OtakuSennen

[color=navy]I've been subscribed to Shonen Jump right from the start, simply because I saw it as something never before done in America (Turns out it has, but I didn't know that at the time)- It replicated, more or less, the enormously popular Japanese magazine of the same title, with manga presented in serial format. Three hundred pages of manga a month for thirty dollars- Quite the deal, eh? I've really enjoyed my subscription, mostly for Naruto, Shaman King and Hikaru no Go, but lately the other titles have been pretty disappointing for me. I mean, I haven't actually read any of the DBZ manga since the third issue, and I've never been a huge One Piece fan, but I've lost all interest in One Piece, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Yuyu Hakusho. One Piece just seems very juvenile, in a way, I already know what's going to happen in YYH, simply because I've seen the anime, and in the latest issue of Jump they have a two-part Yu-Gi-Oh! installment about some sort of gang that uses yoyos to beat people up.. Not to mention many of the articles are rather dull. I would like to see more anime reviews, and information about video games that [i]aren't[/i] cheap Dragonball or Yu-Gi-Oh! games. Plus, all of the fanmail is.. Low quality. It almost seems as if Viz took posts from a message board by spammers, got rid of the 1337, and put it in their magazine. Nothing substantial at all. Anime Insider can occasionally squeeze out a half-decent letter, though most of it is still fanboy babble. I'm probably going to continue subscribing for a while, in hopes that Viz decides to put more good series into SJ (I would have been ecstatic if they had put Bleach and Rurouni Kenshin into the magazine, instead of putting them in Graphic Novel form and labeling the Jump logo on it), but if they put any more series into Jump because there's a butchered dub of the series on TV, I'm probably not going to resubscribe once this one runs out. I'll just buy the Naruto, Shaman King and Hikaru no Go GNs instead. I don't need to waste any more money on Dragonball or Yu-Gi-Oh!, heh. My brother got a discounted subscription to Anime Insider at Anime Expo 2003, and I must say that it's a much better anime magazine, in my opinion. It has solid (more or less) fanart, more compelling fanmail, and more information on anime outside of popular-among-ten-year-old-boys series. One article in particular stands out in my mind.. A few issues back they had a four or five page article explaining all of the Judeo-Christian symbolism in Evangelion. Even though I knew a lot of it anyway, that was still very cool to me. That's what a magazine I like to subscribe to should be like- interesting articles, useful information, and good stuff to laugh at. Shonen Jump seems to have moved to a more immature demographic that I am far beyond. I don't subscribe to Newtype, but I do have one or two issues in my room. As cool as the DVD, posters and such are, I feel that Newtype seems to be rather dull in its layout and articles. There certainly are good stories put in there, but in general they don't talk about series that I enjoy, and when they do I can get the same general information from Anime Insider with $60 not spent. And there's my cold view on anime magazines.[/color]

[color=navy]Ah, some Japan art. Cool. [b]Rather depressing Naruto one-[/b] I really enjoy the way you drew Sakura on this one, but Sasuke looks even better. The proportions are perfect. My only real problem with this one is that Kakashi's headband is rather.. Odd, but it's rare that you find a Naruto fanart where the headbands are perfect. [b]Kenshin-[/b] Your skills with poses and proportions are very impressive in every one of these drawings, but I must say that I really like your shading in this one. Whenever I shade a drawing, it comes out very uneven, or too dark, and so on. You have everything perfect here. The only issue I have with it is that Kenshin's facial features are rather smashed together, and the positioning of his eyes are off. [b]Red Eyes Black Dragon(?)-[/b] That's a better Dragon fan-drawing than 90% of what I've seen, and you did it in "five seconds." Very, very impressive. Not much to say about this, in the constructive criticism department. [b]Pink haired girl from Animerica-[/b] This one is.. Eh. Not the best. The positioning of the facial features, again, is pretty strange, and her shoulders are very, very imbalanced. You should draw character frames, or outlines (Sort of like SSB Wire Frames), and then draw the actual character over them. That would make this one a lot better. [b]Girl from quiz-[/b] ..Wow, I'm starting to make some pretty lame titles here. Anyway, I do like this one. You're really good at profiles, it seems. The eyes in this one are particularly neat, and her arms are really cool. Her body seems rather.. Elongated, or something, though. It's rather hard to describe it. Very good, though. [b]D.N.Angel guy-[/b] I totally suck at drawing hands, but you've got everything perfect right here, in each of these drawings. I have no objects to this final drawing, except for that, again, his eyes aren't matching each other. If I'm not explaining this too clearly, I'm sorry. Just say so, and I could scan in an example. Awesome, Japan. I'm very impressed.[/color]

[color=navy]I saw the movie earlier today, with some friends, with relatively high expectations. The trailers certainly showed off some mind-numbing CG, and I've always been a fan of this sort of film. The plot certainly wasn't anything groundbreaking, but I was still interested. Certain aspects were predictable and cliche, but it seemed that things were balanced enough to make up for minor shortcomings in the story. It goes without saying that the visuals are utterly amazing. The Los Angeles tornado scene was very, very good, of course, but the shot of Manhattan almost entirely covered in snow and the Statue of Liberty with the ice on it remains most vivid in my mind. I didn't really connect or identify with any of the characters, though, and that's something I always look for in movies. Their personalities didn't seem too developed, but that's not exactly the focus of the film, right? And, yes, the wolves were blatantly CG. They, along with the animatronic animals in that.. Zoo, or whatever that was where all of the animals were going berserk, were the only parts of the film that didn't seem real. I also thought it was pretty cool that they mentioned Palmdale, my home town, in it. It certainly wasn't a pivotal part of the movie, but it's comforting to know that someone outside of this miserable little town knows that we exist.[/color]

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1]Gah! Chobits and Inuyasha are most definitely [i]not[/i] shoujo. As a matter of fact, I think that the former series would also be more suitable for 16-year-old males. Inuyasha just falls under the same category as other super-long shounen anime like Rurouni Kenshin and Yu Yu Hakusho. I don't watch very much shoujo, so I can't really offer any replacements for the shows that you suggested. My mom [i]did[/i] take well to Fruits Basket (a sweet, marvelous, wonderful anime), but I don't think she exactly represents NashvilleDream's target audience. Oh well... ^_^; ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] [color=navy]Ah, I knew somebody was going to take what I said the wrong way. In my book, the term "shoujo anime" simply means "anime that appeal to girls." As much as Viz tries to cover it up, or Rumiko Takahashi tries to "action up" the series through elaborate fight scenes, Inuyasha is a romance story. Inuyasha, the focus of the series, is a dynamic character. At the start of the series, Inuyasha basically wants to kill Kagome, and yet he changes his beliefs and mindset over time to please her. No matter how many times they have their little fights, or quarrels, Inuyasha is always the one that changes so he can remain with her. It seems like an ideal partner, somebody who will do anything to stay with you. A young teenage girl's fantasy, perhaps. And Chobits, as far as I have seen in person, has appealed to [i]many[/i] girls. It's true that the fanservice and rather perverted themes attract a large male audience, and some people could consider the series nothing more than a teenage boy's fantasy, but if you have a person picking up Chobits for the essential story and not the perversion thrown in there, it's most likely going to be a girl. This sounds very stereotypical of me, but the generalization still stands true for the most part: Guys like action, girls like romance. Lately, though, I think that the line between "Girls' manga" and "Boys' manga" has become pretty blurred. Both genres oftentimes take elements from the other. In fact, a lot of more recent series that I've seen could go either way, and can barely be classified as either, visually speaking. In a lot of anime from the eighties, you could simply look at the style of a character's face and classify them as either shounen, shoujo, or other. If I were to look at a character design from, say, Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto's creator) that I have never seen before, followed by one from A.I. Love You and then a character from Serial Experiments Lain, considering I had never seen any of the characters before and was not aware of what series they were from, I could not classify the genre any of the examples would fit into. There are obviously series that go against what I'm saying, but again, I'm speaking about the general visual style today in Japan. Overall, though, Shounen and Shoujo shouldn't be classified as genres. They're just terms used in the anime world to display demographic targets. Things such as Romance, Action and Mystery are the true genres. Besides, anyone can watch or read whatever they want, and deciding what makes up a series through gender is a rather outdated thing in today's society. One's personal taste in film and television should reflect what they should see to introduce them to anime.[/color]

[color=navy]I have a friend who absolutely despises anime, and I've tried to introduce him to "good" anime several times, and there have always been certain things that clicked with him, and other things that just enforced his negative vision of anime. [b]Good things:[/b] 1) "Americanized" series. Shows like Cowboy Bebop and Noir have characters with mostly "European-sounding" names. I remember watching Rurouni Kenshin, listening to ten minutes of recap with all of the complicated-sounding names, and saying nothing other than "..What?". Lots of modern gunplay and futuristic settings seem to appeal to action-flick-loving male teens, from my experience. Gee, I wonder why.. 2) Relatively simple plot. .hack//SIGN and the second half of Evangelion was an automatic turn-off for everybody, male or female, that I've attempted introducing to anime. Thinking is a big no-no. The depth can come later, once they've noticed that all anime is directed toward card-collecting 8-year-olds. This doesn't mean that the series has to be shallow, necessarily. There just has to be a lot less deep dialogue and/or philosophy mixed in there. Bebop hits the mark with deep-but-not-too-deep story. 3) Not too long of a series. Generally, I think that if somebody doesn't want to watch anime, they're not going to sit through thirteen hours of it. One should probably start off with a movie (Ghost in the Shell), a short OVA (Read or Die), or a thirteen-episode series (Hellsing). Of course, there are on-going anime out there with seventy-something episodes that would appeal to certain demographics. I've found that most non-girly girls enjoy at least bits and pieces of Inuyasha, and Naruto is good for some folks. [b]Bad things[/b] 1) Poor dubbing. If I were to be what were the top two complaints people have told me about anime, I would have to say that they hated the dub or they didn't want to put out a little brain power and read subtitles with the Japanese audio track. Personally, I think that Bandai puts out pretty solid dubs, and ADV does rather weak ones. 2) "Kiddy" anime. As great as Ghibli films are, I think that the masses would simply shun Castle in the Sky or Spirited Away because it's a more "immature" storyline. They'll be babysitting a younger cousin and watch, say, Brother Bear with them. They will not enjoy watching it, but they'll say "Oh, that's because it's Disney. It's just too childish." If somebody watches, say, Kiki's Delivery Service and dislikes it, they might say something like "Oh, that's because it's Japanimation. They're all like this." If they have limited knowledge of anime, they'll simply make a generalization that all anime are for kids, just like what they've seen with Pokemon and Dragonball, and they'll simply be enforcing a stereotype. 3) Complex storylines. Noir, .hack//SIGN, the last half of Evangelion, Lain.. They all have stories that make you [i]think.[/i] A lot of people don't want to have to do that, especially if they're unwillingly watching "Some of that Japanese crap" for the first time. Again, they can come back to the series later, and realize the genius behind SIGN or Lain. 4) Non-romantic comedies. Generally, comedy anime that have been brought to America are divided into three factions: Romantic, Otaku-only, and weird. Oftentimes, two of the sub-genres overlap some, but you shouldn't expect to show somebody FLCL or Otaku no Video and automatically love it. And, no, I would definitely not recommend showing people American cartoons in anime-style. Teen Titans and Totally Spies are basically the same as Pokemon to a lot of people- Standalone episodes with blatant morals and cheesy dialogue. Not to mention they over-use "freak-out" anime expressions way to much. It all just leads to the all-cartoons-are-for-kids stereotype. I know that I am contradicting myself in some ways, and saying some rather foolish things in this post, but these rules don't always apply, especially all at the same time. Some people may tolerate a poor dub, or Japanese names, and utterly refuse others. Plus, there are things that I have not mentioned or noticed on that list. Things you find here are simply what I have encountered most frequently, in my own experience. Edit: I forgot to actually put down what anime I would recommend, heh. Overall, I tihnk Cowboy Bebop is a definitely great starter (no duh), along with Akira and Ghost in the Shell, for most shonen / seinen fans. For Shoujo, though, I suppose Chobits, Kare Kano and Inuyasha fit the bill rather well. And for many 16-year-old males, a little dose of Love Hina can never hurt. *wink*[/color]

[color=navy]As I sit here typing, I can't stop laughing out of relief and surprise. I was under the impression that Nintendo was going to make a second game in the cel-shaded Windwaker style, but I stand mistaken, and ecstatic. This new video beats the pants off of the old SpaceWorld 2001 Link, hands-down. In the old one, Link looked rathe feminine in his face. This time around he looks like an improved Super Smash Bros: Melee Adult Link. I like the altercations in his outfit, from the stitches in his tunic and the collar being up to the mail underneath. Overall, though, things seem a lot more epic. The shot of Link riding his horse (Most likely Epona, if this is in fact a direct OoT sequel) displays a larger gate, more like what I would imagine the biggest city in a realm would be like. Though I'm assuming a lot, the shots of the field seem a lot more open than what we had in OoT, and the interior of buildings don't seem to rely so heavily on an element or theme- just good old stone-walled dungeons. Each dungeon ever since the days of OoT (And earlier, to some extent) has been based on an element, and to me that has gotten kind of old. A variety in the kinds of stone used to lay out various underground passages will be refreshing for me. I know I sound like I'm assuming it's an Ocarina of Time sequel, but it's been a while since we've seen a Zelda game with a realistic Link.. Ever since the days of the NES, each individual console has had its own seperate Link, and one Link jumping from one console to the next would be something new. You never know what Nintendo will do, though. I most definitely cannot wait. This is the first Gamecube title to be announced since Metroid Prime 2 that has made me all giddy.[/color]

[color=navy]And to think I haven't even beaten the first Splinter Cell yet. :p Splinter Cell 1, in my opinion, had better gameplay than Metal Gear Solid. The visibility rating factor, the wider variety of stealth moves, and authentic Tom Clancy-esque atmosphere made for a very solid game. I only rented the game once, but I certainly got a lot of entertainment out of it. Pandora Tomorrow looks even cooler, from what I've seen, with more abilities and an even more dramatic atmosphere, and I can't wait to see what the innovations for Splinter Cell 3 will look like in action. It should be pretty exhilarating. As for them saying that SC 3 will have "the best graphics for any console, period", I would have to disagree from what I've seen of the game so far. The soldier in those two screens still looks rather.. Unnatural, somehow, and I don't see that problem as much in what I've seen of MGS: Snake Eater. I do like the textures, though. ..Oh well, there's still time for improvement, eh? I'm mostly looking forward to see if they put out another outlandish subtitle, like something along the lines of "Splinter Cell: Omega Plunger", or something more cool.[/color]

[color=navy]The contest you heard about was most likely the TokyoPop Rising Stars of Manga contest. It's basically what the title implies- unknown American manga artists and writers create one-shot stories and submit them. The top ten submissions are announced by TokyoPop, the winners all receive cash prizes, and their work is sold in graphic novel form. This doesn't mean that the winners are doing weekly or monthly stories, of course. Each compilation is standalone. According to the Rising Stars of Manga website, the grand prize is $2,500, second is $1,500, third is $1,000, and the other seven each receive $500. The contest has been going for about a year now, with two compilations published and one on the way. I've never actually purchased one, myself, though I've skimmed through the first one. The entries were all very solid, in my opinion, each with its own unique style and at least semi-intriguing story. The one that stands out most in my mind is the one about the guy entering a similar manga contest but can't come up with an idea.. The title escapes me at the moment, but it was a good piece. I entered the second contest, with a little romantic comedy story which, now that I look back, had miserable art and a thin story. Needless to say I didn't win, but TokyoPop [i]did[/i] send me a nice little participation certificate that's up in my room right now.. I didn't enter the third competition, simply because I don't feel comfortable with my drawing skills right now, but I might end up entering Rising Stars of Manga number four. Back when I first heard that a company was taking the initiative to have the first mainstream manga competition, I was very excited. To me, it was one of the first signs that manga is starting to grow a more strong following in the United States, which is good.[/color]

[color=navy]As some of you may remember, a while back I created a banner called "Industrialization", which was basically my first non-anime banner, as well as my first half-decent one, in my eyes. Instead of cropping a picture of a character from Evangelion or .hack and pasting it on some sort of background and putting my name in the corner, I took some pictures of cooling towers, made them completely black, added some detailing and put in some fog and a background. The end result was Industrialization. Now, tonight, after being reminded by Syk3's new Kenshin banner that banners do not always have to be blatantly displaying every little detail, I felt like making a different version of Industrialization- Not a sequel, but a variation. I took the elements of the first version that I didn't like, got rid of them, and kept the stuff that I liked and made it better. I changed the fonts, and here we are three hours later with Industrialization 1.5. [center][img]http://otakusennen.250free.com/Industrial-1-5-web.jpg[/img][/center] This time around, I think that things got a little more plain. The original version had a background with what was supposed to be an ocean, along with a bit of a rocky island. There was also some poor cross-hatching as well, which most people thought was really the weakest part of the banner. I got rid of those two things, left that space to the smog, and I think things are better off now. [center][img]http://otakusennen.250free.com/Industrial-1-5-ava.jpg[/img][/center] The Avatar isn't too different from its original version. I just used cool Photoshop brushes to go over the radioactive symbol, and added some smog. Very simple. Comments and criticism will be greatly appreciated.[/color]

[quote name='Syk3']Heh, I noticed the similarity to the Japanese flag only after I made the banner, with a little help from Sen.[/quote] [color=navy]"A little"?[/color] :p [color=navy]Anyway, I saw this banner via AIM a few days ago, and I was definitely pleased with Syk's latest banner. The whole silhouette thing is always fun, and a well-done one can never be considered stale in my eyes. And as always with Syk3 graphics, I am not let down one bit. The color scheme, choices of images, and choice of font works together perfectly. Now that I'm looking at it a third time, this banner reminds me more of an Adult Swim black-and-white card.. That is, if they were red on white instead of white on black. [/color] [color=navy]My only grip about the banner is that the A in "Battosai" is not entirely visible. You can still tell what it says and everything, of course, but something in my obsessive-compulsive brain goes off when I see that. [/color] [color=navy][b]9.4/10[/b] Bravo, Syk. How long did you spend on this? It's so simple yet intriguing.[/color]

[color=navy]I threw this together after I finished up the day's standardized testing. I was (and still am) rather depressed, and when I'm depressed I tend to write better. [center][i]Betrayed in Darkness The light of love was shining through, The warmth of friends absorbed, Yet pity was the cause of this. In secret I was abhorred. The love once felt had been expressed By unrequieted means, She only spoke from nobility, My purpose was demeaned. Why would one do such a thing? Why lie about such sacred bonds? Those thoughts were childish fantasies, Romantic walks past autumn's shimmering ponds Were nothing more than an elaborate jest, Out of pity she walked with me. And now the sorrow digs so deep. And none can hear my plea. "Tell me, someone, why is this so?" "Why have I been betrayed?" "How long has this been going on?" "Why did they decide to stay?" And now it seems, to the untrained eye, that everything is fine. They're friends again, she's close to me, And happiness is mine. Yet something still lies down in the caverns, Remnants of that hate. Again, my allies will betray, And open Dante's Gate. But now I leave these "friends" of mine, The one I held so dear. They do not know, they may not care, But regardless they shouldn't fear." "They'll find out soon enough, I guess." I'm leaving them to be Happy, productive, satisfied. In a world without me. "I'll call, I'll write, I'll talk to you soon!" "I'll never forget you, my dear." "We'll see you soon and remember you." "I'll come visit in a year." Such lies they've weaved, the stories they've told, I pretend to remain deceived. But we'll all be happier in this new life, I in my world without them, and they in theirs without me. Though, secretly, I sob inside, I do not want to leave. The love for this girl and devotion to friends Remain extremely deep. They do not know, but far away, In a different land, alone, I weep.[/i][/center] ..And that's about it. Comments and criticism would be greatly appreciated.[/color]

[color=navy]Well, I used to sit in the living room playing pinball or whatever while my mom watched Friends, and I heard the word "sex" frequently from that show, back when I was maybe four or five. I never really gave too much thought to what exactly sex was, and all I really knew at that point was that sex is where babies come from.. In third grade, I suppose, I had some rather perverted friends (For nine-year-olds). They would always, in their own uniformed little way, talk about sex, and I would just go along with everything. One night, however, I was rather curious as to what exactly happened during sex. My parents had recently bought a 24-volume encyclopedia which was conveniently placed in my room, so I ended up "researching" where babies come from. The encyclopedia really didn't have too many articles on reproduction, though I did learn most of the technical terms and anatomy from the S and R volumes. And even though the articles were all very vague, I'm still pretty sure I was the most informed third grader in my school. In fifth grade I accidentally came across a rather "mature" story on the internet, and that's really where I learned [i]what[/i] happens during sex, instead of how it happens. Of course, sixth grade was when sex ed (Or "Family Life", as they call it in our district) started, and everything fit together. I think a friend of mine said it best when he stated, "Everything I ever needed to know I learned from the internet."[/color]

[color=navy]It's been a while since I've really put any planning or time into a banner, and I was bored today, so I re-did one of my recent failed projects that was never seen on OtakuBoards. [center][img]http://www.angelfire.com/pro2/otakusennen/apprehensive-banner-web.jpg[/img][/center] I really don't have a title for this one. The file's name is "Apprehensive Banner", but I don't think that describes the expression on the girl's face well enough. For two or three months I've been trying to make some sort of follow-up to my old [url="http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?t=37297"]"Fire And Ice"[/url] banner, but never quite got what I wanted out of any attempt. Today I decided to make another attempt, using both Paint Shop Pro and PhotoShop. It really didn't take me long to do, because I already had a basic layout made already because of a previous attempt. I just had to find the image of the girl again, which didn't take long, then spend maybe fifteen minutes putting everything together. The end result came out very well, I think. I spent a few minutes simply trying to find the right hue for the background, and what you see here seemed to compliment the rather bright tones of the girl. Plus, I finally gave up on feathered borders. Perhaps they should not exist in the first place. The avatar is just a crop of the banner, so there's nothing too special there.[/color]

[color=navy]I saw a little bit of the actual Metroid Prime 2 preview video a few weeks ago. The footage was very low-quality, though, so I didn't really get to see how much the graphics have improved overall, but I caught a few brief moments that were clear. Things look better, definitely. The changes in the visor's design scheme is nice, but I still prefer MP1's all-blue style. It seems to feel more like what a real Power Suit would feel like. Icons with colors matching to what element they're based on just feels very much like something in a video game. I doubt the real Chozo would match colors to their icons. Multiplayer mode will be interesting. At the very least I'll just check out the multiplayer with my brother once or twice when the game comes out, but it's not a feature that's going to be the primary purpose for my purchasing the game. Metroid Prime was just so much fun, and a sequel to it will be a blast to play. I would like to play as a Chozo, or Chozo Ghost. That would be majorly awesome. Sadly, the screenshots are showing only variations of Samus in multiplayer.. Oh well. More to think about for when the sequel to Metroid Prime Two is announced.[/color]

[color=navy]I have the first two volumes of .hack//Legend of the Twilight, and its lighter take on The World is refreshing, but not as intriguing as SIGN, in my opinion. It's a nice little ender to the .hack saga, definitely. It's always good to end on a light note. Rei Izumi's art is always so nice and detailed, and is pretty faithful to Yoshiyuki Sadamoto's original intentions most of the time. She makes very good use of screen tones, and her freak-out expressions are always cute and laughable. The first volume seemed a little [i]too[/i] cheery for my taste. Not to mention each chapter was basically stand-alone. Any part of a series that's stand-alone I never really like, actually, but because of the art it was forgiven. Volume two was where plot started sinking in. The fugitive player theme was brought back into .hack again, and this time I felt like I could really dislike the villain. Before, in .hack anime (I haven't played the games, but I've seen a good deal of Liminality), there was never really an identifiable villain that I really despised. Here, the enemy is really unjust and like a despot, so you could get sucked into the conflict a little better. It's been a while since Legend of Twilight Volume Two came out, and I've been waiting for the third and final volume for several months now. I've contacted TokyoPop, but with no response, sadly. Come to think of it, I've never even seen the Japanese cover. A friend of a friend once told me that it wasn't out in Japan yet, but I don't know. .Hack's been over in Japan for a while now, right? And Bandai has licensed the corresponding anime, which they call .hack//DUSK, which should be out some time this year. I will find some space in my minute budget to buy the DVDs, eventually.[/color]

[color=navy]I don't really like how they're keeping a relatively low level of graphics in the 3D background stuff. I mean, look at the stove in Mario and Luigi's house. It looks as if it were really in the original Nintendo 64 Paper Mario. The pirate ship looks good, though. I only have a problem with the backgrounds in the pictures with Mario's house and the shot of the castle. The textures are simple, but I was certainly expecting that. It fits the feeling of the game, and I have no problem with this. The shot with the large dragon is really interesting, as well. The big guy looks like a big cardboard model of a dragon, or maybe just someone out of a popup book, like in Yoshi's Story. He's somewhat cel-shaded as well, which stands out in a game with a visual theme like Paper Mario's. But my favorite screenshot is the Bowser side-scrolling one. It's good to see that Paper Mario 2 is continuing the reminiscent humor that was a big part of what made Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga so great. I can't help but wonder, though, does the map in Mario's house have a purpose? And maybe the Bowser (or Koopa) shot is hinting at perhaps controlling characters outside of Mario himself..[/color]

[color=navy]I wouldn't say Hollywood's lost all its creativity. It just seems that technology has reached the point where some mind-numbing special effects are rather easy to make, and comic books tend to contain images that probably could not have been convincingly made fifty years ago. And, after the success of the Spiderman movie, why wouldn't a Hollywood producer want to cash in on this fad? Besides, not [i]all[/i] the movies out there are knock-offs of franchises from other mediums. Movies like Lost in Translation and The Day After Tomorrow are relatively original, and they did (or will do) relatively well. Hollywood's just taking advantage of computer graphics nowadays and accomplishing what they couldn't have a couple decades ago. Need I say more than "The old Superman movies"? And good writers are still out there. Maybe the bulk of them aren't necessarily focusing on writing movies, though. Perhaps some write for television shows, or do scripts for comic books. I do feel that remakes and film adaptations are a little too common in today's world, though. I'm not saying that having a movie based off a novel is bad- It's just that books tend to have very detailed stories, and fitting the depth of a two-hundred-page novel into a two hour movie isn't a very feasible task sometimes.[/color]

[color=navy]In addition to JTHM, Zim, Squee and I Feel Sick, Jhonen also wrote a story book called "Everything Can Be Beaten", which I have not been able to get my hands on quite yet. He's also made two comics revolving around Filler Bunny as well as the Bad Art Collection, but those aren't exactly the greatest things in the world, from what I've heard. As with most people, I first learned about Mr. Vasquez's work through Invader Zim. From the first time I saw the promotional commercial with Dib screaming "They're coming! The aliens are coming!" into some sort of camera, I was intrigued, and the night the first episode of Invader Zim aired I couldn't fall asleep because of chronic laughter. The unique style of animation and general craziness of the series is what drew me to it. When Zim was cancelled by the cold, heartless corporation that is Nickelodeon, I spent a lot of time downloading Zim eps. In my search, I came across something called "Johnny the Homicidal Maniac", which is credited as Jhonen Vasquez's first professional work. At first, I assumed JTHM was a short-lived cartoon that I had never seen because it was on some non-basic-cable channel, and I imagined that Johnny resembled Invader Zim's Iggins (I honestly don't know why..). Back in October, I purchased the first issue of JTHM at our local comic book store. Needless to say, I was blown away by this comic book. I loved the mix of mindless, stupid humor and dark, deep, melodramatic themes. It was just really appealing to me. I was also introduced to Wobbly Headed Bob on that fateful October afternoon. WHB is, in my opinion, the funniest character of Vasquez's in existence. That December, I bought Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut and Squee's Wonderful Big Giant Book of Unspeakable Horrors off Amazon.com. I spent many hours reading those comics, and even more laughing. JTHM, as said in the book's foreword, was a nice release of some anger for me, and Squee was just comedy. Needless to say, I love both books. Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to read I Feel Sick, Everything Can Be Beaten or Revenge of Filler Bunny. Filler Bunny doesn't seem too appealing (All twenty pages were made in less than twenty-four hours..) and Everything Can Be Beaten wasn't actually drawn by Vasquez, if I remember correctly, so I Feel Sick is next on my list. And Tickle Me Hellmo is the best Meanwhile, no contest.[/color]

[quote name='Sere Tuscumbia][font=Times New Roman][size=1]Another thing that I've found that I haven't really liked is that the emotions of the characters are severely muted. Most of the time they have very neutral faces (and that makes Erika and Kimiko look a lot alike) and the only people who seem to have emotion consistantly are Ping (so kawaii~~!) and Largo.[/size][/font'] [/quote][color=navy]You know, I never really thought about that before, but you're right. Most of Gallagher's characters have extremely similar faces, and they don't exactly show too much expression. 80% of the time Piro has his surprised/confused expression on, and Largo seems to always have that smug little smirk. In fact, it took me quite a while to distinguish Ping from Kimiko when they were in closeups. In fact, the only characters who I could really distinguish from the rest in the beginning were Piro, Largo and Miho. I remember reading somewhere online that Mr. Gallagher planned on doing another serial manga, in magazine form, a little while back. The magazine, I believe, was Amerimanga or something to that extent, and he was putting out one of his older yet unknown stories, entitled "Warmth." It was.. Another romance manga, about this guy who meets a girl who always seems to be cold and shivering. Unfortunately, Piro only did one or two months of this, and went back to working only on MegaTokyo. It's interesting how Piro's stories always have something strange and unique in a story to make it interesting. Stuff like the cold thing in "Warmth" adds a new twist to a typical boy-meets-girl story, and somehow Gallagher makes it seem fresh. [/color]

[color=navy]Heh, I was just replaying the original one last month. Yes, Paper Mario was one of the Nintendo 64 games I have that I used to play nonstop. At the time, the visual innovation was really quite amazing, and I enjoyed the pleasant storyline. I would gladly pay money to take a second trip around the Mushroom Kingdom (Or some other kingdom, if they're trying to add some new world) with everyone's favorite plumber in two dimensions. It is sort of a nostalgic feeling, seeing Mario in 2D again. The graphics look just as I expected when I first saw this thread- More crisp characters, smoother textures in the background, and the same good old vibrant colors. The characters look nearly identical to their Nintendo 64 predecessors, shape-wise, but the quality is much better. Now let's hope for a sequel to the original Super Mario RPG so we can talk how fat Mallow is and praise Geno's rather dark disposition (for a Mario game, at least).[/color]

[color=navy]Over the past few weeks I have become quite attatched to this series, so I thought making a thread about it might make for interesting replies. This series is somewhat different from most of the manga we see here in the United States- MegaTokyo is a webcomic, made by an American, that got so popular that it was picked up by Dark Horse and currently has two graphic novel compilations of the series in circulation. Yes, some of you may already be saying "Oh my God, it's not manga, it's American!" or something along those lines, but this series seems to truly be an authentic manga, and not some poor American story with large-eyed characteres to get fanbase. Right from the start, Fred Gallagher (The mangaka behind MegaTokyo) didn't want to make a series that examplified the stereotypes of anime and manga- He set out to create a series that would make new readers do a double take and say "Wait, that's American?". And, in my opinion, he did a wonderful job. Nearly everything about MegaTokyo seems faithful to its Japanese roots- The graphic novels even include omake. The storytelling seems rather similar to Love Hina when a strip revolves around Piro, a rather antisocial geek/nerd who has problems talking to women, and seems more Excel Saga-esque when we watch Largo's stories unfold. Another thing I like about the MegaTokyo graphic novels is the commentaries put in by Fred Gallagher (Piro) himself. I'm always interested in how a comic was made, or what life is like in the day of a professional comic book/strip writer. Any Behind-the-scenes stuff is cool in my book. I like where MegaTokyo has gone as of late- Largo's stories always tired me, and Piro's ventures are what always keep me interested. Yet, in some way I miss Largo's Cool Thing. Stuff just isn't the same without Largo's Cool Thing. [/color]

[font=Verdana][quote name='ScirosDarkblade']I suggest copying a lot of pictures first. Just grab a comic book, and draw as many picture of people (concentrating on the head) as you can. Do that a lot. Once you draw those enough, you'll be able to draw similar stuff on your own. That's when you should move on to drawing your original characters in the poses you've become familiar with. Once you get that down, move on to more difficult stuff as well as original posing. But really I recommend building a sense of what's "proper" by copying a lot first. There's nothing wrong with that (just don't trace!).[/quote][/font] [font=Verdana][color=navy]It seems that nearly every professional mangaka has said in one interview or another that they spent a lot of their time as a child copying drawings from their favorite anime/manga. However, I disagree with your saying that one should not trace. If somebody is struggling with a certain style of drawing, simply going over a good piece of work from that genre can be a big help. I remember tracing pages of Dragonball and Inuyasha pictures two or three years ago, and that certainly helped me get used to the basics of anime style.[/color] [font=Verdana][color=navy]But if someone traces a drawing, says they did it freehand, and gets critcally acclaimed by the masses, then tracing is immoral.[/color] [/font][/font] [font=Verdana][quote=DotHacker32][/font] Thanks all to have replied, I greatly appreciate it. I do copy manga out of books. I mainly do it out of the FLCL graphic novels and to the Shonen Jump series. Thanks![/quote][color=navy]The FLCL manga.. Is a very stylized series. It's very sketchy and the shapes are simple. Personally, I wouldn't copy FLCL manga pictures and think that it would help me improve. I can't think of any particular images in that series that are really worth drawing, if you want to get really good. Perhaps one should start out on a basic level, but this might be a little too simple. Try copying more from Hikaru no Go and Naruto to get a feel for more generic manga styles, then go into stylized stuff so you can create your own personal look.[/color]

[color=navy]I happened to see most of an episode of this show last night on Cartoon Network, and I can't say I was impressed in the least. I agree with Solo when he says that Duel Masters is like Beyblade with cards. The first thing I noticed when I came in during the earlier portion of the show was that the characters all seem to be blatant stereotypes (even for anime) with over-enthusiastic voices. I suppose that what I saw was the first episode, because the main character, Shobu, was explaining about the basics of the game. His annoying, BeyBlade-esque voice kept me from comprehending anything about the game, except that "tapping" a card means to place it sideways. I forget the relevance of this card position, but it heavily reminded me of Defense Position in Yu-Gi-Oh!. There were a couple of people that he was teaching the rules to, if I remember correctly. There was some nerdy guy with big glasses who was basically reinforcing the various rules to the ditzy girl who was doing weird freak-out expressions and spouting the writers' poor attempts at jokes. After "B-But wait, why do you call it 'tapping the card' if you don't really tap it?!", I couldn't take any more for a while. I did check back on it a few times during the rest of that half hour, however, just to see if there were any better parts to the series. But I didn't see any of that. The rest of what I witnessed was basically Shobu with insane eyes shouting something as one of his poor CG monsters attacked some other horrid three-dimensional creature, and some announcer guys with irritating voices talking about how they never get tired of that move. I also saw the Duel Masters cards in the mall today. The art pretty detailed, but I am not going to even buy a booster pack of this game. I think I'm pretty much over TCGs, heh.[/color]

[QUOTE=BrandedWolf]Otay, quick trip then get to the org. question. Just heard the other day that they were giving Hillary Duffa part ?(sorry can't remember name; typical blonde LOL) Anime made into LAF/M : I agree it would be interesting to see Cowboy Bebop. Otay how about NOIR or Witch Hunter Robin ? :eek:[/QUOTE] [color=navy]Oh, boy, this little factoid again. The idea that Hilary Duff the role of Asuka was spawned from an article in Anime Insider from a month or two back. They had a big spread regarding the Live Action Evangelion Project being announced, and made up a couple pages of who they think should play each Eva character's role. Hilary Duff was pointed out for Asuka, mostly because of her age and general "energetic" roles on camera.. Their choices were barely justified, in my opinion. They said Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter from the movies) should play Shinji, and Rei should be played by the woman who played Go Go Yubari in Kill Bill. For the most part, one could consider their choices a "What real-life actors look like Eva characters?" article, and I seriously doubt that they will get Hugo Weaving to be cast as Gendo. I personally think that unknown actors will probably be cast in the Live Action Eva movie. As others have said before me in previous threads, the film's budget should be spent on special effects and script, not a team of A-list actors. People like Hugo Weaving and Danielle Radcliffe are, I'm sure, rather costly to cast and are most likely selective about which roles they choose. A movie based on "One of those Japanese cartoons, like Pokemon" may not appeal to most famous actors.[/color]

[color=navy]I love it when I have a decent excuse to go on long rants about my insane, pointless little ideas. Ever since the days when I first got in to "action" anime (Basically around the days of Gundam Wing on Toonami), I've been creating various anime/manga series, though for quite a while they were just the stereotypical "kiddy" anime one might find on Kids WB or FoxBox. My first creation, which came about when I was probably nine years old, was basically a miserable rip-off of Gundam Wing.. "Gundam G-2" was its name, and it was a shallow tale about these three.. Teenagers, I suppose, who found these three hidden "Next Generation" Gundams. Wow, three Gundams that are the "children" of Wing Gundam, DeathScythe and HeavyArms. How original. Regardless of the unoriginal plot, writing those nine fifteen-page chapters three times over was a good learning experience for me. The first time I ever really drew a comic book was with the first time I made up a Gundam G-2 comic. I remember spending all of my weekend picking out the 1/144 scale Gundam models I needed for a scene, posing them, and drawing the crappiest excuses for Gundams ever to be put on paper by a relatively artistic nine-year-old. A while after I got into the extremely ameteur comic book making process, I saw some older kids planning some sort of video game, and they were making up characters. That night I spent a few hours drawing some characters to try and help them. However, I never saw those two kids ever again, but what I came up with that night has come to be my most deep and complex creation of mine to date. Of course, in the beginning it was very simple stuff, but the premise remains the same to this very day. I would rather not go into the details about the plot of any of my series, though, as I do not like to reveal fragments of my stories before the entire presentation is complete. There are quite a few ideas I've gone through in the past few years- Rounin Mech was my second take at the mech series, though it's not like it was much more developed than Gundam G-2, and I've been sort of re-designing this one in the recent months. Spiritual Advisor Seike was my take at romantic comedy, and I submitted it last year for the second TokyoPop Rising Stars of Manga contest. Of course I didn't win, though I did get a nice honorable recognition certificate from TokyoPop. As for recent ideas, mostly one-shots for Rising Stars of Manga, I've thought about redoing Spiritual Advisor Seike. Now that I look back, the premise was pretty nice, and I could go in a lot of directions with the series. Besides, drawing the leading lady is fun. Her hair and facial expressions are the most vibrant and bubbly of what I've ever done. I've also toyed around with a different idea entitled "Super Cosplay Action Force." It's one of those series that basically makes fun of various genres of anime and manga, but in the one-shot version reserved for manga contests it's just about a gaggle of over-exxagerated stereotypes at an anime convention. It's fun stuff to make up, because I'm such an anime freak, but I've never actually made a comic of Super Cosplay Action Force- Only concept art. My most recent and seemingly worthy series doesn't technically have a set name yet. It's a rather dark story, heavily dealing with angst, death of the undeserving and all that good stuff. I enjoy drawing this one a lot more than most of my creations. I do a lot more inking, and deal with different brush effects and shading a lot. Plus, the rather abstract, ghostly form of the protagonist is always a great image to use for various screentones. As for the general outline of how I present my manga, I tend to rely more on dialogue and flashbacks to progress the story than fight scenes. My art teacher tends to read my manga and scolds me about not putting in enough action, but he doesn't know much about anime and manga outside of the mainstream nothing-but-action stuff. It's not entirely that I don't like action scenes as much as I have problems with characters in motion. Having everybody sitting around and talking with mostly close-ups on their faces is much easier. Yep, I'm a slacker.[/color]