Excuse Me As I Fangirl Over Gilmore Girls Return

There is excitement, and then fangirl excitement. This is the latter.

Long ago, even that of predating my days of fandom and the path of being a writer was my days filled with the likes of the Gilmore Girls. Even after all these years I still carry such found memories of the series and the characters that still deeeply resonate with me.

Authoress' Fall Anime Selections and Early Impressions and Thoughts

Outside of writer's block there is nothing worse than finals in fiction.

After a season full of such diverse series led characters that you have come to love- or love to hate- seeing the last page play out is bitter sweet.

From my stand-point, the summer anime season was a grand one and has resulted in some fantastic series that I already know I will miss as soon as the credits roll for one last time.

Love Live Movie- General Thoughs

After months of waiting the Love Live School Idol Movie made it's way to select theaters across America. A affair that was both celebrated and welcomed by fans of the series.

Considering I had been hoping that somewhere close by would be screening the film when word of NIS America getting the rights first came about and per-ordering my ticket only shear hours after the listings became live, I was excited and ready to see next stage for the girls.

So this past weekend I headed down to Columbus, Ohio like many Love Live fans to see Muse shine on the silver screen.

Disney's Star Darlings, Lolirock and Magical Girls in General

If you follow me over on Tumblr you probably have noted that my blog is full of a mesh of different things ranging from writing tools and hacks to animes that I obsess over- yeah that is normal.

Ever since D23, the Disney-centric convention held last month, I have been keeping a good eye on a new series by the house of mouse known as Disney's Star Darlings. A new series that I have heard a bit about well before it really came into light.  As about a week the web-site launched and with it a array of images.

Ladybug and Cat Noir Coming State-Side in December

Way back in June I had made my first post about the very hyped and anticipated series known as Miraculous Ladybug upon the news that Nick revived the rights for America.

A Little Ramblings About Fiction, Fan Fiction That Is

Fiction always open doors to new world, characters and concepts. It has been that way ever since stories where told and penned. No matter what type of medium you indulge in may it be that of comics featuring super-heroes or musicals there is a specific narrative aspect present. 

Even though writers always try and try to strive for perfection, or as close as one can possibly achieve to such, there are always bound to be some hiccups along the way. From plot-holes, under-developed characters, not capitalizing full potential and the list can very well go on depending on what specifically you are keeping in mind. Even though some series and works are stronger than others, things happen. And by no means am I singling any specific series out, but nothing is perfect and not every viewer and or reader is necessary going to like the work. The saying that you cannot please everyone is extremely true.

Everyone has at one point or another found displeased or long for something they have never seen in canon. Having a desire to know what happens after 'the end', wanting to know what happened in the past the caused things to be as they are.

All of these are that of instances that can provoke fan fiction. And lots of it might I add.

Granted, there are seemingly millions of reasons, ideas, thoughts and oh so much more than can draw someone into reading and even writing fan fiction. From wanting to see two vastly different series' realities collide, running with the idea if a character made a different choice than they did, if X ended up developing feelings for W...again, I can go on for a while about this. And what I specifically mentioned is only a tiny sliver of what you can and will find.

Within the spectrum of fan fiction there truly is no limit and now true defined boundaries- and if there just so happen to be any you can always re-write them. I have from time to time joked that writing fan fiction is somewhat like playing around in a sand-box; you have your basic tools of established worlds and characters, but the rest is complete up to you to build and image.

As exciting it is to try your hand at capturing beloved characters by your own hand, it is that reason alone that often draws criticism. Some of it comes from the fact a writer is writing characters they themselves did not create and just general misconceptions about fan fiction being poorly written and filled with, for lack of a better term, adult content.

Is there fan fiction works that have very adult content- yes, but some are actually done rather tastefully.

Is there fan fiction that is poorly written- oh yeah. I am not saying it this to be mean or offensive, but I have to say with truth that fan fiction that is pure and total cringe-worthy, wanting to rip my eyes out horrid fan fiction does exit. Why? Because even my early, early work was at this level.

Short of being a living, breathing writing god sent from a land full of troves of literature, no one starts out being great at writing. For a lot of writers, including that of myself, fan fiction is somewhat counted as a training ground. A good way to really get into writing and being before a large audience of readership and gaining feedback. For that matter much of what I do know about writing and my advancements over the years have been results of my own behalf from continually writing, reading blogs and just the good old classic try and fail. 

As I said before, there is not a single thing that if truly perfect. Even experienced and well-versed writers fan fictioners have technical issues, make rookie mistakes and even turn out crappy works. Writing is art and not every single story is glitter and gold.

Even with piles of poorly written work, there are in fact gems to be found. Naturally the challenge is finding them. Similar to writing any type of fiction, there is never a very detailed formula to find great works. More often than not you will find yourself scrolling page after page trying to find something that strikes a cord.

For the best recommendations are usually that of people you know, or writers that you like. Usually if a skilled author has someone listed as a favorite or follow it might be worth a shot. Short of that TV Tropes' recommendations sections and fan-sites' picks are the only other great tools.

Despite all the contradictions about fan fiction, it really is a great doorway for those who seek out the life of writing to fans who want to express their passion for series they love. Even though you are working with certain aspects of canon there is a lot of range to work with and limitless potential that can really allow someone to make it something entirety of their own.

Love Live Re-watch and Review: Season One, Episode One

With the North America theatrical release of the Love Live movie less than a month away, more t-minus twenty-five more days, you can image that there are rather high levels of fangirling occuring on my end. With that and having Love Live listed as one of the countless series I wanted to review here on a ever-growing list, now seemed like the perfect chance.

So for the next twenty-six days I will be posting reviews of the entire series leading up to the movie's arrival. 

 I feel that as a disclaimer I should note that when I first walking into the series I did no research before hand like I typically do. All I knew was the summary as in the RightSuf catalog months before (incidentally it was marked high on my list of series to seek out) and that it was commonly displayed on Cruchyroll's home-page. Outside of that, zip. I had no clue just how big the series was until after I finished binge-watching the series.

Yes, I completely binge-watched the series in about three days time. It was had to stop as I just wanted to continue to see the next episode. I somehow allowed myself to get so deeply drawn in during such a short period of time.

 Of course specifics will be highlighted as they appear.

Of course, spoilers will be below the break!

 Now without further ramblings here we go. Season one, episode one- May Our Dreams Come True!

The Possible Future of Disney Afternoon

Very rarely have I found myself rendered speechless let alone completely un-able to peace words together. In retrospect it is a very good thing as a writer. But right now I cannot properly speak as I perhaps reached a new level of fangirl-ism.

I have been a bit out of things lately and thus perhaps tragically behind, as a post on July thirty-first by Disney Afternoon Forever very recently came onto my radar. The subject in question is that, as you can presume, of the Disney Afternoon.

Castle Town Dandelion Episodes Three and Four

There is fan-service, and then there is fan-service.

And Castle Town Dandelion has more than you can shake a stick at.

Because I am so tragically behind on reviews and posts here (not forgetting- things have been crazy, Midnight is being a royal pain plus some more technical issues), I am going to be pushing to get more reviews out in groups such as this in attempts to catch-up.

Spoilers below!

Castle Town Dandelion Episiode Two

Going off my previous post involving voting, it only seemed somewhat fitting to shift gears to episode two and three of Castle Town Dandelion.

I know that, technically, the rule is that you give a series three episodes leave-way before you decide if you are going to stick with it or not. I suppose I missed that memo in my newbie shuffle. But after so far in and not caring what I was seeing, well... that is beside the point and border-line rambling.

I had a rather good feeling about this series from the get go, and now three episodes in I see that I was correct about it and there is no question that this is a strong series for the season and possibly one that can become a favorite.

But I could do without all the fan-service, really I could. Unless we are talking about fan-service a la Uta no Prince Sama ( so I have a thing for STARISH... he-he) then I am not that interested thank you very much.

Darkwing Duck Featured in New Poll For Disney Infinity

Someone is happy.

Okay, do not let the image above confuse you. But like Maki, there is something to be excited about.

Today on Disney's blog a new poll surfaced that called upon fans to vote for what Disney character they wished to join the line-up in the popular game known as Disney Infinity. And one of the those characters is the terror that flaps in the night, Darkwing Duck! *Insert fangirl scream and glee here.*

As some of you might know the beloved masked mallard was poised to be part of the upcoming addition to the game, but lost his place in a previous poll to Olaf. Yeah, I was no happy authoress when I heard that.

Even though I have not actually really talked about Darkwing here-but I did a post all about him- the series is very much a huge deal to me. So the prospect of him being in the game is massive, as not only means I finally get a Darkwing figure to display and love to death, it also can open the doors to getting rest of the series released and who knows what else.

The poll is live, but for how long remains to be seen. Even though as I write this Darkwing is indeed in the lead that can change. So if you will vote for him. 

Because it really does matter and could cause a chain reaction. Darkwing more than needs this, he deserves this.

My (late) reviews and first impressions from this anime season are on the way and have been derailed by Camp NaNoWriMo, but I promise they will be coming. So keep a eye out for them!

Thank you all for reading- more is to come.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica: Homura's Revenge Volume One Review

Can I just start by saying how much I adore Madoka Magica? Okay, adore might not be the best adjective, obsessed and complete lust might be more fitting terms.  After stumbling across the series due to curiosity of why said series was so hyped back at the end of last year I have completely fallen in love with the series and the characters. I cannot even recall how many times I have re-watched the series, I stopped counting after a while.

My point; I love this series and it has claimed the title of the best anime in this authoress' book.  And by extension the mangas have also been a major reading staple.

And this, Homura's Revenge has been a series I have been very excited about being released and eager to see what was in store for our puella magis.

At this point it is critical to add a major spoiler warning. Not only for the contents of this specific manga, but the entire Madoka Magica series!

Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls Episode 14 Review

Hi everyone, at long last a new review is up and this time the idols from Idolmaster's Cinderella Girls have returned from a season long break for the rest of the series.

As always spoilers below!

First Impressions: Castle Town Dandelion

First, apologizes for the delay; things came up off-line that took antecedence.

Now onto the post:

There have been quite a few series from this season that had manged to captivate my attention even months prior to the start of summer. Snow White with the Red Hair as one, but there was a few other titles as well, one of which is Jōkamachi no Dandelion- or if your prefer, Castle Town Dandelion.

Castle Town Dandelion is a adaption of a 4-Panel manga series that centers around the lives of nine super-powered children of the kingdom's royal family as their every move is filmed on camera and then broadcasts across the nation to help the citizens decide who they will vote to succeed the throne.

Castle Town Dandelion plays off a few different themes that I cannot say I have ever quite seen meshed together before; fantasy dipping into science-fiction elements with the array of powers each of the children bestow, slice-of-life and reality television mixed in. That alone makes things interesting and gives a lot to play with in addition to having such a large cast. The latter I admit I enjoy as I really do love large, ensemble casts.

As I write this the second episode has already up on FUNimation's web-site for streaming, but due to length I will be saving the next episode for a post that I hope will be posted later this week.

First Impressions: Snow White with the Red Hair

After looking over my previous first impressions post, featuring three different series, I realizes that not only did I dislike how it was complied, but it also was very discorded. Instead I will be doing individual post for each series' first impressions, and later weekly reviews.

As you can guess this blog is about a little series known as Snow White with the Red Hair.

Fairy-tales have always been a rather major staple in the various mediums of pop culture, due to that fact they are often very overly used and end up being troops. As of now there is a lot going on with fairy-tales; from all the Disney live-action films, Ever After High, and the upcoming Disney Channel movie Descendants- yeah, there is a lot and it is easy to feel 'meh' about fairy-tales after consuming so much.

Despite it all, Snow White with the Red Hair was a true breath of fresh-air with stunning animation with great writing that offered a new, refreshing spin on the old fable.

The story starts with our protagonist, Shirayuki, a young woman with uncommon bright apple-red hair that makes her gain attention from the prince of her kingdom. So much in fact that he summons her to become his concubine. Rather than being flattered or elated at the information, Shirayuki is disgusted and even remarks that she would be a embarrassment as much. With no other choice Shirayuki makes the decision to leave her kingdom- and life as a herbalist-  and set out on a new chapter.

After leaving getting across the border, Skirakyuki wanders through the forest trying to find her way. Some time passes and she comes across a empty house, unable to enter inside Skirakyuki falls asleep at the side of the building. The next morning she meets three others who use said house as a hang-out. One of which, Zen, takes a liking to her quickly. After returning from a walk, Shirayuki and Zen find a basket of apples at the door- one of which is poisoned.

Clearly I am not going to give everything away, because this is a series worth a watch. :)

There are a some of classic Snow White elements presented in the first episode, as to be expected, but the series does not go over-board with it and is able to give their own spin on the classic fable. Snow White with the Red Hair is not your run of the mill Snow White adaptation.

Shirayuki is not like her other Snow White counterparts; she is very smart, selfless and caring. She is willing to do what she needs to do, not only her her sake, but also for others and is a very strong woman. On the other hand there is Zen, who again is not like other counterparts similar to himself, to say more could lead to spoiling.

Ever since I first heard about this series I have been exited (and now want to find that manga!) and looking forward to it greatly. Even to the point of calling my most anticipated series of the summer. And after seeing the first episode I am glad to see my intuition was right.

Even though I am a non-romantic type, I do like the prospect of Shirayuki and Zen developing something more, moreso as I actually like both of them.

Overall Snow White with the Red Hair holds a lot of promise and delivers a strong opening that is leaving me wanting more. The series blends the classic roots of Snow White in with a new take on the series.

5/5.
Picked-up and counting the days until the next episode!

Summer Anime 2015 First Impressions- One: July 3rd, and 4th

It is finally here, the summer anime season is officially in full spring and a vast array of new animes are upon us. And I cannot be more excited and ready for some great series. As you might recall I did a post on Monday highlighting the series that had caught my eye and I was intending on going forth and doing reviews on, or at least giving first impressions of.

Happy 4th of July

Hi all, seeing as it is nearly midnight here I thought I would drop by quickly and wish all my fellow American readers a Happy 4th of July!

Because of the holiday things are a little more hectic, but I hope to get another new post up soon! The summer anime has started up and there is lots to review so keep reading!

Summer Anime Season!

It is getting that time again, the spring anime season is wrapping up and the new summer season is descending upon us. Add in the looming Anime Expo and San Diego Comic-Con and all the news that we are going to be getting and things start to get a lot crazier and completely glorious for fandom.

Clearly there is a lot going on, and will be happening very shortly. And post about them will come in time. But for now I want to talk about the upcoming summer anime season, and am I excited. Probably am jumping the gun as a manor of speaking seeing as I still want to do some posts about some of the series I have been following in the spring season, but with new announcements popping up there is not much time to waste!

Within the start of this year I have gotten much more heavily into anime, and been trying to closely follow series during their seasons runs; winter I failed at, but spring was a improvement. Perhaps after watching various series, posts and such I have gotten a better grasp on it all. So this season I am being oddly and perhaps overly ambitious with my selections.

Before I tried to keep my selections limited, and even ended up dropping a few series a few episodes in. However when going though the list of all the upcoming animes for the season I found myself drawn to quite a few titles, after complaining my list I was actually shocked to see the count tallied up to seventeen.

Admittedly it is rather excessive, or rather extremely. That fact becomes very apparent when I remind myself that I have Camp NaNoWriMo  starting in less than two days on top of everything else. And with a word-count goal of sixty-thousand and a strong possibility of finishing my last first draft of my first novel...yeah, it really is crazy.

But that alone means more blog posts!

Back to anime. For some reason it seems like summer's season falls more in-line with my tastes and the fact that so many titles have caught my eye is a great thing as it is more series to watch and hopefully love. Really am hoping I do not end up dropping any series!

Here is a quick run-down of the series I am planning on following this season and will be reviewing here. I might do bi-weekly reviews for each series re-caping two episodes due to the shear mass of series, or weekly- let me know your thoughts.

LOVE LIVE SCHOOL IDOL MOVIE!

So. Beyond. Excited. *Insert fangirl scream here.*

Ever since the announcement months ago that NIS America would be releasing the Love Live movie to  select theaters I have not only found myself excited, but also stalking their social media outlets for details as I hoped that it would be shown at a theater relatively close to me.

The fact that I was away for the day and completely offline today, and the fact that the S.H. Figurarts START: Dash Honka Kosaka came today make it much more ironic that NIS released their list of locations, dates and even ticket orders.

I would be lying through my teeth if I said that I did not go into complete and total fangirl mode and scream. Because I did, and scared my cats in the process. Granted, my reaction was not quite the the level as it was back five years ago when news of Darkwing's comics broke, or when I seen the press release for DuckTales return. Those where very extreme and emotional reactions- but just like with Love Live, I do not regret them.

I had been hoping that Cleveland would be one of the cities listed, seeing as I live in the area and it really is no big deal going to whatever theater. But being Love Live and being a fan I was basically just happy at the prospect of it being shown close enough I could go and not have to wait for who knows how long until the Blu-Ray release.

For once I got lucky, Love Live School Idol Movie did in fact make it here in Ohio. More specifically to Columbus, and that is fantastic. I had no hesitations and already purchased my ticket for the film. Normally I am not someone who really likes to go theaters, but for fandom- and Love Live it is worth it.

I have already seen full, spoiler filled reviews and summaries of the movie (something I typically do because waiting is something of a work in progress, he-he) and am that much more excited to actually see the story unfold on the silver screen as I ball my eyes out.

Now just to wait seventy-seven days, and yes, I will be counting down and blogging about it all. The only thing left to say is this; THANK YOU NIS AMERICA, Muse, music start!

Miraculous Ladybug To Nick- And Why I Am Skeptical

Ah, I am back. True to my word I am getting back into blogging. And what better article than on a property I have been watching for some time now a little French-Japaneses-Koren series known as Miarculous Ladybug- or Ladybug for short, seeing as it is nearly midnight as I write this probably will be favoring Ladybug. :)

 Before I dive into the series, and moreover why pray-tell I am skeptical, huge thanks and shout-out to The Rise and Fall of Nick for this post where I first came across the news. Also shout-out to LoliWinx. And for the record I am completely kicking myself for not seeing this sooner.

Right now we are at a point where we know a lot about Ladybug, but at the same time not a lot. This project, a collaborative effort between many studios and companies including the likes of Toei and Disney in addition to others, PGS Entertainment, Zagtoon, Method Animation and more. (How did Nick get rights to this then? I seriously have no idea.)

The series centers around Marinette Cheng, from a glance Marinette (voiced by the amazing Chritina Vee!) is your typical Parisian teenage girl. Except she harbors a secret, that she is also Ladybug a superhero able to transform and save her city from danger. But Marinette is not the only champion of right protecting Paris, another teen (incidentally enough one of her classmates and crush) Adrein bares another identity- Cat Noir. Together the two work to capture akumas, creatures responsible for turning normal citizens evil, and remain clueless about the other's civilian's self.

The series has come a long way since news of it spread back in 2012- three years! Just look at all the trailers and videos, the series has changed some. Originally the series was intended to have art style more reflective that of anime, however the product that awaits fans is a CGI version. And personally, I cannot help but to feel a bit dishearten at the change. I am sure that there must be a good reason for the change, and it will probably will not be something effecting the writing. Outside of the summary provided, and my love of magical girls; the anime-esque art-style was a big draw. Seeing it gone is saddening, but the CGI does look pretty good. Just please, no Sailor Moon Crystal level animation errors, please!!

After following this for a while it is nice to see some sold news, and moreover know that it is coming to America. Granted I would have been thrilled if it was simply on Crunchyroll for streaming! But somehow Nick got the rights...

As glad as I am for this series to be starting, and glad that I can watch and support it- I am not excited at Nick having the rights. To be honest, it worries me deeply. Ladybug has a lot going for it and a lot of great people and companies involved in the creation. We even have BANDAI making merchandise.

Still Nick...I know, I know. I sound like a broken record. But for anyone that followed Winx Club you know as well as I what their fate became. How Nick treated, and still is treating the series. Several countries have already revived and started airing season seven- and here in America we still have episodes to go. At first Nick was decent enough to Winx, but slowly started to move the show's time, give poor time-slots, little to no adds for the series and their line of JAKKS dolls and goods, and overall treated the series badly.

Even though I have yet to see more than the trailers for Ladybug I know that I do not want to see this become their fate. I do not want the series to get lost in who knows what. I want to see Ladybug do well. I want it to show just how grand magical girls truly are and inspire viewers.

I want it to do as well as it possibly can.

But I fear that Nick will do with it as they do with anything that is good and harbors great potential-  treat it like shear and utter crap. No one wants that.

Regardless I will be here, waiting for fall when the series debuts here and blogging along the way. Hoping for the best and going to try and do what I can to see what I hope is another series I can place proudly beside the likes of Sailor Moon and Madoka Magica on my bookcase.

Ladybug, I will be rooting for you.

After all, we need more magical girls!

Revamp For A New Chapter

Hi all!

Welcome back, or if you are new simply welcome.

It has been a while since I have typed up a blog post, it is oddly nostalgic. It has been a great while since I last did a post over here, and morose since I closed my first and largest web-site, Winx 4 Life. To be very honest I have missed blogging dearly and life, being life, seemed to always go against me making my return. Until now that is.

A lot has changed since I first created this site way back in 2012, even though that is only three years difference quite a bit has changed. Not only have I graduated from high school and college, but I have also grown a great deal as a writer and my interests and tastes have altered some. Time does change quite a bit.

For anyone who has been here before you might take note that the title of the blog has changes from Authoress' Inspiration to Authoress' Wings, a name that has become a common username I use. One thing, however, that has not changed is the ascetics of blog. Originally I wanted to code a new web-site and make something new entirely by scratch, but I was not really finding a server I liked to do so. Meh. I do still intend on creating a web-site from scratch and maintaining it, but it is not going to be for a bit as a lot is going on and it is not going to be for this site.

By now you probably are thinking what pray-tell this site is and Ella stop rambling. First, apologizes for the rambling and for it in the future. And second Authoress' Wings is -with any luck- going to become the site I always dreamed of having. A web-site filled with reviews, news and opinion based articles for a wide array of geeky, pop culture goodness.

Not only am I continuously writing original fan fiction and this blog, I am also a writer over at BSCKids. So jump over there for even more of my articles.

It is my goal not only to try and get at least two articles a week up for you all, but to also see the site grown and expand as a new chapter starts.