Tag: Anime

Farewells and Exams and Final days

Farewells and Exams and Final days

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments

“Yo b****es! I’m back!” (Just Kidding)

After a long break of one month, I am back. It’s farewell time here, farewell to the place where I stayed for 4 years, farewell to people whom I got to know and make great friends with, farewell to a phase of my life and most importantly, farewell to downloaders and easily available anime episodes on DC ｡･ﾟﾟ･(>д<)･ﾟﾟ･｡

And in the mean time, I have added 50+ anime to my list. Bwahahaha, my speed! (￣▼￣) And many are on my plan to watch list. I was able to get hands on a lot of good series. I’m sure I would be writing about them soon. That reminds me, this season’s anime line up is too good. I am liking most of the anime and I am always looking forward to the episodes (though I know they’ll come on saturday or sunday or monday lol)

But my language studies went in a slump, same as my will to write. I mean I haven’t even finished with my Thailand’s journey (-_-*). Not that it has come back, but I am writing now because I should. 1 year back when I started writing, I was just writing for my sake. Then, sometime later it became a task – not fair. Now, I am a little refreshed and I have a lot of material to talk about which includes anime and anime.

That again reminds me, we formed a small anime group in my college. Anime club was a dream which couldn’t be fulfilled. It’s nice to meet new people though who have same interest as me, at the end of the semester, talk about anime and have dinner. But the clashing schedules posed a lot of difficulties. After so many cancellations and reschedulings, we finally met… Finally, a small custom kind of thing from past two years…. I hope the juniors continue it after we’re gone.

So, anyway, I was thinking of doing a monthly post on “Why anime is not for kids only” starting from tomorrow. The main motivation is that a lot of people either think that they are just cartoons meant for small kids or stop after watching death note because that becomes the ultimate story for them, anything else unable to surpass it (which actually frustrates me a lot (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ I mean, are we anime lovers stupid or something, devoting our time to other anime if death note is the end? Not against the anime though, people do find it really different than what they usually watch. But so are the others… that nobody understands.)

Oh, yeah! I was talking about last days in my college. 2 days left and I’ll be out. These carefree days will be gone. And I’ll step into reality, from which I was running away till now, hiding in the 2D world. I won’t be able to do it anymore…….

Today’s song – This song has been on my playlist for quite sometime. And the name is so suitable – 

My Anime List

My Anime List

by eastasianlover ♥ 1 Comment

As I said in my last post that I registered on MyAnimeList as EastAsianLover. I finally finished my list yesterday and I am disappointed in myself after seeing that I haven’t been able to cross 300. My total anime that I have watched, dropped, held-on or am watching count to a total of 269. The more disappointing thing is that this number includes movies, OVAs and seasons of each anime separately.

My friend: 269? Are you kidding me?
Me:What 269! My four years totally went to waste. I was pretty sure the number would cross 300!
My friend: Don’t joke around. That’s such a big number!!!
Me: There’re people who have watched 500+ series and I call myself an animelover? TT_TT

As for manga, I don’t even want to start digging the database. With anime, I knew the number of total anime on the site is within my reach. But manga database should be huge. It is regretful that they haven’t included webtoons yet. I mean they have become so popular and they should be there, definitely.

Anyways, I have just begun with manga list. The main problem is that with reading anime’s name, I used to know if I have watched it or not. But I have read soooo many one shots and such, that I don’t think I would ever remember what I have read and what not. But I do need to make the list because I need to keep a tab too. Ah! Such heavy work. I’ll go to make my list and if you’re on the site, we can be friends. Comment below with your username. See you on the site….

A rant on Nisekoi, Noragami and Tokyo Ravens

A rant on Nisekoi, Noragami and Tokyo Ravens

by eastasianlover ♥ 1 Comment

Yes, I know it’s a material worth three posts but I need to write this one out. I am getting so disappointed by new anime that I want to die. I am going to do a review for all the three separately, so if you don’t know the anime, then I guess, this post would just act as spoilers for you. But if you want to know why I was disappointed in these anime, read on.

First, let’s talk about Tokyo Ravens. The ending was such an utter disappointment. I mean, you wait for 24 episodes, an awesome plot going on. On the way, you convince other people too that it’s a good story. You have to wait like two weeks for the ending episode because you don’t have means to watch it at the time it was aired. And then boom! An open ending. Now even if there is a second season, I won’t be able to watch it probably. tokyo ravens The animators did the same thing to it what the creators of Shakugan no Shana did to it. I won’t be surprised if the protagonist comes back as antagonist with new allies and claims to do everything he is doing for the sake of his old friends or whatever. I had so many hopes with the anime. Everything was going so good.Animation was good, a lot of twists, good character development, except for one or two. This one needs at least a movie to tie the loose ends as hell.

Next comes Nisekoi. I haven’t read the manga. But two girls were enough, you know. It was not necessary to introduce a third girl. It’s like, you take two tomatoes, chop them properly and you are preparing the food for just one person. Then, you feel,”Oh! You know what? I think one more tomato would spice up things a little.” but you’re not making a tomato mess. You are to make a good meal here. Ever heard “too many cooks spoil the broth?” (Guess it wasn’t a good example but you got my point).

I mean, even if it’s childhood, how can one guy make the same promise with three different girls with a variation to certain degree which includes marriage, just like that? Fake love doesn’t mean it’s gonna involve three girls. I don’t know how many are yet to get introduced. I should have listened to the unknown person who had commented on some website that they would soon introduce the third girl. My enthusiasm about the series had went down then and there. And the series is halfway through!

noragami Nisekoi should have stopped at 12th episode rather than the next one – Noragami. I have just one complaint about this one. Why the hell did you stop after 12th episode? No complaints about the ending. It was a good finish to a good series. But it was interesting as hell. The romance element between the two main characters and the past of main side character (you get the irony?) needed more time, episodes and focus. This was one anime for which I used to look forward to new episode every week. Arrrggghhhh!!! Just make another season for this one, would’ya?

Even after reading plots like a hundred times on different websites and trying the 1st episode for each anime before giving it a chance, I get to have this much disappointment, I have decided, I’ll let the new anime finish first and then start with them. For now, I am taking rest from new anime.

On the other hand, I have finished so many old anime, I have lost count myself. So I made an account on MyAnimeList.net by the name of EastAsianLover again (should’ve done way before). If you have watched the three series, what are your thought about them? Comment below and let me know if you agree or disagree with me!

[This time I didn’t take out the snapshots from the anime. So pic credits to the respective owners]

Anime Recommendation: Detroit Metal City (デトロイト・メタル・シティ)

Anime Recommendation: Detroit Metal City (デトロイト・メタル・シティ)

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

The anime starts and I hear “F***”. And I was like “F***! Is this kind of anime I should be watching?” Nonetheless, I kept watching. And lo! More words were to come with greater impact.

An anime full of “f” kind of words and a lot of pervert things with Death Metal as its theme, it’s one of the most f***ed up anime, it’s Detroit Metal City (DMC). They call its genre as vulgar comedy.

DMC 1

Plot – It’s a story about Soichi Negishi, who wants to make career in soulful music after completing his studies in Tokyo. He ends up being the lead singer of a band called DMC. His stage name is Johannes Krauser II who has a lot of infamous tales associated with him including that he raped and killed his parents in his childhood, is totally opposite to real Negishi who is kind of mama’s boy.

As the story progresses, he finds himself torn apart between him and his Krauser personality, which comes out whenever he gets excited or angry (usually very critical moments of his love life). And more legends are created in each segment of the episode.

More interesting is his company’s president, who has a peculiar way of enjoying excitement (Can’t write here. You gotta watch it for that)

Analysis – As crazy it sounds, this one is beyond my head to analyse, so I’ll leave it to your imagination. But it does have a lot of things which hint that even if Krauser is more like a death messenger, the good side of Negishi helps him help people. And I must say, I wasn’t interested in Death Metal before watching the anime and I am not interested now. Too extreme are the lyrics.

Other things – Animation is okayish. Characters aren’t of today’s general style – big eyes, shining colors but I think it won’t go with the theme either. The beats of the songs rock. Lyrics are all f***ed up. The most peculiar thing about the anime is that its all 12 eps are of 14:12 length, no more, no less. Its starting and ending though are 2+ mins each, so the actual content reduces to around 10 mins. Each episode has two segments A and B.

A live action movie is also there. Again my favorite character is the president (Don’t judge me on that if you end up watching the anime!!!). Also, you don’t need to worry about the f words being translated from Japanese to English since most of the times, they’re spoken in English only.

It’s not that I am recommending it from my side. I wouldn’t have watched it if this friend of mine hadn’t recommended it to me. But it’s hella funny and worth a try (I generally don’t like the obscure comedy. I never got Chromartie High School and such but this, even I found funny!). If you’ve a problem with the content, don’t blame me afterwards.

I think this youtube playlist with some of the songs will help clarify some things and help you decide to watch it or not: 

Fandrawing Post 4 – Saiunkoku Monogatari Chibi Ran Ryuuren

Fandrawing Post 4 – Saiunkoku Monogatari Chibi Ran Ryuuren

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I know I should be writing but I have an exam tomorrow and I haven’t started preparing for it yet. So I won’t be able to write, just for today. But I want to keep my daily streak. Hence the fan drawing, two days in a row. This is from a historical anime called Saiunkoku Monogatari. Very interesting anime but it’s story is kind of incomplete. It needs another season. >.<

About Ran Ryuuren, he is the most carefree and my favorite character in the anime. Though he has lots of responsibilities on his shoulders, he doesn’t take stress. Keeps travelling and playing flute, like he has no care in the world. But he is, most of the times, the first one to help, where he can reach. The coolest character!

Side Story – Finally, I gathered courage and told the closest friends to me about the blog. And they misunderstood the name (as usual, since it’s name contains lover ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)! Just would like to clarify that my blog’s name means that I love East Asia and NOT that I have a East Asian lover. I did have apprehensions about this. *Facepalm*

Fandrawing Post 3 – Holo from Spice and Wolf

Fandrawing Post 3 – Holo from Spice and Wolf

by eastasianlover ♥ 1 Comment

Not my latest creation but it used to be one of my favourites at the time I drew it. Holo’s fierce eyes. From the anime Spice and Wolf

I hope I haven’t posted it yet  (^.^)

Not again!!

Not again!!

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments

So, I finally did it again. When the application process for registration of 34th TOPIK was starting everywhere, it was ending in my country. *Sigh* Why does it have to happen every single time? TT_TT

I’m like soo ignorant. I so wished to take both TOPIK and JLPT in the first half of the year. Guess, I’ll have to start with the new format of the test. But I wanted to have a feel of the last test in the current format >.< My bad……

Anyways, I’ve started another anime series which is kind of funny. I’ll review it as soon as I finish the series. But it has got five seasons so there’re going to be a lot of posts in between this one and that one. I’ll take my leave for now for I’ve a lot of work to do today.

Anime Review: Speed Grapher (スピードグラファー)

Anime Review: Speed Grapher (スピードグラファー)

by eastasianlover ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

An anime marathon after sooo many months! The life is back. Alright, this is my first anime review (as far as I remember). I’ll try my best.

Speed grapher is an anime which shows what power and money can do to humans. This may not be the first anime to touch upon this subject, but it does take things to a little extreme with its plot. Let’s get started.

Speed Grapher 1

Plot – This is a story about a war photographer Saiga Tatsumi and a girl named Kagura Tennouzo. Saiga is in search of his perfect photograph and is working for a newspaper in the beginning. He gets a scoop about a secret club run by the biggest Tennouzo group and is able to get entry in there. What he sees there is beyond his belief. All the big names are present there and a lot of illegal activities are going on there including prostitution which they call pleasure. He sees a girl coming down from the roof who is being called Goddess. People come there to gain her blessing and he tries to capture her with his camera. Well, it turns out to be a taboo there and he is taken to the podium where, the goddess blesses him instead of the person who had come for the same. Saiga becomes a guy who can kill with his camera and abducts the Goddess who turns out to be the heir of the Tennouzo group, the only daughter of the family, Kagura Tennouzo. She has ability to give powers to the deepest desires of people’s heart and is the center of the whole mystery. Now Saiga takes upon himself to show Kagura the true freedom and their journey starts.

Deep Meaning – Well, it does show how weak the human heart is before money and power, how human beings don’t give a damn about others just for their profit. And it also tells how the government officials are working behind the backs of the people to fill up their accounts. That is something which most of us are aware of, but it does need a portrayal, from time to time. Revenge is also a subject in the anime, which destroys everything. Action plots are actually more about avenging for oneself or some family member or the whole family itself, which is the main motive from the starting itself or is gained in between. Here the case is the former one. And at the last, it is about the suffering and turmoil which common man has to go through due to selfish acts of those in power. No, there is more, the thing I like the best – How everything – money, pride, ego, selfishness and everything dissolves before death and we, the measly humans become so helpless before it that we are ready to give up everything we do so much slaughter of others’ emotions, pride, their selves and such , just to remain alive for few more moments. And this ends my analysis on the relation of the anime with the truth of life.

OSTs – There aren’t many. One main beginning and one ending. The beats for the beginning song are pretty good and ending is kind of slow. The lyrics are meaningful. Other than that, I remember encountering one different starting song and another ending song in one or two episodes in between. To be honest, I didn’t pay heed to them coz they didn’t kind of “grab my attention”. And there is a tune which plays throughout the anime which is playing in my head even now. So I’m sure I’m gonna download them soon.

Other details – First of all, it’s TV Asahi’s anime. I think it speaks more than anything. And it has got everything – romance, drama, mystery, action, sex (occasionally), science, supernatural phenomenon etc. etc. So it’s kind of full package in that sense. It has got fighting female police officers, big hideous mutants, awesome and somewhat unique abilities, handsome guys and many old geezers. Animation is pretty good, sometimes, the old geezers’ characters become distorted in between drawingwise. Rest is alright.

I think it’s more than enough to summarize my thoughts. If you want any cast, technical or any other info, you can refer to its Wikipedia page here.

Today’s song – I’ll post the OSTs of the same anime here –

My First Character

My First Character

by eastasianlover ♥ 3 Comments

I realized today  that I haven’t updated my fandrawings section after it’s first post. Today, I’ll post the first character I made with Photoshop when I was trying my hands on 2-D animation. It’s not that I’ve left it, but it’s been a while since I drew any human characters. I have been designing posters though (mainly for the company I’m interning at).

I know, I know. I’m not good at it, yet. But this was made without any help of Wacom or any other tablet. In fact, I didn’t have any mouse either (I still don’t own one 😛). Oh, now I think about it, it’s easier to just use photoshop tools rather than draw because I have been trying with tablet and it took me a long time to be able to draw straight lines.

Meet Kang Jin Ae…… That’s the name I gave her although she looks nothing like Koreans. But I was obsessed about it, I guess and I searched and searched for a good name. And this is what I found came up with. More about her, she is a recent graduate from an art college and has changed very much from her school days. Her crush was stunned to see her! In school, she was a hardworker and excelled in academics (only). And she was a nerd, so nobody took notice of her (or so she thought) Now she is working in her dream company which she joined not too long ago.

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Sigh! If only I could draw better. I’m practising hard though. I hope, in future, I’m able to post some good character sketches (with full body and all). Till then, Keep practising Ms. EastAsianLover……. (Lol! What am I doing? Actually, that did cheer me up a little. ㅋㅋㅋ)

Travel: What I could’ve only dreamt of – Japan Festa in Bangkok

Travel: What I could’ve only dreamt of – Japan Festa in Bangkok

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments

So today, my day started very bad coz everybody in my friends circle refused to go to Bangkok due to one reason or other. I mean, each and every single one of them backed out! But i dared today – to go alone to Bangkok. And guess what! I got the model of the mobile phone which I wanted to buy and was out of stock till yesterday afternoon. And…….. And I got to see Japan Festa in Bangkok 2013, being held outside Central World Mall. There were a lot of cosplayers and there were a lot of random outlets. There were Japanese food stalls too; but I’m a veg so I couldn’t taste that. :-/

Some gen pics –

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Here are some cosplay pics of the characters I know :

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Then I went to KoreaTown situated on Sukhumvit 12. I went there by BTS train (just like metros) and the place was some three stations away from the above place. And to tell you the truth, it was a huge disappointment. After the pleasant surprise of attending an unexpected cosplay event, I was excited what the day was to unfold for me and I was really upset after seeing a deserted place with only Korean food shops and dental clinics and hair salons. What would have I done there? I thought I could buy some books for my Korean learning there. But there wasn’t even one book shop in KoreaTown (at least I didn’t find any). I did find one book shop a little far away but all it had was Korean books for Thai people 😦

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The I went back to the event again and had more clicks. This time, since it was around 4:30 in the evening, the weather was pleasant. So I had some more fun. By 5:00 p.m. I had to reach the headquarters to take the company’s van, so I had to leave this awesome and fantastic place, much to my regret. Why did I waste time going to Sukhumvit. If only had I attended this festival properly, I could have a chance to finally try a kimono TT_TT

Some more pics with cosplays I don’t know or don’t seem to recall –

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But truly. The people were there from the morning to the evening. Must have been sooo tiring. Hats off to the cosplayers! Getting clicked by so many strangers, posing for each one of them differently……. truly amazing.

With this, I’ll end my post today. I hope you enjoy the pics 🙂

The story

The story

by eastasianlover ♥ 2 Comments

Greetings,

This is the story about how my love (or obsession?) for East Asia bloomed.

This all started when, one day, one of my classmates back in my school (I think it was 6th class) suddenly said that I looked Chinese. I mean, come on. Having small slanted eyes doesn’t mean you’re Chinese (no offence to anyone). But let it be!

Around the same time, a variety of anime started on Cartoon Network. Cardcaptor Sakura was one of the first anime I watched. After that came Pokemon, Beyblade, Captain Tsubasa, Ranma 1/2, UFO Baby etc. etc. and then started Naruto and One Piece. (Me and my sister used to get up at 6 on Sunday mornings to watch One Piece at 7 am!) Their old houses, falling sakura leaves and martial arts used to intrigue me as a child. I was so amused by their culture that I made it my aim to go to Japan once I grow up.

Later, I found a Japanese language learning book in my school’s library (It was due to envy towards my best friend who got French learning book from her brother as a gift but that is another story) and it was the final blow. I couldn’t get it photocopied because it was quite thick and I was afraid of my parents (Of course, it was my 10th class and if you are a good student, your parents would like you to concentrate on studies rather than “wasting” your time on such things). I used to copy the book in a diary myself during the time my mother used to go for her walk ( hehehehe ^w^). They still don’t know I have such a copied book!

Then my college. Now BITS Pilani is a place where, once you get your laptop (I got mine in 2nd sem as most of the people did here), you get access to vast variety of media. A lot of downloaders (I thank such people from the “bottom of my heart”) download movies, series and ANIME (and much more as you can expect and guess!). The old series which I could not complete because they stopped airing and some series I wanted to revisit, were all there. Now, my most enjoyable time started. (I did screw my grades due to that)

And then I was introduced to manga. After that, I started devoting around 16 hours(!!! <My poor Roomie>) to these things (f*** studies) and my curiosity and love for Japanese language and culture (and  people especially handsome guys appearing in J-Dramas) kept increasing. I started listening to Japanese songs (OSTs) and learning the language. It was fun.

Now since there is manga, manhwa and manhua (Korean and Chinese versions of manga respectively) can’t be left and it takes some time for a beginner to figure out which is which. So before I read manga, I read manhwa. Then came webtoons, K-dramas and ultimately K-pop! Chinese was almost the same too.

Its amazing how these things keep introducing you to other related things and you keep getting absorbed. Now I am all into K-pop and considering how their songs are copied in India, it increases my interest more (I am totally against it. These people just ruin the songs!). I think I should add frustration in the name of the blog……

I have written a lot more than I had planned to but it can’t be helped. Once I start on this topic, I can’t stop (I am the same with my friends here and they are now irritated >:-) ) In due course, I’ll keep posting J and K-pop songs and may be some of my fandrawings. Now that I have introduced you to my story, I can start for real from my next post. (I still haven’t figured out what specific things I would write – maybe reviews and more stories?)

Thank you, Gomawo, Arigatou, Xie Xie for reading this and here is a song from one of my favorite boy group, Super Junior (I found it yesterday and I am totally hooked to the song) :