Archive for December, 2006

OH CRAP

Sunday, December 31st, 2006

WHAT COULD THIS POSSIBLY MEAN?!

I guess we’ll find out in a few hours…

There’s also stuff going on the source code, as always. Check it out.

From http://www.asosbrigade.com

By the way, I am working on a comic. It’s pretty much sketched out and stuff. It’s just a matter of coloring it, really. Remember, that’s that part that takes one million hours…

Edit: Haruhi’s dub voice auditions are up, as well as the series’ US logo.

Lupin VS The Clone

Friday, December 29th, 2006

Using some of the extra funds I got for Christmas, I decided to catch up with my ol’ buddy Lupin. I ordered seven of the Lupin films; two being theatrical features (Mamo and Dead or Alive) and five of the TV Specials (in one of Funi’s nifty little thinpaks.) The first one that came in was Mystery of Mamo, which I had seen about two years ago, dubbed. I didn’t especially like the movie when I first saw it. I thought the first hour or so was pretty good, but after that I felt the story didn’t really go anywhere too interesting. I went into this second viewing with adjusted expectations, and while the story still came off as weak, I had far more fun watching it. Perhaps it’s because I opted to watch the movie in its original Japanese with the voice work I’ve come to know and love, or maybe I just appreciate movies like these more now. Probably both. The movie pretty much plays out like any given spy movie from the 1960s, but on a grander scale. If you’ve seen any of the older James Bond movies or something like Our Man Flint, you should know what kinds of antics to expect.

Technically, the film is just how I remember it. The character animation is decent. It shines at certain points, but for the most part it’s somewhere in between 1980s TV qualtiy and 1980s movie quality. Not bad, but not stunning. The animation on the mechanical things, like cars and airplanes wasn’t very good at all. The opening car chases resorted to a lot of cheap tricks. They worked, but they certainly weren’t on the level of the opening chase in Cagliostro, produced a year later. The film has great background art, though. Each background painting was extremely detailed and beautiful. This more or less made up for shortcomings with the animation. There are a lot of scenes and shots which are done very well, too, but these are few and far between. But, overall the film was a good way in which to start the string of Lupin animated features that followed after this one. A simple story, but brought to life with the characters we’ve come to know and love realized to their full potential, and a general tone of silliness that makes it fun to watch.

Pumpkin Scissors Is Officially Good

Thursday, December 28th, 2006

Pumpkin Scissors has been going in a good direction in the past few weeks. For good long while it was hanging around in filler city, with certain episodes being good, and certain others being less than good. Episodes 11 and 12 developed an interesting story, so I was disappointed when I saw the preview for episode 13, which looked like more filler. I went into episode 13 expecting nothing. While it was indeed filler, the episode won 1000 points once cute little princess Septieme opened her mouth and Chiwa Saito’s voice came out. This really just made the episode for me. While the story was pretty cliche, having Chiwa Saito voice most of the episode was a real treat. Now, let’s hope this series can win on more points than just voice work in coming episodes!

Dear Yoshiyuki Tomino,

Thursday, December 28th, 2006

YOUR MOVIES ARE TOO DAMN FAST. I mean seriously, take some time to flesh out the plot you know? I know these are compilation movies here, but please for the love of Haruhi a movie isn’t a bunch of battle sequence strung together by watered down plot elements from an already fast paced FIFTY EPISODE series.

Edit

What the fuck was with that happy ending? KAMILE SHOULD BE DESTROYED! TOTALLY AND UTTERLY DESTROYED. Also, what’s with killing off Char? IS SOMEONE TRYING TO SUGGEST CHAR’S COUNTERATTACK NEVER HAPPENED?

The Haul ‘06

Tuesday, December 26th, 2006

Shown

  • Tsukuyomi Moon Phase Volume 1 + Box
  • Gundam Seed Destiny Volume 4
  • IGPX Volume 5
  • Makoto Shinkai Collection (Voices of a Distant Star, The Place Promised in Our Early Days)
  • Tintin in the Congo (there was a reason my father could only buy this in France…)
  • April and Nino (Round Table Featuring Nino albums)
  • Dark Side ni Youkoso (NHK ni Youkoso! soundtrack, listening to it right now)
  • Specialty (Nami Tamaki Album)
  • Blood+ Calendar
  • Pacman

Not Shown

  • ~300 dollars in the form of Amazon gift certificates, Borders Cards and regular money
  • Electronic Razor

Probably forgot things.

Art Site Update: Mikuru

Tuesday, December 26th, 2006

I updated my art site with this.

now sleep

Podcast 07

Tuesday, December 26th, 2006

I forgot to mention that episode 7 of the podcast is available. SG kind of fades out by the end, but that’s because he was chasing a tornado at the time, and his mic kinda got knocked around and he couldn’t speak into it so well (in truth, his mic just sucks any my sound cleaning program cleaned most of him out :/) I’m sorry! I’m still new to this >_<

Presents For All! (56k no)

Monday, December 25th, 2006

I hope everyone is having a hot and sexy holiday season. To make it even hotter, I’ve decided to dump a bunch of a Christmas/winter/holiday themed anime images on you. Almost all the images are resized, so please click on them to see the full version. Warning, some of these images are HUEG (Yes, HUEG.) The patented Mistakes of Youth Witty Commentary ™ will be applied to certain images as I see fit.

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In Which Kadokawa USA And Bandai Entertainment Go Nuts, And The Fans Follow

Monday, December 25th, 2006

Original Post

This comic is kind of lazy. I spent a lot of time on the buildings in the first panel, then just kind of rushed the rest of it. I think the comic as a whole looks fairly decent, though. I really don’t like resorting to random blurs as backgrounds, but it looks ok here. As far as the script goes, this was one of those ideas that I got as I was drifting off to sleep. Not sure if I should really used half baked ideas like that, but apparently some people found it funny… and some didn’t. It was funnier at 2am as I was falling asleep, not so much now. In any case, it’s the holiday special and holiday specials are supposed to suck, right? Right? I’ll try better for the new year orz

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In Which The World Comes To An End

Friday, December 22nd, 2006

http://asosbrigade.com/ has been updated with a link to a myspace page for fans of the series  (lame idea, but done tastefully) and a video stating that  Kadokawa  USA  has the license  and  Bandai  Entertainment is  in  charge of distro.

Now, everyone please join me in \o/ing for a bit.

i wonder how many times we’ll see similar entries like this one across anime blogs today

Further Haruhi-related developments (and other things)

Wednesday, December 20th, 2006

In addition to the Haruhi-related developments on the North American front yesterday, our friends in Japan were also presented with something strange: a fake Internet Explorer-styled 404 page. At first glance it looks like nothing special, but upon closer examination of a certain graphic, it is clear that something is up. Further digging into the site’s source code reveals a curious message, “プログラム起動条件・鍵をそろえよ。最終期限・二日後”, or translated (not by me) “Program starting requirement: Complete the key. Final period after two days.” This is apparently a reference to the fourth novel, Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu or the The Vanishing of Suzumiya Haruhi, which is most likely the next book to be adapted. As of today, the site hasn’t seen many changes, save the inclusion of a mysterious link at the very bottom of the page. Click it. Something neat happens.

asosbrigade.com has seen another update, too. Again, digging into the site’s source code reveals something interesting, “北米計画が発効した。”, or “American project has begun.” Yeah, it’s licensed. FUNi is most likely doing the distribution, well, if this means anything.

Man, stuff like this gets me burning with passion or something. I guess I have to finish re-watching the first series now. If there is any problem with Haruhi, it is the factor that also helped it: the out of order airing. Given the story isn’t told in a linear fashion, there’s not much incentive to continue on with the next episode immediately because it won’t necessarily continue on with the story. Despite that, re-watching the series has been a pleasure. I should probably start episode 6 after I watch the sub of NHK 23 and the last episode of Chocosis.

In other news, I recently bought all of Cardcaptor Sakura at one of RightStuf’s wacky sales. Seriously, I’ve been wondering where this show has been all my life. It’s as if the ladies of Clamp got together to create this wonderful ball of moe, love, happiness and cute just for the future pedo me. One DVD down, 17 to go…

Also, I’ve been working on a comic. With luck it’ll be posted before Christmas. It’s the wacky Christmas special, if you haven’t guessed, which features Tina Rets dressed in nothing but a Santa hat.

No. Here’s the preview image.

28-char-prog1.gif
EDIT: Looks like it may not be FUNi behind this. Though I’d still like it if they handled distribution…

zomg

Monday, December 18th, 2006

http://asosbrigade.com/

http://www.animeondvd.com/ (please look at the entires for December 18th)
that is all

Coyote Ragtime Show: Where It Fell On Its Face

Monday, December 18th, 2006

Does anyone remember that anime Coyote Ragtime Show? You know, that one that aired a little while ago and had so much potential to be incredible but in the end passed like a quiet fart? I would’ve pretty much forgotten about it by now if ADV’s release of it wasn’t so highly publicized and soon-coming. Why am I writing about it, though? Because I placed a lot of faith in the show, even when I knew it was going bad. I look at it now and sigh, knowing it could have been better than what it turned out to be. This isn’t to say I didn’t like the show, because I enjoyed it quite a bit, but in the end it could have been a lot better. To quote a certain someone, “Japan doesn’t get it” and I think Japan really didn’t “get it” at all when it came to CRS. CRS was an American style story told in a Japanese fashion, and that really just doesn’t work… at all.

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A little something to kick off the holiday season

Sunday, December 17th, 2006

yeah i know its from death note volume 1 shut up

Everybody wishes they could be like me, smart and cool. Handsome, wealthy and so sexy.

Saturday, December 16th, 2006

Original Post

Uncensored version here. (warning, nudity!)

The reason why I’m here writing this news post instead of getting ready to go to Karate is because I’m feeling sick, and one should not be punching and kicking other people whilst sick. It’s simply not good form, you know. So here I am, under a blanket (much like this) writing you this lovely news post.

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Christmas List

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006
  • NHK ni Youkoso O.S.T. - Dark Side ni Youkoso
  • April (Round Table Feat. Nino Album)
  • Nino (Another one)
  • Speciality (Nami Tamaki Album)
  • Blood+ Calendar
  • Kamichu! DVD 3
  • Girls Bravo DVD 6
  • Cromartie High School Graphic Novels 5, 6 and 7
  • Great Teacher Onizuka Graphic Novels 7, 8, 9, 10

I ask for a lot because I’m spoiled. Oh it feels so good being upper-class…

“I am Yagami Light…”

Monday, December 11th, 2006

“…please notice that I have the biggest head in this picture. Especially bigger than yours, Misa. Hear that, you dumb junk-slut? Your head is SMALL. Now I will proceed to EAT you all!”

Yeah, I saw Death Note volume 9 while crawling around Borders and just had to pick it up. Incidentally, a fansub for episode 9 of Code Geass came out today, too. It’d be even wackier if today was the 9th!
Anyway, my newest purchase will probably hinder any work toward my English final. Augh.

Things I learned in my first semester of college

Monday, December 11th, 2006
  • It’s spelled integrated, not intergrated.
  • 2D Design is an utterly stupid class.
  • Foundation Drawing I is less stupid.
  • Anything in English can be related to trashy American pop-culture.
  • The history of computers is much like Speed Grapher. The first half is terrible, but the second half is awesome. Except the history of computers isn’t animated horribly.
  • “Presentation Skills” is a fucking easy A.
  • Most art students suck at life. And smoke a lot.

I swear, that’s it for personal bullshit. I just needed to get this off my chest, as it stinks. Expect more anime-centric entries in the future! I may even do a review of the first PPD disc, a whole month after everyone else has. All I can say now is that it is good.

School: You Draw Pretty Ok, You Know

Monday, December 11th, 2006

I passed Foundation Drawing 1 with flying colors, even if those colors are a bit grey. 2D Design is the one I’m most worried about. I got a B- or something on my midterm, and I’m hoping to at least get a B on the final (you need a B to get into the art program.) I think I should at least get a B. I mean, it’s not as if my work has gotten worse. Or has it? It’s impossible to tell!

I should be writing an English essay right now, but I’m getting distracted. I think I’ll throw together four pages on how “language defines an individual” tonight, and then study the history of computers for a good amount of time tomorrow.

god lupin III has such great music

Further Adventures from Tokyo Kid

Sunday, December 10th, 2006

“So, for my birthday my friend got me this CD with only one vocal song on it. The rest were, like, background music.”

“Haha, what was that?”

“Cardcaptors the movie, or something.”

It’s called a soundtrack CD or an OST, you jackass. I hope that person dies horribly.

Oh and guess what I’m doing.

Unexpected Purchase

Saturday, December 9th, 2006

Those bastards should stop sneaking these kinds of things in stores I frequent, as it results in a loss of funds. I heard of this figure a while ago, but never really thought about buying it. It wasn’t until today when it appeared in Tokyo Kid that its existence came back to the forefront of my mind.

The best part? The breasts, nay, the entire chest area is soft.

Sorry for the photo, I’m no Happy Soda.

Other adventures today? Well some political solicitor stopped and informed me that the world is going to regress to a 14th century dark age if “our generation” doesn’t do something about the government. I listened to his spiel for a bit, but he couldn’t really put together a convincing argument. After a while I got bored and left. He handed me his little book and I promptly threw it away at the nearest trash receptacle.

Anyway, I’ve not watched any anime today, sadly. I should get going on the rest of this PPD disc in a moment.

Buzz Buzz Buzz

Friday, December 8th, 2006

Comic Status

Thursday, December 7th, 2006

Don’t expect one this week. I kind of wanna get my finals out of the way, and not focus on working on anything else. Once Finals Week is over, I should get back to regular comic-making.

Best of 2006

Tuesday, December 5th, 2006

I’ll just copy and paste what I wrote on AMC.

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From Japan

Monday, December 4th, 2006

A Japanese blog talks about my interview with Patrick Macias. I ran the paragraph regarding the interview through a machine translator, and from what I could gather from the mess of a translation that was produced, it seemed the blogger liked it. Could anyone with better Japanese skills than I enlighten me further as to what was written?

!

Sunday, December 3rd, 2006

Progress Report

Saturday, December 2nd, 2006
Just to prove to you all that I’m not spending my entire weekend masturbating, watching anime and neglecting to prepare for finals. Comic should be up next weekend at the latest.

Hug Pillow

Saturday, December 2nd, 2006

I just got my pillowcase. Since I don’t have a proper body pillow, I stuffed three of my extra pillows in there, and it works just fine. Yes, I’ve “tested” it already. Heh. Anyway, pics after the jump.

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Ero Ero Ero

Saturday, December 2nd, 2006

Warning: This post is going to have a good number of NSFW images. Don’t say I didn’t warn you~

So, I played Really? Really! most of yesterday, only stopping when I got my first ero-scene. Some way or another, I ended up fucking Primula first. While I had planned to fuck Kaede first, you can’t do much when you’re playing the game more or less blind. Most of the time I felt like I was stumbling around a dark maze, not really knowing which way to go. See, Really? Really!’s system isn’t nice and straight forward like Shuffle!’s so it leaves non-Japanese-speaking weeaboos like me confused most of the time. Sure, pretty much most of the game is clicking through dialogue, but then there’s the instances when you “plunge into the really zone” or have to go around to the A, B, C, etc blocks. Ok, so it’s not that much more complicated than Shuffle! (what with its few “Choose Your Destiny” events), but it’s complicated enough to leave a jackass like me with spinning spiral eyes. But, despite all that, I am having “fun”, I guess. I’m not sure if it’s simply me anticipating all the ero scenes, or if the game is tickling some kind of “inner otaku.” Who knows? In any case, I gotta find a away to squeeze out the Kaede ero scenes. Looking at the CG set, they look all kinds of incredible. I really hope this isn’t one of those cases of when you’re on one path, you’re stuck on it. Speaking of the CG set, it was kind of sad to see that there weren’t any kinky threesomes like the ones I saw in the Tick! Tack! CG set. I was kind of hoping for some Kaede x Primula x Rin or some Kaede x Sakura x Rin stuff. Ah well, it’s not too much of a problem. The hotness of all the ero-scenes more than makes up for that. Also, the fact that you can fuck characters like Nadeshiko-sensei and Mayumi also makes the game win. So yeah, once I pick up my pillowcase and come back from Karate, I expect another six or so hours of straight “playing.” Let’s see where my blind stumbling leads me.

Ke

Ke

Ke

what

EDIT: It would seem that there is only one path according to the amazing, awesome Japanese-speaking DarkMirage. So does that mean if I play my cards right (ke ke ke) I can get all pron in one swift stroke?

EDIT MKII: Thanks to Cortana, I’m no longer shooting blind. Thanks, Cort.

Really? Really!

Friday, December 1st, 2006

My copy of Really? Really! Limited Edition came in the mail today, and I just finished installing it. I have to say I’m really happy with what the limited edition has to offer. The binder is nice, but I’m not sure I’d use it given I’d be scared to bring it around with me. You know, damaging it and such. The illustrations that came with it are quite beautiful, so if anything it can be used as a mini artbook. It also came with a trading card (not pictured.) I got Sakura. I would have liked it better if it was Kaede, but what can you do? Anyway, you can view the pics (with witty commentary) after the jump.

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