Completed: My Little Pony Season 1&2

Kinda late to the party Kat?
well... okay... i have a tiny bit of a story behind this one....

in my second year of college i started noticing very styalized ponies everywhere.... you couldn't go to a single site without seeing tones of them.
at the same time Panty and Stocking was out and extremely popular cause of how stylized it was. (yes.... i'm about to relate panty and stockign to MLP.... hear me out)
so when i saw a purple pony with a dark mane and pink/light purplr streak i thought it was people turning that character (i think it was stocking? never got into the show....) into a pony but with the very stylized look.

Needless to say i was REALLY wrong.

i think a few months later a friend who i believe at that time was still in the same program as me but she switched the followed year... anyways thats not important... she asked me my thoughts on MLP... i still had no clue it had been rebooted.... now i remember (vaguely.... my memory pre 7 years old isn't there) watching some episodes of the show.... it was kinda pastely and cute but never really was my thing... i felt liek it was aimed at someone younger then me...
yeah... so...
she explained how it got rebooted and how Laruen Faust was attacked and her resume of animation... she also said it was really good considering it's technically a kids show.

Not good FOR a kids show.... good despite being aimed at children cause honestly anyone of any age could easily enjoy it.

That really sounded interesting to me. I hate the fact that we make television for children instead of shows that kids can enjoy... anyways i did an entire rant on that.... don't need to start it again here...
however i had no way to watch it at the time... i wasn't at home when it was on TV and Netflix in canada only just recently got it.
So i had to wait.
i did get to see most of season 1 before it hit netflix but season 2 was pure netflix... so hey... i actually get to use somthing other then chrunchyroll for once.

What did i think?
Pleasantly surprised... again when i keep hearing how amazing something is and how crazy the fanbase gets i tend to not like it as much.... but it was really quite good.

The overall story is simple: Twilight Sparkle is a pony from the capital Canterlot who doesn't see the value in friendship, Queen  Princess Celestia sends her to a small town to show her why friends and friendship are such an important thing to have.
every time Twilight (and in season two this is expanded to everyone) learns something new about the power of friendship she must write a letter to the Queen Princess explaining the lesson she learned.

and of course there are side stories and characetrs arcs but thast the basic plot.... it sounds kitchy and corny but when used in the show it's done very well... the morals are a bit blah but hey.... i understand why they do them....

Aside from twilight there are 5 other main ponies and one baby dragon.... all are unique characters with interesting problems and it's really nice to see a variety of issues instead of what i got to grow up with which was a lot of "lets bake a cake to solve the problem!" or "lets throw a suprise party to solve the problem!"
um.... yeah..... no...

Also worth noting... the animation for this show is lovely, it's bright and colourful and has more colours then just pink and purple.... thought i doubt i need to tell anyone that since i'm probably the last person on earth who hasn't seen this show. So in short, i liked it... i look forward to the third season being put on netflix... i'm not necessarily a 'fan' but i thought it was really really well done....

hm... if i had to pick a favorite.... i dunno... i like the mane 6 for different reasons... so maybe rarity or Twilight? but if i had to pick an overall fav probably Luna since in the few episodes she's been in she has had quite the character arc.

but yeah i'm really glad i finally had the chance to watch the show and make my own opinion.. cause i can't stand people judging things without having seen/read it themselves.... hence why i try not to say anything till i finish it *nods* i dont; always make it but hey.... i try~

anyways off to finish re-reading what i own of Natsume yuujinchou and then i'll probably finish Ouran High Host Club manga.... and drawing somewhere in there... all this free time is killing me!
ah well see you next time!

Neptune - From Start to finish -

omg i did one of the outer senshi...
yay~

originally i didn't think i would do them because even though i love their designs.... they are not my fav characters.... but still... i figured i should try so i did!

hm... i think i should add to the reason i wasn't planning to do the outers.... they are all pretty serious and it's hard to portray seriousness when drawing a big head chibi style.... i know a lot of people really like the outers and i didn't wanna screw it up...

so yeah i just decided to go ahead with finishing it offsince i figure it was still like the others in the series and i could fix some of the proportions with inking...

no inbetween shots cause this was literally 30 mins of colouring and another 20 or so o nthe bg.... which i think is a little too dark but i'll explain why i went that way in a moment.

so the reason for the darker BG.... well i was just thinking it would be further away from the sun and therefor less light but more brilliant stars.
but yeah it was very fun and i may eventually get to the other three.... i'm in no rush.

i do hope to get some painting done soon but for that i need a bigger area to work *sighs* oh well i'll make it work soon enough. For now i hope you enjoy little neptune

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Completed: Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

I have had this game half finished for a long time... i mean i bought it new.... played it a ton and then went to college and got other games and pushed it to the side until today.

So we find our Hero hershal Layton and his apprentice Luke involved in yet another puzzling mystery. They receive a letter from someone claiming to be from the future... well something as mysterious as that can not be ignored by this great puzzle solving master. so he goes with his apprentice as well as flora (the girl from the first game) and try to figure out what on earth is going on.
along the way they evntually arrive in the future and meet with someone who sais he's Luke but 10 years further in the future...
curiouser and curiouser.

i wont say much more except that if you have played any of the other games you can guess the plot twist pretty quick but i promise you wont get it completely right.

The good:
This is a puzzle game.... the puzzles are good... not greatest ever and no mind blown moment of one of the earlier games but still fun and challenging (though a little more on that later).
the story is cute and sweet and it mostly serves as a vehicle to get the plot moving so in the end it does it's job and never feels unwelcome or useless...
there is one part of he game that makes you think it may be a puzzle... you are given a clue of where to go next.... i thought the game would let me figure it out.... the game felt it should explain it to me in the next scene.... hm...
it's a decent pick up and play a few minutes game...
the music is really good, they changed the majority of the puzzle music from the first two games which is kinda a bummer but near the end you get really good and slightly faster versions of those songs and yeah just all around great score.

The not so good:
if your only good at some types of puzzles some of these may piss you off.... there are a few were the wording could be made a little clearer or the rules could be a bit more defined. the biggest offender to me were the stamp puzzles.... had they let me physically use the stamp instead of just checking off which ones i would use i wouldn't have been so pisses about them.
however on the flip side this one has a lot of 3d thinking puzzles and reversing the image or rotating the ds which i'm really good at so.... i can't complain too much

The bad.... but only for me:
as i say before i got this game new.....
how is that bad?
well the first two games i bought used.... both of them had a file called Greg on them and both times he kicked my ass time wise...
i'm more then a little competitive so some of the magic of the game was lost when i couldn't compete against 'greg'.... but the game was new and i didn't wanna wait even though it took more then 2 years for me to sit down and actually beat it.
i was in a friendly competition with my friend but
a) college and work took all free time away so yeah.... she pretty much automatically won
b) because i wasn't rushing i really spent a lot of time with this one... though i never did finish those toy car and parrot puzzles.... ugh... sorry they just weren't fun for me : (

but yeah these puzzle games are so much fun, a little sillier then your average puzzle game but hey thats what makes it all the more fun.

also the style of the animation and characters is just a joy, may try doing some of my characters like that for fun... thought i said the same about ghost trick and figured out it's really hard and will take a lot of practice to get my brain working like that.

alright onto play either vesperia, nayuta no kiseki or dragon quest 5 so my friend doesn't try to kill me for having his games for too long.

or i could art for a while... haven't decided yet.... hm....

side note: i do have the 3ds layton game and the second i find the missing DS games for the series i will get those too... for now the game store i live by was sold out..... maybe i'll get to play Greg one more........

Water Fairy - From Start to finish -

so way back in the ye olde days of highschool i drew a bunch of fairies that had certain elements attached.
now being the incedibly creative 15 year old i was i made 8...
fire, water, earth, wind, electricity, wood, darkness and plants...
okay.... so i wasn't even remotely creative with it..... shush... i was 15....

anyways i enjoyed the concept behind them and their place in my worlds lore but i just never really drew them much (despite my unhealthy obsession with drawing wings of any kind....) again they weren't terribly creative and their designs were kinda.... blah...
however whenever i do get in the mood to do a series with them i always start with Lilina who is my Water fairy.

Why her? i dunno.... she was one of the original ones i did and i kinda have to be in the mood to do Trish, my fire fairy, because her hair is comprised of giant ringlets which are fun to colour but not so fun to draw in photoshop.


I actually did a bust of her not too long ago with lots of flowers.... cause normally i design all the fairies with flowers.... but i couldn't fit them into this composition so i didn't try to force them in.

So i made this sketch the day after my last day at work.... i wanted to jump right into working on something new to avoid being unproductive.....
however i didn't like this piece at all...
not even a little.... it was just too long to be chibi and... well it had some things i figured i could use as experiment pieces.... i'm a big believer in "just cause you don't like it doesn't mean you should give up... just use it to learn"

so i did, and i changed it up a bit thought inking... made the eyes a little bigger and the face a little rounder just cause i wanted it to be chibi styled despite the tallness.

i don't have any inbetween pics cause once i got the flat colour down and had a chunk of time to actually sit and work it went by really quickly.

i looks at some reference shots of water and i thought it would be fun to have her feet splashing down... i probably could spend a few days on the water and it still wouldn't look any better so agai ni figured i should just have fun with it.
also more ruffles on the dress cause......... um..... i like drawing ruffles? nixt to wings it's my second biggest unhealthy addiction... (third is beads.... i draw a lot of beads....)
but yeah with the dress i kinda of wanted it to be reminicent of flowing water... which gave me a good excuse for the ruffles... yay excuses.
but yeah love it or hate it i had a lot of fun working on it.
will i do the other 7? probably.... eventually.... no rush in the end... i have a lot of time off and i hope to fill my day with lots of art (but not too much cause i don't wanna burn out)

now off to hopefully beat professor Layton cause i've been at the end for far too long and i haven't done a game review in a long time.

Lilina can also be seen at
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All things come to an end

So i work in the film industry, granted this is only my second film but it was a big one. 

Today is my last day~

I started last June (or was it May?) and at the height of crazyness i did 70 days in a row with no weekends (ok it was really 69 but 70 sounds better)
It was a lot of work and a lot of crazy hours but in the end it was kinda fun, i got to see almost all the sets and i got some more autographs to add to my collection. (i'm hoping when i move out i can frame all the pictures and make an autograph wall)
i got to meet some very important people in the industry and speak with them as equals (well as equal as co-workers get at least.... they were still my bosses and could fire me if they felt like it.)

I got to learn some new techniques even if i wasn't the one applying them (marble should be fun to try~)... I got to show people that even though i look like a child (on average people guess about 10 years younger) i am smart and able to do this job... even though in the end it's not the field i am aiming for.

I also got to learn i hate waking up at 5 am.... cause it makes everyone call me an old lady when i go to bed at 10..... i also hate having no free time cause it makes people start to think your avoiding them when it's just that i haven't had a day off in three months.

but most importantly..... i learn that samsung doesn't play nice with borther printers and will tend to blue screen if you even think of printing..... samsung you are a very nice laptop but damn you can be a pain in the ass sometimes... but if you know the right people you can get a large format printer (11x17) for a really good price

but now it ends, today is my final day (barring the occasional daily calls i may get during the final days of wrap)... i'm all packed up and ready to go to the next adventure.... which will involve getting over this cold i have an a lot of art and games and books.... maybe even some travel in a few months... and of course eventually another job thats hopefully closer to what i actually want to get into (honestly anything even vaguely art related will make me happy... i'm pretty good at this accounting stuff but it's not what i want to do with my life) but for now i'm not worried about it... i look forward to making up for al lthose skipped weekends.

Though i'm gunna miss the check i get every week *sighs*
But no matter it's over and it's on my IMDB page and that makes me happy~
onto the next adventure!!

Garnet Bust - From start to finish -

I have been fighting off something nasty... i dunno if it's a cold or the flu (though the flu is going around work so i probably have that to look forward to.... though friday should be my last day.... so maybe i'll get out before i get much more ill) but tangent aside even if i'm violently ill i alwasy try to sketch something
9 times out of ten.... hell pretty much every time i looks terrible but at least i'm drawing something.

so yesterday even though i really should have been resting i took a few minutes and made a terrible sketch.

ugh.... i was trying for a longer face but i didn't get the proportion right at all and i felt the swirly hair was too similar to the meriel pic i did a little while ago.... but i wasn't in the mood to do straight hair so i added a bit of volume to the final product.

before i post that just a short story. Garnet was one of my earlier originals but because she was kinda of off to the side i didn't ever flush out her motivations as much as the others.... though this isn't the first time i drew her... around valentines day in '07 i drew her since her pallet is essentially red and pink (or was... if i drew her again i would probably add some purple or blue or yellow.... or all cause i like colour~) and yeah i gave her these big floppy ears and kinda droopy eyes so i tried to do something like that but with the added 5 years of experience...
Since i wasn't happy with the sketch i did use this as a complete experimentation piece so i tried adding some freckles and some new techniques with the lips....
so yeah.... final product.

I had fun with it... it's not perfect... lots of flaws that i could fix if my head wasn't trying to boil inside my skull... i decided to also give her more of a heart shaped face since i seem to only draw her around this time of year.  and yeah... overall i'm happy i got to try lots of new things with this pic and i really hope to pay attention to the characters that just get pushed aside cause they aren't the mains.

but yeah i should probably rest a little before i got onto the next piece....
not that i'm capable of telling myself rest/getting better > Drawing/painting/sculpting

anyways I hope you like it!

Figure Photoshoot - Rin Okumura -

I got this over a week ago but this was the first day i was able to set up a better lighting system.... it's not perfect but i think i should be able to figure out the tweaks i need to make for the next one.

number one thing i'll figure out is how to have the figure at a level where a tripod is useable cause it's not easy keeping still in lowish light while trying to get shallow depth of field.... oh well

so this is going to be really photo heavy so yeah.... not gunna be saying much...

First Rin surrounded by the blue flame, i love that they made the flame have a bit of a shine cause in the right lighting it looks pretty cool.

Unfortunately with the sword and the tale he becomes increadibly long.... it is possible to get him all in focus but i needed a tripod and like i said before.... my setup doesn't allow for one.... so my first shot ended up focusing on the base.... oh this is gunna be fun...

oh well as lteast all the others are mostly in focus... like  i said i really like working with a shallow depth of field.... i just think it looks nicer then a perfectly focused pic... also not sure why this one ended up so cool in colour correction stage.... used the same lighting as all the other shots... hm.... oh well... i could have fixed it but it was so blurry already i figured just move on.

 at least this one was mostly in focus.... i just really wish i could show you how nice the blue flamed sword is *sighs*

I really love this face's expression, just looks like he's ready to cause a little trouble~
so far the lighting seems to be much better then other photoshoots i've done so yay.... hopefully with Godoka nendo arrives or his brother (which i think comes out next month?) i'll have it all working and lit from two angles instead of just the one i managed for this.

He came with his little demon cat Kuro.... oh it's so cute... and again a diagonal composition like this is so much much fun with shallow depth of fieldbut it would have been nice to maybe have gotten his front paws in focus as well... hm...

Alright on to Human Rin which is a much more compact figure which makes it way easier to photograph.

Yeah the legs are a little blurry but thats okay~
still i love how sassy he looks in the pose... despite how compact it is it just has so much movement and detail.

This is probably my fav pic of the whole day, really happy with this one.

although this one was fun too... even though it's a little blurry...

 

Trying to get a nice half body pic of him~

and just a slightly different angle...

My only complaint with the figure is that as awesome as his devil form is it takes up A LOT of space on my shelf.... which is crowded with nendo petites.... so i think i'll keep him in human form for a while and change him around when his brother arrives.

I love the fact that this is such a well done Male figure of a series i really enjoyed... kinda makes me wish they would make a G.E.M series Natsume or Kyon.... *sighs* one day i will own 1/8 scale figures of those characters...... though.... probably not...

anyways i hope you enjoy my little photoshoot... i figure it's better posting them here then spamming tumblr.... now i just gotta wait for my dad to get back so i can swipe his Macro lens.... i'm too cheap to buy my own.... though when i move out i'm gunan have to..... damn....
Anyways all these pics were taken on my Canon Rebel XTi (which may be getting a little old but it works and again if i'm too cheap to buy a lense i'm definitely too cheap to buy a new DSLR... so i plan to use it till it refuses to work anymore....)
Last time i checked the figure was sold out at Ami ami but you can check hobby search.... they are good just a little more expensive then ami ami
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10199688

Alright i'm off to do what sick people are supposed to do by resting and having chicken noodle soup...

Locket - From Start to Finish -

.... i should be in best right now.... i've been sick as a dog all day but i was close to fnish this that i just couldn't stop....

SO how did this all start?

Last Friday (which was going to be my last day on this film i'm working on but it looks like i'll be needed for at least one more week before receiving my pink slip) I was able to actually take my break instead of work through it and not have a crazy day.... so i watched some anime (fun fact this is why anime reviews are the most common thing i do.... i only get to read on public transit but i always manage to get at least one episode of something in before passing out after the long days at work) but as lunches are 45 mins long and anime is 24.... i had some time left but not enough time to watch another episode.... so i grabbed my moleskin and stared at a blank page...
i'm sure this is true for everyone but damn it's hard to draw when your sick... head is all fuzzy and can't even think of something interestign to draw.....

Eventually i started sketching and i managed to get this

Ah yes.... Meriel.... shall we go into fever driven story time? yes i think we shall.
I used to roleplay a lot when i was younger (i still do occasionally but with 12-16 hour work days it doesn't not leave me with any time or mental power left to have fun with characters) and because i roleplayed a lot i had a lot of characters.... however i wasn't a fan of using a character that didn't fit in with the world so i made a lot up on the spot.
Meriel was one of them, The world dealt more with angels, devils and demons AND she was kind of used as a way to make the main character of that RP not so god damn evil.
The rp eventually died (cause the main guy in question was really busy and never posted and honestly most RPs eventually die unless they manage to end which has only happened to me a handful of times) but i really like my little wrong place wrong time fallen angel so i weaved her into her own story that will probably only exist in my head.... oh well~

Maybe it's because i'm an artist even though she was an on the spot creation made simply to fill a gap in the plot i just had to know what she looked like.... and i liked EVERYONE in my universe having crazy hair (seriously 3/4 of my first batch of OCs have two tone hair and the second half all have unnatural colours... does that make them mary sue? some may argue but i think i've rounded them off enough to offset it.... i hope....)

Anyways~ Apparently people liked her design, even more so then the character whose name i use as my own online (and i know as an artist i really should put my real name out there but i'm not terribly comfortable with that idea just yet....) so i ended up drawing her lots of the years.....
then i kinda stopped.... for a long time.... i was either worried that she was too much of a sue or just unoriginal overall... either way i only draw her on occasion now but still she's one of the more fun ones..... also the only one i've made who hasn't had a major costume change.... or design change.... she's almost the exact same design that i created when i was 16.... which is pretty long ago and i suddenly feel old.... hm...

So a friend asked to see a WIP pretty much seconds after i finished colouring her.

I did do a few more tweaks but thats was pretty much her all finished.... i was gunna call it a day after this but i'm terrified of leaving pics unfinished cause i have a tendency to walk away and never finish them... and with Meriel specifically i've had a file that i was really proud of get corrupted cause there was a powerout in the middle of me saving... so yeah doubly nervous...
anyways FINAL PRODUCT!

wait.... i'm happy with i a pic i did entirely with a fever? maybe my mind will change once i get over this flu and see it outside of this feverish haze.... hmmm.
oh well i think in the end i had fun with it.... it was a little outside my comfort zone as circular compositions are not something i'm used to doing but i'm all for trying to push myself even if it means making a few terrible pictures that make me doubt my chosen path as an artist.....

But Rai she's your own characters and you forgot to draw her wings?
didn't forget.... i couldn't make it work in the composition without making it look strange so i omitted them.... i'm allowed to do that.... cause she's my character.....
side not i had way too much fun with the curly hair... i just wanted to give her hair a little more dimension.... dunno if i succeeded but that was the goal...

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Completed in the Past: Voices of a Distant Star

Considering what i'm watching now I wanted to talk about one of the Sci-fi stories i has seen that didn't turn me into a sobbing mess for days.

Now I have mentioned before that i am not a fan of shows that have anything to do with space, for some reason it sends my mind to dark scary places that are just not fun for me.

So why would i pick up an anime that deals with some deep and sad issues of live, death, war and time dilation?

Well first off it was actually a gift. See my father is a writer and ever since i was small he encouraged me to make things.... even if no one was around to help me... Hell on my tenth birthday i forced my birthday guests to be actors and directed a 10 min short film in essentially an afternoon.
Needless to say it's terrible.... i mean.... i was ten.... i wrote it when i was nine.... i spent a weekend editing it.... theres no fade in (there is a fade out though lol) and i was relying on the shitty on board mike.... so yeah..... it's bad... but at least i tried right?

well ever since i've made little things here and there (nothing that will ever be shown.... cause no...) and my father will occasionally by me things and say "this was pretty much done by one person" And this was either the first or the second thing that was like that.

So what is voices of a distant star?
It's a single 25 minute movie that packs in quite a story, i may get some of it wrong cause it's been ages since i've watched it...
Essentially Mikako and Noboru either have crushes on each other or love each other, she joins the army/space program and continues to get sent further away from earth, due to the speed they are traveling and the fact that she's communicating to Noboru via Text message the time between the twos messages continue to grow.... it goes from having no delay to having years delay.... and it's really sad, i rewatched the end to remember it and now i'm tearing up... it's not episode 16 of clannad after story sad.... but it definitely tugs on the heartstrings.
All in 25 minutes.... all created by Makoto Shinkai with 2d and 3d animation... the only other people who worked on it were the two voice actors and the composer.

And he didn't stop there, Places promised on our early days and 5cm per second (which i do own but have yet to watch.... i really should) two titles that i know a lot of anime fans cherish were also done by him.... only those times he had money behind him.
while he has only been making titles for 10 years so far i have yet to see a flop.

So....
why bring this up now?
What does this have to do with Macross?

Well aside from Macross it's the only other show that gives me no panic attaks... at all... i don't even mind the time difference or the concept of light speed or any of that, you could argue that the other things that scare me have more time to freak me out but no... the last 13 episodes of gurren lagaan doesn't break me nearly as much as the last two episodes of gunbuster.... so time had nothing to do with it.
maybe because this story doesn't need to be a mech story in space at all... if could just be a story of a girl going to war across the world and the letters taking longer and longer to get to him. thats neither a negative or a positive but thats the similarity it shares with macross.... i'll talk about it more when i finish that show but theres very little in space in any of the macross seasons i have seen.... it's pretty much just a romance story with some aliens and music thrown in for fun.

ah but none of that matters. Voices of a distant star is an amazing short film, one of my all time favs and thats not because it's only done by one person.... it's just amazing in it's own right.
It was licensed by ADV........
...
..
.
*sighs*
anyways maybe sentai or section 24 holds the license now? if not you can probably still find it online or at cons... it's worth a watch.  

anyways just wanted to say all this to reiterate i don't hate sci-fi.... just finding titles i can sit through is tricky.
but seriosuly try and find this one.... it's worth it.

Is it so hard to ask?

just personal stuff so you done have to read i just need to say this somewhere.

yesterday I posted a chibi pic of sailor mercury.
people seem to like it and that makes me really happy cause even though it's fan art other people liked it and that makes me just a bundle of giggles.
however just a few minutes ago someone said they loved it, well thats wonderful-- oh... and they are making it their msn icon.... hm... i'm not sure how i feel about this.

Rai, why would you feel conflicted about this.... someone used it to represent themself as an avatar...
yeah... um... thats really flattering and all but it made me realize how little i can do... someone liked the art, they saved it and they turned it into an avatar.... they didn't ask they just did it.... and there is nothing i can do. it doesn't matter that i put an incredibly light water mark at the bottom so people could perhaps find the source but it wouldn't cover the picture and be ugly but now it's most likely been cropped out.

But Rai it's exposure!
only if they link it back to me which from my experience with any avatars on any site pretty much never happens.Though if you are one of those people who do credit the source of avatar art I think you rock and you should keep at it!

But Rai they aren't making money so who cares?
i still care... it's not about the money it's about the fact that i spent a chunk of time working my ass off something in the hope that others would enjoy and without a simple "hey would you mind if" they just felt "oh it's art, it's on the internet and therefor must be free for me to edit as to suit my personal needs" and it's just.... ARGH

Artist work really hard on their shit.
The absolute least you can do before you edit one of their pics is ASK if it's okay to do so.

Had the user in question simple said "hey would you mind if i made this my avatar"
i would have replied. "please go right on ahead i would be extremely flattered" but to do it off the assumption that it's okay do this shit without asking just cause it's on the internet... I can't tell you how frustrating that is.
Artist are not art machines
Artist are living breathing people who are trying to make a living while doing what they love and anytime you do anything to their art without asking it makes them want to stop posting.

i'm not really that upset about the person in question... i am flattered that they turned it into an avatar but I really hate this attitude that it's okay just to do whatever you want with something cause it's on the internet... it need to stop
i know it never will
but i seriously wish it would.

Completed: Hakuoki Season 1

so.... Hakuoki Reimeiroku was a prequil?
everything makes sense now!
well okay not everything...

So I enjoy Reimeiroku quite a bit considering it just ends and there is no closure.... so i was bound to like this as it continues the story... right?
well...

Okay so it's about a Girl who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and while almost getting killed by rogue samurai she is saved by a Fury which is just a human turned into a monster and kinda sorta indiscrimenantly kills everything.... great.
anyways she's saved from the fury by the Shinsengumi.... which kinda created the fury to begin with.... great.
She ends up being taken to their base, essentially kidnapped cause it's either have her remain in the camp or kill her.
Then a little Stockholm Syndrome later she begins to look up to her captors and help them out.

I think i need to make it clear the Shinsengumi in the story IS the good guy.... i just don't like how this main character is brouht into the plot... reimeiroku the one guy sais the guy owes him his life and therefor must work for him... in this one it's more a situation of well at least they aren't kill her but she is WAY too trusting.

anyways stuff happens.... furys attack or go nuts, main character gen injured to a point where if they want to live they become furys ... we find out the girl is actually a demon (not that it ever means anything to the plot so far as all we see is quick healing) and we find a group of real demons who want to take the girl...

then it ends.... with a "Season 2 on the way eventually!"

Alrighty then~

The good:
The music is really good, love both intro and ending songs.
The art is pretty, i'm sure the mostly male cast has nothing to do with the fact that i like the art.... or the fact that it's based of an Otome game.... thats just a coincidence i say (fun fact when i was told it was based on an otome game i was confused as Reimeiroku has no main female characters... then i watched this and it all made sense...)

The not so good: 
The story.... it's not that it's complicated or long or boring it's just that i find it really hard to care.... i don't care that the girl is a demon, i don't care that they are still working on this waters of life thing despite no real good results..... maybe it's the pacing being a little of the slow AND breakneck speed time jumps making the whole thing feel disjointed... Also it makes me question Reimeiroku's point even more... maybe blue hair McWhiny pants comes back in osaka? okay.... but that doesn't help me now.... why was he the main character of that season... he doesn't do anything.... and i'm pretty sure reimeiroku came out AFTER hakuoki (though i could be wrong on that) so wouldn't they find a way to conenct him more then just that blue haired guy with the odd design thats scared to fight... and whines a lot.

but i'm not unhappy for having watched it... i wish there was more of a conclusion but there is a second season greenlit so i understand why they left it as open as they did.... but seriously two shows both kinda just stopping? no... thats not good payoff....

but still it's over at Crunchyroll for free and i would suggest watching Reimeiroku first cause i would have been WAY more confused had i watched hakuoki without all the prior knowledge of the prequil....

Mercury - From start to finish -

I.... I did it.... i drew all the inner senshi....
....
...
..
.
yeah

OKAY so fun fact, mercury was the third of the set that i drew.... but i wasn't at all happy with it... i mean...

just.... just no...
no.... no no no no no.
she was the reason i almost stopped after only doign sailor moon... cause i thought my inability to draw sailor moon curse had returned that that i should just stick to original art cause it's a lot less stressful.

so then i did all the other inner senshi because people REALLY liked Chibi Usa... which surprised me cause of all my inability to draw curses she was the one i had been fighting for years.

anyways soon she was the only one left..... but i wasn't gunna try and make that sketch work... it was unsalvageable in my opinion.

so this morning i just was sketching and nothing was workign so i did a quick one of her

well.... it's betetr then the first.... AH WHATEVER.... roll with it... fever be damned!

so eventually i finished inking which looked something like this~

at this poitn i almost stopped for the day cause i am really not feeling to good... but then i remembered thanks to work i may not be able to fnish this till tuesday or wednesday and i really didn't wanna wait that long...
now i don't know if it was me takign short cuts but she has been the fastest one to colour... or my sense of time could just be screwy at the moment but it felt like colouring her only took 2 hours or so...

there's the finished product.
yay~ i'm sorry my brain is doing everything in it's power not to cook so i'm not terribly coherant.
I am extremely happy the inner set is done... dunno if i'll do the outer set or not... only time will tell but it would probably be in a similar style... maybe... i don't know...
i think i should og to bed now or work tomorrow will be the most super of fun times... i mean it's only my hell day.... *has a little cry* i wish i could take a sick day be we are litterally two weeks to the end (or at least thats what i've been told for when i'll be let go) so i wanna make as much money as i can while i can.... gotta pay for all the traveling i plan to do somehow.

ALRIGHT, i hope you enjoy it and i'll do a pic (tomorrow or the day after depending on free time) with all the inner chibis together..... yay~
good night~

Completed: The Lorax

Kat, everyone knows this film isn't terribly good.

Yeah.... i know, but i talk about things i finish.... i just finished the lorax so i'm gunna talk about it.

So the Lorax, ok this will take some story time since why would anyone watch a film that they knew wouldn't be terribly good if they weren't forced to....
Well you see my brother has Autism and he's been really eager to go to a movie lately but due to our scheduals all being a little busy it was easy to create the movie experience at home.
so we looked for movies that started at a decent time and popped some popcorn and got him some pop and treated it as if we were going to the theater.
The lorax was the movie he picked so we all watched as a family.... despite us all cringing knowing how these 3d dr suess films.... or infact any dr suess film thats longer then 30 minutes tends to suck.

So, the Lorax is a film about how corporate greed can lead a good person to do bad things in the name of money to the point where it self destructs and then no one is happy.

The good:
It has a very neat look to it.... it really captures the style of the books perfectly.... the designs are all interesting and just overall appealing, everyone has very emotive faces and there is just an overall charm i can get behind.

The Bad:
Pretty much everything else....
I don't think i can be more clean then "Just because your movie looks good, doesn't mean it is actually good"

This could ahve easily been an okay movie.... maybe good but thast pushing it.... it just needed to do a few things.
Cut out all pop culture jokes.... seriously it just serves to date the work and it's never funny.
Cut out the songs, i don't care that Zac Effron and Taylor Swift are the main characters (both do a fine job for what little screen time they have) the songs just served to pull you out of themoment and pad then length of an already short film.
Cut out the overblown preachiness.
I know that the original story is kinda preachy.... don't cut down all the trees or bad shit will happen to the earth.... and while i never read the original story i have a feeling it was much more subtle then this film.... which constantly bashes you over the head with how good trees are and how we should take better care of the earth.... and you know what we should! but you don't need to keep telling us over and over for and hour and a half.
this is kind of outside the film.... but don't advertise your anycorporate pro good enviroment film on things like cars and sodas and movie theaters.... maybe.... just maybe.... some people will find it a tiny bit hypocritical

The Terrible:
this film felt like it was ripping off a few other films...
selling cans of air? kinda reminds me of Spaceballs or as my family pointed out the original Total Recall (which i haven't seen yet and i should since i worked on the remake... and i hear it's really fun and kinda campy which could be good.... oh but takes place in space..... hm.... that makes it difficult)
Telling of the story in flashback with minor interruptions from the kid who just wants to get to the good part? reminded me of princess bride.
Fighting a force of evil just working for it's own sense of good while they try to get a seed to the middle of town? Wall-e (which in it's own right it preachy too but due to the fact that half the film has no dialogue i forgive it)
Am i being unfair? Hell yes but the thing is everything in this film reminded me that i could be watching some other film that i would probably have more fun with (especially princess bride since thats only of my all time fav films.... i think i know it off by heart....)

 However all that being said it wasn't as bad as i was expecting... some moment were genuinely sweet  but most critics made it out to be this terrible piece of trash.... it's not good by any stretch of the mind but i'm not angry i saw it... if i had paid for it then i probably would be more angry but i got to see it for free on the movie network so no complaints.... i wont be seeing it again any time soon.

But honestly if you are curious about it give it a try.

Winter 2013 - First impressions -

normally i wait till a few episodes of any given series are out but this time there are a lot of titles and a lot to talk about and in the end i am incredibly impatient cause i want to talk about them now and now in three weeks.

Every title here can be found on crunchyroll cause it's the Easiest way for me to Simulcast anime legally AND anime network on demand doesn't have anything i am deperate to watch at the moment.

that being said lets start with the continuing series.

Magi:
i'm still on the fence with this show... it's fun and funny but not the kind of show I normally watch... still unless it gets really boring i'll probably still watch.

Blast of Tempest: 
I love this show, i don't care that they spent 4-5 episodes standing across from each other in the same spot with little to no action.... i think the concept behind the show is great as it's almost as if Hamlet and the tempest had a baby with a slice of life/ magic anime... the art is good the music is good and the story is taking some interesting turns... first episode of the second half IS a clip show but it's well done cause it actually gives you some new plot elements.

Shin Sekai Yori (From the new world):
Until a few episodes ago i had NO clue what was going on.... i watched mainly cause what story was there was kind of facinating and the ending song/animation is really well done.
now that we know more about the world and people within it it's even more interesting and it's been getting better every week.

Chihayafuru 2: 
Technically a season two but it's a continuation of the story from a few seasons ago so it's going here.
it hasn't aired yet but i know i'll like it cause the first season was so good. 

So thats all the shows that i'm still watching from another season.... now onto the purely new stuff...
and i gave a lot of shows a try....
and a lot of them were terrible.... more on that in a bit.

Love Live! School Idol project:
As far as i can tell this show has no affiliation with Idol M@ster..... though you wouldn't know it by looking at it.... to be fair the show isn't bad... it's just strange.
The story is nothing new but the weirdness comes from the fact that all the dance scenes with panning shots use really badly done MMD models.... making it look like a video game...
now if the whole thing was done this way i would think it looked cheap but at least it would be cohesive... however the actual animation in the show is actually kinda decent and these cheap looking models just look jarring and strange.... i will probably give it another episode or two but i can't figure out why they didn't just animate the dance scenes the same way they did the rest of the show.
yes animation is expensive but having a cohesive look that doesn't make the viewer question "why does it look like that" is worth so much more.

Encouragement of climb:
I hate anime that under 5 minutes and i wish this trend would go away.... i was looking forward to this show but after i watched the first episode i know i wont be continuing.
but seriously i hate 5 min comedy anime....

Mangirl:
AGAIN, i hate 3 minute comedy anime..... but i can't get through 20 second of this show cause that intro song is so bad it makes me do whatever i can to get off the video as fast as possible.... it's worst then nails on a chalkboard or someone scratching frosted glass.....

Oreshura:
Ah yes your typical story about a girl blackmaling a guy into dating her cause she's tired of all the unwanted attention...
wait...
um.... other then it feels like the Gamma is WAY too high on this show it seems like it has a fun concept... i'll give it another ep or two before i completely ditch it.... but i don't think it's bad... a little fanservicy though.

Maoyu: 
i went into the show knowing nothing and not expecting anything and i got an interesting take on Fantasy and Economics and the profit that can be had from horrible things.
again it's a little fanservicy for my taste but it actually pretty interesting and got a few chuckles from me... i'll probably watch it for the season cause i have a feeling the fan service will be less and less... most shows just tend to use it a lot at first to hook some male viewers.... then it calms down.

Cuticle Detective Inaba: 
so he's a warewolf police dog human thing that gains power wen he eats hair....
What the--
i don't think i'll continue this one.... just too strange....

Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East: 
I was looking forward to this one based of the preview and so far it's pretty good. Animation is really pretty and althought i know very little about the story what i do know makes me want to keep watching.
unfortunately i'm not 100% on what it's about so i'll just say a boy talks to demons and another turns into a dog..... and they live in a church that only worships on god thought they know for a fact that there are more.... yay?

The Unlimited Hyobu Kosuke: 
people who can wield ESP and are considered threats to society so they are imprisonned but it's just so that experimentation can be done on them and theres a really powerful esper/leder of the rebellion and a guy who seemingly has no esper powers but is in prison anyways?
hm..... yeah ok i'm in.
I like stories that deal with supernatural things like Demons or Psychics so automatically this was one of the shows i was looking forward to and so far so good.... the art style is a bit angular but interesting so yeah i'll probably watch it all.

Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman:
it's a lot like Lupin the 3rd...
like it's lupin the 3rd but in fudal japan....
i'm not really enjoying it at the moment... which is odd cause i like lupin....
i may give it another episode but i have a feeling this show just isn't for me...

Senyu: 
oh hey thats Okazaki's voice--- and it's over already.... WHY are there so many anime that are under 5 minutes long.... i seriously HATE this.

Kotoura-san:
I almost didn't watch this show cause the styling looked so moe blob.
now i'm pretty sure that this will end up as my fav of the season.
It's REALLY good and it does a great job establishing the world this girl lives in and how her uncontrolled ability to read peoples mind has cause her a lot of trouble.
and the animation, while on the simple side, is cute and well done.... i look forward to seeing where this goes... 

Amnesia:
I knew that if this show was terrible it would still be my guilty pleasure for the season since it is so lovely..... but then it actually had an interesting premise too boot.
A spirit bumps into a girl and fuses with her soul causing her to forget everything she knew before... however if she tells those around her she has amnesia they will put her in a hospital and without stimulation of seeing old friends her condition will worsen.... i figure there is more to that but thast all i know for a the moment... again it's gunna be one of my favs this season. 

so thats all i've got for now... i may add a few more titles to this in a bit cause crunchy just got all of little buster but they haven't put up the first half yet and they still seem to be annoucing things... somehow...
but yeah thats my first impression of the winter 2013 season.... i was worried at first but lately some really good shows have come out and i look forward to seeing were they go...
but there is a lot of moe and fanservice so be warned if you hate that stuff as much as i do....
there were some titles i just didn't give a chance either cause they were 2nd/3rd seasons of shows i haven't seen or i could just tell they would not be something i enjoy... oh well...

what are you enjoying this season?

Completed: Clannad

now... i've watched this show a few times (i think this is the 5th time? possibly only 4th) However it's the first time i've watched it since doing these little written blurbs...

So here we go!
I will be covering both seasons as their own thing cause even thought they are similar there was a chunk of time between the two so i have different likes and dislikes...

Clannad:
Now when i hear people say the title of the show they pronounce it like Clah-NAH-d with major emphasis on the second syllable... i get why they do this but it sounds so strange to me so i just default to the fact that despite it being an Irish word the show is japanes therefor I say it like Cla-nad no emphasis on any one part of the word (because ku-ra-na-do doesn't have any emphasis within the word....)
and none of this matters cause it's written not spoken i just wanted to talk about the one thing everyone disagrees with me on.... i agree i'm probably in the wrong... i don't care... i will continue to pronounce it the way i do until someone proves with hard fact that i am mistaken.

okay back on track.

Clannad is simply the story of Okazaki, a boy who is tired of living in a town her hates, and Nagisa, a girl who despite certain issues loves the town, and how they help each other grow and be stronger.
oh and there are 5 other girls there..... yay for anime based off dating sims.
well... 'technically a dating sim' is a better way to put it since apparently of all the Key/Visual arts games it's one of the tamest, i don;t really know... i don't play dating sims.

So like a dating sim/visunal novel game each character has their own story and the way this show handles it is through certain arcs going through there tale.... in the first season there is an extra episode where he picks a different girl from Nagisa and normally i would cry fould to this but in this show showing the alternate stries is a plot device.

yes this is the first of two things where i have seen the multiple endings being used as an in game/show plot element... and i love it (fun fact the other this is 999: 9 Persons  9 Hours 9 Doors, out of the two 999 does it better but still both are good)

ok... back on track...

so the other element that is used in the show is levels of saturation to show how the main character sees the word. It's not terribly subtle but i feel it's used estremly effectively. when we first meet him the world is pretty crazy and almost fuzzy as if he isn't able to see the buety in his surroundings cause he is so miserable But then he seems Nagisa at the bottom of the hill asking herself if she likes the school and the colour suddenly brightens up when he helps convince her to go up the hill. Maybe it's just the fact that i'm an artist and i love anything and everything to do with colour Psychology but i just feel like it's used so well.

Another example is later in the show theres a basketball game, Okazaki has an injury that makes the sport difficult for him to play and they are about to lose the game, he gets knocked down while holding the ball and has a bit of an inner monologue about how it's all hopeless, why is he even trying, what could he possibly accomplish and while he things this time slows and everything greys out again, then when Nagisa calls out to him he decided to give it a shot anyways and the colour all returns simply because he tried. This was actualyl the moment that helped me decide that i love this show and it's always one of my favs.

i'm still not talking about the good and the bad yet... hm... OKAY one more story.
So after i bought the DVDs (which were kinda pricy for something that was Sub only and Sentai has since releaed a dub which is okay but a little strange) i lent it to a friend and told her "don't worry.... nothing too sad happens in season one.... it's after story you gotta worry about..."
Then i rewatched it... and i apologized to her cause even the Fuko arc (fun fact my least fav of all the arcs) made me tear up.
This show is sad, it's actually more sad upon rewatching and seeing all the hints they give you to how they plan to rip out your heart later. however this season just gets me a little teary eyes and not much more.

um.. okay yeah thast all the stories i have.... for this season.

The Good:
Animation is Lovely, it's so bright and colourful and all the characters are distinctive. I do laught that the character Fuko says okazaki's best freind has impossible hair cause he's blond but The twins and the girl genius all have purple hair and that raises no comments at all. Hell Okazaki has blue hair.... all colours i'm pretty sure you dont find in hair naturally... oh course i get what they are saying cause the boy actually dyes his hair to get it to be blond but still.

Music is great, some of the songs like To same hights get me ready to draw and other songs like snowfield make me stop and think. The intro song is really nice as we and the ending song is cute and isn't too jarring to hear when you are crying cause the last episode was heartwarming.

The characters, aside from Fuko, are really interesting and all have reason and motivation to act the way they do. i believe that these people could be a motley crew of friends just trying to get through the year and still have fun.

The not so good:
Some acts are too long *cough Fuko Cough* some are too short and when they end thast kinda it *cough kotomi Cough)
The show at times is a bit moe for my taste with all the girls being pigeon toed and a little doting on Okazaki (it is the everyone loves okazaki/okazaki fixes all things show at some points HOWEVER when he picks a girl the others back off and that's something you don't tend to see in romance shows) but in all fairness none of the characters are pointless... even sunohara who is a moron can be surprisingly sharp and sweet and caring.

The Bad:
If i hadn't made it clear by now there is one characetr i just don't like.
Fuko is just this ditzy moe blob who acts more as comedy relief for the first half of the season... now this would be find if she only showed up occasionally but again her arc is a large chunk of the season... and even after her arc is done she randomly appears only to vanish seconds later and have no one ever mention it again. she's not entirely pointless but so much attention is put on her and she's pretty much just a glorified side character (who gets more important in season two but we are not talking about that yet)
Now i don't hate her i just wish there wasn't so much focus on her....

OKAY.... from this point on i may spoil a few key plot lines to Season 1 so this is your only warning.... considering i've watched the show 5 times just assume that i like it a lot

Clannad: ~After Story~

So Nagisa and Okazaki are now dating. Yay~
But they are awkward and shy... Awwww~
and he's living with her and her family cause his family situation is awkward *tears up*
so this season mostly takes place in Okazaki's final year of highschool onward since he is planning to spend the rest of his life with Nagisa.
And everything looks so happy other then Nagisa is sickly and has to repeat her final year again... but thats not too bad...
everything still happy and fun...
until Key/visual arts rip your heart from your chest and squeeze it just cause they can.

This season is almost completely tearful... at first cause it's touching and sweet but it quickly goes into the "why would you even do that to me?" territory.
like i said before i do tend to cry easily but this show is the only show (well was until the going home chapters of natsume yuukinchou) to get that whimpery sob out of me.. .that sob that i hope no one hears cause they will think i am just incredibly sad.
lets just sad i made the mistake of watching episode 16 right before heading off to work...
yeah..... that was..... not a good idea...

again it uses saturation to show the main characters mood and feelings towards the town and gain the animation is lovely..... but.... i'll touch more on that later.

I don't have as many stories with this cause really all i remember is crying during almost every episode.... except the first one cause it's trying to show you it's not gunna be so bad. i do remember waiting and being excited to get my hands on the show.

The good:
Music, oh that intro song is so sad once you read the lyrics and so pretty, everything is still bright and colourful and since we've already spents 26 episodes with these people we get even more room for character devlopment.... also no Fuko till the end chuk pf the season.... YAY.

The not so good:
So inbetween Season 1 and season 2 a certain show was made by Kyoto Animation...
and i blame that show for pretty much ruining everything Kyo Ani has done since.... i am talking about K-on.
now i bitched about k-on plenty in my top ten things that annoy me so i'll be brief here... Every animation house has a certain style thats a mix of the original art as well as the houses style...... Until K-on was made in which every subsequent show  has a very specific style to the eyes, body, hands and overall movement..... and i HATE the look....
It really only affected two shows that i watch (This one and Melancholy of haruhi suzumiya) and in this ones case it was just a matter of motions getting a little more floaty and kind of lazy and moe however this show benefited because the faces became way more emotive.... but still the final product doesn't looks as good as the first season in my opinion. so yeah it would have been in the bad section of my blurbs but some good did come of it.

The Bad:
while not terrible theres one relationship i don't think they focus on enough for someone whos grown up in a western audience to get...
Okazaki and his father do not get along. Apparently he and his dad get into a fight before the show and it ruins Okazaki;s chance to play basketball cause he can't raise his right arm... however we we see him with his dad his father is always smiling and trying to be kind and give the boy his space... we never see any of the negative so it's hard to see why he hates him so much.... i mean i buy it... i do... i just feel liek that arc could have had more impact then it ends up having simply because i can't tell why okazaki feels like his father treats him like a stranger... the only difference i noticed is that when he's older he refers to him as tomoya-kun instead of just tomoya...
the only reason i even picked up on that is cause okazaki does not use any honorifics to anyone his age or that he's remotely close to.
but i still don't know if thats just me overanalysing of it thats actually the reason...

so it's not bad it's just.... i'm not equip with the proper knowledge to understand the full situation.

Also torch is way to happy a song to end the episode with when you are bawling like a baby.

if you hate shows that make you cry... do not watch this...
but it's really good and really well done and even if you don't like this genre you will probably enjoy this series because the dating sim aspect is actually kinda played down... especially once he picks Nagisa... then it just become Okazaki and Nagisa life out the rest of their life together.

also theres a side story oh a girl in a world thats ended... i'm not sure if it's done in 3d or at a higher frame count but wow are those scenes lovely and i didn't expect the twist at the end.... or the fact that Okazaki was wrong about what they would sing and nagisa was completely right.

but yeah... great show, one of my personal favs
now onto watch macross (cause i'm not sure if i've talked about it here....)
 

Opinions...

There are a few trends i've seen for many years that i find a little... silly...

See even though i didn't really start playing games all the time till i was about 14 i have always had a gaming console in my house. I Consider myself a gamer even though i don't tend to stray outside the RPG Genre... i will play other games but i almost always return to RPGs...
however being a gamer and liking rpgs tends to mean people assume a few things about you.
You love series like Final Fantasy or Legend of Zelda.
You are a nintendo OR a sony Fanboy/girl and how dare you ever try to like both.
or that if your opinion is neutral then you must Hate something they like...
and if they aren't assuming that then they keep telling you how the JRPG is dead and how you should play more types of games.

ugh... okay i'm gunna take this point by point... and it's gunna be long...

While i have nothing against Final fantasy they will never be one of my fav games.
Yes the music is amazing, yes the character designs are lovely and yes the story is pretty gripping most of the time.

HOWEVER.... i didn't grow up with these games, I don't have this childhood nostalgia of playing through the first games... the first Final Fantasy game i ever played was X... which i really liked.... until the final boss which was kinda pathetic and put a damper on the entire experience... plus my copy of the game had been touched by my not terribly gentle with CDs little brother causing the game to crash after that stupid boss...

then i Played VII which again was good and fun with great music and great characetrs but honestly it didn't age very well...
and there is a certain move that the final boss has that send me into Panic attack ville.... the first time i saw supernova i had to walk out of the room for a good hour...
suffice to say i never beat VII

Since i have played almost every Final Fantasy game barring the online ones and the ones that were after XIII and so far i have only beaten tactics advanced series.... yeah...  again there were always wonderful elements but for whatever reason i didn't latch onto the games as much as other people did... they are still good but they will never be one of my favorites.

Does that make me any less of a gamer? No... I am allowed to have an opinion... we as gamers do not have to like the same thing just cause everyone expects us to.

What about the legend of zelda?
Again great music and fun story but again i never latched onto it... i always had more fun watching people play then i did playing it myself cause i didnt particularly care about Link.
unlike FF i haven't played every Zelda game and out of the games i have played Wind waker and Majoras mask are my fav of the series. why? Cause wind waker has one of the best scores in any game and the colourful natural as well as emotive characters really make the character feel alive and Majoras mask has an amazing hopeful yet incredibly dark story.... unfortunately i have a hard time beating it cause it deals with the moon so much and again that sends me right into panic attack ville.
But those are two of the games most people frown upon? how can you like them?
EASILY.... it is my OPINION that they are good fun games... i don't expect others to agree because it's an opinion...

but does not liking the majority of LOZ games make me less of a gamer? NO... why would you even think that?

oh because everyone loves those games? So what? what does that have to do with anything? Why does my opinion have to be thrown back in my face in such a negative way just cause it doesn't conform to yours?

However thats not the only issue when it comes to being a gamer... theres also the so called console wars.

Which side do you pick? Nintendo? Sony? Microsoft? PC? choose carefully cause apparently you can only choose one to be a true gamer...

or.... you can choose multiple... i mean... okay... again i grew up in a house where we always had a nintendo console.... so i must be a nintendo Fangirl right?
Nope... see when i first had enough money to buy a console i bought a game cube, I was 13 or 14 at the time... i got a few games and played it occasionally however i thougth the Sony PS2 had a great library of RPGs...
So i'm a sony Fangirl?
Nope....

My brother, who is autistic, really liked FPS and racing games... hm... well racing games theres a few on PS2 but FPS? hm... so we got him/my dad an xbox? while i never played it i did eventually play  few games on thee XBOX 360 like Tales of vesperia and Eternal sonata.
So your an xbox fangirl?
nope
recently i've bought a few games on PC, some out of nessity to continue certain series and other just cause they seemed like fun little indie games (read as Recettear)
so I'm a PC fan girl? you're never gunna guess me answer....
No...

I do not consider myself loyal to any one brand of console.
"But Kat, you don't own a PS3 or a PSvita! you must therefor hate sony!"
not at all, i have nothing against sony... i mean i don't own a WiiU yet either cause the Tech is a bit too new and i dont' have the time to play any games...
in the case of the PS3 any game i wanted for it was also on the xbox 360 which
a) i didn't have to buy cause it's my brothers
b) was pretty much the same price and aside from some framerate issues probably played close to the same.
or when i was looking to buy one the console in question was too expensive for my taste.... i try to have a rule of "there need to be 3 games on the system in question to warrant purchasing it"
why three? cause for the span of my game cubes life i only owned three games that i constantly played (it's been bumped up to 10 since the console ended but at the time it was only 3)

HOWEVER the very instant Ys 4 is put out on Vita... i will go buy that handheld... because thast the only way i'll be able to go play it. Not because it's a sony product, not because it has super processing speed or better specs then the 3ds.... simply because it'll have a game that i REALLY want to play.

But thats not enough for some people and they will continue to argue which is the best console... why can't we just like a few of them for different reasons? why do we have to pick? cause everyone is picking? who cares.... they are entitled to their opinion just like i'm entitled to mine.

are we noticing a theme here? cause i sure as hell am.
I am getting so sick and tired of my opinion being discredited just cause i don't fit the norm of what games like... like my opinion doesn't matter simply by the fact that it is different.
Um... the whole point of an opinion IS for people to look at things with their own personal biases and decide what they like and dislike for themselves.

This whole mentality of "you had to cry when Aerith died in FFVII" (fun fact i did but i cry so easily) or "you have to love Ocarina of time as it is the best game ever" (it's a good game yes but for me it's not my fav game... it's not even my personal fav in the series) all because thats what everyone else thinks? NO! My opinions do not make me more or less of a gamer they simply make me a diverse part of the community.

I once listened to a thing where people were complaining that a friend had such bad taste SIMPLY because Their taste was different. maybe those games were just fun? ever think of that? Maybe for whatever reason they had a good time with a game that didn't resonate with you... and maybe... just maybe... thats okay. it's alright to have differing opinions cause otherwise we would just get together in a con and be like. "Remember when Final fantasy 6/3 came out? wasn't that the best game ever?" and the reply would be "yes, it really was" and then the discussion would end.
What a Boring community to be a part of... instead of when you go "oh well my fav game is skyward sword" and you are met with "i personally liked wind waker" and then you discuss and see WHY the person is over that opinion.

The only thing worse then having an opinion that is different from the norm is having an opinion that is just in the middle.
it's a little off the subject of games... but when the film Scott pilgram vs the world came out i got to see it at a screening and after the film ended and people were done clapping i thought. "well... what did i think"
it had it's cute moments but it also had some problems... i didnt' really like the main characters... ah but it was fun and harmless so all is good.
then my friends saw it.... to the friends that loved it they assumed i hated the film... i didn't.... i just felt it was kinda mediocre...
to the friends who hated it they thougth i loved it.... i didn't cause again... the whole film was kinda just Okay....
but it was a matter of i wasn't allowed to have a nuetral opinion... i had to pick one side or the other or my opinion would be null and void.
WHY? why can't i just say a film had good things and bad things and they balance out to create an experience were i'm neither angry or happy for having seen it? why do opinions have to be love it or hate it... being of a nuetral opinion should not discount the opinions i do have about elements... ARGH.

and then of course theres my final bullet point of JRPGS being dead... it's not... you just aren't trying games outside of your comfortable series. It's understandable because rpgs ask you to log in a considerable amount of hours and not everyone is comfortable with doing that... but trust me there are so great games like Hexys Force, Luminous Arc, Ys, Legend of Heroes, Disgaea, Tales of series all JRPGs (which varying levels of strategy or action attached) all tons of fun, most of which have ongoing series which are all just as fun...
therefor not dead and please stop arguing that it is... i get your talking about the style but since the begining there has been action, strategy and turn based games... all of which are still alive and kicking today.... so shush.

and i think thast the point where i've run out of things to be annoyed about.... yay~

TL;dr
If someone is of a different opinion then you that does not make their opinion wrong and it doesn't make them any less a member of the community in question... it simply makes their opinion different and instead of threatening violence simply because they disagree with you (you think i'm kidding but i have been to cons where the person in question threatened to cut me if i said a single negative thing about Naruto... despite the fact that i have never seen a single episode of the show and therefor and unable to form an opinion other then "Holy shit some fans can be scary") you should open up the channels of discussion and find out WHY they think that that and then tell them why you think the way you do.
Also just cause someone doesn't liek something as much as you doesn't mean they hate it...
and just cause a genre isn't as popular as it used to be doesn't mean it's dead... as long as people who like the genre exist games will continue to be made.

sorry thats a long TL;dr.... i talked about too many things in this rant... i just get touchy when my opinion gets thrown back in my face as being wrong simply because it's different...
Opinions about personal preference with games cannot be wrong... only different.

okay this is too long again i'm sorry to whomever actually reads this incoherent rant.... maybe you can tell me one of your unpopular opinions and how you deal with situations.

Back to work!

So, it's the final day of my two week Hiatus...
what did i manage to get done in that time?

not that much to be honest.... awww.... i can't believe that i get more done when i only have an hour to myself every day.

oh well... lets see what i got done..
Caught up on all the current series i've been watching and 3 of them finished... yay
Finished 5 pieces of art (granted two were fan art....)
Beat one game.... oh but there are so many left...
saw some friends (considering we all have crazy schedules and live a little far from each other i do consider this an accomplishment.)
figured out what i'm allergic to (nothing.... which was pretty surprising... granted perfume and msg weren't tested but i don't need a test to know i can't go near either of those.)
Drank a lot of tea.... A LOT.... but it's so yummy

and otherwise i was just lazy for two weeks... and it was wonderful... i would have loved to get more art done but between fighting off colds and trying to cope with the fact that i went from having no time off to having two weeks guarenteed no work... i just couldn't wrap my head around working on more art.... which is no excuse and i did get something sketched almost every day... so i was only a little lazy... *sighs*

i do find it odd that i know i'll miss the time off... even though i'll only be working for 2 more weeks most likely... but until they boot me i'll just keep showing up~
still... all that sleeping in!

i really shouldn't complain... most real jobs only give you the Stats off and i was luckily enough to have a full Hiatus.

But yeah it's all good... other then the fact that the less time i have the more stuff i finish.... how does that even work?

Matoba Seiji - From start to finish -

So... i've mentioned before that Natsume Yuujinchou is one of my all time fav shows...
but just cause i really like soemthing doesn't mean i'll be able to make decent fan art of it...

So enter Matoba Seiji, head of the Matoba clan of exorcist and probably one of the most terrifying non-evil antogonist ever...

I say he's terrifying cause of the way he treats Natsume (and hell anyone else around him) but honestly... he isn't evil... he's actually kinda pitiful in some of the chapters of the manga... he doesn't really understadn the idea of asking for assistance.... he just kind of blackmales.... or kidnaps.... or shows up at the door of the house you are living at with the full knowledge that natsume hasn't told his guardians that eh can see things other people can't....
it's what he does....

so why would i attempt to draw a character that gives me the chills every time i see him?
Cause he's my friends fav character.... hell he's one of my fav characters too.... but the thing about his is he has his right eye covered (how he fights with bow and arrow is questionable but again... so many theories regarding this show) so i thought it would be funny to draw his Horrible and apparently disfigured eye for her (fun fact it would be adorable as hell... cause i would giggle....) but to be able to draw that pic i have to be able to draw him in general...
so this was really just practice.

ok well for my first time ever drawing him it wasn't terrible... his eye is too big and his mouth is too far over and his hair is too poofy but those are all relatively easy fixes....
so i shrank the eye moved the mouth over and made the hair MORE poofy.... oops....

somehow i think he looks even more cute in the finished product then he does in the sketch....
why does everything i touch end up cute? (okay i know why but even when i purposfully draw ugly or morbis things i still get comments like Cute.... ugh)
i picked his colouring based off a screen shot cause the entire series has a kind of muted nuetral feel.... which goes again my 'use all the colours of the rainbow' mentality. but it was a lot of fun.... overall the whole thing only took a few hours... and it was a fun little experiment.
will i ever draw him again? maybe... who knows... maybe i'll make him sparkle next time.
Matoba makes his first intro to the show in the 3rd season of Natsume yuujinchou which is going to be released by NISA soon... but you can watch over at crunchyroll if you want

Completed: Kid Icarus: Uprising

... If you had asked me just a few days ago if i would ever beat this game.... i would reply No.... it's unplayable.

But.... i did it.... though sheer force of will i beat this game.... i did it with just the standard level of difficulty but i'm not going to challenge myself further on a game where the controls are doing everything in their power to get you killed.

Some back story i think is in order.

Back when Super smash Bros Brawl was released i immediately latched onto Pit cause i ADORE his design.... he may not be the best or worst character.... i didn't care i'm not a tournament player.... i play those games for fun... so i'm going to pic characters i like.

Fast forward to the release of the 3DS and the announcements of some of the titles.
This one in particular caught my eye cause I really like pit's design AND there seems to be on on rails shooter aspect to the game.... which i tend to like.

so i buy it on launch day (cause i'm across the street from a large video game chain so it was just a matter of swinging by in my free time) and i pop it in and even though i don't tend to play games in 3d i do check out how the 3d looks on them... and this was pretty much one of the best uses of 3d i had seen from the system so far (it was still pretty new at the time of course but still it didn't give me a headache.)

then i play a level and so far so good... i really like how i control the reticule and pits movement independently... even though it's a bit awkward to hold so that i can use the stylus it still felt natural enough...

That is until we got to the land battle segments.
almost every level had some form of land battle.....

and it's broken.... because you control the camera and the Reticule with the stylus.....  so sometimes when you try to aim at something you end up swinging the camera around... and sometimes when you wanna see whats going on you just end up aiming in place....
but hey it's not that there aren't other buttons on the 3ds that you could have used to control the camera like... oh... i dunno... the analogue stick... oh but theres only one analogue stick on the 3ds.... and you need to use pit to move... damn.... ok well in some rpgs you control  the camera with the shoulder buttons.... oh but L attacks? and R centres the camera behind you? (R is impossible to hit cause you are holding onto a stylus so.... yeah.... and you can flip the controls if you are left handed)
well what about the face buttons... oh right you can't hit those CAUSE YOU ARE HOLDING A PEN... right.... i forgot.... they can be used to attack though.... even though you can't really push them.

yes there is an attachment that gives you a second analogue stick... i don't want to have to clip something on to make a game playable... if the game can't be played on the system as is then you have failed at your job....
another fun fact the game came with a stand..... which was useless and more of a hindrance to use then anything else.

so okay the land battle portion has shitty controls... so what... well i wouldn't care so much about broken controls if it weren't for one thing...
There are Three One hit Kill monsters.... to be fair only one truly kills you in one hit.... but my point is there monster that can surprise you cause you can't tell where they are thanks to the piece of shit camera.
Once monster turns you into an eggplant... if he catches you in that state you die, the other is a monster that turns you into fried shrimp then eats you over fried rice.... i died to him once cause i had no idea he was there and it was literally one second i was shrimp and the next i was dead.
the third type i died Twice to... in air battle none the less but it is a monster that actually changes the music... i felt both deaths were cheap and stupid and i just really hate 1 hit KO things... it doesn't make your game harder... it just cheapens it.

But those monsters are only in a handful of areas so i can't really use that as a reason why the game on a whole is broken...
So there's a level about 20 chapters in that has wind blasting trying to push you off the edge.... you fall off and you take a bit of damage... go into crisis mode 3 times and thats it game over.
lucky theres a speed blast after the first blast of wind right?
well... no it's not lucky... trying to control pit, the camera and pits new speed while lining yourself up to run through the wind is not only annoying and hard but if you do fall then you get sent back to the start and there goes your speed boost.... and you never get another one unless you outright die and continue...
it is possible to do the room without a speed boost.... it nearly resulted in me throwing the game out in the snow i did end up outright dying once cause my health was already at the bottom and i fell too many times.... but even with full health i nearly died again.... one time i cleared the room just to have Pit slip off the edge before the door.
oh i was mad... yes the game was frustrating cause i suck at games so this shit already gets me agitated.... but when i finally did do it pits hit detection just decides he's off the ledge even though maybe only a pixel of his toe was there?
it didn't help that the level in question was LONG and REPETITIVE...

i'm getting off topic...

WHAT THE GAME IS ABOUT
Pit, 25 years after having defeated Medusa is back and trying to help the goddess Palutena bring the light back to the earth now that medusa/hades are back in business.
the story has plenty of twists and turns that allow for some interesting enemy types and locations even though many of the enemies are admitted recolours of previously seen enemies.
still lots of interesting characters and some boss monsters make this for a crazy colourful ride.

The good:
I know... i'm surprised too... there are some good things in the.
Maybe it's just cause i like Anime art but i really like hte art style of this game as a whole... it's clean and crisp and works really well in 3d (for the few times i tried the 3d out)
The music is really pretty, if i could find the Soundtrack to buy i would.... it's that pretty, the orchestrated versions of the 8 bit songs are really well done... i just love it.
The on rails shooter bits are fun.... if the entire game were that this would be a positive review. it's not perfect.... but it's almost like how star fox 64 felt and if starfox controlled the same why it wouldn't be terrible...
wouldn't be great but still... could be worse.
the story is also okay.... silly and pointless yes but it's not bad.

The not so good:
The dialogue is a bit grating... i don't ind the occasional joke that breaks the 4th wall.... in this game EVERY joke is trying to break the 4th wall... it took me completely out of the world... the best jokes are when they reference the original game with 8 bit graphics and all.. those got chuckles.... mentioning that this is like another game isn't funny....

The bad:
Land battles.... i mean theres one chapter where pit goes. "awww no land battle segment? i'll miss it" and my reply was "Ha... i wont...." again... when you look forward to certain parts of you game not happening.... you have done something seriously wrong.
Awkward to hold the stupid 3ds.... i have no idea how anyone could play this with 3d on since you have to be in that sweet spot or the 3d causes pain. again i had to lean my hand on a desk to be able to play this.
even though i knew (cause i checked how much pain i would have to endure to finish the game) I only had 5 chapters left to beat the game... i dreaded needing to play that much... the last level is the best..... but then again the last level is only the shooter segment with some added events for fun times.

But then again if i dreaded playing this so much why did i beat it?
cause even though i knew the game was broken and bad i still WANTED to like it.... it's not all terrible after all... and even though i don't like it... i don't hate it.... it's broken but as long as i play on standard i don't tend to get too angry (i think the highest i went was 6... and i won but i figured i didn't need to go through that.... i didn't care how hard it was when i beat it.... i just wanted to be done)
would i recommend the game? No chance in hell... it's not the worst game i've ever played (not sure if A witch's tale or Hoshigami remix win that title... there is also Arc Rise Phantasia to consider after all) but it's still broken beyond being playable... i only played it cause i bought it and i HATE wasting money... had i known what i was getting into despite the great music and lovely character design i would not have bought this game....
*sighs* i'm glad i finished it but still.... i would have probably been a happier person for not beating it.... who knows....

also this was a bit longer then i expected... sorry