ramendik

I am busy and not feeling very well, so The Art of the Impossible is moving slowly. But it is "Tezuka Day" today, and I do have something for you!

I wrote a biography of Osamu Tezuka for the Tezuka in English website.

Here it is: tezukainenglish.com/bm/about/t…

Put quite some research into it, though without the Japanese language, of course, there were limits. Notably I'd like to know more about Tezuka's involvement with COM.

Grabbed from


[x] You've seen at least one anime.
[x] You've read at least one manga.
[x] You watch anime/read manga on a regular basis.
[x] You think that anime and western cartoons are two separate things.
[/] You're in anime club. ("was". But, I founded it. But, it folded)
[x] You've cosplayed at least once.
[ ] You counted Halloween costumes from when you were a kid as cosplay.
[ ] You cosplay in public.
[ ] You've been to at least one anime convention.
[ ] You cosplayed there.
[ ] You traveled more than 200 miles to get there.
[ ] You like Japanese food.
[ ] You like any of the following in particular: sushi, pocky, cheap ramen, ramune.

[x] You know that sushi isn't just raw fish.
[ ] You've made bento lunch.
[ ] You've made a charabento.
[ ] You go to the Asian shop on a regular basis.
[ ] You've actually been to Japan.
[ ] You've been to Japan solely for the anime, videogames or idols.
[/] You're learning/know Japanese. (Considering)
[x] You're learning it to watch anime without subtitles. (To read manga without translation, really)
[ ] You have Japanese blood.
[ ] You CLAIM to have Japanese blood.
[x] You're in love with a fictional anime character
[ ] You claim you're married to a fictional anime character.
[ ] Anime is so much better than western cartoons. (Apples and oranges)
[ ] You call all cartoons anime.
[ ] Anyone who hates anime is dead to you.
[x] You call characters by their original Japanese names
[ ] You call characters by their romaji spelling.
[ ] You defend Pearl Harbour.
[ ] You think Pearl Harbour's a new anime that just started airing in Japan.
[ ] You think Japan is the greatest country on Earth.
[ ] You think that just because they make the best media.
[x] You listen to J-music.
[ ] Exclusively.
[ ] You know that it's pronounced "Gakuto" and not "Gackt".
[x] You can name all the Vocaloids.
[ ] WITHOUT looking it up.
[ ] You like Hetalia.
[ ] You think Japan is the best character.
[ ] You wear items of anime-related clothing in public. (Maybe a necklace..)
[ ] You play only Japanese videogames/watch Japanese shows/eat Japanese food.
[/] You use Japanese honorifics. (Well, sometimes in fan fiction and related correspondenc
e)

[ ] To refer to yourself.
[ ] Your entire room is full of anime merchandise.
[ ] You changed your name to something Japanese.
[ ] Legally.
[ ] You want to give your kid a Japanese name.
[ ] You want to name your kid after an anime character.
[ ] You've considered having surgery to look oriental.
[ ] You've had it done.
[ ] You stalk the Japanese exchange students.
[ ] You've been arrested for doing so.
[x] You use memes in daily conversation.(Wait, we ALL do, by definition. This one is silly.)
[ ] You watch abridged series.
[ ] You get most of the jokes.
[ ] You use tildes while typing~
[ ] You use Japanese emoticons ~(O//v//O)~
[/] You make attempt to Japanese sounding by the Engrish typing. (In fan fiction)
[ ] You claim you're Japanese on your dA/Facebook/Myspace/whatever.
[ ] You're not. (well I'm not, and not Asian, but I guess these two only apply with a claim to be one)
[ ] You're not even Asian.
[ ] If you're Asian, you think doing Japanese stuff helps you get in touch with your heritage.
[ ] And you're not even Japanese.
[ ] People call you a weeaboo.
[ ] You prefer the term otaku.
[ ] You break out into Caramelldansen in public.
[ ] You want to date a Japanese person.
[ ] No other nationality will do.
[ ] You watch(ed) Naruto. (No, I don't. WAY down my watching preferences)
[ ] You wear the headbands.
[ ] Every day.
[ ] You're bitching at me because they're properly called "forehead protectors"
[ ] You bought said headban- erm FOREHEAD PROTECTOR at Hot Topic.
[ ] You act out scenes from the show.
[ ] FFVII is the best game ever. (never played)
[ ] Sephiroth is yours.
[ ] Kingdom Hearts is awesome.
[ ] AxelxRoxas is KAWAII DESU NE~~~!!
[ ] You wish you owned a real Death Note.
[ ] Touhou rocks your life. (No, if I understand correctly what it is, I had enough of that style of game with Fat Cat)
[ ] Anime dubs are the spawn of Satan. (I'm not Satan, and I *made* one! The Russian fan dub of Phoenix 2772; we dubbed it in 1998 and the version is still making its rounds in the torrents)
[ ] Vic Miginola is God. (I had to google him and his last name is Mignogna)
[x] It's seiyu, not voice actor. (It's *seiyuu* in Japan. It's voice actor in Western animation. I'm not sure about the dubbers of anime).
[ ] You use Gratuitous Japanese all the time.
[ ] You add "desu" to the end of every sentence. (Wait... is that even grammatically correct in Japanese? If I wanted to sound "mo emoe" I'd add nya instead, but I don't look the part anyway).
[ ] The only thing you draw is anime. (I fail at drawing. Besides, one can't draw *anime* unless one can *animate*. One can draw "manga style")
[ ] You're taking an art course, and all you submit is anime.
[/] All your friends also like anime. (Some do)
[ ] You want to become a mangaka. (I guess a writer does NOT count here)
[ ] In Japan.
[ ] Most of your manga/anime is hentai.
[x] You know that "hentai" doesn't mean "porn".
[ ] You write fanfics for English class.
[ ] Yaoi fanfics.
[ ] You know nothing about Japanese culture except for anime, videogames, idols, music, porn and schoolgirls.
[ ] Everyone says you have no life.
[ ] And it's true.

SCORE: 16

Score:
0-10: You probably hate Japan. You're not a weeaboo at all, not even close.
> 10-20: You like SOME Japanese things but, still not a weeaboo.
20-30: At this stage you probably still hate weeaboos. Good news- you're not one.
30-40: You keep your love of Japanese stuff sensible.
40-50: You're very likely a Japanophile, but you're not as annoying as a full-blown weeaboo.
50-60: You're not a weeaboo just yet, but try and moderate it.
60-70: Weeaboo.
70-80: Please stop it!!!!!!
80-90: STOP HUMPING THE MIKU LOVE PILLOW!!!!!!11
90-100: STOP!!!!! FOR THE LOVE OF KAMI-SAMA STOP!!!!!
101: Insane asylum tiems.

Indeed and I'm not. I'm just a Tezuka fan. Tezuka is a classic author of worldwide significance. You don't call Shakespeare fans "anglaboos", right? He's in the same territory.

I also like Vocaloid for the "open source" like culture. Here's your star system, get the software and go create, that's cool. I like the individual "stars" too, including the Japanese ones, but I think the level of weeaboo in that fandom is sometimes a bit too high. "Fandubbing" in Japanese without knowing the language? I don't get it. (Even from the Russian singer whose Russian fandubs I adore).

Still, I have to keep myself from writing that julia320 in Twitter...

(And BTW I have active Twitter now! follow ramendik for.... don't really know what, random thoughts and random communication.  I wonder, where do I post Luka ideas that come from reading Yuu Asakawa's twitter so that she does NOT see them all in her twitter and think it's crazy fanmail?)

This is getting better

First, drew two beautiful illustrations for "The Art of the Impossible"

"The Shock" metamolecola.deviantart.com/ar…
"Atom is dead" fav.me/d4g9949

Thanks a lot!

And now, "The Shock" gets featuerd in #tezuka-club. This is the illustration that does not even have Astro in it. Its sole link to Tezuka is through the events of the last episodee Of Astro'63 (it was really '66 by this time I think)... specifically as interpreted in "The Art of the Impossible".

I also got some faves and all - looks like this IS working, after all. OK, now stop the whining and back to Ch 4 and the meeting some people have been waiting for. (No, not the one with Astro yet).

Only fair read and commented on the second chapter - and it has a grand alternate history setting and all...

How do people ever promote this stuff, I wonder? need feedback to make it work...

UPDATE. Submitted to three Astro Boy fan groups. Let's see if this changes things!

So, after just lurking on dA for a while, I found a way to see some drawings on a topic I like and from an author I like I can't draw at all - I'll post a doodle example after the next chapter just to show HOW I can't draw!

Now, there is a person who CAN draw, and seems to capture much of the spirit of early Tezuka: . She also likes Astro Boy very much - not just the series, the person.

So, I proposed art exchange, and she agreed! She drew Olga from Tezuka's HI NO TORI 2772 - my favourite robot of them all. Some years ago I found myself madly in love with Olga, and it led to a romantic story involving public translation from Japanese (without knowing Japanese), some 24h peirods at the keys...  and becoming the Russian voice of Dr.Saruta. tezukainenglish.com/phpBB3/vie… (the topic number is off by just one!)

Here are Meta's Olga works:

metamolecola.deviantart.com/ar… - the big colour picture

metamolecola.deviantart.com/ar…

And as for me, I am writing "The Art of the Impossible", a post-canon Astro Boy fic starring Meta herself. The story seems to grow as I write it. ramendik.deviantart.com/art/Th… . It has an elaborate alternate history setting, based on the '63 anime. In THAT world, 2003 saw Astro Boy made, not another animated series... but this came at a high price. Comments welcome