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

Original Post

For the 100th comic I decided to go full circle and refer back to the beginning of the comic to kind of pat myself on the back for getting this far. As far as art goes, I really like how this one turned out. Aside from a few mistakes, it came out just as planned, and looks good for a 100th comic. It even almost has 5-tone shading! And a pantyshot! I’ll be doing a comic on Nico Video soon, which should happen in the space of a couple of days. I want to get it out while the news is still kind of fresh.

In some other comic-relevant news, I finally updated the reference guide after some twenty weeks, and I’m also mentioned in the latest Anime World Order as Daryl’s Sith opposite. So, yay, I guess.

Honestly, I haven’t had time to really catch up with the new season due to work and other things, so right now I’m sitting on a bunch of new episodes of things and some last episodes of things. Once I see more new things I’ll do my short three-at-a-time season review posts like I did for spring. Watch for it! Or something.

I finally finished all of the Nurse Witch Komugi anime with Magikarte Z the other day. Magikarte Z was kind of weak– the first episode had bad animation the humour wasn’t really as spot on. The whole affair felt tacked on and rushed. That said, it wasn’t bad, just not as good as the first one. I guess the good thing is that it’s only 2 episodes, so it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Also, it has good opening and ending songs.

I’m liking Gurren Lagann Parallel Works. It’s good how the series is at a point in its popularity where it’s big enough for Gainax to make more things based off of it, but it’s not too popular that all Gainax has to do is push out a figure or two every couple of months (sup Eva) to keep the masses interested. The Parallel Works videos are very fun diversions, and I love how each of them have their own unique brand of creativity. The newest one is my favourite– need DVD quality!

Anyways, time to take off and watch anime and stuff.

Original Post

I’m surprised my last comic was so well received, considering I thought it read something like an advertisement. I guess people can relate. The art in that comic was ok– I like how some things turned out, but overall it was slightly below-average. I hope everyone enjoyed the fanservice (that I totally ripped from ZSZS) though. The current comic up looks slightly worse, but that said I redrew it something like three times. My job/job training really threw me and it’s affected my drawing for some reason. I’ll shape up by comic 100. You’ll notice that Tina is wearing something she wore previously and that Rets is wearing a new shirt. Someone brought up in the comments for the last one that Tina changes clothes in each comic and Rets has been wearing the same shirts for forever. I was planning on having Tina reuse outfits at some point, but designing new ones each week just became too much fun…

The site was mentioned in various places on the web again, and these plugs were noteworthy enough to post about. The first one is in the Friendster journal of some mentally challenged little girl. I think it’s hilarious when people take my joke posts seriously, and even more hilarious when they think I look like a stereotypical nerd. I love it. The next one is a plug in a Japanese blog which seems to have found me via that Ascii Weekly article. The best part is how he warns middle school kids and lower not to go on my site since it’s foreign. lawls.

In further site news, I got a Twitter on a whim. As you can see, I’ve integrated it into the site sidebar, but I’d like an RSS widget thing that doesn’t advertise itself. Anyone know any good ones? Also, I’d like to know how to make this appear on the blog.

Finished Cromartie High School yesterday, and it was ok. I’ve only read four volumes of the manga (and need more) but I really like how the original handles itself better. The anime tended towards surrealism, whereas the manga was straight up realism with very absurd things happening, which I find funnier. This isn’t to say that the anime’s bad, because it’s generally entertaining, but it really doesn’t hold a candle to the manga. Also, what’s up with ADV’s subs? Do punks really use the word “fudging”? I mean, if you’re going to use an expletive in your translation, don’t half-ass it. This is especially irritating when I know that ADV drops the F-Bomb in their English dubs all the time.

I also finished Nurse Witch Komugi the other day. Some may remember when I started it, but now I’ve finally secured the last volume and have finished it. I would say I should have seen this years ago, but if I watched this years ago I’d totally miss the Tiger Mask reference in episode three or four. This show is crawling with classic anime references, and I love it. It also really helps that Komugi is adorable, and the show’s generally fun and cheery atmosphere makes it a joy to watch. I’ll be moving on to Magikarte Z soon.

That’s it for this week. Hopefully a comic 100 will happen next week, but if it doesn’t then expect it the week after next. I really want it to look good!

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.