This is another anime micro review. Read here for an explanation. This will also be my last anime micro review for the anime I watched when I was really sick a few months ago.
Labels: anime, Gankutsuou, review
Labels: anime, Kiddy Grade, review
This is another anime micro review. Read here for an explanation.
Labels: anime, Gun X Sword, review
Labels: humor
Labels: anime, Princess Tutu, review
This is another anime micro review. Read here for an explanation.
This is a gag anime. Meaning: this anime has absolutely zero
plot or character development. It is strictly a series of jokes and visual
gags. It starts out with, what I thought was, a pretty funny gag. The main
character comes skipping out of her high school and skips blindly into the
street, in front of a speeding truck. Brakes squeal, but she ends up getting
hit. The crowd that gathers around are saying stuff like “Oh my! She’s really
dead!”, “That totally ruins the plot!”, and “What were the writers thinking!?”
I found that kind of funny. Of course, they arbitrarily resurrect the character
and the story continues. In fact, her getting killed doing stupid stuff becomes
a running gag in the first episode. I only watched the first episode because
this anime became very stupid very fast. Perhaps I just can’t appreciate this
brand of humor. It was all I could do to sit through the first episode.Labels: anime, Excel Saga, review
Anime Micro Review: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
2 comments Posted by Catalyst at 8:00 AM
Labels: anime, Ghost in the Shell, review
If you enjoy manga, and you're a fan of the BBC's show Sherlock, then I don't have to explain why this is awesome.
I only wish they hadn't tried so hard to make Watson look like Martin Freeman. That kind of nose just doesn't work on a manga character in my opinion.
Also, I found this little fan animation, which I thought was intertaining:
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| From left to right: Kamina, Yoko and Simon - the three main characters. Kamina is awesome. |
This anime seems like a simple enough action series at first
glance, but there are some very personal dramatic moments in it. The characters
are very likeable. Simon seems a little pathetic, but it’s obvious that he has
untapped potential. Kamina is a hot head, but he’s got courage in spades.
Yoko’s character isn’t really explored much in the first two episodes, but she
seems OK. The action in this show is waaaaay over the top, which is so very fun
in a juvenile male kind of way. And there are just so many great lines – most
of them coming from Kamina. ^_^Labels: anime, Gurren Lagann, review
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| Even if the Doctor can shut down Vader's lightsaber, somehow I can't imagine he is any match for the power of the Force. |
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| This is a crossover in more ways than one, since those are classic Kirk and Spock taking on Next Gen Klingons and Romulans. I guess the Doctor brought them forward in time to when the show had better make up artists. |
Labels: art, Doctor Who, humor, Star Trek, star wars
I know some of my readers are fans of the Avengers movie, and I thought you might get a kick out of this. It's not my work. I wish I could credit it properly, but I can't recall now where I found it.
Labels: anime, Kaze no Stigma, review
Labels: anime, Last Exile, review
Hey, if you haven't read No Need for Bushido, you're missing an awesome, often hilarious, action-romance, samurai webcomic saga. You can read it for free online (Warning: PG-13 Content). The artwork is pretty amateur in the beginning, but has gotten very good recently.
Unfortunately, the artist is taking a break from creating the comic due to circumstances. In order to get the comic back on track, they artist and writer duo are running a Kickstarter campaign to raise money to support the continuance of the comic. They have already raised over $13,000 in money pledged to the project, but they only have 1 week left to raise the remainder of the $30,000 they're hoping to get. This money will go towards helping them to go professional and make the comic a commercial venture, instead of just something they do for fun in their spare time.
Pledging money towards the cause isn't just giving your hard earned cash away. Contributors will get cool rewards, depending on how much they pledge - anything from buttons and posters to printed, hard copy volumes of the comic when they're released. If you pledge now, and they don't get their $30,000 in pledged funds by the end of the week, then they won't take a penny and there is no loss for you.
I'm not really trying to push anyone to contribute to this project. I really have nothing at stake in them succeeding, except that I enjoy their comic and would like to see them continue making it. But I do think this is a really cool opportunity to support a creative team that want to take their hobby to the next level and actually make a profit from their creativity. It would be awesome if more artists and writers could take that step. So, that's why I wanted to bring this to people's attention. ^_^
Labels: art, comic book, graphic novel, Kickstarter, No Need for Bushido
Labels: anime, review, Sengoku Basara
Labels: writing
The point of the exercise was to write a short paragraph from three starting phrases. The phrases were:
I recall...
The product recall...
I recall...
I know, the last phrase is exactly the same as the first. Here's what I wrote:
I recall a time when dinosaurs ruled the earth. They were far more sophisticated than most people think. Their greatest joy in life was sitting down for afternoon tea and biscuits.
The product recall of Wooligan-Wazawams™ had everyone baffled. Most people had no idea what was wrong with them. Had they proved to be not wooly enough? Or were the wazawams out of hand? What if we're never really aware?
I recall writing a love letter. I took my time figuring out exactly what I wanted to say. Then, I carefully selected just the right words to use. I wrote it all very neatly on the nicest stationary I had. To this day, I can't recall who she was.
There you have it. Hope you enjoyed them. Have you found any writing exercises that have helped jump-start your writing?
Labels: writing
He winked...
I blinked...
She batted her eyes...
He was always squinting...
And here's what I wrote:
He winked at me. I threw up a little in my mouth.
I blinked and nothing changed. I moved my hand in front of my face. At least, I think that's where I was moving them. There was nothing. I scrambled through the dark for the light, stubbing my tow. I flipped the switch. Nothing. I was blind. Or, the power had gone out during the night.
She batted her eyes. Was she trying to get my attention? I looked away. I heard her adjusting her pose on the sofa next to me. I found an incredibly fascinating spot on the wall to stare at. She cleared her throat. How long must I wait for my ride to be ready to leave?
He was always squinting. It was an irritating trait that made all of his students uncomfortable. I always felt he was looking a little too hard at me. It was the worst when he called on me to read in class. When I was finished I would just sink into my chair. I couldn't bare to look at him until he had diverted his attention to another student.
What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know. ^_^
Labels: writing
This video from Corning shows their vision of a near future, with new glass technology at the center of everyday life. I can easily picture this being a reality in the new system, when perfect minds could work out any problems with the idea, and perfect hearts would not abuse it.
Labels: new system, science, videos
Labels: language
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| Superman has X-Ray Vision |
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| This monster is called a Beholder. It has nothing to do with beauty. |
Labels: ponderings
I wanted to write a post about the quirks of the way the Japanese
language is presented in anime, but a written article just couldn't
convey what I wanted to share. So, I made a quick video instead. Enjoy!
Hey, everyone! It's been a while since I posted anything new here. As you know, I started a new blog on gaming almost two months ago, and since then I've been posting new stuff there twice a week. But I've been sorely neglecting my more general blog here.
So, this is actually related to my gaming blog, but it doesn't really belong over there and I thought my friends might find it amusing. It's sort of a "behind the scenes" post, if you will. When I was getting ready to launch Catalyst Games, I knew I had a lot of stuff I could write about gaming, but I was having a difficult time organizing my thoughts to write anything. I mentioned this to my sister and she suggested that I could try making an audio recording of me "talking out" my ideas, and then refer back to that while I'm writing. I tried this and it really helped! I didn't have a device that could make a strictly audio recording, so I ended up using my webcam to record myself. This had the unnecessary effect of making a video recording of my monolog as well. When I watched this later I was really amused by it - it's not too often that you get to watch yourself talk!
This might be a tad narcissistic, but it really had me cracking up when I watched it, so I'm posting the video here for you to enjoy. It is a tad lengthy (about 11 minutes). Also, the audio is a bit quiet, so you may have to turn up the volume on your computer. You can read the resulting article here.
Labels: blog, Catalyst Games, game design, humor, videos
Labels: blog, board games, card games, Catalyst Games, news, RPG
Hey everyone, thanks for reading my blog and giving me feedback on the things that I post (as inane as some of them are). I really appreciate everyone's support!
Something new is on its way, and I'll be making an announcement about it tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about it, and I'll be looking forward to getting your participation in this new project.
Until then, have a nice evening!
-Nathan
Just for fun, I used my webcam to record myself singing a song. After playing it back... wow. That was so awful. I laughed so hard I cried. I will never sing in public again.
And before anyone asks, I've deleted the video so I won't be sharing it. I decided it was too dangerous to keep around.
Labels: humor
Last weekend I created another custom game box like the ones I made for Yomi and Frenzy. This time I made a box for a board game called Dragons of Kir, and I made the box for a different reason. With Yomi and Frenzy, both of those games consisted of several decks of cards, and I wanted a nice box to keep the different decks together in. With Dragons if Kir it was a matter of efficiency. You see, right now my game collection takes up the better part of three shelves in my closet. There are always new games appearing on the horizon that I am interested in buying, but I'm running out of space to put them. I am selling some of my games that just don't appeal to me any more, and that is freeing up some space. Dragons of Kir is one game I was considering selling, but it actually isn't a bad game, and kind of unique in its mechanics. After playing the game with my sisters, I was telling them about my lack of space and I made the observation that this game, with its over-sized box, takes up a lot more space than it needs to. Megan suggested that I could make a smaller box for it, and I decided that might be the thing to do. I thought I would share some pictures of the process.
Labels: art, board games, Dragons of Kir
I can't take credit for this, but I found this cool picture online and just wanted to share it. All of the robots/cyborgs are from various movies and shows. How many can you identify? Can you find Wall-E?
Hey, this is another quick art post of a random sketch I finished digitally last week. This time I'm posting some screen caps that show the work in progress. I hope you enjoy!
Labels: art













































