(Nearly) All I Know about Doujinshi and (Some) Related Nonsense, or Just Read Canned Dogs
Just a random list. Maybe you can help me by adding or correcting it. And maybe I can help you by telling you otherwise or something you didn’t know. The list is unordered, just numbered for ease of reference.
- Generally understood, doujinshi is comic, based on some previously existing work (for short, I’ll call such things IP), done not by the creator. Basically, fan fiction but in comic form. The term doujin also applies to non-comic fan creations. These terms have over time included amateur work that are original as well, as well certain professionally produced products that market to the same crowd.
- It’s not all porn. In fact I think there are still more non-porn doujinshi out there than adult-content ones, but that’s just what I think. What is a fact is that at Comiket, there are more non-porn doujinshi titles than porn ones. And the fact that I say this does imply there is some kind of (mis)conception about doujinshi and porn.
- It’s done by concerned fans. It’s also done by wannabes. And pros. Technically anyone can make it, even the original creators(!). Anyone. Period.
- It’s printed on paper, but sometimes also pressed on a CD or DVD or otherwise digitally stored. Other times it could be in the form of a merchandise. It could be a web comic. It could be many things.
- It could be so many things, that it could be fan fiction, strategy guides, essays about the IP, remixed music, original music inspired by the IP, cross-over games, episode guides, scripts for anime based on IP, anime based on IP, even mostly original things, and much more!
- It’s been used as a form of promotion. Like viral marketing. Both for IP and for brand recognition (e.g. identity of illustrators). It could be a part of a larger business strategy. Sometimes it can also be used to make money directly when sold through certain stores (in this case, it’s more like direct publishing).
- Sometimes “doujinshi” are sold as licensed goods, in the form of fan comic or anthology. Technically this is where it stops being doujinshi. For example, these. And even maybe this. But you know this is really just the same stuff for these artists anyways no matter how they sell the final product.
- There are events organized around the promotion, trading, distribution and acquisition of doujinshi. Comiket is just the one everyone knows, and there’s a lot more to comiket than I care to learn. It is complex. But that’s not all. Doujinshi are sold, given away, pirated, and otherwise distributed in pretty much any way any good of this kind is sold, given away, pirated and otherwise distributed. So while I might not list everything, there are a lot of cross-over knowledge that applies to doujinshi that could apply to, say, event-license figures or even non-event-license figures (the former can even fall under the doujin category…and maybe the latter). Which is to say, a lot of it revolves around these conventions.
- Production and distribution of doujinshi is often an organized effort by more than one person, but it’s much easier to self-publish in this way than it is … many other ways. Partly because in Japan there are things setup to do this, with services tailored for doujinshi publication. Go watch Comic Party or something. Or Genshiken. Or Doujin Work.
- Or read Wikipedia.
- There is a scene. Like many other aspects of Japan, Japanese doujin things and creators of said things tend to follow various unspoken rules. ZUN’s comments about the Touhou anime actually comes close to nailing down some of the basics. It’s a more liberal interpretation than some, but I think that’s why it nails down some of the basics. It also smells like Creative Commons 3.0, with some major exceptions.
- Doujinshi economics. It’s all Zepy. All the way. To sum up, generally people who make doujinshi don’t make much money, if at all. However the gross volume is large (many circles selling many doujinshi at small quantities), so looking at annual sales volume can be shocking.
- Doujinshi sales is also a very good indicator of IP popularity, however skewed, for high popularity titles. It’s probably good market research data for an area that doesn’t have much data to begin with. Of course, one could also easily say that doujinshi sales is also a poor indicator of popularity to a degree, because you could pull a Type-Moon or a ZUN. 1000 true fans and all.
- For most doujinshi producers, in corollary, the production cycles sync with these doujinshi trade shows as the bulk of titles sell via these venues. But that’s just an observation anyone could make.
- Doujinshi do get copied, reprinted and sold without creator’s consent. By this I mean the original circle that created the doujinshi. Obviously, this is shady. And limited to certain places in the world. Ahem.
- I’ve been mostly talking about how Japan and Japanese people view, consume, make, and otherwise deal with it. Truth is a lot of it also apply to fan works across the globe, at least in essence. The culture, legal limitations, practical limitations and history all vary however. And for that reason I’m going to just limit this post to “doujinshi” as we know it–fan works marketed to Japanese fans.
- The exchange and circulation of doujinshi is also one way where some artists made a break, got the hookups and started their pro career. I wish I have more specifics on this, but it would seem that doujinshi is one active outlet that encourages the mutual contribution of works, varying in commercial viability.
- Uniform, productive contribution by the fan base, centralized for pursual via the ‘net, centralized events (ie. comiket), and major hubs of fan activity (e.g., Akiba)…it’s only possible in a small, wired-up (or wireless), densely populated country like Japan?
- And of course, people outside of Japan buy Japanese doujinshi as well. For the most part this barely registers in the market and can be safely ignored, although it makes you wonder if it has real impact or not on individual doujinshi creators. Small changes in sale can have large impact for small-time creators.
- To make it an even 20, there are non-Japanese people making doujinshi as well, selling it just like everyone else (in Japan). I’m not sure what to say about that besides that’s pretty neat. For now.
I guess this is a good start. Not sure if this is even “nearly” all I know D:
A Blue Journey
It must be a coincidence that I’m writing a post about a CD titled along the line of wind reading, or Kazeyomi, during the possibly coldest day of this winter by where I live. There’s a constant draft of chilly air weaving around my feet to remind me just how far away physically I am from the winter winds, just a wall away. I read it as a clue to wrap this post up ASAP and put on an extra layer of clothes.
And, yes, it’s a Maaya Sakamoto full length solo album, of which has been a little sparse lately. A while ago I rambled on her journey to find a sound, and this CD could be seen as proof, and more importantly, process of such. Sakamoto worked with a list of composers and arrangers on this CD. Stylistically they do point towards mainstream light music overall, but there are also the likes of her trademark anison in the mix as expected.
But to me this CD, at least upon the first few impressions, is divisive. It is as if there are the songs Maaya sings as title themes for shows, and there are songs she sings because they sounds freaking good. Being the type of Maaya fan who long for the older days of Maaya x Kanno Yoko, it’s actually pleasantly surprising that there are some tracks I can really get behind in the post-Kanno Maaya world.
Well, it is not just because the two returns in combination to produce a couple tracks in Kazeyomi. That much I am grateful; but by the same token I don’t really need to own another CD with Triangular on it. And that actually goes for Kazemachi Jet and even Ame ga Furu to a degree. It isn’t like every Kanno song is that good, if I can say the same for any other composer of pop music out there.
Anyways, divisive. It is like every track from track 4 to track 12 is good, and the rest I can live without. Maybe it’s more an issue about controlling flow?
- Vento. Vento is nice. Maaya doing vocal magic. I guess this is the exception; but this track is really just a padding, throwaway track, being a minute and 39 seconds of vibrato, vocal and piano.
- Triangler. You know the rules, and so do I.
- Kazemachi Jet. It belongs to an era a Kanno x Maaya person wishes it never existed.
- Remedy. It’s a nice try; actually reminds me of the magic that glimmered in 30 minute flight and some of the earlier stuff, from way back. The second ending to Linebarrels of Iron doesn’t bullseye, but it’s a good attempt. Just like…
- Ame ga furu. It’s a nicer, more exotic arrangement. But it also tires out faster. I still like the C/W track way more so.
- Get no Satisfaction! The first two measures of this songs said loud and clear that ROUND TABLE is behind this. It did help that I listened to their last CD not too long ago…which sounds just like every other ROUND TABLE CD according to some. The combination is decidedly as catchy as you would imagine, however, so don’t shy away from it.
- Ao no Ether. Maaya x Kanno. Right here. It’s a re-arranged version that is a tad heavy on the vocal echoes, but otherwise delivers exactly what you think this song would.
- Shitsuren Cafe. I don’t have a good handle on this song, but to me this is really the right “other” direction she should take on her albums if she wants to do that whole cute pop song thing. Just in case we’re tired of ROUND TABLE. It’s not bad.
- SONIC BOOM. I think this was probably my favorite track upon the first go-around. But once I got into it this song was more like, it just goes. It’s a nice song and the guy from Indigo wrote it. Probably a good combination right there, but I don’t think it’s here to impress.
- Peanuts. Ok, this is kind of impressive, but not in a musically wow-me kind of way. It’s just impressive that Maaya can pull it off. Must be those seiyuu chops. It isn’t easy listening, but it is definitely amusing. It’s almost got this retro, late 90s seiyuu music feel. I had to listen to this a few times to really appreciate it.
- Saigo no Kajitsu. Actually, that goes for most of Maaya’s albums that repeat listening is a must. And tracks like Saigo no Kajitsu are very durable for that I think. It is definitely a song that gets better the more you listen to it. You can probably loop it on your playlist and not get tired of it quickly. At times it reminds me of Akino Arai?
- Colors. Honestly, it is a bit of a mixed bag, but I like it. This style of layering is refreshing just because you don’t quite hear it in this CD outside of this track. Might remind you of, say, Shounen Alice. Contrary to some I thought the Tim Janson x ACO track was just spot on for a Maaya CD…
- Kazamidori. It’s a decent song, but not very special. I think what I dislike it the most is the place on the album. Shouldn’t be right after Colors…just doesn’t work well. The chorus is a little messy, but that’s doesn’t stand out much compared to, say, Peanuts.
- Guitar Hiki ni Naritai na. I guess sometimes I’d like to play the guitar too. I guess I already kinda know how to play the djembe? I think that’s what I hear. It’s a simple, 176 seconds to the end of a fairly decent album. Somewhere nagging in my mind though, is that this arrangement might sound better with a man’s voice than a woman’s.
Will I buy? Yes, just for track 7; liking any of the rest is bonus for me, and I’m glad that I did liked some of them. No, I didn’t like 30 Minute Flight, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of Easy Listening either. It’s all about Lucy and Shounen Alice! ;-)
But who knows, this is exactly the kind of CD that’ll grow on me after a while. Too bad you had to be a fan to even take that chance.
Xam’d Episode 23 - The Real Folks Blues
Two of our three female leads revealed their true back story.
The third one shows plenty of grit.
Loving the Squeaking
I know she is unremarkable besides that signature nasal noise but somehow I really like Ai Nonaka. It is really weird, too, because I can’t think of a typical reason why I would like her or that voice. Why do I like her act? Her voice? Her typically cute, Japanese face (that one is self-explanatory I think…and kinda typical)? I don’t know.
Taking a leaping step back, to most untrained ears for Japanese animation…or Japan in general, anime voices sound like high-pitching whining. It’s a perception based on stereotype, but there are a lot of high-pitched voices out there working the block. At least, there are more of these than any other cultural scenes that I know of. I suppose smaller Asian girls generally sound higher pitched than not as a matter of laws of physics, but to make a living out of it? That takes as much talent and hard work as anything else.
In the past year or two, I’ve started to play “spot the Ai Nonaka” game. It’s sort of fun because she’s very easy to spot relatively, and it’s always kind of interesting hearing her filling the shoes of some re-occuring background voice acting role. Even someone as marketable as she is, she took up a fair share of minor roles. In some ways it is also a very tricky proposition to give her a minor role. Nanoka’s voice is very notable, and you never really want a background role to draw too much attention. At the same time, if you are going to give actual lines to a minor character (as in, literally, ~3 lines per series) because she needs to air out the gossip between your protagonist classmates or something, you might as well make the line stick?
It’s no coincidence that nasal, high pitched voices are awesome whining voices. I think that was a key ingredient in making that episode of Kamichu (episode 14) where Yurie spends the day inside the kotatsu awesome. MAKO’s high pitched Japanese-school-girl voice is rather … high, after all. And somewhat nasal. She was able to get it just right–some amount of annoyance to be realistic but not annoying, right amount cute to be sweet but not saccharine, and the rest is LOLs.
Perhaps that is the start of this weird liking. I don’t know, it probably goes way back honestly, to thingspeople like Sakura Tange, Junko Iwao and Hayashibara.
But being the protagonist, the voice actor has time to spin out the act; there are lines and scenes to flesh out the characterization. It is not so for an one-liner act; you gotta go to the punch right there. Witness Nonaka in, say, Toradora. She might as well caption her own lines with her act, with the text “Insert the female class consensus here.” (Although she actually has conversing lines in that one which is a little unusual.) It gets the job done.
In Kamichu, both MAKO and Ai Nonaka are major characters. Thankfully one is mostly silent as I am not sure if the show can handle much more than one of them. In SoraKake? Only time will tell if things will implode from high-pitched, nasal cuteness.
[Top image from Famitsu, FYI.]
CrunchyRoll’s Expected Growing Pains
IT’S A TRAP.
Now, for some people, CrunchyRoll is just a streaming video site that has taken down a lot of their favorites. To those people I feel sorry, but ultimately have little to say to them. Such is how it always was on the internet. Different free resources pop up, people exploit them, people are exploited by the business methods that made those things free in the first place, and the two part ways when it stops being beneficial for either party.
But to address a few things, facts first.
Yes, CR took down pretty much most of their unlicensed content and user videos. However I get a feeling that there might still be some lurking out there. I just couldn’t find any. As far as I could tell, this was/is a progressive process as not all user-uploaded videos were taken offline all at once. So who knows.
The second bit is important. They have changed their video player code (at least for SOME of their videos, I know not for certain). And I’m going to copy pasta a message I got on CR (as I’m signed up as an Anime Membership thing) from Shinji, the de facto PR leader guy for CR–
We started simulcasting shows earlier this week, so you should have early access to shows like Naruto Shippuden 91 and Gintama 139 in HD. While most people seem to be able to play the video just fine, I’d like to let you guys know about the improvements we’re making in case you have had problems with the streams:
1. We’ve transitioned to a new, more secure, streaming service, so some of you might be experiencing slow loading or inability to seek - this is an issue with our service provider that we’re trying to fix. It’s also dependent on your own internet connection as well as geographic location. This switch was necessary to help protect our publishers’ content.
2. If your stream is choppy or laggy, it may be because of a slow connection or slow cpu. Try a lower quality if your computer is older. If you haven’t already, you should upgrade your flash player to version 10, which seems to play back videos more efficiently (we already require at least version 9.0.115 in order to play back videos properly).
3. We’re adding more error notifications in the video player, so if you get any errors you’ll know exactly what went wrong. Unfortunately, in the past if something went wrong (like if your internet connection wasn’t fast enough to stream the video) it would just hang with a blank screen without telling you what went wrong. That should be fixed shortly.
4. Geolocation restrictions - while we do try to get worldwide access when possible, copyright and licensing is complicated! Details about region restrictions are on the lineup page. We’re working on displaying more notices on the video page for this. We are also going back to our partners to try to get distribution rights in more countries.
5. Video quality - we’re working hard with our partners to provide the best quality for all of our shows! Unfortunately sometimes the source quality isn’t that great, although we are working together to improve the transcoding process. In the meantime, we’re experimenting with different encoding settings and filters to provide you the best possible quality. Please be patient! It will take some time to iron out the kinks with the source video quality.
6. Subtitle translation quality - while we try to check every episode that goes out, it’s a lot of work and our manpower is unfortunately limited. We also have limited control over the subtitles we receive and sometimes don’t have the freedom to change them. However, we continue to work with the subtitlers to improve and change them based on your feedback~!
Let me suggest an interpretation–
Like BOST, the CR video playback software is stingy on caching (probably for DRM reasons). Now generally speaking this is not a problem for CR’s LQ and HQ feeds, but this is a serious problem with their 480P and 720P feeds. Fact is, many Americans are on pretty weakass broadband. Caching is vital especially for streaming video of that size. More control over buffering and bigger buffers are vital to guarantee a good performance watching videos on average broadband. Look at how Hulu does it, for example.
But that’s not the terrible part. If you’ve watched stuff on CR prior to the switchover, you’d think they have a fairly workable video player. I’d basically cache half an episode and let it loose, and generally speaking that was more buffering time than I need. That was with a HQ feed. The terrible, terrible part is that on or very near the day of the switch, they rolled out a new flash player (requires version 9.0.115 of flash or newer) and new streaming servers. RECIPE FOR EPIC FALE. I mean, that’s also recipe for a class action lawsuit if you don’t push out system requirement changes like that, which may interrupt service. “Things not working well” is just what’s normally expected.
Also, let’s just ignore the problems caused by increased traffic with their HD streams for now. Why didn’t they run a round of testing before the 1/8 date? Why didn’t they tell us anything? Maybe they did, and I just didn’t know about it. Anyone knows?
In practice, the experience is not that terrible. Yesterday I was able to watch some stuff (namely, Druaga S2) after messing around with it for a little while. It was not a smooth experience; the 480 feed interrupted itself every 30 seconds or so, while the h264 feed was more reasonable. I realized the 480 feed, after a while, was a transcode. Things looked pretty much the same as a blown up version of the h264 feed. Not sure what was going on, but the video quality was definitely worse than expected for a pay-to-watch thing.
I can’t really say much about points 3, 4 and 6 out of the Shinji mail, but they don’t mean much if people in the right region can’t even watch the video without taking a minute break every 30 seconds. And I didn’t encounter any error messages that told me my connection was too slow or whatever.
As far as my connection is concerned, normally I pull a 720p episode of Xam’d from the PSN video store in under 2 hours. That’s about just a tad over 1.5gb worth in 100-120 minutes. So I get about 150-170 KB/s off them. I think my best score off dslreports.com is closer to 200 KB/s, but that wasn’t the condition of the line when I was trying it.
That said, the bright side is that all of this is not exactly a surprise. It’s just poorly handled. Also CR is actively working on it, and they are communicating with their customers. It could be a lot worse. (It could be Sony.)
One more CR related note I just want to toss out there is that yes, a lot of the videos no longer have ads built-in. I am blindly guessing this is due to the arrangement they have with their licensing overlords. How are they getting money? The sites still have ads. They still take money for DTO. They also now have a new crop of people, like myself, who are paying for their service. Or paying guinea pigs, more accurately put. If the service problems keep up, it would be awesome if they refund your first month of pay or give you a free month of service, don’t you think?
