Confessions of a Closeted Otaku

Introduction!

Hello, everyone!  I’m Venus and welcome to Confessions of a Closeted Otaku!  You might have seen me around the net as my online alias ‘ThePockyGirl’ or ‘chibihoshi’.  If you seen those names around (like theOtaku.com or YouTube), it’s a good chance that it’s me.

Let’s see here.. full-fledged Filipina born and raised in San Diego, California.  I’m a recent graduate of San Diego State University with a Bachelor’s in Art/Multimedia and with a minor in Japanese.  I guess you could say that the influence of anime and manga were the reasons why I chose to study those two fields.  My main expertise in art are drawing, illustration and photography.  This past January, I started out in video production with my first AMV (available on YouTube called “In Our Own World“).  I guess I’m a Jack-of-all-Trades artist.. =D.

With most anime fans, I was first influenced by Sailor Moon in the 90′s.  And from there, the obsession only grew.  I really like slice-of-life titles (Genshiken, Lucky Star, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) and the occasional fantasy titles (Fullmetal Alchemist, FLCL). I love buying DVDs (only of series I really enjoy) and manga.  I love buying original manga from online and Japanese bookstores as both for collecting and to improve my Japanese abilities, especially the rare and out-of-print books that are usually found on eBay.  Oh, and I also love to collect illustrations and art books from my favorite manga artists.

My dream job is to become a character designer and work at a place like Cartoon Network, but any job in the animation/design field will do just fine.  I also have ideas of working abroad as an English teacher due to my recent job as an assistant teacher at the American Language Institute over at SDSU.  I’d love to go somewhere in urban Japan and teach there.

Video games are pure love.  I was raised on Street Fighter (go Chun Li!) and have a healthy obsession with the Final Fantasy series.  My first and favorite game is Final Fantasy X, which was the first game to make me cry at the end.  And I love the FF mascots.. more love for the moogle and chocobo.

I’ve been drawing for quite a while now.. since middle school, I suppose.  My style was first influenced by shojo anime (think Sailor Moon) but has changed into a more comedic and shonen approach (think Fullmetal Alchemist).  I enjoy looking at works of well-known manga artists and see how their own work evolves.

Confessions of a Closeted Otaku is my revival back onto the blogging scene.  I used to be an avid blogger on Xanga and LiveJournal during my high school years but then I grew out of it when I started college.  Now that I’m done with college (for the time being, at least), I thought that now would be the best time to get back to blogging.  I’ll have anime and manga reviews, gaming stuff, new discoveries and the occasional look at my boring yet sometimes interesting life.  And anything else that may come to mind.

Much thanks to my host Mylene for the web space.  I’ll pay you back in back rubs.  Or cookies.. or something else to your liking.