Why I have a room full of Ultraman (aka Shut your trap, you little twit!)
It's very disheartening when you know Rosa Blasi solely through Strong Medicine, and when you go to find pictures of her, you can find only the raunchy, smexxy-type pics of her. I never knew she was so damn stacked. The lab coat must hide it. Still have yet to find dynamic Strong Med caps, so I'll look for those tonight along with caps from that other movie shot in the Phillipines and *sigh* The Bold and The Beautiful. (ohdeargodsWHY?!)
Ahmad did come for class today and we've split the assignments, but he did ask me this one rather hard-to-answer question. See, Zaruf asked for my MSN, so I gave my Hotmail addy to him. But I also told him, don't e-mail me at that address, because I only use it for LJ comments and Japanese mail. His response was a basic-style 'BWUH?' so I explained the phenomenon of mojibake (文字化け) to him, and halfway through, outspoken old Ahmad blurts out sump'n along the lines of "How can you support the Japanese? Didn't they kill and torture your ancestors and everything? If I were you, I'd be like (makes a stabbing gesture) kill the Japanese!"
"If they killed your ancestors, you wouldn't be here," trirose remarked.
"Very true, let's move on," I said airily, bypassing his question. But I really didn't want to answer it because the answer is too long, and he seems too deeply entrenched up his arse to understand the concept of a fandom, and one's loyalty and faith to it.
I'm going to recap this story for some of the newer additions to my flist - the answer I would REALLY, REALLY like to give everyone in response to the question 'Why do you like Ultraman?' You know, instead of 'I just do'.
I look like a pretty well-adjusted individual most of the time, but when I was 11 I had quite a few nasty issues floating around in my head. I think I had like only 1-2 friends if you count Firn, and I was pretty convinced people hated my guts. The family took a trip to Penang one day, and I fell asleep on the way back home. AND I didn't get to see the uberfantastico (in my mind) Penang Bridge again. Sooooo I was pretty not chuffed.
After antagonising the folks for about half the journey, we stopped at Tanjung Malim for a leg stretch. At the nearby snack/toy/comic shop/corner/booth, one particular comic happened to catch my eye - an issue of Ultraman Super Fighter Legend. The second, to be exact. So, I took it down and flipped through a bit, and decided that hey, this sounded pretty good! I didn't even know they still DID Ultraman! Got the book, and read it in happy silence all the way home.
Perhaps now, it sounds a little corny, but to the kid back then, it was great! There was action, there was wibble-ness, and the art rocked, rocked, ROCKED! I was hooked, and suddenly, I wanted to find out more about my childhood hero. So, I started searching, and turned up at the original Ultraman FAQ, which I perused. I found out that Taro had parents. I found out Great was Australian. I found out that OH, 'Aison' was actually Ace. I even had my suspicions confirmed that no, 'Ultraman Wira' was not the same Ultraman who I knew from my early childhood, the one who fought with MAT and just rox0red my sox0rs. Nope, that was the one Zarab had just killed, the one who'd saved Taro. (I couldn't forgive Zrab that transgression for a LOOOOONG time, but that is comPLETEly another story.)
All right enough of that back to normal life. :D Or so I thought.
Things took a bit of a downhill turn after that. I just felt blah all the time, and I got really cranky. Not as bad as I do know, but for then, I just really didn't like the way I was feeling all the time. Finally, one day when I was just about running on empty, I found that old copy of Gekiden.
The rest, dear reader, is history. :)
That's the background. It's like this, Ahmad, and all the rest of you. Yes, it's a childish fandom, but hey, we have Nexus now. Yes, it's old. No no, you say old, I say CLASSIC. And frankly, I don't care that a former colonial country produced it. The Portuguese were evil to us too. The Dutch, maybe to a lesser extent. But you assimilated words like 'almari' and 'pisau' into Malay, and we drink Dutch Lady milk, and we use Japanese appliances every day, do we not? In the case of a fandom, that's not what matters. Until one part of the fandom decides that hey, you can't get the goods. But AGAIN, another story.
Since the 2ch incidents, I have been incredibly wary of talking to new fans on the Net, for fear of them going 'ZOMGagaijinlet'sFLAMEHER!!!11:D^___^'. There will always be people like that poster, and like that goondu who sent the letter to Lah. People a little like you, perhaps, A. But there are people like Delilah, who has sent me stuff and cards that I adore her for; there is Moyashi, god bless him/her, who always comments on my oekaki; there is Kodama, who was cool while it lasted, and what about Sunagimo and Natsuki-sama? They are so much fun to talk to, and they never seem to mind my gaijin-ness, so why the hell should I?
I'm aware that sometimes my fandom gets me into trouble, but it was not Sheriff Black Cat or Monkey or Captain Planet or Hugo who saved my soul from the darkness. It was a giant rubbery red-and-silver alien who spoke a tongue I did not know, and learned on my own to master, and while he did come from the country that killed and maimed my race, and sometimes that country is just fucking batshit insane,
I still want so badly to go there (again) and immerse myself in the environment that created him, to just go batshit insane myself over the fact that in my heart and mind, he lives, and he loves, and I love and live. He kept me whole, which is why I am who I am today, flaws and all, and why I have a room full of Ultraman stuff, and why I cuddle my little chestnut boi Nexus to sleep at night.
I can believe in Ultraman, no matter what. He's there. I know.
So take your head out of your ass, man, and watch your tongue before I tear it outta yer mouth!
CG tomorrow, UGH.
Ahmad did come for class today and we've split the assignments, but he did ask me this one rather hard-to-answer question. See, Zaruf asked for my MSN, so I gave my Hotmail addy to him. But I also told him, don't e-mail me at that address, because I only use it for LJ comments and Japanese mail. His response was a basic-style 'BWUH?' so I explained the phenomenon of mojibake (文字化け) to him, and halfway through, outspoken old Ahmad blurts out sump'n along the lines of "How can you support the Japanese? Didn't they kill and torture your ancestors and everything? If I were you, I'd be like (makes a stabbing gesture) kill the Japanese!"
"If they killed your ancestors, you wouldn't be here," trirose remarked.
"Very true, let's move on," I said airily, bypassing his question. But I really didn't want to answer it because the answer is too long, and he seems too deeply entrenched up his arse to understand the concept of a fandom, and one's loyalty and faith to it.
I'm going to recap this story for some of the newer additions to my flist - the answer I would REALLY, REALLY like to give everyone in response to the question 'Why do you like Ultraman?' You know, instead of 'I just do'.
I look like a pretty well-adjusted individual most of the time, but when I was 11 I had quite a few nasty issues floating around in my head. I think I had like only 1-2 friends if you count Firn, and I was pretty convinced people hated my guts. The family took a trip to Penang one day, and I fell asleep on the way back home. AND I didn't get to see the uberfantastico (in my mind) Penang Bridge again. Sooooo I was pretty not chuffed.
After antagonising the folks for about half the journey, we stopped at Tanjung Malim for a leg stretch. At the nearby snack/toy/comic shop/corner/booth, one particular comic happened to catch my eye - an issue of Ultraman Super Fighter Legend. The second, to be exact. So, I took it down and flipped through a bit, and decided that hey, this sounded pretty good! I didn't even know they still DID Ultraman! Got the book, and read it in happy silence all the way home.
Perhaps now, it sounds a little corny, but to the kid back then, it was great! There was action, there was wibble-ness, and the art rocked, rocked, ROCKED! I was hooked, and suddenly, I wanted to find out more about my childhood hero. So, I started searching, and turned up at the original Ultraman FAQ, which I perused. I found out that Taro had parents. I found out Great was Australian. I found out that OH, 'Aison' was actually Ace. I even had my suspicions confirmed that no, 'Ultraman Wira' was not the same Ultraman who I knew from my early childhood, the one who fought with MAT and just rox0red my sox0rs. Nope, that was the one Zarab had just killed, the one who'd saved Taro. (I couldn't forgive Zrab that transgression for a LOOOOONG time, but that is comPLETEly another story.)
All right enough of that back to normal life. :D Or so I thought.
Things took a bit of a downhill turn after that. I just felt blah all the time, and I got really cranky. Not as bad as I do know, but for then, I just really didn't like the way I was feeling all the time. Finally, one day when I was just about running on empty, I found that old copy of Gekiden.
The rest, dear reader, is history. :)
That's the background. It's like this, Ahmad, and all the rest of you. Yes, it's a childish fandom, but hey, we have Nexus now. Yes, it's old. No no, you say old, I say CLASSIC. And frankly, I don't care that a former colonial country produced it. The Portuguese were evil to us too. The Dutch, maybe to a lesser extent. But you assimilated words like 'almari' and 'pisau' into Malay, and we drink Dutch Lady milk, and we use Japanese appliances every day, do we not? In the case of a fandom, that's not what matters. Until one part of the fandom decides that hey, you can't get the goods. But AGAIN, another story.
Since the 2ch incidents, I have been incredibly wary of talking to new fans on the Net, for fear of them going 'ZOMGagaijinlet'sFLAMEHER!!!11:D^___^'. There will always be people like that poster, and like that goondu who sent the letter to Lah. People a little like you, perhaps, A. But there are people like Delilah, who has sent me stuff and cards that I adore her for; there is Moyashi, god bless him/her, who always comments on my oekaki; there is Kodama, who was cool while it lasted, and what about Sunagimo and Natsuki-sama? They are so much fun to talk to, and they never seem to mind my gaijin-ness, so why the hell should I?
I'm aware that sometimes my fandom gets me into trouble, but it was not Sheriff Black Cat or Monkey or Captain Planet or Hugo who saved my soul from the darkness. It was a giant rubbery red-and-silver alien who spoke a tongue I did not know, and learned on my own to master, and while he did come from the country that killed and maimed my race, and sometimes that country is just fucking batshit insane,
I still want so badly to go there (again) and immerse myself in the environment that created him, to just go batshit insane myself over the fact that in my heart and mind, he lives, and he loves, and I love and live. He kept me whole, which is why I am who I am today, flaws and all, and why I have a room full of Ultraman stuff, and why I cuddle my little chestnut boi Nexus to sleep at night.
I can believe in Ultraman, no matter what. He's there. I know.
So take your head out of your ass, man, and watch your tongue before I tear it outta yer mouth!
CG tomorrow, UGH.