http://omanga.monkey-pirate.com/index.php?action=dlattach;id=281;type=avatar


so very, very, very wrong.

If I ever get a really cute cat, I'm going to name her Modoc.



Mobile Organism Designed ONLY for Cuteness.













What?

Gosh, I love the Mysterious Cities of Gold. And you should too, you cold hearted bastards!

iB::Topic::Boa vs. Python: "Topic: Boa vs. Python, 2 Great Snakes That Snake Great 2gether!"

I don't know why, but I find that phrase to be inexplicably hilarious.

I was watching a documentary about bruce lee, and it really made me appreciate him. I thought he was mostly some martial arts guy with no real depth, but the documentary changed all that. Made me bummed out that he died so early. I have to get "Enter the Dragon" now.

Remote


Hmmm.....I liked it, but I think the manga-ka's nuts to intersperse brutal murders and wedding planning hijinks. And what's with every guy in manga being a perverted moron. (20 bucks says the heroine and her fiance just missing out on having sex (which he wants, and she doesn't) becomes a running gag.) Anyhoo, a traffic cop's is going to get married to her fiance, so she resigns, but due to Japan's crappy economy, her fiance isn't making as much money as they'd like, so she goes to ask for her job back, but it's been filled. Luckily, an opening just came up in the unsolved crimes division, so she's transfered there. Unfortunatly, it turns out that only she, and one other man will be working there. The other guy is a shut in, so he needs her to be his eyes and ears (hence the title), so she goes around investigating a series of crimes commited by a clown. (John Wayne Gacy, does your evil know no bounds!? Not even death could stop you!) It's not quite as simple as just figuring out who the clown is, and I think the manga-ka's trying to hard to make the crime complex, but hey, that's not so bad (I think). And as opposed to Kindaichi, Tokyopop doesn't include all the chapters from a specific case in one volume, which seems to indicate that this isn't a true whodunnit, but more then that. Which is okay. I just wonder if the non-mystery stuff is going to get annoying after awhile. We'll see. All in all, I give it a thumbs up (but since I don't buy manga I probably won't like (no yaoi here, chums) you have to take my thumbs up with a grain of salt.)

Speaking of good manga, I really enjoyed MPD-Psycho, altough the first volume is extremely gruesome (and later volumes aren't, suggesting that the manga-ka and the magazine it was published in, got a bunch of complaints, and had to scale back). It's extremely confusing, but that might just be because I've only read it on the computer. Yes, I d/led scanslations, and no, I won't tell you where. Hypocritical? Maybe, but I know that I'll buy the manga if and when it ever comes out, whereas I can't be so sure about my reading audience. If you can dig it up, and can tolerate images of extreme violence, I suggest you check it out. And if anyone wants to know the most horrific part from volume 1, e-mail me.

Why does everyone make multiplayer action seem so godlike? What, I have nothing better to do then play with jackoffs that make the game miserable for me to play? I want to play at my level, not at the level of people who make a fucking career out of playing online games, and have memorized every goddamn respawn point and weapon location, and checkpoints. How is that fun? It's not. Oh, and developers: If your game is turn based, don't you fucking DARE include a multiplayer part. Turnbased muliplayer is the very definition of boring, tedious, and rage inducing. Thanks.

Well, I had to dump another comic from my read list Mac Hall. The new color scheme SUCKS. And I was prepared to buy their comic, but not anymore. Compare these two:

Oldstyle

and this:

Newstyle

Totally sucky, huh?


Edit: Actually, the one that's currently on the index page is a Guest comic. I'm still not crazy about the new style, however. But I'll probably end up buying the compliation. Sorry.

I toaded a bunch of players on a chatroom i run, and it was a long and tedious process. Just now, I learned a way to streamline it: toad everyone to a single person, so all of their crap was given to them, then purged that 1 player, and gotten them all in one go. oh well.


























FUCK!!!!

Bloody computer. I let my dad borrow my speakers for his new computers, to test it, and when i plugged it in, i guess it ate up too much power, and the computer rebooted. afterwards, my keyboard started skipping letters, so i tried to fix that, and when i got that fixed, my stupid mouse started skipping (I have a wireless keyboard/mouse, and they use the same connection) I spent 75 minutes working on it, as well as d/ling new drivers. Now I can't figure out how to customize the mouse buttons for different programs, so i lost the ability to go back with a button press in MSIE, my favorite use for it. I eventually had to pull it from it's old usb port, and put it into a new one. My mouse started working, and then my keyboard stopped working again. So i hit the channel selector on my keyboard, and it *SEEMS* to be working. Goddamn stupid crap. Argggh. I didn't even get to post my impressions about Rurouni Kenshin vol 5.


Edit: Looks like it was where I put my speaker. I guess it was interfering with the transmission of the radio signals. I moved it, and no more problems. YAY.

Welcome to Sexy Losers

This comic is crap. The artist draws crappy porn, and his idiotic audience laps it up, and thinks it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Please, dumbfucks? Get a hooker, and have real sex. I mean, the opening graphic is a guy masterbating while a woman walks by. This is good? You people are idiots.

How about a show about graphic design artists: The Retouchables?


No? Who asked you!

FOX11AZ.com | News for Tucson, Arizona | News | Local: "Officer's Taser is used on girl, 9"



Hey, hey. Don't you guys think that. I bet the girl was hopped up on PCP, and hand broken the handcuffs, and was coming at the officer with a knife, a baseball bat, and a gun!

Phoenix: Dawn


Man! This was a GREAT manga. Kind of bittersweet, sad but uplifting. Finally, a manga that's about something, rather then just pandering to a certain segment of the population. What do you guys think of the series as a whole?

I may or may not follow the format. We'll see.

Title: Tomie 1 and 2 and Flesh Colored Horror
Volume: 1 and 2 of ? for Tomie FCH is a stand alone (2 is the last out, but doesn't end the story)
Publisher: ComicsOne
Price: $9.95
Rated: Unrated, but definatly Mature only
Original release date: I dunno, sometime in 2001
Review date: Oct. 9, 2003

What they say:
Tomie 1: Tomie is the girl you wish you could forget. She's the one you shouldn't have touched, shouldn't have smiled at, shouldn't have made mad. She's oh so lovely-but you just might love her to death.

Tomie 2: The chilling series continues. Tomie's the girl you just can't get rid of, no matter how much you love her, hate her, or try to destroy her. Like an undead nightmare, she keeps coming back-and she might be alive under your carpet, in your basement, or under your bed.

FCH: Is tomie finally gone. Or does her wretched sprit live on in the macabre collection of spine-tingling tales. Enjoy Ito's mix of girls, gore, and social satire. (note: Tomie doesn't appear in any of the stories in this book)


Packaging: I'm gonna be brief. It's nice. It has a dust jacket, but the picture of the dust jacket is horrid for Tomie 1. Tomie 2 isn't much better, but isn't bad. I like FCH's cover.

Artwork and Text: It's nice. Very realistic, tho, and this isn't Ito's fault, the english text looked funny. The artwork was softly blurred (not so you'd notice) but the text was nice and crisp, and it was a little jaring, but didn't distract from the story.

Spoiler free:

What I say: I think Tomie 1's kind of slow, and not really horrific. You could probably skip it, unless you're a completist, or you can find it cheap. I think a few people continue into volume 2, but I wasn't sure (all those japanese names look alike after awhile)

Tomie 2 is much more horrific, and thus, much more recommended, with reservations (see below, in spoiler land) However, if you like horror manga, or Ito, you'll probably like this. And what's with the mole under the eye? Is it some sort of cultural thing?

FCH is stand alone, so if you like Ito, or horror manga, by all means, buy it.


(Here be spoilers)
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What I say:

As I said above, I found Tomie 1 to be kind of slow, and not horrific enough. It's starts out with Tomie's death, but I'm not sure if that's all that important, since Tomie seems to be a force of nature, something eternal, rather then something that has a starting point. Volume 1 also has the most continuity between stories, but towards the end (starting with Revenge) it becomes more a series of vignettes. Anyway, as I said, you could probably skip this volume, but if you find it cheap, get it.

Tomie 2:
This volume's almost completely a series of individual stories, linked only by Tomie. There's many more deaths, and this is really why I didn't like it (but I still recommend it, because what I dislike isn't the same as others, and I realize that it is good). The main problem in volume 2 is that more and more people start to die through no fault of their own. They didn't do anything wrong, they're just either taken over by Tomie, or driven insane by her. Plus, she never gets her comeuppance. The volume ends with her inherting a fortune, and she doesn't have to pay for her crimes. That doesn't sit well with me, and is the main reason why I don't like the volume as much as I thought I would. However, if you're a fan of horror, or of Ito, you'll definatly enjoy this volume.

FCH: I liked this, after some initial disapointment that Tomie wasn't getting her comuppance. I'll do the stories individually, since they're seperate:

Long hair in the attic: Chilling. Wait till you see page 25. Strangely, page 25 affected me more then page 15. (yeah, I know I said there'd be spoilers, but I don't want to ruin it for you Doesn't really end well, tho.

Approval: Not really horrifying, more Edgar Allen Poe then Ito's usual stuff, but not a bad story for around the campfire

Beehive: Hitchcokian, with a dash of Steven King. Tho the bad guy gets it this time, so I'm happy.

Dying Young: nice and suspensefull. But what is with those things on the girl's cheek? Weird. Anyhoo, a moderately happy ending. (how'd that get in there?)

Headless Sculptures: Definatly the most horrific story in this volume. A nice one.

FCH: The title story. More of an outer limits/twilight zone esque story then a horror story. Good tho, and probably my favorite.

FCH is the one book that I highly recommend to anyone, as long as you're not too squimish. The gore's not to bad in this volume (save for Headless Sculptures and Long hair in the Attic). And since it's a stand alone, you don't have any cliffhangers to worry about. If you can find it, I recommend it, highly.


Hope this is helpfull. If not, I did my best. I'll get better, promise

Title: Uzumaki (spiral in Japanese)
Vols: 1-3
Publisher: Viz (under their Pulp Graphic Novel heading)
Price: $15.95 for 1 and 2, 16.95 for 3(it's a bit bigger)
Rated: Not rated, probably adult
Original release date: 1: Oct 2001 2: May 2002 3: Oct 2002(man, I'm glad *I* didn't have to wait a year for the end)
Review date: Nov 11th, 2003


What they say:

Vol 1: Kurozu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. Accourding to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person, or being, but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral, the hypnotic secret shape of the world. It manifests itself in small ways: seashells, ferns, whirlpools in water, whirlwinds in air. And in large ways: the spiral marks on people's bodies, the insane obessions of Shuichi's father, the voice from the cochlea in your inner ear. As the madness spreads, the inhabitants of Kurozu-cho are pulled even deeper, as if into a whirlpool from which there is no return...
(geez, there's more text in the back cover blurb then there is in the rest of the book)

Vol 2: Kurozu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. Accourding to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person, or being, but by a pattern: uzumaki, the spiral, the hypnotic secret shape of the world. (I'm editing a bit, as there's spoilers for volume 1 in this blurb) It possessed one of the town's people, causing him to remake himself into that image before he died. It grows in ferns, in seashells, in curls of hair, and in the crooked folds of the human brain. Giant snails are sighted near the high school. An eerie glow shines from the abandoned lighthouse. Mosquitoes fly in drowsy curves, and feed on blood. As more people are caught in the pattern, over the town of Kurozu-chu hans the spiral smoke of cremated corpses, because even in death, there is no escape...

Vol 3: With their town devestated by titanic hurricanes, the citizens of the spiral-haunted town of Kurozu-chu--including Shuidchi, Kirie, and her family--find themselves cut off from the outside world. Reporters and rescue teams cross the mountain range into Kurozu-chu, only to find themselves unable to leave. Trapped inside the cursed ruins, the desperate survivors struggle and huddle together(more editing) waiting for the worst to happen. The very laws of nature are changed as the spiral sucks them in. And to right it, or to escape, the last survivors must go to the heart of the horror to winess what may be their eventual fate.

Packaging:
Standard old style large Viz manga. The first few pages are in color (I know you guys love that stuff) Flipped, but I like flipped (blasphemy!) The cover for the first volume is either red or a picture of Kirie, as does the second and third volume. I don't think it matters what printing you get, since mine's a second printing, and it has a red cover. I prefer the red cover, it's spookier. Oh hey, I never noticed that before. The red cover even has something hidden in the cover, which you recognize after you read it. Spiffy.

Artwork:
Gosh, I really like Ito's art style. Very realistic, rather then the hyper stylized stuff we usually see. The eyes are even normal shaped. Really nice stuff.

Sfx:
I don't think there's a lot of SFX in this book, a quick flip through volume one didn't reveal any, so either it's not there, or it was translated.

Comparisons:
I like this MUCH better then Tomie. It's a lot better written, and plotted then Tomie. If you liked Tomie, you'll love Uzumaki.

What I say:
I liked Uzumaki better then Tomie or Flesh Colored Horror, but not as much as Gyo, tho that could change (see spoiler section).

Uzumeki has more of a unifying theme then Tomie, but a wee bit less then Gyo, as Gyo is all one story, and Uzumeki is more of a series of vignettes, tho it becomes mostly one story in the 3rd volume. It also has a much higher body count then Tomie, but isn't nearly as gory.

The vignettes are told by the heorine, Kirie, and really show the progression of the madness that's slowly infecting the town.

This is a pretty good manga, and I highly recommend to horror manga and Junji Ito fans. I had some problems with it, but it's really well written, drawn, and plotted. You won't be disapointed. Unless you're like me

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Volume 1:
The Spiral Obession parts 1 and 2: This starts off volume one, and really start off the story with a bang. Suichi's father is slowly driven mad by his obession with spirals. It ends with the first indiciations that something is REALLY not right with this town. A good start.

The scar: This one is almost Tomie esque, in that it has a girl that men desire, and throw themselves at her feet. However, it's definatly gruesome, esepcially what happens to her eye, and to one of the supporting charactors, and eventually, to her. Creeeeeepy.

The firing effect: This was also distrubing, as the madness that was affecting Suichi's father is now affecting Kirie's father. He's been dredging clay from the bottom of dragonfly pond, and using it to make pots, with horrific results. This would make a pretty good outer limits episode.

Twisted Souls: Sort of a Romeo and Julliet, Junji Ito style. It ends....well, it actually has somewhat of a happy ending, tho I think the non-affected parties took what was happening rather well. I don't know what I'd do if I saw what they did.

Medusa: The apprently obligatory hair episode. I think Ito's got a hair phobia, as this is the third story of his I've read that's delt with hair, and across three different series. I still think Flesh Colored Horror's was the best. Man, that father's look is STILL creepy!

Volume 1's pretty good. It shows the creeping madness that's affecting the town pretty well. And the stories are pretty good two. Alas, volume 2 doesn't quite meet this high standard, but it's still good.

Vol 2:

Jack in the box: Kind of random (actually, this is true for a lot of the stories in volume 2) I think it would've worked better as a stand alone, in say, flesh colored horror. It doesn't really work as Uzumaki story. Some boy proclaims his love for Kirie, dies, comes back to life.

The snail: This is the one story I bet got a lot of people. I guess the snail is sort of related to spirals, and I don't think it could've worked as a standalone story, but I still think it's kind of weak. It does have some threads that show up later, so it's semi important to the the story.

The Black lighthouse: ANOTHER random story that doesn't really fit into Uzumaki. I guess Ito wanted to write it, and couldn't make it a standalone. It's good, but not really horrific.

Mosquitos/Umbilical cord: Quite possibly the WORST story(it's basically one story) of the bunch. It has nothing to do with spirals, the situations is absurd, and the results are riduculous. It could've been dropped, and no one would ever miss it. It doesn't even show up later on in the story, so I guess even Ito didn't like it.

The storm: This starts the endgame, really. A small Tropical storm attacks the town, and uh, goes looking for Kirie. As I said, this is bascially the beginning of the end. It would've worked better in volume 3, imho, but it's in volume 2.

I think you could probably skip volume 2, and not miss it. If you want, read the snail in the bookstore, and leave the volume there. Things pick up in volume 3

Volume 3:

The house: After Kirie's home is destroyed in the hurricane, they go to one of the row houses, that strangely haven't been affected by the hurricanes. A strange infection infests the house, and begins to affect the family...A good story, but I wish this had been in volume 2, and the storm in volume 3(yea, I know it messes up the continuity, I still think that it would've worked better)

Starting from here, I'm gonna skip individual story descriptions, as it's basically all one story

After 6 hurricanes, the town is in ruins, except for the row houses. Rescue teams and reports are streaming in, and are finding they can't get out. A new character enters the story: Chie Maruyama, a tv reporter stuck in the town. Kirie, Chie, and Shuichi move from row house to row house, trying to find a place to stay, and find a horrific site: people have started to twist up around themselves. Kirie's brother has started to transform, and she, her brother, Chie, and Shuichi decide to escape from the spiral of horror.

This is where I think Junji Ito cheats a bit. As the gang is trying to find their way out, time speeds up in town, so that when they go back, the row houses have been rebuilt into a spiral, and of the charactors in town mention that they've been gone for years. This is abit of a cheat, as it allows Ito to jump ahead to the end of the story, but oh well. He skips five of the hurricanes too.

Kirie and Shuichi go to the middle of the madness: Dragonfly Pond, and find themselves trapped in the middle as the curse comes to and end.

This is what I have my problem with the story: Kirie and Shuichi don't escape! They end up caught, just like everyone else! What's the point of caring about them if they end up dead at the end of the story anyways? This doesn't really bode well for Gyo, but I'm still going to buy the second volume (and probably anything else that's put out of his, cause it's really good). As with Tomie, althought I have real problems with how it ends, I recognize that it's very, very good, and thus, I will recommend it, with no reservations, as I assume most people don't feel the same as I do.


Bonus story Galaxies:
Kind of a silly story, with a silly ending. I didn't like it much, and it doesn't really have much to do with the rest of the series.

Kindaichi volume 4: Smoke and Mirrors

I didn't like this one as much as the previous 3, but it was was still pretty good. It seemed somewhat...forced, or maybe rushed. I dunno. In any event, my favorite part was the "epilogue" where Tokyopop explained a cultural translation. That was a little funny

Wow! Another great volume of Kindaichi. Gosh, I love this series. If Detective Conan's is as good (in terms of mysteries, and not misunderstood little boy hijinks) we'll be in luck. Spoilers to follow














Wow, I guessed that Bandai was going to die. The old biddy always bites it. I thought that Karen did it, and I was kind of sort of right Frankly, I don't think the killer's sympathetic at all. I think she's a stupid bitch, who deserved what she got at the end. Too bad about Saki. I honestly thought he'd survive. I want to see a mystery where Kindaichi loses all his friends, cause they're all scared they're gonna end up dead The obligatory "explanation scene" went on a bit longer then usual

All in all, a great mystery, and WAY better then previous volume, the Legend of Lake Heuron. Hey, Dark Horse/Tokypop: Bring out the novels! You know you want to. Okay, I want you to. Same dif! And someone bring out MPD-Psycho. Dark Horse brought out Berserk! This is 10 times as bloody! And blood=sales!

I'm so excited. Gyo volume 2 FINALLY comes out next week. We finally get to learn what happens to everyone. I can't wait!


Edit:

Okay, I *FINALLY* got to read gyo volume 2, and while good, I think it was a bit of a letdown after the first volume. I don't think anyone should skip it, if they read and liked the first volume, it just wasn't as intense as the others.


Poor kaori! She may have been a bitch, but she didn't deserve her fate. Neither did the lab assistant. I thought the carnival was okay, but could've been either dropped, or shortened to one segment. It was mostly a discussion on the nature of the gas. The final 3? chapters were really good, and for once, the protaganist doesn't die. Well, Kaori does, but the other guy doesn't.

As for the primary post, that was lame. And the third story was really good, appropriately creepy. I would've dynomited the holes after a month, but that's just me. [/spoilers]


Thanks for the two extra stories Viz, we love Junji Ito! Keep bringing his stuff over. Apart from Tomie. That can stay over there! "

I'd support gay marriages, but only if the priest, instead of saying "I now pronounce you husband and husband" said "you've got male!"

Stomp Tokyo Video Reviews - Monster Mash: The Movie (1995)



NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Why would you make a movie based on a song?! Didn't Hollywood learn after "Srgt Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band?!" Why Hollywood, why must you use your powers for hate!?

L&O:SVU needs to have little text blurbs at the end of the show to tell us what happens to the ding dong bad guys! Damnit!

Hey gang, NBC's gonna be remaking the British tv show "The Office." Great, remaking a British tv show. That worked so well for Red Dwarf USA, Maude, The Roepers, Three's a Crowd, Absolutely Fabulous. Why do you network executives remake shows, then surgically remove everything that made it good? Cause you guys suck? Nah. It's because you're money grubby whores who couldn't innovate if your life depended on it.