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112-544: The event, and the man's subsequent dates with the woman, who became known as "Hermès" ( エルメス , Erumesu ) , were chronicled on the Japanese mega-BBS 2channel . This led to the compilation of the relevant threads in a book, followed by several manga versions, a movie, a theatrical play later released as a DVD , and finally a TV series . Densha Otoko is a popular example of the " nice guy " class of Japanese geeks who wish to lead normal lives, but are too shy to find

224-406: A guest or visitor . Guests are typically granted access to all functions that do not require database alterations or breach privacy. A guest can usually view the contents of the forum or use such features as read marking , but occasionally an administrator will disallow visitors to read their forum as an incentive to become a registered member. A person who is a very frequent visitor of the forum,

336-461: A sig ), which is a block of text, possibly with BBCode, that appears at the bottom of all of the user's posts. There is a character limit on signatures, though it may be so high that it is rarely hit. Often, the forum's moderators impose manual rules on signatures to prevent them from being obnoxious (for example, being extremely long or having flashing images) and issue warnings or bans to users who break these rules. Like avatars, signatures may improve

448-408: A "cabal" of "petty tyrants". On 4chan , moderators are subject to notable levels of mockery and contempt. There, they are often referred to as janitors (or, more pejoratively, "jannies" ) given their job, which is tantamount to cleaning up the imageboards' infamous shitposting . The administrators (short form: "admin") manage the technical details required for running the site. As such, they have

560-519: A 70% growth in the U.S. market, in line with a 43% increase in overall manga sales in the United States the same year. On July 3, 2020, Funimation announced that they would begin streaming the original Naruto series on July 6. More content from Viz Media started to launch in their catalog such as Hunter × Hunter , Sailor Moon R: The Movie , and two Berserk films. On September 9, 2020, Funimation announced that they had reached

672-465: A January 2003 cover date. Based on the popular Japanese anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump , published by Shueisha , Shonen Jump is retooled for English readers and the American audience and is published monthly, instead of weekly. It features serialized chapters from seven manga series, and articles on Japanese language and culture, as well as manga, anime, video games, and figurines. In conjunction with

784-424: A Non-Threaded format is best. If a user has a message topic and multiple replies to that message topic, a semi-threaded format is best. If a user has a message topic and replies to that message topic and responds to replies, then a fully threaded format is best. Internally, Western-style forums organize visitors and logged-in members into user groups. Privileges and rights are given based on these groups. A user of

896-520: A certain number) when selecting options, as well as private or public display of voters. Polls can be set to expire after a certain date or, in some cases, after a number of days from their creation. Members vote in a poll, and a statistic is displayed graphically. An ignore list allows members to hide posts of other members that they do not want to see or have a problem with. In most implementations, they are referred to as foe list or ignore list . The posts are usually not hidden but minimized, with only

1008-400: A certain user has made. Users with higher postcounts are often considered more reputable than users with lower postcounts, but not always. For instance, some forums have disabled postcounts with the hopes that doing so will emphasize the quality of information over quantity. A thread (sometimes called a topic ) is a collection of posts, usually displayed from oldest to latest, although this

1120-566: A co-venture with Del Rey . In 2005, VIZ Communications merged with ShoPro Entertainment, an American subisidary of Shogakukan and was renamed to Viz Media . Horibuchi became the new company's chairman. During the same year, Horibuchi started a related division, Viz Pictures, for releasing selected live-action films in the US to theaters and DVD. On December 17, 2008, Viz Media announced that starting on April 1, 2009, Warner Home Video (now Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment ) would be handling

1232-566: A couple of days afterwards his hair is back to looking like a shorter version of his hairstyle before it got cut. A very small part of the story I know, but I really appreciated the effort at displaying realism." Coolstreak Comics' Leroy Douresseaux comments on Densha Otoko: The Story of a Train Man Who Fell in Love With A Girl , saying, "Watanabe understands the visual metaphor of the comics medium, which allows him to deliver his story with

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1344-485: A different icon compared to other threads. This icon may stand out more to emphasize the thread. If the forum's users have lost interest in a particular thread, it becomes a dead thread . Forums prefer the premise of open and free discussion and often adopt de facto standards . The most common topics on forums include questions, comparisons, polls of opinion, and debates. It is not uncommon for nonsense or unsocial behavior to sprout as people lose their temper, especially if

1456-567: A distribution partnership with Viz Media, with Viz Media titles being made available to stream on Funimation's website. The deal was made after select Viz titles were previously made available on Funimation. On May 9, 2023, Viz Media launched a digital manga service called "Viz Manga", featuring licenses from Shogakukan and Shueisha that are not published on the digital "Shonen Jump" service, and has simultaneous English releases of ongoing manga. On July 5, 2024, Viz announced on their social media channels that they had acquired RWBY following

1568-516: A fifty-seven-day online conversation, from March 14 to May 16, that included a total of 29,862 posts on 2channel was edited into a six-chapter story, each called "Missions" of 1,919 posts and made available on the Matome site. According to "Fūin sareta 'Densha Otoko'" ( 封印された｢電車男｣ ) by Kenji Andō, only 6.4% of the whole conversation thread was published in the Densha Otoko book. The author of

1680-494: A force that captures the quiet awkwardness of two shy people". IGN 's A.E. Sparrow comments on the artwork of Densha Otoko: Train Man saying, " Hidenori Hara brings an old school style to his illustration, and there are moments where the complex panel layouts (particularly when several online people are offering advice at once) recall some of Will Eisner 's best work." A later review by Sparrow comments that Hidenori Hara's "work seems

1792-422: A forum for threaded, or asynchronous, discussion purposes. The group may or may not be the only users of the forum. A thread's popularity is measured on forums in reply (total posts minus one, the opening post, in most default forum settings) counts. Some forums also track page views . Threads meeting a set number of posts or a set number of views may receive a designation such as "hot thread" and be displayed with

1904-411: A girlfriend, or speak openly only online. The television series uses a large number of computer-bound extras. On March 14, 2004, at 9:55 p.m., an anonymous user posted in a 2channel thread for single men to talk about their woes. According to his account, he had been sitting next to a young woman on the train when a drunken man entered the car and began to badger a particular woman. The poster took

2016-465: A great insight into their heads. Plus, not to be outdone, each character looks unique, which is something that many manga artists have a problem with. Internet forum An Internet forum , or message board , is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are often longer than one line of text, and are at least temporarily archived. Also, depending on

2128-550: A half years until it was canceled in August 1998. Pulp was a monthly manga anthology introduced by Viz in 1997. The magazine featured more mature titles, marketed at adults rather than teenage readers. Some of titles serialized in the magazine included: Uzumaki , Banana Fish , and Dance Till Tomorrow . The magazine was canceled in 2002. Shonen Jump is a shōnen manga anthology that debuted in November 2002, with

2240-546: A huge number of topics. Internet slang and image macros popular across the Internet are abundant and widely used in Internet forums. Forum software packages are widely available on the Internet and are written in a variety of programming languages , such as PHP , Perl , Java , and ASP . The configuration and records of posts can be stored in text files or in a database . Each package offers different features, from

2352-423: A lower page count. The last monthly issue of the original format Animerica had a cover date of June 2005 (Volume 13, No. 6). Animurica was one of the first professional anime and manga magazines released in the United States, and one of the most popular in the 1990s. In 2004, it had a circulation of 45,000 readers, but low sales and high competition from Newtype USA resulted in the essential cancellation of

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2464-474: A member posts in a thread for no reason but to have it go to the top, it is referred to as a bump or bumping . It has been suggested that "bump" is an acronym of "bring up my post"; however, this is almost certainly a backronym , and the usage is entirely consistent with the verb "bump" which means "to knock to a new position". On some messageboards, users can choose to sage (correctly pronounced /sa-ɣe/ though often confused as IPA: [seɪdʒ] )

2576-512: A number of subforums, each of which may have several topics. Within a forum's topic, each new discussion started is called a thread and can be replied to by as many people as they so wish. Depending on the forum's settings, users can be anonymous or have to register with the forum and then subsequently log in to post messages. On most forums, users do not have to log in to read existing messages. The modern forum originated from bulletin boards and so-called computer conferencing systems, which are

2688-410: A post if they wish to make a post but not "bump" it. The word "sage" derives from the 2channel terminology 下げる sageru , meaning "to lower". Threads that are important but rarely receive posts are stickied (or, in some software, "pinned"). A sticky thread will always appear in front of normal threads, often in its own section. A "threaded discussion group" is simply any group of individuals who use

2800-714: A post. An emoticon , or smiley , is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form. Forums implement a system through which some of the text representations of emoticons (e.g., xD , :p ) are rendered as a small image. Depending on what part of the world the forum's topic originates from (since most forums are international), smilies can be replaced by other forms of similar graphics; an example would be kaoani (e.g., *(^O^)* , (^-^)b ), or even text between special symbols (e.g., :blink:, :idea:). Most forums implement an opinion poll system for threads. Most implementations allow for single-choice or multi-choice (sometimes limited to

2912-415: A press release claiming that none of their current product lines would be affected. On April 2, 2012, it was announced that the senior vice-president and general manager of Viz Media Ken Sasaki would be succeeding executive producer Hidemi Fukuhara as president and CEO; Fukuhara will subsequently take up the position of vice-president at the end of the month. In Fall 2013, Viz began distributing titles to

3024-416: A section, or even a thread is referred to as a lurker , and the habit is referred to as lurking . Registered members often will refer to themselves as lurking in a particular location, which is to say they have no intention of participating in that section but enjoy reading the contributions to it. The moderators (short singular form: "mod") are users (or employees) of the forum who are granted access to

3136-645: A separate entity from Viz Media) opened a three-story entertainment complex in San Francisco called New People. The center piece of the complex is a 143-seat movie theater that screens anime and Japanese live-action films. The center also has a cafe, a store selling anime and manga related items, and clothing stores offering Japanese clothing items. Neon Alley was a streaming service dedicated to anime and related programming established in October 2012. After moving streaming content from its own platform to Hulu ,

3248-440: A single-threaded discussion of any given blog post. Slashcode , on the other hand, is far more complicated, allowing fully threaded discussions and incorporating a robust moderation and meta-moderation system as well as many of the profile features available to forum users. Some stand-alone threads on forums have reached fame and notability, such as the " I am lonely will anyone speak to me " thread on MovieCodec.com's forums, which

3360-411: A small bar indicating a post from the user on the ignore list is there. Almost all Internet forums include a member list , which allows the display of all forum members with an integrated search feature. Some forums will not list members with zero posts, even if they have activated their accounts. Many forums allow users to give themselves an avatar . An avatar is an image that appears beside all of

3472-530: A special episode on October 6, 2005). A two-hour-long TV special, Densha Otoko Deluxe , aired on September 23, 2006. Pony Canyon released the series on a DVD box set on December 22, 2005. It also aired in Taiwan's Videoland Japan from January 24, 2006 (with a special episode on December 28, 2006), and in Hong Kong's TVB Jade from April 15, 2006 (with a special episode on January 27, 2007). Densha Otoko film

Densha Otoko - Misplaced Pages Continue

3584-404: A sweet, lighthearted mood". However, he criticises it for "skimping on plot and character development; sometimes awkward with Internet humor." Watanabe draws a Hermess that is among the cutest female manga characters I have ever seen, making her the perfect object of affection for Train. And the facial expressions that he captures throughout this volume are very appropriate and revealing, giving us

3696-430: A technological evolution of the dial-up bulletin board system (BBS). From a technological standpoint, forums or boards are web applications that manage user-generated content . Early Internet forums could be described as a web version of an electronic mailing list or newsgroup (such as those that exist on Usenet ), allowing people to post messages and comment on other messages. Later developments emulated

3808-611: A thread, eventually ending when everyone gives up or attention spans waver and a more interesting subject takes over. It is not uncommon for debate to end in ad hominem attacks. Several lawsuits have been brought against the forums and moderators, claiming libel and damage. A recent case is the Scubaboard lawsuit, where a business in the Maldives filed a suit against Scubaboard for libel and defamation in January 2010. For

3920-572: A university degree and be in the workforce for three years. The initial setting of the film is in Akihabara , Tokyo . Mark Schilling of The Japan Times comments that "since Fuji TV intends Densha Otoko for prime-time broadcast, Hermess (Nakatani) can only suggest a big sisterly friendliness and affection, meaning that the sexual chemistry between her and Train Man (Yamada) is zero". Pop Culture Shock's Erin Finnegan reported, "when asked if

4032-417: A user's posts in order to make the user more recognizable. The user may upload the image to the forum database or provide a link to an image on a separate website. Each forum has limits on the height, width, and data size of avatars that may be used; if the user tries to use an avatar that is too big, it may be scaled down or rejected. Similarly, most forums allow users to define a signature (sometimes called

4144-449: A while longer, but on May 17, there were posts about the couple being on the verge of having sex, and several forum members made inappropriate comments on the subject. Later that night, Train Man left the boards for good. While many attest to the truth of the story—including the producers of the television series, who supposedly contacted the real Train Man—it has not been proven that the story

4256-459: Is [i]clever[/i] [b] [i]text[/i] [/b] . When the post is viewed, the code is rendered to HTML and will appear as: This is clever text . Many forum packages offer a way to create Custom BBCodes, or BBcodes that are not built into the package, where the administrator of the board can create complex BBCodes to allow the use of JavaScript or iframe functions in posts, for example, embedding a YouTube or Google Video complete with viewer directly into

4368-521: Is a user-submitted message enclosed in a block containing the user's details and the date and time it was submitted. Members are usually allowed to edit or delete their own posts. Posts are contained in threads, where they appear as blocks one after another. The first post starts the thread; this may be called the TS (thread starter) or OP (original post). Posts that follow in the thread are meant to continue discussion about that post or respond to other replies; it

4480-517: Is because their sister company publishes the original novels. For Azumanga Daioh , Yen Press's license of the manga was a month before Shogakukan reprinted the manga in May 2009, resulting in a change of license holders from ASCII Media Works (when Yen Press announced the license) to Shogakukan (when Yen Press released it). The Yen Press edition is a newly translated and lettered version of ADV Manga's edition (taken from ASCII Media Works) as opposed to

4592-475: Is not uncommon for discussions to be derailed. On Western forums, the classic way to show a member's own details (such as name and avatar) has been on the left side of the post, in a narrow column of fixed width, with the post controls located on the right, at the bottom of the main body, above the signature block. In more recent forum software implementations, the Asian style of displaying the members' details above

Densha Otoko - Misplaced Pages Continue

4704-465: Is now fully customizable, with "hacks" or "modifications" readily available to customize a person's forum to theirs and their members' needs. Viz Media#New People VIZ Media, LLC is an American entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco , California , focused on publishing manga , and distribution and licensing Japanese anime , films, and television series. The company

4816-674: Is the hashed result of a password that allows one's identity to be recognized without storing any data about the user. In a tripcode system, a secret password is added to the user's name following a separator character (often a number sign ). This password, or tripcode, is hashed into a special key, or trip, distinguishable from the name by HTML styles. Tripcodes cannot be faked, but on some types of forum software, they are insecure and can be guessed. On other types, they can be brute-forced with software designed to search for tripcodes, such as Tripcode Explorer. Moderators and administrators will frequently assign themselves capcodes or tripcodes where

4928-412: Is the size of the files in question). Attachments can be part of a thread, a social group, etc. HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is sometimes allowed, but usually its use is discouraged or, when allowed, extensively filtered. Modern bulletin board systems often have it disabled altogether or allow only administrators to use it, as allowing it at any normal user level is considered a security risk due to

5040-460: Is typically configurable: Options for newest to oldest and for a threaded view (a tree-like view applying logical reply structure before chronological order) can be available. A thread is defined by a title, an additional description that may summarize the intended discussion, and an opening or original post (common abbreviation OP , which can also be used to refer to the original poster ), which opens whatever dialogue or makes whatever announcement

5152-516: The posts and threads of all members for the purpose of moderating discussion (similar to arbitration ) and also keeping the forum clean (neutralizing spam and spambots , etc.). Moderators also answer users' concerns about the forum and general questions, as well as respond to specific complaints. Common privileges of moderators include: deleting, merging, moving, and splitting of posts and threads, locking, renaming, and stickying of threads; banning , unbanning, suspending, unsuspending, warning

5264-407: The "difficult economic climate" was behind the magazine's cancellation, and that it would continue releasing the magazine's titles, as well as others, using the "Shojo Beat" imprint. In January 2009, Viz Media announced plans to launch a Japanese science fiction novel line called Haikasoru. The first novels were scheduled to be released in the summer of the same year, with four novels: The Lord of

5376-477: The 2channelers' collective advice, he got a haircut, updated his wardrobe, and began to emerge from his shell. After several dates, his demeanor had changed for the better and this culminated a few months later in his confessing his love for her. She reciprocated, and when the 2channelers were informed, there was a mass celebration; posts began flowing in congratulating the new couple, and extravagant Shift JIS art pictures were posted. Train Man's posts continued for

5488-521: The 3-volume edition by Shogakukan. Yen Press has expressed interest in releasing the 3-volume edition although editor Kurt Hassler said he is not "sure this will be possible.", possibly because Shogakukan owns Viz and that they almost exclusively license their titles to them). In March 2010, Shogakukan began a partnership with Fantagraphics Books to issue a line of manga to be edited by Matt Thorn. In 2003, possibly in response to Shogakukan and Shueisha's co-ownership of Viz, Japanese publisher Kodansha formed

5600-536: The BCC or even if one was sent in the first place. Private messages are generally used for personal conversations. They can also be used with tripcodes—a message is addressed to a public trip and can be picked up by typing in the tripcode. An attachment can be almost any file. When someone attaches a file to a person's post, they are uploading that particular file to the forum's server. Forums usually have very strict limits on what can be attached and what cannot (among which

5712-651: The European and South American markets. When Shueisha became a joint owner of Viz in 2002, both Shogakukan and Shueisha began to release manga exclusively through Viz. Shueisha's deal with Viz may have been prompted by competition with Raijin Comics , a rival manga publisher created in 2002 by editors and artists who had split off from Shueisha, taking their properties with them. Some exceptions to this exclusivity exist, however: Shueisha permitted DC Comics 's subsidiary CMX Manga to license Tenjho Tenge (although it

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5824-639: The Haunted Hot Springs and Super HxEros , and permitted Tokyopop to license Kodocha , Marmalade Boy , and Digimon Next and Manga Planet to license Silver Fang -The Shooting Star Gin- and allowed Kodansha USA to license the Battle Angel Alita manga in America. Shogakukan permitted Tokyopop to license Corrector Yui (even though Viz Media licensed the anime) and Yumi Tsukirino's Stitch! manga (because Tokyopop had

5936-533: The Philippines. In 2014, it announced it would do the same in India with 75 Shueisha titles being released in that country; Viz titles had been distributed unofficially to that country prior to the announcement. On July 3, 2019, Viz Media partnered with Crunchyroll to distribute select Crunchyroll licensed titles on home video and electronic sell-through in the United States and Canada. In 2020, Viz Media saw

6048-628: The Sands of Time by Issui Ogawa , ZOO by Otsuichi , All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka , and Usurper of the Sun by Hōsuke Nojiri . In addition, the imprint released an expanded edition of Kōshun Takami 's Battle Royale . In 2010, the imprint release Project Itoh 's novel Harmony , which later won a Special Citation Philip K. Dick Award . The imprint is distributed to trade by Simon & Schuster . In October 2011, Viz Media launched SuBLime as an imprint for boys' love titles. The imprint

6160-451: The US and Japan. VIZ Productions' first film is the live action adaptation of All You Need is Kill , Edge of Tomorrow , starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt . Their second production was the American live-action adaptation to the supernatural thriller manga series: Death Note , which was directed by Adam Wingard and starred Nat Wolff , as the film's lead. Viz also has many partnerships with various authors and celebrities, perhaps

6272-606: The Year for its release of the fourteenth volume of the Naruto series. By 2002, Viz Communications kept some publications in the original right-to-left format, while in other publications it mirrored pages from Japan's right-to-left reading format to fit the Western left-to-right reading style. During that year Dallas Middaugh, the senior marketing manager of Viz, stated that the left-to-right version of Neon Genesis Evangelion outsold

6384-585: The Year" award in December 2002, and has continued to enjoy high sales with a monthly circulation of 215,000 in 2008. Shojo Beat was a shōjo manga magazine Viz launched in June 2005 as a sister magazine for Shonen Jump . It featured serialized chapters from six manga series as well as articles on Japanese culture, manga, anime , fashion and beauty. Viz launched related "Shojo Beat" imprints in its manga, light novel , and anime divisions to coordinate with

6496-410: The access level of a user or the forum set-up, a posted message might need to be approved by a moderator before it becomes publicly visible. Forums have a specific set of jargon associated with them; for example, a single conversation is called a " thread ", or topic . The name comes from the forums of Ancient Rome. A discussion forum is hierarchical or tree-like in structure; a forum can contain

6608-424: The authority to appoint and revoke members as moderators , manage the rules, create sections and sub-sections, as well as perform any database operations ( database backup , etc.). Administrators often also act as moderators . Administrators may also make forum-wide announcements or change the appearance (known as the skin) of a forum. There are also many forums where administrators share their knowledge. A post

6720-503: The beginning of the 1970s; the EIES system , first operational in 1976; and the KOM system , first operational in 1977. One of the first forum sites (which is still active today) is Delphi Forums, once called Delphi . The service, with four million members, dates to 1983. Forums perform a function similar to that of dial-up bulletin board systems and Usenet networks that were first created in

6832-513: The book used the name "Nakano Hitori" ( 中野独人 ) . This name is a pun on the Japanese term "Naka no hitori", referring to all the people who are part of message boards on the Internet. There isn't a specific person that is credited as the author; rather, it is close to a shared pseudonym. Shinchosha released the novel on October 22, 2004. Del Rey Books released the novel, renamed as Train Man , on April 24, 2007. The drama's 11 episodes were aired on Fuji TV from July 7 to September 22, 2005 (with

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6944-567: The branding would be retired in May 2016. Animerica is a quarterly anime and manga digest that initially started as a monthly magazine featuring reviews of anime and manga titles, as well as related works. After a preview issue was released in November 1992, the magazine's first issue was released in February 1993 with a March 1993 cover date. The magazine originally featured articles and reviews on manga, anime, and related media, as well as manga preview chapters. In 1998, Animerica Extra

7056-399: The closure of its original parent company, Rooster Teeth —several months prior. In contrast to similar TV and film ratings, Viz also has set up certain "manga ratings" for their products based on their content. Despite its name, Viz's manga ratings were also used on licensed anime titles, though, in the later 2000s, they instead relied on local countries' rating systems. Viz Media

7168-632: The company will focus on films that focus on the "Japanese 'kawaii (cute) and cool' pop culture." In 2007, the division released seven films to theaters, including Train Man: Densha Otoko and Honey and Clover . DVD releases for all VIZ Pictures films are distributed exclusively by its parent, VIZ Media. Viz Pictures renamed themselves to New People and no longer shares office space or employees with Viz Media. Viz Media no longer distributes DVD and Blu-ray releases of their products. In August 2009, Viz Pictures (now known as New People and

7280-468: The different newsgroups or individual lists, providing more than one forum dedicated to a particular topic. Internet forums are prevalent in several developed countries . Japan posts the most, with over two million per day on their largest forum, 2channel . China also has millions of posts on forums such as Tianya Club . Some of the first forum systems were the Planet-Forum system, developed at

7392-432: The distribution of both its new and existing catalog releases. Viz itself is still the licensor and will do all production, while tapping the distribution powerhouse that distributes the works of other major companies such as Disney XD , Adult Swim , and Cartoon Network . Viz president and CEO Hidemi Fukuhara stated that he believes the partnership will help the company grow its anime holdings more effectively. Distribution

7504-679: The exclusive rights to Disney manga in North America), Seven Seas Entertainment to license Dai Dark and Polar Bear Cafe and Digital Manga to license The Amazing 3 and the Himitsu Sentai Gorenger manga, Udon Entertainment to license the Infini-T Force manga (even though Viz Media licensed the anime), the now-defunct ComicsOne to license Wounded Man - The White Haired Demon , permitted Dark Horse Comics to license Crying Freeman (even though it

7616-399: The forum can automatically be promoted to a more privileged user group based on criteria set by the administrator. A person viewing a closed thread as a member will see a box saying he does not have the right to submit messages there, but a moderator will likely see the same box, granting him access to more than just posting messages. An unregistered user of the site is commonly known as

7728-403: The guessable trip is replaced with a special notice (such as "# Administrator") or cap. A personal or private message , or PM for short, is a message sent in private from a member to one or more other members. The ability to send so-called blind carbon copies (BCC) is sometimes available. When sending a BCC, the users to whom the message is sent directly will not be aware of the recipients of

7840-617: The high rate of XSS vulnerabilities. When HTML is disabled, Bulletin Board Code (BBCode) is the most common preferred alternative. BBCode usually consists of a tag, similar to HTML, but instead of < and > , the tagname is enclosed within square brackets (meaning: [ and ] ). Commonly, [i] is used for italic type , [b] is used for bold , [u] for underline , [color="value"] for color, and [list] for lists, as well as [img] for images and [url] for links. The following example BBCode: [b]This[/b]

7952-515: The late 1970s. Early web-based forums date back as far as 1994, with the WIT project from the W3 Consortium, and starting at this time, many alternatives were created. A sense of virtual community often develops around forums that have regular users. Technology , video games , sports , music , fashion , religion , and politics are popular areas for forum themes, but there are forums for

8064-400: The license for the comedy series Ranma ½ , which became an instant hit. The company continued to see success when it expanded into the anime distribution market, began publishing Shonen Jump , an English adaptation of the popular Japanese magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump . It also acquired another huge selling title, Inuyasha . In the late 1990s, VIZ began making the push to move into

8176-446: The log of his postings about their private affairs was particularly unbelievable to me. Far from being hurt or angry, she is impressed by what good friends he has!" Mania.com's Matthew Alexander commends Densha Otoko: The Story of a Train Man Who Fell in Love With A Girl for being realistic, saying, "right after [Train's] session with a hair stylist, his hair is standing up in the right spots and looks good. Then, just like in real life,

8288-566: The magazine and help it succeed where other manga anthologies in North America have failed. Shueisha purchased an equity interest in Viz to help fund the venture, and Cartoon Network , Suncoast , and Diamond Distributors became promotional partners in the magazine. The first issue required three printings to meet demand, with over 300,000 copies sold. It was awarded the ICv2 "Comic Product of

8400-457: The magazine's contents. Targeted at women ages 16–18, the first issue of Shojo Beat launched with a circulation of 20,000 copies. By 2007, average circulation was approximately 38,000 copies. Half of its circulation came from subscriptions rather than store sales . In May 2009, the magazine was discontinued after 49 issues, with the July 2009 issue being the last released. Viz stated

8512-403: The magazine, Viz launched new imprints for releasing media related to the series presented in the magazine, and other shōnen works. This includes two new manga imprints, an anime DVD imprint, a fiction line for releasing light novels , a label for fan and data books, and a label for the release of art books. Prior to the magazine's launch, Viz launched an extensive marketing campaign to promote

8624-536: The magazine. A one shot story based on Battle Arena Toshinden , illustrated by the game's character designer Tsukasa Kotobuki was published in the magazine as well. Manga Vizion , sometimes misspelled Manga Vision , is a manga anthology introduced by VIZ in 1995. It is believed to be the first manga anthology published in the United States. The premiere issue was dated March 1995 and featured three series: The Tragedy of P , Samurai Crusader: The Kumomaru Chronicles , and Ogre Slayer . It ran for three and

8736-484: The market. Seiji Horibuchi, originally from Tokushima Prefecture in Shikoku , Japan, moved to California , United States in 1975. After living in the suburbs for almost two years, he moved to San Francisco , where he started a business exporting American cultural items to Japan, and became a writer of cultural information. He also became interested in publishing Japanese manga in the United States, though he himself

8848-477: The members; or adding, editing, and removing the polls of threads. "Junior modding", "backseat modding", or "forum copping" can refer negatively to the behavior of ordinary users who take a moderator-like tone in criticizing other members. Essentially, it is the duty of the moderator to manage the day-to-day affairs of a forum or board as it applies to the stream of user contributions and interactions. The relative effectiveness of this user management directly impacts

8960-415: The most basic, providing text-only postings, to more advanced packages, offering multimedia support and formatting code (usually known as BBCode ). Many packages can be integrated easily into an existing website to allow visitors to post comments on articles. Several other web applications, such as blog software, also incorporate forum features. WordPress comments at the bottom of a blog post allow for

9072-459: The most cartoonish of the bunch, with some of the characters looking almost like afterthoughts, but it's that scribbling style that really sets this version of the story apart." He also comments on Hermess looking "like a slightly more pixie-ish version of Lisa Hayes from Robotech". Anime News Network 's Carlo Santos' review of Train Man: A Shōjo Manga commends it for its "unique character viewpoint and

9184-445: The most famous being the cosplay film that debuted in the 2013 Tokyo Anime Festival with Kirata Uchiha, played by JadexRoyal. Winning multiple awards for the board including Masashi Kishimoto . Others include Full Moon, and Last Quarter. In November 2005, New People was officially formed as a sister company for releasing live-action Japanese films as theatrical releases in selected markets called Viz Pictures. According to Horibuchi,

9296-547: The most part, though, forum owners and moderators in the United States are protected by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act , which states that "[n]o provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider". In 2019, Facebook was faced with a class action lawsuit set forth by moderators diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder . It

9408-709: The original magazine and its reformatting as a free digest. Game On! USA was a monthly magazine that focused primarily on Japanese-developed video games, with an emphasis on the import scene. It served as the American counterpart to Shogakukan's Game On! magazine. It was published in May 1996 and ran for 7 monthly issues before being discontinued that same year in November. The magazine had news and reviews and other articles about classic fighting games like Street Fighter , Samurai Shodown and Virtua Fighter . Two video game-based manga series, Super Street Fighter II: Cammy by Masahiko Nakahira, and Samurai Shodown by Kyoichi Nanatsuki and Yuki Miyoshi, were serialized in

9520-496: The original novel would ever be imported, manga industry reps at New York Comic Con lamented that 2chan 's version of l33t is nearly impossible to translate." The fansite compiling the posts which became the book has been translated into other languages by fans of the story, including into English in 2006. President and CEO for Viz Pictures , Seiji Horibuchi, comments that the film Train Man: Densha Otoko "will make people think fondly about their own first experiences with love and

9632-486: The other posters, Train Man eventually contacted the woman. The man who wrote admitted things about himself, such as the fact that he had never had a girlfriend before, that he was an Akihabara nerd and an otaku , and that he had never been on a date. Because of this last fact, he consistently posted updates on his situation, asking for advice on everything from restaurant choices to what clothing to wear. After an enjoyable first date, they began meeting regularly. Following

9744-562: The places under which members can start their discussions or posts . Logically, forums are organized into a finite set of generic topics (usually with one main topic), driven and updated by a group known as members , and governed by a group known as moderators . It can also have a graph structure. All message boards will use one of three possible display formats. Each of the three basic message board display formats: Non-Threaded/Semi-Threaded/Fully Threaded, has its own advantages and disadvantages. If messages are not related to one another at all,

9856-402: The post has been copied. Posts have an internal limit, usually measured in characters. Often, one is required to have a message with a minimum length of 10 characters. There is always an upper limit, but it is rarely reached – most boards have it at either 10,000, 20,000, 30,000, or 50,000 characters. Most forums keep track of a user's postcount. The postcount is a measurement of how many posts

9968-502: The poster wishes. A thread can contain any number of posts, including multiple posts from the same members, even if they are one after the other. A thread is contained in a forum and may have an associated date that is taken as the date of the last post (options to order threads by other criteria are generally available). When a member posts in a thread, it will jump to the top since it is the latest updated thread. Similarly, other threads will jump in front of it when they receive posts. When

10080-429: The quality of a forum in general, its appeal, and its usefulness as a community of interrelated users. Moderators act as unpaid volunteers on many websites, which has sparked controversies and community tensions. On Reddit , some moderators have prominently expressed dissatisfaction with their unpaid labor being underappreciated, while other site users have accused moderators of abusing special access privileges to act as

10192-403: The recognizability of a poster. They may also allow the user to attach information to all of their posts, such as proclaiming support for a cause, noting facts about themselves, or quoting humorous things that have previously been said on the forum. A subscription is a form of automated notification integrated into the software of most forums. It usually notifies the member either by email or on

10304-507: The right to left format more easily than their parents. VIZ has censored some of its titles. Some titles, such as Dragon Ball , were published in both censored and uncensored forms. Based in Los Angeles , Viz Productions coordinates the licenses of Japanese material (manga, books, and film) to American film companies. Their goal is to involve the Japanese creators in the production and facilitate communication between all parties in

10416-475: The right-to-left version of Neon Genesis Evangelion on a three to one basis; Middaugh concluded that readers wanted "an easy reading experience." Akira Toriyama , creator of Dragon Ball , requested that his work, which was separated by Viz into Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z , be published in the original right-to-left format. Vagabond was printed in right-to-left to preserve historical accuracy. Middaugh said that younger readers of Dragon Ball adapted to

10528-573: The risk of telling the man to stop bothering the passengers, who were all women. The two struggled for a short time while the other passengers used this distraction to summon the conductor, who took control of the situation. Never having done such a thing in his life, the poster was amazed to find the woman thanking him deeply for saving her from harassment. The young woman requested his address, telling him that she wanted to express her appreciation for his act, before they parted ways. The poster, upon returning home, shared his experience with other posters in

10640-500: The site when the member returns. The option to subscribe is available for every thread while logged in. Subscriptions work with read marking , namely the property of unread , which is given to the content never served to the user by the software. Recent developments in some popular implementations of forum software have brought social network features and functionality . Such features include personal galleries and pages, as well as social networks like chat systems. Most forum software

10752-509: The specialist comic market being averse to venturing into new territory. To counteract this problem, VIZ expanded into the general publishing business and began publishing various art related books in 1992. Into these titles, Horibuchi began publishing manga, calling them graphic novels so they would be carried by mainstream bookstores. The plan worked, and after several years, leading booksellers began to have dedicated shelves for manga titles. Sales also picked up when VIZ Communications acquired

10864-454: The thread and was eventually nicknamed "Densha Otoko" (Train Man). A few days later, Train Man received a package from the woman: an expensive set of cups and saucers made by Hermès , a French luxury goods company. Flabbergasted, the man turned to the 2channelers for advice; he was soon convinced that the tea set was too expensive to be a mere thank-you gift. Following the advice and suggestions of

10976-449: The thrill and rush it caused. Perhaps it will even inspire a few to take a chance on someone they like!" For Densha Otoko , two manga versions were seinen (geared toward young men); one was shōnen (for boys); and one was shōjo (for girls). Del Rey Manga licensed the shōjo version from Kodansha , with which it has strong ties. Viz Media licensed a seinen version, and CMX licensed the shōnen version. Densha Otoko originated from

11088-417: The topic is controversial. Poor understanding of the differences in values among the participants is a common problem on forums. Because replies to a topic are often worded to target someone's point of view, discussion will usually go slightly off in several directions as people question each other's validity, sources, and so on. Circular discussion and ambiguity in replies can extend for several tens of posts in

11200-634: Was awarded the Manga Publisher of the Year Gem Award by Diamond Comic Distributors in 2007. VIZ continues to publish many titles, some of the most popular including: Dragon Ball , One Piece , Detective Conan (as Case Closed ), Bleach , Inuyasha , and Naruto which results a high success of the company as well as a large amount of the North American readers. Viz also received an award for Manga Trade Paperback of

11312-415: Was completely authentic. The true identity of "Train Man" is never revealed and the book is based on an edited collection of posts on the 2channel bulletin board. The original conversation lasted fifty-seven days and contained 29,862 posts, whereas the book contains 1,919 posts, as collected on a fan website . A list of inconsistencies in the story has been collated, including Train Man being too young to have

11424-423: Was described as the "web's top hangout for lonely folk" by Wired magazine . A forum consists of a tree-like directory structure. The top end is "Categories". A forum can be divided into categories for the relevant discussions. Under the categories are sub-forums, and these sub-forums can further have more sub-forums. The topics (commonly called threads ) come under the lowest level of sub-forums, and these are

11536-797: Was directed by Shosuke Murakami. It premiered in Japanese Cinemas by Toho on March 26, 2005. The movie was screened in North American cinemas by Viz Pictures on September 22, 2006. Viz Media released the DVD of Train Man: Densha Otoko on February 6, 2007. The ending theme is " Love Parade " ( ラヴ・パレード ) by Orange Range . The movie stars Takayuki Yamada as Train Man/Densha Otoko and Miki Nakatani as Hermes. There are four manga adaptations of Densha Otoko : Densha Otoko novel sold 260,000 copies in just three weeks and 500,000 copies in two months. Following its popularity, "Chikan Otoko"

11648-673: Was formed in collaboration with the Japanese publisher Libre and its parent company Animate to publish English-language boys' love manga for the print and worldwide digital market. Although the first slate of books announced under SuBLime are Libre titles, the imprint will potentially offer titles from other Japanese publishers in the future. In March 2016, Viz Media announced that they are collaborating with United Talent Agency on their live action projects based on anime series. On July 3, 2019, Viz Media announced that they had partnered with Crunchyroll to distribute select Crunchyroll licensed titles on home video and electronic sell-through in

11760-408: Was founded in 1986 as VIZ, LLC . In 2005, VIZ and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ Media, which is owned by Japanese publishing conglomerates Shueisha and Shogakukan , as well as Japanese production company Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions (ShoPro) . In 2017, Viz Media was the largest publisher of graphic novels in the United States in the bookstore market, with a 23% share of

11872-498: Was later re-licensed and re-released by Viz Media) and Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne , permitted Dark Horse Comics to license Gantz , Lady Snowblood , Shadow Lady , The Monkey King , and recently Yasuhiro Nightow 's Blood Blockade Battlefront and CLAMP 's Gate 7 . Shueisha also permitted Udon Entertainment to license The Rose of Versailles , Seven Seas Entertainment to license Hayate X Blade , and will later permit Seven Seas Entertainment to license Yuuna and

11984-522: Was launched as a manga anthology that eventually focused specifically on shōjo titles. It was canceled in 2004. VIZ changed the magazine's format in April 2005, with the new magazine really being two free publications of the same name. One is advertising-oriented and created specially for distribution at anime and manga conventions while the other is more general in scope and distributed through retail stores. Both versions have fewer and briefer articles and

12096-527: Was not a fan of Japanese comics until a visit to Japan in 1985 exposed him to Katsuhiro Otomo 's single-volume title Domu: A Child's Dream . His idea came to fruition after he met Masahiro Ohga, then managing director of Shogakukan , in 1985 and shared his vision. Shogakukan provided Horibuchi with $ 200,000 in startup capital, which Horibuichi used in 1986 to found VIZ Communications . VIZ Communications released its first titles in 1987, which included Legend of Kamui ; however, sales were mediocre due to

12208-421: Was previously licensed by Viz), New Lone Wolf and Cub (however, this is because Dark Horse has the original series ), The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword , and Mob Psycho 100 , and permitted Hachette Book Group 's subsidiary Yen Press to license Azumanga Daioh , Silver Spoon , Karakai Jōzu no Takagi-san , My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU , and Cirque du Freak (however for Cirque du Freak , this

12320-496: Was produced, the story of a man who is accused of being a groper on public transport, and Napoleon Dynamite was retitled Basu Otoko ("Bus Man") for its Japanese release. The Japan Times ' Janet Ashby commented that the book felt like an " otaku wish-fulfillment fantasy: Someday I will magically meet Miss Right, rescue her like a knight on a white horse, be transformed into Mr. Right, and we will live happily ever after. The reaction of Miss Hermes when Trainman belatedly shows her

12432-410: Was settled for $ 52 million the following year. By default, to be an Internet forum, the web application needs the ability to submit threads and replies. Typically, threads are in a newer to older view, and replies are in an older to newer view. Most imageboards and 2channel-style discussion boards allow (and encourage) anonymous posting and use a system of tripcodes instead of registration. A tripcode

12544-439: Was then transferred to Studio Distribution Services, LLC , a joint venture between WBDHE and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment . On February 20, 2009, Viz Media laid off an unknown number of employees in order to help be more streamlined to face the current economic climate. On May 11, 2010, Viz Media again laid off a number of workers, 60 this time, again in order to try to become more streamlined. This time they released

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