Flashlight

When I began the poem, I immediatly liked it. No, I loved it. Absolutely wonderful wording, and you where always clear in your theme, yet obscure in exactly what you meant at the same time. Lovely. But (Unfortunately there's a but), I thought the line "On the day that I met my shadow" was far overused. I could see your pattern in using it every 2nd and 5th line, and it was thrilling for a while, but I kept seeing again and again, and for a poem of this magnitude, I eventually came to loath seeing it come up. If you could have found a way around it, that would have been good, but in the end, I guess, it's a small price to pay to read something this great. In the end, your poem has a rare beauty to it, something very special. I loved it and a eagerly await your next one. :)

Snow The snow had stopped falling, but much of it already covered the streets, dark and mysterious and beautiful at the same time. The cold air picked at my skin, and I shivered at the street corner. The cold had always affected me more so than others. I took a look at my watch. 7:32, exactly the same time it had read an hour ago. I think it?s safe to say it was more than a little cold that evening. I had been waiting at this street corner for what seemed like an eternity. Most would have just packed up and gone home. My sister already had. Yet, I remained, ever faithful that she would come. A young man from the café across the street brought me another cup of tea. ?You?ve been here for quite a few hours sir, and it doesn?t look like whoever you are waiting for is coming. Maybe you should just call it a night?? He was a nice young fellow, coming out to bring me another cup of tea every now and then, to make sure that I, this perfect stranger, was kept warm while I waited. His kindness was the only thing keeping me from going completely numb. ?That, I cannot do,? I answered him. ?Then whoever you are waiting for must be someone very special.? I paid him for the warm drink (he had long given up on trying to refuse my money) and sent him on his way. Sipping through the Styrofoam cup, I lazily glanced down the street. Everything seemed as if stopped in time. Not a creature stirred nor made a sound. All was quiet. I was alone. Suddenly, the wind picked up and I was hit with a gust of air, catching my jacket and dragging me back. As quickly as it had begun, it came stop. All was silent again. But, something was different. Something was wrong. Slowly, I peered over my shoulder, and something peered back at me. I think I screamed then. I honestly don?t know. All I can remember is that before me stood a great black, winged beast. Its great chest heaved in and out, and it?s tremendous wings beat into the air, thin black feathers falling to the ground with each flap. Powerful legs, leaning to one side, arms crossed, breathing loudly, it watched me. Finely structured face, a pointed chin, and a small mane of black hair, slightly darker than it?s fur. It was indeed very frightening, but, in bizarre light, it was also very beautiful. Its red eyes did not pierce into my soul with menace, but rather gazed into my heart with kindness, and understanding. I dared not go near it, but I did not run either. I simply waited. Great step after step, it reached for me, longed for me. A strong, delicate hand reached for me, stopping just short of my cheek, recoiling, as if afraid to defile me with it?s touch. [i]Welcome to the Choir[/i] With an immense heave of it?s wings, the beast pulled back and sank into the darkness. Azazeal Bakura Sheik It was gone, and once again, I was alone. I couldn?t believe my eyes. I truly couldn?t. Looking off into the night sky, positively blue from the cold, he was still there. Still waiting. Waiting for me. Without a word, I ran up and hugged him as hard and as tightly as I could. ?Leon!? I said, burying my face in his chest, ?You?re still here. I?m so late, yet your still here. Still waiting. Thank you! Thank you so much, I knew you wouldn?t break your promise, I just knew it. It was like something inside just told me you would be here, yet I?m still surprised! Say something damn it! ?Circulation?cut? can?t breath!? I immediately let go of him, shocked and a bit embarrassed. ?I, I was just, I?m, sorry!? He simply smiled at me. There was always such warmth in his eyes. Always so forgiving, incapable of holding a grudge. ?It?s good to see you,? He said, ?It?s been so long. Too long.? ?Yeah, it has. Sorry I was late, I missed my train and then the next one broke down, then when I got a ticket I found out my luggage had already been sent on a different train, but when I got here my luggage was no where to be found, and then I got hauled over by some officers who thought I had stolen something from an elderly passenger and?? ??Chris?? ??Finally after that was sorted out, they dropped me off at the wrong address, so I had to walk all the way here?? ??Christine?? ?Then I had to stop because, as you can imagine, I was quite hungry by then?? ??Christine!? I looked up. ?Yes?? Leon put his hand to his head and shook it miserably. ?Look,? He said, smiling again, ?Forget about all that for now. You can re-account me with your adventure later, let?s just get home and get something to eat. I?m sure Eve can whip something up.? ?Ok.? I hooked with has hand and leaned against him as we walked. ?Hey Leon, what time you got? My watch has been stuck at nine o? clock for the past hour.? ?Umm, Seven Thirty-Two.? --------- It's not finished, but I want to know how it's going so far. I'm kinda iffy when that thing, whatever it is (I don't know yet), show up. I'm not sure if I did a good job describing him without robbing from the moment. I'm also not sure if anyone will like that Leon seemed fairly unfazed by this when we switch to Christine's perspective. Anywho, if you have the time, please share your thoughts on this piece. :)

I personally loved The Secret Window. By the time the ending rolled around, I had pretty much guessed what was going to happen. It's fairly predictable, but I loved the way it was pulled off. Johnny Depp is sincerely one of the greatest actors of the decade, in my opinion. He just made the ending sooo good. I was fairly speechless by the time it ended. Not that it was that uber uber great, just that it's not a movie I felt like talking about when we were leaving the theatre (Infact, I don't think anyone was talking much as the theatre emptied. Then again, it was an afternoon show, so their weren't many people there). The little touches of symbolism where nice, and I'm really really glad [spoiler] that they didn't show that dog after it was killed. [/spoiler] Overall, it was a good movie. Worth watching in theatres, I think :)

My favorite death sequence has to be from the old mario games. How he grabs his face, mouth wide open, then falls off screen. Hilariously classic. My favorite death scene on the other hand... I don't really have one. Too many come to mind :)

Enjoyable. :) I thought you used to many words at times though. Like the fourth line, "onto" could ahve been just "on". But, then there are times when it's just right, like the first and second line. Those two lines hooked me in. [QUOTE]I was blind mentally then, and I am physically blind now.[/QUOTE] I didn't like this line. Your saying back then you where to busy to notice, so you where blind to it mentally, and now your physically blind, as in you've lost the use of your eyes entirely, correct? I think it was too straightforward for this poem. You should have been a bit more vague in saying this, I think. But, I really did like it. This is your first entry to this board? You did splendid, I say, absolutely splendid. Only thing about this board though, you won't get noticed much when you first start posting, but don't give up! I certainly haven't yet :)

That was rather enjoyable :) [QUOTE]The now you made, was broken right then How the real woman was waiting til? when[/QUOTE] I really liked this part. It flowed rather nicely. The ending was good as well. I found it slightly abrupt, but that fits. I didn't like the rhyming pattern though. One thing to remember is that you don't have to rhyme to make a good poem. Some of my favorites barely rhyme at all. The important thing for a poem is to have a nice flow, but unfortunatly it can feel like you may be going out of your way to rhyme the words (Though, in this case, there where times when I felt it was rather clever aand nice, like determination and rotation), and that breaks the flow. This happened sometimes here, like: [QUOTE]The touch of her lips, couldn?t match those of whose they should It?s not like she?d do anything, it?s not like she could[/QUOTE] or [QUOTE]No one?s stopping you on this unexpected ride You?ll only have memories, them as your guide[/QUOTE] That extra little bit added there just for the sake of rhyming really didn't need to be, and the poem would be better without it. This is just my opinion though, and I'm sure there will be others who by and large disagree with me. Overall though, I really enjoyed it. You should feel proud. :D

1.The earliest anime I series I can remember watching was either Samurai Pizza Cats (Was that the title? I think so...) or Dragon Ball. But, I think that was before I even started school :sweat: :blulaugh: When I actually discovered what anime was, I watched Evangelion. That was about 2 1/2 years ago. 2. Well, I was kinda always was a bit picky. I always new what I was there to get and rarely ever picked up anything on a whim. But, if your asking if I've turned into the kind of fan who only buys the best of the best of anime, I am in no way like that. I'll go for critically acclaimed films when they interest me of course, but I'm still entertained by even the most mundain anime (Not that there is anything wrong with going for the "Higher up" anime ;) ) 3. No. With the more anime I watch and the more manga I read, the more knowledge I gain. I've learned so much in the time since I first got into anime, and thusly my appreciation for current anime ,and some anime from when I started, has grown tenfold. So, my tastes haven't really changed. I guess that's because I never really had any particular tastes to begin with. It's impossible to watch an anime and not compare it to others, but my policy is, and always has been, to just have fun while watching it. Just try to have as much fun as you possibly can :D

We've had like 1 snowday in the past 20 years or something. It's always snowing up here. Actually the weather's really unpredictable. We could be dying on heat stroke in june, then the next day we have a few feet of snow outside our windows. :( Anywho,back to the question. If I was stuck inside for a week, I would probably sleep a whole lot. A little bit of anime here, games there, maybe a call or two to the outside world (You know, make sure that there still is an outside world), but mostly sleep. Yeah, sleep is good... :sleep:

It's been a while since I've written something post worthy, but I churned out this poem today, and I want to hereeveryones thoughts. And please, be brutal. I strive to get better. :) (Note that the format has been skewed a bit as I copied direct from MS Word, but not a whole lot) ---------- Half Breed Seventeen years past I look at my life I was so tired of being all alone I remember my momma always told me to be strong And that someday I?d find a place where I belong Take a step back Fall into my shoes And see what I did wrong Somehow I ruined my life From the moment I was born? [I]Half Breed[/I] They called me Hurling rocks at my feet Chasing me down the sidewalk And on to the street What did it mean, What did I do? I would quickly find out And not a moment to soon [I]Half Breed[/I] I remember running up to my momma On a hot summer day My arms were cut and bled And my shirt was all red As she cleaned me up And put me down I hugged her tight And asked: ?Momma, what?s a half breed?? She couldn?t answer All she did was cry Hold me tight Don?t let go tonight It was then I learned About the hand I was dealt I was a demon And pain was all I felt Half Lorien, half human Shunned by both And accepted by none Except for my momma, Dear sweet momma, She loved me from the day I was born Half this half that, didn?t matter to her She loved me And that?s all that mattered In heaven, hell, or earth [I]Half Breed[/I] I pulled away Struck it out on my own I was tired of being all alone Wherever I went, It seemed I was blamed for terrible deeds. Should I pass through town People ran like I was the plague Though I would never touch a hair on their crown In search of others like me From the chains of loneliness I wished only to be free I remember my mommas words: Be strong Hold on And you?ll find a place where you belong But my strength was fading And my grip was loose Then someone appeared And offered a truce Pretty face Dark blue eyes Fragile little body That cringes when she cries For once, Someone wasn?t looking down on me Wasn?t picking on me Was actually looking at me with warmth She said I must be cold And I have to come inside For fear that out here I may die She held me tight And all those bitter feelings were gone And for once I wasn?t all alone All my life people picked on me Tormented me Because I had committed the sin of being born Understanding is a state of mind If your different If you feel like you done something wrong And you just want to belong Just remember that you?re not alone. Just be strong Hold on And you will find somewhere you belong I did, and look at where it got me. Now I am proud to say: I?m a Half Breed. ---------- Hope you enjoyed it!

Junyi, all I can say is your going way to fast. You really need to slow down and take your time. Give us some actual characters. One of the boys went mad and through himslef over board you say? First you need to tell us why we should care! Right now it seems more like a concept than a story. I'm sure if you slowed down a lot and gave us a reason to care about what was happening, you could be an excellent writer. :)

Uresei Yatsura was one of the first aime I ever heard of. I've always been interested in it, but I've never actually seen it though. I think that they are, or already have, released an "updated" version of the movies.. Basically, better sound quality and a new (And a good) dub. Since my brother prefers dubbed, I think I'll wait for that. :) I have read some of the manga, it's really good (And fun!) :)

Hey, has anyone seen the Blue Gourry Pencil board? I was wondering if they are still around, at cons and stuff. Here's a link to a page with a picture of it: [url]http://ryen.net/sale/shitajiki/slayers/[/url] I love the way Gourry is drawn, very cool and mysterious. The colours really set a nice tone. If anyone has seen this pencil board anywhere except online stores, I would greatly appreciate it if you told me. :) And, was anyone else a little unnerved with the image of [spoiler] Hellmaster Phabrizzo when he died. As he was running, then went poof. Kids shouldn't look like that... Even if they really aren't just kids. :( [/spoiler]

Animation styles really depend on the show, but a few things I generally hate are bad use of CGI effects/blending, use of too many stills, or just little things like that. Most of my list probably goes the same with anything. One thing you should remember about Lupin the Third is that it is a fairly old show. (One thing I hate about the dub on CN is that some jokes or lines have been updated for modern times). For it's time, the animation was great. :)

I've never read the manga, but I have seen the first 2 episodes of the series. I hated it. Frankly, it bored me. I can't say exactly what it was about it that bored me as I watched it sometime last year and can't remember all to well, but I remember that me and my brother couldn't stand it anymore, so we left the theatre (it was at a con) as fast as we could (Leaving his 2 friends there, unaware of our departure). As for what you said about the series straying from the manga's order, I can't say I'm too surprised. It happens a lot. :(

Should someone on these boards explain the ending to you, I can garuantee that anyone else will have a different answer. It's very open to interpretation. I'm just going to give you a brief (Very very brief) explination as to what me and a few of my friends believe has happened at the ending: [spoiler]Third impact has happened and everyone has become one being (Well, everyone is now exactly the same ie: Rei). and since everyone is exactly the same, so this means no more sadness, jealiousy, happiness, ect... And it's up to Shinji to decide whether to keep the human race this way or do give them back indaviduality. We don't know what Shinji chooses, we can only venture a guess.[/spoiler] That's all I'm going to say for now. My friends and me recently started discussing it again, and frankly I'm a bit sick (Both mentally and physically) of talking about it. Try to figure out what it means for you, pay attention to the plethora of symbolism thrown about. I truly don't think anyone really gets it. There's just too many ways every little thing can be interpreted. One other thing to keep in mind though: One reason Anno Hideaki made this movie is to just piss off angry fans. Alot of people were angry at him because they didn't like the final episodes of the TV show, some even sent him death threats and such (The kanji near the end is bits and pieces of some letters he recieved). He doesn't want you to get it. :)

How much I spend really depends. I usually just choose something, save up, and buy it. Sometimes it's a 30 dollar DVD, sometimes it's 200 dollar box set. If I want it though, I'll usually be willing to pay anything to get it. :)

Well, the first question you should ask yourself is: Is anime really in the process of revolutionizing america? Next, are you addressing anime as a whole, or are you going to use specific titles. To say anime boosts your intellect would be, well, a little stupid. Watching, say, Ranma 1/2 or Slayers or Azumanga Daioh, you can't really say any of those anime really have a huge impact on my mind. I've seen a lot of people say they want to write something on anime, usually in the form of an essay or whatever, and rarely do they have any idea what they are talking about. It seems like a good idea, but just turns out stupid on paper, because anime is just to big. When writing this essay, don't refer to it as anime, but say things like "In specific genre's of anime" or "In this anime title" to get your point across. Anime doesn't boost your intellect, but some specific shows might, so say "Some anime, such as... can be a major boost of intellect" or whatever. Something like that. Your going to have to be a bit vague in some places. Writing skills are really going to be important. I hope this helps, and if not I'll post more (And I'm sure others will too!)!. Goodluck with it, it seems like you have some good ideas :D

fool Cool This, you really need to work on your grammer and spelling. It's bad on a consistant basis, and makes your posts a bit hard to understand. Love Hina again is already out. It's basically a recap of the end of the manga, as the television series didn't make it that far and fans wanted some closure. I personally haven't seen it yet, but it's supposed to be very poor. It tries to fit a big chunk of the manga into 3 OVA's, so most scenes end up very condiensed and make very little sense. And, some people said to me that there is an excessive amount in fan service. I thought it was a bit much in the series :( So, the new manga is supposed to be filled with bonus material? Like what? I enjoyed what was include in the back of the tokyo-pop volumes that I've read, it was interesting, but is that all this Iro-Hina is? Or is it like extra side stories and such. If it's only little tidbits and sketches and such, it seems kinda a waste.

Eve? What's eve? I've never heard of it, sorry:( If you mean Eva (Evangelion), there are two threads on the first page already, so you should ask in there (I'm think a mod will probably close this). As for my answer, I'd give it about a 1/1000 chance. Eva is pretty much over, only thing now are the two new DVD's that are kind of redoing the last couple of episodes with extra footage, ect. :)

I bit of CG here and there is just fine for me. If they artists can blend the CG and non CG effectivly, then I welcome them to go ahead, but usually this isn't the case :( I prefer traditional animeation all the way, but I try to keep an open mind. It can be bad or good, all depends on the series, so I welcome the artists to take some risks. :)

Thinking about art style , you can't say that it's really specific. Compare the art styles of say, Studio Ghibli to something more cutesy like Azumanga Daioh or Slayers, or something much more darker (I can't think of many examples right now, I just woke up). As the other users have said before, it's all about the, well, the style. The certain feeling it gives off. I'm being a little vague here, but it's hard to be more specific. If you see cartoons on TV, like say, um, spongebob squarepants, you just no to yourself that's not anime. Then you see something like Kenshin, and you just now that's anime. I do think where it comes from has a lot to do with whether or not it's anime. Anime used to be referred to from many places (Stores, ect) in North America as Japanimation, which was short for Japanese Animation. But, even though there's a fair amount of anime that doesn't come from japan, it's all tributed to japan. Korea, China, they are all their own unique and indavidual countries, but they are also very similar in beliefs and costumes (Not saying that all their beliefs and costums, ect. Are exactly the same, but similar), so as long as it comes from, what I will refer to as somewhere "over there", it's anime. American animation just hasn't reached that level yet. This is how I define anime, not from japan, but if it's from somewhere over there, and it gives off this certain vibe (And a lot of the vibe does come from the animation, even though as I said animation styles can vary), it's anime. :)

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Arkadyz [/i] [B][color=silver][font=times new roman][b]Lets just all agree we love anime in all its forms and have a big hug. :whoops: [/color][/font][/b] [/B][/QUOTE] Words to live by. Mind if I quote you in my sig? Is it really only 33 bucks? I thought it would be somewhere in the forties. :) Hopefully I can get my hands on it soon.

It seems I misunderstood you a bit the first time SadClown, and I apoligize for it. Your right that in some cases the dub can destroy a character, infact that's how it is to me most of the time, but then there are some cases (Very rare, but it has happened) in which the dubbed voices have portrayed the character better than the sub voices. In Rurouni Kenshin movie and Trust and Betrayal OVA's, I felt J. Shannon Weaver portrayed Kenshin much better than who ever did his voice in japanese (The name escapes me at the moment). And Isuka (In trust and betrayal), his japanese VA was, in my opinion, pathetic. He had literally no energy, and the guy who did the dub did a much better job than him in my opinion. Subs are usually better, so I can see where your coming from and your arguement is pretty valid, but even the japanese VA's can get it wrong sometimes, so you just gotta keep an open mind. But your statements are pretty justified. :) Anywho, I'm getting wayyy off topic here, so: When's the second DVD coming out, and how much does the first one cost (In Canadian dollars if you can)? :)

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Tsukasamaster [/i] [B]Okay I will try to do a little better on the Grammer and everything else but I got kinda a small problem! the Lagoto pics are gone! where else would I be able to find them at???? if you cant help me just please try! [/B][/QUOTE] What do you mean the Legato pics are gone? Just going to the character shrines section I saw at least 4 Legato shrines on the first page. I visited the first one and it hand plenty of images of Legato. As Dan Rugh said, you can't expect us to do everything for you. Just enter Legato pics into google and you should come up with a fair number of good sites easily, and it would also be much faster to do it yourself rather than awaiting replies here anyways. It's perfectly fine to ask for some help finding things, me and many, many other board member would be happy to help, but we can't do all the work.

Hi, you must be new, so welcome to the Otaku boards. For requesting banners or avatars, there is a board called avatar/banner request (It's second from te bottom of the list). Ask there and I'm sure someone will help you out. For pictures of Legato (And if your trying to find any sites about any anime show), I reccomend you check out [url]www.anipike.com[/url] Just go to T-Z under anime/manga series, and scroll down until you find Trigun. I am sure you will find what your looking for (Also, I'm feeling a bit lazy at the moment :sleep: ) And on another note, take your time with your posts. Use proper grammer, and spell out words correctly. This isn't a chat room where you need to type fast, you have time here, so use it. Enjoy your time spent here at the Otaku boards :)