不愉快ですよ、先輩…

Just a short one for now, but lets be real here for a sec' - if we're going to talk about maji fuyukai anime, this one aint' one of them!

努力と根性！宇宙パイロットになるんだ！

If April showers are supposed to bring May flowers, what does snow and ice bring? Apparently us Canadian's have to settle for winter that spans from November to April... maybe we SHOULD be living in igloos... Who'dve thought o_O?

So I had the good fortune to stumble upon this little jewel of a game! Part Visual Novel, part Princess Simulator, ALL Game of Thrones! Oh and did I mention magical girls? Long Live the Queen's got it all!

It might not win any awards for its dialogue or innovative gameplay, but its art-style is well defined and its well positioned towards its target audience (me x_x).

A more thorough review of the game forthcoming, but for the time being, let me say that there are few things more satisfying than seeing Elodie stare down an enraged nobleman and incinerate him with magic before he can even swing his sword! Dat Mahou Shoujo, I'm telling you!

my biggest regret is already having beaten it! Only one of the many many many routes mind you, but I want more! It'd be a shame to waste such a cute princess/tactician/magical girl/weapons master/whatever-else-you-want-her-to-be! Hmmmm....

建築学、デザイン、統一：ＰＨＡＳＥ０２開始！

Just a quick update on life, thoughts, plans and goals for the future~

I was able to make time to go into the Daniels Faculty at U of T and speak with them about their masters of Architecture program, and was not disappointed. It was the place for me! If nothing else, the vibe, the energy, the 空気 of the space was just brilliant. It was creative and inspirational, welcoming and awe-inspiring, but with a deeply-thoughtful, razor-sharp precision in its appearance. It was clean, professional and brimming with artistic sensibilities. I can think of no better place to realize my dreams and designs and bring the contents of my mind to the physical realm, in the hope that I can, in my own little way, make the world a better place.

That aside, getting in will be tough, but I feel that if I give it my all, work and cultivate myself as much as possible in the coming months I will be free of regret, and can realize my goals in one way or another.

A take-away I received was the concept of design. Not something foreign to me, the concept of design is more than simply the creation of something, in the narrow, practical, descriptive sense, but rather appeals to the broader notion of creation, realization, innovation, and so much more. Perhaps for my sleep-deprive, coffee-addled mind, it evades the scope of my articulative abilities, but none the less, the feelings were strong. Design. A world, a concept, a socratic form to strive towards.

Mapping this onto my life, my goal for the spring/summer would be appropriately summed up in that very concept: Design. Not only in the creation of my portfolio and the honing of my creative abilities, but also in the way my goals, wants, desires and life choices are manifested. I need to better exercise my humanity and impose my inner designs on the world around me. We as sentient, intelligent beings are designers by nature, it is in our essence that we shape the world around us, and in turn affect our destiny. On a less grandiose level, I need to better create a space and a system of living that enables me to experience life to its fullest. Be the happiest I can be, be the most productive and inspired I can be. Be the healthiest I can be. And most of all, lead the best life I can.

Finally, along these lines, I think it would be good to repeat my idea of consolodating my digital life to portable devices - iPhone, iPad, and Macbook. My Raven would be there for larger tasks, storage, gaming, higher performance workloads, but through efficient means, I feel its entirely possible to enjoy the same level of power-usage that I do on a regular basis through these apple devices. It would take some cleaning, some simplification, some elbow-grease, but such is the act of turning my imagined world into a reality~

Life has never been so Fate :P

With that, I leave to ponder, brainstorm, and if I'm lucky, preordain what lies in store~

PS. Considering selling my macbook and using the funds towards investing in a new Macbook Air... seems like a decent choice, lighter, faster, newer, etc... if only there was someone noble and zen with a a proud legacy that was looking for a macbook.... or a god of snow that would ensure it wasn't dropped into a pit of deathness.... hmmm 

この中に宇宙人、未来人、異世界人、超能力者がいたら、 あたしのところに来なさい。以上！

Responding to the circulating facebook meme, I was given the Psychic type. Behold, the favourite and most awesomest of all the Espers!!

When it comes to psychic pokemon, there's only one obvious choice, the stall-breaking, hovering multi-cell pokemon, Reuniclus!

Magic guard + Life orb for the extra punch, alongside the calmest of minds, this baddass floating jello's gonna' bring the smackdown!

Honourable mentions to Latias and Jirachi, my interchangeable Gen5 Special Walls!

Its too bad there can't be a physical variant, how cool would it be to pull off a close combat or mach punch with those jelly fists!? Scew you, Luffy, this 'mon's got you beat!

I've run him extensively throughout the Gen5 metagame, mostly using a calm mind setup, but lately I've been considering assault vest for the free tanky stats and running a 4 move coverage set. Not sure if it'd be worth it, but having regenerator would also be pretty sweet. Ever since Gen6 hit, I've been running a dual screen team, and vested pokemon become surprisingly bulky.

In the end, magic guard is probably too good to pass up, making him amazing against stall teams and even against heavy aggro, a free 15% DPS is nothing to scoff at. Time to breed one of these babies and bring the smackdown!!

放課後 Tea Time with Saber: Raidin' Tombs and Takin' Names! Who needs a Y chromosome, anyway!?

Aww snap, its that's time again! Houkago Tea Time with Saber! And today, we'll be talking about men with boobs! What? I'm serious!

Men with boobs, or more accurately, female-action-hero-characters-characterized-in-such-a-way-that-they're-reduced-to-little-more-than-a-male-character-with-female-body-parts, seems to be a bit of a problem in the gaming/movie/tv/literary industry. While I don't have any wild accusations of which character's are secretly post-op traps, I DO have an example of a character that DOESN'T have a Y chromosome! 

 　
This weekend I watched Day[9] play Tomb Raider(2013), and it was just as awesome as I expected it to be. Previously, busty-British-archaeologist/gunslinger Lara Croft was what I would have considered a seemingly empowering female character that in reality was just a sex object. While I don't have extensive experience with the game franchise, I would find this analysis hard to overturn based on the limited knowledge I do have. 

However, in the recent remake of the classic game, we see a complete 180 in terms of our heroine's portrayal. Focusing more on her backstory, we see Lara thrust into a situation where she's forced to kill, enduring gut-wrenching trauma and survive in a harsh wilderness. Cold. Wet. Puncture-wound through the abdomen the moment the action begins. This game is a series of events gone as wrong as possible, and with danger, intrigue and a pair of jaws around every corner, the action is raw, brutal and terrifyingly desperate. 

Lara's character is more practically clothed, covered in cuts, scrapes, bruises and all manner of dirt and grime. Breast-implants no longer! This girl means business! She'd give Jack Bauer a run for his money!

Now, that's all well and good, but what of her gender identity? What makes a female character female or a male character male?

First, let me draw your attention to an example of a gal done right in anime: 

Ryuuko as I've mentioned before challenges traditional gender roles, especially prevalent in shounen anime series', but at the same time, her designers haven't forgotten the essence of what maker her female. Much like the way Lara is written in Tomb Raider, Ryuuko's feminine side comes out through the way she interacts with others, the way she carries herself, and in the subtle details of her existence.

This is all very vague, and if I had a concrete formula of all the small details that define the feminine experience without being cliche and gender biased by citing vulnerable, weak, emotional traits, then I'd be on my way to a PhD right now! But at the same time, just by watching with an attentive eye, you might be able to see an example of what I'm talking about.

To better illustrate my point, lets listen to Rhianna Pratchett, the writer for the 2013 remake: 

Certainly with Lara, I wanted to make a human story. But I never wanted to forget that she was female either. And, I mean, certainly the way she reacts to things could be said to be more female as a reaction. I’m not talking about being scared, or being vulnerable. But the way she interacts with other characters, her friendship with Sam in particular…you wouldn't see a male character holding the hands of an in-pain male character or hugging a dying male character. 

I mean, I didn’t want to just make Lara a male character with boobs. It’s always kind of a…it is a human story at heart. But there things—the language she uses, or the way that she interacts—that could be said to be more feminine. I’m very much not talking about her sense of vulnerability or being scared. That again has been rolled out as: male characters aren’t shown as being scared or vulnerable, why should female characters? Well, just because it hasn’t been done with male characters doesn’t make it wrong! It’s probably more of a problem of the way we depict male characters. 

When it comes to these girls, there's no looking off into the distance through teary eyes, hands held to their bosom, wishing  the hero would come and save the day. They're ready to do what it takes to survive! Take up the master sword that's lying next to them and shove it up an over-sized big-human's ass!
If I were to hazard a guess, I would say there is an inseparable 'softness' in the feminine 'side' of things - not a pink-and-frilly-barbie-aisle-at-Toys-R-Us kind of softness necessarily, but a kind of softness that harkens to our biological differences, one who's extent is mirrored in the relative softness of a female body compared to a male's. Its not a limiting difference or a difference that necessitates a hierarchical disparity, or even necessitates anything other than its own existence, at all! But at the same time, I think this difference is key in representing the female experience in literature - without it, we would run into a series of testosterone driven humans with boobs running amok, or overly dainty damsels distressing over every little thing.

What does this all mean for you and me?

I'd very much like to replicate this feeling of intense, raw, down-and-dirty, cringe-worthy style of action in Sword Arte Online. I want readers to grimace at what our main heroine is forced to do to survive, knowing that there was nothing else to be done, and fearing that in her shoes they'd be paralyzed by fear and unable to fight on like she does. I want her to wade through the muck and emerge with victory clenched between her teeth, but at the same time, tenderly cultivating this fundamentally important ethereal softness that is necessary for her character to be fully realized. 

Much pondering ahead! But in the mean time, I think there's a game that needs downloading! Bee Are Bee!

次のコーナ〜

Just testing out a banner design~

Perhaps for a sub blog, or just a post series - maybe a random set of discussions, thoughts, musings, opinions and speculations....

If nothing else, I just think it looks good!

Stay tuned! 

Oh wait, there's more!

Just a dropping a quick visual update for Estelle's character sheet - hopefully when I stop having to read Lenin (if ever >_>) I'll be able to make a more in depth description of the goings-on in this splash of pictures, but until then I'll leave you with the mystery and intrigue that is my thought process. Ooooh ahhhh such mystery, much puzzling~~

Swords and Stitches

You know what's the best thing about having a fashion designer as a girlfriend? Getting her to help with character designs of course! 

Stay tuned for a look at the main heroine of Sword Arte Online, and a look at the directions I would like to take the series, how they may deviate from the original and why I think those deviations are necessary.

Dragons, Kobold Lords and Armored Titans

A brief look into the main Heroine of the series as well as a few tidbits of what to expect and some of the thought process that goes through the head of this over-worked-sleep-deprived-philosophy-student~

'Tis the Season!

What better time of year than Christmas to take a look at a favourite anime of mine - Amagami SS!

More to follow~

A tale of swords and sorcery

Being stuck in an online game doesn't seem so bad, right?

8-Bit Adventurer

Maniacal Machinations of the wicked Consul, courageous deeds of conquering Heroes and the ever-fickle favour of the accursed Dice Gods. Adventure calls in the marvellous world of Soda Pop Miniature's Super Dungeon Explore!