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

Watching Tokikake at the cinema was ok. As you can see from the photos, it wasn’t a real big deal cinema but it worked alright. The subs weren’t digisubs (dm puts forward that they were acid-etched) and the print was kind of dirty, so it made the film look older than it actually was, especially in the scenes that lacked wacky lighting effects (which was most of the film.)

Watching it again you pick up on more of the subtleties present in the film, but aside from that it was the same as always. One other thing I did notice on this viewing was just how detailed and well done the backgrounds were. I can’t believe I didn’t notice that before.

Once I get back to my main computer, I’ll work on some fanart of Makoto’s sister :V

While in Best Buy the other day I found a truly quality release by ADV.

TWO GREAT ANIME CLASSICS FOR ONE GREAT LOW PRICE ETC ETC ETC ETC

God.

My brother then found a true American classic.

It’s been a while since I’ve played a video game, and it’s been an even longer while since I’ve actually played one that I own. My younger brother promised me Gundam Musou (or Dynasty Warriors Gundam) for my birthday, and all of two months later, a copy of the game randomly appeared in my room. Not having much time to play it during work, I only just popped it in recently to give it a spin before heading back to Boston.

When it comes to video games, I’m very much “I don’t know art, but I know what I like” and I certainly like Gundam Musou, but more experienced reviewers would probably tear it limb from limb. It’s a fun, easy to play game that pits all of the famous Gundam heroes together in one epic adventure. Kind of like how they took all of Yokoyama Mitsuteru’s characters and threw them together in one story for Giant Robo. Yeah, it’s like that, and it’s awesome.

I’ve never played a Dynasty Warriors game in my life, but given the English title, I can only assume that this game is Dynasty Warriors, just with giant robots. The gameplay is serviceable, but it kind of sucks that projectile weapons are more or less useless. The beam canon is one of the most used weapons in the Gundam TV shows, but in this game it’s difficult to aim, and when it does hit, the damage done is minimal. As such, you mainly have to rely on melee attacks, combos and special attacks. It’s not really true to Gundam style, but it’s still a lot fun. I did my first playthrough with Domon anyways, so it wasn’t that out of character.

The story is, like I mentioned earlier, one that involves all of the main Gundam heroes from I guess… 1979 to 2000? I haven’t seen any Seed guys yet, but maybe they’ll show up later. I’ve only played through original mode on Domon, so I probably don’t have the whole story, but right now it seems pretty thinly defined, and only an excuse to go around chopping things up. And that’s totally fine. There’s only so much story you can cram in through mission briefings and in-mission dialogue, so that fact that they even have some background to go with all this fighting is impressive enough for me.

Besides, the story isn’t the important part– the characters are! The character interaction in this game is a Gundam fan’s wet dream– seeing all the characters from various Gundam shows coming together and exchanging snarky comments during battle is just too funny. I love it! And hey, the inclusion of Puru actually makes me wanna watch ZZ now! She’s too cute~

Anyways, I’m having a blast. Gundam Musou may just be the game to get me back into gaming… provided other people supply me with the games. I’m spending enough money as it is!

Click for bigger

Man I love how Alto makes this face in like every single episode.

And good lawd, what won’t he make a paper airplane out of??

This episode was pretty good, but the twist at the end had me lawlin’. What a soap opera!

Original Post

This’ll be another short, bullet point post.

• Otakon Coverage is complete with this comic
• I just finished work and need to start packing up to head back to school soon.
• Going on vacation with the family, too.
• Taking a couple weeks off just to relax, so don’t expect a comic this week, and maybe even the week after. Once school starts I’ll get the ball rolling again.
• Been experimenting with different kinds of styles lately… if comics look more wildly inconsistent than usual, don’t be surprised…
• God, this backlog.

Later!

Download

We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when– BUT I KNOW WE’LL MEET AGAIN, SOME SUNNY DAY!!

Cast of Characters in order of appearance

• Omo
• Me
• Link
• Hendane guys

Songs

• Opening Song– “Kumikyoku Nico Nico Douga” by Nico Nico Douga people
• Ending Song– “We’ll Meet Again” by Vera Lynn

Download

The battle continues!

Cast of Characters in order of appearance

• Me
• Omo
• Link
• MrVacBob
• rabidkimba
• SDS (Project Freedom, Souther impression)
  
• Beefy
• JAM PROJECT (I missed Kageyama, sorry :( )
• Santi
• Sub (Sup guys? Chillin’?)
• TheBigN
• Baka-Raptor
• Os
• Moyism (He says exactly one word)

Songs

• Opening Song– “Kero Maru Kyuu Destiny” by Silver Forest
• Ending Song– “Airman Ga Taosenai” by Team Nekokan

Download

In the dark recesses of your most horrible nightmares, there lies a place called OTAKON. Fearless warriors make pilgrimage to this far-off land annually, but always come out defeated. This year is no different than the previous ones that came before, what with my fellow compatriots and I taking the challenge on once again, but this time with only VICTORY in mind. Can we do it? Can we survive? WHO WILL SURVIVE?! Listen, and find out…!

Cast of Characters in order of appearance

• Me
• Santi
• Jen
• Beefy
• Tripfriend (guy who followed us from the meetup)
• Aaron Clark
• Random Guy A (YOU EXPECT MADHOUSE STUDIOS)
• Link
• Dreamshade
• rabidkimba
• Random Guy B (THAT’S ALWAYS ON YOUR RECORDING MACHINE NOW)

Songs

• Opening Song– “Uchuu Elevator” by Capsule
• Ending Song– “Jolly Bubbly Lovely (Cubis Tout-jour Mix)” by Pizzicato Five

Otakon 2008 was the best Otakon ever and the worst Otakon ever. It was the best in that I finally managed to pull off the magical balancing act of hanging out with all of my friends from various different communities for equal amounts of time, and it was the worst in that the con programming was, in a word, terrible. But who cares about all that– JAM Project was there!

But, yes, aside from JAM Project, the con’s programming was some of the worst I’ve ever seen. Much like last year, they had stupid people on panel duty, so instead of getting cool and funny panels on Nico Nico Douga, we got “How To Wear 8-Inch Heels” or “Otaku Bellydancing 101.” It’s not like I’m one for panels anyway, but the lack of good panels cut down on the urge to walk into random panel rooms late at night, as I sometimes do. The guests weren’t anything to write home about either, with none of them being female seiyuu, and almost all of them being lame fangirl bait. Or some dumb no-name models.

JAM Project saved the day with the concert, though, and it was quite awesome. I wish they would have brought their instruments along, and I also wish that the person working the sound knew a thing about sound design, but whatever– IT WAS MOTHERFUCKING JAM PROJECT.

The rest of the con (read: The Dealers Room) was pretty good, with my buddies at Hen Da Ne being all too kind to me all of the time, and the rest of of the Otaku-friendly booths offering up some hot stuff (usually too hot for my budget, sadly.) I came out of there completely broke come Saturday.

Socially, I had a blast. Like I mentioned earlier, this was the first time that I really managed to hang out with just about everyone I knew for mostly equal amounts of time. I hung out with internet people slightly more than my IRL friends, but only because I see my IRL friends a lot and my internet friends… not a lot. And really, that’s what made the con great. I even got to meet Daryl Surat!

(more…)

Original Post 

Quick notes

• Daryl namedrops me in OTAKU USA issue 7. Also, the article I promised for this issue was apparently held back for issue 8.
• New podcast.
• Otakon meet up is today (Friday) at 1:30pm by the coffee shop/Starbucks in the convention center. If for some reason the Starbucks no longer exists just hang out by registration– they’re both in the same general area. Look for the guy with the dumb hat.
• I’ve taken the comments from last rant into consideration and will try to talk about them in my next longer comic post.

Later.

Download

In this exciting episode of the MISTAKES OF YOUTH PODCAST 2 BEYOND THE TIME, Aaron Clark, Daniel (aka WELCOME TO BONERTOWN) take on the new, strange and unusual BEAST that is the new Evangelion movie! You will be moved to tears by our words, moved!

Guests

• Aaron Clark
  
• Daniel

Songs

• Opening Piece– “L’Attaque des Anges” by Shiro Sagisu
• Ending Song– “Fly Me To The Moon” by various Eva seiyuu

Me being the artsy fartsy douchebag that I am, I always look forward to independent anime productions and try to get my hands on as many as possible (though, I’m kind of lame in this respect– I needs me some more indie anime.) As such, I have been looking forward to Eve no Jikan for a while– probably for something like… two years? Whenever the first poster came out. Right when I saw it, I was hooked. It just looked good.

And about two years later I can say with confidence that, yeah, it looks good.

But before I talk about how it looks, let’s focus on the story. You don’t get much from this first 15-minute part, but I liked how it played out. The concept is kind of been-done SF stuff, but it’s done well and works. The characters are all also been-done archetypes, but once again are all written well and don’t really detract from anything.

Where this thing really shines is in the artwork, animation and direction. Eve no Jikan’s directorial approach is closer to that of a film, rather than that of a cartoon. The crew treats the world as one that exists in three-dimensions, resulting in a number of cool shots. Sure, there is a good helping of anime flatness in the piece, but at times there will be the odd shot taken from the first person view of the main character, or things will go all Akiyuki Shinbo-styled shaky-cam for a bit.

The animation itself is also gorgeous, and compliments the ambitious camera work perfectly. Scenes are always well lit, characters always look good, and the backgrounds look way cooler than Shinkai backgrounds. Character designs subscribe to typical anime rules of design, but at the same time look unique and attractive. Everything is rich, well detailed, and does well in immersing you into this (perhaps) not-so-distant SF future.

I have hope for Eve no Jikan, and feel it is a strong contender for best anime of the year already. While the basic parts are kind of cliché, the show more than makes up for it in its execution. This is style of production is what all anime should strive for.

Naisho No Tsubomi is some manga that got an award for being a kids comic that talked about issues like sex and “what’s going on down there” in a sensitive and educational manner. Recently, an anime adaptation was made and it was… an OVA. Now, if this was some mainstream comic, why is the anime version released in this obscure direct-to-video format instead of being some corny afterschool special? Because the OVA is so panderific!

Do you like lolis? Do you like lolis learning about how their bodies work? Do you like lolis who freak out over their first period? Then this show is for you! I’m not sure how they did it in the original manga, but the way the anime handles these issues is less, “here girls, this is how your body works” and more “hey guys, this is how a little girl’s body works”, and I fucking love it. Honestly, the only really weak episode was the last one, mostly because they cut down on all the Sex and Violence and pulled some weird Sixth Sense shit at the end. Crazy.

I don’t give two shits about American comics or this Batman character, but I did watch The Dark Knight only because of the block-busting lines at The Uptown (it was an ok movie) and when some of my coworkers decided to screen Gotham Knight at my workplace, I figured I’d watch it since a) I saw the associated movie already, and b) It’s anime!

Out of all of the shorts, I’d have to say my favourites were the two by Studio 4c and the last one by Production IG, with MadHouse’s entry getting an honorable mention. Production IG’s first entry just looked uninspired and the plot was dumb, while BeeTrain’s short was… made by BeeTrain. The writing across all of them was pretty simple, and at times really stupid. The one with the best writing was probably the first one, only because it was so incredibly creative and funny.

Since this was screened at my workplace in front of me and like thirteen little kids, we played it in English. This was fine, since apparently the thing was made to be in English anyway, but that won’t keep me from hating on the performances! Overall the voices were pretty bland, but professional sounding. The best performances came out of the villains– Scarecrow’s performance in particular was pretty cool.

One thing that struck me about these shorts was how not-Japanese they all looked. They all went for that super-realistic Amerikkkan look (except the first one) and it really bothered me. What’s the point in getting Japanese studios to make this stuff when it doesn’t have that wacky Japanese flare that makes anime SO KEWLLL. That said, it’s not like the design work was bad, and if I had to choose a favourite I’d choose the last one. It had this very cool and stylized realism that just looked rad. Like, everyone looked like the stepped out of some 1950s billboard.

Anyways, it was fine. Nothing spectacular, but a good way to kill an hour.

More preorders from six+ months ago have come in!

Alter 1/8 Mikuru Asahina Maid Version 

Yet another figure of Mikuru in her oh-so-cute cultural festival outfit. This Alter version features slightly greyed out colours for a more realistic look, and lacks MaxFactory’s Neko Miki Mode option. The sculpt is good all around, and the paint job is solid. A nice addition to my growing collection of Mikuru figures.

Alter 1/8 Siesta

I believe this is Siesta’s first foray into the world of figures, and it doesn’t disappoint. The pose is extremely cute, and is backed up a fucking solid sculpt. My only problem lies in the paint job– it’s about 99.98% good, except for one area around the bust, and some odd orange colouring in between her fingers. Maybe that’s just on mine, I dunno. Anyways, I’m quite happy with it. Shame it’s not castoff, though, because they have her wearing a nice pair of green panties :3

BONUS: MARTIAL ARTS MADNESS MIKURU!!!

I’m pretty sure that’s not a real stance in any martial art.

Original Post

…and with this strip, the entire comic takes place in Massachusetts. Well, I guess that was already the case when I made the characters hanging out at T Stations, but still. The location of the comic has always been a vague thing, but lately I’ve been opting to make the characters hang out in real locations… sometimes. I’m not in Boston right now, however, so I’m unable to snap locations and work off of them, but once I get back that’ll probably be happening. It makes for more realistic backgrounds! Anyways, I think this comic turned out fine. Some of the facial expressions are wacky, but overall I think it’s ok. The script is fine too, I guess.

One complaint this comic often gets from the Peanut Gallery– aside from the art being atrocious– is that it’s not funny. I’m inclined to agree; I’m not a good writer. I’m still trying my best to carve out jokes while staying true to my character’s thinly defined traits, along with only making comics based around anime fandom. It’s a hard thing to do, but I’m not going to use that as an excuse. Comics need to be funny, and if they’re not they fail, full stop. If I had to look at my work completely objectively, I’d say that most of it would barely garner a modest chuckle. So, I’m asking you guys– what do you find funny about anime and its fandom? What would you like to see lampooned? What kind of humour makes you go nuts? Or is the current style of the comic fine? Not sure how many of these responses I’ll actually implement, but it’d be interesting to read them. So, leave a comment!

Anyways, moving on to a less angsty subject (?)– Otakon. It’s in a week, and a few updates ago people said they wanted to meet up, so a meet up will happen. As of right now, I’m thinking 1:30pm on Friday would be good. IIRC it’s 90 minutes after the Dealer’s Room opens, and 30 minutes before the opening ceremonies, giving you time to shop, and time before the opening ceremonies if you wish to attend those (I kind of want to see the opening animation out of morbid curiosity.) That’s the plan for now– if any of the people meeting up have issues with that time, leave a message. The meeting place will be that coffee shop (I believe it’s a Starbucks) near the registration booths and by one of the main entrances. I hope everyone knows where that is. I’ll be wearing a hat.

Saimoe has apparently started, but I think I’ll watch it from the sidelines this year. It was fun to participate, but getting around Comcast blocks was a total pain. Once it gets to the point where I reside in Japan, I will participate no problem, but until then… I’ll just catch the highlights. Also, Kaede probably isn’t in the running, so what’s the point? :V

This anime season is really brutal. I’ve dropped Telepathy Shoujo Ran since I was three episodes behind, and it didn’t seem all that hot anyway. If for some reason it gets crazy good praise then I’ll get back on it, but for right now it’s dead. I’m enjoying the rest of what I’ve ended up with, but I’m still always stuck in backlog. Like I keep saying each week… I’ll try and finish that backlog off today. It’s only about four episodes now…!

And with that I’m off. Later.

Current
Chi’s Sweet Home: I’m almost confident that I have not seen an episode within the past month. Oh well.
Code Geass R2: Feeling really Gundam Seed Destiny at this point. The stupidity is actually getting to me now.
Golgo 13: ….
Hidamari Sketch x365: Liking it better than season one, possibly because subs are coming out regularly and the episodes are slightly faster paced.
Koihime†Musou: Junk food anime. Tasty but forgettable.
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki: Fun to watch– a curious mix of serious stories with comedy-like execution.
Macross F: Uh, I have no idea what this show is about anymore, I just like Ranka Lee. Sheryl can die in a fire etc.
Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: I support anime about hot otaku girlfriends.
Sekirei: My Kanokon for this season– well produced fanservice fluff.
Slayers Revolution: Fun fantasy series– want to get around to the originals eventually.
Strike Witches: DELICIOUS FLAT CHESTS CROTCHES AND PANTIES ALL OVER DEAR GOD BEST OF THE SEASON
Telepathy Shoujo Ran: Ok kids thing. Have three episodes waiting to be watched– if they suck I’ll drop it.
Tetsuwan Birdy Decode: I liked the first two episodes… where’s the rest??
To Love RU: Why can’t THESE types of Jump shows run for 100+ episodes?
World Destruction: Has turned into a surprisingly fun adventure/fantasy series. Completely disposable, but I like it.
Zero no Tsukaima ~Princess no Rondo~: Girls, girls, GIRLS!
Zettai Karen Children: Watching it raw at this point. Hopefully Chihiro will continue on with it now that Deculture has folded.

Dropped Natsume Yuujinchou because it sucked.

Sitting on a bunch of DVDs and manga, too.

Man, so much anime, so little time. I work 40 hours a week, dammit!