Ok, listen. I don’t give a flying **** about politics. But for some crazy reason, I am put in the middle of a political battlefield every time I log on to any sort of website that involves people talking to other people. Especially when there are Americans involved. I don’t live in America, although for 25 years I was your next door neighbor. There are plenty of things I love about your country. So this isn’t some anti-America message.

Every day I read some pretty extreme opinions about your prez. And I have had a chance to see for myself some of what he’s like. I have also had some idea about the issues and controversies. He’s certainly a different type of president to Bush. To some, this is seen as an extremely good thing. To others, he’s the prophesied antichrist. My opinion on him? I do have one, but it’s irrelevant. Whatever problems Obama may have, seem miniscule from my perspective compared to the way everyone else is behaving.

Let’s start with his rabid followers. Throughout the election, I followed the reactions on various forums and news aggregators such as Digg (though I would barely call 99% of the crap there “news”). A trend emerged which, while somewhat predictable, was nonetheless disturbing. The way people talked about this person whom they’d barely known of just months prior, was sounding more and more like blatant worship. The main demographic here, mostly youth and young adults, were excited at the prospect of a young president who was more “with the times”. Nevermind his qualifications really, he gives a darn good speech, and has catchy slogans! Soon we had “Obama girls” running around in bikinis and selling him with sex like a cheap beer commercial. Hello? This is a presidential candidate we’re talking about.

Next, at his inaugural ceremony, the cameras constantly cut to people crying “we love you obama” with tears streaming down their faces. I can understand people were hopeful for change, and maybe also some who were extremely happy about having a black president.. but again… kind of wierd. Autumn 2008. We learn that schools are already making kids sing stupid songs about how wonderful mr. Obama is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08BAfKCfu74

And again this year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aqMTD5UFmU This time, we hear the familiar lyrics of a Sunday school song, transferred to Barack Obama.

“Barack Hussein Obama
He said Red, Yellow, Black or White
All are equal in his sight
Mmm, mmm, mm!”

Really? Because as I remember it, that was kind of, you know.. attributed to Jesus? So, whether Obama is the antichrist or not, you’re not exactly doing anything to quell such talk are ya, fellas. Have I made my point yet? I wonder if Jesus also thinks Kanye West is an idiot…. Hmm. No, somehow I don’t think so.

Then we have the other guys, and this is quite a bit broader. What do I really need to say? The lynch mob has already spoken, whether it’s the KKK brigade, the communist-cryers, the “YOU LIE!”-ers, or simply those paranoid about why the new pres has a name strikingly similar to two of America’s biggest public enemies, and whether he’s really an American at all.

In conclusion, if you thought it was bad with Bush, consider this. Obama hasn’t even been president a YEAR, and it already feels like you guys are begging for a civil war. I submit to you that maybe he’s not the problem, per se. You are. so cool your jets, people. I’d like to be able to visit again without having to bring along a musket.

Finnish-Canadian musican and media producer Henrik Ryosa (MISTRAL), who has worked with bands such as ENSLAVEMENT OF BEAUTY, LIVING SACRIFICE, EXTOL & ROYAL ANGUISH, has returned to the metal/rock scene with two new online track releases, “Shadow Mask” and “The Neo Angelics” – his first new works in over 4 years. ILL OMEN NATION is a continuation of the legacy of MISTRAL, which began in 2001 and saw tens of thousands of online downloads between then and 2009. MISTRAL also appeared on several compilations including A Tribute to Living Sacrifice.

Henrik’s plans for ION include regular free releases of new songs via his website www.illomennation.com as well as special music videos for select tracks which will appear on the video sharing site YouTube in High Definition. Visit www.myspace.com/illomennation now to hear the new tracks!

Today I stumbled on an online comic called “What Anime fanboys must look like to the Japanese.” it depicted a Japanese guy discovering Spongebob Squarepants, the popular American cartoon, and suddenly basing his entire existence, career, hobbies and all around American cartoons like SB and “Fairly Oddparents”. Sure, I got a good chuckle out of it. It is true, some people create unhealthy obsessions out of things, especially worrisome to the vast majority of the world population who see them as childish. Anime, after all, is just a cartoon, but made in Japan.. right?

The simple answer is yes, that’s what it is. And yet, the phenomenon of anime is spreading across the globe, no longer confined to this island country of 127 million people. Any normal person must ask themselves the obvious question. “WHY on earth is it becoming so popular??” After all, you’ve got your Dragonballs and your Pokemons, not so different from Spongebob and Ninja Turtles, are they? Again, you’d not be far off the mark. But what makes anime unique is that there is actually a specific genre geared toward more mature audiences, called Seinin anime, as opposed to Naruto or InuYasha, which are Shounen, or geared towards kids and young teens. It is Shounen anime which has popularized it in the west, due to it being a big moneymaker.

In Japan, when a teenager grows into an adult, they often keep watching anime but tend to want something with a deeper story to it, and perhaps something that reflects the issues of being an adult. A guy in his early 20’s might connect to the persona of Eikichi Onizuka (Great Teacher Onizuka), a former gang member turned school teacher, somewhat of a perv like most guys, but he uses his gang experience to reform troublemaker classes who sent many other teachers into early retirement. And in your later 20’s or into your 30’s you might enjoy a story that reflects a common issue, a career man who loses his job due to being framed for something he didn’t do. Such is the story of Monster, a psychological thriller. If you’re female you might gravitate toward stories about strong women, in that case there are several to choose from, in fact I won’t even list any specifically for that reason because they are everywhere.

When introducing people to anime, I often hear groaners such as Gungrave or Neon Genesis Evangelion listed. Let me be perfectly clear.. while they’re probably not a bad watch for those already into anime, they are weak appetizers. Gungrave is based on a video game and has a poor opening episode. And NGE, well… it’s a “mecha” anime. You know.. about giant robots. Your typical anime cliche, in other words, and I’d prefer to avoid that for now. To be sure, cliches exist in any form of entertainment, even sometimes in the best of it. But at the very least, we can think of some that manage to do things not done already by 100 shows. Wolf’s Rain is a bleak post apocalypse story taking place in a fictionalized version of Russia, about wolves being seen as the enemy of humans and taking our shape to survive. Welcome to the NHK tackles the real and prevalent social issue of “hikikomoris” in Japan, which are anti social shut ins and of course this is not just a problem unique to Japan, it is growing more common everywhere due to increased social demands. Berserk, while it contains a couple of cliches like a guy who wields a sword as big as he is, is so badass but also deep that you wouldn’t even notice. He also has the muscle to make it conceivable, unlike some guy with tent poles for arms such as say, Cloud Strife of Final Fantasy. What Berserk is, at its core, is the story of an abused orphan who must learn how to become a man and at the same time, trust and love. Is his existence based in hate, or love? It’s a constant struggle for his soul.

I can only really touch the tip of the anime iceberg in this article without spending hours thinking about it, but if you are interested in more of my recommendations I suggest you check out a more complete list of the shows I have watched and how I’ve rated them here: http://myanimelist.net/animelist/Scanime – but in conclusion, the reason that I watch anime isn’t because it’s Japanese and I think that’s “cool”, there are several reasons I love it, ranging from the artwork, to the fact that it offers fresh interpretations of common subjects at times, or the notion that a storyteller can create a serious piece of work and not have to rely on a specific actor to depict it if the author wishes to create it in visual form. There are many advantages of using animation as a mature storytelling platform, and it’s not exactly a fully Japanese phenomenon, as plenty of other countries have done it including yes, the good ole U S of A. But as a storyteller, artist and animator myself, anime has inspired me to pursue my own visions about 1000x more than anything I may have seen by Disney, Pixar, or on Nick Toons. I think some of these shows deserve a wider audience because I am all for promoting quality – and what is mainstream often isn’t.

Sweden is one country that is embracing mature anime, and so far I have seen Berserk, Ergo Proxy, Paranoia Agent, Black Lagoon, Cowboy Bebop and several others played on the channels ZTV and 3. A few years back they also had an “anime day” that covered a lot of lesser known anime films including some independent work. I hope to see this trend continue here in Sweden and spread more in other countries, not necessarily just Japanese animation, but the promotion of new and thought provoking independent animations. Not guys with yellow hair “powering up” for 10 episodes in a row.. not 12 year olds who befriend digital monsters who live in a ball in their pocket.. Not jailbait with cat ears.. Anime for normal people.