About Me

Name: Doug
Age: 54
Gender: Male
Height: Tall.
Weight: Yeah, I could lose a pound or 60.
Heritage: Polish, Bohemian, French
Favorite type of ice cream: Anything I can pretend there's no calories in it.
Fav type of car: Whatever runs!

Yes, I'm 54 (that's not a typo), married, and I absolutely LOVE anime and manga, and I hang around here occasionally looking for friends and people to chat with about anime and music and stuff.

My daughter is also on Gaia occasionally.

If you catch me viewing your profile, it's either because:
A. I'm still editing my own profile and I'm looking for inspiration
B. Something about what you said, or something about your avatar seemed interesting, and I wanted to find out more about it
C. I lost my glasses and am mistakenly thinking I'm viewing my email page.

Now, what sort of person am I? I'm an all-around music person. Period. I sing professionally, I teach private music lessons (voice and piano), and composer and songwriter (I'll see if I can post some samples here sometime). To me, Miku Hatsune isn't just a drawing on deviantArt, she's my colleague and co-worker, LOL.

Much of the time I spend here (incl. Towns) is during open hours between my music tutoring, or when I'm too bored to compose.

I'm also a frequent reader of democraticunderground.com.

At first, I may come across as stodgy and stoic, but then often out of the blue I'll surprise you with my very *dry* sense of humor. And then after that it's all downhill until you start screaming from emotional abuse.

As for anime and manga, it seems I'm mostly drawn to "realistic" romantic comedies, less so towards fantasy/sci fi/space/magical themes. I'd say my overall favorite so far is Love Hina--it's got a downright intoxicating love story that I couldn't get enough of. Next to that is School Rumble (Harima/Tenma? Harima/Yakumo? Harima/Eri? For the life of me, I can't choose...but it's all good).

As you see, there are two major sides to my tastes. One, the really serious, even angsty romantic (Harima: "I'd die for you, Tenma!" and Keitaro: "Why would Naru ever go for a loser like me?") and the other, the totally insane nut. And you'll never know which side of me you'll have to deal with at a given time.

I go to anime cons whenever I can, which is around 2 or 3 times per year. There aren't that many cons around my area, so I'm jealous of fans who live around heavily populated areas.

That's me, in a nutshell.

Anime/Manga (Thanks to Netflix, Crackle, and Crunchyroll apps on our TV, my anime viewing has increased a lot over the last two years. It’s no longer a solitary event, either, as my wife and daughter now watch along with me.)

I love all of these, and highly recommend each:

* Love Hina (manga: complete, anime: complete. My all-time favorite manga, and the anime is fun to watch but not quite as good as the manga.)

* School Rumble (anime: complete, manga: about 80%. Sheer genius, all of it.)

* Full Moon O Sagashite (manga: complete, and it's gorgeous; anime: complete. It's fair, but still worthwhile.)

* Kamikaze Kaito Jeanne (manga: complete, anime: complete. I rate both as very good.)

* The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (anime: all of season 1 and it's wonderful. "Disappearance" was pretty good, too.)

* Absolute Boyfriend (manga: complete; also, the first few episodes of the live-action series. Both genuinely cute in their own way.)

* Fullmetal Alchemist: (anime: I think I've seen all episodes up to #26, and also the first season of FMA: Brotherhood)

* Nurse Witch Komugi (anime: complete, including the rare Magikarte Z-1 and Z-2) Pretty good, and it parodies just about everything you can think of.

* Neon Genesis Evangelion (anime: complete)

* Hetalia - Axis Powers (anime: complete through season 2)

* The Soul Taker (anime: complete)

* Spirited Away (movie: complete)

* Princess Tutu (anime and manga both complete, and highly recommended! It starts slowly but builds momentum. You must watch the first 10 episodes before making a judgment--trust me, you won't regret it.) Before watching this, my wife never took even the slightest interest in anime, but I managed to get her to watch it beside me, around two episodes per day. By the 4th day, she was hooked and kept asking me, “Will you put on that duck show again?” XD

* Negima!? (anime: complete, and I really liked it--not to be confused with Negima! of which I've seen only bits & pieces, and I didn't like as well.)

* Spice and Wolf (anime: season 1 complete) I really liked this one (maybe because I’m a history buff, and there are quasi-historical references in this anime), but the rest of my family ignored it.

* Excel Saga (anime: complete, and now my mind is permanently warped.)

* Eden of the East (anime: complete) One of the first anime I got my wife to watch along with me, and we both liked it a lot.

* Chobits (anime: complete; manga: about halfway through) I noticed popularity of this one has dropped off a ton. The first few cons I went to, there were all kinds of girls cosplaying as “Chi,” but nowadays it’s practically forgotten. I thought Chi to be a really cute character in a really cute show.

* Sgt. Frog (anime: the first 88 out of the billions of episodes and movies out there, so I'm just scratching the surface.) My wife couldn't have cared less about anime until a couple of years ago, when this series completely turned her around, and now she's a J. Michael Tatum (voice of Dororo) fangirl! XD

* Squid Girl (anime: the first few episodes) My wife and daughter can’t STAND this anime, but I thought it funny, so I have to sneak in viewing when they’re not around. Strange that my wife doesn’t like it, since it has a lot in common with Sgt. Frog.

* Toradora! (anime: complete) It’s almost like they wrote this thing just for me, ‘cause I’m a sucker for these kinds of romantic comedies. Plenty of emotional moments along the way, too.

* Death Note (anime: complete) We didn't think we'd like this one, but as we continued watching, both my wife and I loved it. Daughter was lukewarm, even though we thought she’d get into its goth atmosphere. Funny how that works.

* Oh! Edo Rocket (anime: complete) You rarely hear about this series, but my wife and I thought it really cute and funny.

* Madoka Magica (anime: complete, including the two movies released so far) Beautiful, beautiful, wonderful, sad, and original. One of the best series ever. Drove all the way to Tulsa with my daughter to see the first two movies, and was well worth it.

* Clannad and Clannad After Story (anime: complete) One of the best pairs of series ever, IMHO, but definitely NOT for those with fragile emotions. My daughter was wailing halfway through Clannad After Story, and that was even BEFORE the really sad stuff hit!

* Maison Ikkoku (anime: I’ve seen dozens of episodes; manga: complete; and I’ve watched the 2007 live-action adaptation) A really, really old anime from the 1980’s based on the manga by Rumiko Takahashi, who later created Ranma ½ and InuYasha (in fact, Kyoko from Maison Ikkoku looks almost identical to Kagome from InuYasha). This past spring I read on Wikipedia that Maison Ikkoku was a forerunner to Love Hina (which I’ve always loved), so I decided to check it out. After watching a few episodes, I was hooked, and within a couple of weeks I couldn’t get enough of Maison Ikkoku. The trouble was, after a certain point it started to become an adventure trying to find episodes online in the correct sequence, if I could find the episodes at all. I think I had to stop around 2/3 of the way through the 96 episodes. I finished the story by reading the manga and watching the 2007 live-action movies. You don’t hear about Maison Ikkoku much anymore, but if you’re into romantic comedies, I highly recommend it. There is some nudity early on (one of the female neighbors likes to run around in a sheer negligee), but that tapers off as the series progresses.

Jubei-chan: The Secret of the Lovely Eyepatch (anime: 1st series complete) You don't hear much about this anime, but I thought it was really nice.

Others:

* Kare Kano / His and Her Circumstances (manga: complete, anime: about 30%) The manga is pretty good, although it seemed the manga-ka would get bored with one set of characters and then create a whole new storyline with other characters, and the story as a whole lacks continuity. The anime is even more abstract and I never got excited about it.

* Ouran High School Host Club (anime: the first 6 episodes or so). I just couldn't get into its style of humor.

* Code Geass (anime: the first 5 episodes or so)

* Nodame Cantabile (manga volume 1)

* Gentlemen's Alliance Cross (manga: chapters 1 & 2 so far)

* Tenchi Muyo (anime: the first 2 episodes)

* Kimba the White Lion (anime: probably all of the original series at one time or another) Wow, this will really date me—I watched this series when it was still in its original run in the 1960’s, and I couldn’t get enough of it. I could answer any trivia about the show back then, but not so much now. I haven’t seen any of it in more than forty years. After I stopped watching Kimba and Astro Boy, I pretty much ignored and forgot about Japanese animation until Love Hina renewed my interest in 2006.

* Astro Boy (original series: dozens of episodes) Even though this is an older series than Kimba, I didn’t start watching it until sometime later. I could walk home for lunch in 5th grade (1970), and so I had a chance to catch episodes of Astro Boy on the same station that showed Kimba. As with Kimba, my memory of Astro Boy has faded.

* 8 Man (anime: 2 episodes? 20 episodes? 56 episodes?) I recently discovered this was the first anime I ever watched, almost certainly in its first run in 1965. I never realized it until I stumbled across “8 Man” on YouTube around a year ago, I thought to myself, “That looks familiar!” After a little digging, I found scenes I know I must have watched at home before I was even old enough to go to school!

* Sailor Moon (various eps and movies, don’t remember which ones)

* Gurren Lagann (I've seen the movie, and one or two anime eps)

* Negima! (manga: skimmed through volume 1)

* Tokyo Mew Mew (manga volume 1)

* Lucky Star (anime: around the first 20 episodes) We thought it kind of cute, but not enough to hold our interest for very long.

* Oh! My Goddess (manga: partial readings of various manga issues)

* Fruits Basket (anime: first 12 episodes or so) In a way, this was our introduction to anime/manga during my adulthood (a friend gave our daughter a few volumes of the Fruits Basket manga around 10 years ago). Over the last two years, my wife has watched this anime (I’d join in occasionally). Daughter is indifferent to the anime.

* A.I. Love You (manga: volume 1)

* Shuffle! (anime: around the first 8 episodes) Maybe I should play the game, because I’m not quite sure what to make of the anime. I did however, find an awesome AMV based on the anime—I posted the link on this page.

* Ruroni Kenshin (a couple eps of the anime series)

* Elfen Lied (anime: around the first 9 episodes) My daughter and I started watching this the past summer (of 2013). Pretty good; it looks like it will be a long series, because it’s already nine episodes and the story seems to just be starting to unfold. That song “Miriam” is really sad sounding, and I expect a lot of tragedy along the way. As with Attack on Titan, Elfen Lied is not for the squeamish.

* Kanon (anime: I've just started getting into this--both the 2002 and 2006 versions, that is.)

* KissxSis (anime: complete including the OVAs, and also the manga thru chapter 55). For something as heavily ecchi as this, it's not too bad.

* Princess Jellyfish (anime: the first two or three episodes) We REALLY need to get back to this. We had a one-week trial of Hulu, and Princess Jellyfish was one of the offerings. Late at night last spring, my daughter and I decided to check it out, and we were HOWLING with laughter by the end of the first episode.

* Please, Teacher (anime: the first two episodes). Didn't really care for this one; the ecchi situations seemed hokey and contrived.

* Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt (anime: episode 12 only).

* Nana (anime: around the first 5 episodes) We had a glitch in our TV apps for a time over the summer, and the ONLY thing we could watch was Nana! I had read some of the manga already and was lukewarm about it, but was willing to give the anime a try. My verdict: I’m lukewarm about it.

* Angel Beats! (anime: the first 7 episodes or so) We watched this, but strangely enough, we couldn’t tell you anything about it other than the fundamentals, so it must not have been very memorable. Maybe we should try again, because it’s supposed to be a highly-recommended series.

*Baka and Test (anime: complete) As with Angel Beats, we couldn’t tell you anything about this show except that there were scenes that parodied video games. Either the series was too dull, or we were just daydreaming while it was on, or both.

*Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day (anime through episode 4) Wife is indifferent about this series, but I’m really starting to like it.

* Attack on Titan (anime: the first 11 episodes or so) My daughter dragged me into watching this one. It’s not too bad, but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who’d faint at the sight of blood. It gets pretty intense.

* Danganronpa (anime: the first 2 episodes) Another one my daughter is all gung-ho about (she seems to be suddenly attracted to gore). I’m not yet sure what to make of it.



Other related things:

I've had an account at nicovideo.jp since 2008, and am addicted to some of the totally bizarre jpop AMVs from over there. (That used to be a unique thing for an American until Funimation acquired the company last year. Now it's all in English and no longer such an exotic place.)