Category Archives: Anime

Anime, Otaku

Almost Caught Up

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So I’m almost caught up in One Piece; there’s about 20ish episodes to go… I forget when I started the series, but I think it was during the pandemic… And I still need to watch the movies and side-stories… But for the most part, I’m almost caught up.

I honestly thought the story would be a lot further along by now… The Dressrosa story arch seemed to drag out forever! If it took that many episodes to defeat a warlord of the sea, for Luffy to defeat a Emperor (I would think) would take 2-3x longer story arch… let alone current developments… Not to mention, he hasn’t face off with Blackbeard yet… Anyway, I’ve enjoyed the story so far, but there were points where it seemed like it dragged on forever. And now that I can’t binge watch it, I’m a little concerned it will drag out more.

As I sit here thinking about travel plans in the next two years and as I sort pirate LEGOs that I’ve unearthed, the thought struck me that I should do a One Piece (traveling) MOC… Something from Skypiea, maybe? So I went online and found this MOC of the Thousand Sunny by Alex Jones… I think I’d like to do the Going Merry… Looks like someone beat me to it… But I’d have to do a version of the Going Merry, because it’s the ship they took to Skypiea…

Anime, Otaku

Ace and Whitebeard are Dead!

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For those of you who watched One Piece, this news isn’t really a surprise. The episode of their death aired back in 2011, so I’m a little behind. As part of the 2020 pandemic, I started watching One Piece with my wife on Netflix, and despite it’s quirkiness, when episodes ran out on Netflix, I kept going… I think my wife wanting to stop watching about half way into the first season — the cussing and silliness was too much for her. It looks like I’m nearing the half-way mark in the series (ep. 487)… it’s still running, with 959 episodes in total as I type this.

The heaviness of the story arch is still weighing on me emotionally. Luffy has rejoined his crew and has continued on to mermaid island, 2 years after the loss of Ace. Up until then, several episodes were dedicated to bonds of brotherhood and the loss of a family member, and the impact it had on the friends/family around them… Surprisingly, it’s very touching. So much that it makes me wonder about the series’ writer and if they’ve experience similar grief to draw upon… From a few blog posts I’ve read, sound it was more of a deliberate decision to kill of Ace to help Luffy go onto the next level — I get that — and I’m feeling a tad bit emotionally manipulated.

That’s the funny thing about American story tellers, you can generally tell when the writers are trying to manipulate the audience to feel a certain way — it’s almost like they’re hitting you over the head with it… the sappy music… pull the camera in close to the actor as they’re starting to tear up… it’s to the point where it’s cliche… But this One Piece story arch felt different. Maybe it’s the length — 100 episodes for this season, 30 of them covered the war ending in Ace & Whitebeard’s death — to spread it out over, however the build-up was just unbearable — I felt like Luffy was covering the same 30 ft, of ground every episode for 10 episodes straight… Maybe it’s the source material (although I haven’t lost a brother, so hard to connect on that level)… Maybe it’s just refreshingly different… Not formulaic in the western short story telling sense… however, it could be formulaic in the eastern epic melodrama sense…

Meh. This wasn’t the reason I started this post — to rabbit-hole into comparing/contrasting different story telling techniques. More to explore how I was feeling and the impact it’s having on me…

Anime, Geek, Otaku

Oh! My Goddess

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So during this Covid-19 pandemic, I’ve resorted to watching a lot of Oh! My Goddess episodes in between catching up on Westworld and spring season anime… I remember watching the movie a long time ago, and maybe a few episodes, but I couldn’t tell if it which season… I also remember reading the manga series when Dark Horse released it in the US… But I can’t actually pinpoint when I fell in love with the series… Maybe after college?

As someone put it on reddit, Belldandy was the original waifu, before goddesses became insane in anime…

I’ve avoided rewatching if for awhile, thinking in the back of my head that I don’t have all the seasons… or I’m missing a special. And there’s a certain nostalgia about the series when you compare it to modern anime… the pacing is a little slower. And it’s 50 episodes with specials and a movie — it’s a lot to sit through.

I watched season 1 in English, which made it go faster… As I write this, I discovered on my self I have a S.A.V.E. copy of season 2, in both English and Japanese… So I’ve been ripping those and watching through them in English. I remember having a VCD copy of season 1 somewhere, that I got off eBay.

As I’m watching through the series, I’m releasing the season 1 & 2 were released in 2005/6… Hard to believe it’s only been 15 years. But I’m also realizing that the very first OVAs were released 1993/4… I’m thinking this is when I fell in love with the series & became aware of it. The OVAs covered a few things that were drawn out into a few episodes in season 1… I can’t which did a better job… The nuance about causing trouble for others is there… Belldandy meeting Keiichi during childhood (which was talked about in season 2) was very different from the OVA… since the Batman story has been told and retold many different times, with different ways, I’m not so much hung up on cannon…

For an anime that’s saccharin sweet, there is a pervy vibe that runs through it… Even from the beginning, in the original OVAs, there’s a drag race competition between the Nekomi Institute of Technology Auto Club and a rival club. In between races, girls in skimpy swimsuit-like outfits hold up signs, either as cheer-leaders, crowd motivators, or announcing the next race… there’s a few cut screens where all viewers see are butts, crotch-shots, or boob-shots… there should almost be a eechi-index (and there might be), of how many sexualized visualizations there are within a title…

Anime, Comics, Geek

Interesting Stories

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Today as I was driving into work, I started thinking about what stories do I like the most. What has captivated my attention to keep watching (in anime and TV series) or reading in comics…

From the masterful story teller, Alan Moore, I learned about framing/book-ends — start with one story, show how it leads into another story, then close it out with the original story; tying the two stories together with reference to similar subject matters, a play on words within the exposition, or visuals leading from the first story to the next (ie. zooming into the eye of an character in the first story, switching in the next frame, then zooming out from a different character in the next story). Alan’s background details not only foreshadow things to come, but added atmosphere, depth. His ability to tell multiple stories, where one story thread feed into the other kept me engage.

Alan’s villains also had dimension. Time was given not only to create depth in his heroes, but the bad guys were more thoughtful, twisted.

Switching to anime and a little bit, TV, there are certain stories that I really love. Most of them tend to be Isekai (異世界, “different world”), but with the overall story, the characters are very likable, you want them to succeed, you become invested in them quickly — then something happens and you as the audience despair. The first few seasons of Game of Thrones was like that — you wanted the Starks to win, but then the father is killed. Or for Rob to be happy in love on the battle field, but then the red wedding. But with GoT, after awhile, it became cliche to kill off a characters you became emotionally attached to.

In anime it’s a little different. There tends to be a villain that seem over-powered at first, that comes into the story punching you in the gut. Or the villains are arrogant, weaselly, no more than high-school bullies, but then they pray on some the weaker, timid, shy. You see it coming like a freight train down the tracks, but can’t stop it… In many cases, it’s a change of atmosphere, the visuals are darker, the music switches and you get that sinking feeling in your stomach, that whatever happens, it’s not going to end well.

Anime, Otaku

夢 Yume

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On Sunday, ended up getting caught up on a lot of 1st episodes of the new anime season… Many I surprisingly liked, only one I tried to nod off during. The first was A Certain Scientific Railgun (Season 3); I’m like it better than the last season of A Certain Magical Index (which I got lost in; too much politics, too many characters). Then I followed it up with Infinite Dendrogram — little bit of a SAO rip-off, but I still enjoyed it. The third was Uchitama?! Have you Seen my Tama? — which I thought was going to be too cutesy, to the point of being annoyed, but really enjoyed the transition between dog/cat to human & the animators really nailed the animal behaviors. Next was Hetena Illusion — which I thought would be magic girl-esque or silly like Magical Sensai, but turned out to be intriguing. Watched 2 episodes of Keep Your Hands off Eizoken! — mind blowingly good, the animation style is just awesome. And finally, In/Spectre — a story about Yokai.

That night, I had a mash up dream — the world was set in Eizoken, at a hot springs, but the art style was clearly Eizoken. The hot springs were a maze to get into, with the healing waters at the center of the maze. Along the way, I met 4 people who were actually yokai, but switching from animal form to human like in Tama when they interacted with me. One of the characters was the general from the latest SAO Underworld season, the other three have become fuzzy now — all male however… About all I can remember now, but there was a plot/story there… One that made sense in dream logic.

I just realized, Tama reminds me of my almost all-time favorite anime, The Eccentric Family, with how it switches from animal to human.

Anime, Otaku

Dr. Stone

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There are a few genres of anime that I typically avoid — sports themed, music themed, something that resembles Power Rangers, generally anything that doesn’t score a 6 or higher on MyAnimeList. One that I started this past year is Dr. Stone because it rated high and it had an interesting premise — all human life on earth becomes petrified, then after thousands of years, one of the most smarts teenagers in the world comes back to life, with a mission to move humanity from the stone age, back to the space age.

The art style is nice; a little goofy at times. The science is sound… but that seems to be the point. Aimed at teaching kids science, and how we moved from point A to point B. There’s no ecchi (although an innocent high school crush among class-mates). Some savagery — there’s a camp of science vs. a camp of might/brawn — building up a war that I’m wondering if it resolve itself peacefully or not. But otherwise, it’s been entertaining and educational… and not my typical anime-fare. I’d definitely recommend watching it.

… There is another anime I’ll talk about later that I’m also watching this fall, that is entertaining as well, but it’s like watching a funny orchestrated train wreck.

Anime, Personal

Fall Time

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It’s fall time, which means I’m down with a cold or sinus infection… Which means that pumpkins are starting to appear at Walmart… Which means a new season of Anime has started…

In the spirit of Maker Faire, I’m thinking I might try doing a LED-lit pumpkin this year… down the street from us, someone has created a Halloween display that looks like a web of pumpkin vines, with carved plastic pumpkins hanging in various places… I’ll try to get a picture of it later. Think Jack-n-the Beanstalk x Pumpkin patch… I should try creating a halloween based mythos and try executing on it…

So this season of Anime is interesting; there’s two anime that I’m trying to figure out if I’ll continue watching. One is where a person from this world is summoned to another world, but instead of immediately jumps in feet first, starts training, and training, and training… he’s overly cautious. The other one is where a professional wrestler is summoned to another world, but doesn’t want to kill monsters, but to open up his own pet shop… I’m thinking the whole “summoned to another world” genre has played itself out?

Anime, Otaku, Personal, Travel

犬を飼っています

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So earlier this year, my wife showed me that tickets to Hong Kong were less than $1,000/person round trip. This got me thinking that I wanted us to take a trip to Asia within the next few years… And with both of us being Disney fans, we talked about maybe doing Hong Kong or Tokyo or Shang-hi…

And with being a little disappointed in our trip to San Francisco, we talked about doing a LEGO event outside the US, maybe in Asia… There’s been a LEGO fan event in Japan I’ve been following via Facebook for awhile, and a new fan event in Korea. I’ve always been impressed with the LEGO builders in Hong Kong (HKLUG) since the 2008 Olympics, so that gives us a few possible dates for travel (after Golden Week, before the hottest time of the year) and possible people to try to meet up with…

I can almost read what’s written in hiragana!

I’ve been a bit of a Japanophile/Otaku. Wrote a high school thesis paper on the Japanese educational system. I took a Japanese culture class in college. Dropped out of a Japanese language class — too much on my plate at the time. Probably watch too much anime. So it’s no surprise that I’d like to go to Japan first.

With that in mind, I’ve been listening to a podcast about learning Japanese; I started with the 30 day challenge from 2 years ago… Each episode is about 4-5 minutes long, covering a variety of topics. After about the 4th or 5th episode, it reminded me of why I dropped out of the class; and reminded me of the horrors of taking 3 years of Spanish — with verb conjugation, vocabulary words, etc. It reminded me that some 20ish years ago, I meet with a tutor, a gentleman from Japan to learn Japanese for a brief time; and talks of making flash cards, and advice that I should get a Japanese girlfriend if I really wanted to learn Japanese… But this time, I ended up sticking with it with a new determination, continuing listening to the lessons, with a plan to go back over the 30 days once I learned hiragana/katakana and some kanji. I would try to soak in some of the context, with out stressing out over memorization… I think I’m up to episode 57, some 20ish episodes past the 30 day challenge.

Given that I tried this before the advent of podcasts and smart phones, I feel like I’m a little further along than I expected. I haven’t started with vocabulary words, or sentence construction, I’m just focusing on learning hiragana. I’ve found 3 apps that have been very useful, the first one teaches me how to draw the kana/symbol properly with the correct brush stroke order and say it, then it shows me a romanji version of the kana, and I have to pick out the correct kana from a list of 4. Finally, it shows me a blank screen to draw on, with the romanji version of the kana (and sound), and I’m to draw it with the correct brush strokes. Multiple times a day, I review what I learned, until I get it right — it’s a little frustrating when (especially with ‘ね’) where my brush strokes are slightly off. The 2nd app is just a simple quiz/flashcard app. It either shows me the romanji version of the kana, and I have to pick out the right now, or it says the kana or a word in Japanese, and I have to pick it out from a list. The final app is more of a speed quiz, same as the second app, but I can choose what kana I’ve learned and it will drill me on those only… the goal is to get 100% each time, in the 20ish seconds I get to pick the correct symbol… the 3rd app is a little more nerve-racking, but by not being able to adjust the guessing time, I’ve gotten quicker.

… I don’t know where this will take me. I’m hoping by a year or two of study, I might be able to read signs and maybe have a basic grasp of conversation — maybe end up being JLPT 4 with a stretch goal of JLPT 3.

Anime, Geek, Video Games

Pokémon GO (Update)

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So Pokémon Go just added the ability to add friends and allow for Pokémon trading… It’s been needed for a long time.  There are some Pokémon we realize that we’ll never be able to collect — we’d have to be world travelers and do lots of raid battles to catch legendary Pokémon.  What’s funny is that now I have enough Pokémon Go friends, but they’re scattered across the globe — meet through our interaction with the LEGO fan community.

The other exciting news is that Pokémon Go will interact with the new Pokémon Nintendo Switch game.  It sounds very limited and a little lame, but I know I’m not the target audience…

The wife and I started watching season 16 or Pokémon XY.  We about 2-3 generations of Pokémon ahead of PokéGo… so can’t wait until the game catches up to our viewing… to be honest, we’ve caught a few episodes of Pokémon Sun & Moon via Netflix in between bingeing on other shows…

Anime

Tokyo Godfathers

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I have a new favorite holiday movie — Tokyo Godfathers.  It’s a story Christmas in Tokyo, Japan, where three homeless friends: a young girl, a transvestite, and a middle-aged bum find an abandoned newborn.  Then they go on a journey to return the baby to her mother and all sorts of wacky/strange/fortunate events happen to the trio.  It was heart warming, despite the movie being about the more unfortunate in society.  It wasn’t your typical Anime — the artwork was very realistic, with only brief periods of exaggeration.  It’s very gritty, not your super polished magic-girl fluff.

If you haven’t checked it out, do so!