Soramimi Project #9: Yajima Akiko 矢島晶子

First heard: Announcer (Shinseki Evangelion)

First noticed: Kohaku (Inuyasha)

Memorable characters: Relena Peacecraft (Gundam Wing), R. Dorothy Wayneright (The Big O), Kohaku (Inuyasha)

Image character: Relena Peacecraft (Gundam Wing)

Discernment rate: average to above average

Number of works seen: 30

Back in the days, people who watched Gundam Wing in English despised Relena, and Relena bashing was almost the norm. But the Japanese audience seemed to love her. The only difference I could see, beside it being two different cultures, would be the voice acting. Before I even had a chance to experience Japanese seiyuu, I was already made aware of their existence.

I'll confess that I used to be a huge Gundam Wing fan (still find the concept interesting, just not how it's executed), since it's my first anime after almost eight years of blankness. And I actually made a secret resolution a few days ago to finish all my GW fanfictions in 2010 *crosses fingers*. So it was with much anticipation that I played the Gundam Wing DVD, eager to hear the voices of those famed names. I was not one bit disappointed, and I came to understand the mixed reception of the character of Relena. I had since switched from don't-really-care to like-her, btw.

Yajima Akiko's voice has a rather neutral feel and doesn't usually leave a strong impression, but she's able to manifest a sense of prestige and authority, yet at the same time being innocent and modest. I enjoy it when she plays young boys, but I also like her being impartial and imposing women. Kohaku is where I started noticing her, R. Dorothy is when I warmed up to her, and Relena is who I'll always remember her by.

I'm able to distinguish her voice most of time after hearing her female and young boy pitches, but I haven't really heard very many of her works where she plays a lead or major character. Needless to say, I'm kind of surprised of the high number of works seen. Yajima Akiko is not a seiyuu I'd actively seek out works to watch or listen to, but I definitely enjoy her voice acting and would love to hear more of her.

---

As promised, here's the Soramimi seiyuu acquaintance rank of 2009, from the most number of works heard to the least. This has nothing to do with how familiar I am with the seiyuu nor how much I like the seiyuu, but rather a statistic on how many chances, including nameless extras, I've had of that seiyuu.

2009 Soramimi Seiyuu Acquaintance Rank:
Yajima Akiko 矢島晶子 - 30
Nagasawa Miki 長沢美樹 - 27
Nakai Kazuya 中井和哉 - 25
Maeno Tomoaki 前野智昭 - 16
Yao Kazuki 矢尾一樹 - 15
Nakao Ryuusei 中尾隆聖 - 13
Tai Yuuki 泰勇気 - 10
Aizawa Masaki 相沢正輝 - 9
Aizawa Mai 相沢舞 - 8

Soramimi Project #8: Nagasawa Miki 長沢美樹

First heard: Ibuki Maya (Shinseki Evangelion)

First noticed: Hoshii Ramika (Anime Tencho series)

Memorable characters: Hoshii Ramika (Anime Tencho series), Monique Cadillac (Gundam MS IGLOO), Helen (Claymore)

Image character: Hoshii Ramika (Anime Tencho series)

Discernment rate: below average

Number of works seen: 25

(Another seiyuu whose name starts with an N... My 3rd one, actually, out of a total of 8 so far. What's the odds of throwing even-odd-odd combos three times out of eight?)

I'm rather surprised of the number of works I've seen with Nagasawa Miki as I only started to recognize her in the past few years. I'll probably recognize her when I watch the new Evangelion movies...

I first noticed her name from watching a commercial on animate.tv for a stage show of Anime Tencho. Seki Tomokazu dressed up as Anizawa and Nagasawa dressed up as Ramika, complete with the hair-do. That short clip gave me quite an impression (or shock), that her voice and name had stuck in my head ever since. Out of the 25 works I've heard her, 4 are Anime Tencho drama CDs.

Nagasawa's voice is a bit on the coarse side, but she has good acting skills. It's not unusual to see her character from any series to go from composed to angry to crazy to normal again, and still be in character. Monique from MS IGLOO is probably my favourite Nagasawa character. She really gave life and added spice to the otherwise deathly pale looking 3D doll.

Despite having seen many of her works, my discernment rate for her is somewhat below average. If she speaks close to her normal pitch, I'll probably recognize it, but if she smooths out the characteristic coarseness, I might not be too successful. Even now, I'm still having trouble connecting her voice to Ibuki Maya from EVA. Hopefully I'll her pitches down in the near future.

A few days ago I received a parcel pick up notice. But I didn't get any shipping notification email from Amazon.ca, so who could possibly be sending me stuff? Since I was planning to drop by friend-I's place today, I thought I might as well go pick up this mysterious package.

Half way to the post office in this beautiful, sunny, and freezing afternoon, I regretted not taking friend-P's offer for a ride there. My legs felt like being pricked by a thousand needles, and the thought that I also had to walk from the post office to friend-I's then back to my place, made my heart sink even more.

But in the end, the long trek was well worth it. Not only did I successfully complete the retrieval mission in one piece, upon opening my mailbox, I discovered the delirious? CD I ordered (no walking to the post office for pick up!). Double presents! :D

With my legs still under the freeze spell, I opened the mysterious box (okay, maybe not so mysterious now that I knew where it was mailed from) to find a card and carefully wrapped... furry slippers! And it's purple, too! XD

My dear sister back from the home church is a sweet and loving woman, indeed. :D

I just had half a tub of strawberry-flavoured Häagen Dazs as dessert. I'm going to take a nice hot shower (my limbs are going to sting from the walks), change into my warm reindeer-patterned pyjamas, slip on the pretty purple slippers, and read. That's a good way to spend my last moment as a 29-year-old, eh? XD

Soramimi Project #7: Maeno Tomoaki 前野智昭

First heard: passer by (Kiniro no Corda ~primo passo~)

First noticed: Doujou Atsushi (Toshokan Sensou)

Memorable characters: Doujou Atsushi (Toshokan Sensou)

Image character: Doujou Atsushi (Toshokan Sensou)

Discernment rate: low to below average

Number of works seen: 16

Maeno Tomoaki is a new seiyuu to me. Even though I've heard him in 16 works, he's only played named characters in five of them, including one where he just appeared in the tricky first episode *cough*Ga-rei Zero*cough*.

According to my favourite source (ja.wikipedia.org, in case you haven't noticed), he was mainly doing dubs and essentially made his break in anime with Toshokan Sensou. Doujou Atsushi is what I remember him mostly by, and both Neko-tan and I were rather impressed by his performance in Toshokan Sensou. Doujou Atsushi is both rational and angry, leaning more toward the angry side when it comes to Kasahara. If he weren't so slow in love, he might even be branded as tsuntere. XD

Speaking of Toshokan Sensou, I mentioned before that it reminded me of GunParade March. Both seem to be battle-oriented at first glance but are love comedy in actuality (okay, so GPM has a lot more grimness and death). Both have really clumsy (in love) lead males regardless of how adept they are in battles, and both have strong-headed lead females that recognize love quicker than the guys and are not afraid to face it. The colour palettes and tones are completely different for both, but the art styles are both simple and clean. Both made me wanting to play/read the original work they're based on. Unfortunately, the Toshokan Sensou novels I have partially managed, but the PS game GPM is simply beyond my reach.

Due to the strong impression of Doujou and the Toshokan Sensou web radio show which Maeno-san co-hosted with Suzuki Tatsuhisa, I've got his solid pitch and real voice down, but I haven't been very successful if the character is soft spoken or calm. I do have high expectations of him so hopefully I'll get to hear him more!

I've been pondering whether to separate "Games" from "ACG" for the labels, and I finally went ahead with it today. I also made a few other changes regarding the labels.

- Created "Games" to incorporate "NDS" and "MUD", as well as game-related posts formerly under "ACG"
- "Dramas" posts are incorporated into "TV"
- "Travel" posts are incorporated into "Life"
- Created "Sports" to incorporate "Baseball" and "Hockey"
- "Novels" is renamed "Novels/Manga" and contains manga-related posts formerly under "ACG"
- "ACG" is renamed "Anime"

Now that that's done, time to return to my attempt at the UC Gundam Quest, since I only less than one week before the deadline...

Soramimi Project #6: Aizawa Masaki 相沢正輝

First heard: Takatori Hirofumi (Weiss Kreuz)

First noticed: Shouryuu (Juuni Kokuki)

Memorable characters: Shouryuu (Juuni Kokuki)

Image character: Shouryuu (Juuni Kokuki)

Discernment rate: low

Number of works seen: 9

Another seiyuu of whom I recognize the name but not the voice... orz

Sometimes I might look up the seiyuu in the end credit roll when I hear him in an episode, but I have yet to pinpoint his voice. The main reason for this can probably be attributed to him playing a lot of nameless or minor characters in the works I've seen. I think Weiss Kreuz (out of which I only remember five voices since it's my first anime in Japanese) and Juuni Kokuki might be his most prominent works with the exception of Death Note, where he played six characters.

I quite liked him as Shouryuu, though. A wise and excellent emperor on the throne over 300 years and being called idiot(馬鹿), reckless(無謀), foolhardy(猪突), and crazed(酔狂) by his kirin and retainers. Needless to say he is one of my favourite characters from Juuni Kokuki. That's when I started to recognize his name whenever it appeared in end credits.

Aizawa Masaki's got a nice deep voice, which might explains why he does a lot of dubbing work. I'm usually not a big movie fan, having been spoiled by the extremely diverse themed anime, but I would definitely like to watch a Japanese dubbed movie if it's got a good seiyuu cast.

At the moment, my only Jap-dubbed experience consists of 1.2 movies, where 1 is 17 Again, and the .2 is He's Just Not That Into You. The plane landed before the .2 finished playing. But I was really just using Namikawa Daisuke's voice as background music while I read Saiunkoku Monogatari anyway. I gave up the movie after about 10 minutes and only recognized Namikawa during that time. One seiyuu does not a good seiyuu cast make, unfortunately.

機動戦士ガンダムＵＣ Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

Where to start... The first of the OVA won't be out until March of 2010, but I'm already jumping with anticipation. It's great to know that it'll be a world-wide release, shortly after the Japanese release! I'm seriously considering getting the BD version, and hoping that PS3 might follow in the second half of 2010.

Let's talk about first impressions. Now, I knew Unicorn started as novels but never got a chance to read it, so I'm basing everything from the two PVs and the official website.

I don't typically pay attention to production staff and therefore don't recognize most of the names, but I got excited when I saw Sawano Hiroyuki as the music composer. It definitely sounded like him in the 40-second PV, too. XD

Character design is usually misleading when judging from static shots on websites so I'll refrain from commenting too much for now (Syam Vist can totally pass as the head of a religious cult!), but I do have to point out one thing that bothers me: hair styles. And names.

What's with the retro hair? The most glaring examples of which are demonstrated by Mineva/Audrey, Micott, Marida and Full on the character page. And the names! Why are you walking down the same horrible path of English spelling names as SEED (How do you spell Maryu with Murrue??) when you are a Universal Century series?

And Full Frontal? I assume his name signifies something in the series, but it just sounds so stupid in English. -__-

Character-wise, Banagher (another failed English spelling when it's pronounced Banaaji) seems promising. His bio reminds me of Kira, along with his school mates from the AE Industry Technical School. I also have high hopes for his seiyuu Uchiyama Kouki, based on his performance in Soul Eater and the PV.

Mineva's alias Audrey Burne is obviously gotten from Audrey Hepburn, and her hair also kind of tips her off. I've actually never seen any of Audrey Hepburn's works except for a few images, but somehow I immediately associated Mineva's alias to her from looking at the hair. I was slightly worried when I first saw Fujimura Ayumi's name because her image as Kannagi Ayano and Cecily Cambell came off a lot stronger than what I'd imagine Mineva to be, but after hearing her in the PV, I'm fully relieved. She still sounds quite a bit older than Banagher, but I can attribute that to her experience in wars. And the hair.

My first thought when I saw Full Frontal was "Char", yet at the same time there's this sense of incongruity. His hair style (again with the hair) reminds me of Neo, but the vibe he gives off is closer to that of Rau's. Char's Counterattack was supposed to be the end of the original Gundam saga, so I'm not sure what to make of this masked blond when Char is dead. Even if Char isn't dead at the end of CCA, I doubt he would stage something like this after what he witnessed during the failed attempt to drop Axis. It's probably safe to assume that there's secrets and/or conspiracies behind his name and his voice. I don't think Ikeda Shuuichi would voice another character in the UC timeline if he isn't connected to Char in some way, though... Oh, and the Neo Zeon's uniforms look so OZ. XD

Mecha-wise, Unicorn Destroy Mode looks pretty good, albeit the colouring sort of reminds me of Astray. It's interesting to finally see a Gundam model being mass produced, but the lack of the signature white likely predestines the models to be secondary. And why is everything green? Are both E.F.S.F. and Neo Zeon trying to be eco-friendly in this time and age? (Sorry, cold joke)

Sinanju looks (not listed on the website at this point, judging from the box art of the model kit) majestic and, seeing that it's red, is probably piloted by Full. The Kshatriya looks pretty ugly to me; the 666 model number might mean it's the "Devil Gundam" of this series? I like how the Neo Zeon MS all wear bibs and sleeves, though. XD

It might look like I'm complaining a lot, but don't get me wrong. I'm itching to see it. I just don't want to be disappointed and have my experience hindered by little details.

Omake: I almost didn't recognize Namikawa Daisuke in the cast photo. He's at least two shades darker and looked like a wild man! XD

Oh yeah, I definitely will have to re-watch Char's Counterattack to refresh my memory.

And I'm dropping Victory Gundam from the UC Gundam Quest for my birthday. I'm going to just finish series that pertain to the original Gundam saga. Victory is technically a UC series, but it's so far into the future and no one from the 1st Gundam generation is around. I'm still going to watch it, of course, probably before Unicorn comes out.

Soramimi Project #5: Nakao Ryuusei 中尾隆聖

First heard: Jei Farfarello (Weiss Kreuz)

First noticed: Kurotsuchi Mayuri (BLEACH)

Memorable characters: Kurotsuchi Mayuri (BLEACH)

Image character: Kurotsuchi Mayuri (BLEACH)

Discernment rate: average?

Number of works seen: 13

I don't have much experience with Nakao Kyuusei beside BLEACH (4 out of 13 of the works seen are BLEACH), so it's probably obvious that his image character is Kurotsuchi Mayuri. I know Nakao-san also voiced/voices Freeza, but I haven't seen Dragon Ball Z and dropped Kai due to time constraint, so I only heard one scene of Freeza in the first episode of Kai. 'tis really a shame.

Because I have limited encounter with Nakao-san, I'm going to say that my discernment rate of him is average. Mayuri is a pretty impressive character so I'll likely recognize his voice if he acts along that pitch or style. Haven't heard him in a different pitch so I can't say if he changes his voice.

I first heard him in Weiss Kreuz, but I don't really remember anyone except for the actual Weiss group since it's the very first anime I ever watched in Japanese (actually the first anime after moving to Canada, too). This is both a good and a bad thing. I most likely wouldn't be able to stand the lame plot now, but I'd probably still watch it for the seiyuu. It was such a waste since I didn't know anything about anime and seiyuu back then, and the episodes my cousin had included the seiyuu interviews at the end!

---

I just watched four episodes of One Piece online, and I have to say that Zoro sounds so cute! Yeah, I wasn't ever planning to touch One Piece, but my interest was piqued when I read how popular Nakai-san's Zoro is on the wikipedia, so I decided to give it a try since it's streamed online. I'm liking Nakai-san the more I hear him. XD

BTW, I was quite pleasantly surprised when I heard Ikeda Shuuichi as Shanks! He sounded so casual and humourous that I almost doubted my ears. It's so... un-Char-like! XD

I've been putting off this trip since October, but with snow in the forecast within 24 hours, I figured it's time at last. And thus I ventured out to find a pair of winter boots and a hat that would help me survive the dreadful winter that everyone's been warning me about.

After a few hours walking back and forth between a couple stores in the shopping centre, I was at my limit and decided to just pick something -anything- for my feet so I could pet myself on the back for a mission accomplished and be on my way home.

My loot for today (all prices before the wonderful 13% sales tax)
- Horseradish seal: $11.99
- Desktop mic: $9.99
- Energizer AA batteries x 16: $13.00
- Brown owl pilot hat: $20.00
- Fur trim town shoes: $109.99
- Not having to do this again until the shoes die on me: priceless

For the Home Grown veggie collection, I was tempted to get the broccoli camel or the cucumber alligator in addition to the seal, but my wallet won out at the end. I tend to prefer ones that's more natural with as few modification (mixture of different types of veggies or fruits) as possible. The beauty of Jagainu-kun is exactly that.

For the hat, I was leaning toward the beaver (it's even got a little beaver tail on the back!) or the raccoon, but the owl ones have a better lining layer for some reason, so I went with the brown owl.

For the boots, I was hoping to just buy a pair of rubber boots like my colleague had suggested and get it over with, but I had three shops to choose from (see the next paragraph for why) and all their rubber boots are more expensive than regular ones. Originally, I was trying to keep my budget under $100, but the only pair within that price range was made in China with obvious crude seam work which I wouldn't dare to trust. So I went with my next best choice. There's a pair that looked really promising, but it was also $160. All the ones I looked at were on sale, btw. Otherwise they'd be much higher priced.

For this shopping trip, I stayed on the 3rd level, the floor right after I got off the bus, and didn't have the energy or will to explore the other two floors. I tire very easily when shopping for things that go on my body, even though I can spend hours in a library or a zoo. Now all I need is some non-perishable or frozen food so I can coop up in my nest when the weather is less than ideal for grocery shopping.

I am ready for you, winter (I hope)! Come as you may!

The Soramimi Project is still undergoing development as I progress through the weeks. Just now, I've added another entry to the standard list, "Number of works seen". This should provide a better statistic on my opinion about the individual seiyuu. At the end of the year, there would be an accumulated update post for all the featured seiyuu thus far. I might even put them in order from the most seen to the least seen, if I remember.

The "works" here include anime, games, drama CDs, web radio hosts, movie dubs (of which I've only seen one and a bit so far so it won't count as much), show narrations (of which I've only seen the East West Cooking Showdown), tokusatsu and drama. For games, I'm also counting the ones I've watched rather than actually played, like FF X, FF X-2 and FF VII CC.

I'm not counting music CD 'cause that will really complicate matters when I get to seiyuu/singer people like Mizuki Nana and Sakamoto Maaya. I'm also not counting any live events since these are mostly geared toward particular audiences and therefore some seiyuu would have a much high appearance rate than others.

There's probably going to be other things I'll add to the slowly growing standard entries. Hopefully it'll reach a good list soon so I won't have to go through those appending steps too often.

Quick update on my Firefox Persona favourites. I removed 2 out of 11 from my last selection. Here's the 9 that remained:
- Groovy Blue
- Firefox B
- Cosmic
- Watergarden II
- New Colors 1
- concrete
- Aurora Sky
- Firefox Pierrinho
- Light & Blue

I've added 3 more to get the total up to 12 now.
- My Neurons
- Fractal Butterflies
- Pastel Butterflies

BTW, I think this only happens when the Windows theme is set to classic, but my Firefox status bar on the bottom doesn't get skinned by Persona. It remains the pale green colour as set by my custom theme, making it very difficult to see the text if it's set to white by the particular Persona.

5 out of my current 12 favourites use white text so I have to squint almost half the time if I want to read the status bar. Luckily I don't need to do this very often as I typically visit the same sites and don't need to see ahead using the link. But I wish someone would notice this and address the issue... Maybe I should file a bug?

No, I'm not turning on Aero or whatever default Vista theme it comes with just so I can see the text. There is a reason why I've been using the same classic theme for years. Beside the fact that I'm lazy, that is. XD

Soramimi Project #4: Tai Yuuki 泰勇気

First heard: Kai Kudou (E'S OTHERWISE)

First noticed: Shibuya Kazuya (Ghost Hunt)

Memorable characters: Shibuya Kazuya (Ghost Hunt)

Image character: Shibuya Kazuya (Ghost Hunt)

Discernment rate: low

Number of works seen: 10 (2009.11.25)

I don't have much to say about Tai Yuuki, unfortunately, since I can't recognize his voice a lot of the time. orz

One might think I've only heard of him through the two anime listed above, but I've actually also heard him in School Rumble, Dancouga Nova, ef -a tale of memories/melodies, Narutaru, Amatsuki and Gundam SEED DESTINY. I don't know why I still can't distinguish his voice most of the time... I know his name, though.

I've added a "Discernment rate" to the standard list and filled in for the previous three seiyuu:
- Yao Kazuki is somewhat high. I can recognize him in most works he appears in, but the rate is not high or very high because I might not had been able to tell that he's Judau if I hadn't known before hand...

- Nakai Kazuya is very high; visual. I've been able to tell him every time since I started take note of seiyuu; hasn't missed so far. He's also one of the few seiyuu that I know by face. While he's not the fashionable type, his simpleness and faithfulness to his wife are pretty cute so I like him as a person as well. :)

- Aizawa Mai is 50%. I can usually tell her high pitched voice, but sometimes hit-and-miss when she speaks in a calm and quiet voice.

---

I've decided not to put a deadline for the Gundam Quest. *gasp* Yeah, I know, after all the fussing over and hypes, too. But I have excuses good reasons.

First and foremost, as touched on before, Gundam series are not something you watch to pass the time. They're as hard and heavy as they come, and they usually require a fair amount of brain cells for processing. So I want to be able to enjoy them at my own pace and not rush through them to meet a deadline.

Secondly, I recently remembered/realized that I don't have all the Gundam works. I'm missing the 2nd movie for Turn-A. orz

But I'm not throwing the whole project away! I'm still going to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Gundam by finishing the UC Gundam series by my birthday. As a result, the Gundam Quest is now in two parts.

UC Gundam Quest
機動戦士ガンダム *A
機動戦士ガンダムI *N/A
機動戦士ガンダムII 哀・戦士編 *N/A
機動戦士ガンダムIII めぐりあい宇宙編 *N/A
機動戦士Ζガンダム *B~B+
機動戦士Ζガンダム 星を継ぐ者
機動戦士ΖガンダムII 恋人たち
機動戦士ΖガンダムIII 星の鼓動は愛
機動戦士ガンダムΖΖ *B+
機動戦士ガンダム 逆襲のシャア *B+
機動戦士ガンダム0080 ポケットの中の戦争 *B~B+
機動戦士ガンダム0083 STARDUST MEMORY
機動戦士ガンダム0083 ジオンの残光
機動戦士ガンダムF91
機動戦士Vガンダム
機動戦士ガンダム 第08MS小隊 *A
機動戦士ガンダム 第08MS小隊 ミラーズ・リポート
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO -1年戦争秘録- *A
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO -黙示録0079-
機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO2 重力戦線

AU Gundam Quest
機動武闘伝Gガンダム *B~B+
新機動戦記ガンダムW *N/A
新機動戦記ガンダムW Endless Waltz *N/A
機動新世紀ガンダムX *B-
∀ガンダム
∀ガンダムI 地球光
∀ガンダムII 月光蝶
機動戦士ガンダムSEED *A-~A
機動戦士ガンダムSEED DESTINY *B-
機動戦士ガンダムSEED C.E.73 STARGAZER *B~B+
機動戦士ガンダム00
機動戦士ガンダム00 S2

And I can't wait for the Gundam Unicorn OVA (機動戦士ガンダムUC) next year!!!!! The trailer looks great, the music is the usual Sawano Hiroyuki-awesomeness, and the character design is handed back to Yasuhiko Yoshikazu! I'm sure I'll be able to overcome the funny looking Char blond masked man in no time. JUST GET THE OVA TO CANADA! (along with the MS IGLOO OVA!!!)

It's been a while since I visited Niconico due to time constraint *cough* so I was pleasantly surprised to see some new features (ooh, it's now at Version 9! I haven't been back since Natsu, except for one or two videos during Aki). I haven't the leisure to explore them all, so I'll just mention what I've briefly played with.

Now at the end of each video, it asks if you want to mylist-for-now the video, and you can choose to put in a comment at the same time. (There's now a Mylist-for-now section in the user's Mypage, which will allow up to 100 mylist-for-now videos and start deleting from the oldest if you exceeds the 100. The video can be retained by moving it to the actual Mylist.)

After clicking on the yes or no button for mylist-for-now, a panel appears (all this happens within the video frame with an X on the top right corner to close if you don't want to see it) to offer options such as to replay the video, to see other videos from the uploader, to blog about the video, to promote the video, to read or write about the video in the Niconico encyclopedia, to see other people's comment for their mylist of the video, to mylist the video, or to post the video to a community you belong to.

I'm using the feature to blog about the video here, of course. Blogger, unfortunately, is not in the list of supported platforms, but they do provide the scripts for manual addition as iframe or plain text links, so it's just a matter of copy & paste.

For demonstration purpose, I'm using a video I clicked from the Niconico flowing news header section:





Voilà! Niconico video at a glance! (I know people's been doing this for the longest time, but I never attempted it...)

BTW, if you have a Niconico account, I highly recommend this very hilarious video! The comments are quite funny, especially the ones that said, "There is no answer. This is just a body." or "There is no answer. This is just a shiba dog." The MUD lingo made me laugh so hard. The comment suggesting it being the latest type of robot was good, too. XD

I don't see myself doing this too often (otherwise, I'd write about almost every video I watch on there), but it's good to keep up with the technology. (wrong usage!)

Soramimi Project #3: Aizawa Mai 相沢舞

First heard: Super Robot OG net radio Umasugi WAVE

First noticed: Super Robot OG net radio Umasugi WAVE

Memorable characters: __soba (Super Robot OG Umasugi WAVE), Hidaka Yumemi (MUNTO TV)

Image character: __soba (Super Robot OG Umasugi WAVE), Hidaka Yumemi (MUNTO TV)

Discernment rate: 50%

Number of works seen: 8 (2009.11.25)

Hehe, this is a pretty unusual one, as one can probably see from the above. That's right, I actually learned of Aizawa from an internet radio show rather than from an anime. While seiyuu act out all sorts of characters using various pitches, they speak in their original voice on radio. I was surprised at first to hear this really child-like voice when I listened to Super Robot OG radio.

Not being a great lover of kids, I usually stay away from this kind of high pitch voice. But the more I listened to the show, the more faces of Aizawa Mai I discovered. Although, for some reason, the only voice I've heard of her in anime is the calm and serene type, as heard in Dennou Coil, MUNTO TV, CLANNAD, or Ga-Rei Zero.

As expected, her image character is split between her renditions of the different __soba on Super Robot OG radio and Yumemi from MUNTO TV. BTW, both shows have rather long names so I've abbreviated them; the full name of the MUNTO TV series is actually Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai.

My discernment rate for Aizawa Mai is probably a bit better than 50%, but I haven't seen enough of her to be sure. I can usually tell her high pitched voice, but sometimes hit-and-miss when she speaks in a calm and quiet voice.

Aizawa is not one of seiyuu that I follow, but I sure would like to hear more of her on the radio. Speaking of which, I should get back into the habit of listening to net radio again. Maybe after the Gundam Quest (almost everything falls behind the Quest now...)

---

Some notes on previous seiyuu:
- Yao Kazuki's Judau Ashta is a pretty decent protagonist for a Gundam series. Yao-san voiced him just right considering Judau's background and experience, a bit on the mature side yet still retaining his youthful nature. Although, I might not be able to make the connection between Judau and Bunshichi. Compared to Bunshichi, Judau sounded... normal. XD

- Nakai Kazuya seems like a pretty laid back guy as he walked on stage with very very very casual (something I'd wear at home myself) clothes for the Sengoku BASARA pre-air special. It's quite funny when he categorized himself as a pure Japanese (ie. no English) and got corrected on his pronunciation of "Are you ready, guys" when he did the recording. XD

On a completely different note, I've decided to extend the deadline for the Gundam Quest from my birthday to the end of 2009. The extra week and a half will give me more leeway to not rush and be able to enjoy the Gundam series better. Of course, that's also just another excuse for me to slack off. My brain isn't built to strictly handle heavy stuff like Gundam for two straight months.

Omake: I sneaked out of Gundam mode yesterday due to certain reason (see last sentence of last paragraph) and watched a movie instead... And there's a scene in there that mentioned names like Dom, Jet Stream Attack, Red Comet Char Aznable, White Soldier Gundam, GM and Ball! And there's models on the bookshelves in the protagonist's room. I tried and still bumped into Gundam. orz

機動戦士ガンダム MS IGLOO -1年戦争秘録- The Hidden One-Year War

I don't have a PS3, but if they release this in BD, I'll buy it in a instant without a second thought. (Bring it over to North America, Bandai!! I'll even settle with just DVD!)

When news of it came out a few years ago, I was thrilled at another new Gundam show but at the same time somewhat sceptical with the 3D CG. Of course, screen shots of the deathly looking faces of people didn't help.

While I still frown at some of the robotic movements or postures made by the humans, it was actually pretty decent by my standard. Even though they exaggerate often, the faces are quite expressive with the subtle motions.

The music and the battle scenes are some of the brightest points for the show. The score is epic and resolute at times, but always ending in a solemn and poignant note because of the nature of the show. Never heard of Taja, but the theme song is not bad, and moving as an insert song. The battle scenes take full advantage of CG to showcase the individual arm's mobility and combat style, and to orchestrate a war fleet battle in space on one of the grandest scales.

The story is unique in that it's told from the side of Zeon by a militia engineer who bears witness to the sorrowful downfall of prideful soldiers fighting until the very end. The fact that it takes place during the One Year War foretells the outcome of the war and the experiments on the prototype arms, which makes it all the more painful.

While watching the events unfold, I was reminded of RIGHT OF LEFT, which takes place before the main story of Fafner. (I briefly wrote about it in Chinese back in 2006.) Even though I didn't cry watching IGLOO, it doesn't mean it's less heart-wrenching. War is indeed a cruel reality, in anime and more so in real life. Its terrible impact doesn't just affect those directly involved, but to all humanity during and after.

Allow me to leave it on this note until after MS IGLOO Apocalypse 0079.

My right eye is still kind of sore from the lack of sleep, but after an hour of turning restlessly on the bed, I decided to get up anyway. For one, I was hungry because it's been almost 17 hours since my last meal (which explains the double portion I'm cooking right now to make up for it). I also had a hard time sleeping because memories of my childhood kept coming back and occupying my mind.

So I've decided to start another weekly project about the bits and pieces in my childhood. I had always thought that my childhood experience (mainly school life since school took up such a big chunk for students in Taiwan) was similar to that of everybody else's. I've since realized that not only are those experiences foreign in the literal sense to my fellow Canadians, they are likely alien to people that grew up in the digital age. But that's really just an excuse for me to take a trip down the memory lane 'cause I'm getting old. XD

Here's a preview of some of the topics I would like to talk about:
- cleaning duties in school
- school uniforms
- subjects taught in school
- after school activities
- commuting to schools
- stray dogs & co. in the neighbourhood
- cartoon/anime
- NES
- etc.

My first impulse was to name the project 余憶童稚時("back in my childhood years") or "Once upon a time", but all my labels are single words, so I decided to go with Mukashibanashi(昔話), which means stories of old. Japanese is such a convenient language. XD Due to the time constraint, I will start it after my birthday. 30 is as good a time for an old one to start reflecting back on one's memories.

On a side note, I did a quick calculation on the amount of Gundam stuff I'll need to go through if I were to finish them all before I turn 30. It's very obviously that I will never make it at the current speed I'm going. I think I might have to try and pull a few Higurashi, where I was so scared that I didn't want to drag the series over the week and get haunted by the images, so I gobbled through it (26 episodes) over a weekend. Same thing with Higurashi Kai (24 episodes), although it was really not necessary for Kai. Yup, I think a couple Higurashi is definitely in order.

Soramimi Project #2: Nakai Kazuya 中井和哉

(I've decided to rename my seiyuu project to Soramimi, which means mishearing or just hearing things in Japanese, since recognizing seiyuu usually takes a lot of practices as well as trial and error.)

Now on to the main topic today, which is a rather big one. Let's start with the standard breakdown list.

First heard: Peacemakers Galil and Socom (Scrapped Princess)

First noticed: Tres Iqus (Trinity Blood)/Sugawara Fumiya (Hatarakiman)

Memorable characters: Mugen (Samurai Champloo), Date Masamune (Sengoku BASARA), Witz Sou (Gundam X), Hijikata Toushirou (Gintama), Etou Kouzou (Nodame Cantabile), Gray Ringmarc (Clover no Kuni no Alice)

Image character: Mugen (Samurai Champloo)/Date Masamune (Sengoku BASARA)

Discernment rate: very high; visual

Number of works seen: 22 (2009.11.25)

Scrapped Princess was one of my earliest anime and I wasn't able to recognize seiyuu very well at that time. Nakai-san's roles in Scrapped Princess didn't really have a lot of screen time, so I claim full excuse for not noticing him then. I also heard him in other shows such as Gundam SEED, Inuyasha and Juuni Kokuki, but they were mostly very small roles. I became interested in his voice in Trinity Blood, but he played a cyborg and talked in a monotone so it was difficult to tell of his acting skill. Then I picked up Hatarakiman because of Tanaka Rie, and I started to take note of Nakai Kazuya.

What really made me pinned to his voice was Mugen in Samurai Champloo, an unruly and wild vagabond who trusts no one but himself and his sword, yet he would give his all and fight to the very end for something he believes in. I haven't seen enough Gintama to be familiar with Hijikata, but both Witz and Masamune resemble Mugen in a way, except that they're more like the grown-up version who knows the value of working together with fellow comrades rather than relying solely on one's own strength.

I haven't heard very much of Nakai's cooler voice in anime, but his otome game characters are must play for me if they're available. I recently finished the DS game Dual Love which has Nakai as one of the playable characters, and I endured (except for Namikawa's route) going through all five paths just so I could unlock his character. BTW, unless you're into seiyuu, I don't recommend Dual Love to anyone... Nakai's character Gray isn't very eye catching amongst the colourful cast in Clover no Kuni no Alice, but he is easily the most reasoned voice in the crooked world. He ended up as my 2nd favourite character beside Blood.

Nakai-san's got a nice low and husky voice on screen, though his original voice is softer and more laid back. While he plays a lot of rowdy characters, he is also good with cool and gentle roles. From what I can remember, his characters are usually the straightforward type that live in their own pace and prefer not to trouble those around them. It's pretty easy to like his characters even though they may have some oddities. Oh, and for some reason they give me the impression that they are easily clueless around girls they like. XD

I couldn't decide between Mugen and Masamune for the image character for Nakai-san because both have very strong persona and represent his hot-bloodedness well, so I listed them both. There's a couple seiyuu who's played a wide range of remarkable characters, so there will be times when I have multiple roles listed for image character, or none at all if the seiyuu is just too good with any character.

I'd say my discernment rate for Nakai Kazuya is very high. I've been able to tell him every time since I started take note of seiyuu; hasn't missed so far. He's also one of the few seiyuu that I know by face. While he's not the fashionable type, his simpleness and faithfulness to his wife are pretty cute so I like him as a person as well. :)

Even though Nakai Kazuya is not one of my top two male seiyuu (I seriously doubt anyone can overthrown Ishida Akira and Seki Tomokazu), but he is definitely on my growing list of favourite seiyuu. I look forward to hear more of him in anime and games (if only I have at least a PS2...)!

A few days ago I saw a post on a forum somewhere mentioning the Hatsune Miku theme for the Google Chrome browser, which in term reminded me of Persona for Firefox. I've been embellishing my Firefox with Groovy Blue for almost two years now, so I figured it might be a good time to check out the gallery for other personas. Surely there's good ones out there!

And boy, was I in for a big surprise when I saw thousands of flavours in the gallery. I managed to browse through the entire Abstract section but couldn't bring myself to do the same for all the other sections except for the smaller ones.

There's a lot of very beautiful personas, but not all are practical and even fewer fit my Firefox both functionally and aesthetically. First of all, my Windows theme is set to classic, and the base colour is various shades of green. Then I have my Firefox icons as small, took out the search bar and extended the address bar all the way. Lastly I have a fully loaded Bookmark Toolbar. So the ideal persona needs to look good for the shorter height in the toolbar area and blend in with the Windows colours well, and it must show the texts and maybe fav icons in the Bookmark Toolbar clearly.

After hours and hours of trying out new outfits, I decided on the following personas and have them randomly displayed:
- Groovy Blue
- Firefox B
- Cosmic
- Blurry Blotches
- Watergarden II
- New Colors 1
- Floral Abstract
- concrete
- Aurora Sky
- Firefox Pierrinho
- Light & Blue

Some of these only have single-digit active daily users, which is a shame. If you use Persona for Firefox, definitely give them a try!

---

I was going to keep this post strictly about Firefox, but I couldn't help to not squeeze in a few paragraphs about a very funny series I am watching right now. The name of that very funny series is Gundam ZZ.

Yes, you read it right. It's a Gundam series (November is Gundam month, remember?), part of the UC timeline series, no less. Not only is Haman's carefully(?) brought up apprentice a complete Haman-worshipping idiot (I cracked up so many times at the literally rosy flashbacks of Haman handing down to Mashymre the know-hows), even Yazan, one of the most persistent and skillful pilots in Zeta, turned into a comedian with acts of running and falling into a manhole, or knocking down the main cannon of Endora as it was ready to fire at Argama with his fallen MS.

Of course, it's still early so things can easily turn ugly as Argama enters into space and encounters new and more serious enemies. Hopefully this won't be the last of Marshmellow (XD) and Yazan. Somehow I have a feeling that Yazan might make it through the series as long as he doesn't join Haman...

Protagonist-wise, Judau is a new kind of Gundam pilot for me, with his street-smart fighting style, bright personality and close bond with his group of merry-men. Very different from the somewhat introverted lone-wolf Gundam protagonists from some other series, especially Amuro and Kamille that preceded him.

機動戦士Ζガンダム Mobile Suit Z Gundam

2nd Gundam series in the UC lineup. Frankly, I am still not quite sure what to make of the whole thing.

I entered the world of Zeta knowing just Kamille's and Four's names and the faces of a few of the women, and that SEED Destiny is supposedly modelled after Zeta to some degree like SEED was after First. Now I'm leaving the world of TV Zeta (the TV series aired in 1985) with names and faces of various characters but not the sense of the world situation. There is still the world of New Zeta (the three New Translation movies from 2005) which I heard are not just rehash and re-edits of the TV series like the three movies for the First Gundam. Hopefully I'll be able to understand Zeta a bit more after watching New Zeta.

The first half of TV Zeta integrated quite a few people from First and showed the changes they went through over the years. It's always fascinating to see Char interacting with the former crew of White Base. Because they used to fight each other so fiercely, they can now understand each other and work together. Yesterday's foe is today's comrade. This is indeed fitting for them. And Kamille seemed to have a older-female-complex (I wouldn't call it Oedipus complex because he didn't feel that way toward his own mother) and it took me quite a while to accept him.

The second half gradually turned chaotic with the addition of Haman's force and Scirocco's movement, which is fine withe me until they started fighting psychically in the literal sense. While the second to last episode made me believe this was what set the tradition(?) of important characters dying before the last episode for the Gundam franchise, I was rather baffled when Kamille/Zeta Gundam started gathering life forces and emotions in the last battle against Scirocco. I think TV Zeta probably predates Dragon Ball Z, but I couldn't help but blurted out "元気玉かよ？！" when I saw it.

I seriously thought Jerid would survive the series, with Jerid becoming something akin to Kamille's best rival, especially seeing how he's lived through so many failed missions and piloted so many different models. Katz not making it was a bit of an upset for me since I saw him as a child in First, and he wasn't even shot down in battle, but having Kamille snapped at the end probably came as the biggest shock. I guess he's relied too much on his New Type psych power and finally overloaded his mind.

Minerva is practically the predecessor of Mariemaia from Endless Waltz, though I didn't expect her to return when Dozle sent his wife and daughter away to safety in First. Seeing how she wasn't shown dead, maybe she'll appear again in a later series?(I just found that she's the female lead in the Gundam Unicorn novel series, which will have an OVA series next year!)

While First has a straightforward focus and is very much character-driven, Zeta adopts a multi-facet view, showing the inner workings and conflicts of various forces, and is more plot-driven. The efforts of individual characters, while still significant, aren't as crucial in the grander scale of things in Zeta. As a result, the protagonist Kamille doesn't leave as strong an impression as Amuro.

Beside the ever present New Type motif (and Cyber-New Type in the case of Zeta), the desire to be loved seems to be one of the themes of Zeta. The ratio and frequency of female characters in Zeta may even be the highest out of all the Gundam series, and every single one of these women is a fighter. With the exception of Fa (Fraw and Mirai don't count since they're happily married), almost all the female cast expressed, either openly or implied, their logic on the topic of love, as well as their value as being seen as women. Kamille's development is also heavily shaped by the women around him.

I feel that it took Kamille much longer to become independent because most people around him are experienced adults and both human and material resources weren't lacking, where White Base had to fight through the most difficult situations by itself with nothing but an all-teens green crew before finally joining the Federation force.

Mecha-wise, there's again a few new designs as in First. I like the design of Gundam Mk-II better than Zeta, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Qubeley and Hyaku Shiki. I learned of Qubeley from the SD Gundam games back in the NES days and the one-page manga in SD Gundam model kits, and Hyaku Shiki from the SD Gundam 4-koma manga that I used to read when I was little. I was so intrigued by Qubeley's design that it left quite an impression on me. One day when I finished a chemistry exam early during high school, I decided to start doodling while waiting. The fluid line of its head immediately came to mind and I did a sketch of one of my original creatures based on Qubeley's head design. I also liked the fox form of Bound-Doc.

Originally, I was planning to watch New Zeta after TV Zeta, but I think it might be better if I watch the UC series in the chronological order (yeah, I'll have to re-watch Char's Counterattack now that I have the knowledge of First under my belt, but that'll happen next year). Next in line will be ZZ Gundam!

Starting in November, beside my somewhat futile attempt at completing the Gundam Quest, I've also started a little pet project on another of my interested topics: seiyuu.

Using the list of seiyuu on wikipedia, I'll select one seiyuu to talk about every week. The method of selection is done scientifically with the help of a die. Really, it's nothing but scientific. I even have a chart drawn out for it. After a controlled entropy experiment, I'll just go down the list for the selected row and write about the first name I recognize to some degree.

For this pilot project demonstration, the lucky(?) seiyuu is: Yao Kazuki (矢尾一樹)! *applauds*

I actually haven't heard a lot of Yao-san, but his voice is really unique and I learned to recognize it right away.

First heard: Tawara Bunshichi (Tenjo Tenge)

First noticed: Tawara Bunshichi (Tenjo Tenge)

Memorable characters: Tawara Bunshichi (Tenjo Tenge), Dominikov (MURDER PRINCESS), Moroha (Sousei no Aquarion)

Image character: Tawara Bunshichi (Tenjo Tenge)

Discernment rate: somewhat high

Number of works seen: 15 (2009.11.25)

It's probably obvious that Yao-san=Bunshichi for me. XD Yao-san's performance as Bunshichi was so impressive, that even in a show full of high level seiyuu such as Tenjo Tenge, he stood out as one of the significant characters. I liked his Dominikov as well. That cute little skeleton man with a big heart. I shed a few tears when he disappeared...

I'd say my discernment rate for Yao Kazuki is somewhat high. I can recognize him in most works he appears in, but the rate is not high or very high because I might not had been able to tell that he's Judau if I hadn't known before hand...

Hopefully I'll be able to hear his Judau soon. I was surprised to see him playing the protagonist in a Gundam series, but I definitely look forward to it. As soon as I finish those Zeta Gundam DVDs...

---

My little seiyuu project will be something similar to the above. There will be times when I don't have a lot to say (such as today), but there will be times when I can't stop myself, especially when it comes to some of the big names.

On a side note, I realized yesterday that the Victory Gundam episodes I got were RAWs. Even though it's still in the UC timeline, it's very very remotely connected to the original Gundam's world. So I'll have to re-learn a lot of the terms. It'll be a welcoming challenge to tackle a hard and heavy series with my passing listening level. I can understand Zeta reasonably fine without reading the subtitles, so I'm hoping the same when I get to Victory Gundam.