So, I finished reading Angel Sanctuary yesterday. The ending was quite amazing, and I ended up crying a lot, which is unusual because I don't cry much when I read things. It was just so awesome and so heart-breaking and yet uplifting and just beautiful, and by that point I'd spent so much time with the characters--sharing their adventures, their feelings, and their hardships--that I just couldn't help it.

I also watched the Angel Sanctuary anime, but it just couldn't compare to the manga. I shouldn't expect a three-episode OAV to compare to a twenty-volume manga in the first place, especially since the OAV is meant to be an introduction to the manga rather than a stand-alone anime, but it had so much potential to be a full series! The art and animation were attractive, the plot was relatively close to the manga, the Japanese voice actors were well-cast (though I might just be convinced that this is true because Takehito Koyasu was in it), and I think it would have been fairly popular despite some of the controversial themes of the series (incest, for example).

Since I finished Angel Sanctuary, I've read a couple of short horror manga: School Mermaid and Jisatsu Circle. School Mermaid was disappointing, but Jisatsu Circle was kind of interesting. It seems that I still haven't found my ideal kind of horror manga yet. I want something that'll scare me, like the Silent Hill videogame series, but I don't know if it's possible to find that kind of horror in manga form.

I'm also starting to casually read Urusei Yatsura, which is much longer (some 300 chapters! T_T) but not nearly as serious as any of the other manga I've read lately. I'm a pretty big fan of Ranma ½, and since Urusei Yatsura is written by the same manga artist, I've wanted to read it for a while now.

I remember mentioning that I wanted to write about my laptop the last time I updated, so I'll brag a little bit about it today. The fashion department at VCU requires that I have a laptop, and originally I was planning on getting a Macbook Pro, but since those are expensive, I decided to get a Dell Studio 15 instead. It looks like this:
It's pretty, isn't it? I'm not generally a big fan of leafy prints like this, but I really liked the colors. I'm still not used to the widescreen monitor and the touchpad mouse yet, but those things don't really bother me. I just hope it won't be too difficult to draw on this resolution after I install Photoshop.

Ahhh...At some point I really need to update my website and stuff. It's been so long. That may have to wait for another day, though. I'm off to go draw some pretty pictures now.

For now, I will leave you with this Youtube video of Schellen. I miss them.

Labels: angel sanctuary, anime, jrock, laptop, manga, schellen, urusei yatsura

I really have been meaning to write here more often. I keep meaning to write an apology and an explanation for my lack of activity here and then try to get back into the habit of writing regularly, but so much has happened over the past several months that when I start to think about it all, I get so overwhelmed that I just can't write it down.

My first year at VCU ended earlier this month, and I'm now officially a fashion design major. I still can't really believe that it's already over because it went by so quickly, but at the same time I had so many experiences and spent so much time there that it almost feels like that part of my life is the only life I can remember living. In a way, I feel like that part is true; I've never really had friends or a real social life before I came to VCU.

Unfortunately, I still don't have much of a life back in my hometown, and sometimes when I'm here I almost can't believe that it all really happened to me. It feels like a dream, and although I met many wonderful people and experienced some wonderful things, I sometimes wake up in the morning wishing that it had only been a dream.

Since I've left Richmond, I've been trying to get back into some of my old hobbies. I went on a shoujo anime binge right after I came home and watched Shoujo Kakumei Utena and Sailor Moon S again for about the millionth time.

I also played some videogames; I finally actually played and beat Clock Tower 3 and I nearly beat Space Channel 5.

Clock Tower 3 was really fun because it'd been such a long time since I'd played a videogame at all, and it had been even longer since I'd played a scary one. However, about halfway through the game it went from being legitimately scary to a bad fantasy-horror kind of scary. The first boss was terrifying, and the second one was still scary; the third one was ridiculous, but he was actually kind of attractive in a comic book super villain way, so I didn't have that much of a problem with him. The game just stopped being scary after he showed up, though. It was a pretty fun game overall, but I'm a little dissatisfied with it the same way I'd be dissatisfied with a B movie.

I got so close to beating Space Channel 5, too! I just can't get past that last boss, and when you have to play through the whole stage just to fight it, it's just too frustrating to try more than once in a while.

Another successful method of alleviating boredom I've tried over the past few weeks is listening to random Jrock bands: either ones that I've heard of and haven't actually listened to yet, or ones that have funny names like SHAKALABBITS and Convenience Store. Here are a few that I've really started to like:


Luna Sea is one of those legendary Jrock bands; most Jrock fans know (or should know) who they are, but I wasn't familiar with their music at all until recently. I really wish I had realized that they were awesome when I first heard of them, but for some reason I never really gave them a chance. I don't know why.


I had to listen to SHAKALABBITS just because they just have an awesome band name. It's fun to say. I'm not even sure I'm pronouncing it correctly, but it's fun to tell people I'm listening to a band called SHAKALABBITS. It turned out that they were really good, too!


I tried CHERRYBLOSSOM's music on a whim, and I'm glad I did. It's really catchy. They kind of sound like a combination of Naomi Tamura, Lee Jung Hyun, and the China Dolls.


EAT YOU ALIVE was another band that I tried because I thought their name was just too amusing to resist, but I was surprised when I actually heard them. They have such a refined sound, especially for an indie band. ;O I hope to hear more from them in the future.


I've actually listened to a little bit of An Cafe's stuff before, but not enough to actually consider myself a fan. That changed when I listened to this song. I don't know exactly why I like this song so much, but it's just so sweet and catchy.

Within the past few days I've also been getting into manga again. After I finished watching Utena again, I decided that I really wanted to see if I could find the manga online. I did find some scanlations of it, but unfortunately the group that was translating it dropped the project, and I was unable to find the rest of the translations. However, when I gave up on Utena, I stumbled upon Angel Sanctuary, which is a series that I'd been meaning to check out for a long time. The art style has always appealed to me, but the manga is very long, complicated, and kind of confusing, especially because a lot of the characters seem very similar in appearance at first. However, I think I'm following the plot so far and I'm starting to recognize the characters enough to pick them apart from each other. I'm not quite halfway through it yet, but I'm hoping to finish it sometime next week.

Anyway, I'm afraid that's all for now. Next time I'll write about my awesome new laptop. :3

Labels: an cafe, angel sanctuary, anime, cherryblossom, clock tower 3, eat you alive, hobbies, jrock, luna sea, manga, sailor moon, shakalabbits, space channel 5, utena, vcu, videogames

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