Mask The Money-San

Dear Followers,

Phew. I haven't been completely blown away by an anime for a while. Looks like Spring 2011 will be a very good season after all. While I came into Spring 2011 excited for Ao no Exorcist and Deadman Wonderland, a mixture of cliché shounen and poor studio animation left me in the dumps. Then, I came across Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, or Ano Hana for short, when scouring gg and UTW. I have no idea whether this is a joint between gg and UTW or if they are independently subbing (probably the former). Now life is good.

With Ano Hana you are thrown right into the action. The premise of the show is simple. A group of 6 childhood friends have drifted apart over the years. One of the friends, Menma, died in some unexplained event. Now, the leader of this group of "Peace Busters" (wait, are they good or bad guys), Jinta, who following Menma's death withdrew from society, begins to see what he believe to be a hallucination of her but is actually her spirit. For the sake of granting her one wish, Jinta will have to bring all of the "Peace Busters" back together again.

What makes this show so beautiful is humanity. In just the first episode I was laughing, fuming, and nearly crying. The emotions in this show are a whirlwind (which my Pidgey, Cozy, just learned). The interactions between the old friends demonstrate the aspect of drifting away like I have never seen before in an anime, capturing the frustration and awkwardness and sadness of what happened with Menma perfectly. The background art and lighting effects are sublime and mix well with the smooth animation for a dazzling presentation. If you are looking for a break from mecha, shounen, or loli (Ivan), I would wholeheartedly recommend Ano Hana. Here's the beautiful opening.

Evan Chen brought Hanasaku Iroha up as well. Very well presented show as well, but the service and character interactions were not up to par with Ano Hana in my mind. Here's the opening as well in case you are interested.

GTFO Tama,
Noel

We Have A Winner

Dear Followers,

The votes are in. While my small sample size probably skewed the results (having 10 voters can be problematic), the winners in each category won by a landslide. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt, the following winners know how to work the poles (JZ, my subconscious is showing). Here are our winners combined with appropriate photographs. Enjoy.

FFVII Winner

Tifa

FFX Winner

Yuna

FFXIII Winner

Lightning

There we go. Keep up the good work to help pick out our Male Division winners. LONG LIVE FINAL FANTASY!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner,
Noel

The Only God I Believe In Is The Invisible Hand

Dear Followers,

I have decided to post my AP Macroeconomics notes for anybody on the Internet to use. I was motivated to do so after Sophie and Catherine came to me for some reason to ask economic questions when they could have gone to the God of economics himself, Xun. Even so, I feel like my notes may help some of you who lack the motivation to take notes in AP Macroeconomics or who are looking for a quick summary. My notes are definitely not perfect and in fact, I don't feel like my notes are very helpful. But if I can help out a single person by doing so, what the hell right?

Some notes about my notes. Yes, I type in all capitals. I am a perfectionist who is OCD about these kinds of aspects about my notes. If you are really bothered you can copy and paste the PDF text into Microsoft Word and use the macro Shift+F3 to convert all of the text to lowercase. Yes, I know there are a lot of typos. Such is the consequence of using all capitals as Microsoft Word's Spell Checker cannot detect these loophole errors. Oh well. You can find my notes in the "Notes" section of my blog (I know, very tricky).

I will be releasing notes for each unit after we have taken each Unit Quiz in AP Macroeconomics as I don't want my notes to supplant your own. In the summer, I will probably be releasing some of my study guides that I have created over the years as a student at Wayzata High School (if I can find them). Good luck kids, and never stop fighting height restrictions!

Adam Smith Is A Player,
Noel

Decision By The Dock

Dear Followers,

In Cardona fashion, what follows will be a heavily modified freewrite in which I basically write whatever is on my mind (wait, don't I write all my blog posts in this manner?). First off, I found out I was going to a wedding today one hour before the appetizers were scheduled to stop being served. So, my mom made me shave my masterpiece, the product of a week's neglect (by hand mind you), slap on a suit, and put on an appropriate mask as to not embarrass my mom in front of her friends.

If you don't know, I am somebody who really despises dressing up. Fancy clothing is simply uncomfortable for me and I would prefer my navy blue sweatpants with the hole which Jenny needs to fix. I am really frustrated that my mom feels like she needs to dress me up as somebody I am not in order to impress her friends and that she views me as a trophy to be presented in the first place. I am really disappoint at how judgmental and superficial society can be. But then again, others enjoy dressing up to look and feel good and I guess they should be allowed to do so as they please.

But speaking of the wedding, my brother's friend's sister was having a 4 month reception after the real wedding. As you may have guessed, the bride in question was Indian hence my being at the party, and the groom was Caucasian. I am glad to see that people are more open to interracial marriages nowadays, and seeing how happy the groom's side of the family was interacting with various members of the Indian community was nice as well.

I have probably only spoken to Monica once in my life, when I was crying at French Lake Park because Nishant, Neal, and Shray wouldn't let me play tackle football with them. Out of pity or compassion, she took me by the hand and bought me ice cream. I wonder if she remembers. She was kind then and she is kind now. Congratulations Monica.

Speaking of weddings, have you ever notice how much sweatpants can accentuate your waist? Take one look at Aladdin (yes, I know he is not actually wearing sweatpants). That is one accentuated waist. Now you know why I always ask you to wear sweatpants Sami Meyer. Congratulations to you as well for being honest with yourself.

As you probably know, Friday was Day of Silence. After what happened during the week, I knew I was going to participate this year. I decided to participate without duct tape to test my will, but I ended up making people feel really awkward instead. For example, Aneesha came up to me on the way up the staircase and all I could do was nod and smile. She must have though I was ignoring her. Jeff even gave me a review of Lotte's Toy to fill the silence. I broke during third block by a combination of Alex Lo cleaning his computer screen and Roy being adorable (yes, I know I am going to hell for using that joke).

Xun just agreed to go and mess with a Perkins waitress with me. I would play the Indian F.O.B and he would be the Chinese exchange student. Antics would ensue. If you're interested, give us your contact information. We'll get back to you in the summer. Speaking of the summer, I haven't registered for debate camp yet. MDAW should serve my purposes well anyways, considering I will be working with Mariah and the rest of the Minnesota squad. I feel like you get what you put into debate camp, so I would get just as much out of MDAW as anywhere else. Whatever. At least I can play some wicked soccer with Arif.

Speaking of soccer, I just started Hayate no Gotoku and Death Note this week to fill the void between Winter 2011 and Spring 2011. First, Hayate no Gotoku was practically forced on me by a mixture of Jeff, Ivan, and Ian peer pressure. The showd is repetitive as hell, the characters are as static as Static Shock, and the plot is nonexistent. Yet, I keep on watching. As far as Death Note goes, I have already seen most of the show in nonchronological order on AS. As such I already know SPOILER that L dies SPOILER and watching every episode is very boring as such. Maybe I should just drop this one like Shugo Chara.

James. So much class for one individual.

Tomorrow I get to see Cameryn again. I am really happy. Without Cameryn's help last year dealing with my problems I would have done a lot that I would probably have regretted. Cameryn is loyal as hell, and she always reminds me that there is somebody who cares. After she began taking her full-time PSEO classes, I felt as though she lived on a different continent completely and our only form of communication has been sporadic Facebook conversations. I am going to give her a big hug when I see her, like I do whenever I see Lina or Michelle.

Well, this was a good way to feel productive following my 30 min... I mean 3 hours of volunteer work (you know what's up Christian and Sam, creator of volleyball). If I confused you when you read this, I have succeeded beyond my wildest expectations. In the words of Lelouch, the only ones who deserve to shoot are the ones who are prepared to be shot at. Oyasuminasai~

The Splendid Performance,
Noel

Stardust Memory

Dear Followers,

A lot has happened in the past few days as many of you probably know. This Wednesday, Bradley Dawson posted a post about homosexuality on his Teen Awakening blog. That very night, Oliver He posted a response on his Heliuchuan blog. At school the next day, events simply escalated with Bradley and Oliver both showing people what they had posted. Needless to say, bringing such a controversial topic into Wayzata High School sparked even more controversy. By fourth block, students were barring their fangs at one another and bickering over who was right. A dichotomy was developed from the beginning. The previous history between Bradley an Oliver didn’t help prevent such a development either. No doubt, Twilight-esque Team Bradley and Team Oliver duels have been flooding Facebook over the past few days.

Where do I stand? After I had read the post at lunch on Wednesday, all of my actions were motivated by anger. Passing over phrases like “No baby is born homosexual,” “Sin hurts people in the long run,” and “Before the homosexual can turn from this perverted lifestyle,” made me angrier than I have been in a long time. When Bradley came over with a Cheshire-Cat-smile on his face to show me his post, I lost control. I wanted to punch him in the face. Instead, I gave him a handful of explicatives and sent him on his way. When I was walking back up to class, he came up to me to defend his case. I wasn’t in the mood. Throughout the rest of the school day I thought about what I was going to do. When I got home I used the first chance I could to let everybody know how mad I was by posting on Facebook the words “Naveen Jain has lost all respect for Bradley Dawson.”

As I began to do my homework, more and more of my Facebook friends commented on my post. As I was about to check my notifications, Bradley messaged me. We fought one last duel. Bradley left with the idea that ending our friendship was the best option. I didn’t stop him. With that taken care of, I clicked on my notifications and looked over the comments on my post with a victorious grin.

And then I realized something.

What was I doing? As I read through the comments and saw what everybody was saying about Bradley and how he was being categorized, I realized my mistake. I had just made the problem infinitely worse. At least 10 people sent me messages on Facebook chat about how Bradley’s post was bogus and how offended people were. All of these were legitimate concerns from reasonable people and I respected the input they had to give. However, on my post, I began to notice others who viewed this whole event as another form of entertainment, the usual suspects. That’s not what I had wanted. I immediately deleted my post.

What the hell do I know about Christianity or homosexually? While I personally know a few homosexuals, I don’t know the squat about homosexuality apart from my own assumptions. In that respect, I am no more knowledgeable than Bradley in terms of homosexuality. And, to be completely honest, the only passages I have read of the Bible were those of Jesus dying on the cross because I was simply curious (please don’t interpret this the wrong way). Most of the time when I argue with Bradley Dawson I am merely luring out his viewpoints so I can learn more about his belief system. However, I am not nearly enough of a biblical scholar to win this religious debate against Bradley Dawson.

Let me make one thing clear. I disagree with Bradley 100%. In the words of Aneesh Sohoni, “THERE IS NOT A SINGLE COMPELLING ARGUMENT TO BE HOMOPHOBIC IN ANY REGARD.” To do so is appalling to me.

As far as Bradley’s post goes, I now believe he was simply trying to present his views in a positive light and demonstrate that he does not hate homosexuality but rather views homosexuality as a sin. However, his “everybody is a sinner” approach was definitely not the best approach, especially with inconsistent articulation. On top of that, I believe he made sweeping generalizations about the nature of homosexuality in developing his point and his defense of the label of homosexuality as sin was dehumanizing. Because Bradley uses mainly passages for his support, many of his explanations are offensive as well. Even so, I believe his intentions were well meant.

As such, the point of this post is not the lend support for one side or the other. I feel like we can learn from both posts. Observing first-hand the people who were hurt by these posts has made me reevaluate my values and my own ignorance. Any such reevaluation is valuable in my mind.

As a debater, I believe that argumentation in most cases is beneficial. Argumentation fosters an articulation of one’s views and the views of one’s opponent, and allows one to understand more about an issue than with passive discussion. Many of you have chosen to use this experience to open up further discussion (Miranda). This event has no doubt brought more focus to the question of homosexuality than perhaps ever before in our school. As many of you know, tomorrow is the Day of Silence. This year, participation will probably skyrocket.

However, many of you continue to be locked in duels concerning personal questions of Bradley’s and Oliver’s actions. I hope many of you will allow these skirmishes to pass, especially those of you who are dragging this whole ordeal on for the sake of entertainment or using this opportunity to let out your personal frustrations with Bradley. What’s said was said. Now we can move forward. After all, it’s Friday.

Place Of Promise,
Noel

Spring Cleaning

Dear Followers,

I decided to freshen up around here with some new color and features. Basically, working on my blog today was an excuse for me to be productive while leaving my SAT and AP review books to collect dust. I guess I will just have to be more productive starting tomorrow, but for now I am going to squeeze every last drop of relaxation out of this Spring Break. If only I could get Chaos;Head working!

Phew.

As you may have noticed, I changed the blog header. The old header was looking bland against the new background colors, so I decided to add some spice the way I do best. While Noel is alive and well, I added a few friends to keep her company. I finally downl... purchased a image editing program which surpasses MS paint so I decided to mess around with the new features. Yes, I know, Yui is pixelated and Nessa and Noel are blurry. Give me a break, I am just a beginner.

Finally, I updated the "Anime" and "Drawing" sections of the blog. Under "Anime" you can see my mock-up of a seasonal anime list based on what I chose to watch (and not watch) for Winter 2011. Under "Drawing" you can browse through some of the pieces I have done in my spare time. As you can probably tell, I love drawing manga characters (damn you Azuma) and here's a shout out to Mark Crilley and his fantastic YouTube videos for helping over the years.

There we go. I am really not looking forward to school tomorrow although I get to see everybody again. Well, only two more months until I can enjoy "One Summer's Day."

Bonzai,
Noel

Miracles Are Things We Make For Ourselves

Dear Followers (and Ivan),


After spending countless hours together and waiting for months during the school year, two remarkable things occurred this Spring Break (so much for studying for AP tests). First and foremost, I was able to see Katherine Law once again. I have known Katherine since elementary school, and last year she moved away to California. Before that, during high school, she would constantly throw sleepover parties at her house. These sleepover parties were often the highlight of my summer and watching Mean Girls and snorting candy never got old. Being able to see Mama Kath once more was the cherry on top of this fantastic Spring Break.

Secondly, I completely my lifelong goal of beating Final Fantasy XIII. I had been following this game since eighth grade as I turned back to Final Fantasy to curb my Kingdom Heats crave. After seeing the first trailer for the game, I was hooked and I would constantly check up on IGN for new updates. When I purchased the game last year with my dad I was overjoyed. Thankfully, at that time, I had practically finished AP European History and only had to look forward to my daily dose of Mrs. Larson and Mrs. Vanhorn, two of the most relaxed teachers I have ever met (Mrs. Larson actually isn't that relaxed).

I spent countless hours gobbling up this massive masterpiece. If you play Final Fantasy games, many of you know that FFXIII was more linear than most of the previous installments in the series, offering almost no towns or NPC's to interact with along the way. In fact, most of the game consists of moving down long hallways toward an exclamation point on your mini-map to watch a cut scene or fight a boss. While many may condemn this aspect of FFXIII, I enjoyed this aspect thoroughly. By focusing more on story development and character interactions, FFXIII allowed me to slowly be drawn into the game before shaking things up.

And what a story! FFXIII had, in my opinion, the most emotionally gripping storyline of any other installment. With the other installments I have played, like FFXII, FFX, and FFVII, I wasn't able to become emotionally connected to characters because of awkward interactions. The beautifully crafted backgrounds, character models, and smashing soundtrack didn't hurt either. While there were many scenes with cheesy character dialogue (yes, this is a Japanese RPG), I was surprised most of the time by how dynamic each of the characters were. The only thing that pissed me off was Vanille's accent (are you Russian or British?).

As for the actual game play, the fighting system was not the most interactive, but the fights were some of the most stressful I have ever fought. Even if your characters are automatically healed after each fight and they automatically fight with a single click, the enemies in FFXIII are brutal and can tear you to shreds if you make a wrong move. While none of the enemies up until Chapter 11 pose a real threat, when you reach the Archetype Steppe things get spicy quick. I honestly used a Paradigm Shift every 20 seconds on some bosses. The only thing I felt was missing was really powerful finishing moves or summons (Eidolons suck nuts) but I guess that would throw off the fighting system.

Overall, I am extremely satisfied as of now. The game was just the right length with a decent pace (except for the massive learning curve at Chapter 11), and I feel like almost all of my questions were answered. One annoyance to note however is that at Chapter 11, the cut scene quality decreases substantially and the characters barely move during forced pieces of dialogue (FFX all over again). Maybe the game developers just didn't care anymore. Oh well. The beautifully crafted CGI cut scenes and fight animations more than make up for this small annoyance.

With that I set down my controller. Seeing as I don't get much time to play videogames nowadays, this weekend was extremely nice. I look forward to playing FFXIII-2 which is scheduled for release this winter. Maybe I should finish FFX as well. Whatever. Yuna can wait.


We Live To Make The Impossible Possible, That Is Our Focus,
Noel

Sunshine

Dear Followers,

Ain't no way to explain or say
How painful the hangover was today
In front of the toilet, hands and knees
Trying to breathe in between the dry heaves

My baby made me some coffee
Afraid that if I drink some it's probably coming right back out me
Couple of advil, relax and chill
At a standstill with how bad I feel

I think I need to smell fresh air
So I stepped out the back door and fell down the stairs
The sunlight hit me dead in the eye
Like it's mad I gave half the day to last night

My bad sight made me trip on my ass right into that patch of grass like that's life
All of a sudden, I realize something
The weather is amazing, even the birds are bumping

Stood up and took a look and a breath
And there's that bike that I forgot that I possessed
Never really seen exercise as friendly
But I thing something's telling me to ride that 10 speed

The brakes are broken, it's alright
The tires got air and the chain seems tight
Hopped on and felt the summertime,
It reminds me of one of them Musab lines like

Sunshine, sunshine, it's fine
I feel it in my skin, warming up my mind,
Sometimes you got to give in to win,
I love the days when it shines, whoa let it shine

If I could I would keep this feeling in a plastic jar
Bust it out whenever someone's acting hard
Settle down, barbeque in the backyard
The kids get treats and old folks get classic cars

Every day that gets to pass is a success
Every woman looks better in a sun dress
The sunshine's an excuse to shoot hoops, get juice
Show improve their moves and let loose

I hear voices, I see smiles to match em
Good times and you can feel it in the fashion
Even though the heat cooks up the action
The streets still got butterflies
Enough kids to catch 'em

Ridin my bike around these lakes man
Feelin like I finally figured out my escape plan
Take it all and the day started off all wrong
Somehow now that hangover is all gone

Ain't nothing like the sound of the leaves
When the breeze penetrates these southside trees
Leanin' up against one, watchin the vibe
Forgettin' all about the stress, thanking god I'm alive

It's so simple, I had to keep the song simple
When I get home I'm gonna open all the windows
Feelin all right, stopped at a stop sign
A car pulled up, bumping Fresh Prince's Summertime

When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That $&^# Gold,
Noel

Strawberry Time

Dear Followers,


Boy was today a fantastic day. After driving 60 mph on Schmidt Lake Road back to my house to forge a check and avoid running an extra mile, I enjoyed a relaxed tennis practice under the gentle instruction of Coach Herscher (I really don't know how to spell his name... maybe Huber?). Expecting to meet up with Alex Aronovich at some unidentified Indian restaurant, James, Evan, and I headed out in James' car only to find out that Aronovich was busy.

Going with plan B, we headed to Don Pablo's expecting a day of Endless Fajitas. Well, that day is on Wednesday. Endless Enchiladas is on Thursday. We got the fajitas anyways. I swear to God (what up Bradley?) , Don Pablo's lures you in with those fried nachos and then when you order you can't finish anything unless you are endless stomach James. I am surprised we managed to get to dessert. That Chocolate Volcano never even stood a chance. Rest in peace buddy.

Me and Miles Death may be having one of the longest poking wars in the history of Facebook. On that topic, I finished my epic postcard for Profe Pfeffer today. I hope she will enjoy the Culver's coupon I gave her without concluding that I think she like fast food.  She knows she will use the coupon. Everybody does. I am really sad that I can't find my love for Spanish anymore. Maybe Japanese tainted me. I can't help but reply はい when somebody asks me something.

In other news, today I had the pleasure of discovering that Square Enix has planned to release Final Fantasy XIII-2 (THANK YOU RAPH-KUN). This has only happened one other time in Final Fantasy history (well, technically) with the release of FFX-2. While I enjoyed the mini skirts and pop star Yuna, FFX-2 was not well done, even if the fighting system laid the groundwork for FFXIII. While the trailer (below) looks very beautiful, I am hoping Square Enix is planning on making this game like they would a stand-alone and not just a knock off. We will see.

Damn Lightning looks sexy in armor.

As you can probably tell from my choice of random images today, I finished Kimi ni Todoke after marathoning for two days. I am not going to lie, Kimi ni Todoke was not groundbreaking in any way. In fact, many of you will not like this show (back off Partha). Hell, I was frustrated out of my mind because of all the stupid misunderstandings which come up in Kimi ni Todoke and I never hesitated to flick off my screen or yell at Sawako for being dumb (really, you are crying in every damn episode).

Even for these flaws, I loved Kimi ni Todoke for simplicity. This show was just nice to watch is all. For some reason I was really in the mood for a simple show about high school drama. Maybe because my life lacks high school drama. Who knows? Watching the exaggerated gratefulness of Sawako as she cherishes everything she has was somewhat eye opening for me and made me realize how lucky I am to be surrounded by good friends.

Well, that's all I got for today. Maybe one of these days I will start studying like I promised myself on the first day of Spring Break. Probably not. じゃね (Ivan, "Strawberry Time" is a reference from Kimi ni Todoke).


Kimi Ga Suki De,
Noel

Kimi ni Todoke

Dear Followers,


I have a habit of using people's birthdays as an excuse to get me to set aside sometime to draw. For Oliver He, I decided to do a piece for Hayao Miyazaki, one of the most influential and famous animators in history. Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli pump out masterpieces faster than Michaelangelo (except Ponyo was...). As for Oliver, he is one of the most loyal friends a guy could ask for. Whenever Oliver dicks around, I have a habit of ragging on him to try and get him focused. Sorry. Whatever man. I do it because I love you. Have a happy birthday. We should go bowling sometime.

Once again, I am pumped for Spring 2011 after finishing Deadman Wonderland on my iPhone.And for the record, shoujos can go die. I am such a sucker for subtle romances. First I experienced the masterpiece that is Kaichou wa Maid-Sama and now I have been YouTube-related-videoed into Kimi ni Todoke. I feel like a teenage girl, laying in my bed with a box of cookies and biting my nails over if Sawako will find the people spreading rumors or if Kazehaya will ever make a move. I know Ivan wants me to just read the manga, but this animation is so delicious. All in good fun.

Come on. You know this is adorable.

Sawakaze,

Noel

Densha, Suberiochiru, Headphone

Dear Followers,


Spring Break feels really good right now. I have done nearly nothing so far except for hang out with friends and go from shop to shop in Plymouth (well, I guess I finished my project webpage). Oh, and screw you Borders for not telling me that you were closing down so that when I arrived at your entrance all I found was a barren wasteland filled with garbage Bleach volumes. Where is my Hemingway?

Robotics was a blast. Even though we didn't do very well once again (come on Partha, no need to be ashamed), watching other Minnesota teams dominate was fun. And I even saw Yuen-Yi at Tea Garden (mango shake with lychee jellies just isn't my thing Evan). Here's a shout-out to our professional marketing team who helped us win the 2011 Image Award. What now Swathi?

This year I had the honor of not being one of the 4 people cut from the tennis team. I suck at tennis. I know that Oliver (preempt to you being a troll). Why do I do tennis? I need something to keep me in shape and I enjoy the company of the tennis team. Those were the only two reasons I could come up with. Watching Prondzinski rag on Herscher is fun as well.

My mom came back from India on Thursday. After a long two weeks of eating out everyday and gaining 15 pounds of love-handle, I am looking forward to my mother's make-do cooking. I am not making fun of my mom. With a full schedule like my mom's, I would like to see some of you make what she can. I should learn how to cook sometime though. Now I have to wear this religious necklace she got me and I am ready to counter Bradley's cross (supereffective!).

Star Driver and Fractale ended this weekend. In the words of Ivan, Fractale was great, Star Driver was good. That sums everything up nicely. If you get your anime the real way and happen to pass by gg, you should check out Koda's version of "Friday." All I have to say about Star Driver is that Wako is a punk for loving two men simultaneously. Fractale was supremely satisfying. Everybody died who needed to die, Dias didn't piss me off, and there was a satisfying plot twist. Well done Azuma.

Speaking of Azuma, I am reading "Otaku: Japan's Database Animals" as we speak. Azuma's mixture of post-Derridean philosophy and otaku-centric subcultures fascinates me beyond bound. I mean, having Lacan, Baudrillard, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Zizek, Kojeve, Freud, Nietzche, and Ayanami Rei in the same paragraph is something I could only dream about. Here's a passage I particularly liked:

"With the continuing trend toward animalization in mind, there is a much more simple explanation of the same reality. Just as animal needs and human desires differ, so do genital needs and subjective "sexuality" differ. Many of the otaku today who consume adult comics and "girl games" separate these two; and their genitals simply and animalistically grew accustomed to being stimulated by perverted images. Since they were teenagers, they had been exposed to innumerable otaku sexual expressions...illustrations of girls, cat ears, and maid outfits...However...In most cases, the sexual awareness of the otaku does not reach that level in any way. Precisely because of this, otaku have a strange Janus-faced quality...on the one hand, the consumer numerous perverse images, while on the other hand, they are surprisingly conservative toward actual perversion."

Take that haters. The videos sprinkled throughout this post are various songs by the Japanese band School Food Punishment. I discovered them when I started watching Eden of the East in the fall. They have a unique sound and I love every minute of their songs. JZ would approve as well (I can't dig this Mr. Children fellow though, sorry JZ). Who's ready for some Lotte's Toy this Spring 2011?


Sea-Through Communication,
Noel