Sunday, January 18, 2004

   Otaku Awards IV

Silliest Thread of the Year: I.....am Lone... Honorable Mention: Anyone interested in purchasing a used heart? What can be said about these threads? If you've seen Charles's signature, you'll know about the "I.....am Lone..." thread. It is perhaps the single most bizarre thing I've seen on a message board. Truly weird. And the used heart one...well, I think that the original intention of the thread was fine, but the title was misinterpreted by other members and the thread creator didn't put a lot of effort into the explanation. So, both were examples of weird threads. But there are many weird threads over the course of 2003. Avatar Award (Best Avatars Overall): Charles Charles has to win this one, hands down. Although there are members who produce avatars that are more aesthetically pleasing to me...Charles always manages to include a humorous message in his. His EPS one is possibly the most appropriate/fitting that I've seen. lol Signature Award (Best Signature Overall): Charles Honorable Mention: Sara Again, Charles wins this one for me. Always funny stuff in his signatures. I know from first hand experience how insane those AIM chats can be. And Sara...well, admittedly, I've seen the crayola thing before. But, Sara has always had interesting signatures -- witty little one-liners or larger things (R.E.S.C.U.E.) have always been noteworthy. Best Otaku Couple: James & Shy Honorable Mention: James & Queen Asuka Personally, I think this is the most silly award. These "Otaku Couple" things are getting so ridiculous. That is partly why I took the nomination only mildly seriously. ~_^ I chose myself and Shy, simply because we managed to produce Soju; I haven't seen any other miracle-working couples on OtakuBoards. And I choose James & Queen Asuka just because. So there you go. Best Looking Otaku: BabyGirl Honorable Mention: Juuthena In all honesty, this is another very difficult award. OtakuBoards is full of good looking people. So trying to choose the most good looking wasn't easy. But I guess I had to put Jenna up there, because out of all the women on OtakuBoards, I think she most fits my ideal of what is beautiful. And judging by what people have posted, a lot of members seem to agree with that. ^_^ And Juu...well, I put Juu there because she was the next member to come to mind. Juu's very pretty, I'm sure you'll agree. If only there were dozens of "Honorable Mentions" here... there are too many people to list. Best myOtaku: Charles Honorable Mention: Semjaza Azazel I like Charles's myOtaku primarily because it always has something interesting on it. Whether it's his Daily Otaku front pages, or his "Otaku-O's" breakfast cereal...you'll never be disappointed. If he updated a bit more often, I'd be even happier. ~_^ The runner up for me was Tony, because I like his design and I'm impressed with the way that he'd embedded his WiP stuff with myOtaku itself. Good use of myOtaku there and some great entries too. Poet Laureate: Charles The truth is, I don't read a lot of the poetry on OtakuBoards. And following that line...I don't read most "fan poetry" or "fan fiction". Why? Because much of it is just a chore to read. I don't like editing/critiquing writing like that, for various reasons. But because I'm always dealing with the editing of articles and things like that, it's possible that I simply want to avoid that type of thing as much as possible. I rarely come across fan fiction that really grips me, anyway. The same with poetry. I nominated Charles because, in my estimation, he's truly the best poet I've seen on OtakuBoards. On the one hand, his writing isn't full of cliches and it's not extremely bland. But on the other hand, he manages to write in a way that is both easy to understand and wholly unique. His ability to communicate a myriad of ideas through sound writing techniques is what impresses me the most. So, from my perspective, he gets the nod here. Writer of the Year: Shy Honorable Mention: Queen Asuka It's hard to choose an overall Writer of the Year. I chose Shy primarily due to Kill Adam. Although everyone has provided some amazing writing for Kill Adam so far, Shy stands out. He stands out primarily because his posts have fleshed out the background to the story like no others. Most of us have been concerned with fight scenes (obviously), but Shy has spent more time investigating the background of his character and others. Part of that is due to the chapters I placed him in, but he's handled it very well. I also nominated Queen Asuka for Kill Adam. I feel that in this RPG, more than any other, she came into her own. You can really tell that she invested a lot of thought and patience into the development of her character -- particularly in the chapter that looks at her character's past. It was well thought out, well organized and gritty. Considering that I don't often see Tori's writing on that level, it was a pleasant surprise and it demonstrates that she has a strong capability with writing in general. Original Story of the Year: OtakuBoards: Enter the Net Honorable Mention: Maverick Hunters: Personification As I mentioned above, I don't spend a lot of time reading fan stories and so on. But Solo's story has become something of legend in recent times. It's a very clever, colourful, well-conceived look at the community of OtakuBoards as it might be if one could truly see it as some kind of object or place. The sheer inventiveness is what has to win out here. Solo has taken very mundane things (like the Moderators forum) and developed them into a vivid, three dimensional world. I noticed that as I was reading the chapters of his story, I developed a strong sense of imagery in my head -- and that rarely happens when I read most fan fiction. So, it shows that Solo was able to capture my imagination very effectively. This is a well-deserved award, should Solo win. I also chose Maverick Hunters: Personification. Maverick Hunters has truly become an RPG saga on OtakuBoards. I don't know how many of you have been reading its multiple RPGs, but it is definitely a story with a great many twists and turns. Originally, the first RPG was based on the Megaman franchise (Maverick Hunters: Replimaters). And it was created by Final Flash, Warlock and Chaos. But when Personifiation started, Flash, Warlock and myself decided that we would actually develop a very detailed timeline to coincide with the RPG's events. We didn't want it to be "just another RPG" that can change for no reason; we wanted to develop reasons for characters' existence and for the events that take place. When I look at how far it has come now, with its characters, stories and settings...I'm actually quite amazed. What began as a unique spin in Megaman, has now become a truly original story with multiple layers. We are still writing Maverick Hunters: Personification -- and we hope to finish it completely. If you haven't read through it yet, I recommend it; especially the second half. Very good stuff. Role Player of the Year: terra Honorable Mention: Final Flash I mentioned terra because I think that she has demonstrated what "newbies" are capable of. As soon as she registered, she became a regular in Adventure Arena. And she continually showed all of us what truly great role players can do. For her inventiveness, her creativity and her commitment, I think she deserves my nomination. I also chose Final Flash as the honorable mention. What can I say? He is one of the people who spent a great deal of time fleshing things out in the Maverick Hunters series, along with Warlock and I. Although many people have been involved over the course of the RPGs, Final Flash has become one of the primarily developers of the plotline, along with Warlock and myself. He's done some truly interesting things with it and I appreciate the fact that he has constantly tried to think outside the square. He's done nothing in the plot development that is dry/boring or cliche. Otaku Social Member of the Year: wrist cutter Honorable Mention: SSJWolfGirl/Mei My apologies for not realizing that SSJWolfGirl is now Mei. At that time, I somehow felt that SSJWolfGirl had disappeared from the boards or something. Maybe it's just the fact that it feels like only yesterday that Mei registered. It wasn't long ago. In any case, both Mei and wrist cutter deserve to be nominated here, I think. wrist cutter -- when he isn't making casual one-liners -- is often able to set a great example in Otaku Lounge. His posts are always clear, concise and to-the-point. It's what I'm looking for. And it's what I encourage. ~_^ And Mei...well, I mostly remember her ability to reinvigorate Otaku Lounge when she first registered. She went in there and started that famous captions thread, which became quite popular. The great thing is, she asked me for permission first -- she didn't need to do that, but she chose to, because she respected the rules. And since then, she's gone from strength to strength. Definitely a great example of post quality with Mei. ^_^ Entertainment Otaku of the Year: wrist cutter Honorable Mention: Semjaza Azazel I wasn't sure who to vote for here. I chose people who came to mind for me at the time. I chose wrist cutter because I think he has educated a lot of people about Japanese music. He brings a level of knowledge with him that is important, especially when you get the occasional "OMFG!! I totaly luvv japanese muzic!!!!" Tony's a worthy mention, because he has made efforts to bring about discussions on lesser known music groups, rather than falling back on the "easy" threads about more well-known artists. Although we both have a somewhat different taste in music, I certainly respect Tony's passion for the artists that he loves. It's not some passing fad or something like that; it's a true passion. wrist cutter is the same. And that's something that has impacted my decision too, I think. It's something I respect.

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