Category Archives: Cartoons

OS-Tan

[MS-DOS]A big fat thank-you goes out to Toybox for pointing out something that I really should have known about earlier: OS-tan. Originating from 2chan.net aka Futabachan, this is one of those odd could-only-happen-on-the-internet things that would probably have gotten a lot of press if it had happened in 1999. Basically a bunch of Japanese folks made some charicatures of a variety of operating systems, represented by little cartoon girls. Windows 95 fights a lot with the Macintosh OS girls, Windows ME is unreliable and flakey, et cetera.

I have some catching up to do here, as there appears to be a rather large amount of material out there, including a number of yon-koma comic strips (samples are available on the Toybox page, as are a number of handy links). Looks hilarious. I look forward to putting one of the Windows CE drawings onto the desktop of my PDA.

*Edit on 2005-01-04: There is a rather extensive Wikipedia entry regarding OS-Tan now.

Magister Negi Magi

[Negi sensei]In a continuing effort to make more and more manga available to the English-reading public, Random House’s Del Rey branch has released the latest Ken Akamatsu series. You may remember Del Rey as the company that kept your local library stocked full of science fiction and swords & sorcery works when you were a geeky little kid with no allowance. or maybe that was just me.

I’m pretty sure that I haven’t had a five-year span during my life in which a Del Rey publication didn’t somehow work its way into my hands. It is good to see them nudging into this niche of the industry.

[Typical Snippet of Confrontation]

Mahou Sensei Negii is being published under the title “Negima,” for reasons that escape me. It follows a child prodigy from his graduation from Wizard’s school through his pre-ordained first job as an English professor at a Japanese high school. Because this title is by Ken Akamatsu, creator of Itsudatte My Santa and Love Hina, this is an all-girl’s school.

Unlike previous works by this author, there is no strong romantic entanglement between the male protagonist and the veritable harem of female protagonists, which is refreshing in a way. Don’t let the “mature reader’s only” sticker fool you. The target audience of this story is young men with no real-world females in their lives. The ecchi content here may be scandalous in the eyes of a Missionary Baptist preacher (and I’m pretty sure Jack Chick wouldn’t appreciate the pantyshots), but it is all totally harmless and non-explicit.

School Rumble Volume 4

[Ichijou, our new heroine]Manga Inc. is at is again. Six chapters of School Rumble, Volume 4 have been released as of this weekend, all of which are available on the Manga Inc. webpage and my temporary http mirror. The continued problems between Harima Kenji, Tsukamoto Tenma, Karasuma Ooji and crew rage on, and a new character is introduced, a classmate of theirs named Ichijou. She occupies the role of the physically strong, not terribly smart nice girl lacking in self-confidence. Already she has had a small role in further frustrating Harima’s life. Poor, poor Harima…

Also, my temporary http mirror has been updated to include the ISBN for each of the tankobans from Volume 1 to 4. If you like this kind of thing, put your money where your geek is and buy a comic or two instead of just leeching. Thanks.