Densha Otoko

Densha Otoko (literally Train Man) is a story of a young otaku (basically a super-nerd who lives for stuff in Akihabara) who saves a young woman from a drunken passenger on a train. A relationship blossoms over time between them (starting with just casual outings and eventually ending with a proclamation of love), and the whole time Densha Otoko (the aforementioned otaku) consults a webboard (2ch if that means anything to you) for advice on how to change from the single, awkward otaku into a man who can interest and date the beautiful young woman.

Sorry about the lack of English subs for this video. This is the only video on Youtube of the ending. The English subs would give it a lot more meaning, although you can still get some idea from just the footage.

EDIT: I edited this to add in the fact that Densha Otoko is based on a true story of something that actually happened (I think in 2004, but I need to double check on the date). The posts on 2ch are archived and an English translation is available online. I was actually interested enough in the series that I bought an English translation of a book that compiles all of the posts.

akihabara@deep

The funny thing is I've been to most of these places in the intro. I was a super nerd and spent quite a few hours in Akihabara.

akihabara@deep

Well, my online friends have convinced me to watch another Japanese show, and now I'm in love with it. It's called akihabara@deep, and it's about a group of otaku in Akihabara trying to solve problems (like otaku hunting gangs and such). I'm overly simplifying it, but it's awesomeness.


Title Shot


The group that makes up akihabara@deep. From left to right: Izumu (a 16 year old genius programmer), Box (a master graphic designer, knowledgable about computers, fears women), Page (a web designer and knowledgable comptuer person, suffers from a bad stutter and so most times uses a computer to speak for him rather than speak himself), Akira (works at an otaku cafe where she has to dress up to please customers, is a master at boxing and martial arts, was reluctant to join up with the otakus at first but once they defended her and helped her she's come to like them), Daruma (a costume designer who can make just about any kind of clothing, he constantly dresses in costumes from various TV shows and animes and is quite silly), and Taiko (a musician who suffers from bouts of freezing/seizures when he's exposed to flashes like cameras or lights or what not). They're a very odd ball group, but they work well together. They're also all very interesting. The show's enjoyable and I can't wait until I see more.

Kamen Rider Kabuto

I found these images while browsing online. There's a Japanese guy who is drawing a single image based on each image from Kamen Rider Kabuto. He's about 3 episodes behind but that's to be expected with the quality of the art. I've linked them here so they won't take too much time to load hopefully.

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Also

I did pick up Justice League Heroes this past week (and I plan to pick up Marvel Ultimate Alliance this coming week). JLH is pretty fun. Unfortunately, I went a little "Superman must be a god" happy and maxed out his heat vision. Now in the game, he kills all normal enemies in a second and most bosses in a handful of seconds. Superman is officially god of the game because of how I altered him. I need to go back and replay the game some, as I've heard some of the secondary characters I skipped over initially (Green Arrow in particular) are really fun and really powerful as well. Maybe I'll be able to create another god within the game. We'll see though. MUA next week will be insane though. I hear it's long and it's got tons of playable characters (20+). Hooray for being a nerd.

Random Humor

I believe I may be the only one at our school who actually gets this joke. It's in reference to a Japanese TV series I've already mentioned here called Kamen Rider Kabuto. I'd explain the joke, but I think it loses its meaning that way.



And this is from Marvel's Stan Lee Meets Doctor Strange, which came out about two weeks ago. It's basically making fun of the fans who rant and rave when changes happen to their favorite franchises. The phrase "raping my childhood" has been used on the internet numerous times, most recently when the Transformers from the new movie were revealed and really didn't match up with the old ones. I find this frame (and the rest of the story after this) quite hilarious. It's funny how people overreact about small changes in their favorite things. If I couldn't stand change, I would never be able to watch as many annual Japanese shows as I do (series that are in the same vein but totally independent of each other each year). I also probably wouldn't be able to stomach some of the awesome stuff that's on TV now (Lost and Battlestar Galactica come to mind).

Blah blah blah

Last week was a big week for television stuff for me. 2nd episode of Heroes on Monday, Lost premiere on Wednesday, 2nd episode of the season for Smallville and 3rd episode of Survivor: Cook Islands on Thursday, and Battlestar Galactica premiere on Friday. Tons of stuff to watch, tons of stuff to discuss online. It was a good week for television. Let's hope this week keeps up (so far it has with the 3rd episode of Heroes).

I spent a good portion of last week playing catch up with all my comics that I read. I was still way behind at the start; I had stuff from mid-June still to read (from around the time I left for Japan). I managed to get through a lot of it though. I'm now into September's stuff, which means I should be caught up to the present in the next week or so.

Here are the comic series I am reading for anyone who cares:

Marvel - Anything related to Civil War (including tie-ins, which brings in a lot of different series), Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, Spectacular Spider-Man, Moon Knight, Daredevil, Incredible Hulk, Ultimates 2, Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, New X-Men, X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor, Thunderbolts, and so on.

DC - 52, Batman, Detective Comics, Action Comics, Superman, Nightwing, Robin, Birds of Prey, Supergirl, Supergirl and the Legion of Super-Heroes, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Ion, Aquaman, and Justice League of America.

Wildstorm (now partially owned by DC and partially owned by Image) - Gen 13 and Worldstorm.

Yeah, it's quite a bit of stuff. Not all of it's good, and some of it I will dump along the line. There's a lot of good stuff there.