Comic Site Rant: ORE NO TURN

Posted On October 25, 2008

Original Post

Personally, I have no problem with Kannagi’s Nagi. She’s not as good as The Real One, but is still decently cute. I retooled this script a lot until it got to the point where it sounded somewhat natural. One decision I’ve made with this comic recently is that I want the scripts to be a little slice-of-life-ish. Of course this is no excuse not to be funny, but instead of trying to make heavy hitting, Penny Arcade style things, I’m going to try for more subtle and… insightful things. Or just write potential excerpts of conversations that real anime fans would have. I don’t know– maybe that’s not exciting, but I write what I know! Well, kind of. I don’t know girls, so that’s kind of lie when it comes to Tina.

The artwork this time around is most certainly better than last week’s abortion, but it’s not great either. Rets’ face in panel two is a bit too fucked up for even him. My favourite part of this comic is probably the first panel which features a screencap from the Most Awesome Game Ever. On that note, I have newfound respect for gaming comics. Drawing hands holding controllers is the most difficult thing in the world. Oh, and I guess another thing I should mention is that Tina’s outfit is totally lifted from Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu. I feel no shame! No shame!

Lately I’ve been working on another comic project independent of this one. It’s for a friend of mine’s anime club, and I’m roughly half way through. For this I’m actually laying out panels on a page as opposed to arranging illustrations into panels on the computer like I do with this comic. It’s different, but good. The comic is mostly good, and the only real horrible portion is one panel on page 5 which I will “fix in post” as they say in the movies. I don’t really know the details for his anime club, because he hasn’t really given them to me. Once he does I’ll post them up here so, if you’re in the area, you can stop by and buy this comic. If you want, of course. It should be really cheap. Three bucks or something.

One last site related thing I should mention is this Fakku (18+) plug. Thanks Jacob! I got almost 10 times my normal amount of visits when this link first went up. I know not everyone will stick around, but out of 17,000 visits, I’m sure at least some of them will stay! It’s weird though. I believe Fakku linked me once in the past, but that time I didn’t get nearly this amount of traffic. Maybe their userbase significantly expanded or something.

I’ve been watching Windy Tales at MIT over the past month or so. A first I didn’t really like the show, mostly because it felt awkward. Awkward in the sense that the second episode has a character death. Character deaths in general aren’t weird, but this is a show that presents itself as some slice of life sort of thing, and in episode 2 this random old guy dies? Huh? But after that, it finds its way and becomes a nice slice of life show with a flying cats and kids that can control wind. It’s not as good as Kamichu– the characters aren’t nearly as good– but it’s good fun. On that note, I should watch Kamichu again. Eventually.

To Aru Majutsu no Index, which started off well, is already becoming weak. I like it in theory, but the last two episodes have been far too slow paced. The content of the show isn’t problematic, but it’s just too slow. Hopefully it’ll pick up, because I don’t want to drop this. Another show which really sucks, and I have dropped, is Hyakko. This is another case where I think the content has potential, but dear god, the pacing is horrible. It’s directed in the most uninteresting way ever. What’s more, the animation kind of sucks and the production team can’t even be arsed to make a real opening and ending sequence. Lame.

But enough about bad and potentially bad shows– on to good shows! Casshern Sins is great, even if it is just about a guy in a ridiculous costume wandering around in a brilliantly designed post apocalyptic world and occasionally kicking robot ass. My only concern with this one is that I’m afraid it’ll be unable to hold my interest. The first three episodes have been great, but they have, what, 22 left to go? I hope they mix things up in further episodes.

Toradora! has also been impressing me. One thing I keep hearing about this show is, “thank god this isn’t another Zero no Tsukaima.” These comments bother me, since Zero no Tsukaima doesn’t try to be like Toradora! at all. 0nT is about flashing tits, ass and delicious flat chests while also satisfying your tsundere fetish. That’s what it’s about. It’s a candy bar, but it’s Godiva brand. Or a Toblerone. It’s disposable but you eat it again and again because it’s just so well done. Shit, I love Toblerones. Anyway, Toradora!– I will admit it’s something of a refreshing change for Rie Kugimiya, and I really like the dynamic between the characters. There’s also a nice degree of realism present. I’m not saying real highschool students act like this, but the portrayal of these characters is really down to Earth and has something of an exaggerated realism, if that makes sense. Simply put, I find the their situation to be very engaging, funny and believable.

That’ll be it for this week. Aside from watching anime, I have a busy weekend filled with making comics, editing a podcast with a most dangerous guest, and doing Japanese homework! The fun never stops! I haven’t even had breakfast yet! To Starbucks!