We were running a hopelessly outdated (v2.1) version of Wordpress. Now we’re running 2.3.1, however the old Sakura theme is old enough that it’s broken. I’ve switched to the bog-standard Wordpress default until I’ve got a chance to switch us over to a new theme that I’ve got cooking.
Monthly Archive for November, 2007
I have to admit that in the last couple years, my fondness for the Anime News Network has waned considerably. While I appreciate its editors giving me an opportunity to become a published writer, and remain a big fan of their work with Protoculture Addicts (the only anime magazine I’d willingly read), the website just isn’t what it used to be. However, it’s not without its occasional strokes of genius, and yesterday saw one of those by way of an editorial by ANN founder and former owner, Justin Sevakis. Titled “An Open Letter to the Industry,” the editorial covers a number of topics relating to the struggling anime industry, both domestically and in Japan. With the failure of major player Geneon earlier this year and the recent increased Japanese hostility towards fansubs, the future of anime both here and abroad has been a much discussed topic of late, with many greatly differing opinions. But what makes Sevakis’s analysis stand out so much is that unlike most other industry insiders, he doesn’t engage in an overly defensive and dismissive tirade against the evils of video piracy, and unlike most fans, he doesn’t blindly point fingers at domestic anime distributors for being greedy capitalist pigs. Rather, he fairly points out the broader problem as it concerns all parties involved, and uses his informed position to devise a possible, viable solution.
And if you ask me, he couldn’t be more right.
For over two years now, I’ve been ordering figures and other miscellaneous goods through HobbyLink Japan. They’re usually reasonably priced, they package their goods really well, and the shipping is usually quite reasonable too. There’s one problem though: they are so fucking slow. I’m getting pretty sick of it. Pre tl;dr summary: The rest of this entry is composed of a rant about how slow HLJ are and a request for suggestions for other retailers to order through instead.
Just a quickie this time. I promised several people that I would make Ako next on my Negima list (it helps that she’s one of the easiest of the ones left), and I’d actually started on her months ago, but never finished the lineart. So yes, I’m still chipping away at that Negima project. Feel free to request another character - if people want one, I’m much more likely to get around to them. To be honest, I think a lot of my motivation went out the window when Megami started running that series of awesome swimsuit posters with all the girls - in comparison, the eyecatches from the first OVA are kind of flat.
EDIT: Forgot to mention, I recoloured her hair. For some reason in the eyecatch it’s steel grey, when it should be light purple. Wierd.
I’ve updated the status page too.
Kagura, everyone’s favourite taciturn miko / archer / closet lesbian from Prism Ark. I took my time on this, and I really, really like how it turned out. Technically it’s a request fill for several people, though my terrible secret is that I intended to do it anyway. Prism Ark really has great character art. Shame about the show itself. I’m at the point that I’m basically watching each week to hunt through the eyecatches for tracing material. After a lot of deliberation I decided to add the Momiji leaves that are present in the original eyecatch. Spent maybe ten minutes on them, just a quick stroke outline and a random gradient mesh to add some random colour, but they ended up looking really good.
