I knew I should had went and picked up the DVD on Sunday after getting the camera... It's already bought by someone else (along with a few other titles, including Juuni Kokuki, I noticed) when I dropped by today. The mission of acquiring Full Metal Panic vol.5 was a failure. -__-

Since I couldn't get what I went for, I took a quick peek at the digital cameras to see their prices. After hearing my interest in the Kodak 7330, the young sales immediately suggested not to get a Kodak and that they break easily. I admit the particular model in question is somewhat cheap and probably does break easily, but you can't just deny the whole product line from the company because of this. Then he went on to say that HP cameras are garbage. Excuse me? It is true that some of their basic models are on the low side of the spectrum, but they also have some of the best models out there. The guy kept recommending Olympus and Fuji, which happen to rank rather low on my list. Anyhow, I didn't say much to him and thought of the incident as an amusing encounter. Maybe I'll share it with the guys at work someday. XP

On a side note, finally made the decision and got a Langley library card. The branch I went to is in the same building as the city hall(?). It's quite small and doesn't have much in terms of collection, especially in the foreign language section, but the language section isn't bad. I borrowed three books, including one that I've wanted to read for a long time, The Song of Dodo. I hope I'll have time to finish reading it.

This is so sad. -__-

Just got back from work and filled up $20 of gas at 101.4, and both me and another pair of youth were thinking it's cheap. Cheap? It's robbery, I tell ya. While most other things are slowly going down in price, gas price is climbing steadily and speedily up over the years (and recently, months). And you wonder why people are driving down to the States to shop all the time...

Erementar Gerad ep.1-4

To tell the truth, I wasn't expecting too much from the series, seeing how I have yet to read one positive review on it. It's not as bad as I feared, but there're more bad points going for it, I'm afraid.

First off, I have no problem with the traditional RPG-style story, but the female lead is simply too weak. In a sense, Ren is less human than Ayanami Rei (well, let's forget the fact that they're both literally not human...), and that makes all the interactions seem one-sided and thus makes the plot lame. Then there's the unchanging credit in the ED since the first episode. It's annoying when I can't check to verify that I've identified the seiyuu, and this shows the slackness on the staff's part. And lastly -I haven't read the manga yet so this is from other people's reviews- the changing of the characters' personality and motives from the manga. Apparently, the change has made the characters uninteresting and unattractive in the anime, and character is always a biggie for me when I watch any series.

Having said the above, there are some good points about the series. I won't hide it that Ishida Akira as the main character was the first and one of the biggest reason that I watched it. There's also Ueda Yuji, whose name is written in hiragana on the official site and the credit so I didn't bother reading and only realised it's him until I heard him. Speaking of which, his name is also written in hiragana in Honey & Clover. Is he going this way now? The art style is relatively consistent with the original manga, and the music is composed by the famed Kajiura Yuki.

So here's my verdict. Erementar Gerad is a nice little RPG series to keep yourself occupied when you're bored, but not good enough to keep you entertained, especially if Ishida Akira and Ueda Yuji aren't on your list of favourite seiyuu. As for me, I will finish the series eventually, if only for the reasons listed above.

Just finished watching ep.49 & 50 of Gundam SEED on YTV and I must say the impact is not less nor lighter compared to the first time I saw it. The emotional side of the characters' feelings weren't adequately delivered in the dubbed version, but I was able to immerse myself in the flow and the philosophy of the story better not having to follow the subtitles.

First off, the idea of writing a story from the time Flay picks up that transmitter to the time ArchAngel fires the last Lohengrin emerged again from the pile of to-writes in a dusted part of my brain. I think I might just write it in a few days while the memory is still fresh in my mind.

Flay's death. I had to experience the heart-wrenching moment once more as Kira cries out Flay's name in agonised and desperate tears. It's just so... so sad. >__< Watching Kira's expression changes from great relief and gladness from saving Flay and the prospect of seeing her again, to extreme shock and disbelief with coming so close and losing her right before his eyes, was sorrowful and at the same time dramatic.

Flaga's death. Knowing that the guy is alive and well (physically well anyway...) in DESTINY totally nullifies the weight and significance of the event. I have yet to catch up on DESTINY to learn of the reason behind his situation (and hopefully it's along the lines of one of my theories), but it really would make a much more powerful and meaningful move if he were to die then, regardless of whatever excuse the staff thought up for his re-appearance. Enough complaint on this. I will write my thoughts on the event itself when I get around to finish the old-post-project...

I'll leave the real meat for when I actually write the review. These are just some of the thoughts I had when I watched the ending episodes a second time (and dubbed) today.

On a side note, I got a glimpse of One Piece on YTV earlier as well. The OP is completely re-written like Dragon Ball Z, I believe. Just thought it's interesting and a good sign that they're showing more quality anime now (as opposed to the xxxxMon trend). No, I didn't actually watch the episode. I don't imagine I'd follow the series at all, not even in Japanese. I'm already having difficulty wanting to read the manga as it is. I consider myself quite tolerant when it comes to manga art style so that's not really the problem, but if the characters and the story aren't enough to keep me interested, I'd drop the series right there. That's sort of the case with One Piece for me, I guess. *shrug*

ガンダムエース八月号とニュータイプ八月号入手。

The July issue of NewType is probably still in a container at the port waiting to be moved out. So to make matter less complicated, I changed my original plan of starting the subscription from August to start from July. This way, they won't forget that I want the July issue no matter how long it takes the shipment to arrive.

On the other hand, it's apparent that they only carry the latest manga. I tried to find 聖闘士星矢、銀牙～流れ星 銀～(oops, I gave the girl the wrong subtitle, no wonder she couldn't find it ^__^;)、動物のお医者さん with no avail. Maybe it's just faster and easier (and cheaper?) to get those from Taiwan? ふん。まあ、I'm in no hurry anyway. There's always next year...

Just realised that 杉山紀彰 also voices Usahara from Damekko Doubutsu and the new Robert Ten guy with bat wings from Ueki no Housoku. I knew I've heard this voice before. *smirk*

All the mysteries have been revealed: Why is it that the "current" script which works for Paw Wow would fail when copied over to Koinu no Hitomi and the other ones. orz It's a good thing Paw Wow's theme was set before the due date, but this might mean that I'd lose the function if I were ever to change Paw Wow's template code... What a pain. -__-

Now that's settled, I guess I'll have to look for another way to display the most current page for the other ones. Probably dig into some templates and see, but not today. Time to go back to my reading on the dot probability paradigm...

First off, I'm so far behind in episodes (only up to ep.31 now) I have no idea where things are at with Gundam SEED DESTINY (well, not entirely true, since I do read NewType and the such...), but I've been expecting See-Saw's「君は僕に似ている」very highly as the last ED of the series ever since the day it was announced. I was not disappointed one little bit.

The song is indeed fitting to conclude the last cours of the epic. I got goose bumps just from hearing the prelude and the first two lines. The only complaint I have is the consecutive beats in the background now and then, which sounds a bit too much like Mai-HiME to me and somewhat less befitting SEED DESTINY.「静寂はヘッドフォンの中」is also very good and, in a sense, portrays the image of Gundam SEED/DESTINY better. It gives a similar impression as「あんなに一緒だったのに」and 「meteor」, which says a lot about the song itself.