Ohyama Tokubetsu Junmai

I've had this stuff two times before now, but this is the first time I really enjoyed it. The first time I think my mouth chemistry was screwy, and the second time was at a sushi restaurant that inexplicably smelled of turpentine. This time, though, everything went right.

Sake is pretty amazing stuff. I say amazing because there's an amazing range of flavors and textures that come out of fermented rice. You can go from a near-flavorless Daiginjo, with most of the rice polished away, to a Ginjo that's like a dessert wine. (I'm thinking of the Yuki Honoka, which has an amazing sweetness yet fades cleanly away.)

But anyway, the Ohyama Tokubetsu Junmai is a somewhat acidic sake, with a bit of fruity sweetness. I'm not good with identifying flavors, but I might say there's a bit of apple in there. It hits the mouth cleanly, with some acid astringency (is that redundant?), with the finish drawing out the flavors. Like some other sake, it tends to leave a rice-y consistency in my mouth, but I try not to think about that. At $10-12 for a 300mL, it's a decent value.

Hear the SF Chronicle's wine reporter say gushing things about it here.

State of the dude

I was on vacation all last week, but I still feel pretty burned out. Part of the reason is that over half my room is still a mess. Lots of papers and stuff, though by and large the most clutter is due to manga. There's like 40 volumes from the Book Off in NYC, and 70 from the ones in SoCal, though the latter are sitting outside my room. Then there's a small stack from my most recent bk1 order, and a few from the bk1 order that must've been many months ago. Gosh.

There's a bunch of mail covering the piano that probably consists of "action items". Cardboard boxes. Paper bags. Plastic bags. Paperbacks that I might take to Half Price Books. Books that I should take back to the library.

Well, it's slowly getting better.

Book Off Grand Tour 2009

I'm going backpacking this weekend, which takes me about halfway down the lower part of California. So I might as well drive the rest of the way down and visit a few friends while I'm at it.

More importantly, I'm planning to hit every Book Off in SoCal and raid their dollar manga sections. Hopefully I'll have good luck; I've been to the one in NYC a lot recently, thanks to my job, and the selection varies. Sometimes there's not a lot of stuff that catches my interest, and after being spoiled by a few 50-cent sales, $1 per volume is sometimes a bit too much to pay. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy.

Discommunication Seireihen chapter 1

Too tired at the moment to write anything meaningful. Will try again tomorrow.

(edit)

It took forever, but it's finally here: the first chapter of Discommunication Seireihen. I've been curious about Riichi Ueshiba's works ever since reading the mind-blowingness of Yume Tsukai, and where better to start than the preceding series? I was originally going to say more here, but writing the notes depleted my word supply, so I'll just opine that Seireihen is plenty crazy, but not quite as disturbing as the first arc of Yume Tsukai.

It's kinda ridiculous, but it's been nearly a year to the day I started this effort. Several things got in the way. The biggest obstacle: learning enough Japanese. Smaller things: distractions. Somehow I ended up deciding to scanlate a chapter of Railgun, which was a rather painful adventure with WWWJDIC. (WWWJDIC > sliced bread.) And then I spent a lot of time on a chapter of Sing Yesterday For Me -- got it to around 75% done at the beginning of February, but then I had to go on a business trip. When I got back, NCIS had beaten me to the punch. Sigh. But they're a good group and they'll release faster than I ever could. Anyway, real life has been kicking my ass since February, and it's only recently that I've been able to use my free time effectively.

Chapter 2 will be along in a few weeks, unless I decide to work on another distraction.

Whoo

Out of all of the events in the Haruhi novels, "Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody" is the one I remember most clearly. This is partially due to the relative simplicity of the plot; compared to some of the contortions in later arcs, nothing much happens, but it's all rather straightforward. What I like about this particular story is how casually epic it is. Time travel stories tend to involve dramatic means of making the leap, whether it be via a machine or portal or device. Here, Kyon travels through time in the most mundane way possible. Yet at the same time he's given glimpses of the mind-boggling power that his associates wield. Finally, if I may lapse into sentimentality, there's the sense of destiny. Kyon's actions while time-traveling are integral to the present, a plot device that carries echoes of one of the most satisfying story arcs in Kimagure Orange Road. (And for that reason I think Kyon's real name is Kyousuke.) 

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I'm actually kind of glad it's taken this long to S2 to start: it's given me enough time to forget the details of the novels. Now I can enjoy the anime instead of getting bogged down in the details.

this is an anime blog, amirite?

So they happen to have a Marshall amp sitting around, but no guitar? And what's the deal with the markup on sunburst patterns (in real life, not just anime)?

I haven't had time to watch any of this until now. It's OK, but I just realized that she's got a Mesousa face all the time. Add the chibi rendition, and, well... Perhaps Shinbo ran out of ideas for this one.

Rather well done, but is anyone going to finish subbing this?

Not really what I was expecting. With a title like Denpateki na Kanojo, I was thinking more along the lines of that girl from Fruits Basket. But no, this is a Serious Business serial murder mystery. High production values, as expected for an OVA. Overall impression: a little original, a little vague, a little cliché, with a nice twist. As consolation, I will accept violent imouto with spats.

Wow... I glad I decided to give this one a shot. Absolutely gorgeous, Madhouse. Pictures at an exhibition.  On the other hand, I'm not sure I want a future that involves self-aware Segways with arms. 

Hahaha, man, this stuff is funny.

The future is now

Things are changing apace in the world of licensed manga. I was kind of shocked to find that Rumiko Takahashi's latest series, Kyoukai no Rinne, is already available to read in English, direct from Viz. For free. Online. This is insane.

Of course, anything by Rumiko Takahashi is going to get the blockbuster treatment. What remains to be seen is what other stuff will follow in its footsteps. Just popular shounen works? Shoujo? Seinen? There are also lingering questions about online reading. Will they eventually put it behind a pay wall? Ultimately, some sort of online, subscription-based service seems likely. That sounds reasonable to me; however, kids who aren't getting a paycheck may not be so enthusiastic about the prospect.

Similar things have been happening with digital distribution on the anime side of the fence. Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood is probably the biggest thing to be streamed so far, and a surprising number of shows from the current season are also streaming from Funimation. Crunchyroll is expanding its roster of legal titles, and some of them don't suck, for once. 

As this trend continues, will fansubbing and scanlation face an existential crisis? To some extent the lines have already been drawn: there are the "drop when licensed" groups, and then the others. The latter will continue unless they receive legal threats, and the truly hardcore may even go underground. But for what? In this era, where licensors are sensitive to fan concerns about source fidelity and censorship, there are fewer and fewer reasons to go it alone. On the other hand, traditional (by that I mean those who drop when licensed) will face slimmer pickings as time goes on.

So, is a golden age coming to a close? In a sense, yes. But it's come about because fan-translation has fulfilled its promise of bringing anime and manga to the mainstream.