Long.

apparently if I had saved a post as a draft, it'll be posted as the same date as the draft was saved. So incidentally, my previous post was kind of merged into one, making it seems like 2 posts in a day and it was kinda long. Not to worry, with my slight absence, this post is going to be much much longer than the rest.

P.S. somehow w/o synopsis,  the posts are getting longer by its own. Hm...
P.S.S. there is an embed song below which you can listen to while going through the WOTs. =X

OK. So I guess I'll work on the 1st section first.

Had been sick for the past week, missed hanging out and just randomly slacking around but I guess I have no choice. Only in the last few days have I actually headed out with my family and managed to grab some great deals on offers. Seems like being sick does have the positive side as well, just that it'll come in one way or another. Hayate no Gotoku! old volumes are going at 1 buck each, published under ChuangYi which has only up to volume 16. Managed to grab almost all of the front volumes but am currently still short of certain volumes, and that actually makes the goal of collecting them all sooner or later coming faster than expected. Not only HnG's on offer but other series as well, some with the entire series in which each volume is also 1 buck, though Get Backers was one of the series on offer that caught my eye. Leaving that aside, ready-made spin pens are now available at some (or maybe all), comics connection branches. It was quite surprising to spot them here in Singapore which I don't think the community size of pen spinners are as large as other countries. Nonetheless, it was a pleasant surprise and I kinda felt happy that a hobby has now like "commercialised", allowing more youngsters to join in the fun as well. Bought one of the 19cm mods there and added some more grips from my own collection of parts. Do note that Sailer Gel pens which have one of the best grips are now available at Daiso outlets across Singapore. The weight is customizable and the length was just right for me so I guess this would be a good substitute for the time being. Sadly though, skills have became rusty over the months in which studying for exams was a priority but I hope to change that now :D

well heres how the mod (originally) actually looks like:

The re-sketch I was doing is still currently on hold, still wondering what kind of shading should I do, or should I say, I'm rather afraid that I'll screw it up as the outlines aren't actually easy. Will see how it goes before I do finish it up.

Moving on to the next section:

many series have already finished airing as of now, such as Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai and C^3 but I'll leave this 2 series overviews at my next post and perhaps more as other 11/12/13 episode series are wrapped up soon.

So in this entry I'll be talking about the Fafner Movie: Heaven and Earth, Hayate no Gotoku! Heaven is a place on Earth, and also the 2 season series, Arakawa under the Bridge. Yup, so I guess that's going to be long.

Fafner: Heaven and Earth

(Had to type this twice, apparently the saving speed of drafts isn't as fast as I thought it was and had lost the entire chunk of text)

The movie was actually aired in Singapore at a certain theatre, think it was on AFA or something but was unable to turn up due to exams and nevertheless, I managed to grab a copy of the DVD itself and was entertained for the full 88 minutes. It was real great and was a good supplement to post fafner-missing-syndrome.

The movie takes place 2 years after the series where Kazuki is now almost blind, could be said to be banned from piloting a fafner again as he might totally lose his eyesight, and Miwa, the child of Yumiko, is now born. The core of the island is now in its maturity stage and in line with the transition, the island's Mir is not protected from the outer polluted environment and the passive shield that makes Tatsumiyajima island invisible is not up yet. Commander Makabe, as a result, is suffering from certain illness, likely caused by the lack of their own atmosphere. Minashiro Tsubaki, now merged with the island's Mir, is now taking care of the current island's core which need to be in extreme care as it passes the maturity stage. The war that was supposed to have ended took a big turn when a festum attacks the island during a festival that was held and in Mark Sein, Kazuki heads out to fight the festum which had evolved to have a much clearer face and is seen to be murmuring some words. Further evolution of the festum made them able to use human weapons as well and that came as a surprise to everyone on the island. Shortly after the fight, an unmanned ship arrives on the island, with a festum taking the shape of a human on board, who claims to be called Misao Kurusu, and sent by Soushi to the island. He talks with Commander Makabe to ask him to cooperate with the festums and fight the other humans together but the plan was put on hold as much more details have to be known. It was later revealed that Kurusu had came from a mothership, which housed Makabe Akane as well and other "seem-to-be" nests of festums and from there, more attacks on the island was made, with more evolved festum and more utilisation of human weapons.

More fafner pilots were selected, and among them, Seri, the friend of Minashiro Tsubaki was chosen as well and she was the first to be able to decipher the words that the festums had murmured when they are about to meet their end: "It hurts. Save me." And that made the others wonder if the fight was necessary and they really need to communicate with the festums in order to stop this war once again. Tsubaki needed another core host to support the island's Mir and Seri volunteers herself to go to Tsubaki's side and together, the 2 were added to the Mir, supporting the transition of the current core to maturity. Kurusu was however unable to escape from what the other festums felt, pain, and had took it out on the island in the end, taking Kazuki along with him and disappears into the sky. A mission is then planned for the attack on the mothership of the festums and also to attempt to communicate with the festum and the Zero Fafner gets its debut with a dual pilot system and the attack was made, while the others protect the island from invading festums. It later turns out that Miwa, was the only one that could actually communicate with the festums and when Kazuki returns from his assimilation, he fights it all out with Kurusu's fafner, telling him that he can choose exactly what he wants to do and not just follow what he was told to do. Makabe Akane returns to the island where the core system was damaged by festum attacks and she assimilates herself with the growing core, stabilising it and with it, the shield of Tatsumiyajima island had returned and the island is once again shrouded in secrecy. Kazuki then awakes to find Soushi in front of him, who had managed to get his existence back from the festums and returns to the island with Kazuki.

Honestly w/o the screwed subs, I'd have enjoyed this movie much better than I already had. There was an amazing increase in animation quality, the fafners were given more details, weapons and explosions and stuffs, everything looks real good. Story wise was quite well done as well as it had featured the "sequel" to the original series where Soushi had disappeared and was finally reunited in this movie. Not so sure about what exactly happened to the core as the shield was not up until the end when Makabe Akane appeared and whether the sacrifice of Seri was really required. Mark Nicht seems to have made a return as well with Kurusu as the pilot but it looked more badass now. Furthermore, the pilot suits have now been enhanced and are looking better than the previous ones they had in the series. Overall it was a nice sequel, seeing how the original anime series was fitted with a prequel of Right of Left and a sequel of Heaven and Earth. It was also nice to see that everything was concluded in the end, with Soushi returning, and much less deaths were actually seen in the movie. Good to note, Sakura who was previously assimilated, is now up and kicking ass with her own fafner as usual, and there seems to be another sniper who takes the role of Toomi now. All in all, this was actually a good movie and with its upgrade in quality, no fafner fans should miss this. Honestly.

Hayate no Gotoku! Heaven is a place on Earth

Now this movie was actually disappointing in some ways but it does have its good points. The plot seems to be a little "common" or would I say, predictable. I'm not quite sure if it was meant to be a parody of other anime series or it was intentionally done to made it similar in some ways, but in humour level and characters, it was rather good. We get a glimpse of the current developments with more characters appearing from the manga in this movie as well. Such as Kayura and Ruka. Ruka's movie promotional pictures are all looking fantastic and it's great to see her being animated as well. Kayura is more of a cosplay character and she seems to have changed into many different costumes over the course of the movie.

It was a short 58 minutes movie but its humour was of the HnG level so it was actually quite enjoyable to watch it through. It was now summer break and the timeline was placed after Nagi had participated in the comics convention and had vowed to make a better manga and had (or should be) just met with Kayura who would be her manga advisor. However as school term was arriving, Hayate did not want Nagi to become too accustomed to the school breaks and not go to school once the breaks are over and thus, Ayumu suggests that they all go to the countryside where they could relax by doing absolutely nothing. Nagi was attracted to the offer and took it up, only to regret after there was lack of entertainment when they finally reached the countryside. However, Hayate sees a stranger, a woman with white hair in kimono outfit but disappears without a trace when Hayate wishes to confirm her identity. Until one night, where Hayate manages to chase her down but ends up in an amusement park in the middle of the forest and where other girls who had came along with the Sanzenin family were there as well. Nagi was then captured by the mascots there and as Hayate approaches them, he sort of awakes, from a dream, which he believes he had seen. He awakes, not knowing that he had been brainwashed, and the others as well, that Nagi was non-existent. And that Maria was now the girl that he is serving as a butler and even Hinagiku could not recognise Nagi's name. Isumi and Sakuya later arrives to help resolve the issue after the Hayate who was normal then, had contacted Isumi as he was worried about the stranger that he had saw. Nagi and the others were actually in the amusement park that was of a separate dimension as the outside world and they were trapped in it. Nagi later attempts to retrieve some telephone signal from the ferris wheel and was met with the stranger, who tells her that Hayate would not be coming for her anymore. She had given Hayate a diamond worth enough for Hayate to clear his debt of being Nagi's butler and so he'll be free once again. Hayate later finally remembers about Nagi after many flashbacks of him serving her and he really did come to her rescue, telling the woman that Nagi was his saviour and he would repay her and stay by her side as her butler. The amusement park then collapses and everything was back to normal once again and Hayate looks back to the amusement park, which was constructed from his memories, for he had came here before once with his grandmother, which was hinted to be the stranger that tried to return freedom to him.

Seems like not the entire Ayasaki family were gamblers, his grandmother actually do care about him much more than his 2 parents. It was great to see how the opening of the movie was actually tied to a concert that Ruka was currently having and that in the OP, we do get to see a glimpse of Athena as well. With the 3rd season announced, I do hope to see Athena real soon! :) It was also good to see how they had placed the sword that Hinagiku had used during the Athena arc into action in the amusement park so it was actually nice to see that it followed the manga rather closely. Animation quality was alright, even though it was different from the original anime series, after all, HnG is about its puns! :D More and more characters are being introduced and none of them seems to be totally left out. Humour level is still there, plot wise maybe not so good yet, but I am definitely looking forward to the 3rd season! :)

Well, mainly the references are commonly seen on Kayura's cosplays as she is said to be unable to fend of enemy mascots as her Excalibur was made of cardboard when she was in a Saber cosplay. Other references I thought of, and was said in the movie itself, was actually the amusement park which had represented a replica of a closed space in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It was actually really similar and funny to see that Kayura noticed it as well and had grabbed her Haruhi outfit in response. Some other funny jokes were also there, including the apparent one where Saber Kayura locked herself out of the ferris wheel whilst promised Nagi that she'll be together with her. It was LOL & I was already laughing from all the sillyness. Good laughs! :D

Arakawa Under the Bridge

Now this series is real cool, real unique and really funny. It kind of represent a 4koma manga where the episodes actually consists of short episodes, mainly about 4/5 short episodes in a 20min full episode. The plot is silly, the characters are silly, the jokes are lame, BUT! the series in overall was extremely enjoyable, the characters are all lovable and most importantly, I was seriously laughing through the 2 full seasons of this wonderful series. I had kept it aside after seeing how silly the characters look but after certain good recommendations and a push from a friend, I went all in to this series and had not regretted watching this. This is clearly magnificent by itself, well definitely, since it has a live action and a live action movie adapted for this. :)

The plot for this series is actually quite simple. We have the male protagonist, a rich boy who has a large asset, Ichinomiya Kou, and his family rule is not to be in debt with anyone, one day finds himself indebted to a girl called Nino who saves him from drowning in a river and to repay her, Nino asks Kou to be her lover and that begins the story and the plot was overall about life under the bridge and the difficulties that they face and that Nino would always hope that everyone under the bridge would live together forever and ever. Now that seems to be a rather typical or normal plot, until the characters kick in. Nino is a girl who believes that she's a Venusian and has a gifted ability to catch fish in the Arakawa river by her own hands. The village chief who dresses himself in a Kappa suit, a musician Hoshi, who paints his head yellow and wears a mask so that his whole head is a star (which is Hoshi in Japanese), a man who follows only white lines and walks ONLY on white lines, a Sister who is a previous war soldier and is a male, 2 metal brothers who are 2 kids wearing metal masks all the time, P-ko, a clumsy girl who has her own vegetable farm, a born sadist called Maria, a crazily strong little girl Stella, a barber who uses a Katana called Last Samurai and 2 lovers Billy, who has a bird head, and Jacqueline who wears bee-like clothes. Now that's only the main cast that we see, with some other minor characters as well. Most of them do lack common sense in which Kou is trying to beat into them by later taking the job of a teacher there.

There isn't really much story development nor character development of each and everyone, but the sweet lovers, Kou and Nino is interesting to watch as a rich but innocent man dates a girl who believes that she's a Venusian? Now that is interesting. Much of the gags involved revolves around the personalities of each of the characters which we learn more about them after each episode and most of the time it's really just pure random jokes and random storyline. If it was me, I would have definitely went bonkers living under the bridge with them, but time over time, it did seem as a good retreat from hectic business life and even Kou seems to be more accustomed to their living styles as well. I wouldn't say that this series is a definite must watch, but it is entertaining enough for me, and for anyone that wishes to have small laughs now and then, this series would be good to go for. Bagging two 13 episode seasons, this series has obtained rather good viewership and the live action seems nice as well. In short, this is a good comedy. A really good comedy IMO. :)

Now that was actually a long post. Would be touching on the series that had recently ended in the next entry in preparation of a new year and a new season!

A Usual Life and the Earth's Frame: wowaka, Hatsune Miku

Rusubanden wa SABISU fuki kon da teishuuha
nichijou no saizensen watashi wa doko ni ike ba?
Tame kon da joudan wo ichido ni hakidashita
soryasokka ima datte toma razu
nanimo kamoga kawatterunda

Susuketa konjota mochikon da chouonpa
nichijou wo nigedashita watashi wo warau no desho
machigatta hontou mo tadashi uso saemo
kiritotta seikai wo nando mo
tashika merudake no mainichi da

Aa sorewa tooku natta.
Kurai kurai yoru wo matta.
Futo iroai naku natta.
Wazawaza fura tsukunda.

Mou tooi took ni itte
mujaki ni tada shizumi tainda
demo kotae, wakannaiya,
muda ni kirei na heya no naka

Kitaishi chaikenai yo itai kurai no sainou
SUPOTTORAITO butsu kowashite
takai takai dedoudai?
Nigemichi mo nai yo koko wa tada kyuumen jou

Kitaishi chaikenai yo itai kurai no kanjou
nichijou no kao wa tsumeta ina
takai takai wa doudai?
Saa, oi de yo

Aa sorewa tooku natta.
Kurai kurai yoru wo matta.
Futo dareka sure chigatta.
Wazawaza kawashiteta

Mou tooi took ni itte
hitori kiride nemuri tainda
demo sorewa kanashi souda
tsukare wate ta michi no soko

Nikaime no shippai da kitaishi tandaga son da
tanjunsagyou bakkari wo
kurikaeshi te wa doudai? Nigemichi wa nai yo
kizui te iru no deshou, ne

Sankaime no shippai wo kitaishi naideitai yo
nichijou no kao wo ukagae ba
takai takai mo doudai,
saa, oi de yo

Kitaishi chaikenai yo itai kurai no sainou
SUPOTTORAITO butsu kowashite
takai takai dedoudai?
Nigemichi mo nai yo koko wa tada kyuumen jou

Kitaishi chaikenai yo itai kurai no kanjou
nichijou no kao wa tsumeta ina
takai takai wa doudai?
Saa, oi de yo