Must watch anime: Kids on the Slope

Image from Anime Focus

Kids on the Slope had been sitting in my queue at least six months. The premise of kids in the 1960s starting a jazz band sounded intriguing. Around 9PM last night, I finally decided to start watching it, and ended up finishing nine episodes by around 2AM. Within minutes of the first episode, I noticed the high-quality animation. Also, the main character, Nishimi, looked like when my dad when he was young. (My dad was also a teenager in the '60s.) The show drew me in immediately. As I get older, the "slice of life" category seems to be my preference. Nowadays, most anime with teenage characters feels overplayed and not enjoyable. Though, the teen drama in Kids on the Slope feels real and not petty or silly.

Back in college, I fell in love with the anime, Beck. Tanuki even came home from a night out, glanced at the TV and asked, "Is this Beck?" I couldn't help but notice how similar the two anime were. While the plots and the time frame are different, both shows are love letters to the music of their time. Both shows are about relationships that develop through great music, and both shows are fantastic. Immediately after my anime marathon, I went to look up more information on Kids on the Slope. Was there a manga? Would there be more episodes? Who is the director?

Image from Anime Vice

Yes, there is a manga. No, it doesn't look like there will be more episodes. The director is no other than Shinichiro Wantanabe and the original music is composed by Yoko Kanno. Holy shit, how did I not know about this before? No wonder this anime is so ridiculously good. It is clear the mangaka knows her jazz. Though, after the jazz-infused Cowboy Bebop, the jazzy hip-hop of a Nujabes soundtrack in Samurai Champloo, and the unadulterated jazz of Kids on the Slope, Shinichiro Wantanabe must really love jazz. Maybe I'm not the biggest jazz fan, but all of these shows taught me how to have the greatest appreciation for it.

Trying to look up information on Yuki Kodama, there's not much I can find. I was floored by the accuracy of the time, the correct portrayal of Christianity and a thorough knowledge of jazz. (Most manga and anime seem to have creators who don't do their homework on the West.) It made me wonder if the mangaka had actually lived through this time or had a relative who did.

Before I leave you to watch it all on Crunchyroll now, I'd like to say, for years, I felt anime was dead. Between Kids on the Slope and Polar Bear Cafe, I have been assured it is most certainly not. Also, you might need Kotaku's "A Listener's Guide to the Music of Kids on the Slope" for later.

Wreck-It Ralph

Photo courtesy of animationmagazine.net

When Wreck-it Ralph opened, I was in Detroit for work at Youmacon. So, I wasn't able to catch it until last night. It was once described as "Roger Rabbit, but with video games." I still wasn't sure what to expect. I didn't want to know what to expect. As soon as the movie opened with an animated Steamboat Mickey sprite with chiptunes, I knew it was going to be great, and it was. I won't go too much into it because I don't want to spoil the movie, but I will make a few comments.

There is something life-affirming about seeing a beautifully-made homage to video games make $119,990,000 ...And it's not even done yet. The movie makes a great scavenger hunt for what must be hundreds of references to different games. Countless tiny details and lush environments accompany a heart-warming story. The voice acting was top-notch and my God, do I love Vanellope. In other words, if you haven't seen it yet, do it now!

Ecological Streetwear: My Kickstarter Project

I just launched a Kickstarter project. It's a small t-shirt line meant to spread the awareness of animal conservation. You can check it out here.

Last year, I took a class on how to screen print. Screen printing is something I have always wanted to get into, and I was very encouraged by my teacher who told me I had grasped it well. Unfortunately, I also learned screen printing can be very expensive. Over the summer, I really struggled with the costs of starting. The super smart Tanuki I live with suggested I use Kickstarter to help me out.

Unexpectedly, it took a considerable amount of time to put together. Much of that time was sucked up by: research, illustration, typeface hunting, and cost calculations. To polish the project, I: recorded a video, edited it, made headers for my "story," and made a pie graph showing the money breakdown. I am pretty happy with how the Kickstarter page looks, but this is only just the beginning! Donor rewards start at just $5! If you can't donate, please share. ^^

"Oriental Whore".... I mean "Whore of the Orient"

When I saw this, my jaw dropped and I yelled, "Excuse me?" either we just went back a hundred years, and we still somehow have Twitter or someone made a poor choice. It turns out it was the latter. (Though #AllBlackPeopleShouldKNow would be further evidence of going back in time.) Although "Whore of the Orient" is an old "nickname" for Shanghai, why dig up something like that and make the title of your "triple A" game?

Back in November, an article in Financial Review mentioned George Miller acquiring the rights to Team Bondi's Whore of the Orient. It was the first mention of the game, but it was not mentioned again until Team Bondi updated their website today. Hence, the title of the game trending on Twitter. Unfortunately, I have yet to play L.A. Noir, and haven't kept up with any Team Bondi news. As far as I knew, they didn't exist anymore.

The game is about 1930s Shanghai, which actually sounds interesting with, "Western powers who greedily exploit the Chinese masses..." and "...the Kuomintang ruthlessly trying to suppress Communism and the labour movement." But WHY oh WHY would you call it that awful nickname Whore of the Orient? Team Bondi, did you know at one point in American History, Americans thought all Chinese women were prostitutes? They believed so strongly in this, the government made it almost completely illegal for Chinese women to immigrate to the United States under the assumption that they were all whores. To this day, Asian women are synonymous with sex. Just check out these Google image searches. While I don't have any opposition to what the game is about, why title the game with such a loaded stereotypical term?

Adam WarRock Gave me a Virtual Hug

I’m a big fan of Random and follow him, as well as K-Murdock, on Facebook. Since Facebook likes to show what others are commenting on, one of K-Murdock’s “likes” showed up in my feed. It was a photo of a venue with a list of artists playing, one of them being, “ADAM WARCOCK.” Under it was the caption, “LOL best misspelling of my name ever!” This was the first I heard of Adam WarRock (real name Eugene Anh). It took me a while to catch on to him, but a guy who makes a mixtape about Parks and Recreation is a winner in my book.

This week, he is running his annual donation drive. He regularly and frequently puts out free music, and only asks for donations once a year. The donation drive coincides with the anniversary of him quitting his day job as a lawyer, and moving onto music full-time. My admiration goes out to those who make this decision in life because I know exactly what it’s like. Currently, I work as a “starving artist.” As much as I love my father, and I know he loves me, he still to this day does not approve of what I do. I spent a fraction my childhood of him saying things like, “You’re good at art…you should be a plastic surgeon!” I realize first generation Asian parents do this because they want their kids to be secure in their future. So, to come to them and say something like, “Hey I’m going to make anime costumes for a living” it’s going to get this reaction :/. I can’t imagine the look on Eugene Anh’s parents’ faces when he told them he was going to quit being a lawyer so he can become a rapper.

He risked being a disappointment to his parents, gave up being a lawyer, and invested a ton of sweat equity into what he loves the most. His regular releases show his passion and dedication to his work, and his music is fun and well-produced. These are all reasons you should donate to Adam WarRock. I wasn’t able to afford as much as I would have liked to give, but I was pleasantly surprised by a donor award (as well as a virtual hug over twitter). You will not be disappointed by it, either. The donor award contains plenty of tracks and a little comic. Check out his first music video below too. It's a good song and explains what he does. Appreciate this man’s hard work and donate today!

Hip-hop for Fandom

My love for hip-hop and games were never mutually exclusive. I learned about Japanese hip-hop artists through Bemani games. Japanese hip-hop eventually led me back to American hip-hop, thanks to J-hip-hop influences and collaborations. While I appreciate all kinds of hip-hop, nerdcore is a sub-genre I can especially appreciate. Like most music, there's a lot of unfortunate crap you have to weed through to get to the good stuff. For those of you who may be new at this, I'm going to try and make it a little bit easier for you by making a few artist recommendations.

Random (a.k.a. Mega Ran) is my #1 pick. He was recently featured on complex.com for his amazing freestyling at E3, and his Mega Man albums are officially licensed by Capcom. He is lyrically skilled and is frequently backed up by familiar, but wonderfully remixed samples and beats. Find all of his music here. The best from Mega Ran is the tracks he did with K-Murdock. My favourite is below.

This next artist was introduced to me by my boyfriend (who will, from this point on be referred to as "Tanuki"). Tanuki works in information security. Information security has a small community. So, it didn't take long for him to find YT Cracker. His latest track was titled "#antisec" and was in regards to lulzsec being caught. He's a smart guy with smart lyrics. Find all of his albums here. Find one of his catchiest tracks below, "The Link."

Adam WarRock's music has a wide variety of subjects, from Mass Effect 3 to Parks and Recreation. Once, I randomly saw his name on an Asian-American blog. I thought, "Why is Adam WarRock featured here?" I had no idea he's Korean American! He's a lawyer turned rapper and keeps relevant with regular releases. You can find his albums here. Also, check this one out, it's about the best show on television.

These artists are just a teeny-tiny fraction of nerdcore. For a much more comprehensive list of nerdcore artists, check out nerdcorenow.com. I'll definitely be making more recommendations in the future.

The Gamer's T-shirt

Over two weeks ago, I visited friends and family for a weekend in LA. A good friend of mine, Emil, told me he was very conscious of the t-shirts he wore around my boyfriend and me because we always had "such cool and unique shirts." This post is for Emil, but I think some of you out there can find it useful too. Below are my recommendations on where to find the best t-shirts.

My number one choice is Meat Bun. Giant Robot in LA carries their shirts in-store, but you can also find them online at their website. The shirts incredibly soft and made in the USA. They are also the only place you can get Paul Robertson's artwork on a t-shirt. The shirts are still loud in their big designs and use of color, but when referencing a game, the imagery and text are not obvious as to where they come from. My only complaint about them is their complete lack of women's sizes. Though, I like them enough to buy a shirt from them and put the time into altering it so it fits me.

Another shirt company I recommend is Kineda. The shirts are limited run, so I suggest you like them on Facebook or sign up for their mailing list. Keep a look out for their new World Warrior collection which is officially licensed by Capcom. Their interpretations of game characters are simple and Hello Kitty-like. The screen printing on the shirts is absolutely perfect and they use my favourite choice in basic clothing, American Apparel.

One game clothing company I have always admired, but have never been able to afford is King of Games. They carry t-shirts, hoodies, and button down shirts. All of their designs revolve around retro games and their work is incredibly detailed. It even comes packaged in a cool box! Though, the shirts run ¥3500 to ¥6000. The bad news: after overseas shipping, you're pretty much paying BAPE prices on t-shirts. The good news: the chances of running into someone with the same shirt at PAX is slim.

One company I discovered recently is Bitmap'd. Their designs are simple and subtle. Though, I can't speak for the screen print or the t-shirt quality, there's only one way to find out. (They also do not carry women's sizes.)

Here are two places I don't recommend for gaming t-shirts. Shirt.Woot carries limited run designs, which is a good thing. Though, recently they increased their prices and stopped printing on American Apparel shirts. They switched those out for cheaper shirts made in Honduras. I wouldn't have minded the price increase if they stayed with American Apparel, but this move made me stop buying from them completely.

The other place I don't recommend is Threadless. They are a great company with good quality t-shirts, but do not buy their gaming shirts. Why? EVERYONE has my Space Invaders shirt and it's kind of embarrassing. Not only do I see it on at least ten different people every time I go to PAX, I even ran into an a grey-haired, overweight man at an appliance store wearing it. That's how common it is. Some people don't mind this, but I am not one of those people. I'm not saying don't buy from Threadless at all. The problem with my shirt is that I bought it as a re-print.  If it stays limited run, your experience with the shirt would probably differ from mine, but you never know if a limited run shirt from Threadless is going to be re-printed or not. 

Stay tuned for a future post on recommendations on what to wear with that gaming t-shirt!