Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by EXCELLENCE!)

Clannad is one of the most frustrating shows in existence. I’m just going to put that out there to begin with.

Across the vast spectrum of visual novel fans, I imagine two distinct factions of people. Type-Moon fans and Key fans. Two sides, hungry for blood. The blood of each other. They rarely interact, except to exchange digital blows on some anonymous BBS or IRC channel. Actually, this probably doesn’t happen at all, but if it were to happen I’d be more with the Key people. I mean, you’re either a stupid pretentious fuck who thinks mollusk metaphors are deep, or you’re a guy who likes cute girls dying. I’d rather cute girls dying.

I like Air and Kanon. I think they are great shows. I actually consider Air something of amateurish masterpiece, and Kanon is great until you realize Ayu is the main character. I like Key stuff. Their work is heavy handed, mellow-dramatic, and pulls at your heart strings using some of the dirtiest tricks in the book. But I don’t fucking care. They are pieces of good, solid entertainment; and do have some degree of artistic merit. Clannad, however, is different.

Clannad is Key’s attempt to move away from this type of story writing. Stories in Clannad concern themselves with mostly normal things. Family disputes, misunderstandings and things like that. The problem is the manner in which these issues are handled. How many fucking times in season one is an issue resolved through a goddamn motherfucking sports competition. It has to be two times, maybe three– and they almost do this again in Sunohara’s arc in ~After Story~! What the fuck, Key? Another example can be found in the absolutely abominable Yukine arc which is so childishly handled that the only thing keeping me from running to Japan and murdering someone is its great ending.

But at the same time, some arcs are absolutely wonderful, or at least not totally horrible. Fuuko’s arc, even though it’s a total ripoff on Makoto’s story, is pretty good; Sunohara’s arc is great except for the ending; and the latest arc with Tomoya opens with an episode so good that I was wondering if they sacked Jun whateverhisnameis for someone who’s actually good.

The one consistent element throughout this whole mess is KyoAni’s amazing presentation of it all. The small background details, the carefully calculated levels of bloom and the detailed depictions of Sunohara getting beaten within an inch of his life keep me coming back. Also, when the show isn’t focusing on its plot, there are a lot of great humour scenes. Quite frankly, I would have liked it better if Clannad was a school comedy. It’d be a lot better than what it is now!

I’m not a real filmmaker like some of my friends are, nor have I studied film in any great detail. I have however seen Casablanca, and I know what both a pan and a tilt are, so I figure I’ll talk about filmish things in the context of Japanese animation.

There are few anime out there that stand out as really great in my eyes. More often than not, what pushes an anime from good to great is the direction. When I talk about direction, I’m talking about pacing, scene composition, the framing of shots, and things like that. Ever since I started watching anime, these aspects have always jumped out at me when they were really well done, and as a result I have turned into someone who talks out of their ass about things like shot framing, scene composition and pacing.

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Must… resist…. temptation… to… buy… Megami 104. Must… save… money…

This picture would be my wallpaper, if this picture wasn’t already my wallpaper. Now someone needs to scan the Ichigo Mashimaro poster and I’ll be a happy lolicon.

Current
Casshern Sins: Great art direction but the writing is so boring. I’m pretty sure Casshern says JUST WHAT AM I in every fucking episode.
ChäoS;HEAd: It’s always super special! I like this one a lot.
Clannad ~After Story~: Hit and miss. Needs more Mei and/or baseball episodes.
ef - a tale of melodies: This is like a Shinbo show except not good.
Ga-Rei-ZERO: I mostly like it. Really dig the opening/ending tunes.
Golgo 13: ….
Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae: It’s like the writers on this show compete on who can write the crappiest episode.
Kannagi: Yamakan’s direction is great, and the production values are flawless, but the plot stuff lets it down.
Kemeko DX: Nice tits. Humour is hit or miss.
Kurogane no Linebarrels: This show is about man things like robots, tits and giant black men named JACK SMITH who cut airplanes in half.
Kyou no 5 no 2: I guess it’s fine but I still don’t know any of the character’s names.
Michiko to Hatchin: Uneven, but on the whole extremely well done.
Rosario + Vampire CAPU2: This show has moments of genius, actually. Moments of genius mixed with many moments of utter stupidity.
Shikabane Hime: Aka: This show is incredibly trashy, but it takes itself so seriously that I can’t help but take it seriously too. Gainax’s work also really helps it.
Tentai Senshi Sunred: Mostly funny. Some moments fall flat, but mostly funny.
To Aru Majutsu no Index: Pretty entertaining fluff after a string of terrible opening episodes. Let’s hope it stays this way!
Toradora!: I really like this, even though I can’t find a character to like. Taiga is almost cute, but she’s too violent.
Tytania: :V
Yozakura Quartet: This has a really shitty plot, but the direction is ok. Good voice acting, too.
Zettai Karen Children: Not as good as Hayate, but a thoroughly enjoyable year-long show.

Not Current
Windy Tales: Finishing this soon.

Reading
Hayate no Gotoku: Comic version is pretty good so far, but Kenjiro Hata is kind of a bad artist but works around his failings well.
Ikoku Meiro no Croisee: What? There’s only one volume so far? It’s been a year! Where’s volume two :(

I guess I’ll read more of the Tsukuyomi manga soon.

So, basically the best movie ever.

Save something retarded like the acceptance letter getting lost in the mail, I’m 100% guaranteed to go to Japan in April.

I’ll write more later. Maybe.

After getting some comments that stank of anon, I decided to make my way to the Super Secret Samurai 4chan Archive Hang Out and search around for any absolutely hilarious threads about this comic.

I found one, and in it I found what is quite possibly the best criticism ever leveled at my comic, mostly because it makes no sense at all.

God, this comic is so insulting to the reader. When he’s not throwing out references like they’re an acceptable substitute for a punchline, he’s either propagating that whole ‘hardcore otaku pride!’ tripe or presenting weeaboos as awkwardly hip rebels. It’s sickening; how can anyone read this pandering drivel?

Please tell me a) what this “hardcore otaku pride” is, b) how my characters are awkwardly hip, and c) how they are they rebels.

Seriously, at least read my comic before trolling it. I expect better, 4chan!

PS: People who get their bloomers soiled over how to translate a simple as fuck phrase like “sono me dare no me” are sadder individuals than I am. Seriously, get a job or something.

Original Post

No rant today because I’m on break, but here are some quick notes.

• Kurogane no Linebarrels is actually enjoyable now
• So is To Aru Majutsu no Index
• Been making a fool of myself on mixi
• Gundam Musou is still mindless fun

That’s all. Going to catch up on anime today, and try my hand at Perfect Cherry Blossom.

It just is. I love the framing, the colour palette, and the placement of the text. It’s just well done.

There is a CONSPIRACY. A conspiracy by Zettai Karen Children and TVTokyo to turn innocent, 2D-loving lolicon otaku into Real Life Pedophiles like, you know, Tsutomu Miyazaki. Just look at the photos they’ve printed in the booklet for the second opening single, My Wings.

THEY WON’T GET ME, THOUGH. I CAN SEE THROUGH YOUR TRICKS. YOUR LIES.

What does Yoshiyuki Sadamoto do when he’s not drawing the Evangelion manga? I mean, at the rate he’s working he must have a bunch of free time. He hasn’t worked on much anime lately either so… what the fuck does he do? How does he support himself? Inquiring minds want to know!

Ah, Nagi. This is why I love you. Ignore all those other weak otaku who like girls like Hinagiku. They’re not real men. They don’t understand. I understand. I understand randomly buying a giant boxset of a show you’ve never seen before. I’ve been there. We all have. Nagi, I understand.

I started on the Hayate manga last summer, but stopped because… I only had one volume. At Otakon roastbeefy hooked me up with two through five because he didn’t like the comic as much as the cartoon. I’m about three chapters deep in volume two, and I really like it. I’m getting the same amount of laughs that I got from the cartoon, and I mostly like Kenjirou Hata’s style. You can really see his Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei influence, which makes the comic look more arty than it actually should be, but it’s nice to look at. I do prefer how the anime handled the art, though.

Reviewing this manga is a little tough for me. I read through its whole first volume raw, and while I got the general gist of things, a lot of fine details were lost on me. Someone had scanslated about a chapter and a bit of this, so I read through those to help me out. So, while I don’t really understand this comic, I’m going to try my hand at reviewing it anyway.

First, let’s set the scene: It’s France, in the second half of the 19th Century. Japonisme has swept the nation, along with a strong desire for modernization. These rapid changes in the times have brought despair to the shops in Galarie Du Roy, which is now in danger of closing its doors. One of these many shops, Enseignes du Roy, is now making an effort to sell Japanese goods to cash in on the French’s love for all things Japanese.

Claude, the man in charge of this shop, is startled when his older friend Oscar returns from Japan with not only Japanese goods, but a young Japanese girl! Her name is Yune, and she has come from Japan with a strong desire to work in France. In France, Yune learns to cope with the various cultural differences, and comes across a couple of colourful characters; such as the Japan-obsessed rich girl Alice, and a young thief.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisée is a unique manga that takes moe elements puts them against a rich historical backdrop. Since my understanding of this was pretty bad, I was mainly taken in by the artwork. Takeda Hinata is an amazing artist who can render detailed and convincing backgrounds splendidly. Her character art is also consistently incredible. The girls in this comic always wear lavish outfits that are rendered perfectly panel after panel, and while the men’s attire is more reserved, Hinata draws them solidly. Her work, while very detailed, never assaults your senses. Her lines are gentle, and flow naturally.

The story is pretty slice-of-life, but there’s decent helpings of comedy, and some drama. Each chapter more or less follows Yune as she gets acquainted with life in France. There are often misunderstandings, Claude usually gets mad, and Oscar chimes in with light-hearted comments every now and again. The characters aren’t really unique, but they’re fun people and their interactions are entertaining. Claude is at times a bit too much of a Manga Protagonist, but that doesn’t really take away from anything. Yune is cute, and Alice’s Japanophilia is absolutely adorable.

It’s a real great comic. If you like like amazingly detailed artwork, lolis, 19th century France, and slice of life antics, I suggest you give this a spin. Not much has been scanslated, but if you can read Japanese go for it.

I really want to play Crash Bandicoot in Japanese now.

TRIGUN MAXIMUM MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE

Thank you Sadamoto, for such wonderful Misato-service in volume 11 of the Evangelion comic. Unlike most Eva fans, I do not like Rei or Asuka, but I really like Misato! So thanks!

Volume 11 covers the second half of episode 24, and then starts to move pretty well into End of Eva territory, ending just as Seele’s assault on NERV gets underway. One great thing Sadamoto has done with his adaptation is deviating from the source material. The plot stays exactly the same, but character interactions are different and some vague details from the TV series are covered more in depth. Sadamoto’s most striking and interesting deviation from the television series is his portrayal of Kaworu. Kaworu in the TV series is a caring and loving individual, who shows Shinji kindness that he’s never felt before. In the comic, Kaworu is more of a jerk. His comments, mannerisms, and actions challenge Shinji, and often times irritate him. Their relationship is completely the opposite from what it is in the TV series. However, Shinji’s indecisiveness about killing Kaworu is just the same, which brings forth a set complex emotions that’s completely different from what is present in the TV series.

After that, the manga more or less copies the first fourth of End of Eva panel for panel. That’s not all together a bad thing, but it’s substantially less interesting than the preceding chapters. Good action, though!

The Evangelion comic has a kind of grittiness that’s not present in the TV show. Sadamoto’s handling of the narrative for some reason comes off as a lot more honest and down to earth. It could just be because the manga lacks the TV show’s over the top orchestral score, and its kinetic animation. Sadamoto’s artwork also progressively deviates from his original cartoonish designs, to characters that look more realistic.

I’m not trying to say the manga is better than the TV series, since the TV series is my most favourite anime ever, but I really appreciate Sadamoto’s take on the tale. I think in a way it’s just a tad bit more accessible than the TV show.

Original Post

I think I’ve squeezed all the life I’m able to squeeze out of Gundam 00 jokes at this point, especially considering that I haven’t actually watched the show. However, with the second season around, I couldn’t very well be quiet about it, and thusly this comic was created. It was also a good chance to expand on Tina’s developing insanity. She is insane. They both are.

It’s been rainy for the past couple of weeks, so I wanted to do a comic in the rain. I didn’t really like the rain effect at first, but it’s come to grow on me much like a parasite. The first panel looked good to me at first, but after a while I noticed that it looked like Tina is trying to dodge Rets’ umbrella, when she’s actually skipping nonchalantly. The second panel is the only one I really like, mostly because Rets gets his own special dramatic lighting, not dissimilar to Light Yagami. Notice how the shadows on his face in that panel are the total opposite of everything else in the comic? Panel three is ok, but it could have been better. Overall I’m pretty indifferent about this comic.

I’d like to take a chance to thank you readers for a great many things. Well, not a great many things, but two things that deserve a great amount of thanks. First, I’d like to thank you people for reading and liking the comic. I’m really hard on myself, and think just about everything I do is total crap (no, really, I read through the entire archive the other day and hated it all) but encouraging words make me feel good. I’m practicing drawing more often, and also making attempts to streamline my writing, so you hopefully in the future you’ll like the comic more than you already do!

Secondly, I’d like to thank the people who’re buying things through the ads on the site. Specifically, the CDJapan ads. I’ve gotten a decent amount of people purchasing things via my links, and they also tend to purchase a large amount, so I thank you all for that. I’ve already made about 50 dollars in commission, so keep buying! They’re having some hot sales right now on DVDs and CDs, and it’s not too late for an ‘09 calendar! Buy! Buy! Buy!

Alright, that’s enough adbot stuff. On to other things. Like Touhou. I understand this will enrage the denizens of /jp/ (everything I do enrages them, so I can’t really win) but I’ve been reading some Touhou doujinshi lately. I read some gag comics by FLIPFLOPs, then went on to read their adaptation of Perfect Cherry Blossom, which was extremely well done, and I really liked it. Following that, tried my hand at more of the games, but I kept dying since I just suck at video games. They’re still fun though–just challenging, even on Easy Mode. Yes, I’m kimoi, shut up. Anyway, I’ve been doing all that while listening to things by Silver Forest, and I have a whole playlist of COOL&CREATE tracks to get through, so chances are I may become an honest to goodness fan in time. Right now I’m just casual. (ps I like Cirno. And Chen.)

Moving right along to professionally produced pieces of Japanese entertainment, I finished both Gankutsuoh and Mushihi tonight at MIT, and was mostly happy with them. Gankutsuoh gets really good when all the pieces come together, but the end is real lame. Mushishi is more or less the same until the end, which was incidentally more or less what I was expecting! They’re both decent shows though, and I may even buy Mushishi if I’m feeling crazy enough. However, Gankutsuoh failed to take the place of Best Gonzo Show in my mind, despite some people saying it’s about the only good thing they’ve ever done. The best Gonzo show is, by the way, Strike Witches. Closely followed by Blue Submarine No.6, which was just a really cool cartoon. Didn’t make much sense, though!

That’s all for tonight. My computer contracted a horrible Trojan before I went out tonight, but seems to have gotten better after giving it some medicine. Hopefully it won’t blow up in the middle of the night.

Manga are comics. They are published in books.

I’m cutting into my Special Fund here, but these are the only two US releases I’m really following, so I figure I’ll get them right when they hit, especially since volumes from both of those series come out about once every two years.

Since I totally forgot where Trigun Maximum left off, I started reading Evangelion on the train ride back home, since I’m familiar enough with the TV series plot to just pick it up and not be totally lost. I still love Sadamoto’s vision of the story. I’ve seen episodes of the TV series way too many times, so a different angle on the story is quite refreshing. It looks like it’s finally about to end, too! I really like how in one panel Sadamoto has a drawing of the Twin Towers in flames, in attempt to illustrate the folly of man. Way to date your comic! Now everyone will know of the ~10 years between volume 1 and volume 11!

When buying these, I attempted to strike up conversation with “The Asian Guy” at Tokyo Kid, asking him how those US-made dakimakura are selling. I asked him this because I assumed he was One Of Us (he was assembling some goth loli figure at the counter) but he seemed very uncomfortable. In an attempt to make it seem like I wasn’t making fun of him, I admitted to owning a lot of hug pillows myself. He then got more uncomfortable. I expected better of you, Asian Guy At Tokyo Kid!

On the whole, Kannagi is a good show. There are parts which are absolutely exceptional, and there are also parts that make me groan. The parts that make me groan are few and far between, but are frequent enough that it pulls the show down from being exceptional, to being just good (but at times great.)

The Good Bits

• The Production Team: The main thing that pushed this from being a To-Love-Ru tier harem comedy to a potential Haruhi/Lucky Star meme-machine was the production staff. Surpringly, Yamakan and crew have more or less met with the hype. The show is brilliantly produced, with consistently fluid animation and lots of fun, border-line SHAFT, directorial quirks. And let’s not forget the writing! It’s a Sony!
• The Characters: Characters make or break a romantic comedy, since you sure as hell don’t watch them for the plot. Luckily Kannagi has a wonderfully charming cast of characters. Most of my favourites are the secondary players, like Takako and Akiba, but the main girls are quite fine ladies themselves. My favourite of the three is Zange, mostly because of her voice and her daring attitude. Nagi’s a mess of funny quirks, and Tsugumi lightly tickles my love for the childhood-friend archetype. I say “lightly” because I feel she could be better, but whatever!

The Bad Bit

• The Genre: Anime romantic comedies are often looked down upon as horrible, trashy fluff; and to be fair most of them are, but they generally don’t really bother me. However, there are some key situations and characteristics of the genre that fail to entertain me, and these annoying aspects of the genre find their way into Kannagi. The thing that really bothers me about this show is Nagi and Jin’s constant bickering. Honestly, this was only good in Tsukuyomi Moon Phase, and I have not seen this kind of relationship done in an entertaining manner ever again. I appreciate Odd Couple humour, but the only time they really did it right was in the brilliant episode 7.

On the whole, though, it’s a good show. If the next six episodes really impress me, I just may watch it again!

I am in no way qualified to review software because I a) can’t code for the life of me, and b) have no idea what qualifies as a good program or a bad one. I am however a longtime Trillian user, so I have that going for me!

—

Just like any other person, I use instant messaging programs often. Over the years, I accumulated a number of contacts across various different clients, and it became quite tiresome to log into three or four different programs just to talk to people. It was at that point that I picked up Trillian, and I have been using it ever since.

I heard about Trillian Astra about a year ago while searching for a way to add the MSN Personal Message function onto Trillian. I found out that Trillian Astra had this feature, and upon learning that I signed up for the beta testing. Yes, I’m dumb. Anyway, I had totally forgotten about this beta testing until yesterday, when I got an email from Cerulean Studios with a neat little link to the latest build of Trillian Astra.

The skin they start you off on when you first install the program is pretty ugly. It’s called Trillian Cordonata, and its most distinguishing design feature is the use of gradients everywhere. It comes with a bunch of different themes, but they’re all horrid. Especially the holiday one. Luckily, that’s only one of two skins, and the other skin is Trillian Colbalt, which is a lot closer to the look of Trillian 3. Naturally, this is the one I’m using. It comes in three different flavours, as well– Original, Minimal and Tabbed.

There’s a bunch of silly stuff that’s enabled by default, but it’s all very easy to disable with a quick run through the preferences. One thing I find particularly annoying is the Knowledge Bar, which is a little bar that runs across the top of your chat windows, scrolling through the top stories of a variety of RSS feeds. Some people may like that, but I find it annoying.

Astra offers a lot more services than Trillian Basic 3 does, including but not limited to Facebook, Twitter and Skype. The only one of these that I’ve used is Twitter, but others certainly are useful.

Since this program is still in its beta phase, it has a number of bugs, but things more or less work decently. Hopefully they can iron out all the crap in good time, and finally put out a real release!

I like what the top tags are, w

IF THERE IS A HELL

I’M SURE THIS IS HOW IT SMELLS

A WALK IN THE RAIN

THE RAIN

WHY DO I FEEL… SO

ALOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s just something oh so familiar and calming about her!

(yes, I’ve been browsing http://behoimi.org/. I am ashamed. Me, of all people, succumbing to the evils of cosplay…)

I think I told you guys I’m doing a comic project for a friend of mine. I’m not sure if I mentioned that it’s a Nogizaka Haruka doujin, but it is. Here’s the penultimate panel. I wrote 目が!! next to Yuuto’s face because he reminded me of the guy from Laputa, a movie I really should see, but only because Nico Nico Douga loves it so much.

I just got the main sketches finished. Next thing to do is to go back through and fix all the dumb looking panels, of which there are six or seven of. I don’t want any QUALITY in a project I’m getting paid for. Made that mistake with Otaku USA! The last panel in the entire comic looks really bad, because at that point I was just sick of drawing and just wanted to be done, so that’ll need some real fixing up. It probably needs a background, too.

After I’m done with that, it should be smooth sailing. Cleaning the lineart won’t be hard, since that’s just tracing over the sketches on the lightbox, then I have to add some shades and stuff, which should take a good week if I’m focused. When that’s all done, all I have to do is make cool back and front covers, then print the sucker off and mail it.

I tried to not pay attention to this whole thing, but the story has been getting too much attention for me to ignore it.

Simply put: I don’t care. But that’s mostly because I don’t care for Kannagi’s Nagi all that much. She’s funny, but that’s it. I much prefer Zange. Or Tsugumi.

I do get the whole virgin fetish, though. I mean, thats why I’m such a lolicon. There is an allure to a girl being inexperienced, and if I liked Nagi I’d probably be tearing up manga volumes too. Well, I wouldn’t go that far. I’d probably just make a rude blog entry.

Yeah yeah, I know. But since I’m a dumb Japanophile, the first thing that came to mind was you know who…

But yeah, this is breakfast tomorrow.

From Zettai Karen Children episode 33:

They even had speaking roles this time! The only thing that’d make these cameos better is if the Hayate characters were drawn in Zettai Karen Children style.

But I wonder; with all these cameos in ZKC, will we be seeing a lot of ZKC cameos in the next season of Hayate? It’s probably very likely, especially considering Hayate is actually a parody show, whereas ZKC just pretends to be one at times.

Anyways, next episode preview.

What cute little outfits~

Click for bigger