This WORLD features all official updates from our network.
- Created By Adam
theOtaku.com Anime Podcast IV - Ep. 12
Batou wants to do bad things to me and some other random person or two happens to be in this week's podcast curiously. Other than that, this is the last conventional Ichigo-Batou podcast for a while as after Ichigo goes off on his Bizarre Adventure. Until whenever next time is, then!
Music - Detarame na Zanzou by Granrodeo from Blassreiter
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Cupcakes and theOtaku: Working Together
I have just concluded negotiations with the Bossman cupcake. The negotiations were intense, as you can see from the image below:
The cupcakes have agreed to help us create a premium, subscription program for theOtaku.com. Many other sites have similar programs (deviantArt, LiveJournal, ANN, IGN, Flickr, to name but a few), ours will be unique.
I anticipate that this news might be misinterpreted or might rub a few members the wrong way, so I have a quick FAQ to help quell any concerns pre-emptively:
OMG, theOtaku won't be free anymore?
theO'll continue to be free, forever, just as we are, with new features added all the time. 99% of you won't sign up for a premium subscription service, so we're not going to do any harm. It would be the dumbest thing in the world for us to neglect 99% of our visitors for the benefit of 1%.
Whew, theO will stay free, but won't this make things unfair for people who can't afford to pay any money?
We'll do our best so that the bonus features aren't inherently unfair. Two obvious new features are browsing theO without ads and having a cupcake next to your name 
. It's also guaranteed that some premium features will make it to everyone over time, replaced by new premium features.
That's so stupid that a cupcake will sit next to the name of any premium member.
Actually, it's 100% required. The power of the premium features comes from the cupcakes, we could not offer the bonus features without their help.
OK...Um...How much will this cost?
$29.95 per year, but once you see what you get with it, you'll see that it pretty much pays for itself. We might let people pre-order it at a cheaper rate or purchase "forever" accounts at one price. Still working out the details.
You're so greedy! Why do you want us to give you money?
We're not asking for donations, far from it! 
. This will be an amazing product with some huge benefits well worth the cost. If you can afford it you'll get your money's worth; if not, that's 100% up to you, like any other product. Same as if you want to buy our awesome how to draw anime book, Art Of Otaku.
The only feature I'd actually pay to see is _____
Great! Comment here with that feature.
So the whole cupcake drama was a teaser for theOtaku's subscription program?
It was 33% of it. Another 33% of it was me having fun. The final 33% of it is an unannounced feature in the works.
Caption Battle: Rated M for Mature...
"It's that time again..." "To eat our minstrels?" "To expect the Spanish Inquisition?" "No... it's time for this week's caption battle!" But first, ...The Yoshida Brothers in Vancouver
“Wii would like to (see you) play…” ...Do You Need A Hug?
You can now view the total hugs for each of our sub-sites by clicking over to your portfolio on that site. Did you know that Snow Fox has over 15,000 total hugs on her fan art?
