Speedgrapher

Looking for a graphic anime that displays vulgar themes and some great actions scenes that also packs a good story? Speedgrapher is for you. The protagonist of this is an ex-war photographer turned investigative photographer who delves into a top secret club organized and controlled by Suitengu the most powerful and secretive gangster in Japan. The members of this club? Actors. Politicians. Directors. Anyone with some sort of power anywhere whether it be media or political and even social power. The activities of this club? Orgies. Alcohol. All the sadistic and vulgar pleasures a mind can imagine and even some that it can’t. Saiga, the photographer finds his way into this club where he is planning on getting enough to take it down. However, things don’t go as planned and he ends up meeting a beautiful young woman that unlocks a power within him: the power to make whatever he takes a picture of explode.

He spends the rest of this series fighting for the freedom and safety of this beauty against the leader of this club and various members that have powers of their own. All is not as it seems though and later the true motives of the enemy gets revealed to be something far more than just gaining more money and power.

This anime runs over themes such as greed and selfishness along with freedom and hope.

Some may find much of the show to be repulsive, and it is artistically done in such a way to exemplify the themes within it and many of the messages it presents. However, those of you that are willing to see something to its end despite any of the things they see will find that this is quite an enjoyable story.

Clannad and Clannad After Story

Never have I ever seen anything quite as beautiful as Clannad. It’s based off a visual novel of the same name by Key and very loyally follows the content within it. Much like many anime that are out there the main characters are mostly students in high school. The central theme of the story I would say would be growing up. Over the time it took for me to watch it I grew to love every single one of the characters. Unlike many anime that I’ve seen this one’s characters are dynamic and grow with the events that happen within the show. Along with the story and the characters the soundtrack fits the show perfectly. Even the extra content created is beautiful and creates their own sense of closure within themselves.

I grew to love Tomoya Okazaki, the protagonist of the entire series and a slacker. He has a strong habit of cutting class and ignoring lectures because he would rather waste his time than learn. Throughout the school he is known as a delinquent and he very regularly pulls pranks and jokes on his friends and fellow students. Tomoya meets Nagisa Furuwaka on one of his walks. She is the main heroine of the story and is a repeat senior at her school because she spent a lot of her time sick her first senior year. She has poor self-esteem and self-confidence, but things change when Tomoya begins speaking to her (and he speaks his mind quite bluntly at times). He helps her achieve her dream of reviving the drama club and all throughout they make many new friends. You also get to meet dozens of other colorful characters that all have great importance to the series. Tomoya helps Fuko Ibiki, a shy girl that at first is very timid around him as well as stubborn, get all the people in the school to go to her big sister’s wedding. He helps Kotomi Ichinose, a quiet genius that is at first awkward at socializing, learn how to socialize and deal with old scars. Each of these characters and many more grow and find a way into your heart. Tomoya grows from his childhood into manhood quite well through the whole series, and many of the other characters follow similarly.

The series explores friendship, family, and love very thoroughly. Each of the characters have their share of loss as well as gain. All of the grow in their own way. There are fights. There is romance. The humor is fantastic, not many shows have got me laughing as heartily as Clannad. There were times where I would be excited over the cuteness of several of the characters. There were also times were I would cry at the beautiful, the happy, and the sad. It is very stimulating in every aspect of the word, but it is not overwhelming. The series is most definitely emotional, but not in a way the leaves you exhausted and depressed, and more in a way that leaves you satisfied and happy.

If anyone were to ask me what my favorite anime was I would say “Clannad hands down” and then recommend it highly. I have never felt this good after finishing any other anime series.

Roger Fawkes

“I’m impressed,” Doctor Rollins commented. “You recovered from your accident quickly. I suppose that’s one of the benefits of a kid your age.”

Roger Fawkes smiled. “Thanks, Doc, when can I start running again?”

The Doctor smiled a sad smile. “I’m sorry, but the nature of your injury means that you won’t be able to do sports again. You’re lucky that you’re able to walk.”

Roger blinked. “What?”

The Doctor shook his head. “I’m sorry, Roger.”

Dad piped up. “Are you sure there isn’t some kind of physical therapy he can go through?”

The Doctor looked at Dad in the eyes. “The fact that your son can walk is a miracle, Mr. Fawkes, but the damage his nerves and hips took from that motorcycle means that any physical exertion will harm him not help.”

It felt like a significant piece of Roger had been cut from him. Cross-country was his sport. Nobody in the entire state could beat him, and he rocked the world at nationals last year by placing second when nobody expected him to. For this to happen to him was the worst curse anyone could have placed on them. The discussion happening between the Doctor and Dad in front of him faded into the background of his mind as he lost himself in fear and despair. What would he do now? The most important thing in the world to him was no longer something he could do.

Roger had spent a month recovering from a collision he had with a motorcycle on one of his runs. The injuries he sustained were mostly to his lower back, upper legs, and hips. The doctors were concerned he’d be a paraplegic for the rest of his life, but fortunately he escaped that fate. No more running. Training was supposed to start in two weeks, but now he can’t participate in that. Roger missed the marathon he was training for; a marathon that he was going to qualify for Boston with.

A question popped into Roger’s head. “What about cycling? Could I do that?”

The Doctor shook his head slowly. “I can’t even recommend you walk more than two or three miles a day. Any more than that and you may end up agitating your injury.”

Roger stood up. “I’m going to the car, Dad.”

Roger’s body ached as he made his way to the car. It took every ounce of control he had to keep from crying in public. As soon as he got into the passenger seat, he punched the dashboard a few times angrily and let out a few shouts. Shortly after, tears streamed down his face.

“What am I going to do now?” He sobbed.

Roger couldn’t even look at his father when he arrived to bring him home. The entire drive he stared out the window looking at the places he used to run. The places he’d never run again.

Once they made it home, Roger shuffled into his room. When dinner time came around, Roger declared his lack of an appetite. He spent the rest of the day lying in his bed, wallowing. When it came to be time to fall asleep, he didn’t. The entire night, his body ached and tightened and strained. The few times he came out of his room the next two weeks were to eat one meal a day, sometimes less, and go to the bathroom. Mom and Dad visited him and tried to console him; he asked to be alone. By the end of these two weeks, he couldn’t look at himself in the mirror.

By the end of summer, Roger felt a great emptiness move into his heart. He almost didn’t go to school the first day. Class blurred by as he hardly paid attention to the teacher or his peers. He didn’t interact with anyone until lunch happened. Out of habit, he sat with the cross country team and immediately felt unwelcome.

“What are you doing sitting here?” Chad Brunswick, the team’s co-captain demanded. “You aren’t on the team anymore. You skipped out on all the practices this summer, like some big shot.”

“Whoa,” Isaac Halla interjected. “Chad, haven’t you been paying attention to anything that happened this summer? Roger got put in the hospital by a motorbike.”

Roger hung his head and murmured. “I can’t run anymore, doctor’s orders.”

“Put in the hospital?” Chad stood up. “So you can’t even run anymore? What the hell man. The team can’t afford to lose you. Screw this.”

Chad stormed off; most of the team followed him. Roger felt even more pathetic and buried his face in his arms on the table.

Isaac patted him on the back. “I’m sorry, man.”

Roger stood up and began walking away. Away from people. Into the hallway. Somehow, he found himself in the counselor’s office on the other side of Salisborough High. He sat down at the large table in the center of the offices and buried his face again into his arms. Tears began flowing down his face uncontrollably.

“What do I do?” He sobbed.

“What do you do?” A voice on his right asked.

Roger looked to see a shoulder-length brown-haired woman in a beautiful and elegant black dress. He blinked away the tears. “I used to run.”

She sat down next to him, putting a couple binders onto the table in front of her. “What do you do now?”

“Nothing. Hurt.”

Her brown eyes pierced into his soul. “What do you want to do?”

He turned his head away from her. “I don’t know. I want to run, but I can’t do that anymore. I can’t even walk to class without my body screaming bloody murder.”

“Why don’t you look for something new to do?”

He sighed. “I don’t even know where to look.”

“Maybe I can help you out with that. What do you like?”

Roger thought for a moment. “Running.”

She chuckled. “That’s it, eh?” She pulled out a sticky pad and wrote something on it. “If you think of anything more give me a call.”

She stuck the sticky note to Roger’s hand and got up and left the office with her stuff. Rachel Kent 555-4923. Don’t lose faith in yourself.

Roger came to his last class late, and the entire time he spent staring at the black ink on the yellow sticky note. Don’t lose faith. Is that what happened to him? Did he lose faith and just give up?

“What do I like?” He whispered to himself. The words stirred something in him; the feeling he couldn’t quite figure. “What do I like?”

The rest of the day he spent trying to think of things he liked. The thoughts continued into the next day. He decided to start writing down a list just to keep track. Roger sat at an empty table in the cafeteria at lunch.

“Hey,” A familiar voice caught his attention. “You never came back yesterday. I was worried about you, man.”

Isaac sat down next to him. “You OK?”

Roger looked at him. “Not really.”

Isaac tilted his head. “You going to be OK?”

Roger looked back at the notepad with the list, nodding. “I will be. I just need time. I didn’t think I’d ever be OK, but now I think I will be.”

“Do you want to talk?”

Roger closed the notepad; clinging precariously onto it: the sticky note with the number. “One second.”

Roger pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number. After two rings there was an answer. “Hello?”

He smiled, it was her voice. “Rachel? This is Roger; we talked yesterday a little bit. Can we meet?”

Her voice brightened up. “Sure, same place?”

He nodded. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”

As Roger hung up, Isaac looked at him quizzically. “You want me to come along? Or should I have lunch alone again?”

Roger gave Isaac and odd look. “Do you even need to ask that? Of course you can have lunch alone, but only if you really want to.”

Isaac stood up after a good laugh. “Lead the way.”

New Goal in Life Acquired

I often feel lost when I have no job or hobby to occupy my time. However, I’ve come to a sort of epiphany, except not really because it’s been something I’ve kinda wanted to do for some time now anyways. I have determined that this is going to be a more focused purpose for me in life. I have the tools to achieve it too, all that’s needed is action. My new found determination is to help people improve their lives to they can better themselves and that of society as a whole.

We all fall into dark times in our lives, I’ve had my fair share and perhaps even more. I want to help people get through their problems. I want to help people achieve their personal goals by empowering them to do so. Fear, pain, regret, hopelessness, depression, and anger are all easy, but the trick is getting through those issues. There is no way that anyone will be able to completely remove any of those feelings, but accepting they’re happening and living in spite of them is what I want to help people with. Over the next few months and even longer, I will be returning to YouTube as a source of broadcast with original videos in an attempt to build something good out of it. I will be opening up some of my dark passengers, as examples to aid those in need, and I will commit so much more to this cause.

The Kirby Experience

For an entire month I was an independent dealer for Kirby, a vacuum cleaner company that’s been around for 98 years. How many companies can you think of that have been around for almost 100 years? Universal Pictures and Ford are the only two I can think of. I’m sure the internet can tell you more, but that’s cheating isn’t it? I’ll admit, I never thought that I’d be trying out sales ever, and selling Kirbies isn’t something that I can do. What I did was go to a house set by a pre-established appointment, and demonstrate everything that this wonderful piece of equipment can do. Yes, I became sold by Kirby, I loved the machine and in my opinion there is no vacuum cleaner on the market that can compete with Kirby. No, I’m not going to try and sell you one, I swear!

What I want to describe is that this experience is something that changed my life completely as a whole. It even restored my self-confidence, something I haven’t had completely in honest for a long time. I learned many things, one being vacuum cleaner sales isn’t for me, but I do recommend working for Kirby because if you can overcome the difficulties of sales there is incredible reward available for you (I admit it isn’t for everyone). It also opened a whole new door that I didn’t even think to try opening in my life: sales. Maybe selling Kirby home maintenance systems isn’t for me, but what about real estate? Cars? Auction houses? Who knows, but I’m going to give as much as I can a try.

I made a promise to myself recently, something that would be a shame for me to break, and would even be something wonderful for you to make to yourself if you wish. The promise I made was to whenever an opportunity passes me by that I would like to try, but am afraid, nervous, worried, or anything else would hold me back, regardless of all those obstacles I might want to put in front of myself I’m going to “attack” and try to do it anyways and see what is on the other side of the opportunity. Kirby was the first step for me on this path, and I intend to continue forward and progress my life not without fear, but with courage. I’ve now picked up a job working for an auction house, and it’s interesting and I’m looking forward to what wonderful things may come from it. Later I will discuss the experience I’ve had with this new job, but now I am open to new experiences and look forward to discussing future opportunities that I come across.

Going to be Slowing Down a Bit

Because of a job that I have acquired my schedule has tightened up a lot, so sadly I will have less time to post stories and reviews and other things to this blog. As a result I will be slowing down on posts, but when I have some things to post I shall. Thank you for your patience and enjoy reading what I have now and what I’ll be putting up later.

Short Story Series: Blake

Blake Carpenter looked into the sea of people in front of him. His felt fine. Better. He felt fantastic. This was his element: people. He was going places in life and nobody was going to stop him. His fellows stood behind him on this wonderful stage. This was the recognition they all deserved. He stepped up to the podium, his graduation robes flowing around him. He removed his graduation cap and put it on the podium. To his right was the principal, a glowing smile on her face. To his left were both councilors, beaming.

He smiled and looked into the crowd to where he knew his parents were. “Today, is a glorious day for the whole lot of us. We students shall be moving forward in life, going to college, starting work, and various other activities. You are the parents, friends, and family members of this class of people, these young adults who are moving up to a new level of life. The feelings of pride that you have for us must be incredible, but if it hadn’t been for your support I know that many of us may not be standing up here right now. I was selected by my fellows to speak on behalf of all of us, and I say thank you.

“Thank you for the time you took to take us to sports and clubs. Thank you for tolerating us at our worst and loving us at our best. Thank you for spending thousands upon thousands on gas hauling us all over town before we could drive. Without you, we would have missed much.”

Blake pulled the microphone off of the podium and looked back to his fellow students. “This is our moment. We are at a new threshold of life. Many of you are going to college, some are actually heading to a professional career. You all have done well, congratulations.”

He turned back to the audience. “Finally, one last thank you. This one going out to my friends and family. I know I wouldn’t be standing here, speaking to all of you if it weren’t for you. Thank you. Mom. Dad. I love you guys. Thank you.”

Blake set the microphone back into place, stepped to the side of the podium, and performed a graceful bow at the applauding crowd before him. This was his moment, and he would cherish it for as long as he could.

Short Story Series: Ending

I shall be posting one last story before I continue onward to my usual schedule of reviews and other short stories. I hope this has been entertaining and you’ve all enjoyed reading my stories. There will be more in the future, so that’s something to look forward to, but until then I shall be doing other things.

Short Story Series: Rachel and Frank

Frank Kent looked at his latest disaster. He had never been good with cleaning, his parents reminded him of that every day, but this is the first time that while cleaning he ended up making a worse mess. Somehow, a bag of sugar had fallen from its cabinet when he was putting stuff into it and now it had split open and had spilled everywhere. Of course, due to bad timing, Mother came into the room just as it happened and was now screaming at Frank and calling him “useless” and “pathetic”. He just bowed his head and with each word he got hurt more. Sometimes he wished he’d disappear completely.

Mother told him to leave the kitchen, so he did, and she began cleaning up the mess while muttering mean statements just loudly enough that he could hear. He shuffled away to his room, his fortress of solitude, even if it was made of glass. He used to defend himself every time something like this happened, but now he agreed with every painful word that spewed forth from his parents’ mouths. He was useless. He was pathetic. He was good-for-nothing. Why didn’t he just disappear? Nobody would notice or if they did they wouldn’t care. All Frank Kent was ever good at was getting in the way and making things worse.

Frank sat on a stool in his room, before him was an easel with a canvass on it. Without thinking he began to paint. Each stroke calmed his nerves, and brought him to a comfortable place in his mind that no one could disturb. The scene he painted was dark, dreary, and depressing. It was so powerful in its themes that when he was done with it he valued himself even less. “I can’t even paint something happy and beautiful.”

“You can paint something powerful and dark and beautiful.” Rachel, Frank’s sister, had been standing there the entire time, watching him paint.

He jumped at the sound of her voice. “More along the lines of something dark and depressing. Nothing I do is any good, not even this.”

Rachel stepped into his room. “Hey, don’t you get all down on yourself. You’re art is fantastic. This is one of your best pieces, that I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen everything. Why don’t you show this or any of your art in art shows and stuff?”

Frank flopped on his bed, not caring about the paint stains that would be added to it later. “It’s not good enough. I’m never good enough.”

Rachel glared at him. “Just because Mom and Dad call you useless all the time doesn’t mean you are. You used to fight back all the time. What happened to you?”

Frank winced at the word “useless” and frowned. “Mom and Dad are right. I’m no good at cleaning, I’m no good at school, I’m no good at helping around the house, and I’m no good at painting.”

Rachel sighed. “Fine, when it’s dry can I take your no good painting? Because I like it.”

Frank waved at her dismissively. “Sure, I don’t care.”

Rachel stomped down the stairs and found Mom, who had just finished cleaning up the sugar disaster, and proceeded to yell at her trying to defend Frank for him. She pointed out the condition he’s in, and declared that he needed some kind of support and not being put down all the time. Mother hollered back a whole lot of nothing and eventually sent Rachel to her room, a useless gesture, but Rachel stormed off to her room anyway.

When Rachel made it to her room, she looked at the pamphlet on her dresser. It announced an art show this weekend that she was going to ask Frank to show his art there, but in his state that wasn’t an option. She decided that she would present his art on his behalf and force him to see other people’s reactions to his works. She had already sent two other pieces of his to be presented at the show, this third piece would be the last one. She hoped that Frank would make it through the rest of the week, but five days would be very long and painful for him.

The next day, she took the dried work of art, framed it for Frank, and brought it to the manager of the art show who gladly accepted it.

“Your brother’s works are some of the best I’ve ever seen, I do hope he shows up this weekend,” the manager told her.

She smiled. “I’ll make him. I know he’ll love it.”

When Rachel got back home, she had discovered that no incidents had happened, but aside from Frank going to school he had never left his room. When she investigated he was scrawling away on a sketch pad and several drawings were scattered on the floor. She quietly closed the door and whispered. “Hold on in there Frank, don’t lose yourself.”

The rest of the week skidded by. One day, Rachel heard about a teacher raising his voice at Frank and saying some mean things. She tried to get Frank to a counselor, but he refused to even try it. Another day, Dad exploded at him, fortunately Rachel was their to mitigate the explosion, but it didn’t really help Frank too much anyway. At least Dad showed some remorse and apologized to Frank. Mother yelled at him a few times. By the end of the week, Frank was a total wreck, and Rachel had to somehow get him to show up to the art show.

Frank was hiding in his room when Rachel found him to ask him to go to the show. “Frank, you need to get out of the house. Come with me, I’m going to be seeing a movie tonight and I want you to join.”

Frank glanced over to her. “A movie? Why would you want me to come with you to a movie?”

Rachel glared. “We need some brother-sister time. Come on.”

She walked over to him and grabbed his arm. He didn’t really struggle as he was pulled and practically dragged to Rachel’s car. “Fine, I’ll come,” he said halfway there.

Rachel smiled and started the engine as soon as Frank put his seat belt on. She backed out of the drive way and began to head to the art show. Frank noticed the direction they were going in. “I thought we were going to the movies, not the school.”

Rachel quickly glanced at him. “We’re going to stop at the school first before we go to the movies. You’re going to come with me.”

Frank shrugged. “OK.”

It took fifteen minutes to get there, and a few more for them to get inside. When Frank was inside, he noticed the place was having an art show. From a quick glance he saw his own art pieces, including the depressing one. Against his own will, his feet made him move closer to his works. Part of him really wanted to know what other people thought of his art. Rachel followed him, closely behind.

The things Frank heard were “I like the dark one, it expresses very powerful emotion”, “This is beautiful”, and other things very much like that. A couple tears rolled down his cheeks for the first time since he could remember the emotion called happiness erupted in his heart. He looked back at Rachel. “Thank you, you’re the best sister a brother could ask for.”