Is It Real? Part 1

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. So in a funny turn of events I actually was thinking of doing this entry sometime last week and was planning it out when my friend Skillium on XI said something that made me push to write it down even more. What am I talking about? Why "imports" of course, so lets dig into my experiences with this. (And believe me, if I could record this instead of typing it I would lol)

The first thing I will mention is probably the most common amongst the Otaku and that's imported DVDs. To technically get the official Japanese release the label for region on the DVDs I believe is region 2; which means to play them you would need a whole new player to play them on. Japanese DVDs also do not have English subtitles anywhere on them. With that said though, it must bring up the question from you all; what about those boxsets I see on Ebay? Those DVD sets are from mainly China; they have English and Chinese subs and sometimes additional languages. And just by that I can hear you all saying now; "And how is that a bad thing?" Well, let me break it down;

First off; the image quality is a tad lower than those of an official release due to the fact that they cram so much data onto one disc. That's not to say they look bad or anything, it's just grainy. So if you do happen to watch these be sure not to not watch them on a big screened, HD TV.

Even though image quality is important seeing as you would be watching it, you'd obviously would like to understand it too. After all not everyone can speak Japanese; and this actually where you'd be gambling if you are thinking of these DVDs. I myself have a few DVDs from China and my first experience watching them I was slightly impressed honestly. My friend Nadia had gotten into Saiyuki and had season 1 (labeled part 1 one for these) and had my best friend, another one of our friends and myself sit down and watch. For the most part, and this holds to a couple I have too, the subs were pretty good; save for a couple of "Engrish" moments and grammatical errors. I of course just bring that down to the fact that English isn't their first language so I let it slid since it didn't hinder the storyline too much.

However, that's on the good side of the spectrum. I have had bad luck with these DVDs too; After watching seasons 1 and 2 of Saiyuki with Nadia I really wanted to own season two for the Saiyuki Gaiden episodes (those would be the 3 eps I mentioned that were worth watching for that season) and thus I bought one off of Ebay. The casing was good and surprisingly the subtitles were actually really decent with little to no grammatical errors. So what was my problem? Well it may not bother everyone, but it sure as hell bugged me; they got the names wrong on some of the characters. Instead of calling them by the names being said in the show, for some reason they had them as they did in the original legend;

Goku = Monkey
Gojyo = Sandy
Hakkai = Pigsy

Even though I had read the legend it was irritating to see that whenever their names were spoken. So instead my best friend took that copy and I got a new one. This time all the names were correct save for Sanzo's. So I was 0/2 on what I really wanted. Next I had ordered the Saiyuki Requiem movie and much like the subs I had seen from Nadia, I only really had to deal with the rough translation in some spots, however; there were some instances where the dialog would run off the screen, which just makes the story hard to follow.

For my birthday one year I had spotted a box set of 2 DVDs for the 13 episode Tales of Eternia anime. Admittedly, I originally wanted the DVDs because my favorite character from the game was on the box's cover, but never the less Nadia bought it for me and I was excited to sit down and watch. This was rather a roller coaster for me. Some of the subs referred to the main character as his name, Reid; while other times they would translate it out to be Rita. The subs also had a problem of either going too quick to where the subtitles would be several scenes ahead of the animation or vice versa where they would be so slow that the animation would be way ahead of them. And I kid you not about this; near the very end of the series whoever was subbing it just stopped trying. Let me paint this scene for you; it's the final battle and our heroes are fighting off the enemies. One of them pulls out a mystical crystal, holds it high in the air shouting "Efreeto!" (Tales of Eternia Ifrit is spelled Efreet) and a fire creature appears to burn its foes. Now you'd think the subs would come out and say "Efreet" right? Nope instead I saw this; That is technically the worse case scenario with these kinds of subs as I have only seen it in this one instance.

But in the case of my PGSM DVDs (for the TV series) there was an odd... surprise I guess we'll call it. First off yes, they had the rough translations too, but wasn't too bad. They did get a name wrong, but I almost want to bring it down the way the name sounded; the main villain of the series is Queen Berryl, but with the Japanese accent on most, if not all the characters; it sounds like Berry. So what's the "surprise"? Well while I was watching near the end of the series and was on the edge of my seat something seemed to not flow quite right and just puzzled me. For the scene I was watching having high drama; the thing that followed was happy and bouncy. It was the commercials that ran when the show was first aired. Believe me, I loled when I realized what it was, but for those to be on a DVD is just odd.

But through all of this, I will say there are some that might actually be worthy to have in your collection. For me it would be this; This collection contains every episode of the Sailor Moon anime (the auction I got mine from also had the 3 movies with it) and to my surprise was exceptional with its subtitles. Before I actually placed a bid on this item I did a little research before hand, since the description said it was the "official Malaysian" release. Even though my main reason for wanting this boxset was to make AMVs; I also would just loved to have a physical copy I could and watch and over all enjoy. The review I had seen was pretty spot on about its casing and the subs; the person said they were for akin to that of the ADV releases. I started watching Sailor Moon R and to my surprise the subs were indeed that good. When it got to the ending credits I was shocked to see that they were in English and at the very end of said credits gave the copyright of ADV Films. So indeed they were that good because they were the official US release. The S and Super S seasons are the Pioneer release as well, so that left me with the question of Sailor Stars; Stars was never released in the states to have en English version, so how good would these be? Well they are top notch actually, as they seem to be that of a fansub.

As I said it's a gamble in what kind of quality you'll get with these DVDs, but there is always a chance you will find top notch quality bootlegs lol. See you all next time for part 2! ^^/

By the Fans for the Fans

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. I had been thinking a little awhile about what other entries I would like to do that aren't a Top 5 list and upon looking back at some of my other entries I think I want to elaborate on a couple things I had mentioned before. So let's talk about what the fans do for other fans.

I think the basic thing that people recognize within any fandom is fan art. And as I said back in my "Great Otaku Gathering" entry I love fan art as sometimes the fans are the only ones who can do something like it. There really is no limit to what a fan can come up with and sometimes it can get a tad out of hand such as I mentioned within the Yaoi entry. But fan art can be almost anything;

A sculpture-

An arrangement of a song-

Music Videos aka AMVs-

And sometimes people can ban together and create their very own art book-

Fan art is such a wonderful creative outlet and I am more than happy to say that I contribute to it as well as support others in it. (I commissioned the statue that is pictured and purchased the art book) But another side to fan art is fan fiction and as you all know I willingly admit to writing Gundam Wing fan fiction.

My time in writing those stories were some of the best times I have ever had as it helped me grow as a writer. The basics of fan fiction is a wonderful way to start out as all you need to come up with is a plot for set characters. In my experience with it the "warning" I fell in love with (other than Yaoi of course) was AU (Alternate Universe); this allowed a lot more than the norm for the characters as they are now able to be set in any place. For those unfamiliar with Gundam it's a Space Opera/Mecha series, so placing the characters within a fantasy setting is quite the leap. This here is probably my favorite fic I ever wrote for GW as it not only displays the leap into the fantasy genre, but also the growth in my writing as I made original characters to co-star along side the preset ones, so I hope you all enjoy;

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Epilogue
Author Notes

If your wondering about the "warnings", they were merely guidelines to the story so if there was something that you might not like within the story's content you'd know ahead of time. And that actually brings me to a small rant (not really a rant, but can't think of a better word lol); and that's some of the warnings in of themselves. In particular OOC (Out of Character). Why does that one bother me? Well it's a hard call to say what is out of character; in my opinion if the plot calls for the character to act a certain way than they will. It might be against their norm, but no one really stays the same way every day. Also a warning that is rather uncommon I find, but should be labeled, is Shota. What is Shota? Well it usually refers to a Shounen-ai/Yaoi pairing that involves a younger boy. In the case of Gundam Wing you don't see this warning too often as the pairings are usually of the 5 main pilots and they are all the same age. However you will see this warning a lot in the case of something like Kuroshitsuji in where the author pairs Ciel and Sebastian together. (Which I will admit, that pairing has become a guilty pleasure of mine)

So those are the two basic things you see or hear about a fan doing their part so to speak. But their are other things of course; one of which I hold very dear and that's Fan Subs.

Fan Subs are possibly my most favorite thing a fan does as without them I wouldn't have seen some of my favorite series to this day. Quite honestly the subbing some of these groups is incredible as they are very accurate and will even place translator notes for some of the more complex dialog. But by far, this is probably my most favorite thing connected to Fan Subbing;



Yep, the Tokusatsu/Super Sentai. I used to watch Power Rangers all the time back in the day (even started watching it through again on NetFlix recently with my brother) and now that I have been able to see some of the Japanese versions with the thanks to these subs, you can easily see the differences. The stories are completely different and I find the Japanese versions to have much more depth and substance to them, especially the Kamen Rider series. I don't really know why I shied away from it at the start, probably remembering how bad our Masked Rider was. But my brother and boyfriend had me sit down and watch Kamen Rider W with them and I was pretty much hooked thanks to that opening (the one linked above).

But it's not just series that can be subbed, some fans just take the time out to translate songs out;

(possibly my favorite song in Kuroshitsuji)

And lastly the other medium that fans take part in is Fan Dubbing. I am gonna use some songs as examples, but there are plenty of fan dubs of anime or even the Tokusatsu series out there. Anyone who is a fan of Sailor Moon and wants to see an English version of Sailor Stars should check out http://www.starsfandub.com/ They only have up through episode 6, but the quality of their work is flawless.

As I said though, Imma use songs for this as I am a big fan of a lot of Japanese openings and endings to series. After listening to them and reading their translations I often wonder how they would sound sung in English. Of course a direct translation would sound off when sung as it may not keep with the beat, so changing some of the lyrics up to have roughly the same meaning works well. These are some of my favorites that I found on Youtube;







Hope everyone had a good time exploring a fan's work. See you again. ^^/

For your Viewing Pleasure Part 4

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. Yep, you guessed it; it's time for me to reveal my number 1. Now let me start off by saying I will go into a little more in depth than I had in the previous entries. This is because 1) I am going a little fan girl with it and 2) because unlike the others I can actually compare it to something. With that said there will be some spoilers, but shouldn't change your minds in checking out this series. **Note: all manga shots with more than 1 panel are read in the traditional Japanese format; from right to left.** So without further adieu;

#1: Kuroshitsuji aka Black Butler



I fell in love with this series almost immediately. At first I actually didn't know what it was about at all and when you hear the title "Black Butler" you have to wonder how a story about a butler could be entertaining. When at Anime Boston this year my friend CorSec and I were talking about just buying one of two series just to find out what it was since we saw cosplayers everywhere for this and the other show. The day after I returned from the con I saw they had all the season 1 on NetFlix and watched the first episode. It was nothing like I had expected and for a few days after that I didn't watch anymore till I was camping NMs on Final Fantasy XI and needed something to do between pops. It was then I got so obsessed with this series.

This may seem like spoiler, but it really isn't as the premise of the series is the story's end. The story revolves around a 12 year old boy named Ciel Phantomhive, who was kidnapped and tortured at age 10 and in order to escape his living hell he forms a contract with a demon, who Ciel names Sebastian. The contract states that until Ciel has achieved his revenge on all of those who have made him suffer and humiliated him Sebastian will serve as his butler in exchange for the boy's soul.

Like most of the anime on this list there was a manga that proceeded it. I mentioned Saiyuki's and Fruits Basket's and how they differed to my knowledge. This series however sort of went the way of Full Metal Alchemist. The original anime for FMA had the plotline from the manga overall, but took a lot of liberties in changing how it progressed and told; mainly making changes to some characters to have a shock value when it was revealed while watching. The anime for Kuroshitsuji pretty much does the same thing; the initial idea and plot are there, but differs greatly to the original source material.

I had watched through both seasons before reading the manga and I honestly had a few questions upon watching the series' end. So I am gonna take the liberty of sharing some of these with you. The first question that I had was about the character Tanaka. In the anime he is constantly shown in chibi drinking Japanese tea and mainly saying "ho-ho-ho"; very rarely do you see him in non-chibi mode. But even in the show it is stated that Tanaka had served the Phantomhive household for a very long time, so that left me with the question; why didn't he try to save Ciel from his captors? I mean even if he is old you'd think he would try and save his young master no? Well in the book it explains that he in fact did try, but was assaulted. Also the look of a frail old man is far from what it seems as he is truly capable of protecting the Earl Phantomhive.
The next few things actually came from me looking stuff up on the characters and within a character bio I found of Ciel, it mentioned that he is allergic to cats. I had found that a little odd since in the anime he was seen calling a cat over to him and picked it up. Once again the book settles the facts. First Sebastian is truly obsessed with all kinds of cats, not just your normal house cats.

Right after this incident at the circus we see this; I will admit though I have to wonder how allergic he is since Sebastian has entire closet full of cats in the mansion lol. The other thing I read about Ciel I was rather baffled that they didn't mention in the show since it would be something that could potentially hinder him in his missions for the Queen and that's his asthma.


I do find it interesting that the things about Ciel were actually introduced in the same arc of the manga and this arc, along with two others and a side story, also did not exist for the anime. And much like arcs not existing there are characters who were removed or just added for the television series.

Snake appears in the Noah's Arc Circus arc of the manga and later is hired by Ciel to work at the mansion. Since this arc did not appear in the show Snake never made his debut. Instead there was a story that featured a demon hound; Going by the name Pluto, the demon hound was given to them by a woman named Angela; but in the same regard the pooch ends up with a job at the mansion just like Snake.

Also of note and I am really unsure why they changed this, the mark that was branded onto Ciel was moved to a different spot.


Overall, I will say I have been enjoying the manga a lot more than the anime; however, for what the anime is and has to offer it is very very good. The manga itself is ongoing, so for them to actually make their own plot and twist was quite entertaining and shocking when the twists were revealed. Much like the original FMA was. All the characters are quite lovable in their own ways, though in spots with the anime they seem a tad out of place, especially given Ciel's personality. His servants (save for Sebastian) are quite incompetent and even though they are this way in the manga too; they love working for their young master as he treats them well. The gardener, Finnian, is quoted in the book stating that he likes working for Ciel because he doesn't hurt him. Where as in the first episode of the anime Ciel is shown throwing a dart at Finnian's head. So some liberties were taken. Also I should note one character in particular and that is Ciel's fiancée, Elizabeth. Lizzy has a very bubbly personality and the desire to make everything cute. I suppose this is to balance out Ciel's seriousness and dark personality. But when I watched through the anime I thought it came off as quite annoying... and it is. It was in the book too, but even if she doesn't show it in the show, I do have to give respect to this character as she does really love Ciel and accepts who he is and what he does;
This is the last page of what is current in the manga in Japan and it appears she knows the secrets of the Phantomhive family. (in context to this picture Ciel has hurt is leg and is out of ammo so it's up to Lizzy to fight off a zombie horde) So when watching the series just remember that she does have a bad ass side.



The opening to the first season, Monochrome no Kiss, is such an ear catching song, if that makes sense. It's one of the more unusual sounding ones I had head in a long time, but I was instantly obsessed with it. The imagery placed with here (the second half of season 1 had another set of animation) is by far one of my favorites, in particular the part with Sebastian catching the bullets. And over all I felt that it did capture the essence that is Kuroshitsuji.



Opening to season 2, Shiver, is very different from Monochrome no Kiss, a lot more rocking out if you will. Characters new and old are both showcased and it does a good job portraying the story of season 2. My favorite part of this opening actually is when they show the contract markings.

Now, I am briefly going to talk about this season. As I mentioned the premise of Kuroshitsuji earlier, the premise actually gets resolved in the first season. So when I heard there was a second I was baffled as to how they could do it other than Sebastian making a contract with someone else. Well in the first episode we meet Alois Trancy and his butler, Claude. The opening to the first episode only showcases these characters as it is set to Shiver, so I had then thought they just took the same premise again and just made poor imitations of Sebastian and Ciel (which is true, even Sebastian admits it in the episode preview for episode 2. Well, nope! Sebastian makes his grand entrance at the end of the episode with Ciel's body. Why? Well you'll have to find that one out on your own.

There are also some OVAs that have been released; Ciel in Wonderland was a very interesting take on Alice in Wonderland. Making of Kuroshitsuji II isn't exactly what I expected as it's a making of the second season, but with the characters as actors talking about their roles. Another was released about the Shinigami Grell and Will and the final one revoles around Alois and Claude (which I have yet to watch myself).

But this is my number one because I think anyone will enjoy it as it has its humor, but it has its dark side. I can only hope one day that this series goes in the way of FMA and they make an entire new anime series 100% based on the manga arcs because they would be awesome in motion much like the did with FMA Brotherhood. So go watch it, now! That's an order! And you know there is only one thing you can say to that, right Sebastian?


See you all next time! ^^/

For Your Viewing Pleasure Part 3

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. Today you all have a special treat as I reveal my number 2 and 3 picks for Anime for beginnings. Shall we begin?

#3: The Slayers



This is actually by far the best fantasy series anime I have seen to date. The characters are all enjoyable and where as the action is good you more than likely spend your time laughing. If I had to compare to something it would be the way you would be in party with your friends in a D&D game; good times will be had by all.



Season 1 introduces us to our hero, Lina Inverse and along the way you meet several adventurers who become her allies in the fight against the Dark Lord. This season is actually my favorite out of the 5 (though I have only seen all the way through 3). I really enjoyed the character's first encounters with one another in addition to the build up to its climax.

The opening song; Get Along, is my favorite among the openings as well. As it basically just rocks out and gets you psyched up for what should be a grant adventure. I couldn't find the Dub version on Youtube, but the opening monologue was dubbed over and I can honestly say Lina's voice actress really sounded like she got into it.



Season 2; The Slayers Next, the party once again returns for more crazy adventures. This time around the group focuses on finding the mysterious Clair Bible, which is said to hold all the answers of the universe. In their process of finding this artifact they once again face off with a god known as Hellmaster Phibrizzo. This season was an absolute joy to sit through and you can be sure you will be on the edge of your seat as you see how it all plays out.

The opening song, Give a Reason, is pretty good too for an opener. If their was one word I would use to describe it I think it would have to be; Energetic. The tone starts off kinda slow and series and then it comes off with high energy and makes you smile. So for me it never failed to get me jazzed for the start of the episodes.



Season 3; The Slayers Try, brings back the party once again, save for one character, as the story of their adventures now center around a certain object that Lina had her eye on within the first season and a war between the black and gold dragons begin to rise. Like the other two, Try was an entertaining season and seemed to actually flow through a little differently with all the main characters together at once where as in Next they had to meet up together again. It was a nice change.

Try's opening, Breeze, was rather interesting in comparison to the other two. It comes off more like a ballad and unlike Fruits Basket with its slow paced opening, I thought this was a nice change. The song is beautiful and the imagery flows perfectly with it.

The greatest thing about The Slayers is that with the first three seasons you don't really have to watch them in order. I had watched through the first season and then watched Next and Try at the same time, and I could still understand the plot lines to both.

There are other things for this series; as I mentioned there are 5 seasons to the television series as well as movies and OVAs. Most of the movies and OVAs do not have the same cast of characters that the television series does and where as those plots still had the same charms that the TV series does, I feel they lack a little without those characters. (the reason the other characters aren't there is because the movies and OVAs take place before the events of season 1)

Dub or Sub? Dub all the way. The Japanese cast was great, but the dub cast really brought these characters to life.

#2: Cowboy Bebop



This show is probably a "duh" for the veteran otaku. I can't think of a single person to whom I had recommended this to who didn't walk away saying it was good. In a way, some might say it's the "perfect" series as it has plenty of action with little breaks in between it, the characters are all pretty interesting, the music is just epic win in how it helps the show move along and the plots for the episodes are well deserving of your attention. The story revolves around Spike Spiegel and his crew of the bounty hunting ship, The Bebop.



As I mentioned the music is just win and the opening theme, Tank, is catchy and very different from other openings to anime. The imagery is very basic as it doesn't really rely on anything flashy and the first part of the song is the only part with words. It's really simple, but it's that simplicity that makes it awesome.

Dub or Sub? This is another one that would have to be dub all the way. I had only seen 1 episode and the movie in the original Japanese and much like The Slayers, I felt that the English cast really brought these character's to life. They were so perfect that it's really hard to hear them in any other language.

So there you have it, my numbers 2 and 3. I have to admit I know I said less about these two than I did on the others, but honestly I can't really think of anything to say about them that won't 100% spoil them. See you all next time for number 1! ^^/

For Your Viewing Pleasure Part 2

Hellow and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. Today we continue the countdown of my choices of anime series I think would be good for beginners. So without further ado..

#4: Fruits Basket



This series is one of the most sweet, dramatic, funny and weird series I have ever seen. The story follows a girl, Tohru Honda, who has lost her mother and lives in a tent in the woods. She stumbles apon the Soma house hold where she meets Shagure Soma and a classmate; Yuki Soma. They find out that she has been living in their woods and offer to help her out by offering her a room. This may sound like a linear kind of plot, but obviously there is a twist; the Soma family is cursed and whenever someone of the opposite sex (not of their blood) touches them they transform into the animals of the Chinese Zodiac. Hilarity ensues.

This series is easy for me to recommend as it has something for everyone. And when there are serious pieces there is usually something funny happening elsewhere in the episode to keep it well balanced. The characters are very well likable and it's hard to almost not feel bad for them when they speak of their pasts.

This series itself started as a manga and then adapted into this 26 episode anime. Like a lot of series that have done this, the anime and manga do differ. The main example of this is that the curse doesn't get fully explained in the show, which is kinda bad, but on the same hand understandable; there may not have been enough time in the length of episodes they had to do that part of the story justice. In my opinion though I would have at least liked to have seen them try; since it is the bigger part of the storyline's plot. Also aside from the dramatic parts, the anime is quite light hearted, where as I have been told the manga is considerably darker to the point of making it fit into a horror genre.



This is one of the only times I can say I wasn't too fond of the opening to a series. It never actually grasped my attention as "all right! the show is gonna start". Instead it actually started to put me to sleep as it sounds like a lullaby. With that said though this is one of the only anime that I have seen to have translated the Japanese song into English (Magic Knight Rayearth and Rouroni Kenshin being the other 2). It's a nice change of pace and I kinda wish more anime did this.

Dub or Sub? This one, for me was dub all the way. The Japanese voices were good, but I found the English voices to fit the characters a little more; especially for Yuki. I always have to admire the voice actors over here when they are cast when the original actor in Japan was a woman. (yes that is quite common over there to have a female voice actor portray a male character). And it was his voice that really fit.

So there is my number four, I hope you check it out for yourselves. See you all next time. ^^/

For Your Viewing Pleasure Part 1

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again. Today's entry I had come up with about a month ago, but I needed to be sure that the list I had made was exactly what I had wanted. As it turns out it was; until last week lol. So I altered it only slightly and thus we can start the countdown of my Top 5 Anime Recommendations for Beginners.

Honorable Mention: Weiss Kreuz aka Knight Hunters



Okay, view this as me cheating if you want, but Weiss was originally the number 5 on the list and I really wanted to keep it on, thus it gets an honorable mention. This was one of the more unique series I had seen and is still one of my favorites today. The story revolves around 4 boys; Omi, Ken, Aya and Yoji, who work at a flower shop during the day, however when night falls they are an assassin team known as Weiss (vice).

Like all television series the opening can make a big difference in whether or not you wanna keep going with the show, well for me at least. And Weiss did not disappoint. Even if you're not really into the J-Pop/J-Rock scene, you can still appreciate the sounds of a good song.



Velvet Underworld I felt really captured the theme of the series. After it's 26 episode run, the Weiss boys would return again in a 2 part OVA series, but that was never brought over stateside. Then in 2002 a new chapter for the series came to light as Weiss Kreuz Gluhen aka Knight Hunters Eternity was released.



As you can see from the previous picture above, the character designs for the 4 original Weiss members has changed and honestly the only one I don't like is Omi's. Though I do have to wonder how Aya went from a redhead to a long haired brunette.

The opening, much like Velvet Underworld, fit the series perfectly;



As an anime fan I often get asked whether I prefer the English Dubs over the original Japanese dialog and truth be told it depends on the series. So as I recommend this series I say it's a toss up on which version to watch. The dub wasn't horrible and was actually down right enjoyable, but the Japanese version is a little more special since the voice actors for the four main characters were of the band called Weiss Kreuz and it is them who are preforming the opening and endings to the series.

So why is this an honorable mention and not remaining number 5? Well it really has to do with the ending. As much as I love this series the ending really leaves a lot to be desired. In fact my friend CorSec ranted a long time (still does when we talk about this show) how the ending shouldn't have been the way it is. So I still recommend watching it, but the ending to Gluhen kinda sucks.

And now, the count down...

#5: Gensomaden Saiyuki



A long time ago, my friend Nadia had introduced me to this series, and I had fallen in love with it from the first episode I saw. This series is a retelling of the famous Chinese folk tale A Journey to the West. The story follows Son Goku, Sha Gojyo, Cho Hakkai and Genjo Sanzo as they make their way west to stop the resurrection of Gyo Mao and halt the demon uprising in its tracks.



The first season was by far one of my favorites as it established the characters very well and the plot was very straight forward. Of course, how could it not be? They are just heading west after all. The opening song, entitled For Real, was definitely one that grasped my attention and the imagery that went a long with it was very pleasant as well.



The second season was, unfortunately unneeded, save for like 3 episodes. Don't get me wrong, every step in Sanzo's journey is important. But this season had a lot to be desired as it had nothing to do with the original story of the manga in which the anime was adapted from. Originally when my friends and I had seen Saiyuki this and the movie, Saiyuki Requiem, would be the last we would see of Saiyuki for awhile. My friend Nadia was going to make a web series in Flash with her friends doing the voices and make a third season that would actually continue on with the storyline's actual plot.

Even though the project would have been fun, there was no need as they had released its third season; Saiyuki RELOAD.



This of course picks up right where we last left the Sanzo party and they continue to make their way to the west. For me, not having seen or read the series in a long time, when I found a streaming site that had all of it I was so excited that I sat there and watched all the through the episodes. I do find it interesting however, that Nadia's rendition of season 3 was going to revolve around what the last 3 episodes of RELOAD was. Would have been neat to see how that played out lol.

A fourth season was then released, Saiyuki RELOAD Gunlock;



Oh gee.... I wonder where I got the name for this Blog? My obsession with the series continued as I reached this season and the opening; Don't Look Back Again, had me completely hooked. I sat for three days straight, anticipating every episode till it came to an end.

This is my number 5 only for this one reason; the end doesn't really end. It would have ranked higher on my list had they actually made it to their destination and have an epic battle. But as it stands with the end of Gunlock they are still headed west. But that aside, the characters are love-able and you can't really get too lost in the plot as it is very straight forward, but there are surprising twists along the way that will hold your attention to the series.

Dub or Sub? Well this is another tough one as I have watched it through on both languages. But for me; the first 2 seasons are best dubbed. ADV didn't have the license for RELOAD and Gunlock so when they were released by Geneon, the voice cast was changed. It's not to say it was really bad, but the orginal dubbed voices were fantastic. Overall though, if you watch it straight through, the subbed version might be best. All the voice actors are the same and really fit their roles. One of my favorite voice actors in Japan, Toshiko Seki, provides the voice of Sanzo. And as a funny turn of events I was in the middle of watching Kamen Rider Den-O when I had picked Saiyuki up again. I couldn't stop laughing when Sanzo would talk as all I could picture was Momotaros lol.

So there you have it, another start to a list. I am aware that I don't go into complete detail, but where would be the fun in that? If you wanna know more about the series you'll look it up on your own, won't you? See you all next time! ^^/

Take a Guess... Who the Hell Do You Think I Am?!

Hello and welcome to Don't Look Back... Again; a blog where I am free to do what I want! Well where I had last left you guys I was talking about my trip to Anime Boston and today I am here to expand a little but on the con experience with something that I have really grown rather fond of over the years. So lets dive right into Cosplay.

Cosplay, meaning Costume Play, is something very well known in the anime fandom and even beyond that. Primarily Cosplay is done at conventions, but the term carries over for whenever someone dresses up as their favorite anime/game/comic character. I had originally gotten into Cosplay when I was in 8th grade. Or rather that's when I first heard the term; it was Halloween and my best friend and I were invited to a party (said party only consisted of her, myself and the host, but still fun), since it was a Halloween party we of course decided to go in costume and the character I had chosen was Miang from Xenogears. It was rather simple and not 100% accurate, but back then I didn't care; I had my white coat that was kind of close to Miang's Solarian uniform, black slacks and white high tops. We were going to spray my hair purple, but because the weather was bad and we were afraid of it washing out and staining my coat we went against that idea. That had been the first time in a long time that I had actually dressed up and since it was so much fun I decided to do it the next year as well.

Every year around here we have something called the Pumpkin Festival. And during this event people dress up in their Halloween costumes and walk around town. My best friend had volunteered us to sign in people's pumpkins and thus she mentioned doing matching costumes. At the time we had started really getting to a series known as The Slayers. So we decided to dress as our favorite characters; me as Lina and her as Amelia. What construction there were for the outfits were all done by her; for me she altered a magenta turtle neck and stitched a piece of fabric that was to go across my chest. The other pieces of the costume were bought and for not being 100% accurate yet again, I think we did pretty well with what we had access to. After that I wouldn't cosplay again till 3 years later when she and I decided to dress as our favorite characters from Gravitation; her as Ryuuichi Sakuma and me as Tohma Seguchi. And since we had 2 of the 3 members of Nittle Grasper we got one of our male friends, Casey, to dress in drag and be Noriko. These outfits were a tad simpler (more or less) as we could just take things from our closets. The weather getting in the way again we couldn't spray Casey's hair to match the character, but over all we were pretty damn close to the characters' outfits from the anime.

Since then I had only cosplayed twice; once at Bakuretsu Con as Hisoka from Yami no Matsuei and recently this year at Anime Boston... kind of. I had the inkling of wanting to dress up for the con back in October as I was being inspired by Halloween. I had picked up all the materials needed for my costume and even decided to do a matching outfit with it (more on this later); but everything had fallen through as the sewing aspect got skewed by the machine not working correctly. But I was still determined and since we had just finished watching Kamen Rider Den-O, I decided to cosplay Urataros. Unfortunately I did not have anything that was akin to his normal attire so I went with the next best thing; Yuuto posessed by Urataros.



Again not 100% accurate either on my part. The only things I had, when going off of this image, was the blue streak and white jacket and my top was black, but not a buttoned down shirt. But my brother brought up a good point; so long as I acted like Urataros I could where whatever I wanted as at that point the imajin would have possessed me lol.

With all that being said; there are a number of topics with in the subject of cosplay that come up, so I figure I would share my opinions on it with you all. Shall we break it down?

Should I Cosplay?

This is actually an interesting question and there's a couple reasons why it would be asked. For me though, the reason I asked this was question was due to my size. I am overweight and I worried that people would snicker and make fun of me for the way I looked in the costume. I know I had cosplayed in the past so what was stopping me now? Truth is I am unsure what was stopping me, but I had posted the question to my friends on Facebook and the two who had answered me had valid points. One had simply stated that "It takes guts to Cosplay in the first place" and the other was "Who cares what anyone else thinks? You should do what you wanna do and the hell with everyone else". Both things I took to heart; I was gonna be ballsy and do what I wanted to do.

Now this is where opinions will vary; when I had mentioned I wanted to dress as one of the Sailor Senshi I had gotten kind of mixed reactions. Some thought I would look good and others were very unsure to the point of looking fearful for me. It's a perception thing of sorts and in my opinion as long as you're comfortable in your own skin I say go for it. It goes along the lines of "who cares what others think". As long as you're okay with it, do what you wanna do. I believe it was on Moon-Chase, a Sailor Moon blog, that had stated that it would be an injustice to not dress as your favorite character if you love them that much. And I have to agree. When it comes to height and weight there really is no being 100% accurate.

But I wear glasses? Am I limited to characters who wear them too? Oh hell no. True the outfit might look a little off, but that's not something you can control. I myself wear glasses and refuse to get contacts. Anyone who says something about it is really stretching for a nitpick anyway. There are just some things that you can't control and it will never be 100% accurate.

Is accuracy important?

Well yes, to a point anyway. The more accurate you are the more people will; a) stop you to take your picture (sometimes to the point where you might not be able to move for awhile lol) and b) recognize who you are trying to be. But there have been a few instances where the person has been missing key things and I have still been able to pick out who they are.

The most commonly "missed" piece (at least that I have seen) has been the hair. Wigs for anime/game characters can actually get quite expensive, but the price you pay is for the quality. So if you are willing to shell out the money for it good for you, but there are some who just can't budget it out and that's okay. Sometimes it is the hair that can make or break the costume (depending if it's a defying trait; like Sailor Moon's), but that's not to say that they don't function without it. When I dressed as Lina, I actually had to remove the wig for awhile as it had a horrible smell to it to begin with (whatever it was made out of) and on top of that we had sprayed it orange/red so it would be the correct color and that smell was just awful. But I still functioned as Lina Inverse even though I didn't that the hair.

Some people would argue that the Sailor Senshi outfits are the easiest for a cosplayer to accomplish. That's a matter of opinion really. The most identifiable piece of the Sailor Senshi would be the Sailor Fuku; and what's on the sailor fuku? The big, colorful bow of course. I have seen some Sailor Senshi cosplayers only have ribbons in place of the front bow. I admit it looks rather odd since its not as full as the bow should be, but again it's not to say it doesn't function.

Using Sailor Moon as an example again; the shoes for a good portion of the cosplay outfits are a huge challenge. And I have to say only about half of the Sailor Senshi cosplayers I saw this year had the shoes for the costume. Some used something that was close to it and others just used their normal shoes. Again they did look odd with the rest of the outfit, but its not to say the costume looked bad.

Over all you do want to be as accurate as you possibly can, but don't go outside your means to do. Do the best with what you got!

Where should I start?

This one is always a loaded question. Ultimately it comes down to WHO you wanna dress up as. So to help this along I am gonna give some examples (from my opinion of course) of the least complex to the most.

The least effort in cosplay would be what is known as "Closet Cosplay" where you throw a costume together from clothes in your closet/no to minimal construction needed. My costumes of Tohma and U-Yuuto were just this, as well as Hisoka. Even if you have to go out and buy pieces for the costume; closet cosplay is the cheapest way to get in on the fun.

For midrange I would have to say it's something that is considered one dimensional. The sailor fuku falls under this because it's very simplistic in design and shape. For those like me who actually don't know how to sew and want to learn, cosplay is great incentive to do so.

The "OMG HOW DID YOU MAKE THIS?!" range, well that would be a number of characters. But the best examples of this would be the "mascot" costumes. Mascots are usually creatures from series such as Pokemon. But another example of things that could fall into this category would be things like the Master Chief's armor from Halo, any Tokustatsu character and much much more. At Anime Boston 2008 there was a suit that actually lit up.

Obviously the more you do the more your skill will advance. I one day hope to get to the "OMG" point.

That's pretty much it for now. I will return to this topic every once and awhile as I make progress on my own cosplay outfits, even if only goes piece by piece. But for your enjoyment here is a list of the characters I would love to dress up as;

Sailor Moon:

Eternal Sailor Moon

Sailor Uranus

Sailor Pluto

LUNAR:

Luna

Lucia

Xenogears:

Elly Van Houten

Billy Lee Black

Final Fantasy VI:

Celes Chere (Opera gown)

Final Fantasy XI:

Dancer Relic

Gravitation:

Shuichi Shindou

Fullmetal Alchemist:

Riza Hawkeye

Disgaea:

Flonne

Rozalin

Black Butler:

Ciel Phantomhive

Kamen Rider:

Shotaro Hidari

Kamen Rider Den-O Gun form

Ryutaros

And many many more lol. I would also like to dress up as Tohma and Lina again with improvements over the original costumes. There is more I would like to cover on this topic, when it comes to designing the costume that is, but that shall wait for another entry. See you all next time! ^^/