by Tomiokajiro
I really haven’t been updating my blog with anything interesting lately because, unfortunately, I’m back in school and have about double the workload I did last year. Someone needs to remind me to make a post about 2012′s J-pop Summit Festival in San Francisco soon, since I’ve been intending to write about it and share some pictures here @_@;; Anyhow, though, I was recently tagged by Chibiotaku010 and shall be answering her questions, as well as posing questions to the people I have tagged (and anyone else who wishes to answer should feel free too ^-^ ).
Rules of the Game
- Each person is supposed to follow the rule of fives. You are allowed to ask 5 questions, after which you can tag up to 5 bloggers by hyper-linking to their blog; 5 questions because it’s not too many to flood another blogger and occupy too much of his/her time, but yet a large enough number to ask your most important questions, and 5 bloggers to avoid spamming. Hence, prioritize your questions, and who you wish to ask!
- Those tagged are obliged to answer the questions in a blog post, and after which, they are entitled to create their own 5 questions and tag 5 other bloggers, so on and so fourth. You should answer your own 5 questions as well. You are allowed to tag the person that tagged you in the first place. Also, copy and paste this section on your blog so others can understand how the game goes.
- In the case where a blogger strongly refuses to answer a question, he/she must instead post a nice anime image, wallpaper or cosplay picture, et cetera in response to that question.
- To make things interesting, a blogger can include wildcards in his/her 5 questions by placing an asterisk, (*), after which those tagged are obliged to reveal something interesting about themselves that others did not previously know. There is no limit to the number of asterisks one can place (which means there can be up to 5 wildcard questions).
- Anyone can feel free to start the game; you don’t necessarily need someone to tag you. Just create your 5 questions and tag your 5 people of choice. However, the catch is that you must answer your own 5 questions as well.
- To potentially prevent an endless game, this round of games will end on the 8th September 2012, 12pm JST (GMT +9). After which, no more bloggers can tag others to answer their questions.
So, here are Chibi’s questions:
1. What anime character do you like the most, and why?
This is definitely a toughie, and I considered choosing Okabe Rintarou (Steins;Gate), Heiwajima Shizuo (Durarara), or Mogami Kyoko (Skip Beat), but in the end I settled for Rider from Fate/Zero – otherwise known as Iskandar or Alexander the Great.
by LighTofHeaveN
When I started watching Fate/Zero, I expected that Saber would be my favorite character in the series, seeing as she was my fave back when I watched Fate/Stay Night. However, as soon as we got to meet Waver Velvet and his Servant, Rider, they almost instantly became my favorites to win in the war for the Holy Grail. I loved seeing the bond between them. Waver might’ve frequently been annoyed by Rider, and both of them were aware that Rider would have fared a lot better in the war if Rider had gotten a different Master, but even so, they became quite close over the course of the anime and really did care about each other to an extent that I did not see in the other Servant-Master relationships.
Of course, it’s not just his friendship with Waver that made me like Rider. I always found it amusing to see his antics, such as when he ordered himself a shirt with the world on it, when he was determined to get a pair of pants, and when he told Waver that he didn’t have to read books about him when he could just ask the real Alexander. But I also feel like he is the kind of king that I would have followed gladly, if I had lived in his era. He was always optimistic and confident, and he can also be quite compassionate, such as how he had felt sorry for Saber’s situation, even as he did not acknowledge her as a king. While Saber is very dedicated to making her ideals a reality and to protecting her country, she always seemed to me to be rather distant from other people, and she had also unintentionally caused pain to others, such as Sir Lancelot (I will not reveal more about that if you haven’t finished Fate/Zero :p). And Archer (Gilgamesh) is so self-centered and ruthless that I think I would mostly have obeyed him out of fear rather than actual devotion. But I feel like Rider was both the most trustworthy and the most approachable out of the three Fate/Zero kings. I admire him both as a person and a leader.
As much as I may try to explain why I like Rider in rational terms, though, in the end, it just boils down to me thinking that he’s awesome. With that chariot of his, he is what I now imagine Santa Claus to be like. xD
from Anime Evo
2. If you are actually able to BE in an anime…what anime would that be?
I’m sure I’ve heard other people cite this anime as the one they’d like to live in, but I still have to say Aria.
by Amano Kozue
by Amano Kozue
by Amano Kozue
by Amano Kozue
Art from the anime
Artist unknown D:
Artist unknown D:
Neo-Venezia, the world of Aria, is based off of Venice, Italy, one of my favorite cities. I love the Italian architecture and culture, the fact that you can travel around by gondola or by motorboat and cross bridges to get from “island” to “island”, and of course the ocean. I did actually get to go to Venice a couple years ago, and it was quite lovely, even if the water was kinda dirty and it was really hot… Anyhow, Neo-Venezia is simply gorgeous. It’s basically an even-more-beautiful version of Venice and does not have a ton of annoying tourists like myself. :p Also, I think it’d be nice to be able to be an undine, and to sing while rowing people through the canals. I even like the gondolas in the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas. xD
Aside from Aria, I do think I might’ve liked to be in Eureka Seven, not to become a mecha pilot but because I could try lifting – though I would probably fall off and crash to my doom, considering that I have never surfed or skateboarded and am not really known for my athleticism. xD And even if I enjoy poking fun at Uta no Prince-sama, I would’ve liked to attend Saotome Gakuen so I could have the chance to become a professional singer, or at the very least, spend a lot of time with talented musicians. ;__;
And I know Avatar is not really an anime, but if it were, I actually would’ve picked that for this question because I think it’d be great to be a bender and because I really want to meet the Gaang. Especially Toph and Zuko. o:
3. What anime genres do you like?
Obligatory FMA pic xD
by arm
Nowadays, I’m also a big fan of action and I like things that have some fantasy or sci-fi in them. That includes many of the animes I just mentioned, but I also like Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Durarara, Shakugan no Shana (though a lot less than I used to for some reason), Shounen Onmyouji, Scrapped Princess, Kaze no Stigma, Natsume Yuujinchou, Macross Frontier (I greatly prefer the movie Sayonara no Tsubasa over the anime, though), Gakuen Alice, R.O.D (Read Or Die), Neon Genesis Evangelion (I watch the movies and not the original anime, though), No. 6 (except there’s a ton of things that really irked me about the anime), and Summer Wars (gosh I love that movie ;_; Somehow I like it a lot better than The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), as well as the mangas Pandora Hearts, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Tegami Bachi, Full Moon o Sagashite, Kamisama Hajimemashita (aka Kamisama Kiss) and Hanatsukihime. I really don’t read as much manga as I’ve been intending to, though… ^-^;;
Because I had to throw Vocaloid in here somewhere. xD
by RAHWIA
4. One of the saddest animes you have watched?
Well, at first I was going to say Clannad: After Story but then I decided against it just because I’ve heard so many people say that they shed tears over Clannad. xD (Though it is true that I have loved all the adaptations of Key’s visual novels that I’ve watched so far – Clannad, Air, the 2006 version of Kanon, and of course Angel Beats. You can bet I’m looking forward to seeing Little Busters as an anime!) I also thought about choosing Steins;Gate, FMA, or Madoka but I think I would just start raving about them and digressing too much. So instead I’m picking Code Geass.
Why couldn’t this just last forever? ;_;
by しおん
I’m warning you right now, there are spoilers in this paragraph, so please skip this paragraph in order to avoid them. xD Euphemia died, Rolo died (he gets a lot of hate, but I didn’t find him that annoying), Shirley had her memories wiped, Viletta and Kaname did not get to live happily ever after together, something about Tianzi and Xingke was tragic to me (but I don’t remember what exactly; was Xingke going to die or something?), and then Lelouch just had to have Suzaku kill him. So now CC will be forever alone and has no one to eat her pizza with T__T Anyhow, the thing that makes me sad is that I’d really liked seeing the bond between Lelouch, Suzaku, and Nunnally (I loved scenes like the one where Suzaku helped pull up Lelouch when they’d been chasing the cat…I think they were on the roof? I might’ve remembered the details wrong though D: ). I have to confess that a part of it is because I’m a fujoshi and kinda like the SuzakuxLelouch pairing, but still… ;_; Anyhow, pretty much everyone seemed to either get blown up or shot, or someone they loved got blown up or shot. I think the fact that characters kept getting screwed over interfered with my enjoyment of Code Geass a lot, actually, because I spent so much time grieving or cursing at the show. D:
5. How long have you been an otaku for? Do you think you will ever give up on your otaku life?
Well, if you count Pokemon, I’ve been watching anime since I was 3. (The next anime I watched was Sailor Moon, probably when I was 5 or 6) However, I didn’t really start to get into anime until around 4th or 5th grade. So I guess that’s about 7 years that I’ve been an otaku. (: I don’t intend on ever giving up anime completely, even if one of my friends is still trying to convince me to watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (I have seen a couple of episodes but I don’t think I have the time to be joining more fandoms @_@ ). I’m actually starting to suffer from anime burnout – lately I haven’t had that much of an urge to watch anime – but still, I’ve been through periods of not being so interested in anime and I always ended up getting back into anime again after a while. So I’ll probably still be watching anime, reading manga, playing video games, and cosplaying (hey, at least maybe I could do Lin Beifong, Sophie Hatter, and Sakae Jinnouchi when I get old xD) even as an adult, although I may be less open about my hobbies than I am currently.
Yes, I will probably someday still be a creepy photographer at cons a few decades from now. xD
MtK as USA, Azuma as Japan, photo by azuo
And now…time for my questions! o:
1. What length of anime do you prefer to watch?
Generally I’m more likely to watch anime that are between 12 and 26 episodes. I think the main reason for that is because in the past, I used to insist on finishing ever anime that I started, even if I didn’t really like the anime, so of course it was better to watch shorter animes so I could move on to another one quickly. And since I often used to watch only one anime at a time, even if I did like the anime, I still sometimes would become bored or impatient after watching many episodes consecutively (particularly if there were filler episodes that I didn’t find particularly entertaining x_x ). Nowadays, though, I’m more willing to watch longer animes because 1) I’m probably missing out on a lot of good series if I discriminate by anime length and 2) I tend to watch multiple animes at a time now (mostly due to the fact that I actually watch currently-airing animes, which I didn’t do much a couple years ago because I hated having to wait a week for the next episode) so I can avoid boredom by just switching between animes. Still, I’m hesitant to pick up animes that are very long – as in, a couple hundred episodes (this applies to many of the popular shounen animes xD) because it would just take so long to catch up, and I have far less free time for anime watching than I used to. ):
2. What is your favorite aspect of the anime/manga fandom?
Although I’m quite interested in anime music and in cosplaying, I would have to say my favorite thing is fanart. This probably comes as no surprise if you’ve seen how many Pixiv artworks are sprinkled into my blog posts and how much time I spend on DeviantArt… xD Fanart really has had a huge impact on what animes (and also mangas, video games, and movies) I’ve been exposed to. Very frequently it has been seeing beautiful fanarts that piques my curiosity about a series – and in some cases, after seeing a gorgeous picture, I would watch an anime and it would actually end up becoming one of my favorite animes. That’s what made me try Ao no Exorcist, Hetalia, Durarara, Magi, Tiger & Bunny, Katekyo Hitman Reborn, Ib, and Uta no Prince-sama (which is still funny to me – I thought it was yaoi because I saw so many BL fanarts of it before actually watching the anime xD ). Even for the countless number of series that I haven’t really delved into, I generally know a few tidbits of information about them all because I searched up the series after seeing some fanart.
One of the pics that got me into Kuroko no Basket o:
by ユウノ
On that note, while fanart is often what catches my eye, pretty official art also has gotten me to seek out more information. Black Rock Shooter, Guilty Crown (though I never ended up watching it, I just like redjuice and supercell xD), Kuroshitsuji, Inu x Boku SS, True Tears, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Ef ~ A Tale of Memories, 07 Ghost, Touka Gettan (didn’t really understand the anime when I watched it, but I do like Carnelian’s art o: ), Otome Youkai Zakuro, Starry Sky, Arcana Famiglia, and many of Nitro+CHiRAL’s games are some examples of that. And the art is without a doubt a factor when I decide what mangas to read. If I like the story, I’ll still read the manga regardless of the art (unless it’s really bad…like the drawings my teachers do at school xD) but it’s definitely a plus if both the plot and the artwork appeal to me.
3. Are there any particular traits in anime characters (whether personality or appearance) that you really like?
I’ll start out with my visual biases :p
- Skilled fighters. Whether it be with a sword, a gun, a bow and arrows (which seems to be very popular nowadays? o_o;; ), magic, or just their bare fists, I like to see characters who are good at combat. This applies to other things besides anime, such as movies (ex. The Avengers, Brave) and video games (Super Smash Bros. is definitely my favorite game series, and I also adore Lightning from Final Fantasy 13). Although I’m not all that interested in sports, I like to watch skilled athletes too. I guess it makes sense considering that I like action animes. xD
- Glasses. (Or megane if you prefer to call it that. xD) More so on male characters than on female, though. xD I’m not really sure why since I don’t think I was that into glasses when I was younger…I don’t even know when I started to like them. o_o;; It actually carries over into real life now, since I keep an eye out for people who look good in glasses.
Of course I like Yukio for the above 2 reasons. xD
Official art for the anime
Ditto for Shizuo. :p
Official art for the anime
- Collared shirt and tie, suits, and military uniforms. I dunno, but I just have a thing for them. I like them on female characters too (*coughcoughSabercoughcough*). So I like school uniforms that have ties in them as opposed to the gakuran. o: And this is sorta unrelated, but I kinda like pirate outfits nowadays too. xD
The artist sure knows what I like…
by ∴▽▲
Just dress like this all the time please. <3
by ひゅが@ついった
- Reverse traps. That applies not only to appearances (such as Naoto from Persona 4, Haruhi from Ouran, and Haruka/Sailor Uranus from Sailor Moon) but also to voices, whether they be voice actors or singers. For instance, I greatly admire seiyuu such as Romi Paku who can convincingly sound like a male. And two of my favorite nico nico singers, Valshe and 96neko, are considered to be reverse traps voice-wise (though I’d say Valshe is manlier-sounding, as I can still tell that 96neko’s a girl pretty much all the time). There’s others like Hitori, Che:sakurai, Hanycham, and Cocolu who are also reverse-trap singers. I do like trap (male who sounds female) singers too, but not nearly as much. Anyhow, though, I also like androgynous characters, such as Terumi from Inazuma Eleven, Ruka from Steins;Gate (even if I guess Ruka would just be considered a trap since he looks so girly o: ), and Crona from Soul Eater (but in Crona’s case it’s the personality and backstory that I particularly like and not the androgynous appearance). And I like crossdressing too ^-^;;
Naoto on the right 
Official art
- Ponytails. I like them on both female and male characters. So of course I like the hair of the Vocaloids Len, Gakupo, and CUL. <3 And I do like to see ponytails on characters that don’t normally don them, such as Edward Elric (FMA), Atsushi Murasakibara (Kuroko no Basket), Spain (Hetalia; sometimes in his pirate outfit he has a ponytail), and Haruhi Suzumiya (I think you should know what anime she comes from xD). I was really excited when Saber had a ponytail in Fate/Zero, too. (: I also like the hair of Nezumi (No.6), Alto Saotome (Macross Frontier), and Yu Kanda (D.Grayman), though I wonder if it was on purpose that the three of them are similar in appearance. o_o;;
by 衣
If I ever did watch or play Hakuouki, it’d be for this guy o:
by チハル
- Moles. I wasn’t sure whether to put this because I don’t have any preference for moles. But then I realized that lately I’ve liked several characters who have moles, such as Yukio from Ao no Exorcist, Tatsuya from Kuroko no Basket, Masato from Uta no Prince-sama, and Tomoe from Starry Sky. So I figured the mole deserved its own little spot here…get it? ;D
As for personalities…I think I generally like characters that are either quiet and antisocial or tough and intimidating, but when you get to know them, they’re actually just big softies. It’s so cute when those sorts of characters blush or smile. ^-^ And I really like spunky, determined characters, especially when it comes to heroines; I think that’s a major reason why I like Avatar: The Last Airbender and Studio Ghibli films so much. A lot of Disney films frustrated me because I felt like the princesses would just wait to be saved, or their lives just revolved around romance – even Mulan ends up being about romance in the 2nd movie. D: As for character types that are especially associated with anime, let’s talk about the “deres”. :p For tsunderes, it’s kinda odd because I don’t like most female tsunderes (though I did like Shana and Taiga…but they both use swords, so maybe that might’ve contributed? o_o;; ), but I do like quite a few male tsundere characters. I don’t particularly like or dislike yanderes, but then again, I don’t think I’ve watched most of the animes that are famous for their yanderes.
4. Which series do you want to get into but haven’t had the time yet?
I’ll be listing mostly non-anime stuff here. xD
- Sword Art Online. I’ve heard so many good things about it but I only watched the 1st episode recently. x_x
- Karneval. Heard it was getting an anime, so maybe I’ll wait for that instead of starting the manga.
- Paradise Kiss. I’ve been reading Nana and enjoying it, so I think I ought to read more of Ai Yazawa’s works.
- Most of the long shounen series. Gintama, Bleach, and Fairy Tail are the ones I’m particularly curious about, but lately I’ve also heard a lot of praise for One Piece. Unfortunately I will probably never get around to watching those, unless I get to retire early…
- Adventure Time. I’ve watched a couple of episodes, but I ended up having to put it on hold to catch up with some animes. xD I have to keep watching again sometime so I can see Marceline, though D:
- Sherlock (BBC). I might actually get to see this soon, though, since my local library has it and I’ve placed a hold on the DVDs.
- Doctor Who. Too many episodes though x_x
- Supernatural. Ditto of Doctor Who.
- Star Trek. Haven’t seen it, but I really should sometime.
- Lord of the Rings. It will probably shock many people that I haven’t read a single book or watched a single movie of that series…
I’m probably missing some things, so I’ll have to add those in when I remember. D:
5. What are your favorite artists/art styles? (Anime, manga, video games, or even just art in general)
I’m sure you’ve had enough of me blabbing about art by now, and I could never run out of artists to talk about, so I’ll just mention a few mangakas whose artwork I like for the time being. xD
- Takarai Rihito. Fell in love with her art after reading Seven Days and now I intend to read pretty much every manga she has illustrated for. xD I’m currently reading Torikagoshou no Kyou mo Nemutai Juunintachi and will likely pick up Hana Nomi zo Shiru afterwards.
Hana Nomi zo Shiru
Seven Days
Torikagoshou no Kyou mo Nemutai Juunintachi (click for bigger image)
Torikagoshou no Kyou mo Nemutai Juunintachi
Kakemakumo, Kashikoki
Seven Days
- Aya Kanno. One of my current favorite mangas is Otomen, and I love Kanno’s artwork. <3
Otomen
Blank Slate (Akusaga)
Otomen
- Aya Shouoto: I swear it’s just a coincidence that two of my favorite mangakas have the name Aya… o_o;; I was introduced to her art through Barajou no Kiss. I’m not sure yet if I’ll read her other mangas (depends on what ratings they get on MAL, I guess xD) but I do think her art style is beautiful. *o*
Stray Love Hearts
Barajou no Kiss
Original art?
Code Geass (fanart xD)
Junketsu + Kareshi
And now for the next victims. Here are the blogs that I’m tagging:
*Note: For those blogs tagged that have multiple bloggers working on the team, you can all do the interrogation, or one of you, or none of you… xD It’s up to you.
Of course, you’re not obligated to do this interrogation if you don’t want to. And people who aren’t tagged can but if you want to give it a try, I hope you have fun with it (:
[...] another interrogation. This time I’ve been captured, blindfolded, handcuffed by Kumoshi of Kagaribito and taken somewhere I don’t even know… but it was dark. And scary. And [...]
[...] Kumoshi’s Questions: [...]
Glorious Rider!
I thought it was yaoi because I saw so many BL fanarts of it before actually watching the anime xD
Oh this is hilarious! Seriously, if you base your expectations of Kuroko on the fanart you’d expect a lot of BL hints. But it’s surprisingly…very mild? Oh fandoms.
I’m curious, how are the tagged people supposed to answer questions?
That’s true, I definitely saw a ton of Kuroko BL fanart out there and that tends to be pretty misleading compared to the anime’s actual content… There does seem to be some catering to BL fans in those “See you next week” pictures at the ends of episodes, though :p
I think it’s just basically that a person tagged makes a post in their own blog where they post the interrogation game rules and then answer the questions that the tagger posed. (: