More Maria

Fans of the tender, loving but TOTALLY platonic relationships between the schoolgirls of Maria Watches Over Us should be happy—Right Stuf’s Twitter reveals it’s got the fourth season. Very cool; I haven’t seen a ton of Maria myself, but what I have seen has been pretty good, and I like explorations of relationships between girls that aren’t ridiculously fanservicey. (Not that there’s no place for fanservice, but a constant flow of it gets old.)

In other news, a friend sent me flowers today! Just to make me smile. That totally makes me the most popular person in the office until tomorrow. Boo yah.

-Angela

They’re watching me

So Summer’s in Manhattan today to interview Takashi Miike before the New York Comic-Con gets going. Matt and are I hard at work even without her watchful gaze. Of course, one reason I can’t possibly slack off is what I see when I lift my eyes from my monitor:

That’s the Doctor and Donna Noble (of Dr. Who, for you silly people who clearly need to watch more sci-fi) and they appear to be peering at me in concern. Maybe the TARDIS will land in the middle of the office and they’ll rush out to berate me if I get lazy.

Actually, that would be really cool.

-Angela

What is cute?

The answer to this question isn’t really that difficult. Even without pointing to some specific things that are cute, I can think of a few general guidelines off the top of my head. Small things are cute. Big eyes are cute. Fluffy things are cute. And basically half of the characters that Japan creates are cute. (Most of the other half are plain disturbing.)

But since getting into the manga, anime and “stuff from Japan” scene, I’ve been surprised at some of the things that Japan can turn cute. The black and white pigs of MonoKuro Boo are insanely cute, but fairly traditionally so. Kogepan is another story. Grumpy, slightly burnt bread? Doesn’t really spring to mind when I’m brainstorming for cute things, but he remains totally adorable, somehow.

Everyone has their preferences when it comes to cute, too. For me, it’s the Boo pigs and Chi’s Sweet Home. For Summer, it’s Manager Banana. She loves the thing. She’s even got a giant plush banana version of the Elite Banana Boss. And her enthusiasm is contagious, because now whenever I get a really good, ripe, perfectly yellow banana, I have to do this:

-Angela

Snow day!

You’ll notice that we’ve been absent for a couple of days. Happily, it’s been due to a snowpocalyse in the northeast, which is a pain to clean off your car but sometimes means that happy occasion–snow day!

Yes, now that the roads have been cleared, it’s a winter wonderland around the Anime Insider offices. Aside from drinking lots of hot chocolate and apple cider, we’ve been working like crazy to catch up on that missed day. What are we working on right now? Well, I’ll slip you a hint. Issue #67 is our first themed issue ever–the Videogame Issue. Lots of awesome stuff coming up!

–Summer

Anime Insider in its native habitat

We always get nervous when it’s time to release an issue into the wild. Will it get along with the other magazines? Will it remember how to leap out from hiding at an unsuspecting browser’s throat, thus assuring its baby magazines of a fresh meal? Here’s an issue of Anime Insider spotted in Fye.

–Summer

Winter’s chill

It’s actually a little warmer today than it has been, but there’s still plenty of frozen stuff. Check out what we found outside the A.I. offices:

Pretty!

These were so heavy they pulled the branch down.

The last known photo taken of Summer before a stabby tragedy.

Icicles and me to provide scale.

-Angela

Just another day at the office

This is how I feel when the research department needs a manga volume that I checked out from the office library and left at home:

Whoopsie. In all fairness, yonder head editor Summer is quite forgiving of honest mistakes. But if you dare to say that you don’t like dachsunds all that much? She will cut you.

Next week I promise to have blog entries up that consist of actual paragraphs. Right now, it’s only the nourishing aroma of percolating coffee that’s keeping me upright and busy working. (Yes, at 3:30 in the afternoon.)

-Angela