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

I’ve not been very vocal on the whole Handley issue on this site simply because every other blogger, podcaster and Twitter superstar has beaten the issue to death. However, upon FUNimation’s announcement regarding their editing of SHAFT’s Dance In The Vampire Bund for US release, I feel that something something has to be said. I realize that what I’m saying has been repeated ad nauseum by pedos and non-pedos alike, and considering my preoccupation with the underdeveloped female form, I understand that there will be a certain degree of bias here. But whatever.

No matter how objectionable a drawing is, in the end it’s simply that–a drawing. Whether it’s a dude fucking a dead girl in the brain, a guy getting torn apart, or a man having his way with a young child, no matter how gross one may find such things, they’re drawings, and they shouldn’t be illegal. I’m not even going to push the “artistic expression” angle. Yeah, a lot of the stuff you find in LO does have a high degree of artistic merit, but in the end a lot of the people who partake of this stuff just want to jerk off. And that’s fine, they’re just drawings.

Honestly, considering how harmless drawn imagery of a man and a young girl having sex is (it’s not uncommon for the girls in LO to give consent, strangely enough), I’m surprised that the iron fist of the law hasn’t come down on far more grotesque drawn imagery. Take the types of violent and sexual imagery I mentioned in the above paragraph–why aren’t people losing their shit over that? I’ve flipped through a bunch of comics–both American and Japanese–where some pretty awful stuff is going down. Heck, violence of that same level happens in Hollywood movies. Why isn’t that stuff banned? I mean, I find some of it offensive. I know this is an argument that’s been made countless times, but how is grotesque violence okay and relatively benign imagery of two people having sex not? Especially when they’re just drawings. I mean seriously, these guys should be arresting people for owning Waita Uziga books if they’re to throw poor Handley away for drawings of fake girls getting fucked.

Again, I know this has been beaten to death and has already been communicated in a far more eloquent manner, but there is no victim when an issue of Comic LO drops. No one is hurt in the making of that publication. Real children are hurt in the production of real child pornography, and those criminals are the ones we should be after. The people who partake of cartoonish depictions of minors engaged in sexual acts are sometimes people who do prefer real children, and sometimes people who  just like drawings. I personally just like drawings. However, if one were to make our harmless fantasy drawings illegal, who are they protecting? If anything the dudes who like real kids will just go out and rape real kids, and guys like me will have to tread cautiously when looking at something that hasn’t harmed anyone in its making.

Anyway, enough of that. You’ve heard it all before.

As far as FUNimation’s decision on Vampire Bund goes, I can’t blame them, but they’re going to be lucky if the first volume can push 50 copies. If that. Honestly, I think they could have left that one problematic scene in and no one would have noticed. The US release of the manga got away with that scene, along with all the others where every lovely detail of Mina’s wonderful body is put front and center. Heck, the manga is probably dirtier than the anime considering just how often Mina is naked. The only real graphic depiction of Mina’s naked body in the anime is that scene. Yeah, you wouldn’t be able to show a grown man rubbing oil on a naked little girl on US TV or even release something like that on DVD. If it involved a real child. Like I said above, these are drawings. Who cares if there’s some scene in a cartoon where a kid is naked. It’s totally harmless.

Since this Vampire Bund license was likely a tie-in with their Baka to Test license, they were low on options. And we are living in a world were a man has been arrested for owning comics. But I still think it’s dumb.

Today is December 3rd, and you know what that means!!

It’s Nagi-tan’s birthday!!

She’s a little shy, but she eventually ate her cake. She did insist on the Rei cup, however.

You can celebrate Nagi-tan’s birthday, too! And in many different ways! Either do it the way I did it above, or this next way!

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Between Darker Than Black and Black Lagoon, it would seem the only things the Japanese know about Russia are that it is always cold, and they love to make snuff films featuring children. That said, for a show in which Russians constantly reference Japanese culture, clean up after class, and confess to each other with their faces all red, we must commend Bones for at least getting some things culturally accurate.

I’m actually really liking this show. I think the fact that the story is spread over more than two episodes per shot allows for them to have a lot more opportunities for big ol’ action scenes. The cast is also quite amusing. If I feel like it, I may go back and give the first series another swing. I liked parts of it, but when I watched it a few years ago, some things just didn’t click with me.

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

The sixteenth installment of the third Jigoku Shoujo series was more or less about sending pedophiles to hell. What made this episode stand out was its interesting structure, as well as a distinct lack of the show’s terribly corny damning-to-hell sequences. However, the key thing that made this episode click for me was Kayo-chan.

Shame she’ll only be in this episode. They had quite the dangerous lolita on their hands.

Children are precious. They are our future. We must love and respect them. We must guard their purity.

So clearly we must lust after them like the dirty perverts we are.

Original Post

I think I’ve squeezed all the life I’m able to squeeze out of Gundam 00 jokes at this point, especially considering that I haven’t actually watched the show. However, with the second season around, I couldn’t very well be quiet about it, and thusly this comic was created. It was also a good chance to expand on Tina’s developing insanity. She is insane. They both are.

It’s been rainy for the past couple of weeks, so I wanted to do a comic in the rain. I didn’t really like the rain effect at first, but it’s come to grow on me much like a parasite. The first panel looked good to me at first, but after a while I noticed that it looked like Tina is trying to dodge Rets’ umbrella, when she’s actually skipping nonchalantly. The second panel is the only one I really like, mostly because Rets gets his own special dramatic lighting, not dissimilar to Light Yagami. Notice how the shadows on his face in that panel are the total opposite of everything else in the comic? Panel three is ok, but it could have been better. Overall I’m pretty indifferent about this comic.

I’d like to take a chance to thank you readers for a great many things. Well, not a great many things, but two things that deserve a great amount of thanks. First, I’d like to thank you people for reading and liking the comic. I’m really hard on myself, and think just about everything I do is total crap (no, really, I read through the entire archive the other day and hated it all) but encouraging words make me feel good. I’m practicing drawing more often, and also making attempts to streamline my writing, so you hopefully in the future you’ll like the comic more than you already do!

Secondly, I’d like to thank the people who’re buying things through the ads on the site. Specifically, the CDJapan ads. I’ve gotten a decent amount of people purchasing things via my links, and they also tend to purchase a large amount, so I thank you all for that. I’ve already made about 50 dollars in commission, so keep buying! They’re having some hot sales right now on DVDs and CDs, and it’s not too late for an ‘09 calendar! Buy! Buy! Buy!

Alright, that’s enough adbot stuff. On to other things. Like Touhou. I understand this will enrage the denizens of /jp/ (everything I do enrages them, so I can’t really win) but I’ve been reading some Touhou doujinshi lately. I read some gag comics by FLIPFLOPs, then went on to read their adaptation of Perfect Cherry Blossom, which was extremely well done, and I really liked it. Following that, tried my hand at more of the games, but I kept dying since I just suck at video games. They’re still fun though–just challenging, even on Easy Mode. Yes, I’m kimoi, shut up. Anyway, I’ve been doing all that while listening to things by Silver Forest, and I have a whole playlist of COOL&CREATE tracks to get through, so chances are I may become an honest to goodness fan in time. Right now I’m just casual. (ps I like Cirno. And Chen.)

Moving right along to professionally produced pieces of Japanese entertainment, I finished both Gankutsuoh and Mushihi tonight at MIT, and was mostly happy with them. Gankutsuoh gets really good when all the pieces come together, but the end is real lame. Mushishi is more or less the same until the end, which was incidentally more or less what I was expecting! They’re both decent shows though, and I may even buy Mushishi if I’m feeling crazy enough. However, Gankutsuoh failed to take the place of Best Gonzo Show in my mind, despite some people saying it’s about the only good thing they’ve ever done. The best Gonzo show is, by the way, Strike Witches. Closely followed by Blue Submarine No.6, which was just a really cool cartoon. Didn’t make much sense, though!

That’s all for tonight. My computer contracted a horrible Trojan before I went out tonight, but seems to have gotten better after giving it some medicine. Hopefully it won’t blow up in the middle of the night.

Zettai Karen Children advocates Loli Yuri Rape™ and relationships between children and adults. Best part: it airs on Sunday mornings, when kids are watching. Japan truly is a nation of progress.

I kind of like Capu 2.

But only for loli witch panties.

OH MY GOD

WHY IS SHE NOT A MAIN CHARACTER?! FUCK YOU, KEY.

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(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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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.

Watching this raw is kind of a challenge– my Japanese sucks and this show delivers a lot of its entertainment by way of each episode’s individual plot. I can still follow the general plot points, but I miss a lot of the fine details. That’s okay, though– the real draw of this show is just how moe each of the girls are. Shiho really stole the show in this one with all the blushing she was doing. Real hot.

I just love how all the girls are hot for Minamoto. And to think this is a kid’s show…!

All is forgiven