The New Sheriffettes: Anime Conventions Write a Modern-Day Comstock Act with Ahegao Restrictions.

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Keep Making That Face and it will Stay That Way.

Anime conventions in flyover country have started “banning” (it's just prohibiting) clothing and other items with ahegao images on them.  Prints, books, commissions, videos, towels?  What about… a tattoo?  Like any amateur we-know-best bunch, they haven’t really mentioned them in any specificity, so apparently non clothing items are permissible.  The reason that seems to be given by one of the conventions for such prohibitions is “social climate.”  Now, there is no way to successfully parse “social climate” with the notion embodied by the phrase “what other people think” since they are the same thing.  Thusly, a sweeping policy which is being applied to everyone is now in place because of … “what other people think.”  Following that logic, it becomes very apparent that the actual end of that equation goes from “what other people think” to “what WE think.”  You don’t need to be well versed in post-Revolutionary France and the Société des Jacobins, amis de la liberté et de l'égalité to realize where this leads and the CRG squads that will inevitably prowl the convention halls looking for any and all infractions contrary to the new Little Red Book of obscena- prohibetur. 

The New Sherefettes:
The blatant hypocrisy of this development has already been exposed by writers and commentators out there who are quicker on the draw than I am.  Animemotivation.com has handily pointed out that the new “rules” are only applicable to clothing items which have “ahegao” images in an effort to promote a “family friendly” atmosphere.  In a telling indicator that this may be also influenced by Anti-Sex conservative creep effect, these rules do not apply to cosplay in this case, just a specific image on clothing items (more on this later).  So we end up with:

The machine wants you! Service Guarantees Citizenship.

This dynamic alone is a red flag made of red flags.  Not only is the regulation so specific mentioning ahegao as to suggest an intentional targeting of certain people, but relies on definitions which are beyond vague.  What IS ahegao and more importantly what ISN'T it?  Is it a cropped image which depicts sex outside the frame?  Is it a cropped image with depicts simulated sex?  Is it just that facial expression, which a character could be making while performing an otherwise mundane task?  Is it only applicable to female or female-appearing characters?  Can masculine characters make an “ahegao” face and would such depictions also be against these new rules?  How crossed do the eyes have to be?  How far does a tongue have to stick out?  They gonna make a chart or something?  A new anime convention Hays Code is no doubt in its infancy right now.

But wait there’s more; Colorado Anime Fest has added another tier of inappropriateness.  From their stated rule policy, “…will not permit ‘ahegao’ or similar clothing with graphic sexual imagery to be worn on the convention floor” (emphasis added).  The danger of such ambiguity can be summed up with the simple explicit question of; Well what the fuck does that mean?  Will individual conventions come up with their own criteria for “graphic sexual imagery” and go around enforcing them with vigor?  Does such a development remind you of something?

Yeah ...that. 

Missing a history lesson:

A social conservative resistance to anime and blatant hatred of everything from manga to video games was once a real threat to anime fandom itself.  When one has to invoke Miller v California in order to establish one’s “innocence” in wearing an Urusei Yatsura t-shirt, it is indeed a civil rights issue (not the biggest one, but one none the less).  From book confiscations to the decades-long moral panic around video games, anime and otaku fandom has been attacked numerous times in the name of social standards and anti-LGBTQ and other sentiments so ridiculous, that they were (until recently) simply laughed out of the public sphere by fans and non-fans alike.  These new convention authorities  seem to be completely ignorant of how hard fought the evolution of otaku fandom was going from fringe element to massively accepted and commercially viable sphere of influence, and so bring such threats back to bear, this time from within the fandom itself.  This is what you get when you let people with undergrad degrees from Evergreen State College (or any SJWs R Us campus) actually exert authority over entities that operate outside the academic bubble of their calcified nodes of absolutist thought. 

But now, the threat to the fandom comes from within, and begins as always with all but seemingly innocuous pleas of “for the children!” cloaked in a self-projected righteousness.  Such restrictions and prohibitions on creative works and thought shall slowly spread as their efforts progress, much as an unhealed wound slowly expands from repeated puncturing by those who seek to add unnecessary remedy.  If allowed to continue unchecked, such efforts will bring their exclusionary authority to increasing more types of expression and art (be it commercial or otherwise).  What will the result be?  A convention bereft of the qualities that make anime and anime conventions fun. 

No fun allowed you counter-revolutionary sex racist!

I warned you people.  And here.  And here.  Here too.

"I say, You Can’t Have a Negro"
-Charles Murphy, Comic Code Authority, 1955:

For those of you who don’t know the story about that line, here is the primary source account.  It can be distilled into the basic singular event; specifically the publication of Incredible Science Fiction in 1955, and story in it called “Judgement Day” a short comic where only at the end, the “Hero” astronaut is revealed to be a black person from Earth.  This had already been published to accolades before the CCA came into being.  The head of the CCA, Charles F Murphy rejected the story based on the notion “you can’t have a negro.”  So it was asked of him, “where in the code does it say you can’t have a negro?” to which Murphy responded simply with “I say you can’t have a negro.”  From that moment, the Code became simply whatever the Chair said it was, and it wasn’t until decades later that a wholesale rejection of its necessity did the CCA become unable to exert influence on creative works. If you are under the impression that this ahegao thing won't lead to something similar, the shoehorn for getting your head out of your ass is somewhere around here.

Total Assholes, ruining my fandom?  It's more likely than you think.
This is a dank-meme for all you zoomers out there who don't know shit.

It is easy to dismiss this incident, as Charles F Murphy (who  somehow attained the rank of Judge) is the kind of guy who you would absolutely expect to find vigorously helping to frame the Central Park 5 in his free time.  The platitudes of being far more socially enlightened (which some people think means “woke” but it doesn’t), do not, in fact, shield such overzealous entities, be they groups or individuals, from the exact same perilous cognitive entrapment.  The misplaced notion of the need for censorship can find itself misplaced under any guise, be it the preservation or morality, blatant racism, or the happy fun-time feely feels safe space rainbow of the all-encompassing greater good.  Once that happens, the individual whims of someone, whoever they may be, in such a position of absolute authority will become the exclusive maxims, and limits, of toleration.  This scenario has played out many times in history, always for the worst.  What fans have now witnessed is the emergence of micro-tyrants within the convention space.  What fans must decide, is how they will fight such an emergence.

What such an threat once looked like (before they shot him in the face and chopped his head off... It's ok, he really had it coming). 

The Penis is Evil!
So is this a case in which Dworkin style feminism has managed to creep into the fandom?  Who fucking knows… but what other mechanism would so necessitate banning ahegao images and nothing else which could be considered equally or even more sexualized?  Ahegao does seem to indicate a particular enjoyment of a female character engaging in, as they say, the fucking.  Dworkin is notoriously sex-hostile, so by singling out ahegao and it's potential to be sex-positive, it does seem as if this is something that fits the prohibitionist puritan agenda.  I promise none of the links are about fart-rape.  Except this one, this link goes to fart-rape.  To be honest, this is just a notion of a possibility which may or may not be the case, Kind of a "hey look at that" type of observation, but it is more likely than aliens, a secret cabal or whoever, or something stupid.

Something fuckface something something the patriarchy!

Expose Yourself.
No I don’t mean get naked, this isn’t some off the rails furry convention.  What I mean is someone needs to get a 2 or 4 person team, one presenting male and one female, have them walk around a convention each in the exact same ahegao gear, and set them up with hidden cams and mics (kind of like the 10 Hours of Walking experiment).  Document what kind of differences there end up being between the two if any.  Send them out the next day with ahegao images of exclusively male characters, see what kind of things happen then.  Put yourself out there to expose inevitable double standards that will apply to female and male attendees regarding this policy.  I would love to see a shirt/hoodie made of characters making “ahegao” expressions but engaged in mundane tasks like buying a drink from a vending machine, or using a calculator.  Have the whole image shown so as to clearly demonstrate that these faces do not spring from any sexual activity.  See what happens then.  Will you be asked to take it off / leave?  Then expose that hypocrisy to the world. 

Kick Them in the Nutz!
Contact any sponsors of the convention and tell them you can no longer support their products or services if they will sponsor this kind of censorship.  Companies have a serious phobia of this kind of thing.  I know it sounds like “ok Boomer” advice, but an actual printed letter with a stamp on it via snail mail to whatever company might have a bigger impact than most people think.  Just keep in mind there is a difference between a sponsor, an advertiser, and a venue.  In marketing, people who do this are called “brand terrorists” but I would shy away from self-identifying as that unless you want a visit from the FBI.  I've had that, it's not fun and doesn't look like some innocuous little Mulder and Scully jam session, when the FBI agents show up they show up. 

Contact the CBLDF… they won’t do anything other than possibly wag their finger or release a statement or something.

That one is also sexual.  Giggity.

Shut the Fuck Up about your “rights” and stuff.
This is important because someone is going to go straight into "doing it wrong" when it comes to this subject.  None of the First Amendment or its relevant case law applies here.  These are private events that have rule sets you agree to follow by buying a ticket.  Your First Amendment Rights don’t protect you from any rule these convention entities decide to put in place.  Challenge that by deciding not to leave if you’re asked to, and you will most likely be charged with a crime.  That crime won’t be “wearing an ahegao shirt” either, it will be “criminal trespass in the whatever degree” which, if you’re lucky will get dropped down to something like Disorderly Conduct (that’s what it is in NY, I have no idea what the equivalent is in MN or CO, I’m not licensed to practice there).  So stop thinking this is some fight against the great oppressors, it’s not.  This is an internal fandom thing.  Going on about “free speech” (or “free expression” if you’re in Canada), is not going to get you anywhere.  You will just make yourself look dumb.

What to do, What to do...
Thus, dawn shows its light on the convention floor, where some seek to enforce a wall of incongruity between creative art and high context self righteousness, and others seek to fight against it.  Nobody can say they don’t have a horse in this race because arbitrary rules are just that, arbitrary.  The longer they are allowed to manifest, the closer the chances that something you like will end up being disallowed skyrocket to 100%.  Keeping your head down is not a good option.

One might easily dismiss these developments as the inevitable excretions of Middle America.  Flyover country where semi-sentient MAGA hats Teach the Controversy, and Jesus is your birth control.  Where wild Karens roam the land in their I want to speak to the manager haircuts, all complaining in unison about how Amerika has lost its small town feel while driving for 35 minutes each way in their SUV to buy groceries at a Wal-Mart.  What they do can easily be bathed in the beige light of insignificance since these places are not epicenters of… well pretty much anything really.

But one must remember that the most virulent cancer can have its start even in the most vestigial of places, and if not addressed quickly, will metastasize to interfere with the functions of the primary organs.  So too has this cancer of thought come out of the provincial interior to potentially effect storied and more progressive conventions of the higher qualities.  The notion that a truly great international convention would even entertain such similar nonsensical regulations is both ludicrous, but now also terrifyingly real. 

What’s banned now?  Your face!  Literally.

In summation;
These types of vague knee-jerk regulations are antithetical to what the anime fandom was, is, and strives to continue to be.  They should not be welcomed, entertained, sympathized with, or defended.  An initial backlash combined with fandom efforts to force these rules to be more trouble than they are worth is the remedy which must be administered immediately and with unending consistency.  Give no ground, lest it be taken by those would evict you from it and leave but salted earth. 

 All together now; "Go Fuck Yourself!"

Wow, what a terrific audience.

Wizard World is Terrible: Convention buckles under the slobbering rage of reactionism

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I never thought I'd really be writing stuff here again. I have been out of the loo[ too long, I've lost my will to live, and aside from the occasional episode of Sword Art Online or Girls und Panzer, I'm not watching much of anything any more.  My own take on things really doesn't mean much and no one is reading this anyway.  But if I don't actually say something about recent events regarding Wizard World Chicago I am just gonna end up murdering the next person who has their car alarm go off in the middle of the night down the block. (Link is to The Chicago Tribune).

That's right Social Justice Sally, shit's about to get real.

The basics:

  Self-Important jerk throws hissy-fit until a vendor selling replica and fantasy guns is kicked out of Wizard World Chicago. 

Ok here we go with this...

Ug.  Remember in the 1980's there was always that one kid's mom who didn't want her precious snowflake to play with any sort of "gun" or "gun looking object" because it was supposed to have some sort of mental effect, so the end result was that kid just getting left out of any games of GI Joe or where you pretended to be The A-team?  Remember how dumb that was in retrospect?  Well some sheltered hipster apparently thinks that "guns are bad" and is taking this thinking to the next level.  That level is not only "guns are bad" but you shouldn't be able to buy a replica one in order to complete your badass Blade Runner cosplay.  Yes I know you're a grown adult but this guy knows best so he shall be the ultimate arbiter of what you get to do.

One place that political shenanigans don't belong is the fandom.  Now before you start a slobbering comment along the lines of "OMG how can you even SAY that!  Don't you know that Starship Troopers is an allegorical satire of blarg blarg wharrgarble!"  Yeah, but that's an artistic work... a singular piece for consumption by those who wish to do so.  I'm talking about the fandom, and the fandom is always two things.  1) Fun to hang around in.  2) A mutherfucking business.  You know what's bad for business?  Yeah, exactly this.  Letting galvanized ideology that leaves no space for the realities of existing as a business, is a recipe for disaster and sends the message that manufactured out-of-touch faux outrage garbage is something that is much more important than your ability to engage in any part of the fandom you choose to, which has always included replica weapons, from Han Solo's Greedo-blaster, to whatever the hell this is used for:

There is no waiting period in Texas!

To use strong-arm tactics to force a business to withhold access to their events from vendors which sell things you personally don't like is something you do when the vendor is NAMBLA or the people who invented the Rage Virus, not to a company that's been filling a demand that is an integral part of cosplay fandom, replica guns.  (Although any event that needs to be informed that NAMBLA or Rage Virus R Us shouldn't be there, might not be one you'd really want to go to in the first place).  This is something that shouldn't need reiterating in as many forms as possible, but once you see what the source of this mess is, it will unfortunately become obvious why repeating this ad nauseam probably still will fail to get the point across.

Page 7 in the 2016 rent-a-hipster catalogue.

This is Matt Santori-Griffith, editor at Comicosity and self-described Social Justice Warrior in his very own words (see earlier graphic).  He is the one leading the charge to have vendor DS Arms removed from Wizard World Chicago.  This is also the photo that appears when you look up the definition of Gentrification and its causes.  They probably rail about how bad gentrification is with absolutely zero self-awareness.  It requires a lot of privilege to be able to look like that and not have to worry about finding employment.  Actually this person probably rails about how bad privilege is also, with absolutely zero self-awareness as well now that I think about it.  So this bearded penis walks around thinking "guns are bad" for what is probably a mix of reasons that range from legitimate to ridiculous.  Matt Santori-Griffith has spent so much time in a little bubble however, that if anything serves to remind, that guns in fact exist at all (and therefore reminds him that guns are bad), it must be eliminated from the public sphere and stamped out of existence entirely.  Doesn't matter what you think, you gave Matt a feels-bruise and now that which was used as the catalytic instrument of his self-inflicted perturbation, must be eliminated forever and all time.

Much like anyone you just want to scream "go back to Ohio" at, they are not interested in actual discourse, but rather simply shutting down any platform deemed unacceptable.  The concept of allowing people to be free to choose to patronize or not patronize the business they do not  like, is an absurd one to this type of person if it is in any way incongruous to their rigid social standards.  This unabashed inanity is not even the most grievous of offenses. What is genuinely appalling in this matter is a stated interest in a willingness to fundamentally damage the event and fandom itself, if it does not comply with such an ultimatum. Their stated necessary behaviors they demand must be enforced upon all.  They are interested in the total destruction of anything, be it an activity, the written word, or various shades of the color blue, which cause within them an intellectual counter-resonance to their own perceived reality.  That perception of reality they have, is nought but a matrix of mental holograms lacking any tangible substance. Any means they have at their disposal, or are able to hijack, will be employed in an effort to completely extinguish counter-revolutionary thought, with no regard to any collateral damage it may cause.  For if the ends do not justify the means what does?  Yet the notion that "the ends" themselves could be unnecessary is treated as blasphemous.

The fact that DS Arms is also a licensed retailer of functional firearms isn't sufficiently relevant here, because they were not going to be selling any real guns there.  Real functional guns aren't involved in any of this, so it's not a 2nd Amendment issue.  Actually, there's no Constitutional protection for replica guns at all, they're just not illegal most of the time.  If you are going to make some sort of foolish argument that since they make and sell actual guns it doesn't matter if there were no real guns for sale there, then I hope you never have had to get on a Boeing aircraft or use a Halliburton ATM because you just supported their weaponized products by proxy and blah blah blah.  See how dumb that sounds now?  But again there is not an interest in people having freedom to show their approval or disapproval of a business by voting with their dollars, they want absolute enforcement of their agenda.  Trying to inform people that their money is better spent elsewhere is fine, taking revenue away from Wizard World from a paying vendor simply by decree is not.  Whether it is being an exclusive arbiter of who is allowed to wear their hair in dreadlocks, or acting as the absolute authority to decide where the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution begins and ends on a college campus, they don't back off when there is blood in the water, they ramp it up as hard as they can.

It's the camera that's racist, not me!
Yes, actually defended those actions by saying that.

We can unfortunately expect to see efforts to go even further now that these people know they can force event organizers to do what they specifically want if they jump up and down and scream loud enough like a toddler in the cereal isle.  Will convention floors will become covered in the open sores of social conformity as they demand that all cosplay be subject to a "cultural appropriation" test?  That would suck. Forget singing any karaoke if it contains any words on the "trigger list" because those aren't allowed now.  Some college campuses are getting really worked up over the Halloween thing but seem to not want to stop until all cosplay is banned, not just objectively inappropriate ones.  College students are a big part of convention attendance, and people willing to institute (or even put up with) such ridiculousness on a campus, they are going to want to take those various flavors of stupid to other areas as well.  Think this is too over the top to really happen?

This is NOT a joke, they are actually saying this for real.
It could have been called "No One's Sky" but there would have been a slight loss in meaning for English speaking audiences because of the added implications of the term "noman's" as it apples to spaces or areas.

The gentrifyer types are more than happy to destroy the very thing they are trying to "protect" if it means stamping out any contrary position to their agenda.  And fandom is not safe from this kind of antic.  Don't think so?  Then there's someone I want you to know about:

Yep... worse than Pol Pot apparently.
And if you have to look up who Pol Pot is, then just go back to Tumblr.

This is a high school girl, known on the internet for drawing fan-art  under the name of Zamii070.  If you already know about this, then you know what happened, but for those of you who may have missed it, here is some information relevant to the points we're talking about.  Zamii, as all fan artists are like to do, had a favorite group of characters she like to draw, that being characters from Stephen Universe.  She looks like crap in that photo because it was taken in the hospital, after a suicide attempt brought on by a relentless barrage of attacks by Tumblr's slobbering hoard.  Why did they push a high school girl to the edge of suicide?  Because they think she engaged in "cultural appropriation" by drawing a character in a generic Native American type of outfit.  If you asked one of these attackers if it were Anasazi or Lenape culture it was appropriating, do you think they would even know?  Of course not, all First-Nation culture is all totally the same right?  Ug.  Oh and she also drew a character being "too thin"  ...yeah, apparently that's worthy of spectacular amounts of online harassment.

Now here's what should scare you.  When the actual artists of Stephen Universe said "hey how about we try just being nice to people and let them draw what they want" the hoard turned on them as well, bemoaning and lamenting how the actual creative staff of a show they professed to love so much, could "betray" them like that.  Attacking them for being against their set of absolute human values.  Incongruity of thought is not met as a learning experience by these people, it is met as a physical attack.  It is not the only time that toxic fandom of Stephen Universe decided to shit where it eats.  This is what happens when you put social politics in-front of a creative work about sentient rocks that can smash themselves together and make weird creatures with 4 arms (and maybe 2 butts... we can only hope).

But you may be saying "oh well that's just Tumblr and Stephen Universe fans have always been terrible."  Yes, terrible, full of energy, and lacking direction.  They're lacking so much direction that whenever a lightning rod is exposed for them to target their rage at, they don't care if the rod itself is destroyed in the process.  If human dingle-berry Matt Santori-Griffith is any indication, the anti-fan community has finished with the dead rotting corpse of Tumblr and is now willing to attack anything they can with a absolute fanatical devotion to an engineered social template so strong and destructive, that Robespierre himself would say "woah, that's too intense." 

...If you actually have to look up who Maximilien Robespierre is, then just go back to High School.

Make no mistake, this awfulness is coming to a convention near you.  People like Matt Santori-Griffith call on directionless rage and aim it wherever they damn well please, threatening the specter of not only event boycotts, but the potential for real physical unrest at these these events.  The convention is for different segments of the community to socialize in and share ideas that they can use to make nicer and innovative creative works, it is not a place where a deranged few enforce a lockstep of intellectual intolerance regarding anything they don't like.  If you put a vegan in charge of a bacon festival, it's going to be terrible for everyone.  If you put an absolutist in charge of an event which showcases and celebrates diverse creative artistic works, you get thought police.

I haven't written much in a few years.  So go back and check out some of the older stuff I've covered.  Read the actual date that I wrote it and then ask yourself if I'm usually no good at seeing which way the wind is blowing onto the writing on the wall under the aligning stars.

Enjoy it while it lasts. 

The term "Social Justice Warrior" has been around since 2006 but it sure it a loaded bunch of words to say the least.  Social Justice is real and important and something to strive for.  Social Justice "Warrior" is all too often someone who just goes full Leeroy Jenkins straight into the dynamic with no direction, strategy, or thought, and so they end up... well Leeroy Jenkinsing it for everyone.  And now Fox News found out about it and has started using for literally everyone who isn't a Trump supporter so can it even mean the old meaning anymore?  What a friggin mess.

Video Killed the Video Star: Anime Music Videos Leave Gamification Vaccume

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How AMVs became the bad cholesterol of anime fandom.

The Anime Music Video (AMV), was once a potent and significant component of American otaku community development and enabler of social mobility within the various strata of fandom. It has since devolved into the Toxoplasma Gondii of Anime fandom everywhere, spreading to everything, and accomplishing nothing.

Kill all the hyoomans!

Technological realities once kept the supply of AMVs down to a low stream of relatively few per year for two reasons. First, the editing skill, available anime video library, and hardware needed to actually complete an AMV used to be quite significant and unattainable for many otaku. Such limitations included age, financial reach, and most importantly, talent. This resulted in the AMV being a time consuming effort, undertaken by the few individuals who were confident enough in their abilities and resources to produce a proper AMV. Second, once made, AMV distribution was extraordinarily limited to basically the convention circuit, and a few clubs that managed to get a copy of AMV competition reels or talk Duane Johnson into making a copy of his collection on VHS. They were rare and they were unique, making the level of "otaku bragging points" they carried pretty high on the totem pole.

The AMV is still a part of otaku culture, but this art form has gone from something of high-value, to the lowest possible level of filler activity on par with fanfic writing. Sure you might find one out there that only slightly sucks ...maybe (talkin about fanfics here), but there are millions of poorly written fanfic linguistic vomitbags being churned out by high school freshmen who've got a boner for Gurren Lagann. Neotakus who are just starting to attend conventions since the day after youtube was invented will never experience the dynamic that the AMV formerly played in the social hierarchy of otaku culture.

Lets list the factors which caused this transition. While it's tempting to just write "The Internet" for every single reason behind the downfall of the AMV as a tool of gamification, we're going to try to be a bit more specific.

The 5 Reasons AMVs are Dead*:

#5) Linkin Park: There is no single demarcation line where AMVs definitively became the bad cholesterol of anime fandom, but that year where literally every other submission in the Otakon AMV contest was Linkin Park set to "anyfuckinganimeever" comes painfully close. The viewing was painful, the premises were crap, and it got so bad so fast, that within 2 years the Linkin Park AMV had degenerated into a fucking parody of itself.

What no one realized at the time, was that the rage virus was out of the monkey, and AMVs now became the battleground of emo Weaboo who brought the product of their own "deep" introversion to the anime fandom scene despite the fact that no one asked them to. Look, every generation goes through its "they just don't get me" phase, but what's unforgivable about the post-internet emOtaku crowd is that they shoved that into the AMV contest to the point where we actually hurt our asses waiting for all that shit to be over so we could watch the 5 funny ones at the end of the contest screening.

There's a part of one of the AMV Hell collections (I think) that is 10 Linkin Park songs set to Evangelion over about 30 seconds, but I can't find it. Just use your imagination.

Proper criticism at the time (2003-04): I know you feel a certain way you little emo bastard, but why can't you just read manga while blasting the music they play at Hot Topic? Don't shit into the pool of AMVs out there. You're seriously ruining this for everyone, junior.

#4) Self Esteem: The Mr. Rogers effect of injecting "you're super special and awesome" levels of self esteem by helicopter parents into their precious snowflakes, has had some devistating effects. In terms of AMVs it has allowed some of the crappiest shit to exist by rendering their makers immune to self-criticism and the ability to feel shame and disgust when they step up to the public stage with a work that is painfully sub-par. Perfectionism has taken a back seat to a self centered mentality of throwing out absolute garbage just to prove to others how big a fan of Ouran High School Host Club you are. This is in and of itself a gamification behavior, but has a muted effect due to other factors coming up on this list.

The day youtube dropped 5 star rating for thumbs up or down style was the day we lost our last chance, and past the event-horizon of fail.

AMVs stopped being special when some shithead decided that leaving the subtitles in the final edit was OK. If the subtitles are anywhere in the AMV, you suck - redo it! If there's a DIVX or TV station bug in the corner that comes and goes, you suck - redo it! If you start the video by matching up things litteraly with the song and then stop doing that half way through, you suck - redo it! Failure needs to be accessible early and often, for it leads to self-correction, discipline, and a productive sense of determination. Sadly this isn't happening in America because since 1975, the youth of America have always been told the lie that 100% of what they do/say/think has some sort of value in objective reality. Spoiler alert: That's bullshit.

There's a reason that amateurs aren't allowed to drive F1 cars, there's a reason that NASA rejects 99% of their applicants, and there's a reason why your AMV sucks and shouldn't see the light of day (but apparently you haven't heard it yet).

This should not exist. It should have been taken down in shame, and the person who made it should have bettered themselves with practice until they could produce something that could stand on par with what an AMV should be. Yet the comments are full of "omg! you put a character I like in there so therefore this is totally awesome! squeeee!!!!!" This is why we can't have nice things.

Proper criticism at the time (2008-Yesterday): You suck, and here a list of things you did wrong as certified by experts in video editing, rolled up inside a huge bag of shame! Yes, I know you got a whole bunch of thumbs up on youtube, but those are from 12 year olds who just happen to like Deathnote & Nickelback.

#3) "Fuck you, Japan!": No matter what happens, Japanese studios and publishers always seem to retain a fundamental lack of market understanding no matter how many times it's explained to them that things like AMVs are not piracy and that shutting them down will do nothing to protect their sales, and only generate a wedge effect, further de-humanizing themselves in the faces of American fans making them look like "faceless corporations" making lots of money and doing what they will in the face of customer input (like Apple).

In no way can AMVs really have any tangible negative effect on anime titles and brands. They are helpful indicators of brand strength, and help grow the market for a title as well as energize current customers. They don't displace sales, they don't replace the original program, no one is going to not buy K-ON because there's a 3 minute music video with a little sexual innuendo on youtube out there instead.


So what's the problem? Well, if you watched that AMV, you might notice that there were 35 different anime titles in there. How much you wanna bet that they are all from legit DVD purchases or downloads and not a single one was pirated at all? Yeah...

Studios seeing an AMV don't see a marketing tool for high-intensity and high-context customer engagement with gamification dynamics... they see a fucking bootleg of their title that someone illegally downloaded and just happened to use an an AMV! Horrible over-reaching analogy: If your child died in an accident and I downloaded their genetic code and cloned my own version using a rented uterus, it wouldn't really matter to you if you never found out. But if I kept making videos of my clone of your dead kid and shoving them in your face, you're not gonna approach things very rationally. Same thing is happening here to a lesser extreme; You're just shoving the fact that you stole their license right into the face of the writers, animators, artists, sound engeneers, directors, and office workers who make anime for a living. They're not going to see past that, and therefore continue to be hostile to AMVs.

Proper criticism at the time (1999): Gentlemen, thank you for joining me at the first international Japanese animation global marketing conference. I'm glad to see every anime studio and distribution label represented here. Now, let me tell you about multi-platform viral marketing strategies...

#2) Digital Everything: AMVs were once like hot-rod cars. People worked hard on them, stuck in very unique aspects that no one else would have access to, and then the would take them someplace where they could show them off to other people who would be impressed with their work. Otaku points would abound if you could find footage of an anime that almost no one had ever seen before, or a JPop song that was currently burning up the charts. Using multiple titles in a rapid fire mode was a pretty awesome thing to do, because it meant that this person has lots of anime and knows where to find these scenes. Almost nothing screamed "I'm more Otaku than you" louder and to more people than a top-tier AMV. The best example of this, forever and all time, has got to be Duane Johnson's "Dare to be Stupid" AMV, which at this point is pushing 15 years. Think about that.


This had incredible value, because lots of this footage wasn't easy to find at the time. It didn't even matter if you had/have no idea what those titles are, the song ties everything together in a literal sense so you don't miss out on the enjoyment factor. The elusiveness of all of the different anime titles in there, combined with the quality of the editing meant that this was worth some crazy otaku points back when there was no way your stupid ass was ever going to get a copy of this AMV for yourself.

No longer is that the case. While the digital revolution did basically create the separate but related creative forms of the"Overdub" and the "Mashup," which have as much if not more entertainment value, the damage done to AMVs was severe and irreparable. AMVs lost their ability to add value to social fandom the day a few mouse clicks could conjure up any footage of any anime almost instantly. To top it all off, it would already be encoded in a digital video form, ready to go for whatever low-end editing software you had. The result?



Somehow underwhelming.





Or just total shit.
Proper criticism at the time (2001): "Can" ≠ "Should" ...Any questions?

#1) The Fucking Internet: In this context I simply mean that it's now far too easy to just sit down wherever you are whip out a smartphone and have access to enough AMVs to litteraly occupy every second of every day for-fraking-ever... instantly. Watching AMVs was once something only available to convention attendees, and even then only for 90 minutes or so. They were so valuable that in the 1990's I would enter the Otakon AMV contest just to get copies of the other entries (they were always good though, my last was in 2002). We'd show them on the Anime Crash CCTVs every now and then to a packed house, and that was because these things were rare pieces of Otaku fandom. You'd never fill an anime store (let alone convention) these days by announcing you were going to show a few AMVs, because you could watch the same thing at home in your undies while doing 3 other things online at the same time.

Over-abundance via saturated distribution has caused just about every problem there is with the decline of the AMV. Some things should not be available to 11 year olds, and the internet enables them into producing total crap. Even enabling an entire generation of retards who can't tell which songs aren't actually by Weird Al Yancovic. Nice AMV but it's not Weird Al. Not that one either. No, not that other one, I don't care if it "sounds" like him. Really? Weird Al's own website says that's not his! And so on and so forth. The unreliability of the internet mixed with the notion that your opinions somehow have value (from #4) have combined to create a fan that literally thinks that their retarded tumor-baby of an AMV they've created from an anime they like and Windows Movie Maker is something other than a sickening creation deserving of only contempt. Contempt that you've wasted everyone's time on this crap.

The result of commoditized AMVs made possible only via the internet (nothing else could do it) has had two major effects:
A) AMVs are now not only abundant but tremendously accessible. Searching AMV libraries by theme, character, song, series, artist, etc, has become so easy, that the need to seek them out at conventions is no longer prevelant.
B) Development A has caused the value of the AMV as it pertains to the social structure of the American Otaku market market to deflate, leaving a vaccume in sources for "Otaku-points."

Proper criticism at the time (1998-99): WE'RE DOOOOOMED!

AMVs and Gamification.

I truly believe that the explosion in cosplay that has come to dominate Otaku convention culture over the past 5-10 years, was (in part) a result of the "points" vacuum created by the hyper-commoditization of the AMV. Otaku Wee'Bos could no longer tangibly rise further in the fandom hierarchy via the creation or possession of AMVs, because they were everywhere and anyone could make one at that point. This left the option of creating a costume better than those of the other schlubs as one of the few viable means to earn slight elevations in the pecking order.

Anime fans often socially interact in ways in which establish a hierarchy where rank is based on possession of items, fandom knowledge, important contacts, or other things with limited access. That means everyone is trying to out-fan each other a lot of the time (not always). I assign the term "Gamification" to this dynamic, but that's not really accurate, as "Gamification" is a more structured group activity where the channels of upward mobility are top-down designed and implemented by a central authority which engages in pull-marketing (think FourSquare). In the otaku social space, these channels of upward mobility and rules of engagement have developed organically, and therefore are also subject to intense fluctuations, so when you win you really win, but you also run the risk of a ton of worthless currency, such as AMVs.

As noted, AMVs formerly held a position of high value currency but are now pretty much worthless in that grand scheme of things:



For clarification: Rare means that the overall supply is a low ratio of AMVs to Otaku, where as and Limited Access means that there are only a few channels which can deliver AMVs to Otaku, regardless of how many AMVs there are. The rest other categories should be obvious. Such qualities made the possession and creation of AMVs a source of otaku fan authority, and the more you had, the more points you earned. Bring an AMV reel to an anime club meeting and you were god (or close).

But, the need to engage in the social activity and the gamification that such activity still entails, means that something must step up to fill that need. There have always been extreme sources of otaku legitimization; Industry Job, Published Artist, Voice Actor, Big Retailer, etc, but these opportunities are simply too few to contribute to the larger mass of regular otaku consumers (many of which are just too young for any of that) and fill the gap that AMVs have left with their devaluation. Enter cosplay:

AMV scores a little differently against Cosplay here. Rather than having all X marks, because this table of comparison is for a convention setting, where an obscure title is still worth something and where there's always an air of competition in almost everything.
In this case, Limited access means that (unless you're Danny Choo) you don't cosplay to work on the train every day, and in order for your cosplay to satisfy your own motivational needs (and thereby create intangible value), the cosplayer requires an audience. There are two kinds of audiences, passive and the engaged. An example of a Passive audience would be passers by at the Yoyogi Park entrance off of Harajuku, who were not planning on seeing any cosplayers but, there they are. Reactions can range from mild interest to recalcitrant hostility if their path to the train is blocked... or some d-bag is dressed up like a Nazi. Then there are the engaged audiences such as those at anime conventions, who have planned to see cosplay activities and competitions. Both of these audience types create value for the cosplayer, but the engaged types are more likely to provide a kind of legitimization of hierarchy when it comes to where the cosplayer fits into the rest of the otaku universe by being better or worse than average.

To that effect, I would very much like to see something like a major and indisputable source of cosplay criticism. Not constructive criticism, mean criticism. A fountain of shameful, hateful, negative sentiment, washing away the unwarranted self-confidence that enables cos-tards with terrible costumes the ability to leave the house. The collateral damage they cause with poorly made hallway-clogging inspirations for eye-bleach must be called out as harmful by the otaku public, forcing these morons to better their attempts at cosplay before stepping out in public to inflict their lack of talent on the rest of us. This will help cosplay retain a position of being something that gives those otaku who excel at it, a higher standing in the fandom, and remain a viable gamification activity. You ever see a "bad" Japanese cosplay? No. Know why? Because the Japanese still have shame, and if they suck, they don't want other people to see that. While Cosplay Hell does exist, it really needs to create a standardized rubric of cosplay fail, then feed it into the internet hate machine engines and take a more active role in discouraging every lumpy pumpkin who likes Read or Die from going to a con in some god-awful rendition of whatever character and ruin cosplay for everyone... making it worthless and spreading it everywhere... ya know, like what happened to AMVs.

Self esteem. It's a bad thing.

Final note: Discourse continues in the comments, opposing and supporting views are welcome. Comments are moderated because I get lots of spam (check out this entry to see what happens when comment mod is off). That's the only reason for moderation, real comments will be approved as quickly as possible.

* (added July 18); Well now that the internet and everyone has seen this and taken it the wrong way, I obviously have some explaining to do. I go into this down in the comments, but just in case you weren't in the mood to slog though another wall of words, "Dead" in this case was the wrong term (high-context, which only makes sense to me, because I don't get other people to read these things before they go up). I only mean "Dead" in terms of AMVs as a high-return source of competitive gamification "points" in the otaku socual fanscape. So it's only in terms of the ability to produce a fandom silo-breaking gamification value that AMVs have fallen tremendously. The enjoyment value isn't the same as gamification value, since while gamification value exists and has a specific dynamic, it (usually) does not produce as much motivation to so something as the enjoyment value which is also very real, but just not the same thing. AMVs still produce a significant quantity of enjoyment value for participants and viewers, but inadequately articulated the way that is separate from the organic competitive gamification behavior that exists in anime fandom (or almost any fandom for that matter). Therefore "dead" is more like "dry well" or "vestigial feature" or "Zimbabwe dollar" but only specifically as the gamification mechanisms are concerned, AMVs are still fun to watch and do provide a sense of satisfaction when finished.

To go even further, "Gamification" isn't even the 100% correct term here, but that's addressed in Section 2 "AMVs and Gamification" paragraph 2.

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I Carry a Badge; Anime Conventions, and why anime market in America is different from Bollywood

Juxtaposing foreign media segments in the USA, illustrated with Convention Badges

There's another anime blog out there in the massive universe of anime blogs: Anime of Yesteryear, which is worth checking out. Unlike other "yesteryear" type things, this blog isn't simply a retrospective on anime that happens to be from 15 or more years ago; but rather the pieces of American fandom that existed in the proto-phases of the formation of the market as we know it today in America... guess I'll throw Canada in there too.

Oh... Canada.

This material is not only worth significant points in the social fandom system of "I'm more otaku than you," but I hope will also be useful in any case studies that get made regarding this very interesting and turbulent portion of the media industry, which has gone through the highest of highs and lowest of lows like an out of control Fu-Go in a hurricane, reaching amazing heights only to land in an abandoned tire yard in some forgotten part of Minnesota. These are early examples of the type of marketing that was done to grow and create a legitimate market for foreign entertainment media in segments outside the clusters indigenous to the source culture. You can talk about Bollywood in the USA, but who's buying it? It's almost all people from the region where it's produced. Such is not true for Japanese anime. Most of the U.S. market for Latin music was manufactured south of the border as well ("Latin music" in this context meaning productions that are specifically not made in the U.S., with a priority on their own domestic markets). But Japanese animation? That was everybody in terms of demographics (except age demos). The advantage of that is a much larger potential for expanding your market and presence in the overall entertainment industry. The disadvantage is that the "easy-come easy-go" rule applies quite a bit, since there is not a "built in" audience that is going to ipso-facto support productions because of implicit cultural understandings and familiarity induced desire, and thereby aggregating bad years in terms of sales into something fiscally survivable.

As an emerging market, anime was being featured in publications like NY Times, WSJ, Newsweek, Washington Post, and others by 1995. The reason? It was the intense visibility of the "top of the pyramid" of the anime consuming market. Some people might attribute this to The Anime Convention as the cause, but that's not entirely true. There were "conventions" long before the mid 1990's, and although they weren't the "Anime Conventions" we have become used to, the first AX, Otakon, AnimEast, or Katsucon, was not going to be the bait on the hook, in terms of getting MSM attention and then using that attention to build a legitimate face to show the market and potential investors. The true sherpa of anime to the media and business world was the specialty retail entity. A convention was something that happened once a year, and got a puff piece and then that was is, but a B&M location in a major media hub that could provide specific people, events, and information, combined with entrenching itself as a source of information/commentary for all things "Asian pop-culture" whenever a local media source needs a talking head. Combine the home media labels operating in the same place, and you've got a media cycle that mentions something about anime at least once per quarter.

A good solid year of this, led to anime = serious business and acceptance as a true entertainment commodity that could be taken seriously. Only after that, did conventions serve to show people what kind of market anime was in America, how it operated, all that good stuff.

But Conventions were a whole other story for the people who attended them. This is especially true looking at the pre-convention center state of things, where cons took up small sections of hotels, or college campuses.


College
At a certain point as conventions get larger, a connection is lost between the attendees and the convention organization. A loss of the feeling that your presence has direct value not only to the convention, but to the entity that is anime fandom in the USA. These early cons suffered form labor shortages, meaning that the potential for attendees to be called upon to assist in things was greater, and a job well done was it's own reward (most of the time). This would have been impossible if the internet was the same back then as it is now however. With the exception of some minor socializing, there's nothing a convention offers that isn't replaceable by the internet. Think about it, Dealers room, video rooms, panel discussions, news, collecting images, looking at artwork, AMV watching, geeking out and arguing about which version of Chun-li has the better outfit, all that is easier and more plentiful online. You don't need cons anymore for any of the actual activities that they offer other than autographs. So why the continued attendance?

Some of it is obviously market turnover; younger fans come in, older fans go out, and people like Bill O'Reilly get confused about miscommunications. But that's not why people keep coming back at sustainable levels. The reason conventions have grown while other areas like home media have been terrible for anime, is a sociological phenomen, mentioned at the top of this article: Points. Or intense gamification behaviour if you prefer. Otaku are always trying to out-otaku each other, and they see a lot of value in doing this in-person as opposed to online. Winning an internet argument? That's not much, ...but, like pwning some other anime fan IRL w/ ure shiznit-tastic cosplay of that obscure character and use of the word kawaii and desu in a sentence is like such OMFGWTFBBQFF7 levels of otaku-points, that you'll totally plunk down $40 (not to mention pay for transportation and hotel) to engage in dick measuring contests go to a 3 day convention, all the while complaining that a $19.95 SRP on a Summer Wars DVD that you can buy and have forever is too much. No... no one can see you buy that DVD, and thus no upward motion in the fandom stratification can be achieved through that activity. It's the high levels of visibility that gives these fan activities perceived value among attendees, and where can you be more visible to the specific group you are trying to out-fan than at a convention? Nowhere that's where. The major force at work here is called Willingness To Pay.

This kind of thing doesn't really exist in other foriegn entertainment media market segments in the US (like Bollywood films), because there's not really an "I'm more Indian than you" kind of behavior going on within the consumer market. I'm not saying there isn't some "I'm more Indian than you" contest going on somewhere out there, but it's not a driving force shaping that particular segment for the market of this consumer good. Remember when there was all this talk about Bollywood becoming the next big breakout entertainment market and all that? What happened? Lack of gamification opportunities in the general media consuming public = fizzle. That's what happened. You wanna see the PowerPoint? Then pay me, 's what I do for a living.

Getting back to the subjects of Otaku points and Anime conventions:


AnimEast 1994


AnimEast 1995 or Anime East 1995 it seems. There was never another Anime East or AnimEast, though Anime Next is like some sort of distant future descendant. See the footnotes below for more. Bonus points if you can guess which anime the image is from.


Katsucon 1995 You've already seen this...


Katsucon 1997 (Funny thing about 1996, there was this huge snow storm that closed the Jersey Turnpike and I couldn't make it. It wasn't cleared until late Saturday. I did not get a refund... or a free t-shirt... and the hotel charged my ass a fee for not showing up.


Otakon 1995. My Otakon 1994 badge exists, but isn't here, so if anyone has one send a scan and you'll be all special like!


Otakon 1996 still in the tag holder


Otakon 1997 ...I also had a dealer badge from 1997 but I have no idea what happened to it. I think I gave it to someone to get in and out and bring me pizza because there was a Pizza Hut right in the hotel where this things was and it was awesome and blah blah blah


Otakon 1998. Oh look the badges are huge now... and laminated.


Otakon 1999. First year at Baltimore Convention Center.
After this point badges are "meh" but that's ok because after this, my con badges started having "industry" written on them.


The first Anime Central (Acen) 1998. Whoever the Con Chair was that year was a total d-bag.

Anime East / AnimEast:
Anime East should by all rights have been the major East Coast anime con. It was same year as Otakon, in a much bigger market (NYC Metro), much better served in terms of transportation, had access to many dealer/retail accounts, had better PR, better funding, and they even gave out the Tezuka Award Nominations (Or something to do with the Tezuka awards... I forget exactly what, but it was a big deal).

There are 2 reasons out there as to why Anime East is no longer with us: Some say that since Anime East was where Apollo Smile was first unleashed upon the world, it was simply Karmic Retribution to have this event smited by an angry god (smited, smote..?). But then, some say that it was the dirty dealings of one man, whose "take the money and run" move ensured that the funding for 1996 went with him into the shadows, never to be seen again. This is why we can't have nice things.

Some say Martin King (pictured on the right) is that person. This was taken in 1995 at the Anime Crash offices in Manhattan and published in NY Japion. It was when we at Crash were working out sponsorship of the con. The Anime East 1995 badge has the Anime Crash logo on the flip side. There was even talk of Crash becoming a label as early as 1995 in cooperation w/ and acquiring anime with Anime East, but it fell through and we eventually went with martial arts as our first acquisitions for Crash Cinema in 1998.

This con was hard core. Best guest roster by far (New York City is like some kind of enchanted fairy land to the Japanese, and so they were on board like nobody's business), a huge cosplay, big dealers room, great location, and an open bar. They even had their own CCTV channels running on the hotel system so you could watch panels or interviews you may have missed or just check out the AMVs. Seriously. Anime East 1994 was also when I survived on nothing but con-food: Nutra-Grain bars, Candy Corns, and Dr Pepper.

Otakon:
The 1994 convention that by all accounts should have been a campus affair but wasn't, this now megalithic entity started out in a corner of the Days Inn in State College PA. It would stay in State College in 1995 but be held at a place called The Scanticon that year, which seemed like it was from the future. It was a hotel/convention center, and there was a wedding going on at the same time... the reception was nice.

I was at Otakon in 1994, but my badge being somewhere else (I won't be unpacking it any time soon so if you have one send it in or leave a link or something) will not be making an appearance. So instead enjoy the program book cover signed by the only guest who seemed to be around at the time; Robert DeJesus:

(Otakon 1994 program book)

If I get requests, I'll scan the whole thing so you can see what a con-goer from 1994 was in store for. Finally as for Otakon, there's this I made from way back:

Anime Central:
It was 1998, I flew to Chicago, got Kenichi Sonoda's autograph, and then brought him up to the control tower at O'Hare (I know people). I got work done for Crash, slept in the dealer's room, and raided the mini-bar of a convention suite after being exposed to the genuinely terrible behavior of the skeevy Con Chair (whoeverit was in 1998, I don't even remember the d-bag's name). I haven't been back to an Anime Central since.

Katsucon:
Held during the time of year that is definitely not convention season, Katsucon has always seemed the most "fun" of all the cons, and is where I've never had to actually "do" anything. Going to that con was something nice, and the hotel it was in was very cool since some rooms could look into the giant covered atrium. Ever since it split off into Katsucon and the newer Nekocon, I've felt a little split between the two. I find Nekocon a bit more relaxing because of it's size and where it is.

Nekocon 2004. Not my earliest Necko con, I don't think it's the last one I was at either, but it was the favorite year.

There are other conventions to be sure; Anime Boston, Anime Next, BACC, BAAF, NYAF, NYCC, Icon, those tings in Florida, Anime Weekend Atlanta, A-Kon, and Anime Expo. I have never been to Montreal's Otakuthon which is closer to me than AWA, so it makes sense to go.

So the experience is the perceived value, the impetus to part with cash in exchange for the ability to participate in activities that will generate a set of memories based on not only one's own activities but the interpretations of those activities by others either real or imagined. To observe being observed in a unique setting, which can only be substituted in form and not in function.

Unfortunately, until the American market itself can be satisfied with the same kind of delivery mechanism that exists in Japan (ie, anime can actually make revenue on TV because it's not pirated for a month before it airs, people have to actually pay money if they want to buy/read/download manga, and ...well you know), the convention will always mean the cake is a lie. It will just represent how strong anime is in terms of a draw for American otaku but not for doing actual business ... but for the fans to really care about not hurting anime producers by taking stolen goods? That will take something more than making it a source of Otaku peen points.


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Tolkien-Temper-Tantrums, Katsucon Catastrophe, & Funimation vs The Congressman’s Daughter: 3 kinds of "Doing it Wrong"

The Streisand Effect is something that can rarely be used as an effective marketing tool. In the times it has had demonstrable positive effects in marketing, 90% of those instances have been due to retroactive strategy changes, where the instigating party simply comes to terms with the extra attention and does what it can to take advantage of the newfound publicity, rather than continue to fight a losing PR battle. Almost never, can a marketing strategist plan and then successfully implement a Streisand Effect from the ground up. Hence;


#1 Tolkien Temper Tantrum:
Recently, there’s been an anime related blip on the Streisand Effect radar in the form of a fan-produced button with the slogan “While you were reading Tolkien, I was watching Evangelion” that was taken off of Zazzle.com at the C&D behest of the Tolkien Estate. This non-infringing product had long since exhausted its life-cycle in terms of pop-culture buzzmetrics and relevancy in general. It was just another microscopic fleck of dead skin on the pile of old-meme that was the internet from 2009 that no one cared about. Suddenly, in steps the Tolkien Estate with a behavior which violates the unwritten social standards of internet pop-culture community, and boom; it’s viral in the blogosphere. The result being that now, someone like me, who never knew about this has; A) found about it, and B) based on the behavior of Tolkien Estate I am now very motivated to make something for myself with this slogan on it and proudly display it at the next convention I go to. I think you should too.

This is news via BoingBoing.

[Added Mar. 7 2011]
Since I wrote this a while back (these posts are usually written a number of days, sometimes weeks before they're posted using Bloggers ability to schedule auto-uploads), there has been a development in this issue. That development seems to be something along the lines of the Tolkien Estate coming out and stating that they have had no involvement in this situation, and leading to the conclusion that it was Zazzle.com which pulled these things of their own accord. Something later confirmed by Zazzle.com via BoingBoing...apparently. However, in Giro.org's post containing the original Zazzle.com emails, the words "We have been contacted by The JRR Tolkien Estate" clearly appear in their correspondence dated Feb. 23 from "Mike" at Zazzle.com. There are only 3 possibilities as things stand:

1) Zazzle is lying. They were never contacted by the Tolkien Estate, and took it down themselves because someone over there has just learned what copyright infringement is and is taking it too far (see Katsucon Catastrophe below).
2) Tolkien Estste is lying, and backing off real fast to avoid a wrath of the internet type incident, either asking or leaving Zazzle to take the PR hit, with the message that it's Zazzle's doing and not Tolkien Estate, and Zazzle is complying since they... who fucking knows.
3) Giro.org is lying and this has all been concocted as some insanely ballsy method of publicity in the hopes of... who fucking knows.
4) My own opinion/desire is a combo of 1 & 2, being that Zazzle.com knows exactly how this works, and was able to explain to the Tolkien Estate how they might just become the Cook's Source of 2011 in terms of internet wrath... and so they both are back-peddling the hell out of this.

Either which way, I'm done caring about it at this point, thought I still will be wearing a home-made version of this thing to the next con I go to.


#2 Katsucon Catastrophe:
Now, when it’s really “Fair Use” like the above, I am always supportive of this kind of thing and fostering all kinds of creativity. This support usually is something I often extend even when it’s technically over the line of the copyright issue. There are many examples where it’s more beneficial to allow the activity to continue rather than to force a confrontation. Case in point; the Katsucon Artist Alley disaster of 2011. Let’s get the technicalities straight; Most artist alley transactions where people buy things from the artists/vendors are in actual violation of copyright since the character rights are clearly being infringed upon. The fact that an artist drew/painted/sculpted an existing character or a combination of original character in an existing profile, by itself isn’t infringement... until that piece is sold for money. In that case the rights holder is entitled to a portion of that sale, and if there is no existing agreement in place, they can take legal action.

That doesn’t mean shutting down the artist alley is a good idea. Unless you’re selling a hundred pieces of Naruto fan art at $10 each, the small transactions of an artist alley are not something that licensees should think are worth the customer alienation that comes with wielding the bludgeon of "enforcement." But like a college undergrad who just learned something new, Katsucon blundered into this big time due to a lack of real-world knowledge. My own notion is that some staffer (who is probably a pre-law student somewhere), realizes that there’s a technical copyright violation going on, and institutes an over-kill policy, demonstrating a serious lack of knowledge of how this works. I could be wrong, but for some reason I don't think I am. Knowledge is information + experience. Guess which part of that was missing from the thought process of this Katsucon genius... Now because this mess’s Streisand Effect brings unnecessary scrutiny to artist alley activities at conventions in general, it can only lead to problems. Best case scenario is that this just goes away by the time convention season gets into full swing.

My Katsucon 1 (1995) con badge.
Katsucon, I love ya, and I was there in the beginning, but you better not fuck this up for everyone.

#3 The Funimation vs The Congressman's Daughter
Then there are the straight up a-holes who are so steeped in gamification behavior within the fan community, that they will actually hurt the anime business to get e-peen points. While the targets of the litigation aren't the worst offenders, Funimation suing the 1337 to set a proper example of “yes, this is stealing, and this is what happens when you do it” is not surprising, and is only unfortunate in that it takes capital away from Funimation's budget that could otherwise be used to get more anime out. Anime as a commercial product has been seriously hurt by attention whores who make terrible translations and post them online before legit streaming sources make them available merely a few hours later. These lawsuits will win (if legal procedure is done properly) because the law and politics are very friendly to copyright and the billions of dollars it pumps into the economy. Here's a bit on that:

The US Government is in love with Copyright. Some relevant background (Napster case study): In 2001, Napster tried the ridiculous failure that was the “Million Fan March” on Washington DC, as a part of their platform for a complete revision of copyright law, the end goal of which was to make p2p media sharing legal under fair use, and thus clearing the way for Napster to operate on a very large scale, immune from civil actions of music labels and artists. This event, combined with the activities of the Napster D.C. lobby team of Manus Cooney and Karen Robb, was called the “Congressman’s Daughter” strategy. It was the idea that if a member of congress just had their kid show them how Napster worked, they would have some kind of awakening and Congress would make sweeping changes to Intellectual Property laws. Napaster actually put off negotiating a deal with music labels in order to further this strategy, thinking it would work, and then they wouldn't have to deal with labels at all. But the problem is, Congress had just changed I.P. laws, and not in the way Napster wanted. This was the 1998 Mickey Mouse Protection Act, extending the period between creation and entry into the public domain to well over a century in most cases. The law was further cemented into an indelible presence in American jurisprudence with the later 2002 case of Eldred v. Ashcroft. Pile on top of that the DMCA getting through the Senate unanimously in1998, and U.S.A. participation in the GATT Treaty on copyright issues, and it should have been painfully obvious to anyone that this hoped-for outcome of Napster's wasn’t going to happen. The U.S. Government has consistently realized that patents and copyrights are among the top 5 contributors to the entire U.S. economy, with the biggest players in intellectual property issues being Pharmaceutical, Agri-business, and Software entitles, along with Entertainment Media. They all have DC lobbies too... really really big ones.

"Bubble? What do you mean Bubble? Nah, this is totally gonna last forever!"

So the F-1337 don’t have the law on their side, and can only hope public opinion becomes strong enough to serve as a motivation for Funimation to back off, or see if they can sidestep on a legal technicality. And for those of us in the business, it’s very painful to see idiot fans supporting thieving activities because of some perceived entitlement - the "right" to watch anime. It’s not really 100% their fault though, there just isn’t enough information getting through to people to dissuade them that; no, your American otaku demand for HD video perfectly translated commercial-free simulcast foreign TV programs at no cost to you is actually unreasonable believe it or not. The problem is, the way we live doesn’t make that easy to realize. For example; when Verizon was advertising high-speed internet access with the tag-line “download thousands of songs,” they were really hurting things. Downloading 1,000 songs from iTunes is kind of pricey, and Verizon knows that people aren't going to be paying for all those downloads, but they are going to perpetuate the entitlement anyway. The entitlement of “well I just bought a big computer and am paying for broadband, so that’s my investment, and that’s all I should have to be out of pocket” seems to be enough to justify not actually paying for the entertainment media they consume. Again, an internet entitlement notion that only is shown to be completely absurd when applied to a real-world example; “Well I got up out of the house and paid for my subway ride here to the movie theater, so that’s enough of a reason for me to get in without a ticket.” Yes, it’s just that stupid. And no court in the land is going to have sympathy for people who buck the system that greases the wheels of politics.

In this last case, the party who’s “doing it wrong” are the fansubbers, the torrent hosts, and the people defending what they do. When you dabble in piracy, there’s a risk that they’ll nail you. The internet-rage from the ignorant otaku masses is creating a pseudo Streisand Effect in the regular channels, which is just a reminder to the rest of you to play by the rules or risk being #1338.