Why I Watch Anime

A compilation of popular anime characters

A while ago I was asked to write about my first exposure to anime. I've been meaning to do this forever because I really want to share some things that I value in anime. I guess I just kept putting other posts in front of this one for a long time...but no longer! *raises pen sword*
Before I begin, for those of you who don't know, anime is a style of animation that comes from Japan. While there are many characteristic of anime that set this type of media apart from North-American animations, one of the biggest is probably the art style that you've likely seen around the internet. Another is that just as "The Hunger Games" has been turned into a feature film, it's common for the anime series stem from a manga book (Japanese graphic novels to summarize) or light novel (kinda like our classification of young adult). Not all anime series are based on another text but many are.

As I've gotten myself into various writing communities, I've discovered that many writers are also anime addicts or at least affiliate themselves with a few fan-bases. 
I can honestly say that I never knew much of anime until I entered high school. A new group of friends that I started hanging around would sometimes make references to Naruto that I would pretend to understand but really was going, "Who's Sasuke?"
Anime seemed like such a commitment to me so I never even considered starting a series. 
Until that fateful day...

Lelouch: the protagonist of "Code Geass"

All it took was one Facebook status saying that I didn't know what to do with my life since I had finished exams. One of my friends linked me to the first episode of "Code Geass" and well, you do the math.
Once I finished "Code Geass" (which if you haven't watched, you must) I was left wondered how I had missed out on so much good media. As I got into other series by suggestion of some of my friends and my own interest, I started to realize what it is about anime urges me to search for new series: 

The art is gorgeous and unique between series. Since it's animation, everything is created by artists. Since there's so many different series, there's gotta be many different artists and because of that, art between series can be drastically different—and I love that. I've sometimes paused a series to admire one frame for awhile. 

The art in "Your Lie In April" is gorgeous.
This is Kaori, one of the main characters.

Many anime watchers have an art preference and maybe I do too, I just haven't pinpointed it yet. I can honestly say that I've sometimes stuck through a series just so that I could take in the art of it. 

I never have to rush home to catch the next episode. Around the time I started anime, I had recently given up on following any sort of series on TV since I could never be committed to staying at home every every Monday at six for four months at a time. Anime became something I could watch when I had the time to watch it since it's all online. 

It's so entertaining! And I'll admit, pretty addicting. When you can binge watch a fifty episode series over a weekend or finish a whole series of twelve episodes in one night, it's hard not to get addicted.

The characters are complex. Even minor characters sometimes are given a flashback so you can see their backstory. Every character has a past that has made them who they are at the time of the series and I love that! Instead of just identifying with protagonists and their friends, I sometimes find myself loving it when the main character's arch-nemesis gets screen time.
I know a lot of books and other TV shows (like "Revolution") do this but in books it's really hard and it's something I appreciate about this medium of storytelling.

"5 Centimetres Per Second"

Metaphors! Metaphors everywhere! Oh, and symbols and motifs and *melts with happiness* If you read my Beautiful People post last month, I talked about how much I love these things. "5 Centimetres Per Second" is filled with them. Even the photo I added of it on the right has symbols in it. That on top of the art and then on top of the story makes it my favourite anime film out there.

The plots don't follow Hollywood's mould for a good story. A Hollywood romance is not the same as an anime romance, a Hollywood action film is not the same as an action anime series. I'm sure this can be credited to the different cultures and I guess that's what I like about it. It's nice to see something different every once in awhile. 
Would you look at that, a Segway into my next point :D

"Blast of Tempest" is an interesting culture mix
since it's based on the works of
William Shakespeare.

Different cultures = fresh inspiration. Where I'm from, in our last year of high school education it's a requirement to take a course dedicated to the ideologies of the world and how they've formed over time. Something that I've learned already (I'm only a few weeks into the course) is that if you want to learn about a society, just look at their media. By involving myself in Japanese media, I'm exposing myself to a new society, a new culture and therefore broadening my perspective of the world. With a wider view of the world, I can pull inspiration from more sources which makes my job as a writer more interesting and ultimately, makes my work a little more diverse than if I boxed myself into one culture. 

I could talk about anime for a long time but I'll restrain myself XD 
Before I end the post I just want to put out there that I still do enjoy North-American films. When a group of my friends and I went to go see "The Maze Runner", I was bouncing in my seat as the opening credits started. My friend next to me had to calm me down. For the reasons above, I just prefer anime over most stuff I can find on my TV; maybe it's the whole grass is greener on the other side theory or something. I wonder if somewhere in Japan, someone has written a post like this one about how they prefer North-American media to Japanese... o.O 
We all have our preferences and I'd love to hear yours in the comment's below. Maybe you'll spark a new obsession in me just like my friend did with me and anime two years ago ;) 

Do you watch and enjoy anime? What drew you to it and/or keeps you coming back?

Beautiful People | Writing Origins

Beautiful People is back! *cheesy children cheering sound effect* 
Paperfury (formerly The Notebook Sisters) has been putting on this blog linkup for awhile now but took a break for Nanowrimo—I both pity and applaud anyone who went through the entire month fully committed to that thing.
Now they're back with a special edition: the writers! After all, writers can be beautiful people too. I mean, we're the minds behind our beautiful characters so I suppose we must be beautiful ^.^ 
I've been given fifteen questions to answer and if you've got a blog and would like to answer them, head on over to this link and link up with the other bloggers! If you do so, comment below and I'll go read and comment. I'd love to take this opportunity to get to know more of my readers :) 

Onwards to the questions! 

1. How many years have you been writing? When did you officially consider yourself a ‘writer’?
I've been writing since I was four. No lie. My mom said that I started as soon as I got a pencil in my hand. So I guess that means fourteen years...wow. That's a long time...
I didn't title myself as a writer until I was ten and went to my first writer's conference. It was for kids in my district called the "Young Authors Conference". All the teachers at the workshops referred to us kids as writers and so I adopted the term officially as part of my identity.

2. How/why did you start writing?
When I started writing as a kid, I wanted to keep stories in the way I kept memories. I could basically keep my imagination immortal and in the mind of a girl who plotted each Barbie game I played with my sister, there could be nothing better than that. 
The way I started was by drawing pictures and then asking my mom to write certain things on each page. After that it was my own writing in my own picture books and then I upgraded to scribblers I collected from school.
Now I write because to me, writing is an expression of truth. I'll never write anything I don't believe fully in. If a single sentence, word or even a whole page feels wrong, I delete it and start over.

3. What’s your favorite part of writing?
Extended metaphors, symbols and motifs! I love it when I can use those things to enhance the meaning of my story. Most of the books I want to write in the future are one giant extended metaphor. I'm super excited to write them ^.^

4. What’s your biggest writing struggle?
Staying focused is a big one but I think beyond that it's characterization. As an analytical person, connecting with my characters is rather difficult. I've had to work very hard to get them to the place they're at now. Next to characterization I'd definitely say pacing. 

Writing at night somehow brings out
the best ideas.

5. Do you write best at night or day?
It depends on what I write. Poetry will usually only happen at night, short stories are best in the late afternoon and my novel will have the best ideas at night.

6. What does your writing space look like?
I'm a bit of a nomad. I actually don't have a 'space'. I just float around and write when and where I can.

7. How long does it typically take you to write a complete draft?
Well I haven't completed a full first draft yet so I can't say. Based on current progress though, about five months.

8. How many projects do you work on at once?
One novel and then as many short stories as I please. I'll only work on one poem at a time but I'll always finish it in one sitting so I'm not sure if that counts as overlapping with my novel or working on a single project.

9. Do you prefer writing happy endings, sad ones, or somewhere in between?
I like writing indeterminate endings. Some things will be happy, some not so much and some will be in between but the reader is left to decide overall how it ended. However since I've never actually finished a draft of a novel I'm not sure if this question really applies to me ^.^

10. List a few authors who’ve influenced your writing journey.
Lois Lowry, Edgar Allen Poe, Anthony Horowitz, William Shakespeare and Jill Williamson. That's already more than a few and I could go on and on.

If you're a writer, you know
the feeling.

11. Do you let people read your writing? Why or why not?
I've started to let more people read it recently but I'm still selective. My novels I'll only let critique partners read for the sake of critique. I hate to have people read my unfinished work; since I value truth in my writing, I want to make sure that what people read is true truth.  
My poetry I'll let more people read but that's because when I finish a poem, it's finished. However, I'm still careful about who reads my poetry. It reflects a very deep part of me and what I was thinking when I wrote it. Reading my poems is like reading my mind sometimes and that makes me uncomfortable XD

12. What’s your ultimate writing goal or dream?
I would love for my work to be studied in schools. To have my writing looked at in depth would be a dream come true and even more so if I got to go into schools and talk with the students about my stuff to help them understand it.

13. If you didn’t write, what would you want to do?
I'd probably devote more of my time to academics, photography or learning new instruments. I'm not actively pursuing writing as a full time career at the moment (still struggling through high school here) so other passions would probably just be more prominent. 

14. Do you have a book you’d like to write one day but don’t feel you’re ready to attempt it yet?
Yes, absolutely. I have many of those. I have a mystery that I'm holding onto for the future. It will be really hard to write but amazing when it's finished. 

15. Which story has your heart and won’t let go?
The one I'm working on right now, Crec (though, I plan on changing it's name). Whether I publish it or not, I need to finish it and finish it well. The characters won't let me abandon it and as I mentioned before, I hate to leave my work unfinished. 

I feel like I learned more about myself answering all those questions. Hopefully you learned some stuff about me too! If you'd like to answer some of these questions, head on over to the link in the beginning of the post and let me know that you answered the questions. I'll be sure to check them out. 

Paperfury asked a bonus question on their blog asking if you're a one genre writer or if you can write many. So expanding on that question, what genre do you enjoy writing (or reading if you don't write) most and why?

Looking Back on 2014: The Box of Good Things

Happy New Year!

2014's Box of Good Things

In November of 2013 I started a box of good things. Well it was supposed to be a jar but I didn't have any jars so I used a small box. 
Around the beginning of the year I was given a bit of flack for being a negative person and having a pessimistic view on life. When I found this idea on Pinterest I was eager to prove those people wrong.
At the end of each day, whether I had an overall good day or not, I wrote one good thing that made me happy that day. On new years eve or new years day, I get to go through all of them and remember all the good things that happened to me.

Some Highlights From This Year's Box

"Had a pillow fight with Amanda and Zack on the stage while setting up for Encounter"

"Singing Fix You in three part harmony with Zack and Amanda during Encounter set-up" 

"Waking up at 5:45AM then walking with Amanda to school in the dark" It was also really cold and snowy but that didn't ruin it for me. 

"Cassidy made my night by offering to help me with my essay—> due at midnight #international_input" And I ended up getting a good mark on it too!

"Played 'Ninja' after school with Zack, Justin M, Tanner, Titus, Jared and Jazlyn then went to Tim's" Tim's is short for Tim Hortons if you didn't know ^.^ 

"Laid on my bedroom floor harmonizing to Imagine Dragons for at least one and half hours"

"Video chatted with Tori and Cassidy for 2 hours"

"I felt pretty today :)" Never underestimate that one day where you just feel pretty for no reason.

"Amanda generally made me feel appreciated." 

"Saw the Lego movie with Karen"

"Lifeguarding was awesome!" 

"Had a great conversation with Nana at Tim Hortons after school :)"

"Wrote a good poem" 

"Found my new favourite song! Carry on by Scott and Brendo" And I ended up using it for a video project I did that summer. 

"Cleaned the large and small practice rooms. People were really happy, I was called an 'angel'" Those rooms never get cleaned. 

"Zack helped me with Bio at lunch today."

"Mom read the first 2 pages of Crec and loved it! ^.^" 

"Finish Reconte Moi Une Histoire filming"

"Was given the solo for "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" for yardbird on thursday." Yardbird is the jazz suit that our school choir performs at annually. 

"Amanda came over to work on a project and we got ice-cream from the ice-cream truck."

"Yardbird performance with my solo and ice-cream after with friends" 

"Went to Marissa's to watch meteors, drink coke and eat ice-cream" Apparently I have a thing with ice cream making my day good!

"Relaxing, no homework day." 

"Listened to mystery Adventures in Odyssey episodes while cleaning." 

"Went on a cross-city long boarding trip." 

"Filmed Encounter Videos with my filming family :D"

"Past my karate belt test for High Orange!!" 

"Played the piano for 3 hours and learned how to play Fly." 

2015's new and improved box of good things

This being my first year completing a box of good things, I was shocked as to how often I was saying to myself, "Oh I remember that!" Usually I remember the really bad things in the year since they leave a larger impact on me compared to little pleasant moments. But looking through my slips of yellow paper, it seems that all I needed was a little bit of a memory prompter to fill my head with thoughts of the good that came to me in 2014.
Whether that changes how I view the year as a whole or not, I'm not sure. However, I can't deny that I'm a little more optimistic heading into the new year. I can at least be certain that 365 good things will happen to me in 2015.

Do you have any highlights from 2014?

16 Sides | The INFJ Girls

Hi guys! I've taken a long, unplanned break from my blog *cowers* I'm sorry! *offers* Merry belated Christmas?
Grade 12 has been rather stressful so far and I've found that I unfortunately don't have a lot of time for blogging. However in my hectic last week of classes before the winter break and during the first crazy week of Christmas, I managed to pull this together for you :) 
Introducing the first interviews in "16 sides", a Meyer-Briggs personality type study where I speak to at least one guy and one girl from each of the 16 personality types. I'm hoping to discover what makes us as a human race unique and what unites us.
For all of you writers reading this, welcome to a series that I hope will help your characters become deeper and more realistic. If you're just reading this for fun, welcome to my world *cough* universe—I'm obsessed with this kind of stuff. ^ ^  

I've got two girls that are INFJs for my first post which I didn't actually expect since INFJ is the rarest of all the personality types. Now I just gotta track down the INFJ guys...*takes out an oversized butterfly net* You can't hide from me, 1%!

Meet The Lab Rats!

Well they are part of a sort of research experiment so lab rat is a good name...right? 

2012 / 2013 School Year

Meet Krystyn Bailey Swan

"Something that brings me a lot of joy in life is when people come to me with their problems and I can speak into their life. And even though I know I totally don’t know anything—but just being able to be there for them…I really like that. I like to know people’s story." 

Age: 17 (1997)

Occupation: High School Student (volunteers as a worship leader weekly)

Hobbies: Singing and playing the guitar, drawing, reading

Song She Connects To: "Only Wanna Do What's Right" by Bryan Duncan

Self Portrait, November 2014

Meet Viktoriya Dimitrivna Mykhaylenko

"I just need engaging conversation.”

Age: 17 (1997)

Occupation: High School Student (part time job at a framing store and )

Hobbies: Photography, Hiking, Baking, book and tea addict

Song She Connects To: "Primavera" by Ludovico Einaudi. (Her reason: "Primavera means "spring" in Italian, and Spring is one of my favorite seasons because Lilacs and tulips bloom during spring and those are my favorite flowers.")

How It Works

1) The Personality Test
 I test the interviewee in the podcast to confirm their personality type based on an info-graphic I found. Everyone, regardless of if they know for sure what type they are will take this test. The thinking out loud thought process when asked the questions in the test really reflect the personality of the person. Since everyone will be asked these questions, they'll act as the control questions. 

2) The Random Questions
I've studied these personalities on paper to the nth degree in order to generate a list of questions in which the answers will reflect the personality of the interviewee. Anyone within the same personality type will be answered the same questions in order to compare people within a personality type. However these question combinations will very from type to type. 

3) The Situation Questions
Get ready writers! This is where you find out what different personalities will do when they witness a murder or something. I love these questions ^ ^ They've created great discussion between me and my lab rats. These questions will also change between types but remain the same for anyone within the type. 

Links To The Interviews! 

They're both semi-long (about half an hour each) but I totally recommend listening to them both! Happy listening :) 

Krystyn's Interview

In one of the questions, I mention a book that we're both studying in english at the time of the interview. I don't say the title but just so that you know, it's Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. I'm still getting used to this interview thing but little things like that will get better as I go :) 

Viktoriya's Interview

Do I Need More Lab Rats? 

Always! If you're interested in participating in a Skype style interview or something, connect me in the contact box on the side with what personality type you think you are and whether your a guy or girl. There's no guarantees that I'll need your help since I have a plethora of people in my circle of friends to go through first but if I'm really stuck, I'll be turning to you. Thanks for all the support!

Tell me what you think of the interviews! Do you have any INFJ characters? Are you one yourself or do you know one? Let me know! :) 

Voice Week Day 5 — Beautiful Chaos

It's the last Voice Week day which is actually kinda sad for me. I really enjoyed writing these this week. All the comments I've been getting have been huge confidence boosters so thank you to all who commented, it's really encouraging to read your thoughts ^ ^.
On a random side note, my OCD is very pleased that there's five different badges: one for each day. If there was seven, I might just go insane XD

Well, I suppose we should get on with the final writing then, shouldn't we? Onwards!

I sit on the worn porch to my house and look up at the stars. There's a certain wisdom about them that doesn't let my eyes stray. Their glow is so sincere and true. Nothing within them questions what they’re doing. I envy them.
A shooting star glides through the sky, it’s tail leaving a breif stain in the sky almost as though a painter took his brush to it. I follow it’s path with my eyes. In space, life is chaotic but alluring—nothing like mine. How do they exist with such a simple idea of who and what they are, of where they belong even? Stars, tell me your secret.

Well there you have it, the last one. To read more posts like this, check out the Voice Week blog.

Thanks for all the support from those who have been following and commenting, it means a lot :) 

Voice Week Day 4 — The World Is Sleeping

It's the second last day of Voice Week. Be sure to check out the last three post if you haven't already :) 

Let's get straight into it today. Onwards!

I lay with my back pressed to the cool rooftop and gaze skywards. There’s something about the night that brings tranquillity to my heart. I think it’s the fact that humans are sleeping and all that’s left awake is the quiet hum or the natural world. The big and beutiful natural world.
My eyes try to take in the entire sky at once. The stars suddenly look like they’re dancing and vertigo over whlems me. They’re just as hypnotizing as they’ve always been.
Just then, a shooting star whisks across the sky. When I was young, I asked my grandmother about heroes and how we were to know if someone was a ture hero: someone who would change the world.
“If a star falls from the sky within the minute a baby is born.” she told me while watering her plants, “It means that baby will do great things in life.” 
“Oh. Mommy says that Alex will do great things in life.” I swirled my finger through the dirt. 
 “He will.” My grandmother looked over at me, a gleam like starlight shone in her eyes. “But your were the one who was born under a shooting star while everyone else slept.”

That was my longest one yet but I really enjoyed writing it :) 

To anyone who's commented on my past posts this week, thank you so much! It makes my day to see that people are enjoying reading my writing as much as I'm enjoying reading theirs. 

Be sure to check out the Voice Week blog if you haven't gotten a chance to and I'll see you back here tomorrow for the last day of the challenge!

Voice Week Day 3 — Paradox of the Stars

Day three of Voice Week: the week long challenge where other writers and I all chose our own prompt to help us exercise our voice in our writing. 
*like a movie trailer announcer* One challenge, five days, five different voices...

*coughs* Ahem. Onwards to the writings! 

My feet pound through the streets under the clear, dark sky. Every muscle in my body is tense. 
It should be raining. The stars shouldn’t be allowed to shine at a time like this. They’re practically mocking me, those stupid stars. Go away! I don’t want to see you! 
They don’t listen. Of course they don’t. Why would I ever think they would? 
I shoot a glare upwards with some false idea in mind that it will make me feel better about myself. Just as I do, a shooting star soars across the heavens. My fists tighten, my nails dig into my palms to the point where I wonder if I’ll draw out my crimson blood. 
I nearly make a wish—a sheer habit of mine—but thank goodness my subconcious stops me before I can waste my precious thoughts on something so trivial. And to think I once believed those foolish stories about all my dreams coming true.

A longer one but I felt that I couldn't have explored this character's voice properly without the extra words. If you're a Voice Week reader and want to return to base or if you want to read more posts like this, here's a shortcut. Thanks for reading and commenting!