One World

I always find people protesting against such and such an issue. I posted on some hollywood website about the live action version of Bleach

Posted by: King I always love the "Better cast asians" comments when most anime features what I call "white washing", IE huge blending of Western culture to Japanese features.
THERE ARE NO NATURALLY BLOND BIG BOOBED BLUE EYED BABES IN JAPAN
Yet there's a shinigami!
How pray tell, could she be portrayed "in real life" anymore than a Japanese girl trying REAL HARD to be caucasian?
If they adapt it to American culture. Magnificent Seven beautifully made the already Western influenced (Just like Bleach! Oh noes!) Seven Samurai. Take a look at the Departed, Martin Scorcese took a Korean film, perfected it, and won a damn Oscar. Cultures can ADAPT. I'm fine with that, if you're not, you're ironically quite a racist bigot. There's no way in America, nor is there a need, for a Japanese medium to be filmed in Japanese with Japanese actors in Japan. OTHERWISE IT'D JUST BE JAPANESE.
What's important is that they retain the core structure and action that has made the anime so popular, not going for a "How do we make this acceptable...FOR AMERICAN CASUAL MOVIE GOERS?"
People need to understand hollywood is ruled by money, even if the directors/producers want to be faitful. See the Cowboy Bebop budget forcing a rewrite upon the director.

I really like some of this guy's stronger arguments. He's forcing me to rethink myself. It's true that the casual movie goer doesn't want to get wrapped up in the yellowface argument, and just wants to watch a good live action of a comic they like. That's a decent stance, although it would be nicer if everyone could care and be proactive, but that's asking too much.

But I'm hell bent on the "global community" thing. I would like to eradicate thoughts like "I don't want it to be done by asian actors because I don't like asians" or stuff like that. Cultures can adapt, and they've already started to mesh, as this guy points out. And it's happening despite us. I would like to get to a point where a director would consider "should I cast all asians? ... Why not?" and for the public to accept it straight off like it was anything else. THAT would be a completely non-racist, non-prejudiced, globally aware response.  That's what I want. He's right, it doesn't need to be. But I'm tired of people that think that canadians live in igloos and that it's cold all the time. It's time to become aware of the world around us, we, the rich one billion people who can go around and see the others. 

This is a step towards a larger goal. If we can see the rest of the world, won't it be easier to sympathize with them? If we start to feel the tangibleness of it in our minds, then maybe we can start acting with a more global care. Maybe, individualism will fade into community. Maybe, if we understand and feel the tangible presence of others beside ourselves living on this planet we share, we won't be so gung ho about trying to kill them over some petty argument or a thing of the past. Maybe, we can move on. Maybe we can find some measure of peace.

Maybe.

"This too Shall Pass"

"This too shall pass"is a proverb indicating that all material conditions, positive or negative, are temporary. The phrase appears in the works of Persian Sufi poets, such as Sanai and Attar of Nishapur.^[1] Attar records the fable of a powerful king who asks assembled wise men to create a ring that will make him happy when he is sad, and vice versa. After deliberation the sages hand him a simple ring with the words "This too will pass" etched on it, which has the desired effect.^[1]

Genius, isn't it?

Infinite

This picture is apparently called "circular infinity" and is similar in process to a Cantor Set. The picture can be drawn by drawing an infinity of infinity symbols (8) within the others. Any universe theory centered around this concept immediately points to the existence of other realms of existence. If we operate within one of these circles, then there is the possibility of there being another or multiple other paralell realms of existence, as well as larger realms that include both our and our paralell realms, and other realms in other, indirectly parelell realms. This gets fairly intircate.

An example of this would help. If the planet "earth" is the human realm, then each of the planets in our solar system is a paralell realm, and our solar system is a larger realm, itsef belonging to a cluster which belongs to a larger cluster which belongs to the milky way which belongs to a galaxy cluster which belongs to the universe which belongs to <

As I have said in my previous post; There is no truth. This allows us to visually identify things that are relative, like size. It is impossible to determine how big a human actually is because in this concept, there is no "master size" with which all comparisons will yeild similar results. compared to a galazy, a human is less than an atom. But the galazy itself may be as small as an atom compared to the universe.

Also, this theory is exponential, if you hadn't realized it already.

Growth within Time, infinite and never ending.

I've realized something today. The minute you begin to believe in yourself, the minute you begin to place faith in some system, then you stop growing, learning. A few moments ago I didn't want to watch a documentary that a residence buddy suggested because I "believed that I was right, and I didn't want to listen to some guy telling me that I'm wrong" Of course, the issue here is not in refusing to believe in a credible source (credibility is relative, and there's nothing to say that I'm not rigth and he's wrong) the problem is that I refuse to see his opinion. It's like writing a paragraph on paper and cutting it up in 4 parts, and telling someone to reconstruct the writing with only 3 of the parts. How can you know that your deductions are right if you aren't looking at all the evidence?

This is where my latest theory comes from. If at any moment in time you think you hold all the pieces, or you actually do hold all the pieces, then for that moment and that moment only you are right. However, the next moment someone comes up with a different idea, and if you cling to the thought that you're correct, and disregard his opinion, then you are wrong.

However I believe that this process is natural. One needs a stable system to operate in, and that requires that one stops taking in all the new possibilities. This is the difference between adults and children. Children are meant to absorb, adults to impart. How can one impart if the knowledge that one posesses instantly becomes obsolete and incorrect? This "setting in" is probably necessary for evolution. Long story short, this is why the previous generation will always raise the next above their heads, why art movements become mainstream and then are pushed back, this is how most things have a definite lifespan. This is also why scientists are constantly looking for new ideas and solutions. They know that once they believe that they hold the truth, they will be missing out on other discoveries and thus won't actually hold the truth. In a way, every step towards knowledge fails to grasp it.

Thus, Perfection - the point unto which no further progress is necessary - does not exist. Perfection, Eternal Life, Peace and Truth, the four ultimates that I have thought of, are unacheivable within a system based on the passage of time. And life cannot exist outside of time, so: These ultimates do not exist. In fact any and all ultimates do not exist.

Shinigami

NO race ONLY human

I  inadvertedly coined this term discussing on facebook/racebending group front page.

Gabriel St-Denis: It's disappointing to see HOLLYWOOD pass up such an excellent opportunity to promote decent conduct and a No-Race-Only-Human attitude. I wonder, were they afraid that it would be negatively received if they had gone the other way? Are there even any good arguments against? I doubt it. "It's an american show so..." perhaps? If anything, they should have at least aimed for adapting the T.V. series as accurately as possible...

And so I made this poster as a creative response to that statement.

Whitewashing and the Movie Intustry

This post covers the issue of whitewashing in The Last Airbender, the live action retelling of the critically acclaimed show Avatar; The Last Airbender. First and foremost, let me start with a brief rundown of the Avatar universe: The world is divided into 4 nations, each of them representing a specific element (earth water fire and air) and drawing heavily on various asian and inuit cultures. The show was immensely popular with fans and created a massive uproar when it was revealed that all major roles would be covered by white actors. I won't get in too deep since there are many others who have written more extensively, but this issue is specifically labeled as Yellowface; and like many others I had no idea until now, and I'm not happy. Following are exerpts from http://www.moviecitynews.com/columnists/voynar/2009/090422.html

There was a similar controversy surrounding the casting of white American Justin Chatwin to play the lead part of Goku in Dragonball Evolution, which opened earlier this month, and last year blackjack drama 21 stirred accusations of white-washing for its casting  of white talent Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth in roles that in real-life were played by Asian-American males. The Last Airbender is the most recent example, but racial white-washing has been a part of  Hollywood since its beginning. Website Buns of Yogurt offers a pretty thorough visual history of the "yellowfacing" of Asian parts in film, noting Hollywood's long and storied history of casting white faces in Asian role, from Mary Pickford in Madame Butterfly way back in 1915, to Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) to Bruce Lee being shut out of playing the character in Kung Fu that he came up with, in favor of white actor David Carradine.

And it's not just in the casting of white actors in Asian roles that's a problem; this 2008 article for Asian Week by Philip W. Chung also points to films like Come See the Paradise (1990), which stuck a story about a white man in love with a Japanese woman in the middle of a story about interment of Japanese-Americans during WWII to make it more palatable, and True Believer (1989), which effectively erased the contributions of numerous Asian-Americans to the real-life story of the freeing of a Korean-American jailed for a crime he didn't commit. And even when Hollywood does cast actual Asians in Asian roles, they don't always get it right -- as in the controversial decision to cast Chinese actresses in the three lead roles in Memoirs of  a Geisha, which is set in Japan (oh, those darn Asians, they all look alike anyhow, who's going to notice, right?)

When it comes to casting white faces over Asian roles, especially for an adaptation of a manga or anime series, studios no doubt seek to sell beyond the demographic of the source material; some number-cruncher at the studio probably has spreadsheets and a nifty Powerpoint presentation that prove conclusively to the studio pockets that Asian faces don't open films or create crossover. But isn't that the same argument Hollywood's been using since time out of mind in casting white actors to play Asian parts? Hollywood's a tough business with an eagle eye on the box office bottom line, and the attitude toward race in casting decisions isn't likely to change until Asian-Americans band together to show Hollywood shirts the financial impact their united weight can bear by boycotting films they feel white-wash Asian parts, and supporting those that do cast Asian actors in lead roles.

It's 2009, folks. We have an African-American man in the highest elected office of our country. Can't we have an adaptation of an Asian-themed series with actual Asian actors playing the lead roles?

- by Kim Voynar 

For my part, I've joined the facebook group, at least. And I'm not going to go see that movie when it's out. Kim Voynar is right. The big wigs of any industry are not likely to enact more than surface (reparatory) changes unless there is a dramatic and tangible public response to the issue. In other words, until they realize that people might actually be angry enough not to buy the product. Which is exactly what I'm going to be doing this June, that and telling everyone I know what I think. It's unacceptable that any industry should make unethical decisions simply because the greater percentage of the population will not notice...

Requiem for the Lost Ones

Click on the images to make them larger. This is comic #3. Shitty visuals, I know, don't tell me, it was a school project, and I was sort-of rushed. They're still better than #2. The story's not that great either. but at least it's cohesive this time. At any rate, I tried, you know? And I plan to keep trying. "He who races not never will win." Every failure is one less failure yet to come before I reach my goal. Effort, luck and skill, in that order, will decided how many times I'll fall short.

Poems...

An illustrious retreat
though relaxing in itself
offers no peace from the world

Illusions of a distant planet
mysteries and wonders cloaked in darkeness
entertain our sombre existence

Life, though fleeting, lasts longer
than a thousand deaths, transcending time
One life since the beginning of our time

Hell that could be an art project

"Or will you smile with both eyes welded shut" when the world crumbles around you on judgment day?

I could graffiti that on some industry wall and take pictures and send it to a gallery. Or I could just be a comic book artist a graffiti artist who uses words, bit like "Private Property Created Crime"...


Ah the fruit of my stagnation: it is the 21st of march today.
Aah, am I in university?
Aah, did I forget all about the money?
What vacuous subspace do I dwell in?

Comfortably Numb

I don't like the past. I never did. Since I was young... And I didn't like the future, either. I tried to run away from the present... in books, toys, videogames, drawing, then anime, then manga....

I'm Numb. Comfortably numb. Deciding on a whim, pushing aside all responsibilities, never looking anywhere, so I wouldn't be rattled by what I'd seen... Thoughtlessly wasting away, not moving forwards, not learning from my mistakes, pretending to care while the console hums and I sit in the zone oblivious...

What did I do? What should I think of such and such bad call on my part? What shall I do from now on? Tomorrow? Next Year? What do I want to do? Shall I go on?

Whenever I start to realize that feeling of urgency,  I become inspired to draw, or I sit all night watching anime and reading comics. And I get angry or unnerved when I'm interrupted, because it forces me to remember that I'm wasting time.

I don't want to think of the past. There are too many sad and wonderful things for this kid to process. The future is scary. The present...

I met a person who doesn't care about the world. Is one selfish for wanting only one's own happiness? Or is that just being honest? Are such  modest, realistic goals to be applauded? I don't feel like doing any more than I have to to help the planet either. And at the same time, I want to make a difference. I do care about the world at large. I've seen it. Africa is a tangible place in my head. I know what pollution does, I understand it, more than before anyway. I understand the flawed thinking of men, I like to think. I can almost see the paths sometimes. I can't deny this weight. Perhaps I should have scolded her, but how can I judge others? What I think is the right thing isn't really the right thing. Can I really tell others to do what I think is right, just because to me, it feels right?

Perhaps it's better than the alternatives. I validated her, more or less. I should not have. People are entitled to their own foolish opinions, but to not hold up your own because someone else has a different one is just weakness. For the record, I think you're naive. The world is a big place, a tangible place. It's not just "the earth" it's our home. YOUR home. MY home. And the home of countless other people who don't know you nor care about you. But since we share the shelter, the food, the materials the earth provides us, and since you and I seem to have a bigger share than the rest, we should at least become aware of this weight we have to carry. Since we share, we gotta share the work too. I'm living in a dream world, treading slowly and growing slowly, but you're also denying reality. For your own convenience. You're comfortably numb. You ignorant, foolish dumbass.

Hey you, your way of thinking is outdated. Self-serving doesn't accomplish anything. Individualism kills the group.  Being content with one's own happiness is good, but we aren't living in a utopian system. This world is dying. If everyone just decided to look for their own happiness, sure we'd be happy, but...

And can you imagine the horror of waking up from such a dream? Would that be true happiness? Or would you run further, having no choice but to keep denying the reality you shun until finally it explodes in your face? This ignorance was the folly of the 20th century. Your way of thinking is archaic. Self-destructive. I will judge you, since you can't judge yourself. The fate of mankind is such: either man up and take your responsibilities at heart, or disappear into the wind as the times change but you sit still. In a way, I don't care for those who don't care for others. In more than one way. You're unneeded, and I feel a sudden rage at your lethargy. Probably because I'm similar. Definitely because I'm the same, but at the same time, I have these contradictory beliefs, they sometimes move me forward a great deal. But you... Useless things should be discarded. Dead weights, forsaken. Ignorants, fools and selfishly-minded relics from the past... Shot and fed to the worms. You're breathing my oxygen. Drinking my water. We'll need it in the future you try to ignore. Get lost or get going, you burden, you parasite, you waste of molecules.

Or will you smile with both eyes welded shut when the world crumbles around you on judgment day?

This is the rage I carry for my own tendency to stagnate. Of course, your type of person holds the blinds closed too strongly for me to force them open, make you or anyone acknowledge this truth which makes me feel superior at times. You'll just dismiss me and crawl back into your delusions. But hell, maybe I am superior. I can see my own flaws. And then, once in a while, I work up the courage to fight them, a bit. It's a small victory, but still light-years ahead of you.

Quote of the Day

Lying tears hurt others; Lying smiles hurt oneself.

- C.C, Code Geass
- unknown

Ghost in the Shell

The man theme of this movie revolves around the - aliveness -  of non biological intelligences. The "Ghost" refers to the essence, the human personality that exists in the cyborg brain of the characters. The "shell" Is their physical body, the machine in which they exist in the physical world.

This duality is akin to the perceived difference between the "body" and the "soul" in religion and 20th century thinking.

Only now do I understand the metaphorical meaning of the Ghost in the Shell when it comes to art. The Ghost denotes the meaning while the shell is the form. Many advertisements are empty because they lack meaning, they are comprised of only the form. Similarly, Ann Lee in "No Ghost Just A Shell" is just a vessel, a body through which foreign meanings are communicated; Ann Lee herself has no Ghost, no meaning, she is a Doll.

The movie itself is magnificent. Visually astounding, it pauses often to show stills of the environment, it has clear and fluid animation. The music score also deserves praise. The characters are smart and well fleshed out, the plot and setting is compelling and imaginative. Finally, the movie touches on philosophy, the science of evolution and politics in a manner that is both fully immersive and yet does not detract from the other points of the movie. Perhaps it is undeserving of a 5 star review; for my part, it comes pretty damn close.

The opening and subject matter of this anime feature film resurface as an inspiration to the Matrix. GITS was released 3 years prior, I believe. An excellent anime feature film, one of the best, and a huge hit in the West.

Jeet Kune Do

I have not invented a "new style," composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as apart from "this" method or "that" method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns, or molds. Remember that Jeet Kune Do is merely a name used, a mirror in which to see "ourselves". . . Jeet Kune Do is not an organized institution that one can be a member of. Either you understand or you don't, and that is that. There is no mystery about my style. My movements are simple, direct and non-classical. The extraordinary part of it lies in its simplicity. Every movement in Jeet Kune-Do is being so of itself. There is nothing artificial about it. I always believe that the easy way is the right way. Jeet Kune-Do is simply the direct expression of one's feelings with the minimum of movements and energy. The closer to the true way of Kung Fu, the less wastage of expression there is. Finally, a Jeet Kune Do man who says Jeet Kune Do is exclusively Jeet Kune Do is simply not with it. He is still hung up on his self-closing resistance, in this case anchored down to reactionary pattern, and naturally is still bound by another modified pattern and can move within its limits. He has not digested the simple fact that truth exists outside all molds; pattern and awareness is never exclusive. Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back.

– Bruce Lee

Humility

I've just finished inking my second comic, and once more I experience humility. Indeed, in the face of all actual manga graphic novels or comics of any sort, including the badly drawn ones, I am nothing. Perhaps my nibs are subpar. No, I think it has more to do with the fact that I am rushing through the inking job to get it done, not taking my time. It also doesn't help that my rough is all sketchy. At the end of the day, I'm left with only the one fact: As I am now, I have less than zero percent chance of going pro.

To Do:
Create a few pages of manga exercising the utmost of my ability to see where my actual limit is.
Raise the limit. Practice practice practice.
Improve speed.
(and the rest. Tones, crosshatching techniques, fix pc to use photoshop & scanner)
Apply tones to isolated drawings first to get a hang of the techniques.
Practice until my fingers melt off and burn.

[Edit: It's just occurred to me that I might one day outgrow manga. Even though my comics are miserably bad, I have most of the basic skills. At this stage of the game I'm good enough to redraw almost any character in any style (given an image to work with) and on less complex styles (not josei or seinen) I can redraw them in other positions. If only I could master the correct folding of clothes and the pen nib, I would have mastered the basics. 

So what I really need to focus on is my background style, and patience. Alot myself more drawing time (ugh...) to make better art. Also, layouts and framing are a big weakness of mine.

So the new list: -Master clothing
-Master pen nib
-Master Layout style
-Master framing
-Master correct placement of dialogue.
-Master scene description panels.
-Master In/Out, Fades and Flashbacks
-Master Inking
-Master Tones and cross hatching
...Solution : Practice!]

[Edit: On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being top tier pro and 0 being total n00b, I would say I'm about level 5. At level 7 I can enter the pro! world, maybe, if my stories are good, if I'm lucky, if, if, if...]

Quote of the Day

"The best things in life aren't things"
                            - Unknown

One Love

You know how songs bring up old memories?

Well I remember seeing the music video to that song on a bar's t.v. screen in... I don't know. But the song reminds me of Tobago's lush tropical forests, the green water, the white sand.

And that reminds me that me and... someone else I don't remember, went swimming where the charlotteville townsfolk cleaned out the fish... We could have gotten seriously sick... or was it me? I don't know. Help me someone, before I forget!

It's sad how some things we remember forever, others dissapear and some stay just beyond our grasp...

In Tobago I did a double shift, or stayed up late on purpose or something, and I missed the awesome Argyle Waterfall port program...

A Jack of All Trades

Is master of none.

The Push Man

 

Is part of a new genre among manga, called gekiga (and to me gekiga seems similar to the move from comics to graphic novels) which distinguishes iteself from the steroid packed, big eyed, big breasted, hacking, slashing stabbing, kicking, punching and spellcasting when not fanservicing mainstream manga titles these days.  Yoshihiro Tatsumi's work The Push Man depicts the lives of young worker class japanese as they live through life. The themes are quite repetitive of one another, as are the looks and characters of the main charachters (The Push Man is a series of shorts), but to me, a novice as of yet incapable of producing a serious body of work, the novel is inspiring. I can only see pluses in this series. (Or at least, compared to mine, The Push Man is a perfect 10)

So how does one make a cliche adventure story or an action without it looking like that other manga?

I've thought of many things, and there are some aspects of mainstream I wish I could half remove without taking out the core. My personal universe is a universe of magic, after all.

So I've come up with a list of to-do's:

DESTROY THE GIFTED YOUNG PROTAGONIST CONCEPT

Never learn to draw cute girls (at this point that is far from being a problem)

Portray death realistically - but make the theme seem darker if that is the case, otherwise the death sticks out like a sore thumb, (think Kekkaishi)

Utilize themes as well as character development (all good comics have both.)

Make elaborate backgrounds

Write less, draw more

Make fight scenes quick and deadly

Give all fight scenes a meaning, and avoid tedious explanations. Quick and cool is the way to go.

Have characters struggle through more than just fear or weakness or whether to kill or not kill.

Use hard subject matter (think FMA) and then use comedy as desired.

Use vibrant and interesting characters

Use some mysterious characters that you think you've figured out but can never be sure.

Let their actions speak louder than the words they say.

Kill the misogynist concept of the perfect wife omnipresent in many manga and anime.

Read more Graphic Novels

Write more stories.

Practice different styles

Learn to use tones

Never throw out a concept. Rewrite it.

Actually rewrite it.

Recognize that you don't have natural talent.

Work hard and long and care for what you do.

Make people believe in your work and your ability.

Always push for more and better.

Write what you like, like what you write.

Become a comic book artist.

Get good enough so others recognize you as a graphic novelist.

Tell them that you're not.

Friends of Passage

Was that a final farewell?

I had a felt a certain sense of home. "This is a place I can return to" Mais cette "place" a moi elle existe dans le temps, et dans l'espace. Dans quelques annees, mon dernier frere aura gradue et il ira a l'encontre de ses propres obstacles. Comment puis-je retourner dans le temps, a l'endroit de repos?

Truth is, I wander, but I don't really exist anywhere else. I've flown across the world like the shadow of a cloud, leaving next to nothing behind. All these places, it seems, would be just as foreign if I were to return. At times, the people I've met along the way seem little more than acquaintances, addresses on my contact list. People that I've met, that will remember me and who I was; if feels like to expect more is folly. Can I really say that I belong here? There? When I went home I remembered a great many things, that I don't have another place to call home.  I thought that that small town would stay the same forever, a kind of base where my roots are buried. I felt a sense of permanence here, that the people of this place had found it in themselves to accept my presence and my absences, that we would be bound somehow, because of where we had sprung from the ground, our roots mixed and matched as we moved around and spread out into the sky.

But... Were my friends just friends of passage? Everyone has their own road, and it may take them far, farther than I can see, and they may not return here. Is it that I severed my connection when I left, or that I abandoned my bonds to wither while I was away? It's certainly foolish to think that no matter how far I go, how little I think of home, these friends of mine would return to their hometown when I returned to mine, and we would all share stories and get along and part ways "until next time" forever. I may have changed too much to be recognized, and perhaps I can no longer understand when they speak of the old scars. Have I forgotten? Have I moved away from the me they knew, so much that to them I seem just as foreign as the faraway places I talk about? What was I to them? No, what were they to me, if I naively thought they would always welcome me home.

But soon, there will be little left of the home I speak of. Was our last meeting the final farewell, like a check up to see if "oh, you're doing good" to rest the conscience and turn the page? If that is so then my life is just an accumulation of impermanences, of forgotten friends with nothing to say to and eroded memories that have bee discarded or replaced. It's sad, really, to know so many people but have no one to talk to, no one that stays. To live like this... fleetingly... Everywhere and nowhere at once, like a frown or a sad sad smile. Loneliness awaits.

...
But why am I complaining? I chose this. I chose it myself, wholeheartedly. I put everything behind me and jumped into a new adventure again, pausing from time to time to record some insight on a old mystery. It's a lot less difficult to ignore the past and pretend that you've forgotten, but you end up losing yourself completely. Weigh the appeal of the unknown against the happiness of belonging. You already know how much you've gained, but you'll never know how much you've lost.

The Frame of Things

In this world every puzzle piece clicks into place. But as we know, all the pieces are human, and all humans can fail, do fail, and then feel the need to justify their embarassement.

"I should have done something" "I should have stopped them"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G63FEamhpA0&feature=related

And you know... I 'm glad I was born in this generation. Things might get pretty interesting. This guy was tasered because he was wearing a hat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ2R6nGR9-g&feature=related

I'm interested in his words. "This is like asking a king to remove his crown." It's like the same thing as cutting someone else's hair without their permission. Maybe he wouldn't have brought his hat, but not knowing, would rather fight that remove it because, and especially because of a forceful officer.

"We respect religion, but secular things, no." He's right, I feel. Religion is a grey area. It gets around where other's can't because religion can raise a fuss if it's attacked overtly, in this day and age. It's left alone because it is strong and broad and a pawn out of line is easily sacrificed when involved in some controversy "oppressing" religion. But some things are more important than religion. If there was something I believed in, some small freedom which is more valuable than anything. My grandfather's watch. I was undecided on whether or not I would jump from the boat if it fell into the sea. Knowing this, I took extra precautions.

But if someone wanted to confiscate it yes I would fight. Perhaps I would even oppose taking it off.

As he said, this is "control". It is a tight frame, but it's reach is broad. Even though I think his obstinence is kind of ridiculous, it is worthy of praise.

KAZEKAMI LV. Up!

So, finally, after a week and a half of sweat and restless nights, I finally "finished" my comic. Finished as it submitted it. I am going to keep working on it.

I was explaining to the teacher the joy of leveling up increasingly fast; whereas before I would like a specific piece for months, nowadays a week is all it takes for me to move on. This means that I  am progressing continuously, which is great. It also means that I cannot enjoy the satisfaction of a completed piece that I think is the best I could have done. Indeed, not 12 hrs after I submitted this comic, I have realized that the story is lacking - I knew beforehand tht the art was lacking, but I held on to the notion that perhaps the story would compensate; this is not the case.

Shall we start with a resume of KAZEKAMI? A soldier is given instructions to look for a "watergod" which may be hiding in the nearby village. His commander informs him that once he is found the army will move in and annihilate the village. The scene cuts to the village, where a blond haired man is talking with his landlady. The blond haired man is next seen wandering the town and the temple where he learns more about the watergods. Finally, he meets a young girl who talks his ear off with her problems while he gives her the classic (...) and then she reveals that she is the last watergod (that he is looking for.) The man returns to his room, wonders about the motivations behind the massacre of a village, if there is only one target. He sneaks into the priest's room and threatens him to reveal information.The priest then tells him about the truth behind the girl. The man realizes that she needs to stay alive and decides to run away from the town to make himself the focus and spare the defenseless village.

Now: critique. The concept sounded interesting at first, but it has been modified so many times that the original point seems to melt away. There is little or no character development. We are treated to Fuyu's train of thought as well as her brooding personality. Higen, however, remains a mistery even though he is a main character. It would be cool if he was mysterious, but in this comic he is simply all over the place. We have no idea what his reasons are, or if he even has any. His evolution from assassin to hero is never addressed regardless of how quickly it occurs. Instead he simply begins to work towards saving Fuyu.

On the whole, this comic seems... plastic. As soon as I began to rewrite parts of the script without hte script iteself, I lost the ability to consider the piece as a whole. Thankfully, before anyone reads this, i have become aware of it.

[edit: And I have realized that my body's ridiculous tiredness manifested itself in the impromptu naps that have been happening, out of my control (ex. sleeping at my work table, and making all the mistakes that I made originally)]