Osmosis

Hmm, let's see I really like Matt Redman's works- Blessed Be Your Name and Trading My Sorrows comes to mind immediately. I also enjoy Steven Curtis Chapman quite a bit, though I haven't heard anything really recent by him. Why them? I feel they really understand the essence of Christianity in their songs... God's love for us, and their songs are real responses to that love. And yes, it's VERY encouraging to meet other children of God on the net! :D

One thing that sorta bugs me in Inuyasha is how weapon sizes and shapes seem to change from moment to moment. Tetsusaiga in particular seems to suffer from this. One scene it seems to be longer than Inuyasha is tall, yet much shorter the next scene. Some of this is probably perspective changes, but I'd have never guessed it would make THAT much of a difference. Another thing is how Tetsusaiga's shape doesn't seem to be stable... sometimes it's got a really sharp curve, other times you can barely notice the curve, even when looking at it from the same perspective.:confused: Oh well, since it IS a magical sword that transforms, that can probably be explained away/forgiven, but it is kinda jarring at times.

In my experience and observation, a large part of emotional maturity is the acceptance of situations and circumstances even when they're not going "your" way. For instance, some people I know just MUST have everything around them exactly according to their own desires and will- if anything isn't going their way, they make a big racket and fuss over it. On the other hand, other people I know don't get so worked up just because they don't get what they want- sometimes it's impossible to get what you want, or other times your own desires need to be subordinate to the greater need or good. I think maturity comes hand-in-hand with the realization and acceptance that there's more to life and the world than just the [I]I[/I] ; I want, or I need, or I should get whatever.

Hmm... I always thought that Planescape: Torment would make a pretty good anime mini-series. It's got a compelling story, great characters that really are fleshed out, a funky setting, and some powerful themes: love, betrayal, the evolution of character, etc.

What would be REALLY nasty is if they actually verified your deleting all mp3 files as part of their "amnesty" program which really isn't. That would mean they'd have some way of digging through your computer, going through each and every folder and file on [I]on your personal computer.[/I]

Well, personally the best I've seen (actually heard, haha) so far would have to be Cowboy Bebop (the series, haven't seen the movie), Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke. As everybody's been saying, the Cowboy Bebop dubs just [I]fit[/I] the characters- appearance and behavior. I guess I'd say the same thing for SA and PM. One very important plus is that in all of them the dialogue never felt ackward or forced to me, as is the case with quite a few other dubs. Now the worst to my mind definitely is Inuyasha. Inuyasha is probably my favorite series, but the dub feels so totally butchered. With the semi-exception of Inuyasha and maybe Shippo, all the voices feel totally off. High pitched squeaky Kagome, deadpan Miroku, flat-voiced Sesshoumaru, and especially Kaede's wince-inducing attempt at Old English are just painful. The other really painful part is just how they totally butchered name pronounciation, which also happened in the Ranma 1/2 dub. At times it feels like none of the voice actors were ever shown the original Japanese dialogue! Add to that the ackward translations, and the whole experience is just... gah.

One of the worst dubs I've ever heard has got to be the Inuyasha dub. The voices just feel so off, like Valley Girl style Kagome and the completely flat and emotionless voice of Sesshoumaru. Inuyasha's voice is all right- he has that sort of irritable whiny quality of Inuyasha's character, while Kaede's is just... painful...

Well, my parents have always been sorta neutral about it. Well, my father has been, anyways. My mother... not so much. We're Chinese, and my mother's family still carries quite a bit of bitterness about the Japanese occupation of China during World War 2, and that bitterness has sort of evolved into a distaste for most things Japanese. She doesn't actively oppose it, she just wonders what I see in it. I have noticed that my parents now sometimes stay up to watch Inuyasha with me on the Cartoon Network though, haha! :D

Well to me personally one of the reasons is because anime is one of those art mediums where insanely exaggerrated things don't feel out of place. Take Ranma 1/2 for instance- the male characters get knocked skywards for dozens of meters without a second thought. Or Kare Kano, where Yukino's private thoughts and emotions get chucked up onto the screen at very rapid paces. I can't see live action pulling this kind of thing off believably. I also can't see the often larger-than-life characters of anime being portrayed in live action... it just doesn't seem to fit.

I was wondering if it would be possible to allow authors of fan articles to get some feedback from readers or such. Feedback is one of the best ways for writers to grow, and it'd be nice to be able to let the writers know what we think about their articles, give suggestions, that sorta thing.

I think it's one of those Grandfather Paradox type things. Kagome's shattering of the Shikon no Tama means that the Shikon no Tama was originally shattered in her own time as well. The Noh Mask was carved from a tree that had a Shikon shard embedded in it. Then Kagome retrieves the shard from the Noh mask back in her own time, thereby enabling the completion of the Shikon no Tama in the feudal era. Basically for all intents and purposes that particular Shikon shard never really went missing because it was retrieved so soon by Kagome. It's enough to make anybody's head hurt just thinking about it.:drunk: The other part about Kagome's actions in the feudal era causing changes in her own timeline is also part of that whole time travel theory that everything was actually [I]supposed[/I] to be that way because she was supposed to effect changes. Essentially- A causes B which causes A. Some kinda wierd loop thing.:whoops:

Personally I think the whole "video games cause violence" thing is bollucks. Why? Well for one, video games really are a sort of a luxury good. I highly doubt that people in many violent areas in the world even have access to video and computer games. And yet we see that they can be just as violent if not more so than people who have access to this kind of entertainment. Warning: gruesome picture below- [URL=http://]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/030517/168/43iy4.html&e=5[/URL] For example, I highly doubt that suicide bomber grew up playing Grand Theft Auto 3 or Half-Life. People tend to be naturally violent. I mean when we were all little kids playing in the school playground, you ever notice how often we say we're going to kill each other? I mean if video games were the way that people get violent, then surely we wouldn't have had such little events like the World Wars, or the Napoleonic Wars, the Hundred Years War, the Roman Empire's brutal subjugation of most of the known world, the Punic Wars, and the Assyrian Empire's rather callous baby killing?:rolleyes:

Watching Sorata and Arashi from X almost always brings a goofy smile on my face. Almost. :bawl:

Yes, I really enjoyed the series, but it did get a bit depressing towards the end.

Episode 45 onwards. Sword named Toukijin.