Comprehensive Newbie Introduction
PostPosted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 11:40 am
Heh, cut-n-paste is so very useful!
A big hajimemashi-ta yoroshikune onegaishimasu to my fellow members of the Christian Otaku generation! My name is Yuuenchi. I is a gen-uine Appalachain-American (Hillbilly is so un-PC) originally from the not-so great state of WV currently residing in the temporarily famous State of Georgia. I like reading manga and watching anime (obviously), I like collecting it. I wish more could be licensed; I wish I could read and understand what is not translated, which is why I'm learnng Japanese (I have 28 vols of grammar and Kanji reference books -for that matter I am looking for a book titled "Introduction to Newspaper Japanese, so if anyone knows where I can find it, please let me know-). I can recognize roughly 330 Kanji, and am working on the rest.
Let's see, I collect original manga, English translations (where possibly I buy the original J-version) I figure I have around 1000 manga (the joys of having access to a real Japanese bookstore, and Japanese bookstores selling used manga here in Atlanta) English and Japanese. Most of it is Shoujo, and less tha .01% is Hentai of any form. (There, I admit my innate sinfulness before you all and greet you with the Prayer of S. Augustine.)
I also collect Anime CDs (soundtracks, drama-cds); the occasional figure; and as many Light Novels as I can identify -they make good practice material. On the other hand, I also have Japanese translations of "Hamlet, "The Golden Compass", and am working on acquiring the "Harry Potter" series, but at $60 a pop per title for 2v hardback, it takes a while to work up the courage to fork over that much money.
I also like the visual novel/dating game/gal-game culture. (I have a few games, including Kanon and Clannad for the PC, along with what Hirameki came out with while they were still around, and a few from JAST and related companies, thanks to JList). Hmm..in fact, along with original manga, the games are the reason I began to learn Japanese, so I could read (and play) what won't make it over here.
I figure at some point I'll learn how to edit, and how to use a scan and upload, since I have so much original manga, so I can contribute to producing scans. Its something that I want to do, but have no experience in.
You know you've read too much manga and seen too much anime, when you start to write your own stories (the vast majority of my projects to date are shoujo/school romantic comedy/drama) for no other reason other than you want to see how the story comes out. I blame KGNE for that, I always wanted Haruka to win over Takayuki in the end (Next Season notwithstanding), even though I know that such was not possible the way the anime was set up, so I started writing stories using the name Haruka..and I took off from there. They started as potential KGNE fanfiction projects, but I quickly realized that they had little in common with KGNE other than names, so they became original works. So now, I have some 18 stories running around in my head and on my HDD labeled as either "Dear My Shoujo" or "Shonen Write!" stories, or Teen Heart Manga Storie. Now, ask me how many stories I've actually finished, and you'll receive a different answer. (Well, one is in pre-reading stage "Under the Red Umbrella" (short summary: a school-age/hatsukoi story about a boy and girl who from an early age have walked to/from school everyday together under a red umbrella because of a skin-condition that she has. One day she tells him her mother has arranged for her to be married after school. Enter requisite soul-searching, what do I do now teen-agnst appropo of anime/manga heros and heroines) except my pre-reader has disappeared on me :dp: ). Most stories are multi-chapter/mutli-part such as "Chocolate Confessions" (a boy whose family runs a confectionary shop and his burgeoning romance with his classmate) and "I'm in Love with the School Ghost" (where the hero meets the school ghost during a hidemoshi, and ends up falling in love with her. Oh, and then she finds and accidentally swallows the Philosophe's Stone, which is where things really get interesting). Now, of course, once I finish it, there's the question of who would want to read this type of story, and finding appropriate outlets to promote them. I know about webcomics, but is there a similir anime-influenced webfiction niche out there that I don't know about?
I'm quasi-active on a few other boards and forums -mostly forums belonging to scanlation groups- (ok, so I'm a lurker on most of the boards, but I'm trying).
Non-Anime/Manga related:
In real life I attend a formerly Anglo-Catholic parish of the Episcopal Church that has lost its identiy since the departure of our previous rector to fill a convent-chaplain's post in MD. I am at odds with the Church Hierarchy and lay leadership over contemporary doctrinal innovations in the Faith and Practice of ECSUSA and parts of the wider Anglican Communion, but remain within ECUSA both because there is no currently existing replacement for ECUSA for me to go to (Rome, for various and obvious reasons is out of the question, much as I admire the current and past-previous Holy Fathers; my theological and devotional predispositions preclude going anywhere "lower" into Protestantism; and Orthodoxy, while doctrinally and devotionally sound (I have my own devotions to Icons), is too ethno-centrist and too far outside of my cultural experience to feel comfortable in) and I consider schism a worse sin than heresy, because schism represents such a gross breaking of the bonds of love -a point that has been hammered home to me by my readings of the Church Fathers- which I do not wish to be accused of. This has led me into considering a vocation of apologetics from within to my erring brothers and sisters of ECUSA.
I like Celtic Music, Bluegrass (I own a banjo, but am not very good at it), country, other, non-anime soundtracks, New Age music (it makes for good writing aids), CCM, alternative, rock (on the non-anime Christian music scene, apart from classical, gregorian chant and pre-19th century musics, I have lately gotten into alternative rock's Skillet, Pillar, and Disciple, and love Kutless); along with my study of Japanese, I am half-heartedly learning Spanish, Latin, German, and a few other Oriental and Near Eastern languages; and I am an avid reader of SF/F, Philosphy, Theology, Biolgy, Chemistry, History and Church History, and becoming avid in political-economy, anthropology.
One of my favorite contemporary Japanese authors is Catholic novelist Shusaku Endo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shusaku_Endo).
I also belong to Christian oriented yahoo groups such as CCWL (Christian Children's Writers List) ChristSF (not specifically anime related, but can involve Christian discussion of anime)
Speaking of writing, I aim to one day be a publisher writer of YA fiction (with several titles in mind that I'm working on with the same rate of completion as my Teen Heart Manga Stories supra. I'm also working on a writing project called "Chronicles of the Church of Petergate" that places a remnant of the Christian Church into a fantasy settig with the requisite amount of magic, elves, dwarves, dragons, war, political intrigue, and religious confrontations, and seeing what happens as the Gospel is brought to a foriegn/alternate, seemingly God-forsaken, world. I have called it "Church of Petergate" because the central feature in this world is a gigantic Roman style Triumphant Arch, which connects the Island of the Christians to the mainland continents of this new world. It has been slow going, but after seeing what Eric Flint did with his "Ring of Fire" collaborative universe, would love to be able to place my own collaborative Christ-oriented fantasy story out there in mainstream SF/F shelves.
I have been interested in the possibility of outreach to the con (SF/Horror/Anime) subculture ever since reading of a Baptist congregation that had a ministry/chaplaincy directed to Civil War Re-enactors where the ministerial team participated in the activities. I thought wow! and wondered if that could be effective for something like SCA, and SF in general. Two years ago at AWA (Anime Weekend Atlanta) in fact, the group Fans For Christ had a table in the Dealer Room (they were even at DragonCon this year). It would be neat to have a Christian cosplay meet-up at an anime convention
So, that's who I am.
I look forward to engaging my brothers and sister in Christ in some great conversations about anime and manga (especially the (scanlated) manga "Bitter Virgin", which has become a favorite of mine, and about how the anime/manga culture can help or hinder our/my walk with Christ Jesus.
Why yes, I did steal this from my AnimeAngels intro, why do you ask?
