Blurry Eyes

This entry is basically just a re-posting of some lines from my current "LSS" song. It's Blurry Eyes from L'arc En Ciel, the popular J-rock group. It is also the theme song of the classis anike DNA^2. If the lyrics seem bothersome, be assured I'm just dandy. I just really like the song.

I feel the changing season

will see my promise broken.

Even if I reach out with my hands,

my heart will stay distant.

In the changing season,

the one precious to me

looked back toward me with those eyes,

sighing softly.

It sounds sad at first, but the song is actually sung in an upbeat fashion. It's the same as the show: Junta's adventures are often hilarious but in reality he's just too wussy to admit he likes Ami, and Ami won't admit she likes Junta even if she's all broken up everytime he's in trouble. It's very much a perfect example of punk rock, though in Japanese. The English translation offered here came from www.animelyrics.com. To post the whole thing would be copyright infringement, so just read the rest of it here.

Read This For Your Enjoyment

I normally couldn't stand Rina Jimenez-David. She's a hard-left feminist, and while I generally have no issue with moderate feminism, her strand of feminism is the radical strand that thinks all men are works of Satan, that unborn children aren't worth jack shit, and that women should rule the world.

Still, I could not help but chuckle at her article on the "Da Vinci Code." Except for the part where she says that the Church hates the book because if promotes the sacred feminine (in reality it's due to the many theological/historical fallacies in the book), her views match mine exactly. Read the article HERE.

PS.

Bashing Woodrose is a big pus for me. :)

Musings On The Otaku Lifestyle

While I may be a big fan of anime, plamos (plastic models), and videogames, I have always crossed the line at calling myself an otaku. To put it mildly, the title carries with it a negative connotation. Normally, otaku are people with no social life, no money, and unhealthy obssessions towards anime, videogames, models, electronics, cosplaying, or whatever.

In fact, in Japan it's a derogatory term. Infamous incidents such as the Otaku Murders of Tsutomu Miyazaki and Hiroyuki Tsuchida served to further the image of otaku as social misfits. In Tsutomu's case he killed Japanese gradeschool girls, mutilated them then raped their lifeless corpses. Hiroyuki was inspired by the CRAPPY anime Neon Genesis Evangelion (The "Da Vinci Code" of anime, controversial but ultimately shallow) to bash his mother to death with a baseball bat, since the show convinced him that human beings were worthless creatures.

As of late, this image has altered. Anime, live action shows and manga dealing with otaku culture have helped shed light into the lifestyles of these social misfits. As the intro song to the hit anime Genshiken says so fittingly of the otaku lifestyle, being otaku may be a source of infamy to some, but pride to others:

(Source: http://www.soul-reply.net/genshiken/theme.php)

My Pace, the Emperor
Translation: EclipseZeta, xiaozzfei

Wake up in the morning, forgot my cell phone as usual, missed the train
My life reflects in the train's window
I have something I'm better than enyone else in Japan at
But it's a little sad no one knows about it
Even though I can't run fast
I'm not built that strong
I'll go now, my pace is indomitable
Today's sorrow, go away like the afternoon's rain
The second dance on the two feet, dreaming night after night
Goodbye sorrow, take off beyond the atmospere
Scream out load towards the vast sky
With this tempo...
...With this tempo now

Don't be misled. The song may sound sad but it's actually sung in the Punk Rock style, further glorifying the otaku status from that of a slow, miserable social misfit into an upbeat, productive (albeit weird) member of society. Still, in spite of these, it is still not a title I'd like to adopt for myself because if anything, the title is still mostly negative. While the image has improved, it still carries the connotation of being weird.

Top 5 Silliest Anime I've Ever Watched

Hey. Today, I explore the stupidest anime I've seen. Click on each title heading for more info courtesy of www.animenfo.com.

5) DNA^2
-DNA^2 is a touching story of boy meets girl, a heartwarming, emotional, and downright tear-jerking tale of how a boy who balks at anything even remotely sexual overcomes the odds and suddenly becomes the friendly neighborhood sex toy in no time at all. Ok, the former part about touching, heartfelt and so on are pure bullshit. But it is about how the neighborhood loser becomes the Mega-Playboy, a person so virile he singlehandedly caused a population explosion. Factor into that the fact that his male descendants are mega playboys themselves, then one would have a major population disaster. That's precisely why people from the future sent agents to take him out.

Why is it silly? Well, simply because the Mega-Playboy character is so damn outlandish it isn't funny. His lines are the epitome of corny, and the characters are heavily cliche'd as well. Silent introvert? Check. Childhood friend? Check. Popular, unf---able girl? Check. Rival? Check. Yup, the show has all the dating game archetypes in one full package (no wonder the show itself has spawned a nice following of doujinshi dating sims).

Still, the show is HELLA funny, though there's no way in hell I'm showing it to my younger siblings. Its opening theme is also a classic track from L'Arc En Ciel, arguably the most popular J-rock band around.

4) Gundam ZZ

Gundam ZZ is the blacksheep of the Gundam Universe. True, it tells the tale of youth caught in war, of the coming of age of once-carefree youths thrust into a brutal war for their survival. But, if you think it's like Band of Brothers, you're dead wrong. It's more like The Powerpuff Girls. Or Popeye the Sailor. Considering how serious its predecessor Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam was, it's quite a disgrace to see how the franchise went from a 1st-rate war drama into a 3rd-rate sitcom in just one fell swoop.

Still, it is funny because it is completely and utterly stupid. Ever since when did a bunch of highschool dropouts hi-jack secret government property, launch a suicide attack on a heavily guarded enemy base, and WIN?

Never. Too bad. The show's secod opening theme is one of the best I've heard.

3) PuniPuniPoemy

I'll admit it, I used to do ecchi (that's soft-core porn in anime form for the uninitiated). I was torn between including this or Mahoromatic, but in the end this show won out. This was the show that really stuck to my mind. They basically lampooned every fetish in the book (plus some I never knew existed) by masqueradig the whole thing as a superhero, magic-girl story. Even the opening theme sounds like a broken candyland score.

2) Akazukin ChaCha

This wins the 2nd place spot handily, simply because whether you watch it subbed or dubbed, it never gets any less silly. The folks who dubbed it for Cartoon Network Asia somehow found a way to make the jokes work in English which is a miracle, considering that this show's jokes are 99.9% dependent on cultural contexts alien to non-japanese speakers. Also, the censorship imposed by the english dubbers did not seem so bad since the new jokes they placed had even better effects. Did we seriously have to hear Shiine call ChaCha flat-chested? No, calling her a blundering blonde fool was much more poignant in my opinion. It's a rare case of a dub being as good as the sub, if not better.

1) Excel Saga

This anime is the epitome of post-modern. Namely, it's undefinable. It tries to lampoon each and every aspect of pop-culture out there and succeeds. Words cant really describe how silly this show is. This is the only show where one can see parodies of Super Sentai, WonderWoman, Mecha, Metrosexual Rockers and even more all in one complete, zany waste-of-time for a show. I got addicted to this show as we were taking up Ferdinand Saussure on Linguistics, and I must say that it was the ultimate stress-buster and brain-killer. A must-see.