OtakuSennen

[quote] [i]T man originally wrote:[/i] [b]OtakuSennen: you're banners are good except there aren't any quots and try not to use japaness. Not every one can read it.[/b] [/quote] [color=midnightblue]Japanese cartoons tend to have Japanese logos. Besides, it just says "Excel Saga". If I must, I'll edit my previous post right now to clarify.. Plus in the .hack banner we clearly have the .hack logo. Now, .hack is pronounced "Dot hack" when spoken. And, by Ryu Sakura's logic as displayed in her "1 word = not a quote, 2 words is" theory, that would count. Of course, both of them are phrases, not quotes. But do as you wish. And, because I feel banners can speak for themselves and explain their purpose when properly executed, I will not be modifying the Rei banner any time soon. Exclude it from if you must. Heck, if you're gonna maintain such a mentality, exclude all of them. [/color][color=white]By the way, it's spelled Japanese...[/color]

[color=midnightblue]A little history on Japanese animation.. Osamu Tezuka is frequently considered the "God of anime". He created one of the very first manga, and set the "pointy-chinned, large eyed" style of anime that most people see when they think of anime. Later on actual moving animations were made. Because of the poor economy of Japan after World War II, budgets for such things were rather sparse. Thus, to save money, frame rates were low and lip sync had to be cut short. This, too, stuck to the general style of anime. Now let us look at anime today. As with most if not all Japanese television, there is no such thing as a "season" with anime. Once a week all year long one episode is produced. To keep this rapid rate of animation release going without running out of budget, animation [i]has[/i] to be rather low quality. That is also why a lot shows are only twenty-six or thirteen episodes long. The shorter series with a set amount of episodes and a full, thought-out script all know how to organize their budget. The longer-running series tend to have lower quality animation but have their script already laid out by the manga writer whose story the anime was based on. Let's not forget that we have some studios, such as Studio Pierrot in Japan, are making three or four episodes a week all year round. With American cartoons you get maybe thirteen episodes a year for on average three years, and the rest of those fifty-two you sit there watching stale reruns and anticipating the next season. The stand-alone plotlines also get boring and repetitive, from what I've experienced. I'm not saying that all American cartoons are bad, nor am I saying all Japanese cartoons are good. The Simpsons, Family Guy and Futurama, along with several others, are American cartoons that I love with all of my heart. And at the same time I totally dislike some series, such as Trigun (Boy, I'm gonna get flamed for that one). You get either quality in story or quality in animation, and in the end what matters more: the humor and/or storyline, or how the characters' mouths move?[/color]

[color=midnightblue]Back when Prodigy was our internet provider and our email was simply an outdated version of Outlook Express we had spam issues, but rarely anything adult-oriented. I don't know how our computer sifted through such things, but it did. Most of our spam at the time were stupid contests and ones with strange generic titles and addresses like "Hey, Greg" from some person named Steve. It was kind of weird. But now that we have SBC Yahoo DSL, we have a file for bulk mail (Which implies spam goes there as well) and one from personal computers of people we know. It's really helped us out a lot, and we rarely get any true spam anymore. My suggestion to fix your problem, Asura, is to get a better internet provider. It may cost more than what you have right now, but even my hotmail account barely gets any true spam. I was watching 20/20 a month or two ago and they had one of the major spam companies' owners on there. He was talking about how it's just business and their way of getting bread on the table and such. "Think of spam like television commercials," he said. Just thought I'd mention that.[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by AzureWolf [/i] [B]Oh man, you were on a roll with your latest banners, and then you go back and make the same mistake that was in your first few. Yeah, that's right, you need to remove all things Eva in this banner and it will then be possible to be considered "good." ;) Nah, in all honesty, it's very vibrant, and possibly one of your best works to date. You are improving, keep it up! [/B][/QUOTE] [color=midnightblue]Silly Azure. You and your absolute hatred for Evangelion. Well, just to make Azure happy (And because I stayed home today and am desperately bored) I made a non-Evangelion banner, based on the back of the Excel Saga manga volume three. I bought the third volume of Excel Saga at Waldenbooks yesterday with some birthday money, and on the back I found an absolutely amazing picture drawn by Rikdo Koshi (The Excel Saga guy). I automatically knew I had to make a banner about it. [center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=529984[/img][/center] After scanning the page in and cropping it (With a little image quality improvement courtesy of Azure Wolf and his Photo Shop), I decided to add a softening light layer of a shade of purple to give the image a little luster. I then decided to add a banner based on the color scheme and design of the Excel Saga graphic novels. It didn't take very long, I just made a little caution tape selection and pasted it over and over for the black-then-orange slanted lines. I then put in a very OtakuBoards logo-esque rendition of the words "Excel Saga", complete with the little heart inbetween the words, and then the word ACROSS vertically down the blue side in bold Tahoma.. And that's about it. EDIT: I fixed the bottom right hand corner some, so that the image isn't a perfect rectangle.[/color]

[color=midnightblue]Well, there are also the upcoming .hack//Legend of Twilight anime DVDs, brought to us in 2004 by Bandai Entertainment, and there are two or three .hack novels (As in all text, no manga) in Japan, but there has been no sign of translation by anybody official. All I can find on the one novel that comes to mind, .hack//AI, is a translation of one of the chapters. It was basically about the history of Mac Anu, the water capital. From what I have gathered, .hack//AI is more like an appendix to the .hack series.. It isn't as much of a seperate story as a miniature .hack encyclopedia that answers a lot of questions about The World. The Silmarillion is to The Lord of the Rings as .hack//AI is to the rest of .hack. There is some form of plot with characters and such, and it takes place before anything else regarding .hack. Oh, and the soundtracks are not on your list, though I don't know if you download music regularly and have the .hack tunes. And then there's wall scrolls, pencil boards, T-shirts and such. They really aren't important, though, and are basically there to milk some extra cash out of .hack. Hope I helped.[/color]

[color=midnightblue]Well, I'll enter. It's okay to use banners you have posted elsewhere, I presume? If so, here are my entries.. I have three that I think are my best right here. [center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=519330[/img][/center] That's an Excel Saga one I made.. I really should have lowered the amount of Sepia Toning I did.. It looks to bland to me now. But the second and third ones are really my top two favorites. [center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=514622[/img][/center] I scanned in an image from my Evangelion manga and colorized it here.. That's not such a commonly found idea, and I like how this one turned out. The border kind of makes it look like a comic book frame, to an extent. [center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=528084[/img][/center] Yeah, the third one is certainly my favorite. It took me the longest, and I think it came out very easy on the eyes. Those are my entries, if there are any problems with my work, simply notify me and I will change what is wrong with them. EDIT: Oh, and I feel that the banners speak for themselves and need no real phrases or quotes.[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by James [/i] [B][color=#707875] 4) Expanded farming elements. Maybe you could keep pets...or cultivate a simple form of lifestock (chickens?). I guess that's getting into Harvest Moon territory though. But it'd be a fun way to earn cash. [/color] [/B][/QUOTE] [color=midnightblue]Yes, the pet element would be very cool. I can just imagine Tortimer walking around in a very large, heated, wet reptile tank in my brand new customized house. :p But in all seriousness.. I just think that making the game more expansive and adhering to real life (Only with human-sized talking animals..) with some graphics and music that would make Gamecube proud would make a really awesome Animal Crossing 2. [b]Purchase of transportational items[/b]- I suppose this would be interesting, but I would not really care that much about it. Just taking the train to different towns would satisfy me. I think Animal Crossing characters move at a decent speed (Around a 10 by 10 grid) and purchase of a bike would be rather useless. [b]More characters[/b]- I think putting in some more characters that work in museums, or shopkeepers, or whatever, would be nice. I mean, in every town you have a Tom Nook selling things, and a Tortimer asking you where to put a bridge. I say making maybe a set of five shopkeepers, five mayors, five police officer teams, would give the game more of a sense of realism. [b]Some actual voices?[/b]- The weird gibberish speak of the animals bothered me some. So much that, in combination with that awful rainy day music, I [i]never[/i] had my volume up at all while playing this game. Voice acting may be annoying too, but in my opinion it may be better than some little beeping sounds. [b]More ways to earn cash[/b]- Come on, people. Finding a hundred bells in a bag every day is barely a decent income. I say make a fourth option when you talk to animals- The third one will be a work-for-items option, the fourth being a work-for-money thing.. But no matter what they do, I probably wouldn't buy Animal Crossing 2. AC1 was fun for a while, but it got tedious six months ago and I haven't played it since. I would probably just.. Rent it.[/color]

[quote] [i]Mimmi originally wrote:[/i] [b]The banner itself looks sort of like a flag. Interesting approach.[/b] [/quote] [color=midnightblue]Ah, an example of how the unintentional things are sometimes the best. Excellent. [center][img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=529208[/img][/center] M-hm, a third Rei banner.. I bet none of you saw this coming. This time I had assistance from AzureWolf, and even then I didn't change much that he advised me to do (No offense, Azure. You didn't even tell me that much to do). I just cropped this one, added a couple light layers of a burn effect, and put in some text.. Oh, I also put in some transparent white lines. Not very visible and poorly done, but they are there. Argh, I need a .PHP file..[/color]

[color=midnightblue]Well, here is my attempt.. Considering there is not that much time left, I probably won't be entering another one. On this banner I simply took out the main design of OB's current banner and inserted some painting of a snowy scene I found on Google. I then pasted in a Rei pic (I knew exactly what picture I needed, but it took forever to find a decent high-quality copy) and filled in several layers of a light purple in the background. I then added in the font and changed the icons by the links to little circles, kind of like snowflakes. And that's basically it. I'm pretty proud of this one, probably it's taken me longer to do than any of my other banners. EDIT: Changed a couple things around. Not enough to make a new post out of it, in my opinion.[/color] [img]http://www.otakuboards.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=528771[/img]

[color=midnightblue]Awesome, I can post a new banner again. People just don't reply to this thread enough. This next one I am very proud of.. This banner/avatar combo is based on the .hack games, particularly the cover for .hack//Quarantine and some stock image of Aura. This time I used a lot more opacity altering. In the banner I added two almost transparent layers of a bright yellow, then on top of that I placed the barely visible .hack logo. I then blured the word ".hack".. And voila. The avatar was basically the same. I took the Aura pic, resized it, and pasted it into an 80 by 80 pixel image. I then added two layers of bright yellow (though it didn't come out as well as the banner) and then put that infinity symbol in there one or two times. I wonder why my avatars are never as good as my banners..[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Shinmaru [/i] [B]Recently, the most frustrating gaming moment for me would have to be found in Super Mario Sunshine. Just pick and choose any of the little mini-levels in which Shadow Mario steals the FLUDD and I can guarantee that I was not in a good mood by the time I was done with the level. I hated those things with a passion. [/B][/QUOTE] [color=midnightblue]I feel for you, Shinmaru. Those things got very, very tedious and they all were pretty similar. Yet, still, they are fond memories for me. I spent hours trying to beat them, going through bags and bags of popcorn and passing out from too much root beer (Hey, it was [i]way[/i] over its expiration date. I think it actually did de-root itself). I remember fighting Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: The Windwaker being very difficult for me, as well. It took me about four days of nonstop playing to finally get into the swing of things, and even then I had to try for another twelve hours or so. Of course, now it is easy for me, and I like to go back and kick dear Ganondorf's sorry rear, and I shall persist until I pay him back for all of the painstaking hours of frustration he caused me. Sonic Adventure 2 caused me a good amount of frustration also. I mean, 90% of that game was simple and fun, but the timed levels with Knuckles and Rouge drove me up the wall. It just.. Really ticked me off. The random locations of the Emerald Shards plus the music in combination with that horrible beeping shard locator really drove me mad. I think I yelled at my mom for asking me if I wanted takeout one night while playing. And, perhaps the most annoying of all, was the very first level of Wispy Woods in Kirby: Super Star on Super Nintendo. It was the very first game I had for my very first console, and I was so excited when we finally got it to work.. Then I had to float over that large, steep, pinkish hill rising out of the ground right in front of me. My seven-year-old brain did not grasp the concept of pressing A rhythmically. At that moment I swore I would never play a video game again.. Oh, how wrong I was. I, too, could go on for hours. I don't have the time though..[/color]

[color=midnightblue]I, for one, can go either way. As long as the original plot and script are still basically there, I quite honestly do not care. But, if I have a choice, I normally choose subbing. I just feel that the characters tend to be conveyed better with the original voices, and dub voice actors really tend to be too goofy or over-exxagerated for my liking. Of course, a lot of female voices in anime are also rather.. Different. The stereotype of "Loud, high-pitched girl" is most certainly a common one in anime, and I can normally get around that. But sometimes it's just too much and I force myself to watch the dub. But then I only watch subbing with DVDs. And, being a poor, poor child, I normally have to resort to buying manga adaptations/versions or what I can get on television. I'm not one to whine, though. I take what I can get and if I have a lot of complaints, why am I still watching this stuff? Besides, if I can get my hands on the DVDs I can just mute the television and turn on the subs. That way I get the content without problems with voices. I guess for me it doesn't matter how I see it.[/color]

[color=midnightblue]As much as I would like to have the Japanese version of the song in the game, I see no real relevance to it being either way. I mean, they the English-spoken song, Simple and Clean, in Kingdom Hearts.. I had no problem with them changing it. In fact, I think I may like the English version a bit more than the Japanese. It is just a matter of preference. From my experience for people who purchase items from Japan such as anime and video games frequently, they find it interesting and "nice" that they put in the Japanese song with subtitles. Yet, at the same time, we know there are little seven-year-olds convincing their parents to buy them video games, and they really would not enjoy reading subtitles. That is, if they could keep up. I have a six-year-old cousin who loves playing Kingdom Hearts, and he hates it when any text pops up. But, as long as Square Enix gets their money, I should think that a large company such as itself would not really care. And, hey, there is bound to be someone out there in this crazy world wide web of ours who has an MP3 of the Japanese version. But what Square Enix did is what Square Enix did, and they will not be changing FFX-2's intro song. They're busy working on Final Fantasy twelve (and thirteen) now. [/color] [quote] [i]Semjaza Azazel originally wrote:[/i] [b]The amount of people who want to be able to understand a song without reading is far higher than the amount of kids who want everything to be subbed so they can feel like they're more Japanese.[/b] [/quote] [color=midnightblue]Heh, as one of those kids who likes subbed things, I thank you for pointing out one of the many holes and problems in my life.[/color]

[color=midnightblue]Well, oftentimes when somebody changes their name they will have it in their signature.. For example, Chou Long Kai changed to Kazuko a month or two ago and had "I was once Chou Long Kai.. Now I am Kazuko!" in his signature for a while to let it become commonly known who he was. Also, if the person whose name changed is on your OtakuBoards buddy list, their name will automatically switch to what it is now. But it doesn't really tell you that their name was changed. I'm pretty sure those are the only ways you can find out (other than simply asking them), but I could be wrong.[/color]

[color=midnightblue]The only other possibility of new episodes of .hack//SIGN are those two lost episodes, 27 and 28.. And even then, do those even count? However, there [i]are[/i] about sixteen episodes of .hack//DUSK, if I am correct. Maybe you are thinking of that? SIGN and DUSK have entirely different characters, though. I think that [spoiler]Ginkan (Silver Knight) makes an appearance, but I could be wrong. Oh, and Balmung has a prominent role.[/spoiler] Other than that and the fact that it takes place in The World, the series are very different. SIGN was a mystery, as DUSK is a comedy.. DUSK takes place several years after the .hack games, and the main characters are two new players known as Shuugo and Rena. They won special character skins that look just like Kite and Blackrose, the .hackers (Main characters from the games). It has a much more light-hearted tone, and was originally a manga drawn by Rei Izumi (Very good artist, by the way). And where did you hear about the MMORPG? From an official site, or from a friend who found it on some third-party site? It's been a rather popular rumor online in the past months. [size=1]Man, if The World really does come to be real, I must postpone my Matrix: Online investments..[/size][/color]

[color=midnightblue]Now I have to be creative and find a way to fit in the storyline.. Why did I not post again sooner? ___ [b]Theta Server-- Dun Loireag[/b] Shikan opened his eyes. He had been sitting by a cliffside, shrouded in mist.. [i]I must have dozed off,[/i] he thought. He had not gotten much sleep in the past few months.. Ever since he got The World, it has taken up almost all of his time. He then drifted to the tangent of him having no friends in real life. Just acquaintences and study partners.. He pushed the sadness away and forced a grin onto his face. [i]This is The World,[/i] Seta thought. [i]People come here to immerse themselves in a fantasy, to get away from their real lives. No time for thinking about such things here.[/i] The twin blade got up and headed to the Chaos Gate. As he headed down a flight of stairs made of wooden planks, Seta felt a raindrop on his head.. "That's funny," he muttered to himself in his native tongue. "I don't recall it being cloudy." For a minute or two the rain came down softly, and gave off a calm sound and scent.. Seconds later, though, the rain began to come down harder and harder. Shikan ran as fast as he could, covering his head, and hid under a low-hanging cliffside rather near to the Chaos Gate. The roar of the rain was near deafening within five minutes of when it started to fall. Puddles of mud were forming everywhere, making what is normally a pleasant green plain into a wet, dirty patch of grass pushed to the dirt by the large raindrops. One by one players were logging out, or at least, going to different servers. This continued until maybe a handful of players were still in the general area. [i]Argh, it's getting late,[i] Seta thought about logging out. He stood up, and picked up his swords, and was just about to run out to the Chaos Gate, when at that exact moment a flash of light threw him back at the wall. After several seconds, when his eyesight came back, Seta gasped at what he saw. In the distance there were dancing flashes of light falling from the sky, lightning of a strange, glowing hue. Mental images flashed in front of his eyes, of various things he was not quite familiar with. A girl, some strange monster, some sort of circular object.. He looked down at his hand and saw a strange mark.. Some sort of emblem, he thought. But what did it mean? At this moment a group players warped into the area from the Chaos Gate. [/color]

[color=midnightblue]Surveys are fun and enjoyable ways to pass the time. 1) I find OtakuBoards rules easy to understand and follow. [b]Strongly Agree[/b] 2) I feel that the staff at OtakuBoards understand their job and are capable of performing it appropriately. [b]Strongly agree[/b] 3) OtakuBoards is easy to navigate. [b]Strongly agree[/b] 4) OtakuBoards has a friendly atmosphere. [b]Strongly agree, but there's always people who pick on newer members.. Not that it would be at all easy to eradicate that problem.[/b] SECTION B Please try to keep your answers relatively short in this section. 5) How often do you visit OtakuBoards? [b]More than three times a day, often for an hour at a time.[/b] 6) Do you feel that the rules are too strict/not strict enough/fine as they are? [b]They are right where they should be.[/b] 7) Should we continue to uncensor the creative writing areas on OtakuBoards? [b]Writing can be considered a form of art, and art expresses emotion. Why censor emotions?[/b] 8) Would you rather a decentralized forum system on OB (more forums, less activity per forum) or a centralized forum system (less forums, more activity per forum)? [b]Decentralized.[/b] 9) Would you like to see a closer integration of myOtaku and OtakuBoards? [b]I suppose, but I really do not care that much.[/b] 10) Are you signed up to myOtaku.com? [b]I have been signed up since the day MyOtaku was launched. [/b] 11) If you are not signed up to myOtaku.com, do you plan to sign up in the near future? [b]I would if I weren't already signed up.[/b] 12) Do you read Announcements at OtakuBoards? [b]When the title of the Announcement seems to be important to what I do on the boards.[/b] 13) Which single Category (Category, as opposed to individual Forum) do you spend most of your time visiting? [b]The Anime Category.[/b] 14) Do you think that OtakuBoards should offer an in-built chat system as part of our service? If we included a chat, would you use it? [b]I would enjoy that. The AIM chats get rather monotonous after a while.[/b] 15) If we offered an "OtakuBoards Wireless" service that would be accessible via Internet-capable cellphones, would you use it? [b]No, I'm home enough. I don't need that.[/b] 16) When we offer a next generation version of OtakuBoards, should we continue to provide semi-regular community events in our Event Arena or a similar forum? [b]I think that would be fun, yes.[/b] 17) If you could add one new Category (Category, not Forum) to OtakuBoards, what would it be? [b]I feel that there are enough categories on OtakuBoards, and they are generic to cover pretty much any topic.[/b] 18) If you could remove one Category from OtakuBoards, what would it be? [b]I believe they are fine the way they are.[/b] 19) If you could add anything to OtakuBoards (in terms of a new forum, a technical tool/feature, etc), what would it be? [b]Some sort of.. I don't know, I'm not creative with this kind of thing.[/b] 20) On a scale of 1-10 (1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest), how would you rate your experience at OtakuBoards since you registered? [b]9. I have not had a truly bad moment at OB. I have not had a confrontation with anyone, and I feel that I fit in here well.[/b] Hope I helped in some way.[/color]

[color=midnightblue]Yes, I do role play once in a while, in different forms. Most of my role playing is done in the form of video games, though I do like to play pen and paper stuff when I have the oppurtunity. But, sadly, nobody around me ever has taken interest in such things. They're rather buy a video game or actually be social (Now why on Earth would they do [i]that?[/i]) than sit in my dining room writing things down.. Actually, I have never played a pen and paper RPG other than Dungeons and Dragons.. And even then, that was only with two people who knew nothing about how the game works. And, because I have barely ever played, I am also very new to D&D. I only have that cheap little starter kit you sometimes see in stores that came with pre-made characters and some simple little scenarios. In fact, there is only one person I know who is actually interested in playing the game. He lets me borrow the rulebooks, but they are somewhat outdated, with very few character classes. It's nice that he wants to help, though. If I had, oh, maybe a couple hundred bucks to blow on something, I would buy all the standard rulebooks and maybe a couple of guys on the street who would be willing to play RPGs with me for money. But, when I do play, I normally am a Halfling Thief.. I'm at pitiful level three and have very little gold. Why is this cursed town full of nothing but people who hate what I enjoy? *sigh* So much to do, so little money..[/color]

[color=midnightblue]Yeah, I bought Shonen Jump 13 just earlier today (good issue, by the way) and Hikaru no Go was the first title in it.. Yet, at the same time, it had Yu-Gi-Oh as the main image on the cover. Why is it always either Yu-Gi-Oh or Dragonball Z recently..? I mean, those are probably the lowest rated titles on my list. But I'm off on a tangent. Anyway, I am very impressed with the colored pages. Apparently, even my mother admired it, and she could care less about manga or anime. In fact, the animation overall was thoroughly impressive. Takeshi Obata does some nice work. There's something else about what I've read so far that keeps me interested, but I can't quite put my finger on it. It was probably the facial expressions. Fujiwara-no-Sai just is rather funny in the way he acts, I think. But [i]how[/i] do they keep a board game like Go so intersting? I'm not asking that like some sort of skeptic, I already know that it is in fact interesting, I'm just not sure how.. It just somehow stays exciting. I'm not sure on where this title stands in my list of favorite manga. It certainly is up there, but Naruto is starting to get even better than before. *pulls out new Go beginners' guide* Of course, I'm saying all of this out of reading one chapter..[/color]

[color=midnightblue]Heh, I'm second to reply.. ___ [b]"The World" Dun Loireag Root Town- Theta Server[/b] "Oh, the joys of being in a semi-foreign land," Shikan proclaimed to nobody in particular as he walked through the lush, green hills of the American Root Town. Today was one of those days where the young Twin Blade decided to visit the United States server. After a week of English class in school, it felt good to leave the Japanese server once in a while and meet different people, from a different culture and land. Of course, it doesn't beat actually [i]going[/i] to America, considering you're still in a virtual fantasy world, and you are still sitting in the same old room, really doing nothing special. Seta walked through the crowded courtyard with no particular destination in mind, and received some rather odd looks from other players. A lot of them were muttering as well.. Was this outfit he got from that "Upgrade of Twilight" really that special? "Like, omigod!! That is [i]SO[/i] cool!!" Ugh. Locals.. From the sounds of it, Seta thought, they were probably girls from California about his age. Honestly, he found such people to be more irritable than most Gangoro freaks. They, unlike the other vibrant characters, were being open with their fascination with Seta, whereas everyone was just staring from a distance. In fact, they were fawning over him. "Eh..." The Japanese Twinblade felt rather awkward in the presence of the attractive, scantily clad female blademasters. He flashed a rather strange smile. "Heh, what is the matter?" "Oh, oh, nothing at all, don't worry!" They were carefully examining his cape now.. "It's just your outfit! Did you get this from that new, rare upgrade?" "Well, yes. I recently purchased [i]The Upgrade of Twilight[/i].. Is this outfit really that amazing?.." If he had known more about American slang and such, he probably would have tried sounding more casual. "Haha, like, what's with your accent? You sound so formal!" They backed off now.. In real life Seta breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm from the Japanese server.. Just visiting the US server." "Okaaay then, be off on your way, Mr. Foreigner." The trio of girls giggled some and walked in the opposite direction. And with that, Shikan the Twin Blade decided to hang out by the Chaos Gate for a while.[/color]

[color=midnightblue]I must thank my dear friend AzureWolf for resurrecting this thread.. Heh, since nobody was replying I've been out of work. Actually, the picture was somewhat softened before I did anything to it. I just did a blurry "Wind effect", as the call it in Paint Shop Pro 8. Oh, and I've decided that 200 by 100 pixels is the way to go for my banners. I just think that anything larger just isn't as asthetically pleasing. -- Okay, here is another banner of mine, that is roughly a motif of what Syk showed me the other day on instant messenger. He showed me this nice banner that he made and said he never used it, for some reason. It was rather inspiring to me, so I made something of a similar style. I just took a picture of Haruko from FLCL and went over it with some dark blue, then used the various paint brushes in PSP8 to make some nice, transparent, egotystical phrases. Anyway, this isn't nearly as nice as what Syk showed me. His was far more polished and well-done. Nevertheless, I am pretty proud of this. Enjoy.[/color]

[color=midnightblue]I like a wide variety of Japanese music found in anime and video games. For whatever reason I am attracted to, and have a passion for, most anything related to Japanese culture and history. [b]Overall best soundtrack--[/b] In my opinion, .hack//SIGN wins this award without that much competition. The melodies and styles of the songs just fit the series very well, in different ways. On one hand, the appearance of the characters seems very fourteenth-century and kind of what you would see a traveler wearing in the countryside. Thus you have a lot of the Celtic non-vocal tracks like Labyrinth. Then you have the flipside of the .hack world, that it is all a technologically advanced simulation of a long-since-gone civilization. So then, to match that, you have the techno tracks like Obsession. All of the songs seem to have a little bit of a mix of the two, as well, whether you really notice it or not. If you use some really high quality headphones and listen to the more Celtic songs you'll here some kind of techno-esque beats very lightly in the background, and vice-versa. I [i]would[/i] buy the soundtracks, but I've already burned all of the songs onto CDs, so I see no point in it other than to clear my mind of all illegal activity. FLCL's soundtrack is second place on my list. It contains the only songs of the genre of rock I find to be good. [b]Individual songs--[/b] Fukai Mori from Inuyasha- There's just something about this song that draws me to it. I suppose the harmonization between the two singers in the bridge is a big part of it, and it just seems well-performed overall. Cruel Angel's Thesis from Evangelion- Before I saw the series this song really did not do that much for me. Quite frankly, the only part I enjoyed was the choir introduction. I would listen to that and then skip to the next song on my Winamp.. But the animations that go with the song in the Evangelion beginning credits really got me interested with this song. And, again, high quality headphones enhanced the experience. And those are the only ones I can think of right now.[/color]

[color=midnightblue]There are lots of "projects" in Japan. Normally a popular anime series is called such a thing, such as "Project Eva" and "Project .hack", for Evangelion and .hack respectively. These projects normally have a base item to purchase or watch, followed by add-ons to plot and character developement. Oftentimes a lot of the add-ons are just to milk some more money out of the franchise. Project Eva, for example, uses its television series as its basis, followed by video games and manga as additions to the series. The .hack series, as Black_Phoenix mentioned, has the .hack games as the focal point of the franchise, with .hack//SIGN, .hack//LIMINALITY, and .hack//DUSK as the add-ons. There's also the card game and a couple of novels. Project .hack is all one big story, but each series has different characters contributing to the whole franchise. SIGN is the prologue, the games are the body of the story, and DUSK is the epilogue. You could say LIMINALITY is an appendix to the games, in this context. So Liminality is another part of project .hack, though it is related to .hack//SIGN in some ways. Hope I cleared things up, or at the very least, confused you further.[/color]

[color=midnightblue]All right, another .hack RPG. I'll join. [b]The World[/b] [b]Name:[/b] Shikan [b]Gender:[/b] Male [b]Affiliation:[/b] Player [b]Class:[/b] Twin Blade [b]Special Ability:[/b] Can warp without Chaos Gate [b]Weapon:[/b] Twin silver daggers with wooden handles depicting intricate angular designs on them. The blades are polished and are serated on the edges. [b]Description:[/b] Matted, brown, short hair with a rather pale complexion. Wears a dark blue leather chestplate with a navy blue cape over it. The chestplate has rather intricate yellow patterns on it. Underneath the armor is a light blue shirt that reaches down to Shikan's knees, so it looks somewhat like a tunic (But it's NOT, so don't get any ideas). Brown leather boots that reach up to the shin are also worn. Halves of light blue ovals are on his face as well (You know, the face markings almost ever character has). [b]Level:[/b] 38 [b]Real World[/b] [b]Name:[/b] Seta Erimaki [b]Age:[/b] 14 [b]Gender:[/b] Male [b]Description:[/b] Brown hair like in the game, wears glasses, normally wears a gray sweater over some anime T-shirt. His eyes are gray-blue. He basically modeled his character after himself. [b]Biography:[/b] All of his life Seta has lived in the suburbs of Tokyo with his parents and younger brother. He always had a passion for video games, and when he bought The World last year that interest went into full force. Since then he's spent a lot of time playing the game, cutting himself off from most in-person social contact. He often visits the American server to test his skills with the English language and to meet people from other countries. Seta would like to become a moderator someday, but he has to do a lot of work before he could even be considered.[/color]

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Shinmaru [/i] [B]It's worth mentioning that I still haven't beat the game. lol[/b][/quote] [color=midnightblue]Not that it matters, but nor have I. And this is one of those games I don't just give up on. [/color] [quote][b]I shall now play Metroid Prime today. Whee. [/b][/QUOTE] [color=midnightblue]Hey, I've been replaying it for a month already and do I get any praise? No. ___ But, yes, Metroid Prime is very yummy, delicious, tasty, and other such things. It was actually the first Metroid game I have ever played, and from what I had heard about the series I had high expectations about it. I must say that it exceeded my expectations. The depth, the cutscenes, and all of the Chozo Lore and Pirate Data... It created a subplot (Or a sort of appendix) to Metroid Prime. Good stuff, that. And the graphics were amazing as well. The textures on walls and doors really didn't look that great close up, though. That was probably my only problem with the game. When they had a bird's eye view of Samus in Tallon Overworld, showing a close-up of the leaves and branches high above our hero's head.. Ugh, that killed me. I got rather close to beating the game, but apparently I missed one of the Chozo Artifacts, thus not letting me fight Ridley. Hours upon hours I spent trying to locate the final artifact, but to no avail. I have since then been rebuilding my data in a different file and going over the things I missed. This is one of those games that Gamecube will most likely be remembered for in about twenty years when people like us are reviewing once next-generation game consoles of yore.[/color]