Tropers / Incognito Ninja

Do you bury me when I'm gone?
Do you teach me while I'm here?
Just as soon as I belong,
then it's time I disappear...
- "I Disappear", Metallica

Oh, hello there. I'm a thirty-something Filipino guy with a near-unhealthy interest in anime, movies, video games and certain web video series. Wishes for a place to belong to and hopes this place is it.^* However, I'm savvy enough to realize that being here (or in any other community) may be too good to last, so if one day I suddenly feel that I no longer belong here or people want me out, please have the cojones to let me know if you want to drop the banhammer and get on with it.

Generally interested in:

• Sci-fi/Mecha anime:
  • Gundam: I'm a "Winger" at heart, but I've grown to love some of the other alternate universe (X, G, 00, Build Fighters + Try) and Universal Century (Stardust Memory, Zeta, ZZ, Char's Counterattack, Unicorn) entries in the franchise. Currently liking how Iron-Blooded Orphans and Gundam Thunderbolt are going so far.
    • Update: Gundam Thunderbolt (the anime adaptation) - Great addition to the Universal Century canon, a very visceral look at the One-Year War. (And a second season is here!)
    • Update: Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans - Two words: Bittersweet Ending.
  • Macross: So far, I've watched (besides the original and the movie adaptation) Macross Frontier and (retroactively) Macross Zero. Stalled on watching 7, yet to see Plus (though I kinda get the gist from playing Another Century's Episode 3). Macross Delta looks interesting so far. ("Girigiri ai~")
    • Update: Finished Macross Delta, and the ending...kinda feels like bait for upcoming compilation movies of the show in general. Still, it managed to entertain, though the show was only decent and not great. (I know, Macross Frontier does feel like a Tough Act to Follow...)
  • Full Metal Panic: Next season when? (Update: Oh... Aaand... it's back to Development Hell again...)
    • Update: Development Hell finally averted.
  • Voltes V
  • Daimos
  • Space Battleship Yamato 2199: Personally, THE gold standard for anime remakes/reboots. I hope to see a season 2 of this in the future. (Update: And there is, titled Yamato 2202! And set for release this 2017! My body is ready...)
  • Tekkaman Blade: My formal introduction to Powered Armor in anime.
  • Vandread: The point where gattai started to become a bit more...*ahem*...Freudian. (At least until Genesis of Aquarion came along.)
• The Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • Iron Man
  • The Avengers
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier
  • Guardians of the Galaxy
  • Captain America: Civil War
  • Doctor Strange
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming
  • Thor: Ragnarok
  • Black Panther
  • Avengers: Infinity War
• War movies/war dramas:
  • Saving Private Ryan
  • Enemy at the Gates
  • Fury
  • Black Hawk Down
  • The Hurt Locker
  • Zero Dark Thirty (Technically, it's also part spy thriller as well.)
• The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings: Both the film trilogies and books.
• Zombie Apocalypse stories:
  • Dawn of the Dead (2004)
  • 28 Days Later (And its sequel.)
  • Shaun of the Dead: One of the few funny zombie apocalypse films.
  • Zombieland
  • World War Z: OK, so it's definitely not as good as the book (which I hope to read someday), but still a somewhat decent watch.
  • Train to Busan: Ah, watching this reminded me of how much I like zombie apocalypse stories. Plus the film goes out of its way to make the audience care about the survivors (except for that one executive of the train company, maybe). Which makes it all the more heartbreaking when some of those characters get infected or go out in a Heroic Sacrifice.
  • Highschool of the Dead: Though this series is also remembered for the Fanservice...and "bullet-dodging bewbs" in the anime. (Also one of my many Guilty Pleasure anime.)
    • Update: Sad news... Rest in peace.
  • School-Live!
  • I Am a Hero: Been a while since I last read this, though. Can't wait to see the live-action film adaptation, however. (If it shows up here.)
• Real-Time Strategy games: ^Disclaimer Despite playing (or having played) these video games below, I usually don't play multiplayer. The last time I did multiplayer was back in college, where me and my male classmates would play Counter-Strike 1.6.
  • The Command & Conquer franchise (except Tiberian Twilight)
    • Dune 2000 and Emperor: Battle for Dune
  • Company of Heroes (1 and 2)^Note As much as I'd like to play this with a friend online, I'm hindered by the inherently slow net speed of where I'm from.
  • Dawn of War: My Gateway Series to the sprawling (and grimdark) Warhammer 40,000 franchise.
  • StarCraft (1 and 2).^Note Still haven't played Legacy Of The Void, though...
  • Star Wars: Empire at War: It took 12 long years since playing the base game, but I finally got to play Forces of Corruption after buying the Gold Pack during the 2019 Steam Lunar New Year Sale. (Corrupting and conquering the galaxy as the Zann Consortium is so much fun.)
• Empire: Total War: At least, the improved/patched version. Although I'll admit I haven't been playing this lately.
• Total War: Rome II (Emperor Edition): Could have been better, but it's not that bad once you get the hang of it—and get some good mods.
• Diablo II: Albeit with game mods such as PlugY and MultiRes. (And only if the "Unhandled Access Violation" bug doesn't show up. Otherwise, it's a nice "low-requirement'' game to play when higher-end games get blue-screened.)
• And Troping, obviously.
• I'm also a bit of a seiyuu nut. (Granted, a rusty one, but still...)

Other stuff I like that's not listed on TV Tropes:

• Life of Boris: The most Slav and "Cheeki Breeki" YouTube channel you'll ever see. Bring on the vodka, majonez, shashlik, kompot and hardbass music, blin!
• China Uncensored: This is to the Chinese regime what The Daily Show is to the US government. Any satirical news show that brings the PRC regime down a peg is a worthwhile watch in my book.
  • This Troper personally met the China Uncensored crew during the Manila leg of their "Pivot to Asia" tour on the 12th of November 2016. Chris, Shelley, Mike, and Allen, it was an absolute pleasure to meet you. If there's one trope to describe you guys, you're Determinators. And to the fellow China Uncensored fans I met during the event, it was nice to meet you guys too.^Welp... I guess I might not be so "incognito" anymore...
  • Finally made a TV Tropes page for the show (see below):

Pages started:

• The Rise of the Reds shout out page.
• The China Uncensored page. (Includes YMMV, Trivia and Laconic pages.)

Pages I've contributed to (WIP):

• Hybrid X Heart Magias Academy Ataraxia
• And You Thought There Is Never A Girl Online
• Shomin Sample
• Crossout

Pet threads:

• The Nendoroid thread. (No replies yet, though... Update: Or not. Phew.)
• A manga thread for MF Ghost. (From Shuichi Shigeno, the author of Initial D. )

Tropes that describe Incognito Ninja:

• Defector from Decadence: Is this to the moe fandom. It's a Long Story.^{Partial explanation} https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=15264216220A08851100&page=3#comment-63
• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Well, having too much free time on my hands is not necessarily a good thing. It's just like "inner peace"—a lot of people look for it, but only a few people find it...
• Forgets to Eat: Whenever I net surf (OK, Wiki Walk), play video games (Just One More Level!!), marathon an anime series (Archive Binge!) or watch movies (What can I say? I'm a Screen Junkie!). I do eat snacks heavily to compensate...and more so if it's pizza.
• Grammar Nazi: Used to be this (justified since I previously worked at a newspaper), but now...a bit rusty in that department.
  • Serial Tweaker: A side effect of being a Grammar Nazi.
• Gushing About Shows You Like: If it's something that catches my attention in a good way and keeps me hooked, I am prone to doing this.
• I Have Many Names: Previously went by the following names:
  • neo_elessar (to Tolkien fans, particularly the old Council of Elrond forums—before that went bust);
  • Milliardo_Le_Creuset (to mecha/Gundam fans).
  • Currently goes by the handle Incognito on certain anime-related blogs (as a commenter). If you see me commenting on a currently-airing anime on those blogs, chances are I might drop by on some of the threads here also discussing that currently-airing anime (and maybe do a few edits/additions to that anime's TV Tropes page).
  • If you know me from my past handles (and my current one), hi!
• Non-Indicative Name: Not really a ninja (or a cyborg ninja, for that matter), but can mask my presence if needed. I'm also not exactly "incognito", as my other names would suggest (unless I'm next to someone famous).
• Nostalgia Filter: Prone to this when it comes to anything (TV shows, songs/music, video games, anime, cartoons, magazines, books) I remember from my time growing up as a kid in the '90s to the turn of the millennium.
• Old Shame: Being a fan of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. Also being a moe fan.^{For the record:} I don't actually hate the concept itself and I still like a fair number of moe characters, but I'm really, really disillusioned with the moe fandom right now.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: On occasion, with an added dash of foreign cuss words, especially Russian^Language! "Blyat", "blin" (means "pancake", but is also family-friendly version of the previous word, blyat), "cyka blyat" (pronounced "suka blyat", meaning "fucking bitch"), "pizdec" (fuck/shit, is multi-tool), "yobany urod" (fucking freak/fucking retard), "idi nahui" (fuck off) and the occasional Polish "kurwa." (Thanks, comrade Boris and Polandball!) Doesn't mean that I'm not eloquent at swearing in my native tongue, though... Given the opportunity, I can be as..."colorful" as Heneral Luna.
• Shout-Out: Prone to making them or pointing them out. A lot.
  • Speaks in Shout-Outs: Fond of referencing/paraphrasing memes. (At least the ones I know and know the context of).
• Trademark Favorite Food: Pizza! Also, California Maki (no, not the school idol, despite what this image—or this, or this—may suggest).
• TV Tropes Will Enhance Your Life / TV Tropes as a Gateway Drug: Got introduced to a lot more^Note (on top of what I've already watched/played/read before stumbling upon this site) anime, movies, video games (plus a game mod), one or two TV series, and a bunch of web videos thanks to it (in no particular order, and in no way a complete list):
  • Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
    • Agent Carter
  • Daredevil
    • Jessica Jones
    • Luke Cage
    • Iron Fist: Even if it is considered the weakest of the lot.
    • The Defenders: Finally seeing the four Netflix Marvel heroes together—Worth It.
    • The Punisher
  • Deadpool: Finally got the DVD, love the outtakes. Also, it's now sitting atop my collection of Marvel Cinematic Universe DVDs.
  • Patton: You magnificent article, I watched your FILM!
  • Arpeggio of Blue Steel
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Though If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device also had a hand in introducing me to this series, and making Battle Tendency my most favorite arc. Freaking Fabulous Custodes!
    • On the flipside, the anime adaptation of Diamond is Unbreakable reintroduced me to Savage Garden (whose music videos I watched on MTV as a young'un back in the late 90's), and I was practically in "Squee" mode upon hearing "I Want You" being used as the ending theme.
  • Omamori Himari: THE ecchi series before To Love Ru and High School DXD came along.
  • One-Punch Man: The show's mix of beautiful animation, awesome action scenes and hilarious comedy scenes that poke fun at shonen tropes make this series just as entertaining as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. And of course, how can I forget that opening song? (ONE PUUUUUUUUNCH!!!)
  • Prison School (Anime-only at the moment.)
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
  • Shimoneta: A Boring World Where the Concept of Dirty Jokes Doesn't Exist (Also anime-only at the moment, though chances of a season 2 are slim to nil due to Miyu Matsuki passing away.^Note May she rest in peace.)
  • Love Live! ^Note Although arguably a vestige of the other Old Shame mentioned above. It's one reason why I elected to skip watching μ's Final Live. (I did watch the movie when it was shown in theaters, though.)
  • Lyrical Nanoha ^Note Also another vestige of the aforementioned Old Shame.
  • Rise of the Reds
  • Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
  • Screen Junkies: Mostly for the Honest Trailers, of course. Though thanks to Honest Trailers, I also got introduced to Mad Max: Fury Road^Note Oh, what a film! WHAT A LOVELY FILM! and John Wick^Note Keanu Reeves at his best since The Matrix.
  • CinemaSins
  • How It Should Have Ended
• TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life: Also introduced me to moe and its fandom...^* Something I now regret after spending five years in it and seeing said fandom turn into a s**thole.

Image sources for avatars (for those who are curious):

• "Admiral Deadpool"
• Movie Deadpool◊ (As linked in the Deadpool movie's funny moments).
• Raiden (circa Revengeance). ^Note This is the same avatar I once used whenever I comment on anime-related blogs. (But see below.)
• Koichi Hirose◊ from the memetic "get a feeling so complicated" scene in the anime adaptation of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure Part 4.
• Yoshikage Kira^Note (from when he was tailing Shigechi in episode 21), also from the anime adaptation of Part 4.
• A really derpy-looking King Crimson from episode 21 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind.
• The Zann Consortium logo from Star Wars: Empire at War - Forces of Corruption.

Random stuff/Troper blog

* November 2016:

So it's been a year (and a couple of weeks, more or less) since I decided to "Get Known" here on TV Tropes. And my impression of the Troper community so far? Apart from the rare gadflies (who are thankfully not as bad as the GIFT-filled jerkasses I had the misfortune of meeting on the other online community I left behind), most of the folks here are a quirky, yet well-disciplined bunch. And I thank you guys for that (even if I didn't get a posted "Welcome" reply to my self-introduction post back in December of 2015).

But even though I'm sort of enjoying the Troper life right now, I do fear the day when either I lose my purpose here on TV Tropes, or a bunch of total *eff*wads (trolls, jerkasses, and the like) decide to come here and ruin things.^Note Especially if they happen to be the same damned bunch that made me leave that other online community.

Yet those particular fears somewhat pale in comparison to what's happening around me in the real world right now. A decade ago, people on the Internet tended to be more friendlier toward each other and being a troll or jerkass was frowned upon. Now it seems being a jerkass is the norm...and it's apparently reflected on the people's choice of recent democratically-elected national leaders who seem to have an authoritarian bent. As much as I'm not supposed to apply tropes to real life (well technically, I already am doing that, so what the hell), I can't help but think Humans Are Bastards sometimes.

And I'm still not keen on starting a social media account, even though it's admittedly the best way to communicate with people nowadays. You know, it's ironic that social media was made to encourage connecting with other people (or at least to establish communication between loved ones who are separated by oceans), yet when I hear stuff about social media nowadays, it's always how toxic some online communities are and how intolerant they are of other points of view. Which only makes people want to disconnect from social media in general.

(*sighs*) I can only hope that I can see a bright, sunshiny day at the end of all this doom and gloom. Because living in despair and doubt is not living at all.

More to be revealed in due time... (It's a work in progress.)