Anime nerd meet Fashion nerd

High Fashion: Bleach

Evening dress collection inspired by characters from Bleach.
Watercolor, color pencil and ink.

When I went to fashion school I didn't really fit in anywhere.  I loved illustration and actually making clothes: material buying, sewing, handwork, the whole bit.  But I sucked at pattern grading, terminology and complying with industry standards.  Creativity was utterly stifled.  My business classes were a joke.  All that for a ridiculous tuition.

But that year I attended the university's anime club.  For $5 a month you could sit in on weekly 3 hour screenings of fansubbed anime projected on a big screen in one of the auditoriums.   And that's the first time I saw Bleach. (2005)  When the first season's punchy, stylish, kinetic opening set to Asterisk's "Orange Range" hit my ears and eyes, I was hooked.  I promptly went to the nearest bookstore and bought the first 4 volumes of manga (luckily for me, manga sections in big book stores were beginning to explode at around that time).  I went back for more each week until I was caught up.
That was also the same year I got into Death Note.  Other big names come and go but none of them quite hit all the notes for me like Bleach does, especially when clothing is used within the story to express concepts, character development and ideas.

Eight years later, Bleach still inspires me when fashion doesn't.

memento mori

My mortality tattoo design.  Time flies, beauty is fleeting, etc etc.  There is so much personal symbolism and meaning embedded into this design that when I look at it I get that super-hyper-anxious feeling that I need it tattooed NOW NOW NOW.

I admire the hell out of sugar skull-painted girl tattoos but was never sure if they would suit me, or if I was badass enough to rock one.  But then I realized: why the hell not?!
My only regret with my current tattoos is that I did not go bigger and better.  So I might as well start somewhere.

Wondered briefly if I would regret having Rukia tattooed on me, but my husband brought up a good point: "You will never stop loving anime".  It's true :)
And outside of a Bleach reference, people will see a tattoo of fierce, short-haired asian woman with sugar skull makeup, on a fierce, short-haired asian woman.
That's not going to change :)

Will hopefully have this on my right thigh by the end of the year.  Biggest tattoo yet.

Chigo & Ruki Ruki

I am particularly proud of how this came out.  And I got to draw a hookah.

Alternate universe!  This couple is canon wherever they may be.
Didn't you love how they would make entire filler episodes based on Kubo's color spread art or pencil doodles?  :P

This again...

Just a reminder that I ship IchiRuki... in sexual ways.
Self-indulgent nekkid drawings result.

Not-quite-SFW behind the cut

Live Action Hetalia

Here is my Hollywood actor wish list for a hypothetical Hetalia live action movie.  International actors FTW~!

Jeezus- it makes me groan when I see other people do this shit but here I am- fandom makes you do crazy things.  Also was an excuse to look up images of cute men.

Axis Powers

Germany: Michael Fassbender

So quintessentially Doitsu there is simply no other contender.  We already know what he looks like in WWII uniform thanks to Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds.

Japan: Yusuke Iseya
Maybe a bit too uniquely featured and bad-ass imaged to be straightlaced and soft-spoken Japan.
But I do love him so.

Italy/Veneziano: Jason Biggs
It is hella difficult to find native-born Italian actors
(in the age and cutest factor that I was going for)
So had to settle with some of obvious Italian descent.
Biggs has great comedic acting chops.  It's my list, so there.  

Italy/Romano: Milo Ventimiglia
I can see it- can't you?
Arguing with Veneziano, dissing Germany, being a dick to Spain.  Adorable.

Allied Forces

America: Chris Evans
THE INTERNET AGREES. A MUST-HAVE.
He is pretty much the reason I made this list.  Let's face it- Hollywood has chosen him to represent 'Murica  

Britain/United Kingdom: Andrew Garfield
Because eyebrows, that's why.

Russia: Anton Yelchin
I love this guy sofuckingmuch.  Dreamy Russian-speaking voice?  Check!  Innocent appearance?  Check!
Acting prowness to demonstrate mild and friendly demeanor yet provoke alarming unease towards the insidious creeping terror that is Russia?
Check check.

France: Vincent Cassel
Another one a little outside of the age range but wow!  The stubble!  The eyes!  The thoroughly convincing perverted characters that he has portrayed!  (Dirty, dirty France)

China: Jay Chou
Not Chinese, but Taiwanese.  You will find a surprising number of Taiwanese in Hollywood playing Chinese and Japanese characters.  Don't know why, but I'm all for it.

Canada: Ryan Gosling
Special bonus nationality i.e: my own.
I'm not really a fan.  But girls seem to love him and I am okay with Canada having a dreamboat image.  Cute glasses, dude.

Newest Obsession: Hetalia

left: Russia looking hella creepy

right: the adorable Axis Powers

keep in mind these are straight up pen sketches in my pocket agenda

Just when I thought that I could not possibly get into any more anime, along comes Hetalia: Axis Powers on Canadian Netflix.  Comedic genius on so many different levels.
I've listened to both the japanese voices and the english dub by now and I honestly love the english dub.  The atrocious accents just add to the borderline racist parody aspect, the voice actors did a great job in keeping up with the rapid fire dialogue and even though people apparently complain that the language is harsher and the humor is more vulgar I totally prefer it that way, even with the overuse of the word 'douche'.
But I love shows like Archer and Metalocalypse so I find it funny as hell.

Something different

Just a post to show you that I am a fan of more than just Bleach :P  I love American comics too.
Pencil sketches, quick and scribbly.

Death and her brother Dream, Sandman (Vertigo)

Dream's cloak is so cool, ohmigod.  I like how Death just seems to be floating.

Catwoman (DC) is my favorite character of all time.

Batman is sort of in this picture too.

I love Catwoman.  She is my patron saint, role model, goddess, and split personality, LOL.

It is not so much the comic, or even the character (but totally the outfit).  It is the concept and persona behind a cat woman. 

Not to mention the mythology.  Case in point, the Egyptian goddess Bast.  I'd worship her no probs.

Ever met a 'cat person?'  I have more of what I'd call a 'cat personality'.  Cats are instinctive, territorial, reactionary, and if you are not used to them, they can seem indifferent, unabashedly self-entitled or hateful.

They can also run the wide range of being completely standoffish and mean to totally affectionate and in-your-face.  In a single cat.

... Yeah, sounds like me.  Like I could have been a cat in a past life.  Comparing women to cats?  No shit!

So... I think I can empathize with cats sometimes and I like to hang out with them.  This is something that I would share in common with Catwoman, if she were real (in my heart, maybe)

Some days I think I might like to join tumblr.
Then I think: Mmmm better not

Bleach RPG-style

Yeah, so this just happened. (why do I do all my best drawing between midnight and 2 am?)
From left to right: White Mage, Barbarian, Dark Mage, Paladin, Ranger, Monk.  The adventure practically writes itself.

Been watching Game of Thrones and the Lord of the Rings movies (director's cut/extended version all the way!) as of late and reminiscing about D&D and the Final Fantasy games when they were good.  Just can't get enough of that pseudo-medieval fantasy RPG style.

Just looking at this picture makes me want to write up stats for the dream team and storm a dungeon with them.  That may have been the nerdiest thing I have ever admitted.

Uryu....

Someone needs to tell Uryu that if he is planning a double-cross, he needs to make sure Bach doesn't know about recent pop culture.
I would cry for days if he pulled a Severus Snape.
O_____________O YEAH HARRY POTTER REFERENCE.  I JUST WENT THERE.

....sorry.
I'm gonna put this out there cause it's my blog- I hope Orihime is gonna be the one who brings him back to the good side.

my one and possibly only fanfic

Behind Closed Doors, begun Feb 2013, completed May 2013.

Summary: Rukia thinks she's alone and focuses on her desires for a change. Ichigo finds out. It's the start of something new, but there are many factors against them. Love doesn't come without consequence, but it is worthwhile nevertheless. Set in two parts: pre- and post- Thousand Year Blood War arc. 

Contains LEMON and is rated M for mature readers only.  

Genre: Romance, Drama and Smut.
Words: approx 40,000
Chapters: 8

Like so many other fanfics, it contains my personal interpretation about how their relationship would progress once it got physical (if Bleach was a hentai, maybe :P)
Also a lot of my personal headcanon, i.e: how Orihime's character would be better if she managed to get over Ichigo, pro-IshiHime, Central 46 being bureaucratic dickbags (Soul Society's government is messed up, guys), and Ichigo being a young adult with hormones.
Some of it was simply created by the urge to circumvent the cliches out there (am I the only one who thinks Ichigo would not make a great division captain?  And that he's not just going to stay in Soul Society and that will be the HAPPIEST ENDING) ...and to give Rukia a more balanced role of career ambition/personal responsibility and not just want to pop out kids.  Fuuuuuck.

I'm happy it's out there.  I'm happy I did it but I'm also happy it's done.  You won't see much writing from me for a while :P

Oh yeah, and manga chapter 537? Omigod, Kubo.

Thank you for this face. DAT FACE. Shit, I'm freaking out about how grown up Ichigo looks.

I got a few things wrong in my Masaki theory post because Kubo.
What I knew for sure:  Masaki could have easily defeated Grand Fisher, but Juha Bach did sort of kill her indirectly.  It's simply a good reason for Ichigo to get involved on a personal level.
Hear that Quincy King?  You just made shit personal.

It wasn't a surprise to see Uryu doing the 'betrayal' thing but it still made my heart sink.  I have no doubt that he has ulterior motives but of course it's going to be dragged out forever again.
Did you do it for the uniforms, Uryu?  I don't blame you.  Dude looks like a GQMF.