Neko Nation =/= Rape Culture

There have been people wishing to boycott Tokyo Hardcore because of their recent decision to stock Tentacle Grape.  This technically applies to Neko Nation, since it was actually my idea to bring in Tentacle Grape.  I'm absolutely mindblown that people feel the need to boycott us on what is such a trivial matter in my opinion, and this isn't the first time since we've had someone get upset over the Pedobear picture as well pictured below too.

First of all, I do understand the whole idea behind rape culture, it is a serious and important social issue that is relevant and I'm all for the ideas behind it to a reasonable extent.  Rape is a serious issue but so are the likes of torture and murder.  Saw has been a successful series that has spanned off 7 movies due to it's shocking, gory and disturbing torture sequences, the best selling games of last year were Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3, games that encourage and glorify death on a bloody war torn battlefield. Like rape, we often see torture and murder are trivialised, glorified and joked about.

The reasons why the like of gruesome torture movies and violent video games exist is due to the context.  We need to remember that these situations are highly unrealistic, to allow these scenarios to happen in real life would be highly sickening to all.  We also need to remember that these situations are highly unrealistic and while the likes of serial killers exist and are a serious and disturbing issue, you'll be hard pressed to find someone that claims that Saw would highly trivialise serial killers and in real war, there aren't any respawns.

This is why the whole boycott against Tentacle Grape is ridiculous, people are boycotting what is a highly unrealistic situation that would not relate to relate to real life.  The name is a play on "Tentacle Rape" a ridiculous scenario where a monster with tentacles will usually attempt to tie up a girl with their tentacles and then proceed to rape.  People are amused by that it is an unusual scenario and are buying into the product because of it.  Tentacle Grape is generally sold to anime fans that get this reference, so this is not a product stocked on regular supermarket shelves.  This is not bought by people who think that rape is amusing or silly, it is bought by people are amused by the whole idea of tentacles.

The product is targeted and being sold to a small niche market and I'm utterly confused that they feel they've done the right thing by boycotting businesses that trivialise rape via Facebook.  This is a highly weak strategy of trying to "support" a cause especially by targetting the small businesses at the bottom of the food chain.  Do you see PETA trying to protest against the local butcher?  Do you see gay rights rallies being protested at your local town hall?  No, they go for the bigger targets because it's the more effective targets.  There's a huge difference between actually trying to make a difference and being seen to try to make a difference, one only has to look at Kony2012, the most "supported" movement of 2012 with many millions behind the cause which made no difference.

The point I'm getting at is that if you are really going to do something for your cause actually, go do something that will actually effect or send a message to the top of the food chain.  You can protest, share and like all you want on Facebook but Kony wasn't exactly shaking in his boots on April 20th.  People need to actually donate your time, money, effort and talents into a cause to make some sort of serious impact which is not done by the keyboard warriors.

The reasons why this product is being sold is because people find the idea of tentacle rape an amusing one thanks to hentai released from Japanese anime companies, then there is also the fact that there are certain hentais in Australia that are legal which have tentacle rape in them.  This is what needs to be aimed for, I just see this whole campaign as protesting against one hentai joke rather than the actual root of where this all stems from a case of knee jerk reaction in trying to be seen to do something rather than actually doing something.

People need to realise that Neko Nation is not some major multinational wholesome corporate company.  Neko Nation is a small business that operates in a niche market that provides a party environment for those 18 and older.  This means that Neko Nation will try and connect with it's demographic (anime fans who like to party) by making communications with an approach that involves anime and is not necessarily family friendly and/or politically correct.  Neko Nation does not take the conservative route with it's messages and therefore might cause a select few individuals to be offended and misunderstand our messages but if you're not able to properly understand our messages and also view things light heartedly, then Neko Nation isn't for you.

Neko Nation does not take the conservative road try to play it safe to be inclusive of everyone.  We are here to do something different by including those who have felt excluded down this conservative path, think about how many clubs and bars will let you in with full cosplay and are willing to play music that is not RnB or house in Australia.

We are maintaining our decision to stock Tentacle Grape as for the select few who think that we are being offensive by possibly trivialising rape (and are highly unlikely to go to our shows anyways) is completely counteracted by the fact that most of our fans would realise that this is a novelty (tasty) harmless product (ignoring the sugar content!) that just a pokes a bit of light hearted fun at anime culture.

End Of Financial Year 2012

So it looks like I get next Friday off and can make it down to Chinatown Harajuku no Yoko, normally this would be quite awesome, sadly this also marks the first time I've been asked not to come into my work.  Getting a night of on end of financial year is a sign that my hours are really starting to trickle down at my work (in Perth it's been a bit of all hands on deck in past years), it's been a while coming but it's slowly starting to hit.  Heading back to uni was by far the right decision here. On and on the note of end of financial year, doing both me and Susannah's tax this year will be my hardest tax challenge yet.

It's been an interesting last week, having been catgirl-less (Susannah in Melbourne), I've had a pretty rough week, lacking motivation with my usual life but managing to chill out more and watching more anime for once, Asobi Ni Iku Yo being such an amazing anime that I enjoyed incredibly and definitely one of my recent favourites, in what's been a week I've been sleeping in lots, not getting much work and feeling pretty depressed.

It's getting to an interesting and nervous time since two of my big events are coming up, Neko Sydney will be interesting, it's a bit nerve wracking since afterparties are definitely a bit nervewrecking with how the last one went in terms of their unpredictability but I'm expecting it to be a really amazing show.

The big one is Neko Nation AVCon, I have to admit I don't think I ever imagined I'd see the day we'd be able to pull anything like this and of all the cons to be with, AVCon, by far the best anime convention in Australia (seriously, having been to a fair few around Australia, it blows the rest out of the water).  It's a big new challenge and I'm looking forward to getting this event all sorted out soon, the feeling of pulling this one off will be amazing.

Beyond that, I'm curious to see what the future brings, I've got a significant charity project I'm looking to launch next month to actually give back towards and work on possibly another new event but on a pretty small scale this time.

University is something I'm a bit nervous to be back in but hopefully I should do fine, I'm making the switch to Advertising and Marketing, it's something I'm a bit nervous about since, I've been feeling a bit weak compared to seeing some of the stuff the pros pull off but all I need to do is beat the people in my uni to get a job.  Last experience with marketing in university, I got 91% in my exam, plus I've been getting a lot of practical experience with the new direction I've been taking Neko Nation this year, so once I get into the rhythm of university I should be fine.

This month is proving to be a struggle against myself, battling depression and trying to make the most short bursts of positive and hyperactive energy to get through the days.  With that said, I just need a few smaller things sorted out and a few little victories to really get through the rest of this month and things will start to pick up.

Oh and last but not least, awesome fan art created by Khat too, mainly for my DJing page, especially since I've got Kawaii Loli Attack this week and Necromancy next, should be fun and something to look forward too!  ^^

Neko Tour v1.0

Doing the Neko Nation tour has been one of the most unique, intense and interesting experiences I've had in my life.  There's been a lot of hard work, tough times and even a relationship breakdown but it's been rewarding, meeting many new friends and visiting lots of amazing places.

Travelling around Australia has been great, I've enjoyed travelling to all the cities.  Being back in Perth was probably the most special moment though, since it had really felt like a bit of a homecoming and it seriously had changed so much in the time I had left, plus it was very chilled out being with old friends, watching Eurovision and taking it easy after what was a crazy tour.

My personal life suffered dramatically on the tour as me and Susannah had to deal with a lot more than we usually would thanks to lots of frustrating things that just haven't gone our way on the tour which has really tested us, in the end, as soon as we spent more than a day apart it was pretty safe to say that on my end I missed her and couldn't live without her.


The other thing I pretty much noticed on the tour was the whole Melbourne vs. Sydney thing.  I've had a lot of people tell me bad things about Sydney and lots of amazing things about Melbourne when to be honest I found the complete opposite about both cities.  I found Sydney to be a lovely city filled with lots of interesting and fun activities, it felt alive, there was a lot to do, even during the night and was definitely a fun highlight of the show.

Melbourne wasn't too bad this time but honestly that place still irks me, there were good people there but honestly with the exception of two people I would have no reason to ever return back to Melbourne both personally.  I've found putting on events in Melbourne to be more of a "glorified party scene" with a huge focus on attracting popular people than trying to attract people to your event by making it good and was honestly the last straw in terms of ever wanting to go back to Melbourne.

I found myself enjoying the company of lots of random people and new friends on the tour, especially Brisbane always throws up lots of new fun interesting people who love meeting us, they had this unique way of welcoming us and it's this interesting tightly knit community that love coming down and seeing our show.  MOS Burger and just something about Brisbane I feel like I could move or live here in the future, the weather is a bit extreme but I'm from Singapore and could easily adjust to it.

Perth I had a blast, it's a tightly knit community since we don't change our staff members much here since we've got a lovely community of people that I work and deal with at this place.  In particular I had a blast catching up with Tara, who was pretty much going through what I went through last year in terms of her long distance relationship and it was great to party with her as well.  Overall I had lots of fun and honestly Perth is an amazing show, we've got lots of video games, cheeseburger sushi, the biggest venue with the best lighting, DJ Equipment and it's a pretty much was one of my original goals when  was a lot younger to hold an event in Gilkisons and I'm glad we've become a regular there.

Just finished Hyper Dragon last night and it was a good event, low on numbers but launching a new event in Winter is tough due to sickness and cold weather, Hindley Street was quite abandonned.  With that said I enjoyed the new challenge of putting on a new event and the new DJ set I had to come up with was an interesting challenge as I've switched back from my 180bpm stuff, back to 128-145bpm range due to finding amazing J-Core DJ's on this tour.

Anyways, rushing to get all the Supanova promo done in time but for now, taking a nice day off, catgirl animes, Formula 1 and more blogging.