I'm stuck in a love Triangle with myself

 <-This is the best picture I could find of the mysterious person who sent me this letter.

 <-Previous Fan Letter: Do skills learned in dating sims transfer to real life?

Dear BryAnime,

I’ve been having a strange issue. You see, I’m living a double life. While I’m normally a mild mannered high school student, on the side I’m really a super-hero. I can’t specify which super hero for obvious reasons, but it has had horrible effects on my dating life.

You see, not only does having a super alter ego cut into my free time (making dating difficult) but it also shows me a darker side of the city. For example, I’ve noticed that the girl I like (in my regular life) tends to wind up in seedier parts of town, resulting in me having to rescue her on multiple occasions, from rapists, muggers, and the occasional supervillian. Now then, when I rescue her, she feels the need to reward (see: make out) with me. This is all fun and games until in my regular life, I ask her out, and she seems disinterested.

This leads me to a strange problem. Every time I hang around my crush, she just talks about my other life, and considers me pretty irrelevant because I’m not nearly as exiting as super me. This leads me to an unfortunate situation where I can’t actually compete with myself.

Is there any way that I can convince my crush that I’m a great guy, and that she should be interested in me instead of um… super-me?

Sincerely,

Your Friendly neighborhood super-hero

Dear Friendly neighborhood super-hero,

You appear to be in a very difficult situation. How you approach this is entirely up to you, depending on the results you want.

Hypothetically, you could engage in rampant sex with your girl on a regular basis as your super alter ego, never telling her who you are. This could be fun, since the super-sex could entice her to pursue your super alter-ego more often. I would suggest you avoid this if you want a healthy relationship between your everyday persona and your crush.

Alternatively, you could partake in the ancient practice of super-dickery, and tell her off the next time you encounter her in a seedy neighborhood. This will be better for her long-term health, and would ignite a spark between your regular persona and her.

On another note, you could tell her about the conundrum. This is incredibly dangerous, as soon a super villain will find out and hold her hostage, and nobody wants that. It’s because of issues like these that cause many people to believe that Batman has a horrible love life, although nobody is really sure how that is.

Sincerely, BryAnime

Get Featured in a fan letter! Email you're problems to DarthSomebody@yahoo.com, or post it in the comments section, and I just might respond to you!

Anime in Focus: FLCL episode 4

<- As it stands, this man puffing up his eyebrows is on the level of a teenage girl stuffing her bra

<-PREVIOUS EPISODE

After the almost comprehensible third episode, I am given the proper head trip I was hoping for in the fourth episode. I’m not really sure if I had more questions answered or if more new ones were spawned. Frankly, I’m not even quite sure what was a delusion or what was really happening in this episode.

Anyway, this happens to be FLCL’s baseball episode. This one seems to use swinging the bat as its theme, where Naota can’t seem to find it within himself to swing a baseball bat like his brother did. Meanwhile, he’s feeling jealousy issues as Haruko is paying much more attention to his dad than to him.

Furthermore, Naota is being watched by some guy with pieces of seaweed for eyebrows that seems to want him to stay away from Haruko. During the episode, we see Naota hitting things with a baseball bat, presumably in order to vent his frustration about Haruko paying less attention to him. Throughout this ep, I’m not sure if his father is dead, alive, or what. I’m sure most of it’s metaphorical. Furthermore, while watching this episode, I’ve come to the conclusion everybody has super-advanced teleportation abilities, based on the places they wind up at throughout the episode. This is especially likely, since in a previous episode it was established that the medical building has no doors.

While this episode is filled with weirdness and hitting things with guitairs, I’m not sure whether to treat this as an actual anime about growing up and stuff, or a big music video by the Pillows. While it is thoroughly confusing (well, it manages to make more sense if you don’t look at everything at face value) it manages to tell a story, in a very abstract manner. This it to say this show reminds me of the weird sculptures outside the college art building.

Well, I’m more than halfway through the show now, there’s no turning back at this point!

PLACEHOLDER FOR NEXT EP LINK!

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Tron: Legacy Review

Watch the trailer here:

Released a while ago. If that doesn't sell you on the movie, nothing will.

I was incredibly exited for this movie. I was there at the recreation of Flynn’s arcade back in Comic Con 2009, and was exited ever since I saw the stuff there. I even dug up the shirt that I got from the arcade, proudly displaying the slogan “FLYNN LIVES.”

To whet my appetite even more, this movie combines just about everything I love into one nice package. This movie has motorcycles, people dressed up like ravers, video games, flashy lights, techno, and this:

I believe this counts as fan service

I hope this becomes a new fashion statement at this year’s Comic Con ANYWAY…

The original Tron came out back in the year 1982, and apparently making a sequel was entirely necessary. This is not to say that this is a bad thing, since it gives Disney a chance to take one of the pioneers of modern CGI and update it using the fancy techniques we’ve developed to make films look shiny. The overall imagery was like taking Ecstasy through your eyesockets.

THE PLOT: About 7 years after the original Tron, we see Kevin Flynn telling his son Sam about his adventures in the digital world known as “The Grid,” and tells us a bit of exposition about what happened between the previous Tron and this movie. A few days later, Flynn vanishes and is never seen again, with the video game company he founded left in chaos due to his disappearance.

Twenty years later, we see Sam pulling a prank on the now corrupt, thinly veiled Microsoft that old man Flynn’s company has become. This goes on to establish that Sam has become a 177t haxor in the time without his father, and that this company is totally against open source software. Thank god that this movie did not become a drama about digital rights. After this we get to see Sam’s place, where he learns that his father may be alive, and there is a clue hidden in his arcade.

Finally, this leads to Sam getting sucked into The Grid, where the real movie begins. He finds that this world inside of the computer in his dad’s arcade has been turned into a digital dystopia, run by a rogue program known as Clu, a clone of Sam’s dad. This causes him to be placed in “The game” where we are treated to the greatest sport ever invented, LIGHTCYCLE BATTLING!

After breaking out of the world of EXTREME combat motorcycling, Sam goes on a journey where he meets, Quarra (pictured above) and where he meets his old man, leading him on spiritual and physical journey transcending the digital world. With lots of fights and pretty explosions.

The story is acceptable for the type of movie, although there are a few nitpicks that I found that I’m not going to dabble in here. While there is nothing particularly deep about the plot, the trip through the digital world is quite the feast for the senses. I did not find this lack of plot to be a fault for the movie, since the scenery is so lovingly crafted that I cannot convince myself to not love it.

PREREQUISITES: I don’t really think you need to have seen the Tron movie from the 80’s to understand this movie. It will help you swallow the entire concept of The Grid, but even then, the titular character, Tron only makes a minor appearance in this movie. Almost no plot elements make a comeback in this movie, aside from people wearing glowing red suits being pure evil.

SHOULD YOU WATCH IT? I would definitely recommend this movie to anybody who is not a total technophobe. The plot may not be the best, but I certainly was not bored with the movie at any point. Not the best movie of the year, but definitely quality entertainment. 

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Comic Con 2009

I'm back

Yes, I'm not dead. I've managed to survive this semsester, and managed to get the creative fires of Prometheus back inside of me. unfortunately I'm going out to see Tron: Legacy right now, so I can't write much... but I'll be back tomorrow

Oh yeah, and the windows version  of Shira Oka is out now. Buy it HERE

Mac version should be out around January 6 via the App store.

Letter I wrote to my local senator regarding S3804

 Sorry I haven't been posting in the last few months, semesters been a total time eater. Good News is that the beta for Shira Oka second chances is done, and will most likely be released quite soon, updates to come on their facebook. I wrote a bit about the game HERE

ANYWAY! I came across a potential bill in congress that grabbed my attention more than the legalization of pot over here in Cali, and decided to write a letter to my local congressperson, in order to take part in ye democratic process...

(I put my address here, but you can't has it)

Hon. Sen. Dianne Feinstein

RE: S.3804

Hello, I am writing to you as a concerned citizen and web writer regarding the bill (S.3804, “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, COICA”) heading up to congress this week. While I understand that the intent of this bill is to make things difficult for pirates and other copyright violators, I feel that it would come with unintended consequences.

This bill makes it so that the Department of Justice can maintain a blacklist of websites that are to be blocked from web service providers, along with a second list that web service providers are encouraged to block, along with offering immunity for providers that do block these websites. However, this leaves little for judicial review, which is where I find issue with the bill.

While I do agree that piracy has run rampant on the internet, the solution is not to just blacklist sites without due process. People who run websites should be able to defend themselves before being put on a blacklist, in order to prevent the ability to blacklist sites from being abused. As the bill currently stands, the definitions available in the bill make it possible for the Department of Justice to take down sites it doesn’t like whether they be a political campaign, or a service frequently used that has potential for piracy. Creators and artists may have rights to their work, but people posting controversial things on the internet should have their first amendment rights protected, not infringed.

In closing, I strongly encourage you as a concerned citizen and potentially affected web writer to prevent central government from taking control over what can be posted on the internet, and reconsider bill S3804.

Sources:

https://www.eff.org/files/filenode/coica_files/Joint%20Letter%20re%20S3804%20%5BCOICA%5D.pdf

http://demandprogress.org/

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Anime in focus: School days episode 12

 <- The only thing being exaggerated is the character's expressions

<-Previous Episode 

AHHHHH!

Ugh!

AHHHHH!

*shuddering* I heard about this on the internet. But seeing it is totally different. After watching these characters for 11 episodes, and seeing an ending like this is a totally different experience. I mean AHHH.

*sitting on coach at therapists office*

Oh right, of course doctor, what happened. Uhm well, it was Christmas time, and Saionji had made Itou a nice dinner to celebrate with him. She appears stressed out, but moderately exited to be carrying Itou’s baby.

Unfortunately, he cancels on their dinner. After an intense grilling, she finds out that he’s with Katsura, his first love, once again. Yes, apparently Itou has “feelings” for Katsura, and he wants to come back to her. This is, of course, after he slept with almost every girl in the school, and even got one pregnant.

He comes back home to find the dinner Saionji prepared, smashed on the floor. He seems mostly indifferent to this, seeing the complete monster he’s become. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to get back with Katsura because he wanted her, or just because she was the only one left that hasn’t slept with him (Saionji wasn’t registering on his radar apparently.)

After declaring his undying love for Katsura (BLECH) he texts Saionji telling her about an abortion clinic Katsura knew of. The next day, Saionji asks to see him at his house.

What ensued? I believe it was the most delightful melodramatic mess that I’ve ever seen in an anime. It stuck with me for a couple days, and afterwards I just sat staring at the screen with my jaw ajar. I felt like vomiting immediately after viewing. AWESOME ending, really, beats the crap out of the usual climax in this type of anime.

I seriously doubt I could recreate that here though, hehehe. Nice Boat indeed.

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Maid: The RPG overview

I found this RPG supplement on TV Tropes, and just went… “Wow, this has to be the weirdest looking core rule book I’ve ever seen” Seeing that I haven’t written about any pen and paper RPG’s for a while, and that this might be fun to investigate, since the heavy anime influences make it quite suitable for this site. (What’s that? Articles about Ancient Greece have nothing to do with anime? SHUT UP!)

This forced me to acquire it immediately. I could tell this was going to be interesting when in the “things required to play” section, it lists that you probably should leave your shame at home.

Also, it uses the term “roll 1d666,” or roll three 6 sided dice.

My first impression is that this looks like a great game to bring to an anime convention or a forum meet up (Play with my regular Dungeons and Dragons/ World of Darkness Group? HA!) for a possible play-by-post or something. Obviously, I’d be willing to do a LARP (Live-Action Role Play… a bunch of people in costumes playing a game like this) with a bunch of sexy females in maid outfits calling me master.

I do like the table for determining special qualities for your character. These are things that set you apart from your peers, such as wearing giant glasses, being an albino, or being a dude (!!) Other fun qualities include having a weird fetish, a weird accent, always wear sunglasses (even at night) or have a strange tendency to enjoy stabbing people. All of these traits are rolled randomly, ensuring that this game is as much of an improv act as it is an RP

Rules for this game are relatively simple, and can be kept on about one page. You have a bunch of attributes, you roll a dice and multiply it by that attribute, and your enemy (or obstacle) makes an opposed roll. Whoever gets a higher roll wins. The loser takes damage (or stress in this case) until they reach there limit and have a breakdown (they player is then forced to act in a specific manner, such as binge drinking or being a jerk for an amount of time, in minutes based around the damage they took) I presume that rules were kept light for the sole purpose of keeping the game playable while drunk.

In order to increase insanity, the dungeon master has stats and is subject to insanity to. Also, to make things easier, there is a rather large table detailing random encounters. It requires you to improvise, but any dungeon master worth his salt can do that. This table includes all the staples you’d need to get the creative juices flowing such as rolling the dice to find out the mansion has had a zombie outbreak, or if Cthuhlu has decided to make a quick visit.

Although I do not believe that this book is very suitable for a serious role play,(Hey, if you want to do a game with a bunch of killer maids, almost any system will do.) it looks like it would satisfy boredom for a night. The majority of rules take about 10 minutes to learn, and are incredibly easy to teach to a newcomer. Most importantly, it appears that if your adventures don't turn into a chaotic mess where hilarity ensues, your probably playing the game wrong. Simplicity works for and against this book in that regard. The real meat in the book is the flavor text and the random tables, which are top notch. I may wind up using some of the random event tables in my next Dungeons and Dragons game, just to give it a shot. Unfortunately, I haven’t field tested this book yet, so I would need to do a follow up report on how the actual game plays…. I’d be willing to do a play by post, or I’m willing to meet a group at any major convention I attend...

Oh yeah, the book isn’t available on Amazon, so you have to order it from the company website. Seven dollars for the PDF is pretty nice, but the physical book would be necessary to use it at conventions.

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