Category Archives: anime

anime, goodness, humor

The Original (and superior) Avatar

The Last Airbender is one of the best series (animated or not) of all time. Every time a watch an episode, I say something like, “Aww, [featured character] is the best!” I’m completely attached to every character, and each one is essential to the plot. With ten-or-so main characters and dozens of side characters, that’s a tall order, and yet I can’t think of a single episode that isn’t essential to their development and progressing the plot. In fact, one episode (Tales of Ba Sing Se) just follows some of the main characters around on their individual exploits for a day, and it’s commonly considered one of the best episodes of the series.

I watched the last bunch of episodes recently, and I remembered one more thing I enjoyed about the ending [the guy gets the girl, not much of a spoiler, amirite?]. When two of the main characters end up finally getting together, they hug, then they share a long awaited kiss. Why the hug? Because they’re friends first, no matter what happens, including romance. I love that. It’s completely believable for those characters, and a perfect way to end an action-packed, (frankly) stressful finale.

I cannot endorse this series highly enough. It starts out slow and childlike, then cranks up the heat and goes all amazing on us. It’s like crack, if that’s what crack was like.

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anime, goodness, humor

Wolverine in Japan

Marvel is going anime again. I don’t want to get caught up in a typical fanboy comparison of all past iterations of this effort. Let’s discuss the teaser for the Japanization of Wolverine, which you can watch here. (Notice in the screenshot that his claws aren’t even coming out of the right spot on his hands. It’s like he’s holding a bunch of kitchen knives and posing for a myspace photo. Ugh.)

When I read that article about how Wolverine would be one of the first to be converted into an anime-style cartoon, I knew straight off the bat that there would be one big problem which should be obvious to anyone who watches anime, and one big upside, a bright spot in what seems like a really bad idea.

The Problem
If I had to name the manliest character in all the American comics I’ve read, I’d say hands down that Wolverine is it. He’s a remorseless, self-centered, devil-may-care, indestructible killing machine. He can be riddled with holes and survive to kill the guy who did it. He’s loved and lost; now he’s a jaded, motorcycle-riding, cigar-smoking womanizer. He’s what every man has at some point wanted to be.

Now let’s have a look at your typical anime manly-man:

–Naraku (Inuyasha)- Falls in love with a totally hot priestess, and gives his body to demons if they will give him the power to claim this woman. It doesn’t work, but throughout the series, he ends up killing tens of thousands of people (at least).

–Orochimaru (Naruto)- Betrays his entire village, slaughters countless people, all in a quest to achieve his own immortality. Overall a real asshole.

–Abel Nightroad (Trinity Blood)- A Methusela (vampire who feeds on other vampires) who is torn between his hunger for human blood, and the soft spot in his heart for one annoying girl (a NUN, no less).

Notice a pattern emerging here? Abel is possibly the most masculine-looking dude to make the list, and still, I could probably bench press this guy. All of these male characters could be mistaken for females on a good day. Anime men typically have effeminate faces, flowing hair, slender builds, and soft voices. [For some reason this is considered sexy in Japan. I don’t get it.] Now picture Wolverine with those traits. Yikes.

The Bright Spot
American cartoons are notoriously hammy. The creators refuse to kill off main characters, show blood, or frighten their viewers with suggestions of mutilation, violence, etc. I’m not saying I’m looking forward to watching Wolverine cut on a corpse for an entire episode (frankly, I think the Japanese could give the topic of rape a rest), but current American cartoons that feature Wolverine are… adorable. Which is very, very bad. The gore that’s allowed in anime is a perfect fit for Wolverine’s character, assuming he’s still allowed to be a crazed slicing, dicing madman on occasion. Personally, I can’t wait to watch him fuck some shit up anime style as long as there isn’t too much hair tossing.

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anime, goodness, humor, work

Black Holes, Anime, and Fuckin’ StarCraft II

StarCraft II
My boyfriend was nice enough to pick me up a copy of StarCraft II the night it came out. He’s been pretty excited to play it, and I can clunk through an RTS when I need to, so I wanted to experience it with him. But for the past two weeks I haven’t played SCII for more than ten minutes without buggy black screens, etc. fucking up my game play and making the simplest game aginst the AI impossible. I’m just trying to impress my boyfriend here, dammit. I am so full of hate for this game.

Anime
If it wasn’t apparent, I’m an anime fan. I’ve been following Naruto for… shit, for a few years now I guess. It’s a fun show with annoying patches of filler episodes (typical anime). It was really getting good for while there, too. The most recent episodes featured an entire city getting wiped off the map, main characters dying off left, right and center, huge fights, revelations, you name it. And just when we’re about to get into the final confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist… we jump back in time to watch Naruto and his friends do some ridiculous quest. Little kid Naruto is adorable, but WTF?! I just want to know what happens to the Hidden Leaf! What happens to Hinata? What do Naruto and the bad guy talk about? Do they reach a resolution? Do they fight? Does Naruto finally become Hokage? Double-U Teeeee Effffff

Black Holes
I work with kids part-time, which is really fun sometimes. You just never know what they’re going to say. Yesterday we were talking about outer space, and I mentioned black holes. None of the kids knew what a black hole was. I described it as “something that’s super tiny that can eat anything and everything up.” Then I told them that after something is eaten up, we lose track of it. No one on Earth has any idea where it goes. The kids could not believe what I had just said. A couple of them literally thought I was lying. I said, “Really! It’s a huge mystery. Even the smartest people in the world don’t know where it goes after it gets eaten up by a black hole.” Then I did what my dad used to do: I made them try to think up an answer all by themselves. I asked, “Where do you guys think it goes?” They were all quiet for a few seconds, until one boy said, “Maybe it goes into the future.”
Wow. Just… wow. I couldn’t believe he said that. How awesome is that kid’s brain that the future is the first thing he thinks of. Not a place, a TIME. HAHAHAHA!! Amazing!

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anime, goodness, humor, nerd

ComiCon: Come ‘n Gone

This year’s ComiCon was my third overall, and my first as a member of the press (which didn’t make much of a difference, actually). I crashed in a hotel closet the first night, and shared a bed with a very nice lady comedian the second night. Saturday morning, she and I went to a nearby restaurant (and I use the term loosely) for breakfast. It was like being in a third-world country: everything was brightly painted to cover rust, nothing matched, there were album covers and instruments covering nearly every surface, and there were several full-sized painted figures of various celebrities scattered around (Elvis made me jump as I turned a corner). The owner was a character; I’m definitely going back my next trip.

My goal for this year’s ComiCon was to take photos of as many cosplayers as I could stand. 200 photos later, mission a-fracking-ccomplished. I also got to interview a bunch of them on camera for Comics on Comics. Those interviews should be up on their website soon. So much fun! Some of them just loved to tell us about their costume, others were so shy I couldn’t get more than a word or two out of them (so cute!).

My celebrity encounter
I got to meet Richard Taylor, who is bar-none the kindest, most generous and engaging semi-celebrity I will probably ever have the pleasure of encountering. He’s the head of the Weta Workshop which did all the props for The Lord of the Rings movies. He was just standing on the floor near the Dark Horse booth chatting with whomever was waiting patiently for their turn. He turned the conversation to my friends and I as soon as we were introduced, asking us where we were from, how do we like the con, do we work in the industry, etc. I couldn’t get over what a nice guy he was. Color me impressed.
I also got to meet Scott Kurtz who creates PvP Online, an online comic I’ve been reading for years. He was very low key, and happy to chat a bit.

A few things I’ve learned about cosplaying this year:
-It pays to have a comfortable costume (especially shoes).
-Earn the Roadblock achievement- A true sign of an amazing costume (or a skimpy one) is when one person can cause a traffic jam in the main hall while everyone stops to get a photo.
-Be a good sport- A great costume will make you a celebrity for a day. The first time some random stranger asked for my photo, I got pretty excited (my costume was very accurate, but pretty simple). The only exception to this rule came when I spotted a girl with a fantastic Scout costume from Team Fortress. I asked for a photo and she immediately froze, then took off waving her bat over her head as she went. I was in shock. AWESOME.
-Plan ahead- Every decent costume requires a good amount of planning, so you have to start months before the con to make sure you have everything you need. Some assembly will always be required.
-Just smile- I was pleased to rediscover that true cosplayers are not attention whores. They dress up because they love a character, not because they want people begging for a photo-op. Speaking of which…
-DO YOUR RESEARCH- If you’re going to dress up as a character, you’d better believe there will be people at the con who want to see that trademark move, or hear that catchphrase your character is always saying. If you can’t deliver, get ready for some seriously disappointed nerds. I photographed a woman dressed as the White Queen. Her costume was fantastic, so I asked which comic she got her inspiration from (Uncanny, Astonishing, etc). She had no idea what I was talking about. So disappointing. Would it have killed her to read up on her character on Wikipedia before the con? Visually, she was perfect for the role of Emma Frost, but she knew nothing about the X-Men universe. Which brings us to our next topic…
-Dress to your body type- How many fat, out of shape jedi did I see in San Diego this weekend, LOL! I didn’t see any Man-Faye (thank god), but if you’re gonna wear something tight, your options are to either get a gym membership months and months before the con, or dress up as a fat character. Really!
-Go all the way!- I saw so many people there with pieces of a costume on (wearing a Master Chief helmet ONLY is not a costume!). Don’t be scared, guys. If there’s any place where people will accept you in your bizzarre outfit, it’s ComiCon. Which brings us to…
-Do it or don’t- For everyone who bought their costume at Hot Topic, you’re taking up space at the con that could be filled by legitimate nerds. Buying Emily the Strange comics does not make you a comic book nerd. Just set your DVR to record Fringe, re-read the Twilight saga with your cat, and give your passes to real fans.

The Comics!
Archaia Press had a crazy deal going on for their graphic novels this year. I got 5 hardbacks for $50. The deal was: 2 for 1, 5 for 2, or 7 for 3. Made the whole trip worth it.
I got two of the Mouseguard books which I’ve been meaning to check out. At the Darkhorse booth I got Beasts of Burden, which is great so far. I also picked up Batman Grendel for $6. I grabbed a Wolverine sketch for my roommate (he’s her favorite), and a couple prints for myself.

The final hilight
Saturday night before I left, some friends and I went to an Italian restaurant called Acqua al 2. A few of us had a fillet mignon with a blueberry reduction sauce (see the Fileno al Mirtilio on the menu). It was like eating a meat pancake. So unusual and very tasty. The perfect end to an exhausting weekend.

P.S. My costume was a huge success! I got every aspect just right, and enough people recognized me to make me satisfied that I did a good job on it. Yuri Sakazaki, you’re my hero.

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anime, goodness

Yuri Sakazaki to the Rescue!!

I think I figured out who I’m gonna cosplay as at this year’s ComiCon: Yuri Sakazaki from King of Fighting!

I feel like a phony dressing up a character I currently know nothing about, but she’s the only one who has a do-able outfit, and doesn’t dress like a whore or have crazy-colored hair. My hair’s too short for the super-long braid, but maybe I can find a clip-on one or something between then and now. I already got the gi top, I already have the belt. All I need now is some purplish-blue leggings and some red Converse (already ordered: Chuck Taylor X-Hi), and I’ll be good to go!

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