Anime Gerad is looking for new writers to provide more diversity and enjoyment. We’re searching for fresh bloggers or those with wish to get into blogging. What is looked for in applicants:
A love for anime, manga, and similar topics like Vocaloid.
Editorials, reviews, humor, news, and opinion is Anime Gerad’s forte and focus. Episodic writing is not discouraged, however episode post so far on Anime Gerad have been reserved for special moments in an anime than for each episode.
Writing style, grammar, experience, and ability to proofread are factors. No blogging experience required, but it does not hurt.
Although there is not any set number of posts to be made in a period of time, dedication and frequency in writing will be considered.
Most of us in this community are easy going peeps, so friendly and accepting character is great.
Apply with our contact form or send a private message to Jura on the forum. Please include as much of the following as possible:
Methods of contact like Twitter, email, or Windows Live Messenger.
Sample or samples of writing. It can be the first blog post you wish to make on Anime Gerad or something written in the past.
An introduction, history with anime, tastes, preferred types of writing, and how often you are available to write.
No deadline to apply. All written content is to be exclusive to this site. Accepted bloggers will be introduced to the community and given any assistance needed in getting started.
Image bookmarking site Pinterest is a growing site where people add images from the web or computer to share into categories called boards. Users pin videos from the web to embed into Pinterest, like button images to save, or repin other pins into their own boards. Perfect place to show off favorites for those who enjoy collecting images they like. Anime and manga fandom is filled with imagery such as fan art, avatars, screenshots, posters, and cover art.
In addition to pinning of images and making boards for categorization:
Allow other specific users to add pins to a board
Embed codes for adding to webpages
Language settings
Shows pin source, other pins from the same site, and how the pin was added
Activity window and emails to show interactions from others
Gift area for shopping categorized by price
Search for images, boards, or people
Web browser and website Pin It buttons for easy and speedy pinning
Browsing images loads more images to the page when scrolling down
Set board cover instead of latest image
Friend finding and invitations
Follow users or their specific boards
Pinterest is similar to Twitter in that there is a stereotypical view on its usage. Twitter for the longest was seen as a site for people to announce what they were doing at every moment of the day. Twitter users can say to follow people that are of interest, but that would be useless if the other person is not open to seeing Twitter as a place for news, micro-blogging, or connecting with people and brands. Pinterest has a reputation by some for being to much about clothing, products, or fashion. If clothing and fashion are boring then it should be just as easy to say not to search for such pins or users and boards that pin such images.
The design of Pinterest is flashy and displays a lot without being cluttered. Similar sites like We Heart It, Gentlemint, and FFFFOUND! either are playing catch up or limit their use. We Heart It and Gentlemint both pander to specific genders and FFFFOUND! remains invite only.
A Twitter or Facebook account is required for registration and there is a brief open beta waiting list, but it is showing to be one of the fastest growing social networks.
Story starts with Amon, a kid with special powers that allow him to fly and talk to animals. His father is a weaponry inventor for a militant organization The Golden Snake, but one day that ends when the family decides to run away to prevent The Golden Snake from taking and using Amon. The father destroyed his research building and took off with his family until chased and killed leaving Amon a captured orphan. Amon hears a mythical voice warning him and learns of his power of flight when escaping the airship of his captors. He finds himself on an island where a bear tells a tale of ancient people with similar powers and meets a girl named Maria in a fisherman’s village. The Golden Snake’s reach is not far and an attack sends Amon and Maria fleeing to find a way to stop the destructive and growing empire.
The Boy Who Saw the Wind is based on a novel by a nature-loving environmentalist, actor, writer, and Japan resident C. W. Nicol. His passion pushes him to help preservation and restoration of Japan’s wildlife and environment, so already a comparison is possible between this and Hayao Miyazaki films. Many Miyazaki’s themes contain elements of folly, greed, and purity of nature similar to this movie. Unlike Miyazaki works or other family movies this one has gun fights, death, and is daring enough to have nudity without of course sexuality.
Animal characters are often supernatural with massive size, wisdom, and great age. A snake hangs over the neck of a past leader of The Golden Snake and is later shown as a shadow tempting a character to finish its work from many years ago. Villagers hunt large majestic fish for food and trade, but real life fish have decreased in size from overfishing.
The world is a mixture of early decades from the 1900s, tribal life, beautiful natural landscapes, and steampunk. Drawn animation by Brains Base complements the unique anime character designs and glorified nature is for sure welcome to a city dweller surrounded by cement. You will enjoy The Boy Who Saw the Wind if you also enjoy Princess Mononoke or Now and Then, Here and There.
Heroman is a story with kid who finds an abandoned robot toy from a commercial he wanted and befriends after it gains the ability to come to life and big enough to fight. Together they combat aliens and corruption to protect their friendship and lives of people. Video is a fan created mashing of the Heroman anime and the Disney movie The Iron Giant. Character roles fit and the voice overs match the animation.
Volume one and two of the Stan Lee manga Heroman are on Amazon for pre-ordering. It would be great if the manga and novel publisher Vertical would finish Heroman with all of the volumes. Vertical is still in operation and by no means do they have a reputation of canceling great manga after so many volumes, but Heroman is something that I would enjoy and that is not a good sign like the canceled manga bellow.
Alive: The Final Evolution – Del Rey Aventura – Del Rey Beyond the Beyond – Tokyopop DNAngel – Tokyopop Gamerz Heaven – ADV Manga Kino’s Journey (novel) – Tokyopop Momo Tama – Tokyopop Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok – ADV Manga Peacemaker Kurogane – ADV Manga Peace Maker – Tokyopop Qwan – Tokyopop Rise R to the Second Power – ADV Manga The First King Adventure – ADV Manga
Lagoon Engine Einsatz’s mangaka has not continued the story after the first volume and Flat never had its first volume distributed by Tokyopop, so those are left out. A lot from the list are favorites or at the very least manga that enjoyed much because of the mangaka. Heroman show no signs of having poor sales and has the big named American comic creator Stan Lee behind it, but don’t think for a moment that it is invulnerable. What I have learned is to show appreciation and to be vocal about what you love. Not doing so will could mean being bitter or broken.
FLCL the manga is based on the same named GAINAX anime of a boy Naota in a quiet city and his life that turns upside down after a Vespa scooter rider Haruko Haruhara slams him with a guitar. Naota’s head is hit hard and leaving a large growth on his head that spits out mecha from medical equipment manufacture Medical Mechanica. Haruko is from a group called Galaxy Space Police Brotherhood and stays close to Naota for her search in finding a powerful space pirate known as Atomsk. Mega corporation Medical Mechanica is using the robots to capture Atomsk to conquer the galaxy causing a large showdown.
No question in getting this as an owner of the original Tokyopop release of FLCL and the Japanese Kodansha Box versions with silver slip covers and extras. The new omnibus by comic publisher Dark Horse sports almost all of the same colored illustrations found in each Kodansha Box version. Front cover of Naota is a full cover image that is on the back of volume two and the back is an image from the back of volume one’s Kodansha Box cover case. In the back of the omnibus is a left to right short depicting a gun fight with the characters called The Forth Studio. Each page of the short is black with author notes between the white lines of the art and English translations bellow.
My experience with FLCL was back in time when living in foothills of a big city with a small town feel and countless thriving mom-and-pop shops. The city’s shopping mall and attractive main streets were in walking distance. Bookstores would have shelves bursting for more space, myself flipping through manga for finding new reads, and floors covered with people reading.
One amazing aspect of the manga is the freedom the mangaka Hajime Ueda flaunts with abstract artwork. Panels are not always boxes, characters are illustrated for each moment, and artwork is heavily styled without too much complexity. Fans of this book will also enjoy Hajime Ueda’s other two-volume work Q Ko-chan published by Del Rey.
Forums had frequent threads about what Fooly Cooly meant, what the hell they just watched or read, and speculation on what viewers believed were symbolic or metaphors for coming of age themes. Anime and the manga had its criticism for being random and plotless by watchers and readers. Understand my FLCL fascination would require knowing my acceptance of story with little need for explaining fantasy, science, or even plot. Each anime and manga is its own world with its own laws of how technology works and social behavior. Explaining could hinder the experience much like the anime Noein: To Your Other Self episode revealing much of the science in detail to where it obstructs story while being boring and obvious. Not having expectations with story and satisfaction with spending extra time on each page’s art and subtly shows excellence. FLCL is what it is with flawless success and creates fandom discussion that debates itself even today. Its story does not follow the anime close, but remains just as faithful as a traditional adaptation and the differences make it more worth reading if one’s only experience is the anime.
Dark Horse Comics has a preview and Amazon has it for the price of a single volume of manga.
In a post-apocalyptic world tribal villages struggle to live in a wrecked landscape with many deadly past remains. The Han tribe’s two warriors Flene and Lek have the job to protect their people and prevent the kidnapping of women of an already male dominate village. An enemy named Tanguin has been taking the women with a massive mecha ship to his mountain of the same name. Tanguin strikes at the very start, but Flene and Lek’s attempt to stop the monster sized machine proved to be of no use. At that point the village is fed up enough to make the pair journey to Tanguin Mountain with a couple villagers and a magical shape shifting girl Kuree.
Mechanical designs are different in they seem geared for flight and land. Characters are animated with abstract posing to add to the speedy movement and funky character designs. Running has exaggerations and physical length of characters are off from being realistic without turning comical.
Post-apocalyptic stories aren’t always stale when they create wonder about how the world turned out as it did, how long can such technology go without maintenance, and where humanity would be after it all fades away. One would think there would people trying to rebuild with the knowledge of the past, but like real life common study is needed for the complex. The OVA is too brief to give for character development, but it’s an adventure in battling the inside and out of an overwhelming beast from the past.
Cool Cool Bye is a forty-minute anime OVA from 1986. Age, origin in time where OVAs came in bigger numbers, and lack of licensing made this a little known gem.
