"Cats are out of their bags now..." Thursday January 10th, 2008

Kimen is not about to be fooling around. I wasn't either since it took me forever and a day to get the aura effect I wanted for Kimen. Even the darkness oozing out of his ripped cloak took some time to get just right. All in all I was happy with the overall effect. For some reason I did a crappy job drawing Yuki for most of this comic, but I'll let that slide for now. There's not much else I'll say about this one right now though. Next comic should be a fun one as well as we add another puzzle to the secret.

I don't think I have any other news to report actually. I broke down and started playing Phantom Hourglass and I am enjoying it so far. It's awesome what they've done to integrate the touch screen for that game. I haven't gotten too far in it, but I'm enjoying it just the same. I get the feeling I am forgetting something, but I can't remember what it was I wanted to talk about.

Oh, I got an awesome late Christmas present from some family from Japan in the form of a kick ass Kamogawa Gym t shirt. It TOTALLY kicks ass.

Anyway I think I'll end this post for now with a revised Top 5 Anime Openings. Turns out I totally forgot to include the second Full Metal Alchemist opening and I have since seen the awesomeness that is the first D. Gray-man opening. As an added bonus I've included the Top 5 Anime Endings as well. Keep in mind that I tried to rank them keeping both the song and the visuals in mind. Unfortunately the second Inuyasha ending has one of the best ending songs ever, but the visuals blow. One pet peeve I have of any opening or ending animation is if they use clips from the show itself. I don't want to see a cheap AMV piece set to good music. I can get that from anywhere. I will mention that endings were a lot harder to find since they seem to be so blah for the most part. I almost included two more Naruto endings ("Viva Rock" and "Ryusei" because they were as good as anything else on the list from 2-5. Anyway here are the lists and I've even included my favorite chill moments from each one. and I will see you next week!

River's Revised Top 5 Opening Themes (Music and Animation taken into effect)
1. Naruto "Haruka Kanata" (The parts when they rotate around the teams is CATCH MAX!)
2. Full Metal Alchemist "Ready Steady GO!" (A+ scenes are... with the state alchemists, Ed and Al right after Scar appears, zoom into Lust's eye)
3. Saint Seiya "Pegasus Fantasy" (Seiya right after he puts on his armor and when all the Bronze saints turn to look at the camera as it zooms by)
4. D. Gray-Man "INNOCENT SORROW" (The Millenium Earl, Road's closeup, and Miranda with the broken glass behind her)
5. Macross 7 "Seventh Moon" (The zoom out from Basara right out of City 7 to the opening title, the end sequence)

River's Top 5 Ending Themes (Music and Animation taken into effect)
1. Naruto "Wind" (An amazing song with an amazing visual style that captured the feel of the manga and character perfectly)
2. The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi "Hare hare Yukai" (Brilliantly animated and just about everyone and their mother knows it even if they never watched the show.)
3. Yu Yu Hakusho "Taiyou ga Mata Kagayaku Toki" (Just a brilliant idea with the photographs with a nice song.)
4. D. Gray-Man "Pride of Tomorrow" (I think it hits pretty much all the characters and the shot of the Noah Family kicks ass)
5. Full Metal Alchemist (Nina Version) "Kesenai Tsumi" (A great change to remember one of the most f'ed up moments in ANY anime.)