I felt seeing how it is the 24th of December over here I would put up a journal wishing all those I know here all the best seasonal wishes/greetings. While I do look forward to the gifts/vouchers/money I receive at this time of year, along with the annual family outing and viewing of Christmas Carol and writing witty captions in the latest world records book the magic of it all is gone, a fact which I attribute to the unfortunate fact that I am getting older each year. Much of the gifts I got are still on their way in the post, a shame they didn't arrive by Christmas but I suppose given this time of year that is a tad difficult. I've never been particularly atheist or religious so the Christian aspect of the holiday is lost on me and its not really a holiday for me given how I've essentially been nearly 4 years with free time . My family and family friends are not particularly close to me and I meet them quite rarely so I don't really feel much of a connection or familiarity with them anymore, not that this especially bothers or pleases me. I feel generally apathetic to these holiday seasons , they are simply just another day of the week to me. So at the end of it all that leaves the highlight of the year being exchanging gifts and watching ones wallet/purse increase in content, such a view of Christmas I link to my good old capitalist upbringing , which is unusual given my father's bias toward communism. And while we're ragging on about the festive season bad humbug to bad Turkey , never did care for the meal on the 25th myself .

A very merry happychristmaskawanza to you all.

Update:

Gifts received : -top 10 of everything 2010
-guiness book of records 2010
-Rozen maiden peach pit artbook
-Sandman endless nights
-Sweets/chocolate
-Gift vouchers
-Money
-Keis gallery-momotaro art book
-Pandora hearts odds and ends art book
-A cup.

Today marked the beginning of the Irish anime and manga convention which will be lasting until the end of Sunday afternoon. I avoided the anime screenings largely due to the fact I had already seen everything on offer. I did however attend the anime quiz which was based on music , image and general knowledge rounds. My team managed to come in third however unfortunately unlike last year there were only prizes for the team in first place.
It was amusing to see my brother in his trollplay and a male friend of mine dressed as saber from fate stay night.
Chances are I will probably only be going for the Saturday though but we shall see. In the end I didn't go through with any plans to cosplay myself.
I am hoping to pick up several things at this convention:
-Rozen maiden dolls
-Rozen maiden artbooks
-The pandora hearts artbook.
-At least one volume of fairy cube.

Other than that I have already done my Christmas shopping but am completely unsure of what I want when people ask me , its a difficult choice between hellblazer volume 2 , rozen maiden graphic novels,
sandman 1 , swamp thing 4 , Fables 1, 2, 3 or Alan Moore's from hell.

Update: In the end I was unable to acquirer anything on that list, I did however manage to purchase a code geass poster though. I chose not to buy any merchandise, manga or dvds available as I had already seen/read/owned many of what was available, some several times and I felt it was just unfair to purchase something that I had alreasy experienced and another may have not.
It was fun pointing out/spotting who all of the attendees were going as . I also enjoyed the cosplay show and am debating wheather I should go to the goth or maid show (on one hand I find this highly appealing but at the same time a bit demeaning of women so I am rather hesitant ). I got the chance to spend time with good friends of mine and was able to be closer to my brother . My favourite part of these events is not so much the screenings and items on sale but simply talking with other people there.
I made several compliments to the artists that were there which were thankfully well received. Funnily enough I saw two very young girls dressed up as rosario vampire characters which seemed as odd as it did inappropriate but the most peculiar of all was a little girl dressed up as Lucy from elfen lied. Other than that my ear is now temporarily infected due to careless showering and I've let it become stuffed with water, its hurts but it is getting better and my hearing isn't not as bad as yesterday though it plus my terrible eyesight really made the quiz on friday harder than it should have been.
I looked forward to simply trading humour with friends as is the usual when we meet up.
A few in our group went dressed as Resident evil characters .
The most awkward part of Saturday though was when I sat down to discuss comics and animation with a suigentou cosplayer and a friend of hers , she'd heard of Godchild , Kaori yuki , rozen maiden and the revolution of ludwig and seemed okay with yuri. To add to this she was one of those Naruto/yaoi fans that weren't biased or annoying as hell , she even had a reasonable view on the the whole subs/dubs thing acknowledging that not all dubs are bad and it depends on the show.
Though the awkward part came when I started to realize that I was getting very nervous around her, shy and blushing, it became evident I had a crush on her of sorts and nearly blurted out that I thought she was "very pretty". I was further concerned by the fact I felt genuinely creepy that I was keeping an eye out for the girl and kept approaching her and trying to think of something to strike up a conversation . Eventually at the end of the day a sorry sight, more so than I was as I was unknowing of my emotions while initially speaking with her managed to man up and tell her how I felt about the whole thing.
Embarrassed as I was I never even inquired about the girls name, details, e-mail/msn address. Quite unfairly and after the fact (that is after the attraction was realized I learnt a troublesome truth , there girl was only 14 or 15 years old.)
I guess I felt a little disappointed by the response I got but I was happy the girl just listened and actually spoke to me in the first place. Beside this I also learnt of a future upcoming convention next year.
Lastly on an unrelated note I will be attending compulsory jury duty in December which I feel a mixture of both excitement and worry about.

Recently I found myself thinking up two parodies , one of the harem dating simulation genre, the other of superheroes, namely Batman and Robin.

The basic gist of the dating sim idea was a joint idea by myself and a friend to create a visual novel that essentially trolled the player by offering a special ending on the box for the most attractive character but then having it actually not being in the game. Other aspects included a character that would reveal himself to be homosexual at the very end while another was a manipulative bastard who was blackmailing the lead character. The last character suggested was a knight in shining armour who happened to be the biggest playboy on the face of the earth. All of the males would be complete assholes/tsunderes and it would eventually be revealed that the main characters parents weren't actually killed in an accident but rather the car crash was all orchestrated staged and her parents are actually alive and well, simply teaming up with the members of the reverse harem to troll her. There was no possibility of achieving anything other than a bad end.


The superhero parody was to be set in 19th century victorian England with a sort of Batman and Robin duo, known as Alice and the Vicar, both a father and child aristocrat pair by day , vigilantes/anti-heroes armed with guns/scythes by night.
The characters were as follows:

The Vicar-A millionaire English nobleman and aristocrat living with his daughter Alice in the Victorian era London , East end. He hunts criminals and anyone else he deems unfit to live by night, binding their souls to dolls , hoping that when he collects enough spirits he can restore Alice's voice who's singing is said to be nothing short of angelic. He is cynical, sarcastic , sadistic , cruel, only showing emotion to young girls that resemble Alice from Alice in wonderland . His weapons of choice are sickles, revolvers and acidic earl grey.

The Yorkshire Yiffer-A fursuiter from modern day America who dresses up in a wolf costume and can only communicate in disgruntled barking noises , he steals kittens, puppies and other small animals to add to his collection.

The Yorkshire Rapper- A stereotypical rapper from Jazz era America with no friends , attacks through a mixture of kopera, kung-fu and rap motions. He only commits petty crimes for the purpose of gaining attention and is considered an immigrant of no so legal standing by Queen Victoria Beckham.

Rupulstillbornskin-a cross dressing, transsexual scarecrow type creature with skin as the name might imply, his fingers are frostbitten, he is hunchbacked, with a hooked wooden nose and several rows of teeth with a tongue trapped between . His quirk is that people take pity on him for his unfortunate appearance assuming he is actually good on the inside. No one who has met him lives to tell the tale.

Josh the stripper-An Irish version of Jack the ripper from Galway . he is possessed by an evil spirit which compells him to steal womens clothing, claims to be a virginity theft extraordinaire despite having never had a girlfriend. Original the spirit possessing him was that of a genuinely evil, sinister childkiller/pedophile/rapist that murdered/assaulted vicars wife and child and stole Alice's voice and soul, that spirit is probably the only truly serious antagonist in the story and the reason the Vicar turned to Vigilantism I said spirit committed these acts while in the Vicars body, meaning that the quest of our main character is also one of atonement, to fully attain Alice's forgiveness and trust which he has managed to gain a little of but she still somewhat fears him) . Said spirit only half possessed Josh and Josh's absurd personality was able to somewhat divert him.

Commissioner Garden "Warlock" Shrooms-A drug addicted parody of Sherlock Holmes and commissioner Gordon, dabbles in black magic.

Lady Vanity-A living doll of The Vicars wife and one of many vessels the evil spirits manages to possess.

The gael force- a group of Irish motorcyclists hailing from Limerick, the rest is obvious.
The Rhythmer-Parody of the riddler talks in quotes from poems/rhymes.

As you may all already know I have recently developed something of a stronger interest in western comics/graphic novels and I was hoping that through this journal I could get some recommendations on what to buy based on what I have already read.
Its worth noting I hated Dark knight returns, relied far far too much on shock value , an exaggerated and overly badass/over powered batman , the simple, cluttered art, poorly layed out/distributed text and weak writing plus an overly long story made this nearly impossible to get through. I should also note that I was sorely disappointed with Fable, great art and a good concept and the murder mystery plot in volume 1 is interesting, its all just handled in a very boring manner.
Other than that a western comic I can't say I hold in particularly high regard is Joker by Brian Azzarello , while this is probably one of the best illustrated western graphic novels I've read, it is all style and no substance , the joker isn't really the focus as far as I am concerned , more of the attention seemed to be placed on a dull one-off character who tried to use the joker to his advantage.

So far in course of my life I have read:
-Sandman book 2
-Hellblazer routes of coincidence
-Gaiman's murder mysteries
-All of sandman
-Preacher volume 1
-a bit of 100 bullets vol 1
-Hellblazer-Damnations flame
-Hellblazer fear machine
-amazing spiderman book 1
-Batman Cacophony
-Hellblazer joyride
-Hellblazer original sins
-Emperor joker
-300
-Batman year 100
-All of Jeph loebs works for marvel that were illustrated by Tim sale
-Going sane
-Hellblazer-devil you know
-Sandman book 3
-Sandman book 4
-Sandman endless night
-Sandman book 7
-Iron man extremis
-Sandman book 1
-Tales of the batman
-The dark knight strikes again
-A dame to kill for
-Batman and judge dread ultimate riddle/die laughing
-Batman and judge dread judgement on Gotham.
-Fable 1
-Jokers asylum
-Hellblazer bloodline
-Swamp thing 4
-Batman-face the face
-Batman Gotham Gazette
-Battle for the cowl
-From hell
-Hellblazer-laughing magician
-Seven
-Sandman book 9
-The facts in the case of the disappearance of Miss Finch.
-Batman and judge dread die laughing
-Mr Punch
-Sword of Azrael
-Hellblazer 1
-Whatever happened to the dark knight
-Swamp thing anthology
-Superman-whatever happened to the man of tomorrow
-Spirit new adventures
-I read the beano, dandy , beezer, sonic comics as a child before anyone thinks of mentioning the obvious.
-Watchmen
-All star batman and robin
-Black hole
-Violent cases
-Sandman book 5
-The last arkham
-Detective Fell
-Superman red son
-Batman the Black glove
-Batman rip
-lost at sea
-Batman-black Orchid
-Scott Pilgrim series
-Batman a death in the family
-Batman and son
-hellboy book 1
-Batman child of dreams
-2000 ad
-Batman gothic
-A bit of Dark joker.
-Batman arkham living hell
-Batman year one
-Batman-Gotham by gaslight
-Blankets
-Skim
-Catwoman when in rome
-Like a velvet glove clad in iron.
-Mouseguard 1
-Mouseguard 2
Swamp thing 3
-V for vendetta
-Mad love
-Deadpool invasion
-Superman for all seasons
-Killing Joke
-David Boring
-Batman and dracula
-Batman red rain
-Batman the man who laughs
-Batman crimson mist
-Spiderman blue.
-Battle pope
-Batman Hush
-Batman secrets
-Batman haunted knight
-Batman Dark Victory
-Batman long halloween
-Challengers of the unknown must die
-Maximum carnage
-venom vs carnage
-Coraline
-Joker
-Sandman number 10.
-The transformers energon comics
-The megaman comic
-Captain America White
-Dare devil yellow
-Batman arkham asylum
-Batman the dark knight returns
Peresepolis
-Maus I
-Maus II
-Captain America white
-Battle Pope.
-Every silent hill comic
-Wolverine and gambit victims
-Hulk grey

Thats all I can think of right now off hand. Ideally I am looking for recommandations for a good Batman, deadpool (preferably his comedic incarnation) or Iron man comics.
I'm also hoping to get more into spiderman and Iron man as well.

Thank you.

The following is a list of pet peeves/issues I have that constantly seem to be showing up in/relating to Japanese cartoons/comics that have begun to irritate me:

-The overused indirect kiss line.

-Subtitle vs dubbed wars, there is no such thing as every dub being bad or every sub being bad, same can be said of vice versa, not all dubs are good, not all subs are good.

-Ridiculously over hyped series such as Naruto, haruhi, gurren lagann , bleach, one piece.

-The overly conservative censorship of some Japanese childrens series by 4kids, DIC, nelvana.

-The parasitic level/sheer number of low budget comedy series which recycle the same unfunny jokes , are minimally animated, feature weak, archetypical , pedo-bait female characters, characters who look 4 years younger than they actually are/cross dress to create the idea of that. These series nearly always have a whiny , selfish, domineering female characters who acts violently towards others despite deep down finding them attractive. Such shows also feature useless male leads which recieve no development whatsoever, are popular despite having no redeeming features/looking extremely plain.
The only harem series' out there that seem to take the clichees and do things right are the adaptation of keys works and maybe magikano, in the priors case the characters are presented in a way where they are developed/human and are more than just bots/dolls, reverse harem does this too. In Magikano and girls bravo , ouran I would consider in the safe zone as they feel more like parodies of the genre.

-People who have only scene/read a few popular series and claim to be experts/die hard fans/elitists.


-Anime/manga that goes on and on infinetely , nearly every shounen anime/manga. Other shows that are actually not shallow instead get shafted.

-Series that are almost completely comprised of filler/go no where

-Most visual/light novel adaptations other than fate stay and the works by key.

-The fact 99.99 percent of comics/anime/cartoons/manga are badly drawn/written/horribly animated. I dislike a considerable amount more than I enjoy but the gems out there I do love though small in number are some are the best series I have ever experienced.

-Making a character who is clearly made to look younger, 17 or 18 years old in age only to try and use it as an excuse to avoid pedophilic connotations.

-The fact every female character must be thin, a doormat, appealing to a particular fetish and if they actually are depicted as independent/strong/battle axes it is always artificial/fake.

-series which whore out/over promote/self promote/over-advertise within the story. I want to watch/read something not be bombarded with the equivalent of a sales pitcher.

-How every single gay (male/female) relationship is treated as no more than a means to be perverse , hollow, awkward , false, non existent, only implied. I want something genuinely romantic not just another shounen-rom-com route.

-Smut series that take things far far too far to the point where they are actually worse than the worst pornography. These pander to the worst of perverts who are not satisfied with the absurdest erotica end of things and need to quench their lust with things that are designed to be as realistic as possible. I despise loveless(looking back) , aigan shounen, aigan shounen , forbidden secret garden .

-The fact seinen action stories are always shafted in favour of shounen ones.

-The girl chasing male best friend character (exceptions are sunohara and fukuyama )

-Unfinished anime that adapts only half or even less than the source material.

-The lack of complex, psychological , suspenseful, dramatic, emotionally involving, mature stories.

-There are almost no anime/manga based thrillers.

-Overpowered characters.

-Obsessive Fanbases/the stereotypical comic fan (ie the full regalia of: obese, thick glasses, neckbeard, headband, no connections to friends, family or a partner, just masturbates all day), pedophilic fans, fans who simply cannot deal with the opinions of others.

-Most stereotypical villains who want to take over the world/destroy it for no reason.