Anime mugs

 I got this amazing Shingeki no Kyojin mug as a Christmas present. You can find mugs like these in the Bulgarian shop "Na Tumno" (На Тъмно). They are pretty awesome and were made, because my friend ShiningShadow, gave the idea to the shop owner.

 I think that there only these two types and I'm not sure if there will be others. 

For more info on the cups visit the following links:

Shingei no Kyojin

Kamisama Hajimemashita

 PS: Aniplay will be held on the 26th of April! Too bad I won't be able to go and see it, but if anyone does, I would really like to hear how it went. 

 If you're interested in the event visit the following links:

Aniplay's facebook event page

Aniplay

Aoi Bungaku Part 2

  So after a year of searching I finally found Ango Sakaguchi's short story "In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom" （『桜の森の満開の下』）and I was able to read it. I actually found it in Amazon.co.jp's free ebook download section and was the first story I read fully in Japanese (I'm so proud of myself ^^).

　"In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom"　is the second story that is presented in the anime "Aoi Bungaku" （『青い文学』）and takes place in episodes 5 and 6. It is the story of a bandit who sees a beautiful woman and decides to make her his new wife. The anime follows the plot line of the original short story, but also adds a lot of unnecessary content.

  The original short story has darker atmosphere and was really interesting to read. You could see the struggle of the main character and his confusion by woman's actions. Throughout the story he tries to figure out why are cherry trees in full bloom so scary and to understand what's going on in the woman's head.

  The anime seems to be more like a parody of the short story than anything else. You can see a lot of comic relief, singing and even modern objects like headphones. There was even a foreign girl who talked in English and a talking boar. Also, in all of this craziness you can even see Takarazuka theater and Kabuki theater elements. Most of the time I was watching the anime and was thinking "Anime, what the hell are you doing and why?"

  I actually liked the short story, although there were somethings I didn't quite understand, but I guess I will have to do a little bit more research. As for the anime, it was weird. I don't want to say that it was awful, because the animation was really pretty, but it sucked as an interpretation of Ango Sakaguchi's work and I definitely did not like it. 

For part of the "Aoi Bungaku" review visit the following link:
Aoi Bungaki part 1 

Studio Ghibli and Ursula Le Guin's "Earthsea"

 About two years ago I watched Studio Ghibli's movie "Tales from Earthsea" （『ゲド戦記』 lit. "Ged's War Chronicles"）. I only just recently finished reading Ursula Le Guin's book "The Other Wind", which is the final book from the Earthsea series so I decided to finally write about the movie and the books. I will write mainly about my personal opinion and experience and I will try to give as less spoilers as possible.

So the movie came out in 2006 and was directed by Goro Miyazaki, who is the son of Hayao Miyazaki. Apparently, Hayao Miyazaki wanted to direct this movie himself, but was turned down several times by Ursula Le Guin, who had not watched Ghibli's movies at the time and associated them with Disney. But after seeing the award winning "Spirited Away" （『千と千尋の神隠し』）in 2003, Le Guin finally gave her permission to Miyazaki to make the movie. At the time Hayao was busy making "Howl's Moving Castle" （『ハウルの動く城』）and so his son, Goro, took on the job.
In my personal opinion "Tales from Earthsea" is a decent movie. When I watched it, I still hadn't read the books and I did not know what to expect. I remember thinking that the movie was fine story wise, but I did not know how wrong I was. I have to say that the animation is very nice, but you can clearly see the difference between Hayao and Goro. Hayao's movies have a certain gloss and the characters, the leaves, the grass absolutely everything moves so naturally and seams real, as Goro's movies just lack that kind of smooth motion. Yes,  "Tales from Earthsea" has the typical atmosphere of a Ghibli movie, but it lacks the magic of "Howl's Moving Castle" or "Princess Mononoke"（『もののけ姫』）. "Tales from Earthsea" has the typical Studio Ghibli artwork style and animation, but I think that the gap between the two directors is just too big and you can clearly feel it. That's why this movie will never become a classic like "Howl's Moving Castle" or "Spirited Away".

After watching the movie I was pretty eager to read the books, because I knew that there will be a lot of differences and really love comparing animes, based on novels to the original stories. So a few months after I watched "Tales from Earthsea" I found the books "The Earthsea Quarted" and "Tales from Earthsea/The Other Wind" on a bazaar and they were like 75% off their original price so I a bought them without thinking twice and started reading the first book of the series the same night. 
The Earthsea series consists of six books - "A Wizard of Earthsea", "The Tombs of Atuan", "The Farthest Shore", "Tehanu", "Tales from Earthsea" and "The Other Wind" and two short stories - "The Word of Unbinding" and " The Rule of Names". "A Wizard of Earthsea", "The Tombs of Atuan", "The Farthest Shore" and "Tehanu" form the Earthsea Quartet, which is the main storyline. "Tales from Earthsea" consists of five short stories - "The Finder", "Darkrose and Diamond", "The Bones of the Earth", "On the High Marsh" and "Dragonfly"- and a description of the world of Earthsea. The novel "The Other Wind" closes the Earthsea cycle. 
"A Wizard form Earthsea" is one of my most favourite books and I recommend it to everyone, who is a fan of the fantasy genre and still hasn't read it. This book is a must! It's not very long, about 200 pages, I think, but it's very dynamic and interesting. And the main character, Ged, went to wizarding school before it was cool :P

As for the other three books from the Quartet, they were interesting, but nothing exceptional. "Tales from Earthsea", "The Word of Unbinding" and "The Rule of Names" tell you more about the world of Earthsea and its characteristics and really complete the whole experience of reading the series. These short stories make the world seem more lively and realistic and I really liked them. 

"The Other Wind" is my least favourite of the series and not because the story was dull or anything, but because it was written in a way that I did not like at all. In the whole book you could never see the characters actually doing anything. They were just talking and planning and talking and planning, and then talking about how they succeeded their plans. You could never actually see the characters in action. I have to say that I read this last book out of pure stubbornness. I just wanted to finish the series. 
So when I read the books I finally realized how different they are from the movie. It turns out that the movie is practically a mish-mash from all the books. It seems that Goro Miyazaki just took characters, details and story lines from all the six books (mainly from the Quartet) and tried to construct them so as to make one whole and complete movie. He really did make a complete movie, but it has almost nothing to do with the original storyline. You can think of it as a side story, that takes place in the same world as the Earthsea series or parallel universe or something like that.

Even Ursula K. Le Guin gave a mixed response to the film in her review on her website. Le Guin commended the visual animation in the film but stated that the plot departed so greatly from her story that she was "watching an entirely different story, confusingly enacted by people with the same names as in my story." She also praised certain depictions of nature in the film, but felt that the production values of the film were not as high as previous works directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and that the film's excitement was focused too much around scenes of violence. Her initial response to Goro Miyazaki was "It is not my book. It is your movie. It is a good movie". However, she stated that the comment disclosed on the movie's public blog did not portray her true feelings about the film's vast departure from original stories; "taking bits and pieces out of context, and replacing the story lines with an entirely different plot."

All in all, the movie is not bad, but it should be considered as a side story of Earthsea, or a whole different thing, as I said above. If you haven't read the books or watched the movie, I recommend that you read just "A Wizard of Earthsea", because it's worth it. If you plan on watching the movie and reading the books, watch the movie first and then read the books, or you will be really disappointed. If you have read the books and plan no watching the movie, don't do it. Just don't. Trust me. But if you are a Ghibli fan and you haven't watched "Tales of Earthsea" you might even like it. 

Resources:

"Gedo Senki, a First Response" 

Aoi Bungaku

Ever since I started learning Japanese Studies in university, I've been really fond of Japanese literature and the more I read the more I grow to love it. I've read a couple of books by Haruki Murakami, some detective stories by Edogawa Rampo, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima, The Pillow Book by  Sei Shonagon, my favourite book by a Japanese writer - A Cloud of Sparrows by Takashi Matsuoka and many more. 

About two years ago I stumbled upon an anime called Aoi Bungaku (青い文学/Blue Literature). I found it interesting, but there were some things that I didn't quite understand at the time. I really like to compare anime, based on a book to the actual book, so I was eager to read all the stories from Aoi Bungaku, but at the time I couldn't find them. A few months ago I was staying at my fiance's grandparents' place and they were so nice as to tell me to have a look at their old library and to take the books I like. So I started searching the library for interesting books and I found a lot of books by Japanese authors and took them all, without much looking at what I'm taking. Later, when I was looking more closely at them I noticed that I had taken some really interesting things like a book with short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, which include Hell Screen (地獄変) and The Spider's Thread (蜘蛛の糸). Later a friend gave me Kokoro (こころ) by Natsume Souseki. And in the end I found a book by Dadzai Osamu, which includes the stories No longer Human (人間失格) and Run Melos (走れメロス) in a local bookstore.
So basically I was able to read all the stories from Aoi Bungaku, except for one, which I can't find - In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom (桜の森の満開の下) by Ango Sakaguchi.
I'm sure that most of you have heard of the anime and if you haven't read the actual books you should give them a try, because they are a lot different from the anime. The anime exaggerates a lot and shows the main characters in a different light.
SPOILER ALERT FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEITHER WATCHED THE ANIME NOR READ THE BOOKS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
For example in No Longer Human in the anime the main character pushes the woman from the cliff and then jumps after her as for in the book they jump together, trying to commit double suicide. In Run Melos and The Spider's Thread the anime producers have added a whole new storyline to the original one. In Run Melos it has nothing do with the original one, but I really like how they've merged them together. In The Spider's Thread the new story line serves to explain the actions of the main character and his personality. In Hell Screen in the anime the ruler of the city is the bad guy who like perverted things, as for in the original story the artist himself has a really twisted mind and even tortures his student in order to see in reality what he wants to draw. In Kokoro in the anime, they have omitted about 2/3 of the story and the anime shows only the end of the story. The first part of the book was actually kind of boring, because almost nothing happens, but I think that it's important, because it makes you wonder why the author is building up such suspense.
END OF SPOILER :)
To be honest, I like the books more than the anime. They just explain the story and the characters' actions better and I really like how the Japanese authors write. If you've watched the anime and haven't read the books, I really recommend them to you. You might find them a little strange at the beginning, but they are very interesting. 
About the books, from which I read the stories (for Bulgarians only) - the book with short stories by Akutagawa Ryunosuke and Kokoro by Natsume Souseki are really old editions and I'm not sure if you can find them. You might try some of the bookstores fo used books and the libraries, of course. As for the book by Dadzai Osamu, it was published in 2011 by Altera and it can still be found in some bookstores. I bought mine in Plovdiv, because I couldn't find it in Sofia. All of them are translated from Japanese to Bulgarian and the translations are really good.
If someone knows where I can find and read  In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom (桜の森の満開の下) by Ango Sakaguchi, please tell me!
Comments are always welcome.  

Aniventure 2012 Day 2

Ok, so as I said in my previous post, the main event of the second day of Aniventure is cosplay. And this year all of the cosplayers were really great. The ones I really liked are - The Lord of the Rings group, Hizaki from Versailles, Miku, Pyramid Head, Inori and Shuu from Guilty Crown, Vash the Stampede (I've wanted to see a Vash cosplay for years and this came as a really pleasant surprise for me), but the ones I liked most of all were Loki and Lady Loki. In my opinion they were the best. 

The only thing that kinda ruined my experience and left me with an unpleasant feeling was the constant screaming of the people who were sitting in front of us and behind us, who really wanted to offend some of the cosplayers. They were really loud and annoying. One of my friends even constantly covered her years, because of that. And my conclusion of all that was that even though the event progresses and becomes better and better with every year, the audience still hasn't learned how to behave. 

So after the review of the cosplayers there were three scenes, played on the stage by three groups of people - Naruto, a mash up of gender bender Avengers and some anime characters like Luffy from One Piece (who was also a woman), Rin from Ao no Exorcist and many others, and the last one was the group of Lord of the Rings. All of them were really funny and everyone was in character, which was awesome! The one I liked the most was Naruto.
There were also many many cosplayers in audience and when I was walking from hall to hall I felt like I was in another world and it was really great. 

And here is a list of the winners:

Chosen by the jury:
- Best costume - Hizaki
- Same as original - Loki
- Best of show - Vash
Chosen by the audience:
- Best costume - Loki
- Same as original - Loki
- Best of show - Miku
Award for requisite - Pyramid Head

Going to EuroCosplay - Pyramid head
Best game cosplay:
1st place - Bayonetta
2nd place - Zero
3rd place - Glados
Best scene - Naruto

As you can see Loki won a lot of things and I really wished that lady Loki had won something too, because she was amazing.

I am really sorry that I didn't take more pictures, but I was too busy watching :D

Me with the two Lokis

Suzuki and Sebastian

I will finish this post with a link to a channel where you can see videos from the cosplay - http://www.youtube.com/user/CosplayBG/videos
I plan to do at least one more post about Aniventure 2012, because there are more things I want to say, especially about the artwork, so check in a day or two, if you're interested.
Comments are always welcome :)

Aniventure 2012 Day 1

Aniventure is the biggest anime event in Bulgaria, organized by the National Anime and Manga club Nakama. It has been held for 7 years in a row and this year was my 5th Aniventure. Today was the first day of the event, tomorrow is the second day and I decided to do separate posts of the two days, because they are very different. 

Aniventure 2012 is held in party center 4th kilometer, which is a very convenient place for conventions, because it has enough and spacious rooms for everything to fit in. Tickets are 10 lv (~5 euro) for one day and 15 lv (~8 euro) for the two days. 

Ok, so this is my personal experience from day one.

I woke up at about at about 5:00 in the morning, because I was very anxious since I didn't know who will be with me during the day and I was worried that I might end up going alone. That didn't happen and I am very glad of the fact.

I went to the party center very early so that I could get inside earlier and buy some merchandise, which I eventually did :D You will see what I got below. After I bought what I liked I went to the opening ceremony, which was very amusing and they had chosen my favourite hosts - Hipi and Dora. They really know how to entertain the audience. During the day I visited the Pixel art workshop and the Kirigami workshop, which were fantastic. I also visited some of the lectures and I really liked the one about Wonderflex - a material, from which you can make cosplay armor and other things. At the end of the day was the AMV contest and I really enjoyed the AMVs this year.

I want to thank especially to my colleges Rali, Ili and Suzuki, who were with me during the day. 

 Gathering before the event starts

 The opening ceremony. Really funny sketch! And very witty too.

The lecture about Wonderflex. The woman, who lead the lecture is a Romanian cosplayer, who is known as Shinju. 

The Art exhibition. 

Some stands 

 Shodo (calligraphy)

Kazami Mizuho from Onegai Teacher
6x5 cm

You can take her skirt off :P

 Chii from Chii's Sweet home
3,5 cm

 This is the little Totoro I made at the Pixel art workshop

 Totoro wood carving, really awesome!

Three books I bought, still haven't looked them through.

The kirigami I did

Tomorrow I will post my experience from the second day, which is all about cosplay, so stay tuned! :)