Shooting Star Dreamer

Hey everyone! Just wanted to make a quick post before the end of the 28th. My blog is officially a year old! Thank you everyone for staying with me for this long! I'll continue to do my best!  This post is also a blog update. Since I'm entering a new year of anime blogging, I feel it's a great time to set up a posting schedule. While there will be a few exceptions, the schedule will look somewhat like this: While there's no set time for my posts, I'll try my best to stick to this consistent schedule. Please tune in on these days to read my work! See you all soon, and take care!

Manga Used to Teach Subjects  Manga is what we know as a form of entertainment.  Readers indulge in manga to let loose and lose themselves in a fictional story that takes them on great adventures. Manga can be seen as a form of visual art, but can it also be educational? Some will agree and some will disagree, but manga is already being used as an educational resource in many ways. If we're looking for educational uses of manga, the best place to look would be it's country of origin, Japan. As seen on the rest of this blog, manga and anime is very prevalent in Japanese culture. We can take this a step further and make note of the importance of art in their culture. Certainly everyone in Japan does not wish to become an artist as a profession, but if this is the case, why does art hold so much importance?  Manga Characters Used to Educate Let's examine the workings of the Japanese school system. From the writings of Matthew Swift, we can take a look at his articl

 As anime series wind down to a close, we're left with a last taste in the form of an ending. The ending is the glue to the story; putting everything that has led up to this point into a single idea. While the rest of the anime can have a message, the end is a way to leave that message with the viewer. In a way, the ending is something magical as it allows watchers to carry part of the anime with them in their hearts. So with something that has this much of an effect on anime watchers, we can assume that endings can make or break an anime. There are recent examples we can examine to see how the conclusion of the anime plays a role in it's success or failure. We can split them into two categories of endings: ones that hurt the anime and others that helped them.  This might contain a few spoilers so readers beware. The Makers Angels Beats: While the whole anime was amazing, the ending sealed the deal. The ending was amazing in the way that it addressed the obvious, y

As we move on to the next season, a few of us are still left in the past. An example of such, is me. I haven't finished everything I wanted this season and my watch list has changed immensely, but I hope to catch up to Spring 2014 with the rest of you! For now, I'm currently working on Wake Up Girls! Concerning the idol genre, I haven't really had much experience with these types of anime. When someone says idol the first thing I think of is Vocaloid, and I love Vocaloid. So shouldn't I love real singers too? Well when it comes to Wake Up Girls, the answer is yes. So far I'm loving the anime, and the movie was great. I think that music is a great way to change the world, and it's exciting to watch girls of all ages, live up to this. While I tried out IdolM@ster, Wake Up Girls caught me by the hook due to it's more realistic setting in contrast to the vibrant colors we see throughout anime. I started the anime and I'm around halfway through, bu

As you may or may not know, when I first started this blog I barely knew any Japanese. Since then, I've been studying on my own and teaching myself, but I never really learned until I started taking classes. However, something that did stick with me was Hiragana and my unique way of memorizing different characters. If you're a creative person, you might be able to understand as well, if not these may not be very helpful. I've begun to practice calligraphy, so took the time to write the original hiragana marking on the left, and my creative version or relation on the right.   Hiragana A ~ Pronounced Ahh Hiragana A ~ One of the easiest ones to remember. I didn't really have any issues learning this, as it looks like a lowercase a as shown in the picture. If you can ignore the t like marking then this should be pretty easy to learn. Hiragana E ~ Pronounced like English's E Hiragana I ~ At first you may think this is a mere parenthesis, and if that he

Just a quick little post to send out to my readers....I'd like to let you know that my Twitter is now live and active! I'm still getting used to Twitter, and haven't gotten the hang of it yet, but I hope you all will hang in there with me! I'll be adding the link at the top of my blog. My Twitter can be found at https://twitter.com/RekaRyuusei. Please follow me! I'll most likely follow you back. See you all very soon!

I never thought that I'd ever write anything about shipping, but an interesting question from AniMarch gave me a great idea. While a lot of people argue about ships, compare the character's personalities, and decide who is the better couple, has anyone really taken the time to compare these situations to real life? Spoiler Alert ~ Proceed with Caution While I cannot speak for every place on the earth, in the United States divorce and relationship problems are a commodity. It's common to find single parents, domestic violence is present, and in relationships we tend to play a game to get what we want. Since we're on the topic of relationships, let's bring NaruHina and NaruSaku into real life. I'll be focusing on these two pairings because they're the only ships I really pay attention to. Also a quick disclaimer; don't take this post as an opportunity to start flame wars. I'm not saying either is better than the other yet I might show a bit

Before I began to blog, I didn't really participate much in the anime community. I was a newbie at the whole "being an otaku thing," and didn't really know much. Eventually I started to wiggle my way into the different groups present on the internet and in real life. I attended conventions and had the time of my life, but I began to pick up certain things that weren't right. At the conventions I felt and saw discrimination based on people's likes and dislikes. One even resulted into an argument. In communities, at times it feels like you're being placed on constant watch of a judicial system. Say the wrong thing, or like the wrong thing, and you're guilty. I find this constantly on the internet as negativity and heavy criticism spread. It's gotten to the point where you can't view comments without feeling bad afterwards. The comments may not be directed at you or something you love, but negativity spreads easily. Once viewing something

Lack of viewers makes Konata sad! Hello everyone! Hopefully you're having a good day so far, if not maybe this post will brighten you up. Since I'm thinking of expanding Shooting Star Dreamer's social variety, I'm going to talk a little on how aniblogging has given me a different perspective of certain internet activities, one being social media. This would've been me if I never started blogging. Basically before I had a blog of any kind, I used to completely ignore social media. In fact, you could say I even looked down on users of social media. I was a high schooler and the only thing I saw on it was drama, dumbness, and mass partying. Eventually I got curious enough so I made a Facebook account for a day or two to see what the big deal was all about. I got bored instantly and didn't really understand the point, despite making around a hundred friends in a day. From this observation, I quickly wrote off social media as all bad and decided to never t

  Here's a new part of Let's Share, where your recommendations are displayed to the world! This time around I'm focusing on music recommended by Pei Sin Soo. While I've put a halt to the series of Japanese Music Spotlights, its somewhat merged into my new Let's Share series. So if there's a song you want to share with your fellow otakus, please leave a message! Bleach Opening 13 ~ Ranbu no Melody by SID     Lyrics shizuka ni shizuka ni maku wa kiri otoshi kakusei no yoake ni aoi honoo Quietly, quietly, night's curtain is being scythed, as a sapphire flare appears in the dawn sky of awakening. miwatasu kagiri no yami to kattou tesaguri no hibi bokura wa make wo shiranai yowasa wo dakishime aruita Through these days with nothing but darkness and conflict in view, we walked, holding tightly onto our weakness that refused to give in. atarashii kiba de jidai wo kizame With those brand-new fangs, leave your marks on this era! shizuka ni s