Urban Raccoons!
Another week and another Latent Idle comic out. Whoo! ^-^; This week I’ve gone back to my Evil Urban Raccoon Trio who made their first debut on the Internet Withdrawal strip. Looking back, I felt really bad about the dog and figured I would start my version of Mad’s Spy vs Spy. This time the dog comes out on top for a change. I plan to span these guys in from time to time. Thanks for reading!
I’ve been finding better time management ways to lower my anime back log. No more naps… it’s a sacrifice I’ll do once in a while. A good friend of mine gave me the DVD box set of Dance in the Vampire Bund series. I’ve watched the first ep when it came out last year and didn’t finish the series since I thought there were better series out at the time. Looking back I don’t recall what I considered “better” series.
So I had the evening open and decided to finish this series. Normally one hears the mantra that beauty is only skin deep. But at this point I have doubts when it comes to this particular anime. As with any animated series based on a manga/book I understand there are a lot of back story the director has to condense into an extremely short time frame. So it tends to leave two general options:
While both options have plus sides which introduces existing fans and new people to the series; there’s always drawback that can be potentially fatal to a series. Not having read the manga, I personally felt the series was following the first option I listed and the emphasis was heavily set on “liberties”. I have not read the manga but the loli/shota scenes with adult innuendos did not sit well with me and it was really taking away from the supposed story between .
What I did find interesting was series theme on one’s perception to decide what we think is correct. The loli references in the series and the lore of vampires definitely places one’s decision heavily on looks versus having all the facts before making judgement.
Unfortunately the flow of scenes was really choppy in which events transitioned from one piece immediately to another without much explanation. You would start on a scene where the protagonist, Akira, is conversing with Mina Tepeş, princess-ruler of all vampires, on vampire culture and their relationship. Then suddenly halfway another event comes and I find myself thrown into a new topic and scene without the previous scene being completed; nor did it have a direct connection to the previous scene I was seeing.
Initially I thought this is to emphasize the male protagonist’s fragmented memories. But having it constantly happen throughout the series really took a toll on the focus on the story. I was not sure if the story is focusing on a love story through an innocent children storybook type narration or the perception of what one uses to decide what is right or wrong. Unfortunately the series didn’t really congeal until towards 2/3 into the series and abruptly ended. At the end of the series I’m left feeling rather dirty watching due to many loli scene and a creepy shota one based solely on my perception on what a normal relationship should be. All this and I was not watching an adult rated movie.
If you are curious about the series, I’ve included the link to Wikipedia pertaining about this:
Women and Grudges
Women and grudges: I’ve always found guys experience this strange phenomenon. I figured I try to make some sense from this and give the ladies my thinking process.
If I don’t post another comic next week. Please look for me.
Don and Gia at another strange eatery
I’ve been using a manga plugin however that has not worked as well. So in the meantime I’ll be using a regular post to post a new comic so the full comic will load on a new windows. If someone knows a plugin that will help, please let me know.
I felt with the doodles lately, I’ve been neglecting the Latentidle comic a bit. So here’s another cover page following the last comic I did where Gia roped Don into another strange eatery this summer.
-aikito
Anime Expo 2011 has been a fun experience. I’ll highlight a few things that made me squeal like a school girl. First one is that I am fortunate enough to meet Izumo Matsumoto Sensei.
A beloved mangaka of mine <3
Went I was in college I was introduced to the romantic comedy, “Kimagure Orange Road,” and immediately fell in love with the series. It had sci fi element, an early prototype of Tsundere, and the naiveness of youth experiencing love which almost everyone can relate to. Izumi Matsumoto is the creator of this amazing series which came out in 1984 where his manga that has been adapted into an anime series, novels and a radio drama. To my surprise, Matsumoto Sensei was diagnosed with cerebrospinal fluid disease. This unfortunate turn of events suspended his work in order to take care of his health according to Anime Expo’s guest summary.
Besides the KOR (Kimagure Orange Road), Matsumoto Sensei was also experimenting with digital comics in the early 90’s and as you can see he was definitely on the right track since we’ve all seen online manga readers and digital comics becoming the norm nowadays.
Since this is summer, I think it’s fitting to see KOR’s second opening, Orange Mystery, where part of the lyrics goes “My Summer Angel” But the song does sum up the theme of the series and a romanticized nostalgia.
If you cannot see the embedded Youtube video, here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj-23d82gU0
The next highlight has been Danny Choo’s 2nd arrival to AX! Again it’s just a big meet up and I had a great time talking with Mrs. Choo and fellow anime otakus.
Danny Choo (middle) & Jason (right)
I recently bought an Olympus PEN E-PL2 camera since I felt I was getting the max out of my Point and Shoot camera but the quality of the photos were not where I wanted. But most of you wanted to see the cosplay so please see the photos I uploaded to Flickr.
my AX 2011 highlight pics: Anime Expo 2011 Cosplay Pics
Enjoy!