#!/usr/bin/girl has posted a few other cool links recently. The first is a site that explains How To Eat Sushi (it seems that I’ve been doing it wrong all these years!) The next is Bananaphone. Thank you for getting this damn song stuck in my head. AUGH.

#!/usr/bin/girl posted a link to GodChecker. A huge searchable encyclopedia of gods. All kinds of gods, Greek gods, Egyptian gods, Norse gods. Too bad it’s incomplete, it doesn’t seem to know anything of Jeff, the god of biscuits.

Important safety tip: always pay attention to where you keep your portable oxygen tank. Pulling it off of something and onto your foot hurts. A lot. And may very well gouge a nice chunk of flesh away (OW). Thankfully mom has lots of bandages and stuff so I got it all cleaned up and wrapped up. I don’t think anything is broken because I can still wiggle my toes some without it hurting any more or less. But it still does hurt a bunch. OW.

Thank god for laptops.

I picked this release up recently because I’d seen the first episode on one of the DVDs from NewType and rightstuf.com had it on sale and I’d been curious about the show after reading some of the Fruits Basket manga (where the author mentions Sakura Wars a few times). There have been a few other Sakura Wars releases (OVAs and Movies), but I believe they are all based off of games for the PS/PS2 in Japan.

Sakura Wars TV centers around Sakura Shinguji, the newest member of the Imperial Flower Combat Troop. It is a team of women who pilot steam powered mecha and who all have strong spirit energy (which helps them fight monsters). When they aren’t fighting and training, they perform in the theatre where their headquarters is. It is kind of a weird premise, and they still haven’t quite explained WHY they do the performances (at least that I noticed, i might have missed it). This first disc mostly sets the stage for the series. We meet the members of the team. Sakura slowly works to get them to accept her. Bad monsters come and they have to fight them off (with Sakura not doing a great job of piloting her mecha). And we start to learn just a bit about who their unknown enemy is.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. While Sakura fits into that mold of slightly klutzy main character destined for greatness, she’s not as whiney as that character typically is. I think this made me warm up to the show a little faster. I also want to watch more to find out about the rest of the team. I also love the whole steampunk feel of the show, I’m always a sucker for that look.

So, overall I’d recommend this disc, but I get the feeling it is one of those shows that wouldn’t be for everyone. If you aren’t sure, I’d definitely recommend renting it first to see if it is your cup of tea.

I rented this the other day from Greencine.com, my new favorite online dvd rental place, and thought I’d toss up the review I posted there (plus a little bit).

First a few technical details. This is the first disk of a fairly long series. I believe it is expected to be around twelve discs. The show is from the early 80s (the date on the disc was 1983), and so it does feel a bit dated. But as far as the disc itself goes, it looks great.

Aura Battler Dunbine is one of those shows that illustrate why I like anime so much. Even a show with kind of weak animation by current standards tells a more kickass story than most american produced shows today.

I really enjoyed this first disc. It had that kind of classic anime ‘drop you right into the story along with the main character and slowly show you what is going on’ way of telling the story. Even by the end of the disc you get the feeling that we’re still only seeing a bit of what this world has to offer. My biggest complaint is that some of the characters annoy the crap out of me (like this little fairy creature that is in it). So, If you don’t mind older animation and like decent storytelling give this show a try.

Ahh, how wonderful it is to hear that sound again. Z Sculpt software has released a small beta demo for their new version of Dark Castle called Return to Dark Castle. Sorry Windows users, this one is Mac only. I want more than just one screen of play though!

Now we just need a bunch of those old games, where’s Crystal Quest and Solarian II?

I’m posting this image for my friend ellen so that she can see what it looks like when I post from ecto. She’s got a link to the picture on her blog too.

ADV Films has opened up the Super Milk-Chan website. This show is one of the most crack-induced things I have ever seen. It’s amazing. I can’t wait for these DVDs.

ADV Films has opened up the Super Milk-Chan website. This show is one of the most crack-induced things I have ever seen. It’s amazing. I can’t wait for these DVDs.

The current Sci-Fi Wire over at SciFi.com has a nice review of Azumanga Daioh, one of my favorite shows of the past year. I hope Tasha, the reviewer, keeps watching it. I found the show really does keep dragging you in more and more. And for me it was a nice break from crazy over the top action oriented shows.