Shooting Star Dreamer

Support the Artist! Hello everyone! It's that time of year again, or should I say, the end of the year. 2015 came very quickly, but went by in a flash. I remember just typing my old  New Year's Resolution post at the end of 2014, and now I'm doing it again! Like 2014, 2015 was a very interesting year. Unfortunately with this year, there were quite a few things I was unsatisfied with, in regards to my blog and myself. I feel that Shooting Star Dreamer didn't reach its full potential this time around, although that's mostly my fault. In fact, I would like to think that 2015 was a year focusing on faults. A lot of things were made more clear to me throughout this time. Despite this, it'd be silly to give up, considering how far Shooting Star Dreamer has come. Also, I believe it's good to maintain a level of hope for the future. Which is the basis of this post; the New Year is also a new start.  So there are a few things I'd like to work on this ye

Support the Artist! On the fourth day of Xmas, anime gave to me, a  sweet sweet melody!  Welcome to the fourth day of Xmas, continuing the special event " The Twelve Days of Anime ." If this is the first post you're seeing, please take the time to read the introduction, so you know what's going on. Today's post is going to be short and sweet so don't expect a long read! Basically, today I want to share a on a few holiday-themed songs with you all that originate from one of my favorite anime outlets; Vocaloid! Please feel free to check out the playlist below  (click the link if it doesn't show), and if you wish, share your own in the comments. Merry Xmas and stay tuned for the next post friends~

Support the Artist! On the third day of Xmas, anime gave to me, a whole lot of inspiration! Welcome to the third day of Xmas, continuing the special event " The Twelve Days of Anime ." If this is the first post you're seeing, please take the time to read the introduction, so you know what's going on. With that being said, the theme for today is inspiration ! Although sometimes looked down upon, pure inspiration is one of the most fundamental factors in success. Without inspiration, Shooting Star Dreamer wouldn't be here. Without inspiration, our world wouldn't be as vast and creative as it is today. Most importantly, without inspiration, there wouldn't be anime. Inspiration is the driving factor behind a large amount of successful projects. So the fact that we can pick this up from anime is truly amazing. Who would expect that a simple 2D medium would be able to invoke a plethora of feelings in it's viewers? There's numerous types of an

Support the artist! On the second day of Xmas, anime gave to me, technology! Welcome to the second day of Xmas, continuing the special event " The Twelve Days of Anime. " If this is the first post you're seeing, please take the time to read the introduction, so you know what's going on. The theme for today is technology ! While a lot of technology in anime is directly inspired by the gadgets and gizmos in our world, anime has provided us with things we would have never thought possible. Through anime we have experienced giant robots, space exploration, time-travel, androids, and more. Although all of these impressive inventions aren't present in the real-world, we've been blessed with similar counterparts, using anime as inspiration. With this post I'd like to take a more in-depth look at the inventions we have in the real world, that use anime as a building block. These inventions may be directly taken from a series, or may be a means to make th

As always, support the artist! Hello again everyone, and happy holidays! With the holiday cheer in the air, we're entering the last few days of 2015. As a shout out to the holiday season, for the next twelve days, I am going to put out posts in a similar fashion to the well-known song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." The only catch, is that they will all be anime-focused, with a little holiday cheer mixed within. For those who aren't too familiar with the song, I can give a brief explanation on how things will work. Since today is December 14th, this marks the first day of Xmas according to the song. Each day, Shooting Star Dreamer will feature a new post focusing on a different aspect anime has given to us. All posts regarding this theme will feature the Twelve Days of Anime tag and title, along with the topic of the day. Sounds simple enough right? I thought this event would be a perfect way to end off the year, since there was a considerable amount of time

Hello again everyone! Today marks the birthday of another of my favorite characters, Yukiko Amagi from Persona 4. It just so happens that two of my favorite characters in the world share birthdays that are only a day apart. What's even more ironic is that they represent two opposite elements, fire and ice. So while we focused on the icy side yesterday, we'll be focusing on the firey Yukiko today! Now, this isn't the first time celebrating Yukiko's birthday on Shooting Star Dreamer. So if you get the chance please check out my previous post, " Happy Birthday Yukiko Amagi! " Yukiko Amagi is a very interesting character. Despite being a fire-based character, she isn't extremely hot-headed or aggressive. On top of that, her name can mean Snow Child or Snow Girl, which is ironic in comparison with her battle style. Being born on December 8th makes her a Sagittarius, in regards to zodiac. One of the reasons why I greatly adore Yukiko is because she break

Today, December 7th, marks the birthday of one of my all time favorite characters, Mizore Shirayuki from the anime Rosario + Vampire ! This is the second time celebrating her birthday on Shooting Star Dreamer. so please check out my previous post, " Happy Birthday Mizore-san ." Mizore Shirayuki is born on December 7th, and is a high school student at Yokai Academy. Being born on this date makes her zodiac sign, Sagittarius. She is a yuki-onna, which can translate to snow woman. This gives her a high level of control over ice which allows her to engage in combat. She is most known for her signature traits, being her lollipop she always has around and her high level of stealth. Instead of focusing solely on Mizore, I'd like to take something from her as a character. Mizore is an interesting person, while being somewhat misunderstood, she is also wise beyond her years. Although there are many moments that I remember fondly, there is one quote that always stands out in

Support the Artist! Hello everyone, and long time no see. It's nice to be able to write for you all again! Although Shooting Star Dreamer went on hiatus for a brief period of time, this website is still very much alive. Before jumping into some new topics and discussions, I'd like to keep this post pretty light with a focus on giving; especially since we're in the holiday season. Due to the high popularity of previous image packs and wallpaper showcases I have decided make another. This time, it's specifically themed around winter icons: snow, warm clothes, and the night-time sky! As always, the images included in the wallpaper pack are completely safe for work and can be used without worry. If you have questions about the artists please make use of a wonderful tool by the name of SauceNao . This image searcher is very useful for finding sources. To see a preview of the images and to download the full pack, please follow this link. For comments or con

Support the Artist! Since anime is influenced by Japanese culture, it is almost no doubt that we can find cultural concepts hidden within the vibrant series. To top that off, in many series featuring human characters, we have a pretty high chance of seeing a dynamic duo in the cast of characters. Sometimes these characters are represented by two colors; the most common being red and blue. Although red and blue can mean many different things when it comes to anime or life, a lot of the color combinations and pigments of character's appearance aren't just for show. They have deeper meanings, and relate to their personality and role within the story. To make this more understandable, we can examine the cast of various anime and find some similarities. Even though anime feature different stories, it's very intriguing to know that some of the same cultural traits linger beneath each of them. Sunakawa on left, Takeo on the right. It wasn't until I started watc

Support the Artist! Hey everyone! I know it's been a long time since my last post. It's basically due to the fact that I've been extremely busy. Among all the chaos, I felt like I've forgotten something important; my blog. Without posting and interacting with my readers, my life feels like it's missing something very important. So, I would like to take the time to make a short update post today just to give you all a little thank you for not abandoning Shooting Star Dreamer. Luckily, after coming back from that hiatus, my blog template seems to be doing better than usual. A lot of the old mishaps have been fixed, which I hope helps my readers. If you have any concerns, please comment or contact me, and I will do my best to resolve your issue. With enough about that, what's going on recently? Halloween is just right around the corner and unfortunately I may not be able to make a Halloween-themed post for now. However, I have a nice topic that fits into

Whether you are a fan or a blogger, or somewhere in between, anime images tend to fascinate a good amount of the population. However, unless someone is extremely computer savvy or knowledgeable about search engines, many anime-image websites may be hard to find. Even if you can find them, their reason for existence may not be clear. So if you're having trouble finding the images you need, please take a look at this post. As a Graphic Designer and Blogger, I can definitely provide you with some of the best resources. There's more to images than a pretty picture, and there's a lot to look out for when it comes to using and finding anime imagery. Brief Explanation If you already know about the basics of image types, searching, and other tools, feel free to skip over this brief explanation. If not please read this section! When it comes to searching for anime-related images, the most important thing is to understand what your goal is. If you're just an

Hello, and apologies for the lack of blog posts again. Before I begin this post, I would like to give a shout-out to Albert at his blog A Sound Upgrade , for providing me with this post idea through Shooting Star Dreamer's suggestion box. If you want to see something else on my blog or want to spotlight a certain anime or individual, please take advantage of this new feature! It can be located under Suggestions in my blog header. Moving on, let us begin! Before I began writing and creating Shooting Star Dreamer, anime used to not matter much to me. When I got into anime for the first time, which was around middle school, I mostly relied on others thoughts and opinions. One of the first anime I watched was Vampire Knight , which is a shoujo series. I mainly got into this anime because my friends were always talking about it, which led to my curiosity.  Anime and Life: The Old Anime just felt like a party to me, that I could attend whenever I wanted. However, I only saw

Contrary to yesterday's post, today's will be a more lighter topic. The subject of focus is anime openings and endings that stand out from the rest, or are just exceptionally good. I think an opening is very important for an anime, and can either put off the audience or attract them. Many people do end up skipping both the opening and endings, but likewise, many of those people will watch them at least once. From the view of the producer, creating an opening that has good music and animations is hard. What's even harder is creating one that is good enough to snag viewers upon their first hearing, while not becoming dull upon further replays. So with all that in mind its pretty easy to see that anime openings and endings take a lot of work. How about we move on to a few that, in my opinion, stand out from a few of the rest? For those who can't see the posted videos, I have include the song name and anime in hopes that you can find them at your own leisure!

Although not always brought into the spotlight, the term body swap,  (along with gender-bender and gender swap) has been present in anime for the longest time. Body swap involves an exchange between two people, typically a male and a female, in which they inhabit the other's body for a period of time. These anime may be seen as weird and unusual, but are there hidden meanings behind these series? In a way, body swap can be seen as a curse or a power. There are instances of it appearing as both, but for the sake of this post we will only be examining the positive. For one, body swap does something that's usually not seen in a real life situation, at least in the same shape or form. Swapping with someone allows you to experience their version of the world, contrary to experiencing your own most of the time. Of course, such an experience opens many opportunities for both sides. Unfortunately, I do not have much experience with anime that feature these activities, so I won&#