It's been 4 months since I last wrote a journal entry, wow.
Well, I'm still pretty much dead artistically...
I started work at another place on Monday last week. The good thing is, I no longer have to do 10 hours a day, but the drawback is that it's much farther away than my previous workplace. Lots of travel. So I actually spend even more time away from home now.
I'd hoped I'd get maybe 1-2 weeks off before starting there, but in the end I didn't have a single day to relax. On the brighter side, it seems I've been getting more opportunities than before and I finally started hoping that maybe I can also become a decent adult human being who has a job and pays bills. Could it be that I can finally get my shit together by the time I turn 30??
I still don't really know how human relationships work and I have no friends, but my parents can calm down once they know I earn enough to manage on my own. Not making them worry about me feels good. X'D
I'd still like to continue drawing in my free time, but sadly, in the past few months I had to realize I'm no longer able to do commissions because of the greatly increased waiting time. I can only work on digital drawings on weekends and I have other business to take care of even then, so my total drawing time is limited from a few hours to zero per week, which is obviously not enough for me to finish a picture.
So I'd like to use that little free time I still have for catering to my obsessions and making personal art. That way I don't have to worry about not being able to complete a drawing for months. I also don't have the motivation to begin working on bigger pictures and art projects, so the best you'll probably see from me are simple sketchy works of 1-2 characters with no or very simple background.
My current job is for an unknown time, so the situation is permanent.
Anime/Manga obsessions.
No matter what, I'm still a bloody anime nerd. However, I can only manage to watch between 0-5 episodes per weekend, so I follow only ongoing series lately.
From this currently concluding winter season I am still watching:
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Ajin. Somehow I end up watching everything Polygon Pictures does and I'm not even a fan of their 3D cgi animation. They seem to have improved a lot in facial expressions since Sidonia no Kishi (thank god), but this kind of animation will not appeal to everyone. Ajin could be the little brother of Parasyte and Tokyo Ghoul, the concept is pretty darn similar. The main kid in Ajin seems to be sort of a sociopath, though. The OP/ED are really good.
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Boku dake ga Inai Machi. Another story about going back to the past to prevent someone's death. Overrated and predictable as heck? Yes. Still enjoyable to watch? Yes. To me, the best things about this series are the past scenes with the children interacting. It can be really heartwarming. The mystery is kind of easy to solve with all the obvious hints, but the anime has plenty of cliffhangers to keep viewers interested.
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Durarara!!x2 Ketsu. I should have dropped Durarara back after the old season 1 since I no longer can be bothered to get invested in this series. Story is still pretty good, characters are good, I just lost interest.
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Gintama°. What happened to the old funny Gintama? When did it get all serious and did Sorachi even kill off a character FOR REAL? Tbh I like the short funny stories more, when Gintama gets serious, it begins to feel like just another neverending battle shounen series.
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Haikyuu!! Second Season. This is the only sports anime I've watched since Free!. To me, Haikyuu!! has many resemblances to a a neverending fantasy shounen battle series (instead of 1 overdramatic battle dragged out for 5 episodes, you get 1 overdramatic volleyball match dragged out for 5 episodes). The characters are charming as ever and the humorous scenes are cute and genuinely funny, so Haikyuu!! is quite enjoyable even if you aren't a fan of volleyball, just be aware that there really is A LOT of volleyball. Beautiful OST and remarkable animation, though all the reused scenes lower the overall quality a little.
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Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu. I started watching this because I haven't seen a good josei anime since... Kuragehime, perhaps. The world needs more josei.
Anyway, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu begins in a similar way Berserk and Gungrave does. "What a bizarre comparison" - you could say, and true; the theme and world of Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu is nothing like the dark fantasy of Berserk or the mafia and zombies of Gungrave, but we do get a first episode set in the "present" and then the rest of the series is a long-ass flashback told by one character. And it's also about two guys who become BFFs despite being like water and fire. I find the characters and their interactions quite enjoyable in this series, but since it's about "rakugo" performers, we get to see lots of their performances and this takes up quite a good chunk of screentime almost every episode. Now you may either find this entertaining or you just don't like it and end up wanting to skip all these scenes. "Rakugo" is a type of traditional Japanese comedic story performance rakugokas do on a stage. This one performer acts out all conversations and also narrates the story. Our two main characters live for this art.
This series will turn you into a fujoshi. I'm no yaoi fan (I go for hetero ships ~95% of the time), but it's really hard NOT to ship the two main characters after so many dramatic scenes, fun scenes and cute interactions. The expressions and gestures are the strong points of this anime besides the characters themselves. They are like actual people with multiple layers to their personalities instead of anime archetypes and cookie cutter clichés.
Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu is definitely not for everyone. I think it's for a mature audience that can appreciate it for the long talking parts and character interaction instead of flashy action scenes or forced melodrama. You may still find it boring even if you like slice of life, but it's definitely something different and worthy for giving a try.
That's it. I think I haven't written a journal about some series from previous season yet (for example Young Black Jack), but I don't know where I put my older notes and I've already rambled enough about the currently airing series. I'd also planned to watch
Dimension W but I never got around to start it and since it's almost over now and I heard it wasn't that good, I probably won't marathon it.
I dropped
Ansatsu Kyoushitsu and
Akagami no Shirayukihime since I wasn't particularly fond of their first seasons.
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Subete ga F ni Naru: The Perfect Insider. This one is from a previous anime season, but I only got around to marathon it in January. This anime is a pretty unique experience to watch, but I thought the whole mystery aspect was dull and needlessly convoluted. The same can be said about the characters' way of thinking. Or I'm just not clever enough to get it.
But it seemed like pseudo-intellectual bullshit to me. In the end, the murder mystery seemed pointless. Without spoiling anything, I think Magata Shiki really didn't have to go through all this if she just wanted to be "free"... As a genius, she could have had so many other options. I also didn't like how the characters seemed to glorify suicide and murder (you know, like... leaving our bodies for a higher level of existence). I'm just too materialistic for this. Or not sociopathic enough.
So yeah, the characters are weird and distant in this show. It's difficult to relate to them. They have long boring conversations every episode. I think the main guy-girl duo is a little similar to Kogami and Akane from Psycho-Pass but they are lacking in pretty much everything that made that duo fun to watch.
In conclusion, The Perfect Insider is an odd mystery anime. Watch it if you like abstract phylosophical anime, otherwise avoid it.
I'm not sure what I'll watch from the spring 2016 season.
Magi: Sinbad no Bouken is the only definite one so far. Perhaps it will be shit but I will eat it up because
Sinbad.
Judging by the recent previews, it looks like they will do the early chapters that got left out of the OVAs. I'm just hoping they will leave out or shorten what had already been animated in the OVAs before because I'm not all that excited to see Baal's dungeon for the 4th time (prototype chapter then serialized manga then OVA then TV?). I'll just keep praying for animated Mystras and more of animated Serendine.
While the animation itself weren't always the smoothest in the OVAs, I must admit I really like the animation style Lay-duce is using for this, the strong/dynamic outlines and vivid colours remind me of Shingeki no Kyojin or Owari no Seraph. Also, I thought Ohtera had a bit of a trouble drawing the characters and finding a consistent style early on in the manga and little kid Sinbad (and his parents) often looked weird, but he actually looks quite adorable in this new anime...?? O___o I mean look at the pic where his dad is holding him all Lion King like:
How cute is this kid with his huge shiny eyes and chubby little arms?! And then 30 years later he becomes Satan's vessel... oh well...
Badr looks almost like a carbon copy of older Sinbad with more messy hair, though maybe Sinbad still doesn't resemble him as much as Alibaba resembles Rashid (Rashid even has the "horn").
Anyway, this series is coming on April 15 and it will be 1 cour. I really want to download it...
Can you believe
Pandora Hearts ended like a year ago??
I still adore that series, but my inner fangirl is no longer stimulated by new content, so I have no inspiration for drawing fanart. I'd like to reread the series and do some epic tribute art for it, but I'm afraid I'd never finish it.
However, I'm still crazy about Magi's Sinbad. He's the character that hits all of my favourite tropes plus he's hella fun to draw. Expect me to go insane when this Sinbad no Bouken TV series comes out. (I know. I know I'm waaay too old for this shit, but it's just so good to dive into the fandom sometimes...)
I probably won't get to write another journal entry before April, so I'm saying it now that my 10th DA anniversary is in less than a month. 8'D I was still a teen when I joined, omg. The time when my youngest watchers will be young enough to be my children is approaching...
The long weekend is over for me now. I'll try to draw a bit in the evening, but I can't promise anything. Hope you guys are well~
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Art for me
