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It’s time for me to write about something other than just a review about anime or manga so I decided to write about a cool project that has recently been brought to my attention and just quick rant against the site Manga Fox.

The Admirable – Josiah Lebowitz’s “An Anime Fans Guide to Japan”

Josiah Lebowitz’s is a true otaku; he’s into everything from Anime to J-Pop and even has his own book entitled “Interactive Storytelling for Video Games” and indie game studio Pen and Sword.  Josiah has even taken to time to travel to and in Japan whilst teaching English in Japanese public schools and documented his time there via travelogues.

So what makes Josiah admirable in my eyes? His new project.

Josiah has already been to the country responsible for giving us the joy of great games, anime and manga so he has seen a lot with the added aid of tour books he used in order to plan his trips but he realised that all of these books weren’t 100% right for him or any otaku who travels to Japan with the hopes of seeing all the otaku sites that you might only hear about in anime and manga.

When reading about his project, the one line that stood out straight away with which I agreed was, “…we don’t need page after page of hotel and restaurant reviews.”  How many people can honestly say that they took time to travel to a country in hopes of seeing everything they wanted but couldn’t find any appropriate information in the travel guides but were instead flooded with information on restaurants and touristy locations? Josiah got plenty of first hand experience and is seeking to use his experience and love of all things Japanese to compile an otaku travel book for Japan.

His plan is to write about almost everything, so you can expect to see information about game havens such as Akihabara, J-Pop concerts, popular idols and what interests me the most: the locations that are featured in anime and manga.

I’ve always wanted to go to Japan to soak in all the culture and take time to visit all the spiritual and historical sites but not once had I considered visiting the popular culture areas fore the sole reason being that I wouldn’t know the first thing about where to go, what to see or what to expect so needless to say this travel guide has jumped to the top of my interest pile and I’m hoping it get’s completed before I make the effort to traverse the globe and end up in Japan.

Unfortunately this guidebook is not under way yet and Josiah is still looking for financial backing.  I know, I know you feel like you’ve just read about this project just to be disappointed by the fact that there is no book and you think this was all just a post to get you to donate to the project but rest assured I’m writing this post because Josiah plans to make this guide book whilst listening to what the reader wants and so he plans to make this book with suggestions brought forward by anyone who gives as little as $5.  Plus, let’s face it no one can expect an individual to do this 100% out of pocket.

If you want to read more about the project check out the link:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/473315174/an-anime-fans-guide-to-japan-tokyo-and-surrounding

Finally I’d like to wish Josiah the best of luck and I hope that the book goes ahead as planned!

The Despicable – Manga Fox

On the other end of the spectrum we have the manga aggregator site, Manga Fox.  I’ve been familiar with a lot of the scanlators’ hate towards the site but have unfortunately been unaware of the true reason as to why until recently.  A few days ago I was reading Tokyo ESP, which is currently in the hands of ENXAME (a group which is part of Offtopia) and at the end of the chapter I read a plea for donations from the top dog at Offtopia, Morten who stated that he would drop Tokyo ESP since he is fed up with Manga Fox for uploading the manga his group have scanlated.

Little known fact about Manga Fox, they generate shit tonne of cash from their ads and never give proper recognition to the scanlators who do what they do for nothing and pay out of their own pockets.

I never really used the site since I found it to be crap anyway but I think that Morten has the right to be frustrated and so do all the other scanlation groups that get almost little or now recognition for their hard work.  Any readers of manga, I’m not going to tell you not to use the site but please do consider alternatives since you can also get the allmangas read extension for chrome and use the scanlators sites themselves.