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

Original Post

Even though they have changed their tone a bit regarding this issue, the fact that we’re still talking about editing anime in this day and age is quite nostalgic. When I was younger I used to read sites documenting the multitude of edits done to various Toonami offerings as well as sites which provided photographic comparisons for the original DBZ edits (there used to be this great site called Dragonball Z UNCUT).

At this time I was also watching anime on VHS with my friends, and attempting to download full episodes of random things in the form 20mb .rm files which took something of the order of  four hours to download. So, yeah, props to FUNimation for providing an impromptu trip down memory lane with this little controversy. It’s almost especially funny that FUNimation is the source of all this mess, considering not too long ago they were doing an impressive job of pissing off fanboy purists with their dub of DBZ.

Original Post

Yeah, another comic about SHAFT, but not about Vampire Bund! That said, the next comic will be about Vampire Bund again due to recent events. After that I’ll try to think of something new, I promise!

For those not in-the-know, Bakemonogatari changes its opening per story arc, and the opening SHAFT has come up with for the final arc–Tsubasa Cat–features what looks like either a man or a very dumpy woman dressed as Hanekawa Tsubasa photographed against various locations around Tokyo. Of course the imagery is in black and white, and has a neat little grain filter over it. The opening can be viewed here in very questionable quality, but if you haven’t watched Bakemonogatari at all yet, you should! It’s a pretty sweet show if you like good design work and witty script writing. I should really write something substantial about the show at some point.

I know I said I’d try to squeeze out three blog entries a week, and since then I’ve only produced one. I did put forth that it was an impossible proposition, but if time allows I’m going to try and put something else out tonight. There are a lot of things I want to blabber on about, it’s simply a case of finding the time and words to do so.

Anyway, until next week!

Original Post

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Another comic about SHAFT and Shinbo. Next week is probably going to be about them, too. What can I say, they make great cartoons, but they’re also hokey enough that I can make fun of them. But speaking of noise filters, the more acute of you may notice that I have been applying it to the past couple of comics. I’m doing this because I think it gives the art some texture. It looks good on my screen, but I’m not sure how it looks on others. It’ll probably come and go according to my mood.

Also, I realize I’ve been rather quiet on my blog lately. I don’t like apologizing for not posting, as I feel one should post on their blog at their leisure, but there’s things I want to talk about and it’s simply a matter of me sitting down and typing them up. This is impossible, but I’m going to try and shoot for three Actual Entries (ie, not art or comic rants) a week. I also have some more podcasts to get out, but Audacity being the influriating program that it is has caused me to make negative progress.

Oh, and just so’s you know Mistakes of Youth will be at Anime Boston at the beginning of April. NOT ONLY THAT, but if you read my Twitter (don’t read my Twitter) you would know that I have a panel there. It’s going to be called The Life and Times of Akiyuki Shinbo. It’s on at 7pm on Friday in panel 309. That time and place my change, so Watch This Space for any changes!

Anyway, hopefully I can drop some more interesting words on you guys soon. Later!

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I find that amongst some anime fans, there are those that think like computers. For instance, when an adaptation of a popular manga takes one step away from the original story, fans label it a failure because the outcome doesn’t fall within their narrow set of expectations. Perhaps if they were to realize that these changes actually make the story better, they would simply break down.

That said, this comic is primarily about the initial reaction to the first and second episodes of the show which were overwhelmingly negative (for a variety of reasons, not just inaccuracy) but that seems to have cooled down now. To be honest, I’m actually still not sure how some of the added plot elements work together–such as the new girl, and Akira’s loss of memory. I think his loss of memory is addressed in episode 7, but I’ve only seen it raw thus far so I can’t be certain. There’s also some other issues with the show that I want to address, but not now. It’s good, but I think that more so than any SHAFT show in recent years–even Bakemonogatari–this show probably needs to be watched on home video.

Oh, there’s some new podcasts about Comiket. They’re kind of bad, but if anything I hope they help bring you into that moment that was Comiket 76.

Original Post

This is one of those comics that got worse and worse as I continued drawing it. The sketches looked fine, but as I continued on things just become more dire. The end product isn’t too bad, but I’m not happy with it. But that’s the usual story, isn’t it?

I actually really hope we do get some Dullahan porn out of Durarararararara!!, but considering the overwhelming amount of images featuring Anri with a penis in between her giant tits, I highly doubt we’ll see Selty getting fucked in all of her headless glory. I hope someone does it, though. And I hope they do it seriously. Like, not as a joke.

Anyway, until next week.

Original Post

I think I’m going to give Shinbo a rest after this comic.

I was going to say I have nothing planned for next week, but then I came up with a bunch of really stupid ideas, and fully intend to use them.

(In Shinbo’s head SHAFT animators look like Lupin and Jigen because I was listening to the Lupin III soundtrack while drawing this.)

Original Post

After running this comic by a few people last night, my hypothesis that I’m the only one who finds this comic funny was proven to be correct. It’s not terribly funny unless you find Shinbo getting on Yamakan’s case for storyboarding an episode of Chu-Bra funny, and I find that hilarious. I also think it’s funny for my cartoon avatar to pop out of the corner of the frame in his continuous journey to stalk Mr. Shinbo.

While I’m on the subject–and since I don’t think it really deserves a focused blog entry–Chu-Bra is somewhat disappointing. It is a little interesting how it’s taken a less fanservice driven route (don’t get me wrong, it still has a lot of panty-shots) and has instead decided to focus on the embarrassment that young girls feel about wearing underwear, as well as the mechanics of underwear. It’s interesting to make a show about these things in theory, but in practice it kind of falls flat, especially when I don’t find the characters to be that enchanting. So long story short, the show should be more about fanservice. I may stick around for Yamakan’s episode, but I’ll probably drop it.

That’s it! There may or may not be a comic next week. I haven’t sketched anything yet so I don’t know!

(Get it? He said “wah!”)

Orginal Post

You know, I’m not even going to say anything about what’s going on this fucking comic strip. I mean, it can easily just stand on its own without any explanation or commentary. But before anyone gets the wrong I idea, I did very much enjoy the first episode of SHAFT’s Dance In The Vampire Bund anime, and enjoyed the second episode even more. I’ll expand upon why I like them in a post that will hopefully materialize later on.

I’m quite happy with how the artwork turned out on this one, save for Rets’ dirty pose in the last panel, along with the fact that the background perspective may not make too much sense. If anyone who knows how to draw (Why would you be subjecting yourself to my crap if you knew how to draw?) has any tips or crits, drop ‘em here. Crits are welcome for every comic, actually. That’s how you get better, after all.

Next week’s comic isn’t sketched, but with hope I can get something out. I think we’re due for another Life and Times of Akiyuki Shinbo…

Original Post

They’re talking about Umineko, just so’s ya know. Maria’s plight seems to have struck a chord in Rets, but he didn’t realize that her situation was meant to be tragic. You can’t blame the guy–he’s picking up all those little fragments of happiness that other people ignore. Or whatever.

For the first comic MADE in the decade, this looks lame too. Oh well! The next one is sketched out and it looks kind of better. Should be funnier, too!

Not much to say here (is there ever anything to say these days?) but I’ve been blogging up a storm on the blog. Pretty sure I updated like 10 times this week, and I plan on updating again today! So check that shit out!

Original Post

For the first comic of the DECADE I suppose this could have turned out slightly better. The colouring came out well, but the actual drawings leave something to be desired. Considering it was drawn last year, it’s not the first comic made in the decade, but it is the first posted. Hopefully the next one will be better!

Happy New Year!

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They’re at a Christmas party, you see.

Original Post

I guess this comic is a step back into–ahem–”classic” Mistakes of Youth formula–Rets says something weird, Tina questions it, and Rets overreacts. It’s not terribly good, but hopefully it’ll inspire chuckles, and maybe it gets my feelings about Railgun across in a more succinct manner than the blog post on the issue. The art isn’t anything to write home about, so I won’t say anything.

The more astute of you may notice that this comic is dated for the 20th, yet today is the 22nd. I was simply too lazy to post it. Anyways, the next comic is done, so you can expect that on Christmas.

Later!

Original Post

There was a comic before this one that I put up on Wednesday. If you don’t happen to follow the RSS feed and just reload the site on weekends, you may want to go back and see that one.

This is something that happened to me in real life. I’ve been wanting to use this anecdote as a comic for a while (something like three years) but never really found the right moment until now. I feel that Brad, after having been washed ashore in America after a grueling number of months manning the cash register at both Tora and a U-15 DVD shop, would be absolutely delighted to hear some American guy ask him if his MD Geist DVD was a “gay-mu”. In real life the man who posed this query to me was less of a Hitler dream child and more of a brown person, but I think portraying the assailant as he is in the comic enhances the humour.

The art isn’t really up to par. The drawings are lazy and the lighting didn’t come out as I wanted. I’m still really bad at determining where shadows fall, too. Also, you’ll notice Brad isn’t bleeding anymore. I forgot to add the blood, so just assume he wiped it off.

I dunno what’s going on next week. I guess I’ll figure something out.

Original Post

In case you had forgotten, the last time we left Brad, he was stuck in a shady U-15 DVD store in the depths of Akiba. I hate subjecting the comic to continuity, but I had to find some way to bring Brad back to where the rest of the gang are. I figure if I do strike with continuity, I may as well be as out there as possible. As such, this is comic is also a part 1 of a two-part series. If I can produce a miracle, part 2 will materialize by the weekend.

The art is fine, I guess, even if the first panel is impossible. I stole some royalty free stock image for Lady Liberty.

That’s all. Later!

Original Post

Yes, Rets is dressed as Captain Haddock from The Adventures of Tintin. Why? BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT.

The issue of pedophilia in Darker Than Black’s sequel is something I feel must be addressed. Spinning it off into other deviant directions is something I feel should not be addressed, but the script was headed in that direction so I did it anyway. I was kind of reaching with this one, but I hope it at least inspires a chuckle.

This comic is actually redrawn from earlier lineart. I liked the original lineart one day, then I looked at it the next day and it looked awful, so I re-drew it. Even after cleaning the new lineart, shit still looked wonky, so I made some adjustments. It looks kind of ok now, but not perfect. The backgrounds are once again cheap traces over some photos I took.

I drew Tina’s hair in a more flowing manner again, since I think that may suit her more, and I wanted to try my hand at drawing that sort of hair again. I think it goes against the Watanabe Akio style I’m trying badly to cop, but whatever. I’m mainly latching onto his style to try and find my own. I want to draw comics that look “anime style” (whatever the fuck THAT is) but my attempts at shooting for that stlye on my own have been failures. So I figure if I latch onto an estblisehd style, I may find my own. Lots of Japanese artists do it, so I figure there’s no shame in me doing it!!

Thanks to the power of Perfect Dark I found some albums by Omokage Lucky Hole–the groovy dudes who did the Natsu no Arashi opening–and they’re pretty good! Their Wikipedia page describes them as a “Japanese Funk band” but by my not-very-musically-inclined-ears they skirt a bunch of musical genres from traditional J-Pop pieces (albeit older styled ones) to some almost rap-sounding pieces. However, they have a sound that’s unified by their strong use of horns and the main singer’s voice. There’s some duds across the two albums I found, but on the whole they’re pretty  good, so listen to them! Not around Japanese people, though. Their lyrics are pretty dirty. I’d love to buy these albums, but I’m not in Japan at the moment so that’s something of a impossibility. But I will! Eventually.

And that’s it. Later bros.