Yes, I really do recommend GameFly. I really enjoy the service and I wish I could afford to continue for the next few months. Do you want to help? Clicking through and joining for a certain period of time will give me enough to pay for my next month of GF and you will also gain the wonderful benefits this service provides. After a few months, you get a $5 coupon. After six months, you get that $5 and a 5% discount. After a year, the discount tops off at $10 and you still get that $5 coupon every few months. Its very convenient and nice. Hope you will join me and give me a helping hand while you are at it
Posted by niaskywalk on Jan 25, 2010 in Comics, Media
Otomen by Aya Kanno
Published by Hakusensha/Hana to Yume
Serialized in Betsuhana
2006- Present, up to 9 volumes with new chapters every month
Demographic: Shojo
I am not a fan of Shojo, I don’t run out to buy the next newest romance as they are published and I certainly don’t go for the typical stories. When I get my shojo, there is something unique about it. Before this particular manga, you might not have heard me admit to reading shojo, with the exception of Fruits Basket. Why is this manga different from the other shojo? It isn’t typical drama.
Asuka Masamune is the greatest jock at his school. Every sport he participates in he excels, he is a manly man and the apple of every girl’s eye, the hero glint in every guy’s fervor…What would they all think if they discovered that he liked shojo (manga geared toward young ladies), cleaning, cooking, arts/crafts and was afraid of scary places and the dark?
When Asuka was young, his father ran away from home because he wanted to become a woman. His mother, afraid Asuka would do the same thing, began coming down hard on his girly ways. Asuka packed up his stuffed animals and cute things and began becoming a manly man. While in High School, while his mother is away, he cooks and cleans for himself and makes sure everything is spotless. When he discovers his mother is coming home, he quickly roughs up the place and creates an artistic manly mess… which reassures his mother.
One day, Asuka is confronted by Juto, a classmate. He claims he’s been watching Asuka for a while now and promises not to tell if he lets him hang around. When Asuka falls for Ryo, a girl who is oddly masculine in demeanor, Juta enthusiastically encourages the romance. Meanwhile, Juta is secretly taking all the scenes and writing his wildly popular new manga–Love Chick–under a well-known nom-de-plume. As it so happens, Asuka is a huge fan of Love Chick… who’s main character is a girl named Asuka who wants to have a romance with a guy named Ryo. .. and he remains clueless.
Hilarity and obfuscation ensues. As Asuka gets more comfortable around Juta and Ryo, he begins to slip and soon his secret is slowing being revealed….
Ok, do you see why I find it interesting? Well, mebbe not. This could be construed as a ‘typical shojo’, but there is enough goofiness, silliness, and just randomness to keep it fun. Every few chapters Asuka lets his girly nature loose at an odd time, depressing himself and someone who depends on him, only to redeem himself with his manly reflexes or abilities.
Here’s an example: Ryo asks Asuka to help at a daycare where she volunteers. He comes in and plays ‘manly’ games with all the children, who end up getting bored, until he takes the eggs Ryo was serving as the snack and makes a lovely board for the children. When they all leaves, one boy remains behind who has ruined a doll display. Asuka shows the boy how to make new dolls with the egg shells and they enjoy their time, but the boy insists that Asuka isn’t a man. The next day the boy has a fit when the other kids go to play with egg dolls, as he is having his fit, he accidentally throws a doll out the window then jumps after it to save it. Without a thought Asuka jumps out after him, rescuing him in a ‘manly’ style. It is amusing, the boy later calls Ryo his papa and Asuka his mama.
I am half reading the stories in Japanese and half in scanlation… though the first volume I read was in English. I ran across the series after I was introduced to Vampire Knight via a cosplay performance by Alone Together at a Kinokuniya Bryant Park event. I was deciding that perhaps I would give shojo a try and this one seems to shown me that all shojo isn’t just drama and soap.
I picked up a magazine this weekend and found that there was an announcement for a live-action drama based on this series that was to begin in August 2009. That would be interesting to watch! I’d love to see how they portray the characters.
This week I’ve been watching Last Exile. Originally, I ran across it via an AMV I saw at NYAF 2008 and finally I got around to raising it in my Netflix queue.
In my opinion, the story started out slow. It’s about two vanship partners. A vanship is a sort of airplane. Claus is the pilot and Lavie, his best friend from forever, is the navigator. We follow them around learning about the world they live in. It is science fiction fantasy and steampunk-ish. The art is beautiful, but the story doesn’t really pick up until the team encounters the Silvana, a non-Guild ship roaming the skies, and its Captain, Alex Rowe. The two get pulled in the war that is happening in the skies.
After a while it feels like a World War II anime, though it is obviously not. If the fuel called “Claudia” didn’t give it away, or the fact that there are no props on the ‘planes’ didn’t hint at it, they are in fact on a different planet than the one we know. Where our heroes have been living, they have to live on filthy water and any amount of clean water is extremely valuable. As a matter of fact, at one point they go to a floating tavern at one point and try to buy a pint of water and nearly fall over at the cost of the freshest and cleanest in the world.
Lady Delphine, the Maestro of the Guild, the people who control almost all flight in the world, lowers herself to chase down her brother, who all this time has been hiding on the Silvana because of his obsession with Claus’ flying ability. By the time we are finally brought into Lady Delphine’s world, we are well aware of the difficulties of being a land dweller, and the unique problems of being land dwellers who desire to fly. When she brings her brother ‘home’, she invites Claus and he learns how she and the Guild live.
I have been thinking about it and the theme song keeps playing in my head, so I thought I would share. For those who can’t or won’t play the widget, one of the first things you hear on this is the sound of bagpipes, and then it goes into song, mostly Japanese but with English thrown in off course. The TV version is shorter, but I think I like this version better.
I am learning Japanese at the moment. Japanese has a lot of formalities and politeness. It’s true that other languages also have formal or polite forms, but it seems like it is very easy to offend in Japanese. I was listening to a lesson on polite Japanese and I remembered an encounter I had this week when I was talking with another teacher at the Japanese Language Center. I was offering him New Year’s Greetings, which I had learned only an hour before. “Agemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu! Kotoshi yoroshiku onegaishimasu!”
あげまして おめでとう ございます！ことし よろしく おねがいします！
I was being formal-ish in speech so he indicated I should say the whole greeting… which I really mangled and skewed. A classmate hit me and told me to try it again. When I finally finished the phrase, this time correctly, we laughed and joked about it.
While I was listening to the lesson, I realised only a teacher or a classmate or a close friend would excuse such mistakes. In Japan, first impressions are everything, so if you want to make good first impressions, practice with a teacher who can correct you before you offend accidentally.
All right, I have heard that people didn’t like the Metallica Guitar Hero, but I was making a concerted effort to try as many Guitar Hero games as possible while I was with GameFly. I have discovered a few things: Guitar Hero improved considerably since its first inception, I really like GH2 and 80s as well as GH3, Guitar Hero Metallica is AWESOME!
Yes, you heard me. I really like Guitar Hero Metallica for PS2…. except the fact that it doesn’t recognise my songstar microphones.
Posted by niaskywalk on Dec 28, 2009 in Books, Media
I was going through some notes and thought I would take the time to note the books I have bought to learn Japanese over the last couple years. My official Japanese school books at the point are the Minna no Nihongo series released by 3A Corporation, but they aren’t the only books helping me to learn:
Writing Hiragana: An Introductory Japanese Language Workbook by Jim Gleeson (Tuttle) ~ Excellent for repetition of the Hiragana plus some words, sentences and phrases.
Writing Katakana: An Introductory Japanese Language Workbook by Jim Gleeson (Tuttle) ~ Katakana is the script used for foreign words and emphasis. This is also a great book for repetition of the characters. Plus words, phrases and locations.
The First 100 Japanese Kanji: The quick and easy way to learn the basic Japanese Kanji by Eriko Sato Ph.D. (Tuttle) ~ I am currently using this to supplement the assigned Kanji in class. This is not as great as the kana books, but still awesome for the repetitiveness.
Minna no Nihongo book 1 (3A Corporation) ~ School Books, very conversational, some translations leave a little to be desired, but overall a fun and informative series in the classroom.
Minna no Nihongo book 2 (3A Corporation) ~ School Books, see above.
Write Now! Kanji for Beginners (3A Corporation) ~ From the company the does my schoolbooks. It doesn’t coincide with the lessons, but it is a nice book. It lists a certain amount of kanji in each lesson and by the end of the chapter you are that many more kanji richer in knowledge. As the name suggests, it gets you writing and reading kanji immediately.
Kana de Manga by Glenn Kardy and Chihiro Hattori (Manga University) ~ a simple book, fun, but essentially I found it useless. The book comes with the kana, Hiragana on one page, Katakana for the same sound on the other, a little bit of information and a pronounciation guide plus a few squares for practice. the back of the small book has more blank pages. For someone who learns well and quickly this is great, for me not so much.
Kanji de Manga vol. 1 by Glenn Kardy and Chihiro Hattori (Manga University) ~ I like the book, it has some cute scenes and explanations in it, but until I was actually taking a class, listening to a podcast and playing a video game all teaching me, I couldn’t understand what it was telling me. Again if you learn quickly and well, a quick explanation that is not in the book would make this series awesome for you.
Yesterday was my last Japanese class of 2010. Since we had dinner with the teachers on Thursday Dec 17, 2009, I didn’t expect anything of import on Tuesday. After all, it was only a class before a break and not the end of a session.
The evening started off innocent enough, if odd. The Raffies were not present and the cultural center was unnaturally silent. After greeting the person behind the desk, I inquired if there was a class. To my intense relief he indicated in the positive. I then remarked how “…empty…” the place was, he counter-remarked with “and QUIET”. I burst out laughing and the laughter was swallowed by the overpowering silence. I move to one of the accustomed waiting posts and sat to practice my kanji. I sat close to the classrooms and I could hear lessons, it was a nice murmur amidst the silence. After a while, I was joined by another student who also marveled at the silence and fell to something more interesting.
Moments later, the silence was shattered. The Raffies had arrived.
For the next five minutes, the silence did not return to the cultural center and for all I know the noise remained out there when I entered my classroom. It was a typical class day.
I entered my classroom and awaited the half of the Raffies that is in my class, the other students and the teacher. I got comfortable and was guessing much work wouldn’t get done. I was wrong, but that was beside the point.
The teacher walked in with mini-cupcakes from Crumbs, saying it was a shame that one of the students who constantly brought a cookie to share from the same place was absent. She offered the amazing cupcakes and ran out to get napkins. While she was gone, one of the students pulled cookies out of his bag and offered them to the class. To our astonishment, another student pulled out cans of soda and offered them as well. Our teacher returned and saw the additional food and drink. She wondered if it would be okay to open the soda. I wasn’t gonna wait. I initiated the impromptu party by opening my can.
Kampai! we called when the teacher shut the door.
After a few moments, the lesson started as usual and it was actually productive. I wonder…. should we always start our classes with impromptu parties? It certainly worked for me
Note: Once again it took me too long to post, so this post is going up as is… as if anyone cares anymore.
In my last NYAF post I went on and on about cosplay, costuming, the sales floor and halls. There is more to the festival than just costumes, sales and displays.
In the back of the hall, in the most open area of the festival, was a live performance stage dubbed the Apple Kissa Stage. On stage throughout the festival various acts vied for the attention of the self-entertaining folk of the fest. Unfortunately for me, I missed almost every performance due to scheduling, wandering and demos. However, I have seen nearly all the acts numerous times at various venues. The one act I did chance to have time to catch was the IchigoPantsu Dansu (IchiP) dancers Para Para dance class. The group of cosplay dancers arrived on stage and many fans of Para Para dancing ranked themselves around the stage and learned moves for a couple songs.
Para Para Dancing, for those of you who are wondering, is basically a Japanese dance club group dance similar to line dancing where each move is precise and everyone does the same movements. Watching it done with only a few people such as when the IchiP Dancers put on their performances, is a wonderful sight to see and it looks and feels energetic. Watching a whole group of people doing the same movements is simply astounding. I don’t have any pictures of this phenomenon, but they can be seen across the internet. Here is a video of IchiP on the Apple Kissa stage:
You can see more of IchiP’s dance moves on their YouTube channel: IchiPDansu
In addition to IchiP, there were also performances of ‘test cutting’ from the Byakokan Dojo, comedy by Uncle Ho, a skit elaborating on Vampire Knight by Alone Together NYC, dancing maids… a LOT of dancing maids, zombie survival class, a concert by AKB48 and a Neo-Victorian Fashion show.
I didn’t catch the shows, but I did happen to cross the stage area near the end of several of these events. Regretfully, I watched the endings or just watched the stage as I hurried past on my way to some other event or panel.
Posted by niaskywalk on Dec 22, 2009 in Annual, holidays
Not too long ago, I used to hate how meaningless and generic ‘Happy Holidays’ seemed to be, so I thought I would try something new at the time. I looked up all the winter holidays I could get my hands on and I sent out a ‘Happy Holidays’ note unlike a great many I had encountered. It was a long and denoted dates–and some times–of many of the holidays I could find. In recent years, I haven’t really had time to do it, but I do kind of pay attention in the background.
Since I have been more active in posting recently, I wanted to do a ‘Happy Holidays’ post again, showing my new audience the bounty of holidays these seemingly generic and so called ‘politically correct’ words encompassed, but alas, I again lacked the time to do the proper research. I hope after you have read this post, you will take the time to explore the various holidays that surround you. It is a world rich with culture, events and holidays! Once you know just how many are happening all at once, it becomes more difficult to wish anyone anything other than ‘Happy Holidays’.
With luck I will have a better Holidays Card next year, in the meantime, here is a list of some holidays that have already occured or will occur soon:
Ramadan (Occured much earlier with Eid al Fitr at its end)
Chanukah, Hannukah, Channukah and other spellings Happy Chanukah!
Since the time of my first winter holidays explorations where I discovered mean and dangerous creatures alongside the benevolent beings most residents of the USA know about, I have ever been curious about how people around the world celebrate their winter holidays. If you read this blog, please share your traditions and holidays with me. It would be greatly appreciated.
With all I have stated in mind, I want you to know whenever I wish you Happy Holidays, I really do mean what I say.
This year, I attempted to do NaNoWriMo again. Although I didn’t win, I did beat all previous attempts combined and that has satisfied me for now.
Originally, the title of my novel was “Lady Mathilde Gabriel’s Abaddonian Knights” and it was supposed to be an adventure through my version of Abaddon. However, when Mattie arrived in answer to her Daemon Lord’s (Fenrisithian) ’summons’ the story took a different turn. I found the dialogue and interaction of Mattie and Fenrisithian was too rich and dynamic. If I left her in the world, Fenrisithian and Mattie would’ve had too much happening between them (NOT romantic. Not ever.) and it would’ve ruined any story.
Dairy Dreamer
Kosherporkchops
MediumAtLarge.net