Sleep Is For the Weak

Recently our site has been having a problem with trolling comments. In a way, it’s a good thing: trolls mean that someone is actually reading our stuff! Always a nice to hear.

The admins have been discussing how best to deal with this. I (badjew) am in favor of us just deleting the worst of the comments that show up here. There are only so many electrons to go around, and I’d hate to waste them on useless trolls. Lianne and NotHayama are concerned that our readers might think that it’s censorship to delete posts that generally disagree with us. I counter that I couldn’t care less what our readers think, but that’s a bit off topic.

But, maybe it’s the readers who should decide. Should we use a strong hand in deleting trolling comments, or should we keep them up so that everyone can revel in their stupidity? To help you decide, I’ve invited respected public citizen Summer Glau to analyze a recent comment on our Death Note review.
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Oh man oh man…so much good starts in October. I mean, seriously. And who wanted more of this, this, and this? And look what we get in November! Yesssssss.

Also, Bad Jew did a Mini Review of Mixed Vegetables. Exciting!

We should be back next week, since I’ve discovered I can now do these updates at work (as I am right now). My lab bench and gloves are contaminating the hell out of this keyboard, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend 2 hours staring into a tissue bath when I could spend those hours writing annoying things on the Internet instead.

And Happy New Year to the Jews, and Happy Eid to the Muslims. I was too busy at work to celebrate this week, so I’m going to spend this weekend playing something I probably shouldn’t be playing during a religious holiday and eating cereal off my own stomach.

Working on Tactics has made me partial to stories about cute boys and awesome monsters, so when I heard about Natsume’s Book of Friends, I got excited. It turns out the show is way, way better than I was expecting. Here’s a Mini Review for you. Want a taste first? Here you go. Note that Natsume’s Book is Friends is not to be confused with Amatsuki, the other shoujo anime about cute boys and awesome monsters running this season.

Japanese geek TV is so girl-friendly right now that shoujo sub-genres can actually repeat. And that makes me feel all warm inside.

Let me be PERFECTLY clear about something. My use of the word “lolz” in last post was intended to be snarky and topical, since “lol” and “lolz” are often associated with the Internet’s obsession with kitties. It was brought to my attention that some might interpret my use of the word as an acceptance of it, even an embracing of it. Let me just say that the day I use the word “lolz” in a sentence in seriousness is the day I commit ritualistic suicide. If my making bad jokes is going to reflect on my personal character like this, I’m not sure I want to make bad jokes anymore.

In other news, a review! NotHayama read Record of a Fallen Vampire. Can you guess her opinion? I’ll give you a hint – NotHayama is the reviewer, and the story is about sad vampires! You see where this is going.

See you soon.
P.S.–I HATE THE WORD LOLZ AND ANYONE WHO USES IT.

Real life sucks. That is all.

I’m going to update a few times this week, since we, um, FELL BEHIND QUITE A BIT. Viz sent us a number of review copies of stuff right before our blogging blackout, so we’re currently making our way through those. Here’s the first of those reviews: Matsuri Hino’s one-shot pirate shoujo, Wanted. (Not to be confused with the other 6-10 other manga under that title.)

Also, there’s been a lot of talk on the blogosphere (note: kill myself for using that word) about “moe” lately, so I wanted to add an opinion.

Leave it be. Yes, it often spawns stories of little girls aimed at grown men. But the way I understand it, if those stories turn sexual, the genre changes to lolita. So calling moe sexual is unfair to the genre, since it’s oftentimes supposed to be specifically non-sexualized lolita. And for moe that can be interpreted by its readership as sexual? That’s like calling something slashable, and as we all know, everything is slashable. And saying moe has sexual undertones? That’s most certainly something one has to evaluate on a case-by-case basis, so punishing the genre for that isn’t fair, either. And saying it was created because Japanese men can’t handle mature, adult women? I’m sure that’s an interpretation, so here’s another one: Boy’s Love/yaoi means Japanese women want men to rape each other instead of them. Making broad statements about a culture that produces a particular type of popular niche media is a very, very dangerous game to play. And saying all media aimed at men has to be somehow sexual? Why, because men only care about sex? That’s pretty much the most unfair thing I’ve ever heard.

People have been making arguments one way or another (those are all examples of anti-moe arguments I’ve heard), but in summary, I think if boys want to bask in cutesy, they have the right to bask in cutesy. I’m not a big moe fan, but I’m not the audience. Live and let live. I don’t expect the boys to want to play video games that include boy tickling sims, after all. Why do some critics think a girl niche genre is okay but a boy niche genre isn’t? A lot of this reeks of misandry, and that ain’t feminism, I tell you what.

Based on the Internet’s unhealthy obsession with kitties, I think there’s one moe most people can get behind, at least. Lolz.

It’s a little lame, but I only updated the Reviews and Mini Reviews archives and the Vampire Knight review a little bit (I really wanted to link to an amusing MMV in there).

Still, in other news, did you all hear about Youka Nitta? She’s the most recent mangaka to pretty much lose her career over tracing photos. She’s best known for her long BL series Haru wo Daiteita/Embracing Love, and is considered one of the top BL mangaka in Japan. In layman’s terms, this is all a big f’ing deal.

I think nailing mangaka for drawing a few panels off of other manga or photographs is sort of a witch hunt, although I will admit that tracing a large number of artistic photos is a more serious offense then, say, the whole Flower of Eden thing, which destroyed a mangaka’s career for doing what manga how-to books basically forgive aspiring mangaka for (you can copy an occasional panel off another manga if you modify it enough). Anyway, that’s a debate for another time.

The HILARIOUS thing about the Youka Nitta scandal is the reaction from 55DSL, the fashion brand whose unique and artistic ad was blatantly traced by Nitta and drew attention to her tracing in the first place. They pretty much voice my reaction to this kind of scandal: let’s put this all in perspective. If you’re copying ads, for shame, but seriously – you’re probably only spreading the popularity of what you copied. Isn’t that one of the justifications behind doujinshi, broader artistic interpretation notwithstanding? And if a photo isn’t exactly traced, then isn’t your drawing more of an homage? But I did an independent study as an undergrad on how copyright law should allow fanfiction, so maybe I’m biased.

…I can’t believe I just admitted to doing an independent study on fanfiction.

Wow. Six years. 114 reviews and mini-reviews. Since we started this site, we’ve gone from sending blank VHS tapes to random people on the Internet in hopes that they’d send us the latest fan subs of Kare Kano to downloading the bittorrents off the slipstream. Since we started the site, the main writers have gotten 3 bachelor’s degrees, 2 master’s, and I myself have been rewarded with at least 3 different fan girls. OH GOD! WHAT HAVE I DONE WITH MY LIFE?! I COULD HAVE STARTED A BLOG ABOUT THE FOIBLES OF WHITE PEOPLE AND HAD A BOOK CONTRACT BY NOW! :sob: :sob:

Anyways, enough about that. Here are two more reviews and shows from the past and the present: Oban Star Racers and Vampire Knight. Here’s to a productive future, hopefully without all of us publicly getting old on this site. Dammit, Father Time.

Welcome to part two of our spectacular three-part 6th anniversary update. Six reviews in three days may not seem that spectacular, but when you think about our updating track record as a whole over the past six years…anyway, the less said about that, the better. Moving on!

Yesterday’s reviews showed an unprecedented level of positivity and happiness. Longtime readers will be glad to see that our usual cynicism, anger, and devil’s-advocacy have returned with my Mini Review of critical favorite Nana. Also, our supply of nerdy science references and dancing naked men has been restocked with Bad Jew’s full review of Moonlight Mile. Lianne will be back tomorrow, probably with a bunch of vague sexual innuendos and puns.

To everyone who reads our reviews: thank you all for supporting our site. Considering how often we spit in the face of general opinion, I’m always surprised that we get so much positive feedback.

We’ve decided to split our Anniversary Special into a Three-Day Update Extravaganztastic. You guys are getting two reviews a day, three times in a row. Oh my God, the excitement. Today it begins: a mini review of Cowa! by NotHayama, and a mini review of The Gorgeous Life of Strawberry-chan by me. Tomorrow I’ll start posting Bad Jew’s stuff, among other things.

Happy 6th birthday, Sleep is for the Weak. Why the hell haven’t you been shut down yet?

I wrote a little something for today – a Mini Review of Kamichama Karin Chu – but it’s only to tide everyone over. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this, but our website is coming upon its six-year anniversary soon. Our site is practically common-law married to the Internet now. Since I can’t remember our exact launch date, I’m guessing it was sometime around July 22, 2002, when we ran off to Otakon to be booth babes for Tokyopop. So let’s just call July 22nd our official birthday and leave it at that.

Our next update will be this July 22nd, and it will bring with it a 6-fold SPECIAL SURPRISE. One fold of that will be an in-depth look at one of our biggest review requests – Vampire Knight. Just remember that whatever we have to say about that series, you asked for it.

See you soon.