Upon beginning this project, I had stated I wouldn’t write any tutorial style of article. My intention was never to “teach” anyone how to enter the Nico Nico Douga community directly by giving readers a manual. However, I did get an interesting search term regarding “Nico Nico Douga comment etiquette”. This statement regarding comments did trigger a pulse that made me rethink the idea of the comment ethic of regular Nico viewers. As a final result I decided to construct an article to hit on elements of history, common practice as influenced by history, and a list of some common comments in the broader Nico community (because I’m nice like that).

Nonetheless, I hope it will demystify certain myths regarding the active time comment system that is affiliated closely with Nico Nico Douga. I decided in turn to break the article into two parts. The first will be more technical and focus on history while I dedicated the second being more of a giant glossary. This separated the material so if you want to avoid the technical mumbo jumbo you can skip to the second section and read up on comments instead.

The mighty and fearsome comment box

I realize I did touch on comments briefly in my introduction and will no doubt reiterate many points. But this is meant as an aside completely separate from the meat of this article. It’s intention is to be less of a general critique of views but more so the development and styles of language among Nico viewers. By the way, in certain areas (particularly the comment example section) I will be using unicode. So just a fair warning if your browser can’t display Japanese properly.

So let’s go ahead and move right to the heart of Nico….

Forward: I apologize for the extremely ridiculous delay in publishing this. When your HD crashes and you lose a lot of data it’s one thing to lose all that data. It’s another to even work on things that might have been saved. Anyhow, sorry about that. For those of you who have continued to swing by and were waiting, I hope I don’t disappoint.

I will admit when I first compiled all the information for my Madoka article before, I had only planned to touch on it once. It was something I did out of leisure but it was something after publishing that kept on confronting me. After episode 4 passed I got a lot of random messages.

“No, no. That character is nothing like that. Look at…”
“Wait but isn’t *character* more like this?

Of course I was still gradually browsing topics and was seeing more and more comparisons made. And, as you could figure, these were observations that happened nearly simultaneously. Someone brings a point up and then everybody literally comes to a consensus that it’s the accurate depiction. So now that the nightmare is finally over, I figured I would take my favorite comparisons and compile them one last time.

And since I’ve been here and interacted with Kamen Rider and Madoka in three articles, I’ll provide a very small personal note. I’ll thankfully put this at the end of all the comparisons so it’ll be easy to ignore if you don’t want to hear any of my opinion. I’ll also repost these disclaimers just so we’re all square again before you dive in.

-DISCLAIMER-
This article will contain massive spoilers concerning Kamen Rider Ryuki and Puella Magi Madoka Madoka Magica. Don’t read it if you don’t want to be spoiled on either series. Naturally I’ll have to touch on any and all plot points necessary to properly compare so only read on if you’re ready.

-DISCLAIMER 2-
Due to experiences with Japanese Madoka fans, I KNOW this is a sensitive topic. This (well the comparisons anyway) are all done for the sake of fun. Don’t hate me for pointing these things out and don’t take anything I say as fact. I’m simply just reiterating a lot of discussion that’s happened elsewhere.

To give a bit of background to this post, this was a somewhat scheduled conversation in light of the slowly approaching “Miku concert” reaching to US shores. One of my good friends and a Vocaloid producer is coming right from Japan to sit in on the audience and take in the “experience” of what Western fans might bring to the event. Despite my objections, there has been chitter chatter here and there with me about the situation. Eventually I decided to call together a number of producers closer to me to talk about what’s been going on as well as reflecting on what this situation means. Originally it was just for fun but after concluding, I decided to log some moments from my recording and translate them (under permission of course).

After rolling in bed I didn’t like how the interview was looking typed up. It was messy and did seem to be dealing in both irrelevance and possibly too much mudslinging. Because of this I found it merely better to take individual questions and organize general thoughts into a typed article format. This way it saved me some time of having all these random tangents as well as worrying over offending someone. My only point was to let readers see a different side to things that may not have necessarilly crossed their mind.

And of course these aren’t opinions held by every single member of the older or current Vocaloid community. But I did feel they were amusing and if nothing else it gives an interesting read and perspective that many people might get to or ever hear.

It’s been around four very quick years since I’ve been registered at Nico Nico Douga, one of the strangest video sites in existence. And after those four long years, it’s come to mean a lot to me. Not just in respect of what odd memories I can tie with it but with some of the many people I’ve managed to acquaint myself with through it.

As always, I bet you’re thinking the same thing. Just what in the heck is Leek getting at THIS time? The thing is when I first registered, I could probably tell you very little about Nico Nico Douga as a video site. To me it had become some sort of Japanese phenomenon. Some sort of strange door to whole underground that I hadn’t seen. It was essentially where you’re not just being given a product but you’re taking away an entire experience.

Four years and how times have changed

But now you could try asking me again. Just what is Nico all about? It’s not a question that I would want to tell you in a sentence. But Nico has in fact evolved into a community and, by exaggeration, a family as it were. Nico has become a place where a modern generation has found a bit of home with each other and a means to connect through a multitude of pathways. At the same time the community came for relatively similar reasons and probably stay for much of the same.

As a mark of my 4th year with the site, I decided to turn out a bit of a joking ethnography. Actually trying to proclaim it a serious ethnography would easily offend many of my Professors or the various Anthropologists in existence. Still I would like to offer my piece of personal experiences and how a makeshift community has developed around some odd unifying principles.

The series will follow a general construction pattern. First, I want to introduce the early beginning of site and what started the Nico craze. At the same time, I want to try and field what the hook of the site was and possibly dismiss certain assumptions hanging in the air about it. In following pieces I plan to go into the various and large communities that have formed around Nico that draw different crowds. Somewhere embedded in these discussions I will go into the developing years of Nico and how it turned itself nearer to where it is today. Last, I’ll wrap up my entire project as it were and try and look at what may lie ahead for such a offbeat community.

But first a bit of intro…

Happy Valentine’s Day. Yeah, mine was pretty awesome

Before getting sick before New Years, one of my friends noted that I hadn’t written a real self-serving article on my new blog yet. Or, at least, nothing like I had turned out on several of my other blogs. In that respect I decided it was in fact a irregularity and, now that the new year has rolled in, it’s about time I publish one.

Now most of my self-serving articles often have something to do with my horrible taste in woman…this was pointed out as well. So, it’s that time of the year again. And the honest truth for me is something like…

“When you’re out of a relationship…you tend to write these horrible articles about your horrible taste in woman.”

Well, I can’t think of better timing. But all of my previous articles have been some critisism of a variety of fictional fancies. Not to say it’s a bad thing but I would like to aim for something a little different for once. But, just the same, writing about celebrities isn’t quite so much fun either. So I decided I would pay tribute and appreciation to the many people who make life more fun. So with that here is my oddball overview of some of my favorite female contributors to Nico Nico Douga.

What? You say this constant stream of articles is suspicious? Actually it kind of is and there is a certain rhyme or reason to it. Technically, I was supposed to post a ton of articles around New Years and I made such bold claims on Twitter. The reality was, for one, I got sick. The second catch would be that after writing a host of articles, I refused to post any of them. So unless you really want to read more boring articles about boring anime then I’ll post it. But I’d rather leave such posts to people who are interested. And the other post I decided to turn into a Valentine’s Day related post. So in exchange I decided to move my schedule forward and write new posts to make up for the old ones and then ultimately do it all before Valentine’s Day. Cool story, right?

Anyhow, this time it’s a brand new type of article again. I guess the “review” part of the title isn’t really that accurate. In reality, I’m probably just going to talk about my chosen eroge. As far as critiquing each little detail of it? Probably not. I actually wanted to make a friendly reading for people who might not have played it. And for those who did, I guess you can see how I reacted to the game. So without further ado, the first part of my Valentine’s Day double feature.

Just who invented love anyway? That jerk.

For those not familiar, Kicking Horse Rhapsody (キッキングホース★ラプソディ) was an eroge released by ALcotHoneycomb (ALcotハニカム) near the end of November 2010. It was a budget eroge which basically means as a consumer you were paying about 3000 yen (very roughly $40) under regular price. If anybody is curious, the regular eroge would run you around $100 so a budget eroge is not necessarily cheap but it’s far from what you could be paying. Now I can’t say I ever play very many budget eroges. I don’t usually like most of them and many I touched were pretty big piles. So you can imagine the thrill I faced when my friends aid to give Kicking a try.

I feel like I’ve been giving Madoka Magica a lot more flak then it deserves. Well actually, maybe not. It’s not that I have anything personal against the series but it has awoken an old discussion yet again. There are many age old genres and several that have had time to evolve as the years have passed. Yet two genres possibly manged to evolve together, those being that of tokusatsu and mahou shoujo. Now you’d look at them and maybe have no trouble seeing the resemblance. Others might be scratching their heads and wondering what the heck this is all about.

Ready to take the heat? I know you are

In this article I want to go over a simple concept. Just what is it about mahou shoujo and tokusatsu that drives them so close together? Are they really meant to be paired and is it possible that one is influencing another? I’ll make a few claims as to what I see as going on but they’re far from fact. But in my history of watching up until now, I wanted to look at what ideas define both series and where it has taken them now. I also want to look at the modern evolution of magical girl and tokusatsu and potentially one man we can blame it all on.

In case you were wondering where I had been, I was taking my usual two month vacation. But in honor of Valentine’s Day and plenty of free time, I figured I should dust off my coat. This time I’m writing something more humorous (yes, humorous) that people can laugh at. Unfortunately it’s also something I should write a long disclaimer before.

-DISCLAIMER-
This article will contain certain massive spoilers concerning Kamen Rider Ryuki and the first five episodes of Puella Magi Madoka Madoka Magica. This will be divided from an early section that will only cover basic plot of both series. I will carefully separate these sections but if you go past that point of return DO NOT BLAME ME. I simply did not want to break this article into two, and I’ll make it near impossible to read past by accident. Just don’t be a scroll monkey and if you are a fan of either series and want to read past that point then feel free. I’m not sure how many Madoka fans will watch Ryuki and how many Ryuki fans will watch Madoka. If there are some of you out there that are well versed in both, we should sit down and talk.

-DISCLAIMER 2-
Due to experiences with Japanese Madoka fans, I KNOW this is a sensitive topic. Like I said, this is for fun. Don’t hate me for pointing these things out and don’t take anything I say as fact. I’m simply just reiterating a lot of discussion that’s happened elsewhere. Rider fans have noticed parallels with Mahou Shoujo forever and Madoka has been pushing a new barrier.

Update Notice
Since the conclusion of Madoka, I did an updated character summary and character summary only. The first section of this article (the plot comparisons) are exclusive to this article. So if you want to look at my character comparison analysis post finale then you should read it here.

And that’s about it. That covers my ass I hope. Spoiler free area start!

After a lot of hiatus I’m able to come back. Sorry it’ll have to be on a One Shot Article and not a very fun one at that.

Awhile during the big stream of news, a friend of mine sent me a message one day on Skype asking “Hey, what do you think about DYE and NEVER x OVER?”. I gave a bit of a glazed look at the message and merely replied, “Frankly, I find neither of them to be very good songs”. As you could imagine my friend quickly re-phrased it to ask about the recent situation that had come to fall on most ears in the JE and Vocaloid communities. Little did he know that being who I was, I had long since been discussing such things. It’s not something I was enjoying discussing and much of the popular discussion did little more then give me a headache.

Now that things have quieted down and information is at a pause, I will say my piece. No, this is not me taking a strike at AVTechNO and trying to claim that there are no similarities. No, this is not me as a Vocaloid composer and community member trying to deliberately talk down on Kat-tun. No, this is just me getting mad at about everyone else. I realize many composers have been keeping quiet on the situation to avoid sullying their reputations. But as someone who has nothing to lose or to gain, I will speak on the situation.

I know what you’re thinking. What is THIS? Another new pitch, I know. Since I’m still getting my feet wet, we’re into part something of my experiments. Though this one will probably be continued regardless of what you say.

“Why this?” is probably the next question. In my brainstorming of articles I wrote one very clear message to myself. I never want to write another Vocaloid article again. I even underlined it and drew a sad face next to it. I was that serious. So I mulled over what I could do that would make me hate the idea less. So it came to me that I should turn my life into an autobiography. Or to the gist of that. I didn’t really think of it as an autobiography up until now but I realize it will be that way by most definitions. Not to say I deserve any sort of thing but it’s the solution I’m sticking by.

Either way the posts will be made up of a multitude of things related to my life around the Vocaloid community and what came of it. Granted it is an ongoing story but for the most part has settled down. This will include chat logs, daily conversations, e-mail exchanges, forum posting, and anything I wrote down at different times. Some might be from memory and others might have been recorded for whatever reason. Either way I’ll try and translate everything there is that wasn’t in English and make it clear.

For those of you that might have read my odd chat logs elsewhere, you may be familiar with certain events or people. Either way, I’ll try and explain everything I can along the way and go in some form of chronological order. If I wander out of place or just insert a little part then I’ll probably say so beforehand. Whatever the case, things will range from funny to serious depending on what I plan on covering. Or it just might be both.

I also want to get a cool banner or image for the thing. But that will probably take time for someone to be nice enough to make me something. Lord knows you don’t want me doing it. Anyhow, let’s get going.