...That was intense! Somehow it felt like this episode only lasted a few minutes, I was like "...Eh, it's over already...?" ^^;

- Even though they were talking about eating humans, I actually laughed at the scenes with the shoujo-eyed spider ant. I didn't think I'd be laughing this far into the arc, but the anime actually used some fun and light hearted music from earlier in the series, so it didn't feel out of place at all.

- Wow, that "Don't treat us like kids" scene! I always loved that panel in the manga, but having it animated made it reach a whole new level of badass <3 <3 <3
(I just wondered why their positions were reversed... I'm sure that the manga had Gon on the right and Killua to the left, but in the anime it was the other way around? That a random change to make... ^^; )

- I totally forgot that the ant they fought is the same one Killua encounters later on. Now it finally makes sense to me why that ant hated him so much! ^^;  And they actually damaged the ant quite a bit this time! Poor boys were all like "the attacks didn't work..." while they actually did work.They should have some more confidence! X'D

- And I realized... Is this really one of the very few times that we actually see Gon and Killua battle together as a tag team? (And the last time...? ) We had their game with Netero, and then with the scissors guy in GI, but that's about it for team fights, is it? (If I'm not forgetting anything) Even though they're like the two main characters of the show by now, all their other fights are fought individually, not together.  It's kinda a pity, because I'd think they'd make a great team and could come up with some good strategies if they worked together more. If synchro from Tenipuri existed in HxH, they'd totally get it

I'm so curious how they're going to handle certain scenes next week! But it's probably going to be a very disturbing one again... >w<

After finishing the work for my presentation I was in the mood to go somewhere to see something, but I didn't feel like spending money on anything right now. But since the area around here is so rural and wide I haven't nearly explored all the nearby places yet, so I just picked a direction and started walking, just to see what I would come across. Seriously, it's the cheapest and easiest way to get amusement in Japan, because there's bound to be SOMETHING interesting if you just keep on going. ^_^

I knew there was a HUGE graveyard somewhere around here, but I didn't know that the entrance was this close to the university, or that it was okay for anyone to just enter the grounds. But apparently the Tama Reien graveyard is a big public park, where people were walking their dogs, riding bikes, or just sitting around, as in any other park.

So I walked in and I got lost because it's so big and saw some interesting and beautiful things! I ended up walking around there for almost 3 hours... ^^; I just checked on Google Earth, and it's about one square kilometer! Or about four kilometers if you walk around it. That's about as big as the imperial palace, isn't it!? And I only actually walked around in about a third of it, 'cause I didn't want to get too lost... ^^;



Doesn't looking at this map make you curious to see what's inside...?


( Read more...Collapse )

We had the debate tournament Friday morning, and I thought that with that, it would finally be over and done with. My team won! We got 177 points and the second place team got 175 points... so close! )  We've spent all week preparing, finding data, speculating about the opponent team's arguments and coming up with arguments agains those, practicing our speeches together in groups, etc. But apparently... Oh, this round of the debate tournament was only practice, and we'll do it "for real" another time, next time with Japanese students. ...yaay =______=; So basically all the work we did this time, doesn't even count! Grrr... The syllabus said that "the debate is 20% of our grades", so I worked so hard on it too... But apparently it was not THIS debate that counted... They should tell us so earlier! >.>

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Anyways, so next week is the otaku presentation, and two weeks after that I have to hand in a paper on the presentation topic. Shouldn't be too hard though, I actually finished my entire "research", and also writing the presentation script (about 1000 words) and powerpoint slides in little over two hours. Because I'll be presenting on the specific topic of social otaku communities on the internet, I actually couldn't use a lot from my previous papers, which were more about the offline and linguistic aspects of the fujoshi community... But it was actually really interesting finding some additional information on the topic of websites! Did you know that in 2005, there were already about 785,000 English-language yaoi discussion websites and forums!?

McLelland's article on that topic is a bit dated, so that inspired me to do some of my own Googling to find some more current data. And... Currently the amount of English yaoi websites has grown to about 39,000,000! That's pretty amazing! o_o;  Sadly it's impossible to find the amount of Japanese websites though, because they have so many different terms to denote the same thing... "Yaoi" in Japanese only gives 1,130,000 results, but "Boys love" gives an additional 10,600,000. There's probably many more under "BL" in romaji or "bii-eru" in katakana, but because it's such a short term it's pretty hard to google.

Oh well, in any case, the point that "There are a lot of yaoi sites" is proven pretty well.
And yes, I'm totally going to show Tomiko's site to the class during my presentation, as an "example".
Very educational, right...? X'D

There are three companies you'll want to keep an eye on this weekend at Anime Boston!

@FUNimation
========================================
All Weekend = FUNimation Ribbon Campaign - stop by the FUNimation booth to get a ribbon that might qualify you for free prizes when you're walking around the convention.

Friday 5:00 PM - 7:30 PM (Eureka 7 AO Premiere, Ballroom C)
Friday 9:30 PM - 12:00 AM (Michiko Premiere, Ballroom C)

@Aniplex
========================================
Until supplies run out = First 200 to purchase the Aniplex Exclusive Sword Art Online Wall scroll

Friday 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM (SAO Ito/Kashiwada Autographs, Beacon C)
Friday 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM (SAO Ito/Kashiwada Panel, Constitution Room)
Friday 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM (SAO Cherami Leigh Autograph, Voice of Asuna, Beacon H)
Only official works from Sword Art Online will be signed, no fanart or bootleg material. If you are caught trying to get unofficial work signed, you will be excused from the autograph session without your autograph, even if you waited hours. So make sure it's all official works!

Saturday 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM (Magi Cosplayer Gathering, Aniplex Booth)
Saturday 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM (SAO Cosplayer Gathering, Aniplex Booth)
Saturday 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM (SAO Bryce Autograph, Voice of Kirito, Beacon H)
Only official works from Sword Art Online will be signed, no fanart or bootleg material. If you are caught trying to get unofficial work signed, you will be excused from the autograph session without your autograph, even if you waited hours. So make sure it's all official works!

Saturday 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM (SAO Screening + Q&A with Guests, Ballroom A)

Sunday 11:30 AM - 1:00 PM (SAO EXCLUSIVE TICKETED Autograph, Aniplex Booth, 200 tickets)
Only official works from Sword Art Online will be signed, no fanart or bootleg material. If you are caught trying to get unofficial work signed, you will be excused from the autograph session without your autograph, even if you waited hours. So make sure it's all official works!

@Daisuki_inc
========================================
All Weekend = Stop by the booth to pick up a free bag, and sign up for the raffle for a chance to win free FIGURES!

This afternoon I had a meeting with my group for the presentation on Youth and Popular culture. Our assigned topic is the otaku subculture, so we've been dubbed the "otaku group" by our teacher and class. Well, thanks... =_=;

We got a pretty good setup of our presentation now though, so I'm kinda looking forward to working on it (once I get that stupid Japanese debate out of the way on Friday...). We'll start by explaining what the public image and stereotypes around otaku are, and then we will challenge the assumptions one by one, by raising examples of people being different from the stereotype. (For example, "Otaku are socially isolated and lonely people", all scholars in the 90's used to write, but since the rise of the internet there have been many cases where on the contrary, otaku are /creating/ communities, arranging offline meetings, collaborating to create artworks and publications, organizing events and such, rather than isolating people.)  And then in the end we'll have a class discussion about which view everyone agrees with.

We also talked about our fieldwork reports, two people hadn't handed them in yet so they were asking what they should be like. So I showed my Tenimyu one from last time, and then I got like "OMG, DORIRAIII!!!" from one of the Japanese girls. She also loves Tenimyu, but never went to see it live apparently, only watched the dvds. Why are all Japanese Tenimyu fans I meet, like that anyways? They say they love it, but yet they never went to a myu!? I can understand if a foreign fan hasn't been yet because of the language barrier and the difficulty to get tickets, but for Japanese people it shouldn't be that hard, right...? Besides, the price of a ticket is about as much as the price of a DVD anyways, so it doesn't really matter if you go for the live or for the DVD.

Anyways, then we talked about other anime we like, and apparently she watched HxH too! I was really curious to hear Japanese people's opinion on having something like ant arc airing on Sunday morning, and about whether at this point it's still for kids or more for adults. She said that in Japan, the manga and anime is definitely for kids, but they might not be able to understand and appreciate all the difficult parts of the story (like the deep character development and relationships, and the politics stuff) but Japanese kids think that blood spraying around is cool so they watch it anyways. In Japan, censorship of violence in kids anime is not that big of a deal, apparently, so she didn't find it strange at all that it aired in the morning.

But she also said that HxH is a special case amongst boys' manga, because there are many adult women who read it too. So in Japan HxH basically has two demographics, little boys who watch for the cool fights and adventures, and adult women watching for the story and character development and relationships. (And the possibilities for doujinshi-writing, of course... =3= ). However, she thought it'd be pretty weird if an adult male would actually seriously watch it. X'D  I thought that was interesting, 'cause the ones I see arguing about stupid details on internet forums all the time, seem to be guys...? I guess that's the one of the difference sbetween the Japanese and western views on anime, with it being a cool and edgy thing in the west (with kids and teens believing they're watching a "hardcore" adult show, just 'cause it has some violence), while it's just a normal kiddy thing in Japan. ^^;;

Eeh... So our group might really be the "otaku group", just because we can get pretty deep into discussions like these.

The presentation itself is on my birthday, which I was pretty annoyed with at first, but it seems like it's going to be a fun one. ^^

http://www.acparadise.com/ace/events.php?eid=176
ACP is looking for any Sword Art Online cosplayers for an event at A-Kon
Not many details available right now, so if you're interested at all in helping out and have a costume from Sword Art Online, please volunteer!
Limited to ACParadise cosplayers only with uploaded photos of their costumes on acparadise.com.
We'll have more information as time passes.

http://www.acparadise.com/ace/contests.php?cid=108
Entry Deadline: 05-24-2013 11:59 PM EST <- NOT PACIFIC YO!

ACParadise and Flatiron Film Company announce our first DIGIMON cosplay Contest to celebrate the release of
THE OFFICIAL DIGIMON ADVENTURE SET: THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON & digimon adventure: volume 2


There will FOUR winners! The winners will get Digimon swags.
If you can’t wait for the contest to end, pick up your own copies TODAY!
http://www.amazon.com/Digimon-Digital-Monsters-Official-Season/dp/B008L5FFMO/
http://www.amazon.com/The-Official-Digimon-Adventure-Set/dp/B00A7GWGLS/
http://www.amazon.com/Digimon-Adventure-2-Michael-Reisz/dp/B009O07NDO/

We realize that some of you only have photos from the era of 35mm and scanning photos. ITS THE SAME AS EVERYONE ELSE, so enter anyway. Show your support for Digimon!
But we're giving you a nice fat deadline so if you want to make NEW costumes, feel free!
Change into Digital Champions to save the Digital WORLD.

Does anyone else find it disturbing that HxH stil airs on Sunday mornings? It's such a weird way to start the day, how am I supposed to get any homework done and relax after watching this...? >wwww<  But then again, having it air in the evening might be very nightmare-inducing, so I'm not sure what the best time would be. ^^;

- This week was double-disturbing, cause first we got the whole Jairo chapter (how'd he get away from the ants anyways, by the way?), and then the part with Pockle and Ponzu... T_T

- What was that new BGM when Ponzu was running away by herself?! It was kinda cool, it made it look for a moment as if she was going to do something heroic and save Pockle somehow, but then the way it suddenly stopped... >ww<   Poor girl, she tried so hard...  I wonder if Gon realized that the message was from her, he knows about her ability from the hunter exam, right?

- I'm actually very thankful for the censorship at some parts lately. It's clear enough what's going on WITHOUT showing the guts and brains flying everywhere... So I think that NOT showing it might make it even more terrifiying, because it gives the viewer the freedom to imagine it for themselves.

And then that sweet picture of Pockle and Ponzu they showed after the ending!! TT_TT  BRB sobbing forever...