El-Hazard Online

General => El-Hazard Online => Topic started by: mark_engels on May 09, 2003, 01:40:59 pm

Title: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: mark_engels on May 09, 2003, 01:40:59 pm

For those of you new to this topic, it started out over in my thread on Anime Central.  I was relating a story in which Ken Wolfe and I got together in Fargo, ND one time simply because it was about halfway between Winnipeg and Minneapolis.  

I became a little uncomfortable with some of the glances being turned our way as I was reading through one of the EH art books he brought.  Then I realized the back cover had that rather...er..."revealing" picture of Rune on it with Ifurita.  We found a table large enough to lay the thing out flat to take care of that problem.

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Sorry, but that is pretty funny ;D
I'm not quite sure who's sick idea that was.  I mean, granted I usually miss the point in Japanese symbolism, but that one is just out there.

Of course, I'm assuming this is the bugger:
(http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/temp/neil/naughtysidepic.gif)



Ah yes.  That is the one.

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As I heard, my sister jumped in disgust upon discovering that little tidbit when she found that Viz had released volume 3 of the manga series.

What makes it so dirty even is this page (http://www.el-hazardonline.net/El-Hazard/images/manga/manga3scans/manga3_ifuritafriend.jpg) which depicts Rune and Ifurita making amends between themselves.  And then "friends" is taken to a whole new level.  But now I'm falling way off topic...



You are demented, sir!  :P

Actually that same pict appeared on the front cover of one of the original Japanese manga Ken had brought with him for me to look at.  Viz had just started releasing the translation so I didn't look too closely inside lest it spoil the story.  But when I saw the third volume I proclaimed "Viz will NEVER put this on the cover of a graphic novel or a loose comic."  Much to my suprise then the third volume of the loose comic started coming out and there it was (on Vol 3. nr. 4 if memory serves.  They're all in boxes right now in the basement.)  And there it was on the manga shelf about the right height for eight-year old eyes to see.  I'm suprised there wasn't an angry mob surrounding the comic store afterward!

Ken got a bit of a laugh out of that, as did the entire EHFC over on Yahoo groups.  And as if to press the point the same pict came out on the cover of the third EH GN as you point out below.

Given some of Kathy's earlier posts I can understand why she blew a gasket upon seeing it.  Hey, *I* felt uncomfortable just buying the thing!  Thankfully all the folks in the comic shop knew me by first name when I bought them.  

However, I did make DAMN sure there were no mothers around buying Pokemon cards for their kids when I walked up to the counter with the thing.  Believe it or not an engineering manager with one of the companies I contracted to was in the store at the time buying cards for her own kids at the time.  Needless to say I was sweating bullets.

Ah, the things we do for the fandom.  ;)

--me

Mark Engels
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator) on May 09, 2003, 02:21:43 pm
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Ah, the things we do for the fandom.


Indeed.  I myself haven't had time to really get into any moments, simply because my interest is rather contained.  I don't know anyone outside of the house who even watches anime, at least with any "respect" towards it.  By respect, of course, those who don't watch it with either of the two thoughts in mind:

A) Cartoons are just for little kids

B) Liking anime instantly turns you into a societal freak who must dye their hair colors and in other ways act like a complete dork


Not to say liking anime DOESN'T give you an odd facet ;) but seriously... some people are more on their own self-image then just enjoying themselves.  Quite frankly, I think geeks with "not the definition of cool" hobbies/interests can be some of the happiest people in the world since they're not trying to limit themselves to what everyone else does.

Anyway, the only close to a moment experience I had was immediately after I bought an El-Hazard T-Shirt on eBay.  It's by no means official, like most T-Shirts on eBay, but that wasn't my goal here.  My goal was public advertising and a curiosity.  I figured if I wear it around the college, besides getting that geeky happy feeling of toting my favorite stuff around with me, that might at least evict an anime fan much less an El-Hazard fan.  Of course,  this was towards the end of this semester, so you can be sure I'll be trying this again only at the beginning, at least until it gets too cold outside.  :p

For the curious, it's this image (http://www.el-hazardonline.net/cgi-bin/register/eholmemberfile.cgi?getfile=etranger/Etrangerpage89.jpg;type=jpeg).

Anyway, so there I am with my EHT, and I get to my first class of that particular day.  Someone who I personally internally label as a big, hulking dork happens to comment something like:
"Whoa, man, you're an anime geek now!  My friend is obsessed with anime, like that show and Dragon Ball Z.  You gotta dye your hair blue now..."

I have no idea if he really knew what "that show" was.  I'd figure if this friend of his was really "obsessed" with "this show" he'd at least know the name.  But I never take that guy seriously, so I ignored him, and kept my irritation and desire to slug him inside.


Then my last class... there was this one particular kid... I mean with the greatest of sympathies, he probably has some type of problem either in his ears or in his head.  Either way, he has a tendancy to make a big deal out of small things and shout loudly.  And of great annoyance, he's also Captain Obvious on a regular basis.

(keep in mind, this is annoyingly loud) "You got a Japanese cartoon on your shirt, did you know that?!" "Yes... I'm aware."


And that sums up that day.  :P  I only wore it a second time after, and I don't remember evicting much reponse from anyone.
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: mark_engels on May 09, 2003, 03:30:50 pm
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For the curious, it's this image (http://www.el-hazardonline.net/cgi-bin/register/eholmemberfile.cgi?getfile=etranger/Etrangerpage89.jpg;type=jpeg).



Ironically, that's the same image that's on the cover of the El Hazard RPG by Guardians of Order.  ;)

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And that sums up that day.  :P  I only wore it a second time after, and I don't remember evicting much reponse from anyone.


Actually, I have a pile of shirts I save for "special occasions."  My Anime Iowa 98 shirt featured a pict drawn by Steven Bennett IV of Studio Ironkat with the tounge in cheek theme "we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto."  I only wear it around the house except for those rare occasions I go to cons (especially Anime Iowa as 98 was only the cons second year.)  I got another AI shirt in 01 which looked like the logo from the movie A.I. save for the silhouetted gamine form sports a pony tail.

My Evangelion shirt sports a NERV logo.  I wore it to ACen one year with a NERV baseball cap, black cargo trousers and my tool belt, passing myself off as an Eva mechanic.  I was working for a telecommunications equipment OEM in Oakland, California in the fall of 2000 when I wore the shirt to work (everyone else wore T-shirts at this place so I thought maybe I'd try to troll for some other kindred spirits.)  As it turned out I was asked to interview a candidate that day who immediately recognized the NERV logo and spoke for a few minutes with me after his interview was done about anime.  We never hired that guy for some reason.  Damn.  (I was glad to shake the dust of that little company off my boots anyway.)

Oh, wait, that had nothing at all to do with EH, did it?  Gomen nasai, minna (which for the nihongo-challenged among you means "forgive me everyone")

--me

Mark Engels
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: kiri_kitty_kitt on May 09, 2003, 05:12:04 pm
O_O Rune/Ifurita? ... squee X3.
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: MrWhat on May 12, 2003, 06:48:32 pm
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I don't know anyone outside of the house who even watches anime, at least with any "respect" towards it.

I have one old college friend who likes anime.  Actually, he liked El-Hazard OVA1 quite a bit, when I brought it with me on one visit, and we watched it at his house.  One other friend occasionally humors me, and sits through some anime while I watch it on his 2000-inch-TV.  But that's about it around here.

The fan fiction I write is something of an open secret-- I'm not exactly trying to hide it, but I don't talk about it, and I don't know if anyone I know in Real Life even knows about it.  I wouldn't want some of the older and more conservative folks that I've met through my family history research to see some of the things I've written-- to say nothing of my aunt and uncle who are both Methodist ministers  (http://echoalpha.com/smileys/sweatdrop.gif)
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: MrWhat on May 12, 2003, 06:50:03 pm
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Actually, I have a pile of shirts I save for "special occasions."

I have an old "Sandman" T-shirt like that.  The one with Death, Dream, and Delirium, drawn by the "Brief Lives" artist.  I just feel so kewl when I wear that T-shirt  8)

I've seen lots of bootleg El-Hazard T-shirts on eBay, but I've never bought one.  Partly because of moral scruples, but mostly because I've never seen one in an "XL" size.  I can wear a "L", but it's a wee bit snug
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator) on May 12, 2003, 06:56:29 pm
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but mostly because I've never seen one in an "XL" size.  I can wear a "L", but it's a wee bit snug


Heh, actually, most of them say "LARGE" by default, but then upon further inspection you will find that they make it in any size up to XL with no extra charge, and some extra charge for 2XL and 3XL.  They also go backwards, down to small or something.

I got my bootleg in XL.  :p
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: MrWhat on May 13, 2003, 06:36:24 pm
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Heh, actually, most of them say "LARGE" by default,

Huh.  I (obviously) didn't know that.  I only ran searches for El-Hazard items on eBay, saw some T-shirts listed with "L" in the descriptions, and never bothered to look at the individual auction pages.

Let that be a lesson to eBay sellers.  Describe your auctions carefully, or lose a potential customer!
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: Saucer on May 16, 2003, 08:50:49 pm
I'm the only really serious otaku of my friends. My best friend Henry who got me into anime doesn't really watch it anymore. Although he gets nostalgic when he sees my collection (I gotta make him a Devil Hunter Yohko tape ^^). My friend Mike enjoyed Perfect Blue in the theater and saw a preview for Princess Mononoke. So, I dragged him to that. Most other people I know have a somewhat low opinion of anime. The ususal pop-culture inundation/misinformation.

It's interesting that most people IRL don't even know that I'm a rabid, frothing otaku. Until they come over to my apartment and see my bookcase. I'm not really into merchandise and all that, so it's not immediately obvious. But they always walk by the bookcase, catch it out of the corner of their eye and go WTF?! They kind of give a start and then get quiet about it real quick. You'd think I was some sort of freak or something! ^_^;;;
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator) on May 16, 2003, 09:19:15 pm
Yeah, that does suck.  An old friend of about 9 years of mine was in my room the one day, I've hardly seen this guy anymore, but all he said was "What's with the anime?" with this tone in his voice that leaves you speechless.  I think I said something to the effect of "This is my life ... now." and changed topics to the totally retro Sega Saturn I had bought. ;p

*sigh* I am fearful of expressing my interests to anyone. :P
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: mark_engels on May 17, 2003, 09:27:56 am
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Yeah, that does suck.  An old friend of about 9 years of mine was in my room the one day, I've hardly seen this guy anymore, but all he said was "What's with the anime?" with this tone in his voice that leaves you speechless.  I think I said something to the effect of "This is my life ... now." and changed topics to the totally retro Sega Saturn I had bought. ;p

*sigh* I am fearful of expressing my interests to anyone. :P


I think perhaps it's more a matter of execution.  As I've grown older my expression of my anime fandom has become more and more subtle.  

Back in 1996 when I first started working in Minnesota, I had a 3" pewter figurine of a Macross Veritech (which I had hand-painted myself) standing on my desk next to my phone.  One of my co-workers saw it and asked me "do you like anime?"  Kristopher became one of my closest friends from that day, in fact, he and his wife helped my wife and I pack before we sold our house there.  He helped introduce me to a number of folks who would help carry my career to the heights I eventually reached--all because he and I were both anime fans.

"Cel paint runs thicker than water," to quoin a phrase.

Fellow list member Spanner also lives in suburban Minneapolis, though I met him through the EH Yahoo group.  He got together with Kristopher and I several times to watch anime in the last year before I left Minnesota.

Most of the other otaku I knew from Minneapolis I met while I was a member of an anime fan club.  You might want to nose around Carngie-Mellon or other universities around you, Rob, as most campuses do have an anime fan presence (organized or not.)  While I parted ways with that particular club on less-than-amicable terms (long story I'll spare you the details of) I did meet some folks I would pal around with whenever we did go to cons in the Midwest.

At one time I did have a particularly well-rendered picture of Eva's Misato Katsuragi drawing a bead on something off page with her Glock 9mm.  That hung on my cube wall for months.  I also acquired an 8" Belldandy figurine (from Oh My Goddess! of course) that replaced the Veritech figurine next to my phone.  My friend Homer (Dennis Holmes) who is heading to Pittsburgh to become general superintendent of a short-line railroad there, saw that sitting on my desk one day he came to visit me after hours and had to have one himself.  Spanner scooped us all, though, as this particular figurine was sold of a set of three including Skuld and Urd.  He's got all three prominently displayed in the center of his dining room table.  Homer and I didn't find the others available at the comic store we used to haunt.

That's one thing I DON'T like about Northwestern Indiana.  None of the comic stores I've been in here come even close to carrying the amount of manga and merchandise I'd been used to seeing in Minneapolis at places like Dreamhaven, Mind's Eye and The Source.  Most of the Love Hina and Kodacha GN's I've managed to pick up of late have been from Barnes & Noble or Suncoast, of all places!

Say, since I'm woefully behind in collecting the OMG GN's, I'm now confused as there seems to be about two or three different storylines that pieces of which are sprinkled around into different GN's.  To wit, I've got two GN's that seem to cover different parts of the "lost episodes" recently printed in Dark Horse's Super Manga Blast.  If someone could email me off list listing them in chronological order or furnishing me with a link to same, I would be very grateful.

Anyone ever seen a baseball cap embroidered with the Rostharian double-sun crest?  That's the kind of stuff I collect these days--pins and hats and patches.   To wit, the uniform caps worn by the Roshtarian Mountain Legion from Rough Justice were patterend after my own Kromer Blizzard Kap (worn in winters by railroaders everywhere.)

--me

Mark Engels
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator) on May 17, 2003, 12:44:19 pm
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I think perhaps it's more a matter of execution.  As I've grown older my expression of my anime fandom has become more and more subtle.


Well, typically no one would know what I do with my spare time at all.  My typical dress is one in single color clothing, and my general demeanor is pretty standard "friendly guy", or at least I think so.  Basically I let off virtually nothing to any extreme except for the aforementioned T-Shirt incident which left no particular mark post-event.  I think people on the internet know me better than anyone on the outside (excluding family... who only vaguely know what I'm doing except for Tim and Sarah.  And even Sarah probably doesn't completely get everything I do. :P)
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: MrWhat on May 18, 2003, 08:38:51 pm
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Fellow list member Spanner also lives in suburban Minneapolis, though I met him through the EH Yahoo group.  He got together with Kristopher and I several times to watch anime in the last year before I left Minnesota.

Wow.  You're, like, The Guy That Knows Everybody.

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I also acquired an 8" Belldandy figurine (from Oh My Goddess! of course) that replaced the Veritech figurine next to my phone.

I have the OMG! shitajiki that they put in the domestic release of the movie DVD, posted on the little bulletin board over my desk at work-- next to a picture of the TARDIS, no less.  Both have utterly failed to attract attention, positive or negative.

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Say, since I'm woefully behind in collecting the OMG GN's, I'm now confused as there seems to be about two or three different storylines that pieces of which are sprinkled around into different GN's.  To wit, I've got two GN's that seem to cover different parts of the "lost episodes" recently printed in Dark Horse's Super Manga Blast.  If someone could email me off list listing them in chronological order or furnishing me with a link to same, I would be very grateful.

If no one else has answered this by now-- here's a nice list of what you need to get, in the order that you need to get them.  Short answer-- the first three TPBs expanded and replaced "1-555-Goddess."
AnimeNation - Domestic manga - Oh My Goddess! (http://www.animenation.com/books-domestic-manga-oh-my-goddess-.html)
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: Saucer on May 22, 2003, 01:01:58 am
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Yeah, that does suck.  An old friend of about 9 years of mine was in my room the one day, I've hardly seen this guy anymore, but all he said was "What's with the anime?" with this tone in his voice that leaves you speechless.  I think I said something to the effect of "This is my life ... now." and changed topics to the totally retro Sega Saturn I had bought. ;p

*sigh* I am fearful of expressing my interests to anyone. :P

Well..... everyone's perception of what's weird is different I suppose. Ignorance always wins out, it would seem. It's easier than trying to learn about something new, different or strange! Well, it could be worse. I used to work with this one guy who would blab about Star Trek, Dungeons & Dragons and anything else that came to mind to anybody with-in earshot (and sometimes just to himself). Most people neither new nor cared what he was saying. That's maximum geekdom for you. But anyway, I feel that if someone comes over to your house and is like "WTF is up with the anime?" You just flip that keepcase up into your hand, strike 'em across the nose and yell "BAKA YAROU!!!" Well OK, maybe you wouldn't want to go that far, but.......

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"Cel paint runs thicker than water," to quoin a phrase.

It's da truth!

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Most of the other otaku I knew from Minneapolis I met while I was a member of an anime fan club.  You might want to nose around Carngie-Mellon or other universities around you, Rob, as most campuses do have an anime fan presence (organized or not.)  While I parted ways with that particular club on less-than-amicable terms (long story I'll spare you the details of) I did meet some folks I would pal around with whenever we did go to cons in the Midwest.

I hear that Bowling Green U in Ohio has not one, not two, but three anime clubs! Somebody I know online who goes there told me that.  ^^;
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: MrWhat on May 22, 2003, 06:53:26 pm
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You just flip that keepcase up into your hand, strike 'em across the nose and yell "BAKA YAROU!!!" Well OK, maybe you wouldn't want to go that far, but.......

Off-topic, as usual:  That reminds me of the only non-anime use I've found for my Japanese.  I'm generally a laid-back kind of guy, but sometimes I find myself swearing like a sailor when I drive in city traffic.  So, now, when I come across someone who drives even worse than I do, I just shout "BAKAYAROU!!  DOAHO!!  MANUKE!!  KUSO SHITE SHINE ZO!!" etc. etc.
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: Saucer on May 24, 2003, 08:55:09 pm
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Off-topic, as usual:  That reminds me of the only non-anime use I've found for my Japanese.  I'm generally a laid-back kind of guy, but sometimes I find myself swearing like a sailor when I drive in city traffic.  So, now, when I come across someone who drives even worse than I do, I just shout "BAKAYAROU!!  DOAHO!!  MANUKE!!  KUSO SHITE SHINE ZO!!" etc. etc.

Topic? ^^; What were we talking about again?

::ears turn red at hearing MrWhat's string of profanities::
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: amanda_dale on May 27, 2003, 07:57:18 pm
I'd have to say I haven't met with too many annoying reactions when I mention anime, considering I live in a fairly small town. The one exception was a coworker in my old job...when I said I was an anime fan she gave me a VERY strange look and backed away. Later on I found out she'd once been to an anime screening at her college's film club. The film they showed was Urotsoki Doji...without any kind of warning first!  :o Way to live up to all the old stereotypes, huh?
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: mark_engels on May 27, 2003, 08:03:44 pm
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Later on I found out she'd once been to an anime screening at her college's film club. The film they showed was Urotsoki Doji...without any kind of warning first!  :o


Oh, that's just plain RUDE!   *I* couldn't stomach an entire sitting of UD either, and I've been an anime fan since the late 80's!  No wonder us otaku get a bad rap.

Then again, I could tell you about train buffs and the crazy stunts they pull.  I WAS one, though I never did half the things some "foamers" do (so named because railroaders watch them foam at the mouth whenever a particular type of locomotive grumbles by.)  I try to keep the fact I actually LIKE TRAINS a secret out here now that I work on a signal gang installing grade crossings.

"Yeah, yeah...I'll roll this train by and inspect it."

"No, no, I don't mind, really"  

(Actually, I'm glad to be out of that damn trench for a few minutes.  I'm getting good with a shovel and I've got the callouses to prove it!)

--me

Mark Engels
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: Saucer on May 27, 2003, 11:45:43 pm
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I'd have to say I haven't met with too many annoying reactions when I mention anime, considering I live in a fairly small town. The one exception was a coworker in my old job...when I said I was an anime fan she gave me a VERY strange look and backed away. Later on I found out she'd once been to an anime screening at her college's film club. The film they showed was Urotsoki Doji...without any kind of warning first!  :o Way to live up to all the old stereotypes, huh?

LOL! I know several people who had their first anime experience via Urotsokidoji. It's really strange, isn't it? I guess because it was the first hentai title to be livcensed and released over here.  Call it morbid curiosity, too. It's one of those things people see and just go "WTF?! Hey so and so, come check this out!" I do recall a friend of mine telling me the story of the first time he did 'shrooms, and the people he was with were all "Hey, Mike has to see Legend of the Overfiend!" ^^;;;

It wasn't my first anime, but it was my first hentai! I thought Ranma 1/2 was a bit "ecchi" at the time because it showed breasts. But then along comes this! I was working at a video store at the time and my friend who got me into anime told me to bring over all the anime I could get. We put that particular title in the VCR and went O_O;

In defense of hentai, there are some really good titles out there, including Masquerade and Spaceship Agga Rutter (both of which just happen to be created by Masaki Kajishima and produced by AIC ^^; ). Great, dramatic and hilarious anime if you don't mind sitting through a few "not quite as explicit as Koihime" sex scenes.

Though as far as tentacle hentai like Urotsokidoji goes, I will say it is a bit over the top and overdone. -_-;

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Then again, I could tell you about train buffs and the crazy stunts they pull.

So, that tradition is still alive? ^_^ I once read that the terms "hacker" and "to hack" originated from the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT. they also developed the first videogame.
;D
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: mark_engels on May 28, 2003, 05:24:23 pm
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So, that tradition is still alive? ^_^ I once read that the terms "hacker" and "to hack" originated from the Tech Model Railroad Club at MIT. they also developed the first videogame.
;D


I never knew that, but I guess I can put it together now.

Back in the day when I used to subscribe to a model railroad magazine, I remember reading an article on that particular model railroad club at MIT.  The catch phrase that adorned all their equipment was "We can hack it," an obvious take off of Union Pacific's 80's era slogan "We can handle it."

--me

Mark Engels
Title: Re: Some EH embarrasing moments
Post by: mikka on May 29, 2003, 08:03:10 pm
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I'm generally a laid-back kind of guy, but sometimes I find myself swearing like a sailor when I drive in city traffic.  So, now, when I come across someone who drives even worse than I do, I just shout "BAKAYAROU!!  DOAHO!!  MANUKE!!  KUSO SHITE SHINE ZO!!" etc. etc.


Gee...  That sounds just like me.  So far it's about all I can do with a Japanese AA, besides eavesdrop...

I've had more or less the same "...Anime?  :-/" experiences.  Can't remember any specifics, but you probably *would* believe the looks you can get.  Especially when your walls are more to do with seiyuu themselves than the characters...