How many points in a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster?

Vacuum of Space

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:33:19 GMT

Created by OnePlusYou

Despite P---- M----'s attempts at avoiding¹ me all week, N. and I were walking up Valencia when P--- half-stood out of a car moving in the opposite direction, shouting our names and throwing the horns. I blame this on N.'s power to run into people, and not on my ineffectual stalking.

¹ Not true.

Enjoying the heat, suckers?

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:20:30 GMT

While you've all been melting in 90-degree weather, N. and I have been chillaxing in 50 degree San Francisco weather. It is exactly like New York November weather - layered clothes, light jacket, and a light pair of gloves or a hat are necessary. N. and I are only slightly under-dressed for this weather. Air conditioning is a distant memory at this point.

Tomorrow we go to San Diego, which has highs only in the mid-70's - damn near perfect weather.

I wouldn't be able to brag about this if I actually lived here, however.

Streets of San Fransisco

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:59:16 GMT

Yup, that's where I am. Only not in the 1970's. Y'know, working on Otaku USA reviews.

PBS Fortune and Glory (more like pledge breaks and antiques)

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 22:15:51 GMT

The producer of Kids Next Door made a short stop-motion film called "Coupon" that's really good, and it's on PBS's website for some voting thingy that you could vote on if you so choose.

Consequently, the show I worked on last summer is currently airing on PBS on Wednesdays two episodes each week. Apparently the DVD is also out. I remembered the other night that I actually did a couple of voices for the show (in an unofficial capacity). So although I have never called the Car Talk radio show, I have played someone who called Car Talk on TV. Assuming I made the final cut...

Stop inviting me to your events this weekend!

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:04:48 GMT

N. and I will be in San Fransisco from the 16th to the 23rd, followed by San Diego from the 23rd to the 27th, wherein we are taking the red-eye home and will be dead to the world on the 28th.

So stop having birthday parties and karaoke and picnics, damnit! Nothing the 16th-28th, OK?

Even if I was going to be in town I have two deadlines and a new position at work.

Otaku USA 7!

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:19:29 GMT

Hey everyone, Otaku USA issue seven is out, and it includes a really embarrassing biography of me in the front. I didn't want to write the same bio again, so I went for a crazy angle, and god knows the editor didn't stop me, so...

I was passing my copy of the magazine around the office and a coworker whom I don't know that well started reading my bio aloud. I suddenly realized my mistake and yanked the issue out of his hands and refused give it back. In an effort not to be outted as a freak I did something even weirder - maybe there was no way to save face at that point. I should've just let him read it to everyone in my cube-unit. After all, by now I'm sure they all know I'm pretty weird.

Two days later I handed a friend's husband the magazine and he did the exact same thing - read the entire bio out loud. I tried to stop him, but at least it wasn't within earshot of my entire office.

I can only conclude from these two instances that the same thing will happen if you purchase this magazine and read the bio/Top Five section. And you can't read it in the store, either, they're shrink-wrapped (because of the DVD).

OMG The Season Finale of Doctor Who Totally Sucked Like Fanfiction

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:21:29 GMT

What? I'm sorry, I couldn't you over the shouts of "NERD NERD NERD NERD NERD!"

That whole scene on Bad Wolf Beach - I just shouted FAP FAP FAP FAP over the dialog because JESUS CHRIST that was terrible! The Doctor created a bullshit half-human clone of himself (accidentally, although it has all the same memories and feelings) so he could marry Rose in an alternate dimension.

You know what's not as bad as all the alternate dimensions this season? E-space!

The season finale made me want to go back and watch a bad old episode, like "Planet of Evil," because at least that was bad on a small scale, instead of epically bad.

I don't like Torchwood. I've only seen one episode, but it represents many of the elements of the new series that I dislike. I haven't touched the new Sarah Jane spin-off, because I tried to watch K-9 and Company like four times and could never make it past the first 30 minutes or so because it was so boring.

So having characters from Torchwood and the new Sarah Jane show in the finale was like awful whip cream on this Sundae of craptasticness. You know what makes for a good Doctor Who episode? Including more than one doctor. You know what makes for a bad episode? Sidekick reunion show! Lamerz!

Things I liked: Davros, the Cloister Bell, moving the Earth, the Albino Space Cops

I also enjoyed the crazy prophet dalek, although normally I dislike prophesies in my fiction. I started calling the little guy, "The Blob That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World".

Things I didn't like: Every time the Doctor mentioned a detail about the Time Wars I could hear thousands of keyboards typing fan fiction. Also Captain Jack met everyone so your slash stories can all be legit now. Fake-out regeneration!? LAMERZ.

How many times have the daleks been genocided in the new series? And seriously Davros - making a beam that destroys all realities? What?

Furthermore, the subnet created by the Prime Minister was alright - until she revealed that it's only purpose was to boost a cell phone signal to the doctor.

You know, UNIT used to really mean something. They used to be more autonomous and the Doctor was like a consultant. Sometimes, he was kind of a nuisance. Now it's all like "Oh noes!! Without our Savior the Doctor Britain makes death camps in like two months after aliens attack!" The only defense plans Earth had in this episode were:

1. Call the Doctor.
2. Blow up the Earth.

No back-up plan?! Seriously? I thought the Doctor love-love-loved humans in the new series because they are so fricking clever and resilient!

N. put it very well that old episodes are bad on a small scale. This season finale was epically bad. I wanted to go back and watch Planet of Evil to remind me what bad episodes of Dr. Who used to be like.

Hopefully with a new head writer next season will be better.

Golgo vs. Lupin

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:26:43 GMT

View Poll: Golgo 13 vs. Lupin the 3rd

Weird Question

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:00:48 GMT

N. and I need headshots, like what actors get for their resumés. N. thinks that the places advertised in the back of the Village Voice are all scams, and would prefer we get a personal referral from someone we know.

Also we need to get the photographs taken and developed before July 16th, and also July 5th is booked and we're out of town on the 4th.

Suggestions? Recommendations? Drop me an email. erin (dot) finnegan (at) gmail.com.

P.S.
I was going to throw a 4th of July party but am going to syringavulgaris's instead. Next year, the 4th, my rooftop.

P.P.S.
The headshots are to show to wedding investor people.

Orthodoxy Vs. Orthopraxy

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:30:59 GMT

I promised N. I would post a link to this, because even though he sometimes comments as froglartbge he refuses to keep a blog, even when he has blog-like things to say, links to provide, and discussion topics of interests (which is nearly daily).

In any case, I first read about the idea of orthodoxy vs. orthopraxy in a book I was required to read for a Zen class in college. It was a very thin book, but it's impact on me was great. Around the same time I read Franny and Zooey by Salinger, (the only other work of his I've read), which has the same idea not spelled out in different terms.

Orthodoxy is "correct thought" and orthopraxy is "correct practice." In the West, we are dominated by orthodoxy-style religion and educational systems. The East has more elements of orthopraxy. In an orthodoxy, "it's the thought that counts." Your faith is more important in church than the ceremony itself - your belief in god is more important than your method of prayer. Pray however you want in an orthodoxy. In school, there's more of an emphasis on the vague sense of learning something... memorization takes a back seat to the importance of essay questions on tests. The best example I can cite is how American colleges consider applications; Colleges look at your essay as well as the occasional resume or portfolio, and they want to know what electives you took and what sports and clubs you joined, as well as your SAT scores and GPA.

By contrast, in an orthopraxy-style college you only have to pass the entrance exam to get in (as far as I can tell) - and it's a multiple choice test. In an orthopraxy religion, correct practice is more important than the thought behind it. If you're performing a Shinto burial for bent needles, or a tea ceremony, it's more important to get the motions exactly right. In the Franny and Zooey example, a man finds salvation by saying the name of god hundreds of times (or something like that, I read it in 2000).

On the Neojaponism blog, (which is great! Do these guys have a book? Or several books?), "Marxy" revisits the essay linked above with an example of orthodoxy and orthopraxy in web addresses of all things. It's a must-read. More recently, the same author talks about Dave Barry's book about Japan, where Barry witnesses a group of Greasers dancing in Harajuku on a Sunday in 1992. It's a fascinating analysis of the book, which I read when I read a lot of Dave Barry at a time when I had no interest in Japan.

I had never heard of a Meritocracy until I was nearly through with school, but I immediately fell in love with the idea. As someone with really solidly decent test scores and a high GPA, I romanticized the concept of a society wherein I could get ahead in life by acing a test. ikyoto's description of taking the JLPT test in Japan quickly dissuaded my romantic ideals; Many foreign workers living in Japan MUST pass the JLPT to keep their visas, so cheating on the test was rampant. I've also heard several accounts of the Korean education system, wherein cheating is also rampant. It's less important that you actually learn something than it is important that your test score is high on paper.

N. also described how in a real meritocracy rich people buy better grades and cheat on tests, etc., etc. Consequently, if you fail to get into Yale and your parents then donate a building to the school, you will totally be admitted.

For N., orthopraxy vs. orthodoxy is a question of which is better and which is right and which is wrong, which system is superior or more effective in a society and which is "unhealthy" and destructive. I'm not comfortable making those kind of comparisons, partially because I'm a horrible person and a cultural relativist, but mostly because I can see some merit (and some disadvantages) to each type of society, and I think we can learn a lot by comparing the two.

To leave off on a concrete example, for those Greasers Dave Barry saw, correctly emulating the dress and dance style of 1950's Americans was more important than having "the right heart". As I saw recently in the horrible Guitar Wolf movie Wild Zero, combing your hair exactly right is more important to that Japanese subcultural than embracing the same ideals that the original subculture held. (The R1 DVD release of the film includes a drinking game where you drink every time the protagonist combs his hair.)

Someone in the comments to the Neojaponism blog also recalls a visceral reaction to very precise and accurate Japanese jazz concert. Frederick Schodt wrote a book about why Japanese robotics companies beat the pants off of similar American companies - the book flopped, but the point of it was that the Japanese companies were all about precision and conformity, which is needed in manufacturing tiny robot parts. From the above link:

In the 1980s, Americans seriously believed that the Japanese were going to take over the world. While technology manufacturing stateside was still subpar, it was equivalent to religious ritual in Japan—organized, routine, and very, very precise. Schodt, who had been hired to interpret during factory visits by major Japanese telecom companies visiting the U.S., was taken aback by the vast chasm between the two countries' processes. "The US didn't understand Japan's obsession with quality control and manufacturing technology," Schodt says. "They thought, we have the space shuttle, and we have the bomb. What else could we possibly need? Their factories were a mess."

Four Movies in Five Days

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:52:24 GMT

The New York Asian Film Festival is going on right now, so I will see four movies in five days. Monday was the live action Dororo film from 2006. Tuesday was L; Change the World, otherwise known as the third Death Note live action film. Tonight is part one of a two-part Thai war epic called King Naresuan, which has war elephants, guaranteed.

Friday Satoshi Kon will be at Lincoln Center for Q&A after Paprika, which I've seen twice in theaters but it's my new favorite of Kon's (and N.'s least favorite). Actually I've seen Kon speak before on a Tokyo Godfathers tour, but by god I'm writing coverage of it this time. Unpaid coverage.

Here is my coverage of AnimeNext, by the way. Without pictures because the wordpress database over there is biting my ass.

And quoth Dante (not that one, the other Dante) "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" Work has been going over schedule, and my contract for the season should've been up last week. I didn't expect to see so many movies and also review them while still working full time.

I also expected, when I interviewed to work part time as a Weight Watcher's receptionist person, that I would not have a job this week. Or next week. I will probably still have to work part of next week at least, which begs the question: Am I paid by the week or the day here? Weight Watchers receptionist, by the way, weigh people in at meetings and that's about it. I could work/volunteer/earn $20 extra bucks before work without aversely affecting my schedule.

My hiatus goes from whenever I finish the last show of the season to the end of July, so after Comic Con I have another two-ish months of work, at least. Maybe more. Who knows what the future may bring?! Betwixt September 19th and October 12th, there is an anime con I want to go to every single weekend: Anime Weekend Atlanta, New York Anime Festival, Providence Anime Conference/A Wedding in NYC, and SITACon, all back-to-back-to-back. I'd be a jackass to ask for a month of Fridays off, but it might happen anyway.

Yes, I know about Rocketplane Weddings

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:04:22 GMT

Three people have now sent me related links to this service. Yes, I know, someone sent me a link last Thursday or so.

I do plan on getting married before 2011, and N. and I can't really afford the cool $2.2 million for the service.

Maybe we can have a 20th or 50th wedding anniversary in space, because the price will have dropped by then for sure.

Shinji Icon

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:24:11 GMT

Alright livejournal, I know someone on my friends list has an icon of Shinji from Eva freaking out. I thought it might be ltsk but I don't see it on her profile. It looks kinda like this:

I don't remember if Shinji's mouth is open or closed or what, but he's definitely wearing his plug suit.

I really, really want this icon, and I searched like 40 Eva LJ icon communities to find it...

Forget Cooking Mama, What about Cooking Papa?

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:04:57 GMT

Over memorial day I watched some friends play Cooking Mama for the Nintendo Wii. It's a bit surreal and semi-translated. I'm just saying, squid ink spaghetti isn't something a lot of Americans eat on a regular basis... so that adds to the psychedelic feel of the game.

But forget about Cooking Mama - I just heard (or was reminded of) Cooking Papa, which, according to Wikipedia is "...the fifth longest manga in Japan^{[citation needed]}" with 94 volumes. The anime series, which ran from 1992-1995 was 151 episodes long.

Let's be clear on this beard issue

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:35:31 GMT

(a) Wall Street job
(b) Williamsburg resident
(c) Linux user

N. once had a beard before I went out with him. It looked nice and when it got too bushy Hasidic Jews would ask him where to find the schule. But the last time N. tried to grow a beard it somehow didn't work right. He complained about the itching the entire time. The goal was to grow a really sweet handlebar mustache for New Years, but the mustache didn't work either.

N. also clarified that what was looking for was someplace or someone who professionally removes ingrown hairs, because his home surgery is growing increasingly bloody and dangerous. Thanks for the suggestions, though, everyone! There were certainly some things on the list N. has not tried.

An Appeal to Beard Experts

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:57:18 GMT

N. is a hairy man. He has this problem, this beard-related problem, and I am turning to livejournal for some help and/or advice.

Several times per month a few hairs on N.'s face become ingrown, and he performs risky home surgery on himself to dig out the hairs - some of which have been growing under the skin for months - and his hair grows really fast and thick. As N. gets older this problem is getting worse.

I keep suggesting electrolysis on the peskier hairs, or perhaps N. should take up shaving with a straight razor instead of today's shitty safety razors which dull too quickly on N.'s face. He also regularly destroys electric razors. N. objects to using a straight razor in the morning when he's sleepy because of the risk of cutting his own throat.

So anyway - horrible ingrown facial hairs - anyone got suggestions?

All the good Father's Day cards sold out long ago...

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:58:34 GMT

Today has been a pretty crappy day so far. But...

This episode of the Moth podcast really made me laugh. Thanks to KL for recommending the show in the fist place!

Also The 2nd movement of Beethoven's 7th Symphony in A major made me feel better. From the Nodame Cantabile Best 100 Album. That whole symphony is great! And this Nodame soundtrack is like, all the classical music I need. Ever. (From the live action series, not the anime.)

Overheard in New York: Last night N. and I sat next to another couple at a restaurant within earshot of their conversation. They were both young lawyers out on a match.com date. The guy prattled on with his conversation and when he went to bathroom his date texted her friends. N. could see over her shoulder, the text message read: "This guy is a douccccccccche"

None of my Horses Came in this Weekend

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:23:57 GMT

In some alternate universe Hillary is the presidential candidate and Big Brown is the first winner of the Triple Crown in 30 years. In this universe, however...

(This isn't all Triple Crown nonsense, I also talk about MoCCA and the Akihabara killer.)

I was hopeful all the way through the first mile of the Bemont Stakes that this was it - Big Brown was in second or third and he was totally going to be the first horse to win the Triple Crown in my lifetime. But in the last quarter mile the jockey pulled up because Big Brown started slowing down - and I somehow didn't see it happening. All I saw was that my horse didn't win. As some other jerk got the wreath of flowers I didn't bother looking at the end results. I thought Big Brown got third... but I was wrong, he finished dead last.

There's a lot of controversy about why that might have happened, but here's my armchair commentator explanation: The Kentucky Derby and the Preakness are only 1 1/4 miles, and the Belmont is 1 1/2 miles long. I bet Big Brown thought the race was over. Also it was like 90 degrees. Fuck it.

I was really hoping to see a Triple Crown winner (and more importantly) a female presidential candidate in my lifetime. Not yet, I guess.

The weekend was disappointing in other ways. I went to MoCCA Festival and bought comics and talked to the usual people, but I was feeling down and out of it (also it was 90 degrees out). I bought some comics, I met some out-of-town friends, but I didn't connect with any other Otaku USA writers, I never said hi to anyone from PW, I didn't run into ali_wildgoose at all (she came to the con on Saturday with another girl named Erin), and Jason Shiga (of Bookhunter) didn't get a table and was sitting outside in the heat! I missed the Chip Kidd Batman Manga panel sort of by accident, sort of on purpose, because I don't really care about Batman.

To top matters off on a swelteringly hot disappointing weekend there was also a crazy killing spree in Akihabara. The neighborhood was changing in other ways recently - some of the more depraved shops closed, there are re-development projects going on in some sort of gentrification thing, and recently the cops have been cracking down on maids dancing in the streets. More coverage and commentary on the killings here.

The saving grace to the weekend was hearing Linda Barry (you should read Cruddy, one of my favorite books of all time) speak on a panel on Friday. She is a hysterically funny public speaker, don't ever miss a chance to see her talk!

Favorite Japanese Commercials? And the Case of the Missing Pocky

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:54:15 GMT

N. and I will probably be doing a couple of panels for AnimeNext in a couple of weeks. On a Sunday.

One of the panels will be "Japanese Commercial Apocalypse!" wherein we work from the premise that many Japanese commercial resemble the famous Arnold Schwarzenegger energy drink ad. We spent most of the weekend watching Japanese commercials only to find many of them are not that fun and just look like commercials.

Do you have some favorite Japanese commercials of all time? Please reply here with a link or send me an email.

Meanwhile, I have been searching high and low across the internets for the 2003 "Pocky G" commercial that I linked to long ago. The internet wayback machine has not archived the original video.

An MIT student named MITikari or just plain Ikari made a video using footage from the Pocky G ad and the Matrix Reloaded trailer that has become so prolific and famous that any video search for "Pocky G" only yields Ikari's Glicolutions video and none of the original source videos, all of which came from Glico's Pocky Street website back in the day.

I bet Ikari still has a copy of the Pocky G commercials from back in the day, but I can find no contact information. Glico appears to have cleansed the internet of any trace that Pocky G ever existed. Maybe it was just too gay for them. The packaging advertised it, in English, as being "Hard & Rich". I really enjoyed Pocky G. I'm sad that it no longer exists as a candy or an internet video.

It doesn't help that youtube eliminates "G" from one's search terms.

GOOOOOOAAALLLL!!

Wed, 28 May 2008 15:01:44 GMT

Hello internets,

I am having trouble finding a video on youtube of a Spanish soccer announcer screaming "GOOOOOOOOAAALLL!!" but I need such a video just now, because I hit my Weight Watchers goal.

The Ego and The Squid

Tue, 27 May 2008 15:10:45 GMT

Today my friend Chris is celebrating his 500th webcomic strip for The Ego and the Squid.

It's pretty funny, you should read it. My brother finally created an RSS feed for the strip after two years of badgering, and I have syndicated it on LJ for your convenience: egoandthesquid

I first met Chris when he responded to a flyer I put up at NYU in 2000 asking for submissions for a comics zine I put together (it lasted one issue). He was the only stranger to respond, but it turned out he was another animation student in Tisch. In 2002 I started dating Chris's older brother's roommate, N---. Currently my little brother is Chris's roommate and webmaster. Chris is also my future wedding officiant, having now married several of my friends.

In Full Bloom

Thu, 22 May 2008 20:25:03 GMT

I didn't realize the translation of Hana-Kimi was from 花ざかりの君たちへ, (Hana Zakari No Kimitachi E) meaning "For You in Full Blossom," or perhaps "For You in Full Bloom".

It's about high school students - and so is Flower of Life, another manga title. As of volume three, no explanation or metaphor about flowers and life has been given. The covers of the Kare Kano manga all feature a high school student holding a flower. Even the manga version of Shuffle is subtitled, "Days in the Bloom".

Rock Lee (the same age as high school students) and his coach Guy-sensei often talk about "The Springtime of Youth" in the Naruto manga and anime series.

When or what is the springtime of youth? Are high school students considered to be in full bloom?

I know the "language of flowers" plays into anime and manga sometimes, and the meanings of flowers are similar to the meanings in the West - a red rose means true love, rosemary for remembrance and so on. Do the meanings change much for the Japanese or is it borrowed from the West?

[Insert joke about allergies here.]

N--- is fond of saying that the Japanese seem to be nostalgic about their youth as it is happening. "Let's make memories!" the boy in Loveless proclaims, and although he's an amnesiac, he's not the only anime/manga character using that phrase.

The characters in Honey and Clover seem to know their days together as college friends are numbered, and although there is no framing device to the series, it is written nostalgically. I still hang out with my college friends eight years after graduation and live in the same city - maybe I'm just lucky.

In the film Linda Linda Linda there's the sense that after graduating high school, the characters will go their separate ways. It's a sweet film, but I can't really relate since I hated high school. There was always the possibility that I could live in the same town and hang out with my extended high school friendship group forever - some people do that, after all, but it would mean a ceiling to my career and income level.

I've heard it said (by aunts of mine) that high school is supposed to be "The best years of your life" which might be the equivalent to the Japanese "in full bloom". However, I have never shared this opinion. When I was in high school I believed the best was yet to come, and the idea that life was as good as it could get it was horrifying.

Itemizing Manga?

Tue, 20 May 2008 22:15:58 GMT

I decided that I'm going to itemize next year's taxes, taking into account expenses related to my freelance writing.

Can I write off manga purchases as research, since I write about manga?!

Because No One Asked: More Fishing Manga News

Tue, 20 May 2008 19:36:53 GMT

To follow up my previous fishing manga post, Helen McCarthy posted a link to the Yokote Masuda Manga Museum. Located in the northern Akita prefecture of Japan, the museum is currently celebrating Fishing Sanpei, which was set in Akita.

Here is a picture of the shirt I got from Uniqlo:

Patrick Macias posted an image of a Sanpei toy at the recent Shizuoka Hobby Show, and said:

Aoshima PR woman (pointing to tiny Fishing Crazy Sampei model kit): "Anime and manga is really popular in the US, and so is this, right?"

Me (thinking of Denki Watanabe, Ed Chavez, and Erin Finnegan): "...."

I went to lunch at an awesome new ramen place with coworkers yesterday (4th Ave between 9th and 10th street) and my Japanese coworker talked a bit about TsuriBaka Nisshi ("Diary of a Fisihing Fool"). According to my coworker, TsuriBaka Nisshi is not strictly about fishing like Sanpei (keeping in mind Sanpei is to fishing what Prince of Tennis is to actual tennis). Fishing is the protagonist's escape in TsuriBaka Nisshi. Ed points out in my comments that there are 17 live action (made for TV?) TsuriBaka Nisshi films, some of which are available in English somewhere. Also it won the Shogakukan Manga Award.

So who is Denki Watanabe, anyway?

Fishing Manga!

Fri, 09 May 2008 23:13:05 GMT

As some of you may already know, I've been collecting Uniqlo T-shirts which are being put out to celebrate Shonen Sunday's 50th anniversary. There is only one Uniqlo in all of North America, and the shirts are limited run, and only $16, and did I mention I can wear T-shirts to work? Classic manga combined with nicely designed, reasonably priced screen-printed T-shirts is a culmination of my two greatest weaknesses. The only thing more damning would be anime-themed whiskey in super-cute bottles.

This is how bad it is: On Monday I bought a Fishing Sanpei T-shirt.

That's right, fishing manga! What I love best about manga is the diversity of topics (absent from American comics), so the more ridiculous and more obscure the sub-genre the more I want to read it. I have a fine shelf at home of yo-yo manga, golf manga, mahjong manga, and manga about gourmet food and wine (two separate series, mind you).

What's incredible about Fishing Sanpei (釣りキチ三平) is it's insane popularity. Frederick Schodt talks about it on the second page of his book, Manga Manga! The World of Japanese Comics.

Fishing-Crazy Sanpei (1973-1984) is 65 volumes long, and as of 1985 sold 19 million copies. Schodt compares it to Valley of the Dolls, the best selling novel in the world at the time, which sold 27 million copies between '66 to '83. (Schodt's book is from 1985.)

Tsurikichi Sanpei (Schodt translates it as "Fishing Crazy Sanpei") was adopted into an anime series beginning in 1980. The show ran for 109 episodes! There is an entry in ANN's database for the anime, but not the manga.

Recent cosplay?

I searched for more fishing titles and also found Tsuri Baka Nisshi, (釣りバカ日誌 ) "Diary of a Fishing Fool". I'm having trouble finding a volume count, but the Tsuri Baka Nisshi manga might be 72 volumes long! It was adapted into a 36 episode anime series in 2002, and apparently there have been two movies or possibly live action series. I'm not really sure, I'm having trouble making heads or tails of Japanese wikipedia.

I have like, zero interest in fishing, but I am very interested in fishing manga!