I can’t believe the stupid perverts (i.e. Crusader and Calawain) laughed at my title post. What’s so funny about the title anyway?

So, let’s get the key thing started first. We need your feedback on our new spanking blog design. Kabitizin of Sea Slugs Team fame helped us with this wonderful blog design, and we love you to give us some feedback on how it can be improved. In essence, we are asking you to give us feedback so we can torture Kabitizin until he goes like “no more, no more changes, SCREW THAT!!!!” Actually, no, That will be fun ugly. As you do know though, we always respect your feedback, so give it to us!

Secondly, the stupid poll about where I am gone is finally taken down since I am back. FYI, I was gone not because of the reasons in the poll but it was due to a time traveler kidnapping me for a inter-galactic sales call. Meh. It’s time for a new poll and I blame the anger in my head for this really weird poll. I swear it is my viewing of “Lost” and the games with Battle Royale-styled themes. Anyway, tell us why you think a certain blogger would win (I personally know who would, actually) in an online Battle Royale fight? Tell us how the fight will go, and the likely weapons we might use.

Edit: Fixed author’s page.

Welcome to blogging Mabdese! (added by ExecutiveOtaku)

Dearest readers, friends, and hangers-on of THAT!  ExecutiveOtaku here, and it is my pleasure to introduce to you the newest member of our blogging team/family/international hikkikomori conspiracy: Mabdese! She has impressed us with the breadth of her interests and experience in the fandom, and we hope you will welcome her to the blog and enjoy her entries. Ah, to think that only a few months ago I was the newbie and now I’m introducing our newest writer. Oh the transience of blogging youth! Without further ado, I hand the remainder of this post over to my good friend Mabdese.  Welcome to the team!

Hello all you readers out there in THAT land! It is I your newest addition to the blogging crew, Mabdese. I’ve come to you from a distant land to save you from the mediocrity that plagues all of our lives. For my first series I’ll be reviewing Kobato and probably doing recaps of this seasons hot new j-drama Samurai High School. I’m sure you must be wondering what anyone could add to this wonderful blog but I’ll do my best to do the following things:

- Adding my unique feminine/old school insight into anime in weekly editions of reviews/recaps.

- Review some j-drama, stage plays, albums, and other tangential aspects of anime.

- Keep a keen eye out for overlooked animes.

- Have a wonderful sense of humor about otakudom.

Now I know you, you’re thinking hold up, who is this? so I’ll introduce myself properly. I’ve been in anime fandom for nearly 11 years now ever since attending a sci-fi convention and accidentally watching Eva.  I am an avid (sometime rapid) fan of 90’s anime and probably one of the last people to hop the bandwagon before for the internet. In case you are wondering about my street cred, I watched Macross  7 in my friends basement on third generation VHS with the subtitles nearly unreadable back in ‘99.

I’ve been involved in the behind the scenes for a few conventions, been the head of panels, written fanfics and done some cosplay. I have shaken the hands of many seiyuus I admire and connected with some really great friends through anime. By day I’m your average 20-something with a full time desk job. I  live Seattle, WA currently but grew up in NYC and double majored in linguistics and communications with a minor of Japanese. I love to cook and write and play video games. My anime interests are usually more girly with some my favorite series being Saikano, Earth Girl Arjuna, Paradise Kiss, and Blue Sub 6. I happen to like ecchi series a lot as well especially ones like Oku-sama wa Joshi Kosei, GreenGreen, and REC. My favorite anime might just be Record of Lodoss War. I own nearly all the merchandise produced for the series from wall scrolls to little action figures.

If you’re still not convinced I’m clearly awesome I submit this to you:

This is my soap dish. Yes, this is actually my soap dish.

I look forward to my time blogging here at THAT and hopefully forging more friendships through anime! Please support me~

Well, it seems for some reason that Modicus causes a total 500 internal server error when we try to revert to it, so you have an old-school styled theme, aka fspring, (when we first started) for the blog. Obviously, it might not be as awesome as our last theme, but I am quite sure that this intermittent blog theme will please everyone before we work on the current theme to make it look awesome.

Of course, we might take into a certain blogger’s suggestion for a new blog theme, but for now, we will work with the tons of constructive criticism for our “new” theme. Thanks! Now, I will get back to doing the translation for Gente 3 because my girlfriend is annoying me about more Gente chapters!

You can probably tell that we have made a major change from our previous blog template. So, the most important for us right now is to get your feedback, because we always want to see if there are any plausible changes we can make to improve your blog reading experience. We do have to admit that we might not be able to incorporate everything that you mention, but we try our best to see if it makes sense!

Anyway, give your feedback please!

Here are some of the reasons for the template change.

1. The loading time for the previous blog is horrendous. I guess it’s the images that needed to be loaded, or perhaps the number of entries that are shown on the front page. This alerts me that we got to have a splash page to reduce the loading times.

2. I always wanted a better categorization, and show more entries on the front page while not causing longer loading times. This blog template allows us to get the best of two worlds.

3. Always wanted a featured section for posts that we want to keep on the front page no matter what.

4. I wanted a simplistic theme rather than something that complicates matters. It’s of course a little less exciting than our previous template, but it is cleaner and more user friendly in my opinion. We are still working and fixing some issues due to such a major change (Astrobunny nearly died in action for this).

5. If you notice, we provided a specific section for editorials. It’s mostly for Lelangir so that the editorial posts (which are not time-specific posts in general) can get more readership and be exposed often.

6. New template = awesome.

Anyway, we still have a few things to work on because it is not the final product.

- We still need to include the plugins to tidy up our stuff on the sidebar.
- The top menu bar looks dirty ugly, and we have to get it done too.
- The recent comments is not showing what it should, but it will be fixed in the next few days.
- The bright red on the front page can kill, and we have to fix that with a much milder red.

Now, do you think there are any other things that can be improved? Please tell us and we hope to hear the feedback from you!

Edits from comments

1. The anime banners are definitely making a comeback! This is a bit of a “work-in-progress”
2. We will be trying to centralize the blog template, rather than have the main stuff “left aligned”. Not sure how we can do it.
3. We are going to figure out how to do a blogroll on the front page. Give us a little time!
4. We are going to explain the features in the splash page.
5. Calawain is pissed off at me. Scatterbrained Impz is going to be so dead!
6. Thinking of having a sidebar…

Keep up the feedback. We need it!

It’s here once again. Do check out the official first entry of the awards. We need your feedback and help in this second installation of the ABA to make it bigger, better and more enjoyable. Have fun and keep up with the updates on the blog! We need your brains!

Bunny: that reminds me does that have an official logo?
Impz: no mascot
Impz: no logo
Impz: i want logo
Impz: green haired loli thanks
Bunny: lol

Seemingly reading my mind, Crusader messaged me the following on IM as well.

Impz: and THAT will have a logo/mascot soon
Impz: \o/ we are joining the hip boys like riuva, animesuki and DC.com!
Crusader: not Ranka
Crusader: no never sorry
Crusader: she failed me

Due to our stumped discussion, we need your creativity to describe the type of mascot THAT should have. If I have my way (according to Crusader), I will make it a green haired loli which makes it kind of ordinary and boring. Hence, I prefer to borrow your brains to decide. Thanks!

Office of Accountability (Crusader)

Impz is quoting out of context to be a drama queen again, so to set the record straight Ranka is Shin’s waifu former waifu who parted after a bitter divorce and as such it would not be in our best interests to go and try and accept Ranka. While I am sure the jealous Malaysian commando is no threat to me, Shin’s proximity to Impz coupled with Impz’s lackluster combat prowess well… In any case I motion for something unique and mecha.

Behold! Panzer-san (by Anonymous) ready to find the All Spark.

Imploration of “Please make it simple!” (Lupus)

I’m sure you would all love something MOE and AWESOME and EXCITING, and if Crusader is to have his way, MECHANICAL. But dear sirs and madams, I beg you to listen to my plea. Impz plans on making me draw this mascot. ME! I suck at drawing, I don’t know where Impz got the idea that I can draw anything you guys can come up with. I can’t. I can probably draw a quadrilateral. Or a circle, if you give me a compass.

So, I implore you, ladies and gentlemen, to choose this: O. That’s right. A circle. The mascot of T.H.A.T. is to be a simple, rounded circle.

Failing that, I could draw Mahou Shoujo Impz with his magical staff Raising Rake.

With a full accessory of bloggers in T.H.A.T anime blog, we are introducing a few new features to the blog to make it more user-friendly for our new and old readers of THAT. First up is definitely the twitter tool on the sidebar. Despite its origins for emo-chicks talking about their sad life in livejournal, we are using twitter to update our readers on our viewing thoughts and snippets. In addition, get ready for a new section to be created in this blog where we will have an editorial piece on an unconfirmed day every week to diversify the content in the blog.

We will also be having more random anime information/games/fanwork during the weekdays for a varied content across the board. Moreover, we finally updated our banners! No more TRAP banner for good justice.

After 3 weeks, we are proud to finalize the list of animes that we will be blogging here in THAT. This is our final list excluding Prince, as he has not finalized the series he is going to blog as yet. You can also check out the list on our topbar, under Fall 2008 list. This will serve as a good starting point for readers to check out all the series we are blogging.

In addition on behalf for all of THAT’s bloggers, I thank all the writers who applied for the vacancy in THAT a few days ago. We have been pleasantly surprised at the overwhelming response, and the high quality of writing made it hard for us to decide on one writer. Hence, thank you all for making the effort, and we hope that you will continue to support us when we do open up more vacancies in the future. Let’s hope not though, since vacancies will mean that someone in the blog has left for greener pastures.

We have also updated our blogroll with some new blogs. Do check them out when you are free. In all, I hope that you will be happy with the variety of series that we will be covering this coming season. Cheers and hope to hear your comments in the various series!

Calawain

Crusader

Impz

Jiff

Maipeisu

Reverse Vampire

Shokkeru

Thirteensugars

Gathering from the feedback of various commentators, I have decided on the series that I will hold on to the very end.

First choice: Ga Rei Zero

Verdict: Until it screws itself up, which is generally likely (the skeptic speaking in me), I am staying with this pretty awesome show. A heads up for Sacchi for pointing that show out to me. I wouldn’t have watched it if people did not mention it.

Back up choice: To Aru Majutsu no Index

Verdict: This was not in my plans, but I might just as well blog it since many of you are interested in swooning over Index, you pervert lolicons (yes, generalization is the new cool in blogging etiquette). I will give Ga Rei Zero a chance to slip up in Episode 3 to see if I should blog Index instead of Ga Rei Zero.

Back up choice 2: Mouryo no Hako

Verdict: This would probably be my first choice, if only I understand the subtleties in the series. It’s so freaking confusing. It makes itself hard to blog when I technically understand 95% of all dialogue and yet understand only 20% of what is going on. It’s way too deep for a superficial me. I cannot even start trying.

Back up 3: Kuroshitsuji

Verdict: Too busy, but I think RV is committing herself to this series. Hopefully she does.

Thanks for your feedback!

This was mellow_bunny before I’ve trained him.

Mellow_Bunny, an old-time friend blogger contacts me on #animeblogger, my usual place in IRC.
He wanted to make me an interview for his blog! So I think: ” Hmm, E-Penor glorification of my persona? Should I accept it or not?”

Anyway, this is the end result, posted on MellowSPACE, enjoy this extra info about one of THAT bloggers.

As usual, with the changing of the season, we have updated our current blogging list for summer. I also decided to improve it by providing a link through for each series. Just click on the image in the page, and you can explore all the entries on the specific anime series.

In addition, we have also added a new section at the top header section of T.H.A.T. It is a Write for THAT, and it contains all the information that you need to know if you wish to write for us. With Itsubun and Riex unofficially leaving THAT for their own blog, we now have a little space for someone else to join our team blog.

In #whitelight sub matters, there is some problem to get the best raw that we can ever find. Hence, the release of episode 3 is delayed until we can get a raw up to the quality we desire. We beg for your patience!

Last, Maipeisu will be picking up another series. I am not sure about his plans, but you can comment to bug him on blogging a certain series.

THE CAKE IS A LIE.

Yes, that’s right, today I make my 24th Birthday. Although I haven’t been around much (I’ll explain why in my next post), I’m still alive and kicking. 24 years of enduring a harsh academic path, hours spent studying and reading, to reach this conclusion: I still don’t know how to read Moonspeak -.-Y

Oh, and you got to love a mother who gives you this as a birthday gift. Heck, she was the one that named my dog Akira……

I guess I am not welcome? Anyway, by the time you see this entry, I am already at the airport, flying off for my business trip for the 8th World Media Economics and Management Conference . So, I hope that the blog doesn’t burn down by the time I get back in 3 weeks time. I can only pray and hope for the best.

I hope Crusader would blog Library War for me, while some poor fellow (likely to be Riex) can blog Vampire Knight in my absence. In addition, the Anime Blog Awards has ended and the results will be out soon. LET THE DORAMA BEGIN!

Cheers and good bye for now!

Crusader

Well now that Impz is on his way to America to be shot down receiving a warning shot by an errant Stinger Missile fired by me, it seems that he has thrown in a bunch of stuff for me to do. So excuse me while I throw Calawain under a bus, but I have  two tests, finals, two English papers, military duty, and a convention all crammed into the next 4 weeks. That will probably make Calawain the de facto dictator of THAT, despite the de jure Consular rule it was supposed to be in Impz’s absence. So hopefully some of the other bloggers can pick up the slack, but just in case Itazura na Kiss, and Allison to Lillia will probably be on temp hiatus or be incredibly condensed (shorter) in the mean time until summer vacation. Macross Frontier will (I hope) not suffer from such a fate and Toshokan Sensou will be conversely be under my iron fist until Impz deigns to come back and pull himself away from his waifu. Again I hope to avoid this if at all possible, but I got +5 novels to read and reading Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand is like going on a certain image/b/oard.

It’s May 7th on the eastern hemisphere and it is someone’s birthday. Not mine, but my girlfriend Thirteensugars. Once again, that silly moomoo is going to have yet another 21st birthday (the truth is that if I reveal her age, I might not live to tell the tale). Happy birthday, my silly lazy girlfriend who is now singing a silly random song.

Crusader

Well happy birthday to Thirteensugars, waifu of Impz, and I am honored to share the same birthday with you. BTW thanks for remembering Impz. So yeah unlike Thirteensugars I am not eternally 21 and have gotten older. In any case me and Thirteensugars were born the day World War II ended in Europe, thus all the more reason to celebrate! My only advice is to always have a sense of humor…