Instant Reaction: Sailor Moon dub episode 1!

Posted on September 20, 2014
by Beth Lynn

I’m sure many of you have already heard that Viz has released a new version of the Sailor Moon dub, far better and more accurate than the DiC version from the mid-’90s. Well, the DiC version was the one I grew up on – and while it’s what sparked my nearly two decade long love of Sailor Moon, it was incredibly cringe-worthy.

Exactly.

So, when I found out that Viz had redubbed the English version, and remastered all the original Japanese music, I had to give it a watch. I wasn’t entirely sure I’d like it, considering how very used I am to the old dub voices, but I had to watch. For science. (And, conveniently enough, it’s on Hulu!) And as I started watching, I caught myself posting my reactions to Twitter – and then realized it might just be better to collect them all here, to share with everyone! So, here’s my in-the-moment reactions to the first episode of the new Sailor Moon dub!

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Book Review: The Hunger Games

Posted on July 21, 2014
by Beth Lynn

Hunger_games Yes, I admit, I hadn’t read The Hunger Games trilogy until, well, this past week. I finished The Stand sometime on Thursday night, and needed something to read that wasn’t Stephen King… so I poked around on Amazon until I saw The Hunger Games, and realized that while I’d seen the movie, I hadn’t read the books yet. And usually I’m the type to read the book WAY before the movie comes out! (With the exception of Twilight. I only read the books after the first movie came out because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I’ll hold back on my opinions on the Twilight series, haha.) I was in the mood for something new to read, and I really did enjoy the movie version of The Hunger Games, so I sat down and read it. And blew through it in a day and a half, and ended up signing up for Amazon Kindle Unlimited when I realized it would cost less than buying Catching Fire and Mockingjay combined! (And once I’ve got some more experience with that, I’ll likely be reviewing that too!) And then blew through most of Catching Fire. And then I realized – hey, I should write about these books. They’re good. So, here’s part one of my review of the Hunger Games trilogy! There will be spoilers. You have been warned.

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How To Train Your Dragon 2: The Review

Posted on July 1, 2014
by Beth Lynn

Well, the movie’s been out for a couple of weeks now, so I feel it’s only right to finally get around to posting this: a review of How To Train Your Dragon 2.

The plot of the movie, without really giving too much of the story away, focuses on Hiccup becoming an adult and discovering more about himself as he discovers more about the world he lives in. This movie’s set five years after the first one, and Hiccup is 20 years old at this point – an adult, but still the same Hiccup we grew to knew and love in the first movie. There’s a lot about HTTYD 2 I want to talk about, so I’ll get the non-spoilery stuff out of the way first.

how-to-train-your-dragon-2

First off, I’d like to gush about the graphics. I’ve watched both movies pretty much back-to-back lately, and it’s very obvious how much technology has advanced since the first movie came out in 2010. The textures look so much more real, the characters look more lifelike – at times it felt like I could just step through the screen and into this lush fantasy world. And, strangely enough, the first thing that stood out to me when it came to just how much technology had advanced was Stoick’s beard. It looks far better in HTTYD 2, much more realistic…

It’s not just the beard. Stoick in his entirety looks much better this time around.

Another thing that I absolutely loved about the movie was Toothless’ antics. When he wasn’t a central character in a scene, he was still stealing the show in the background, with his silly antics and ridiculous cuteness. I loved him in the first movie, and I love him even more now. And I’m incredibly glad I’ve seen the movie twice – because I won’t lie, there may have been times where I was paying more attention to Toothless goofing off in the background than I was to the main plot.

How can you not love that face?

After the jump, there will be spoilers. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, and don’t want to spoil the story for yourself, don’t read any further!

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Toothless comes to Build-a-Bear!

Posted on May 26, 2014
by Beth Lynn

Edit 6/24/14: For those of you out there looking for a Toothless of your very own: Build a Bear is sold out! However, you can sign up to be notified when he’s available again via the link, so for those of you still waiting for a Nightfury of your very own, be patient – I’m sure Build a Bear will do a re-release! (And to show you just how quickly they sold out: I bought mine the first day they were available, and then a friend of mine went to buy one three days later and they were gone!)

Yes, you heard that right – you can get your very own Toothless, right from Build-a-Bear! And considering the great job they did with the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic crew, I had pretty high expectations for BaB’s Toothless plush – after all, you can’t get much worse than this, right?

Ouch. Toothless, what did they do to you?

No wonder so many of us went and made our own Toothlesses (Toothli?) so we could have a Night Fury of our own to cuddle. Well, I went to Build a Bear today, and I definitely was not disappointed!

Here he is, with my handmade Toothless for scale.

He’s about 17 inches tall, not including the tail, and my gosh is he adorable! Look at those big eyes, that adorable mischievous smile… Yup, Build-a-Bear did a great job with this little guy. He’s super soft, and very huggable. I had to resist the urge to carry him around the mall for the rest of my shopping. There is one weird thing they did with him – his wings are actually detachable.

As you can see in the image above, he wears his wings like a tiny little backpack. Considering most Build-a-Bear plush are stuffed from the middle of the back, the detachable wings make sense – otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to stuff Toothless from the usual BaB spot. I do worry about losing the wings at some point, but right now they’re held on with a plastic tag-holder thing (I never know what to call them, and I even worked at a consignment shop where I stuck a bunch of those things into clothes when tagging items!), and I plan on leaving it in there for the time being.

Along with Toothless himself, they’re also selling a little tiny Toothless hoodie for your bear to wear! I say bear, because I found out the hard way that it’s not quite suited for a pony.

Toothless and… Toothless?

I had to practically maul Pinkie to get the shirt over her head, and when I wedged her front legs into the armhole, it was pretty clear that this shirt wasn’t exactly meant for ponies or other similar four-legged friends. Ah well. If you don’t put the front legs in the arm holes, and kind of use it as a Toothless cowl, it does work, somewhat. Pinkie looks freakin’ adorable in the Toothless shirt, I will say. You should be able to find Toothless at your local Build-a-Bear – not sure how long he’ll be there for, though – probably at least through the end of June. I’d say get him while you can – he’s clearly the best Toothless plush out there!

Book Review: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Posted on May 14, 2014
by Beth Lynn

I’ve been a fan of the Dexter television series for quite a while now – a friend of mine introduced me to it in 2009, and I binge-watched the entire series up to the current episodes (middle of season 4, for those curious) in about two weeks. And I’ve been a loyal fan since. I’m re-watching the series with Ross right now, as he’s never seen it, and Mr. Crafty Nerd isn’t too terribly fond of Dexter – so I hadn’t had a chance to re-watch it since the end of the series. And it got me thinking – I know there are Dexter books. I should read them, because I need new things to read. So, I signed out Darkly Dreaming Dexter from my library’s e-book collection, and added it to my summer reading list.

For those of you who’ve watched the series, this first book should feel familiar, as it was the basis for season 1. The characters should be familiar to those who’ve seen the series, although some names and roles were changed. Some of the most prominent characters in the TV series are background characters in the novel, but you can definitely tell that the show’s producers were faithful to Jeff Lindsay’s renditions of the characters. We’re introduced to Dexter Morgan – a serial killer who only hunts down the dregs of society, thanks to the code instilled in him by his adopted father Harry. We learn a little about his life as a blood spatter analyst for Miami Metro Police, we take a peek into his personal life with his girlfriend Rita and her kids, and we also get a glimpse of Dexter’s Dark Passenger – the voice inside that urges him to kill. The “villain” of this novel – the Tamiami Slasher (who TV show viewers may know as the Ice Truck Killer) – has been murdering prostitutes and depositing them all over town, and Dexter becomes utterly fascinated by the killer’s work. I won’t get too in-depth into the rest of the story, as I don’t want to spoil the story for those of you who end up reading it, but for fans of the television show, you won’t be disappointed or bored. The story, while familiar, is still gripping, and there’s just enough difference between the show and the book to keep readers entertained. If you’re looking for a good summer read that’s on the darker side of things, or if you’re a fan of the show and miss having a little bit of everyone’s favorite serial killer in your life, I recommend this book.

Indiana Comic Con 2014: The Review

Posted on March 23, 2014
by Beth Lynn

Last weekend, I went to Indiana’s first ever Comic Con! Held at the Indianapolis Convention Center (where Gen Con is held), Indy Comic Con promised to be a fun little convention. As it was in its first year, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I planned on having a fun time anyway – after all, how can you not have fun dressed up as Pinkie Pie? 😀

Come on everypony, smile smile smile!

A friend of mine (Ross, whom I met at Gen Con and became friends with thanks to the magic of the internet) and I planned on going all three days, and Mr. Crafty Nerd and another friend made plans to join us on Saturday and possibly Sunday. And come Friday afternoon, Ross and I ventured to the Convention Center to see what Comic Con would be like.

Rainbow Dash dislikes waiting in line…

The first thing we ended up doing was waiting in line – despite having bought our tickets online. Comic Con used Ticketmaster to handle the registration process (which made paying for our tickets painful, what with all the fees), and sent us a strip of tickets like we were going to a concert. (Tickets don’t fit terribly well into badge holders.) Once we got to the convention, there were a number of lines you could enter to get into the convention, all snaking around together – we ended up going through the will-call line, despite having our tickets already, and then got funneled out when getting to the part where we’d need to pay for tickets. It wasn’t a long process, as we got there maybe an hour after the convention started, but it was still somewhat confusing and tedious. We had our tickets checked, and then received three wristbands – one for each day of the convention.

The section of the convention center that Comic Con was being held in was one of the exhibition halls (D and E, for those familiar with the convention center), and that was all. One part of the hall was sectioned off for the theater (where panels and the costume contest were held), another was sectioned off for the entry lines and ticket purchasing, and the rest was exhibitor booths and artist tables. All in all, it was… small. I made one circuit around the exhibitor area, bought a handful of things, and decided I was done with the booths. After a few hours at Comic Con on Friday, Ross and I decided we’d save our energy for Saturday and went home.

Ready for action on Saturday!

We got to the convention center around 10 or 11 am, and as we ambled our way over to where Comic Con was being held, we noticed there were way more people there than on Friday. I mean, the con was practically a ghost town, compared to what I’m used to with Gen Con and I-CON and such, and then Saturday? BOOM. Everyone wanted to be there Saturday. Ross and I made one circuit through the main room where the convention was being held, pushed along by the insane stream of people surging through the aisles, made a quick stop at the costume contest registration booth, and then didn’t spend much time inside the main area for the rest of the con. We weren’t at the convention for more than an hour when we heard that they were turning people away at the doors, and the convention was at capacity. Apparently the organizers didn’t realize that 10,000 people wanted to attend Indiana’s first Comic Con. (They also picked a pretty poor weekend to host it, as the majority of the convention center was host to a public librarian conference that weekend.) Bryan, Ross, Gina, and I ended up spending the majority of our time roaming the halls and taking pictures and talking with people about how crazy things were, how the convention could have been planned better, and so on. After lunch, and more wandering around the convention center, Ross and I figured we should go wait in line for costume contest pre-judging.

The line was INSANE. I think over half the people in line hadn’t actually registered for the contest, and about 15 minutes into when pre-judging was supposed to start, rumors floated down the line that pre-judging was canceled, they were just going to send a judge down the line to check everyone out, and that anyone who didn’t have a number wasn’t getting in. After the abbreviated pre-judging process (where a judge came by and asked us about our costumes, what our inspiration was, did we make them ourselves), we all filed into the theater (which was packed! apparently everyone wanted to see the costume contest), all nearly one hundred and thirty of us. They didn’t realize so many people were interested in participating! Everyone in the contest had amazing costumes (I was in line next to a girl dressed as Toothless who made her costume in A WEEK holy crap), and it was fun getting to prance across the stage with Ross as Rainbow Factory Dash. However, the costume contest could also have been handled a little better… By the end of Saturday, the four of us were exhausted, and decided it’d probably be better not to go on Sunday.

All in all? For the inaugural year of Indiana Comic Con, while it had its issues – mostly organization related – I had a lot of fun. I got to see lots of cool costumes, and being part of the first year of what promises to be a big convention was pretty exciting as well. I got to meet one of the writers/artists for the My Little Pony comic, I got to see lots of fun art and cool toys, and I had loads of fun (as always) dressing as Pinkie Pie. I think I will go back next year – here’s hoping they take up more of the convention center, though. The rough start for Indiana Comic Con makes me a little leery of going to Indy Pop Con at the end of May, even though there’ll be many big names there (like Sylvester McCoy and Nicholas Brendon! XANDER OMG) – instead of three days, I’m going to stick to Saturday – and definitely register ahead of time, in hopes it holds my spot. I do believe they’re taking up more of the convention center, which will be a good thing – I anticipate Pop Con being very popular.

Alright, enough rambling about the convention – on to the pictures!

Webcomic artists are awesome.

Posted on November 23, 2013
by Beth Lynn

I’m still not quite back to regular posting, thanks to NaNoWriMo eating up all my creative brain (only 11,944 words to go until I win! Story is nowhere near over yet though), but I wanted to post a little tidbit of awesomeness here.

One of my most favorite webcomics ever is Dumbing of Age, by David Willis. I’ve had the chance to meet him in person twice at comic book signings at my local comic book store, Vintage Phoenix, and he’s always been super friendly. So when a recent strip gave me some inspiration to draw some fanart, I figured, why the heck not?

Yes, I drew Joyce, one of the comic’s main characters, on a scooter. Driving in the grass, and being rebellious. At least, as rebellious as Joyce can get, anyway. I posted it to Twitter, David retweeted it, and I flailed about a bit. Then, this past Wednesday, he was at Vintage Phoenix. And after I flailed about and said “I WANT JOYCE IN MY BOOK” (which was much better than last year where I completely blanked on every single character’s name, and blurted out “DRAW ME SUPERHERO GIRL”), I said “I’m the one who drew Joyce on the scooter, by the way.” And he said “Oh, that was you? Awesome!”

AND THEN HE POSTED MY FANART ON HIS SITE YESTERDAY.

And he said I’m awesome.

*flails*

I love webcomic artists. They’re a special breed of awesome, I swear. I’ve never had a bad interaction with one. From my all awkward-turtle purchase of Questionable Content book 1 from Jeph Jacques at GenCon (where I said “I sent my husband over here to get a sketch of Marigold earlier ’cause I was too shy to ask myself”), to my unintentional convention-stalking of Michael “Mookie” Terraciano , formerly of Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire fame back in 2005 (I can’t believe he remembered me from I-CON when I found him at Otacon! not to mention he let me touch the following day’s comic strip, I may have nearly died, haha), to David Willis posting my fanart… yeah. Webcomic artists are awesome.

Grumpy Disney? no. (er, I mean, YESSS.)

Posted on November 7, 2013
by Beth Lynn

Aheheheh. I do apologize sincerely for my absence over the past few weeks – with NaNoWriMo approaching (and then starting), I’ve been wrapped up in plotting and writing and such… and on top of that, I started another Doctor Who scarf, so… yes. I am not dead, just crazy.

So much so that I just about died when I saw this enter my Facebook news feed this morning.

Yes, that is Grumpy Cat as Ariel, The Little Mermaid. Yes, I am very glad I wasn’t drinking coffee at the time. I might have snorted it all across my monitor otherwise.

Eric Proctor (TsaoShin on DeviantArt) is the wonderful mind who came up with the delightful idea of inserting Grumpy Cat into various Disney films – with the simple premise of: ” the appearance of the cat must derail the plot of the film.” And oh, would Grumpy Cat derail these films, haha.

I mean, come on. Grumpy Cat as Lilo? Adorable. I love the little fist-bump she’s giving Stitch.

And this last one is my absolute favorite – especially for the look of horror on the Beast’s face as Grumpy bats at the rose. Oh lord. I just about died.

If you want to see more, check out the Grumpy Disney gallery on DeviantArt! Eric’s other artwork is great as well – he’s got some My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic stuff, and this little treat that made me squeal with delight.

OH MY GOD YOU GUYS IT’S TOOTHLESS. And he looks so much better than any of my little clay Toothlesses. (Toothli?)

So yes, go check out his artwork, and stay away from the beverages while you look at the Grumpy Disney gallery – trust me, your monitor will thank you.

Meanwhile, AUGH I’ve written almost 300 words that aren’t novel related! I MUST WRITE MY BOOK. (For those curious: the working title is For Whom the Bard Sings, and it’s a fantasy novel loosely set in the D&D Eberron world. If it comes out as well as I’m hoping, maybe someday I may eventually publish this one… maybe.)

Back to writing! 😀

Embarking on a new cosplay project!

Posted on October 12, 2013
by Beth Lynn

Or, as I’ve been titling this project in my head, “How To Turn Yourself Into A Dragon”.

Toothless is best dragon.

Yes, I’m going to try to put together a Toothless costume for the 2014 convention season. I may even start as early as tomorrow. And it’ll be my first time assembling a costume this complicated, especially without any sort of pattern! I’m excited. And kinda nervous.

I’m no stranger to the world of do-it-yourself cosplay. While I don’t exactly have the skills for super frilly over-the-top costumes, I know where my strengths lie, and I work with that to make costumes that will look good, even being simple. Like my Pinkie Pie costume, or my Fourth Doctor costume. And I have done work without patterns before – Pinkie Pie’s skirt was done completely freehand. I’ve also done three sailor fukus with no pattern (yes, not only did I dress as Sailor Moon and Sailor Jupiter, but I also dressed as my own fan character, embarrassing as it is to admit), and an entire Princess Peach costume as well – with varying levels of success. I know what I’m about to enter into – this isn’t unfamiliar territory.

And I do have some visuals to work off of. I’ve seen this around the internet in a number of places – this is one of them, as well as on DeviantArt – and while I’d love to buy one, I can’t really justify spending $300+ on a sweatshirt. (And having made a Toothless plush myself, I know that a fair bit of work went into it, I’m quite sure, but is it really $300 worth of work?) I’d much rather make one myself, too. I had a blast making Toothless, and I’d love to do something similar, something on a slightly bigger scale, something fun. And not to mention pretty darn recognizable, especially for the summer conventions, with How To Train Your Dragon 2 coming out in June.

So, how the heck am I going to approach this? How am I going to start?

Determined dragon is determined.

With determination, that’s how! Heh. I figure I’ll start with stuff I’ve already got – I’ll be using the pattern from the Toothless plush for inspiration on how to construct the head and tail. I’ll also take advantage of ready-made stuff – such as a pre-made sweatshirt and pair of sweatpants. And the pictures posted of the sweatshirt give me quite a few ideas of how to construct things. From there, I can construct Toothless’s little… head tentacles? Not-quite-horns? You guys know what I mean. Anyhow. I can construct a way to add those to a sweatshirt hood, and then add hand covers and wings and a tail. (And maybe foot covers, for the sweatpants, if I can swing it.) The most laborious part will likely be the scales – I have no idea how I’m doing those yet, but those aren’t my main concern anyway. Those’ll likely be the last things I put on.

But yes. I am going to make a Toothless costume. And it will either be epic, or be an epic failure. I’m leaning more towards epic, myself. And of course, as I build the costume, I’ll keep everyone updated. I know I have a lot of fellow Toothless fans who read the blog, and I want to share the process with you guys!

So, stay tuned – Project How To Make Yourself Into A Dragon will start soon.

Anime Music Videos of Yesteryear

Posted on October 8, 2013
by Beth Lynn

I freaking love anime music videos. I remember going around to people’s dorm rooms to watch ones they’d downloaded, in the days before YouTube, and keeping a collection of my favorites burned to CD to free up precious disk space on my computer. (Many of these were back from the days when all I had for hard drive space was 12 gigabytes, spread across three hard drives… my cellphone has more storage space than that now!) These are just a handful of my favorites – not all of them are available anymore, and a handful of them, including a certain Pikachu-themed video some of my friends might remember that’s done to a Mindless Self Indulgence song, aren’t exactly family friendly – and I do try to keep it family friendly here, for the most part – so here, enjoy some anime music videos from days gone by!

Jinnai and the Bugrom

I first saw this one at Otakon back in 2005, during an AMV competition. The song promptly got stuck in my head for the next week. It was really well done – I remember scrambling to find some paper to write down the name of the video, so I could find it when I got home, haha.

Evangelion: Engel

This is one a friend of mine showed me back in 2001 – I was in awe of how amazing it was, especially with the meticulous attention to lip syncing and everything… it was great! Plus, the whole video is just… awesome. Definitely one of my most favorite videos.

No need for Polka!

Because what’s an anime music video roundup without some Tenchi Muyo done to Weird Al? 😀

Mini Goddess – Everybody Have Fun

I think this may have been my first introduction to Oh! My Goddess ever. I was… mildly curious, after seeing this – I knew it wasn’t the actual series, but I was all “hmm, just what the heck is that show about?” (Interesting tangent – the Oh! My Goddess movie was the first DVD I ever owned. I still have it, too!)

Sailor Moon on Jerry Springer!

What else can be said? It’s Sailor Moon. On Jerry Springer. Thanks to Weird Al. (Stick around and watch to the very end – there’s a pretty amusing mention of Save Our Sailors, a campaign to bring back Sailor Moon that many of the younger Sailor Moon fans may not remember (or even know about). SOS was a little out in left field, to say the least…

Daft Punk – One More Time

And this last one is actually an official anime music video – way back in the early part of the last decade (yikes, I feel so old just saying that!), Daft Punk had an entire anime movie made for their album Discovery, and this is the first part. The movie, for those curious, is Interstella 5555 – The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. (yes, lots of fives) It’s really, really good, especially for what’s essentially an anime with no speaking roles.

Hope everyone enjoyed this peek into yesteryear – if anyone else has any favorite anime music videos they want to share, post them in the comments!