Joey's Anime Arena - Kinless.com

May 10, 2010:

I decided to break my record and go even longer than before: another 4 years without updating the Anime Arena section. You can brush away those cobwebs and read something new for a change.

I hate to disappoint you, but I'm only here to let you know I'm alive and to mend a few things around here. I haven't abandoned my long-time goal of giving this website a facelift, but the usual responsibilities as of late have kept me from moving forward.

When, you ask? No idea. This section isn't terribly a high priority, but don't worry it's not going away. It could be another 5 years for all I know, but I'll eventually find the time to get it done and behind me.

The statistics are still telling me that the two Sailor Moon pages I have (Andrew and Rainbow Crystals) are still being visited the most out of the entire site. That's just crazy. I figured Sailor Moon fandom would have greatly diminished by now, seeing as it's been over 15 years since I first got into it myself and has long faded away for me.

If something happens, I'm sure word will quickly spread. See you soon...

A NOTE TO THE LEECHERS:
If you've been trying to link to my graphics on your own website or forums, you may wonder why all you get is a broken graphic. That's because I was getting tired of people leeching my images and stealing bandwidth, so I put up a blocker. If you want to use the graphics, please find your own server to host them. Cool? K thx bye. :)

The Sailor Moon Andrew Shrine - I noticed there aren't too many pages exclusively on the minor characters of the Sailor Moon series, so I came up with the first initial Andrew page. As far as I know, this is still the only page exclusive to our loyal arcade attendant. As I renovate this page, I will be adding extra tidbits, including the newer American episodes he has shown up in. (That would require me watching all 200 episodes again, so bare with me.)

The Rainbow Crystal Summary Page - Over a decade ago, I was the first to come up with a complete synopsis on the Rainbow Crystal Carriers and their respective monster forms. This page is as about as complete as it can get, so I will just be concentrating on getting a nice renovation to speed. You may have seen these graphics floating around on other sites, well this is where they got them...

Dragon Ball Collectibles (Not Up Yet) - This will be a short page of all the original Dragon Ball characters that came out back in 1995. I will also sport the covers of the Americanized Dragon Ball comics from DarkHorse/Viz. They're all part of the original series, not the Dragon Ball Z or GT series. I like DB better than DBZ anyway. Call it the humorous aspect.

Top 5 Anime Hotties (Not up yet) - This will sport my favorite characters from my favorite series. The best of the best, I'd say. When finished, this page will have have similarities to my Dream Team page. This will take me a while as well. I've already got my candidates picked. It's just a matter of making the page for them.

So now I've been exposed to quite a wide variety of Anime styles. I've been able to watch many series. I know the Anime purists will hate me, but I watched the "dubbed" version whenever possible. I know some of the voice actors were horrible, but to me it was better than constantly reading the subtitles and trying to capture all the visual details that were going on at the same time.

Enough digression. Here are my top 10 series picks. If you have a favorite series but can't believe that I haven't listed it here, odds are that I haven't watched it. I've maybe seen about 20-25 series total, so I'm basing these only on what I've experienced for myself. My favorite style is Fantasy Shojo Manga, commonly shown in the Sailor Moon Anime, and Saber Marionette J as well. Second favorite style is the more comical Humorous Manga, best-illustrated in the original Dragon Ball series.

01. Saber Marionette J
02. Sailor Moon
03. Dragon Ball
04. Dirty Pair
05. Dragon Ball Z
06. Jubei-chan: Ninja Girl

07. Cowboy Bebop
08. Video Girl AI
09. Visions of Escaflowne
10. Samurai X: Rurouni Kenshin
11. Dragon Half
12. Those Who Hunt Elves

Late in the year 2000, I stumbled upon this book at a Virgin Records store. It was a very detailed guide on how to draw female manga characters! I'd been looking for something like this for years! So of course I immediately bought it and started teaching myself according to the book. I was always drawing manga chicks beforehand, but they always came out unproportional and... well... just plain crappy. But all I needed was patience and a little bit more "sketching". With that, I came up with my own character, Katherine Sketch.

She is my first official drawing. Of course, I have much room to improve. I put her toes on the wrong end, and her hands are all deformed. (Always having a problem with the hands and feet. Darnit!) But she looked good enough, so good that I was afraid I'd screw it up if I added some realistic shading, so I left it as is. As I get some extra spare time, I will try making more sketches of her. NO this is not my dream girlfriend I wish I had. I'm not THAT pathetic. (I'm only as pathetic as creating the Anime Hottie page.)

Anyway, there she is. Maybe it will inspire someone else out there to go get the book and start drawing on their own as well. The book was $20, but well worth it. Have fun.