Pre-anime Accel World #accel_world

Many (including me) found out about Accel World thanks to the anime. We are now familiar with the characters.

Haru’s height is greatly exaggerated to be very short and his demeanor is more comical, while Kuroyukihime is portrayed as a tall and slender “princess,” and we see many many fan arts reflecting characters based on the anime.

However, Accel World has existed as a light novel way before the anime, started way in 2009. It is very interesting seeing the fan arts before the anime. Here’s an awesome one, featuring the Nega-Nebulous members from pixiv.

We see the characters have a different style to them, especially the duel avatars. They are less “mecha” and feels a bit more organic compared to the anime version. Kuroyukihime looks a bit more like a normal girl, and black-haired Haru looks like a bad-ass! Haru is short, but not as short as the anime portrayed. ^_^

Yeah, I’m bored. I am waiting excruciatingly for the second season of Accel World, or at least the second game and the second OVA. My addiction is barely met with browsing fan arts on pixiv. >_<

 

TMNT… yaoi?

Remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle? It was a cartoon in the 80s, remade, and recently became an animated CG movie. Well, what do you think would happen if Japanese fans got their hands on the material? Well, we would get better manga-like drawings, with a bonus. Wanna guess? What else, yaoi… LOL Apparently there are yaoi pairings of Rapahel x Leonardo and Michelangelo x Donatello. Yeah, not just some yaoi stuff, but is turtle on turtle action… LOL
Found these slideshows via Youtube.

I’m speechless. Regardless, you can’t argue that the drawings are excellent and cute (especially the chibi ones), better than the US cartoon ones, but…

 

Zettai Kareshi

Finished watching the last episode of Zettai Kareshi dorama. Thanks to SARS-fansub for subbing the drama.

As a drama, Zetai Kareshi is so so. The first couple episodes don’t really hook you in. Plus, if you already read the manga, you are going to be disappointed by the changes in characters, especially Soshi’s. Half-way through, the drama turned out to be okay, providing the typical comedy and emotions. As usual, there is no “happily ever after” in J-dorama, giving the usual tears here and there. So, it’s an ok drama.

However, if we look Zettai Kareshi as a sci-fi, it’s awesome. Despite being a drama, there are plenty of science fiction in this. Do robots have emotion? Free will? Can a robot fall in love? Is it right to scrap a robot that have a free will? These are all hard core sci-fi material. You gotta hand it to the Japanese to handle anything robot related properly. This is an awesome sci-fi experience, especially the last episode, disguised as a dorama based on a shoujo manga.

Disappointed with the mess of Will Smith’s “I, Robot” movie? If you can get over the dorama factor, Zettai Kareshi is probably closer to the idea and spirit of Asimov’s “I, Robot” than Will Smith’s movie. Unfortunately, the chance of a western sci-fi fan watching a Japanese dorama is pretty slim (I’m the exception).