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Date-Based Archive Team America; F**k Yeah!

Last Friday I saw Team America with my parents and N. It's a great movie and you should all see it. Team America is most memorable for its delightful songs, such as, "Team America, F**k Yeah!" wherein the lyrics are largely the same as the title, and "Every Movie Needs a Montage", as well as "I Miss You, But Not as Much as Pearl Harbor Sucked" which refers to the movie Pearl Harbor.

I heard some coworker who'd seen it say that the movie doesn't take sides politically, but that's not true. It's clearly anti-left.

Mostly the film is anti-celebrity. The filmmakers have gone to great lengths to ridicule about a dozen celebrities who die grisly deaths by the film's end. Team America takes an odd stance on actors, however, since the coalition of actors in the film are evil, but the protagonist is also an actor by profession, who must use his acting skills to save the world.

This film is great and you should all see it. Except Hal. There's too much swearing for Hal. I'd say these marionettes swear ten times more than Adan.

Posted by erin at 06:18 PM | Comments (2)

Date-Based Archive My Dad the PCP Fiend, or How Jen's Wedding Went

I went back home to Michigan last weekend for my friend Jen's wedding. Jen, as you may or may not know, was my best friend for about eight years, from 7th grade to my sophomore year of college. I've known Jen even longer than that - she was in my kindergarten class and my 4th grade class. So I got to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. But I didn't get to be the Maid of Honor, because Jen has a sister.

Anyway, while I was home it turned out my dad had gotten a job at somewhere that required a drug test. His drug test came back positive for PCP use! This was extremely funny to all of us, particularly since my dad couldn't pronounce the word "phencyclidine" when the nurse showed him the test. My dad is clearly not a PCP fiend, so they sent the test on to a different lab for more testing. Meanwhile they suspended him from working at the place, and he received a check for $9.12 for the brief time he'd worked there so far. The $9 check was also a great source of fun. To top off the weekend, my dad shined N.'s shoes before the wedding. My brother reported to me that this was the highlight of his entire week.

The wedding itself was not nearly so bad as the last wedding Hal went to. It wasn't too fancy or expensive-seeming, but it wasn't lame or anything either. Everything was very tastefully done and not at all stuck up. Even the country club the reception took place at was not snobby at all. You could hardly tell it was a country club, according to N. N. was even impressed at the ceremony, that the minister was an OK guy and not too preachy at all. The ceremony wasn't too long and boring.

Now I go on for like 20 minutes about my parent's barn...

It was somewhat emotional for me, which was sort of weird. I mean, of course Jen was really nervous beforehand, but I'd been expecting that day to come since about 7th grade. On the other hand, it was odd to see that the day I'd been expecting had finally arrived. And here was Jen, once a sullen fourth grader, and now in a wedding dress.

Often on trips back home it seems as if everything has stayed the way I left it. This time, there were many signs of the passage of time. A lot of new houses had been constructed in the area. A tree in my parents yard that had been a seedling when I left is now a really thick tree. Two of my high school friends had children that were a year old. There was a part of downtown Ann Arbor where a one-way street was now two way, and a massive new building had gone up. My parents informed me that my uncle, next month, would be moving the barn in front of our house down the road and attaching it to his store.

Moving the barn is something my uncle has been talking about for several years now, but I couldn't picture it actually happening. My parent's barn is huge, and over 100 years old, and it towers above the house, elevated on a little hill. The view from the house is of the barn. The barn might actually pre-date the house. The paint faded a long time ago, probably before I was born. The barn is so old that one gets the impression it has always been there, and as a kid, I assumed it always would be there. I've seen other old barns in the area collapse and decay over time, but our barn, still in use for some storage of straw and occasionally pigs, was still in use, and not collapsing at all.

The cupola started tilting a couple years ago and blew off maybe last year or the year before. So it's kind of like the barn's been "topless" for a little while. The weird part is that there are small plants growing out of the top where the cupola used to be.

But here I am going on for pages and pages about the freaking barn. I'm sure you'd like here more about the wedding.

I got to see my old track coach from high school. She quit coaching and working when I was a junior because she got pregnant and there were complications. She was in bed for months because of a blood clot. The birth went fine and stuff, BUT THAT CHILD IS NOW EIGHT YEARS OLD! It's weird that my cousin who was born when I was in college is in kindergarten, but it's weird that this 8-year-old was born when I was in high school. The coach in question decided to have a second child recently, and this time the pregnancy had proceeded normally.

I also got to see my old chemistry teacher. He was also the athletic director of the school after I'd been in high school a bit, and unlike the previous athletic director he went to ALL the sporting events, not just football games. He even took over coaching the cross country team when our other coach had to leave. His son coached the track team for a while. Long after I left the chemistry teacher took Jen's sister's cross country team to the state meet... and they did really well... which is a big deal for me and if you know the history of the cross country team. What a great guy.

I felt kinda bad for the fuss I'd made in the pre-wedding planning. I didn't like the strapless bridesmaid dresses Jen and her mother required, I hated the shoes, I complained about this and that. In the end, the dresses looked great on everyone, including me, despite how strapless dresses usually look bad on me. The shoes didn't fit, but I didn't wear them for long anyway. Jen's family gave me (and the other bridesmaids who had to travel very far to get there) little gift baskets of cookies and other things. Jen gave everyone in the wedding party a flask as a gift. So now I have a flask that I can take to sci-fi and anime cons and stuff. After all that, I felt like a jerk for complaining so much.

It'll be a while before the pictures are up. I should've planned ahead and borrowed a digital camera, but meh. My hair was done in a really interesting way (by someone else) and my make-up was also nice (also done by someone else) to the point where I looked like someone else entirely, what with a hairstyle and a dress and make-up and all.

Oh yeah, and at the end of the weekend, my dad got the job after all.

Posted by erin at 01:14 PM | Comments (2)

Date-Based Archive The October Surprise

So many of you have heard this news already, but hell, not my parents, so hear goes:

As you might already be aware, about three weeks ago I got a new job at the company I've been interning at for a year. The new job is on a new show, who's title we'll abbreviate here as "L.E.". It took a long, long time to obtain the L.E. job. I gave my resume to the producer a freaking long time ago, like we're talking April or May. Then I had to keep talking to the producer, and later, the production manager, to ensure that I would get the job. You might recall the entry, Jobs and Senior Prom, a brief comparison.

I was supposed to start working on L.E. in August, but the start date kept getting pushed back. You might recall some complaints about that, since it caused me to run out of money and not be able to go to World Con.

Basically it took me a long-ass time to get this job and it felt like I had to work really hard to get it.

Then, suddenly, this week, one of the P.A.'s on Kids Next Door quit, and they offered me his job. Actually, they wouldn't have offered it to me if it hadn't been for Grace pushing my agenda. She knew I always wanted that guy's job. The producer of KND had to talk the the producer of LE to make sure it was OK if he offered me the job.

So the KND job promises more money (quite a chunk more!) and benefits! My god people, I'll get to go to the dentist again! I won't need my Medicare card anymore!

N. is still asking if this is really real. He's been worried about the whole no-health-insurance thing for quite some time.

It is really real. I start my new job on October 25th. I won't be in the color department, but I'll be doing other stuff with the animatics, and with the 3D vehicle rotations you might remember if you've seen the show, and I'll have something to do with the credits. (And my name will be bigger in the credits: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!)

This was quite a turn of events for me, particularly after the Hoboken Go Tournament on Sunday, where I lost to one 8-year-old Asian boy after another. How embarrassing!

The new job is like the October Surprise for me, but last night at Sam's we were talking about what a good October Surprise would be for the Bush campaign. Hal lamented that Bush hasn't said anything about going to Mars after the initial announcement.

I said that a good surprise would be if Bush revealed, "We already have a man on the way to Mars!"

Then Hal said, "...and that man is Osama Bin Ladin."

And I said, "There's only enough fuel for a one-way trip."

And Hal said, "There is no Exit Strategy for Mars."

Also if anyone cares I've been trolling Scott's blog.

Posted by erin at 06:04 PM | Comments (4)

Date-Based Archive Eveything You Always Wanted to Know About Becoming an Anime Retailer but Were Afraid to Ask

One of my coworkers knows a guy at a comic book store in New York that's thinking about starting an anime section. The guy wanted a list of popular anime to help him get started. I offered to make such a list and it turned into a gigantic diatribe. I'm reposting it here. So read on, if you're interested.

Eveything You Always Wanted to Know About Becoming an Anime Retailer but Were Afraid to Ask


Basically, if you're starting an anime section in your store you need to consider a couple of things, such as, are you catering to hardcore fans, or armchair anime fans who only watch anime on Cartoon Network? Second, what can your store offer that isn't already widely available in the city and/or on the internet at a cheaper price?

I'd say you'd make a bit of money pandering to fans of anime on television, the ones who don't really know enough about it to look elsewhere.

In order to compete with other anime retailers in the city (here is the a definitive guide: http://nyc-anime.memnon.net/#stuff ) you could do a lot of business by doing two things:

1. Selling anime merchandise and apparel, and
2. Selling used anime.

The "used" suggestion is because when I go to buy anime on DVD, I don't go to a store, I always check three sites: www.rightstuf.com , http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/genre.cfm?genre=AN , and the used stuff on amazon.com in the DVD section. If you can undercut these prices, you would surely be a god among men.

The following is a list of popular anime, in order by catergory, with some editorial notes. Below that is a list of merchandise you should consider carrying. Some of them might not be spelled correctly.


Anime Popularized by American Television
----------------------------------
Inu Yasha
Cowboy Bebop
Trigun
(notice that this is the trifecta of popular anime in America: Cowboy Bebop, Inu Yasha, Trigun)
FLCL
.hack//sign
Witch Hunter Robin
Wolf's Rain
Banner of the Stars
Boogiepop Phantom
Lain
Last Exile (very popular)
Outlaw Star
The Big O
Pokemon
YuGiOh
Shaman King
Sailor Moon (you should only get "uncut" boxed sets of this for your store)
Detective Conan (known in the U.S. as "Case Closed")


Coming Soon To American Television
-----------------
Full Metal Alchemist (extremely popular)
Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex (TV series)
Read or Dream
The Super Milk Show
One Piece (extremely popular)
Tokyo Mew Mew (known in the U.S. as Mew Mew Power)


Popular in General
-----------
Chobits (irritatingly popular)
Azumanga Diaoh (well-liked by all)
Excel Saga
Naruto (only downloadable, but someday may be a big hit on TV, it is CRAZY popular)
Noir
Magical Shopping Arcade Abenoshi
Read or Die
The Animatrix
Great Teacher Onizuka
Fruits Basket (very popular)
Escaflowne (akak Visions of Escaflowne)
Rurouni Kenshin
Marmalade Boy
Fushigi Yugi
The Cat Returns (maybe not out here yet)


Stuff that's just now coming out on DVD
------------------
Mezzo
Samurai Champloo (extremely popular)
Peacemaker
Princess Tutu (shut up, Princess Tutu is awesome!)
Stelvia of the Universe


Anime "Classics"
--------------
Neon Genesis Evangelion (now in Platinum edition!)
Ranma 1/2
Ghost in the Shell (the original)
Akira
Grave of the Fireflies
Lupin the Third
Slayers
Record of the Lodoss Wars
Ninja Scroll
Dagger of Kamui
Dragon Half
Anything in the "Essential Anime" collection from ADV
Macross Plus (there are a milliun Macross series, "Plus" is the best one)
Gundam (there are a thousand Gundam series, you can read about them here: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=4189 in general, Gundam "Seed" and "Wing" are popular because of Cartoon Network, but they are not the "best" according to hardcore Gundam fans)


All things Satoshi Kon:
------------
Perfect Blue
Millennium Actress
Tokyo Godfathers
Paranoia Agent (which I highly recommend)


Anything and everything by Hayao Miyazaki, including:
--------------------
My Neighbor Totoro
Kiki's Delivery Service
Castle in the Sky
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Castle Cagliostro
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (coming soon to the U.S.)
Porco Rosso (also coming soon)
Panda Go Panda
Sherlock Hound


Merchandise
-----------------------

In order to compete with Chinatown, and to fill a kind of hole in the NYC market for anime merchandise (legitimate anime merchandise, not the knock-offs) you should stock the following merchandise:

Digi Charat plush hats
http://www.animegamersusa.com/istar.asp?a=3&dept=MB&class=CP

Fruits Basket plush hats
(which I can't find a single picture of)
http://www.fruits-basket.com/news.htm

Naruto headbands
http://www.justmanga.com/jmaprod/naruto-headband.cfm

Chobits Ears (aka Chii Ears)
http://store.d2r.org/chiiears.shtml


Plushies
----------------
Totoro plushies are always a classic, but here are some others:

http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/VzaXHpAflhAIozSInZ/browse/item/62244/4/0/0
http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/VzaXHpAflhAIozSInZ/browse/item/62240/4/0/0
http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/2LfjNfG5-obTLG7uod/browse/item/63141/4/0/0
http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/drJKLG9dDKr3KUPHXF/browse/item/59703/4/0/0
http://www.rightstuf.com/1-800-338-6827/catalogmgr/drJKLG9dDKr3KUPHXF/browse/item/63758/4/0/0

These "Pinky" dolls are the next big thing:
http://www.jlist.com/cgi-bin/disp.cgi?img=http://images.jlist.com/d2/pinkytown_y84.jpg&#x=317&y=450


T-Shirts
----------------

A word on T-shirt: Comic book stores always carry XXXL boys shirts. Sure, the clientelle is mostly male, but there are a lot of girls out there who read manga and watch anime (and read American comics, too!) who don't want wear XXXLs. So you should consider stocking girly-tees.

These FLCL shirts were very popular at Otakon:
http://www.animecastle.com/catalog/apparel/cat_flcl-apparel.html

These wacky J-List T-shirts tended to sell out the first day of the con:
http://www.jlist.com/SHRT/


The Competition:
-------------------
http://www.animecastle.com/
http://matrixcollectibles.site.yahoo.com/
http://www.otakuden.com/catalog/index.php

ImageAnime is a good store to check out for competition. In a city of bootlegs, they have a lot of legitimate merchandise. I've never been to Anime Castle in Queens, but they appear to have a lot of wall scrolls. Good wall scrolls are hard to find, but are good anime merchandise. Otakuden doesn't have merchandise, but seeing as how they're on Broadway at 8th street, they might be your closest competition.

A Word on Kim's Video:
--------------
They are jerks, with a petrified collection of ancient anime titles. They won't buy your used anime, and they sell bootlegs and fansubs, often at significant price gouge. Don't be like them.

Here's a lengthy explanation:

That said - you need to be aware of bootlegs and fansubs. What are bootlegs?

Here's a quote from here: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/columns/answerman.php?id=101

"Bootlegs are basically someone stealing something, making an illegal copy of it, and selling it without paying the person who made it originally, they're illegal. You can tell if something is a bootleg by simply doing a little research. Look on legit websites like AMO Tokyo to see the original packaging. If there’s any variation on that packaging design, it’s a bootleg. If it came from Hong Kong or Taiwan, there's a very good chance it's a bootleg. It’s bad to buy bootlegs because the people who worked hard to make that music or anime series do not get compensation from the sale of the bootleg."

How are fansubs like bootlegs? In the eyes of the law they are the same thing. Here's an article on it: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/feature.php?id=144

You can tell the difference between a bootleg and a fansub in the following way:

A Hong Kong/Taiwan/Chinese release of a DVD will often have really crappy English subtitles and be really cheap, but have somewhat official looking packaging. Fansubs are often burned on CD's or copied on VHS tapes with homebrewed labels. You can always tell a fansub because during the commercial break (eyecatch) there will be a disclaimer saying something like, "This is by fans, for fans, and not for sale, rent, or Ebay. Please stop distributing this when this title becomes available in North America."

The legitimate American release of something will always have an English voice track. That's the quickest way to tell.

As a future anime retailer you're going to have to make the choice of either carrying all legitimate American DVD's, which are more expensive, or supplying low-quality bootlegs and/or fansubs, which, although of dubious legality, are a million times cheaper. I'd sell the legit stuff if I were you. There are enough places in the city to buy cheap crap. That said, if you sold legit used anime, I think there's be a real market for it.

Posted by erin at 11:08 AM | Comments (16)