A Paradox! A Paradox! A Funny Little Paradox!

I've decided to finally review something. I've been playing a burned copy of UFC 2004 (also known as Sudden Impact in the States). Despite the fact that I love submitting and knocking people out, this has been the worse mixed martial arts game to date. Unlike its past games and Pride FC, this game lacks good controls and creativity. It's pretty much a copy of the last UFC game. The only difference is that now you can do more things off the fence. The controls aren't that good. It's hard to pull off different moves, and the punches and kicks aren't fluid. I'm also not that interested in the fighters they used. I would have preffered an updated roster with more characters. Also, some characters shouldn't be good on the ground, yet they have submissions. There also isn't much difference between how some characters fight. The UFC developers could really learn from the Pride FC guys.

Definition of Jrock

I recently surfed amazon.com to see what kind of jrock I could purchase. I am always impressed by the amount of music that amazon carries. You can pretty much find anything you'd ever want. As I was checking out the site, I noticed that many frequents of amazon have their own portion of amazon where they list what they think is the best of a certain area of music. A whole bunch of them were labeled 'best jrock', so I checked them out. The lists of these people were pretty much made up of Gackt and his ex-band Dir en Gray. The last time I checked, Gackt was considered Goth music (closer to pop than rock too). So why do these people have Gackt lsited as rock? It's simple to me: they're either ignorant or lack good judgement. Personally, I can only stand to listen to one Gackt song. Anything else by him sounds like crap to me. People should learn the difference between goth pop and actual rock. L'arc-en-ciel, B'z, and even Orange Range are jrock. They involve good guitar, strong drums and bass, and rasping lead singers. Overall, Japan hasn't reached that point where they make good hard rock or metal yet. Suprisingly, South Korea has a lot more hard rock and metal with Seo Taiji and Moon Hee Joon. Getting back to amazon, it kind of irritated me to check out these people's pages and see Gackt listed as the only music. In the future, I hope people broaden their musical knowledge.

Hail to the King 

Ummm, Hot Coffee

As long as you haven't been stuck in a third world country, you've probably heard about the recent events with GTA: San Andreas. I personally believe that Take-Two Interactive is at fault for leaving this mod in the game, but it isn't that big of a deal. The game already was rated M. That means that it would have taken a kids parent for the child to own the game. Even if the kid paid somebody else to get it for him, the parents should still know what their child is playing. I read a somewhere that a woman was suing Rockstar because the game scarred her child and herself. Her claim is that the rating didn't represent what was in the game. This is just ridiculous. An M rating is the equivalent of a rated R movie. A lot of rated R movies contain sex scenes, so this shouldn't be anything new. To think this dumbass believes she has a case is stupid. You bought the game for your kid even though it's really violent. I'd worry more about if he shoots somebody, but then that'd be your fault for not paying enough attention to your kid. It also takes a plethora of cheat codes to even access the lude material. Most kids are just content with the all weapons cheat. Anyways, what's the little kid going to do? Is he going to start scoring bitches so he can get johnsoning? I think not. Parents, stop blaming media companies for your lack of intelligence. When Mortal Kombat came out, I wasn't allowed to own it. I had to wait until MK III to own MK II. This was because my parents dubbed me too young, so they didn't let me have it yet. This is what's called parenting. I hope future parents aren't this incompetent. Lastly, the National Institution on Media and the Family can kiss my ass. God, why does Hillary Clinton have to be such a raving bitch? It was bad enough that she abused Bill, but then again he was asking for it. This goddamn organization had the audacity to claim that it was because of them that the rating was changed to AO. Guess what Mr. Fuckhead...I mean Walsh. The ESRB changed it because not only the company agreed, but society in general was upset by the content. It's kin of stupid to have the AO rating anyways. M games are for 17 yrs. and up, while AO games are for 18 and up. I don't see a huge difference here. Walsh's institution also believes that a separate rating committee should be created. I don't know about anybody else, but I believe that ESRB is doing a good damn job. In the words of the defunct Degeneration X: Hillary Clinton can SUCK IT!

Hip Hop + Japan = Crap

I was surfing the web recently when I read something about a man who rights for some paper in California. The writer apparently critiques manga in the paper. I appluad somebody doing this, but the responses by other people weren't good. I read some postings by people who have read his work, and the writer turns out to be doing a horrible job. Every person complained that the writer wrote his critiques as if he skimmed the books instead of reading them. Plus, he didn't have any supporting evidence behind his claims. What does this have to do with rap and Japan. Well, the only thing the psotings appluaded him for was an article written about how the Japanese youth have taken to urban culture. Apparently, the youth believe urban life is centralized around black people and rap. This itself wouldn't be so bad if not for a link that took me to a sight that had a show clip from Japan. I believe the show was called Tokyo Morning (or something like that), and was suppose to be a comedic sketch about the introduction of urban culture to a Japanese family. I then watched a Japanese family use the n-word a million times and swear constantly (in english no less). I'm all for freedom of speech and other crap, but using a word you shouldn't use is not good. The general ignorance shown by these people is ridiculous, and I hope that they never come to the US and speak the way they did. Could you imagine if all the Japanese youth thought that Americans said the n-word all the time? There would be a whole lot of ass kicking going on (not to mention international incidents). Besides the n-word, I don't like how the Japanese use our swears. There doesn't seem to be any real feeling behind them and come out sounding awkward. I was watching an episode of the anime Beck, which has quite a bit of english in it, and when the characters sweared it sounded really bad. 'Fucking' should be said fluidly, not 'fuck-ing' like it's two words. I consider swearing an art form. It takes years of practice to get your sarcasm just right, or to get the right force behind calling someone an asshole. Lastly, urban culture isn't just hip hop and black people. Last time I checked, there are just as many yuppies in the city. I don't think you'll see too many yuppies sporting Sean John and listening to DMX. I also want to point out that not every black person likes rap. I have a plethora of black friends who love Jason Mraz ( I even have a korean friend who sings Mayer). In conclusion, the next time I'm in Japan I better not have any Japanese kid calling me a cracker or bitch. Because if I do, I'm gonna stomp that midget motherfucka!!! Peace!

I Hate Gwen Stefani!!!

You can imagine what this post is about. I was justing watching FUSE late at night expecting something better from the only true music TV when I get hit with the "What you waiting for" video. I wasn't all that irritated with the video at first since she seemed to be using new lyrics in the song instead of repeating the same one's over and over again like in her other videos. As many remember, this is the first time she brings to view her obsession with Harajuku. This thought alone disturbs me a little bit, because Harajuku should not be the reason you get interested in Japan. Granted, you do find kids wearing unique clothing, and I'm all for expressing yourself. It's just that Harajuku is a fashion center of Tokyo, something that you can find anywhere in the world. I also just hate how Gwen decided to pay for her four Japanese girls. She all of a sudden thinks that if she picks up the Japanese gimick, and surrounds herself with Japanese, it will show how cool she is. She tries to make it look like she's always been into Japan in a forced kind of way. Gwen, you don't have to include Asians in every one of your God damn videos. Show some fucking originality. It was also bad enough No Doubt got rid of their horn section and became popish, but now we have to deal with Gwen telling us that she wishes that she was a rich girl. Bullshit, you have way too much money if you can afford to go Harajuku that much. Also, the most infuriating part was when she started singing the lyrics to another one of her songs at the bridge. All of a sudden I'm hearing her say from Osaka to Tokyo, and then something about Harajuku girls. Different songs should contain different lyrics. This makes a musician a musician (besides the actual music). Who the fuck signed off on this CD. He/she should be covered in honey and then dropped in a bear cage, then taken out of the cage and have fire ants poured on him. Then, he/she should be skull fucked till he is dead. As for Gwen, I think she's already done more damage to herself . My Japanese girlfriend HATES her music, and seeing as she represents the majority of girls her age in Japan, Gwen will probably be secretly hated by a nation. Oh, the older generation also probably hates how she's bastardizing their culture too. Good going Gwen. The nation already secretly cares very little for foreigners, as the Japanese tend not to fully accept anybody other than another Japanese person. So while Gwen thinks she's found a group of people who accept her, she hasn't. Congrats Gwen!

Yet Another Otaku Blog?

For those who read as much manga as I, you porbably figured out that I stole my title from the otaku manga Genshiken. For those who don't read manga, let alone know what otaku means, good for you. You probably spend your life being productive. I've never been too productive, so I envy those who can be. I first want to note that my grammar has been known to suck, so I really don't want anybody notifying me that I had one or five sentence fragments in a posting. I must also explain that I'm not a true otaku. I'm just a lazy jock who enjoys the Japanese culture. I don't drool over the newest hentai and find dating sims boring. I also think that girls getting raped by tentacles is wrong. On the other hand, just because I think its wrong doesn't mean I won't watch it. I also have no problem discussing how a certain hentai can be artistic. Also, I don't mind discussing world events or other interesting aspects of our mother earth. Just dont get too political with me, because I hate discussing politics. So far I have failed to really introduce myself, so here you go. My name is Andrew Edwards and I am currently a senior at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL. I spent most of my life playing sports and going to pain in the ass private schools. During a summer in high school, I had to pick up a hobby to counteract my crappy job, so I decided to rent a lot of movies. I rented Ghost in the Shell, which began my anime craze. After this event, I became obsessed with Japanese culture. I am currently earning majors in business and asian studies, and have taken both Japanese and Chinese language classes. I have been to Japan three times, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. I'm thinking about applying for the JET program, but haven't decided yet. My favorite cities are as followed: Kanazawa, Tokyo, Kyoto, Chicago, San Francisco, Suzhou, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore City, and Honolulu. I would like to tour Europe someday. Lastly, my girlfriend is a 4 foot 81/2 Japanese girl named Reiko. She absolutley refuses to speak Japanese around me. It's kind of annoying. As soon as my hand recovers from cramping, I'll post my first topic.