Anime being popular around the world... Scary.

I went to the cafeteria of my school, going to get a juice box. But what made it interesting is the fact it had the face of Monkey D. Luffy on the juice box. Double that with the cafeteria lady wearing a red shirt with Vegeta imprinted on the shirt. I was perplexed over the fact that it happened in my school. Even 10 years ago you'll not see this happen, but it really happened. So why do I think it's weird? Why, an otaku, see this as weird? Shouldn't I be overjoyed, seeing that my interest isn't seen as a perverted thing? But here's the thing; I want to separate personal things from the professional (or more bluntly, less fun) things of my life. It would be strange to see your boss, for example, to talk about Alien 9 out of nowhere. Yes, it is really cool that your boss is talking about a fairly obscure manga, but you have to know that there's a professional division between your hobbies and interests, and your activities in work. Now school isn't that more serious compared to jobs (hell, I think it's normal for teens to talk about anime in their schools among their peers). I just think it feels weird because with the exception of some cases, I never blast out loud to my classmates that I like manga. Some do know that I like manga, but I never openly show it at times. Probably a me thing.

Though I don't want to drag it on, just want to let my thought get out of my brain. God bless everyone.

Old Artists being Washed Up...

 Last week was an interesting, to say at least. The controversy of ZUN using AI for spell card backgrounds in Touhou 20 was a shocking revelation for the fans. I was, too, shocked and disappointed in ZUN for using AI, as he could at least ask help to someone who can do the backgrounds. But he's not the only one who had a controversy due to using AI. Kaneko Kazuma, one of the most well-known artist in the video game world from his works in the Shin Megami Tensei series. Unfortunately, he also uses AI for some of the mobile games he's a part off (though they aren't Shin Megami Tensei related, thankfully). Though he said that training the AI how to draw the things he intended is proven difficult, so hopefully that his ventures using AI would be over.

So, what am I trying to say? Simply put...

The old and revered artists are slowly losing their grip and showing their age in this modern world. They are slowly aging, screwing themselves and their fans up due to their deterioration of their skills as artists because of age, being lazy or just being ignorant in what's going on with the controversial aspects of technology (NFTs, AI).

And while the person I'm about to talk about didn't do any AI stuff, the way he ended one of his manga made me really disappointed: Hitoshi Tomizawa. Now, don't get me wrong, I like the guy for giving us Alien 9 and some interesting manga in the past and he's the reason why I am slowly into the Sci-Fi genre; the way he put Alien 9 NEXT really, really pissed me off. The fact we don't know what happened to Kumi and the girl who looked like Yuri and what will Ms. Okada do after becoming crazy and murdered Kasumi in cold blood, made me disappointed. If Alien 9 EMULATORS was bit divisive from the reactions, the NEXT is the absolute disappointment for all the fans of his works. Add that with the fact that basically disappeared after that, just leaves a sour taste for me.

I've this saying that I like to think when I see old buildings getting demolished: "The old will go away and the new will come to take their place." I really belief that we, creative people (whether in art, music, writing, etc.), have to take the place of the old ones, because it's just inevitable that they'll pass away, and we'll be the one who's responsible with the creative world.

Thank you for reading, and God bless.

Have Ideas of Making Your Own Fan-made Alien for Alien 9? Here's This Post for You.

You have an idea to make a fanfic/fan-manga/fan-anime/etc. for Alien 9, but you seem you don't have any idea what alien you're going to make. Well, fret not, since you can find ways to inspire yourself to make an alien.

First of all, you can search up "dangerous extinct animals" on your search engine then click on any article that relates to that topic (for example, this web article from CNET.com). Then, try to look around the images and their descriptions, so you can know how they look like and their horrific characteristics. Then, try to Frankenstein them with any animal/insect/botanic beings with your imagination and write their descriptions down.

And then to the best part; which is to give them a strange ability. Just try to give them abilities that are on the topic of your mind (it could range from something silly and harmless to absolute danger) and give it to that alien (e.g.: give an ant-snake looking alien an ability to melt its targets using its mandibles that shoots out acid when it bites them).

Finally, you give them a name. You can make it feel alien-like (Like make Jasmine into Jazzmund, Lukas to Sakul, resin to Reyz'in, etc. etc.). Try to make them sound weird yet cool.

Hope my blog post helped you with something, and enjoy making some aliens for A9!!!

Hitoshi Tomizawa's Gift.

 Hello everyone. Today is a good day for me, as after sending an email message to Hitoshi Tomizawa (Author of Alien 9), he sent me a response message, as it says...

And he sent me this wonderful gift!

It's just nice to hear that he's doing fine and still active with manga activities! I wish him good luck and I hope he take cares of himself!!

Alien 9 and its similarities to Religion (Interpretation)

 You might be like, "Huh?! What the hell are you even thinking Dovangel?!?!" I know I know, it seems a bit far fetched (even for me), but that doesn't make it less interesting. Inspired by Shin Megami Tensei and reading the original manga and its sequel (not including NEXT), I think there are some symbolism that Alien 9 have, more specifically in a Christian perspective.

For the Drill Clan Borgs, they have that frog-like appearance with angel wings that have drills sticking out; they protect their hosts from any kind of danger (with Yuri being a great example) and at least treat their hosts with respect and wait for them to be fully prepared for the symbiotic transformation. Does it remind you of something? Well, they're like guardian angels, of course; they guard humans from some kind of danger (except for the human symbiotic transformation, they don't do that like the Drill Clan).

Another example which relates Christianity to Alien 9 are the Sunflower Clan. They have the appearance of a sunflower, using bees as the their main method of attacking. They're a foil of the Drill Clan, having no patience with their hosts to be strong enough to do the symbiotic transformation and harming those in the process if they do the symbiotic transformation with no proper preparation. They are cunning and deceitful, giving hallucinations to those wearing them (like what they did to Yuri through the strange dreams of her slowly becoming like them). They are, in a sense, like demons/the Devil; harming and tormenting the humans they're possessing and for the case of the Devil, lulling others into his lies and do sins against God.

One another factor about this idea is that the need of taking over the world by different means; the Drill Clan tend to be more patient with their hosts and let them grow to be suitable for the transformation, while the Sunflower wants to their hosts to have the transformation immediately (even if it means killing the host in the process): kind of reminds me of how religion is spread in general.

So in that sense, the Drill Clan are like Christianity with the angelic wings and guardian angel motif, while the the Sunflower Clan are like occultist religions or Satanism, with the promising things that are false and the forceful possession.

It seems I've said what needs to be told. Truth to be told, it's really interesting how Hitoshi Tomizawa lets people to have their own interpretation of the manga, basically a way to expand the world of Alien 9, it's cool of him to do that. Anyhow, hope you enjoy your day and hope the blog post made you see things differently to the world of Alien 9.

Why People Hate 4chan of the Same Sins that Other Social Media Has?

 It's really an interesting phenomenon to be honest. People hate 4chan, it could be because of the users' toxic behavior there, the lax moderation which lets people post the most disgusting and vile content in the boards, and the association of the political far-right members in the States. While those negative aspects are understandable and even justified, it's really strange that people give ire to 4chan when almost all social media has the same issue as 4chan. Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Tumblr, etc. will have users who are horrible people and ruin the lives of others just because they can. They have to potential to post disgusting and wicked posts, be cruel to others and destroy someone's else life just because.

Yes, I know that they have some sense of "moderation", but it is just as lax (or more accurately, used unjustly), if even more than 4chan; because at least 4chan don't make most of the rules and the only kind of rules it's enforced in the imageboard is don't post illegal stuff in it, that's it! Things like YouTube? Oh, they could destroy the whole income of some popular YouTuber because he said a no-no word, while turning blind eye to actual pornography that are posted in the website through some loophole these devils use. So, to say that 4chan is the cesspit of toxicity of the internet is naïve, because social media have that issue as well, even if the rules are established and enforced on their websites and apps. So in reality, it's us humans who would harm each other by any means possible, even with strict rules that are enforced to us.

Thank you for reading this post, and have a good day.

Never 7 is getting a Steam release!!

 To say I am just surprised will be an understatement!! I am genuinely excited of seeing Never7 (Bundled in with Ever17) being finally getting a global release after years of waiting. I am blessed today to be born in this time period, not worrying how long a visual novel will get a global release. I am thankful for what's happening right now and thankful for MAGES. Inc. (the developers) and Spike Chunsoft (the publisher) for giving us the ability to read them officially.

Now... I've to complete reading Yuka route before the release of the remaster....

See ya!!