My Favorite Anime Movies

NOTE:  This post was written before the holidays, I meant to post it but the blogger app was being evil. Anyway, here it is in its original form!

Hiiiiiiii!! I'm baaaackkkk! I finally got a chance between my abundance of work and projects to write a new blog post! I thought why not go back to basics today and since most of my readers enjoy anime I thought why not discuss an anime related topic? If you're like me then you love having movie marathons during the holidays. I love turning on the lights, curling up with a blanket and tea and delving into an awesome movie.

Without further ado, here are my favorite anime movies:

Sailor Moon R: The Promise of the Rose

Let's be real, does this surprise anyone? Out of all of the SM movies, this is my favorite one. I was obsessed with it growing up. I didn't own it myself but I frequently rented the VHS from Blockbuster and borrowed my best friend's copy a lot.  Yes, children before redbox and Netflix we had to venture out to a store to rent movies!

This is the very first Sailor Moon movie. When Mamoru, Usagi, Chibiusa and friends are visiting a botanical garden their day of fun is interrupted by the appearance of a strange man. The man turns out to be the childhood friend of Mamoru's - Fiore...oh yeah and he's an alien. Fiore is obsessed with Mamoru and is extremely jealous of Usagi and Mamoru's relation. So he is determined to wipe out the senshi and keep Mamoru for himself. As usual, Mamoru is kidnapped and Sailor Moon of course has to save him. That's just a very brief summary of the movie.

Why do I love this particular one so mush? I love learning about Mamoru's past, which is something we don't know all that much about. Personally I find this the strongest movie out of the three. Plus one of my all time favorite scenes in Sailor Moon history occurs in this movie. Usagi transforms into Princess Serenity to save Earth from being destroyed by an asteroid. Though I haven't seen it in Japanese...I prefer the English dub of it. The song "The Power of Love" played in the English version of this movie absolutely made it! I wish Viz would do a remake of the song and slip it into their release. 

Nevertheless I can't wait for Viz to release this and sob when I finally have it in my hands, for that day a childhood dream of mine will have been accomplished.

Inuyasha The Movie 3: Swords of an Honorable Ruler

I think every Inuyasha fan can agree that this is the best Inuyasha movie. Inuyasha's father had three swords - Tetsaiga (given to Inuyasha), Tensaiga (given to Sesshomaru) and Sounga. Sounga was a very powerful demon sword. So powerful that its power possesses Inuyasha when he obtains it. The sword was tossed into the bone eater's well and the sheath upon it sealed. The seal however is broken and Inuyasha must re-sheath it. Only the sword ends up in the hands of Takemaru - a human the sword resurrects and posssses who hated Inuyasha and Seashomaru's father. He is intent on killing them both  as well as doing Sounga's bidding. Inuyasha and Sesshomaru must work together to bring down their enemy.

This movie has the best story line out of all of the Inuyasha movies. I love how we get to see Inuyasha's parents and get a glimpse into his childhood. The best thing about it though is the two brothers with a mutual hatred of each other must put aside their differences to work together.

Summer Wars

I first saw this on Toonami a few years ago and immediately loved it. It is a wonderful story and the animation is stunning!

It's about a boy who agrees to pretend to be his friend a girlfriend and accompany her to her grandmother's 90th birthday. While there, he receives a text with a math equation and his attempt to solve it results in a hacking of Oz - a major online platform that not only controls people's social media, but also their finances and their jobs! Think Google if they controlled your bank account. It results in a virtual reality war against the hacker and may result in mass real world destruction.

It is a fun story to get lost in with a good mixture of action and comedy. It shows the bond of family unlike any anime I have ever seen before which is refreshing.

Naruto Shippuden: Road To Ninja

This is actually the only Naruto movie I fully enjoy (save for the one where we get glimpses of Kakashi as an anbu). In this one, Naruto and Sakura are transported to an alternate universe where pretty much everything is reversed. Naruto's parents Minato and Kushina are alive while Sakura's parents died to save the village. Hinata is tough and possessive of Naruto instead of her sweet, shy self. Kiba hates dogs, Shikamaru is an idiot and Rock Lee is a pervert. My all time favorite reversal is that of Kakashi and Gai. Kakashi is basically Gai, but amplified. He is spazzy and over enthusiastic. It's adorable!! On the other hand Gai is lazy.

It is a fun little "what if" type movie, if you're a fan I highly recommend checking it out though it isn't essential to watch.

Howl's Moving Castle

Okay, I could include all of the Studio Ghibli movies here, they're all wonderful. But I narrowed down my choice to just one; my favorite, Howl's Moving Castle.

This movie is about a young girl named Sophie. Her family own's a hat shop and she is seen as the sort of "plain Jane", timid, responsible daughter working at the shop while her sister is gorgeous and adored by men. One day the witch of the waste happens into the shop and Sophie makes her mad, so she curses Sophie - turning her into an old woman.

Sophie goes on an adventure to find the witch so that she can reverse the curse placed upon her. Along the way she finds herself in the moving castle belonging to the "evil" wizard Howl as Howl's cleaning lady. But this isn't a typical fairy tale. A war is ongoing and the king is using magic to win it. Howl must fight for what is right and Sophie must in a way help him to find himself again.

As with all Ghibli films this is a wonderful adventure flick and will surely capture your attention. It's fun and clever too. I just love it so much, even more so than their ever popular Spirited Away.

That's it! I hope you enjoyed this post and that my summaries weren't too horrible. What are your favorite anime movies? Comment and let me know!!

Xoxo

Heather Zombie ❤

Halloween Weekend + Cosplay

Hello my dears!! I can't believe it, I opened up Blogger to type this post up today and I saw that this blog has over 3,000 page views!!! 

I never, ever in a million years would have thought I would get so many people reading my blog. Thank you so so much from the bottom of my heart! It continuously surprises me how much people actually care about what I have to say. When I started this blog, I thought it would be cool if even 1-2 people read this blog. I was surprised when even 5 people read it. Hell, I was surprised when I started my twitter account that 10 people would follow me and be interested in my thoughts let alone the 600+ that follows me now. I was always the weird kid in school. Growing up people generally didn't care what I had to say. I continually got ignored when trying to voice opinions, I even had some people tell me "Shut up, no one cares what you think". So to have so many people care and continue to read this blog and to support me in my endeavors makes me more happy and humbled than you could ever know. 

So again, thank you so much everyone. Without your support I probably would have abandoned this blog long ago. I'll continue to do posts that interest you and to share aspects of my life with you all. You're all amazing <3.


Enough feels now, onto the post! I love when Halloween falls on a weekend day - it tends to mean that I celebrate all weekend long. At the last minute I nearly ended up losing my plans and I was unable to make new ones. That crushed me. Halloween means a lot to me. I was at the point of swearing off the holiday because every single year some sort of drama/disappointment revolving around plans. Luckily things turned out alright in the end! 

My Halloween weekend kicked off Friday, the day before Halloween. One of my close friends came over. We made cocktails, did a face mask (I'll spare you all my scary goop covered face) and watched Rocky Horror and Hellsing Ultimate. I got tipsy which was quite funny. I got cut off when I started to crack up over my own laugh. 

We tried the Game of Thrones Ale that I mentioned in a previous post. I'm not a fan of beers or rather ale so I wasn't a big fan of it. It was pretty bitter. We made cocktails called Witches' Brew which contained coconut rum, pineapple juice, cranberry juice and sprite. 

It was really good *^*. We didn't get to the vanilla vodka pictured above but I had the small bottle of marshmallow vodka and it was really good. It reminded me of UV's cake vodka. Many lewd comments at Alucard's expense were made. When my friend Beckman and I get together, the floodgates to lewdness open. Vicky usually has to deal with the aftermath...she can tell when we've hung out xD. 

I accidentally got some blood in my hair from the knife so I just went with it. 

Though we didn't do much, I felt like dressing up. This was supposed to he a creepy ghost sort of costume. I wanted to see if I could do a scary type of makeup without blood or prosthetics and still have it be creepy . And I ended up having blood in my hair anyway. Oh well! I had fun doing the makeup and taking the pictures for it. I walked around without my glasses for half the day because I really liked how this turned out.

Blueee liiipsss. This is Sweetpea and Fay's Limited Edition Lip Joule Liquid Lipstick in Lottery Bride.

I admit the blue lips are a bit bright...but honestly I just wanted an excuse to wear it!

I tried to make the scary cute. DERP. 

Halloween, I spent with my friend again. We went to Home Goods in costume. I certainly got many odd looks which was hilarious! That's probably because I looked like a gothic-hooker-anime-drag queen xD.  Sadly there was an incident that ruined the mood of the day but we still had fun. We watched anime and horror movies.

For the first part of the day, I was a gothic version of Asuna from Sword Art Online. I even carried a little plushie of Kirito around with me. This costume was interesting to deal with all day. I had limited visibility because the two sets of false eyelashes I wore were so big! They also kept hitting my glasses. I need to try to get contacts before Connecticon!

Cookie fun. I made a huge batch of Halloween sugar cookies the Thursday before Halloween and I topped them with an orange icing I made. 

My friend Becky and I

This picture makes me feel short ._.

Doesn't he look kawaii???? 

Later in the day I did a costume change and became Sakura from Naruto. This was a spontaneous costume because I had a pink wig and the leaf headband.

Sensei's pet <3. If I had Kakashi for a teacher, there sure wouldn't be much learning happening (hehe).

I became the ultimate weeb on Halloween - we watched Sword Art Online while I was Asuna. My friend kept going "there's your husbando!" Whenever Kirito was on screen. I kept going "look I'm on TV!" When Asuna was on.

I should've watched Naruto dressed as Sakura. But that would have ended in either me telling myself to shut up....or lewd comments at Kakashi's expense.

Though my friend had to leave while the night was still young I still had fun by myself. I watched some horror movies and did some Samhain rituals. For those that don't know - Halloween evolved from Samhain. Samhain is a Wiccan holiday equivalent to the Mexican Day of the Dead; it takes place on the night of October 31st and the day of November 1st. It is where the term Halloween came from, as it was referred to as All Hallows Eve. It is the day where we honor our departed ancestors. It is when the veil between the worlds is thinnest and the dead roam the earth along with us. Samhain is also New Years to many wiccans/pagans. I just use the day to celebrate spookiness and to connect with my beloved dead. I did a few Samhain prayers and I set an extra place at the dinner table to invite a departed relative and to show them respect.

Later on in the evening I did an EVP session - my very first one where I didn't have another person in the room with me.  EVP stands for electronic voice phenomena for those that don't know. It is where you try to talk with spirits and record the session. Many times spirits can leave noises or messages on a recording that you don't hear while you are recording.The session definitely was interesting. 

This is a topic I tend to steer clear from because frankly I have no patience for skeptics. If you don't share the same belief, please kindly keep comments to yourself. My house is very haunted. So many strange and creepy things happen here nearly on a daily basis. This is what I am currently writing a book about. Many people have experienced things here, so it's not just me or in my head - some experiences with multiple witnesses.

Now I am a reasonable and intelligent person. I don't see something fall or hear a noise and automatically yell "ghost!". No I try to find a rational explanation of what happened first. But there have been SO many occurrences that simply can't be explained. On Halloween I try to connect with the spirits more in hope of having an encounter. The supernatural has always fascinated me and I consider myself an amateur ghost hunter. I do know how to handle myself and protect myself so don't worry guys! 

All weekend long I found myself giving Tarot readings from my new deck. Surprisingly 99% of them were spot on! It was getting pretty creepy actually. 

To end my Halloween, I finally watch the movie It Follows which I've been dying to see! It's a horror movie about this girl that has sex with this guy - then she finds that this thing begins to follow her. It is fairly creepy, it reminds me of the Halloween movies. It has such a unique premise! I really enjoyed it.

The aftermath of Halloween:

Lashes everywhere! At least my cats didn't eat my lashes like last year. Yes...in my house if you leave false eyelashes laying around my cats will eat them. I was so tired that I just took everything off in my living room and left it XD. 

Pumpkins I carved on November 1st because I wasn't ready to let go.

My favorite pumpkins! :D 

I'm going to cry this weekend when my mom forces me to take down most of my decorations. 

Anyway, that was my Halloween! What did you all do on Halloween? Comment and let me know!


Xoxo

Stay creepy! 

Kakashi's Face Revealed!!!

Hello my dears! If you are reading this, then that means that I found the time to write this post for you over the weekend and schedule it. Yaaay. I am going to be a very busy lady this week, my birthday is tomorrow!

So I have much to do, I'm going to be very busy for the rest of the week. Anyway I have something VERY important to discuss today.....

I have FINALLY seen Kakashi's face!!!!!!!!

No really, I have *^* , his face was revealed last friday.

Yes, I shit you not! That is his face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He is just beautiful, like I can't handle it *^*. Even more gorgeous than I imagined. I still can't stop staring at the picture!! Like it's hypnotizing. I personally thought that he would have a scar under his mask. But nope, just that mole...and it's pretty damn sexy. I swear it makes him 10 times sexier....and he was sexy even WITH the mask.

I think everyone knows by now that Kakashi is my #1 husbando, my bae (I can't believe I just used that word) and I'm a gigantic fangirl for him. I have been for so many years. I've been waiting since I was in middle school to see his face. Seriously....I've been waiting like 10 years to see this glorious face. Kishi WHY did you make me wait so long?

I really never thought that the day would come. But FINALLY I know what my baby's face looks like. I can die a happy woman now. I'm sort of shocked that I didn't die when I first saw. I was still really sick and felt like I was going to faint from fangirling so hard.

Kakashi why must you hide that face?? *^*. Ahhhh my baby is so pretty!!! If I had a teacher that sexy I would never get anything done. Well...some things would get done ;). Hahaha hey I'm allowed to be lewd every once in a while!! Seriously though I would ravish that *^*.

Closest thing possible to show my level of spazz

I legit screamed for 10 minutes and almost cried when I saw. I still get random bits of fangirl overload: flailing and making odd spazzy noises when I see the pictures too much. When I first saw the picture,I started texting a bunch of my friends the picture, as I could not contain my excitement! This was a life changing moment! Luckily they're all awesome and understood how important that was for me. I needed to share it with the world.

And I need to discuss how much of a troll Kakashi is!! See this picture?

That's him too!! In disguise!! All of these images are taken from some early sketches by Masashi Kishimoto. Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were trying to see what was under Kakashi's mask....so what does he do? Disguises himself and has his face in plain sight, pretending to be someone assisting them in figuring out the mystery. HAHAHAHA!

Yes..that is Kakashi putting on or removing makeup, a wig and contacts.

Omg he is wonderful. Fucking troll xD, I love it though! He totally would do that, I just wish I could see more instances of this. They had better turn this into a filler because I NEED his face animated. I have such pride in this little scene though because Kakashi knows how to use makeup!!! I find it hilarious that he owns wigs, makeup and contacts. I wonder if he goes out cosplaying walking in the street, showing everyone his face without them even knowing. It also makes me wonder what sort of collection of makeup, wigs and contacts he owns!

So there you have it, we have seen Kakashi's face! I also sort of went overboard with the gifs in this post. Sometimes gifs are the only way on the internet to truly express how you feel. I had a few people wanting me to write about this. I guess you guys love it when I spazz. I hope you enjoyed it, I will update at some point next week!

Xoxo
Moon prism power makeup 

How I became an Otaku

Hello my lovelies! I have returned! I know I haven't posted all week. I am glad that this blog has been on my terms, not on a scheduale so I can post when I want and not feel pressured or stressed to post. Truthfully I wanted to post something earlier this week. I did even try a few times. Not sure if anyone noticed but I haven't been online as much this week. I've had a cold and if I don't feel like crap, I'm just too tired to do anything. I tried a few times to write something but I was too tired and my brain refused to cooperate (curse you writer's block!).
Anyway, I thought I'd just talk about something and do what I do best: ramble! So I can easily post something via app. I'm due for an anime related post, so I thought why not talk about where it all started?? This sure makes for an interesting post.
I have been into anime for as far back as I can remember. It truly feels like I've been into it my entire life. Some of my earliest memories include watching Sailor Moon. I was hugely into Sailor Moon as a kid in the 90s. It was on the old Toonami back in the day, I watched Toonami all the time every single day. I didn't know what anime was back then but I loved these cartoons. Sailor Moon was typically on at 4:00 PM on the week days, I'm pretty sure Dragon Ball Z was on before it. Tenchi in Tokyo was on after, because I LOVED watching my Tenchi after Sailor Moon.
My bus always dropped me off at the bus stop around 4:00 and depending on how fast you go, it's a 5-10 minute walk from there to my house. Every day I would run home (often tripping and tumbling down the hill that my street is on) in order to catch my beloved Sailor Moon. My grandmother always watched me, since my parents were at work. So when I got home I would then have to battle with her for control of the TV because her "stories" (soap operas) were on at the same time.
It was such a special show for me. It was the one show where the girls were the heroes and saved the men instead. (this is also why I loved Powerpuff Girls). I loved seeing all of their transformations and watch them kick some ass! I had some of the dolls and this transformation brooch toy. The button inside of the middle played music. 

(Not my picture, found this on google)
 I played with them like crazy. I also had a few of the comic books (not manga, actual comic book from MIXX) and videos. I
I also was very into Pokemon when it first became popular in the US. Back when you weren't cool (not that I ever was) if you weren't trading Pokemon cards. I of course collected the cards, had videos and other various toys. From there I got into Digimon, Cardcaptors and Yu Yu Hakusho.
My anime love faded a bit over the years until I met a friend that shared a bond with me: a mutual love for Sailor Moon (you can read about this in my last Sailor Moon post, I will link it when I can!). During our Sailor Moon obsession revival we got into other animes and then into manga. At this point anime wasn't all that popular. We were seen as pretty geeky, being obsessed with this show that had been off of the air for years. Not that we cared at all though. I started reading the Fruits Basket manga and various other random ones that my town's library had. They literally had the most random volumes of series like Ah My Goddess, Fruits Basket, Azumanga Daioh and Chobits. 

My best friend and I got really into a series called Hot Gimmick. My friend was convinced she was Hatsumi from that series. I was totally obsessed with Inuyasha and was hoping I would fall down a well and meet a sexy half dog demon man. All of my birthday and Christmas money went towards buying manga and over priced anime at Borders. Every weekend I would beg my dad to go to Borders and try to get him to buy me manga xD. 
Then Naruto premiered on Toonami...and it was everywhere! A lot of people watched it and for some reason, manga became popular. My middle school started a manga section and it was so popular! We often had to fight with each other over who would check out which book. People that weren't even into it were reading manga. Eventually all of us manga/anime people found each other and would talk/hang out in study hall. We were all into Naruto so then I decided it would be cool to start a Naruto club. It was the dorkiest yet coolest thing. Now I just find it hilarious. We all chose characters to role play...I ended up being Sakura (before she irritated me). I was interchangably called Heather-sensei and Sakura-sensei. 
I was the leader of the club, so I was made squad leader. And Kakashi was my husband...I was even obsessed with him back then! Every single day I would wear these ridiculous wristbands (the terry cloth, sweat collecting gross kind) that had these metal plates with the leaf village logo on them. I hardly ever took them off for like a year and people thought I was the weirdest individual ever. I also wore Naruto dog tags every single day....I even insisted on wearing them in a school photo (of which will not be seeing the light of day). I was quite the tomboy. 

Here is a drawing I did in middle school from my Naruto club notebook (I still have it!!! ). Clearly, Kakashi was labeled as my man (back off bitches!) xD and apparently he "rox!". Luckily my artistic skills have vastly improved. 

We studied jutsus from the manga and anime and would sit in study hall practicing the hand symbols. We all even made little "Ninja ID" cards for the club that we carried around. We had a damn Chunin exam! I legit wrote up a test for everyone....they actually seriously took it and I graded it. Then we had a "combat" part of the test. Everyone had fake battles with fake cardboard shurkiken and kunai. Then one stupid girl took it too seriously and tried to fight people for real. That's when I ended the club because this one person kept getting carried away. I wasn't about to get in trouble because of them!
One of the actual grading sheets....crossed out for some reason. I hope you guys are enjoying this hilarity as much as I am. 

When I got to high school, I did still like anime and manga but I wasn't as into it. I got really into bands and soon my band posters replaced my anime ones. My life was all about school, friends and my beloved bands that helped me through so much. And of course, Harry Potter. I was still the "weird girl that sists in the corner reading those weird Japanese comic books". I had manga with me a lot, I often kept 2 books at a time (1 novel, 1 manga) with me to avoid having to waste time talking to ignorant people I was often placed in classes with. I had the Absolute Boyfriend books with me a lot, which drew some brows.

But seriously...can I have a guy on my doorstep like that? Hahaha. With my luck it would be a creep with ill intentions.
Then one saturday night in 2011 I happened to be browsing on Facebook and one of my friends was freaking out. "Put it on Adult Swim, they're playing old anime". So I did and low and behold, as that year's April Fool's Day prank, Adult Swim had Toonami. I immedietly got on twitter and started talking about it. I was freaking out. I stayed up that entire night watching the shows until 6 am. Partly because I wanted to watch all of my old favorites, partly because I was waiting for Sailor Moon. I had such a blast watching them and tweeting with people discussing it. All night, a lot of people as well as myself talked about trying to do something to bring Toonami back.
And so the bring back Toonami movement began! From that night, up until Adult Swim announced its return I tweeted like crazy campaigning with so many others to bring it back. Along the way I met so many kind, amazing people working hard towards the same thing. When Toonami premiered on the first night of it's comeback during memorial day weekend of 2012 I felt a huge sense of victory to say the least. I began staying up all night every Saturday night watching anime and talking with people, making new friends and sharing bonds over anime. From there I got super obsessed with it, more than I have ever been. I found myself watching mostly anime. I also found myself with mostly anime fan followers, in the center of ani-twitter (anime twitter). I soon discovered that slowly a lot of the band posters were being replaced with anime ones.
So here I am now! Anime has done so much for me. It has been there to distract me during the darkest times in my life. It has helped me to meet some amazing people and make so many friendships. Especially Toonami. I wouldn't have some of the awesome people offline and online that I call friends if it weren't for the existance of Toonami and anime. It helps me and one of my closest friends (also a major otaku) stay in touch and bond. We often meet up to discuss anime/cosplay. I am so very thankful for that. I have made so many bonds and strengthened bonds because of anime. It has made me not feel so alone and gives me something to be passionate about.
Anime helped me to show others my talent with makeup through cosplay and it helps to give me a creative outlet. It has allowed me to expand my portfolio in ways I couldn't have otherwise. So I am forever grateful for the existence of anime.
Although most of my family refers to anime as "stupid Japanese shit" and various other crude terms, I actually have two younger cousins that are into anime as well. Their mutual interest has helped me to become closer to them. One cousin is 15, her and her parents moved away to Georgia when we were kids. I hadn't seen her for years until a few years ago. When I saw her again, I learned that she was really into anime. She was into Black Butler and cosplaying as Ciel before I even saw the show! When we got talking about the subject it was like she never left. When she was younger, we were close. She was like my little duckling always following me around.
My other cousin is 12. I see her ever once in a while, my mom and I make a point to get together with my aunt and her at least once a month. My cousin looks up to me a lot and always wants to hang out with me. We usually didn't have much to talk about except her friends and school with our age difference. She recently got very much into Pokemon and Yugioh. So every time I see her we talk about anime! :D. I've turned her into quite the otaku, I'm proud. She's already watching subbed anime...and she got to it on her own! I showed her some clips on youtube of Sailor Moon and she really wants to watch it. The last time I saw her she said she was reading manga from the library and asked me to reccomend some series. She saw my Sword Art Online button on my bag and wanted to try reading the book. She also wants to read some Sailor Moon manga. It makes me so glad that I'm passing this wonderfulness onto someone. I'm hoping one of these days I can have her over and just show her a bunch of shows....I hope I can figure out what would be appropriate xD.
Do any of you know of popular animes that would be appropriate for her age? I sure as hell can't show her Hellsing.
That was really long but I hope you all enjoyed it! This took me hours to write last night because I've been so tired and just have no energy ;___; .
So now I want to know readers, what was your first anime and how did you become an otaku (if you are one)? What does anime mean to you? Comment and let me know! I love conversing with you all in the comments and hearing your points of view ^__^
Xoxo
Moon prism power, makeup!