<Va1kyrie*net>

August 9th, 2009 | add your voice ♫

Posted by Anne in: anime • domain • habitat • TCG

Halooo! So, I’ve diligently updated the site, with the exception of the blog! New layout in honor of the upcoming Inuyasha anime, I’m quite pleased with it, but it took hooouurs to get it how I liked it. After that, I stepped into the murky realm of sub-domains and streamlined my TCG pages. I installed a script that took forever for me to figure out, when it turned out to be a stupid mistyped filepath. In the long run it will save a ton of time. I spent more time coding my tcg page than playing the games. Now with this script, I just load them into the folder and update the trading log. This has enabled me to join two more tcgs (Mystic and Moonlight Legend).

Also, Vivi has returned home from the Hawaii Animal Quarantine! She is adjusting well and Sophie really seems to like her. They make me so happy! I’m just sad that my vacation is over so I can’t spend as much time with my kitties anymore Well, supposedly, we have a hurricane on the way. Maybe I can spend time with them if they cancel work. Like that would ever happen with my luck! I’ve nearly been in 3 hurricanes, but they always miss. I want free time off you cowardly hurricanes! (though I do not want to actually experience one, just have the time off ) HURRICANE FELICIA, I CHALLENGE YOU!

Listening to :: Bacchikoi – Naruto Shippuuden

Sengoku Jidai Revisited

July 19th, 2009 | add your voice ♫

Posted by Anne in: anime

That’s right Inuyasha fans, the hunt for Shikon no kakera continues!! I was visiting Rumic World and they quoted Anime News Network: Inuyasha is picking up where it ended 5 years ago.

Jeez, I remember buying the first and second Viz book in 1998 at Borders. I remember thinking, ‘Hey, this is the lady that wrote Ranma, I’ll give it a shot.’, and I couldn’t put it down. Shortly after that, when I ran out of Viz manga, I discovered that it was being translated (by which I mean some guy typing it out like a screen play each week) on the internet as it came out in Japan. That was my first step into what would later transform into scanlations.

I also remember quite clearly when they announced that Inuyasha was being picked up for animation. There was a couple of teaser trailers (from Shounen Sunday, if I remember correctly) with Inuyasha in original pink outfit. None of that animation ended up in the show, though… When I found out, I was really hoping that Yamaguchi Kappei would voice Inuyasha, I couldn’t imagine anyone else. I remember waiting in October 2000 for someone to finish translating it. I remember watching it on my now dead HP desktop on a 15″ screen in 800×600 resolution. I was grinning from ear to ear the entire time. The music and animation were light years ahead of all the older anime I had been watching. That was the first anime I ever downloaded.

I was in my Air Force tech-school when they canceled it in ‘04. I was really angry, still am a bit. I think I ranted about it on my old majinblue domain, but thats vanished into inter-web history. It just ended. They didn’t try to resolve anything, just gave a cheesy speech about not giving up the search. At the time everyone was also thinking that the manga was nearing the end and they were just too lazy to finish animating it. Little did we know it would keep running until 2008. It starts up again in October (same as it did back in 2000). This time I’m watching it on a 21 1/2″ monitor with HD capability. Some things in life change, but me being an otaku probably never will.

Listening to :: Change the World – Inuyasha

Revival of the Dragonball

July 5th, 2009 | 1 voice ♫

Posted by Anne in: anime

So for my 4th of July, I watched fireworks, just like a lot of people. I had a great view from my bedroom and living room, it’s good to be an end unit. Then I got bored and watched a different kind of fireworks display. I decided to have a Dragonball Kai marathon. For those of you who don’t know, DBK is Dragonball Z, but enhanced. The animation is the same, but they added on to the ends of the calls, or in some cases zoomed in to make it fit a widescreen format. Looks like they cleaned it up a bit as well. The completely scrapped the opening and closing and changed out the songs and animation with new stuff. The animation is great, but I miss Cha-la Head-Cha-La. It’s not the same without Kageyama Hironobu singing… The opening song Dragon Soul sounds like a knock-off of DAN DAN Kokoro Hikareteku performed by Field of View or of the original DAN DAN by Zard. I wonder if I’m the only one to notice that or if they just let it slide. It’s not like they went out of the family. Somebody over there in TOEI-land (no pun intended) probably has the rights to all these songs and they decided to mix and match Kai with GT. Trying to mess with our head. The ending song, Yeah!Break!Care!Break! is pretty fun, though!

Moving on… They also redid the sound track of the show. Many people are happy for this, but those of us that appreciated the 70s/80s epicness (dammit, spell-checker, it is a word!!) we will mourn. Those of you who celebrate the end of a musical era can rot. I do like the new music, it seems to me like One Piece with a bit early Naruto added. It’s nice, but it’s not my Dragonball BGM. (This coming from the person that has just about every single DB BGM except the one from when Trunks goes Super Saiyajin in the special! I NEED that one!!!) I wish they would have just re-recorded the original soundtrack in digital of Hi-Def stereo. They did re-record the voices, except those that passed away like Kame Sen’nin and Tenshinhan. Some sound different and older while others have improved. Take Kuririn, voiced by Tanaka Mayumi has improved quite a bit with all the acting as Luffy in One Piece. Another good thing they did was cut out all the filler, like all the Gohan crap. Don’t get me wrong, I love Son Gohan, but I don’t want to see 2 episodes full of him getting lost in the forest or the episodes where he plays with dinosaurs and makes friends in the wilderness while he’s supposed to be training. They’ve gotten up to episode 13 and Goku and Vejiita are already fighting. That didn’t happen in the original until episode 30! Thank you TOEI! All in all, it’s almost like watching a new anime. I can’t wait until Trunks shows up!

All that being said, if you’re a true fan of the manga, this version is for you!

Listening to :: Yeah!Break!Care!Break! – Dragonball Kai

Another One Bites the Dust

June 28th, 2009 | add your voice ♫

Posted by Anne in: anime • domain • habitat • random • TCG

No! Not Billy Mays, too! Yes, it’s true. World renowned Lord of OxiClean died on Sunday at age 50. Must be something in the water. Good thing I drink Pepsi. A moment of silence please. He really was a charismatic guy. He only sold stuff that actually worked, kind of like a seal of approval. I heard he was really nice to random strangers and fans, too. The world of infomercials won’t be the same. Sham Wow kid has some big shoes to fill…

In other news: I joined the Divinity TCG today! It’s all about collecting anime and manga bishounen! A fangirls dream! I’m excited! I’m starting with the Santoryu deck (Roronoa Zoro from One Piece). That guy is a true bad-ass. Go check it out, and if you join, tell ‘em Anne sent ya.

On the home front, 25 days until Vivi gets out of Hawaii Animal Quarantine!! Or as I like to call it, kitty jail… (see sidebar for countdown) Poor baby! Sophie (my new kitten) needs someone to keep her in line! The furniture and my legs are all scratched up and the squirt bottle doesn’t work as well as Vivi in attack mode

Listening to :: We Are Remix – One Piece

Epiphany of the Anime Otaku

May 13th, 2008 | 3 voices ♫

Posted by Anne in: anime

I decided to make a second post today, just for anime.
BIG news in Anne’s Anime World. After about a half year of deliberating, I have had an epiphany. After about eight years, Dragonball has fallen from Anne’s All Time Favorite Anime List’s #1 to be replaced by -drumroll please-One Piece. Yes, I finally saw from behind my rose colored glasses. Not to say Dragonball isn’t an awesome story (or at least the original Japanese storyline is… ), but One Piece is so much more. It’s not about just one guy saving the world, it’s about a whole team – or rather a family – realizing their dreams while defeating bad guys and corrupted good guys.

One Piece is compromised of ten+ (counting the Going Merry) lost, lonely and misunderstood individuals with dreams finding a family in a group of pirates. At first, it seems like a silly kids show, starting our with a teenage boy with a stretchy rubber body joining a bunch of random people together to form a pirate crew and go find the treasure “One Piece”.

At first, the character design, sight gags and the slapstick comedy had me thinking of moving on to the next show. About halfway through the second arc, I realized I hadn’t stopped watching yet and I wondered why. It seemed there was more to the story than was first apparent. Each and every character, while at first seeming cookie-cutterish, seemed to have something about them that defined them as very human. Everyone of them had past that, while tragic or not, had a very big role in shaping them and the entire crew.

******************Spoiler Alert******************

As an example, I will use Nami, the navigator. As a first impression, Nami comes off as a Bulma clone. She loves material possessions (a huge obsession with treasure) and seems to be somewhat vain and very selfish. She has a flirty attitude that says “Yeah, I just did something selfish, tee hee

“. At first I didn’t like her. During the Arlong Park story, we learn that the reason she is so greedy is because she is trying to save enough money to buy back her village which has been held ransom by the pirate Arlong since she was a child. Arlong murdered her adopted mother right in front of her eyes and she doesn’t want anyone else in the village killed. She became a crew member under Arlong as a navigator, so she can earn the money. Her village shuns her because she sold out to become a partner of the one who killed her mother. She works diligently trying to save a village of people that she thinks hate her anyway. This is a far cry from the selfish, greedy brat that I originally thought she was.

******************End Spoiler******************

The story line is surprising and keeps you captivated, without a doubt. Every time something emotional happens, I feel the same emotions that the crew feels. If they feel ecstatic, pissed off or lonely, so do I. When there is a tragedy, like a death, I even get as upset at the crew. Imagine that, feeling like you are actually a part of a crew, or family, when they aren’t even a part of ‘reality’. Like I said in the last post, reality is overrated.

Listening to :: Sayaendou – One Piece