Mt-Maigetsu: Issue No 18
This month's banner courtesy of sailorchiron
CONTENTS
A/ What's New in Minitokyo:
Porings galore and a new challenge....
B/ Mai-chan's Mail bag!
A question and more suggestions from nikko~
C/ Horrorscopes.
Halloween is over, but the horror remains!
D/ Comic: Adventures of Mai-chan!
Meet the...Staff?
E/ Anime Spotlight!
Eden of the East!
F/ Get to Know Your MT Staff!
Our resident ninja Admin emerges from the shadows!
G/ Featured Member
For love of userpages!
H/ Featured Group
Not your maiden...
I/ Staff Picks
Art that deserves more love!
J/ Competitions and Projects
Are you missing out on the fun? Join in :D
K/ Group Ads
Looking for a new group to join, or to make new friends?
L/ Have your say!
Mai-chan loves to feel loved!
M/ The Usual Stuff
The enlightening links to Minitokyo Zen-dom...
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A/ RECENTLY IN MINITOKYO...
Last Month's Issue in case you missed it in all the craziness...
- Our cute little dango identifying Elite and Highlighted Gallery items have been replaced by porings created by shigemitsubaki! Aren't they cute?
-You will now receive notifications from any thread that you have participated in in the past week regardless if you are
the threadstarter or not. ^_^
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Draw a Staff Member Event!
Oh, yes... you read that right. With all of the recent changes around here (the result of our creative juices), we thought maybe all you artists out there could use a little fresh inspiration as well! This is your chance to show us what you think we look like! XD
Rules:
- Please be kind! ^_^;;
- This is not a contest... just a fun little event for members who may be looking
for some inspiration.
- You may use information gleaned/gathered from the Staff members' pages or the Shoutbox, but please do not PM Staff members directly.
- Standard gallery rules apply here (No mature content! >.<)
- HAVE FUN. We're all super-excited to see what you come up with!
Submission:
- Submit your artwork to the gallery and then send a link to it to fireflywishes via PM. (We'll figure out details for this later... maybe have a specific Staff member feature
section in MTM...really depends how many entries we get...)
List of Staff Members:
Admins/Mods:
Elites:
(NOTE: Since vitaamin is shy, she requested not to be drawn.)
(We're excluding Mai-chan from the Elites because she's already had a chance to be drawn... Don't worry, we'll come back
to her at some other point in time... ^_^)
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B/ MAI-CHAN'S MAILBAG
This month’s mail has been answered by fireflywishes~ are you sick of me yet? XD
Quote by melymayWhat does "maigetsu" mean?
Thanks for writing in melymay! "Maigestu" translates to "every month" ('mai'=every, 'getsu'= moon;month). When we first started the MTM, that was our goal for this newsletter-- one per month. We had a short period of inactivity, but now with our newest crop of enthusiastic Elites and Mods we hope to get back on the monthly schedule again. ^_^
Quote by nikko3Mai-chan! XD I have a suggestion to make! Why don't you send a welcome letter to newly signed up member in MT? The letter would bear your name because you are the Ambassador of Minitokyo. The contents should written a simple greeting and a reminder to check out the MT policy, rules and regulations of MT, guidelines and etc. If they have any questions, please forward them to the famous Mai-chan! XD
By doing these, new members would have pay more attention to read the policy and such before they even "try" to commit any "crimes" in MT. Just like when we are signing up for a new email account. When, we finish the procedure of signing in, we will find a welcome letter in the inbox from the host account.
Thanks again for your suggestions nikko~ This idea has already been discussed amongst us Mods (and Sheq!), but due to the time constraints of Real Life, we haven't had time to come up with a draft. Probably next vacation I'll try and get on it.
Quote: How about starting a goodie redemption program in exchange of credits?
You may start with a simple avatar, signature image to a customized userpage layout. Charged a credit fee for each following goodie. An avatar image may cost 300 credits and stated that one member could only redeem one goodie in the period of 3 months. If you want to know who's gonna make them, it's either the Moderator or the Elites because this is a luxury that only those with lots of credits can enjoy! Between, to make it super hard, you can request lots of credits in returns for your service! XD A customized userpage layout could reach 2,000 credits! Now, that's fun! XD
Whoa, whoa... thanks for volunteering the Staff members to make them, but like I said last month... we're all just
regular people with regular jobs. Personally, I like the current system where members are helping each other just for
the sake of helping-- not because they're expecting something in return. Don't worry, we're trying to figure out a way
for people to use up their credits faster (One possibility is to use them to "pay" for group advertising space
on the main page), but thanks again for your suggestion.
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C/ HORRORSCOPES
Wallers - You are working on your latest masterpiece, and you feel that it is
your best work to date. Suddenly, Photoshop crashes, and you forgot to save! You can only stare at the screen and cry as
Photoshop is unresponsive to your pleas.
Your Lucky Number: 127238 tears shed
Doujin artists - Halloween is over, and you barely managed to finish that
Halloween-themed picture for this year by sacrificing sleep and valuable anime-watching time, phew. Time to start the
Christmas project, so that you won't be rushing to finish it, which you will probably end up doing anyway.
Your Lucky Number: 55 days to procrastinate
Vector artists - You decide to attempt that complicated scan with 23534 frills
and 256245 beads. As you work into the wee hours of the night, you fall asleep in the middle of working with the pen
tool, and dream of the vector coming to life to eat you.
Your Lucky Number: 8237854 vector nodes attacking you in your dream
Scanners - After scouring the imageboards all night, you end up with a hoard of
images of scantily-clad anime girls, score! You decide to share with the world (aka MT), by posting all the scans, only
to have them deleted for mature content or being duplicates.
Your Lucky Number: 73 deleted scans
Forum goers - You're grateful for the new shoutbox, yay a chance to chat more
easily! And then you realise that people don't care what you say. So you get mad and go on a spamming spree or start a
flame war, only to be caught by a moderator and muted.
Your Lucky Number: 168 spam posts made
Review writers - After spending 20 or so hours of your life marathoning a crappy
50-episode series, you decide to warn others not to bother with this boring piece of crap by writing a review on it,
ranting about how everything in the series sucked, only to realise that people don't care. Why did you finish watching
it if it sucked so much then?
Your Lucky Number: 20 hours of your life wasted
Lurkers - You're in need of pretty pictures. After spending all of your free
downloads, there are still many pictures you want on your hard-drive, so you proceed to spend all the credits you've
saved up.
Your Lucky Number: 0 credits left
Rippers - You think you can sneak away with posting something that you didn't
make, hoping to fish for compliments, and that nobody will notice the signature on the wallpaper that is clearly not
yours.
Your Lucky Number: 1 warning from a moderator for ripping
Article written by MapleRose
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D/ COMIC: ADVENTURES OF MAI-CHAN
Time to... meet the Staff?
Click on the banner to see our very own MTM comic strip, brought to you by the amazingly talented hayashinomura!
E/ ANIME SPOTLIGHT
After reading rave reviews on today's title, Eden of the East, I decided to take a few days to see what all the fuss was about. The first episode opens as Saki stands in front of the White House, launching stones from outside the fence onto the open greens. The police promptly accost Saki, but she is saved by an unknown man, running around naked while waving a gun. The story then follows their adventure back to Japan and into his history which has been erased from his memory. To complicate matters, he has been gifted a cellphone that connects to a woman who can grant any wish a human could dream of, requiring only that the wisher uses his funds to become the "savior of the world."
While I can certainly understand the initial appeal of this series--a title full of average-looking, everyday folks caught in a mysterious battle usually signals a story saturated with magic realism that depends less on sensationalism and more on depth and criticism to wow its audience--I have to say that Eden of the East quickly fell into the usual traps. Much like Speed Grapher(2005), which promised to offer a more mature take on corruption and government, Eden of the East sets up a strong, interesting plotline but was both too short and too slow-paced to follow through on its promise. One strand of the story looks at a cruel serial killer who seems somehow connected to the mysterious cellphone and stumbles with what I can only describe as mediocre and stereotypically shallow execution. The ending, which was clearly meant to ensue in utterly epic proportions, fell flat, both plot-wise and visually. Meanwhile, a story like Eden of the East that struggles fiercely to become a masterpiece, typically warrants dynamic and creative directing; needless to say neither was present as far as I can see.
But for all its shortcomings, Eden of the East still ranks above average in its enjoyability and execution. The ED and OP were quite enjoyable, and I can clearly tell that production hired very interesting creative directors for both sequences. The voice acting, while unspectacular, demands little criticism. The animation was purposefully "just decent" though I would have enjoyed better camera angles and choreography. Furthermore, with just 13 episodes, it's worth the time to watch if you are interested in a series that doesn't fall as close to the stereotypical drivel that we are used to by now. Many viewers may even attribute more depth and better execution to this series than I have.
A timeless masterpiece this is not, but Eden of the East can still be very enjoyable. Its brevity contributes to a lower rating on my part, but certainly still makes it worth watching on a Saturday afternoon. If you are looking for a better series from Kenji Kawayama though, this one is DEFINITELY not representative of his talents (see Seirei no Moribito or Ghost in the Shell).
For More:
Star Crossed Anime
Blog
Mainichi Anime Yume
Twitch
Article written by vitaamin
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F/ GET TO KNOW YOUR MT STAFF
Minna-san, ohisashiburi desu ne~
fireflywishes here to bring you a SUPER special interview with our System Admin, yorhel!
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+First of all, who ARE you? What does the System Admin do?
Simply put, my job on MT is to make sure Sheqel can do his work and that MT stays online. I make sure that the necessary software is installed and working, and that Sheqel has access to the files, database and some important statistics. I also help out with keeping MT fast (slow websites are horrible~) and keep backups of everything to make sure MT doesn't completely dissappear in the event of a HDD crash or bankruptcy of the hosting company. (as has happened before...)
+How did you get involved with MT? Were you ever into anime or did Sheq just trick you into helping out? ^_~
Haha, no, Sheqel never tricked me into doing anything (at least not that I am aware of >.>). I do know that I met Sheq before I learned about Minitokyo, but I can't remember whether he was already working on MT at the time we met or whether he only had plans to make such a site. Anyway, we both shared a similar interest in both web development and anime, so I've been following the development of MT ever since I learned about it, and occasionally made some small contributions (like fixing things on the server or a bit of database maintenance). But I only got "officially" involved with MT around summer 2008, when MT switched hosting and I offered to take over all the sysadmin tasks.
+What kinds of things do you do when you're not keeping the site from exploding?
Keeping my own sites from exploding. :-P
Luckily that doesn't take much of my time, so I do have more hobbies: Building/maintaining websites, writing (open
source) software, walking the dog, long distance inline skating, and of course watching anime and playing visual
novels.
+Sheq mentioned that you have your own visual novel website. What can you tell our readers about it? What IS a visual novel? Is it like a dating sim game?
Visual novels are anime-style games with a lot of text and often very little to no gameplay. Many popular anime and
manga series are based on a visual novel, most notable series being Air, Kanon, Clannad, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni,
Tsukihime, Fate/stay night, Utawarerumono, Chaos;Head and many, many others. And just like how anime adaptions of manga
are (in my experience) often not as good as the original manga, the original visual novels often provide a better
experience than their anime counterparts. Seeing how there wasn't any English site or resource about visual novels, I
decided to make one on my own: vndb.org. The site is similar to anime or manga databases like AniDB, AnimeNewsNetwork
(without the news), and MangaUpdates.
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+Random questions:
+If you could be anyone else for one day, who would you be and why?
Not sure I'd want to be someone else, I'm pretty happy just being myself. :-)
+What is your favorite food?
Hmm, Tortellini? Or rice with chicken and teriyaki sauce? Can't decide. I like most easy to cook food.
+What are the top 5 songs you're loving right now?
Drudkh - Eternal Turn Of The Wheel
CROW'S CLAW - Assault Attack of the Silver Dragons
Machinae Supremacy - Sidology 2 - Trinity
Falkenbach - Baldurs Tod
lug00ber - Not with the olive branch
(That last one really doesn't fit in the list, but is awesome nonetheless)
+Do you speak any other languages besides English?
My native language is Dutch. I've also had 3 years of classes in German and French and have made a half-hearted attempt to teach myself Japanese in the past, but I've forgotten about everything I learned from that.
+How many other countries have you traveled to?
Hmm, haven't left this country in the past 3 or 4 years. But before that I used to travel with my family, almost always to Southern Europe (France, Italy or Croatia).
+ And finally, for all of the single ladies out there... are YOU single? XD
Yes. ;_; (But I'm not a huge fan of long distance relationships...)
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That concludes this month's "Get to Know Your MT Staff!" Remember minna-san,
if you have a member of the staff that you'd like to know more about or would like to submit a question, send it to Mai-chan with the
subject heading "STAFF INTERVIEW"
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G/ FEATURED MEMBER
The MT Staff would like to recognize melymay as the MTM Featured Member for November. With the switch over to the new layout, she has been so generous with her time helping other members reconfigure their layouts. However, this should come as no surprise. As one of the Mods over at Userpage Skin Designs, melymay has spent much of her time helping other members with their userpage questions as well as creating userpages for members. She has also been instrumental in keeping the sig/avatar request thread going. Thanks again for everything, melymay... and keep doing what you're doing!
Article by fireflywishes and banner by gaara-no-shukaku
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H/ FEATURED GROUP
My-Maiden is a fairly new group, but has hit it off quite well with our members! This already hot and popular group is a haven for all who enjoy walling or just talking about cute or sexy girls. Dedicated to making the best female wallpapers out there, their gallery includes a wide range of themes featuring girls a plenty for your viewing pleasure. Also, be sure to check out their "Gallery Artworks for this Month" and show your love! <3 *swoon* )o)
Article by Bernouli and
Kitten. Banner by Bernouli
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I/ STAFF PICKS
alice in wonderland by chisaikame
A somewhat different take on the traditional Alice and Wonderland theme, chisaikame has come up with two very well-designed characters. Love Alice's hair and dress design. And usagimimi male-version? Awesome. XD
Chosen by fireflywishes
Sing To Your Heart's Desire by Ongaku
I picked it because it's watercolor grunge. I miss the days of grunge walls, and I'm always a fan of walls that mimic traditional painting methods.
Chosen by sailorchiron
Oh My! by pandemonium91
Neat lines, bright and soft colouring, plus the suitable use of patterns make this an interesting vector to full-view.
Chosen by gaara-no-shukaku
Big Girl in the Big World by iamfreeska
The typography in this piece is very nice, and we don't see too much of that around here. The swirls on the trees are great, and go well with the whole 'roundness' I think the wallpaper is trying to convey. This style definitely deserves a little more attention in my book. =)
Chosen by Bernouli
Akiyama Mio - In The Shadow by seochan
seochan has wowed the gallery with several stellar pieces this month, but this one stands above the rest with its rich,
textured charcoal tones. Extraordinary technique and insightful color balance create a piece that emerges from sorrow
into a poetic song. This piece is certainly worth a second look!
Chosen by vitaamin
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Do you know of an item you think deserves more love?
You can actually PM Mai-chan about it! Include the gallery item and a short reason why you think it's great. If Mai-chan
also gives it a thumbs up, we'll feature it next issue! Just don't nominate your own gallery items X-P Cheeky
cheeky!
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J/ COMPETITIONS AND PROJECTS
(in alphabetical order)
Seasonal Challenge
What does "summer" mean to you? What about "winter"? Paint-o-rama is reviving with a contest with
the theme of the seasons. Winner will used in new group layout (in the new MT layout!). Open to MT. Deadline is Nov 30,
so you have plenty of time!
Announcement Thread: Seasonal Challenge
Remember if you don't tell us it's on, we can't tell everyone else. ;)
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K/ GROUP ADS
+++GO JOIN THE MT FACEBOOK GROUP NOW!+++
- This group specializes in GFX and Signature
Designs. Our agenda is to make and design signatures, we also battle weekly with different themes each week. Making
signatures is a bit less time consuming than making wallpapers. This way you can relax for a little while and just let
your creative side take over. Plus challenge yourself with the new theme each week, and raise your skill level by
battling. We use large sigs for competitions, but will offer the services of user requests.
- This group consists of MTers who love making
userpages and want to display them and/or make them for other members, as well as provide support for new members making
their own layouts.
- Do you draw with pen, pencil, crayons,
tablet or other media? Do you want to improve your skills or share your own talents with other people? Or do you just
plain love doujinshi? Then join this group!
- Vector. Wall. SHINE!
- A misc group for members over 18 and out of high school
to interact.
- Love vectoring? Then, join this group! It features
high-quality wallpapers and vectors, as well as tutorials for you to learn.
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L/ HAVE YOUR SAY!
Want to see your group advertised, we now request you send in your group as well as a short summary of it's purpose or current highlights. This will of course become far more useful that an icon alone. Also if you feel there is a group or a member worthy of nomination in the MTM again please PM it. Questions, comments, whatever, simply PM the MTM with the subject MYVOICE.
Remember the MTM is determined by you! ^^
Looking forward to your company next month (and keep sending me PMs T.T)
From botchii, with love
Call me Mai-chan <3
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M/ THE USUAL STUFF
All
about the Mt-Maigetsu: requests, ads and features --> To know how to advertise and nominate your group or member
you would like to see on the MTM!
The Policy --> A must read!
The Userguide
--> For day to day living!
Forum
guidelines --> Keeping it clean!
Common problems and
their solutions --> Got you covered!
Are you an MTM virgin?
Don't worry, you can change that right now! Go read all of the issues and become up to date on everything that deals
with Minitokyo. Each issue features everything your heart could ever desire! That's right, more SEX, SCANDALS, and LIES
than you can handle. Visit HeadQuarters for more
juicy goodness or contact your nearest friendly moderator. Blurb courtesy of brom♥
Links compiled by littlejonny100
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(c) Mt-Maigetsu 2009; any part of the Mt-Maigetsu or in its entirety cannot be reproduced in other publications without prior permission from the author(s). If you wish to share the Mt-Maigetsu, simply share the url- thank you!
