Otakon 2010 - Saturday

Day two of Otakon 2010 was a good time. It consisted mostly with trips around the dealer's room and artist's alley, and one long trip outside. Suri and I went around watching cosplayers until we met up with my friend Amber. She gave me things to give to Downtown Otaku, and gave me a cat-earred hat that she made for me (complete with a hole in the back for my ponytail!) and a pink collar with a green bell that she got for me at another convention.

Once we separated from Amber, we planned to go to the AMV Contest. Of course, that was when fire alarms started going off and everyone was told to leave the building. 30,000 nerds were suddenly sent out onto the streets of Baltimore, not knowing what to do. The area around the convention center probably sent the regular residents into a panic. We were out there for maybe an hour before they let us back in.



While we were out there I found a Prof. Birch and asked if I could take a picture with him. He let me and then offered Suri and I pokemon cards of Mudkip, Torchik, and Treeko. I laughed and picked mudkip, and Suri picked torchik.

Once regularity had resumed, Suri and I went back in and took a spin around the artist's alley. I picked up a few things for Cass. I also got a cute poster of Kamina, Simon, and Nia, a Raichu postcard, and my friend Kyle bought me a bookmark with Italy from "Axis Powers Hetalia" on it. I also hung out with the dudes from Studio Painted Blade for a while. They are really cool dudes, so you should totally check them out. I think they have a webcomic going, and they just generally have fantastic work from what I have seen.



When we were done there we went back down to the dealer's room. There wasn't much for me there. I bought a few more of those Bleach cookies, a DBZ blind box for Downtown Otaku, and a little Hetalia figure since I'm apparently going to be watching that due to my love of ridiculous accents. We then went with Kyle to the Dr. Who photoshoot, and while they were busy with that I found a trio of unexpected Magic Knight Rayearth cosplayers...



I found Lantis, Alcyone, and Caldina. I spotted Caldina's cape and then noticed Alcyone next to her and needed a photo. Alcyone is, and has always been, one of my favorite Magic Knight Rayearth characters and I have never seen anyone cosplay her before. I expressed my excitement to the woman cosplaying and then we went back to the Dr. Who shoot.



After that, Cass came and picked us up. Dinner consisted of nachos and ice cream, and we watched some of our favorite episodes of "Avatar: The Last Airbender". I have no plans to go back Sunday. I'm out of money and there are no panels I want to go see.

As I said yesterday, all of the pictures from this weekend are up in their own album on Photobucket, and there were some absolutely stellar ones, so you should definitely check it out. This was a fantastic convention, and I'm so glad I got the chance to go for another year.

Thanks so much to all of the attendees for being such great company, and an extra special thanks to the con staff for putting on such a great event and for handling a small emergency like total champions. It was a great year and I cannot wait for Otakon 2011!

Otakon 2010 - Thursday/Friday

So we didn't do anything Otakon related on Thursday, but it was a good day, so I'm going to shove it in with Friday's activities.

So Cass picked me up around 1, we grabbed Suri, and headed down to Baltimore. We stopped at a rest stop for lunch, and then headed down to UMBC, where we're staying in Cass's apartment on campus. We got ourselves settled in, and then headed over to the local Safeway to pick up some food/snacks for the weekend.

I made steak sautéed in olive oil (I am the most Italian), a box of white cheddar & broccoli Pasta-Roni, and a bag of frozen broccoli for dinner. Cass made a box of cupcakes for dessert. It was the most delicious. For those of you who didn't know, I absolutely love to cook. So getting to cook dinner for my friends (while wearing an awesome blue apron!) was great.

Suri played some Twilight Princess, I played some Cate West: The Velvet Keys, and we made a lot of jokes about mangos being 100 cents, Death Note's "Take this potato chip... AND EAT IT!!!", and various other things we all found funny over the course of the day. Just being out of the house is nice, and I enjoyed hanging around and just being kind of nerdy and awesome with two of the most important people in my life.

Friday rolled around and Cass dropped Suri and I off at the convention center. We picked up our badges and began heading around the convention. We met up with friends and took pictures of cosplayers until it was around time for a Q&A panel with Jerry Jewel, who voices Vino/Claire from "Baccano!".



The previous Q&A for Todd Haberkorn was still going on, so we sat in in the end of it and figured out that he voiced Firo from "Baccano!", which was pretty cool also. They are hilarious men, and will also be voicing Italy and Russia (respectively) in the dub of "Axis Powers Hetalia" with crazy accents. I've never been too into Hetalia, but I do love crazy accents so I may watch it just for that.

After that, Suri and I made a few round in the dealer's room and artist's alley to scout out things we might want to buy and what booths had the best prices. While doing that, we also found some of my favorite cosplayers of the day.



Once we'd made a few rounds, we went back and started buying things. I didn't figure there would be much I wanted, but I managed to find a good handful of Nia figures to buy, plus a few other little Bleach things that I couldn't resist.



The "cookies" are actually zipper-pulls/keychains. They are really really cute. The "decorated" cookies are of Abarai Renji and Hitsugaya Toshiro, the two square cookies are of Kuchiki Byakuya and Hirako Shinji, and the chocolate cookies is just squares. I don't really know what it is. If I can find the booth again, I may buy a few more tomorrow and see what else I can get.



I also found this poster in the artist's alley. While making my rounds, there wasn't really a whole lot that I wanted. There were things at the tables of friends that I'd planned to pick up (and will go back for tomorrow since I didn't get to today), but there wasn't much I wanted to buy. Then I saw this Bakuman poster by Rikyo (of Studio Painted Blade), and just stopped dead in my tracks. He asked if I saw anything I liked, I pointed at it, and said "That." I paid the $10 for the poster and we had a brief conversation about how great Bakuman is.

After that we caught up with Cass and headed back to the apartment. I made chicken, corn, and chicken-flavored rice-a-roni for dinner, and now we're all hanging around unwinding after a full, very eventful day. Tomorrow we plan to take another spin around the dealer's room and the artist's alley and then see what happens.

All of our pictures from this weekend can be found in this album on Photobucket. It is full of fantastic cosplayers, so do go take a look!

Brb. Time for Otakon!

So, in about an hour, my wonderful best friend Cass will be picking me up for the trip down to Baltimore for Otakon 2010. I'll be down there until Sunday, getting my nerd on. If you're going to be there, just look for Professor Araragi (Pokemon Black/White) and Amamiya Yuuhi (The Lucifer And The Biscuit Hammer) walking around together. That'll be Suri and I.



It's gonna be a hell of a time, and I'm looking forward to getting to have some real downtime. Hopefully I'll have the energy to draft posts Friday and Saturday so that I can post them once I'm back and up in NYC at Downtown Otaku's place.

Slightly behind on poke-news again.

So I've fallen a little behind again on presenting the forthcoming news on Pokemon Black/White. I'm here to rectify that today and get myself all caught up before I head to Baltimore this weekend for Otakon 2010 (which you can expect a full report on when I get back). So strap in kids, this one's going to be a little long...

So let's start with what's fresh, shall we?



This is Victini. It's the third legendary pokemon for Black/White that's been revealed so far, and has #000 as it's Isshu pokedex number, which is a first. Otherwise there's nothing we really know about it.

Except that it has butt-wings.

God just look at those things. How does it expect to fly with those? Upside down?

I'm not really sure how I feel about Victini at the moment. As far as being the "cute" legendary, I think it falls short of what Mew, Celebi, Jirachi, and Shaymin have been. It reminds me more of Rotom, since it's very pointy. And I really wasn't a big fan of Rotom for some reason...

Still, if I ever end up with one, his name will be "Butt-wings". I'm a jerk like that.



Okay, we're gonna go left->right/top->bottom with these.

Gochiruzeru - The Celestial Body Pokemon
More like the Apathetic Pokemon, judging by that face. I'm not really 100% on it, since I can't tell much about it, but it would make a super cute gijinka. I don't know why most psychic pokemon have to have this serious, unplayful design like their whole lives are such serious business. Of course there re exceptions... Though Gochiruzeru really looks like it should have some dark in it's typing, and it bothers me that it doesn't.

Kibago - The Tusk Pokemon
Kibago seems to suffer from "Gen III" syndrome, as I call it, where some of the pokemon just seem like they're taking the place and being the "poor man's" version of a pokemon from another generation. Kibago seems to be the poor man's Larvitar. Of course this could easily be rectified by having it not end up as something that looks like Tyrannitar. We'll have to see.

Rankurusu - The Amplification Pokemon
One of the exceptions to the "serious business psychics" is Rankurusu. This thing honestly looks like the biggest bundle of fun in the world, and depending on what comes of it, it may be my new default psychic. Seriosuly, it looks like a huge bean bag chair that I want to cuddle forever.

Koromori - The Bat Pokemon
This is right up there with Giaru for me. We really didn't need a "poor man's Zubat". Zubat was frustrating enough. And I'm just not sold on the design. Hopefully it will evolve into something totally kick-ass to make up for it.

Wargle - The Valor Pokemon
The kick ass pokemon with the silly name. Warrrrgle. I could say that forever. I want to catch one and name it "Uncle Sam". I'm glad to see an eagle-like pokemon finally instead of a bunch of falcons. Variation is good, folks. Wargle with "brave bird" on it would probably just make my life.

Minezumi - The Lookout Pokemon
Minezumi looks like it's taking the place of Rattata and Bidoof, which is a shame I guess? But he's got a very classic "pokemon" look to him. I just wish he wasn't apparently so bipedal. I think he's kind of like Bidoof and Hoot-Hoot got genetically spliced.



Musharna - The Trance Pokemon
Okay, so I said I was on the fence about Munna, but it evolves into this thing which is super cute. Not to mention you need to have one of these pokemon in order to use certain cool new features in the game like the Global Link and the Dream World, and I refuse to miss out on features like that.



The Global link allows players to either battle on line or have access to the Dream World. The Dream World, from what I can tell seems to expand on what the Pokewalker did for HeartGold/SoulSilver.

There is a 'Dream World' where Pokémon have their own rooms to play in, and are able to play mini-games with other Pokémon. If a Pokémon is befriended in the dream world, it is able to be taken back to the player's game. Hence, this allows Pokémon not native to the Isshu region to be obtained. To send a Pokémon (the Pokémon must be placed in in the PC box) to the world of dreams, the Game Sync feature (part of the C Gear) is used.

- From Bulbanews's article on the Coro Coro leaks.

I can see myself wasting SO MUCH TIME on this. It sounds insanely fun, and I think it's a clever way to bring in pokemon from other regions without having to do massive amounts of trading from other games.

Plenty of other new features have been announced too, and on the whole they sound totally fantastic. A feature called "Passing By" allows players to "seamlessly and instantaneously connect with nearby players", though I'm not entirely sure what what would consist of. "Live Caster" allows players to video chat, though I could see this feature turning ugly pretty quickly. And then there is "Feeling Check" which measures "Compatibility between players". There's some mini-games involved and it just seems like a cute idea.

And then of course there is the new feature of Triple Battling. I'm on the fence with this. Bulbanews has a great article from their "Looking Forward" column on the subject of triple battles, and I find myself agreeing pretty solidly with it. It could be an amazing new feature, it could be a mess. Right now we haven't really seen it in action so we'll just have to wait and hope for the best.

And now, finally, we come to my favorite part... New characters!



On the left is Cheren, your responsible, dependable dude friend who wants to be the new Champion. On the right is Bel, your excitable derp of a gal pal who's going out into the world against her father's wishes. These are your two best friends. From what I can tell, they seem to play the same role as Barry in D/P/Pt, except now you get two of them. Bel, on the whole seem to just be a female Barry.



Then we have "N", playing the role of the antagonist, much like Silver in the Gen II games/remakes.

He regularly challenges the player in order to confirm his ideas of justice. He calls Pokémon "friends", but one of the screen shots shows him saying that he wants to split humans and Pokémon and divide them to create a black and white world. He has the unique idea to set Pokémon free from people, and looks for the power to bring his idea to reality.

- Again, from Bulbanews's article on the Coro Coro leaks.

This leads me to believe he's kind of like Cyrus from Gen IV, and therefore is totally out of his mind. I am hoping that I get to beat him up and tell him he's an idiot at some point in the game, because the female player character totally looks like she could kick some ass.

And then there is my favorite new addition to the cast...



Mokomo, the other Isshu professor.

That's right. This region is full of lady professors, running around and doing crazy pokemon science. This game is amazing. I want a game just about Araragi and Momoko, the pokescience-pals.

Professor Mokomo seems to play a role similar to Mr. Pokemon from Gen II. She's a friend of Professor Araragi's and eventually gives you the "C Gear", which is Gen V's pokemon trainer multi-tool, after you do her some kind of favor. A favor which I hope includes Araragi somehow. These two look like they would be the most ADORABLE best friends. I could see them growing up together and following around pokemon and studying them.

So that's things as they stand currently. Right now this game is looking like it is going to pack more awesome than I can handle. There's apparently going to be big differences between the two versions, so I'm going to have to play both. This bothers me a bit because it will take forever.

So let's look forward to it all together!

1960's Aquaman had some of the best writers ever.

Gonna start out by saying that I'm going to be testing out the new "Zemanta Assistant" that Blogger is offering in this post. See how I like it. I'm curious about how not having to look for images and things on my own. So lets give it a test run while i do a bit of nerding, shall we?

As a young kid, I had two fictional crushes that I have never been able to get over. One is Lt. Surge from Pokemon, and the other is Aquaman. Judging by my track record on this blog, the obvious choice to blog about would be Lt. Surge, but instead I'm going to talk a bit about Aquaman.

Image via Wikipedia

I watched Cartoon Network pretty consistently as a kid, and back in the old days, they aired a hell of a lot of super friends. And, for some reason I took a quick liking to Aquaman. But those who know me always know I'm a big fan of the underdogs. Sure he didn't seem really powerful, but doing a lot with a little appeals to me way more than doing a little with a lot. So, Aquaman doing the impossible while primarily telling fish what to do seemed pretty cool to me. Not to mention I'm a shore girl, born and bred. So It just kind of clicked.

Well, recently I came into owning the first volume of "DC Showcase Presents: Aquaman". 49 comics. Mid-1959 to the end of 1962. I'm currently about 1/3 of the way in, at a comic from March 1960. I think Suri tried to warn me, but god damn silver-age writing... That is some seriously, seriously crazy shit. From the looks of things, logic was at an all time low in 1960.

Let's check out my top 5 moments from what I've read so far. Again, I apologize for the crappy quality of these images. My only camera is my cell phone and this book doesn't fit on my scanner properly.



5) Giant Ball of Kryptonite
This thing was in two issues, and at the end of each Aquaman just shoves it deeper and deeper into the ocean. Because god forbid Superman should ever want to have a nice beach day, right? It's one of those things where I just wonder why in the hell he didn't have a whale or a hammerhead destroy it. Unless he's saving it in case Supes tries to make fun of his fish powers again.



4) Cheating On Tests Is A-Okay!
So Aqualad wants to go to school. That's a good lesson for kids, right? Sure it is. So Aqualad spends about two weeks in class, getting used to school, and then they test him to see what grade he should be in since he's had no formal education before. But on the way to his test, Aqualad gets hit in the head with a boat and catches some mild amnesia. Somehow he's not late to the test and is still forced to take it.

So, Aquaman, deciding to try and help, has all of his fish do things that will alert Aqualad to the answers to his test. Because that's not cheating at all. Of course it isn't. If you forget the answers, getting them from somewhere is not cheating in the slightest. Why didn't you ever come help me pass my Physics tests this way, Aquaman?



3) What Else Could Possibly Try To Kill Us?
Four kids steal a boat, not having any idea how to use it. Aquaman's called to bring them back so the owners of the boat can punish them. Aquaman decides that getting beaten up by angry fishermen isn't enough to scare them away from doing something like this again, even though that would be enough to terrify most grown men. so he decides to pull a bunch of dangerous pranks on the kids instead.

The really tragic part of all this is that Aquaman was totally right. While after the first prank or two, two of the kids have probably pissed themselves, the other two keep believing that sooner or later the ocean will stop trying to kill them. Much like Aquaman, I kept going "Seriously, guys?! The giant sea serpents weren't enough to scare you off the water?"



2) Lois Lane: The Worst At Ideas
So Lois got in some kind of accident and some doctors made her into a mermaid to save her. What, medical science? You know you can't do that. Especially not in the 1960's. Lois tries to live happily with Aquaman and somehow gains telepathic control of fish like he has, even though it makes no sense. But she can't forget about good ol' Supes. Eventually, Aquaman gets hurt protecting her from something, and Lois has to get Superman's attention to come help them out.

Of all the things she could have done to get Superman's attention... Using electric eels to spell out an S.O.S., have a bunch of whales or dolphins start flailing around, hell she could have just yelled at him. With his super hearing he'd have noticed. But no. Of all these things, she chooses instead to set off a volcano. thank god she didn't accidentally get anyone killed. Good job, Lois.



1) Superman Becomes Every Single Kind Of Doctor
So, as mentioned in #2, Lois got stuck as a mermaid. But apparently Aquaman isn't good enough for her even though he saved her ass (He did way better later when he picked up Mera.) so she wants to go back to being human. Well this is a complicated medical procedure and if they mess it up, she's totally screwed. But never fear! Super man just read every medical textbook there is. So he is awarded every single doctorate, and can perform the operation!

....Seriously, what?

Great stuff. I wish I had whatever the 1960's DC writers were on. I've read some 2003 Aquaman, and I need to go back and look at some of the stuff from the 90's during the period in which Aquaman was a total goddamn badass. I know he made a few Justice League appearances back then. And of course there is the current "Batman: The Brave And The Bold" version of Aquaman, who's made everyone else think Aquaman's as cool as I've always believed he was.

So there's plenty of Aquaman left for me to cover in the future. You can definitely expect another post on him eventually.

Another win for animation with "Despicable Me".

So, when I was visiting Downtown Otaku last week, we and our friend Aura decided to see "Despicable Me". Totally and competely worth the money. We didn't see it in 3D, so I can't really comment on that. Though, for some readon 3D effects rarely work for me anyway.

We saw it on a wednesday night (arond 8 or 9 o'clock) so the theater was pretty void of children, but the theater was still pretty crowded. I guess late on a weeknight is a good time for animation fans to go if they don't want to deal with potentially rambunctious children during a movie like this.

First and foremost, I want to give Universal Pictures total props on the way they went about advertising this movie. They've been promoting it a long time now, first with short 15 second or so spots, moving onto slightly longer trailers as time went on.



For the longest time, I really had no idea what "Despicable Me" was about beyond just some guy who hated the world and wasn't particlarly the nicest guy Fun. I like anti-heroes a lot. Then it seemed to be super villain vs. super villain. Awesome. Two guys fighting and getting in hilarious antics trying to out-do each other in taking over the world.



Then the three orphans (Margo, Edith, and Agnes) were introduced as part of the plot and for a while I really tought Universal had lost me. But I kept watching trailers, and the more I watched the more I needed to figure out how Gru, our anti-hero protagnist, ended up with these three orphan girls. Because it was incredibly vague in the trailers. I was given just enough information to get me curious, but not enough that I could figure it all out on my own. Brilliant move, Universal. Briliant.



Once again I went into a movie, totally underestimating it. "Despicable Me" was not just entertaining, it was fun. The ending is incredibly obvious. It's a kids movie. But even so, the movie never lost my interest. It was funny without being ridiculous and relying on pop culture and nonsense to make older viewers laugh. The characters and their behaviours, motvations, and relationships drove the movie and the humor.



Even the minons, who we described s "Corn Pops with goggles", were handeled fantastically. I was worried that, since they were a comic relief element in the story, the minons with be used heavy-handedly. But they only served to accent and enhance the humor already being presented.

And even with how predictable the ending was, it was handled wonderfully. Gru both changed and didn't change as a character, and he didn't turn into a typical, cheezy "saves the day" hero-type.

All in all, It was a very sweet, funny, entertaining movie. Definitely worth the money spent to see it. I'd like to see Universal keep working on animated features like this and contend with Pixar and Dreamworks. It would be nice to have a third "super power" in the CG Animation game.

Short Post: State Of Affairs

So, apparently the Adiane figure in my last post, the one I am still so desperate to own, is a garage kit and is fairly hard to find. I'm certainly having a time of it via the internet. I'm going to try a few other means and see if I can't get my hands on it somehow.

In other news, Otakon 2010 is next weekend. Suri and I will both be wandering around. I'll be dressed as Professor Araragi from Pokemon B/W, and he'll be cosplaying Yuuhi from The Lucifer And the Biscuit Hammer. If you're going to be around, feel free to look for us and say hi!

I know I've got things to catch up on. It's just been way too hot lately, and things have been kind of hectic for me. I've barely been able to think straight. But I promise I will get back to proper blogging soon enough. I've got a whole lost of things to write about.

I will punch babies until I own this.

So this morning I wake up and check through the shit that happened on Twitter while I was asleep. I see that McLovin tweeted "This is for @SonoYourFace:"



Right now I know nothing about this figure. I don't know who makes it, the scale, the price, when it'll be released, or where I can get it. All I know is that I need this figure.

I've been whining for ages about how there needs to be figures of the antagonist cast and some of the characters less represented in the merchandise. And the top of my list has always been Adiane The Elegant. She has become my favorite female character in Gurren Lagann (just barely squeaking by Nia) and I've lamented the fact that there have been no figures of her to occupy my shelves.

In fact, just yesterday Armaina and I had been tweeting back and forth about Gurren Lagann figures and I had mentioned how much I wished there was an Adiane. Looks like someone decided to grant my wish.

McLovin is probably at work now, but as soon as I can I'll be grilling him for all the information on this figure. When I have it, I'll update here with all of the information.

Until then I will be squealing like a little girl.

Avatar: The Legend Of Korra set for 2011

I was a huge fan of Nick's "Avatar: The Last Airbender" in the years it ran. I watched it from day one right up to the finale. I feel it took a great stride toward making western animation into something more than just wacky brightly colored 11 minute jokes for kids (not that this is always a bad thing).

Time constraints and not actually getting Nick in mt dorm room for some reason caused me to miss a lot of season 3 when it first aired, but I marathoned what I hadn't seen with my best friend Cass leading up to the finale. I was incredibly satisfied with the ending of the series. There had always been rumors of a sequel that would explore things in the world's future, but I wasn't sure if it would ever come about.

But it's finally been announced.

"The Legend of Korra takes place 70 years after the events of Avatar: The Last Airbender and follows the adventures of the Avatar after Aang – a passionate, rebellious, and fearless teenaged girl from the Southern Water Tribe named Korra. With three of the four elements under her belt (Earth, Water, and Fire), Korra seeks to master the final element, Air. Her quest leads her to the epicenter of the modern “Avatar” world, Republic City – a metropolis that is fueled by steampunk technology. It is a virtual melting pot where benders and non-benders from all nations live and thrive. However, Korra discovers that Republic City is plagued by crime as well as a growing anti-bending revolution that threatens to rip it apart. Under the tutelage of Aang’s son, Tenzin, Korra begins her airbending training while dealing with the dangers at large."
- From ToonZone's article announcing the news.

I think the thing that I'm most psyched about is the fact that the central hero of the story is a girl this time. Though both Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, the creators of the series, are big Hayao Miyazaki fans, and he puts females as his central heroes very very frequently. But it's something uncommon in the west, and I'm really glad to see it. I also like that they're tying things in with "Last Airbender" by bringing in Aang's son. I'm just hoping there's a sweet-ass Earth Bender that I can get excited over, since the Earth Kindgom and it's citizens were always my favorite.

"Avatar: The Legend of Korra" (which is still a working title) is set to start airing in 2011, and I am eagerly looking forward to it. I'm hoping that it's going to start airing in the summer or late spring so that I'm done with school when it airs so that I can follow it.

I'm going to talk about my cat today.

Augh, I'm sorry guys. I have not been doing a whole lot of nerding lately. I need to write posts about Despicable Me and those Kung Zhu battle hamster things and about my Araragi cosplay. But shit has just been so ridiculous for me lately that I just haven't had it in me to do so.

See, for the past several weeks my princess, my baby, my sweet little girl has been having some crazy issues. Now I want to make it clear that I'm talking about my cat before I get into any more detail...



Her name is Silver. She is 10 years old. She has been with me for all but the first two weeks of those ten years. I love this cat as if she were my child, since aside from the whole "giving birth to her" part she might as well be.



Our old vet (as in we went to him until this mess started) was clearly a retard who can't spay a cat properly. Apparently from her spay (which was 10 years ago) some ovarian tissue was left behind, and all of a sudden it's causing her to act like she's in heat.

We've been giving her medicine to lessen the symptoms and make her more comfortable. She was originally scheduled for surgery weeks ago, but my mom canceled it since Silver seemed to be doing better. then it all started up again and we rescheduled. then last week when I was in NYC, mom canceled it again behind my back, again because silver stopped showing symptoms. The same night, it started up again.

So I gave mom the business when I got home last Thursday, and Silver goes in for her surgery tomorrow. McLovin is taking me to pick her up when he gets off of work. So, hopefully, by this time tomorrow my life will be back to normal and I can bore you all to death with my usual nerdy ramblings.

Get To Know Your Blogger

Hey guys. Before I do anything else, I want to thank the awesome folks at Ramenbox.com for passing around links to the reviews I wrote about them. I ended up with 105 hits that day, as opposed to my usual... 8-ish. Thanks guys! Stay awesome!

Sorry I kind of vanished from the internet there for a while. It's been a rough however long it's been, and then I was out of town for a few days visiting Downtown Otaku and just living my life. I read straight through "The Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer" up to current, and I'll blog about that once my life settles down again.

Speaking of life, how about we talk about we all get to know each other a bit? I've been posting a lot without letting ya'll get to know me and that's probably a mistake when blogging. And lord only know that little bio thing over on the side will only go so far.

So hi. I'm Sono.

I wear wigs sometimes. Not because I don't like my hair. I just really like wearing wigs. Also because I'm really into dressing up as people that aren't me due to anxiety issues. This mostly takes the form of dressing up as anime/comics/video game characters. Though sometimes I just walk around in wigs because it's awesome.

I'm also an art student, majoring in cartooning at the School of Visual Arts.

This means, pretty much, that I draw comics. I'm looking to make a career out of it. I am improving constantly (as seen above) through ass-loads of work. I'm hoping, by this time next year, to have one of my projects live, finally. Next summer is also when I graduate and have to be an adult. Suckkkk. I'm so nervous about it. But I'm looking forward to trying to make a name for myself in the field.

I don't know how many of you remember the... one time Suri wrote for this blog before I removed him as an author because he never posted. But we're still dating. It's been over four years now. Shit's rough sometimes, but we always come out the other end spouting nonsense and being crazy. We're kind of ridiculous like that. He's supportive of all my nonsense and he puts up with shit from me that I wouldn't even put up with. He's basically a saint.

I am, as I have made obvious, a huge nerd. I love pokemon, cartoons, some video games, music, and food. I will ramble about these things until daybreak if you let me. Thus why I started this blog. It's a good outlet for all of my rambling and hopefully some if it is useful to you all.

If there's anything specific ya'll want me to talk about or check out just let me know and I'll do my best to get around to it. Otherwise I'm just going to keep rambling about things that no one cares about except for me.

I hope this was some kind of interesting for you all and that you now know me a little better.

I Have Eaten A Lot Of Ramen Lately

So I'm most of the way through my 40 slot Ramenbox. As anticipated, it did not disappoint. I've tried 11 of the 14 kinds of ramen I ordered, and there are only two kinds I wouldnt order again (and they are both basically the same thing). I've divided the varieties in my box up into three categories...

Will Order Again
Pretty straight forward, this is ramen that I loved. Stuff I would eat on a regular basis without hesitation.

Sapporo Ichiban Chowmein -- This was my favorite variety hands down. It has a very different preparation than all of the other varieties, is still simple (and, in my opinion, rather fun) to prepare, and is absolutely delicious. If you've ever had one of Nissin's microwave Chowmein bowls, it is a lot like that, only better. I could, really, roder a whole box of this and be happy.

Indomie Fried Noodles -- These are delicious, and taste similar to Sapporo Ichiban's chowmein, though are prepared in a more traditional style for ramen. But it's a good, sweet ramen.

Paldo Bibim Men -- I regret not buying two or three of this. It was super-spicy but it was sweet and really really good.

Indomie BBQ Chicken -- A good chicken ramen. A whole lot of flavor. If you just want soem standard chicken ramen that's still pretty damn delicious this is a good way to go.

Sapporo Ichiban Beef -- Another pretty standard ramen that just packs in a lot of flavor. I'm a big fan of beef ramens so I got a few of these and I'm already mostly through them.

Might Order Again
This is stuff that I might only order one of next time, or forego ordering again if I see something new I'd like to try. It wasn't bad, and I would gladly eat it again, but I just liked the other stuff better.

Indomie Chicken Curry -- This was good, but curry and curry flavored things are something I can only eat so often without it making me kind of ill.

Mama Pork Ramen -- This was delicious, but it's definitely a "cold weather" ramen, so I might nor order any again until the summer is over.

NongShim Spicy Chicken Ramen -- This is one I've had before, and every now and then I just crave it, but god damn it's really spicy. I'm also not a big fan of dried-and-rehydreated vegetables, and not having the option to not put them in here is kind of a downside for me.

Indomie Spicy Beef -- I just liked the other varieties of beef ramen that I've bought better than this one. My one real problem with Indomie's ramen options are that their seasoning/oil packets are all conected. This makes oil packets kind of hard/gross to open and pour out, especially inc ases when there are three packets connected to each other and not two.

Won't Order Again
There were two varieties that fell into this category. I just didn't like them. I do, however, know people who have really enjoyed them. So maybe it's just my taste.

NongShim Chapghetti and Paldo Jja Jang Men were a little too bitter for my taste. Though I've always been more into sweet-savory varieties like some of the ones mentioned above. Thankfully I only ordered one Paldo Jja Jang Men, but I still have two packages of NongShim Chapghetti, which I'm passing off to Suri and McLovin.

Still left to try I have the Kung Fu Beef ramen, VeWong Peppered Beef ramen, and WuMu Garlic Sesame Oil ramen. I'm really looking forward to these. In the future, I may review these here, as well as other varieties I haven't tried yet.

All-in-all the box has been overwhelmingly great. If you want a great variety of quick and easy ramen-based meals, you really need to browse through Ramenbox.com's great selection. I can't wait to finish off my first box so I can order another one.

What's More American Than New Jersey?

A few years ago, for the fourth of July, Cartoon Network aired a marathon of the anime "Naruto". Suri and I were fully perplexed, because there is nothing American about "Naruto". We then, simultaniously, declared that Cartoon Network should have marathoned the series "Megas XLR" because, to quote us both...

"What's more American than New Jersey?"

So, to celebrate Independance Day this year,I'm going to write up a post about what is possibly one of the greatest Giant Robot cartoons of all time. Unfortunately, Megas XLR was canceled in April of 2005, just shy of 1 full year after it began airing.



As I briefly mentioned, Megas XLR took place in New Jersey, which automatically made it a hit with me since I'm from the Garden State myself. Now it was set in Jersey City, which is a good deal north of where I live (I'm down by Asbury Park.), but the New Jersey spirit is still the same. They mention a lot of real location in New Jersey (Such as Hoboken.) and the attitude of Coop, Jamie, and all of the other locals are just spot on.



Megas parodied every giant robot series and iconic 90's anime and sci-fi that it could get it's hands on. And they did it with class. The show was, undboutedly a comedy. But what made it funny was how every teenage boy (and me) watching was saying "Yeah that's how I'd handle it too." Because no teenager, if given a giant robot, would take things seriously. They'd just runa round and wreck things with it and maybe accidentally beat a couple of bad guys in the process -- Which is exactly how Coop did things.

I wish I'd had time to rewatch "Megas XLR" before writing this, but the 4th just snuck up on me and I didn't think to do this until the 3rd. But if you want a little good old American fun, check out Megas. It does not disappoint.

Happy 4th of July to all of our American stoppers-by!

A great summer movie about the summer.

So, I spent another afternoon/evening in the company of my dear boy Suri, and my good friends Mclovin and Kristin. One day I should really just write a post to act as an introduction to all of my crazy friends, since they are equally, if not more, nerdy than I am. But I'm quickly veering off topic so I'd better get myself back on track.

This week, we watched the movie "Summer Wars".



On the way home, Mclovin asked what I thought on a scale of 1 to 10. My answer was "14". This movie did everything right, and (to quote Suri) when it didn't do something awsome that the viewer was hoping for, it was only because it was doing something better.

Basically, it's another one of those movies where the whole world relies on technology and things go wrong and everything plumets into chaos and some kids have to play hero. I've been told that it's basically "Digimon: The Movie except better", but I've never seen Digimon: The Movie, so I really wouldn't know.

Anyway, I fell in love with pretty much the whole cast right away, but one member of the cast just quickly blew me away... Sakae Jinnouchi.



This old lady is clearly the most badass fictional person in history. When things go bad, she just starts making phone calls to every important figure in Japan to make sure shit is covered. When her adopted son does something unforgivably retarded, she grabs a goddamn spear and attacks him. All without the slightest bit of hesitation.

She's a central figure in the movie, especially the first half, though later on the movie has reasons for shifting it's focus away from her. Other fantastic characters include Kazuma (and his avatar King Kazuma), and the two lead characters, Kenji Koiso and Natsuki Jinnouchi. I was drawn to Natsuki pretty quckly because she was just clever and amusing straight off the bat. I think my exact words upon her appearance were "She knows how to play the game." Almost all of the rest of the cast are Natsuki's relatives.

Kenji's whole schtick is that he's a math prodigy, but is pretty socially inept. His crazy math skills come up a couple times as main plot drivers of the movie and the scenes of Kenji doing math are completely hilarious. I made a lot of jokes about the moral being "everyone should go to art school" since I haven't taken math in my five years in college and none of the problems in the story would have occured if people didn't do so much math.

And then there is our villain, a terroristic hacking A.I. that goes by the name "Love Machine".



Love Machine is a fabulous villain. A fabulous, terrifying villain. Certainly not the kind you empathize with, since he isn't human. He doesn't talk at all and goes on a rampant, destructive spree that causes mass total chaos and nearly wipes out Japan. And then when that doesn't work he settles for trying to kill the Jinnouchi family instead, for no other reason than they are getting in the way of his hacking. His fights with King Kazuma (who is the avatar of Natsuki's fairly androgynous cousin, Kazuma) are beautifully orchestrated are visually engaging. Then again, just about everything in this movie is.

I'm not sure who was in charge of designing the digital avatars in "summer Wars", but whoever it is totally deserves a medal.



All of the characters in the movie have a representation in the digital world known as "Oz", even if they only shoe up very briefly in the background of some things, like the final battle of the movie. Though this is less of a battle in the sense that it is a physical fight (As the previous battles in the movie have been.) and actually a game played between Love Machine and Natsuki -- a game of Koi-Koi. Koi-Koi is played through out the movie, as all members of the family know how to play (and were taught by Sakae). I wasn't surprised when the climax of the movie turned out to be an epic game of Koi-Koi, but man it was fantastic to watch, even though none of us understood how it was played.

Natsuki and Love Machine play, wagering control of the accounts on Oz. Natsuki is wagering her family's accounts and Love Machine is wagering the accounts that he has hacked and stolen. Of course, when the going gets rough, determination turns the tides and unhacked members offer their accounts for Natsuki to wager, and then the mods give her a special item causing her Avatar to be powered up.



Suri had apparently ordered a figure of King Kazuma, and McLovin was waiting for pre-orders to open on a figure of Love Machine. I believe both are being released by Figma. When asked if I'd want either, I said I might want King Kazuma, but the only figure that I would but in a heartbeat would be Natsuki's final form. If Figma gave her to us, I'd jump on it so long as I wasn't broke.



All in all, I'm another person giving "Summer Wars" two thumbs way up. It was heartwarming and funny and very sweet. IF you want to kill a few hours and really enjoy yourself, give it a shot.