Dangos!! Attempt #1

Dangos, what are suppose to be a sweet japanese treat did not turn out so well when I decided to give it a go... What I thought would take me no longer than 45 min. took me close to two hours! I struggled to get a good consitancy and used trial and error (of adding more flour/water as I saw needed). That took up the 45 minutes I thought it would take, dividing up the batter and colloring them was easy and so was the actual cooking proccess so when I was nearing the two hour mark I shrugged off the struggle I had faced knowing what I had just accoplished... That was before I actually took a bite. They weren't even close to the sweetness I was expecting. In hindsight, while I coninuesly added more flour I only added a little extra sugar in fear that they would become too sweet. I guess I should always follow the "The sweeter the better" policy.

So overall how would I review these? I won't be using this recipe again just because I refuse to struggle over the measurements again. However I would give dangos another go using a different reciepe. There are many variations of dangos and how you can prepare them and I hope to try them out!

If there's a recipe you want me to try out please post a comment with a link to the recipe or have it copy and pasted into that sucker! I'm always open to suggestions!!

YouTube Account

Hey guys so I just made a youtube account where I might start doing daily vlogs... I might start with how I do my blog posts here than ease myself into it! Anyways if your interested please subscribe to "TheAverage0taku" (I had to use a zero for the "O" sine it was already taken D:) I'm uploading my first video now!!

Thanks for your support guys!!

AMVs

Today I wanted to talk a bit about AMVs. For those who don't know what they are, AMV stands for Anime Music Video and are sometimes referred to as FMVs (Fan Made Videos). Basically it's scenes taken from an anime and put together artistically (or not) to a song or some type of audio other than the original one. For those still confused here's one of my favorites

What I love about AMVs is they can pick you up on those sad days, help you remember a great anime you once watched, and will introduce you to new anime. When I first started (knowingly) watching anime I didn't know where to start. My friends recommended me some popular ones at the time to me but anime is a fast moving genre. Something that was popular one year is not always in the same spot the next. That's where AMVs came in for me... The first time I ever saw an AMV was at my very first anime convention. One of my friends makes AMVs so going to the AMV Contest was a no brainer. After waiting in line for about one hour we got in. At the time my knowledge of anime was extremely limited. I knew Fruits Basket, Lucky Star, Ouran High School Host Club and few others. Not knowing much made me a completely honest judge for each and every AMV, given if I saw one with one of the animes I knew, I tended to like those ones better ;). Anyways, I sat there not wanting to give my score card up just so I could take it home and remember all the new animes I wanted to watch. And I did, we had to leave the contest early so I slipped it into my bag and walked out.

One things that isn't so great about AMVs if you haven't watched the anime is that it can spoil some parts of the anime. I try not to spoil too much for you guys, but let's face it. AMVs look to tell a story and some stories need that big scene to make it awesome and epic! So it all comes down to your decision... Are you willing to possibly take in some spoilers to watch an AMV on that anime?

AMVs are awesome and a great way to broaden your knowledge of the anime out there. I give kudos to anyone who does make AMVs I hope one day I can myself but in my position now that is a no go. For those who do let me know and I will totally check you out and give you an honest review of what I think!

REVIEW: Bakuman

Ok so this is the first time I've written a review and I won't lie when I say I tend to like anything that will distract my eyes but I feel this would be a nice addition to my blog...

Anyways today I thought I'd review my current favorite manga, Bakuman. It's written by Tsugumi Ohba and the art's done by Takeshi Obata. Reconize those names? They're the same people who brought, us Death Note! Here in America they're only on volume 6 of the manga (released early August) while in Japan they're on volume 14 of the manga and currently released two seasons of anime. While both seasons of anime have been licenced by Media Blasters in the US, no release dates have been set... Boo...

Ok so let's get on with the actual review portion. The first thing that attracted me to this manga was it was about two kids trying to create their own manga and at the time I was dabbling in the idea of it myself. So while sitting there, reading my Shonen Jump magazine it felt only natural to read the three chapters they had released early. It's very heartwarming to start off telling you about the main characters, Marshiro's uncle, and how he was once a great manga artist before he worked himself to death, causing Marshiro to loose his wish of becoming a manga artist. Little did he know that one day he would meet Akito Takagi who is aspiring to write his own manga but he needs an artist. Of course Marshiro doesn't want to do it due to the gamble it puts him in and what happens to his uncle but that's not the kind of answer Takagi wanted. I guess what happens next is kinda clesae but there's a slight twist. Takagi is a reallly smart person... So he calls up Marshiro one night and tells him to come down to Miho Azuki's house, the girl Marshiro's been crushing on since middle school, Takagi tells Marshiro that he's going to confess to her, and wants Marshiro to be there. Of course Marshiro goes since it is his dream girls house. Turns out Takagi was not there to confess his love but tell her that he was going to start a manga and knew she wanted to be a voice actress. This was news to Marshiro so in an attempt to actually talk to Miho he agrees to draw in the manga with Takagi and when their manga gets animated he wants her to voice the main character. He gets caught up in the moment and what came next shocked me so I'm going to cross it out if you don't want it spoiled... Being caught up in the moment Marshiro proposes to Miho but they must never "see" each other again till their dreams come true. Ok yeah, so it's a little cheesey but it's different and something I did not see coming. I'm gonna stop summarizing now and try to actually tell you what I like so much about this manga.

To start, I loved Death Note so I had really high expectation and as the manga went on it really grew on me. I found myself laughing, crying, and believing in them as much as they did. What goes on between Marshiro and Miho is sooo cute and different but you'll be surprised by some of their actions. The characters you meet along the way each have their own distinct personalities and theirs not really any overlap between all of them. All I can say is six volumes in it has never really lost my interest and I find myself skipping pages just to know what happens! I guess in short I love all the characters, not in a fangirl way but more in a "you are awesome/hilarious/cute/epic" At times the story doesn't feel all realistic (mainly with Marshiro and Miho) but it never turned me off from the situation at hand. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'd give it a shot and if you dont like it, I'm sorry. If you do that's great! As an added bonus at the end of each chapter they will show a piece of the story board that went from Ohba to Obata to the printer which is something entirely unique. I totally reccomend this and can say it's not boring, it's not a book that's chapter after chapter of them sitting and creating a manga. There's plot behind everything and from I've read so far, NO FILLER! I hope you will at least read volume one wheather online or bought (Borders is having a pretty big sale >.>)

For those intersted in reading it there's a link to buying volume 1  here

I hope you guys enjoyed my review of Bakuman, I hope to do it again with some of my other favorite manga/anime as time goes one.

Until Then!!

Anime Motivational Posters

So we all know those lovely black posters with a single picture and some words of encouragement right? Well when you throw anime in the mix those words become not so motivational but hilarious. Honest;y if your having a bad day these things can cheer you up. The best part? You don't even have to have seen the anime to get at least a giggle out of you. So, I thought today I'd post a couple of my favorites. Enjoy! (I tried to keep them all PG-13)

Well I hope I was able to cheer up or help make you laugh or at least giggle :) Anyways, if you didn't get a giggle from any of these go onto google image and find some that do, you may be suprised!

Note: I found all these on google image and none of them are my origional creation

Twitter Account

Hey Guys today I made a Twitter account as an additional way for those who want to talk to me and contact me can!! So for all others with an account please follow @TheAverageOtaku! Hope to hear from you soon!

Anime Games

Being the president of my anime club, I feel the best way to keep everyone entertained is through classic games that we all know but throwing a little twist on them. So far by using powerpoint I've created anime verions of Jeopardy, Who wants to be a Millionaire and Wheel of Fortune. I'm not gonna say it's easy because it's not, well sort of. See, coming up with the designs and the concept of the formatting are pretty easy. It's when I need to sit down and actually write out all the questions/puzzles/answers.

I hope once I test these on my club I can post them for download so that all anime presidents or even just the average anime fan can use them so that we can all stay entertained or challenged... which ever way you want to view it. Anyways I hope any and all of you continue to make the most out of your love for anime!

On I side note I just want to share with you, my first view ever was someone from Germany which made me laugh... I don't know any German ^.^

Amazon Sale Ends tomorrow!!

Amazon's biggest anime sale of the year ends tomorrow (August 8th) so if you want to get some really good deals on anime I'd check it out before you miss out. Most items are around 50% off and as we all know anime is like drugs, only more expensive so when a sales around now is better then later. Anyways click here to see the sale, you won't be dissapointed!

Hello!!

Alrightly so hi folks! I thought it would be nice if I decided to explain myself in my first post and what I'm intrested in sharing with all you guys. So let's begin...

I've been a fan of anime longer than I knew it. While I'm probably not the biggest fan or the oldest fan I like to concider myself average. While there are plenty of people out there who would like to try to tell you they are the biggest, I'm looking to connect with those who are looking to get the most out of there anime fandom whether it is a phase or a passion. I plan on sharing with you deals I find, websites I use, cosplay, cons I go to (Mainly in the New England Area, iguess it's fair to say thats around where I live) and much more.

Now I don't care if anyone ever reads this blog or if it becomes the most popluar blog here. I just want the information to be out there so that poeple who want to know can! Well, let's see where this goes...