when I was a kid I bought volumes of Sailor Moon at random based on cover art, not knowing anything about linear story, and now that I'm finally reading my completed collection, I can say concretely that I was right to do that bc the Sailor Moon manga is ass. Somehow as a kid, I'd randomly selected the volumes with the best content, aka the side stories about the Sailor Scouts, aka the only ways you get to connect with them at all bc they might as well not be part of the main story for how little they affect anything. Thank god for the anime bc this shit is so shallow. I love and honor it still, but it is so shallow.

Hellsing Liveblog, Ch.11-13

This is the “Balance of Power” arc.

One of the things that frustrated me about the Hellsing TV anime (as opposed to the Hellsing Ultimate version) was that the TV series aired while the manga was still running, and it seemed to struggle between following the source material or just diverging into all new stories.    I think if Gonzo had made up their minds one way or the other, it would have ended up a better show.   Instead, there were all these filler scenes of Seras training with human soldiers, which seemed like an utter waste of the character’s time.    Worse, this meant the human soldiers featured much more prominently than they ever did in the manga, where they all get killed off by Chapter 9 or something.   And if you know that’s coming, like I did, it makes the human soldiers that much more insufferable, because you know dorks like Farguson aren’t going to matter, but they get tons of screen time anyway.    Farguson is like every episode of Dragon Ball GT condensed into a single character.  

Here, in the original manga, it’s pretty clear that the soldiers never mattered, because the only time you ever see them is when Jan Valentines’ ghoul army slaughters them all.    They only existed so Integra would have something to be in charge of, but the only ones who actually matter here are herself, Alucard, Seras, and Walter.    In this chapter, Walter practically admits as much, when he states that there were 96 staff members, and now we’re down to ten: Walter, Integra, and eight jabrones who weren’t at the base that day.    Well, maybe those eight guys will show up later and do something important?   Bullshit they will, they never get mentioned again.   The Gonzoverse might have been able to break some new ground by focusing on those human characters more, but what they actually did was half-assed, and it looks all the more futile when you know how unimportant they are to the original work.   Walter just hires a band of mercenaries to backfill all the vacant positions, and I’ll give you three guesses what happens to those guys.

Concerning “Millennium”, their mysterious new enemy, no one has any idea what they are.    A bunch of people try to research it, because we didn’t have Google in 1999, or at least not Google as we now know it, so if you wanted to know something cryptic you just had to rummage through a card catalog in a library or whatever.    But Integra just makes the logical leap that “Millennium” is a reference to the “Thousand Year Reich” dreamed of by Nazi Germany.   This seems like a stretch, but I think Integra’s reasoning is that this is the only “Millennium” reference that could possibly be worth Hellsing’s attention.

Later, Integra meets the Wild Geese, the merc group Walter hired, and explains their assignment even referencing the Bram Stoker novel.    So I guess Dracula is a real book in the Hellsing world, but it must be at least partially based on a true story, right?   The Geese don’t buy any of this, so Integra introduces them to Seras to prove that vampires are real.

They all laugh at Seras until she starts flicking their leader, Pip Bernadotte, with her fingers.    Then Alucard shows up, and that seems to be enough to convince them.

After this, Integra gets a letter from the Iscariot Organization, inviting her to a meeting with Enrico Maxwell at the Imperial War Museum.    The whole thing introduces Bishop Maxwell very effectively.   He tries to play this off as a peaceful, diplomatic conference, but he makes Integra wait, and she’s still sore about Anderson’s violation of their treaty back in Chapter 5-6.   Maxwell takes all this in stride, then replies that he could care less about the deaths of even two billion Protestants, so the two guys Anderson killed mean nothing to him.    He’s only here because the Pope ordered him to do this, and he calls Integra a “Protestant sow” for good measure.  

At this, Alucard comes out to stand up for Integra’s honor, and then Maxwell responds by bringing out Anderson, except Anderson has a berzerker rage thing going, so it kind of ruins Maxwell’s posturing.    For all his contempt, he really was ordered to London to talk to Integra, so he’d probably get in trouble with the Pope if Anderson starts a big superhero battle in a museum.

In Cross Fire, the unpublished manga that was sort of a precursor to Hellsing, Maxwell looked a lot like Sir Integra does now, so when Kouta Hirano brought him back for this arc, he slicked his hair back and removed his glasses.   On the other hand, Integra doesn’t look much like the early Integra anymore either.    By now, Hirano seems to have settled on her design, straightening her hair out and making her face longer and thinner.   Anyway, Maxwell’s brinkmanship has backfired, and now even he can’t stop Anderson, so what can be done?

Luckily, Seras is here to provide a distraction, as she leads a tour group of elderly Japanese tourists through the gallery.    For some reason this kills Anderson’s fighting mood completely, so he leaves.    Alucard also leaves, because he hates being up during the day.    Walter gives Seras a hearty thumbs up for defusing this tense situation.    Good job, Seras.    You’re doing amazing, sweetie.

All right, so what’s so blamed important that the Pope would send Maxwell to London?    Well, he knows about Millennium’s attack on Hellsing’s base, and he has some juicy deets on them.   After making Integra say “please”, he explains that “Millennium” was a Nazi military unit responsible for transferring resources and personnel for Nazi Germany.    They relocated a ton of these resources and personnel to South America for safe keeping.    Integra’s not too impressed with that, since “Nazis fleeing to South America after the war” isn’t exactly a shocking revelation.  

The twist here, though, is that Millennium was smuggling Nazi stuff to South America during World War II. 

Also, the Vatican helped Millennium do this?   I never understood this part of the story, but I think it gets explained later.   I mean, it explains how Maxwell would have this lead to share with Hellsing, but it raises more questions than answers.

  Volume 2 ends with another chapter of Cross Fire, starring Heinkel Wolfe and Yumiko Takagi.    In the first story, they saved hostages from Islamic terrorists.    This one is them recovering stolen church money from radical communists, which I guess could have been a thing in 1998?    It’s basically the same story, though, as they send Yumiko to infiltrate the bad guys, then they slaughter everyone in sight.    Mostly, I want to focus on the part at the end, where Maxwell, the leader of Iscariot, justifies the use of extreme hyper-violence in the name of the Catholic Church.   You sort of get the sense that the Iscariot Organization in Cross Fire was a concept in search of a villain.   the idea of two girl-assassins dressed as a nun and a priest might have had some traction, but Hirano really seems to have had trouble coming up with worthy enemies for them to fight.    But Hellsing brings vampires into the mix, which suits the Iscariots quite nicely.

Back to “Balance of Power”, the third part features Seras training with the Wild Geese in the middle of the night.   For some reason, Seras expects them to shoot targets from over 4km away.   She can do it, but only thanks to the vampiric senses Alucard showed her how to use.    It’s like she doesn’t realize that this is an ability she only has because she’s a vampire or something.   

Indoors, Alucard and Walter discuss the whole Nazi angle.    Al isn’t terribly surprised, because he only knows three who have ever used undead warriors for combat.   

1) Hellsing

2) Himself

3) The Nazis.

He knows #3 is legit, because he and Walter destroyed a Nazi research facility during the war.    Supposedly that contained all their work on the undead, but now that we know Millennium was smuggling important stuff from Nazi Germany to South America, it only makes sense that they’re the ones who devised the Valentines’ ghoul attack.    The bigger point of this scene is to reinforce that Walter used to be a big wheel in Hellsing, teaming up with Alucard to have Golden Age WWII adventures.   And now, Hellsing will be sending Alucard and Seras to South America to investigate this new threat.   

Here, Walter asks the big question: Why make Seras a vampire?   I’ll have more to say about this later, but I dig this scene because it works as an exposition scene, but there’s more to it than that.   Alucard’s only apparent motivations are over-the-top violence and doing his master’s bidding.   Helping Seras doesn’t seem to fit either of those, so it does indeed feel out-of-character.   You’d expect someone to ask this question, and by now there’s really only two people left who know Alucard well: Walter and Integra.   So yeah, let’s have Walter ask the question.    But later on, it becomes clear that the point is not the question itself, but the fact that Walter is the one asking it.  

For what it’s worth, Alucard doesn’t seem to know, or maybe he just doesn’t want to spell it out.   He keeps saying that it was her “choice”, except he had to make his own choice that night.    He could have just let her die, regardless of any requests she might have made.   Al remarks on her tremendous resilience on that night, since she was surrounded by death and hopelessness, but didn’t resign to her fate.    That impresses him, so I guess we can say that he chose her because he found her to be such an impressive specimen, in spite of some of her goofier behavior.    As it currently stands, Seras can’t even travel across rivers or oceans, a weakness for lesser vampires, but not a problem for Alucard himself.    He seems to think that��ll all be resolved once she finally drinks blood, and he expects that it’ll just be a matter of time before she does.    Ominous!

As far as transporting Seras to South America, Alucard figures the easiest thing to do is nail her shut in her own coffin.   The Wild Geese know a smuggling operation that can fly them to Brazil without any messy customs.   That works out, since they also have to transport Alucard’s coffin, and all the guns.

Integra asks why Alucard is dressed like this, and he says he can’t wear his usual stuff because he’d be too obvious to their enemies.    Also, he doesn’t need to spend the whole trip in his coffin, because sunlight and traveling over water doesn’t bother him, I guess?    I don’t really get the water thing.    If Seras can’t travel over running water, what difference does it make if she’s in her coffin or not?    I can accept that Alucard, who’s basically a super-vampire, would be immune to the whole water thing, but it becomes a plot point later on, so... aw, forget it   

Integra gives Alucard only one order: Search and Destroy, which seems kind of vague when you think about it.   Anyway, she’ll be saying this about a hundred times before the story is over, so we may as well appreciate the original.

I draw a manga/write a light novel series based on that manga, which is essentially an amalgamation of my favorite series and giving some of my favorite characters, who I feel were shafted in their source material, a better ending. That series is called C’est la Vie 5, because it originally featured five fandoms that I LOVED enough to have created an original character for.

Now, like many people, I’ve created a fuckton of OCs for a fuckton of series. However, unlike, say, Dragonball Z and Pokemon (RIP to Son Mei and Cissy the Eevee breeder), I still use these characters. I am still active in these fandoms. Some of these characters are nearly as old as I am. Some have gone through so many iterations that they’re nearly unrecognizable from their original forms (looking at you, Haruhi, Suzuka, and Kinoko). But they have ALWAYS been there.

C5 the way it is now started as a fun little project in college to help me memorize my Japanese vocabularly. It was a series of one shot or 4koma doodles in the margins of my notebooks, featuring PGSM+Hina. Then the doodles got mutated. I replaced Makoto with an original character named Sun Hwa, who then was replaced with Ayumi Yamada from Honey and Clover. I added in Hagumi Hanamoto from H&C too. Ami was renamed Moeco, and her appearance changed. I ended up splitting Ami in two, because I loved her Dark Mercury arc so much, and ended up with Moeco and Akumi. I added Mio Kuroki but called her Arisa Kuroki, because my Usagi at the time was called Mio. I added Mikasa from Attack on Titan. Misa Amane (named Erika after her actress in the live action). And it spiraled from there. C5 went through a TON of iterations as well over the past ten years. There was a character called Haruhi, but she was from the Haruhi Suzumiya series.

Now it’s pretty ironed out. The cast is so big I’ve split the series into a set of volumes into one big volume, so it doesn’t become Naruto. Each volume has a set of plots, two of which are contained within that volume. It’s pretty easy and I like it.

HINA is a mishmash of three fandoms (two if you count PGSM and Sailor Moon as one fandom). I fell in love with Boys Over Flowers (the Korean version) after discovering the live action Sailor Moon, and had a complete fit the entire time that Jandi chose Junpyo. (WHY, Jandi. WHY. Jihoo was BETTER for you. BETTER!) I had a Korean friend in my Japanese class, and it was at this period that my Makoto doodle was replaced with Sun Hwa (another Korean) and that Hina Kusaka (who is exclusive to PGSM, and whose name I stole for my OC) became Hina Ku (after the actress who played Jandi, not Goo Junpyo). Hina and Sun Hwa had small side conversations in Korean that my friend taught me, while the group as a whole reinforced my Japanese lessons. C5 has plenty of Boys Over Flowers characters (a mix of the Korean, 2019 Chinese, and Japanese versions), but I never made an OC for the series. Hina filled both roles. In PGSM and Sailor Moon I kept her name as Kusaka, but in C5 it’s Ku, and she is a zainichi - Korean-descended. Hina also plays a different role depending on which series I’m using her in. In PGSM, I used her as Sailor Sun. Sailor Sun has been a character I’ve had since I was five years old. She’s changed style and looks considerably over the years, but she’s always been there. In every other iteration of Sailor Moon, I prefer the theory that Naru and Unazuki are Sailors Earth and Sun, and Hina is one of Usagi’s many friends. In the pre-C5 era, she, Usagi, and Erika were part of the 3 Bakas, for their bad grades. 

AKIHO is my newest OC and holy shiiiiit I have cleaved to the Persona series hardcore. Rather than create a new OC for each entry in the series (though I may change my mind when Person 6 comes out), Akiho’s look, style, and role in the story changes (I reconcile this to be something akin to Clara Oswald in Doctor Who). In P5, which she was created for, she’s a Phantom Thief. The idea came to me when I learned there has never been a playable character of the Temperance arcana, Hifumi was supposed to be a PT, and the general consensus that Mishima and Shiho should have been PTs. Akiho has been through several iterations herself but her general look is based on Tae Takemi from @scruffyturtles ‘s Adult Confidant AU. Her personality seems very calm and serene, but she is a secret metal head and a huge fan of Eikichi Mishina’s band Gas Chamber. Her PT mask is based off a butterfly. Her role in C5 is a shrine maiden, where she gets along with Rei (Sailor Moon), is the sister of Akira Kurusu (who is a separate person from Ren Amamiya), and the daughter of a pair of mobsters.

KINOKO is my second oldest OC, having been around since I was twelve. Her original name was Cherry (like every other Tokyo Mew Mew OC) and her original animal is lost to the sands of time. Luckily, my favorite animal is a red data animal, so she can be fused with that now! Kinoko has been through so many iterations it isn’t funny. In the TMM world, her hair is an auburn, a dark brown with red undertones, mimicking how some mushrooms (where her name comes from) appear. (It’s a callback to her original name). Her Mew outfit has also changed considerably and I still haven’t settled on it completely. The Mew Mews are not a unit in C5. Zakuro is a model with Ann and dating Minto, Ringo (LOVE Ringo) is a middle schooler who hangs out at an arcade and is best friends with Bu-Ling, Ichigo is a waitress with Berii, Retasu works with Ryou. And Kinoko works at a karaoke bar, chasing troublemakers like Bu-Ling out. She also interacts with the new Au Lait boys.

SUZUKA is also an old OC, her name having originally been Meiling. She’s from Fushigi Yuugi, which I was obsessed with as a child. She’s nearly as old as Kinoko - I was introduced to the series at around the same time. Suzuka’s original role as Meiling was Miaka’s attendant and general Mary Sue, and she was one of my first attempts at exploring fanfiction (along with Kagami the cat demon and Teiten the Thunder Sister from Inuyashs, RIP), because I couldn’t decide which of the original Suzaku warriors I loved most. Everyone had such a wonderfully tragic, lovely backstory, and I needed to give them all blankets and hugs, and Miaka was just a dumbass, okay? (I think I settled on Tasuki. Love me some Tasuki.) Anyway. Suzuka eventually morphed into the Priestess of Kouryuu once I learned that Fushigi Yuugi was based on real Chinese legends, and one legend sometimes included Koryuu, the Yellow Dragon of the Center. (Fun fact: There’s a video game that explores this option, but in it, Kouryuu, is treated as a false god.) In my OC world, Kouryuu is the Great Unifier, only able to be summoned once the first four priestesses have summoned Suzaku, Seiryuu, Byakko, and Genbu, and it is he that will stop the war that threatens the four countries of the Book of the Universe of the Four Gods. In C5, Suzuka works at a bookstore owned by Hifumi Togo that specializes in rare books.

HARUHI is the last old OC, but she’s also new? Haruhi was, for the longest time, existant in a stage of limbo. Fruits Basket was introduced to me as a teenager, when I was about thirteen or fourteen, and I didn’t quiiiite embrace the message, behind it. I couldn’t get past the art style (I was very picky about what I visually consumed back then), I couldn’t get into the anime for the same reason, and I couldn’t quite get past the whole “it’s called Fruits Basket wtf and also they turn into animals? And it’s not a magical girl anime? What in the actual fuck?” But like many things I of course loved the characters, I adored my baby Kyo, and I of course made an OC specifically for him, because I back then did not ship Kyoru (sacriligious, I know). I don’t even remember what Haruhi’s original name was. I just decided that she was a Sohma and the rooster, because the curse of the original rooster was broken, and broke a long time ago, so it was entirely possible for Kyo to have a love interest who was a Sohma and the rooster who was around his age (in my teenage mind). That old Sohma OC, is of course, RIP. I can’t even. And recently, I discovered Fruits Basket Another, and I somewhat resurrected that OC in the form of Haruhi, but as the child of the OG cast. Sawa needs more friends, more protectors, and there’s no tsundere besides Hajime. It always bothered me that Kagura never got any canon love interest or story wrap up after she let go of Kyo, and then in Another she doesn’t have children. :( I love Kagura, so Haruhi is hers! I’m also sad that no one in Another dresses in kimonos when so many in Furuba did (Ritsu, Akito, Shigure, Kazuma, Kunimitsu), so Haruhi dresses in them when she isn’t in school. 

KEIKO is special. Not only is she the newest, but she is also the only character exclusive to C5. While the other characters in C5 are based on characters from other fandoms and have their personalities and such shaped by the new series, Keiko is entirely unique. Her name is a combination of the two things that birthed the series: Sailor Moon and Persona 5. Keiko is for Keiko Kitagawa, the actress who played Sailor Mars in PGSM; and Makigami is for Kazuya Makigami, a major character in Persona 5 the Daybreakers. Kazuya is also Keiko’s brother in C5 and he is... not a great person lol. Neither is Keiko. Her appearance is based on how I wear my hair irl and the clothing of Jim Hawking from Outlaw Star, my favorite anime of all time. (I sadly never made an OC for that series. I tried but I am not good at space opera.)

None of the OCs ever cross paths in C5. It would create a temporal paradox and probably result in one of them fainting or dying lol. Since they’re all essentially the same person. Fun fact: I, Ffamran (known in-universe as Bideru the author) also occasionally make cameos, and I also cannot cross paths with the OCs. Luckily Tokyo, where C5 is set, is a very big place. 

If you stuck with me through this very long post about OCs, thank you! I just really wanted to go off about them since I’ve been in a writing mood and I’m on volume 2 of C’est la Vie 5 now. 

Wow, I actually got tagged in something! This usually never happens.

Thanks, @temporoom for tagging me, even though I think it’s been a while since I added to one of your posts...

1. Did you start with the manga or anime?

Anime actually. I heard a bunch of recommendations to try out TPN for the Winter 2019 season of anime. I heard it was a show with intelligent characters and psychological and mystery elements, so I jumped into the series blind. And. Loved. The. First. Episode. It immediately drew me into the world and daunting task the children would face trying to escape. Enough so that by the end of episode 2, I caved and binge-read the manga. Oops.

2. Which one do you like more?

Manga. As much as the anime had some really good Japanese voice acting, and the beauty that was Isabella’s Lullaby; I don’t think I can forgive how much of the internal dialogue was cut in the anime. The bigger draw of TPN for me is its psychological and mystery aspects--not its horror aspects. So I do think the anime suffers from not letting us getting inside our characters’ heads or making them say important statements aloud (which can make them seem a bit...dumb).

3. Favourite arc?

It’s a classic, but I think I have to go with the Jailbreak Arc. Like Tempo brought up, the Jailbreak Arc is the most tightly written to me; and it stars two excellent antagonists in Isabella and Krone.

But I think my favourite thing about the arc is I believe it to be the one where the most psychological elements are. Unlike most other arcs with antagonist where it tends to involve physical combat, this arc is completely a mental battlefield, as everyone tries to outwit everyone else. And yes, I mean everyone. There are five major players in this arc: Emma, Norman, Ray, Isabella, and Krone; but all five of them have their own ideals and goals that have them try to outwit another person. Even among the Full Score Trio.

Plus, it’s the arc where Ray gets to shine the most. Speaking of which...

4. Favourite character?

Ray. I know he hasn’t had a lot to do in recent chapters, but I still really enjoy his character. I tend to like more loner, bookish characters (since I can relate to them), and I can emphasize so much with the character arc Ray goes through. Plus, we still have potential new character development Ray could have with Isabella back in the picture, and him being able to finally confront his complicated feelings towards his mother. And also reveal that Isabella is his actual mother. Ray: Oops. Never got around to this...

Also, shout out to Ayshe who has a really cool character design and interesting potential interactions with Norman if there’s time.

5. Favourite volume cover?

Probably 11. It’s one of the more unique cover designs to me, I like the glass shards aesthetic in pictures in general, the sky looks really nice, and it gives off a feeling of determination. Especially with the volume title “The End”. Strong, definite, and the feeling of “We’re going to win”

6. Any good memory about TPN you want to share?

Well...how about...the fact that TPN is what convinced me to join tumblr? I had been lurking around the website for a while, but I never bothered to make an account since I had nothing to say. That all changed when @/couldnt-think-of-a-better-name (pretty sure the blog is abandoned now, RIP) posted a theory detailing the Christianity parallels in TPN. I had so many ideas and points to add on, I couldn’t contain myself and created this account so i could reblog the post with my own ideas, and I’ve been on this troublesome site ever since.

So, I will always fondly remember TPN as my first real tumblr fandom, and the one that convinced me to come here in the first place.

Since most of the people I would want to tag have already been picked, I’ll just stick with tagging @thesilverhunt3r who was still into TPN last I checked, and invite anyone who sees this to join in!

Christmas Gift Guide for the Christian Anime Fan

What do you get the anime fan in your life for Christmas? An already difficult task is made even more challenging if you’re looking to gift something that fits within the boundaries of faith, items that are safe to give in a Christian household but still fun for the receiver. If you’re faced with that dilemma, we’ve got you covered this Christmas season. Below are nine gifts that the anime fan in your life will love, that are also safe—and some even spiritually uplifting!

-----

1. Shonen Jump

If you have a manga reader in the family, one of the best things you can get them is a Shonen Jump subscription. Shonen Jump (SJ) was one of the foremost shonen manga publications in print the U.S. Now, as a digital magazine, it’s even better. For $1.99 a month, an SJ subscription grants you access to SJ’s entire current lineup as well as a huge archive of historic manga. Want to read all of the Dragon Ball manga beginning in the early 80s? SJ has you covered. Interested in learning more about the romance manga Boys Over Flowers? It’s there along with the most current Season 2 chapters. Enjoy the nonsense of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure? Parts 1 through 3 are there in full and VIZ is slowly adding all of Part 4. As part of the greater VIZ manga family, more and more options are being added all the time to the SJ vault. Currently, VIZ does not offer gift subscriptions to SJ, however, you can pay for your subscription month to month. We recommend getting your friend or family member a $25 Google Play or iTunes gift card and tell them to enjoy all the manga at their fingertips for a full year.

Google Play or iTunes Gift Cards can be purchased from Amazon.

2. Cool anime clothing and streetwear

There’s an episode of Genshiken, the classic series about an anime club, where super otaku Madarame goes out shopping for clothes in an attempt to be stylish. It’s not only an uncomfortable experience for him; it leads to a real questioning of who he is and how he identifies because, after all, being an anime fan means dressing cheaply and sloppily, right? Well, if it ever did, it does not not—you can look good while sporting threads that show off your fandom. While Amazon and other outlets sell shirts anime-related shirts that don’t look particularly great, you’re better off doing a little research to find stylish clothing developed by real fashion designers. Take for example Wooji, whose clothing would be at home on a runway, but is priced well. Imouri, on the other hand, has a bright, cute design that more outwardly demonstrates a fandom. Go with a brand that would fit the person you’re gifting, and check out other stores as well by searching through tags like #animeclothing and #streetwear.

We’ve personally sampled items from both Wooji and Imouri, and highly recommend both.

3. Manga Majesty

If ever there was a portion of scripture that would fit into manga format, it’s the Book of Revelation with its imagery of good and evil, and redemption and love. And that’s exactly what the folks at Next Manga have adapted for their latest release. Manga Majesty artfully and scripturally illustrates the final book of the Bible, including the powerful prophecy that makes up much of it. While this manga makes for a wonderful study resource for Christian readers (and potential evangelistic material), it’s also just plain well-made, and engaging from a reader’s perspective. It unfolds like the powerful narrative it is, compete with full-colored illustrations that capture both the majesty and fear of the end times. And thus, it’s a double gift of sorts, one that’s a feast for the eyes and good for the soul, and really, what else more could you ask for on Christmas?

Manga Majesty is available for purchase from Amazon.

4. Crunchyroll Gift Membership

If you are buying for an anime or manga fan, chances are they watch their anime on various streaming services. Maybe they have Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime Video (or all three). However, if you are looking for a streaming service that specializes in anime, look no further than Crunchyroll. From classics like Fist of the North Star to current ongoing series like My Hero Academia, Crunchyroll has something to offer for every anime fan. Have anime fans who are children? No problem. Crunchyroll has some great series like Shonen Ashibe! GO! GO! Goma-chan and Bananya that offer up fun for the whole family. In addition to their anime offerings, a premium Crunchyroll subscription offers access to a decent catalog of manga. While their manga app is imperfect, web reading works very well and a number of currently ongoing series are simul-published by Crunchyroll.

Gift subscriptions can be purchased directly from Crunchyroll.

5. Anime DVDs and Manga volumes

Of course, it seems natural to buy the anime fan anime for Christmas—the barrier, though, is that there is so much anime out there that it can be difficult to determine which your recipient will like. And how do you select series that avoid content which you find inappropriate? We’ve got you covered. We have an anime recommendation list which provides titles that are both entertaining and spiritually enriching; we also include content information so that you won’t be surprised by levels of violence, sexualization, or other material in the series. We recently expanded the list, giving the full rundown on a number of shows, but also giving quick recommendations for dozens of others. We also encourage you to just search through our website, looking for topics that pique your interest (ex. grace), to find other series that might be specifically made for the person in your life.

Check our anime series and anime movie recommendations.

6. Dragon Ball FighterZ

Did you know that 2018’s Fighting Game of the Year at The Game Awards was an anime based game? ESPN”s “Game of the Year” was the same anime game in 2018. What was that game? Dragon Ball FighterZ. Dragon Ball FighterZ is a fantastic fighting game taking characters from throughout the full Dragon Ball franchise and making it incredibly fun. Arc System’s game mechanics remind you of the first time you played Marvel vs Capcom. It is a lot of fun for fans of the Dragon Ball franchise and newbies alike. I (MDMRN) bought it for myself last year on Black Friday as a non-Dragon Ball fan and, frankly, it turned me into one. Get it for your friends or family members who enjoy fighting games and anime if they don’t already own it. Believe me, they’ll thank you after trying it out.

Dragon Ball FighterZ is available for purchase from Amazon for the Nintendo Switch, XBoxOne, and Playstation 4.

7. Gear for fans of anime and gaming

Speaking of games, chances are that the person in your life that you’re buying for is probably not only a fan of anime, but a gamer as well. The two often go hand in hand, so in addition to the recommendation for Dragon Ball FighterZ we gave above, we also encourage you to check out Fan Gamer, a store that has a ton of wonderful merchandise that gamers will adore. We can attest that they carry products that hit that sweet spot of being both cool and high quality. You could surf the site all day (and you might want to!), but we’ll give four products we’re liking right now: Okami and Samurai Shodown t-shirts, a book about the history of the NES, and a set of awesome playing cards.

Give Fan Gamer a visit and check out their selection!

8. An Anime Convention Pass

pc: arthur yao

If there’s one thing that unites all high school and college otaku, it’s this: They’re broke. The anime fandom for many fans, young and old alike, isn’t based necessarily on TV series and manga—its centered on the convention scene. Facebook and Twitter feeds relating to conventions are absolutely filled with griping about the cost of conventions—remember that besides the entrance fees, which can easily go over $100, attendees have to pay for food, parking, hotel, souvenirs, and their own cosplay. It adds up and leads many to skip out on events they dearly want to attend. You can encourage them and help defray the costs by looking ahead and buying tickets to an event. Also note that many conventions occur during the spring and summer, so there’s another advantage to making this your gift—at this time of year, you might be able to get an early bird discount as well.

Check out some of the conventions we attend and cover here on Beneath the Tangles.

9. Reading material

You don’t necessarily have to look to a TV or video game screen to find series for your anime fan to enjoy. Just as in the west, and even more so, anime films and shows are adapted from previous works, mostly divided into two categories: manga (Japanese comics) and light novels (serialized books that contain illustrations). And just as with anime, we’ve got you covered here, too, with plenty of recommendations for both accompanied by explanations about the content within. These make for great gifts because all of these series have at least several volumes in release in the English language, meaning that you can pick up several issues as a present. And here’s another insight: manga and light novels are often (usually?) more addicting than anime series. Chances are that if you buy several for your loved one, they won’t be able to put the tomes down until they finish!

Check our manga and light novel recommendations.

-----

And there you have it—we did 90% of the legwork for you. Now there’s no reason to indulge your anime fan at home with something that they’ll love without worrying about neglecting or breaking your faith values. Go forth and purchase! And have a wonderful Christmas!

So. I met Benedict Cumberbatch the other night. 

I’m still processing, honestly, and the big thing that I need to write is another letter to him, one which I assume going in that he will never read (I can’t even imagine the volume of fanmail he must receive!), but I’ll still write it because I need to say it, even if it’s never read. In this post I want to talk about some of the stuff I want to say there, so I’m just kind of working through my thoughts here. 

This is going to be long, and a little emotional, so I’m putting it behind a cut to spare your dashes (among other things!). 

I have a few different things to say about the entire thing. First, let me just go through the evening as it unfolded: 

I managed to buy a ticket to the New York debut of Letters Live. I’ve adored the concept of this event since the first time they held it and when I found out they were doing one in New York right during the tiny window of when I was going to be there, I jumped at the opportunity, though the tickets were uncomfortably expensive for me. There is literally no other living person that I would have been more excited to see perform and potentially have a tiny chance to meet, though, and the timing seemed almost foreordained, so I did it. 

The event was phenomenal. A gigantic wall of a human was seated in front of me - an unpleasant man who was approximately 10 metres tall and 5 metres wide, and I’m 5′4, so... yeah. I waited until after the first act and managed to slip into a much better seat, hahaha! The performance was so well-planned, I thought. The selection of letters was specially curated for an American audience, with most of the content written by Americans. To hear Rose McGowan read her own letter to the Hollywood higher-ups was chillingly powerful, as was hearing Toni Morrison’s letter to Barack Obama. There were several letters funny enough to make me cry with laughter, and to my pleased surprise one of these was read by another well-loved actor of mine, Tom Hollander (who I keep feeling so sorry for these days - people must confuse him with Tom Holland all the time, and they’re not remotely similar, lol). Benedict’s first letter was an absolutely hilarious one that just went around facebook about a month ago, written by a Canadian man apologizing for having absolutely trashed, via a flock of seagulls, his hotel room in Victoria eighteen years ago. He also read one of the Chris Barker/Bessie Moore exchanges with Loo Brealey, and finished the evening with Stewart Stern’s incredibly stirring and moving letter to the family of James Dean following his death. 

Listen: seeing Benedict perform live, with my own two naked eyes, breathing the same air as him - it may sound ridiculous, but that alone was profoundly moving to me. Just seeing him, period. Then seeing him perform - breathtaking. And then hearing him read this particular letter was just - it’s hard to even put it into words. I felt a little as though I was hearing him read what could be his own epitaph. Listen to these words: 

A star goes wild in the places beyond air — a dark star born of coldness and invisible. It hits the upper edges of our atmosphere and look! It is seen! It flames and arcs and dazzles. It goes out in ash and memory. But its after-image remains in our eyes to be looked at again and again. For it was rare. And it was beautiful. And we thank God and nature for sending it in front of our eyes. So few things blaze. So little is beautiful. Our world doesn't seem equipped to contain its brilliance too long. Ecstasy is only recognizable when one has experienced pain. Beauty only exists when set against ugliness. Peace is not appreciated without war ahead of it. How we wish that life could support only the good. But it vanishes when its opposite no longer exists as a setting. It is a white marble on unmelting snow. And Jimmy stands clear and unique in a world where much is synthetic and dishonest and drab. He came and rearranged our molecules.

I mean, this is exactly how I already feel about the nature of Ben’s talent, the privilege I feel at being allowed to experience it in any way, in any medium. He has a talent that lights up the cosmos and I’m just so grateful to the universe that this talent exists and has been given a place to be seen and witnessed by the rest of us. His talent blazes, and my life is the richer for being able to experience it. 

I tried really, really, really hard not to hope too much to have a chance to meet him at the stage door after. It’s kind of impossible not to hope, but I told myself sternly that I already never thought I would have the chance to see him perform in person, and it really would have been enough. I’d joked to my friends before leaving for New York that if he so much as laid his own two beautiful eyes on me and actually saw me, heard my voice, any of that, that I could die in peace. I’ve never expected that, though, to have any sort of fleeting brush of contact like that. It’s not the nature of the way a person like him relates to a person like me. In fact, allow me a tangential paragraph here: 

Being a fan can feel one-sided. I know everything that a person can possibly know about a person whom I have never met. I can guarantee that I have seen, read, or listened to every interview he’s done, ever, with very, very few exceptions. ALL of the press junkets. I could have written his imdb page. Like many of us! I know every line on his beautiful face. I know the freckles on his skin, the tendons of his forearms and calves. I know every part of his physicality that’s ever been shown to the public, and with him, that’s a fair bit! His voice is my ringtone (it’s a clip of Sherlock saying “it’s a text alert; it means I’ve got a text”) and his voice is more dearly familiar to me than most of the people I know personally. I know his facial expressions, though he’s constantly reinventing the way the muscles of his face can move for every new role he plays. I’ve analyzed his accents from a phonetics standpoint. In short, I know everything that’s possible for someone like me to know about someone like him. And he knows nothing about me - not my name, not what I do, not what I eat, not my voice or my talents or my eyes or fingernails or passions or pet peeves - not of my existence, full stop. But that doesn’t mean that our relationship - and bear with me on that word - is one-sided. This is how it works: he gives. He gives and gives and gives. Benedict doesn’t phone it in. He BLAZES. He burned through so much energy playing Hamlet (any wonder, have you seen him in it???) in the summer of 2016 that one of the reasons Dr. Strange had to push back its filming schedule was to give him the chance to bulk up again after the play’s run. Benedict commits, and like the aforementioned star analogy, he radiates energy to every possible point of contact around him. THIS is his side of the relationship: he blazes out his talent/energy/love/passion/commitment, and we receive it, and the appreciation and love and passion we feel in return for it is something that we share with each other, not with him. That’s how fandom works: it’s not a direct thing. Not in the standard, interpersonal way. He shines; we turn to each other rather than to him, to talk about how it made us feel, how it moved us, how it excited us and made us laugh and inspired us. Somehow, this entire experience crystallized this for me perfectly. 

Now, back to the stage door: there was an absolute CRUSH of people at the barricades. I don’t want to talk about this part too much because it was extremely unpleasant. We had to wait for a long time. I would have stayed until he left the building, no matter how long it took, unless it would have made me look like a total creep, because that’s not something I ever want to do to someone I admire. He did come out eventually, and that’s when the pushing and screaming started. I once said that I would never scream at a celebrity, and I didn’t. The crowd, unfortunately, was a mix of three groups of people: 1. aggressive paparazzi 2. aggressive fanboys who had brought comic book shit for Ben to sign so that they could sell it on ebay 3. genuine fans. Guess which group was not at all problematic?? Turns out I was standing right in a knot of #2′s, and because they were hollering at him, like screaming at him to get over there and sign their shit, Ben went over to the other side of the barricade to sign stuff there. He told off one of the paps and said he was there to be with the “real people”, which I appreciated. He did come back near us, and I had the briefest of moments to talk to him. I thanked him for not having become a lawyer, and he laughed. Everyone was thrusting stuff in his face and yelling. I just had my little ticket from the show, and the comic book manchildren kept putting their stuff on top of mine. Ben finally said he was going back inside, that his wife was there waiting for him, but he turned back toward me and I managed to ask (possibly plead) if he would sign my ticket. He looked me in the eye then, smiled, and said, “Of course”. 

I stammered out a congratulations on Patrick Melrose and he smiled again and said thank you, while he was signing. But that one moment of eye contact is all I wanted. He looked at me, and he saw me. And I made him laugh. 

I was literally almost suffocated by the awful people around me, none of which were: a) female, or b) actual fans. I’ve thought sometimes, while watching videos of Benedict on the red carpet, with all of those media folk screaming at him to turn this way, smile into their camera, all of that, that it feels very much like harassment. I know that people in his position know that it comes with the job, that the fame and riches are supposed to be the offset of having no privacy, of being followed by media and fans alike, quite literally, of being shrieked and barked at like they’re trained performing animals (which I don’t like, either!). I know he knows that, but it doesn’t mean that it’s pleasant in any way. He handles it like a pro, because he is in every way a consummate professional. But it can’t be pleasant for him. He’s incredibly, extraordinarily generous with his time. As a performer myself, I know how I feel when I’ve just finished a solo concert or an opera - I feel like taking off my heels and fancy dress, putting on pyjama pants and relaxing every muscle I have on a couch somewhere, preferably with a tall drink in hand. Performing Hamlet is considered one of the most demanding male roles in the English theatrical repertoire, yet Benedict would not only perform it a stunning eight times per week, but then sometimes spend up to THREE HOURS signing autographs and taking selfies after. If he chooses to limit how long he gets screamed at by aggressive, even violent paps and shitheads who just want to use his signature for money, good for him! I respect that, even if I felt incredibly sorry for the people further back who didn’t get to have that, one brief moment of contact with this person we all admire so very, very deeply. And so, because of this, because of seeing firsthand how gross people are to him and just the sheer volume of what he puts up with for our sake, so that some of us, at least, can have that tiny moment, I don’t think I would do it again, if only to reduce that volume by one teeny tiny amount. I got my one, deeply, deeply hoped-for, fleeting, searing moment of contact. It’s all that I could have asked for. He saw me, and I had the chance to say some tiny part of my gratitude to him for what he gives of himself to all of us. That’s all I wanted. 

The wait, the near-suffocation, all of that, was worth it, to win that one precious moment. I clutched my precious ticket and fought my way out of the crowd and wandered dazedly off toward the subway, through late Friday night Times Square crowds, feeling so much that I didn’t even know how to process it. I felt like I was about to burst into tears and I couldn’t have even said why or whether I was happy or sad or possibly a cornucopia of every human emotion ever. I felt - and still feel - a bit like I just had a brush with an actual, blazing sun. It was shattering, and I will be forever changed by it. I am so grateful. 

Sensor Sweep: Bruce Pennington, Science Wonder Stories, H. Bedford Jones, Post Oaks and Sand Roughs

Reading (Rawle Nyanzi): By now it is well-known that reading in the US has declined across all demographic indicators. Whether it’s caused by television, the internet, video games, or boring literature classes, the drop-off in reading time is plain and obvious to see. Some even claim that we are entering a “post-literate” period where the written word is actively rejected in favor of images and sounds conveyed by electronic media.

  Art (DMR Books): In the process of finding art for my new Gene Wolfe post, I noticed that the artist, Bruce Pennington, turns seventy-five years young today. Bruce has been a fixture on the UK fantasy/scifi scene since the late ‘60s. Check the link here to see what Bruce has been up to for the last five decades.

  Science Fiction Pulp (Pulpfest): The first issue of SCIENCE WONDER STORIES hit the newsstands ninety years ago, on May 3, 1929. Behind the dramatic Frank R. Paul cover were included five short stories, the beginning of a serialized novel — “The Reign of the Ray” by Fletcher Pratt and Irvin Lester — a science quiz (with the answers in the issue’s stories), an essay contest, and “Science News of the Month.” SCIENCE WONDER STORIES ran for twelve issues dated June 1929 through May 1930. David Lasser was managing editor and Hugo Gernsback was publisher and editor-in-chief.  Each issue had a fantastic Frank R. Paul cover.

  History (Running Iron Report): On July 28, 2014, an American expat living in Sweden named Indiana Neidell (for real) launched a Youtube project titled The Great War. Its premise was to cover the events of the First World War, matching up the centennial of that seminal conflict week by week through November 11, 2018. Other segments included technology developed during the war, concurrent events like the Mexican Revolution and vignettes on remarkable personalities.

  Pulp (DMR Books): The King of the Pulps died on this date seventy years ago today. Henry James O’Brien Bedford-Jones, better-known to his millions of fans during the pulp era as “H. Bedford-Jones,” passed away in his comfortable Beverly Hills home after forty years of living well off his pulp fiction.

Bedford-Jones was born in 1887 in Canada, though he spent most of his life in the U.S. Before his twenty-second birthday, he had sold his first story to one of the greatest pulps ever, Argosy. He went on to write over a million words of pulp adventure per year for decades.

  Radio (Tangent Online): The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939-47) aired “The Adventure of the Dying Schoolboys” on November 9, 1946. During this incarnation of Sherlock Holmes on radio (the first coming in the early 1930s and the last running to 1959), Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce reprised their Universal studio film roles of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson for close to 220 episodes. Afraid of being typecast–and following the cancellation of further Holmes films–Rathbone wanted out of his radio role. Though the show’s sponsor at the time, Petri Wines, offered him a generous bump in compensation if he would continue, Rathbone declined.

  Robert E. Howard (REH Foundation): The REH Foundation Press is proud to present Post Oaks and Sand Roughs & Other Autobiographical Writings. Outside of the boxing stories, whenever Robert E. Howard used the name “Costigan” the autobiographical implications weren’t far behind. This volume collects those “other” Costigan tales, including the title novel as well as the previously unpublished early draft. It also contains other items that reveal details about the people and places in Howard’s life, including the “Lost Plains” stories, items from The Junto, personal essays, and more, all restored to the original text, where available.

  Popular Culture (Rawle Nyanzi): I believe that all professionally produced franchises are either SJW -converged or soon will be, given enough time.

Let’s run down some prominent examples:

– Star Wars, the biggest name in sci-fi, attacked its own legacy and its most loyal fans to the point where its most recent movie flopped — the first flop in the franchise’s history.

  Fiction (John C. Wright): From Book 1: My name is Officer Thomas Nolan, and I am a saint.Tommy Nolan lives a quiet life. He walks his beat – showing mercy to the desperate. Locking away the dangerous. Going to church, sharing dinner with his wife and son. Everyone likes Tommy, even the men he puts behind bars.

Then one day a demon shows up and he can smell it. Tommy can smell evil –real evil. Now he’s New York City’s only hope against a horrifying serial killer that preys on the young and defenseless.

  Fiction (Elgin Bleeker): John Buchan’s 1915 novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps, is one of the grand old spy adventures of yesteryear and is still a pretty great read.

Most people will know the plot thanks to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 movie version, “The 39 Steps.”

A spy with information vital to the British government is killed in Richard Hannay’s apartment. The police think Hannay did it and hunt him down. The real culprits – enemy spies – think Hannay knows their secret plans, and set out to kill him.

  Cartoons (Broadswords and Blasters): As a kid growing up in the 1980s I was naturally attached to cartoons. That’s one of the defining characteristics of late Gen-Xers/early millenials (I’ve seen us referred to as a crossover generation, but isn’t everyone really?). For me, those cartoons were GI Joe, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and Voltron.

  Pulp Awards (Pulpfest): The PulpFest Organizing Committee is pleased to announce that fifteen individuals have been nominated by their peers for the 2019 Munsey Award. The honor is named after Frank A. Munsey — the man who published the first pulp magazine. This annual award recognizes an individual or institution that has bettered the pulp community, be it through disseminating knowledge about the pulps or through publishing or other efforts to preserve and foster interest in the pulp magazines we all love and enjoy. Congratulations to all of the nominees for this prestigious award, presented annually at PulpFest.

  Comic Books (Rough Edges): Several years ago, I read the graphic novel GRAVEDIGGER: HOT WOMEN, COLD CASH, written by Christopher Mills, and enjoyed it a lot. These days, Mills is putting together an entire line of comics called Atomic Action, which takes public domain superheroes and puts them in new stories written and drawn in the classic style of the Sixties and Seventies (which means they’re right in my wheelhouse). The first issue of these new comics, SPACE CRUSADERS #1, came out recently, and it’s great fun.

  Paperback Horror (Kirkus Reviews): If you’ve spent any amount of time in a used bookstore, you’ve undoubtedly seen the horror paperbacks section. Adorned with decades-old book spines that are predominantly black, they boast covers that are simultaneously creepy, kitschy and remarkably appealing. Those books never fail to evoke a sense of nostalgia and—I’ll admit it—appreciation.

Grady Hendrix shared that same appreciation with readers in 2017 with the publication of the Bram Stoker Award-winning love-letter to 70s and 80s horror fiction, Paperbacks From Hell.

Anime (Karavansara): I have often written in the past about the impact that the first series of Mobile Suit Gundam had on my generation and on me in particular. I think the best evidence of how much it impacted me is the fact that I am still watching the cartoons – no longer as a start-struck teenager, not as an otaku (I never was that), but with an eye to narrative structure, themes, character arcs, patterns.

  Gaming (Niche Gamer): One of the hardest aspects of game development is standing out from other games of the same genre. This is further compounded when you are heavily inspired by a particular style of game. Enter Hellmut: The Badass from Hell. A twin-stick shooter like Enter the Gungeon with a style roughly based on a more light-hearted classic Doom. Comparisons to both those games quickly end once you start to play. Does Hellmut evolve from other games in the genre, or is it a mutation better off being sterile?

    Sensor Sweep: Bruce Pennington, Science Wonder Stories, H. Bedford Jones, Post Oaks and Sand Roughs published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

DC Bloodlines Comicbook Reviews

I had a blast reading my collection of books in this story arc! Each book is listed below in reading order, with the ones I've read reviewed.

Bloodlines: Outbreak

Lobo Annual #1 by Alan Grant My rating: 3 of 5 stars Oh boy, that was about the most psychedelic DC comic I've ever read! I'm not really acquainted with Lobo, even though I did read one "New 52" featuring him. But this guy here, this Lobo?! A total nutjob. Everybody looks like early '90s punks and the art is an eyesore featuring mostly purples and greens. This is one weird group of anti? semi? superheroes? The story, on the other hand, is intriguing. Bloodlines is an arc that ran through the DC universe in 1993. It is comprised of many superheroes annuals and a few single issues. I don't have the complete set but I do have a small  pile. The Lobo Annual is the first book in the Bloodlines series and introduces us to the aliens who have entered Earth's solar system. They are big rather "Alien"-ish looking, fierce with a taste for human "juices". Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #2 Batman: Shadow of The Bat Annual #1 The Flash Annual #6

The New Titans Annual #9 by Elizabeth Hand My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is book 5 in the Bloodlines saga. Having only read volume 1 I was a bit wary of having skipped over the other books. However, this was unnecessary as the book reads like a standalone. The book starts with a Voodoo cult who is taken control of by two of the alien beings who arrived in volume 1, both of whom we met before. Then on to the New Titans who have been given the case of all these blood sucking deaths. I loved this crew, not having read a '90s version before. I knew all the members but didn't recognize them by look alone. The art is very psychedelic with an infusion of every bright colour possible. I don't think I'm a fan of the artwork from this period. The story was excellent though and I enjoyed getting to know this version of the New Titans. The story here is self-contained and ends with a complete ending as far as the Titans are concerned but the aliens are ready to go bother someone else.

Superman Annual #5 by Dan Jurgens My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is only very loosely tied to the Bloodlines series, and yet may possibly be a pivotal one in the story arc. The aliens are on the first few pages, sucking fluid from human spines but then one of them finds a dead body and sucks her juices. Then the aliens are gone for the rest of the book. However, the dead body turns into a new villain, Myriad, who upon contact takes the personality and memories of that person. After her first try at this, she realises she has to kill the person so she can fully assimilate them into herself. The art is great! Much better than the other '90s art I've been experiencing lately. The book also takes place during '93s "Death of Superman" storyline so Superman is actually not even in his own annual but instead the Cyborg Superman is taking his place. Green Lantern Annual #2 Batman Annual #17 Justice League International Annual #4

Bloodlines: Earthplague

Robin Annual #2

Action Comics Annual #5

Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #4

Green Arrow Annual #6

Detective Comics Annual #6 by Chuck Dixon My rating: 5 of 5 stars Wow. That was a satisfying and quick read. It held my attention from the get-go even though this DC era is so different for me. First, I've jumped into the 5th book in the second story arc of Bloodlines, Earthplague. The story of the aliens is easy to pick up as they are still just roaming around causing trouble and sucking the spinal fluid out of humans. There's one alien in this and it's one who's been around since the very first book, Lobo. At the same time, it is a story about a guy new to the superhero business, one who's only been in the gig for a year. Batman. Yes, Batman! When in the world did this Jean Paul Valley become Batman?? Where is Bruce Wayne? I actually liked Valley as Batman but this totally shocked me and after reading the books I have in this series I'm going to have to go back and find some reading to do from this period of DC, the early '90s.

Justice League America Annual #7 by Bill Loebs My rating: 4 of 5 stars Another great issue in this series. This time the aliens are a big part of the story but much more so is a man who gets turned into one of the Newbloods. He changes appearance totally and quickly discovers that when he touches someone they turn into a monster of themselves. This guy already had a chip on his shoulder against the world and now he can do something about it, calling himself Terrorsmith. So the JLA are called in and spend their time tracking down this guy while at the same time going after the aliens. This 90s JLA was very unfamiliar to me and I found it interesting. Booster Gold was the main character, while Wonder Woman was the most known. A great story and the art isn't too shabby either except it has a lot of red and yellow making it quite bright. I have the next one in the series coming up and am looking forward to it.

Adventures of Superman Annual #5 by Karl Kesel My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is the next issue in the series coming right after JLA. Another action-packed issue making for a very fast read. Now, remember that Superman is "dead" at this time in 1993 so Supe is not in his own annual. This time we have a young man, a boy, being called in to be Superman. He is never referred to by any name other than Superman so I didn't know who he actually is; I just thought of him as Superboy, whoever that was in '93. This issue brings the story back to being heavily plotted around the aliens and we finally get to know what their ultimate plan is. By my count 5 of the 6 aliens were in this book. I'm really enjoying this story arc and would like to get the rest of the books someday. I'm now moving onto the 3rd story arc and own two more issues to read. Hawkman Annual #1

Bloodlines: Deathstorm

Deathstroke Annual #2

Eclipso Annual #1 by Robert Loren Fleming My rating: 5 of 5 stars I'm jumping into the 3rd volume (Deathstorm) of this series with issue two. Every book in this series just gets better and better! Or at least just as good, and to think it all started with a crazy Lobo annual. :-) Mostly just more of the same here. I've never heard of Eclipso before and was surprised to find out that he was a villain. Prism is the Newblood created in this issue and for the first time (at least in the issues I've read) we meet with the other Newbloods from previous issues who have banded together to get the alien who created them all. This was great fun meeting up with them all again after having had them just walk off into the sunset in their own story issues. Fantastic fight at the end between Newblood Prism and Eclipso. The end of the book notes that the new superheroes (Newbloods) will be returning in their own series called "Bloodbath". Will have to check into that. Now I personally own only one more issue, at this time, and will be getting to that next! Demon Annual #2 Batman: Legends of The Dark Knight Annual #3

Team Titans Annual #1 by Marv Wolfman My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was excited when I saw this was by Marv Wolfman so went into it with great expectations even though I had never heard of this team or any of the heroes. First, I must say I really liked the graphic design of this book. The text was much bigger and more blocky than usual and I found it very easy on the eyes. As you can tell from the cover the art is psychedelically out there! But it actually works very well. Totally new superheroes to me but I'd be interested in seeing more of them as they prove quite interesting. The "Bloodlines" alien plot is very low key in this issue. There are two brief appearances of aliens, however, the main plot revolves around the character who is bitten at the beginning of the book. Then the "Teamers" set out to rescue her and the story goes into detail about her new powers consuming her and causing mayhem. Though she battles them, they finally manage to calm her down and Chimera is born. L.E.G.I.O.N. Annual #4

Bloodlines: Bloodbath 

Bloodbath #1 Bloodbath #2 By: [email protected] (Nikki in Niagara)