What's the Point?

BECAUSE THEY ONLY THINK...I LIKE...THA...TERRIBLE AMERICANIZED STUFF. LOL

Yeah, I was reading and stuttered.

Narutarded: The Plague

Yes, everyone has watched Naruto at least once, right?

The driving curiosity is enough to bring down even the strongest minds of otaku. Hiding behind a misleading facade of fulfillment, only poison awaits you at the end of this journey. The temptation to subject oneself to cancerous disease has not been this difficult to resist since tobacco first hit the market! Yes, Naruto is indeed an epidemic, one set forth by ANGRY GODS, TO PLAGUE THE MANY NATIONS AS DIVINE PUNISHMENT FOR DENYING THE QUALITY WAY OF LIFE OFFERED TO MANKIND!!

Erm, well, anyway ... despite it being the epitome of terribleness, it has a pretty interesting underlying plot. When you think about it, there aren't really many stereotypes in Naruto, it was just so poorly executed ... all that potential too. On more than one occasion, I've thought about how epic of a movie it would have made. Cut out the five hundred episodes it took to tell the story (in the most painstakingly slow, repetitive and overall uneventful way possible,) then compress it into an hour and a half to two hours and you've got yourself something I might consider watching.

The main gripes I have with the actual storyline, (not necessarily how it was told,) are about the lack of resolution and the fact that the main character is shifting to Sasuke. I want Naruto: Shippuuden to end, now. I want it to show Sasuke resolving his conflict with Itachi, I want it to show at least a glimpse of their adult-hood and most of all: Naruto needs to be crowned as Hokage to wrap up the whole thing. So, this pool of thought has made me want to see one movie of Naruto's whole life, making everything relevant to the Ninetails and what-not, from intro to epic to resolution. Better artwork wouldn't hurt things either. These people are among the laziest animators when it comes to symmetry and consistency. Dx

So yeah, that's all I wanted to say about that. I wonder how many people will agree? Maybe I'll make another post including which specific episodes to bother watching so one can get the best effect out of the series- for the newer victims of this ravenous plague.

Fullmetal Awesome

More awkwardness, just for you! I think this one might be a little better than the last one in terms of volume and such, but honestly, the camera doesn't like me. D= Well, the audio of me talking will be a little less quality than last time, since I didn't use my podcasting mic this time. You can deal with that though, right? 'Long as you can understand me ... Anyways, just watch it.


I just realized I made a mistake in there. It's a "Transmutation Circle", not an "Alchemy Circle". Whatever, 'got the point across, heh heh.

Popularity doesn't ALWAYS mean overrated ...

Alright, I haven't done much for the last few weeks, besides posting that awkward video with a less-than-flattering editing job. I'll shoot to make a much better one for you the next time. Until then, I'll bring to you another post to temporarily quell your unquenchable thirst for more of my babbling!


So how about I review a more popular show today? If you've ever seen anything about anime, you must have at least heard of "The Life and Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya". 'Long-ass title, I know, but that's only scratching the surface of oddities that make this series unique. The only thing typical about this anime is the modern high-school setting, (and really I could always do without that.)


The story is told from Kyon's perspective- a nonchalant, pessimistic type of guy who bumps into the strangest girl he would ever meet: Haruhi Suzumiya. Obviously, with her name in the title and all, she is the main character, therefore making the show second-person. I was really convinced after Sherlock Holmes that no one would ever try something like that again, but did they ever prove me wrong. In fact, they pulled it off so well, I didn't even notice until I sat down and thought about Kyon's role later.

As for another example of the various oddities, this show was originally aired out of order. That's right, they jumbled it up on purpose. For what purpose, I don't know. It gets somewhat confusing, especially if you don't know they're out of order at first, but if you watch it in chronological order then the climax is in the middle somewhere. That's not entirely bad though; all the filler episodes take place after the main story, so basically you could stop in the middle and you might miss a little bit of comedy but nothing too fulfilling.

So hey, what the hell's this hubbub all about anyway? Well Suzumiya is practically a god and she's unaware. Combine that with too much imagination, a rash personality and a short temper, and you've got a recipe for disaster. Her friends include an alien, a time-traveler and an esper, all hiding their true identities behind those of normal students. Without spoiling anything, I think it's safe to tell you that they're not all together by some cheesy coincidence as you might expect from typical anime.

After all that though, the animation is just okay. Not terrific, just normal ... 'looks like it averages at 12 frames per second, but I could be wrong. I do have to give them credit on choreographing and animating the dance for the ending credits though. Also, considering the interesting style of art they used, it still has plenty of visual appeal to spare.
Now WATCH THEM DANCE, you know you want to.


Wanna know one more interesting thing before I call it a night? This show had a fan-base comparable to that of Neon Genesis Evangelion, and I could be wrong but I thought I remembered someone telling me that it also caused a similar uproar event in Japan. That might make for a whole different blog post, but for now I'll leave that statement to the people who know what I'm talking about.

Noein: To Your Other Self

Today I review the anime called "Noein" in video form this time. I apologize for the sub-par editing, Windows Movie Maker can only do so much. Eventually I will purchase and learn how to use Adobe editing software, but until then, you'll have to bear with me. Well, I'll leave it to the video to say the rest!

[Apologies for the volume issues. They were caused by a glitch in Windows Movie Maker, there was nothing I could do for this video.]

(In the video, I introduce myself as Jonathan DeWitt, but really, just call me JD.)

In the Mind of Miyazaki

So I've established that the Friday evening cartoons on Toonami are not what interest me, so what does catch my attention? Allow me to introduce to you one of the world's most genius feature film, let alone anime producers: Hayao Miyazaki. When one watches his movies, one becomes enveloped in the world he so vividly creates. Some of his most famous works include Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle and Naussica of the Valley of the Wind.
For my personal favorite, I'm torn between Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. Both of those- hell, all of his movies find the perfect balance of character development, vivid settings, imagination and story-telling. Needless to say, he is my favorite producer. Whether you are an anime fan or not, I strongly urge you to watch one of his movies if you haven't already.

The Geek Hierarchy

A friend told me this at one point and I thought it was too humorous not to pass on. What's the difference between a dork, nerd or geek? Well according to him, a geek is someone who creates cool stuff, a nerd is someone who collects cool stuff, and a dork attempts and fails at being a nerd or geek because s/he doesn't understand cool stuff.

So what does this have to do with anything? Well, "otaku" is a Japanese word which literally translates into "nerd". So western fans of manga/anime, Japanese games and Japanese culture have adopted this word as a sort of slang term to identify themselves.

When the typical non-fan thinks of anime, he or she likely thinks of Naruto, Yu-Gi-Oh! or Dragon Ball Z. It makes me cringe to admit it, because those are the types of shows with which people automatically associate me. Those dorks otaku who enjoy common Americanized shows like that tend to embarrass "geeks" like myself, who enjoy quality anime that tends to get tucked under the sheets in the west. That is the reason I've decided to name this blog "Otaku Underground"; it's both a way to explain myself and a place for the geeks of otaku to relate.