Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica's Ending Explained!

It's really been a while since I last posted but with the hustle and bustle of university assignments coming to a close with exams approaching, I finally have it in me to get back to blogging. I haven't neglected it for so long since my O' levels(or was it AS levels? I forget) but even then I had daily manga reviews lined up for automatic posting for a whole month. Hopefully I'll really be able to get things back on track soon and renovate this place because change is in order, starting with the shoutbox since spambots have gotten into it somehow. I've got a whole bunch of new website designing skills at my disposal so I'll be experimenting with what I can get away with on blogger. Look forward to it to whomever's actually following my words.

Now onto the subject of this post - Madoka's ending. An ending with such a huge shift in tone when compared to its prior episodes that one would think this was a last minute change to the story due to executive meddling or something. I myself would have held fast to that theory but it seems that Urobuchi Gen, the writer behind the series, intended on this all along since he wanted to make a "healing" anime, which the ending actually pulled off. Seriously not what you'd expect from the guy who came up with Fate/Zero and Saya no Uta.

For its ending, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica chose to go out with Madoka wishing so that she personally sees to it that magical girls in all of time and space never become witches. By doing this she ends up recreating the entire universe and ascends from a mere human being to an omniscient, omnipresent sentient concept surpassing time that governs the end that magical girls meet. Essentially a god as Kyuubey predicted but in my opinion a "god" isn't quite right as she's more of a "rule" now. No one but her little brother and Homura remember her ever existing and the Incubators' magical girl powered entropy fixing system has changed for the better. This seeming "way out there" ending really gave Madoka Magica the last touch it needed to be called the Evangelion of this generation. I doubt it'll spark as many heated debates as the super controversial mecha series though. Pretty every loose thread's been taken care of so there's not much left to discuss except how much people like the ending and why.

In spite of the page on wtf endings that SHAFT and Urobuchi seem to have taken out of GAINAX's book, Madoka Magica's ending was actually quite well done and had little to no mindfukery to dick the fans around with. Sure, it does give off the impression of being an all too convenient suspension of disbelief shattering deus ex machina that was way out there and far more than a bit "much" but once you get past all the weirdness, you'll find that everything worked right within the established bounds the series set up beforehand and that had it been handled a little bit better, it wouldn't have come off as such an underwhelming finish for roller coaster ride that was this series. Let's review the main issues people seem to have with the ending:



Madoka's Wish
If it was as simple as wishing for no more witches why didn't anyone wish for it before? Simple, because no else but Madoka could have made it work. From what I can tell, Kyubey's wish granting system works based on how much potential a girl has when they go magical and the extent of their wish depends on that potential as it is implied that there are limitations to what can be wished for when Kyubey questions if Madoka's wish can even be granted. Her potential as a magical girl built up over the countless loops that Homura's been through and judging by the fact that she managed to oneshot Walpurgisnacht by the fourth iteration, there was just no way anyone but her could have pulled off that wish. Madoka also had what most magical girls seem to lack, a thorough understanding of what becoming a magical girl means.

Scene at the End
We see Homura walking all alone in a dessert with dark murky ethereal wings and we hear Madoka cheering her on. I've seen speculation on this taking in the far future where human civilization is mostly gone and that those wings are signs of her ready to witch out but I highly doubt that(though I really wouldn't put it past her). The most likely explanation behind this scene is that the demons raised up a barrier and Homura just happens to be fighting them alone because she's gotten THAT good with her powers. Right after the Sayaka scene we see a demon burning up and the scenery around it depixelating. Given that there had to have been a good deal of damage done to their surroundings had they been fighting the 3m tall demon in the train station, the lack of any visible damage to the station indicates that they fought inside a barrier like they did with witches. As for the wings... the power of eternal love between Homura and Madoka?



The New System
Under the new magical girl system, the girls no longer turn into witches and instead disappear when they were supposed to. Curses now manifest in the form of the giant robed demons for them to fight and generate emotional energy in the soul gems for improving entropy instead of collecting. The Incubators directly have to function as grief seeds for them to unload all their grief so they no longer have to fight each other for resources or be "cannibals" by slaying witches. It's now in QB's best interests to keep the girls safe since they'd just lose all the potential grief they could have reaped from the soul gems meaning that the girls won't get actively screwed by the ones playing the role of their magical pet.

However, I feel I do have to point out that the girls are generally still just as expendable and renewable as entropy staving resources as they were when witches existed. Not quite back to the traditional models of magical pets but still pragmatic enough to leave QB the same as ever, just no longer as a potential enemy. I also have to wonder about the curses manifesting as demons. As shown in the episode with Sayaka, Madoka's basically collecting grief energy and allowing magical girls to die in peace but what does she do with that energy? The Incubators don't seem to be capable collecting it once the soul gems are gone and curses never manifested as demons in the former universe so the only logical conclusion is that Madoka's causing that grief to turn into these demons. I'd even go as far as to speculate that she's converting them herself and that the demons are her familiars in order to maintain universal balance. Madoka having to endanger the girls herself certainly adds a seemingly sinister consequence to her wish but it's still objectively better for the girls this way and I do like how much more bitter this theory makes the ending. Sorry if this ruins your happy impression of the ending but you should know that out of all the characters, QB the pseudo-schadenfreude was the only one I could relate to.


mfw when I wrote the previous paragraph. Also happens to be a few of my display pics.
In the end, I must say that Madoka Magica's ending is not an easy one to appreciate with just one sit through. They pulled a Decon Recon Switch in the span of one episode and the result is a very difficult finale to process properly. Too much was done in the last installment and all the developments overwhelm underlying emotion behind the scenes. It took me a rewatch to genuinely like the ending for the emotions in it and not just the consistency of the writing. They also really could have stood to tone down the cosmicness of Madoka's and Homura's farewell scene so it wouldn't have come off as more supernatural than touching and cut down the epilogue time so that it doesn't take away the power of the epic first half of the episode as much. While the finale did let me down by not ending as strongly as it the series was built up to be, it didn't detract from the show's overall quality. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica was not quite a masterpiece in my opinion but it came really close.

[EDIT] Okay then... We now have a Church of Madoka. Should have seen it coming but I really didn't. I can't imagine how ridiculous this is going to get.

A Fascinatingly Underwhelming Dream in a Quiet Mind

Just woke up from a most interesting dream. It was interesting in the way that my dreams are normally of a fantastic and grand nature, encompassing amazing worlds, strange surreal concepts and strings of events that make very little sense if I were to try explain them. My latest one came to me in one unintended cat nap after having taken a shower preceded by an exhausting session of training. Though I am a little annoyed at having lost three hours of wakefulness, this dream I had gave me a very rare opportunity to think in a way I can't even recall doing at all - let me think slowly and quietly.

Basically this dream just involved me thinking. I had just finished reading the first part of the second installment in Nisio Isin's Zaregoto light novel series and my eyes felt a little heavy. Between that and the comfort of my bed, I should have gotten out of there asap if I didn't want to lose any time awake but you only need one guess to predict the outcome. Sadly, the sweet temptations of a short, peaceful slumber is all too enticing to me and takes much, much more willpower to overcome than I care to admit. If this world worked like an RPG, my status screen would show a 0% resistance towards the "sleep" status condition and I'd be completely useless in an area where the enemies specialized in attacks that induced that particular condition.

There I lay, halfway between wakefulness and unconsciousness knowing precisely what consequences waited for me if I continued to extend my rest. On what was probably my eighth internal debate, I had already fallen into dreamland even though I was still lucid enough to realize it. Realize it I did not as the dream i had was a continuation of my reality at the time: I was dreaming that I was awake and trying to decide when I should get up. Before long I just decided to continue on with my rest but I found that for some reason I didn't seem to be getting any sleepier and that for some reason my mind was at peace. No buzzings and whispers that I have to drown out with my "louder", more deliberate thoughts but an actual period of calm and silence that just seemed so odd and new to me. Fascination took hold of me and I gave in to the impulse to see how long this quiet period would last and lied there on my dream bed, unmoving and unthinking for I don't know how long. Eventually, a thought came out of me. A speculation on the book I just read, a clearly composed prediction that I never considered consciously and it came to me alone in perfect clarity. Another one quickly followed, still quiet, clear, unconscious in nature and all on its own. I was amazed. My thoughts had never been so... unmessy. For once I couldn't describe it as lots of trains leaving a single station and arriving at lots of different stations along lots of different routes at different times.

Even in my clearest moments, I still had background thinking going underway though they all pertained my assessment of whatever situation I was dealing with. This was different and felt completely new to me. It really made me wonder if other people thought like that and if my level headed thinking and inability to give in to panic or fear was because my way of thinking made it much, much harder for me to feel overwhelmed. It still sounds as arrogant as I thought it did prior to my dream but now I had my own instance where thinking worked in such a manner and it gave me something to make a comparison with. I can't claim myself to be a genius but I have to agree with the consensus that I am at the very least, very clever. Still, it's not a cleverness in the proper and smart way since my methods and motives rarely prioritize being proper over enjoyment but it's certainly a cleverness that gives me an edge over most. It does get cumbersome at times, especially at times when it would be better not to notice what others overlook be it intentional on their part or otherwise. Hopefully, I will get future opportunities to experience so I can understand people more easily. It would be good to refresh my understanding of fear as well. After all, it wouldn't do to advertise myself as a master of fear if I were to get so out of touch with it that I've forgotten what overcoming it feels like.

The End of 2010

Well 2010 is now coming to an end and 2011 is knocking at our doorsteps so it's time for my year end of post. Time sure flew by quick this year but I suspect that has more to do with biological conditioning more than anything else. Oh well, let's start off with the usual list:


Top 10 Anime of 2010

1) Katanagatari
2) Durarara!!
3) Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin
4) Angel Beats!
5) Shiki
6) Shinryaku! Ikamusume
7) Kobato
8) Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
9) Star Driver
10) Super Robot Wars: The Inspector


There were some pretty good shows this year though not as quite as many grabbed my attention like last year. There were plenty of good OVAs and movies that came out this year to make up for that but I'd rather have more interesting shows in the season line-ups instead of the all too many harem and fanservice shows this year. Though I do disagree with the controversial bill 156 that'll take effect halfway next year, I do hope that this will get the studios to stop producing crap like Ladies vs Butlers and Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou. I hope to see some more plot oriented series next years and that Kyoto Animation finally stops wasting their talents on stuff like K-On!!. I'm a fan of the manga and it's humor but I really feel that they screwed up with the anime cause they stretch it out as much as they could taking out all the funny so they could trick moe-addicted saps into worshipping fictional characters doing everyday stuff in dull and melodramatic ways. That's what I have to say about that matter so let's move onto the "Best of the Year" bits.


Best Animated Movie - Rebuild of Evangelion 2.22: You Can (Not) Advance

It's was a pretty close one here between this and the Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi but let's face it, Eva 2.22 was so much more awesome. Disappearance had the best animation work of the year and had lots of good scenes but Eva 2.22 had amazing mecha battles with awesome moments that just keep topping the one before it.


Best OVA - Darker Than Black Gaiden

With four episodes to it and a lot of great moments that explained plenty of things from the first and second seasons it’s a real no brainer here.


Best Animation - The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi

Is it unfair to give this one to a movie when it obviously has the budget to win? No, not when Disappearance not only blew everything else from this year out of the water but everything else from the years before it. Kyoto Animation put in a LOT of work into this one and it really, really shows.


Best Anime Soundtrack - Katanagatari

This one was very hard to choose from with all the amazing soundtracks from this year. Besides Iwasaki Taku's powerful and occasionally quirky feudal themed compositions there were also Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt's awesome techno beats and Black Rock Shooter's amazing tracks. Katanagatari had some of the man's best works with songs like "Gettouka" and "Bahasa Palus" in just the first OST album. There were quite a few other tracks that I loved that weren't in the first one while the other two already had theirs fully bared. Mind you though, this only applies to the anime cause Murray Gold's magical work for series 5 of Doctor Who is nothing short of spectacular and easily triumphs over them all.


Best Song - "God Only Knows"

Eight minutes long, composed of several chapters and sung in an epic hymn-esque fashion to usher in the Capturing God himself, "God Only Knows" is the clear winner of the year. The anime was a bit of a disappointment but this song was just so goddamned amazing. Honorable mentions go to "Gettouka" and "Bahasa Palus" of Katanagatari, Supercell's "Hero" as well as "I am the Doctor", "Amy in the TARDIS" and pretty much the rest of series 5's albums.


Best Character - Ika Musume

Ika-musume wins this year hands down. Shichika saw some of the best character development this year but nothing can beat the invader from the sea. I totally called it when I said that Ika-musume would make a great mascot when I reviewed her manga series.


Best Comedy - Seitokai no Yakuindomo

Well this might be a bit odd considering I put up Shinryaku Musume up on my top ten but not this but watching a bunch of perverted girls crack innuendos and dirty jokes was both absolutely hilarious and incredibly refreshing to watch. If you must know where exactly I place this series on my rankings this year I'd say at 12th, just behind Kuragehime and after Hanamaru Kindergarten. Speaking of Hanamaru Kindergarten...

Most Memorable Scene - Hanamaru Kindergarten, The Panda Neko Taisou

I will probably never forget this dance for the rest of my life. If I ever have a daughter I swear to God that I'm getting her a Panda Neko costume just like Hiiragi's and have her do this dance!


Biggest Disappointment - Iron Man

Remember when I said The World God Only Knows was a bit of a disappointment? Well, the Iron Man anime was a complete and utter failure. The trailers made it look like the awesome shit that the movies wished they could be but then Madhouse turned it into the shit regular shit shits. I really wonder what went wrong during development that made it that way. On a slightly related note, the missing battle between Sabi Hakuhei and Yasuri Shichika.


And to wrap up my last post for the year, here's a list of things to look forward to in 2011:

• Doctor Who Series 6
• Sherlock Series 2
• The Fate/Zero Anime
• The Stein’s;Gate Anime
• The Nintendo 3DS
• The English Versions of Pokemon Black & White
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part II

Nerf Nitefinder EX-3 Mod

Just a few days ago I bought my first nerf gun, the Nitefinder EX-3 pistol. My brother has a couple of them namely two Maverick REV-6s and the N-Strike Recon but I waited till I had some extra cash to pick up one for myself. I actually wanted to get the Longshot but they don’t seem to sell them anymore in Brunei. There are a lot of Longstrikes though but that’s supposed to have lousy performance even after modding. Not wanting to buy a rifle model that I would not be able to mod satisfyingly enough I decided to opt for the Nitefinder until a Longshot pops up somewhere in one of the stores here.

Now, I’ve been searching around online for good sites that would help me out in modding my new nerf pistol and boost the range but only came across very few posts about actually modding the Nitefinder to do so. Right out of stock the thing is stated to shoot 25ft-35ft (7.5-10.5m) away parallel to the ground but I found mine only shot about 15 paces away parallel which was about 18ft (5.4m). This was about two thirds of the range my brother gets with his guns so obviously I was unsatisfied with this so I chose to make adjustments.

What I write here will not exactly be a modding guide but more like my findings on how and why the mods work. I will be giving details on the mods I made to my own gun but unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures as I modded the thing so you’re going to have to settle with a textbook like explanation.

1) Air Restrictor Removal
The Air Restrictor is the first thing you’ll want to take care off before anything else. As the name implies, this part limits the amount of air that gets utilized in launching the dart. It does this in two ways. The first would be by limiting the of air flow going into the barrel when you prime it and the second would be by restricting the air that pushes out the dart when you pull the trigger. You won’t see much change until you remove this part so you really have to get rid of it. For newer models of this gun, you’re going to have to cut through the barrel along the furthest ring on the barrel with a thin but sturdy knife before you can take it out and reseal it with tape or some sort of bonding agent later on. Incidentally, you’ll want to load the bullet after priming the gun since the dart gives the same effect as the Air Restrictor by the first way. That goes especially for fully modded guns.

2) Spring Reinforcement
Obviously, the spring is the part that influences the power the most so get to it here. Think of it like a rubber band and you’ll understand that the more you pull back the stronger the recoil will be when you release it. What you need to do here is make it harder to pull back the plunger and I did that by rolling another spring in between the stock spring. For some reason, I have yet to find a hardware store in Brunei that sells springs so I made do with the spring from my brother’s broken Maverick. Problem with this is that the recoil is too strong that you won’t be able to prime the gun if you leave the cocking mechanism unmodified. To remedy this you’re going to have to either use a strong pen spring to replace the tiny spring that keeps the plunger in place after priming and/or carve out a little of the indent so that it curves slightly inwards instead of just being a straight wall.

3) Plunger Padding
The plunger isn’t really all that airtight right out of stock so you’ll want to add padding to make it so as well as to reduce the stress on the plunger when it slams back into the barrel. Not quite sure how much this improves the air pressure but having all the air push out of the barrel is better than having less. Use some soft and non-porous form of padding for this. Also, you might want to sew it onto the plunger head in addition to gluing it because I personally don’t trust the glue to remain stuck after a couple hundred shots.

4) Results
By the end of it, my Nitefinder was shooting a minimum of 30(36ft/10.8m) paces parallel to the ground and easily 50(60ft/18m) angled slightly upward. I say minimum because the gun now switches from straight shots to spinning shots almost every other pull of the trigger and that drastically reduces the travel distance. Still, a modded misfire ended up twice as far as a normal unmodified shot and that’s a plus. It can even shoot those slim cartridge darts that always misfired under normal specs. I get the best distance with vertical shots since it consistently reaches 4 stories upwards. Accuracy’s also pretty good when aimed that way as I’ve shot a friend from four floors below him in a shopping centre. Yes, I shot him with a nerf gun in the middle of a shopping centre. QLap mall for Bruneians curious as to where I did this.

As for the newfound lack of accuracy and consistency with horizontal shooting, I’m guessing the power reached its limiting factor (i.e. pressure) and now releases excessive amounts of air along with the required amount needed for compression to overcome the friction keeping the dart in place. Basically that means not all the air is utilized for the shot and the extra bit winds up messing with the accuracy of the shot. That’s the reason why I get such fantastic results shooting upwards. Gravity and air pressure act more keenly on the dart increasing the resistance of the dart allowing more pressure to build up before the dart launches out of the barrel. In my gun’s case, my optimum shooting angle would be somewhere between 50-70 degrees upwards as I have gotten the range past 40m shooting within that range.

I have yet to devise a method to rectify this inefficiency but I do know that I have to up the friction enough for all of the air in the barrel to build up before launching the dart into the air but not so much that it would end up reducing the speed instead. My theory is that I should increase it at the very base of the dart so that the extra friction allows more pressure to build up without increasing the overall resistance in the barrel too much. Hopefully I’ll figure out a modification that won’t need regular maintenance. Additionally, if you think that I have made errors with the physics of the entire thing then feel free to correct me on whatever you feel is wrong as my knowledge in that particular field of study is limited to O’ level standards.

My Tropes I

Came up a list of Tropes to describe what kind of person I am. Doesn’t feel quite complete yet but it should do for now. For those of you not familiar with TvTropes, feel free to click on the links to find out what these phrases mean. Try not to get addicted to the site though, TvTropes will ruin your life after all.

• A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Read - Mine especially. Very messy in there. For one thing my mind likes switching between and mixing and matching English, Malay, Japanese and German. Then there’s the buzzing of lesser important thought trains among the few main few.
• Absent Minded Professor - Without being an actual professor, this does apply to me.
• Are You Sure You Want To Do That - My curiosity elicits this out of my friends from time to time. Especially frequent during Chemistry practicals.
• Bag Of Holding - I have a knack for stuffing loads of things into places.
• Batman Gambit - I pull these out to get someone else do something for me.
• Bowties Are Cool - My reaction whenever my cousins tell me to shave off my goatee. I’m trying grow a beard here.
• Brilliant But Lazy - I blame it on my need for efficiency. If the result is not worth the effort then I'm not doing it.
• Buffy Speak - I have trouble explaining things to people.
• Cloudcuckoolander - Everyone who knows me will unanimously agree on this. I'm just a few steps behind the 11th Doctor in terms of this.
• Disorganized Outline Speech - Bad at explaining things.
• Does Not Understand Sarcasm - Half the time. The rest of the time I do it on purpose to bug people.
• Dual Wielding - I can do this with Shiinai (bamboo blades) now. Pens too.
• Epileptic Trees - I’m guessing this applies given the odd rumors I’ve heard about myself over the years.
• Everybody Hates Mathematics - Everyone thinks I’m an inversion of this just because I’m good at it. I don’t especially like it any more than I do with other fields of study.
• Evil Laugh
• Genre Savvy - Combine reading loads of manga and wasting time on TvTropes instead of Wikipedia and you get this.
• Go Mad From The Revelation - Subverted. I tinker too much with metaphysics and philosophy in my head and have realized some horribly depressing implications about the nature of humans, their belief systems and reality. I’ve actually learnt to appreciate things more because of this.
• Gratuitous Japanese - I have avoided this as much as possible. Sadly, it doesn’t stop other people from doing it.
• Grey And Gray Morality - Everything is relative. Nothing is truly absolute.
• Hates Being Touched - Hate is a little exaggerated but yeah.
• Honor Before Reason - My sense of responsibility outdoes my own personal gain every single damn time. Strangely enough, I’ve pretty much thrown out all traces of shame and guilt out of my emotional system so it’s a matter of pride more than anything else.
• I Thought Everyone Could Do That - So much so that I don’t trust my preconception of what’s normal anymore.
• Ignored Epiphany - Those revelations of despair that made would make people go mad? Ignoring them doesn’t make them any less true but dwelling on them isn’t exactly fun.
• Lack Of Empathy - I have no idea how to console people other than to point out what they can do about their situation.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance - Apparently my best poem was one about taking over the world with robot penguins and flying turtles that I wrote on the fly for a class. I was flabbergasted when it won 1st place in the interclass poetry competition that year.
• Memetic Badass - My reputation back during my last few years of school.
• More Than Meets The Eye - Surprise seems to be my forte. One way or another, I surprise everyone somehow.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant - Especially true to my cousins.
• No Sympathy - Almost. Just very, very, very little.
• Not So Stoic - I don’t like to smile for two reasons: It wastes energy and it looks quite sinister. I’m actually quite a unique individual.
• Psycho Supporter - I’m more likely to root for the guys who make things “interesting”.
• Psychotic Smirk - Whenever I get amused, it starts looking like this.
• Refuge In Audacity - I’ve pulled a number of these to get out trouble. 100% success rate so far.
• Reluctant Warrior - I don’t like fighting because it’s pointless and detrimental to all parties involved. However, I am stronger than I look and I wouldn’t mind a fight to see how I fare if I couldn’t avoid it.
• Ridiculous Procrastinator - I should really nip this habit in the bud. Sure, I pull it off brilliantly but it’s not a good habit to have.
• Right Behind Me - I pull these on a lot of people.
• Screw Politeness Im A Senior - I didn’t even bother trying to remember their real names. They still respect me for some reason though.
• Secret Identity - Several. I enjoy using them to steer things towards a certain direction.
• Serious Business - Food is the only real thing that has a chance of getting to me. I’ve actually felt depressed over not getting a slice of pizza that a teacher treated my class to in time.
• She Is Not My Girlfriend - I’m known for not showing any interest in relationships so for some reason I’ve had clear things up whenever a few of my juniors got mistaken as such. All of them happened in my last year of school for some reason.
• Sweet Tooth - An outright curse if you ask me.
• Talking To Himself - Occasionally.
• Talking Your Way Out - My ability to reason and negotiate with people is very useful.
• The Nicknamer - Main reason is because I can never remember people’s actual names.
• The Reason You Suck Speech - Counterattacked with a particularly brutal one when someone tried to pull of these on me. Not only was it full of holes and disgustingly desperate and delusional, it showed me just how much time I wasted trying to be an actual friend to that person.
• There Are Two Kinds Of People In The World - A) Idiots – Those who do stupid things knowing what will come of it and do it anyway. B) Morons – Those who do stupid things thinking that they know what will come of it. I consider myself to be the former.
• Think Nothing Of It - Apparently my values are so different from others that I can’t tell the difference between a noble act and a trivial one. My sense of morality might be a little warped by the way.
• Took A Level In Badass - Taking it right now. Progressing quite well.
• Ubermensch - Going through the motions of being a Nihilist without even knowing that term, I came out of it with an unusually positive view of reality.
• Weirdness Coupon - Had and abused this during my school years.
• Wise Beyond Their Years - Part of my reputation, even now. It’s weird having people I barely know come up to me for advice. I’ve had an unusually high number of advice seekers concerning their love lives which is just weird.

Mangahelpers Makes Way For An Uncertain Future

As most of you in the interweb's community of manga readers have probably heard, Mangahelpers is stepping down from its position as a place for scanlators to come together and share their and is now going back to its original roots as a hub for translators. That means all the manga files in their database are no longer available for download, both the Raws and the scanlations. What does this mean? It means the scanlating game is going to go through some changes soon.

Before I get into the implications of this even let me address what set all this in motion. You see, a few days ago, manga publishers of both East and West announced that they have banded together and formed a coalition designed to eliminate the piracy being perpetrated by the scanlating community. There have been similar attempts at this in the past but this time we not only have the American publishers in on it but also the original Japanese publishers who until recently have restricted their actions to within their own borders. We're talking about major players in the industry cracking down on online scanlation sites, starting with 30 undisclosed sites.

Supposedly, this crackdown is primarily aimed at taking down the sites that charge money in exchange for access to scans but it would overly optimistic for us to assume that sites like Onemanga, Mangafox and Mangatraders wouldn't be targeted as well. It seems that the cease and desist letters haven't been sent yet so most of the scanlating community will be carrying on as usual until they do. Mangahelpers on the other hand however, decided that this was the time to pull a Crunchyroll with the scanlating in general by closing its doors on scanlators and opening new ones to the authors themselves with OpenManga.

To put it simply, OpenManga will try to get authors' permission to host and translate their series online through their service so fans from around the world finally have a legal source of translated manga. According to the owners in this explanation, there may or may not be a price to pay for access to said series. In either case, we still get readily available and legal manga online.

Now let's focus on the question at hand; will this work? To be honest, I have major doubts about this. As much as one can try to idealize and justify the actions of the scanlating community, manga is a business and scanlating undermines that business. This latest move on the publishers' part is not meant to support the spread of manga around the world but rather to take back control of what was supposed to have been their domain in the first place. I really can't see those same publishers supporting the rise of a movement that threatens to take whatever remaining control they have left in the distribution of their products. Fact is, regardless of whether or not the authors jump on this new bandwagon, the rights to the series being published actually belong to the publishing company and not the creators. Without support from the publishers, OpenManga won't have the established series or authors needed for this to work.

Of course there is the possibility that authors would see OpenManga as a way for them publish new works without the restraints imposed upon them by usual conventions within the publishing companies there to get in their way. That also means there is considerable potential for some very fresh and original ideas to see the light of day through the site. However, in exchange for that there is the matter of actual profit rolling into the author's laps. Whatever revenue they would generate would be rather meager as the bulk of the money mangaka make come from the sales of the compiled volumes so unless OpenManga can somehow get publishers to cooperate or come up with a way to distribute the actual money makers with reasonable profit margins, there would be very little incentive for authors to publish and maintain their publications on OpenManga.

Then there is the matter of what comes after the success or failure of the site. If this succeeds we will be looking at a schism in the online community as the issue of "legal vs. free" will rear its ugly head in full force. At that point in the game, the "unavailable" excuse won't be as effective as it is now and people will be pointing fingers at each other over the "ethics" of their practice. OpenManga's success could also lead to a monopoly war over the online distribution as its success will no doubt lead to the rise of similar services aiming to take the top dog's seat in distribution.

Should it fail however, it will mean that the entire online community of manga fans will either have to fall back on more obscure and painstaking methods of getting their fix or depend on the replacement services that will pop up after the old places are gone. I anticipate a general decline in interest in manga as a storytelling medium with the distribution being slowed down by the removal of the readily available sources. This will lead to a gradual drop in profits generated through overseas sales and the slackening of anti-scanlating efforts with it. In other words, failure means we'll be going through cycles of dark and golden ages should both sides of the conflict continue to fail at meeting somewhere in the middle.

Personally, I'm hoping that OpenManga manages to pull this off. It will take a lot of cooperation from the fans and the authors to make this work should the publishers refuse to acknowledge it as a viable way of business for them. For this to even get off the ground, they'll need to publicise their service as much as possible. And I don't mean just in Japan but worldwide as well. There are plenty of aspiring authors out there looking for a chance at making it in the business and even the smallest contribution would help out this movement. Nay-saying these guys won't help make the transition to legal scans any easier so I would suggest to all manga lovers out there to help out however they can. This is something we change, that's why we need to make our move as well.

Mai Waifu! Widget

An acquaintance recently brought this interesting widget to my attention and while I have seen similar ones, I have to say this one is pretty impressive. I've tried a number of handles and names on this thing and the results are both consistent and varied. Whoever made this put in a lot of effort to get it to work this way so it's worth checking out. All you have to do is enter your name and click the button. The link is at the bottom of the post so you know where to click. Try not to get jealous just because I have some pretty good names.

Leecher Handle - Yui of Angel Beats, July 18th 2012

Scanlator Handle - Akiyama Mio of K-On!, February 20th 2013

Real Name - Kaname Chidori of Fullmetal Panic, September 13th 2011

Know Your Waifu!

First Post of 2010: New Year Resolutions

First post of 2010 and I was thinking of starting things of with something that's not a review like a couple of pictures, videos and a list of resolutions for 2010. I'd been hoping to have a new layout ready for the new year as well but the current one works well enough.

My first try at typesetting my own translation which isn't half bad but seeing this here made me realize the last bubble's translation is a bit off. For those of you not reading the manga, this is from volume 7 chapter 199 and Konata & friends graduated from high school in volume 6. If they can make a 2nd K-On! anime why can't they make another Lucky Star?

A couple of motivationals I made while rereading Mahou Sensei Negima. My visits to 4chan on New Year's may have had something to do with their creation.

SUPERCELL's new song, "Goodbye Memories". Good but not their best.

Sherlock Holmes Soundtrack - Discombobulate. Loved the movie, loved the track and I hope you'll love my review tomorrow. The word means to add in confusion by the way.



K-On! Gundam 00 MAD I found on Nico Nico Charts last week. An odd but brilliant video.

As for my new year's resolutions I couldn't really come with any single one thing so I'll just put down this to do list:

1) Make a new Blog Layout
2) Write up and finish at least 5 stories for my other blog by the end of the year. I keep an ideas book and so far I have close to 100 individual story ideas out 173 plot ideas..

If you can actually read them from this LQ webcam image then you have too much free time.

3) Get better at knife throwing.
4) Remember to take the JLPT this year. I forgot all about the damn thing last year and right now I'm sure I can ace level 3.
5) Level up my photoshop skills.
6) Improve my left handed writing.
7) Make an AMV.
8) Learn another language, probably italian.
9) Upgrade my stealth skills... somehow...
10) Learn how to make a pizza from scratch
11) Extend my held breath time to 3 minutes. Currently 2 minutes at best.
12) Learn some roping skills.
13) Write more non-anime related articles on my blog.
14) Figure better ways of conciously controlling my involuntary body functions.

15) Smuggle a boomerang or BB gun into my possession.

That's it. Look forward to the Sherlock Holmes review tomorrow.

BEST Anime of 2009

Now it’s time for my last post of the year and I’ll be using it to list down my ten lists concerning anime. Enjoy!


BEST Anime of 2009

1) Bakemonogatari

“Best Dialogue and Direction”

2) Darker than Back: Ryuusei no Gemini

“The coolest fights and powers”

3) Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~

“Deadly Entertaining”

4) GA Geijitsuka Art Design Class

“It’s Lucky Star on High with Art”

5) Sengoku Basara

“Super GAR Samurai Show with powers”

6) Birdy the Mighty Decode 02

“One of the best character driven series I've seen”

7) Eden of the East

“Great plot and epic finale”

8) Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu 2009

“Best Troll Ever!”

9) Shikabane Hime Kuro

“Best Antagonists”

10) Seitokai no Ichizon

“Loads great references”

BEST Beginning

1) Eden of the East – “Naked man in front of the house with revolver. LOL”
2) Bakemonogatari – “One second panty shot countdown in slow motion + Senjogahara Stationary War”
3) Canaan – “Gun-Fu!”


BEST Finale

1) Bakemonogatari – “Easily the most romantic scenes I’ve seen this year.”
2) Eden of the East – “BANG!”
3) GA Geijitsuka Art Design – “Yaminabe is such an awesome thing, I must try it. Hehehehe.”


BEST Anime OP

1) Bakemonogatari 5th OP - Renai Circulation

“Too damn cute!!”

2) Eden of the East - Falling Down

“Coolest Spoiler OP featuring Kinetic Typography”

3) Pandora Hearts - Parallel Hearts

“Very fitting melody”

4) Umineko no Naku Koro Ni – La Divina Tragedia ~Makyoku~

“Awesome latin chanting!”

5) Tower of Druaga ~ Sword of Uruk~ – Questions?

“Great plot teaser with catchy music”

BEST Anime ED

1) Bakemonogatari – Kimi no Shiranaimonogatari

“SUPERCELL does really good work”

2) Gundam 00 – Trust You

“Beautiful and hints at the originally planned ending”

3) K-On! - Don’t Say Lazy

“Best Rock Song”

4) Cencoroll – Love & Roll

“Great rhythm”

5) Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo – Espacio

"Highly soothing”

BEST Soundtracks

1) Darker Than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini “Lots of awesome Hip-Hop and Techno”
2) Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ “Ranges from sad sorrow to fast paced action themes”
3) Birdy The Mighty Decode 02 “Captures the characters and mood perfectly”


Favorite Characters

1) GA Geijitsuka Art Design - Noda Miki

“The Alchemist of Darkness”

2) Bakemonogatari – Hanekawa Tsubasa

“I don’t everything. Only things I know.”

3) Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo – Leopard

“Soul Shout!!”

BEST Manga I’ve picked up this year

1) Pluto
2) Team Medical Dragon
3) Shinseiki Evangelion
4) Hoshi no Samidare
5) Yotsubato
6) 20th Century Boys
7) Goodnight Punpun
8) Kieli
9) Stray Little Devil
10) Beelzebub


BEST Ongoing Shonen Manga

1) One Piece
2) Fullmetal Alchemist
3) Nurarihyon no Mago
4) Kekkaishi
5) The World God Only Knows
6) Beelzebub
7) Karakuri Douji Ultimo
8) To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
9) Psyren
10) Mahou Sensei Negima


Biggest Cop Outs of the year

1) Naruto Vs. Pain Arc where everyone who dies comes back from the dead. You have no balls Kishimoto! NO BALLS!!
2) The Disappearance of The Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi arc in Haruhi 2009. The movie is coming but I was really hyped up about that novel in the anime.
3) Not showing the final battle of Shikabane Hime Kuro featuring Hokuto vs. Makina. Goddamnit!
4) Tower of Druaga could have been an epic RPG based anime if it weren’t for the Neeba ending
5) Munto’s ending. What happened KyoAni? It was going so well too.

*Not Anime Related* Sylar Vs Petrelli Brothers. For that matter the entire 4th Volume of Heroes.


SPECIAL MENTIONS

A) Needless – Stupidest (In a so bad it’s good kind of way) manga and anime of the year
B) Hatsune Miku Project DIVA– Most addictive game I’ve played. I went through all the songs at least 5 times to unlock stuff.
C) Evangelion Re-Take – Best doujinshi I’ve read and I just read it yesterday, t’was amazing.
D) Jack Rakan of Mahou Sensei Negima – Best nickname, “The guy you could stab swords into all you want but it still won’t do a thing damnit!”
E) Mahou Sensei Negima – BEST YURI SCENE! Konoka & Setsuna’s pactio scene. HELL YEAH!!
F) Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~ 2nd OP - Most WTF OP. In context that is. It was really big shock when I first watched the OP.

That's it for my last post of 2009. Let's hope the next year will be even better.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Do people actually read my thoughts?

A few days ago one of my friends, Pijul, got me into a discussion about how people were balanced out in life and that their happiness is adjusted with the bad things in their lives. I can’t say I agree with that because I believe we don’t have the right to determine other peoples’ perceptions of happiness – only an individual can judge their own happiness. I managed to convince him about that piece of my perspective and in return he asked me why is it that I don’t enlighten others with the various bits of wisdom that I’ve accumulated over in my 19 years of living instead of anime. My reasons for that are (1) Anime is my hobby and I really enjoy it (2) I’ve gone through far more anime than I have with schools of thoughts (3) People don’t go to the internet to seek instant enlightenment – they go to paid professionals for that.

But seriously, I do write them up once in a while and they tend to be very preachy when I do them so I don’t do them too often. There have been several occasions where I wrote entries to post up here but after taking a second look at them I realize that I could bring in unwanted things if I posted them up. I’m not even sure what I’ve actually mentioned here on my blog but I do remember typing them up so it gets confusing at times when I bring up a matter that I may or may not have discussed here. Here’s a list of things I worry that my takes on some matters may stir up:

• Trolls(Obviously)
• Flamers(Same as above)
• Religious debates(I prefer to handle these anonymously)
• Religious rage(Can’t tell you how many Christian extremists I’ve pissed off online at those debates. For that matter why do so many of them sound like bigots?)
• Atheists(Almost as bad as religious bigots only they’re a lot more tolerant of things. I think they have a hive mind)
• Cults(There actually is cult that got started by someone who didn’t intend on it and kept on denouncing it while he was alive. Life of Brian DID happen)
• Fans(I prefer to be heard. Not seen)
• Cospiracy theorists(They’ll try to rope me in on their freedom fighter gang)
• Secret organizations(Namely the Illuminati and the Freemasons. NERV probably counts too)
• Government agents (The Spetnaz worry me. Airborne upside down hatchet throwers are scary)
• Moralfags (Yes, I do go to 4chan. Sankaku as well)
• Republicans (I really don’t trust their so-called integrity. Merchants of death? Please…)
• Movie writers (Too many hacks in Hollywood to trust. They’ll just try to turn it into booze, weed and women)
• Political uprising(Last thing I want to do is support a rebellion in another country. I’m not pizza hut.)
• The devil(My soul is not for sale. I will forever retain all rights to my individuality.)

I’m half joking about that list but as to which parts I’m joking about are up to you. In any case, I am person who has thought a lot about the universe, life and all that other metaphysical stuff. It’s gotten to the point where I start feeling ancient around my friends when they talk about stuff that I should be but am not interested in. Even Afiq said I seemed much older and mature as a person and answered yes when I asked him he thought that I was wise. Apparently my self-standards of normalcy are ridiculously high compared to my demographic group. It’s to the point where I am actually surprised that my friends hadn’t considered ideas I count as basic philosophy even once.

I’m betting 99.9% of adults don’t ponder the same magnitude of metaphysics that I do by the time they reach their mid-life crisis. 98% would never even think about it in their entire lives which to be honest I am actually happy about. Much of what I thought brought despair with it; much more despair than what an Emo but not an Elmo would go through. Emos would just stop at the initial despair and fail to read further into it opting to bitch and complain about their sad painful existences instead whereas Elmo is quite possibly the most nefarious of all the muppets. I cannot trust those innocent looking eyes for they are like peeks behind the curtain of the dark abyss. Where was Zetsubou Sensei when I was going through the most metaphysically rich phase of my thought process of my life so far? It wasn’t an anime yet so it was probably just in the 100s chapter count at the time. Tis a pity I didn’t have the opportunity to yell that catchphrase whenever I stumbled across a new insight. “ZETSUBOUSHITA!!” is rather enjoyable to say really.

ZETSUBOUSHITA!!

To give a small look into what I see through my eyes, I will present a paraphrased analogy taken from Kara no Kyoukai: Remaining Sense of Pain’s Novel and a brief discussion I had with Hakim about Obama. First comes the analogy. Let’s say common sense was channel 3 on the TV and that normal people could only watch that channel. An insane person on the other hand would only be able to watch a different channel like channel 5, a channel tailored to their perspective. Without access to channel 3, the person would remain stuck only on channel 5 and thereby unable to understand a normal person at all. The same applies vice versa so the majority, the ones who watch channel 3, would mark the outcast as insane. If that person could switch between channels 3 and 5 as they liked then they would be able to fit in and still have extraordinary insight of the TV which in this analogy refers to reality. To describe my perspective would be to say normal people are watching channel 3 on old CRT television sets while I’m watching channels 3 and 5 at the same time on a HD Plasma TV using Program in Program feature. Sure, my focus will be split and I won’t see every detail in channel 3 but I’ll still see the rest in clear crisp refreshing quality and have a wider perspective on things.

Now onto Obama. Let me clarify that while I am more partial to Democrats than Republicans, I never cared for Obama in the first place. My vote would have gone to Hillary Clinton in the democratic nomination and also in the presidential election against McCain if she was up and my vote counted. It’s certainly not because of his race because a black president was definitely a refreshing change for the stagnating Eagleland. I didn’t like him because of his slogan and the hype that he was generating from it. Hope is a very flimsy illusion and I didn’t appreciate how unrealistic it made the Americans during the elections. Hope is good for human productivity but it also casts a shadow of despair that grows larger with that hope. Though I still have to say that it was very good strategizing on his part and that the prospects of him as president at the time were better than having a republican who gets swayed by capitalism easily.

However, the subject concerning Obama that I was discussing with Hakim was not the man himself but rather the Nobel Peace Prize he got. Like the rest of the majority of those who know about it, Hakim believes that Obama didn’t deserve the prize and from his tone at the time, even seemed mad about it. I don’t know why is it people feel angry at others for being more fortunate than they are but it really is an ugly thing to see. I wonder who exactly did he have in mind for the prize, I do remember him mentioning Lady Gaga that day but I’m not sure if that was during our Obama’s peace prize talk. As you can see, that is where most people stop to think about the prize but I immediately looked at the consequences and the reasons behind the events. A lot of anger has been directed at Obama because of his unprecedented ownership of the honor because many think that he hasn’t done anything to merit the award including himself.

The way I see it, someone deliberately did this to add pressure onto Obama’s administration reduce his integrity as a leader. If he fails to live up to his promises in time then his chances at being re-elected have been significantly reduced because of this award and people would not be able to take him seriously. This was something beyond his control and yet people blame him for not deserving the award that someone else chose to give him. I even read an article in the paper yesterday of some kid asking Obama why so many people hate him. This goes to show you that public opinion is easily swayed by the media and that most people prefer to listen to the big voice in the sky than to think for themselves. That is a mentality that really should be done away. Why else would so many Americans buy into that Merchants of Death nonsense when they actually stand to gain a lot from the healthcare reforms that Obama proposed?

I wouldn't be bringing this up if I wasn't sure that my thought process is different from most people. Hakim certainly didn't see past the fact that Obama didn't deserve the award and looked genuinely intrigued by how I saw the event. Through my journey into despair, I widened my perspective, gained the ability to look at things objectively and apparently enough wisdom to make people ask me for advice even though I actually have no experience with love and that sort of thing. I've also become ridiculously tolerant of things and actually do mean it when I say I'm so at peace with myself that I would have no regrets if I died now. That doesn't mean I want to die though, I prefer to live and intend to keep on living as long as I can.

There are many paths a person can take in their lives to find themselves. Mine was through the exploration of metaphysics and despair. You can come out of it either as an Emo or a Wise Old Man character but in both cases you won't be able to see the world the way you did before. I can honesty say that I've become a completely different person from who I was when I began my adolescence and that my I've gained a new appreciation for things I did not and lost some that many do. Anyway, this should fill my quota for my thoughts post this month.

MikuFes '09

A few days ago, a concert was held somewhere in Japan to commemorate Hatsune Miku’s 2nd birthday anniversary. The concert itself was held in a hall with about 25000 standing room only tickets and all of those tickets managed to sell out. This isn’t her first live performance but I can tell you it’s her most impressive one to date. Why? See for yourself the videos below. Try to bear with the low quality though, they're from the Nico Nico webcast.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

That’s right. They're using near-hologram technology to have a "live" performance by Miku. It's looks almost like she's actual there in person. If I remembering it right, the virtual actress Simone from that Al Pacino movie appeared at concerts using a smokescreen and lights. The same concept is being applied where Miku appears in 3D on three different translucent screens.

I am simply amazed at how far technology's come and how much influence Miku has gained in just two years. To think that a voice synthesizing software managed to a bunch of previously unknown amateur composers and have them perform with an orchestra to put on a sold out show. These composers actually managed to make a living of Miku as there are several albums out on sale with her as the singer. There are also cover versions of some of Miku's sons done by professional performers. I'm especially impressed that someone managed to perform a great cover version of the Disappearance of Hatsune Miku.

The most successful of these people would have to be ryo and his group SUPERCELL. With their own singer Nagi, they've started making songs for anime, namely Bakemonogatari and Cencoroll. They're also in charge of the music for the Black Rock Shooter anime coming out next year. Hopefully they'll keep on making new songs for Miku and that they'll also be working on the OST for the Black Rock Shooter anime and not just the OP/ED/insert songs.

The concert itself looks amazing even from these low quality videos. It seems that these videos only cover the last few songs of the concert since the first vid starts off in the middle of kz's remix of Last Night, Good Night. They handed out huge leeks for fans and performers to hold during the performance so those made for awesome souvenirs. The live versions of the songs sound great with the orchestra backing it up. I wonder how long the concert actually lasted since the last six songs took about 40 minutes to finish. I'm hoping that they'll make a concert DVD available for online orders sometime in the future.

Here's a list of all the groups that performed during the concert:

ika＆MOSAIC.WAV
デッドボールP
チームMOER (doriko, OSTER project, 19’s sound factory)
kz (livetune)
SUPERCELL

Here's the list of the songs they played at the concert:

01. みくみくにしてあげる♪
02. 電気の恋人 -I am Programmer’s Song-
03. HATSUNEtive
04. みんなみくみくにしてあげる♪
05. 私は人間じゃないから
06. とある娼婦の恋
07. 牛乳飲め!
08. 木枯らしの朝
09. 筆おろし
10. 既成事実 (MEGA Mix)
11. 恋スルVOCALOID
12. ロミオとシンデレラ
13. 恋色病棟
14. Dear
15. 恋は戦争 Remix
16. ファインダー (kz’s DSLR remix)
17. Far Away
18. Heart Beat
19. Crosslight
20. Packaged (kisk baker’s Yogamix)
21. Last Night, Good Night (kz re:edit)
22. 恋は戦争
23. ワールドイズマイン
24. ブラック★ロックシューター
25. 初めての恋が終わる時
26. メルト

Birthday Wish

Yesterday, Thursday 27th of August, was my birthday and the night before it I made a wish right before I went to sleep. A little childish or possibly a sign of insanity but stating it out loud on my bed seemed to have some effect on my birthday.

You see at approximately 11.00 pm on the 26th, I was about to go to sleep when I remembered that the next day was my birthday (I’ve really been busy lately). My birthdays usually end up the same every year with my mom wishing me a happy birthday in the morning and us all eating either at a RBC restaurant or at home with my grandma’s stew and cakes. Because I felt like it would be nice to have a change of pace this year. So by saying “I want something interesting to happen tomorrow. Something interesting, not problematic. Interesting”, I tempted fate and got my wish.

It started right from the moment I woke up for Sahur. For some reason I woke up a few minutes later than the rest of my family and I’m usually the first one down to Sahur – so far I have been since Puasa started this year. Then I dozed off till 5.40 am which is when I go and take my shower. While I was waking myself up with hot steaming water, I suddenly felt a small sting on my collarbone. I scratched at it for a bit and found a black crusty thing squashed under my finger. I wondered what it could have been and felt another sting on my neck. I patted my hand and found that there was a still moving ant on my hand. Not knowing where they were coming from I tried washing myself from head to toes to get any other ants on me off. It took another couple ants to realize where the source was exactly. The ants were coming from INSIDE the showerhead. Apparently a small nest of ants had made the inside of the showerhead I use everyday their home overnight. Took ten minutes after I came back home from school till I was certain that I managed to wash out all the ants. At that moment I just knew it was going to be an interesting day.

After making sure that there weren’t any ants on me, I got out of the shower and noticed that the sky was more reddish than usual when it should have been blue. It didn’t have anything to do with the time I got out since I finished at the same time as usual. While I was walking around, I happened to see that there were cars parked outside my house for some reason. It was only later when I left for school at 7.00 am that I found out that my next door neighbor just died of cancer a few hours ago, quite possibly around Sahur. OK… That was DEFINITELY a sign. Adlan and Afiq were really surprised when I told them that – Adlan more so because I told him that I made a wish and that it seemed to be coming true and that I told him about the death after it occurred to me that it completely slipped my mind when I was proving it to him. Not sure if he was more surprised at the death or that I actually forgot about it. I remember Chris was really surprised that Shaminan’s seizure during our AS levels last year didn’t bother me at all while we were doing our Stats paper.

My departure at 7.00 am would usually end up in me being late but traffic was unusually light for the normally jammed Jerudong area so I made it on time to school. Once I got there I was taken by surprise that we were following the normal Thursday timetable instead of the H1N1 approved Saturday schedule(Our school cancelled clubs on Thursday to minimize risks and alternated with other days’ schedules). I was also told later by Colin that there was an unusually high number of people coming in late when he went down to send in the class register. I had a really surprising morning yesterday.

Then right before the Tadarus session that was replacing CCA time, I messaged my dad that I had to stay back till 1.00pm. The reason for that was because Khai wanted me to transfer some of Adlan’s stuff into his pen drive but Adlan went home right after the Tadarus session anyway. Right before I could go off to find a room to write up the manga reviews I set up, I learned that we actually were going to be having extra class till 1.00 pm. Sigh… another coincidence to add to many others today. While I was in class I think I managed to consciously manipulate either the shape of the lens in my eyes or dilate my pupils more so I could see the projector’s image better. I also have to say that the weather was actually quite nice too. The sun was bright but didn’t burn as hot as it usually did, the wind refreshingly cool and the sky looked absolutely magnificent with just the right balance of light blue and white. There were even rain clouds in the distance that looked just right in the distance. Unusually perfect weather on my birthday, never happened before.

Nothing much happened later that afternoon other than us leaving for my younger brother and sister’s school earlier than usual. My mom only seemed to remember that it was my birthday while she was at work too. We even walked to the stalls even though my dad prefers to drive to the stalls instead. I didn’t get to eat the food I bought till Sahur though. There was a Tahlil event at my neighbour’s house so I had Sungkai over there. Again something odd happened. While we were reading Yasin, the vases and bowls on this cabinet I was sitting next to suddenly started shaking hard enough for it to make a rattling sound. What’s weird about that was that I was sitting in a corner in a carpeted room and I was the closest one to it and I didn’t even touch it while it happened. I tried shaking it a bit with my arms and legs but none of those things shook enough to make a sound. If it was near the air conditioner or near the parking space it’d be easy to explain but they had a central air-conditioning unit, the kind they use in office buildings, right in the middle of the relatively wide room and the nearest car was at least ten meters away.

After we finished praying and reading, we all went and ate at the tents prepared outside with catered food waiting for us. I’m impressed by how fast Bruneians can set up a gathering, I mean the man only died half a day ago. It started raining the moment I stepped out of the house but there wasn’t anything strange about that. At least not compared to other weird weather coincidences that have happened to me in the past. After I finished eating, I went back home. Apparently my family went back ahead of me to finish the stuff we bought so they only ate a little bit of the catering while stuffed myself full. On my walk back I heard some strange whispering like someone was saying something into my ear. It's been a while since something related to "that" happened to me. Nothing out of the ordinary happened later that night unless something happened while I was asleep.

So here is a summary of all of the things that were out of routine for my birthday:

• Woke up late for Sahur
• Ants laid a nest in my showerhead overnight
• My neighbor died a few hours before I left for school
• Unusually light traffic in a normally traffic heavy zone
• Made it on time to school when I left really late
• Lots of people were late coming to school
• The weather was unusually perfect
• I stayed back only to find out I really had class
  
• Parents only remembered it was my birthday after work
• I attended a Tahlil on my birthday
• Vases shook for no reason
• Heard odd whispering noises while walking in the rain
• No celebration on the actual day

After having all this happen to me on my birthday and breaking the usual routine I’d have to say I got my wish. I had an interesting day and it didn’t trouble me too much. Do you think so too?