Spicy Marmalade

Yes, It's Been Awhile and I Really Do Have Actual Posts to Write, but........

2009-10-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

If my good friends at Dane101 are going to be so good as to continue to interview me for articles on their site, I think I owe it to them to link you to it.

Soooooo....read about me talking about awesome geek things I'm doing this weekend in the greatest city in the upper midwest!

And, if you find yourself around......stop on by, eh?

I Can Has 感じ

2009-05-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the incredible wisdom of a man known to much of the world as Peso (who, btw, is responsible for one of the single greatest businesses I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with).......I've learned how to make Vista type in Kanji. AND....I've learned how to make Firefox tell me what said Kanji means.

Which, in turn, means..................that I'm going to be a lot more involved in the Japanese scene than I ever thought possible...................

And I can actually look up song lyrics when I don't understand what's being said.

And...........well, really, the possibilities are infinite, my internet friends.

This may progress from more of a hobby into a well-honed information gathering machine.

If I had something to say that required the use of Japanese, Kanji, or really....anything.....rest assured that I would do it.

Next time, Gadget. Next time.

AQUARIOOOOOOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-04-18T08:36:00.000-07:00

So, thanks to FUNimation (no, seriously.....THANKS to FUNimation......), I've developed a bit of a weird addiction to the show Aquarion (AKA Genesis of Aquarion, but does it matter???). I'd watched I think the first two episodes "back in the day" (2005), but that was well before my GUNDAM days, so I just don't think I had quite the appreciation for ridiculous mecha shows at the time. It's not that I didn't like them, because I enjoyed RahXephon quite a bit, and Aquarion definitely draws more on elements of RahXephon and Evangelion than GUNDAM or Macross, but I guess I just wasn't in the mood to keep watching Aquarion at the time. And then I forgot about it..........

Last year when FUNimation sent us screeners for Geek.Kon, they sent us the ENTIRE box set of Aquarion. Which, in retrospect, is actually pretty neat......... But Mayama was all "ick" and I didn't remember enough about the show to question why he hated it, so I left it at that.

Fast forward to now.......FUNimation is showing Aquarion on their BADA$$ FUNimation free home video channel!!! So, I thought, I'm gonna watch this. Mostly since I feel like the website needs some diversity in the reviews, since I write them all and I tend to not WATCH shows that I know are going to suck.......who has the time for that? I had some time to kill before work on Friday morning and a new lappy just sitting here being ostentatiously red and looking at me, so I decided to see what I could see on the FUNimation channel. And alphabetically, Aquarion was first. So I watched the first episode. And I actually kinda liked it. I like the subtle yet not Biblical references it drops (like Eva) and I like the similarities to RahXephon, and I like that Yoko Kanno once again did an amazing job with the musical score. At the very least it intrigued me. It's certainly not without its flaws (over CG the mecha fight scenes much?!?!), but it's interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I've watched through episode 4 as of now (in like a day, really.....but spread out a bit). This is neat, because it's been awhile since I've been able to sit down at my computer and watch anime irrespective of things (especially since I'm not doing the fansub thing.....), but it's problematic in that it's really really nice outside and I should be outside. FUNi.........why couldn't you have released this in the dead of winter for those of us in the northern climes???

Well.......perhaps now I will go back to cleaning my house. Or watch more Aquarion..............

It's like this:
"Right. I've fallen into the one percent chance of being involved in an actual conspiracy." --Tatsuhiro Satou (Welcome to the NHK ep. 1)

By which, I mean:
"By airing funny anime, they are mass-producing anime otaku, and thus, are partly responsible for the emergence of such a significant number of NEETs." --Tatsuhiro Satou (Welcome to the NHK ep. 1)

But really, as soon as Mayama is done writing his paper, we're freaking going outside!!!!!!!!!!!

FUNimation Rocks my world

2009-04-07T14:47:00.000-07:00

Minna!!!!!

Exciting news for fans of Fullmetal Alchemist!

Many of you may have heard that studio BONES has decided to re-make the FMA anime to follow the plotline of the manga more accurately. They will start the story from the beginning and stick to the (many would say) more exciting plot of the manga. The first episode aired in Japan on April 5.

FUNimation.....the holders of the rights to FMA in the US will also be licensing and distributing the new Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. BUT....more than that, they will stream it on their website starting at 12:00pm on APRIL 9.....just 4 days after the episode aired on TV in Japan.....and you can watch it there!!! This is revolutionary stuff, and I, for one, am very excited. If you're a fan of the FMA anime and haven't read the manga, I assure you that this new series will blow you away. If you have read the manga.....you already know we're in for a treat. You can find an article about this at Anime News Network by going to: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-04-03/funimation-to-stream-2009-fullmetal-alchemist-on-april-9

In further FUNimation rocks our world news............FUNimation has also partnered up with Veoh to bring us a lot of other titles for completely free.......see ANN: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/press-release/2009-04-06/veoh-networks-inks-distribution-deal-with-funimation-entertainment. AND....they've partnered up with VIZ media to show some much awaited titles (NANA and Honey and Clover, anyone?!?!) to their FUNimation channel lineup in late spring. Those of you who get that channel.........I am very jealous of you. Very very jealous. More info at ANN: http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-04-06/funimation-channel-adds-viz-anime-starting-late-spring

I continue to love FUNimation, because they continue to love us and the industry.

Shoujo to Start the Morning

2009-02-11T07:37:00.000-08:00

I read chapter 2 of Sand Chronicles (following chapters 1 & 2 of Honey and Clover) on the train this morning (LOL I'm SO behind in Shoujo Beat....).

It made me sad.

But happy sad. The kind of sad that Honey & Clover made me feel the first time I watched it. Not quite KGNE sad....nothing's lived up to THAT one yet.

That's all. It's a grey, overcast, rainy day....and I read sad manga. Way to rock.

Baccano!

2009-02-08T20:58:00.001-08:00

My Netflix wasn't coming through for me, so I used the magic of FUNimation's internet episode streaming to watch the first episode of Baccano! tonight. I really like it. The show has promise.

I'd heard people talk about this show from time to time, and it sounded like it had a lot of things that intrigue me. It's set in New York in the 1930's. It follows about 20 years (maybe more?) of gang wars in New York....as seen from the look back of two newspaper reporters. There are also 20 characters. Not kidding. The director uses the first part of the first episode to seemingly justify this......he has the reporters talking about the story and where it should start and who the main character should be and how hard it is to successfully follow so many characters. It was a bit weird, I admit....the way it was set up. But once we got past that and into the story, it was pretty great again. Right......I forgot to mention that most (if not all) of the 20 characters are immortals. Yes.....immortals, involved in gang wars in 1930's New York.

See....I heard the premise for this series and I thought.......it's hard for that to go wrong.

So far it doesn't. I mean, yes, it's hard to follow because there are so many characters. After one episode I have no hope of knowing who is who (excepting a few key characters). They also all have weird names. And of course, there are many story arcs going on at once. This show has a LOT going on. But it's done well. The art and setting and music are exactly what they should be to put you in the time that the story is taking place.....lots of jazz music, lots of muted browns and dark backgrounds and shadow. It's all well executed. Even the opening sequence is a perfect jazz/swing number while the still images of the characters flash by with their names next to them (everyone has weird names......Jaccuzzi is my favorite, I think). The end theme is.......well, it's an end theme. It's a nice slow J-pop ballad composed by Yuki Kajiura. It didn't do anything for me. I would rather have gotten more jazz or swing.

I'm not going to talk about the story or really get in depth at all, because I wouldn't do it justice at this point. Hopefully I'll be able to procure the first disc from Netflix very soon (though I think that if I like the first disc then I will likely buy this series the next time the FUNimation sale comes around).....once I watch enough to get a feel for the show, I'll bring you a more in-depth review. This is DEFINITELY a first impression only.

But! My first impression is that this show is something special compared to a lot of what we've been seeing lately. I'm worried about following what's going on......but it's been ok so far, and it seems like the director knows what he's doing, even though he hadn't really directed much else but Koi Kaze (not getting into that).

Stay tuned for more when Netflix brings it to me!

Also......use the FUNimation webstream! It gives you a nice look at the shows....and you can download to own for less money than you would pay for DVDs!

Night Head Genesis

2009-02-07T22:07:00.000-08:00

Is good. I think.

I'm still not entirely sure what it's deal is. But that's why I think it's good. It's not just handing me a cookie-cutter plot and/or making things very obvious for me. I like that. It's making me think a bit. I've only seen 3 episodes (Mayama was *tired* and wanted to go to bed....bah!), so obviously I don't know the whole deal with this show yet. But it's a thinking show. It's not quite a thinking show like, say, Noein is a thinking show (the theoretical physics.......), but it's a thinking show like Tokyo Majin is a thinking show. Though I've also only seen one disc of that, so I shouldn't really be making strong comparisons just yet.

I'll have a formal "first impressions" review on the website as soon as I finish disc one and have a formal first impression.....but I think I'm intrigued. It's definitely dark and twisted.....exploring the world of psychokinesis and psychic readings and all sorts of other stuff that humans can latently store up in the areas of their brains that aren't being used.

It's a bit slow moving though....so it's not for the instant gratification action anime fan. But it is for those who want to think about their show. Of which I am one.

Here are some that were NOT written by me:
Anime Planet Review
Star-Crossed Anime Blog
BasuGatsuBakuhatsu

Enjoy for now!!! This seems like it has the potential to be one of the better shows I've watched since ani-Thursdays with DragonSlippers!!!

Paradigm City's Top Negotiator.....

2009-01-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

It's my birfday, bitches!!!

For my birthday this year, I was going to honor the SECOND most important thing happening today by posting a photoshopped fan-art picture I've been meaning to make since November. But I'm not as good with Photoshop as I thought I was, so it's not done yet.

There are those that deem it offensive, insulting, and possibly in poor taste, as well. I deem it FULL OF WIN!!!! If you ask me......it would be an HONOR to be compared with the man in the photo.

BUT...it's not done yet, so I'll have to tell you about it for now. Ready???????

Take THIS photo:

And replace the persons depicted with our new President, VP, and Secretary of State.

And then we all sing.........ready, go!

"Big O, Big O!"

Paradigm City's top negotiator...........................

To quote: "Roger Smith (played by our newest President) is the series protagonist. As a Negotiator, his job entails finding a resolution for the troubles of the City of Amnesia. He'd negotiate almost anything for anyone, but he is a professional and expects the parties involved to behave professionally. When memories betray the people and force them to reawaken monstrosities of the city's past, Roger's only option is to fight back with a monstrosity of his own, the black megadeus Big O.

"Norman Burg (played by our newest Vice President) is Roger's butler. Forty years before the commencement of the story, Norman, like the rest of Paradigm, lost all memories from before that day, but he would not think twice before going once more unto the breach for his master. Resourceful and talented, he is also caretaker of the Big O. Norman's skills give him a purpose and a mission to accomplish for Roger.

"R. Dorothy Wayneright (played by our newest Secretary of State) is Roger's assistant. Introduced in Act:01 as Dorothy Soldano, daughter of rich industrialist Miguel Soldano, she is later revealed to be an android constructed by him. Her actual "father" would be Timothy Wayneright, the man who commissioned her construction and father of the real Dorothy Wayneright. To show her gratitude, and as a form of payment for Roger's help, she decides to move in with him and help out Norman with the chores."

Is it any coincidence that the show finished it's run on January 19, 2000??? Yes....but I'm pretending it isn't.

It's my birthday!!! I'm allowed to make ridiculous inferences!!!!

EVERYONE WATCH BIG O!!!!!!!! Roger Smith is an m-fing BADASS!

I've Finally Crossed Over

2009-01-12T13:16:00.000-08:00

The inevitable day that I swore would never happen has happened......I actually found a video game that I just don't want to ever stop playing.

Seriously. I played the same game for 12 hours yesterday. Stopping to eat dinner not because I was hungry, but because Mayama thought I should eat something. Same thing with sleeping. I had to MAKE myself do it. I had ALL SORTS of things to get done this weekend. And I did none of them. I just sat there. And played my game.

I even WANTED to watch the football game that was on. And the NCAA ACC Sunday night game. I did neither, even though they were on. I just sat there. And played.

What game is this??? Harvest Moon DS Cute.

I'm not sure if it's just THAT particular Harvest Moon game, or the idea of a farming/dating simulation game..........but I don't ever want to stop. EVER.

Maybe it's a good thing dating sims DON'T end up in the US. Maybe this is how Japan has so many hikkikomori NEET otaku kids.

A quote: "Right. I've fallen into the one percent chance of being involved in an actual conspiracy." --Tatsuhiro Satou (Welcome to the NHK ep. 1)

It's true.

I've failed at my mission.

Mai HiME!!!! That's how you spell it!

2009-01-10T13:19:00.001-08:00

I got this. Quizilla no longer seems to give me code to post....lame.

Your Result

Midori Sugiura
-- You are Midori Sugiura, funky and talkative, but also clever person. People tend to like you, and even if you have a completely opposite attitude, you never really want to hurt anyone.
Midori loves beer and never refuses from a good party.
As Midori you also have the duty of a HiME... --

In an attempt to play catch-up

2008-11-26T12:27:00.000-08:00

So, I have this list on the right-hand side of my blog that contains anime series I've been meaning to watch. I assure you all, that I am slowly making my way through it. SLOWLY.

That said, I've been doing what I can to watch Ai Yori Aoshi lately. I've reached disc 4 of 5 (meaning I watched the first 15 episodes) and it's still ok. It's not awesome. Just ok. I purchased it from Half-Price Books....so I didn't spend a lot of money on it. Which is good, because it's not worth a lot of money to me. It may have been better to just get it from Netflix and leave it at that. But I suppose it's ok this way, since then the convention circuits can watch it if they want to. It's a harem anime....which I always feel mildly disgusted at myself for liking. But this one at least is different. It's cute. I LIKE the main character...and he's not a skeevy perv. He remains dedicated and devoted to his girl of choice for the duration of the series. In fact, from the very beginning I knew he was different than other harem heroes.....BECAUSE HE WASN'T A HELPLESS DWEEBY LOSER!!! He was just a regular college kid doing regular college kid things trying not to get involved with his rich family who he upped and left, when he stopped to help this girl in the train station who seemed lost. And then he ended up with a childhood friend fiancee. And he actually liked her. And he was nice to her. And respectful. And he continues to be nice and respectful and loving to her.....even though all sorts of girls try to get him in all sorts of situations. It's great...because no matter what he does, Aoi (his fiancee) trusts that he's doing what he says he is and that he has no bad intentions.....AND IT'S TRUE!!! Thank the anime gods for Kaoru Hanabishi.

Further reviews at series end will be found on my website at Cranberry Jam--Anime Reviews (Ai Yori Aoshi)

It's totally no fun knowing stuff when you can't TELL anyone!!!

2008-11-25T08:35:00.000-08:00

OH EM EFF GEE you guys!!!!!

I read the latest chapter (78) of NANA today (I totally expected her to end this at chapter 77, but it doesn't look like it's ending any time soon). It's like a freaking addiction....I thought to myself before I was leaving this morning, "I wonder if the next chapter is translated yet. I shouldn't check because I'll read it and then it will skew my day. But if I don't check now I won't remember later. I'll check and then leave the page up." And I did. And then I read it. And at one point in those 35 pages I actually gasped, made a squeaky noise, and said, "No f*ing WAY!"...even though no one was home. THAT'S how good it was.

And now I want to talk about it with someone!!!!!!!! It's like when I read Fruits Basket 18 like 2 YEARS before it came out in the US and then I had to keep it all hush hush and I was like.....BUT I KNOW A SECRET!!!!!!!!!

If anyone out there has read NANA ch. 78.....leave me a message and we'll talk. Because OMG I want to talk!

Meme stuff...from LJ

2008-11-03T12:46:00.000-08:00

For those of you who only read one or the other....

* Post a list of up to 25 books/movies/anime/TV shows/video games/whatever that you've had an obsessive fannish love or interest in at some time in your life.
* Have your f-list guess your favorite character from each one.

1. FLCL
2. Dawson's Creek
3. Honey and Clover--Ayumi Yamada (guessed by Jackie)
4. Gravitation
5. Growlanser II
6. Full Metal Panic
7. Fullmetal Alchemist--Winry Rockbell (guessed by Jackie)
8. Saiyuki
9. The Dark is Rising Series
10. Neon Genesis Evangelion--Misato Katsuragi (guessed by Jackie)
11. NANA
12. Descendants of Darkness
13. X/1999
14. Cowboy Bebop
15. Hana Kimi
16. The Prince of Tennis
17. Boys Over Flowers
18. Gundam SEED
19. Donnie Darko
20. Almost Famous
21. Lord of the Rings
22. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
23. Great Expectations
24. Sensual Phrase
25. Ghost Hunt

I wanted to write a review for the website, but it's late and html takes too much time

2008-09-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

So I watched the first disc of .hack//SIGN tonight. While eating fajitas that I made with all the excess onions and peppers I got from my CSA quarter share, but that's not important. The premise of .hack (the whole MMORPG world and being mind-trapped in the game) seemed weird and not interesting to a person like me (being avidly outspoken about MMORPGs), but the music is done by Yuki Kajiura and is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL...giving this one of the best scores I've heard in a show in a LOOOOOOOONG time. In fact, there's an option on the DVD extras to just watch the episodes with no dialog and just the isolated score. Which would be interesting to do, but possibly only with the aid of mind-altering substances if you were trying to do it for any length of time...... In addition to the score, the character design was done by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto of Evangelion fame, and the screenplay was by Kazunori Ito who wrote Ghost in the Shell. So overall, I felt like this should be at least good to listen to and look at.

And it holds to that. The art, especially the backgrounds, is gorgeous, and there's this amazingly awesome music going on all the time. It's a really neat experience. And the character designs are pretty good, though not as revolutionarily awesome as I had hoped. But the story is weird. Just weird. I was actually laughing at it. It takes itself WAAAAAAY too seriously. I mean, I guess it might be better if I were someone who didn't think MMORPGs were a bane on society in the first place, but even then this show is 100% unbelievable. For one thing, they assume you know a lot about the premise of the series, what's going on, and the actual game it's based off of. I guess I largely assumed that we would start out with a little experience of the characters in the real world living their lives and then logging on to the game....but we don't. We're just in the game with no explanation as to who these people are, what they're doing, or really even what the point of the game is. I still don't think I know that last part. So, after this non-explanation, I'm supposed to believe that somehow our main character is just mind-locked into the game because he's not actually sitting at a computer console so he can't even hard reset to get out. It's fine, I guess, but it's not very believable. And then everyone seems to make a big fuss over it, and they try to capture him. And somehow he's got this crazy guardian thing that kills people who try to oppose him.....it's all a bit weird. And the dialog is horrendous and forced. I guess that's maybe the only appeal I can see to watching this with the isolated score......at least you won't have to listen to these people talk. Many people say that the negative criticism of this sort is because of the slow pacing and charater-driven storyline, but I generally like that sort of thing, and I really just find the dialog horrendous. I mean, I appreciate the fact that the story advances by the characters interacting through conversation, but if you're going to do that, at least make the conversation easy to listen to. It's pretty awful as it is.

Anyway, I'll watch more of it....though it seemed to take FOREVER to get through 5 episodes. I marginally care what happens to this kid and why he's stuck in this game. No harm in finding out....especially if I can listen to more of the awesome score.

Yay for NANA

2008-09-07T16:42:00.001-07:00

Which NANA character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Junko

For some reason all your friends, except your boyfriend, end up being like your own childs. Always taking care of them and yelling at them when they make mistakes, but you also give good advise and are a kind person who truly worries for those you love.
Don't change, everybody needs someone like you in their lives!

Junko

83%

Ren

67%

Nobu

67%

Takumi

58%

Reira

58%

Yasu

42%

Nana

42%

Shin

33%

Hachi

33%

Naoki

33%

Because I've been up since 4 and this seems interesting

2008-09-07T04:26:00.000-07:00

Not that I think any of you will do this, but a friend of mine had it on her blog and it seemed fun.

Pick a fandom, and I'll tell you which character(s) I would
1. bake cupcakes for:
2. trust with the keys to my car (if I had a car):
3. put thumbtacks on their chair:
4. have a crush on:
5. pack up and leave if they moved next door:
6. vote for President:
7. pick as my partner in a buddy movie:
8. pair up:
9. vote off the island and into the volcano:
10. wheedle into fixing my MP3 player:

That said....try to pick things I'm at least reasonably well-acquainted with. But go to town.

Here's another one! This one I will do without prompting from my non-readers.

1. Pick 10 of your favorite anime.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each anime.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Fill in the title once it's guessed.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions to answer!

1. What are you getting so excited about? Mixing it up means enjoying yourself at the beach. Licking refers to yummy soft serve ice cream. Banging means hustling at the mole-hitting game.
2. ~~Somehow, this has turned into a fighting anime.~~ Fruits Basket
3. ~~Native girl must stop!~~ FLCL
4. Lay off, I'm as normal as they come and this is a contest of freaks. What do you want me to do, fire my slingshot at him?
5. ~~Most things get better when I kick them...~~ Cowboy Bebop
6. A whole block, was it? An Island? Blowing people's mistakes out of proportion is so much fun, isn't it?
7. I saw the bulletin board, your underwear's pretty tacky.
8. Even if you're tall, scary is scary.
9. I'll wager the A-lunch on him not making it back.
10. I think it's alright. There's lots of soul in it. And we get to see up your skirt! (That's actually from the manga cause I couldn't find any quotes from the anime)

Ok kids....guess away.

AMV!!!!!

2008-05-23T05:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry I took so long to post this. It's actually been on YouTube for quite some time now. Regardless....here's our most recent AMV. Featuring The Prince of Tennis and yet another song by The Decemberists. We'll try to use a different band next time. Maybe.

Regardless....here it is! And it's silly.

Taking CLAMP quizzes!!!

2008-05-16T08:56:00.001-07:00

Mayama put this in the top 100 best things he's seen ever

2008-04-28T18:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Bob-san for passing this on. It's pretty awesome.

The Next One......featuring Adam Park

2008-04-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

At least I get to go to Wisconsin.

This weekend will be No Brand Convention in Eau Claire, WI. I'm mostly going because their biggest guest is a man near and dear to my heart....Mr. Johnny Yong Bosch (AKA Adam Park, the Black Ranger......oh yeah and a lot of voices for insignificant anime characters like Vash the Stampede and Kurosaki Ichigo). Being the fan of Power Rangers that I was in my youth (high school is still youth!), I knew I HAD to be there for this one. And then, I fortuitously managed to get myself a BECK record square signed by ALL the cast except Johnny Yong Bosch (he plays Saku, the drummer)....so now I will ask him to sign it, and the collection will be complete! And it will go back to looking gloriously down at the living room.

No Brand, from what I hear, is kind of a chilled out kinda con. Which will be good after the chaos of Detour, but a little weird in that I'm a bit worried about finding stuff to do. Which I don't think should be the case at an anime convention. At least not if you're someone like me. But we shall see......

Cosplay will be fun though. I'm going as Tezuka "Hot Guy" Kunimitsu (you know him, you love him):and Mayama will be Inui "Rec Specs" Sadaharu (only the non-uniform version. The version where he's helping coach the team):Our newest AMV will debut at No Brand as well, so we'll be able to upload it and post it here as soon as the con is over. Start getting excited now!!!!!

In other news, I've been working on getting some of the things that are on my list (displayed to the right on the main page), but I haven't had time to watch them because I've been getting ready for the con. Hopefully I'll be able to talk about them soon. It's come to my attention that a lot of the things on this list were Geneon titles.....which are now freaking hard to get for less than 60 dollars a pop. We're working on what we can.....Netflix will have to help with the rest. Thus far I've acquired Martian Successor Nadesico (discs 1 and 2), Daphne in the Brilliant Blue (disc 1), and The Legend of Black Heaven (complete). We also picked up the new Makoto Shinkai release 5 Centimeters per Second. I'm a big fan of Beyond the Clouds and Voices of a Distant Star, so I think this will also be good. I'm looking forward to ALL of those things. And to Code Geass starting on AdultSwim next weekend!!! Yay for taping stuff!!!

With that....I shall go to bed. And think about stuff I've forgotten to pack and need to remember tomorrow, and likely some form of a coming apocalypse.....since that's what I seem to do lately.

AnimeDetour has led me to this.....

2008-04-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

So, I came out of the convention with a renewed love interest in some series that I hadn't really been involved with for a while, but have a deep love for. Namely, X TV (and the associated manga). The thing with X is.....I really hate CLAMP (the manga circle responsible for X). Or at least, I think I hate CLAMP. I will say that their character design for pretty much everything but X and Tsubasa Chronicle (we'll get to that later) looks HIDEOUS to me. And then they're responsible for such things as Chobits, Cardcaptor Sakura, and Magic Knights Rayearth. Which are fine if they're your thing (I guess), but they certainly aren't mine. I dislike pretty much ALL magic girl, I'm not the biggest fan of mecha, and Chobits.................there aren't even WORDS for Chobits. But X......X is completely different. For starters, it doesn't involve any crazy, messed-up "Clamp world" or characters that you have to have seen their other shows to understand...which makes X much more stand-alone for me, and makes me able to watch it. The other thing is that the characters, while Clamp-y (that's a technical term), are rather nice to look at. One in particular..........In fact, one of the best looking boys in all of anime and manga.......Mr. Fuma Monou. He makes me happy. That and X is interesting......I mean, it's REALLY interesting. Dragons of Heaven vs. Dragons of Earth and the battle for the end of the world. Good stuff. And the main character is a total badass (at first, until he turns into an emo bitch about things). X is good stuff. So I spent some time at the con and after the con watching X and reading the X manga, and then I took a trip to Best Buy to see about getting the last volume of the FMA boxsets.....but..............FMA was $40, and I just didn't want to pay that much for it, so I looked around. And......the absolutely GORGEOUS artbox for Tsubasa Reservoir (I never remember which letters are supposed to be in caps, so I'm ignoring them) Chronicle that I had been admiring for about 9 months now was only 13 dollars. So I bought it......to support my friends in the industry. As I said before....I LOVE the art in Tsubasa. I think it's beautiful. And Kinya did the opening themes, and Yuki Kajiura did the music......I've ALWAYS wanted to watch Tsubasa, even though it IS CLAMP. Mayama kept telling me not to watch it because it was Clamp-y and jumped around between the Clamp worlds and brought in all sorts of characters from their other shows (I mean, the main female is really just a grown-up Cardcaptor Sakura) and I would get confused....so I never watched it. Until last night. And (granted after only one episode) I'm SO glad I bought it. The art, the music, everything is AMAZING........it's an extremely visually appealing show to watch, and I think the storyline has promise. I'm very happy with it right now. At the same time, Mayama bought the first disc of xxxHolic (which has nothing to do with porn). The art is EVER so Clamp-y (WHY WHY WHY WHY does the main character have like a 10 inch waist, a 40 inch inseam, and GIGANTIC feet and hands?), which makes it hard for me to watch, and it has these OBNOXIOUS little girl things that make me think about Chobits and want to hurt people. But the dialogue is funny and the story is a bit intriguing, so I'll keep trying to give it a go.

Bottom line here........I now own 3 things by CLAMP. It's a bit scary, but I'm happy to be expanding my world a bit more. Stay tuned for the official date of CLAMPFEST 2008 , where we will view all of these shows--plus whatever anyone else has by CLAMP--over the course of a weekend. I'm actually starting to get excited.

It's a crazy world

2008-04-02T21:39:00.000-07:00

I cross-posted again.....sorry.

A few updates really quickly in the midst of the whirlwind that is the week before a convention. And really.......the week before a convention that starts a long string of me not having weekends to myself, but that's neither here nor there I suppose. This weekend will be the prestigious AnimeDetour in scenic Bloomington, Minnesota......and it will be fun, although long days. And, since I'm on staff, it will require me to sacrifice my Thursday night for the good of the masses, as well, in that immediately following work tomorrow, I will proceed to the Ramada MoA (which is one of my favorite places in the world) for setting up of things. On the bright side, I'll get to meet with our elite guests.........a little perk for having to work my ass off while everyone else has fun. Although, I suppose, that's not necessarily true. I mean, I'm on marketing staff, so really all of my work has been done ever since the programming guide came out. Which means I mostly just get to enjoy myself at this con. And enjoy myself I will. I'm also a panelist yet again.....bringing the masses a bit deeper into the wonderful world of yaoi.....in a much less structured format that will likely include an always entertaining Greg Ayres.

But really, the point here is to introduce you all to the brand new me......the me who looks scarily like Hyde........even more so than before. O-to-san ga suki!!! (for a better finish start with Hyde) At any rate, it's for my costume for Detour, wherein Brian and I will be cosplaying Kei (Hyde)

and Shou (Gackt)

from the Emmy-nominated (in the WTF was Gackt thinking category) vampire film, Moon Child. Taiwanese gangster, future vampires even.

Therefore.............I cut off all my hair. That's right kids......all of it. And now, for the before and after (so you can make a comparison with just how scary much I look like Hyde..........

Pre-cut:

and....post-cut:

There you have it kids.........the craziest thing I've ever done for cosplay. Do I miss my hair??? Yes. Do I like my new hair??? Yes.

Bonus (sorta): It also doubles as short-haired Riza Hawkeye of FMA fame (at least for now), which would be great if I had bought the FMA military uniform from the Cospatio in Akihabara instead of my beloved Ouran Jacket.

The best shirt EVER

2008-03-02T20:50:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the cross posting between this site and my other site (for those of you reading both), but I felt like this should be brought to as wide of an audience as possible.

So Mayama got bored while I was putting away clothes and he started looking at things on the internet. Whilst there, he stumbled upon what I have now deemed to be the best T-shirt in the entire world. You can get it from Jinx.com and it looks like this:

Pretty damn sweet, eh???????

Happy Birthday Syusuke Fuji......

2008-02-29T19:34:00.000-08:00

.......now you are 6.

To commemorate the appropriately weird birthday of the tensai (and hot guy second in command) of Seishun Gakuen Tennis Club...........a photo collage of our very own "Squints".

And afterward.......a photo preview of our upcoming Prince of Tennis AMV.

Happy Birthday tennis prodigy squints!!!!!!!!!

And...........to preview the AMV........

Omedato tanjobi Fuji-san!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not Dir, but it will do

2008-02-14T05:33:00.001-08:00

That's all.

Hearts!