Anime - General Discussion Thread

lucy_monostone wrote:yeah i already dl that one, you liked honey & clover cool, me too. i've enjoyed the first season so i'm expecting some progress with Yamada's love life i'm rooting on that one :hehe:

ep.1 (season2) was boring, for anyone who's curious, its the whole recaps from the previous season, so you're not missing much =T

im expecting to see more of hagu x morita x takemoto's love triangle relationship :mrgreen:

from THE JAPAN TIMES

Tuesday, July 11, 2006


Porn 'anime' boasts big U.S. beachhead
Fan base swells for 'hentai' content, much to cartoon purists' chagrin


By JUN HONGO
Staff writer
The popularity of Japanese animation overseas was again highlighted in Anime Expo 2006 in California earlier this month, but a growing boom in the genre's pornographic segment is raising eyebrows among the world's fans of Pokemon and other less-graphic content.


AN ANIMATION figure doll priced at 73,500 yen is among other provocative character goods at Mandarake's toy shop in Nakano Ward, Tokyo. JUN HONGO PHOTO

"The best-selling product overseas now is a pornographic makeover of 'Gundam Seed,' " said Masuzo Furukawa of Mandarake Inc., referring to a popular Japanese animation.

Mandarake, based in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, specializes in the sale of toys and used "manga" comic books. The company and similar shops have seen overseas sales of sexual "anime" grow in the last couple of years.

"Up until several years ago, it was mostly just traders who came over to Japan to purchase this type of merchandise," Furukawa said. "But now, individual customers are willing to buy the products themselves."

The expanding anime market on the Internet is one reason behind the trend.

Mandarake's online division has customers in 26 countries, and adult products account for 30 percent of its international sales.

The general intolerance toward pornographic animation and comic books in the West is another factor for overseas fans to seek out Japanese products, Furukawa said.

"Fans in America seek something special in this anime, and reading them is cathartic," he said.

The pornographic anime boom has even made the word "hentai" (perverted) recognizable among anime fans worldwide. Hentai is now used overseas to describe anime with strong sexual content.

While Mandarake capitalizes on the kinky boom, other retailers are reluctant to export such products.

Satoshi Fukuda of Tokyo-based Animaxis Inc. said hentai began to gain currency overseas around 2001 and online shops saw a corresponding growth in sales of adult products. His company, however, has elected not to focus on the kinky goods and instead continues to provide a wide range of other merchandise.

"There have been proposals within the company to stock a larger number of hentai anime to gain more sales," Fukuda said. The company has opted not to because, he said, it would be "inappropriate."

Fukuda said there will be, and should be, tighter rules against adult anime.

According to a report by the Japan External Trade Organization, the number of Japanese anime DVDs exported to the United States increased from 2.1 million in 2000 to 12 million in 2005.

Experts see the infiltration of sexual content as an inevitable outcome of Japanese anime gaining ground worldwide.

Ryusuke Hikawa, a critic who has collaborated with NHK in producing anime programs, explained that there has been a market for Japanese pornographic anime in the United States since the late 1980s.

"Whether pornographic anime is a good or bad is for each individual to decide," Hikawa said. "But this genre has established a foothold in America because it is unique there," he said at a lecture on anime culture at the Foreign Press Center in June.

Hikawa said Japan tends to be more tolerant of pornographic materials than the West, and even anime not regarded as kinky often includes sexual content and violence.

However, he also noted that Japanese anime in general is unique among art forms in its way of "depicting modern-day Japan."

But whether this depiction is well-received is open to question, as there has been opposition against Japanese anime in the United States.

In April, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in California ordered the anime reference book "Manga: Sixty years of Japanese Comics," to be banned from the county's libraries, because the book contained "reproductions of pornographic cartoons depicting sex acts, including sex with animals."

Fans of nonpornographic anime in America are also lamenting the kinky craze.

Caroline Silva, president of Harvard University's Anime Society, said, "Most people (in the U.S.) immediately think of hentai when they think of anime."

Yet she also believes in the creators' right to freedom of expression, and does not wish to shut out the genre.

"The way we have chosen to approach that problem is to educate (the general public)," Silva said. She plans to promote the art form for what it truly is by showing "the amazing anime that do exist out there."

The Japan Times
(C) All rights reserved

Watched ep 1 of "Welcome to the NHK" last night, the new Gonzo production. It has some promise... seems a bit like Paranoia Agent or FLCL so far... definately some mental issues there.

krim wrote:Watched ep 1 of "Welcome to the NHK" last night, the new Gonzo production. It has some promise... seems a bit like Paranoia Agent or FLCL so far... definately some mental issues there.

those two productions definitely were mental! :crazy:

im hoping for more moe... so far.. naked nun, nurse... lol
main character has a naughty imagination.

krim wrote:im hoping for more moe... so far.. naked nun, nurse... lol
main character has a naughty imagination.

:good:

Tu_triky wrote:from THE JAPAN TIMES

Tuesday, July 11, 2006


Porn 'anime' boasts big U.S. beachhead
Fan base swells for 'hentai' content, much to cartoon purists' chagrin


By JUN HONGO
Staff writer
The popularity of Japanese animation overseas was again highlighted in Anime Expo 2006 in California earlier this month, but a growing boom in the genre's pornographic segment is raising eyebrows among the world's fans of Pokemon and other less-graphic content.


AN ANIMATION figure doll priced at 73,500 yen is among other provocative character goods at Mandarake's toy shop in Nakano Ward, Tokyo. JUN HONGO PHOTO

"The best-selling product overseas now is a pornographic makeover of 'Gundam Seed,' " said Masuzo Furukawa of Mandarake Inc., referring to a popular Japanese animation.

Mandarake, based in Nakano Ward, Tokyo, specializes in the sale of toys and used "manga" comic books. The company and similar shops have seen overseas sales of sexual "anime" grow in the last couple of years.

"Up until several years ago, it was mostly just traders who came over to Japan to purchase this type of merchandise," Furukawa said. "But now, individual customers are willing to buy the products themselves."

The expanding anime market on the Internet is one reason behind the trend.

Mandarake's online division has customers in 26 countries, and adult products account for 30 percent of its international sales.

The general intolerance toward pornographic animation and comic books in the West is another factor for overseas fans to seek out Japanese products, Furukawa said.

"Fans in America seek something special in this anime, and reading them is cathartic," he said.

The pornographic anime boom has even made the word "hentai" (perverted) recognizable among anime fans worldwide. Hentai is now used overseas to describe anime with strong sexual content.

While Mandarake capitalizes on the kinky boom, other retailers are reluctant to export such products.

Satoshi Fukuda of Tokyo-based Animaxis Inc. said hentai began to gain currency overseas around 2001 and online shops saw a corresponding growth in sales of adult products. His company, however, has elected not to focus on the kinky goods and instead continues to provide a wide range of other merchandise.

"There have been proposals within the company to stock a larger number of hentai anime to gain more sales," Fukuda said. The company has opted not to because, he said, it would be "inappropriate."

Fukuda said there will be, and should be, tighter rules against adult anime.

According to a report by the Japan External Trade Organization, the number of Japanese anime DVDs exported to the United States increased from 2.1 million in 2000 to 12 million in 2005.

Experts see the infiltration of sexual content as an inevitable outcome of Japanese anime gaining ground worldwide.

Ryusuke Hikawa, a critic who has collaborated with NHK in producing anime programs, explained that there has been a market for Japanese pornographic anime in the United States since the late 1980s.

"Whether pornographic anime is a good or bad is for each individual to decide," Hikawa said. "But this genre has established a foothold in America because it is unique there," he said at a lecture on anime culture at the Foreign Press Center in June.

Hikawa said Japan tends to be more tolerant of pornographic materials than the West, and even anime not regarded as kinky often includes sexual content and violence.

However, he also noted that Japanese anime in general is unique among art forms in its way of "depicting modern-day Japan."

But whether this depiction is well-received is open to question, as there has been opposition against Japanese anime in the United States.

In April, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in California ordered the anime reference book "Manga: Sixty years of Japanese Comics," to be banned from the county's libraries, because the book contained "reproductions of pornographic cartoons depicting sex acts, including sex with animals."

Fans of nonpornographic anime in America are also lamenting the kinky craze.

Caroline Silva, president of Harvard University's Anime Society, said, "Most people (in the U.S.) immediately think of hentai when they think of anime."

Yet she also believes in the creators' right to freedom of expression, and does not wish to shut out the genre.

"The way we have chosen to approach that problem is to educate (the general public)," Silva said. She plans to promote the art form for what it truly is by showing "the amazing anime that do exist out there."

The Japan Times
(C) All rights reserved

I guess maid cafes wouldn't last long in that part of the world :beaten:

i gave my hommie a copy of Yakitate Japan a while back and he finally stated watchin' it with his chick....he's is totally crackin' up and really enjoyin' the anime...

yakitate japan....loved by all!

krim wrote:Watched ep 1 of "Welcome to the NHK" last night, the new Gonzo production. It has some promise... seems a bit like Paranoia Agent or FLCL so far... definately some mental issues there.

I picked up ep1 too, and I must say it looks promising indeed. The main chara is just paranoia :hehe:

I loved PA myself. the other gonzo stuff is meh

Saito_Hajime wrote:

I guess maid cafes wouldn't last long in that part of the world :beaten:

no maid cafes here?? nooo......we need them here, they are wholesome....mostly.. :naughty: :mrgreen:

it's one of my fantasy to work in a maid cafe :hehe:
someday i'm gonna try it, hhmmn why not :beaten: :P

Honey Clover II episode 2 released by C1 anime.

qilver wrote:no maid cafes here?? nooo......we need them here, they are wholesome....mostly.. :naughty: :mrgreen:

Of course they are wholesome......it was made for the otakus.

lucy_monostone wrote:it's one of my fantasy to work in a maid cafe :hehe:
someday i'm gonna try it, hhmmn why not :beaten: :P

You could use this forum as your training ground :mrgreen: :hehe:

maid cafes and manga cafes in one place, i hope they someday open up one here.... :fingerscrossed:

qilver wrote:maid cafes and manga cafes in one place, i hope they someday open up one here.... :fingerscrossed:

Then they should import some j-girls there :bonk:

Saito_Hajime wrote:

Then they should import some j-girls there :bonk:

yeah....they have a good amount of japanese-japanese(from japan) people, i do hope they open up one in LA area, atleast.... :fingerscrossed: :dancing:

Hmm.. I dunno if this is the correct place to request for anime theme songs but I juz wanna ask if anyone know where to download both theme songs of Groove Adventure Rave..
("Butterfly Kiss" - Chihiro Yonekura and "Higher and Higher" - Kumoko)

bcgurl wrote:Hmm.. I dunno if this is the correct place to request for anime theme songs but I juz wanna ask if anyone know where to download both theme songs of Groove Adventure Rave..
("Butterfly Kiss" - Chihiro Yonekura and "Higher and Higher" - Kumoko)

I have that 2 songs..... groove adventure Rave...is one of my favorites Anime....

ShinYo wrote:
I have that 2 songs..... groove adventure Rave...is one of my favorites Anime....

Really? Cool. It's one of my favourite animes too.. Looks like we have at least two things in common: Groove Adventure Rave and Aya Ueto.. :victory:

By the way where did u get those two songs? Been searching for them for like ages already. :sweat: It would be so nice of you if u could upload them.. :bow:

bcgurl wrote:

Really? Cool. It's one of my favourite animes too.. Looks like we have at least two things in common: Groove Adventure Rave and Aya Ueto.. :victory:

By the way where did u get those two songs? Been searching for them for like ages already. :sweat: It would be so nice of you if u could upload them.. :bow:

Okey no problem...give me couple time..i 'm uploading...i also have ending songs... do u want it ?