2005-05-11
Posted in Site Updates
at 17:04
Another blog reply because a message didn’t have a valid reply e-mail. Would anyone who doesn’t want to give out their e-mail when contacting me please consider SpamGourmet or DodgeIt? It’s kind of unfair to the other blog readers when I have to post replies as site updates.
i just tried to comment on your responce to my insulting
mial to thank you and that stupid anti-IE window popped up
AGAIN!!
i dont care if you think IE is buggy or not, but if you
can’t be willing to comprimize to the main populus then you
shouldn’t have a damn site. dont try to push your stuff on
others, i’ve read all the things on your site, i’d think
you’d be against that kind of ignoranse with all your anti-
american rants. you cant be forced into making the site
more accomidating but it will make you a better person,
mainly by not making you a hypocrit.
Sorry about that. I meant to, but I forgot. (*embarrased chuckle*) It should be gone now. (I can’t run IE so I can’t confirm it.)
Thanks for reminding me. My TODO list is still in a state of renovation and some things fall through the cracks.
About the pop-up, I wasn’t intentionally being hypocritical. In fact, it was supposed to only appear when you leave my collection of sites entirely and, if I wasn’t against persistent cookies, it would be set up to appear only once.
Also, is there any contact info you *would* be willing to give out? Because, if there is, I can add it to my contact script as an alternative to an e-mail address.
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2005-05-10
Posted in Fanfiction
at 20:21
Title: The Things We Wish For
URL: (Fanfiction.net) (Hosted by AngCobra) (Chapters 1-12 at Florestica)
Author: D.B. Sommer
Source: Ranma 1/2
Rating: 6/6
Type: Continuation, Semi-AU
Length: 15 Chapters, 2 Interludes, Epilogue
I started reading this expecting quality, and I was not disappointed. As with Shampoo 1/2 (which I intend to give 6/6 when I can find time to review it properly), The Things We Wish for is a well-written story with believable characters, lots of humor, and a deep back story. They also share a tendency to extend the Nerima craziness either spatially or temporally but I don’t think any worse of them for it.
The plot is essentially this, “What if Akane ended up getting a wish and wishing that her mother was still alive, only to find a 17-year-old version of her mother sucked into the present?” What follows ends up revealing a deep and believable story of the previous generation, crushed dreams, and lessons learned. (God, that sounds cliche.)
I’d recommend it any day. Heck, I’d give it a lot of bonus points, but it’s too uniformly well-written to single out anything right now. I especially like the ending which employs a unique (in a “Why didn’t I think of that? Oh yeah, because I can’t write well enough.” kind of way) method of making a wide variety of readers happy.
Update: Re-read it. 6/6 rating bump.
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2005-05-02
Posted in Site Updates
at 13:40
Well, today I woke up to find a site feedback e-mail which was slightly insulting but made some valid points. As such, here’s a little something explaining why my site is the way it is.
For those of you who notice rendering problems while using internet explorer, my site has been tested using Firefox, Opera, Mozilla, Konqueror, Galeon, Epiphany, and K-Meleon and they display it perfectly well. It’s also 100% standards compliant. Internet Explorer has half-a-million bugs and ignores the Internet standards wherever it wants, but I can’t test my site on it because the stupid thing won’t work on my computer. However, some of my planned
fixes to improve my site’s appearance in feature-poor browsers like dillo and lynx might help.
As for the color schemes, I’m working on setting up a proper color picker but I’ve been really busy with my coursework and haven’t had much free time. I have received a good few favorable responses on the choices I currenly offer though, so anyone who complains should first try adjusting their monitor. If that doesn’t help, suggest a new color scheme when you complain.
The “Your browser has cheapened your web experience” messages you see when using Internet Explorer have been a bit buggy so I’ll probably replace them with an in-page message. That way, it will be easier to debug them without being able to use IE.
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2005-05-01
Posted in Manga, Otaku Stuff, Reviews, Web Wandering & Opinion
at 1:50
As you may have guessed, I’ve always loved gender-bending comedy. Though it’s less likely, someone may also have guessed that I enjoy it, not only for the wild and wacky humor, but because I love seeing how the characters react and trying to decide how accurate their reactions would be in real life.
In essense, I enjoy analyzing and comparing exceptional characters by trying to get into their minds. Reading this, a logical (and correct) assumption is that I like shojo manga. To be honest, I love it. I could probably start a whole post just on this, but if I did that, I would never have time to get back on track and this post would become some completely useless and random tangent. In this form, itat least tries to be a manga review, but since I already found several other reviews which are much more eloquent, I’ll just link
to them and add my own viewpoints.
Warning: This rant ran far longer than I expected and, though I remain civilized throghout it, It’s the first post to tap whatever source I use for rants. As such, I will provide the links for the reviews here [1][2][3] in case you’re in a hurry or would prefer to skip the rant.
First, I should mention that I essentially collect unique and interesting characters. My memory is just too good and the fictional “department” of my thirst for knowledge too great, for me to read the same boring stuff cookie-cutter characters over and over again.
Also, one thing that has always bugged me about manga and anime is that, in 90% of the cases, “The nail that sticks out, gets pounded down” is a hard rule regarding tomboyish female characters. Call it one of my pet peeves. For example, if you compare “Angel Sanctuary” to “Devil and Devil”, the former is definitely beyond amazing, but the latter would be quite good too.
I say would because in “Devil and Devil”, the main female character spends a good portion of the manga looking for a way to help the main characters and what happens? At the end, after having even tried stealing a power suit from a crazed science club, the main characters once again say “Stay there and let us protect you!”, and she finally gives up. She wouldn’t survive the battle but that’s not what gets to me. It’s that throughout the series, it’s always been the same thing and during the final battle, it keeps going back to her, sitting and hoping for their return. That spoiled the whole manga for me. If Angel Sanctuary got two thumbs up, Devil and Devil probably got 1.5 thumbs down. (There were some good concepts but, in my opinion, it was a terrible implementation. The comparison is made even easier by the fact that Devil and Devil feels like a cheap ripoff of Angel Sanctuary.)
That is a rather extreme example, but in truth, the less extreme scenarios annoy me even more. It’s as if manga authors think that “tomboy + (love and/or time) = non-tomboy” is an inescapable fact of the human genome, like some aberration that cannot possibly survive without constant external aggravation. One recent example of this is “W Juliet” which really bothers me because it’s so interesting and yet, it’s falling into the same old mysoginist pattern which I can’t help but despise.
The other thing that bugs me is that, if you compare the incidences of transformations and cross-dressing, the ratio is over 5:1 in favor of “guy becomes girl” stories. I think I may have hit 10:1 before I misplaced the file I was using to keep track. (Anyone care to help me rebuild it?)
Having that for context, you can start to understand why “Your And My Secret” is so much more to me than even the glowing reviews I’m linking to. This is the first major “was girl, now guy” transformation case I can think of (outside of fanfiction), and it’s also the first case I’ve ever seen of a manga girl who’s not only un-feminine, but downright brutish and somewhat slovenly. This is not only the source of the most unique female character I’ve come across in ages, it’s an amazingly written dual-gender-bender. I’m really hoping for an equally unique fate for Nanako (the one who was originally a brutish girl) but, at the same time, I can’t risk getting my hopes up. From what I’ve seen of the manga that sells, a gender-swap that doesn’t reverse at the end, while the seemingly obvious good choice, would be as likely to be accepted by the publisher, as the chance of said author dying from a lightning strike before finishing the series. It’s far more likely that something will drive them to miss their old bodies enough to switch back.
The problem is that, I’ve never seen a character like Nanako survive that kind of ending intact. (This is speaking from experience with lesser characters since Nanako is so unique.) If the story does provide an ending that satisfies me, This Calamity Jane of manga will hold a special place in both my heart and my recommendations list. However, if it fails like every other manga I’ve seen, you’ll find it indexed under “Taming of the Shrew“.
Having ranted for far longer than I intended (I guess I read a lot more average manga than I thought), and at an intensity which I’ll probably want to edit later, I ask that you enjoy the reviews. [1][2][3]
If you ever wanted to post comments, now is the time to do so. Nighttime personality shift (That “everything feels different when you’re tired” feeling) may have given me the drive to rant at such length, but the underlying views remain unchanged.
I always get e-mail notifications of new comments so feel free to comment, no matter how old this gets. Every question, no matter how crazy, inane, biased, or bland, gives me a chance to clarify things others may wonder about. Just remember to be respectful and polite. Even I have my limits. Also, I’m willing to offer negotiable rewards for referrals of manga which I do not already have on my to-read list and, if anyone is interested, I’d be happy to post a succinct list of favorite manga and my reasons for liking them.
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