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What is shoujo anime? | Shounen anime and everything else? |
What is shoujo manga? |
What is Final Fantasy? | What is The Sims?

Congratulations! You have found one of those websites that would go on and on about anime, shoujo manga, cute pixels, and a whole bunch of other time-wasters. How lucky can you get?

Garnet's Sanctum is a resource for anyone who's looking for more information on videogames, computer games, anime, and manga. Obviously, the content here will be a little biased. Most of the anime I watch and manga I read are shoujo, most of my aimless Internet surfing is done on Gaiaonline, most of the videogames I play are Final Fantasy, and most of the computer games I mess around with are The Sims packs. But chances are, you ended up on this webpage because you're interested in them also. If you're not, maybe some stuff I will be blathering about will catch your fancy. There are other "honorary" titles from other genres that might have made their way in here, though there's not a lot of them.

I always learned more about my hobbies not from the series' official websites, but from countless fansites run by people who really love the stuff. Through these fansites, I was able to make informed decisions as to what anime to watch, what manga to read, and what games to get. So this site is my way of giving back to the communities that provided me with so much excuse to procrastinate.

So what will you find on this site? Basically, my objective and subjective reviews of the abovementioned series. I can't count the number of times I googled titles to find out whether it's worth time and money. Other fans' reviews have been very useful; official press releases really don't tell much because they're produced by public relations officers who want to sell their companies' products. It's the actual fans who got the goods and the dirt on the titles.

This site also contains some of my vast pixel collections, such as my Toybox and my Gaiaonline Extended Signature. I can't help it. I'm a sucker for adorable pixels. If you are as well, then your eyes are in for a feast.

What is shoujo anime?
Shoujo in Japanese literally means young girl. Anime is the term used for Japanese animation. I would call them cartoons, but some purists would probaby huff that anime is very different from cartoons. Well, yeah, Garfield is certainly a far cry from Sailor Moon, but they're both two-dimensional. Shoujo anime pertains to Japanese animations that are marketed to a female audience. It is typically viewed as romance-driven, but such is not always the case. I cannot count the number of times I was really disappointed because an anime did not further develop the heroine's relationship with her man. Shoujo anime usually focuses on relationships and on the heroine's personal development. It can be grouped into genres, such as magical girl, schoolgirl, drama, and even horror. These genres can overlap with each other.

Shounen anime and everything else?
You might have guessed that shounen in Japanese literally means young boy. Though I'm a shoujo anime fan, there are other non-shoujo anime titles that are also great. This section will mostly have shounen anime, but it will also have anime from other categories as well. Moreover, this section may not be as extensive as the shoujo one. But then again, I'm not as much of a sucker for big robots and lots of violent scenes. I'm also not really into watching a gaggle of girls chase after a guy, a genre that falls under shounen anime, although it can be fun to watch at times. Action sequences, however, are always neat to watch if it's well-done.

What is shoujo manga?
Manga is the term used for Japanese graphic novels. I would call them comicbooks, but purists would probably snarl that it's not the same thing. It's like comparing Hana Kimi to Archie. Like the anime analogy, see? So essentially, shoujo manga are Japanese graphic novels targeted toward a female audience. Manga can also be viewed as the earlier version of anime, in more ways than one. When a title is fantastic enough and builds up a large enough fanbase, then TV producers would take an interest and turn it into an anime. Of course, it can also be the other way around; an anime can then become a manga. A lot of times, for a variety of reasons, there would be a disconnect between what's in print and what's on TV. Some manga would have content that's inappropriate for a TV audience, or TV producers might expand the anime storyline to make the show last longer.

What is Final Fantasy?
Final Fantasy is the greatest turn-based RPG ever made. And it's one of the greatest videogames ever made. Hey, I may be biased, but I'm not that biased. There are other great games out there that aren't RPGs. But a videogamer is not a hard-core videogamer unless he or she watched Sephiroth sneak up on Aeris while she was praying and...well, you'll just have to play Final Fantasy 7 and see. Installments in the series are independent of each other, although they do share some common elements to appease the die-hard Final Fantasy fans. The only exception to this was Final Fantasy X-2, which was a sequel to Final Fantasy X. However, even if you didn't play Final Fantasy X, you can still appreciate Final Fantasy X-2 as an independent game.

What is The Sims?
The Sims is this brilliant, albeit buggy, computer game where you get to manipulate these little people called Sims. Playing it can make you feel like a god because you get to lord over these little people in their homes. And when you get the expansion packs, you can lord over them while they're in Magic Town, Studio Town, Old Town, Vacation Island, or downtown. It's one of the most customizable games out there, with tons of fans creating user objects and posting them on the Web for other fans to download and use in their games. Sims 2 enables your characters to grow up and expands on what was in the original Sims.

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