Optic

It's a good idea. I could tweak the Articles section to allow ratings. The reviews might get a bit lonely though as they would no longer be tied to an anime forum or thread (which the landing pages achieved) so Tags would be the only way to maintain some form of link. Definitely worth investigating later down the track. Indeed - that's the goal.

Hello everyone, In my previous announcement, I mentioned that I was evaluating a way to reorganise the Anime Discussion forums into separate forums to allow separate episode discussions for anime titles. This would also allow related threads to be created (e.g. character discussion threads) and also give older anime titles a much needed boost in discussions! Well the time has come to put that plan into motion. I have set time aside this coming Friday morning at 9 AM (my time zone in Perth, WA) to implement this. In PST time: Thursday, 25 February 2016, 3 PM Anime Forums will be closed and unavailable for the whole day whilst these changes are implemented! Depending on how things go, there is a possibility it MIGHT spill into the weekend but I will do my utmost to ensure downtime is minimised. The check list of changes are as follows: Create individual anime forums Move all anime threads into the new individual forums SPLIT the current anime discussion threads into individual episode threads Update module powering profile image covers Decommission the anime listing/landing pages *see below* Regarding Anime Listing/Landing Pages Removal With this upcoming change, this will make the anime landing pages redundant. This was not a decision I took lightly, and I thought about this for quite sometime. The original intent behind the anime landing pages was to offer something a little different on top of our anime discussion threads. It was an ambitious project to create a database of anime titles containing plot information, character profiles and a link to the main discussion thread for a given anime title. Unfortunately, this has now become an overwhelming project to maintain. It is apparent that without full-time dedicated contributors it will no longer be of any use to our visitors. Also from the feedback I received, many visitors found it very confusing to use as this feature was a separate function from the forums. The landing pages did provide a nice method to write reviews, but in its current state the anime landing pages database is not very comprehensive. It is also requires a significant amount of contributors to keep it up to date and to be quite frank - most of this information can be easily be found on other sources on the web. Could we have continued this in the form of a Wiki? Yes, that's a definite possibility... but... ... I believe our focus should be to stick to what our community is all about, and that is Anime Forums. So on that basis, the anime landing pages will be decommissioned. All user reviews that were written on the landing pages will be migrated manually into archive threads that will be created into their new dedicated anime title forums. --- Thanks for your support. I'll write another announcement when the update is complete. If you have any feedback, questions or suggestions please feel free to let me know!

Interesting stuff! Your collection reminds me of my time in London which had some nice museums that I thoroughly enjoyed visiting. Only visited three though, the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum and the National Gallery. From memory they were free to enter too.

Thanks for your kind feedback @filip, and nice to see you again. Hope you've been well. I've been fairly busy, been doing some self-study for some ICT certifications before getting back into the job market. Also got an upcoming revamp coming soon for the anime discussion forums.

I ordered the first season BD box set for Tokyo Ghoul a few days ago, and look forward to seeing it soon as it seems to be quite popular! How's the English dub on this one? Or should I stick with the Japanese audio?

Ah seeing Hinazuki so happy was really heart-warming. And this scene was cute. Yes that scene of the teacher right before the ending this episode seems VERY suspicious and I feel the same way too. But, the supposed killer/kidnapper is a serial one right? I just can't believe it would be the teacher... he seems to show genuine empathy towards Satoru in trying to help Hinazuki and I don't think his schedule would fit in with the future/past events (however way to look at it) unless he is hiring an accomplice . Come to think of it we don't really know anything much about the teacher do we... aghh.

That's quite a tall order. I recognise 1, 2 and 4. So basically no MSG, high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners? I would work backwards, take a look at some of the snacks here at White Rabbit Japan and pick something that looks good. They have basic allergen information and nice high quality images of the packaging, both front and back which may help to list the ingredients. You'd have to translate them from Japanese manually though. On another note... The Japanese sure do love their exquisite Kit Kat flavours don't they? Kit Kat Shinshu Apple looks and sounds rather tasty: I've tried Ichigo and Green Tea Kit Kat before, which were pretty good. Now if only I can find a place to import these at a not so expensive price..

Hey Kimmy, this title relies heavily on cliffhangers literally right at the end of each episode. If you're up for it, try and give the first episode another whirl sometime in full. Would love for you to join our discussion for this title. Having said that, many of the episodes recently have given me the urge to flip the table (not in a bad way - just the cliffhangers ). Though I'm really enjoying this title, I think the ending will definitely make or break it. I feel each episode is toying with the viewer. --- Regarding Episode 6... I have nothing much to add other than Airi Katagiri is such a damn good character and it's really heart-warming the way she stood firm and believed in Satoru up to this point. Yes, we really need it. This scene was just so darn depressing. Seeing Airi like that, and the suspect in the midst there. Aghhh.

What's a tsundere you may ask? I think Wikipedia explains this best: I'm a sucker for tsundere characters. Who doesn't like to see a character change over time, often for the better? I found this VERY difficult to narrow down to just five and it is subject to change in future. Here are my top five favourites: 1. Noire Hyperdimension Neptunia Noire is on the right! Noire is extremely hard working, and is the ideal CPU, with her being in charge of Lastation. She makes every other CPU look lazy and sloppy. But she works so much, and is cold to everyone. It's not shown in the anime, but Noire was very hostile to Neptune in Re;birth 1 by trying to defeat her due to her memory loss at the start of the game. The biggest heart-warming interaction was when Neptune visited Lastation and won her over with pudding. OK, that probably sounds ridiculous if you haven't played the games. But you have to understand, these CPUs were fighting each other for many years in the Console War, and for Neptune to forget all of their past grievances just like that, it was awhh. Minor Re;birth 1 spoiler: I really like Noire because of her interactions with Neptune. Neptune loves to keep trolling her, and poking fun at her. And Noire's hostile reaction is very amusing! But deep inside, Noire really cares and she gets lonely without Neptune and the other CPUs around her. In the anime, even when Neptune was feeling depressed, Noire showed her really warm and caring side by scolding her to snap out of it. And the two worked together nicely in their HDD forms. 2. Shana Shakugan no Shana Shana is the one with the katana and flames! Shana is the most angriest, badass, tsundere loli EVER. With the ability to draw upon the power of flame to fly and pounce around with a katana sword, she truly is a powerful character. But what is even more menacing is her personality. She is constantly telling Yuji to shut up. Shana also gives almost everyone in school angry glares, especially Yoshida in the first season. What I really liked about Shana is most interesting about Shana is she isn't a traditional human. She was raised a flame haze, in a distant world. So she became upset and awkward when it came to confronting her feelings, and even hostile at times. As expected, she slowly warmed up around Yuji and yes, things developed from there. ... even if it took three seasons. Ahem. 3. Asuka Langley Soryu Neon Genesis Evangelion / Rebuild of Evangelion Asuka is the pilot of Evangelion Unit 02! She is very, VERY aggressive towards Shinji, and is very proud and boastful of her Eva piloting abilities. It's hard for me to explain more than that without going into spoilers about her dark past which drove her to pilot Eva in the first place. But later on she does slowly warm up to Shinji, her other classmates and NERV. She does seem slightly softer though in the Rebuild of Evangelion. Her character could change radically depending on what happens in the final instalment, when it comes out. 4. Eclair Martinozzi Dog Days Eclair is the green one on the right! So when Eclair saw Shinku being summoned into their world as a hero, Eclair was hostile at the start. She muttered "Hero? We don't need a hero!" Ouch! Eclair definitely was cold, but only to Shinku. I love Eclair because I found her interactions with Shinku to be adorable. Both of them had awesome strength, and Eclair was in a prestigious knight position. Eclair reclutantly acknowledged Shinku's skills over time, even if she kept hitting him in rather painful ways for embarrassing her in unintended ways. *cough* wardrobe failure. And towards the end of the first season, Eclair's feelings towards Shinku were painfully obvious. 5. Rin Tohsaka Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works Rin Tohsaka is the third one on the right, in red! I have no knowledge of Rin Tohsaka other than from the two anime titles: Fate/stay night UBW and Fate/Zero. My understanding is this franchise is HUGE and clearly Rin has more depth and is portrayed differently in other titles in the franchise. Now with that in mind, I loved the way Rin Tohsaka was portrayed in UBW. She was very skilled, though pitied and looked down on Shiro due to how he got involved after summoning Saber. There were so many times where she was just plain cold towards him. But despite the life threatening odds amongst all the servants, Shiro overcame that and gained Rin's trust over time into a rather heart-warming way which I really loved. --- [FLOAT_RIGHT][/FLOAT_RIGHT]As mentioned above, my entries are subject to change later. So... Who are your top five favourite tsundere characters, and why?

No doubt you've stumbled upon gift cards. Perhaps you were given one, or gave one out to a friend or family member recently. Some of you may be thinking: Why would I give a gift card when I can give cash instead to someone? Well consider a greeting card. A gift card coming out of the card as you open it is probably better than a wad of cash dropping out. And some gift cards can be personalised. I like receiving gift cards for retailers that sell what I want. So in this case JB Hi-Fi. Even ones for hardware stores like Bunnings Warehouse (for those in the US, similar to Home Depot) or even IKEA would be useful. My only gripe though is expiry dates vary, but shouldnt be a problem. So with this in mind... What do you think about gift cards? Do you like the idea of them or do you dislike them? And why?

So during one of my trips in Japan, and out of pure curiosity me and my brother went to a maid cafe. Yes, we were handed flyers by the cute Japanese maids on the street corners. I know there are so many maid cafes out there so if you ever go to one, your experience will vary depending on how good the operator is. The one we went to was Maidreamin Akihabara. In a nutshell: Overpriced, average food (see packages below!) Distorted speakers! Very enthusiastic and energetic staff that will address you how you want, as well as sing and dance on stage. Oh and the package we got also included a clear file and a photo taken together with our maid. Would I go again? Probably not. But it was a fun experience. Here's the menu if anyone is curious: Have you ever been to a maid cafe? If so what was your experience like? If you haven't been, would you consider going to one?

Becoming a transfer student would be very expensive, but if you have the funds then I say go for it! From my experience in working at a school previously and as a former student, there are two ways you could approach it: Go through your existing High School - assuming your school has a Japanese teacher AND has connections to Japanese schools he/she probably already arranges tours to take students from your school . And later in the year they do the reverse, students from Japanese schools come to visit your school. But this is more like a short-term holiday/tour. Go through University or College - if you decide to do Japanese study at adult level, then your institution may have an exchange program in place for the final year, i.e. you get to study at a university in Japan. These are my observations from Australia though - you may have different opportunities depending which country you're from. I'm assuming you're from the US?

@ssjup81 probably is the most fluent out of us here and she also lives in Japan so perhaps she could provide some insight. I myself am learning but at a slow pace.

Well I feel anime is the correct term because after all, both retail shops and online shops have separate categories for anime and cartoons. Sanity and JB-Hi Fi in my area for example categorise western cartoons like South Park and Family Guy under Animated. For anime titles they put them under, well... Anime. Amazon does the same too on their listings. And it makes sense to do so, because there some anime titles can be quite violent, or lewd with ecchi covers. Clumping the two categories together would seem odd. So to answer the question, no it wouldn't make me mad but I would correct the person based on the above.

Hello Fanta, welcome to AF. Nice to have you on-board. We now have two Aussies and one New Zealander in our community now. FYI - Queenie here is from Melbourne - a more trendy and exciting city in Australia versus where I'm from which is Perth. Awesome. MIGHT be worthwhile looking into the Working Hoilday Visa, Australians are eligible for that. Or if you already have a degree you could go through that route too.

@Queenie , @Higanbana , @metroman008 - happy to look into adding these characters. I've added these on my To-Do list and will get to them when I get a chance. I agree we do need more male characters in the mix. Happy to take requests, any particular characters you were after Kimmy?

Hello @noah, thank you for your kind comments. Also, nice to see you again.

General thoughts since my first impressions. The fighting scenes are nice and fluid, and I love all the characters at this stage. Kurumi is an adorable character. The scenarios are just so ludicrous and spontaneous. BUT I do wonder where they are going with this series. What's the end goal? To cure the perception of phantoms or continue to coexist with them by quelling each rogue phantom that appears? I was under the impression Haruhiko was going to explain more about this as he hinted at the start. Also, magical girl Kurumi in her world was soo unexpected. I mean look at that weapon. Seriously.

Ooh potentially controversial topic! Sounds respectful, and mature in Greece. At the end of the day I think we can all acknowledge that anime, manga, and other similar sub-cultures are just not going to be as popular as your typical mainstream interests like sport, cars, food... and by that I mean if you were to bring it up with every new person you meet, there's a good chance they may never have watched anime for example. BUT: YMMV (your mileage may vary) ! I've actually had a mix of responses when I stated that I was into anime to other teachers at the school I used to work at. I found the younger staff were definitely more enthusiastic about it. There were also two Japanese teachers I used to work with too. One was older and more senior, and I could tell he liked that I was into Japanese made exports such as their Canon camcorders, but the moment I said I was into "Japanese animation" it was obvious he had almost NO interest in it because he responded with a respectful "Oh is that so?" and we never spoke about it again. On the other hand, the other younger Japanese teacher was definitely more open about it. In fact I learned he was even hosting Japanese culture lessons where students could bring in their own anime to watch as a treat if they did well in Japanese class. Of course nothing MA15+ was allowed. For you US peeps it's a rating similar in-between your PG-13 and R rating. The beauty of the Internet though is it makes it so much easier to unite people with otaku interests together *cough* Anime Forums *cough*. Especially if your local anime groups are not to your liking or non-existent. And that's absoloutely fine. Nobody here should feel degraded by others that don't enjoy otaku interests. As mentioned by @Evil Bunny of Doom , people can just respect the person's otaku interests even if it's not their cup of tea. Or if you're really persuasive, maybe you can convert them. But by the same token, I agree with @ThatCynicalSnob that your passion level should not be obnoxious to others: Yes, be passionate about your interests. But don't go stuffing it in everyone's faces in public, or on people's social media feeds (for those that aren't into it). As for whether otakus are typically "shut-ins" well that really comes down to the person. It's not like every otaku is a hikikimori.

I would definitely recommend it! I've been watching it on Blu-ray and up to Season 5. I think, if you watch the first Season you might get hooked. Definitely has good production values. I find this type of show can appeal to anyone because it compels you to put yourself in the survivor''s shoes - how would you react in the same situation if there was a zombie infection outbreak? How would you survive? Fortify in your house or join a group? How would you treat other survivors - with open arms, caution or hostility? It's quite compelling.

Hello DarkCloud, Welcome to Anime Forums. Hope you enjoy your stay here Ooh now this sounds interesting indeed! Do you have any samples of your work? Would you be open to posting one in the Creative Corner? You don't have to if you don't want to - but was just curious! Yes! I was wondering when we'd get another member that has BRS as a favourite. Who is your most favourite BRS character if I may ask?

And @Ryuji is the winner, congratulations. Winner and participant badges have now been distributed. Thanks to those that participated and those that voted on the entries.

Hello Kimmy, welcome to Anime Forums. Oooh, we have another person from the UK. I visited London a few years ago, for a week doing tourist things. Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, London Eye... I also liked how a lot of the historical museums were free to enter. I also checked out the observatory in Greenwich. Good fun. Awesome. Maybe you could share some recommendations of some of your favourites sometime? Thank you for your very kind comments. I'm open to feedback, so if you have any suggestions or requests please don't hesitate to let me know. I'll do my best to implement it if I feel it is something that will be useful for everyone. Please, enjoy your stay!

I feel many anime characters with pink hair have something special about them. They're normally either a: princess idol ...or are part of something bigger in the story! So who are your favourite characters with pink hair? My two current favourites are tied with partners: 1. Lacus Clyne Mobile Suit Gundam SEED / Destiny Lacus Clyne is a Coordinator and is the powerful pop idol performer in the PLANTs. And for a certain time there was a bit shared mutual feelings between herself, Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala. So she uses the soothing nature of her song and ideals as a weapon to try and diffuse conflict. Lacus strikes me as being very elegant. But maybe just too perfect and flawless - it's very hard to fault her actions and she virtually never makes any mistakes. I liked Lacus because she was a huge advocate of peace, had very pure ideals, and had catchy songs during her performances. Of course she was a very important part of the plot, particularly in giving Kira the strength to carry on in the midst of the conflict between the Coordinators and Naturals. She sort of took a back seat in Destiny, but still had plenty of influence. 2. Julis-Alexia von Riessfelt The Asterisk War: The Academy City on the Water Julis is Ayato's partner in the battle tournaments. On the surface, Julis does seem pretty generic and ordinary. But Julis loves eating... hamburgers. And she actually seems badass with her fire and sword skills. She also has a pretty touching background story, her being a princess and all as well as interacting with children at an orphanage. Oh and she's a tsundere too! I also REALLY LOVE her character design. I do hope though that Julis gets more development when this title resumes... my only complaint, is this title probably isn't going to get anywhere with romance. At least in Gundam SEED, relationships actually developed. Asterisk just keeps hinting, and hinting... and hinting... around clueless Ayato. How about you? Who are your favourite anime characters with pink hair, and why?