Video Game: Harvest Moon Animal Parade

I've been playing Harvest Moon games for years. I love Harvest Moon. There is something about the monotony that just makes Harvest Moon a relaxing play for me. It's like a slow down game for me at bedtime, as I'm about to go to sleep.

The newest Harvest Moon game for the Nintendo Wii is all that I love in Harvest Moon. THere are tons of different crops to choose from each season, even more types of fish to catch and a lot of cute farm animals and pets to choose from. All the marraige candidates are great, adn there is one for just about everyone who plays. It's got some good music, although my favorite Harvest Moon music of all time came from Save the Homeland. I haven't encountered any glitches in this game yet, but I haven't finished playing it either. The background designs are pretty, but I don't much like the design of the characters. Everyone is much to circular, and it distorts their facial features.

The only real complaints I have about this game are that money is tough to come by, the new time system annoys me, and it is very difficult to find metals for tool upgrades. In the game, there are quite a few items that can be foraged, and if you go to all places and forage you can make about 1000g a day. During winter this is about all you can do for money (Besides mining and fishing) In older Harvest Moon games, 10 seconds was 10 game minutes. In this game, 30 seconds is an in game minute. This means that time passes very slowly and I guess for some players, this is great. For me, however, I get most of my daily chores done before 12 and I usually go to bed then. I only stay up later if I decide to fish or mine. Mining tends to annoy me, however. Ores are much rarer to find in this game, adn finding an or rarely results in getting metals for refining. I've almost played 1 in game year, adn have only found 2 golds. I don't think I'll ever find enough to upgrade all of my tools. Gems are also hard to find. If I find 10 of a wonderful, most of the time I get 8 glass after refining, which is pretty useless. It's annoying, but I guess it makes for a challenge.

Lawlipop

Convention Update: Pokettokon and AnimeZap

Today Pokettokon gave their official statement as to why their event was cancelled. Seems there was some sort of problem with the college the event was held at. The official statement reads:

"Pokettokon 2010 Cancellation
Letter from the Chair:

Unfortunately as many of you are now aware, we had to cancel Pokettokon 2010 earlier this week. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused many of you however this decision was not made lightly. We have had numerous setbacks while trying to plan this year’s Pokettokon which culminated with a disagreement with the college. The Pokettokon staff does not hold any ill will towards the college and understands it position, but their position did put us in a position where we felt we would not be able to put on a convention anywhere near the quality you have come to expect from us. Again we apologize for the timing of this announcement, but we tried to come to a decision as quickly as we could.

For everyone that sent in their pre-registration, vendor registration and/or artist alley registration you will be refunded your money and I have personally began the paperwork necessary for you to be refunded. The refunds should start going out sometime in the next two weeks. Again I apologize for the inconvenience this decision has caused everyone.

I would like to thank Ryan Auft and the staff of Anime-zing for quickly putting together an alternative event for those of you that had already cleared your weekend and still want to get together. Anime Zap will be at Hampton Inn in East Peoria on Saturday January 16th and Sunday January 17th. Please go to http://www.animezapcon.com/ for more information.

Finally while I’m not sure what the futures holds exactly for Pokettokon specifically, I truly hope that at least the idea of a Central or Southern Illinois anime convention will be carried on in some form or another. I would like to thank the staff, fans, and college staff that helped made our crazy idea of a convention a reality. I am just sorry it had to end on this note.

Sincerely,
Brett Wagner
Con-Chair Pokettokon 2010
aka Advisorman"


Because of this cancellation, a small anime con was created for people who still want to go to a con this weekend. i don't know whether or not I will attend, because I already cancelled my hotel reservations, and I still do not know if my con chair wants to advertise here or not. I am awaiting her input on the situation. I
still have to talk to my room mates and what not as well.

Lawlipop

Convention: ASTL is Looking Better

Yesterday I emailed Anime St. Louis's con chair about the way their new cosplay discount rules were affecting fanbase. Today I log on and see that their rules have been changed. I believe that my email is what caused this change. My email to ASTL is posted in a note on my Facebook, for those who want to read it. It is entitled, "Email to ASTL con chair regarding their cosplay discount rules and staff activity in forums."

As you all know, I posted a thread on their cosplay rules, and what was wrong with them. I will repost their old rules for conveniance.
"COSPLAY DISCOUNT GUIDELINES
Here we go. Cosplaying is becoming quite easy today. But people are also making a lazy effort to cosplay to get the discount. If you don't want to get turned down for the cosplay discount (still no guarantees), here are the do's and don'ts.
DO NOT COSPLAY L and leave your hair flat. That's insulting!
DO NOT COSPLAY A SCHOOL GIRL and forget what school you go to. School girl is only tolerated if you are cosplaying from a specific school or academy. No made up schools please. Bring a picture if you're scared of being turned down.
DO NOT COSPLAY RPCs. There are enough Narutards running around. Last thing we need are girls claiming they are from the leaf village and they are trying to rebuild "Sawcy's" clan.
DO NOT COSPLAY WITH *JUST* NEKOMIMI. Cat ears do NOT make you a magical shiny-desu cat girl that everyone knows and love. Don't know what anime/manga you're from with just ears alone. Denied. DO NOT COSPLAY *ANYTHING* ORIGINATING FROM 4CHAN. Memes will not result in insta-ban (yet). But you'll have to pay the full price if you want to bring the lulz.
DO BRING A REFERANCE PICTURE! Even if you know you're a shoe in, some one at registration might not think so. Bring your picture and hush them into silence.
DO BRING A COSTUME! If you're just trying to check in as fast as possible, you are allowed to present your costume and be on your way.
DO YOUR HAIR AND MAKE UP! You may think it's not worth it--but not putting an effort towards getting that $5 dollars off is insulting.

It's a privilege not a right and it is earned not just handed out. Anime St. Louis has been pretty lenient over the years with the discount. But it's time to put a foot down for those who have given it their best as cosplayers only to be put in the same category as OCs, RPCs, Lazy Ls, and cat girls. Let us march into the new era of actually caring who we cosplay as, rather than "I'll pick L because he's easy way to get $5 bucks off." As you can see he's not my favorite :D
With Love,
Ashley Lovings
Registration Chair "


Their new rules are as follows.

"COSPLAY DISCOUNT GUIDELINES
Below you will find the rules for our cosplay discount for 2010.


•L: L's cosplay is one of the simplest out there, a white shirt and jeans. Because we want to avoid folks showing up in only that to gain an easy discount, we ask that L's applying for the cosplay discount come with their hair styled/costumed to look like the character's hair. Make-up for the eyes can also help.


•Schoolgirls: If cosplaying a schoolgirl, please avoid doing so with just a generic outfit. The closer you are to resembling a character from an anime or to your costume looking like a Japanese school uniform, the better. If you're unsure about your costume, bring in a reference picture you used to make your costume to help us in making our decision.


•Lolita: Gothic Lolita is allowed.


•Accessories: Wearing cat ears and a tail while wearing what you would normally wear on an average day will not count as a costume. We feel that it is only wearing accessories. This counts toward many of the popular items sold/seen at conventions, including an Urahara hat, Bleach Captain haori, ninja headband, or Akatsuki cloak. It needs to be a full costume.


•OCs and RPCs (Original characters and role play characters): This rule can be a little tricky, so bear with us. As these are characters that are your own, the rulings for them may be strict, and we ask for your patience when decisions are made. Some guidelines are as follows: -Bringing a reference picture of the character, while not a guarantee, can help you. -Your character cannot be in just casual clothes, or a-like set-up as stated in the "Accessories" rules. This also includes rave outfits.


•Other pop culture influences: We're not about to turn away Darth Vader, because he might choke a staff member. Costumes influenced/from other pop culture icons are allowed, but we won't be giving the discount to things originating from 4chan. This includes Pedobear, Anon, etc. Anime did not originate from 4chan, so yes, Mudkips are allowed.


•Original costume designs: Original costume designs are welcome, but to help make the process faster, please follow the statement below.


•If you are concerned that you won't qualify for the discount, please send an e-mail to animestl@gmail.com and zayane@gmail.com with a description of your costume and a picture of it. Doing so will also make the process for you quicker as we will have seen your cosplay ahead of time.


•Note that these rules are subject to change at any given time, and Anime St. Louis has the right to allow or deny the discount based on our rules. We apologize to those who think they are strict, but we feel that as our event becomes bigger, we need to begin creating guidelines in order to make registration easier and faster as well as to avoid those that wish to gain a discount without effort. This discount is a privilege, not a right. We wish to keep the discount for years to come as cosplay and costuming in general play big roles in events like ours, and we wish to fully encourage it. We thank you for your patronage and can't wait to see what you have planned. Thank you."

As you can see, these new rules are much more polite and actually make more sense. The condescending attitude is gone, and no more types of cosplay are being insulted. I hope this is a step forward for ASTL and hope that since these issues have been brought to the con chairs attention that ASTL will grow and continue to be a good convention for the St. Louis area.

An apology was also issued on the forums by Staff member Doublej. "...we have changed the cosplay discount rules for better clarity. We apologize for the confusion they caused and if anyone was insulted by their tone."


Lawlipop

Manga Reveiw: Chibi Vampire ~ By: Near

Okay so, I've been into Chibi Vampire for a while and I'm finally going to post somethign about it.

Chibi vampire is about this girl who, on the outside is seemingly normal. Little do others know, she lives with a family of vampires! Karin, our main character is a reverse vampire, Meaning, instead of taking blood from her victims she gives it to them. Her body makes too much blood and if she doesn't bite a victim, which she has a hard time doing because of her sympathy and love for humans, She sufferers from an explosive nosebleed that looks like an ugly murder scene. Problem? I think so! Especially since she has to keep her and her family's' vamper-ism a secret! Throw in a curious human boy who is interested in Karin, and you've got yourself an interesting manga plot!

Convention Rant: Pokettokon

Ok, so I was supposed to go a con called Pokettokon in East Peoria Illinois on Saturday. It was a small 2 day con run at a college. Super awesome right? No. Today they decided to cancel their con... 4 DAYS BEFORE THEIR CON!!! 4 days. With NO explantion as to WHY they are cancelled at all. None on their website, none on their forums. Plus, they ONLY emailed people who are registered on their forums about the cancelation, so everyone else has no idea it's cancelled at all. Unless they just HAPPEN to check the website... THis is the announcement on their forums...
"I regret to inform you that Pokettokon 2010 has been cancelled.

Expect an official statement from the convention chair to be posted in the coming days.

Please inform those you can."

Um, no, that is YOUR responsibility to inform everyone you cancelled your event, and why can't this statement be posted now? My best guess is that they have to think of something to save face. I wouldn't be so mad if this was cancelled 4 months ago, even 1 month ago... but 4 days before the event? I don't know, this is just unprofessional. What are they going to do about people's hotels? Are they going to refund cancelation fees? I definatly will not be going to Pokettokon next year because of this...

I will update this when more info comes out.

Lawlipop

Manga review: Kashimashi

At the mall the other day, I just randomly picked up this manga, because it was an omnibus, I liked the artwork, and it was labeled as a yuri. I don't see many yuri manga so I was pretty excited to sit down and read this. To my knowledge, there are two volumes of the onmibus, and I've only read volume one, but I love the story so far. I can't wait to read the second half.



The story is about a young boy, who is actually very feminine, who falls in love with a girl in his class, who just happens to love him back... Great? Right? No, see, the thing is, girl is a lesbian, and she rejects his love confession. Until a magical alien space ship nearly kills him, and in the process of reviving him, changes him to a girl. Now he has to overcome his(I mean, her) feelings as a male and accept that she is now permanently female, and part of what she now thinks is that girls don't love girls, even though now two girls are in love with him. He has to make a choice on who, or what he wants in this crazy romantic tale.

I've heard that there is an anime out there, once I watch it, I'll review it as well. I'm super exited and I hope the anime does justice to the manga.\

Lawlipop

Anime: Nyan Koi!

Holy cow, this anime was so cute. The story is about a boy named Junpei who is allergic to cats. He really doesn't like cats, but one day, as he's walking home from school he kicks a can and it hits and breaks an ancient cat statue. The cat statue curses him. He now can understand cats, and the cat from the local shrine tells him that if he doesn't atone and start to love cats, he will eventually turn into a cat. This terrifies the poor kid, because he is allergic and he thinks he will die from allergies if this happens. Basically, he goes around helping the local cats with their problems while trying to woo the girl of his dreams, and fend off the other crazy girls who are in love with him. Oh, and if he tells anyone about the curse (or if they find out on their own) they will also be cursed, and Junpei's curse will spread faster.


It has pretty good background music, and the OP is super cute.



I am very excited that the Nyan Koi! manga will be released this summer, and you can bet, as a cat fanatic, that I will buy this manga. I hope this anime is licensed in the USA, so I can own it. It's just that cute. Anime that are based on cats are just.... Super neko kawaii desu. Check it out if you get a chance!

Lawlipop

Anime: Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei

This anime is just... wow. The whole show revolves around high school teacher Itoshiki Nozomu, who is always in despair and ready to die. (Although whevever something life threatening happens to him, he is very upset about almost dying.) The show is meant to be a critique on Japanese society, so a lot of jokes are hard for American viewers to understand, though there are a great deal that are funny to us as well. This anime has a bit of everything; dark humor, harem, satire, stalkers, mecha (in one episode), fanservice, awesome OPs and EDs, shout outs to other anime, randomosity, yaoi (in one episode Nozomu shows he has that appeal as well), yuri, domestic violence, you name it, it's probably been tossed into at least one episode. The artwork is absolutely beautiful, in this Otaku's opinion, with vibrantly colored backgrounds and great character designs that stay true to the original manga designs. Each characters name is a pun on Japanese words that mark their main personality trait, which is extremely exagerated for your entertainment. For example, Kiri Komori's name is a play off hikikomori, which is the Japanese word for a shut in, or a person who never leaves their house, and Kiri is a hikikomori in every sense except she never leaves the school. (Although she is often found in her teachers house as well... maybe he lives on school grounds.) Harumi Fujiyoshi's name is a play off the Japanese word Fujoshi, which is the term used by Japanese to refer to yaoi fangirls, and she writes yaoi doujinshi.

The music is top notch, with tons of great OPs and EDs to watch. The songs chosen are delightfully appropriate for this anime. The background music is gorgeous, and I've downloaded all of the soundtracks for this show. Even if you never watch the show, I encourage you to at least listen to the OP and ED songs. They are great.



Lawlipop

Convention Rant: ASTL 2010 Cosplay discount rules

Ok, so I've been going to cons for a long time, and I have NEVER been as insulted by a set of rules as I am by Anime St Louis's (ASTL) cosplay discount guidelines...

In my opinion, this is turning into some sort of Cosplay Nazi group... Below, I will quote from ASTL's website their rules, and my responses to each one. My responses are in bold.

"COSPLAY DISCOUNT GUIDELINES
Here we go. Cosplaying is becoming quite easy today. But people are also making a lazy effort to cosplay to get the discount. If you don't want to get turned down for the cosplay discount (still no guarantees), here are the do's and don'ts. "

Actually, a lot of those "lazy" cosplays are people without much money to spend on costumes, or individuals who have made their own costume who jsut aren't very experianced yet.


"•DO NOT COSPLAY L and leave your hair flat. That's insulting!"

I can agree with this one somewhat, lazy L's get on my nerves too, but you have to understand that not everyone has 200 bucks to spend on a costume, so L is a safe bet, and good for first time cosplayers because it is easy. Not every can be SUPER COSPLAY #1 and the mediocre cosplays make us appreciate the great ones even more. To deny one L cosplayer a discount is MORE of an insult, in my opinion.

"•DO NOT COSPLAY A SCHOOL GIRL and forget what school you go to. School girl is only tolerated if you are cosplaying from a specific school or academy. No made up schools please. Bring a picture if you're scared of being turned down."

I actually talked to ASTL staff about this one, and their response is that they are trying to weed out "generic" cosplay. First off, a lot of those "generic" school girl costumes are expensive, and there is NO reason why, since it is a costume, that it should not get the discount. A lot of school girl cosplay looks the same, so how is ASTL staff going to enforce this? Either no school girls get the discount, or all of them should. This is simply a matter of "I either like or don't like your costume."

"•DO NOT COSPLAY RPCs. There are enough Narutards running around. Last thing we need are girls claiming they are from the leaf village and they are trying to rebuild "Sawcy's" clan."

First off, its rude to call YOUR PAYING COSTOMERS Narutards, even if they are. Second off, there are tons of RPC (Roll play characters, for those of you who don't know) that pay a lot of money for their costumes, and are great characters. My RPC, named Lawliet, is a furry character loosely based on L from Death Note. I payed over $1200 for a full fursuit of my RPC. ASTL staff tried to write this one off on me by saying "if you bring reference art, you get a discount for OCs and RPCs" when I asked them about it. However, not all people have these items for their RPCs and OCs and if they have a costume, again, it is cosplay. I can understand if their "costume" is regular street clothes and them not getting it, but if it is OBVIOUSLY a costume, there should be no issue at all on whether or not they get the discount. Again, this comes down to "I either like or dislike your costume."

"•DO NOT COSPLAY WITH *JUST* NEKOMIMI. Cat ears do NOT make you a magical shiny-desu cat girl that everyone knows and love. Don't know what anime/manga you're from with just ears alone. Denied."

This is simply worded rudely. Seriously? Is ASTL staff in middle school? You should never act like you are better than your attendants... Its condescedning and quite rude. Most people do not attempt to get discounts with just cat ears... Cat ears are an accessory, not a costume. But if it is part of a costume it should count. I see tons of cosplay lolitas who wear cat ears with their costume, and its totally cute.

"•DO NOT COSPLAY *ANYTHING* ORIGINATING FROM 4CHAN. Memes will not result in insta-ban (yet). But you'll have to pay the full price if you want to bring the lulz."

Woah Woah Woah! Let me qoute that again, "Memes will not result in insta-ban (yet)." Why on EARTH would you even THINK about banning meme cosplays!? Meme cosplays are PART of the CON EXPERIENCE!!! Every con I've ever been to has had meme cosplays, and they are almost always popular with other congoers, becuase THEY ARE FUNNY!!! Banning people because you don't like their costume is childish and immature. Unless the costume violates convention rules, (nudity, profanity, ect.) there should be NO reason to ever ban them. Agian, "If I don't like your costume you get banned!"

"•DO BRING A REFERANCE PICTURE! Even if you know you're a shoe in, some one at registration might not think so. Bring your picture and hush them into silence."

I don't have much to say on this, except if you are OBVIOUSLY wearing a costume, it should not matter who or what you are cosplaying from.
"•DO BRING A COSTUME! If you're just trying to check in as fast as possible, you are allowed to present your costume and be on your way."

But how are you going to enforce your other rules this way? If you are just bringing your costume, how do you know they are really going to wear it? How do you know its not someone else's costume? How are you gonna justify this rule with the one directly below it?

"•DO YOUR HAIR AND MAKE UP! You may think it's not worth it--but not putting an effort towards getting that $5 dollars off is insulting. It's a privilege not a right and it is earned not just handed out."

But you JUST said its ok to come out of costume if you can present your costume... Way to contradict yourself...

"Anime St. Louis has been pretty lenient over the years with the discount. But it's time to put a foot down for those who have given it their best as cosplayers only to be put in the same category as OCs, RPCs, Lazy Ls, and cat girls. Let us march into the new era of actually caring who we cosplay as, rather than "I'll pick L because he's easy way to get $5 bucks off." As you can see he's not my favorite :D
With Love,
Ashley Lovings
Registration Chair "

This last paragraph is also rude and insulting. There are tons of awesome OCs and RPCs out there, and saying that they are below anime cosplay is simply insulting. Also, no one cares if Ashley doesn't like L cosplay, because tons of others do, and being Registration Chair does not give you the right to talk down to people who cosplay things you dislike, nor does it give you the right to declare OCs and RPCs as bad cosplay. Cosplay does NOT mean "Anime Costume Play." It means "costume play." And that means, all costumes, whether it be Inuyasha, L, America, Captain Planet, Jareth, Darth Vader, Snake's Ass, Mudkips, Furries, lolita, school girls, maids, OCs or RPCs.

Lawlipop

Manga review: Azumanga Daioh

I first read Azumanga Daioh when I was in Japan, sick as a dog, with airplane food poisoning. My room mate had a copy and told me it was an awesome read. What can I say? She was right. Although the artwork is pretty generic and some of the characters hard to tell apart, it was a fun read.

The plot itself its pretty simple, a group of friends high school journey, all the bumps along the way. There are tons of random jokes, some difficult for non Japanese readers to understand, but on the whole, its a cute story. I can't recall any romance or fanservice through the series, but the characters throughout the story are unique. The ending brings a sense of hope for the future, And I was very sad when I finished reading the series.

This manga has some insight on what Japanese high school girls think about, worry about, do in their free time and is great for people who are interested in Japanese culture.

Lawlipop

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

I don't know about you, but I loved the Fullmetal Alchemist anime. I was obsessed with it for quite a while, and will still fangirl over good Edward cosplays. However, the only downfall to the anime in my eyes was that it strayed from the manga, which wasn't it's fault, the manga wasn't finished yet, so while it is in the same world as the manga, the stories are very different.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood fixes this problem. It follows the manga almost page by page, and does so without a hitch. It has a beautiful art style, very similar to the original anime, but with minor alterations. Many of the original Japanese voice actors returned to play their characters, and Paku Romi has again nailed her part as Edward Elric. I haven't heard much on when Brotherhood will be released in the USA, but according to Anime News Network, many of the original cast members will be reuniting to play their parts, although Aaron Dismuke will be replaced by Maxey Whitehead as the voice of Alphonse.

There really isn't all that much new music introduced to Brotherhood, most background music seems to be derived from music from the original series, and from what I've noticed, it really isn't played very often. There was definatly more background music in the original. I cannot complain about any of the opening and ending themes. They rock my socks so far.

According to Funimation, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood will be released on DVD sometime in Spring 2010. Lets keep our fingers crossed guys.

Lawlipop

Welcome

Welcome to Midwest Otaku Review, my area of the internet where I get to talk about things relevent to my interests. I'm not sure exactly what all I'll be talking about, but be sure to expect anime reviews, manga reviews, convention (anime, furry or otherwise) reviews, movie reviews, and anything else I feel like reviewing. In between reviews, I will talk about other random things, maybe I found a great doujin circle, or maybe something is going on in the anime world thats bothering me. I don't know, but feel free to suggest things you want to see reviewed or if you want to hear my opinion on things.

Lawlipop