YourMessageHere's Anime List | YourMessageHere's Manga List

YourMessageHere's Profile

FIRST: IF YOU LIKE MY REVIEWS, OR HATE THEM, I LIKE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. GIVE IT TO ME.
Anyway, where were we?

Actual Real Name: Yes, I have one of those. Josh Bayes, or Josh Quillan, depending on who I feel like being.

Gender: Yes. Male, in fact.

Age: Also yes. 27 of them so far, since 3.10 PM on the 23rd of January 1981. AD.

Location: Frequently. 東京都三鷹市井口3丁目3-13 at the moment, to be exact

Occupation: Student of "Japanese and Cultural Studies" (less good than it sounds) at Newcastle University. Also founder and ex-president of Newcastle University Anime Society, but that's not nearly arduous enough to be an occupation. Presently in Tokyo studying Japanese (as good as it sounds =)))) ).

Interests: Apart from the obvious anime and manga and associated things, I'm interested in the Japanese language and culture in general, milkshakes, cats, visiting cinemas, weapons, especially guns, current affairs, PC games (mostly first person shooters), eating sweet things, sleeping with attractive women, British and northern European folk music, especially Scandinavian fiddle, and some J-music and Anime OSTs, computers that aren't macs, surrealist and magic realist art, going for walks at 4AM, Wikipedia, messing with Photoshop, reading novels, sleeping perchance to dream, minimalist design, and some other things, but NOT other other things. I collect airsoft guns and Anime toys and models. Another major interest: my significant other, Shu Qing Liu.

Anime-related Interests: my first and main love in anime is Ghost in the Shell - it's my favourite film, and I'm including live-action in that. In manga, it's Gunsmith Cats. Both of these personify all the good qualities that I love anime and manga for - a great universe, a great, complex and rich story that makes you think and yet is really exciting, imagination in spades and a sense of heightened reality, attention to detail that puts live-action completely to shame, some fantastic characters, great acting, a gorgeous and unique visual style, and a clever, resourceful, skillful and pragmatic female protagonist. Most things that have combinations of these things, and do them well, go down well with me. See also: my tags, their explanations in the blog section, and the reviews I write.

Dislikes: hmm, a big bit; I seem to spend most of my time disliking things. I'll start relevant. I hate dubbing (I understand it's utility, I'm not a ban-all-dubbing nazi, I just dislike like how they do it and I think the acting standard sucks) especially what they did to Azumanga Daioh in dub form. I hate anime that doesn't end but just runs and runs, such as Naruto, One-Piece, Prince of Tennis etc. I hate Gundam, people who cannot grasp that anime is not called manga and vice versa, any use of the 'word' "animu", and fansubs in languages that aren't English which aren't properly labelled as such. I find harems and other character relationships that clearly ought to develop but do not extremely tedious.
Topical Mention: the Home Office, for deporting my girlfriend because she was honest.
Now, more generally. I dislike most of the western world, primarily the USA and Britain, in terms of politics (I realise most individual people are actually pretty decent). I hate what the labour party has become and what it stands for, especially compared to what it was when I was first getting interested in politics. People too stupid to have opinions deserve all they get. I hate being in a crowd of strangers, so by extension I don't like pubs or clubs much, although I can make exceptions for the sake of people I like.
Other stuff I don't like: Mobile phones and text-speak. People who can't pronounce simple words, such as saying "nuclear" as "new-que-lar" and "Iguana" as "Ig-you-arner", and people who say things like "It's very addicting" instead of "It's very addictive". Practically every car design for the last 20 years. Campness (as a form of behaviour, as opposed to homosexuality; I am NOT homophobic). Being told "there's no demand for it". Apple macs and iPods, and their cult of mediocrity worship. Rap, country and hiphop music. Evangelism - be it religions, vegetarianism, lifestyle trends, game consoles, operating systems or whatever, I will ask if I want a sales pitch. Games that have bosses instead of working on plotting and design. Claims that graffiti is anything other than defacement of the landscape. The burberry-wrapped, socially-stillborn creatures commonly called "Chavs" but who have in this part of the country been called "Charvas" since 1995. Internet neologisms like "Blogosphere" and "Webisode". Crunchie bars. Team sports. People who think a gamepad will allow you to play an FPS game as well as a keyboard and mouse. Buses. large earrings.

Personality: Cynical. Depressive by nature, but I know how to deal with it. Introverted by default, but also somewhat proactive if the situation calls for it. Reluctant to trust people. I generally have an impulse to help people, and sometimes I do silly things because of this; I'm not afraid to do something useful if it'll make me look like a fool. If I'm talking about something I don't know a lot about, I'm vague and diplomatic by nature, otherwise my polarised opinion tends to rise to the fore about things I believe I know about. I tend to argue too much, and sometimes people mistake my insistance for unwillingness to admit I'm wrong, although I will gladly do so if I am induced to believe I really am wrong. I'm not squeamish and it takes a lot to rattle me, but once I am rattled it has a very bad effect on my ability to do anything useful. I believe in being entirely honest with those you value, and lying if necessary to those who do not value you. I'm not religious.

Things you should know: I tend to write long posts and I expect you to read them, as to get to that point I've carefully read everything YOU said. If you ask people's opinion of something and either take exception to what they say or behave as if it was never said, I will probably get angry. I'm not interested in any form of drugs except caffiene and Baileys. I have virtually no sense of smell. My favourite colour is green. I'm greedy with sweet things, which means I'm overweight and my teeth are rubbish. I'm right-handed and left-eyed. I have long brown hair, an unfashionably large beard and lines under my eyes that make me look like i'm tired and frowning all the time, which is OK, since I AM tired and frowning a considerable part of the time. I can't cook anything much, but I make a mean Toad in the Hole. Some of my poetry and fiction was published when I was 14, but shyness stopped me doing anything more about it, and depression and writer's block have stopped me writing for the last 6 years, which I hate. Tokyo is now my favourite place on earth.

Karl Marx said "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need" which, while I do not think of myself as a communist, I nonetheless consider to be unassailable logic and as good a motto for life as any.

Maur | 11-25-08, 6:53 AM Yeah, Bleach was a real hard show for me to get into. I didn't care for the first 10 or so episodes where it tried to pretend to be more than just a show about dudes with swords. Once it got to the escalating combat phase then it became a show I could watch... mostly. Reply

Maur | 11-24-08, 5:41 AM lol, watched 2 eps of Bleach and quit huh? Reply

Kaiserpingvin | 11-10-08, 8:39 AM Oh, you're welcome, and thanks in return! TVTropes is ridiculously addictive, but nonetheless among the finest places out on the digital surf. Reply

cabbit-chan | 11-09-08, 4:20 PM That doesn't sound too bad.. it is about as busy as I am at the moment anyway lol. I seriously have no time... for some reason I get the ideas for the running the society from the Priscilla, the logo designs from Rebecca and help with running the meeting from Phil, but I have to do all the running around in between, as well as find time to study Japanese, watch at least 1 film a week for my classical hollywood cinema module and work 2 part time jobs... A dissertation and cultural modules sounds easy ^^; well.. easier. At least I wouldn't have nagging parents :P Reply

Maur | 11-06-08, 12:27 AM Hehe, I was looking at your list, and to no surprise you also liked Perfect Blue much better than I did. I'd say PB also suffered from the same kind of disenchanting wrapped up in it's own "craziness" that turned me off. Also, if you only gave Death Note a 6, I'm not sure if you'll find Code Geass better than a 7. Lastly, although I agree a keyboard/mouse offers greater pointer precision, I still prefer the precision in movement a controller offers :p Reply

Maur | 11-05-08, 11:41 PM Haha, well, I try to be as objective as I possibly can, which I saw you do as well, but yeah, ultimately a review is subjective by design. The only thing I expect is at least some kind of reasoning behind an opinion and not just "10/10/10 awesome!" or "This was teh worst evar." Believe it or not, "Mr. Wonderful" was actually called "The Fabulous Fitzgerald." Don't remember the wacky way they spelled it, but you can even hear the voice actor say "Fitzgerald" in a Japanese accent. I'm not sure if this name is better or worse but it certainly fits in with "The Magnificent Ten." As for Eva, haha, well I'm not looking for a fight either, I'm also curious, and you looked like someone well versed enough to perhaps explain. I know Eva is really popular and revered by many, but I never understood why. It's been a while since I've watched it so I'm not sure I can do justice to the problems I had with it. The simplest way I could put it would be: I enjoyed it in the beginning, but the further it started to tread down the whole psychotic abstract surrealism path the more disenchanted with it I started to become. I don't remember why. Perhaps it came across to me as pretentious or obnoxious. It pretty much just took everything I liked about the series and replaced it with some perverse psychological version of it. And the ending... oh did I hate the ending... This may help answer your question also: I would've actually given Eva a much lower score but after I was done I went to Wikipedia to try to make sense of wth just happened. I read about all the subtle Christian themes prevalent throughout the series and other nuances that were lost on me the first time through. I wished the show made some kind of effort to make this apparent to the audience because a lot of the things I read were pretty brilliant but they are never explained or covered well in the anime. So I suppose I liked the general idea behind NGE, but I was severely disappointed with the delivery, lol Reply

Maur | 11-05-08, 3:11 PM Good Giant Robo review. Probably the most "fair and balanced" one I've read, as far as reviews in general are concerned as well. Not sure where you got "Mr. Wonderful" from, perhaps you were watching some fansub? In which case FOR SHAME! J/K. Probably most curious of all is I understood your faults for Robo completely, but am somewhat confused by your praise for Evangelion. o_O Reply

cabbit-chan | 10-28-08, 8:24 AM Apparently the first years studying Japanese now are using Genki, so Newcastle must have had a change of heart. Hmm... I probably will be going into uni accommodation because I am uncomfortable with the idea of living with a family I have never met, and I can't afford an apartment off-campus. I might put Kansai as my 3rd choice now since their teaching isn't as good.. but until I hear bad about Kyushu, it will remain my 1st choice :P Now I don't know whether I will put Waseda or ICU as my 2nd choice... decisions, decisions... Did you manage to get you banking problem sorted out? Reply

cabbit-chan | 10-27-08, 4:23 PM So you are at ICU? In the meeting we had the other day, a 4th year student said that they make you dress up for your first week and you have to dance on either baka-yama or aho-yama in front of the whole uni. And that the dorm residents vote on your applications to allow people in... ICU sounds really scary according to her.. Did you have to do that? I'm thinking on Kyushu, because it is cheaper... with Kansai and Waseda as my back ups. Reply

JadeMatrix | 10-14-08, 7:37 AM And I was just planning on changing it... Thanks. When I first watched that scene, I though it was going to become some major plot device. It was still dramatic, though. Reply

cabbit-chan | 10-12-08, 2:20 PM Will do. Is that the new Ghibli film? I'm going to be trying a lot of new anime this year. It is my promise to myself to pick up some new series and run with them. I feel immense satisfaction in seeing an episde each week as it comes out as opposed to just downloading a full series and forgetting to watch it all as I have been used to doing. Currently I am downloading Vampire Knight Guilty, Hakushaku to Yosei and Nodame Cantabile Paris Chapter, with the intention of getting Skip Beat downloaded as soon as I see a subbed copy of it. I'll probably collect the series you mentioned too. I found some Potemayo the other day. It is as awesome as I remember from when you brought it last year. Also, thankies for joining up! *hugs* I'll let you know about how many members we have and how much money we are getting when I find out tomorrow :P I'd best go write this week's newsletter... ja ne ;) Reply

cabbit-chan | 10-07-08, 9:33 AM Japan sounds sooo awesome! And yet... so scary too... I hope you get the money problems sorted out ;) Uni is going well. Kasza-sensei left so we just get Okahisa-sensei 4 times a week now. Anime Soc is doing well. We had 14members turn up yesterday (though 3 had to leave at various different times for other commitments) Forms are all in for grants and we have about 13 members signed up officially. Deadline is the 13th so I'm not worried XD New anime sotre has opened up in Newcastle as well. Tis called AnimeZ. Gonna forge a link with them this week. All seems to be gong well. I hope you will be pleased with our progress when you get back. If you get back I mean.. since it sounds so nice over there lol. Reply

cabbit-chan | 09-29-08, 3:18 PM Sure thing. Although.. I think the t-shirts may be white only... but I shall try and get an option of black since you mentioned it ;) How is Japan? Reply

RangFlash | 08-13-08, 4:21 PM Personally I like the style of western comics. They choose realism with a small dose of style, rather than hovering somewhere in-between realism and absurdism like most animes. So I'm guessing you don't like the faces in Akira because you're not used to that style? Sounds a little biased to me. I found that the faces in Akira looked more like human faces than most bug-eyed anime faces do. I see nothing wrong with trying to make an anime face somewhat resemble a real face. I'll agree with the color palette thing, you certainly know that stuff. I don't think the visuals of animation should necessarily be compared to live action. In live action, the people do look the same, because they are played by real people, simple as that. However, with animation, we're given a freedom to do whatever we want, so why try to confine it to just a few styles? By the way, I think that good and bad can be objective. Otherwise, there would be no reason to put any effort into anything at all if everything was just up to opinion, and there was no absolute truth. The relative goodness and badness of films is judged by standards set by other movies, as well as effort and originality. Also, I would like to know: what do you consider traditional anime style? Reply

RangFlash | 08-12-08, 6:36 AM I guess. But I just don't see why we should stick to tradition and so quickly dismiss an experiment in art style. Where is the art if everything is done the same? Reply