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Love your videos. Hoping for more!

Happy Valentines Day! ♥

No school for me though! I'm working, which is also killing my response times. I'll share tomorrow hopefully. ;_;

Hey! It's been a while. My internship went really well. I worked at a startup software company, so it was really small and unorganized - I guess. There were like nine full time staff and four interns, including myself. I worked as a programmer/analyst for them and, because of how short staffed, I got a lot of immediate hands on work that I probably wouldn't have gotten at other placements. Apart from that, a lot of stuff I did ended up with clients and I had to present to people like Hockey Canada, so that was a good experience. I met some really cool people at work too, so we're going to hangout together at school. I plan to take Japanese with one of them probably, though I've used all my electives, so I can only sit in the class. I'd definitely recommend a work study program like I'm doing, if you get to that point in university or college, by the way.

Oh cool. I used to work as a camp counselor and a bunch of my friends at the pool of the camp. Yeah, getting an internship or a job is a little daunting sometimes. It takes a lot of persistence honestly. LOL. Online shopping is the worst. It's too easy to click and pay. T_T

Outside of anime and games, I play sports (soccer mostly now, but I used to play basketball and a bunch of others in HS), coach sports (soccer), and draw and paint a bit. Well, I should say I'm learning to draw and paint. Some of my drawings are in my about me on MAL I think actually.

Yeah. I wouldn't let the stressful part get to you, since it's a new place after all. I'm honestly not too sure as to how different they are, as I visit Hong Kong like annually or every few years and I've only been to Shanghai twice in my life. Two weeks is plenty of time for any single city, I think.

LOL. I don't think many people know how much I watch, read, or collect (figures). I do a lot of other like outgoing things and have an outwardly social personality, so most people don't assume these things. I think anyone that realizes how big of a weeb I've become will be shocked too, since I've only watched and stuff for a year and a half at most. LOL. Some like 100 days of anime almost now. Oh god.

I actually basically stopped playing new games. I used to play a diversity of games when I was younger, from Zelda to Smash to Nightfire, but as I got older I basically stuck to sports games and FPS. When I got into HS, I basically played FIFA, Halo 3, and COD only. Since then, it has thinned to just FIFA really. Halo 2/3 are my favourites. Halo 3 is my favourite though since I was older when I played it, so I got more into it and was a little too good at it. T_T

Yeah. I will get around to GiTS eventually. As for Mahouka, I don't think it is really bad. It is more 'bad' in an entertaining way. The guy was so overpowered and the story so inane that it was easy to just sit, stare at it, and laugh. I enjoyed it to some degree too, but nonetheless it was 'bad' for me. That video is gold (http://specials.deremoe.com/mahoukaoc/).

Yeah. Rainbow is amazing. I love it so much. Let me know when you finish Aria. It really picks up by the second season and I'd love to talk to you about it. :3

LOL. Kono hentai. Yahari is great, I've really enjoyed it. I don't blame you, just keep watching at your own pace. I find that, if you're busy, it's hard to watch the airing shows. Thank you! I think that and my Natural review were my favourites, with Natural's being more personal and Chihayafuru's being more objective. I haven't had much motivation to write (and find it hard to reply to a lot of comments on here) these days too. =(

How was PAX?

This summer was mostly spent working, so at my internship or coaching soccer. Those two dictated that my average night was spent out of the house until 8/9 PM, exhausting me and robbing me of much time to do anything else. Don't get me wrong though, as I love coaching and the internship was a great experience. Otherwise, in my pockets of free time, I drew a little, played sports, and went out with friends. Nothing too eventfully really, as it was mostly down time. I watched a lot of good anime too, but that's for another day.

Hope all is well! I'm back at school now, so I assume you are too. Hope your first weeks have gone smoothly!

[center]Thank you! Hope you're having a nice weekend! <3

Hiya. Apologies for disappearing. My time has been eaten up by work and family illness, so I haven't really been on top of replies. Work has been going well otherwise and my summer has been extremely busy, but I don't know if you want to hear about my internship so I'll skip over it. LOL

How've you been anyways?

That sounds great. I'm totally jealous. I plan to go after I graduate from university, so I still have a bit of a wait. About those anime, I think they're generally pretty popular here even. My coworker plays KanColle at the office. LOL

I'm not what to say honestly. I go almost every odd year, so it feels so natural and almost like home. I really like Hong Kong, but I find it overwhelming over a longer period of time. There are so many people and there is literally no time to turn your brain off, as there is constant activity and noise. Shopping is great there and so is food and things to experience in general, so it is a trade off. I have visited most of the major cities in China on tour, but it was more as a tourist, so I don't have much to really contribute. Where would you want to visit? Would you like stay a little or live there a bit?

Most of them do seemingly haha. What do you study then? Yeah it really is. I have quite a few things that I don't really openly talk about, namely video games and anime, mostly since the people I talk to most are that super outgoing and sporty bunch. It doesn't really fly with them and I'm sure it'd change their opinions of me, not that I really care. I just don't go around saying it for whatever reason. I've not seen GiTS actually. It's been on my On Hold since forever. How is it?

Which director? Gen Urobuchi for Madoka? I like his anime generally, though I guess that is limited to Fate Zero, Psycho-Pass, and Madoka. I think he writes well. I like Shaft productions as an umbrella statement really. They're always nice to look at and I think the art style is nice.

I enjoyed it because it was so baffling over the top that it was amazing in its own way. Onii-sama too strong.


Great! Do you have a favourite OP/ED from Aria? I love the OST. Do you have a favourite Aria moment? It is a show that is so close to my heart. Do you want another slower show? That's my cup of tea, so I'd be happy to recommend some to you.

I think I'll do Bebop after I clear out the last few shows I've had running for a while (I started watching most of these two or three months ago, but they've taken up all my time). I think all I have left before I make good on my promise is Sailor Moon and Kingdom. :3 Almost there!

This one?

I can barely remember what the picture was. Kono ecchi.

Thanks. I still have to finish my profile. It has been months and I've yet to tidy up some of the links. >///<

Are you going to watch anything from this season? Any plans for the summer? Hope all is well! Apologies for the slow reply. D:

No worries. I've been super busy. I just finished off exams, but I just started an internship. That's most of my time right there and when I get home I'm honestly pretty dead.

How's Japan? It's a place I have always wanted to visit. I've basically seen all of the rest of Asia - well Hong Kong, Vietnam, and China - so I kind of really want to visit Japan both for the culture and because of my recent anime addiction. I've been in the Tokyo-Narita airport so many times, last time being the past Christmas.

No worries. Want to hear something funny? At my internship, there's three other students. We were talking and, to break the ice, I asked them if they watch anime or League of Legends. LOL. I have a hypothesis that all engineering students fit one or both of those boxes. LOL. They did and we've bonded over it. For the first time, I've really discussed anime with someone in person, this past week.

EVA is a great show. It's not my cup of tea, but it is good. I love this quote: "The hedgehog’s dilemma, the closer we become the more deeply we hurt". It's quite a thoughtful show and, while I don't like any of the characters, they're very well done, particularly Shinji.

Madoka is good too. Not a favourite of mine, but enjoyable. I like a lot of things the director puts out, though he seems to get a lot of flak from other people here. The movie is very good too, though it is more eye candy compared to the anime.

Oh god. Mahouka is not the greatest to say the least. I wish you luck with that. Keep count of the onii-sama's. That's a challenge.

Watch Aria! Trust! I will wait for you to do so, then I'll do Bebop.

I actually have no idea which profile picture this is referring to, but I have a feeling it was my Hibike Euphonium one.


If not, it was one of these two:

Too many words? LOL

I got into anime by watching with my cousin's best friend, but later in January I met a guy that I hit it off really well with and was kind of interested in. One day we were texting and he said he was watching Zetsuen no Tempest (my fourth anime) and that was the start of this all...

EVA is kind of a hard show to like honestly, especially if you're a new viewer. Ironically, it was my second anime. =')

What do you think of Madoka? I'll watch it when you watch Aria. I think that's fair. ~_^

I've been getting PMs about it. LOL

It's okay. I'm just as bad these days at replying on time with school and stuff. I just put up another review, this time for Chihayafuru. I'm not sure if you've seen it, but it is very good. I really enjoyed the show. The review is also a bit more objective than my last one, so hopefully people take to that well. :3

Yeah. I find it really awkward to talk to them about it too. Like most of them just dismiss it as a medium - honestly, I was like that too before I started watching just over a year ago - so it is hard to find someone to talk to about it. Even if they do, often you have different tastes and stuff like that. I've told a few people to watch things though, particularly Aria. I got my parents to watch a bit of that. LOL

I'll take a look at it eventually when I clear out my backlog that I'm slow to get around to *cough*Kara no Kyoukai*cough*. I've heard a lot of great things about Bebop and I think it is in my PTW. I'll trade you. The day you start Aria, I'll start Bebop. =)

Hope you're doing well!

Haha. A little shameful. :3 Thanks! I did that purposefully given the title, but you're not the first person to say that. If you ever watch it, let me know how it goes. I got a few people that aren't really into anime, that I talk to, to watch it and we'll see how that goes. It really is great though. ^^

Yeah. I know exactly what you mean. I think Kara no Kyoukai just seems so pretentious since they spend so much time with this dialogue and supernatural thing going on, with twists in each episode and the non linear plot. Pretty much haha. I wish we could just write that on English papers! LOL

Speaking of Slice of Life, I just watched Aria. I really, really think it is great. I wrote a review on it. You should read it. It's spoilers free and I cover why I love Aria. I think it is really worth a watch!

Also, if you do read the review, I'd love some ^^

Yeah. Pretty much. I actually prefer Darker than Black though, since the show isn't nearly as intensive with only twenty minute episodes. It is really hard to sit through hours of something on end that you find really confusing. I appreciate it for what it is, that is the art and sound, but I can't get behind Kara no Kyoukai's story really. I wish I could. =(

Ah. That's good too. At least the plot sounds deeper.

I haven't watched further into it since I last messaged you, but I think it is pretty decent. I find it amusing more so than anything.

Um. I didn't really like the start of it (watching in release order), but the last few have been good. They're not my kind of show honestly and I don't really find any of the characters or story that thrilling or deep. As for the art and sound, I think they did a fantastic job.

I usually tend to write "first drafts" in chunks of up to 5000 words that I submit to a writing group that I'm a member of. (Our writing group doesn't have a hard-and-fast limit on word count, but we try to keep weekly submissions down to 5000 words or less just as a general courtesy, since there are multiple submissions to read and critique each week. And 5000 words is about the amount that I can write and edit/proofread on a weekly basis.) The major plot beats were all planned in advance, but I do adjust some aspects (like prose, description, dialog, etc) based on the feedback I receive from the writing group on a week-to-week basis.

After several months of writing and feedback, I had what basically amounted to the "first draft" of a novella. (I didn't necessarily plan it as a novella; I just kept writing until I'd finished telling the story, and it came out at novella length.) After completing this "first draft" I went back, did some revision and rewriting to foreshadow things better, make sure that character dialog was consistent between chapters, things of that nature. However, one of the things that often comes up in the writing process is that you tend to come up with multiple ideas for how the story could move forward. Traditionally, you'd choose one way for the narrative to advance. But I decided to do the incredibly indulgent thing: instead of choosing one ending, I decided to write multiple endings, and then adapt the story to a visual medium where I could include all of the endings. I also got to partner with a buddy of mine who does some cool illustration work, which did a lot to motivate me toward VN development.

If you ever have any interest in (and time for) writing fiction, I recommend checking out some of Brandon Sanderson's lectures as an instructional resource to help you get started. This lecture on description on description and viewpoint is actually what got me thinking about the writing process as something I could approach: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3A1F631BCD668EDF


I noticed you have Baccano on your "to-watch" list. You might want to watch that before Durarara. The two might seem really incomparable, since they deal with very different subject matter (Durarara is set in present-day Japan, while Baccano is set in Prohibition-era America), but they have a lot of shared DNA. They're products of the same creative team (Ryohgo Narita as writer, Takahiro Omori as director, a lot of the same animation staff) and they're also very similar in terms of themes (criminal underworld) and style. And "style" is a huge part of the viewing experience. Watch the OP for Baccano and compare with the OP of Durarara and it becomes immediately apparent that they're cut from the same cloth:

Baccano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUjqlVt6y2A
Durarara: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O9hRcIAza0

Baccano definitely isn't "required viewing" for Durarara, but there are some subtle callbacks that you might appreciate if you watch Baccano first.

I'm hoping that the backstory to the anime gets explained a bit better. I've heard the manga does a better job and that those parts haven't been animated yet.

I think it is honestly pretty good. It might be boring to some, but I think it is a nice change of pace for me! Are you thinking of picking it up?

WataMote is definitely a comedy, but a lot of the humor comes from the brutal realism with which it depicts the protagonist's social ineptitude. No punches pulled, and that makes her all the more sympathetic. That being said, one of the main levels that WataMote works on is that Tomoko embodies some of the most relatable aspects of adolescence as an introvert, and to enjoy it on a certain level, you need to be able to look at her and say "this girl is me."

What am I doing these days? Well, I started a new job in December, so I'm still in the process of getting settled into that and getting back into the rhythm of working on my own projects. Last year I wrote the first draft of a fantasy novella and I'm in the process of adapting that into a visual novel (I'm using a Python DSL, Ren'py).

I recently introduced a friend to Quentin Tarantino, which has given me an excuse to go back to a lot of old favorites (Kill Bill is incredibly fun to watch). The new anime season looks pretty fun; I'm glad that we're getting more Durarara (Takahiro Omori is my favorite director) and it's cool to see Ikuhara back on the scene with YuriKuma. That Madhouse OVA Death Billiards is also getting adapted (or something) into a TV series, so I'll be keeping an eye on that as well.