Lady GaGa in South Korea

   US pop diva Lady Gaga arrived in South Korea late Friday, one week before a Seoul performance which will kick off her third concert tour.
The singer, wearing a floor-length low-cut white dress, white gloves and a pearl-encrusted mask, blew kisses to fans at Seoul's Gimpo airport who tried to snap her image on smartphones. Her schedule in South Korea for the coming week was unclear and concert organisers Hyundai Card declined to give details.
   "The Born This Way Ball" tour begins on April 27 at Seoul's Olympic Stadium. From there Lady Gaga will take her hits and extravagant costumes to Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, New Zealand and Australia, and then on to 21 European cities.
South Koreans aged under 18 have been banned from the concert after it was rated unsuitable for younger audiences.
The show had an initial age rating of 12 and older but the Korea Media Rating Board - a state watchdog - adjusted it upwards.
Some religious groups in South Korea have opposed the concert, saying Lady Gaga has advocated homosexuality and performed in an explicitly sexual manner.
   "Our Christian community needs concerted action to stop young people from being infected with homosexuality and pornography," the Korean Association of Church Communication said in a statement last month. Lady Gaga is expected to do 110 shows this year following up the success of her album "Born This Way", which has sold nearly six million copies worldwide since it was released in May 2011. The eccentric star from New York has a record number of almost 22 million followers on Twitter.
   The singer, whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, is famous for the hit songs "Bad Romance" and "Poker Face," and has become a strident voice for gay rights and anti-bullying campaigns.

Open World Entertainment and Its Ugly Side

   The sexual objectification of women (and increasingly men) in the South Korean entertainment industry or really, in just about any entertainment industry is certainly nothing new or even shocking.  KPop fans in particular have sadly been largely desensitized to issues involving the inappropriate acts against females, and the pervasive influence of so-called “uncle fans” in driving the market for girl groups is hardly shocking and indeed even expected. But consumers of KPop would do well to remember that sexual misdemeanors and crime within the industry itself is a reality that has the potential to destroy not only careers, but lives and just because we don’t see it doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening to an alarming degree.

Anime: Accel World (アクセル・ワールド)

 Plot Summary: One autumn day in 2046, Haruyuki has an encounter with Kuroyukihime, the prettiest girl in his school. For the middle school boy who is often bullied, the meeting changes his life. Through a mysterious piece of software from her, Haruyuki learns of the existence of the virtual Accel World. In that moment, the lowest of the "school caste" becomes "Burst Linker", a knight defending a princess. 

 The main character, Haruyuki, is short and chubby and not your typical tall, fit and cool looking Anime guy. That is something I didn't expect, but really found interesting and took a liking to it. Writer Reki Kawahara and illustrators HiMA,Hiroyuki Aigamo, and Ryuryū Akari really caught and got my full attention. The feel of this Manga/Anime is really exciting, but I'll get to that in just a bit. First off is this virtual world called Accel World. 

 It is the year 2040 and Neuro-synchronization, a technology system that allows humans to access the internet through their five senses and enter a virtual world, has become widespread and used for everything. Everyone has this object on the back of their necks which acts as if it were a computer. Everything seen through the eyes of people pretty much looks like as if they are staring at a computer screen with all the icons. Sounds like something anyone would love to have ha ha.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

The following contains spoilers of the first Chapter/Episode of Accel World!

 Towards to Manga and Anime! Well as I've said before, the story centers around our Protagonist, Haruyuki. Being bullied for being short and chubby and just weak, he escapes reality and goes online to play games. Seeing as how that's his only way to let out his stress and anger. One day he gets demanded to buy lunch to his bully and later goes to the boys restroom and decides to 'Direct Link' into the virtual world and play some games. After a long session he loses a match and his friend, Chiyuri logs on and sees his ridiculously high score of 2,630,000 points. She tells him to 'Link Out' and have lunch with her but he doesn't follow her. Thus! She forces him to Link Out by heading him on the head. Upon being forced to log out he notices that Chiyuri is right in front of him in one of the boys bathroom stalls. After a short talk and walk, Chiyuri offers him lunch but he denies and runs away. Looking back for only a second he runs off to the library. Direct Linking into the virtual world once again, he slightly remembers seeing his friend crying as he ran from her. He logs onto his game and sees that someone has beat his high score of two million. Seeing that he falls onto his knees and cries saying that games are his only strong point. Look above little Haruyuki! The person who beat your score is there! A voice calls out to him, "So you're the guy with that extremely high score?" the person says. He looks up and sees a young girl in a black outfit with big butterfly wings coming out of her back. She tells him to meet her at the school's lounge. The following day he does so and sees that its miss popular, Kuroyukihime. Now you may wonder, 'Why is miss popular wanting to talk to a chubby kid?' Well he is the main character, so.. Anyways, they talk for a bit and she offers him a program, or app. She tell him to install it. IF he can, and that he may fail. Haruyuki goes forth and installs it. SUCCESS! It installed safely! The program is called Brain Burst. Sounds painfully fun huh? 

 Not forgetting, his bully comes to the lounge and starts rampaging about his lunch and how little Haru hasn't gotten it for him. Kuroyukihime then speaks out on behalf on Haru and says that he bad mouthed him to her. The red head blow ups and starts a fight with Haru! Oh no! He makes our little hero stand up and throws a punch. Kuroyuki tells him to say 'Burst Link' and when he does so, time stops around them and they enter the Accel World. Haruyuki's online avatar pops out of his body and so does Kuriyukihime's. She gives him a small and quick explanation of the program and how one minute in reality is 16 minutes and 30 some seconds in Accel World. Kuroyukihime tells him to never connect to the global network with the program, but the next morning he turns on his N-S so his come can send him his lunch money. He forgets to turns it off and steps outside of his house and the program sends him into a different virtual world. New Challenger!? That's right! Brain Burst is a Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online fighting game... That's a mouthful, VRMMO for short. Short fight shorter, Haru loses the match and heads off to school. Kuroyukihime tells him that losing a match makes his Acceleration points decrease, which allows him to enter Accel World, she also teaches him how to fight in the game. She then tells him to go back out and defeat the challenger. After school he goes off with her and enters the world once again. He faces off with the same guy once again and comes out victorious after a long match and whimpering thoughts.

 That's pretty much the first chapter and first episode. If you like fighting, difference, foul language and more, then I recommend this Manga and Anime. The main character is also quite a twist since it's not your typical guy. Although his whimpering and cowardice like behavior can get annoying to some readers and or fans. So far, I think I shall continue to watch and read this. Thanks you for reading and hope you check this Manga/Anime out.