SAO goes Offline

with 25 episodes under this highly rated series, the first half of the whole virtual MMO story has come to an end. I wouldn't be surprised if there would be a 2nd season, considering the fact that there's still 2 more games following ALO, with the highly anticipated Gun Gale Online, but I guess that would depend on the speed of the novel that's being published.

reunited at last!

This series has been a bumpy ride, with signs showing uncanny similarities with Guilty Crown. Yes, although their genres are totally different, but the trends in the way the episodes follow seems too much alike. There was the awesome, level defining first episode, which sets the pace right for the series to go along, follows through the first arc with ease and then abruptly changing pace for a second arc, causing the series to go slightly downhill till the end when the finale actually did allow the ALO arc to shine. Firstly, the ALO arc had less story to tell which was focused on rescuing Asuna, which actually dragged on for very long and shows Kirito way more powerful than he already was, which makes the "game" seems less exciting than it was compared to SAO. Focusing on the rescue of Asuna, it all seems like a dragged out romance drama with inserted fight scenes deliberately used to extend the episodes to make the reunion happen at the 24th episode. I wouldn't say that the action scenes were bad, there were in fact good and I enjoyed them, but having to wait so long before Asuna actually met Kirito again was just as heart wrenching as we saw Suguha discovering that Kirito was actually her brother (I'll get to this later). Honestly, this's probably more of a personal preference, but I actually would've wanted to see Asuna being rescued earlier and adding more story developments for ALO such as the massive plan of Sugou actually in work. That, I believe, would make a more climatic scene than just facing off with Sugou which Kirito plainly owned him even with Sugou having equipped with a legendary blade. Seems like in the VRMMO, the most attractive factor is that the character skills and abilities develop from the user itself and not just plainly button mashing.

Another downside of the series was actually how powerful they made Kirito to be. As it was obvious in SAO that he hunts solo, or is a Beater, as others call him, and that made him to be as strong as he could near the end of the first arc. Coupled with his unique skill of dual wield, it actually made his character more unique and yet at the same time, didn't make him all overpowered with his unique skill as we see that he lost to Kayaba Akihiko when using dual wield, twice. This was actually good as they made Kirito a normal player who just is strong from experience, but not as overly strong that he kills all bosses in one hit. Furthermore, when he lost to Kayaba for the first time, (even if it was Kayaba using his admin rights, Kirito did not manage to land much hits onto him anyway) there wasn't a power-up or any sort given to Kirito at all and that's a strong point in the SAO's first arc. Things than start to feel "Bleach-y" at the second arc, where "fortunately", Kirito's character data was transferred from SAO and thus in ALO, he started the game as one of the strongest character, has a private pixie with admin rights near the end of the arc, and is able to forcely clear the supposedly unbeatable dungeon. So basically, Kirito in ALO was a character with insane stats when he started, has help from a GM, clearing a dungeon that is deemed impossible from the developers and finally gaining full admin controls over the game. THAT is what I call, overpowered. What it felt when watching the second arc was that the storyline didn't focus on Kirito anymore and he was just made into "someone who can clear the game", and develop other characters in the meantime. When an obstacle struck, he would find a way to turn the table around, one way or another. It was a nice touch at the end, when Kirito admits that it was impossible for him to do it all alone, which he died at the final dungeon and finally received help from the other clans, but it was then that he took Leafa's blade and with the two blades in hand, he managed to burst through the whole wall of monsters, alone. So basically what they are trying to show is that he can accomplish anything with two blades? What I can see is that the amount of monsters rushing towards him is no different from the amount that killed him off in his first attempt. SAO was much smoother as we don't see Kirito solo-ing any of the high level bosses and really plays the part as a player but the storyline deviated in ALO and turns into a love drama where hearts are broken and lovers are reunited. Kinda cliché but that's the impression ALO gave to me.

There were still more plus points that I could find from this series as compared to Guilty Crown which I totally lost myself in the second arc. The strongest point of the series SAO was the depiction of an VRMMO. Compared to Accel World where people just "dive" into the game and create virtual avatars and just fight VS battles, there was a huge stress of MMO details and game mechanics in the series and that's what brought me to love this series. I believe this is the first series I've actually watched, to have a full exploring MMO scenario with hp bars being shown here and there, item and menu list, party list and party member indicators, and with skills and equipments as well. The series has successfully brought the actual world of MMO right into SAO and with continuous references to their mechanics such as "Immortal Object" label being shown when Kirito hits a wall, adds to the special aspect of the series itself. Although this game series does seem similar in terms of genre with Tower of Druaga, that series showed characters in the game which was the real world for the characters whereas SAO showed the game as a virtual world with the detailed mechanics and that makes it a refreshing series to watch for MMO players like me. On first note, the series quickly reminded me of the Tower of Druaga when the mission was to climb a tower, which had a 100 floor. Well that being left aside, the basic storyline of the series was laid right with the players being forced to play a death game which brought despair, hope and romance into a world of MMO. ALO was a follow-up of the series but personally it could've been alot better than how it has been.

everyone back together!

Talking about the finale, the closure was good enough for me. I'm actually a fan of reunions where we get to see old characters being brought back for cameos or being bonded together again. It makes me feel happy when I see them all good to go and retain their friendship brought from the vitrual world. This was what I had hoped to see in Angel Beats! but perhaps that would be spoiling the story so it's ending was fine as it is. It was a nice wrap up of the series as a whole, with the conclusion of having Kirito revive the VRMMO culture with the system that Kayaba passed to him. Having the idea of linking various MMOs together to form a network is really good, making the MMO world full of endless expansion and exploration which adds to the element of playing a virtual MMO. There are complications when it comes to that as it'll increase the level gap of the players when too many dungeons or world gets incorporated but that's just another way to look at it. There was the conclusion of the Sugou incident as well which went good in terms of story and character development. It stressed heavily on the effect of MMO and real life and how Kirito actually managed to differentiate the two. For a moment, I had actually thought that Kirito was about to kill Sugou off and that would've killed the series off with our main protagonist acting all like that. It was good to see that only some things that happen in the virtual world can be brought back into reality such as friendship, love and personal values but about killing someone, that's a different story. Having played SAO where people die when their character gets killed, Kirito was more cautious around people but when ALO arrived where characters can die as many times as they want while incurring penalties, I had a feeling that Kirito might've got too accustomed to the game, since we saw him, brutally slaughtering off Sugou's character in ALO, that he might actually do it again in real life. Glad he kept his composure and reunited happily with Asuna once again. And with SAO now incorporated into ALO, Sugu no longer feels left out, Asuna returns and a whole new MMO adventure will unfold with everyone once again. A rather nice ending there I would say. The only awkward thing was the dance between Suguha and Kirito. That was really anti-climax and just pure weird.

Asuna's ALO avatar looking good there

I believe the series did rather well in terms of the action scenes, with most memorable ones from SAO, with the showcase of Kirito's Dual Wield unique skill where he single-handedly kills off a a boss and the second last boss, the Reaper. The whole dual wield scene was just badass and coupled with the iconic SAO battle OST, the whole fight was just as epic as how it should be. Dual wielding characters are just darn cool :X The introduction of the Reaper was an impact too, showing how difficult it was when only at the 7X floors and it was the first boss that was shown to be as threatening as it was. Player versus were shown in SAO too with rather good animations and similarly in ALO, dual wielding Kirito just kills hard. He totally killed off the game's defined strongest player but making use of his dual sword to counter the enemy's phasing ability and triumphed with ease and that fighting scene was just as badass too.

Kirito in the series was a rather straightforward character, just like any other male protagonist, a young teen that has a rather simple mind, protective of others and sometimes an airhead. He does what he can and in face of danger, he fights alongside with his party members, with his quote that when he's alive, he would not allow any party members to die. Now that's only something you would say when you got insane stats to begin with but that simply shows how protective of others he feels. He basically feels that he is responsible for things that happen around him as he has the ability to perhaps change the course of events that turn out. Take for instance the Sachi arc, where he had concealed his actual level and paid a heavy price when it led to the destruction of the guild, or human lives. Seems like "with power comes great responsibility" is a true quote. But as he blames himself too much, it begins tiring again to see him as a normal anime character where the main protagonist always blames himself when something bad happens. Not a bad thing but too common I would say. Took him a long time to actually discover that Sugu, or Leafa, actually had feelings for him and when he discovered it, it was in a hard way. Would've loved his character more in SAO rather than in ALO though, seems more like a hacker to me in ALO as compared to him being a player in SAO.

Asuna on the other hand had little developments from the start of the series. Little was known about her until Kirito actually joined her guild and the two got together as a couple soon after that. Her job was more vital in SAO (well duh.) where she was one of the forward groups and with Kirito, there were a formidable pair. And with her sacrifice over in the last episode of the SAO arc, it showed Kayaba what human will was like, with Kirito's concious returning to deliver the final blow onto Kayaba. That is another plus point I would say, as it shows that human feelings can actually bring forth a person's fighting spirit, or will to protect another individual, such that the mind still remains concentrated at finishing the task even though the mind is presumed to be dead. Asuna's role in ALO was just an experimental subject, someone who is locked up and waiting to be experimented on, someone who was bullied and in the end, couldn't do much as she sees her beloved Kirito being tormented by Sugou until the tables turn. Would've appreciated it more if she was given some action in ALO rather that just shown as someone who's waiting to be rescued (since her own attempt has failed)

For Suguha, the only thing I can say for her is that she's just plain "unlucky". I mean what are the chances of falling in love with someone in the real world being the same as another random person that she met in the virtual world. I think other than unlucky, there wouldn't be another word to use to describe her situation. Sure enough it was painful for her to realise that her brother that she is in love with had found his other half over in the virtual world and when she thought that she could escape from her past and find a new love with Kirito in ALO, she is yet again disappointed when she discovers that both individuals are the same. If only she had questioned Kirito when Yui calls him Papa, since anyone would be curious to know that if there's a Papa, there would be a Mama right? A very unlucky girl there I would say...

All in all, I would say that this series has brought me to awe with awesome action scenes, from fighting bosses and boss fights, anger from Sugou's irritating antics, feeling painful for the characters when I see Kirito falling into despair when Asuna sacrificed herself to save him, the moment when he realised that the one he loved might be taken away, and the final realisation of Kirito by Sugu and her confrontation of her and Kirito. This was a fulfilling show, a refreshing one, an action packed one but not really the best of the best out there for the its season. It isn't bad but there're just many improvements that the series can venture into which the series had failed to deliver at the beginning of the second arc. Basically it's more of a over-rated anime series which is still worth a watch. At least the finale was redeeming. Kudos to the most talked-about series. The series is over and it's time to move on. Perhaps the novels would be a good idea :)

Sayonara Aincrad!

Chuunibyou is over!

It has been a fun ride over the course of this series and I'm truly glad I hoped on to the boat that brought us laughter, love, sadness, emotional moments, harshness of reality and the "chuunibyou" called "individuality" or "self-consciousness".

The last episode wrapped things up rather nicely, with a final conclusion of what "Chuunibyou" is perceived to be and that having it isn't actually something bad. There wasn't actually a strong development towards the romance part, but it was still sweet to see the two being together and having looked at them being separated aches me a little. The conclusive episode had most of its scenes rather predictable, like it was a "normal" follow-up of the story, where having learnt that Rikka was gone, it was about 100% sure that Yuuta would go get her back no matter what even when he missed the train. I was still surprised that he actually went by bike though, that's some amazing stamina he has... power of love perhaps?

just sweet~

What actually made me love the conclusion was firstly, how they wrapped Rikka's chuunibyou up nicely. There was a nice tie-in of a special episode, or Lite Episode, where Yuuta is seen to have a toy rifle and hiding behind the bush when escorting his little sister out, and that was when Rikka actually met Yuuta for the first time. Now that makes us look back at the 1st episode, where after Yuuta confronts Rikka about her knowledge of his chuunibyou, she tells him that "our paths once crossed". Now that could actually mean that she was referring to her first "encounter" with Yuuta, who at that time still had his chuunibyou. It was a nice take of Yuuta's two years ago letter from himself, that make him realise the truth that perhaps it isn't that bad to have chuunibyou after all as it wasn't really an illness. Reinforced by Shinka's earlier discussion about chuunibyou, she believes that each individual has their own syndrome of perhaps believing that they are special as individuals, being able to see things that others can't, and that is actually individuality or chuunibyou as they see it. Having "graduated" from chuunibyou can be seen by just escaping your own personality and adopting another "general" one called the "normal high school student". And by doing that, the individuality or self-consciousness will disappear. And THAT is possibly what Yuuta has realised. That keeping your own individuality is actually more important than being "normal" and that's maybe what tie the two of them together. The animation was actually more realistic in its way of delivering the final moments where Yuuta is shown panting over his "overlong" ride to Rikka's house before telling her to make a contract with him as Dark Flame Master and that she can choose to continue living her boring life (as of now as she is) or to rewrite it with him, as the wielder of the Tyrant's Eye. What I believe was that Rikka at that moment realised too that it was because of Yuuta's chuunibyou that she started to develop chuunibyou as well and at that time, it saved her but acting as her temporary shield from reality and she's thankful for that. Having faced reality now, she leaps into Yuuta's arms, knowing that it was chuunibyou that brought out the love between them.

The series also had the element about showing how people actually avoid reality and how harsh it can be, sometimes, for the young to accept. Looking at the flashbacks, it really took its toll on the then-young Rikka, who couldn't accept the fact that her dad was dead. She had always believed that he'll recover someday and without warning, he left, in the midst of her belief. The impact on her "broke" her in a silent way, where she actually did not felt much, as though she has rejected the truth. Other than chuunibyou acting as a personality for her, it acted like an emotional shield. Not like Yuuta's, her's probably developed after seeing Yuuta being all cool and being himself in an honest way, she wanted to have that sense of individuality as well and followed in his footsteps. And finally one day, she took up the courage and met up with Yuuta, whom she had "admired" all along for two years. For Yuuta, while Rikka's chuunibyou acted as a shield, Yuuta acted as her emotional support. And when he attempted to break Rikka's barrier and to let her face the truth, she literally broke and started to force reality into herself, repeatedly. Like the last 2 episodes where she keeps reminding herself that the moving lights are not some special lights but were caused by proper lighting effects. With that, both her shield and support broke apart and I can say she lost herself over at her parent's house and thus deciding simply to stay behind and to make the others happy. It was that exact moment when she started reminiscing about her chuunibyou moments and Yuuta himself, that he really appeared and took Rikka back to his reality, of the world that she was most familiar in. With the method of forcing reality not really working, Yuuta took it into his own hands and delivered the perfect ending for Rikka to accept reality. He perhaps figured out that Rikka had always wanted to search for the Ethereal Horizon was that she might have certain regrets left over and it turns out that her purpose of finding it was to give her dad a proper farewell. And that's where it bites me: So Rikka all this while had held on to this regret silently by herself and that her final reason for her chuunibyou was to delay the time or to try and wait for the perfect opportunity to open herself to reality and that's where Yuuta comes in to become the bridge for her. With that done, the two continue their lives, with their continued little relationship and the return of Dark Flame Master and the Wielder of Tyrant's Eye.

Do you want to see my eye?

It all started with its trailer, a rather misleading one, and from a perceived supernatural and epic scaled production, it transformed itself into a comedy, a drama, and a lesson for all of us. The overall pace was good and I really appreciate the twist of event and the change of mood. It was great to see the humour being placed in importance over the first few episodes to close the gap between Yuuta and Rikka, slowly developing Rikka's past and her relationship with Yuuta. Making her finally realise the thing called "love" and acknowledging it. And in the end, her trauma or regret has disappeared and a new love story is complete. All in just 12 episodes. It doesn't feel as rushed and the pace felt just right. Perhaps it was a simple love story that just grazed along the surface for a romance genre, whereas for series like Clannad, 2 seasons was required to bring out the full story.

This thing called "individuality" or "self-consciousness", was wonderfully brought into the story. A short story of a guy and a girl wandering around the world of Chuunibyou, finding love and accepting their own uniqueness. A remarkable series it has proved itself to be and definitely something I would recommend. Thumbs up! :)

Blast Reality. Burst it into shreds. Banishment, this world!

Winter 2012/2013

credits to neregate.com yet again for the chart for the upcoming season! 

Not really an exciting season to end the year all together with great series being pushed into the earlier seasons, this winter only seems to be of a "slow-down" in pace with mainly sequels of older series.

What caught my eye at the initial glance was "Savanna Game"
Based on it's synopsis:

"The story follows a young man named Kazuya Shibuya who receives an anonymous email message out of the blue one day: "Won't you join the Savanna Game?" The message is an invitation to a state-sanctioned killing game — a deadly role-playing game designed to motivate the inhibited youth of modern Japan. Shibuya and his two friends Kotegawa and Kudou find themselves in bizarre battles that span the space-time continuum, with everything from dragons to the Shinsengumi force of the shogunate era.

(Source: ANN)"

This really sounds to be one of the better series in this season. Gives me some nostalgic sense of Eden of the East.

Next comes the more familiar Minami-ke with their 4th season of slice-of-life: "Minami-ke Tadaima". To be more specific, this is the closest slice-of-life genre I've seen that's real close to actual family life in reality. Other slice-of-life series include Lucky Star, K-on and such but for one that focus mainly on family relationship, this is probably the closest as it can get. Having watched the 1st 3 seasons, I guess I would kill off some time with their 4th season then.

"Bakumatsu Gijinjen Roman" seems to be of another interesting series. Phantom thief and the old dynasty era setting? Seems good enough for me :)

Back when we actually missed the Monster Hunter cameos over in Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, we have their 2nd season coming right up in this winter season, with an additional NEXT followed closely behind. Similarly with Seitokai no Ichizon whose 2nd season is currently airing right now, I do hope that the animations style doesn't change that drastically as compared with SnI.

"Tamako Market"



Kyoto Animation coming up with an original work? Now that would be interesting to watch! Familiar character design and with the same director from K-On! as well, maybe we could expect some tear jerker at the end again? Looks decent but am having high hopes for original productions!

And finally, the series that I'm actually most looking forward to: "Sasami-san@Ganbaranai" by SHAFT animation. Not an original production this time but I'm already a great fan of SHAFT series so I'm definitely not missing out on this. Had thought that the 2nd Mahou Shoujo series by SHAFT would have arrived here but seems that they've pushed that behind into 2013.

"The story follows a hikikomori named Sasami who is unmotivated about even changing clothes or eating. Her brother takes care of her, even though she despises his slave-like nature. Sasami spends her days viewing the outside world via a "Brother Surveillance Tool" on her computer. In the outside world, the three beautiful Yagami sisters and Sasami's brother are in the middle of relationships worthy of a romantic comedy. 

(Source: ANN)"



Romantic comedy by SHAFT? Famous seiyuus like Asumi, Kana (Strength of BRS, Tachibana Miya from Amagami),

Chiwa, Saito (Senjougahara from Bakemonogatari, Akemi Homura from Madoka)

and Hanazawa, Kana (Kanade from Angel Beats! Mato from BRS, Mayuri in Steins;Gate and Kuroneko from Ore no Imouto)

Another out-of-norm genre I guess but it'll be worth a try :)

Ja-ja-jaaaaaaaang!

My Squier Bullet Strat!

finally I've got my very 1st electric guitar! Was initially looking for a red one with a black pickguard but since that one, which I found was a serious wallet burner, was too "painful" for me so I've settled for something much more decent and rather good for it's quality. Am loving it now! :3 

The initial feel was that it's much much much more heavy than a acoustic (since they're hollowed out) but the neck is slimmer in a way, which makes fretting much more easier as compared to my own classical guitar. The tension in the strings is more of between the acoustic and the classical, it's less tensed as compared to the classical and unfortunately, the fret still has to be pushed down fully, which I had previously believed that a slight press that bends the string would be sufficient since I've seen guitarists fretting extremely fast. So that'

s even more skill than it already seems to be :X 

Switching over to the electric feels kinda weird but many times more shiok than the classical :) considering the fact that now I've a wider range of songs that I can learn play, both acoustic style and rock / metal style, its good to have something that can play two-way. 

Got myself a couple of other accessories, and most importantly, a Nux Mighty 15 Amp. What surprises me from the amp is that it's able to tune the guitar by itself, talk about multi-tasking. With 6 channels to choose from and additional effects (6 to be exact, 3 on each knob so you can bring up to 2 effects at one go) I was really lucky that I've decided to get this amp instead. Took me quite long before I actually realised that there was a button to switch between Clear and Overdrive to create distortion effect. I was like toying around with the various knobs to try and get the Distortion effect and was fairly disappointed until I touched that magical button haha. Awesome and immediate feedback to boot. It was REALLY loud :X With overdrive, mainly using the volume knob on the guitar is good enough whereas for clear, both volume knobs have to be used. 

The style of playing for electric and classical is really different too since electric is like mainly playing with bands, the notes are repetitive and it's harder to grasp the real melody of the song when practising. With the classical guitar, solo songs would have the bass and melody compressed together whereas for the electric, only a certain part of the song is fulfilled by the tabs and the melody is mainly brought together by the drums and the vocals. Makes it quite difficult to practise without listening to the original song over and over again or at the same time when fretting. Hopefully my neighbours can tahan my "jamming" since beginner practice is more of a noise for the Overdrive portion. I do switch to Clear for some balancing too so it wouldn't be all distorted and loud :X

Ja-ja-jaaaaaaaaaaang!

Will update the upcoming season either tmr or tuesday before some overall series impressions start streaming in next week with the end of promising series.

psycho-pass ED by Egoist

FEARII TEERU wa
sakki shinda mitai
renga no byoutou de umaku utaenakute
kiri ni kemuru yoru ukabe akai tsuki
hora mite watashi wo
me wo sorasanai de

kuroi tetsugoushi no naka de
watashi wa umarete kitan da
akui no daishou wo negae
nozomu ga mama ni omae ni
saa ataeyou seigi wo
kowashite kowasareru mae ni
inga no daishou harai
tomo ni yukou namae no nai kaibutsu

miminari ga shiteru
tetsujoumou urusakutte
omoidasenai no ano hi no senritsu
ame wa mada yamanai
nanni mo mienai no
hora mite konna ni ookiku natta no

kuroi ame kudarase kono sora
watashi wa nozomarenai mono
hibiwareta NOIROOZE
aisu douzai no boukansha tachi ni
saa ima furue seigi wo
kesenai kizu wo dakishimete
kono karada wo ukeire
tomo ni yukou namae no nai kaibutsu

aa
kami WA tsuGERU shin NO sekai WO

kuroi tetsugoushi no naka de
watashi wa umarete kitan da
akui no daishou wo negae
nozomu ga mama ni omae ni
saa ataeyou seigi wo
kowashite kowasareru mae ni
inga no daishou harai
mukui yo na mo naki kaibutsu

kuroi ame kudarase kono sora
watashi wa nozomarenai mono
hibiwareta NOIROOZE
aisu douzai no boukansha tachi ni
saa ima furue seigi wo
kesenai kizu wo dakishimete
kono karada wo ukeire
tomo ni yukou namae no nai kaibutsu

Awwww :3

At first glance, it seemed like a supernatural, action packed series.
At second look, it seemed all innocent with slice-of-life humours
And now, it seemed all serious, emotional and together with a cute relationship, we get the Chuunibyou that we have right now.

Having the series introducing each of the various protagonists, slowly developing and uncovering Rikka's background story and with her finally realising the thing called "Love" amidst her current Chuunibyou. And with the 10th episode, the duo finally admit their own feelings and confessed to each other, with Rikka taking the first step ahead. And boy, that was just sweet. That happy atmosphere could have lasted longer until trouble comes finding the following day when Rikka's mother appears and Yuuta starts to hesitate on whether to force Rikka to see the truth or continue to believe what she had, which was the existence of the horizon. True enough, the word "responsiblity" came down hard on Yuuta, since he was called irresponsible in shielding Rikka from reality and on the other hand, there was the risk of Yuuta ruining his new found relationship if he had decided to force reality onto Rikka.

Honestly I was surprised to see Yuuta choosing to go along with the latter path and that made me feel sad for him for having a wonderful relationship being reduced to a tense and unstable one. On Rikka's side, her Chuunibyou has most probably developed from her trauma of losing her loved one and the eyepatch, or her "Tyrant's Eye" is mainly a substitute for her to take her time to accept the fact, the harsh reality. Yuuta's decision could have been the right choice since it'll be easier to recover when one is still young and with the final scene of Rikka removing her eyepatch in accordance to Yuuta's request, with the disappearance of the "Tyrant's Eye", Rikka might have just overcame her own barrier and chose to follow Yuuta instead. However the ending was abrupt and Rikka didn't really showed much emotion thus it still remains debatable on whether she has fully recovered or has just lost herself in the world of reality. I do hope that the relationship between the two of them still remains as good as ever and with the series moving away from slice-of-life scenes, this can only get better.

Now it's time to search for the novels! :)

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More and more mysteries and questions are appearing with the completion of Guns-1 in Robotics;Notes. And so it seems that the completion of the giant robot wasn't the main goal for the series, as it's already completed near the start of the series itself. A sneak peek at Aki's sister also suggests that she's also working on a robot by herself too and has changed in her attitude towards Aki, with her seen calling Guns-1 a pile of junk and not bothering to reply Aki's mail at all. Who exactly is she? What is she working on? And what caused her to changed that much? Flashbacks suggests that she was a rather caring individual, chasing down her dream of completing Guns-1 but now, it all seemed to be a lie. Nothing much is still revealed about the Kimijima Kou Reports, or so for now, since only 2 has been uncovered.

I do feel abit sad to see Aki having her dream "shattered" after putting in so much effort into Guns-1 which in the end couldn't keep up with the technological advances and human expectations. That just shows how true an exponential growth in technological advances are. People would keep expecting more and more from technology as time flies and not many would be aware of the hard work and sacrifices that some have made to make something possible. In a way, having just students completing a giant robot was already a great accomplishment but the desire to see more or the higher expectations crushed the dreams of the youngsters, forcing the hard truth down that even if Guns-1 was completed, what next? Tennouji Nae still remains as a rather normal character, not so sure if she was deliberately placed into the series to show connections with Steins;Gate or that she's just a basic cameo that merely shows that it's another timeline in itself.


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There's this new found, unique trait that I can say I've seen in Shin Sekai Yori. "Confusion" 

That basically sums up what I'm feeling after watching the series till now. There wasn't really a clear storyline, just showing how dangerous it may be to probe into protected secrets and every episode seems to have a small time skip here and there. Till now, I can't really grasp what exactly is the plot heading towards now. The previous episode had Shun disappearing due to him losing control over his Cantus, and in hope of seeing the aftermath of Shun's disappearance, the latest episode had a sudden replacement over his existence, everyone got their memory wiped, and neither did they show the "new guy" entrance to the group, to "act" as Shun's existence. This does bear similar traits with Higurashi's 1st season where things don't quite make sense, so hopefully either this series runs for long or that there'd be a 2nd season following this. Having too many unanswered questions till the end would make it too confusing to follow. Up to now, there have just been more and more questions, and lesser and lesser answers. I'm honestly starting to lose track of this series...

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and here's just two awesome bgms:

and the 2nd PV for SAO PSP - Infinity Moment is out! It's looking real good too!

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Winter chart for 2012/2013 is out! Not really an exciting season but some are still worth a glance!

Will update them in the next entry!

Steins;Gate cameo?!

by comparing the OP of Robotics;Notes and Steins;Gate, they're both actually quite similar with the distinctive use of the title font and the appearance of the divergence numbers. little did I know that there would actually be a crossover of character, or actually showed some connection between the 2 parallel series. I would be rather surprised to see Accel World having a slight glimpse of SAO but this, was both a surprise and a delight. Perhaps due to the fact that there could possibly be some time factor existing in the series itself. There is always the possibility of the Elephant-Mouse syndrome being a side effect of Reading Steiner, or that the S.S. Anemone incident was due to a divergence in time fabric itself. Maybe I'm thinking too much about it but nonetheless I was happy to see some link between S;G and R;N.(using short forms is easier IMO, lol.) So being reintroduced into R;N is Tennouji Nae, the little daughter of Mr.Braun who had eventually created the time machine, possibly murdered the Lab members of Okabe Rintarou, time leaped her adult memories back into her young self to exact revenge on Okabe who had caused her father to die. That dark side of her now seems to be non-existent. Who knows that the "new" Tennouji Nae would be a rather normal girl, a member of a Space Research Centre, JAXA, and wants to build a giant robot with Akiho and the rest. Guess that's what makes time travel that scary, someone who was as violent as she was supposed to be:

                             turns out to be a helpful, cheerful and charismatic girl. (on the left)

 

Now with the 2nd  Kimijima Kou report being found by Kai, who had actually escaped from death from completing the task or flag required, the story had now more questions added in, or mysteries if I would say, what exactly is the Kimijima reports? What exactly is the Sister Centipede or Airi? Or even the creepy ringtone of Kagome-Kagome... this can only just start to be more interesting that it already is!

With the conclusion of SAO now running close, Leafa, or Sugu, has finally realised that Kirito is actually her dear brother Kazuto. Talk about the timing and her disappointment. I could feel how unlucky she was in love when both individual that she fell in love with were one and the same. It could possibly be Kirito's personality that had led Sugu fall in love with him twice, but the buildup to her realization was too painful and really really unfortunate for her. If only she had actually questioned or raised suspicion on Yui's mother since she has been calling Kirito papa for so long, wouldn't one actually suspect that if there's a papa, there would be a mama? And even after Yui had told Kirito that mama was above him, Sugu didn't actually ask what was happening and had almost confessed to Kirito until the cover was blown. It was painful to see someone being heartbroken, twice, by the same person, and her breakdown was truly emotional. Only a few episodes left in the series and with Kirito now closing on Asuna, Sugu's part could possibly be done, unless she pulls herself back up, accepts the fact that it's impossible for her and Kirito to be together, that she'd be back in ALO, supporting the completed mission of saving Asuna.

Talking about complicated romance, dear Rikka now had both Chuunibyou and her new found love causing a great headache in her small mind. Thanks to Nibutani, she is now aware that the feeling that she had previously was actually her love for Yuuta but as dense as she could be, she can hardly accept the new feelings of her, or should I say actually realize it. It was hilarious to see how Nibutani had planned all the "get-closer-together" situations for Rikka but she ruins it everytime with her Chuunibyou getting in her way. From "what do you think of me" to "what do you think of my Evil Eye". Now thats frustrating enough for Nibutani to rip her love advice book into half at the end of the day. Nonetheless her last trick or encounter chance worked, perhaps in a good or bad way as Rikka slipping from the school roof made me skipped a beat since this series has never had such series or dangerous scenes as of yet. It was heartwarming to see Rikka, after being rescued, to hug Yuuta tightly and calling out to him. Now that Rikka has finally learned about her love, it's about time Yuuta does the same.

Was quite lucky today to pull 2 RRs from 7 WS packs of Madoka Magica (while I slowly await the arrival of my box :D)

managed to pull this out! Finally my 1st healing card! Now I'm just short of my MadoKami! :3

















Madoka Magica movie OP: Luminous by ClariS (piano cover)

Not again... GAH D:

                                       Eureka Seven Ao

following a near 2 month hiatus, E7 Ao returns to screen with its final 2 episodes. Honestly speaking, having a long break in between a season itself isn't really a good thing. Since people tend to lose track of the story or even lose the momentum of the series itself. Expectations would definitely be high awaiting the final 2 episodes, thinking that perhaps the ending would be satisfactory enough to have proved the long break worthy. Madoka did deliver exactly what we could have wanted, but E7 Ao wasn't close to making the mark at all. The 2nd last episode brought to us more mysteries and unanswered questions, following a meet up with the all famous and familiar Renton Thurston. The episode packed a load of mecha action, followed by seeing Ao struggling over the decision of whether or not to change the world by firing the cannon due to continuous stress placed over him by Truth.

In the end, Ao discovers that he had a sister before but had died the moment she was born due to a possible clash of genes between a human and a coralian. As a result, Renton and Eureka has been searching for a place with low trapar concentration to raise their second child, Ao, who was threatened by the blooming corals and the trapar that they produce. Ao wishes for Eureka to stop fighting her own kind, the Coralians, and took the responsibility of taking care of the corals by himself. He fires the cannon, and as a result, he manage to send Eureka and Renton back to the 1st world, or the original E7 world, before he disappears into another time and space. What I thought had happened was that Eureka and Renton were now back to square one, after hearing what Ao had said that they should just continue to live and not deny the fact of his existence, from the suggested use of the cannon to "travel" into another world with less or no trapar. As a result, the first dimension exists another Ao inside Eureka and thus Ao was automatically shifted to another timeline to prevent a time paradox. Finally, Ao arrives in another timeline similar to the one he had left, with no trapar, no coralians, no secrets, and no Nirvash. The 3rd world that Ao had changed after firing the Quartz Cannon for the 3rd time.

The ending was pretty normal, but there wasn't really a definite feel to the end of the series. No one knows what exactly the 3rd world contains, or what might be expected of Ao. Or even that the ending was a happy or a sad one, there isn't really a clear line. What Ao did was to the benefit of his parents but in the end, it took so little effort to part with them both when Ao clearly does misses his mother quite dearly as seen in the earlier episodes. To Renton and Eureka, to allow humans and coralians to coexist was their first mistake which saw the Corals growing out of control and the secrets were created to tackle that. As a result of the coincidental timing of appearance, Scub Burst was named after this phenomenon. Carrying the guilt of the scub bursts and the loss of their first child, it would have made Renton and Eureka determined to set things right, to create a world where there were no Scub Corals and to ensure that their 2nd child, Ao, would live on as a normal child. Having to part with Ao in tears, it makes me wonder if Renton and Eureka were thinking if it was the right decision to make or not. True enough, Ao would be born in their own world perhaps in a few months/years but the risk of Ao repeating the same phenomenon as his sister was still there. The decision was only made when Ao himself asks no not deny his experience of living.

If I was looking into Ao's point of view, it does seem that this ending was a pretty sad one. He had sent his parents back to where they belong and he continues to live alone, in a whole new world that was still unknown to him. With the Scubs gone, there wasn't a sure-thing that the "others" would still remember Ao. Without the Scub, there wouldn't be Generation Blue, and there wouldn't be Nirvash, let alone all the others that he had met: Chief, Fleur, Elena etc. It is a new timeline after all so that would leave many, many questions left unanswered. Seems like a pretty abrupt end though, with the loose ends tied up rather loosely.

With the series coming to a close, there were still some questions that wasn't quite answered as of yet. What exactly did Eureka do when she appears in a hologram state? It just seems that she was able to cross time but not fully, whereas her Scub counterparts have no problem. Nothing much is explained about the Quartz, only that it's the Scub's core and having many of them isn't a good thing... What does the pole light do anyway, seems like a portal to another timeline? And for the Quartz Cannon, does it just deny whatever it shoots or just randomly changes the timeline? The first shot fired eliminated the scub burst and the 4th shot returned Eureka and Renton back to their original timeline.

The whole character of Truth seems to be totally random as well. There wasn't actually much development on his part of the story. Or rather he is portrayed to be an individual who is in a complete mess, not knowing what exactly is he and upon learning the truth, denies his own existence. It would have been far more interesting to see the plot twist earlier, so that they could squeeze in more screentime of the 3rd world, or with Truth as the archtype for Nirvash Neo. I was pretty confused over what Truth had did in the final 2 episodes. He does not seem to have sided with the Scub or the Secrets and due to his messed up conscience, he just wants Ao to fire the cannon to deny his existence. And then comes the same question again, does the cannon deny something? If it does, I wouldn't see how the effect of denying or changing the world structure could have brought Renton and Eureka back together.

Ao was a likeable character, there were some funny and interactive scenes here and there, but he jumps into a hero mode too much that he's endangering the lives of him and his other comrades. The only part that I hate about his personality is that he wavers too much. One moment he vows to fire the Quartz Cannon to get his mother back or to meet with Eureka once again, but then he hesitates again when he knows the truth that the world might change due to the cannon and as a result, he stones and have conflicting actions once again. Which also causes Nirvash to get hit and in the end, had to be rescued by the others. It was pretty tricky since with the multiple timeline part, and in the end, he finds his purpose of his life, or his true goal other than just plainly fighting Secrets and Scubs, at the final 2 episodes. Seriously? Now that's just a lagged out protagonist.

Naru on the other end made me feel the same way as Truth had. In one episode, she meet up with Truth, does not suspect him at all, accepts the Scub and becomes the enemy. And then the series continues to picture her as an icon or a person that can communicate with the Scub, with less and less development on the connection of her and the Scub. Its like "BAM! She's half Scub! Oooooh. Ok."

E7 Ao could have more scenes featuring Renton and Eureka since it is a sequel after all or perhaps this was more like a spinoff? Similar to Code Geass and Last Exile? Though it'll be great if I could see Lavi and Claus fly again in their vanship.

Overall, what I felt really lacking from the ending was the "wow" effect. Having a E7 sequel was an interesting move and with the characters that were not mainly focused on the original characters of E7 was good and with some connections here and there made it better. But then the pacing for the series just felt weird. The ups and down of the series were running around randomly. The plot development seemed rushed near the ending, and even the 23rd episode didn't make it felt like it was the end. Neither did the 1st half of the 24th episode. It just feels like a normal episode that could have still tens of episodes left over for the series... and then it just ends. Like that. It wasn't actually a BAD ending, but just a plain ending that leaves many E7 fans disappointed. The plot was going strong, there was a nice twist of plot but that's just that. Nothing special at all. At times I can't really keep up with how the series was going, there wasn't like a clear end drawn for the story to reach. It just felt like the series could just go on and on until the line is drawn and quickly ends it. At least E7 Ao had more likeable characters compared to Fam of the Silver Wing. Seems just like a repeat of Darker than Black S2... or even more similarly with Hitman Reborn's manga end. If it wasn't said or labeled to be the last episode, I can actually see how the series can continue. Oh well. thankfully the OST still retains its quality :)

Gardens by the Bay!

never would I have thought that I'd be visiting this place through a cohesion event in the Army. Unfortunately my camera wasn't with me so it was quite a pity that I couldn't create another photo album for the Gardens.

On picture, the Supertrees seemed to be huge and the interconnecting bridges had also seemed to be long too. However up close and front, they weren't that huge after all, and the bridge wasn't that high too. Perhaps it would be better to head to the Singapore Flyer instead since the MBS already cover like 30% of the 360 degree view. Although we didn't get to enter the domes, they were rather big on site. It seemed like a standalone shopping centre when seen from far.

Didn't really spend much time browsing the garden since I was pretty zombie for the tasks to be completed since I just had duty the day before, but to me, it seems like a more larger and refined Botanic Gardens. Would prefer the botanic gardens IMO, the natural plants and trees there have more feel and with the other animals like squirrels running over at Botanic Gardens, I think it's a better local place to be in. Perhaps the flower domes would be the main attraction over at the Gardens by the Bay but that's not a free entry place so the competition isn't really there.

                                                                awesome day out!

having cut through the MBS hotel to the shopping district, I was really "wow-ed" by the interior of the MBS. It looks really really high class atas hotel... From another POV, it seems like a departure hall for an airport, with lounges and small cafes over at the ground floor. And then at the Marina area, that's when I was surprised to see a large crowd... or isit really a shock... : OH.. kpop people looking at SMTown. That was quite a crowd there. Perhaps I should thank myself that I wasn't a kpop fan or I would most probably have queued and waited like the many others out there. Marina Square was thus flooded with the concert-goers, bad idea to have headed there for lunch. Settled down later at Pizza Hut (guess that's like the 3rd time I've been there?) burnt my wallet and headed home.

Fun days and counting down to christmas!

Shocking twist - In a good way

its been quite some time since I last took an opportunity to go cycling around the park. After 3 weeks of almost zero exercise, I thought it'd be good to head out and refresh myself a little while, away from the computer. Headed off to Pasir Ris park in the early morning, and it seems like its an elderly haven over there. Almost 70% of the people I see there working out were senior citizens. It's already school holidays but perhaps the children are too coped up with playing their iPad / iPhone I guess... I mean that's a perfectly normal thinking since I've been seeing small kids playing on iPad on trains and on everywhere else... The apple generation is invading too fast! It's still an eye-opener for me since it's really rare that I get to see the quiet peaceful park with the others merely working out or having "qigong" lessons. Since most of the time I'd head there only in the afternoon, it's a rare sight that I'd would have saw. Went a few rounds through Pasir Ris Park and it was roughly the same as I last took notice of it, about 10 months ago. And the nostalgic feel to head down to Elias Mac to have breakfast. Even the cashier aunties were still the same ever since we took that as a study area for last few years.

Headed down to Expo over the weekend, had been only there last week for AFA and no traces had remained after the week. Kinda expected yea. Read somewhere too that Suntec Convention Hall is going for a 6month renovation from Oct 2012. Which means AFA next year would most probably shift back to Suntec, which would be a better place IMO. The Popular bookfair only took up half of a hall this time round, making it more packed than ever. Headed straight to the chinese novel section and was browsing through the taiwan books, mainly from 九把刀 which had some rather interesting books under him. Was actually quite tempted to get a couple of books there but since I do know that I'll most probably delay the reading of the books so maybe next time then I'll get it. And as usual the assessment book section was flooded with parents, scrambling for the appropriate books. Poor kids... It's only the start of the holidays... I do fear too, since it's been like a year since I last studied. Got to refresh myself abit next year before school starts in 2014!

And it's finally out of MISB condition! Quite a lot of parts from a nendoroid, took me quite long to fix it up too, the cannon is really heavy for her hands!

And just a couple of rather significant updates on some of the current ongoing series:

SAO is picking up the pace, to the possible end at 25/26 episode. I don't really see the possibility of SAO to head into the Gun Gale arc so it'll most possibly end on a high note together with ALO. A couple of episodes back, SAO was pretty dry, with just some tsun going on with Leafa / Sugu, and a little too much focus on character curves. It wasn't that bad with Asuna but with Leafa... the animators sure got their eyes on them. The latest episode of SAO was high on tempo, with Kirito showing off his dual wield skill again in ALO and easily defeating a so called "strongest player" in ALO. Now it just seems that Kirito is a hacker. In fact, no one ever doubts or asks him about his origins. I do thought that at least Kirito, the name, would be known from completing SAO or that by his sudden appearance and over the scale stats, no one ever questions him about it. A loophole perhaps? Leaving the unanswered questions aside, Kirito does seem like a hacker doesn't he. Someone who has crazy stats, crazy amount of gold, crazy running and rather fast flying speed, and even a portable GM-like AI to boot. Now that's what I call game imbalance. Seems like Asuna is out of the cage too so I guess it wouldn't be long before the two meet again but for a proper reunion, I'll vouch on the 24-26th.

Chu2Koi had always seem to me as a light-hearted, slice-of-life anime that doesn't really need a proper storyline to bring out the humour and randomness, but the lastest episode shattered this hypothesis, in a good light. I was honestly tricked by its trailer to e expecting the series to be a cool action supernatural type of show but when it turns out to be a "nichijou" type of series, I actually didn't mind it being that way since it's still funny to see the antics of the various weird characters in the series itself. Turning the table around to input a dark and sad element into the series was a good move and a surprising twist. I did expect that the old house that Rikka was running to see was already gone, (it was pretty obvious), but for the series to pull out the post-feeling experience into Rikka, I'd give kudos to that. Having the cheerful music end at the same time as Rikka being exposed to the bare truth and then tearing up before trying to "blast reality" again, it makes me wonder if it was the trauma of her father's death that led to her contracting this syndrome or was it plainly her trying to run away from the truth and thus had used words similar to avoiding reality. Now that adds a darker and mysterious atmosphere into the series and seeing how Rikka was emotionally damaged by that, I do feel for her too. Awesome turn of events and one of the more promising one as of yet.

and here's one of the more touching OST of God Eater Burst:

AFA 2012

It was an extremely tiring weekend and thanks to having an extended weekend up to Tuesday, I'm glad I've got the time to recover. Not sure if I had woken up at 5am on both days is due to being overly excited or a messed up body clock, nonetheless my daily reserve of energy was sapped out quickly at the event.

Rushed to the event on Day 1 at around 8am and even as the doors only open at 9am, the entrance was already crowded with people and I quickly rooted myself to the ground and wait for the sweaty, hot and stuffy one hour to pass. This was actually the 1st time I had squeezed together with the early-goers for the event as I usually would head to the event slightly later to avoid the crowd. Seems like with an agenda this year, I could actually push myself to squeeze with the crowd. On both days, the Madoka movie starts at 9.30am in the other Hall so I've got around 30minutes to grab my goods before heading to the movie. Unfortunately, none of the 2 to-buy-item was in stock. And thus I headed to the movie empty handed and prepare to look out for bargains after the movie had ended.

Day 1 was pure goods hunting, queueing for shops here and there which quickly squeezed all my time away. To make the already tight schedule worse, my Day 1 activities included stage events which meant that I had to slot in time to visit the stage to make my stage ticket worthwhile. The worst and longest queue I was in was the Madoka Movie shop. That itself took me 1hr and 20minutes just to get into the store. Tried my luck on a Kuji there and got the simplest of prize. It was still a movie special merchandise so why not? :)

so basically thats all that I got from the 2 days in AFA. Most of them were in Day 1, where Day 2 I had only got myself a Madoka Half-Age Character and a WS AB Vol.2 booster.

Headed 1st to Kurocha! to grab my card sleeves (like finally) and then went to KKnM which took me about half an hour to get into the shop and luckily for me, I spotted that awesome wall scroll / tapestry as seen above. It wasn't on display in the shop and it was the only one left. And its REALLY quite big. And then, its nendo hunting! Had intended to get a Kyoko nendoroid but I believe the price was still high or that the stock was cut thus there wasn't any at the event. And then I spotted the BRS TV. vers nendoroid and after comparing prices across 3 shops, I took the cheapest one and tadah! Its here! My very 1st nendoroid! Shall leave it in its MISB condition for now due to the lack of proper display cabinet that could turn my nendoroid dusty and stuff like that so I'll just wait a while more...

Day 2 was more of a photo taking day since free hands w/o any goods makes it easier to capture photos. With experience from last year, using only auto-focus for some of the figurines was a bad idea as they tend to focus on random areas even with the focus area being already expanded. Things become blur and worse when it comes to complicated figures and gundams as well. Thus, I went ahead with manual focus all the way for this year and after browsing through, it was pretty hard to get the perfect sharpness but it is better than auto focus too. Gotta train more in that and perhaps tweek the shutter speed too.

its quite a handful of photos and since blogger tends to lower the quality, I've uploaded them onto fb and its a public album, just not that sure whether the link below works :X

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151242830398166.487329.538578165&type=3

Overall, the 2 days has been fun, the movies were awesome, the goods I got made me happy and its really great! However this year it seems that the event hall was smaller than the ones in Suntec City Convention Centre as it was quite obvious that there were lesser merchandises on display and many shops had their area  reduced. And it was quite easy to breeze through from one end to the other end, unlike in Suntec. To offset this, there were much more stores that pique my interest this year and thats a positive thing :D

Well, AFA 2012 is over, see you @ AFA 2013!

Madoka Magica The Movie 1 & 2

SPOILERS AHEAD!

After an extended replay of the Madoka series through their 1st and 2nd movie and the teaser for the upcoming 3rd movie. I can honestly say that the money I spent for these films is definitely worth the bucks. This year with AFA being held at Singapore Expo rather than the usual Suntec Convention Centre, Hall 8 was used as the stage area and the films were being shown via the stage. The screen was unfortunately small, *not that it matters alot since I was quite in front :)* but the audio quality was good. Real good. The speakers were actually of high quality rather than the usual ones that we normally see at Cosfest. Perhaps its an event hall so it'll probably be better equipped.

Having more focus on the films itself, the storyline remains the same for the 1st two films. With the 1st movie making a cut when the truth is revealed about the Mahou Shoujos turning into witches once their soul gem become totally tainted. And the 2nd movie ends the same way as the original anime series did. In the 2 films, there were quite a lot of additional scenes, some which extended the original scenes and some were totally new scenes. An example of an extended scene would be the scene where Kyouko sacrifices herself and brings Octavia / Sayaka down together with her. With more elaborate scenes added in too. A new scene would be right after Kyouko's sacrifice where Kyubey tells Homura that it knew all along that Sayaka couldn't be saved and the setting was in a graveyard with scarlet backdrop, as compared to the original anime series of being in Homura's house. I'm quite positive there were some dialogue changes too, which possibly targeted people whom had watched the original series before as many lines were crafted in such a way that in the end, the viewers would be able to find the link between the timelines. Like how Homura had performed her introduction to Madoka due to Madoka giving Homura the headstart when they 1st met in the very 1st timeline. Many of the OSTs used were remixed as well. Magia had a different feel all together and the BGM used during Sayaka's transformation to Octavia was also noticeably unique and different. What came more shocking was the additional blood effects over in the 2nd movie. Not sure if the animators really wanted the Sayaka/Octavia/Kyouko scene to have a deep impact or what, because apparently Kyouko seemed to have an extremely large open wound at the abdomen area and it just bled. Like: A lot. I don't see Mami being all bloody after getting her head bitten off by Charlotte *though the chewing sounds of her body was distinctively disturbing* but nonetheless I was still surprised. The final interaction scene between Homura and Madoka had also changed in the form of their animation where the original series had their body curves rather distinctively shown with abstract shadows over them, but the movie version was brighter and was featuring them with bright semi-abstract dresses. All in all, it was refreshing to see the remake of the original series with new additional scenes and of high sound and quality but what comes even more exciting was the 3rd movie teaser.

Unfortunately, the teaser for the 3rd film is RAW. There was absolutely no sub. So I wasn't really able to umderstand a huge truckload of it. But according to the teaser, the story will revolve mainly on the 3 main mahou shoujos that are left out of the 5: Homura, Mami and Kyouko. And we got to see Kyouko in their school uniform as well! NOW that's a plus point for the new film! No wonder there was a end slot art on the 5 of them wearing the same school uniforms. Coincidence or just pure genius? :) Seems that MadoKami is able to interact with Homura more closely now and Mami seems to be fighting some unknown enemy that looks like a soul gem. According to sources in SGCafe, apparently in the new world, when Mahou Shoujos get their soul gems tainted, they simply vanish due to the Law of Circles which is something like the concept that Madoka's existence has become. And the worst part is that it seems that the "concept" itself seems to have a flaw in it. Did Madoka's wish not bring the cursed fate to an end? What I believe is that the concept itself breaks the law of entropy. According to Kyubey, Madoka's wish had turn her into a mere concept or a principle where witches simply do not exist anymore and in the previous world, the energy is collected when the transformation to witches begin. Now the problem could lie in the fact that there is no transformation done, Mahou Shoujos have a negative energy level due to their wish being a miracle come true and when they vanish, they leave no trace of positive energy. And that disturbs the law of entropy as it does not fall back to equilibrium. Perhaps the black boxes that the devils carry help to curb the effect but since that's not explained yet, its still a plausible problem to the Law of Circles that Madoka had created. The 3rd movie also has the name of "The Story of Rebellion". And that is a very debatable title in itself, possibly hinting that one of the girls might actually turn her back on the others or that the 3 of them turning against the world due to the flaw in the law. And THATS what makes the 3rd film look so exciting and as something regrettable to be missed. Catch the 3rd film in 2013! Hopefully it's air in Singapore as well. And if it does, I can't wait! :)

a more detailed AFA post will be done up in around 1-2 days

2 more weeks to AFA'12!

time really flies, a burnt weekend followed by a long one and as we welcome the long weekend: its gone before we know it O_O

last weekend was too short, and these 3 days felt the same too... went to play Badminton on Friday with JC friends. Awesome time and playing badminton over in camp really does help myself to improve haha. Saw myself stuck over the rest of the weekend, stoning at home. Headed out yesterday night to Downtown East to have dinner where there was the Halloween event held at the D'Marquee as well. The queue was so damn long too O_O talk about a paid event! Went by Chrisford too and got to ogle at the guitars over there. Gotta get myself a red one soon!  :D Saw the exact on that I wanted over at cash converter for 169 bucks... was tempted though... but I personally would rather not get a 2nd hand one.

what I had in mind was this: would take a look over at peninsula when the time to buy is right :) hopefully it comes as a set!

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have bought the festival + stage ticket for Saturday and am planning for a normal festival ticket for Sunday. Sadly *SCAPE only sells the F+S tickets so I'll have to get the Sunday F ticket on the event itself. More importantly, AFA'12 has brought along the 1st 2 madoka movies that have been shown across many countires. This wasn't actually surprising since it was earlier confirmed on the Madoka website that the movie will be shown in Singapore in the later part of the year and coincidentally AFA was also in the same timeframe so I kinda had the hint that it'll be packaged together. However the ticket didn't come cheap though, for early bird tickets, it was a total of SGD50 for 2 movies inclusive of movie premiums. Had it been just the movie itself, I might have reconsidered but since the package was so tempting, I got it anyways :D

Looking at how the 3rd new movie that will be shown next year, I won't be that sure if it'll be shown in AFA'13 or just in the cinema. Would prefer the latter though, better sound quality compared to the normal Expo Hall for the 2 movies this year. 2 more weeks to go and I'm getting excited and worried at the same time. Please don't burn my AFA weekends! *prays*

Robotics; Notes

3 episodes down and I'm slowly beginning to experience the so called post Steins;Gate syndrome. On 1st look, it looks like just a small Robot Club trying to complete their gundam-size robot called Gunvarrel but on the other hand, it looks like the characters each might have developed certain abilities that might make the series as large scale as S;G was. Our female protagonist has a syndrome where she'll experience a fast-forward of her time, meaning that minutes of time to her would pass as mere seconds. The male protagonist has almost identical abnormality but he somehow can control his movements when the symptoms appear. Which means that he actually has the ability to "accelerate" himself. *Accel-world anyone?*

On a bright note, it does have its colourful elements with certain injects here and there to possibly bring suspense into a series of high expectations. Considering how successful and wonderful Steins;Gate was, it would be difficult to leave this series as a standalone. I really do have quite high expectations for this.

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It was a rather shocking week for Shin Sekai Yori's 5th episode. It had almost seemed like a totally different series I had watched for the past 4 episodes. Animation quality had drastically changed, the storyline gets extremely confusing, the time portrayed in the episode seems so haywire that I don't even know how many days had passed since Saki and Satoru had separated from the others while running away. The episode even started with the monk been blown by the "balloon dog" and blood and violence ensued over the span of 24 minutes. What came more surprising was the intimate scene between Saki and Satoru. Did the animation changed to make the scene less awkward as it might have been if the character design causes them to remain as 12-year-old look-alikes? What's more, that scene was totally random although it could be understood that the 2 of them were stressed and possibly worried and thus had confided in each other in such a way. The series has been promising and hopefully it'll continue to be, and hopefully the quality returns to how it was for the earlier episodes. It was heart-wrenching to watch something that doesn't make sense accompanied by distorted characters. Though I do give the suspense some credits.

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Sword Art Online has finally moved on to Alfheim Online or ALO for short. SAO was pretty much over and looking back, other than the particular episode where the 2 of them confessed to their love and moved on extremely quickly from there, I would've thought that SAO could have ended itself over the last episode with Asuna awaking. But since the series is now following the Light Novels, ALO has arrived with another "female protagonist" called Leafa which in real life is Sugu, Kirito's "little sister" which in fact is his cousin. Sugu has developed feelings for Kirito after she learns the fact that they were not siblings in real life and gets disappointed after she realise that his "brother" has already fell for Asuna. Not knowing Kirito in ALO is her "brother" Kirigaya Kazuto, she seems to have fallen in love with the in game Kirito as well. Talk about coincidence. I bet she'll be extremely disappointed once she finds out about the truth. Now I thought that Kirito had made headlines as he was the one who had cleared SAO and freed the players? Now why would Sugu not know about Kirito being the ign of her "brother"? Or at least question about it? Not much has been explained over how SAO had ended since it was focused on Kirito trying to get Asuna back. Seeing that he only has less than a week to clear the world tree, the series might skip various battle scenes to fast forward to focusing on Asuna's rescue. I would've preferred it SAO way though but since it's a different game, having a different perspective where the players are more free where they are "allowed" to die and log out, the seriousness of the game might have been taken out and thus the battle scenes as well.

"A game where you can die is too easy" - Kirigaya Kazuto

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God Eater Burst OP by alan

Original Series FTW

somehow I just don't have the luck in pulling Kyouko out in any merchs. Even the gashapon on soul gems yielded me 2 of Sayaka's. Bad luck yea =.=

AM SO LOOKING FORWARD TO AFA '12! Hopefully scheduling goes well though... *prays for no clashes in activities*

Psycho-Pass

so here comes another original series by Production I.G., consisting a group of amazing seiyuus. Talk about awesome voices! :)

From the main protagonists: We have Kougami Shinya voiced by Seki, Tomokazu (Yzak Joule from Gundam Seed / Destiny), Tsunemori Akane by Hanazawa, Kana (Kanade from Angel Beats!) Kagari Shuusei by Ishida, Akira (Athrun from Gundam Seed / Destiny), Kunizuka Yayoi by Itou, Shizuka (Lenalee from D.Gray man), Makishima Shogo by Sakurai, Takahiro (Suzaku from Code Geass).

Now that is what I call an epic group. The story revolves around an advanced world where people or criminals are judged by the system controlling the city called Sibyl and the enforcers or the police, wields the Dominator, a gun that switches between non-lethal paralyzer and lethal extermination depending on the target's Criminal Coefficient. Once it exceeds a certain value, the gun automatically switches mode by itself. Seems like a wonderful setting to set the story going with many controversies over whether people should or should not be judged according to their mental state and their probability of committing a crime. One side of the argument might be that the system judges such individuals to prevent them from committing crimes and hurting or even killing other people as a result and the judgement deters that from happening. But in the end, is it truly right? Is plainly judging on the behaviour of the human be able to judge their future actions? Nonetheless, this would be one series that I'll be following quite closely given it's debatable storyline.

*din't actually have much inspiration right now to get the rest of the post done, so I'll leave some impressions and a heads up on Robotics; Notes in the next entry :)*

Jyuu-bosou! ZZZZZ-CUNE!



Atsui hibana ga zukyuuuun to chitta
Itami wo koraeteru tsubomitachi
Yuukan na yume ga kowasubeki mono wa
Ai wo tsuranuite mamorenai
Jibun desho monster

Seed wo yadoshita
Shintai no oku ni aru uchuu
Futari no mirai wa sekai wo sukuu

Aoi tsuyosa to miracle
Ashita wo shinjite
Yubi to yubi wo karametara
Kiseki no hana ga hiraku no
Shirayuri hime Heroic lily
Hadak no kokoro ni afurechau jounetsu
Yuujou no ecstasy
Tsuiteiku to iu no nara
Niji wo miseteageru wa

Burenai tamashii kometeyukeru nowa
Nando mo jibun wo oitsumeta kara
Tatakaitaku nado nakattan dakara ne
Muda ja nai yo tte iu egao ni
Sugu waretesodatta

Mitsumeteageru wa yokubou no arika wo jitto
Shisen ni nugasare hajiireba ii

Anata to wakachiaitai hatenai yokubou wo
Seigi towa kimochii mono wasuretakunai kaikan
Shirayuri hime Heroic lily
Mezameta inochi wa mune to mune synchro
Ugokidasu DREAM MACHINE
Doko made ga anata na no
Doko kara ga watashi na no

Hitotsu ni naru to jiyuu ga fukamaru
LOVE no tame umaretekita watashitachi wa,

Aoi tsuyosa to miracle
Ashita wo shinjite
Yubi to yubi wo karametara
Kiseki no hana ga hiraku no
Shirayuri hime Heroic lily
Hadak no kokoro ni afurechau jounetsu
Yuujou no ecstasy
Tsuiteiku to iu no nara
Niji wo miseteageru wa