Every year since 2008 I’ve taken photos of my room, which is covered in anime, and posted them here on the blog. Even though I’ve lived in the same house all these years, I get new anime stuff every year and the design of my room changes accordingly. So here’s the 2012 version…

(I apologize if there’s an obvious glare in some of the photos. The flash wasn’t cooperating)

We’ll start with the area where I spend most of my time; in front of my 40″ HDTV that’s also hooked up to my computer.

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Here’s a closer look at the shelves under the TV where I keep my Blu-ray player and a bunch of DVDs/BDs. Starting from left to right on the top shelf is my Wolf’s Rain and Trigun box sets, then my Harry Potter and Lion King BD box sets, followed by a few other random movies. The bottom shelf has my Inuyasha and Cardcaptor Sakura DVDs, as well as all my GameCube and Wii games.

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My TV is connected to my computer/Internet, cable, Wii, and BD player, so I basically use it for everything :3 On either side of the TV you can see my Bose speakers, which give great audio for all these devices. On the shelf directly below the TV is the cable box and Wii.

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Next to the TV is my old computer desk that I now use as a place to hold and display things. The top part is now home to figures, plushies, and remotes, while the bottom is where I keep my computer and bass for the speakers (they’re behind the Pokemon puzzle).

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A closer look at the figures and plushies on the desk. The top shelf is my “Haruhi shrine” and right below it is the “Chopper shrine,” so I’ll always be able to see my two favorite characters ^_^ More figures on the left and plushies of Chi and Chibiterasu are sitting on the printer.

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Moving on to the wall next to the desk. That tall poster is one I printed of Harry Potter drawn anime-style. A Pokemon reji-sheet I bought while in Japan covers the window (it only goes up to 492 pokemon), and below that are more random posters, mostly Cardcaptor Sakura and Death Note.

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Next to that is the area above my bed. Pictures from various anime and my old Fushigi Yuugi wall scroll that’s now been hanging there for eight years. To the left of the scroll are my badges from non-AX conventions I’ve been. I have that pink pillow case covering my air conditioner during the winter when I don’t use it. Can you spot the two Nana keychains hanging from the blinds next to it?

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And here’s the actual bed, with my Inuyasha throw on it. That turquoise pillow in the back is actually a folding Pokemon pillow of Oshawott. And in the way back is my big Pikachu plush that I’ve been sleeping with since middle school.

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The wall above my bed is now the Madoka wall, with two fan art pieces and a printed poster I put together. Below those is the Haruhi 2012 calendar poster. And hanging to the left are badges from the now five Anime Expos I’ve been to. Hanging on the other side are two keychains of Niche, my favorite character from Tegami Bachi.

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To the right of my bed is the pink desk I’ve had since I was in elementary school. The chair that went with it broke a few years ago so I keep my Haruhi jigsaw puzzle in its place and bring in a chair from another room if I need to sit there. Lots of Pokemon figures and plushies on the desk, as well as the Japanese learning books I’m currently using for studying.

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The wall above the desk, with more posters, including my large Haruhi poster that I got signed by the English VAs at AX 2007. The tall black shelf is where I keep the rest of my anime DVD/BD collection.

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A closer look at the anime DVDs/BDs inside the shelf.

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The first closet door with more posters – Shana, Inuyasha, and a really old Yu-Gi-Oh! poster. The kanji picture on the bottom left is calligraphy I did while in Japan (it’s the kanji for “yume (dream)”) Hanging above are various tassels from the two colleges I graduated from.

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And the next closet door, which is mostly covered by a custom-made poster I put together of 646 pokemon. The two posters below it are covers of the two oldest Pokemon calendars I have, the 2000 calendars (one’s the Japanese version, the other’s the English version). Oh, and the top right cabinet has an AnoHana art piece I got from AX 2011.

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The wall above my bookshelf. This year I have the Pokemon 2012 calendar (last year I had Angel Beats!) Evangelion and Kannagi pictures are around it, and a row of plushies are sitting on the top of the bookshelf.

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The books inside my bookshelf. From left to right, the top shelf has some manga and other related books, mostly in Japanese, the English versions of the Haruhi novels that have been released thus far, and some Japan books. The second shelf has random literature books, animal books, and a bunch of novels by Japanese authors I read in college. And the bottom shelf has a few more Japanese lit books, Calvin & Hobbes collections, anime artbooks, Japanese learning books, and some anime magazines.

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And the last wall of my room, with the door closed. More posters, mostly of Code Geass and the Haruhi movie poster I got when I went to see it in theaters.

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That same area with the door open this time.

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Here’s the chair that faces the TV, where I spend most of my time. The Kyubey plushie keeps watch over me while I work :3

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And one last shot of my room, taken from the doorway.

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My cat, Toki…she approves of this room.

Hope you all enjoyed the tour~ I’ll be back with a regular post in a few days =)

I’ve been working more hours than usual this week, so regrettably I don’t have the time or energy for an extensive post today – instead, here’s a quick but fun post that I hope will provide your day with a chuckle or two. A collection of my favorite anime demotivators…

In my last “filler” post about funny fansubs, TRazor suggested I do demotivators next, which I coincidentally was planning to do XD For those of you who don’t know what they are, demotivators are the opposite of those motivational posters you often see hanging in offices and similar places. While these “motivators” have an inspirational image captioned with a motivating keyword in large letters with a reinforcing sentences below it, demotivators completely parody that idea. How so? My favorite anime demotivators, that I’ve gotten from various places around the web, are prime examples:

*I apologize for the Code Geass spoilers*

The below five demotivators are really clever – I was able to get all but the third one right away XD

*I’m not usually one for crude humor…but this one XD*

The below five demotivators are courtesy of (the now inactive?) BakaReviews‘ “demotivator of the week.”

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These are the best anime demotivators I’ve been able to find but I know there are plenty more good ones out there. Feel free to link to any you’d like to share in the comments =)

And for some brief site news, four seasonal shows I’m watching will be ending soon (Ano Hana, [C], Gosick, and Kami nomi II) so posts about some or all of them will be coming up. Also, I’ll be off to Anime Expo in a week, and AnimeYume.com will be turning nine years old! =D

Anyway, I can’t say for sure when my next post will be due to a currently uncertain work schedule. But it should be early next week sometime. See you all then. Hope your summer is off to a good start~

I’m still in the midst of enjoying my 3-day weekend but I didn’t want to ignore the blog for too long. So here’s a fun and simple post this Memorial Day to memorialize some hilarious anime fansub fails…

Whether its Engrishy sentences, insistence on using too much Japanese terminology, or just plain weird choice of translations, fansubs can not only let us enjoy anime in our own language, but can provide a unique form of humor as well XD Here are some memorable examples:

*Credit goes to Japanator for these images*

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Hope you liked them~ I’ll resume regular posting this Wed./Thurs. See you all then!

*Notice: For some strange reason, commenting on my blog was not working from roughly 1pm yesterday to 1pm today (PST). If you left a comment on the blog during that time, your comment has been lost. I sincerely apologize for this – I don’t know how it happened, but luckily my fellow blogger chikorita157 was able to fix it. Commenting should be back to normal now but please let me know if you experience any problems.*

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I recently counted down my top 10 anime openings, so now it’s time to move on to endings, as difficult as it was…

I’m a much bigger fan of anime openings than endings. As many will agree, while EDs can have good songs, the visuals are usually less stellar and may even be made up of still frames rather than actual animation. Thus, it was more difficult for me to make a list of EDs that stood out to me rather than OPs. But here’s what I could come up with.

Like my list of favorite OPs, I laid down a few rules for my list. I’m judging the EDs mostly based on visuals and how they flow with the song, while the song by itself is secondary. Also, I picked no more than one ED per series.

If you combine all the Pokemon TV series together, there are currently a whopping twenty-seven EDs! I knew at least one Pokemon ED had to be on my list and I managed to narrow it down to about four. In the end, “Smile” won me over because it’s a nice song and I love how it focuses on each of the main characters and their pokemon (including Team Rocket!)

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The song in this ED is kinda pretty, but what I really like about the visuals is they sort of tell a story rather than have the typical still frames of all the characters go by. One Piece actually has a lot of cute EDs like this, but I especially like “Free Will” because its centered on Robin, my second favorite character in the series (and we get to see my favorite, Chopper, in pajamas XD)

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I had a difficult time deciding whether I liked “Come” or the 4th Inuyasha ED “Every heart” better. In the end I decided that I like the visuals in “Come” more than I like the song in “Every heart.” This song by Namie Amuro is good and goes very well with the visuals. The emphasis on the love triangle between Inuyasha, Kagome, and Kiyou, together with the somber, mystical color scheme of the ED adds a nice touch.

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This ED is adorable – focuses on a couple I like, Hayate and Nagi, their comical antics, and Nagi’s inability to express her feelings for Hayate. I also like how the song is sung by the two of them (or their seiyuu, Ryouko Shiraishi and Rie Kugimiya).

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This has been a favorite ED of mine for as long as I’ve known about EDs ^_^ The song is beautiful – what I especially like though is how it transitions between the the three kids and their digimon, beginning with the kids in cloud silhouette before they meet eyes with their digimon.

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“Gravity” was #4 on my list of all time favorite anime songs. Despite being “Engrish,” the lyrics are very poetic and convey the introspective side of Wolf’s Rain very well. Visually this ED isn’t too impressive but it has its own style of beauty when combined with one of Maaya Sakamoto’s most beautiful songs. I believe that in each episode, the background that Kiba is running through changes.

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A pretty song, but what makes this ED special can’t be seen in just one viewing of it. The images of the characters is different in each episode – some disappear, reappear, or change slightly depending on the episode. I like the “fading in” effect with the characters, and their combination of colors against the background just looks really nice. My favorite version of this ED is actually in the final episode, which uses a different song and the opposite effect (all the characters are present at the start and slowly fade out). Darn, the finale of Angel Beats! is going to make me start crying again so…next! XD

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K-ON’s got great songs, but after many listenings, “No thank you” has become my favorite. Awesome song and lovely KyoAni animation to go with it.

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It was love at first sight/listening with this ED, both in terms of song and visuals. I thought my enjoyment of it would fade with time but I still can’t get enough of it. I really like the lyrics of the song as well. It’s slower than most of abigdon’s boys’ songs but my personal favorite of theirs.

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No surprise here for those who know my Haruhi obsession! But despite that, this is arguably the most famous and beloved anime ED amongst fans all over the world, spawning numerous parodies and dance contests. I prefer the full dance version of “Hare Hare Yukai” (above) rather than the one used in the actual episodes.

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Hope you enjoyed the list and feel free to share any of your favorites in the comments.

Also, I’d like to make a quick note that I’m probably going to have to cut down my post amount to one or two a week rather than two or three. I’ve just had a lot of other things I want to do lately and my work hours have increased a bit too. But come summer in July I may have more free time.

My next new post should be Monday. See you all then and have a great weekend~

I’ve made a lot of anime favorites lists over the years, but I was recently reminded that I have yet to make a list of favorite openings, a list that many bloggers have already done. Although there’s a reason for why I’ve been avoiding such a list, I finally managed to come up with a top 10…

The reason I was putting off making a list of favorite openings is because they’re comprised of two things – visuals and music – and I was having difficultly deciding how I should judge them. What if I loved the song but not so much the visuals? What if I love the visuals but not the song? Should I choose an opening that has good overall visuals and music or one that’s good in just one or the other?

Finally today, I decided that I’m going to make my list of favorite openings based mostly on visuals, with music being judged secondary. Since I already made a list of my favorite anime songs, I figured it’d be better to judge this list of favorite openings based more on visuals.

And just to note, it was more difficult for me to pick favorite anime openings than favorite anime titles because there’s just so many of them – for every one anime title there could be multiple openings! 0_o I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make a list of favorite anime openings I’m 100% satisfied with, but below is the best I could do:

A beautiful opening for a beautiful anime. “Tori no Shi” is a song that’s both pretty and intense, just like Air itself. The visuals are gorgeous and flow with the song perfectly.

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“Shine” made it onto my top 10 favorite anime songs too. It’s such a bright, uplifting song and really brings out the splendor of the visuals in this OP. I’m a sucker for pretty nature scenery, and the birds flying at the beginning and ending of this OP create a powerful effect. I also like how the OP gives us subtle yet endearing scenes of Balsa and Chagum’s relationship. I especially like the scene where they’re racing across the fields on a horse (even though they only had that horse for like, one episode =P)

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“Kokoro no Chizu” is also one of my top 10 anime songs. I think the lyrics capture the themes of One Piece more than any other, and along with the visuals in this OP, really give a good impression of the show. I like how the OP seems to be two “acts,” with the first half featuring the Straw Hats doing their usual stuff at sea, and the second half flashing scenes of the darker events that happen in this story arc.

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Out of all the FMA openings, this one has always gotten me the most “pulled” into wanting to watch the show. The intense song and visuals really work well together in getting me psyched.

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The Kannagi OP not only has great animation, but what’s so memorable about it is that the visuals are actually parodying what the series is about, something you wouldn’t know unless you actually watched it XD Yet despite this, all the characters are featured in the OP in an amusing and clever way that goes along with the parodying.

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Even though I’m not into Inuyasha much anymore, I still adore this OP. The animation is lush and detailed, and all of the important characters make an appearance in a “natural” way, especially the seven main villains of this particular arc, rather than the typical pan over of all of them together. I also like how this OP showcases both the dark/dramatic side of Inuyasha as well as the beautiful, cute side, ending with a peaceful scene of Inuyasha a co. walking through a pretty field with butterflies and then cute lil’ Shippou and Kirara at play.

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For years, “Ready Go” was my favorite Pokemon opening, but once “Saikou Everyday!” came out, I found that it just gets me a bit more pumped ;) That’s really its main appeal – it gets any Pokemon fan pumped up with fast-paced visuals and the fact that it features every single legendary pokemon up to that point in the franchise. I also like how the ending goes through all of Ash/Satoshi’s pokemon looking quite confident XD The actual song for this OP isn’t all that great, but with the visuals it could easily make it on a list of favorites for any Pokemon fan.

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“Give a reason” got the #1 spot on my list of favorite anime songs, and it’s also one of my favorite openings =) The visuals in this OP capture the great mix of fun, fantasy, and drama that the Slayers series encompasses. They go great with the song and the lyrics are fantastic to boot.

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Chalk up another list of favorite anime OPs that has this classic on it ^^ I have a feeling that much of this OP’s worth comes from how memorable the anime itself is, but it’s still a great one none the less. It has an incredible song that starts out gentle, introducing the characters and showing silhouettes, before picking up speed in the latter half and quickly flashing images of other characters and everything else related to Evnagelion, before finally going back to Shinji. I like how it ends on Shinji smiling, perhaps an indication that despite all the horror in the series, there’s always that glimmer of hope left.

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I’ve loved this OP for almost ten years and I can’t really explain why. I don’t even like Rayearth that much…but the visuals in this opening are just so pretty and actually quite stunning when you consider the fact that this is an anime TV series from 1995. It could just me by personal taste of course, but there’s something in the tone of the song together with the visuals that make this OP draw me in every time.

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To summarize, I prefer openings that get me “pumped up” for the upcoming show rather than openings that are just unique. But there are other times where something else about the opening will capture my fancy. Not knowing when I’ll find another favorite OP is part of the fun =D

Again, there are many more OPs that I love as much as these but I had to narrow it down for the sake of this list. If I ever do a list of favorite endings, it should be a lot easier since there aren’t as many of those that I like XD

It’s now Valentine’s Day here in the U.S. Just wanted to wish you all a happy one. As usual, it’s just another day for me…but I do have a few anime Valentine’s pictures for you after the jump…

If nothing unexpected comes up, I’ll be back with a new post on Wednesday~

It’s now been a year and four months since I last posted photos of my room, which is covered in anime posters and goodies. My room actually got featured in ANN’s Shelf Life back in Sept. 2009 when I submitted the photos. A lot has changed since then, so I decided it’s once again time to take out the camera and share the 2011 version of my anime-covered room with everyone…

We’ll start things off with the area around my bed. On the bed is my Inuyasha throw blanket, which has kept me warm many nights :3 You can also see my big Pikachu plush among other stuffed animals (gosh, he must be ten years old now!) On the left wall are random anime pictures, among them a Toradora! and Eden of the East poster that I got from promotions at AX 2010. Hanging by the window are my badges from all the anime conventions I’ve been to (six so far). And of course, my Fushigi Yuugi scroll that’s been hanging in that same place for the past eight years. I used to have a big Haruhi scroll hanging directly above the bed, but I took it down so I have room for the 2011 Haruhi calendar ^_^ Below the calendar is a K-ON! fan art and a small pencil board, above the calendar is my favorite old-school Pokemon poster, and to the left of that is an End of Evangelion fan art I purchased a long time ago.

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Next is the wall to the left of the bed. Hanging on the window is the Pokemon reji sheet I bought at the Pokemon Center in Tokyo (now outdated with only 493 pokemon XD) Under the window are more anime pictures, including an old Pokemon jigsaw puzzle and a random page from the Cardcaptor Sakura 2000 calendar. Next to that are a wildlife calendar and poster (yes, there are a few other things I’m interested in besides anime =P) Oh, and don’t forget to spot my two Nana keychains hanging from the blinds.

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Moving on to the next corner, you can see the desk where I used to have my computer monitor before I got my HD TV (which I’ll get to later). Besides using the desk to display many of my anime figures and plushies, I also use it for my printer (on the top), my desktop computer (on the bottom), and game controllers and remotes. I still have my monitor out behind my “Chopper shrine” on the desk just in case I need it (have it covered in a pillow case so it doesn’t get dusty). And lastly, my 1,000 piece Haruhi jigsaw puzzle on the bottom there.

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A closer photo of the computer desk. Obviously I have the most figures/plushies of Haruhi and Chopper since they’re my favorites (and come April, she’ll be joining my small but growing figure collection).

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The biggest change in my room since last year is the edition of a 40″ HD TV which is now my TV and computer monitor (currently with my favorite Okami wallpaper). I’m always a few years behind the times – I just moved up to HD while everyone else is on Blu-ray already. But I’ll catch up eventually :3 Right now I’m just enjoying watching anime, playing games, and surfing the web on such a big screen. Behind the TV is my signed Lucky Star poster and the Haruhi movie poster I got during its U.S. premiere. On the shelves under the TV are my DVD/VHS combo player (yes, I still have a lot of things on VHS), my karaoke machine, my Wii and games, and my Cardcaptor Sakura and Inuyasha DVDs, among others, on the bottom. And in addition to a plush of Teito (the little fox squirrel from Nausicaa), that anteater plush is there because it’s the mascot of my university. And lastly (if you can spot it), directly under the TV is a figure of my favorite pokemon, Vaporeon. My laptop is in that black case in the lower right corner (does anybody know if laptops need to be plugged in even when they’re shut down?)

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Here’s the rest of the wall behind the TV as well as the back of the door. More anime posters, mostly Bleach and Okami. Also, my sighed Code Geass poster on the left, another Code Geass poster that came inserted in an art book I bought, an Eureka 7 fan art to the right of that, and a Naruto jigsaw puzzle below.

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Here’s the other side of the door – Fullmetal Alchemist, Sailor Moon, and Ouran. Heh, I’ve had that little Pikachu sticker for like, twelve years XD

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Here’s the other wall next to the door. To the left is one of my closet doors covered in three big Pokemon posters. To the right is my bookshelf, with some manga, Japanese lit and language books, and anime art books among other things. On top of the shelf are more anime goods, mostly Kannagi and Lucky Star. Each year I hang a different anime calendar on this wall, and this year it’s Angel Beats!. You can see a Macross Frontier pencil board next to it and a couple of Evangelion posters under that.

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Here’s both of my closet doors – Pokemon on the right and Shana, Inuyasha, and Yu-Gi-Oh! on the left.

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The next corner – on top is a huge Haruhi poster signed by the English voice actors. Below that are more anime posters (the pretty cover of my Angel Beats! calendar among them) and the shelf where I keep most of my anime DVD collections (really need to get a bigger one). The DVDs I have are Slayers, Shana, Evangelion, Mushishi, Trigun, Fushigi Yuugi, Tenchi Muyo!, Azumanga Daioh, Haibane Renmei, Wolf’s Rain, Tactics, Fruits Basket, Haruhi, Noir, and Gunslinger Girl. Under the pink desk on the left is a very old Cardcaptor Sakura poster I have no room for, and my Angel Beats! tote bag with Yuri on it~

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I’ve had this pink desk since elementary school and I still haven’t found a reason to get rid of it XD More pictures above the desk, including a Spice and Wolf pencil board I got in Japan. Figures and other goodies on the desk – to the left are my old Pokemon figures, the first figures I ever bought. On the desk are some Japanese study books and my black DSi (with a Pokemon cover on it :3), cell phone, and car keys. My desk is usually not this neat XD

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And lastly, an overall shot of my room. Sitting on that blue chair is how I spend the majority of my free time online, playing games, or watching TV/movies/anime. Investing in a wireless keyboard and mouse certainly made my set up more comfortable =)

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So that’s my room. To some, my collection is huge, to others, it’s not. But I’m certainly grateful for having my own little anime haven and being able to purchase so many nice things for myself over the years =D I’ve lived in this house for over twenty years but I know one day I’ll have to move. Transferring this anime room to a new location will not be easy! But I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere for a while ^_^a

It’s once again Christmas here in CA and I just wanted to wish all my visitors a very merry one~ Unfortunately I get to spend this Christmas fighting off a cold ~_~ But it could be worse…at least I have the weekend to recover.

And as usual, I’ve posted some nice anime Christmas pictures after the jump…

Hopefully I’ll be better by Monday so I can resume posting again. Until then, hope you all have a safe and happy holiday weekend~!

For the past five to six years, my field of academic interest has been Japanese language and culture, which was brought about by my love for anime. However, that was not the case for most of the years of my life. In fact, for quite a long time I thought my career would follow not the language and culture of anime, but its visual medium – animation and cartooning…

I’ve always been a big animation fan, as I’ve stated in many previous posts. Nowadays I get my fill of it by simply watching anime and animated movies. But for roughly the first seventeen years of my life, I not only watched cartoons all the time, but also drew them on a daily basis. Drawing was as big a hobby for me as blogging is now. I’ve saved most of my drawings from elementary school to high school, and if I were to stack them all in a pile, they’d probably be at least two feet high.

In this post, I invite you to take a peek at my old cartooning career and see how it eventually fizzled out in favor of other things. Oh, and feel free to laugh to yourself when you see my old kiddy drawings XD

And I apologize for the poor quality of some of the images. I don’t have a scanner and a digital camera isn’t the best way to take photos of pieces of paper.

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Starting from when I was in kindergarten, I loved to draw. Since I had a lot of cats in my childhood, they were the biggest inspiration for my drawings. Thus, for my years at elementary school, my classmates and teachers would think of me as “the girl who draws cats all the time.”

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Early cat sketches

Besides the real cats I had at home, my other first inspiration was the Garfield series (of which I had almost all the books). In fact, I think over half of all my drawings involving cats were based off of some strip or image from Garfield. I would insert either nameless cats or use my own cats in place of the Garfield characters. Heh, Jim Davis should have gotten a dollar for all the drawing ideas I copied from him XD

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The typical comics I used to draw

At one point I even made up my own superhero cat character, though I only drew him in regular pictures and not comic strips.

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My old made-up superhero, Cranio Kitty XD

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More sketches

Besides cats, my other huge drawing obsession in elementary school was Sonic the Hedgehog. I was a big fan of the old Sonic games on Sega Genesis and Game Gear. I loved drawing the characters in various scenes from the games.

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Sonic & Knuckles, one of my favorite old games

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More Sonic

Throughout elementary school and early middle school, I would also draw pictures of various other video game or toy characters.

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Beanie Babies; I can’t believe I would draw them with their tags on XD

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My fav Beast Wars: Transformers character

Before my anime fandom officially started with Pokemon in my second year of middle school, my last drawing craze again involved me copying ideas from the Garfield comics. This time however, I used two particular cats of mine as the characters – Malibu, a fluffy orange cat who played the role of Garfield, and Pip, a chubby black and white cat, who’d get the brunt of the jokes (playing the role of either Jon or Odie). “Malibu & Pip” is my biggest folder of drawings, with half of them being comic strips and half regular colored pictures.

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Typical M&P drawing

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Typical M&P comic

Malibu has since passed on but Pip, as old and senile as he is, is still around.

Finally in late 1998/early 1999, my Pokemon obsession began, and naturally it also became my next big drawing craze.

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A very early Pokemon drawing

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A Pokemon drawing from a few years later. Obviously I’ve improved a bit

My love for drawing Pokemon continued on to high school. However I also branched out into drawing pics from other older anime (for more difficult characters I would usually copy directly from a picture).

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One of many pages of random character doodles I made in high school

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Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo!. Wish I could draw this good all the time

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Some chibi Slayers characters

Finally, my last big drawing craze occurred in high school. In addition to drawing Pokemon and other occasional anime characters, I loved drawing fantasy creatures such as dragons.

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One of the better dragons I’ve drawn

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One of the best of my fantasy creature drawings

As you can see from my childhood filled with drawings, I really thought art/animation/cartooning would be the career path I wanted to take. I told all my teachers, friends, and family that that’s what I wanted to be when I grew up. I even took a drawing elective class in middle school and an animation class in my senior year of high school. Once I got into anime in high school, I decided that I wanted to be a manga-ka rather than a comic strip cartoonist. However, what started to change my mind was my first semester of junior college. I started off with Art as my major and had to take one of the prerequisite classes that involved drawing a lot of still life illustrations…and I hated it. Out of all the hundreds of drawings I had made up to that point, I never drew anything but cartoon-style characters. I dreaded having to take all these Art classes that required me to draw in a style I didn’t like nor was I good at.

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Still life shapes…so boring

However, during the same semester that I took the art class, I also took my first Japanese class and absolutely loved it. Thus, I decided to switch my area of focus from art to Japanese. My junior college didn’t offer Japanese as a major, so I got my A.A. in Liberal Studies and majored in Japanese language/culture when I transferred to a university.

Promptly after I took that art class at college, my desire to draw, which was so strong in my childhood, started to disappear. For the next five or so years after, I maybe made a few serious illustrations, but nothing more.

My loss of interest in becoming a manga-ka happened for a few reasons. One is that I simply became more into anime and preferred watching it rather than drawing it, since my drawings never came out as good as what I saw in anime. Basically my idea of what was aesthetically pleasing matured as I did. Also, once I became familiar with pixiv and deviantART, I realized just how amateurish my drawing talent is. I never learned to use nor had the programs and equipment to draw the kinds of masterpieces that the artists on those sites do with Photoshop, drawing tablets, etc,. While it takes me an hour to draw a character’s face in a way that’s only semi-satisfactory to me, many other artists can draw the character’s entire body in the same amount of time and in a much more professional way than I can. I never even learned to draw human anatomy, as I preferred drawing cartoon animals most of the time. In summary, life experience that I gained in my college years showed me that I can’t draw as fast nor as good as what would be required to be a cartoonist, much less a manga-ka.

However, I have developed some rough ideas for the manga I was thinking of creating if I can find someone who’d do the illustrations (a Bakuman-like team!) There’s also a novel I’d like to write, but again I would need an illustrator. I don’t have time for these two projects at this point in my life, but they’re something I’d eventually like to do if the opportunity ever came around.

I haven’t completely given up drawing though, as I still get inspired every now and then, like I did when Pokemon Black & White came out.

*Click the image for a larger version*
After years of a drawing hiatus, I finally made this two months ago

Perhaps my drawings would be good enough for a children’s book? Who knows…I still haven’t settled into a career yet, so anything’s possible. If the teaching ESL/Japanese, or other jobs I try, don’t work out, maybe I could get back into drawing one day.

After writing editorial/analytical posts the past few weeks, I figured it’s time to take a break and return to good ‘ol fan-gushing posts. I haven’t done a list of favorites in a while, so here’s one that I’ve always wanted to do – my top 10 favorite anime songs…

Picking only ten favorite anime songs is probably harder than picking your ten favorite anime series (though I wouldn’t say it’s as hard as picking favorite characters). The reason is that there’s just so many anime songs. The minimum for any one title would be about two songs (an opening and an ending), but most anime that are at least fairly successful have more than one OP and ED, a few image songs, some insert songs, etc,. And if they become a long lasting popular franchise, the number of songs becomes astronomical – the Digimon franchise alone has released over a hundred CDs!

According to MAL, I’ve seen close to 300 anime titles, so you can imagine how many hundreds of anime songs those titles encompass (not to mention songs I’ve heard without actually seeing their respective anime). However, I was determined to pick my top 10 and I did. Here they are:

*Note* The list is based solely on the songs themselves and not on accompanying visuals. For example, if the song is an opening, I’m only judging it by how much I like the full-version song, regardless of the opening animation. Lists of favorite OPs/EDs will be for another day =)

Not a very well known song, being that it’s just used as an ending song for one of Pokemon’s many movies, but it became an instant hit with me when I first heard it upon seeing the 9th Pokemon movie in a little Kansai theater back in the summer of ’06. I find it a simply beautiful song, in lyrics and melody, that’s sweet but not childish. Sowelu, probably most famous among anime fans for singing the final Fullmetal Alchemist ending, “I Will,” does an excellent job with this gentle, lovely song.

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This song was another instant hit with me when I first watched Seirei no Moribito in my college anime club in late ’07. I also remember what a painfully long wait it was for the single to come out and I had to make due with the TV size version and PV. Though the gorgeous visuals of the opening make it all the more fantastic, the full-version song is solid enough by itself (I especially like the Engrish at the beginning and end). This is L’Arc at their best in my opinion. Unfortunately, like most of their songs, I still have trouble singing this one at karaoke =P

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It’s hard to deny the quality of the Macross F songs, all of which I adore, but many will agree that “Lion” is the most powerful song of the series. I’m also a sucker for duets, especially from talents like May’n and Megumi. Add in Yoko Kanno and you’ve got instant win XD The chorus of this song continues to give me ecstatic chills every time I hear it.

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And now Macross F is the only anime to have more than one song in my top 10 (though Slayers, One Piece, and Pokemon got very close). It was hard picking between the series’ two stellar opening songs (though technically the first OP is Mayaa Sakamoto’s version of this song, but I prefer the duet), but I finally decided I like the lyrics and karaoke-value of “Triangular” a bit better. One of the best anime duets, with brilliantly significant lyrics if you’ve seen the series.

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How could I leave out Haruhi? As much as I love “Bouken Desho Desho?” and “Hare Hare Yukai,” “God Knows…” is my favorite Haruhi song. It’s just such a powerful song that’s a blast to sing at karaoke, at least for me. Like “Shine,” the full-version of “God Knows…” can stand by itself, but when listened to with its amazing accompanying animation from that episodes, it’s even more impressive. This song has been quite an inspiration for anime girl bands since its debute.

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Despite my ambivalent feelings towards Bleach, the series has some great songs, especially in its early years. I just love the beat of this song and the feeling of the singers’ voices as they sing the lyrics. The lyrics are actually very beautiful despite the song sounding harsh at times. “D-techno Life” is always exciting every time I hear it.

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One of the most beautiful Engrish songs of all, with lyrics that bring tears to my eyes each time I sing them. Take Mayaa Sakamoto’s voice like flowing silk, together with Yoko Kanno’s genius, and Wolf’s Rain, one of my most favorite anime of all, how could I not be taken? The lyrics of “Gravity” match the Wolf’s Rain storyline exceptionally well. I like a similar song in the series, “Tell Me What the Rain Knows,” almost as much as “Gravity” if only it had a full version.

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During my love affair with the Inuyasha series from around 2002 to 2007, the songs were just one of many things I loved about it. But it truly did have some excellent songs, and for years I had trouble picking a favorite; it always fluctuated between “Change the World” (first OP), “Every Heart” (fourth ED), “Four Seasons” (third movie ED), and “Fukai Mori” (second ED). Many listening, lyrics readings, and karaoke sessions later, I’ve finally decided that “Fukai Mori” is my favorite. From the awesome guitar solo at the beginning to the haunting yet beautiful lyrics, this is definitely a memorable anime song.

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One Piece has a ton of fun songs – it was a tough call between this one and the following opening “Brand New World,” but I can’t deny how much I love “Kokoro no Chizu.” It was one of the first anime songs in which I memorized all the Japanese lyrics and even wrote my own translation. But aside from that, I just love the upbeat melody and how perfectly the lyrics match the themes of One Piece. Not just One Piece, but a lot of the uplifting themes we love in anime are conveyed in this song. Definitely an example of j-pop at its finest.

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And finally, a song by my most favorite Japanese singer/seiyuu, a song that is now almost fifteen years old and I still never get tired of it (naturally it also topped my list of favorite 90s anime songs which I posted a while back). I adore just about all of Megumi Hayashibara’s songs (as well as her incredible seiyuu repertoire), but “Give a reason” is simply my ultimate. A vibrant melody, impacting lyrics, and Megumi’s awesome style that earned her the “Queen of j-pop” title back in the day. Surprisingly, out of all the many anime songs she’s performed, my second favorite of hers is “Plenty of grit,” another Slayers song that she sung in 2008, over ten years after “Give a reason.” Her talent definitely hasn’t faded with time.

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It was difficult narrowing it down to these ten out of the hundreds of anime songs I’ve heard. There were so many more I love almost as much as these and wanted to add to the list, but I really wanted to stick with just a top 10 list for now. Maybe I’ll acknowledge some of the others another time, perhaps when I eventually get around to listing my favorite anime OPs and/or EDs.

Do I share any favorites with you? And feel free to list your own top 10 anisongs in the comments.