Sunshine Blogger Award x2!

Hey everybody! Lesley of Lesley’s Anime and Manga Corner and Bloom Reviews nominated me for more Sunshine Blogger Awards! Thank you very much for the nominations, guys, and go check out their blogs now if you haven’t already. There’s plenty of anime and manga reviews, discussions and just overall goodness for ya. 🙂

Here are the rules:

• Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link to their blog so that other people can visit them
• Answer the 11 questions put to you by the nominator
• Nominate 11 bloggers of your choosing and provide them with a new set of 11 questions to answer
• Notify the nominees by commenting on one of their blog posts
• List the rules and display The Sunshine Blogger Award logo within your post or on your blog site

Let’s start with Lesley’s questions!

1) What was the first anime that you watched that made you realize that you were a fan of the medium?

This question I had to give some deeper thought that I first anticipated, because while I definitely remember the first few anime I watched that started me on this path, it’s hard for me to say which series made me truly realize that I was becoming a fan of anime as a medium.

I’ve mentioned before that my first few anime were Pokemon, Digimon and Sailor Moon, then I watched a bunch of stuff like Yugioh and Beyblade, things on Toonami, shows on Adult Swim etc. I had watched a lot of anime before I think it truly clicked with me that I was a fan of anime.

I remember, when I was much younger, G4 Tech TV had an anime block on very late at night. I didn’t have access to the channel on my bedroom TV, and at one point my dad even put a timer on the thing to make the power to it cut at a certain time so I wouldn’t stay up to crazy late hours.

But when I could, I’d sneak downstairs where the living room TV had access to the channel and watch shows on that block. Even though the block had several series, the one that always stood out for me was Crest of the Stars. I think when I realized I was sneaking around to watch anime, particularly that one show, was when I came to truly realize I was an anime fan.

Shortly afterward, I was ordering Anime Insider magazine and getting into making AMVs and truly immersing myself in the medium.

2) Which anime series is your favorite and why?

Fruits Basket. Even though it’s somewhat of a hot button topic now that the reboot is out, I still really adore the original 2001 series. It has a perfect mixture of humor and drama, and I love nearly all of the characters. Outside of it obviously being unfinished in regards to the manga ending, it’s hard for me to find many flaws with it. And it’s a rare case of me having seen a series fully in Japanese and English and loving both.

3) Which anime character do you feel most resembles you?

My answer to this question used to be Haruhi from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, but now I feel like I look a bit more like Hange from Attack on Titan.

4) If you ever have kids, would you consider naming one after an anime character? If so, which name and why?

True story: So before Jaden Smith became a joke, I considered naming a possible future kid of mine Jaden because of Jaden from Yugioh GX. I just liked the name, and it might not count because I’m not too attached to the character. Plus it’s an English name and I don’t think that’s what you’re going for here.

For either a boy or girl, Voyager. It was the name of a one-off character on Pokemon The First Movie and I fell in love with it. It’s badass, it has an anime background, it’s mysterious, what more could you ask for?

5) Is there a manga or light novel series that you’re currently reading?

As of this writing, I’m reading Higanjima, which is a horror manga, I’m finishing off Digimon Adventure V-Tamer. I’m re-reading Fruits Basket in a weird read-watch-watch along with the original anime and the reboot. And I’m reading Tokyo Mew Mew for the sake of an AniManga Clash.

6) If you could be best friends with an anime character, which one would it be and why?

I’m feeling Luffy for this one. He’s a ton of fun, a great friend, incredibly loyal and he’d kick the ass of anyone who’d do us wrong, or at the very least give me the confidence to kick their ass.

7) Are you a fan of any particular anime director? If so, who is it and why?

I’m probably going to go for the somewhat cliché route and say Satoshi Kon or Shinichiro Watanabe. I don’t much follow directors unless they have really really notable works under their belts, and these were the ones who came to mind. Satoshi Kon made some insanely creative and thought-provoking features while Shinichiro Watanabe has such an amazing style in storytelling and building the world for you that it’s hard to not get immersed in it.

8) Do you have a favorite anime studio?

Would it be too obvious to say Madhouse? Bones coming close second.

9) Do you have a favorite mangaka?

Not really. Maybe Yukinobu Hoshino, the creator of the 2001 Nights manga.

10) Do you have a favorite anime animal character?

I’ve gone through this question a few times, so I’ll change it up and say TurtleDucks from Avatar the Last Airbender….It’s a duck mixed with a turtle. How does that not spawn love in your heart?

11) Is there anything else you want to say in addition to the other questions that I asked?

I feel like I should take this opportunity to say something inspirational.

So….

Something inspirational.

Now for Bloom Reviews questions!

1) What was the scariest movie or show you’ve ever watched?

It takes a lot to actually scare me in regards to stories and movies and such, but I have always been freaked out by the Halloween movies (well, most of them) Even though I absolutely love them (Not the Rob Zombie ones….) they do make me consider leaving the lights on at night after I watch one, and I do feel a bit of paranoia during watching.

Michael’s mask as a whole, at least when they do the lighting right so you can’t see his eyes, is one of the most haunting things I’ve ever seen, and the original movies have a great sense of pacing and suspense.

2) Are there certain genres of TV shows or books that you stay away from or hate reading? Why?

I pretty much avoid any reality show that is literally just ‘watch (blank) live their lives.’ Watch a famous couple live their lives, watch a family of little people live their lives, watch a bunch of spoiled rich snobs live their lives, watch a bunch of famous spoiled rich snobs who also happen to be little people live their lives, watch this unreasonably large family live their lives etc. etc. etc. (Just in case I stepped on toes with the little people comment, it’s great to give everyone representation and show their struggles, but at the end of the day 99% of it is still watching normal people live their lives.)

I don’t know how we reached a point where just watching other people do the most mundane stuff with the most obviously fabricated drama thrown in became such a big sensation. My mom likes a ton of these shows, so I’m forced to watch some of them sometimes and I just don’t get it. I especially don’t like when they focus on the rich people living their lives, and yes some of that might be based on jealousy, but other times it’s just because of how ridiculous these people are disconnected from the real world and conceited at that.

I forget the name of the show, but there’s a rich famous couple, I think the guy is a wrestler, and they decided to make friends with their neighbors by sticking action figures….of themselves…into the mailboxes of their neighbors.

I say ‘pretty much avoid’ because I do watch some reality TV, but most of it is competition shows or things with educational value.

3) Who was your first celebrity/character crush and why?

I think it was the Blue Ranger/Billy/David Yost from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. Not only was he very likable, cute and super smart, but damn if he didn’t get hot in later seasons. David Yost also seems like he’s a great guy IRL, so if I was going to have a first character/celeb crush, I’m glad it was him. Shame he left the series, and even bigger shame as to the reasons why.

4) What was one show your parents hated you watching but you watched anyways?

That’s a real tough one because I was a goody two-shoes most of the time and my parents had a pretty good hold on what I watched. I guess Pokemon might qualify here. They never liked me playing the games or watching the anime because, at the time, their religious beliefs skewed them into thinking it was unhealthy for me to watch. But they still bought me Pokemon stuff, same with my Grandparents, who had the same beliefs, and I still watched it every chance I got.

I’ll sneak in another mention here because I know my parents wouldn’t have been happy if they knew I was watching the Adult Swim block on Cartoon Network. Not like anything on that block was horribly adult, especially back then, but they certainly wouldn’t have let me watch it anyway.

5) I’ve recently gotten addicted to podcasts, do you have any recommendations for podcasts or other talk shows you enjoy listening to?

I don’t really listen to a lot of podcasts, but my personal favorites are Sawbones, which is a medical podcast where they talk about a lot of interesting aspects of old and new facets of medicine – The hosts are a married couple, and they bounce off of each other very well and have a great energy about them – the Nick Animation podcast, which is awesome for anyone interested in animation and the BTS stuff involved in their favorite old and new Nicktoons, and If I Were You, hosted by Jake and Amir (previously) of CollegeHumor, which is basically an advice podcast where they give both funny and serious answers to inquiries.

6) I’m currently relaxing on vacation right now. What’s your favorite summertime or beach read?

I’m not the biggest reader (at least of regular novels – I read western comics and manga a lot). Also, I don’t tend to read much while on vacation or at the beach. I’m usually chilling out some other way. I guess I’ll say any Star Wars novel, because those tend to be really relaxing to me for some reason lol.

7) It’s starting to get towards the end of summer. What’s one aspect of this season that you look forward to the most? Vacation? A certain event? Warmth?

I tend to not like summer too much because I am miserable in the heat, but I do like swimming, roasting marshmallows and going to the local fair the most.

8) Conversely, Fall is pretty much upon us. What’s one thing about the season you’re really looking forward to?

Now you’re in my wheelhouse! Fall is my favorite season! And I’d have to say it’s a tie between Halloween and seeing the leaves change color.

9) Tell me about the style of your blog and why you picked the color, banner, and subject matter that you did.

My blog’s style, as you can probably tell from the name, is just general craziness. Initially, I had a much lighter blog theme and only the banner was really crazily designed, but once I switched, I had a bit more fun with it. I picked darker colors with some bright/glowing contrasts in my second (technically third or fourth, considering I tried a couple other briefly before settling here) theme because I think that lends itself better to the crazy type of tone going on.

I made my banner myself. I basically looked for shots from anime that had stuck out in my mind for being particularly over-exaggerated or insane. I fiddled around A LOT with fonts, colors and background designs before just reaching one I liked after hours of trial and error. I did purposely throw some purple in there because purple’s my favorite color.

I picked the background image after searching Google for insane anime-related pictures and just stumbling upon it. I thought it was, forgive the pun, insanely awesome and fit perfectly in my page. It was also the background of my menu on my first blog theme, but you couldn’t see it well.

When I first started doing anime reviews, I had been inspired by a lot of Internet reviewers at the time, and I had been somewhat known for my rants, ramblings and weirdness, so I figured a blog with a crazy ‘madhouse’ theme was best suited for me.

As for why I chose anime, manga and animated features to review and discuss here, I simply started doing it a long, long time ago on a long-since dead website. I kinda enjoyed writing and I loved anime, so I started writing posts about it in the website’s blog section since that was the place relegated for personal opinion pieces and whatnot. It took me a little while longer to branch out into reviewing western animation and several years more before I started reviewing manga.

I try to stay within the confines of anything animated since that’s what I know best. I also love horror movies and comics, but I am definitely not comfortable enough to review those. I just don’t know enough to talk about them as a whole in enough depth to give them justice.

Also, despite still keeping a tone of craziness and fun in here, I do now try to keep a stronger balance with serious analysis and exploration when the situations call for it. Never giving up the Madhouse, but definitely want to give more quality for your views.

10) What about blogging drew you to make your own blog?

I really didn’t have much experience with blogs before starting one of my own. I did start posting on a blog on the aforementioned website/forum, and when I moved to another forum where I started doing these reviews more formally, even though we did have a blog section, I mostly posted in official review threads.

My drive for seeking out a real blog was to have a place all my own where I could organize my reviews and other writings, particularly because, by that point, I had started writing several other series such as Sub/Dub Comparisons, my Pokemon movie/short/episode reviews and even my special reviews for holiday specials.

I was spread out all over the forum, and the forum was mostly dead by that point. I didn’t have really any readers at all and I felt like I was bombarding an empty land with my writing for no reason. Even though I still don’t have the biggest audience, I still feel like I’ve built a home here and have people reading and even responding to my work, which makes me feel much more content.

11) Is there anything about content creators in particular or content creation in general that you find annoying or frustrating?

I can’t really think about one encompassing thing about content creators that annoys me. It’s mostly just things specific content creators do because of their own specific style or personality.

Myself, though, I find trying to convey my opinions in a manner that is both entertaining but not devalued by the entertainment aspect to be frustrating. I want my blog to be enjoyable to read. I strive to be funny while also providing a valid opinion and interesting information about what I’m covering. Finding the balance is insanely difficult to the point where I feel like I rarely, if ever, actually find it. I’ll re-edit posts several times trying to find this balance and so many times I feel like I just have to compromise for one or the other.

My Questions

1) Have you ever completely changed your opinion on an anime or manga after rewatching/reading it again or because someone shared some compelling thoughts about it?

2) What is the most ridiculous reason you’ve seen for someone not liking something?

3) What flying animal or device from any anime or manga would you choose as your primary mode of personal air travel?

4) What was your favorite subject in school and why?

5) What character in an anime or manga do you think suffered from the worst example of backwards character development/devolving? (IE, they started out fine or even good but got progressively worse over time?)

6) What’s your favorite board or card game to play?

7) In your opinion, which anime/manga character had the most pointless death? (Spoiler tags)

8) Besides anime or manga, what’s something that you can talk about endlessly? Like once you get going on the subject, time flies?

9) No shipping hate, but which shipping in anime or manga makes the least sense to you but somehow ended up canon and/or endgame?

10) Did you have a toy, doll etc. that you never went anywhere without as a child?

11) What plot twist in an anime or manga basically ruined the entire series to you?

I’m opting out of tagging people this time around, so anyone who sees this and wants to give it a shot, step right up! 🙂

 

The Sunshine Blogger Award!

Hey everybody! I was nominated for a Sunshine Blogger award by the very kind 7Mononoke! Thank you so much for the nomination. If you haven’t already, check out their blog. They have some really awesome and insightful anime reviews, lists and analyses.

Let’s go over the rules.

– Thank the person who nominated you and provide a link to their blog so others can visit them.
– Answer eleven questions asked by the nominator.
– Nominate eleven bloggers of your choosing and provide ask them eleven questions of your own.
– Notify the nominees by commenting on one of their blog posts.
– List the rules and display the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post or on your blog site.

Without any further ado, let’s answer the questions!

1 – What is Your Favorite Color, and is There a Particular Reason as to Why?

My favorite color is purple. I don’t believe there’s any real reasoning behind it – I’ve always just found purple to be an awesome color, especially neon purple. My favorite color combo is orange and black because of Halloween, though.

2 – Do you have a favorite kind of wild plant, tree, or flower?

I never really gave it much thought, but if I had a favorite plant, it’d be bamboo because it’s cool-looking, very renewable, useful for many purposes and pandas eat them. Pandas are adorable.

Tree-wise, I’d say the birch tree because they’re so different from other trees. I love their white coloring since it’s a nice contrast to the rest of the forest.

My name is actually a flower name, Heather, but my favorites would probably be wisteria and lavender. (lol purple)

3 – Have you taken a Myers-Briggs test before, and if so what type are you?

Yes, I have. In fact, I had to take it as part of one of my psych classes for college. 🙂 I am an INFJ or Advocate type.

4 – What is one of your fondest or most memorable childhood memories?

When we went to Six Flags with my grandparents. Bad things happened (like our ride over there was kinda miserable, and my grandma had to be taken off one of the roller coasters because she was feeling ill) but we had a lot of fun, and even through the bad things we never fought or got irritated. We went about our trip, saw some great shows, went on some fun rides and we just enjoyed each other’s company. Plus, as a cartoon nut, I was crazy over all the Looney Tunes stuff.

5 – What is a scent that you like? It could be a food-related scent, anything floral, or something like the smell of cut grass, pencils, or books.

I love all of those scents, for the record, but my personal favorite smells are citrus, like orange and lemon, and maple. I also love the smell outside right after a big thunderstorm.

6 – What is your current favorite anime or your current favorite book?

It’s really hard for me to choose my favorite shows, manga, anime etc. but I still believe Fruits Basket is my favorite above all. It’s, in my opinion, a perfect balance of drama, character development, relationship development and comedy with an absolutely amazing cast and equally amazing dub.

I know the current incarnation will be exploring the rest of the manga, but the one mark against the original series has always been that it never got a chance to explore those characters. Even though I’m enjoying the new series, I kinda still wish we had gotten the continuation in the old Fruits Basket style. Maybe I’m just more partial to the extra comedy in the original series, but it’s a lingering thought.

7 – Do you like adventure outdoors, like occasional camping or light hiking?

Okay, here’s the deal. I love being outdoors. I really do. I’ve never really been camping, but I love hiking, nature walks, swimming-ish (I can’t swim that well, but I love being in the water) etc. However, I am just an absolute smorgasbord for mosquitoes, and bug spray never seems to help me much.

I tend to have bad reactions to bug bites too. Nothing severe, but still. This has lead me to being paranoid when outdoors. As a result, I typically do my outdoor adventuring in autumn, when it’s cool, there are few bugs and it’s very beautiful outside, or during winter. In fact, my dad and I used to go on long snowmobiling trips fairly often in winter. We no longer have snowmobiles, but I’d love to go on a long trip on a snowmobile again sometime.

8 – Do you have a psych or a developmental disorder, and has it affected your life? (No need to reveal what it is unless you’re comfortable.)

I have social anxiety disorder and depression. Had them for around ten years now. I don’t really feel like going into details, but yes they have affected my life quite severely.

9 – What kind of insect or arachnid scares you or annoys you the most?

Mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. Mosquitoes. MOSQUITOES.

I hope they all die in the biggest fire.

10 – What is your favorite OST from an an anime or other TV series?

I’ve always adored the OSTs from the Dot Hack Franchise. I’d never really be able to settle on one. As for regular TV, the Avatar the Last Airbender (if you don’t count that as anime) soundtrack is phenomenal.

11 – What are you most grateful for? You can mention several if needed.

My parents and my pets. I owe my life to them in more ways than one.

———————————————-

My Nominations (Forgive me if I nominate people who have already done this (recently, anyway) or if you don’t do awards posts. :))

Artemis (Otaku Lounge)

LitaKino

Kat Sade (GrimmGirl)

Irina (I Drink and Watch Anime)

A Nerdy Perspective

Crow’s World of Anime

Krystallina (Daiyamanga)

D & A Anime Blog

Mel in Anime Land

The AniMessenger

Jenn (Welcome to Hell Zone)

New Questions

1 – What’s a food most people seem to love, but you dislike?

2 – If you could live in any anime world, where would you live and why?

3 – What anime world would you absolutely never want to live in?

4 – What’s an anime character you believe was unjustly killed off?

5 – What was your favorite toy growing up?

6 – What’s one skill you want to develop but haven’t found the time/money/energy to do so?

7 – What’s an anime character that nearly ruined an entire series for you?

8 – Likewise, what’s one anime character that made an otherwise terrible/boring anime exponentially better?

9 – Any item from any anime is now a life-size merch item. You can get one item absolutely free. Which one would you get?

10 – Do you have any tattoos? If so, what are they? If not, would you want to get one?

11 – What do you do when you have writer’s/artist’s block?

Update (3/28/19) What I’m Doing (If I even know)

Hey everyone! Twix here, explaining…things.

Where I’ve Been?

I haven’t really been ‘gone’ per se, but my activity has been rather erratic.

Basically, the reason I’ve been updating so inconsistently is because my attention has been pulled in a few different directions lately. I’ve been an active…I guess I’ll say ‘staff member’ (?), in the #SaveDaredevil campaign, which you probably are aware of by now if you follow me on Twitter because that’s pretty much all I’ve Tweeting about for the past three months. I was particularly busy during the last week of February because I was helping organize a fanworks event over the course of that month.

My dog, Skye, recently had some medical issues and she pretty much needs round-the-clock attention. She’s elderly and has a lot of stomach issues. There’s nothing life-threatening that we’ve been able to see, in fact, the vet said her health is much better than most dogs her age, but it’s still a long-standing issue that eats up a lot of my time.

Work has kinda been a nightmare, and student loans are starting to eat away at me.

I’ve been trying to get back into my art with varying degrees of success. I’ll probably share some here when I get back into the swing of things.

What I’m doing

As an update to what I’ve been doing lately for anime and stuff, I recently finished Terror in Resonance, which was really good. I’m currently watching Attack on Titan season 2, which, so far, is much better than season 1, in my opinion. I’m watching the dubbed version of Pokemon movie 11: Giratina and the Sky Warrior.

For manga, I recently completed Enigma, which was fairly good, and I’m currently reading Vol. 9 of Boku Wa Imouto ni koi wo Suru, because I enjoy wallowing in the abyss. This is the second to last volume, so I’m nearly there. It’s about the achievement now, guys.

I’m nearly done plowing through the rest of Tokyo Mew Mew for SSBS, but I’m not sure what show I’ll try to plow through next. Maybe a cartoon.

What I Plan on Doing

As for future projects, I’d like to do more editorials, but it’s kinda hard for me to 1) Decide on topics and 2) actually post the editorial once I’m done because for some reason I’m more self-conscious posting those than I am my reviews. I have a bunch of topics jotted down but I’m trying to work up to getting them done.

I’m also planning on making a spin-off of my SDC series, which is Sub/Dub Opinions. Basically, I’m going to give my opinion on an English dub that isn’t SDC material, but done in same format. IE I’ll be watching an episode Dubbed and Subbed side by side and noting the differences.

Since it’d be ridiculous to do full series analyses for this, I’ll be randomly selecting one episode and comparing that, basing my opinion on the analysis from that episode. Unless I have prior knowledge of a full sub and dub job, which is rare. Only rule for this series is that I had to have finished watching the series is either sub or dub.

I was also musing about doing select character analyses, opinions on fictional worlds and exploring the inspiration and backstories behind series, but these ideas are much more spotty. I tend to go off on new ideas for series without realizing I have a bunch of other blog series that haven’t been tended to or had many completed entries lol They’ll probably be sporadic like the My Poke-Pinions series if they come to pass at all.

I also considered making an art series for this blog where I make a picture per anime I’ve reviewed. Kinda killing two birds with one stone.

My birthday’s this Saturday and I wanted to do something special for it, but I have no clue what to do lol I’ll get back to you.

That’s about it for me. I promise to keep updating fairly regularly and bringing you guys new and hopefully fun and interesting posts. Thank you guys so much for continuing to read, like and comment on my posts – it means the world to me. 🙂

Brief Hiatus: 9/14/18 to 10/1/18

Hey everybody! How ya doin’?

Just posting to inform everyone that I’m going on a brief two-week hiatus starting now. I’ll still be around to talk to, comment and read your blog posts, I just won’t be posting around here for a bit. Nothing’s wrong, but I am finding myself struggling more than usual to get my regular posts out on time (Too many times this month I’ve been posting at, like, midnight. I know I can schedule posts, but they’re sometimes not ready in time either way.)

In addition, October’s right around the corner, which means Animating Halloween is coming up! We’ve got Yami Shibai 6, Hell Girl 2 and various animated Halloween specials to review next month. So I’ll be using these two weeks to recharge my blogging batteries and get a backlog going so hopefully I can post at a steadier and less frustrating rate for a while.

Also, hopefully, by then I’ll have new glasses so I won’t be making as many silly mistakes as I have been. (Though, that’s not likely. My brain’s just a jerk)

See you guys in October! ❤

One Lovely Blogger Award!

I recently got nominated by the wonderful Keiko of Keiko’s Anime Blog for the One Lovely Blog Award. Thank you very much, Keiko! Not sure how lovely this nuthouse is, but I very much appreciate the nomination. 🙂

For those who haven’t yet, check out Keiko’s blog. It’s loaded with anime review goodness, topped with in-depth analysis and served with with a delicious side of good humor. Also, her blog is way lovelier than mine. Look at that layout. It’s all pretty pastel colors with a beautiful calming banner. You’re really slumming it with the Madhouse, Keiko. I haven’t even vacuumed.

Rules:

1. Share the link of the blogger who has shown love to you by nominating you.
2. Answer the 11 questions they ask.
3. Nominate 11 bloggers for the same award in the spirit of sharing love and solidarity with our blogging family.
4. Ask them 11 questions that you are dying for the answer to!

Alrighty then, let’s get down to it!

Question 1 – Do you share your birthday with one of your favourite anime characters? (If you don’t know, use this link to check. It is in Japanese but its easy to navigate. The green box with the numbers are the months so that’s where you start. The days will appear once you choose your month and then you’ll get a list of characters.)

Answer: I posted this on my birthday just because I wanted to answer this in the most proper way possible. Lol.

No. Not my favorites. Some of the more notable entries for me are Rei Ayanami and Yui Ikari from Evangelion, Aries from Saint Seiya, Eren from Attack on Titan and Rui from Boys Over Flowers.

Question 2 – Following on from that, do you share your birthday with a character you dislike?

Answer: I’m mostly just ambivalent about the characters who share my birthday. If there are two who come closest, it’d probably be Eren from Attack on Titan and Rui from Boys Over Flowers.

Question 3 – If you could be the protagonist of an anime, what type of protagonist would you be and what would you call yourself?

Answer: – A dork. I’d probably be a shy but fun-loving protagonist who gets a little crazier and more open the more you get to know her. I’d love to be one of those characters who goes a little nutty and destroys stuff with that anime-ish super strength (in a funny way) As long as everything was instantly fixed afterwards a la anime editing magic lol.

As for a name, I have no clue lol. Maybe Izzi? I’ve always loved that name and it’s shared with one of my favorite Digimon Characters.

Question 4 – If you were a pirate, what would you be called?

Answer: Finn. Quick, simple, one-word, ocean-related name that sounds awesome. To make it more piratey, how about Captain Finn? Finnbeard? One-eyed Finn!

Question 5 – You have been transported to the times of King Arthur. Who would you be?

Answer: I don’t know who I’d be in a sense of the story of King Arthur. In a realistic (medieval) sense, I’d probably be a poor peasant person lol. Honestly, though, I’m thinking I’d be a rogue thief. Not glamorous, but in a romanticized sense, really cool.

Plus, I almost always answer as some sort of magic user for nearly every question like this (it’s also my go-to class for nearly every game), and I never get to stretch my thief chops.

Which are awful, but I like them.

Question 6 – Following on from that question, what would your choice of weapon and horse be called?

Answer: Hmmm, that’s a good question. A thief would need something compact and easy to wield while also being stealthy. Not necessarily something too lethal either because it’s thief not assassin. I’d go with a crossbow in that regard. Do I have to name the weapon too? I’ll name it Thumper.

As for a horse, who I suppose would be more of a companion and a getaway vehicle (lol) I’d name it Bandit. I don’t care if that’s obvious.

Question 7 – If you were caught outside in a snowstorm, what would you do?

Answer: Seeing as how we just got two foot+ snowstorms back to back at the time of this writing, this question angers my soul. However, if I was caught in a snowstorm with absolutely no protection I’d…I guess it depends on how much snow is coming. If it’s just a regular snow storm, I’d probably throw snowballs and eat snow. If it’s a massive blizzard or something, I’d throw snowballs, eat snow, build a snowfort then die in the snowfort. Because if I’m going to die I’m going to do it as empress of Snowlosia.

Question 8 – What one thing are you proud to own?

Get it? Because he’s Pride!

Answer: In regards to something I’ve bought, it’s silly, but I have a tiny little Ivysaur figurine that I bought for a few bucks on Amazon. Ivysaur’s my favorite Pokemon and it’s hard to find merchandise for him that doesn’t look like crap, so I was really happy I got a nice Ivysaur figurine on the cheap (little dude’s over 25 bucks on Amazon now) and it’s proudly sitting on my dresser.

In regards to stuff my parents have given me, I have a stuffed red bull named Red my mom got me when I was little that I proudly treasure on my bed. She got it for me during a trip to Chicago, and it was the longest I had ever been away from my mom.

And I have a miniature wooden half-pipe for those finger boards and bikes that were a fad back in the early 2000s that my dad made for me. It’s a simple little thing, but I’m very proud of it because he made it just for me and my silly little toys. I don’t even have any finger boards or bikes anymore, but I still plan on keeping it.

….Oh yeah and I have a college degree worth several tens of thousands of dollars and god knows how many hours of blood, sweat and tears. That’s kinda cool too. But you’d have to ask the banks whether or not I actually own that. /sadpoorcollegegradhumor

Question 9 – What’s the weirdest song you’ve ever heard?

Answer: I can’t think of any super weird songs off the top of my head, but I’ve heard plenty of weirdness from the awesome band Psychostick. They have songs about doing laundry, dogs liking socks, claiming the song you’re currently listening to is not a song, but a sandwich, ‘girl directions’, those spam emails about male enhancement, and even Bruce Campbell. They have an awesome discography, I suggest checking them out.

Question 10 – Have you ever started watching/reading something and forced yourself to finish it despite it being terrible? If so, what was it?

Answer: Oh God, yes. Mostly just really short things like movies or short OVAs that I plow through because I don’t find a point in quitting something so short. Some that come to mind are Eiken and 6 Angels.

The longest horrible shows I’ve plowed through are Shining TearsXWind and Amnesia, and I honestly couldn’t tell you why I completed those. At the moment, I’m slogging through the manga of Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru and I’m really only finishing this to see how far the rabbit hole goes. To its credit, there are some improvements to the story that the OVA never explored, but it’s still a dumpster fire.

Question 11 – What anime are you planning to watch from the spring season?

Answer: I don’t usually watch the newest anime because the manner in which I select the anime I watch is far too sporadic for me to typically get the latest series as they come out. One minute I’ll be watching an anime from the 60s and then follow that up with something that came out last year.

But I’ll give this season a looksee for what I am looking forward to if I ever get around to it.

*one looksee later*

Would you hate me if I said ‘None, really’? Lol

Megalo Box looks pretty cool, and Piano no Mori looks interesting, but other than that, none really. Most of the new seasons for stuff like Tokyo Ghoul and Full Metal Panic I’d probably be excited over much more if I were up to date on them, though I plan on finishing Tokyo Ghoul fairly soon.

Lovely Nominated People

Lethargic Ramblings

The Otaku Judge

Krystallina

Chizurue

The Spooky Red Head

Bloom Reviews

Irina

Oishi

shadowcat99

Dreager1

Jenn

Questions

1 – What’s the best anime OST you’ve ever heard?

2 – What’s the worst anime OST you’ve ever heard?

3 – Anime or otherwise, what’s the most minor thing that has ‘ruined’ a show for you?

4 – What’s one thing you used to hate but now like/love?

5 – Did you eat all of your vegetables as a kid?

6 – Firebender, Waterbender, Airbender or Earthbender?

7 – Congratulations! You’re the star of your own comic book! What’s it called?

8 – Congratulations! You’re now the villain in that same comic book somehow! What are you called?

9 – Have you ever gotten into a fad that you’re now embarrassed by?

10 – What’s an adaptation you know of that’s actually much better than the source material?

11 – What’s the hardest project you’ve ever had in school?

Blogger Recognition Award (+ A Surprise!)

Whoo! I’ve been recognized! This awesome person named Jenn bestowed upon me this award. I knew all those years of pretending this was a blog and not my bin for crazy ramblings would pay off.

Thank you very much for the nomination, Jenn. 🙂 Do you like anime, reviews, good things, happiness and listening to me tell you to read a great blog? Then look at Jenn’s Blog, Welcome to Hell Zone!

Here are the rules for this award.

1.Say thanks to who nominated you and leave a link back to that persons blog.
2.Give the story or history of your blog.
3.Give two or more pieces of advice for new bloggers.
4. Nominate 10 other bloggers and link their blogs.

History of My Blog

Is it boring to say ‘I wanted to make a blog for my reviews, so I did?’

Okay, let’s back up then. Many, many years ago, I was a frequent player of the now far defunct online Pokemon game, Pokemon Crater. I was also a common face on the forums, where I met many great people, some of which are still my friends to this day.

The forums had a blog section where users were free to write about whatever they wanted, within rules of course. I started writing reviews in there, and since the website is gone I am completely blanking on exactly when I started doing this, but I wanna say, estimating from other sources, it was mid 2006—wha, mid-2006? I feel ancient right now.

And, yeah, surprise, my origins are rooted in Pokemon. I was far more into doing Pokemon sprite work than writing reviews at that point. I had a sprite shop and everything. I loved doing splices and recolors, but I especially enjoyed making glowing and ‘angel’ versions of Pokemon. I wasn’t fantastic at it, but I had regular-ish requests and did it on a frequent basis.

Anyhoo, I didn’t do these on any sort of schedule on my reviews and I had barely any format to them. I’d watch some anime and blather about it in a short blog post whenever I felt like it.

Flash forward to late 2007 where the admins of the site are saying the website’s going down – and quick. Like a handful of days of notice before the place implodes. Being such a popular and large site, it caused quite the stir to scamper off to other places. I migrated to a forum that was specially made for Crater refugees, which I won’t share the name of since 1) It’s dead anyway and 2) it’s mostly meant for close-knit already established members and 3) I am pretty sure registrations are turned off either way.

I was made a moderator by the admin and happy days were here again. It took me six months before I finally put up an open review thread for anime, but I did and posted…..more regularly than I did on Crater but still very sporadically and without a solid format.

Over the years, I started reviewing things more frequently, polished up my writing style, branched out into cartoon reviews (back then, it was usually just holiday specials), and even started some of my sub-series like Sub/Dub Comparisons and Pokemon Extravaganza. I also started doing very minor Pokemon reviews episode by episode, which grew and improved over time as well. I started late Orange League and am still doing them today. As of this writing, I’m up to episode 181, which kinda depresses me because I thought, after all this time, I’d be much further than that. Oh well, at least when I close the gap I’ll have a hell of a backlog to upload.

As time went by, the website experienced a….uh….let’s just say a cataclysm of drama that, in hindsight, was incredibly stupid and poorly handled by all parties, myself included.

After that, the forum started to die, even more than it was, quite frankly. I felt like my writings weren’t being seen and that I was missing out on all sorts of discussions about the things I was writing about. I gave a couple of blogs a test drive until I finally decided to go all in on a WordPress blog.

In regards to the name, I was known to get into rageful rants and random babblings in both my reviews and my regular blog posts, and I still am proud guilty of that to this day, so I figured The Anime Madhouse was perfect for it…..Took me a long time to realize I might’ve made this place invisible to search engines because there’s an anime studio named Madhouse….Pbbbtt.

I exported and continue to export various reviews I made at my old place here, revamping the hell out of some of them, but I have greatly enjoyed making reviews, creating new series and discussing various topics with the community here on WordPress since February 17, 2014……Hey, that means–

It’s my Bloggiversary!

It’s now been four years since I started my reign of terror. That’s one way of spicing up a Bloggiversary post, I suppose. 😛

Piece of Advice for New Bloggers #1: Try to Do Plenty of Research on What You’re Writing About.

Not only does research enhance the quality of a post immensely, but research can actually be a lot of fun. I’ve stumbled upon quite a few interesting tidbits and stories about the things that I review just from doing a quick Google search on it.

You absolutely shouldn’t feel compelled to do hours of research to make a few blog posts, god knows I usually don’t, but learning more about your chosen topic and even citing sources can be greatly beneficial both to your readers and you.

Piece of Advice for New Bloggers #2: Never Be Discouraged by Lack of Likes, Comments, Shares etc.

Blogging is something that you do moreso for yourself than anybody. Obviously, we post this stuff online to be seen, otherwise we’d just keep a diary, but don’t feel discouraged just because you don’t get a lot of likes, comments, shares etc. When you’re just starting out, people will have to find you. And even after doing this for years, you might still find little in regards to feedback. That’s okay. Just the fact that you’re putting yourself out there and having fun writing is all that matters.

But if you really yearn for some discussions, try visiting other peoples blogs and comment on them. Like their stuff, share it on social media, ask questions, make requests or just say hi. You’d be amazed how many people check out your stuff just because you pop in and share your thoughts on their posts.

As a bit of a tip, though, don’t follow too many blogs in a short period of time. You’ll be automatically locked out of following people and have to ask for a system admin to unblock you. That totally didn’t happen to me. It happened to a friend. Named….TwiddleFix….

…..Hey, it’s not my fault that I keep finding interesting blogs around here. I blame all of you and your suggesting of visiting blogs.

Speaking of which, I suggest you visit these blogs because here are my nominations!

(Hopefully I caught people who haven’t done it yet. No pressure either way.)

Matt-in-the-Hat

Nice Job Breaking it, Hero

Karandi

Lita Kino Anime Corner

The Otaku Judge

The Cool Kat’s Reviews

DReager1

Mr. Panda

Lethargic Ramblings

Fueled by Smiling

Unique Blogger x2

Two Unique Blogger Awards? But that means there are two of them….and thus, not unique. Am I not unique? Is there another FiddleTwix out there somewhere?…..My username’s been taken before, so probably. Is nothing unique? Are we all just clones? Copies? Dopplegangers?! Was 11Eyes right!? It–….oh sorry. I gotta stop having existential crises when blogging.

Ahem.

I’ve been nominated for two Unique Blogger Awards! 😀 The first one was by Shadowcat99 of Exploring the World of Anime and Manga, and the second was from Jenn of Welcome to Hell Zone. Thank you both very much for the nominations, and if you haven’t yet, check out their blogs. They both have a lot of prime, nutritious, grade A blog posts for you. Go on and read their stuff. I’ll wait.

Alright, let’s get started!

The Rules (copy pasted)

1. Display Award
2. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to their blog on your blog. Try to include a little promotion for the person who nominated you.
3. Answer questions they’ve written for you.
4. In the spirit of sharing love and solidarity with our blogging family, nominate 8-13 bloggers and asks them 3 questions.

Let’s start with Shadowcat99’s questions.

1 – If you could strike anything from existence; person, place or thing, what would it be?

That’s a tough one. I’d probably have to say cancer. I’ve lost nearly all of my grandparents to lung and throat cancer, and I’ve lost several other loved ones to it. The suffering it causes everyone involved is just catastrophic. If I had to place a close second, it would be cigarettes/tobacco, for obvious reasons.

2 – What’s is the funniest new years resolution you have ever heard?

I don’t really hear too many New Year’s resolutions, to be honest. Most people I know either don’t make them or they do the obvious ones like lose weight, travel, learn a new language etc. I do recall reading someone online posting something like ‘I resolve to start doing the resolution I made in 2016, which I meant to start in 2015, forgot to do in 2014 and was too lazy to do in 2013.” I thought that was kinda funny.

3 – Who was your biggest hero growing up, not now unless it hasn’t changed, but when you were a kid?

In a fictional sense, The Power Rangers. Corny as they may be, they were my heroes. They supported each other, helped each other out without question, were always doing good deeds and doing whatever it took to save the world.

In a realistic sense, my parents. They always were working their asses off to give me and my sister as good a life as they could. No matter how tired they were or how emotionally drained they were, they always had time to help us, play with us and take care of us.

Now for Jenn’s questions!

1 – If you were to blog about a different subject other than what you blog about now, what would it be?

Horror movies. I’ve mentioned that I started doing reviews long ago on an old defunct Pokemon forum (which then transferred several members to a new Pokemon forum, which I helped moderate). Well, I branched off into live action movie reviews after a little while, and that eventually lead me into reviewing horror movies. I never reviewed them nearly as much as I did anime, and I rarely review them now, but I still really love horror movies and love writing about them.

As a side note, I’d love to review comics, but that’s way too huge of a pool for me to jump into.

2 – What’s the scariest movie/anime/tv show/etc you’ve ever seen?

Serious answer – The original Halloween. The ambiance, Michael’s black eyes and emotionless white mask, the tension increasing every passing second. It’s a fantastic work of horror.

Silly answer – the first Halloween special of Family Matters where that Urkel puppet shows up. Laugh if you will, but that is just a screwed up piece of television that honestly gave me nightmares for years.

3 – Have you ever watched a movie/anime/tv show/etc that reminded you of home?

That’s an interesting question. Does this refer to home as in hometown feeling/my house or my family? I’ll answer in both ways. Most recently I watched Summer Wars, which doesn’t really have a family similar to mine, but did remind me of my family a lot. While my extended family is rather large with both of my parents having numerous siblings with their own children, plus estranged family members due to divorces and whatnot, unlike Summer Wars, hardly any of us talk to each other. While watching that movie, I was frequently reminded of all of my aunts, uncles, cousins and such and wished that we had that sort of family.

In terms of homes or hometown feelings, I’d have to go with Air. I don’t really know why. There’s just something about it. Other than living in a small town, the area in which I live and grew up doesn’t seem anything like the area where Air takes place. There’s just something warm and homey about the setting and the relationships between the characters.

My questions:

1 – What anime or cartoon character have you most related to and why?

2 – What’s your favorite way to waste time?

3 – What little things in life make your day much better?

Nominees: I hope I’m catching people who haven’t done the award yet. No pressure if you want to do it or not– you deserve the award anyway 😀

Fujinsei

Benigmatica – The Anime Rambler

Unshaved mouse

Gentleman Otaku’s Anime Circle

Moe Sucks

Otaku Lounge

AngryJellyfish

Krystallina of Daiyamanga

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Merry Christmas, everyone! 🙂

I hope everyone has a happy, safe and wonderful holiday! And for those about to be hit with same storm we are, bundle up, have some cocoa, relax with some Christmas music and curse the people of a utopian future who will never have to shovel.

❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ *Hugs* ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤

November Marathon Poll Results

Hey guys! It’s time to go over last month’s poll results!

November is going to have marathoned blog posts, meaning every two days or so, a new entry will be added to one specific series of mine instead of once every week and half-ish like I have been going. Other series will be updated along the way, but the main focus will be on one specific series.

At the beginning of October, I started a poll asking you guys which series you’d most like to see me focus on, and the results are in.

And the winner is Pokemon Episode Analyses!

Thanks for voting, everyone! Here’s to Poke-vember!

 

 

Update 6/11/17: Hiatus Over

Hey everyone innocent and that one guilty person reading right now. (You know who you are) As promised, I am back in blog-action today. I’m not running at 100% but the show must go on, plus I’ve missed making posts. In itself, it’s therapeutic, even (especially?) the ranty ones. I’m not going to be making a full-blown entry right now, but one should be up tomorrow. I just wanted to let everyone know that the Madhouse is now back to moving its turbines instead of rusting.

Let’s put some more tokens in and continue, shall we? 🙂