Doki Doki Productions - Contest Results

Doki Doki Productions - Contest Results
Here are the results of a three-part contest held in Spring 2001. In the first part, one had to name all of the anime shows in a given video. The winner was Jessica Hodgins, who chose Rurouni Kenshin V.6. (Although she's in Australia, she's able to view NTSC tapes. Phew!) I decided to choose a runner-up, whose score was close to the first place winner. Jessie Roush chose Blade of the Immortal manga.

In the third part, ten entrants were chosen at random to receive a CD-R of AMVs.

In the second part, to receive a videotape of AMVs, entrants had to give a correct or amusing response to the question:
Why was the butterfly chosen as a logo for Doki Doki Productions?
The winning responses are below. The first seven were the amusing ones, the last three were the (close to) correct ones. I was so impressed by the first one (since she went to the trouble to write a poem), I sent her two tapes. Thanks for the responses!

The actual reason for the logo is... A few years ago when I was studying Japanese, my parents bought me a bilingual manga, which was designed to teach English idioms to Japanese-speaking people. The manga translated "to have butterflies in one's stomach" as "dokidokisuru", and that's when I decided on the logo.

(PS: If you remember the contest rules from way back when, you'll notice I doubled the number of prizes in each category. Woo!)

The Butterfly Arrives
a poem by Ella Dorris

While flitting and dancing on a hypertext breeze
A fickle and fanciful insect uncovered a treasure
Of sight and sound, expertly melded to please,
A garden that shone as the best of its nature.

The caretakers were brave and not afraid to sow
A mix of this bush and that vine, and maybe this flower
All set in this soil to create one single show.
For a minute of perfection they toiled by the hour.

The results caught the eye of many fair passerby.
Soon links and rings drew droves to partake.
But none were so enchanted as the finicky butterfly
Who, being an enterprising fellow, had a deal to make.

"Let my presence endorse your efforts," the tiny insect proposed.
The gardeners accepted when the butterfly added cleverly,
"Imagine the works you create--how they shine when composed
with my name, Doki Doki."

The Butterfly is the logo of Doki Doki Productions because of the tattoo Tim got while drunk... It's either that or else the tattoo on his girlfriend's butt. ^^;;
-- Ice

The butterfly is the logo because of a haiku that never existed that I just made up:

The butterflies who read this poem were outraged because they didn't know what the hell a heart was. After being told it pumped blood through their insignificant little bodies, they started the insect revolution. They killed many a person with their deadly mind-rays of eternal pain and suffering. That's why I have a headache right now. After you became the ambassador of the humans to the butterflies, they gave you their list of demands. After you completed their first demand of preventing all samurai from catching them in nets and assassinated smile.DK for making the song, they hailed you as king of all butterflies and you made the butterfly your logo.
-- Corey "RockX2" Hull

Why did you use the butterfly as your logo? What a silly question to ask...

...and silly questions deserve silly answers. Therefore the reason you chose the butterfly as your logo is that you use the butterfly's pretty colors to dazzle and confuse your enemies so you can deliver excellent anime music videos while they are distracted. Your ninja skill obviously allowed you to choose the one animal that would aid you most in your quest to bring the people AMVs.
-- Mr.IPixie

You were secretly bitten by a radioactive butterfly, and as such, fight crime as BUTTERFLY MAN! And the people who need to get in contact with you know you only by your cleverly disguised website... To the common web surfer, the site is a collection of cool stuff... but those in the know recognize BUTTERFLY MAN!!!
-- Robert Quattrone

As for the butterfly, you wanted to answer the question "What if NERV, instead of that hippie hemp leaf for their logo, used something only lady health care products dare touched?" ... I can see it now:

Ummmm maybe not... whadya think sirs?
-- Mike "Wirebrain" Stevens

Ok Tim I see there being several reasons for the doki doki butterfly.

Reason #1: The drunken leprechaun dancing on the cop's head was already taken.

Reason #2: Seeing another DBZ logo would have inspired millions of netgoers to commit Hari Kari in an attempt to avoid seeing any more of this sadly overused resource.

Reason #3: You have a phobia of cute chibis taking over the internet and therefore the world. So you swore never to use them.

Reason #4: A Ryoko logo would cause you to hypnotically stare at her for endless hours leaving the site in an unfinished sense of disarray. This would also keep you from eating, sleeping and any other form of social activity, you would start losing weight and become sensitive to real light. After perfecting quenching your thirst with drool from staring at Ryoko you realize you can have her do different poses. You would get fired from your job and disowned by your family, but who cares -- Ryoko is blowing you a kiss. This dementia would continue as your body is now feeding off itself but who cares -- Ryoko is staring at you, only you... After this level of insanity the gas and phone are shut off in your house, but you don't need the phone as you have cable and Ryoko is now the only warmth you see. Next, before you know it tragedy strikes as you see Ryoko hugging Tenchi. This sends you into a blind rage attacking the only thing you have left, the computer. After realizing you've destroyed your only link to the digital goddess you cry yourself to sleep in the corner seeking warmth from the computer printouts of your lost love. This continues until an Avon woman walks into your house and finds you in your attic. She takes you to meet her family and give you a home. They find the Ryoko pictures stuck to your flesh amusing and keep you around until you try to color the woman's daughter's hair blue. The whole town chases you back to your house seeking only your downfall. After seeing some pictures of Ryoko you knocked over by accident fall down the stairs they think you died and go live their twisted happy lives leaving you again to only cry in the corner waiting for the end..... you suddenly wake up in reality realizing that you've been pondering this idea for actually 2 days. Shaking your head you swear to never think of this idea again and begin to think of other logos.

Reason #5: You have a strange and disturbing obsession with butterflies.

Reason #6: It would allow you to have this contest and see peoples' insane, stupid, and mostly pointless ideas about the butterfly, bringing you a sense of estranged joy as the day of the fated contest moved ever closer.
-- Bill "gabriel32480" Lasek

If I had to guess is that the beat of the heart matches the flap of a butterfly's wings.

doki doki = heart beat

I could be wrong. Or another is, as my friends would say, "I like butterflies, if you don't like butterflies, you are a baka!" :O)
--Ben Davis

Well, Doki-Doki is the Japanese onomatopoeic sound of a heartbeat. The Butterfly is a traditional embodiment of the soul. So, the two really go well together -- heart and soul. That's why I think the Butterfly was chosen as a logo -- you were looking for something that embodies an image of the heart, because, well, anime is a part of all our souls. :)
--SirRauru

Well I did some checking and Doki Doki means (I think) either nervous/hysterical or the affect/indicative noise of a heart pounding... so the image of a butterfly would be a good symbol of either one of these explanations, because its flying is erratic, resembling nervousness or hysterical behavor, or because its flapping is reminiscent of a heart beat.
-- Eric "Bollux" Anderson

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