Due-East.org » cartoon http://www.due-east.org Musings on Things Asian Tue, 08 Jun 2010 18:12:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Is Magibon an android? http://www.due-east.org/2008/03/31/is-magibon-an-android/ http://www.due-east.org/2008/03/31/is-magibon-an-android/#comments Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:58:06 +0000 孙智谦 http://www.due-east.org/2008/03/31/is-magibon-an-android/ see it in motion. So I wonder which one was the inspiration for the other. [...]]]>   Magibon's Inspiration or the other way around?   Ok, the picture above may not look like Magibon when you just see a still frame of it, but trust me when I say that this little flash cartoon’s mannerisms are eerily like Magibon’s when you see it in motion. So I wonder which one was the inspiration for the other. I’m feeling way too lazy to actually write an e-mail and find out, so you’ll have to do that yourself. But it’s definitely freaky how much alike they are. I wonder if Magibon is an android.   ]]> http://www.due-east.org/2008/03/31/is-magibon-an-android/feed/ 0 Magibon’s evil cuteness http://www.due-east.org/2008/01/20/magibon-youtubes-bastion-of-pointlessness/ http://www.due-east.org/2008/01/20/magibon-youtubes-bastion-of-pointlessness/#comments Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:22:12 +0000 孙智谦 http://www.due-east.org/2008/01/20/magibon-youtubes-bastion-of-pointlessness/   Would somebody explain to me what in the world this girl “Magibon” is all about? I was on Youtube the other day and clicked on a few of the “Videos being watched right now” and came across her videos. It was absolutely pointless, just 40-or-so seconds of her staring into the camera and saying a few things in Japanese before “making the V” (the universal pose every Asian girl makes in every photo) and turning off the camera. So I checked out several other videos of hers thinking I’d eventually find something with some sort of substance to it…the only thing I could find that could be confused for something interesting was one video where she was complaining in Japanese about how she doesn’t like America and wants to move to Japan. And that was the exception…Pretty much all of her dozens of videos are equally pointless. She just kind of stares at herself on her computer monitor, moves her head, makes a pouty/smirky face, says something seemingly pointless in Japanese, and makes a pouty/smirky face again. Here’s just one example, sans any actual talking:   [There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]   Was that not thirty-four seconds of the most pointless video ever recorded? I can forgive a lot of the pointless videos on Youtube because a lot of videos have that “you just had to be there or know the people involved” quality. But hers don’t qualify; they’re just dumb. She says in her profile that she’s 21 years old, but I’ve seen some speculation on the web that she’s actually around 14, which I tend to believe based on my hope that an adult would be able to come up with something a little more productive/interesting/relevant/useful. Or maybe she is 21 and just bored.   But as obnoxiously pointless as her videos are, she’s incredibly cute, which makes her videos like train wrecks…It’s really hard to look away. Her big cartoon eyes have some kind of evil power over people. I LOL’ed at what one guy on Youtube said about her:
What is SHE SAYING?!?!?! Translation? I don’t get or understand any of her videos, some of them she doesn’t even talk, she just stares into your soul, and you leave thinking something inside of you is gone…=(

Well put. Her videos get tons of “You’re retarded. Do something worth watching in your videos” comments, so apparently lots of other people also hate but can’t stop watching her videos. Hmmm…maybe I’ve got her all wrong. She does get people talking about her, and the more people talk about her, the more people will want to see her videos. And the more people see her videos, the greater her chances are of catching the attention of someone in the entertainment business in Japan, which could lead to her fulfilling her dream of going to live there. So, yes, she could just be a really strange person. Or she could be an extremely smart individual using free tools to market herself in a way that will give her a good chance of actually realizing her dream of living in Japan. Either way, I’m hooked, and I’m sure you are too, so here’s the link to her Youtube profile so you can get your fix. And here’s her blog where, if you’re lucky enough to be able to read Japanese, you can read her “deepest thoughts.” If you can’t read Japanese, you can still see pictures of her doing more of what she does best, stare into a lens with an “I know something you don’t know” stare.   ***Update*** – Frank (in the comments on this post) has the distinction of being her first seriously demented but incredibly talented stalker. Congratulations, Frank! You need therapy!   ***Update #2*** – There are 2 newer posts about Magibon that shed a lot more light on her here and here. ]]> http://www.due-east.org/2008/01/20/magibon-youtubes-bastion-of-pointlessness/feed/ 103