2.5

I completed my first animation in 2.5 years. It’s a small stick fight mere a minute long. I was a little disappointed when I looked at it on the Internet; it seems to move at a slower frame rate than I instructed it to. I guess it’s the Internet and not my fault. Either way, the music is not totally in file with the actions… what a shame… but sound works none the less.

(not working)

WATCH IT HERE

That’s the movie above there. If it doesn’t play or your browser doesn’t support it… or maybe you just want to download it to see best quality, then do so here at the following link. Download. I thought of a name for it halfway through production. 2.5

The question now is: Do I make an Animation section on Stylish? I think it’s a bit early to be doing something like that. I’ll add it somewhere I guess… but an entire section is too early for just one animation.

Progress Being Made

Animation is still going smoothly. I continuously think that I messed up somewhere but when I look back at the small second of animation that I’ve created, it comes out better than I expected. I’ve started to add sound and much more effects to show charged attacks, blood, blocks and wind. All of this makes the animation more understandable.

Things get more and more complicated.

Despite things getting complicated with the layers, scenes and action scripts, I’ve still managed to manage sorting and using them with ease. My photoshop knowledge really helps me understand the program. Animation is taking a lot out of my energy. I feel totally drained even after a short bit of it. The red stick is currently fighting a tougher black stick that has squared up to his power. I like creating inventive action moves. After all, I’m a Devil May Cry fan.

The thing now is to get the right music. I had a brilliant song handed to me by none other than DJ England but the file will not be accepted by Flash. I’m pretty confused as a lot of music is okay with it but it randomly decides to reject a few. And those few happen to be the best for the animation. It’s really pissing me off and I hope I get it sorted before the animation is finished.

Even though they are just sticks, you need to know how to draw how a body is shaped.

Stylish Review – Ah! My Goddess – Season 1

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After watching Speed Grapher, an action packed inventive Anime, I decided to change my mood to romance. Yes, after seeing people explode by camera shot… it’s kind of what I needed to even the feeling out. So I searched some forums on suggestions for a good romance anime. I checked some of them but wasn’t liking what I saw. Then again, reviewing isn’t about what I like. So I decided to watch an entire and on whatever is mentioned next by a forum poster. Ah! My Goddess. Okay, fair enough. So, I went and got the whole first season.

This is Belldandy, she’s a big deal.

The story begins with a dude named Keiichi Morisato. He’s an unlucky guy around the age of eighteen. He’s short and doesn’t have much courage. He is mainly to make most of the male audience relate to him. The narration tells us that this boy has the worst luck possible as he is marked by some sort of miserable fate. So, a nice blonde goddess named Belldandy decides to cheer him up by granting him one single wish.

He acts this way for everything.

So, she travels from her goddess chair to a small planet named Earth. No way! And what better way than to scare the crap out of Morisato than to magically appear through the wall after she talks to him on the phone? There IS no better way to scare this little coward. She explains to him that she is a goddess and that she will grant any wish. She also notes that she cant lie. After testing her ability to tell the truth, he is not convinced. So, out of rush he makes his wish: For her to be by his side. Forever.

Uh oh, now you’ve done it!

After making this… slightly predictable wish, a lot of stuff happens. She is locked by the wish, still as goddess and just decides to fall on him. Morisato’s… MEN come in from nowhere to ask him did he do their dirty work. Upon entering without knocking, they find him violating the main rule of the dorm. No Girls! I’d call them very much gay. So, Moristo is kicked the fuck out of the dorm and is told he can get is belongings when he finds a place to crash. Belldandy spends the night in a broken down car with him. How romantic.

Traveling with a goddess in a side-cart on your motor-bike is all the rage these days.

So far I noticed that the animation was not too bad and the drawings were quite well done. The story also felt quite smooth and managed to fit in quite a bit of feeling during the first episode. I wasn’t totally impressed but I did want to find out what happens next. I’m nearly sure it was the same episode or it might be the next, but Belldandy and Morisato manage to… take over a shrine of some sort. The guy who normally lives there sees Belldandy and thinks she has some high karma. It makes him feel like a pile of shit and leaves to try and build up enough karma to be even. Yeah, good luck there buddy. Belldandy and Morisato have no objections on him getting the fuck out. Nobody liked him anyway, he just spied on them in their sleep.

So once our weirdo is disposed of, Morisato and Belldandy have plenty of time on their own in their lovely big house for free. The only thing they are missing is food. So, with a nice few spells, Belldandy summons food. Well, not really. Morisato’s sister, Megumi, comes to the house with a pile load of food. Convenient. Her character is nice and realistic and I enjoyed her moments on screen.

Megumi is full of energy.

The story continues well in pace and opens up the characters a little more. Belldandy and Morisato get nice and close together. They are quickly addressed as lovers by other people. However, as much as they love the idea, they seem shy about it and stutter out of concentration as a child would when something sensitive as that were to be mentioned. Morisato seems annoyingly edgy about the subject of men and women; it really did piss me off.

Sayako Mishima isn’t evil, she’s just a jealous human.

A bit of drama is added when Sayako Mishima, the queen of the school is thrown into the mess. She’s pretty much, in one word, a bitch. She fancies herself the queen of the school; above all women and controlling all men with her great looks and barrels of money. She grows insanely jealous (as women do) when Belldandy is presented towards her. She tries many attempts to destroy Belldandy but the Divine Force repels anything that could separate the contract Morisato has over Belldandy, which is, in case you have forgotten, that she are thou to be with thee, forever. This little bind here is good for the plot and fans but really keeps any drama from being taken seriously since we all know our great Divine Force will just come to save the god damn day.

So, in order for anything exciting to happen other than the repetitive blushing scenes with the short character Morisato, the Divine Force needed to be kicked in the teeth for a while. Now, I have pretty bad memory so I can’t exactly remember how that happens. It’s around later episodes when more godly things begin to happen. The characters are likable. Morisato (or Keiichi as most call him) still manages to carry his most annoying traits around but is more and more bearable when you start to realise, his heart is in the right place. He does respect the company of Belldandy and good people around him. He lacks the courage to express it in other ways than saying, “Thank you.” and similar things. A nice passionate kiss or inventive trip would be a good way for him to show his gratitude but his character is held back, which in a way creates some drama for viewers like me.

Her boobs distract the eye from words.

Somewhere around episode 8 we get to another goddess, Belldandy’s sister, Urd. She’s not very like Belldandy. She’s straight forward, sexual, forceful and sarcastic at times. She acts the business when it comes to matters such as men, women, kissing, sex and relationships and tries to take command of Morisato in situations with Belldandy to show him her experience. She even flirts with Morisato secretly while training him to get with Belldandy; possibly trying to awaken his male urges so he can be a bit more direct to Belldandy as Urd likes it.

Interaction between characters is Anime like, obviously, but it luckily keeps it even a bit realistic by making the conversations between characters that don’t know each other very well, short; long for the ones that are getting to know each other and short, but powerful for the closer characters, just like real life: Not many words needs to be said between a strong bond.

Maller can perform magic with ease, unlike some goddesses.

Maller is handed to the characters. A perfectly evil and powerful demon with not the sharpest intelligence around. People seem to mistake her as a pervert from her ways of talking to people. Sleeping beside women and shouting, “I want your body!” give most people the impression that she is a lesbian but she continuously insists that, “I’m a woman.” It would be a lot easier if she would just go and screw around with Morisato. Nobody would ask questions about her sexuality then. She provides some great comedy and action scenes. With that said, she is one of my favourite characters out of the lot. Her plans to be evil make me giddy when I see them being destroyed so easily. Definitely a character everyone will love and hate at the same time.

Power always comes with evilness.

After a good few episodes the story moves on from various situations, goddesses, rule of God and fate, to finally come to the few final episodes. I enjoyed it this far anyway. We learn some crucial past of Urd and she becomes a baddie somewhere near the ending causing quite a bit of drama for the rest of the characters. Well, I don’t want to spoil it too much so I’ll randomly hop to my favourite character, Skuld.
Skuld can sure act like a kid… because she is one.

Skuld is the youngest sister of the three goddesses and possesses no un-earthly powers. She makes up for this by being slightly evil (not being hindered by attachment to people) and high intelligence and skill for designing and creating robotic contraptions. She is a rebellious youngster and cares very much for Belldandy. She tries her best to be like her and will fend of anyone who tries to get close to her sister. Morisato encounters her fierceness quite a bit through the Anime.

- Caution -
.Spoilers Ahead.

There is even a scene where she dashes through the ocean to prevent Morisato from confessing his love to Belldandy. In the process she blocks it and Morisato ends up saying, “I love you.” to Skuld herself.

Skuld awakens from a rushed puberty.

At episode 26, Skuld is rushed ahead in maturity and becomes quite grown up. I’m assuming around the age of 18. Which is a big difference from her kid side. I just assumed she was 13. She awakens with an ass, bigger boobs, height and a longer face. Her voice is not as high, either.

She thinks that maybe now people wont see her as kid and that guys might be attracted to her. Grabbing Morisato by the arm, she goes out on what could be called… a date. She brings him along just so people will assume they are together and she can get the pleasure of being seen as an adult. In this state of adult, she looses most of her childish behaviors such as shouting and being rude to people. She disbands Morisato for a while and runs into a pervert which you see early in the Anime. He takes her to eat ice-cream… her energy source. The pervert then touches her. At this point she realises not all touches by men are as warm and pure as Morisato’s. She pulls away from him and runs but the pervert (as expected) chases her. To avoid a rape scene, Morisato comes to save the day. “Keiichi!” she scream in delight to see him. They stride off together and do various activities. Along the way, Skuld realises she is infatuated with Morisato.

I don’t know about him… but I’d hit it!

Well, the rest you can find out for yourself by watching the entire first season. This Anime is very well done and has been adapted to many things. I might check up on the movie. The story is slowly dealt out with some just enough romance, action and comedy. However, blush scenes are overdone. Drawings are great yet the animation seems to be lazy in some of the episodes.

Ah! My Goddess season 1 gets its wish granted with a nice 74% from Stylish, forever. “Sweet!”

-RN

Sunburn & Revival

Well, I’m back from my so called camping. It went rather well until an accident happened and one of my friends had to go home in an ambulance. But anyway, I’m back with sunburn all on my face and I look like I’ve been seriously toasted. Sort of pain.

Now that I’m back, I should be getting my stuff ready for school. That’s right, I have to go back to school pretty soon. Stylish will be less attended as I’ve mention a few times. This really does suck harder and harder every time it gets closer. I hate school. I’ll try my best to keep up with all the updates while still doing well in school. I think Internet life will always win with my desire in the end, though. I’m not exactly proud of that but… meh, we can’t control what we really want deep down.

The first thing I should get doing is finishing the test animation. I’ll definitely start on that in the morning. Right now I’m going to sort out my schoolbag. Once the animation is done whenever I’ll start on the next chapter of TX. While this is all going on I might also just go ahead and review something random. I’m coming to the end of the first season of Ah! My Goddess Anime so that would be the logical choice. However, this time I can actually watch the second season once I am done. So look forward to that at a random time. Not much to update on the site its self. I’ll probably add a new song in the morning as well as getting back to the daily funny pictures. Who knows, might throw in some new poll there. Oh BTW, I added a new header. Might be random, might be something of things to come. Well, it’s nice IMO.

- RN