Got all seven true endings for Mizu no Senritsu!

I had to grin to myself when I saw the true ending CG for Katase, which I used for my desktop wallpaper back in 2007. XD

Now aiming for the six good endings and all character CG's!

Then I can move on to Mizu no Senritsu 2 next year! :D

I had a chance to play with Universal Subtitles today and found it to be a fun experience!

I haven't looked around to see what the project is all about and what runs under the hood, but the subbing process itself is pretty dummy-proof (Hey, even I can use it!), and the interface is clean.

I didn't have enough patience and time to sync the subtitles to the 10th of a second, but I think I did a decent job for a first timer. I'm sure I'll get better with practice.

If subbings were all this easy! :)

Today I waged a mini-war with certain evil creatures hiding inside the bag of rice. I only just got that bag a few months ago! Must be the heat I turned on for the cat during the winter... orz

There weren't very many (that I saw) so I decided to transfer the rice from the bag to smaller containers for storing in the fridge, at the same time getting rid of the evil creatures as I saw them during the operation.

I never had this problem before in Vancouver, but this is already the 2nd bag I have infested in Ottawa. We even used to store rice in the same iron bucket, too. Is it the temperature??

Maybe I should start buying rice in smaller bags and throw it into the freezer first as suggested by many ppl online...

Me no like those little evil creatures. （つд｀）

機動戦士ガンダムUC episode2 赤い彗星

気持ちでいっぱいになるけど、うまく言葉で伝えられない。だから、これだけは言う。
見れば見るほど惚れる、これこそがガンダムシリーズの塊だ。

おまけ：
袖付きのシナンジュはカッコイイ！
プラモが欲しい！でもマスターグレードはちょっと...

あと、episode2の「Everlasting」より、episode1の「流星のナミダ」は雰囲気に合うと思う。
episode3のエンディングテーマは何ていう曲か、楽しみに。

就知道前面太拖戲了，後面一定都用飛的，可是他們是要飛多快才高興...

第21話居然一話解決掉小説整本第九冊？！

まあ，第九冊算是ローランド編的開場，這種飛法還在可以接受的程度之内，但是第八冊可是重要場景跟台詞一堆的前篇結局，兩話解決根本做不出角色的情感變化及意念轉變啊啊啊～～～

對，我對フェリス去迎/贏回ライナ那段的動畫超有怨念。這麼不痛不癢的處理我不承認啊！！
全身全霊の昼寝王国の王様 ｘ だんご女神の信者です！

果然還是要去敗原作小説吧。
不過光是本篇就大概二十本左右，如果加上とりあえず就超過三十本了。比ハガレン全套還多！囧
可是我想看ライナ跟フェリス打情罵俏（拔劍又吐槽，高等級的打情罵俏啊），所以還是得敗とりあえず吧...
這個再從長計議吧，反正要訂也要等到有免運費的機會。

剩下的五話能好好處理的話，應該還是會敗動畫DVD吧。
聲優陣容跟演技豪華地有點太犯規了，人物也比小説插圖的人設有味道的多。
ペース編排太差真是太太太遺憾了。

以上是看完第21話之後的碎碎念...

例のうみねこ対戦格闘ゲーム「黄金夢想曲」、まさかキャラクターフルボイス付きとは...！

双方同時に喋るからちょっと聞き取りにくいが、臨場感を感じますね。
また、メタフィールドを戦闘中に切り替えることができそうので、戦闘の流れもいい感じ。

ますますやりたい！

残念ながら、いくら欲しいって言っても、これはあくまで私の個人的な妄想に過ぎない。
日ノ本の国は遠い地平線の向こうにいるから。

I once read somewhere that once you fall for your first figma, more figma will steadily follow. I'm not at that stage yet after my BRS figma, but I do find myself looking at the different offerings on Good Smile from time to time.

ねんどろいど 伊達政宗はかわいい、よく出来てるな～

このfigma ドロッセルも良い、でもfigmaより、『ファイアボール』のアニメーション自体が欲しい！！！

ちなみに、初めてのGood Smile 商品は実はBRS figmaではなく、ねんどろいどぷち ボーカロイド#01だ。

なに、スケールフィギュアはどうって？あれは無理だ、値段が高すぎる。

たたいま水の旋律の九艘ルート（手塚と憲吾も含めて）を全部攻略した。
やっぱり拓哉編は甘い。さすが子安さん～

小野Dが「私の子供たち」って言った時、思わず笑った。
その子供たちは子安兄さまとにゃんこ先生だぞ！エライ！XD

残るのは一謡ルートの三人、楽しみだな～

絶望した！原作小説を劣化するアニメに絶望した！

Well, the Denyuuden anime isn't really that bad compared to some other series, but it's definitely lacking, especially in the emotional display and transition department. But only if you read the novels before watching the anime.

There's supposedly 26 episodes for 11 volumes, but the anime didn't start on vol.6 until ep.15/16, leaving roughly 2 episodes per volume for the rest of the season. I kinda figured they'd do the whole Denyuuden, but as soon as I saw Toriazu Denyuuden stuff in there, I knew they would be rushing like mad for the second half of the season. It's already happened and quite evident, too. Which is a shame since the 2nd half is where a lot of the meat is, but that's also where they're cutting out the most to fit the schedule.

If you ignore the sucky pacing, omission of crucial (IMO) details, addition of Toriazu Denyuuden stuff to increase screen time for certain characters, the anime version is still a good watch. The character design and art is much much better than the original novel illustration, and the seiyuu cast is really really awesome.

I'll probably end up getting the novels for the story and maybe the anime for the seiyuu and art.

うみねこ対戦格闘ゲーム「黄金夢想曲」

これ、すごく面白そう！やりたい！
格闘ゲームはちょっと苦手なので、多分下手になる、でもやってみたい！

黄金夢想曲OP

杏仁豆腐 (almond tofu) isn't made from 豆腐 (tofu)... ( ﾟДﾟ) ﾊｧ?

I was halfway through Tezuka's route in Mizu no Senritsu when I came across this shocking piece of information. I seriously thought 杏仁豆腐 is a type of 豆花...

There's your food science of the day~ :Q

Neko-tan always points out that I am a high roller when it comes to ACG, and I do not have anything to say in return. orz

Amazon.ca is typically my preference for R1 anime, but as more series get licensed and released in North America, there's more and more US-only releases. For those no-one-cares-about-Canada releases, I'm forced to order across border and rack up my order in order to reach the steep free shipping threshold to Canada (a bit mouthful to say, but that's just how troublesome the process is).

Right now I'm in another such dilemma. Should I pre-order all 3 parts of Durarara! and add another series to make the threshold now, or should I risk and wait it out to see if it'll be released in a single boxset and find a couple other more series to make the threshold maybe two years down the road?

At the end, however, I think I'll probably put it on hold for now. I'm sure there will be other US-only releases that I can order together at that time to make the threshold.

Or if the timing is right, I can have it shipped to Neko-tan's place and pick up when I go down. XD

PS. I emailed Aniplex the other day to ask if they'll be releasing titles in Canada in the future. Still waiting for a response that might not come...

I spent a good few hours online tonight looking at PSP games... Can't believe how many otome games and PC ports there are for the PSP! I can totally see why PSP is so popular in Japan; I'd have long gotten one if I lived in Japan, too.

Beside my regular anime intake and occasional NDS gaming on the side (and soon PSP gaming), I think I'm going to focus on PC games for the rest of the year.

With the number of games I currently have in the reservoir across the various platforms, I probably wouldn't be able to play through them all even if I stay home for a few months. orz

Time to start some serious gaming! :D

任務完了！

Thanks to Friend-K, I was able to complete the mission, which I wanted to abort due to my natural laziness, successfully.

My winter gear is now two pieces stronger with a new and half-fluffy scarf and a pair of fluffy gloves!

If I'm lucky and able to stand the frozen-thigh sessions, my current armoury should get me through another winter without too much trouble. I really don't want to have to get the long winter coat...

Mha ha ha, I thought it might take me a while to find the games I listed before for PSP given that they're older games, but it's actually much easier and cheaper than I anticipated.

For now, my PSP game library has grown to a total of 3 titles:
- LittleBigPlanet
- LocoRoco 2
- Patapon 2

Except for the original LocoRoco and Patapon, I'm pretty much set for English PSP games. Now I just need to find myself some Japanese games...

Anime Expo 2010 @ LA
Day 2 part 2

After the concert, we re-grouped with the guys already in the line-up for the Horie panel (apparently someone started lining up 4 hours ago to get them within the first 50 spots...). While I waited for Neko-tan and Magic Frog's return from their trip back to the car, Horie Yui and a few staff walked down the hall way roughly 2 metres away from us. I quickly pointed it out to the group. Ho-chan might had noticed the noises I was making and turned to look and smiled at me briefly. XD

She was being rather discrete, so there were ppl in the line-up (already wound around to the opposite side of the hall way by now) who didn't notice her at all and exclaimed their failure as fans after the fact.

I left the group once I confirmed meeting time with Neko-tan since we were going to different panels for the rest of the day, and then it was cosplayers photo time and shopping time! I got the Z Gundam New Translation movies (not available on Amazon.ca) and a book on all the characters from the 1st Gundam series. Was tempted to grab the Toradora vol.1 premium edition, but since vol.2 wasn't out yet and I would have to order from Right Stuf (not available in Canada again) anyway, I might as well order both at the same time to make the free shipping threshold for Canada. Almost snatched Eiyuu Densetsu VI: Sora no Kiseki Second Chapter but stopped myself at the last moment. It's unlikely that I'd be able to acquire the 1st and 3rd game of the trilogy, so it might left me hungrier than if I didn't play the 2nd game.

The Bandai plamo booth (Bluefin Distribution) was super awesome, and Kitamura was having an autograph session at the NIS booth. This time I had plenty of time if I wanted to line up, but I didn't like her enough to buy a signing board (US$5) as I didn't bring anything for her to sign in the first place. Apparently only one person out of our group got Kitamura's autograph at the end thanks to being there at the right time when Kitamura was taking picture of his itasha on the way out. Everyone else, including Neko-tan, failed at the regular autograph session.

Someone (CooRie? UR@N?) was performing at the MangaGamer booth when I entered the Exhibition Hall, so I checked with the staff and returned to the booth when it was Kuribayashi Minami's turn. I was in the first row a bit to the side near the speaker so I was pretty close to her and had great sound reception. Unfortunately the spot also made for bad video taking, so the 2-minute video I shot was somewhat harsh to the ears in the later part when a staff nudged me forward out of kindness to get a closer view.

It's such a rare opportunity to be able to see Kuribayashi Minami's live performance (this might had even been her 1st time outside Asia), but I was unable to stay for the last (two?) song because I needed to go to... (and bumped into Nabeshi on the way and took a picture of him XD)

[Eden of the East Panel]
...and they started late so I could have stayed for the whole mini-concert. orz

But I did get to watch a full episode of Eden of the East in English dub (since I likely wouldn't watch it dubbed on my Blu-ray), and it was not bad at all. It was also fun as I knew what's coming in the episode and anticipated the respective reaction from the audience. Apparently that's what the guests did as well in the back.

The guests for the panel were director Kamiyama Kenji, producer Ishii Tomohiko, and animation supervisor Nakamura Satoru. Kamiyama-san answered most of the questions while Ishii-san and Nakamura-san just added a few words here and there. I was moved as I listened to Kamiyama-san talking about the inspiration and motivation behind Eden of the East, and it made me like the series even more. I don't quite fit in the NEET category so I didn't feel as strongly that way, but I can understand why some NEETs would start to move after watching the series as per Kamiyama-san's testimony. I'm very eager to re-watch it on Blu-ray and also eagerly await the movies on discs.

One interesting thing I noticed at the panel was that the level of Japanese proficiency in the audience was considerably much lower than at other panels, especially compared to the seiyuu panels where pretty much everyone knew a bit of Japanese. Here, the reaction to the Eden of the East guests was minimal before the translators spoke, and the couple sitting beside me kept giving me weird looks for being able to understand directly.

[Aniplex Industry Panel]
Neko-tan, Magic Frog, and a few other guys went to the MELL concert, so I attended the Aniplex panel by myself after taking more pictures of cosplayers (super pleased to capture the Ulquiorra x Orihime couple! Best couple I saw at AX!). Since Gurren Lagann was all the rage during AX, the theme for the panel was "Who The Hell Do You Think I Am," after the famous Kamiya line "俺を誰だと思ってやがる！". The slide even had a silhouette of Kamiya's famous pose pointing toward the sky. XD

The panel itself was the usual industry pitch about upcoming releases, including Durarara! From what I've seen so far online, everything looks like the Z Gundam and Gurren Lagann movies again, which means it might not be available in Canada... （ノ`Д´）ノ～～┴───┴

About half way through the panel, the Aniplex lady informed us that Konishi Katsuyuki just flew out of Narita airport at that moment. She listed all the events Konishi-san would attend at AX and the schedule, one of which was a special signing session at the Aniplex booth for the first 100 (or was it 50?) people who bought the limited edition of the 1st Gurren Lagann movie (the quota was quickly reached on the 1st day), and that we were encouraged to show up to show our support to Aniki.

I was planning to stay for the next panel, Mirai no Neiro - VOCALOID: The Sound of the Future, but Neko-tan and Magic Frog were beat and we decided to call it a day. Over supper in the restaurant (more like large night snack by now), Magic Frog learned the big announcement for the Vocaloid panel: Megumine Luka would be released in the States. That explained why Asakawa Yuu was a guest at AX!

Anime Expo 2010 @ LA
Day 2 part 1

I think I'm the only person in the group that watched Bleach, so needless to say everyone else went into the line-up for the Kitamura panel starting almost 2 hrs later. We also got a glimpse of the end of the line-up for the AKB48 panel outside and the AX staff preventing more ppl from lining up. I was genuinely surprised at the number of AKB48 fans on this side of the Pacific...

[Bleach Panel]
Since there's still time before the Bleach panel, I decided to walk around and take pictures of cosplayers as I didn't have much chance to the day before. When I got to the hall where the panel was to be held, there was no line-up. The majority of the people who would attend the panel were already inside the theatre watching the showing of Ulquiorra vs. Ichigo director's cut. I had already seen the respective episodes so I didn't feel like arriving early for it.

The panel itself started with a mini-performance by RSP before Morita entered the stage, followed by a Q&A session for Morita. One of the questions was asked by a Hitsugaya cosplayer who demanded to know why Ichigo wouldn't call him (Hitsugaya) by his captain title no matter how many times he asked Ichigo to, to which Morita just smiled and apologized politely, then proceeded to call him Toushirou. XD

The last corner of the panel was a room-wide rock-scissor-paper match against Morita to decide the lucky few for the rare Bleach goods Morita brought from Japan. I lost in the 2nd round. T__T

After the panel, I took more photos of cosplayers before peeking in the Kitamura panel. I sat there for a few minutes and heard (I was too far back to see her expression) Kitamura said the famous Yui line from Angel Beats! Unfortunately I hadn't watched Angel Beats! at this point so the reference was lost to me... Acoording to Neko-tan, even though Kitamura was there to promote Toradora, most of the questions were Angel Beats!-centric. Angel Beats! just finished airing in Japan the week before AX, too. XD

There was still time before the panel would end so I went to the Exhibition Hall and browsed around. There, lo and behold, was Horie Yui having an autograph session at the NIS booth! I didn't have anything for signing on hand and didn't really want to try my luck with the long line-up so I just looked from the side. Of course, no photos allowed. :x

Then I went back to the Kitamura panel and waited for Neko-tan and Magic Frog so we can go to the...

[May'n & Nakajima Megumi Concert]
ｷﾀｰｰｰｰｰｰｰ（°∀°）ｰｰｰｰｰｰｰ!!
This was what spurred me to flew across the continent to attend AX. I watched the Macross Frontier concert @ Budoukan before coming and, despite knowing that the scale and program would be far from comparable, had been anticipating anxiously for the AX concert. I wasn't hard core enough to buy glow sticks, but a lot of people at the concert did. There were three guys from Japan a few rows in front of us fully equipped with hoards of glow sticks, clothes wrapped around the neck, and the blue T-shirts from May'n's BIG★WAAAAAVE!! @ Budoukan concert. My first time seeing professional glow stick waving techniques in person. さすが職人技！　XD

The exceptional musical treat started off with "Welcome To My FanClub’s Night!" and May'n performed Sheryl's and her songs for the first 20 minutes or so. The speakers at Nokia Centre weren't the best and the stage was small (reduced to almost half the size with the grand piano there), but May'n vocal and dance prowess was evident. They sounded exactly like the CD's and more! The air she maintained while singing Macross Frontier songs was fitting to Sheryl's character, but she's just cute being herself during "May’n☆Space." I hadn't seen the Macross Frontier movie at this time so I didn't quite understand fully the different tones she used for "Universal Bunny", and only now realized that her dance moves were exactly the same as Sheryl in the movie! 生May'n最高！( ﾟ ∀ ﾟ )

After May'n left and Nakajima took centre stage, you can tell ppl were still in the mood, but the number of glow sticks in the air decreased drastically, especially when she sang her own non-MF songs. 一気にテンション下がったって感じ。無理もない、こっちもそうだった... Her stage costume was fitting for the idol-wannabe character of Ranka but also kinda made her looked like a cosplayer for a Disney princess when young. The changed-lyric carrot song about her coming to the US was nice, though XD.

And the special secret guest...!! I kinda expected it to be that person, but actually seeing her was something else. 菅野よう子！( ﾟ ∀ ﾟ ) The place went wild when Kanno-san appeared on stage as everyone clapped and screamed like crazy. Kanno-san performed on the piano for the next couple songs with Nakajima: アイモ, VOICES, 蒼のエーテル, 愛・おぼえていますか, ダイアモンド クレバス (acoustic duet version with May'n).

With Kanno-san's exit, the concert was coming to an end as May'n and Nakajima performed Lion and Triangular together. There was no encore, but it was still a satisfying closure. There were a few instances when Nakajima went off-key or couldn't get her voice up enough for the faster songs with May'n, but May'n alone made up for everything. 来てよかった。（つд｀）

A quick list of games I need to get or would be interested (that aren't Japanese and can be obtained locally):

NDS
- Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light

PSP
- LocoRoco
- LocoRoco 2
- Patapon
- Patapon 2

PS3
- N/A... Everything I want is in Japanese.

Nya ha ha, it only took me almost 10 minutes to realize the slightly protruded round thing under the d-pad on the PSP is the "analogue control" that dictates directions for LittleBigPlanet... orz

I'm too used to the d-pad (which stands for DIRECTIONAL pad) as the directional control, but can you really blame me? Even the PSP diagram in the box labels the d-pad as directional buttons and doesn't say anything about the round thing.

BTW, my friend Google told me that PSP plays all region UMD games, just not all region UMD movies. So this particular unit isn't modded and I'll need to have it done myself, which I'll probably wait until I go back to Vancouver next year. I have enough games on my hand right now to not worry about acquiring Japanese PSP games.

And to go with my very unsophisticated naming convention, my pearl white PSP has been named Lancelot. Of course it's not the knight from King Arther (not to be confused with Arturia Pendragon/Saber), but the 7th generation KMF from Code Geass. It now sports a small Suzaku metal plate, which goes with Guren's (a.k.a. my NDS) Code Geass strap and Lelouch metal plate.

I thought about naming it after a Gundam (especially since the term 白い悪魔 is mentioned when referring to Gundam in the 2nd episode of Gundam UC) and gave it a Gundam 00 strap that goes with Guren Type-02 (a.k.a. my cell phone), but decided not to. PSP should go against NDS, so the opponent for Guren should be Lancelot! XD

Naming neta aside, I have to say that NDS is more user friendly and intuitive than PSP. I find myself preferring the NDS as a system over the PSP and was lured into getting a PSP only because of the Japanese game lineups (and thus the 2-yr gap between the two purchases). Though, the screen size of the PSP sure is huge compared to my NDS Lite...

ニャンコの憂鬱

最近天気はどんどん寒くなったから、部屋のヒーターを起動させた。あいにく静電気も同時に生まれた。

こっちは別にいいけど、うちのニャンコには結構いい迷惑だ。ロン毛だし。

そろそろあの中古加湿器の出番かな、購入後まだ一度も使ってないが...　頑張ります（何が）！

２本目のグリムスが発芽しました！( ﾟ ∀ ﾟ )

どんな形に成長するのかワクワクするね～

＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊　＊

今日もも色のうみねこカモメを見ました。

その白い羽を夕日に染めた、ちょっとメルヘンチック。

PSP! ( ﾟ ∀ ﾟ )

Finally got my paws on one today but... the manual says it plays region ALL or 1 UMD's only.

（ノ`Д´）ノ～～┴───┴

Well, I actually kinda expected that since it's Sony. The single Japanese game title in the offered list fooled me (and the guy selling it) into thinking it does.

Since there is indeed saved data for the Japanese game on the memory card, either the particular game is region ALL instead of 2, or the kid (of the guy selling it) had mod software loaded in the memory card in order for the R2 game to work.

Unfortunately, my PC doesn't have card reader slots and I don't have a USB cable that fits, so I can't check the actual content of the memory card. I'll probably enlist some help and get a screen cap of the content to see what's inside. If luck is on my side (which is not very often), I won't need to get it modded myself! *crosses fingers*

BTW, for anyone out there selling your 2nd-hand system: erase your data first. Or at least check with your kid before selling it.

I was able to tell the main player's name and gender (the kid), some (if not all or most) games that's been played on the system since maybe when the system was purchased originally, and that they had a USB cable that fits. Nothing major, but still.