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Anime in America

Miri Kinirone

Harmony Stone

Cole Screamo

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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS Hello our wonderful readers! This is OtakuCentral, and we’re on a mission to inform everyone about everything otaku! We are here to talk about anime, manga, games, and Japanese pop music. We will also give suggestions to the content in these sections, and make reviews about them. So get your OSTs playing and keep reading to learn about everything otaku- GO FANS!

TABLE-of-CONTENTS VOCALOID MMD Page

ANIME

Blood, Ninjas, and...Cutie Jutsu?

Page Censored!

Page FLCL Review Page

GAMES

Clash of the Gamers Page Designers: Wrath Of Ryan Page EXTRA: Soo desu nee, Sensei?

Page

Manga

Death Note Review Page

Miku Miku Dance

A discussion of MMD with Harmony Stone

By Miri Kogane

I

“

was experimenting with animation and I couldn’t really find any good animation programs that were my style, they were all cartoons,” said Harmony Stone, user of the 3-D animation dance program Miku Miku Dance (otherwise known as MMD). “I’ve seen people make things with this program, so I should go get a copy of it, and mess with it.”

Once she found the program MMD, it was as if a match was made somewhere in Nerd-Heaven. For her, the program has “behaved itself ” and that it has been good to her with the simplicity and ease of making videos.

“English or Japanese,” she said, “it’s pretty simple to figure out.”

The program uses uploaded 3-D models of “Vocaloids”, which are characters from a singing synthesizer program, to dance, sing, or do whatever the animator wishes, with manipulations over the course of time offered by the frames. You can use these characters to make something completely original with one of your own songs or choreography, make a copy of your favorite song with different choreography, or just make a spoof of any anime, manga, or song. The freedom to do what you wish, plus the fact that it’s Vocaloid, made it incredibly popular worldwide.

“Popularity because Vocaloids are a booming thing since, like 2008 and convenience because it’s really simple to use,” said Harmony, “there aren’t a super amount of commands, it makes everything very “clean” and “simple”.”

Many music videos are made with this program, some are professionally made, others… not so much.

Every Vocaloid fan has seen them; an example of a professional video is Honey Honey, but there are always fan made videos lurking about…

“Because the way it’s laid out,” said Harmony explaining how so many videos

are easy to create, “you can actually go minutes at a time… You don’t have to go frame, by frame, by frame, which makes it really simple.” MMD has the ability to automatically move the “bones” (or parts that can be moved or altered) between the frames. So if an arm is in one position in one frame, and the next frame it’s in another position, the program allows it to automatically move between the frames. There is no need to go by every frame changing everything little by little to make it move fluidly unlike clay animation.

Another reason why Miku Miku Dance is so popular because Vocaloid fans see the professionally made videos, but now they are able to make their own; not only can the fans make their own videos, but they can do it in a way that is comfortable to them, it also allows them to add their own “style” to their works.

“It’s just more appealing than drawing out an animation,” said Harmony.

An additional reason why MMD is so popular is that it all exists in your computer; there is no need to take your video camera and record your friends or professional dancers to get your dance moves known.

It can all be done on your computer.

The MMD program automatically keeps on record what parts have been registered to what frames, and it keeps it all so that you can play it.

“That would be awkward,” said Harmony “to take a video camera of your friends dancing.”

Like most users of programs, they have to deal with the common nuisance of viruses. Ever since Harmony started with MMD, she dealt with quite a few. The first time she got MMD, her computer was infected with the villainous Trojan virus, which destroyed her computer. The second

time, she learned to be more careful and got it from a website where people would report if the downloads are safe. Sadly, that computer got a virus too; that computer was nearly destroyed as well, but she got it fixed at a store, and it is working fine. She suggests that for new users to get the program from a reliable source, and scan it multiple times with superanti-malware. In her adventures about the internet, she found a safe website available for downloading Miku Miku Dance. The website is called VPVP, and offers multiple versions that any soon-to-be-animator can download.

“If you just look up “Miku Miku Dance VPVP”, you’ll find it,” said Harmony.

In Harmony’s, and other animator’s, opinions, MMD is defiantly a worthy program to learn. There may be flaws in it (like translation being off, or feet dragging behind the models when they are moved) but its simplicity and ability to be used for about anything suppresses that. You can do just about anything in the program.

“Have her jump into the air with Len, have her spin around the universe with Nyan Cat,” listed Harmony, describing the bizarre things anyone can do in the program, even children.

“It’s good for anyone, even children. I’ve seen little kids using it before.”

Therefore, the program is good for any person- small or grown- and is worthy to learn. As the program closes, it asks “There is a change point not preserved, do you realy quit?” “ Tr a n s l a tion, FAIL.” But overall, the program to Harmony Stone, is a WIN.

BLOOD...

NINJAS...

AND....

Cutie Justu?

“W

atch Naruto Shippuden!

Only on Disney XD!” This is what I heard for months and months, every other commercial on Disney Channel about Shippuden.

As an anime fan, of course I wanted to see it. I would have been willing to pay as much as I needed to watch the dubbed version of Naruto. That is, until I found out what had happened to it, and what Disney decided to mess with. After seeing every edit, every word change, and everwy bad pun online for myself, I regretted it and wondered what was going through Viz Media’s head when they sold it to Disney XD. The amount of edits made to the show changed the target audience from what it was originally intended, and fans in some countries couldn’t watch it along with America.

Naruto Shippuden, an anime aimed at male teenagers and pre-teens, will have blood and violence in it. But Disney treats it like their other children’s shows and edits out anything that wouldn’t be acceptable for their younger viewers. All forms of death has been completely edited out, as “kill” has been changed to “destroy” whenever it comes up, and any dead background characters had groaning sounds added to the scenes to imply that they were simply hurt, not dead. While I can understand that death

might be disturbing to some children, it shouldn’t have to be edited out of an anime just to keep young children from being scared. Disney also edits out most blood. Young boys, who are Disney XD’s target audience, see blood all the time when they scrape their knees and get cuts. Many episodes of Shippuden, such as episode four, only show little drops of blood, or some blood coming out of the mouth. The amount of blood shown would most likely not worry the majority of their viewers.

Unneeded edits being placed randomly throughout the show are things like orange flames turning into green ones, blood being removed without the cuts they come from disappearing with it, and scenes being cut while the audio remained. An example of thi s is episode 29, where a character being punched was visually cut out, but the punching sound still played.

Editing out nudity is understandable, but Disney changed the names of Justus to things like “Cutie Jutsu!” I can also understand why they would change any cuss words, as children probably shouldn’t be hearing things like that if they’re nine years old, but things like “blast it!” take out most of the seriousness of the anime. If that’s where the edited ended I’d be absolutely fine with it, but seeing as Disney even changed the ending and opening themes to the point they spoiled much of

the show, I find it unreasonable.

Secondly, Disney only shows Naruto Shippuden on Disney XD, which until recently wasn’t shown in the UK, leaving viewers disappointed and ranting on forums such as Animeforum. org.uk and the Viz.com forums. Many fans posts comments on online anime websites like Dubhappy.com saying how unhappy they are about not being able to watch it on TV. While now it’s released in other countries, a good amount actually, it is still only available through certain providers, leaving many Naruto fans searching the Internet for the dubbed version (which will, sadly, be the Disney XD version with pointless edits). personally don’t have Disney XD, and for the brief time I did have access to it I was glad I hadn’t spent my time and money trying to switch providers for that one channel.

“...Disney changed the names of Justus to things like “Cutie Jutsu!”...”

spent extra money for one cials made it no better then show they could have watched Cartoon Network, which is online or at a friend’s house. available on most providers Some fans on Dubhappy.com and has much more anime also say that the edits don’t then Disney XD could offer. ruin the show, and that it’s just Whether it was because Dis- a different way of watching ney XD needed more viewers the show. I’d prefer to watch or because no one else wanted the unedited version that has Naruto Shippuden, the deal orange fire instead of green, was made and it now it costs realistic fighting and not the many fans extra money to sudden disappearance of see a once good show. Adult blood, and dead characters being, well, dead. Simple “...orange flames turning things can change a show’s into green ones, blood being mood completely, and removed without the cuts Disney XD has successfully changed Naruto Shippuden they come from disappear- from a serious, fist-to-fist, ing with it...” action packed anime to a calmer, more drama-based show.

One thread on forumSwim, a more adult-oriented network that plays on the naruto.net, a French forum same channel as Cartoon Net- dedicated to Naruto, has work, shows anime all night multiple comments saying every Saturday.

Shows things like, “True, in recent such as Bleach and In- times, the episodes are inuyasha, which are simi- creasing garbage for me” and lar to Naruto and Naruto “there is no rhythm, is soft, it’s Shippuden, are shown on bland. In short you get bored.”

Adult Swim, so Shippuden (Translated from French). If would have gotten many more Viz Media tried to get more viewers of appropriate age if it viewers to Shippuden through had been aired on that network. Disney, they may have missed

Many people side that it would have been more with Disney and say that practical to make a deal with they’re glad they can at least Cartoon Network or Adult watch it on TV, but some of Swim like in the past, where those are the people that have the viewers are already there

with an established anime program up and running. The subtitled version, shown on the Viz website, has subtitles not only telling what the characters are saying, but also giving the viewers cultural notes throughout the show. The animation itself is uncut, meaning the blood, death, and fire are how they were in the Japanese show, not edited for small children. Overall, Disney has changed Naruto Shippuden just a little too much for many fans’ taste, and the subtitled version is more accurate if a fan wants to watch Shippuden’s intended version.

Credit to Animeol at Flickr.com

The numerous commer-

CE NS OR ED

Credit to Brenden450 on Sharenator

How American companies hackneyed, defaced, and otherwise ruined anime...

By Cole Screamo

H

ave you ever watched an anime episode and wondered why people seem to be smoking toothpicks? Or why Japanese people are eating sub sandwiches?

Well, this occurs because companies in America edit anime for distribution. They take a good series and hackney it, replacing items but leaving mistakes such as not editing out smoke when they remove cigarettes.

I believe it is wrong to edit anime before distributing it to a large audience. I believe this is wrong because it defeats the original author’s intent as well as pushes away many fans. Many fans would agree with me on this. However, many anime distributing companies disagree.

They believe they must edit it for various reasons, the most common being to sanitize it for younger children.

I believe editing anime is wrong because, as I said before, it defeats the intent of the original author who created the series. A common example of this exists in Dragon Ball Z an anime and manga series which was originally very long and violent (especially the former.) In the edited version, parts of episodes are cut from the story to tone down violence or shorten run time to allow for commercials. The uncut version, now available on DVD because of popular demand, the episodes run much longer and exist more numerously, feature more violence and occasional mild profanity. However, although

the uncut DVDs have been released, the televised version of the series still suffers brutal editing. Specifically, in the very first episode, a cigarette is edited out that was originally being smoked by the first human seen by one of the main antagonists. Also, in Dragon Ball Z Kai, the blood on Bardok’s face was painted over in the opening scene before it was shown on Nicktoons. I believe this is wrong because Akira Toriyama intended for the story to be gritty and violent, with a few lighthearted moments

“I believe editing Anime is wrong because... it defeats the intent of the original author”

thrown in, but after the editing, it plays with a few very brief fights and

mainly lightheartedness. The same can be said for a lot of series, such as Gundam, which was also edited due to violent battles between robots that stereotypically represent various powerful nations. Companies should not edit anime because it pushes away many fans. The companies clean up anime for younger children, but what about the older viewers?

They are left with a show for little kids that has numerous plot points removed, such as in “Sailor Moon”, where a homosexual relationship was completely removed in American distribution and the characters were changed from lovers to cousins, with any scene that conflicted with the new relationship deleted. Fans of the anime became outraged and sales plummeted. Another form would exist in changing items to fit American culture, such as in Pokemon, where an onigiri (rice ball) was changed to a submarine sandwich in one episode.

Instances such as this one anger fans of Japanese culture. My opposition in this debate, mainly being parents and companies such as 4Kids Animation would say that anime needs to be modified to make it more acceptable for American culture. Anime series such as Hetalia Axis Powers (a series where each character represents a country and are all based on stereotypes) are deemed too offensive by these groups and should be edited.

They also want to protect children from violent and sexual content.

I believe that they are wrongbecause they are being hypocritical,

In America’s edited version of Pokemon, an onigiri (right) is changed to a sub sandwich (left).

A hexagram is removed in the edited version of Yu-GiOh! Duel Monsters (left) and is not edited (right).

Credit to Dragon Ball Wiki

editing anime for children, while at the same time movies play that offend many more people. Parents rant about movies such as Superbad and Knocked Up saying they are disgusting and vulgar, but these movies aren’t edited at all. I believe that companies should proceed such as Cartoon Network has by showing uncut anime on Adult Swim at night, when most children are asleep.As for you, my dear reader, I urge you to help by not contributing in any way to companies that edit anime for distribution. This includes shortening the opening and ending animations, as well as removing main content in any way, shape, or form.

One day, we will prevail against these companies if we boycott them.

Credits to Wikipedia

Notable Offenders

Blood on Bardok’s face is removed in Dragon Ball Z Kai on Nicktoons (left) and unedited (right).

Furi Kuri GothicAlcemest.com

Studio: Gainax, Production I.G. Genre: Science Fiction, Comedy, Mecha License: Madman Entertainment, Funimation Entertainment, MVM Films Year: 2000 Episodes: 6

Story: 7/10

Unlike most anime, Furi Kuri (FLCL) has almost no noticeable plot at first. Young Naota Nandaba is a bored middle school kid, with nothing interesting in his town. The story quickly changes when Haruko Haruhara runs him over with her Vespa, gives him mouth to mouth, and then hits him with her Bass Guitar. The show is further changed when Naota comes home to see Haruko living with him as a maid and a mysterious bump on his head. Soon, the viewer Naoto in one of his famous scenes is thrown into one chaotic event after another. Robots come out of human skulls, mechanic dogs eat the town, and a giant iron attempts to iron out the wrinkles. Despite the insanity packed tightly into six short episodes, FLCL has true meaning about society and life that most anime do not cover.

Animation: 6/10

Animation is not one of FLCL’s strong spots. At times, its amazing scenery and detail, but then it suddenly switched into a quickly-made cartoonish style. Two manga scenes are in the series, which are the fastest-paced and most chaotic of the entire show. The camera view switches from panel to panel at a difficult pace to follow, but never once does it change styles. These scenes show detail that almost makes up for the random style changes throughout the anime.

OST: 10/10

The OST in Furi Kuri is, simply put, fantastic. Hard Rock plays throughout appropriate scenes, always bringing adrenaline and excitement to both the characters and the viewers. Other times though, soft, calming music plays to bring about the seriousness, or something close to seriousness, of conversations. The music does not dominate the anime; it blends with the narrations, dialog, and sound effects. It’s well thought out and original.

Overall: 8/10

Furi Kuri is a fast-paced, insane anime that requires multiple viewings to hear every word, and even more to understand the true depth of it. The awkward camera angle and details make it difficult to watch, but it also makes it addicting. Perfect plot…ish... sequence, especially considering it’s only six episodes long, with an

obvious beginning and a wonderful climax its fans will always remember.

Recommendation:

Furi Kuri is recommended for anyone. Though it does have a few perverted moments, it’s generally safe. It’s a great anime to watch if you’re looking for a break from classic Action or Mecha. It brings a new style it’s fans will defiantly enjoy.

Clash GAMERS of the

Games produced in other countries may get lost in the production process due to companies selfishness...

By: Miri Kogane

x

C

ountries release games to other countries; this is a common fact throughout the “gaming universe”. Throughout America, Japanese games are rather popular. In fact, you might have possibly played Mario, Okami, Puyo Pop Fever, Legend of Zelda series, Kingdom Hearts series, Final Fantasy series, Pokémon series, and the Fatal Frame series. Companies that produce these games have a lot of work to do in order to release these games into other countries.

It is quite common that companies will not go through what is usually a several years’ long process if it is determined that said companies will not receive enough profits; it has occurred in the past that companies will even halt exportation projects, just for the sheer amount of money they will receive. Question is, how do the companies always know if the game will be successful or not in a new area? Do they know in some mysterious way, or is it just a bet with numbers?

The answer to the question that boggles most fans minds is that the companies do not always know that a certain game will be successful or not; the companies do make a bet with numbers, simply- they are predicting the outcome with numbers and statistics to see which would be the best option. Usually, game producers will have numbers of things such as number of copies sold in an area, what that area tends to buy the most- or the area’s “tastes” towards certain games, and other such predictions of the like.

This helps a company’s prediction of how well the game is received, and will certainly decide whether or not production should happen, but these predictions were occasionally

proven false numerous times before.

Before I continue, I need to explain the production process. It is not as easy as it sounds.

If a game is being produced to another country, then things really do get complicated. Languages are a big part of it, and also is programming. For the languages, producers have to translate the language to a new one, find new voice actors that can speak said language, reedit the audio, and make sure all the audio runs close to flawless. Depending on the area, the games also have to be reprogrammed to fit the Regions. I don’t mean “Regions” as areas, but the ones that separate the electronics part of this world in two. Region 1 and Region 2 are common terms for eastern and western hemispheres (respectively) and sadly, Region 2 games will not work on Region 1 consoles; for Region 1 and Region 2 have different programming. This would need to be fixed if a game from Japan was going to be produced in America, and is reprogrammed. The production process is often expensive,

copies of this game, thus proving that a county’s taste is not always true. American games usually don’t include cruel rituals, harmful spirits, creepy places, or exorcism either, but a Japanese company, Tecmo, released a series including all this in America anyways.

This game series is the “best received horror game to date”, Fatal Frame (known as Project Zero in New Zealand and Europe, and Zero 零 in Japan). These games often have an abnormally cruel ritual that results in what is called, the “repentance”; the repentance is where spirits (usually from some form of “Hell”) come out and the “sacrifice” leads them back, and kills all who dare enter the cursed area. You play as a young girl (occasionally a guy) who goes to the cursed place on a quest, and becomes trapped there.

The place is full of evil spirits that wish to do you harm, and your only protection is the mysterious Camera Obscura. Eventually you find clues about why this calamity has occurred, and towards the end, you have to “undo” the damage. This

...companies do not always know that a certain game will be successful... and takes a lot of time to complete.

Continuing on, companies’ predictions with video games have been proven false. For example, Japan’s “tastes” towards games do not include violent games in the mix, but when Grand Theft Auto (the famous game in Liberty City that deals with violence, stealing, and numerous weapons) was sold in Japan, and did surprisingly well.

Grand Theft Auto sold over 400,000

unique game series has attracted fans all over the world into playing it, me included. In America, there are only three games from the series sold here, while in Japan there are four games, a spin-off, and also a remake. Why is this so? Because companies like Tecmo (and Grasshopper Manufacture, who helped produce the fourth game) decided that the game will do poorly in areas that other parts of the series were sold.

The fourth game in this series is known as Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse and was due to release in America sometime in 2008. As I write this, it is 2011, and still no FF IV. With some research why this happened, I found that a game I have been hoping to play since 6th or 7th grade was not to be released at all, even though previous research said it would be.

I remember finding the information that changed my gaming life in 6th grade, and nearly running to tell my parents about the new game. But now, it has changed to more a sense of denial to what I thought would be a great game, especially because it was for the Wii and not the traditional PS2 console.

I thought “why would this company pretty much lie to fans of the world? They said they were going to release it here, and then changed their minds. Other fans must be outraged with this as well”. What seriously boggles my mind about this though after my searching, is that it was decided that production should not continue in an area where fans really do exist, and to where companies would gain more profits, even possibly more fans.

“Why would they do such a thing?”

After all this in my past few years of life, I came up with a solution that will solve this problem that keeps coming back to haunt us. After mistakes such as the Final Fantasy release confusion between America and Japan (which lead to changing of titles and order of the games), the wrongly predicted violent games and their success (Grand Theft Auto), and the continuation of popular series being cut off (Fatal Frame), I noticed common things that made this happen. Companies

predicting the wrong things about video games and their success, and using those predictions to decide whether or not the game should go through the production process or not. A simple remedy would be for companies to do more research on the area that they plan on releasing the game to, and for them to research the “fan bases” of said area; also fans who were hoping for the game and were denied it, or fans who were hoping to play it, just let the companies know in a nonviolent, strongly worded letter. It may not seem like much, but if companies find out that there is a fan base in the area that will cause them to make more profit or gain more fans, the more likely they will produce the game. So in other words, companies and fans gain what they want, and become satisfied. I say that this kind of deal is a winwin, for both fans and companies.

x

The cover of Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse. Otherwise known as the game that was not released in America.

Grand Theft Auto, the game that went against the predictions of Japans’ “tastes”.

The cover of one of the Final Fantasy games. These are the ones where the series order got altered with release in American from Japan.

Credit to Fhoop on Deviant Art

Wrath Of Ryan

M

Credit to totalwallpapers.com

any fun and entertaining Darksiders, you can see the simivideo games are released larities.” In video game design, his every month, and even favorite part of the job is interactmore during the holiday season and ing with his colleagues. He says “it’s summer. But few people know ex- rare that you can have a job where actly what goes in to making a video you know you’re working with peogame. Meet Ryan Stefanelli, produc- ple who have similar interests.” Eser for Darksiders 2 by Vigil Games, pecially since his office is set up in who has the answer. The video pods of eight people, he gets to talk game industry is thriving, and is a a lot with his partners about gaming. great industry to get into if one en- But what does he use to make these joys gaming. However, since many games? He says his company has it’s people are interested in this line of own game engine, Watch Tower, as work, one must be exemplary to make the cut.

Mr. Stefanelli is the cofounder of Vigil Games, a company based in northwest Austin, and later bought by THQ. He feels he is very lucky that he can work in a career he enjoys.“When I first started thinking about what it was I wanted to do I thought a lot of people don’t get to pick what they love and are unhappy for it, so I thought about makA promotional picture for Darksiders. ing that [what I loved] my career choice, and that was video well as 3-D Studio Max to prototype games.”Darksiders is a 2010 video levels, Adobe Illustrator and Photogame from Vigil Games where the shop, Painter, and C++ for programplayer plays as War, a horseman of ming. He has many favorite video the apocalypse. The game is a hack games, these are “Zelda: Ocarina and slash/action-adventure game of Time, the original Super Mario, fort he Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and Halflife 1 and 2, the new game DarkPC. According to Mr. Stefanelli, “We souls, Rachet and Clank, Metroid took influence from a lot of different Prime, and Super Metroid.” “Darkgenres, our biggest influence was the siders was very, very difficult [to Legend of Zelda series. If you play design],” he said, “usually you start

with something that already exists, such as a famous character or [game] engine, but we started from scratch, with a new team, tech and character, didn’t know what it would be about because the franchise didn’t exist.”

Finally, for people looking to get into the gaming industry, he said “There’s a lot of education, such as SMU with the guild hall, but the people who get jobs are the ones who compare their work to other games, not what their teachers tell them to do. And you can’t try to be an artist, designer, and programmer, and the studios don’t care as much about your education as your portfolio, you have to work your butt off, putting in more effort than the teacher requires.”

Soo desu nee, Sensei?

By: Harmony Stone

A

typical Japanese class doesn’t normally start with Japanese pop music, friendly teasing, and jokes galore, but this is how the average class starts for David Shimizu. While he gets the class warm up on the board, David, or “Shimizu-sensei,” often plays music from Japanese pop artists and talks with students. However, it is not all fun and games in Shimizu-sensei’s class. Teaching a completely different writing system and culture is what he does every day as the LASA Japanese teacher.

“It’s very dissimilar to English,” said Sensei. “Its just so alien.

I try to use images to help students learn something alien to them.”

When Shimizu-sensei decided to teach Japanese, it was mainly to get a job in Japan. Now, he enjoys seeing his students learn and improve in Japanese. Of course, his students have to learn three different writing systems, along with meanings and pronunciation. To help his students

learn, David often makes jokes know everything about. Even about words, or gives his students Shimizu-sensei himself has trouways to connect and memorize ble remembering some Kanji. them. For certain Hiragana charac- David said, “The complexity…plus ters, he makes silly connections and there’s a lot, considering there’s, drawings that stick with students like, twenty thousand of them. I just and help them keep the characters try to explain it as simply as possistrait such as “no smoking sign” for ble, then give plenty of repetition.” the character “no,” and, “a net” for the character “ne,” which is helpful because the words have the Hiragana sounds in them. He uses “rubies” for “ru” and “rubies rolled away” for “ro”, because the two look almost identical to each other. He also tells funny stories to help remember vocabulary words, such as the time his daughter mixed up “hot” and “atsui”, which mean the same thing, and said “hotsui!” He uses the same technique for teaching Katakana, a writing system used for foreign words. Students generally have an easier time with Katakana, though.

“Katakana tends to be eas- To help his students memier, they’re already familiar with orize kanji, he not only uses fun the shapes. But it’s so infrequent jokes and word plays, but repetithey don’t tion. Repetition helps with longretain it.” term memory of words and sym bols, which is needed for Japanese, F r e - especially Kanji, which can have a quent or symbol almost identical to another i n f r e - and mean different things. With q u e n t , Hiragana and Katakana, a coms t u d e n t s mon mix up is “se” and “sa”. “Se” in in his class Hiragana is very similar to “sa” in eventually Katakana, so the two can become get past mixed up easily. “Ru” and “ro” in Katakana Hiragana look very similar as well. and go on The writing systems aren’t all Sento Kanji, sei teaches though. After warma writing ups, the class goes through the s y s t e m customary opening greetings, even their “Kiritsu, Kyotsuke, Rei. t e a c h e r Chakuseki.” Students are d o e s n ’ t corrected if they do

do not bow correctly, and are required to raise their hands before asking a question.

Shimizu-sensei keeps his classroom as traditional as possible, yet still lightly teases his students with jibes to their height, jokes about classes, and tells random stories during class. Despite his fun in the classroom, David still wants to keep his room similar to that of a Japanese classroom.

“The whole point of speaking a language is to speak with and interact with people from that country.” He said.

Though this is a lot of work, and is shown by Shimizusensei’s cluttered desk and constant busyness, he isn’t always the only one teaching. If there’s someone studying Japanese at a nearby university, Sensei may have a student teacher to help him in his work. When he does, he often asks them, along with more advanced students, to help him prepare for other classes, or teach classes completely. Although he jokes about his student teacher being “part slave”, the two can normally be seen eating with students during lunch and talking about the latest Japanese music or events.

Even though Shimizu-sensei teaches Japanese, and has been to Japan many times, he does not consider himself flu ent in the language. Fluent is…completely bilingual. You can say anything without any trouble. I’m ‘advanced’.”

Two students of Shimizu-Sensei, Annie and Testa, have been with David for over 3 years. Annie has had his class for five, and Testa for three.

“He’s a lot of fun,” said Testa “He’s defiantly not normal, but I think I’ve learned a lot from him.” Said Annie.

Both of them learned Katakana in his class, and neither of them enjoyed it.

“I remember I hated it. I remember thinking it was so stupid,” Annie said.

However, they agree that his jokes and tricks to remember them helped them a lot.

“It made me laugh. It really does help you remember. It gets to the point where you can just read it.” Testa said.

Both students feel close to David, and want to visit him after they graduate.

“We exchanged emails. We’re Biffles!” Annie said.

Annie and Testa are now the leaders of Japan club, hosted in the Japanese room, and the leaders of Japan Bowl, a completion in their area.

“The Japanese room is like my home,” said

Though David never went to school to learn Annie.

Japanese, he enjoys teaching it to his students and watching them grow in the language. A few of his students are near or at his “advanced” level, and sometimes correct their teacher if he says something wrong.

During lunch and before school, Sensei will talk with students and the student teacher about anime, music, Japanese idols (most commonly Nozomi Sasaki), and answer questions his students may have. While he can be seen talking with his students, some of his classes are a bit too hy per for him. He generally stays out of the way when they jump around Testa(LEFT) and Annie(RIGHT) doing a during lunch, but at times he joins in the madness. traditional japanese pose.

“I just enjoy it.” He said.

Information: Death Note is a manga series illustrated by Takeshi Obata and written by Tsugumi Ohba. It is twelve volumes long and licensed by Shonen Jump. It was originally published from December 2003 to May 2006.

Story :10/10 The story is about a straight-A honors student who finds a notebook that can kill people, and uses it to try to bring justice to the world and become a new god. Meanwhile, a world-renowned detective tries to catch him.

Art:10/10 The art is great, especially the drawing’s of the shinigami Ryuk, and there is much attention to detail.

The seemingly unimportant things are still given depth and volume.

Readability:6/10 Death note is quite wordy, but this is necessary due to it’s extensive and complicated plot. Not an easy read, by any means, but still great. Some of the chapeters can get a little confusing.

Characters:10/10 Amazing. The characters are extremely well thought out and are given much depth.

Entertainment:10/10 Awesome! This series is so entertaining and you will be on the edge of your seat the entire time.

Credit to Lucy Loves Fully Booked on Blogspot

Overall: 9/10

HOW OTAKU ARE YOU?

I like to….

A) Pair up my favourite characters regardless of gender B) Watch anime with a lot of action and/or robots C) Draw like my favourite romance manga D) Figure out the meanings of characters’ words E) ALL OF THE ABOVE! My favourite manga makes me….

A) Blush B) Excited C) Happily surprised D) Intrigued E) It makes me everything in every way!

I mostly play…

A) Family-romance Sims B) First person shooters or battle games C) Story games with handsome/pretty leads D) Mystery and puzzle games E) I love most games When (if) I cosplay…

A) I cross dress B) I make my costume EXTREME! C) I wear a simple school uniform D) I wear something inconspicuous E) I mix everything into one big cosplay and win a contest!

Anime is…

A) A way to release inner passions B) Something to be exciting C) Stories of love and pain, friendship and hope….

D) A way to increase my deductive skills E) Life.

Mostly A:

You’re a Yaoi/Yuri Otaku! You enjoy watching yaoi and yuri and let you’re inner fan out!

Mostly B:

You’re an Action/Mecha Otaku! You like watching fast-paced, hardcore anime and reading shonen!

Mostly C:

You’re a Shojo Otaku! You enjoy drama’s and love, with every day life thrown in.

Mostly D:

You’re a Mystery Otaku! You enjoy anime with a lot of twists and manga with detectives.

Mostly E:

You’re an Obsessive Otaku! You enjoy...everything. A little too much.