My Journey into Otaku

For the past few years, I've been immersing myself in Japanese anime, trying to understand the shifts in geek culture -- what use to be just sci-fi/comic books and sci-fi tv shows/movies, has exploded to incorporate video games, Japanese manga/anime, and cos-play.  Even at a local level, the explosion includes droid/robotic builders and those of us who create worlds with LEGO... but I digress.

I've been watching two different slice-of-life anime shows -- Genshiken and Welcome to the NHK -- both exploring elements of the otaku culture.  They're like two sides of a coin; and it was by accident that I've watched them within a few weeks apart.

Genshiken is centered around the members of a college club called The Society for the Study of Modern Visual Culture.  They meet, talk about anime/manga, go to summer & winter comic shows, dress up in cos-play, build mech models, play video games, etc.  Over the course of 3 seasons, members prepare for graduation, look for jobs, form romantic relationships, have their preconceived notions of what it means to be otaku challenged, grow up, grow apart, etc. but still maintain strong bonds of friendships, even after graduations.  Each season replaces some character with new faces, showing the progress of time; which is a refreshing change.  The stories becomes more and more complex over time as characters find their way in the world.


In Welcome to the NHK, it focuses on the main character who is a college drop-out and hikikomori, or recluse.  Over time, the main character builds a few friendships that involves one person that wants to rescue him from his condition, and his next door neighbor, a high school friend.  At first, the main character lies, claiming that he is a video game script writer (working with his next door neighbor), in order to justify his apparent lack of job, and reclusive behaviour.  But what started out as a lie, eventually leads the main character into exploring otaku culture, and attempting to write a script and produce a video game with his high school friend.  Eventually, the main character comes to grips with his condition -- sometimes slipping deeper into reclusive behaviour -- and copes with his existential life, even though life seems to throw one road block after another, but occasionally helping out others (with similar conditions) along the way.

Genshiken is filled with characters that somewhat lack life direction, they are at least motivated to complete college and find work.  NHK is more of the darker side of the 20-something life, with dropping out of college, living off a allowance, using otaku culture as an escape (or a better life dream fulfilment fantasy), with deeply psychological overtones.  In NHK, there is some light use of alcohol, and cigarette dependency, but I'm really surprised there's no stronger recreational drug use, considering the depths of despair the main character slips into. Genshiken felt life-affirming, whereas NHK felt like whatever you did in life, made no difference.

In the back of my head, I'm wondering if there was a cultural shift or a short time period between the two shows; either when they were conceived, or in the creators of the manga themselves, or a very small generation gap, or an economic shift, maybe.  The technology in both animes seems similar, but in NHK, character design for the video game was being done on the computer; the manga the Genshiken group produced, even though most of the post production work was done off screen, it seemed like it was done with technology a few years prior to NHK... Which also may play into the difference in the general attitude of the characters... maybe years of living in economic downturn give creators a very different world view.

I've binge watched both shows, couldn't stop watching either one.  You quickly become wrapped up in the lives of the characters of both shows.  I'd recommend them both.

The Super-Human Race

One of the ideas that I’ve been thinking about is a post-WW II world that didn’t have the a-bomb or the space race; but a super-human race. Countries like England, US, Russia, China, Japan, & some other countries start manufacturing post-humans.

In the United States, four different groups were set up for post-human production. First group’s goal was to create more intelligent humans – a post human think tank. The second group was to create a super power human. The third group’s goal is to develop technologies for super powers. And the fourth group is to keep the other three groups in check – the place for information exchange between the three groups.

One image I keep getting is a child of a post-human tracking down one of the doctors that worked on the government projects, turned AWOL. A German in his late ‘70s, still very sharp, with traces of a great mind hidden behind wrinkles. He’s ex-Nazi, but really didn’t have a political affiliation – most scientist don’t – but was forced to work on government projects, the division of gods & monsters (insert German equivalent here). Later in the story, we find out that he’s gay – what forced him to leave the US government projects was the death of his lab assistant Karl, in a incident similar to Ictheas; the boy who flew to close to the Sun and crashed to his death. This, and some other policy changes in the fourth group forced him to leave.

This post-human child is looking for some answers to his recent developed powers. His father was one of the earlier test subjects of the first group – his mind was chemically enhanced/altered. He became super smart, but the effects seemed to wear off over time. Adding more chemicals seemed to damage him physically & psychologically, that he could no longer used the drugs. But the alterations affected his son; he developed telekinetic & psi powers.

Genesis of a Criminal Genius

I've thought about writing a short Steampunk story; sort of a Commander Jake and his squadron of Zeppelins. He'd have a girl named Betty Lindbergh and a mechanic side-kick named Ito. All the classic elements to a good pre-World War pulp fiction, action hero. But first I wanted to create a worthy villain.

Drawing upon The Time Machine for inspiration, I thought what if someone did build a time machine, went into the future, saw the wonderful advances and decided that he wanted to live forever. Let's say he's in his 50's when he discovers the key to time, hatches a plan to give his younger self the technology (to travel through time) & future-knowledge to plan his future with -- gaining power & wealth. However, the younger (and maybe smarter) self, upon hearing the older self's plan & collecting his future-knowledge, formulates his own plan.

For the older-self (or future-self) to exists, and for the younger-self to be able to talk with him, can only exists for a short time. For once the younger-self makes any decisions, the future-self's memory will become very fluid to reflect those decisions; and for both selfs to still be able to exist in the same point in time. You could use that to your advantage, make decisions then query your future-self on how it turned out... Then what if you could trap your future-self in time pocket; using wireless communication to you future-self in the time-pocket. After a point, the future-self would become insane, but still useful.

But then there are other questions like, if by trapping your future-self in a time-pocket or time-loop, can you prevent yourself from becoming older?

There are other things to consider the idea of choice could lead to the infinite possible futures or worlds... However, like AI, after exploring all the different choices, some branch-worlds would be eliminated because of bad-decision trees... so this idea of a governing force, or counter-balancing force, would guide most worlds down very similar paths (ie. most humanoid life found on most of these worlds would most likely all breath oxygen & speak english; there might be a counter-balancing reason why silicon based life could and would never exists, in this world or any other).

So, not only would this time machine need to travel through this world's time, but be able to jump into the time-stream of other worlds.

What if, a time bubble could be made to wrap an individual human, say through a ring... or a pocket watch. Then that person wouldn't grow old. And it would protect him from time anomalies.

It seems a little Dr. Who in nature... and since we're talking about a criminal master-mind, more like the Master... but this wouldn't be some Moriarty type of character, but he'd be a ruthless killer... with motives that are not easily seen, until certain future events unfold.

He'd have other things to consider as well, processing the watch would keep him young, but what would protect him from accidental death & if he did accidently die, could he transfer his soul to another vessel and continue living? And to what end?

So the villain wouldn't believe in an after-life, once he's dead, he's dead. To cheat time is one thing, but how do you cheat death? And maybe that is the questions our villain is tackling when our clueless hero crosses his path.

Superman & Fables

I picked up a few graphic novels this week, All Star Superman (Vol. 1), Fables: Homelands (Vol. 6), and Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days) (Vol. 7). Grant Morrison's writing is growing on me... I didn't grow up reading Animal Man, Doom Patrol, or The Invisibles, but I did read his Marvel Boy, The Filth, & New X-Men. His take on Superman is good -- I think he identifies too much with Lex Luthor -- but the stories have been solid & good, if not mind-altering with a touch of subversion (that I've come to expect from Grant). I will pick up the 2nd volume when it's released.

I guess what really surprised me was Fables... A few months ago, I went through this funk trying to find a good graphic novel to get into. I've been tossing around the idea of reading through Sandman again, but decided to give Fables another go. I had picked up the first few issues when they first came out -- the story was okay, the concept behind it was kind of cool, but it didn't strike a cord with me. But friends heaped praise after praise about how good Fables was. Now I've read some of Bill Willingham's other works and to some degree or another, they were cute stories, but I wouldn't seriously consider following them for a long time -- a little trite and predictable, not the epic story to hold my attention. And to be honest, the first few Fables graphic novels still didn't do it for me, until about March of the Wooden Soldiers (Vol. 4)... up until that point, the stories where ok, just not great, but each time, it grew on me a little bit -- either I connected a little more with the characters (Boy Blue), or he adds a little background mythos that adds a little more depth to the story, or slow moving away from just pitching the story idea, to (doing research and) actually telling the story. Whatever it is, I'm growing fond of it.

I don't know what it was, at first if felt like Willingham picked a few characters from fairy tales/nursery rhymes and threw them into a Fabletown. It's not like picking up an issue of Top 10 where every page had some sort of subtle homage to superheroes; there could have been more nods to other fables in the background... or fable artifacts. And maybe this is a failing of the story artist, and not of Bill's. But with following novels, Bill seems to be adding more to the over all background, with nods to other fables (either directly in text or in directions to the comic artist) that are adding layers to make the story better.

Evil Dead meets Tarzan

So my 10 Word Plot from April 22, 2007 was this:

10 Word Sci-Fi Plot: Scientist creates worm-hole, unleashes elder-gods; man, gun, and monkey save world. Think Evil Dead meets Tarazan.

Hmm... This could be the plot of the next Hell Boy movie; substitute man and monkey with Hell Boy and you almost have the plot of the first movie...

Or you can set the story in a steam-punk world, full of mad-scientist, blitzkrieg-bots, and blimps (or airships built using Cavorite). Areas on earth still untouched and unexplored by men. Primitive cultures living nearby lost civilizations (maybe long descendants). World political tension building towards a world war; each country trying to build armies or the next super-weapon. Then from out of the jungle, a half naked man & his monkey emerge with a monster from the ancient world -- elephant gigantus -- a elephant twice the size of any ordinary elephant, with two trunks.

Or hero, Jack Howard, was orphaned in the African jungle until the age of 12. Jack was rescued by local natives & turned over to the US embassy. From there, he was adopted by Nathan & Martha Howard, former ambassadors to Africa. Jack was a bright boy, curious, with a strong affinity for science. The Howards sent Jack off to Yale, where he majored in anthropology, girls, and football. After college, Jack was quickly recruited by the US government as a kind of exploratory anthropologist -- which gave Jack an opportunity to return to the jungles of Africa, where he met his monkey companion, Kima. Unknown by Jack, this gigantic elephant was the weapon the US government was looking for.

Meanwhile in Bavaria, scientist Josef Fuchs is performing an ancient Thule blood ritual, which he thought was to bestow more savage strength on to warriors, but they were swallowed up by a portal into another universe... and an ancient evil was released, the lesser of the ancient gods...

Quick Wrap Up:

Whatever creature the lesser god is based on, begins to reproduce and spread out from Bavaria... to the point where other nations are taking notice & Bavaria is asking for help. The US government calls in all "exploratory adventurers" to form a plan. Jack recognizes symbols on a picture taken from ground zero & realizes from African folklore what evil has been unleashed... the elephant gigantus is the key to earth's salvation... and of course, Jack's 50 cal pistol, Bess.

Bone: One Volume Edition (revisited)

Went to Ohio last weekend to visit family between the holidays.  Got my one volume edition of Bone back from my brother-in-law... it didn't thrill him.  Can't blame him, it's a big book and (since I started to re-read it) slow at the beginning.  We have similar tastes on somethings, but I don't expect him to like everything that I like.

During our visit, he downloaded the Watchmen animated comic to his X-Box, we watched the first chapter.  It looked one part South Park, one part comic, and I guess they only hired one voice actor to do all the speaking bits.  On one hand, it was kind of cool, the editing was good.  The story followed the comic pretty closely (if not 100%).  But the amount of time and talent put into the production, couldn't Warner Brothers/DC hire a few more voice actors?  I mean I like Tom Stechschulte, and looking on IMDB, he hasn't been in much that I recognize his voice from -- in the back of my mind, I though he's done some other voice acting work in animation, like Super-Friends, or newer shows like animated Batman -- but to make him do both male and female voices???  And just read on another blog about the author wanting more ambient noises; I agree.

Saw a post about Top 10 over on Gene Ha's blog; sad to say, I've stopped reading it since Alan Moore left the book.  I'm thinking it's about time to start re-reading Alan's run on the series.

Tween Super-Hero Looses Powers

I've been using Twitter and Plurk to do 10 word plots for a comic or pulp sci-fi story... I think Wired magazine did something similar... the magazine asked several famous writers to come up with a 10 word story.  I'm not up to the point of doing 10 word stories, but I thought I could come up with some plot lines in about 10 words (give or take a few)... I've been using Twitter and Plurk because a micro-blog is a good place for a micro-plot...

Anyway, my latest idea is about a Tween super-hero that looses his powers... 

10 Word Comic Plot: Tween super-hero looses powers, how will life be afterwards? Think early Peter Parker becomes Lindsy Lohan.

I'm thinking an early Peter Parker with all the growing up crap that he dealt and balancing it with being a super-hero finds himself no longer in the spot light, no longer able to scale buildings or lift things 10 times his weight.  Lets say in one of his internal battles about being a normal teenager, he decides to go to a rave with some friends.  Our super-hero decides to do some harmless drugs like all the other normal teenagers, but it has a very negative effect on his super-powers -- lets say the drug was made by a super-villain and using the dancing teenagers as test subjects -- and we don't know if he'll ever get his super-powers back.   Our hero wakes up the next day, tired, hung-over, feeling drained, but happy knowing he did something 'normal'... but not knowing he's lost his super-powers, until he goes out later that night trying to prevent a robbery.

Now, our super hero has made some enemies... and annoyed the hell out of a few other super-heroes.  His ego was stroked by the media, he lived the rock-star life-style for some time, up until this point -- being invited to charity events, fawned over by the public, companies talking to his agent about signing endorsement deals, paid under the table by the mayor to help pay bills, attended super-hero gatherings at the UN, etc.  But slowly, the reality of it all going away is slowly sinking in.  It was tough balancing both worlds -- his super-hero life with his normal high school life -- but knowing that high school would end made the pressures bearable.

Slowly, our super-hero's life goes to hell.  Does he try to get his super-powers back by trying to reproduce the accident that gave him his powers in the first place?  Does he try to keep up his 'brand', not knowing if his powers will return or not?  What will he do if one of the super-villains he's put away in jail, get out on parole... you know, the ones that actually know his secret identity?  Will there be any sympathy/help from the super-hero community?  How will the blog-o-sphere deal with his lack of visibility out fighting crime?  Will he call for help from neighboring super-heroes to help him when one of his arch-villains show up or will he try to fight on his own?  And what happens to the "King Pin"-type of criminal that slipped him the mickey to begin with be dealt with?

This 10 word plot actually has some good story material...