Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but I just haven’t been very motivated to write lately. Anyway, I actually hate Maria but couldn’t resist using that line for the title since it was from one of Umineko’s more memorable scenes. Halloween itself doesn’t have the same luster it used to when I was young, but it’s still a fun holiday in and of itself. My days of going house-to-house for free candy are gone, but the consolation is cheap bags of candy (and cavities!) the day after, so it’s not a bad trade off. At any rate It beats prowling the streets at night, getting the proverbial candy crap shoot. When will people learn that NO ONE likes the vile, nasty poison that is candy corn? That stuff is nastier than a sweaty otaku’s armpit in summer.

Anyway, I’m going to stay in and watch animu and stuff. If you have plans for today, be safe since people can go a bit crazy. Also, don’t follow any strange witches home. You might find yourself stuffed with candy… And not in the good way. Or maybe it is the good way if that’s what you want — I’m not one to judge.

PS: This goes against everything I stand for but… ううううううー！

After slogging through a lengthy backlog over the summer, I’ve hit a wall and can’t quite decide what to watch next. If left to my own devices I’ll probably just pick up more moe drivel, so that’s why I’m asking Wolf Hurricane’s kind readers to tell me what to watch next. There are times when even veterans don’t know what to watch and need a helping hand. Just be sure to wash said hand before helping me — I don’t know where it’s been. If you need an idea of what I’ve seen and liked so far, I’ll pimp my MyAnimeList page for you, with the ulterior motive of feeding my e-peen. Yes my e-peen, grow. Grow!

After being thoroughly pimped to and satisfying my e-peen, throw some recommendations at me, whether they’re from my ever growing Plan to Watch list or something totally new and exciting. Hell, I may even rewatch stuff from my drop list if you can make a good case for them. I do have an overwhelming preference for slice of life, comedy and action, but I’ll keep my mind open with a few conditions.

1. I don’t like explicit gore so stuff like Elfen Lied and Gantz will get rejected faster than the “nice guy” in a shoujo love story. I guess light gore is okay when it’s stylized and quick ala Claymore, though I prefer the level of violence to not go beyond blood when possible.

2. I’m allergic to the typical romance shoujo/josei. They’re enjoyable when done a certain way like Escaflowne, Ouran High School Host Club, Fruits Basket, Natsume Yuujinchou and Higashi no Eden so it’s not like I totally dislike this genre. Also some of my favorite shows are romances such as KyoAni’s KEY triumvirate, though the romances I like are admittedly harem-esque shows geared toward a male audience. Romance as a whole is fine, but I prefer to avoid overblown love-love shoujo dorama. Your version of overblown and my version are different, but I’ll try to keep an open mind if you want to recommend stuff that falls into this genre.

3. The Never Ending Shounen is something I prefer to avoid as well. The only NES I’m remotely keeping up with right now is Gintama and that’s enough. As good as One Piece is it’s just too friggin’ long and too much of a commitment.

4. Don’t recommend Bible Black. It’s an old joke that’s no longer funny. Well, it’s kind of funny, but don’t recommend it unless you want to be brutally slapped by a loli with an iron harisen. Knowing otaku demographics that’s not much of a deterrent… But you get the idea.

With that out of the way go nuts and recommend stuff to me. If you want to turn the tables, I can recommend stuff to you too. What a crazy world we live in!

Like the title says, I had an impromptu disappearance from the blog for a week or so. I’m not quite sure what happened, but I think I was mistakenly kidnapped and wound up naked with 20,000 smelly NEETs. After a daring escape using Macgyver-like ingenuity with a paper clip, a roll of duct tape and a memo pad, I’ve returned from my unplanned absence…

What? You don’t believe my story? Well fine. I’ve been busy studying for my finals and have pretty much stayed away from the interweb and all its distractions which includes anime, blogging, looking at hentai, etc. I’ve briefly returned to do this little filler post explaining my absence that no one cared about or noticed.

Hm oh yes. I did stray from my studying regimen to buy The Orange Box on sale for $10 and play some Team Fortress 2. I’m not an FPS gamer by any means, but it was frentic and chaotic fun. There’s Portal and Half-Life 2 as well. I’m taking my time with Portal, and HL2 is pretty much a throw-in that won’t get much play time. I’m still a TF2 newbie but if anyone wants to play with me, I’m noirsword on Steam. Be sure to give me your name too so I can add you. This is also my AIM, so if you want to contact me that way to coordinate a match, feel free to do so.

PS: This pretty much translates to free kills while I learn the ropes.

Another April Fool’s Day, another day of pranks and outrageous hoaxes, and yet another birthday for me. Since this post has been automated to post at midnight, I don’t have a comprehensive list of this year’s best hoaxes from the US. Maybe I would if I had the ability to leap through time, but I already used all my jumps on other trivial things like oatmeal cookies and parachute pants. As a consolation prize, here’s a small sample of otaku related hoaxes for your enjoyment.

So anyway, happy birthday to me. Old Noirsword is old and broken.

Edit: One more. Have a Star Radish. I also wanted to post a link to the PC-98ish retro Idolmaster prank, but it’s already been taken down. I wish the Japanese otaku hoaxes would be kept up a bit longer, but most of them have been taken down already.

Lately it feels like I haven’t been watching as much anime as an anime blogger should, so I’m curious to see how much anime other fans watch, from the aniblogging community to casual/average fans. I don’t think I’ve fallen off the bandwagon, because my anime viewing always decreases as a semester drags on. Of course adding a good RPG to the equation doesn’t help either, as I’m more of a gamer at heart, and a good game will override watching anime. There are often times that I don’t watch anything for several days, so my estimate is probably 2-3 hours a week when busy (or when a good RPG gets most of my free time) and 6-7 when not busy. So my big question is how much anime do you guys watch?

To establish the context of this post, Best Buy is liquidating anime DVDs at select stores around the US in order to sort of restructure their anime sales and focus on the stores that have the most success selling it. Here’s a link to the list of stores having the sale. Ugh, did I just plug Best Buy? Such shame I bring upon my family. Anyway long story short, the liquidating stores are clearing out anime for 50% off. Naturally this was an excuse for some impromptu shopping to support the local economy in its time of need… And more importantly brag about getting anime on the cheap.

Kino’s Journey Complete Collection: $15
Clannad Collection 1: $15
Ouran High School Host Club: $22
Shakugan no Shana: $25
The Girl That Leapt Through Time: $10
Lucky Star 2-4: $10/each ($30)
Rune Soldier: $15
Kashimashi – Girl Meets Girl: $8

Total: $140

Overall a decent enough haul. The only thing I’m iffy about is Kashimashi but for $8 I can’t really complain too much. The title selection was actually more than decent for a liquidation sale. I passed on My Hime, Mushishi, Code Geass, Yu Yu Hakusho and Gurren Lagaan (commence GL fanboy hate) among other titles. After the good stuff is picked over, there will be a mountain of Naruto and Bleach left behind as scraps… The only thing I express disappointment in is not finding Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. I need some of that Feito goodness! To conclude this pointless post, always apply sunscreen before going out in the summer.

As the final semester of my higher education begins, I have two things on my mind.

1. Finally!

2. The whole textbook industry is a scam.

3. Shiki Ryougi is the new hawtness.

Okay, that’s actually three things. You got me. Three more classes isn’t too heavy a load with two business classes to fill my minor and Chinese as a free elective. My main concern is Chinese, which is the only thing that keeps this final semester from being blow off. Why oh why did I take Chinese? The other option was Japanese but well… Weaboo alert, am I right guys? I should have just taken basket weaving or something easy. My post schedule probably won’t get more sporadic than it already is… At least that’s what I want to say.

I haven’t been completely blowing off my blog duties though. Our first batch of winter impressions will hopefully be up by the end of the week. The tentative shows we’ll be covering are Akikan, Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Natsume Yuujinchou, Kurokami, Asu no Yoichi, Sora Kake, Maria Holic, Sora o Miageru, RideBack, Hetalia Axis Powers, Kemono no Souja Erin, Maria-sama ga Miteru
4th and White Album. Whew that’s a lot. Until then may you take it easy.

Tardy blogging has been plaguing me the past month and a half, and this late post is another microcosm of that trend. Part of it has to do with my intrinsic laziness, and the other part usually consists of me getting distracted by a video game of some sort. When I get absorbed by a good game, blogging takes an indefinite back seat, as it has with this post which is a good nine days late. Anyway, there be resolutions after the jump.

1. Be a more prompt and active blogger

I do love blogging but laziniess always gets the better of me. Sometimes I put off watching new episodes anywhere from days to weeks, which subsequently throws a giant slowpoke.jpg at the blogging schedule. I’ll also try to be more active in the blogosphere again and comment more, which I actually consider more difficult than keeping to a schedule since I suck at socializing. I’ll try though.

2. Continue to open up my anime horizons

I try to keep my mind open going into each new season by trying shows in genres I usually don’t watch. I still overwhelmingly prefer comedy, comedy/romance, harem, action and psychological anime, but I’ll pick a few shows I usually wouldn’t for a three-four episode trial in the meager winter season. Most of the time I end up dropping the shows I go out on a branch for because they didn’t initially interest me, but at least I’ll experience something new. You may find something you like by branching out. I was pleasantly surprised by last fall’s Tytania and all its space opera goodness.

3. Read more

It’s unusual for a blogger to say this but… I hate reading. It’s never been fun for me because it’s always been forced upon me by school since I was young, and that association has never gone away. I actively read back in middle school when I got into Star Wars novels, but my reading has been sparse since then. I’ve always loved science fiction and fantasy, so I suppose I’ll try to get back into those when I can find some time to spare.

4. Be nicer to Meu

Ha. I’ll try… But I prefer to lovingly make fun of my underpaid, overworked lackey. No soup for you. All your Aegis fanart are belong to me.

I couldn’t think of anything better for the title, so this will have to do. I’ve been on a short break from blogging to focus on upcoming finals and papers, which I might add, is always such great fun. I won’t be completely back until after all the madness ends on Thursday, but I thought it would be nice to say I’m still alive — Like that song involving cake that everyone loves so much.

In the time I’ve been gone I turned off my feed reader with 20 or so unread feeds. Upon turning it on again before writing this post I was accosted to 84 new feeds. The blogosphere updates way too much, and I’ve got some reading to do when I return. For now the feed reader will be turned off again. I expect it to be about 120 the next time. Yay~

Toradora episode 10 synopsis is in a state of limbo. I may have to merge two weeks of Toradora and two weeks of Clannad AS since two compilation posts are easier to do than trying to catch up with four writeups. ETA for those should be whenever this week’s eps get subbed, barring other distractions like…

Getting some PS3 games to celebrate um, the end of the semester. I think that’s an occasion worth celebrating. Any excuse to get a new game is a good one. I’m thinking of picking up a couple titles since there’s a sale going on. My first pick for sure is Valkyria Chronicles after all the good things I’ve heard and read about it. My second choice is still hazy though, torn between LittleBigPlanet and Eternal Sonata with Disgaea as a dark horse choice. My gut tells me one JRPG is enough, so LBP is edging out the competition.

The other option is to settle for just Valkyria and nab the Nanoha boxset. I do love myself some Nanoha goodness. Fate’s awesome ass makes a case for itself.

Last but not least I upgraded my old iBook for a MacBook Pro. It’s not the newly revised model but rather the revision from early 2008. I opted for this one because it was discounted and doesn’t have the god awful glossy screen that everyone loves so much these days. Glossy screens suck all sorts of donkey balls. I’m already an easily distracted person and unnecessary glare only compounds that problem. This news bit wasn’t that important but I wanted to share it.

It’s been a good while since I’ve done personal blogging for the sake of blogging. Well happy trails until I return. Take it easy!

*Smashes a Yukkuri head and leaves*

PS: Just downloaded the FUDGING EPIC Tytania OP. This song must be played at full blast for full effect. 3:39 cannot contain the sheer manliness it emanates.

I’ve been sitting on some editorials but haven’t had the inspiration to finish them due to a combination of writer’s block and RL-itis kicking in. I really want to now especially after slogging through the honors thesis Panzer left on his blog. It’s a good piece so be good boys and girls and read it. Panzer, your post has officially been pimped with the Wolf Hurricane seal of approval.

Anyway I’m putting my Char Rhousemann figure on the market. As the least favorite figure of my collection she’s first on the chopping block. Bought her from HLJ way back at the beginning of the year and no longer want her. That means a lucky person can take her in and give her a good home. It’s in perfect condition, displayed in a glass shelf and religiously cared for. I’m only looking to break even so my asking price is $70US without shipping. US buyers preferred but I’ll ship internationally. E-mail me if interested. If pics are requested I’ll snap a couple photos of Char, box and goodies. Another figure or two may be added to this spot soon.