Oh The Shame!

Alright. It's confession time.

I like anime.

I know, I know. Gasp. Shock. Horror.

All that aside, allow me to defend myself briefly.

What I really, truly, love about anime is that it allows for amazingly epic characters that you can't quite get away with in serious novel writing these days. (Please, no cracks about Fantasy and 'serious novel writing') Even with the resurgence of the fantastic into mainstream television (Fringe, V, Lost ect.) there are still some things you just can't get away with as a 'western' writer.

For example, take a character with violet eyes, a penchant for poetry, that speaks in a pleasing monotone and carries a freaking huge sword. Written by John Smith of Middleton it's self-indulgent nonsense. But if you meet the same character in an anime (or manga, let's not forget manga) he's flipping bad ass.

Because it's anime.

You can have super powers, cute girls, pretty men, swords, guns, giant robots, and gravity defying hair without anyone batting an eye.  And the guy who reads poetry and has a refined enjoyment of tea and flowers is just gonna be that much harder to beat. The clothes are great and you know the kid who just picked up the sword/gun/giant robot is still gonna be able to beat the crap out of the bad guy.

Granted you also get misogyny and (oddly) a fair bit of snobbery but it's all so much fun. And some of it's even good.

I'm not going to go so far as to say that there isn't a fair amount of it that's pure silliness, but I like silliness. And I've always been of the opinion that the fantastic is necessary to the understanding of the human experience. Some things, some ideas, are just too big to get across without it.

So, yeah, I like anime.

arts

So, kind of ridiculous, but here are some pictures a friend of mine, L. H. Reid, did of my characters.

Below is Lauryn, my main character. Under her, is Islin

Success!

Seriously. Success. I've been trying to find a name for AGES now and I finally have one. My villain is no longer nameless. It's fantastic. Now seduction of his brother's woman can commence.

Not really.

Well sort of.