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The 2D Files: Dimension 2.5

Shance — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:02:04 +0000

Okay, let’s try this again.

The details are laid out for you to understand. The post by 2DT about the differences between the second and third dimensions. The post I wrote about spatial reality and how it creates the interconnected machinations of the two realms. Ningyo’s post about the early orientation of Mr. Sphere to Flatland. With these facts in hand, it’s time to observe the culture dish that holds them together.

People, welcome to Dimension 2.5: The Internet. It’s the in-between world between the second and third dimensions. It’s the realm where there’s no such thing as Mr. Sphere or Mr. Flat, simply because you can exist as both. It’s the borderline dimension where the citizens of Flatland and Sphereland can coexist with minimal rules and restrictions. Of course, this only means that it’s the ideal place-to-be for the average Japanese Modern Visual Culture Enthusiast.

Let’s visualize again. Think of the Internet as a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). Mr. Sphere logs into the game and starts to play using his in-game character. Now, this is clearly an example of transition from 3D to 2D, with our three-dimensional Mr. Sphere becoming two-dimensional via the game. Suddenly, the game requires Mr. Sphere to acquire a certain item in order to advance to the next stage. This is now the opposite of the first transition, wherein the two-dimensional item is given importance to a being of the third dimension by registering a need to acquire the item’s three-dimensional equivalent, like in-game points that you need to buy with hard cash.

This is the same with our big, grand WWW. We log into it, and we suddenly find ourselves immersed in binary, two-dimensional information. All that media in ones and zeroes, and all we need to do is log into our two-dimensional accounts, surf, download, upload, and then keep a three-dimensional copy in the form of a DVD disc. It keeps constant transition between the second and third dimensions to the point of addiction, and it doesn’t stop there.

But before you think it’s the worse that could ever happen, think again.

When I mentioned addiction, I meant it in the most extreme kind of way. That means living in Dimension 2.5. It’s possible, right? It’s a dimension that feels right whatever dimension you hail from! Your avatar doesn’t look like a cross-section of three-dimensional self, does it? Your media isn’t as flat as a pancake anymore, right? Why leave this realm then? It not wrong to “live” in here, does it? Soul? Brains? Distance? Substance? Do we even need those? All hail the plot ideas of Ghost In The Shell and Serial Experiments Lain!

Dude, I’ll tell you one thing: If you had any thoughts regarding the contents of the above paragraph, you’re pretty much fucked. Just like the rest of us.

And yes, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

The 2D Files: The Case of “Simulated Depth”

Shance — Mon, 31 May 2010 12:57:33 +0000

This might get un-worksafe, so let me give you a NOT SAFE FOR WORK heads-up on this one.

As far as everyone knows, we otaku are fascinated with how the second dimension works. But what makes it more fascinating is the way its binary clockwork makes us understand that its restrictions are limited to what our 2D complex minds can think of.

To further dissect this statement, let’s use the most prominent and overused one: Genshiken‘s Madarame Thesis.

It is said that human beings are creatures that easily find semblance on even the most abstract interpretation. This brings us to the case of harboring feelings for beings that came from another plane of existence. But since said plane bears a striking semblance to our own, the case of “Mr. Sphere in Flatland” evolves from perception to manipulation, from “feeling the given depth” to “creating the depth”. And that’s more than just sexual attraction.

Let’s try to simulate: Imagine I have a stack of paper on my left hand and a pushpin on my right. Now, let’s think that a single piece of paper from that stack is the second dimension. Obviously, trying to stick a pushpin on the thin, flat paper will do nothing but pierce it. To simulate “depth”, we stack a few pieces of said paper. This gives our 2D paper a 3D-like feeling, and that means it’s possible for our little pushpin to JAM IT ALL IN.

An example of “simulated depth” (Sauce? SAUCE!)

This is one of the ways where Mr. Sphere tries to feel at home in Flatland: He simulates depth in a realm that obviously cannot have it. He tries to fabricate layers that will cope with every flat cross-section of his body, and everything is so wrong that it suddenly feels right. See that hentai sex scene that has a cross-section (simpletons call it x-ray) of where he JAMS IT IN? That’s depth. It lets you imagine what it would look like inside the girl while you’re having sex, and it’s understandable for people to feel something terribly erotic from that. Try searching FAKER’s eromanga if you want a good amount of sex-related “simulated depth” if you don’t believe me on this one.

This only shows that even though we have shortcomings for our second dimension, we can do something to compensate. Anime and manga are never shallow for this reason (mecha is the best testament for this, but of course, we have a few bashable moeblobs and then some). There is always enough generated content to satiate every craving for depth, and it never stops. From a single, thin, and flat realm, the second dimension stacks itself up, and it suddenly feels like Sphereland. Mr. Sphere is all but pleased.

Defying The Predetermined Stage: The Perilous Challenges of Unorthodox Blogging

Shance — Sun, 23 May 2010 08:37:10 +0000

Performing orchestrals with a rock-and-roll band: JAN-JAAAAAN!

Otaku blogging caters to a big audience. Bloggers have to “categorize” themselves according to what they like to write, and this generates an ample amount of audience. Some prefer blogging at intervals, providing first-hand montages and commentaries. Some start writing editorial articles after finishing relevant media. Some prefer to blog about collectibles like gunpla, figures, and the like. Some probe deep to study and question the foundations of otakudom, leaving a trail of debates and discussion in their wake. Some form teams that continously generate content for the blog, keeping it from losing activity. Some even create blogs for the purpose of scanlating or fansubbing material.

But rarely can you find someone who puts everything into a single blog. And I mean EVERYTHING.

It’s the perfect blog for the Jack Of All Trades: The Unorthodox Blog. It doesn’t follow any style, it doesn’t want to stay in one, it wants to have all the interest-relevant material to itself, and it’s not sharing. It’s like Ye Olde 150-in-1 Famicom Cartridge that lets you play all your favorite games in a single game platform. Want to show your artistic prowess? Make a drawing gallery page! Not enough? Open a special page for articles regarding a certain topic! Think you can use the blog to provide what you scanlate and fansub? Sure! Ohwait, you want to form a team to enslave yourselves by blogging endlessly, too?

There are a lot of unforeseen outcomes and consequences when it comes to unorthodox blogging. You’ll never know if you’ll get a response from the blogging world. You’ll never know if you’ll get any contentment with what you’re currently doing with your blog. You’ll never even know if JAMMING EVERYTHING IN was a good idea until you actually pull it off! However, this kind of self-prioritization keeps the fruits of your labor coming, be it bad (trolling, hacking or spamming, flaming, no hits or reaction at all) or good (continuous discussion, lots of hits, recognition from various blogs and sites, material preferences on the part of the blogger), as long as you have enough adrenaline to continue, and this ultimately brings out the best in the blog and the blogger. That’s why I adore these kinds of blogs: they are the little sites that could, but couldn’t, and it’s fine either way.

…every blog is a stage, a soapbox if you will, and we all got our own. It makes no sense to dwell on the elitist aspect of blogging (and authorship in general). Anyone can build a stage. And likewise, everyone is the audience.

- omo (5/21/2010)

Anyone can build a stage, yes. What kind of stage, that’s not for me to answer. Blogging in an unusual kind of way attracts readers, who either find it amusing or confusing. And that’s normal. You simply have a lot to offer, because your so-called soapbox also turns out to be an art gallery, or a shared platform with other bloggers, or a kind of advertisement that showcases your scanlating and fansubbing portfolio. It’s like a buffet table, where people immediately dig in on the various dishes, or get turned off because they can’t possibly handle all that food.

But let’s get off the interests of the readers and focus on something more important: the interest of the blogger. Yes, it’s your stage, your blog, your little thingamajig in the Internet. You don’t need to always serve the dish your patrons want because you also have to serve something for yourself. That’s normal, too. The thing is, we’re talking about the otaku Jack of All Trades blogging the stuff. And by stuff, that means a lot. Anything that meets the eye, showcasing of talents, opinion or say on things, shameless plugging of self and other people, and more where those came from. And to put them all together in a single point of broadcast, that’s a lot of work.

I’m not telling the blogs that trend today are generic, dull, boring, and mindless. Everyone has their own forte, we should respect that. It’s just that some of us want to find a greater purpose in blogging, which brings us to the case of the Unorthodox Blog. All those moments of constant self-questioning, all those times where you suddenly blurt out “What the hell is this blog for?”, all those needless thoughts of worry, all those moments that you feel incomplete, all those hiatuses and revivals and brainstorming, everything is for the sake of finding what’s best for the blog. Yes, the blog is simply a stage, a soapbox if we will. But what we perform in it depends on the same way it matters to you and everyone else.

I’m on a mission to find out what’s best for my blog. Hopefully, I get a good response. But that doesn’t mean I’m currently writing in an unusual way. It’s already hard thinking what you can do with an elevated stage. What more with everything else?

And yes, if you can find one of those Unorthodox Blogs out there, feel free to tell me and I’ll check them out.

The History of Touhou Memedom: It Makes Sense, Because It Doesn’t

Shance — Tue, 18 May 2010 11:04:09 +0000

Tinkering with The World’s Strongest Meme, gear by gear by gear…

As I go through my backlog of blog posts, tweets, images, and e-mails, I noticed that almost 85% of the stuff I have are Touhou-related. Well, that’s fine, really. What I further noticed is the blatant display of memes and character deviations that appeal to the typical Remilafag Reimufag Touhoufag‘s fancy.

Silence, then a surge of sudden curiosity on the matter at hand, which is what this post is all about.

The existence of Touhou memes got actual recognition when the greatest meme was made known to both the Eastern and Western Touhou fanbase: Cirno and ➈. Suddenly after that, the memes are everywhere, from a slight mention to an attribute (why Yuka Kazami is slow but powerful in PoFV), to a famously debated crossover (Flandre Scarlet‘s relation… to Ronald McDonald). This isn’t wrong, since they make the games and the characters in them more popular. But you really just have to ask yourself: Why? Why do they exist? For what purpose? For whom? Is there so much love for Touhou that it spawns images and videos and memes like there’s no tomorrow?

To understand why this happens, I gave the question some thought, and I came up with the following semantic ideas:

1. Touhou is vaguely described. The details are roughly laid out, and ZUN isn’t adding any further description to them. This opens interesting parts to fan speculation. You get a vague Chinese name for a Chinese-based character (Hong Meiling), it’s normal that people speculate because the name has another meaning in Japanese (Kurenai Misuzu). And if you can’t figure it out, of course you can just call her China and be done with it.

2. Touhou is incomplete. Only the important parts are given emphasis. Any additional detail would simply be filled in by the fans, making the story, and the game, complete. Obsessive fans would want too much needless noticing on a certain character, plot, or attribute that they bother with the littlest of stuff. So here we have a childish 495-year old loli vampire made of pure destruction. It won’t hurt if we label her as a yandere that loves her dear Oneechan to the point of blowing everything else into pieces, right? RIGHT?!

3. Touhou is vast. It spans over ten years and over ten games, not to mention crossovers with a sister STG game. Everything was simply for relevance’s sake. Story, plot, game, play, go nuts, spawn fan porncontent, rinse and repeat. And interestingly, this game plan actually works! If ZUN bothered too much over detail and characterization, Touhou would stop dead in its tracks even before it can even port itself to Windows! But do remember that this kind of format is a hit-or-miss. Sometimes you need characterization, and sometimes you need to elaborate some parts of the plot (even though there are references to Japanese folkore, that alone isn’t enough). Touhou didn’t do that, but was successful otherwise.

4. Touhou is for the fans. You don’t need to bother the one-man team about it. The fans leave him be, he creates his games, and the fans love it. And since it’s for them, it’s not a surprise that some of the stuff are done by them, whether official or non-official.

There are a lot of reasons for all this fan-fueled creative rage. We may not know why, we can try to find out why, but surely there’s enough reason. Actually, all this doesn’t need to make any sense! We are fans. Whoring ourselves to what we like is what we always do, Touhou or no. And of course, sense is out of the question.

B-Cup Sex Maniac (Late) First Impressions: Nothing Is Wrong With This Show

Shance — Fri, 14 May 2010 10:02:45 +0000

It’s Yaoi Spring Season, and even though a good show is hard to find (I am currently being convinced by a lot of people to watch Angel Beats! and Working!!!), an interesting one came to me in the form of B-Gata H Kei, a.k.a. B-Cup Sex Maniac. While some think that this show is nothing more than a perverted streak of fanservice without any notable plot aside from the main characters’ amorous advances, think again.

It’s an epic battle… in a wrong sort of way, actually…

First and foremost, this needs to get off my system: THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS SHOW. Yup! You heard that right. It’s not wrong because the show abundantly drops sexual innuendos to the point of disgust. It’s not wrong because the show doesn’t have anything else to offer aside from the blatant and intentional fanservice. Anybody who says that this show is wrong in more ways than one should need to take a closer look at today’s youth. Look harder. HARDER.

Rarely do you see a show telling a no-holds-barred, dead-on story about the precocious youth, where ecchi meets slice-of-life. The fanservice is dead-on, the amorous advances are dead-on, the intended goal… well, that one’s off the mark, yes. But the rest? They’re all applicable to the liberal society Japan is living in. Some of us who can relate can only nod our heads silently in agreement while watching in anticipation.

The fact that the source material is a simple 4koma makes itawesome. The story was precise, the pacing was swift, and the sexual references, effortless.

We’ve seen similar cases in the past. Digiboy was one of the prominent people who shouted to the world that somehow, there’s nothing wrong with excessive fanservice as long as it’s slice-of-life. The amount of YECH from the story’s plot neutralizes the focal and interesting points of the show. You’re forced to simply agree with the facts about today’s youths even though you’re disagreeing on the blatant panty shots and display of lingerie. It’s plot-related, and it applies to reality since it’s slice-of-life (somehow). Denying that only means you’re accepting it. You just lost a game you haven’t even started playing.

Interestingly, the story jinxed itself by not going towards the intended goal of a virgin wanting to have a hundred fuck buddies. The goal instead collapsed itself into targeting a single person of interest. See Cherry-kun. He loves to take pictures, he’s a member of one of the school clubs, pretty much your average guy with average tastes and an average lifestyle. Now see Yamada: Aspiring sex maniac, wishes to have a hundred fuck buddies, thinking of perverted things 80% of the time, has a NAISU BODII which earns her place as the school’s idol. Everything fucked itself in the ass since episode one, but it actually turned out fine, eventually.

Cherry-kun! What does the scouter say about her ero-power level?!

Oh, but there’s one more thing I reaaaaally need to note here: For girls, getting a THOUSAND fuck buddies is as easy as A-B-C, unless they look like a hag or a jailbait loli. This process is just taking too long to happen.

And no, no sequels please, for the love of…

The Calling of the Impoverished Otaku

Shance — Mon, 10 May 2010 18:35:21 +0000

Palette and Reimu Burger: Probably the the best description of my current situation.

They say the devil makes work for idle hands. I don’t know if that’s true. But if it means doing too much work, I might just believe it.

People, I now give you my grand excuse for my almost three-month absence: Work. Yes. Work. Work, work, work, work, work. Nothing for me to explain, that’s everything there is to, but sure, I’ll elaborate further. In an attempt to differentiate my preferences on work, I decided to take an opportunity to live the employed life. Day in, day out, working our asses for our well-earned paycheck. Just like freelancing, only it literally turns you into a walking corpse devoid of life, time, sleep, energy, and whatever else there is to deprive from you.

Some of us are still naive on what the professional world is like and how it can affect our otaku way of life, probably because A.) they’re still schooling, B.) they are currently unemployed (this includes people who stopped schooling and those who suck their parents’ butts just so they can live off of them), or C.) they don’t care, refuse to grow up and force themselves into a static state of denial. Now, I’m not saying that people should take the world head on like most of us who already did. It’s the other way round: The world took us head on, and most of us were taken by surprise.

To tell the truth, this scenario’s been repeatedly emphasized on certain media already, so we shouldn’t be surprised. In one chapter of the Genshiken manga, the senior members (Madarame, Kugiyama, and Tanaka) bade the club goodbye as they graduated. Tanaka sacrificed his location just to be able to work and fund his cosplaying endeavors, much to the chagrin of Ohno. Kugiyama simply got work, and left the club. Madarame, on the other hand, refused to leave the clubroom behind by getting work near the campus grounds. It’s the perfect example for this kind of scenario, where hardcore fans suddenly got cut off their way of life and were forced to compromise in order to keep up the pace.

Now, I don’t think I need to explain this: Everyone will eventually meet the situation wherein you must compromise your hobbies for the sake of supporting it, as well as yourself. The Genshiken seniors got their call, they heeded it, and it turned out just fine. Some of the people in blogosphere got their call, heeded it, and they’re still around (half of them, that is). My time came in, I heeded the call, and what the heck, chaos turned everything into alphabet soup with numbers in it. But lookey lookey, I’m still here.

My hands are still being forced to work for the devil, though, and I think we’re pretty obvious on the target of its evildoing.

Me and Summer Wars: Rage Against The Machine

Shance — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:17:12 +0000

Deus Ex Machina

Let’s face it: Human beings of today cannot live without technology. It’s everywhere, from cellphones, to desktops and laptops, to the most critical of operations like national security, international relations, and even weapons of mass destruction. But we’re not stopping there. We’re never stopping there. The addicting allure of technology would only make us yearn more for its benefits. It’s not surprising to predict that in the near future, everything will be done in just a simple push of the button. But before you say Google is great, let me ask you this: Is it really okay?

Let’s look at the example given in Summer Wars: OZ. It’s the ideal world that substitutes everything we have in reality. From sports, to games, to legal transactions. Everything can be done anytime, anywhere. No long queues, no shortage of consumable content, no end to features that it can offer. Convenient, right? Then Love Machine comes in, takes over OZ, and uses this convenience to do its playful bidding. If not for the Jinnouchis and Koiso Kenji, it could’ve plunged the world into chaos.

Since time immemorial, humans have depended too much on science. They think that anything that has to do with science is fine and righteous because of its son, technology. Science doesn’t betray humanity’s faith and materialism like religion does, and most of the time it delivers the desired results. Even the weapons of war and mass destruction were given “consideration” on their creation. To kill an opposing few to save the many, it’s fine and righteous, right? Therefore we should make weapons for this cause!

But what if science suddenly betrays us? What if science suddenly turns its back on us? What if science suddenly tries to destroy us using the very technology that both science and humanity developed?

A good example of Science + Humanity = Technology FAIL. Then again, what about our mecha?

Humanity then started to fear science and technology. They thought that once they use them, they can never be stopped. They feared that science would give technology sentience. They feared science would suddenly generate an irreversible error through means and usage of technology. They feared that science would set off doomsday and genocide, and that there’s no reset code to stop it. Humanity tries to refrain itself from its desires, but the temptation defeats them. It’s like a dog owner and his dog, where the dog bites the owner, and the owner, instead of killing the dog, would beat it, put a tighter leash on it, and still have it around. If we were briefed on what happened to Love Machine after Summer Wars, this could be the case. The US Government would make a public apology, “destroy” Love Machine, and then make a more lethal but obedient version of it. What happens after, I don’t want to know. More like I’m scared on the capabilities of the program way too much to even imagine what happens after the aftermath. If the plot and events of the movie failed on the way they effectively restricted the dangerous possibilities the concept of the technology, it would screw everything up. And I mean everything.

So is overdependence to technology really okay? I don’t think so.

When The Pillars Of Touhoudom Collide: Original Material VS. Fan Material

Shance — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 17:17:40 +0000

This is probably what I was doing while this whole thing was brewing.

With the blogosphere slowly succumbing to the powers of bullet hell, I can say that the hijack is going smoothly as planned. That was one thing I was worrying. The other thing, we’ll talk about, heart to heart to heart, you, me, and Touhou.

The virality of Touhou started to spread in the blogosphere, which sparked a sudden surge of interest within its citizens. Bloggers started to talk about preferred characters, semantics of Touhoudom, and love for the world that spurred an unstoppable cult following, things that I have already mentioned in the past. Normally, I wouldn’t tinker with it and let it just unfold by itself. But somehow, an unknown amount of mischief made me spout something about it, and everything went crashing down, raging bloggers and all.

Our Gensokyo is divided into two categories: Original material (the original Touhou games), and fan material (doujin games and paperback). These form an equilibrium of sorts. The original material serves as basis for fan material, and fan material serves as a tribute to the original material.

This is where it gets murky. Because the franchise has two areas of interest, the community divides itself into two factions of interest: Those who love Touhou for the original material (dubbed as “The True Children of Touhou”), and those who love Touhou for the fan material (dubbed as “The False Children of Touhou”). The former, as the elitist, arrogant, and perfectionist power, would take offense if a Touhoufag lives for the sake of fan material while being oblivious to the original stuff. The latter, as the rabid, generalist, genre-loving power, would take offense if a Touhoufag lives a childish, I’m-not-leaving-my-nest life by not actively engaging on any fanmade content. “Why love Touhou if you can’t even dodge bullets?” “Why love Touhou if you don’t even see the beauty of fanmade material?” It’s like the Code of Cosplay, where you can’t say anything about a cosplayer if you don’t know where the cosplay is from, or you can’t cosplay if you don’t know where the cosplay is from. From black and white, the discord between the fans sows confusion on the fandom that should simply be loved for all that it is.

This leads us to “The Ultimate and Complete Touhou Experience”. From hereon, we walk the line between the two factions, the grey zone that embraces everything regardless of origin. There is no such thing as True or False Children of Touhou, since you can become both at the same time. You love fanmade content? That’s fine, since you loved the original games even if it’s not the same way you love your doujin stuff. You love original content? Sure, since you opened up on fan material, even though you don’t love them the same way you love your originals. Because people paid homage to both fanmade and original content, there’s no discrimination, there’s no elitism, no nothing. It’s like Nirvana, where Touhoufags complete their very being by indulging on everything that was, that is, and will be.

Pay tributes to original content by getting fanmade material. Pay tributes to fanmade material by getting the original content. Stay in the grey zone, enjoy, and all will be fine in our Gensokyo again.

And while you’re at it, apply this logic on your general otaku fandom too.

Impoverished Takes on Hardcore Gaming: Take That, TheBigN-I mean, Shikieiki!

Shance — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:36:25 +0000

Two years.

For two years, I didn’t think of playing Touhou Kaeidzuka (東方花映塚, though most of you know it as Phantasmagoria of Flower View, or simply PoFV ). All those short sessions back then were something out of boredom. Now that I’ve picked up the pace, I played it again, and here’s what I got:

Pure, unadulterated… VICTOLY!

Sorry guys, no Reimu this time around. My actual first choice for Kaeidzuka was Medicine Melancholy, and I stuck onto her all throughout. And so, after playing Kaeidzuka in Lunatic after two long years, she helped me net these personal achievements:

One Credit Clear / 1CC
Lunatic Level Clear
Medicine Melancholy Ending
Unfocused Gameplay Clear

In the history of gaming, only a handful of gamers think of playing in a whole new, hardcore level. They have this creative drive and determination to play the game in a whole new way, and they’re not stopping. For fighter gamers, it’s about how you create deadly, destructive and unstoppable combos to crush your opponents. For danmaku and Touhou gamers, it’s how you play the game without focus (using the Shift key to slow your movements so you can effectively dodge bullets), without using bombs (to clear a wave of unavoidable bullets), without using continues (I think this one’s obvious even without the danmaku lingo), or without even moving or shooting. For RPG players, it’s about playing the game without using skills, without going over a certain level cap, or even without the use of other characters aside from the game protagonist. For eroge people, it’s about aiming for the harem route, if not the secret loli imouto route. The more the ways to play the game, the more the valuable experience for the gamer, the more the bragging rights.

For the hardcore gamer, there’s no such thing a game being shelved. There’s always that little pinch of curiosity that thinks: “How about if I play the game like this?” “Without bombing? Without focus? Yeah, let’s try that.” So off the gamer goes, picks up that game again, and plays it, over and over, trying and using unorthodox methods you can’t possibly think of. That’s why even after two years, Kaeidzuka is still a beloved game for me, alongside the rest of the Touhou games.

So yeah, you can throw your generic game console “achievements” out of the window, and try something harder.

Related Media

The replay for the gameplay:

Touhou Kaeidzuka: Medicine Melancholy Unfocused Gameplay on Lunatic – Mediafire

Fin Funneling: Diversifying the Otaku Blogger

Shance — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 15:33:48 +0000

I looooooooove Fin Funnels. I couldn’t imagine my Gundam without them.

In the Gundam universe, Fin Funnels are known as one of the most uncanny weapons made for the experienced Newtype. Through the Newtype’s psychic powers, they destroy enemies with almost dead-on accuracy. They also last longer than conventional funnels because of their built-in energy generators. Finally, Fin Funnels have a feature not found in any other Newtype weaponry: They form a “guard” that protects the Mobile Suit from incoming fire, be it solid ammunition or energy beams.

So what is “Fin Funneling”, and how does it diversify the otaku blogger?

Fin Funneling is a term I would like to coin for relying on more than one medium of creative output. The blogger and the blog are the “Mobile Suit”, while the social interaction programs and sites that he or she uses aside from the blog are the “Fin Funnels”. The Fin Funnels work similar to their Real Robot weaponry counterparts by “firing” bits of the blogger’s information on his or her “targets”, i.e. the audience he or she caters in. They also “guard” bloggers from posts that they probably don’t want to post on their blog, or unwanted trackbacks and response posts that might spoil their blogging experience. No need for long tl;dr posts on some topic that doesn’t need stressing. All you have to do is open Twitter, and let them know what’s what in just 150 alphanumeric characters. Want to share something good without having to do shameless plug posts? Google Reader, link all relevant posts, and leave notes about the topic. How about your anime watchlist? There’s MyAnimeList. Online interaction in real time? GTalk, Google Wave, YM, MIRC, the usual talky-talky stuff that’s always available. There’s always an option to let everyone know what you do or what you have, and it never stops.

Now, now, Shance dear. Why the elitist facade? You use those sites and programs, too. That means you do Fin Funneling like the rest of us! So why are you trying to belittle their usefulness?

I’m not really belittling their usefulness here. I’m just saying, why use them? There’s the blog, you’re the blogger, and the blog is all you need if you want something expressed. So why? Is it because of the need to simply let anyone know? Is it selective posting, where you say what’s awesome, but pick which ones you want to post on the blog while the rest gets posted as scrobble-tweets and GRSI notes? Or maybe we just want to surprise the audience by supplying vague information about an awesome topic and letting them click the link for them to see for themselves. These things are taking the blogger’s attention away from the blog, which I think is bad. On the other hand, it helps maintain activity by letting people know what the blogger’s doing, which is good.

Maybe it’s just me here, but hey, blogs are the reason why we call ourselves bloggers. Let’s live up to our names, our mobile suits, and our status, shall we?