2005-2006 Emails

Email announcements from school year 2005-2006.

Fall 2005

MnA: 24 Sept 2005

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Genshiken - 1: Study of the Modern Visually-Oriented Culture
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 1: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - The
First Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 1: Welcome
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 99: Kouga and Sesshoumaru: A Dangerous Encounter
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 1: Flushed Away To A Strange World
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 1: Gazing at the Same Sky
8:35 Read or Die: the TV - 1: The Papers Have Landed
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 1: A Reunion
9:30 Shingetsutan Tsukihime - 1: Inversion Impulse

[random babbling]
Well, well!  How is everyone?  Did you have fun this summer?  Miss it yet?
Just think: the despair can only build from here!  Of course, that's a
somewhat depressing outlook.  Or rather, it /would/ be depressing...if I
hadn't written it in an upbeat way!  :D

Since I'm sure you're all dying to know what I did this summer, I feel
compelled to share (and for those of you who just muttered something
sarcastic, I should let you know that I /am/ psychic, and I /do/ know who
you are and where you live).

This summer, like so many others in the mere two decades of my (largely
squandered) life, was dull and went by far, far too quickly.  This makes
it simultaneously like and unlike the rest of the year, which is dull but
goes by /much/ too slowly.  I tried to get jobs in all sorts of
places...and none of them wanted me.  Big bloody shock there.  Kind of sad
when Wal-Mart looks down its dirty ghetto-store nose at you, ne?  Well,
between my dad growling at me for "not trying hard enough to find a job"
and my mom trying to guilt me into spending more time with the family
(because, you know, I wasn't working and should logically have a lot more
time to be a nice person), the summer really couldn't end fast /enough/.

Actually, I'm a little hard on my parents.  They have their good traits.
Being around them, however, wears my patience very thin very fast.  From
what I've heard, it's like that for most college students, though.  That's
what moving out permanently is for.

I have to say, though, planning the schedule this summer was pretty fun.
We're watching some shows I really couldn't care less for this year, but
we're also watching some shows that I adore.  Kyou Kara Maoh! is one of
them.  Soooo much love for KKM.  Now!  Here's the thing!  Some of you may
not like it at first.  I seriously want you guys to give it a chance,
though.  Seriously.  I don't want to hear any whining.  I /do/ own hiking
boots, and I haven't any qualms about viciously kicking a few complainers'
shins.  And since I'm the secretary, not only will I do you bodily harm,
I'll also write mean things about you in the weekly email.  :p

Well...not really, since that would be an abuse of power, but it amuses me
to joke about it.

...my morals are so malnourished.

Speaking of malnourishment!  My goal this year is to eat at least once a
day!  Yes, it's difficult, but I will do my best!  (insert typical anime
"determination" pose here)  Of course, the massive student loans will
probably help me out there.  If I don't end up buying any /more/ anime or
manga with them.  >_<  I don't actually buy without thinking...my brain
actually does this "which is better: food or anime?" thing.  The real
problem here is that it answers "anime".

Bah.

Anyway, before I go, I'd like to take this moment to pimp Advent Children.
If you haven't seen it, DO.  It's worth it just for the music, if nothing
else.  And Zack.  Zack is Love.
[/random babbling]

Minna no Manga 09/29

Minna no Manga meets every Thursday, 6pm-10pm, in Building 21, room 205.


~>Manga of the Week: Verdant Lord (Midori no Ou), Story by Hiroshi
Takashi, Art by Atsushi Soga

I read one chapter of this series in a back issue of Magazine Z I bought
for buck earlier this year. The art looked good and the story, something
about plants and plant-people, looked interesting. Three or four trips to
Kinokuniya later(that's a Japanese bookstore for those who don't know)
ended with me breaking down and buying the Chinee. Disgusted at the
thought of keeping children in barred rooms because they MAY have a
connection or be able to communicate with these plant creatures, Shin
leaves. Meanwhile, one of the plant creatures has been caught and brought
to the lab, where it breaks free and starts destroying the complex. Shin
hurries to the child-cages to help free the children, but he can't get
them out. The creature smashes one of the walls, and the children are
free. This confuses Shin, it seems the creature helped him free the
children, it wasn't just random wrecking. Shin hurries the children out of
the complex and there is an explosion. Luckily, it blows a hole in their
last obstacle; a fence. Unfortunately, it also blows a metal bar into
Shin's chest and mangles his left arm. Hiding his injuries, he gets the
children out and collapses. His evil brother finds him and thinks, "SWEET!
Test subject!" He injects Shin with something and leaves.

Shin wakes the next day to find it's a little harder to move around. He
glances to his feet to see roots growing out of his feet. Understandably,
he freaks out. What ever his brother has injected into him has transformed
his mangled arm into something similar to what the creatures have and has
replaces the right side of his face with more plant material. It'(Jack, I
think) comes, and Shin, Daina, and Jack go off to learn more about Shin's
curse. ...at least I think. Seeing as my copy of the first volume is in
Chinese and the other two are in Japanese with no furigana, I know I'm not
getting the whole story. Any way, the series rocks and I recommend it to
anyone who has the time. Like previously mentioned, it runs in Magazine Z
and is published by Kodansha Comics Z. There are currently three volumes
out. Unfortunately, it is not being scanlated. I'll bring all three
volumes to Minna no Manga.

~>Enter Rant

I apologize for my poor writing skills.

I guess I'll introduce myself again. I'm Annaliese, president of Minna no
Anime. I'm a third year Graphic Communication major and I spend my time
out of class drawing, working on my webcomic, reading manga, or watching
anime. I love talking to people about anime, manga, and just stuff in
general, so if you see me around, don't hesitate to say hi or ask me
things.

Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful summer. I had a very nice one. I
spent most of my summer working at VIZ Media as a design intern. It was a
great experience that I recommend to anyone interested in the manga or
anime fields. Only downside is.... no pay. Alas. It was worth the time,
and I learned way more than I would have ever thought... like, how many
ways can you get QuarkXPress to crash? Or, how many possible versions of a
subscription card does one magazine need? Oh, why does it feel like I'm
killing babies when I change the Japanese sound effects to english ones?
And, why do I enjoy it? No, but in all seriousness, I had a great time.

Has anyone seen Sousei no Aquarion? I was a bad fangirl and stopped
watching it during the summs are glaringly stereotypical, but somehow I
don't care. There is enough originality to keep me happy, the voices are
good, the animation is good, and the music is TO DIE FOR. Yoko Kanno and
AKINO team up to create the two best OSTs I have ever heard. I especially
like the song 'Genesis of Aquarion,' a slight remix of the first opening
using a mixture of the original Japanese and its English translation. I
play it all the time. Ask Jenn, it drives her mad. ^_~

If you want me to bring some certain manga, e-mail me at
ensuing@<removed>.com, and I'll see if I have it.

WATCH AQUARION!
~Annaliese

MnA: 1 Oct 2005

This week's scheudle:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Genshiken - 2: Comparative Classification of the Modern Youth Through
Consumption and Entertainment
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 2: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - The
Second Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 2: Lost Bearings
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 100: The Truth Behind the Nightmare: Battle in the Forest
of Sorrow
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 2: Decisive Battle! Beautiful Boy vs. Baseball Boy
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 2: Joining the Fragments
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 2: Rise Up, Oh Dregs of Mankind
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 2: A Nightmare
9:30 Shingetsutan Tsukihime - 2: The Black Beast

[random babbling]
Just to let all you newcomers know: this week's email is going out a
little later than I usually send it.  Normally, if all goes well, you
should get it by midnight on Thursday.  My plan went a bit pear-shaped
yesterday.

I tend to write the weekly email while at Minna no Manga, you see.  MnM
is, by the way, rockin'.  You should come, if you aren't.  Anyway, we got
a turnout at least twice the normal size for MnM yesterday, and I ended up
entertaining most of the group for about half of the time with the pretty
things on my computer.  Woo, go little computer, go.  The other half the
time, I told everyone to bugger off so I could actually fix the Advent
Children subs I have.

Speaking of which!  Advent Children!  We're thinking after-hours tomorrow,
people!  Clear your schedules!  If you're a comp sci major, finish your
programs early!  ...or, you know, put them off 'til the last minute like
the rest of us.  It's always easier to procrastinate than it is to take
initiative, and I am a lazy, lazy bastard.  Though I've never quite been
clear on whether or not it's correct in colloquial English to refer to a
woman as a bastard.  I mean, I know that in official English it's
perfectly fine.  And look, I've gone off on a tangent.

Anyway, as I was saying, stay for after-hours tomorrow!  If you know
anything about Final Fantasy VII, you'll like this movie.  After all,
Annaliese hasn't played the game (just knows who the characters are) and
she got every bit as fangirly over it as I did.  XD  Of course, she didn't
quite freak out like I did over Zack, but then, who does?

Ahhhhh...I could write for pages and pages about Advent Children, but I'd
like to blame that on the fact that I'm listening to the soundtrack right
now.  Pretty music tends to make me want to write about pretty things.
*grin*  This OST just reinforces my opinion that Uematsu isn't human.
Either that or he sold his soul to some devil or another.  Normal people
just don't ascend to creating god-like music composition.
Hm...Uematsu-ism.  It sounds a bit awkward, but it would probably make
more sense than /most/ religions out there.

Let's see...before I let you all go (those of you who haven't already fled
far, far away at any rate), I think I will take the opportunity to bitch
about something.  On the average, I piss and moan a fair bit less than the
last couple secretaries have in the weekly emails.  I'm entitled to a bit
more, methinks.

So, anyway, the CSC department is driving me nuts.  I'm working three jobs
(grading, tutoring, lab monitoring) for them this quarter, and they're
making me fill out three identical sets of paperwork--one for each job.
That wouldn't be so bad...if I could just /find/ all the damned people who
have to sign the things.  I doesn't help that /no one/--not me, the
coordinator, or the office people--have the slightest clue what to do
about getting my tutoring paperwork signed.  >_<  ARGH.  I'm making over
$100 a week with these jobs.  I want to be able to receive my damned
paycheck!

Feh!  Enough of that.  I'm sure none of you really care about that crap.
I just like to embarrass myself in a public manner every once in a while.
Apparently it's good for me.  Although if it's good for me in the
"suffering builds character" way my dad is always preaching to me, I think
I'd prefer to do what's bad for me.  >_>
[/random babbling]

This bit of news+useless info brought to you by:
Jenn, Hunt-and-Peck Typer Extraordinair
AND
Pants!  Because "pants" is a fun word to say.

MnM Oct 6th, 2005

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6pm-10pm, in Building 21, room 205!


~>Manga o' the Week: Animal X-Aragami no Ichizoku by Ami Sugimoto

Enter Yuuji Ayukawa. This guy is as lame as you can be. He has no
backbone, he's studying to be a doctor but faints at the sight of blood,
he's scraggly, and has a weak personality. So when he is offered the
opportunity to test out a new drug, he can't refuse. I mean, really, he's
'too nice' to refuse.

Enter Minato Asaba. Minato is a member of a lost type of people called the
Dinosauroids who can turn into, that's right, dinosaurs. He goes to Tokyo
for one reason or the Dinosauroids. They also discovered Yuuji was born
with funky chromosomes, XXY. His parents opted for reconstruction at
birth, which is why he had been male for so long. So, those pills are
turning him back to his original state. Poor poor Yuuji.
Minato and Yuuji must run from evil Dinosauroids and scientists and try to
cope with the feelings they have for each other!

Okay, I can see it now, "Eeewwwww!!! They're both guys!" Well... yeah...
kinda... I really doesn't matter. The series has a good, fun plot, and the
art is nice. The chapters are nice and looooonnggg(about 60 pages each),
which allows the story to be more fluid. 13 chapters have been scanlated
by DokiDoki.

Animal X-Aragami no Ichizoku is four volumes long and originally ran in
Asuka DX. It is now available from Chara Cly been resparked. I was finally
able to get the third Detective Conan movie after three years of looking
and then waiting for FUNImation to release it. Why did I want the third
movie so much? KID, baby, KID. You see, I have a thing for phantom
thieves, and KID is my favorite. Yeah yeah, Dark is cool, but he doesn't
have a gun that shoots playing cards. RAZOR-TIPPED playing cards. IT'S BAD
ASS.

I'm so addicted to the series now. I made Erin and Nur watch a disc of it
with me the other day. It's great fun to try to figure out who did it and
how they did it. Sometimes it's amazing how close stupid suggestions are.

...maybe I'm just trying to fill the hole left when Sousei no Aquarion
ended.....(the ending sucked, btw)

~ Kaitou Annaliese

MnA: 8 Oct 2005

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Genshiken - 3: Problems and Merits of Local Culture Promotion
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 3: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - The
Third Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 3: I'm Sorry!
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 101: The Snow from Seven Years Past
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 3: Shibuya Yuuri, I am Maoh!
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 3: On A Street Corner in Night Town
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 3: Let's Meet at Jinbo-cho
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 3: A Pledge
9:30 Shingetsutan Tsukihime - 3: Demon Eyes of Direct Death
Planned Afterhours: ReDeath

[random babbling]
Well, I'm officially exhausted.  Darned MnM takes a lot out of you.  ~_~
Well, it was a busy day, too, really.  I ran my butt off trying to get a
mountain of errands and homework and crap done.  And yet I still have so
much left to do...*sigh*

It's never a good sign when your roommate's alarm goes off at 6:20am and
you stand up to turn your own off...then stand next to your shelf, staring
stupidly at your own clock for the next twenty seconds until you realize
that YOURS isn't the one beeping.

And so began my day.  From there went the aforementioned errands and such.
Noteworthy among the things I did today was my Japanese independant study
with Annaliese.  We feel retarded.  We really haven't studied enough.  We
really should study more...but somehow I know we probably won't.

So yeah...MnM...cool stuff there, guys.  If you don't come, you probably
should, at least for a short while.  We left a lot of very weird crap on
the board for the first poor class who gets that room tomorrow morning.
...  They're probably going to think we were smoking crack in there or
something.  e.e;;

Anyway, I think I'm pretty much totally braindead at this point.  It has
been a long, long day.  This weird heat is sucking the life from my poor,
abused body.  It's kind of sad...I can't even come up with something witty
to say in the weekly email.  I have shamed myself.  I may have to go
swallow a frisbee now.  (and by gods, if you know what that's from, you
need help as much as I do)
[/random babbling]

Brought to you by Jenn and the following badly-emoted comic:
"Sou desu ka?" :D
"Sou desu ne!" :D
C_C       <.< <.<
_<       o_o o_o
XO PUNCH! x_x O_O
.<       X_X ._.

PS: If you know what the hell that thing I just typed was, congrats from
showing up to MnM.

MnM Oct, 13th 2005

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6-10pm, in Building 21, room 205!

~>Manga O' the Week-Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom by Kazumari Kakei

What would you to if the great demon queen, Satan, sent Cerebus to you?

Kazuma, an extremely bright student with a cold disposition picks up an
abandoned cellphone one day to be told that he will be taking care of
Nora, a demon from Hell. It is his and Nora's job to defeat any bad demons
in the human world. Kazuma has control commands over Nora, such as
"Kinzuru" whhing like that. How can anyone expect them to defend humanity
like this? Luckily, they have one ace up their sleeves. Nora is the great
guardian beast, Cerebus!!

Nora is one of those series that caught my eye on the shelf. I like
stories about demons and devils a lot, so when I saw the word devildom on
the cover, I immediately became interested. The art looked pretty good, so
I picked it up. Now I hooked enough to get the new volumes right when they
come out. The characters of the story are a lot of fun (one look at
Kazuma's parents and you can see where he gets his evil streak) and really
drive the story. The art is pretty good, the mangaka does some interesting
stuff with tones and solid shading. The overall story seems a little
bumpy, but it's still well worth the money I put down for it every four or
so months.

Nora: The Last Chronicle of Devildom runs in Shounen Monthly Jump. The
first three volumes have been released, but no groups are currently
scanlating the series.

~>Enter Rant

The new anime season has started! There are some shows that look
interesting coming out. I'm very intrested in five in particular; Jigoku
Shoujo, Noein, Shakugan no Shana, Solty Rei, and Black Cat(I'm a big fan
of the manga and I've seen the first episode... it's pretty good). Of
course, I don't think anyone can beat last spring's offerings. I've never
seen such a great lineup. Sousei no Aquarion, Law of Ueki, Speed Grapher,
Trinity Blood, Eureka 7, and of course the "second season" of Kyou Kara
Maou. Ah, my life is constantly filled with anime goodness.

So, I've finally gotten started on my second job(the first being a TA for
two GrC labs). I like it a lot, but it causes me such frustration! Gah!

In other news, KID is still majorly sexy, and I just got six Detective
Conan OSTs. I am a happy fangirl.

~Annaliese

If you have anything to say, don't be afraid to say it! ensuing@<removed>.com!

MnA: 15 Oct 2005

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Genshiken - 4: The Sublimating Effects of the Dissimilation Brought
on Through Makeup and Costume on Mental Obstacles
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 4: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - The
Fourth Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 4: Good Luck
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 102: Assault on the Wolf-Demon Tribe!
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 4: Now it's the Ultimate Weapon!?
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 4: With Bright Eyes
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 4: The Seventh Grade Course
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 4: A Sacrifice
9:30 Shingetsutan Tsukihime - 4: The Cradling Garden
Planned Afterhours: ReDeath ( and maybe this time it'll work!  :D )

[random babbling]
Hyuu...I can't help but love the titles of the Genshiken episodes.  They
sound like...theses.  XD  I need to write a paper some time and just steal
one of those titles.

Okay, I'm going to say it now: if you don't come to MnM, you NEED to.  We
watched dubbed Bastard, and it was utterly hilarious.  Horribly,
wonderfully, HORRIBLY hilarious.  ...I think there isn't any better way to
describe it.

Anyway, this week has been the Week of Things in the Mail.  I got my Wild
Adapter 1 and 2, as well as the translations for them.  And!  I got my
Yubinbasya FFVII doujinshi!  God, Akizuki Ryo is my favorite artist EVER.
Everything she draws is just so damned /gorgeous/.  I wish I had her
talent.  Or, you know, ANY talent.

Does anyone else out there read/watch Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle?  Is
anyone else pissed by all the changes?  Bah.  Maybe I'm an elitist.  Or a
purist.  Or some kind of -ist.  The music is still friggin' awesome,
though...dare I say...the second OST is ever MORE awesome than the first.
Seriously.  I shit you not.  Kajiura Yuki is wonderful, and the songs she
creates are just my kind of music.  For those of you who don't know, she
also did the music for .hack//SIGN and Noir, as well as music from
Mai-HiME.

Can you tell I love my music?  Music can make or break a show or movie, in
my opinion.  Case in point: Batman Begins, Tsubasa, and Advent Children
all have kickass music (though my music major friend isn't terribly fond
of the music for the latter two...I say: BAH!).  Batman Begins didn't
really need its music to make up for any shortcomings, but Tsubasa's music
makes up for its bad timing and lackluster Syaoran voice (and changes from
the manga), and AC's music makes up for a plot that sounds like it was
pulled straight from a fanfic.  ...scratch that, I've read better fanfics
than AC.  Not that AC doesn't totally kick ass, because it does, but it
kicks ass for the music and the graphics, not for plot.

Aaaaaanyway, I need to go check on the status of some paperwork.  I'll see
some of you tonight at the Pictionary party (where, hopefully, no blood
will be drawn this time) and I'll see the rest of you tomorrow!
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com

When someone has been poisoned and the only way for you to save them is to
suck the poison out, don't sit there and babble on about how you will.
Stop talking and start sucking.

MnM Oct 20th, 2005

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6pm-10pm, in 21-205. It's HOT HOT HOT!

~>Manga of the Week: Katekyo Hitman Reborn by Akira Amano

Tsunayoshi has nothing going for him. He's not that bright, he's weak,
he's not good at sports, no one likes him... His life sucks. His mom gets
worried and hires a tutor from an ad she received. This tutor turns out to
be the baby Reborn, a high-class assassin from the Italian mafia family
the Vongolas. He is there to tutor Tsuna, but not to do better into
school. He's going to teach him how to run the Vongola family, because
Tsuna is supposed to be the 10th boss (they explain how he's the boss, but
you have to read it to see). Reborn uses a special bullet, the Dying Will
bullet to teach Tsuna. This bullet will enable the victim to do whatever
they were doubting as they died with a dying will. The effect wears off
after five minutes, and Tsuna turns back to normal. Poor Tsuna must deal
with his fate and learn to become a good boss!*
As the story goes on, a cast of awesome characters are introduced. You
have  my favorite, Hayato, the "Smoking Bomb" who uses dynamite like no
other; Yamamoto, the happy-go-lucky-bat-toting-loyal friend; Lambo, the
hilarious loser baby who is after Reborn's life; Bianchi, a woman who
kills with her poisoned cooking; and on and on...

I was really curious about the series after seeing a chapter of it in a
Weekly Shounen Jump. Nur picked up the first volume and we fell in love
with it. The art is nice, the story is fun, and there is so much in it
that leaves you dying with laughter. I can't remember the last time a
manga series made me laugh so much! It's an amazingly cool series that I
recommend to everyone.
Katekyo Hitman Reborn is published by Jump Comics. Volumes 1-5(maybe 6)
have been released, and three chapters have been scanlated.

*I am SOOO lazy, I'm not even trying this week...

~>Enter Rant

Man. I am SO tired. I spent a good portion of last night dealing with my
work's office, trying to get the right files on the server. It turns out
the files I need to work on and finish by Friday have not even been
properly formatted. Greeaaaattt. So I get to hope they get finished by
today(highly unlikely) in order to have them finished by Friday. Blurg.

The Halloween party is in a week and a half! Yay! I hope you are all
cosplaying. If you are making an AMV, please try to have it done and bring
in a copy by this Saturday. If you can't finish it by then, it's alright,
just talk to James on Saturday.

I am so so dead. I think I need some sugar. See you tomorrow.
~Annaliese (ensuing@<removed>.com)

P.S. BASTARD! epsiodes 3 and 4 this week! =^_^=

MnA: 22 Oct 2005

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Genshiken - 5: Limits of Rejection and Reception as Observed in
Autonomous Behaviour
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 5: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - The
Fifth Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 5: Chance
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 103: The Band of Seven, Resurrected!
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 5: Sailor Uniform and the Irrational Child
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 5: And Then the Rain Will Fall
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 5: They Make Noise
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 5: A Destiny
9:30 Shingetsutan Tsukihime - 5: The Arrow of the Sky
Planned Afterhours: Fanboy Bebop (the funnier sequel to ReDeath)

[random babbling]
Saaaa....

Ever had one of those years?  I think 2005 is just one of those years.  I
mean, in some ways, it's been great.  In others...not so much.  This has
not been a great year for getting my work done.  It HAS been a great year
for eating, on the other hand.  I make enough money now that I'm actually
eating two to three meals a day.  It's kind of nice.  >_>

Hn.  Wow, I have SO much to talk about this week.  Let's see...I threw in
the obligatory reference to my ridiculously stupid eating habits...I
whined about how I hate doing schoolwork...what else is left?  Hm...didn't
mention my eBay addiction, so here it is: I am addicted to eBay.  DAMN
you, eBay!  ...  I don't mean it.  x_x  I love you, eBay.

Let's see...Halloween's coming up!  Here at my apartment, we're gonna end
up with...oh...five or six extra people.  Aside from the four that already
live here.  ...  It's going to be hellish.

Obviously, I am not having one of my better days.  >_o  Check with me
tomorrow at club.  Club always makes me a little happier.

...I feel like watching Cat Soup...
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"Ringringringringringringring, banana phone!"

MnM Oct 27th, 2005

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6pm-10pm. It like Genshiken... in real
life.

~>Manga o' the Week: Dogs by Miwa Shirow

Have I talked about Dogs yet? I hope not.

Dogs is a collection of stories about characters who all live in the same
town. You have the assassin-turned-everyday nice guy, the psycho nicotine
addict, the guy who has been experimented on... It's a hodge-podge of fun.

I like the Dogs stories because they are random fun and some times, but
can turn around and become completely serious. It's quite interesting. The
style is eye-catching and every chapter leaves me wanting more. There is
tons of action and pretty boys in every chapter, so it's a good story for
whichever of those you want. ^_~

Dogs is a one volume series which has been scanlated. A second series
following the same characters, Dogs: Bullets and Carnage, recently started
running. It is being scanlated by mangatranslation.com. Also released(and
scanlated) is the one-shot, Dogs: Hardcore Twins(don't get excited, it's
not porn).

~>Enter Rant:

You know how Jenn said that 2005 is just one of those years in last week's
email? I totally agree. I don't know if it's my job, or the classes I'm
taking, or what, but I come home everyday feeling completely drained.

To make matters worse, I'm trying to buy stuff on ebay, and my PayPal
account starts freaking out. You want my credit card info? Ok, here you
go. What? My card is already in your databanks? Well yeah, It should be in
my account. Now, can I use it? What? You don't understand? Enter my credit
card info? YOU LITTLE PIECE OF- ...yeah. I've been struggling with that
for the last 20min, and it was driving me mad. Stupid paypal.

Halloween is this weekend! yaaaay! Cosplay! It's good for the soul! The
party is going to be a blast, I hope to see you all there!

You know what is an awesome show? Guyver: the BioBoosted Armor. I've been
going mad over this show since I finally checked it out last week. Sooo
good. The opening and ending rock my socks, and I love the characters.

...and I have to get back to work.

~Annaliese, ensuing@<removed>.com
Lord of All Things Awesome

P.S. No BASTARD!! This week, but we'll have something else to show...
something cool...

MnA: 29 Oct 2005

This week's schedule:

There isn't one!  Well, not in the strictest of senses, anyway.  Tomorrow
is the party of all parties: Minna no Anime's Annual Halloween Party!  I
hope you guys are cosplaying.  I am.  Because Annaliese would hurt me if I
didn't.  >_>  It's sort of a cop-out costume, though.  lol  There's no way
anyone's gonna recognize me.  ...if you DO recognize me, I think you will
be my new best friend.

Anyway, apart from cosplay, there'll also be trivia, anime eyes, pumpkin
judging, an AMV contest, a game room, a GGXX tournament, and anime playing
all day/night long.  There'll also be pizza for sale for really cheap, so
make sure you get yourself some of that.

Remember: the party starts at noon and contests start at about 2pm.  We'll
keep going until some time around 11pm (midnight, tomorrow...), so come
prepared to NOT pass out after the usual five or six hours.  We're going
to have fun!  :D  Also, keep in mind that if you want to win anything, you
have to be a member.  Bring $5 to join for the whole year if you haven't
already!

[random babbling (as if the above was something else)]
We have SO many people coming to spend the weekend at our apartment.  Four
of us already live in this two-bedroom place.  We're going to have five or
six people from out of town all crashing in various floor spaces.  ...  I
foresee strife.  Ah, well.  Hopefully there won't be any killings here.
That would be messy.  And there would be lots of paperwork.

I hate paperwork.

And blood in the carpet.

That shit NEVER comes out.  >_>
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com

"Tomorrow will come, without prayers.
The end will come, without hurrying.
I live only to be worthy of the corpse
I shall leave behind on that day."

MnM Nov 3rd, 2005

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6pm-10pm, 21-205. Here there's only our
hearts and a wish like an endless black hole.

~>Manga o' the Week: KurozaKuro by Yoshinori Natsume

You may recognize this mangaka, it's the same person who did Togari. Did
you like Togari? You'll love Kurozakuro.

"Humans are on the top of the food pyramid. If this pyramid was made up of
only humans, I would most certainly be on the very bottom," thinks Mikito.
He's weak and often gets picked on. His childhood friend, Saki hate that
he is so weak and always tells him to stand up for himself. One night
Mikito accidently consumes an orb and has an odd dream. In his dream,
young boy named Zakuro tells him he'll grant him any desire if he fills a
tree with flowers. Mikito decides he wants to be stronger, so Saki won't
be so ashamed of him. The next morning, Mikito wakes up, felling better
and hungrier than ever. At school, he doesn't give in to the bullies, he
actually fights them. And wins. After smashing on bully's face into the
wall repeatedly, he sees the blood stains. "It's rather strange," thinks
Mikito, "Until now, I always hated seeing blood. But now I think it's very
pretty. Almost like... a tree in full bloom..."

Mikito becomes more and more irritable and hungry as time passes. Soon,
he's eating raw meat and looking at humans as a possible food source. He
realizes something is wrong and tries to run away, but just can't manage
to do it. What will happen as his urges for blood and flesh increase?

Oh, Kurozakuro. You make my day filled with joy. Seeing the torrent for
the first half volume or so made me so happy... oh, I can't describe it.
Ever since I finished reading Togari last year, I had been hoping that
this mangaka would start something new. Kurozakuro is just as twisted and
awesome as Togari, and I hope it will evolve with a similarly wonderful
story. It is easy to see the Togari characters in the Kurozakuro
characters, but that is to be expected. This is a amazingly cool series,
and I can't chapters have been scanlated by Hanashi.

~>Enter Rant:

Man, I HATE HATE HATE canker-sores. I have this huge on just inside my
lip, and it is taking a very long time to heal. I'm contributing the
reason to stress. Bah! I want this quarter to be over already! It's not
like my classes are that hard, but I'm taking this writing class....
erg... it's a hundred-level class, but he makes us work like it is a three
hundred-level class. AT LEAST. It's a WRITING CLASS, but we have to give a
speech, participate in a debate... plus waaaayyy to many random
assignments. Ugh. I give my speech(Evolution vs Intelligent Design: What
should bio students learn?) next Tuesday, so I've been stressing over
that. Plus work, other classes, Ensuing... blah blah blah.

I'm waiting for two HUGE manga orders to come in... One from a seller in
Japan and one from ADV(they just had an awesome sale... $3.50 for a volume
of manga? I'm SO in.). I ended up spending about $150 together(enter
weeping wallet), but I'm getting a ton of good stuff... From Far
Away(1-14, raw), Outlaw Star(1-3, raw), Psychometer Eiji(1-5 raw), Wild
Half(five raw vols to complete my set), Desert Coral(1-3, translated),
Louie the Rune Soldier(1, translated), First King Adventure(1+2,
translated), Kagerou(1, translated), Gate(1, translated) and Vaizard(1,
translated). Yaaaaaay for new manga!

...that reminds me... If anyone wants to borrow any of my manga or anime,
just ask. For most cases, I will gladly let you borrow it. Maybe I'll put
up a list of stuff later. All I ask is that you TAKE CARE OF IT. =^_^=

Well, work calls and essays won't write themselves!
~Annaliese, ensuing@<removed>.com
My hell is drowned in music

MnA: 5 Nov 2005

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Genshiken - 6: Theory of the Individual Outside the Boundaries of the
Subculture
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 6: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - The
Sixth Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 6: I Won't Lose
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 104: The Stealthy Poison Master, Mukotsu
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 6: The Cannibal Maken. The Fear of Morgif?
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 6: The Five Masks
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 6: The Right Stuff
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 6: Kouya
9:30 Shingetsutan Tsukihime - 6: White Dream
Planned Afterhours: Kakurenbo (which Annaliese tells me kicks major booty)

[random babbling]
I have come to the conclusion that, once people reach the age of sixteen,
their brains take a year-long vacation (at least). I figure this, because
every sixteen-year-old I've ever met has been utterly fucking retarded.
With this new understanding, I find that I feel really, really bad for
high school teachers. I sort of felt bad for them before, but I now feel
the same pity for them that I feel for anal-wart inspectors. And yes,
that's a real job.

Anyway, I can't wait for winter break.  It'll be nice to have my life
back. I'm sick and tired of this "wake up do work pass out eat in between
if you have time" crap.  ~_~

Feh. I'm grumpy. Ah, well. Kare Kano tonight! *squee* I predict that I
shall be in a MUCH better mood afterwards. I'll see you all tomorrow.
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"Mein Name ist Lucifer! Ich bin der Antichrist!"

MnM Nov 10th, 2005

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6pm-10pm, in 21-205. ...just a group of
kids with huge imaginations...


~>Manga o' the Week: Wild Half by Yuuko Asami

When Yuuko Asami decided she wanted to create a manga series, she knew she
had to make it about her dog. Thus, Wild Half was born.

Wild Half is a detective who always solves his crimes. No one has ever
seen his face... Taketo is a ordinary high school student living with his
detective brother. Taketo thinks the tales of Wild Half are awesome, but
his brother despises them. One day, while walking, Taketo sees a dog. He
ignores it, but it follows him. So he feeds it. And it follows him home.
At home Taketo finds out that his brother has been attacked at work and
had his gun stolen; an act that could cost him his job. Taketo freaks out,
he doesn't know how to help. The dog offers his assistance. Yes, the dog
talks. This surprises Taketo as well. He introduces himself as Salsa(you
read that right, it's Salsa), aka Wild Half. Together, they end up solving
many crimes!

Wild Half eventually turns into a story about relationships. No, it's not
yaoi, it's not shounen-ai. The bonds between people and pets, friends,
family members, etc. It's very sweet, but the series ends on a bittersweet
note. While Wild Half is by far the best thing I've ever read, it's very
enjoyable and well worth your time. It's a great rainy-day series.... sit
all bundled up with hot cocoa and a pile of volumes... yeah....

Wild Half ran from 1996 to 1999 for a total of 17 volumes. The series is
currently being scanlated by Manga Koejeke.

~>Enter Rant:

Ok, so I had to give a speech Tuesday. I worked hard Friday through Monday
memorizing and practicing. I get to class Tuesday morning(at
seven-fricking-am) to see my teacher LEAVING. He had a doctor's
appointment or something.... SO HE SAYS. So I didn't get to give the
speech. I get to have it hang over my head until tomorrow morning at
seven-fricking-am.Joy. I am sorely tempted to being my speech with, "I was
completely prepared for this on Tuesday, but..."

I worked really hard last night trying to finish up the volume I'm
assigned to for work. I worked about five hours straight, barely moving
from my computer chair. And that's just five hours straight. I had worked
a number of hours before that as well. Anyway, I worked until 10:30pm...
no shower, no dinner until then. But I finished! It was done! Thank
Tezuka! Life goes on, I ftp the files to work this t the next InuYasha
discs? Is it my Animenation order? NO. It's 80 pages of corrections for
work. *sigh* It never ends. Don't get me wrong, I love my job. I hate the
series I'm working on right now, but I love my job.

I'm looking forward to this friday quite a bit. After my stack of
corrections is complete, I'm going to bike over to Borders and get Her
Majesty's Dog, a series I've been looking forward to for months. Then I'll
relax with it, maybe watch a couple more episodes of Arc The Lad(Go
Pandit!), take a nice long shower... It'll be heaven... I can't wait!

~Annaliese, ensuing@<removed>.com
Go Sven, Gentleman Run!

MnA: 12 Nov 2005

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Genshiken - 7: Aspects of Behavioral Selection in Interpersonal
Relationships
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 7: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - The
Seventh Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 7: Vexing
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 105: The Ghastly Steel Machine
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 7: Gone Wild? Straying? Maken Activated!
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 7: If I Could Fly
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 7: In A Grove
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 7: Civer Cyber
9:30 Shingetsutan Tsukihime - 7: Blue Tracks
Planned Afterhours: Cat Soup...maybe?

[random babbling]
You know, I sometimes wonder if maybe I'm doing something weird to screw
up my karma. Or if there IS a God and He thinks it's just really freakin'
hilarious to watch me squirm. Bastard.

I ended up feeling a little sick by the end of club last week. Just a
little sore throat; nothing major. I usually have a very slight sore
throat right before bed and right after I wake up in the morning. It goes
away during the day, though, so I don't generally give it much thought.

Until it explodes into an excess of pain and suffering, that is. Take last
weekend for example. I felt a little sore-throated on Saturday night, went
to bed, and woke up with my throat so swollen that I was literally choking
on my own trachea as I struggled to breathe. The excessive nausea,
headache, and pathetic weakness were a nice touch, too.

Lucky me, I had planned to spend the entire day programming, since my
project was due at midnight. Well, I couldn't very well NOT do the
program, so I ended up spending every waking minute on that damned program
(minus the two hours I was tutoring) until midnight finally came.
Unfortunately, I still wasn't done, so I emailed my professor, asked him
for a late day, and promptly went to bed.

Monday was a tiny bit better, but not by much. My sore throat had
trasformed (mostly) into the worst congested sinus problem I've had in
years. Oh, the nausea and weakness stuck around, too. With a lot of help
from Nur, I managed to smack my program into some semblance of correctness
and turned it in.

The next day, the nausea was gone and the sinuses cleared--slightly--but
they were still a problem and I still felt weak as a kitten. I spent a
little time studying and did my best to turn in a little early to get some
extra sleep before my midterm at 10am the next day.

Well, because the thought of a Systems Programming midterm terrified me, I
woke up at 6am so that I could get in some extra studying. Eventually 10am
came and I took my test...and I actually think I did well. I may not have
failed.

Unfortunately, the clarity that came to me yesterday seems to have sucked
its extra strength out of TODAY, because in Japanese independent study
today I did a lot of staring and made a lot of stupid little grammar
mistakes. I could not for the life of me figure out why Yuya-sempai was
asking me what time I'm going to have class on Fridays next quarter when I
thought I'd just explicitly told him that I WON'T have class on Fridays.
Turns out I was retarded at that moment and said "arimasu" ("exists")
instead of "arimasen" ("does not exist") when referring to class on
Fridays. *sigh*

Speaking of which, I registered this morning and my schedule ROCKS. No
class Fridays! No class 'til 4pm Mondays and Wednesdays! Of course, it's
only 13 units, but...*shrug* I honestly put the schedule together to open
up a maximum number of hours during which I can work. I definitely would
like more lab mon hours. Money is goooooood~<3.
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"Due South! It's...it's like...a cross between Crocodile Dundee and
MacGuyver! ... Sort of. But Canadian. And stuff."

MnM Nov 17th, 2005

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6pm-10pm, in 21-205. The rooms have a hint
of asbestos and just a dash of formaldehyde, and the habit of decomposing
right before your very eyes, along with the people inside!!

What a wonderful caricature of intimacy.

~>Manga o' the Week: Outlaw Star by Takehiko Itoh

Yes, yes. We've all seen the anime, and it's awesome. But this isn't the
anime. You know how Gene likes women? He REALLY likes them in this. the
first real scene opens up on him having sex with some girl. He does this
often. The basic story seems the same otherwise.
Gene Starwind hates flying because of an incident from his childhood, but
is forced into space where he gets an experimental ship and travels the
universe as an Outlaw(bounty hunter, if you will). He meets all sorts of
fun characters in his odd adventures.

Uuummmm... I can't say too much about this, as I've only read four
chapters. I'm desperately waiting for my copies to come in the mail. I
like the art and the flow of the panels a lot. It gives the series a very
"action feel" which I like. The volumes themselves are a bit bigger than
usual and have color pages. Yes, pretty color pages. And it has Gene. Am i
the only one who likes Gene? No one back in my high school seemed to like
him. I think it's his sexy scars. Rwar. Well... It's a cool series, check
it out.

The first four chapters have been scanlated, but it might be a bit hard ot
find them, as the series has ben licensed by . The series is 3 volumes
long(I think) and was originally published by Young Jump(again, I think).

~> Enter Rant:

Can you tell I'm tired?

I gave my speech Thursday morning and promptly got a cold. Actually, I
started feeling the symptoms of the cold on Wednesday night.Yeah, it was
fun. I've been exceedingly lazy this week... I find it hard to make myself
do paying-work or school-work. I can only use the sickness excuse for so
long. I've been waiting for that huge manga order to come in, and it is
driving me mad. I want my series! >.<

I finally started getting to work on a LiveJournal community for the
artist circle I belong to. Check it out, the comm name is 5PKBC. My lj
name is ensuing, for the curious. ^_^

In other news, we finish Bastard!! this week. ^_~
~Annaliese, ensuing@<removed>.com
Arigatou o kanade kanade

MnA: 19 Nov 2005

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Genshiken - 8: Comparative Research in Production Models and
Processes
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 8: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - The
Eighth Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 8: It's Me?
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 105: The Ghastly Steel Machine
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 8: Conspiracy in the Moonlight
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 8: Wandering Pair
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 8: Seduced by the Night
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 8: Gemini
9:30 Shingetsutan Tsukihime - 8: Origami
Planned Afterhours: Dunno yet! :D Wanna suggest something?

[random babbling]
First of all, we're really sorry about Inuyasha last week, guys. The
script fell through and there was just nothing we could do. We could have
showed the episode in digisub, but that would have sucked. Therefore, we
are showing it this week instead. Hopefully you guys enjoyed watching
Guyver last week. *grin* C'mon. Boob-lasers. You know you love it.
Personally, I'm really hoping he doesn't get some kind of crotch-laser
later in the series, though. I really wouldn't put it past them. >_>

Anyway, I spent pretty much all of Sunday subtitling half of this
quarter's movie. It's not really hard, just time-consuming. And no, I
won't tell you what the movie is. :p You'll just have to show up to club
this week and listen to announcements if you want to know.

Hm...it feels weird to be writing this thing on Monday. Especially since I
know I won't be sending it out until about Wednesday. Getting things done
early really isn't my style, but I know my free-time is going to be pretty
much shot this week. I have a program due in a week (which shouldn't be
too bad...it looks kind of easy this time) and a speech to give on
Wednesday. Yech, speech. It's not that I worry about speaking in front of
people. I've really gotten a lot better at that. Believe it or not, you
guys are kind of like...practice. :D Hell, if I can play Minesweeper in
front of a room full of (oddly) interested fellow-nerds (come on, if
you're at club, you're a nerd...admit it; embrace it), then I can blab
about something that no one in the room cares about for five-to-seven
minutes. The only thing about the speech that I don't like is that it
involves working. Bah. I am lazy.

Speaking of which, I realized yesterday that I have something of a weird
philosophy on life. I try to work and get things done on time, but in the
end, what happens happens and all I really care about is that I'm alive. I
went to the CSL to work on my paper yesterday and I ended up sitting down
outside, staring up at the sky for an hour and a half. It was pretty
outside, the breeze was nice, and I was breathing. It just felt like the
right thing to do. I don't know if that means I'm lazy, or if it means I
appreciate the things that REALLY matter instead of the things that we all
work so hard to convince ourselves matter.

...I'm probably just lazy.
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"I love my computer, you're always in the mood. I get so turned-on when I
turn on you."

MnM Dec 1st, 2005

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6pm-10pm in 21-205. We'll be changing
rooms next quarter, just fyi.

~>Manga o' the Week: Chii's Sweet Home by Konami Kanata

Chii is the story of a kitten who gets separated from her family and is
adopted by a human family.

This series is the epitome of cute. Chii has the most perfect expressions,
and her actions constantly remind me of my kittens back home. The pages
are lush with color(the whole thing is in color) and the art style fits
the story very well. The books have very few words, so it is a wonderful
series for beginning students of Japanese.

If you stopped by our table at the Club Faire this year, you might have
seen this out with the rest of random collection. ^_^

Chii's Sweet Home is at least two volumes long, and is slowly being
scanlated by dokidoki.

~>Enter Rant:

Waaa~h, Dead Week. Thank goodness it's almost over. Looking back, I didn't
have a horrible quarter. Life was chaotic as could be, but I got through
without too many scars, so I consider myself lucky. Now I just have to
pull myself through a debate and three finals, then I will be free from
learning about arguing, ancient buildings, and sheetfed presses. I guess I
enjoyed learning about the ancient buildings though... ooh, but break...
I'm going to relax, sleep, catch up on the series I've fallen behind on,
go see The Lion. the Witch, and the Wardrobe, sleep, draw, sleep,forward
to that.

Jenn and I went over the movie with the subtitles last night, and
everything looks very sweet. I'm really excited about this movie, I hope
you'll enjoy it.

Hmmm... it seems like I send these out later and later every week... sorry
about that!

~Annaliese, ensuing@<removed>.com
"It's these substandard motels on the corner of 4th and Fremont Street.
Appealing, only because they are just that un-appealing;
Any practiced catholic would cross themselves upon entering."

MnA: 3 Dec 2005

This week's schedule (it's a little weird because of the movie!):

5:00 Twelve Kingdoms - 9: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - The
Ninth Chapter
5:25 Stellvia - 9: I'm Off
5:50 Break
5:55 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 9: The Stolen Treasure
6:20 Gad Guard - 9: Snow Melts the Heart
6:45 Break
6:50 R.o.D: the TV - 9: Heart of Darkness
7:15 Shingetsutan Tsukihime - 9: Death
7:40 Dinner Break
8:25 Fall Quarter 2005 Movie: Shin Angyou Onshi
Planned Afterhours: None! Go home and study, you procrastinators!

[random babbling]
Woohoo! Break is done and now we're back to Minna! And the
end-of-the-quarter meeting, no less. Could life get any better? Dare I
say--no. :D

Well, okay, I admit that maybe it could. If, say, next week wasn't finals
week? Hm...in a way, that IS good, though, because after next week, it's
all over and we don't have to think about the crap we learned this quarter
ever again. Maybe I should rephrase that. We can forget everything we
learned in GEs and support courses, but we must desperately cling to the
knowledge we gained from our major classes in the lingering fear that
someday, in another class, it will become useful. Or even (gasp) be useful
in our post-school futures. Of course, I speak as a computer science
major. Maybe the rest of you actually have support courses that you'll
need to use again at some point in your lives. Calculus and physics are
pretty worthless to me.

Anyway, who else went and saw Harry Potter over the break? Hoo, baby, I
really liked that movie. XD Twins? Squee. The entire study hall scene?
*Big* squee. The fact that Daniel Radcliffe learned to cry on camera
between the last movie and this one? MAJOR squee. Excuse me while I
fangirl for a moment. But then, my favorite scenes were the ones with
Snape in them. :D Yep, I'm one of those Snape-fans. And I adore Alan
Rickman. XD

Lessee...lessee...Tsurugi's on Sunday! I believe we may end up witnessing
a bloody struggle full of pain and despair...when we try to fit everyone
in the tatami room. Ah, well. Pain and despair are good for disgestion.
...well, mine, at least. But I'm one of those people mommy told you not to
make eye-contact with and started walking faster to get around. Don't be
fooled by the innocent look. I'll eat your babies. Or, well, mochi.
Because mochi feels like baby flesh but tastes better and doesn't smell
funny. *I* think it's a suitable substitute.

Oh, I almost forgot to talk about the movie! If you like pure AWESOME,
you'd best come to club and watch Shin Angyou Onshi. Er...and don't mind
Annaliese and I if we giggle like morons every time someone gets hurt.
It's an inside joke that I'll explain to you after the movie if you really
want to know.
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"So, can anyone tell me if all orphans are destined to become zombies?"

Winter 2006

MnM Dec 5th, 2005 [ed: actually for Jan 5, 2006]

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6-10pm, in bldg 13, room 110. WE ARE IN A
NEW ROOM! Do not go to the old stuffy room in building 21! ...Hopefully
this is a smartroom... I think the building is the engineering bldg behind
the library.

~Manga of the Week: Woo, two his week!

Before break, instead of studying all the time, I looked for new manga. It
was worth it when I found two news series, both currently scanlated by
Maximum7. They are both fairly new series, so unfortunately, there are
very few chapters for both, but these are both worth watching for.

Mieru Hito by Iwashiro Toshiaki
Mieru Hito is a story of a girl named Himeno who goes to live in Tokyo in
order to go to school there. She ends up meeting this huge evil
ghost/spirit and is saved by a "guide" named Myoujin. Being a "guide"
Myoujin can touch ghosts, send them to the afterlife, or destroy them if
need be. Himeno discovers that this guy also happes and watching Myoujin
fight evil spirits!

The story is very cute and seems to become a lot deeper as the series goes
on. I personally like series about ghost and spirits, especially when they
are filled with action and have the right amount of comedy. Mieru Hito
does just that. There is enough drama to prevent the comedy from taking
over, and enough badass spirit fighting to make everyone happy. The art is
a fun style, although perhaps a wee bit generic. It looks like a Midori no
Hibi mixed with Konjiki noyou without spoiling too much. Let me just say,
Riku is awesome, Neene is adorable, and Jinki powers rock.

When I first began reading it, I was amazed at the amazing art. There are
a few colored pages in the first chapter, and they blew me away. The art
is clean and smooth, and the coloring is very...warm. It gives you a very
calm feeling. Looking at it, you might recognize the style. That would be
because the mangaka is Daisuke Moriyama, the mangaka for Chrno Crusade.
World Embryo is his new work. There are only 8 chapters out in Japan (they
are all scnalated), and I am on my toes hoping for the next one to come
out soon. Moriyama has a way of having EVERY chapter end with a
cliffhanger, and it'll kill you waiting for the next.



~Enter Rant:

Hope everyone had a nice break. Mine was pretty cool. The highlight was
hanging out at the apartment and doing nothing productive.... unless you
consider reading copious amounts of manga and watching many many episodes
of anime productive. The trip to the used manga store in Los Angeles was
awesome too. Come on, 63 volumes of manga for about $120? I think it's an
awesome deal.

Unfortunately, school has started once more and life is back to stinking.
I hope this quarter does not turn out to be as bad as it seems it will! =\

I am desperately looking forward to both MnM and MnA!
~Annaliese, ensuing@<removed>.com
Gravion has a lot of plot, but not much talent.

MnA: 7 Jan 2005

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Genshiken - 9: Concerning the Existence of an Expository Requirement
under Special Non-social Circumstances
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 10: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - The
Tenth Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 10: Welcome Back
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 106: Kagome, Miroku, and Sango: A Desperate Situation
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 10: The Demon Hand Approaching!
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 10: Rolls of Money in the Sunset
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 10: A Christmas Carol
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 9: Onmyou
9:30 Shingetsutan Tsukihime - 10: The Crimson Moon
Planned Afterhours:

[random babbling]
So! Guess what Erin and I did over the break...c'mon! You can do it!
Guess! That's right! We subtitled almost the whole next quarter of
Inuyasha! We are very crazy people.

Hm...when I wasn't subtitling, I was playing World of Warcraft. Ah, ys
curious, I have a Hoarde character on Dethecus and an Alliance character
on Medivh...but my Dethecus character is my main. ^_^

Wow...I don't have a lot to say...oh! I'm reeeeeally looking forward to
Twelve Kingdoms...that show is just SO awesome. Honestly, more than any of
the other shows, it's why I come to Minna. Well, that and you people. Most
of you. :D
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"If she speaks to me ONE more time, I will END her!"

MnM Jan. 12th, 2006

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays 6-10pm in 13-110. Listen to the Beat of the
SOUL!

~Manga o' the week: Soul Eater by Atsushi Ookubo

Imagine a world where people use other people.Not to hard, eh? What about
using those people as weapons? Soul Eater is about a group of Weapon
Technicians and their weapons. Soul Eater is a demon scythe whose
technician is a girl named Maka, who is the daughter of Death Scythe,
another demon scythe, who is the main weapon of Shinigami-sama, who rules
over the world they all live in. Confused? The weapons can take at least
two forms, a human form and a weapon form. There are all sorts of
weapons... sickle and chains, guns, swords, etc, etc.

Soul Eater is about a group of young students who attend Shibusen
(Shinigami Weapon Techicians Vocational School). Weird stuff happens, and
they are sent out to take care of it. At the beginning, most of them are
just fun quests, but later they become very serious.  The weapons and
their technicians greatest enemies are the witches and, guess what! A
witch has infiltrated Shibusen! Now everything is going to hell, there are
dangerous creatures everywhere, Soul gets sick, Maka loses her ability to
wield Soul,  Black Star gets beat up by villagers, the demon blade Tsubaki
must fight her older brother, Sid-sensei gets turned into a zombie, Death
the Kid goes crazy over the lack of symmetry... and on and on and on.
Soul Eater is a wonderful series. The chapters are very fun and the story
keeps you always wanting more. Curse you for being a monthly! The series
are a very King of Bandits Jing-feel, so if you like Jing, you'll probably
like Soul Eater. The art is fun and the artist puts little amusing things
into the story and drawings. When walking down the path to talk to
Shinigami-sama, the arches are actually guillotines. When calling
Shinigami-sama, the phone number is 42-42-564, which can be roughly
translated to "die die kill." It's fun to see random little touches like
these in the series.

Soul Eater is being scanlated by Manga Rain. They have released through
chapters 1-5 and the three prologue chapters. The series runs in Shonen
GanGan (alongside Fullmetal Alchemist and 666 Satan). The fifth volume has
just been released.

~Enter Rant:

I really shouldn't try to write these when I first wake up. @_@

I hope you guys are surviving school better than I am. It's only the
second week and I already feel overwhelmed! But the worst part...
definitely the worst part, is working on this stupid series. I enjoy my
job, but this series is retarded. Like I just mentioned, I love it when
artists put little things for you to discover in their work. This artist
puts everything on the table in a sloppy manner, hoping someone will enjoy
his lazy organization. I can usually find some good things to say about a
series, but I can't find any for this one. I just hope I get assigned a
different one soon!

Jenn just started reading One Piece. It's really hard to get work dane
when she's reading awesome chapters of Sanji and Zoro kicking butt. When
she gets to the part where Chopper comes in I'll never get work done!

Don't forget your T-shrit designs this week! If you know where those PS2
controllers disappeared to, please bring them back or tell me! Thanks!

~Annaliese, ensuing@<removed>.com
Just for the record,
The weather for today
Is slightly sarcastic
With a good chance of
A) Indifference
B) Disinterest to what the critics say

MnA: 14 Jan 2006

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Genshiken - 10: Leisure Time Expenditures on Fetishism Considered as
an Economic Result
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 11: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - The
Eleventh Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 11: The Real You
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 107: The First Time We See Inuyasha's Tears
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 11: Across the Dimensions, a War Begins
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 11: No Return to the Town of Rainbow
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 11: Goodbye Japan
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 10: Inuki
9:30 Shingetsutan Tsukihime - 11: Night of Disaster
Planned Afterhours: Nothing that I know of. Let's watch mold grow! :D

[random babbling]
In the lab is where I am;
Don't want to write this dumb program.
A hundred lines of assembly...
It only takes ten lines in C!

...you can tell I don't want to be here, right? I hope so. I don't want to
be here SO BAD that I actually wrote a POEM about it. Ugh. I feel
fourteen. Fear my lab-induced angst! (Hey, Annaliese! E-MO's!)

Bah. Anyway. As Annaliese mentioned, I've been reading One Piece, which
ROCKS. Zoro is <3. As is Sanji. And Ace. And Chopper. GAH. I love them all
WAY too much. I think I'm on about chapter 150 now...I'd be caught up with
what's out (chapter 400 or so), but I only started reading a couple days
ago and I haven't had much free time recently. Curse you, school.

For those of you who predicted World of Warcraft would steal my life, HA,
it hasn't. In fact, I only play a few times a week and only for about two
hours or so on school days. I find it odd that so many people seem to sell
their souls to it. Either I have really strong willpower or the world's
most pathetic attention sp-AH, a kitty! >_>

Okay, that was a bad joke. I admit it. Don't hurt me for stealing jokes
from Robin Williams. If you've seen the Robin Williams Broadway show, you
are awesome and automatically get...about...8 kudos. What exactly a kudo
is, how it can be quanitfied, and whether or not you can exchange it for
porn and/or food are questions that only you (and maybe the
internet...especially about that porn part) can answer. There really
should be a kudo system. That would be awesome. I would exchange my kudos
for really cool things. Like soda. And anime. And manga. ...really, the
same stuff I generally exchange money for, but kudos are easier to get.
And sound cooler than "dollars".

Yes, I realize I'm probably sounding a
bit...off?...flighty?...hyper?...today. I blame the 1.5 giant-ass mugs of
coffee I had this morning. Waking up at 4:30am, however, means that I have
to stay awake somehow. Unfortunately, that much coffee on an empty stomach
has three results for me: shaky hands, upset stomach, and the inability to
focus too hard on anything for an extended period of time. Side effects
include an amount of sarcasm proportional to the number of hours before my
regular waking time that I was forced to drag my ass out of bed, thereby
facilitating the utilization of caffeinated beverages and resulting in the
aforementioned effects and side-effects. Oh,
super-high-level-arrogant-egotistical-bastard writing, how fun you are.
Remember kids, I'm not an elitist; I just have higher standards than you.

On that rather swell-headed note, I think I feel my stomach staging an
uprising (oh personification, how useful you can be), so I'd better go and
actually eat something. If I don't dilute that damned coffee a little
more, I'm going to end up with a migraine the size of this rant.
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
A miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
And all the birds in the trees, they could sing so happily,
So joyfully, oh playfully, watching me."

MnM Jan 19th, 2006

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6-10pm, in 13-110. This e-mail is better
late than never, right? Right? ...  :(

~>Manga o' the Week: Shin Angyou Onshi

You guys should know what it is about, and you should know that I love it
to death. So, I'm not going to write a review on it. Instead, at Mark's
request, have a YSI link to everything that has been released.

http://s17.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3Q3IOHGYT3ZVH2K1EGFJWFEMZU
That link is good for 7 days or a limited number of downloads. It if goes
down, just e-mail me and I'll put it back up

...and because I'm feeling generous, here is the first chapter of Nabari
no Ou, as requested by Shay. This series is where the club computer's
current wallpaper comes from. It's about ninjas... and stuff.

http://s6.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0DCRR32GGO8VM3U8NSYME86DV0

~>Enter Rant:

Ok, ok, so I get volume 11 of Ultimate Muscle in the mail today. For those
who don't know, I am the current letterer and touch-up artist for this
series. That means I take the japanese text and sfx out and replace them
with english "equivalents." This is the first volume I've completed, so I
was pretty excited to see how it came out.

OH
MY
TEZUKA.

I don't think I've seen an uglier volume of manga anywhere. The series
itself is ugly enough, but I helped it out quite a bit. The sfx are
blurry, the touch-up is hideous, it's quite embarrassing. It gets much,
much better as the volume goes on, but it is good for a laugh. I'm
surprised they still let me work!

I got Shadow Hearts Covenant this weekend. ...it's very, very awesome.
I've put way too much time into it already. 12 hours in two and a half
days! But I must continue to collect souls in order to gain more fusion
forms! Go go Yuri!


...I wish Jenn wouldn't read so much One Piece, because now I'm fangirling
over it all the time. U_U

~Annaliese, ensuing@<removed>.com

I don't mind the sun sometimes
The images it shows
I can taste you on my lips
And smell you in my clothes
Cinnamon and sugary
And softly spoken lies
You never know just how you look
Through other people's eyes

MnA: 21 Jan 2006

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Genshiken - 11: The Theory of the Existence of Malice Within Urban
Crimes
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 12: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - The
Twelfth Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 12: Confession
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 108: The Secret Of The Pure Light
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 12: The Chain of Love and Fate
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 12: Bluebird
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 12: The Paper's Twilight
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 11: Border
9:30 Shingetsutan Tsukihime - 12: Moon World
Planned Afterhours: Maybe? Who knows. I might try bringing a disc of Yami
no Matsuei if no one comes up with anything better. And if I'm not feeling
sleepy on Saturday. >_>

[random babbling]
Hey kiddies! Guess where I am...again. That's right, computer architecture
lab (ohgodpleasekillmenow). ... I suppose it's not as bad as all that,
really. I'm just a horrible little procrastinator. So it seems worse than
it is.

Anyway, did you know that this week is the last episode of Tsukihime?
After this week, we'll be showing Paranoia Agent. In retrospect, I
actually sort of like PA. A helluva lot more than Stellvia, at least.
*cough* >_>;; The opening is pure awesome. And it's all f-ed up, which is
fun. I probably just disliked it originally because I watched it all in
one night when I first saw it. Speaking of Tsukihime, you go, Shiki! Woo!
Score! Goal! ...all this bad shit happens to him, so I suppose it's about
time he got some lovin'.

...correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this week's episode of KKM may be
kicking off my favorite arc of the show. (Annaliese, dolphin? KG? :D) If
this is the arc I'm thinking of, I shall be a very happy fan on Saturday.
Although I'm already a pretty happy fan, since I'm getting all squee-ish
over Twelve Kingdoms. Jeez, I love that show WAY too much.

Since I seem to be hitting a few things from last week, I have to ask: was
Inuki-puppy not the absolute cutest thing ever? It almost makes me want a
dog again. XD I still prefer cats. And birds.

Getting away from the topic of what we watching last week (but not quite
away from the topic of cute things), I finally caught up with all of One
Piece that's been released. Two words: FREAKIN' AWESOME. I need to watch
some of the anime. The subbed anime. I wouldn't watch the dub if you paid
me. I really adore characters that have multiple personality levels. For
example, Zoro. He seems like the kind of character that really only has
the potential to be a selfish, stupid badass. In reality, he is (and I kid
you not) the mother hen of the group. XD He worries, tells people to be
careful, and always seems to be trying to make things work out. Except
with Sanji. Their relationship is so foul-mouthed. e_e Still, that seems
to be the way they relate best, and in some of the more recent chapters,
Zoro is obviously worrying about Sanji being by himself on a train full of
bad guys. :D

In short, I love One Piece and I adore Zoro. If you've started to write OP
off because of the weird-ish art style, DON'T. This is seriously the most
completely awesome series I've read in a long, long time. Just give it a
chance. I'll burn you the first 400 chapters or so if you ask for them or
you can go to www.stoptazmo.com. Do it. The power of awesome compels you.
:O
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"One-Nostril Nat, Cat-Eye-Cannon Jenn, and eBrow Annaliese?! A winning
combination indeed!"

MnM Jan 26, 2006

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6-10pm, in 13-110. ...for those who feel
like being social!

~>Manga o' the Week: W Juliet by Emura

"Sixteen-year-old tomboy Ito Miura has been chosen to play Romeo in Romeo
and Juliet! The problem? She doesn't want the male role! So, who will be
Juliet? The favorite for the part, beautiful and vain Tsugumi, must
compete with the cute new transfer student, Makoto Amano.

Makoto not only has the looks, but her audition proves that she has the
acting chops to play any role assigned. But Makoto has a secret, and if
rival Tsugumi, or anyone in the school, finds out, it could ruin Makoto's
life, dragging Ito down as well!" (stolen ruthlessly from Rightstuf)

What's Makoto's secret? Well, she is a he! In order to pursue his dream to
become an actor, he had to fulfill this requirement from his father; spend
the rest of his high school days as a girl. If anyone finds out, he must
return home and take over the family dojo. Ito, after stumbling on
Makoto's secret, promises to help protect it, and a series of fun and wild
adventures follow.

It is series like this that remind me that shoujo series can kick ass too.
The story is so much fun and so cute, I always find myself needing the
next volume right away. It's a lot of fun to see the art evolve over the
volumes, and even more fun to read the artist's thoughts on her earlier
work. Finally, I have found an artist that suffers the same problems as I
do! ...of course, she's about a million levels above me, but it's still a
comforting thought. ^_^

W-Juliet is licensed by Viz, and the first eightvolumes (out of 14) have
been released. Some group was scanlating it ages ago, and you can find the
first four volumes in IRC channels if you look hard enough.

~>Enter Rant:

I think I have the writing level of a second-grader.

Arg, I hate school. I don't have any classes I enjoy this quarter, and it
makes spending the 6-10 hours a day in class a very painful experience. I
guess every major has a series of classes that suck, but I didn't think it
would be this painful! *sigh*

I've been trying to make myself happier by playing lots of Shadow Hearts
Covenant. I've put about 25 hours into it since buying it on the 15th and
am now on the second disc. I swear this game gets better and better. I
broke down and ordered the third game, which comes out in early March. I
had to, the pre-order bonus was a copy of the first game. Now I'm going to
have to decide which to play first... Zelda: Twilight Princess or Shadow
Hearts: From the New World. Choices... choices... (pah, I love SH, but
Zelda games are always #1 in my heart!)

I have two papers and a speech to write, so I'm trying not to play and
games until Friday in an attempt so get maybe two of them done. Alas, the
pain is great, but I only have to hold out a couple more days!

~Annaliese, The GodSlayer    ensuing@<removed>.com
What kind of game has mistletoe as a weapon??

MnA: 28 Jan 2006

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Genshiken - 12: The Countermeasures for the Issues that Occur during
the Reorganization of a Group
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 13: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - The
Final Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 13: Winter Break
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 109: Hidden in the Mist: Onward to Mt. Hakurei
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 13: The Bride and Yuri and Gwendal
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 13: The People Who Live in Darkness
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 13: Twilight of the Papers II
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 12: Alternative
9:30 Paranoia Agent - 1: Shounen Bat Has Arrived!
Planned Afterhours: None that I know of. I'm sure someone will bring
something.

[random babbling]
Well, hello again. First once, I am not in lab while writing this email
(yes, I know, shocking). The reason for this is that I had a midterm today
in that class, and therefore we have no lab to do. Yay. I'm sure you all
care so much. >_o

Bah. I'm feeling bitchy today. This may have a lot to do with the fact
that it's only 10:15am, but I've been awake for over four hours, I still
have a three-hour lab and a three-hour CSL shift today, and I have to go
to Minna no Manga tonight for four hours. I hate Thursdays, because they
require me to leave the apartment at 7:45am and not return until 10:15pm.
That's a lot of time away from home, and I am very, very tired. Already. I
still have twelve hours before I can go home.

Shit.

Maybe I'll skip MnM tonight. Fun as it usually is, I really don't want to
be here any longer than I have to be. I meant to go to bed really early
last night and, like an idiot, ended up staying awake 'til 10:30pm anyway.
Dammit. I feel like taking another one of those 21-hour naps, like the
time in Freshman year I fell asleep at 7pm and woke up the next day at
4pm. Good times. ...unfortunately, Annaliese probably won't let me skip
MnM, despite the fact that I'll be miserable. *sigh* =_=

And aren't I just a little ray of sunshine? Grrrr. At least this weekend
I'll FINALLY have the time to spend to level my character up in WoW. I've
been neglecting that game far too much lately (and yes, "neglecting" as in
"holy crap, I haven't been on for a week?!", not the standard WoW "I
haven't been on for 24 hours? omg"). I ain't payin' $15 a month to
accumulate rest for 28 days out of the month...though that makes leveling
decidedly less painful when I actually get around to it.

Anyway, yeah...don't die, see you guys on Saturday.
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"Dear Lord, please grant me the ability to punch people in the face over
standard TCP/IP." - an internet prayer

MnM Feb 02, 2006

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6-10pm in 13-110.

~>Manga o' the week: Rise R to the Second Power by Maki Hakoda

"Young Kenta Akagi has never been anywhere except for his hometown of
Lutzheim, where he currently ekes out an existence as a pizza delivery
boy. Faraway places, strange foreign folks, the wars they fight, and the
adventures they have are just stories to him, until he meets a young girl
- the kind of girl that wars are fought over!

People seem afraid of her, but Kenta doesn't understand why. All he knows
is that he seems to remember her from somewhere, and that he has to
protect her no matter what!"-ripped off of rightstuf.com

R^2 is a wonderful series with beautifully simple art. The story is
interesting, the character are interesting, and Kenta wears rollerblades
and goggles. You can't beat that.

R^2 is being released by ADV Manga. They released volume 1 about 19 months
ago, and we're still waiting for vol 2. Bah to you, ADV Manga.

~> Enter Rant:
Yay! I gave my second big speech today in SCOM101. It's over! It's done!
I'm happy. I did not allow myself to play Shadow Hearts 2 all weekend in
order to help me prepare for it. So guess what I did this evening! Damn
straight, got my SH2 playing in. Ah, I love it so. As I get further and
further in, I seem to be playing less and less... I still have a month
before the next one comes out!

Does anyone keep up with Reborn? The livejournal community (hitman_reborn)
just released chapter 79, and ooooohhhh baby is it awesome. This series
just keeps getting better. I'm a huge Hayato fan, but Tsuna has actually
become number one to me. GAHHHH! Please read this series! You can get
scans for the current arc (chapters 62-79) at the lj comm:

http://community.livejournal.com/hitman_reborn/7441.html

I helped edit chapters 62-64, so you can see my uuggglllyyy quick editing
skills. Ooh, the ugly!

http://s6.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2VBSCEZ7CJRKV1QR1BJJ1CVXND
This is a link for the three prologue and five regular chapters of Soul
Eater that have been released, as requested b Keith. The chapters that end
in a P are the prologue chapters. ^_^

~Annaliese
Baa Baa Black Sheep...

MnA: 4 Feb 2006

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Midori no Hibi - 1: Right-Hand Girlfriend
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 14: Shadow of the Moon, Sea of the Shadow - Chapter
of Recollection
6:20 Stellvia - 14: Dreams and Reality
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 110: Enter Bankotsu, The Lead of the Band of Seven
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 14: Yuri, Doing Hard Labor
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 14: Seeking Lost Time
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 14: Paper Leaf Wood
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 13: Return
9:30 Paranoia Agent - 2: The Golden Shoes
Planned Afterhours: Dunno. >_>

[random babbling]
In all honesty, it's 11:45pm and I'm too tired to write much here. Let's
just say that bioengineering 213 (mainly the bio part) is the worst course
I've had to take here at Cal Poly, because the teacher is
in-fricking-sane. Seriously. I'm not kidding. He writes maybe five words
on the board during the entire two-hour class and fills the rest of it
with diagrams (which, by the way, I think you just might have to be on
drugs to make any sense out of). It sucks. A lot.

Apparently I have a cold, which also sucks. I went to the health center
and wasted an hour and a half of my life just to be told to get some rest
and drink my fluids. Gee, thanks Captain Obvious.

Like I said, I'm tired, my contacts are burning, and I'm grumpy as hell.
See you guys later.
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"Shadow Hearts--putting the 'gay' in 'game'."

MnM Feb 9th, 2006

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6-10pm, 13-110.

~>Manga o' the Week: From Far Away by Kiyoko Hikawa

On her way home from school one day, Noriko is unexpectedly plunged into a
strange and extraordinary fantasy world. Her troubles compound
exponentially when she is rescued and befriended by a handsome young man
by the name of Izark.

He may be brave and courageous, but inside Izark lurks the darkest evil
imaginable. And according to an ancient prophecy, Noriko possesses the
power to unleash that evil. Now, inexorably bound together, these two
unlikely allies must navigate a world both wondrous and hostile."
-Yoinked from Rightstuf, as usual

From Far Away seems like your typical shoujo series on first glance. The
story is so-so and the art is alright. But the real charm in this series
is in the variety of poses and the emotion the artist puts into her work.
It's  easy to see what each character is feeling, just by looking at them.
This is especially apparent in Izark(wait, they call him Izark in english?
It's Izaku in Japanese... wouldn't that make him Issac or something?).
I've gotten so much art-practice just by studying the poses in manga.
Plus... later there is a demon. Mmmm, I like demons. The story gets really
awesome a couple volumes in too. It's an excellent 14-volume series being
brought out by Viz Media.

~>Enter Rant:

Okay, I spent about seven hours writing a paper for my speech class this
last weekend. Let me tell you, it was not fun. But, I wanted to get it
done early so I could step away from it for a while and edit it later.
Today, my professor announces it is not due next week as it says on the
sheet, but this Thursday. A little lame and mean if you ask me, but since
I had mine pretty much done, I'm good. BUT NO! It turns out I had
misinterpreted the instructions and written on the wrong thing. GREAT. So
I trudge ho me keep what turns out well.

In other news, I beat Shadow Hearts Covenant. The last boss was incredibly
hard; I needed to gain about five levels before I could beat him. I
probably could have beaten him after about two levels, but he hurt my
characters and my pride the first time I fought him, I needed to give him
a taste of his own medicine. Holy hells, I love that game to pieces. It
had a bittersweet ending, but it was awesome anyway. Luckily, I got the
good ending. I downloaded the bad ending, just to check it out. Yeah, it
sucked. It really was a bad ending. Just one month until the third game
comes out!

Ahhh, new Reborn chapter came out today. DGM and Bleach are still at slow
parts for me, so most of my manga-excitment is being drawn out of Reborn.
...and this series does not let me down.

~Annaliese
Dying Will Flame!

MnM Feb 16th, 2006

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6-10pm, in 13-110.

I was going to talk about a manga about a hermaphrodite, fangirl about
Digimon, and express my happiness from the lack of school on Friday, but
I'm too tired.

~Annaliese
*dead*

MnA: 18 Feb 2006

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Midori no Hibi - 3: Discovery Days
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 16: Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Labyrinth - The
Second Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 16: Under Suspicion
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 112: The Barrier at Hijiri Island
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 16: Maoh7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 16: The Day We Bare Our Fangs
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 16: Fahrenheit 451
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 15: Guardian
9:30 Paranoia Agent - 4: A Manly Way of Life
Planned Afterhours: Same as usual~~~

[random babbling]
I really don't have much to say. CPE315 has been eating my soul. I'll see
you all on Saturday.
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"The Bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame."
(Hellsing is awesome)

MnM Feb 23rd, 2006

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6-10pm, in 11-110. It has been
scientifically proven that MnM atendees are 11.4% cooler than other MnA
members. Oh my.

~>Manga o' the Week: Boku no Futatsu no Tsubasa (My Two Wings) by Yui
Toshiki

Well, I has a feeling some people might want to know about the manga I
mentioned last week. Yes, the one about the hermaphrodite.

So you have your main characters, Hiro, and her cousin Mako. Mako comes to
live with Hiro to attend her school. ...and it just so turns out that Mako
is a hermaphrodite. Hiro has trouble dealing with this at first, but the
story quickly turns into a "we must hide your secret together" sort of
thing. Then it discusses social and gender walls, finally leading into the
characters exploring sex. No, not with each other....after the first
time... which wasn't really anything but an accident... *cough*

I'm not a big fan of the art, and sometimes the story just seems like the
mangaka wanted to draw porn but couldn't completely bring themselves to do
it. Don't get me wrong, this is no porn series (sorry =P). While these two
points really do take a lot from the series, I really do enjoy how they
blindly break down these walls society has put up about gender. So, I
guess I recommend it. Just don't read it around people under the age of 17
or  parents who won't see past some of the more sexual scenes.

Chapters 1-17 have been released by ADTRW.

~> Enter Rant:

I'm always so tired after I finish my Wednesdays. I could never figure it
out, seeing as I only have one three-hour lab and a two-hour lecture.
While walking back, I think I finally figured it out. In the lecture class
I have I have to write a 3000-word paper. It's due in two weeks and I have
about 350 words written. Not cool. Going to the class reminds me how soon
it is due and how bland my topic is and wears me out. This gets me
thinking about the hundred other things I have to do and it's like getting
smashed under the Hiedelberg Speedmaster in building 26. For you none
GrC-ers, that's a multi-ton press. Mmmm, smashy. I'm not saying I have
more than anyone else to do, I think I just stress out about it way too
much. Every Wednesday I come home now thinking about all the work I should
do on my paper, but I'm so worn out I end up taking the night off and
watching anime. This weekend I think I'll pour the majority of my energy
into it and get most of it written. Oooh, I'm excited. Just about as
excited as a girl can get when faced with a paper about as excited as a
girl can get when faced with a paper about the different methods of
Gravure cylinder engraving. Woo.

I've been fangirling over Digimon all over again lately. I've been
watching the series since it aired in the states back in the day. It beats
the pants off of Pokemon, yo. Now don't get me wrong, I love Pokemon (some
of the best video and card games I've ever played),but it can't beat
Digimon. Out of the four seasons that have aired, I'd have to say my
favorite is the fourth, Digimon Frontier. It's all about Kouji and
Kouichi. but the best Digidestined ever? Takeru(TK). Best Digimon ever?
Patamon and his digivolutions. Sorry. Fangirling. Anyway, they're bringing
out a new series, Digimon Savers! I'm just about dying with excitement.
I'm now looking forward to it more than the Host Club anime. The
characters look a bit older than usual which make me wonder if it'll be
aimed at older audiences. Well, I guess we'll see when it comes out.
...We'll also see if the main character gets the goggles he's supposed to
have!

I'm going to put my paper off and watch disc 5 of Heat Guy J. It's an
awesome series, and WAY cheap if you look hard enough. The whole thing
cost me a bit under $50. That's seven discs, three in a lame plastic
slipcase, four in a pimp box. Mmm. And they are shiny cases. I like shiny
things.

~Annaliese, ensuing@<removed>.com
"You disturbed, wicked heart, it would be best for you to sleep, covered
in darkness. By this Digivice, be purified! Digicode Scan!!"

MnA: 25 Feb 2006

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Midori no Hibi - 4: Secret's Exposure!?
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 17: Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Labyrinth - The
Third Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 17: Battle
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 113: The Holy Dokko and the Secret of the Mummy
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 17: I7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 17: Gun - Sword - Beast
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 17: Sweet Home
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 16: Slaugher
9:30 Paranoia Agent - 5: Holy Warrior
Planned Afterhours: Crackhead homocidal kangaroos battle it out for your
amusement! ...and their next hit. (don't ask)

[random babbling]
Fuuuu...so this week has been crazy for me...how about for all you people?
I had a CPE315 midterm this morning (though technically it still IS "this
morning"...though it probably won't be when you read this. Unless you
check your mail like crazy. Like me.

Anyway, the midterm only took me one of the three allotted hours, so
hopefully this a good sign. I know I missed the first problem (for those
of you comp sci out there, I miscalculated the CPI of a new microprocessor
with an altered instruction set by forgetting to subtract the appropriate
frequency of instructions from the MIPS R-type set, therefore incorrectly
finding a 1:1 correlation in the old and new machines' frequencies), but
it's only worth 15 points and I think I'll probably get at least five of
those. The rest of the test was really easy, so it's possible I might even
get a 90%.

You know, I have NO idea Ouendan had a Ready Steady Go level. Dammit. Now
I need to go and play the game for the next couple of hours before I have
to give it back to Steebu. lol At least I'll have a better excuse for
playing that than I did when I got on WoW this morning to finish one quick
quest. XD
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"A hundred feet above the landing
There's a girl gliding down.
She's floating towards me now,
Her sleeves are all stretching out,
The jet is following behind.

Wake up."

MnM March 2nd, 2006

Minna no Manga meets Thursdays, 6-10pm in 11-110. It's week nine and it
feels like the sky is falling! X_x

~>Manga Checkup: Mieru Hito

So I talked about MH earlier this quarter, but I thought it was time to
give it another look. I don't get my hopes up thinking that everyone who
reads these little reviews will suddenly go out and download/buy/check out
the series I talk about. When I do hear about people checking stuff out,
you can't imagine how happy it makes me.

Anyway, back to MH. Chapter 30 just came out in Japan last week and let me
tell you, I was amazed. It is really incredible how much an artist can
improve in such a short time. The story has really gained some depth and
the characters have been fleshed out a bit more.

I still highly recommend it. Maximum7 (www.maximum7.com) has the
scanlations for ch1-10, and sources say 11 has been released as well. If
anyone wants the raws I have (ch16-20, 28-30), I'll be happy to upload
them.

~>Enter Rant:

It really is amazing how one thing can lead to another which leads to
another which leads to- well, you get the point.

When I work on Ultimate Muscle pages, I like to take short breaks between
every couple pages. So I decided to re-read Alien Dice
(www.aliendice.com). It's really a fun comic with a great cast (Rwar, Lexx
<3).Anyway, I decided to read a month's worth of comics between each page.
Hey, some of these pages take almost an hour and I can get through a
month's worth of AD in about 5min. So somehow I make it through all five
or so years worth of comics. Still feeling in the Tiffany Ross mood, I
decided to re-read one of her 7 other comics. Yeah, she's pretty dang
busy. So I start reading Akalae and re-reading Campus Safari. Now these
stories focus on anthro-characters, so I go to bed thinking about them. I
believe this lead me to have a dream about a guy who could turn into a
winged-wolf named Wolf. Odd. I go to my lab to hear my teacher drone on
and on and end up doodling Wolf in my notes. A friend saw and actually
complimented me on it, so we got to talking and I ended up deciding to put
him in future chapters of the story I'm working on for the 5pants Kicking
Board Club project. Woo.

5pkbc is, btw, the NorCal artist circle I belong to. Don't know if I've
ever mentioned it.

Yeah, sorry about the long and random story. My brain is feeling like
scrambled eggs. Too much to deal with right now. I just want to relax
tonight and watch more Heat Guy J, but I have 70 pages worth of Ultimate
Muscle corrections to go through, my gravure paper to fix up, and other
odds and ends that have piled up.

~Annaliese, ensuing@<removed>.com
"You're sitting there thinking your thoughts. They are not about what is,
but what is not. You are sitting there, breathing in your breath. You are
seldom breathing life, but mostly death." ~Commissioning A Symphony in C
by Cake

MnA: 4 Mar 2006

This week's schedule:

5:00 Fansub o' the Week
5:25 Midori no Hibi - 5: Love Strength
5:50 Break
5:55 Twelve Kingdoms - 18: Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Labyrinth - The
Fourth Chapter
6:20 Stellvia - 18: Distant Voice
6:45 Break
6:50 Inuyasha - 114: Kouga's Lonely Fight
7:15 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 18: For That Love
7:40 Dinner Break
8:10 Gad Guard - 18: The Logic of Those Who Leave
8:35 R.o.D: the TV - 18: Confession
9:00 Break
9:05 X TV - 17: Wish
9:30 Paranoia Agent - 6: Hesitation Over the Attack
Planned Afterhours: More o' the same...

[random babbling]
So, you know, I've been reading a book this week in the minutes I manage
to spare between classes and homework and internet and such. I haven't sat
down and read a good book in a long time, and I'm shocked to realize just
how badly I miss it. The book, incidentally, is "The Last Unicorn". Yes,
it's sort of a "young adult" level book. Bite me. It's totally awesome.
Beagle uses some of the most amazing written imagery I've ever come
across, and his style is such that you end up going for a ride and don't
even realize you were on one until it's time to get off. I have to re-read
some of the paragraphs he's written at times, because some of it is just
too completely awesome to only read once. I definitely recommend picking
it up if you like fantasy and enjoy reading well-written material.

Anyway, I was thinking of blabbering on about school and other fun things
like that, but I don't feel like it. So mnyeh.
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"How can you see without eyeballs?"
"How can YOU walk around without a brain? Some things no one can answer."

MnM March, 9th, 2006

Minna no Manga meets 6-10pm on Thursdays in 13-110. Last meeting of the
quarter, ladies and gentlemen!

~>Manga(kinda) o' the Week: Sorcerers and Secretaries by Amy Kim Ganter

S&S is one of Tokyopop's bajillion Original English Language series. OEL.
hahaha. OEL. It sounds silly. Anywho. Amy had won some place in Rising
Stars of Manga v3, and this is a continuation of it.

Nicole is a dreamer. When she wakes up, she rights her dreams in her dream
log, and flushes the story out during the day. School sucks, her friend is
a ditz, her work sucks... but at least she has this dream log. Her dreams
are about a character named Ellon, and his quest to retrieve the part of
his soul that was stolen from him. In the real world, Josh, a guy who
lived near her earlier, has started to flirt with her. Should Nicole go
for the guy or remain planted in her fantasy world? Will Annaliese ever
learn how to write interesting reviews? Who knows?

S&S is a wonderfully charming story. I've been a fan of Amy's work since
she was still updating her webcomic, Reman Mythology. The characters are
very realistic and they make me feel like they are people I could run into
on the way to class. I understand how Nicole feels with her love for her
characters and how important they become to her. The art is simplistic but
very well done. It's a lot of fun to look for the little details that she
puts into it...like book titles that are other Tokyopop OEL titles...

Sorcerers and Secretaries volume 1 is out. The release date for volume 2
is undetermined, but it will be the final volume.

~>Enter Rant:

Arg, it's been a busy week. Everyday this week something special is going
on, good or bad.

Monday: Jenn's birthday! WOOOOOOOO!
Tuesday: Group Speech... Booooo! Shadow Hearts 3, Howl's Moving Castle,
and Whisper of the Heart released! YAAAAAAY!
Wednesday :Project and Gravure Cylinder Engraving Paper of DOOOOOOOMMMM
due. The paper chewed my soul up. I'm so happy to get these turned in...
Thursday: ....nothing here except MnM.....
Friday: Sales and Marketing presentation... BOOOO!!! BOOOOOO!

See? Bleh week. I'm hoping that Shadow Hearts will get here soon... I've
had it preordered for over a month, and I'm really dying to get it. I
guess it is good it won't be here until after everything is due. But
still~~~~ *whimper*

Well, work calls!

~Annaliese, ensuing@<removed>.com
"Wake up the voiceless! Wake up the revolution! We are alive tonight!"

MnA: 11 Mar 2006

This week's schedule (note the movie-induced weirdness):

5:00 Midori no Hibi - 6: Shiori's Love Love Battle
5:25 Twelve Kingdoms - 19: Sea of the Wind, Shore of the Labyrinth - The
Fifth Chapter
5:50 Break
5:55 Stellvia - 19: Crybaby Hothead
6:20 Kyou Kara Maoh! - 19: Hero vs. Maou (part 1)
6:45 Break
6:50 Gad Guard - 19: A Road Companion
7:15 R.o.D: the TV - 19: Family Game
7:40 Dinner Break
8:25 Winter Quarter 2006 Movie: Appleseed
Planned Afterhours: No clue. ._.

[random babbling]
So, you know...it was my birthday on Monday. And Annaliese's birthday is
tomorrow, on Thursday. I got lots of cool stuff. I love my roommates. And
Steebu. Because Steebu, you're awesome. Thanks to Annaliese, I think I now
have more One Piece doujinshi than any other series. O_o Intriguing, that.
Anyway, it's 8am and I'm dead tired. I need to go to lab and try to do a
week's worth of four peoples' work in only six to ten hours. I feel
exhausted just thinking about it. I cannot die before Tsurugi's! Must
press on! :O
[/random babbling]

Jenn, dancing.serpent@<removed>.com
"Watashi no pantsu no naka ni hi ga arimasu. Soshite, sono hi wa anata no
tame ni moete iru yo!"