Hello and welcome to Keba's Anime and Manga Place (KAAMP for short)! Here at KAAMP, I write about anime and manga that I have seen/read as well as my views on them. I'll also post about my original stories from time to time.

Just beware that some of my posts contain spoilers. I'll put them in spoiler tags just in case.

KAAMP's history: KAAMP was created in July 2002 by yours truly. It was a sloppy-looking website on Yahoo's now defunct Geocities. I posted my anime fan art on that site. Also, for a time, I posted my thoughts on the few anime series that I had seen. Now that I look back on it, my thoughts were rather ill-informed (is that even a word?) because I had only seen bits and pieces of anime dubs. Now that I've seen more series, I think that my commentary on various anime will be a little better than before.

So, come on in and stay awhile! KAAMP is now in session.

What Happened?

I'd like to know what happened to a number of things.

First of all, what happened to the featured World posts? I liked reading those. Heck, I'm going to put "spotlight" in my tags for the sake of experimenting.

Second, what's up with promotions? We haven't had one yet this year. LGA775 pointed this out about a month ago and nothing has changed. There are SO many people that are overdue for promotions.

My third point isn't so much a thing as it is a person. Did alphonse13 deactivate her account? There's no trace of her anywhere. And she was so active, too. I was going to draw her a picture for asking questions in my voice meme (still open), but now I don't know if I can.

I wish theO was a more active community. So little has been happening lately. Then again, I'm not exactly helping. Stupid lack of scanner.

30 Days of Art

My longtime friend on theO, Kita Mikichi, and her two buddies on DevaintART (DA) have been challenging each other to draw 30 pictures. Having seen her progress, both here and on DA, I felt inspired to do something similar here on theO (yes, I have permission to use their idea).

The rules are pretty much as follows: Every participant contributes ideas. Each day, the whole group draws out their interpretation of one of those ideas. Everyone posts all 30 drawings. The drawings don't have to be masterpieces.

So, now I need some input. Please answer the following questions.

1. Would you be willing to do this with me?
2. How should this event be hosted? Should I create a World specifically for the purpose of hosting the event and featuring the drawings? Should we all make a post in our own Worlds for this that we can edit as the event progresses? Any other ideas?
3. When do you want to do this? My thought is to start April May June 1. I know I said May, but we do have a student who wants to participate. Is pushing the date back OK with everyone?
4. When should we post our drawings? One per day? Whenever we can? Any other ideas? Keep in mind that not all of us will have easy access to a scanner *cough*likeme*cough*.
5. Do you have any points you'd like to raise that I didn't address yet? Any questions/comments/concerns/hula dances are welcome.
New question: 6. I think there should be a cap on how many can participate. If we limit it to 10 people, everyone can contribute 3 ideas. Is 10 people too many or too few?

Edit: It might be a good idea for all participants to subscribe to each other to keep tabs on each other's progress.

Edit part deux: Content MUST be within site rules. If you're not sure if your idea/drawing is too risque, it probably shouldn't be posted.

Edit the 3rd: Ideas be announced two days in advance of posting. That will account for time zone differences as well as the fact that not everyone can be online every day.

I hope I get some participants. This would be a good way to inject some more life into theO. Or to spam the Fan Art section. Whichever you prefer.

List of participants:

  • toyotami kun
  • CelestialSushi
  • elricbrothersfan
  • MangaKid

List of maybe participants:

  • kita mikichi

Your Anime Collection

I'm a big fan of Hulu. They can satisfy a lot of my anime "needs". A lot, but not all.

If it's not on Hulu, I turn to the library. The downside to using the library is that, well, it's a library. People have already handled these DVDs, and they didn't handle them carefully. So far, three of the series that I've checked out have had scratches that made the discs skip and freeze. It's annoying, mostly because I had to pay a dollar for each set of faulty discs.

So, I'm beginning to think of starting my own anime collection. The problem is, where can a person on a budget get some good anime? I'd think Best Buy, but in a previous post, TimeChaser made a comment about how their collection has dwindled. Besides, their prices are kind of crazy. Are there any other good stores (either on land or online) that sell anime for a good price?

Who Remembers CD Stores?

CLICK HERE FOR THE AWESOMEST PICTURE EVARR!!!!

It kind of makes me feel nostalgic-- the CD store part more so than the FMA part. That's why I had to share. That, and, come on, it's FMA! Gotta love the chibi-ness.

Yes, this post has no substance and I've probably wasted a couple minutes of you're life. Not sorry. You're welcome.

Things I'd Like to See on theO

I'd like to thank Toya for posting about her favorite comics on theO. This in turn made me think about theO's comics, which then made me think about things to improve theO's fan comics section, which then made me think of all the little tweaks that can be made to make theO a better place. So here's a little list.

Edit: Thought of one more.

  • A function that allows users to filter comics by whether they're finished or not. There could be a checkbox or radio button as to whether the comic is complete or ongoing. By default it will be set to ongoing. If there are completed comics that have been made by users that have long since abandoned theO, there could be a team of users to hunt them out and report them to the admin/mod team on theO to be marked as complete. If such a team could be made, I'd like to volunteer.
  • A way to remove favorites from the favorites page instead of going directly to the source. If you notice, there are people who have deleted their accounts, but the thumbnail for their art is still there. If you can't have access to your favorite art anymore, why keep it in your favorites? When someone clicks on it, they'll just be taken to the Dreaded Error Page and won't be able to see the art nor can they "un-fave" it. It's a real catch 22, if you think about it.
  • A way to add World posts to users' favorites. Before the Fan Words section was removed, users could add published works as their favorites. Now there is a section in my favorites that displays my favorite World posts, which were just former Fan Words. That's what inspired this idea. I don't think there is a little heart to click on for easy access to World posts that users find especially awesome. It would be great if there were.
  • A way to browse Worlds. Yes you can search for them by selecting "All", but then you only find worlds and posts with whatever matches what you searched for.
  • Either get rid of or bring back those "in limbo" sections. When I search and select "All" from the menu, I can still see Fan Words as one of the links that can be clicked on. That gives me access to the Fan Words section, complete with the outdated "submit" policy, and the ability to create Challenges. The same goes for myOtaku. I didn't even know what it was due to the fact that it's not fully integrated with theO. When I did see myOtaku, the sites looked like really ugly Worlds. Do we need this? Is myO necessary? Are these two sections that I mentioned alive or dead? They shouldn't be both.
  • A way to search by title. Let's face it, some people just don't know how to tag, if they tag at all.
  • A way to specify whether a character is a fan character from any given fandom. I think there used to be a checkbox that did that. What happened to it? Anyway, if this is implemented, there could be a search team (like there would be with the fan comics) who seek out fan-made characters from fandoms that they are familiar with. Also, the Fan Comic top 15 categories has a "Fan Characters" category. Why can't I see, much less select that category when I submit something? Maybe you should abolish it and merge it with the "Original" or "Personal" categories.
  • Some way to hide fan works that contain spoilers. I made a post about how furious I was when people were inconsiderately posting fan works that gave away major spoilers to a series that I wasn't up-to-the-minute on, but was following anyway. If there was some checkbox or something to hide spoiler-ridden fan works, I'd really appreciate it.

OK, so maybe that wasn't such a little list. Still, I wanted to type all this out before I forgot it. Thanks for reading.