Pic O' the Week

This Picture was found on www.animevice.com

AMV 2

Alright, time for the amv's of the week ^^'

The first AMV worth mentioning is an Ouran HSHC AMV. This video is set to the song Puttin' on the Ritz, which, if you havent watched it yet, totally goes with the anime. The video was made by AbhorsenTeo and posted on youtube.com, check it out at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8cN-jaejlU&feature=PlayList&p=78B3234CC38E1F4C&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=27
Due to the video's perfect timing and humorous choice of music, I give this AMV a 3/3.

My second AMV of choice is from the anime Bleach, the song, Sandstorm by Darude, gives you a high only Bleach or Hard Drugs could otherwise supply. The amv was made by anothertazn and is warth watching, I give it a 2/3 because of visible subtitles in some scenes that I find annoying.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Al74PMu4ww

And last but not least is and AMV based off an anime I don't know, if you know by all means feel free to fill me in. The maker of this video is Nostromo, known for making beautiful videos, I have to give it a 5/3 due to it sheer awesomeness, please try not to cry all over your keyboard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxycfmmI9h0&feature=PlayList&p=7D02D569DEF7DE9C&index=2

Ouran HSHC Review

This week's review will be on an anime called Ouran High school Host Club.

Ouran is what Otaku like me like to call a base anime. This is the kind of anime that you're almost certain to see at any kind of cosplay convention. Other animes that fall into this category are Bleach, Naruto, Pokemon etc... Anime that people should watch at least a couple episodes of before trying to talk to anybody with a similar tastes for Japanese entertainment.

Now just because lots of people know about and enjoy a certain anime doesn't mean its bad or poser-ish to watch and like (unless you're watching Naruto... you know who you are), in fact, it can be the exact opposite. In this case it falls under the later rather than the former.

The reason why this anime is so popular is obvious, it funny enough that, even after you plop your face into your ramen in a fit of laughter, you'll still be cracking up. Think I'm giving this anime too much credit?

Just ask yourself, what kind of profit could a poor high school student with minimal views on a blog possibly make off of lying to their readers? Exactly. Absolutely none, thus my pockets are still empty except for year old chap stick and a few quarters should I spot a stray gumball machine, but that's another story, for another, nonexistent time.

Okay, so this anime falls into the angst/depression category. Lol, just kidding, it's a comedy... shocker.

It starts off when a nerdy looking student named Haruhi stumbles into a host club meeting while trying to find a quiet spare room to read in. The student enters the room and finds a bunch of teenage boys staring back at them.

After being introduced, and hilariously seduced, as is the job of an Ouran High School Host, the student backs away from the boys. In doing so Haruhi bumps into a vase, before the anxious nerd could grab it, however, the expensive piece of artwork falls to the ground and shatters all over the floor.

A moment of “oh crap what have I done?” Flashes before you, reflected in Haruhi's petrified eyes.

It turns out the Host Club was planning to sell that vase in an up coming auction and the poor disgruntled teenager is indebted to them for eight million yen (roughly 900,000. American dollars). Oh, right, did I mention that the school all of the students attend is a wealthy prep school and that the only reason Haruhi is possibly able to attend is through hard work and excellent test scores? Yeah, that's right, Haruhi is as poor as a dog, which is exactly what the

Host club refers to him as now due to the fact that Haruhi has become the groups errand boy to pay off the debt.

When surrounded by a bunch of men whose hobby depends on looking well and attracting females, it becomes painfully obvious that sooner or later, the poor nerd will get a make-over.

The host club, after taking off Haruhi's glasses, realize that the student has beautiful eyes and the club president can't contain himself for long. In a forthright act of humanitarianism he orders the six members to call his various beauticians and immediately come help him turn the beast into a beauty.
But, soon the show is DQ cone-d with a twist. I guess you'll have to finish the first episode to find out what that is.. Magical powers maybe? Crack addictions? Ninjas? Half naked women? Demon Puppets? Lord Voldemort? Maybe... then again maybe not...

This anime gets a ten out of ten for making me lose a few pounds with laughter.

Pictures were taken from the actual anime itself.

The Boy Who Pwned

This one goes out to all of the Otaku who run to army surplus stores and randomly buy ninja weapons for no reason whatsoever. This is for you guys who day dream the school day away making up scenarios about bank robbers and terrorist attacks (ninja terrorist) that always end with you pwning noobs with a samurai sword, even if the enemy's equipped with semi-automatics.

Its finally happened, the day all those dreams come true has been upon us.
One weekday night a student attending John Hopkins University heard a noise in his backyard, having been robbed earlier that week he was aware of the possibility of another attempt.

Like any otaku would, he grabbed his samurai sword and went out to investigate the disturbance.

As he made his way towards the garage behind his house he noticed that its door had been opened. A man "lunged" from the darkness of the doorway and the student reacted in a way anyone, when being attacked by a veteran criminal (convicted for similar crimes nearly 30 times), would react.

Police say that the student swiped at the man if not once, no more than two times, and he bled to death on the spot.

Now, I wasn't there... but some small voice in the back of my head is telling me that the fight went somewhat like the one below, be sure to watch carefully for clues in this amazingly accurate reenactment made by the creators of Bleach.



Is'nt it just incredible what people can do with modern technology? I can't believe we can witness the entire act right there, almost exactly how it actually happened.

Personally I'm more of a tonfa fan myself, and since when you begin training you end up hitting yourself more than anyone else you know exactly what your enemy will be experiencing. Plus you don't run the risk of stabbing someone to death.

The facts in this post were ripped from an article at www.baltimoresun.com and the tonfa picture was taken from www.gungfu.com.

Aoi Hana Review

Alright, this week’s anime review will be on an anime called Aoi Hana (that's blue flowers in Japanese).

Aoi Hana, unbeknownst to my friend and I when we started watching it, is actually a soft yuri anime. But if that doesn’t turn you off completely then this anime deserves to be given a chance.

The topics in this anime revolve around the romance and psychological growth of the main characters. It all starts off with introducing Fumi Manjome, the main character. She’s the typical shy girl type found in anime, stuttering problem, bangs, blushing, throw in some glasses and she has it all. In the very first episode it’s obvious to tell she’s undergone some emotional trauma, which her cousin points out and subtly rubs in her face, it gives some background to her timid behavior. She is currently a high school student, attending Fujigaya Girls Academy. As you can probably figure out by the name it’s an all girl’s school (and you know what that means…).

On her way to school Fumi meets Akira Okudaira, who was a friend of Fumi’s when they were children, though she doesn’t realize it at the time.

Akira is basically a fire-cracker in human form with her bright orange hair, constant excitement, and energetic personality. Though Fumi and Akira are exact opposites they even each other out pretty well. Their relationship could be compared to a yin-yang.

Akira is who Fumi goes to for advice, which becomes very helpful when Fumi develops a crush on a popular upperclassman named Yasuko Sugimoto. Yasuko is portrayed in the beginning as almost a faultless being. She’s beautiful, great at sports, and intelligent, which aids her in being the most popular girl enrolled the academy. It goes without saying that Fumi is not the only one with a crush on her.

Still, Yasuko notices the attention of Fumi and decides to ask her out. The two start dating and you slowly start to realize that Yasuko is not without fault also. Yasuko had a crush on a boy she knew she could never have. That’s right, a boy enters the story, or a man.

The anime is filled with its fair share of plot twists ranging from arranged marriages to unrequited love. It definitely won’t leave you bored, unless you’re only entertained by swords and gunfights (which is fine, but this totally isn’t for you). The animation is great, the drawing is pleasing to the eye, and the movements are smooth as glass.

The only failure I see is a lack of movement between the character’s locations, it seems the whole anime you’re either at school, Fumi’s house, or the train station. The places vary a little more than that but not much. All in all though, I feel this anime deserves an 8/10 and I don’t regret watching it.

The Dangers of Ramen

This blog will touch a subject of sensitivity for any loyal otaku. This blog will touch the subject of Ramen.

As most of us know, ramen can be a source of great beauty or of great pain. The “instant”, or at least three minuets or under, food source is made commonly among baby-sitters, college students, and anime nerds alike. It’s what ties a lot of people together whether they know it or not, yet it has the power to tear us apart.

Okay, maybe it’s only the fangirls sumo wrestling over the last bowl of the artificially flavored noodles that tear each other apart, but nonetheless, people get injured, and I blame the ramen.

The other day I opened up a cup of the instant demon, ripping the rim off slowly like one would rub a magic lamp. Sentimental feelings of Anime Iowa wafted over my body imbedded in the smells of fake shrimp seasoning. Tears rose in my eyes until I was interrupted by the high pitched beeping of my microwave. The water I had set in it was now heated. I grabbed the bowl eagerly, burning myself in the process, but at the time it was worth it. I poured the water into the cup and waited for eternity until the noodles were softened.

After I finished the steamy hot cup of plague, I slunk to my room and did not wake until the next day. The ramen that I had once so trusted and loved had turned against me, waging a war in my stomach that only teaspoons of Sprite and vegetable broth could amend.

I think it’s time the world knows how easy it is to make the true ramen, not the disgusting excuse they pump into plastic bags.

So what do you think, are you ready for it?

If you’re willing to stand up with me and march to your local super market, then please, do so. If you’re the lazy type and nobody is currently logged into Facebook chat, then by all means continue reading, this post may change your way of life.

Go to your corner market (support the small business if possible, forget the man) and buy these ingredients.

Chinese Cabbage
Normal Cabbage
Onions
Miso Soup Base (important)
Chives
Sea Weed (it’s not bad in soup, trust me)
Thin, Ramen like noodles (please not spaghetti, nor ramen in a cup noodles)
Olive oil (any oil works really… except automobile oils)

These are the ingredients chosen to create the POWER PUFF GI- sorry, caught up in the moment… to create a simple miso ramen. Now for the simple directions,

Get out a big pan and put it on the stove on medium.

Put a couple tablespoons of the oil down, enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

Throw in a few of the chopped chives (save a bit for toppings)

Throw in all of the onion and the cabbages, cook them together for a little bit.

Add water until it covers the ingredients and turn up the heat.

Add Miso soup base until you think it has enough flavor.

Cook it all, stirring occasionally.

When the water starts to boil add the seaweed and noodles, then you don’t have to worry about straining them later, keep stirring to make sure the noodles don’t stick together.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Take out an awesome spork and serve the ramen into separate bowls.

Decorate the bowls with the chives to make it look pretty.

Now you can feast without fear.

All of these ingredients can vary due to taste, feel free to change the amounts and types of things you put into the ramen. I hope you enjoy your meal, and if you don’t… at least it was good for you…

Weekly AMV

Top amv’s…

So what does it take for an amv (animated music video) to be considered top quality? It takes blood, sweat and tears man. The amv has to be something a god would drool over. I’m talking perfect music quality, synchronization between the beats and the movement, and even the ability to make a robot cry, laugh, or punch their grandma in the face.

The people who create these masterpieces are often not given enough of the credit they deserve. It takes a lot of time and searching to find the perfect clips and sound to convey the effect they desire. That’s why I’m going to do a top three amv’s of the week post…. Weekly.

*warning, amv’s may contain spoilers*

This is what I hope to be a good way to make sure some people’s videos are seen. Maybe some people might even grow to give these artist a bit more of the love and affection that they need to grow big and strong…

The first amv I will be crediting is, Galaxy bounce by Nostromo. I’ve never watched the movie before but I will as soon as I complete this post ^^. The name of the anime in the amv is Pale Cacoon and the song is Life Light, by Andy Hunter. Great song, mood, and synch, I give it a three out of three.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm5MTej1a3o

This next amv is by SapphireStar26 who can be found on YouTube. Normally Bleach amv creators just kind of add rock music to the back of an action scene, which is easy to do and doesn’t take much skill. Yet this amv mixes and matches different scenes from the anime and does a pretty good job still staying with the beat. One thing I would change is the amount of blinking with the anime. For that reason I give number two a two out of three.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n3bqv3opko

And now for the last amv of the week, this last one’s a Toradora! amv by yxha21. Finally something good has come from emo music. It’s a cute amv that made me blush a couple times, catching the very spirit of the anime it’s representing. It’s an amv definitely worth watching, and that’s why I give it a three out of three.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bJzGXzIHCE

Toradora

All right, this review is on an anime called ToraDora (Just between you and me, it can be found on zomganime dot com).

Toradora is your basic romantic comedy of an anime. The main characters are a boy named Ryuji Takasu and a girl named Taiga Aisaka. The boy, Ryuji, is normally judged by passersby as the “tough guy” type, due to his intimidating eyes that he inherited from his wayward father. Of course, just because that’s what others think doesn’t mean that’s who he really is. So who is Ryuji really? Well, you’ll have to watch the show to really understand him, but let’s just say cleaning and cooking are some of his hobbies.

Then there’s Taiga (Taiga’s a straight up beast, no really, the word taiga is the Japanese pronunciation of tiger). She’s the exact opposite of Ryuji in just about every way, with her big eyes and her small stature she looks about as harmful as a fifth grader, but she’s very well known around her school for her dangerous attitude.

Her classmates have even given her the nickname ‘Palmtop Tiger’ that fits her personality perfectly.

Now, it would be easy to note that these two, upon meeting, don’t exactly hit it off right away, in fact they probably end up getting hit a lot more.

Their early relationship involves a lot of glaring, mistakes, and getting pummeled with a bokken (mainly stemming from Taiga’s viscous personality).

I can, however, say that eventually Taiga and Ryuji become pretty good friends without giving away much of the plot-line.

Their different personalities make them constantly entertaining, or at the least interesting to watch. Ryuji takes on a role similar to a mother to Taiga, and Taiga basically turns into a slave driver, yet you can tell even when she bosses him around that there’s a certain tenderness laced into her commands.

Ryuji doesn’t seem to mind taking care of Taiga, probably because he has to take care of his own mother (who works at a bar in the city and comes home drunk almost every night) the same way.

Yet, it’s not just a direct transformation from foe to friend; they both need something else from one another. Ironically, they both have rather large crushes on each other’s best friends, and they try to help one another achieve a relationship with them.

Their goal becomes a bit more difficult when everyone else in the school starts to think that they’re spending all this time together because they have a ‘thing’, when the reality is that they’re just plotting how to set each other up.

All in all with a well thought out plotline and good animation, I would have to give this anime a nine out of ten.