Y'know I always wondered along with a lot of people what makes a popular anime series. I mean a lot of the time a series becomes popular while a lot of people don't get the series, don't rate it that highly or find it a bit meh. I guess to be fair a lot of success is based on getting lucky breaks and marketing, but one thing did occur to me while in Japan, do series become popular because of early marketing?

The reason I asked this was because while walking around Akihabara I found a lot of anime stores advertising a single new series. By advertising I mean I found models, posters, T-shirts and Two single CDs currently 4th AND 2nd in the charts. It also had posters and features in Newtype and Animage, The series of course was K-on. Now to be fair I have to say I like the style of drawing and animation and the basic storyline from what I could see was about 4 girls in a high school club that revolves around music, think the closest description I can come up with is this a mix between Beck (Mongolian chop squad) and Lucky star.

I have to say on the same night I was lucky enough to actually catch an episode (on TV at 2am) but the thing that surprised me was the fact it was only up to episode 6. For something still in the early stages of broadcasting, how on earth did they already have stores upon stores of merchandising? It then occurred to me that people might not be buying the merchandise because of the show, but watching the show because of the merchandise.

Looking into this further I found out that although there are no major Seiyu backing the series, this is produced by the same company that made Air, Kanon, Full Metal Panic, Haruhi and Lucky star which in their own right have all gone on to be big successes with the anime scene. After getting back and watching episodes 1-6 the series in my own opinion it isn't bad at all, nice characters, funny scenes, catchy tunes and lovely animation.However no-one said a word about the series before I left or a word about it since I got back. I guess only time will tell if this is a show I'll be seeing cosplays of at Aya or beyond, but if this is a huge hit in future I've think will have gotten a better idea of how this whole anime scene works. Anyway to judge for yourselves here's the opening and closing theme tunes:

けいおん！[K-ON!] ED - Don't say "lazy"

Ok, well if I don’t respond in the next 24 hours it means I freaking died.

Yeah that was an extreme statement and clearly over-reacting to simple case but this has been an interesting night. First of all met up with Harry, played some SF4 and good times overall, then met up with my friends and watched Fast and the Furious (which was ok, better than 3^rd but behind the other two). After that, we decided on a lovely meal at a Chinese restaurant and since it was Friday night and drinks were in order, so I reluctantly followed.

Let me point out at this stage that anyone who knows me knows I seem pretty fucking weak at handling my alcohol, I’ve never been drunk in my life but will go bright red to the amusement of all around after just one drink. I mean I start talking louder but feel perfectly lucid no matter what stage of drinking I reach.

Anyway, this night we went for a few drinks and for the record I had two vodka and orange. The unit content of which must have been like 2 or something and I’ve certainly surpassed this before without any trouble. So I guess after a while I need the bathroom, head into there and then BAM, next thing I know I have a crowd of 3 people and my two friends saying they should probably call an ambulance. I seriously have no fucking clue and even worse no fucking memory of what happened. The story I’m told was that I suddenly passed out fell backwards and slammed my head against the wall (enough to make a dent in the tile) started shaking on the floor and then lay unconscious for 3-5 seconds. What ..... the ......fuck? I’d like to think this was a isolated and/or alcohol related issue but I seemed perfectly fine on recovery and if anything was confused as hell as to what happened.

I’ve always had a history of staying the fuck out of hospitals and haven’t had a medical check up since I was a kid but since the bang to the head sounded pretty bad my friends decided to take me the A&E just in case. The whole time I was perfectly fine and left the place with a warning that if it gets worse or I feel dizzy I should come back asap. The one note of interest from all of this though was while they were checking me I seemed to break out in quite a severe rash while they ran tests, I always assumed I was just a weak drinker but guess after 2-3 hours of testing they confirmed that the sudden rash and extreme red skin was an allergic reaction to the alcohol. I admit I never really connected the dots but that would explain why every drink and every small amount of alcohol sends me bright red, my throat feels swollen and I have to start shouting in order talk.  So yeah they have confirmed I’m allergic the alcohol which is going to make me the drunken life of the party eh?

Back to the opening post they admitted the slam to the head wasn’t that bad but the fact I still feel a little dizzy and my head kinda hurts might be cause for concern so to keep an eye on that if gets worse over night, which makes going to sleep a new daring adventure for me. I seem perfectly fine now but guess it's best to keep an eye on these things.

In conclusion, fuck you genetics. I still have no explanation for why I blacked out and now I have medical reason for staying the fuck away from alcohol, fun times for the cinster >_<.