Azure Flame

In case you couldn’t already deduce it from the subtle hints scattered here and there, Azure Flame is an anime blog created and maintained by Karura, who is writing about herself in the third person for no other reason than to mock people who have a phobia of using ‘I’ in informal documents. Although Karura knows that people click on these about pages in the voyeuristic hope of finding out some intimate details about the blogger, she has never been inclined to reveal too much about her real life to strangers on the internet, and thus restricts her personal information to the fact that she is a 24 year old female living in England. Karura clearly isn’t her real name, but rather an alias stolen from the best character in the H-game turned anime, Utawarerumono.

After months of intending to do so, Karura started her blog in July 2006 in order to find a wider audience for a series of anime related rants and parodies she had written. For whatever reason, writing inspiration continued to flow, and will hopefully do so for some time to come.

Karura can be contacted via email at captain_vanilla[at]hotmail[dot]com. If you feel some uncontrollable urge to add her as an MSN contact, please e-mail first, otherwise she has no idea who you are and you will probably never get to talk to her.

Since writing in the third person gets a little tedious, Karura will switch to the first person to answer those questions that no one actually asks, but have to be answered just in case someone wants to ask them in the future.

Where can I download all these great series you keep talking about?
If something is particularly hard to find, there’s a faint chance I might help you out, but more often than not I won’t. Presumably if you’re smart enough to get online, using Google shouldn’t be beyond your abilities.

Where can I download Mai-HiME: the RPG?
Right now, you can’t, because the game isn’t finished and I haven’t done enough work on the battle system to release a demo. Please be patient.

What the hell is an Azure Flame? Don’t you know regular fires are orange or red?
Azure Flame is named after “Kite of the Azure Flame”, the alternate name of Tri-Edge from the second generation of .hack (Roots, GU, GU+); I don’t actually like the new .hack that much, but I thought the name sounded good. My second choice for a blog name was ‘Shameless Self-Indulgence.’

Hey, I commented on here and it didn’t show up/you didn’t reply.
Since not everyone on the internet knows how to play nice, comment moderation is switched on- if this is your first time commenting, it won’t show up until I personally approve it, and if I happen to be asleep or away from the computer, you’ll just have to wait until I get back.

If your comment still doesn’t appear, it’s probably because you’ve either asked ‘where can I download [x]‘ or you’re a troll with nothing useful to say; whilst I welcome feedback and constructive criticism, the only reason to approve flames is so that the commenter can be turned into a Niwe-esque blood splatter. Please note that I do read all comments, but if I don’t reply to one it’s just because there doesn’t seem to be anything more to say on the subject.

Why am I not on your blogroll?
Probably because I don’t read your blog. Don’t bother pestering me to be added; if I think your blog is useful, interesting, or generally a good read, you’ll already be on there.

What the hell is up with HARD GAY?
Men posturing with swords, meaningful glances between bishounen- once you get attuned to it, you realise there’s a lot more going on off-camera than you might have otherwise assumed. Remember, HARD GAY is not to be taken seriously, it’s an element of parody rather than actual hard yaoi…or is it? The more you see it, the more you begin to wonder where parody ends and reality begins…

Where can I find a guide to all the other in-jokes you seem to use on here?
Try my New Year Rumble. For terms that have been introduced since then, see the glossary below:

• Zhuge Liang: Used in place of ‘Huge wang’.
• Ezo: A small an unimpressive wang.
• Hung like a grunty: Used in place of ‘hung like a horse’.

What exactly is a Tuesday Rumble?
A regular Tuesday feature on this blog (you don’t say), in which I present all those random ideas that float around in my head, but aren’t really independent enough to form their own blog posts. Contents include tongue-in-cheek articles, short parodies, screencap parodies, HARD GAY/YURI corner, OST and merchandise reviews, character comparisons, Weekly Awards, Mini-rants/appraisals/editorials, Fashion Police and Amusing Search Terms.

What can I find in the Weekly Round Up?
Short reviews of the latest (usually subbed) episodes from ongoing series and the latest translated chapters of ongoing manga; this includes series that aired a while back but are still being subbed in English.

Below is a list of series currently being covered (not necessarily every week) in the Round-Ups.

Anime: Le Chevalier d’Eon, Saiunkoku Monogatari II, Love GetChu!, Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, Aria the Natural, Nodame Cantabile, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Deltora Quest [on hiatus], Seirei no Moribito, Koutetsu Sangokushi, Darker than Black, El Cazador de la Bruja, Murder Princess, Winter Cicada, Mai-Otome Zwei, Maria-sama ga Miteru OVA, Ichigo Mashimaro OVA, Romeo X Juliet, Sakura Taisen New York, Bokurano.

Manga: .hack//4Koma, .hack//GnU, .hack//GU+, .hack//XXXX, Aria, Bartender, Bokurano, Chevalier, Chokotto Sister, Clannad, Emma Bangaihen, Erementar Gerad, Erementar Gerad ~Flag of Blue Sky~, Gunslinger Girl, Homunculus, Honey and Clover, Maria-sama ga Miteru, Meine Liebe, Mozart Doesn’t Sing Lullabies, Mushishi, Oniisama E, Phantom Dream, REC, Risky Safety, Rose of Versailles, Saiunkoku Monogatari, School Rumble, Shinigami no Ballad, Solanin, Spiral, Spiral Alive, Tactics, Tenshi Nanka Janai, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Twin Spica, xxxHOLiC, Yotsuba&, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya novel[short hiatus], Zero no Tsukaima novel

What other posts can I expect?
Take a look at the categories in the sidebar for a good idea of what I post. I aim for 1-2 posts per day, arranged around the loose schedule detailed below.

Main Post
Saturday/Sunday: Harvest Moon: Anton’s Diary

Tuesday: Tuesday Rumble

Friday: Weekly Round-Up

Saturday: Romance of the Three Kingdoms screencap summary (parody)/Fafner in the Azure Flame.

As completed: Mai-HiME the RPG update

Other days are taken up by anime, manga and game reviews, editorials, rants and one-off parody articles.

Secondary Post (parody)
As subbed/released: Chevalier, Shounen Onmyouji, Saiunkoku Monogatari II, Seirei no Moribito, El Cazador de la Bruja, Koutetsu Sangokushi.

On catch-up: Pumpkin Scissors

Coming soon: Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, Deltora Quest