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Statements with truth added into them, #1:

"Why does anyone listen to X critics anymore, they don't have the same opinions as me, so obviously they're wrong."

Yes I heard it on a message board.

Well damn

It...It's me.

+8B

Playing Jump Ultimate Stars has of course made me curious to see what some of these comics are all about. I've read some of the translated stuff in the American mag, but that was years ago and it still doesn't seem to have covered everything.

Now, I generally don't care much about Japanese comics. I'm sure there's great stuff out there, but I just haven't found it. Most of the ones you get bombarded with, namely because of showings of the animation adaptations, are comics for adolescent boys (that still seem to find fans that are technically adults, but I digress). Not to say they are terrible as boy's comics; they serve their purpose well enough, and I can't expect that crowd to instantly go for the same surrealist masterpieces I do. Even so, technically 2000 AD was also an adolescent boy's comic, and the stuff it had just seem to be more interesting. But that's being unfair, too. I mean, it's not Shonen Jump's fault it didn't have Alan Moore and Grant Morrison and fucking Judge Dredd.

So, during my searches for information on the series in the game I didn't know much about, I didn't find anything that equals, say, Nemesis the Warlock, but they are bit more interesting (or fun) than I would have thought. The two main ones were Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro and Pyu to Fuku! Jaguar.

Neuro is about a demon that literally eats mysteries, which by itself is a pretty cool concept. He has gotten his fill in Hell, so he decides to go to Earth and look for more mysteries to chow down on. He ends up manipulating a teenage girl into becoming a detective and finding mysteries for him. It sort of reminds me of the idea of someone going out and causing the crimes he then solves (which, as it turns out, was basically the idea for a British comic called The Bogie Man, created by some 2000 AD alumni, and also having the idea that the main characters thinks he is some sort of composite of every character every played by Humphrey Bogart). I probably wouldn't read it if I saw it in a bookstore, because the whole anime thing, but I like the foundation.

Jaguar is a comedy, about a man named Jaguar, who plays the recorder (AKA the worst instrument to ever exist). However, he is so good with the recorder, he can make it sound like any instrument he wants. As it turns out, he was part of a experiment to create a band so good that it will bring about world peace. By itself the concept is strange, but I connected to it in a way because I, like most gradeschoolers, have experienced playing the recorder and hearing recorder music, which thankfully will never pop up again as long as you exist. It's a connection thing, I guess. I find recorder humor amusing, because I was there once.

Those are the only two standouts I can think of right now. There was that one where aliens took over edo-period Japan and wacky stuff happens. And there's Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo, which I have read a tiny bit, is utter nonsense, but I find absolutely hilarious. But the point I've established is the Jump line up contains some comics whose concept amuse me, and it's not all super powered freaks throwing lasers at each other. But that's the majority of it. Damn Akira Toriyama.

Speaking of comics, I may order some Godland trades and the big Scud: The Disposable Assassin collection. I have good things about both, and I'm looking for a new fix that isn't reading the second volume of Transmetropolitan, which I bought months ago and should read and then move onto the rest of them.

(++++)

That's Donkey Kong teeth, for your information.

Last night there was a conflict of some sort outside my house. It was more inconvenient than scary. But apparently, someone was stabbed, to death. Funny I didn't hear about that until now.

Much more distressing were the various Gumby cartoons my friend and I just watched. Those things must have been made by...aliens or something. How can English-speaking people have such a poor grasp of...English? Who thought of these plots? Who thought an episode where Gumby and friends almost get robbed in an elevator but a trench coat-clad freak and his horrific hell dog was sane? Plus, they used the one thing my entire peer circle has despised for years...characters being revived by the tears of others! Gaaaaaaaah.

Just go look it up and view the horror.

The Book That Was Made of Failure

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2008/08/08/meyer-protest.html

Just...just everything.

[=

Saw Pineapple Express. It was good. Like many of the recent good comedies, it's the little details that really add up. And the performances. And the utter outlandishness of it all.

Things I want to see, Part 1

A newspaper or site open on Christmas that includes Jesus among the "Famous People Born This Day"

Hehehehehehe.

28u )

Nine Inch Nails concert was good. They played nonstop, which is a refreshing change to having Rush apologize for not coming to Winnipeg for years. The light show wasn't as professional as Rush's huge video display, but it was very inventive and entertaining. I've only listened to the entirety of The Downward Spiral, so is was mostly songs from that I recognized, although there were a few others that I had been exposed to from unlikely places as well ("I'M USING THE CAT BRUSH!"). It was all well-performed and rocking throughout.

I wish I could be more enthusiastic.

Soul Calibur 4 is going well. It's not really all that different from previous games, as I found the armor breaking doesn't seem to affect the fight in general and those Critical Finishes barely show up unless you're playing against a moron. Online play has been fun, though. Yoda is also a fairly entertaining character, what with flying all over the place and sounding odd (I really hope that's Frank Oz providing the voice, even though most of the quotes seemed to be pulled directly from the movies).