Sunday, June 15, 2014

An Offer From The Zuka Club

Ouran High School Host Club Episode 9: A Challenge from Lobelia Girls' Academy! The girls' academy musical theatre Zuka club offers to "rescue" Haruhi from The Host Club. So our protagonist has to make a difficult decision: Will she abandon the boys for the girls?



If I were in her shoes...

There's no way I would leave Ouran Academy - much less The Host Club! Especially after the boys went to the extent of dressing as ladies to entice her to stay! That's incredible loyalty. They really showed her they care about her and want her to stay in the club. 

Even Kyoya dressed up!

The Ouran Host Club is like a family. Their genuine love for each other - particularly Tamaki & Haruhi - is what makes this anime so great! As soon as I finished it, I thought: "I MUST read the manga!"

I suppose that's what anime is for, right? Well done!

Friday, May 23, 2014

My Cosplay Bucket List

Back in April, Girl Gone Geek put together a bucket list of characters, she'd like to cosplay in the future. (Check it out!)

I was inspired to do the same thing! Below are a few characters I'd like to cosplay!

Poison Ivy & Harley Quinn (The New Batman Adventures)


I love this dynamic duo! Not only are they beautiful, they are the epitome of supervillainesses. They're resourceful, intelligent, independent, charming, and fun! Personally, they remind me of myself and my partner-in-crime, Sandy. She's not particularly geeky, but I'm sure I could put her in a Harley Quinn costume and drag her to Dragon-Con.


Revy (Black Lagoon)


Is it obvious now that I have a thing for bad girls? Revy is as bad as they come! With a loud, foul mouth, short shorts, and a gun in her hand, Revy is my number one reason for watching Black Lagoon

This is a pretty simple cosplay outfit, too. Most of it I could buy at the mall.

A Bleach Captain


None of these specifically. I would like to cosplay as the captain of my own squad - maybe an imagined Squad 14 or the successor to one of the above captains. Of course, I'll need a cool zanpakutō!

Launch (Dragonball)



Another great best friend cosplay that could work alone as well. Since I prefer the "bad girl" look, I would probably be blonde Launch and carry a gun. For those unfamiliar with this #throwback character...



The most dangerous sneeze in the world.

Rule 63 Tomoe (Kamisama Hajimemashita)


I read some fanfiction about Tomoe having a little sister that looked just like him. This intrigued me. I imagined her looking a lot like this:


Regardless of whether the Kamisama Hajimemashita reference sticks, fox spirits are throughout anime and their usually really cool characters.

In a Facebook group, a question arose about the accuracy of cosplay. Is the goal to be most like the actual character or is it okay to put your own spin on it? What qualities do you look for in a character when choosing who to cosplay as? Is it only about the costume or does personality fit into it?

Hmm... something to think about... 

Until next time, 'Like' Very Geeky Girl on Facebook!


Sunday, May 18, 2014

Renegade Angel Brain Mush

I'm an Adult Swim fan. I have been since the good ole days where the promos were adults swimming in a public pool, and Adult Swim started around 10pm with: "All kids out of the pool!"

Those were the days!

Anyway...

Being a fan of late-night Cartoon Network, I've seen some strange stuff: Super Jail, Frisky Dingo, The Mighty Boosh, etc. But this recent show I've discovered takes the cake!

AdultSwim runs marathons on its website. Sometimes, these are their popular shows, like The Venture Brothers or AquaTeen Hunger Force. Other times, it's their lesser known original series like: Xavier: Renegade Angel.



This show caught my eye because it had the graphics of one of those Taiwanese news animations! The main character, Xavier the renegade angel, is a strange combination of an Egyptian hieroglyphic and a pseudo-enlightened, beach boy hipster. He's on a quest to find his train-wreck mother (I think...), and gets into these bizarre situations.

I was able to watch an episode and a half before I had to watch something else. This show made me feel like I was on some kind of hallucinogen.


That being said, if you're looking for a safe(?) way to kill some brain cells and waste a little time, two seasons worth of episodes are free to stream on adultswim.com! You never know; it might be somewhat enlightening...




Saturday, May 17, 2014

The Devil Is In The Anime

So, I've started watching two anime series: Blue Exorcist & The Devil Is A Part-Timer. I didn't choose either anime for this reason, but I notice a common supernatural theme: The Devil.


Blue Exorcist is about young man training to become an exorcist and avenge the death of the his father - or, more precisely, the man who raised him. His actual father is... the devil. Yes, young Rin Okumura is the literal spawn of Satan. (Yet, surprisingly, he's quite the good guy!)


The Devil Is A Part-Timer is about Satan, his most devoted servant, and the only human who can stop him from taking over the world living surprisingly normal, part-time lives in our world while trying to return their more mystical world. This devil is also an astonishingly nice guy.




It's aspects like demon heroes that make me appreciate foreign media. A sympathetic devil is not something The United States would easily accept. Surely, numerous religious groups would protest these shows if they were American-made.

Personally, I try not to allow my religious convictions to keep me from enjoying a narrative with a different perspective. In doing so, anime like these often open my mind to possibilities like: What if the devil had a chance to live a normal human life? Would he embrace the opportunity? Would the world embrace him? Should they?

Also, I must admit seeing the devil working at (essentially) McDonald's is spiritually gratifying!


Follow Very Geeky Girl on Facebook for more very geeky stuff!

Monday, January 27, 2014

Pinterest Knows Me!

So I got on Pinterest today, and I found that they've added this new feature: Explore Interests. It's merely in a preview phase now, but it's actually quite exciting.

From the looks of it, Explore Interest compiles pins based on what you seem to be interested in. Based on my 43 Boards (8,464 pins) & 632 Likes, this is a screenshot of some of my interests:



It's amazing how accurate these categories are. For instance, I have a board called "Beauty of the Beast" consisting of interesting beauty pins - crazy hair colors, nail art, etc. However, somehow Pinterest found that I'm specifically fond of red hair! 

I took a class on privacy in college. From it, I gathered that the largest issue of online privacy is the judgement that comes from aggregated information. We may not care so much that the information about us is collected, but we do care about what the collection of information means once put together. It makes me happy that my interests have been accurately predicted so far!



Saturday, November 9, 2013

A Voiced Appreciation

My latest geek obsession has been The Venture Bros! This Adult Swim show parodies classic cartoons - such as Johnny Quest, Scooby-Doo, The Hardy Boys and G.I. Joe - in a hilarious story about a father, his twin sons, their bodyguard, and their adventures across the globe. (Perhaps, that's putting it too simply...)



I could spend a day geeking-out about how much I love this show! All of the characters are twisted versions of classic cartoon characters. The level of continuity in this complicated storyline is amazing. Every episode is absolute hilarity.

However, the two aspects that make The Venture Bros. one of my favorite shows of all time are:

Creators Jackson Publick & Doc Hammer

Not only are they the brains behind this fantastic show, but they're many of the voices in the show, too! Many adult animated television shows (like Family Guy & South Park) feature a ton of characters performed by a small handful of voice actors. It's amazing how one person can provide voice to many beloved personalities.

In my opinion, voice acting is one of many underrated creative gigs. Sure, voice actors aren't the richest, but it's fun and quite rewarding. With very little physical acting involved, voice actors can be a wide range of different characters making each experience new and exciting. (Not to mention lessening the likelihood of typecasting.)

In a Comic-Con panel, Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer talked about how straining certain voices are to perform. Sometimes, a character's voice is not so easy to produce. It takes skill and practice to be a great voice actor. It's an art that, if done poorly, can ruin the entire experience...


Who does your favorite cartoon voice?


Saturday, November 2, 2013

The Beauty of Being In The Same Room

Nowadays, video games are all about multiplayer. Even games that have been single-player for many years now have multiplayer capabilities. This is mostly because no plot imaginable could compete with playing with real people. Interestingly, the word "multiplayer" has evolved into something completely different in the gaming world...


When I was growing up, "multiplayer" looked something like this:

One console. Multiple controllers. Split screens.

Now multiplayer looks more like this:

One player. One controller. One Headset.

Online multiplayer has completely changed gaming. Instead of gathering all of your friends together in your living room (and creating a wire jungle with your controllers), you can play with people from around the world via the Internet. Online multiplayer is undoubtedly an incredible innovation that has improved the gaming experience.

However, it has almost completely eliminated co-opt gameplay! In my opinion, there is still something irreplaceable about having friends and family in the same location playing a game (without strangers). Not only playing video games; when was the last time anyone played a board/card game?

A few familiar faces in the geek world have YouTube series featuring games like these, and they're certainly worth watching. Check out a couple of my favorite episodes below! I guarantee they will make you want to get your friends together for a game night.

There's just so much fun to be had in this pile.


The Guild's Felicia Day & her brother Ryon have a hilarious web series, called Co-optitude, on the Geek & Sundry channel. On the show, Felicia and Ryon play the old school video games their mom never let them play as children. 


The frustration, Day-sibling-hilariousness, and nostalgia make each episode a side-splitting joy. It also makes me want to a get a Super Nintendo and play video games with my best friend. 


On The Nerdist channel, Wil Wheaton (of just-about-everything fame: Star Trek, The Big Bang Theory, Eureka, etc.) hosts a table-top gaming show called... Table Top.


The Haunt starts in Part 2

Until I came upon this show, I thought they'd stopped making table-top games. It's always fun to get a bunch of geeks together for a game. Whether it's D&D or something you've never heard of, there's nothing like basking in the boundless creativity no game design studio could muster.

These are my favorite episodes of Co-optitude & Table Top. I hope you've found them thoroughly entertaining. More so, I hope you've been inspired to gather some friends together and create some hilarity of your own!

Happy Gaming!