Catches tigers in red weather.

A heads-up for those interested: Women's outerwear is 30% off at Urban Outfitters until Oct. 12th. I'm currently eyeing the funnel neck peacoat from my last entry, debating whether or not to buy it. Ahhhhh, indecision.

Anyway, I do believe its time for a manga rec:

Detroit Metal City

by Kiminori Wakasugi

By all appearances, Soichi Negishi is a sweet, well-mannered boy who loves Swedish pop music, trendy boutiques, and all things fashionable. But at the same time he's also Krauser II, front man for Detroit Metal City, an indie death metal band whose popularity increases by the day. Once the DMC makeup goes on and Soichi takes the stage, his natural talents as a death metal god can't help but flourish. Is this the band he's truly destined to be in?
--summary from Viz

This series is INSANE. Also: the most hilarious thing ever. Negishi switches between his personality and the Krauser personality so much that sometimes his alter-ego bleeds into real life, often to hysterical results. One example is when Negishi is called a poser in the park while singing his original songs, and he ends up smashing a guitar over a policeman's head (as Krauser) while trying (and failing) to prove that DMC's stuff is as grating as they said his stuff was. Negishi's attempts to use the Krauser persona to get things to go his way usually end with him getting way too into character and doing things the Krauser way instead. Which generally mean lots of mishaps, lots of RAMPAGING. Oh how I cackle madly at his identity crisis.

Though there are some things about this series that might turn off readers such as, oh, the amount of obscene words used--never before have I heard the word 'fuck' used so much in a manga. And since its about a metal band of course there's going to be some crude stuff about them, which is something that embarrasses Negishi to no end. In costume, Krauser is the the terrorist from Hell, rumored to have killed and raped his parents, who wields his giant death penis with abandon, you know, stuff that is totally metal. Krauser is famed for his 'ten rapes in one second' where he shouts, obviously, rape ten times in a second. Generally, the fans that follow DMC see them as a group whose world revolves around sex and violence, which is just completely opposite from how the band is in real life.

If you're looking for a series that makes you laugh and go WTF, then this is the one for you.

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Links.

× Photos from CEATEC Japan 2009,the largest consumer electronics trade show in Asia, that show the latest technology from various companies. The squid robots (yes, squid robots) are the cutest things ever. ♥

× Professah Smash Bros., a totally great Professor Layton/Smash Bros comic.

× This Dino/Gokudera comic kills me.

× Fanfic: Object of Gossip a Fullmetal Alchemist fic (link goes to chapter index). The summary pretty much says it all: "Roy and Ed are sleeping together, and everyone knows it! Everyone… except for Roy and Ed. " This fic makes me all giggly.

× Pyramid Head crocheted blanket! Are you brave enough to go to bed with this?

× Taiko no Tatsujin bento is adorable. Although...are those sprinkles on that shrimp? Uh...

× Hidden symbols in one dollar bills: Is that a Triforce?

× Princess Peach in a kimono. How cute!

× Fanfic: I Have My Dead is a collection of Persona 4 ficlets where the characters write goodbye letters to their parents to leave behind in case they die in the TV world. Teddie's broke my heart, and Souji's and Yukiko's. Ahhhh, so good, yet so sad.

× Fanfic: another P4 one, this one Yukiko/Chie, A Barrel in the Sea. Its set post-game, where Yukiko's parents find out she's romantically involved with Chie and demand she end their relationship. Yukiko refuses and is thrown out, practically disowned. Its so real and powerful and I just love it. Dojima plays an awesome role in this fic as well.

× 3 Color Joystick Repeat Drawing is really cool looking. Its something I'd probably put up on my wall.

× Kotaku's The Most Handsome Game Company Exec In Japan? labeled Chiyomaru Shikura, Executive Director of 5pb., as a dreamboat, and readers posted who they thought was an attractive man in the Japanese gaming industry. Of course Hideo Kojima was mentioned since, seriously, the man is just adorable, and then someone posted a surprisingly hot picture of....Hironobu Sakaguchi?!! Shit man, I didn't know you could look that good. Even non-industry people, like Yu Darvish, starting pitcher for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, (OMG so beautiful) were mentioned for no reason at all. And no Kotaku post is complete without a lulzy image: Kojima's head photoshopped onto a booth babe's body. Just look at that sexy expression of his. I SPEND WAY TOO MUCH TIME AT KOTAKUUUUUUU. Especially reading the most random things.

× Adorable advertisement for Kimi ni Todoke Nintendo DS game. Chibi!Kazehaya, you are such a cutie.

Two Pieces of fanart; Faust VIII of Shaman King and Haruno Sakura of Naruto [Apologies in advance for the semi-large pics.]:

( Here there be one insane Necromancer. )

Ah, Faust is the sort of insane character I love. He's a doctor who, despite his extensive research, could not save the person he loved the most. So he became crazy. Experimenting with necromancy and with his own body (I cringed when he cut his leg open and replaced the broken bone with one from a skeleton) he wants to become the Shaman King in order to revive his love. Dedication like that is hard to come by.

Not sure if I succeeded in capturing that particular look he has in his eyes. Mine looks more seductively (?) apathetic more than anything. I'm tempted to re-do this fanart to fix that blasted head of hair of his (a bit too poofy for my taste). But his lips! Oh how I love Faust's lips!

( On to the Konoha ninja! )

Story behind this piece: Originally started out as another Naruto character, Haku (Much love for Haku. I cried like a baby at the end of the Zabuza/Haku arc, especially once you see how Zabuza is affected by what Naruto is saying to him), but halfway through I wasn't satisfied. So I traced the face outline onto another sheet of paper, chucked the original, and drew Sakura instead. Add in the obligatory falling sakura petals, some wispy clouds, and there you have one mostly finished piece of fanart (Umm....I never color because that is not my strong point....at least in drawing people it isn't).

I was looking through volume 6, where Sakura cuts her hair during the Chuunin exams while drawing this. But, the hair is a little longer than that point of the story, so I'll say its post-Chuunin exam Sakura. ♥ ♥

I prefer the Sakura fanart mainly because it looks cleaner (my hand kept on smudging the shadows on Faust's face) and it took me less time to draw. Ah, I'm so easy to please.

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The kittens have yet to be given any names even though we've had them for three weeks already. I've become partial towards the names Alice and Takeru (<----mom is going to have a hell of a hard time pronouncing that *laughs*). Mercury and Pluto are my mom's choices. And my brother...doesn't have an opinion in the matter. ^^; He's just there to make sure my mom doesn't try and pick any horrible names (she has a habit of picking names off objects she sees while driving. Now, "Stop Sign" and "Kostroyz" do not a good name make. [Unless you have an odd sense of humor like an old home-ec teacher of mine. She named her dog "Scrotum". Poor, poor doggy.].

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The Adventures of Roy Mustang: Sex Ed Teacher has succeeded in making me laugh like a maniac (and scaring my cats). Especially chapter 4 when everyone thinks Roy has a venereal disease and are doing their best to avoid him (his inner dialogue kills me). And when Ed hears said news and rushes off to scrub out his mouth, I about died (again, XP). Oh Ed, like that would actually help. XD [WARNING: This fic is chock full of yaoi. Don't like (or don't know what yaoi is), don't read. Also, if you are uncomfortable with a 15-year old get getting it on with his older, superior officer, don't read either. I'm only saying this so no one accidentally reads it and complains to me.]

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My brother just called out to me from the other room asking what the names for Julia Roberts twins are. He's so random sometimes. [The answer would be Hazel and Phinneas by the way.]

EDIT: Bleh, sometimes reading over my own posts makes me feel like "el dorko".

Last night I started to sketch out a bit of fanart for Fullmetal Alchemist and here is the result:

( CatBoy!Ed and Al )

My apologies for the crappy quality of the picture, since I don't have a scanner I used my digital camera instead (which is sometimes a pain to use). So that's why the pic is a bit skewed. And yes this was merely an excuse to draw Edward Elric with cat ears (I ♥ Catboys! I blame the catboy obsession on Loveless). Alphonse (a rather simplistic looking Al) was added to the background since his habit of hiding kitties in his armor is very amusing to me, and I think he would probably love it immensely if Ed somehow got cat ears. (As to the reason why he has cat ears....well, perhaps a botched transmutation caused them to appear, or something to that effect. And yes, I'm just pulling excuses out of my ass. I JUST WANTED CATBOY!ED.)

Oh yeah, that's just a very rough sketch, so maybe one of these days I'll draw a final product of it. So for now it's being put on the back burner along with the rough sketches of Michael from Angel Sanctuary, Kurei from Flame of Recca, a D.Gray-man one of Allen and Kanda at the park, a Tenipuri Tezuryo one based on the fanfic Focus (where they've gone fishing together and Ryoma falls asleep on Tezuka's shoulder), Vincent Valentine from FF7, Mythos from Princess Tutu .... and many more. ^^; Blah, I have a habit of starting fanart and then starting another drawing without finishing the previous one.

( Thoughts on Kyo Kara Maoh volume 1...and whoa, I'm lame at summarizing. )

There is a stray dog that has wandered into out yard and it seems he wants to stay. Which is no problem for my family since we've taken in and taken care of stray cats. Mom says once the dog gets better we'll take it to the vet to get him checked out (and give him a much needed Flea and Tick bath). At least he didn't wander into the neighbor's yard (who suggested he would shoot the dog and call up someone to pick up the corpse), so the dog is lucky to have ended up with us. I hate it when some people think a solution for animal control is to shoot the animal. The Human Society is there for a reason.

EDIT: Oh yeah, my ticket for A-kon came in today. WHEEEE! ♥