chibiforte

I received the two CD singles for my favorite Tokusatsu programs, today.  Yep, I got the CD single to Kamen Rider Kiva, which is called "Break the Chain", and the opening and ending theme single for Engine Sentai Go-onger.  I even got a neat poster and a single trading card for the "Break the Chain" CD, both of which feature Kiva in all his Fangire awesomeness.  I'm wondering as to whether or not I should hang the poster up now, or wait until I move so it's in pristine condition (and so my roommates can get a good laugh).

I also watched a new Toku last night, called Tomica Hero Rescue Force.  It's basically a Super Sentai-esque show, but it revolves more around actually saving people from natural disasters instead of fighting a rubber monster that can grow to gigantic sizes.  It was interesting, and while the budget for the show is obviously more than most Tokusatsu programs, something about it felt... strange.  I think it was the framerate that the show is broadcast in, as the camera seemed to look more like it was filmed by college students than professionals.  But that's just a minor gripe, because the special effects are fantastic.  I loved the police car's look, and I wouldn't mind having one, myself.

I think I understand my recent uncertainties about this whole novel deal.  I feel as if I need to know absolutely everything about the world in which these characters interact, and that I have to disclose so many unnecessary details about the characters and their families and school.  But I know that this isn't necessary, since even Haruhi Suzumiya didn't even name the teachers, or the main character's families, or even what they learn, really.  And look how great that series is doing in commercialization.  Surely nobody expects much from a random guy on the internet, right?

And yes, I still have writer's block, although the ideas are slowly coming together, piece by piece...

Also, does anybody have any ideas for new names?  I'm not sure if "Law/Grace" is going to cut it, given its source material... I mean, it's not copyrighted or anything, but I don't want the companies to be unknowingly affiliated with me because I use their terminology or anything.

I've been downloading sooo many Overclocked Remixes, lately.  I literally have about 1,139 remixes from their website, give or take.  I'm pretty sure this is legal, since they've become such a huge site and Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft would have shut them down a long time ago if this was illegal.  It's nice to hear all of those old songs I listened to in chiptune format as a child reimagined in ways I never thought possible.  It just gives me such a sense of nostalgia that's been unrivaled for years, now...

I've been playing Crisis Core, since I bought it the other day.  A very, very engaging game.  Makes me appreciate the FF7 series a bit more, since I didn't really care for it originally.  Hopefully I'll be able to actually finish it, given that I haven't been very dedicated to RPGs, as of late.

I'm not feeling very well, at the moment.  Kinda feeling... sickish...

 Still pondering that particular transition in the novels that I have to figure out.  Hopefully I'll be making some headway on that soon, since I want to finish up these summaries.

This upcoming Spring Anime Season doesn't look all that special.  Allison & Lillia looks really interesting, as well as Kyouran Kazoku Nikki, Nijuu Mensou no Musume, Itazura no Kiss, and especially kure-nai, but that's pretty much it.  I really doubt I'll even watch much else besides Allison & Lillia, but we'll see how it goes.

We forked Ben and Jay's yard, last week.  And just earlier tonight, my older brother and sister-in-law placed hundreds of post-it notes on both Gabe's and Jeremy's trucks.  It looked awesome.  This'll show everybody at the Youth Group that our family is not meant to be messed with. :3

I read today that the Ben Stein movie is going to definitely be airing at our local theater, which is a huge plus for me, seeing as how I didn't think the subject matter would be accepted by the theater's owner (seeing as how he aired the Al Gore movie thing), but it turns out that he's just in these things for the money, and if he can make money from a movie, it doesn't really matter what the subject matter is about.  And considering this is a small town, it'd probably be more accepted than all of these big cities.  I'm predicting that there will be at least one boycott of the movie in at least one state, probably here in California in certain cities.  It wouldn't surprise me in the least, considering the terribly hypocritical patrons of this state who think they're open-minded, but are far more bigoted than the things they fight against. xD

I haven't been playing as much Brawl, lately, but that's because there's not much more for me to do on it.  We've unlocked pretty much everything we can, except for the Boss Battle challenges, which are horrendously difficult and something that I don't want to partake in.  I want to try to get into some RPGs again, like Earthbound, but I just can't seem to find the time to sit down and play it.  If nothing else, then I'm certainly going to have a giant backlog of video games that will finally be completed once I'm in college with free time on my hands.  I predict weekend marathons will be taking place with my roommates.

Speaking of roommates, I'm really hoping that I get some cool ones.  I think the current allocationg per room is about four people, so I'll have three roommates.  I want at least one of them to be a chef of some sort, so they'll constantly make food and ask me to taste-test it.  I'm also hoping that another one of them is a computer genius who can help me with tech stuff.  And I hope the last one is an artist or musician of some sort, who can draw or help me with music stuff.  It'd be awesome if that happened.

I downloaded at least two gigabytes of OCRemixes, today.  I decided that it was time I go through what that website has and just enjoy what they put out.  So far, I'm impressed by these remixers.  They really know how to take chiptunes and rework them into a completely new creation.

Basically, I'm writing a "light novel"-esque story.  But, what does this mean, you might ask?  Let's ask Wikipedia...

"A light novel (ライトノベル, raito noberu^?) is a novel with anime or manga style illustrations, primarily targeting teens and young adults. The term "light novel" is a wasei-eigo, or a Japanese term formed from words in the English language. Light novels are often called ranobe (ラノベ, ranobe^?) or rainobe (ライノベ, rainobe^?) for short."

Okay, that was a bit too much on the katakana side, but you get the idea.  And how are these written (when not in Japanese, of course)?

"Light novels also frequently have very short paragraphs, often only one or two sentences in length, and are usually driven by dialogue. The overall effect is for a very fast read."

That's the basic effect I'm trying to master.  I just want it to be read quickly, to where the audience doesn't have to spend days trying to finish a single volume.

See, this idea came about out of the blue, and even I don't know exactly where I got the idea.  I guess part of the inspiration came from reading the translated Haruhi Suzumiya light novels, and because I liked the style of writing so much, it stuck with me.  Now, I think this would be the best way for me to write a novel series.

Considering how few light novels there are out there that are actually translated for an English-speaking audience, shouldn't we English-speakers have our own alternative?  I've been looking around the internet, but I gotta tell you, I haven't found a single idea like mine.  I've found fan manga written and drawn in the way I'm doing so, of course, but not a full blown literary series like I'm planning.  I think I've essentially cornered the market on the subject matter I'm going to tackle.

And while I know I'm going to get shellacked on this choice, I'm obviously going to go with Japanese names, terms, and overall culture as the backdrop to the series.  It just makes sense, considering I'm lifting the entire writing style from them, so why not just go all the way?  And, in a way, it feels like I"m going something every other anime fan wants to do: create my own series.  Sure, it won't be animated, but this is the next best thing.  If I can also find a decent artist to make illustrations to go along with the chapters, then so much the better!

This project is basically an outlet for ME, so I can do what I like (write) and have fun with it.  I'm making it available to the masses simply because it'd be nice to have feedback.  I can't edit my mistakes by myself, you know!

Just for the record, I'm not even done with a single chapter yet.  I'm doing so much preliminary work, like character personalities, designs, storylines, settings, character arcs, etc.  This is the sort of thing that's done by serious writers. :P

I'm thinking of doing all this preliminary work while I'm still in high school, and once I'm in college, I'll start the actual process of writing it.  Sound good?

Yep, it finally happened.  I've got the writer's block.

It's not that I'm having problems coming up with new ideas or anything.  That's easy enough.  I just don't have any idea as to how to fill time between these ideas.  If I hit the audience with fifty things at once, then it'll be difficult to follow the story.  Basically, transitioning between one major event and another is where the difficulty lies.  

Like, I'm trying to figure out how to introduce a major character immediately after an event involving a character, and I'm not sure how this character can be seamlessly integrated into the story, or what to do with the character once they are introduced.

Frustrating...

I actually spent a good half hour on some preliminary work on the novel series I'd like to make.  Yes, I believe I'm actually going to write this thing.  I had such great inspiration last night and earlier today as to one of the big story elements I'd like to implement.  I think I'd like to create that particular scene I envisioned in my mind as a test chapter, since it's such an emotionally gripping moment, and if I do well enough with that, I know I'm able to write somewhat coherently.  It'll be great, but I don't know who I'd make it available to.  I guess I could put it up as a download in this journal for anyone to come by and read, as long as they comment on it after they finish.  It'll be awhile before I can get that done, I'm pretty sure, however.  Unless I surprise myself and actually come up with good names for the characters.  Considering that it is going to be illustrated with anime-styled artwork (once I find an artist, of course), I'll just go with Japanese names.  Just a stylistic choice on my part, and I'm not one of those fans who insist that Japan is the end-all, be-all awesome country.  I prefer America, thank you.  And English, of course.

...What was I doing, again?

Oh yeah, so, I'll make a test chapter available when I'm finished, for critiquing and whatnot.  Look forward to that.

I got an opportunity to view a screening of a horror movie, today.  It was one of those test screening deals where the filmmakers allow an audience to watch a movie that is still in development in order to get data in order to make the movie better.  I filled out a questionaire and everything, it was neat.  The movie was decent, but there was far too much cursing and blasphemy, and I really hate that sort of thing (I even mentioned it on the comments section, so maybe they'll take heed).  I took Ben, Jay, and Bronson, and I was going to take Steven, but he bowed out at the last minute in order to finish homework, so that was pretty sad.  It was kind of funny when we got there, though, since the movie theater wouldn't let anybody inside for almost an hour AFTER we arrived there, so we ended up buying chips and salsa from a nearby Mexican restaurant and just snacked and talked during that time on the tailgate of Bronson's truck.  It was a fantastic bonding moment. :3

I can't get over how awesome this Dragonball CD is.  It's my first Japanese CD purchase, and I'm so content with the songs on this album.  I've listened to the album at least once today, and I'm relistening to it right now.  I really like the remastered songs, specifically "CHA-LA HEAD-CHA-LA", "We Gotta Power!", "Hikari no Tabi", "HERO", and especially "Kimi no Sora e".  They are just adorable songs.

I'm going to be taking piano lessons pretty soon, hopefully.  I started playing around on the keyboard a couple days ago, and I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner.  I really, really like the piano, and it's the one instrument that I could see myself playing as a hobby.  I can already somewhat play Nagisa's Theme from Clannad, as well as part of the Super Mario Bros. World 1-1 song, and the Twoson Theme from Earthbound, and the first group of notes from the Forest level in Super Mario RPG.  And some other various parts of other songs.  And it's fun!  I want to mainly play video game music, but I'm good with anything, really.  I just want to be "that guy", the person who is able to play the piano at a party that is housed in a place that has a piano.  I think it'd be neat.  I can kinda read sheet music, though I have to study it beforehand before I can actually play anything.  I need to read it better, as well as learn finger placement and work on my timing, although timing won't really be a problem with songs I know.

I'm going to be a piano man. :3

Y'know, I was thinking about it, and I actually think I could get into something like that...

Remember one of my previous entries, where I answered the question about what creative or artistic thing I'd do if I had the opportunity, or something like that?  And I mentioned how I'd like to create something like a light novel series?

I think I could actually pull something like that off.

I've been taking walks every day, and I've been able to think about things to do, and for some reason, I'm able to unravel an entire plotline in my mind for this story I've thought up.  Now, granted, I'm not sure how interesting it is to other people, but it's still something, right?  And while it may have some tangential similarities to some other shows, it really is quite stand-alone when it comes to content (haven't seen anything close to it since SuperBook, honestly).  Also, because it's only a light novel, illustrations don't have to be the main priority, and can instead be used without suffering from a quality loss, correct?

As for the content, again, it's not something I've ever seen before, and I'm sure I would've seen something like this, if it already existed.  I developed an idea while reading some certain American-made manga online, and while their story is still developing, I've already thought up years in advance.  My focus is constantly shifting from the beginning of the story, to later parts of the story, back to earlier parts, all the way to the end, how I get to the end, and back to the beginning.  My thought process is strange like that, I realize, but that also means that I have a good handle on the characters and events.  And I'm also capable of rendering high quality art in my mind, so I can picture it exactly how I want it.

I'm not going to commit to anything right now, but if I do end up making some trial chapters, I'll make sure to post them.  Obviously, I'll put a disclaimer and say that "this story is heavily influenced by Christianity", but anybody who's watched Evangelion, Haruhi Suzumiya... uh... episode #19 of Samurai Champloo... what else... I don't know, but anybody who watched those shows shouldn't have any qualms about this.  My story isn't violent, though, so you don't have to worry about seeing samurai, or Children, or espers/time travelers/aliens (...maybe).  This is something that can actually be rooted in reality, so don't worry. xD

Why, it would be the manga and/or light novel series that I have a shaky plotline for in my head.  It'd be called "Law/Grace", and it'd be an awesome little series.  I can't draw, though, so it'd be tough to make a manga.  However, a light novel series would be pretty easy to make, provided I get illustrations that look nice and are made by a decent artist.  If I start dating a really good artist (or just hired one), then I could always make an online version of the series.  

That'd be fun, actually.  I'd provide the plotline and overall story, and she could provide the images.  It could be like how the folks at Baka-Tsuki put up the Haruhi novels.  Read a little bit, then you get an image, and by having a minimal amount of images, the quality wouldn't have to suffer.  Hmmm...

 

(Click on Picture for Larger Version)

Finally... the new season of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu has updated news... and it concerns Nagato and the events in Book #4. :O

I'll have a full write-up on this occasion soon, probably tonight.  I'm pretty excited about this, but I'm also concerned about the proposed air times.

Links to Various Sites with the News: [Random Curiosity]  [ANN]  [Moon Phase]  [Official Site]