Author Archive for admin

Emotional Me

Published
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admin
on November 16, 2008
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I’ve been up the entire night watching some episodes of a series known as Martian Successor Nadesico.  Unfortunately I had to watch it on a streaming site because the set I actually own is loaned out to somebody and I doubt I’ll ever get it back to be honest, but that’s not my point.  I sat down and watched the episodes, especially searching for the episodes with the sad parts.  I sat here, watching these particular episodes, bawling like a giant baby.  In fact, over the last month to a month and a half, I’ve been rewatching series just to watch the sad scenes.  This may suggest I’ve got some desire to suffer through tears and emotion, which might be true(I should probably have it looked into), but I think it also shows how moving some anime can be.

I think that one of the strengths of some anime is how they are able to portray emotions in scenes, especially those of the sad variety, whether it is through the relationships, through random events, or whatever.  Anime and Manga do such great jobs at portraying these emotion that I sometimes really have to struggle not to cry while watching or reading them.  Some scenes are just so well done that you have to react.  I always want to cry at any of the following scenes(WARNING:  SPOILERS)……when Mai has already lost her brother and ends up having to fight Shiho for the only other person she cared about, Tate, who Shiho also cares about the most when the loser loses that person forever(Mai Hime)……when Wolfwood stumbles into the Church shortly before his death and thinks of Vash, Millie, and Meryl(Trigun)…….when Miss Inez finally reveals that she was the little girl he tried to save in the first episode(Martian Successor Nadesico)…….or when Orson has finally gotten his emotions and feelings back, but gives back into letting himself be possessed by Hury to become a berserker once more to save Shiris and ending up having it be his reason for his death(Record of Lodoss War:Chronicles of the Heroic Knight).  There are a lot of  other scenes that get to me (Yomiko’s reaction to Nancy’s betrayal in R.O.D.;  Shikamaru having to bury his sensei in Naruto) so I won’t sit and list them all.  My main point is that is that I can find just as good(usually better) emotional wrenching scenes in anime and manga than some live-action movies or tv series.

If any of you have never seen these series, you really should!  They are just an example of how good some of these scenes can be.  For me, I guess these sad scenes are really one of the many things that attract me so much to anime and manga.  Its also these type of scenes that provide me with one of many reasons why I feel that anime is more than “just cartoons”.  I want to speak more on this, but right now I am extremely tired from being up all night.  I will likely do a followup to this post, but for now, ja ne.

Yikes!!! I needs an update!

Published
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admin
on November 13, 2008
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Wow!  Wow…..yeah.  I’ve been meaning to update this for so long but just haven’t got to it.   So, this will be post number three and probably decent length since it will cover all that’s happened.  So, where to start?  How about the Tanabata festival(way back in July)?

The Tanabata festival was held this year in Abingdon at a campgrounds.  Despite extremely oppressive heat and not really an exact idea what we were doing or what schedule we were following…..it was a lot of fun!  It was tough to do anything until around six or seven in the afternoon because of the heat, but we all managed to do something, whether spending time in the campground pool, playing pool in the gamehall, or trying to play some basketball(I would have done better, but the ball was flat XD).  We ate some homemade ramen and brownies and drank lots……and lots of ramune(which I now love since that was the first time I had tried it).  Around ten that night, we headed out into the field to shoot off fireworks.  I think the multishot packages were a hit given that we fired off three or four at a time.  The little helicopter ones seemed to get everyone’s attention as well.  Even though we had some people try to rain on our fireworks parade, it was still a fun show and I’ll need to get some more if we want to do it again.  Next, we wrote out our wishes for the new year on some paper, tied them to a bamboo tree that was cut down(with a shovel) and planted where we were staying that day.  At midnight, we burned the tree with the wishes on it and  sat down to eat shishkabobs, talk, and watch the fire burn until it was all gone.  By that point, people slowly started to leave while cleanup was happening until it was only Barry and myself left at two something that morning.  We packed up the last of our stuff and headed back home.  All in all, it was a lot of fun and we have to thank Jenn and her folks for letting us use the campground, though I feel bad that she got hurt and had to go to the hospital the next day.  We miss you at the meetings Jenn and hope you can come back soon.

Ok.  Next topic is AWA, which means we skip ahead to late September.  This was the second time that Anime Kanarazu headed down there as a group.  Those of us who had went in 07 were talking nonstop about going back this year and those who were going for their first time were anticipating it as well, I’m sure.  Well, we went down as a group in two vehicles(with Joe and Ellen going in a seperate one on their own) on the Thursday evening before the con.  It was a long drive but definitely worth going down a day early to be there all con long.  So we left from Gate City, Virginia and made it to Atlanta(actually Smyrna), Georgia early Friday morning(around two or three in the morning to be exact).  We stayed in the Holiday Inn that morning and headed to our hotel rooms at the Waverly around ten or eleven that morning.

So there we were at the con, Friday morning and suddenly it was chaos.  Everybody kind of split into their own groups and headed their own ways.  I think the only thing we managed to do the entire weekend, as a group, was to eat at Ted’s Montana Grill.  That was fun, definitely one of the best places I have ever eaten at.  I must however insist you order either Coke or Diet Coke to drink because they won’t have you drink any other kind of soft drink(poor Ben).  I also recommend the Kahlua Mudslide Brownie for dessert(delicious)!!

Despite splitting up, I think everyone enjoyed themselves immensely.  Yank seemed to like the hotel hottub more than anything.  I think Ben enjoyed meeting Jennie Breeden(and Pedobear).  Barry got some of the con swag he wanted.  E and Friend seemed to enjoy meeting all the different people when they were out cosplaying the entire weekend.  Joe and Ellen I didn’t see but once that weekend, but I think they enjoyed their time as well.  I didn’t see Ami, Kaishu, Meghan, and Ryan much either, but they no doubt enjoyed running around in their Dokuro-chan cosplay and meeting Tesha there.  I got a lot of what I was looking for, buying plenty of art, my lulz monster, and a couple of shot glasses as well.

All in all, it was a wonderfully fun weekend and I really want to go again in 09.  I hope we have the same group go again and have even more join us.  We did have a lot of pictures and video taken of the trip down, the time at the con and the trip back.  I hope to get all of the material together at some point and maybe I’ll be able to post some of the more……tame(ahem) clips.  Some of the footage is more offensive with the conversations than others, so it will be a matter of finding those that tick less people off.  Anyway, that sums up AWA 08 and I can’t wait for AWA 09!!

Alright!  What else……?  Oh yeah!  Anime Kanarazu has resumed its meetings starting in October and I hope our attendace grows.  We’ve had two new people(who I hope will continue to show up) and I hope some people will start coming to the meetings again.  I’d love to see Meghan, Ryan, Jenn, Frances and even BJ come back to the meetings when it is possible.  I miss them all.

Well, lastly, I guess I’ll mention that we are planning an informal Christmas party for the group and I hope it goes off fairly well.  Those gatherings are some of the best we have.  I’ll definitely attend and will be anxious to see who all we have show up.  Well, I guess that’s it for now.  I will try to post more often…..promise!

Busy time of year

Published
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admin
on May 7, 2008
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I wondered what to write about for my first post dealing with something other than saying hello.  I decided that perhaps going over the upcoming events for the club would be a good place to start.

We have a good number of events and happenings coming up.  Besides the meetings on the second and fourth saturdays of every month, the first big happening will be the Tanabata Festival in July.  I believe we are holding it on July 12 to be exact, in Abingdon.  I missed the very first one that the first incarnation of AK held.  There wasn’t one last year, so this year will be the first one this version will have held.  So far, everyone seems to be pitching in and really helping to bring this to fruition.  I can’t wait, it will be my first Tanabata Festival and will be, I’m sure, another great event with these guys.

The next event is the big one….AWA…Anime Weekend Atlanta 14!!  This has been the big event on everyone’s thoughts for the last few months.  I know there has been a few people on the internet,  unhappy with last year’s con, but I loved it!  AWA 13 was my first ever con and I can’t wait for this year’s!  We have a good sized group going this year, a total of twelve people from the club, compared to the six from last year.  This year, I will actually be cosplaying, whereas last year, I was in street dress.  Everyone is really seems excited for the trip, which will be a long, but fun one.  I’m expecting, with double the people, this year’s con will be even better, which doesn’t seem possible with the fun we all had.

Before we can even go to AWA however, we need to do what we can as far as fundraising.  I don’t know how much we will manage out of the fundraising this summer, but I hope it at least makes a dent.  So far we only have one event planned, but maybe we will eventually come up with something to help gather some extra money.

So that is what’s to come over the next few months (now through September).  I hope we get several more awesome events to come.  See everyone at the Tanabata Festival, the fundraising and AWA 14!!!

First Post

Published
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admin
on May 5, 2008
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This is just a quick little post to say hi.  I will post soon and will get it really going.  But for now, just want to say welcome and thanks for visiting.  Hope to see you often.XD