Monday, November 14, 2005
	| First| Prev | Next |Last | Akira Illustration #47 "Wed-Fri-Sun schedule" | First| Prev | Next |Last | "Hokusai Exhibition" by Akira (2005-11-14) I usually work on monday's comic strip on saturday. But this week I couldn't, because I went to "Hokusai Exhibition". It was a great experience to feel fine arts of Hokusai, but unfortunately the museum was very very crowded. I didn't enjoy that much... ;_; I bought "Hokusai Manga" which costed me around $110 and many other goods/items, since I'm quite a big fan of Hokusai. Because of saturday event, I need to shift the schedule from Mon->Wed, Wed->Fri, Fri->Sun, and Sun->today. Rants will stay same as scheduled, just comics will be shifted a bit. About today's illustration: I just wanted to draw characters who haven't appeared for a long now. I might draw Shion for one of the parody strip and Alex for another short side story with Kotone. I haven't come up with a story for either Lisa or Anya, though... ^_^; I'll try my best. I don't know why but somehow characters look different ^_^; Please write your comment to this strip at pOnju forum

	Tuesday, November 15, 2005
	"Vermillion" by Konstantin (2005-11-15) Over the years that I've been a member (and officer) of Vermillion (yes, the anime club in ExCoKo does have a real-world counterpart), it's been interesting to see how the anime fandom, and the club's role in it, has changed. When I first came to CMU in '96 (god I feel old), the fandom was still quite small, anime was virtually impossible to find in stores and rental shops, and fansubs were limited to VHS tapes, hand-copied and distributed at cost by dedicated fan volunteers. Under these circumstances, an anime club's tape library and its officers' knowledge of the fansub distribution network was a huge asset, allowing people to catch up on vintage classics and introducing the latest (sometimes as recent as a year old ^^;) and greatest titles as part of the weekly schedules. The club met every week with about 5 hours af anime scheduled for each meeting: mostly fansubs, some official releases, and even the occasional raw show, explained by the few Japanese speakers in the club or through online episode summaries. Over the years, though, as I advanced from being a wide-eyed freshman to Librarian, Social Coordinator, and then Scheduler/Dictator for Life, the dynamic of the fandom has changed dramatically. Part of it was an explosion of popularity of anime in America. Companies started snapping up shows left and right, and what before could only be obtained on nth generation fansubs was now available at the local video store in a convenient box set. Moreover, with more powerful computers and greater availability of broadband, digital fansubs became a reality, making finding a subbed episode of a current show easy as Google. In spite of the growing popularity our membership went into decline. Vermillion started bleeding members with every graduation, only a fraction of whom would get replaced at the university activity fairs. At one point it got so bad that we only had 8 regular members, myself included. I slowly came to the realization that the anime by itself was no longer the primary draw for the club, since most people could just as easily watch it from the comfort of their computer desks. Instead, I had to figure out how to get people talking again and promote the formation of a community. This approach proved fruitful. While still not quite back to our mid-90's size, we have successfully rebounded, and the magical power of free pizza has gotten even the elusive CS majors to come down and chat during the extended break in the now-shortened schedule. On my part, I've started mixing in fan parodies and AMVs into the schedule to promote the idea of fan activities. A new generation has taken over most of the club officer positions, and I now feel pretty confident that the club will survive my departure when I eventually leave Pittsburgh. Please write your comment to this strip at pOnju forum