Beyond Redemption

I took a bit of a break from fanfic to watch a manga/anime/movie (More on that in a minute), and in the meantime, worked on my next commission. As the title says, Holy. Fucking Shit. You guys are gonna love this one, and I mean love it.

I’ll give you two hints –If I Want To and Cati-Art. If you’re familiar with her beyond beautiful artwork, you know you’re in for a treat. Without a doubt, this will be a layout and probably the best of the art I have had done on this story so far (and you guys haven’t even seen two of them yet). I’m blown away and this is just the sketch. I love that girl; so sweet and uber talented. I really hope she becomes world famous when she starts delving into all originals because she’s truly gifted.

In manga news, have you guys ever heard of the shoujo called “Lovely Complex” about a tall girl and a short guy? It’s really cute and funny. There are some instances when I wanna bash that little jerk’s head into a wall, and a time or two when I was looking at the girl cross-eyed, wishing she’d grow a pair of tits, but I liked it enough to read the 17 volume manga, watch the 24 episode anime, and watch the live action movie in about 3 days. lol. I’m not much of a shoujo reader anymore (too may stupid situations, love triangles, asshole guys, dumb girls, and oh God, the idiotic harems…), but this was pretty fun. (And no, unfortunately, there is no smut).

Manga
Anime
Movie
Have at it!

I did some writing over the last couple of days. I’m not happy with it, but since I don’t want to write at all, it’s understandable. Unless I really start loving (or at least, liking) fanfic again soon, anything I create will feel the way this does. Sigh.

When writing is too frustrating, I read manga and I have to get some things off my chest.

I’m grateful to scanlators for the hard work they do. I know because I work with a scanlation group, so I completely understand the BS they deal with. That’s another story, though… Anyway, while I do appreciate their efforts, my goodness, they need more people who speak proper English. Nothing is worse than struggling through a manga that’s translated the same way someone with broken English speaks. >.< I'm no grammar nazi by ANY means (Y'all know that), but geez... it's fucking unbearable. Proofreaders exist to curb those small flubs before they make it to the typesetters and such. But >.> srsly, if you can’t PR properly, don’t volunteer for it. A mistake here and there is fine, but when EVERY BIT OF DIALOGUE is made of broken English it’s impossible to read or enjoy the manga. I abandoned three mangas today because of that. I just couldn’t take it.

The other things is opinions. I steer clear of forums and stuff because the IY fandom taught me that fangirls are fucking retarded, and who wants to deal with them all over again elsewhere? So I just observe (usually when I’m looking for spoilerz) and I noticed this disturbing trend of scanlators arguing with/bitching at people who don’t like the manga they’re scanning. This is… flooring to me.

I don’t think I’m wrong when I say that the scan team didn’t create the fucking thing, right? So why take something like that personal? o.O Why are they even stalking the scans they release anyway (since they’re usually uploaded to multiple sites)? Like I said, I work with a scan group and I don’t give a SHIT about what anyone thinks of the mangas we do. Read them or don’t. *shrug* But to jump all over someone for expressing an opinion like, “I don’t really care for this one.” is just fucking mental. Hence, why I don’t bother with fucking fangirls (and boys). I’ve been out of high school too long (and sadly, so have many of them).

Two words: VAMPIRE KNIGHT.

Now, I don’t follow that manga. I intended to, but I couldn’t get past chapter three because it was so abnormally boring. But I still love Zero Kiryuu, so my kau got me the fanbook, anime box set, and a Zero plushie. (I fully intend to watch the box set someday, too.) But today, after seeing some comments on this manga, I read chapters 82 and 83. (Yep, all outta sequence, barely know what’s going on, etc) >.> I can only say that I’m so glad I didn’t invest in this. I still love Zero, but ungh. I can’t see wasting so much time on this like I did with InuYasha. I can practically SMELL an Kik/Inu/Kags ending here. You know, the one where he chooses Kags because Kikyou is dead. /sarcasm. It smacks of Zero being second on the list. It also seems that Kaname is “evil” now. Gee, only now? >.> He smelled evil from the start, but whatever.

I keep telling myself to give this a chance for Zero’s sake, but I don’t think I can fuck with this manga that’s already on chapter 83 (I hate long stories). Plus, I hate Kaname. I didn’t before, not really. I kinda ignored him because I was simply into Zero, so I didn’t love or hate him. He was just a non-factor, which is funny because I almost always choose the brunette over the light-colored hair. (Human Yasha, anyone?). But now? Yeah, at the very least, I want to see the chapter where he fucking dies.

Since I already smell another unsatisfying InuKags ending in this thing, I would like to content myself by watching Zero put that gun to his head and pulling the trigger (Unlikely). Or maybe we’ll get really lucky and he’ll figure out that he’s useless and off himself. There’s also scenario three where Yuuki puts him down like a dog past its 10,000 year old prime… (She can die with him, btw) Ah the possibilities are delightfully endless. Or, worst case scenario, he lives, which I’d be fine with, so long as he’s miserable doing so. Either die or live to suffer.

I’ve been into yaoi big time. It’s so funny because I used to hate all yaoi. It was just gross to me. Now, I love it. In fact, I read that 80% of the time because shoujo is so fucking cliche. It’s like every other story has the same scenario -like Mayu Shinjo. As much as I loved Haou Airen (well… I loved Hakuron IN Haou Airen), if I read one more of her fucking stories where the girl is some innocent VIRGIN getting chased all over the place for the sole purpose of being deflowered by a guy who looks like Hakuron (Can she even draw any other face??) I’m gonna spit.

I mean, sure, yaoi has repetition, but not nearly as bad as shoujo. It’s just fucking annoying, especially when the stories are long as hell. And I’m not into shounen ai, either. I don’t want a long build up to… a kiss. If you’re going there, go all the way, dammit. I’m proudly hentai and I wanna see somebody get laid! I read a shounen ai last night that was so fucking confusing, ridiculous, and BORING, it literally gave me a headache and I had to abandon it. Total waste of my time and so many pointless conversations between minor characters. UNGH.

Anyway, that’s my bitch fest for today. I’m off to shower and possibly write a bit before bed. ^___^

P.S. My physical copy of U-KISS’ new CD arrived at my house and I’m so giddy. Came with a nice sized poster, a picture booklet with lyrics, a long, hardcover book-like case, and of course, the CD. They package things differently in Asia (they’re better >.>). You really get something nice for the money. I’m quite happy. <3

I haven’t updated for a while and figured I’d throw up a quickie. Not much going on. I’m working on some older fictions that haven’t seen updates in ages and trying to keep my hands from going nuts. My gram’s birthday is coming up, so I’m on that melancholy train right now, which is why I’m throwing myself into fics. Not an easy task between my hands and the struggle to get over block, but it beats moping, right?

I had a little commission done of my anime self that made me smile. It’s at my gallery, but I’ll share it here, too.

In sad news, one of my all-time faves, Blackmamba07, deleted all of her stories from both mediaminer and fanfiction.net. I have no idea why, but what a loss! If you never got to read any of her works, I feel a little bad for you because she smokes all these so called “Big Name Fan” writers. Her story, Mirrors, alone makes 80% of IY fanfics look like shit. lol. My hope is that she’ll reconsider one day and re-post because, as I said, the deletion of her work is a great loss to IY fanfic community.

In Deviant Art news, I had a kiriban contest that yielded 2 winners. I actually didn’t promote it after the initial blog post (thinking it would skim beneath the radar -and it almost did!). So now I have 3 stories to get off the ground (the 3rd is for Ms. Goddess, who has been patiently waiting for her fic since 2008, or so). I just hope my chronic block won’t be too much of a factor. I also updated my yaoi after a 3-year absence. Whoa. I just hope I can get another out there before 3 years comes around again. >.> Also, Eternal Destiny’s dA group is having a contest for our 4th anniversary, so check it out if you draw (you know my prizes are always good. lol.)

And the question of the day? How do you totally adore a manga character, yet refuse to read said manga? That is my dilemma whenever I look at Zero from Vampire Knight. My Lily turned me on to that one, but <.< I have a reason for not reading it (I don't want to give any spoilers). I'm totally FANGIRLING on Zero, but I don't wanna touch that manga. DAMN.

FUCK. ME.
(please?!)

Howdy Visitors! ^_^

I haven’t updated a bit and thought that now, at 6am on a Sunday morning, it would be a good time! 😀

How y’all be?! Basically, things on this end are okay. As you know, I suffered a pretty nasty carpal tunnel flare up that’s forced me to take it easy. (Now you know one of the main reasons why I can’t update the way I used to). For those that have never experienced carpal, think of it as aching, tingly, awful pain that starts (for me) at the fingertips, up the hand, past the wrists and when it’s really bad, up to the shoulders. It’s from so many years of typing my heart on on fanfiction, sometimes all day/night for way too long. Now, I get to suffer, lol. However, despite that, I was able to update The Neighbor a second time and I appreciate all the great feedback. It was nice to know that my pain was appreciated.

To pass the recovery time, I’ve been reading manga again, and for the last 2-3 days, mostly yaoi. Everything from hardcore to soft shounen ai. I really like that stuff! Pretty boys making sex with each other (yes, I said making sex) is a bootiful thing! xD (Though, the hard ones can really make me cringe at times. I really dislike yaoi rape/torture in a big way.)

Right now, I’m reading “Our Kingdom”, which is a cute teenage thing. It’s been licensed, so it’s very hard to find, but you know your Grrrl. She found it online and for download. Really darling -almost inspires me to do a cute little Inu/Mir based on it. But, eh, who knows. Yaoi is something I only dabble in because it’s so adorable in the right circumstances. At heart, I’m hetero and hardcore I/K. And FYI, yuri is an automatic out. Can’t get into that at all.

I’ve also been reading a lot of taboo shit, like incest manga (I limit that to bro/sis, hetero/yaoi twincest, and cousins). I did read a father/son by accident once (it was like 16 pages, so once I hit page 5 and knew where it was going, I said, “Fuck it. I won’t die if I read the rest.”). It actually inspired a seriously twisted story in me, but… I don’t know if y’all can/would want to handle something like that. I may still write it, though, for no other reason than to prove that I can. Heh.

Another one I’ve read that was pretty decent is “Cantarella”. It’s a fantasy/historical on the Borgia Family (Cesare, Lucretia, etc) and the crazy shit that went down with the Catholic church. Not sure what’s true and what’s pure fantasy (I’m not Catholic), but it was pretty wild and the art -wow. The main character, Cesare, looks amazing in most of the frames and colored inserts. But I have to ask. Why are manga characters drawn so out of proportion? o.O Their arms and legs are always way too long and thin and they just look tarded. >.< That can ruin a look for me completely. And now that I've read so much manga/manwha I've also discovered that Rumiko Takahashi is not a good artist at all. Yes, I went there. Fanartists smoke her to the 10th. Her Yasha is like a prototype that other people made amazing, and compared to most other mangaka, her art is just terrible. The anime art is better, and Kikyou always looked good (no shock there *eyeroll*), but Kagome and InuYasha. >.> Or is that Kagome and Rinne since he’s InuYasha with red hair? Yeah, lame art there. Sorry, lady. But hey, it didn’t deter me from loving InuYasha, and having him redone a zillion times in fanart, so…

Anyway, I’ve also discovered that I like more manwha (Korean manga) than Japanese manga. I dunno… I find their bishies incredibly hot too much of the time. Like this one (ignore the blonde kid):

So. Effin. Cute. I also find their stories more interesting. They really seem to “go there” and that makes their stories a bit more fun -for me, anyway. Yay for manwha!

On updates. I haven’t started anything yet (besides Age of Innocence for Jesse and Fallen), but there will be some soon. I feel like writing, so it won’t be long, provided my hands play nice. I have 3 new skins ready, too, and one of them is The Neighbor finally. I ended up doing that header myself (I should have stopped being so mega lazy and did that all along), so you’ll definitely see it when I update again. I also ordered some new art from Maria -my awesome nee-chan- and that should be really smexy. It’s another InuYasha/Kagome (what is that about lately?! I never commish her…). I don’t know if I’ll make it a header, but it’s for GFE, so it will at least post with the fiction. Yeah, I did mention a GFE before, but that didn’t work out to me, and that’s all the comment I’ll give on it.

Last note: If you’re an Eternal Destiny member, nominate some fics in the last Destined Awards. I won’t be doing them anymore after this term, so it’s the last hurrah before I lock that gate.

Ok, arm hurts, so I’m out. I’ll try to get some updates posted this week. ^^

EDIT: I finished Our Kingdom and LOVED it. What a cute, fluffy, sweet yaoi manga! It was so enjoyable! I didn’t expect it to be as much fun as it was, and I’m actually going to buy the series for my manga collection. I wasn’t super wild about the way the two main characters were drawn, but some of the other ones (like Raul -who may as well be Kouga) are really cute and it’s just an all around adorable series. Squee!
Definitely going to read this mangaka’s other works.

Okay, I’m off to mail gifts to my 3 nieces aka Neo and Jenny’s babies. Yay for Xmas and birthdays!