THAT Animeblog

I demand my birthday cake now~

Two what? Obviously, it is now two years since the establishment of T.H.A.T. Two years ago, four random friends on the Internet decided to set up an anime blog. None of us probably expected this tiny little anime blog to go anywhere, since the Internet is notorious for kicking newbies in the gut, solar plexis and the ass to gain any fame/infamy. With a blink of an eye, two years have past. With that in mind, Calawain asked me to write an anniversary post, despite my reluctance to write a boring post.

Impz: hahaha. i am thinking how to write it well
Calawain15: uh thank all the writers and commenters over the two years
Calawain15: and the other bloggers in the community
Calawain15: you’re glad to be a part of such a great team of people, blah blah
Calawain15: hope we can continue for another year blah blah
Impz: that sounds so boring.
Calawain15: …..
Calawain15: it’s just an anniversary post

 
However, I decided to get rid of my prejudices for such a post. It’s important to thank the various important people and make a semi-serious evaluation of THAT bloggers. If you are wondering, none of them know that they are going to be evaluated, so they are likely to express as much surprise as you, the reader who is reading this.

Without my co-bloggers, THAT will never be THAT. It will be about green haired lolis and Tsuruya, which is not bad but not exactly great. It’s time to bring the crystal ball of reminiscence and embarrassment. Let me bring you back into the history, where we first started as clueless bloggers of THAT. Alkanphel, Joo and Mr Admin were the initial anime bloggers in this humble blog, and it soon became a behemoth of a team. I think I will make a separate entry on remarkable commentators, since it is probably way too much to include them in this post. The three new bloggers and Maipeisu are not included, so thank your lucky stars for escaping my evaluation!

Read more

It’s not about the end but rather how you got there.

So after finishing a rather grueling lab I decided to rent some movies about 3-D folk and wound up watching something that I had been meaning for some time to see but with that rolling release it never came to my end of the earth. So Journey from the Fall is a historical drama that was based on the experience of those who survived the camps and the perilous journey in leaky boats. It was quite different from the typical Vietnam film as it deals much more about the consequences of the North Vietnamese victory in 1975 and lacks the glory, action, and moonshine of jungle warfare that marks most films that deal with the Vietnam War. It does something I wish all films with an anti-war theme would do, namely show the consequences of war rather than the heroics of war. Perhaps one day the complete story of the Vietnam War will be told and reflected upon by less impassioned minds, but nonetheless it is part of the minority of films that dealt with what happened to the Vietnamese Diaspora who count themselves among the lesser known victims of the war.

Read more

Why yes I would gladly pay 300 yen for some badly fried soba and all the water I can drink.

Well now the circle is now complete and I got my 1/8 Max Factory Mikuru in School Festival outfit. Given how times are kind of tough right now I guess this will be the last thing I’ll be getting for a while. Thus far given the weak dollar this is about the most I have ever spent on a figure to date. So I have been wondering since the dollar is weak any of you boys and girls still shopping like crazy importing stuff? This also another plea to the cult leader to give us secrets so we might be able to buy more; alas Moyism is remaining tight lipped about the secret to avoiding financial ruin. Now that I have one figure for every character in SHnY I feel some what triumphant, but for some reason I feel content to the point that there is nothing right now that tickles my fancy. Not sure if this is a sign that I have lost the passion, but unless one of the big PVC companies is putting out a Sheryl, Ranka, Klein, and Alto-hime figures I can’t think of anything coming out or has been released that I just had to have. (Yeah I suck at photography get over it.)

Read more

Our most loved female otaku who does not want to be recognized as one.

It’s always good to have a chance to laugh at your dumb girlfriend when you wake up in the morning. Here is the tale as re-accounted by my girlfriend on a private chat online. For some reason, she is speaking in the third person. A warning ahead of time: whatever sweet compliments she has subtly (well, not that subtle) implanted about her are hopelessly false and forced.

Here’s her tale of epic proportions, her journey into a world unseen, untouched and unheard in her life.

Read more

Neither will this post.

Well this post is incredibly late and was originally prompted by usagijen’s confessions of her undying love of being a less than perfect blogger, and omo’s post about how we all fit in as a community. To be honest I have realized long ago the depths of my own insanity and the intricacies of how my profession basically permeates my own existence. Few indeed are those who are defined mostly by their jobs, but as a lowly grunt in service of a reviled military machine my ass belongs to Uncle Sam 24/7/365. Thus while nominally an American citizen I have elected to shoot my rights in the face and sacrificed them all for the sake of playing with big guns and haul around equipment worth more than most people’s monthly salaries. Suffice to say my own freedom of expression has been voluntarily curtailed and if I avoid touching on certain things regarding my profession it is not because of ignorance, but any one who has half a brain and is aware of the NSA should realize that they might are monitoring everything and to be honest even a gun wielding manic like me is wary of the boys and girls in the black box.

Read more

My girlfriend recently tasked me to find a few ancient anime that is made in the late 1990s. For those who do not know, I only started viewing anime somewhat diligently when this blog is set up (2 years ago for your information). So, I need some old school anime viewers for help.

She is interested in finding any format (VHS/VCD/DVD) of Kaiketsu Zorro and Fortune Quest the TV series. Fortune Quest’s first five episodes are licensed by Media Blaster, but the remaining 21 episodes are not dubbed at all. If you have any clue on where to purchase them or have them in a format that is purchasable, please leave a comment. I have already tried a lot of major online anime sites and have found no traces of the series.

So, if you can help the poor Impz to please a mean and demanding girlfriend, please do. I will be eternally grateful for allowing me to pamper her a little.

This day I shall forever burn into my mind. I wish you were there RIUVA…but I guess that Island Paradise was worth it, yes?

So it was a glorious day for me on June 14, 2008 the day I shook hands with the God of Metal Gear, Lord Hideo Kojima. The minders would not let us tarry for pictures so I got some pretty crappy ones, hopefully the rest of my comrades got better ones. Nevertheless I got what was most important, my very own signed copy of MGS4. In addition the first layer of air on my freshly opened copy included air from the same room as Lord Kojima. I can now die a happy man. I was most fortunate to be a San Francisco native and even more fortunate that Lord Kojima would agree to visit so small a place instead of just stopping at New York City, and Los Angles.

Read more