real life – bluemist anime blog

Microblogging

Do you want to hear less from me, or do you want to hear more from me?
Continue reading Microblogging

Akihabara Massacre

My condolences to all the people affected by this incident.

People die everyday, but modern media tends to lean on the more controversial ones rather than focus on the needs of the hungry and war-torn in other parts of the world. I guess they were having a field day when this happened. After all, shock happens when it’s rare and one-in-a-million.

It’s a perfect recipe. Akihabara, massacre, otaku culture. Same thing with the US version. Columbine, massacre, video games. That’s two of my own hobbies there. So, in the “impossible” event that I freak out, get tired of life and start killing people on the streets, pundits will only need to refer to my non-conformities to find out what kind of person I am. Great.

Continue your idiocy you stereotyping, typecasting, racist people.

But by saying that, am I not the same stereotyping, typecasting, racist person? You throw stones at me, I throw stones too. What a fundamental problem in modern society. This kind of behavior can’t be helped, really. A hopeless case for someone who strives for peace in this world.

While other people would say that this story will just die out, I say never. It doesn’t deserve to die. Let the debates continue. Issues like discrimination should always be talked about. I am not a US citizen, but I like that you have a non-conformist guy to potentially be your President (please vote Obama).

I guess the [Tragedy, Hope->] title would have been better applied to this story. Let me connect a bit of the Sakura factor in this one too. Remember, Sakura was different. She was eternally young. Wouldn’t that be an issue of discrimination/envy in their Da Capo world? We don’t see that in the games. I imagine that sometime between those 50 years, there came a time when people had become suspicious of Sakura. People may label her as a witch, deep inside feeling envious that she can never grow old… or not die at all even. But I also imagine at some point, people start seeing her beyond her physical appearance. As a person. As the same human being that they all are, despite the minor difference. Eventually they loved her, elected her as school principal, and possibly be a huge contributor in society. Her sakura magic research may even be more useful someday, and somehow people may trust her in searching for the truth in the magic. This is the hidden story that I wanted to believe. I hope society can learn from this too, accepting differences of other people instead of persecuting them. Maybe the Akihabara tragedy may have been avoided if the world, and all the people in it, were in a more open-minded state of being.

Tragedy, Hope

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Knowing about the true story of Sakura in anime form was unprecedented for me. Even if I had already [skimmed the surface->dc2-da-capo], I guess the tale can still be told effectively in another way. The most important part of the experience though, is that I can relate somewhat to the character. Yes, Yoshino Sakura’s trials, tribulations and tragedies reflect my own set of current real-life problems. As a result, my heart breaks yet again for this fictional character, and in part, this fictional character gave me a source of reference, reflection and inspiration of myself.
Continue reading Tragedy, Hope

Introversion

I used to write a personal blog. Actually, my ronery post is derived from that blog, and I just edited it accordingly. Lately I’ve been reading my own posts on that personal blog of mine, realizing how much I’ve changed… or should I say, how much I’ve not changed. These few months I’ve been discovering the quirks of my own personality, and I’ve come up on this term called introversion. It honestly fits me to a T, and as a result, it somehow filled me with even more roneriness than merely not having a romantic partner.
Continue reading Introversion

Anime On Location: Reverse

This is the reverse of my [Anime On Location->anime-on-location] feature.

So this time… how visible is anime in real life? How often would you see your favorite anime drawings in normal streets?

This post is a collective of links and images which feature some real pictures where animated art blends with our normal lives. Be it posters or anime-related places, I will try to see if anime is visible anywhere else aside from TV and movie screens.

This is gonna be an ongoing collective so if anyone wants to contribute other material related to this, just comment in this post. Please do also contact me if some of the links are already down. It’s kinda hard to find this kind of content though.

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Comic Market 68
http://www.galge.com/galge/nomember/sbp/topics/05/08/12/index.html
It’s one of Japan’s biggest and most popular comic conventions. Everything otaku-related can be seen, heard, felt, and ‘sold’ there. They definitely wouldn’t want to miss being there…

Sights of Akihabara
http://www.akiba-bound.net/?p=36
http://www.jefflawson.net/anime/archives/002411.html
http://www.tyth.net/wordpress/?p=115
Fellow bloggers visit Akihabara. Exponentially better than our local Chinatown, but a lot more expensive of course. This is the real stuff.

He is My Master Promotion Gig
http://www.livejournal.com/users/pedolicious/71859.html
http://blog.livedoor.jp/geek/archives/24932011.html
This is possibly one of the anime marketing gimmicks where I can never comment to negatively nor positively. A TON of girls wearing HiMM maid cosplay gives promotion cards for the anime’s recently released DVD volume. Sure, Akihabara otaku folk will be shouting with oohs and aahs while armed with their top-of-the-moe-line digital cameras. The rest of the regular Japanese walking public, however, may be disgusted.

Moe-bus
http://oki2.jp/bus/index.html
This link shows a lot of Japanese public transportation buses which were painted with anime and bishoujo game related pictures as advertisements. Sure it’s nice, but don’t dare take a picture with your favorite bishoujo, lest other commuters label you a weirdo.

School Rumble Live!

I watched on video a certain School Rumble Live Concert, and it was quite good! Seiyuus, singers and some bands sang numerous songs featured in the anime series and also the drama cds as well. Too bad no sign of Yuko Ogura was found, maybe she’s too mainstream to be in such an ~~otaku-filled~~ event. Instead, we get all the girls singing her Otoko no Ko Onna no Ko ending theme.

One performance in particular, School Rumble 4 Ever, was so great! Four of the girls danced and sang that incredibly catchy female rap song.

I enjoyed this one better than the Love Hina live concerts, probably because there are more cute and young seiyuu here. The songs are great too. [Yui Horie->horie-yui] may have stuttered a bit during her Scramble performance, but the live rendition of that School Rumble OP is as catchy as ever. Maybe my only complaint is that there is too much unicorn table, while too less Mamiko Noto.

Anyway sorry that I can’t bring you the songs nor the concert video itself, so I have boring screenshots. Spicing it up a bit is the seiyuu’s respective character that they voiced in School Rumble, and a bit of other anime info.

Ami joined Yui also as the Ichijou twins in both Futakoi series.

Yui Horie, she’s appearing in so many series these days.

She currently plays Kanade-kaichou in Gokujou Seitokai.

You would probably know her as the legendary “Lain.”

Mamiko, another seiyuu with an unmistakable cliched voice working in many series these days.

Nao in My Hime. Different style, eh?

You guys would probably know her as Nono in Top wo Nerae 2 but I didn’t watch that.

I dunno how she belongs to School Rumble, maybe a minor seiyuu, featured in a drama cd/ost, or maybe a guest. Anyway she is also one of the singers in the Mahoraba OP.

They have a lot of songs scattered around the drama cds of School Rumble. Because of this, they had the most songs performed in the concert.

Anime On Location

Of course, not all places in anime worlds are virtual. Some of them are artistic renditions of real places in Japan, others are completely based upon the place.

This post is a collective of links and images which feature some locations in Japan which have been rendered in animation through various anime productions.

This is gonna be an ongoing collective so if anyone wants to contribute other material related to this, just comment in this post. Please do also contact me if some of the links are already down.

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Locations of NANA
picture1
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picture3
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Nana Navigator Nana (arrgh ok, the Nana anime navigator who happens to be named Nana too) reports about Jackson Hole, the cafe that some characters of the [Nana->] series hang out in. This is actually a real cafe in Japan, with the same design. I capped some shots of it.

Locations of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu
http://haruhi.sonnabakana.com/file.html
http://kanai.dw.land.to/location/haruhi.htm
Nice comparison shots from the Suzumiya Haruhi anime and the real deal.

Locations of Ichigo Mashimaro
http://www2.wbs.ne.jp/~misscast/location/ichigo_marsh/marshmallow.html
Interesting stuff. The manga settings were derived from these places, so hopefully they would be rendered in the new anime as well.

Locations of Kamichu!
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sgtpepper/20050711/p1
Pretty nice, a couple of comparison shots of the town of Kamichu.

Locations of Mahou Sensei Negima
http://forums.animeblogger.net/viewtopic.php?t=99
Maestro4k has some interesting shots over at the forums, real places where Negima’s Mahora Gakuen locations are seemingly inspired from. Look at the Library Island, it looks very similar.

Locations of Futakoi Alternative
http://www3.plala.or.jp/happyhobby/2koi/2koi.htm
This town seems to be called Nikotama. Looks… desolated. How did the guy take pictures of the streets without any people in sight? Probably early morning.

Locations of Uta~Kata
http://matthew.animeblogger.net/archives/2004/12/07/utakatas_setting.php
http://www22.ocn.ne.jp/~autumn/tabi_utakata.html
It is said that Uta~Kata takes place in Kamakura. Matthew has some pictures up, while the Japanese link shows more pictures of Kamakura, with matching Ichika and Manatsu figures showing up sometimes.

Locations of Initial D
http://www.h2.dion.ne.jp/~eg9/gallery.htm
The tracks on Initial D are amazingly based on real-life mountain passes in Japan. If you do get to Japan and drive these mountains, don’t even dare to try driving like Takumi. Just enjoy the view.

Locations of Onegai Teacher/Onegai Twins
http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~smith/article/log/20030825.htm
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~kazeyama/one2sato/one2sato.htm
These two sites compare real-life counterparts with the corresponding animated backgrounds. The resemblance is absolutely impressive.

Locations of Love Hina
http://www.geocities.com/myksvoll/photo1.htm
This is a nice page about real-life locations used in Love Hina, including an actual Hinata Sou.

Locations of Air
http://htc.moon.st/ota/05041601.html
http://tarax.flop.jp/alive/log/000660.html#more
I found this interesting site which features the real-life locations for the bishoujo game and anime Air. Those Misuzu and Minagi dolls will guide you through the places, with the corresponding screenshots for the animes. The site also seems to feature other locations for bishoujo games like Fate/Stay Night, so check them out as well. The second link goes to the same location, this time… a real-life Misuzu acts out scenes from Air?? Find out how they did it…

Shibuya
Shibuya is a popular shopping and entertainment district. It is where lots of gals hang out and shop around. It’s the perfect setting for the anime Super GALS! Kotobuki Ran.

Shibuya 109

A popular building for those fashionistas…

Hachiko Park

A park with a dog statue named Hachiko. Hachiko was regarded as Japan’s most faithful dog because it patiently waited outside Shibuya station for its owner every day, even years after its owner died.

Tokyo Big Sight

The Tokyo International Exhibition Center, more known as Tokyo Big Sight, is Japan’s largest exhibition and convention center. For otakus, this means a haven of comic and anime-related conventions being held there, the most popular being Comic Market.
Anime:
Comic Party
Comic Party Revolution
Genshiken

Kyoto
Kyoto, being one of the most popular tourist destinations, would obviously be used by countless other anime series. Whenever there is a field trip in an anime, Kyoto is a preferred tourist spot.

Kiyomizu temple

Kiyomizu is a popular temple in Kyoto because of its great height and view.
Anime:
Love Hina
Mahou Sensei Negima
Sensei no Ojikan

Why So Serious?

??????????????????

Missed this article?

I figured that it had more dorama than I intended it to be, so I cut this article off. If you had read it earlier, I just realized that yup, this is just a sudden gush of emotions.