Naruto: Sasuke Orochi Ultimate Chidori Figure

Here's an interesting figure that will be very limited (only 2,000 made). Any fans of Sasuke will like this version of him of course under the full Orochi mode he had during the original Nartuo series. A bit step in price though but are some of you Naruto fans that crazy for this? More images will come if I can snag some when they arrive to the store some time in March or April 09.

Eiji Komatsu Gallery

Remember that awesome looking Nurse Nana figure? Well, here the art that inspired the figure. Eiji Komatsu's work is simply amazing and is by far an anime standard.

Check out the entire gallery here.

More Nurse Nana

Japanese Idol: Hata Mizuho

(Full post archived to Censored Chuck's Anime Shrine blog)

(Also archived to archive.today)

It would appear that this blog post became a victim in Google Adsense's new SJW-like content policies and had to be censored despite the fact that this wasn't porn nor showed any nudity.

Here's one of the emails I got from Google and it seems like this terrible trend isn't backing down...

To comply to these rules, here's images of women that Adsense would rather us post

Do you also run an anime/gamer blog?  Here's a chart to help convert your site and blog to Google's new policies...

How to Draw Manga and How NOT to Draw Manga

So you want to draw anime and manga? Well, like anything in art you have your own personal touch but to mimic the great arts from Japan, the right way, there's a bit more that needs to be added. A great student always becomes a great teacher. The opposite sadly holds true as well. One of my biggest pet peeves is to observe the number of "How to Draw Anime" books in America that simply are nowhere near the art, style and beauty of real anime and manga. Why is it that many of you become anime fans? Well, usually its the quality of the art that draws us otaku in and yes, eventually its the quirky and different Japanese styles and culture references that keeps us in.

Sadly, the popularity of anime has also bred many copycats who quite frankly, can't draw anime. I'm all for everyone trying to draw it and increasing both their fandom and their love of art, but its the growing number of fake anime shows and fake "How to Draw Anime" art books that are the issue here. This isn't all too new as the anime surge in popularity has had its sad western copycats for at least 7-8 years (as of this post). I've gone over the TV shows in a previous post but here's a look at some baaad "How To" books, the good and some little tips from me from my experience.

First, before I show the bad, let me show the good. The number one source you should look for in how to draw manga and anime is not surprisingly the official "How to Draw Manga Books"

The work in these books are done by some of the greats in anime art. On top of that, you get very detailed instructions that don't just tell you the basics of drawing but of the art tools needed to draw manga & anime, the difference in anime anatomy and realistic anatomy with plenty of examples from a wide range of real anime artists.

Now for the bad...observe a book like this, many of them are filling the book shelves at local book stores:

To teach others how to draw anime you first have to know how to draw anime in the first place! Clearly books like these are just god-awful in terms of learning how to draw anime. They do however teach simplistic cartooning and simply show the style of the artist but...NOT anime and manga. Again, before you know how to draw anime..don't make a book teaching it!

Some tips for drawing anime & manga:

Now, I've been away from drawing anime since around 2004...but I'll be back into it soon. I'm not the number one expert so again, go to the real "how to draw anime" books for full instructions since it is a long process, something that simply can't be taught by one blog post. I will however give you a bit of tips here to help you start. If you are to "really" draw anime...its the same as learning how to mimic the fine arts, NOT cartooning like the fake "how to" books show.

Tip 1): The eyes make it anime and make the soul of the picture:

This picture done by Uzumaki-Akane-sama shows some good examples of anime eyes. One thing I've focused on is getting right are the eyes. Without getting the eyes correct...it doesn't matter how good you can draw the rest of the picture, it just won't look like authentic anime. All the real "How to Draw Manga" books show even more examples and give you real step by step instructions on this very vital part of anime art. This by far is the first skill you need to learn. Of course use your own style but if the eyes are off, the entire picture is off. Those big anime eyes are meant to entrap more emotion than a simplistic cartoony western animation.

Tip 2) Treat every part of the drawing as a separate drawing/line:

What do I mean by this? Well, above is a picture I hand drawn back in 2001. I simply looked at a picture of DBZ's Goku and I copied what I saw. This is not a trace and yes, its of an already established character so this mainly pertains to copying...which is your "training wheels" so to say when you start drawing anime. Many anime artists first copied different styles to get the overall feel for it and then jump into their own work.

When I copied this photo to my hand drawn version, I didn't just see the one main picture, I focused on every small line and copied the shape and angle of the small parts. Focusing on just the entire picture is a sure way to create a picture that comes out looking both out of proportion and out of touch with the image. Practice will make it second nature to then your imagination will soon take hold and you won't really need the handicap of using other works for examples.Tip 3) Use your favorite anime artist(s) as an example to work off of:

All the greats in anime and art usually used the works of past great artists to get them started in their work. Above are some pictures from one of my favorite artists, Eiji Komatsu. Find an artist you like and observe the different layers of the art from the anatomy, to the emotion to the shading and more. Utilizing the skills of a better artist will only help move your artwork up in quality.

Now, like I said, I've been away from drawing for a while but lets face it, though I'm just an ameture, what I learned from the real "How to Draw Manga" books made my images look more like real anime images than these so-called teachers in the fake "How To" books. Here's some more examples of stuff I've done:

Again, nothing amazing but at least I'm trying to make it look like real anime. Yes, angel Fumi looks a bit o_O.
In the end, art, is art. You make it what it is but anime and manga tend to have more depth to them and fall in the fine arts category...not cartooning. You're style makes your work unique but there are underlying basics to anime that sadly...many western artists fail to grasp.

Hope this was of some help ^^.

............
This long post is something I had to get of my chest since I've seen too many of the fake anime "How To" books poisoning the fans who really do want to draw well. Many of those artists...need to go back to the drawing board.

IBM's Bionic Armor

An interesting bit of news from Engadget. Seems that IBM recently patented a bionic armor concept. Not only will the armor use electromagnetic waves to bounce off bullets or any other fast moving projectiles but will also stimulate the wearer's muscles to automatically dodge a bullet.

Granted, this has to be something that won't be around for a while but how cool would that be?

Cloud & Tifa Valentine AMV

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! My fiancee, Danielle just made an AMV that is just perfect for today and I'll admit...its been a long while since I've promoted an AMV ^^; so hopefully the (hate) mail might stop.

There are plenty of FFVII AMVs out there but other than this being done by my fiancee, I thought this was a great overall video. Some of you might remember Danielle's other FFVII AMV but due to its huge popularity and since the music industry loves to protect their extra deep pockets without realizing AMVs are actually free ads for their artists..the video was booted ~_~

If you don't have a Valentine or lost yours today, don't fret since the time will come and some of you probably like the single life.

The song is a more modern version of "You Raise Me Up". Pardon my not knowing the artists. Once I know who sings this version I'll give credit of course where credit is due.

Enjoy..and don't eat too many sweets.

Oppai Mouse Pads Arrived

Got the Oppai mouse pads today straight from my dealer in Japan. Would love to keep one but my fiancée is not a fan of me having one ^^;;. Going to post them in the store. Who here has, likes or wants oppai mousepads?

New York Comic Con 09

Sorry I'm a few days late. Had over $3000 worth of anime figures to ship since Monday ^^;

Anyways, we came back this weekend from an awesome New York Comic Con. For those of you that were there, the one thing you noticed was how unbelievably packed it was. The economy has nothing on the comic, anime and video game industry since its booming here in New York.

Danielle and I lucked out this time because of the store. We got VIP passes and was able to make good use of Friday. Saturday and Sunday were just nuts and our sanctuary was the Blue Room set up for professionals. Didn't get to meet Seth Green but met with Lou Ferrigno who probably left with a boatload of cash since he was charging for autographs ^^;;

Also loved how I got to check out the gaming booths with games like Sega's MadWorld and others yet to be released ^^.

Below are some pictures from the con. More can be found at the NYCC09 section in the gallery.

If you were at the con, upload your pictures as well to the album. Would love to see some from you guys ^_^

Gotta love my business ^^

Getting the cover of MadWorld signed by the creators


Me in front of the EA photo wall


Wanted to snag a bunch here


Did manage to grab a Zack for Danielle...stocking them soon.


Watching the Dragon Ball Evolution video game demoed at the Namco booth...the movie is bound to be an insult to all Dragon Ball fans though ~_~

Blue Dragon Plus

Hey Blue Dragon Fans,

Just got back for the 2009 New York Comic Con and before I do a full post on the events, just wanted to post about something that you'd enjoy. Of course you know that the new Nintendo DS game: Blue Dragon Plus is on its way and is looking great. I am a fan of Akira Toriyama of course since he's the man behind the Dragon Ball Sagas, Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest. I'll admit, I've only seen a bit of this series but in a few short weeks, I'll be doing a full hands on review to this game. It was promoed at NYCC09 along with a slew of other cool games.

Here's some features and specs for some of you that don't know of it yet:

One year has passed since Shu and his companions defeated the tyrannical remnant of the Ancients, Nene. In the midst of the battle, the world split in two and now consists of a myriad of “cubes” that exploded from its depths. In one of these cubes, King Jibral stands on the balcony of Neo Jibral Castle and surveys the scene before him. He notices a mysterious cube in the distance suddenly start to move violently, and from it he sees the Shadow of a Balaur, a three-headed dragon, emerge. The enormous and sinister Shadow is just the beginning of the new turmoil and devastation to come.

Features

• Single Player Campaign With Over 30 Hours of Game Play
• Legion vs. Legion
  • Control up to 16 humans and Mecha Robos to fight against a horde of enemies
  • Equip your units with items and alter their composition to bolster their strength
• Take Advantage of Your DS Features Through Exciting Real-Time Battles and Shadow Fights!
• High Quality Dual Screen FMV’s Showcasing More Than an Hour of Story Events!
• Exciting RPG Elements Such As Item Collection, Character Progression and Robot Customizations

Other Background Info:

• Strong Collaboration of RPG Veterans Storyline created and directed by Hironobu Sakaguchi (Final Fantasy Series Director)
  • Characters created by Akira Toriyama(DragonBall Universe, Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger)
  • Music composed by Nobuo Uematsu(Final Fantasy)
• Highly Acclaimed Development Studios
  • Mistwalker
  • Artoon (Yoshi’s Island)
  • Brownie Brown (Heroes of Mana)
  • Feelplus (Lost Odyssey)
• Rave Reviews of Blue Dragon on Xbox 360
  • Game Informer rated 9/10
  • Game Pro rated 4.75/5
  • IGN rated 7.9/10
  
  
• 

Check out one of the trailers below:

Cover image from IGN

Anime Pic of the Day: 2/8/09

Everyone is a fan of Gurren Lagann's Yoko. Here's a little picture of her for the day. Been busy over here at New York Comic Con (more on that in a future post). This picture would Make a nice desktop background...just need to boost it's size for you all since the iPhone keeps these a bit small. More on that too in a future post.

Mecha Musume Nana Figure

As of today this figure has been put up for pre-order. I'm most definitely grabbing one for myself. I simply love the picture this came from, not too familiar with the series or artist though ^^;

In case some of you don't remember from one of my old posts...the image of Nurse Girl Nana is my iPhone's background and has been since I got it last year.

(Pre/order Here)

She does cost a bit at around $105USD, or 9300 yen, but (at least for me) this awesome looking 1/8th scale figure from Orchid Seed is most definitively going into my collection.


(more pics of her)

Here's my iPhone BG. Never changed it since I bought it.