its an equivalent exchange.

For some reason, I’m not feeling as badly as I thought I’d feel if my harddrive died. I suppose its entirely my fault. There was a weird burning rubber smell a few days before it completely crashed. Probably should have reported it to father then and I could have saved my stuff.

Anyways here’s a tip: “Don’t leave stuff you’ll miss if gone in you harddrive.”

I’m not angry. Well, I was angry for 2 minutes because I realized my homework was in my harddrive and I was just about to print it out too. Good thing it was just 14 sentences.

So yea, probably won’t be reviewing anything big for awhile until I get settled and try to retrive my lost files.

September Blues September 26, 2007

September really just happens to be the 3rd busiest month of the year for me (1st of the school year). Some crazy stuff has been happening, and yea I’ve neglected anime blogging since it took up a lot of time (but I shall get back to it… eventually). I’ve also been thinking of blogging about some manga volumes I’ve been buying (mostly manhwa actually).

So far there’s been the homework, the projects, the quizes and the gossip. Then of course after avoiding anime for a whole month I got back into the groove and finished off Toward the Terra (oh yea, I BOW DOWN BEFORE MAKOTO WHO FINISHED SUBBING IT), Seirei no Moribito has been so much love lately, Heroes Season 2 started, Avatar: The Last Airbender Book 3: Fire reminded me how much I loved the series, Naruto has been revealing quite a lot of information, and I got sick.

Everyone’s sick. Its spreading in my school. It’s like a plague or something.

Some productive things on my part are buying Howl’s Moving Castle and Gedo Senki (Night Market was fun, tons of yummy food).

And now, I have to get back to “Socializing” and prepare for “Frenching” tomorrow. 

Bandai Bites Big July 22, 2007

I’m back from the dead!

Bandai Entertainment seems to have gotten hold of Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, Toward the Terra, Ayakashi Ayashi, and My-Otome Zwei, as announced during Otakon 07.

While I’m not too surprised by Code Geass’ licensing, I would have thought Toward the Terra would finish before it’s brought over here to the West. It just recently hit its half-way point and things are starting to speed towards an ending. I must admit though, I’m happy its Bandai that acquired these titles as these series are at the top of my list and I would hate to see them scarred by crappy dubs.

For the people who don’t know Japanese, this might be a blow. A lot of major fansub groups abide legal terms and usually stop producing subbed versions of licensed anime. There are those who do still continue and might have a C&D coming their way. A-E and Saizen have stopped with Toward the Terra. Not so sure about Terra-Subs. Some people are already flocking to their forums, but so far no replies. Code Geass has a lot of groups subbing it, so there will probably be a subbed version no matter what. Whether it be from a major group has yet to be seen.

As for me, I watch RAWs all the time. My knowledge in the Japanese language is limited but I can pick up key words and the gist of it. So basically, continuing to watch all series. I might go and see French subtitles if I really don’t understand what’s going on.

But what a disappointment though. This is like the same as receiving news that Darker Than Black was licensed.

EDIT: Just went to their forums today, it seems like Terra-Subs is dropping Toward the Terra now that it’s licensed. Right now there are no groups subbing this series in English. Oh, but for anyone who just wants to see, Saizen has released the 2nd OP and ED of Toward the Terra with subs over at their forums.