Incredible Nothing!

Let me start off this post by saying my current internet connection sucks shit, and as such I’ve not watched much of anything over the weekend except the by now infamous Antique Bakery rain scene (lolz). Oh and the new season of Project Runway, not that has anything to do with anime but this certainly does. I’d be more frustrated over the fact if not for my horrendously large pile of manga I’ve been hoarding recently (Bought an 18 volume set of a series yesterday because I’ve only watched one episode of the anime and pretty much liked it it was second hand and only cost 50yen a volume!) despite the loooonnnggggg time it takes for me to decipher moonrunes.

Back to the point, recently (last Saturday. That might also explain the lack of anime I’ve been watching) I’ve started reading the Animal Yokocho manga which is wickedly awesome on so many levels it’ll take a whole other blog post for me to recommend it. So instead, this post will recount A HORRIBLE SECRET BEHIND ISSA AS ADMITTED BY THE MANGAKA IN ONE OF HER NOTES I WISH I NEVER READ.

(Yea, yea, the usual filler post in between what I usually blog. Oh wait, what do I usually blog besides filler posts?)

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A show you should definitely watch, that’s what!

(edit: this post has nothing to do with ep 101 of Animal Yokocho btw)

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So it’s been 2 months into this anime blogging foray of mine. Whoopee. I’m only a day away from boarding a plane for Osaka, and in between being nervous as hell about it and finalizing packing, I’m still GIVING IT ALL I’VE GOT trying to catch up with the Winter Season finales before Spring comes in full force. Unfortunately, that hasn’t amount to much when I’m still waiting for subs and being a naturally slow watcher, so this isn’t the Final Winter Season Impression post I thought of doing before I leave. Instead, I thought I’d just share what I’ve learnt about myself as an anime blogger over the past two months.

And in a rather shoddy attempt to make this look more like an organized post than a spur of the moment one, I’ve decided to number them. Oh, what do you know, it’s now a Top 10 post! Well, in no particular order:

1) I take too much time on posts. Some of these take actual hours to do and it’s often I actually spend more time here than actually watching anything in a day. Even something like this will probably take me a good hour. Or three. *sigh* I’ll probably have to adopt a less is more stance later when things like studies come back into play.

2) Ever constructed a decently intelligent post in your head only to have it completely wiped out of your memory once you sit down and start staring at a ‘Create New Post’ screen? This is actually an everyday affair for me, and most of the hours spent on ‘blogging’ that I take is mostly used up trying to pick up the fragments of ideas “I could’ve sworn I had a minute ago…”. The end result? Half baked ideas being presented in a half baked fashion for the critical masses to see. Or ignore. Thankfully there are commenters who fill in the blanks where my one-sided rants often fail to touch upon.

2.5) Note to self: Start scribbling thought on paper

3) Wait a minute, this blog’s actually has readers and the occasional comment now??? *pinches self* A Big Thanks goes to AnimeNano (and again hung for listing Tondemo Nothing on the site) for this (I’m guessing I’m not the only one who doesn’t actually subscribe to specific blogs and just read posts from any blog that has an eye-catching enough title :P)! Oh, and also to the random people who Google for random things like ‘manly Japanese‘ (trying not to think what the actual context is) who end up here as well. Well, I suppose I should also apologize to this blog’s irrelevance to most of those searches. It happens =P

4) There are times I let my somewhat pessimistic outlook on life affect my blogging. Trying to be funny in posts (and failing) doesn’t quite make up for that.

5) I need to be reeducated on the proper use of emoticons and memes. ORZ (Assuming there’s a ‘proper’ way? :P)

6) I have a tendency to reference too many other anime and seiyuu in posts, especially when I run dry on content. Wish I could be as ’subtle’ about it as that SHAFT show with Nonaka Ai or that one with the butler that’s getting another season…

7) I seem to reference other blogs a whole lot too. Not as much as Author of course.

Not only am I slow to the point that I may conveniently ‘lose track’ of what I’m watching at times, the same happens with what I blog about. Oh and btw, Haruhi won March Madness on Derailed by Darry after all. Surprised?

9) I fail at episodic blogging. Takes too much time for me anyways.

10) Finally, I can’t believe I’ve not done a single actual post on Animal Yokocho itself!!! For a start, I’ll just lead you to hung’s post and this one from Yuribou. And Matthew seems to be far far ahead than where the subs have stalled early last year… (Animal Yokocho concluded in what? 2004/5 ?)

In conclusion, I’m obviously still at a learning stage (and will likely be stunted at this stage for as long as I continue doing this) when it comes to blogging and there’s certainly much to copy learn from other more established anime bloggers out there, blah blah blah. I seriously doubt I’ll ever be as witty or funny or intelligent or scathing or bitchy (in a fun way :P) or influential as some of them are, nor will I ever be involved in dorama like the whole ABC fiasco (god forbid anyways). But you know what, it really doesn’t matter as long as there’s fun to be had on this side of the trapdoor, and as long as I’m still watching anime and reading people’s views on them, I might as well be tossing in my two cent’s worth.

Awesome, Tondemo Nothing! has made it into Anime Nano! Thanks hung! For those who’re new here, welcome, issa-sa here (that’s ‘me’ in the pic, first from the right, for those not acquainted to Animal Yokocho). Don’t expect me to be always ‘overly innocent’ and the ’soft spoken panda’ as the MAL synopsis describes Issa - I’ll try, but no promises here =P

Expect to see more anime-inspired rants to come (yea, yea, I know, real goundbreaking stuff here…) which will likely be frequently punctuated by references to a certain favourite ‘kiddy show’ of mine - and if I succeed in inducing a reader to actually watch AniYoko, then I’ll consider it a job well done on my part ^^ I would also casually mention too that it would be great if a.f.k. (or anyone with the skills) continue subbing the sadly neglected show, but it looks like they already have their hands full this season with Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (which must be a really challenging project if the currently available episodes are anything to go by), so I’ll keep my patience for now…

Ever wondered what Animal Yokocho (Animal Alley) really looks like behind that trapdoor? Unfortunately I have no idea whether or not this is revealed later in the series since I’ve no means of watching it thus far

Well, whatever it is, there’s a good chance these guys here were the ones responsible in constructing/deconstructing/reconstructing the place (And you wonder why in Animal Yokocho Iyo, Issa, and Kenta spend so much time in Ami’s room? Besides to torment the girl, of course). Zenryoku Usagi (Give It All Rabbits), this season’s offer to the kiddies (and the kiddy-at-heart-otakus *ahem*) is a show about bunnies GIVING IT ALL THEY’VE GOT in construction work. And GIVE IT ALL THEY’VE GOT is what they do, be it their morning dance/warm-up routine, the construction work - or the inevitable deconstruction and reconstruction that follow.

They’re even asked to GIVE IT ALL THEY’VE GOT when they’re pissed at one another and have to bust each other up on the site! This being a kid’s show after all, they naturally have to make up afterwards WITH ALL THEY’VE GOT as well.

Our main bunny is the spunky but fragile Minarai, who doesn’t leave for the worksite without his trusty pen marker-ed eyebrows (LOL!). He tries to GIVE IT ALL HE’S GOT on the worksite, but most of the tasks prove too difficult for him, so he usually ends up emitting moe-waves when he’s distressed(double LOL).
The other bunnies on site include the old geezer bunny who’s constantly telling everyone to (you guessed it) “GIVE IT ALL YOU’VE GOT“, the foreman who’s tough on the outside but a mommy’s boy at heart, the tough-girl bunny, the lovesick nee-san bunny (voiced by Mitsuishi Kotono, which makes her the Misato bunny =P) and the Kouki Miyata megane bunny (which concludes today’s ’spot’ the seiyuu game). They’re all in the first pic of the post and should be easily recognized, otherwise you can read usagijen’s post =P.

There’s also this guy here who may or may not be an actual bunny considering that he(?) has jet propulsion and the ability to multiply itself at will. It’ll be awesome too he shoots beams out of his ears as well =P
So yea, Zenryoku Usagi may not be on the typical healthy 18 going on 19 year old’s viewing diet… At a glance the show’s ‘kiddiness’ is probably on par with Animal Yokocho, and it also begs the question of whether or not kids in Japan actually watch series like these considering the jokes are probably a tier higher than you’re average episode of Doraemon/Shin-chan (Would they actually follow Misato bunny’s cement mixing love rant this episode? ‘Twas pretty WTF). But I’m obviously a fan of all things zany and at least a little off the beaten track, so what the heck =P

Zenryoku Usagi may lack the awesome punnage and unpredictability level of Animal Yokocho, but it’s still a bundle of good ‘clean’ fun, and I just can’t help thinking that every one of the Give It All Bunnies has a part of their bunny cousin Iyo from Animal Lane in them. XD (Though on second thought this show reminds me more of Sweet Valerian than AniYoko… yet another reference that will probably earn me very strange looks =P). And what with my relatively light watchlist right now, the only thing stopping me from following this show is my combined noob-ness in listening to raw Japanese and reading Chinese subtitles! No worries, so long as they don’t pull out any fancy puns, I’ll just have to…

GIVE IT ALL I’VE GOT for now (=P *dodges smelly fruit*)

So I’ve decided to start blogging again. *yay me* *snorts*

First on the agenda - deleting ALL my old, worthless, sucky, badly-written, self-indulgent, self-contradictory, vomit-inducing, unreadable posts. No, seriously, they were THAT bad.

Well, maybe I’m just being exaggeratedly self-critical…

Nope, bad blogging is bad blogging. At any rate, no one shall ever be able to judge anymore since they’re ALL GONE FOR GOOD. Just a simple matter of deleting the old blog and recreating it from scratch (an accomplishment of a few seconds).

Why not just create a new blog and leave the old one as a testament to what blogging should not be?

Quite simply, I just wasn’t ready to part with tondemo-nothing.blogspot.com =P I simply love both the idiocy and aptness of the name and how it references Animal Yokocho - an anime I still adore till now despite not seeing a subbed episode in ages.

So right now, I think it’s about time I address the main point of this post and blog - yeap, you guessed it :

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

(…in particular anyways)

Basically, I really don’t know what I’m gonna do with this place. Maybe a small reflection of the empty shell that is my life, or an occasional anime review or two… Or maybe run a long-running petition for a.f.k. fansubs (or anyone for that matter) to continue subbing Animal Yokocho!

Guesses are, you’ll be seeing more of the latter two. One of those two anyways, heh.

Signing off for now.

P.S. Don’t bother asking me what ‘NANCHAKOFU’ means.