http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/manga-porn/

Legal precedent has been set in the states for people possessing manga/doujinshi portraying any minor in a a questionable situation with a trial that has been finished with a guilty verdict (under the 2003 Protect Act), which means that unless this is appealed, that all other collectors are open to the same judgment.  Hooray for Legal Precedents.   As Wired already states in their post, there’s some sort of legal defense fund that’s starting up regarding this situation but I honestly don’t think we’ll see any change in the verdict.

Given as a heads-up, below this cut I give my own opinion on the matter…

Wired’s post is far more complete than mine, and in a sense I can kind of understand what they’re going on about on the legal side.  I’m not much a lolita collector myself but honestly they could actually be using this money to go after people that ACTUALLY hurt and abuse children rather than just people that have manga.  But hey, people make their careers on sensationalized situations like this.  In this case they stumbled upon an imported manga when they did a customs check, and as they even stated that he was described as a ‘prolific’ collector of a grand number of manga, not simply lolicon/lolita.

Part of the revised Protect Act was loosened already to ‘allow’ Hollywood productions to use visual depictions of minors engaged in sexual activity, but the act is (of course) super long and chock full of legalese that I am only so-so good at interpreting.  (Horray for two courses of contract law)  This does nothing to protect children, but they should have simply confiscated the books and issued an import regulations advisory.

I’d say that it’s becoming a risk to import some things if you’re American or Canadian (Canadian import laws often coincide with America, since we’re joined at the hip), I can only imagine what this means for doujinshi sellers at conventions.  This precedent is going to be problematic.

What do you think?  Is it right?  Is it wrong?  Should their actions be put to better use than some dude that imports books and doesn’t touch a soul?

Meanwhile: Here are some important quotes from Wired’s post, written by David Kravets.  It’s real food for thought if you’re a US Citizen:

• Chase says he recommended the plea agreement (.pdf) to his client because he didn’t think he could convince a jury to acquit him once they’d seen the images in question. The lawyer declined to describe the details. “If they can imagine it, they drew it,” he says. “Use your imagination. It was there.”
• The 39-year-old office worker was charged under the 2003 Protect Act, which outlaws cartoons, drawings, sculptures or paintings depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and which lack “serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.” Handley’s guilty plea makes him the first to be convicted under that law for possessing cartoon art, without any evidence that he also collected or viewed genuine child pornography.  He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.

For those interested, there is information available  …at this link…, however the next livefeed is starting a bit earlier.   I plan to start it up at aprox 4:30 (16:30) EST, as usual at GMT -5:00.  I’ll be talking a bit more about Dakimakura and perhaps even showing how to hand-wash one live among other things.

I also have some swag from AnimeNorth and Sakuracon to show if people wish to see, and there’s much to talk about as well in the world of Otaku.  Feel free to tell your friends and join me at the following link on Feed-day.   As always the post will be at the link below:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/len-vesper-live

Hope to see you there!

More con photoshoot posts coming up soon today.

Lastwear are people that take costuming beyond the norm of simply-being in a costume and add depth.  Each costume they create and wear has a story in depth, detail, purpose.  They have more creativity in their little fingers than I do in most of my body and it shows.

I had the pleasure of being involved in a photoshoot with them – and I’m going to talk more about them in the next post here coming up tomorrow.

I figured that people may want a preview of what I’ll be talking about so here’s the link to the set for the photoshoot – it’s not anime related but it’s impressive nonetheless and relevant to my interests.   I give you, Photoshoot #1 of Lastwear.com’s creations:  The Amber Guard

The Amber Guard Photoshoot

I took a seriously extreme amount of pictures and I know that everyone I worked with wants them to look great, I am treating them nice and slow to make sure the colors are perfect and well contrasted.   Picture batch 1 is, at this time of posting, being uploaded to Flickr.

They will be divided into sets by different Costumes, Groups, and Venue Areas.  If you see an ‘unknown’ for character or cosplayer name, please contact me and I will update information for proper tagging anytime.

I want to thank everyone that assisted in my group photoshoots, especially:

• Dave “Jaiden” White, my Equipment and Video Assosciate
• Lastwear Absinthe Fairy and Amber Guard, and everyone else in the crew… who got lumped in with three other groups in the scheduling fiasco on Sunday.  orz   You guys were fantastic in the shoots, your pictures are going to have a specific post on this blog just for them.
• Lauren, Erika, Lisa, and the SO many other awesome cosplayers that agreed to photoshoots.
• Sakuracon Staff for allowing me the priviledge of working as press this year.

It was awesome working with you all, the posts will be chained up in the next day to few days, videos will in near future afterwards.  If you have any special requests, you can use the ‘contact &  suggest‘ forms above to find out where to buzz me!

A special note to cosplayers that are involved in my photoshoots is located below!

About Girugamesh and “Hangry and Angry” coverage:

I’ve been getting emails regarding coverage of the two parties in the title.  I want to settle something to prevent people from getting unfullfilled expectations: 

I will not be covering either of these two groups, not after being informed of the laughably ridiculous restrictions on any photo-op and shoot.  Anyone with that kind of crap arrangements needs to desperately fire their publicity and PR managers.

I will be focusing mainly on cosplay, panels and merchants and interviews. 

 Cosplayers and other interested parties visiting:

Tomorrow’s photoshoots are going as planned, and am now equipped for proper low-light shooting, so once we meet we can establish where to shoot.   Also, I am going to be bringing my video camera, if you are interested in being interviewed about your cosplay, favourite series, etc.

Please let me know if you wish to organize a photoshoot and/or interview via email (see contact info near the fancy changing banner).

Here are the times already booked so far, all times are in PST:

If you and/or your friends want to take up a time slot, contact me and let me know:  Your name, how many people, and a place to meet (please make it easy to find on the venue), and how long you would like to take. 

Soon I will be in Seattle and getting ready for Sakuracon.  Press passes this year, too! 

This time of year each year is something of a favourite of mine.  Sakuracon was my first ever convention, since then I’ve made the trip from Quebec to Seattle each year for the con.   This year I applied for press-pass and they were nice enough to approve me!  So I’m heading there once again in the next days to visit with friends and get into the usual otaku groove.

It’s been a while since my last steady posts, life has been a bit weird and hectic but this should be a good springboard to get things rolling again now that things have relaxed once more.   I know it sucks for you guys that come here often, but Finetoo is a hobby, I don’t make money from it, I do this at my own expense after all!

I’m strongly considering seeing if I can convince some cosplayers or even cosplay groups to do some full photo shoots.  Perhaps I’ll make that my next post and see if people are interested if some people online find their way to my blog…

I have become the victim and statistic of the American Economy. I have been notified that I’ve been downsized from my position at Cardinal Health. No, I am not halting the blog, worry not about that.

I’ll probably talk about it a bit after my meeting with management, and no, it’s not an aggressive layoff, there’s a very good severence package for my years and success at Cardinal Health, however the story is very simple: They are downsizing and after the restructuring, the lab I run won’t be necessary post-consolidation. That is life, I took that risk by working in a corporation which, in nature, constantly restructure, reorganize and grow and shrink.

I am optimistic. I remain.

Len-Vesper.

 Sukumizu and Stockings, it’s like Sasara with a lolita twist?

I bought this particular figure back in January when I was out and about Toronto on business, and it was Rin at Koiaichaku that was the one that introduced me to the store, Anime Extreme.  They had a handfull of Nanako figures in both the traditional royal blue sukumizu and also the more ‘fetishy’ white sukumizu.  I chose the blue one for aesthetic value, I like blue and I found it went better with the color of the ribbons in her hair, and complemented her stockings.

 The swimsuit even has wrinkles in it!

 You’ll have to click below for more, though!

As I said, Nekomimi, Inumimi and all the other kemonomimi-types.  Usually the inclusion of cat ears can be cute, but the moment I see a tail it just seems completely out of place for me.  Personal opinion set aside, the other features of this figure is what lead me to get it.     The rest of the details make up for my dislike of nekomimi, in not only this one figure but one other, ironically bought in the same place.

 Criss-crossed ribbons are a cute hair ornament

Most of the figure is defined in slender lines and gentle curves really.  There aren’t really any sharp ‘edges’ to the figure, it’s distinctly soft and pretty subtle for a figure but subtlty or not the fanservice quotient is sky high.    The details they chose to include is heavy on the fanservice, as you can tell by the photos, it’s pretty much a figure that a pedobear would have designed if pedobears could design figures. 

The choice of pose is not something you see often, especially when you consider the base.  I guess it’s as close to a ‘free standing’ figure as you can reasonably get.  There is no base that fixes it to place but it comes with a pair of pillows to display the figure on.  The pillows are pretty soft and smooth, and you can use them in creative ways. 

The only thing that bothers me on the figure is the hip-line.  It seems to flare out too volouptously for someone that young, while I suppose that it adds some fanservice flair to some people, when observing the figure from the front, it has this somewhat wedge-like shape, which is a bit odd to my eye.   The detail on the swimsuit is very nice, they put a lot of thought on how the suit’s fabric would pool or ripple depending on her pose.   The addition of the stockings on the figure make this a real kicker though, as the sculptors obviously knew that it would drive some otaku’s minds wild.

The sealing seams are well chosen too, they’re almost impossible to see.  I had to look hard to find the casting lines for the figure, and only found evidence of them in the back of the legs (which are never shown anyway with the pillow base).  There must have been a soft paint-over job or something after the cast was set, it’s that difficult to spot.  It’s good to see attention to detail like that.

Personally I could have gone completely without the cat tail.  While I’m sure it’s cute to many, in my opinion it didn’t add anything to the figure’s moe factor or appearnace at all.  The ears would have been enough but they ruined the flow of lines by adding the tail in its little bashful curl unerneath her.  Since it’s barely visible when she’s sitting on the pillow anyway, they could easily have left it out.  I would think the figure better overall for it, too.

There’s a lot of accessorizing on the figure.   Ribbons, stockings, wrist cuffs, the read beads from the ties, and the cat bell collar.  As if this figure wasn’t fetish enough, they added a collar with a cat bell.   Nyan!

The wink-face is a nice touch, the upturned eyebrows show uncertainty but the wink is something coquetteish.  The pose overall gives a demure feeling to the figure and its unique base and pleasing color scheme could easily make this a showpiece for display.   I know it’s sparked up a few conversations since I got it!

For more pictures you can check my flicker photo set for Nanako:

Nanako – Nekomimi Sukumizu Ver.

Here’s some basic information about the figure:

Manufacturer:  Kotobukiya

Sizes:  32.5cm * 20.5cm * 17.5cm

Weight:  Under 1kg

Price Paid: 92.50 (Direct)

Testing out some fancy on the go blogging soft for HTC… it’s pretty slick!

Finally got done with taking pictures, each time I was sitting down in my ’studio’ for the pictures something would come up.  In any case, I have a preliminary photoshoot done on Flickr but it’s late here and I get up at 6, so I’ll leave you with the photos as tease and write up the post tomorrow. 

This is Nanako from To Heart 2: Another Days, sporting schoolswimsuit and stockings a la fetish-stimulating Kyou Fujibayashi-style.  I usually dislike kemonomimi style stuff but the figure is actually really nice and has a novelty look to it due to the pillows that come with.

For now, here’s a link to the photoset:

http://flickr.com/photos/len-vesper/sets/72157614494474942/