News & Updates in March 2008

Posted the character profiles of Eriru (from Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch), Yuri (from Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch), Febronia (from Xenosaga: The Animation), Kurogane (from Tsubasa Chronicle), Su (from Shugo Chara), Miki (from Shugo Chara), Ran (from Shugo Chara). Posted the anime profiles of Touka Gettan, Mnemosyne, Aoki Densetsu Shoot!, Majin Tantei Nōgami Neuro.

Posted the character profiles of Backdrop Kirby (from Kirby: Right Back At Ya!), Starling (from Storm Hawks), Carver (from Storm Hawks), Ravess (from Storm Hawks), Garcia Lovelace (from Black Lagoon), Leigharch (from Black Lagoon), Shenhua (from Black Lagoon), Mr. Chang (from Black Lagoon), Captain Matthews (from Xenosaga: The Animation), Shelly Godwin (from Xenosaga: The Animation), Mary Godwin (from Xenosaga: The Animation), Sakura Mizrahi (from Xenosaga: The Animation), Joachim Mizrahi (from Xenosaga: The Animation), Lt. Louis Virgil (from Xenosaga: The Animation), chaos (from Xenosaga: The Animation), Shion Uzuki (from Xenosaga: The Animation). Posted the anime profiles of Vexille, Denno Coil, Glass Fleet, Dragonaut - The Resonance, Blue Dragon.

Posted the character profiles of Gretel (from Black Lagoon), Hansel (from Black Lagoon).

Posted my review of Sam & Max: Freelance Police - The Complete Animated Series.

Posted the anime profile of The Invisible Stud.

Posted the anime profiles of Variable Geo Neo, Flag. Posted the character profiles of Barret Wallace (from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children), Marlene Wallace (from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children).

Posted the anime profile of The Powerpuff Girls Movie. Posted the character profiles of Boris (from Black Lagoon), Sister Yolanda (from Black Lagoon), Ringo Akai (from Mew Mew Power).

Posted my review of GRΣΣK - Chapter One.

Posted the character profiles of Juli Mizrahi (from Xenosaga: The Animation), Gaignun Kukai Jr. (from Xenosaga: The Animation), MOMO (from Xenosaga: The Animation).

I was totally beat last night by the time I arrived home from the Microsoft Heroes Happen {Here} event that Victor and I attended earlier in the day. We woke at 6AM that morning so that we could be out of the hotel by 6:15. We arrived almost an hour before the event officially opened, though we were still able to check in. Good thing we got there early, because it didn't take long for the lines to grow. We walked around before the keynote was to begin, feigning interest in the various booths in order to get free swag. This mostly involved various pens, but it also included items such as a booklight, flashlight, AC/USB charger, and a stress-relief squeeze ball. Oddly enough, the only booth I was genuinely interested in had the best giveaway, a 2 GB USB flash drive bracelet... only they didn't actually have any because their stock hadn't arrived. Bummer. But I was able to help the dude figure out how to set his password.

Anyway, we intended to stick around to the end for the raffle, but a combination of getting up early, uncomfortable chairs, and boring speeches quickly got that plan chucked right out the window. So after the second presentation, we bolted and found our way to Fisherman's Wharf, where we each endulged in a clam chouder bread bowl at Boudin's, followed by a visit to Musee Mecanique to lighten our spirits with various games. Then it finally came time to head home.

Posted my review of Bee Movie.

Posted my review of Enchanted.

Posted the anime profile of Girl's High. Posted the character profiles of Maria (from Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch), Eva (from Devil May Cry), Dante (from Devil May Cry), Mary (from Devil May Cry), Trish (from Devil May Cry), Master Cyclonis (from Storm Hawks), Junko (from Storm Hawks), Stork (from Storm Hawks), Finn (from Storm Hawks), Aerrow (from Storm Hawks), Piper (from Storm Hawks).

While adding the Girl's High anime profile, I visited the Media Blasters/Anime Works website... and it sucks soooo hard! You'd think a professional anime company could afford a decent web designer. Seriously, I would be incredibly embarrassed if I was running that website. First off, it has a front page which simply says "Enter Here". But clicking that link doesn't bring you into their site, it pops open a new full-screen browser window that you cannot resize and that does not contain any of your browser buttons, menus, or toolbars. And inside that window is one giant Flash-based page, which is broken down into several smaller sections. One section contains a video preview, which just starts playing... with sound. I guess they don't care that I was already listening to my own music and now have to hunt down where that strange audio is coming from so I can put a stop to it.

Anyway, to see more of a certain section, you gotta hold your mouse cursor over an arrow and wait for it to scroll to the part you want, then yank your mouse away so it will stop. Of course, in the lists of anime titles, determining which one you want is kind of difficult seeing as how they're using a white font on a light blue background, with a small aliased Times New Roman font which would be difficult to read even if where black text on a white background. Clicking on a title causes a thumbnail picture of it to load directly to the left, but this picture isn't actually a thumbnail, it's the full sized picture that is being scaled down to a thumbnail size. What's wrong with that? Besides the fact that it looks like crap (thumbnails should be re-sampled, re-sized), it takes like 3 seconds to load with a DSL connection. A true thumbnail would load pretty much instantaneously.

So then I spot ads scrolling by along the top, one of which has something to do with Voltron. So I try to click on that, but it scrolls away off to the left before I can click on it. I then notice that the scrolling slows when my cursor is over the ad area, so I move my mouse to the left, press the mouse button, and move to the right, hoping that I can grab the ad area and manually move it to the right in order to get the ad back, but this doesn't work. Whatever I clicked on pops open in a new window, and the scrolling goes faster than before. I then learn that when I hold the mouse over the left side, it scrolls faster to the left, and when I hold it over the right side, it scrolls faster to the right... so in order to get the ad that went off the left side, I have to hold my mouse cursor on the right side until the ad comes back, then quickly move my mouse over the ad before it scrolls of the screen again.

So I got the ad and clicked on it and yet another non-resizable button-less flash window opens with some Voltron content. Problem is, the right side is cut off, so I don't have access to any of the flash navigation buttons. Sighing, I switch from Firefox to Internet Explorer, which displays scroll bars so that I can access the navigation... where I see a button that says Trailers. Curious, I click on that, and it pops open yet another unresizable buttonless window. Damn Media Blasters, what's with the window fetish? Why do you like crowding up my task bar so much? Do you hate me or something? And when I tried to write them to inform them of mistakes I found, guess what... no contact info! I'm thinking they know it's super crappy and just don't want to field all the emails asking why their site sucks so much.

Posted the character profiles of Tseng (from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children), Elena (from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children).

Posted my review of Lil' Bush - Resident of United States - Season One. Posted a promo page for 3 Pigs and a Baby.

Posted the character profiles of Masane Amaha (from Witchblade), Mitsuki (from Kappa Mikey), Gonard (from Kappa Mikey), Yes Man (from Kappa Mikey), Bao (from Black Lagoon), Ucha (from Tokyo Mew Mew à la Mode). Posted my review of No Country for Old Men.

Posted my review of South Park - Imaginationland.

Posted the anime profile of Tama and Friends. Posted the character profiles of Anti-Gnosis Humanoid Fighting System #00-00-00-00-1, Development name KP-X (from Xenosaga: The Animation), Koi Miyanaiya (from School Ghost Stories), Rock'n Lovin' (from Sugar Sugar Rune).