Some UPDATES:

Gintama Chapters 50-67 has been translated + scanlated! OMG.

Get them at Maximum7 while they're still hot! There was a comm in livejournal that was going to do it too, but they've only done up to the 51st, I think... Anyway, I can personally vouch for Maximum7's scanlations. They're the sister group [are they even really sister groups? Aren't they just the same people?] of Bleach7, the ones I get updates from every weekend. : D


On to other news: D.Gray-Man Manga has been put on hiatus.

Sad news. But true. The mangaka has been suffering from a sickness [I'm not sure what it is, really], so the manga will be put on hold for a while. I'm willing to bet that it'll be a looooooong while, too. Damn, and the manga was just getting to the good parts. D:


Anyone here familiar with the series Twilight? Aaaah, Twilight. Another example of mainstreaming. What a joke.

I don't usually do mainstream --- as is obvioulsy exemplified by my anime/manga preference. Not obvious enough for you? Let me spell it out then: I, more often than not, do not follow mainstream anime. Examples of anime which [I think] belong to the mainstream category: Gundam Seed [+Destiny], Vampire Knight, Naruto, Bleach, Yugioh, Beyblade, Prince of Tennis among others...

Anyway, as I was saying, I usually don't do mainstream. If I ever do mainstream, it can only mean two things: ONE, I've been following the series even before it became the "IT" thing, and TWO, the series is really just that good.

So going back to the series I'm currently following, I think I just need to explain myself somehow. Of course, Gintama and Eyeshield21 are obviously not mainstream anime. Gintama for obvious reasons, Eyeshield21 because of the not-so-bishounen types of characters.

Naruto and Bleach - well, I've been with the Bleach fandom even before its [international] "boom"... which was what? Two, three.. four years ago? Naruto falls under the it's-really-just-that-good category.

D.Gray-Man... I'm not sure. Is it mainstream? Either way, I think it best fits the it's-really-just-that-good category, too. Prince of Tennis.. ahahah. Prince of Tennis is like something you don't really want to spend your time on but end up doing so anyway. It's just that hypnotic, I think. [Plus, we're talking about playing with balls here. Heheh.]

Wait, I haven't been able to define what mainstream is, have I? Mainstreaming.. it means that people only follow a series because it's the popular, "IT-IN" thing...

So Seed, VK, those other IT-IN animes/mangas.. they're all mainstream. And I really don't get why people need to watch the in thing, have the in thing, be the in thing in order for them to be cool. I watch Gintama, and I think it's cool. I read P2 - Let's Play Ping Pong manga, and even though it's really dorky and quirky, I still think it's cool enough. I don't think people have to always be "IN" in order for them to be cool. I think cool people are the ones who are different, actually. Crowding is such an uncool, cowardly thing to do.

[I just remembered that I forgot to mention Katekyo Hitman Reborn. :D Again, I've been with the fandom even before the so-called international "boom" of it.]

So going back to the Twilight series... what's so great about it? Ahahah, I bet my smelly, moldy, hole-y old socks that more than 50% of all the fans of that series are only there because Twilight is the "IN" thing nowadays. Bigger than Harry Potter, even.

I don't want to argue about the content of Twilight, or if it really deserves the fame it's been getting. I haven't read the whole series, just some exerpts - and nope, sorry, I'm not idiotic enough to wage war on the rabid twilight eddiekins fangirls over some few passages of the shit that I have indeed read. [And let me tell you, those few passages could make even Shakespeare cry and tear his eyeballs out. Seriously.]

What I'm trying to say here is that mainstreaming is a really annoying phenomenon. Not only is it so annoyingly mindless, it's also very pathetic. People should just find fandoms they really do like and stick with those - and stop fandom hopping just because some friend told them that this certain fandom is better because everyone else thinks it's better. People should learn to think for themselves, choose for themselves. People should stop from letting the masses dictate them on everything - on the clothes they wear, the food they eat, the books they read, the shows they watch, the music they listen to.

I'm not really making much sense, as usual. I'm just rambling a lot, I guess. But I really feel strongly disappointed when I see people I consider friends just bowing to the mainstream gods and goddesses. Why let the wave take you when you can fight back and create a wave of your own? Celebrate your individuality! This mainstreaming... it's ruining our sense of uniqueness! I'm not saying that we shouldn't follow the maintream variety - there really are some very good maintream things - but that we should NOT follow a fandom because of it's popularity. There are other things out there which aren't really popular, but we may find them more to our liking than the "POPULAR" telenobela [soap opera], or the "IN" fashion, or the "HOT" music.


I want to rant some more, but I have to go wash some 100-year-old dishes first... (-______-)


Aaaah, my ranting was cut short. D: