I should probably mention that I'm in an original audio drama on esachan.com called Memory. Look for me as Emperor Chang.

A helpful visitor informed me that my links to the Pink Lemonade trailer were broken. When I redesigned the site, I deleted the old one in its entirety, and it seems I forgot to put the trailers back when I was done. I've put them all back in place.

Okay, people! The fan works collection including Fast Food Freedom Fighters is now finally available on CD-ROM, in any of several formats: DivX4 AVI (320x240), VideoCD (VCD), and Super VideoCD (SVCD). To get it, send a blank CD (80 minute) and return postage, same as before with the VHS version. It rests with you to make sure you have the necessary software to play these formats. Anyone who currently has an order for the tape, and woud rather have the CD, contact me.

The whole site has been edited and updated to use frames and Flash, as I warned earlier. I've got more Flash content on the way soon. Also, there's now a domain alias for the terms and conditions for the use of my art. The permanent URL for that is http://terms.whiteradish.com. I've also fixed the link to my personal section, which used to contain only my memorial for my grandmother. Now, it has a number of items that don't fit anywhere else.

Just for fun, here's a look at my Hallowe'en costume. Ten points to anyone who recognises it (although it probably shouldn't be that hard). Click on the thumbnails for a larger version.

I hope the rant below wasn't too off-putting. Some things get under my skin, and nonsensical value judgements are amongst those things. Are we human? Are we alive? Then it really shouldn't be too difficult to understand.

Hmm...what to say about this: My tracker told me someone was talking about me, so I went to look. Someone described White Radish...pretty accurately, in fact -- although he didn't know that we've actually animated four shorts, not three, but the first isn't owned by White Radish anymore, so there's nothing about it on this site. Anyway, he mentioned that The Evil At Tentacle High is an H title, and everyone seized on that and assumed, assumed, assumed. Sexual content has the same kind of stigma that anime itself has. A non-otaku will look at any anime and say "Oh, that's a cartoon. It's a children's medium. Nothing worthwhile will ever come out of that." Or worse: "Why are you telling a serious story in what's obviously a children's medium?" So, too, if something is categorised as "hentai," people assume it to be worthless...People commenting on the board called it "the lowest form of anime" and "the easiest way for a no-name small company to squeeze their way into professional animation...a pity." Other people say, "It's a pervert's medium." "Nothing worthwhile in that." Or worse, and I've really heard people say this: "Why are you wasting such a good story on a hentai animation?" People, please! I know I've chosen an uphill battle in the fight against stereotypes, but is it too much to ask that people look into things independently before making judgements and jumping to conclusions? Just a little? I've seen a lot of anime, of just about every genre, including hentai. There are as many genres of hentai as there are genres of any other anime. There's science fiction hentai, fantasy hentai, magical girl hentai, slice of life character drama hentai, coming of age hentai...you name it! The only difference is that they include sexual content. That's all! The ones that I've enjoyed and own have solid, engaging stories. Only one anime comes to mind as a storyless romp from one titillating encounter to another, and that wasn't even hentai, it was CLAMP's Miyuki-chan in Wonderland! Now, admittedly, my experience is coloured by my own tastes. That is, I prefer stories without rape and excessive violence, the sort that would be rated R here. So I don't really know what X-rated hentai is like. All I know is, the stuff I watch has good storytelling, and it has to! Why would I care whether person A has sex with person B unless it had a story? If I had to categorise The Evil At Tentacle High, it would indeed be "hentai." But aside from the sexual content, what is it? Well, it's satirical, and very funny! I took it on as a project not because it meant I'd get to draw lots of nudity, or because I thought it would sell well, but because I thought it was a great satire of tentacle hentai! Likewise, Pink Lemonade's emphasis is heaviest on story and character development -- something I consider very important. The sex is not forced or out-of-place, it comes quite naturally in the story. Obviously, if any given viewer has some kind of neurosis about sex, then it doesn't matter how good the story is; they'll hate it regardless. But such people are not my audience, and not my concern. It's not my job to explain why sex is normal and good. That fact should be obvious, and to my audience, it is. Of course, if the others want to leave their neuroses at the door, they're welcome to come in and take a seat, and they just might find themselves entertained -- and if they stick around for the whole story, they might even find themselves watching something that makes them think.

The DVD collection of shorts is ready. It contains Apprentice, The Item, The Evil At Tentacle High, and 3 trailers. It's $15, and it replaces the VideoCD collection of shorts on the order form (although if you prefer the VCD, you can always ask for it, but it will not contain The Evil At Tentacle High.

It's getting close to Halloween, my favourite time of the year! Click here for an animated Flash greeting card especially for Halloween! (Requires the Flash 5 or 6 plugin.)

Oh, and look for me at Nan Desu Kan in Colorado this weekend, where I'll be set up at a table, and I'll be offering a panel explaining how we use the various software involved in our animation!

Since the last post with this picture has scrolled off, here it is again! I've been working doggedly on the DVD collection of shorts, and it will be done in a couple of days. I went back to the original source frames to get the best possible quality, and the results are gorgeous -- this is better than our animation has ever looked before! I also took the opportunity to restore the opening credits at the beginning of Apprentice. If you thought the first two shots of scenery were overly long, now you know why. Originally, the opening scene had movie-style credits before and after the title popped up, but the equipment I was using at the time introduced nasty video artifacts that made the credits look terrible, so I decided to remove them altogether. This also reduces the oddness of the music kicking in when nothing's happening. This was my fault at the time, because I provided Louie (of Vanilla Almond Creme) with an animatic of the shot with the title appearing at a certain time, and he scored the music to that. Later, with neither of us knowing this, I moved the title a little later to allow for the credit placement, which ended up being scrapped anyway. Anyway, the DVD contains Apprentice, The Item, and The Evil At Tentacle High, as well as the trailers for Apprentice, The Item, and Pink Lemonade. (The trailers for The Item and Apprentice are of a bit lesser quality than the actual features, but that's not unusual judging from the DVDs I own ^^;). I'm putting the finishing touches on the menu system now, and I'll announce when it's ready to go. The inclusion of the Pink Lemonade trailer and The Evil At Tentacle High means the DVD's rated H for Hentai content, but it's all in good fun. ^^ I've gotten a couple of reports of people not being able to see the Flash animation of Jadie and the pumpkin. Please make sure you have the Flash 6 plugin, or it won't work. I've tried it out on a bunch of different computers now, and on the ones that didn't show it, I installed the latest Flash plugin and it worked fine. I've added a link to the plugin download site on the pumpkin page.

Here's the first real bit of Flash animation content -- a seasonal theme, in the left column. (or, click here for a bigger version on its own page.) Yes, it's the same pumpkin as last year, but this time it has something inside! Go on, click it, and see! This one requires Flash 5. More coming soon!

Google is hilarious! :-D My hit tracker tells me what searches led to my site, and at one point this site was ranked #4 for "tentacle anime" or "tentacle hentai", thanks to The Evil at Tentacle High! Well, at least it really is tentacle hentai, and thus it's not misleading, like this latest report, which tells me that I'm getting hits for "hentai flash animation". Naturally I tried it out for myself to see what it was saying. Here's how it was summarising my site: The White Radish Web Site ... The incredible Flash animation content all over the place here ... You're really going to need the Flash plugin for ... a secret special project for the A-Kon Hentai ... 68.15.144.115/~radish/whiteradish/ - 14k - Cached - Similar pages Very...um...convenient ellipses there, eh? ^^; Check out my 2002-07-19 post below to see what some of the missing words were. (Looks like the other quote was from a post that's already scrolled off).

I've added a new commissions page, for anyone who would like some custom art in the style you see on this site. And now for the promised info about The Evil at Tentacle High, which will soon have its own dedicated page. This short was commissioned for the 2002 Project A-Kon Hentai Fest in Dallas, TX, where it received a great audience response. It's the very brief story of three girls who encounter the prototypical Cthulhu-like tentacle monster in the halls of their school, with the expected hentai results (after a quick stripping) and the ending you never see in shows like this (no spoilers here!) Watch for some super-deformed fun in screenshots coming soon! This short will not be released separately, but look for it on a collection in the near future!

My philosophy thus far has been to try to keep this site compatible with the most browsers as practically possible. But lately, as I’ve been visiting other art/animation sites and seeing much more appropriate content for the genre, it’s been dawning on me that it wouldn’t be a sin to include some Flash on my site. This is primarily an animation site, after all. If you’re coming here, you probably want to see some animation. The incredible Flash animation content all over the place here and there has really inspired me in this regard. So be warned. You’re really going to need the Flash plugin for this stuff. The modern major browsers come with it preinstalled anyway, but you may need to get the latest version (6) from Macromedia, because some of the content I have in mind will require it. Try this link to get it directly.

All the previous news now looks like it was posted today, because I've just started using Blogger to post news updates. Hopefully this'll make things a little easier and more frequent.

We're deep in con season, now. A-Kon, Balticon, and Anime Mid-Atlantic are done with, but then there's Otakon and Nan Desu Kon coming up fairly soon. Hustle & bustle. At any rate, there's some new art in the H gallery. At A-Kon, I premiered a secret special project for the A-Kon Hentai Fest -- a requested piece I called The Evil at Tentacle High, a super-deformed send-up of tentacle anime (a genre that doesn't do much for me anyway. ^^) Next update will have some more info on this animation.

The poll is so evenly divided between DivX AVI and VCD, I think I might have to offer both. That's DivX4, by the way. I'm not sure about DivX5, from what I've been hearing about it. Updates this go-round: The trailer for The Item is back online after a long absence, in the same formats as the rest: DivX4 and MPEG-1. No mirror yet, and the mirror for the other trailers is down as a side effect of our recent move. This site and the e-mail accounts suffered a few outages during that time, as well. The mirrors will be up again when I secure some more web space. Plus, a new link on the links page. Con appearances: Currently in the lineup are Fanime Con in California, Anime Central in Illinois, and Project A-Kon in Texas.