Author Archives: Jon

About Jon

Jon is a Japanese culture enthusiast, professional pervert and roleplaying fanatic who appreciates flexible gender identities. He enjoys science fiction, Gunpla, classical music and Red Stripe.

K-ON! Dub Cast Announced

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More news about Bandai’s upcoming K-ON! release! They’ve announced that the show’s English language dub will be handled by Bang Zoom! Entertainment, the studio responsible for dubbing both The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star. The role of Yui will be played by the prolific Stephanie Sheh, who played Mikuru in Haruhi and Akira in Lucky Star. Mio will be voiced by Cristina Vee, most famous for her fandubs of various anime songs on YouTube. Here is her rendition of Super Driver:

I must say, I’m a bit conflicted about these choices. Stephanie Sheh is an experienced voice actress, but her take on Mikuru was too high and squeaky for my liking. On the other hand, she did a GREAT job as Akira, so I honestly have no idea whether she’ll be good as Yui. As for Cristina Vee… she has an awesome singing voice, but little anime voice-acting experience. Is she really up to the challenge of playing Mio, K-ON!’s most popular character? Also, does this mean she’ll be dubbing K-ON!’s music into English?

More importantly, who will they get to dub Ritsu?

OVA Review: Black Rock Shooter

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Flaming eyeballs? There's a Visine for that.

In case you’re unfamiliar, Black Rock Shooter was originally a character designed by the Japanese artist Huke, which the band Supercell adapted into a wildly popular Hatsune Miku music video. The video itself doesn’t feature much plot; it’s just the titular protagonist travelling around a post-apocalyptic world, looking all emo and angsty. That means when Yutaka Yamamoto and Studio Ordet decided to make a full-length original video animation from this concept for their first independent project, they had their work cut out for them. Not only did they have to prove their little startup studio could produce quality anime, they had to create an entire universe and mythology for Black Rock Shooter from scratch.

So, did they succeed? Did Studio Ordet prove it could hold its own against the older, larger and better-funded anime studios? Sadly, no. This OVA was a disappointment on nearly every level. It’s a pity, since there’s a really interesting concept here. Unfortunately, it was dragged down by poor animation, badly paced storytelling and low production values.

Read more after the break.

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Bakacast Briefs – OneManga’s Doom

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First off, sorry for the lateness of this Bakacast episode. Since Dustin is on vacation this week, I got to try my hand at editing the podcast, and it took friggin’ FOREVER. On the plus side, I did get to pick the theme music this time around…

Anyways, this episode features a greatly expanded cast. Although Dustin is absent, I brought in Konata (aka Jeagle) and Shamisen (aka Larry) to fill his place. That means you’re getting twice as many bakas for the same low price!

As always, you can download it directly, subscribe to our RSS feed, or let iTunes do all the work for you.

We start off with a discussion about the demise of One Manga, as well as the new Seven Seas licenses. Then, after drooling over recently-announced sequel series to Avatar: The Last Airbender, we get into reviewing this week’s new anime.

And that’s pretty much it. See y’all next week!

Review: Occult Academy 3

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Show us those pearly whites!

After the first two episodes of Occult Academy blew me away, I was expecting big things from the third. In hindsight, perhaps this was foolish; many anime have great introductions, but falter a few episodes in. Was I setting my expectations too high? Or was I merely so confident in the creative talent behind Anime no Chikara that I thought they could do no wrong?

Perhaps I’m being a bit drastic; the third episode of Occult Academy certainly wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. It rounded out Fumiaki’s character wonderfully, and delivered more laughs than Seitokai Yakuindomo will ever manage. However, it barely added anything to the series’ mythos or storyline, other than the rather bland new character Mikaze. In fact, this Mary Sue romantic interest and her date with Fumiaki took up far too much of this episode’s runtime, and slowed the pacing to a crawl. The end result was an episode that, while still enjoyable, was nowhere near as good as the previous two.

Find out more after the break.

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The Four Laws of Moe

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Is this moe's true form?

This is a refined and expanded version of an editorial I originally wrote for Japanator. The original can be found here.

It seems one of the biggest problems in the ongoing moe debate is the lack of any concrete definition for the term “moe.” This has lead to all sorts of argument among otaku; some believe the term can be applied to any female character the viewer considers cute, while others argue it should be strictly limited to its original Japanese definition. Personally, I think the truth lies in between these two extremes. After all, language is defined by its usage, not by the opinions of a few crazed fanboys or some dusty old dictionary. Therefore, based on my own observations and research, I have created the Four Laws of Moe. I believe these laws lay out, in clear and concise detail, the exact parameters of moe and what traits a character must exhibit in order to be considered as such. Of course, these laws are merely a reflection of my own opinion; feel free to improve upon them, argue against them or even construct your own alternative theory. Whatever the case, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

Read more after the break!

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2D vs 3D: Schoolgirl Edition

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It seems there’s hope for you dummyheads after all! You chose 2D over 3D in last week’s debate. *sniff* I’m so proud!

This week is a no-holds-barred battle between sexy schoolgirls. Do you prefer your serafuku-clad seductress in two dimensions or three? Does it really matter, since your chances of scoring with either are essentially nonexistent? If you enjoy these kind of pictures, does that make you a social deviant? Is the sexualization of high-school students morally justifiable? Do you even care? WHY AM I ASKING SO MANY QUESTIONS?

[poll id=”14″]

Review: Occult Academy 1 & 2

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You are entering the world of Pumpkinhead!

Like my fellow editors here at Project Haruhi, I have been pretty disappointed by the new summer anime thus far. In my humble opinion, this season’s shows are either overrated, subpar or just outright horrible. Of course, I’ve experienced this kind of thing before. I always take solace in the fact that, just when things are looking darkest, a single great anime emerges from the shadows. Like a brilliant beam of light from the heavens, this one show drives back the darkness and brings hope to all the downtrodden, world-weary otaku.

This season, that show is Occult Academy.

Think I’m being hyperbolic? Find out more after the break!

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Announcing Project Haruhi’s First Anniversary Contest!

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One year ago today, Project Haruhi made the transition from generic Haruhi fansite to anime blog. Since then, we’ve expanded our focus from just Haruhi to anime in general, especially KyoAni’s works such as Lucky Star and K-ON!. However, many visitors to our site still believe us to be merely a Haruhi fansite. Since we have no plans to change our name, how can we let our readers know that we’re more than just Haruhi?

The solution is simple: we need a tagline.

Sadly, our staff isn’t very good at coming up with clever slogans. That’s why we’re turning to our loyal readers for help. We’d like for YOU to come up with a short, catchy tagline for us; something that lets visitors know we’re a fun, community-oriented anime blog dedicated to all things KyoAni.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a contest without a prize. Whoever submits the winning tagline will receive a $50 gift certificate to J-List.com, to spend on whatever you please! I recommend the Haruhi lemonade, but that’s just me.

Here are the contest rules:
1. If you are under 18 years of age, you must receive parental approval before entering this contest.
2. Submit your entry in the comments below. Remember, the tagline must be short, sweet and convey PH’s nature efficiently.
3. You may submit up to five taglines to the contest.
4. Entries with profanity or inappropriate content will be automatically disqualified, along with whoever submitted them.
5. Entries will be accepted until 11:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time on July 19th, one week from today. The winner will be announced a few days later.
6. The winner will receive one $50 J-List gift certificate, which can be delivered either electronically or by conventional mail.
7. Obviously, PH staff are forbidden from entering this contest.

Well, there you have it. Good luck!

2D vs 3D: Second Round

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Much to my surprise and chagrin, 3D was the clear victor of last week’s debate. Seriously, what the hell! You people call yourselves true otaku?  Shame on you!

Perhaps you’ll come to your senses for this week’s debate. Here are the contestants for round two! On the left we have a buxom blue-haired beauty, Shimei Ryomou of Ikkitousen. To the right is the lovely actress and gravure idol Rina Akiyama. May the sexiest woman win!

Cast your vote now!

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New K-ON!! OP and ED

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The latest episode of K-ON!! has brought with it an entirely new OP and ED, replacing the much-maligned Go! Go! Maniac and Listen!! with fresh songs and animation.

Utau yo Miracle

No, Thank You!

I’m not too keen on the new OP; it strikes me as bland and forgettable. As for the new ED, I think it has promise, but I’d like to hear the full song before passing final judgement. I’ll have to wait, though, since the singles don’t come out until August 4th.