Saturday, March 19, 2011

Took a mini Hiatus

I went and enjoyed my spring break so I didn't really think about putting anything up on the blog during the time. I've been wanting to become more active about making blogs buuut I just kind of blew it off once spring break started. In fact I think it has been almost two weeks since the last post was made. But now that the week is ending I should get back to my usual old routine otherwise I'll wake-up grumpy without my 4 am bed-time and a 12 noontime awakening.

Anyways back to the topic on my mind. A lot of things have happened over the week that has had an impact on anime fans all around the world. Which of course is due to the earthquake in Japan. I think going into detail about all the politics and mishaps going on with the Japanese government atm should be saved for a real discussion rather than a blog... Prime Minister of Japan - claims to have extensive knowledge of nuclear power plants ( I /facepalm to that)... Okinawa news article saying that "Operation Tomodachi" was inappropriate... the operation was a basically a relief effort from the US military stationed nearby Okinawa, Okinawans were in  tears of joy when aid came. Even 2ch was humbled by it, people were more glad to see US aid than the SDF =_=, yet we were still criticized.

Yeah, the list goes on, but at least Japanese culture allows for recovery from natural disasters to be much smoother and more civil than other parts of the world *cough Katrina cough*.

So now how do I connect this with anime? Well for an avid anime fan that carefully watches every new series that gets released every season I've noticed some very scary delays in releases. I think a few days after the earthquake in Japan a good handful of new episodes weren't released on time, so it really makes you say "Oh shit... this is not right..". I read the newspaper everyday to follow financial reports and just to keep track of world news regularly, so when I saw the headlines about Japan everything just became so surreal.

Shamefully- I will admit the first things that came to mind were "Omg I hope all the studios are okay". =( I quickly dismissed that thought and reminded myself that this is a friggin natural disaster. But god I felt like an ass for worrying about anime.

Ironically enough I think it was 2-3 months ago, so perhaps last season or the season before that there was an anime called Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 that was basically a simulation of what would happen to Japan if there was an earthquake. I didn't finish the series, but so far the simulation seem pretty spot-on except for the Tsunami bit that actually happened. So yeah, the Japanese were really well aware that an earthquake was bound to come sooner or later (70% chance of an earthquake of a magnitude of at least 7.0- yup).

It seems like things anime wise are gradually coming back under control. But it has only been a week since the quake so we won't really know if every studio is quite okay. Because even if they are deeper into the mainland, there's always family and friends that may have been victims to the Tsunami and the quake. Puella Magi Madoka- the super duper amazing Mahou Shoujo anime by the legendary handsome Shaft Studios has recently been canceled. Initially there was a ton of resistance for the show to be canceled, and after awhile it seemed like the show was going to remain in production, but right after the quake it seemed like the committee threw their hands up and said "Fuck this, we just got hit by a big earthquake lets move on"- very understandable I have to say... but damn.. its a shame that the best anime we've seen so far since the beginning of 2011 and a good part of 2010 (if not 2010 as a whole) is going to be canceled.

But other than the star of year getting canceled, there are quite a few a series that haven't been released yet, or air-ed I should say.

As of right now shows like Kimi Ni Todoke, Rio Rainbow, Freezing, Infinite Stratos, To Aru Majutsu no Index II, Yumekui Merry have not shown up yet...at all. Even the torrents with raws haven't shown up. Usually they're out at night or early in the wee hours of the morning, and even when they're late they're out by the afternoon. So there are two things that might be going on right now-

1. Our "source" of anime Japan has been affected by quake. So even it is airing, there is no one to provide us foreigners with anime.

OR

2. The studios and broadcasting companies themselves have fallen due the natural disasters, so no one is getting anime.

I still feel a little guilty just going on about anime, but hey I'm just doing my part as a blogger, or in other words, an independent journalist haha.

Be back hopefully by the beginning of the week  can get back on track with the usual art stuff. Over break I've started applying what I've learned and put it in 4Koma Manga format, and it came out surprisingly well. I was thinking that if I can keep it up I can do a daily manga strip everyday. Well thats it for now, got to enjoy the little time I have left. No pictures this time... or maybe I'll just add  them in when I get home. It's boring to just look at a wall of text.

2 comments:

  1. a 4am to 12pm sleep sounds strange D: and i dont think u were the only one to think about anime stations/studios, since on lolitasecrest (a place where lolita share secrets/bitchy remarks anon) there were several 'secrets' of girls worrying about the shipment of their dresses/ items

    I think when a disater happens ppl normally think about how it affects them first then others, but i dont think its a terrible things, just human nature?

    also thnaks for the comment ^^ im not really sure about the lastest fashion my mum still buys me clothes :p XD and snuggles is such a cute username ^^ Hope u have a gd break and ur able to catch up to ur animes soon. also i think its mainly number 1 whcih might be affecting anime.

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  2. Don't worry, when I first heard about it the first thing I thought was," OMG my manga/anime" right then I head/desk'd myself for being so selfish. X( it's unbelievable what happened there but the only thing we can do is send our prayers and aid.

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