There’s been a huge hubbub on the Internet recently over FUNimation’s decision to censor “objectionable content” from their recent acquisition Dance in the Vampire Bund. I’ve already been more than vocal about it on Twitter. Here, I’m just going to summarize my thoughts:
- What FUNimation is doing is censorship. They are removing “material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the government or media organizations.” That is censorship.
- Censorship is wrong. Plain and simple.
- People are making assumptions about why FUNimation is doing this, claiming it’s because of the Handley case or it’s a “smart business decision.” We know nothing yet.
- If you support a company’s decision to censor, then by the laws of logic, you support censorship.
- If you are truly against censorship, you should be fighting this decision, not supporting it. Allowing this to happen or just “dealing with it” is only going to help set a precedent.
- For further reading see here, here, and here.
Also note that I am not boycotting FUNimation. I will still continue to support their non-censored releases.
These will be the last words that I write about this issue. You can comment below, but don’t expect me to respond.
My philosophy when approaching video games is that every aspect must merge with the gameplay. Ideally every bit of the game should complement the core concept and gameplay. This is very hard to do, but Flower is one of those games that does this.
I was extremely reluctant to download Flower after hearing about its short length. Many, many reviews praised its art and said little about its gameplay. I knew it was about controlling the wind or something, and that it was about collecting flower petals. I also knew it primarily use the SIXAXIS controls, but besides those tidbits, I was in the dark. The gameplay seemed barely worthwhile and I was afraid I was burning close to $10 for a piece of interactive art when I wanted a game.
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Meta by Janai
Mar.07, 2010
JanaiBlog is proud to announce that we now have a video game reviewer! Raymond Reilly is an aspiring game designer and student. He is currently working on several projects spanning both digital and traditional games.
Here on JanaiBlog, Raymond will be focusing mostly on game reviews, especially on games that may be overlooked by many gamers. He will debut with his review of the PSN downloadable game Flower, coming very soon!
From now on, the bulk of video game reviews found on the site will be done by Raymond, although Janai will still be doing game reviews from time to time as well. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @rcreilly.
This week on episode 4 of the Otaku in Review Podcast, Scott invited Alain Mendez (@hisuiRT) of reversethieves.com to come on the show. In this episode, we talk about our experiences and feelings toward the totally perverted educational DVD Sleeping with Hinako. We also highlight the recent Gundam Unicorn Blu-ray vs DVD debate, and my yawn-inducing experience with Sora no Woto. For iPhone and iPod Touch users, I also talk about a nice array of anime-related iPhone / iPod Touch apps you should check out!
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Manga by TheGinachu
Mar.03, 2010
One of the things I love about manga is that they usually contain a good amount of detail and story. Although it makes sense that this would happen to me one day, I never really thought that I would come upon a manga that was plagued by the exact opposite problem, until now.
Only One Wish is a one-volume manga by Mia Ikumi that centers around the rumor of a dark angel who grants wishes via a cell phone. All you have to do is text her your wish at a specific time and place and it will come true. The manga is broken up into 4 chapters, each containing a different story about a wish that was made that didn’t quite go the way the people involved intended. All four of these stories center around high-school romance, which was charming at first but quickly became predictable and mundane. The characters were pretty much cardboard cutouts of any high-school character you’d find in a manga, and the dark angel herself had absolutely no development whatsoever, so much so that she’s never even given a name!
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In 2006, the anime series The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya aired in Japan. Based on a popular series of light novels by Nagaru Tanigawa, the series was an immediate hit. On June 11, 2006, an episode named “The Day of Sagittarius” was aired. In the episode, Haruhi and her friends (the “SOS Brigade”) are challenged by the Computer Club of the school to face them in a game they created.
From seeing it in the anime, it looked like a fairly standard space battle simulation game. You command ships and have them attack enemies. When I saw this episode, I wondered if such a game actually existed, and thought it would be interesting to play it. Today, iPhone and iPod Touch users can do just that with The Day of Sagittarius III app, available for $1.99 in the App Store.
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In Episode 3 of the Otaku in Review Podcast, Scott invited manga reviewer extraordinaires Ed Sizemore of mangaworthreading.com and Deb Aoki of manga.about.com to come on the show and discuss the recent controversial Handley case. Scott and I both learned a lot from listening to them, and I’m sure our viewers will too. Have a listen!
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On the recent ANNCast episode I was on, Zac and Justin of ANN asked me to recommend some “moe” anime titles that might be good for those who aren’t so into the moe thing. On the show, I mentioned The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Hayate the Combat Butler, and while those shows don’t focus entirely on moe, they can certainly help bring one to better understand its appeal.
In this blog post, I’m going to go into more detail with the shows I spoke about on the ANNCast and why I think many anime fans, and even non-anime fans, may enjoy them. I’ll also talk about some other “moe shows” that might be worth checking out as a sort of segue into appreciating moe.
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Meta by Janai
Feb.24, 2010
As you most likely have noticed by simply coming here, the blog now has a new layout! The “Redoable Lite” layout I had previously was nice, but nearly everyone on WordPress uses it, so I just had to stop.
What’s even more exciting is I have finally transferred this blog over to a custom WordPress installation. Basically that means I’m running the WordPress source code off of a server that’s not WordPress’s, which opens up a world of new options and much more freedom (for example, I can now embed the Otaku in Review Podcast episodes in my blog posts).
That’s about it for now. I have some anime-related blog posts coming up, in addition to JanaiBlog’s first manga review and another new writer announcement. Stay tuned!
I am proud to announce that I will be co-hosting the Otaku in Review Podcast with the main host, Scott Spaziani. It’s both a privilege and an honor to be doing this and I look forward to doing more shows in the future.
In our latest episode, we discuss the ups and downs of Katsucon 16, which I went to and blogged about earlier. We also branch into many other topics as well, so even if you didn’t go to Katsucon, you should still find this episode interesting. Enjoy!
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