Otaku Links: If you’re reading this, I’m at Otakon!

Otaku Links

rainbowdashes

  • Did you go to Bronycon last weekend? I thought it was interesting that one congoer was doing an informal survey on the percentage of black bronies. I bet he’d have totally different results at Otakon.
  • I’ve been enjoying the gorgeous watercolors and bombastic rewritten personalities in Gundam: The Origin, a manga retelling of Mobile Suit Gundam. Reverse Thieves did a fascinating interview with its translator, Melissa Tanaka.
  • Anime Diet has been doing some insightful recaps of Watamote, capturing the tragedy behind the absurdity of Tomoko’s life. Here’s its recap on the raunchiest episode yet.
  • My friend and fellow journalist Jose San Mateo wrote about attending the first annual GaymerX convention.
  • WTF Yaoi Anatomy? This Tumblr may be safe for work, but you will never be able to erase this contorted art style from your eyes.

Photo by me at Otakon 2012’s brony cosplay meetup.

My schedule for Otakon 2013

Uncategorized

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With co-panelist Patches at Otakon 2012. Have you noticed that every year as I get busier, my Otakon photo looks more and more rushed?

There is no good reason for me to be THIS excited about Otakon. I’ve gone every year I’ve kept this blog. Here are my posts from 2012, 2011 and 2010.

And yet, here I am again barely able to fall asleep at night because the east coast’s largest anime convention is just around the corner. Seriously, there is so much to look forward to!

  • I’ll be covering the convention for Otaku USA and Crunchyroll News, which is a dream come true;
  • I’ll be meeting my colleague and fandom reporter extraordinaire Aja Romano in person for the first time;
  • I’ll be seeing countless friends and anibloggers that I almost never see except when a big con rolls around.

I’ve got a full schedule and I wholly intend to make an effort to vlog it all so I can share my Otakon adventures with you once I’m back home.

Interested in meeting up? I’m guessing these are the places I’ll be on Friday and Saturday:

Friday

  • 11:15 AM –  We Con, Therefore We Are: Fandom, Convergence and a Critical Look at the Modern Otaku. Because I can’t miss a Charles Dunbar panel.
  • 3 PM – A Study of Heroines: Compassion and Courage in Revolutionary Girl Utena and Madoka Magica. My new friend Katriel‘s panel.
  • 5:30 PM – Science in Anime. I went to something similar at Anime Boston and it was surprisingly enlightening!
  • 9 PM – Awesome Women in Anime. I look forward to seeing which characters the panelists pick to highlight.

Saturday

  • 10:15 AM – By Fans, For Fans: 20 Years of Holding On For Dear Life. Looking forward to this insider view of what running Otakon is like.
  • 11:15 AM – Anime in 15 Minutes or Less: Who Likes Short Shorts? Daryl Surat is such a big personality in aniblogging, so I’m looking forward to finally attending one of his panels.
  • 2:30 PM – Anime’s Online Expansion. Sounds like this one is going to raise a lot of the same questions I wondered about in my Daisuki post.

See something on the convention floor and think it should definitely go into a certain reporter’s convention recap? Just want to chat? The best way to reach me during Otakon is over Twitter! Send an @ or DM and I’ll be so happy to hear from you.

Everything I’ve written about journalism since 2009

Journalism

It’s not until disaster strikes that I realize just how long I’ve been blogging. After the Great Outage of August 2, in which Bluehost, HostGator, and a handful of other hosting sites went down, I spent a lot of time checking up on Otaku Journalist and making sure all was well.

I went back through the archives and as it turns out, I’ve been doling out journalism advice for nearly four years, since I was still in journalism school. The thing about a blog or any project that lasts this long is the early stuff starts to look ridiculous. There are so many things I wrote that I don’t even agree with anymore! But at the same time, a lot of these posts are things I still stand by years later.

Chances are you haven’t been here the whole time I’ve been blogging, so I’ve unearthed a few of my old favorites for you. Here are 15 of my favorite posts on journalism to date:

For students

Advice to a high school graduate – In which I share my unlikely career arc.

How to build up a writing career while you’re still in school – Building a portfolio, even if you don’t have any portfolio pieces yet!

What to do when you’re thinking about becoming a journalist – How to grow a network now so you can get paid later.

For amateurs

How to get hired as a journalist when you lack experience – The short answer: make yourself unforgettable.

Things nobody told me about becoming a freelancer – For one thing, being your own boss means paying taxes eight times a year!

When is it OK to write for free? – And when it’s essential you earn what you know you deserve.

On anime and fandom journalism

How serious is anime journalism? – You can tell I wrote this post fresh out of school. It reads like a term paper, but still raises some good points.

How to start a career in anime journalism – One of my most popular articles to date. I interviewed three leading geek journalists about their career arcs.

How to write anime reviews people actually want to read – If you’re wondering how the pros write critiques, I spilled it here.

Geeky new writers, here’s where to get started – Fandom sites that are looking for bloggers with talent and drive.

On convention reporting

Should journalists cosplay on the job? – Why I think being yourself leads to more authentic reporting.

How to be a model press attendee – I don’t usually share drama on my blog, but I wrote this one at 2 AM still fiery with rage.

How to get a press pass at an anime convention – Want to report on a con and attend it for free? Look here.

How to interview celebrities at a fandom convention – AKA how to act professional and not waste your most admired idol’s time.

When is it unprofessional for a reporter to act like a fan? – All about that time I met Antoine Dodson. And Chuck Testa. And Scumbag Steve. And, etc.

Otaku Links: Night Vale, shipping, and t-shirts

Otaku Links

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  • Like everyone else on Tumblr, I’ve recently discovered the Welcome to Night Vale podcast. So far it’s half creepy, half hilarious. Combined with an apparent slash relationship waaaaay later, I can see what the hype is about.
  • Probably one of the best link roundups in the aniblogosphere (besides Otaku Links, of course!) is Reference Resource Monday on Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. Their latest edition is here.
  • At Manga Therapy, Tony wrote about Mikasa Ackerman and whether her loyalty to Eren is obsessive or cute.
  • On r/anime, redditors share their most embarrassing stories about going through a “weeaboo phase.”

(Illustration by ~AznNerd on Deviantart.)

Do you think anime characters are sexy?

Anime, Fandom

free!

It began, like most of my conversations begin these days, with Free!. My sister, my husband and I were hanging out in the pool when I just had to bring it up.

“It’s an anime about really attractive boys in a swimming club,” I explained to my sister.

Now if you don’t know my sister, all you need to know is that while she is gorgeous and smart, she’s not into anime at all. Guess we can’t all be perfect. Kidding!

“Wait,” she said. “How can drawings be attractive?”

Right about then was when I drew a blank. Ever since Duo Maxwell in Gundam Wing, I’ve been attracted to pictures of 2D animated boys. I know I’m not the only one, (seriously, no fewer than 80 people stumbled upon Otaku Journalist this week by Googling “sex anime,”) but it is a little hard to explain to people who don’t spend all their time watching cartoons.

For the primer, nobody explains it better than Genshiken’s Madarame (the video gets to the heart of the matter around 2:40).

http://youtu.be/qezJcCIH4Jo

To me, the crux of the explanation is this: when it’s an anime targeted at adults, the characters are often designed to be sexually attractive. It’s the same way directors cast sexually attractive actors for blockbuster movies. The key difference being that actors eventually have to step out of character and go back to being regular people. Regular people who snore, fart, and on occasion, say things you disagree with. With anime, or any other drawn medium, that never has to happen.

There are people who claim to only be attracted to 2D men or women (most notably Madarame himself), but I don’t think most of us are like that. Sure I like Free!, but I also like real people, like say, this Free! cosplayer right here (although honestly, it’s a tad bit uncanny valley to see people halfway between anime and realism).

free_cosplay(Source: King x Mon Cosplayer)

To wrap up this incredibly embarrassing and weeaboo post, the whole reason some anime fans find drawings attractive is because they aren’t real. They’ll never go out of character, they’ll never do anything awkward or human. It’s just fantasy.

Anime fans, how do you explain your 2D attraction to the people in your life?