Miscellaneous

Pancakes 1

A new writer out of the blue? Is this real life? Well boys and girls it certainly is. Stilts and crew were gracious enough to offer me a spot here at RandomC and I simply could not refuse. So who just signed onto Kyuubey’s onerous contract? Some probably know me already from the occasional comment, but for the uninitiated I am Pancakes, the tasty breakfast delight. Canadian by birth and home, I am currently working on a chemical engineering degree, because money is a necessity and nothing screams money quite like oil and pharmaceuticals. I did have dreams to be a doctor, but some dreams are not meant to be.

My anime experience is like many others. I started out in elementary school with the trifecta of Sailor Moon, Pokemon, and Digimon before quickly ascending into the magic of Dragon Ball/Dragon Ball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh. By the time grade eight rolled around, however, social standing took precedence and my anime watching ended. What got me back into anime (and incidentally made me an anime addict) was this little show called Code Geass. I was bored one day during my first degree (biology) so plugged it in. I never became hooked on something faster. Binged the entire series over a week, went searching for more, and never looked back. By time of graduation in 2013 I was a convert to watching anime as it aired.

To this day my anime tastes can be mostly summarized as anything involving politics, history, fantasy, and science fiction. I especially adore those shows featuring solid world building and strong, tragic characters. Sure Lelouche was my gateway drug, but it’s the gritty, honourable bastards like Admirals Bucock and Reuenthal that keep me addicted. No surprise from those names that Legend of the Galactic Heroes is probably my all round favourite anime. It’s the only fictional series which (in my opinion) truly provides a story that would make Herodotus and Thucydides proud. A few of my other favourites include Shinsekai Yori, Psycho-Pass, Ergo Proxy, and Gurren Lagann for similar reasons. While I generally dislike romance on principle, that view has been tested of late (Lovely Complex I’m looking at you), and I have always been a sucker for good comedies and slice of lifes. Needless to say I enjoy a damn lot, which if you are curious you can peruse my haphazardly updated MAL profile.

Pancakes 2

In real life I build models (1/35 tanks are my fetish) and voraciously read anything and everything from history to political science/philosophy. In particular my true literary love is for war history, both real and fictional. While the other kids went to parties, I read national histories in encyclopedias and nerded out drawing maps of fictional wars in made up lands (which I might still do >_>). Military strategy speaks to my heart like little else, everything from grand strategy to tactical manoeuvres and war machines utterly fascinates me and is guaranteed to get me going—likely lost a few dates because of that! I especially enjoy alternate history, particularly the works of Harry Turtledove and S.M. Stirling. Stirling’s Draka series specifically remains one of my biggest guilty pleasures to this day.

When not reading and salivating over my awesome modelling skills, however, I somehow find time to be a committed gamer on the side. Strategy games (Europa Universalis IV mostly) and multiplayer stuff like World of Tanks/Warships and War Thunder are my main interests, although the occasional (J)RPG may wiggle its way in. Don’t even ask me how I manage to find the time for everything, I’m scared of discovering the answer.

Without a doubt I’m looking forward to writing about the shows we all have an unhealthy passion for. You can expect to see my ramblings on any series stealing my attention, whether that be tragic war thriller or fluffy moe slice of life. Should you have comments, criticism, or feedback for me, don’t hesitate to speak up, I’m always open to improvement. Thank you all for having me, I’ll see you on the other side, and as is customary:

よろしくおねがいします。
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.

71 Comments

  2. Congratulations/welcome!

    I got around to finally watch Legend of the Galactic Heroes this year and it really blew my expectations away. Reuenthal was definitely one of my favorite characters in the series. Yang wen li’s still the best though

    I feel like we have very similar interest in regards to history/pol sci/philosophy. Definitely appreciate the nerdy enthusiasm .

    All the best and looking forward to your insights/posts!

    Blubbly
    Reply

    1. Thanks for the welcome 😀

      For me my favourite character is Bucock all the way. I always thought he was a criminally underrated character, especially in the latter half during his final encounter with Reinhard. Holy those episodes made me shed manly tears.

      Pancakes
      Reply

    1. In my experience here it depends on the season. Plenty of seasons have received decent sci-fi/military coverage, especially for the popular series. I think only GATE was the big one passed over recently IIRC.

      As long as the series piques my interests there’s a good bet I’ll make a claim for covering it.

      Pancakes
      Reply

  17. WHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???????? BUT HOW!!!!!!?????

    I’m thoroughly flabbergasted…

    Aaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, I didn’t expect this to even happen but woah… Just woah… Pancakes YOU became a writer all of a sudden? Sorry, I just need time to process all this, I’m just completely shocked cuz it really was just all of a sudden y’know? Don’t sweat it man, and yeah congrats bruh. Back then when Stilts called out for applications, I was actually hoping that you’d be selected.

    And now that you’ve been selected, please, please, PLEASE make an end season review of Alderamin On The Sky, I’m beggin ya sahn. It’s a real shame nobody picked it up for weekly coverage, and there’s just so many interesting things to talk about in that show bro. Let not best girl’s efforts be in vain!!! I miss ya //BLEEP//!!! ( ; _ ; ) Come back!!!

    Nishizawa Mihashi
    Reply

    1. What can I say, strange things happen sometimes. I was surprised at being offered the job out of the blue, but hey, I’ll take it 😛

      I hope there is an end post on Alderamin too, but it all depends on time. After all next season is coming up fast.

      Pancakes
      Reply

    2. Yeah totally, I sure hope so. BTW, has autumn arrived in the Northern Hemisphere? I’m curious as all I get down here are nothing but rain, thunderstorms, sunlight and the occasional hail. The effects are even worse now that the AC unit ran outta gas. Oh the heavens…

      Nishizawa Mihashi
      Reply

  22. Fellow modeller, WoT and WoWs,interest in history and military history YEAY!

    Wait… Are you my match made in heaven or doppelganger?

    Anyway, I do those things as well albeit I do 1/35 and 1/48 tanks, 1/700 ships and original creation in all the aforementioned scales.

    Welcome to RC and as a long time RC fan and reader, it’s nice to see new writers joining in as well. I assume you’d be watching Izetta as well? Where Germany attacks a small European nation for the occult artifacts?

    Anyway Pancakes, you’re on which WoWs server? I’m on Asia plus may I also salivate over your awesome model skills.

    Velvet Scarlantina
    Reply

    1. Oh yes I’ll be watching Izetta. It had me at WW2.

      I’m on the NA server for WoWs (after all, I’m in Canada) and of course I’m always open to more salivating fans. Still need to actually take pictures of my work though 😛

      Pancakes
      Reply

  24. Congrats Pancakes! Here’s to hoping you get to conver the Legend of the Galactic Heroes remake someday! Jeez,reading your bio we’ve got scarily similar tastes, sci-fi and political anime, WW2, history, grand strategy games, Turtledove… are you on alternatehistory.com too?!

    Dr. Hochmeister
    Reply

  26. Whoa, Pancakes became a writer? You’ve been enough of a feature around here that sometimes I forgot that you weren’t a writer already. Congrats, and looking forward to your reviews. 🙂

    Wanderer
    Reply

  29. Hey man Welcome!

    Oh btw your life story about watching anime is exactly like mine! LOL talk about coincidence. Especially around the anime’s that got me hooked back during my university days (Code Geass, Shinsekai Yori, Psycho-Pass, Sword Art Online, Gurren Lagann, Etc. Hey man you’re never too old for anime and manga so all the best. I’ll be watching over your accomplishments with high hopes! PS Digimon is till alive and kicking! :p

    Maverick
    Reply

  36. Wonderful any fellow elitist anime snob also know as a fan of Legend of the Galactic Heroes is very welcome to me;) As a former US Army Infantry Reserve Officer and wargamer from 1976 it’ great to have another military and political fan who is also into fantasy and science fiction.

    I discovered Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and thought it tragic that Random Curiosity back then missed that wonderful remake of the classic space opera. Hopefully with you on board fewer great sci fi and harder fantasy get missed. Yamato 2199 gives me hope they might make the remake of LOGH the same as a loving remake of the fans in the industry of the original work in a way you can actually think it better while staying true to the original. Warning I told Stilts to kill to cover the LOGH remake ;), but as your a fan I would look forward to you doing it too, although if they stay true to LOGH I think there is no way that Stilts would be able to resist writing tomes in the comments;)

    I have to sit on my military knowledge so hard so much in Anime and regular media I have developed a massive suspension of disbelief that allows me to love stuff like Code Geass even though non shielded armored suits like that would be torn apart by modern infantry, artillery and armor.

    RedRocket
    Reply

  40. Good luck with blogging and you degree.

    The job market in petrochemicals isn’t looking great in the near future due to slumping crude prices though? Here in the UK, 120,000 (~30%) of petro-chemical jobs have been lost since 2014.. hope it’s better in Canada!

    jltrm
    Reply

  41. Welcome onboard. I’m happy for you and wish you good luck as a blogger.

    That said, I’m still sad everytime RC gets a new writer without love for romance shows. They either get no coverage (like White Album 2) or they get the weakest writer in the pack (like Shirayukihime).

    Anyways, waiting for your first posts. 🙂

    brajt
    Reply

  42. Pancakes successfully improved relations with the emperor of RandomC, and joined Omni’s Empire. Now be sure to add your regions to RandomC territory and soon we’ll unite again under the Emperor Divine.

    Shrubbery
    Reply

  43. What got me back into anime (and incidentally made me an anime addict) was this little show called Code Geass.

    Code Geass is seriously the greatest masterpiece in the world of anime series. Up until now, I still cannot find another anime that leaves an impression as deep as Code Geass did.

    Welcome, Pancakes!

    Buta Neko
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *