So today, 3 February, is the day that Setsubun (節分) is celebrated in Japan. Setsubun is also known as the bean-throwing festival, although the literal translation of the term is something a little closer to “seasonal division”, and it is celebrated yearly on the 3rd of February as part of the haru matsuri (spring festival).

In earlier years, Setsubun was treated as something similar to a New Year celebration, and for this reason was accompanied by a ritual meant to cleanse and drive away evil and disease from the household, and bring good fortune for the new year.

The ritual was known as makemaki (豆撒き, bean thowing) and has its origins in a Chinese custom that was introduced to Japan in the eighth century. It involves throwing fortune beans – either out the door, or at a member of the family dressed as an oni (usually the head of the family) while shouting “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” (Demons out! Luck in!)

Lum's also an (alien) oni. Although I wouldn't mind her staying ...

The belief is that the beans purify the home by driving away evil spirits, while luck is brought by then eating a handful of beans – an amount equal to the number of years a person has lived.

There are several other traditions that form part of the festival, although in many cases they vary from region to region – it seems though that it is becoming less common for these rituals to be carried out at home, but Buddhist and Shinto shrines around the country hold celebrations for Setsubun, some of them even inviting celebrities to toss the beans.

Plenty of additional info at the links below.

Sources: Wikipedia, Japan-Guide, J-List Side Blog

Okay – my plans for the year post comes a little late, but I still thought I’d share some of what I have planned for 2012, and of course, here’s to hoping a lot of it comes to fruition. A little warning though – this post is going to be a blend things from Animated Meanderings and some personal stuff, since especially over the course of 2011, my life and the existence of this site has started to become more intertwined.

This trend looks to be continuing over the course of 2012 … but let me not get too far ahead of myself – jump ahead and keep reading :)

My first major plan of the year involves a complete cosmetic rebuild of Animated Meanderings. Don’t get me wrong, I love the current theme, but there are things I want to do which my theme at the moment doesn’t really make too easy. With any luck – and a lot of effort – the new theme will be ready to fly by March (yes, I plan on taking my time ^_^ ). Part of this involves speeding up page loading times to some small degree, since I feel the site is a bit slow at the moment.

To coincide with, and celebrate, the re-theme, I’m planning on running a competition. I’m horribly short of artwork for Mitsuki, the site mascot, so the competition will be revolving around that. If you feel like doodling away to kill some time, go for it, but the idea isn’t set in stone just yet. Mostly because I’m still considering what I’d like to make available as a prize – I’d like to make the comp equally accessible to both my local and my international readers. That, and I’m still trying to bang out the rules. Also – a lot of this depends on what kind of budget I have available.

Speaking of Mitsuki, I’m also going to be spending a little more time fleshing her profile out and to give her a little more of a personality that anime/manga fans in particular can relate to. This will be an on-going project, so I don’t think it will ever really come to an end, although Mitsuki is going to be an everlasting 16. Or maybe 17.

Other goals for the year are the usual – increasing the amount of visitors and exposure I get for Animated Meanderings. As a part of this, I’ve been moving to get a little more involved with the local anime community and this started last year when I joined the Cape Town Cosplay group for their cosplay event. There is another one coming up, by the way, and I’ll be reporting on that one as well.

I’ve also given up trying to learn Japanese on my own – instead I’ve invested some of my time in Nihongo Kai – a local Japanese Language School. I don’t expect to be a master of the language any time soon, but just the short time I’ve been there I’ve made noticeable progress. I can now at least read stuff. Slowly. Although no kanji yet, but that’s coming. It’s all been good fun so far though, and I’m happy I’ve made the leap.

Anyways, this is just a rough idea of what’s coming – I’m definitely going to try and be a little more active on the blog this year; I’ll also be looking at what I can possibly add to the site. I’m still mulling over the idea of forums, previous mishaps non-withstanding … so let’s see what happens.

I’m going to try and get some reviews up as well; I believe it’s been a while since I’ve reviewed anything, and it’s not for lack of watching either. It seems that most of my time seems to be taken up with previews lately.

If you want to keep track of my doings (not sure why, but maybe you feel like indulging your stalking tendencies :p) feel free to follow me on Twitter, or join Animated Meanderings on Facebook, or even on my slightly less active Google+ page. Maybe if I get more followers there I’ll be more active :3

Hope you all have a good 2012!!

As someone that works full-time, studies part-time and lives in a country that’s far removed from the general doings of the anime universe, it becomes tricky to both keep up with developments and still write full on posts about it. So, I’ve decided to do slightly more regular posts with a summary of recent happenings.

I’m going to try and do this on a weekly basis, but I make no promises – it’s going to get done as and how I have time. I’ve also noticed that videos embedded in the actual post don’t make it through to the e-mails, so if you want to see them you’ll have to visit the full post.

While I am based in South Africa, I do try to make things as relevant to a broader audience as I can (and I hope I’m succeeding to some small degree); however, some of the news is going to be specific to the region. Feedback is always appreciated though – so please sound off in the comments or get hold of me directly via the contact form, Facebook, or Twitter.

Plot synopsis and preliminary casting of Akira live-action revealed

According to a post on Crunchyroll, the synopsis and preliminary casting for the live-action Akira movie has been posted on the site of a company handling actor auditions. The posting serves to confirm that the studio in charge of the production (Leonardo diCaprio’s Appian Way) not only missed the entire point of Akira, but apparently fell straight out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down.

Among the biggest (and most unpleasant) surprises is the casting of Kristen Stewart (Bella from Twilight) as Kei (Ky in the movie). So far – there is one actualy Japanese actor in the movie, which will now be taking place in Neo-Manhattan.

So far, this is shaping up to make the Dragonball live-action look like a major block-buster of note – not sure about the rest of you, but I’ll be avoiding this. Forever.

K-On Movie starts in theatres tomorrow

K-On fans across Japan will be streaming to one of a 130 movie theaters tomorrow to catch the opening screenings of the K-On! movie. The storyline of the movie takes place while the girls are still attending Sakuragaoka High School, and essentially forms a part of the TV series.

The movie will follow the five girls of our favourite light-music club as they take a trip to the UK, and it has already been confirmed that the original cast will be reprising their roles. The movie will also feature 3 new songs as part of the sound track.

Trailer below :)

Third issue of All Otaku Mag launched

The third issue of All Otaku Magazine was made available on the site yesterday. I haven’t made any mention of it so far because I was waiting to see if it was going to hang around longer than Anime-Ima! did, but three issues in it’s still going strong, and it looks like the New Year’s Issue is already in the pipeline.

From my point of view, there are still a few things that could be nitpicked at, but the creator is really making an effort to contribute something to the South African anime community, and she deserves the support.

The mag can be downloaded in PDF format from the following link.

I should probably mention that there have been some stirrings on the Anime-Ima! message boards, so a revival may be happening in the near future.

Cape Town Cosplay Event Tomorrow

I’ve been dropping hints and tweets like there isn’t actually any tomorrow, but the cosplay is all set to take place tomorrow (Saturday, 3 December). Cape Town’s weather has been a little bit on the temperamental side over the past two weeks or so, so we’re hoping for a clear and sunny day.

While I won’t be cosplaying myself, I’ll be in attendance with my camera, and I’ll be taking photos and just generally enjoying the vibe. If you’re in the Cape Town area, and feel like dropping by to perv … err … I mean gawk, and just have some fun, please feel free. Just remember that Kirstenbosch Gardens does charge an admittance fee.

Details are at this link.

Some new anime series that were announced over the past week

We’re closing in on the Anime Winter season, and I’m busy doing my preview page – which will hopefully be up soon. In the meantime, new series are being announced thick and fast, and here are a couple I’ve caught mention of:

Cardfight!! Vanguard
The sequel to the original series that aired this year.

My Sweet Umadonna
An anime based on horse-racing. The official site is already up at http://www.jra-umadonna.jp/

Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate
This series is based on an adult visual novel, where a high-school’s Food Research Club is deemed unnecessary and possibly faces being disbanded.

Hozuki-san Chi no Aneki
This anime features a protagonist with a crush on his older step-sister. Based on a 4-koma comedy by the same name.

Hyouka
Hyouka is a mystery anime – in which the high school Classic Literature Club start investigating a case from 33 years earlier, hints of which are found in a collection of works from the club at the time.

Hagure Yuusha no Estetica
The story follows a returnee from an RPG world after he defeats Satan, the final boss. He joins an academy run by an organisation that shelters and controls returnees from other fantasy worlds.

Koi-ken!
Koi-ken will be based on a bishoujo mobile game and will be made available to smartphones via a streaming service.
online anime

Chosoku Henkei Gyrozetter
An anime based on an upcoming Square Enix card-game, which features cars which transform into battle robots.

Some others
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha: The Movie 2nd A’s will be released in Summer 2012, while the Strike Witches movie will be released in theatres on March 17th 2012.

That concludes my news for this week – although I’m sure there are tons of things that I could probably go on about – if you spot a bit of news or something interesting that you feel needs to be included, give me a shout via our contact form.

So news broke earlier this week that the word kawaii had made its way into the Oxford Dictionary, joining other previous Japanese-only words such as tsunami, bokeh and otaku. Another minor victory for anime-fandom around the world, and much silly dancing and cheering commences.

But then, I took some time out of my hectically packed dancing and cheering schedule in order to apply some logical thought to this, and I had to ask myself a question: But why?

First off – we have to consider that words like otaku and tsunami are words that are pretty much in everyday use in the English language and they do have some very specific meanings for which there isn’t really an equivalent in the English language itself.

Consider otaku. In Japanese, the word refers to someone with an unhealthy obsession with any particular hobby, so you could have train otaku (yes, there are people who go bonkers for trains), anime otaku, game otaku and so forth. The word’s usage has shifted slightly with its inclusion in the English language, and here in the West we use it simply to refer to someone who is a rather big fan of anime.

Tsunami refers very specifically to waves that are generated due to an event (usually geological) with the potential to create an abnormally large wave. While some may argue that we already have the phrase tidal wave in English, scientists and geologists tend to disagree with this usage since the wave isn’t generated by a tidal event.

Bokeh refers to the out of focus background of a photo; that’s pretty damn specific, and I’m not aware of a precise alternative in English (although any professional photographers may feel free to correct me on this).

So we get to kawaii （かわいい）. Directly translated it means “cute”. And we already have a word in English for it – that word being … well … cute? There’s no other specific meaning attached to it, and it doesn’t offer any difficulty in translation. Really. At least, none that I can think of. It’s one of the first words of the Japanese language I learnt to understand. If a character said kawaii – I knew exactly what it meant – although it took a while for my ears to adjust enough to tell the difference between kawaii and kowai (怖い) kowai means scary.

Another thing that bothers me here is the lack of general usage. I have any number of anime-fan type friends (and I can probably be classed as being relatively fanatical), and I have never EVER heard even them use the word. Except on their Facebook accounts. Or Twitter. And that doesn’t count.

So … I can think of several other words that could probably do with being in the Oxford Dict that I do actually hear quite regularly from English speakers (some of these were also taken from Danny Choo’s original post on Culture Japan:

Tsundere
Yandere
Yaoi
Yuri
Moe
Lolicon
Zettai Ryouiki

Some of the terms above are pretty easy to explain (I’m not going to do it here, but maybe an anime term glossary is an idea for the near future), but I’d love to see anyone try a conscise explanation  for terms like moe, tsundere and yandere. The point is, these terms don’t really have exact matches in English, which is almost why they would be a better idea. And I hear them being used plenty often.

That book Kyou's about to throw is the definition of tsundere. All of it.

A couple of suggestions in Danny’s post I don’t need to see in Oxford:

• Pantsu – seriously. How many more ways do you need to say panties
• Shimapan – striped panties. Same thing, although it’s a litte more specific (still trying to figure out why they’re so popular)
• Oppai – means boobs/breasts. Again – no real need for it to be in there

Does anyone else have any other suggestions or thoughts? Let us know in the comments :)

(source: culturejapan.jp)

It may come as no surprise to a lot of you – but Japan is struggling a bit at the moment. After the twin disaster of the Tohou quake and the near meltdown of the Fukushima Nuclear plant, Japan has lost a lot of the revenue it gains from it’s tourism industry – rather understandably, a lot of foreigners are a little shaky about visiting what may now be regarded as a pretty dangerous part of the world.

A little unfairly in my book.

Of course, I doubt these are the only reasons; one has to keep in mind that the world economy is a little shaky at the moment, and folks aren’t quite as keen to spend their hard-earned cash. The Japanese government though, has come up with a scheme they hope will turn things around a bit.

The Japanese Ministry of Tourism is planning on inviting something to tune of 10,000 foreigners to Japan, and they are going to pay for it. Well … the flight tickets at least (which for me would be the most expensive part). The reasoning behind this plan is rather simple (and ingenious); they are hoping these travelers take plenty of pictures, and blog about their experiences in Japan, which will hopefully result in more people being interested in traveling to their fair shores again.

Frankly – I’m pretty damn keen. It also means a lot of saving, since there’s no way I’m going that way without some cash to burn. Pop on over to Culture Japan and put your own thoughts and ideas into the comments – Danny’s readers may be in for a little headstart.

As far as I can gain from the post application will take place via the internet, but there’s no final word on that yet. I’ll post more details when I hear about it.

Mitsuki - now a year old

Anyone remember her? The cute thing in the picture?

Probably not, right?

Last year, 10 August, was the day I revealed, for the first time, the mascot character for Animated Meanderings, although she was unnamed at that point. If you need to refresh your memories, head on over to this post. :)

With a little bit of input, mostly on the Facebook page, I decided after a few days to give her the name Mitsuki – but developments have pretty much frozen at that point. Which is why I decided to give Mitsuki, as her first ever birthday present, a slightly more complete profile.

That being said, it’s not 100% complete yet, but I have no intention of leaving things completely static from this point forward; I’ll continue working on the character as time goes by, rounding out her personality and, who knows, creating some additional characters to keep her company.

Here is the link to Mitsuki’s full character profile – which has all the juicy details – but I’m going to give a brief summary here:

Mitsuki, as the picture suggests, is not completely human – her father was human but her mother is a Kitsune. Due to her father passing away shortly after her birth and her mother being forced to depart the human realm, Mitsuki has ended up in the care of an elderly monk at a local shrine – who, despite his complete lack of experience with children of any sort tried his best to raise Mitsuki well (apparently he owed Mitsuki’s mother a favour or two).

As a result, Mitsuki has grown up in near-total isolation, which has resulted in a somewhat shy and withdrawn personality. She has no friends or immediate acquaintances, but because of the monk’s influence has grown into someone with a kind, gentle and caring outlook. Her spirit ancestry has also resulted in some magical abilities that she has had to learn to use and control on her own (with a few minor accidents on the way).

That’s it for my very quick summary – as you can see, Mitsuki is very much a blank canvas at the moment, as I’m attempting to build a background around her that I can have her develop in. So there may yet be a story coming. Since creating the character turned into quite a challenge, I’ve posted a request on our Facebook page for folks to ask questions about the character – questions which helped in part create the profile I have at the moment, and which down the line will help with character development – so many thanks to Okashii and KuroSakura for their input thus far.

Those questions will eventually make their way onto the profile page – some of them will be answered from Mitsuki’s point of view, while I will answer seperate questions about the character on a seperate page of notes about the character. Should any of you have any suggestions or questions, feel free to post them in the comments below, or visit the Facebook page to leave a little something in the comments there. :)

Anyone who tried visiting the site over the past two days may have noticed a general failure to appear. While I was momentarily convinced that there was a giant conspiracy behind and/or the server hated me, after a great deal of back and forth between myself and my hosting provider we discovered that one of the databases had decided to play nasty.

I have no idea what the root cause was, but happily everything seems to be running as it’s meant to.

Other than that, the domain will be migrated to a new server in the near future – for reasons of storage and bandwidth usage; it will also enable me, hopefully, to host my own AMVs on the site (when I get around to making them one day). The shift should be more or less seamless, so the majority of you won’t notice anything, but just in case there are some glitches that will be the likely reason.

I’ve been quiet recently, for the simple reason that I’m currently working on Mitsuki’s (my mascot character) character profile, which I’ll be making live soon on what will be her first birthday. Any input, of course, will be welcome :)

See you all then.

I had a completely different post scheduled for today – but I figured this particular event deserved a little more prominence.

Japan was hit by an earthquake this morning (about 3pm JST/8am SAST) – which was first reported at 7.9 magnitude, but later upgraded to 8.9. This has been followed by numerous aftershocks – and two hours down the line some of the folks I follow on Twitter are still reporting aftershocks.

The east coast has also been hit by a large tsunami – at this point there is some pretty major damage; among others Sendai Airport has been completely flooded and shut down as seen on a live feed from Japan – which showed people clustered on the roof of the building awaiting rescue. The same feed also showed fires raging in residential and industrial areas

Most of my contacts in Japan have reported that they’re okay, but the first few reports of deaths have started filtering in, although the Japanese government has already mobilised emergency services.

Japan is located on the so-called “Ring of Fire” – an arc of seismically active zones that stretch around the Western Pacific Rim.

I hope you all join me and Animated Meanderings in our thoughts and prayers for the Japanese people.

Al Jazeera has a more detailed report on the earthquake here.

Today is the 3rd of March, which makes today Girl’s Day in Japan. The actual day is known in Japan as Hinamatsuri, or in English, the Doll Festival – Matsuri is Japanese for festival, and Hina is the name given to the particular type of doll that typically gets displayed on the day.

Hinamatsuri is traditionally a day during which families pray for the health and happiness of their daughters, and the day is marked by the daughters setting up displays of the Hina dolls (hina ningyou). The dolls are dressed in the traditional clothing of the Japanese imperial court of the Heian period.
The custom of displaying the dolls started way back in the Heian Period, which ran from 794 A.D. to 1185. The dolls are typically arranged on a 7-tiered display, in a particular order. The order may differ slightly depending on the region the festival is celebrated in, in terms of the positioning of the dolls from left to right – but in terms of the tier-order the order remains the same.

Families usually start displaying the dolls in mid-February, but the dolls are put away immediately on the 4th of March, since there is a superstition that families who leave the dolls out later than that will have trouble marrying off their daughters.

The tradition traces its root back to the tradition of hina-nagashi (doll floating) during which paper or straw dolls were floated down the rivers, according to belief carrying troubles and bad spirits away with them. This celebration still takes place in some areas, although, due to the fact that fishermen often catch the dolls in their nets, they now get gathered up afterwards and taken to the nearest temple to be burned.

The Hina dolls displayed in homes themselves don’t get burned, obviously – they get packed away until February of the following year, when they once again get taken out as a charm and protection for the daughters of the house.

There is a similar festival for boys on the 5th of May, Kodomo no Hi (Children’s Day), which is also known as the Boy’s Festival. Unlike Hinamatsuri, though, Kodomo no Hi is a national holiday, which forms part of the series of national holidays that take place during Golden Week in Japan.

If you’re looking for some more on the topic … plus some pictures (which I don’t have, sadly) visit Muza-chan’s Gate to Japan or Danny Choo’s Culture Japan.

On a side-note, Danny also mentioned that it is his mascot character, Mirai Suenaga is also celebrating her birthday today. Happy Birthday, Mirai :)

While I’m still busy motoring my way through the Winter 2011 Anime release schedule – the second part in the series is nearly done – we are rather rapidly approaching Christmas – so I thought I’d get into the spirit a little.

So – staying in tune with the overall theme of Animated Meanderings – here is Hatsune Miku’s version of Silent Night – sung in both Japanese and English. Enjoy – and seasons greetings all :)