terra

It might sound odd, but Yohji had spent one of his summers at a magic camp. In fact, it [i]was[/i] odd, but his sleight of hand had ended up coming in handy. "A beautiful flower for a beautiful lady," he murmured to the blonde behind the counter, seemingly pulling the rose from the back of her ear. Hey, it was a corny line, but sometimes the oldest traditions are the best. Worked like a charm. The blonde giggled and looked down, almost pointedly at her cleavage. Yohji looked down too. Unfortunately, it was at his belt, and the phone that was clipped on. It was beeping at him angrily. He really needed to change that ring tone to something more cheery. Like, I don't know, that American song, "Let's Make Love." He picked up, nodding and smiling to the blonde apologetically. "What is it?" he hissed into the phone. "The girls are free at Rosenkreuz. You might want to be there." The caller hung up without waiting for an answer. Yohji cursed under his breath, turned his attention back to the girl for a moment. The phone beeped again. "[i]Now,[/i]" read an accusatory text message, and Yohji sighed. His partners really knew him too well.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by haruno_sakura [/i] Another series that I enjoyed immensely would have to be [b]Scrapped Princess[/b]. The story follows a young girl named Pacifica who was thrown away at birth because a prophecy had fortold her power to destory the world when she reaches the age of sixteen. She travels away from assassins with her two foster siblings, Shannon and Raquel, and they battle against their enemies in order to keep Pacifica alive, despite the threat of the prophecy.[/QUOTE] I cannot stress enough that Scrapped Princess is an anime worth watching. Complete with an ending that makes sense, an awesome type of magic, emotional depth, *and* good animation, this is the best anime I've ever watched, by far. Of course now that I've talked it up it's not going to look so impressive. Try to go into it without any expectations anyway. ... Good luck with that. Sorry I don't really have anything new to add at the moment.

[color=green]You may not believe me, but I've been trying to make time to write a reply to this for over a week. :p[/color] Crystal ran with Rena toward the armory, even though part of her was longing to spread her wings and soar with the rest of her clan. Somehow it just felt right for her legs to pump and her heart to beat with the adrenaline, even though she felt awkward and even stunted next to the seamless power of Rena's loping form. "A weapon to a bird," Crystal called aloud needlessly. Though war had never occurred, the birds always considered it a distant possibility, and all the volunteers had been trained in at least elementary battle procedure. "The clones' caves are about twelve [i]hundis[/i] southwest from this exit," Crystal yelled aloud after a moment of quick guesstimating with the birds' own measurement of distance. She joined the clustering birds, grabbing more arrows to refill her supply, and continued shouting instructions, "Stay in units of five, choose a leader, then stay behind me." Sharpie appeared at her side almost instantaneously. "I'd like to be in your unit, Crystal." "Oh, shut up," she said, giving him a side look as she shoved some uksos into a satchel, "you need to lead your own unit." "I'd rather follow you." Crystal rolled her eyes but nearly blushed. She was saved from it by the appearance of three other bird-clones, and they quickly headed to the exit. "If I may," Crystal said politely to Rena, fluttering above her. Rena acquiesced and Crystal picked her up again, hovering above the exit. "LET'S GO!" -------------------------- They had been traveling for less than five minutes when Ben's urgent voice echoed in Crystal's mind. Crystal was impeded slightly by Rena in her talons, but a jerk of her head called Sharpie over next to her. "Sharpie, there are cave scorpions --" "What are cave scorpions?" Crystal grimaced, thinking back to her experience with them. "Well, nothing good. Please radio the other leaders and tell them there will be cave scorpions emerging soon from an exit on the upper west side, and that we're heading there to attack them. Also give strict orders not to attack any clones, [i]including[/i] foxes -- stress that for me, please." Sharpie decided not to waste his breath asking why foxes needed to be stressed. They were flying at top speed, and though flying was a joy, it could still be tiring. He radioed the message as required, just in time as they drew nearer to a hill and their view opened to what looked like black ink pouring out of a cave opening. Seething, writhing black ink. "Cave scorpions, I presume?" Sharpie said, making a face. Beneath her, Crystal felt rather than heard Rena growl. "Let me at them."

Ha, like everyone else said, just keep playing (and kicking other people's butts if at all possible). I'm a girl and I enjoy video games, and while boy gamers may think it's strange, they're generally impressed if I'm good at the game. Besides, I think girl gamers are definitely not as much of an oddity as they once were. More and more girls are getting into video games, so you don't have to feel alone or anything, either. On the girl video games topic, I'm really not sure what kind of female-directed video games you might be looking for. I mean, let's see ... the things I enjoy that generally appeal more to a girl than to a guy are, I don't know, maybe the romantic comedy genre? And it'd be pretty darn difficult to make a romantic comedy-type video game. The only "girl" video games out there are what I personally think to be idiotic games featuring the Olsen twins or Barbie's dream house. That sucks, but I can't think of any "feminine" game with a better subject. I'd much rather play the games directed toward "guys," which I think are really directed towards all older players; the stuff with guns where you kill each other (James Bond games), or RPGs, or even hack and slash (LOTR).

[color=green]As Leile stepped forward to stare at the seeming millions of books in awe, Aissa still was examining Anubis' hand in hers and was rather testily reaching for something in her little herbal pouch. Anubis tried to snatch his hand away, muttering, "Don't be foolish, child. This is no ordinary wound." Aissa had some sort of death grip on his wrist, though, and he couldn't pull away. The glare she gave him matched the strength of her grip, and she said, "First of all, don't ever call me 'child' again. Secondly, of course it's no ordinary wound, but give me a chance. I [i]am[/i] a healer." The blood was still running freely, and Aissa knew no ordinary cloth or human reaction could close the wound for several hours. She didn't want Anubis going light-headed or fainting; even mages weren't immune to the effects of blood loss. So she pulled another of her leaves out of her bag, pausing to press it to her lips and murmur something indistinguishable aloud before crushing it over Anubis' palm. "What --" Anubis seemed slightly rattled at the reaction of the leaf dust on his hand. The tiny particles seemed to be getting absorbed, and it looked as if his blood was ... boiling ... It was a rather repulsive sight, Aissa had to admit, but she knew it wasn't causing him any pain. As little bubbles frothed and popped, it took the blood with it, until Anubis' hand was clean again. Aissa waited for a moment to see if the bleeding would start up again, but it seemed to have done the trick. "It might be a little sore, but at least now you'll be able to help us search instead of just standing there," Aissa said with a half scoff. She realized she still had his hand in hers and dropped it abruptly, stepping off to stand by Leile without a further word to Anubis.[/color]

I have to agree with ScirosDarkblade's overall opinion ... Especially that the end isn't as surprising as they seemed to hope it would be. It ends up being a pretty predictable ending to it all, I thought at least, probably because that kind of thing's been done in too many movies before. And in general there are really only so many things you can do with a movie about a guy in a 4x4 area, and it feels pretty repetitive after a while. It was kind of like Bend It Like Beckham ... same storyline, repeated over and over again. (Hm, that was a really random comparison, but Bend It Like Beckham seems to me the quintessential example of a movie with a repeating storyline ...) The tension created is good, but it's already so high when Farrell first gets stuck in the phone booth that there seems to be no way for it to stay high throughout the rest of the movie. Still, there is something interesting about it, so I wouldn't turn it off if it were on TV or anything. So it was all right, I definitely wouldn't say it was an awesome movie though.

[color=green]Hello all, As most of you should be well aware, Recruitment threads are [b]not[/b] for discussion of book series. I realize this originally started out as an RPG-straightening-out thing, but there has been too much off-topic stuff. If you want to debate something, please PM each other, or maybe start a discussion topic in the Literature forum since it does seem to generate interest. If the discussion continues too much, I may feel the need to close this thread. Anime Otaku, though they probably should've been using spoiler tags, your last post was complete spam. Please do not do that again. Thanks, --terra[/color]

Ha, I have to say, I saw "Fruits Basket banner" in the title and was like, WHAT? I MUST CLICK!! ... Anyway. Sorry to say, Dagger, but out of all the (superb!) banners I've seen you make, I like this one the least. The first thing that jumped out with me was the scanlines: like H. Zero just said, they seem kind of pointless. In fact, I looked at the ones on the right top side and was like, "What are those doing there?" before I realized they were a continuation of the ones on the left where the text was. I would definitely, definitely take them out. I do like the gray and white background you elected to use, and how Yuki is above one of the border pixels. This is just an idea, but maybe you could make the inner border a little less dark, like a dark or medium gray or something. I again agree with H. Zero that the border doesn't look totally right as it is, but I like the Yuki-above-the-border effect enough that I wouldn't want to get rid of the inner border altogether. Well, that was wordy. Speaking of words, the text also bothers me a little. (I honestly didn't think out that corny transition beforehand; I'm just that great a writer.

I'm going to repeat what (I think) a couple other people have said -- your banners could benefit from borders and clearer text. You say you hate borders? Why?????? Ha, sorry for all the question marks, it's just in my opinion banners almost always look really unfinished without borders. You even said the last one needed borders ... which, by the way, I think it does. :p (You could also try making banners in different sizes for a little variety, but whatever.) Anyway, overall I actually like them all. I don't think they're outstanding, but I think they're good, especially since you just started using PSP :p. My favorite one is probably the "Fading Away" one. I really love that color, and I like how it looks like light is coming from the bottom right color. Seriously, though, I'd add borders. :p I'd also change the font colors like you've been mentioning you want to do. For this latest one, instead of that pink color for the font, I might try to bring out the blue in the middle guy's hair or in the background on the rightmost part -- it might stand out a little more. You could also try adding a border around the text to make it stand out more and be more readable, but I don't know how it would work in that specific case.

Like everybody else has been saying your style is ridiculously clean and cute. The characters are all adorable, and I wish I could see them all in one jumbo super-cute anime where I could picture them bouncing around with happy clouds just sort of grinning at each other, perhaps occasionally with thought bubbles of saying ^___^ popping out of their hands. Well, anyway. I always find the kind of socks you draw -- you know, the big, piled up, fluffy-looking kind -- very interesting. Mostly because I think they'd look horrible in real life, but somehow they're really apropros to the girls you put them on. I like all of them, particularly the red/blue yin-yang-ish one. I don't like the dark one in markers as much as the others, though, since you seem to have put slightly less effort in really "finishing" it, even if it was meant to look sketchy at the end. I think her eyes are slightly lopsided. The red-blue two little characters currently stands as my favorite by far, though. It really sticks out. The good thing about your art is that you could pick it out among a ton of different pieces. :)

I really like both incarnations, particularly the second one. I especially like that graffiti-ish font you used in it. In my opinion, you don't need both your name in white in the middle and on the left side in black, but hey, you might really want people to know it's yours. Really nice job -- you drew one or more of those pictures, then?

Like Jenna, I think chivalry is pretty sweet as well. But like Tony said, things like holding the door open can often be thought of simply as politeness, not chivalry. I know I find it a little bit rude if the person in front of me doesn't at least pretend s/he's kind of holding the door for me after s/he's walked through. And I'll never think it's outdated or anything if somebody actually holds the door and lets me go first, even if I don't know them. I would think that any woman who said "Don't hold the door for me, I'm just as much a citizen as you are!" or anything remotely resembling that would be, er, kind of crazy. So carry on, young knight. ;)

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by AzureWolf [/i] What I usually like to do is watch the opening, ending, and preview of every episode, which is really more than enough time to get the full effect of the episode, while not losing the general state that you are mentally in ...[/quote] [b][i]Really?!?![/b][/i] I nearly always skip the opening, ending, [i]and[/i] preview of every single episode. *laughs* You and I definitely have our differences. EDIT: You meant opening [i]scene[/i], I think reading back on it ..... neeever mind. I meant that I usually skip the opening and ending credits. [quote][i]Originally posted by AzureWolf[/i] Naruto is a perfect example of a run-on anime series.[/quote] I know, will that anime EVER END??? Anyway, onto the topic. I usually end up marathoning, though I hardly ever start out intending to do it that way. By the time I actually get around to beginning an episode, I usually have enough time that I can just watch a ton of them. I did Love Hina in two days, I think. In my experience, mindless shows seem to be better for marathons than shows that require a lot of contemplation. I basically marathoned both Love Hina and RahXephon (the latter in about four sessions, though). Love Hina was fine this way, because there was really nothing heavy to think about (don't you dare try and convince me Love Hina isn't a mindless show). It was just a lot of humorous exploits one after another, with the occasional nice emotional moment thrown in; not a bad way to spend four to six hours, or whatever it was. But I think I didn't enjoy RahXephon as much as I could've because I watched it in big chunks. Oddly enough, even though they were one after another, I often had difficulty remembering what (unnecessarily complex) insights had been revealed in just the episode before. But since they were all in a row, I got too tired about trying to remember all of the little details and just sat there letting it pour over me. I think if there had been time between, I would've been more mentally able to think back, and would've been forced to remember the back story every single time I watched a new episode. All right, that ended up being way longer than I intended.

Dude, why [i]was[/i] [spoiler]Victoria holding Alucard's head[/spoiler]? I would've droped that thing as soon as I picked it up ... in fact I would never have picked it up in the first place ... Anyway, I thought that Victoria was pretty much the main character throughout the series. I didn't find her unlikable at all, though I guess I never really took a great liking to her either. I thought that they portrayed her moral difficulties really accurately; I mean, [spoiler]no matter how hungry or vampiric I felt, I'd find it difficult to drink blood if I'd once been human[/spoiler]. Her character development was the key part to the story; Alucard on his own probably would've just had to been a slow revealing of his history, which would have been painful and pretty boring. Actually, I didn't end up really loving any of the characters very much (except maybe Walter, and that was because of his cool, cool [spoiler]weaponry. I mean, when those guys just fell apart ... it was nice[/spoiler]). I don't think the anime ever got me very emotionally involved, which might've been its biggest fault. I'm not sure why it was that way, exactly ... But as I said before, the show looks so good it makes up for it to me.

[color=green]G/S/B Master, thanks for trying to help, but playing mod is discouraged by the staff. Next time please use the "Report this post to a moderator" link -- thanks. He's right though, Mage15; you may want to have a little more description on what the actual RPG is going to entail. I'd assume it's mostly about what Joey will undergo while finding the girl and such, but you never really state that explicitly. Adding more etail is never a bad thing in this forum :). Welcome to the boards. --terra[/color]

Judging by the decibel level of Cane's snoring, some people obviously hadn't had trouble sleeping. Pooka was one of those people. Her night's sleep had been delectable, particularly since she'd ended up sprawled across the entire bed -- she hoped she hadn't been the [i]reason[/i] Melon had left the bed, but she did appreciate it. She walked down the stairs primly, nearly unaware of the loud thudding noises her sword was making as it thumped down the stairs, probably waking up everybody else in the inn -- she was far too used to it to really notice it. She stepped out into the bright light of day a moment later, after giving a bright and sunny smile to the annoyed clerk who was at the desk of the inn. The clerk seemed to relent slightly at the 13-year-old's toothy grin, though Pooka herself didn't notice. She was planning to do some early morning physical exercises, like she did nearly every morning. It hadn't really paid off yet, but that didn't keep her optimism down. Then again, it was hard to do sword exercises when you couldn't pick up your sword, she admitted to herself with a puckered lip, so she dropped it for the moment and got down on the ground to do some pushups. It was nothing if not a comical sight. Fifteen whole push-ups done, Pooka returned to her sword. "Maybe that's enough workout," she said to herself, standing ominously over her Waterloo. Unconsciously, she furrowed her brow before bending down and grabbing its handle with both hands, heaving at it with all her might.

Me likey this RPG. So even though there's nothing for our chars to do, I will create something!! [color=green]Aissa jumped when Anubis appeared behind her. Of course she did -- as if the whole place wasn't scary enough already without Anubis going and disappearing on them. It wasn't a trick she'd found amusing, but she didn't want to destroy what little good humor they had so she simply pursed her lips and stepped backwards from him slightly. It was still night, they hadn't even spent the night at this place, Aissa realized with a shock of surprise. Something about the dark shadows spoke of a place you'd been stuck in forever. She shook herself; "stuck in" wasn't the right word for it. They were on a mission, she reminded herself. A mission to save the world; the cliche phrase caused her a bit of a sardonic smile. "Entertainment is fun and all, but I want to [i]do[/i] something," she said out loud. Leile turned to her, the scare of Anubis reappearing still just slightly evident in her eyes. "Do something?" she repeated. "Aissa, as far as I can tell, we've come to Ma'Uriith, figured out how it probably got to this state, and pretty much discovered the origin of the curse ... it's been a full day already." Aissa's mouth quirked in a half-smile. "I know, but I can't stand just sitting here in the darkness waiting," she frowned. "There must be something we can do." Something in the back of her mind was tugging at her, a suggestion for movement, but it took a moment. "They told us the curse originated in D'Ianii Ilaen, right? And then you said perhaps there was something about D'Ianii Ilaen in the history books, or something. Maybe there's something we could find on it, some library here that's not ruined ... I've never even heard of the place, but maybe something is recorded somewhere." She shrugged and half-sighed. "I just don't want to sit ... here ... any longer," she admitted, her voice fading slightly.[/color]

The murmur caused by Rena's revelation was hushed as Crystal spoke again. "Well? Are you going to help out your own kind, or are you going to stay up here on the island they helped you engineer and let them fight your battles for you, like cowards?" Sharpie couldn't help but shake his head, though he was smiling ever-so-slightly with his fierce mouth. Something had definitely changed in Crystal since she'd left the Island, and he was pretty sure he liked it. The Elders were holding a whispered conversation, and finally one stepped forward to announce his decision. Though Crystal was still feigning anger and annoyance, she held her breath, feeling a ripple of nervousness shudder through her body. What if they said no ...? Could the bird-clones really be so heartless? "We have come to a decision," the Elder intoned solemnly. "The clone army resistance may be helped by any bird-clones who willingly desire to leave this Island, at their own personal risk. These aforementioned individuals may be outfitted with materials from the the bird-clone weaponry and armory, but they are not personally endorsed by the Elders." Crystal furrowed her brow. What the hell had he just said? "Volunteers," Rena said beside her. "He's saying volunteers may go down, but he's not going to order them into anything himself." An annoyed puff of air escaped her mouth. "Useless birds." Luckily Rena had said the last statement just loud enough for Crystal to hear, or bird-friend or not, she probably would've been pierced through by several arrows. Crystal scanned the crowd. The birds had heard and understood their Elder, and were looking about uncertainly at each other, wondering if it would really be worth it to head down to help clones they had probably never met before. The Island sometimes felt so separate from the rest of the world, Crystal could understand their feelings, but she felt so frustrated she wanted to rush at each of them and peck their eyes out until they agreed to help. Then a strong voice spoke out. "I will go." Sharpie met Crystal's eyes, and they were full of relief. "I'll go too," another bird-clone said, stepping forward, and then another, and soon Crystal felt that they truly might have something like an army. She knew that others felt as cooped up on the Island as she did, and that others must have some compassion for the Earth-bound clones as well, but a part of her couldn't help but swell up a bit with pride that it was at least somewhat her leadership that had convinced her friends to join her in this battle. "Looks like you have something like an army," the Elder said to her, mirroring her own thoughts and quieting the chorus of volunteers. "Well, Crystal, since this is your brainchild, you must be their leader. You are free to take them to the armory store and outfit your battalion ... Good luck against the humans." "Thank you, sir," Crystal said, feeling a sudden reverence and bowing low. Then she raised her head and shouted, "To the armory, and quickly!"

[color=green]Please do not have posts entirely devoted to an OOC comment; there are several on this page. One-line posts in general are considered spam at OB, and one-line OOC posts in a currently-playing RPG are definitely spam, even if you've created the RPG. Thanks, --terra[/color]

I'm not completely sure about this, but sometimes it's necessary to delete all of the posts of banned members, usually because their posts were full of profanity or entirely inappropriate. So it's quite possible that sagebrushfire was one of those members. Hope that helps.

[b][u]General Awards[/b][/u] [b]Staff Member of the Year:[/b] Syk3 ([size=1]the guy has to deal with three forums by himself.[/size]) [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b]Funniest Member:[/b] Heaven's Cloud [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] Dragon Warrior [b]Most Opinionated Otaku:[/b] PoisonTongue [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] wrist cutter [b]Best Newbie:[/b] Arcadia [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] Annie [b]Best Oldie:[/b] Heaven's Cloud [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] Semjaza Azazel [b]Most likely to become a Staff Member:[/b] Dagger IX1 ([size=1]Haha, Sara, I think if I were not terra, Dagger IX1, or Arcadia, I would get us confused too.[/size]) [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] AzureWolf [b]Most improved Member of the Year:[/b] Double_B_Daigo [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b]Silliest Thread of the Year:[/b] [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [url=http://www.otakuboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=32890]fight me if you can make it interesting[/url] ([size=1]call me egotistical, but I loved this thread ... mostly because of HC's priceless "music video" post.[/size]) [b][u]Random Awards[/u][/b] [b]Avatar Award: (Best Avatars Overall)[/b] Noelle ([size=1]For some reason I really, really have loved all her avatars![/size]) [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] James [b]Signature Award: (Best Signatures Overall)[/b] Sara [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b]Best Otaku Couple:[/b] The Harlequin and Ravenstorture [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] Syk3 and Mei [b][u]Otaku Writers[/u][/b] [b]Poet Laureate:[/b] [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b]Writer of the Year:[/b] Lady Asphyxia [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b]Orginal Story of the Year:[/b] Solo's Enter the Net [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b]Role-Player of the Year:[/b] [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b]Brawler of the Year (sparring):[/b] Raiha [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] The Harlequin [b]Role-Playing Game of the Year:[/b] [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b][u]Social Otakus[/u][/b] [b]Otaku Social member of the year:[/b] Kaola Su [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] Juuthena [b][u]Anime Otakus[/u][/b] [b]Otaku of the Year: (Best Anime member overall)[/b] [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b].hack//SIGN Member of the Year:[/b] AzureWolf [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b]Least Disappointing Yu Yu Hakusho Member:[/b] Dagger IX1 ([size=1]though I think she deserves a somewhat less demeaning title :p[/size]) [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b][u]Otaku Gamers[/u][/b] [b]Gamer of the Year:[/b] Semjaza Azazel [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b]Nintendo "Mario" Award:[/b] James [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b]PC Gamer of the Year:[/b] cloricus [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b][u]Otaku Artists[/u][/b] [b]Best Graphic Designer (Banners, wallpapers, etc.):[/b] Dan Rugh [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] juna [b]Best "Traditional" Artist (Drawings, paintings, etc.):[/b] CharmedImmortal [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] Sara [b][u]Series Otakus[/u][/b] [b]Series Otaku Member of the Year:[/b] [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size] [b]Square/Enix Member of the Year:[/b] [size=1]Honorable Mention:[/size]

Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it Dagger, but I still heartily disagree about the amount of satisfaction given by the ending. (I have to admit when I read that you called it "slightly confusing" I was just thinking ... whaaat?) I personally really dislike when a lot of symbolism is used in an ending, because to me that feels like the writer or producer is simply shying away from having to write out a more practical, logical ending. So while you felt that that explained things adequately, I would've liked a more concrete explanation of everything. Also, on the parallelism of the beginning and end of the series that you brought up -- it did give it a nice conclusive feeling, but I didn't really feel like it made a whole lot of sense. Was it ever explained how Ayato [spoiler]got older and became the same age as Haruka[/spoiler]? Also, I was on the Ayato/Megumi boat the whole time, including the last episode, and I don't feel they played up the benefits of Ayato and Haruka's relationship enough for me to really switch sides. It always made more sense for Ayato and Megumi ... they were the same age, she was cuter, etc. [spoiler]I think it might've been better if they left out Megumi altogether, since it seems they were planning to get Ayato and Haruka together from the beginning ...[/spoiler] What else was there that really bothered me ... Oh yeah, I didn't think the significance of those [spoiler]three people -- the blond with short hair, the crazy guy, and Quon's brother (I'm sorry, I am so bad with names)[/spoiler] was ever explained adequately, either. In fact, I'm still not sure who they and their boss were. Any explanations?

I agree about the lack of conclusion, AzureWolf (incidentally, "comeuppance" is spelled, um, "comeuppance". Wow, ironically enough, dictionary.com contains a spelling error in their entry for that word: [url=http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=comeuppance]"one's just deserts"[/url]). Er, idiosyncratic spelling notices aside ... Yeah, I agree Hellsing's ending was really not conclusive enough considering how complex the story was getting. I've heard that they were planning a second season, though, and that ended up getting cancelled, which might explain why so many storylines get introduced a little late and then aren't wound up. Also, I have to admit I watched this right after RahXephon, which I personally found to have the most disappointing ending of any anime I watched, considering how complete it [i]looked[/i] like it was going to be (if that makes any sense). So compared to that, I don't think the ending was so bad. And I hold conclusiveness in very high regard when it comes to anime, even though the Japanese apparently do not :p. Anyway, I found the visual style really stunning, even though it was really dark and gory and we were watching it too late at night for my personal taste. I don't generally enjoy that kind of bloody stuff, but I found myself liking Hellsing in spite of myself, especially that girl's eyes (forget her name ... I'm horrible with names). I thought little touches like that, which stood out so brightly among all the darker stuff, really made the anime special.

[color=green]While I appreciate your desire to turn this thread around, I'm hesitant to let you do so because the last several posts have been very much under the post quality standard of this forum. Posts that are only one line of OOC comment should not be posted in a thread. In character posts should be of a decent length, and one or two lines does not constitute a decent length. Even three or four sentences may not constitute a decent length, if they are extremely simple sentences. Sorry, but I'm going to close this thread. Please take these warnings to heart as I know I've warned some of you about these very things before. --terra[/color]

[color=green]Hi Daisuke, I'd ask you to please improve the post quality of your RPG posts while you're here at OB. We have a pretty high quality standard here; posts should be very descriptive, of a good length, and contain correct grammar, punctuation, etc. I feel that the first post of an RPG is particularly important, as it sets up the atmosphere of the entire game for the other players. So, you may want to add more content and detail. Thanks, and welcome to OB. --terra[/color]