Select Works from Nelson Rolon's Aniblogging Career

Nelson E. Rolon
347-359-9496 nerolon@hotmail.com 323 Bolton Avenue, 2nd Floor Bronx, NY 10473

Table of Contents

Project Otaku Otaku Chats: An Interview with Artist Nagasaka Mago Pg 4 Project Otaku - Finding Fellow Otaku in New York City Pg 6

Project Otaku - Man of Steel: On Men and Gods Pg 7

GoBoiano - An Interview with the Internet's 'Otaku Journalist,' Lauren Orsini Pg 9 GoBoiano - NYCC 2012 Mass Effect: Paragon Lost Pg 14 Anime Guardians - Boys are Weird, in Anime and Real Life Pg 16

I have written extensively for the following websites:

ProjectOtaku.com

GoBoiano.com

Anime-Guardians.com

ProjectOtaku.com Otaku Chats: An Interview with Artist Nagasaka Mago (Published 7/13/13)

Nagasaka Mago, a Japanese friend of mine who recently moved to New York, spends his days chain smoking, painting, and whistling to Bruno Mars in his Queens home. His dream is to become a world famous artist, and he wants to start by having a gallery opening in Chelsea, Manhattan. As a recent college grad with an Art History degree under my belt, I'm genuinely interested in helping him reach that goal our first few days together involved gallery scouting, and raiding gallery openings in search of fine art and alcohol. He and I met through MyLanguageExchange.com, a website where, as its domain name suggests, you can talk with people who are willing to teach you their native language. Last week I interviewed Mago on his life and work, a move which hopefully will get him some recognition here in America. The interview was a lively, beautiful exchange between two friends who can't quite speak the same language, but very much understand what art is about. Mago's influences are a hybrid of American Pop Art and Japanese sumi-e: think Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons and Keith Haring, but put ink brushes in their hands instead of paint brushes, sculpture and silkscreens. Mago, like Warhol, began his artistic journey studying fashion, though Mago didn't consider a career in art until, as he humorously expressed to me, he found himself in need of a job at 23 years old. As I clearly remember Pop Art being the last subject I studied before graduating college, it was amazing to hear Mago explain his fascination with Pop Art's universality. He didn't learn formal art history as I did; Pop Art is fortunately accessible to anyone with two perfectly functioning eyes. The dread of nihilism and emptiness I often associate with the style didn't seem a problem for Mago, or at least it never came up in conversation. And after going through Chelsea with him a month earlier, it was easy to see that Mago was going to fit in the New York art scene just fine. According to Mago, New York is much more accepting of budding artists than Japan is, and has a larger market for him to show his work. Mago's work methodology is wholly unfamiliar to me: he doesn't draw or sketch out his designs. He didn't even have a sketchpad to show me during our interview, the closest thing to that being a few sheets of computer paper with drawings on them he pulled out of a folder. He spends majority of his creative energy conceptualizing his projects mentally, and only touches his ink and canvas when he's sure of his idea. Sounds impossible of course, but we can draw connections between the freedom his ideas have while still in his mind, and the the freely flowing gestures required for painting in ink. (I actually taught Mago the word calligraphy.) His method speaks for itself in the work he produces: he regularly does live painting in Union Square park, and has plenty of live painting videos on YouTube. Mago latest projects are hilariously reflective of his experiences in New York City. When I first met him he was working on WET PAINT, a painting done after he happened to miss the signs in a train station warning him to avoid touching the walls and railings. Needless to say, he got red paint on his clothes, and vowed to double check for such WET PAINT signs with feverish paranoia. More recently, Mago is experimenting with the juxtaposition of aesthetically pleasing manufactured goods and the tendency to place stickers and labels on them. According to Mago, these products are already designed to look appealing, even beautiful; stickers and labels are at best cute, so placing them on designed products can be a way of reconciling two very different notions - beauty and cuteness. To underscore the idea of stickers as cute, Mago uses designs he originally made for a children's organization, and places them on top of a painting of a nude woman he made, the woman conforming to a conception of fine art and beauty. Mago's not all about seriousness and fine art. He goes to school near Herald Square to learn English, and likes to go out for beer. He's captivated by the paintings of Japanese painter Kayama Matazo, but is equally interested in the work of Takehiko Inoue, manga-ka behind Slam Dunk and Vagabond. Mago's also a big time Dragonball fan; every time I try telling Mago about my interest in Ghost in the Shell and Battle Angel, he quizzically comments that those aren't too popular in Japan (yes, a part of me dies every time I hear that). On top of all that, Mago cooks a mean soboro don, a bowl of rice he covers with one half pork and one half scrambled eggs. When I first met Nagasaka Mago at a Starbucks so many months ago, he told me that if he gets famous in New York he'd take me to see Japan. He asked me where I would like to go, to which I obviously replied

Akihabara, the prom ised land for all fans of Japanese anime and manga culture. Even if that never comes to pass, I've already made a great friend in the process. Here's to hoping that the dreams of a foreigner trying to make a life in New York come true. This city's a rough place to live in, I know that from 22 years of experience. Succeeding here's a matter of privilege or sheer determination despite absurdly overwhelming odds. Since neither Mago nor myself seem privileged, we'll have to keep painting and typing our way through the struggles until we become successful and reach our goals. It would certainly make for a good anime, wouldn't it? Visit Magos website (http://artistmago.jp/home.html) and check out his work. The site is mostly in Japanese, but hes working on a purely English page as we speak. Still, its not like language barriers keep people from appreciating good art, as anyone who reads manga can tell you.

* To view this article as it appears online, please visit: http://www.projectotaku.com/2013/07/12/otakuchats-an-interview-with-artist-nagasaka-mago/

ProjectOtaku.com Finding Fellow Otaku in New York City (Published 6/26/13)

The Big Apple, the Greatest City in the World, the City that Never Sleeps, Gotham; the list of nicknames for NYC goes on and on. Ill add one more: the City that Dislikes Otaku. New York is a DC and Marvel kind of city, where superhero cataclysms are what the geeks expect to find on bookshelves, and the manga/anime titles sit on lonely shelves in the back of comic shops. Theres a few good spots for Japanese culture fans, like BookOff, Image Anime and Kinokuniya, but New York is no Akihabara and probably never will be. We dont even get good conventions save for NYCC: the annual New York Anime Festival has been fused with New York Comic Con, a move that upsets many an otaku. Hows a guy supposed to share his hobbies with anyone? Today, I tried something new: I made an account with Meetup.com, a cool little site Erica introduced me to, and hastily attended a meeting with The New York City Manga and Comics Group at Cafe R in Manhattan. I didnt know who was attending. I assumed everyone would be 40 years old and in possession of a job and kids and encyclopedic knowledge of manga. I was partially right: everyone knew about a lot more manga than I. To be fair, theres so much manga flooding the market at any given moment that keeping up is an impossible task. Theres that, and the fact that I dont read much manga anyway. Remarkably, there was one older man who was a Shirow Masamune fan, so we had a lengthy discussion about the mangkas lack of work in the past few years. And in what was either pure happenstance or divine providence, the man immediately began a conversation on Azumanga Daioh!, one of the few manga Ive actually read and loved reading. That evolved into a conversation about Man of Steel somehow. Go figure. The group officially meets once a month, a disheartening fact since I enjoyed myself. But thats what social networks and cell phones are for, to reach people when youre not already scheduled to meet. The internets a great way to find those otaku who are subsumed by New Yorks distinct non-otaku atmosphere.

* To view this article as it appears online, please visit: http://www.projectotaku.com/2013/06/26/findingfellow-otaku-in-new-york-city/

Project Otaku.com Man of Steel: On Men and Gods *MEGA SPOILER AHEAD* At the end of Man of Steel, Superman kills Zod, snapping his neck to save a group of bystanders from being vaporized by heat vision. Killing is something most dont expect from Superman at all. Isnt he supposed to be the savior of mankind, the one glimmer of hope that shows us a better solution than to kill our enemies? Once upon a time, sure, but not anymore. When it comes to a character as big as Superman, the act of killing was necessary in order to usher him into an age of contemporary superheroes. Despite the dozens of messianic references in the film (he floated out of a Kryptonian ship in crucifix pose, for Christs sake), Superman proved that he was not Jesus after all. The world Christopher Nolan imagines for superheroes is the world popular culture has come to accept as truth: there are no more meta-narratives. There are no more heroes. Superman shouldnt be any different, and in trying to rewrite his history to fit our times, the monument culture has built around his squeaky-clean image has to be torn down completely before going forward. Its not just that The Dark Knight trilogy has made the whole genre of hero movies moody and depressing;Marvel Comics films actively contradict this with every single light hearted movie they make. But whens the last superhero movie that featured a flawless hero? Marvel is all about outcasts who often make selfish decisions and have to rectify them (as is usually the case in Iron Man films) or forever live with their guilt (the prime motivator for Spiderman is his Uncle Bens perhaps preventable death). For someone like Superman, a god among men, the type of flaws he has to possess have to be monumental. His sin has to be unfathomably grave if hes going to fit in with the human race like he desperately wants to. For him to be a hero that attempts to help mankind without knowing what it is like to fail the notion is absurd in a postmodern era. Society has never allowed him to cross the line of irreconcilable action. We, perhaps in a longing for absolute good, want to see his purity preserved at all costs. As mentioned earlier, Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan dont attempt to hide Supermans many Jesus-like traits. Theres a scene in Man of Steel when Clark visits a church and asks a clergyman for advice; a stained-glass image of Jesus praying for God to spare him from Pilates soldiers sits behind Clarks head. The fact that Clark Kent is 33 years old in the film, the same age as Jesus when he was crucified, is also suspicious. If we are to conclude that Superman is indeed a new age Messiah, then of course seeing him kill someone is preposterous. Jesus, according to the New Testament, committed no sin but was still crucified so that we could all be forgiven of our sins: 2 Corinthians 5:21 states that For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (ESV). 1 Peter 2:22 states, He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth (ESV). He suffered the burden of sin as a sacrificial lamb so that, through the shedding of his blood, mankind could find reconciliation with God (Hebrews 9:22, ESV). Superman was sent to Earth to do many great things; promising mankind eternal life wasnt one of them. Its important to see that Superman could not live up to this mandate. In Man of Steel Jor-El consistently brought up the hope he had in his son to Zod. The S shield Superman is famous for is construed as the Kryptonian symbol for hope. Why, then, does Superman kill Zod? Because he could not save him. Because Superman isnt perfect. Because Superman desperately wants to be human, and in order to do that convincingly in todays world, he needs to commit a sin worthy of taking a god down a notch. Its a reflection of our very postmodern mentality, which is nihilistic, unwilling to uphold any universal standards for good conduct, and highly (Published 6/22/13)

skeptical of blameless role models. As Dana Stevens of Slate writes, Supermans saintliness is part of what makes him so hard to pull off in our era of dark, brooding, morally conflicted superheroes. Like Mary Poppins, Kal-El aka Clark Kent is practically perfect in every way: honest, pure, brave, compassionate, filial. Is saintly Superman kind of hero people still believe in? Has the world not grown more cynical than this? Have films like Kick-Ass and Hancock, The Dark Knight trilogy and the X-Men trilogy, the Spiderman trilogy and Ironman trilogy, not thoroughly demonstrated that even the most well intentioned people arent perfect? Hardcore Superman fans will point to comics where he has killed others, but these incidences havent persisted in the collective memory, and are certainly not prominent enough on the silver screen. If Superman is culturally understood as an attempt at a universally good being, as the definition of truth, justice and the American way, then perhaps hes too dated for us to justify his continued existence. Superman is an interesting case in the world of heroes. To Superman purists, he is like fine china we must keep away from children, like a trophy we must keep encased in glass. He is a reminder of human frailty, of faith in principles higher than we can ever hope to live up to. He embodies our hopes in a morality that supersedes our temporary desires. Would I hesitate to look up to such a man? Of course not. Would I question if he truly understands me, or if his idea of justice works for everyone? Of course. But, if he has the audacity to resemble Jesus, Id be remiss to simply ignore what he says, especially since he pleads so very desperately for people to trust him. If there are people out there who have grown tired of postmodernisms derailing of absolute justice, then there may still be a place for Superman in this world.

* To view this article as it appears online, please visit: http://www.projectotaku.com/2013/06/22/on-menand-gods/

GoBoiano.com An Interview with the Internet's 'Otaku Journalist,' Lauren Orsini (Published 12/5/12)

The differences between the ordinary anime consumer and those who professionally generate anime related content are very small. No, there's no secret formula for those who wish to, for example, write for GoBoiano or Anime News Network or similar websites. The key, as Lauren Rae Orsini would proclaim, is to "be curious, be honest, [and] be bold." For those who do not know the name, Lauren aka the Otaku Journalist is quite the accomplished writer with a unique interest in fandom culture, and has written articles for a few big name sites like Japanator, Kotaku and CNN. Lauren's personal blog writings, which cover topics ranging from convention coverage, to words of encouragement, to sharing her passion for gunpla, are genuinely inspirational and reminds readers that getting a job in the biz is far from impossible. Below is the scramble of interview questions I cooked up and Lauren's thoughtful responses over a month long correspondence. At the time I first reached out to her she was attending Anime USA:

How was Anime USA? Have any memorable experiences? Did you find time to explore the convention? Were you cosplaying at any point? Honestly, I spent most of Anime USA working as press liaison! I greeted press outlets as they arrived and supervised 12 different interviews with special guests. I cosplayed on Saturday as Mabel Pines from Gravity Falls, but I dont think a lot of people saw it since I was always in the press room. My most memorable experience was probably giving my panel with my friend Patches on sexism and anime fandom. The audience had a lot of great input.

How did you get the position of Press Liaison? How stressful is the job and what are the tangible/intangible rewards, considering it seems to be a year long venture? I first attended Anime USA as a member of the press in 2009. I was still in school, but they gave me a chance to cover it anyway. Afterward, I made a three part mini-documentary (heres part one) about the experience. I shared it with some staffers from the convention and then, meeting them again at T-MODE in the spring, I was invited to join the Anime USA staff. I was honored and accepted immediately! I worked with the con for three years.

Now that you're stepping down as Anime USA liaison, what interests might you explore next? Updating my blog, Otaku Journalist, more often is a definite. But basically, I want to be freed up to report at more conventions, Anime USA included. It was a rewarding experience to see what its like to work with reporters as PR but in the end I just missed being a reporter myself. One other big thing on the horizon: Im working on an online course for aspiring otaku journalists, that is, people like me who want to report on their fandoms.

Why do you study geekdom? Did you take any particularly revelatory classes in school (sociology, psychology, anthropology) or watch a show that motivated this?

More than anything, its my journalism classes in school that inspired me to study geekdom. Journalism, done right, is about telling peoples stories. Ive found that people with rewarding and engrossing hobbies, namely geeks, have especially interesting stories. Their enthusiasm for what they love is contagious. Im not an anthropologist or any other expert on geek studies. I just like to learn about what makes people tick and write about it.

You seem to enjoy reporting on geekdom at large, but why focus on anime fandom? What was your first con, and did that have a big influence on what career you chose? I focus on anime fandom because Im an anime fan myself, so I have more connections and leads in that area than others. My first convention was Otakon when I was in college. It was like a different world! I used the experience as inspiration for a creative writing assignment. But my third convention, Anime USA, was a very big factor in my decision to report on fandom, since as I said before, they were the first convention to let me in with a press badge. I did the same thing at Katsucon, and then Anime Boston and Otakon, and just never stopped.

How does writing for the Daily Dot allow you to pursue your fandom writing dream? The Daily Dot gave me a mainstream platform from which to talk about very niche interests in a way that everyone could understand. Before the Daily Dot, I only wrote about fandom for other fansthis was my first opportunity to share fandom as a legitimate subject that even non fans would be interested in reading about. Actually, I just left my job as a Daily Dot reporter. Im going to attempt to make a career for myself as a freelance writer for a variety of news outlets. More on that later!

Now, I know you heavily considered the term otaku when making your blog, and argue that essentially otaku = fan, making your appropriation of the term valid. I recently read a blog entry by writer Douglas Schules, a media studies professor, who argues that the term otaku developed out of and is inextricably tied to Japan's post-war feelings of xenophobia, discrimination and loss of national identity. He equates the term American otaku with Japanese hillbilly, because the term specifically refers to an American phenomenon of moonshining, banjo playing and trailor tractor living that lacks Japanese parallels. Are American anime fans supposed to invent some other word that conveys their special interests? I picked the word otaku for my blog after Patton Oswalt wrote an article for Wired magazine about why all Americans now qualify as otaku. What he said, and what I believe, is that otaku is a word that defines an especially passionate fan, who lets his or her interest help shape his or her identity. Since the word is a Japanese import, fairly new in America, and not a little bit esoteric, I get this question a lot and constantly have to defend my use of it. The word otaku has been used in a lot of different ways and seems to have both positive and negative connotations at different times. Im keeping an eye on it as it matures in the American lexicon, but for now, its the best word to describe what being a passionate geek means to me.

Explain your philosophy (Be curious. Be honest. Be bold) and why it resonates so strongly with you. How have these tenets worked to your advantage in pursuing journalism as an otaku? For me, these have always been the characteristics I think are most important for any journalist to try and emulate. A healthy curiosity and appetite for learning more about the world and fellow inhabitants will help you cultivate an instinct for good stories. Being honest is the same as being transparent, owning up to your mistakes (there WILL be mistakes), and sharing with your audience not just what you know, but what you were unable to find out. And I believe a certain amount of boldness is required for entering a field that is repeatedly described as dead. I guess the title of my blog has a double meaning because I am not just a journalist who writes about otaku hobbies, but an otaku ABOUT journalism. I am always reading about it, meeting fellow journalists, and interested in the state of the industry.

How did you meet Patches? Is there some secret online venue where anime writers meet? If there is, let me know about it! I met Patches because he was one of my earliest and most supportive blog commenters back in 2010. We figured out that we lived pretty close to one another and started hanging out first at conventions and then regularly. If youre interested in meeting the big names in anime writing, I suggest Twitter. Start following people who call themselves anime writers, and then follow the people they get in conversations with. Then start replying @ them! I remember the first time @2DTea replied to one of my tweets because we were in the same discussion.

What inspired the More Than Just Waifus: Sexism and Anime Fandom panel you've been doing with Patches? What did you recently add to your Anime USA redo of the panel? How has the reception been? I think the reception was pretty enthusiasticone of the good things about a smaller convention is that people in the audience arent afraid to participate. When we gave the panel at Otakon, more than 100 people attended, so not as many people got involved, at least percentage wise.

You seem greatly invested in the idea of the Other (women, ethnic minorities, homosexuals, etc) as they are both depicted in anime, and how this translates to fandom reception. I know that in your Otakon panel with Patches, you didn't place blame on any one person or group as source of the often negative attitudes towards women and other disenfranchised groups. Patches repeatedly stated that the only solution is to rebuke bigots wherever they appear. Do you think this is the best method for addressing this complicated issue? Should fans stop watching shows that contribute to these negative depictions? Should licensors and distributors stop bringing questionable content to the U.S.? Or should Japanese animation studios stop adapting manga that depict these offensive characterizations? This is actually a new addition to the sexism panel. If anime is sexist, we shouldnt be allowed to enjoy it, right? WRONG! Or as I said in the panel, You should only give up watching anime if youre going to give up all other forms of popular culture, too, because that also has sexist undertones. I definitely believe, as Patches asserted, that being vocal is the best method for letting people know what is and is not OK. When it comes to watching anime, though, the best way to be vocal is with your money.

Basically, we anime fans talk with our dollars. We need to show licensors not only that were paying customers, but what we will and will not put up with. So if we buy a show and think its sexist, we should say that. I bought this show and I didnt like X. It certainly worked for hundreds of thousands of unhappy Mass Effect 3 customers, who got the actual ending of the game changed by buying it and then being dissatisfied. If an anime is problematic and your response is to boycott it, licensors have no incentive to change because youre not a paying customer anyway.

With the exception of Japanese films that are submitted to international film circuits, I assume Japanese anime studios primary market to their own country. Where is the incentive for anime studios to make less questionable material? If anime is reflective of cultural differences between Japan and the U.S. , how can American fans make bold moves towards influencing the work that is produced? Is this a problem larger than most fans are able to tackle? This is kind of an extension of what I said before. Pirating is a problem. If we dont buy shows, why should anyone care what we like or dont like about said shows? If shows with certain themes sell better, it makes economic sense for producers to make similar shows. Even if the place those shows are a hit is in America, money is money.

Despite the problems that Americans may have with anime, we still consume it in droves. In your opinion, what are the positive aspects of anime that drive us to continue watching and allow us to remain hopeful for the future? Believe me, I am very optimistic about the future of anime. Because of advances in technology, Ive been able to cheaply and easily increase my anime intake, and I know Im not the only one. When I was in middle school, I had to pay $30 for a VHS tape containing three episodes of Evangelion. Now I can watch 10 shows a year by buying DVDs and subscribing to Netflix, Hulu, or Crunchyroll (Id watch more if I had time!) Its gotten easier and awesomer to watch anime than ever before, and thats why I think more and more people are in the process of discovering that theres this entire amazing genre they may have not been aware of earlier. I know theres a lot of talk about anime being doomed and dying, but I think its premature.

What awe-inspiring or beautiful developments have you seen take place within anime fandom in recent years? This is a tough question, but I think its been pretty cool to watch anime fandom become more of a pantheon of different fandoms, and how people are seemingly OK with that. I love seeing Homestuck, Dr. Who, and brony cosplay at anime conventions. It reminds me of when people used to not accept videogame cosplay because it isnt anime and our definition of the types of fans we invite into our community is getting wider and wider. I truly believe that theres no such thing as a fake geek and all nerdy interests are legitimate.

I know you're a fan of gunpla (Gundam model kits). How big is your collection? Do you have any pictures you're willing to share? Do you have a favorite build, or a Master Grade gundam you're particularly proud of? And with your very busy lifestyle, when do you find the time to build? Not very big. Ive got Gundam Unicorn (both modes), SD Gundam Unicorn, Chars Custom Zaku II, HG Exia Trans-Am Mode, and Im building an Acguy I got at Otakon. You can tell which ones I built first because I had to

use super glue in some places! Heres a picture of some of my gundams I took last year, sorry I havent been keeping up on that. (http://otakujournalist.com/gundam-modeling-101/) All my gundams are High Grade or SD grade because I want to build them myself without asking for help. And I guess I build them the same way I filled out this interviewa little bit at a time, every day!

* To view this article as it appears online, please visit: http://goboiano.com/read-more-news.php?id=795

GoBoiano.com NYCC 2012 Mass Effect: Paragon Lost (Published 10/14/12)

At 8:00PM Saturday night, Funimation aired the yet to be released Mass Effect: Paragon Lost in its entirety. I managed to get a front row seat to this highly anticipated anime installment in the now expansive Mass Effect franchise. While I was too busy enjoying the film to worry about taking pictures and the like, below follows a brief synopsis of my impressions. * SPOILER ALERT * The film explains what happened to James Vega before making his appearance in Mass Effect 3. I have to admit, I didn't like him when I first played the game; however, his simple outlook and down-to-earth nature eventually grew on me. Paragon Lost takes that very same character and makes him infinitely more epic than he ever was in the game: this film places him on par with Commander Shepard himself. I clearly don't understand the physics that operate in Mass Effect like I thought I did, because in this film James was flipping in the air as nimbly as Spiderman, rolling and dodging Krogan attacks like a dancer. He comes off as a complete Shepard fan boy (like he does in ME3), but it seems Shepard can stand to learn a thing or two from the immortal, unstoppable James Vega. The film takes place during the Fehl Prime incident Vega never stopped crying about in ME3, where the Collectors invade and nearly everyone in the colony dies. Because fans of the franchise already know the story's outcome, the questions becomes, How can audiences still feel bad for all these characters who we know are supposed to die anyway? Character development wasn't stressed beyond embellishing Vega a bit, and this might be considered a negative aspect of the film. Paragon Lost depicts Vega as a strong and compassionate soldier who puts himself on the line for the sake of his closest friends, occasionally sprinkling sentences with random Spanish words. His party is a motley band of soldiers, with members such as the hardcore Kamille (voiced by Laura Bailey), sniper/tech infiltrator Milque (voiced by Todd Haberkorn), and eventually Asari scientist Treeya (voiced by Monica Rial). Their interactions were quite humorous; the film could not have succeeded without a few laughs because if it took the comedy out, the entire story would be unbelievably depressing. Literally, almost everyone dies, including an awkwardly cute, toothless child April, who adorably claims that she and Vega are married. Fans of the series who aren't too interested in anime will be pleasantly surprised: Paragon Lost doesn't unfold like your standard anime at all. Several days ago I spoke with Chris Priestly (Bioware Community Specialist), who confessed that he was blown away by Paragon Lost despite his usual disinterest in anime. The animation isn't too exaggerated and character designs are quite simple, which I at first disliked until considering that Mass Effect is a story mainly aimed at Western audiences that have a completely different conception of what cartoons should do and look like. If Production I.G. made Paragon Lost into an FLCL-type of animation, people would get scared. The tackling of mature themes is another reason why Paragon Lost should appeal to Western audiences. The film opens up with a bloody fracas between the Krogan Blood Pack mercenaries and Vega's squad. Those incredibly ugly vorcha are blown into smithereens several times, and at the end of the battle a krogan's head is sniped clean off. The action is fluid, exhilarating, and most of all, violent. On a similar note, at the end of the film Vega goes through something like a psychological breakdown as he remembers how the colony was destroyed. Hell, I almost cried with him and Treeya. All in all, I think this film is a darn good one, but ultimately succeeds as a work that caters to fans of the Mass Effect franchise. As I told Justin Rojas in a brief interview after the film, Paragon Lost has beautiful animation and music, and a tearjerker ending to literally die for. I think it's greatest appeal will be to those who really know about Mass Effect, because there are some details and jokes that aren't too easy to spot otherwise (asari all look the same and everyone likes them; krogan are always packing weapons; the impressive attention to detail the weapons have, mirroring their in-game counterparts.)

The film was originally slated for a November release, but was pushed back to December 28 th not too long ago. Mass Effect fans need to buy this for sure. Those who haven't played the games or read the comics or books already may just find their motivation in this film. Keelah se'lai!

* To view this article as it appears online, please visit: http://www.goboiano.com/test/newDB/read-morenews.php?id=703

Anime-Guardians.com

Boys are Weird, in Anime and Real Life

(Published 10/29/12)

I now find myself captivated by shojo/slice-of-life shows, in stark contrast with my usual sci-fi fare (I blame both my job at GoBoiano and the influence of my senpai,FushigiNaKuniNo). This fall 2012 season presents audiences with two new shows, Say "I Love You" and My Little Monster, which roughly fall into this ambiguous pool of mass-mediated, Japanese female coming-of-age anime I'm indulging in. There's a few obvious themes that run throughout, chiefly that these are love stories. Then there's the fact that the men in these two shows are flat-out crazy. Is this how women view us men? Is this how we view ourselves? My Little Monster's Haru is a breed of troglodyte I've never seen before in anime. The very first episode of this purported romance show stirred controversy, as Haru drags his love interest Shizuku into an alley and threatens to rape her if she screams for help. As the rest of the show reveals, Haru is unfit to exist within contemporary society. His impetuous tendencies often thrust him into fights. His idea of romance strictly involves sex. He cuts class for almost all of middle school. What baffles many viewers is the fact that Shizuku eventually finds herself attracted to him and his barbaric ways, and the anime tries its hardest to humanize the sub-human Haru by letting him grow on us and giving him a back-story. Perusing Google reveals that My Little Monster(Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun) began as a monthly entry in Dessert, a shojo magazine. I do think that as a matter of inevitability, young women who read Dessert are viewing parodied example of both: 1) What some young men are like; and 2) What some romances are like. Stereotypes and parodies often have a semblance of truth, or at least a gross misinterpretation of the truth. I have no qualms admitting I'm a strange fellow: my favorite pastimes include jumping over benches and other urban obstacles, and hilariously enough Haru does similar stunts regularly. If My Little Monster expresses the idea of men being bestial at times, such an assessment isn't entirely invalid. Taking this thought even further, if Shizuku is meant to "tame" the animal Haru through romance, then the saying, "You've been whipped," expressed by guys who think their friends are being controlled by their girlfriends, is incredibly apropos. The other shojo/slice-of-life series I've been watching, Say "I Love You," also happens to be a monthly Dessert manga installment. Mei Tachibana is a reserved girl who thinks all friendships result in broken hearts and backstabbing. Yamato Kurosawa walks into her life, eating a kick to the face Mei meant for his friend. Rather than repel Kurosawa, the attack makes Mei enigmatic... and attractive. Say "I Love You" makes a point to embellish the discomfort and self-esteem issues its female characters face in school, issues not only exacerbated by other teenage girls, but boys as well. Asami Oikawa, Mei's largebreasted friend, is teased by boys because of her robust bust-size; I found it comical, considering large boobs are a nice bonus to most guys. I can only assume the boys were attracted to them and expressed this the only way immature teenage boys know how: teasing. The idea of an objectifying masculine gaze gets a lot of attention in this series. In the first episode Mei is stalked by a bakery customer she regularly serves. The cinematography conspicuously zooms in on her face, legs and her name tag (which just so happens to sit on her chest), mimicking the wandering eye of Mei's stalker. And in the second episode, Kenji Nakanishi, Kurosawa's friend, seeks out Asami by seeking her large breasts out among a crown of women. Similar to My Little Monster, Kenji's sexual gestures are normalized through revealing that he envies Kurosawa's ability to get women. Naturally, men gaze at female bodies on occasion, but watching others do it on-screen sends a powerful message: this behavior can be threatening and perverse when taken too far. Kurosawa is a bit of a character himself, the resident pretty-boy at high school. His policy: do whatever I want, get whatever I want, whenever I want it. Little wonder when Mei refuses to befriend him, he adamantly pursues her until she needs him to deter her male stalker. Kurosawa kisses her in public to suggest they're together, dissuading the stalker in the boldest way possible. But Kurosawa also claims to like Mei, so the kiss was sincere. He also doesn't have a problem kissing other girls, something he is rumored to do often and does not refute. Needless to say, Mei's emotions are thrown into chaos. While I can't identify with Kurosawa (my Kiss Count is nothing to marvel at), that sense of masculine freedom is familiar to people in patriarchal societies, i.e. much of the world. His naive attitude towards sexual gestures interestingly parallels My Little Monster's Haru,

who saw sex as the epitome of romance. Their views seem complimentary, to say the least. The more I watch shojo anime, the more I realize that men have plenty of idiosyncrasies we likely don't pay mind to. Acknowledging that anime is more than just Japanese cartoons and respecting its ability to communicate relevant issues, no matter how asinine the show may initially seem, yields a lot of information. Guys can be violent, inconsiderate and voyeuristic, there's no doubt about that. Watching such behavior unfold is alarming, even more so when it's animated because that's not something I expect anime to regularly address. Much to learn, men still have.

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