I got an interesting discussion question and I'm curious as to what your guys opinions are. (I'll be posting this on tumblr too, be warned.)

A while ago, I was watching an anime reviewer and he was asked if he could recommend some anime that have strong female characters and he said "Well, there aren't a lot of strong female characters in anime." That caused a spit take for me. Wait, what is he talking about? A few dozen instantly came into my head when I heard the question, Lina Inverse, Holo from Spice and Wolf, Chidori from Full Metal Panic!, etc. (And yes, I know this reviewer has seen these anime)

However, when the reviewer recommended Black Lagoon it occurred to me that perhaps his definition of "strong female character" is a female character that can hold her own her own in a fight. (I haven't seen Black Lagoon but I know enough that it is a violent anime with lots of fighting.)

Okay, sure that's fine, but it got me thinking. What does being a strong female character actually mean? Because I can list quite a few strong female characters that aren't the bossy others around and punching everyone they see. There are plenty of quiet, and very feminine characters that I would define to be very strong.

Ahiru from Princess Tutu, Rarity and Twilight from My Little Pony, Estelle from Tales of Vesperia, Aya from the Green Lantern series etc.

To me, a strong female character, means a female character that she isn't just talking about boys and romance problems and she isn't there to be rescued and become the main love interest for the male hero. She has her own unique personality, doesn't need to be saved constantly and can help out the story/characters in her own way, whether it's fighting, healing or just making sure the other characters aren't doing anything foolish.

Sure she may need some help or advice along the way, everyone one does that normal, but to me a strong female character can hold her own ground and make her own decisions despite whatever weakness she has.

So, I'm curious. What do you guys think defines "a strong female character?"

It occurred to me that I haven't discussed the recent anime I've been watching, so I figured why not now.

First off, it's Fate Zero. This requires some explains, Fate Zero is the prequel to the series Fate Stay Night. (It was originally was a visual novel which I'm told is ten times better than the anime version that was made by Studio DEEN. However, the Fate Unlimited Bladeworks movie and Fate Zero are made by UFO Table.) To put it in simple terms, Fate Stay Night is about magic users summoning heroic spirits so they can fight for the Holy Grail. The main character Shiro summons a female king Arthur (no, I'm not kidding), one summons an Irish hero, etc. I'm not going to give too many spoilers.

The creator of Fate Stay Night gave permission to Gen Urobuchi to write a prequel novel which takes place in the Grail War ten years before the current series.

For those who don't know, Gen Urobuchi work Puella Magi Madoka Magica and that was considered a happy series for him. So, yeah, you can imagine this is a dark series.

I'm watching it due to both Stu and Jon being big fans of Fate Stay Night and honestly...I'm enjoying it greatly. It has a lot of interesting characters, but I really watch it for Iskander and Waver. Iskander is awesome and hilarious to watch, they just steal the show.

It also has a good plot going on, and even though I know it's not going to end well, I do want to see how this ends. I will warn people, this is a really, dark series at times. Due to one of the spirits summons being Gilles de Rais, there are child deaths in this. You don't see them on screen, but it's heavily implied. (There was a scene I had to ask the guys to tell me when it was over, because I had shut my eyes.) So, just keep that in mind.

Here's a scene of Iskander to show off his awesomeness, be warn this is a bit of a spoiler, but I just had to share this.


The other anime we've been watching is Persona 4 The Animation. It's an anime version of the game of the same name. I haven't played the game myself, but Jon has and he thinks it's a good version so far, and I'm loving it. I'm thrilled to hear it's been picked up for a North American release already.

It has an interesting ongoing mystery and a great cast of characters. The show so far has a nice mixture of humour, drama and action. There are filler episodes, but even I would argue that they're more for character development and just to give us a break. One thing I particularly like is what the writer does with the main character, Narukami. In the game, from what I understand, he's a blank character so the player can answer questions to whoever they want.

In the anime, the writer still were able to make he seem like a blank character, but he still has a bit of his own personality. There are plenty of times when he's snarky, but his blank facial expressions to situations are really funny.

I would say this is a good show for people that liked Slayers, Tales of the Abyss, etc. This show gives me a similar vibe to them.



We're also currently almost done Utena which we are greatly enjoying. I am glad I chose now to watch the series and now when I was younger because I doubt I would have understood the hidden meanings to the story and characters. I certainly wouldn't have enjoyed the story as much then as I do now.

To finish things off, there is an anime series that is suppose to air this month and I want to check out. It's called Bodacious Space Pirates and seems to be about a girl that inherits a space pirate ship and crew from her late father. I'll save final judgement until I see it, but it looks interesting.

Just wanted to say Happy Birthday to amelia_seyroon For your gift, I did a combination.

I know you love MLP Friendship is Magic and Pandora Hearts, so I present to you pony Alice.

( My Little Alice )

I hope you enjoy it. ^_^

I just finished watching the last two episodes of Madoka and it was worth it. I thought it was a very satisfying ending, it wasn't depressing but it wasn't "Our lives will go straight back to normal" ending either.

Some minor spoilers ahead.

( Review )</lj-cut

It's been announced that the last two episodes of Puella Magi Madoka Magica will both be airing on April 21st back to back.

Article Here

For those who don't know the last two episodes of this 12 episode have been delayed due to two reasons. One, because of the tsunami and earthquake and two because the director wanted all the time they could get to work on the last two episode so they could be as good as they could be. Apparently, they were working on episodes hours before it was airing.

So, I FINALLY get to see how this show ends.

Also, for the guys who haven't seen or heard of this anime, don't let the cute style of the characters fool you. If Evangelion is considered to be the series the deconstruct the giant robot genre, than this is the equal for magical girl series. Seriously, it's going to take a lot to top this series.

Don't believe me? Just compare the opening and closing segments of this show.

Opening:



And Closing:

I think this is probably the most appropriate song made for the disaster that is Endless Eight.

I've been watching quite a few different series lately, so I thought I would do a mini review of them.

Spice and Wolf season 2
I watched the first season and so far the second season is just as good and slightly better because you can just feel the tension between Lawrence and Horo rising. I just love watching the teasing between the two. I will say you do need to watch the first season in order to understand what's going on, and it's not the most action packed series, but I'm enjoying it all the same.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni/When the Seagulls Cry
I don't normally watch a dark series like this, but I got into it due to Stu and Jon. I have to admit, the story is very intriguing and I'm rather hooked to finding out how the whole plot is going to end. Although, it will probably be a good year before we get to the end since the game is still being made.

This is the sequel to Higurashi, although, you don't need to watch that to understand this anime since it focuses on a new cast of characters. (I didn't watch Higurashi, and I've been fine watching it.) There are references thrown to Higurashi, but so far they're not exactly vital to the plot. I will also say that the plot of Umineko moves a lot faster than Higurashi did in the beginning.

Overall, good story and there are a good variety of characters. If you like a good murder mystery go for it. However, if you can't stand seeing blood and gore than you're better off not watching this series. It's not CRAC approved, I can tell you. XD

Although, it does have an epic opening song

( Umineko Opening )

Pandora Hearts
I watched some of the episodes, but I will admit, I've mainly been reading the manga. So far the anime has been following the manga closely, but since the manga isn't close to it's ending I don't know if this means the anime will continue for a few years (like One Piece or Naruto), or if the anime will just make up their own ending like with Black Cat.

The story itself is rather good, and secondlina I was right about this series having your name written all over it. The plot can be dark/creepy at times, it's set in a Victorian type setting, the main characters are named Oz and Alice and I've lost count at the number of Lewis Carroll references. ^_~

I probably will check out more of the anime version, but I'm probably going to stick with the manga since there's a lot of story and reading manga is a lot faster than watching an anime.

Although, I do like the opening song.
( Pandora Hearts Opening )

Finally got around to posting this drabble.

Big thanks to gullwhacker and dqbunny for beta reading.

Title: Market Potential
Series: Slayers
Characters: Lina, Zelgadis, Amelia, Gourry and Pokota

( Market Potential )

Come on you know you guys want one too. ^_~

As of today, I no longer work at the Buck or Two store. Today was my last shift before school starts. *does a happy dance.* Overall, it wasn't a bad job, I would take it over fast food, but it was time to move on to the next stage of my life.

Also, I have another drabble for 31_days

Title: Refused to be Silent
Day/Theme: August 17/Stop whispering; start shouting
Series: Suzumiya Haruhi
Character/Pairing: Haruhi, Kyon
Rating: G

( Haruhi's fingers drummed on the table )

I'm happy to say the my Tear costume for Anime North is done! I've been working on it off and on since Janurary and I can't believe I'm done. It's nice an comfy and I got good comfortable shoes to go with it. Plus, I got a staff to play around with. ^_^ Be ready Anime North!

Also, (something I've been meaning to make a post about) my surprised discovery of Shugo Chara

When I first heard about this series, I had read the summary and thought "It's too magical girly" and had assumed I wouldn't like it and that was that. However, then I noticed that the blogger of The Scrumptious Anime Blog was making numerous post on this series and was a big fan of it. I find the blogger of this site has fairly good taste/opinion on anime, so the curiousity got the better of me and I watched the first episode and assumed that would be it.

......That was over a month ago, and since then I've bought all three volumes of the manga that has been translated (and excitedly waiting for volume 4 to be released later this month), read some scanlations/summaries of the recent chapters in Japan and have watched a fair number of episodes of the anime. It honestly surprised me, but the I'm really enjoying this series and a couple of my friends who don't normally like this kind of anime are also watching it.

This really shows you can't judge a book by it's cover. The series has a cute style, there is a nice variety of characters (both male and female), it has an interesting on going plot and I find Amu/Ikuto fair too amusing together to watch.

Now, granted, I find the manga to be the better of the two simply because the anime is suppose to be a 52 episode series and thus a lot of the episodes are filler and takes longer to get to the main plot moments. However, I do enjoy seeing my favorite manga moments being animated when they get to it. So, be warned, I will most likely be making one or two drabble on this series in the future. ^_^;

Also, one last thing about this series, the opening song is FAR too catchy. XD