So, Sailor Moon is back.
The original 90's show was one of my favorite anime series ever. I have very fond memories of it. So, naturally, I was looking forward to this reboot. And now it's here! My thoughts so far?
Well, I have to say I'm a little underwhelmed by it. Allow me to elaborate.

1) Art style and character design: Basically, I'm not a fan. The characters look like they're now 90% limbs. Seriously, look at those arms and legs! They stretch on for miles! As a result, the sailor scouts now kind of look like they're all in their mid-twenties! And they want to convince me they're high-schoolers? Yeah, right. Suuuure. Of course, I understand that they were going for a style that mimics that of the original author's (Naoko Takeuchi). Too bad I don't really like Takeuchi's art either... For me, the character designs from the 90's anime were the best. They actually looked their age there.

2) Faces: Closely related to 1. Something about them is off-putting. Possibly because, again, I don't really like Takeuchi's art. At any rate, they seem to have lost a lot of expressiveness. Characters don't emote like they did in the 90's show anymore. Which is a shame, because faces in the 90's show were so expressive...

3) Music: Eh... The opening song is all right, I guess, but it can't top Moonlight Densetsu. Then again, I don't think anything could. Moonlight Densetsu is just so intrinsically tied to Sailor Moon. Other than that, I noticed the use of dramatic choirs in certain scenes. Not bad per se, but certainly not something I would associate with Sailor Moon.

4) Mood: The original show was mostly comedic in nature, with the occasional bouts of drama during plot-heavy episodes (usually during the middle and end of each story arc). It was balanced perfectly, in my opinion. Most of the time, the show didn't take itself seriously, which makes sense, considering the ridiculous premise behind it (because, yeah, let's face it: magical talking cats? schoolgirls that use magical pens to transform, strike poses Power Ranger-style and fight for love and justice? short-sighted bad guys that only ever seem to attack the same town our heroines live in, one monster at a time? the whole premise is and has always been absurd! Deliciously absurd!). The new series, however, seems to have dispensed with the comedic aspects. Now it's like they're trying to make it all dramatic and Serious Business-like. And it just doesn't work. At least not for me. Because the absurdity of the premise remains intact, and that's something that just can't be taken seriously. I'm not going to believe that that bus just drove into a warp portal in the middle of the city during day time and absolutely no one but the main character witnessed it. You can't play that kind of stuff straight. It's just way too ridiculous. It needs the comedic treatment to help maintain suspension of disbelief. Which, again, is something the 90's show had in spades, and it worked wonders. Also, yes, I understand that Sailor Moon Crystal is trying to be closer to the source material -Takeuchi's manga- which would explain the sudden drop in comedy levels. Of course, I didn't really like the manga, for all the aforementioned reasons.

5) Misc: Contrary to what you'd expect after having read all that, I didn't mind the CGI used in the transformation scenes. It was pretty cool, actually. Also, some of the in-universe technological upgrades are funny. Like Serena/Usagi's brand-new pink laptop, which she still doesn't know how to use! Still no cellphones in sight, though. On the other hand, sometimes the quality of the art hiccups and we get mismatched eyes, and the occasional single-frame monstrosity such as this.

So, three episodes in, Crystal isn't exactly living up to expectation. Of course, that's just my opinion. Anyway, here's hoping things improve later on. We'll see!

UPDATE: We got a winner:  jakewolgon

ORIGINAL POST:

So, in order to celebrate the recent acquisition of my very first HD TV (good-bye, 4:3 ratio!), I decided to host a little contest. Here's a picture of my shiny new TV.
http://www.rphaven.org/gs/hdtv.jpg
The Simpsons was on at the time. If you guess correctly which episode this is, you win a free picture! Yay! But please read the following notes first:

1) You don't have to guess the exact title of the episode. A short description of the storyline will suffice (example: "This is the episode where Homer and Bart something-something-something, and then they something-something-something").
2) You have three guesses.
3) Post your guesses to this journal. You may only post your guesses once (all three guesses in one post, please!). Posting more than once equals disqualification!
4) The first person to correctly guess the episode wins a free picture by yours truly (booooo!). Sorry, that's all I can offer!
5) Said picture will be a single character, full body. Pose and background at my discretion. Reference pictures mandatory. These will be asked via PM.
6) There's no deadline.

I think that's about it. Good luck! :)

So, for a while I've been hearing about this "Patreon" thing, which apparently enables artists to magically make money in some mysterious, arcane way. I hear it's kinda like Kickstarter, but not really. And I'm all confused. Confused and clueless like a 90-year-old man trying to figure out what a Microsoft Windows is. So I went and did a little research. Generally it sounds nice. I mean, I like the idea of making at least some money off my art and stuff, and who wouldn't? But then there are so many different modes and configurations that just make my head hurt. Also, according to their FAQ, NSFW stuff doesn't seem to be allowed, unless it's tame, but even then it will still make the artist ineligible for Paypal use, and since I live well outside the US of A, that restriction kinda doesn't help one bit...

So, yeah. What do you guys think? Is this worth a second look?

Oh well. Maybe next time?
Congrats to Germany.

Hello, this is yours truly with another editorial of sorts. So, beware of the wall of text down below. You've been warned.

So, uh, how about them pokeymanz? With the pokeys, and the manz...
About two months ago (at the time of writing) I acquired Pokemon Y, the latest (at the time of writing) entry in Nintendo's Pokemon video game series, for Nintendo 3DS. Before that, I had only played Pokemon Red and Pokemon Silver, in the late nineties, back when the Pokemon craze was at its peak. Back then I also watched the accompanying anime, which is something I did fairly regularly until some point at the beginning of the Advance saga, when fatigue set in and I realized I wasn't enjoying the show anymore. It had become transparently predictable, stale, and pretty much creatively bankrupt, with over 95% of the episodes using the exact same formula (meet guy/pokemon of the week, help him/her/it solve some problem, defeat bumbling Team Rocket trio along the way, everyone laughs ending, the end, rinse and repeat next week). Overall, this effectively killed my interest in the franchise, so I ignored every game that had come since, starting with Ruby/Sapphire on the Game Boy Advance. I was done with Pokemon. Done for good.

Or so I believed! Not too long ago (at the time of writing), someone in Twitch.tv had the crazy idea of streaming a game of Pokemon Red where the commands were read from the chat. This resulted in several thousands of people (way over 9000, by the way. Sorry, Vegeta) issuing commands over the chat non-stop. The result sort of looked like 50,000+ people trying to play the same game of Pokemon Red at the same time. It was fascinatingly chaotic. As you'd expect, the in-game character moved erratically, often bumping into walls, walking in circles and trying to use the wrong items at the wrong time. Otherwise trivial obstacles (such as the infamous ledges) suddenly became nigh unsurmountable roadblocks. Hundreds of memes were born throughout the journey, inspired by the in-game character's unpredictable behavior (such as the whole Lord Helix thing). Eventually, after a little over two weeks of playing non-stop, the mob managed to beat the game, and then they moved onto the next generation.

I learned about this phenomenon sometime during its first week, and became hooked. Suddenly Pokemon was new and fresh again. By playing the game in such an unorthodox manner, they managed to rekindle my long-dead interest in the franchise. Eventually, I decided that maybe it was time for me to get on with the times and try the latest game in the franchise, to see how much it had evolved throughout all these years. Thus, after skipping over three entire generations, I went and purchased Pokemon Y for the Nintendo 3DS.
So what did I find? Well, besides the expected aural and graphical improvement, I saw that not much had really changed. Character movement was still constrained to a rigid grid in which you can only move one "tile" at a time, and more often than not there was no in-between animation when changing directions, not unlike the behavior of the old 8-bit sprites from the Game Boy Pokemon games I had played in the late nineties. Also, some of the sound effects were the exact same as in those games. I didn't think these were good or bad things. I was more like "huh, interesting". Then the improvements started to make themselves apparent. First and foremost, diagonal movement! The main character could now walk in 8 directions, which I thought was a big improvement over Red and Silver. Then I discovered that if you held down B, the main character could also run! Awesome! As I kept playing, I noticed more stuff here and there, such as the streamlined menu navigation, the vastly improved PC mechanics (to say they leave the overly clunky PC mechanics of the original games in the dust is an understatement), the super fast bike, the bottomless bag, etc. I also had to adjust to some battle mechanics that were brand-new to me, like pokemon abilities, weather conditions, double/triple battles, etc. All in all, I liked everything I saw, and soon enough I was hopelessly hooked, traveling around this all-new Kalos world and trying to catch 'em all along the way.

So, this all got me thinking: what is it that makes these games so appealing?
Because, let's face it, the world of Pokemon makes no effin' sense. I mean, this is a world where it's okay to let some 10-year-old kid travel around the land completely unsupervised! Also, drawing comparisons between pokemon battles and cockfights is unfortunately way too easy. So, what is it? What's the hook? In my opinion, I believe it all comes down to one thing: OCD.
Pokemon, at its core, is basically a bar-filling simulator. It appeals to the player's OCD side, encouraging them to go and collect every single critter out there to try and fill the Pokedex (the in-game Pokemon master checklist, which pretty much is the mother of all the bars that needs filling). Also, there's a certain allure in building up a Pokemon's level, making it grow stronger and stronger, which basically takes on the form of yet another, very visible bar that needs filling (with experience points).
Then there are the critters themselves. They run the show. With over 700 of them, there's bound to be something for everyone. What kind of Pokemon do you like? Cute and cuddly like Pikachu? Scary like Haunter? Serious like Lucario? Quadrupedal like Absol? Silly-looking like Slowpoke? Badass like Mewtwo? Anthropomorphic like Blaziken? Awe-inspiring like Yveltal? Completely off-the-wall like Klefki? You name it; they've got you covered. The battles are fun too, and the initial apparent simplicity of its basic rock-paper-scissors framework hides a potentially very complex system underneath (I mean, I've seen some really clever strategies on YouTube that made my jaw drop!).

So, yeah. Pokemon. I wonder if I will be able to catch 'em all? We'll see!

In case you guys didn't know, La-Mulana 2012 is one of my favorite games ever, up there with the likes of Mario and Zelda in my book. Now that the developers have just opened a Kickstarter for the sequel, there's no way in hell (temple) I'm not doing my part to help spread the word about it. So, here's the link!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects.....ana-2?ref=live
I can't wait! :D

First of all, sorry for the massive wall of text, this got a bit longer than I expected! >.>

So, a couple months ago, I randomly heard about some old anime called "Ginga Nagareboshi Gin", which apparently was big in some European countries (but not so much in Japan itself). All I heard about it is that it was about dogs. I happen to like dogs, and I also happen to like anime, so naturally my interest was piqued. Eventually, I did a little search and found that there was also a sequel called "Ginga Densetsu Weed". Not long after that I found fansubs for both. I finished watching them a couple days ago, and here are my respective, spoiler-free impressions-slash-reviews:

Ginga Nagareboshi Gin:
(Silver Fang, Shooting Star Gin)
An 80's anime through and through. It's 21 episodes long, and it basically chronicles the adventures of a young Akita Inu dog called Gin (the G is pronounced as in the word "give") as he travels all over Japan recruiting other dogs to fight a killer bear that's terrorizing his home land. There's a lot of characters, and almost all of them are proud warrior types with a strong honor code that puts massive emphasis on undying loyalty among allies/friends. There's lots of violent deaths, heroic sacrifices, blood, dramatic yelling of characters' names, more blood, rivers of manly tears being shed, and yet more blood. Did I mention the blood yet? Yep. This is clearly an anime from that ancient era that also gave us real tearjerkers such as Kerokko Demetan, Honeybee Hutch or Sandy Belle. Except with dogs, and bucketloads of blood.
However, it wasn't without its flaws... Putting the decidedly aged 80's-style animation and character design aside, there are some issues that can get in the way of enjoying the show. First and foremost is a somewhat jarring and sudden change in focus and overall plot direction that occurs in the 7th episode. Up until that point, the focus was on the human side -mainly an old hunter and his grandson- and how they both train Gin to be a bear-hunting dog. Things were mostly on the realistic side, with the dogs behaving like dogs (as in not being capable of speech, for one). Then an important plot point occurs in episode 7, and the human characters are pretty much dropped from the story. The focus shifts entirely to Gin and the other dogs, and suddenly we can hear their thoughts, and they can even communicate with each other in perfect Japanese! (well, sure, it's a translation convention for the sake of the viewer, but still!). The arguably realistic world built on the first 6 episodes suddenly becomes that much less realistic, as it's suddenly revealed that dogs possess human-like intelligence, and are even capable of impossible feats such as leaping across ridiculously wide gorges or -eventually- moving as fast as lightning. Once a pack of ninja dogs is introduced (along with all the ninja tropes you'd expect), you know the realism of the first six episodes is simply gone for good. Now, don't get me wrong: it's not that I can't handle the fantasy elements (eventually I just accepted them); it's just that, in my opinion, they were introduced so abruptly it kind of gave me whiplash. It was almost like I suddenly started watching a completely different show!
The other issue is... the plot holes. From about the half point onwards, it starts to become painfully clear that the show runners had started to condense events and even seemingly skip entire scenes, which left a few things unexplained and other such stuff. It was at this point that I realized the show was based on a manga, and after a little research I found out that there were indeed quite a few scenes in the original manga that were simply omitted in the anime, and those omissions created the plot holes that had left me confused. My guess is that the show was originally intended to last longer, but had to be cut short for whatever reason (most likely low ratings), so the show runners began to hastily wrap things up as fast as they could. That was quite unfortunate.
So, all in all, I liked it, but I thought it could have been much, much better had they handled the transition between episodes 6 and 7 better -something that I believe was handled much more successfully in the manga, might I add- and had they not condensed the second half so much. Would I recommend it? Well, I dunno... These flaws I've just explained, combined with the aged art and animation, conspire against the enjoyment of the show. If you ask me, I'd say watch the sequel first. And speaking of which...

Ginga Densetsu Weed:
(Silver Fang Legend, Weed)
Produced in the year 2005, 26 episodes. Being a much more modern production, this anime is much, much easier on the eyes. The plot, which adapts the first two arcs of the corresponding manga, is much more cohesive and coherent, telling a whole self-contained story without the issues I mentioned in GNG. That is, no jarring focus shifts and no plot holes. As a result, I liked this one much better than its predecessor! Yes, I know a lot of stuff was changed from the source material, but I'm judging it on its own merits. It is, after all, an adaptation, with all that means. And, at least in my opinion, it was a good adaptation, and that's why I consider this show the perfect entry point for anyone interested in checking out the Ginga world.
The story takes place about a decade after the events of GNG, and stars Gin's son, Weed. Because of certain circumstances, he never met his father. Once his mother succumbs to illness, the young Weed decides to go in search of his father Gin, having adventures and making friends along the way. Little does he know that his father's home land (that he fought so hard for in GNG) is currently being torn apart by an unspeakable horror... As in the original series, there's no shortage of blood, deaths, tearjerker moments, etc. Gotta say, some scenes really had me on the verge of tears, and I'm not kidding! I mean, man, these poor dogs just can't catch a break. I swear, it's like they can only go from bad to worse!
Now, a big part of the reason I think it's best to start with this anime first (as opposed to starting with GNG) is because the changes made to the source material were focused on making the story as self-contained and independent from its predecessor as possible, and in my opinion it actually works! You don't need to watch GNG first to understand GDW, at all. A flashback on episode one pretty much tells you everything you need to know. There are many returning characters, yes, but none needs any prior knowledge about them to understand what's going on. Now, if you DO watch GNG first, well, then one of the first things you'll notice in GDW is the complete absence of the human characters from GNG. Only the old hunter who owned Gin is briefly shown in a flashback on episode one, but that's it. The other named human characters from GNG (mainly the hunters's grandson and a different hunter who was a rival of sorts) are gone without a trace in this adaptation. This wasn't the case in the manga, where those characters continued to make relatively meaningful appearances every now and then. As a result of these changes, GDW feels different than GNG, kind of like if the two shows belonged on different continuities, sort of. Actually, I believe a few changes are an improvement over the original manga, such as Rocket's character arc, which in my opinion was handled a lot better in this animated adaptation. Purists will rage for sure, but in my opinion the changes contribute to make the story feel a lot more focused... at the cost of maybe feeling like an alternate continuity of sorts if compared to the original 80's series, but that only matters if you've seen GNG first. And that's why I believe it's better to start with this one first, and then, if -and only if- you feel like learning more about the origins of the legacy characters, watch GNG afterwards. However, if you do so, be mindful of all the things I explained in the above paragraphs.
The other part of the reason is because the story here is simply more interesting than the story in GNG, probably because of the antagonists. If you ask me, GDW's villains are much more interesting than GNG's rampaging killer bear. But that's just me.

Random comments before I finish this post:
-These dogs seem to have a chronic inability to close their mouths. 99% of the time their mouths are just hanging open, even when it's cold!
-Spinning drill bite attack thing. It's just so silly. All the dogs use it all the time, especially in GNG, and it looks so silly there's just no way I could ever take it seriously.
-GDW features what could very well be the vilest, cruelest, most heartless villain I've ever seen in media, ever: Hougen. He's... not a very nice fellow, I'll tell you that.
-Both shows only adapt the first couple of arcs from their respective manga counterparts. The manga itself is an incredibly long long runner, with a combined total of about ninety 200-page tomes released and it's still ongoing! It's crazy! And humbling.
-We established that both animated adaptations are full of blood and violent deaths. Can you believe the original manga is even more violent and graphic? Because it is. So very much.
-Weed is pretty much Jesus in dog form. His father Gin has much of that too, but Weed somehow out-Jesus' him!
-What's with Smith's voice in GNG? Dude sounds like a girl!
-Ninja dogs. No, seriously, how do they work?
-My favorite character? Weed. After that, it's kind of a three-way tie between Gin, John and Jerome.

tl;dr:
Ginga Densetsu Weed is a good dog-based anime. I enjoyed it, but it needs more love. Give it a try. You might like it too.

This week saw the debut of not one, but two Kickstarter projects that got my attention. One is Mighty No. 9, from Mega Man co-creator Keiji Inafune. It looks like it's aiming to carry on Mega Man's legacy. It reached its base goal of U$S 900,000 in less than two days! How crazy awesome is that? The other is Shantae: Half-Genie Hero from WayForward. Shantae is a series of games (well, two games and a third one coming soon-ish at the time of writing) that play sort of like a cross between WBIII: The Dragon's Trap and Zelda II, except with refined gameplay mechanics, a colorful, almost all-female cast, and a wacky sense of humor. The first two games (which are readily available on the 3DS eshop) were a lot of fun, I can tell you that.

Here are the links for these two projects, in case anyone reading my gamer ramblings is interested:

- Mighty No. 9
- Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

EDIT: Added the following link to an informative YouTube video explaining the history of Shantae and all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc6tZ6Hwpp0

I wish them the best of lucks.
GeminiSaint out!

...Nintendo won the E3 today.

-New Donkey Kong Country game. (trailer)
-Super Mario 3D World. (trailer)
-Mario Kart 8. (trailer)
-Mega Man confirmed for SSB4. (trailer)
-And a lot more.

My body was not ready for all this.
I rest my case.

"This is where the Mother lays to rest.
In this path of trials, only heroes who do
not fear death are permitted to proceed..."
-First stone tablet in the ruins.

Oh, La-Mulana... Think Super Metroid meets Castlevania with a dash of Indiana Jones thrown in for good measure. It's tough, it's challenging, it's only the best video game I had played in a long, long time.

And now it's on Steam!

If you don't mind a good -sometimes merciless- challenge and puzzles that will make your brain bleed, this game is for you. Just grab your whip, hold onto your hat, and brave the deathtrap-ridden depths of La-Mulana!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/230700/

It's that time again: I need credit for the Nintendo 3DS e-shop. Thus, I'm taking a few commissions to help me raise my virtual funds.

These commissions will cost one U$S 20 Nintendo 3DS prepaid card per character on the picture. Note that actually owning a Nintendo 3DS console is NOT necessary for this. Only the card is needed. Once you have the card, you just have to scratch the back of the card and send me the number code hidden there.

Due to the regional nature of the 3DS, only US and Canadian cards will work. Sadly, this means I can only accept commissions from people who reside in the US or Canada.

If you are interested, just send me a private note with references and stuff. Thanks in advance!
____________________

No slots currently available at the moment.

Long story short: I got a Nintendo 3DS, and I need some credit for the e-shop. Thus, I'm taking three quick-ish commissions (1 character + color + background) to help me raise some virtual funds.

These commissions will cost one U$S 20 Nintendo 3DS prepaid card each. Note that actually owning a Nintendo 3DS console is NOT necessary for this. Only the card is needed. Once you have the card, you just have to scratch the back of the card and send me the number code hidden there.

Due to the regional nature of the 3DS, only US cards will work for sure.

If you are interested, just send me a private note with references and stuff. Thanks in advance!

UPDATE: All slots taken. Commissions closed for the time being.
____________________

Slot 1:  jasonwerefox (complete!)

For the past 33 months I've been working on a video game, namely, the sequel to "Chronicles of Galia: The First Mission", which I released in 2008. Well, the sequel to that game is finally complete! Ladies and gentlemen, "Chronicles of Galia 2: The Shadow of Evil" is finally here! Jean-Pierre, the royal knight, is back in his biggest adventure yet! More dungeons! More items! More features, including an all-new map feature and an option to skip random battle encounters! Don Jean-Pierre's armor once more, raise your blade of justice and solve the mystery of the Shadow of Evil!

The game was programmed using 100% QBasic language. It plays like an old-school Zelda game, except with turn-based battles and a retro presentation. Crafted with love for fans of retrogaming goodness! Just be sure to read all the instructions, as it's very likely you will have to use an MS-DOS emulator such as DOSBox to play it.

You can download the game from its official web page, here: [link]

And in case you missed the first game: [link]

_____________________

Commission list:

1)  DreKozar

(All slots taken: commissions now closed till further notice!)

I'm opening commissions again, but I will only be taking 3 or 4, so as to not overwork myself like last time. The payment system is the same as last time. Namely, I only accept Wii Points (2000 points per character). Points are obtained via scratch-cards found in stores. Owning a Wii console is not necessary at all. Only the card is needed.

Over and out!
_____________________

Commission list:

1)  doppleganger (inking, 100% done)
2)  DreKozar

(All slots taken: commissions now closed till further notice!)

http://www.rphaven.org/gs/stuff/foto_cel29.jpg
Rocky, 2002 - 2010

I will never forget you.
Rest in peace.

I'm closing commissions for a while to recharge my energy, stretch my legs, breathe some fresh air, spend time with my personal projects, etc, etc.

Pending commissions (listed below) will still be worked on and completed.

Well, that's all for now.
Later!
_____________________

Commission list:

1)  Kenoshi

Well, guess what? I won that contest! :D

So, yeah. Like I said, I'm going to do one linework picture (FREE!) for everyone here who voted for me. Namely:

- Akkeresu
- Bacent
- beowulf100
- GreenEyedT
- doppleganger
- DreKozar
- Gilian
- Gryphbear
- hazardesign
- JakeWolgon
- KingDead
- Kitsuryu
- Lethias
- malandus
- Raistlinhawke
- Rolley
- Rys_Khyrsal
- sexywhitetiger
- Ssvanti
- Tachi
- tamurross
- TsukuyomiYue
- unholybeast
- Xbuimonsama
- zelgodis-graywords

Everyone in the above list, feel free to PM me with your request whenever you want. If reference pictures are available, please provide those too. But before you PM me, here are a few notes:

1) One character only.
2) No other objects. No background.
3) No color, Linework Only.
4) Final Destination! (jk)

Well, there you go!
And again, thanks for helping me win :)
_____________________

Commission list:

1)  doppleganger
2)  Kenoshi
3) Available slot.
4) Available slot.
5) Available slot.

I'll go straight to the point.

Please go here: http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/2578976/
and vote for "GeminiSaint".

If you voted for me and I win, I'll do a linework picture for you, for FREE!
Thanks in advance, my fellow furries
_____________________

Commission list:

1)  Drunklion (2nd sketch done)
2)  DreKozar (inking, 95%)
3)  Ssvanti
4)  doppleganger
5) Available slot.

Oh, hey! Are you looking into commissioning me? Well, that's awesome! If you are from North America, I've got a brand new payment option for you! Read on:

Up until now, Western Union was the only way you could pay me for my art services. But now, I'm enabling a new (and cheaper!) form of payment, only for US, Canada and Mexico residents! What I'm talking about is Wii Points.

Unless you are a gamer like me, this is what you need to know about Wii Points: They're also called "Nintendo Points", and it's the currency Nintendo uses for its video game systems through their online shops. You can get them in scratch-cards that can be purchased at video game stores. 1000 Nintendo Points equal US$ 10; 2000 Nintendo Points equal US$ 20, and so on.

Q: How do I pay you with Wii Points?
A: Well, if the commission is, say, US$ 30, you have to buy 3000 Points (the cards come in 1000, 2000 and 3000 points, if I'm not mistaken). Then you scratch the panel on the back of the card(s) to reveal the code(s), then you send such code(s) to me via private Note or e-mail. It's that easy!

Q: What about US$ 25 commissions?
A: Since Nintendo Point Cards only come in thousands, I'm going to round the pricing of those commissions in your favor and accept 2000 Points (US$ 20) as payment for them! Similarly, US$ 15 commissions will be 1000 points; US$ 35 commissions become 3000 points, and so on and so forth.

Q: How is this cheaper than using Western Union?
A: Well, in order to send money via Western Union, you have to pay them a little extra fee that goes to their pockets. With the Nintendo Points method, there's none of that!

Q: Why is this deal North America-only?
A: Because my Wii console is US/NTSC, and can only connect to the American shop channel. I can't do anything about it; sorry.

Q: Why don't you buy the points yourself?
A: I would if I could, believe me. But I can't, because I live in Argentina, and you can't directly buy Nintendo Points here. Not even online via credit card. I tried.

Well, I think that would cover it. I'm just going to add that, starting today, this is the favored method of paying, until I say otherwise. See you guys later! :)
_____________________

Commission list:

1)  Drunklion (2nd sketch done)
2)  DreKozar (inking, 95%)
3)  Ssvanti
4) Available slot.
5) Available slot.

So I finally got a Wii!
It was a long, tough road filled with all sorts of seemingly insurmountable hurdles and hardships, but I finally managed to get my hands on that object of desire called a Nintendo Wii. Not without help, I must say. I had the inestimable help of an awesome friend from the USA, who bought the console and mailed it to me at a much more affordable price than what it would have costed here in my country.
The first Wii game I tried? Mega Man 9. Awesome, awesome game, that one. The beloved blue bomber is truly back. Super Mario Galaxy looks cool too. I think I'm playing those two first.
As for new art of mine, there's stuff coming soon to a FurAffinity gallery near you! ;)

An awesome friend of mine made a badly-written Pokemon fanfiction on purpose, spoofing real bad fictions on the web. And I decided to animate it in Flash, sort of like what they did in the popular "Full Life Consequences" series of videos. And here it is!

Link to the flash video on Newgrounds: [link]

Well, I hope you guys like this thing! =)

All your b... yeah.

Well, I figured I should write something here. Um... first of all, a million thanks to everyone who has commented and/or favorited some of my stuff in the gallery, as well as those who added me to their watch list. Your support is encouraging, and I really appreciate that. Secondly, sorry for not submitting stuff more often. I'm kinda slow when it comes to drawing, I guess... ^_^'

All right, I think this should do for now. Yeah, I didn't really have much to say. Sorry about that. Hopefully that won't be true next time. So, see you fine people later!