Anime Review: Rozen Maiden

I figured if I am doing reviews about movies, why not do them about Anime? I recently picked up a series called Rozen Maiden and I have to say: I like it.

The basic storyline opens with the kid named Jun who spends his days indoors, away from the rest of the world, buying paranormal items from various sources. One of these paranormal things however is a doll; but not an ordinary doll. Her name is Shinku, and she informs Jun that she is a 'Rozen Maiden' doll with the sole purpose of defeating 6 other dolls of the same make and becoming 'Alice' the perfect doll. The first episode begins with Jun buying junk online, while his sister tries to relate to her estranged brother with the mere mention of school, Jun becomes unstable. What happened is never fully explained; but left to the imagination. After answering a query if he will 'Wind' or 'Not wind' a mysterious box appears and inside he finds a expertly crafted doll.

After winding the it, the doll begins to move on its own accord, and suddenly springs to life, informing Jun that her name is Shinku. After a short while, another doll comes with the intention to kill Jun, since he awoke Shinku. She informs Jun that a pact must be made in order for him to live; the pact is a ring that he wears allowing Shinku to derive energy from Jun to defeat the doll.

Can you believe that's just a brief summary of the fist episode? All that happens in the first 10 minutes or so, and I got hooked and decided I needed to watch the rest, and found it online. While some of the backgrounds are a little lazy(various objects having fuzzy or saturated lines) the quality of the animation is excellent.

*whew* My first Anime Review! I plan to get in the groove of these and start posting more reviews from the long list of Anime/Manga/Video Games I have in my collection.

Car troubles....

soon to be fixed! I'm taking in my car to a auto shop to get it fixed. The price is a little steep, but if it means having a reliable form of transportation, then price does not matter. I'm glad my car has lasted this long...Its been through lots, driving across the Nevada desert, multiple trips to Portland and driving between Lane and home. I still haven't repaired the doors on it...those are way too costly to fix and finding another set of doors could be quite a daunting challenge. Truth be told...I can always find my car in a parking lot due to its 'battle scars'.

In slightly different news, My college class starts next Monday. I am nervous but at the same time, I know its definitely needed. Especially after what happened last time, but I am going to change my major; from Computer Programming to Journalism. I like to write and its one of the things I am good at. Working freelance and writing about Anime, Manga and Video Games...

Immigration.

Its no secret I was not born in the United States. I know everyone is making a big deal out of the Immigration movement. Seemingly everyone is worried that 'Spanish will replace English' with the influx of Spanish speaking peoples. I recall debate if English should be the official language of the US; historically, when immigrants from other countries where English was not their first language, they have gathered in various communities like Little Tokyo or Little Italy. The point I am trying to make is that peoples from those various countries settle into portions of cities where their heritage takes precedence.

Although that was just a round-about way of saying: it will take care of itself. It has for the pat 232 years this country has existed.

I'M BACK!

Yes its true. I am back from Anime Expo. I came into town around 3 in the afternoon and I feel pretty good since I got plenty of sleep on said bus ride. Taking a Benadryl helps. Anyway, you are all probably wondering about how the convention went: One word accurately describes it AWESOME.

There were so many people wandering around in Cosplay it made me smile. The video game room was nice and spacious without the fanboy funk that accompanies it most of the time. Also on a less happier note the AnimeMusicVideo(AMV) contest disappointed me. The majority of the effects found in the videos were either copied, ripped directly, I mean tastefully reproduced from another source. But in all seriousness, most of them were pretty good. I especially liked the Ghostbusters FF7AC spoof. The creator of that video is a genius.

I got to catch up with all my friends, even ones that I had not seen for quite some time, the Seamstress of this site recognized me from a crowed and came and talked to me! I was really excited to see her again, after falling out of contact. I promise not to leave her hanging again! With my roomies I learned about a really cool series called Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann which I'm hunting for episodes online to watch. The Phoenix Wright gathering we had went really well, many people took lots of photos and we all had a great time. I dont understand why AX cant be held year-round? I love being at AX. Or any con for that matter. But just the fact when I start talking about Anime that other people respond with conversation not just 'huh?' 'what are you talking about?' Anyway, I thought I would let everyone know that Im back from my Anime convention...though I might take a look at the school schedule and see if I can maybe -MAYBE- attend another con this year.

The Big Day...

Is tomorrow! I am really excited for this! ^_^ Going to Anime Expo recharges my batteries so I can take another year of crazy happenings with me and my family. Its the escape that creates the distance between me and the 'real world' that I desperately need sometimes. I leave from here at around 3:30 in the afternoon and we drive all night to reach LA around noon the next day. All of the preparation is done for the things Im doing there, gatherings, cosplay, everything. All I have to do is show up; which I will do.

It would take a divine act of destruction for me not to attend AX. Since I am going to be gone for a week, I wont be checking my Email or doing any blogging(unless I happen upon a free compy, but thats not too likely) Although I still have a full day, I am really excited about going!

Its closer...

^_^ Anime Expo is only 11 days away! I'm really excited for this to happen. All the sights, sounds and cool stuff to buy... *_* ...Sorry...I was thinking about AX. Anyway, I usually wind up rooming with my good friends, but they didnt get a room this year. This kinda saddened me, especially when I was told by my best friends that she might not come to AX.

That was a few days ago. Since that time, they have all decided to go, but since they dont have a room, they were kinda spinning their wheels. I was in the same boat just two days ago. I had my bus fare and my badge paid for, but no place to stay. So what was an Otaku like myself to do? Well...I jumped onto the Anime Expo forums and made a post; saying I needed a room. I am grateful I found a room almost the same day, and Ive made the transaction so all I have to do is show up. Well how funny when my friend decides that she IS going to AX. Least to say, I was excited. I had several room offers and I passed them off to my friends.

Now all I have to do is wait...and pack when the time comes.

*WHEW*

Well, Finals were last monday, and I thought I did pretty well. Yesterday a very cool piece of tech came via the mail and I get the feeling its going to change the way I use my Nintendo DS forever. I can use a Compact Flash disk and put all of my movies on it and watch them, whenever I want! This will make any future traveling painless. All of my videos without compressing them in the correct format take up around 8 GB worth of data on my computer. However, I managed to get most of them and a full length movie on there too, and it only take up 1 GB! Meaning I still have roughly 7GB left for pretty much anything I want, and I'm filling it up with neat homebrew programs that people have developed.

However, yesterday all was going really well with my card, though the instructions were a little iffy, I managed to figure it out. Now, when I try and put new folders on there, I cant make them inside of other folders since it will almost certainly crash my system and create two folders inside of the one. But I figured a way around this: Up loading everything first to the root, and THEN moving it around on the card has worked wonders for me. While it does not look too pretty, since the case that was to enclose the CF card was bugging out and the USB port does not work at all, I have to write everything directly to the card from my PC to the adapter. But its so worth it. I love solving my own problems, even though I get frustrated at times, when I finish something without the help of someone else, it brings a smile to my face.