Current Read
Bus Gamer
Gravitation
Hana Kimi
Hikaru no Go
Houshin Engi
Hunter x Hunter
Kaguyahime
Mekakushi no Kuni
Monster
pPoi!
Saiyuki
Saiyuki Gaiden
Shiritsu Araiso
Stigma
Wild Adapter
Yami no Matsuei
Saiyuki Novel 2

Current Obsessions
anything by Minekura Kazuya
esp [Sanzo & Homura & Toki]

Saturday, September 29, 2001

I guess this is bound to happen sooner or later... an entry on the fanboy vs. fangirl aspect of the Gundam Wing fandom. Kinda. No, I'm not going into the yaoi vs non-yaoi part, as I'm sure there are fanboys who read yaoi and fangirls who don't (it's a good thing, too, because that resulted in some really good non-yaoi and/or het fanfics). Anyway. My 22 year old cousin was visiting last week, and he happened upon my collection of Gundam Wing artbooks. As he flipped through them, he started commenting on the beauty of the Gundams (the bits and pieces of machinery that make up the structure and outline, etc). He told me about the models he and his friends had built and painted, and how he planned to buy more. Wing Zero is his favorite, and he also thought Sandrock's blades look awesome. It's too bad the blades don't have that much use and don't glow. I was really surprised to learn he didn't like Deathscythe at all, since it was what majority of the female GW fandom (myself included) prefer among the five. We also discussed the characters and plotlines in Gundam Wing, and my cousin not only found the plot a complete bore (too much useless talk + character development and not enough action, he said), he also thought it is wrong to have /boy/ pilots (as opposed to /men/) and they don't look all that good either. [He won't last a second in the GW yaoi fandom if he went in with that kind of opinion ^^;;]. He also kept telling me how I was really lucky to have bought the two artbooks that contains detailed Gundam structure sketches, while the others with only picutres of the [guy] characters were a waste of money. At that point I began to realize just how different fans of different sex can be. Sure there are always exceptions, but there's no mistaking how we are just different when viewing something like this. How many fangirls in the Gundam Wing fandom can honestly say they were first attracted to the series by the Gundams and not by the boys? I know I only got into it because of the yaoi factor in the fanfics.

Ah, on Mugen no Juunin. I remember the first time I saw the cover, my first thought was: "why the heck did they use such a feminine title for a shounen series?" You see, from far away I mistakened the kanji for "juunin" as the kanji for "kajin." So I thought the title was Mugen no Kajin, which means the translation would not be Blade of the Immortal (or Inhabitant of Infinity as Charmian pointed out), but Eternal Beauty. LOL. After I got that cleared up, the title made more sense. ^^; I haven't read it for at least two years, so I don't really remember the details. I'm hoping that would change because my cousin just told me he planned to continue buying the series and I can leech off him. Yay. I agree with Charmian that the series is better than Rurouni Kenshin. It's not so much about the artstyle because they differ so much and it would be unfair to compare the two despite both series' focus on samurai. If one must, I wonder how Inoue Takehiko's Vagabond would fair against them. The reason I refrain from discussing Blade of the Immortal before is because I don't know enough about it to make any thorough analysis. But from what I do recall (and bear in mind I'd read only the first few volumes), it is most definitely for an older audience. Hmmmm... the storyline is more confusing than RK, which for the most part is pretty straight-forward and comes with all the typical shonen series characters. I actually prefer Blade of the Immortal over RK, 'though it doesn't explain why I'm (sorta) collecting the RK manga and not Blade of the Immortal. Ah well. I'll see when I have more money and less addiction. I've already ordered two more Harry Potter books online. ^^;;

And while I'm on the topic of Rurouni Kenshin, I just have to comment on this "no killing" issue the main characters seem to have stuck in their mind. I finished watching Trigun earlier this evening, and while I really enjoy the series due to its awesome opening, Vash's cool costume and weaponery, and the sci-fi aspects... I do feel quite annoyed everytime Vash bursts into tears because he fails to protect someone. Good grief. He's such a great character in the first half, but just have to turn into /Kenshin/ in the later episodes. *sigh* It's no secret Kenshin rank top on my most disliked Rurouni Kenshin characters list, so it bothered me lots. Especially because I like Vash. I also decided that the Trigun dub is pretty good. I don't have the original Japanese voices to compare so I don't know how I would like them, but I do love Vash's dub voice. I also had American cartoon flashbacks occasionally while I was watching it, but I expect that to happen since I don't usually watch dubs. I'm going to take a wild assumption and say, unless the dub is /really/ bad, I think people won't mind them so much as long as they never heard the original Japanese version. I mean, I first watched Detective Conan in Chinese dub, and afterwards actually took me quite awhile to get used to the Japanese version because I thought the Chinese dub was better (for once).

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 11:42 p.m. PST~

Friday, September 28, 2001

Here's the first of my manga/anime related lists: list of manga I own*. Eventually I'll get around to the phonebooks, artbooks, novels, doujinshi, CDs, etc.

*[if the link doesn't work, just copy and paste the url into a new browser.]

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 04:48 p.m. PST~

Friday, September 28, 2001

Just in case people were mislead about what I said regarding the second Condor Heroes novel series... It's /good/ and I recommend it to everyone. I don't like it as much as I like some of Jin Yong's other novels, but the story and writings are wonderful and just because I dislike the main characters doesn't mean I didn't have fun reading the series. In other words, don't avoid the series on my account!

While stalking KaiLing's blog, I came across this. Image that! Someone else who liked the G.T.O. drama! XDD I've long given up looking for people who liked it because the only one I know who have seen it liked the manga and the anime better (and the manga's becoming more messed up than it should, IMO). I much prefer the drama, and of course it has /nothing/ to do with my fondness for Sorimachi Takashi. *coughs* But anyway, Priya, if you ever stumbled here for any reason... I can make you CD copies of the rest of the GTO drama (minus the special) if you want. Just have to ignore the annoying Chinese subtitles. Speaking of which, I need to remind my brother to give me my copies.

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 02:01 p.m. PST~

Friday, September 28, 2001

LOL. OK, I guess I'll share the BBQ thing with you guys. So, I was home earlier this week when my roommate called and asked me to bring some charcoal back to the apartment because my housemates were going to hold a BBQ. I asked if she wanted me to bring some lighter fluid as well, but she said I just need to bring the charcoal. Tsk tsk. Anyway, I came back to the apartment Thursday afternoon, handed them the bag of charcoal, and went on AIM. Not soon after that I was hearing confusion shouts in the kitchen, so I went out to take a look. It turned out that they couldn't set the fire burning (duh, how can they w/o the lighter fluid?) and, after deciding against using cooking oil, they placed several pieces of charcoal on the stove and started cooking it. O_o; I thought I should be as far away as possible from the site, so I ran back into the refuge of my room and started telling some people on AIM about it (if I died, they would know it's from the BBQ). Then, I started to smell something bad. I opened the door and the smell turned very strong. There were hardly any smoke (otherwise it would have already triggered the fire alarm like it had last time my housemates were cooking fish), but the smell was so bad I started coughing. Just then my roommate decided to finally read the warning label, which said something about do not ever burn charcoal on the stove as it produces carbon monoxide (or was it dioxide?) Greeeeeeeeat. They turned off everything, opened all the doors and windows, and we moved outside. The wing was strong. They tried to get a fire started on some newspaper first and piled the charcoal on top, but what they managed to accomplish was set the lawn on fire. Well, not really, but the newspaper with the fire did fly out and started rolling on the lawn for awhile before we caught it and put it out. Two of our neighbors, who were playing football catch there, promised not to say anything if we burn down the whole lawn. There. Ah yes, the aftermath. We ended up cooking the BBQ stuff inside using the oven, and it wasn't all that bad. *laughs*

We did a major house clean-up yesterday, and afterwards held a house meeting. <- that was when I kept ignoring people on AIM, however unknowningly.

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 12:45 p.m. PST~

Friday, September 28, 2001

I think I'm making up for lost time or something. ^^;

Jane, don't kill me if you don't like what I said about ����L�Q. Seriously. Now, I know you hate anime, but take a look at this anyway. I think it's interesting how they make Xiao Longnu look like that as opposed to, say, the traditional look in the picture [left] drawn by Chen Shu-Fen for the Condor Heroes game cover. Btw, can I borrow your Chen Shu-Fen artbook? I never got to really look at it properly at Stephanie's place last summer.

Oh, and I found info on R.O.D. (Read or Die) immediately after you left AIM. What exactly did you want me to do about it anyway?

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 03:21 a.m. PST~

Friday, September 28, 2001

This is a really old topic... Kristina, the writings on Jae's teapot are supposed to be read from right to left, because 1) that's how people write Chinese sideways and 2) the person's signature is at the far left in small print next to the words. I can only make out the first two words, and sorta guess (and bother someone about) the last two words. What I get is this: "�s�~�d�H," which basically means "dragon," "year," "thousand," and "happiness/celebration(?)" [I really need my full set of Chinese dictionary with me but they are too heavy and thick to carry around]. The "dragon + year" together means the Chinese year of the Dragon, which is the year 2000. the words for "thousand" and "happiness/celebration" added together means "millenium." It would make sense, then, to assume the teapot's writings is a wish/greeting for "millenium 2000."

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 02:33 a.m. PST~

Friday, September 28, 2001

Maybe it's just me, but I don't look forward to the Condor Heroes anime at all. Of all of Jing Yong's longer novels, Shin Chou Kyou Ryu rank top on my most disliked list. It annoyed me even more to learn how it's Jing Yong's favorite (he likes the forbidden teacher-student love relationship in the story). There's nothing wrong with that, but the character Yang Guo (Youka) is just so stupid it's annoying. Mind you, he's actually a bright guy, but he's so easily mislead about *spoiler* that I have to keep reminding myself he's only a fictional character before I can tolerate him enough to finish reading the novel. (Btw, TV adaptions of the novel don't truly follow the characters in the novel, so I view them separately). Then, of course, there's Xiao Longnu (Shuu Ryuujo). I cannot even begin to describe how much I dislike her. The Chinese blog entry I referred to earlier was about some of Jing Yong's work and had a brief mention of this, so I'll save the rant for another day.

I'm really behind on manga reading and any sort of activity related to the computer and Internet. *sigh* I'm trying to catch up on blog reads (and failing), and I notice how a lot of people are suddenly mentioning Harry Potter and Houshin Engi. Hmmm, I can understand the HP part since the movie release date is near, but Houshin Engi? Why the sudden interest? For the record, I like Fukki and Outenkun, too. I've always thought Outenkun was fascinating (I'm still fuming about not getting a photo of that Outenkun cosplayer at Y-Con), and Fukki is even better given his background and true identity. XDD. Speaking of HE, Katherine has a Nataku blog layout! *_* It's one of the two HE pics I've been planning to use but can't figure out how to make them work because I'm html-challenged. >.< I'm somewhat glad I didn't get to touch it though, because Katherine does a good job. The background red/white lines are making me go blind, but I think it's worth it. Hehehe.

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 02:32 a.m. PST~

Thursday, September 27, 2001

Hmmm... I had an entry typed out, but it was all in Chinese and since only 2 or 3 of my visitors are fluent in Chinese, I think it's only fair if I wait until I write a similar one in English before I blog it. ^^;

I finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone last night. It was actually fun. Surprisingly, my favorite character is Ron. I don't know why, but somehow it just turned out that way. *laughs* And, like some people have predicted, I don't like the novel version of Draco. He's entirely different from the fanfiction version. While I usually have a fondness for villains, the novel Draco is just a bully. A bully that's not strong (or special) enough to be called a villain. *sigh* Snape, however, is quite interesting. I look forward to reading more of him in the latter novels. Assuming if I can find some copies.

Right now, I'm talking to way too many people on AIM to do any serious blogging. ;p I got my cellphone over the weekend, too. I have a Panasonic TX220 (DuraMax). What I really want is Nokia 8260, but it was too expensive.

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 09:00 p.m. PST~

Monday, September 24, 2001

Just a quick note to say I should be back to blogging and AIM chatting sometime this week, probably by Wednesday or Thursday.

Kristina, I miss talking to you on AIM, too! I barely survived last week's lack of Internet access. ;_; You're leaving next week!? Do you want me to ship your tapes back to you before or after?

Lex, yes, that was an imitation drawing ('cept the coloring's mine, which explains why it was so crappy). I'm sending your belated b-day present soon. I just need to write a card/note. ;)

Yume, thanks for the Trigun tapes. *glomps* I cannot believe you actually addressed the package to "the Anime Goddess of the West Coast!" ROFL. Well, it confused my roommate, who picked up the package, until she saw my name in tiny parentheses after that. XD

...and I'll do more blog responses later.

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 12:27 p.m. PST~

Friday, September 14, 2001

Kristina, sorry I had you worried. For anyone else who cared: I'm fine, and as far as I know, all my relatives are okay.

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 07:15 p.m. PST~

Monday, September 10, 2001

Are Japanese blog entries becoming the trend now? Lex, the English text looks fine, but my eyes hurt after trying to read those tiny Japanese text. *rubs eyes* How come you don't know Fuugen's name in kanji? You haven't gotten to him in the manga yet? Or...? One day, when my Japanese is good enough, I'm going to make a blog like this. Until then, I'll just daydream and insert short fragments of Japanese comments now and then.

For reasons I don't understand, I cannot access durendal's blog 99% of the time I tried. ;_;

Surfing Japanese fansites and looking at all those gorgeous fanarts makes me want to find my own style (there are really bad fanarts, too, but I tend to ignore those). Those of you who have seen my fanarts before know I'm usually better with imitations than unique and original drawings. Sometimes I really wish I have more creative talents, both for writing and drawing. *sigh* But anyway, after I'm done with Thursday's final, I'll have a 1-2 weeks break before Fall Quarter starts. I'm going to use the time to finish drawing the "Hotohori in Leather" pic I promised Yume, and also work on a little doujinshi short based on tracy t-g's little theory of Shien and his beauty mark. ;)

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 08:51 p.m. PST~

Monday, September 10, 2001

Cause: �������|�� (��)�B�O���l�ʐl�x��100% (��)�B

Effect: *twitching feebly*

Cure: Stop reading Japanese fics at insane early hours in the morning.

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 05:37 a.m. PST~

Sunday, September 9, 2001

I was bored, so I decided to do a quick translation of the bonus track in the 2nd Saiyuki Drama CD (seems like the only time I'm productive is when I'm bored). Anyway, this is a really rough translation and I don't guarantee any accuracy.

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 10:38 p.m. PST~

Sunday, September 9, 2001

Er, oops? >.< Youzen, I'm sorry I've been calling you "Yonzen" for... /since/ I started reading Houshin Engi. I'm horrible with character name spellings. In fact, I just realized yesterday that I've been calling Yaone "Yanoe" for ages. That's the disadvantage of being able to recognize most of the kanji. I tend to skip the character name pronounciations, especially if the character(s) in question are not my favorites. 'Though, I've been known to combine Konzen and Kenren's names and call them Konren or Kenzen.... *sweats* At least I'm spelling Sanzo and Koganei correctly. ^^;;;

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 05:27 p.m. PST~

Sunday, September 9, 2001

Yes, Yonzen has great legs. XD Initial D mp3s!? *_* Yes, please send them to me. Would you happen to have WK ones as well? In fact, feel free to include any other anime songs you have as long as they are not from Fushigi Yuugi, Saiyuki, or Gundam Wing (seeing how I own most, if not all, of these series' soundtracks and drama CDs already). I'm actually trying to find the CDs for Initial D, Gravitation, and Weiss Kreuz, but I'm not buying any until I do more research on them because I don't want to end up buying the wrong ones. I do know the former two series have very catchy opening and ending songs though. XDDD I'm not sure what you mean when you said "all that other Minekura stuff they have in all those stores." Were you referring to her manga? Or do you mean merchandises in general? I have all but two or three of the Minekura-related print matters. ^^;;;

Argh, it's so difficult to find good Initial D and Gravitation yaoi fanfiction. Maybe I'm just really lousy at searching for stuff online, because so far the only Gravitation fanfics I've found that don't disgust me with their OOC-ness are in Japanese. O_o;; That's really stretching it considering how Japanese fics tend to be OOC to start with. Also, while there are several well-written English Initial D fics, none of them are based on my favorite pairings. *sigh*

Charmian, I actually read that Japanese Buddhism allows homosexuality (and many Saiyuki yaoi fans rejoice at the news). The funny thing is I read this in one of Matsushita's freetalks (the Saint Michel arc in volume 4). I'm not sure about the information's validity, but I'm going to assume she had at least done some research on it. So that might explain why Saiyuki's popularity in Japan doesn't attract any religious groups' attacks. You're right about the Christianity part of course. Metatron doesn't ring a bell to me at all. ;p 'Though, one of the reasons I dislike Angel Sanctuary is because it has too much religious references. Frankly, I'm sick of seeing Christianity mentioned in manga series because it gets too redundant. I suppose that's why I like Houshin Engi and Saiyuki so much. For once, the religions in question are something else. ^^;; Ah, I know what you mean about d/l anime using IRC. I've tried it many times but I guess IRC and I just don't get along. That, or I'm just seriously computer challenged. *sweats*

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 05:07 a.m. PST~

Friday, September 7, 2001

Ooooooh, lookie, Initial D RPG blog! XDDD I think I'm going to be looking for Initial D fics when I have more free time.

It's nice to finally get to watch the Takumi vs Ryousuke battle (in the anime), since I've only read up to volume 4 of the manga. I'm debating whether I should get the manga (someone should stop me). I don't like the artwork much, even though the series does have wonderful plot, so I'm hoping I can find some for rental. There really isn't any used manga stores around here... and in the few stores I do know of, the volumes cost about $5-$8 per copy. Might as well get the brand new volume at Kino, I say. -_-;

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 09:44 p.m. PST~

Friday, September 7, 2001

I have only one thing to say about the Initial D marathon: The series is way too addicting.

Kristina, I actually didn't borrow that copy of the book. Would you recommend that I do? ^^;; Other than the novel itself, there were a few other books about Tale of Genji on the shelves. One of them had a list of all the characters' names (in Japanese kanji, romanization, and English), and even some photocopies from the original Japanese book itself (or something else, since the handwritings look different from page to page). Hmmm... maybe I should go back and check out a few of those books. Let's see, I think it's a novelization for the movie. It makes sense, what with the movie just coming out in the theaters and Saiyuki in its peak as far as popularity goes. Oh, I'll take Homura in prose form. *laughs* There's so little of him outside the anime that I'll take whatever I can find. ;)

On Hikaru no Go chapter 131: Now, I have nothing against Isumi, but if the story's focus is going to shift to him instead of Hikaru and Sai (and judging from the way this chapter ends, I think it is), the mangaka is just dragging the story! >.< Maybe she ran out of ideas on how to deal with Hikaru and Sai's situation, and suddenly remembered she still had Isumi. What better way to distract the readers from Hikaru/Sai by moving to Isumi, who's not even in the same country as our hero(s)? *sigh*

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 07:56 p.m. PST~

~Joy pulls a Koganei at PST~

Thursday, September 6, 2001

Happy birthday, Lex! *hugs & kisses*

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 07:52 p.m. PST~

Thursday, September 6, 2001

I checked the university library today, and did in fact find a copy of Genji Monogatari. However, the translator was Kencho Suematsu, not Edward Seidensticker. The book was also awfully short, which means it was probably the abridged version (?). I think they had the Seidensticker version in the library reserves though. Hmm.. I finally saw the kanji title, and realized I'd heard of it a long time ago (just didn't connect the two, since there were too many stories ending with "monogatari" ;p). In fact, one of the pPoi! tankoubon mentioned it also. The mangaka always makes a parody of a fairy tale/popular story starring the pPoi! characters at the end of each tankoubon under the "Syuyaku pPoi!?" section, and there was a version for Genji Monogatari. It was volume 4, IIRC (this just makes me more enthusiastic about making that pPoi! website). Playboy Banri played the role of Genji, of course.

Anyhow, I wandered around the library afterwards, and found the East Asian Languages Collection section. It was heavenly. *_* I really should visit the campus library more often. I spent an hour at the first shelf, and then it was time for class. D'oh. I did quickly skim through their collection though, and most of the stuff were in simplified Chinese and Japanese (the former would take twice as much time for me to read than would traditional Chinese, and I'm not fluent enough in Japanese to be able to read those philosophical text yet). There were tons of books on Buddhism and such, too. I think I'll be doing less blogging from now and spend more time at the library.

I got my Initial D and Gravitation fansubs. All 14 of them. Oh dear. I guess I'll be having an Initial D anime marathon this weekend. XDD Jane, you want to come visit me this weekend?

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 02:36 p.m. PST~

Thursday, September 6, 2001

I'm still awake, having just frightened myself again by reading more disturbing Saiyuki fanfics. I think some of those Japanese fic-writers really need to keep up with their psychiatrists. I should, too, since I'm actually reading those stuff. >.< I did find some more fluff 39 and gag fics though, so I'm happy. Hehehehe, "Shonen Kakumei Goku." ROFL.

You know, I just realized reading con reports is more fun if I had also attended the same con. I read Emi's Y-Con report, and I agree that some of the doujinshi in the dealer's room were priced too high. 'Though, Aestheticism had some good dj from as low as $7, and that was cheaper than /anything/ I've seen on eBay as far as doujinshi goes. And I'm still miffed that I missed the art demos and several of the panels I had planned to go. *sigh*

Charmian, I rather think it would be easier to understand (or at least, enjoy) Saiyuki if you *don't* have the cultural background. Well, it's more fun if you also read the original novel, but I would stop at that. Maybe it's the same as how the themes in Angel Sanctuary disturb some people because these people are familar with Christianity, for when I first read Saiyuki, I thought it was /wrong./ In fact, I won't be surprised if some of the Buddhists condemned Minekura-sensei for twisting the characters thus (esp. in the case of Kanzeon Bosatsu). I'm inclined to think I used to dislike Saiyuki because the series itself corrupts so much Buddhism ideas that it made me uncomfortable (I'm not into Buddhism, btw, but I did grow up under that environment). I've come to accept the series as it is now, but if I ever have to see Sanzo paired up with a woman, I'll run away screaming (and it's not just because I'm a yaoi fan. it's more about morals and reservations for the religion).

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 04:56 a.m. PST~

Wednesday, September 5, 2001

Random AIM conversation with my roommate:

me: btw, Ewan's off my wall for now
roommie: WHAT?
roommie: WHAT?
roommie: ARE U OKAY?
roommie: WHO'S THIS?
me: ..................
me: well, I have to make room for the four new guys.
me: they are all younger than Ewan and closer to my age, too.
roommie: who?
roommie: please say they are real people
roommie: and not anime
me: er..

I would have argued that Sanzo was a real person in history, but since I doubt the real Genjo Sanzo was a blond who smoked and had the tendency to point guns at others and even at himself... I let it pass.

My roommate came to the apartment to drop off her share of the rent today. The rent had increased by $20 starting September. >.< She also brought me a little souvenir from China: a Saiyuki poster. It was the one with the clovers. ^_^

I woke up this morning and suddenly decided that I haven't been reading enough books lately. The last English novel I've read (that wasn't a school requirement) was Storm Constantine's The Thorn Boy, and it was way too short anyway. I also left the Harry Potter book at home because I didn't feel like carrying it to Y-Con, and now I have nothing to read here. So, I remembered I was supposed to look up Tale of Genji. Well, I did, but amazon.com had 45 matches for the titles (in unabridged and abridged version, by different authors, with different translators). My eyes started turning into spirals at the selections, so I gave up. I'll wait until someone give me a few pointers on which book I should get. Oh, and I started on FLCL, except it wasn't making much sense, so I moved on to other manga. ^^;; I really like Ludwing II vol 1 & 2, but where's vol 3? I thought it was completed when I bought it, but apparently not. >.< I also like Cantarela, but again, the story wasn't completed. Maybe I'll start on Under Execution, Junder Jailbreak. I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time on that one though.

I'm poor and near bankruptcy, so I need to start looking for work at the campus soon. I had planned to work in the bookstore for the beginning of the quarter rush hour, but it required a week's training during the week I'm going to spend at home. *sigh* I wonder if there are any jobs for translators...

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 06:16 p.m. PST~

Wednesday, September 5, 2001

I'm so excited I just had to blog again. One of my favorite Japanese Saiyuki fic-writers (also a djka) just started the sequel to (imo) her best fic series! XDD That series ended in March, and I've been waiting for the sequel since... well, when I first got into reading Japanese Saiyuki fics months ago. So, you can see why I was about to burst into sparkles when I saw the first sequel chapter on her site.

FYI, it was *the* fic that turned me into a Homura x Sanzo fan, despite the fact that the plot went against some of my standards (ie. nc/rape turned love).

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 01:10 a.m. PST~

Wednesday, September 5, 2001

If you missed it, the Y-Con report was in the last entry.

I now have another obsession: Gravitation. I still don't care much for the anime, but the manga is awesome. I really regret not getting Gravitation Remix when I had the chance. I've also discovered why Yuki seemed so familiar when I first read the manga a month or so ago. He's almost an AU version of Sanzo. Yes, and Shuichi is like an AU version of Goku. I'm now drowning in the heaven that is Gravitation, and I'm not sure if I want to be rescued. I still can't believe Yuki called Shuichi "ana benjo" though. *falls over laughing*

Charmian, I love your application questions for MLs. In fact, I have the strongest urge to answer the 1st HoushinML question ["Name 40 Houshin Engi characters, with a one sentence or less description of their role in the plot"] and the 2nd Saiyuki18ML question ["So what is Nii up to anyway with the rabbit and what seems to be a pack of...."] XDDDD I would answer the question for the SaiyukiML, too... but I think I have enough doses for Buddhism talk as of now. I don't think I would be allowed in the YnM ML if I answered that ML question though. *sweats* And I need to get back to your Saiyuki impression sometime. That's the thing that always got me thinking. Kougaiji actually behaves more like the protagonist rather than as the villain.

Wow, I didn't know my rant on the 108 thing actually helped someone. XD Arcina, you just managed to encourage me to do more of these rants. I'm not sure if this is the same thing as the 108 stars for the Suikoden though... but maybe I'll look that up when I have time (oh dear, what have I just gotten myself into?) And is *that* Fujimi Symphony Orchestra real life size dolls!? O_O;; And they are standing next to... Oh no, sudden flashback of the telephone pole. Must forget, must forget, must forget...

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 12:43 a.m. PST~

Wednesday, September 5, 2001

So, here's my Y-Con report. If you've ever read any of my weekend reports before, you know they tend to be /long/ and often messy. Run away now when you still can. ;) Oh, and I might be talking about some, er, disturbing NC-17 material, so... be warned.

+Friday+

Stephanie and I arrived at the hotel around 7-8pm. There was a long line for registration, but I got to register first because I was a volunteer staff. So, while Stephanie was still waiting in line, I was already shopping at Kino. ^^;; I snagged a couple of magazines and manga:

>Animage Sep. issue (cover: Sanzo & Hakkai; inside goodies: "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" desktop calendar)
>AX Sep. issue (cover: Goku & Gojyo; inside goodies: DVD sample, which supposedly had clips on the Saiyuki movie)
>Hikaru no Go 13
>Yami no Matsuei 1 & 2
>Hunter x Hunter 12
>FLCL 1
>Under Execution, Under Jailbreak: Araki Hirohiko's short stories collection [I almost /died/ when I saw this, esp. after I found out my favorite character from Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure is in it! XDD My favorite character is the obnoxious mangaka Kishibe Rohan from Arc 3 of JJBA, btw].

When I went to pay for the manga, the guy at the register saw my Y-Con member badge and asked me what the con was about. I was so embarrassed that I barely managed to come up with a coherent explanation. ^^/// After dinner, Stephanie and I sat in the lobby waiting for the early Dealer's Room ticket lottery to start. We also met a few people there. Then, I found out if we had a room in the hotel, we were automatically guaranteed a ticket each. So we picked up our tickets and spent the rest of the evening waiting for Jaeny to finish her interview with the Japanese reporters, so she could give us a ride to the bart station.

+Saturday+

It was after 1am by the time we got to my house. My parents threw a huge fit at my lack of sense to call them about coming home late (apparently my mom forgot what I said about not leaving SF until after 11pm). Anyway, I had a quick 2 hr nap before it was time to head back to SF. It was a good thing my mom was doing the driving, because I wasn't very awake. We reached the hotel safely, but unfortunately we couldn't check in because it was too early in the morning and none of the rooms were available yet. So we got our luggage into the storage room, and I went to the ATM machine to grab some cash. My mom gave me another lecture when she saw me took out $200 (geez mom, just leave me alone!)

I checked in at the volunteer station at 8am, and basically just sat at the registration desk doing nothing because obviously the staff there couldn't decide what time to start the registration process. O_o;; I met Katsu, and she wasn't what I expected. I dunno, she was so much more... friendly, if that makes any sense. ^_^; We finally started to get people registered, so it got really busy afterwards. There was already a line for the dealer's room by then, and I saw a few cosplayers. There's Vegeta from DBZ, Yuugi from Yu-Gi-Oh, Utena, Omi, Duo, and Sanzo & Hakkai (Why, oh why did I put my camera in the luggage that were locked away in the storage room?) My shift ended at 9am, and I immediately went to join the Dealer's Room line. I went to the Dogmatist table right away, but Jo Chen wasn't there, just Jaki. Jo Chen didn't have any new work, but I did picked up an ad sample for something called Brain Stew, which I believed is a new doujinshi(?) due to be released this fall. Kristina, I'll mail you the sample pack (which is really just a sheet of paper). Then, I walked up to the Aestheticism Y-Con table, and there went the first $200. I actually had to give up a few doujinshi because I ran out of cash. >.< Besides doujinshi, I also got some other stuff at the Aestheticism table: a Sanzo shitajiki, a Saiyuki shitajiki, a twin Sanzo keychain, a cellphone chain (?) featuring Sanzo and Goku, and a plastic keychain featuring Sanzo, Goku, and Kougaiji (I already had the Hakkai+Gojyo+Jipu one). I went to the US Anime table, and luckily they accepted credit cards. I spent..er, more money there on: a large Saiyuki poster, a small Saiyuki poster(?), a Stigma plastic folder, a manga version Sanzo bromide collection thingy, a Bus Gamer shitajiki, four mini shitajiki featuring chibi!Sanzo, chibi!Goku, chibi!Hakkai, and chibi!Gojyo. Then, Stephanie and I went to the ATM machine to get more cash. We spent more money at the dealer's room.

manga, books, and dj I bought on Sat:
*Gensoumaden Saiyuki Fanbook 1
*Yami no Matsuei Character Book
*Koori no Mamono no Monogatari vol 13
*Ludwig II vol 1 (by You Higuri)
*Ludwig II vol 2 (by You Higuri)
*Cantarela vol 1 (by You Higuri)
*Tenshi ni Bara no Hanataba wo vol 2 (by You Higuri)
*Haruka naru toki no naka de vol 1-3
*Shounen Hump! (the Y-Con anthology)
*14 Saiyuki doujinshi
*6 Gundam Wing doujinshi
*3 Houshin Engi doujinshi
*3 You Higuri doujinshi (one of which is a duplicate because I asked for her autograph on the extra copy. *_* ::dances::)
*1 SW:TPM doujinshi (this is *the* most expensive thing I'd bought at the con. I think I'll sell it on ebay or something. I just cannot afford to keep it. >.< *bangs head against wall*)

I checked into the hotel room before noon, and just when the elevator was closing, I saw Outenkun (from Houshin Engi)!! I couldn't ask the porter to drop everything so I can dig out my camera and take a picture, so I lost my chance. I never saw that cosplayer again. *sobs* ;_; Anyway, I had to rush to the Fanfiction Contest panel, since I was one of the judges and thus one of the panelists. I had told Katsu that I tend to get nervous around a crowd (esp when I'm part of the focus), so I basically just sat there listening to people talk. ^^;; RavynFyre, also one of the judges, was really cool. I think I dropped out of the GW fandom just as she started writing "Inferno's Touch," so I didn't get to read that. Now I'm really curious about the plot, especially since Kistune drew a doujinshi of that series in Shounen Hump! I do remember reading "Mission: Arcadia" though, and IIRC, RavynFyre was one of the guest writers for that fic series. XD

I left right afterwards for my volunteer work at the Y-Con table. I just had one thing to say about it. It was really sad. More than 80% of the doujinshi at the table was on Houshin Engi, and no one bought any of that. Majority of these doujinshi featured Youzen, too. Does that mean Youzen is not popular? Or maybe the yaoi fandom just had no clue about Houshin Engi in general? I would have bought some Nataku dj, but I had already spent enough money on doujinshi. >.< Oh well. Stephanie met up with me after my shift, and we both went to the video room. They were behind schedule, so we actually watched "Legend of the Blue Wolf" by accident. I think majority of the people in the video room was seriously traumatized by that series. *snickers* I guess they didn't expect to see the main character raped by an ugly and enormous man. Or rather, they didn't /want/ to see it happen in explicit form. I should be worried that I wasn't the least disturbed... I mean, you can't expect the rapist to be gorgeous all the time. The, er, glowing censor lights between where the bodies join was annoying though. And, is it just me, or was the minor character who got raped in the beginning /happy/ about what he was getting? O_O; If there was something disturbing about the series for me, it was that. Next in the lineup was "Kizuna 1". I had never seen the series before, though I've heard about it. It was weird and I felt like I missed something. Perhaps I would understand more of the plot background if I had read the manga also. Anyway, I had to skip "Kizuna 2" because I wanted to see the cosplay skit. However, the line was too long, and I had no patience for waiting. So I went to the Saiyuki discussion group instead. There wasn't many people present. *sigh* Saiyuki wasn't popular enough yet? Like with the Fanfiction Contest panel, I just sat there and listened to people talk. They also mentioned the Executive Committee series and Bus Gamer, but surprisingly no one said anything about Wild Adapter or Stigma. ;_; Maybe I should have said something, but I was too tired to even move, so... Some of the members brought a few Saiyuki merchandises and books along to share, and one of them really caught my eyes. Yes, people who were at the discussion group, you know what I meant. I'm talking about the Goku x Sanzo doujinshi that everyone was gaping on. Most of you were disturbed by the, er, behavior and action carried out by the person who was so unlike the innocent naive boy we knew as Goku. I, on the other hand, /loved/ it. I'd read so many NC 93 fics that reading this sweet fluff SAP (not to mention consensual yet explicit) was a dream come true. Heh. I'd admit the image of Sanzo in an apron in the first few pages was... hella weird, but cute nevertheless. Dammit, I want that dj! To whoever who's reading this, I'll love you forever if you can find me the dj or anything by the same djka. I had the djka name and dj title. (you know, maybe I will even pay the expensive price for Doki Doki Station to get it for me). Before I left the group, I took my first convention photo with a really cute Omi. *hearts*

I went back to the video room and caught the end of "Kizuna 3". Geez, this series is funny. XDD I was almost sorry I had to miss "Kizuna 2" and most of "Kizuna 3" (but no, getting to read that 93 doujinshi was worth it). Next up was Visual Shoxx: J-rock. Let's see, we watched 2 X-Japan videos (Yoshiki!), 2 Buck-Tick videos (may I be forever traumatized by the white faced open eyed man lying on the ground), 2 Luna Sea videos (the doll/bed thing in the woods was weird O_o;), two L'Arc~en~Ciel videos (Hyde! I didn't recognize the first video, just that I couldn't see Hyde's face for 99.99999% of the time. The second video was "Driver's High." I like the music video. I think I like Hyde with short hair better, too. I mean, I can actually see his face. ^O^), 1 Penicillin video (what's with all the babies...?). Then I went to the hotel room to read some manga. When I went back down again, they were showing a film(?) featuring Malice Mizer. It was very well done, and all the more enjoyable with all the commentaries *cough* from the audience. I think I'll be looking up Malice Mizer information in the next couple of days, not so much for their songs, but more for the member profiles. I believed they showed "Fake" next. Hehehehe, I liked it. It was getting late, so Stephanie and I went to buy some crepes and takoyaki for dinner. We pretty much decided to spend most of the night camping out in the video room, so it was very important we remember to fill our stomachs. *laughs* ;)

The next video they showed was "Boku no Sexual Harassment." It was /very/ interesting. I was torn between wanting to slap the main character silly for his STUPIDITY and feeling extremely sorry for him. Basically, the main character (whose name I forgot) decided to whore himself for the sake of his company. He was first confronted by this section head *cough* named Honma (or something like that. I wasn't particularly interested in their names, you see). To sum up the series: Boy meets horny boss. Boy gets screwed by said horny boss, who pimps him to A LOT of high ranked officials from various companies. Boy meets someone who truly loves him, but dumps the guy because boy has fallen for horny boss. Horny boss confesses his love for boy, but we don't know if it's real love or not, because horny boss continues to pimp boy for his benefit. Throw in some wacky flashback scenes (with characters voiced by Ishida Akira and Koyasu Takehito), vibrators, bondage, Bourbon *cough*, Bourbon wine bottles *coughcough*, video tape scandal, corn *coughcoughcough* (I don't think I can ever eat corn w/o seeing *that* mental image again >.<), and lots of naked guys screwing each other.., er, I mean lots of naked guys screwing the main character, and you have "Boku no Sexual Harassment." I didn't like the ending. The next series was "Yami no Matsuei," and I stayed to watch the first episode just to hear people's reactions. After that, I went back to the hotel room, showered, and started packing because I knew I won't have time the next day.

+Sunday+

I took a 2 hr nap, and went back to the video room again. They were just starting to show episode 12 of YnM. I watched that (and episode 13), and I guess the people who subbed for the series was in a real hurry to meet the Y-Con deadline, because some of the lines were missing, and not all subtitles were accurate. ^^;; Anyway, the video schedule was back on track by then, and I went to wake Stephanie because she really wanted to watch "Gohatto." They started showing "Gohatto" around 4:15am, I think. There was no subtitle. -_-;; Unlike watching raw anime, it was much harder to understand a real life drama movie w/o subtitles. But Stephanie and I managed somewhat. I really disliked the main character Kano. Maybe I was just being more critical of Asian men, but he didn't strike me as pretty at all. If anything, the young actor who was playing Okita was better looking. Not necessarily more feminine (he wasn't), but more handsome. I also agreed with Stephanie... there wasn't enough sex. Not enough at all. *pouts* I need to watch this movie again sometime, preferably when I was more awake. I actually fell asleep twice on this movie because I was so tired. *sweats* In fact, if I wasn't mistaken, I believed most of the audience fell asleep. ^^;; We stayed for an episode of "Gravitation," then it was back to the hotel room for a few more hours of nap.

We checked out of the room at 9am, sent our luggage to the store room, and I went to report to the volunteer desk. I was working at the Y-Con table again, but it was better this time because Jaeny was also there. She discovered two more boxes of Shounen Hump!, which was supposed sold out yesterday. So we had more fun trying to sell those, blahblahblah. My next shift was two hours in the Art Room, which I didn't have the chance of visiting the day before. [I'm now incredibly jealous of some people's talents at drawing gorgeous fanart and original art freehand, since I can only do imitations]. Anyway, Nytshaed brought in our con mascot rat, and a lot of people started coming in just to play with her (the rat, I mean). Oh, Rose Argent was also there (*bows to fic author*). The rat kept getting caught in her hair... Rose, I think you could win first place if there was a contest on who gets kissed/nipped on by the rat the most. ^_~ Ah, I'm on Rose's ficML, but I haven't been writing feedbacks at all since I signed up. I should be ashamed of myself. Speaking of which, I met a girl in the Art Room, who had apparently saw me at the Fanfiction Contest panel, and now wanted me to beta-read her fics. O_o;; Well, I gave her my e-mail addies, but I didn't think I would have much time helping her. I had quit two of my beta-reading jobs because I was too busy. I still have a lot of stuff to do, and I haven't even started reading Talya's new (now old) VS fic yet. I was looking forward to meeting Kisune in person, but she wasn't there at the time. In fact, lots of people were looking for her. Oooh, I took a picture of Belldandy (from the AMG movie), and took a picture /with/ Aya (from WK)! Now, most of you know I didn't like WK very much, but I loved the cosplayer's costume. She did a great job, IMO (so did Omi from the day before). Later, I went to the dealer's room again (you know I couldn't help myself). I found Vincent (Vincent is the guy from FF# with long black hair, a mask, and red cape, right? Forgive me if I'm wrong) and this other cosplayer (whom I assumed to be from FF#, but since I don't know much about the game in the first place... *sweat* I just thought they looked really cool).

Mostly, I was looking for Kizuna and Fake in the dealer's room. I checked the prices, then went to Kino to see if I can find cheaper ones. Unfortunately, Kino didn't even have the two series (I know the SJ Kino has a whole section just on shonen ai / yaoi stuff). I did find and grab some manga though: Gravitation 9-11 and Venus wa Kataomoi 1, 4, 5 (all that I could find). Back in the dealer's room, I got Fake III, IV, and V (again, all that they had in stock... I should have bought them yesterday, even if they /were/ already out of Fake I). Hmmm... I also got this manga called Kimi to Boku no, Doki Doki. It's by Hirone Shii, a mangaka whose work I saw in that gorgeous artbook at Jane's place. Jane, I was right when I guessed that this is a shounen ai title. In fact, there's yuri in it, too. XD It doesn't get past kissing though, so you can borrow that if you want, w/o having to see anything you don't want to see. Stephanie and I had lunch, and she wanted to go to Kino. I stayed outside and started reading Fake, and when I realized I was dozing off in public and half way in LaLa-Land, I decided that I need to walk off the sleeping bug. Bad idea. The minute I set my foot in Kino, I went straight to the video/DVD/CD section, and eventually bought the "Fake" DVD (well, I *was* lacking in the self-control department). After I picked up my volunteer certificate and goodies pack (pencil, paper fan, snack, and a HtY furoku notebook) at the volunteer station, Stephanie and I went back to the video room and stayed there until the end of the convention. They cancelled "Kaikan Phrase" and showed "Gravitation" again instead. I guess there was a demand for it or something. Anyway, we watched three episodes of that before they switched to "Fujimi Orchestra." It was Chinese subtitled. For those of you who had no idea what was going on in the series, let me just tell you this: It didn't help any if you can read the Chinese subtitles. In fact, it would be easier to understand the series *without* the subtitles (no, I'm not going to go into a huge rant about the horrid translation). The anime was very disorganized, and the flashback scenes and time sequences were very screwed up. I was confused until the very end, *then* it started to make sense. I thought it could be a better series if the animators had tidied up a few things. The series was less graphic than, say, "Boku no Sexual Harassment," but for some reason it disturbed me more. No, it wasn't the rape scene (and I pause here to wonder why there were so many rape scenes in the videos shown at the con). Rather, it was that huge bulk of telephone pole. You know what I'm talking about. >.< I bet most people were having ecchi thoughts whenever they saw that clip of the main character being pinned down by that telephone pole. *sigh.* Well, I guess that's another euphemism for you. Yes Stephanie, I agree at least this series had good music. And yes, I doubt we can ever listen to that song without thinking of the rape scene again.

Obviously, I would be spending most of this and next week talking about the manga and doujinshi I'd bought, after I read them (there was this really cute Saiyuki dj on fairy tale parodies XD). I know I would finally learn more about Haruka naru toki no naka de after I read the manga, especially since now Steph and Emi are going to make a webpage on that. XD I'll help with what I can.

A few things I regretted/learned about the convention:

1. I didn't get to attend Higuri-sensei's art demo or even the fan sessions... *sniffs*
2. I didn't get to attend the "Writing Good Fanfiction" panel.
3. I only spend less than 5 hours in the expensive hotel room.
4. I should have taken more pictures (only 4 pictures! when am I ever going to finish the rest of the film so I can get them developed?)
5. I should have volunteered for two more hours so I can get 50% off on the next con (if I'm going, that is).
6. Get a good night of sleep before the con so I am not tired all the time.
7. Arrange to meet people prior to the convention, so I can actually *meet* them.
8. Go to the ATM machine when your nagging parent is not around. It would save the extra trip later.

This entry took me hours to write. O_o;; I don't want to look at it anymore, so forgive me if there are tons of grammatical and spelling errors.

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 12:17 a.m. PST~

Monday, September 3, 2001

Sorry, no Y-Con report until tomorrow. ^^;;

Kristina, did you read the latest HikaGo chapter yet? I changed my mind after reading it. I now think the series is going to continue for awhile longer. And I like the anime artwork, too. *_*

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 08:14 p.m. PST~

Sunday, September 2, 2001

Phew. I'm back from Y-Con, with a whole suitcase filled with doujinshi, manga, and misc items. I'll list them in the full Y-Con report tomorrow. I totalled 6 hrs of sleep from Friday morning to now, so I desperately need to go make a nice dent in my bed now. Quickly, here's a stat on things people might want to know:

Kristina, Jo Chen didn't have any new doujinshi or manga at the convention. In fact, she wasn't even there. >.< Only the other member of their circle attended the con. At least, I didn't see Jo Chen at all, and I spent A LOT of time in the dealer's room on both days.

Jane, that basically means you won't be getting Jo Chen's autograph. I have Higuri-sensei's autograph though. Mwahahahahaha.

Lex, I got you a little something for your b-day. I don't think it will reach you on time though. ;_; Oh, don't worry about misinforming me on the credit card thing, because you were right. Of all the dealers I actually bought stuff from, only one of them accepted credit cards. I had to go to the ATM machine twice because I kept running out of cash. Anyone want to take a guess at how much I spent at the con?

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 07:54 p.m. PST~

Saturday, September 1, 2001

Pitas was down yesterday afternoon, so I couldn't blog. Basically, Stephanie and I went to SF for the pre-registration, and we both got the early Dealer's Room access tickets. We got home after 1am. =_= I'll blog more about this after Y-Con's over, because it's late, Stephanie's already sleeping, and I need to catch a few hours of sleep myself before we head back to SF again. I'm supposed to wake up at 5am. >.<

I saw Thea, Talya, and Becki... but I didn't get to meet them because there wasn't any time. *sigh* Oh well. I did say hi to Thea, but she just looked at me funny. ^^;; Reminder to self: always introduce myself first before jumping all over people.

Oh, I learned something interesting while reading one of the magazines I bought from Kino today (er, yesterday): There's going to be a Haruka Naru Toki no Naka de OVA. Maybe people would actually start to make websites on the series.

I've archived. The last archived page is still not among the links listed. Geez. At least the newest one is listed.

~Joy pulls a Koganei at 02:16 a.m. PST~