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Alternative Universe: Flirting with Fire

Meet two of our young flame wielders from the Kannagi Clan of Kaze no Stigma. Ayano looking cooler than usual and not in her hot-tempered mode, with Ren looking more mature for his age and not in his usual cutesy look. That, and the change of costumes in this pic are more than enough to think of this as an "Alternative Universe". Ayano, especially, looks as if she's an Amazon who came from some oriental action movie, whose costume is somewhere in the line of Yuna of FFX's.

[Round-Robin] Anime and Escapism: Living in and Out of Your Comfy Anime Burrow

While I initially didn�t intend to post about our 1st Round-Robin topic about the subject of anime and escapism, I had a sudden burst of inspiration after reading Hinano�s entry, and I found myself empathizing with, and pondering upon this escapism issue. Then comes Soshi�s write-up on this topic, and once again I am inspired.

More Than Just a Thank You Post: On the Etymology of ‘Arigatou’

This blogging endeavor brought me many of those really special blessings, more than just improving my English (lolz), how I communicate and express my thoughts and opinions, and organize my usually jumbled-up thoughts... it made me part of this whole anime blogosphere, and brought me closer to a diverse group of people who share the same interests as I do (or otherwise :P ), far more than I ever imagined. And for that, from the bottom of my heart, ????????

How Do You Define a ‘Good’ Doujinshi?

A 'Good' Shugo Chara doujin? As I was looking for some Shugo Chara pics in danbooru a few weeks back, I stumbled upon the cover pic of this Amu x Ikuto H-doujin amidst the pages of of SICK pics *facepalmmm*. I was reminded of Hinano's RAGE over the sick Shugo Chara doujins she saw months ago, and this got me thinking as to whether this doujin actually falls under the 'good' category.

To other worlds with Yoshitoshi Abe

Yoshitoshi Abe is one of my favorite Japanese illustrators. He is famous for his work in Serial Experiments Lain, NieA_7, Haibane Renmei and Texhnolyze. One thing that I like about his art is the degree of realism in it. Compared with most anime/manga art which are simplistic in portrayal, Yoshitoshi Abe's art has a lot of detail. It takes you to worlds beyond ours!

Latest Posts

Round like a circle in a spiral

By absolute0 ⋅ April 28, 2010

I have always found horror fiction interesting although I prefer psychological horror over the visceral variety (gore and violence). While the splatter genre of horror presents the frailties of the human body, psychological horror, on the other hand, plays upon the frailties of the human psyche.

Continue Reading 8 comments Manga

Because There’s Nothing Wrong With Working [Too] Hard

By usagijen ⋅ April 23, 2010

Ended up rewatching the last two episodes of Hataraki Man after reading the comments in our recent Anniv post, which brought me back to the time I started out blogging [we started out blogging, fellow chefs and I]. Was it fun? Spending hours writing episodic summaries, rewatching each episode about 3-4 times to catch almost all the details, reading the novel side-by-side the anime and jotting down the discrepancies and what fans are missing out on, or taking up days to come up with thoughts on a particular episode (which, by then, have already spanned a couple of eps due to delay). The struggle was definitely not, but during those times the drive to blog was so strong that I barely noticed it. And seeing at least 1 person appreciate what you wrote (even if you never really expected it), or having been given the otsukare! pat in the back by your co-blogger and/or commenters, is enough to make you feel that it was all worth it.

Continue Reading 10 comments Editorial

State of the Scrumptious: Birth, Death and Rebirth(?)

By usagijen ⋅ April 18, 2010

It's been a while since there's been life here in the blog, but fear not, for we have come to rectify that! or so we hope. Springtime has come, now it's April, a month dear to me and my co-bloggers because it's the month our blog was [officially] born. The same goes for Totali, Owen, CCY and... oh wow that's it?! I don't know any more April blogging celebrants ;_; Anyways, we figured we owe you guys some explanation for this long absence, especially on this Special Day (I'm pretending that it's still the 17th). I myself am very curious about the sentiments of my co-bloggers--why they drifted from blogging, why they started out blogging (because they started out this blog, and I was the foreign specie that ruined their habitat), how Scrumptious was born, and ultimately, whether or not they have joined the ranks of people who turned their back 180° from blogging, never to come back. So without further ado, a word from the Scrumptious chefs:

Continue Reading 16 comments Meta

My Noughties in Anime

By absolute0 ⋅ January 8, 2010

I was originally intending to write about my top favorite shows from the passing decade but as I was listing down those that I have seen, I realized that there are still plenty of shows that I haven't watched completely and there are also some shows that I might like but still haven't seen. So I have decided to change my decade post's format.

Continue Reading 18 comments Anime