April 2 (5M^_^)

[Zeke]

Now then, back to business. For today's update we have --

Wait! I've got it! Anime!

That's what all the cool sites are into now! Who needs sci-fi? There's a whole new genre just waiting for me to attack it! My hitcounts will soar! My frustrations will be crushed by giant robots! I'll never have to hear the name "Joss Whedon" again!

From now on, this site is Five-Minute Anime! New front page! New Statement of Purpose! New list: The Top 10 Signs That You Wish Your Girlfriend Were an Anime Character! And exclamation points for all!

^_^

[NeoMatrix]

Boo

I decided to stop by and see what is going on.

[NeoMatrix]

Please tell me this is a late April Fools Joke. I need you to finish your Voyager fivers.

[Tate]

Arigato gozaimasu Zeke-soma! ^^

[MaverickZer0]

*looks at the disclaimer*

If I weren't lazy, I'd translate that. As it is, I get a vague sense of wrongness looking at it, but I can't brain Japanese right now.

[Wowbagger]

I can't tell you how glad I am that you added the ^__^ to the About page, but didn't get rid of the zombie joke from last year.

"5M^_^'s Statement of BRAINS." I lol'd.

[Zeke]

Yes. That was, um... yeah. I noticed that too late. Glad you enjoyed it.

There was a mistake in the T10 list as well -- I said "nanoprobes" a la Voyager instead of "nanomachines" a la Mai-Otome. To get the joke, either read up at Encyclopedia Dramatica (the nanomachines have become a meme) or watch the show, which is pretty good.

Good to see you, Neo! As you can see, this year's April Fool's event is underway the site has changed forever and ever. And ever. Anime till time stops!

*looks at the disclaimer*

If I weren't lazy, I'd translate that. As it is, I get a vague sense of wrongness looking at it, but I can't brain Japanese right now.

It is better to light a single Google than to curse the darkness. The disclaimer is, of course, Mahoro's catch phrase.

[Wowbagger]

Originally Posted by Zeke

Yes. That was, um... yeah. I noticed that too late. Glad you enjoyed it.

Ach, man, ye should have jus' claimed it were intentional, and I'd ne'er been th' wiser.

...no, I don't know where that accent just came from.

[MaverickZer0]

Vague feeling of wrongness replaced by a strong one at the discovery that Zeke watches rom-com anime. Tell me it's because she's a robot, dude.

Though. I did like the Speed Racer joke. That is much more appropriate.

[Zeke]

You would be well-advised not to assume I've actually watched anything I make references to during an April Fool's event event that launches a glorious new future for the site. Especially considering what the first fiver is gonna be...

That said, I am a Mahoromatic fan. You wouldn't believe me if I told you how I wound up watching it (which is something I can say about many animes), but obviously the robot thing got my attention. The characters kept it, though. I have no robot excuse for watching both seasons of Ai Yori Aoshi, so suffice to say I can enjoy a good harem show if it's got more entertainment than angst.

(Also, Mahoro's catch phrase is famous enough that I knew about it well before I watched the show.)

[Wowbagger]

Originally Posted by Zeke

You wouldn't believe me if I told you how I wound up watching it...

I sense a story here. And I want it told.

[Zeke]

Well, I didn't say it was an interesting story. I was doing a Google search for something related to Rin, my favourite character in another anime (Fate/Stay Night). What I turned up was a page by someone using "Rin" as a handle. On it, she had a weird but amusing-sounding clip from the dub of some anime. The anime turned out to be Mahoromatic, which has another character named Rin (although she wasn't important in that clip). Even stranger, I think that's not the anime this particular Rin had named herself after; the pic on the page was certainly from another show. But that's how I found out about Mahoromatic, and what I read intrigued me enough to check it out.

The name "Rin" is one of the chief pieces of evidence for Zeke's First Rule of Anime: The more girls you run into with a given name, the more likely it is that there's also one male character with that name. The male Rin is in SHUFFLE!. See also Sakura (male in Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan) and Chiaki (male in Nodame Cantabile).

By the way, I haven't abandoned the event. I've done that with two April Fool's events site reinventions in a row -- not this time, baby. I'm riding this anime train till they run out of rail.

[Nate the Great]

It's the 11th. I think the novelty of April Fool's Day has worn off. Perhaps you should've chosen a prank that would've taken less time. For example, creating a newspost that a new fiver has been published. Include a link, and have the "fiver" page say April Fool's, and call the reader a sucker or something.

In other words, PLEASE change the site back and actually put up something that won't be obsolete in a week!

[Zeke]

No. We've been over this -- I do long April Fool's events. I enjoy it. And I'm going somewhere with this one. The fact that I'm running late is unfortunate, but not game-changing.

[Nate the Great]

There's no way I can continue without sounding like a whiny condescending jerk. Just consider the replay value of event-related pages versus regular fivers.

[Wowbagger]

I fully support long April Fool's Day events. I also support late ones.

Zeke, you taught me everything I know about ridiculously overblown AFD events from small websites. I've amused hundreds (and terrified thousands) with antic stunts thrown as a result of FMCheese and FMZombies. This year, my audio drama (Starship Excelsior; shameless plug; link in my signature; tell your nerd friends) is planning to spring its AFD joke sometime in June, because, quote, "the audience won't be expecting it then," unquote, and, quote, "we haven't even halfway finished it yet," unquote.

So keep on having absurdly-high-to-impossible expectations for yourself! You're a role model for All Internet!

In fact, the Excelsior AFD is what brings me here tonight. How would a voice actor pronounce "dsokdpach"?

Thank you. And thank you for the story.

[NAHTMMM]

I found the front-page one-liner the funniest "part" of the Top 10 list. I'm not sure what that says about me.

[Zeke]

ARRRRGH.

You know the routine. I hit a wall made up partly of RL obligations (lots of them) and partly of perfectionism. I was so determined not to screw this one up, but here we are a month later. I don't feel guilty about it, per my policy of not doing that anymore, but it's extremely frustrating.

Trouble is, I can't abandon this event. And not just because the last two were false starts. No, I'm going somewhere with this one, and the point won't become clear until about halfway through. So I'm just gonna have to ask you to bear with me.

If I can, I'll start again on Monday. (Can't do earlier -- I'm moving my stuff from one room of the house to another this weekend.) But here's the plan: I won't start up again until I have as much of the event "in hand" as possible. That way I can move through it quickly and we can all get back to our lives.

[NAHTMMM]

Originally Posted by Zeke

ARRRRGH.

You know the routine. I hit a wall made up partly of RL obligations (lots of them) and partly of perfectionism.

Indeed I do. You'd think I'd learn to avoid that by now, but . . .

No, I'm going somewhere with this one

I tried to imagine where you could take anime, and for some reason the only thing that popped into my mind for a while was "blinking text".

[Wowbagger]

tags. You heard it here first.

We are patient fans, Zeke. Keep it up. We'll be here.