I’ve bought the tickets since December and I can’t believe that there are only 5 more days till Comic Con!
This is really an amazing event that I just can’t wait to go to. The only downside of this is the fact that I’m actually working, both on Saturday and Sunday, from 4PM.
So, I’m stuck not knowing what to do. I can either take a day off from work, ask someone to do my shift or skip work altogether and go wild.
I’m just so torn up, I WANT TO GO and just waste time and money.
When I first bought the tickets I planned on going just to buy stuff and that’s it. But now, I’m looking on their website and I’m just crying a lil bit inside.
John Rhys-Davies (from “Lord of the Ring” and “Sliders”) will come to the convention. I’m just looking and the website and an autograph from him is 50Ron. That’s not much, but considering I was planning to spend no more than 100Ron (trying to be rational here) kinda makes it hard for me. So I decided to go as high as 300Ron for this convention, hopefully I won’t overspend.
For me to actually be able to get an autograph from this big guy I’ll have to go on Sunday. But I’m not going alone, since I have 2 tickets. Johnny said he’ll pass this one out and I’m actually going with a colleague from work. But she’s in Germany at the moment and she will be back at the end of week.
I want to make plans and set things straight.
Then there are the many shops with merchandise! I’m so excited I can’t even describe the feeling.
I feel like a little kid that will go to the amusement park for the first time and doesn’t know what ride to try first.
I’m one sure of one thing, I’m taking my new photo camera with me and I’ll go wild with photo’s. I want lots and lots of photos of this event.
I’ve just seen “The secret world of Arrietty” trailer. Lately I’ve only been watching series (like One Piece, Sailor Moon, Doctor House, Invincible Youth, etc.) so I miss watching anime, hindi and comedy movies.
My “must see” list just keeps growing and growing. I hate prioritizing my needs over my wants.
So, I started a new week with a very slow Monday.
This morning I was lucky enough to get a seat in the bus. And if you’re wondering what’s so lucky about that, well, at a certain point the bus driver couldn’t open the doors of the bus. It was that crowded. Technically, there weren’t that many people in the bus. The problem was there were a lot of fat people. When the doors couldn’t open I heard one such specimen asking “What? Do people really need to get down?“. She and another chubby (I’m being nice here) were resting (again, I’m nice) on the doors, that’s why they couldn’t open them. It took a few minutes before some men were able to push the doors open, and the fatties were just complaining that people were pushing them.
If I use the term fat cow I would be insulting the cows.
Moving on…
Two more months till the end of the year. Just a simple question: How many of you have completed their 2011 resolutions or are still working on them?
Sailor Moon was my first ever anime. It’s the first thing I remember when people ask me about my childhood and it holds a very special place in my heart.
I just loved it to bits.
Now that I’ve grown up I wanted to see it again but I feared that I would see it differently now as a grown up. That I will get a different feel from it and it would be a shame to ruin something as dear, even if it’s just a memory.
Even so, I decided to watch it again.
I wasn’t disappointed with it. I love it as much and surprisingly I understand more of it now than I did when I was young. So in two weeks I’ve managed to see the first arc (Sailor Moon) of the series and I’ve started the second arc (Sailor Moon R). I’m surprised by the quality of the anime, it’s funnier than I remember and truthfully I think some of that ’90 fashion is making a comeback.
Coincidence? Maybe, but I always loved the Sailor Moon fashion.
Well, I did notice a difference from what I saw when I was young and what I am seeing now. I’m surprised that my parents didn’t notice at that time, considering how conservative they are they should’ve picked it up in an instance. But then again, I’m sure they didn’t notice because in anime the male characters sometimes resemble the female characters. So it’s easy to get confused especially if you don’t watch closely.
I’m taking about the depiction of homosexuality in Sailor Moon.
After seeing the first arc of the series it was pretty hard not to notice that Kunzite and Zoisite (both male antagonists) were deeply in love with each other. But I don’t remember anything about it when I saw the anime the first time.
There were only two things that caught my attention and only one that made me wonder “why?” at that time.
The first one was the close relation between Sailor Uranus (Haruka Tenoh) and Sailor Neptune (Michiru Kaioh). I believe the relationship between them caught my attention because they had bigger roles in the series than Kunzite and Zoisite.
And the second one that really made my brain ponder a little bit more was when the Star Fighters were presented in the series. It baffled me when they changed from boys to girls. And why was Seiya (a girl cross dressing as a guy) so interested in Usagi?
I wasn’t that little when I saw the anime and I wasn’t that dense not to know about homosexuals, but I just thought nothing of it. It just didn’t register with me.
How should I say this, it was something that came and went without having second thoughts about it. It didn’t bother me; it didn’t intrigue me it was just a thing presented to me without having an impact.
I guess I saw it as something normal and at the same time as something that had nothing to do with me. That’s how I saw the homosexual relationships when I was little. That’s how I see them today.
I also realize that when I was little I’ve seen many anime with similar dare I say homosexuality that it’s hidden from kids but it will register with the adults. This really amazes me, because these things are presented in such a subtle and tasteful manner.
I just never gave much thought to the issue when I was young. I was just enjoying the lovely world of Sailor Senshi and I’m sure that there must be a lot of people in my shoes. And even after realizing such things I would still want my kids to watch Sailor Moon. It’s something really dear to me and I would love to share it with them (and hopefully pass my anime love to the next generation).
I don’t see any reason why not to as I seriously doubt a TV show or an anime can turn straight people gay or the other way around. These things are all up to each individual.
Since I got in such a good mood after watching Biker mice from Mars I started looking for some of my favorite cartoons and anime that I used to watch when I was little.
Unlike cartoons these days, the oldies were pretty awesome. Not only did they have good graphics, good stories but they also made you addicted. Well, anime are still addictive so I can’t complain about them.
So, just a heads up this will be a pretty long post. Also the cartoons and anime are listed in random order. For me, all of them are pretty special and just picking one would be really hard.
The Pirates of Dark Water is a fantasy animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera in 1991. The series followed a group of adventurers on a quest to collect the Thirteen Treasures of Rule, which possessed the combined power to stop an evil substance known as “Dark Water” from consuming the alien world of Mer.
When I was little I didn’t understood why they never aired the entire cartoon. It was frustrating because I never got the chance to see how it ended. Not only that, but they stopped airing the cartoon after a month or so. That was pretty disappointing because believe it or not, even my parents enjoyed it. They seemed to like that goofy bird Niddler.
But, as I found out, nobody got the chance to know if Ren, Niddler, Tula and Ioz ever found the missing treasures (they had 8 out of 13).
The show was cancelled because of the expensive production costs. Well I could understand that, considering how the graphics were amazing. I also believe that is because of those graphics that I am still able to remember this cartoon! Let’s face it, Ren was pretty hot! Even my child self could figure that much.
I am still wondering why they still haven’t made just a few more episodes so the cartoon could have a decent ending. It wouldn’t be much to ask and I’m sure that all the fans out there would appreciate it.
Hello! Sandbybell is one of the anime that even my brothers remember because we all used to watch it. I don’t remember much of it, except a few things like how Sandybell was always looking for her mother. My memory can’t be blamed because the anime was broadcast on Romanian TV in the early ’90. I was born in 1987 so I was basically a toddler at that time.
Still it deserves mentioning because, even as I toddler it left its mark on me. It was one of those things that we did as a family. Because there is a considerable age difference between me and my older brothers (6 and 11 years) I don’t have many memories with them. Although I’m sure they remember much more then I do. But the memories I do have with them are us watching Sandybell and Hana no ko Lun Lun (“The Flower Child Lunlun” or “Floarea cu sapte culori”). I guess that makes these two anime pretty special for me.
Unlike Hello! Sandybell, I remember a lot more about The Flower Child Lunlun. I think I enjoyed it much more because Lidia (that’s how the main character was called in the Romanian version) had a cat and a dog. Basically, she had the two things that I wanted my entire life. That and I also think the aired the show for a longer period of time.
Another anime that keeps up with the young blonde heroine theme was Lady!! Unlike the other two anime, I always thought this one was a bit more tragic, considering the first episode shows Lynn mother dying in a car accident while trying to protect her.
There’s also one more thing that makes this anime special: I remember it all! Lady!! was aired on TVR2 while I was still in middle school and I never missed an episode. Every day, after school I would come home and tune in. I had one hour too myself each day. One hour in which I had the house to myself. I guess it stuck with me because it was that period of my life when I started becoming more independent.
Thinking about it now, Lady!! was pretty much like a soap opera. A lot was happing in the anime and considering Lynn was barely 5 years old when the anime started she was pretty mature for her age.
I would also like to add Candy Candy to the list but I don’t remember seeing it. The only thing I remember is me drawing her face in sand, when I was at the country side. I guess I missed the show because I spent most of my summers at the country side and we didn’t have a TV there.
Yes, I know many kids these day will be shocked to hear this but we actually managed to live without TV and we didn’t even knew what computers were, let alone know what was the deal with the Internet.
In my English class, in middle school, our teacher asked us to pick an English nickname for ourselves and I picked Sally. This was weird because everyone was expected for me to pick Alice since it’s much more similar to my real life name, Alina. Needless to say kids were mean and I got a new nickname in my repertoire, but that’s another story.
Sally the Witch was all about doing good deeds and helping your friends. The story was sweet and it combined magic with real life situations making it believable. What can I say, I was and still am a gullible person. That and I always believed that there’s a little bit of magic in everything. Considering how many times I’ve been put down only to have a good thing happen to me shortly after I think I’ll keep on believing.
That, and even to this day I still keep contact with old friends.
I’m pretty much sure that there isn’t any person out there that hasn’t seen or at least heard about Sailor Moon. This one is such a classic that it’s almost hard not to talk about it. I’ve always been the tomboy of my group of friends but this one anime always made me want to be a little bit more girlish. The fashion of the main characters was really awesome, and it still is. Not only that, but I wanted to find my prince charming (yes I admit it!). Sounds corny? Maybe, but Sailor Moon will always be my special anime.
It was special in so many ways it would hard to even try to explain it. For an impressionable young girl, this simple anime opened a lot of doors in my imagination and allowed me to have as many dreams as I wanted.
Unlike Sailor Moon, Captain Tsubasa made me careful with what I wish for. I had this huge crush on Kojiro Kyuga and I always hoped that one day I could find a soccer player like him in real life (I was being pretty much silly). Fast forward to present day and if that wish would’ve come true I would be officially a wag. Not only that, but I think I’m under qualified to be a wag. I’m just not plastic enough.
Leaving the cruel reality aside, Captain Tsubasa was pretty awesome. I remember playing a lot of soccer at that time, and if you don’t mind me saying I was pretty good at it. Well, that and I do seem to have a lot of scars on my knees from that period to remind me of it.
And speaking of reminders, inside our knife drawer we have this old sticker with one of the Captain Tsubasa players. There was a time when they used to sell chewing gum with stickers and I used to collect them. Unfortunately I had the bad habit of sticking them on furniture and only one survived.
Another anime that is related to sports is Attack No. 1 or better known asMila Superstar. This anime was aired on weekends and I had to get up at 6AM just to see it. It was a well worth effort because I was in my last year of middle school and we were practicing volleyball instead of handball.
But watching the anime had little to no effect over my real life skills. I won’t even tell how badly I sucked at volleyball. In fact, the entire team I was on sucked and we always got beaten by the other teams.
But that wasn’t the point I was trying to make.
I have mixed feelings about this anime because I was going through the hardest phase of my life: I was graduating middle school, I had important exams coming up, and I was about to say goodbye to my classmates of 8 years.
Even so, I found refuge into this anime. I guess Mila, the main character, had such a strong personality (never giving up, always looking forward to new challenges) that I was trying my best to cope with the changes in my life.
Thinking about it now, I realize how much these anime and cartoons have influenced me in life. It’s like having many friends that are always there with advices, always cheering you on. And when the series is over you feel like losing a friend, rather than having the source of entertainment cut off.
Sounds weird but I’m sure many people who are like me and are into anime/cartoons feel the same.
I guess, in a way I can consider myself lucky.
That, and I wanted to share one more link that I’ve found while browsing around the Internet: Desenele Copilariei . It’s a Romanian blog about old cartoons and anime, and from just browsing a few pages I can tell that a lot of heart goes into it. Plus, there are a lot of cool posts about many anime, some which I never heard of (shame on me). So if you’re a fan and you know Romanian you should check it out. You will not be disappointed.
Also, I have a feeling that I may have missed out on other cartoons and anime that I might’ve seen but my memory is not doing me any favors lately.
Although we’re barely in July, I feel like Christmas is just around the corner.
I had plenty surprises this past few weeks, some nice and some not so nice, but some of them were just awesome. And it all started with me running into an old childhood friend which we used to call Limburger.
Yup, as soon as I saw him a flood of memories came back and I just couldn’t stop thinking about all those old cartoons and anime that I used to watch when I was little. And the first one that came into my mind was Biker mice from Mars.
We used to call them “Motomartienii” or “Motomartians” in plain translation. It was one of the coolest cartoons on TV. It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen the show that I forgot most of the details so I decided to look them up and see what I could find on this vast Internet.
Ohohoho and what a shock I had when I found out that in 2006 the show got a new season.
I was amazed!
I couldn’t believe it at first because most cartoons don’t get second chances. But it’s all true, there’s a new series out there with a new plot, new enemies, new graphics and many more new things (including games). What’s more awesome is that the show isn’t aired only on TV but it also has its own YouTube channel. That means it’s available to everybody that has access to the Internet.
So far so good but as usual there has to be a downside. The old series are very hard to find. Only the first season is available on Amazon. The second and third seasons are available on torrents but they are dubbed in Russian… I don’t know Russian and I doubt I’ll be learning it any time soon.
Oh well, at least I managed to watch the first season and I felt like a little kid again. There were so many references to other TV shows/movies that just made me so nostalgic.
I really miss those days.
Since I couldn’t find the other two seasons from the ’90 I started watching the 2006 season. I was expecting not to like the new graphics but, to my surprise they are pretty easy on the eyes. I think it’s because the lack of pixels on the image that I like it so much.
The only thing that bugs me it’s the huge difference in size between the three main mice: Throttle, Modo and Vinnie. In the old series they were pretty much the same size, except Modo who was the gentle giant. But now Vinnie and Throttle are skinny and small in height and Modo is just plain huge.
At least Charlie has the same attitude even if she got a makeover from the show producers. She still looks good even after all these years. And it’s nice to see her get more screen time.
Even if the new season has a lot more improvements to it, I doubt it will be as dear to me as the old ones are. I know that the producers tried to bring back something that was loved by many, but the season is missing something. I can’t tell exactly what that is but I know for sure that it doesn’t have that same feeling about it like the old ones did.
Maybe it’s just me, maybe I feel more attached to the old season because they bring back so many good memories, but it doesn’t even get close to the awesomeness of the old seasons. I’m still at the 6th episode so who knows maybe I’ll enjoy it more in the near future.
Now if only they could bring back more of the old school cartoons. That would be such a dream come true. Especially now with all those idiotic cartoons they air these days. I’m telling you Cartoon Network has gone down the drain a long time ago.
