Sakura: Where are the fireworks?
Naruto: O-Oh those f-fireworks are nowhere n-near as pretty as-
Shikamaru: What the hell are you talking about?
Naruto: It was in the song, dagnabit-tebayo!
Kakashi: Aaaayyyyeeeeeee!
Everyone else: STFU! 


[Edit: I fixed a few things but there's still the fireworks to do...]

Kakashi: Aaaayyyyyyeeee!
Shikamaru: How much longer do I have to stand here?
Kakashi: Until this picture is completed! Yeah!
Shikamaru: [sighs] How troublesome. *TOK* 

This is what happened when I gave up on that other one. 

You do not want to know how long this took. 

I ended up not really liking my sketch, so I traced the image in Photoshop (vectors). So far I have Naruto doing this weird handwavy thing. 

A second version of the very rough draft. I added some patterns to the yukatas to give a better idea of the interest in the picture, but it's still pretty bad. Kakashi still looks awful. ... And those eyes.... they're burning holes in my head...! 

A very rough draft of a picture I wanted to draw, inspired by the Naruto Ondo song. There's not much going on in there, except maybe with Kakashi in the background looking like he's taking a dump on a stage or something. Naruto and Sakura aren't actually pushing each other away, but supposed to be posing like airplanes. And Shikamaru is looking down on his gown yukata thinking, "What the hell is this retarded getup I'm wearing that looks like chicken scratches?" ... Yeah, like I said, it's a very rough draft. 

Sambomaster!

I don't remember where I last talked about Sambomaster or if I ever mentioned it at some point (which would be quite odd if I didn't). I probably did mention Naruto many times. The opening for Naruto that features Sambomaster's song is called Seishun Kyosokyouku, which got me hooked right away. If you watch the video, try imagining the face of the singer.

Now, here's the music video with the song in its entirety.

I still love this song. Rock on, japanese care bear!

---

Lots of anime use songs from j-rock and j-pop bands for openings and endings. It's actually quite common for them to change the songs every season, and often in the middle of seasons. (Perhaps to boost the ratings, since it involves making new animations for the songs as well.) This applies to Inu Yasha, Naruto, Bleach, and other popular action series.

On the other hand, (short-running) romance anime use voice actors from the shows to sing their theme songs, if they're talented enough. So the anime in question will often scramble for leading voice actors that are proven to sing well and have great talent. For example, Love Hina and Chobits.

Anyway, the point is that there's a lot of money and time spent on making these openings and endings original, catchy and entertaining. So why would an american company license an anime and completely throw out the original opening to vomit up an abomination of a "song" like this opening for dubbed Naruto? (Don't tell me it's because they don't want to change the songs for an english audience, because they've pretty much left Inu Yasha as is due to the possibility of insane old geezer otaku backlash.)

Ok, I admit there have been weird things in the original as well. But really, generic rock riffs do not make a satisfactory substitution to this. (Or FURRIES and UNDERAGE GIRLS IN SWIMSUITS.)

Manga List

I break my one post a day habit sometimes. Here's a list of manga that I have read or am reading now.

• Naruto - spikey-blond-haired little brat in a ninja village
• Hunter X Hunter - spikey-dark-haired boy who wants to become a hunter to find his father
• Great Teacher Onizuka - spikey-blond-haired former extra-tough gang member who becomes a teacher
• Fruit Basket - gentle girl who gets involved with an unusal family
• 3X3 Eyes - girl runs into guy, guy gets killed by girl's pet, girl eats guy's soul, guy has to protect girl for the rest of their existence, guy falls for girl... classic love story
• Inu Yasha - doggy boy with cute ears
• Cardcaptors Sakura - Sakura captures magical cards, while Syaoran pines for both Sakura and another boy... it gets kinda shounen-ai too
  
• Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE (which is written just as you see it here) - Sakura and Syaoran from Cardcaptors Sakura, back in completely different and convoluted adventures
• Yakitate! Japan - about breadmaking and NO it's not boring.
• Gokusen - a female new teacher who happens to be the granddaughter of a Yakuza leader
• Angel Sanctuary- a brother and a sister... uh... and some weird stuff about angels and demons.
• Kimagure Orange Road - a family with odd powers try to maintain a normal life... with powers...
• Penguin Brothers - spunky girl out to resolve a school gang war
• Haru yo Koi - find out for yourself ;)

I read the end of Chobits, and I read one chapter each of One Piece, Bleach, and Full Metal Alchemist, but they don't strike me with too much interest. Besides, I have all these other manga I have to catch up with. ;)

Non-Educational Time-Wasters

Would you know it? I'm also terrible at games.

Balloon Duel - The great NES game revived as a modern-day Flash tribute. Customizations galore!

Snopes - If you ever send me another chain letter, I will smash your heads in...to this web site, which details how useless thsoe emails are. This site mostly debunks many (if not most) urban legends.

I got so caught up in the customizations for Balloon Duel that I made an ugly sketch of my two characters, the girl Seamus (yes, I know that it's a boy's name), and little Naruto. It is possible to make a Naruto character! Yes!!!