Have you Petted Your Catgirl today?

The Internet has Desensitised Me. Now Nothing Shocks Me.

My friend said to me the other day that he was worried and I asked him why. He replied he was worried that after seeing so much weird, perverted, violent stuff on the internet from when he was a teenager he now no longer is shocked by it. The example he gave was that in 4chan there is a Hentai Section with normal Hentai in it and a Hentai/Alternative section with tentacle rape, dick girls and other strange Hentai related images. He didn’t realise that the Hentai alternative section wasn’t the normal Hentai section for ages. He didn’t even realise there was a normal Hentai section. To him this was just normal, he didn’t find it shocking. When he said that I realised that I too thought that /d/ the Hentai Alternative section on 4chan was just for normal Hentai too. Is it really like that? Is the fact we have been exposed to things like goatse and tubgirl and really weird Hentai from a young age mean that things that shock everyone else are just the norm to us now? I had to investigate why and how this happened.

4chan is the first thing we need to look at when thinking about why Geeks and Internet Addicts are desensitised to the horrors of the Internet. I mean it’s not the worst site on the Internet by far but like there are things in /b/ that would disgust any normal person. I don’t go in /b/ but I have been a regular on an IRC chat channel since I was about 17 that loves /b/. It’s an anime related IRC chat channel that never talks about Anime. It’s all rape, sex, violence and gross outs mostly. But the thing is every time something disgusting from /b/ was linked, or something totally racist or something about rape or Loli I never batted an eyelid. I was just like *click**look**lol**close*. Is this bad? Because I know I’m not the only person out there with a sense of humour so much in the gutter. I know many people who find things that I find funny that a lot of people would just be grossed out by. Have we crossed a line or are we just a new kind of culture? Forget the MTV Generation we are the 4chan Generation.

Another friend of mine finds Anime quite disturbing. A few years back we were sitting in Borders and I was going down the Onegai Teacher art book and squeeing at the goodness inside. He pointed out that one of the girls rolling around in her underwear very much exposed looked like she was about 14 years old. I said “No no she has a condition that makes her look that way. Like the boy doesn’t look his age. She’s actually 21 or something”. He looked at me funny because I had quite calmly explained why the fact she was an obvious Loli wasn’t actually that bad because of the story of the Anime. He responded with “But she still looks 14. That doesn’t change that” and I shrugged and told him he just didn’t understand Anime. Anime is a strange medium I think because there really are no boundaries. It’s like.. anything goes. So we watch things that you would never ever see on TV in the West and then just think nothing of them after that. Like they banned an episode of Pokemon in the West where James was in a Bikini and had huge breasts. It was ok to air in Japan to the kids but here it was too controversial.

I think now that everyone has access to the internet its pretty hard to not become desensitised to things. They worry about violent films on the TV making their kids desensitised to things but to be fair it’s probably seeing photos of people smashed against trains or the after math of car crashes on the internet that’s doing it. I don’t know if it’s such a bad thing. I mean I am hardly a bad person, I have a good moral conscience and know right from wrong. So I laugh at things some people would think are sensitive areas or couldn’t find funny. That’s hardly making me evil. I think I am hardly alone in my being desensitized to a lot of bad things and therefore that hardly makes me a freak on nature.

You never know though. I may find something shocking one day and not laugh at it.

Anime In My Real Life: Food In Anime a Taste Adventure!

So I was having a conversation with one of my friends today and we have always had this idea to go to China Town and buy all the random looking Chinese/Japanese Food and eat it all. He is not familiar with Anime so a lot of it has no meaning to him other than “random new food to try” but to me a lot of the products relate back to Anime I have watched. I have watched characters eat certain foods over and over again and now my mission is to try these foods and see what they are like. Crazy? Yes. But this is what will happen when Anime invades my real life. So I am going to make a list of the stuff I want to try and why I want to try it. If you have any more ideas of things I need to eat then let me know in a comment and I will try and find them next weekend.

1.Pocky.

Yes yes yes I know, I am essentially an Anime fan and I have had Pocky many many times before so the idea of eating Pocky is nothing new to me. The thing is though Pocky has SO MANY FLAVOURS! that I need to eat more kinds. I have only ever had plain, mousse chocolate, mens chocolate, almond, strawberry, deluxe strawberry and Milk Pocky and I want to expand my Pocky world. I want to have Marble Royal Milk Tea Pocky, Cinnamon Apple Pocky, Peach & Strawberry Chocolate Pocky, Giant Cider Pocky and Mango Pocky. Pocky seems to have as many Flavours as Fanta does in Japan. Seriously Fanta comes in so many flavours I don’t think I’ll ever be able to taste them all. Pocky can be found in so many Animes but the ones I associate it with are Onegai Teacher, because she is OBSESSED with eating Pocky and Lucky Star because they are always eating Pocky. I think Konata tries to get Kagami to buy a huge box of it in one Episode!

2. Meat Buns/Nikuman

I am a Kanon enthusiast and in Kanon they are always eating Meat Buns. Yuichi is seen eating them and Motoko catches him and then they both are constantly eating them till that episode where Motoko goes back to where she came from. Ever since the first time I saw Yuichi attacking those Meat Buns I have wanted to try a Meat Bun. So I did some research into them to see if they are actually just Buns full of Meat and discovered all about them. They are essentially steamed buns filled with Meat and are sold as street food during the Winter. Meat Buns are also different depending on which region you are in and they have all types of fillings! You can get Pizza ones or Curry ones or Seafood ones. I think however I will stick to the regular Meat Kind when I go on my discovery next week. I’m sure I saw them in China Town.

3. TaiYaki

Another food from Kanon. Ayu-Chan was seen running away with Taiyaki she’d stolen from the stand in her first scene in the Anime. She runs off with Yuichi. Taiyaki from what I understand is a bread shaped in the form of a fish with Red Bean paste inside. I must be spelling it wrong because I can’t find any information on it via Google except one kid who bought some and found out it didn’t look anything like Ayu’s. So I am prepared for the fact that if I find Taiyaki next Saturday it may not look as good and as tasty as Ayu’s does in Kanon but it will sure as hell TASTE as good as hers looks.

4.Curry Pan

Curry Pan is like everywhere in Anime. I’m sure they eat it in every school cafeteria but the one Anime that springs to mind when I think of Curry pan is Girls Bravo. Miharu-Chan is getting used to the different food on Earth (ie she’s eating everything up) and is promised some of the schools famous Curry Pan. Unable to wait for it she goes in search of the school so she can get some herself. I’ve always been interested in Bread in Japan because it seems to be full of really yummy stuff and Curry Pan just sounds really good. Curry Pan is essentially a bun made of slightly sweet dough, filled with a spoonful of curry, breaded and deep fried. So kind of like the Meat Bun I guess. Though I would try all kinds of Pan, apparently filled Breads are Japanese speciality!

5.Japanese Curry

In FLCL Haruko serves up seriously spicy Curry to Naota, which he despises. In Lucky Star when the girls get lunch in the Cafeteria for the first time Konata gets the Curry and in Kanon when Shiori eats lunch with Yuichi in the schools cafeteria he gets her Curry and she thinks it’s too spicy. I always thought it was just like Indian Curry (being Indian myself I know a lot about curry) but from what I hear it’s thicker, sweeter and milder than Indian Curry and sounds like it would be good to eat! One of my friend raves about Chicken katsu Curry which she had once and I have always longed to try it. I think I will look for a pack of instant curry and add to that myself at home rather than eat it next week. I think I may be a bit full to eat Curry aswell as all the other stuff! Though I may stay away from the Spicy Curry, like Naota in FLCL I don’t like Spicy foods.

6.Ramen/InstantNoodles

There is something about Instant Noodles that come from Japan or China that is more exciting than Pot noodles or Super Noodles that you get here. It may be the fact they have more things in them with the noodles and the sauces taste better and they are much cheaper than the Western equivelents. The Japan Center claims “he Japanese have come up with pots that will put those you can find in your local supermarket to shame! There are a whole host of soup flavours, noodle types, chilli strengths and toppings to choose from. From now on you will never look back! “. I have to agree. But no matter what I am going to buy a big bunch of Instant Noodles next weekend. In Air TV Yukito is dying for a Ramen Set to eat. I have never had Ramen, I must be the shame of the Anime Fan community but I just have never seen Ramen noodles to buy in the UK in Supermarkets. I don’t know why exactly. So I am going to hunt me down some instant noodles Japanese style and never look back! I am actually going to stock up on them so I have things to eat when I’m hungry and in need of a quick dinner.

7.Onigiri

In Aishiteruze Baby Yuzuyu-Chans fav food is Onigiri. I haven’t had Onigiri in years. I used to get some from the Sushi store in the Oriental City Shopping Center in London but recently I’ve had an addiction for the Satay Chicken Sticks and Rice from Yummy Yummy Thai. I like the Onigiri with fish in @.@ Mainly because I love seafood. But I would like to try the other kinds of Onigiri like ones with Pickles. I love Japanese Pickles, they are so good. Yuzuyu Chan is sure on to something with her obsession for Onigiri. And of course when I eat my Onigiri I will have to sing her Onigiri song! Oni Oni Oni Giri Giri Giri! Onigiri!

I am so hungry now.

Damn yummy Japanese food xD

HaruhixKyon Love

Confirmed: Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) will support Nintendo WiFi Connection

The latest update to the Smash Bros. Dojo blog (which is run by Masahiro Sakurai, Director of SSB:B) has finally uncovered news we have all been waiting for:

Brawl will have online support.

That’s right kids. You will now get the chance to kick your friend’s asses from across the globe. More news as I find it.

Gendo Ikari: Motherfuckin’ PIMP

NOTE: I didn’t write this. It’s written by my friend Vampire_killer. I thought it was funny so cross posted it here ^_^
A while back I was partaking of another A4 discussion, regarding which anime character was the biggest player. As I say, forum discussion threads tend to be overrun by 12-15 year old kids, and not very original. However, something was said in that particular reincarnation of an older thread that got replaced by someone else posting a copy of the same thing those damn kids can’t seem to get enough of. Something that, in my mind, completely warrants further analysis, and a good deal of poking fun at.

In that particular thread, someone mentioned that he considered Shinji Ikari of Neon Genesis: Evangelion to be the greatest and best anime pimp. Now, I’ll repeat that, because I know that, as I did, some of you might have a hard time believing that you might ever actually see these words typed or in print: he said that Shinji Ikari, from Neon: Genesis Evangelion, was the greatest and best anime pimp. This is the sort of thing that comes off as so utterly nonsensical, that when you hear it, you actually laugh so hard, that you don’t even make a sound at all. And if you’ve never done this yourself, or seen it happen to anyone else, then you’ve clearly never spent very much time on an online message board. That is not necessarily a bad thing.

But to get back to the point of the matter, after collecting my senses enough to the point where I could actually breathe again, I asked this person exactly why he considered Shinji to be a player of any magnitude. His reply was that it was for the fact that Shinji shared a room with 2 hot women, Misato Katsuragi and Asuka Langley-Sohryu. That was the basis of his whole argument. Let’s take a look at Shinji’s interactions with each character, shall we?

Although Misato is rather friendly toward Shinji and even sent him a photograph of herself that was very clearly a cleavage shot, she isn’t exactly under his thumb. In fact, she shuffles off most of the housework in her own damn apartment on him, plus the fact that the only time Shinji ever took off all his clothes in front of Misato was itself a freak accident. Clearly it’s Misato who’s in charge of that crib.

Now let’s look at Shinji’s association with Asuka. Actually, screw it. This one requires no explanation. It’s so glaringly obvious that even an overblown satirist like me has no clue where to begin with it. It’s like trying to make fun of a clown, for Godsake: how can you possibly strip away the dignity even further? So let’s just say that we know with at least 200% certainty that if anything, Shinji was Asuka’s b-tch, and leave it at that.

All the above arguments fall apart after taking End of Evangelion and the rest of the Eva movies into account, but come on, those movies motherf-ckin’ suck anyway, so they don’t count.

So, clearly, Shinji ain’t the dom in that household. But now this gets me to thinking. Clearly it isn’t Shinji Ikari that’s the daddy-mac of the show, or any show for that matter. But then it occured to me that this kid, he had the right series in mind, he even had the right surname, he was just getting the generation wrong. There really is a pimp in that series, and with the family name of Ikari. It’s Gendo.

Think about it. Sure, the man dresses more like he’s going to a funeral than like he’s going to f-ck, but platform shoes and a cape alone do not a big daddy make. There’s more to it than look, way more. Let’s first consider the women. It all starts with Yui Ikari, his legitimate partnership. Of course, we all know better than that. It was obviously a plot merely to throw down his seed and continue the lineage. Plus he was after all her biological breakthroughs. Some might say it was to further his own work in the field, but that was only what he wanted people to think. More on that later. Anyway, after Yui Ikari met with her unfortunate [but totally staged so that Gendo could enact the rest of his fiendish plot] accident during the 1st Impact [or was it 2nd Impact? I'm not too sure], he started getting with Naoko Akagi. A lot. And then in true pimp style, when he was done with her and her ass started sagging, he had her capped. And get this: his next woman? Naoko’s daughter. Ritsuko Akagi was next in line to get bent over by Gendo.

He threw his thing down with a woman and that woman’s daughter. You can’t beat that. And as far as anime pimps go, no one else has ever managed to pull off anything as downright criminal as that. It takes some smooth talking and some cool walking, some straight smoking and some fire stoking to be able to convince the daughter of the woman you knocked up and then knocked off that it’s a good idea to ride your shotgun, and Gendo did that. The man’s a wizard.

Also consider the fact that every single woman above is on his payroll. They all work for him, along with all the other as yet unmentioned women that make up the Nerv staff. They all work for him, taking his orders, and they all love it. Although to Misato’s credit, she never actually had sex with Gendo and she stopped trusting him at the end. But all those women, working in the field of biomechanics and computer science and engineering and so on, it wasn’t so Gendo could lead the fore in exterminating Angels. No, it was so he could build himself a happenin’ mad hood. The big guns were just there for his amusement when he got bored with ho sale and taking hits off the LCL cannisters.

Now let’s look at Nerv itself. It’s like looking at the Emerald City from The Wizard of Oz, just underground. It’s extravagant, well-designed, architecturally stable and well-fortified. Because every pimp knows that you got to kick it in style, and have the place well-protected should the Feds come calling. The man has an entire city as his base of operations. He’s got the territory.

And he’s also got the hook-up. He’s like, “yo, these Angels be wreckin’ mah game an’ sh-t, makin’ all that noise outside so I can’t hear my old lady tell me how she wants it. You dig?” And then the U.N. is like, “I feel ya. Tell you what: we’ll give you access to all the electricity in Japan so you can blast that sucker outta here.” And then Gendo is like, “Word, G!”

He’s got the women. He’s got the shag-shack. He’s got the territory, and he’s got the authority, so who cares if he dresses like an FBI agent. Gendo isn’t that kind of a straight-shooter. There are anime characters who are more powerful, there are certainly anime characters who have had more women, there are anime characters with bigger and better houses and there might even be a few anime characters that are more devious and dirty with their tactics and manipulations. But by God, Gendo’s a man who has all of that. He’s a pimp, and you can b’lee dat. XD

NAYUKI HERE!

Hello My Pretties!

I am hereto explain my absence from the wonderful Pink Domino for the last few weeks. The first reason is that I lost my internet and the second reason is that I am really really ill. I will write an article soon that will have you coming back for more and more and update the image gallery soon. Also will put up Septembers PinUp of the month! All these things to come by the end of the week or I shall eat my Bunny Ears!

For now gaze at this sexy beast. Well We are celebrating The new Eva released this month after all!

Not-so-exclusive anymore

Earlier today, Namco-Bandai had updated their website to show that both Beautiful Katamari and Eternal Sonota are not as exclusive to the Xbox360 as we have all heard before. Currently, Beautiful Katamari is listed for all three platforms, with release dates TBA on both the PS3 and the Wii and the Xbox360 release still scheduled for October 16th in America, and Eternal Sonota, while once only being known as a Xbox360 title, is now also listed for a PS3 release as well. In other news, Xbox360 fanboys across the intrawebs cried “OMG HAX” as news of this was spread through the intratubes.

So, until next time, remember this: “Timed-Exclusive until otherwise stated” applies for ALL 3rd Party games.

Beautiful Katamari Game Site- http://www.namcobandaigames.com/games/beautifulkatamari/

Eternal Sonota Game Site-http://www.namcobandaigames.com/games/eternalsonata/

~Update~

It now appears that Namco Bandai has changed the listing again. I’m gonna do a bit more digging to see what I can find behind this.

best AMV ever!!

I spent some time at Alcon at the weekend (more about that in another review ^_^) and they were screening amv. While I was there I was lucky enough to view this little beauty. Quite possibly the best amv ever! Its so well edited and just epic! Take a look!

Just to Hide The Fact I’ve Not Wrote an Article in Months…

Here, enjoy this video of the greatest advert ever to hit UK TV’s.

Brilliant.

Nick xx