What milennials want is... anime

I just got home after seeing Perfect Blue in the cinema. Lots of people know I like Japanese anime. Instead of growing up reading the obligatory fantasy classics (except for LOTR and Narnia), I just like most Latin American milennials were exposed to Japanese anime.

Some anime in the 90s was dubbed over butchered US dubs. Samurai Pizza Cats did a nice job going even more abridged than the US version. That anime's Latam Spanish dub is still somewhat lost. It wasn't until relatively recently that Lost Media fanatics scoured the corners of the country and salvaged VHS rips to complement missing episodes, just missing some random voice loops. While a huge win, lost media like that is a stark contrast to the immense care that TMS Entertainment ensured for its IP. TMS not only protected the Magic Knight Latam dub masters, but they were fully restored and the VA that played Presea 30 years ago dubbed some of the next episode announcements that were never dubbed.

Lest to say, I don't have Netflix, but I'd sure be tempted to nab 1 month just to experience MKR in its restored glory. Hoping Netflix gives the green light for similar treatment of the company's other 5-6 anime IPs. I think Cat's Eye was once on Prime Video, but I don't think Virtua Fighter, B't X and Saint Tail got any remastering.

Anyhow, it's pretty obvious I like anime and DBZ is so culturally widespread that I would be surprised there wasn't a Mexican my age that cannot at least vaguely sing parts of Cha-la-Jed Cha-la.

While seeing series such as Ranma 1/2 uncut on Mexican public tv during the afternoon was not that controversial in the 90s, anime seldom got the big screen treatment. To this day, the only Saint Seiya film to reach cinemas has been the 1st film. yes, Caballeros del Zodiaco, that anime that practically everyone my age watched after school. A lot could be argued back in the 90s that anime is for kids, it's just a phase, kids will 'grow up', etc...

Whether my generation has tons of imperfections, we did start changing things that helped normalize things that will become even more normal in the next 20 years. One of them is that if you like anime, you can be any age and not face as much stigma as when I was a kid. My dad once told me the anime shown on the now defunct cable tv channel Locomotion (which later became Animax) was far more sophisticated than the public tv stuff. Interestingly, he said this after watching Blue Seed, which was one of the station's more teenager aimed series. I still think he had a valid point. Not everyone had access to this channel. I was lucky my cable company included it without ridiculous fees, so I got exposed to tons of other anime such as Cowboy Bebop, Fullmetal Alchemist and Evangelion.

The widespread success of these series in Latin America was proof anime was here to stay and with far greater cultural influence than Hollywood superhero films. I knew it, tons of peers from my generation did too. But cinema companies in particular still clung to the outdated 'anime is for kids and we can only show kiddy stuff' adage.

Things changed a bit for the better in 2001 when Spirited Away surprisingly won the oscar. It was real fun seeing that and Howl's Moving Castle in cinemas. Took Disney ages to start dubbing the other big Ghibli films. In case anyone is curious, Disney's Ghibli film Latam Spanish dubs are lost media. Had I known those 5-6 dubs would become lost, I would have recorded everything I could on vhs to save them. The ones everyone has heard are the Argentinean redubs done by a different company.

In the 2010's, cinemas continued being bareback with anime in cinema options. Pretty much the only films they dared show were Dragon Ball Z and that's pretty much it. It wasn't around 2014 I think the Evangelion remake films somehow reached cinemas. I saw the first 2 films in the cinema, never saw the 3rd one cuse it was logistically too difficult. I believe I saw them subbed, although I know for certain they all got dubbed with most of the original cast.

As I expected, the theater selected the tiniest room possible in just 1 schedule for 1 day in few select theaters and it was packed to the brim. Despite the obvious fan interest, cinemas still held tight to the mantra animated films are for little kids and ignored the potential buying power of my generation.

It wasn't until the pandemic where cinemas had to follow social distancing rules and were close to going bankrupt. What ultimately saved them were horror films and... anime. Whereas Oscar bait films (outside of scant outliers like Oppenheimer) would always sit empty, anime fans did try making an effort to see films.

One trick that surprisingly won cinemas over in Latin America was the fact they sometimes give away rare collectibles. This isn't something new from the pandemic. I still own rare postcards in quite good condition from Titantic, Jurassic Park 2 and I think I also got one from the 90s X Files film.

Since the pandemic, collectible freebies have become much more common and desired. If the anime IP is a big one like Demon Slayer, that rare collectible merch goes out FAST. People are aware about Pokemon cards suddenly accruing huge resale value, and this kind of anime merch is highly sought by collectors. Lest to say, the only time I ever had the good luck of nabbing a collectible was when I watched an anime called Deemo. It was still during the pandemic when people were hesitant to visit movie theaters. I wrapped that hush puppy in a protective plastic sheet the minute I got home. I had the good luck Demon Slayer Mugen train got a rather large release in Mexico still during the pandemic. That film I saw during my brief trip to Huatulco in May, 2021. The cinema was rather empty due to the pandemic, and sadly, no postcard gift. Still took a cute photo of the movie poster for posterity. I heard they later re-released the same film now dubbed to Spanish (I saw it subbed) and gave postcard collectibles on premiere night. Only that... they only premiered it in like 3 cinemas on weekdays. -_-

I am still miffed Gundam Seed was only released at a Thursday noon showing in just 1 cinema in the southwestern part of Mexico City. Ever since Demon Slayer's new film became such a wide success last summer, more anime came.

We not only got a bunch of Ghibli rereleases, including Princess Mononoke (sadly, I didn't go see it because I was busy with homework), but the last 3 months were a nonstop parade of new releases seemingly every month. Chainsaw man had tons of posters. I really should share a photo of that film's Mexico City billboard. Some of them are still up in the neighborhood where I grew up 5 months later.

A lot of this is not just the avid cinemagoers. The Japanese embassy in Mexico City has been working real hard with its anime promotion diplomacy branch and helping arrange the nitty gritty of IP permits and local distribution. If someone sees something on Twitter about a KonnichiwaFest tag promoting an anime film in cinemas, that's the middleman distributor company doing its magic.

And while 2025 was a year full of surprises (who would have thought even 15 years ago an anime with as much grit like Chainsaw man would have a wide cinematic release?), 2026 seems to plan on beating the odds further. What seemed like one big release every 5-6 months is now turning into a whopping new release every 2 weeks!

Just in the past few months, I saw two Yu-Gi-Oh! films (sadly the cinema was almost empty, they didn't do any marketing and very few people knew), Demon Slayer, Chainsaw Man, The Dangers in my Heart, Virgin Punk and today, Perfect Blue. I would have seen Paprika too, but the highway was blocked due to a repaving project and reached the cinema 45 minutes too late. They will show Millenium Actress tomorrow. Sadly I can't expend the money and annoyance of long-distance travel two days in a row, or else I would have gladly seen it too for the triple Satoshi Kon flickathon.

I know Dangers of my Heart had postcards, cuse lucky people proudly showed them on social media. Frustrated because I would love winning another freebie, I asked a friendly guy at the movie theater. He told me the 3 Satoshi Kon films sadly didn't get postcard freebies. He was awfully annoyed and sympathetic because (unsurprisingly) cinema employees also claim dibs for this cool free merch. Told me the scant few times anime gets postcards, the distributor only brings 100 of them and they run out on premiere day. Meanwhile, Marvel film screenings that sit empty because locals are not that into them always have tons of free merch.

From the way the cinema was 80% full for Dangers of my Heart (a huge surprise for me because I never expected an unknown shojo IP to have so many moviegoers that seemed genuinely excited to see the film), the demand for anime is certainly there. I can't believe I nabbed the very last ticket for Perfect Blue. If I had arrived to the theater just 10 minutes later, I would have made the long trip for nothing. It wouldn't surprise me Millenium Actress will similarly fill up to the brim. The friendly cinema guy told me Paprika sold pretty much every ticket.

In 2 weeks, they are premiering another KonnichiwaFest film named Zombieland Saga. I would like to try to see it. The guy at the place promised he will try to reserve a postcard, so it looks like I will make an effort to see that film. Since it is a given even 1990s anime can bring audiences if the occasion feels sufficiently special, maybe Escaflowne and Utena have a chance to be screened.

I'd be immensely happy if they re released Gundam Seed and Fafner in more theaters. They have started mass premiering anime in at least 10 different Latin American countries. There is obvious interest by cinemagoers and I am glad we are getting the stuff we always dreamed of seeing when we were teenagers.

Can't wait to see what other anime gets the big screen treatment this year!!!

Getting better at drawing

 Yes, I probably should write on my blog more often. I feel like writing here is akin to screaming into a void where nobody is going to read it.

Older posts I have meandered about some inner aspects of my worldbuilding. If I am in the mood sometime, I might get back to writing more ramblings. At least if I die abruptly and my books become surprise cult hits, there is canonical material out there.

I always drew as a kid and have tons of scanned scribblings I rescued from school notebooks that I had to throw away to make space.

Some aspects of my drawing never change, such as how I always draw jawlines and eyes first. Or how I draw ridiculously slender arms. It's more of a drawing style and what feels most comfortable for me.

Even though social media ensures algorithmns murder art related posts, some reader friends always commend they enjoy it when I share art.

I don't share everything, lots of drawings I end up deleting without finishing.

Procreate is an amazing program. I really love it. I no longer use Photoshop because my old laptop motherboard was fried during an electric storm. I own Clip Art but I never understood how to use the program and there aren’t Spanish language tutorials.

Yes. I am a native English speaker and understand the language perfectly fine. But I have computer programs in Spanish to avoid OS instability issues where menus are organized differently. So, the variety of good tutorials is slim.

I draw with trial and error and some people have told me my art is evolving. I can't quite see the changes myself, except I am more careful fixing proportion errors due to my astigmatism earlier in drawing stages.

Seeing art by other artists might have also helped me. I am terrible following long video tutorials, but I like experimenting with different brushes and color shading. And I think that explains part of my improvements.

Anyhow, I recently finished this Tioja drawing. It isn't perfect, but I am much better drawing hands. Lips continue to be a struggle for me, but I am expending increased efforts at drawing backgrounds and proportionate wings.

I am slowly drawing the 12 gold saint houses in Caballeros del Zodiaco pixel style. This project might take a while because the houses are difficult to stay 100% proportionate. Cleaning up takes ages. But I will certainly like to share an animation I plan to do with an overlay of the epic music. Procreate dreams makes this possible and very user friendly.

I would also like to draw backgrounds from my own books and have characters do stuff like summon phantom beasts.

Text by Nancy Foster. AI training or unauthorized reproduction forbidden.

A curse of optical haptics, an upcoming Sci-Fi story

 I went ahead and commed the cover of a Science Fiction story I have been starting to work on, and the artist known as TheStreetDog23 went far beyond my vision and produced the most gorgeous cover ever. I still need to get a full-fledged typography for the cover. That is going to be tricky, which is why I don't have an official goodreads profile for the book yet.

I am still tinkering with the blurb, so that isn't ready either. Someone online commented ACOOH might be a bit similar in a few aspects to a book called Murderbot Diaries. I have not read this series, so I have no idea. Usually my books can't be comped with other work. Half of the time, readers have no idea what to comp them with and mention they are a teeny tiny little bit like The hobbit or LOTR because there are fantasy elements. Which is true, but so vague that I always return to square 1 and have no idea how to market my stories.

As for A curse of optical haptics, I was taking a course on computer science and that word popped out. And I instantly knew I NEED A BOOK WITH THAT WORD IN THE TITLE. So everything surrounds the concept of tactical technology that is vague Sci-Fi material, but the story is so wild since I am going pretty unhinged with it that I am unsure what genre it really fits into. The only thing certain is that Leenx takes no bullshit from anyone.

I have written around 18,000 words of the story. More elements of the worldbuilding are cooking in my mind. There will be weird alien races in them and other random stuff. I think one of the few normal scenes is seeing a net appear from a ceiling and taking someone away.

Quite frankly, I would be shocked readers will not find the book to be absolutely weird, wild and scratch their heads after reading it. I already know how it ends (no, I will not spoil it), it's now the voyage where I need to get. I tend to be an overwriter, but I will hope this book stays at 80,000 words tops. I will go nuts if it suddenly balloons into 100,000 word territory. Oh please don't be so long, pleaaaase!

Anyways, even though I probably spoiled things a bit because I didn't do a fancy book cover reveal (I am working on a shoestring budget and feel too shy asking for blogs for those fancy showcases). But here is a cut-up low resolution version of the cover. I might print it and paste it on the wall to inspire me to cook up those chapters quicker and finish writing it. With some luck, it will be available in 2024.

Text by Nancy Foster. AI training or unauthorized reproduction forbidden.

Savior on the zenith, the sequel book is FINALLY finished

 Bit of a late announcement, but at approximately 94,000 words (including a long ass glossary and brief story recap), I finished writing the sequel and finale of the Fragmented Fates duology a few days ago. It is being read right now by a trusted beta reader.

Now, why did I end up dividing this book into two halves?

1) I didn't want to release a 160,000 word book. I am an overwriter and new information about characters pops up as I chaotically write the story. 160,000 word books are a very hard sell, but 80,000 word stories are easy bite-sized treats. The final chapter of Talgel's monologue was written after I sliced the books in half to make it feel like an actual ending of act 1, which is why it is so short.

After finishing the sequel that without other filler is around the same length, it would have been a titanic feat to have churned the entire story in 120,000 words. I would have had to skip too many scenes. Both books expanded as they are barely offer time for downtime at all. The extra 40,000 words gave the sequel plenty of extra time to expand some connecting scenes that makes the time skips far less jarring.

2) I just wanted to get A book published in 2023 and was not writing sufficiently fast enough to get the job done.

Savior on the zenith follows a much darker path from its more cheerful 1st half (a titanic feat given readers all agree it is a very dark story). Tioja starts living among harlequins in an underground city and interacts with his rambuctious younger half brother Gulraj.

Book 1 spends an inordinate amount of time having Talgel move the chess pieces in position and now she gives the reins of the story to Tioja. As part of my plan for the cover, it will be a mirror of book 1 in a way with a darker pallette to exemplify the more serious tone of the story.

Will there be more action?

Yes, certainly. Readers hurting to experience harlequin society firsthand will get their chance here. And yes, we get fights, quite a few of them, in fact. Tioja will grow a lot in this story.

Now that I have finished the book, I feel a sense that every protagonist has made their trip and returned home. There is still plenty of potential canonical story left between the finale of the duology and the begining of the Ominous Book series, but chances are I will never write it because I want to focus on other projects. It was still a fun story to write, challenging at times because I had to envision a totally different and youthful Tioja.

Until next time!

Text by Nancy Foster. AI training or unauthorized reproduction forbidden.

The equivalency exchange principle of demonic phantom beasts

 Chances are most people that have stumbled into my blog have not read any of my books. Those few people that have read Fragmented Fates might have noticed Talgel's body is posessed by a evil spirit so to say that taunts her and lets her see visions of inane future events that only waste her time.

The demon does this on purpose out of spite and also because it is only using Talgel for its own agenda. An interesting concept I mention in the end of the book is how the demon explains to Talgel that harlequin elf phantom beasts are the manifestation of the secret innermost desire of the summoner.

Talgel wanted to obtain the power of Absolute Truth to know if she would have a Happily Ever After with her love interest Jarahad (readers can easily guess this will be a no given she rejects his hand in marriage the whole novel for no apparent reason).

And one of the characters that ends up summoning an uncontrollable phantom beast later in the story secretly wanted the power of Absolute Destruction. Which I dare say is quite a nifty ability given how versatile it is. The character later on discovers as the years pass that the ability is not just destructive. It can read all sorts of seemingly invisible traits of whatever object is within the area of view of the ability. The summoner can see the true blood ancestry of anyone standing within their beast's line of sight, magic tuning element and if they posess other sources of obscure magic that can't be seen by regular means. A person disguising as a human won't be able to hide their harlequin or elf ancestry. This magic skill will prove pivotal in the Fragmented Fates sequel that I am close to finishing.

Jarahad later in the book also obtains his own phantom beast which manifests as a semi-transparent green armor. His innermost desire is the power of Absolute Protection, which makes sense given all of the hardships he endures ever since he was born. The armor can be moved with his mind, rearranged into various positions. He can use it as a means of transportation, and can even fly short distances with it.

Given most demonic beasts are invisible psychic abilities, Jarahad's armor beast is of the more unusual kind that can be easily visible.

Are there other characters that will summon their own demonic beasts in the sequel?

The answer is a huge YES!

Fragmented Fates hints a character that isn't born yet named Gulraj will have his own beast. It will prove to be pivotal in the sequel, even though he seldom uses it.

Some of the halflings will have beasts. Nurran can summon a gooey phleghm that changes the property of metal. This will become useful in the future as he spends his time constructing semi magical weapons that don't have all of the pitfalls of true harlequin steel. Sadly for my readers, this beast won't be shown in action in the book sequel.

Another character will obtain a beast that gives him telepathy, which suits him very well. The downside is that the ability of Absolute Communication will inevitably drive him towards his self-destruction sometime in the future. I hint about the character's death in future books but never reveal their name. In case anyone is wondering, this is the character that dies using their beast at inopportune times.

Well, I am getting sleepy, so I will finish this rant that will be left for posterity so that obsessive fans 20 years from now have semi-officialñ confirmation of ther theories surrounding some of the Easter Eaggs I spread around in my books.

Happy searching!

Text by Nancy Foster. AI training or unauthorized reproduction forbidden.

Fragmented Fates is now available on preorder!

Welcome everyone, I am proud to announce the long awaited book Fragmented Fates by Nancy Foster is finally available on preorder on Amazon. This prequel has been a pet project of mine for the past 3 years, and I hope to finish the second half of this exciting duology in the next few months.

So, if you enjoy this book, please give this book a chance, feel free to write a review and if you enjoyed it, please spread word of mouth.

So, without further ado, please click on the cover of the book below and visit the website on Amazon and preorder today!

 

My book is competing in the #SPFBO9 competition. There are zero guarantees my book will reach semifinalist status because the competition is insanely fierce, but there are already several people that are interested in giving my book a chance. The ebook isn't even out yet and I already have my first 5 star rating on goodreads! Yahoo!

Oh, this is the goodreads link. Click HERE.

Thanks!

Text by Nancy Foster. AI training or unauthorized reproduction forbidden.

Fragmented Fates, an upcoming fantasy prequel!

 I know it has been a very long time since I have last written a blog entry. Some readers are well aware I sometimes work up to 3 jobs with fluctuating schedules, so I am not always able to write books.

So, what is Fragmented Fates?

When I wrote the 4th book Diaspora, snippets of the story of the exiled Grey Clan are offered but never expanded. We then get to learn a bit more about it in the 5th, 6th and 7th books. I believe the story of the founding of Almjarhad is awash in good writing potential because of the intertwining of so many stories meshed together along with complex characters.

And so, I gave it a try because there is just so much story to tell. One problem I began to face 3 months ago was that I wanted to reach from point A to point B. While the first half of the book had a lot of chapter revisions to make it entertaining without going either too fast or slow, the chapters of the last third of the story felt very rushed because I was desperate to keep the story beneath 120,000 words.

I do not feel satisfied with the last chapters I wrote due to word count constraints. Editing costs of a 150,000 word book is untenable for me. It isn't easy for me to reunite over 1000 dollars and I also want to get a customized cover which will easily cost 400 dollars. Therefore, I decided to cut the WIP into a duology and felt surprised by how filling the first 30 chapters feel. We cover the most pressing initial plot points, the endless drama caused by Talgel's manipulation, and the satisfying conclusion to this section of the story.

Even if a person never, ever reads any other book, Fragmented Fates covers enough story to feel interesting without being overwhelming. And, contary to An Ominous Book that rightfully annoyed plenty of readers due to the cliffhanger, this book wraps a lot of the pressing plot points and yet leaves insane amounts of story potential in the open.

I need to save money for a sensitivity reader for Talgel's scenes, so it may take a while longer to get the WIP ready for beta readers. I am close to finishing the few corrections for Jamarnid's scenes. The sensitivity reader that I hired enjoyed the WIP very much, which made me feel very happy.

Getting some feedback from beta readers would be great. Since I risk causing major plot holes with my main series, there are plot changes I cannot do. But I would feel appreciative if readers checked it out and told me if they liked it.

In the meantime, I am sharing a piece of comissioned art for one of the 4 main characters named Talgel. Enjoy!

Text by Nancy Foster. AI training or unauthorized reproduction forbidden.