Sunday, February 22, 2015

Cartoon Sunday: Shiki

How's it going my gumdrops? I am cringing at the thought of this, right now.

After reading that Adult Swim is giving Dragon Ball Kai its OWN hour on Saturday nights, I am somewhat annoyed. I believe Jason DeMarco spends too much time pandering to certain fans.

The Dragon Ball franchise had its time more than 1-2 decades ago. Its fans can also be the most obnoxious. It is to the extent that certain DBZ fans are ashamed to admit, that they ARE fans.

The Adult Swim Team needs to think outside the box and STOP playing things safe. 

If you are a true Anime fan, then you already know there is more to Anime than Shonen Jump Action Anime like Dragon Ball.

Then again, Adult Swim made their disdain for Anime fans in general crystal clear by mocking fans (mostly Anime Otakus and Weeaboos). 

If the network seriously wants its viewers to watch more, the people in charge will air more animaton, that's worth watching. Most people I know became more interested in Adult Swim BECAUSE of the Anime.

Now, hardly anyone watches the network, UNLESS it is on the weekends. Late Saturday nights and early Sunday mornings are the only times more viewers watch Adult Swim. I'm currently watching the network for Naruto Shippuden and the American cartoon, Sit Down, Shut Up. Otherwise, I don't watch the network anymore.

Meanwhile, I have another Horror Anime for today's Cartoon Sunday. Last March, I published a Horror Anime Review, which featured Shiki. 

In case you forgot or never had the chance to read it, I will give you a summary recap.

Shiki is a Shonen Supernatural/Horror Mystery Anime. The series is set during the summer of the 1990's, in Sotobamura, Japan.

Shiki is literally translated in English as "corpse demon" or "death spirit."

Sotobamura is an isolated Japanese village with old customs such as the burial of the dead, for example.

Suddenly, 3 corpses are mysteriously found. Throughout the summer, villagers start dropping like flies. Dr. Ozaki Toshio and everybody else assume that Sotobamura is suffering from a growing epidemic. 

All the while, The Kirishikis conveniently move into the long abandoned Kanemasa Mansion on the outskirts.

As more villagers die throughout the summer, Dr. Toshio begins his investigation. The doctor eventually discovers the supernatural presence of vampires. The vampires are referred to as "shiki" and they return from the dead, infecting the entire town. 

Need I say more? Anyway, here is Shiki for today's Cartoon Sunday.

Shiki "The Shed Blood/First Blood" [English Subtitles] (2010)

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Giving Blogger Another Chance

How's it going? I originally created my Blogger account 2 summers ago. During that time, Xanga 1.0 was shutting down and re-launching as 2.0 on WordPress. Within these last 2 years, I have dabbled with many blogging communities and sites.

Since last November, I have been revising and archiving my old Xanga 1.0 and Blogster entries on JournalHome.com. I currently have only 12 more blogs to revise and archive. After I'm done revising and archiving, I will leave Blogster next month. If you would like to read most of my older Xanga and Blogster entries, I encourage you to visit my archives page on JournalHome.


http://www.journalhome.com/RealistMe/archive/

The majority of my blogs are on my website, It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns

http://itsnotallgumdropsandunicorns.webs.com/

When you have the chance, please let me know what you think!

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Cartoon Sunday: Another (Horror Mystery Anime)

How's it going my gumdrops? Last week, I checked Adult Swim's schedule. The network is re-airing Deadman Wonderland of all the Horror Anime in existence. At the moment, I'm not watching anything on Adult Swim's Saturday night programming.

As usual, most of their shows are tired, if not shitty acquisitions, that I don't want to watch.

Speaking of Horror, I have more Horror today. Last year, I gave my Horror Anime Review and Another was on the list.

Another Anime In A Nutshell:

In case you missed my review, here is a summary of Another. Once again, Another is a Seinen Horror-Mystery Anime based on the Japanese novel, Another.

It begins with an explanation about Koichi Sasakibara. He is a 15-year-old junior high student. His mother died shortly after he was born and his father is a business man.

Koichi's father traveled abroad to India for a year. This leads to Koichi being sent to live with his aunt and grandparents in Yomiyama, Japan.

Yomiyama is a small Japanese town where his dead mother grew up. In the process of him moving to Yomiyama, he acquires pneumothorax (basically a collapsed lung).

Koichi's pneumothorax delays him from transferring to his new school and causes him to be hospitalized. Suddenly, he meets this strange girl with an eye patch named, Mei Misaki.

After meeting Mei, Koichi's curious yet strange "classroom representatives" from his new school visit him in the hospital. This is shortly before his 1st day of school.

Koichi's classmates want to learn more about his background. Once Koichi is finally released from the hospital, he starts getting suspicious vibes from his classmates.

Mei is sometimes visible in his classroom. Everyone except Koichi pretends, that she does NOT exist. Their classroom at Yomiyama North Middle School has been cursed, since 1972.

They must follow certain rules around the campus, in order to avoid dying brutal deaths. Those same rules backfire on everybody both inside and outside Koichi's classroom.

Another has some brutal death tolls. Some Anime critics claim, that Another is similar to the movie, Final Destination. I've never watched Final Destination. Therefore, I can't support their claims.

If you like creepy dolls, curses, ghosts, death tolls, and Horror-Mystery, you should give Another a watch. It not only has a novel and an Anime, but also a live-action J-Horror Movie and Manga. Anyway, here is Another for Cartoon Sunday.

Another Season 1: Episode 1 "Rough Sketch" [English Sub] (2012)

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

What's So Funny? Rory The Guinea Pig Makes Me Laugh!

How's it going my gumdrops? Are you in need of some laughs, during this stressful time of the year? 

I'm not a huge, self-righteous, political activist about loving animals like many people are today, however I do love most animals. This especially includes reptiles.

Over the last several years of being on social media sites, many have annoyed the hell out of me with their cats. Today's cat lovers tend to regularly act like they gave birth to Jesus. 

This may sound harsh to say, but some cat owners can be just as annoying as those proud parents, who think their children can walk on water and turn water into wine. 

Apparently, some of these cat lovers feel like acting self-righteous and morally superior to others because giving birth to children is somehow BENEATH them. Ugh! Enough is enough already! Give it a friggin' rest!

Aside from the preceding rant, I have chosen to share something cute and furry for laughs. Today's blog is more of a tribute to a friend/subscriber from Blogster. 

Scottster has been having a rough time on Blogster. Surely, most of my Xangan and Blogsterian friends/subscribers are familiar with that problem, which is all the more reason why I only comment on their pages compared to blogging on Blogster, now.

Meanwhile, I stumbled upon this cute and funny YouTube vlog last week by Rory The Guinea Pig. 

Briefly voiced by Ricky Gervais, Rory read some of the hilarious insults about his physical appearance from his Twitter account.

Before watching that video, here's an informative Animal Planet segment about guinea pigs.

Animal Planet's Pets 101: Guinea Pigs

At the age of 7, my mother bought my original guinea pig, Christopher. Christopher lived for 5 years. 

After acquiring mite, he started having scratching seizures and had to be euthanized. 

For my 13th birthday, my mother bought my 2nd guinea pig, Fantastical. He was the craziest guinea pig I ever owned!

Fantastical seemed more like a human trapped inside a guinea pig's body. He constantly strategized ways of climbing outside his tank. 

As I was leaving my bedroom years ago, Fantastical literally climbed on top of his water bottle and hung from the rim of his tank. With good timing, I luckily bolted over to catch him from falling.

The next incident involved my youngest aunt and I eating breakfast, in our living room. We sat on our living room floor at the table, while watching MTV and monitoring Fantastical in his cardboard box that we carted him in for babysitting purposes.

Once I let Fantastical outside his box, he strolled across our living room floor and BIT  my aunt's bacon. 

Had she actually set her plate on the living room table, he would've been unable to reach it. 

Fantastical biting my aunt's bacon was hilarious! He almost lived an entire year. He would have lived at least 3-4 years longer had my great-grandmother's evil friend not put some Juju on him.

At 16, I bought my last 2 guinea pigs. Altivo (meaning "superior" and "haughty" in Spanish) lived for only 3 years. Ookii (meaning "big" in Japanese) lived for 4 years. Between the 2, Altivo was my favorite.

I believe I favored Altivo more because of the way the other guinea pigs mistreated him at Pet World. I saw another guinea pig bite his face and he started whining. I REALLY wanted to reach over that cage and smack his bully on the butt!

A month later, I bought Ookii and he became Altivo's next bully. The bullying was to the extent that I had to buy 1 extra cage to separate them from each other. 

Altivo and Ookii only shared a cage together, whenever I had to clean their cages every so many days. Had they always shared a cage, I believe Ookii would've killed Altivo.

Even though Altivo was my favorite next to Fantastical, Altivo would sometimes get an attitude with me. I made a joke about using his body heat to keep me warm and he got angry. Altivo's cheeks looked inflated and he started grinding his teeth.

I didn't say I was going to kill him for his fur or anything! I only joked about using his body heat to keep me warm and he took offense to it!

Psychologists claim that animals don't have feelings. I don't believe that for a second! I know when animals are happy, sad, angry, etc. 

After joking about using Altivo's body heat to keep me warm, he snubbed me! The next day, I went to take him out his cage and he literally did his paw at me!

Altivo looked like he told me, "Talk to the paw cuz I ain't listenin'!" 

I had a Michael Kelso moment from That '70s Show. You know those scenes of Kelso shrieking, "Oh!"? 

Yup! That was my reaction to Altivo giving me "The Paw." Talk about rude!

After giving me that attitude, I snuck up to his cage and flashed him! Within seconds, Altivo literally did a 360 bolt around his cage.

His 360 bolt around the cage was a slapstick moment. It was hilarious much like Fantastical sneaking and biting my youngest aunt's bacon.

Years later, Altivo and Ookii for some reason died days before Christmas. Their deaths were 1 year apart from each other. I was devastated when 3 of my 4 guinea pigs died. 

I was a little sad, although I wasn't heartbroken over Ookii's death. He always loved biting me.

During 10th grade, Ookii bit my ear once and I had to wear a band aid on it. 

My college sophomore year, he died, which was shortly after coming home from UW-Parkside for Christmas Break.

The year before, I cried tears and mourned Altivo's death because I watched him die, when I was in the middle of working on my Advanced Composition research paper. 

Our last dog, Alexis also seemed depressed because she viewed Altivo and Ookii as her puppies. That sounds strange, but it's true.

Anyway, I've talked enough about my guinea pigs. With that being said, here are 3 YouTube vlogs featuring Rory The Guinea Pig.

1) Rory The Guinea Pig [Voiced By Ricky Gervais] Promotes Just Sayin' App (2012)

2) Rory The Guinea Pig's Pets Add Life Interview (2012)
3) Rory The Guinea Pig Wishes You A Happy Holidays From Pets Add Life & The Talking Animals Channel (2013)

Sunday, December 7, 2014

What's That? Jason DeMarco ONLY Bought 8/10 Hellsing Ultimate OVA's 0_0

How's it going lurkers? Did you have a chance to watch Toonami's promo for the finale?

Hellsing Ultimate OVA's 9 & 10 Finale Promo (2014)


Last night, I re-watched both Hellsing Ultimate OVA's 9 and 10 on Adult Swim's Toonami block. Before the network premiered both Hellsing Ultimate OVA's, I was able to YouTube them last week.

You may be wondering, "Why did you watch OVA's 9 and 10 again, when you already saw them?" 

Normally, I stream Anime online in Japanese and I re-watch them in English Dub on TV as a refresher. I noticed that Adult Swim removed Alucard's childhood rape scene.

Last week when I watched the 9th OVA, the rape scene was very subtle compared to the corpse rape that Seras Victoria's mother endured. 

Her mother's corpse rape scene was grislier and more graphic than Alucard's childhood rape. Adult Swim removing that scene really did not surprise me. 

Considering that Adult Swim is a bundled network on Cartoon Network, the Hellsing/Hellsing Ultimate franchise was bound to be censored.

This especially applies for rape scenes, since this franchise no longer premieres on a premium channel like STARZ. That being said, I won't waste time ranting about Adult Swim's Toonami censoring Hellsing Ultimate

I'm still reeling over the fact that the "Toonami" Team did NOT  buy ALL 10 OVA's for Hellsing Ultimate from the start!

What purpose did it serve for Jason DeMarco and his brainwashed sycophants to only buy 8/10 OVA's before premiering the whole series?

DeMarco and his sycophantic Toonami crew always look like clowns with their highly syndicated acquisitions and their so-called "Toonami" block. At least Adult Swim is premiering the Hellsing Ultimate finale.

Will all 3 prequels of Hellsing: The Dawn premiere, sooner or later? 

That's a burning question fellow Hellsing/Hellsing Ultimate fans would like to know.

Cartoon Sunday: Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol By Richard Williams

How's it going lurkers? This Cartoon Sunday, I have a rare Christmas Classic for you. Today, I have Richard Williams' animated adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

It wasn't until last week that I watched this version of A Christmas Carol. It aired on ABC in 1971 and won the 1972 Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

I wonder if my mother ever had the chance to watch it. Chances are great that she and the rest of my immediate family did not. 

They were probably living on a military base in The Philippines by 1971, since my late grandfather was in the Air Force and they had busy childhood lives.  

Aside from those details, the art illustrations for Richard Williams' animated adaptation of Dickens' A Christmas Carol look fantastic!

As I watched this animated adaptation, I could NOT  help noticing just how authentic the illustrations appear. This particular animated adaptation also has multiple pans, zooms, and random scene transitions. The illustrations even look hand drawn. 

This is something that can't be said for most of today's animation, which mostly consists of gratuitous CGI. Therefore, I have a much better appreciation and respect for Williams' animated adaptation. 

This is along with the fact, that I have NEVER seen this version of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, until recently. Richard Williams' adaptation was NOT  meant for the younger demographic. 

Supposedly, the emphasis of darkness and shadows appeared as having Horror qualities.

Williams' animated adaptation was considered to be "the most frightening of the many dramatizations of the Dickens classic."

This could explain WHY  I never saw Richard Williams' animated adaptation, when I was growing up during the 1980's and '90s. As much as I enjoy watching Peanuts' Christmas Specials on TV, it wouldn't hurt local and/or cable networks to show this 1971 classic of A Christmas Carol.

I have watched at least several live action movie adaptations of it. Stumbling upon this animated adaptation is most definitely a rare gem. With that being said, here's Richard Williams' adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol for Cartoon Sunday.

Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol By Richard Williams (1971)

YouTube-ZTzyC9CZuOA

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns: Q&A #2

How's it going my gumdrops? Today is officially 1 year, since I launched It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns. 

I built this website, when I was still helping my uncle with his website's content. The content I wrote for him was never used. So typical of him.

Anyway, I have my 2nd Q&A blog ready for you all to read. Pay attention to bold answers. I hope you're pleased with my responses!

It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns Questions & Answers:

Richard: Are you a cat or a dog person?

Answer: I'm a dog person. My last dog (Lexi) was a Doberman/Rottweiler Mutt. 

She had to be euthanized 10 years ago because she was becoming vicious. In fact, the last time I went to pet Lexi, she grazed my left temple. 

My grandfather also returned for an in-home hospice my college junior year. Lexi's vicious temperament would've exacerbated problems.

Mimikoko: With your love of music, did you ever try to learn a musical instrument(s) or sing?

Answer: Growing up, I was ALWAYS required to sing in school concerts. By the time I was in middle and high school, I always ended up taking choir. In middle school, it was required to either take choir, or band.

I wanted to take guitar lessons but there weren't enough students for the sign up. Therefore, the class was dropped.

I never had a chance to practice playing my old electric guitar. It was bought for my 6th Christmas and had '80s Metal written all over it. My electric guitar was black, shiny, and V-shaped. ~16-17 years ago, it was ruined in a basement flood at our last house.

DJ Scott: Do you have any archives of past DJ work?

Answer: Unfortunately, no. 11-12 years ago, I never had a chance to do an on-air promo for All Things Frightening, either. 

There was so much chaos happening in my life, 10-12 years ago. I juggled UW-Parkside's classes full-time, a radio show, being a part-time student at Carthage College, and other people's issues. This was along with post 9/11 racism. 

Post 9/11 racism was a major contributor to my own problems so much so that it hurt my campus housing at Parkside. 

I was just lucky if I could sleep in peace WITHOUT  having a roommate and her obnoxious friends literally hovering over me to watch me sleep.

Anyway, had my original boss stayed, I believe my promos would've been recorded. We already bonded over some Type O Negative.

DanniDarkness: Will you keep the Halloween colors? I really like them!

Answer: Thank you, Danni! I am glad you enjoy my latest scenery! I actually changed it on September 1st rather than October 1st. 

I have It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns decorated for Halloween. This current scenery will stay, until November.

I love changing my template designs and font colors with the seasons and holidays. Thanksgiving will be coming up next!

Jesse Steele: Which states have you visited in the USA? Also which states did you like visiting the most? Are there any states in the USA you would like to visit? If so why?

Answers: Since my family used to always take road trips, I have visited quite a few states.

Illinois is next to Wisconsin (my state). I have also visited Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York (we had to drive through New York to get to Canada).

Most of my relatives live in Detroit, Michigan. I am amazed the entire city of Detroit is not my family because so many of our relatives live there.

I really enjoyed traveling to Arlington Heights, IL because it has a lot of Japanese companies and stores.

I haven't been on a Japanese field trip in 11 years. I started going on those field trips, when I was in 7th grade because my Japanese classes always went. 

By the time I was a college junior, I still went on Japanese field trips to Arlington Heights with my classmates, and we always rode in coach buses.

Reaper69: Don't you think it's a bit hypocritical of those, who forbid Metal for it's horror and gore, but don't think there is any problem with the most grotesque of films. Art is art, or is it not?

Answer: Yes, that is hypocritical.

We watch violence on the news, TV shows, and movies daily yet angry soccer moms and media watchdog groups are quick to condemn Metal. I've noticed over the last decade, that most Horror movies have Metal soundtracks. Horror and Metal go together like PB&J, salt and pepper, etc. You want to know something even more hypocritical?

Last year, I bought a Halloween decoration for my office desk. My decoration is a witch house in the woods with pumpkins, skulls, crosses, bats, and a witch. She resembles the witch from The Wizard of Oz and she is brewing with her cauldron. My uncle did NOT  have a problem with me having it as a desk decoration.

Then, literally 3 days before Halloween, he stormed into the building claiming, that his shrew flipped her shit over my Halloween decoration. They supposedly don't celebrate Halloween. I told him to his face, that Medusa was a hypocrite. 

This is the same pretentious, gold-digging shrew, who reads all those STEPHEN KING NOVELS and watches MORE Horror than me.

Meanwhile, she goes to church and wears this HUGE, self-righteous facade as a Christian woman. I told my uncle and the rest of my family, that Medusa only had a problem with my decoration because she saw HER OWN reflection in that witch. 

I'm just calling a spade a "spade." You know what I mean?

Marquis DeBlood: Glad to have you aboard! And congrats on your anniversary!! You seem to enjoy your Anime and are very particular about certain shows and what naught... What would you consider to be the best Anime series out there and why?

Answer: Thank you very much! I'm glad to have support from the Horror-Punks Community.

There's no simple answer because Anime has such a broad range of genres and sub-genres. 

I enjoy Comedy, Action, Mecha (Mecha is still a part of the Action genre but mostly military and war themed), Mystery, Romance, Horror, etc. 

Each Anime genre and sub-genre caters to both genders, sexual orientations, and age demographics. I enjoy the darker and lighter themed Anime titles.

I really love the NANA franchise. NANA is like a Japanese animated soap opera, which mostly focuses music, rival bands, and romance.  

NANA has Music, Romance, and Dramedy. There's even a love triangle/paternity test arc. 

Josei Anime are completely different from the stereotypical Shonen Jump Anime, which are mostly meant for teenage boys. NANA is mostly meant for young women, who love music and romance. 

To give you a better picture, imagine Lifetime, WE TV, and The Oxygen Channel but in the form of Japanese animation.

Speaking of, there is another Anime about music and romance, which is mostly meant for men. It's called Detroit Metal City. It is similar to Adult Swim's Metalocalypse. However it is mostly about this guy, who lives a double life as a musician.

He fronts this Death Metal band and is forced to live a notorious facade of supposedly killing and raping his parents. In reality, he is a nerdy Japanese guy, who loves writing Swedish Pop Music. 

I really enjoy NANA and Detroit Metal City because they are both romance and music oriented, which is rare in Anime compared to the stereotypical Shonen Jump Anime.

Amanda's Questions:

1) I know you have a minor in Creative Writing but what brought you to writing Horror? 

Was it derived from your interest in Japanese culture and the language or is that a stereotypical cliché of Japan?

2) When, you joined the Adult Swim group, you wrote on it being 'fascist' (my interpretation) and chauvinistic. I am NOT asking you your political views (LOL) but I'd be interested in what your perception is of the politics surrounding the shows on Adult swim.

3) You were also a Radio DJ, would you do it again if you could?

My Answers:

1) Actually, I started writing my own Short Horror Stories in 3rd grade.

Throughout each month, my 3rd grade teacher gave our class subjects to select.

When it was October, we had to select a topic everyday and write Short Halloween Stories using that specific topic.

My elementary school teachers in general always loved that I could take a simple topic and write a story about it. 

The more I think about it, I have been a Creative Writer for most of my life.

2) Adult Swim appears to be in a bigger rut than I realized.

I always knew the network had problems pleasing their main audience (men). It is mostly spin. 

For example, the Toonami block is mostly Shonen Jump Anime and dubbed Anime from Funimation Entertainment monopolizes the block.

There are several other Anime companies, genres, and sub-genres that Adult Swim purposely overlooks.

I'm glad there have been more Seinen Anime with leading female characters. 

All the while, the network still fails to acknowledge its female audience by not airing Shojo and Josei Anime.

I have read some of the female YouTubers' complaints about Toonami not airing any Shojo Anime. 

Adult Swim only wants to air Sailor Moon's reboot, which is the most irksome. I don't hate Sailor Moon. Although, it's not the only Shojo Anime to ever be released from Japan.

I think the main reason why the male audience wants to watch Sailor Moon so badly is because it has lesbian characters in it. 

Also, it pisses me off that Toonami only would air a Shojo Anime for men that fantasize and fetishize 2D lesbian characters. 

I'm not opposed to watching GLBT shows. It's just that most of us know there's a perverted double standard, when it comes to accepting lesbians.

Meanwhile, the social atmosphere of Adult Swim's forum is mostly cold, territorial, misanthropic, and unwelcoming. There are some nice posters on the forum but the atmosphere rivals YouTube.

It's almost impossible to have a civil conversation without someone instigating a fight. Also, some veteran posters will treat new posters like criminals. Rather than trying to learn more about a new Adult Swim poster, they assume the worst because the site is already swarming with trolls.

New posters must prove themselves much harder, in order to be liked and/or accepted. The constant psychoanalysis, negativity, arguments, animosity, inferiority complex, hatred, and territorial behavior drove away their newer and older posters. Mind you, this doesn't even include degrading and dehumanizing other posters.

3) Yes, I would love to be a Radio DJ/Hostess, again.

Throughout my 20's, I have applied to local radio stations and they never called back. In regards to local radio stations today, they only want to air dated and highly overplayed songs. 

Otherwise, they are airing the worst American Top 40 mainstream songs in existence. With the way technology is constantly advancing, more people will continue to podcast.

When hosting All Things Frightening 11-12 years ago, I never heard of podcasting. Our college radio shows were heard both locally and online. I predict that traditional radio stations will become obsolete, sooner or later.

This concludes my Q&A on It's Not All Gumdrops & Unicorns. I want to thank my loyal friends/subscribers from Xanga 1.0, Blogster, and Horror-Punks.com for always Liking, commenting, and sharing my content! You have no idea how much I appreciate it.

Since I mentioned Detroit Metal City, I'll leave you with the live action music video/theme song. Once again, thank you!

Detroit Metal City "Satsugai" [Murder] (2008)