"And the next time, we'll have lots of fanservice"

Neon Genesis Evangelion. I think many of you know about this Anime series, and might have watched it.
It was about… Um… Well, the setting was this very Earth, in 2015, after a 2000’s cataclysm known as the “Second Impact”, which caused half of human population to be wiped out, among other things.
Some horrendous, giant beings, called “Angels” start to appear in Neo Tokyo-3 (yeah, the former capitals were destroyed).  A secret organization, “Nerv”, is the target of those things, and has developed a series of enormous, mechanical and organical humanoid weapons, which look like robots (but are they?). They’re known as “Evangelion”. The protagonist, 14 years old Shinji Ikari, has been forced by his absent father and chief commander of Nerv, Gendo, to pilot the Unit-01, because he’s the only one who could, or so we’re told.
Piloting that humongous “mecha” is anything but pleasurable, because the pilots are connected in brain and soul to it, and feel all the pain. If any of them fail to defeat any of the Angels, letting them reach the core of Nerv, every human is done for. The series then revolves around Shinji and his social, psychological and philosophical issues.
His relationships with his despicable father, his hard-earned friends at school, fellow pilots scarred as he is, his guardian and commander (when he pilots the thing) Misato, and many other characters make for a very convoluted series.
And there’s more, because Nerv’s main goal is not just to defend humans against Angels, they have a hidden agenda that I think is better for you to go and discover by yourself, if you have not watched the series.
It was airing on Chilean TV in 2006, part of “Invasión” I think, but I didn’t watch it back then (and it was censored). I don’t remember exactly, but I think it was around 2011. Half an hour per episode, twenty-six episodes and two movies (End of Evangelion is AWESOME). There’s also an on-going new version (not a remake) by the name of Rebuild of Evangelion.
I enjoyed it, and continue to do so, because it is very engaging, aesthetically superb, and a very good source of “food for thought”. From the first time I watched this Anime, to this very day, I keep discussing it with friends and classmates. I can always find someone who has something new or interesting to say about it.
Could this be my favorite series?
Thank you for reading this much (416 words).

From left to right: Misato, Shinji, Asuka, Gendo, Rei and Ritsuko.
On top: Evangelion Unit-01 (cute, right?)

Free topic, huh? Some Touhou is fine, too.

What should I post about? Something very niche might do...

I’ll give you a brief (or not?) introduction to a game series I like a lot:
Touhou Project.

I’ll assume most of you have played some video games during your rich yet brief life on this Earth, but have any of you ever played a “Shoot’em up”? Games like 1942, R-Type, Space Invaders, Galaga, Metal Slug and the like. Games where you take control of some sort of craft or character and shoot many targets while dodging their fire, usually in a 2D perspective.
Games like this:

Yeah, I know they’re old examples, but I hope you get the idea anyway.  Goodness, Space Invaders is from 1978…
In Japan, this genre of games was, and still is, widely popular. Most of the good ones I can think of come from over there.
I think that over the years, Japanese gamers and creators began to crave for faster games, packed with more action and, maybe, more difficulty. By the nineties, a sub-genre was appearing at Japanese amusement arcades, “Danmaku” (barrage of bullets, in english, or “Bullet Hell”, as called) shoot’em up games, seemingly catering to those people with, well, tons and tons of bullets. Take a look into Dodonpachi (1997), a somewhat early example:

(Skip to minute four if you feel impatient)

Danmaku games got as popular as their ‘ancestors’ during the last decade, thousands of titles available, but there is one in particular that caught my attention.
Touhou Project is a series of doujin (amateur, self-published work, or “fan-made”) danmaku games, which combines crazy playing experience, mostly cute anime or manga-like girls for characters (albeit with some drawing, not design, flaws in earlier titles) and highly exploitable content, produced entirely by just one guy who goes by the pseudonym of ZUN (sole member of Team Shanghai Alice).
“Exploitable”? Yes, because Touhou games are almost always published in “Comiket” (short for Comic Market), the biggest anime, manga, games and related stuff convention in Japan, which was founded as a place for fans to publish their doujin , original or based on a pre-existing work (obviously, most commonly an anime or manga). Touhou Project might be the most prominent doujin series, with thousands (literally) of fans taking inspiration from its story, character personalities, music, etc., and making their own works based on them. And sharing those works, over the internet too. In case you're wondering, many of those fans translate the games, and many of its derivated doujin.
Almost two decades running, “official” manga, novels, music anthologies and fighting games are also part of the series.
Since this post has gotten this overly long, I’ll just leave you with a glimpse into one danmaku title (of more than 15), and the latest fighting game:

I have just scratched the tip of the iceberg here, but you have read too much by now. I mean, I've almost doubled the minimum extension!
PS: There are way harder danmaku games.

MY BLOG LOOKS SOOO BLAND AND LAME

I apologize. Well, not quite. Whenever I feel like doing it, I'll make it pretty, or at least more "personal" looking. I promise.
Or not.

I'd like to visit Japan, or so I think.

¡Disclaimer!:
Please bear in mind that, since this is an exercise, I will assume a lot of things about this country, and I might not really have strong proof for those assumptions or any other statement. I’m going to try and follow the questions provided by our teacher in order.

I would totally like to go to Japan. Well, some big cities at least. There is tons of stuff that I’d love to do there, most of them, completely different from what we may witness over here.
Japan is a diverse and multifaceted country (like most are nowadays), that exists between its old, vast and rich traditions and history, and the always so pushing and transforming forces of capitalism. One may visit a Shinto shrine to pay their respects on the morning, ride a train and get to the big metropolis, full of all sorts of commerce, to cater to every need or every fetish one may have in mind. Japanese language is so ancient, so amazingly populated with pun and wordplay, so much subtlety. The Japanese people’s culture can be so refined, varied and elegant, yet at the same time can be very oppressing, rigid and in some ways, stagnant.
I feel amazed to know that such a country, such a culture, can produce and influence so many of the things I like: Animation, Cinematography, Visual Arts, Music, Technology, and so on. I feel amazed because I, in some way I yet have to clarify to myself, I find in Chile some of the same contradictions, yet none of the refinement. Most of the subtlety, but not much diversity.

Oh, my, I just completely forgot the point I was trying to make clear here. Let’s scrap all of that and leave it like this: I like anime, cinema, art in general, and video games. Japan has it all, and at their best.

Please bear in mind, that I wrote this on the fly.