San Japan - The Dark Side of the Anime Conventions

Proz Twitter

So, let's talk about the side of the conventions and we are going to start with San Japan, recently as this week a Tweet by the convention's founder Dave Henkin, which the tweet itself is self explanatory and what he thinks about POC in the entertainment industry and his behavior is super common within the anime and comic book convention scene, something I learned in the 4 years I been assisting to them but not many people talk about it openly, think about a dirty little secret - comic cons and anime cons, tend to be somewhat of safe heavens but also they tend to be extremely racists, fat shaming places just to name a few -

Let's start checking his Tweet, he compared POC entertainers to sexual predators and assholes divas, what does that say about the policies of San Japan towards guests? POC are not welcome but it gets worse checking on the guest list from 2008 to the present POC representation is minimal, there is a lot of light skinned guests there, and guests that are white passing, but honestly i couldn't find any black individuals at all with the exception of the Hispanic guests who were light skinned in their vast majority and a the Japanese guests that are invited.

This is problematic, because the Tweet of Dave (Proz) is 100% accurate, as the founder of the convention he has secured to place guests that would be pleasing to his eye and it will give credibility to his tweet that San Japan is not welcome to anyone that is dark skinned. Hence he said sexual predators and assholes divas, referring to black men and women. It's disgusting, but an eye opener that behavior like this is finally getting attention.

Now we need to speak about the excuse, you wonder why I do not edit names? Because he left it open to the public, is not even an excuse, is a series of words that show him on how a pathetic excuse of a human he is, how dare he say  "To a tweet that was recently circulating: I am an idiot. I was trying to express frustration with the difficulty of marketing POC guests to large sections of the fandom that request the same milquetoast celebrities that are already at every other show.

I realize I speak from a position of privilege as a white man and vow to be a better ally in the future. I'm sorry."

You Dave use your privilege as a national white American, or a Karen-excuse to justify why you are such an asshole, but is even worse the people who defend you and agreeing you were "anxious" you are a racist, for not admitting your own fault and tried to blame to the con attendees, and I can assure you, is not difficult to market African-American cosplayers and entertainers but you don't have the balls to admit that you don't want them on your convention.

I am going to assume you tried to say Dream Convention, as the "convention who specialize in POC" but you couldn't even remember the name or at least Google it proper and refer to them with their name, which your actions are taking echo within the convention scene because it does mimic a lot of Metro Con around 2013 but that will be the topic on another entry.

I honestly hope if there is any Youtuber and Voice Actors who read this, any artist who booked with them who boycott San Japan, if the board of directors don't remove a racist person that as the helm of the convention because it's problematic making his behavior and pathethic excuse the new normal, because within how the social weather is going we need to implement measures to punish any racist individual and don't accept any excuse without repercussions. 

The Importance of Steven Universe

The show wasn't perfect, but it became a milestone within the line-up of Cartoon Network as essentially it had somewhat developed characters that reached the LGBTQA demographics but also didn't showed them withing the classical cliche type, but I am not going in to a deep analysis as much of the points I am writing they were already wrote by many other people.

The importance of Steven Universe relies that for the first time in Cartoon Network there was this show created by a non-binary person, it set a fictional group of superheroes that were agender and queer as you can get, it explored loss and grief, it explored happiness between same sex couple and abuse, the list can go for a while but to make it concrete it explore topics that aren't common with children's cartoon but still using metaphorical elements which is one of the reason the show became popular with adults alike.

I am not going to bash the show, the show wasn't perfect but it exposed the vision of Rebecca Sugar  and that's important enough, I am not going to say how the show could be written because that would be a fallacy as I am not a critic or anything, just some random guy with too much time on his hands; I am not going to say how the show could be perfect through some idilic fantasy where toxicity doesn't exist because in the "real world" we are complex humans that talking beyond your feelings and thinking everyone react the same way as you is just childish.

We have to think "how we as members of a vast communities as well the allies, could give representations to the demographics that are in risk but also to the children and teens that need it" and after Adventure Time where there were hints about Marceline and Bonibell relationship, Steven Universe was open and frank since the beginning.

My only two issues with the show itself were the sparsity between episodes and how the story doesn't connect on occasions, but overall I never really minded either because as I said before is just a children's show and myself being an adult is not to critic the show unless it expose something inappropriate but rather find a way to support the youth of the community and their development, knowing that beyond representation there are allies everywhere because beyond the queerness of most of the characters Steven itself was represented as straight and he supported everyone.

Beyond that, I never minded the show it was fun to watch and it was cute, it gives me hope towards any more LGBTQA representation in a children's network as within time people will have representation, representation matters because it gives exposure and it can empower individuals but also as a race of storytellers the impact of a medium as television or web series can help a lot people to know they aren't alone and how to face life, because life is far more complex than a kumbaya bonfire and stories as the one from Steven Universe can help future generations.

Conquer: A Tribute to Skillet by Caleb Hyles

Why do I enjoy cover artists? There are so many reasons, one of them I love to see different interpretations of songs that I know but also on a more deeper meaning it let me discover new musicians and vocalists over a period of time and see how they develop, my finding over the years with Caleb Hyles has been one of the most interesting cases because 11 years ago I wouldn’t imagine in my life that was it was a silly channel between two brothers eventually it would evolve into one of the most popular content creators.

Conquer a Tribute to Skillet is a really cool product, a different reinterpretation of some of the songs but at the same time it does keep the essence, is a cool album because if you are a listener that is looking for new vocalist and musicians you can have a six degrees of separation and find new talents such as Aruvn, Lollia, Jonathan Young (who is already well established) and SixteeninMono who form part of the line-up.

A fantastic thing about the album is that even if you as a listener are not in to Christian Rock, you can still enjoy it, it goes on the same vein as Evanescence that has an appeal to the masses on a pop culture level because of the hard beats sounds but lyrics that can reach a general public; now that I mentioned that I didn’t had a clue who Skillet were until about six years ago, when people at work used to describe me who was Skillet I thought they were talking about a brand of cooking appliances until by random effects of the destiny they are a band.

The production of the album is quite fantastic, gorgeous and energetic and melancholic, it’s almost as a spiritual journey through life and pain, to find there is room to growth and find comfort in the hands of the Lord. There is always something I noticed within years of following different indie artists through the years, each one of them has their own unique sound, not only on their voices on instruments, is almost as a trademark where you can identify the artist by the selection of background instrumentalization but also due vocal techniques.

Let’s just focus on this album, the album has a reflection of Caleb’s sounds on instrumentalization, sounds that reflect his concerts that are filled with high energy routines but also melodic and more mellow themes, concerts that can make you unite with the other public and join the Hyles Hype Crew; but is not only the high energy of the instrument, the different collaborations there are in the album with Jonathan Young that add an incredible dose of Metal and brotherly bond, it’s not only a one or two songs they are two acts that have such an amazing chemistry together that even with their own personal accomplishments they create synergy to bring two fandoms into one.

There are so many little things on the album that reflect Caleb personal journey into the world of entertainment but also his grown as an artist, you have to understand this is a journey and an evolution of more than 10 years, from the Rock Band days, to the silly videos he and his brother Josh created on their parents living room along with other friends, to the first anime covers such as Vampire Knight, to the fan dubs of different anime’s with several of their friends to eventually becoming his own channel with CalebCovers, From the Dark to As Eyes Go Blind  and eventually the Peace, Love and Metal Community.

Is a process, that has turned him in to a brand of his own and I do not believe this is the culmination but rather a beginning of one of the superstars of the world of music, if you want to purchase the album hit here and it will redirect you to his iTunes store page that will redirect you to the Conquer: A Skillet Tribute Album.

Reaction Videos are Cheap

If any of my friends read this, I want to apologize in advance but I can't stand reaction videos of any kind, I am not alone. I am not talking to reacting to Nintendo Directs only, but essentially unboxing videos, testing make-up, reacting to a trailer, etc, anything that is just a mere form or cheap marketing to obtain popularity based on your reactions even if they look fake.

We can think on the direct marketing perspective, based on product testing to understand the satisfaction with a product i.e. there can be a video made based on how a certain type of make up behaves and the content creator can give their opinion after an organized script to let the potential users and customers know what are your experiences based on your test and product demo; instead of going and make a video that you look unorganized and make the Nintendo 64 child a more serious salesman of an outdated product.

Probably the reason reaction videos are so popular it lies on the primitive aspect we encompass as human and great primates, we can think of  mirror neurons and mirror behavior, we gain pleasure by watching someone else reacting to an X situation that can mirror our own experiences and probably (again) is one reason people seek on those videos, because they feel empathy.

As we mentioned before, we have to understand there are different reaction videos and the concept itself can be used to show products as well cultural scenarios as the tasting of food and places, the concept can be used to sell travel plans but also to educate people on the different cultures that are beyond their cul-de-sac's and how they influence their daily habits of food as well clothing; but the concept gets lost instead of sitting with content that is easy to digest and almost forgettable.

There is one Youtuber I admire, I know their name through a friend, they are quite knowledgeable towards gaming itself, but they centered their content exclusively on reaction videos, and going through their list on Youtube to see their statistic I saw only their reaction videos are the ones that get the most views. Over time I saw that their original content and even let's play content has less views than the reaction videos and I found interesting on how they switched from original content to almost solely let's play and reaction videos to try to stay somewhat relevant.

Is almost a death sentence to any creator, why? Because you are setting your popularity on your looks to create reaction videos and probably after any potential audience see too many of your videos you are going to be on a popularity limbo because reaction videos don't contain any replay values, reaction videos are just mere extension of entertainment segments viewers can watch it once and there is no reason to repeat it them because they don't contain any informational value.

Even so, there is a moment when viewers can see how fake the videos involving reaction turn to be, if you don't have a marketing plan and you set yourself as a brand crying and screaming because of the new game is coming up, it can be difficult to take you seriously whenever you want to diversify your portfolio within your content, people aren't going to take you seriously enough to know you can create something wonderful but also people tend to be greedy and their modes and habits change over time.

Reaction videos at the end are forgettable, as a product per-se in 10 years they will be forgettable, they don't even contain meme content as the Nintendo 64 kid that can be used on the popular culture, instead the reaction videos are a cheap way to bring people which on a long term won't even be as active, they relegate original content on the side and honestly they don't contribute to anything original or new but instead clutter the space of whatever could bring something interesting to content creation.

Chespirito, Politicamente Correcto

He pasado probablemente la última semana pegado con Netflix ya que vi que varios episodios de El Chavo del Ocho están en la plataforma, y de manera instintiva no dude ni un segundo en ponerme a ver los episodios en mis ratos de ocio. Mi primera impresión fue en recordar esos días con mis abuelos viendo repeticiones del Chavo y las ultimas temporadas de Chespirito como sketch a principios de los Noventa, siento que en cierto punto fueron buenas épocas cuando estaba en mi juventud ya que el programa siempre lo asocio con esos momentos de paz, pero no recuerdo que el programa me diera risa y la risa de fondo estaba fuera de lugar porque honestamente no entendía porque la ponían.

Después de varios años de no ver el programa, me doy cuenta de que el humor no me sigue dando risa, pero es algo subjetivo ya que va con diferentes puntos de como presenciamos el sentido del humor, pero debido al mismo tiempo, pero puedo apreciar el programa con ojos diferentes, debido a que como compartimos la información ha evolucionado en los últimos 20 años debido a la evolución del Internet.

Probablemente lo primero que me entere fue como los temas musicales del Chavo y el Chapulín fueron plagiados del artista Jean-Jacques Perrey y sus diferentes obras, que no se puede negar que debido a la desinformación y el aislamiento de México en la década de los 60 y los 70 debido a las diferentes dictaduras le dieron cabildo abierto a Gómez Bolaños de robarse los temas y los estilos visuales de otros músicos y comediantes.

Me pongo a pensar en cómo el programa fue lo que fue no por Roberto Gómez Bolaños en sí, pero debido al elenco que Gómez Bolaños tenía a su disposición como por ejemplo el difunto Ramon Valdez, Carlos Villagrán y María Antonieta de las Nieves para mencionar unos pocos de los tantos talentosos artistas que pasaron por su dirección.

Ramon Valdez fue sin duda el alma del programa, y después le seguía Carlos Villagrán. El Chavo como programa no se hubiera posicionado sin Don Ramon, ya que la genialidad de Don Ramon era única y resaltaba en la escena sea con el personaje que estuviera acompañado, y con su eventual retiro del programa ahí se fue la parte encantadora de lo que era el Chavo y no importa con que personajes lo trataron de reemplazar ya que ninguno le llego a los talones a Ramon Valdez.

Lo que fue Chespirito y la Mesa Cuadrada en si fue ese programa de variedades similar a Saturday Night Live, una respuesta a los programas de sketches de comedia en Latino América, y viendo retransmisiones y videos en Youtube, Chespirito es el resalta menos entre todos los del elenco hasta el punto que es opacado por Carlos Villagrán y Rubén Aguirre, cito un ejemplo la canción de la petaca en donde el protagonismo lo tienen los otros dos comediantes pero en general la genialidad de Chespirito radico en su capacidad de mercader y relacionista publico para posicionarse como una marca.

Es fácil ponerse a ver que la trayectoria de Chespirito con sus películas la mayoría ha quedado en el olvido, fueron productos de su época y en eso se quedaron, honestamente no tenía que Chespirito había aparecido en más películas aparte del Chanfle y su secuela en la que su esposa Florinda Meza participo como su esposa en la pantalla, leyendo sobre las películas y la trama ahora me parecen deprimentes debido a que Florinda quería tener hijos pero Chespirito al final no quiso revertir su vasectomía.

Viendo los diferentes episodios de las otras series a lo largo de las décadas, la idea del autoplagio es extremadamente notoria, es fácil buscar una de las wiki (no Wikipedia, sino paginas al estilo wiki que contienen datos sobre las series y son especializadas en un solo programa) para darse cuenta de lo mucho que reciclo material y como todos los episodios de las diferentes temporadas cito al Chavo como mejor ejemplo son similares entre si, y que varios episodios se regrabaron entre tres y cinco veces, uno de los tantos ejemplos es el episodio El Callo del Señor Barriga que tuvo cuatro episodios, dos en que se regrabo la misma premisa y otros dos que la premisa se mantuvo casi intacta pero con algunas modificaciones, en las cuales siempre el Chavo sostenía una caja de botellas vacías.

Honestamente los diferentes programas juegan con la nostalgia de los que crecieron en las décadas de los 70, 80 y 90’s y mas ahora que casi 30 años después de la última transmisión de Chespirito como programa de variedades quedan diferentes generaciones que tienen el chance revivir momentos de su juventud con servicios de transmisión como Netflix y YouTube, el dilema ¿va con que criterio La Generación Z vera los productos de Chespirito? Y lo mismo va con personas de diferentes generaciones que han cambiado su actitud a lo largo de los años Ya que es un producto de otros tiempos.

Yuranis Y Las Sailor

No he escrito en rato largo, en parte ha sido que mi salud no estuvo buena por un tiempo

excesivamente prolongado, poco a poco he ido ganando lo que había perdido por un tiempo largo, y volveré a escribir con algo de calma sobre los temas que me llaman la atención. 

Una de las razones que me llamó la atención el remix de Yuranis Leon, fue que esa canción la había oído hace unos quince años en un momento que me había escapado de la casa para poder tener algo de tranquilidad y como buen fanático de la obra de Naoko Takeuchi la canción me quedo en la cabeza por un tiempo bastante largo y dos países de distancia. 

La razón por la que la champeta de las Sailor me sonó tanto fue porque en ese momento no había muchas artistas con el genero y de por si la champeta era un género subversivo de la Costa Caribe y de los Afro-Caribeños, pero lo esencial fue que las letras decían sobre el conflicto de las diferentes bandas entre los barrios populares de Cartagena, pero también fue uno de los primeros gritos femeninos de la champeta. 

La versión original polariza entre la realidad de los años 90 sobre lo que era vivir en los barrios populares y como la animación probablemente influencio a una generación de mujeres al salir adelante en géneros televisivos y musicales, ya que hay una relación entre los dos debido a que son mas que todo catalogados a un publico masculino. 

La canción original fue el producto de Shirly Pérez, hace unos 23 años; pero, debido a la falta de registros en la ciudad el nombre de Shirly y su padre Melchor Pérez ella queda casi en el olvido, debido a que no había en ese entonces un punto que consolidara la información de los artistas y en portales como Youtube las pocas personas que subieron la canción cuando el portal apareció tampoco tenían información. 

Leyendo sobre la entrevista de Yuranis que ella tuvo en Sabor Stereo con el lanzamiento del remix en Youtube, ella dijo que no sabia el nombre de la artista y que había oído la canción en la radio – un aspecto que es un tanto exagerado ya que la canción ha estado por fuera de los radios cartageneros por mas de 18 años - Lo mas seguro es que oyó la canción en Youtube y debido a que los registros de Shirly no fueron salvados en su gran mayoría, le pregunto a su esposo si podrían producir un remix que no violara derechos de autor si por alguna razón saldría alguna demanda (usando otra palabra un cover musical). 

Segun (Jhonatan Diaz, Octubre 2019) del Heraldo de Barranquilla, la canción nació porque Shirly quien es hija de Melchor, autor del Vacile del Gago y las Tortugas Ninjas, ella quería dejar algo para las mujeres ya que autores como Elio Boom quien grabo los Caballeros del Zodiaco y Alvaro “El Barbaro” con El Vacile del Pato tenían dominado el género en la década de los 90. 

Pero agrandar mas el dilema de Shirley, ella termino peleándose con su padre y este no la dejo grabar lo que termino en que la canción original fue grabada por Rosalba Santana Guerrero quien hoy en día radica en Venezuela. Las diferencias entre el tema original y el remix de Yuranis van más allá de la métrica 

La canción original fue grabada en un estudio casero en el Pie de la Popa, mientras que Yuranis tuvo el apoyo de su eposo y la dispocion de un estudio de grabación profesional; el remix de por si pierde la esencia de la canción original que es mas un grito de poder si se podría llamar feminista y de la realidad popular para hacer un cambio mas a lo comercial y vender un ritmo pegajoso que no ofrece nada nuevo o al menos algo mas serio, es algo mas del jolgrio para crear un ingreso capital de una manera fácil. Como una nota adicional Shirley en el Heraldo menciono que volverá con un tema que se llama Soy Feliz al lado de su padre Melchor.

The Royal Family of Hyrule, The Shadow Temple and the Holly Inquisition Part One

I can't stop seeing this parallelism on the real world case that the Royal Family of Hyrule with the Spanish Inquisition and how the Royal Family consolidated their power through the blood of the goddess.

Is not weird to see the similarities as the ultimate means of the Royals to consolidate their power became religion, the religion centered in Hylia, the Triforce and the miracles executed in the Royal Family first born daughter who was always presented as the avatar of the goddess. The idea of centering a figure as the maximum authority is not strange in any religious organization, from the Pope to the Elders, there is always someone and Zelda plays the role or at least could be seen as puppet leader in which the shadow lead uses for the expansion of the ideology and the kingdom.

What is the hypothesis of my theory? If we use the unified timeline or dragonbreak as we can call it also call it, we can find a parallel that the Royal Family had an interest into unifying their religion centered on Hylia and abolish any potential ones that could create competition towards their power and hegemony on the land such as the Spanish reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula that was ruled by the Muslim in 1492, but to explain specific to regain control of the geography as because probably there was a riff and the family lose power before the Great Calamity.

We can see different religious fetishes and totems around Hyrule, i.e. Breath of the Wild, where the Seven Heroines are reverb or the Desert Colossus (Goddess of the Sand) in Ocarina of Time which show the difference in religions which for someone or a group that looks to execute their power that could a problem, as the act of proselytize could bury older religions and bring new adepts but subjugate and exterminate large ethnic groups.

There are similarities between antisemitic attitudes that many people held towards Gerudo's and even Sheikas, similar as the 13th Century up to the 14th Century Spaniard anti-Jewish sentiment similar as the riots that happened in Barcelona, which I can relate to the Hyrule Civil War that unified Hyrule under one banner but at the expense of the permanent lost of lore, language and traditions from tribes that weren't related to the Royals.

Albeit during the game there aren't specific examples towards conversion, but rather vague quotes that gives hints about the history, it makes me think what initiated the Civil War was that the King of Hyrule in the Ocarina Timeline timeline was extremely similar as Peter the Cruel and started a way just on a mere impulse in which he saw infidels on other tribes based on his own insecurities but also on what the cult centered around his daughter and the Royal Family as the guardians of the sacred power was placed.

The hatred Hylians and other races had to the Gerudos had over the different timelines borders the antisemitism that has been presented on with the Jewish population over the centuries, but also it can be taken on the Islamophobia as is a tribe that historically speaking with the franchise had been prosecuted because of the idea they are thieves but also they are a threat to the status quo or in better words the escape goat or the justification to preserve the Royal Family in the power. 

According to Don Hasdai Crescas, persecution against Jews began in earnest in Seville in 1391, on the 1st day of the lunar month Tammuz (June).[16] From there the violence spread to Córdoba, and by the 17th day of the same lunar month, it had reached Toledo (called then by Jews after its Arabic name "Ṭulayṭulah") in the region of Castile.[17] From there, the violence had spread to Majorca and by the 1st day of the lunar month Elul it had also reached the Jews of Barcelona in Catalonia, where the slain were estimated at two-hundred and fifty. So, too, many Jews who resided in the neighboring provinces of Lérida and Gironda and in the kingdom of València had been affected,[18] as were also the Jews of Al-Andalus (Andalucía),[19] whereas many died a martyr’s death, while others converted in order to save themselves. (Wikipedia)

But who were the core cult who preserved the the Royals? the similar to the Holly See, the answer lies on the Sheikas. Their role in the rise of the first family of Hyrule is quite complex because they are their bodyguards but also there is a parallelism on being clerics, since they seem to know and profess the message of the Goddess. The story of the Sheikas can be scarce and it adjust on each timeline but there are two games in which the players can see the roles of they are Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild.

The Shadow Temple and the Bottom of the Well are the two spots to see the torture devices and locations in which the Sheikas mimicked the inquisitors techniques of torture such as the rack that is seen in the photo to the left, which to explain in an easy way would break someone's back but also pull every single limb out of your body, which can explain the poodle of blood that is bellow the torture device.

The Sheika's were ruthless but also fanatics on their devotion to Hylia that they would support a war to protect the incarnation. Albeit on a far point within the timeline such as BotW the tribe that is presented is completely changed and has taken a more agricultural and trader because of the Great Calamity influence over the land.

The evolution of the Sheikas on the unified timeline probably offers a different interpretation as there are no signs of them on previous incarnation and they are more focused on them as a revolutionaries with technology, which itself is a contradiction in reference to them as Inquisitors in the real world because the Inquisition set back technology and human advancement several centuries behind, even on Hyrule Castle the traces of torture chambers are almost none existent.