Slightly off-topic, but I have just learned that Sean Howard’s webcomic, “A Modest Destiny” will be returning at http://squidi.net. There’s a significant overlap between webcomic and anime fans, and I’ll give Squidi this much: the overarching plot of the series has always struck me as quite elaborate. Wikipedia says that the announcement appeared on Squidi.net sometime “In late April 2006.”

The following is a transcript of a chat I had with a friend of mine, Scott. It’s been edited for content and length.

….

Scott: yes Spiffy

Today was one of the three times a year I look at fanfic.net

Nic: Only two more to go, huh?

Scott: Yea

I spent a portion of my afternoon looking at HiME fanfiction

Most of it was pretty bad

Nic: You poor soul.

Scott: I read some depressing story of a Otome Au set on Earth about Erstin and Nina, and it ended with Erstin dying of aids somehow….

Nic: That’s so weird.

Scott: Yea

Nic: I guess not even advanced nanotech holds a cure.

Scott: Its modern day Earth

Nic: But she’s still an otome, right? Or no?

Scott: No

Nic: Odd….

Scott: There was actually a intresting one kinda of based around the fake movie trailer

Nic: It wouldn’t be hard to write something cool based on that.

Scott: Yea

Nic: All of the heavy lifting would be done for you.

Scott: Yea but they didn’t make Arika a Genki villian at the start

Nic: Looking up “Genki” I get both a Japanese era and “friendly” – which do you mean?

Scott: You know how Arika is always really over the top friendly

Nic: I suppose so.

But it could be a time-traveling fanfic.

So there.

Scott: Yea

Though litteraly most of the stories there were Shizuru-Natsuki love stories.

Nic: Eh, it could be worse.

Scott: Yea

At least it hasn’t descended into X/1999 style of agnstfests

Nic: Tate x Shizuru. Nagi x Mao. Takumi x Mashiro.

I think there are more possible couples than in X.

Scott: I saw on 4chan once, people demanding Miyu x Nao

Nic: Midori x Fumi… that’d make for a weird story.

Scott: Woa

That just shattered my mind

Nic: Please don’t tell me such an abomination actually exists.

It’d be like one of those extra ugly Chimeras from Fullmetal Alchemist.

Okay, probably not that bad by far, but still weird.

Scott: Actually….

Nic: Oh no.

Scott: There was a Nao x Shiho (Otome) fanfic I saw listed

Nic: Such unusual things.

Some of these fanfics.

Did I mention my new review of Howl’s Moving Castle?

Scott: No

Nic: http://fancruft.com/animeinfo/anime-73.html

There you go.

What do you think?

Scott: Huh

I wasn’t that intrested in seeing the movie, but now I am a bit

Holy crap, Cutey Honey

Nic: You didn’t see that before?

Scott: No

Wasn’t that at like Jc Flicks anime department?

Nic: Ages ago. Yes.

Scott: Man

Nic: What’s that?

Scott: I just had a flashback to that one day we got that really greasy pizza and watched Big Wars

Nic: If I had to rewatch of the two, I suppose I’d have to go with Cutey Honey.

Scott: Ah

Nic: But only if I HAD to rewatch one of them.

Scott: So I hear the new FF game will be releashed for the PS2 in November before Thanksgiving

Nic: That’s cool.

….

Scott: There was a thread at HiME forums that had the majority of the cosplay, most of it was pretty good

….

Scott: off topic: a better picture of the nina cosplayer to fully see her hair

http://img293.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mo37up.jpg

Nic: I like off topic hair.

Scott: hehe

Midori cosplay

http://img293.imageshack.us/my.php?image=2005101915331138zy.jpg

Nic: Oh good grief….

Scott: Natuski (Otome)

http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=87b1f4fd7ho.jpg

Nic: I think Nina’s hair could have been made better with extra hair gel.

Scott: Another Arika and Nina and Erstin

http://img138.imageshack.us/my.php?image=1113016ml.jpg

Nic: You know, I realize that you’re not going to have big-budget hollywood style costumes for cosplay.

Scott: yea

Nic: But still, sometimes, I wonder if it would be possible to just throw some stuff together and no one would be the wiser.

Scott: what are you refering to?

Nic: I like the second Nina better.

Just a general observation.

Scott: ah

I am still debeating wither the Erstin player pulled it off or not

Nic: Magic coin flip says….

Yes.

Scott: I was just thinking

Nic: Yes?

Scott: Erstin really got screwed over in the series

Nic: No kidding.

Scott: Maybe the OVA will bring her back

Though I have a feeling if that if the OVA is going to be set after the series, its going to be Tomoe as the villian

They showed the resolution to pretty much everybody except Tomoe

Nic: So you say.

[Connection lost]

Nic: Yar.

I’m back.

Scott: Ah

Didn’t notice you were gone

Nic: Did I miss anything?

I guess not.

Scott: No

So what is up?

Nic: I’m reading the comics.

They’re quite below par.

Scott: comics?

What comics?

Nic: In the newspaper.

Scott: Oh

Yea I notice in that past 3 years comics have been going downhill pretty quick

I can’t tell if its really occuring or I becoming an old man who dislikes new things

Nic: There’s nothing new.

Peanuts and Mutts are the best in the comics.

Lockhorns are Ok too. Zitz as well.

Alot of the other ones seem tired.

Scott: Mister Boffo is the best of the sunday comics

Nic: [It's] Not in this paper, I guess that must be the other one.

Scott: Did I show this Miyu picture?

http://kei-garou.net/blog/archives/20060315miyu_wall.jpg

Nic: Wow.

Looks like should be a wall scroll.

Is it from a wallscroll?

Scott: No its fanart

Nic: Is awesome.

Scott: That is her Artemsis sword in 22

…

I once read that although a great many friendships are based on similar interests, even more are based on similar dislikes. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but you can now go from any anime review on FanCruft to a list of “different” anime. Because anime can be different from one another in a wide variety of ways, the results can be a little surprising at times. To access the new feature, just use the action box after any review.
Perhaps the work of Ghibli isn’t your style – the current “opposite” of the recent entry Howl’s Moving Castle is Excel Saga. If you feel unclean after watching Final Fantasy Unlimited, you might want to take Ghost in the Shell for a spin. And if Kino’s Journey strikes you as too cerebral and somber, there’s always the action and comedy of Full Metal Panic.
If you find any especially interesting “opposite” anime, let me know by emailing me at webmaster [at] fancruft.com.

With the release of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray not that far away, there’s been a lot of talk about who will win this “format war.” The topic is especially of interest to fans of Japanese animation.
However, while many people have been comparing the rivalry of these two formats to the Betamax and VHS debacle, I am more reminded of the 16-bit era of video game systems in the U.S.
For those not familar with what was going in the video game industry in the early in 1990s, Atari’s groundbreaking system, the 2600, was all but forgotten, and games finally became generally unavailable by retail in the late 80s. The dominant system throughout the late 80s was the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES. This gradually began to change when SEGA released its Genesis system in the U.S.. Although Nintendo was unable to respond immediately due to fear of canabalizng its NES market, eventually they responded with the Super-NES system; both the Genesis and SNES were known and advertised as 16-bit systems.
The rivalry between SEGA and Nintendo was intense, to say the least. Both vigorously attacked the policies, technical specifications, and games of the other. Throughout this period of time, everyone who was watching wondered who would win the “16-bit war” and become the new dominate company in the video game industry. Both companies, I’m sure, thought that this was the prize they were fighting for – complete control of the video game console market.
Except, of course, that no one won. The 16-bit era ended without a clear leader. SEGA’s fortunes eventually turned, with its later consoles failing to generate significant interest beyond a small but dedicated cult of Dreamcast fans. SEGA later bowed out of the console market and now focuses directly on games. Nintendo did only slightly better; although they’re still around (and the dominant firm in the handheld market), their home consoles haven’t had anywhere near the success of the NES or SNES; the Gamecube has been greatly margalized by Sony’s and Microsoft’s consoles. Where once it was thought that a monopoly was inevitable, there are now three firms with a strong presence.
It’s simply my belief that the world can support more media formats now. How may different audio formats are there? MP3 is still going strong, Microsoft’s WMA format is widely supported, Real hasn’t died, OGG has three major varients, of which FLAC and VORBIS are quite popular among the technically inclined, and Apple’s iTunes has ensured that AAC is not going anywhere soon. In terms of operating systems, multiple versions of Windows will appear in its next major release, Linux is stronger than ever, and a renewed Apple MacOS is hip once again.
I’m not saying that both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD will have success. Only that such a situation – with neither format dominating the other, is a very real possibility over the lifespan of these formats.

Some minor changes have recently been made to FanCruft. The size and length of the RSS feed have been reduced, so that very old articles no longer appear and the whole feed should load faster.
The site’s typeface has been changed to Trebuchet MS. As the name implies, it is a Microsoft Font that is included with recent versions of Windows and some Microsoft products on other platforms. Because it was included in the “Core Fonts” project, it should be available as a free download for any platform that supports TrueType fonts. The logo will remain in Comic Sans MS, because I’m too lazy to change it, I think it looks kind of nice, and I lost the original picture of a slice of bread that it’s based on. There are many things that go into choosing a typeface for a website – availability, readability, and the “feel” of the font. I choose Trebuchet not because it does well on these factors (although it does) but because it renders amperstands (“&”) in a way that makes it obvious that they’re derived from Latin word “et”.

Minor changes have also been made to the about page. One of the changes is a tip about the “similar” links that appear with reviews: “…if you don’t have a preference, have a look at both the filtered and unfiltered list. My general experience has been that either one list or the other has better results. Also, the list of similar animes can be bookmarked, and will change when you return in the future to reflect new and updated reviews on FanCruft.”