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

Original Post

I was going to wait until after I went to bed to post this, but given I’m so hyped up on stuff, I figure I’ll put the comic up now. There’s really not much to say here, as I think its best for you draw your own meanings from it. The artwork is mostly good. Tina came out nicely, and I’m happy with how creepy I rendered Anno. Rets’ lineart is a bit wonky, but it gets covered but shadows so it all works out. I’m using a set of pens to clean up the sketches now, rather than a mechanical pencil. A friend of mine got me a set of Copic pens as a late Christmas present, and I was delighted to see that they had a 0.03 mm size pen. A long time ago I used to use Sakura Mircons, and whenever I used the 0.05mm it broke on me. I’ve been using 0.3mm Copic for a bit and it has yet to die on me. At this rate I may go back to using actual ink! Actually, does the lineart look slightly thinner?

I’ve been messing with the site design lately. If it looks funny just force reload and it should be ok. I’m not sure how I feel about the black. I may tone it down a darker grey, but anything is better than unresolved white.

Recently got that Max Factory Pachira from HLJ, and let me tell you, it’s quite a lovely figure. I can’t say I’m enamored enough with MagiPokaa enough to buy figures from it (though, I do like the character designs. I may pick up that Uma if I see it at a con again), but this figure’s gimmick was too awesome pass up. Those in the know should have a good idea as to what I’m on about :3. The only real problem is that during the cast-off process some red paint rubbed off on her chest. It’s nothing major, but it’d like to clean it up. Anyone got any tips?

The current crop of stuff airing hasn’t been all that impressive lately. I just finished Moyashimon, which was a weird show. Not weird in the way that I wanted it to be, though. The promo material suggested the show would be all about the microbes, but they really take a back seat to bizarre plot twists and character interaction. The show has fun sitcom-ish qualities to it, along with some strange drama-ish aspects, but never did it really act on what I expected out of it. I doubt I’ll watch it again, since a good half of it is extremely boring, but I guess it was fine in the end. I’m also not too taken with Clannad. The stories are fine, but they lack a lot of the overdone drama that made both Air and Kanon engaging to me. The characters, while well-written, don’t really leave much of an impact on me either. Maybe I just like poorly written stories better? I dunno. Kaiji is pretty DBZ at the moment, but it seems like they moved out of that with episode 15.

As for the new offerings from the winter season, I am again mostly not too taken. Gunslinger Girl 2 is an absolute depressing wreck. I may give it the three episode test, but it’s just too sad to watch. Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is of course genius, so I’ll just leave it at that. So far the best thing I can think off that’s not a sequel this season is Spicy Wolf. Episode 1 was boring, but by episode 2 I am beginning to see truth in Cunningham’s words on the original novel. Horo and Lawrence’s banter is entertaining, though I’m not sure if that alone will keep me for 13 episodes. It really seems like it’s a good time to catch up on old things, so I guess I’ll watch something like Devil Hunter Yoko tomorrow, or these Crusher Joe things that came down the pipes this morning.

I guess I’ll try to get some sleep now. Later.

I figure since this is an anime blog I should do things like review anime and not go on for hours on how various aspects of fandom bother me. So, here we are, a review of the Renkin 3-Kyuu Magical? Pokaan DVD specials. These are little OVAs that were extras with the DVD release, if they weren’t I guess they wouldn’t be called DVD specials.

MagiPokaa is a show about four princesses (actually five, one is invisible) who have come from the World of Magic to the human world in order to adapt to human life for one reason or another. The show is mostly episodic, with each plot being cute, charming and all that other shit. You can read more on Wikipedia, if you want.

Anyway, these specials each clock in about half episode length– around 12 minutes and are really just no more that extra fun and wacky adventures. The first episode is based around the story of Momotarou, using the girls as the main characters; the second one is a series of “what if” situations showing what the girls would do as doctors; and the third one is about Valentine’s Day and misunderstandings. I won’t say any of these are really laugh out loud funny, but they’re cute, entertaining diversions, which are perfect after a long day of Harsh Adult Life. Laughs come when they need to, and are evenly spread throughout each episode.

Animation quality is below average, with a lot of cheap tricks being applied, but it’s fine since the character are always rendered nicely and the simplistic animation style works fairly well considering these are just DVD extras. It’s a lot better than the same studio’s abortion of a Doujin Work anime, but I suppose that isn’t saying much.

If you liked the original MagiPokaa series, you’ll like this as it’s really just more of the same. MagiPokaa always struck me as pointless otaku garbage done right and is one of the most inoffensive shows I’ve ever seen in my entire life. It’s never bad, but always entertaining with a few really good moments here and there. If you like a good time, you’ll get a kick out of it. However if you’re the kind of individual who only enjoys pretentious, mainstream BS like Gundam 00 then look elsewhere because this isn’t for twats like you.

I AM DOWNLOADING RENKIN 3-KYUU MAGICAL? POKAAN. ARE YOU HAPPY ABOUT THIS? ARE YOU? All the borderline loli porn you posted pushed me over the edge, and I just had to see this goddamn thing.

By the way… Lastarial is a smashing fellow. He runs a blog about railways, music and occasinally writes about animu. Check it out, will ya!