Shelf Life

Angels, Devils, and Goddesses

Shelf Worthy

Rumbling Hearts DVD 3

Rental

Ah! My Goddess S2 DVD 1

Black Cat DVD 3

Perishable

Disgaea DVD 2

Like always seems to be the case, I'm sitting in a plane, finishing out the last few words of my column. This past weekend, I had the joy of spending my time in Boston, a city that I'd grown to love after going to school in Providence for four years, and always finding an excuse to visit Anime Boston has consistently been a fun show to go to, with its enthusiastic fans, its laid-back atmosphere—and the fact that it's in Boston. I got to eat amazing food (East Coast > West Coast, baby), hang out with old friends, and I had the pleasure of going to the first Red Sox / Yankees opener on Friday. Mind you, I'm a Rockies fan for life, but if you turn down tickets for a game like that, you don't really like baseball. And now, I'm experiencing the joy of flying JetBlue for merely the second time in my life, and trying really hard to not spend all my time ogling the Sox game on DirecTV (4 consecutive home runs? Why can't the Rockies play like this all the time?).

Anyway, be sure to check out our video coverage from Anime Boston 'cuz it was a wicked good time. Welcome to Shelf Life.

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And speaking of irritating comic relief, I managed to jump straight from one example right to another the second I changed discs. I'm referring to the second season of ADV, where every instance of comedy is less about being funny than it is about having girls scream as loudly as their can, as shrilly as possible. Surely, if they screech something really, really loud, it'll be funny, right?

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For me, it's always been really awkward to watch characters go on dates. In some respect, I want to cheer them on and I always want the guy to get the girl (or vice versa), but at the same time, but I always felt like kind of a creep for waiting in the shadows, hoping the characters would get to make out or something. Yeah, I'm always still happy for them when they do, but I still feel like a bit of a voyeur. It's kind of the same in live-action movies, when the characters are lip-locked for more than 30 seconds. You can't really help but start to squirm a little uncomfortably, especially if you're watching it with your parents.

But to stray from anime a bit, there's a scene from this weekend that I keep flashing back to. I was sitting in the stands behind third base at the Sox game, and I was sitting next to the most Bostonian guys ever. Picture your stereotypical Bostonite, with the thick accent (“'ay dude! We just got ta Kenmwo'! Weh da hell ah you?”), and that was the guy who was sitting next to me. Totally awesome. And, every time a Sox hitter struck out, this guy would exclaim to his friends, “Jesus, this guy sucks!”

Needless to say, while I was watching Disgaea volume two, the only thing I could think of the whole time was this Sox fan, shaking his head sadly, and saying, “Jesus, this show sucks!”

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Alas, that's the end of this week's column. It's pretty short because of the convention, and I apologize, but I'll make up for it next time. Thanks for reading!

*sniff* You guys are so awesome. Ever since my plea for more pictures, you've been sending them in!! I could just about die from happiness, but if I did, I couldn't post all these pictures anymore, and then all my happy would go away.

So instead, I'll just post two Shelf Obsessed pictures, because I need to release all my positive energy somewhere.

The first one comes to us by way of Inari Akairo, who's pimped out her collection with some wicked cute Fancy Lala, which is one of the most underrated shows in life.

The second one comes from Paul Bresin and his cute dog Smokey. Guh.

Thanks for sending me your pictures! Keep 'em rolling, folks! Whether you've got a basement full of DVDs, a few stray manga sitting atop your toilet, or a really sick Transformers collection, I want to see what constitutes your "shelf." Seriously, these pictures are awesome. Send your jpgs to shelflife at animenewsnetwork dot com!