Monday, August 29, 2005
	| First| Prev | Next |Last | Parody Strip #22 "Pencil x Rough" | First| Prev | Next |Last | "Pencil x Rough" by Akira (2005-08-29) "Hunter x Hunter" by Yoshihiro Togashi is one of my favorite manga currently published on "Weekly Shounen Jump". Mr. Togashi became famous by drawing "Yuu Yuu Hakusho", but I love his "Level-E" much much much more. Anyway, Mr. Toashi is notorious for not meeting the comic deadline (last year, he was only able to draw about 50% of the time, I think) and for publishing pencil sketches on "Weekly Shounen Jump" (The image on left is from today's Weekly Shounen Jump). He does ink and clean up drawings for his tankobon (comic book), and some people enjoy seeing the differences (in a very sarcastic way). Reference: Hunter Mix I found a very strange website of Musuka from Miyazaki's "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" yesterday... I guess some people love this villain so much that they began to get hallucinations ^^; Please write your comment to this strip at pOnju forum

	Tuesday, August 30, 2005
	"Guppies" by Akira (2005-08-30) I bought three pairs of guppies last Sunday and was quite busy taking care of them? (or should I say just "watching" them... It's so refreshing to see fishes swimming). I once tried to raise guppies (and other fishes like neon tetras) while I was at CMU, but all of them died off within months (Guppies' babies died too ;_; ). This time I'll take all necessary precautions and make sure they survive for at least a year :) I'll take the picture when I get home. There was an interesting site filled with parodies of my favorite "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure". I especially love the comic strip of "The Joesters" posted on the index page.

	Wednesday, August 31, 2005
	"Ukulele Force" by Akira (2005-08-31) A scene of Hayate and Hinagiku from this week's "Hayate no Gotoku". Go Hayata-kun, You are the man! I knew you can do it!! But of course, he gets a slap on the cheek in the next page ^^; In "love comedy", it is forbidden to get romantic. Poor Hayate... Next time, I hope you are born in world of love-sim or bishoujo games (where 'multiple girls love you' is a default). I had a chance to listen to "Ukulele Force - Star Wars Best Covers" It's great. They play popular musics from "Star Wars" with ukulele (including "The 20th-Century Fox Fanfare"). I love "Theme of Empire/Theme of unwillingful Darth Vader" the best (You can listen to the sample at the website, just click on the small headphone images RAM/ASX). They also have covered "Beatles" and "Ghibli" too. Ukulele is quite popular among Japanese elders (including my mother), but I didn't expect these type of musics to be covered by Ukulele :)

	Thursday, September 1, 2005
	"Negima Figures" by Akira (2005-09-01) These are the Negima Figures I've collected this week (Unfortunately, I couldn't get Asuka and Nodoka...) These figures are sold in boxes (about three dollars each) and you don't know which one you'll get until you open the box. This means if you want to collect them all, you need at least $15 ^^; Today, I found a very interesting flash of O-ZONE's "Dragostea Din Tei (Japanese title is "Koi no Miahi")". Some Japanese artists (or crazy fans?) made a very strange version of this music video called "Koi no Maiahi - Nekoneko Soramimi Koi ver. Kanketsuhen (Love of Miahi - cat cat mishearing love version complete)" and it is really really funny (You can view the sample by clicking "PLAY" button of the FLASH found at official website). "Dragostea Din Tei" are sung in Rumanian, but to ordinally Japanese people (who can't speak Rumanian ^^;), those pictures drawn in the FLASH anime are what we hear ^^; Key phrase "Nu ma nu ma ie", for example, sounds like "Noma[e] noma[e] iei-" which does sound like "Drink (more) Drink (more) yeah!!". I think I'll borrow the CD and view a full version of this anime :)

	Friday, September 2, 2005
	"Background Image" by Akira (2005-09-02) I found a website "moonknives" which has a very cute C.C.Sakura and KEY drawings. Some of the images can be used as a wallpaper (in fact, I'm using Tomoyo-chan as my current laptop background). I should change the PHP setting, so that these rants are shown at the beginning/top of the page. I'm wondering if everyone is reading these rants ^^;

	Saturday, September 3, 2005
	"Aquarium" by Akira (2005-09-03) I spent a whole day today taking care of guppies and water plants ^^; Here are the pictures of "Blue glass" and "???? Blue glass (I forgot the name ^^;)". Many things has happened this week (like baby guppies were born, one of the guppies got sick, water plants died off, etc), but I think I handles them pretty well this time. An aquarium does refresh your mind and heart for sure (I can spend an hour just watching fishes swim), but it takes so much money, time, and care... I'm not sure if it's really refreshing me (I think they cancel out)... I found a website of character designer of Habanero-tan (a moe character based on Tohato's The world?fs hottest spice snack). The site has comic strips of Habanero-tan in Korean/English/Poland (click on 'gallery' on top and click on 'non gallery link' of the page and click on those links on the right with numbers [03] [05] [06] - middle ones are in English). I once tried eating Habanero, and they sure are extremely hot. I don't think I want to touch any part of my body after eating that ^^; I didn't have any problem in bathroom after eating them though... --; (For those who can't get there, here are the direct links which I shouldn't do... 1, 2, 3, 4)

	Sunday, September 4, 2005
	"Chibi Kotone" by Akira (2005-09-04) I found a pencil sketch of chibi kotone I drew a year ago. I inked and scanned the old sketch because I had nothing to upload ^^; I have chibi Laika drawings too. I'll ink hers after drawing a parody of "Death Note" tomorrow (monday). I hope you enjoy :) I get most of interesting manga information from Yamakamu and Golgo 31, but unfortunately these websites are all written in Japanese. Let's see, I think people will enjoy viewing beautiful drawings at Hato no Tamago (RAMI's web site). I wish I could paint like these. Unfortunately, since these graphics are all chopped off and assembled using a table, it's very difficult (or should I say "very very tedious") to download the image ^^; What a nice way to discourage downloading original drawings.