It's great to be an otaku today, though I’m certainly not as hardcore as some fans. My shrines to Tenchi Muyo have been packed in boxes, but my dining area still features a beautiful Vampire Princess Miyu poster, and action figures are scattered around my house. We grow up, we get new interests, but we’ll always be otakus at heart. We’ll see someone with a Naruto t-shirt and give them a smile and a nod, that is, if we don’t have time to start up a whole conversation about the inherent coolness of ninjas.

When I started doing columns here at theOtaku.com, it was great because suddenly I was in touch with my audience. People from all walks of life, all demographics, could give me input, correct my mistakes, and point out something I forgot to factor in.

I’m excited about Version Vibrant, and I can’t wait to try out my columns again. I do plan to put in more information and news updates about topics I find interesting, as well as focus on my columns about aspects of otaku life. I plan to set up a tagging system to identify different topics, so if you’re only interested in one thing, you can just check on that.

Some of the topics I’m planning to cover are:

Anime Conventions, AMVs, Otaku Socialization, Cosplay, Dealing with Parents, Writing, Publishing, Artists Alley, and Making a Difference in the Anime World

As always, check out the site at http://www.otakusurvivalguide.com

Fangirly Review - Iron Man (or Transformers meets Superhero Comics)

Fangirly Review -Iron Man (or Transformers meets Superhero Comics)

This month started with Iron Man. Now, I will not pretend to know anything about the existing Iron Man universe. I was an X-Men girl, and that was enough different comics for me to keep up with. I rarely ventured into the rest of the Marvel universe.

That being said, Iron Man was everything a comic book movie should be. There was dumb shit, there was humor, there was sexual tension, and there were robot battles.

I enjoyed Fantastic Four because it made fun of itself as a superhero movie, though the rest of the movie wasn’t all that stellar. Iron Man did a similar thing, but somehow it never quite seemed as stupid. Instead, it was pure entertainment. This isn’t the kind of movie that you go to for a deep meaningful experience; it’s the kind of movie you watch when you wanna see awesome effects and amusing dialogue.

I highly recommend this movie to all comic book fans and everyone else in-between. It’s pretty much Transformers, the superhero adventure.

And for your enjoyment...