Drawing and Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

On the first day of class this quarter, one of my professors started things cheerfully by talking about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and how devastatingly scary it is, especially for people whose entire lives come from repetitious use of their hands -- not just their livelihoods, their lives. As he put it, some people were just put on this planet to draw. He mentioned how CTS is normally a condition associated with older folk, but that in recent years those afflicted have become younger and younger, perhaps because of video games, but also because of more jobs that involve typing and such. And yet, the exact cause of CTS is still largely in debate. Common knowledge says it's caused by repetitive action, but science still says that the biggest risk factor is a genetic predesposition.

So I don't know just how worried I should be, especially considering the fact that I seem to have very, very poor circulation in my hands. I can put on gloves, wear them for twenty minutes, and my hands will still be as icy as they were before. My forearm will be fine, but my hands will be freezing. There are probably plenty of other explanations for why my hands can't seem to stay warm, but as an idiot pursuing art as a career, CTS is easily one of my biggest fears, right up there under blindness. If my blood vessels can't seem to reach my fingertips, how long will it be before my nerves can't either?

That Tomoko Ninomiya of Nodame Cantabile was recently diagnosed with CTS doesn't help either. Hers was probably triggered by pregnancy more than her profession, but it made me wonder just how many artists out there suffer or have suffered from CTS. My roommate is one of them. Hers was caused by breaking her wrist a few years ago; she had to have super expensive surgery and wore a wrist brace for a good while afterwards. She's mostly fine now and even survived the intensiveness that was 24 Hour Comic Day last October, but all the same. I don't want to have super expensive (and probably painful) surgery or wear a wrist brace.

Currently, I probably don't draw any more than 3-4 hours a day on a good day, but I'm also having a slow quarter. During finals week last quarter, I probably drew some eight hours a day. I can draw for about 30 minutes at a time before my hand needs a break, at which point I usually shake it around and go to check email and such. After a certain point, I'll need the breaks more frequently, but it doesn't really take long to shake off the aching/cramping in my hand and massaging my knuckles helps too. The massaging kind of helps with the circulation thing too, but I've kind of just gotten in the habit of pressing my hands against my stomach because it's always warm there. :|

Even on the days when I draw until my hand wants to fall off and it hurts to even stretch my fingers, like aforementioned 24 Hour Comic Day, everything is usually fine a day or two later. So I don't know. Maybe I worry too much. No one wants surgery, but at least it exists. I guess my roommate can attest to a reasonable enough recovery (so best wishes to Ninomiya), and I don't know of any artist offhand that got CTS as a direct result of drawing too much. Besides, there's really no avoiding that repetitive strain in this field. I don't really have delusions of becoming a comic artist, but even commercial illustrators have that kind of strenuous work. There are no preventive measures to take beyond those periodic breaks (which are harder to fit in when you've got a deadline...). You're going to draw. You're going to draw a lot. Deal with it. :(

Oh. PS. Happy (Lunar) New Year! Read the rest of this entry...

I Want Karaoke Tracks

So I like to sing. Generally, if I know the lyrics to something, I can't help but sing. Sometimes, even if I don't know the lyrics, I'll make something up and warble along. I don't own an mp3 player, so I make up for this by singing a capella to myself when I'm on the go or waiting for the bus or whatever. I suppose I like to think I'm reasonably good, so sometimes when I need a break from work or have random pent up energy, I'll have a recording session with Audacity and see if I can get anything half-decent recorded. As such, I really love the fact that many j-pop artists release off-vocal, instrumental, or karaoke tracks alongside their singles.

I don't normally play the karaoke tracks by themselves, mostly because I get really self-conscious if I don't have the original vocals to hide behind, but most of them will match up with the vocal version, so I can record myself alongside the original vocals, then trade the track for the karaoke to hear my own vocals. It works well enough. (Maybe someday, I'll have something that's decent enough to share here?)

Unfortunately, not all of the music I listen to and want to sing to provides karaoke tracks. I've noticed that most j-pop singers will provide them for their singles. Tommy heavenly6, angela, FictionJunction YUUKA, Nami Tamaki, Mika Nakashima, and Utada Hikaru all generally provide a karaoke track. ALI PROJECT usually has karaoke tracks (not like I'll ever be able to sing their stuff anyway). L'Arc~en~Ciel, Gackt, and T.M. Revolution are also pretty consistent about including a karaoke version of their singles. But the further you venture from pop and the more into rock and alternative you get, the less likely there will be karaoke tracks.

I don't expect -miyavi-, Dir en grey, or Maximum the Hormone to ever include karaoke tracks. Maybe it's just because it's much harder for the average person to sing along with their music, but that doesn't stop them from appearing on karaoke machines in karaoke bars, etc, so clearly there's some kind of demand for them. Most of the karaoke places I've visited have surprised me with the selection of music they have available. I don't really know how the licensing on these things work, but I suspect that a lot most of the songs don't feature "official" karaoke versions, only edited versions where someone has manually extracted the vocal track. Such methods usually leave a ghost voice, but at a karaoke bar, it'd be really hard to tell. This is probably how they manage to get karaoke versions of most English-language songs as well, 'cause really, when was the last time an American, Canadian, or British artist included an official karaoke track on their single or album?

It's obvious from the word itself that karaoke originated in Japan, but I've always wondered why its popularity is so subdued in the States when it's all the rage across Asia. I mean, it can't be that only Asians like singing, right? If shows like American Idol can be so popular, why aren't karaoke tracks more common on American musical releases? Why aren't there more karaoke places outside of Chinatowns? The Asian population is Savannah is slim to none, which means there isn't a karaoke place for miles and miles. This drives me crazy. I really want to go out to karaoke, but there's no where to go!

I think the only English-language official karaoke tracks I have are for Disney songs. Everyone loves to sing Disney songs, I guess? Or maybe it's because most of those movies are musicals? But if that's the case, why isn't there a karaoke version of every Broadway soundtrack? Why can't I find karaoke versions of the songs from The Lion King on Broadway? Beauty and the Beast on Broadway? RENT? I would really love to see more official karaoke version of English-language songs since it'd spare me the trouble of making them myself. Plenty of songs are begging to be sung to, so come on.

Maybe lack of encouragement in the form of karaoke tracks can be my excuse as to why I know the lyrics to more Japanese songs than English songs. 8| Read the rest of this entry...

Apparently, I'm Too ADD for Higurashi

Usually, I'm very much against spoilers, so maybe it can be considered significant that I just let my brother explain the rest of this to me in lieu of actually watching it. For a series that seems to be universally heralded as being awesome, I was kind of surprised at just how much I didn't care for Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (+Kai). The art style and animation was a huge turn off. The characters weren't engaging, and the setup of everything just reminded me of all the things I don't like in anime. Even the violence and gore wasn't very entertaining. :\ And the repeating scenarios just... struck that short attention span of mine, I guess. I wanted the explanation to be more obvious. It's a mystery; I wanted the clues to be more there. I did not want to sit through 26+ episodes of mindfuckery stuck on repeat before knowing what the hell was going on.

There is merit in being sneaky and unexpected, and honestly, I'd say Higurashi's story and plot is pretty unique, but it really failed at getting me to care. Because I felt nothing towards any of the characters, I wasn't really even inclined to try and solve the mystery myself, especially when it wasn't even obvious that it was a mystery at first. It was just, lol retcon! Is it just me? Am I just too stupid to figure things out myself or too stupidly impatient to not wait and see? Maybe, but I have a hard time imagining that anyone was really drawn to the cast. It was a generic assortment of moe girls and your usual loser guy. Who cares? Why should anyone care?

Maybe I'm just too used to characters driving the story and not the other way around.

I'm really curious though, did anyone else start Higurashi and not feel like finishing it at all? Read the rest of this entry...

Yes, it's Still True

Well, it looks like all those rumors were true, and TOKYOPOP hadn't been jumping the gun after all. ANN announced this morning that Sunrise has officially confirmed the live-action Cowboy Bebop project as a collaboration between itself, 20th Century Fox, and 3 Arts Entertainment. And whaddaya know, Keanu Reeves is going to be Spike after all.

I can't say I'm really surprised, but with every bit of news that comes up, I find myself getting a little more optimistic about the prospects for the film. It's a cautious optimism, but it's optimism all the same. At the risk of repeating myself, I'm going to give Reeves a chance. It's true that almost all of the roles I've seen him play (which admittedly, isn't many) all have the same general personality -- that stoic, reserved, almost confused kind of person that doesn't really suit Spike Spiegal at all. But nevertheless, if Reeves is really an actor, then he should be perfectly capable of acting outside of his comfort zone, especially if it's for a character he actually likes and admires. I had huge doubts about Heath Ledger being cast as the Joker, but look at how that turned out. I think it'll be really interesting to see if he can pull it off and perhaps grow as an actor.

Another point of optimism is the fact that so many original staff members seem to be involved. I'm thrilled to see that Shinichiro Watanabe, among others, will have a hand in producing. Reeves had mentioned wanting to stick as close to the source material as possible, and while neither he nor Watanabe will be the director, I can hope that their influence on set will gear it in a canonic direction. And anyway, Bebop's story and plot is much more flexible than say, Dragonball's, so I think any changes they do make will be less of a deal; they should be able to integrate everything much more smoothly.

I'm still interested in knowing who the rest of the cast will be and whether any of them will be cut from the movie for the sake of brevity and relevance (I would much rather see characters cut then having to split limited time between too many characters). Though I love both characters, I think that both Ed and Ein are pretty expendable, especially considering that they'd likely be the hardest to cast for. For Ed, they'd have to hunt down one hell of an androgynous kid, and for Ein, anything less than a perfectly trained Welsh Corgi will send fans into a rage. Because I'm not too knowledgable about actors, I don't have any ideals for Jet or Faye, but I feel like their achetypes are common enough that it won't be too much of an issue (the fact that I like Jet and Faye both less than Ed and Ein will also mean I'd probably be less critical).

Someone on the ANN forums mentioned his/her desire to know about the musical credits of the film -- what a damn good question! I'm kind of surprised no one else has really brought it up before now. The music in Bebop is a huge part of the experience, and I'm not sure I can really imagine Bebop without it. If they can get Ayumi Hamasaki to do music for Dragonball, will they be able to convince Yoko Kanno to come back and reprise her role in Bebop as composer? Personally, I wouldn't mind just recycling music from the anime series or animated movie if they can't get Kanno, but I understand that'd kind of be a cop out. Would it be the same with someone else? There are plenty of talented composers out there, and even though you don't hear a lot of jazz in films these days, I'm sure there's someone that can pull it off... even so, will it be the same? Sometimes I think that fans attach too much importance to the original people, but sometimes, there's a good reason for that.

Reactions across the community thus far seem pretty mixed, but I wonder about how people's opinions will change as more is revealed about the project. Right now, I have higher hopes for this than I've had for any other live-action adaptation by an American company. Part of that is simply because Bebop itself is more accessible to the mainstream than a title like Dragonball. Sci-fi can be mainstream, especially if it's filled with badasses and busty women. Serenity was a box-office flop, but I kind of blame that on the fact that it was a sequel. Bebop won't be a sequel. I can see non-anime fans watching and liking it if it's done right. At the very least, they will be able to take it more seriously than they could Speed Racer or can Dragonball. The former demanded you know and appreciate the original cartoon. The latter will demand that you be missing part of your brain.

More wait and see. I wonder if it'll really be done by 2010. Seems like a huge stretch, but hey, so did the whole Reeves thing at first.

In other news, this is my 100th blog entry here. :3 Go me. Read the rest of this entry...

Photoshoot: Leafeon (9" TOMY plush)

I preordered this little bastard back in July. Truth be told, not long after I bought him, I tried to cancel my order because he did cost a pretty penny, and I probably shouldn't have gotten him in the first place. But YesAsia doesn't allow cancellations of preorders, so I thought I would resell him as soon as he got in. Long story short, I finally got a hold of him last week, but I couldn't resist opening the package because he was just so damn cute. Just look at that grin! So... I guess I'm keeping him for now, and taking him out back to the woods for photoshoots. ._.
I was a bit surprised at how small he was; I'm pretty sure initial reports of the release had him labeled as a 12" plush rather than a 9". He's also a lot stiffer than I expected. All of the leaves on his body, including his tail, but not including his ears, are made of hard felt. Since there are so many leaves, this means there's plenty of semi-pointy things poking out of his body, making him not very huggable. The base of his tail is this weird plastic thing, probably to support the extra felt that's there, and the leaf on his head is sewn so that it twists, which makes me feel like I'll inadvertently mess it up somehow even though it seems pretty stable. The fabric of his body itself is pretty hard as well, which means he isn't very flexible and attempts to pose him generally end in failure.

Still, he stands up pretty well, and his ears are really soft compared to the rest of his body. And his little grin just makes it look like he's up to no good. Ridiculously adorable.

I tied a ribbon around his neck because I'm a gigantic dork. Or something.

Epic sun! Except not really... the sun wasn't bright enough to get any awesome lens flares. D;

I really wish Leafeon had a bit more flexibility so I could pose him better; it was really frustrating having to change environments so often because there wasn't much I could do with him standing in place. Still, I guess it looks like he's enjoying his trip out into the wilderness?

His camouflage is pretty decent!

What's this? A randomass one dollar happy flower from Wal-Mart?? Some kind of deformed Sunflora?? I dunno!

Then we found a printer that had been abused and abandoned in a shallow creek. Damn college kids.

Then, because Savannah has a disturbing population of hobos, we found an abandoned hobo house in the woods, sandwiched between the dorms and the freeway. :|

I felt kind of weird taking pictures of it because I kept expecting the residing hobo to pop up out of the rags or to come gallivanting down the hill. But there really couldn't have been anyone there really recently because there was grass and leaves all over everything, so yeah.

Leafeon approves of this adventure, even though his right ear got attacked by little plant spores.

Ivysaur kid figure and Ivysaur Friends plush demand a cameo appearance! D8 Read the rest of this entry...

Allergic to What You Love

I picked up a Fullmetal Alchemist Flamel's cross necklace for $15 at Ikkikon 2007. I'm a big fan of the symbolism and think the crossover relevance to actual alchemy is interesting. I wore it nonstop for about a year and a half. Seriously, I think I only took that thing off on three or four occasions in all that time (and I'm pretty sure a few of those times was so that I could wear my Kingdom Hearts crown necklace instead ;3). I had fun telling people that, no, I'm not a medical student, when they thought it was caduceus. It was also a pretty good conversation starter with the few I encountered that knew what it was. Necklaces are good. You can proudly proclaim your fandom without being overly obvious, and those who don't understand will just think it's a pretty design and never know that you're a flaming weeaboo!

Unfortunately, at the end of that year and a half period, I found that I was developing a weird rash on my neck about where the necklace was hanging. I ignored it for a while, but it only got worse. I didn't want to think it was the necklace's fault, but it was kind of hard to deny. So I took it off. In about two weeks, the rash was gone. I put the necklace back on. The rash was back in another week. Damn.

I puzzled over it for a while, but then I googled around and found out about nickel allergy. I had never heard of it before, but I had never been a big jewelry person either. Up until this stupid Flamel's cross, I had pretty much never worn necklaces. After reading about it though, I was sure that this was what it is. It's stupid. Completely stupid. You can develop this allergy at any time in your life even if you've never had it before. And after that, you'll be allergic forever. There is no cure! Now doesn't that just bloody suck.

I was all kinds of pissed when I realized I pretty much couldn't wear the necklace again without getting a rash, not to mention the small collection of other fandom-centric jewelry I'd gathered by that point. I think I have two or three KH-related necklaces, several random rings, and a Death Note bracelet, though that's not all metal. Most of the normal jewelry I have is probably still okay. The birthstone necklace some relative gave me ten years ago is still okay because it's surgical-grade stainless steel, but I never wore that anyway. It's not fair.

Do they make fandom jewelry that's hypoallergenic? I doubt it. There are a lot of fandom necklaces floating around the market, and a good portion of that is made up of bootleg designs. It's pretty easy to tell that a lot of the stuff is made of piss-poor quality materials, but I imagine that most people, for the sake of their fandom, would be willing to overlook it if the design is accurate enough. I guess it was stupid of me to have left the necklace on at all times, but it would have been annoying to have to take the thing on and off all the time, and after a while, I would have just left weird not wearing it. I don't think that I'm the only person to have fallen victim to this either. At the very least, I know of plenty of other people that wear the same damn fandom necklace all the time.

So what becomes of us? After we come down with this horrible, irreversible nickel allergy, what then? These days, my Flamel's cross sits deep in one of my drawers, never seeing the light of day. I am sad for it. I want to wear it, but I can't. I've thought about buying a hypoallergenic chain and just transferring the cross onto the new chain, but then the colors wouldn't match at all, and if the cross itself touched my skin, it would still cause rashes. And every time another necklace comes out with a design I like, I'd need to buy a chain to go with it.

I think they should just make hypoallergenic fandom jewelry. It's probably a generalization, but I think it'd make sense that people would be more likely to wear fandom-related jewelry for long periods of time, subjecting them to the nickel allergy. But at the same time, the people most likely to buy fandom-related jewelry probably include a lot of folks that don't care as much for quality or health issues. They'll snatch up the pretty design first and then suffer the consequences later. Like me! So where's the incentive for these manufacturers to swap out their cheap, nickel-infested metals for the nickel-free stuff? There's none.

So, to all you weeaboos out there who have yet to come down with this allergy, I'd suggest taking off your Squall Leonhart gunblade necklace now and again. It's a sad, sad day when you discover that rash on your neck. Read the rest of this entry...

Photoshoot: Sora, Valor Form (7" Kotobukiya figure)

You know, I'm actually kind of surprised at the prevalence of figure collecting across this community. Few people I know in real life do any serious (figure) collecting, and I'm not much of a serious collector either, especially considering my first figure was a gift. But I do like to consider myself an amateur photographer, so I thought it'd be fun to take some pictures of what figures I do have. The critic in me also wanted to write a review, but I didn't feel like taking pictures of all the little flaws in my figures, so uh... I dunno. I'll probably mention them anyway since a lot of the flaws affect how I can pose the figures, but no full-blown, formal review.

Sora wasn't my first figure (Axel was). He was the last thing I bought at Ikkikon in 2007 before barring myself from the Dealer's Room. I was going to get the Final Form version but decided that I liked the keyblades for the Valor Form better. (Valor has Fenrir and Fatal Crest; Final has Sleeping Lion and Fatal Crest.)

His very detailed, but because the figure seems to consider accuracy more important than articulation, and because Nomura's designs are consisently ridiculous, Sora's not all that flexible as a result. His arms can't be raised higher than his shoulders, it's very hard to bend his knees because of his pants, and it's generally stupidly difficult to get him to stand in different positions. A lot of the joints are also poorly made -- for example, Sora's shoes are made of three seperate pieces that don't fit together very well, so parts of it fall apart when you try to pose him. =_=

I guess it's not that big a deal if his purpose is just to stand and look awesome. Sorry he's a bit dusty in these photos by the way; he's been in storage all December, and I forgot to dust him before the shoot... which takes place on my ghetto desk setup consisting of a too-thin white cloth scrap (from a failed cosplay venture) and a few sheets of paper! Can you tell that I love playing with depth of field even though I'm not very skilled at it?

It was ridiculously hard getting him to stand like this. For a few shots I was actually trying to hold him steady with one hand and taking the picture with the other -- that didn't end up working out very well though. ;x


Emo pose is emo.

Stole Axel's chakram, lol~. It matches his costume so well though! :D The angle here makes me happy too.

Funny thing: Sora can hold Axel's chakram just as well as Axel can, if not better. The sad part is that Sora has pegs in his hands that are intended to fit into corresponding holes on his keyblades, but it never works out right somehow because of his fingers. Inversely, Axel has holes in his hands intended to fit with pegs on his chakram, but that never quite works out either. 8| I'll probably dust off Axel sometime this weekend and do a photoshoot of him next.

Sora's legs in this picture is pretty much all he can do with his legs without a lot of pain and anger.

Annnnd... Spirit Bomb / Kamehameha / Rasengan! 8D Read the rest of this entry...

Review: Ouran High School Host Club

I finished my review for Ouran High School Host Club. I'm still surprised at how great this series actually was, and really want to see a sequel for it. In the meantime, I think I'll make my way through the manga. I wonder how many chapters of material the anime actually covers? When will there be enough material for a sequel? :3

The first eight episodes of Host Club are available dubbed and streaming from FUNimation's website. The first three episodes are also available subbed. I highly recommend checking them out~.

As far as the winter season goes, the first episode of Kurokami was amazingly disappointing, and I think I might end up dropping the series after another one or two episodes if nothing improves. It's really too bad; Bandai picked a really risky series to put so much effort in. If Kurokami does go by the wasteside, I guess I can finish Darker than BLACK or something instead. Read the rest of this entry...

I Had a Dream in Japanese -- With Subtitles

A few nights ago, I had a dream. It was hazy, black and white, and I don't remember much of what happened. But I know the entire thing was in Japanese, and I know there were yellow subtitles floating there too. I woke up with the dialogue still bouncing around in my head. It was kind of disorienting. And kind of sad. I guess.

It's probably because I watched more anime in December than I ever have in a month. I had the entire month off from school, was stupid and didn't get a job in that time, and wasn't particularly motivated to do anything even vaguely relevant to my career. So I watched cartoons. Lots and lots of cartoons. Specifically, I ended up starting and finishing six whole series (Mushishi, Nodame Cantabile, Nodame Cantabile Paris-hen, Gundam 00 S1, Planetes, Ouran High School Host Club) and three movies/OAVs (Ghost in the Shell, 5 Centimeters per Second, GSD C.E. 73: Stargazer), all of which I've already reviewed except Host Club. I also started a half dozen other series that I've either put on hold or dropped: Ghost Hound (hold@1), Toshokan Sensou (drop@2), Seto no Hanayome (drop@3), Higurashi no Naka Koro ni (hold@7), Infinite Ryvius (hold@4), and Darker than BLACK (hold@5). I reread all of my Gundam Wing manga before I sold it, and I reread all of DOGS and Bullets and Carnage, not to mention keeping up with current episodes/chapters of Soul Eater, Gundam 00 S2, and Bakuman.

It's probably not impressive as some people's monthly consumption, but it's a lot for me, especially compared to the amount I watch when classes are in session or when I'm working in the summers (it took me a month to finish Spice and Wolf, a thirteen episode series, during school; it took me three days to catch up with thirty-five episodes of Gundam 00 during break). I've had too much anime on my brain, and that dream probably isn't the worst of it.

Is it bad that a lot of simple responses to every day situations come to me in Japanese first and I then have to translate it back into English before I respond? Is it bad that sometimes when I'm staring out the window and pondering random things, there seems to be a wave of Japanese gibberish chattering in the back of my head? It's not even just the Japanese thing. Usually, I feel pretty secure in my blatant otakuism and weeabooism. I don't really care what people think about my hobbies and don't mind bringing it up in conversations with friends as most of them are also fans of one degree or another. But sometimes it's hard not to wonder if you're becoming that kind of fan. Even the most confident of losers don't really want to be that guy, y'know?

I flew to New Orleans on Friday and was spending the night at my roommate's (parent's) place before we drove back to Savannah on Saturday. Every turn of the conversation seemed like the prime opportunity to talk about some anime I'd seen over break. It was ridiculous. There was some on and off storming when we were heading out to dinner. We saw a rainbow, and I wanted to mention that one episode of Mushishi (ep. 7). Later on, we were talking about classical music or something, and I wanted to recommend Nodame Cantabile. At the mention of dreams becoming reality, I wanted to relay that other episode of Mushishi (ep. 4). Sure, roomie's a fan too, but she has a dial-up connection at home and thus can't watch nearly as much as me (of course, I offered to transfer a few series to her before break, but it never happened :|), and even I would get annoyed after a while if someone talked continuously about anime to me. It always did bug me when some people related everything to anime (especially when it wasn't really related).

Maybe I get paranoid sometimes. I can't seem to find too many fans like myself in real life. People around me are either very casual fans or very annoying fantards. Where's the happy middle? I'd like to think that I'm a happy middle excepting those occasional ventures into fantard land, and it's in those moments that I get self-conscious and feel like a hypocrite. It's probably reasonable to allow for those occasional fantard moments, but it's a fuzzy line to draw. How much fantarding is too much fantarding? When you start dreaming in a language you only understand a few phrases in? When your every reaction to everyday conversation is in relation to some series you saw recently? When the itch to write fanfiction hits again?

It probably doesn't matter. Classes start tomorrow, and there shall be no more series binging for a while probably. Ports are blocked here, so there'll be no torrenting either until we get around to getting a router hooked up. Until then, I'll keep up with my weekly series by having my brother send them to me over AIM or making due with YouTube/Veoh. The only new series I'm picking up for this season is Kurokami, which, as I expected, never got news of an official stream. I wonder if anyone's actually lucky enough to catch it on TV? Going back to this reduced consumption will likely take a lot of the Japanese out of my head, but it might take a bit longer for the impulse to share other series I've seen recently to go away. Sharing is caring, and I care too damn much about these things.

I'm not particularly worried about this blog though. I'll still be keeping up with news and the aniblogosphere and such. I still have that review for Host Club to finish up and random other editorial-type topics in my head. I'll probably do some photoshoots of miscellaneous figures I have too, now that I'm reunited with my collection. I haven't really gotten around to taking many pictures with my shiny Canon Rebel after all. Feraligatr and the Zaku want more action! v_vV Read the rest of this entry...