Wed, 12 August 2009 Well, today was my first time back to Borders bookstore near downtown Houston since they moved their manga section upstairs to be sandwiched between the young adult and kid section. First up, they blundered big time. Lazy bastards like myself might not even go up to the second floor. I really had to think about it before I walked up there. The only reason I usually go to the second floor at all is to use the restroom. The first thing I noticed about the manga section was that it was kinda isolated in a corner, which would make it prime bait for stinky manga bums and other remora life forms that suck off revenue. Especially surrounding it with four armchairs. The second thing that I noticed was that the books were in such disarray it reminded me of a Walmart toy section. Like little punks had gotten the books off the shelf and stuck them back wherever. The selection sucked as well. But the many points of suckiness of Borders have been well documented on this site so I won't dwell on it here. Nonetheless, I still go by on a weekly basis. Kinda like buying Otaku USA, I guess it's just a habit that no longer has any meaning. I was greeted by an even more depressing sight at Nan's Comics and Games right down the road from Borders. They have their manga at the back of the store, but I would say 1/3 of their stock had been moved to make way for comic books. There was even manga stacked haphazardly on top of the comic boxes. To add insult to injury they didn't have any lighting in the manga section. They really never have. They rigged up a flourescent light tube that hangs from the ceiling by chains but it wasn't on. The only other light is a desk lamp sitting on one of the shelves. A DESK LAMP? Come on! I could have told the managers of the comic store and Borders that their manga sections sucked, but what would it have mattered? Borders is a dying dog anyway. And Nan's, well, it's just the typical attitude of American comic store owners towards manga. Category: general -- posted at: 10:57 PM Comments[0] |
Tue, 9 June 2009 A cool time lapse video of the sights and sounds of Tokyo: Tokyo Timelapse from nubero on Vimeo. Category: general -- posted at: 11:29 PM Comments[0] |
Mon, 1 June 2009  School is out and summer is in session. I'm looking forward to taking it easy and not dreading Mondays for about 2 months. I also hope to catch up on a lot of reading and dvds. And I'm not just talking about manga and anime. Of course, I will be podcasting and reviewing much more now that I have a lot of free time. In the Houston area, the weather is perfect to hit the beaches down in Galveston!
Electronic Gaming Monthly is making a comeback. In exactly what form is anyone's guess. The founder, Steve Harris, has bought the rights to the magazine and plans to relaunch it. Here's the link to the article on 1up.com: http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3174453 It was the most honest game review and news magazine out there until it got cancelled. I was under the impression that part of the reason it got cancelled was because they dared to say negative things about sorry games. I remember they would have an award each month called something like "stinker of the month" and it would should show a little pile of poo with flys buzzing around it. It was pretty funny. Now a lot of the mags are afraid to even put a rating like a number or a grade for fear of reprisals from the game companies. But they mask it behind an elitism that says they are above giving a simple qualitative and easy to understand rating. A lot of the time, you read a review and then are left wondering, "are they saying this is a good game or not?" There was no doubt with EGM, whether it was negative or positive.
Also, I've added a Twitter link over there on the right side column under my XBOX tag, so feel free to follow me. I'm trying to beat Oprah. I like to start small, so right now I only have 3 followers. I just created a Twitter account about a week ago, and tonight was the first time I really started exploring it, mainly finding people I would like to follow, mainly in the fields of manga and anime. Lori over at Manga Xanadu had an article with links to many manga bloggers and publishers in an article at this link: http://manga.jadedragononline.com/?p=917
Category: general -- posted at: 1:35 AM Comments[0] |
Sun, 5 April 2009  I've started a new category on the side panel, "Artists", where I will post links to artists that I like. I've put a link to Saelee Oh over there, but there's also another artist I'd like to bring your attention to. Kairi-Moon was featured in the February issue of Neo Magazine. Her real name is Karen Yumi Lusted. She's half Japanese and is in her final year of Animation study. She's currently learning Japanese so she can talk to her family back in Japan and has plans to teach there (she currently lives in England). She would like a job in animation but would enjoy any job where she could be involved with art. You can find her webspace with more art and info at: http://kairi-moon.deviantart.com/ Here's a link to some previews for a comic (manga) she did for Itch Publication, entitled "Final Blossom": Category: general -- posted at: 3:52 PM Comments[0] |
Sun, 5 April 2009  I've been meaning to link to to some Asian and Asian-influenced artists for some time now, but have just never got around to it. Giant Robot features one every issue. So I'm taking the plunge with Saelee Oh, who was featured on the magazine a couple of months ago. Of Korean descent and hailing from California, Saelee isn't one of those moody types that likes to stew in solitude. She even likes to invite friends over while she's working, even though she might not be very attentive. She also likes to collaborate with other artists. Her art is very beautiful, with a childlike whimsy mixed with the danger of the adult world, surreal without being unnatural or inorganic. Her art is inviting and makes you smile. Saelee doesn't stay in one place long, preferring a free life, moving among cities. You can check out her blog and more art at:
Category: general -- posted at: 2:56 PM Comments[0] |
Mon, 24 November 2008 Well, hopefully, my feed is running smoothly again. I was having a bit of trouble getting Itunes to upload my newest podcast, #140. As I mentioned in the blog a little bit ago, Feedburner was migrating its accounts over to Google without the permission of its users and somehow mine was getting lost in the shuffle. It pissed me off that they were mucking about with my feed. So I just took Feedburner out of the equation. And now it seems that my latest show has finally appeared on Itunes. It shouldn't affect your feed if you subscribe to my show, but if it does, again, my feed is: I would say steer clear of Feedburner if you're looking for a site to get stats about your downloads, because those faceless phantoms could care less about the people that use its services. Oh yeah, I guess it's about time that I came up with an illustration to put up for my show on Itunes. Right now its that oddly disturbing upside down ice cream cone with a ball on top of it. I've gone for over a year now without putting up a picture for my show. So maybe it's something I can work on during the holidays. Category: general -- posted at: 9:45 PM Comments[0] |
Sun, 5 October 2008 I just added my XBOX 360 gamertag to my webpage. Surprise, its "Sesho"! Can you believe it? I have a ton of 360 games but I only play a few of them at any one time. Lately, I've been playing COD 4 and SoulCalibur 4 and I play a lot of Arcade games. I've been meaning to review the excellent 360 Naruto: Rise of a Ninja game for some time now. It's just beautiful-looking. And the cool thing is that the actors in the anime do the voices for the game. You can hear the Japanese audio track too, if you're like me and hate the dub. When you are playing it feels you like you are really there in the Leaf Village. Plus, all the music from the anime is there as well. Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. Anyway, if you ever want to play a game, send me an invite or a friend request. But when you do, tell me or write me that you know me from my show or site. I don't add just anyone. But if you listen to my show, you must be pretty cool. Even though I'm not. Oh yeah, just to clear something up. Yes, my name comes from Inuyasha's brother, Sessho-Maru, and YES, I know it's spelled wrong. When I first registered my XBOX 360 gamertag back in 2006, Sessho was already taken, so I just modified the spelling. So that is where the Sesho name started and I liked it, so I used it as my nickname on my website as well. But over the past year, many people pointed out to me that Sesho was misspelled. This is just to let you know that I am not slow. Category: general -- posted at: 10:42 AM Comments[0] |
Sat, 13 September 2008  Well, I went to sleep last night around 11pm and thought I might not even wake up when Ike came through. Boy, was I wrong! I woke up around 5am with no power and the sound of cyclonic winds hitting my apartment. I've never been through a tornado but the winds were so strong and so loud that I quickly got all of my stuff like flashlights, radio, and batteries into the bathroom. I called my brother and mother and learned that this had been going on since around 2am, so it was nothing new to them. So when I figured out I wasn't going to die right at that moment I felt a little relief. But not much. I laid down on the floor away from the window (which I had barricaded with boxes of books) and tried to get some rest. But it's kinda hard when you're listening to a radio which is declaring that your city hasn't even seen the worst of the storm yet. It was pretty harrowing to sit in the dark and hear just all kinds of weird and unsettling noises like trees splitting, windows shattering, and then you hear the weird ghost sound of something rolling back and forth on top of your roof. And this wasn't a flat roof either. It was sloped and something kept rolling back and forth, back and forth. Who the hell knows what it was. I don't really say "I'm scared" but early this morning I have to admit I was. The last hurricane that hit Houston full blast occurred back in 1983 and I was here for it, but I was a kid and I didn't remember much about it. The really scary thing is that Ike was only a Category 2 storm. I can't even comprehend the damage it would have done if it was a Category 5. With the sunrise, you could really get a sense of the devastation of the storm. My apartment was fine (I had a little water drip from the ceiling), except no power and no running water. But some of the other apartments in my complex suffered a lot of damage. Chimneys had fallen over, entire walls had been ripped off, windows had been shattered. The worst damage was to the roofs. The parking lots and walkways are covered with shingles that blew off during the night. I think the last estimate was something like 3 or 4 million people had no power in the Houston area. Cities closer to the coast suffered even more severe damage. Now I'm at my mom's place. She's the only one among my friends and family that has power and running water. And I've talked to many people in different areas of the city. My workplace has been closed since Friday and is also going to be shut down on Monday. Who knows when I'll get power and water back. But you know what? I count myself lucky. Because a lot of people have lost houses, cars, valuables, and sometimes even their lives. What is my minor inconvenience compared to that? I did manage to read a little manga today on my patio. It kinda helped my get my mind off things. So hopefully, I'll be posting a review later on tonight. Text only, mind you. I didn't bring my microphone. Category: general -- posted at: 7:51 PM Comments[0] |
Sat, 16 August 2008 This is the start of my manga review index page covering titles that start with M-Z. Simply click on a title and it will take you to the review. Reviews that are in podcast form will say podcast. Otherwise, the reviews are text. If a review is a podcast, you can click on the pod button or click on the direct download located underneath the show notes. Category: general -- posted at: 10:28 PM Comments[0] |
Sat, 16 August 2008 This is the start of my manga review index page covering titles that start with A-L. Simply click on a title and it will take you to the review. Reviews that are in podcast form will say podcast. Otherwise, the reviews are text. If a review is a podcast, you can click on the pod button or click on the direct download located underneath the show notes. Category: general -- posted at: 10:22 PM Comments[0] |
Sat, 16 August 2008 This is my anime dvd review index page of titles starting M-Z. Simply click on a title and it will take you to the review. Reviews that are in podcast form will say podcast. Otherwise, the reviews are text. If a review is a podcast, you can click on the pod button or click on the direct download located underneath the show notes. Category: general -- posted at: 10:15 PM Comments[0] |
Sat, 16 August 2008 This is the start of my anime dvd review index page. Simply click on a title and it will take you to the review. Reviews that are in podcast form will say podcast. Otherwise, the reviews are text. If a review is a podcast, you can click on the pod button or click on the direct download located underneath the show notes. Category: general -- posted at: 8:38 PM Comments[0] |
Wed, 13 August 2008  Oh, Future Anime Magazine, of thee I blog, What piece of trash is this that hovers before my eye. What crap on yonder rooftop gleams? Could it be Future Anime Magazine? Yes, it is, quite so. Let me just start with a simple imperative sentence. Do not buy this magazine. I will explain why shortly. First, its pedigree. It is published by Future, US, Inc. If you dont know, Future is also the publisher of such castrated magazines as Nintendo Power, Playstation: The Official Magazine, and the Official Xbox Magazine. All these magazines are barely disguised, if not completely naked, mouthpieces of three huge and bloated companies. Yet all the writers of these magazines say how impartial they are and how their respective companies can't tell them what to like or not to like. That is, until they fire them for being too critical and they find themselves on the street. So you always have to take their coverage and reviews with a grain of salt. Kinda like a presidential news conference. Then there's the editor's note in the opening pages of the magazine where Gary Steinman bitches at anime and manga fans. Bitching about what, you ask? Over the fact that anime and manga fans are no longer buying anime and manga. Instead, they are downloading anime and reading manga in the bookstore aisles. The mistake that Gary makes is that he never qualifies that SOME fans are doing this. Not all. He also probably doesn't realize the failure of both industries to keep their fanbase as they get older. Theoretically, as fans of manga and anime get older, they should be getting better jobs and be able to spend more money on books and dvds. If they kept their fanbase, both mediums should be EXPANDING, not CONTRACTING. I think a lot of kids now that are otaku will leave it behind when they go to college and start families. It's more like a cool fad. There's a difference between passionate, fleeting love for these artforms and passionate, longterm love. Unfortunately, I think the former describes the current state of these markets. I guess before I get any more pretentious I should shut my blog. But sometimes I worry if anime or manga will still be around in 10 years. Hey, I guess I might not be either! Anyway, if you're not familiar with Gary, he used to be Editor-In-Chief of Newtype (which has since folded to be replaced by the already folded PIQ), which was a ventriliquist's dummy for ADV (which could be folding, and whose manga line might be folded....so many foldeds, like a blanket of failure.....) and who is the executive editor for the aforementioned lackey Playstation Magazine. So do you see how this magazine might have some issues? Ok, now for the insides, the primal guts, the meat in the tamale of this magazine. First of all, the entire anime section of the magazine, except for the Gurren Lagann cover story, are written by one person, Lesley Smith. Well, I wouldn't say written, I would say summarized. The anime stories are almost identical to the format that Newtype used, with big anime photos, a tiny blurb summary, and then a more fleshed out summary with very little if any critical response to the show in question. Just like Newtype, this magazine never finds a series it doesn't like. The fact that the entire section of the magazine is written by one person flagrantly throws the fact that this is going to be boring and one dimensional flatly into your face. Even the Gurren Lagann cover story is written by David Smith, who I strongly suspect is Lesley's husband. Maybe Lesley used Shadow Clone Jutsu to write all these articles? Then there's a summer manga guide, written by.........Guess who?.....David and Lesley Smith! Surprise! It also includes 12 "sizzling posters". Now if two page posters are your cup of tea, more power to you. But I don't really want to put up posters with a fold and staple holes in them....owww, they're hot! Once you've gotten past the pyrotechnic display of the posters, you get to the game section, which was such a ripoff, it almost made me lose my cookies. Why? Well, all the games are supposed to be anime related, even though some aren't. They're conveniently renamed "anime-inspired", which means they "look" animeish, but aren't based on any anime properties. So, anyway, they "ask" the editors of Playstation: The Official Magazine to give them their favorite picks. First up, what the hell is wrong with the Wii and the XBOX 360? You could've found plenty of real anime games from all three systems instead of Gary being lazy and relying on his own POM staff. What makes the reviews of the games even more insulting is the fact that they are almost all lifted word for word from the original Playstation Magazine reviews. Some paragraphs or wording has been changed, but very little. They even use the some screenshots, although they not so cleverly reorient and resize the pictures. So in the end, what do I think of this magazine. Is it worth $9.99? Let's just put it this way, if this magazine was thrown on a koala bear, it would turn into a raging bloodthirsty beast. It is a blatant attempt by Future to cash in on a market that doesn't need any more pretenders to be cluttering up shelf space. In fact, you should use the $9.99 you would spend on this litter basket refuse to buy the manga volume that Gary scolded you in his opening statement. In fact, every issue of this magazine that sells does an equivalent exchange for a volume of manga so Gary is just contributing to the problem My Grade: F Category: general -- posted at: 7:14 PM Comments[2] |
Sat, 9 August 2008  Ok, so I'm really horrible at making headlines. Please forgive me. I haven't posted any reviews in a couple of days. I've been too busy completing an online Defensive Driving course for a speeding ticket I got a couple of months ago. Yep, I got caught burning nitrous on the city streets. Drifting on the roof of the Astrodome. Most of the course is actually text you read in small segments but as soon as I'm done I want to get off the computer. And then there's the rapid impending death of summer coming up on Monday when I return to work after a long vacation. But I have been watching anime and reading manga all the while. I plan to do text reviews of Rose Hip Rose Volume 2, Tetragrammaton Labyrinth Volume 2, and and a podcast for Code Geass Volume 1 (the manga) by weekend's end. Also, an anime text review of Bleach Volume 7. I guess it could be worse. I coulda not had a vacation at all.
Me and my best friend went to a comic store today, and then Borders where I picked up a manga or two. A manga bum that was there actually moved when I wanted to look at the manga! It was incredible! There were also two girls there talking about Yaoi, something about the guy that was on top and the guy that was on bottom (the exact Japanese terms for these positions escapes my mind at the moment....thankfully). My friend wanted to go into Best Buy so I of course went straight to the anime section. I was standing there looking for about 3 seconds when this girl who looked about 13 or 14 asked "Are you a fan of anime?" I usually don't talk to strangers but we got into a pretty animated discussion about Naruto. She had been watching fansubs of the Naruto Shippuden anime while I had been reading fansubs of the Naruto manga. Yes, I admit that. I have bought all 30 volumes of the manga so far and I will continue to buy them as they come out. But I love that series so much that I don't want to wait another two years to read what the Japanese already have. I also have to admit that this is the only series that I've ever sought out online. We talked about some things that would be spoilers for people that haven't read farther than the current releases....way farther, so I won't go into that. I asked her whether she thought Naruto and Sakura would end up together in the end. She said she thought they would. I think he will end up with Hinata. We also talked about whether in the end, Naruto and Sasuke will become friends again. She emphatically said they would. I think they will too, but I think there will be a lot of tragedy before it happens. I soon found out that she was trying to figure out a way to butter up her mom to buy her a volume of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya! About that time her mom showed up and I heard her say "Mooooom" in a way that kids do when they ask their parents for something that they know there is a chance they could get......"Moooooom, can I get......" I'll never know if she got that dvd or not.....hopefully she did. Speaking of Haruhi, that's a series I need to go back and finish. I own the first volume and that is the only one I have watched. I liked it but for some reason never carried on with it. Now you can get it in a boxed set so maybe I'll wait and save for that. Category: general -- posted at: 1:17 AM Comments[0] |
Wed, 30 July 2008  Electronic Gaming Monthly is doing a 38 page Special on Japanese videogames and features Soulcalibur 4 on the cover. The game was released yesterday. The cool thing about the next-gen consoles, at least Xbox 360 and PS3 (Wii doesn't count), is that you usually have the option to change to the Japanese voice acting with subtitles on a lot of the titles developed there. It's always cooler to me to play an RPG in the original language. Right now I'm playing Naruto: Rise of a Ninja on 360 and it's cool because you have the option of playing it with the English dub actors or the original Japanese actors from the anime. Speaking of, that will probably be the first videogame review I do for this site. There's another Naruto game in development for the PS3 as we speak (or sorta speak). I got Soulcalibur 4 yesterday and have been playing it a bit. It features an online element as well as a custom character option where you can modify existing models of characters. There was a thread on the 360 forums asking whether anyone had tried making any Inuyasha characters. There wasn't any replies so I guess that was a no. But it got me thinking..... There was an article in the Houston Chronicle, you know, just one of those little throwaway stories in a far column. It said that a woman had flipped out at a train station in Hiratsuka, about 43 miles southwest of Tokyo. Apparently, she tried to cut her wrist with an army knife, but when she was trying to do it, someone bumped her, and she got pissed, so she stabbed seven men before a crowd held her down. For once it was good that a Japanese train station was crowded! Or was it? I mean she didn't kill herself because she got bumped, but if she had been alone, she wouldn't have stabbed anyone. I think if you try that type of thing in a crowded place, you want to be stopped. On the lighter side of things the second Naruto movie came out yesterday. The cheapest I saw it for was $17.99. I was wondering why it was so expensive but it comes with two dvds in a hard case, almost like a hardback book. Pretty cool. Ok, I'm a Naruto nut but I'm a bit behind on the anime. I've read all the manga volumes and also some that have been translated. I've bought all of the uncut boxed sets as they came out, but I think I've only watched through the fourth set. So, yeah, even though I have both movies, I haven't watched either. Maybe I will watch one tonight. Category: general -- posted at: 8:38 PM Comments[0] |
Thu, 10 July 2008  Well, I had put in my order for the Dark Knight Blu-Ray dvd from Amazon, but after reading some negative reviews online, it just did not seem like a safe bet to buy it sight unseen. So I cancelled my order. I'm going to rent it before I put down money on it. But I did find an unknown quantity to buy today. I bought the first volume of Gurren Lagann at Best Buy for $19.99. It's quite a good deal from Bandai Entertainment, which seems a complete antithesis of Bandai Visual with its overpriced monstrosities. Bandai Enter has always had very reasonable prices for its anime dvds. This first volume of Gurren actually has two dvds comprising episodes 1-9. You can't beat getting 225 minutes of anime for that price. Thank you Bandai Entertainment! I've never seen the show, but Gainax is doing it so it can't be that bad. (Even though I pretty much despise Evangelion, I like FLCL, Abenobashi). So, hopefully, my money will be worth it and I will enjoy it. Category: general -- posted at: 6:18 PM Comments[0] |
Tue, 1 April 2008 Ok, I grew up and still live in the South, so trust me, I know all about rednecks, but my experience at Best Buy tonight took the prize. I had went there to buy the boxed set of Noein that was on sale for half price, and picked it up and was browsing the other anime dvds. These two guys with hick accents (its ok, I can say that, since I have a hick accent), came down the aisle and one chuckled and said "Hey, look, it's aniporn!" as he looked at the anime dvds. The other guy, in a similar hick accent replied "Huh? What du ya mean? Are those videogames or something?" Then Hick #1 says back "Nah, these are like porn stuff, they're aniporn". Then they walked off. Suffice it to say I was amused by the whole thing, and actually ticked off. It was funny because they were such dumbasses. The thing that pissed me off was the fact that even after all these years, there are people out there that still think all Japanese cartoons and manga involve pornography. And I mean, come on, does anyone really think that Best Buy is going to be carrying porn of any kind? I'll have to do an dramatic reenactment of the conversation on my next podcast. Best Buy is selling the box sets of the following series for half price through 4/5/08: Complete Series Box Sets Tokko $12.49 Elfen Lied $15.99 Noein $17.49 Mars Daybreak $19.99 Evangelion Platinum $28.99 Robotech $37.49 Samurai Deeper Kyo $29.99 (also includes GBA game) Dragonball Z Season 4 $19.99 Fullmetal Alchemist Season 2 Part 2 $19.99 Elfen Lied is a great show and Fullmetal Alchemist is as well. I would definitely recommend those two. Category: general -- posted at: 10:41 PM Comments[0] |
Wed, 19 March 2008  It seems the light novels promised by Seven Seas have finally arrived in bookstores, along with some new volumes of manga. I was surprised to see the light novels. They're a bit smaller than regular manga, measuring 10.5 cm x 15cm, containing about 290 pages and costing $7.95. The two volumes I saw were Volume 1 of Pita-Ten and Volume 1 of Strawberry Panic. I'm not a fan of Pita-Ten. Well, I've never read a volume of the series is what I mean. I have the first volume of the Strawberry Panic manga but haven't read it so I felt buying the first novel would be a little dumb....even though I did pick up the second volume of the manga while I was there. I find that Seven Seas books are pretty hard to find so I feel compelled to buy them when the going is good. If I like the manga, I'll get the novel. It had some nice presentation with lots of color plates and information about all the main characters. I almost started to get it, but just by reading a bit of it, the novel seem geared to a very VERY young audience in spite of its subject matter and it didn't seem written very well. Lots of sound effects written out in the text. Like, instead of writing "She hit him in the face" it was "She hit him in the face. BAM!" or "She was eating her lunch" became "She was eating her lunch. MUNCH MUNCH". (Violence disclaimer--nobody gets hit in this manga...that I know of) I am waiting for some of the more interesting light novel titles like Ballad of a Shinigami and Gun Princess...or at least more interesting to ME. I know there are a lot of Pita-Ten fans out there. I did pick up volume 5 of Kashimashi. Also picked up Volume 2 of Gakuen Alice and High School Debut. WHERE IS BOOGIEPOP!!!??? Category: general -- posted at: 5:14 PM Comments[0] |
Fri, 14 March 2008 I was surprised to see an article entitled The Fangirl's Crush this week in The Houston Chronicle, our one and only newspaper (actually I just moved to a suburb of Houston for cheaper rent and a bigger place). The columnist writes about her daughter's crush on Sasuke, one of the main characters in Naruto. Her daughter seems a little embarrassed about it, to the point that she doesn't want her mom to use her real name, and instead uses the nickname, Mojo. Mojo reads and gets caught with manga at school, watches anime on YouTube, and even writes her own fan fiction about the characters she likes. Interestingly, on the site Fanfiction.net, Naruto has the largest number of stories next to Harry Potter. The writer goes on to comment about the power of girls in the anime and manga buying world. The link for the full article is: Category: general -- posted at: 4:04 PM Comments[0] |
Mon, 25 February 2008 I haven't really mentioned this on my website or on my podcast but I actually started watching and reading anime and manga because I had such an awful job at the time. Going to work was so dreadful back in 2004 that I was looking for something new to occupy my mind. It started with Cowboy Bebop and just ballooned from that point on. Then I started reading manga as well, starting with GTO. I truly believe that without anime and manga that year I probably would have quit my job. The stories were just so interesting and the characters of the type that try to get through the trials in their lives through thick and thin and never give up. I finally made the move to a new apartment yesterday and Saturday and what a horrible experience it has been. When I got to the new one, the door key did not work, the A/C was not working, and the phone was not working. The A/C was later fixed. I am just now able to get online after a AT&T technician came earlier today. I was supposed to get $200 of the first month's rent but they tried to say it was only $100 which is still not resolved. We rented a UHAUL truck and when we took it back, the manager said that the moving dolly that was in the truck was not theirs and that I would have to be charged $75! For an item you could buy in a store for 10-20$. Even though it was the one that was in there when we picked it up. I have boxes stacked everywhere. Man, what a mess. I'm actually going to start getting my manga out of my boxes as a first act on the long road back to sanity. I have been really run ragged this last week or so, so I apologize for not updating my blog/podcast show. I did manage to watch Volume 4 of Air Gear last night, but I just couldn't concentrate and enjoy it fully with so many things on my mind and getting adjusted to a new place. I have also started Volume 1 of the Pumpkin Scissors manga. I still have a few items left to get from my old place which I have to formally move out of by Friday so hopefully once that is done I can get a little calmer and less stressed. This new place just doesn't feel like home right now. Moving is a pain in the butt....unless you have the money to pay someone to do it for you. I hope to do a podcast and write some text reviews very soon. I feel like I'll be reading and watching more anime and manga in the days to come just to get my mind off things. Category: general -- posted at: 8:25 PM Comments[0] |
Sat, 9 February 2008  The newest Album by L'Arc~en~Ciel, entitled "Truth", is now available for download in the Itunes store for $9.99. It has been out in Japan since November but in the US you can only obtain the physical cd by getting an import. Amazon has it listed for around $40. I'm sure you can find it pretty easily through your favorite Japan store but who can beat $10? As far as I can tell, the only other L'Arc album on Itunes is "Dune" for $11.99. Truth features a remix of "Link", the opening song of the Fullmetal Alchemist movie. The tracks are as follows: 1. Seventh Heaven 2. Pretty Girl 3. My Heart Draws a Dream 4. Sunadokei 5. Spiral 6. Alone en La Vida 7. Daybreak's Bell 8. Umibe 9. The Black Rose 10. Link (Kiss Mix) 11. Yuki no Ashiato 12. Hurry Xmas Here is the link to Itunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=269187920&s=143441 Category: general -- posted at: 2:43 PM Comments[0] |
Fri, 25 January 2008  What can I say? This video is funny. Perhaps everyone out there has seen this video but I just saw it for the first time. I'm so out of the loop. It features a guy dressed up in full stormtrooper outfit dancing at the Akiba crosswalk to Earth Wind and Fire's "Let's Groove Tonight", where he is rapidly joined by cosplayers/maid cafe workers and assorted otaku. What's really priceless later in the video is when he is dancing on the subway and this Japanese guy looks at him in shock and then goes completely deadpan like if he just ignores him the trooper will go away. The link to the video is: Category: general -- posted at: 7:50 PM Comments[0] |
Sun, 9 December 2007  Here is the link for the new Speed Racer Movie Trailer due out next summer and directed by the Wachowski Brothers: http://movies.aol.com/movie/speed-racer-2008/28066/main You can download it in standard format or you can see it in hi-definition, 480p, 720p, or 1080p. Watching the trailer made me go out and buy the Speed Racer manga. There's only one volume and it is out of print but my comic store has a lot of out of print titles. A boxed hardcover set of the Speed Racer manga is due out in February of next year from DMP for 40$. It's called Speed Racer Mach Go Go Go Box Set. You can pre-order at Amazon.com. Speed Racer was the first exposure I had to anime like when I was 6 or 7 even though at that time I had no idea what anime was. Then it was on to Battle of the Planets and the rest is history. So it's cool to see the franchise getting such star treatment. You can really see the anime/manga influence in the trailer, best evidenced by the side shot of Speed racing with motion lines running past his head instead of scenery. It looks a bit too videogame-like to me but I trust the Brothers since they made one of the highest intensity car chase sequences in film history in the Matrix Reloaded. Should be exciting. Looks like it will have a lot of color and more humor than you usually see in their movies.
Category: general -- posted at: 4:47 PM Comments[0] |
Tue, 27 November 2007 Well, I've developed a bit of a cold so for the moment my voice sounds like that of Darth Vader crossed with a prepubescent gopher so I probably won't make any podcasts for the next couple of days....but I will post some written reviews. I should be posting a review for the 1st volume of the anime FLAG tomorrow, but in the meantime, I would advise not wasting your time watching it. It is pretty awful. More on that later. Just to mention two websites, or actually two retailers that I've been using ever since my only anime/manga source in Houston, Anime Avalon (See podcast Episode 10--The Death of Anime Avalon) went out of business about 2 months ago: I've been renting anime from them the past two months are so. They're kinda set up like other mail order rental places like netflix, but they specialize in anime. You pay like 20$ to have 3 dvds out at a time, and after a period of around 90 days you can upgrade to 5 dvds for 30$. It's pretty cool and saves a ton of money. I used to buy anime dvds all the time, but a lot of the time I wouldn't like them and it would be money down the drain. Now I can rent, then buy the titles I really like. Another problem I had after Anime Avalon closed was trying to buy manga from one retailer. I still haven't found one store where I can buy ALL my manga but is the closest to fulfilling that role in my life. They discount almost all their manga but the only drawback is that your order has to total $39.99 for you to get free shipping. Actually sometimes, the discounts pay for the shipping even if you order less than that. I was glad to see that Seven Seas had finally released the second volumes of Venus Versus Virus, The Last Uniform, and Tetragrammaton Labyrinth today and ordered them very quickly. I find that the podcasts I do about Yuri titles are the most popular for some reason. The biggest ratings for my podcasts have been for The Last Uniform Volume 1 and Simoun Volume 1....and Hayate the Combat Butler Volume 4 (That's not Yuri, but I'm glad so many people like Hayate...brilliant lovable comedy, like Hare + Guu) The cool thing I like about Justmanga is that they always put a written message like "Thanks for the order" on the receipt in the box and they put a piece of Japanese candy in there too. It just seems a bit more personal than dealing with Amazon or another online retailer. Hey Seven Seas! Where the Hell are the rest of the Boogiepop novels??!! Is Amazing Doofus Luna really more important?? And what happened to the rest of the Light Novels you were bringing out? Speaking of Anime Avalon, I had kinda put off going by the place after it was closed, but sometimes felt I should go lay a wreath at the doorway or something. I drove past it a couple of weeks back after visiting a nearby bookstore and the windows are tinted so you couldn't even see inside it. It's still kinda sad. Maybe the fact that it was freezing cold here in Houston (well, cold for Texans anyway, it was like 39 degrees) and my workplace didn't even turn the heat on, didn't really help my health the past two days. It was actually colder inside the building that it was outside. Or was it perhaps due to the fact that I was outside of Best Buy on Friday around 4:30am with a light misty rain that was a bigger factor? No, it HAS to be my cold job! Yeah, that's the ticket! Category: general -- posted at: 11:02 PM Comments[0] |
Thu, 2 August 2007 Just wanted to post the links for the Mangacast and Mangablog sites: http://community.livejournal.com/mangacast/
I highly recommend these sites for news and views on manga. You can also find the Mangacast podcast on Itunes as well. Category: general -- posted at: 4:52 PM Comments[0] |
Thu, 2 August 2007 If you want to hear one of the podcast episodes, don't click on the title of the episode to download it. Instead, click on the word "Pod" to the left of the episode title. I just thought it might confuse people because the title lights up when you pass the cursor over it. Or you can click on direct download under the shownotes. I'm also now officially on Itunes as "Sesho's Anime and Manga Reviews" so you can always just subscribe to the podcast portion of my page there. I just wanted to say hello to everyone and give a thank you to Ed Chavez over at Mangacast for graciously mentioning my fledgling podcast show and website I just started two days ago. I guess it was about a year and half ago that I got my first Ipod mini (it was a hand me down) and discovered the world of podcasting. Of course the first thing I looked for were podcasts about anime and manga. There were some about anime, but they were boring. They mostly consisted of people talking about anything BUT anime, or they were just reading a review they had pre-written. I subscribed to a couple of shows but after a few weeks I cancelled all of them. As for manga the only show was the Mangacast. Imagine my relief when I actually found a living, breathing person that was not reading from a script in a dull monotone and a person that was passionate enough about manga that his words could come from the heart instead of a script. Listening to his show made ME want to talk about manga as well, but when it comes to the nuts and bolts of technology, I'm pretty much a nitwit! So it took me this long just to scrap up the resources, the knowledge, the time, and the will to make a show happen. After going through making just a couple of podcasts, I have even more respect for what he and Jack are doing over there at the Mangacast. It takes time and effort to make these things, and also a bit of courage. I'd also like to give a shout-out to Brigid over at Mangablog.net for getting interesting and important information about the manga community out almost each and every day. I'm a big fan of her site. I will be doing podcasts on manga AND anime but I really don't have any predetermined quotas on how many of each I'm going to do each week. My site will also be a mixture of podcasts and written reviews. Don't know how often I'll be doing shows either. I'm on summer vacation right now so I can almost do a show every day, but when I go back to work in about three weeks, I imagine I'll do at least two podcasts per week and maybe a written review or two as well. So check back often. As for subject matter in anime and manga, I pretty much read and watch everything except yaoi, so other sites will have to do that duty. It's just not my thing. I'll also be looking at manhwa and world manga from time to time, though I haven't found many non-Japanese manga titles I like yet. I have high hopes for Hollow Fields though, which should be coming in the mail this week. So thanks everybody for checking out my website and podcasts. Some of the stuff up for review soon are two manga titles: Gintama 1 and Tetragrammaton Labyrinth 1. Also dvd reviews for Galaxy Angel AA Volume 1 and the last volume of Speed Grapher. If you want to contact me you can email me at: seshos@hotmail.com Category: general -- posted at: 5:02 AM Comments[0] |
Sesho's Anime And Manga Reviews
Reviewing Anime and Manga new and old
Categories
Anime DVD ReviewsAnime Review
Magazine Review
Manga Reviews
News
Novel Reviews
Video
Videogames
general
podcasts
Archives
JanuaryFebruary
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
July
August
September
October
November
December
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | |||||
Syndication
Contact Info: seshos@hotmail.com
My Review Index By Title
Free To View Anime
Free Online Manga
Free Online Games
Anime and Manga Blogs
News
Music
Artists
Magazines
Manga & Anime Companies
Japanese Sights & Sounds
Figures
Science Fiction
Videogames
American Comics
powered by
