Welcome to my semi regular news section, Endless Wardrobe, a post for things that don't need a full post.
So What am I Working on?
Walk of Fame should finish off it's current theme of Chinese Heroes.
Back on Retro Retrospective we have....
A top ten list with a Japanese theme, if that sounds weird, there's a reason for it and you'll see why.
Anime reviews for Rune Soldier & Creamy Mami.
Dirty Pair week won't be until late August at the earliest.
Kyatto-Ninden Teyandee review is also in the works.
The promised video game feature is on hold.
Shezow is cancelled until further notice.
Cartoon Vault will be welcoming two more entries.
On Victory Script
Ballard of Goldena Moonlight has begun as well as Pokemon Behind the Anime.
Keima Katsuragi vs the World is in planning stage.
First anime ads will be posted hopefully in two days.
Victory Script story will hopefully start soon.
My OC will be introduced with other characters very soon.
There's also a special short story fanfic on the 3 Kingdoms.
Now for some bad news
Well it's not bad, it's just that I'll be away from 7th August until the 13th, so you can see why I have so much planned, for the next week or so.
And now just for fun
Here's a picture of Chibi Squid Girl
Slow news day an all.
Whenever I cover cartoons from my home nation, I only seem to comment on the lousy ones but today's vault entry is special, this cartoon, next to Wallace & Gromit is our finest cartoon ever created, presenting from 1990 the Dreamstone.
The Land of Dreams is separated by a light & dark side, on the light side we have Noops, no not "Noobs" Noops which can be best described as a cross between a troll & a dog, who live and work in the Dreamworld not much different to humans while the Wuts who just look like alien dogs defend the land from the darker side of the realm known as the Land of Nightmares from a population known as Urpneys which resembles the traditional troll but with large noses and large colored spots; they are led by Zordrak, a truly terrifying looking beast, that resembles a traditional evil dragon with the voice to match; he was once a Dream Maker but kept creating nightmares which eventually made him into his current monstrous form. Zordrak wants the Dreamstone, a special gem that creates all the dreams in the dream world; in charge of this beautiful gem is the merlin-esque head of the council the Dream Maker who also has a pet literal dogfish named Albert. That pretty much sums up the setting and basic plot, now for the story itself.
The main character is a Noop named Rufus who does nothing but daydream, some of his dreams need to be seen to be believed as they have some beautiful scenery and great orchestra music from the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Sadly for Rufus his daydreaming costs him his job, however his friend Amberley suggests that he works for the Dream Maker, seeing as his daydreaming makes him the most qualified. He gets the job despite a few mishaps but inevitably gets involved in Dream Maker's battle against Zordrak.
Dreamstone follows a simple formula of plot of the week, where the enemy always tries a different method every week to attempt the same task, tried and tested, nothing special but what makes Dreamstone special is a combination of beautiful vivid scenery, incredibly well done music soundtrack and a truly terrifying looking villain. Going back to the soundtrack, it really had some care and attention put into it, as a CD track costs around £70 which is about $107 on the current exchange rate, it even has a celebrity backed track called the "War Song of the Urpneys" sang by British Rock God Ozzy Osbourne, Former Heavy Weight Boxer Frank Bruno & Scottish Comedian Billy Connelly; even the main theme "Better than a Dream" was re-released by Katie Melua just last year.
Dreamstone is proof that Britain can make cartoons, I just wish they did it more often.
This isn't an official anime series despite how professional the art is, today's review is about web light novel series Okashina Futari, but first a bit about the writer Mashiro.
Mashiro is a TG writer, which of course stands for transgender, he produced numerous works on his own website including Kayo-Chan & the sequel Second Chance Hunter Series, Kayo-Chan is about a well dressed little girl who solves problems by transforming the reluctant customer into a girl wearing a fanservice costume, the Hunter series is a taskforce assigned to reverse the process, which is the best I can do with limited translation tools and speaking of translations, another work named Okashina Futari was translated into English by a group of dedicated fans and that is today's review.
Again due to the length of the story as of now not all of it has been translated with only the first 250 chapters translated out of something along the lines of 1500 chapters, if that seems excessive some of the chapters are only something like two sentences long.
The story revolves around a brother & sister who can transform each other into the opposite gender with the power of thought and includes a fanservice costume as well as the rules of the powers are clearly defined through illustration, where when you change gender you must change the clothing to match said gender.
What makes this unique is the way the brother & sister react to the changes; the sister Satori doesn't actually mind being a boy as she believes it to be a challenge where as brother Ayumi is rather uncomfortable about the whole experience as defined below where he's turned into a Chinese Girl.
And it's Ayumi who gets the lead as the story is told from his perspective where many of the transformation scenes are described in great detail throughout the chapters, talking through feelings, describing the unusual feel and design of the clothes, the reactions of the general public and wondering what to do next; Ayumi reluctantly agrees to become Satori's dress-up doll for most of the story, and while it's okay at home, it's not okay in public during one of the most re-posted TG flash of all time where he's transformed into a bride on a public train.
You can find all the translated work on Okashina Futari here along with short stories and another series called BUG. Links to the bride transformation flash is at the bottom, more flash animations on the left side bar which also include a Ballet & Waitress transformation, there's also a gallery of all the pictures which is also at the bottom.
http://castle.midnightaurora.com/mainpage.php?siteID=1&pageID=1&itemID=Okashina_Futari.php
Also I have the link for Okashina Futari's main illustrator Ohyuki.
http://ohyuki.grats.jp/
Ohyuki is a very talented artist who has his own online comic and frequently sends illustrations to Japanese Online RPG sites along with commissioning for Mashiro for Okashina Futari, check out his work, you won't regret it. (Site is in Japanese though)
Final Verdict: Okashina Futari is an interesting read, there aren't many TG story writers who can go into that much detail from a first person perspective and keeps it's audience in until the scene is done and then you do it all again with the next scene but don't expect the translation for this series to be completed in your lifetime, it's already taken 14 years to get this far.
I promised a story world and now it's live, it's called Victory Script.
The aim is to showcase some of the stories I've been writing over the years, long before I came to theOtaku; I don't intend to neglect my other worlds so don't worry I won't drop Walk of Fame or Retro Retrospective, in fact my next reviews are ready to post in the next few hours so stay tuned for that.
Inspired by this weeks discussion topic, I've gotten into thinking of other anime I've given up on so here are my top 10 Anime I've Given Up On.
Rules This Time: Has to be a series I once liked, it's no good putting a series I hate on this list because I'll be here all day otherwise; also I can't use lack of licensing as an excuse either, so let us begin.
10. Little Snow Fairy Sugar
I ended up quitting this series just over halfway when I discovered that the ending was so predictable that it wasn't worth the effort.
9. Digimon
Later series kept spiraling into obscurity to the point where the original concept has been lost along the way.
8. Beyblade
Beyblade had great characters (some even too good for it's own show) during it's first three runs then it decided to come back and ruin itself for good with the Metal series; it's not been healthy since.
7. Yu-Gi-Oh
Another show with a severe decay problem caused by frequent changing of protagonists; I don't even know what Zexal is about.
6. Bleach
Lost it's identity when it couldn't hold itself after hundreds of chapters, they've toyed too much with their universe rules and paid the price for stupid ideas.
5. Fruits Basket
Gave up when the art style became obscure in the manga, a lot of characters looked the same and being told spoilers also sealed the fate of Fruits Basket for good.
4. Shaman King
Had the same problem as Bleach only weirder, Shaman King didn't know how to end itself, it didn't seem satisfied with the Victory Script the anime gave it, so it tried something complicated and ended up cancelled for the trouble.
3. Tenchi Muyo
The Tenchi Muyo extended universe is a joke, the story was already complicated enough in it's original incarnation and yet the creators seem intend on ruining it.
2. Spirited Away
Every time I try and watch Spirited Away, I just can't seem to follow what's going on, I've tried numerous times but nothing, I just can't seem to conquer it.
1. Saiyuki
I gave up when the set pieces were rotating more often than Team Rocket's sad attempts at catching Pikachu, it got to the point where I didn't believe they were really going to India and as of now I doubt they've made it there yet as Minekura has released a prequel as well.
Bonus: Pokemon
X&Y might save it, so it's on hiatus rather than giving up on it.
