About OpenHappy
OpenHappy is initially created by me (richard at openhappy dot com) with the help of my wife (carmen at openhappy dot com) in 2007. The goal is to create an American Otaku web site for various readers to enjoy the arts of various otaku materials such as cosplay, gundam, gunpla building, general model (tank, figures, etc) building, otaku travel and girls :)
Otaku Dad (The Creator)
If you are young and into anime and other otaku stuffs and wonder what will become of you after years and years, you could eventually become an Otaku Dad just like me :) I build the site because I really enjoy the materials even after all these years. Part of the reason I started this web site is to share my love of otaku to everyone in the US. After I have kids (two boys), I am very glad that anime finally catch up in the US. My sons can enjoy similar materials I enjoy when I am young. Besides the usual thomas the engine, Dora (yes, they love her), mickey mouse, etc, they can watch gundams, naruto, bleach, etc with me.
As a photographer, I offer free cosplay photoshoot as much as I could to help fellow otakus. As a model builder, I try my best to document the things I know to show fellow otakus in the US how you can enjoy the hobby of model building. It is a lot more fun to build and collect than just collect. You will appreciate your figure a lot more knowing how hard/easy it is to build one. Being originally from the far east, I also love to introduce different places I have been. Since there is no idol girl in the US, so I create a Girls section with mostly Hot Import Night girls. (Let me know if it works for you.) As a programmer, I also plan to provide some programming modules free of charge for my fellow otaku.
We are constantly looking for contributers. In fact, I work with a few photographers regularly to provide photoshoot. If you are interested in being a contributer (for gundam, figure, hobby, coordination or programming), please email me at richard at openhappy dot com.
Press Coverage
OpenHappy.com has become a premium American Otaku web site since launched in May 2008. We grow from hundreds of hits per day to thousands of hits per day. All of our readers are highly targeted readers who love all things otaku (Cosplay, PVC figures, gunpla, manga, comic, etc.) The engine that drives these highly targeted readers is the various press coverage we provide for otaku events all over the world.
Team OpenHappy provides press coverage for different conventions / events to OpenHappy.com and other web sites. We have press credentials for Comic-Con International (100,000+ attendance), Asia Game Show (450,000+ attendance), Hong Kong Gundam Expo, Anime Expo (40,000+ attendance), WonderCon (35,000+ attendance), Fanime Con (12,000+ attendance), Alternative Press Expo (10,000+ attendance), Anime on Display (AOD) and various other events.
We can advertise and sell products much better than other anime/otaku blogging sites because our readers are the most motivated and engaged groups of otaku. Most of them are “cons go-ers” and they are the most active group of otaku with good purchasing power. Come advertise with us and see the differences.
Manga I am Reading
- Bio-Booster Armor Guyver (強殖装甲ガイバー): I start reading it in Japanese (I have a couple years of Japanese in grad school) since the early 90s. Still cannot believe that it is not finished since the series starts all the way back from 1985. Yoshiki Takaya seems to only write enough for one additional volume per year. The fix usually comes towards the end of the year or early Jan or Feb. Oh yes, I am also working on this Guyver II head.
- Gundam: I am a huge gundam fan. I am "current" on all the gundam animes. In other words, I have watched everything from 1979 (0079) to 2009's Gundam 00 season 2. I even have the DVD for Gundam G-Saviour (have to wash my eyes after watching that). The only gundam "knowledge" I missed will be the various manga volumes of gundam over the last 30 years. I am currently reading Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin, Mobile Suit Gundam: Ecole Du Ciel and Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Deleted Affair. I also have SEED Destiny Astray sitting on the bookshelf for me to get to.
- Oh My Goddess! (ああっ女神さまっ Aa Megami-sama): Also read (or try to read) this in Japanese. It starts back in 1998 by Kōsuke Fujishima and it is still going strong in tankobon (single) volume. There is not really a single story line as in Guyver or other manga, but the characters interaction make the series very worth reading.
- Ikki Tousen: I get to know about Ikki Tousen after getting the Ryofu Housen figure. After watching the first series of the anime, I thought it is kind of lame. The figures around the series are beautiful, so I move on and watch Dragon Destiny. And DD is actually good. But where is all the missing characters? To find out, I started Ikki Tousen (in chinese) and I am now at volume 14.
- InuYasha: I start reading InuYasha in chinese (I am originally from Hong Kong) after finished watching all 167 episodes of the fansub Inuyasha anime. There is no ending in the anime, so I have to find out what happen from the manga. The anime follows very closely to the manga up to around volumne 35. I am all the way up to 56 and milking to see the end. The world created by Rumiko Takahashi is fantastic! Characters and demons from feudal japan makes the series very freshing to read.
- ZETMAN: A more mature series (more violence and sex) started in Young Jump in 2002. I have been following it in chinese since 2003. If you are over 18, you should really give this a try. The story is very well thought out and man, Masakazu Katsura does such a good job in the overall quality of the manga (especially the characters). ZETMAN is male oriented (fighting and stuffs).
- The Savage Sword of Conan: Oh yes, I love my western comic as well. Here is where I am getting my daily "assignment". The series is from the 1970s. In other words, I have years of good comic waiting for me to catchup...
And yes, I have read many other mangas over the years in chinese, japanese and english. Too many to list here. And I actually buy them since I somehow think it is more romantic to read them by holding the actual book.
Anime I am Watching
I truly believe a lot of anime has better plots than a lot of sci-fi movies. I love stories, and anime is a big part of how I get my stories. Anyway, here is what I watch recently:
- Gundam 00
- Ga Rei Zero
- Code Geass R2
- Ikki Tousen
- Please Teacher / Twins
- Ideon (Classic, thanks for the group who did the English fansub. I search for it for years and finally get to it ..)
I have a lot more sitting around that I need to get to. I am watching Seed and Seed Destiny for the four times with my older son now ... kids love to loop and loop when watching anime. In any case, it is original DVD in Cantonese, so at least he is picking up on the listening part of the language.
Video Games I am Playing
People, video games are bad so you. But then, I also love them so much. It is a love and hate relationship. Playing video games kills a lot of other hobbies you can have. It is so easy and such a quick fix. All you need is a chair, sit down, turn it on and you are in action. For the same time you spend on video games, you can learn a music instrument, build models, do photography, spend more them with real humans, create a web site, get better grades, etc, etc. The entry bar for video game is so low, there is no specific skills to preobtain before you get into it. To build model, you need to learn how to use the tools, paint, etc. To play guitar, you have to hurt your figures so much before you can get a hang of it. For video game, you buy the game and slide the disk in ...
I really play too much and I hope most fellow otakus also realize they also play too much. Anyway, here is what I am playing (first half of 2009):
- Gundam vs Gundam (PSP)
- Gears of War 2 (I am coolhkguy online, yes, I always hide in the corner to chainsaw you). And yes, I also play too much of this ...
- Gundam Crossfire (Most of the gundam games are so bad, and I just keep playing them because I am a fan)
- Halo ODST
- Virtual Fighter 5
- Street Fighter 4
Models I am building
Here is the hobby I really like. I think all the money my parents spent to send me to painting class as a 5 years old all eventually show up in here somehow after all these years. I am working on these:
- Perfect Grade Zaku (the current project)
- Gundam Exia (Just finished - Tutorial at the bottom of page)
- Tiger I - Full RC (Finially finished - Tutorial at the bottom of page:)
- Guyver 2 1:1 Head (Still cannot decide what kind of paint to put on)
- Large amount of stuffs that I have not get to ... ( I have a lot more then what is on the picture... )
I built very very slow now. Since I normally start after I bath both kids, read them stories, teach them homework, piano, kiss them goodnight, etc. But then, if you work on whatever it is a little at a time, you will eventually finished. The Tiger I actually took me 9 months in this format ..
Technical Stuffs about the site
Another reason to create this site is to practice my web programming skills. The whole site is built on top of a classic LAMP stack with a central cloud database as the backend. While all the files are still served out of the the file systems, all meta data is stored in the cloud database. Real time data mining can be done using the cloud database. Things such as geolocation of the current readers and a navigation path of the readers within the site can be analyzed. There is also a basic behavior targetting (BT) engine for potented interested page analysis. Static analysis are done with apache log files, I have a system that generate anything from type of broswers, type of OSs, to referal paths, data hits, tiem of hits, etc.
I was also playing around with an ad engine that will serve BT ads to readers based on interest and history. Since the inventories of the ad engine are all Internet / external ad network based, so the latency of the ads make the page relatively slow. However, the concept is good and I would like to explore it more.
The next two things I would like to work on is an OpenID based authentication system that will link back to the cloud database, and move the site to a better frontend engine. Maybe YUI will be good. I tap too much of my wife (who used to work for Cisco) for CSS and other UI stuffs currently :)
Team OpenHappy Link Exchange Program
Feel free to do a link exhange with us. (Just do a "save image as" below and email me your link at richard at openhappy dot com)
Contact
You can leave a comment here or email me at richard at openhappy dot com. Feel free to add me in facebook under richard at openhappy dot com as well.
The people carrying the flags and wearing uniforms are from Hitalia: Axis Powers. An anime about the rise and fall of the world empires, with each country being played by a character which personifies that nation.
This magazine is in spanish, and i wanted to make a report, research for Anime Expo 2010 and i was looking for someone that could gimme photos of the winners, to show my people about Usa cosplay. Well, im searching for comi-con too.
I really wish you want to help me. (L)