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A Message to Japan and Anime Studios On Their New Piracy Witch Hunt, From an Official Anime Retailer, Voice Actor, Game Designer and Fan

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As some of you might have heard, Japan and anime studios are on a new piracy witchhunt to thwart mainly Chinese piracy sites.  I thought I'd put my two cents in as 1) an official anime retailer 2) a game developer with my own IP that I paid copyrights for 3) a paid voice actor 4) and most importantly, an anime fan...

First off, yes, there are sites that are hurting the industry, particularly ones in China that make bootleg figures and distribute full episodes to content that is available online...but they aren't the only targets of this governmental act, fans and the very fabric of what makes the anime community tick are in the crosshairs of this new (and not unique to Japan) in-bed-with-the-entertainment-businesses governmental action.  I'll start with quoting what I stated on G+ but want to elaborate more on....

Japan may try but they are going at piracy the wrong way. Take a page from Steam and Netflix; make worldwide, instant legal access for all anime/manga and drop these pathetic licensing/copyright/region-centric laws that hurt the fans and go against the tide with the Internet-driven market. We will pay for the real thing, but if there's no legal way to do so, then piracy it is. I'm an anime retailer, game developer and even a voice actor now but a fan first and I don't mind publicly stating this
...we anime fans are not criminals, just smarter than the braindead execs living in an entertainment business model reminiscent of the 1980's. I have no problem if people use my characters, my games and my music in the range of Fair Use. Unlike you Japan, and studios stupidly doing this witch hunt, i understand the power of the internet and viral marketing. So make your let's plays, AMVs, mods, OP/Ending posts of my content as I bring it out. I'll make the full content of my games and project affordable and global and unlike you Japan, I won't treat any fans of my content as criminals.
No legal, cost friendly access?..Then even I will don my eyepatch and make the pirate's life for me. Yo Ho

When I first started this site, which is now also a legit/official anime store site, I started it in 2002 in my then high school web design class.  This site became one of the many anime "shrine" sites, most of whom are long gone now.  This site stayed somewhat relevant when I started creating AMV pre-Youtube era.  There was a point where my site got taken down from all the bandwidth people downloading and linking to all of our AMVs.  Now, understandably, AMVs, like Let's Plays have been a grey area in the terms of copyright.  They were however in the realm of Fair Use, though both anime studios and music artists to this day never understood that. They still, in an age where social media is far more a part of life than in 2002, don't get that exposure through fan-based content is one of the best way for people to see and eventually wish to PAY for your product.

In the times I made AMVs (something I might jump back into with my knowledge of Premiere and After Effects now), I never made a penny off those creations.  I didn't want to since I knew the music and the art wasn't mine, but I thus became the free advertisement for those IP.  When Youtube came to be in 2005, I of course put my videos on there to mainly get the bandwidth issue out of the way.  I was also getting ready to do what many Youtube celebrities do now and post Flash parodies and such on YT.  In 2005, my videos were getting 250K views... in 2015!.  I not only look alot like the top Youtuber, Pewdiepie, but I would have been far ahead of the game compared to everyone else and would have made my own original content back then! (something I'm only now starting to do with my "chucksanimeshrine" YT page)

What caused this to all be derailed outside of personal life challenges was that my original Youtube channel "princetrunks" got taken down due to copyright infringement... that I couldn't defend myself from even when one music artist, QED, wanted me to be their inhouse editor after seeing my AMV!  I wasn't posting full anime episodes online... I just had ~4minute music video mashups and I was treated like some sort of criminal.

This criminalizing fans is what Japans government and the studios backing this crap up are doing.  Even today, in 2014 we will see an obviously successful production, like Attack On Titan, take over a year before it goes to English dubbing because of crazy slow licencing.  I don't condone nor support those who post whole episodes in piracy.. but what do you expect people to do?!  The industry is still the main reason why the piracy is so common.  It doesn't have to be but when the legal option is blocked by region control and take downs of the legit content due to licensing circlejerking... of course fans (who were going to pay mostly) are going to pirate.  It doesn't just go to the obvious full episode uploads... those I understand why they need to be regulated (if and only if there's a legal and affordable alternative).. it even goes to Opening and Ending clips.. so akin to the crap I dealt with back in 2005.

For example, try linking to a youtube video with the Sailor Moon Crystal Opening.  Since there's no official Youtube channel with that content (which for the studio could make a decent amount of money with adsense if they did)... of course fans will post the openings and endings.  Let them.  Is it the full episodes?, no... but yet every day Toei and the Content ID trolling they work with take down videos that are only spreading the advertisement of this new anime series.

In short, it's stupid and contradictory to criminalize your own fans.  Anime has thankfully come back from the "anime is ending " garbage that the cowardly heads of TokyoPop spewed a few years ago.

Anime is vibrant today due to social media, a medium anime fans first embraced before the rest of the #selfie obsessed world did.  Leaning on outdated copyright laws are a fools game in the modern world... and this is coming from somebody who paid the us government to copyright my game, Tenshi-Oni!!  I only did that to prevent people from making money off my idea in the sense of a copied game and to keep people from saying I made a game they made.. when this game and the characters here on Chuck's Anime Shrine (Fumi, Fumi's ability to transform into an angel or a demon, Lily, Yumi, etc) have been around since 2003 when I announced them (sans Yumi) and began making Tenshi-Oni (then called "Project Fumi") as a flash game.

Once I finally, finally get Tenshi-Oni, and this semi-secret game I'm making, out to the public.. will I demand people take down Let's Plays of the games, Amvs with my characters, fan art, fan fiction and the rest?? NO.

Actually, please do so.. turn Fumi and my characters into memes.  Make CG parodies like Miku gets, post all over the deviantart site.  MAKE MONEY from my characters with your fan art at cons, profit from views on your AMVs and Let's plays that have my Tenshi-Oni characters.  Unlike you, studios invovled in this witch hunt, I understand when word of mouth and viral marketing will only grow my IPs and I hope they do.  At the same time, I'll have the legal full copies of my games and music available for ALL with no region locks or other BS.  It's 2014 as of this post... the entertainment industry has to get out of the 1980's and stop trying to push the internet down with SOPA/PIPA/CISA-like laws to keep hold of their 1980' money.  I guess the fact that a lone anime fan can make his own content and probably not need a licence studio is why these laws and rules keep coming up.  Either change with the times or watch people pirate anyways.

</pissed-off--rambling-rant>



The Indie Game Journalism Scandal and Where I Stand On It

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The indie game scene has been going through a  bit of an uproar lately, namely the whole Quinnspiracy.

I thought as an anime retailer, indie game dev/programmer, Let's Player, Flash animator, blogger, former Business Week Columnist and voice actor...I'd make a statement about the whole thing as well since this hits very close to home.  If anyone has seen from my various tweets or following me on Reddit...in short, no I'm not on the Zoe Quinn / game journalism's side.  I'm more on par with Let's Player TotalBiscut, others not financially tied to Kotaku, Polygon, etc or those contractually tied to major channels like Machinima and Polaris and yes, I'm even on the side of 4chan's /v/ on this.

If any of you have known me and this site that's been around long before all of these sites existed...you'll know that we're truly independent and won't pussyfoot around tough subjects for the sake of PR.

I will also use this post to from this point on, denounce Kotaku and advise other anime fans to do so toward that site and of course the whole Gawker network that has for a long while been a pathetic excuse of journalism.  For a long time I've ignored Gawker's terrible practices and have linked, shared and sided with most Kotaku posts.. but from here on in.. no more.  Polygon got my blood boiling last year when there was an obvious agenda behind the Dragon's Crown game review.. a review I've poked fun at in Danielle and our playthroughs of the game...playthroughs that will continue in the fall.

To not get into the rough details of an ongoing PR mess, the summery of what happened is this:


  • Indie game dev Zoe Quinn was found to have had 5 intimate relationships with members of various game journalism sites.  
  • Said relationships created a favoritism toward her work and instant doxxing name calling and banning of those who questioned it or game devs who weren't in this little circle.
  • There was even forum mod manipulation where people got shadowbanned on Reddit's r/gaming for doing as much as upvoting a post that questioned this whole situation
  • This is a sign that most of the "indie" game journalism is all an agenda where if you are not in bed with them (both literally and figuratively), your game and your career could be at danger of either being ignored or simple voted down because it didn't fit the agenda.  An agenda that sadly is taking lots of tenants from the very bent version of feminism that SJWs (social justice warriors) are trying to impose on the gaming industry. 
Instead of fighting the topics feminism should fight in the real world against (rape, arranged marriage, REAL misogyny), they want to instead impose their deranged version of what they think causes this on gaming and anime.  No...Samus wearing a sexy outfit is not man culture raping women.  Removing expressive freedom in games and anime to show human sexuality (of either genders) only imposes the same rules to society that extreme religious countries, particularity Muslim countries, do to their citizens.  Last I checked, those countries are absolutely ramped with women being abused and keep them constantly from being true citizens of society.  When we see a sexy anime or game character or cosplayer posing as that character, it's not an attack on women... it's a freedom for that person (man or woman) to express themselves.  The problem with the whole SJW "movement" is that most issues brought up by them are non issues and are hurting any cause ACTUAL feminism does to help abused women across the world.  A girl in a white rich cul-de-sac posting on Tumblr that the sorceress in Dragon's Crown having her boobs jiggle is a "trigger" for her and has "raped" her emotions... puts a wrong image on what feminism is suppose to be.  This obscure image of gaming and anime has been the overall talking piece for the "indie" game scene, game journalism and gaming as a whole for a few years now and thus, if you are not a part of this mindset, you are shunned, banned and any creation you make.. any youtube channel you have is either ignored or banned.

What the revelations of Zoe Quinn has shown is that it goes to the petty nepotism and even sleeping with those in the news organisations to help better your chance for success.  Do I agree with 4Chan and others making personal attacks, giving up personal info (address and phone numbers) of Zoe and others?... no.  Do Does this stuff happen in other industries?.. of course it does and it does also come with this criticism from the fan/userbase, as it should.  

To block people from openly discussing the issue and try to come up with ways to not have nepotism and bribing infect the game journalism scene... is a terrible way to combat people who are probably at times going to far with this and personally acting people like Zoe.  Professionally though, they should be questioned and called out for this... instead many tied to channels like Kotaku, Polygon, Machinima, Polaris, etc are joining in on trying to cover it up, the "nothing to see here" move and by bashing the very gamers they are suppose to be serving as both developers and journalists; demonizing all who honestly question the obvious under handed and favoritism that's going on and has been unearthed by what was has been known about Zoe and others.

To make things worse, Zoe went and had reddit admins silence the discussion on r/gaming and I think also r/videos as well.  While all of this was happening, 4chan's /v/ went and created an anime mascot called Vivian (seen in the image above) to do something we don't see often from 4chan, actual positive trolling.

Now, let's get the record straight, am I a 4Channer... not exactly.  This site here, Chuck's Anime Shrine is actually a year older than 4chan.  Moot, 4Chan's creator is an anime fan and my site is actually part of the same family of sites that existed 10+ years ago... 4chan obviously being the far more successful -_-... but I'm still here.

I actually very rarely ever go to 4chan except in situations like this... over the years I've really been a more active member of Reddit, this after the whole Digg situation in 2008.  I know there are many people in 4chan that are well... what SJW can rightfully say are misogynists... but in this situation, 4chan is actually trying to do something right to prove a very valid point.  The point that SJWs like Zoe and those pushing this faux feminism agenda in the gaming industry are not doing this for the betterment of others , but for their own narcissistic motives.  This was proven to be completely true by the actions made over the weekend. Here's an image link to some of the this and the whole topic in general. Here's another video showing another angle on this as well.

Anyways, on to the charity issue and the Vivian character seen in the title image to this wall of text here...

Here's the full story from 4chan on this.  In short, a group who's trying to something god for both charity and women in gaming, The Fine Young Capitalists, was being bashed by Zoe and her f*&^buddies under the the screwed assumption that women are working for free to make games.  Instead, 8% of profits will go to the finalist, 8% to the developers/programmers and the REST to charity.  Vivian James (a play on the word video game/vidiya games) was created to represent the project with the financial backing of many from 4chan.  The charity of choice.. for colon cancer to poke fun at the "butthurt" SJWs feel that a group they hate is doing something actually right for girl gamers and charity.  It's back up today, but yesterday the Indiegogo page was hacked.  The charity has now become an example of 4chan doing something for a positive change and calling out the entire SJW narrative for the fake help they claim they bring... ad thus this hack was a terrible showing of that and what happens when you question this new status quo that's trying to get a foothold on (and sully) indie gaming.

I would like to say officially that we at Chuck's Anime Shrine (my fiancee Danielle and myself) full support The Fine Young Capitalists.

For the record, we do NO support Phil Fish's site, Polytron being hacked..though our opinion of him has made a 180 since first seeing the Indie Gamer movie but we also do not support the president that Zoe Quinn and her bed buddies bring to the table with this.  If there is to be any sort of integrity in indie gaming, there needs to be no favoritism and purposeful doxxing of rival projects.

I have two games in the works, the recently copyrighted Tenshi-Oni game and one (a much smaller scale game just to get out there essentially while I build up Tenshi-Oni) I'm keeping hidden until the end of this week.

As stated I've been a part of this business for a long while... granted for many years on the sidelines.  If I continued my path in 2004, I would have been probably more known than other flash animators, game devs, etc... but now I'm playing a game of catchup.  I have my beautiful fiancee Danielle with me, a person whom I met only a month after this site was made back in April of 2002... I have to reason to do any sexual favors to get my games on the scene and nobody should have to go through any kind of hoop to do so in this industry. 
The quality & fun of the game is what should be tested and reviewed, not the underpinning narrative of the year or who slept with who.

Also for the record, I want come out clean about the involvement I have had in this industry, though, again rather light anyways...

In 2007, in addition to adding this blog to the site and the anime store, I made a game review of Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core.  his was a review I made all on my own free will and excitement for the game.  Shortly after, Fathom Events saw the review and for the next batch of game reviews, I was actually given the games to review here on this blog.  This was before Let's Plays and YouTube game reviews took their hold so I was doing it all here on my blog.  I was in a way paid to do them... with the games as the payment.  If I didn't mention this in a prior post, I am now.  It wasn't too long after starting this that Fathom Events ignored my emails and just simply stopped sending me games to review.  I was never though told to make a review go one way or another... I was told to be keep the review as honest as any gamer should.

As for the art assets in Tenshi-Oni and here on this site.  The artist Kenneos provided most of the art all actually on her own free will and thus why I haven't gotten new art since her current paying job has her making artwork like crazy for their site (all watermarked like crazy on there though).  I want to go on the record before somebody accuses me of misogyny that Kenneos was indeed not paid for any of this yet.  Before she wasn't able to give me any more art, I was indeed though planning on giving her a portion of the game's profits once released.  I've on a number of occasions insisted on paying her but she said no to every time I've insisted and instead I've ended up gifting her a Nendoroid or two.  Many of the fan artists who've done images of our characters have done it because they want to and I did set up (and wish to build up) the Cafepress store showcasing their work for them to make money on.  The point I'm getting here is that many artists are unpaid not because of "misogyny" but because they just want their art to be seen and in some cases refuse payment.. just wanting recognition; recognition I hope I've done an ok job with doing and will do for artists who help dnaielle and I out on our game dev projects.  

So please, let's get back to gaming but those in the game industry understand this... you have to cater to the gamers first and foremost.  Favoritism and nepotism is shameful and needs to be called out.  ALL game devs, game artists and so forth need an equal chance in this gaming arena, no matter who they are.

DeviantArt Shoutouts and the ReAwakening or Our DeviantArt Page

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Decided to wake up our long dormant DeviantArt page.

http://princetrunks415.deviantart.com/

We've had a page on there since DA's beginnings practically but haven't done much updating since I added my original sketch work and Tenshi-Oni concept pics.

Now with PikiPop soon to be released with some work done by me and the fact that I'm back to getting back to being an artist/animator after all these years.... I thought now would be the time to get that back in gear.

In addition to that, I also wanted to make a shoutout to a number of talented artists on Deviant Art, from sprite artists to Tenshi-Oni photo-realistic art, here's some of the artists I follow and would advise you do as well:

-
Kenneos: 

  

 


The artist responsible for much of the art here on Chuck's Anime Shrine, Anime.FM and behind our game, Tenshi-Oni

-
kawacy: http://kawacy.deviantart.com/




Does astounding Legend Of Zelda work and others, including the image used as this post's header

-
kr0npr1nz:  http://kr0npr1nz.deviantart.com/

 
Russian artist who does amazing anime, game and movie art

-
ekurepu: http://ekurepu.deviantart.com/

Very talented sprite artist.  Created this sprite animation of Kill La Kill's Matoi

-
Carlos Quevedo: http://carlos-quevedo.deviantart.com/ 






Simply stunning photo manipulation imagery.  Some of his photos/art look like something out of an anime.  would go to him if I needed live actors to be in a Tenshi-Oni live still art.

.
Twilit-Arawen: http://twilit-arawen.deviantart.com/


















Creates some wonderful Peach fanart.  We've showcased his work before and can't get enough of it.

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Vashperado: http://vashperado.deviantart.com/




This Canadian artist has a great range in his art.  From both the styles and the concepts, you don't know what great piece might come next.


Got any artists you follow?  Want to show off yours?  Leave a link / uploads (if possible) in the comments ^^

Introducing Our New Mascot Piki and Our New Game PikiPop!

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Back in June, Apple announced a brand new programming language called, Swift.  Tired of being behind the game with some of the new announcements (as they tend to affect my development of Tenshi-Oni), I dove right in... and shortly became hooked onto the new language and what it could bring to the table for not just game dev but programming in general.  In short, Swift has (almost) the speed of C/C++ while at the same time allowing for strong, modern Object Oriented Design. Our on-again, off-again game project, Tenshi-Oni uses Objective-C but in many, many cases, uses C++ to do some heavy lifting.  Swift, in addition to having the ability to do really neat code with Generics... is supposedly really fast.  In game dev... code and FPS efficiency is the name of the game.  Stuff as much polish as you can in one game loop while keeping it at 60 FPS at all times is the mantra of game programming.

To honor our real-life mascot Pikachu (our 16 year old spanish cockatiel who we sadly lost back in February), we came up with Piki and to be the star of our new, semi-suprise game... PikiPop. Obviously we can't use her real name since... well I think Nintendo would be pretty pissed.

I want to point out that I did not abandon Tenshi-Oni... actually some of the code in PikiPop was made to be used in the ongoing production of Tenshi-Oni.  PikiPop is, we are hoping, to be the game that get's us on the map as game developers.  I've been coding for games all the way back in 2003 in Flash actionScript when I began Project Fumi, now Tenshi-Oni and PikiPop is just a simple game that I want to just finally spearhead my rightful position as indie game dev... as it's been a long, long time coming.



The goal is for PikiPop to be a fun and simple game that will allow us to make Tenshi-Oni's eventual release a much, much bigger production than originally planned.

Here's the even better news about PikiPop... it's almost done!  In the next week or two max, we plan to release it.  Be on the look out in the Apple/IOS app store.  It's initial release will be for the iPhone 4s, 6 and yes, even the 6 Plus.  If there's further success, it will be made for the various iPads and maybe even an Android port.

Oh, and the game will be FREE.  Not that "Pay to Play" Freemium game crap... really FREE.  The game will have unobtrusive ads but no... you will not pay for lives, and updates.  Updates and addons to the game will also be FREE and if there is ever any "in app purchase"...It'll be only to remove the ads permanently.

I should have some video previews of it soon but in the mean time... here's some sprite art I made of Piki for the game ^^





#FanServiceFriday 9/26/2014 Sexy Yoko Littner Wallpaper

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For today's #fanservicefriday post.. here's a rather sexy and well drawn fan art of Yoko from Gurren Lagann.

Not 100% of the source for this.  Best match I can find is

http://alpha.wallhaven.cc/user/themedic

How to Add GlyphDesigner Custom Bitmap Fonts To a Swift Spritekit Game

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Back in June, Apple announced an entirely new programming language to us IOS developers; that language being Swift.  After coding Tenshi-Oni on and off since 2011 in Objective-C, I quickly came to like the new programming language since it felt more modern and easy to dive into. Swift has similarities to Python, Scala, AS3 & Javascript while supposedly almost matching the speed of a hardcoded C/C++ project; Apple claims it's .  As programmers, particularly game programmers, we want our games to be as fast as possible no matter how much we pack into a game scene; 60fps is the mantra and no, 30fps is not "cinematic".. it's a sign that somebody couldn't make fast enough code for a certain device.  Those of us that design the art assets also want to customize what goes on the screen as much as possible..this is where a tool like Glyph Designer comes into play.  Since Swift is so new... there wasn't any tutorials on how to use Glyph Designer with a Swift developed game in the SpriteKit framework.  After a weekend of puling out my hair and finding the solution.. I thought Id share it all with you...

In my game, Tenshi-Oni (yes a game still in development as of this post ^^;;), I've used the Glyph Designer program to make custom fonts.  Anyone familiar with Glyph Designer knows how wonderful of a tool it is to create beautiful bitmap fonts. Tenshi-Oni runs in the Cocos2D framework and Glyph Designer works like a charm in it.

To use a custom, stylized font in Cocos2D, you simply...

  1. Export a .fnt file, which outputs a .png to which the .fnt file uses to parse through
  2. Create a CCLabelBMFont with the fntFile NSString parameter matching the .fnt file name 
  3. and it's ready to use with that CCLabelBMFont


This also works well in the Sparrow Framework from what I understand.

...but for the SpriteKit Framework... things get a little bit more invovled...

Let's backtrack and say you wish to just use a custom (non bitmap) font in SpriteKit. As of IOS 8, you have to:

  1. Import the font to the project (in either the .otf or .ttf format)
  2. In your project's info.plist file, you have to add a field titled Fonts provided by application
  3. On item 0, create a String matching your font's name and the .otf or .ttf extension ie: "yourfont.ttf"
Great, this creates a custom font that you maybe got from say fontsquirrel.com or made yourself...

but... it doesn't quite help with the actual stylizing of that font.  

For me, and I'd imagine other programmer/designers, I found that SpriteKit doesn't do a great job of customizing a font's look.  You can maybe hardcode two fonts on top of eachother to give the effect of a dropshadow or stroke...but it never seems to look right.  I feel I'd rather have more control of the font's look and feel than just slapping in a font that I can only change it's color or size.  A well stylized font not only catches the player's attention but becomes easier to designer around as you don't have to worry about say.. what background color is behind a "SCORE" text.  Always remember this design rule when it comes to text.  Using a solid color font might look great on a few different color backgrounds... but what if you create new levels with different color schemes?  You'd have to code that font to change color and doing so might change the whole theme you had already established.  At least, that's how I feel as a designer in addition to a programmer.

How to work with Glyph Designer Bitmap Fonts (Before Swift / in Objective-C)

Before Swift, Glyph Designer's creators at 71squared already came up with some great helper classes to make up for SpriteKit's inability to use their .fnt methodology.  The process for anyone coding in Objective-C was pretty simple..
  • Import those custom made classes ( SSBitmapFont& SSBitmapFontLabelNode) to your project
  • Build your fonts in Glyph Designer and exporting them as .skf(SpriteKit) and/or .skf(SpriteKit@2x) depending on the resultions you are working with. Note: as of this post, Gylph Designer, does not yet have support for the iPhone 6 Plus's @3x resolution.
  • doing so creates a .skf file and a texture atlas folder with every character as their own .png. (this is akin to the .fnt/.png control/output used in Cocos2D but texture atlases tend to be much faster formats anyways since the 
  • Make sure to import the new header files into the class you would need to assess those objects with
  • Create the SSBitmapFont object as described on their download page: 

NSString *path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"myFont"
ofType:@"skf"];
NSURL *url = [NSURL fileURLWithPath:path];
NSError *error;
SSBitmapFont *bitmapFont = [[SSBitmapFont alloc] initWithFile:url
error:&error];

if (error)
{
NSLog(@"%@ : %@", error.domain, error.localizedDescription);
return nil;
}


  • Create the SSBitMapFontLabel objects from this font:

SSBitmapFontLabelNode *myLabel = [bitmapFont nodeFromString:@"Hello World!!"];
[self addChild:myLabel];
  • and maybe use some class functions of SSBitMapFontLabel to align your font
myLabel.horizontalAlignment = SSBMFLabelHorizontalAlignmentModeCenter;
myLabel.verticalAlignment = SSBMFLabelVerticalAlignmentModeLeft;

For people coding in Objective-C... great.. it's works fine.  But what about doing this in Swift?!?

HOW TO USE GLYPH DESIGNER FONTS IN SWIFT...

At first, I thought about rewriting the entire SSBitMapFont and SSBitMapFontLabel classes in Swift... but unfortunately you only have access to their interface files (.h files) and not their (.m) implementation files; it's all packed into libSSBitmapFont.a since I'd imagine the implementation code (though probably still obtainable) is proprietary code.  

As of the date of this posting, 71squared has yet to make these classes in Swift... so, how do you use the code? Simple: Accessing Objecive-C classes via a Bridging Header.  In short, a bridging header is a .h interface file that lets you use Objective-C and Swift in the same project.  The file is usually named YourProjectName-Bridging-Header.h

How do you use it in a mostly Swift project?(Like my game PikiPop seen above) 
Again, very simple... add the import statements to the file exactly like you would add them in an Objective-c project. ie:

#import "SSBitmapFont.h"
#import "SSBitmapFontLabelNode.h"


That's it! That is all my PikiPop-Bridging-Header.h file has and now my entire Swift project can use SSBitmapFont and SSBitmapFontLabelNode objects


Now, you are not out of the woods yet. You still need to create your SSBitmapFont object to then be used by SSBitmapFontLabelNodes.


Here's how you rewrite implementation of these objects in Swift:


To create the SSBitmapFont object (remember to have your .skf file(s) and texture atlases imported into your project at this point) here's how I do it in PikiPop.  First I created a function that returns an SSBitmapFont object.  This is the swift version of how 71Squared did it in their demo file.


classfunc bitmapFontForFile(filename:String) -> SSBitmapFont{


        // Generate a path to the font file


        let path = NSBundle.mainBundle().pathForResource(filename, ofType: "skf")!


        //assert(path.isEmpty, "Could not find font file")


        // Create a new instance of SSBitmapFont using the font file and check for errors


        let errorPointer = NSErrorPointer()


        let url = NSURL.fileURLWithPath(path)


        let bitmapFont = SSBitmapFont(file: url, error: errorPointer)


        //assert(errorPointer != nil, "\(errorPointer.memory) : \(errorPointer.debugDescription)")


        return bitmapFont


    }


Do note that I made this a class function since I'm using this function during the game's asset loading screen at it's initial dispatch...thus I needed to make this a function of (in this case) my HUD.swift class. I also use global shared variables as storage of this data; this is to only allocate memory once for these font objects instead of calling them over and over again. You don't have to do this but Swift, unlike C/C++/Objective-C easily makes true full copies of objects (not just references) and I don't want to inadvertently cause ARC to do a massive garbage collect nor bog the CPU/Stack by creating another hard copy of something I can just reference to.

 Also note that as of this post I didn't create the assert warnings well. They seemed to have been firing off no matter if the file URL was right or wrong. I'd advise anyone using this to maybe complete that aspect so to better catch errors than what I did here in commenting them out.


Next, create the SSBitmapFont object.  Here's how I did it for the "combo_text" font I made... seen in the picture at the top of this post.



let comboBitMapFont:SSBitmapFont = bitmapFontForFile("combo_text")


Then I finally create the SSBitmapFontLabelNode that uses this font and add it to my HUD object (which is a child of my game's scene)



letcomboTextNum = comboBitMapFont_.nodeFromString("x\(comboCount)")


comboTextNum.position = CGPointMake(currentScene.frame.size.width*0.47, currentScene.frame.size.height*0.8)


self.addChild(comboTextNum)




and there it is.  That's the "X3" you see in the photo up top.  The "Combo x" uses another font object and so does the "SCORE" text.  Also note that the bitmapFontForFile("combo_text")line will use either the .skf file or the .skf@2x file based on which resolution the player is using on their device.  So, there's no need to create separate SSBitmapFont objects for each resolution.

Anyways, I hope this helps allow you to add much better looking fonts into your Swift/SpriteKit games and apps ^_^



On the Topic of GamerGate, Ethics, This Anime/Game Blog's History and Future

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I think I've made it apparent on social media in the recent months that I'm indeed a Pro-GamerGate game developer (and a blogger, voice actor, anime store owner, anime fan and of course, long time gamer).  Before I say anything else I want to get that out of the way.  I also want to quickly point out that my goal going forward in this blog is to not make everything GamerGate/AntiGamerGate/etc related; I want to keep the blog anime, game and otaku themed.  If you want to hate me, my anime mascots that have been here since 2003, my games, my anime figure business, etc for my choice, that's your decision and I won't call you a "harasser" or "hate group" for a simple disagreement.  I'm an anime fan and gamer first before I am a blogger, game developer, voice actor or anything else that brings me any sort of income.

GamerGate and It's Influence in the Game/Anime & Blogosphere

Before I move on I also want to note that in case you have any Wil Wheaton level of ignorance as to what being pro-gamergate means... no I am not out to doxx, harass or hurt anybody...frankly I've seen that far, far too often coming form the other side...and no, criticism is not harassment.  As bloggers, site mods, etc, we should be welcomed to honest and constructive criticism... shutting that off and yelling "I'm right, you are harassing me, lalalalalala!!" is not how you create discussion on the web or in person.  Shutting down the ability for discussion makes it look like you are guilty of knowing you are wrong.

My support of GamerGate stems from a number of things from experiences both in and outside the businesses put in the spotlight these past months.  As I've said, I'm a game developer/programmer, a blogger since 2006 and somebody who's been a part of the internet culture since the days of AOL in the late 90's.  I've been through a number of the changes caused by the raise of the internet and on a few occasions almost became one of the so-called "web celebs" because of it. I've been there when Newgrounds was the only place to post content and be known, this very site here was one of the first to host/create AMVs before the raise of Youtube. I've seen Digg fall from their ver 4.0 update, the Digg Patriots and other nepotism-related garbage...an event that led to the raise of Reddit.  I watched as a subreddit (section of Reddit) called /r/ShitRedditSays went from a circlejerk joke section to place the progressively became more serious and forgot that all of it was a joke.  That subreddit became the breeding grounds for the so-extreme-left-they-are-extreme-right I'm-offended-by-everything, so-called "Social Justice Warriors".  I watched as they "claimed Tumblr" and gave a first try to "claim" 4chan.. a site a year younger than mine here that was started by a anime fan who's now lost himself in the SJW rhetoric.  Honestly, I didn't even know about /r/ShitRedditSays or SJWs until a little over a year ago when they came after me for when I defended my stance with the LGBT community by pointing out something off with the southern community's chicken-touting support of Chick-Fil-La.

It was that point that I saw the events leading up to GamerGate, from the disintegration of blogs-turned-ego-maniac-journalism like Polygon and, a once site favorite here, Kotaku.  I saw the terrible review of Dragon's Crown on Polygon by the same reviewer who later praised the game Going Home.  Her connections with the Going Home and the weak defense of hating Dragon's Crown over the sexy characters made the gamer, game reviewer and game developer in me see right behind the curtain put up by these sites.  These are the same sites that were younger and newer than my own here and all of whom started as simple blogs like the this blog here that I added to this then 4 year old site as an addon.  This site almost became one of them and as they rose to power, I sat and just watched yet another escape from the 9-5 job world slip past me.  I too was a game reviewer given "swag" for the post I made simply for the love of gaming and anime...but when I didn't clickbait like they did, I got left to the wayside.

I've also seen the wave of new game developers and not too long began to question their apparent rise to fame.  I saw people like Phil Fish (whom I at one time supported) get tons of accolades for a game he hardly completed until much later.  That's like if I suddenly got nominated for an Indie award for my long unfinished game, Tenshi-Oni. I got my degree in Compute Science back in 2005.., back when there really was no such thing as game development courses... hell, it was taboo to even mention that you where in CS for the purpose to program video games.  I remember learning on my own how to take C++ and make Game boy Advance games on printouts I got from the library.  I remember starting Tenshi-Oni in 2003 in actionScript2 back when I taught myself Flash from reading an entire ~900page book on it.  I later in 2011 brought back Tenshi-Oni (called "Project Fumi" originally) after teaching myself Objective-C and using the coding skills I learned way back in college in formal CS programming courses.  Even more recently I read the book on Apple Swift and released my first completed game after all these years, PikiPop, written almost entirely in that language (sans the custom Obj-C fonts I talked about in my past post back in October).  It's a very simple game, done in honor of our since passed pet bird, Pikachu and done to finally shut up those in the job search world that I'm indeed a freaken programmer.

So here I am going through all of this, for all these years, juggling a demanding 9-5 job that I must keep to make up for the debts created from events I couldn't have prevented (Hurricane Sandy), doing as many side jobs/skills/etc to try to break free form the stupid job (from doing voice acting, the anime figure business, blogging, the game development, etc) while these newbie, "I only know JavaScript & perl yet I'm the greatest game programmers around" game journo-approved "devs" get put into the limelight for their unfinished and sub par products?!  Most of these "devs" only got there because either 1) They got the funding handed to them (either via Kickstarter.. or in the case of Brianna Wu, $200,000 from her rich mommy and daddy and/or 2) The knew somebody in the game journo industry.

How in the fuck is that fair to people like me and many others who built their businesses from scratch for YEARS and have yet seen enough fruit from their labor to quit the stupid day jobs and run their craft full time?!

My anime figure business was created from $300 I saved that I used to originally sell Swarovski crystals I was able to buy from a dealer from a past job which then sales from that lead me to be one of the first official sellers of Good Smile Company's Nendoroids and other products in the US.  Hell, every year since 2011 I've paid the $100 yearly fee to Apple to be a developer to have the rights to test my apps on actual devices.. it wasn't until last month that I finally published my first app after the development hell (caused by Apple's changes) they've made it for me with Tenshi-Oni.  My having to do this stuff part time with a needy family, insane debt and a dumb, dumb ass day job makes it all the more tougher than somebody like Wu who can just go to mommy and daddy for $200,000.  My fiancee and I have been together since April 2002, a month after this site went live, and have been engaged since Xmas eve of 2007.  We grow tired every year hearing "when are you getting married" from those who, like Wu did with her studio, got everything paid for.  Our extra long engagement is due to the lack of money.. a problem we try to fix with our anime business, this blog, my game development, her animations, my animations, my voice acting, etc. I'll admit, my content, game(s) etc aren't ground breaking are amazing... but unlike those propped up who know far less programming than I do... I know when to be humble about my creations.  A real creative person is always looking to make better and never sees their creations as perfect.  Some of those promoted by the game journalist think they are the second coming yet I know I can code ad dev circles around them.

It's a complete insult to me and others like me to see some of these games and "developers" get the limelight all because of nepotism and money and hen us gamers & anime fans get the added insult of being called "dead", "misogynists" or what ever else these fake journalists want to spout at us.  How could I not stand up to this as a game programmer since 2003 and a gamer since 1985?

The whole SJW mantra right now is exactly equivalent to the 1950's "decency" propaganda that was promoted by extreme right wing Christians with just the added caveat that "you must hate yourself for being a straight white male." This same mentality was what the 1970's feminism and social freedom movements of the late 1960's, early 1970s fought against.  A woman (be it an real woman or imaginary game/aim character) being shown as sexy is in no ways an insult to women.. it's the opposite frankly.  This false feminism propaganda that has permeated into large internet media sites like Gawker, Kotaku, Polygon, and even TheGuardian is a joke and an insult to gaming and anime culture.  If you like sexy anime girls (or guys) congrats to you, and/or if you like violent videogames..you shouldn't be vilified by these clickbaiting "swag-taking "journalists" I've seen this mentality born from /r/ShitRedditSays even get to the cosplay circles.. where attractive cosplayers get harassed and called "sluts" by these tumblr SJWs because they feel that an attractive cosplayer is some sort of front.  If you are attractive or not, have a great costume, or not... you don't deserve to be harassed and belittled by those hiding behind "social justice" who are simply upset out of envy and spite.

This mentality hitting the internet in full force and effecting anime and game culture is why I am so passionate about it enough to make this post, to disclose my own site's/blog's background & dealings for the sake of transparency & ethics and why I now want to once again make this blog (and the one on anime.fm) become as a daily as I used to make it.

What GamerGate has shown is that we need the small independent blogs again... since the ones who got big back when I started.. have long since lost their way and are using their power to silence discussion and bring on some sort of fake-feminism authoritarianism.

I have actually seen this industry for the inside a little bit and that's where I bring on my next segment...

Disclosures & How I Almost Became A Game Journo

This blog was added to the site back in ~2006.  Back then Digg was a growing entity, personal blogs became where you'd go for info on the internet if you didn't want to see the main stream media.  Sites like Digg (and early Reddit before it got all imgur happy) promoted smaller sites using the upvote and downvote system. Wordpress wasn't the powerhouse it is now and SEO was the name of the game... so me and many others used Blogger as our tool to write our blogs.  Heck, it's still what I use here and in it's original format, was completely hosted here on ChucksAnimeShrine.

My initial goal was not exactly to make money, but to discuss what I like, anime, videogames, etc.  If I eventually made money... great.. but it wasn't the goal and back then, there really weren't many blogs giving independents and livable wage.  To this day I still have adsense ads on this page and just at least was looking to pay for the upkeep of the site.  I posted sometimes, here and there but tried to make it more steady as I aw that I indeed was able to pay for this site and a bit more.  At it's best, I was making $100 every 2-3 months from Google... this was probably only the year's span of 2008-2009 back also when I got invited to BusinessWeek's headquarters and wrote an article about the need for companies (particularly IT) to stop outsourcing.  I also eventually added the Project Wonderful ad box you might see up top (if you don't have adblock of course ^^;;).  From that I probably in total made about $100 in those years...nothing stellar but for some time until maybe around 2011, enough to keep the site up.  Sadly, not enough to quit my day job... something that was actually almost done thanks to my anime figure store... that sadly fell a bit from grace (recovering now though) after the events of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.  So, for years I've been a slave to debt, a stupid day job and the various anime/game/voice acting/ video editing projects I try to do to get the hell out of a stupid day job and be my own boss.

There was one post I made years ago (I'll link it if I can find it) where I out of the love for Final Fantasy VII, made a full review of Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core for the PSP.  I made that review purely from the wanting to make a review and because FFVII can actually be attributed to the creation of this site as well as my meeting my wonderful fiancee, Danielle.

About a month after I made that Crisis Core review.. I got an email from Fathom Entertainment.  They told me that they will GIVE ME GAMES to review here on this blog.  I want to disclose a few things about that deal:

  1. I indeed got those games for FREE..but I never got paid.. just hops of my traffic and thus more ad revenue
  2. I was never told to review positively or negatively for ever game I was given.  The score was up to me based on my review.
  3. I was given a time to finish the reviews as I got the games early before other people saw them.
  4. The list of games is not in my head at the moment (it was honestly no more than like 5-6 games) but one of them was a DBZ game for the Xbox 360.  That review and the others were indeed the result of me getting the games early for free to promote.
Eventually though... with Kotaku and others gaining more fame compared to this blog... Fathom Entertainment left me in the dust and never again gave me games to review.  Once again, I was left to fend for myself simply due to others growing quicker than me... an later, thanks to the raise of Let's Players (which I am one now and whom I support greatly).

For the sake of being true to my stance on ethics, if me having those games given to me for free to review was something leading to mistrust of my info here, I apologize.  If at all in the future this blog (and my Let's Play videos on my YT channel) get me in a similar "swag" situation, I will fully disclose it. It think I might have then but going forward, if I am lucky enough to be in that circle again, I will disclose that.

It also goes without saying so much but when I promote anime figures or my games or my mascots here on this site.. it is indeed to help their exposure for my benefit.  Again, my goal is to eventually be free from my 9-5 job ad just be a blogger, voice actor and game dev full time, so I will indeed try to build things with the goal of making a living... but unlike the other blogs and "journalists" the goal is the content and not the money; the hobby, not the Kickstarter; the creation, not the limelight that creation might bring.

I've also seen how stupid some of the new "journalist" sites can be.  Particularly with a certain, UpWorthy site. You see, since Hurricane Sandy ruined my anime figure business's chance of freeing me from my 9-5 jail...my work on this blog, my web design and programming has gotten me a number of IT recruiters messaging me daily. (Yet, oddly here I am still at the same stupid day job almost 3 years later!!)  

Some of those recruiters come from blogging & social media job companies... particularly when I was a member of Flexjobs.com.  One of those companies that reached out for me was indeed Upworthy.com, one of the many clickbait trolls on the internet.  The recruiter/rep of the company was very nice to me (at first) and she wanted to get me to the next step in the interview process.  Those of you looking for work in any of these fields know that getting beyond the resume submission is now effing rare.  Now I was at the time (and still) talking with a number of companies daily.  It's tough to honestly look into the details of companies on the spot and while talking to others.  Over the phone her question was, "What do you think Upworthy.com is?" I answered honestly from what I saw browsing it... a "Reddit-like news site with individual contributors"... apparently she didn't like that answer, completely changed her tune and rushed to tell me of this so-called "Curation" test I needed to finish.  Which, was one of the most time consuming and dumbest things I've ever freaken seen.  Basically I was told to make a blog post with images matching some odd scavenger hunt.  I took most of the day to complete it.. Emailed her it and tried to call back confirmation that it was seen by them over at Upworthy.com... no answer.  I was left in the dark and put some stupid cryptic post on my own separate blog outside of this one.  

For those maybe wondering.. here's that post:

http://chuckgaffney.blogspot.com/2013/03/curation-test.html

Yes, observe in awe at what those at Upworthy and those at the clickbaiting journo sites feel is a test to determine your ability to blog..I'm sorry.. be a "journalist".  Confused? Don't worry, that's a legitimate human reaction to something like that.  If maybe you aren't exactly human, drank some pumpkin spice while on a Skype call with Upworthy and touted about "the patriarchy"...then maybe you'd pass this "test" and get the job at one of these "news" companies.  Or, as it seems to be done, sleep around with those in the industry.. or know them personally (or financially)  Nepotism...who needs talent and hard work when you "know a guy"?

The Return Of The Independent Blogs

No matter where you stand (or don't stand at all) with GamerGate, a few things have arose from this.  For one.. companies are learning quickly that it's not ok to crap on your customers.  Are there bad people out there harassing others for their hobbies or for being against those hobbies/products... absolutely.  Be it doxxing or harassing, if you do it, you are wrong.  Don't try to confuse criticism for harassment though as that is an insult to those who have been harassed for real. In my experience since seeing the first downvote brigades of /r/ShitredditSays... where this prudish & false representation pf feminism and "social justice" first took place.. it seems to be more those crying wolf that have been doing the most harassment and personal insults. To say either side hasn't harassed is a lie but at least I've seen GG point out trolls and denounce their actions...something I fail to see from the other side and from the side of forum moderators on reddit and the big journalist sites.  This disillusion with their clientbase and denying of their own mistakes has actually done a good thing by bringing back blogs like mine and other small independent voices who since the rise of these giants, been left in the dust and are now becoming the places to bring up real discussions without being called terrible names for simply criticizing the points of some their peers; peer whom they fail to disclose as peers.   A blog and site very similar to what I wanted this blog to be, NicheGamer has rose in the ranks since the start of GamerGate because people don't want to be silenced on the web.  Nobody should have to adhere to an extremist left (yet so left it's extreme right) agenda that has since the early days of just /r/ShitReddit says, has been bought out with both sex and money in the name of "social justice".  If anyone wants to talk a "hate campaign" see how some of these SJWs treat men, minorities and themselves at times.  It's a sad sight to behold and probably stems from many having strong bipolar issues that probably need medical help instead of tumblr echo chambers and disgruntled game reviews of boobies.  another great independent voice who doen't have an army of clickbaiters behind him is my old friend Robert Catalano (robertcatalano.com).  He is indeed somebody I have known outside of the confines of the internet and who has promoted me in the past. If I'm not mistaken I knew Robert and his family since our school days and he separately has made a name for himself until we recently reconnected via social media.  To keep with the promise of ethics, I wanted to make sure I disclosed that too going forward.  

Back to the topic of this segment, that's what good has come from this... the need for more independent blogs via transparency and correct ethics.  I'm very happy to see Robert's site and Brandon's site over at NicheGamer move into a bit of that limelight due to the failings of the bigger blogs.

So, going forward with this blog.. I know.. many many times I go and say "I'm back" and then go away from blogging but I will from now on try to make it an effort to bring back this blog.  I thought that with the bigger blogs taking over since a few years ago that nobody cared about the little guys.. but it seems maybe, just maybe we smaller blogs might have a chance due to this.  

To help support this site, you can do a number of things, 

-you can download my game(s) like PikiPop (I promise to make more to the game if I can.. I know it's really simple ^^)

-Support my mascots by making fan art and hopefully being on board with Tenshi-Oni if I can get free enough to make it full time

-Shop with my anime store

-Comment and visit this blog.. especially as I try to add more content

-and maybe support mine and Danielle's YouTube channels (Chucks Anime Shrine& PikaLoveChu).  We both want to make more content but we sadly are caught in the catch 22 of having to work soul less jobs thus can't make enough quality content.

Is this a plug to my stuff.. to be transparent.. absolutely... I won't lie and say that it's not.  But going forward I will just keep trucking and trying to make as great of content as physically possible.  We are not the best in the world at this stuff... probably why we are still small, but as part of the goals of GamerGate, the plan is to give everyone a fighting chance and via hard work.  From bloggers like NicheGamer.. to independent game developers like Jennifer D'aww who recently got her SeedScape game green-lighted on Steam, we want people to continue to gain internet fame and recognition not because the "know somebody" or fulfilled a political demographic.. but because they make content worth following.  I will try to do that yet again going forward.  I want to keep this blog going, renewed and maybe, better than ever; same with everything else we do creatively to exit out of the dayjobs we have to do.. and work doing what we WANT to do.  

(Note: Not sure who made that awesome Vivian Jame image but will credit them here or in the comments below)

Moe Monday 12/15/2014

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#MoeMonday is a weekly post that I've for some time haven't done... and looking at the trend on twitter and on social media, seems it has dropped as well.

Well, time to fix that with today's entry being a simply gorgeous work of art by 東條希 | briska




North Korea, Meet The Streisand Effect

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Oh North Korea...a land where SJWs would be in heaven as it's an authoritarian country that was it's own batshit crazy echo chamber long before anyone on tumblr made their own personal padded rooms. I've in the past made it known that I don't like North Korea but like the rest of the world, I simply toned them out to not give them the honor of being heard. My handle online is often "princetrunks" for two main reasons, the first, is that I feel I resemble Trunks from DBZ and I love the character as well as the time travel aspect of his future self. The second, is that I like to make a mockery of so-called "royalty" and those in power. Anyone who know me knows that I am not too keen on so-called "leaders" and will be the first to even question police for their actions and with my knowledge of the current scientific understandings of the universe...I see anyone claiming to be the "leader" or "royalty" to be no different than if I claimed I was the "king of the universe". People stupidly subservient to primitive tribal ideologies like nationalism is shown in it's full extent when you look at North Korea. It's pathetic when the ego of any one person gets as high as Kim Jong-Un.. be it a so-called "leader" or celebrity. As he gargled under his many chins, the world ignored him... that is, until he hacked Sony and scared them into not bringing out the movie, The Interview recently. My relationship with Sony is rather rocky as I deal with their god-awful pro-camera division during the work day and absolutely loath their SURE MAP pricing policies..yet at the same time I like their PlayStation division. Anyone who work with Sony knows that one hand doesn't speak to the other.. which is probably why NK so easily hacked their systems in the first place.


 So, in retaliation against Sony's pathetic move and the bloated ego of Kim Jong-Un...the internet today has been mocking the fat turd and his late father with everything from the memes of them to posts like this. One of the rules of the internet is... don't tell us not to watch or play something. Censorship is the model of authoritarian morons... be it pumpkin-spice sipping SJWs of upper middle class cul-de-sacs who tell you what video games you can play... or fat dumpy dictator turds like Kim Jong-Un who tell people how to live their lives. To that, I ad my voice to the Streisand Effect of this by showing meme imagery of Kim Jong-Un and (until it's removed)... here's his death scene from The Interview






#MoeMonday 12/22/14 Anime Angel By Hotaru Takeda

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For today's #MoeMonday post, thought I'd share an image that can be both seen as a holiday image and one to share year round.

This beautiful piece is done by the artist, Hotaru Takeda.

Here's Hotaru's Otakumode page with more images and products with this image

https://otakumode.com/shop/creator/hotarutakeda

...
Actually..as a Christmas bonus... here's a cute Maki & Nico holiday image by Pixiv artist Ginmaru


http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=47684927

Happy Holidays

Looking Forward to 2015 with the Goal of More Content & Games

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We returned to our Let's Plays after an over 7 month hiatus...caused mainly from the TV we use for Let's plays breaking but also since we took extra time on producing our first game, PikiPop.

As we move on to 2015, our goal is to simply make more content... heck, we've been uploading content since before YouTube existed..so I think it's about time we move to prove that.  Not just going the semi-easy route of Let's Plays but other content as well, like:

-Updates and add-ons to PikiPop
-Back to work on the Tenshi-Oni game
-gameplay footage of our own indie games
-More flash animations from Danielle
-Game music by me and showcasing the other music artists via Anime.fm
-the return of fanart contests of our games and mascots (?)
-video edits, parodies(...and my return to doing flash animation?)
-a return to blogging about anime, games & programming
-vlogs of our anime figure store products

To start our return to Let's Plays and creating YT content... here's the unedited, uncut footage of our recent BioShock Infinite Let's Play live feed from yesterday.




Do note that this feed is low in quality since it's from the live streaming we did...and I stupidly didn't record it on my computer when we went live ^^;;

Disclaimer: Due to violence, (my dirty mouth) and other mature themes of this game...this long and sometimes boring (IMO) uncut Let's Play is suited for mature viewers.

Hope to have more (and hopefully much better quality) content soon and for 2015.

Anime Figure Pre-Orders 12/29/2014: GGO Kirito Figma, Miku Risa Ebata ver & More

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I'm back from the holiday break and as promised, we are back to blogging more content as part of our promise as we move on to 2015.   It's been a while since we've blogged about anime figures but we love collecting and sharing these figures too much not to share

Here's some of what's brand new to preorder in our store as of today (ok, some have been up on the other sites for a few days, but we do our best to keep up ^^;;)


Sword Art Online II figma Kirito GGO ver

Sword Art Online - figma Asuna (rerelease)

Hatsune Miku: Risa Ebata Ver. Figure

Mami Tomoe: Yukata Ver. (The Movie Rebellion)

TERRAFORMARS - Michelle K. Davis Figure

Jack the Ripper Fate/Apocrypha (Original Edition) Figure

Cardcaptor Sakura: Tomoyo Daidouji Nendoroid

IDOLM@STER - Miki Hoshii: Yukata Ver.

Kantai Collection KanColle: Kirishima Nendoroid

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Leonardo GSC Figure

Free! - figma Makoto Tachibana



Recently Restocked but going fast:

Link The Legend Of Zelda: Skyward Sword figma

Samus Aran METROID Other M figma

Hatred Game Greenlit On Steam

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The Interview isn't the only piece of media that recently was given a second chance thanks to consumer revolt.  The granted, very violent and gruesome game, Hatred by game studio Destructive Creation http://www.destructivecreations.pl/ got greenlit on one of not the biggest gaming marketplace, Steam.  Like The Interview, the game became the target of individuals who want to control what people think, watch and play.

(screenshot of Hatred being greenlit by reddit user  Logan_Mac)

Unlike The Interview, it wasn't a totalitarian brainwashing dictator threatening terrorism that censored it... but instead a group of rather loud PR police (aka Social Justice Warriors) with ideals that sadly somewhat mirror the ideals of a totalitarian dictator.  This isn't anything new to gaming as we've dealt with similar types since the days of Mortal Kombat and Night Trap... but what makes this new PR Police different is that they hide behind a guise of "social justice" when in reality it's a game of narcism, nepotism and internet panhandling that closes any type of criticism.  This new type nanny-state mentality is also different since it has permeated the blogging/news and gaming reviews media through professional self victimization so much so that it created the current clashes with the whole GamerGate/SJW revolt.  Hatred, like other games that aren't even the slightest bit violent, like SeedScape, have had these people cry for censorship and banning be it for the game's content or the views of the developer.

For a short period of time, thus adding to the controversy, members of Steam either caved or sided with the PR police and out of nowhere removed the game from Steam's voting process. (ref: https://archive.today/ix3MU#selection-563.0-563.160) As the story shows, apparently Valve's  Doug Lombardi said that it just needed to go based on what was happening in the greenlight process.  What was happening was that SJWs across twitter were demonizing members gamergate and the game, putting focus on it (you know instead of actual social issues like India's marriage culture and east asia's human trafficking...but no, be it Samus being sexy in Smash Bros, or a videogame being extra violent...those are apparently the top issues of "social justice") Through both the Streisand Effect & them & members of gamergate bringing up the game, it's Greenlight votes and the focus on the game's approval saw a spike, with most people voting yes for the game.  It was this spike in activity that became the scapegoat to the game being pulled...in addition to it's very violent nature.

This action by members of Valve got overturned a day later by the head of the company himself, Gabe Newell.  (Email proof shown here by Let's Player, game critic, one of Steam's top curators, and somebody I've been following on YouTube for a few years now, TotalBiscuit: https://twitter.com/Totalbiscuit/status/545195909555163137).

As of yesterday, thanks to the game being back from it's initial pull and the controversy surrounding it, it quickly got it's deserved greenlight.

...when will the internet PR police learn that the more you tell people not to do something that doesn't actually hurt anybody...it just makes them want to do it more??

I'll admit, Hatred is a terribly disturbing game, I am disturbed by it's content and I feel I probably won't have the ability to play it unless I want to maybe vent some very long time frustrations.  Heck, even the torture scene in GTA V made me kind of want to put the controller down (but then I went back to the fun that can be had in GTA V)   Had SJWs not made a stink about it, I probably wouldn't have been blogging about it now or have been one of the many who voted yes for it to be greenlit.

No matter what you think of the content and what the final product will become, it being greenlit and given the chance for release is a win in the arena of freedom of speech and artistic freedom, just like how The Interview being released is a win in that realm as well.

If you don't want to play it, just don't.  The mentality that wanted to prevent people from watching The Interview is the same mentality that didn't want the creation of this game and whom tell you what anime and games to watch and play.  If anyone is worried about real dangers to society, look no further than North Korea..whom tell their people what to watch, see and think.

Happy New Year 2015 From Chuck's Anime Shrine

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Hey everyone.  Just want to wish you all a happy healthy and even better year to come in 2015 ^_^

(image creator: unknown...leave in comments if you know ^^;;)

Anime Pic of The Day 1/1/2015: Shingeki No Bahamut Angel By Lee Hyeseug

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Something we haven't done in some time is the Anime Pic of The Day.  Like practically all of the art from the game, Rage of Bahamut (Shingeki No Bahamut), this image is just too stunning not to share.  Add the fact that we are really huge fans of anime angles and demons (ie: Tenshi-Oni).. and I simply had to bring this blog feature back.

image source(?): https://yande.re/post?tags=lee_hyeseung

#FanServiceFriday 1/2/2015: Kantai Collection -KanColle- Yamato Kai (NSFW)

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For today's #FanServiceFriday post we present official art work from the game where you command war ships personified as cute girls... Kantai Collection -KanColle-.  The 1st of the Yamato-class battleships herself, Yamato Kai

This is a sexy & beautiful piece that's a familiar image to fans of the game.  Used by many as their avatar.

PodCast Episode 1: New Years, DBZ and 2015 Predictions

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I mentioned on twitter that we were working on working on a number of "special projects" and here's one of them... we finally have a podcast! ^_^ 

Here is episode one... where Danielle and I talk about anime, videogames, New Years and why I'm not always kept on other podcasts ^^;;  We hope to provide an episode a week and plan on answering any questions you guys might have too.

(Warning: Explicit Language)


Podomatic Link

iTunes Link (still in review)

Scarlett Johansson Asked To Star In Dreamworks' Live Action Ghost In The Shell

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Suddenly trending even beyond the news circles of anime... it appears that Scarlett Johansson was asked to star (we assume) as the Major, Motoko Kusanagi in the Dreamworks adaptation of Ghost In The Shell.  Unlike the probably-never-happening Cowboy Bebop movie... it seems this one is moving along with much of the production crew behind recent Dreamworks movies like Snow White and the Huntsman behind the project as well as Steven Spielberg being a big fan of the series and whom has wanted a live adaptation of it for some time now.

Johansson's cast type with recent movies like Lucy (which was somewhat anime-ish) and of course her role as Black Widow in Avengers do make her a good fit.  As an anime fan I have mixed feelings.  Hollywood hasn't been all too kind to anime and, as brought up by actors like George Takei... seems to still have some odd issue with placing Asian roles in the hands of great Asian actors.  I don't deny that Johansson could act and sell that role as the Major, (who's played most of the time by the awesome voice actress Mary Elizabeth McGlynn in the English dub).  I'm also not the SJW-type who wants even diversity for the sake of diversity but one can't deny that many roles that could be filled in by Asian actors are being snubbed out by bigger named american actors for the sake of selling the title to the public.  Kusanagi, like Spike from Cowboy Bebop though can be done very well by non Asian actors so it's a bit of a moot point.  Hell, the opposite is appearing to be the case with the Attack On Titan live action adaption...all but Mikasa in that cast is actually cast correctly... so the statement can go both ways.  One series doing very well at being a gripping series with a combination of the best aspects of western productions and eastern / western casting.. would be the Netflix series Marco Polo.  One could hope at the very least, it treats the IP correctly... no matter who's playing the role.  The original anime feature was, like the classic Akira, an astonishing accomplishment of art so Dreamworks has some shoes to fill.

What do you guys think of this casting?

As of the original source, Variety.com, she supposedly did in fact agree to the role.

Anime Pic of The Day 1/7/2015: Kancolle - Repair Ship Akashi

Ghost in the Shell: New Movie Edition (2015) Teaser Trailer

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More Ghost in the Shell news.  To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original anime feature's release, Production I.G has been working on a brand new full feature that is set to release in Japan in the early part of summer this year.  Officially titled: "Koukaku Kidoutai: Shin Gekijyou-ban" (Ghost in the Shell: New Movie Edition) here's the first teaser trailer..



(source: http://kokaku-a.jp/blog/1420680916.html )
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