Aizen = Jose Maria Aznar without the mustache?

You're all going to call me weird and all sort of names for this, but I've always though that Captain Aizen from Bleach gives a similar air to that of the Spanish politician and former President of Spanish Governement Jose Maria Aznar, just without the mustache.

Maybe it's the hair? But Aznar doesn't have a spitcurl. What about the hairline? The nose? The expression? If anything, author Tite Kubo made very sure that the key villain (or not?) in his series looked very Spanish, to go along with the theme of 'Hueco Mundo'.

Curiosities special: who are the top 50 manga creators by sales?

The September issue of Nikkei entertainment magazine published a list of the top 50 manga creators by sales since January of 2010, along with other very interesting statistics:

Eichiro Oda, age 36, is in no doubt the most successful mangaka in the world, at the top of the list with 54 million sales of his trademark manga One Piece.

He is followed by Masashi Kishimoto, also age 36, his classic series Naruto has sold 11 million copies (in 2010 alone).

In the third place is Kimi ni Todoke's author Karuho Shiina, age 35, with 8 million copies sold.

The rest of the list can be seen here,

The average age of a succesful mangaka is around 30-37 years old if you look at the first 15 spots, but I would group it in the 30-40 years old group, which means that it takes quite a few years to train yourself to be a succesful artist and then get ahead with a series that will be picked up by a publishing company at around ages 25-28.

So, for a mangaka, absolute success comes later in life.

In Bakuman, the fact and Mashiro and Shuujin are almost serialized at 17 years old is pure fiction, which doesn't necessarily mean that there can't be manga authors with great talent at that age, but someone like Niizuma Eiji is a stretch of the imagination.

Beelzebub's author, Ryuhei Tamura, came in spot 21 with 2.7 million copies sold.

Yana Toboso, author of Black Butler, came in the 26th, with 2.3 million copies sold.

Author Kazue Kato of the highly acclaimed series Ao no Exorcist, came at spot 31 with 2.2 million copies sold.

And Akiko Higashimura, author of Kuragehime, came at 43th with 1.6 million copies.

Source: ANN

Toshiro Mifune and Charles Bronson in the same movie??

Yes, it happened. Those were the days.

These scenes are from the movie Red Sun (1971):

If a samurai and a cowboy fought, what would be the outcome?

Square Enix manga award revoked due to plagiarism

This is quite becoming the item of the day as Square Enix revoked the award to its 18th edition of the Square Enix Manga Prize awards after readers pointed that the winning story, 'Compliance -Zettai Hō Rei Toshi', by upcoming author Daiki Matsuura, plagiarized author Tow Ukubata light novel Mardock Scramble 104, licensed by Viz Media in the US.

Daiki Matsuura apologized by posting a notice, explaining that he was in a hurry to make his debut as a manga creator.

The apology notice from Monthly Shonen Gangan's editorial department said that after it received the information from readers about the possible plagiarism, it conducted an investigation and found "several points of similarity" between Matsuura's work and Ubukata's.

The editorial department wrote that in the future it would give new creators training and guidance, and the editorial department would do as much as it could to prevent something like this from happening again.

This just proves that desperation is never the right inspiration. O_O

Source: ANN

The origin of the word 'Weeaboo'

Always present as part of internet community jargon, who and what is a 'weeaboo'?

Memes dedicated to the meaning of this word

The word 'weeaboo' originated in the 90's in the infamous but legendary message board known as 4chan.org. It took form after a relatively obscure arcade game that consisted of slapping a duck with a paddle and the duck would make a'weeaboo' sound, meaning how idiotic can some fanboys and fangirls be.

It is a despective term used for people in Western countries that become so obsessed with anime, manga and otaku culture in general, that they believe they can go to Japan and live exactly the same lifestyle as depicted in the series they watch, or that Japan is some sort of Disneyland where situations and people are exactly like the anime series they watch.

According to urbandictionary.org, a weeaboo can be someone who likes their illegally downloaded anime to have romanji karaoke in the opening songs so they can memorize and sing them in Japanese, uses constantly words like 'kawaii', or 'moe', or even 'sugoi' to refer to things, end their sentences with 'desu', imitate all facial expressions from anime characters, imports groceries and candies from online Japanese stores, believes that anything from Japan is better than what is produced in America or Europe, and the list goes on.

In general, they live a life completely absorbed in otaku culture, thinking that the complexity of Japanese culture can be reduced to that.

But what is the difference with a Japanophile, for example?

Japanophiles are more about the culture and the way of life of the Japanese. They are more interested in history, traditions, society, politics, economy, and mostly it is for academic purposes. But that doesn't exclude an interest in media, and we can say that anime and manga are the most popular expressions of Japanese culture. It is what the foreign world sees, no doubt about that.

That's why I'm all against generalizing and discriminating groups of people with names.

Why is Bleach titled 'Bleach' anyway?

Bleach is the name of the 1989 album by Nirvana, one of author Tite Kubo's favorite music groups, aside from Bad Religion and many others.

Kubo often listens to classic rock  and metal music while he works and that's where he draws inspiration from. You may notice that many of the manga's chapters are titled after key songs that embody the concept and the mood of certain characters and situations.

But the word has multiple meanings. Bleach often refers to the chemical substance used for cleaning purposes, that can be highly toxic if used in a 100% concentration.

Bleach is also the decolorant powder to get the hair to a yellow point before a toner is applied. People with extremely obscured hair or pigments need to do this procedure if they want to get a good shade of blonde, or else, if they just use common dyers, their hair turns orange.

With the influence of Western culture, thousands of Japanese men look to dye their hair blonde, often with the orange result. It was a common belief in Japan that young people who dyed their hair were 'yankee' or 'juvenile delinquents'.

This all resonates perfectly with Ichigo's theme. In the beginning of the series, Ichigo was often picked on and bullied because of his looks. The irony here is that he has orange hair, not because he wanted to dye it, but because of his mother, who also had orange hair, (that'd actually be strawberry blonde).

Still, when he grew up he was regarded as a tempered, bad-ass punk along with his friend Sado Yasutora precisely because of that.

Curiously enough, 'Ichigo' means 'Strawberry' :-)

Japanese woman sues Google over panty pics on StreetView

I actually think that the woman is right in defending her right to a privacy, no matter how outrageous it may look.

This happened in the district of Fukuoka as a woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, claimed her obsessive-compulsive disorder worsened and she feared everything she did throughout the day was secretly recorded after Google Street View captured images of her underwear hanging out to dry. She sued the search giant for $7,000 and won the case.

"I could understand if it was just a picture of the outside of the apartment, but showing a person's underwear hanging outside is absolutely wrong," the unnamed woman told the district court of Fukuoka, Japan, where she filed her case in October. Google reportedly removed the image around the same time.

Google Street View, another internet menace to privacy?

Google Street View provides 360-degree street-level images of locations in more than a dozen countries, recorded by cars equipped with 9-lens panoramic cameras. The woman filing the suit reportedly looked up her address online last spring and saw her intimate apparel hanging out for the whole wired world to see.

"I was overwhelmed with anxiety that I might be the target of a sex crime," she said. "It caused me to lose my job and I had to change my residence."

It's unclear whether the plaintiff knew her underthings were viewable from the street (thus captured by the Street View car) before she Googled her address. Stories of odd Street View lookups are becoming increasingly common as Street View extends its search —though most are not traumatic.

Well, I know of someone who would support Google StreetView for his 'investigation and data gathering' purposes:

Teh Pervy sage!!!!!!

sources: the UK Telegraph, MSNBC

Curiosities: where does the term 'yaoi' come from?

'Yaoi' can be considered an interchangeable term with 'shonen-ai', meaning 'boy's love' or any story whose protagonists are males that have great chemistry, and the possibility of becoming an actual homosexual couple is always foreshadowed.

But 'yaoi' stories go beyond that and are more explicit in their content, featuring more 'slash' situations.

Believe it or not, the term comes from Saint Seiya slash fanarts from the 80's! 'Yaoi' referred to the potential pairings between the protagonists of the series, especially with Shun of Andromeda.

And after recalling the infamous classic scene with Hyoga in the House of Libra, well...



Now you know where 'Yaoi' comes from :)

And don't forget Aphrodite of Pisces!



Yaoi situations can always potentially emerge in series where all protagonists are boys or men and they practice activities that are supposedly oh-so-masculine, like being samurais, warriors or ninjas. Just ask Naruto and Sasuke ;)

K-On paraphernalia stolen from anime's real life Toyosato Elementary School

The incident has shaken up the local authorities of Shiga Prefecture in Tokyo, who are looking for those responsible for the theft of two replicas of the guitars owned by the anime's main characters, a bass guitar, and 22 figures of the main characters, among lots of other stuff.

There were 1,000 items in total, all lent by the fans for display at Toyosato Elementary School, which has served as a real life model for the series..

Aside from this, a safe with $3,500 dollars (290,000 yen) was also stolen.

So, which is the best software to create manga? (1)

With enough work and dedication, there's two ways to create a manga.

One is the 'traditional' way, and you'll need to buy good quality paper made for drawing, pencils of different graduation, rulers and ink, aside from screentones and white corrector. The final result is something beautiful that you made with your own hands. If you want to publish it, you can scan it, and keep the originals.

But lately, going 'digital' has been the trend for the last decade. With a Wacom digital tablet, you draw your draft and then 'ink' it with the digital pen tools that just fill in with black where is needed. Of course, you can still scan your hand-drawn work, adapt it to the artboard in your screen and create a layer to ink it.

You can create your own manga using Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel Draw, the good ol' Freehand. It's a matter of adjusting the size of your paper, and whether you'd like to work with pixels or vectors.

But if there's an specific program designed to create professional manga and print it right away for submission, or export it to a digital format to publish it as an ebook, it's Manga Studio.

Manga Studio comes in two versions, Manga Studio Debut, for beginners and Manga Studio EX, for professionals or dedicated fans who know what they're doing. There's barely differences between them, just that the interface for one is easier than the other.

The most current version is the 4.0, and there's still no info on when version 5 will come out.

Curiosities: bishonen characters in manga and anime (2)

Bishonen characters can play both good and evil roles. Captain Aizen in Bleach can be considered an example of the latter (and if you read further the manga you will 100% agree with me),

Often their 'bishonen' quality is what adds to their mystery and mysticism, making them an encompassing character.

Yet at the same time they are aware of their beauty and use it as a weapon to deceive their enemies. No wonder samurais in ancient Japan wore lipstick and makeup to stun the enemy.

But bishonen is a term applied to those characters under 18. For a beautiful male character in his twenties or thirties (Aizen is seemingly in that age group??), the correct term would be 'bidanshi', meaning 'handsome man'.

Another classic example of a 'bishonen' character would be Shun from Saint Seiya:

(nosebleeds!)

Despite people understimating him during the course of the whole series, Shun proved that he was worthy of being an Athena Saint, if not one of the strongest around, just that he doesn't really like to fight.

Given the influence of the androgynous looks from Glam rock bands of the 70's and the 80's, the 'bishonen' archetype was consolidated as a pretty guy with long hair, big eyes of an unusual color, a slender, skinny physique, and feminine features, of course.


This is further proved in the Kurama character from Yu Yu Hakusho.

Bishonen characters are never afraid of being who they are, but rather embrace it, as they are basically males who embrace their feminine side, and in contrast it makes their masculinity stand out more, in my opinion.

Curiosities: Three lost scripts by Akira Kurosawa found!

Three lost scripts by the legendary Japanese filmmaker (The Seven Samurai, Dreams) have been found in different places and they all date from before he achieved international fame.

The Tokyograph reports that the movie script Kanokemaru no Hitobito was discovered at the Shinobu Hashimoto Memorial Hall in Ichikawa, Hyogo, Japan. The script was written by screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto, who was a collaborator of Kurosawa, based on an original idea by the director. The script was planned for a 1951 adaptation starring Toshiro Mifune (!!!!!), but the movie was never shot.

The script for Toho’s collaboratively directed 1946 film Asu wo Tsukuru Hitobito has been rediscovered. Since the film had multiple directors, Kurosawa refused to accept credit for the script during his lifetime.

Whereas a script for Kurosawa’s 1942 radio drama Youki na Koujou was discovered in Waseda University’s Tsubochi Memorial Theatre Museum. Kurosawa wrote the play while he was still working as an assistant director.

Curiosities: Bishonen characters in anime and popular culture (1)

'Bishonen' is the Japanese term for 'beautiful boy', meaning a guy that has more feminine than masculine features and is considered pretty by Japanese standards.

These guys in real life are often idols, actors or public figures with an overzealous female fandom.

In anime and manga, these are popular characters, known by their refined personality, or in some cases, a tough personality that serves as contrast.

This would be the case of actor Ken'ichi' Matsuyama, who played L Lawliet in the live action movies. He recently revealed to be gay, but still he has a great fandom worldwide, which is awesome.

One of the ultimate bishonen characters would be the protagonists of the various Final Fantasy series, Cloud.

And the list goes on, with even specific series full of bishonen characters, like Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge, known also as Wallflower or Perfect Girl Evolution.

What is a fujoshi?

(this is a continuation of the previous entry 'What are these 'neet', 'otaku', 'hikikomori' terms all about?

If you are a girl between 15-25 years of age and love seeing pretty boys kissing, and are obsessed with shonen-ai, ecchi and yaoi stories in general, then you are a 'fujoshi'.

But don't go bragging about it, though, if you ever go to Japan.

Fujoshi is a despective japanese term that means 'perverted' or 'rotten girl' that encourages or glorifies homosexual relationships between men for her own satisfaction. It also has the connotation of a 'fallen girl'.

But wait, wouldn't this term be applied to the majority of fangirls like us?

Probably, yes. ^_^

Older women that like this genre refer to themselves as 'kifujin', or 'ochofujin', meaning 'noble rotten woman' or 'Madame Butterfly'. This is because the word 'fujoshi' is an homophonous take on the word of the same sound that actually means 'fine, educated lady'.

Fujoshi enjoy imagining what it would be like if male characters from manga and anime, and occasionally real-life male performers as well, loved each other.

What are these 'neet', 'otaku', 'hikikomori' terms all about? (1)

The very rich popular Japanese culture has a lot to offer that it is quite a world in itself. Just like with the 'fanboy' or 'fangirl' culture going on worldwide, with generations of people that are obsessed with comics, Japan is not the exception with the thousands and thousands of self-appointed 'otakus' in every country.

While we know that 'otaku' is not precisely a good term to define yourself ('otaku' actually means someone who glorifies being at home and not going out anywhere, which is a despective term in Japan), other terms have surfaced to define alternative 'sub-cultures'.

What these 'sub-cultures' or 'urban tribes', have all in common is that they all reject the so-called 'normal' way of doing things.

In this world, we are expected to graduate high-school, get the best grades enough to go to a top college, graduate with some experience so you can find a job, escalate the corporate ladder, get married, have kids, have a lot of money at the end to buy Real Estate, etc.

With the current financial crisis and the constant increasing and asfixiating competitiveness in employment spots have made all these ideals almost unachievable, except for a 'cream of the crop' who actually manage to do it.

But what about the rest? What about those who feel they aren't good enough for this money-hungry-obsessed-my-dick-is-bigger-than-yours world?

Thus, aside from otakus, we have neets, fujoshis, hikikomoris, and the sort. This phenomena is not exclusive to Japan, but the use of these terms have spread worldwide.

For example, NEET was originally a term used in the UK by the government to denominate those who are "Not in Education, Employment or Training". Of course, this means people between 16 and 34 years of age who don't study, and don't work, they are maintained by welfare or live off their parents, while they dedicate to 'unproductive' activities, such as surfing on the web all day, playing videogames, reading comics, watching TV, anime, etc, and it is casually linked to the 'hikikomori' phenomena.

Curiosities special: Japanese supermodel confesses that she's a man

This piece of news is quite old, but given that it only came in Spanish for some reason, I decided to wait a bit, do some further research and it turns out that it's true. And then you wonder how Japanese mangakas get their  *Ranma 1/2* and *To-love-ru trouble* inspiration for stories from O_O

Her name is Kayo Satoh, she's 22 years old and you may probably have never heard of her, but in Japan she is the IT girl everywhere. She is the host of a videogame news TV show and a local top model. Her 'Lolita' and constant 'cosplay' image, due to her sweet and innocent traits make her the fantasy of Japanese men.

Haku from Naruto, anyone?? ^_^

The persistent rumors on social media about the truth on her gender identity forced her to admit that she is actually a man in a Japanese TV interview show.

Given the people's fascination with her 'idol' figure, the hosts of the show ignored what she was saying until she proceeded to explain that she comes from a rural town, that she had to change her name and that she didn't go through any surgical intervention at all to achieve her image, but purely make up and natural beauty.

The truth started to slowly sink in in the baffled audience and thus a national scandal was born, along with the debate over if transexuals should go through surgical intervention to achieve the gender they truly want of feel they are.

It's a shame since she's really pretty and the truth on her gender shouldn't interfere with her job. But we know how these things go...

A really weird glitch

I don't know what happened today, but I almost got a heart attack when I tried to access my blog and it appeared that it was deleted??? O_O

Just to find out after logging to my blogger account that it wasn't such and that my blog was alive, entirely intact.

What is going on?? Are they trying to pull an April Fool's joke in advanced or something?

Saint Seiya: is Kagaho of Bennu the previous encarnation of Ikki of Phoenix?

With the great success of The Lost Canvas, the prequel series of Saint Seiya with an original spin has continued to gather the excitement of fans, old and new alike.

There has been quite a controversy over the web on the matter of the coincidences and similarities between Kagaho and Ikki.

The imagery is obvious and speaks for itself:

Having almost the same armor, the same looks, their renegade and reckless attitude.

The author, Masami Kurumada, and the co-author of the Lost Canvas series, Shiori Teshirogi, have neither confirmed or denied if Kagaho is in fact, Ikki's previous life.The constelation of Bennu represents the Egyptian myth version of the Phoenix, the celestial star of Violence, need I say more??

But as we know, mangakas will always prefer to leave things open.

Bokkuko (tomboy) characters in anime

These types of characters can be quite common in some shonen manga. Bokkuko girls are basically tomboys that serve as sidekicks and can also play the role of the female heroine along with their hero counterpart.

They can be physically slim, with short hair, skinny and flat chested, yet also have particular skills that you would normally expect from their male counterpart. (Shonen manga can be a bit mysoginistic when it comes to delimiting specific roles by gender, so don't shoot the messenger here XD)

At least we know that these delimitations by gender are changing.

Good examples would be Tatsuki Arisawa from Bleach, or Tenten and Sakura from Naruto.

These type of characters have evolved into strong female characters that don't necessarilly have to be the less appealing, quite the contrary, in fact.

Look at Yuzuriha from Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas. In the original manga, she would have just been another side character as Marin and Shaina with little to almost no development. But she has a key role in helping her friends to achieve all the misions through Hades' Inferno.

Who is Tsugumi Ohba?: the possible origins of L Lawliet

It is believed that writer Tsugumi Ohba is no one other than Hiroshi Gamou, known by manga series such as Tottemo Luckyman, which had a popular anime in the 90's.

Another possibility is that it's Yuuko Asami, a Shonen Jump artist with titles such as Wild Half, Romancers and Jump Run. Given that Death Note was her first written manga, working with a pseudonym can be understandable.

And of course, there's also especulation on the possible idea that the L character is based on the physique and the personality of this mangaka, taking into account some elements such as:

-They use a pseudonym.
-Never been seen in public before.
-A snacks lover
-Thinking about things day and night.
-And the posture of sitting in a chair, hugging her (or his) knees.

In fact, he, (or she?) only communicates with the press through an avatar like this:

It's even hard to tell if it's a man or a woman.

Isn't this amusing? The fact that L could really exist in this world??? O_O

If she's actually a woman I can finally understand the whole yaoi KiraL going on XD