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)