Soramimi Project #13: Asakawa Yuu 浅川悠

First heard: Narnia (Gokudo-kun Manyuuki)

First noticed: Megurine Luka (Vocaloid)

Memorable characters: Megurine Luke (Vocaloid), Rider (Fate/stay night), Osakabe Itoko (School Rumble), Satomi Renna (Starship Operators)

Image character: Megurine Luka (Vocaloid)

Discernment rate: below average

Number of works seen: 16

I've seen her name since my early days of anime watching, but I can never manage to remember her voice for some reason... Sometimes I'd find the character's voice familiar but unable to place it until I see the credit roll. Out of the shows I've seen of her, her characters are actually some of the ones that I took note of.

Even though I listed Luka as my image character for Asakawa Yuu, I pledge guilty that I haven't really listened to Luka at all except for RIP=RELEASE. I've heard a few other ones performed by real people as cover songs but I have yet to hear the original by Luka. Luka kind of came out at a bad time because I was still in the middle of a long period of gap shortly after the 4 main songs of Aku no Series were posted, so I never explored her songs at all.

When my bandwidth quota resets for next month, I'm gonna spend some time on Niconico and do some serious catch up on all the Vocaloid songs.

On a side note (half of this post is already about Vocaloid rather than Asakawa Yuu-san... orz), this article has the sales number for the different Vocaloid series as of October 2009. I can't believe Kaito only has 5000 sold (out of which, over 1000 was sold through the Niconico Market)! I actually like Kaito the best out of the Vocaloids. I'm kind of bitter that Kaito is 2000/XP only. Meiko, too. :(

While I'm at it, let me demonstrate to you a wonderful Vocaloid cover by all 7 Vocaloids. I found this just now as I was looking for a good example to post, and I immediately fell for it.

Black Chronicle: Road to Firefox 3.5.7 part2 XD

As mentioned yesterday, I'm posting the Add-ons I currently use with 3.5.7, complete with links and some attempt at descriptions, in alphabetic order as listed in the Add-ons manager.

[Canadian English Dictionary 1.1.5]
Allows me to spell check my typing online without colouring my words with glaring red dots. A must have for us polar bear neighbours. XD

[Context Search 0.4.5]
My main search-highlighted-on-certain-sites approach. Best used in conjunction with Mycroft. I can highlight something and use the context menu to search via: (from top to bottom) Google, Google Japan, Google Taiwan, Google Maps, Wikipedia (ja), Wikipedia (en), Amazon.ca, Amazon.jp, Amazon.com, and Acronym Finder. This is one of the oldest extension I've used since my Mozilla days. Highly recommended if you're a search junkie like me.

[Converter 0.9.3]
Converts between metric and imperial as well as a whole bunch of other stuff. I can't do anything in imperial to save my life... Been using this since version 0.1 with Mozilla. Highly recommended for any non-Americans!

[Fetchimi 1.0]
Literally "Fetch meaning". This is an English dictionary that returns with definitions in Japanese in an overlay panel when you hover over the word. It'll even pronounce the word in English when you press "F" (I totally forgot about this function until I saw my comment in an old post). Useful if you're lazy like me to actually use a dictionary. :Q

[Japanese-English Dictionary for Rikaichan 1.13]
Dictionary file for Rikaichan (see Rikaichan)

[Names Dictionary for Rikaichan 1.13]
Dictionary file for Rikaichan (see Rikaichan)

[NicoFox 0.4b1]
Niconico Douga video downloader. The toolbar also shows the video link in international Niconico sites and related external tools such as Nicosound. Highly recommended for any Niconico Douga fan!

[Personas 1.5.1]
Basically wearable skins for Firefox. I have mine changing randomly from my list of favourites. I forgot to mention this yesterday, but the main reason that I'm sticking with 3.5.7 is because the top portion of my browser above the viewable area shrinks vertically in size when I hover over a Persona, and this is with a clean install of Firefox 3.6. Maybe it's an unforeseened issue when using small icons? Recommended if you like to dress up your apps.

[Personas Windows Classic Statusbar 1.1.3]
After I ranted about the statusbar not getting skinned with Personas, I dug around and found this (but too lazy to post an update), and I've been happily trying more Personas now that I can read the statusbar. Only required when running Firefox pre-3.6 and Windows classic theme.

[ReminderFox 1.9.6]
This used to be my library due date reminder, now it's reduced to just (but still important!) a bill payment reminder. I also use it as a date calendar in place of the built-in one in Vista when you click on the time. It's easier to go to different year and month than the Windows calendar. Recommended if you're old and forgetful like me.

[Rikaichan 1.07]
My most trusty companion when I visit Japanese websites. When hovered over a Japanese word, it'll render the hiragana and the English definition. It'll also show other variation or possible words for the hovered item. An absolute must have for anyone interested in learning Japanese!

[Text2Link 1.9.5]
Opens selected text URL in new tab or new window. A replacement for text/plain that I had used since way back. I recommended text/plain to Neko-tan but it refused to install. I had always just ran the update so never had any problem, but I encountered the same incompatibility issue when I had to start fresh with 3.5.7. It looks like it'll be incorporated into 3.7, but I didn't want to wait that long so I searched for a substitute. Text2Link pretty much does the same thing, and it doesn't require precise highlight of the URL and does link text copying. I haven't used it much yet, but I might grow to like it. Recommended if you're really lazy like me...

Excluding the 3 dictionary files, I'm currently running 9 add-ons (7 if you discount Personas and the Statusbar fix), which is sufficient for pretty much all my daily online needs. I don't install a lot of add-ons like bro, but I'm too lazy (this is the keyword for this post, in case you haven't noticed) to do everything manually myself.

I've tried various extensions over the years and my extension list evolves with my changing surfing habits. Most of my current selections perform similar functions as my list over a year ago, so I think it's safe to say these are tried and proven tools that I'll be using until they are either incorporated or not supported anymore.

So how do you hone your Firefox? :)
君のFirefoxをどう調教するかい？ ;)

まさかここがバレたとは.....

If you are a fan of Firefox, you probably knew about the latest version that was just released a few days ago, Firefox 3.6. Or, your Firefox should have told you about it and urged you to upgrade. Mine didn't do that for some reason, so I did a manual update. And I'm now running Firefox 3.5.7, again.

Before you cry blasphemy, let me explain my little situation.

After I went through the normal update route, it checked my add-ons and informed me that NicoFox isn't compatible, which was understandable because it's an experimental add-on and requires manual update. So I installed the compatible version and clicked on the restart Firefox button in the add-ons manager.

Guess what? The button asking me to restart is still there when I checked. So I clicked on it again. After a couple restarts and it still refused to go away. The only difference I could see between the restarts is the increasing number of Personas appearing under the theme tab, possibly loaded from my list of favourites each time the browser restarted. I also detected a subtle but still noticeable indication that it's Firefox loading the Personas and not the Personas add-on that I've been running. There seemed to be a very faint outline/shadow around the text, which blended the text better with the background colour and image, but made it slightly less clear to my very bad eyesight.

Appearance is a big thing for me (one of the reason why I hate Vista), so I decided to go back to 3.5.7 for now until they either notice this and make a patch for it, or that it's here to stay and I absolute have no other option but to upgrade. But I made a wrong move here and ran the 3.5.7 installer without first uninstalling 3.6. It refused to run at all.

To cut the long story short (trust me, I can keep going and make this even longer), I uninstalled Firefox and even deleted the whole Mozilla folder. I was to start from scratch. Unfortunately, I did a bit of customization before so it took me a while to find the lines and restore it to the way I like it. Seeing how this will likely not be my last fresh install, I've opted to take note along the way and chronicle it so I can just copy and paste and find the add-ons easily next time.

If you are new to Firefox, hopefully this can give you some hint of what you can do to customize your own.

1. Tools -> Options
+ Main Tab
- Set "http://www.google.com/" as homepage
- Set it to restart and show my windows and tabs from last time
- Uncheck the showing of download window
- Ask me where to save the files
+ Content Tab
- Uncheck everything under Advanced JavaScript option
- Set fonts for Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese (Taiwan) and Japanese as (top to bottom) Sans Serif, MS　Pゴシック, Arial, MS ゴシック
- Set minimum font size for the above languages as 12, Western as 13
- Set default font as Arial
- Add Japanese and Taiwan under English as preferred languages for displaying pages
+ Privacy Tab
- Use custom setting for history to ask me every time for cookie acceptance
+ Advance Tab
- Set it to search as I type
- Uncheck autoscrolling
- Ask me what to do when there's a new update

2. Right-click on navigation bar to customize
- Remove search bar
- Drag new tab button to the far left of the bookmark bar
- Use small icons

3. Import bookmark and password files from old profile. (Preferably also prefs.js, but I forgot to copy it... I'm not sure what's in there exactly, but it might be why I had to do step 4 & 5?)

4. about:config
- keyword.URL: http://www.google.com/search?btnG=Google+Search&q= (Search Google by typing directly into the address bar, 'cause I'm lazy like that :Q)
- browser.tab.tabMinWidth: 60 (I usually have over 2 or more dozens of tabs open, this way I can see more tabs and select the one I want easier)

5. Remove the add new tab button on the right side
- userChrome.css: .tabs-newtab-button {display: none}
(I'm pretty sure I did it with about:config the last time, but I haven't been able to find the article so far... Will update if I stumble upon it)

That's pretty much all the configurations I did, I think. I'll post the Add-ons tomorrow as this post is getting ridiculously long with hardly real content in it...

Soramimi Project　#12: Akimoto Yousuke 秋元羊介

First heard: Ino (Like the Clouds, Like the Wind)

First noticed: Master Asia/Stalker (G Gundam)

Memorable characters: Master Asia/Stalker (G Gundam), Taisa (Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de)

Image character: Master Asia/Stalker (G Gundam)

Discernment rate: average

Number of works seen: 24

Out of the vast Gundam universe, G Gundam is probably one of the most unique series in many aspects. Out of the large cast of G Gundam, Master Asia is probably one of the most impressive characters. And Stalker's catch phrase is probably one of the most parodied AU Gundam lines. As a result, Akimoto Yousuke = Master Asia/Stalker in my mind. XD

He tends to play a small role for a lot of works beside G Gundam, so I actually don't have that many memorable characters for him. Even Taisa from KimiAru is essentially a parody of Master Asia (Gotta love the master-disciple interaction in the anime XD).

I'm pretty decent with recognizing him after G Gundam even if he only appears in that single episode, even if he's just a nameless Taforashia citizen in Slayers Evolution-R with one or two lines. But I put down average as my discernment rate for him because I didn't notice him in Seiken no Blacksmith in the beginning...

One interesting thing to note here is the first work I heard him in, Like the Clouds, Like the Wind. I actually watched that on VHS that I borrowed from a friend. The first half of the story is pretty typical (but might be unique back in the days?), but the second half and the ending is somewhat dramatic even by current standard. If my memory serves me right, that is.

I'm looking forward to more great performances from Akimoto-san. それでは！ガンダムファイト！ レディ、ゴー！

Soramimi Project #11: Park Romi 朴璐美

First heard: Tao Ren (Shaman King)

First noticed: Heimdall/Higashiyama Kazumi (Matantei Loki Ragnarok)

Memorable characters: Hitsugaya Toushirou (Bleach), Hyuga Natsume (Gakuen Alice), Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist), Ueki Kousuke (Ueki no Housoku), Teresa (Claymore), Temari (Naruto), Falis/Alita (Murder Princess)

Image character: N/A

Discernment rate: very high; visual

Number of works seen: 48

ｷﾀ━━━( ﾟ ∀ ﾟ )━━━!!

Park Romi is my 2nd overall favourite female seiyuu, surpassed only by Kuwashima Houko. I talked about her a little back in 2006, so I'll recap/translate a bit from that post and add in new perceptions.

I first heard Park-san in Tao Ren from Shaman King, but I only watched a few episodes of that show so I didn't really remember any of the voices. I was quite impressed by a few of the Tao Ren character songs, though. My first real encounter with Park Romi was in Matantei Loki Ragnarok, where she played the ever scheming Heimdall and the feigning innocent Higashiyama Kazumi. That anime really has a great and heavyweight seiyuu cast, and that's where I took note of Park Romi, Morikubo Shotarou and Sakurai Takahiro.

I next heard her in Edward Elric from FMA, but I got distracted when I was about five episodes in and didn't finish it until mid 2006. What really pushed her to the top of my list was Natsume from Gakuen Alice and Ueki from Ueki no Housoku.

She is probably most famous for voicing younger male characters, but her female voice is pretty awesome as well. There's actually more memorable characters, but listing them all would take up too many lines. Why is Loran not on the list? Because I haven't actually watched Turn-A Gundam and have only seen bits and pieces of it so I didn't count it out of respect for the show.

Park-san's voice is very graceful and thick, so it's always a treat to hear her speak or sing. Her acting skills is very versatile, ranging from hot-blooded hero type, cold-blooded killer, confident, timid, mysterious, level-headed, evil and twisted, tsudere, innocent... She doesn't have many different pitches so it's easy to recognize her, but her characters are all given distinct personalities through her acting. Because there's so many of her characters that I like, I can't decide on an image character for her. Loran might be it after I watch Turn-A, though. We'll see. XD

As mentioned above, Park Romi also has a good voice for singing, and she sings in the character's voice for character songs. I quite like Tao Ren's character songs and the ED of Murder Princess. Ed's character songs and the ED of Ueki no Housoku are nice, too.

Since she is my 2nd overall favourite female seiyuu, it's natural that I have a very high discernment rate of her. I can also identify her at a glance. She's quite the beauty and stylish in her own way. I'm looking forward to finish more of her past works and hear more of her in future works.

ありがとう、朴さん！これからも頑張てください！( ﾟ ∀ ﾟ )ﾉ

Soramimi Project #10: Nakata Kazuhiro 中多和宏|中田和宏

First heard: Morgan (Cowboy Bebop)

First noticed: Randy (Gungrave)

Memorable characters: Randy (Gungrave), Kou Kijin (Saiunkoku Monogatari)

Image character: Kou Kijin (Saiunkoku Monogatari)

Discernment rate: below average, or average if he speaks enough

Number of works seen: 24

(Why is it another even-odd-odd combo... 4 out of 10 now. orz)

I say below average for the discernment rate for Nakata Kazuhiro, but I've been somewhat successful recognizing him ever since I started to notice him in Gungrave. It's probably rude to say this, but his voice is actually not too hard to distinguish since his tone is usually flat. That's not to say his acting is bad. At least out of the ones I've seen, he's decent enough.

The only character that I have mixed feelings about is Kou Kijin from Saiunkoku Monogatari. According to the novel, Kou Kijin not only has a breathtakingly enchanting appearance, he also has a beautiful and melodic voice. Unfortunately, Nakata-san's voice was nothing like what I imagined Kou Kijin's voice would be, so I was kind of disappointed when I heard him. Hayami Shaw's rendition in the drama CD is more up my alley, but I kind of prefer Itou Kentarou over Fujiwara Keiji for Ensei...

Nakata Kazuhiro is definitely not on my list of top seiyuu, but I still enjoy hearing him. More oyaji roles, though, please.

プリンセスナイトメア Princess Nightmare PC Version

I've known this game for about two years now but never had a chance to play it until now. I haven't played that many otome games (one hand is all I need to count the number of games I've played), but it's probably safe to say that Princess Nightmare is nothing like your ordinary otome game. The genre of the game is classified as Gothic Battle Adventure on the game's website, whatever that means...

But instead of playing an adventure game, it does feel more like watching a visual novel. One of Princess Nightmare's appeals is that it's fully voiced, including the heroine Little and every single sub-character, and that none of the playable character routes is 100% human. Really, with some clever writing, all the individual story lines can be woven together to make one OVA or even a half-season anime series, and no one would even suspect its origin being an otome game.

Only a few of the seiyuu are of my taste, but I still recommend this game for the story and the setting. Of course, the music, too. Katakiri performs the OP & ED songs (especially love the ED theme song Akumu no Himegimi), and the music is mainly composed by HIR, which almost guarantee quality BGM by that name alone.

Character design is one thing I have mixed feelings about. The girls are all pretty pretty (pun intended), and I like the looks of sub-character Izumo the best out of all the females. The guys are more hit and miss. Some of the shots are nice, but sometimes they don't look so nice. And Inukai's werewolf design is probably the worst beside some of the youma.

There's roughly seven playable routes, divided into two main story lines. Completing the game once unlocks the demon world story line which contains the real meat for the game's setting and world view. That's not to say the regular research centre story line is superficial, but rather it focuses more on the present than in the past. Out of the seven routes, I played through Franken, Phantom, Radou, Shinji, and Inukai.

I have a habit of keeping the best until last (as demonstrated when I eat), so that leaves me with either Franken or Van Helsing for the first round. Normally I'd go for the enemy-turned-love interest, but I couldn't bring myself to like Helsing's seiyuu so I went with Franken... It's kind of obvious from the beginning, but still, what a star-crossed ending *orz* I've only started to notice Taniyama Kishio recently, but he's actually pretty good. He's the reason I chose Franken over Helsing.

My second round was Phantom. This short route is more history telling than anything, where it's revealed how all three members of the current Dracurea family came to become vampires and what they were like as humans. I was once again impressed by Ogata Megumi's acting during the recount where the character went from age 11 to 13 to 17, then back to the 517-year-old poltergeist. A melancholy yet somewhat attained ending.

Radou's route enters the demon world, and the reason behind and the consequence of choosing Little as the Demon Prince's bride is revealed. The ending is rather anti-climatic, though, as the two just got married and went back to school in their human disguises, after Radou's dramatic assassination of the Demon Prince in the middle of the wedding ceremony. Then it's just normal school business as usual. I think Radou x Sumomo would actually be a better pair. orz

I wasn't planning to play Shinji's route, but Ishii Makoto's acting as the Prince kinda lured me in (he's noisy as Shinji). The little bit about the Prince shown in Radou's route also played a part. Most of the events were similar to that of Radou's, but instead of the Prince getting assassinated, he and Little duked it out. The battle spanned from the demon world to the human world, where Helsing and Inukai chipped in a little but were obviously no match to the Demon Prince. There's a couple big moves and spells from the characters, rendering some pretty cool CG. The Maou's blood inside Little emerged at the last moment, and she transformed into the Nightmare Queen and cast a very big one (think Lina Inverse casting Dragon Slav in Lord of Nightmare mode). As Little and the Prince were thrown into the chaos dimension from the forces of their opposing spells, Little's wish allowed Shinji to take back his body from the Prince, and the Prince faded away wistfully. Frankly, I feel sorry for the Prince and would prefer to have a route for him, but that's only available in the PS2 version, I heard. :(

Inukai is really the obvious choice from the start. He gets along with Little the best and fights alongside her, and he's possibly the most understanding and perceptive character out of the whole cast beside Papa Dracurea. The part about his father was cliché but still sad. The bit about him going berserk on full moon nights was hinted very discreetly in other routes and only realized here. His ending makes the most sense and is the sweetest out of the five I played. If only there's more romance in his route...

One interesting point about the game is that while bits and pieces can be induced, the real connection and background information is only obtained through another character's route. Phantom's route revealed the Dracurea family's past. Radou's route revealed the scheme of the demon world as well as a glimpse at the Prince's feelings. Shinji's route revealed Inukai's past and more of the Prince's personality. Inukai's route revealed the true identity of the Prince and his sister, and how Helsing was resurrected. The down side of that is that I will never know the full story and character background and settings because I didn't play through all the routes.

Too bad there isn't more exploring of Little's state of mind after she went berserk from not having her master vampire's blood for too long in the research centre story line. How did she feel and reconcile with herself after killing so many -even though they were technically not human- subconsciously since she's never harmed anyone before? Little is a very likable character and leaves a strong impression. If the game ever gets animated, with her style and personality, I can totally see her being popular among guys and having a sizable following.

I'd also liked to see more integration between the two story lines. Does Little's hidden power play any role in the research centre story line? Is Inukai's rare and pure werewolf father with Japanese wolf's blood connected to the demon world in any way? Yeah, I definitely think an anime series would be a good medium to put them all together in one big tale...