Earth hour, Anti-twilight forums and Doujin Games

So how many of you Bruneians out there joined in on the earth hour event? I sure did. Spent an hour hidden in darkness last night. The other houses around my granpa's place didn't seem to be interested in joining in. Sadly, today's the last day of the holidays and yet my nose is in a horrible state. This is the third time all my sneezing caused a cold burning kind of feeling in my head and my mom's been worrying about a headache I might get from sneezing for the past few months. I wonder what is that a symptom of? It's starting to worry me as well since I've been waking up with my left nostril coated with a pale yellowish stuff for the past week. It seems to be blood plasma since it's there's a a little bit of red in there and occasionally in tissues after sneezing.

Anyways, I've been roaming around online and I've found a few interesting things to share. For starters a couple of videos with some great music. All of them have earned themselves "Crowning Music of..." on TV tropes so you know they're good.

Godzilla Theme, I cannot help but feel pumped up at hearing this. GODZILLA!



V for Vendetta - Evey Reborn. Loved that movie. The 1812 overture was brilliantly used in that movie.



Kagamine Rin - KOKORO, This earned a crowning moment of heartwarming i think... Or was it a tearjerker?

GReeeeN - 刹那 @ Yahoo! Video

GReeeeN - Setsuna, A new PV that Omni of Random Curiosity brought up. Hasn't earned any mentions from TV Tropes yet but the song and the video is pretty good. I feel that it'll probably get a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming once one of those tropers finds it. I always wondered what the power rangers did after taking down their Big Bads.

While I was roaming around on TV tropes I found a link that led to an anti twilight forums. There are quite a number of things on that place, including a list of attacks by crazed twilight fans. It seems that list is still getting longer. You should realize by now that I think that twilight is a piece of trash overhyped by hormonal teenage girls that shouldn't be as popular as they make it out to be. Even just by looking at the cover of any of the books I could tell that the stuff inside wasn't going to be worth my time.

http://twilightsucks.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=fangirls&action=display&thread=5175

It bugs me that trash like that is out on the global market while there's plenty of good light and visual novels from japan that's waiting to be translated. It's just a matter of time though, Rozen Aso is heading the country that Otakuism came from after all.

Sadly, I do know a few girls who fit the category of those crazed twilight fans but I know not to push the buttons too far. Though I have to say that girls nowadays seem to be getting more and more mentally unstable with each year. The teachers really have their work cut out for them.

I was amused to see that there were quite a few girls on that anti-twilight forum but I was stupefied to see the many videos of young girls screaming out their obsession with the book featured on the forum's video topics. I laughed at the comments left by the members though. Gotta give props to guy who plays the main guy for outrightly saying the books. That takes guts and with his character's fanbase, it's amazingly brave of the guy to even be filming the sequel. He's digging a grave for himself though, it's only a matter of time before one of his stalkers kidnaps the guy.

Here's some luzworthy images:

Some webcomic I found linked in TV Tropes. She made the right decision

A memorable forum post from someone. Do the fans even realize that Meyer vampires and edward are fiction? Not very good pieces of fiction at that

Part of someone's sig. The second part says that Raiden sparkles better than Edward. Gotta agree with him there.

It's almost time for the finale of gundam 00 to show up. Unfortunately, the soonest I'll be able to watch it is this tuesday so I shall have to resist the temptations of visiting blogs to know what happened. I want to enjoy that episode spoiler-free so these will be a long two days. On a side note, Bandai are evil #$%^&*s because they just announced a 1/100 00 Raiser Designer's colour that comes with the GN sword III. I really feel like swearing louder than any sailor would dare to because of them. It's even supposed to come with more lighting effects for the head and GN sword III (Not that i'd be able to get the batteries for them here). On the upside, they're releasing a HGUC Hi-Nu gundam so I'm looking forward to that.

To wrap things up, here's a couple of videos of doujin games from comiket. Amazing work for a bunch of amateurs.

Magical Battle Arena - Where Mahou Shojo's Kick Ass!




Ultimate Knight Wisdom XP - Mecha Pawnage In Excess!

Ribbons Gundam!

Awesome news for gundam 00 fans. Someone posted up scans for the final episode and it contains a spirit booster for those who have felt the last stretch of the series was less than epic. Despite the fact that Evil Amuro a.k.a. Ribbons Almark was piloting the GN guncannon at the end of episode 49, we WILL have our Gundam vs. Gundam final battle!

Here's the GN Guncannon. Allegedly it's actually called Ribbons Guncannon. What else would you expect from the mobile suit of a guy with a god complex?

Ribbons Guncannon

Here's what's underneath all the extra armor:

Ribbons Gundam... God Complex At Work

Fanart of Ribbons Gundam

I for one am expecting an awesome battle considering that judging from the picture it's got:

• Pseudo Twin Drive System
• Trans-Am
• Fangs System
• Garazzo Fingers
• Virtue's Purge System
• Shoulder Mounted GN Cannons
• Psychoframe-like Controls
• GN Fields

There's also been speculation as to whether the position of the drives on the arms mean that we'll be seeing a GN Finger. Trans-am + Burning Finger = Made of WIN! GO for it Bandai! GO FOR IT! (You can tell that I'm getting it as soon as it gets announced)

This hand of mine glows with an awesome power!

Its burning grip tells me to defeat you!
Now, here I go!
RIBBONS FINGER!

Again, he has a god complex. Aside from that, rumors also say that Ribbons gundam is powerful enough to steal the 0 gundam's original GN drive from Setsuna and that the remnants of the CB crew will travel to Jupiter. I am anticipating this epic battle very much.

Movie Review: Dragonball Evolution

I went to watch Dragonball Evolution last Saturday and quite contrary to what I initially expected I actually enjoyed the movie. Sure it has its plot holes here and there and the actors were painful to watch aside from Goku, Chi Chi and Son Gohan but I still enjoyed the movie. The trick to doing that is not to overthink things and just sit back and enjoy the ride. Bring along your friends who have fond childhood memories of the manga and anime so you can have a good time laughing with them. I don’t mean that the movie is so bad that it’s good but rather that the jokes are actually good. Also don’t go in there thinking that it’s a straight up adaptation of Dragonball or else you’re just going to be pissed during the entire movie. It’s fun to compare the differences between them though. There were some pretty good scenes in the movie too and I actually found the direction better than most of the blockbusters Hollywood is churning out nowadays.

The plot itself made enough sense at the beginning and the middle but they really lay it on thick towards the end. The Oozaru thing should have at least been foreshadowed better even though the fans know what’s the deal with it. Seriously, if I didn’t know anything about Dragonball I wouldn’t be able to accept that being in the movie. The special effects were quite good actually but I just wish they made them more dynamic. Wispy blue flames are impressive in any context but it would have been more fitting to use a “harder” version of it in the Kamehameha showdown scene at the end. Hopefully they’ll correct it in the sequel. Don’t groan! It was an enjoyable movie and with how it sales are going around the world a sequel is definitely coming. The script’s ready too.

The music wasn’t exactly memorable but it did the job and went along with the scenes quite well. I will be getting my hands on that Hamasaki Ayumi song though. The lines themselves had some corny things thrown into them at various parts of the movie but nothing too bad. Goku’s interaction with Chi Chi felt quite natural if you ask me. The latern scene went particularly smoothly for them. The jokes didn’t make me groan at any point in the movie but they didn’t make me laugh all the time either. The implications of some of them did amuse me though. For one thing, I’m still wondering about what happened to bug that got shot into Son Gohan’s mouth. The old man did eat chicken feet so I wouldn’t be surprised if he just ate it then and there.

Rather than the plot, I have a bigger beef with the characters. Despite the complaints about Goku not being asian he was actually the one who gave the best performance out of all of them. Remember! Goku wasn’t even an earthling in the manga so that not asian matter is rather silly. Chi Chi and Son Gohan gave out good performances too. I liked how they still managed to keep Roshi’s character close to the manga’s version but they really chose the wrong actor for it. I don’t care if Chow Yun Fat is asian and is a big name, it still doesn’t make up for the fact that he was disappointing as Roshi. I can forgive him for not wanting to be bald but he didn’t even wear the sunglasses or whiten his hair and beard. He’s a good example why race doesn’t really matter when it comes to acting skills. It seemed like he was trying to act more like a stereotype of those old Chinese martial arts masters rather than Roshi! Did that guy even bother to do the research on his character?! Come to think of it, I’ve never been impressed by any of the asian roles he does.

Bulma’s actor was so-so but there were parts in the movie where it felt like she was just reading straight from the script rather than acting out her lines. Yamcha was the one who annoyed me the most. His character was pretty much the same but the accent he used to speak was terribly, terribly annoying. I don’t know if I could say it was his acting but it’s just that he picked one of the most annoying accents I’ve ever heard! Piccolo’s actor did a good job in showing off a badass evil attitude but I think the main problem is that the choreography for his end of the fights just weren’t vicious enough. He really didn’t carry any of that intensity with him into the fights. Acts of evil destruction, so very YES. Straight up fisticuffs, no. There is a limitation as to what live action can achieve compared to animation after all. It’s odd but it was the characters that had the most changes to their character that had the best performances. Scratch that, they all had changes to fit the actors but most of those actors just weren’t fit for the job.

Basically this is a movie worth watching if you’re willing to give it a chance. It had a lot more good to it than bad and the reason my review contains more criticisms than praise is because people remember bad things more often than good things. It’s never going to be a masterpiece but it is an enjoyably good movie overall. I enjoyed it more than Harry potter movies 3 and 4 and it’s definitely more enjoyable than that waste of hype Twilight. Seriously, I still cannot believe people like it.

Trust me when I say so because my list of what anime I remember watching (Not all of them completely finished though) is more than enough credentials for my level of Otaku-ism. My opinion is a lot fairer than anything a fanboy could tell you. Do not get me started with my list of manga cause unlike my anime DVD’s I never made a list to categorize which ones I own. I am working on it though but it’s hard to remember which ones I’ve gone through. In fact I only just remembered to add in the anime my brother buys and had to check my music files to remember which ones I’ve watched. I do my best not to be biased when I watch anime so that I can pick out the good ones for every season. I do wonder why Toradora isn’t on Chong Hock’s list yet though, it is VERY good.

My last words for this post:

Don’t take the movie so seriously, it’s a homage to Dragonball so enjoy it as a homage!

Holidays once more

Schools holidays have just started but I’m already feeling that it’s way too short. According to an encyclopedia I read years ago, Brunei is one of the top ten countries in the world with the highest number of school days. We’re probably still in seventh place since we had 200 school days then and we still have 200 school days now. I really envy those living in temperate zones since they have fewer school days thanks to their own holidays and seasons. Our ten day break hardly compares to theirs which last months. With global warming, it’ll probably get even longer too. On a side note, this time my Dynames fell off my mirror table while I was a sleep last night. Not very strange unless you count the fact that it was far away enough from the edge that it shouldn't even reach the edge if it falls. I've also added a chatbox here.

To get the anime club in the mood for holidays early, I decided that we should watch a movie for the last day of the term. By the way, our school’s projector bag is ridiculously big. The projector itself could fit in my laptop’s backpack but the case was the size of a luggage bag. I showed them “Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo” and they seemed to like it quite a bit. I had to cut it short though because we were strapped for time because of time delays caused by faulty power points in the room so I had to skip the first ten minutes. Even with that much time skipped over, we had to stay back five minutes more to get to the farewell scene at the end. There was quite a lot more laughter than I thought there would be but I guess that’s a sign of my experience with anime compared to theirs. Ahahaha… you watch enough anime and those small visual and tsukkomi gags will only be able to bring a smile rather than a laugh 97% percent of the time.

I was very amused at the farewell scene though. It’s a kind of slow scene that was deliberately paced so that it looked like the guy was going to kiss the girl. It was at that part where I heard everyone squeal in delight. When the psudeo kiss scene actually turned out to be a heartwarming embrace, everyone went “Awhhhh”. It made me consider the possibility that my juniors are quite the romanticists for wanting a kiss scene. If you ask me, it would have been an awkward and sudden development considering the relationship of the two characters. That hug was a smart move on the director’s part because unlike Hollywood movie directors, the Japanese directors seem to prefer going for the feel of the movie rather than go for what everyone’s expecting. To me, hugs are a more natural start for romances than kisses because it’s a more comfortable and natural pace than a kiss that implies many things in an instant. It is one of the reasons I find Twilight to be overhyped trash. It’s supposedly getting an anime adaptation but with that kind of story I doubt even KyoAni could make it appealing to me. I can’t even get myself to watch or read Vampire Knight because I really don’t like vampire stories. Why are people so fascinated with vampires? There’s plenty of vampire fanfics at fanfiction.net even in stories where nothing even remotely resembles one of those bloodsuckers.

From there it got me to thinking this, why do girls paint their nails? It looks terribly unnatural and I don’t any guy who actually finds them appealing. They’re basically the same thing as tattoos and you have to cut them anyway so why bother painting them in the first place? I guess it’s probably the same reason why people dye their hair but it still doesn’t seem sensible in any aspect. Directly from there it made me figure out traits I’d want in an ideal girl. She’d have to be smart, cute and have a challenging and troublesome personality. That way, I can have a lot fun being entertained by her antics and annoying her. I’d never be able to enjoy being around someone who bores me for a long period of time. However, if they possess the inability to read moods and are overly needy or talkative then that would make her too annoying for me to stand. Unfortunately the closest match to that would be Suzumiya Haruhi or Kawashima Ami but unlike most Otakus, I don’t feel the same attraction they do towards 2D characters. You have a guy who’s never cried at movies or anime talking here. I’ve watched “Grave of the fireflies” and “Air – The Movie” and my eyes came out dry so the chances of me getting the least bit emotionally attached to any character are close to zero. I do have favorite characters for particular series but I never relate myself to them. They were tragic movies but they weren’t tragic enough. I say that to those who did and they’ll either call me a liar or some manner of a heartless being. The internet keeps saying that I’m the latter though. People like Adlan would call me a liar since he can’t seem to accept the fact that I don’t like hentai no matter how many times I say so. There are people who have seen and rejected the “darkness” of the Otaku world and I’m one of them. He’s one of those people who believe that the “darkness” is what the Otaku world really is. That’s what happens when what you look for in anime isn’t the storyline.

Speaking of storylines, the second half of Heroes season three is ridiculously predictable and dull. Anyone with a brain should have figured out that Rebel is Micah since no one else has super l337 haxxorz skills. The only good parts of the show are usually Sylar’s and Hiro’s but they’ve been less than satisfying in terms of development lately. I really do hope they get rid of Claire soon though, she’s the most annoying character on the show and letting her mother in on this needlessly long undercover act didn’t help at all. I’m even enjoying one Nanoha StrikerS episode as much as three Heroes episodes and that’s the season with the slowest pacing out of all three. I do hope that they’ll animate the fourth season using a single cour length since a double cour would just slow down the pacing again. Lost on the other hand was amazing in the fourth season and nearly as good this season. I just wish that they’d hurry up with the smoke monster’s reveal.

To show exactly how good it is, here's a Nanoha video dubbed over with voices from an ace combat game:



I just saw a demo for the upcoming Miku –Project Diva PSP game and it will bug me that I don’t have a PSP to play it on since from what I’ve heard and seen, this could be one of the best PSP games ever. Kingdom Hearts - Birth by Sleep is a close contender though. It basically plays like guitar hero only that the commands fly all over the screen a pattern so you can watch Miku dance in impressive backdrops while playing. I imagine that might prove to be detrimental to players score seeing as how distracting it can be. I can see how high the playability will be for this game with all the customizations this game offers. You can even add in your own mp3’s to play to, a feature I’m still wondering why guitar hero doesn’t have. Hopefully they included a Tako Luka character inside as well but since there aren’t as many Luka songs as there are Miku songs so she’ll probably have to wait for a sequel before showing up.

Here's a couple of gameplay videos





Here's a link with a video showing more of the features:
http://www.dannychoo.com/detail/mac/eng/image/15937/39+Secrets:+Hatsune+Miku+-Project+DIVA-.html

Good news for Gunpla collectors though. They’ve announced the HG 1/144 sets Susanoo, Arche Gundam and 0 Gundam. 0 Gundam’s release date isn’t confirmed but judging by the fact that Susanoo is set for July and Arche set for May, the 0 gundam will most likely be in June. Hopefully they’ll release a 1/100 model for Susanoo and 0 gundam because the announcement of their 1/144 kits is tempting me to get the Trans-Am 00 Raiser too. But knowing from Bandai’s penchant for being evil bastards, they’ll be releasing a 1/100 Trans-Am 00 Raiser next followed by 1/100 Trans-Am Cherudim, Arios and Seravee coming with the extra equipment. This is the work of pure evil since the extra equipment look pretty damn cool and now I don’t know whether to go for any of the 1/100 kits just yet. But since the Innovators have Trans-Am now, it’s quite likely that they’ll be releasing Trans-Am kits for Gadessa, Garazzo, Gadessu, Gaga and Susanoo. Probably Arche too if they show Ali using it next week. And as for the upcoming MG Unicorn Coating version, it looks like a pretty good kit. The shiny coat goes quite well with the clear plastic pink between the armor plates.

Trans-Am 00 Raiser. SOOOO TEMPTING

Susanoo a.k.a. Samurai Flag

0 Gundam

Arche Gundam

To finish things off, I'll leave up the winning design for a new flag for the welsh on an online "Redesign the Welsh Flag to include a Dragon" competiton. It won the contest in a landslide and that's not surprising considering that it's based on Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

RAW! RAW! FIGHT THE POWAH!!

My most memorable Manga and Anime

Bruneian percentage dropping -_-'

I seem to be getting used to getting so many visitors cause I can't even remember what my counter was at last time I came here. I remember it was somewhere in the mid 1700's. But it seems that I've picked up people from new areas now. I wonder what exactly compelled people from Brazil to start coming here. This is how I feel I should express this odd attention that my blog is attracting from around the world.

Seriously though, me and my acquaintances are wondering why this is so. It can't just be because of my gundam pictures because my most visited posts aren't related to them at all.

I recently started rereading a couple of the old manga series I had and I rediscovered one of them. Uzumaki was such a great piece of work that it got me thinking what were the most memorable manga and anime I’ve ever gone through. I won’t be including anime movies in there though since they’re a whole other level from normal anime. That said, there’s a high percentage of good movies in there like “Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho”, “Toki wo Kakeru Shojo” and the 3rd Keroro Gunso Movie. I won’t be including one shots either, just manga series. Top is manga and bottom is anime.

Best Horror
Uzumaki
Seriously… I can’t think of anything else more disturbing than this series. Not even the “Nice Boat” ending of school days could compare to any of the stuff in here. This manga contains snail people, reanimating corpses, cannibalism and talking babies. I’m making it sound less gruesome than it really is by the way. That however makes it an excellent story worth remembering for the rest of your life.
Ghost Hound
Not quite as creepy as Uzumaki but still quite chilling. From the creepy static transitions, the haunting voiceovers, the character designs and the flashbacks; every bit of the direction here was great. It’s unfortunate that they rushed the ending but this series was very well done up to that point.

Most Tragic
Bokurano
Written by one of my favorite mangaka, a giant robot is sent to earth and a bunch of kids have to pilot it for a multi universal survival match. The catch is that whoever pilots it will die after their fight is over. If anyone of them lose, they’re taking the rest of their universe with them to oblivion. It’s a very dark story with plenty of character development and deaths. I’m lovin’ it!
Air
I probably would have written Bokurano in this one as well but I’ve seen Air and that was designed to make people cry. The fact that the tragedy happens to someone who was made to make you think, “But she doesn’t deserve it!” doesn’t really help ease up the pain you’d feel all through the story. I prefer the movie version by Toei though. It made more sense to me and the ending scene was ridiculously heartbreaking. It didn’t make me cry though so better luck with Rewrite KEY!

Most Heartwarming
Mahoraba
I can’t really remember many other comics that I read for heartwarming moments but this one is the most heartwarming one I’ve read so far. Aside from the charmingly memorable characters, the conclusion for the various plot lines in this series were concluded with the warmth that these characters held. It’s a very feel good manga, quite contrasting to the darker stories I usually prefer.
Clannad
This anime will finally end next week but it has already reached its conclusion this week. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; this is a very powerful story. Despite that ridiculously depressing normal ending that the game and the episode last week had, there are plenty of moments in this story that are touching enough to make room of girls start bawling. I know this because I’ve watched a movie that made them cry with them and I laughed at it. If something like that is heartwarming then I must be watching anime that makes your heart burn… actually yeah, I do watch those but they burn in other ways. RAW RAW FIGHT THE POWAH!!

Most Awesome
Majin Tantei Neuro Nougami
The manga is ending soon and I demand another season to display the awesomeness of Neuro and Sicks! This definitely stands out among all its friends in Shonen Sunday. You could call the art style itself a masterpiece in a way but what stands out are the characters and the climaxes of the story. Everytime a plot reaches its climax this story never fails to deliver a high level of awesome that makes it amazing. I should also mention that the author always seems to give characters some of the most interesting death scenes in this manga.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
RAW RAW FIGHT THE POWAH! This series practically reeks of manliness and GARsome! It's ridiculously over the top action and characters are simply amazing. The story is quite entertaining too. This is basically the antithesis of evangelion since it simply fills the hearts of men with overflowingly hot blood! On top of that, the main mecha is powered by hotblooded-ness and directs that power through drills!

Most Depressing
Shadow Star
Another great work done by the creator of Bokurano. It seems like another Mahou Shojo story but you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (You just can’t overlook Mahou Shoujo shows nowadays, they keep surprising me). In a way it has some charming quality to it but that’s usually crushed down by some small detail revealed later in the story. Ending, characters and plot. All of it is terribly depressing. Great story though.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Same reasons as above. Only that the characters were a lot more depressing. Air was beautifully tragic and lifted my spirits somewhat but this series is just downright depressing. It’s so depressing that there have been many emo conversions and suicides because of this series. It’s a famous mecha anime by the way.

Most Gory
Uzumaki
Don’t want to explain why so here’s a picture to illustrate my point. It is a very disturbing image so I’d advise you to think before you click it. It is impossible to UNSEE this image so consider this carefully:

Ga-Rei Zero
They censored a hand being sliced off, a head rolling down from the neck, blood spurting out from the neck and the insides of those sliced off body parts. And that’s all just in the first episode. I have no idea what else they censored in the other episodes but damn, I really wished they hadn’t censored it. The snapshots of the uncensored version looked sick. By that I mean both cool and gross but mostly cool. Kara no Kyoukai: Remaining Sense of Pain deserves a special mention here. A movie but nevertheless awesome.

Best Improvement over Original Source
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
A spin-off manga based on the To Aru Majutsu no Index light novel series. In this manga, the side characters are given time to shine and are quite often more dynamic than the source material. Kuroko the teleporter is my favorite character from this manga because of the ruthless methods she uses to deal with criminals. Too bad she’s got that annoying speech pattern and such a bland role in the anime.
Seto no Hanayome
While the manga was quite funny, the anime took the over the top jokes even higher and made this one of the funniest anime series. It’s such a shame GONZO’s financial troubles affected the OVA’s. The anime was comedic gold but the second OVA couldn’t live up to the ridiculously high level of LOL the series had. The biggest change was the alteration of a normal chapter and using it as an EPIC kickass two episode ending filled with crowning moments of awesome!

Best Action
Mahou Sensei Negima
Ken Akamatsu’s current work. It started off as a love comedy harem manga and somehow added Shonen into the mix. While the amount of action in it can’t match many of the straight out Shonen series out there, the sheer quality of those scenes are awesome. As defined by the creators of Bakuman, Ken Akamatsu is no gambler! He is a true genius! How else could he be earning millions, be 40+ and have a 20+ wife who cosplays for him and be allowed to take a week off every four chapters.
Gundam 00
There is some the coolest stuff in this series. You get to see a giant space elevator fall to pieces, long war-like battles, outrageous battle tactics and whatever trick Graham “Bushido” Aker has up his sleeves. And it’s all in HD! A good use of Sunrise’s budget this turned out to be. So is that full scale RX-78 statue they’re building over there in Japan. It’s only a matter of time till they’ll make a real one.

Funniest
Yotsubato
I LOL’d an average number of 5 times per chapter with this manga. It’s just that funny. The main comical genius here is obviously Yotsuba and her interactions with the other characters which is probably why it’s name is Yotsubato which translates to “Yotsuba and…”.
Fullmetal Panic Fumoffu
I did say that Seto no Hanayome was funny but I found this series to be guilty of surpassing that. A guy who speaks in a deadpan voice committing various acts of crime including kidnapping, assault, blackmail and extortion simply because he believed it to be the best way to do things. He who bombs a shoe locker for security reasons shall forever be remembered for doing so.

That's it for my list. Please vote on the right side cause I'd like to know what exactly is the attracting power of my blog. Sankyuu!

Sports Day and UBD's Japanese Cultural Week

I recently got hold of a bunch of Inuyasha OSTs and damn did they remind me how good the music was in that show. Inuyasha was one the very first few anime series that I’ve completely watched. Comparing it to all the latest anime OSTs I have, these Inuyasha tracks beats them in the sheer number of “good” quality BGM’s. The one with the best insert and OP and ED songs go to D.Gray-man though. I started watching it halfway and despite its long dragged out story, the conclusion was just right for the series and there weren’t any loose ends that bothered me. It would have been nice to know what Kouga’s group did after losing his jewel shards.

As you can see, it was quite hot that day

Yesterday was my school’s sports day and I got my share of memories from it. I tried out for the 100m dash, Discus, Long jump and Shot putt. I think I might have qualified for the long jump but my distance was shorter than last year because we weren’t allowed to do a second jump due to the terrible time management our house teachers were facing yesterday. And not even half of who signed up even got a chance to jump because of that. Here’s another bit of information that makes it even more ridiculous, I jumped during the second time the try-outs for our house were being done because we ran out of time during the time we were supposed to make our jumps. If I had some more time to figure out how to grip the track better I could have gotten a lot farther since I can jump higher than I did last year. Something rather amusing did happen when I did my jump though. The stadiums speakers started playing Beat It! by Fallout Boys just right when I started my run. I don’t know if whoever turned them on was actually timing it to happen like that but my friends said it gave my jump an “epic” feel to it. In any case that was a rather amusing coincidence.

I didn’t really do that well for shot putt and discus but at least my strength is still above average. Now as for running… that really was something. It certainly left its marks on me. On my right hand, right shoulder, my upper lip and the inside of my mouth. What do I mean by that? I fell down at last stretch of the race. You see, I was making pretty good speed keeping at fourth place but only the top three make it so I tried for one last burst of speed a few meters away from the end with my one step trick. Unfortunately, I messed up on the timing so that one step actually ended up pulling my body downward instead of forward and I tumbled forward. I fell landing on my shoulder first and it felt more like I started sliding from that point and grazed my hand and lip that way. I did notice that Zaki tripped on my leg while I was down though. One of the teachers then asked me if I was okay and I checked my bruises over and though they were red they weren’t bleeding except for all that skin inside my mouth which my teeth scraped off. That’s going to be one effin’ big mouth ulcer I’m going to be suffering for the next week. After I told him that, he made a comment about me knowing how the use the momentum. I thought he was talking about my fall but later I found out from Zaki that I made a roll after falling down which is why he tripped over my leg and my scratches weren’t as bad as they could have been. It seems all that parkour training I did last year got carved into my reflexes.

A few days ago I had my first experience of what a cramp felt like. I thought I’ve probably had them before since people said it was painful and I have had times when my muscles were still really sore from doing something but it turned out I was wrong. I was jumping up steps carrying my bags when I put them down in front of the classroom, I realized that there was some sort pain that was mixed in with a feeling of my muscles pushing against each other. It reminded me of this one episode of Osmosis Jones where the kid was a having a cramp and the walls of the muscles were pushing against each other. That’s when I realized that was what a cramp was and that it was the first time I felt one. At least first in my leg because I’m not sure if that pain you get in your side after running for a while counts as a cramp. When people talk about cramps, they always make it sound like an incredibly painful thing to go through. Anime and manga have frequently shown getting one while swimming would cause you to drown. They must have been exaggerating since I just walked it off a couple minutes later. For some reason after that though, my head felt like a mess just like those times I stayed up until the late hours of the night.

I also went to the UBD japanese cultural week thing today and it was pretty interesting. I saw a Takamachi Nanoha figma at the anime booth and I gotta say I'm impressed with the quality. Add tha to the fact that I just finished watching Nanoha A's yesterday and now it's on my list of stuff to get. I also read the gundam magazine from japan and damn there were a lot more pages in there than they scan for online. It was as thick as our phonebook. Main highlights were the cosplay and the sushi demonstration today. I ate something that looked like they just pulled it out of the fish and stuck onto the rice and I must say, it tasted good. I am worried about the possibility of me suffering from salmonella, I really hope they cleaned it thoroughly. The cosplayers even preformed the Hare Hare Yukai dance from Haruhi and despite their bad synchronization it was a pretty good effort. I found it amusing that they were intending on having 3 people do cosplays of lelouch in his school uniform, regular clothes and zero outfit and yet they weren't able to make the zero outfit in time. I wonder if they were planning on emperor Lelouch as well but that's a pretty extravagant costume so I didn't bother asking them about it.

I also met with Lim Han senpai and Combat senpai from kendo there. After I saw the guy doing the counter strike cosplay it kept tugging at my mind that he looked like combat senpai. Turns out it was him and that the machine gun replica he had was given to him by David Chan sensei. Didn't expect sensei to be a gun buff. I'll probably go back to Kendo a couple of years from now since the circumstances show that I don't have much time for it in the near future. It seems that juniors from the other schools from last years workshop still remember for some reason even though I only came for one day last year. I was more preoccupied with trying to figure out who the guy next to him was cosplaying. I eventually figured that it had to be Syaoran from tsubasa resevoir chronicles judging from the green cape and goggles. There was also a good Emma Ai school uniform costume but the cosplayer really should have gotten a Sadako length wig and red contact lenses to perfect it.

Someone ordered a 1/144 00 raiser set on that table. Can't see the nanoha Figma due to low quality phone pic. Don't know what's up with that racer costume either.

Tea Ceremony booth with hostess' wearing kimonos

Sadly, Haruhi cosplayer lacked arm band and red tie in front for the full effect

The "Learn Japanese" booth. Not very interesting to me for various reasons

Cosplayers

Go. Ever since Nash left school I haven't had anyone to play it with

Not quite sure what's with the Neko Mimi but it certainly stood out

Combat Senpai

That's it for now and I hope I recover from this ridiculously bad cold soon. My muscles are still sore so everytime I let off a sneeze that has the recoil power of shotgun, my body gets wracked with pain all over. Oh and my mouth ulcer didn't turn out to be as insufferable as I thought. Usually they're a lot more annoying than this big one.

Maulud Nabi 2009

Today was Maulud Nabi and unlike the previous years, I went marching in Tutong for this year. Seeing as I was staying at grandpa's that meant I was going to have to do it here instead of in Bandar where we'd usually have to park near one of the docks and take a boat ride from there.

This year, I joined with my grandpa's kampong's group and the ones who ended up carrying the banner were all from my family. I carried the right side halfway and my brother and cousins alternated after that. The walk is shorter than the one in Bandar but it was just raining so my legs got dirtied up a lot.

If I had one of those camoflage raincoats, I'd be able to cosplay as The End

After we were done with the entire thing, we went to a restaurant and stayed there for an hour. Not because the food was good but because the service was terrible. I know the place was busy but's that's no excuse to make us wait just to be attended to, make us write own our orders on the pad she gave us, wait 20 minutes for our drinks which was just pepsi and mugs of ice and take 40 minutes to realize that there was a number three written next to the our orders of Kolo Mee. To top it off, they didn't even make that right since the order specified no vegetables even though my brother got his when it was still busy. My brother was the only one that got the order right and that was the first one that got sent while it was busy while the ones me and my cousin had to wait for was after most of the people left. The kolo mee wasn't good enough to even wait 20 minutes for so I went and bought a cornetto. The cornetto was more satisfying than the Kolo Mee too. While they wasted our time, I was picturing an explosion happening right then and there in the kitchen out of irritation. Bloody restaurant!

It seems I'll be adding Black Saber to my order next month since they're half off at the moment. Just hope the stocks and bargain sale last that long. It looks better than the normal version and comes with the dark and holy excalibur swords. Hopefully it'll be able to hold the leeks that's coming with the Kagmiku figma cause it'll interesting to see such a menacing figure using leeks as weapons. I'll probably be ordering a pair of action display bases 1 & 2 for my gundams as well but not quite sure what color to pick, sparkling green is out of the question since it's sold out so maybe I'll get black for both.

I don't really have much else to talk about so I'll just post up more vocaloid videos. The last one is another good Tako Luka video. I'm really hoping that Tako Luka figma's a real release.

Sick Friends and Yugioh

Gah… I just found something new about two of my friends today.

They are SICK people.

And I don’t mean SICK as in COOL but SICK as in GROSS. One of them recognized a manga I was reading in the library and asked me if it was something called “The place of happiness”. He then said I was reading some sort of hentai manga. I immediately wondered if something was wrong with him since I was reading Yotsubato at the time. Then I showed that it wasn’t such a thing and asked him what he was on about. Apparently he didn’t realize that the hentai he read was based off this manga. Apparently I’ve also underestimated Rule 34; everything that’s on the internet has some porongraphic version somewhere on the net. I can’t believe there’s someone out there who’s depraved enough to make a hentai manga based off this charming series. Whoever did that deserves to die. There are limits to how far one can go.

Asagi's definitely my favorite character after Yotsuba

It seems that friend of mine got that hentai manga from another one of my friends and though he says that he doesn’t enjoy all of the hentai he reads, I find him to be dubious person based on the fact that he kept and gave it to that other friend. That other guy as well as he was able to recognize the characters from a distance. Those two worry me…

As for the day itself, I think it went pretty damn well. For one thing my luck with avoiding trouble was on high today since I didn’t finish the massive amounts of homework that was due today. When I woke up this morning, I just intuitively knew that I didn’t need to worry about my homework today and it turns out that my teacher wasn’t around for class today so we ended up with free periods.

Also it seems that I can’t really do much outside in the afternoon lately because of how much brighter the sun seems to be getting everyday. Especially at high noon since that’s when it’s brightest. I really need to close one eye to be able to see properly at all. I wonder if it really is getting brighter or it’s just me. There’ s a good chance it could be both.

You see, a couple of weeks ago I woke up at the usual 5.30 am for school and for some reason my head oddly dizzy. It wasn’t me being sleepy but a genuine dizziness. I stumbled out of bed missing a step here and there until I opened the door outside. When I did open, it felt like there was this blinding light that came from up above and it felt like I just saw several camera flashes and they stayed imprinted on my eyes until I reached the bathroom where it was dark. I got used to the light once I made it there and turned on the bathroom light. I noticed everything seemed more vivid than usual. I noticed that a lot more later when I was watching the view pass me by as the car made its way to school later.

I was puzzled by the abrupt jump in the quality of the appearance of those everyday items that I saw. I kept wondering what was going on until it hit me. This improvement in my sight wasn’t like whenever I was trying on new glasses where everything was crisp and clear but rather because everything was more colorful than normal. It’s not just the color, the speed I’m seeing things at also seems to have sped up. I swear, the colors I saw were much more vibrant and deep than I remembered seeing and it seems to have been permanent. I say that because everything looks normal to me now despite the deeper colors. It seems I’ve gotten used to it but now it bothers me whenever the light and ceiling fans in the classrooms are both turned on. The shadows keep flickering when that happens and it’s really distracting to see that.

Also, I’m beginning to feel that my room is either cursed or there’s something else residing in there other than me. Whatever is going on, my possessions are suffering because of it. My shower heater broke down, the door knob jammed on me while I was inside and had to be hammered off to get me out, my bed lamp flickers on and off 5 minutes after turning it on, my bed’s frame broke down in two different spots on two different occasions, I found my Astrea’s right arm and rifle dismantled yesterday after I woke up and my room’s doorknob’s locking mechanism malfunctioned and had to be fixed before I could use it like normal. The latest thing is that my air conditioner turns itself off automatically even at night unless I’m about to go to sleep and it’s one of those old fashioned non digitally controlled units. It doesn’t have a timer to work with and it screws around with me by shutting itself down at the most annoying times. Then there’s that weird picture my brother took for one of his projects that was supposed to have the door between our rooms in the picture. And I do mean supposed to because for some reason this weird light in place of the door and that door is closed at all times. I considered all possible explanations and there is no way that green paint can reflect light like that picture!

Would be so damn awesome if they made this

As for my otaku hobbies, I am terribly annoyed by Bandai. They’re releasing a HG 1/144 scale Trans-am version of the 00 raiser that comes with a super sweet GN Buster Sword III for 1900 yen at Hobby Search. Why am annoyed with the announcement of this kit? Here’s why:

G) I already have a 1/100 00 Raiser kit which is damn near excellent.
U) I already pre-ordered my Kagami Miku Figma for April which costs $53 including shipping.
N) I want to buy a 1/100 Seravee along with the Hatsune Miku Figma I ordered for May.
D) I can normally save $60 in a month. That Konata cosplay figma will cost at least $150. T-T
A) I wanted to get a MG Rx-78-2 ver. Ka
M) I WANT TO BUY A LIMITED KONATA COSPLAY FIGMA THAT’S RISING IN PRICE!

Damn you Bandai... Damn you!!

The anime merchandising industry is planning to burn my wallet with such high quality items. At this rate, I’ll have to get the 1/144 Seravee and 1/144 Seraphim gundam instead of the 1/100 Seravee. That may be accompanied by a 1/144 Garazzo and a 1/144 Gadessu if that’s being released anytime soon. I was even planning to get the 1/100 Cherudim in July along with a Revoltech Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann which is cheaper than any figmas on the market by the way. At least my buying of these 00 model kits have helped Bandai decide to make a 00 gundam movie because of the high sales. I worry for the ending of the tv series though since the staff spoilers that came from 2ch by a disgruntled animator has much of us worried about how he described the ending as “lame” and the series as a “failed creative work to begin”. He also called the director, Mizushima Seiji, who also happened to direct the first Fullmetal Alchemist anime a “fat lazy pig”. I’m inclined to believe that it’s just an angry underpaid animator who’s trying to discredit the series as Gundam 00 could hardly be called a failed creative work. Although… the latest episodes have been less awesome than the first 17 of the second season. The ending better be good.

Aside from the Kagamiku and Miku Figmas that I’ll be getting in April and May and hopefully that ridiculously expensive Konata Cosplay one, I plan on getting some other ones as well. It is my understanding that the more Figmas you have, the more value they hold since they have interchangeable parts. The accessories also happen to be same with most 1/144 scale gundam model kits. The ones that have peaked my interests are the Revoltech Black Saber, the Asakura Ryouko Figma, the Flaming Red Haired Shana Figma and the Lelouch Lamperouge figma. At this rate, it seems that I’ll be getting 1/144 scale gunplas to make up for the influx of figmas.

Revoltech Dark Saber

Revoltech Gurren Lagann

Katsuragi Yako Nendoroid. Gotta love that expression

Zero is Here!

I do wonder why they released a Lelouch Figma instead of his Zero alternate identity. I’m quite sure there’s a lot more people who’d want Zero over his normal Lelouch self. Seriously, how is a figma of a guy in a school uniform with a cat more appealing than caped masked anarchist with a gun and a sword? Then again they didn’t release the Konata Cosplay figma as a commercial release either so my guess is that these companies just love being bastards. An possibly a Nanoha figma depending on just how much pwnage she does in the 3rd season which I have yet to see. She does a lot of it in the 2nd season though.

Oh yeah, a Tako Luka Figma as well if it’s actually for real…

Takooooooo

Now for a new concept to introduce to Non to N00bish Otakus: Dollfies

Dollfie Illyasviel Von Einzbern

Dollfie StrikerS Takamachi Nanoha

Dollfie Kagami... DO NOT WANT

These dolls are a very expensive brand of big scale figures made of plastic made to imitate skin. They’re quite possibly the most expensive figures out on the market, and the biggest as well. I don’t remember exactly how much these things cost but they’re close to a $1000 bucks a pop. I don’t know why Danny loves these things but that guy seems to get plenty of freebies from the companies he works with. It wouldn’t surprise me if he got his Saber Dollfie for free too. They’re quite creepy and expensive but are also of terribly high quality. Doubt I’ll ever want one of these things though, they’re just too damn creepy for me. It’s like they might just start moving while I’m not around and I do not want anything that keeps reminding me to stay on my guard in my own room. Admittedly, the Illya and Nanoha ones aren’t too bad but the Kagami one is hardly a DO WANT item. The price is just as intimidating as they look too.

I’ve also been setting up my 00 raiser in some cool poses with swords because of that new Trans-Am 00 Raiser kit’s bigass sword. These are as close as I’ll get for a 1/100 scale version. They’ll probably release it with the Master Grade version though.

On Standby...

Twin Drive System Start Up

Twin Drive System Synchro Rate - MAX

Looks pretty damn good with Astraea's Bazooka

Position of GN Drives does not comply with anime

I just may mod Destiny's sword in 00 colors

I also put it and my Wing Zero in a mock Yugioh card battle which Edmond brought up in the library today. We all still regard Faezul as the best duelist that our school has ever seen. Even when he was armed with outdated cards years later, he still kicked most of the guys’ arses at the game. When I gave him some key cards he used in his final version of his deck, they all started complaining on who gave him the much needed upgrade for his. At that point I was pretty much the only one who managed to beat him for a while. Until someone came up with the idea of copying his deck and the trend went downhill from there. Seriously, who on could have fun with everyone using Gravity Burner Decks which could make a duel last as long as half an hour.

Out of the 50+ duels I had with him, I’ve only beaten him a dozen times or so and most of them was before I gave him those upgrades. I still remember that one time I almost beat him but he turned the game around by activating “Appropriate” to my own “Appropriate”. That was the best duel I’ve ever had out of all the duels I’ve played and that was back when I was in form two. During that entire duel, we were trading blows with new tricks and strategies at that time of the trend. The duel ended in my loss with me incapable of drawing any more cards and we were both down to a few a hundred life points. We even had a dozen or so people watching and commenting on how we kept changing the tide of battle every other turn.

He was running a Gravity Bind Burner Deck and I was playing a Blue Eyes Beat Down Field Destruction Deck. Quite contrasting strategies actually, mine was to dominate the field with monsters and magic while his was to survive while barraging me with indirect attacks. Every time I managed to get out my Barrel dragon or Blue Eyes, he always seemed to manage to have a Negate Attack, Mirror Force or Gravity Bind ready for me. And whenever he was about to burn or destroy my cards with his flip effects, I destroyed them before he could use them. I think it was after this duel he started adding a deck and hand destruction element to his game. Terribly, terribly devastating for a year or two. That’s why it was always fun challenging the guy. This is my answer to the guys who asked me why on earth I gave Faezul those upgrades for his deck, “It’s a lot more fun dueling someone at their best”. This reminiscing has got me wanting to play again. My deck is still in pristine condition since I last left it and hopefully other people still have them too.

Zero: Let's Duel!

Zero: I activate Draining Shield and...
Zero: Hang on! Did you just summon a bunch of monsters in one turn?! 00: GN-particles allow me to screw the rules! Just like the show!
Zero: DIE CHEATER!!
00: TRANS-AM RAISER!!

Zero: OH FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFU-

That's it for now but I'd like to take this chance to say that Kadokawa is a troll. That company is advertising about rebroadcast of Haruhi's first season but they've been using images made for the second season. They really are trolls.