Thursday, March 6, 2008

Changes Coming; Burnt out on Harem Comedy; Gary Gygax RIP

Otaku Public Library has been up and running (for lack of a better word) about 4 months now. I started it on a lark but now I’m feeling that it could use some improvement – basically, the writing is amateurish at times and the layout is pretty dull, and I feel I’m overdue to try and make some enhancements.

So, over the next couple of weeks I’m hoping to:

1) Make the layout and design of the site a little more interesting – what I have right now is a basic out-of-the box Blogger layout. Maybe add some actual color? Who knows...

2) Edit, rewrite, or delete some reviews. I have to admit there’s a lot of half-assed writing on this blog and I really ought to tighten up some grammar and rewrite awkward phrasing; in fact, one or two the reviews are real stinkers and perhaps ought to be deleted. Lastly, some reviews have misleading tags or no tags at all, so by improving those, the reviews will be easier to browse (I hope).

3) I’ve been pretty blasé about grabbing images from the internet to catch the reader’s eye, and I’m sure that most, if not all, of those images are copyright protected. I don’t see that as being that big a deal right now, because I highly doubt that the creators are on this website on a regular basis (or anybody, really….hahaha). Still, I may be changing some images here and there, and probably changing the out-and-out references to P2P downloading to something a little less blatant. Just covering my ass, y’all.

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In any event, I’m “burnt out on Harem Comedy”, as the title of this post suggests. In a short period of time I watched (or read) Shuffle!, DearS, Love Hina, Suzuka, and part of Girl Bravo; and at this point I can’t stand to watch another crowd of pretty girls throw themselves at a lovable loser (unless that lovable loser is me, haha). I must admit that I have been digging on the very awesome School Rumble, but that’s more of a slap-stick high-school comedy with romantic elements. I’m working through the OVA as we speak, so expect a (very positive) review sometime soon.

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Lastly, Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons and Dragons died earlier this week. So much geek culture – anime and manga as much as any other element – has been influenced by his seminal fantasy Role Playing Game that I felt I would be remiss in not mentioning his passing; Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and countless other Japanese RPGs bear his imprint.

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