UKotaku

UKotaku.net

2008-08-20T13:45:00.003+01:00

Ok so the new ukotaku website is up and ready to be invaded by you fellows out here in internet land. We will soon be shutting down this fairly inactive blog and moving our wafflings over to personal blogs for each of the otacrew on ukotaku.net
The podcasts will also be released via this new portal, please come and visit us, sign up and add your thoughts to the community.

Thanks for the support, we hope you enjoy the new site!

Interwebs / Links

ukotaku.net

Yuko Otacast Show 6: MATT'S BACK

2008-07-23T12:44:00.001+01:00

Download Now

[copypaste from http://ukotaku.podbean.com]

Show 6 sees the triumphant return of Matt after his mighty American conquest, he speaks a bit about his amazing journey into the heart of the new world. We also had Jade and Louise with us to discuss anime and other otaku related stuffs. Darlo was supposed to join us but was unfortunately cut short by noisy children and left us before we had a chance to speak with him. I chatted a little about my new website (http://ukotaku.net/rokaru) and we also launched our brand new karaoke competition!

UKotaku is currently running two, yes two, glorious competitions!

Comp 1: The UKotaku Pika Pika Drawing Comp

Send us your pictures of the UKotaku gang (Myself [John], Jade, Matt, Louise, Emily or even Darlo) and stand the chance to be awarded the extravagant prize of “some manga that Jade doesn’t want any more”!!! It doesn’t matter if you don’t know what we look like, in fact that is even better, draw us how you think we look. Or if you do know what we look like draw us as you think we should look.

Send your entries to: podcast@ukotaku.net with the subject “drawing comp” or something similar.

Comp 2: The UKotaku “OMG, WTF WAS THAT?” Karaoke Competition

Simply tell us what anime we are singing the opening or ending of at the end of each podcast, if you get these consistently correct for an as yet undefined number of shows (probably 10 or something) you will win a prize constructed entirely out of epicness* (we haven’t decided what the prize will be yet).

* Actual prize may not be made of epicness

Send your entries to podcast@ukotaku.net with the subject “karaoke” or something similar.

Music Credits

Tune 1: Riyu Konaka - Hiccups

Tune 2: EEE - Theme of EEE

Tune 3: Suiren - Manmos no Ashiato

Tune 4: Plastic Soul Band - Somehow

Sweeper, Stabs and BGM by JiLTED

Dont forget to leave us your comments and feedback!

General (and comps): podcast@ukotaku.net

Voice Mail: 0208 1337 502 (internationals call: 0044 208 1337 502)

Jade: girutaku@ukotaku.net

John: n00j@ukotaku.net

Matt: sum0@ukotaku.net

Louise: shoujo@ukotaku.net

Emily: selph@ukotaku.net

Enjoy the show! Byeni!

Another delayed Podcast announcement, also it's MAH BIRFDAY!!!

2008-07-07T19:11:00.002+01:00

Hello fellow otaku!
I forgot to mention Show 5 of the podcast is online: http://ukotaku.podbean.com/2008/07/03/yuko-otacast-show-5-jades-sekushi-miyavi-special/

Also today is my birthday! Hooray!

Thank's for listening to the show, we have a new site and a new blog (with much more content than this one) coming soon, keep you eyes peeled.

Copy paste from http://ukotaku.podbean.com follows...

Download Now (or scroll down for steaming)

Another show for you! Matt is away in America right now so he was sadly absent from the show, however Jade, Louise and myself filled the void with our usual blend on nonsense and the occasional fact.

Jade gave us her extended report on the recent Miyavi concert in London and I talked a little bit about the upcoming game release Mirror’s Edge, amongst other things. Thanks to Louise being present this show also saw the welcome return of “Weeaboo Word of the Week”.

We also launched the first official UKotaku Competion: The UKotaku Pika Pika Competition.

Despite the title this has nothing to do with Pokemon but is in fact a drawing contest. The challenge is to draw you favourite member (or all members) of the podcast, if you don’t know what we look that’s even better! The best entries will win a prize of somekind, either a chance to be on the podcast, a manga Jade doen’t want anymore or maybe even a KitKat! With prizes like that why wouldn’t you enter?

Send your entries to: yukotaku@googlemail.com

Music Credits

Tune 1: Frogtrippers - Yaruki No Nai Kousaten

Tune 2: Fumitaka Anzai - Credo

Tune 3: JiLTED - Waiting for Her(mes)

Tune 4: K Juno - Lorelei

Sweepers, Stabs and BGM by JiLTED

Don’t forget you can send us you feedback by email: yukotaku@googlemail.com

Leave us a voice mail: 0208 1337 502 (or 0044 208 1337 502 for callers outside of the UK)

Thanks for listening!

Yuko Otacast Show 4: Gender Issues

2008-06-21T14:28:00.000+01:00

A copypaste from: http://ukotaku.podbean.com

Download Now

We finally managed to get show 4 online. And we think this ones a good ‘un! We talked a bit about undubbing and alot about Mika Nakashima. We also discussed some news about gaming, tech, UK anime releases, stabbings (thanks Matt) and a load of other interesting stuff too. Plus some awesome new Japanese tunes from the pod safe music network.

So join us on a journey through the United Otakudom and be sure to send us your comments and views.

By email: yukotaku@googlemail.com

Or leave us a message: 0208 1337 502

(for callers outside of the UK: 0044 208 1337 502)

Music Credits

Tune 1: 346 Batting Centre - Violent Fellow on the Way

Tune 2: EEE - Jungle Beat

Tune 3: Frogtrippers - Robot De Baba

Tune 4: Shinichi - Tokyo Gyangstar

Sweepers, Stabs and BGM by JiLTED

Download Now

Yuko Otacast Show 3: It Came From Japan

2008-05-30T14:34:00.001+01:00

A copypaste from: http://ukotaku.podbean.com

Download Now!

This show has taken along time to produce as we (myself and Jade) have been moving in to our new house. Now we are settled and are ready to bring you more otaku flavoured goodness from the heart of the UKotaku.

This week we had a fairly short show. Due to no internets at the new UKotaku HQ (should be installed next week) we had not Skype-ins or Podsafe Music for your listening pleasure.

We did however cover the “It Came From Japan” UK tour and we even managed to grab some sound bites from the bands! We also chatted our usual mix of sometimes informative otaku related rubbish.

Rest assured, dear listener, that the next show will see us back on form and will be jam packed with music, action and much otafun. We should also be able to get Louise and Emily involved again once we have our internet up and running.

So a big thanks to the It Came From Japan guys: Kevin, Mami and Mayuki and the bands: Vola & the Oriental Machine and Bo Peep.

Interwebs / Links

UKotaku / It Came From Japan

MySpaz / It Came From Japan

MySpaz / Live House Movie

Vola & the Oriental Machine

Bo Peep

Sweepers, Stabs and BGM by JiLTED

Please send us your views and opinions: yukotaku [at] googlemail [dot] com

Or leave us a voicemail: +44 (0)208 1337 502

Download Now!

It Came From Japan!

2008-05-20T21:13:00.006+01:00

So, UKotaku (well myself and Jade) attended the Norwich leg of the "It Came From Japan" UK tour at the Playhouse. It featured two Japanese punk / rock / pop bands from the bleeding edge of the Tokyo music scene, Vola & The Oriental Machine and Bo Peep.

Vola is made up of 4 talented Tokyo guys, The lead singer / guitarist / percussionist Ahito Inazawa (ex-drummer of Number Girl and Zazen Boys), second guitarist Yutaka Aoki, bassist Yoshinori Arie and drummer Daiki Nakahata.
Ahito cites bands such as Gang of Four, Joy Division and New Order and the main influences in the style of Vola's music. They certainly have a very distinctive sound, sometimes thrashy, sometimes electro and some times just a little silly, with driving rhythms provided by both Ahito and Daiki. The moments where Ahito thrusts aside his guitar and joins in the drumming on his own mini-kit were truly a sight (and sound) to behold!
This band also occasionally reminded me of Polysics with their blend of electro and rock, I later discovered from the Vola wiki that the first album "Android" featured a remix by the Polysics lead singer Hiroyuki Hayashi.

You can purchase Vola & The Oriental Machine albums through iTunes Japan.

iTunes Link>>>

The second band, Bo Peep, should comprise of 3 Japanese girls, Mika Yoshimura (guitar, vocals) Ryoko Nakano (drums, chorus) and Junko Himei (bass, chorus) but sadly Junko was mysteriously absent from the gig. Fortunately Vola's bassist, Yoshinori Arie, seamlessly filled her place on stage.
This band are classic shouty girl punk, mixed with a distinctively new wave edge, sprinkled with lashings of Japanese hip. They also have one of the most energetic (and cutest) female drummers I have ever seen.
Mika and Ryoko met at school in Fukuoka and later joined up with Junko to form the band we know today.

You can purchase Bo Peep's latest album "Is It Good For YOU? !!" and others from iTunes UK.

iTunes Link >>>

View Album

Get your own

We will be speaking a little more about these bands on the next UKotaku Podcast and playing a couple of little audio nuggets we recorded with the bands after the event. The show should go out early next week but may take a little longer as we are in the process of moving the studio to a new home.

A big thanks to Iwahori-san and Fukuda-san for letting us back stage to harass the bands, to Kevin Mcgue for translating for us and to the Neutrinos for bringing this event to us.

Oooh... touchy!

2008-05-11T20:39:00.003+01:00

So the HTC Touch Diamond is nearly ready for release, and oh boy is it looking hot!

So, this phone may be ever so slightly lacking when compared to the iPhone but the important thing here is that this phone is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1, which means that us WinMo fanboys can have a phone almost as nice as an iPhone! Yey!
I notice from the videos on YouTube that HTC are being a little cagey about delving to deep into the phone, which suggests that behind that glossy 3D exterior still lays a slightly clunky and less finger friendly WinMo interface. This was something painfully annoying about the Touch and Cruise, but also something which can be easily solved by recruiting third party apps to handle your mobile tasks.
Needless to say I will be getting on of these sexy beasts once they are released.

For more info check out: http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=46278

Bootfighter Windom XP SP-2

2008-05-05T23:05:00.003+01:00

You can count the number of mecha games for PC on one hand (Shogo, anyone?), and the number of freeware PC mecha games must be very small indeed. Enter Kobe-produced Bootfighter Window XP SP-2, a third-person shooter featuring Gundam-style mecha duelling it out against a backdrop of highly destructible urban sprawl. From IndieGames.com's review:

"It's time for some wanton destruction - Japanese style! Bootfighter Windom XP SP-2 features giant armed mechs (designs borrowed from Gundam) fighting in dense urban environments. Powerful weapons demolishing city buildings with one shot, jetpacks taking you sky high and special abilities like brief transformation are in common use both by player and AI bots, so battlegrounds tend to get pretty hot seconds after the battle begins."

I haven't been able to give it a go yet, but it seems to be getting some positive reviews. For the price of free and a mere 60MB download, how can you lose? It's pretty much your only option for genuine Japanese mecha action, at least until Gundam: Senjō no Kizuna comes out over here... Trailer below.

Yuko Otacast Show 2: Shop 99

2008-05-05T21:15:00.004+01:00

A copypaste from: http://ukotaku.podbean.com

Download Now!

This show we discussed the infamous Shop 99, Japanese movies, music, games, anime and food. Plus we had an exclusive con report by Emily direct from the Collectomania Convention. We even managed to bag ourselves a super special celebrity guest (honest!) We also played some music and chatted about life, the universe, paint in vaginas and everything.

We recorded this weeks show at the CME offices, and I promised a link so here we go: http://www.cme.org.uk/

Music Credits

Tune 1: Insist - Peace

Tune 2: Ammuff - Time Travel

Tune 3: 4 in the Moonlight - Kaipirinya No Moto E (I got song name and artist the wrong way round during the show, sorry guys!)

Sweepers, Stabs and BGM by JiLTED

Please send us your views and opinions: yukotaku [at] googlemail [dot] com

Or leave us a voicemail: +44 (0)208 1337 502

Download Now!

Shop 99

2008-05-04T15:01:00.007+01:00

Given that SHOP 99 was my main place to buy food and supplies in Tokyo, I was overjoyed to discover that their website has an mp3 of their rockin' theme tune, The Shop 99 Theme. Imagine this playing non-stop surrounded by low low prices, and you have the essence of Shop 99.

For your karaoke pleasure, romaji lyrics and (very) rough translation (suggestions welcome) follows:

SHOP99　99　99
SHOP99　99　99
date ni yasuku wa arimasen　(No expensive things)
anata o soutte 99 99　(Your idea is 99)
anata no ouchini todoketai (We will deliver to your honourable house)
sounna kimochi de 99 99 (This feeling is 99??)

SHOP99　99　99
SHOP99　99　99
kyabeshi ni daikon 99 (Cabbages and daikon, 99)
o-niku ni o-sakana 99 99 (Meat and fish 99)
o-kashi da purin da yuugeruto　(Sweets, pudding, yoghurts)
matomete kaimasho 99 99 (In conclusion, let’s buy 99)
SHOP99　99　99
SHOP99　99　99　99　99

DESU?

2008-04-30T21:08:00.007+01:00

So, the other day I was asked by a Japanese girl on Facebook a simple question: "What is DESU?"
Now obviously a Japanese person knows the intrinsic meaning of this, a copula used in Japanese language which can roughly be translated as "be" or "is," a quick wiki on the subject will tell you all you need to know.
She was, of course, not referring to it in this context, she was referring to the fact that I had the word DESU in my status repeated several times, and was, understandably, confused by this usage of the word.

This got me thinking, what is DESU? Many of us know that it was an internet meme started some time in 2006 as a result of Suiseiseki from the anime Rozen Maiden ending pretty much all of her sentences in the polite form of the copula. This resulted in many pictures of the green and red eyed girl being plastered in various places on the interwebs alongside the word DESU repeated ad nauseum. This also gave birth to Rule #1: Needs more DESU. No exceptions.
2 years later this practice is still going strong.
But I want to discuss the meaning of this in a more philosophical sense, why have otaku and weeaboos adopted this ridiculous meme as a mantra?

I feel that this over usage of DESU may be considered insulting to a Japanese person, who might feel that westerners have picked up on something that sounds absurd and made a mockery of the language, and for some who use it this may be the intention.
However, for many of us otaku DESU has become a way to express our love and interest in Japan. It expresses a fondness for Japanese culture; it is all of our obsessions with Japan, anime, manga, etc condensed down into one simple word: DESU. While there is obviously a mocking tone in the way this phrase is (over) used it is mostly by people who understand anime and Japanese culture in general, and therefore have every right to mock a series such as Rozen Maiden; clearly Suiseiseki 's speech pattern was indented to sound comedic.
While it may be sarcastic, as all memes are, it is still an expression of love and devotion to a cause.

As with many internet memes an idea has been taken and condensed down into it's simplest form, so that only those who get the joke can understand it. This allows all of us to relate to one another in a way the "nontaku" could never understand. From the lowliest Narutard to the highest Otaking, regardless of your fluency in Japanese or you knowledge of the culture the western meaning of DESU unites us all.

DESU is LOVE.

More thoughts on future computing

2008-04-26T22:06:00.012+01:00

In keeping with my promise to provide more content for the blog I am going to have a little rant about future computing. This is something I have briefly mentioned before when looking at the various multi touch products that had been announced, such as Microsoft's Surface.
This time I want to talk about some ideas inspired by watching Steve Jobs and Bill Gates being interviewed together at D5.

I was particularly interested in some of the comments they made about "revolutionising" operating system interfaces and how that is a very complicated process as the user base does not like to drastically change how it interacts with a system that it has had decades to get to grips with. Bill Gates even cites something that has annoyed me: the "ribbon" in the new version of office. He points out that this major change in the UI is an annoyance to most people as it requires user to relearn a system they are already proficient with.

Gates makes it very clear that the major jump in OS design will come from 3D. There are several 3D OS ideas floating around but other than the stupid Windows Flip effect in Vista we have not yet seen 3D design hit the mainstream operating systems.

Jobs goes on to say that the innovation in user interaction with systems is focused on what he calls "post pc" devices, such as the iPod, iPhone and the Windows Mobile platform. These devices allow the industry to introduce new control methods which can then be transfered onto other platforms, such as multi-touch.

This was a tactic clearly adopted by Nintendo who released the DS as a way of getting users used to the idea of physical interaction with video games through the use of a stylus. This allowed users to adopt the 3D positioning system of the Wii without being baffled by the concept.

Both Jobs and Gates agree that these "post PC" devices are the future of the computer industry, the basic design of the home or office PC does not need to change as it fulfills the functions for which it was designed, the true innovation will come from the increasing variety of devices which can be used to connect to the home network. Effectively your entire house will be your "hub" computer and everything else will be an interface to the local network and internet designed to fulfill a few specific functions in the most user friendly way.

Gates even mentions that every available flat service in your home could potentially be a screen allowing digital interaction at the level required to fulfill the any given function of a home PC.

This use of powerful local interfaces allowing the remote data to be utilised is nicely illustrated by the Google Maps app on the iPhone. Apple have developed an interface perfectly suited to both the size and control system of the iPhone which has been polished with the usual Apple style. Using the Google Maps API has allowed Apple to produce an interface far prettier and more intuitive than the basic one offered through your browser on a PC.

Which brings me on to my final point: the use of the internet in modern computing devices.
In recent times the internet has become a default. Pretty much all applications utilise an internet connection in someway. It has become almost as standard as the electricity we use to power the devices that connect to it.

The way to deliver the endless torrents of data the net can provide is through an API, something the industry has adopted readily and is very apparent in many of the new web apps such as Twitter, Facebook, Seesmic, YouTube, etc. All of these services offer an API which is simple enough for professional and even consumer level developers to create there own way of displaying the data these services provide outside the confines of your browser. This also allows devices to connect to and display data in a way perfectly suited to the device form factor and control interface.

The internet map according to http://www.opte.org/

The data powerhouse that we call Google has allowed developers no end of freedom by creating simple to use APIs for many of the services they offer. This makes them very powerful indeed when compared to other companies that provide a similar service but lack the API support that to allows software companies to access this data in the new ways required by the rapidly changing world of modern devices.

This change in the way both consumers and software developers are using the internet means that connection to this world wide network is no longer a tangible experience. As these devices develop interaction with the net will become a given. The iPhone already combines many offline and online functions in an interface that does not make any differentiation between the two. Long gone are the days of watching "connecting" messages and listening to modems hiss and beep.

In conclusion: the future of computing is murky at best. The ever changing landscape of the internet leads to minor revolution in how we use our computers on a fairly regular basis. The major changes will be in how we access this resource, from the devices in our pockets to the IP TV in our living room. The internet is now an essential factor in the design of all new PC and "post PC" devices. I think we will be seeing many interesting "specific function" devices which will change how we interact with the data around us, but essentially I wouldn't want to see my beloved desktop change too much. I mean, you need a keyboard and mouse for COD4, right?

Long time no blog... sorry people!

2008-04-26T14:55:00.002+01:00

Ok, this blog has been falling by the way side in favour of the podcast and our tumblr. However, I want to get things moving again so am going to redouble my efforts to post juicy new content here on a regular basis.

To cover what has been missed: both show 0.3 and show 1 proper of the UKotaku podcast are now available from our podsite.

In other news some of my tunes have been accepted into the music collection for this years ALcon! I am pretty chuffed about that. You can listen to my submissions here.

So, just a short one for now but rest assured, loyal fans, that plenty of tasty otaku flavoured goodness will be spewing forth from the UKotaku blog from this moment on... keep your eyes peeled people!

Yuko Otacast Show 0.2 Is UP!

2008-03-30T11:02:00.003+01:00

Blog posts have been sparse recently as we have been devoting most of our time to producing the podcast for your listening pleasure, again Yuko delivers: Show 0.2 is now up over at the official podcast page!

http://ukotaku.podbean.com

Yuko Otacast Show 0.1 Is UP!

2008-03-23T14:04:00.002Z

You can now download our testing show from our official podcast page over at: http://ukotaku.podbean.com

Enjoy!

Test Recording Complete

2008-03-23T01:20:00.002Z

Today we recorded a test "show" for the yuko otacast. We basically just messed around for an hour or two in the studio and produced half an hour of unstructured otaku based silliness. We had a few problems with the equipment but nothing that cant be fixed by some further trial and error. We also had some major drama when I screwed up and lost the audio file but a free file recovery tool found the lost data and the day was saved!

The podcast will be available for download sometime tomorrow when our host fixes itself.

In the mean time I have uploaded the pictures of the days events to Picasa for your viewing pleasure.

yuko recording system test type 01

2008-03-22T14:50:00.002Z

This is coming live from the Yuko podcast recording... place. We have just recorded the very first... not actual episode of the podcast! This is just a dress rehearsal! It'll be a bonus feature on the first DVD! Soon we will have the actual first episode! It'll all moving along!

Yuko Otacast Studio Confirmed

2008-03-16T12:02:00.004Z

This article is copy pasted from the Yuko Podcast Wiki.

Studio space is confirmed! We will podcasting from the EDP offices.

Equipment hasn't arrived yet so it is not shown in the pics, for an interactive studio schematic click here.

Unfortunately our table is not perfectly round so we will be limited to oval table discussions.

The walk to our studio space. Makes us look really professional, ne?

As you can see we have well over 9000 people working for us at UKotaku.

We even discovered an undercover otaku is already working in the building.

So thanks to Matt-san and his father Paul we are confirmed for launch in April, keep your ears peeled people!

zubya! PLEASE WRITE NORMALLY

2008-03-15T23:30:00.006Z

From Death Note, allegedly.

Clannad and Bokaruchan's Blog

2008-03-15T00:04:00.005Z

My second post of the evening is a quick one to say a big thanks to my new found net-pal, Bokaruchan for introducing me to Clannad, the super cool visual novel now available in english thanks to fan translation. I need not review it here as Bokaru has done as great job of it over on her blog.

Massive respect from all of us at UKotaku for this rising star of the Danish otaku scene! Bokaruchan we salute you!

Interwebs / Links

Vocalistic!? Blog
Clannad Wiki

JiLTED on Frets of Fire

2008-03-14T23:50:00.005Z

Long time no post, sorry people, have been super busy planning the podcast and have had no time for blogging. I will redouble my efforts to continue posting content here, but my busy schedule is pretty unforgiving right now.
So today a fan of my music commented here letting me know he had added one of my tunes to the PC Guitar Hero clone, Frets of Fire. He has tabbed my tune "Genius Girl" for your playing pleasure.
A big thanks to Sydd for the support!

Download installer for game here
Download Genius Girl tab here
See Sydd's forum post here

More JiLTED tunes can be found here.

Yuko Otacast Latest

2008-03-06T22:29:00.007Z

Ok people, the yuko otacast has been confirmed for on the 8th of April, thus giving us one more month for promotion and organisation. Confirmed cast can be found on the wiki.
If you wanna get involved let me know, all contributions welcome.

In the mean time I will be introducing the cast to you wonderful readers of the yuko blog.
First up is our Skype-in, Emily (aka Selph), "a self-confessed otaku with a love for all things fan-girlish."

Emily is the one dressed up as Selphie, not the one dressed up as Tifa who is clearly DOING IT WRONG!!!

"Residing in a suburb just outside of Birmingham, Selph regularly travels to conventions and participates in the strange phenomenon known as cosplaying, enjoys drawing fanart, and writing [yaoi] fanfictions."

"She runs a Japanese Culture Club at her school, and has the ambition of studying Japan further at degree-level."

So thats enough Selph introduction (ahahahaha)... Keep your ears and eyes peeled for more info on the yuko otacast coming soon...

YUI... WAIT! WTF?!? STAGE6 IS SHUTTING DOWN!!!

2008-02-26T23:21:00.014Z

I have been listening to the latest YUI album, "Can't Buy My Love." It's brilliant, and we don't get enough music based posts on this blog so gosh darn it I'm just gonna hafta writes me an review.

I have been a fan of YUI for sometime (I forget now how I got into her, but it was about a year and a half ago). She is a very talented singer song writer and pretty cute too. There are some really good live videos on Stage6, behold!

WE INTERUPT THIS POST WITH A NEWS FLASH... ZOMFG STAGE 6 IS SHUTTING DOWN!!!11onedesu OH FUKKEN NOES!!!11two

I have discovered this in real time whilst writing about YUI, all I wanted to do was pop on over to Stage6 to get some video embeds and I discover this horrible horrible news. As wonderful as YUI is her new album review must sit on the back-burner while I compose myself after this shocking discovery...

Copypasta from Stage6.com as follows...

Stage6 to Shut Down on February 28

"NOTE: I'm reposting the same message I put up this morning to open the blog back up for comments. Rest assured, we are reading what you write and appreciate the outpouring.

I’m Tom (aka Spinner), a Stage6 user and an employee of DivX, Inc., the company behind the service. I’m writing this message today to inform you that we plan to shut down Stage6 on February 28, 2008. Upload functionality has already been turned off, and you’ll be able to view and download videos until Thursday.

I know this news will come as a shock and disappointment to many Stage6 users, and I’d like to take a few moments to explain the reasons behind our decision.

We created Stage6 with the mission of empowering content creators and viewers to discover a new kind of video experience. Stage6 began as an experiment, and we always knew there was a chance that it might not succeed.

In many ways, though, the service did succeed, beyond even our own initial expectations. Stage6 became very popular very quickly. We helped gain exposure for some talented filmmakers who brought great videos to the attention of an engaged community. We helped prove that it’s possible to distribute true high definition video on the Internet. And we helped broaden the Internet video experience by offering content that is compatible with DVD players, mobile devices and other products beyond the PC.

So why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide. There are a lot of other details involved, but at the end of the day it’s really as simple as that.

Now, why didn’t we think of that before we decided to create Stage6 in the first place, you may ask? That’s a good question. When we first created Stage6, there was a clear need for a service that would offer a true high quality video experience online because other video destinations on the Internet simply weren’t providing that to users. A gap existed, and Stage6 arrived to fill it.

As Stage6 grew quickly and dramatically (accompanied by an explosion of other sites delivering high quality video), it became clear that operating the service as a part of the larger DivX business no longer made sense. We couldn’t continue to run Stage6 and focus on our broader strategy to make it possible for anyone to enjoy high quality video on any device. So, in July of last year we announced that we were kicking off an effort to explore strategic alternatives for Stage6, which is a fancy way of saying we decided we would either have to sell it, spin it out into a private company or shut it down.

I won’t (and can’t, really) go into too much detail on those first two options other than to say that we tried really hard to find a way to keep Stage6 alive, either as its own private entity or by selling it to another company. Ultimately neither of those two scenarios was possible, and we made the hard decision to turn the lights off and cease operation of the service.

So that’s where we are today. After February 28, Stage6 will cease to exist as an online destination. But the larger DivX universe will continue to thrive. Every day new DivX Certified devices arrive on the market making it easy to move video beyond the PC. Products powered by DivX Connected, our new initiative that lets users stream video, photos, music and Internet services from the PC to the TV, are hitting retail outlets. We remain committed to empowering content creators to deliver high quality video to a wide audience, and we’ll continue to offer services that will make it easy to find videos online in the DivX format.

It’s been a wild ride, and none of it would have been possible without the support of our users. Thank you for making Stage6 everything that it was.

--Tom"

No fucking way!!! This site was awesome... this will be a blow to the world of streaming video, I mean it didn't exactly have tons of content (and admittedly piracy was fairly rife) but it was the best quality streaming video site on teh internets. It was a delight watching streamed HD DivX video. Now we are stuck with the horrible videos of YouTube once again... Oh shit, I am really gutted now... Sorry YUI, I will review your album later... *crys*

Lolicon and the Law

2008-02-26T07:56:00.004Z

An article in the Asia Times Online caught my attention yesterday, it seems Japanese law is finally catching up with the rest of world where child pornography is concerned. The article details the arrest of a photobook publisher for publishing pictures of a 14 year old in a tight fitting swimsuit, this is one of first times child pornography laws have been used in case where the child was not actually photographed nude.
What ever your preference I would assume that most UK and western otaku generally find these lolicon photobooks a little disturbing, I can't say I understand or enjoy that aspect of Japanese culture.
The lolicon industry is very worried since the arrest (understandably) and even the anime and manga producers are being cited as promoting child abuse.
According to the article: "It is estimated that 30-40% of manga contains sexual themes or content, much of it representing schoolgirls of elementary or junior high school age in themes including rape, sado-masochism and bondage. About half of the 2,000 pornographic animation titles distributed in Japan every year, including films and video games, feature schoolgirl characters."
Now this is the bit that worries me, I can't imagine a world of anime and manga with strict laws about the ages of the girls featured. Now, don't get me wrong, I fully understand that hentai can be pretty fucked up, and I understand that a lot of the media produced in Japan is considered pretty sick by the rest of the world, which is an embarrassment to the Japanese goverment, especially now the internet allows such a quick spread of data. But lolicon is an intrinsic part of even non pornographic anime and manga, I mean I get total moe from Azumanga's Osaka-san, Lucky Star's Konata-chan, Haruhi and plenty of other anime school girls... so technically this makes me, and thousands of other otaku like me, a paedophile...?
A recent Japanese goverment pole discovered that "86.5% of respondents said that manga and art should be subject to regulation for child pornography, while 90.9% said that "harmful materials" on the Internet should be regulated."
So Japan is looking like it is about to tackle it's infamous lolita complex... and where does that leave us moe-seeking otaku... is it time to take a long hard look at ourselves and the kind of material we consume, or is the lolicon aspect of anime and manga being blown totally out of proportion?

Comments plox.

Caremelldansen

2008-02-24T17:49:00.006Z

Just a quick post for anyone who hasn't as yet seen this amazingly stupid and insanely catchy craze. A silly SWF featuring a few frames of Anime from the visual novel, Popotan. This has been made famous all over Japan (and now the world) by Nicovideo and other sites. Below is the orignal opening of Popotan, with plenty of PANTSUUUUU!

Lord knows why someone decided to put a hyper swedish pop/dance tune over a loop of it, but they did...
I have selected the best YouTube parodies for you viewing pleasure... Click here for the original SWF embed.

Orginal version (with full version of song)

Amazingly good Haruhi version

Lucky * Star!

Yuki!!! My personal favourite.

FF7 version.

Aya Shameimaru version.

Of course... the Hatsune version! Yeyyeyyeydesu!

And finally, some one did a loituma version, lol!

There are loads more of these, just 'Tube caramelldansen and watch till you brain melts...

UKotaku

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Lolicon and the Law

Caremelldansen

zubya! PLEASE WRITE NORMALLY