I’ll try my best to be as civil as possible, but please do forgive me if ever I overstep my bounds.

I am frustrated because I believed I was helping the industry. I was, but it was not the anime industry. I was helping the bootleg industry, and I paid a significant amount of money for it. In the end, I was just another person fooled. I really had good intentions, to be honest, but I was simply fooled by the beauty of the boxset of Binchou-tan. In addition, I have never seen an original anime DVD before; thus, despite my efforts in discriminating if the boxset was pirated or not, in the end, I was fooled. (more…)

I have gone to anime conventions before, but I have never yet gone to a Hero anime convention. The Hero anime convention calls itself the biggest anime convention, and with good reason: it is the only anime convention advertised in local television, and to be honest, it really was the biggest I have ever attended. It was the only convention in my experience where I had to wait in line for two hours just to get into the convention center. I had a good time, though, and I finally found and bought for myself my very first original anime DVD. Despite the ubiquity of pirated DVDs (there were at least four stalls that sold anime episodes converted to DVD), I found a limited choice of original anime DVDs, and … (more…)

Jeff Lawson wrote a wonderful post with regard to the state of the anime industry. He states pertinent points; in fact, he even linked to relevant material. He does not offer answers: in a post-modern way, he organizes and asks the relevant questions. I do not know much about the industry, and I also cannot offer much when it comes to solutions to the problem. However, in this post I hope to be able to describe and explain why fansubs, particularly in the Filipino fandom scene, is a necessity. (I wanted to comment, but judged against it: at best, this post is tangential to the matter at hand that he discussed.) (more…)

My first semester of third year has finally ended. Despite having some almost insurmountable tasks, I have succeeded in surpassing them (to some degree). Much thanks goes to the people who correspond with me in this blog; you have been part of my success. That success isn’t much, but I’m thankful that I still can freely express myself and have people to correspond with me. My thanks goes out most especially to Ryan and Wilson (meganeshounen). Thank you for being there with me. (more…)

As I’ve mentioned in my previous write-ups I have successfully tried and stifled (if only by a little bit) my overeagerness and addiction to playing DotA. I have also started focusing once more on my studies as well as tried to become more sociable to my amiable dorm mates: for me, at least, it seemed as if I had started life anew. Problems with the motivation to study, however, still arose (and keep on arising) within me. I chose my schedule so that I had no classes every Friday which would allow me to study more or to do more research regarding the different subjects I am taking this semester. Today was that very first Friday of supposedly scholastic utility; my resolve, however, wasn’t as inflexible as my schedule was. I spent about six hours playing DotA despite my sheer disinterest in it (and this is said in all honesty) as I did not want to stay in my room and I also did not want to study. Much could have been done within those six hours; I, however, decided to revel among the different heroes and heroines duking and juking each other out in DotA. Yet I was not pumped, however, in the least, despite the fact that when I used the heroes I was accustomed to I owned; neither was I amused, however, when we were losing because the hero I was using was not viable against good team play of the opposing team. I was using Pit Lord, and whenever I used that hero we lost. Yet that still did not interest me.

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I haven’t been updating, but it’s not because of DotA. Although I still play DotA, I often just play it now for stupid fun like I did today. Since Pit Lord is now the quintessential useless hero (at least in comparison to others), I picked him and I tried a new (stupid) build. This was initially to purchase two Stout Shields that were not to be upgraded, and of course purchase a Dagon for hero-killing (but actually for last hitting heroes ). Since we were assured of losing as my other teammates didn’t even play half as well as me (in that state), I just bought two more Stout Shields with the end result of having four of those, a Boots of Speed and a Dagon 1. I ended up having the score of 2-2, and just because of that I was happy the rest of the day (or what was left of it).

That’s all for the DotA talk. I haven’t been updating recently because I finally found some real-life friends who appreciate anime and Japanese culture the way I do, and most of them are my dorm mates. Thus, I don’t lock myself up in my room and stay with my computer for the whole day anymore just surfing or watching anime, because it’s much more fun to talk about the anime you like and discuss it rather than watching it alone. It’s also quite fun watching anime with friends, though, definitely. I’m still an avid fan of anime, although I’m trying to revisit the old times by downloading (and hopefully watching) RahXephon. It’s a pity that my BitTorrent sometimes chokes on me, so I’m not downloading it as quickly as I can.

I have also been busy with schoolwork and though many people may be offended by my lack of anime posts I have been trying to excel at school and now that I’ve finally found artifacts of a social life I’m having more and more of a difficult time posting about anime (of which among the recent ones the only series I watch is Reideen).

I know there are classics-in-the-making like Simoun and Touka Gettan and Saiunkoku Monogatari (although that’s not finished yet), but I’d like to enjoy being in the company of real people in the meantime. I’ve also been watching Proposal Daisakusen. This does not mean I’m closing my blog down, though. :V

And there’s only a few more days until Mononoke!!! Oh man, I’m so blogging that.

Hey all! I’m not even sure if there are still some people who read this blog, but this is a reminder that I’m still here. I’ve had hectic summer classes, which bore great fruit with the efforts I gave, but now that after the summer classes and with a short break I’ve learnt to cherish a lot of things other than anime. Although DotA still remains to be a regular pastime of mine, I’ve had times where I was bored of it, especially before the release of 6.44. Now that there are six new heroes, the novelty arose once again, and I’m once again finding it fun. I’m quite a simple (if not a dim-witted guy), aren’t I?

That’s not the only reason that I’ve stopped blogging, however. No matter how many people find this season lively I found it merely full of rehashes except for a few series (and among those few series the only one I regularly watch is Reideen). I am besotted with Hoshikawa’s character and the animation, story, as well as art of Production I.G. is quite good. I’m pretty sure my interest will pick up in the next season when Mononoke will be aired, but until then I will find some time to dabble in other areas of interests (namely Japanese dramas and manga).

I’ve recently seen over at CrunchyRoll the first three episodes as well as the first half of the fourth episode of 1 Litre of Tears. The acting was magnificent, the casting was well-done, and there pervades an aura of a bittersweet melancholy towards the character of Aya. She is suffering, yet she remains to be strong for the sake of her family, her friends, and maybe, ultimately, herself. I found it touching, although I still didn’t cry in any of the episodes I’ve seen. I still have a box of tissues beside me, always, in case I do start crying.

I also am watching Proposal Daisakusen, Lunch no Joou, and I have downloaded the Maison Ikkoku (<3) drama special. Classes will again start sometime next week, so I have to make the most of the free time that I do have now. I think I'm going to download Hataraki Man, but since it took too long to be subbed I’m also losing the interest. :V

I’m quite fond of demonic pigs, and I don’t know why. There’s this new hero in 6.44, known as Pit Lord (among the orcish/undead bosses of Warcraft III), and he’s really only purely for support; with his skills he can barely kill, but I’m finding him fun because Dagon is always fun (for last hitting ).

I’m sorry for getting off-topic but I do want those who still do read my site to know that I’m still here, lurking and waiting for good anime and manga to come out. By the way, on manga, I love Ai Kora, Mx0, and Rosario+Vampire. I think I’m going to pick up Pretty Face soon, because I’ve heard it was also drawn by Kazurou Inoue.

I’m sorry for the disjointedness of this post, but it’s already 2 am here and I’m still thinking about what to do for my remaining days. I’m also stoned precisely because it is already 2 am.

OHHHHH YEAAAAHHHHH.

Frankly, to be entirely honest, I’ve gone to the extent to lose most interest in anime. Aside from the fact that the last anime I’ve seen in entirety was the totally awesome Maison Ikkoku, which has a drama that’s not yet subbed, I just don’t have the time anymore. This is just passing, though. I have classes everyday, even during summertime, and even if this season was replete with classics-in-the-making I just don’t find myself that deep into anime anymore. I ask of you guys to give me time, because after this semester I can find myself oscillating between anime and DotA once again. Right now, however, I just can’t spend enough time on both anime and DotA as I’m trying to excel in school. Please expect a hiatus for about a week or so. I’ll try to come up with a post deserving mention sooner or later. Have a nice day.

And yes, believe it or not, I’m once again *almost* excelling in school.

I have not updated in almost a week because I have been very busy with real life having exams in almost everyday of last week. In those two days where I didn’t have exams, I had reports to present and to deal with as well. In fact, I haven’t watched much anime at all – there also weren’t much updates with the anime I’m watching currently.

I played DotA the whole day yesterday (until the wee hours of morning), and all I can say is that using Mortred is really fun but is also highly taxing. First, she doesn’t contribute much to the well-being of the team and is a pure killer; second, she doesn’t have any natural escape mechanisms other than the Blink Strike, which is a highly situational escape mechanism. She also needs to have farmed well so that she will dominate the late game. It irritates me, because although I’ve had games where I’ve dominated with Mortred she’s just so hard to use against a team of disablers and spammers. I tried using her against a team of Pudge, Akasha, Medusa, Rhasta and Jakiro, and I fed. A whole lot.

Well, maybe I overstate, but despite the fact of having obtained a Blink Dagger as my very first item and having farmed enough to have a Demon Edge, I choked in their presence. I fed, 2-6, despite all my valiant efforts to escape their disables. It really sucks, because when I play other heroes I always can get back to my knees most of the time, like Lina for example. I can seriously say that it’s really hard using Mortred and owning with her consistently, but maybe that’s because she’s among the harder heroes to use – after all, one can use Morphling or Dwarven Sniper and just have fun picking Mortred off before she can even come close. And I can and do own with other heroes consistently – just not Mortred.

So much for anime – but there really hasn’t been any proper updates among the things I do watch this week.