Editorial: Why the Bum Deal for Manga Fans?

Note: I've been holding off on writing about this for a while, just because when I think about it I get riled up and start rambling. But since the exchange is still down, and I just spent $500 on a shipment of manga, now's as good a time as any to get this off my chest. Hopefully I don't spin out of control.

When manga is translated for a western audience certain things are to be expected. Just like the transition between manga to it's anime counter-part or a book to a movie, when Japanese manga undergoes an English adaptation certain concessions have to be made. Some of them okay. Some of them less than.

Maybe it's an obscure Japanese play on words or catchphrase turned into "A stitch in time saves lime." Maybe it's a wacky variety show being referred to as Celebrity Squares, for American localization. Maybe onii-san becomes brother. Perhaps even the main character's name switches from "Raito" to "Light". And fair enough, a company's gotta make some money. You gotta make things a little easier for the mainstream audience. And I expect a US publisher to do this sort of thing. What I don't expect however, is for them to violate my grandmother. Yet this appears to be considered fair business practice for some reason.

Crap adaptations make Yomiko cry.

You could be talking about CMX's Stalin'esque editing/censoring of Tenjou Tenge's artwork, Del Ray's blatent disregard for Negima! (oh I'm saving a special post for you guys, but let's just say that "lazy editing" and "loose translating" would be a generous way to describe your work), or ADV's minor localization of a gag which later screws up an entire chapter of Yotsuba&! I picked those off the top of my head, but with just a bit of searching on your favourite forums you'll most likely be able to find problems of the "And you guys are a business HOW?" variety for many other series.

But even let's just say it was only the above titles. CMX is obviously making enough money to justify the ongoing censorship of TenTen, and Negima! usually hits pretty well on the bookscan chart from what I recall. What's crazy is partially that publishers are forging on ahead, carefree, riding on the waves of payola. The other craziness is that, aside from censorship which will get anyone worked up, many manga fans seem to just accept adaptation work which can only be described as "sloppy" as ain't no thang.

If an Anime company was to pull off the same kind of stunts, they'd find themselves drawn, quartered, and laughed at naked by raging otaku. Doesn't seem to be that kind of fervor in the manga community from what I've seen.

So what's the deal, I got a lot of questions here. Exactly why is it that anime gets a more respected treatment? Do the hardcore manga crowd not bring in enough money? Are more people familiar with fansubs than they are scanlations? Are we just not vocal enough? Are we so happy to see titles being licenced that we just don't care? Is editing manga just so easy for a publisher that it's practically impossible for them not to try? Or is it just a matter of time, and companies will eventually give us a respectable level of quality once manga is past it's infancy, like it did with anime?

I'll be the first to admit, I'm no manga expert and I don't own thousands of tankubons, so perhaps I'm reading the community and publishers wrong. But when you still have a forum dedicated and regularly updated with manga edits I would go out on a limb and say that us manga fans are not in an ideal climate right now.

Also, what else is that because of previous experiences I've had and how I see other people's series getting treated, I know that I'm scared shitless to buy english translated manga. That is definately not right.

Stockmarket Crash!

Things were going so well..

I'd managed to hit two blogging deadlines in a row.. which is unprecedented for me. So it only makes sense that something should capsize this ship of fun.

The wave for this came in the guise of a hdd failure. Well "wave" may be too light a term, as would "hdd failure." Y'know that giant wall of ocean at the end of The Perfect Storm? That's what this "wave" is like.. and it's less of a "hdd failure" as it is "god fucking me in the ass." (Oh, watch out, there's cursing in this post btw)

You see it was looking like I'd actually have everything back up and running within a couple of days and a fresh install.. but somehow upon rebooting my fresh install, i managed to lose all partition information on not my main drive...

a-hah! but I backed everything up sucka just in case I had to format the whole thing. Score!

Oh wait, hey what are you doing? You're erasing all information for my backup drive which isnt even involved in this install.. it's just an innocent bystander and you're smoking it's ass too?

As they might say in Japanese: WHAT IN THE BLUE HELL?!

So yes, that's basically how it is. There won't be any updates for a while because a) I have zero content to watch and am on the verge of being capped already, b) I don't want to really begin on anything until I know the system is stable enough to not erase my life, and c) because this has just got me ultra-bummed out. Productivity ain't happening in this state.

Just so this post isn't a complete waste, I'll leave you with the what I did manage to note down before the crash.

Crayotic Notwell

BLEACH 79

Flame on! Human torches wasn't the only concept that Bleach Inc. shared with movie, The Fantastic 4 on Monday. They both also manged to blow pretty damn hard. Biggest difference being that F4 made 154.69 million dollars domestic while BLCH dropped just shy of 2 points per share, leaving investors with far less than blockbuster bank accounts.

BLOOD+ 29-30

Character Development and Saya X Haji was the big export this week. Blood+ finally answered many questions stockholders had been asking since November last year, regarding rumours of the company CEO's scandalous past. Photographs were made public (seen here: guess what, lost all my screengrabs too!) and appeared to not only silence reporters, but made girly men hide under the catering table as well.

In additional news, that funny blue-rose guy returned to the company; Kai's girlfriend is hot, proving that assholes always get the girls; and Red Shield choose to stay in some cheap-assed hotels.

Trading back and forthed all day, but the lack of forward momentum lead to BLDP closing a quarter under par.

Forgive the lack of quality.. it's been a long week and I need to get this posted before another hdd dies on me.

Huge gains for the market, big losses for smart antagonists

A Word From Some Jabroni

We saw a successful bunch of anime for the CRAYDAQ this week, with a number of gold moving securities such as Ergo Proxy, Blood+, and Higurashi to name a few. But putting those aside, what I really want to look at is a more pressing and perhaps cynical angle. This is of course, the subject matter of Wack Villians.

You may remember a week or so back there was complaints on the ASX of Blood+'s Diva who, when having our protagonists bent over a barrel, decided that they couldn't stretch the story for another 26 episodes if everyone died to leave and get a new dress instead of taking care of business. Well Fate/Stay Night's Caster manages to outdo her in every sense of the manner and take stupidity firmly through the roof.

Here's the deal; Caster catches Shirou/Rin/Saber in an elaborate trap of hers, and because the whole purpose of the Holy Grail War is to do away with your opponants, she kills them off, right? Well if by "kill" you mean "tells them her entire plan and lets them go," then yes! Otherwise, not so. Our heros then race home but fall into another crafty plan of hers, leaving Saber bereft of her medieval genki dama—oh noes!

Ahhh, okay, I get it now, Saber's injured (more) and therefore easy prey. Good plan... weellll not so much. Because instead Caster just goes to take a leak and tells them to come find her. To which they then fall into another of her traps (this time just a generic ambush). Rin breaks through, but is stopped short by Miss Almighty "will kill you for chewing gum" Caster. What's going to happen to our Tosaka?!?

"Be given free passage to put an end to Caster's well thought out plan?" You bet your sweet ass!

OKAY WHAT, THE, FUCK?

And yet she lets Saber live twice, and finally orders Assassin to kill her when it comes down to it?

This is allegedly the most treacherous witch in history we're dealing with. A Servant who will sacrifice all of Tokyo; who will even kill her own Master... and she just shrugs it off? Do her powers only work if she's been fed after midnight or something? What in the blue hell is going on?

She's had them pwned three times so far and not only does she let them escape, she gives them the password to her email account and personal cellphone number. You might say: "Oh but that's all part of her plan." Her plan to do what, dick around? Her plan to kill them the day after tomorrow after next week? I'm speechless.

This is no photoshop. She just sucks that much.

At least you can kind of argue that Diva is insane and everything is just a bit of fun for her. In Fate/Stay Night The Holy Grail is the big enchillada supposedly motivating all these people. I've seen people take a Pauly Shore movie more seriously.

And Caster is the legendary witch of Greek mythology? Discworld mythology might be more apt.

Crayotic Rockwell

The Week In Recap

BLACK LAGOON 4-5

Moving into the trade of war antiquities, Black Lagoon managed to drum up interest among some over-zealous German based parties. However, negotiations fell through at the eleventh hour when it was discovered that Benny was cousin to comedian, Sarah Silverman. (10 points if you get those screencaps)

"Those poor Gerries," one financier said. "First they lost the war, and now Levi is going to reduce their ship to rubble. They're going to be left clinging to floating barrels like those pirates in Asterix."

A memo was also circulated around the ShinsenSubs press core to refer to Levi as Revi from now on. We're gonna call their bluff and stick with the original, as they will soon revert back to when it becomes obvious her parents named her after a pair of 501 jeans.

No worries for investors of BLAGN as they found it to be smooth sailing for their shares.

BLOOD+ 27-28

The company which had a very rough beginning looks to have learnt from that initial experience and is now turning out an impressive third quarterly; likely to only increase after moving it's offices to the middle of Paris.

Other factors contributing to BLDP's price was the winning combination of Rebecca-Miyamoto-ala-crack-whore and what-the-hell-is-chibichibi-Batou-san-doing-here? making up the Schiff support team.

Kai surprised investors by not getting his ass handed to him for once. Not so surprising was his vintage attempt at cockblocking the action (perfected by Shirou; innovated by Kai, bitches), but this time it was actually considered beneficial by many. Due to the worst cliffhanger placement in history, we won't have the figures for Blood+'s true net profit until next week.

Saya was awesome in her fight with Haji deshou.

Saya may have felt alone this week, but her BLDP stock should keep her happy

DISGAEA DELISTS AT EPISODE 3

Despite making cashmoney the past two weeks, Disgaea finally announced bankruptcy and delisted on Wednesday far below margin for DSGA stockholders. Looking back, it's still inconceivable how their creative staff went from this all the way to this monstrosity during the phase of adaptation.

ERGO PROXY 7-8

Thursday marked a huge boon for the Blade Runner'esque series, which saw a welcome return to mystery and action after the previous weeks charity work with filthy peasants. Inspector Mayer proved that truly hot chicks don't need makeup and can rock hospital gowns yet still look good.

Traders were eager to buy up shares in EPROX but they were not without a number of questions; how many more times will the fansubbers change characters names? Is Dedars a dude, and if not, where's the HLA? And lastly, what is going on with this plot??

Thinking about Ergo Proxy hurt many peoples brains. Deciding to buy EPROX stock took a lot less strain.

FATE/STAY NIGHT 16-18

Huge amounts of tsundere was being exported according to the latest audits of Fate/Stay Night for their third-quarterly. FSNT stock exceeded expectations with big action playing a larger role and the addition of Illyasveil to the in-house publishing team. Lazy writing hurt it's price slightly, but not enough to stop owners of FSNT rolling in moneys.

GUN X SWORD 17

It was Gang Busters! for the sci-fi western as Carmen rounded up all previous guest appearances to take on the Claw Man and his posse. Vann and co. managed to expand non-plot to a genius level with the implementation of a swimsuit city that only women can enter. The appearance of Fasarina and her stripper pole über weapon combined with the rest had stockbrokers working at a level previously unseen for GSX shares.

It is to be noted that fanservice was actually at a tame level, for all except those who searched dutifully for it, thanks to the usage of a donkey mosaic. The market was generally split between it being a brilliant idea or bakabakabaka!!

GSX may not be the hottest property about, but it's recent performance ensured that very few people lost their clothing.

HIGURASHI NO NAKU KORO NI 4

On Friday evening the small town crazy loli retailer made moves in the industry that blew investors balls off. On Saturday the President announced that May 19th shall forever be known as Higurashi Is So Awesome I Gave It My Girlfriend and It Punched Me In The Face As Thanks Day. Citizens are not required to work. In fact, you'll probably be chopped up like veal if you do.

The Wall Street Times had this to say: "It's really hard not to feel sorry for them when Keiichi goes angry-man. Even though you know they're ultimately a bunch of pent-up psychos. It's very conflicting."

HIGU was laughing all week after knocking HRHI out of top spot on the CRAYDAQ.

HIMAWARI! 2

This ninja start-up business knew what = $$$s this week, proven when they wasted zero time getting past setup and straight into the coveted meganekko tsundere episode. Not only that, a new comedy act was added to the cast and they also managed to gain credability with the internet demographic by advocating the act of watching illegal fansubs on your PC. This is something we at ASX do not suggest people try at home, however.

Question: was that kappa trying to get fresh with Yasura-chan?

JIGOKU SHOUJO 18-19

Enma Ai, Company President of Hotline to Hell, has been less than enthusiastic with her latest business ventures and not approaching the revenge industry with the same sort of vigor as usual, reports indicate. It is even suspected that she may be grooming a new company president to take her place. Regardless of a potential upper management shuffle, JKSJ was in the green this week as two evil bitches sacrificed themselves to the investors in a three quarter point climb.

Enma Ai's lack of nekketsu didn't keep people from buying JKSJ stock.

MAGICAL POKAN 4

The werewolf/vampire/witch/android conglomorate may as well have renamed it's company slogan to "Cute Girls say Balls" as POKAN animation-recycled their way to a quarter drop. Some question the quality of direction going on here, as Pachira was allowed to try eating her own arm in one scene.

THE MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZIMIYA 7

"A return to form." That's the underlying subtext of how newspapers described Haruhi Suzumiya's recent week in business. While the SOS Brigade didn't roll out any changes of the genitalia damaging kind like Higurashi, they did manage to build on an already winning formula and give big-ups to Full Metal Panic at the same time.

Analysts continue to be impressed with Kyoto Animation's deft handling of finances. While it's a given that money is to be spent on closed-space action, it's the resources allocated to imperetive details like this that is truly appreciated by many.

Scarab healed HRHI's price drop from last week +99HP.

MUSHISHI 12

There was much confusement at the beginning of this week as to Mushishi's head executive. Analysts were getting information from numerous sources that Ginko, CEO had stepped down to make room for a hawt experienced MILF, while others suspected that he had been accidentally killed by aliens and resurrected as a girl. In the end it all turned out to be a clever installment of flashback no jutsu, allowing the company to enrichen it's history a little more.

OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB 2-3

It didn't take the trading floor long to realize that OURAN's offer price was criminally undervalued when it first came on the market, and within minutes of opening the bishounen company's stock value had increased an impressive amount.

Lord Tamaki received the award for Best Debuting Male from HQ Magazine (May Edition), among other accolades from less prestigious outlets, such as Best Ozymandias Stunt Double and Best Non-Homo-Sidekick Character In A New Series. This and the added announcement of yuri on Thursday secured OURAN with a final gain of over 20%.

PANI PONI DASH! 20

Mid-way through the week, a jackmove was attempted on Himeko's easily exploitable head by deadly space mushrooms. Things were shaky for PPD while the company lacked it's star ahoge, and the comedy skein was forced into some pretty badly proportioned figures. Thankfully, by end of trading Becky-sensei, in ultra kawaii mode, had managed to avert a hostile takeover and lead everyone into an awesome ichijouneko epilogue.

Screencapping PPD gives me warm fuzzies.

Mesousa found himself at the end of spousal abuse, after accidentally shorting his PPD shares.

ROZEN MAIDEN 7

The wind-up company took a dip this week as it failed to meet the projected financial report from episode 6. Investors expected much more gravitas but wound up with a large amount of filler in their pockets by market end.

Good news for the company however, is that Suiseiseki who debuted to a collective amount of apathy between stock-brokers has managed to skyrocket up the charts in only a few episodes. Many predict her to be a good bet for MVP of the season.

THE THIRD 2

Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo signed a lucrative deal with Sony this Monday, preceeding a quick drop because the Nintendo DS is more rad. Other factors may include the forced release of a romance angle to meet the Christmas rush.

THIRD failed to meet the offer price and left many traders looking like Honoka.

YAKITATE!! JAPAN 61

A shakeup of staff at the executive level proved beneficial as Azuma went MIA and Kanmuri steered JPAN into a full point and a half gain. The papers were worried about Yakitate's newly discovered ties to yakuza and stealing music from The Phantom Of The Opera, but investors feel confident that Kanmuri will be able to dissassociate the company from these scandals with Kid cameos and tenchou feet of destruction.

NOTE: Unless otherwise mentioned, no Previews or Spoilers are used and/or wanted to base the above market data on.

Bewbs: The most proftable commodity this May

A Word From Some Jabroni

With DOA: Pururun Vollyball jiggling into E3, the SOS Brigade going on a beach excursion, and Gainax expanding the girls of Mahora Academy's cup size, it was a big week for breasts in general. Of course Mahou Sensei Negima getting a second TV series is by far the major news item, because I wrote it all in bold letters. If you remember the original anime you may be wondering why bother getting worked up over a show which was all kinds of "meh." Which is fair enough, but those familiar with the source material will know that it has the potential to be all kinds of "teh awesome." Unless you just plain don't like Akamatsu, in which case we probably can't be best friends.

Xebec and whoever else was responsible for the initial botch-job is out, and instead Shaft, Gainax, and the director of Pani Poni Dash! is taking reigns. Could this mean Negima is the next Evangelion? Negi Genesis Evangelion??? ZOMG Possibly so! Buuut... more than likely it'll just mean lots of rad fanservice. The real question will be where this new season picks up. Remake the beginning? Continue from the Kyoto arc? Jump to the martial arts tournament? An original story? And Which would people prefer to see?

WARNING: above image may(will) not look like end result

In the future I will be adding yet-to-be-aired series like this to the exchange, and you can amuse yourself with how much a show kicked me in the balls from my initial expectations. But at this stage there's already so many listed, Negi-bouzu will have to be left off until the OVAs are at least within fwapping distance.

And speaking of ASX listings, a few stocks (PPSN, PPD, and HSING) had to be manually adjusted to bring them in line with everything else. Since this whole concept is relatively new It's not completely unexpected that I'd screw a couple things up.. but hopefully now that I've come up with a much more solid idea of what the prices mean we shouldn't see much of this in the future.

Crayotic Rockwell

The Week in Recap

BLEACH 78

Investors got Fate/Stay Nighted this week as Bleach Inc. made an effort to set the record for doing the least possible in an action series. Nevertheless, last minute setups and the debut of Ganjuu's pink accessory fashion line (seriously, he's even got designer explosives in a variety of pastels) managed to boost future confidence one point upwards.

There is a lot of concern whether Bleach Inc. can continue this upwards trend or if it was just a fluke

BLOOD+ 26

Trying to crack the record for cd singles sold in a non-highschool-comedy-where-they-remix-the-same-track-20-times-for-you-suckers-to-buy format, Blood+ unveiled a third OP to the press at the half-series milestone mark. This new title sequence showed promise for investors as it not only featured a bipolar Saya off meds but also a Rubix Cube, which is over huge (along with the A-Team and MC Hammer pants). Continued katana carnage not only proved great aliteration by this author, but also further cemented a possible return to a more OVA'esque Saya in the future.

FATE/STAY NIGHT 15

If you sold your FSNT stock earlier you may have found yourself in for a shock as it flew past the point of good taste this week. Many had predicted an episode of downtime as Saber regained her mana, and while this did turn out to be the case, noone quite imagined Shirou to astral project himself through her vagina (we at ASX hesitate to mention it, but there is no denying what we saw). Some question what a dragon was doing in such a place, however. We are currently looking to see if Dr Sigmund Freud noted anything about the relationship between sexual impulses and poor CGI.

Overwhelming levels of implied yuri and menage trois action made up the first half of trading, with Rin Tosaka blowing Hercules' face off like Daffy Duck with an ACME gemstone for the second half. Analysts praise Shirou's double standards. He has no problem stopping Saber from fighting, but proves a little less effective when she's molested by hot chix0rs.

Up against stiff competition, FSNT managed to battle it's way just shy of $40.00

HELLSING OVAS

As a result of some manual adjustments and also in reaction to last weeks news of a new installment, HSING stock rose eight full points, showing the market's confidence in a solid final product. Traders hope not to have grown a beard of moss by time of it's release.

HIMAWARI! OPENS ABOVE AVERAGE

Going public on the exchange this week, Himawari! offers a range of services including nice animation, nekomimi, an interesting setting, and fansubbers continuing to irritate the market with 200mb+ mkv files.

Some state that the mixture of ninjas with modern day tech has already been seen on other shows such as Naruto, and while this is true (although a snipers rifle fashioned from pine is new to me), the later series is also sorely lacking in hot megganeko shinobi. Analysts suggest that while Himawari! isn't likely to make any huge waves, their share price could perform a steady rate of growth if no sudden changes are made.

Don't run away, Himawari! promises to do it's best on the stock exchange!

JIGOKU SHOUJO 16-17

JKSJ rallied wildly this week before closing below mark. Positive gains came from sources such as Honeonna "Obasan" and some long-awaited spooky revenge (formula: jerk+ISDM=awesome³), but ghost tales with Rozen Maiden rejects hurt the company's performance, not to mention made no lick of sense. The leading revenge retailer lacks a clear business plan at this stage, which leaves more than a few people worried.

MAGICAL POKAN 2-3

Face-lickage and "Story be damned, let's take off our clothes!" brought decent gains from POKAN's original offer price, but it was possibly screen caption of the year which resulted in the most active trading desu. Market veterans would have been surprised by how far Magical Pokan went to reach the ero-ero demographic, if it wasn't tempered by Fate/Stay Night's unbeatable (or perhaps too beatable depending which way you view it) performance earlier.

The girls got hit with a whopping credit card bill this week, but their POKAN shares should be able to cover it

THE MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA 6

The SOS Brigade tried to expand it's consumer base into the mysterious island area with episode 6, leading to mixed results. While their beginning was pretty good, even including an homage to Jigoku Shoujo's "Honeonna In A Box" with "Jailbait In A Bag," the second half of the show lacked a lot of punch. Even Haruhi Kamichu'ing the weather and Mikuru playing beach ball—XTREME STYLE!—couldn't make up for the lack of nuance and almost pedestrian manner delivered, compared to what investors have become accustomed to.

MUSHISHI 11

Mushishi went all Miyazaki this week with their latest story: Ginkonoke Hime. Added explanation for Ginko's ronin manner couldn't stop this episode from making consumers want to breath in the fresh mountain leaves and take a 22 minute nap. We at ASX ask what is up with all small towns and villages breeding crazy girls? Whatever happened to AIR?

OURAN HIGH SCHOOL HOST CLUB GOES PUBLIC

This new security is a good chance for those wanting to diversify their porfolio with a little bishounen action. Ouran High School Host Club looks to specialize in tight direction, it-nearly-is-but-it's-not yaoi, and an emphasis on comedy over the emo usually associated with such handsome lads. While no announcement has been made, it seems that a division branching into HLA! in the future is practically inevitable given the company structure. You run more risk drinking instant coffee than you do losing money on this company.

Investing in OURAN won't turn you bent, but it may save you from becoming a filthy commoner

PANI PONI DASH! 19

The Avian Bird Flu media scare affected PPD in an oddly positive way, as the entire board of directors was quarantined and the company switched to promoting the usage of Michael Jackson approved face masks. Episode 19 followed suit with the weekly news and increased output of bewb production, building on the latest consumer craze.

PETOPETO-SAN ADJUSTED FOR INFLATION

Realizing that there was no way in hell PPSN should be that close to BLCH share prices in the midst of their Filler du Jour phase, PetoPeto-San Industries took a nice ride into the low thirties.

ROZEN MAIDEN 5-6

RZEN pulled from up from last week's drop by capatalizing on it's product strength: malicious humor at everyone's expense. Suiseiseki impressed investors with her part in the great strawberry heist of '05. Scary Clown Screentime hindered trading slightly, but a hot cliffhanger with Shinku's assets being frozen helped RZEN round out 3 points ahead.

THE THIRD GOES PUBLIC

For investors looking for the next hot secrurity, The Third: Aoi Hitomi no Shoujo offers some opportunities for those interested in hot action, quality direction, long title names, and really awkward exposition. Their starting lineup includes a backseat mystery and katana wielding schoolgirl who is also a chiropteran alledgedly more than a one-note sterotype. While homeland security is currently investigating this breach of standard anime conduct, THIRD looks to be a smart investment option.

Analysts predict that problems like this will be small fry for The Third

TOKKO 2

TOKK's market price was nowhere near rising proud, unlike the main character's morning wood that had just inked a deal with Lolicon. In fact, aside from the requisite siscon service, investors could not drop stock fast enough. It finally delisted from the index at $15.

XXXHOLIC GOES PUBLIC

New to the exchange, xxxHOLiC is—ARRGH OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIS BODY?! THESE PEOPLE'S LIMBS ARE HUGE!! Uhh.. ahem. This company is perfect for those who are unafraid of high risk investments, eLiTe spelling, or spirits that look like giant french-ticklers.

Mixing it up with the other spring season titles, xxxHOLiC has one of the largest PR campaigns behind it due to their large number of fans from the manga. But aside from the strength of a huge hype machine, their first episode press-release offered very little indication as to what their 6 month business plan is or even what market their product is geared towards. XHOLC is certainly an interesting stock for the most adventerous trader.

And seriously, their bodies are freaking me out man.

XHOLC came on the market amidst fanfare, but exactly what is it selling?

YAKITATE!! JAPAN 59-60

JPAN bounced back into the green with timely use of some major copyright infringement. New company reps, Monica and Suwabara Gai, managed to wash away taint from the recent Haniwa-gate scandal. Some wonder how they will be able to present a faked miscarriage in a comedic light in the future, but for now JPAN holds onto a full point and quarter rise.

NOTE: Unless otherwise mentioned, no Previews or Spoilers are used and/or wanted to base the above market data on.

Editorial: To Otaku or not to Otaku

There was an article recently where a female mangaka took some swings at the moe culture and accompanying otakus. This naturally lead to omega debating on the ANN forums where some interesting things were mentioned, that I figured I'd delve into because I lack anything vaguely original.

Now "what is moe?" aside, what else was brought to light by a number of people was the puported fact that being an okatu in Japan is considered much closer to being hikkikomori, as opposed to it's more positive (and sociable) western outlook. I don't know if this is true, but we'll assume for the moment that this definition is correct and that the parties know what they're talking about. This then raises a couple of questions.

Firstly, is being otaku looked at differently between those who actually Are, and those who are just regular schlubs working 5-8 at an office? Public perception has to be taken into account. Just like most consider being a pervert a bad thing, within the pron "scene" it's a label of pride.

Yes folks, sometimes ecchi Is appropriate.

So let's do some more assuming and say that it's not considered a cool thing among these poor guys locked up in their parent's basement afraid of the world. This then brings us to the larger question: does it matter?

The above image really has nothing to do with anything, but it says "Otaku" on it, so hey

If the public perception in the west of otaku is no much more than being a geek (to use a term that's lost a lot of it's negative edge in the past decade), then is there anything wrong with us using it to describe one another, even if it means something less endearing in it's mother country? It does work, and the chance of being snapped by a Japanese citizen on your gaijin stupidity would be pretty low. And the useage of words is always constantly changing after all... but then again, is one allowed to do that with words so far removed from english?

And wouldn't taking such liberties with the Japanese language go against what you're trying to define yourself as in the first place?

Of course this is assuming a lot on the validity of it's original meaning, but nevertheless I think this subject is something to think about for more than just the term otaku, because how many of us really know what these other words we're throwing about mean? Can we be positive that our translation sources are giving us the 411 and not just a big ol' game of Chinese Whispers?

Obviously, I don't have any answers (I can't even admit to doing a whole lot of digging aside from that original thread), and I feel too inept to actually refer to myself as otaku anyway, but I do know that I'll be thinking twice next time I use my catchphrase Loli Pantsu Love-Love in a post.

ASX goes live, and deadly girls dominate the exchange

A Word From Some Jabroni

This was quite an active week, with ASX opening it's doors, a date and trailer for the new Hellsing OVA given, Korea starting judgement day with it's EveR-1 series of killer cyborgs, and three IPOs added to the exchange.

The most surprising was Dai Mahou Touge which came completely out of left field. I'm not sure why nobody is talking about it. Perhaps it's left-over stink from Dokuro-chan (image)? Because they're directed by the same man, and both do operate on the same selling-point (cute girl doing vicious things). But while Dokuro-chan had it's moments, once the credits rolled I always felt violated afterwards. Dai Mahou Touge doesn't have any of that. I think it helps that it's more parody-orientated and the designs don't flip into uber-ugly-mode. Oh, and submitting suckers is rad. Shame that it's not a TV series, really.

One question though: which is a better magical chant? "Pi piru piru pi piri pi" or "Lyrical Tokarev, Kill them all"?

Crayotic Rockwell

DAIMA made all the other IPOs tap out, opening high above them

The Week in Review

BLACK LAGOON 3

Black Lagoon saw a sizeable increase as investors were drawn to it's morally bereft protagonists. Blade: Trinity's Jessica Biel is rumored to be considering a lawsuit against Levi's usage of Ass-kickery whilst listening to portable music devices; a technique purportedly created by Ms. Biel. We'll have more information as it comes in.

BLEACH 77 & OVA 2

Bleach Inc surprised the business world this week with an increased output of hot action in both their OVA and TV product. Initial trends indicate that Ex-Shinigami, Maki, is haardo gay for Kariya-sama. Suspicion of company's staying power kept stock price to a minimal gain.

BLOOD 24-25

Episode 24 ended in the defeat of Saya, and Diva delivering the crushing words: "Let's go. I need a new dress." What? I NEED A NEW DRESS?? Many wonder if the blatent cop-out was the reason for such a dismal stockprice in the outset of Blood+'s week. Somehow it managed to rally back with the release of episode 25, raising a number of questions, such as to the future performance stats of recently undead Riku; why Saya doesn't just incest herself an army of Chevaliers (it's not like Kai does anything besides emote); and how did the musical score from The Rock manage to find it's way into the scene where Saya gets a new katana?

BLDP saw a bad week, but like Saya managed to pull through in the last minutes

DAI MAHOU TOUGE OPENS STRONG

The company known as Dokuro-chan Corporation recently restructured itself and is now known as Dai Mahou Touge. The revamped business mandate outlines for eighty percent less crass humour, and at least quadruple output of self-peeling and wanton vegetable sacrifice. Investors interested in absurdist humor or magical mascots living by the Yakuza code could see good returns from DAIMA. The market is expected to see an increased trade of armbars and headlocks in the following months.

DISGAEA 2

Industry pundits were shocked to see DSGA still trading this week, let alone increasing it's share price. Better animation and less back-and-forth boredom saw a quarter point rise for the RPG turned train-wreck. Despite a positive week, insider sources claim that Disgaea is still very much on the verge of bankruptcy.

ERGO PROXY 3-6

Despite their main product suffering from the Matrix Sequel condition (accute symptoms: too many smelly peasants, and outside world being far less interesting than the constructed one), EPROX managed to jump four dollars a share on pure intrigue and Pino alone. Researchers predict Riru+Daldaedus HLA in the immediate future.

Inspector Riru Mayar spent most of the week getting shafted, but that wasn't the case for EPROX's floor price

FATE/STAY NIGHT 13-14

Nationwide polls showing that 90% of people find Shirou to be the worst male lead in an action series and all around giant pussy couldn't stop FSNT gaining a point and a half as Archer faced off Terminator-Hercules in a battle to the death, engrish vs rawr style. Investors predict more exciting action in the future to come. Question has been raised as to why a servant whose main skillset is pulling infinate swords from what could only be described as "His Ass" would choose the title of Archer. Answers were not forthcoming.

HIGURASHI NO NAKU KORO NI 3

The discovery of Mai Otome waitressing a village diner surprised many while the market floor exploded in a trading ferver of bank transfers and needle-laced onigiri as HIGU skyrocketed to new heights. Upon learning of Keiichi's parent's untimely visit to Tokyo, one stock broker went on record as saying: "RUUNN! GET THE FUCK OUT OF THAT TOWN"

JIGOKU SHOUJO 14-15

Jigoku Shoujo innovated it's simple concept once again, while Tsugumi entered the business world of comically bad drawings (staying just behind Bleach Inc's Kuchiki Rukia). This, and creepy aunts who have corpses tied in the basement helped the Hell Girl's stock, although lack of revenge kept it from reaching full potential. Analysts predict that continued supply shortages of Ippen Shinde Miru may eventually hurt the share price of Hell's top franchise.

KASHIMASHI 8

Even chibi Ayuki-chan failed to make an impact in the stockprice as the market floor closed out wth no change for the underrated cocktease series. Shareholders want to know if Ayuki has a few screws loose or is just tripping acid.

Hazuma isn't the only one worried about the uncertainty of KASHI's future

MAGICAL POKAN GOES PUBLIC

This new security opens at a solid $35 point price. Magical Pokan offers investors a chance to be on the cutting edge of loli-tastic jailtime. This company is the true heir to innovation in the realm of werewolf-vampire-witch-android orgies. Our analysts suggest looking into this stock only for those who have no shame in their portfolio.

THE MELANCHOLY OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA 5

This week Kyoto Animation issued a press statement revealing Haruhi Suzumiya's involvement in the Second Impact. This saw The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya do a solid week trade, along-side Halliburton (NYSE: HAL) as construction of Tokyo-4 began. Analyts appreciated how the explanations given to Kyon came in Spring Romance, Swing-time, and Mind-rape De Shinji (also known as The Melancholy Of Evangelion) flavours.

Everything was fine for HRHI which remained top secruity on the index. Mikuru ended up getting groped in the SOS club room. Again.

PETOPETO-SAN 10

Despite suffering from a slow fansub production output, resulting in "who-the-hell-is-that-again?" syndrome, PetoPeto-San Industries saw a positive bump in price. Sahara sharing food with Shingo, her following response, and Petoko's continued rise to stardom arc kept investor's confidence steady. A few wondered what the hell was up with the astronaught analogy though.

ROZEN MAIDEN 4

Another doll joins the Captain Jun harem this week. This new character's suitcase not only explains what was in Marcellus Wallace's briefcase in Pulp Fiction, it also has the useful ability to throw itself through people's bedroom windows at will. Things quickly strayed from The Alice and Jun-Humiliation Games and RZEN wound up taking a full point drop as the product turned emo-fag.

The fact that share holders couldn't remember the new Maiden's name was proof of RZEN's latest price

TOKKO OPENS LOW

Early comparisons of TOKKO to Elfen Lied by other industry analysts proved ridiculously unfounded, as company Chairman earlier told press that their mission statement is to "pussy out" and look "as artistically crippled as possible." Despite incestual overtones and comical value of human face bugs, TOKK went public on the CRAYDAQ at a less than enthusiastic share price.

YAKITATE!! JAPAN 58

Obscure veterinarian parodies and dog-toupees couldn't stop JPAN from sliding a quarter point with the worst reaction yet during the first half of episode. Market buzz says that confidence was also shaken with fansubber's translation duties of aforementioned reaction. A Spokesperson for Anime-Kraze replied to the rumours: "Yeah? You planning on starting your own group? I don't see anyone else subbing the show."

NOTE: Unless otherwise mentioned, no Previews or Spoilers are used and/or wanted to base above market data on.

About This Site

Last Updated: 13/05/2006

What the hell? Stock Exchange, what's this all supposed to do?

In it's most simple terms, The Anime Stock Exchange is a place to get predictions on an anime's potential and quality of entertainment in the near-future, based off of current information at hand.

Example: In the latest episode of Untitled Mahou Harem Comedy (CRAYDAQ: UMHC) a boisterous new tomboy character from Osaka that wears glasses is introduced, this may cause UMHC's share price to bump up a wicked +$5, based on the market's confidence for the future of that series. Likewise, it could instead take a nosedive -$15 if the writers of Mai Otome come onboard to wrap up the rest of UMHC's season.

There are many things to take into account, but our experts will try to explain a change in price as best they can.

Market... investors... shareholders... Isn't it true that none of these exist and it's just you typing stuff on a computer at home, eating a Twix?

Yes, but don't ruin the fantasy for all the children still innocent enough to believe.

So what's this all mean? The money isn't real. In fact, you probably don't even have two quarters to rub together!

That's a good point. But to answer the first question, you can basically look at the share prices like this:

$60 = Better than sex with myself. This kind of series can create drooling zealots and make even the most stingy fan want to import all sorts of wacky merchandise from Japan.

$50 = Top of the line stuff. The sort of show is high priority on the watch list, and buying the licenced DVDs is a pretty easy question.

$40 = Solid. Watching a second time is not a bad idea. Just so long as it's free.

$30 = An average/mediocre show worth watching at least once. Maybe just run-of-the-mill, or perhaps it's blessed by moments of greatness which are unbalanced by some really terrible parts.

$20 = Ugh, we're talking some real shoddy stuff now.

$10 = Anime from the dredges of Hell. Tasukete!

Enough jibber jabber! You're confusing my head with all these fool words!

Security/Property/Company/etc = For most intents and purposes, the anime series in mention.

CRAYDAQ = The name of this Stock Market. There might be others out there, but then again... most likely not.

Index = A listing of select securities/anime series on the CRAYDAQ.

IPO = Initial Public Offering. Meaning the first week a series makes it onto the exchange. IPO share prices are determined in multiple of $5s

Delist = When an anime series ends or is dropped from my viewing schedule for whatever reason, this is what it does.

Portfolio = Complete list of anime you actually watch yourself

I have to admit, this idea is just too awesome. You must have stolen it from someone genius!

Well, you could say that ripped off the idea from The Hollywood Stock Exchange, but in all fairness, I had the idea years before them (or at least finding out about them) and this is far more shoddy.

I saw Jason Miao doing this for his Haruhi Awesomeness Index. You link him on your blogroll AND also rate Haruhi highly. I see what's going on here...

Purely coincedental -- he's just quicker at putting up html. Besides, AoMM's version is more like an actual recap. Mine reads far less comprehensible. Making it just like a real stock market!

Hey, I'm losing a heap of money on Anime Title X according to your market. These stock prices suck ass!

The CRAYDAQ can't accomodate everyone's opinions, unfortunately. The current market also has a natural predilection for comedy, incest, and large bewbs. Shoujo and ugly character designs tend to get the short stick, however. The CRAYDAQ has also been active for only five years or about (as of 2006) giving it less financial backing with the serious otaku. But while it's investors may not be able to name a top 10 list of seiyuu, they do (claim to) know what works and most importantly, they know what = money.

That last episode rooled! Why isn't the market reflecting it's bestness?

Sometimes there's a backlog on episodes, so not everything will always read up-to-date. The listings can only reflect the latest data received by the CRAYDAQ.

What's with the lack of updates? You just type some crap and hit "publish post" c'mon!

The ASX updates are kept to a weekly format mainly because a) my cheap "review" format doesn't exactly lend itself well to daily updates. Most people would feel ripped off having to load some hundred k's worth of jpg's just to read a few paltry lines on a couple of shows. And b) it's a lot more appealing to me to be able to spend six hours or so (I'm literately retarded) for an update on Sunday/Monday, and then live the rest of my week pressure-free, where I can concentrate on watching anime and not worry about screencaps, html, spellchecking, etc. Good enough for you?