Wednesday, May 6, 2015
What is the Source Material for Anime?
| Anime, as a form of entertainment, has become so popular over the decades that the world collectively refers to this one country's animated content by name, rather than simply calling them Japanese cartoons the way we would any other country. Perhaps this comes from the uniquely stylised art, or perhaps from the sheer number of anime series produced over the years, or perhaps a combination of the two. But just where are anime producers finding the material for this much? There is a constant stream of new material, with anywhere from 2 to 10 new anime released each month. Anime can only come from two places: original ideas, or adapted from another source. Original ideas, though not scarce, are not nearly as commonplace as adaptions. With this in mind, let's take a look at the various sources anime can be adapted from. Almost every anime is adapted from manga. As a term in Japan, 'manga' simply refers to any comic done in Japanese, much the same way 'anime' refers to all animation released in Japan. Outside of Japan, the term has come to be recognised as a specific type of comic, with certain traits and art styles shared by all. These traits and art styles have been a heavy influence on the world, from Chinese 'manhua' to the French movement 'la nouvelle manga.' Manga covers a wide range of genres and story types, from long-running action epics to simple, one-shot love stories. While it is rare to see an anime adapted from a one-shot, almost every manga with even a shred of popularity will get an anime adaption. Not every manga, however, is published the same way anymore. With the rise of the Internet came a new way to share material, and the rise of 'webmanga' began. These are manga published online, sometimes serialized in online magazines and sometimes published entirely by the author themselves. Most webmanga that reach a certain popularity level, and thus productivity level, become published as manga and adapted into anime. Two of the most notable examples are the recent Monthly Girl's Nozaki-kun, and Hetalia: Axis Powers. Along with this new age comes a new form of storytelling: the visual novel. Most people who have never used a visual novel before have a hard time grasping the concept. It's much like a video game, but with the structure of a book. Remember those choose-your-own-adventure books you read so much as a kid? Visual novels are the same idea, only told all through illustrations and presented electronically. Visual novels are a prime material from anime adaptions. As the novels follow multiple storylines, the anime will usually choose to adapt the "perfect" or most popular option, leaving the other storylines as possibilities for second seasons or special episodes. Another medium is the video game itself. One of the most popular and enduring anime is Pokémon. Originally beginning as a pair of video games, Pokémon has grown into a franchise that spans all across the globe. And it isn’t the only popular anime to come from a game. Persona, Dragon Age, Final Fantasy and Tales of Symphonia name a few. Occasionally, anime will be adapted from actual books. This isn't much of a popular option; more likely than book series are the light novels, a genre of short novellas often accompanied by illustrations. But classic literature has also been seen adapted, like Romeo x Juliet, The Count of Monte Cristo, and almost as many Alice in Wonderland interpretations as there are in Western entertainment. So far, all anime source materials we've seen come from Japan, and it is true that anime producers like their content home-grown. Every once in a while, an anime from an outside source will come along. Comics such as Iron Man and X-Men have had their own short-lived anime adaptions. One notable venture lies in Deltora Quest, an anime based off a series of popular Australian children's novels. The possibilities for anime adaptions have been growing greater and greater over the years. While classic manga will continue to be the largest contributor, it is possible that sourcing for anime will grow past its borders, possibly even to the Western hemisphere, and that is a possibility to look forward to – admit it, you’ve always wanted to see your favorite book series adapted as an anime. What is the Source Material for Anime? is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Amazon Doubling Down on their Advertising Network
| Amazon has been slowly growing their internal advertising network, which allows companies to showcase their products and services on Kindle e-readers and tablets. The company also has the ability to run advertisements on their extended network of websites, such as IMDB. Lately, Amazon has been establishing ties with new companies to advertise in non-conventional ways. When you buy a new Kindle e-reader or tablet there is the option to pay less money and go with the “Special Offers” edition. These variants display advertising on the screensaver and also on the navigation bar. Companies such as L’Oréal were early adopters and helped the Amazon Media Group grow. In a world dominated by Google, Amazon has an upward battle to promote their advertising platform. According to eMarketer Amazon only accounts for 0.75% of the digital advertising market, in terms of revenue. In order to facilitate growth, Amazon has reached out to new companies for some very innovative advertising campaigns. Amazon Media Group’s vice president of global advertising sales Seth Dallaire revealed that they recently did a deal with Land Rover to help distribute an e-book adventure story written for the brand by an established author, on the Kindle platform. Dallaire said: “We saw very high engagement from customers in terms of reading it. It was not promoted as a pure advertisement, but rather content, and the author that created that content is what brought customers in to engage with it to begin with. It was a great learning for us.” Elsewhere, in Japan, Amazon worked with Nissan to create e-book brochures for new vehicles. Amazon is working with automakers to measure how many people visited a car dealership or drove away with a new vehicle as a result. Dallaire said that the campaign worked so well in Japan — a country that has really taken to digital brochures — Amazon may look to extend that type of format to other markets. “Most people don’t associate Amazon with cars; we don’t sell cars on the platform. But customers trust Amazon to provide objective opinions about a product or a brand … we will work hard to show that there is some attribution to that level of investment that drives business results, even if it doesn’t happen on Amazon,” Dallaire said In the end, most of the internet population is likely well aware of the Amazon affiliate program, which allows anyone to advertise a product that is sold and earn a small commission. The Amazon Media Group primarily targets businesses to advertise on their e-readers, tablets and network of websites and is not very well known. Hopefully this will change with more personalized relationships and innovative ways to tell a brand story. Amazon Doubling Down on their Advertising Network is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Digimon Adventure Tri Announces Voice Cast and Release Plans!
| Following a NicoNico marathon of the original Digimon Adventure anime series, the staff for the upcoming Digimon Adventure tri. Has finally released more information about the cast and release date! The staff announced the voice cast of the "Chosen children" (Digi-Destined) as well as their original digimon companions! The staff has also announced that the anime will be part of a 6-part film series, with the first film to be titled "Sakai" (Reunion) and will be premiering on November 21st . Atsuya Uki will provide the character designs, Yuuko Kakihara will act as series script supervisor and Ketitaro Motonoga (Rayearth) will direct. The original cast of the Digimon partners in the 1999 anime will be returning for the new series though the cast of the human characters are completely different this time around and will star: Natsuki Hanae as Taichi Yagami The anime is a bit longer of a wait than we had anticipated, I’m excited to see this series as a feature length and not to mention the art style, while vastly different from the original series has a sense of maturity to it. Not to mention the end scenes with Omnimon and the mysterious black digimon looked very promising! Digimon Adventure Tri Announces Voice Cast and Release Plans! is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Mobile Google Search Has Surpassed Desktop
| Google implemented a new policy last month that had the entire digital publishing world take notice. If a website has a mobile friendly design it would have a higher placement in the search engine results and older websites would plummet in the rankings. This is not a decision that Google made lightly, primarily because for the first time ever mobile search has outweighed desktop. The company says that "more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan." Google declined to elaborate further on what the other countries were, how recently this change happened or what the relative volumes of PC and mobile search queries are now. When it comes to smartphone and desktop usage, the digital publishing industry doesn’t really have any concrete data. The only information that has been available was from Comscore who recently released a report and graphic. They said in the last quarter of 2014 US mobile queries (tablets + smartphones) were roughly 29% of total search volumes. This is across the entire industry. Apparently this information in Google’s eyes is totally incorrect and smartphone search has grown significantly. In order to tap into the growing smartphone segment Google has given publishers and e-reader companies a new reason to use Adwords. There are new options to include picture-heavy ads that show users a gallery before directing them to a website, and e-book ads that sandwich together availability, prices, user reviews, and pictures into a compact mobile format Smartphones are clearly the way that people search for a new e-book or read reviews. It is critically important that if you sell digital content such as audiobooks or e-books that a mobile friendly design is paramount. Mobile Google Search Has Surpassed Desktop is a post from: Good e-Reader |
Using the OverDrive app with the Apple Watch
| As you may have heard, Apple made some news recently by adding a new product to their line of devices, the Apple Watch. Wearable technology has been trending One of the exciting pieces to the Apple Watch is that app developers now have a chance to create new experiences for users to interact with. We are currently in the process of looking into developing a unique experience for OverDrive users but in the meantime you can use Apple’s “Now Playing” feature to use our app with your brand new Apple Watch! Simply open the app on your phone and start playing your audiobook of choice. Your iPhone and Watch are synced via Bluetooth meaning that you can then control your playback options right on your phone. It’s never been easier to enjoy free audiobooks from your library and the Apple Watch provides an even more convenient way to access these titles.  |
lately ever since fitness trackers like the FitBit and the Nike+ Fuelband becameCheck out the latest eHighlights catalogs!
| The Collection Development team worked diligently to put together the latest editions of our eHighlights catalogs. There have been some great releases in April and May for Kids & Teens. We are finally seeing trends towards summer! Pool by Jihyeon Lee is the beautifully drawn story of a swimming pool, and of course we have Stingrays! Underwater Fliers, which will excite all little marine biologists. Then, of course, there are teen romances like City Love, 99 Days, The Summer After You and Me and Saint Anything (major fangirling is happening at OverDrive for Sarah Dessen's new book). June and July bring some blockbuster releases for Adults with new books from Harper Lee, Ernest Cline, Judy Blume, Meg Cabot, Aziz Ansari, Brad Meltzer, Paula McClain, Candace Bushnell, Janet Evanovich, Brad Thor, and Stephen King – there is something for everyone. This all-star lineup cannot be missed so make sure you stock up on titles for your patrons. Stay tuned for upcoming editions of our catalogs! For past issues, click here. 
Emma Kanagaki is a Collection Development Analyst with OverDrive  |
SSH shenanigans
| Password security is a big deal. No more so than when you've got smart kids who have learned about SSH, with a Raspberry Pi in their bedroom. The kids from Gurgleapps would like to show you what they've learned recently about the shell. We are impressed, and are reminded that we all need to change our passwords. The Gurgleapps folks have made a short tutorial available for those who aren't familiar with the shell – they've promised more tutorials soon, and we'll be keeping an eye on what they get up to! |
Amazon Kindle for iOS is Draining Your Battery
| The Amazon Kindle App for the iPhone and iPad has been a battery hog for the last month. Even when you aren’t reading an e-book and doing something else, the app remains in standby mode. The Kindle app was updated April 15th 2015 with the quintessential “performance and stability improvements”. This last update was the culprit and many people are finding their tablets or smartphones are not lasting as long as they should. I have an iPhone 6 Plus and most of the time I get about a day and a half of usage. The Kindle app has relegated it to about 15 hours, before it runs out of juice. I think the main problem is primarily due to a Whispersync timing issue. This is the Amazon system that fetches new content or books you purchased on other devices. There is no way to disable this with Background App Refresh, because Amazon does not have that feature on iOS 8. Amazon is aware of this issue and is working on a fix. Likely it will be pushed out in about a week. via Zednet Amazon Kindle for iOS is Draining Your Battery is a post from: Good e-Reader |
