The interminable controversy over the ethnicity of anime-styled characters and the pedestal upon which many Japanese ensconce white girls is being stoked by the image above – cute anime girls, it maintains, are drawn with Caucasian bone structure.

The points the image makes:

Whites have [...]]]>

The interminable controversy over the ethnicity of anime-styled characters and the pedestal upon which many Japanese ensconce white girls is being stoked by the image above – cute anime girls, it maintains, are drawn with Caucasian bone structure.

The points the image makes:

Whites have a convex forehead, (East) Asians a concave one

The rear of a Caucasian skull is convex, the Asian concave

Caucasians have a protruding chin and concave jaw, Asians a protruding jaw and receding chin

Caucasians have lower positioned eyes, Asians higher positioned ones

Not surprisingly, this has provoked the usual debate:

“What a cruel choice of models!”

“They really were right when they said they are designed off of white people…”

“And the usual video:”

“The people who make this stuff are aggravating our white people complex, it’s creepy!”

“I’ve never seen a skull like the one on the right in an anatomy book or an art how-to.”

“Yui-chan is so cute…”

See also the previous discussion of the topic…

No stranger to ero, R-15 has released its 5th Blu-ray edition, full of the uncensored onsen action everyone expects and most likely insists upon.

The comparison:

[...]]]>

No stranger to ero, R-15 has released its 5th Blu-ray edition, full of the uncensored onsen action everyone expects and most likely insists upon.

The comparison:

So erotic is Nisemonogatari that viewers have actually coined a new name for it (in fact they have several:”Eromonogatari,” [...]]]>

So erotic is Nisemonogatari that viewers have actually coined a new name for it (in fact they have several:”Eromonogatari,” “Pornomonogatari,” etc.) – although strangely nobody is complaining.

The most horrendously depressing anime ever have been solemnly ranked by ashen-faced anime fans in this list, showing most are still reeling from a certain recent magical girl massacre of truly historic proportions.

The ranking:

1. Puella [...]]]>

The most horrendously depressing anime ever have been solemnly ranked by ashen-faced anime fans in this list, showing most are still reeling from a certain recent magical girl massacre of truly historic proportions.

The ranking:

1. Puella Magi Madoka Magica

2. SchoolDays

3. Grave of the Fireflies

4. Bokurano: Ours

5. Neon Genesis Evangelion

6. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

7. BLOOD-C

8. Hell Girl

9. Elfen Lied

10. Inu x Boku SS / Ano Hi Mita Hana

11. 5 Centimeters Per Second

12. Mawaru Penguindrum

13. Yosuga no Sora

14. Umineko no Naku Koro ni

15. Kamisama Dolls

16. Saikano

17. A Dog of Flanders

18. Kimi ga Nozomu Eien

19. Fafner in the Azure

20. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

21. Black Lagoon

22. Mobile Suit Victory Gundam

23. Full Metal Alchemist

24. Narutaru

25. Shuffle!

The appearance of Saber in a French Japanese conversation phrase book and Haruhi and her minions in a Japanese social education tome have been causing some astonishment online.

Sadly, investigations reveal this may be more a case of plagiarism than Saber generously helping French learn another [...]]]>

The appearance of Saber in a French Japanese conversation phrase book and Haruhi and her minions in a Japanese social education tome have been causing some astonishment online.

Sadly, investigations reveal this may be more a case of plagiarism than Saber generously helping French learn another language of surrender:

Santa Saber and Mademoiselle Saber compared:

In similar news, characters not dissimilar to Haruhi, Nagato, Kyon and Koizumi have been caught teaching children the finer points of human rights:

Scandalous allegations about what goes on at idol handshaking events are once again being made, this time describing the extremes of perversion some ultra-creepy otaku engage in at the expense of their beloved idols.

Various industry [...]]]>

Scandalous allegations about what goes on at idol handshaking events are once again being made, this time describing the extremes of perversion some ultra-creepy otaku engage in at the expense of their beloved idols.

Various industry journalists and other connected experts supposedly maintain the AKB handshaking events are the source of considerable ills, ranging from distorting sales to utter perversion:

“CDs come with one handshaking event coupon and you need several to get an actual ticket, so many fans will buy a great many CDs in order to get this. Once they have it they just throw the CD away or sell them off at dirt cheap prices. I doubt many of these fans buy them to actually listen to the music.”

“Rapidly increasing numbers of fans are actually resorting to shoplifting to get the CDs. One person even got arrested for going around at an event intimidating other fans into giving him their coupons.”

“Their discs get to number 1, they have repeated million-seller chat-topping hits. But that’s because their fans are incredibly desperate, sometimes buying 10 discs each.”

“Only the promoters get anything out of all this. Some of the latest handshaking events are being referred to as ‘touching events,’ and increasing numbers of their more reckless fans are busy groping their breasts and sticking their hands up their skirts. That’s why idols like Tomomi Itano have reputations for hating their fans and find any excuse not to attend the events.”

“Before the handshaking, they go to the toilets and onanise there, and attend the event with it on their hands. When one of the members goes to shake their hands, thinking them an ordinary fan, they get a sudden sticky sensation. Some members responded with a shocked ‘What the hell is this!?’”

Sadly many are by now unsurprised at the lengths some fans apparently go to:

“This is your doing guys! Give it a rest.”

“Of course creepy otaku are creepy. If you’re deliberately marketing to them what do you expect?”

“The stuff about the semen made me laugh. What kind of hero does that?”

“Give them a break, they deserve something for being forced to buy all those trashy CDs.”

“What is with that article…”

“They only buy those awful CDs to get the chance to do all that perverted stuff.”

“What do you expect if you employ sales tactics like that?”

“Make it into a fellatio event and you’ll get rid of all those guys with semen on their hands.”

“Can’t they just arrest the ones who do this stuff?”

“I bet there were always guys doing this stuff.”

“Being suddenly hugged and kissed by some maniac is what being an idol has always been about. They do get paid a lot for it.”

“Give it a rest, it’s basically a form of prostitution so what do you expect?”

“Having to buy 10 CDs to shake hands with them for a few seconds, you’d kind of expect this stuff really.”

Anime fans have somehow been pried away from the latest crop of moeblobs for long enough to furnish this list of the most manly and hot-blooded of anime heroes, yielding up a fine crop of classic Type A heroes…

The ranking:

1. Yokimura Sanada (Sengoku Basara)

Hatsune Miku fans everywhere are being rallied to the virtual diva’s defence – parties unknown have been waging an underhanded campaign against her on YouTube, by filing fraudulent copyright claims against her videos in an effort to get all her songs deleted.

The campaign of mass [...]]]>

Hatsune Miku fans everywhere are being rallied to the virtual diva’s defence – parties unknown have been waging an underhanded campaign against her on YouTube, by filing fraudulent copyright claims against her videos in an effort to get all her songs deleted.

The campaign of mass deletions has been orchestrated against Hatsune Miku and Vocaloid songs hosted on YouTube’s various international sites, targeting translated versions.

Popular Vocaloid videos which were many years old and had accumulated millions of views have been deleted as a result of the action.

The deletions have been requested by a variety of suspicious parties nobody has ever heard of – names featured include “Media Interactive Inc” (who were apparently implicated in the deletion of Lady Gaga’s YouTube account) and variations on the name of “Junichi Sasa” (笹純一, 笹金純一, 笹川純一, 笹村純一, etc.).

As the copyright for all original Hatsune Miku songs normally rests with the original creator, not with any company affiliated with Yamaha, Crypton or the record company mafia (except the minority of songs professionally published by these companies themselves), none of these deletions can be considered as anything but fraudulent.

Japanese Miku fans have already organised a counter-effort in the hopes of uncovering who is behind the deletions, including an English language missive:

Someone who doesn’t like Hatsune Miku getting popular in the world is deleting her high ranked videos with English titles on it by making fake reports that the videos are infringing a copyright.
We don’t know who is doing this.
The series of these acts may be caused by organized group(s).
It is under investigation by Miku fan volunteers.
If your video is deleted by a fake report, please submit a counter-notification here: http://p.tl/hZW6
To all Vocaloid fans, Let’s get her back. Don’t give up.

All this is possible because YouTube allows unverified third parties to issue takedown notices on any content they host, which usually results in a swift deletion of the video which can only be reversed by a counter-notification.

For takedowns based on the DMCA, providers actually have a legal obligation to restore content if the uploader files a counter-notification objecting to the takedown (for example, by pointing out that the notifier does not actually hold the copyright or have the authority to act on behalf of the owner), at which point the notifier must file a lawsuit in the US or drop the matter and leave the content alone.

Not only is filing a lawsuit expensive, in the case of fraudulent or dubious claims the notifier will have perjured themselves by lying to the court about owning the copyright, possibly a rather more serious matter than the supposed infringement itself.

Unfortunately, not only are most people unaware of this aspect of DMCA usage and easily intimidated by legalistically phrased intimidation, reliably ensuring the original uploader goes to the trouble of filing a counter-notification every time one of their works are subjected to a predatory takedown is a difficult matter, particularly with older content.

Takedowns in other countries may be subject to wildly differing legal requirements, complicating matters even further.

The suspicion online is that the takedowns are politically motivated – there has been some recent high-profile competition between Korean pop groups (the “popularity” of whom is suspected to be the result of organised promotion by Korean nationalists) and Hatsune Miku (who has the earnest support of anime-fans everywhere).

This rivalry recently crystallised in the form of a pointless ranking of groups “which should perform at the London Olympics” (in fact the ranking had no official status whatsoever, a fact which was apparently almost totally lost on both raving Korean and Japanese nationalists and fervent Miku fans).

Thanks to the competing efforts of 4chan, 2ch, and the Koreans, the ranking ended up being topped by Miku, followed by a variety of obscure Korean starlets, a point of pride for deluded right-wing Japanese and probably quite vexing to Korean nationalists who fancy their nation a pop super-power.

Although 2ch is notorious for xenophobically blaming Koreans for every ill it can think of, in this case it is hard to see why else anyone would bother trying to damage Miku’s popularity, as the fraud does not seem to be intended as a shakedown and the “posing as Japanese to do something bad” tactic has apparently often been employed in such Japan-Korea nationalist spats:

“It’s probably some dirty Korean.”

“Nobody but some Korean scumbag would bother to do something this retarded.”

“This will be something to do with that London Olympics stuff…”

“Right – #1 was Miku, the rest were all K-POP.”

“Abusing copyright is a typical Korean ploy. All they can do is copy things and claim them as their own.”

“This is probably more theatrics orchestrated by the net-uyo!”

“Somebody was doing the same thing to AKB videos…”

“They are really going to turn the world against them when this comes out!”

“More of those peninsulars squandering their taxes on promoting K-POOP!”

“It could be a 2ch board – some of them are packed with Miku-haters.”

“YouTube should at least publicise the IP of people who request scores of deletions.”

“Just report all the K-POOP on there using the same name.”

“But all the Koreans loeve Miku just like we do! Believe in them, please.”

“Try searching for ‘VANK’ – you’ll see.”

“This stuff is the shame of Japan, thank god it is being deleted!”

“This is obviously their way of getting back against Miku after she beat all their stupid K-POP groups on that Olympic ranking.”

“As usual, one of their ‘fake Japanese’ tricks.”

“Ahhh – they deleted Crucify by Megurine Luka as well!”

“If they get reported 3 times the user loses their whole account and all their uploads get deleted… this is dreadful.”

“I think this is just haters.”

“The only ones who benefit from all this are Koreans. If you don’t say this, North Americans will never get what is behind all this. They’ll just think it is Miku-ota vs some annoying copyright body. They won’t care.”

“As there is no actual proof of this, constantly saying it will only call your position into doubt.”

“This is a mistake. The videos are being deleted, and they are uploading copies with their own rip-off Vocaloid and pretending they were Korean to start with. They are scrupulously disguising their nationality by using other languages. Tell people what is going on and let them make up their own minds as to who is behind this.”

“You shouldn’t keep mentioning that country. You have to ignore them and avoid making this into another big issue.”

“Somebody tell the guys at 4chan about what those Korean bastards are up to! Can’t anyone here write English properly!?”

“Forget 4chan – don’t expect anything from them, they prefer just to watch.”

“Leave them out of this! You don’t know what they’ll do!”

“4chan never helped with that ranking – that’s just lies. They have no interest in Vocaloids over there.”

“Don’t involve them – it’s a big mistake to think they like the Japanese. And involving them is just like the tactics a certain country uses. If they decide to help, fine, but don’t try and drag them in.”

“Try using Facebook, forums and YouTube to raise awareness of this instead.”

“Don’t forget to complain to Google and YouTube about their system being abused like this.”

“Are you people morons? 4chan came in and ruined their efforts to stack that ranking with Koreans. This issue will not be resolved by avoiding any mention of who is responsible.”

“They know how Koreans do things, and came in and helped with the ranking. Trying to avoid any mention of ‘that country’ will only make it look like a copyright issue.”

Bleach-watchers have reacted with a mixture of surprise and incredulity to the news that Bleach is entering into its “final chapter” – although just how long this will last is the subject of much speculation.

The scan [...]]]>

Bleach-watchers have reacted with a mixture of surprise and incredulity to the news that Bleach is entering into its “final chapter” – although just how long this will last is the subject of much speculation.

The scan circulating simply reveals Bleach’s “final chapter” is starting, giving no hint as to how protracted a finale this might be – although given the author’s previous comments hopefully nobody is holding their breath.

Online, there is some disbelief and much checking of the skies:

“Thank goodness.”

“They say final chapter but this is probably the last part and due to last years.”

“Give it 10 years.”

“More.”

“Expect another 30 volumes.”

“I think they are just bluffing in an attempt to drum up more reader interest.”

“It’ll be sad to finally lose it.”

“They were saying it would actually end, I guess it was really true.”

“What’ll happen to the anime!?”

“If it gets popular again they will just restart it as Bleach 2 I bet…”

Readers of the Fate/Zero manga have once again been startled, revolted and quite possibly titillated to see Young Ace has presided over the return of one of the more grotesque scenes from the original, in all its extreme glory:

Readers of the Fate/Zero manga have once again been startled, revolted and quite possibly titillated to see Young Ace has presided over the return of one of the more grotesque scenes from the original, in all its extreme glory:

The PC and console versions of a similar scene, showing off the original design in all its glory – although as there is no mosaic present any resemblance to anything untoward is presumably the result of warped thinking on the part of viewers: