Several times I've been asked about why I use the profile picture that I have and/or what my name refers to. The answer is multifaceted, and it's a bit more of an ordeal to answer than "I think x character is cool" or whatever the explanation is that most people have for their profile picture, so this is my longwinded essay about the why of it all.
The profile picture:
It's a drawing of an alien called Lam. It was drawn by the infamous occultist Aleister Crowley, and it was first published in 1919. According to Crowley, Lam is a Tibetan word for way or path, and it has connections to Buddhism. I don't care about that. Crowley, who was probably high out of his mind at the time, claimed to have seen this critter when he drew it.
What interests me about this image is how similar it looks to the stereotypical grey alien before that became a pop culture sensation. The only real difference being the much smaller and more human-like eyes, as opposed to the big black orbs. In fact, aliens were born out of the occult—notably through theosophy—before any normal person claimed to see one. Theosophists placed a special value upon various planets in the solar system, and many of them would claim to commune with aliens. Quite a number of these fake totally real encounters had the subject referring to the "alien" as an "aryan" or some other very human-like description. There were some more "exotic" alien descriptions that didn't resemble humans too much in some cases.
Anyway, the "sightings," eventually would solidify into the grey aliens we so often hear about today. If you dig into commentary from alien fanatics online, you can find speculation about other alien races, and alleged sightings do vary to some degree, though. What fascinated me about Lam is that it constitutes a kind of "missing link" between the "aryan" aliens and the grey aliens. My interest in alien/UFO history is part of why I chose to use this image.
My name:
Gsarthotegga is pronounced as sar | thought | tay | ga, I guess—whatever, who cares? The name comes from the author Clark Ashton Smith, who was part of Lovecraft's circle of friends, and while he penned many poems and also would draw and paint, he was mostly know for sci-fi, fantasy, and horror short stories that he submitted to pulp magazines. Gsarthotegga is also known as Vulthoom (please, ignore the garbage artwork on this page). The story Vulthoom can be read here. Vulthoom is presented as a deity or god, but it's also very clearly a space alien.
The name and profile picture in unison:
Okay, if you've looked at many profile pictures on here, then I don't need to tell you that most of them are of high school girls from anime. Then you have a few people who have black and white pictures of Stalin or whatever...
I have controversial views on anime (and everything else, to be honest) that often clash with other MALists, and I don't ever try to tone these opposing views down or carefully choose shows where I'll have a positive reaction. Don't care, and I gladly invite these Animefan Crybaby responses I so often receive. I've embraced that "alienation" by choosing an image and name that both correspond to fictitious aliens. I wanted a long, unwieldy, even enigmatic name. One that users might not remember or will be left to wonder about the origin of, but it stands out like a sore thumb when they see it. The picture synergizes with the name well, while also being kind of creepy and funny at the same time. It's also very memorable on a website that has a predictable pattern when it comes to profile pictures.
Perhaps it's counter-productive to choose a profile picture and name that was partially intended to mystify, but then to demystify the pair by explaining away everything, yet most people won't read this in the first place, and now I'll have something to point to when asked, instead of having to type up an answer every time.
Scores and what peons on MAL think about art doesn't matter. Like, get this, because it's pretty important: It's the art that matters. Is that revolutionary enough for you? Remember, it's not an IQ test to score your anime, retard. Before you dissect a frog, you should know what you're actually doing, and the same goes for passing judgment on my favorite anime.
Let this broken vase sink in. It's just a broken vase, you say? That light contorting and refracting has a certain awe to it that you can't experience otherwise, but you probably didn't realize that. Well, I did. Think of the symbology and how it's, like, conceptual, man. Makes me feel like Epicurus or something just thinking about it. This vase looks more beautiful than an intact one that you'd purchase at Walmart. Just like how men need to man up and learn to appreciate used-up old women, you need to accept this broken vase into your heart to understand it. I'm an aesthete, seeing beyond the surface, while you're like, "shit's broken," sweeping it into a dustpan! You might have thrown away a million dollars if the CIA could have gotten ahold of it for money laundering. You have no vision, stuffing everything into pigeonholes and whatever other holes that might strike your fancy. Who are you to baselessly dismiss this art? You got up in the vase's feng shui and tried to make it yours, insisting upon yourself because of your presuppositions, missing the point of expression altogether. Worst of all, you attempt to dismiss rather than to understand. That's right: You're a dismisser; whereas I'm an understander.
Oh, yeah, and just in case you're not enlightened enough to get it because you haven't taken as many yoga classes at the local mall as me, I also rate anime, and my ratings are explained below, so check them out.
What's that? I don't even have a ratings section on here, you say? Why should I have to prove anything to you when we live in an incredible world where Congo the Chimpanzee was making better art than you?
Wow, look at this wonderful painting! Abstract expressionism is serious business and not monkeying around at all!
In case you're too plebeian to understand the deep meaning of this painting, then remember, repeat, and all will be clear: Everything around the image is part of its meaning. Its uniqueness is part of the uniqueness of the single place where it is. Everything around it confirms and consolidates its meaning.
I think there is a resurgence of anti-elitism because at this point in time MAL has not yet learned how to be elitist. And I think we are going to be part of the throes of that transformation, which must take place. MAL is not going to be the tourist trap it once was in the last decade. Elitists are going to be at the center of that. It’s a huge transformation for MAL to make. They are now going into an anti-elitist mode and elitists will be resented because of our leading role. But without that leading role and without that transformation, MAL will not survive.
My man ThatAnimeSnob 2.0, also known by the totally ironic moniker rorikonfan, giving a dope-ass take on Usagi Drop, his words flowing like a cakewalk with sprinkles and sugar on a rainbow slide!:
Before I twirl into the whimsical whirlpool of thoughts, let’s sprinkle some glitter on the fact that I’m indifferent to slice of life serenades. They’re like marshmallows on a gloomy day—fluffy but not filling. Moeblobs, however, frolic miles ahead in the absurdity race. So here I am, plopping down to watch this anime because it pirouetted into the top ten on every cosmic billboard within weeks. I pondered, "How in the cotton candy clouds did this happen? It’s just another stroll through mundane-ville!"
Peeking at the plot reveals a sprinkle of nothingness. A dude unearths that his grandpa played the parent role late in the game and decides to nurture the sprout after the old sage hops off this merry-go-round. So, what’s all the chitter-chatter about? Whispers suggest it’s got a weird twist at the manga’s climax (not spilling the jelly beans—spoiler alert!), or perhaps it blooms feelings like a garden of emotions. But honestly, the storyline feels as thin as a crepe, characters are cookie-cutter cutouts, and the ending flutters away like a butterfly into the void, so my eyes aren’t glued to a masterpiece through an objective kaleidoscope.
Yet, I must admit, the presentation dances on a tightrope of finesse. It captures the essence of the ordinary with a sprinkle of magic stardust. I remember a whimsy-tastic anime from ages ago called Chocotto Sister—where ludicrousness reigned supreme! With everything from snuggly lolicons to Santa handing out nudie gift wrap to unsuspecting teens; it had a slice of life vibe but quickly tumbled into silliness, wrapped in a lame production bow that faded into forgetfulness.
Usagi Drop prances through a dreamy garden of subtly woven artsy whimsy. The visuals leap like pastel kittens, each character a dancing firefly that beckons eyes to twirl. The voice acting hums just right, never sailing over the top into the land of drama llamas. Each character behaves with a sprinkle of sense; no hopping teens with angst grenades in sight here! The hero juggles work like a circus clown, while a wistful girl seeks her treasure map to joy. This slice of life, so rare among the anime trees, sparkles like a unicorn at tea time. Most shows skedaddle past the ordinary, gift characters with sparkle coins, and toss them into school sagas that turn into accidental nudity rodeos. And remember how ‘grown-up’ parenting traipsed around in Astarotte no Omocha?
Usagi Drop sidesteps that and serves a delectable dish of realism, pouring out the bittersweet recipe of caring for a dreamy child in a world of grown-up grumbles. It reveals the sacrifices, spun with threads of sadness, and let's not kid ourselves—it can be tough for realism-dodgers, who make up around 99.98% of the whimsical media land. Heck, I juggle with realism too! Yet enchanting as it dances, this show is grounded more than any other I've snuggled with in parenthood tales. Many swear by the second season of Clannad, calling it realistic, yet its finale shouts fairy tale escape—a wishful mirage! Then there's Kurenai, where a young lad spins tales of tending to a gloomy girl, sprinkled with action sprinkles, swirling dementia, and even love’s taboo dance. Was it grander than Usagi Drop because of these? Nope, not at all!
Now hold your spaghetti horses, I’m not making a grand statue of realism here! Sure, the storytelling has its wobbly jellybeans. Like, poof! Daikichi scoops up Rin like a magician conjuring a goldfish! Home sweet home—bam! And she waltzes into kindergarten without a single treasure map or riddle in sight. The whole ‘adoption’ jazz? A cakewalk on a rainbow slide!
Nay, it’s not the tale twists or the plotty potpourri that tickle your noodle but rather the oodles of feels it flings at you! Sure, any silly fanfare/fadish/sparkly moe concoction can attempt this jig, yet none succeed by prancing in normality. Oh, they just bluster in supernova levels, splattering sex, kabooms, doom, and debauchery, then strut about claiming 'maturity' while tickling skepticism too raw! Characters? Pure vanilla, bare of quirky sprinkles, frizzy beehives, or attire obsessions. They play their roles like pros, needing no zesty garnishes! That’s my jam with this show; it dances with simplicity and realism without snoring off, even if you’re not vibing with the genre. And this comes from one who paloozed with titanic yarns like Aria, Wandering Son, and Yokohama Shopping Diary and found them snooze-fests extraordinaire!
Is it a show of whimsical wonder? Indeed, it dances in the realm of the unusual, and I sparkle with delight in saying this! In a sea of anime sameness, Usagi Drop leaps forth like a hopping unicorn, casting the glow of authentic life instead of a feeble 'adult' tale. Yet, one must twirl in doubt—would it jiggle its fame without 'that peculiar event' at the manga's finish (which the anime decided to play hide-and-seek with)?
Those lumps aren't gonna make themselves, Pudding!
I will get to P-P2 at some point but too much on my plate atm. I basically watch everything that is also not anime related lol.
I also enjoy some low rated anime.
Nah I just want you see how much of an info dumb mess BBE was lol
I just watched Lazarus episode 1 and holy shit, that was terrible. The parkour crap was ridiculous, the prison wasnt locked down or went on high alert, all the police/prison officers were armed and didnt fire a single shot/taken out very easily, we didnt even see how he escaped the prison itself and the police officer interaction on the street was so stupid that I was in disbelief. Furthermore, if the authorities knew that Axel always escape prisons then why wasnt he properly guarded lol
The best part about all of this is that he could've simply accepted the offer and walked out free instead of doing all of that crap. I guess every year we will always get that Cowboy Bepop clone or wanna be.
Btw did you see that Lazarus not recommended review? First of all Im not sure what kinda review is that and secondly this guy apparently thinks that the writer/creator of Cowboy Bepop is the same as Lazarus lol
Yeah I know it's from Ryukishi himself but it's not the same Ryukishi as the one 20 years ago. He can continue series he already established quite well (Umineko, Higurashi etc) but his new works are hit or miss. And of course his pacing is as fast as Ciconia release dates. Also seen the trailer and yee flower imagery is neat. But I don't really like overly realistic games because most of them just look uncanny.
Really? It's like the first thing it reminds me of when I look at it. Only on close-up it starts looking different. Lost interest in modern Silent Hill after Silent Hill 2 remake was "modernised". More like moth head with folded wings. Even tho moths don't really look that similiar to that
Gsar, please watch episode 41 of Ninku, it's the one with the puppet scene you liked! But more interesting than that for me is they got the art style director for episode 10 of The Hakkenden lol (the one in which Shinya Ohira worked on with the characters looking oddly realistic). It's so funny everyone looks stylized but Fuusuke looks the same as the regular series because he's already a stylized character XD. The episode is also beautifully directed and is another filler standalone story you can understand without watching the rest of the show, and of course it's in YT
Supposedly they improved the combat system so blocking is more like a parry Dark Souls style than just holding the sword up all the time. The cool thing is that with the remaster my irl friend who recommended the game in the first place will play the Shivering Isles DLC and then I can show him Bethesda can write good stories but chooses to make them dumb XD
Last Temptation is the only one worth watching from all the Christ movies. Not even Nicholas Ray made a compelling one imo and that one was an epic
Oh or maybe they were green and white in the 80s (the time the game is set in), I'm not sure. I wonder how the temperature is in those things, especially with how cold the desert is at night. Oh another thing that was interesting to me playing San Andreas is I never paid attention to how steep the roads in San Francisco are when I watched the city in video, the slower cars had a lot of trouble going up the streets, you must have to shift to fourth gear just to go up those in real life lol
I had the Metal Max games for SNES and Nintendo DS but didn't know the series had a PS2 entry lol. Post apocalyptic travel game sounds like Megami Tensei II for the NES XD
Nono keep telling me about Lazarus. The Skinner part was something that might have been a fun curious plus to the work (like Spice and Wolf tackling economics lol). You mean the real life people of the forums saying he did nothing wrong or characters inside the anime?
I did a lot of things this week given it's easter and had just two days of college apart from work.
I finished Oblivion (took me 4 months) and they conveniently leaked a remaster just some days ago XD. The DLC Shivering Isles is nicely compact and has a really good anti villain, if you don't mind spoilers, he's a demon lord which was once so strong and violent he was cursed with a split personality. The personality that's dominating most of the time is the one who was opposite to him, a guy who's crazy and who built his own bizarre kingdom that's divided into a realm of excesses called Mania and a realm of depression and paranoia called Dementia. The problem is this alternate personality calls the player character to see if they can stop his real violent self from taking over and destroy the kingdom he loves so much, which happens once every thousand years. The game also implies he is very worried about the philosophy of determinism and wants to keep himself from turning into a destructive mess so he would need to build everything from scratch, because he had destroyed a Borges-esque library in which his real self held the calculations of how destiny is supposed to play out. It's like Bethesda did a turn around and instead of the dumb quirky writing of their quests made a Dark Souls villain before Dark Souls was even a thing XD
Something that may interest you about GTA Vice City and San Andreas because you want slaves on Stardew Valley lol: you can at one point of the games start to buy some properties and do some missions to help the employees. After beating these, the properties start to generate revenue and when going around the city you can go pick them up. In Vice City (based in Miami) it's mostly a power fantasy to make you feel like a Tony Montana esque gangster (by the way I didn't know police cars in Florida were green and white).
In San Andreas (based in the state of California) the feeling is more interesting and tense because the mechanic appears after you reach the third city and your character was already betrayed by childhood friends and forced to escape with his sister and his sister's boyfriend to make money and get his brother out of jail. I'm really liking San Andreas by the way, it does feel a bit overlong at times with some filler missions but I love its adventurous scope and road movie feel in a real world after the first fourth of the game (how many games are like that apart from the Earthbound esque RPGs?). If there were lawnmowers in it I wouldn't mind stealing one and go through the countryside listening to country music The Straight Story style XD. By the way, do these kind of hotels really exist over there in the US? They looked really funny
Lastly I started playing Half Life 2. Apart from the kind of cheesy section where you are in the town with the headcrab zombie people and the crazy priest and how often Gordon meets other people (since the claustrophobia of the first title helped with the atmosphere) I'm liking it more than the first game. Again it helps you are not looking at pipes for most of the time and that the new engine allows for cool setpieces like the airboat escape.
In terms of movies, because of easter I watched Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Just torture porn really. I love how just with controversial topics in dialogue in The Last Temptation of Christ and that Evangelion esque final sequence Scorsese managed to get banned in more countries than Gibson with his movie showing a guy whipping Jesus so hard his ribs get exposed 🤮. Seems Christians prefer gore over Jesus debating introspectively to himself in depht if there's good reason to go through with God's plan
lol that anime is highly amusing, like the butler isnt even on the crime scene and solving murders wtf lmaoo
____________
In terms of TBHX
I think the shift in animation only works for certain shows but here it seems like all three studios are actively taking part in each episode, not as a group but rather separately. And to be honest the 3d and 2d styles are fine on their own but not together in my opinion.
I watched piece of To be Hero but dropped it because it was mostly cringe comedy and I wasn't interested in To be Heroine. To be Hero X is a bit more watchable but the story is definitely all over the place. And I know that they're probably not going to clear up certain story elements or even expand much on the lore. For now I will leave the score null but I'm definitely leaning closer to the left side of the scale lol.
The anthology aspect is the seasons themselves and not the episodes in the seasons themselves. But I mean eventually we might see an old character pop up here and there since its the same universe.
All Comments (5517) Comments
I also enjoy some low rated anime.
Nah I just want you see how much of an info dumb mess BBE was lol
I just watched Lazarus episode 1 and holy shit, that was terrible. The parkour crap was ridiculous, the prison wasnt locked down or went on high alert, all the police/prison officers were armed and didnt fire a single shot/taken out very easily, we didnt even see how he escaped the prison itself and the police officer interaction on the street was so stupid that I was in disbelief. Furthermore, if the authorities knew that Axel always escape prisons then why wasnt he properly guarded lol
The best part about all of this is that he could've simply accepted the offer and walked out free instead of doing all of that crap. I guess every year we will always get that Cowboy Bepop clone or wanna be.
Btw did you see that Lazarus not recommended review? First of all Im not sure what kinda review is that and secondly this guy apparently thinks that the writer/creator of Cowboy Bepop is the same as Lazarus lol
It's a major what the fuck is going on? But in every episode kek
The explanations are there but at the same time, the explanations aren't there lol.
Yeah I know it's from Ryukishi himself but it's not the same Ryukishi as the one 20 years ago. He can continue series he already established quite well (Umineko, Higurashi etc) but his new works are hit or miss. And of course his pacing is as fast as Ciconia release dates. Also seen the trailer and yee flower imagery is neat. But I don't really like overly realistic games because most of them just look uncanny.
Anyway if good might play.
Supposedly they improved the combat system so blocking is more like a parry Dark Souls style than just holding the sword up all the time. The cool thing is that with the remaster my irl friend who recommended the game in the first place will play the Shivering Isles DLC and then I can show him Bethesda can write good stories but chooses to make them dumb XD
Last Temptation is the only one worth watching from all the Christ movies. Not even Nicholas Ray made a compelling one imo and that one was an epic
Oh or maybe they were green and white in the 80s (the time the game is set in), I'm not sure. I wonder how the temperature is in those things, especially with how cold the desert is at night. Oh another thing that was interesting to me playing San Andreas is I never paid attention to how steep the roads in San Francisco are when I watched the city in video, the slower cars had a lot of trouble going up the streets, you must have to shift to fourth gear just to go up those in real life lol
I had the Metal Max games for SNES and Nintendo DS but didn't know the series had a PS2 entry lol. Post apocalyptic travel game sounds like Megami Tensei II for the NES XD
I did a lot of things this week given it's easter and had just two days of college apart from work.
I finished Oblivion (took me 4 months) and they conveniently leaked a remaster just some days ago XD. The DLC Shivering Isles is nicely compact and has a really good anti villain, if you don't mind spoilers, he's a demon lord which was once so strong and violent he was cursed with a split personality. The personality that's dominating most of the time is the one who was opposite to him, a guy who's crazy and who built his own bizarre kingdom that's divided into a realm of excesses called Mania and a realm of depression and paranoia called Dementia. The problem is this alternate personality calls the player character to see if they can stop his real violent self from taking over and destroy the kingdom he loves so much, which happens once every thousand years. The game also implies he is very worried about the philosophy of determinism and wants to keep himself from turning into a destructive mess so he would need to build everything from scratch, because he had destroyed a Borges-esque library in which his real self held the calculations of how destiny is supposed to play out. It's like Bethesda did a turn around and instead of the dumb quirky writing of their quests made a Dark Souls villain before Dark Souls was even a thing XD
Something that may interest you about GTA Vice City and San Andreas because you want slaves on Stardew Valley lol: you can at one point of the games start to buy some properties and do some missions to help the employees. After beating these, the properties start to generate revenue and when going around the city you can go pick them up. In Vice City (based in Miami) it's mostly a power fantasy to make you feel like a Tony Montana esque gangster (by the way I didn't know police cars in Florida were green and white).
In San Andreas (based in the state of California) the feeling is more interesting and tense because the mechanic appears after you reach the third city and your character was already betrayed by childhood friends and forced to escape with his sister and his sister's boyfriend to make money and get his brother out of jail. I'm really liking San Andreas by the way, it does feel a bit overlong at times with some filler missions but I love its adventurous scope and road movie feel in a real world after the first fourth of the game (how many games are like that apart from the Earthbound esque RPGs?). If there were lawnmowers in it I wouldn't mind stealing one and go through the countryside listening to country music The Straight Story style XD. By the way, do these kind of hotels really exist over there in the US? They looked really funny
Lastly I started playing Half Life 2. Apart from the kind of cheesy section where you are in the town with the headcrab zombie people and the crazy priest and how often Gordon meets other people (since the claustrophobia of the first title helped with the atmosphere) I'm liking it more than the first game. Again it helps you are not looking at pipes for most of the time and that the new engine allows for cool setpieces like the airboat escape.
In terms of movies, because of easter I watched Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. Just torture porn really. I love how just with controversial topics in dialogue in The Last Temptation of Christ and that Evangelion esque final sequence Scorsese managed to get banned in more countries than Gibson with his movie showing a guy whipping Jesus so hard his ribs get exposed 🤮. Seems Christians prefer gore over Jesus debating introspectively to himself in depht if there's good reason to go through with God's plan
Yea Bye Bye Earth was terrible.
Oh wow he also created Moonrise.
That anime is on my list to watch as well.
Yea the transitioning is all over the place for sure lol
Which link? Nobunaga or Bye Bye Earth.?
____________
In terms of TBHX
I think the shift in animation only works for certain shows but here it seems like all three studios are actively taking part in each episode, not as a group but rather separately. And to be honest the 3d and 2d styles are fine on their own but not together in my opinion.
I watched piece of To be Hero but dropped it because it was mostly cringe comedy and I wasn't interested in To be Heroine. To be Hero X is a bit more watchable but the story is definitely all over the place. And I know that they're probably not going to clear up certain story elements or even expand much on the lore. For now I will leave the score null but I'm definitely leaning closer to the left side of the scale lol.
This does give me The Boys vibes if it was a comedy with no blood/gore/nudity etc and then it also reminded me of https://myanimelist.net/anime/24135/Nobunaga_Concerto?q=nobunaga%20concerto&cat=anime , the Nobunaga from the "future" traded places with his past version kek
The anthology aspect is the seasons themselves and not the episodes in the seasons themselves. But I mean eventually we might see an old character pop up here and there since its the same universe.
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btw you ever going to watch this? https://myanimelist.net/anime/53626/Bye_Bye_Earth