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

Download

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Since I’m heading off to Japan in just about a month, I had my old friend Santi over, and as per usual we watched some terrible anime. This time around we partook of BAOH and Dog Soldier, and on the way to lunch we decided to talk about our experiences with these two works of art into a digital recorder for an internet podcast. What follows is us talking unintelligibly about these two works of genius, as well as other things like Akikan.

Guests

• Santi The Mysterious
  

Songs

• Opening Song– “Afro Rock Theme (Rock Afro Mix)” by Comoesta Yaegashi
• Ending Song– “Cirno no Perfect Sansuu Kyoushitsu” by IOSYS

Original Post

I’d like to think that with this comic I’ve gone right to the heart of the issue, the issue being a general feeling of “well, this is fine” in response to the creation of Suzumiya Haruhi-chan No Yuuutsu along with Nyoron Churuya-san. They are both fun little works, and manage to do an okay job at putting my hunger for a proper second season of Suzumiya Haruhi to rest. And hey, it’s all we’ve fucking got.

I can’t say I’m terribly happy with how the lineart turned out here, but I did do something a bit different to the shading– I put a layer of blue over it to give it some colour, and there’s also a light stroke effect going around the outsides of the shades. I like the way this looks, and applied this approach to the next comic, which has already been made.

This is probably the last bit of whinging I’ll do about the doujinshi. Most of the requests have been sent over to the guy doing the printing, but some of you guys still haven’t contacted him, it seems. If you sent me a request and don’t remember getting an email back from me over the past couple of weeks, check your email boxes carefully. I think over the next week I’ll take the doujin page down, since we have enough orders at this point. Thanks for buying!

A friend of mine came over yesterday, and we partook of both BAOH and Dog Solider on the recommendation of The Anime World Order. I actually came out liking BAOH quite a bit for how fucking ridiculous and dumb it was, but I was probably just looking at the smoking hot ’80s-style loli the whole time. I guess all the melting faces were cool, too. Dog Soldier was really lame, and the only way we could get through it was by laughing at home lame it was. A podcast on both of these, along with chatter about various other titles (Akikan!) is forthcoming, so look out for it on iTunes or the blog.

That’ll be it for this week. I haven’t been in much of a writing mood lately, which is my excuse for lack of real activity on the blog, as well as the short rants as off late. I’ll get back into it eventually, don’t worry.

YOU BET IT’S HAPPENING.

Hear that, Daryl? That shitty shit you like is still being ignored, but awesome stuff like STRIKE WITCHES is getting another season! Oh wait, I like that shitty shit Daryl likes, too. Oh well. MORE STRIKE WITCHES.

First Nogizaka Haruka, and now this! It would be great if Kure-nai got a second season as well, but given the way that ended, it’s probably best left alone. Now all we have to wait for is… Haruhi season 2!!

Meanwhile, at Synergy SP…

“Man, we haven’t done a Death Note parody yet.”

“But I guess we need some cute shots to balance all this stuff out”

“Oh shit, we haven’t had an R. Lee Ermey cameo yet! Fix that shit, dude!”

Every Zettai Karen Children episode is amazing, but this one takes the cake.

The opening was sung by THE CHILDREN this time around, and the ending was 絶対love×love宣言!! sung by 可憐Girl’s. It was nice to see that ending animation again.

All of this is matched to a very slow and beautiful string driven piece of background music.

Original Post

A Maria†Holic comic was begging to be done, so I did the most natural thing that came to mind. Simple as that. I’m not terribly enthusiastic about the artwork in this comic, but I don’t hate it either.

All the emails went out to all the people who ordered a doujin. I’ve gotten mail back from some of you, but not all. You don’t really need to beam a message back my way, but be sure to shoot one over to the guy who I mentioned in the message. I’m not really sure when we’re going to get these things printed and shipped, but I’m hoping it’ll happen in the space of two weeks. If you for some reason did not get my email, check your spam box or shoot a message back my way. If you sent in a request, you should have a gotten an email back from me at this point.

I’m keeping this short and sweet because I spent most of today making comic 132, and I have a spicy Kojika OVA to dive into, so I’ll see you all next week!

five weeks…

I’ve already posed these questions to a few people, but I figure I’ll put them out in the open to get a wide variety of opinions.

With my apartment paid for and my visa secured, I am 100% ready to take on glorious 日本. However, I can’t just go in there without any preparation–I have to be ready. As such, I have a couple of questions for people who have been to The Other Country before, and hopefully they can help me out.

1: Money- What do you do about money in Japan? I’ve read that most places won’t take foreign ATM cards, with the exception of 7/11 and post offices. So, what do you guys do? Get an account at a bank with international branches? Stuff your suitcase full of traveler’s checks? Just hit up the 7/11s and post offices because they’re ever so plentiful? What do you do?

2: Cellphones- I know the deal with prepaid phones in Japan–if you’re not Japanese, you need an alien registration card (I’m going to need one of these anyways), or you can go to a place that accepts US passports, and uses the address of your hotel for validation. So, my question is, what places have the best deals?

That’s about it, actually. I guess it’s not all that serious, but it’d be nice to get some Hot Tipz.

One prominent theme in Casshern Sins is that of mortality. The story of Sins unfolds in a world in which once immortal machines now face the threat of imminent death, and one of the main driving forces in the show is how the machines deal with this harsh reality.

The one-shot stories in the first half of the series deal with this idea in a variety of different ways, but all boil down to one robot trying to make the most of their limited time on the planet. This theme particularly resonates with me, as I get rather uncomfortable when faced with my own mortality. As such, these stories of people trying to make the most of their life in a decayed world almost gives me hope. Almost.

The series has found itself in the “plot bit” now, with the one-shot stories having concluded and the focus shifting more towards plot developments, as well as entire episodes about stereotypical black guys coming onto robot chicks. This theme of imminent death still drives the narrative, but it’s less of a driving force in each episode’s individual story.

Casshern Sins is an okay series. It has some ideas I really like, but its presentation is a bit too slow for my tastes. Some episodes are really good, but others are terribly boring.

Lack of blog posts is due to a lack of motivation on my part. I have some ideas, just no drive to put them to digital paper. I’m also busy with some other things, like printing and mailing out doujin orders.