Aurus

If I had to pick one? Hm... I'd say Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin, but he's ten years older than I am, which I wouldn't object to, but it's not quite legal yet. Heh. Most anime characters that I really admire/appreciate/am attracted to are too old, it seems. In that case, maybe Kyo from Fruits Basket. He's so angry/angsty that I just want to kiss him and make him feel better. Hatsuharu, too, he's extremely good-looking... But then, there's the whole deal with... *won't spoil!* ... Maybe Sanosuke (Rurouni Kenshin). He's closer to my age, good-looking, and freakin' badass. It's strange, since I tend to go for the "pretty" ones more often...

[quote]Imagine what would happen if everyone was like Hige. :p[/quote]Oh, boy... heh. Hige, at the moment, is the character that I find the most likeable in the sense that I think I'd enjoy just hanging out and talking with him... though I don't think I'd trust him with anything important. I think that in terms of most anime characters, Kiba has a remarkable amount of sense. Toboe is "cute" in the sense that he's a kid, he's sticking by these older people and just kind of wants acceptance, but he irritates me that way that most "young, naive, seeking acceptance" characters tend to... I don't dislike him, though. As for Tsume... he is badassly cool and bugs the hell out of me at the same time. Heh. His attitude kind of ticks me off at times, but then again, do you notice, he's gone out of his way to save other people several times, so I'm sure there's something under that tough-guy facade. (... as usual, I feel like I'm not making any sense...) I agree with Dagger that Tsume does seem like the hardest to like. Even if he's cool and badass... I think I'd want to avoid talking to the guy as much as I could, you know?

[quote]I'm wondering what VA's they'll get to play the parts in FMA[/quote] What I wouldn't give for the chance to audition for that!... kind of makes me wish I was of legal age, a college graduate, and a bit more knowledgeable about the industry. Heh. I do look forward to seeing who they pick, though... I worry that since Ed is both a humorous and a very dramatic character, they'll over-play one or both sides of him. I just hope they put it on at a view-able time. I can't survive on less than six hours of sleep, not to mention, if anyone catches me sneaking up at 1 in the morning to watch anything, I'm dead as a doornail. I could always tape it, I guess... of course, whether or not our VCR actually works any more is up for debate.

I got a lot of discrimination in my middle school years because I wore rather eccentric clothing... I liked leggings and baggy t-shirts, I wore long socks, I never wore make-up or jewelry or anything fancy. Then again, maybe it wasn't so much "discrimination" as it was constant brutal remarks, laughing behind my back, everyone assuming I was gay (which I didn't have a problem with in essence, it just made it rather difficult to talk to other people without them shying away), that sort of thing. That stuff has died down - I think (well, I hope) that my fellow students are a bit more mature than they were then, and mostly they just ignore me... really, that's how I like things to be. Discrimination on the basis of things like clothing and hair color - mine happens to be tangerine-orange at the moment - it's immaturity at some of its worst. It's guilt by association. Because I dye my hair, does that make me a slut or a punk? Because I like wearing black, does that make me a criminal? For the record... I have a number of wiccan friends and I am a former wiccan myself, and within their circles of fellow practitioners, "wiccan" and "witch" are often used interchangeably. Sometimes I just wonder, you know... what would this world be like if people didn't stereotype? If everyone could accept other people's religions and appearances and ethnicities and orientations. After all, our ethnicity is something that not only we cannot change, but we should embrace and enjoy (for example... I am proud that my ancestors are Scottish and Irish, and I let everyone know it, too!), and our appearances, the way we dress, our religions and our orientations, are all personal aspects of ourselves that I see as no different than what we like to do in our spare time or our favorite food. They're just one more thing that makes us different, and gives us reason to learn more about each other. After all, if every single person in the world was straight, Protestant, with brown hair, fair skin, and green eyes, who all believed the exact same beliefs... the world wouldn't be that interesting, would it?

When I first started watching anime, I wasn't into same-gender pairings that much... though looking back, I think it's because the first times I'd encountered them was in fanfics that I stumbled upon with some pretty non-canon pairings (sort of on that note, I'm kind of sitting on the fence when it comes to most non-canon pairings... for example, I always felt like Vash and Wolfwood would probably strangle each other after ten minutes alone together, and yet some of the VxW doujinshi - hoping I spelled that right - that I've seen is just so cute...). Now that I've had some time to watch/read more anime and manga, I've decided that I do like shounen-ai. There's something that's just so cute about it, I dunno how else to describe it ^.^; As for shoujo-ai, I haven't seen any besides Shoujo Kakumei Utena (which, as people have said, it's more implied than anything else), so I can't really say anything about it yet. I'm waiting avidly for Gravitation to be released. I should get the manga, too...

Picking one character is tricky... mine tends to change about every day, now. *thinks* I'd have to say either Himura Kenshin (Rurouni Kenshin), Okita Souji (Peace Maker Kurogane), or Edward Elric (Full Metal Alchemist)... see, I can barely narrow it down to three... *sheepish* Having recently finished Fruits Basket sure hasn't helped my ability to narrow them down, that's for sure. Spike is just plain awesome. The only reason he's not my number one favorite is because if I tried to hug him, he'd probably kick my butt. It'd be pretty funny, I'm sure.

I haven't read any of the Hellsing manga yet, but my friends are absolutely in love with it. I've glimpsed the artwork... it's stunning. As for what I've read... Chobits is good, but it gets cutesy at times... the artwork is great, though, and hey, I actually put forth the money to buy all eight of them, so I guess I can say I liked it a lot. ^.~; Rurouni Kenshin is pretty good, too, but I feel like (similar to the anime) there are parts that could be a little less... well, cheesy. Overall, it's likeable. I can't wait until the next volume comes out (not to mention, the Kyoto arc...). I've read the first two X-day, and while I was a bit puzzled by the end of the second volume, I really like it. I think it has the potential to be really deep and psychological, and maybe I'm just strange that way, but I like that sort of thing a lot. Trigun is also good, but if you've seen the anime beforehand, it gets different... I was pretty confused about the ending of the second volume, but I'm content to wait for Trigun Maximum. That's all I can think of for now... I hope you can make sense out of my jumble of text...

I caught one episode of Wolf's Rain last weekend... I hadn't heard of it until a friend of mine sent me what I'm guessing is the ending song - Gravity - which I have completely fallen in love with. Of course, it's Yoko Kanno, so I don't know why I'm surprised. This is another one of those shows that makes me wish I could stay up later. I'm completely hooked, even though I've only seen one episode which made little to no sense. *grins* I could definitely tell that the quality of animation was pretty darn high, and well, anything with Kanno's music is going to grab my attention sooner or later. So, are DVD's out in the US yet, or will I have to be sneaky and watch it on TV?

Full Metal Alchemist is up there among my favorites... it's gotten way more interesting than I ever thought it would, and there is so much to think about. I've had hour-long discussions when it comes to puzzling over the latest developments, and that pretty much bumps the show up to near the top of my list of GOOD STUFF. I haven't seen enough anime (in my opinion, at least) to be able to say if I think the plot is ordinary, but I feel like the characters are complex enough that if I'm not interested in the plot, I always have something to wonder about when it comes to each person's next move. I just got episode 30 yesterday, and I'll probably watch it several more times... every time they answer one of my questions, they bring up twelve more! It's mind-devouringly wonderful! *glee* I feel like alchemy was an excellent choice instead of any other sort of historical magic... it gives the whole show a different feel than most animes that involve magic or the supernatural. I mean... there's still something very real and scientific about it, even if the concept is magical or mystical. *grin* I got my hands on an art book at a convention near me recently, but I haven't seen the manga... is it actually out in the US, or would I have to dig for fan-scan-translation things?

Well, I just made one using the logo thing, I'm happy to donate it if you want it... I could make more colors and stuff, too (right now I just have the blue-ish color that the logo on the index page is).

Thanks. I wasn't sure how "legal" it would have been to have used that logo, I'm something of a very copyright-minded person. But, thank you ^^

That's true, I just have this thing for banners... heh.

Those are pretty good! Don't say you can't draw violins, those are better than anything I've done. Same with the hands, they're done really well. I like how the second one is sort of sketchy, it's got a really artsy mood to it.

Hey- I was just wondering if there is some sort of banner or button that I can use to link to theOtaku.com from my website. I found the site to be really informative and I'd like to link you from my website but I didn't find any banners or stuff anywhere. Am I just blind? (highly likely ;) ) Thank you :D -Tracy/Aurus