Honors Thesis Submission – Dreams Do Come True

…and with that, I’ve come to the end of my University education. The years just flew by and I am still in shock at how fast it felt (in retrospect). People say that dreams don’t always come true and that sooner or later, you’ll have to face cold, hard and harsh reality.

Actar’s Acquisitions Update! – March, April, May and June 2014

A quadruple month update is finally here! Venture forth into the longer than usual update post as I share with you the stuff I got and my opinions on them! As I don’t really want to flood the front page with a barrage of pictures, do click on the button below to view the post in its entirety.

Miyakawa-ke no Kuufuku Opening Theme – KACHIGUMI

Here is the brilliant opening theme from the Lucky Star anime spin-off, Miyakawa-ke no Kuufuku. Translated this last year for the BD release that is still being worked on.

Enjoy!

2013 Japan Trip Highlights and Acquisitions!

In a brilliant attempt to circumvent me running out of steam doing a day-by-day recount of my trip, this time, I’ll be writing just one post featuring only the juicy bits – Akihabara, Comiket (doujins) and more!

I’ll organize this post by sections that go in chronological order. At the end of the recount, will be a section that is dedicated to all the acquisitions that I got during my trip.

Without further ado, here we go!

(Warning! Image intensive and somewhat NSFW. Also, the changing aspect ratio of the pictures is due to the fact that a number of them were taken with different cameras.)

Translated Miyakawa-ke no Kuufuku (The Hunger of the Miyakawa Family) 4-Koma Short

As many of you are by now aware, a pseudo-sequel to one of my all time favorite Slice-of-Life anime has been announced. The show will be a side-story – dealing with the characters from the Miyakawa family, based on the spin-off manga of the same name.

For the uninitiated, aside from their own manga, the Miyakawa sisters made several appearances in in the main series and feature prominently in the Moe Drill game. For me, as long as it has the same charm, wit and humor as the main series, I’ll bite! Not to mention, I am looking forward to the inevitable cameos!

With my interest piqued, I checked out the manga. As I couldn’t find a translation of the Miyakawa manga available anywhere, I took the liberty of translating and typsetting the 4-koma short that was on the back of the first volume to give fans a taste of what this series has to offer. Hope you guys like it. I’m pretty happy as to how it turned out, if I do say so myself. (^.^;) I would be grateful for your feedback.

(More updates very soon!)

Screencaps of cameos of the Miyakawa sisters in the original LS anime after the jump!

Translation Notes, Honorifics and US Manga

Something that I rarely do is buy Manga. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not because I pirate Manga, which I don’t, it’s just that I am not really a Manga reading person. If you ask me, given the choice between Anime and Manga, I’d choose Anime. Why? Because it’s a more immersive and engaging experience. You have movement, voice, audio, color, the works. However, I do understand that usually, due to budget and run-time issues, the Anime version ends up being a less-than-faithful adaptation of the much-better original Manga. Yet, knowing this, another reason I avoid reading Manga is because I fear that I would spoil myself if they were to ever make an Anime adaptation of it.

Yet, sometimes, I do buy the Manga to give it a read after I’ve finished, and loved, the Anime series.

Here’s the thing. Having not bought any US Official English Translated Manga before, I was extremely hesitant to. I have seen my fair share of liberal official US Anime subtitles and being a staunch supporter of literal-translations, I could not fathom the horrors that awaited me. But, I went ahead and bought three different volumes of Manga, Railgun, Cardcaptor Sakura and Lucky Star.

…was I in for a surprise.

The Never-ending Nichijou

The funny thing about the phrase ‘time flies’ is that you really never seem to notice it until you look back on the events and days that have passed you by. And just like that, in the blink of an eye, another brilliant series, Nichijou, has come to a close. Unequivocally one of the best shows this past few seasons, along with Steins;Gate and Kaiji.

Actar’s Reviews 210 – Lucky Star Blu-Ray Complete Box

One of my all time favorite Anime, Lucky Star, is finally given the Blu-Ray treatment. Is it worth the astronomical price? Let’s find out.

OH YEAH.

….and, I suppose they wanted to release the BD-Box Set today, May 28th, as it’s also Konata’s birthday! (thanks Matt for reminding me!)

Nichijou Initial Impressions…

I was really, really looking forward to Nichijou, but interestingly, the first episode was kind of a miss for me… Personally, I felt like their gags were too random and far to surreal for my tastes. Many seem to compare it to Azumanga Diaoh, which is another Slice-of-Life/Comedy show that didn’t manage to grab me either, and I have no idea why…