Happy New Year, minna-san!

by einlee

Whoever you are renew the contract to yourself, to love yourself, celebrate who you are,improve, remember to give love and to live each moment! :D

Closing circles - House of Five Leaves and Tatami Galaxy

1rst and last episode

ending of episodes 1-10 of tatami galaxy

opening of episode 11 of tatami galaxy

As you can see the title refers to the narrative technique of these series, but it also refers to the post in general, as I owed to 'close' this topic I left open for so long.

Winter songs- because Christmas is international

Cardcaptor Sakura by CLAMP

Christmas is a holiday that although has Christian roots has reached almost every corner of the earth and is celebrated by million people of different races and religions. In my country 99,9% of the songs we listen to have to do only with Jesus, God, angels and mages. In English... that's another story. There are many that aren't religion-oriented and of course I don't talk about the traditional ones. So I felt the need to search for seasonal songs that don't tie anyone with their meaning and lyrics, including me, who I don't believe in any religion; plus some extraordinare and not the usual ones, that just 'sell'.

Will you follow me for a pleasant -and even thoughtful at times- listen?

When angels touch my heart : transcending classical pieces

Thy Angel's Song by Angel-Zakuro on animepaper- based on You Higuri's art

There are times when you hear a melody and immediately you feel drawn to it. And beyond your religious beliefs, you feel that something divine blessed you; that perhaps you connected with an ethereal sphere or the universe. Phrase it as you want to.

stop-move-stop-move... + music = great stop-motion music videos

The sound of water makes her dream
Awoken by a cloud of steam
She pours a daydream in a cup
A spoon of sugar sweetens up

I’d give it all to you
The feelings in my heart
There’s nothing I won’t do

And because You Tube makes our lives sometimes harder... Sia's Breathe me in a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghPcYqn0p4Y&p=1F00ACE06BC31D07&playnext=1&index=13
I couldn't embed it :(

Be my friend
Hold me, wrap me up
Unfold me
I am small
I'm needy
Warm me up
And breathe me

"Innocence lost" or talking about a fallacy?

Impurity by yuumei on deviantart

Some ideals and concepts are so deep engraved on our brain from an early age, that many times we fail to see what's in front of us. Take the above picture for example: When I saw the stunningly white dress the girl wore, I immediately linked it with virginity and the blood with the loss of it. The title also was connected in a similar way to my thoughts. Well, after reading the description of the creator, the idea she wanted to put across was something totally different. It had to do with the beauty of the dress and the ugliness of the crime commited to obtain it (the murder of the swan).

Yet what was it that lead me to such conclusions? Most probably my upbringing. That connects purity with virginity as well as the cultural connotations in West associated with these colours. But is it really like the conservatives claim to be? And were there a time when we were pure-hearted? A time of innocence?

Eve vs Adam- The Battle of Pornography

One of the most striking and fundamental differences that define our place in society is our gender. Right from the moment we are born, we are going through this separation, when our parents dress us in blue and pink*, then our relatives and family friends gather to give us our presents, dolls and Barbies for girls, military men and airplanes for boys. This is the way things go for a long time, for most people for their whole lives. Thus, different values are born in our minds and hearts and the war between the sexes begins.

We have all felt it and experience it: when our friends joke about how unmanly we look, or when our parents tell us to dress more girly. We act against it when we say “no papa, I am not going to wait until I get married to have sex” or we accept it when we agree to smoke or put on a mini skirt just to attract a member of the opposite sex.

This is my introduction to a series of articles dedicated to gender wars. I have decided to call the series “Eve vs Adam”, because these are two symbols in our culture that represent our many views of how we treat such issues and stereotype our views on man and womanhood. I hope that through these articles, we will find many ways to redefine and analyze our definitions of gender and sex. I deeply hope you find some usefulness to these thoughts and you are free to post any comment you might want to.

*The colors differ from culture to culture. Blue for boys and pink for girls is the norm for America and most countries of the European Union.

Loving Oneself With Open Eyes by Jorge Bucay and Silvia Salinas

Amor Liberate by kuscherlirmer on deviantart

Love can liberate, but not until we're willing to expose our flaws to others, admit that what annoys us in others is 99% part of ourselves and work it out. After all, as Hugh Prater said:

A stone is never annoying, unless it's in your way

In this wonderful book with the veil of a novel, one discovers the truths behind the success and the fail of some relationships. We are urged to tend carefully to our partners and subsequently to ourselves. We learn of the nature of love and all these in an understandable way.

Eros is to love the similarities, and love, to fall in love with the differences.

 (Translation from Greek version)

"Why did you die, you fool?"

Satoshi Kon said his goodbye to this world a month ago

The title is the question one of his partners asked after hearing about his death. He died so young...there's no need to repeat what a great loss he was.

It's not that anime will never be the same with Satoshi Kon gone. It's now much more likely that anime will always be the same. ~ Jesse Betteridge

New header, old love: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon

Summertime and the living is easy~~~

The new header reflects the season, it's fresh and playful. Yes, we've decided that each season the header and general layout will change. But it'll always be about us, something reflecting us as a couple or us as individuals and our memories.

So this time, we decided upon the girls of Sailor Moon, who I can now clearly see the girl power they represent and who are tied together not so much by obligation rather than true friendship; a friendship persistent in time, a friendship which overcomes obstacles. We, Neko-kun and Foxy Lady(/Kitsune), share such a strong bond and we hope to preserve it against all odds, against all obstacles.

As for me, that was the anime that got me hooked, introduced me to the anime world, charmed me and gave me plenty of illusions and ideals as a 6 year-old girl, but opened my mind as a teenager...

Virtual worlds of true memories:The gaming experience and other issues

Ever since I was a little kid, I have always carried a great love for videogames. No matter the genre, good videogames have always been my most enjoyable sin and I cannot have enough of them, even though I no longer have the time or the patience to play for six to ten hours like I used to when I was twelve years old. Today, twelve years after I bought Final Fantasy VII, I am a few hours of gaming before finishing the storyline and I have decided to write down my thoughts and memories on gaming.

CODE NAME: CREATIVITY- TEDster's come-back

creativity by wesso85 on deviantart

Here we have another two speeches,both of which we have hosted here and here, from two very intelligent and distiguished individuals. They talk to us about different aspects of creativity: Sir Ken Robinson links creativity to education and to a revolution the education system needs; Lawrence Lessig links creativity to laws, freedom and socialibilty.
Follow up some really clever typography/ graphic design works about creativity and some recommendations for watch.

A singing bird : Maaya Sakamoto

Maaya Sakamoto with Kobato, Suu(Clover) and Sakura Kinomoto(Cardcaptor Sakura)

The above illustration is by CLAMP. That's pretty natural isn't it? Maaya Sakamoto has tied her name very strongly with anime adaptions of CLAMP's works (Cardcaptor Sakura, Clover, Clamp School Detectives, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles). But that's not where Maaya started from...

Conversations - The right to choose your child's education

Here we are again with another conversation. It is pretty tough to find enough time to talk about controversial issues and even more difficult to have this conversation recorded. The past two months we both had many assignments to carry out -I still have some... but now we are back. And since foxie lady's posts concerned education, we soon started a heated discussion that led to this post. If you are interested on the subject check out the videos following the next.

Pioneers of education- When you strive for a vision

by winktothanatos

Changes can be achieved. We just need will, ideas and determination.

create-rip-mix-burn : a whole new culture

And you may wonder what this picture is all about and how does it relate to the 'pirate' processes most of us follow at home. If you want to know more, follow me after the link. Two TEDsters will enlighten you; the first one sharing his opinion about the laws protecting copyrights in society of information we live in and the second one talks about a pioneering 'legal piracy' that helps teachers teach in a whole new fascinating way.

The universal patient : Schooling

Blowing Bubbles by AquaSixio on deviantart

A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep. ~W.H. Auden

I believe you have NEVER EVER seen a student fall asleep in the classroom, because teachers are educated and trained individuals who really love their job and know how to make the lesson interesting... Aside from joking, what I saw in my visit at schools in the (greek) classrooms during my training last week (A' phase training where we watch teaching and write down our impressions and try to learn how to make a lesson plan) was frustrating for many reasons. Not because I didn't know that schooling hasn't changed basically much since last century, although there are so many new teaching methods out there, but because I realised that teachers as human beings with feelings and thoughts haven't changed and because it dawned on me how much we idealize our own teachers from our childhood...

So, on this post I'm going to talk about

• my one-week experience in schools, my feelings and thoughts on it,
• the difference between schooling and education
• what education should be. what education is and how it can be changed (content, goals, methods)
• and of course about teachers, students and parents, since they are the ones mainly involved, even though there are 'outside restrictions' -don't forget that education in schools is an institution designed by a state and confined by laws and politics.

Naturally, some people know better than me, so I'll let them speak in my place through quotes and videos.

'I can' bug- children as the future (hope)

If someone isn't given love, then (s)he can't give it. If we don't empower our children, trust them, support them into taking risks and chances, how will they change the world?

After the link follow two inspiring TED  talks, that focus on what can children do, if we believe in them.

AKROSS CON- a russian AMV contest

Feel Alive by Yuumei on deviantart

AMVs have become popular and that's not without reason. Some may insist that this kind of 'product' is not anything very creative, since it uses material already produced by other people. But if we accept written works that are based on other books (e.g. critics by a professor B on a scientific issue addressed by a professor A), why can't we accept videos that are based on other videos and give a different point of view? Seferis, a Nobel awarded Greek (for literature), had written "Our words are many people's children"...

We Can Do It (Again)! Anorexic models and Advertising

What is common between a lady that wishes to see men drool like pathetic dogs, a proud anorexic woman, a little girl with a mafia attitude and a proper lady whose skirt is raised up by the blowing wind, letting all of her "special parts" open for public view? They are all woman in ads, some of them even made exclusively by real women.

RAINBOW : CRIME 1-After the rain

Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei (The Tatami World) OP , ED and Nakamura-sensei's art

The crazy trip has begun. Subtitles will soon be out; I mean I saw that there'll be a release from you tube by a not so well-known group...won't more serious groups follow? It's Yuusa in the cockseat after all...

Beautiful foxes and cute, playful cats

by foxfire on deviantart

Me and my cat in our "animal forms" :P I just love these pictures and these animals. If you like them , too, come with me after the link *wink*

Oh tempora, oh mora ! (or not?) - When the generation gap shows its ugliness

Oh boy, how difficult it can be for your parents to understand you? I'll answer: VERY VERY MUCH (especially if your age difference is over 30 years...) If clothes represent personalities and mentalities, then just seeing the picture below, speaks volumes...

Kobato's touching moments- an overview (part 2)

 CLAMP's artwork is FTW! Continuation of Kobato!anime touching moments and some AMVs.

Kobato's touching moment- an overview (part 1)

by CLAMP

Kobato was a nice anime with some very sweet and sad moments, that invoked contemplation on some life issues that almost anyone faces. Yet it wasn't perfect. Some moments were strong some other more weak. It was spirit-uplifting though and very warm, so I watched it till the end.

(Warning: Image heavy)

RAINBOW: Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin OP & ED

The first episode is aired yet sadly no subgroups appear to be eager to sub this little diamond :( Let's hope things will change soon. It seems a very mature and therefore worthy series.

Draw with me- a glass wall between

by mike inel

In which a girl with an aged body saves a mage with a heart of a child

This post comes as answer to this one Howl’s Moving Castle Anime by Kitsune from Kitsune's Thoughts. My answer would be too long for a comment, so I thought it'd be much better to link an entry of my opinion.

For me, this movie is one of my all-time favourites. From the very start, I loved the soundtrack, it made me smile and it brought me moments of peace (Joe Hisaishi couldn't produce anything less than a masterpiece after all), the colours of the city and the vast lush landscapes (don't forget the movie was made in the traditional way, not through computer!) and the characters. Howl might be a little annoying in the beginning but, you know, real people aren't flawless.

Mankind is no island

Something to remember we are not alone in this world. Turn around and see; there are people in need. But what do we do about it really?

With the same hand we cause pain, we can offer love and heal.

Memory- a short film by Osamu Tezuka

We mainly know the great film-makers from their long-length features and we ignore other shorter creations of them. This is one good example. Tezuka parodies here human memory, while giving a quick lesson of cognitive psychology, one might dare say. His style in this short film mingles real people faces with 2D animation, perhaps with the intention of adding a caricature feeling to it. It makes me wonder, if Yuasa Masaaki is influenced directly from Tezuka.

Let's take a look at the qualities of memory Tezuka mentions in the short:

• Memory is based on oblivion. If we couldn't forget ,then we couldn't remember either. The useless details are erased.
• Memories are organized inside the brain. We remember what leaves strong impressions.
• Memory is selective and distorting and idolizing.
• Memories are influenced by emotions and influence emotions. Bad memories either get pushed away or get magnified.
• Time soothes and minimizes the effect of memories and memories wear off.

I love you California

Wish that becomes the anthem of the state. I hope I'll die and be buried to the land where I was born, even though most of my life 'till now has been spend away from it.

I love you California, I love the Union


Well the seasons pass, & the seasons go
Nothing ever stays the same
There's one thing I know, that will never change
That's the love for the land from which I came

California, California
With the waves upon your shoreline
Will you call me home, when my life is done
To rest in your hills so high

From your rocky shore, to your forests green
To your valleys deep & wide
There's a light I see, on the faces there
And a spirit you just can't hide

Many years have passed, since I roamed the hills
In the golden glow of sunlight
Now that the darkness falls, all around me now
I love you with all my might

Animation in Music Videos

It's in the Rain
Ανέβηκε από RavenTV.







I really like these tidbits of animation in music videos. This contrast of (moving) 2d and 3d world creates a unique atmosphere with beautiful results. If you have in mind more such examples, please, link me :)

Desiderata by Max Ehrmann

"Desiderata" (Latin for "desired things", plural of desideratum) is an inspirational prose poem about attaining happiness in life. See video and listen to audio after the jump.

Spring anime season 2010

SG trailer
Ανέβηκε από manuloz. - Δείτε γνήσια web videos.

These two anime plus RAINBOW Nisha Rokubo no Shichinin, that hasn't a trailer yet and has no announcement of air date, will be on the must watch list. Stylistically they seem very well-worked and quite refreshing from the usual anime style. But the plots are very promising as well: a student's (bizarre?) life, a samurai gang's life and deliquents' after WWII lives. And all of them are adaptions from novel and manga, meaning good quality of characters and story- dialogues. The two first hosted in Noitama slot that gave us masterpieces like Mononoke. Slice of life at its best- that's my hope.

Yojo-han Shinwa Taikei involves Masaaki Yuasa (Kaiba, Kemonozume, Mind Game- from which I and Neko-kun have watched only Kaiba and it WAS a masterpiece) and Yusuke Nakamura's character design. Plus the main character resembles Ikuhara-sensei! (see Revolutionary Girl Utena)

House of Five Leaves comes from the author of Ristorante Paradiso. I must admit that her character design with the many edges and the big pupils isn't something I like very much, but back in Ristorante's anime adaption these features were slightly decreased thus I watched it with delight. The House seems to preserve her manga style, so I'll see how much I can enjoy it. Plus the opening theme surprised me with the selection of a pop song. I was expecting something more traditional japanese. I believe that the plot structure will be similar to Ristorante's, so at least I'll enjoy the serenity of life stories.

The RAINBOW's title made me think at first that it was an anime with overdose of moe and silly fanservice or an art series with lolis, but when I saw the poster and read the summary, I totally changed my mind. I don't know a lot of facts about this one, but the manga won an award, so I have high hopes for a historical slice of life. The setting is the years after WWII and I am going to read The bread of those early years by Heinrich Boell with my Neko that's also set in this time period, so I'll get two different views on the same historical events and in different places. Let's see how it'll turn out.

Conversations - Beauty, morals and racism

From the previous post about Chinese beauty arose a very interesting conversation. We are both happy that we can discuss about everything and challenge each other to think. Intellectual ‘battles’ are always interesting. So, there certainly will come out more in the future.

First impressions - 'Kimi ni Todoke'

School- life shoujo at its best: lots of laughters, lots of tears, lots of sparkles floating, many chibis and a huge dose of innocence. What makes it so good though is its sweetness. It warms your heart like no other anime. Sawako and Kazehaya are one of a kind, so very kawai and so very shy and gentle. The word 'yasashii' appears already from the opening and it's one of the reappearing words along with the 'thank you' , 'hajimete' (=first/ beginning) and 'I am happy' that come from the lips of Sawako :)

The crazy water

There once was a king and he ruled a kind kingdom,
with happy and willing people.
One night, the king descented into a prophet's dream
and thus he saw the dreadful future:
in just a few days, it'd rain hard
but the water would make the people crazy
doin' things they would never expect.

The king woke up drowned in his sweat and heavy breath
and told his best friend an advisor of what he knew
"What you've witnessed is true my lord" he told the anxious king
"and here is what we must do. We will save all the sane water for a few days
and when all sanity is lost, we'll keep driking only from the good water
to keep this kingdom in justice and happiness".
And so they did.

When the people went insane, justice kept on the kingdom thanks to the king and his advisor
But soon the people were mad and angry against them
for for them madness was reason and reason was madness.
Soon both the king and his friend took the toughest decision
To drink the crazy water, to loose their minds, be one with the nutheads.
And so they did".

Don't you have the feeling that people, each and everyone of them, have actually tried the mad water ever since they were born? And that they keep updating on their dose of it?

Isn't it a pure sign of madness teaching kids at schools to be proud of their grandfather's horrible acts and prejustice, and then wonder why violence is a theme very popular to younglings, especially the male ones?

Isn't it an absolute sign of idiocity and hypocrisy to give one or two (or even 50 or 100) euro for children in Haiti, then buy products of the brands we all know they use children to produce their commodities, so we actually finance the hunger and pain those people feel? Even worse, the same people who make comments like "I may be a racist, but when I see a hungry child my heart is full of love for it" seem to become the very symbols of the majority of people. Am I the only one feeling embarassment to be a human when I listen to such things?

Isn't an act of nutheads to feel insulted of people protesting for their rights and needs?

Isn't it a sign of a madman to use dangerous words, the meaning of which he or she does not know, to show off?

The meaning of this post is not that I am the definition of a smart, rightful person and the rest of you are a pile of wasted crap. It's not a demand to change the world or to wake up people. There's nothing sophisticated behind it. It's only a way to say something I never listen anyone saying : you can be a bastard in every aspect in your life and it'll be ok, but, for goodness sake, just be a little honest to your self on how things are (and most probably have always been). It's the very least that can be done.

The gentleness of 'Natsume Yuujinchou'

One word to describe this series: yasashii...

The title of the series is referring to the Book of Friends that Takashi Natsume inherited from his powerful grandmother, Reiko Natsume. It contains the names of spirits she defeated in different games and pranks in order to kill time since she was not liked by other schoolmates and generally people because she was a 'weirdo', appearing to speak on her own with no one , seemingly, nearby. We watch Natsume giving back to those creatures their names, while he develops as a character, coming closer to both people and the supernatural.

Thus, could it be that the series' title is also referring to the series itself, each episode being a page of the 'book' and a story about Natsume and his new friends, whom he meets along his way?

Chinese beauty- Ehru and chinese illustrator Qianyu

I may not know much about China, but there is one thing I know for sure: they know what beauty is. (If you wanna read more about the many multiple notions of chinese beauty you can go to Iwa ni Hana blog by Wabisabi-she does an awesome job here : Iwa ni Hana). My experience of chinese beauty is relevant with mainly two things: ehru and illustrators.

Kawai ~~~

-Mrs. Fox! Look at this! Look at it! Wow, it's fun! Let's play together!
-...
-Oi! Let's play~~~
-Mr. Cat, can't you see I'm busy now? Are you that desperate to have my attention?
-Mooo~~~Why are you so cold?
-Silly cat!

Someone didn't have a good mood... :P



No words needed >.< It seems like the cat won a bet and the fox was just playing it difficult, hihi. She's enjoying it, isn't she? :)

On the power of names, our blog nicknames and a great series

By giving out your name, you are giving them the ability to take your soul. By giving out your birthday, you have given over the control of your whole life. ~Yuuko Ichihara, xxxholic, ch1 p16

What makes the world beautiful?

by nighty on devianart

This blog is named after Kino no Tabi's motto, so for the first post we thought it natural to begin with our world views and what we find beautiful in this world.