Christmas gifts for anime fans, 2015 edition

Anime

The good side of waiting this long to put out my holiday gift guide is that I was able to glean ideas from other people’s. I loved Chic Pixel’s geeky guide, and don’t get me started on Anime News Network’s wacky picks.

It all comes down to this: the anime fan in your life already knows where to get the anime DVDs and Blu-Rays she wants, so unless she asks for it, I’d buy anime fans things other than anime itself, but which directly relate.

These are my twelve picks for the anime fan, otaku, or Japanophile on your holiday list. As always, Amazon links are affiliate links, all other links are not. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Be sure to check out my gift guides for anime fans for 2014 and 2013, too!

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1. Space Case. My logo designer Ben Huber made this slick Space Dandy-inspired art for your laptop case. $20, society6.com.

2. All-Access Pass. Give a month of Crunchyroll streaming in high definition and no ads for the cost of a cup of coffee. $6.95, crunchyroll.com

3. Sushi Pouf. A massive foam sushi roll for your favorite Japanophile’s living room. Also comes in California roll style. $79.95, Sushi Style

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4. Ninja Dress. Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke never looked so cute as in this mini pattern, complete with ninja stars. $49, Lace and Lore

5. Poké-tote. Available in both Gyarados and ghost trio styles, these bags merge pop culture with traditional Japanese art styles. $28-30, Anime Trash Swag

6. Feline ‘phones. These cat-ear headphones look like something an anime character would wear, and now they can be on your head. $150, amazon.com

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7. Kiki Candle. This Ghibli-inspired candle smells like “warm ocean breeze, fresh bread and a hint of sweet pastries.” Yum! $15.49, Old Glow Candles on Etsy

8. Medicine Seller Model. This Mononoke figure doesn’t come out until May, but this design is so richly elegant, it might be worth the wait. $130, amazon.com

9. Robo-Bear. My pick for anyone interested in getting into Gunpla building: a quick and easy take on Gundam’s cutest suit. In red, yellow, blue, or pink. $6, amazon.com

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10. Snack Scroll. Keep all your Japanese dishes straight with this handy art poster that started as a wildly successful Kickstarter. $29, jfoodie.com

11. Cute Coloring Book. Get in on the stress-relief coloring book trend with this distinctly anime-fan oriented take, Shades of Kawaii. $7, amazon.com

12. Pocky Pack. Middle school me would have had a heart attack in a good way. Embrace the stereotype with practically every Pocky flavor. $20, amazon.com

See also:

Otaku Links: Study, study, study

Otaku Links

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OK, so I haven’t been that great of a blogger lately, but I have a great reason. I’ve been studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, N5 level, which I take this Sunday! I haven’t studied this hard for anything since college, but I’m really hoping to pass and have a quantified level of conversational proficiency before my 2016 trip to Japan.

Fortunately, I have great readers who have sent me some awesome links, even if I wasn’t searching for as many as I usually do. On to those:

  • All about yoshoku, Japan’s distinctly Japanese take on “Western food” like hamberg steak and omurice. Link courtesy of my classmate, Henry, who also takes the N5 on Sunday.
  • By the way, my favorite place to find yoshoku recipes is Cooking With Dog, the YouTube channel of poodle named Francis (and his mysterious chef owner). I’ve made their omurice episode a dozen times now, and I think I’ve plugged this link at least ten times since I started this blog.
  • Looks like veteran otaku Ed Sizemore found the first hug pillow in an American magazine. Like cosplay, some of the things we relate to Japanese anime fandom have surprisingly familiar origins.
  • Tezuka’s masterpieces weren’t really supposed to be art. They were only supposed to sell toys. Anime’s Media Mix is a book about anime’s unsettling relationship with commerce that I just discovered through my friend Steve’s book review.

Photo by mspxl

How writing a book didn’t change my life

Journalism, Writing

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This morning I got a text from my little sister. “Look what I found” she wrote, along with a picture of her at Barnes & Noble, holding my book Cosplay: The Fantasy World of Role Play.

My little sister isn’t the first person to text, tweet, or Instagram me a photo of my book. For a few months now I’ve been hearing from readers in New York, Miami, San Francisco, and here in DC as they stumble on my book at their local Barnes & Noble.

It’s been a year since I originally documented the process of writing Cosplay in seven weeks last November, and I wanted to give you an update on how everything is going.

The verdict: being traditionally published hasn’t changed my life in the slightest.

First of all, I’ve been out of the loop for most of the big moments. I wasn’t notified when it went on sale. I wrote the book for Carlton Limited, a publisher in London, so the book came out first in the United Kingdom, in May 2015. I was invited to do a book signing at London Comic Con in May if I “happened to be in London” that week, as the publisher certainly wasn’t going to pay for one small time author’s transatlantic flight.

Later, Carlton sold the U.S. rights to Sterling Publishing, which brought it here in summer without me having to exchange so much as an email with them. I didn’t know the book was on shelves until this fall, and by then it was already in the bargain bin, marked down from $20 to about $10, and while it hurts my pride a little, that’s probably a far more reasonable price for a coffee table book that only contains 10,000 words.

Second, I didn’t make a lot of money. If you are planning to buy (or have already bought) Cosplay, that’s awesome! It makes me feel really good. But that’s all it does—I will not make a penny off of that sale. When I signed a contract to write the book, I gave up all rights in exchange for a few thousand dollars up front—which I’ve already spent on bills and stuff. (Meanwhile, I continue to make money every month with my self-published books.)

My publisher treated me well and I’m grateful for the opportunity, but here’s where I say: if you get a chance to write a traditionally published book, maybe you should consider before you agree to this. In my case, it didn’t really matter. The bargain-bin pricing indicates that the book probably isn’t selling well anyway (my guess? The kind of people who are into cosplay are already getting their information digitally) and since I wasn’t the one to select the photos, I only did a portion of the work to make this book a reality.

Third, I am not better known for being a published author. I don’t know the exact sales numbers, but it’s easy to guess that more people have read my articles on Forbes than have purchased my book, since if more than 100k people had bought the book, it would be a New York Times bestseller, not in the bargain bin.

I am not trying to dissuade others from getting book deals. In fact, I am in the first steps of negotiating another one! However, I am trying to dispel the myth that writing a book will necessarily “change your life,” the way I always dreamed when I was a teenager. I may have once glamorized book writing as somehow different and more magical than other kinds of work, but it’s just like any other job—it’s tough, it’s mercurial, and it will sometimes disappoint you. That’s why you have to really believe in what you’re doing each time you sit down to write.

A year after writing Cosplay: The Fantasy World of Role Play, I’m not rich or famous and you won’t see me autographing this at your local bookstore, but I’m really glad for the experience. It took the hard work of book writing off of its pedestal once and for all. It taught me to write for the sake of writing, not for any perceived side effects that may or may not happen. It taught me that even when the book doesn’t change my life, the feeling of a job well done and the acknowledgement of my family and friends is really all that I needed.

How the Otaku Journalist became a web developer

Careers, Journalism

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On my second day at the office, I decided to tidy up my cubicle.

Into the trash went the half-used Chapsticks; into the recycling went the cryptic scrap paper scrawls. I found a full crate of beer under the desk and gifted it to a coworker. Into the newly cleared space I put my Kuroneko and Elsie nendoroids and my pink office stationery. A small, bright oasis in the monitor-lit cave we call the Web Tech Team.

For the first time in five years, I am working at an office. I got a part time job as a Web developer for a local think tank. I couldn’t tell you in depth about the think tank’s political views, but just get me started on their cutting-edge development environment. This is a team of WordPress devotees who’ve mastered many open-source softwares I used to cover as a technology reporter, but have always wanted to learn more about.

All week, as I made my short commute to work for four and five-hour snippets, I wondered how I was going to tell Otaku Journalist readers about this. In many subtle ways, I’ve considered cubicle work as the antithesis to my career plan, and now here I am again. I thought it was office life that I despised at 24; maybe it was just the work I was doing that I didn’t enjoy. I’ve made some hard realizations, like maybe I gave up too easily before. Like maybe there are a lot of different ways to be fulfilled in your career, and not all of them are sitting at home in pajamas.

Because actually, I am really enjoying this job. I found out about it offhand from a friend I met on the anime convention circuit, and submitted my application because I love to interview for jobs. (Who doesn’t love to sit and talk about how great they are?) I’ve done this several times, where I go to an interview just to try on a new life, only to decide my freelance life is better. But this one, I couldn’t turn down because it didn’t make me give anything up. I’ve been a little low on work, so a new part time gig will let me continue to work with my existing journalism clients while honing my existing developer skills and picking up some totally new ones, too.

In my first week, I documented detailed walk-throughs of every software I installed and used in the Web Tech Wiki; ravenous for more. My development process is blunted by years of working alone, and even as a journalist whose job it was to discover and report on new technologies, I’ve become set in my own processes. Performing familiar tasks in an unfamiliar way feels a little like going back to college. Everything is a learning experience. The first thing I noticed when I came on board is that there wasn’t really a protocol for how to install software and adapt it to the company’s unique legacy development environment. I couldn’t exactly Google it. So I ask and I try and fail and try and succeed, and I write down absolutely everything.

At first, coworkers asked me why a journalist like me wanted this job. But to me, it’s easy to see the parallel between this type of work and niche reporting. I assess my audience—this company. I write my documentation with their needs and skill levels in mind. I write basic explanations like “Why do we use this software?” for people higher up who may re-evaluate our development process. I write brisk troubleshooting workflows for colleagues. Even when I’m writing a computer program, it’s all about the audience. The function has to solve the exact problem the client has, in a way I can explain to him without bogging him down with complexities. The syntax has to match the programming style guide so other developers can instantly grasp what it’s about, and add their own additions for years to come. Web development, like journalism, is about the people it serves.

Throughout the six years I have blogged at Otaku Journalist, I have had a lot of different roles aside from journalist. Student, intern, college professor, traditional author, self-published author, Web designer, graphic designer, anime con volunteer. It’s odd that this is the first role to really make me question my identity. I’ve always instructed readers to create a career niche for themselves that they won’t grow out of—so what do I do now that I have?

When I was 11, I wrote in my diary that, when I grew up, I wanted to be either a writer or a computer programmer. “Why not both?” my adult self replies. While this is an expansion of the specific niche I’ve previously shared with the world on this blog, my old diary reminds me that it’s who I’ve been all along. Only my narrative has changed.

Photo via Unsplash

Otaku Links: Number four will shock you!

Otaku Links

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  • If you’re getting a head start on your holiday shopping, check out Chic Pixel’s ultimate holiday gift guide, full of great ideas for somebody who loves all things anime. Also, I checked the Otaku Journalist 2013 and 2014 holiday gift guides, and most of the links still work!
  • I also really like Isaac Akers’ response to it in his Crunchyroll column, and not only because he quotes me! We can all follow Isaac’s lead and not take Read’s article personally. This is a great example of how most journalists don’t get to write their own headlines. Read’s article is really about how some people with cartoon avatars say mean things, but the title is far more inflaming because that’s what makes people click! And you did, didn’t you? We get mad at news organizations for implementing journalism strategies that work.
  • The cost of a full body fursuit is A LOT, the Billfold investigates. No wonder dedicated furries wear their suits even at conventions in the height of summer. Got to get your money’s worth.
  • The Secret of One Punch Man’s Success. After Iron-Blooded Orphans, this is my favorite show airing this season for many of the reasons outlined in this article, from its powerful action sequences to its detailed (and apparently painstaking) animation. I’ve already ordered the Saitama Nendoroid for my desk.
  • When Zac asked me if I was cool marathoning 25 episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam in four days so I could write a review, my answer was “duh, obviously.” Then I did it again to review the second half of the series two weeks later. Anime journalism is hard work, but somebody has to do it.

Top art via.