Repost:: Happy Chinese (New Year! Good luck! Ganbare!)

It's almost February 19th!

The Chinese New Year is almost here!

The chinese zodiac tells the story of the order that animals appeared before The Enlightened Buddha to worship him...

The Chinese New Year approaching on Feb 19th is the year of the Goat. The goat was said to have been the eighth animal that appeared before Buddha. Alittle about the Goat is that he or she's a lover of peace, kind, popular. The Goat year coming up is the year of the Wood Goat. Wood is a changing element but symbolizes growth and optimism. The only advice for Wood types is to seek the light and to try your best. Stay away from addictions, bad thoughts, reckless spending, and frivolous relationships. Those could stop growth for some. Remember, try hard to be your best! It is said the animals personality would be the type of year that would be experienced... more or less...

What does this mean in Japan?

The Japanese celebrate a holiday called Setsubun or Risshun on the same day as the Chinese New year. Setsubun means seasonal division. During Setsubun the celebrants perform rituals to purify the house of evil spirits and bring in the spirits and forces of luck. Such thing are included such as scaring evil spirits with masks, throwing soybeans out of the door to drive out evil spirits with them, and eating a soybean for each year of life, with one as good luck. It's both a festival of purification and of celebrating luck in Japan. Usually the man of the house or the male who's birth year corresponds to the Chinese zodiac animal will do most of the activities, especially throwing the beans and evil out of the house. It's up to the oldest man who's born in that year to take responsibility for the house and to help out in purifying the house for the year!  

Ganbare!

What does this mean for you?
According to your sign you may have a really lucky year or you might have to try harder and don't overdo it (it means be careful out there). But really just do both, OK, or whatever you normally do ^^

Check out the horoscopes for your animal sign in the next year!

Click here!

Valentine's Day and February Layout!

What's up Otaku Friends? :D

RPGhero here, just introducing everyone to the Valentine's Day format for February! Make February your month for love and watch as much Ai anime as possible, because life is long but February is going to be short...

Here's some cool February Otaku things to do!

1. Watch Clannad because it's about true love and is an anime adapted from a dating sim too!

2. Watch Angel Beats and ponder the meaning of life and the afterlife!

3. Have a few laughs while watching Arakawa Under the Bridge which is a romantic comedy about being homeless and happy!

4. Keep warm and watch Fairy Tail!

5. Stock up on Pocky, Cup Ramen, Pork Buns, Green Tea, Wakame soup! Because there might be some snow days!

6. Go out with your Otaku friends and have Japanese food!

7. Fall in love with your crush!

8. Become nakama with your best friend!

9. BE YOURSELF!!!!!!!!

The weird world of Japanese anime figures, 2

Mobile Suit Gundam...!

Nope, not even talking about these weird Gundams today. Why, G Gundam?

The art of Gunpla, or Gundam Plastic Models, is a popular hobby of building up cool plastic gundam models that's all the rage in Asia. On one hand these models are unique outlets of expression, but some of these models make me wonder if the Gunpla experts are taking out their strange frustrations on the poor models...

Mobile Suit: Gundam Ran Ran Rooo! (Ronald McDonald)

Mobile Suit: Moon Prism Power (Sailor Moon)

Mobile Suit: Cardcaptor (+ Ode to any Magical girl)

Plus some weirder figures!

Okay, so the last one isn't a gundam, but you get my drift

A lot of these models aren't available for purchase by any average otaku. My advice? If you want to transform Ronald McDonald into a mechanized warmachine, or recreate your childhood watching Sailor Moon on Toonami's after school block through plastic miniatures of large scale robots, then start small and buy some basic Gunpla kits that have you building the basic Gundams. Here are some additional helpful links:

Gunpla 101

Gundam Planet

Gaijin Gunpla

-chansu

Repost:: Anime Review, Arakawa Under the Bridge

Tonight I will review:

Arakawa Under the Bridge S1 and S2

When you watch an anime there are certain things that we all look for. They are as follows: Character Development, Artistic Appeal, Opening and Ending Originality and Interestingness, and Plot Complexity. These are our FOUR anime judging qualities and by reviewing this way we can avoid spoilers, I think. So let's begin!

Summary

Arakawa Under the Bridge is a comedy and romance anime. 
The main character is a successful young man who goes to Tokyo University named Kou Ichinomiya. He comes from a successful family, particularly a CEO father who is harsh on him. His father taught him that for anything people do for you, you have to repay them no matter what or else you're not truly independent. While on break from Tokyo U, Kou somehow loses his pants over a certain bridge. While trying to get them he almost falls over the bridge. 
Nino, a blonde, beautiful, and homeless girl fishes him out of the Arakawa river and saves his life. Kou, now decides to repay Nino with... something as valuable as life. Nino asks for love. And so Kou now lives alongside the river with his lover Nino and the rest of the unique crew of homeless people that Nino calls her friends.

Character Development

The first season of Arakawa Under the Bridge is about Kou's relationship with his distant father who objects to him living alongside the Arakawa River. Kou is renamed by the homeless people, as Ric. Ric stands for new recruit. You'll learn to love and laugh with the crazy and colorful homeless people. 

The people that live alongside the Arakawa River
Don't maximize the picture! It's a spoiler!

Kou now named Ric must survive the crazyness!

For the second season of Arakawa Under the Bridge, Ric's relationship with Nino grows stronger as they get more of a connection. Ric must also compete with Star, his rival for Nino's hand. Ric also meets another woman who wants to compete with Nino! 

THIS IS ALL COMEDY!

Star and the Mayor of Arakawa who is a Kappa, not in a kappa suit

Artistic Appeal

Kou's voice actor is Hiroshi Kamiya who also voiced Tieria Erde in Gundam 00 and Izaya Orihara in Durarara. Nino's voice actor is Maaya Sakamoto who was also Sayaka Nagasuki in Birdy the Mighty. She does a really good job as a main character in this story. The artistic appeal of the openings and endings is amazing. The creators of this anime experiment with many different types of drawing and filming!

You'll have to watch to laugh

Opening and Ending Originality

The openings and endings are very unique. While the songs do not seem to me as cool or catchy (I'm used to cool shounen openings and endings) they fit the type of show this is.

Season 2 Opening 2

 

Plot Complexity

This show is a lot like Gintama, it doesn't follow a story and keep going. It's an episodic anime. Some of the episodes tell you more about the actual plot, the relationship between Kou and Nina and how Kou's father is trying to understand why he's living like a homeless person. Other episodes are about the day to day events that happen in the lives of the homeless people that live on the river. Remember THIS IS COMEDY!

OVERALL: RECOMMENDED

Because it doesn't matter who wins...
Watch Awakawa Under the Bridge on Crunchyroll!

HYADAIN - "Start it right away" 【ヒャダイン】

J-pop Video of the Week!

"It’s so unfair that we’re born different

I stare enviously at the back of the person walking away" - Hyadain 

Read on for an English translation or instead click here to compare the English and Romaji Japanese~

If You Feel like Crying, Play With your Cat

Tiger the Cat :D

~You might be reading this because you like cats or you like animals~

You might be reading this because you've had a hard time and you feel like crying. Cry then!

 m(_ _)m

 :  :

ONLY AFTER YOU FINISH READING THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!(>_<)>