Anime & Manga is here to stay!

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Today, I hopped down to Expo to check out the lastest on the gaming scene – touched based with some old frens as well – like good olde Vader – Vader bro, nothing personal; but you better hit the gym your shoulders are getting rounded! I told you to stay away from that light sabre – too much radiation; it’s bad for your bones!

Lets dive in! One of the really interesting things about gaming is that it’s really a grand canyon of a genre  – there are some who just play the game as it’s supposed to be played; then there are those who play the game within the game (like us) and of course there are those who play it in a way that just transitions the whole affair into the real world – so there is really a lot of room for improvisation and  experimentation: and the genre is always expanding and changing like some organic blob.

And one of the really interesting developments these few years has been the rise of anime and manga comic characters into mainstream gaming cum characterization – in Singapore and Malaysia, the market is still relatively small roughly 30,000 adherents – but in the EU and the US, its already breached the 10 million mark – so in the relative scheme of things; this is a tremendously huge market that is just waiting to be tapped like oil.

To me what’s important is to keep an open mind and remain mindful that it may not serve the greater good to try to impose any structure and order into this ever developing genre; this to me is the hardest discipline to abide too, because by nature I like to micro manage stuff – so letting go and keeping my mouth shut is perhaps one of the most difficult things that I have had to learn in these few years to deal effectively with the advent of anime and manga characters coloring the gaming scene.

I am always mindful that young people will always need loads widget space to develop their own identity and if possible to write their own histories and make sense of where they stand in relation to others in the community they belong too – and the last thing they need is some dusty oligarchy that is pulling all the strings behind the curtains railroading them to think this and that, go left, turn left (keep that shitty attitude up and I guarantee you at some point someone is just going to put his hands up for urination breaks – and that’s game over) – that sort of attitude is just passé; besides it’s arrogant as it is conceited as it presumes that no man is dispensable and that all answers reside in only one anointed group of people – that’s just a crock of shit.

Besides I am way too old for this shit; maybe it’s time for me to start a factory or do something else with my life – but one thing is certain; for the time being; it’s just incredibly edifying and satisfying to know that one is truly obsolete in the way a mechanical typewriter sits on the shelve looking by at the world of modern computers.

My world, the world of the brotherhood is definitely coming to an end and I am glad to belong to that time line that we once had and what may come there after – I don’t think that sort of attitude is defeatist; not at all – I’ve thought long and hard about this during many of my solitary night rides;  if anything that has to be the way of the world – because at some point in every man’s life or even what he may have once dedicated himself too - he’s bound to reach that realization that the simple act of just living; breathing, shitting and being there could very well work against the idea of progress by retarding and fossilizing all prospects of bring about goody good change  - bowing out gracefully under those conditions may just be the best thing to do – the Cantonese have a saying for this: loh tak hei, fong tak lok – what you pick up; you must be able to put down - and those who know neither the time, place or reason to put down what they once picked up simply have no idea what life is all about – they are just incredibly stupid and stupid people will always think and do stupid things.

I’ve been invited to the Anime Expo in the US (though I suspect, I’ve probably be the lowest of the low there and since I hate flying, Harphoon will probaby be respresenting me – beisdes when you factor in the business dimension its a 14 day affair! And I hate American food). The Expo serves to foster trade, commerce and the interests of the general public and animation industry. This event serves as a key meeting place for the general public to express their interest and explore various aspects of both anime and manga, as well as for members of the industry to conduct business. AX 2010 will be held July 1 – July 4, 2010, at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Southern California. More information can be found at www.anime-expo.org.

See you all there.

Darkness 2010 – The Brotherhood Press 2010

“We adults think we always know best; we constantly try to raise the bar on kids, especially if we think they are gifted. And the surprising thing about smart kids is usually they manage to jump through those hoops we put up. But the irony is when we do this time and again – without us realizing it, kids soon lose that sense of serendipity that only comes from learning through trial and error – worse they lose that deep spirited sense of accomplishment by figuring stuff all by themselves without adults – when that happens, they lose their innate elasticity that nature bestowed on them; they become hard like us adults and even begin to behave like us. And once they get into that hermetically sealed bubble, it’s almost impossible to get them really excited about anything.

That’s why I think we have to be playful and retain the kid in us even as adults…” Darkness 2010.

Captured by an auto-bot crawler – recent commissioning of a new gaming server in Munich, Germany – The Brotherhood Press 2010