#MALKeionbu Top Tens for First Ten Weeks; Looking for More Music Loving Sploogers
Don’t let the funny word that begins with a # throw you off…
One of the earlier ways of anime fandom that I walked was following the piper and his tune. And unlike cartoons from everywhere else (with some exceptions), anime music somehow just rock harder than all others. I’m not sure why. It didn’t take very long for me to get hooked on some tunes (seeing Naomi Tamura in concert this summer probably marked the conclusion of some era in my life…) once I started to consume anime seriously.
It didn’t take long either for me to find like-minded people to banter with. Over the course of many years, though, I’ve moved and grazed between different communities and fan groups. When it comes to “anime music” there are generally these following, non-exclusive camps that I ran into:
- People who like like J-Pop. This category further subdivides, but it’s kind of a mainstream label anyways. However somehow this never really include your typical J-Rock fawning fans. It’s not that people who dig anime music don’t listen to it (I do!) but the fan base never really overlaps greatly.
- Soundtrack freaks. People who read sites like OSV, for example. In the west it overlaps with game music fans a lot, as implied. On a side note, only recently has big name game music composers begin to write for anime. We already have some crossover for live action stuff with anime for a while now (hi Joe), so this is a welcoming development that the fan base has preceded the commercial end of things. Or am I just stuck on Sakimoto or Uematsu?
- Idol and seiyuu otaku. Usually these types also listens to general J-pop, but there are an alarming large number of them who do not. Technically there’s also the pure-bred anison otaku, like those people whose music diet consists of Aniki, Psychic Lover, and Masami Okui or something…
- Curious onlookers who are musically aware. These people tend to be casual anime fans who are tracking a few songs they’ve heard and liked, but they focus on non-Japanese stuff. It’s also probably the largest demographic of what makes up live shows for anison artists in the West. In fact this category generally overlaps #2…
And generally all four of these categories overlap, a lot at times. It’s not really all that meaningful to segregate them into distinct categories, I’ll be the first to admit.
However the categories are good way to describe the people who hang out at this MyAnimeList club that has been a fun thing I look forward to every week, which is the “Anime Music Piece of the Week” club. It’s gotten the nickname “#MALKeionbu” on twitter, if you’re following that. (I’ve been kind of treating twitter as “IRC Lite.” I just don’t goof off enough at work to do IRC, so twitter is a good substitute for IRC-like time-delayed, dialog-threaded chat. I’m also probably doing it wrong but that’s how it works for me.)
At any rate, MALKeionbu is a great little social exercise because a bunch of us can get down to business, share some great music with each other, and talk about that stuff like a gaggle of school girls. Isn’t that internet fandom at its finest? And because it’s been on for 10 weeks, there might be some useful information to share with everyone now that we have had the time to accumulate some off-cuff personal observationsdata:
If you didn’t know, at the MALKeionbu the members toss 10 songs into a hat each week, inspired by a given theme for that week, and our fearless and tireless leader zzeroparticle compiles them for our listening pleasure and vote on the songs the following week. To be specific, we go through the 10 nominated songs like a reviewer doing a track-by-track for an album, and assign a set number of points to the top songs. Because we only rank within 10, it’s more just an exercise of comparative studies than authoritative branding. So just because Taku Iwasaki is the composer to have the most winning entries, that fact shouldn’t mean much more beyond that.
To my surprise the entries for nominations are generally diverse and tend to belong to the picks from group #2. I mean, after all, a music club? Especially at the first few weeks, the nominations have been pretty stiff. We had wonderful BGM stuff to choose from but it was more representative of a classical influence commonly found in game music communities. That said, I have been thinking that anime has been a better place for music over games–it’s just more diverse, and allows for more diversity in themes and approaches. Sure enough, as the club gains more member, momentum and interests the diversity came once we are aware “hay musac with words is cool too!”
We’ve reached a point where, given any vague topic (for example, week 11’s theme is “discovery”), we can mix in the hat: straightforward BGM pieces (even ones with that word in the title of the song) to curve ball ED theme with moonrunes to Daft Punk to BGM to CM pieces. And people are having a good time discovering new stuff, chilling out, and giving props to what counts–the music and their creators.
Where do you music-loving folks chat and chit anyways?
Anyways, this long plug has to come to an end–so two short ones.
1. Lolikitsune has made a silly “preview” along the lines of a demo, called CCY-senpai wa 17sai. I think there is some kind of a reference to this blog in that game, or something.
2. I’m late on the ball, but Eminence has a show this September and there’s…a CD/DVD? What. Must have.
Tokyo Plays Dress-Up for Summer 2009 Anime
Summer anime for 2009 is a good batch. It’s not extraordinary, but I would like to think every season is unique to some extent. It’s just some are more so than others and so far 2009 has been a little more so than others.
I might have said this earlier, but I’ve been reading some light novels that are translated and commercially released in America. I found that there are a few formulaic things that attract me–the writing style, the setting, and the characters. Somehow it’s always one (or more) of these that keeps me reading. Rarely it’s the plot or the funky philosophical worldview (unless it’s wrapped around some context that has to do with the setting or character) or mystery or suspense that keeps me flipping pages after pages. I think that’s basically why I found Bakemonogatari (and Nisioisin in general) worth following at all? Shaft really did a bang-up job on capturing the strangely whimsical but serious nature of the characters.
Naturally, I actually look forward to that Otsuichi adaptation coming out sometime in the future. His writing in the second volume of Faust’s North American release is a refreshing read as well. […and I owe myself a review of that too…] He’s one of the few that I liked both in terms of style and with good, solid character development.
At any rate, it feels that this summer, I’m also watching some of the shows for exactly those things–setting, character, and some kind of flair (as always)… Perhaps the best example of this is Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. If they’re going to spend 5 seconds to tell you “zomg we have meticulously researched this animu” every episode, you bet it’s gonna be meticulously researched, right? And being BONES, that research is likely to come out through the super-detailed background, and character animation as they contort their bodies in…rescue work or some such. Unlike Rescue Wings, this one paints plain disaster rather than merely those who rescues, so the feeling is very different even both have a lot of slow moments. But more importantly, instead of calm seas of some JSDF air base, Magnitude 8.0 kicks off with some version of Neo Tokyo in the OP cuts, as if Bethesda’s next Fallout game is going to be set there. Meticulously detailed and loaded with both researched indeed…?
But if that wasn’t obvious (how could it not lol), perhaps this new new version of Tokyo in Taisho Yakyuu Musume satisfies your fancy better. For those of us watching it for the Taisho setting and the twist, episode one serves up a trip down to the good ol’ capitol way back to 1925. The same city that we may be familiar with is no longer anything but what you find in history books. Asakusa lulz. Perhaps as much as how the physical layout of Tokyo has changed so many years ago, so were the way people behaved. It’s almost refreshing to watch an anime where the girls acted like they were girls, and guys were guys? But wait, I think that’s where the show sort of falls off-balance a bit. The guys don’t all act like what I expected people in the 1920s do, at their age. Either that, or some of them are just really cheeky.
The main cast of characters, however, are fun enough to watch. It’s a team of serious fanboying seiyuu at work, how can I lose… The baseball aspect is not too shabby either, even with the glove goof. They went back to good o’ fingered stuff right after that episode.
A more modern rendition of Tokyo comes alive in Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou, which is something about knowing (or not) “magic,” which in this setting is like old style magic but cast via computer software. Don’t ask me how. But what makes it interesting is how the whole concept of dempa town, or Akihabara, become sea of magic when the creators decide to equate wireless computer systems with nexus of magical power. Tokyo here becomes a more familiar place, since the story takes place in modern time, but the canned results are…canned. This is definitely a show I watch for the setting; it’s another light novel adaptation, and it shows via the complex world the first two episodes have painted.
Shangri-la is still running, right? And it plops the signature Ikebukuro billboards into both holograms and rain-forested ruins? That show is so all over the place. At least it’s got interesting characters, which is probably the only way one could forgive it.
Someone Has a Thing for Legs
Maaya Sakamoto plays a sekushii onee-chan, sure, we all love that. And if you didn’t already notice, Canaan herself has a killer “Kero-chan Check” point at her pants (scroll half way down). Those pants are awesome! Did Takashi Takeuchi really come up with those? Pretty sweet.
But “hot legs” is not what I anticipated! Well, besides that they’re there to be seen when your international terrorist lady dons a killer evening gown. But they’re so…evenly chiseled, and so to depict strength and not its gruesome details? That’s like, pro. Both in keeping it simple and keeping it cheap. The camera blur is like a lens flare that is actually not overused, lol.
Whoever is behind the two awesome lady’s room fight freeze shots, I salute you.
Or maybe it’s just a PA Works thing.
Honestly, there wasn’t a lot for me to write about in Canaan. But after seeing that scene, something just didn’t sit right with me and I had to point them out, lest I start to do vector diagrams again.
Effects of Time On Valuation of Loot
While in Japan, I found a copy of this book. Originally retailed for 4000 yen, this artbook now have a street price that exceeds the original retail price.
But why is this so? Thinking back, over the years I’ve seen quite a few anime artbooks that were sold second-handed, and far majority of them were available from used book stores for less than their suggested retail price (and usually, but not always, lower than the discounted price of the new book). The example I linked above is probably more an exception in multiple ways, that it is a 2002 book that’s really out of print, that it has a place in a popular, long-running franchise, and there’s probably something about the illustrator that makes the book a particularly valuable collectible.
I think the book’s intrinsic nature as a collectible also plays a part. If it’s a nice, hard-cover bounded thing of a popular artist that hasn’t released much in terms of artbooks, and it’s out of print, then it probably will fetch a good price? Versus some cheap, stapled thing that was equally available in terms of supply and demand? I’m not sure. Is there some way to track how much are those super-expensive Range Murata books besides googling and looking at different online stores?
Now that I think of it, artbooks are fairly solid collectible items in terms of their general residual value. Unless you’re something like this guy.
In contrast, residual values of DVDs have the risk of being just totally washed out via either re-prints or re-bundling or even worse, re-release via a remaster or remaster+high def. That’s not even mentioning how that supply-demand curve is shifted towards whichever direction. But it isn’t to say there are no exceptions. This is a particularly mind-boggling exception in that licensing hell has trapped the pre-existing copies in a way that totally over-inflates the R1 release’s value (as of Jul. 14, 2009) beyond the Japanese Blu-Ray release. That is simply incredible; but hopefully this is just a glitch in the way of the world. Hopefully, in time, the licensing situation will resolve, and prices will come down once again via a new release.
But yeah, I would easily say that far most of my own personal collection depreciates at a rate of something like 75% of its value over the course of 2 years, discounting the really special cases like autographed items, original/actual artwork, cels, promotional posters or OOP goods. Maybe I also shouldn’t count LDs and VHS tapes, lol. Anyways, that 75% is more a feeling than a real number, so don’t take it seriously. If you do want to measure it though, you could probably look at how the video licensees are doing in terms of their bottom line as an indication…but this is where the common notion of bootlegging–instead of Gucci, you have Death Note–really hurts Japan’s bottom line, and not the usual, copyright-infringing notion.
So it seems, anime merch really is a crappy way to spend money… at least that kind of merch, at least using residual value as a measuring stick. Let’s not even talk about the things that really aren’t worth anything to begin with, like most cell phone charms or pins or keychains. Some things might hold their resell value if they have a lot of intrinsic value to begin with (like that Macross 15th anniversary leather jacket, or whatever). I don’t think figures do, sadly…but supply and demand generally favor demand for those items.
At the same time though, I think the medium is still relatively young on the scale of all things collectible. CDs didn’t take off until the early- to mid-90s, really; DVDs at least until 2000 so. Non-garage kit figures didn’t take off until like, 2006 or so, although gunpla-type things have been around much longer and could indicate how value plays out for all figures in that same general market. Or maybe action figures? That never really made much headway into the western markets until recently, outside the mainstream.
Do you still have your Pokemon cards? How much are they now?
Ah well, just one more thing to lament about spending too much money on nonsense.
Fulfilment Speed, Or Something about Having the Right Stuff to Go around an Anime Corner
The Kannagi thing has RACS owner posting a butt-hurt rant. He is justified and it is something that he would, and maybe should, speak up against.
However the subsequent fan responses makes me think: Just what kind of people root for anime stores (or their favorite niche net retailer)? Just what makes up which kind of customers? Who is more loyal and who isn’t? What makes each store more attractive to which kind of people? What kind of personality types make up the loyal customers of either retailer? Does that influence how vocal these customers are?
I know one thing for sure, though, and that is my own buying habits and media consumption habits do factor greatly in terms of which retailer I choose. Of course, price is always a factor so let’s just ignore that point. Given two stores of similar aspects, the one that sells for cheaper overall will win, right? And to play in the free market competitors have to differentiate themselves to survive, so we move towards an apple-and-oranges comparison. Blah blah blah marketing blah blah blah.
As a fan, this silly protest is kind of, well, silly. I buy and sell stuff from where I like to buy and sell, and I wouldn’t think anything other than that for anyone else. I would like much more if everyone got around to watch or otherwise check out Kannagi at their leisure, on their own terms, in a way that’s fair and just. But what is just and fair vary from person to person. To Bob it’s obviously nothing “exclusive” and I think there’s nothing wrong with that opinion, or with charging more money for exclusivity especially when that comes with $ attached for the people making the exclusive deal. It isn’t like Right Stuf is a horrible vendor either, there’s no real problems here.
As of this writing RACS managed to get a bunch Kannagi volume 1 at Right Stuf prices and is selling it at cost. The inner lawyer inside of me snickers at this obvious marketing gimmick. Com’on Bob, Aniplex paid a bunch of money to get people to buy DVDs, presumably, by making Yamakan available at Otakon and running their Nagisamafanclub site and what have you. If I was AnimeNation I would probably mark it up by a small amount, and just do it without ranting on your blog, because it’s the classier thing to do? When competitors decide to take a bullet and softens the exclusivity bit by reselling those DVDs, in essence they’re marketing Kannagi for Aniplex and reaffirming that the exclusivity thing is good for the retailer in the exclusive equation. Hey, isn’t that a good thing? Or rather, isn’t Bob playing right into Right Stuf’s schemes? It’s like the sound of one-handed clapping? Bandai is squished in the middle of all this, given their relationship with RS, Aniplex and what have you…and they take the burn. Oh well.
Let me just repeat it once more if it wasn’t clear the first time: If Aniplex wants an exclusive deal with Kannagi via Bandai, Right Stuf is the natural choice. If Right Stuf wants an exclusive deal, they have a lot of leverage because they basically run distro for Bandai; you can’t reasonably expect to sleep with your mistress when your wife is on the other side of the same bed. I guess it’s back to the Animevillage days.
As an aside, the vendor selling it at Otakon also was dealing it as a convention exclusive, and they would sell it to you today at retail if you give them your secret handshake. If I were you I’d hunt them down at their next con and see if you can get lucky…
I guess it’s good to remind myself that exclusive sales contracts are hardly uncommon and they are not a recent development. This is a particularly interesting junction in fandom though because this brouhaha lets one industry guru reveal some interesting statistics, and I quote Chris B.–
You know, as an aside, having read more of Robert’s stuff over at his blog, I can’t help thinking that this is helping him all that much. Maybe with some of his loyal customers, but it’s like appeasing the base rather than gaining “mainstream” acceptance.
I had only a mild business relationship with him once when we did an affiliate thing. It didn’t pan out because most people here didn’t buy from him. They had the choice, we rotated banners, text links, etc. but people just didn’t go there. So that experience is not coloring it at all. He was pleasant to work with but there wasn’t anything I could really do to make people go there.
So the second part of this post asks: why is Right Stuf that much more popular over at the ex-AoDVD/Mania crowd? I guess the simple answers are:
- These people are bargain hawks. AoDVD does function as a deal site to some extent. Invariably a large portion of AoDVD’s function is consumer research, and it’s definitely a valuable resource for those of us who do business with preference for cheap as long as we get what we’re after–the DVDs. And it’s undeniably the case that RACS is rarely cheap compared to the usual Deepdiscount summer sale or Right Stuf’s 25 for $100.
- Do we not care about service? I’m sure we do, but bargain hawk types assign different value to things like service and ease of mind than those who don’t bargain. Well, it’s built into the concept. By shopping for cheap, bargain hawk types implicitly acknowledge a level of risk and is willing to bear it in exchange for a lower price [/corporate lawyerspeak]. It isn’t to say there’s no value to risk, but rather…
- Speed is not something we care that much about, at least not that kind of speed. Let’s break it down further. The average AoDVD mad collector does something people like Ed Chavez wants you to do with his books–pre-order. Right Stuf, like RACS, ships preorders as soon they’re in, which is often way before the street date. Remember, we are hardcore animu consumerzzz and I’m sure there are people who are regulars on that forum that own like, 50%+ of all anime released in the US or some such. You don’t do that without arming yourself with the data AoDVD provides, and you don’t do that without trying to preorder sometimes. (As an aside there are no sites out there that can rival AoDVD still.) So the risk of “speed” here is not exactly all that threatening. And pre-ordering is an act of large risk as well, given the replicator problems we’ve been seeing. Oh, we should also remember that Bandai and ADV use Right Stuf for fulfillment…so RS is fast when it comes to pre-orders due to that advantage.
- Speed is also not something we care that much about, and even “that” kind of speed. People always say if you order from RACS you get it in a couple days. That’s wonderful. But if I were to partake Right Stuf’s ongoing sale right now I don’t particularly mind if it took them 2 months to fulfill it, simply because I buy DVDs primarily for archival purposes. I’d say a good 1/3 of my DVD collection is still in shrinkwarps. Even if I want to watch it, my backlog is a mile high. I can afford to wait. This is another reason why “good service” is not so cracked up to be for the average AoDVD person. As long as a threshold of quality has been met, it’s all good.
- And it isn’t to say nobody from AoDVD orders from RACS. Speed and quality of service is always important. It’s just not very often when you really need that speed that you would be willing to pay for it. Bargain hawk types plan out their purchases ahead of time. They are not casual buyers who do it out of fancy, usually. So if they knew if they ordered this thing they need by date X earlier and can save some money, they would. Now of course this is not always possible and stuff happens, and that’s when we might go to RACS for DVDs. It’s just rarely the case.
- To be honest, RACS prices are not horrible at all; but if you have 400-500-600 anime DVDs, it adds up even if you can save half a dollar per disc. Price becomes even more important for serious collectors.
I wonder if this particular mentality as I described is even true. But here you go.
