board77

I saw this mentioned in the news and thought I had to share here...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... harts.html

Sorry about the Fail link, it was the first I found.



I read the whole series of Hot Gimmick when Alex was a newborn - it was the only stuff my sleep-deprived brain could handle. Talk about soap opera! I wanted to slap Hatsumi silly, and her little sister... the male characters just made me laugh (I've forgotten their names), the saintly older brother was just to goody-two-shoes and had the ending he deserved; the male model was a brilliant villain, and as for the geeky boyfriend... heh. I had a crush on him, but I like guys with glasses. ;-)

About manga and anime in academia, from the other side of the coin: I like to give my students some perspective, some context to some of the things I talk about in class, and sometimes I mention manga or anime (among other things). The other day I shocked a visiting Japanese student because I knew about ganguro in Shibuya.

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"The most terrifying day of your life is the day the first one is born [...] Your life, as you know it... is gone. Never to return. But they learn how to walk, and they learn how to talk... and you want to be with them. And they turn out to be the most delightful people you will ever meet in your life."

Both the article and the ganguro thing are awesome, Ber. Would have loved to see the look on the student's face - I hardly ever get to show off my cultural knowledge. Woe is me.

My collection of VHS tapes is growing in earnest. The staff at Barnardos, where I work, identified one tape as anime and kept it back for me. It was Yu-Gi-Oh! episodes one through three. I lol'ed. Nostalgia yes, collection prospect no. I trawled the other boxes of 10p tapes just in case, thinking that if they'd spotted that, there was no way they'd let some amazing gem slip through.

Like Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise.

SCORE.

*~Pips~*

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Avatar is a male me, drawn by a very close friend. Just don't ask why.

Not to Osgiliate, but still traumatised about this.

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Avatar is a male me, drawn by a very close friend. Just don't ask why.

The villains are always dark skinned! Even Star Trek plays that card.

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How strange it is to be anything at all

Max: "What is he, some kind of black Hitler?"

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Avatar is a male me, drawn by a very close friend. Just don't ask why.

That amuses me much more than it should. I needed that laugh.

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How strange it is to be anything at all

It's just... depressing. I've realised that I don't get any less upset about it as time goes by. I'm not going to be able to watch the film, I think - no matter how much I want to.

Animesoc continues in earnest. Akikan is so middle-of-the-road that it depresses me. I'm the only one who hates it, but I'm also the only one who's watched much Urusei Yatsura. There is no such thing in this world as coincidence...

Pale Coccoon was one of the most beautiful things I've seen in forever, though. Wow. Seriously, wow. It was like Hoshi no Koe, but actually deep, and with wicked-cool character designs.

It is very, very funny watching Yami no Matsuei with a large group of otaku men.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT"
"That's GUSHOUSHIN, he's a POLICE OFFICER, I don't know WHAT you find so strange about him."

*~Pips~*

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Avatar is a male me, drawn by a very close friend. Just don't ask why.

Of course he's a police officer!



I need to finish watching the subbed version of YNM. I had trouble finding it, so i watched the dubs and... Eww. The subs are much better.

I just forgot how to spell trouble. I need to go to bed.

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How strange it is to be anything at all

Also, episode seven HAS to be seen in Japanese. Trust me.

But did you know that dub!Tsuzuki is played by DAAAAN GREEEEN?

*~Pips~*

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Avatar is a male me, drawn by a very close friend. Just don't ask why.

I did.

But I didn't realize it for a few episodes, and then I was like " okay". The dubs have such interesting casting choices.

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How strange it is to be anything at all

I didn't realise... I don't really think I watched any of the dub, even though I saw it on (pirate, since no R2 release) DVD. Reason being, a friend sold me on YnM by describing Tsuzuki in great detail. Without mentioning that he's played by MIKI SHIN'ICHIRO.

Just sent a short thing into 'Hey Answerfans!' on the Anime News Network. The question was about moe. I kind of wonder whether I'm the only one here who feels this way? Thought I'd repost.

Dear Brian,
I very much doubt that I'm a part of the traditional demographic for moe shows. For a start, I'm female; for another, I'm an ardent feminist. However, I find that, of the moe shows I've seen, a good proportion are engaging to me on a number of levels. Briefly, they are likely to contain:

- High production values
- A very strong sense of time and place
- Excellent plotting
- Female characters as diverse and complex

Now, I know that the latter in particular is not necessarily a common image of moe anime, but I think that's something which could do with re-examining. For instance, Air features a single male character surrounded by a cast of women who relate to him in different ways. Are the women boring? Well, your mileage may vary. Certainly, the main female character, Kamio Misuzu, is a sweet, shy girl who needs protecting on a number of levels. Perhaps that, for entirely valid reasons, has become a staple image of moe. But the rest of the cast include a spunky, extroverted pre-pubescent, a thoughtful astronomer, a capable local doctor, a hard-drinking single mother, and a spoilt little princess. Whatever the original marketing behind the genre may be, moe allows the society of women to be shown intimately without presenting this as strange, or abnormal. It's no yuri-fest, and it's not (intentionally) political. But it means a lot to me to see diverse characters weathering hard times together, in different roles, and just to be told 'this is okay.'

*~Pips~*

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Avatar is a male me, drawn by a very close friend. Just don't ask why.

What are some examples of a moe anime?

I imagine it's not the kind of stuff I'm drawn to but I hear the term often and always feel a little lost by the designation.

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How strange it is to be anything at all

Well, the ones I've watched are Air, Utawarerumono, Kokoro Toshokan, Ichigo Marshmallow, and Sora no Woto. I've also seen bits of Kanon, A Tiny Snow Fairy Sugar, and Kodomo no Jikan (don't judge me), and I'd say they all qualify too. Some others, I think, would be K-On, Shuffle and Clannad. Really cute girls doing cute things. It's prerequisite that you kind of want to be their older brother (or screw them violently).

Misuzu, the main character of Air.


Of course, moe can go too far.


*~Pips~*

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Avatar is a male me, drawn by a very close friend. Just don't ask why.

Ah, okay. I liked Shuffle (probably just because Sephiroth/Isshin/Tousen's VA was one of the fathers) and the few episodes I've seen of K-On were adorable, but generally the story is what draws me into something. It seems as though moe anime with a story that could engage me would be kind of rare.

I'll see if I can find Air anywhere though, the character descriptions intrigue me.

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How strange it is to be anything at all

It's often slice-of-lifey, from what I've come across so far. But my rule of thumb so far is that if it's based on an H-game, it'll have a killer story. Air is fantastic, and the reason I keep trying. Utawarerumono was pretty damn cool (story about a fantasy war, and any more is spoilers). Sora no Woto I'm only a few episodes into, but I love the constant implications about the future of our world which it gives. It's very interesting.

Ichigo Marshmallow is the funniest anime I've ever seen. It's got no story to speak of, though.

*~Pips~*

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Avatar is a male me, drawn by a very close friend. Just don't ask why.

What's Ichigo Marshmallow about?

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How strange it is to be anything at all

Nothing at all.

Okay, it's like Lucky Star if it was doing it right. It's about a bunch of girls - Chika, who's twelve, her next door neighbour, Miu, who's also twelve, a kouhai friend of theirs, Matsuri, who's eleven, and Matsuri's friend, the not-very-good gaijin girl, Ana, who's eleven too. It's kind of brought together by Chika's older sister, Nobue, who's sixteen, and clearly finds them all unbearably cute.

"Hmmm... well, maybe I'd pretend not to see you if you... miaowed like a cat."
"Li-like this? Nyaa~?"
"Oh... that's pretty good. But... can you... sort of... raise your arms, and pretend they're paws?"
"Um... eto... Nyaaaaa~"
"Oh. Wow. You can go."

*~Pips~*

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Avatar is a male me, drawn by a very close friend. Just don't ask why.

I'll have to give this a try.

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How strange it is to be anything at all

Awesome.

Random question. I'm having trouble getting feedback on this wallpaper (not actual size) before I attempt to upload it to animepapers. What would you change?

*~Pips~*

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Avatar is a male me, drawn by a very close friend. Just don't ask why.

Hmm...The left side feels kind of empty. I'm not sure what I would do, but compared to the right side it is empty and it makes the wallpaper feel unbalanced. To me, at least.

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How strange it is to be anything at all