So 2016 wasn't actually that terrible for me. Though it feels like I just worked, worked and worked with very small breaks. I'm sorry I had no time and motivation for doing more art. Because I had no new content to post, I started spending less and less time here and got closer to almost leaving than ever, I'm sorry... Still, drawing is important to me and even if half-finished doodles are all I manage to do, I will continue doing them in 2017. I'd have liked to buy core memberships but I spent ALL my leftover commission money from 2015 on friends and myself and now I'm broke, hahaha...
As for FANDOMS, I've been losing interest in Magi. I was really excited when the final arc started, but the more I try to analyze the story now, the less I like it. So many letdowns and unexplored aspects. For example I think Ohtaka pretty much butchered Morgiana's character arc and ruined AliMor along with it. Arba and David are just sorry excuses for villains, I'd expected more of them. Aladdin and Alibaba are MEH and I've never liked Hakuryuu and Judal all that much. I should be happy because my favourite character, Sinbad is still a central character in all this mess, but it all could have been done better in my opinion. At this point, I've lost hope in Magi and I'm pretty sure the ending will be a clusterfuck. As for Sinbad no Bouken, things are about to get interesting, but things are always about to get interesting in SnB and in the end, it never actually gets interesting. The most relatable and interesting character to me is definitely Serendine by far. Many people hate her and say that she's an unnecessary character who's only there for drama and/or to be a potential love interest, but to me she's a good character. (I could talk about how boring Rurumu is for being too perfect, etc.) Serendine has come through a long way and will probably be forced to make difficult decisions. And she shall die. HA HA HA. Strong female characters tend to die in Magi.
Magi is the only manga series I actively follow and I haven't had time to follow too many anime series lately. The only recent anime I really liked is Yuri!!! on Ice. I'll be honest: I am no yaoi fangirl. I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to pairings and I do like a few gay ships here and there, but Yuri!!! on Ice is the first anime/manga about a canonically gay couple that truly appealed to me. I have seen/read a few BL/yaoi series before, but most of them were so bad I couldn't bring myself to complete them. However, in YoI's case, I was looking forward to every episode, there were even some I watched more than once and I was rooting for the two main characters to get together (that's a big deal for someone who ships hetero couples 95% of the time). The series is just so entertaining and the character-development is so well-done! And the opening is super catchy. Also, random thought: I think there really should be more anime with slightly older main characters or just a cast of characters of varied age. I mean I've seen lots of anime with teenage protagonists in a high school setting, but as it can be seen in YoI, having a little older main characters allows a more open world and scenarios that may not be possible with teen characters.
I finished Haikyuu!! 3rd season recently. The whole 10-ep season is one long-ass match. At the last 3 eps, I really wanted it to end. Other than me getting tired of it, it was the usual Haikyuu!! Though perhaps more predictable and less entertaining than the previous 2 seasons. I think my fav character is Tsukki after all. 8D And I got sad when I noticed Ukai's voice changed in the last 2 episodes (his seiyuu died earlier this year and it seems he wasn't able to finish the recording for Haikyuu!!).
Dropped Drifters after 6 episodes. I started watching it because I used to like Hellsing (same author) and the art style looked interesting, but I got halfway through season 1 and still couldn't give a damn about the story or the characters, so I decided to stop. I no longer have the time and energy to waste on a series I'm not interested in at all. Drifters is all just dumb yelling and mindless violence. There seems to be some kind of plot, but I've seen this "bunch of people get transported into a fantasy world" concept several times. And done better. So yeah, I don't like dropping series and haven't dropped anything in years, but I got behind on the episodes while the series was airing and I really don't feel like catching up and finishing Drifters now.
I also temporarily dropped the Vanitas no Carte manga, I'm planning to continue it in 2017, but I read the first 5 chapters a long time ago and I haven't really managed to get into it yet. I'll try again, but you know, it's not Pandora Hearts.
I'm sort of back to being a JRPG nerd??
I got myself Final Fantasy X (and X-2) on Steam for Christmas. It's my first time actually playing the game after only reading scripts, collecting pictures and videos for nearly ~15 years. FIFTEEN YEARS. I can't believe it. ;A; (Thank you dear mutual follower on twitter who shared the link about the Valve Steam sale!) Final Fantasy was my first fandom. The whole thing started back when I was still a newbie computer owner and my parents bought some software from an acquaintance's acquaintance. I guess the guy thought maybe a twelve years old girl would be interested in Final Fantasy VIII and put a bunch of trailers and teaser videos of the game on one CD. Unfortunately, he was right. I loved adventure and strategy games at that time and even though I'd never played any RPGs before, this seemed like a combination of my two favourite genres. I've always loved story-centric games too and the cinematics of FF8 were mesmerizing. So when I got internet, I started searching for the game. I found out about the series and all the games through the years. Final Fantasy VI was the first one in the series I really wanted to play and got to play thanks to the existence of SNES emulators and ROMs. Think of Undertale or other indie RPG games, the old Final Fantasy games are like those. I didn't have any game consoles besides an old NES and SNES, but I managed to find a PC version of FF7. I've never found FF8 for PC (7 and 8 were the only single-player Final Fantasy games that got released for the computer) but I got to play the PSX version with an emulator and FF9 too. I spent most of my teen years fangirling over FF games. However, Final Fantasy X came out for PlayStation 2 and there were no working PS2 emulators at the time I was looking. So no more FF games for me - I thought. I was still really excited about FFX, X-2 and XII too, I kept following the news about them and I still have so many magazine scans and videos of FFXII. When FFXIII came out, I wasn't so into games anymore. The game looked fantastic and I tried watching a playthrough on YouTube, but the story wasn't all that captivating to me; I got bored of it after watching it for a couple of hours. I still developed gay crushes on Lightning and Fang, though. Now I finally have FFX, X-2 and I also bought FFXIII on Friday because it was still cheap. I'd have really REALLY liked to buy FF12 too, but it's not on Steam. All FF games are available from 3 to 14 except for 12. Whyyyyy... aahhghgz... I had doubts about 13 working on my 8-year-old PC and it does lag a bit and I have a feeling some menus aren't visible to me, but it was worth a try, lol. I'm currently playing FFX and I'm loving it so far.
I also looked up FFXV that came out just about a month ago for the PS4 and it's just SOOO GORGEOUS. The game has this somewhat serious/dark atmosphere compared to the colourful zany worlds of some of the older games and it's almost silly that such realistic-looking characters still ride chocobos (the giant yellow birds), haha. Mmmhhmh sexy realism tho. And all that beautiful fantasy fauna you can slaughter for exp~ Since I got into such an FF mood this week, I watched Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV and the Brotherhood anime OVA episodes too. The little flashback anime episodes are really sweet and I'm still amazed by cgi technology, the movie looks fantastic. Story is ok, it's a pretty average story about corruption, betrayal, claims of power yadda yadda, but it has some twists and turns and epic action. Oh and giant monsters. And explosions. To tell the truth, the action scenes can be overwhelming, but if you're an anime or JRPG fan, then you probably know what to expect from Japanese creators when it comes to epic battle scenes. The directing makes it all the more confusing, though. I've been following the news about the game since 2006. The story was supposed to be quite different at first and I'm still confused about the female lead. Why did they replace Stella with Lunafreya? Also, I don't know why, but I find Luna's character model slightly odd in some scenes. Pretty much everyone else looks great and breathtakingly real both in the movie and the game, but there's still something doll-like about Luna. Maybe it's just me, but something irks me about her design. Ardyn intrigues me, though. He doesn't have much screentime in the movie, but he's definitely a character that stood out to me. (It's obviously the main antagonist that intrigues me, yeah. XDDD) Just look at him. There's something about his attitude that reminds me of... Xerxes Break perhaps, but in a dark/evil/menacing kind of way. I like his character design and both his English and Japanese voice actors are great too, they sound like they are having fun with the role. (I love Fujiwara-san in villain roles. He voiced Hughes in FMA and Hinahoho in Magi/SnB by the way.) Speaking of voice actors, they actually got actors like Aaron Paul, Lena Headey and Sean Bean to voice the main characters in the movie. FREAKING SEAN BEAN, that man is a walking SPOILER, Jesus Christ! XDDD Apparently, they also got Florence + The Machine to do some songs for the game and they are great. I love Florence + The Machine. TT___TT
I don't care what the haters say, this must be a hella fun game despite the glitches and linearity, I mean it has gems like this: gigglincactus.tumblr.com/post/… XDDD I'm going to watch other people play the entire game while attempting to beat FFX. Goodbye world~ I'll also try drawing fanart. I go back to work tomorrow, though.
Finally, a little personal stuff: It took forever, but I realized I probably have Asperger-syndrome. It's no big deal, it's a VERY mild form of autism and aspies have normal or even above average intelligence, they just suck at communicating with normal people. Well, I suck at communication so bad that I'm sort of relieved I may have found an answer to why I'm so different from others. There are many kinds of aspies and I'm the extremely shy, quiet type with selective mutism. I know this may be hard to believe judging from my writing (ppl sometimes seem to think I'm talkative, loud and obnoxious irl), but the ability to write and type and share my thoughts with people this way gives me WINGS! Writing frees me from all the anxiety I have when I have to talk to people in person. People with Aspergers have the most trouble interpreting non-verbal communication and emotions. And there are no such confusing things in writing.
Ok, this journal entry is long enough now. Happy New Year!
Well welcome to club. I was diagnosed with atypical aspergers when I was 15. I'm the overly sensitive/overly empathetic kind, an while my social and life skills have improved I'll probably always be a little off. Also stopping myself from talking even when my mind is yelling at me that the person obviously isn't interrested, is stil lharder than it should be. There are other little things too but overall I do fiarly well in society nowadays.
than ever, I'm sorry...
