[0062] When Piro met Kimiko

console

< Piro >

"hanashite kudasai"

Wednesday - January 3, 2001

I remember the day I discovered that there were real, honest-to-goodness soundtracks available for some of these new-fangled anime programs I was starting to watch. Heck, I remember freaking out when I discovered that there were far more than 5 VHS tapes of Kimagure Orange Road in existence - it had been an TV series! Wow! Then, I started to come across listings of Anime CDs that were available. I almost couldn't believe what i was reading.

"Oh my god. look at all the pretty soundtrack CDs..."

This, of course, was the start of a very long, very slippery, financially devastating slope which left me with no money, maxed out credit cards, no friends, living in the stree... er, well, it wasn't that bad, but you get the idea ^_^. The sad thing was that I never came anywhere near having all the anime CDs, tapes, books, and manga that I wanted. I think the fact that I could never, ever EVER collect everything was pretty depressing. Never mind the financial costs - acquiring the sheer volume of anime related material is daunting and I think the main cause of 'anime burnout'. But that's another story. Remind me to recount it sometime.

I was ordering Cds by the dozen - at $35 to $45 bucks a pop, it added up fast. Pretty soon I was collecting all the CDs for all the anime series I was watching. It was insane. Each series had at least 5 to 15 CDs you could buy! There were Original Sound Tracks, there were Image Albums. Then there were soundtracks from the movies, soundtracks from the OAV series, there were drama disks, there were radio show disks, poetry disks...

I never stood a chance. I really didn't. Thank god I never owned a LD player. It's the CDs that killed me. To this day I scratch my head when i look at the piles of disks I own and say, "what the HELL was I thinking?"

Over the years I've probably listened to more anime than I've actually watched. I guess that's because i would really rather draw or work on things while listening than to sit and vegetate in front of the TV. I listen to anime CDs at work. I often chuckle over the fact that the hot, sexy, final design for the lobby of this fancy dot-com corporate headquarters came to me while listening to the soundtrack for "Mahou no Shoujo Fancy La La" :) Heheh. If they only knew.

I was digging thru this pile the other day and pulled out a few disks I hadn't listened to in years. One of my favorites is Bannou Bunka Neko Musume (All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl) Nuku Nuku - Sound Phase OII. Yuzo Takada is one of my earliest influences. I actually purchased all of the Sound Phase disks (there were seven I think) long before I ever saw the anime. I hated the anime. I love the Sound Phase disks.

Anime CDs are funny. Sometimes, they are just music. Either that cheezy background music that we have grown to love, or chipper little J-pop songs that make people look funny at you when you have them blaring from your stereo in your car. Drama disks are even weirder. It's like listening to anime without the visual aids, and really rely 100% on the acting capabilities of the voice actors/actresses (or 'seiyuu' - remember that term folks - there will be a test later). The Nuku Nuku Sound Color disks are a lot of fun to listen to. These days, i can understand what they are saying. Back when I used to listen to these disks, i couldn't.

But, for some reason, it didn't matter. I connected with the acting, with the intonations, the general mood of what was going on. Most anime fans groan when they end up with a 'drama disk' - I've actually found that some of my favorite CDs are drama disks. Nuku Nuku beating up some drunk old men who get too fresh with her. I live for that sometimes...

"nan nanda onoko??"

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< Largo >

"spam czar"

Tuesday - January 2, 2001

[Largo] - 08:02:00 - [link here]

Today the fine providers of l33t info over at Slashdot linked this site in their poll entitled, "The main reason I got broadband access". After checking the weblogs for today, our hit counts were indeed, disaster-rific!

"Ruri-Ruri Naked & Petrified"

For those who don't quite understand the above reference, It began as a prank to what this website originally was, a knockoff of slashdot. Long before Piro and I had the complete lack of wisdom to end up making a webcomic, while we still had an ounce of good sense left in our heads, we setup megatokyo.com as a website for Japanese news and events.

Of course, this project was a dismal failure, which only resulted in spam posts featuring the above listed "Ruri-Ruri Naked & Petrified", these posts where made presumably by the same guy who pours hot grits down his pants on the before mentioned Slashdot on a semi-regular basis.

Initializing Rant Engine 2001.1.2

I gotta hand it to mankind when it comes to technology, all the power that is instant global communication in the palm of our hands, and we choose to spam everything in existence, raising the noise to signal ratio to an unprecedented level of mediocrity.

Between all the webspyders on the net searching, pulling, and grabbing my email off the many places it sits, I end up getting to start the day off right, with a balanced breakfast of eggs, toast, cereal, and fsck'n spam!

I hate spam, can you tell?

Tomorrow morning I expect to wake up, check my email, and find a offer for a all herbal miracle drug that not only functions as a viagra substitute but also reverses the aging process, improves my memory, increases weight loss, and gets me a good deal on replacement printer toner.

In case you didn't notice, I hate spam.

Bandwidth is a resource, it may not be a natural one, but it's a resource in limited supply nonetheless. Every time a piece of spam mail is sent out, a million electrons cry out for mercy as their short sweet existence is wasted to deliver a meaningless piece of spam. I demand we setup round the clock protests at the Direct Marketers Association Headquarters until the senseless slaughter of these poor electrons ceases!

How can we standby and allow these innocent beings to be victimized and abused by the cold unfeeling hands of corporate America?

No, protests are not enough; I demand we as a nation declare a - WAR ON SPAM! - the newly formed SEA - Spam Enforcement Agency is pledged to stop all trafficking of spam into the net. My sources tell me that such an agency could - with billions of dollars in funding - be able to stop at least 1% of the spam that enters the net.

Furthermore, I appoint myself as the first Spam Czar. I pledge to carry on the good fight against senseless dribble - wherever, and whenever it strikes.

To that end I am stopping this rant before it gets even sillier.