Kristin Weltzin  MarsGirl15@aol.com

Hi everyone! My name is Kristin Weltzin and I'm a 3rd year student. My major is elementary education, and a minor in psychology. I switched my minor from art to psychology.

I got into anime and manga when I was in the 8th grade. I was given a Japanese penpal when I started high school, and I have been hooked on everything Japan since. My sophomore year I was elected to go to Japan with the Technos program, and my dream to go came true!  

I have a beginning for an anime collection, and a tremendous manga collection, including several works that are from Japan.  (T-shirts, costumes, stickers, lunchboxes, jewelry, etc...and I stay abreast of all the new literature and stuff coming out. They know me by name at the book stores, and the specialty stores.) In the last 2 years, I got into cosplay and last year I walked around campus as Rinoa from FF8, and this year as Yuna from FF10.  Next year will be even better!  

And it doesn't stop there! I love Korean mahnwa as well. I also like video games, although that takes sort of a backseat to manga and anime and cosplay. I am even attempting to teach myself Japanese, and Korean as soon as possible. I illustrate my own posters and artwork as well (doujinshi!) and have a great portion of J-pop music. To help with my artwork, I print off pictures from the Internet and keep them in binders for reference images...I have over 10 binders full and tried counting the pictures...I lost count after 2547 and wasn't near halfway through. Some of my favorite animes include: everything Miyazaki, Grave of the Fireflies, select episodes of Ruroni Kenshin and Sailor Moon. Favorites mangas include: RG Utena, Paradise Kiss, Rebirth, Samurai Deeper Kyo, Peach Girl, Mars (where my screenname comes from), Clover, and the list goes on and on forever. Favorites for J-pop include: Chobits, FLFL/the pillows, Ranma1/2, select songs from tenchi muyo, tommy february6, kumi kouda, utada hikaru and so on....

Arigatou!  (Thank you!)

Your otaku friend,
Kristin