LOLI-POP

-- DA -- YouTube -- tumblr --

Headache

Too much thinking today...need to destresss...but I can't do it without thinking...so the best way to not think is to just TAIIPPPP

So I'm just rant until I feel sleepy....XD

I have been having trouble with my article I am writing with expectations to publish 'cause I don't feel worthy of publishinggg...;3; I got lots of nice crits today and then I went to my professor's office for more explanation and I totally just dropped the bomb and decided to change my topic last minute. He told me to write an outline tomorrow and see if I still want to do that. I thought that'd be a waste of time so I decided to do it to tonight and alas...no context...

My second idea was to write about shounen manga's display of violence and how HunterxHunter critiques it..but it seems like Togashi just has fun killing his characters. 'course you can never tell with humble authors...

'nway...in my research I came across this lovely article about Evangelion and Lain. He has soooo many great points and I was like 'I am totes doing this in my webcomic' And then I started thinking about my webcomic and not my paper and now my brain is dead...'cause I was thinking about the big twisty thing I am trying to go for in the story and....yeah....brain is dead...

My train of thoughts basically went like this: So this guy is gonna be super duper powerful...but then wait a minute, the super duper power is coming from the mind so how did he get the super duper power. He must have some sort of mental disorder that makes him more sensitive to these things..But then he's hooked up to a computer/machine thing...so what if he is just being powered by software...what if his mind is just software? What the heck is this person? Are they a human being or what?

And then my head imploded. Yup. Giving me a headache just thinking of it. So I didn't want to tough my paper or my webcomic after that...;orz

I am realizing how deep meh webcomic is and I'm liking it~! X3 But I dunno if I can handle it...In dunno, I just gotta have fun with it.

So's I re-read Idolling...and I am disappointed in the writing for the 2nd and 3rd chapters. I think Sachie in my mind is a really complex character but I gave her a TERRIBLE introduction...No, like NO INTRODUCTION. I kiiinda want to redo the story but meh...It's all about how I improve each chapter...but I'm putting myself in a box here by trying to continue the story.

I would like to continue it to the end, just...shoujo manga...it is hard to draw...'cause I was never the type to doodle and I feel like that's what most of shoujo is: doodling le feels.

Look at dat.

Or maybe it's just mangaka having fun with tones...? Maybe what I am seeing is useless to the overall emotion of the story and I should just write whatever I feel like...

I downloaded some magazines so maybe those will inspire me with the cutesy little bitty bits everywhere to write Idolling more shoujo-y.

Then through conversations with my friend about love and romance and all dat jazz I decided I want to come back to a oneshot I wanted to write and decided I should split the idea into a series of oneshots based on my philosophy of love.

The temporary title I have is 'I Hate You'. The stories are based around the characters that 'don't know what it means to love' or are usually the ones that get kicked out of the plot because they just aren't interested. Why aren't the interested? And how do you know they aren't? That's what I'm going for there. I think I might work on that in my off time inbetween writing everything else...

I honestly would just like to work on manga every day no matter what and just decide which story to work on based on feels. Dunno how productive that'd be but maybe it would help me write manga faster?

I watched Love Exposure with Nissy:

Definitely one of the strangest movies I've seen. Then I realized it was the same director as Noriko's Dinner Table and I wondered WHY DO I KEEP ACCIDENTALLY WATCHING HIS MOVIES?! What draws me to watch his movies...Like my only experience with Japanese movies besides Akira Kurosawa's and the Death Note movie and Departures have been weird movies like that...

Love Exposure inspired me the most on the 'I Hate You' one shot series because it is basically my philosophy on romance. It's that it's an extreme emotion with wild bursts that inevitably ends...'course that didn't happen in the movie...Well for me love is a moment of passion when you meet somebody who you are attracted to heavily. It last for a bit and then it inevitably dies down. It's usually here that people break up. It's for that reason I have never dated anyone and have always rejected people even if I might have liked them because I know that whatever feelings I would have for them would be shortlived and I will get bored and want to go on to the next person. I think it's something much more complicated than this hence it must be written in manga form! XD

So many projects...guhh...more headaches...guhh...

Taim ta go ta beeeeeeeddddddddd!!!!!

Super Cool Dream WOAH

I gotta get this down before I forget it and before I have to go back to writing and fixing up my article for a scholarly journal that will most likely reject me because I am just a sophomore..;orz

My dream started off in Hyrule and it basically went through a really strange version of Ocarina of Time that I don't remember clearly. The final boss was fought in a strange part of Hyrule that was a combination of the Fire Temple and Shadow Temple. The boss was pretty much Metroid Prime, or looked like metroid prime:

mixed with Wendy from Nier:

And you had to destroy the tentacles and hit behind it, not the eye. Then it's second form was in Lon Lon Ranch and was burried in the ground and tossing things at you. Don't remember how to defeat it...But I do remember running to somebody's house for some hearts and then they were like a bat and pig and were giving me good advice on something, but I don't remember.

Then somehow I got to a mall and had about three friends with me, all caucasian with black hair (dunno why). And we went into some store and a guy was a jerk to us, so in return we played a prank on him at another store by pretending he stole something or something like that. Then for some reason we were in some sort of costume parade thing where we could dress up in whatever we wanted and were on live TV. And the guy wanted revenge so he made the prank that one of our costume series would be based on aliens to....somehow embarrass us? Even though we should've been ruined by the fact that our previous costumes were in black face (sorta, the makeup was brown and not black, but pretty much the same thing).

Then suddenly Killua and somebody who looks like Kite but isn't Kite:

Shows up and apparently they need to save the people in the mall from some bad people. And the Kite-look alike guy has all these plans to fix it so he designates plans to different people. He tells Killua to go hunt down the bad guys and assassinate him. And then Killua does, but he snaps and starts enjoying the bloodshed and when he comes back to the Kite look alike he kills him. And then I woke up~

So I couldn't remember the majority of my dream...but it was pretteh cool!

The last part was like a combination of Zankyou Terror, Blue Heaven, and HunterXHunter so I thought it was really cool.

---

In other newsss~ I finally watched Rebuild of NGE 3.0. I didn't want to 'cause I couldn't find a good quality video of it online and I was waiting for it to be on netflix, but since I can't use netflix here then it doesn't matter so I watched it in crappy depressing quality. I'd really like to build the Rebuild series 'cause that has liiiike the BEST and CLEANEST anime I've ever seen so far in the anime world. I hope animation studios keep pursuing 2D animation because I can see it going very far! But I don't like the use of too much 3D. It used a bit more 3D than I would've liked, but not as bad at the Berserk movies.

I am also tired of movie makers thinking '3D is where the money is'. So animate more movies in 3D than in 2D becauuuseeeee.....Why? They are two different mediums for storytelling. That's like saying Live action makes more money than 2D so we should do more of that....which might be the case...but that doesn't mean to ignore 2D animation all together. Also, it seems like in the news articles (lulz, what news?) many of the writers/reporters talk about 2D like they talk about newspapers. It's oldfashioned dying industry. NO NO NO NO NO. Do people stop painting because there is pastel and colored pencils or markers? NO. It is a different medium with different effects but still freaking art and worthwhile...>3>

'nway....Sorry for the itty bitty rant.

I finished storyboarding mah webcomic~ HUZZAH! 50 PAGES!

TT^TT

Gonna have to draw 50 pages....and the script is only like 4 pages....but guuhhh...

But I keep coming to a point where I begin each page with the same basic format....and I need to go back and review and fix those areas 'cause I don't want it to seem repetitive...Guhhh...bluuhhh....I wish I had an editor to do these things for me! XD

Since I am watching interviews and reading articles about manga for my paper it just makes me want to write more of my manga and I keep learning new techniques. AND NOW I WANT TO DO IT ALL TRADITIONALLY....Ughhhh....'cause on the computer I accidentally make the lines too thin...It's just that I'd have to buy the materials to do traditionally...>3> And I don't have a scanner...;orz

I know some artists like LeSean Thomas draws his panels on normal computer paper and then edits them on photoshop to get the right dimensions. I feel like the artist for DOGs does something similar because their art styles look kinda similar, at least the line looks similar...like a darkened pencil...or maybe Shirow Miwa is using paper that makes the pen lines look like darkened pencil...Who knowssss....

I also found a person on tumblr that I have been looking for for about 2 years now since they deleted their previous account...I FEEL COMPLETELY. No seriously, immediately when they found them all my feelings of emptiness were gone.

Also I watched NGE and that plus finding that person is like heaven. So yesterday was pretteh good. Worked a bit on mah paper, realized I probably can't publish it, finished storyboarding, watched more Zankyou Terror, worked on some pics for contests on Pixiv (which need to be finished this week/today),watched NGE, looked at art on pixiv, had a nice dream...now I am here...and I have to go write more of my paperrrrr....;m;

College Days/Daze

'cause they sound the same right?

Back at school~

My school hasn't started yet, but I am a workshop research thing right now. Lots and lots and lots of writing and bro...I just ain't used to this. Everyone is a senior except for me! ;m; They are all getting prepared for graduate school and want something to publish before they go and I'm just sitting in the corner in complete confusion about what they are talking half the time.

I dunno what I am writing...but hopefully I will get somewhere by the end of this week! XD I am writing about consumerism in manga. Or more how the commercialization improved manga rather than make it evil or what-not like they believed in wartime Japan. But there is sooooo much on that topic that I just don't know what my focus is...;m; I've made liiike 3 different outlines for it and I think I am slowly getting a grasp on it.

I've been writing it for about 2 days now, so hopefully I will figure it out sometime this week. I need to finish it by next week...;orz But this is very helpful when it comes to writing other papers 'cause other papers don't require me to write 10+ pages and do a ton of research. But most papers don't let me write about mangaaa....

I kinda wish there was a way I could just explain how to write a manga and all the stuff that goes into the production of manga...but..uuhhh....what purpose would that serve?

I wanted to take a historical-ish perspective on it, like how it developed into it's big deal consumerism thing, but it's difficult because Japan was already a big consumer of things like newspapers and stuff and just the extension of manga grew into a big thing later, but I can't find a good point where it took off. Maybe I should find the beginnings of otaku.

Sorry, ranting...I feel like I should really talk to my professors about this because I feel really lost...But I don't want to worry them, I feel like they expecting so much from me! ;m; Even though they said they didn't...>3>

In other newsss....

I just realized something about manga!

You read it counter clockwise! Okay, I think we all know this....but think about it this way...

Clocks are circles. Your eyes move in circles down the page. Now, I know it's more like a spiral rather than actual circles, but spirals don't help in creating panels.

With this knowledge I feel like it's easier to understand where to put the panels.

There is one quarter of the circle in the upper corner, and then another in the bottom corner. From here you can decide where to cut and size your panels as well as placement.

I got this epiphany from re-reading bits of Ultra Heaven. I really want to buy that manga! I feel like I will be referencing it a TON just because the plot, the art, just holy crap everything. That manga is a masterpiece. Kinda want to talk about it in my paper just to be like "See, look, you just try and tell me that's not art"

Not only is it entertaining, but it delves into the topic of 'what is reality' sooooo well that I feel like philosophers needs to look into analyzing it as a work of philosophy, 'cause it is...in way. JUST WOW!

I am not sure if my productivity levels in drawing and manganess will decrease because of college starting up again, but I plan to make time for both drawing, dancing, and japanese. MAH THREE PASSIONS IN LIFE. And make a routine out of all of them so I can progress in all fields. I mean, homework, social life, then fun stuff. ('cause bro, the real fun is in drawing manga, practicing dance, and studying Japanese, that's totes my escapism) Kinda worried about the social life thing, 'cause that really cuts into my having fun taim...>3> I wanna have funs with my friends and be able to do my homework and all the things I want to do. Maybe I will start bringing artsy stuff to my eating times so that I can talk and work at the same time?

Oh! Yeah! I read some more about SuperFlat and now I understand it as an art form. Though I don't understand what art is anymore...like...seems to me it's whatever somebody declares is art is art...not actually something specific. I mean, that's what I think. If you can see the flare of technical ability in a piece (it's something different from amateurish strokes...I dunno) or a good use of the elements of art, then it is art to me. I think that's really easy to do so there is a lot of art out there. If you can analyze it aesthetically it is art, therefore anything can be art in a way...O.o;

I kinda want to do more SuperFlat styled stuff...or maybe something that shows an aspect of the world in it's essence, rather than it's stereotype, if that makes any sense. I've never thought of art in this way...'cause I've always looked at the technical side of it, not the emotional side...

Okay, enough rambling...I gotta go to bed~

Team Fabulous

I'ma just post ta post~

I am finally caught up with the HunterxHunter anime and now await new episodes~ :D

Chimera Ant Arc...OH MY GOOOODDDDD~ BEAUTIFUL~

I think HunterxHunter is one of those gems everyone should check out. The amount of episodes seems like a ton (nothing compared to the other shounen giants) but the story is so well told. The characters are all likable including the villains. OHMAIGAHHH! The villains in that anime are some of the best villains I've ever seen. Now that I think about it...only one of the main villains of the arcs so far has died, and it was a very sad episode. You know it's a great anime when you cry when the villain dies. I mean yeesh.

I just downloaded the Drakengard 3 OST after scouring the internet for it. Now that I think about it, kinda prefer to buy it...I mean, it's good quality, but the official CD quality is usually better. I've GOT TO SAY the OST for Drakengard is probably one of the best OSTs I've ever heard.

Now to talk about TEAM FABULOUS~ I finally downloaded (again) KOF 2003. I had it on my computer way back when I was 12-ish. That's the first game with Ash Crimson~ I'd like all the KOF games on my computer, but I need to start with Ash 'cause I just can't handle playing the games without Ash in it to start.

I had KOF 2002 on my wii but my TV is too big so it won't play the game...;m; WUUUT?! I PAID FOR THAT! LEMME PLAY ITTTT...;orz

'nwayyy...Back then I usually played with a team of Athena, Ash, and Duo Lon

BUT NOOOOWW I have excelled more with Ash, Benimaru, and Iori

Isn't that just the most fabulous team~? It's kinda funny...Iori looks like a combination of Benimaru and Ash in a way...XD They all have pretty much the same look! XD

I had to stop, though, 'cause my hands hurt....I-I didn't realize how much it'd make your hands hurt.

The thing I like about King of Fighters, and I feel like I've said this before, but you can't win the battles by being cheap or button mashing. You actually have to know what you're doing.

So it's really difficult playing without a joystick! XD But it's still fun~

I go back to school this weekend~ But not really 'cause school doesn't start until the 30th~ :D But I will be physically at my school this weekend. To do what? TO STUDY AND WRITE ABOUT ANIME~ No seriously. It's a social sciences and humanities workshop where the research is whatever I want. And anime is included in the social sciences in humanities...soooooo

I forgot about that when I did my homework because my homework felt like such a drag. Old peeps talking about stuff I don't really care so much about/don't understand. However, then I remembered 'Oh, right! I chose my research project to be about anime!' Ufufufu! It shall be fun~

My roommate is also coming I think Tuesday?? So I won't be alone~ YAAAY~ I missed her soooo so muchhhh! ;3;

Okay...my hands seriously hurt now...gotta....stopp....typing....ughh

Why I dislike Naruto + WAHAHAHA

Kinda controversial post to make, ne? But I just feel this is an important thing to talk about when it comes to structuring manga. It is somewhat a critique. Mostly a comparison of Naruto to HunterxHunter. Sorry for that, but there are so many similarities that it's hard not to compare.

I am talking about Naruto before Shippuden because this was around the time that I stopped reading/watching Naruto just a bit after the time skip was introduced in the manga. This was before the filler episodes, although I did watch the filler episodes, I only did so half-heartedly (as background noise while I did something else).

The real reason I stopped reading/watching Naruto is probably because I had a friend who was a big fan and my brother watched it with me. This fueled an obsession with the series. Then I moved to the new school and the only kids who knew about Naruto were so different from my friends at my old school that I felt distant to a series that I grew up with. It was no longer my childhood, it was the childhood of other kids who saw it from a completely different perspective than I did. My brother stopped watching it with me, and then the filler episodes came.

So basically my only experience with the series is where we first catch a glimpse of Masashi Kishimoto's own originality and story-telling, instead of the HunterxHunter beginning.

Let me start off with the strengths of Naruto from what I had read of the series.

The lore and setting are probably what get readers most invested in the story. Masashi Kishimoto is very good at creating a believable world for us. HunterxHunter's world is more surprising, but it doesn't feel very grounded. I can't remember any of the place names (except, like, York Shin...but I can't really imagine the city so well in my head), while I can imagine myself walking the streets of Konoha.

The character designs are quite catchy. I think this what got me reading Naruto in the first place. Not only is the art fairly good, but the designs are fun. I like Naruto's jacket and Sakura's outfit which looks both useful and stylish. There weren't really any characters that wore over-the-top outfits and that made it a bit more believable and I could take a few moments more seriously.

The Zabuza/Haku Arc was a wonderful start to the series. It got us invested in the characters and wanting to see what the next mission they would be going on.

And then the Chuunin Exams. These were especially interesting because we got to see the other teams that we only had glimpses of at the beginning.

But this is where Kimishimoto begins to get...too inspired by HunterXHunter. I won't go into detail about how they are similar, because my point isn't really about how much Naruto is like HunterXHunter...XD

I'll just get to biggest reason why I stopped reading ('cause this is getting long).

Orochimaru is an awesome, fun character. He is a TON like Hisoka, except he's snake-like instead of like a joker. They both do the tongue thing, they both are quite playful and sadistic, and they are both incredibly powerful.

Right?

Apparently not in Naruto. Orochimaru is built up as a terrifying new villain. How could Naruto possibly defeat him? Then he joins the Akatsuki and his terrifying status is broken by the even stronger members.

Hisoka in HunterXHunter, even if he is not the strongest, you know he will figure out a way to get there. Even the scariest of villains are at least intimidated by him.

My point is that audiences (like me~) get attached to villains as much as they get attached to the main character. We look forward to seeing the villain get scarier and scarier, but when they get overpowered by some scarier guys and he's NOT out of the picture, then we feel a bit cheated.

For me, at least, I want to see the villain, with all their backstory, or just all the screen time... I want to see them succeed at least. Maybe just a little. So that I can be like 'HOLY CRAP! WHAT IS THE MAIN CHARACTER GOING TO DO NOW?!'

Of course, you can go and say that Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon and numerous other anime did the same thing. The difference here is that they destroy one major villain after another so we can't really compare their power to each other. Is Cell stronger than Buu? Who knows, that's up for debate. It's something the audience gets to think about. Is Itachi stronger than Orochimaru? Apparently. Do I not get to think for myself? It's okay if they are flawed a bit, but not so much that I no longer worry for the main character anymore. Then what is their purpose in the story?

I sound like some Orochimaru fangirl here! XD But I am more of a fan of terrifying main villains.

One of my favourites of all time is Berserk's Griffith. Not only is his beauty unmatched but his power is unfathomable. HOW IS GUTS EVER SUPPOSED TO DEFEAT HIM? And this is where the story gets interesting because we know there is going to be a resolution to this story, but how? (Okay, in Berserk's case maybe not, but I still want to hope for it! ;m; )

In conclusion, villains must maintain their intimidation as much as the main character must maintain the audience's interest. The villain should grow as much as the main character.

Feel free to debate me in the comments~ But please be aware of my ignorance of certain areas of Naruto that I can't go look up on Naruto wikia. Although I think my point is more about shounen as a whole, it's just a major fault I found in Naruto that isn't just with Orochimaru, but since I know more about Orochimaru I care more about what happened to him.

---

Now for WAHAHAHA part (if this post wasn't long enough)

I just realized I get to create new characters for meh webcomic~! The one with Seiichi and Tadao and all those peeps. Already looks like a lot of characters, right? But then I realized I need a lot more minor characters to fill in the gaps~!! YUUSSSSSS!! I GET TO DO MORE CHARACTER DESIGNS~! :D I felt a bit sad about finishing most of the mainies' designs...And inspired by HunterXHunter which has a HUGE cast of characters I have concluded that I need way more characters than I have~

Speaking of which and going back to my point above...I-I don't think I have a villain...O.o; Actually...none of my stories have villains..Is this a good or bad thing? I mean, I have minor villains, but nobody big major scary...Like I try to make my stories so grey that everyone ends up being a good guy from a different perspective...;orz Maybe this is a bad thinggg...;m;

Okiedokie! Sorry if I offended anyone for the above! ;3;