Mistakes of Youth: The Blog (Powered by ur mum)

Nagi celebrates by taking off her clothes

Shingo brought this to my attention via IRC, so I figured I’d bring it to the attention of my like-minded readers as well!

A Sanzenin Nagi figure is coming out in August, and it can be yours for the low, low price of ￥4,179! She stands at 100mm and is made from PVC and ABS. I’m ordering it right when it hits either HLJ or 1999.co.jp!

So apparently they finally killed that sick motherfucker.

It’s so weird hearing this now, considering he killed those girls something like 20 years ago. I guess the justice system takes its time, huh?

Original Post

I really like how this comic came together. Everything from the lineart, to the colouring, to the backgrounds looks almost exactly as planned. I’m sure there are rough patches here and there, but I really like this one. I’ve actually kind of been practicing at drawing things I’m not too good at (like girls lol) and I think the fruits of that practice shows here. The lineart for the comic after this one looks pretty good, too. As far as scripting goes, I guess the humour here lies more in the comments than it does in the script. If you haven’t already guessed, this comic is a Nico Nico Douga parody, and like Nico offers, here’s a version of the comic with comments “turned off” for those who want it. But the comic’s only funny with self-depreciating comments like “kore wa hidoi” anyway!

Another week, another Anime Blog Award awarded, it seems. This time it’s the blogger’s choice Gold Award for best blog comic. So yeah, thanks to you guys who voted in that.

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Via Patrick Macias via this person

Really, how many issues was that? Like, two? Seriously, TWO? Did this magazine not even last as long as Flux??? I wonder what they’re going to do about all those Newtype USA subscribers. They promised two issues of PiQ for every remaining issue of Newtype any given person had left in their subscription. What are they going to do now, mail them back money?

lol, PiQ. What a fucking joke. Even Newtype USA had more cred than that rag.

I didn’t think it was possible, but it’s happened– Dokuro-chan will be getting a US release. And some people think the US anime industry is dead. I’ll buy this if it’s released on one sexy volume for a decent price. Now if only the second series would hurry up and finish!

Though, it does feel kind of tasteless to announce the acquisition of this show right after some crazy dude slaughtered a bunch of guys in Akiba.

http://patrickmacias.blogs.com/er/2008/06/date-waru-zoku.html

http://2chan.us/wordpress/2008/06/08/14-people-stabbed-in-akihabara/

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/08/japan.stabbing.spree/index.html

You’ve probably already heard about this, but I figured I’d spread the word some more. Man, Akiba seems to be heading down the tubes. I hope by the time I make it over there it would have at least recovered somewhat.

This shit is pretty fucked up.

Original Post

This comic had two possible outcomes: 1) Rets cursing Kurenai for being a lucky bastard or 2) Rets saluting him. I decided to go with 2), since getting a young girl to kiss you on her own accord is pretty impressive. Kurenai didn’t even have to force himself on her! That’s salute-worthy. The art here is slightly better than what it was at first. After some critiques I changed some things the best I could to make it look slightly better. It still looks average, but not as bad. It’s only one drawing, anyway. The next comic, which I already have sketched out, should look pretty good. It’ll make up for all the stinkers from the past couple of weeks. Not sure how funny it is, though…

Oh, Anime Blog Awards happened, and Mistakes of Youth won something in the “People’s Choice” vote. Blogger’s Choice hasn’t been made public yet, but I guess I won that too since last I checked I was 10 votes above whoever was under me. Not sure how deserving I am of any awards, but thanks to all who voted.

I’m three episodes away from the end of Nadesico, and it’s been a decently fun ride. I kind of expected it to go serious after a while, but to my surprise it’s keeping its relatively light tone till the end. I can appreciate why this series is so well loved, but I can’t totally get into it. It’s good, and at points great, but part of what puts me off is just how fast cut and brisk most of the episodes are. The show does however have a great cast of characters who are all filled with personality, actually handles relationships in a mature manner and, despite being pretty light, drives home the “war is hell” message pretty well. I have the movie downloading right now, and I guess I’ll watch that soon. I would buy it, but apparently a used copy of the DVD costs ~$50 and, uh, fuck that.

I’ve finally accepted that Kyouran Kazoku Nikki is not the crazy comedy that I want it to be, despite it doing everything it its power to force me back into thinking that it is in fact a crazy a comedy each time the opening sequences comes on. The show seems more about imparting kind of cheesy morals and lessons onto the viewer while in the guise of a crazy otaku show. That works decently, but it makes me like the show less. It’s still entertaining, but I kind of hoped it’d be above stuff like that and focus more on being a parody show. Oh well, at least Yuuka is still cute with her little pink striped shirt.

More Haruhi 2 news has trickled in. It seems they’re scrapping the “second season” label and instead just treating it as an all-new series. I honestly don’t see the point in noting that, if it’s still going to be based off of the same material. So long as it tops the first one, I’ll be fine. Also, its ed best be amazing.

That’s it for this week. I have a birthday celebration happening today, so I’ll be off to fit in some anime before the festivities begin.

Original Post

Looking back through the archives, I noticed that I hadn’t even so much as touched upon the issue that is Rosario + Vampire. To atone for this grievous sin, here is a comic which more or less sums up my feelings on the upcoming sequel. I have nothing against fanservice shows, but R+V is a pretty good example of how not to do one. It does get points for Shuuichi Ikeda, though. As far as this comic goes, I’m pretty happy with how the script turned out, and I will admit I was partially influenced by Kaiji when I wrote the punchline. The art is fine– I’m happy with panels 1 and 2, but panel 3 is all too rushed. It looked great in messy sketch form, but not so much when I cleaned it up.

The Ascii Weekly article from a few weeks ago gave the site some pretty decent exposure. I got about 600 more page views that usual and a blog entry! Who knows, maybe I’ll even get a translation deal! (no)

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So I guess we’ll learn more about Haruhi 2 in July Newtype according to June Newtype.

Sauce: Zepy

So apparently after a lot of fan yelling FUNi’s going to put out a box for The Best Series Ever. I was kind of bothered that DVD 1 lacked a box, but I had other things to be angry about so it didn’t phase me too much. A box is splendid news, though, and I hope they do a good job. By that I mean I hope they don’t pull an ADV and just put random pretty pictures all over the place.

Ideally the box will have pictures of either a) Kaede doing house work, b) Kaede naked or c) both

Subbed only, first DVD hits in July. Dub release in 09.

Man, I wish I could’ve been there for this announcement. Not like I could’ve possibly been at the NYCC, but it would’ve been neat. I like how they’re doing a sub-only release just to get it out there as soon as possible. I wonder if there’ll be special editions, or if it’ll just be a no-frills priced down sub-only affair. Who knows!!

Anyway, I’m a bit too tired to get excited about this, so instead have this picture of Nia

Sources: ANN, Bandai, The Internet

Original Post

Here is the Anime Boston con comic, which puts a lid on my Anime Boston 2008 coverage. Like last year, most of this stuff only really made sense in context, but whatever. I should also note these kinds of comics aren’t really what people said word-for-word– if you want that, listen to the podcasts. Expect a comic about noses next week.

Lots of stuff from the TAF, which actually took me by surprise for some reason. Unfortunately, I can’t be all too excited about much of it since I’m not all that pumped about this next season, even after seeing these trailers. I guess I’ll just bullet-point this stuff.

• The Golgo 13 trailer is good, but it has too many still images, which makes me worry for its budget.
• Crystal Blaze looked fine for the first minute, then in the last minute it took a nosedive– I’m afraid it’ll take itself seriously.
• DMC looks like it could be fun.
• Jigoku Shoujo is the same old thing, which means it should be moderately entertaining.
• Michiko to Hatchin is Manglobe’s new offering, and certainly looks more fun than Ergo Proxy. Approaching with some degree of caution, but I have high hopes for this one.
• I’m guessing this new Gurren Lagann footage is from the new music video project, and not from the new movie. Some of it looks quite interesting.
• I certainly hope the people in this video are cheering for something else going on in the hall, and not for Kanokon.

Reading that Ballad of a Shinigami novel that Seven Seas sent me. I’m about 1/3 of the way through, and should be done in a week or so. It’s a good light read, but doesn’t really have a distinct writing style that inspires me or anything. It’s not bad, but it kind of just makes me want to watch the anime again. Maybe I’m just not used to reading books that aren’t written by Patrick Macias.

So I guess Hayate is getting a second season, which is good news. It’s managed to keep my attention for 50 episodes, which is quite impressive. Let’s hope they don’t drop the ball with this next one!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand that’s a wrap.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/…ime-second-season-leaked

TELL YOUR FRIENDS. TELL YOUR FAMILY.

People emailed me to mention these things

Thing 1 is almost over, oops.

Thing 2 has just begun!

Yay

Three blog entries for the price of one! While reading off these titles, I want you to imagine them on Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei styled title-card illustrations. Hell, here’s some BGM while you’re at it!

———-

Dear Japan please be like normal people and write “HOW TO USE” guides for things that aren’t notebooks of doom, thanks

Unless you’re a totally new reader to this silly and horrible internet journal of terrors (hi!) then you’ll know that I have something of an affinity for bishoujo dakimakura covers. They’re wonderful little things in that they allow us lonely geeks to feel loved by girls, who in our mind, CARE, unlike the cold-hearted-serpent-women of the real world. Due to the nature of these things and how often they’re used, chances are they should be washed almost as often as your normal bedsheets and the like. Most commercial pillowcases come with an info-card, usually giving you the material it’s made out of and sometimes even washing instructions. For the most part, these can all be dumped into the washing machine and be taken care of on the delicate settings. Limited, event-only covers are another story, though.

It’s a psychological problem more than anything else. My two Kaede pillows, both event-limited items won through heated battles on Yahoo auctions don’t come with these handy info-cards. Sure, if you put them in the wash they’d probably come out just fine (and they’d probably stop smelling just like me) but they could also come out as white sheets like what happened to one of the guys in this thread.

The Internet Itself (read: Cortana) has told me that hand-washing is the safest bet, and I’m inclined to agree with him. I’ll probably do just that today! But seriously Japan– INSTRUCTIONS. You, better than anyone else, should know just how passionately us otaku use these things.

Edit: I looked on the inside of this one after hand-washing it and noticed there was a little tag on the inside that said it was 100% polyester and machine washable. lol. I’ll throw it in the machine next time, then. Not sure about the other one, but I’m sure the machine wouldn’t hurt it either… I guess I’ll actually wash these often then woo!

———-

I think child porn is horrible but don’t take away my LO

You’ve heard this all before, but news makes it worth mentioning again. Ok, so Japan has no law against the possession of child porn. Yeah, that’s pretty bad. I’m totally cool with all that shit getting hit with the ban-hammer. Though, this certain quote from the article worried me quite a bit. You know which bit it is, but I’ll quote it anyway.

” But the Japan branch of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) urged Tokyo to beef up its laws by banning child pornography in manga comics, animated films and computer games as well as individual possession.”

Insert argument about how fake loli porn steers pedos off real children and how outlawing it would only make things worse here. I would also insert an argument about artistic freedom, but for the most part this stuff is straight up porn. The most artistic loli-porn I’ve seen would probably be Hizashi no Naka no REAL or any loli Naruko Hanaharu draws.

But yeah, don’t outlaw our cartoon-lolis, please? It’s not really hurting anybody when some guy jacks off to an Inuboshi tankoubon.

———-

Freak out freak out it’s Kotono Mitsuishi

Kotono Mitsuihsi is going to Animazment! Unfortunately I won’t be going since I don’t really go out of state for cons. However, I’ll probably get a buddy of mine to get an Eva DVD or something signed. Shame I won’t be able to meet her, though! C’mon Otakon, get some guests like these! A Yuuko Goto would be nice.

(In retrospect, this is the most meaningless blog entry ever)

Via pKjd

I must say, this is something of a surprise. I mean, I think there were rumours going about around when the series ended, but I figured nothing would come of them. I’m quite excited, though I have no idea what it’ll be about. Let’s hope it doesn’t suck!

edit: Putting hype aside for a moment, Shingo sez Mr. MoonPhase reckons it’ll be a recap sort of deal like Death & Rebirth and the new Top wo Nerae film. Thinking logically, he’s probably right, but the dreamer in me hopes for some original material.

I figure I’ll bunch all this stuff into one entry, just because.

Thanks to an overseas DVD trade between Shiro and myself, I was finally able to secure the first volume of Nurse Witch Komugi. Having finished SoulTaker a few months back, naturally the next course of action was to dig into these wonderfully fluffy and sugary OVAs, hilariously completely different from the work which they are derived. As of right now, I’ve seen three episodes– 1, 2 and 2.5. In other words, the whole first volume.

A long while back, some fool told me that the jokes would be quite difficult to get, given they referenced seemingly obscure things. As such I was ready for a Pani Poni Dash! styled barrage of weirdness, but almost thankfully, I got something slightly more sane. The show really is your typical otaku moe-fest, with its share of reused gags and routines. It’s very entertaining, well animated, and easy to watch. The only parts where people may get thrown off are at the ends of each of the episodes, which usually feature a reference to something uniquely Japanese. For instance, the first episode had Komugi fighting against a giant Mona (complete with kopipe-beam and other associated 2ch madness) and the second episode had Komugi (all five of her, for some reason) done up as your favourite Science Ninja Team. I suppose if one doesn’t know anything at all about anime, then such things may come off as alien, but for the most part, this shit is basics. Perhaps it gets wackier later on– I don’t know. In the meantime however, I’ll just conclude that the guy who was on about this show being impossible to crack is an idiot, because, well, he is.

The funniest part about this DVD is that you can really see its age in the translation, mostly due to the fact that “moe” is translated as “charming.” I can just imagine the translator wracking his brains over this word which, for the most part, was pretty unknown to US fandom at the time. The image of him trying to define the word for himself and then finding an appropriate English equivalent simply sends me into fits of uncontrollable laughter. “Charming” Medical Shower, lol.

Well, I suppose it makes more sense than “turn ons”

Apparently Kadokawa is cracking down on fanworks for some asinine reason. I can kind of understand the logic behind knocking openings and endings off video sites (even if doing so is incredibly stupid) but cracking down on fanworks is tantamount to shooting any love for your product in the fucking face, especially when it comes to properties such as Haruhi. Haruhi is driven by its fandom– the reason so much attention is still focused around it almost two years later is due to its insane fandom. Telling fans to stop making works of love based on your property is basically the same as telling them to not like it. Is it so hard to see that fanworks are pure and unadulterated works of love? Why squash that creative spirit? It doesn’t hurt the company at all– in fact it only helps them, given it’s fucking free advertising. Doujin sales ain’t gonna hurt you Kadokawa, so chill. Neither will MAD movies, for that matter.

Shinbo is motherfucking holding out on us all for not revealing where he gets his drugs. I’d go as far as to say that the last third of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei episode 7 is a landmark in Japanese animation for just how fucking out there shit can get. They don’t just switch between different animation styles in one segment, they go through different techniques, even brining flipbooks and claymation into the mix. It’s fucking bizarre. I’ll supply for your the tip of the iceberg of madness in the form of a screencap right now.

Yes, that is Bob Ross painting Konata. And it only gets weirder from there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWj2mCm5TU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWj2mCm5TU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWj2mCm5TU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWj2mCm5TU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWj2mCm5TU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWj2mCm5TU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWj2mCm5TU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWj2mCm5TU

Thanks, Something Awful and Harakiri.

According to these guys it may just be happening.

MORE NEWS AT THINGS DEVELOP, LIKE A PREPUBESCENT GIRL BECOMING A WOMAN.  

When I heard the name Mobile Suit Gundam 00 I immediately assumed it’d be some awesome, super cool prequel to the original, manly and epic Kidou Senshi Gandamu. Wow, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I mean, I knew we’d have the Loveless person on character design, so the pretty boys aren’t too much of a surprise. It’s the story summary that really puts me off. It basically sounds like the same kind of crap that’s been plaguing Gundam for the past 10 years. I mean, I like the anti-war message but by Seed they’re shoving down your fucking throat in the most pussy way ever. I may enjoy this on the same level I enjoy Seed, but I doubt it’ll provide the kind of manly epicness that the original shows had. Sigh.

nice going seven seas

Kind of sad that there aren’t much in the way of scans. I was kind of looking forward to this release.

So uh, Yuuko Goto, Minori Chihara and Aya Hirano will be at Anime Expo.

I hope you fuckers in California enjoy yourselves. In other news, us poppets on the East Coast have significantly less important guests for Otakon…

Found via Randall, who’s less of Eva fan than I am, so I’ll announce this with some enthusiasm.

The first new Eva film has been titled Evangelion Shin Gekijouban: Jyo, which apparently means Evangelion New Motion Picture: Prologue. Simple, generic, but effective. Oh, I suppose it’s Wevengeriwon now, given the new spelling… :P

The official site has the new Nerv and Seele logos up. They’re neato torpedo. Especially the Seele logo. Religious symbolism ++

http://www.asosbrigade.com just updated their site with an English trailer for Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu. It can be found on the main page of the site, or directly on Revver. My thoughts on the English dub? Quite bad. To be fair, I don’t watch English dubs so I don’t know how bad it is on the whole English-dub-scale. Whoever does Haruhi kind of has the same quality as Aya but at the same time kind of doesn’t, and I’m convinced no American person can emulate Kyon’s voice in English. Same for Mikuru. Yuki didn’t talk, which isn’t surprising. Itsuki didn’t talk either, which is surprising.

But yeah, you dub people have a ball.

So I just looked at the source code for asosbrigade.com, and…

<!– Some of them desire the original japanese OP/EDs untouched –>
<!– They don’t want english credits? :( –>
<!– It is difficult to please everyone at the same time –>
<!– What about multi-angle video? –>
<!– Done improperly it will look ugly, let’s devote the full stream to one video –>
<!– How about putting the Japanese-language OP/ED sequence on the special edition DVDs? –>
<!– So regular edition will have english-translated OP/EDs, and the special edition will have the original Japanese-language OP/EDs left as-is? –>
<!– An excellent compromise. –>
<!– Let us hope they are happy –>
<!– I wonder if anyone reads these messages? –>
<!– Are you packed yet? –>

I know this is stupid and picky of me, but I like when companies leave the credits in Japanese (or do the whole multi-angle thing, which FUNi does.) English credits on a Japanese production just seems awfully strange to me. It doesn’t affect my viewing experience either way, I just prefer the credits in Japanese. So it seems the original opening and endings will be left as is on the special editions, which is cool, given I’ll be buying those. I guess their reasoning was that the more hardcore fans would buy the SEs, and the hardcore fans are the only ones who would care about such a detail. I’m coming to like this release more and more.

<!– I wonder if anyone reads these messages? –>

Ahaha~

This just in from http://www.asosbrigade.com

The latest video put up on the ASOS Brigade website revealed all the US release details for Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu. For those who do not feel like watching the video, here is the rundown.

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Hideaki Anno recently released a statement regarding his feelings on remaking Evangelion (or shall I say, Wevangeriwon) in the form of a movie poster that was distributed across Japan.

Ok, this in itself is badass, having a movie poster that is really just a bunch of words. It takes something, I don’t know what, but something to do something wacky like that. Not only that, but the what is written on the poster is nothing short of awe inspiring.

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So FUNimation is doing this 2007 kick off thing where they announce a new acquisition everyday of this week. So far they’ve only picked up stupid crap I don’t care about, but today they picked up Shuffle! among other things. To be totally honest, I am surprised, as I never expected it to get licensed. At all. Ah well, I’m happy. I’ll get to buy it now \o/

…now someone work on getting Air and Kanon :)

In other news, the first Haruhi DVD has a release date of May 29th. SO FAR AWAY. Infos are at the usual place.

Edit: NICE JPEG ARTIFACTS FUNI. Jesus.