JenniKate

I'm also a big fan of Legato's from Trigun. He is so cool and calm and unnervingly unaffected by things. The [spoiler] mind control he used to force people to kill their friends [/spoiler] is one of the most villanous things I've ever seen. Vicious from Cowboy Bebop is another in the same lines. Cool, calm and collected. Every move is fluid and unwasted, every thought is designed to bring him closer to his goal. And yet you have the feeling that he is not really evil he just follows a different path.

One of the things I really love about Cowboy Bebop is that the end is so [spoiler] ambiguous. It really ties up where things are at for the Bebop crew, while leaving open the fact that things in their lives will keep going on. It's kind of 'this is the end of the chapter in their lives' and we are only looking at a small amount of time. Whether Spike actually dies is up for much debate. Personally I think he does and he can finally rest. [/spoiler] I wouldn't like to see any more CB made that was prequel or sequel but I'd love them to make another movie that fits somewhere in the middle like the current one does.

[B]Adore [/B] Tohru from Fruits Basket. She can be naive but she has such a good heart and does so much [spoiler]emotionally[/spoiler] for the Soma's. [B]Love [/B] Subaru from X. He is dark and brooding and sensative. He holds such hurt inside him while at the same time [spoiler] loving Seishiro who caused the hurt [/spoiler] [B]Admire [/B] Spike from Cowboy Bebop. He has such a [spoiler]painfulpast but doesn't burdenothers with it[/spoiler] . He is very smart, especially in fights and so calm and composed. That's it for now :)

I have to admit my primary blog is at Live Journal, this is because 90% of my friends are on there and as many of my friends are overseas and interstate it is the easiest way to keep them updated on my life. I use myotaku for more random thoughts that I don't necessarily want my friends to see. It is a much more anonymous blog for me and it's always good to have somewhere to write where people don't judge you on what they already know of you. The main things I like about myotaku is that the people who reads it understands my love of anime so anytime I mention anime I'm not considered crazy and obsessive. I also like the area to post quiz results, so often blogs just become a mass of quiz results and no real talk, having a spot where you can include your quiz results means that the 'talk' part of your blog remains readable.

Ninja Scroll is the most violent I've seen. I can deal with a small amount of blood and gore but this one just seemed extremly violent, so much so that I can't remember anything about the storyline as I was too busy trying to not see the gory stuff!

As we've established anime is not dying. You should feel lucky you have any anime on TV, in Australia we're very restricted on what we can view. Everyone here has to buy the DVD's to really watch it - and then we can't buy half as much as American's can. :animeangr (that anger is because we can't buy the stuff) So now that little grumpiness is over.... There is plenty of wonderful anime out there and more is being made constantly. Of course some of it is rubbish - but only if you don't like that particularly style/story etc. The thing is, most anime needs to be bought, only a fraction is shown on TV even in the States. This is not a bad thing as it means more money for the studios to make more for us to see! I also wanted to say Dagger you are far from alone! I, and most of my frieneds, actually prefer dubs to subs. Subs are good but they take concentration and I find I miss a lot of the animation because I'm too busy watching the words. So I go with the dub, accept that sometimes the meaning differs slightly to the original and take in the animation.

According to the Australian Bureau of Meterology the wave generated by the Indian Ocean tsunami didn't reach North America. There is information on the meterological aspects of the tsunami and a good animation showing where the wave would travel at [URL=http://www.bom.gov.au/info/tsunami/tsunami_info.shtml#dec26]http://www.bom.gov.au/info/tsunami/tsunami_info.shtml#dec26[/URL] It's worth a look, it's very informative.

As most people have said anime is for everyone. I started watching things like Astro Boy when I was 8 or 9 - and many others (without knowing they were 'anime'). Then when I got older I moved onto Ghost in the Shell then when I was older still Evangelion and I still watch all sorts of anime (I'm now 27). I can imagine I will still be watching anime for years to come. So some are for kids, some are for teens, some are for adults and there are huge amounts aimed at all age groups. Anime is really just a style of entertainment with many genre's. It's almost like asking 'Are live action movies for kids or teens' the answer is 'yes and more' because it's a style not a genre. It's the genre that tends to be more specific in it's target audience than the style.

[QUOTE=Dagger]Although Trust & Betrayal is more mature and realistic than RK, I find that RK (despite its many flaws) is simply more likeable. Or maybe it's just that the characters show a wider range of emotions ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] I have to agree with Dagger on this one. While it was good to have the backstory and the end story, I much preferred RK. The characters feel much more likable and there is a much broader range of emotions in the entire show - characters, story, music, drawing etc. I found the Samurai X OVA's to be very somber and didn't feel much joy when watching them. It was also very strange watching the different drawing style with characters that I felt I knew so well from the series seeming very different in the OVAs. Overall I'd have to say I didn't really like the OVAs and probably won't watch them again. Jen

Melbourne (Australia) is renowned for having strange weather, but February was bizarre even for us. Normally it's our hottest month of the year with temperatures regularly up around 35 degrees celsius. Not this year! Early in the month a 'cyclonic low' developed directly above the city, dumped the most rain we've ever had in a day and promptly turned everything upsidedown. We had days that were less than 13 degrees. Quite seriously it feels like winter in Melbourne at the moment. A few sunny days but generally windy, gloomy and cold. It's very odd and it's making everyone grumpy and sick! I hope the sun comes back soon. This image is from where I work, the day after the huge rain, that buliding and lamp are normally on a walkway next to the river.... [IMG]http://www.green-gecko.net/images/Yarra%203rd%20Feb%2005.jpg[/IMG]

I think the key is discovering what causes your insomnia. I suffer on and off with sleeping problems caused primarily due to the fact my brain is on overdrive most of the time. I spend a lot of time worrying about what happened during that day and the worse the worry is the less chance I have of going to sleep. Controlling the thoughts = getting some sleep. Usually distraction is a good thing here. I put on an anime that I know fairly well and I can focus on the tv without getting caught up in the story. Once my brain stops worrying I fall asleep pretty quickly. Other things is might be are > sleeping patterns thrown off - are you sleeping or very sleepy at other times of the day? You may need to work yourself back to a normal sleeping pattern > too much caffine - if you drink a lot of caffine rich drinks cut down > distractions - if there is a lot of noise you may not sleep well, alternatively some people can't sleep in dead silence (me for one ;) ) Of course there are the cases where insomnia comes and goes for no good reason. If it's really bad, see a doctor. They can provide sleeping pills that are less likely to be addictive and often once your body has some forced rest you find that your sleeping goes back to normal. good luck :)

I've also just started watching Fruits Basket - just finished ep 15 to be exact! I love it. It's light hearted and can be fun while still having a good basic storyline and some seriousness as well. I love Tohru she is a very upbeat bubbly kind of person who accepts things that happen and doesn't let it make her depressed. Also her interaction with the boys is very amusing to watch, sometimes it's like they're her big brothers sometimes it's like they're potential boyfriends. I also like the fact that the series doesn't overplay [spoiler] the zodic people turn into animals. Once it was established that they do it happens quite rarely [/spoiler] so it's really just a part of the background rather than the be all and end all of the story. It could so easily have been overdone and ruined the storyline. I'm still a bit confused as to how all the Soma family are connected to each other (ie which are brothers, cousins etc) but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually :D

It's hard to explain why I think anime is great! I grew up with fantasy at home, mostly in book form but also as a kid my mother used to make up stories and they all involved fanstasy elements. The thing that really attracted me to anime was the fanstasy elements being used in a story but not being the story. Most of the live action fantasy type movies spend so much time showing you how great their special effects are and how wonderfully fanstastical they are that the fanstasy elements seem out of place. A key example is one I've just started watching - Fruits Basket. [spoiler] the main characters turn into animals regularly, and it's just a day to day thing. It's mentioned as something unusual but it's portrayed as being normal for those people. [/spoiler] The portrayal of it is just part of the story and there are more important things going on that are focused on. The other thing I find is that characters tend to be more developed and more real. Few are all good or all bad they seem very human - even the non humans - which is something you don't always see in live action or especially in other animated shows. The stories are great for escapism. They contain real emotions but matched with elements that are not of today's world. Which makes them familiar but not real. So while they affect you, you can always rationalise emotions away by remembering these things can't really happen. Of course the drawing styles, the fact they're usually series so have many episodes to explain a story and bring out characters and the music all contribute but I don't think are the primary reasons for me :)

[QUOTE=Doc][font=Century Gothic][size=1]Well, I personally meant what does AT&T stand for.... nothing else.[/size][/font] [font=Century Gothic][size=1][/size][/font] [font=Century Gothic][size=1]And Arunue, you live in Maricopa right... for your only like 15 to 30 miles away, I believe.[/size][/font] [font=Century Gothic][size=1][/size][/font][/QUOTE] American Telephone and Telegraph [URL=http://www.att.com/history/history1.html]AT&T History[/URL] There is a whole schpeil about them on their site about where they come from. I love Google, I never have to wonder about anything again :laugh:

I'd have to agree with Morpheus and say anime is becoming more popular because it is more accessible. I think it's becoming more accessible because the demand is becoming higher. I think some of it would have to be attributed to The Matrix (not that I [U]want [/U] to attribute it to that!) but many of my friends and coworkers had never heard of anime or seen any until The Matrix was released and all the promo talked about 'Japanimation'. Interestingly enough many of my coworkers pronounce it in more like an English word - an-eye-m (kind of rhyming with 'my time') insted of a-ni-may. Once people see some they seem to fall into two categories - the ones who can't get past the fact it's animated and so aren't attracted to it - and the ones who see the story as the primary focus and therefore watch. Once people are watching it they of course develop interest in different themes as they do with live action movies/series. Then they start taking notice of the style of animation combined with the story and the music/sound and either the dub or sub quality and use all these factors to determine if they like that particular show or not. These are just my opinions based on my experience. My friends/collegues seem to fit predominantly into the not liking anime group but there are a few who are interested and only 3 die hard fans! And for the other question - does anime influence me as a person - no more so than anything else in my life. It can affect my emotions, as does any form of media. But it does not make me change the person I am :D

The farthest I've been is New Zealand or maybe Cairns, which, given that I live in Australia is not very far! BUT I am going to Japan and Europe this year and then moving to England to live :D

Favourite anime is one of the hardest questions to answer! It all depends on my mood. Generally If I'm depressed - Neon Genesis Evangelion. It makes it easy to wallow in your depression. You really enter the minds of the characters and realise how unhappy everyone is. If I'm in no particular mood - Cowboy Bebop Instant entertainment. The drawing, the character development, the ongoing background story that doesn't dominate but is always there, Ed - who is the coolest craziest lovable character I've seen really everything. But I think the music is what tips me over into it being a favourite. At the moment - X TV I'm hooked on the story and the characters are really well developed. It presents a lot of background to what is going on and you can really understand each person. Others - because I like their style, characters and stories. They are generally well rounded and not too long: Trigun, Outlaw Star, .hack//sign

[quote name='Dagger IX1']when I was little, strangers often assumed that my mother was my babysitter. ~Dagger~[/quote] I had something like that too! My mum is English/Scottish and my Dad is Anglo Indian/Scottish/Norwegian/French - I was born in Australia so I'm just a bit of a mix ;) Anyway, back to the point, my Mum is typically English, white and pasty and I am olive thanks to the Indian. When I was born the nurses hadn't met my father (I'm 27 so this was back in the days before Dad's were in the delivery room). I came out yellowish with a lot of dark hair so they thought I was premature and jaundiced and rushed me off to intensive care. My dad wanders in and they sheepishly retrieved me realising I was actually 2 weeks overdue and the colour was fine :laugh: I've always loved this story as it really sums up that I'm from a mixed heritage.

[QUOTE=Dagger IX1]Which character(s) did you like least? I didn't empathize with Kanoe, for obvious reasons, and I didn't find Hinoto to be particularly appealing either. And I have to admit that I also thought Kotori was boring. She was supposed to be this amazing Aeris-like figure, but she was actually pretty bland. ^_^;; ~Dagger~[/QUOTE] I didn't particularly like Hinoto either. It felt like she was working against them, although that could be explained by [spoiler] her split personality that surfaced for a split second![/spoiler]. I'm torn with Yuziriha. As a character she has a lot of interesting aspects but the voice actors (both English and Japanese) I found very annoying. Early on I didn't like Satsuke, but towards the end she seemed to grow as a person and grew on me so in the end I didn't dislike her. I'd agree Kotori was boring, but I still liked her! I've just started re-watching and discovered I must have slept through an entire episode. I was wondering why [spoiler] they didn't show Kotori and Fuma's father's funeral - but now I've discovered they did![/spoiler]

To me most of the American animation that is made for adults is humour based. Whereas Japanese animation produces a wide range of styles. I think this may be a cultural thing. I'm Australian, from Melbourne - which is very multicultural, and see many differences in the production and choice of viewing of people who have grown up in different cultures, different people find different things acceptible. I've always thought the main difference with anime is that the creators do not feel restricted by having animation as opposed to live action whereas animators from other cultures do.

[QUOTE=AzureWolf][FONT=book antiqua][SIZE=2][COLOR=blue] And no, I did not steal this idea from someone else and then find it to work wonders.

I collect bats, well not really collect them but find them in our trees and name them and yes I can tell the difference between a lot of them! I collect things that have bats on them purely because people give me them I love bats, I have a tattoo of a bat that my sister drew, it's rather evil looking :D

I am having some real trouble watching Lain. It takes some serious concentration to follow what is happening. But more than that it makes me feel very anxious and uncomfortable. There's no one aspect that does it, it's the whole package the animation, music, characters and story. This is actually a good thing in my opinion. It's great to watch things that excite you and make you happy, but it's good to have the flip side. I'm going to persist with Lain and see what happens - at the risk of sending myself insane my plan is to find a free weekend and sit down and watch it start to finish in one go!

I've read in a few other boards that one of the main writers of the manga has arthritis in her hands - if that is true that could be a reason for the delay! Unfortunatly Australia has the same versions as the US so it's flipped here too. On the plus side I have a friend who has read the manga and said that even though it doesn't have an ending you can see it eventually ending up the same as the tv series - it just takes some imagination!

[quote name='AzureWolf][FONT=book antiqua][SIZE=2][COLOR=blue']Wow, am I lucky that the various uncovered spoilers I've read in this single thread were of animes I've seen. The rest, the mod(s) caught before reached my eyes. I thank Solo and Dagger for that.[/quote][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]I'd also like to thank Solo and Dagger - nothing is worse than knowing what happens before you watch it! [quote name='AzureWolf][FONT=book antiqua][SIZE=2][COLOR=blue']Anyway, to build on to this thread a bit, I was wondering if I could ask you what makes you cry? Also, what stops you from crying? I'll illustrate in my examples.[/quote][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]I usually cry when I like a character and something drastic, either good or bad happens. For example they finally fall in love or they lose someone they love - generally it revolves around love! Deep down I'm just a mushy romantic :love: