January 21 (5M^_^: T10 #103)

[Zeke]

Today! Today we have a little-known piece of the history of St--

Wait. Star Trek? Again? How come this keeps happening?

Well, here's the point. In the early days of Next Generation (and possibly the movies, I'm not sure), the design team began what would become one of Trek's greatest traditions: slipping in-jokes and references into the onscreen displays and set decorations. These are now called Okudagrams in honour of Michael Okuda, a major graphic designer of all the modern Trek shows, whose contributions are hard to overestimate. But the same is true of Rick Sternbach -- and the interesting thing about Sternbach's Okudagrams is that he was an anime fan back when no one had ever heard of the stuff.

I learned this from Larry Nemecek's Star Trek: TNG Companion, which I read cover-to-cover as a kid. And that book lists a lot of the anime references in TNG... but not quite all. And that's why today I bring you...

The Top 10 Little-Known Anime References in Star Trek

Meanwhile, that sixth button on the main page is doing some odd things. And I still don't get why Trek keeps popping back up when we're an anime site now. Curiouser and curiouser. Could this forebode something? Could there be secrets dangling before my eyes? Taunting me, laughing at me, hinting that Five-Minute Anime has nearly reached its doom? Hiding in palindromes and Easter eggs and conspicuous absences from the list I just --

Zeke's Batou Judgment: Aw, shaddup.

Who the hell are YOU?

[Nate the Great]

Haha. It's January 21st, 2010, not 2009!

Sloppy, Z. Really sloppy.

[Derek]

In First Contact, Picard lured some Borg into the holodeck and then Gundam down

Terrible. Just like a pun ought to be.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by Nate the Great

Sloppy, Z. Really sloppy.

No, that's just regular sloppy. Really sloppy is leaving something like this in the DVD version of your show. (That's supposed to be a lacrosse stick. It looks normal in the other shots.)

Nate: You know what else is sloppy? Watching anime when you should be finishing the event.

Zeke: *grin* Yeah! And so was expecting actual feedback instead of nitpicking!

Nate: *big grin* Boy, Zeke, talking about this update sure is exciting!

Zeke: *ecstatic* IT SURE IS, NATE!

Nate: *glare*

Zeke: *glare*

The Band: Five-Minute Anime Update Thread Small Talk Moment!

(That was a little Conan O'Brien tribute. If you're not familiar with the bit in question, watch this, or if that doesn't work, this abbreviated one.)

Btw, I know the references in this list were even more obscure than usual. The links in the disclaimer should help (I thought about putting them in the list itself, but it would've been too obtrusive). As for the front-page question marks, there's an unhelpful hint in the newspost which will make sense after the fact. Mav had some good ideas in the Jan. 7 thread, but I don't think he noticed the "The".

[Nate the Great]

Hardy har har.

But really, nitpicking is only one of many services I provide at no charge. And it does feel like we've been stuck in limbo for a year, doesn't it?

[Sa'ar Chasm]

But really, nitpicking is only one of many services I provide at no charge.

How much do you charge for not providing it?

(I suspect for the rest of your life we could never afford it)

[Nate the Great]

Yeah, I'd bankrupt Scrooge McDuck.

[NAHTMMM]

Nero, the villain from the '09 movie, was very loosely based on Jigglypuff

Now that's just silly.


Sorry, Zeke, but I really don't have any thoughts about those question marks on the front page. I'm not exactly an anime specialist. Although since you've been playing the suspense out like this I suppose that what's going in that box might not be anime-specific . . .


Edit: I have noticed the Santa hats in the header graphic, though. Don't think I'd mentioned that before.