Burrrrr. It was 3°C when I left home this morning so I didn't think of wearing a scarf or a thicker jacket. I regretted it the second I walked out the door when I got off work. The forecasted flurries didn't happen (it's been pushed to tomorrow morning), but the strong and bone chilling December wind was blowing snow dusts all over the place.

It was in this fine weather that I braved myself and ventured on my quest for my very first DS game. Yes, I finally plunged in and got myself a DS.

The seal hasn't been broken yet, but it's already got a name: Guren (紅蓮). You can probably guess its colouring from the name. Out of the three colours that we carry (silver, cobalt & black, crimson & black), this one immediately caught my eyes as it reminded me of the Guren from Code Geass (Guren/Kallen & Black Knights/Zero, get it?) Yeah, bro just laughed dryly after hearing my reasoning behind the name. He had no idea what I was talking about, except that it involved Code Geass, a title I recited often to him.

I dropped by London Drugs first to see what anime titles they have since I haven't been there in a long time. They actually have a pretty good selection, including the first set of Gurren Lagann and Seirei no Moribito, both of which I haven't watched but have heard praises for. I'll probably start watching those two soon so I can get the DVDs if I like the series before they get bought by someone else.

Best Buy was, as expected, swamped. No one in the anime section, though. I was tempted to buy the second part of Aquarion, but the price tag of $45 for two discs set me off. I ain't paying 90 bucks for a 26-episode series unless I really like it. Sousei no Aquarion is a good show in many aspects, just not enough to justify the cost for me, especially when there's no part one and thus I'll have to hunt around for it. If they have both parts in stock, it might be a different story. That's what happened with Evangelion. I enjoy the series but it's not even in my top 20, but the complete series was there in a box set with a good and fancy box at a reasonable price, so I bought it right then and there.

Anyhow, I put Aquarion back to the shelf and strode into the video game section. It was really crowded. I saw more store associates in this area than we have for the department for the whole day today...

Before this little excursion, I had a couple titles in mind for my Guren so it didn't take me too long. My first choice, Chrono Trigger, was not available this side of the country yet. My third choice, Final Fantasy III, was no longer available in any Best Buy across the country (I thought I saw a copy just a week or so ago...) My fourth choice, The World Ends With You, was also nowhere to be seen. So I ended up with only my second choice, Dragon Quest IV. I want to finish the NES version first though, so it might be a while before I actually get around to play it. Puzzle Quest seems interesting. I might get it to fill the gap.

It's -4°C now. The numbers I see in the forecast for next week are all in the minus. I think it's time to get the muffler out. I should probably change my pyjama to the winter set while I'm at it, eh?

Due to an unexplainable impulse, I grabbed the ひぐらしのなく頃に series and finished it in three days. I was really regretting it by the second episode and even considered deleting everything and pretending this never happened. But I persevered and prevailed.

I've known about this series and its popularity for a long time, but I also knew that the show is full of grotesque murders and collapsing personalities. That's why I didn't watch it. Ironically, I'm familiar with its songs and have even listened to one of the drama CD's before. Maybe that's what piqued my interest at last.

The first chapter was really scary and creepy, which almost caused me to drop the series. Things got less creepy with each progressing chapter, but the goriness remained. This is easily more bloody than the second last episode of Neuro and I doubt there's anything that can top this (not that I would want to watch it), except for maybe the rumoured School Days.

I was somewhat confused throughout the question arc, but the Time Killing Chapter allowed me to digest and think over the various cycles of events. It gave me some ideas and prepared me better when the answer arc started. Things are slowly being revealed, but there's still many mysteries shrouded around the village and its people. I await to see the truth and real keys in breaking the curse and solving the secrets.

On a side note, when I mentioned to bro that I was watching a really scary show, he brushed it aside because it's an anime. Dear brother, you said that because you haven't seen enough anime to know what the medium can do. It's precisely because it's an anime that it is able to achieve the effect. Those bestial and sadistic facial expressions and acts are not something that can be acted out by human so easily. アニメだからこそ怖いんだ、我が弟よ。

Finished watching World Destruction 世界撲滅の六人 two days ago and thought I'd spell out some of my thoughts on the show. The show is based on the game World Destruction 導かれし意思, which I know nothing about along with the manga version, so I'll only focus on the anime version.

I was kind of skeptical about the story at first, but the seiyuu cast was too heavy for me to miss so I decided to give it a try. The art and character design is not quite my style, but I find the animal designs likeable. The setting isn't anything new, and the do-good tasks the group ended up with every time are rather typical for an RPG type show.

But I enjoyed the show despite the flaws. The episodic format, when done right, can be gratifying and attractive. The supporting characters in the episodes also displayed great development, which added to the enjoyment of the show. I especially liked the black bear (Char vs Amuro seiyuu neta!XD) and No.28 (another view on robot with kokoro!)

As for the story, I had a hunch about the connection between Kyrie and the destruct code very early in the series so the plot twist wasn't that much of a surprise for me. Being a tie-up title with the game, the anime only has time to address one or two main plot lines and very briefly touch on the other ones. While the subtitle indicates six people, much of the background and stories behind the four beside Kyrie and Morte are not explored. I'm interested in Lia and Naja's plot line if there's one, seeing how Lia is the last survivor of the dragon race and Naja is a half between human and beastman. Agan must also have an interesting story, living the life of a transport ship captain. ちょっと残念。

This series reminded me of Shining Tears X Wind a lot. Both are based on SEGA games, and both have a loaded seiyuu cast. While Shining Tears X Wind's seiyuu cast is heavier than that of World Destruction for me (It's got Kuwashima Houko and Ishida Akira, 'nuff said), World Destruction features a younger group (in terms of seniority) in average.

At the moment, the majority of the seiyuu I like are still from the 'previous generation', but the number of the younger seiyuu is slowly increasing. Miyano Mamoru and Ono Daisuke are two of the new male seiyuu I've taken notice as of late. I have high expectation for the two.

Speaking of seiyuu, I'm watching 宇宙のステルヴィア(Stellvia of the Universe) right now and find the seiyuu cast to be on the heavy side as well. I'm not familiar with Onaka Ai so I didn't pay much attention to her. Then when she said どうぞ to the bearded man on the shuttle, it suddenly hit me: 風子だ！

I only got through the Fuuko arc in the CLANNAD anime not too long ago, so her voice still lingers in my mind. And yeah, my eyes sweated a lot watching the Fuuko chapter. （つД`） I should find time to finish the CLANNAD anime. No doubt my eyes will sweat more.

I'm usually pretty lazy when it comes to change of habit, so my list of Firefox add-ons haven't grown or changed much over the years. Recently, as I find myself doing quite a bit of reading online, I started looking around for language add-ons to help me stay lazy without having to resort to using a dictionary for word definitions. Here's an update on what my add-ons list is consisted of:

[Context Search 0.4.3]
An old timer that I've used since the Mozilla days. Still use it quite often.

[Converter 0.7.1]
There's been no update for version 0.7 since I migrated to Firefox 3, but when I searched for it on the add-ons site, there it is! Just got it back a few days ago and haven't the chance to use it yet, but my list cannot be complete without it. :)

[DicionarySearch 3.0.0]
Another old timer. My usage of it has decreased lately due to Rikaichan and FetchImi, but it's still useful. I'll probably set the English and Japanese dictionary entries I have now to Wikipedia or something when I have time.

[FetchImi 0.9.5]
My latest addition to the list. I was originally looking for a English dictionary add-on that will allow me to look up definition without leaving the tab. Finding none suitable for my need, I found this one. While it's still in the experimental stage, this English-to-Japanese add-on is likely the most heavily used add-on on the list since its installation. Now if only the pronunciation hot key isn't set to a single alphabet and thus conflicts with my search-text-when-typing setting, it would be perfect.

[MeasureIt 0.3.8]
I haven't used this one in a loooong time, but it's so small that having it there doesn't bother. Just in case I want to play around someday.

[NoScript 1.8.2.8]
I actually don't use this very often and only installed it to stop pop-ups for two particular sites. I might remove this if I cease to visit the said sites regularly.

[Personas for Firefox 1.0a6]
Same Groovy Blue for me since I started using Personas last year. The server seems to be unstable at times lately and causes my Firefox to revert back to the default skin (which is pale green due to my Windows setting), but I don't see myself changing to an actual theme any time soon.

[Pronounce 1.1]
A little add-on I put in to help me with word pronunciation. The thing is, I have music playing most of the time so it doesn't get used as often as I hope. I can't read the pronunciation key, btw, which explains why I suck at pronunciation.

[ReminderFox 1.8]
I haven't gone to the library in the longest time (cry) so this has been reduced to a mere bill payment reminder...

[Rikaichan 1.04]
My trusty companion when I visit Japanese websites. Its slick interface and efficiency was what spurred me to find a counterpart for English. An absolute must have for me.

[text/plain 1.1.9.1]
Another old timer. I used it quite often back when I on Niconico a lot. Very useful and light.

[Niconico Douga Downloader 0.5]
This is compatible with the Summer version of Niconico. Not sure if it works with the current Fall version. I haven't the chance nor time to go on Niconico since I got back to work two months ago... >__<

And there we have it, a list of a total of 12 add-ons. I think the list is pretty complete to accommodate whatever I may be doing online. I don't really want to install too many add-ons and drag my Firefox down. Let's keep the number down! :)

It's been a month since the new shows started. I've picked out 10 or so shows for this season but haven't the chance to watch too many of them. As usual, there's a few must-watch ones that I save up for later when I have time. For this season, it's Gundam 00 S2, CLANNAD AFTER STORY (I was hesitant since it's Nagisa-centric, but I decided to go for it anyway), Tales of the Abyss, Tytania, and Nodame Cantabile Paris.

Here's some thoughts on what I've seen so far for this season.

伯爵と妖精 (Hakushaku to Yousei) ep.1
I'm not terribly interested in the theme and only decided to pick up the show for the seiyuu; it's not often that I get to hear Midorikawa Hikaru as the male lead. The art is suitable for the story but too generic for me. I'll continue to watch this for the seiyuu and maybe see how the story turns out.

夜桜四重奏 (Yozakura Quartet) ep.1-2
I'm vaguely interested in the theme and decided to try the show out. Not familiar with the lead male and female seiyuu, but the cast seems pretty good and this is my first time hearing Fujita Saki not as Hatsune Miku. XD The art is clean and the pastel colour palette is pleasing to the eyes. The story seems promising. I'll be watching this.

黒執事 (Kuroshitsugi) ep.1-3
I read the first chapter of the manga at Iwase when they put it out as sample some time ago. Since it was grouped together with other maid and butler titles on the shelf, I didn't suspect it to be much different. I realized it's not that simple ten seconds into the anime. The art is good and the cast is great. Sakamoto Maaya is so good with her young boy act that I almost didn't recognize her. I'll be watching this.

喰霊-零- (Ga-Rei Zero) ep.1-3
I was anticipating this since I've read the first five volumes of the manga, then I realized that this is more like a prequel to the manga, hence the zero in the title. I was kind of lost while watching the first episode until the last few minutes, when Yomi showed up and killed everyone within seconds. I'm not familiar with Mizuhara Kaoru and not a fan of Chihara Minori's acting, but the cast is not bad, especially with Wakamoto Norio in the mix. I'm watching this one for sure.

Skip Beat! ep.1-5
I enjoy the manga so I immediately picked up this series when I found out that Miyano Mamoru and Konishi Katsuyuki are playing the male leads. The art is below average and has a dated look, but at least the human proportion is not so bad as the manga. Judging from the length of the still ongoing manga, the anime probably won't go far enough to touch on Kyouko's romance prospect (I vote for Sho x Kyouko, btw). I'll be watching this.

黒塚-KUROZUKA- ep.1-3
I decided to watch this when I found out Miyano Mamoru and Park Romi as the lead seiyuu, even though I knew nothing else about the show. The show turned out to be rather dark and, once you get past the confusing time jump, the setting changed to futuristic ruins which reminded me of the 2300 A.D. epoch in Chrono Trigger. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Kuwashima Houko as well as a few other seiyuu, which makes this show heavy on the seiyuu cast for me. I'm still not very clear on everything, but I'll find out by continue watching.

魍魎の匣 ep.1
This one was confusing from start to finish for me. While the seiyuu cast seems on the heavy side and the character design is done by CLAMP, the theme and overall tone is too creepy for me. As a general rule, I don't do horror or brutality genre. I didn't see any element in the first episode that would prompt me to continue, so I'm dropping this one.

Man! That was one of the biggest scares I've had in quite some time.

Being cheap and poor as I am, I've always just used the free Zone Alarm and AVG for my internet security. I had the chance to get a copy of Norton Internet Security through a vendor training program but was too lazy to bother. Anything involving a system restart is usually frowned upon by moi. That's how lazy I am. Plus, I try not to bog down my four-and-a-half-year-old Coordinator with too much stuff. Try being the keyword here.

After hearing one of my colleagues praising the speed and leanness of the new 2009 Norton, I decided to give it a try last night. With the product key in hand, I downloaded the trial and started the installation. It immediately detected AVG and Zone Alarm and asked me to remove them first, which I complied. Then as soon as NIS kicked in, I lost my internet connection.

No matter how many times I rebooted or tried different things (I even went back to a previous restore point), I could not get it to work and get a proper ip address. Some searches online (with bro's Midori) led me to the Norton removal tool. You can imagine what went through my head when I learned that Norton actually provides a tool to completely remove their product from the system. Exactly.

Anyhow, I used the tool and cleaned all traces of Norton from Coordinator and just turned on the Windows Firewall. By this time, it was already late and I was nodding during the process. So with a heavy heart, I went to bed.

BTW, it was around 2am when I gave up. The system didn't pop up with the time change notification so I was a bit unsure as to whether I should set my alarm clock an hour earlier or later. Thankfully, Little Black's notification came up (yay for Windows 95!). Little Black's been living at a faster pace (about 30 minutes faster) for quite a few years now, but the hour was all I needed to determine the correct time.

It was a little difficult for me to focus during the Sunday service since I was always going over the few hands I had left to try. At last I had to throw in the towel and leave the matter in God's hand in prayer.

With much anxiety, I returned home and settled in front of the computer. My stubborn nature refused to give up, so I re-enabled the LAN and waited. Lo and behold, the Gmail notification bubbles popped up! I'm online again! I'm baaaaaack! XD

I tried installing just the Norton AntiVirus after getting back my connection, but it asked me to remove Zone Alarm so I just cancelled the installation. If you're an anti-virus program, stay an anti-virus program and stop meddling in my choice of firewall program, damn it! Lesson of the day? I'm sticking with my Zone Alarm and AVG.

I still have two extra sets of product keys for the NIS and NAV. Having had to go through the ordeal makes me hesitant to try putting it on Mum's computer, as much as she needs it. We'll see. I don't suppose most people would be as 'lucky' as I was, so it's probably safe to give them out. I hope.

I just rewatched the last few episodes of Code Geass R2, followed by the video of the special viewing session of the 1st episode in Japan. As this was my second time watching the scenes, I was able to concentrate more on the details and made my own conclusion on the matter of Lelouch. Despite what a lot of people speculate, I believe that Lelouch is indeed gone.

Some people think that C.C. might have transferred her Code to Lelouch, which would enable him to be immortal and recover from any fatal wounds. While this theory has its merit, those who held the Code came back to life shortly after 'death', as shown in C.C., V.V., and Charles' cases. Even if Lelouch was feigning death after his resurrection for the sake of the plan, there's no way Kallen and the others wouldn't try saving him and would thus discover the act.

But from Kallen's monologue at the end, it sounded as if she was reporting to someone from the past in honour of his memory. While her tone was not heavy, she betrayed her emotion for a moment when she suppressed a soft sob. If Lelouch was still alive, even if he was to go far away and she wasn't able to ever see him again, she wouldn't have talked like that. After all, she was devoted to him and loved him with all her heart and being.

Then there's Suzaku. If Lelouch were to survive the Zero Requiem, then there was no need for Suzaku to be Zero for the rest of his life in punishment. Lelouch could just be Zero and not be separated from Nunnally, and he wouldn't have to entrust everything to Suzaku. Suzaku had hated and pursued Lelouch ever since the tragedy of Euphemia. His hatred for Zero was so deep that it affected his personality and methods, yet he became the Knight of Zero and willingly be Lelouch's sword. If Lelouch's life were spared at the end, even if it led the world to a hopeful future, Suzaku would not have forgave Lelouch nor himself. It's because of Lelouch's determination and readiness (覚悟) to destroy the world and himself that Suzaku accepted Lelouch's final Geass and killed his best friend with his own hands. 彼の涙に偽りはなかった。(There was no deceit in his tears.)

Lastly there's the matter of C.C. and the mysterious wagon driver. Some claim that the black-haired driver was Lelouch, and that C.C.'s words implied that Lelouch was not alone because the two of them were together. As much as I stared repeatedly at that scene, I wasn't able to see a single strand of black hair (or any hair at all, for that matter) on the driver. While it's suspicious that the driver should cover himself thus, I'd like to think it's merely the staff playing with us.

As for the meaning of C.C.'s words and final head gesture, I think she's referring to the bonds (絆) that Lelouch had formed with other people. In the eyes of the world, Lelouch was a terrible tyrant wanting to control the world with fear and terror. But in the eyes of those in the know, Lelouch was more gentle and kind than anyone. C.C. was also freed from her eternal chains of repeating sadness thanked to Lelouch. Even though Lelouch was willing to be the Evil King (魔王) and should be in hell, the pureness of his heart made her look up to the heavens because that's where he deserved to be.

Unless the staff makes an official statement regarding Lelouch's fate, this controversy will likely continue to be debated by fans. Personally, I want to believe that Lelouch is dead. If not, I would feel cheated (Give me back my tears!), and it would make the story that much less meaningful.

While watching the 1st episode in the special viewing session video, I noticed that Kallen was not on the list of Black Knights executives that's either arrested or wanted, despite her status as the captain of the Zero Squad. I can only think of one explanation for this: Suzaku didn't sell Kallen out at the end of the 1st season.

The relationship between Suzaku and Kallen is one of the most complicated in the series. On the one hand, they are fellow classmates and have interacted with each other in the peaceful environment known as the Ashford Academy. On the other hand, their different views separate their paths to opposing factions even though they are both 'Japanese', and the two of them have fought head-to-head on the battle fields many times. While Kallen considers Suzaku a betrayer of Japanese and would rather not come in contact with him, Suzaku always take Kallen's feelings into consideration and try to persuade her in a peaceful way. I am a strong supporter of Lelouch x Kallen (maybe some Gino x Kallen) and don't see the potential in Suzaku x Kellen, but after all that they have been through, I believe it's possible for a strong bond and friendship to blossom between them.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I was playing the tokuten CD for the Clover no Kuni no Alice (クローバの国のアリス) game last night when I came across the character type survey. In the description of Blood's personality, the word pretending to be bad (偽悪) popped out at me. That's exactly what Lelouch was doing. The pronunciation of 偽悪, gi-a-ku, is also close to that of Geass, gi-a-su. No, I don't think there's any actual connection between the two words. I'm just in my weird thinking mode again. XD

October has arrived, which means that the fall shows are either aired or will soon be airing. I think it's a good time to briefly review the shows I've finished since my last batch.

S・A～スペシャル・エー～ (Special A)
I haven't been following the manga for a long time, but what I've already read cover all the parts from the anime so there wasn't really any surprise for me. Not much to say about this series except that it's OK and entertaining. For me, the best thing going for it is Fukuyama Jun. I'm slowly accepting Goto Yuuko, too.

ゼロの使い魔～三美姫の輪舞～ (Zero no Tsukaima ~Princess no Rondo~)
I've never read the original novel so I can only judge from the anime. This series is light entertainment for me, with elements of comedy, romance, and some action. To be frank, I was a bit touched by the final scenes at the end of the 2nd season (until Saito returned and got wacked by Louise, that is), but I didn't really get the same feeling watching the 3rd season. There's also very minimal character development in this season in terms of feelings and personal growth. I'm guessing a good portion of the episodes is just for setting up the next season, where the real conspiracy will roll into action? Yeah, I'll still be watching the 4th season when it comes out.

Blassreiter
The plot turned a 180 after the destruction of XAT since I last wrote about it. Given the theme of the show, I expected Amanda to be the sole survivor to the very end, so having Marek there as well was a surprise for me. The style of the boss battle was the old relay type with the protagonist as the last baton, but it was pretty fired up. I was a bit disappointed that Joseph didn't express any special feeling toward Amanda, but having him appeared on Amanda's bike (OK, so it used to be his) via the something care system at the end mended that a little. XD

It's an interesting experience following the series on YouTube. While the viewing numbers are not too bad, I don't think the DVD will sell very well. As I had mentioned before, I wouldn't have watched the show if it weren't for the seiyuu. While there are some great scenes (episode 12!), the theme and the overall tone is rather dark and ominous, which might not be enjoyable for the majority of the anime fan base here in North America. Maybe the Tower of Druaga will sell better? But then again, I feel that the Tower of Druaga contains a lot of elements closer to the taste of Japanese, while Blassreiter leans more toward the Western style so it's hard to say. I could be wrong.

Monochrome Factor
The show is pretty formulaic at best and down right boring at worst. The only saving grace for it really is the unnecessarily heavy seiyuu cast. Seriously, I'd have dropped the show after a few episodes if it weren't for the seiyuu. Only recommended if you're into seiyuu.

コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュR2 (Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2)
...I'm still somewhat speechless after finishing the last six episodes in one sitting last night. I'm also having slight difficulty adjusting my mood to watch anything else since. It's been a very long time since I'm so moved by an original anime (not based on an existing work). Elaborate settings, attractive designs (excluding most of the mecha), superb directing and story board, beautiful music and insert songs, plot twists that compliment each other and come back in a full circle, intense action, gripping sentiments, deep character development, and an excellent seiyuu cast. Together, all of these weaved a very impressive and emotional tale.

何なんだろう、この切ない思いは。目から汗が！しかも何度でも...

All I can say now is that Code Geass has officially climbed onto my list of top 5 anime. BestBuy Canada better picks up the title soon, or else I'm going across the border to get the DVDs. -__-

It's no secret that I am a huge anime fan, but I also watch shows with real people in them. Recently I finished a couple of Japanese dramas and thought I'd share some thoughts on them.

[CHANGE]
I was intrigued by the theme and the lead actor Kimura Takuya and decided to watch this. The world of Japanese politics is obviously not a subject I'm familiar with, but the show makes it so that the audience can learn and understand it better along with the protagonist Asakura Keita. The show is a human drama with politics, conspiracy, comradeship, and romance.

It's moving to see Asakura touching people's lives and walking toward the goal of making Japan a citizen ruled nation, with his honesty and willingness as well as his gradually increasing group of trusty allies. The ending puts things back to square one, yet turns a new page in Japan's political history. What an ending. A great show indeed.

[クロサギ]
I picked up this show randomly without knowing what it's about, and it wasn't too bad. The lead actor Yamashita Tomohisa was a new face for me, but I've seen the two female leads from other shows before. Given the show's theme and nature, it's full of mind boggling frauds and countering swindles. It also centres around the conflicting emotions of the two converse leads.

With the original manga still on-going, it's expected to have an unresolved ending. At least the two were given the chance to face their feelings and reaffirm their resolution on what they want to do, so it's all good.

[Tomorrow～陽はまたのぼる～]
I actually picked up this show because I was impressed with Kanno Miho in the Hatarakiman drama. That, and I recognized the name Takenouchi Yutaka from Long Vacation (possibly my brother's favourite Japanese drama), and I've always enjoyed medical dramas. Nothing really conjures deep consideration like life and death matters do. And I was not one bit disappointed by the show.

The episodes dealt with various issues, including personal, family, and even municipal. I was moved to tears quite a few times, and the ending theme song Hikari always seemed to play at the right time to intensify the emotions. I really liked the climax at the end and how it brought everything together in a full circle and connected with the beginning. The cast as well as the town were able to overcome their difficulties and stood up strong at the end, just as the title implies. Excellent drama. Strongly recommended.

[Code Blue-ドクターヘリ緊急救命-]
Another medical drama I picked up along with Tomorrow. Code Blue deals with emergency cases and has a more serious aspect on the capacity and limit of medicine when it comes to people's lives. While Tomorrow has a wider cast (hospital staff & townspeople) and doesn't dwell on the issues of the main characters for too long, Code Blue has a narrower cast of medical staff and focuses on the progress and development of the main characters.

The official pairing seems to lean toward Aizawa x Shiraishi, but I prefer Aizawa x Hiyama. Shiraishi feels too much of a 'good girl' and hasn't grown much by the end IMO. Hiyama, on the other hand, has developed nicely and doesn't hesitate to show her care and passion. One funny thing was that I didn't realize Aizawa was played by Yamashita Tomohisa. He looked and felt so different from his role in Kurosagi; I wouldn't have suspected him being the same person at all if I didn't accidentally match the name with Kurosaki one day. I blamed it on the hair. XD

---

It may just be a coincidence, but I've found that unless romance is a main focus of the show, the male and female leads are rarely together by the end of the show. Oh well. It's fine with me as long as the main theme, be it politics or medical or whatever, is properly explored. I guess it leaves more room for imagination for the audience and fanfic writers...

I don't follow Japanese drama so I don't know what's in line for the next season. Considering that October marks the start of a huge season for anime, I probably won't have time for Japanese drama. Just from glancing over the list of the new anime, I've already decided on at least 8 as must watch and 5 more as considering...

劇場版BLEACH The DiamondDust Rebellion もう一つの氷輪丸

I've been waiting to see this ever since news of it came out in 2007 and I was very excited when I managed to get the high quality raw last night. I couldn't get the Japanese subtitle to display but that didn't prevent me from enjoying the movie. And I was not disappointed.

Unlike the first movie, which a lot of people choose to ignore and pretend it never happened (myself included), this second instalment keeps the new cast and original content to a minimum and has everyone in character. This can easily fall within the Bleach universe and not feel out of place. In fact, it offers another glimpse into the past of the child prodigy, as well as the significance of the monarch and the way Soul Society runs.

Hitsugaya is one of my favourite characters in Bleach (Park Romi being one of the reasons). Despite his captain status, he is younger than most cast and is still learning and going through adolescence. Yet because of his strength and intelligence, he walks side by side with other leaders and carries the 10th Squad on his small shoulders. Being the sane voice and often judges the situation with a cool and informed air, he is not one to reveal his inner pains and is eager to take the responsibility and the blame. There's likely other burdens hidden in his heart, but at least with the resolution of the royal seal incident, the child captain can be at peace knowing that he and Kusaka were still friends forever.

As for other characters, most people have a reasonable amount of screen time depending on their roles and get to show off their skills in battles. The enemy boss isn't terribly strong; just big and have swarms of regenerating hollows. I like how everyone plays a part in the final battle. It's pretty hot blooded, to say the least. Ikkaku even bankaied! That makes it four shinigami knowing his secret now. I really think Rukia is the second strongest in her squad after all these battles. Oh, and I just had to laugh when I saw Mayuri's bankai helping to suppress the berserk spirit sphere from expanding. XD

There's three new characters for the movie, but there's only one new seiyuu, Ishida Akira (my favourite male seiyuu!). Yin and Yang are voiced by the captain and the vice captain of the 4th Squad. Some kind of conspiracy? XD Ah well, it's not the first time they have one seiyuu doing multiple characters. There's already Shuuhei/Keigo, Tousen/Isshin, and Karin/Nemu.

The art isn't quite consistent throughout the film, especially with the profile shots, but it's not too prominent. The music is fitting as expected, although I don't care too much about the theme song. Over all, I liked the movie a lot. Now if they'll just hurry up with the DVD release this side of the Pacific... and have BestBuy or London Drugs pick up the title! I've had enough of the pathetic state of anime presence in our local stores.

On a last note, I saw the trailer for the next Bleach movie, Fade to Black 君の名を呼ぶ, and I really really want to see it. The spot light is finally shining on our dear Rukia! But I suppose the DVD won't be out until around this time next year... orz

機動戦士ガンダム0080 ポケットの中の戦争 (Mobile Suit Gundam 0080 War in the Pocket). As expected from a UC Gundam series, this 1989 OVA stands up to time and still leaves an impression.

I haven't seen very many Gundam, but War in the Pocket struck me as a unique work. Not only was the protagonist an 11-year-old civilian and remained a non-combatant at the end, but the battles also occurred in a peaceful neutral colony where the residents mainly view wars as gossips materials. Despite the casualties and destruction caused by the Cyclops Squad in an attempt to seize/destroy Gundam NT-1, most of the people of Side 6 went on business as usual when the One Year War ended and didn't give it much thought.

Except for Al, who experienced first hand the tragedy of war and what it could bring. I think it's fair to say that War in the Pocket is a story of maturity through the coldness of war. It was Al in War in the Pocket, but it could as well be anyone.

To be frank, I didn't like Al at all in the beginning and found him to be a brat at first. Loud, nosy, self-centred, eager to prove himself, complete with a hero worship mentality. Through that fateful night of the attack, the lies and burst bubbles revealed by Bernie, and lastly the final strikes by the Zaku and the Gundam, the boy was forced to grow up and shoulder the consciousness of the cost of peace which was too heavy for his young mind.

While it's not uncommon to have people from opposing sides being attracting to each other, I think this is the first time I've seen it ended like it did here. Without knowing the truth of the final battle, that the colony would be nuked if the Gundam isn't destroyed and that the battleship equipped with the nuclear warhead was apprehended, both stood their grounds and threaded down the path they believed in. And at the end, neither knew the identity of each other. It's tragic that Bernie died in battle when there was no longer need for him to fight, but I think the irony only served to emphasize the cruelty of war.

Due to the age of this thing, I wasn't expect to recognize any seiyuu, but I managed to pinpoint 林原めぐみ(Hayashibara Megumi) and 秋元羊介(Akimoto Yousuke). I was suspicious of Bernie's seiyuu, but I'm not familiar with 辻谷耕史(Tsujitani Kouji)'s younger voice so I missed it. The biggest shock was when I saw 浪川大輔(Namikawa Daisuke)'s name in the credit as the CV of Al. After learning that Shinji from Evangelion was voiced by Ogata Megumi, I was convinced that all young boys were voiced by female seiyuus, and I thought it's the same for Al. I'd have never guessed. It's not even similar to Eigetsu's voice, which is the youngest I've heard Namikawa-san so far! That's really something.

On a last note, it may be just me, but I find 美樹本晴彦(Mikimoto Haruhiko) and 安彦良和(Yasuhiko Yoshikazu)'s character designs to be much better suited for a Gundam series than all the post-2000 ones. But who am I to talk? I haven't seen enough Gundam...

Next Gundam series on schedule: Gundam 00. Probably won't be able to finish it before the 2nd season airs, but I'll see where I can get.

I've been back from the 5-day Yellowstone bus trip for a while now, but I've been lazy uploading the photos. I finally got it up a few days ago but didn't finish adding the captions until now.

Here's mine. And here's some of what my brother took. I didn't bother adding the captions for his batch. Too much work...

Now I can go back being lazy. XD

I'm usually pretty easy going except on some occasions, where I can be stupidly stubborn. The グリムス(gremz) blog widget happens to be one such occasion.

Actually, I was about to give up the whole thing when I accidentally stumbled upon a Blogger blog with the gremz widget. Surely there has to be a way for this to work. So I filled out the web form (in Japanese) yesterday regarding the matter. This morning I got a reply from the gremz web management team (in English, since I mentioned that I'm from Canada).

It seems that Blogger is indeed not supported and the person referred me to FeedBurner. That's what I did and it worked! The only downside is that since I had to use the FeedBurner URL as the blog URL, clicking on the tree or the Paw Wow link on the gremz website takes one to the blog feed instead of the actual site. Ah well, it's not as if I'm trying to get people to come through gremz. *shrug*

So my little gremz tree has sprouted today! Hopefully it'll grow to be tall and strong. :D

There's also グリムスキーワード, where if you input グリムス and an eco-related keyword that matches the gremz database, there would be special effect added to the tree. I'm assuming the keyword to be in Japanese, though, so I probably won't be able to see the specials... :(

Blogger doesn't seem to be very popular at all with the Japanese, so I was forced to give up the wonderful グリムス(gremz) blog widget because it's not supported. I looked around for a bit more but couldn't find anything similar. Tsk.

As typical for me, I strayed after the futile effort and ended up bringing back a completely different widget. I present you, 真・フルみっくすプレーヤー!

This is my first time adding a blog widget so I was a bit nervous, but it was actually quite painless and easy to do. I only picked a handful of songs that I've heard from the list of available tracks. Apparently there are more songs on the way, so I'll update the playlist as well (if I remember).

To play, just pick a song and click on it. I think some of them are not full tracks, but the playlist should be enough to give you a sense of what the Vocaloids have to offer. #1-37 are Hatsune Miku, #38-54 are KAITO, #55-67 are Kagamine Rin/Len, #68-69 are Kamui Gakupo, and #70-71 are MEIKO.

5-day Yellowstone bus trip.

Well, actually we only got to visit Yellowstone for one day. The other four days were spent mainly on the road. It's cheaper to go on a bus tour (as opposed to taking the plane), but it's also way time consuming...

There's so much to talk about, I'm not going to write them all out. I'll upload the photos, along with the ones my brother took, to Picasa later and just post the link.

For now, some brief thoughts and miscellaneous stuff not captured in the photos:

- The group consisted of 30 people including the three of us. Most were young families with little kids. Yeah, I'm not the most patient when it comes to kids, but I managed. Only 6 out of 30 spoke Mandarin, so the tour guide was in Cantonese mode a lot of the time.

- The tour guide spoke Cantonese and translated in heavy accented Mandarin from time to time. Mum can understand some Cantonese and asked the people across from us if she really wanted to know what the guy was talking about. Bro just ignored him most of the time. I strained so much trying to understand/guess what he was saying, I'm still hearing Cantonese in my head. Not good. Must watch more anime or Japanese drama to rid the problem.

- The whole thing felt kind of rushed, which is understandable considering the long distance covered each day and the number of people in the group. But the trip would have been better if we didn't have to waste time on shopping and get to stay in Yellowstone longer. A lot of the people in the group would probably disagree, though. The trip was supposed to be a Yellowstone tour, but in fact we were only there for less than a day. Disappointing. :(

- The sun was bright and the weather dry and hot, making it difficult for my camera to take pictures of things on the other side of the bus windows due to reflections. It's really a shame. I wanted to take picture of the bisons and the landscape. But I think the shutter time of my 2+ years camera is still too long to really capture the moments on the moving bus. Orz

- Mum and many other people have lamented on the loss of Yellowstone's charm due to the 1988 fire. I'm actually not too concerned about that. For me, Yellowstone's beauty lies in its geology and geography. Vegetation is a necessity for the animals, not an attraction. Forest will grow back, but the geology and geography won't return once altered.

- Got a chance to drop by BestBuy during the 'shopping time' and the anime section just blew me away. Look at all those box sets! That's cheating, man! Why do they get twice as much selection and options!? I really regretted not bringing my card with me down there. Orz

- I'm usually pretty tolerant when it comes to food, but I think I ate better when I worked at Staples (regular diets of Tim Horton's and McDonald's) than during most of the trip. I don't want to see another Arby's or some lame buffet...

- Movies shown on the bus: Night at the Museum, The Battle of Red Cliff (赤壁), a documentary about the 1988 Yellowstone fires, a documentary drama Supervolcano, Eight Below (2nd time viewing for me, but I still teared up)

- I brought along the first volume of Saiunkoku Monogatari, but Mum scolded me every time I pulled it out from my bag on the bus. I only managed to finish two chapters. Since the title and author's name are in kanji, I don't think anyone realized that the book is in Japanese.

Long Vacation.

I had my last day on July 31st and officially became unemployed starting in August. For some reason, I've felt quite at peace about the whole thing, and it feels like a long overdue vacation for me. My passport's even expired for over 6 years... Yes, a vacation is in order. Maybe not one involving those giant metallic birds that can take you across the oceans, but a vacation nonetheless.

Of course, I have plans beside looking for my next job during this time of rest. Some will become part of my daily life, while some will be accomplished over a period of time. I haven't gotten everything laid down yet, but here's some of the things I plan to do:

[Devotion time]
One of my biggest goal during the long vacation is to read more Bible and know more about God, which I've neglected for a long time. I think it's time for me to go back to the origin and start afresh. To boot, I'll challenge myself and start with the Old Testament. All those background readings for various ACG series should be good enough preparations. I can do this.

[Sleeping earlier & Walking]
Yeah, it's no secret that my health sucks. The only saving grace (or not) is that I can go on with just few hours of sleep, but that obvious won't last, and my body's been protesting (craaaaack) since last year. Now that I don't have to spend close to 10 hours out everyday, I can go to bed earlier. My goal over the next month or so is to make 12am so I can get up at 8 and hopefully be out walking by 9 if the weather permits.

[Anime]
Entertainment is an essential part of rest for me, so that's where anime comes in. A large chunk of time will be devoted to job searching during the weekdays, so I'll probably keep my anime watching to the weekends. Maybe an additional episode or two during meals a few times per week.

[Game]
Frankly, I don't see myself playing much. I'll probably just finish the Alice in Clover game and call it quits. Maybe the occasional online casual games and RO once a month. I kinda lost my appetite for CLANNAD after someone told me that the Tomoyo ending, the only one I'm interested, is a bad one... Little Black is still in a coma so I can't touch the DQ III save file in there. :(

[Translation]
I've talked about this for a looooong time but never got around to actually do it. I'm planning to use this chance to put the proposed writing/translation blog into action. If all goes well (I'll be using the same template for it so I want to find out why this blog is not indexed by Google...), it should be ready for posting by the end of the month. I don't really have anything to offer yet, but eventually I'll post Agion (original work in progress) and the English translation for the Saiunkoku Monogatari novels. Be warned, though, that I have no formal Japanese education and everything I know was picked up watching anime...

[Plamo]
Over the years I have accumulated over a dozen plamo (the number will likely increase once I get a chance to watch Gundam 00) and only managed to build three. My hands are itching with anticipation, but I guess I'll have to re-arrange my room again (oh, man...) to make room (pun intended) for them first. My goal is one plamo every two months.

[Learning]
I love learning new things and I have a wide array of totally unrelated interests, so I'm definitely taking the time to learn something. I really really really want to play with the VOCALOIDs, but they're so expensive, especially KAITO... orz

One can probably guess that I'm not an outdoor person. What a boring Canadian, eh? Anyhow, this is my initial plan for the long vacation. We'll see how it goes. :)

Bro borrowed the TMNT movie yesterday from a friend and we had a blast laughing at the plot, the design, the dialogues, and the overall lameness. OK, he didn't find it as lame as I did. I'm just spoiled by anime... Our experience of the TMNT consists of the 2nd NES game and bits and pieces of the cartoon, so the 3D movie was totally new to us.

The movie was all right and entertaining enough... That's all we could say about it. One thing that hit pretty close to home was when Donnie did the IT tech support. I used to ask those questions when I was at Staples. You'd be surprised by some people's replies. Bro just liked the big turtle head Mikey used.

While there's plenty of actions and fights, I couldn't help but compare and comment on how slow and clunky a lot of those looked. Bro thought it's because I've watched too much 2D anime, but he had to agree with me when I cited 3D games.

When Winters floated up and turned to light specks near the end, I commented to bro that it would be better if: Winters ages -> his hair turns white and his skins dry up and turn dark like that of a mummy's-> his skin and flesh flakes off and reveals the human skeleton (proof that he lived and died as a man) -> the skeleton turns to ash and get blown away starting from the left side (from the turtles' POV) -> the armour drops to the ground and breaks into pieces before turning to ash and getting blown away. The turning to light thing seemed too super hero to me and left no after-taste at all.

Never mind me. Like I said, I'm just too spoiled by anime...

Just finished The Tower of Druaga ~the Aegis of URUK (ドルアーガの塔 ～the Aegis of URUK～) on the YouTube channel, and I must say it's unexpectedly turned out to be one of the better shows out of the spring batch.

My hope wasn't too high as the series appeared to be a parody and comedy at first, and I actually considered dropping it two or so episodes in if it wasn't for the heavy seiyuu cast and Gatou Shouji (he's the reason I had my suspicion of this being just a regular magic & sword dungeon crawler). I'm glad I stayed and look forward to the next season in 2009(!). Too bad Ishida-san's character didn't survive the season. Maybe I'll look for the NES game in the mean time. Apparently the ropers are actually quite tough in the game, despite their gag appearances in the anime. Absolutely love that roper dance, btw. XD

On the same note, I've been keeping up with Blassreiter on the YouTube Blassreiter channel as well. The latest episode (ep.12) was pretty dramatic. Of the original XAT Team 2, I didn't expect those two to be the surviving members... The 3D renderings still irritate me sometimes, but I'm kinda used to them by now. The show is pretty dark and the viewing number is way below that of The Tower of Druaga ~the Aegis of URUK~ on YouTube. To be frank, I might not have tried it if it wasn't for the cast... Most of them are out of the picture now, but there should be new characters showing up soon. We'll see how this turns out.

Firefox 3 was released with a bang on June 17th, aka Download Day, and made world record for the most number of download for a software in 24 hours. I joined in the effort with two downloads, one for my PC (Coordinator) and one for the work laptop, but I wasn't able to really play with it until a couple days later, when I got my new glasses.

Glasses? Yeah, the frame of my 5-year-old glasses snapped in the middle the night before the Download Day and, being a heavily myopic person, I was half-blind for the days that followed. I managed to download Firefox 3 without problem and immediately gained a new appreciation for the improved zoom feature. I don't usually go beyond a single zoom level, but in my half-blind state, I had to zoom in at least 4-5 times, and boy was I glad to find things still smooth and readable after several Ctrl+. However, I probably needed 8-9 zooms to really be able to browse the websites somewhat so I pretty much gave up using the computer. The Windows magnifier was too bothersome and only covered a small area to be useful to me, btw.

The fact that I was pretty sick for the week didn't help much, but at least I had something to do away from the computer. Sleep! I slept almost 11 hours a day! The last time I did this was when I was quite sick a couple years ago...

Zooming back (pun intended) to after I receive the new pair of glasses. Finally, I got to play with my pet browser!

First off, all but one of my add-ons were updated. I'm still missing Converter as of now, but this one used to be Mozilla only so I can bear the wait. My brother wasn't so lucky and kept checking for updates everyday, and he finally either installed alpha versions or forced the version to go with Firefox 3. He couldn't live without all his add-ons, it seemed. We both use Personas so no issue with the themes.

The active tab wasn't distinguishable with Personas at first, but that was quickly rectified by the latest Personas version. The Japanese rock festival pack was also included in the update, which for some reason failed to install when I tried manually before. I've been sticking to Groovy Blue on Coordinator, but the one I used on the work laptop was nowhere to be found... It's changed to Foxkeh Kodomo no Hi at the moment.

One of the most discussed feature of Firefox 3 is probably the Awesome Bar, and I agree. It was also the first thing my brother complained to me about (I was half-blind at the time and just told him to figure it out himself). Now that I've used it, I have to say it's a bitter sweet experience thus far. On one hand, it does make going to some places easier which might have otherwise taken me a couple minutes, but it can be annoying if you usually just visit certain sites regularly. It also reveals a lot more about one's surfing history, which explains why my brother was extremely against me using his laptop to go online while waiting for Coordinator to finish some CPU hogging tasks. Totally understandable.

I'd say without any tweaking, the Awesome Bar is a great tool for someone who's jumping to places online and not so useful for someone who's staying within the boundaries of certain domains. On the basis that you're not sharing the computer with someone else, of course. Maybe this is solvable by just simply setting up different profiles? I'll never know...

One beef I have with Firefox 3 is that it doesn't warn me when I close the browser with multiple tabs if I enabled opening previous tabs at the browser start-up. While it's true that the tabs will still be there when I start the browser, it takes time to load all of them. Considering that I typically have 20 or so tabs opened, it can be irritating, especially if there's Nico Nico or YouTube in there. Hopefully it'll be fixed in 3.0.2 (3.0.1 should have frozen already and I don't think the fix is there).

Firefox 3 doesn't change that much for me, but it's the little things that make an impression, such as the better rendering of text and graphic and zoom, the search function within the add-ons manager, and download time shown on the task bar. The resume download thing is a hit and miss for me so far, but my brother has no problem at all. But then again, he doesn't usually download large files like video and game demos so he rarely have to pause it in order to load a streaming video. As for the other thing that people tend to talk about, the key hole interface, it doesn't really affect me. Yeh for Personas and small icons. XD

On a side note, I recently learned that the Taiwanese pronounces YouTube as you-to-be (as in the words "you to be" in English), and the Japanese pronounces it as yoh-tsu-bei. Interesting, eh?

Canada Day! A day for celebration for a wonderful country! (OK, so I missed it by a day...)

For a lot of British Columbians, though, Canada Day this year would probably be remembered as the day our gas price breaks the 150 mark, no thanks to the 2.4 cents gas tax starting July 1st. I paid $55 to top off the tank the day before, which will hopefully last me until the middle of next week. I don't want to think about how much my next gas receipt will show.

+ + + + + + +

Just finished watching 図書館戦争 (Toshokan Sensou) and it's easily a top 10 contender. Originally, I was going to wait until I have all the episodes before watching 'cause I figured I wouldn't have much time for the new series this spring. I took a sneak peek one day and got instantly hooked, and I couldn't wait for the next episode to come out. It's like GunParade March all over again for me, in a good way. The story is good, the anime quality is great, and the characters are outstanding. I've watched every episode at least twice or thrice, in raw, Chinese subtitle, and English subtitle. Extremely recommended!

I was going to order the original novels for Toshokan Sensou, but they're still in hard covers so the girl suggested I wait for the paperbacks. I ordered the first eight books of 彩雲国物語 (Saiunkoku Monogatari) instead. Can't believe I forgot to ask about 十二国記 (Juuni Kokuki)... orz

+ + + + + + +

Quote of the day
Bro *looking at the cat*: Are cats of the tiger family?
Me: .........Tigers are of the cat family. *thinking: You asked for it. I'm so going to post this.*

It's been some time since I write about anime, so I'll briefly write about They Are My Noble Masters (君が主で執事が俺で) that I finished about two weeks ago.

At first glance, They Are My Noble Masters appears to be a harem series loaded with a ridiculous amount of fan service (the most I've seen to date, in fact, but I don't usually touch this type of shows so I don't know how it compares to other ones). I was a bit hesitant to watch it, but the seiyuu cast was kind of attractive so I gave it a try.

I decided to continue after the first episode, despite the amount of skins shown. What do you know? It's actually a neta series. XD I especially enjoyed the G Gundam and Kamen Rider Kabuto neta and found the other ones entertaining as well. There were some I didn't get so kudos to the fansub group for putting in the notes. It's a shame they didn't get the Kabuto ones, though.

While the show is laden with jokes and gags, the background and feelings of the various characters are properly explored (as implausible as those may be), and the last couple episodes are especially emotional. Not bad for a harem series based on an eroge. Not a must watch, but if you have some free time at hand, can stand the excessive fan service, and appreciate the various neta, give it a whirl. I gave it a grade of B-~B.

Previously I mentioned a couple methods to get my music fix during work. This week I discovered yet another one, also through Nico Nico Douga. The key word is 作業妨害用ＢＧＭ/作業用ＢＧＭ(BGM not/for working).

I was casually browsing through the anime section on Nico Nico during lunch time one day when I came across an anisong medley video that states if you recognize so many songs out of this many tracks, your life is over (No, my life is far from over. I barely got half.) As I played (as in playing a game) a couple of those, I noticed the BGM tag on top. Things just kind of rolled from there. So far I've listened to medley of anisong, gesong, boss fight battles, tear jerking songs, folk and fantasy style songs, hot-blooded songs.... The choices are endless and will take me a long time (if ever) to go through all of them.

BTW, I finally solved the jumping vocaloid video mystery. Apparently there's vocaloid album collaboration projects every so often, and if a video belongs to the current album, it'll automatically jump to the next one and loop through all the videos in the album. An interesting way to find more good vocaloid songs. XD

The biggest news for the Vancouver community today is probably the official retirement of the Canuck everyone will remember, Trevor Linden.

I started watching hockey just before the play-offs in 1994 and got pretty hyped as the Canucks, the 7th seeder, defeated higher ranked teams and advanced to the Stanley Cup finals, fighting to the very end in game 7 against the New York Rangers. I got the names and faces of everyone on the team down at that time and collected the posters in the Province newspaper. I even drew a series of pictures titled 'Road to the Cup' using the team logos. No, I couldn't find those sketches anymore and maybe I threw them out during a room cleaning. Yes, I'm pretty mad at myself for this act of stupidity...

Anyway, Trevor Linden has been a favourite of mine since.

Admittingly, I didn't follow the Canucks as closely after Mike Keenan came into the picture and merely checked their progress after the turn of the century unless they made play-off. But I still got excited whenever there's news of Trevor, and I was thrilled to have him back in Vancouver in '01. Here is a player with class, compassion, and action, both on and off the ice.

It's sad to see such great man leaving hockey. You will always be in our hearts, Trevor! Best wishes and blessings to you and your family!! :D

On a side note, many of the players I grew up watching are now retired... Thank you all for being a part of my youth! :)

What a game! A great closure for the 2008 hockey season. Congrats to the Detroit Red Wings for winning the Stanley Cup, and applause to the Pittsburgh Penguins for putting up a fight against the best team in the league! Kudos to the players on both teams!

The last few minutes of the game were pretty intense and dramatic. I was really hoping to see that attempt get through by the Penguins to tie the game with 2 seconds left. Alas, game 5 was not to be repeated. XD

Sir Stanley will be in Detroit this year. Will someone please bring it up north next year? I'll settle for anywhere that spells 'neighbour' properly. Vancouver would be nice. ;)

What a game! I wasn't that terribly interested in the series at first because Detroit seemed to have no trouble at all killing the Penguins with two straight shut-outs, so I merely followed the series' progress and didn't actually watch any game on TV.

I got home tonight just as 1st OT started. Apparently, the Penguins tied the game with less than a minute left, giving a whole arena full of crowds and my brother a disappointing big surprise. I sat down to watch it with my bro... until the game ended in the 3rd OT with the Penguins taking the series back to Pittsburgh.

My brother wasn't very thrilled, of course, being a huge Red Wings fan, but he was too tired to say anything and just felt relieved it was over. He didn't remember it, but I reminded him that Canucks had a longer game last year that went into the 4th OT. That was long.

Props to Fleury for making 55 saves tonight! Without him, as my brother commented, the Penguins would have lost 50 times already. I look forward to the next game.

Mystery solved!

Being the lazy person that I am, one of the first things I do after installing Firefox is to set up keyword search. This way, I can just type in whatever in the URL bar and out comes the result page in my chosen web services.

Being the poor person that I am, I use AVG for anti-virus. Not long ago, it popped up with a reminder that the then current version will not be updated after certain days and urged me to upgrade to the next version 8.0, which I did.

I haven't been playing around much in Firefox lately and mostly just used the bookmark to go to selected sites. I used the URL bar to search occasionally but those were all in English.

That's why I didn't notice the problem until today, when I tried to search 'Kagamine Rin' 'kokoro' 'kiseki' in Japanese. As soon as I typed in the terms, the "xxx has encountered a problem and needs to close" message jumped at me. All my attempts ended with the same error message and the Talk Back agent window. Time to troubleshoot.

It didn't happen when I search via Ctrl+K, only when I used the URL bar. I tried English, no problem. I tried Japanese, crashed. I tried Chinese, crashed. I went into about:config, nothing wrong. I tried rebooting the computer, same thing. I tried Mozilla Suite, no problem.

Then it dawned on me. During the few times that I searched this past week, I remember vaguely that there's some kind of green mark beside the search results, an indication that the link is deemed safe by AVG. I thought it might be the security toolbar I agreed to install at the time of upgrade. Not seeing an option to uninstall the toolbar by itself, I uninstalled the whole thing and reinstalled it minus the toolbar. Same thing.

I was at my wit's end and was considering switching to a different anti-virus software. As a last effort, I opened the suspect and tried to see if I can find a setting for it. Then my eyes landed on the LinkScanner icon. I clicked on it once. Nothing. I right-clicked on it. Nothing. I finally double clicked on it and got the option to appear. There's no mouse over description as well. Not too friendly to an UI dummy like me... -__-

Anyway, my keyword search is now back to normal after I disabled the LinkScanner. I'm so happy...（つД`）

Lessons for the day are
1) It can be a pain and sometimes downright frustrating to use non-English characters in an English software environment. It shouldn't be like this, especially considering that Windows XP (and I assume Vista as well?) is UTF-8.
2) Make your UI more friendly for people like me please!! I could have resolved the problem with a few mouse clicks and saved the time I wasted uninstalling and reinstalling and rebooting
3) Don't install all features by default! If you offer a customized route during installation, makes all features beside the core component (in this case the anti-virus part) available for choosing. And have clear descriptions for the features and let the user decides. I wouldn't had enabled the LinkScanner if I had the choice.
4) Stop ranting on and on and making the post so long...

人はやばり光と希望を求める、そして誰でも救われるを信じたいかな？

Having experienced numerous ACG works in various genres over the years, I've come up with a pet theory on human nature, which basically encompasses the above rhetorical question: Humans, after all, seek after light and hope, and want to believe that anyone can be saved. I'm not good at translating my thoughts into words, so I'll just briefly summarize it with a few general scenarios.

Case 1. The 'bad' guy usually started 'good' and innocent until something drastic happened to him and caused him to be the way he is. After clashing swords a couple times with the protagonist, he is touched by the protagonist's personality and is reminded of the good side of human nature and get converted.

Case 2. A character from a 'bad' faction grew up 'bad' because that's the way he's supposed to be in that given environment. After numerous encounters and conflicts with the protagonist, he is attracted by the protagonist despite their difference in background, value, and status. Those around still condemn/fear him, but the feelings between him and the protagonist, whether it's love or friendship, will allow him to leave his old way of life and be with the protagonist.

Case 3. The guy decided to behave in a certain way on his own accord. He may act all bad-ass and mighty, cold and merciless, or not caring about anything, but he is lonely and longs for something deep in his heart and subconsciously. The protagonist brings him out of his own confinement, and he has a change of heart.

The 'bad' guys in those cases may range from a new recruit for the opposing side, an infamous killer, a leader, a user of supernatural power, or a Mazoku/monster/youkai/spirit/ma. They all chase after something. If the something is of light in nature, they would obtain it and be saved. If the something is of darkness in nature, they would end horribly should they obtain it.

Sound familiar? They should, as these are basic elements and staples to a lot of the ACG works and overused to the point of cliche. Yet people never get tired of these patterns and themes, and they continue to create and consume works built around them. Why? This is where my pet theory comes in.

I believe that since the day that Adam and Eve were ousted from the Garden of Eden and separated from God, there exists a void and desire in the human heart that can only be filled by that which is from God. That's why we seek after light and hope and believe in such power. That's why we want to see people of darkness be saved and pulled back into the realm of light. By seeing a good ending for those people, we hope for the same for ourselves.

There are people saying they're fine being in darkness and rather stay there, including a number of my friends, but I do think they're bluffing themselves and/or ignoring what their hearts are telling them.

Personally, I have nothing against such themes, and I'm sucker for those to a degree. The only instant where I will not tolerate this is when the subject in question is a devil or satan itself, as I believe their paths cannot be changed once they chose to rebel against God and got thrown down from Heaven. Other than those, I'm good with any variation of the said themes.

I used to be pretty dark, btw, without anything drastic happened to me. I may not be completely in the light now, but I'm definitely and surely going there. With the help of my good Shepherd, of course. :)

SP2!!
Yes, that's Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2.
Yes, I finally installed it today (well, it was really midnight yesterday) after the error message while trying to update my anti-virus software engine.

Man, did that take forever or what? I even went for a shower during the install. Well, I was planning to use Little Black to pass the time, but my attempt was met with the 'Operating system not found' message that I used to see...

I'm hoping it's just a side effect of having it on for months and just sitting there doing nothing. Maybe I'll be greeted with Windows 95 again when I turn it on. Don't really have the energy for this. Maybe next week. Updating a whole bunch of stuff requiring SP2 is hard work and very time consuming. Not to mention it takes quite a number of restarts. -__-

So I have IE 7 now! Haven't fired it up yet to see what it looks like. I'll probably do that after Little Black comes back to me...

ココロ(Kokoro/Heart). This is the song, or rather, the PV that lured me into the fantastic world of Vocaloids.

I've briefly mentioned how I came to know this piece of wonderful work, so I'll skip it here and focus more on the emotional side.

To be frank, the plot scenario isn't that original to begin with so I wasn't too enamoured by it until seeing the PV. I'm a daydreaming (XD) type of person so it's always that much more meaningful when something is associated with visuals and a story. I teared up when I saw the PV, and the tears threatened to spill over when I saw the PV for the answer song, ココロ・キセキ(Kokoro Kiseki/Heart.Miracle), by the same author. And I actually cried when I saw the PV for ココロ＋ココロ・キセキ.

ココロ, by itself, is like a gracefully woven story between two star-crossed lovers (i.e. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet), but with ココロ・キセキ, the tragedy is elegantly transformed into a beautiful romance (i.e. Gonzo's Romeo x Juliet). OK, I'm stretching it as I'm currently watching the anime, but bear with me here. (I'm only halfway through the series, but I'm assuming it won't end like Willy's version.)

Ahem, back to ココロ. While the robot of miracle ceased to function at the end in both songs, ココロ leaves a slightly melancholy aftertaste, and ココロ・キセキ's is tinted with a small happiness. Together, the two compliment and complete each other. To pack so much emotion into these short minutes also reminded me of Hoshi no Koe, or the lingering feelings in the first Inu Yasha movie.

I was watching Bleach ep.160 yesterday and it had a scene where Kaien was explaining his view of 'kokoro' to Rukia, that 'kokoro' exists between two people when they connect with each other, and that the 'kokoro' is left with the other person when one of them is no longer there. I only nodded my head and thought it very true when I read this part in the manga, but seeing it in the anime after ココロ was yet another experience. I immediately related the concept to ココロ, how the 'kokoro' was obtained because there's a relationship between the scientist and the robot, and how even after the scientist dies, the 'kokoro' was left with the robot. The robot stopped in the end in both songs, but the 'kokoro' is now left with all those that have viewed and been touched by the songs and the PVs.

On the other hand, when one dies alone with no one to leave the 'kokoro' with, it's a lonely thing. The lonely scientist in ココロ died before the robot obtained the 'kokoro', so he still ended lonely. In ココロ・キセキ, the robot obtained the 'kokoro' while the scientist was still alive. Even though the scientist still died before the robot, he was able to leave the 'kokoro' with the robot. He did not end lonely.

Another thing in the same episode that resonates with ココロ is when Rukia was reflecting the various emotions she's come to experience, like the robot who came to realize joy and sadness once she obtained the 'kokoro'. Rukia actually resembles both the lonely scientist and the robot. When she was adopted into the Kuchiki family, she was distanced by those around her and was alone until Kaien came into the scene. Her heart was closed again after Kaien died in her hands and she became cold. After she met Ichigo, her heart slowly opened up and she became, in Renji's word, human. Just as Kaien had left his 'kokoro' with Rukia, Rukia will have someone to leave her 'kokoro' with when her time's up. That's what nakama is for.

See. I told you I'm a daydreaming type of person. XD

*All the links in this post are from Nico Nico Douga. I think the video are also available on YouTube in a lower quality.

KAITO はすごいね。ていうか、アニメですごいね... え? 何のはなし? 島唄よ。(KAITO sure is amazing. Actually, anime is amazing... Eh? What am I talking about? Shima-Uta/Island Song.)

Not making sense? OK, let's backtrack a bit. Well, it'll still be in somewhat reverse chronological order, but you'll (hopefully) get it by the end.

I was introduced to the famed VOCALOID Kagamine Rin(鏡音リン)'s song "kokoro"(ココロ) on YouTube via an ACG-oriented Chinese forum. My impression of VOCALOID songs were denpa and pop, neither of which were my cup of tea, so I didn't have much expectation. But I was near tear after I watched the PV. (I'll leave the details related to "kokoro" for another post.) Two weeks ago, I signed up for a Niconico Video account and searched for the PV, and eventually linked out to the author's mylist page. From there, I watched his PV for "Byakkoya no Musume"(白虎野の娘) and was instantly captured by the song.

That was the first time I heard KAITO sing, and I was thoroughly amazed. I started searching for KAITO's songs on Niconico, and I hit Shima Uta. (While I'm typing this, I found another Shima-Uta by the same KAITO + Fuuga Naoto, which is awesome!) Unfortunately there's no mp3 available for this version of the song, so I can only listen to it using Songza or Niconico. On a whim, I searched 'Shima Uta' on Songza and various tracks came up in the result. The more I listen to it, the more I like it. Including KAITO's, I now have 5 versions of Shima Uta in my Songza playlist.

So that explained the KAITO part. What about the anime part? Well, Shima Uta is Japanese folk music, and this type of music isn't usually liked too much by the masses except for old folks (pun intended). Nor is it something that can be heard anywhere, especially if one lives on the other side of the Pacific from the island nation. I, for one, had never come in contact with any Japanese traditional music until my interest in ACG blossomed.

The Inu Yasha anime opened the door to Japanese traditional music for me, and the genre quickly grew on me. Then, while watching Samurai Champloo, I heard Asazaki Ikue's "Obokuri~Eeumi." It might had been the atmosphere of the series itself, but I took a liking to the song instantly. While I don't actively seek out Japanese folk songs, I've been very open to the style since. If I didn't watch anime, I'd probably never be interested in the Japanese traditional and folk music.

On a side note, I recently learned of the meaning behind the lyrics of Shima-Uta. Time has changed, but the emotion remains. Rather than the vestige scarred by war, KAITO's Shima-Uta seems to convey a wish for peace after stormy times. The version by KAITO + Fuuga Naoto, on the other hand, connects both expressions in an act of oyako performance. It's simply great.

You'd be surprised by the scope and diversity of all things I've come in contact because of ACG. XD

Continuing from a previous post, here's more first impression on some of April's new series.

狂乱家族日記 (Kyouran Kazoku Nikki) ep.1
I wasn't too sure what this is about, but I decided to check it out anyway. The lead female isn't very likeable and reminds me of the bossy side of Suzumiya Haruhi, but I'm guessing it'll change later, perhaps even related to something dark and painful from her past? The children seem normal enough to me, and I'm all for the non-human ones, i.e., the lion, the robot, and the pink jellyfish. XD The scene where Ooka was scolding the robot that a child shouldn't attack his parent, I was more bothered by the fact that he was pointing a gun at his child. Sure enough, he was later scolded by Kyouka for that very reason. The cast is a bit on the younger side, so I'm not keen on seeing any kind of romantic elements. The art style is bright and colourful, fitting for a comical series. I'll keep an eye on this one.

Vampire Knight ep.1
I've read some of the manga and heard the LaLa subscriber service drama CD before, so I'm somewhat familiar with this series. I'm glad they're using most of the seiyuu cast from the drama CD, which is on the heavy side, but why is Koyasu Takehito absent again? Same in Zombie-Loan... :( The actual animation is better than the preview image on the website, and it didn't inherit the awkward human skeletal frame from the manga, so that's good. The manga is still on-going so I'm not sure up to which volume the anime will be. I'll be watching this.

Chi's Sweet Home
Technically, this isn't a full-size series, as it only runs about 5 minutes everyday like Damekko Doubutsu from before. I'm a sucker for animals, and cute kitten is right in my alley. Nothing much to say about this, except that I highly recommend it.

Fireball ep.1-3
Another mini-series that runs for about one and a half minute per episode. This one was recommended to me by Neko-tan, and I instantly fell in love with it. The 3D modelling and motion are excellent, and the script is full of neta and hilarious. It's really hard to imagine Disney has a part in this. I can't count how many times I've rewatched each episode. It's that good. You'll regret it if you miss this. I mean it.

Special A ep.1-2
I've read the manga before and found it interesting enough, so I sort of decided to watch it when the news of the anime came out. I haven't seen much of Goto Yuko outside of Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, so it's refreshing to see her as a bright and energetic girl full of fighting spirit. Not a big fan of her singing, though, so I'll pass on that OP... The ED is fine, but nothing special. Fukuyama Jun sure can act, but same thing, I have yet to hear a good song from him. The show seems entertaining, to say the least. I'll be watching this.

More on the April new series later.

Neko-tan dropped me a note last week recommending Shigofumi out of the last batch of anime shows, of which I replied back in email with some thoughts of my own on some of the ones I recently finished. I didn't go into too much detail in the reply, but since I already took the time to start it, I thought I'd follow-up with a proper(ly summarized) post on the topic.

もやしもん (Moyashimon)
This one is quite interesting in terms of concept. Having the ability to see and interact with microbes in such a unique way is an attractive idea for me. There's lots of germs involved, but they're packaged so cutely that you just can't resist the lopsided grin when you see them floating around and hear them speak. The cast is on the heavy side considering the nature and the length of the series, and the omake microbe theatre at the end of every episode is pretty informative. I also have an affinity to agricultural universities due to my childhood dream of becoming a vet, and such setting is rather fresh for an anime. The bit about Kei dressing as a girl was weird, though.

Moyashimon didn't inspire me to actively learn more about microbes, but it's entertaining and fun to watch. BTW, I failed microbiology, one of the required courses for pre-vet, in university before switching to earth science. I don't dislike it, though. Just didn't study enough and joined the failing 50% of the class population.

Recommended unless you must have your fix of fighting and abnormal cast. XD

破天荒遊戯 (Hatenkou Yugi)
This is a very typical girl-goes-on-journey-with-friends-she-meets-on-the-road story. The only highlight for me is the male cast, as I'm not familiar with the seiyuu for the lead female. I don't really have much to say about this show since it didn't leave much of an impression on me. It may be just me, but I feel Kino no Tabi is a better 'travel adventure' show, even if the overall mood is more melancholy.
Not recommended unless you dig Sakurai Takahiro or Miki Shinichiro.

魔人探偵脳噛ネウロ (Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro)
OK, I admit that the seiyuu cast was what convinced me at first, but the interaction between strongly portrayed characters helped keep me to the end. The 'regular' cases are typical enough and even fun sometime for a show in the suspense genre, but the 'X' cases can get pretty graphic and bloody. More so than a lot of the other war and fighting themed shows I've seen, actually. My brother got a glimpse of the second last episode (the nastiest episode in the series) and saw the screen filled with broken bodies scattered about in blood in a dark and ominous place, and he immediately cried murder and questioned my taste...

Recommended if you're into this sort of thing. You have been warned.

Rental Magica
This I really watched purely for the seiyuu cast. I'm fine with magic and supernatural power, but focusing mainly on said power is not. I was never into this kind of stuff to begin with... Without the cast that it has, I wouldn't had touched it. The OP song isn't bad, and the slow version is even better.
Not recommended unless you're into seiyuu like me.

狼と香辛料 (Wolf and Spice)
I know this is not Code Geass, but having Fukuyama Jun and Koshimizu Ami as the protagonists feeds to my delusion of Lelouch x Kallen... Ahem. This is an interesting show in that merchant business, something I usually stay away from, plays a big role. Frankly, I get lost easily whenever someone gets into some theory about the way of business (which is the majority of the series), but it's fun pretending to know what they're talking about.

Anyway, I was intrigued at first because of the 'wolf' in the name (wolf is my favourite animal) but I was left a bit disappointed in the lack of decent wolf design. On a side note, the first thing that caught my eye right after I rolled the video, was a shot of Holo slowly uncurling herself in the beginning of the OP sequence. That looks just like a flipped image of the Firefox logo (minus the globe... but she's embracing the field)! XD

It's hard for me to do the recommendation line for this one since I don't really have any feelings for it, but the original light novel seems well received... Recommended only if you like the main seiyuu or the original work?

NOIR
When I saw the 1st episode many years ago, I was completely blown away by the unique style of the OP sequence, the beautiful choreography (Kirika's awesome whenever she moves in for the kill!), the amazing and realistic scenery, and mood swaying music (this is where I first heard of Kajiura Yuki). Of course, having my favourite seiyuu as one of the leads helped as well, although she never get to speak much. Neko-tan warned me of the distorted character art in later episodes and the weak ending, but I was so impressed by the 1st episode that I decided to give it a try. And after all those years, I finally managed to finish the series.

Neko-tan's warnings were fair and well deserved, as there were more than a handful of episodes with very notable character art distortion, and the ending was indeed on the weak side. I've seen worse, however, so it was bearable. The plot is really the biggest flaw, which is fatal for any series. For this reason, I've come to view NOIR as an artistic piece composed of art, style, and music, with some kind of story in the background. Yeah.

Recommended unless you're the type of person who can't stand going to art museums or similar musical venues and must have a strong story. In which case, do at least watch the first episode.

I'm not a musically talented person, but I usually like to have something playing in the background when I'm on the computer. My kind of music, of course. And I wear earphones at work so I don't disturb other people.

At home, I have my 'Jukebox' located conveniently in Stargazer (the 2nd HDD) so there's no problem. But I can't possibly load all my music unto the work laptop which I leave at the office, and 8hr/day & 5 days/week is a pretty long time to fill. So what's one to do to rid of the silent boredom and avoid playing the same tracks over and over?

Well, first of all, there's web radio. There's a couple web radio sites with seiyuu as personalities that I listen to, but my Japanese level isn't good enough to be able to write (in English) and listen (in Japanese) at the same time. Besides, seiyuu may speak perfectly clear Japanese when voicing over characters, they can speak really fast and mumble quite a bit outside recording sessions. As a result, I can only listen to web radio when I'm doing more routine work or data punching. And the radio programs that I listen to only get updated on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

Next there's Songza. As mentioned before in a previous post, Songza is pretty neat and friendly. The only things is, it usually grabs the source files from YouTube, so you sort of have to know what to search for. It's a great resource to hear some only-on-DVD live performances, though. My current Songza playlist includes a couple Mizuki Nana's songs from the 2006 and 2007 Animelo, a few tracks from the Sound Horizon Triumph live (especially love that duet by Yuuki & Revo), a few Vocaloid2 songs (more on those in another post), and a few Kageyama Hironobu live songs (e.g. Pegasus Fantasy in Portuguese), Kamen Rider Kabuto's OP, and three versions (piano, original Russian, and English by Ed's VA) of Brothers from Fullmetal Alchemist.

Today I found a new way of listening to music at work. From an unlikely source, too. Nico Nico Douga XD I'm very new to this and right now only listen to the Vocaloid songs, but the site is full of treasures. For example, I'd search for 'KAITO' and play the results one by one as BGM. I'm not sure what I did this afternoon, but it just automatically started jumping to a different Miku's video after finishing the current one. I believed I started with a Kaito + Miku one, and it just sort of went out of control afterwards. I'll have to find out how to do that. :D

I used to do last.fm while going online on foreign (i.e., not my Coordinator) computers and play 'my radio station.' However, I soon found out that my music taste was a bit too skewed and it quickly returned with a no more new track available message after a short while. I think the site's got a whole lot of music recently so I should have a better chance now, but I think it'll only play each track at most 3 times? Not gonna work for me if I just want to listen to music when not on my computer. Besides, I still doubt it'll have much selection for my taste...

Before this all, I used to do shoutcast and listen to the anime stations. The selection is usually pretty varied, but that represents another problem for me. I don't just listen to any anime song, so while I get to hear some nice tracks that I don't have, it's relatively easy to encounter music styles and artists not quite my taste. And it can get annoying when people request a whole line up of songs like this. Lastly, the connection can be scratchy from time to time, and the sound quality may fluctuate sometime.

So at home, I have my ever expanding 'Jukebox' to rely on. At work, I alternate between the music I loaded, the web radio, and Songza, depending on what I'm doing and my mood. I'll be adding Nico Nico to the mix from now on. Should be fun. XD

ハチミツとクローバー (Honey & Clover) Japanese drama version

I've been somewhat skeptical since episode 1, and here's my verdict after watching the series.

It's a nice adaptation of the original manga, however, the project is an ambitious one and isn't really suited for a 11-episode drama series. Because of the scope of the original story and all the interweaving of the character background and relationships, it'd be much better to break it into two seasons like the anime version. As such, the coverage is relatively shallow and, while most of the issues introduced in the drama are resolved at the end, leaves something to be desired.

Of course, I said the above because I've already read the manga and watched the 1st season of the anime. For someone who has never come in contact with H&C, the drama would be a good watch with themes of friendship, love, and even goals in life. The slightly altered setting doesn't impress like the original, but the story still retains a pretty reasonable mix of ideal and reality. Great for young adults or anyone who has some level of experience.

I ended up liking Hagu the best out of all the cast, followed by Nomiya. Hagu is gentle yet strong like the original, and Nomiya is the mature voice like the original. Miyako is pretty otaku, and Mayama isn't half the pervert of the original. The others are fine, but no one really stands out except for Yamada, in a not-so-good way. She's the only one I can't get used to. It's simply too hard to compete against the extremely beautiful art of the anime. Morita? He's changed too much for the drama so he doesn't count anymore... The same goes for Romaiya-senpai. orz

I gave the drama version a B. If I've never seen H&C before, I probably would have given it a B~B+ or a B+. Recommended either way. First impression can be difficult to beat... Maybe I'll do a quick comparison for the mixed media series I've seen when I have time.

PS. I was browsing the ja.wikipedia page for the drama version just now and guess what I saw? There's going to be a Taiwanese drama based on H&C coming out in May! Yeah, I'll be checking it out for sure. This will be my 1st Taiwanese drama. XD

If you had ever stumbled into this absurd corner hidden deep in the web maze before, be it by design or accident, you'll notice something different.

Yes, I abandoned the Asuran Theme and its variant which I had been using since 2003.

Yes, I upgraded the classic template and had to pick one temporarily. Didn't like any of the templates but didn't really have time to make one myself, especially considering all the reading I'd have to do.

Yes, I finally found a template which layout is simple enough for me to modify without going through too much hassle.

Yes, this is the theme I'll be using from now on till I get bored and have a lot of time on my hand. Thus I present you Paw Wow v.3!

No, I don't have a name for the theme this time. I didn't have anything particular in mind when I picked the colours out of whim.

Yes, I will be using this as a basis for the writing/translation blog that's been waiting for its debut for years. Only God knows (literally) when that will be...

April. It's that time of the year again, when a slew of new anime shows start. I haven't time to get through even just a handful of them (heck, I only just finished NOIR less than 2 weeks ago, and I had it since it came out in 2001!), but I'll post my thoughts on what I've seen so far and follow up with more posts later.

First off, the ones I'm looking forward to the most are Code Geass R2 and Macross Frontier. Those are sure bets so I'll just grab them and wait till I have time to watch them, which, judging from past history, will be a good couple months away, if not longer...

The other ones that I'm not familiar with but will probably receive the same treatment are Toshokan Sensou (図書館戦争) and Soul Eater. The former seems very interesting and I like the clean feel of the artwork. The latter is based on a manga which I've seen but never read. I'm guessing it might be similar to Shaman King or Bleach in terms of background setting. Should be fun.

Now let's start on what I have seen so far for the new shows.

紅 (Kurenai) Ep.1-2
The OP is pretty hip and cute, and it's of a completely different tone than the anime itself. The pace is okay and the overall mood feels a little dispirited, mainly due to the relatively depressing protagonist. He's not like Shinji type of depress, though, just a bit too accepting. I rather enjoy the interaction between him and Murasaki. This is when he acts like a responsible big brother. There's still too much enigma about the whole setting and character background. I haven't decided what to think about the anime yet, but I'll continue to watch it. We'll see how it turns out.

イタズラなKiss (Itazura no Kiss) Ep.1
I watched the 1st episode purely because of Mizuki Nana, and she was indeed the only highlight for the show and not enough to save it for me. Well, Park Romi also plays the little brother, but she simply doesn't get enough screen time at all to be a factor! The art is outdated and the plot and the characters feel flat. I tried reading the original manga a long time ago and forced myself through two volumes before deciding not to torture myself anymore. My brother got hooked by the Taiwanese drama based on it and even bought the DVD box set and the soundtrack CD. I sampled bits and pieces walking by the living room while he was watching it. The Taiwanese drama version is altered enough to actually be watch-worthy, but I can't stand the way the heroine is acted out. If it's Mizuki Nana's Makoto in the drama, I'd probably watch it. But for the manga and the anime version, I don't really see any way to save them. A drama CD with a different cast (but leave Nana and Romi-nee in there!) might interest me, but I'm dropping this anime.

隠の王 (Nabari no Ou) Ep.1
I read the manga quite some time ago and found it fine. Okay, I can't remember a thing from the manga except that the different ninja tribes are trying to get the thing (whatever it's called) from Miharu and fighting his little group of comrades. Watching the 1st episode refreshed my memory and at the same time brought a fresh look for this series. The art is good, and the fighting sequences are awesome and way beyond Naruto's level. I was unsure about having Kugimiya Rie as the protagonist, but she pulled it off very nicely, not to mention when Miharu went into intentional teretere mode. Interesting story, good characters and cast, great fighting scenes. You can bet I'll be keeping this one.

BLASSREITER Ep.1
This one feels like Devil May Cry to me, only that now there's an official group fighting the demonica(?) beside those with special powers. The 2D art is good, but I have trouble swallowing all the 3D ones. The cast is pretty good, and having Itou Shizuka and Miyake Kenta in the same team reminds me of Pumpkin Scissors (which I'd really like to see a sequel of for the anime version). It's intriguing that the main guy hasn't really entered the scene and keeps watching from a distance. I'm guessing Matsukaze Masaya's voicing him 'cause I heard him in the episode preview at the end. A truly exceptional thing about this series is that it's actually available on YouTube, with pretty decent English subtitle. I have to hand it to GONZO for this bold and brilliant move. This is most encouraging and hopefully it will open the door for many other studio to promote their works this way. Like I said before, with the ridiculous price per anime DVD disc here, there's no way I'm buying anything unless I've watched it and liked it. And I know a great percentage of the anime watching population in NA feels the same way. Again, props for GONZO!

Monochrome Factor Ep.1
I can't believe I watched this. Is this suppose to be BL? The title rings a bell so I think I might had read a chapter or two of the manga before, and I don't do BL... It's got a pretty good cast, which is the only thing keeping me at the moment. The art is okay, but Shirogane's character and the infamous kiss scene are really pushing it for me. I actually looked around online to check if this is BL. It's not, thankfully. So I guess I'll stick around for a few more episodes.

I think this is long enough for a single post. More to come later.