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I am a native of New York City and proud to be a city girl ^_^ .. I moved out to the Bay Area of California for post-grad training and work in June 2000 but returned home in August 2004 because as much as I love California, it cannot replace loved ones in my life (who were not moving =P). I miss the friendliness, the beauty, the weather, and my job .. and the proximity to a large community of anime merchandise collectors in Southern Cal. The genesis of this site and collecting stems from my love for anime/manga. I started watching anime in earnest back in college, in the early 1990s. I started off mostly watching rented or borrowed Chinese dubs. I started reading manga initially to continue following stories begun or touched on in anime series but manga has become its own interest in time, and usually preferred over anime.
I like anime/manga for many reasons. Nor do I mean that all anime/manga series are great; there are plenty out there I don't like or never want to watch. But in general, I enjoy anime/manga because of the creativeness of the medium, better depiction of sci-fi/fantasy, and most of all, because the series often tell a story.
The collecting was inevitable considering what a packrat I am .. and my weakness when confronted with cool-looking merchandise from beloved series =P
Some general stuff about me ..
- Hobbies:
- anime/manga: I think I have pretty diverse taste, and accordingly, my favorites span different genres. Generally, I much prefer the original manga over any anime adaptations, and overall, I prefer male-oriented shows over female, if the orientation exists.
Overall favorites are listed below:- Manga: One Piece, Gantz, Hunter x Hunter, Hikaru no Go, Berserk, Gunnm, Nausicaa, Gokinjo Monogatari, Nana, Honey & Clover, Full Metal Alchemist, Death Note, Tenjo Tenge, XXXholic
- Anime: One Piece, Twelve Kingdoms (Juuni Kokki), Seirei no Moribito, Haibane Renmei, Kino no Tabi, FLCL, Mushishi, Tsukihime, Byousoku 5 cm, most Ghibli movies, and SOME of the stuff listed under manga
- Manga: Katekyou Hitman Reborn, Bokura ga Ita
- Anime: Kekkaishi, Dennou Coil
- Mangaka: Yazawa Ai, CLAMP, Kakinouchi Narumi, Kubo Tite, Mamoru Nagano, Masamune Shirow, Oh Great!, Takeshi Obata, Yuzo Takada
- Artist: Chalk-Karasu, GD Mechano, Hyung Tae-Kim, Keiichi Sumi, Kouhaku Kuroboshi, Nobuteru Yuki, Range Murata, Kaori Wakamatsu
- reading: primarily sci-fi/fantasy (Brin, Tepper, Card, Cherryh, Neal Stephenson, etc) .. last very good read was The Golden Age by John Wright, set in an absolutely fascinating future, so detailed that several readings probably won't be enough to take it all in .. and I suppose the attraction for myself is also in the concept of a society that enables complete freedom for an individual (whether to achieve or obliterate) so long as one's actions do not interfere with anyone else's .. it suggests the japanese cultural standard of not inconveniencing others with one's actions, which interests me ..
- cooking and eating: I'm game for most cuisines, with pretty much no restrictions of any sort. Been doing lots more entertaining now that I've moved back to NYC and have a kitchen to work out of ^_^ .. and eating out lots more since NYC has such incredible cuisine ^^
- hiking: something picked up from my years in california. but it was probably not until I took a rim to rim trek across the grand canyon in 24 hrs (and somehow survived the 25 miles) that my interest really took off. currently planning more trips into the NY hudson river valley ...
- collecting =P .. currently: shitajiki, figures, teleka, clear files, and artbooks
- Recent projects/challenges:
- this website. I'd like to move it to a database type system for easier management and maintenance. Unfortunately, I have much less time than I used to ...
- become fluent in Japanese. Yeah, I can dream. But I am going to try.
- my work will always be a challenge .. in the end, it wouldn't be worth spending so much time on if it weren't. in any case, expanding my scope of practice and completing many of the system-wide initiatives I'm involved in are the current challenges.
Any feedback, comments, or questions are welcome --> E-MAIL
Updated 05.10.2008