Anime?

Recently a friend asked me: “Are you completely leaving the anime fandom behind?”

I was surprised by this question. But at the same time I could clearly see where he came from – for a long time now, he has often tried making conversation with me about anime and the new shows and seasons that have come and passed. But more and more often my answers have been a plain: “Sorry, I’m not watching any of the new shows these days.”

I think the last new show I watched (while it was still new, that is) is Code Geass R2. And I even waited a while with that, because I wanted to be able to marathon the last episodes. Since then I have watched a little here and there, but mostly things that I have lying around on DVD (Yay for Emma and Ouran!). To some people it doesn’t seem like I’m involved with anime at all any more.

But! No, I’m not out of the anime fandom! Really! I’m there just as much as I’ve always been.

I feel like I see a lot of people around me writing about this – how the excitement has left them, that they don’t feel like watching new episodes any more, and that they’re ultimately leaving the fandom behind. But although I can relate to much of what they write, this is not the case for me.

I have been terribly busy with work lately, and besides that my hobbies tend to go through many different phases. For example, one of the things that got me into anime in the first place is videogames. I used to play a lot of videogames. But after a couple of years I shifted over to watching a lot of anime instead. Not enough time for everything after all. After that, it was manga. A couple of years more have passed, and guess what – now I’m into videogames again.

In general I’m still in the same fandom – many of the games I’m playing are somehow related to the anime/mange world, I’m just involving myself with another side of the matter. It’s been ages since I last really had fun with games, so it’s nice to try and catch up again. Besides, I also have the whole “Visual Novel” genre added in this time. Unfortunately my increasing lack of time also means that I’m not actually clearing a lot of games <_<. I takes me forever to finish one, so I’m jumping between a lot of titles… sigh.

The bottom line is that I am very much into this whole fandom still. And although I don’t feel like it right now, I know that I, at some point, am going to increase my anime watching again on account of something else.

And I’m sure that those reading this blog already knew this, since I don’t talk about much else here. But I doubt the beforementioned friend knows this place even exists

Moar plz.

This anime is just friggin awesome. I guess it wasn’t such a bad idea with a second season after all.

I’ll be very sad when Code Geass R2 ends…. and yeah, the ending itself will probably be sad too.

Sailing on a turtle

While others are plowing through new shows like Clannad and Gundam 00, I have recently been watching some of of the old show “Urusei Yatsura” – a show that predates myself!

I was given “Beautiful Dreamer” the other day as a gift, the second Urusei Yatsura movie, and since I had read that it was a bad idea to watch it without any prior knowledge of the characters I first sat down and watched the first season of the TV anime. The show really is old, and to begin with I wasn’t really thrilled. It looked too much like Ranma½, the jokes seemed lame, and I was never very fond of the style used in anime back then. But I admit that the show grew on me with every episode. Especially after Mendou was introduced even I thought it was really funny at times – it just wouldn’t be the same without him. (As you might have guessed, he’s my favourite character so far )

And then I finally saw Beautiful Dreamer today. It’s a really weird movie. And I love that kind of weirdness. Things happen all the time, and it keeps surprising you as it sometimes feels as if it all ends and begins all over again. It is one of those things that remind you why you became interested in anime to begin with, how different they are compared to western animated movies and the way that they are told. At one point things got so strange and out-there that I wondered how on earth they would wrap things up without messing up. But they managed to after all.

The TV show is mostly a comedy, and there were plenty of laughing moments in the movie too. But at the same time there was always a sort of creepy atmosphere beneath it all, or at least I think so. Especially near the end there is a sequence of different scenes that Ataru has to go through – that was the first time ever I felt sorry for the guy

As the theme of the story came apparent, I couldn’t help but think of Kagetsu Tohya (which I still haven’t finished *cough*) – they are actually very much alike in concept actually. Now I probably won’t be able to not think about Beautiful Dreamer when reading through the rest of KT.

With all the things happening in this movie, and all the little details, it can definitly be watched more than once – there are still a couple of things I am confused about, and other things I need to verify at certain points. All in all this movie wasn’t what I expected based on what little I knew about the series, and even what I knew after watching the first season. Maybe I should watch the other movies too – but I doubt they will be this good. Too bad that the danish dvd (the one I saw) isn’t of very impressive quality. Maybe I should find an import version somewhere, I heard one of them has a widescreen version….

I really recommend watching this if you haven’t already – but either watch or read through a good deal of the original material first to get to know the characters, it works better that way.

Now I just need to plow through the rest of the episodes released of the TV anime, and even the OVA. Whoa, there are a lot….

Miwa Rengaya!

Does anyone know where I can find good colour reference pictures of Miwa Rengaya from Excel Saga? I have been working on some fanart for some time, but it’s taking forever to finish… and I want to make sure I’m giving her the right colours.

So far the only ref I have is the back of vol. 13.

I generally find it really hard to find official Excel Saga art from the artist himself – not even on his own site (And I sometimes see people use these pictures… where do they get them!?) I guess this manga isn’t very popular.

It’s my favourite though. Which reminds me that vol. 17 just came out! Must…. buy…..

Whoa!

I was randomly searching through an ebay doujinshi store that someone linked me, and came across the Tsukihime section. And in there, I came across this:

As I looked at that cover and the example pages, I instantly recognised the style, going “OMG!!!!!!” inside my head. I had no idea that “MIX-ISM” was a name that Sekihiko Inui used – and he made a Tsukihime doujinshi??? It’s strange, I guess I have become a bit of a fan since I react this way.

I really want that doujinshi now…. I wonder if it has hentai content <_<;;

Kyonko-ism

A couple of days ago I was shown a new, strange trend on another board – genderbending the Haruhi cast.

I guess it’s one of those jokes that only work when you already know the characters. In some of the comics in that particular thread show how much the story can change, just because the characters’ genders were reversed (This is one of my favs)

I even ended up doodling this lame sketch myself after a few bored minutes:

I feel sorry for “Kyonko”…..

Otaku goods

A post on M12’s blog challenged his readers to post about their otaku merchandise, and I thought that I would take up the challenge for once. So here goes.

Murder Princess – What? It ended??

It has been a while since I wrote anything in this blog, so I thought I would write a bit about a manga I just got my hands on.

It’s Murder Princess vol. 1 and 2.

AO 2 page 12

Page 12 has been added.

On another note, I have just recently begun reading the manga “After school Nightmare”. I’m only halfways into the 2nd volume, but I already like it a lot. The plot seems very original to me, and it has some of the same occult vibes that I also get from xxxHolic.Every thursday, students at the school must enter a special ‘class’ where they enter a nightmare – and in the dream they take on the true form of their hearts. Not only does the students have to go through a lot of things in these dreams, but they also have to face the other students the next day, knowing that they may have been there and seen their darkest secrets.

I must say I really hate Sou though. I can imagine a lot of certain fangirls loving him being there, but the story has to come up with something really good for me to accept him anytime soon