Saturday, December 2, 2006

   Good morning sunshine!

> Anime Word of the Day

Cosplay (コスプレ) is a contraction of the English words "costume" and "play", is a Japanese subculture centered on dressing as characters from manga, anime, tokusatsu, and video games, and, less commonly, Japanese live action television shows, fantasy movies, or Japanese pop music bands. However, in some circles, "cosplay" has been expanded to mean simply wearing a costume. In Japan, "cosplay" as a hobby is usually an end unto itself. Likeminded people gather to see others' costumes, show off their own elaborate handmade creations, take lots of pictures, and possibly participate in best costume contests. Cosplay can be seen at public events such as video game shows, as well as at dedicated cosplay parties at nightclubs or amusement parks. It is not unusual for Japanese teenagers to gather with like-minded friends in places like Tokyo's Harajuku district to engage in cosplay. Since 1998, Tokyo's Akihabara district has contained a large number of cosplay cafés, catering to devoted anime and cosplay fans. The waitresses at such cafés dress as game or anime characters; maid costumes are particularly popular.

Opening Act: Hello Everyone! Time for my Saturday morning update! Or…really late Friday night if you’re still up. LoL I hope everyone has been having a fantastic week! This week has been pretty darn great for me! Being mobile again pretty much has me thrilled beyond all measure! Even though I spent the last couple of days just cleaning out house! I had not idea that three boy roomies could do that much damage in just a few months of me not cleaning up after them. Lmao! Well now they have to suffer the after effects of tons of antiseptic and cleanser everywhere! Though I’m pretty sure if my doctor saw me doing floors with my cast stretched out behind me he’d have my head on a platter. ^^ Good thing he’s far away, ne? Alas the snow is pretty much gone now…we had some rain and today’s sunshine pretty much melted it all. So sad…oh well I’m glad we had some anyway. Makes it feel a lot more like winter than it did before the rain. I’m originally from Minnesota so it just feels odd not to have snow covering everything for months! Just isn’t Christmas until I’ve frozen into a little ice cube! ^^ Alright I’m going to recommend an older anime today called Hajime No Ippo. This one is for those of you who watch sports animes. Though it’s a bit different from your usual sports anime. Rather than having a born genius play his way through, or having some discovered a born genius you follow a boy named Ippo. Bullied all through school he works hard to help his widowed mother at their fishing boat business. One day while being beaten by bullies he’s ‘rescued’ by a pro boxer. The boxer inspires him to change his way of thinking and discover what it means to be truly strong. While Ippo has amazing power the true appeal to watching him learn to box and go through the ranks isn’t his power. It’s the fact he’s insecure and trains constantly to try and gain the slightest confidence in himself. ^^ I can honestly say I watch every match he’s in without knowing if he’ll win or lose in the end. The fights are that impressive and his opponents all have their own reasons and in-depth motivations. It’s just a great inspirational series. And the manga is just as good if not better. Where the anime series only lasts 75 episodes the manga is still ongoing following this strong group of characters! So hmm...yeah go watch it or read it. Oh and those of you interested and those of you who have helped out for Child’s Play! Thanks! For the first month they’ve already managed to get over $250,000 worth of donations and gifts! Please remember if you can to help out, even something as small as a 5 dollar thing of play dough or batteries would be worth it and are needed. Oh great news too, several new hospitals have been added including one in Egypt and two in Australia!! Just awesome!! One more month of collecting before the holiday, so please give from your heart if you can help! The link as always is available at the top of my post! ^^ New Works: New wallpapers! Ok since the last time I was on here posting I’ve put up two more wintery themed Prince of Tennis wallpapers. This time one set is for Fuji and his brother Yuta and the second is two of my fave rivals, Sanada and Yukimura! So enjoy those if you so choose! ^^ I’ve also put up two Naruto wallpapers, one of my ever fave sensei Kakashi and another of Sasuke. I’m actually not a huge Sasuke fan though I like him well enough. But I just couldn’t resist working with this particular image. I just love him playing a flute. I know I’m pretty weird but musical instruments can totally make a character for me. LoL Oh and the last wallpaper I posted was from Samurai X, though I had to list it as Rurouni Kenshin here. No listing for Samurai X, so sad. Oh well since it’s Kenshin in his younger much more violent days I don’t mind too much. This picture I am beyond thrilled with, the moment I saw it I knew I had to make a wallpaper for it. This mostly involved hours of cleaning up the scan and choosing a simple background that wouldn’t steal attention away from the image itself. I think I succeeded in the end so I’m pretty pleased with this one. ^^ Besides those eyes just haunted me until I finished it up! And a bunch of new e-cards for folks to check out, these run the rampart between silly to inspirational, so enjoy! ^^ Hmm lets see I think I hit on Utawarerumono, Tsubasa, Fruits Basket, Bleach and probably a few others as well. Epilogue: Ah this one has me puzzled as well…trying to remember my first piece of memorabilia. It’s tough…I’m such an addict to those little dust gathers! I love collecting figurines and posters and all kinds of oddities. Good to see I’m not alone in that either! ^^ I swear most of my spending money goes into the anime market…LoL I guess you could say Anime is my Anti-Drug? So glad to see I’m not the only one enjoying the snow! Though I’m still shocked to see so many folks who should have snow not getting it! This weather is just so crazy lately. I guess it just goes to prove we really can mess up a whole planet if we try hard enough. *ducks* Ok, probably not exactly funny there, but still have some pride! It only took us a few generations to mess up a whole planets climate system! *sigh* And my friends mock me for recycling and going off to bizarre places to try and save the world. ^^ And wow no new voice actor requests this week either…man you guys are making me choose my own actors, what are you thinking? Anyway please remember I’m happy to take requests and if you just like a voice but don’t know who actually does it; always bear in mind that research is fun for me. I know way too many sites to look up character names and find out who the voice is! Random Question: What was the last anime you watched and would you recommend it to others?

Atsuko Tanaka’s Biography
Date of birth: November 14, 1962 in Gunma, Japan Blood Type:O Other Names:Family name (in kanji): 田中 Given name (in kanji): 敦子 Occupation: Voice Actor/Singer/Dancer
Ah one of my truly favorite voice actresses! I don’t know why I’ve taken so long to actually do a profile on Tanaka other than laziness! This lady has one of the best voices I’ve ever heard in a voice acting career. She tends to voice independent, strong, self assured women and trust me she does it amazingly well. I was first introduced to her as the voice of the Major on Ghost in the Shell and she truly captured the role perfectly! More recently I’ve been thrilled by her abilities playing Kurara in Utewarerumono. Just another strong and fierce character with a silly side to her this role just once again showed what a powerful actress she really is. And I’m certain that those of you who watch anime in Japanese will recognize her from more than one of her amazing roles over the past decade! Just a short listing of his voice acting career. Agent Aika as Nena Hargen Angel Links as Valeria Angelique as Dia AWOL - Absent WithOut Leave as Dana Battle Programmer SHIRASE as Kotoe Amano Berserk as Suran Black Cat as Echidna Black Jack as Abumaru Blue Seed as Mother Kanbayashi Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002 as Matsumoto Kaori Chouja Reideen as Reiko Amakai Cowboy Bebop as Coffee Ergo Proxy as Lacan Fate/stay night as Caster Fushigi Yuugi as Soi Ghost in the Shell (movie) as Major Motoko Kusanagi Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex as Motoko Kusanagi; Chroma (ep 9) Gravitation as Kaoruko (ep 1) Hataraki Man as Maiko Kaj Hoop Days as Kyoko Himuro Legend of Himiko as Fujina Magic User's Club as Saki Sawanoguchi Macross 7 the Movie: The Galaxy's Calling Me! as Margarita Mahou Shoujo Tai Arusu as Ateria Megami Paradise as Mamamega Mirage of Blaze: Rebels of the River Edge as Dashi Mobile Suit Victory Gundam as Yuka Myras Monster as Margott Noein - to your other self as Miyuki Gotou Outlaw Star as Valeria RahXephon as Sayoko Nanamori Reign: The Conqueror as Cassandra Soukou no Strain as Medlock Trigun as Claire Utawarerumono as Karura Wolf's Rain as Jagara Yu-Gi-Oh! as Imori Hajime Yukikaze as Marnie