About

About

• FAQ
• 1. Can you tell me where to find...?
• 2. I want you to list my blog on your blogroll. What do I do?
• 3. I see garbled text on your site. What's wrong?
• 4. What's with the random big red Japanese text that I can't read?
• 5. Could you define some of the Japanese words I see on here?
• 6. Why didn't you come up with a more interesting name for the blog?
• 7. Why aren't you watching [insert show name]?
• 8. Why do you watch so much cute stuff?
• About Me
• Matthew & Anime
  
• Matthew & Japanese
  
• About The Blog
  
• Blog Policies
  
• About Raws
• Blogging Policies
• Comment Policy
• Shoutbox Policy
• Link Policy

FAQ

1. Can you tell me where I can find [insert show name here]?

A: Most of the time, no. Please look at the following sites before even thinking of posting a question about where to find something here:

Subbed:
AnimeSuki
Baka Updates
Tokyo Toshokan

Raw:
l33t-raws
Saiyaman
Tokyo Toshokan

If you ask about something that can be easily found at one of the above sites your comment will be deleted.

Also, please note that I watch just about everything raw, no subtitles, so you will have to wait before a subbed version will be available, sometimes for quite a while.

2. I want you to list my blog on your blogroll. What do I do?

A: If you run a regularly updated anime/manga blog I'd be happy to have you on the Blogroll. You DO NOT have to e-mail me to be added, I repeat, DO NOT e-mail me if you wish to be added. If you'll look closely, there's an "Add your Anime Blog here!" link at the top of the Blogroll. Fill out that information, I'll check out your site, and if it looks okay I'll approve it and you'll be listed. That easy :)

3. I see garbled text on your site. What's wrong?

A: The official languages of Matthew's Anime Blog are English and Japanese, so I will use Japanese text in my blog entries. Some installations of Windows XP and OS X require additional software to be installed in order to view Japanese fonts. Also, please make sure the character encoding in your browser is set to Unicode (UTF-8).

4. What's with the random big red Japanese text that I can't read?

A: The "big red text" is something I picked up from frequenting Japanese anime blogs. I'll generally only use it when I feel strongly about something. Think of it as a raw reaction to whatever's going on. Most of the time, though, you'll see it used in one situation (see question 5)...

5. Could you define some of the Japanese words I see on here?

A: Sure. Some Japanese words you might run into on the site follows:

可愛い （かわいい） kawaii: cute, adorable. Most often used on this site in the phrase (usually written in big red text), "＿＿＿（ちゃん）可愛いよ、＿＿＿（ちゃん）！！" ([insert name](-chan) kawaii yo, [insert name](-chan)), when I think a character is particularly cute. kawaii might be modified by an adverb like とても totemo (very) or すごく sugoku (extremely) from time to time.

キタ━━━━(゜∀゜)━━━━ッ!! kita-----!!: "kita" is the plain past form of the verb 来る kuru, "to come". The best translation I can think of would be "is here", but it sounds much better in Japanese ;) As in 超急展開キタ━━━━(゜∀゜)━━━━ッ!! choukyuutenkai (a sudden huge development in plot, etc.) kita--!!. Often shortened to just キター.

以下略 ikaryaku: the rest omitted. Abbreviated as (略 or (ry. As in "Fine and Rain have no chance at winning the next Princess Party since they're the most un-princess-like princesses(ry".

準備中 （じゅんびちゅう） junbichuu: in preparation. Used to mark entries which I will start writing at a later time. It might be an hour, it might be a day or more. Even I don't know ;)

以下準備中 （いかじゅんびちゅう） ikajunbichuu: the rest in preparation. Used to mark entries which I will finish writing or update with new content later.

ネタバレ含有 （がんゆう） netabare gan'yuu: contains spoilers (netabare). Used when an entry on an episode would contain spoiling text/screencaps that could possibly diminish your enjoyment of the episode if you have not watched yet. Please do not click "Continue reading.." if you do not wish to know what happened.

Common honorific name suffixes:

さん san: A polite suffix. Close to "Mr." or "Ms."

様　（さま） sama: Even more polite than "san".

ちゃん chan: Generally used for younger girls.

たん tan: A child's mispronounciation of "chan". Also used among otaku when they particularly like a certain female character, often in conjuction with another expression which is not used on this site.

君 （くん） kun: Generally used for males. Also can be used among coworkers of both sexes.

Other words in Japanese will usually be green and underlined like this. Hover your mouse over the text for a translation.

6. Why didn't you come up with a more interesting name for the blog?

A: I'm not creative when it comes to naming things, be it websites, my own music compositions, etc., etc. I'm Matthew, I run an anime blog, so "Matthew's Anime Blog" it is. It does sound good as an acronym, however: MAB. Like MIB or something ;)

7. Why aren't you watching [insert show name]?

A: Most likely it's something I don't really have an interest in. For example, I'll rarely watch "big robot" shows all the way through. Also, at the current time I only have a 384kbps connection so it's rather difficult to keep up with everything.

8. Why do you watch so much cute stuff?

A: Yes, I know, it's odd for a guy of my age to be watching rather cute shows. I don't know the answer to exactly how I came to like the cute stuff so much myself, actually. Perhaps it's because I have two younger sisters and I became desensitized to excessively cute images because of having to watch My Little Pony and Rainbow Brite with them, perhaps it's because I generally had girls as friends when I was younger, etc., etc. That's just how I am ;) And I'll watch just about anything, anyways, from saccharine-sweet diabetic coma-inducing shows like Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime to bloody messes like Elfen Lied.

About Me

Name: Matthew
Born: November 11, 1981 in Athens, Georgia
Current Residence: Watkinsville, Georgia
Graduated: Oconee County High School Class Of 2001
Attends: The University of Georgia, majoring in Japanese Language and Literature
Job: University of Georgia Enterprise Information Technology Services Client Services Division, Enterprise Application Support Group. Which basically means I handle tech support questions from UGA-affiliated clients (students, teachers, etc.) that the people at the help desk can't take care of quickly ;)
Hobbies (outside of anime/manga): Playing instruments - clarinet, flute, trumpet, trombone, piano: composing music, playing video games(especially Nintendo games), watching NASCAR, cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs football team
Good At: Playing songs by ear, reading very quickly, making Mexican food, learning languages, being lazy
Not Good At: Writing papers, doing homework, talking in front of people, being social, sleeping soundly

Matthew & Anime

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not half as qualified as other bloggers to comment on anime and judge it since I'm a relative newcomer to anime fandom, really. I got my start in anime by watching the shows that ran on Cartoon Network when they first started running anime like Sailor Moon and Gundam Wing, then later watching the Adult Swim block's Cowboy Bebop and such. But I can't say that I really became a real anime fan until a few years ago, as Inuyasha started its run on Cartoon Network, and not until recently could I be called an otaku. I started watching it completely by accident, if you can believe that -- after a NASCAR race ended I flipped channels to hear this: I WANT TO CHANGE THE WORLD jounetsu tayasazu ni.. of course, I didn't really understand it since I hadn't really been serious with my Japanese study then, but I did watch the show and liked it so I kept on... In October of that year we finally got broadband cable internet here so I began getting Japanese Inuyasha episodes. I also started watching Ranma 1/2 then.. but I didn't start watching current fansubs until a friend told me about Naruto in May of the next year. I also started watching Last Exile that summer. And in July of that year I got started with Cardcaptor Sakura. If you haven't already heard, CCS is hands-down my favorite anime, period ;) I eventually bought all of the DVDs over the rest of the year. My anime watching increased much over the rest of year, growing to include A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, Fullmetal Alchemist, Twin Spica, and others. And in February of the next year I started this blog ;)

If I had to give my top three I'd go with the following with CCS definitely number one:

Cardcaptor Sakura
Figure 17
Full Moon wo Sagashite

I prefer shoujo over shounen for the most part. I'm not a huge fan of shows that have a lot of fighting and fighting, then more fighting, but I will make exceptions to that from time to time. I also watch a good bit of bishoujo shows (Da Capo, Popotan, etc.) as well. I'm heavily biased towards shows with anything cute in them and especially towards mahou shoujo -- see CCS and Nanoha. I will however, give just about anything a chance and try to find something to enjoy in every show that I watch. I have a very hard time being judgmental, which probably isn't a good thing for a blogger ;)

Matthew & Japanese

I've had an interest in all things Japanese since I was much younger. I was a big fan of Nintendo from the days of the NES so that was to be expected, of course ;) I also had an interest in language, so I would borrow sets of tapes and books from the library over the summer for all kinds of languages. Japanese was among them, of course, but I didn't really remember much from back then (back when I was in middle school or so).I didn't really get serious about learning Japanese until my next-to-last-year in high school (2000), and even though I say serious, it wasn't really "study hard like you would in school" serious. I bought a book about grammar and went from there... it was rather arduous at first and I struggled to understand things and learn Hiragana/Katakana, not to mention Kanji, all by myself. And I mean all by myself: I had no one to help me, no one to study with, no one to talk to. But eventually, over the next couple of years, I managed to get better with things, good enough to play through Golden Sun: The Lost Age in Japanese (2002), not understanding everything, but a good bit, good enough to help with a walkthrough of the Japanese version of the game ;) But it would not be until the next year that things finally "clicked"....

The first time I watched anime in Japanese I had no idea what was going on. Even though I could read decently, I could not listen well at all. I mean, how was I supposed to get better at listening without any listening materials? So anime became that listening material and slowly, but surely, I began to understand what was being said, and by the time I started school at UGA (August 2003) I could fend for myself. I was allowed to skip the first year Japanese classes (not getting credit for them, though) and go into the second year classes. I might have been able to go into the third-year classes without much problem, and it would've probably been more of a challenge for me, but it turned out to be a good review for me as I had never studied Japanese in a classroom setting before. It took a while for me to get used to things, and it didn't help that I was a bit more advanced than the other students in the class. My classmates had a hard time believing that I had never gone to Japan since I understood things ;) But Sasaki-sensei, my teacher, was very helpful with any questions I had, no matter what they were about, so that helped me out a lot.

If I were to classify my four skills in Japanese it'd go as follows:

1. Reading - Of course this is number one since I can go at my own pace and this is what I've done the most.
2. Listening - All that anime watching has done me well ;)
3. Writing - I didn't have much need to do this while I was studying by myself, so I'm not quite as good at this as I should be. My writing also ins't that pretty :P
4. Speaking - It's natural that this is my worst skill as I spent 2 years basically learning by myself in an isolated environment. I haven't improved all that much as I don't have a lot of opportunity.. well, I don't take a lot of opportunities to speak with other classmates. I really should try to strike up conversation with those that have been to Japan and sound pretty fluent

I hope to study abroad in Japan soon so that should get all those skills up where they're not so unbalanced, hopefully ;) My vocabulary has improved a lot over the past couple of years, but I'm still lacking in some areas. The dictionary is my friend :)

About The Blog

Read this entry to learn about how the blog got started and such.

Blog Policies

About Raws
I watch almost everything raw, no subtitles, so please don't ask me where to find subbed versions as soon as I blog something before they're even released. Be patient, okay? ;) Also, because I'm watching shows in raw Japanese I might miss things from time to time -- I can't guarantee that I'll be 100% correct 100% of the time, but I'll try my best to keep errors to a minimum. If you find an error in an entry please notify me ASAP so I can correct it.

Blogging Policies
I classify shows I watch in 3 different categories according to how I'm going to blog them: Full, Quickie, or Others. Should be self-explanatory there, but "Full" means what it says, full detailed summaries most of the time along with impressions and such, "Quickies" are impressions-only entries for the most part, and "Others" are those I watch but don't blog on a regular basis -- that doesn't mean that I won't blog them, it means that I'll do so when I feel like it. Shows that I stop watching becuase of lack of time, lack of motivation, etc. will be put in the "On Hold/Dropped" category. Shows can and will be switched from category to category as I see what other bloggers are covering and depending on how much effort I want to put into blogging the show.

Each show I watch will have its own page with information about the station the show airs on, links to websites, links to other bloggers who are watching the show, and all of the entries on each show.

Most entries on anime episodes will also include screencaps with captions - hover your mouse over the screencap to read the caption. If I feel that a summary or screencaps for an episode includes spoilers, I will use the extended entry -- please click "Continue reading..." to read the full post if so inclined. You have been warned!

The official languages of MAB are English and Japanese so from time to time I will use Japanese text in posts. If you hover your mouse over Japanese text that is green like this -- 青い -- you'll see a reading and definition for the term.

Comments Policy
Comments are strongly encouraged from vistors to MAB. All comments are moderated before they are allowed to go live on the site. Examples of unacceptable comments include those with overuse of profanity, general rudeness to others, unacceptable links to sites, or too many spoilers. Also, please do not ask where to find things without checking other places first. Comments may be edited or deleted at any time for any of those reasons, or for any reason at all, at my discretion. Frequent commentors should register with TypeKey and log in before posting a comment so that your comments will be automatically approved.

Shoutbox Policy
See Shoutbox page

Link Policy
You may link to MAB or any entry on MAB without asking my permission. You may also excerpt entries on anime or news from MAB without asking permission, however, I ask that you please cite MAB as the source. You may not link to images on the server -- please upload them to your own site and give MAB credit or ask for my permission.

Bloggers who wish to have their anime or manga-related blog listed on the MAB blogroll should click "Add your Anime Blog Here!" link at the top of the blogroll. To have a link to your entries on a certain show displayed on the show's page on MAB click the "Add your blog's...." link on the show page.I try to keep MAB as work-safe as possible, but sites that I have linked to might contain content that is not work-safe (Momotato Daioh and lolipuni, among others, comes to mind...), so please take care ;)