My collection of smug anime girls.

Not much of an accomplishment, but I 1cc'd Imperishable Night on normal. It was quite some time ago and I doubt I could do it again now

>>120518
Buying cheap figurines I've had my eyes on since I was underage with no money for them. Looking at limited merch and being able to order it if I want. It's a nice feeling compared to just daydreaming about buying them when I grow up.

The first anime I watched was To Love-Ru on some streaming website as a kid. I was too young to care about the ecchi. I watched it for the plot.

Learning enough jp to smoothly read through most eromanga I take interest in.

>>120518
It's kind of similar but also completely different; I watched the porygon episode of the Pokemon anime when I was a kid. My dad is a Tech Guy, so a lot anime I watched growing up was pirated. One of those series was Pokemon, and for whatever reason the torrent he downloaded included fansubs of the Japan only episodes mixed in with the official dubbed versions of everything else.

I bought an Ougi figure in Akihabara.

I ate banana

>>120518
When my JSL teacher found out I was running a bootleg anime/video game business out of my school locker. I thought she was going to turn me into the police for being a criminal. But when she took me into a room alone she ended up spending 15 minutes yelling at me in broken Engrish about how being an otaku would ruin my life. Then she gave me that disappointed look I assume you get from your mother when you've really fucked up (wouldn't know. I only had father who would give regular beatings).

She was more angry about me spreading the virus that is otaku shit than she was about the whole selling pirated media on CD-R/VHS for $5-$20 a pop thing. I also had rental options. $1-3 a night depending on demand. Had everything from anime, to south park, to wrestling PPVs. Any game you wanted. Emulator+ROM packs. You name it. DBZ and wrestling PPVs, PS1 and Dreamcast games were my big money makers.

Anyway, I knew I was real otaku when I made actual Japanese person upset.

Once upon a time I helped moderate an anime database (which lots of others copy/copied from, including MAL way back in the 00s!), but I eventually deleted my account since it began feeling like a job and users were too stupid to do anything properly. I was the only active moderator besides one other guy and he pretty much just stuck to himself. As a result, the areas I was interested in, mainly staff & seiyuu credits, were essentially only handled by me. I'm satisfied with where I left off seeing as I added/fixed quite a bit, though it makes me sad that there's no anime database sites out there I'd actually want to dedicate my time to anymore. They all have too many issues... retarded rules, exclusion of certain data points like episodes, staff apathy or some mixture of the three.
I also did QC for a couple fansub groups in the distant and not-so-distant past which was nice. Once again began feeling like a job so I quit, but I like to think I did a decent job. Tangentially related to that, I've also helped spread several series and difficult to find specials in the past which I like to think brought people some enjoyment.

Other than those two, I still occasionally contribute to a JP seiyuu database (just tracks appearances in anime so nothing too significant) & a couple other sites which I take some sort of pride in. I also buy some merchandise when I can, but it's so expensive that I can't reliably do so in my situation.

>>120546
Why was the image deleted?

>>120547
I deleted it myself since left unexplained it probably would have caused confusion. It was just showing what I added to the database, which is already mentioned in the post anyhow.

>>120547
Koruri was hungry.

>>120546
What do you think of the state of anidb now

>>120550
It's still probably the best database anime-wise but staff apathy is slowly ruining it. Senior staff hardly ever promote anybody so nobody can actually moderate anything, a lot of rules only exist in the heads of the staff, and it's becoming messy. A ton of data is still being added, especially characters, files & credits, but the aforementioned messiness and lack of regulation makes it extremely inconsistent.

An example is https://anidb.net/anime/17504 (there's many others this season), where all the staff of episodes 1-2 are added but nothing else at all staff-wise is. Korean credits are a mess, background cast is added inconsistently, and no random person is going to know what the comment "山﨑香" means ... why not just throw "as" in there which entirely changes the meaning rather than using 3 different ways to signify that on the same page? This also prevents regular users from adding credits, since now all their edits to the existing ones have to be manually verified which no staff actually do anymore.

It seems like the guy adding Precure staff has also stopped now, which isn't surprising. Seems like he finished Hirogaru then bailed.

>>120551
I recently tried to add a bunch of information to anidb. I submitted it months ago now and it still remains in moderation limbo. But someone that added things after me on the same page had their stuff approved the same day.

Most of the problems are caused by the network of gatekeeping like that. It discourages random people from contributing when they've actively ignored or chased away by the handful that want to gatekeep access. Gatekeeping isn't always bad. But it is when you have people like that in positions of power.

This is a problem with most things that require manual moderation. The good people burn out quickly and leave. Or they get frustrated by having to work with lazy good for nothings. While the people that are only seeking the power never leave. They aren't interested in making something good/fun. They're only interested in lording over others.

>>120552
Yeah, that's a big problem from the staff apathy part. Nobody's ever promoted so there's something like 3k+ pending change requests, probably more now since since that was from when I left, and a lot of the staff only grant submissions they randomly come across rather than actually checking the queue. The single other active site-wide moderator I mentioned in my post pretty much only handles adding anime entries & other basic submissions now.

I don't think it's as much intentional gatekeeping as just none of the people with actual power pay attention to the site anymore; the couple that do practically only maintain the anti-leech system to prevent automated mass scraping.

>>120550
>>120551
Anidb is dinosaur stuff at this point. It's clearly not intended for the 18-25 audience which are the vast majority of anime fans in the West. I personally have always used MAL over it (even though I didn't have an account until recently) due to liking the interface better, and while MAL is more 'modern' in comparison it's also past its prime due to being web 2.0.

>>120554
But also anime fans even in that demographic tend to be interested in retro things including the old net

>>120554
AniList does seem to be the main one taking traction now which is a bit sad to see, as I really dislike the site both design-wise and data-wise. They don't even have basic episode info and their song info is extremely spotty. Browsing their staff is atrocious as well.
Times change though I suppose. If people find value in it, then good for them.

>>120556
It has traction because the users of it aren't as much of mouthbreathers as ANN or MAL and its open source

>>120556
>>120557
From what I remember, the only reason that AniList even took off was because MAL stopped working for Taiga or something. Maybe there was some actual discontent that lead people to using it before that, but that's the only reason I use it anyways.

>>120558
There was some political discontent over an article but I doubt it caused that many switches.

Yeah, Taiga not working with MAL is a huge blow

>>120556
What probably caused AniList to gain more traction over MAL was that it had a similar raw database of titles to MAL while also allowing 3rd party application access. Since when MAL killed off support for that I was practically forced onto it as I use Taiga mainly for list-related stuff. If Taiga were to launch support for Anidb, or vice versa Anidb gain support for Taiga, then I'd be using it for everything in a heartbeat. But for now I just use it as my main database lookup for anything anime related.

Also I guess not having any LN or manga info probably made people more partial towards using MAL over it.

>>120518
beating Phantasy Star without looking anything up online

dont have any

>>120561
I think it's also just a more familiar design for todays youth which naturally is todays demographic for anime as many people age out of watching anime as they get older.

My first figurine of course!

When I was at a LAN party and I beat Super Mario World 100% in one playthrough while blackout drunk. (I was quite surprised to wake up to a lucid state and see the 96 exits cleared on the save file.)

>>120553
Was lamenting the state of anidb recently while thinking on this post. I feel like out of all the db sites, anidb would benefit most from having a significantly large userbase. Just everything about how it's set up allows for the most intricate wading through of data and if people were able to actively contribute to it then the site would easily beat out anything available. The statistics and ratings algorithm too would be so amazing to gander at with a sizeable userbase. The insights that one could gleam from looking over them would make for interesting conversation and yet for the adaptation of one of the most popular gacha games out there there's only 30 ratings with 14 that have useful stats towards analytics. I can't really say anything about this because the sample size is too small and could easily have a fair bit of error.

Very vexing.

>>124106
AniDB is definitely very informative. I think it mostly suffers from a UI that doesn't really capture people's attention. You only get a few seconds to have a first impression and it fails to compare to MAL and anlist in that regard. Personally I use anilist because easily connects to Taiga. ANiDB is far more trustworthy when it comes to ratings, needless to say. If it did somehow get a sudden influx of say 50,000 users I wonder if the site and staff could support it.

I finished Gintama, One Piece and Bleach in 1 month

>>120518
I watched H stuff at a too young age. Don't know if it's something I should be proud of, but I guess I did end up discovering I was a lolicon at age 12. Thankfully I was able to hide it that early, and now it's kind of something I don't pay that much attention to now.
>>124106
I prefer anidb since it's not grating to see the community on there the same way it is for that MALicious site, which I've never been a fan of.
>>124147
I wonder that too, still one of the 10 people only using anidb though.

>>124106
I've thought about it before. The site could easily be near-perfect in regard to completeness but I just don't think that's going to happen unless something significant changes. People don't like the UI which causes less people to join, change requests can pend for literal years which causes less people to continue contributing, the list goes on. There being several "competitor" sites doesn't help either, since a lot of people just contribute to AniList or MAL instead which seems like a fool's errand imo, they're so incomplete and will never be complete since they exclude so much.

>>124147
The site could probably handle it since donations go above the goal every time they're done, but the staff absolutely couldn't since they struggle to maintain what they currently have. Returns to the point about staff apathy, the senior moderators just don't care anymore and there's too much of a backlog of change requests to realistically work through with the current (relatively) active staff.

These are not really feats but I'll list two things

1.Having a more in depth knowledge of otaku culture and niche moreso than most others around my age (I'm a loser, I know)

2. Contributing fanworks like art and fanfiction to a small fanbase I was in. I got a lot of likes and feedback for my work and it made me happy knowing that people enjoyed my stuff.

>>120521
I don't know if you'll ever see this now Reisen anon, but that's awesome. One day I plan on 1'cc IN as well.

my 8 gig 絵 folder

>>142437
was thinking "wow that's a whole lot" but then i looked at my folder... how does this build up so fast...

>>120518
Touhou 11 Extra No Miss No Bomb
No Bomb No Focus on several Extras
Lunatic 1CC on a handful of games
one of these days I need to do at least one LNB

Something I made is mentioned on the Touhou wiki

>>120518
My grandpa saw my lockscreen on my phone at a hunting safety course and asked if she was my gf.
I said yes and everyone clapped and started firing into the roof.

>>142520
That's really something anon. I had to grind just to get a 1clear on SA normal.

>>120518
I actually understand Lain for the critique of the internet it is.

>>143126
HOLY FUCK HE SOVLED LAIN

>>120518
i slept in the living room with my phone screen open to a sakura trick episode

>>143113
2D love never dies.

>>143113
pasted granps

>>120518
being able to afford LEs, wall scrolls, and other merch for games that i like all by myself.
...i guess that's not much, but i've been NEET for the past two years, so

>>121671
impressive, the most drunk i ever felt, i was still lucid enough to realize i was intoxicated but it felt like "the world was spinning" and i had to go to sleep until i stopped feeling dizzy

>>120523
That was one of the first anime i ever watched as well. Looking back, i'm not a fan of how repetitive the episodes feel. I'm surprised i watched as much of it as i did. I tried watching Urusei Yatsura (clearly what To Love-Ru took heavy inspiration from) and Haiyore! Nyaruko-san and quickly dropped them since they looked like were just going to be the same thing mostly

>>145596
Drunkest I ever got was the first time I got drunk enough for the world to spin. I kinda just went with it. Made me throw up in my bed. Woke up covered in vomit.
Next day, I had to wash the sheets, but somehow the comforter got caught in the washing machine door and ripped, so when I moved out at the end of the semester I had to pay like 60 fucking bucks to replace shit.
Ahh, memories.

Lesson learned: when the world starts spinning do NOT lean into it. Fight it. And sleep in the shower.

>>145604
UY has a rough first 20 or so episodes but it picks up and becomes really funny.
At the very least you should watch the first two movies.

>>143126
i think that this is a big part of lain but not all of it.
i'd say the other half of it is about how it feels to dissociate from reality in general.

>>142884
What is that something?

I have had

Calbee Seaweed Chips
Calbee Pizza Chips
Agar Agar Candies
Turtle Crawfish Chips
Lays Stacked Seaweed Chips
Lays Stacked Crawfish Chips
Baby Star Ramen Chips
Lonely God Chips
Ponsuke Crackers
Kasugai Peach Gummies
Ramune Candies
Matcha KitKats
Strawberry KitKats
Everyburger Cookies
Hello Kitty Cookies
At least four flavors of Ramune

And so much more. I still have a small stash left

Almost forgot about these things, they taste like Oreos but shaped like a little stick. Strawberry cookie rolls are good too

I figured out japanese p2p and used them for years. I was on private opennap servers even.

>>143126
Assuming you mean the anime, what about the themes of american cultural imperialism, eiri symbolizing Control, western all-encompassing axiomatic rationalism (eiri) being contrasted with eastern daoist inclinations, or the japanese spirit (best seen in this scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB5YeQFw1S4 ); lain's descent or ascent into schizophrenia, the conspiracy footage as hyperstition.... "The internet is bad" is the most surface level theme, maybe I'm being baited.

>>145641
This Reimu outfit for Space Station 13, earning it a spot on the References to Touhou page.

>>120518
I've cleared SA on hard!

>>120518
Sometimes I see funny images I made being posted by people that aren't me

>>145887
"The internet is bad" isn't the surface level theme. IT's the central theme.
>what about the themes
The producer being a pretentious twat lifting shit from his favourite highschool books. Little more than aesthetics.
But it was the right call - specifically, esoterism is a perfect tone-setter for the series.

Apply occams razor for a moment, a solid third if not more of Lain is analogue to real internet stuff and not philosophy.
What they are describing here was something that was already happening in japan and 10 years later became a worldwide problem: internet & social media letting kids go hang out with irl lowlives.

Lain has a very technical approach to what it wants to say: The Internet will enable abusers of the worst kinds.
They throw this on your face hard when they point to a bunch of middle school kids handing on an underground electronic nightclub whose entry was through the 'net. The "wired drug" being a very clear reference to MDMA.
Other shit like personas/prismatic online personalities, lain arguments on identity is a very embellished account of teens coping about her life by being an internet tough guy (remember, this was new in '97), allegories to identity theft (something that could fast put your ass in jail in 1990s japan) or online harassment the central moving elements on the story.

These are the things that actually mattered to the 20 to 40 year olds making this, and some of these events the writers likely saw irl. If anything I'd blame the producer for clouding the point with too much esoterism.

>>145977
According to the producer, the central theme of Lain is a meditation on the influence of the west in japan, as you seem to be aware. I'll expand on that in particular. Please note that I have no intention of discussing politics, this is about the themes of the anime.

You can immediately notice that every single solitary thing that has to do with technology is in english. "Navigator", "Wired", "Protocol", "Copland OS", "Accela", "Cyberia". iMacs feature prominently. All the user interfaces are in english. The "layer" title screens. The damn opening song, the tile itself.
You have to think: this was a deliberate choice. When they designed the fake user interfaces, and everything else, they deliberately went out of their way to make it all english. This was not the standard then, but it was a trend that was noticeable and possible to extrapolate if you just took a look at pc-98's katakanized (横文字) interface and how japan was definitely falling behind on being the leader in the IT revolution.
There are many references to secret US government programs in the conspiracy scenes in ep.9 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOVlx4PRxZE ), explicitly portraying the Wired as a project for american control.
There is a pervasive atmosphere of cultural colonization. What does it mean when a japanese person has to say "Hello, Navi", to interact with computers, which increasingly blur with real life? What the series is describing is technocapital becoming a vector for westernization, the anime can be described as a prolonged, slow abduction. As Lain becomes more and more plugged into the Wired, she loses contact with who she is (schizophrenia/identity dissolution) and becomes tricked by a false god - 英利

Eiri's name, is written 英利. "英" as an exonym in japanese, means english or anglo. For example, "english language" is written 英語. The antagonist is quite literally named "English/Anglo". And 利, roughly means "profit" or "gain". Him, representative of the west, thinks of himself as the one and only system there is and will ever be. This has parallels with both monotheistic religions, and with western post-enlightenment systems, which both lay claim to one and only system of truth. This is what Burroughs' calls One God Universe, in fact it is it almost word for word. An axiomatic system that stops not at denying other belief systems, but denies the very idea that a real conflict for the nature of reality exists in the first place. This is in extreme contrast with eastern traditions which do not lay a claim to absolute truth, existing in the what Burroughs' calls the magical universe. The traditional, animist, shintoist beliefs of japan in particular could be described as as archetypal of the Magical Universe worldview as actually exists on this world.

Lain is rescued from "Anglo Gain Beautiful Goverment" by Alice, who, in the scene I linked, rescues Lain from her catatonic state, where Lain identifies herself using the words program, application, denying her very humanity, with a simple touch. She at this moment takes all the traits associated with is yamato nadeshiko, saving lain with the words "dokidoki, dokidoki", archetypically japanese.

I don't disagree with your post, really. I think the show can be deeply philosophical while at the same time also incorporating real social problems and or phenomenon that were going around.

>>146204
>What does it mean when a japanese person has to say "Hello, Navi", to interact with computers
It would mean... pop culture? Inserting english stuff to seem cool began in the mid 80s, it was already an old thing. Jap music was already hard into it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJZeuvbUQkc

In Lain's case I think it's the opposite. It's not cultural imperialism, in the turn of the 90s and early 2000s I feel it was vogue at the time for anime producers to have 2deep4u, intellectual-ish references, many of them foreign but also many japanese.
Go watch Earth Maiden Arjuna, where they also go hard on social critique and even bring western concepts like third genders and sex reassignment surgeries on the table - but mind, the primary philosophy is from a japanese environmentalist that is in turn coated in a subversion of the indian myth of Arjuna. While not actually as dee´p as SEL it's a prime example of the "layers upon layers" style i'm describing.

>>146274
>It would mean... pop culture? Inserting english stuff to seem cool began in the mid 80s, it was already an old thing. Jap music was already hard into it -
Is that not validating my point? Yes, there was a progressive americanization trend from the end of the Pacific War. It didn't start with the IT revolution - IT was and is a vector through which the trend intensifies, but it can be seen as a progression of the same mechanism in other words the influx of foreign technocapital concentrated in America. SEL is a projection of those trends into the future.
>even bring western concepts like third genders and sex reassignment surgeries on the table
I won't reply to this as to not derail, but know I am sending disapproving radio waves your way.

>>146319
>Is that not validating my point?
I'd say it's a very western mindset to apply to Japan. I think the Japanese as a populi simply never cared for such things. Even 2ch the HOMELAND of the japanese fringe right whose ancestors (ayashiiwarudo & tech underground forums) were lightly referenced by SEL loved their english references.

In order to understand the work we must first stand from the pov of people behind it. The Producer, forget his name was a primary influence, but he was part of a whole team, one which seemed worried about the effects the tech revolution was having in youth culture.
>I won't reply to this as to not derail, but know I am sending disapproving radio waves your way.
You'll miss out on prime 2000s anime~

>>120518
I have a fairly respectable (physical) collection of Range Murata artbooks.

>>146204
>"英" as an exonym in japanese, means english or anglo.
just in case i would amend to this that the base meaning of 英 is greatness/excellence, and it commonly appears in the word 英雄 referring to accomplished heroes, like in the title of logh (銀河英雄伝説) and it also pops up and also appears in names bearing this meaning (also flowers)
BUT it was later used phonetically to refer to england, in the same way that 米 means rice but also stands for the USA in certain words because it was also used phonetically in 亜米利加/amerika, or 露 for russia, 西 for spain, 蘭 for holland, etc.
so in this case eiri would be a form of wordplay, referring both to great gains and to english-language gains

>>146464
Thank you. I do know that but I did not want to bloat the post with explaining how japanese works. In this case I believe it is hard to argue that using a name with 英 is a coincidence.

It's incredibly refreshing and vindicating to read commentary like this because it stands in stark contrast to teenagers inauthenticly yelling and screaming about their love of the series. I last watched it in 2019 so I'll probably need to watch it again before I can give a reasonably articulated comment but for now I also think that
>It would mean... pop culture? Inserting english stuff to seem cool began in the mid 80s
corroborates what he was saying. Post Edo-period (1868-present) Japan has been subject to all kinds of Western influences with the Japanese government paying Western experts in all kinds of different fields ranging from law and military to science and engineering to move to Japan for the duration of their contracts and guide the country into the modern era through Western techniques. Although importing Westerners on a government salary ended around the turn of the century, importing Western values was more or less forced upon the country as a result of the postwar occupation going so far as playing dubbed American television shows - often depicting a stereotypical American nuclear family - in Japanese theaters.

I don't know much about programming but as far as I know and what a quick search reveals, most commonly used programming languages are English based in that they use Latin script and words and abbreviations. If you learn to program, you learn to program in these languages because they are the lingua franca of the programming world due to English being the lingua franca of the real world. Interestingly you can see a contrast between Western influence in Japan compared to China by simply looking at their websites; Japanese sites feature much more English on them compared to Chinese and I think Korean too. I'm just rambling now and I sort of forgot where I was going with this so I'll stop

>Him, representative of the west, thinks of himself as the one and only system there is and will ever be.
After I watch it again I'll come back to this but just going from what you both wrote I think you can fuse the two themes or interpretations using Eiri as an analogue for monotheistic religion and Lain - and anyone else - as an analogue for polytheistic religion.

>>146348
For admiring or cranking the hog?

I own a real Japanese wakizashi, multiple vintage kimonos and I import all the cosplay I wear from Japan.
I also own a Sensu that was made in the 1960s as well as a tea set from the same era and finally a scroll from between 1950 - 1970.
I am a very high ranking Japanese fashion and desgin Otaku.

>>146612
Ken-sama...

>>146612
That is really nice.

>>146625
Truly an inspiration...
>>146634
I started this when I learned that the Japanese doesn't have a strong culture around hand-me-downs so people there tend to sell overseas via online markets or just throw stuff out so I wanted to give some things a good home.

>>146612
I have a yukata. The guy who sells them even sent me a little packet of green tea.

>proudest
Brother I'm embarrassed of my otaku behavior

>>146612
Bro you're just a cringe wapanese retard. Not Otaku.

>>146725
>>146730
Took a bit of time but the niwaka finally arrived.

>>146730
You're only calling him that because he's not throwing his money away on figures or character wall scrolls or whatever consumerist crap you deem to be for "true otaku".

I'm neither embarrassed nor proud.
I merely am.

>>142488
probably not going to let it get to that size.
it'll be too large to organize & sort by then.
how do you even find stuff?

>>148141
I used to organize everything into specific subfolders. Now I don't, and I don't find anything anymore.