Recently…

There seems to be quite the fuss about visual novels abroad, recently. From the worse ones dealing with really sensitive subjects in a really insensitive manner, the whole genre has become the sum of its worst parts, causing us to forget something really interesting: a lot of recent anime has been inspired by the genre. For my next post, I’ll be talking about the genre and what it’s done for anime, but in the mean time, here’s a comic after the jump about that:

Reawakening

This weekend was amazing as far as movies go. First, my friends and I watched a couple of Asian films including “Old Boy” based on a manga by the same name about… well, revenge, if you get down to it, but its definitely not for the faint of heart or the conservative. That said, it was a masterful piece of cinema.

Another masterful piece of cinema, though, was… I’ll give you a hint:

Is that a new Eva pilot?

For more on that, take the jump and

Everyone, Grab The Mountain Dew

This is short, and I realize that, but I’m bored and in China. I’ve gotta amuse myself somehow, right?

In case some of you weren’t aware, and you really should have been, Zach has recently gotten himself over to Japan (Kyoto, specifically).

I don’t know about you, but for him, it’s basically a dream come true. This semester is like an academic wet dream for him, come to life. The difference? It’s not just in his pants. It’s everywhere.

That sounded wrong.

Anyway, I’m pretty sure we’ll all be seeing tons of new content from him. Zach will be on anime/manga/Akihabara overload, and I somewhat selfishly expect to benefit from it. Consider this a challenge to our favorite geek of all things Japanese; I’m not sure if it’ll see the light of day, as I’m just a contributor for the blog and have to submit everything for review from Zach, but if so, more power to him. That’ll mean Zach has balls… otaku balls. Made out of old crushed up old Nintendo cartridges, or decapitated pokemon, or something.

Closer and Closer to Japan (Now with videos!)

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to help a Japanese exchange student with her English skills and also ask my own questions about Japan and its current events. I ended up talking with her about Kyoto, which she had been to once, and it really brought home the fact that I’ll be leaving to Japan in less than a month and a half.

That said, the talks about money that I had with my mom are turning into talks about plane tickets, which I’m going to research and have my parents buy later today. Also, just yesterday I turned in my housing form, which *fingers crossed* will let me reside at the dorm of my choice… which looks a little something like this (audio in French, but you get the picture ~ hit the jump to see what I’m talking about):

Studying abroad

Everything is crystallizing.

Simply, going to Japan is finally becoming a reality on something other than paper. Over the past few days, a couple of factors have driven this home:

1) My mother won’t stop bothering me about logistics.

2) I finally got my actual acceptance packet from Ritsumeikan Kyoto.

and, most recently, 3) I’m going to be doing language exchange sessions with a Japanese student at OU whom I am contacting as I write this.

News

Acceptance

As you can see, I’ve been accepted into Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. I don’t know exactly when I’ll be leaving, but rest assured I’ll stay in Norman for as long as possible (read: March) before leaving for home, then Japan. That said, I won’t have classes next semester in the mean time, and hopefully I’ll be getting a job (anyone have any suggestions?).

While I’m there I’ll be maintaining this blog, but my professional writing major friend has convinced me that writing a study abroad blog will be a good thing. I can’t help but agree. So when I post here, I’ll probably post there. Hopefully, since I’m bringing my camera with me, I’ll have more pictures than I know what to do with. Talk about which, are there any anime pilgrimages you think I should make while I’m there other than the Comic-cons and Akihabara?

Anyway, I’m off to study for finals and play some Persona 4 before my last final at 8am tomorrow (eugh! why 8? why Friday? I need to get back to Corpus!).

以上です。