Comic for Monday January 26th, 2004

"Ain't that the truth" Sunday - January 25th, 2004

I finally watched every Naruto episode that's been fan subbed to date. I'm very surprised at the speed in which these guys do their work. I mean the last episode I just watched only aired in Japan just a scant two weeks ago. Bless those guys. I have a feeling this show will eventually find its way to the US. It's one of the most popular shows on Japan right now and the manga is one of the most popular in Shonen Jump. Of course it only means the show is going to be cut up and dubbed but at least I can grab the DVD's.

The show is in it's third season right now and the Opening and Ending for the anime has changed again. The opening song and sequence aren't half as good as the second season's. The Ending is pretty decent though. Still no "Wind" from the first season, but still very catchy and decent.

While I'm no the subject, I LOVE how anime treats the opening and ending sequences to a show. It's like a super intro complete with an ORIGINAL catchy J pop or J rock song. These opening and endings blow away anything the US can come up with for it's original animation. These openings are so important sometimes that studios will alter the openings during a season to reflect changed in the anime!!

I don't even want to talk about what we do to anime that comes from Japan. Most of the time we keep the original openings, but dub in some horrible song done by like some third rate jackass with a synthesizer and a guitar. In their original state, the openings usually match the tempo, lyrics, and beat of the original song. When done right, these opening get you so psyched for the anime. Excellent intro's for anime I've seen include Saint Seiya, Dragonball Z, the second Naruto opening, Escaflowne, Evangelion, plus any Machine Eiyuuden Wataru opening. I just kind of think it's sad that we have to miss out on what are big aspects to the anime in Japan.

Anyway, time to finish those Trigun episodes...

As a heads up I wanted to mention a few things about the NS site. First, Kelly's cast page has been updated. Second, I have archived all the omake, extra, and guest strips in their own section of the archive. Each extra will link to each other and will not be included if you go through the actual story of NS if you browse by the kunai knife links at the bottom of each comic. Third, the forum has been modded to allow users to see mini profiles if you click on a member name. Also signatures can now be seen on a member profile page. I hope these added things give you all a better experience at Ninja-Spirit.com.

As for Ninja Spirit, I think we could all figure out that Kelly wasn't about to let Tom get to her even if he did expose her biggest and most well guarded secret. I think that the reaction of the rest of the school upon discovering Kelly's real name is pretty much what would happen had this happened in real life. Hell I probably woulda laughed too. I still laugh at student names I come across at work. It just shows a basic flaw of human nature. It doesn't mean that everyone is that cruel or mean spirited. It also doesn't mean that the person's feelings are not hurt either. I'm sure we would all like to be better than the people laughing at Kelly and hopefully even if we can't be, we can still try to be more often then we did in the past.

Backing up to talk about the story, it seems as if Kelly is jetting out of the dance and that Yuki and Keylie are hot on her trail. Tom seems to think something is up with Kelly, but is he right or was Kelly really just super pissed? Speaking of which, how is Tom going to find Yuki if Yuki isn't even at the dance anymore? is he really going to kick everyone's ass?

You'll also get to see someone else step up to Tom!! But who are they trying to help? Can Yuki and the others have a traitor in their mist? You can find out this Thursday!!

Vote for Ninja Spirit!!

River asks why the snow won't stop falling.