Gale Force Winds

I don't know what officially constitutes "gale force", but it's a pretty cool phrase, isn't it?

Crazy storm last night. It was unseasonably mild during the day, with temperatures in the 50's, though by the time I was up it was starting to chill off and the wind was really picking up. The wind raged throughout the night, without rest, knocking out the cable/internet at one point, which only just came back on about an hour ago. The power stayed on, though it flickered momentarily off on at least three separate occasions. Amazingly, the clocks didn't seem to have been affected.

The cat's afraid of storms. She's such a scaredy-cat. She was making far too much noise, and even spent some time up in my room, for the comfort of company, which is quite rare. I was peering out the front door at one point, and I heard some sirens in the distance. I stepped outside to hear better, but as soon as I went out, the wind picked up again and drowned out whatever noise I might have heard.

It was some pretty wild stuff. I give it a thumbs up.

Apple Pork

I was thinking, this apple pork stuff is a perfect metaphor for my life, and how my taste is so at odds with that of the established paradigm of modern living, and the unending grief that causes me. As far as the dish is concerned, the main feature is the pork, and the apples and stuffing serve to enhance the experience of the pork. From my perspective, the pork is useless, it's a roadblock obstructing me from the apples and stuffing which I do like. So I find myself with a huge uninteresting hunk of pork on my plate after the scarce apples and stuffing runs out, and I can't get anymore apples or stuffing, because, the way the dish is designed, I'd have to take more pork at the same time, and then I'm in an even worse position.

I've always been a picky eater. When I was younger - much younger, as a kid growing up - I'd often have problems with the meals being served at my home. I remember many a dinner spent sitting obstinately with bowed head and clenched fists, wishing life could be kind enough to at the very least serve me some food that I could actually enjoy eating. Is that really too much to ask? Since then, I've become more accepting of my dismal fate, and I'll eat even if I don't like it, because that's just the way of things.

My grandma and her peers lived through/grew up during the Great Depression, which is what I typically attribute to the attitude they have which makes them constantly remind us (me and my siblings) how spoiled we are, and to their practice of frequently going out to restaurants to have extravagant meals (and why they can't help making comments when we don't finish what's on our plates). It doesn't really bother me, because that's what their frame of reference is; I accept that they've been through tough situations I can hardly imagine. Still, it'd be nice if they could be more accepting that my own 'spoiled' and 'picky' attitudes are merely a result of the easy living I've been exposed to - and it's not like that was a conscious choice I made - my parents chose to raise me that way.

So whenever my grandma mentions how spoiled I am/we are, I just think to myself, that's the way you want it, right? You wouldn't want us to have to have lived through the kinds of things you lived through, right? And yet, if my easy living has made me what I am today, I can't help wondering whether I'd be better off if I'd had a little more traditional adversity in my life (I *have* had my share of nontraditional adversity, however - but it's the kind of thing that most people shrug and say 'get over it', but that's because they're them and I'm me, and we all have our own personal demons we struggle against, that few other people are able to understand).

Like, for example, there's this movie called Bastard Out of Carolina which is an intense movie experience about a young girl growing up in the south, who gets abused and raped by her stepfather. She's a helpless victim at first - after all, she's just a child - but by the end of the movie, she finds her will and fights back, and it makes her this incredibly strong person. And I wonder, she's the type that she'd probably have been a strong person anyway. But without those experiences she had, as awful as they were, I don't think it would be nearly the same. So you have to wonder, if you can create something great out of something terrible, then isn't that terrible thing just as necessary in the grand scheme of things?

I mean, nobody /likes/ adversity (well I dunno, maybe some people do), but is it really something we even /should/ want to eliminate? Nobody /wants/ bad stuff to happen, but is it really so responsible for us to wish that such things never happened to anybody? Should we all live a happy and well-adjusted, easy-going life with no pain and sorrow, so that we all become weak and defenseless and eventually lose the ability to even survive the harsh turns the universe has in store for us? No, I guess not. It's a paradox, trying to protect without being overprotecting. I think I've had both, too much protection, and not enough protection. And it still doesn't mean a damn thing.

Lois: So how was your day?
Brian: My day? Un-freakin' believable. First we nailed this bastard who had the gall to hide his stuff in his daughter's doll--HER DOLL for God's sake! Where's the line anymore? Well, I got news for ya, it's not even on the radar screen! The days of decency and virtue are gone, honey, BAM, freakin' evaporated like a dingy stinkin' mudpuddle. One day you see your reflection in it and the next day it's a, it's a damn oil spot on your cracked driveway, staring back at you, mocking you, knowing the perverted truths that rot in the pit of your soul. That's how my freakin' day was!

Cosplay Wow

There's cosplay, and then there's coswow! I stumbled upon some cosplay photos today that were so cool, I had to share.

First up is a girl from cosplay.com who, in this one shot, manages to really capture the essence of C.C. from Code Geass - check it out! Pizza Hut supports the rebellion! She also manages to nail the bedtime C.C. look as well. ;)

And then I found this gallery here, which has a ton of high quality cosplay photography (quality cosplay *and* quality photography), and is worth skimming through if you have the time and haven't seen it before. Here are some of what I thought were the highlights:

More C.C.! ^.^

Clare from Claymore (three pages worth)

Saber-chan from Fate/stay night

A female Bejiita?!?

The Legendary Sannin from Naruto (lol @ ero-sennin peeping on Tsunade-sama!)

BERSERK!!! - *awesome* defeated Griffith cosplay, with some great behelit shots!! (three pages worth)

and, Nagato Yuki (for my book-loving readers)

There's some other interesting stuff in there if you have some time to kill, but those are the highlights. :D

I also read this blog rant titled Cosplay - Should only good looking people do it? (which has a picture of another Clare, btw). In response to the issue, while I am very sympathetic to the sentiment, the obvious point to be made is that cosplay isn't just (or always) about looking good. It can be (and is often - more often?) also about just having fun and celebrating the characters you love. And I would never want to get in the way of people enjoying themselves as such. I think people should, however, have a healthy appreciation for the difference between costume play, and costume modeling (not that the two can't be the same in some cases).

Ok, just a few more:

Gabriel from Constantine

Massacre Princess!!! (and after the madness)

The Joker

Gazing Into The Abyss

"Gaze long into the abyss, and the abyss gazes also into you."
- Nietzsche

Not just an overused quotation, but also a concept that I have a fondess for, and an activity that I have a predilection towards. Long have I gazed into the abyss, and though it is not an altogether uncommon interest, sometimes I do wonder just what it is that drives my curiosity toward the darker side of human nature. And there are times when I find myself gazing also into my reflection in the mirror, only to ask myself the question, have I yet become the object of my morbid curiosities? Is it only a matter of time?

There is one view of life, that paints a picture in bright and cheerful colors. Many people believe in this picture. They may not live it, but they strive for it, and they hope for it, because they cannot live without it, at least as a potential. The other view of life paints a very dark and grim picture. Not as many people are as comfortable looking at this picture - and it is not a comfortable picture to look at. But it's the picture I see when I look at the world, and I refuse to kid myself into wishing bright colors where there are none. If the truth is dark, then I will become dark.

There's something appealing to me about controversy. The concept of groupthink is quite bizarre to me - how can a set of beliefs that are so obviously flawed be so unquestionably popular? Am I correct in judging the majority of humanity to be brainless twits? I'd /like/ to think otherwise, but I wouldn't be surprised if that were indeed the case. Controversy is where conflict arises between the sages and the sheeple. I have a tendency to want to approach that which is derided by the collective. After all, am I not among that batch?

I'd love to be more confident in my social rebellion, but the bottom line is that the group is in control, and I fear what they could do to me in their unthinking condemnation of all that is abnormal. Am I really afraid to speak my mind? Have I given up my own freedom of speech? I feel like I should be fighting for a cause. It would give my life some meaning. But what's the point of fighting against the group? As long as the group exists, they will be in power, and short of the apocalypse, my vision of a dream world will never be realized.

And so I sit alone, in a darkened room, gazing silently into the abyss. In desperation, I try to reach out and grasp something. But alas, the abyss is vast and empty, and I am still alone.

The Legend Continues

Okay, here's a followup on Urotsukidoji: I skimmed through part 4 on mute, and then watched (that's the key word) part 5 in Japanese, even without subtitles.

Part 4, Inferno Road, consists of three episodes. The first two are something of a side story, in which the traveling gang, including young girl Himi a.k.a. the Lord of Chaos, come across a disturbing village on their way to meet the Overfiend in Osaka. The village consists of a group of evil psychic kids who treat all adults as objects for entertainment, as well as baby factories.

There's a great scene where the kids, over dinner, force the adults to engage in a massive orgy, purely for their entertainment. Note that the kids are merely spectators, and are not actually involved in the activity. There's also a scene where two "kids", having just reached the age of "maturity" (I'm using quotes to allow for creative interpretation), and after trying unsuccessfully to escape the village, are subjected to assault by a monstrous tentacle demon that acts as a sort of pet for the evil psychic children.


Our traveling band gets caught up in the mess, but eventually works things out and continues on the infernal road toward the Overfiend. In the third episode, the confrontation occurs. Also, cloakface appears yet again (in a horror series like this, death is never the end) just to get in the way. The climax is unfortunately underwhelming, though it involves the Overfiend consuming a drop of menstrual blood from the Lord of Chaos, a.k.a. Himi, who since the third part of the series has been aging at an accelerated rate, and is at this point at a ripe young age, and looking particularly good with her long flowing golden locks.


From what I understand, there is an alternate ending that actually involves an epic battle between the Overfiend and the Lord of Chaos - albeit it's a sexual contest rather than a strictly violent one (a *very* interesting concept) - in which the Overfiend ends up getting reverse-raped to death by the Lord of Chaos. It's awesome. I only know this much because part of it is apparently recapped at the beginning of the unfinished part five of the series.

And in that part, we do indeed finally get a more straightforward continuation of the story from where the very first series ended. The real "true" Overfiend is finally born (the previous Overfiend having only been the father of the true one) as an ultrapowerful hermaphroditic being. At first, I thought the reason for its hermaphroditism was because it had perceived sexual deviance as the cause for the worlds' decline into depravity (remember that the Overfiend's supposed goal is to create a better world for all), and so it wanted to create a sexless race - but honestly, what series are we watching? As far as I could tell (since I could only get bits and pieces of the dialogue), this new Overfiend was actually a hypersexual being and seemed to be experimenting with ways to achieve some kind of auto-super-orgasm, for the devil only knows what ultimate purpose. (And since it /is/ the Overfiend, I'm sure it's something more significant than simply personal pleasure).


At any rate, the story's unfinished, so who knows where it could have gone. It's still not nearly on par with the original series, but I quite enjoyed it, and it was unquestionably way way way way way way way way better than the remake series. And of all the sequels, this one /felt/ most like the first. It was really great to see the original Overfiend again, in his "Demon of Destruction" form, and it was quite interesting to see Akemi return to human form after her time as the "true" Overfiend's womb - grown up and looking different from her schoolgirl days. It's really too bad this part of the series wasn't finished. It would have been a hell of a lot better than the stupid remake...

I'm also quite surprised that in all this time (I believe part five was originally released in '96), that this episode hasn't been subbed in English by /someone/, and put out there for the fans. Hm.

Experiencing the Overfiend

My Urotsukidoji experience started off with amazement, and ended in utter disappointment. For years, I had been no more than vaguely aware of Urotsukidoji, knowing it only as one of those forbidden classic hentai titles that had always been out of my reach. There had been curiosity, but I never put much effort into procuring any of those titles, since I've never been all that interested in hentai. I prefer a much more subtle approach to erotica (you might call it ecchi instead), rather than the hardcore stuff.

But, my growing interest in illicit activities involving tentacles (aided in no small part by certain experiences in Second Life), led me inevitably to the point of investigating (purely for educational purposes) some of this legendary animated tentacle rape. And, the wikipedia entry on tentacle erotica awards Urotsukidoji the honor of having created the modern paradigm for the genre, so I figured it was a great place to start.

A modern reimagining of
The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife
It can be a little confusing putting the pieces of Urotsukidoji together, since there are six installments, and of course multiple versions of each with various levels of censorship and editing, depending on a number of factors. I'm not in a position to be picky, so I've had to take what I can find. It bugs me that it's so difficult to find a complete version of this classic series through official channels, that's unedited *and* in the right language. There's really no way they can blame me for resorting to underground channels. Unfortunately, even there it's hard to find exactly what I want. Maybe it's an exposure/hindsight sort of thing, but I can't even imagine how this stuff could be considered /so/ deviant that they wouldn't make uncensored versions more easily available for those who are interested. But then again, censorship has never been an exercise in logic.


Anyway, on to the series itself. I watched the first installment, also referred to as "Legend of the Overfiend", and was completely blown away by it. Despite the questionable and explicit material, it is, without a doubt in my mind, a masterpiece of animated erotic horror cinema. Everything about it is fantastic, and it's far more artistic and intelligent than I would have expected from a title of such reputation among the darker corners of anime fandom.


Allow me to briefly describe the plot, so you have an idea of what the story's like. There exist two realms in addition to the human realm - the beast realm and the demon realm - and there is a legend that states that every 3000 years, a being known as the Overfiend reappears to combine the worlds into an eternal paradise. That's the legend, at least, and it unsurprisingly leaves a few details out. At any rate, the story follows beastman Amano Jyaku, who is a really cool character, and his sister Megumi as they wander the human realm trying to find the person who is destined to be revived as the Overfiend. Many demons and beasts alike are wary of the Overfiend's reawakening, afraid of it's true purpose (and rightfully so), but Amano Jyaku is the curious, revolutionary type who thinks that the Overfiend's renovation will bring an exciting new world for all.

And this allows a fascinating setup where we eventually discover that the protagonist (sort of) is the one who wants to destroy the universe, and the antagonists (largely consisting of demons) are the ones actually trying to /save/ the world (that's not to say that they don't enjoy casual rape, though, so they're not exactly "good people" either). Anyway, it's a refreshingly original story, and the whole supernatural aspect mixes in quite well with the "school days" environment that arises as the result of the Overfiend residing within a (arguably) normal schoolboy. All in all, it's very well done and very entertaining to watch.


The ending, though climactic, is less than conclusive, and so the story continues. The second installment of Urotsukidoji, also known as "Legend of the Demon Womb", is actually an unanticipated side story that occurs during the events of the first installment. And though there are some decent scenes, the experience is overall far far far far far far far inferior to the first story. Despite that, it does set up new elements to the plot that drive the rest of the sequential installments (one of which, at least, is not as bad as this one). The important element is the introduction of the Lord of Chaos (called also by other names), which basically acts as a primary antagonist for the Overfiend. Frankly, I think that when your protagonist is the anticipated destroyer of the universe, you really honestly don't /need/ an antagonist. Besides, I found the cloaked character who facilitates the Lord of Chaos' awakening to be far more annoying than the cool he was clearly /supposed/ to be (his evil maniacal laugh is way overused). I'd say just skip Legend of the Demon Womb, but for the setup of the Lord of Chaos, and the fact that the cloaked guy does return in the next installment.


Part three, "Return of the Overfiend", starts out better than part two but still far inferior to part one. It does, however, take place after the ending to the first part, so it satisfies your curiosity there. It's post-apocalypse, although the promised "eternal kingdom" is yet to come. The Lord of Chaos in part two was just a stepping stone to finding the real Lord of Chaos, which forms the backbone of the story to this installment. Many new characters are introduced, including Caesar, the leader of an empire, who is working with the cloaked guy to find the Lord of Chaos and stop the Overfiend's dubious plans for the universe, and the "Makemono", which are a new race of creatures who were disfigured by the apocalypse.


I was kind of bored with it at first, especially in the parts that involved the cloaked guy and which were a continuation of the story from the second installment of the series, but I eventually got attached to some of the new characters, and I have to say, at around the climax of the third episode (of four), it got really good. I'm talking dark, cyberpunk, immortal morphing machines, mad revenge, good. Plus, plenty of good quality extended tentacle scenes. Part three ends at a crossroads, with the empire taken down and the characters setting off to meet the Overfiend for his final confrontation with the true(?) Lord of Chaos.


All of which I understand happens in part four, "Inferno Road". Unfortunately, the version I acquired is in English, which is a real shame, because I'm quite interested in seeing the continuation of the series. Plus, it has a reputation for being particularly explicit and gratuitous (even by Urotsukidoji standards, apparently), and frankly, that makes me curious (for purely educational reasons, of course). On the other hand, from what I've read, my suspicion is that the material isn't any more explicit or gratuitous than the usual Urotsukidoji fare, but it's only considered as such because this time around there are (animated) children involved in some way. Gasp. The horror.


There's also an incomplete fifth installment, "The Final Chapter", consisting of a single episode. As stated, this installment is unfinished. It's also not available in anything other than straight Japanese (without subtitles), from what I can tell. I'd watch it straight, just to see what happens (since it's not finished anyway), but since it's a further continuation of the story, I'd prefer to see the fourth installment first.

Finally, the sixth installment, "New Saga", is not a continuation of the story, but basically a remake of the original installment. I have to say, it sucks really bad. And not in any kind of a good way. Honestly, I couldn't even watch more than about fifteen minutes of it. The animation is bad, the CG is horrendous, the characters are ruined, the story is destroyed, not even the sex is good - in fact it's terrible! To compare this piece of trash to the original installment of Urotsukidoji would be to compare a cheap porn with no redeeming value whatsoever to an undisputed erotic masterpiece. It's that much of a difference.


Disappointing, but you can hardly expect better with a remake, particularly in an already much-maligned genre. Anyhow, the original is still indeed a masterpiece. A masterpiece that I would proudly recommend, with one strong caveat: if the idea of erotic horror itself, or more specifically, monsters raping people violently (keeping in mind that these are animated fantasies, with no flesh and blood persons involved), severely offends you (imagine that), you should probably avoid this title. Truth is, it's not for everyone. However, in Urotsukidoji's defense, I'd like to emphasize that even when dealing with offensive subjects, there are tasteful approaches, and there are tasteless approaches. You may not believe it, but there do exist some things that, though defined as pornography, are indeed of quite good quality and carry a lot of artistic merit. But I'm not here to change anybody's mind - you probably already know if you would enjoy Urotsukidoji or not.


I have to wonder, when I watch something like this, and don't find it to be particularly depraved or disgusting, despite its reputation, if my standards are that much different from most people (not, however, unlikely), or if maybe I've just been so exposed to this kind of material (I do watch a lot of horror films) that I'm used to it, and it doesn't particularly shock me anymore. I've never really considered myself to be the depraved and perverted one amongst my group of peers. There are things out there that, quite frankly, do disgust me, and that I want nothing to do with (things that certain of my peers do in fact revel in). But this is just not one of them. You wonder why I have so much trouble dealing with people, when the truth is, I really have a hard time relating to most of them.

There's no use going to the butcher to get bandages.