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GUNDAM FIGHT, READY GO!

Clannad ~After Story~

After a season of silence, KyoAni returns to blow our minds again, this time with… cute girls playing baseball! Sure, it’s not as good as Haruhi’s baseball episode, but it’s still pretty fun, and I enjoyed it a lot. I’m not sure if my attitude just changed between when the first Clannad series ended and now, but for some reason the show clicks with me more. Maybe it’s just because this is so good compared to that horrible Tomoyo-centric OVA from a while back. God, that was a piece of shit.

Sadly, once again, the beautiful work of KyoAni gets horrible treatment from the TV stations. Apparently the 16:9 broadcast looked worse than the 4:3 broadcast. wtf, Japan? Are you really going to force me to buy Clannad on DVD? Really? I haven’t even bought Kanon yet!

Hyakko

Hyakko is very awkward. It seems like it’s trying to be some charming and cute slice of thing but it isn’t quite hitting the right notes. Some things work (mainly Suzu) but the rest is kind of like watching some amateur play the piano, or something. Maybe it’ll get better in future episodes, but this first installment is just kind of weak.

Toradora!

Toradora may or may not become the best show of the season for me depending on how Taiga develops. I’ve read some of the manga (something like two chapters) and she just kind of came off as crazy. And in the anime she still comes off as crazy. Not really a good kind of crazy, but not a bad one either. I like the main character, and hopefully he can stay not useless for the 13 or so episodes that this is meant to run for.

Some things people are pointing out about this show are the framing of shots and its general pace, which I also find quite pro. Especially in comparison to Zero no Tsukaima , in which shots are meant to provide the best view of tits and ass (note: this is not a bad thing.) The storyboarding and directing in Toradora! is more film-like. I wonder if they’ll be able to keep it up.

Oh yeah, the character designs are mostly fine. Not as good as the light novel or manga, but they have their own charm. Very round, cute and bubbly.

Original Post

When I first drew this comic, I was not satisfied with it at all. The complete and total lack of satisfaction I had with this comic reached a point where I simply felt there was no choice but to re-draw it. So, re-draw I did, and the result is the comic you see before you. I’m a lot happier with this one, and am so glad I didn’t go through with colouring that old set of drawings. The script builds upon Tina’s yandere personality, but kind of has the same punchline as this one. However this comic portrays Tina’s yandere side as more of a calculated murderer as opposed to just a crazy person. It’s character development! Or something. Oh, and I made fun of Narutards again. It’s been a while since I’ve done that.

Not really site-related, but I feel it’s worth mentioning as it does kind of effect site stuff. For once, the rant title actually means something– I have no internet. Right now I’m sitting in an MIT student lounge, pretending to be a student while leaching their internet for the writing of this rant and these five Bittorrent downloads. The main line in my building is dead, and the AT&T Aircard my father sent me is about to reach its bandwidth limit. So, as you can see, my options are limited. I’d use my school’s connection, but it blocks Bittorrent and IRC so it’s not of much use to me. Hopefully things will be solved by Monday, but for the weekend my internet presence will be a bit scarce. This however won’t stop me from recording two podcasts tomorrow!

Ok, it’s adbot time. In addition to signing up for Project Wonderful, I also got a CDJapan affiliate account on a whim. I’ve already made around 10 dollars in commission, but I need another 40 before they send me Real Money. So, if you’re buying something from CDJapan, do me a favour and order it through one of my links. It’d make you a cool person. There’s a bunch of cool stuff on there that I want, but really can’t buy. I have both Zetsubou Sensei OSTs downloaded, but I’d really like to own them, since they’re absolutely beautiful collections of music. Same with the awesome Kure-nai OST. I did however get a calendar from them out of necessity. There’s a bunch of other awesome calendars on there, anime-related and not, so check them out! They’re also holding a sale on R2 DVDs. I’d so buy me some Chocotto Sister and Mobile Suit Gundam if I had the funds.

The new season starting right when my internet dies isn’t all that great, but I’m getting by (thx MIT lol.) So far, I’ve just seen ToraDora and Hyakko, with Casshern, Clannad 2 and some others coming down the pipes. ToraDora is pretty good, but I’m still not sure about Taiga yet. I’ve read some of the manga already, and after watching the anime I have the same impression of her: she’s murderous and crazy. And cold. Not really my type yet, but I don’t hate her. Kugimiya’s performance isn’t as squeaky as usual, which again doesn’t really make me excited, but doesn’t turn me off. The main character almost reminds me of myself, except in my case I have both a scary face and a horrible personality. Hyakko is just weird, and I have no idea if it’s good or not.

Anyways, that’s it for now. I’m not sure if there’ll be a comic next week, since these last couple of weeks have been a bit too stressful, so I may just take a week off to chill out. Later!

Ok, time to blog about stuff

Koihime Musou

Koihime Musou was extremely generic and not at all offensive. There were parts I liked, parts I was mildly entertained by, and some parts which just didn’t capture my interest. Simply put, it was fine. I did come to like some of the characters more than I expected to, though. Aisha was cute whenever she blushed and all of the lolis were generally adorable (especially the spoiled tanned one who was in those couple of episodes.)

What did surprise me about this one was how well done the animation was. Some of the fights in this show were just great.

Sekirei

This one was a surprise. Well, it was a surprise in that it was actually extremely well done in every respect. The animation and direction were all solid, and overall the show was just very entertaining. One problem I did have with the show was the main character, since he was too spineless for even me to tolerate, but he didn’t bother me all that much. The story was pretty half-assed, but this is just the first part of what will presumably be a more epic saga, so it ain’t done yet. I just hope in the next season Kuu-chan gets more lines aren’t MMMMMMMMMMM.

World Destruction

The theme of this post seems to be shows that surprised me in some way. World Destruction was another one which exceeded my low expectations after about episode 2 or 3. It became a fairly light and fun action adventure show that was simply focused on entertaining you. Toru Furuya and Shuuichi Ikeda voicing cute teddy bears also helped in making the show quite amazing.

I should also note that while I did really enjoy all of these shows, I would never ever watch them again. Funny how that works!

Oh man, last night at MIT they were giving away free shit. Considering I’m dangerously poor, I jump at any opportunity for free stuff, and boy did I jump!

Well, I guess I only jumped a little. I had to carry this all home by hand, you know! Anyways, we got some VHS tapes here, and the quality of the programming ranges from good, to bad, to ugly.

• The Good- Tenchi Muyo In Love, Urusei Yatsura Beautiful Dreamer: I actually own all of the Tenchi films on DVD, I just picked up this old release because my buddies and I watched this movie on VHS a long while back. This is the Japanese subbed version, though. We watched the dub. Since that’s all Potomac Video had. I haven’t seen anything Urusei Yatsura at all, but I hear this movie is pretty good. It’s directed by Oshii, so I guess it has no choice but to be good.
• The Bad- Dangaioh: A friend of mine loves Dangaioh as corny 80s fluff, which is reason enough for me to pick this up. It’s only Part I, so I have to find the rest some place. Also, I feel it should be noted that Dangaioh’s opening is so amazing that it produced a video even more epic than the one of the black guy singing Ai wo Torimodose.
• The Ugly- Dog Soldier: This is AWO approved horrible anime. While I was talking about this, other great titles like MD Geist and Crystal Triangle where brought up. Apparently one guy there owned Crystal Triangle on LD. Crazy.

I also got a page out of a Gundam calendar. It’s all bent up and stuff but I can still probably find a place for it on my wall. There’s always room for Master Asia.

Original Post

Really, one has to wonder if these two are even friends, considering that they never seem to have a nice conversation with each other. One also has to wonder why Hikki has an Ideon poster. And why him and Rets share the exact same expression. I kind of like this comic. I don’t like it as much as the last one, but I still think it’s ok.

A podcast happened earlier on in the week. I talk with omo and lastarial about 5cm Per Second. It’s a pretty good episode, so you should listen to it.

I’ve signed up for Project Wonderful. It’s working pretty decently right now. Please bid on this ad space if you want it. That’s all I got to say.

Real life’s been making pretty harsh assaults on me as of late. I’m trying my best to find some work for the next two and a half months. I need some money for various personal endeavours. One’s quite big, and other is quite… small, and cute, and probably smells good. Hopefully these three applications I’m filling out at the moment will get me somewhere. I just need money, man!

Lots of summer shows are coming to a close, and the fall season is just about a week away. Zero no Tsukaima season 3 ended in usual 0nT fashion, in that in crammed way too much into one episode and nothing was resolved. But hey, you don’t care, since Louise is hot, Siesta is hot, and Tiffania is hot. That’s what really matters. Nogizaka Haruka ended pretty well, albeit predictably. One thing that kind of bothers me about the series is how, even in the last episode, the animation never got back onto the level that it was in the first episode (and arguably episode 7.) Hopefully they’ll cleanup the show for DVD. It certainly doesn’t look bad, but it could stand to look better. Both Koihime Musou and Macross just ended, but I haven’t gotten around to them. Macross hasn’t been subbed yet, and I haven’t had time to get to Koihime yet. But I will.

Windy Tales is pretty interesting. I thought the first two episodes laid on seriousness a bit too much, but episodes three and four had a good slice-of-life vibe about them. I can appreciate the art style, but I’m not really sure if I like it. I’m going to stick with it, even though I’m not totally sold on it.

That’s all for this week. I don’t know what I’m going to do for next week, but with luck we’ll see an update.

Yup, you guessed it! Another long and boring personal post is coming up, so turn back now if you’d rather not suffer through this crap. I’m sure you have a backlog of Zettai Karen Children subs to get through.

Every space pirate, Tao master and outlaw in the galaxy knows this already, but Cartoon Network’s Toonami block finally came to a close just about a week ago. I can’t say I honestly care all that much, but for a while Toonami was one of the most important parts of my life.

But let’s back up a bit. Toonami is not what got me into anime. Pokemon is what got me into anime. Before Pokemon, I didn’t think much about anime. I saw some Sailor Moon commercials and stayed away since it looked girly, and of course girls were icky back then, so I didn’t really bother with it. My cousin told me to watch Pokemon, so I did. I really liked it, and after a couple weeks of watching it I fired up my 56k modem and browsed the internet for anything and everything related to Pokemon. It was through these searches that I came upon the word “anime” (mostly thanks to AniPike) but I still didn’t really think much of it. Pokemon back then was just another cool thing to do. Another cool cartoon. It didn’t consume me. That changed with Toonami.

It was in the summer of 1999, I believe, that I was talking with an acquaintance of mine. He expressed his fondness for Dragonball Z, a cartoon I had heard of but never thought to watch since it seemed ever so violent. I wasn’t much for violence. However, he insisted, so I opened my mind a bit a gave it a shot. On Toonami, of course. I loved it. And from that point on, I would be watching Toonami religiously for next 7 years.

Toonami solidified my interest in anime. It was on Toonami that I learned that there was more to anime than just Pokemon. I became interested in mecha anime through Toonami (thx Gundam Wing wwwww), I developed a liking for sci-fi adventure through Toonami (Outlaw Star) and I finally saw the various Tenchi TV shows that went with that movie my buddies and I rented a long while back through Toonami. Toonami, for a good number years, was the most important part of my weekday afternoon.

As I was going into high school, Toonami changed into a weekend-only block. I still watched it, but was more interested in Adult Swim (which at this point was a really cool block of TV itself. More on that in a potential later blog post.) I still thought the block was super cool, but it just became a routine. I was getting into digisubs at around that time too, so dubbed anime on TV became less attractive.

I stopped watching Toonami when I went into college. I didn’t have a TV, and by that point I was 100% into watching anime in Japanese. However, as you can see in this blog post, I can still reminisce fondly about Toonami. It truly was a very important part of my life, and I have nothing but fond memories associated with it.

One thing I really liked about Toonami was how the creators had a genuine love for anime. They really did their best to promote this stuff as really cool, as demonstrated in their various impeccably made commercials. They put out shows that otherwise would not have been shown on US TV. I mean, who would have expected Tenchi to be shown on Cartoon Network? No one. But they did it. And that’s why they were awesome.

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Download

Ok, we’re back. In this show we’re talking about this 5cm Per Second movie made by some guy called Makoto Shinkai. Some pretty deep discussion goes on, along with me not being able to form sentences at all. Omo sounds kind of robot in this episode, and I don’t know how to fix that. Sorry!

Guests

• Omo
• Lastarial

Songs

• Opening Song– “One more time, One more chance” by Masayoshi Yamazaki
• Ending Song– “Who Put The Bomp” by Me First & The Gimme Gimmes

Original Post

I won’t lie, I actually really like this comic. Yeah, Mursaki and Rets Kurenai didn’t turn out just as planned in those second and third panels, but aside from that I like how this one came out. This comic, like the last one, was slightly censored for the front page, and the untainted version can be found here. If it gets the point where a majority of the comics for some reason have NSFW content, I’ll just smack an 18+ warning on this site and be done with it, but for right now things are mostly safe.

Going to be dusting off my old headset tomorrow and recording another exciting episode of the Mistakes of Youth Podcast, so look out for that over the next week or so. Also, I’m looking for some other people to record further shows with. This is mainly a message for the people I know personally, but if anyone else is interested, give me a buzz. If you’re someone I don’t know personally, and would like to record, I’d like for you to have a blog (or proof that you have worthwhile shit to say) and I have to be able to stand you as a human being. I’m a total asshole, and people easily bother me, so you know. I think I wanna do a show on Strike Witches and perhaps Nogizaka Haruka. I have people in mind for the latter though, it’s just a matter of if they’re up for it or not. I kind of have someone in mind for a Strike Witches show, but I’m not sure if he even has the right facilities (mic and shit) for such a thing. We’ll see.

Gankutsuoh’s style seems to be losing its cohesion eight episodes in. It worked perfectly for the opening episodes, but it seems less planned now. Aside from that, the show is still pretty good. The Count carries each episode, since all the other characters are idiots. I also think the Count has what I’ve dubbed as an “AD Field”, or Absolute Drama Field. Whenever he’s around anyone, people just start dueling each other, get poisoned, or other random shit like that. You can’t just have a quiet afternoon chillin’ with this guy. He’s fucking hardcore.

Strike Witches ended better than I expected. I won’t say much, since I’m playing around with the idea of writing a full review, but second season wo kudasai! Or something like that.

So yeah, that’s it for tonight. I’m not tired since for some reason I drank Mountain Fucking Dew at M IT, but I’m out of stuff to rant about, so that’ll be it for this week.

For some reason, a lot of current OVAs don’t have good openings. All attention is put on making the show proper, so openings just tend to be an afterthought. What you usually see is just reused footage from the show matched to a song, or sometimes there simply won’t be an opening animation at all. There are rare cases where this doesn’t happen, but in my experience such things are few and far between. Negima Ala Alba’s opening animation is much like a Polish movie poster– it takes one random aspect of the show– the number 31– and just runs with it. Shaft is known for making amazing somethings out of nothing, and this opening does just that.

Like I said, it simply takes the numbers up through 31, sticks them in little circles, and has spectacularly sexy English credits bounce them around. It’s a 2D designer’s wet dream. Each and every cut of this is just so professionally composed– not mention well-timed with the hot opening theme– that I find myself watching this opening over and over… yet there’s only one real frame of character art across the whole thing!

Good on you, Shaft.

(Note: I kind of have this mental post backlog that I’m burning through at the moment. I have time to kill so I might as well)

There are nice people in this world. mt-i is one of those nice people. Out of the kindness of his heart, he offered to mail me some manga (complete with furigana) for me to try my hand at reading. I didn’t ask for anything, he just did it. That’s pretty cool of him. I emailed him a big thanks, but I should probably send another one out since the guy deserves it. NSFW after the jump.

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Ok, so last weekend I was chillin’ with my buddy Seiya over at his place. Aside from just sitting and talking about random shit for hours, drinking Pocari Sweat, and generally just making a lot of noise, we mined through his collection of old anime stuff. I think I have his permission to post pictures, so here we go.

Right when I walked in I was greeted by two domestic LD releases of Akira and Project A-Ko.

It wasn’t long before he broke out the old issues of Animage.

Wow Japanese 3D animation went nowhere over the past 10 years.

I like this picture.

Look at this top 100 list. All of these characters are cel animated! And the first three are all Hayashibara!

God, so gay. And that little heart in the corner is just the icing on the fabulous cake. But seriously, where did Trowa get those muscles?

GA GA GA GA GA GA CUTIE HONEY FLASH. I need to see Gao Gai Gar, man.

This came out blurry, but you can still tell it’s absolutely hilarious.

Domestic Tench TV LD. Yeah, fuckin’ domestic. Seiya, man, where do you get this stuff?

Who needs Bandai Visual when you got this bad boy?

Yeah, that’s what you think it is. This is probably the most epic part of this post, only because we didn’t feel like taking out the GIANT First Gundam TV series LD boxset.

I had no clue this poster was so huge.

Oh, what could have been! I need to read the rest of this! Damn you, Viz!

Voltron on Betamax. That’s all I got to say.

DON’T YOU WISH YOU WERE HIM. I KNOW I DO.

Here’s the deal: For a couple of days during the summer I was holding down the family lair on my own. As such, I felt it was a perfect opportunity to fully otaku-ize my room, if just for a few days. Of course, this simply entailed whipping out the hug pillow and making Kodomo No Jikan posters visable, considering my room in its normal state doesn’t look all the different from this. However, due to these slight changes, the room became complete, so naturally I just had to photograph it again and then post it up on the interwebz.

What follows is something like 30 photos. They will be accompanied by witty commentary when I deem necessary.

The door lets you know just what the fuck you’re in for.

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Alright, I’m just going to come out and say it: The Golgo 13 movie (or, Golgo 13: The Professional, as it’s known in the States) is an absolutely horrible movie. Having just seen about 14 episodes of the TV series, I knew kind of what I was in for, but never did I guess that this movie would reach such heights of complete unadulterated terribleness. This is pure garbage, ladies and gentlemen, and it’s absolutely the worst thing one could ever think to watch. And that’s what makes it worth searching out.

When I say searching out, I mean Google searching. This movie is not by any means worth your money. It’s junk, but it is worth pirating, and you do get your effort’s worth in the end, since this movie is terribly entertaining for the 90 minutes that it runs. It’s a party that plays out like a pulpy comic book, with stunts that defy the laws of everything, larger than life characters that could never exist in this world and 3D CG skeletons that fire revolvers into 3D CG skulls. It’s almost a perfect mix of pure and utter shit that just nearly pushes this movie into “so bad it’s good” territory.

Just nearly, though. What keeps this movie from working at its full potential is Dezaki’s direction. For some reason, the man treats this as an art film, taking every possible moment to be as goddamn experimental as possible. This however isn’t altogether a bad thing. In fact, I quite liked what he was doing until the last 20 or so minutes, when shots just stopped making sense. It’s the climax of the film– there’s no room for awkward directorial choices that entail repeating the same frame of a crazed old man’s face over and over again on the screen; nor is there room to break out the 1983 computers to render some helicopters that look straight out of Comanche 3D. Except worse. Yeah, I know you guys thought that 3D opening was cool– I thought it was ok myself– but seriously, 1983.

Speaking of that opening, it’s quite a piece of work. It would be almost good if they could’ve worked out how to make the animation not jump all the fucking time. Perhaps also mix in some cel-animated naked ladies to go along with that snazzy jazz piece for the full James Bond effect.

Anyways, time to cool down. I’ve shat on this thing long enough, so let’s switch gears and talk about the stuff I didn’t find totally awkward or ironically good. The animation is really great 80s stuff– very fluid and organic looking, with great lighting and shading effects. There are a few unfinished cuts floating around the film, but they’re few and far between. The music is also wonderfully 80s, and suits the film well. It’s a lot better than that horrible synth shit they use in the new TV series.

Really, the only thing that keeps this film from being totally BALLS TO THE WALL awesome is Dezaki’s approach to directing this thing. Which is weird, since he can do stuff like this well. The Space Adventure Cobra TV series is a great straight up action piece, and has no pretensions at all. But then again, the Cobra movie, also by Dezaki, is another wannabe art movie. Maybe he feels he has to prove himself as a director when he’s making big things– I don’t know. But what I do know is that the only person who can make that kind of shit work is Shinbo, as demonstrated in his confused masterpiece SoulTaker.

But with all that said, I do recommend this film for a one off, or for something to watch with your buds. It’s very entertaining, not too long, and delivers pure 1000% trash, even with all that distracting arthouse direction.

Original Post

Yeah yeah, I’m wild, crazy, and free of all morals, but I like to keep the front page of this site fairly work-safe, so as such I’ve censored this comic. Do not fear, though, for an uncensored, and funnier version of the comic does exist. Inspiration for this one came from the room rules present in my new digs. I’m living in kind of a boarding house situation right now, so the rules are stricter than when I was living an apartment, but I can deal. Anyways, I found rule 9 to be funny, so I just drew a comic around it. Oh yeah, I guess I better credit some doujin artists here, considering I’ve stolen some imagery. The books in the panel four are the works of You Nagisawa, Koume Keito, Miki Miyashita and Atsushi Yamasomethingorother. The desktop image in panel five is by this awesome dude.

I was planning on re-watching Nadesico at MIT since they were showing it, but when I went there today I saw they were playing the release with all the horrible overlays. It was fun to see the first four episodes again and pick up on some of the early clues and nods to future events, but I’m far too much of anal purist to watch something from ADV’s darkages. I’ll still pop in for Windy Tales, though. That show’s pretty ok, but by the time they got to it I was nodding off.

Zero no Tsukaima has hit a pretty good balance between plot, character stuff and fanservice. I’m actually getting into this little rescue plot they have going on now, and Louise’s inner struggles are cute. Of course, I still watch it for the skin, and it looks like the next episode will deliver that well.

You really gotta feel sorry for the guy in Detroit Metal City. His life is just fucking terrible, and I don’t know if I should laugh at him or cry with him. That’s not to say that the show isn’t totally hilarious, because it is, it’s just that poor Negeshi doesn’t get a break! Also, I know it’s terrible, but I have both the metal opening and the Flipper’s Guitar-ish ending themes stuck in my head. AT THE SAME TIME, GOD.

That’s all for this week. It’s pretty late, so I’m gonna plop myself in bed and try to sleep in. Try, since waking up at 6:30am all summer has ruined me forever. Now it’s pretty much impossible for me to sleep past nine, but dammit I’ll try!

It’s that time of year again! Time to purchase giant books of poster-sized illustrations that are passed off as calendars simply because they have some numbers running down the side! Seriously, who actually uses these as calendars? I know I don’t! But yeah, preorders are going up, so it’s time to buy. In past years I’ve usually ended up with three to four of these hanging on my wall during the year, but this year I’m keeping it simple. I’m getting just one calendar. Reason for this is because I want to save money for, uh, something, so I’m trying to be as thrifty as possible. However, despite my best efforts, I only managed to narrow the selection down to four!

• First up is the annual Evangelion calendar. I got the 2007 Evangelion calendar which was pretty good. The art was trying so hard to look like Sadamoto, but wasn’t quite there. The guy gave it the good ol’ college try, though. The main thing that put me off about this one was its total lack of Misato anywhere! Shinji and Kaworu get a gay gay gayed up page and Misato gets nothing? What gives, mang?! Anyways, when I was about to get the 2008 one last year, it was sold out. I didn’t get too pissed since I figured it lacked Misato as well. Then the scans came in! I’ve already had an Evangelion calender once before, but the idea of potential Misato material and art from the new movies is enticing…
• Second up to bat is the usual Gundam option. Truth be told, the only Gundam calendars I’ve bought have been of Seed Destiny (yes, I admitted it, laugh) and just general Gundam. Since I’ve already had two Gundam calendars in the past, I’ll probably steer clear of this one. I do want the resulting scans, though!
• Gurren Lagann is up third, fighting the power as always. I have the 2008 GL calendar sitting next to me right now, and it’s pretty cool. But you know, while I appreciate them collecting all the great eyecatches together in one package, I really wanted more original art out of a GL calendar. From the looks of it, this one seems kind of different– more like a “traditional” anime calendar (but still pretty small from the description.) I’m not sure if I actually want this– I may just hold out for the scans.
• And last but not least are everyone’s favourite trio of Absolutely Lovely Children! This is the one I’ll probably end up buying, since there won’t be a Zettai Karen Children calendar next year, and the show itself is pretty alright. I’m not as mad over it as I am for Hayate (which is the current big boy calendar I have hanging up) but this calendar has potential to be filled with lots of yummy art of our cute little preteen espers.

I’ll think about this over the next couple of days, but I’m really leaning towards the psychic kids. You guys should probably buy one of these things, too. Like, buy them through clicking these links. Doing so might give me money! ( ‘3′)

Alright alight, I’ll admit it– I’m taking Japanese classes at my school. I’ve been taking them for something like a year now, and this semester I’ve moved up to the intermediate-level class. I don’t know what took them so long, but it’s only now that they’re setting the cheesy learning videos loose on us. The Japan Time’s Genki stuff is pretty dry and bad, but one thing I’ve really taken a liking to is Erin Ga Chousen, or Erin’s Challenge.

The middle one is the titular Erin. The robot’s called N21-J, and the stupid yellow thing is Mr. Horigon. I actually like the robot, even though he’s totally useless, but Horigon can burn in hell. Anyways, as you can see from the image, this shit’s corny as all hell. I do however prefer it to the horrible Le Café des Rêves show I had watch when I was taking French in high school. That shit was terrible.

But yeah, Erin ga Chousen follows Erin, an exchange student from the UK (イギリスから来ました she says so enthusiastically) as she tries to fit in with Japanese society. The episodes are a mixture of B-grade 3D animation mixed with cheesy live action segments that are meant to teach students about Japanese culture and shit.

We didn’t have time to watch the whole thing, but in this first episode, little cartoon Erin jumps inside some rift in the time-space continuum and comes out the other side as a flesh and blood girl with a somewhat less moe voice, but still manages to be pretty cute. From there she goes on to attend Japanese school and pretend she’s a foreigner even though she’s quite obviously Japanese.

The one thing that struck me about this whole affair was just how moe cartoon Erins’ attire is. She’s all up in the ribbons, short skirts and even thighhighs. Nevermind her big beautiful anime eyes and aforementioned moe moe voice. Seriously, who’s her seiyuu? But in the end, cartoon Erin just can’t do it for me. She’s cute, but she’s just a little a 3D rendered graphic. Nothing worth posting on danbooru. After we went back down to the class, I figured I’d forget all about Erin and crew. That was until the professor presented me with what was probably the most dangerous handout I’ve ever gotten in a class.

Yes, Erin has a manga! Manga Erin has big bright eyes! Poofy blonde hair! A smile that could kill! She’s too cute! I wanna fuck her right now! Prof only gave us two pages of this, but it seems like it covers the live action stuff from the show, just in comic form. It’s really well drawn, and I bet if I looked hard enough I could find some Rule 34… and if there isn’t any, get to it… because Erin’s friend, Saki, is pretty hot too…

I really hope my Japanese teacher somehow finds this post. That would be most hilarious.

I could have sworn this said SHERYL NOME

This train was apparently going to a very special place!

Spore was taking over Harvard Square station.

Found this… thing in Newbury Comics…

…and I found this goddamned thing in Tokyo Kid.

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See! I told you it’d be the same joke again! And this comic is more poorly written than the last. I really gotta learn to streamline my writing like Penny Arcade. How does Tycho do it? Man’s a genius. Next week’s comic will be actually funny though, don’t worry.The art here is kind of fine. I’m still trying to find a decent way to do eyes. One thing I noticed about most modern styles is that they don’t really do eyelashes that much. Some modern styles still do it, but it’s kind of rare. The way I draw eyes is kind of held over from the 90s. I like having the eyes spike out the way they do, but at the same time I want to make my style look more modern. But first I guess I gotta learn how to draw bodies, lawl.

MIT is screening a lot of things I’m actually interested in, so as such I’ll probably be there every week for the next couple of months. Last night they showed Gankutsuoh and Mushishi. Gankutsuoh looks like it was a SHAFT show pushed up to 1000% and set against Windows 95’s 3D Maze screensaver. And it mostly works, aside from some really bad 3D stuff at times. The story thus far is pretty interesting, and the Count himself is pretty badass. The whole thing is terribly gay, though. I mean seriously. Mushishi is good, just incredibly slow. By the fourth episode was I falling asleep. It’s not a bad show by any means, but they gotta space that shit out with episodes of Detroit Metal City or something. They also showed Nogizaka Haruka, which was the same as always. The guy in front of me panned it as terribly generic. While it is, I would have argued that it also does this, that, and the other thing but I was entirely too tired. I blame Mushishi.

I started reading Otaku no Musume-san again, but this time in Japanese. I downloaded the first 3 volumes raw off of Perfect Dark a while back, and have only recently attempted reading them. It took me about 30 minutes to get through chapter 7, but I almost understood it 100% of it due to the (really tiny) furigana. The chapter was mostly chatter between kids, so future chapters with adults speaking may get difficult… but I’ll try my best! (by the way, if anyone can suggest to me any other manga with furigana that I’d like please let me know…)

Another thing I’ve been reading lately is Patrick Macias’ JAPANESE SCHOOLGIRL INFERNO. I’ve had this book since Christmas, but have only now gotten around to reading it. It’s a great book, as expected. Patrick is an amazing writer and can really get you excited over anything. I had no idea the history of Japanese schoolgirl fashion could be so interesting, but it is. Of course, the stuff Patrick covers is positively bizarre, but his writing really involves you in the history behind this stuff. It’s almost like you’re there yourself! After this I may read Fresh Pulp, or something.

That’s all for this week! I’ll see you all later.

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Finished the background. Will complete later today or tomorrow.

I’m so glad all of this stuff is starting in October, rather than in September like I originally thought. I was wondering how I would be able to handle twenty more shows on top of of the fourteen I already have going. Thanfully, that is not the case, and by the time this new season rolls around, about everything I’m watching right now would have concluded.

This season isn’t looking all too hot. While nothing looks super horrible, nothing looks totally good either. With most seasons I can usually pick out one show that I know I’ll love (eg Kodomo no Jikan, Kure-nai, Gurren Lagann) but there’s nothing really like that this season. I hope at least some of these can surprise me!

Man, I just gotta watch this

• Goku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: More Zetsubou Sensei cannot be a bad thing.
• Kannagi: Watching for the KyoAni connection alone. The plot seems fairly standard but will be good with the correct execution.
• Kyou no Go no Ni: I actually really dig the new art style– it seems closer to that of the original manga. But considering the OVA covered all of the manga material, I hope this anime-original stuff isn’t bad… or maybe they’ll just adapt the manga again, I don’t know. I just hope for tight loli asses.
• Michiko to Hatchin: Ok, maybe I lied when I said I wasn’t able to pick out one show this season that I’ll just love. Michiko to Hatchin just might be that show. It bleeds Cowboy Bebop (Watanabe is the “music producer”), and just seems like tons of fun. The only problem is that Manglobe is working on it. They made Samurai Champloo, which was a good show– but they also made Ergo Proxy. Yeah.
• Tytania: This is apparently Legends of the Galactic Heroes sans ten billion episodes I have to watch. Sold. (Though, it looks kind of gay)

Man, I should probably watch this

• Casshern Sins: These character designs, man. They’re like retro and modern at the same time. I’m interested in this simply because it’s a remake of an old property, and it may even be good considering Madhouse is behind it.
• Clannad ~After Story~: Ah, so this is the part where things get all depressing and mellow-dramatic. Sweet! After Tomoyo’s OVA, I’m a little sick of Clannad, but hopefully with this series it’ll redeem itself.
• ef - a tale of melodies: I wasn’t totally taken with the first ef series, but I liked it well enough, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t watch the sequel. Also it’s by SHAFT, so it’s basically guaranteed to be good.
• Hyakko: Random school girl comedy. None of these can live up to Azumanga Daioh in my book (yes, point and laugh) but these types of shows are always fun. I kind of like the character designs.
• Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae: Jigoku Shoujo is such trash, but I watch it anyways. If the writers can keep things mildly entertaining, I’ll be happy.
• Shikabane Hime: ZOMBIE SCHOOL GIRL KILLS ZOMBIES AND GAINAX ANIMATES IT. Should be good.
• Ride Black: I’m not totally sold on the premise, but the combination of a Gainax and Ghibli director, plus Madhouse, along with some cool artwork knocks this one up a notch or so.
• Tentai Senshi Sunred: No one will sub this :(
• To Aru Majutsu no Index: I’m all for moe nuns and J.C. Staff.
• Toradora!: I tried to read the manga, but the translation was just soooo bad. Hopefully the anime will be good, so I can just watch that instead. J.C. Staff make good stuff, so it probably will be. I like the character designs, even if they are wildly different from the originals. Main girl is cute.
• Yozakura Shijuusou ~Yozakura Quartet~: Watching entirely for the character designs, but the premise has potential to be entertaining.

Man, I probably shouldn’t watch this

• CHAOS;HEAD: The premise is amazing, but the character designs seem too generic for even me. It’s by Madhouse, but they’re doing like five-thousand things, and this show will probably get shafted on the animation budget.
• Ga-Rei Zero: I like the character designs, but I probably won’t watch this unless it gets rave reviews.
• Kurogane no Linebarrel: This show had potential to be s-CRY-ed 2 with awesome missile spam and robots, but it’s by Gonzo so it’ll suck. Has an English site for some reason.
• Kemeko-DX: Romantic comedy with good artwork. Hopefully it’ll be above average, but my expectations are low.
  
• Macademi Wasshoi!: This looks really panderific in a bad way, but I’ll give the first episode a shot since I have a poster of it up in my room.The artwork is kind of weird.
• Rosario and Vampire CAPU2: Why do I subject myself to pain? But who knows, maybe this one will have an animation budget or something.

Man, fall’s gonna be busy!

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Character centric humour? Unbelievable! Though, I’m not sure if this one is really funny. I just wanted to write something about 0nT. I hope it’s funny though, since the next comic is basically this joke again. This comic kind of feels like corny anime humour, so if you like that (as I sometimes do) I guess you’ll like this. By the way, they’re in Staples. It’s time to buy school supplies.

Time to finally address that question I asked to all of you about a month ago regarding what you want out of the comic. Like I said earlier, I won’t 100% implement any of these suggestions, but I did read them all and took them into consideration. One big one was that the humour is too obscure. This is not something I will change, since this comic is built around obscure not-quite-PPD-level-but-more-Hayate-level anime jokes. One other suggestion was to flesh out the characters more, which I do kind of try at. I’m not a great writer, and I’m no master at defining character traits, but I do try my best to improve. I’ll just say that yeah, I’m working on it, and hopefully… maybe these characters will be memorable and live on in your hearts forever! Yeah right. But I’m trying. And the last notable bit of advice was to just keep doing what I’m doing and improve, which is what I’m doing anyways. Or trying to. So, thanks for the comments. They were helpful.

Anyways, on to other stuff. One show that’s been surprisingly enjoyable has been World Destruction. Despite the dumbass premise, the show actually manages to be very entertaining. It’s a popcorn-flick type of entertaining, but still entertaining nonetheless. All the characters are fun, and each episode is written decently enough. The best episode ever was probably when they pit Toru Furuya and Shuuichi Ikeda together as rival characters… and these characters were both cute little teddy bears. It’s great.

Nogizaka Haruka has kind of gone down a quarter of a notch from its opening episodes, but I still like it a lot. Haruka is consistently delightfully moe, and her younger sister Mika is the kind of mischievous loli I love. I hope another season is greenlit, since one cour isn’t really enough.

Code Geass is really bad. But it’s gotten bad in the same way that I assume Kazuo “PEE IN MY EYES TO WASH OUT THE BLOOD” Koike manga is bad. It kind of lagged in the middle because the writers were taking their bullshit entirely too seriously, but now it’s relaxed back into being wonderfully over-the-top and nonsensical. What’s sad about the show at this point is that the damage done, and it’s not Taniguchi’s fault. I really wanted to see his original concept– what he had in mind sounded like it could be s-CRY-ed-level good, as opposed to this season which is very School Days. Except not as cool.

And that’s all for this week. I have a day or so off before classes start, so in that time I’ll try to crank out this other comic and get back on track. Later!

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!

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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!