Psycho-Pass; A fitting end.

it has been a while since Psycho-Pass has ended, looking back at this original series, it has definitely brought up a possible means of governing the city but with the over dependence on technology, it has brought forth a debatable society in the world of Psycho-Pass. its ending might not be as satisfying, but it felt more understandable, considering the facts of the existence of the Sibyl System itself. It might not be classified as a good ending or something that wraps the whole story up, or even a change for the society, and it's only suited for a concluding of the whole series as a whole, in a debatable and truthful end.

Things have not been going well with Akane after she had been shown the truth of the Sibyl System and has even made a small contract with Sibyl itself to have her Dominator locked in Paralyser mode to prevent killing of both Makishima and Kogami. She had quite a lot of opportunity to actually stop Kogami from becoming a full fledged murderer but as a colleague that she believes in him, she still clings onto the hope that Kogami would listen to her advice and use her Dominator instead of the old fashion pistol that shot actual rounds. And of course with Kogami's internal conflict with Makishima, he ultimately decides to use the pistol instead and Akane is left with no choice but only to watch as Kogami becomes a murderer, someone whom Akane doesn't wish to see becoming one.

Honestly, I've already sensed that Ginoza would ultimately become an enforcer after some details were told about his rising crime coefficient and unstable psycho pass. Somehow he feels to be more suited as an enforcer rather than a detective itself, since he wasn't actually able to pinpoint many things while he was one, and maybe as an enforcer, he might start to see things from the other point of view, distant from that of a detective.

I thought that it was a nice touch seeing how the final scene enacted the same situation back when Akane joined in the division where the current detective was already investigating an ongoing crime. In which in this case, it was Akane receiving a kouhai rather than Ginoza receiving Akane at that time. It was quite a sight to see how Akane has matured from a rookie to the detective she is today, with the Sibyl System keeping an eye on her and her uniqueness of keeping her own Psycho-Pass stable.

After Akane had failed to capture Makishima alive and allowed Kogami to killed him, she was examined by the Sibyl System which deemed her as a useful existence and allowed her to live on, hoping that with her knowledge and ability, is able to help evolve the Sibyl System into a much better judging system than it was now. And with that, the Sibyl System is left as it is and the secret is buried in Akane once again. At first glance, it all seems like there isn't a convincing end to the whole plot, where nothing actually significant has changed and the Sibyl System will continue to judge people the way it has always been. On the other hand, it does seem to be the "best" ending that this series could have. (Had actually watched the ending twice to further understand the meaning more)

Looking from an outsider's perspective, it is true that Akane is powerless against the Sibyl System. The Sibyl System can be deemed as a corrupted technological advance, or a system that does not take into account of human values or will in general. It is more of a shortcut in dealing with things that people commonly face in their everyday life. With the Sibyl System, even the police department have an easier job with the Dominator, people feel safe outside as their Psycho-Pass are scanned almost everywhere, and even jobs are automatically assigned depending on the individual's aptitude. It is indeed true that the benefits are too good, but it's the bits and pieces of loopholes that the system faces that makes it undesirable as a whole. Firstly, the people who are discriminated from the system. For them, they are living as an outcast, either deemed as a potential criminal by the System and gets locked up before even committing any crime, or that the individual is categorised in a low social level, unable to rise up in the social ladder. The idea of using Psycho-Pass to judge the person's mind is also fully debatable since it's a psychological thing and does not fully express one's actions in doing so. Having one's psycho-pass shooting up due to moments of stress or emotional damage might cause the individual to be detained due to their clouded psycho-pass which is actually perfectly normal for a society, where people find stress and overcoming them, a lesson well learnt. However the Sibyl System denies that and wishes for a perfect society, which attempts to maximise everyone's welfare and happiness, which eliminates the possibility of having stress and other psychological damages. All in all, the Sibyl System has created a near perfect society with it's own perception of what is perfect, and not with all the other secondary effects of human nature taken into account.

Considering that Akane really did shut down the Sibyl System or is able to overcome it, the society will collapse without a doubt. As shown in the previous helmet incident when people began to lose faith in the Sibyl System, everything collapsed. The society, the trust, businesses etc. Everything just fell apart. And Akane knows this would happen as well, and that is why she decided to leave the Sibyl System alone. She knew that shutting it down would only create more problems that cannot be solved within a short frame of time. Her only option of overthrowing the Sibyl System would be to look for an alternative replacement for the Sibyl System, perhaps the old form of governance? And for that replacement to settle down before the Sibyl System gets cut. It doesn't seem quite possible for the System itself to reveal the truth about it to the outside world too as I believe no one would wish to accept the fact that the Sibyl System is actually led by humans who might be previously classified as criminals but can't be judged by the system, or Criminally Asymptomatic for short. It doesn't feel good knowing that a criminal is judging others of being a criminal or not.

Overall, this original series has been great, lots of actions and debatable topics spiralling here and there, creating a world where having and not having the System has it's own advantage and disadvantage. The ending might not be perfect but it's as good as it is. Wonderful series nonetheless.

Robotics;Notes, A disappointment.

Just as Steins;Gate stood out in its own season and followed by another similar sci-fi series under Nitroplus, Robotics;Notes, it stood out too as a disappointment in its own season.

Questions are left unanswered, many scenes seemed totally redundant and spoils the whole mood of the show, some things were there for the sake of just being there and many many cliché moments up to the end of the entire series itself.

When it all started, R;N had a promising and carefree storyline, narrating the story of a group of students creating a giant robot to join major robot exhibitions and to realise one's dream of building it. There were internal conflicts, problems and such as the construction of the robot began. Disappointments and renewed dreams came forth and the team is once again headed to create another giant robot after their first ended in a failure. Up to that point, everything was still fine, coupled with added mysteries like the monopole and the Kimijima Reports about the Committee of 300 planning to destroy the Earth by making robots going out of control. There was also the mysterious playing of the Kagome-Kagome song, the Iru-O concept in itself and the AI Airi program / Sister Centipede. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Until the point where SUMERAGI actually made an appearance and starting firing its own missiles and destroying everything.

My first reaction to that was : "That escalated quickly..." And in a bad way too.

It basically felt that it was almost 2 different series that were being aired right before the turning point came. Everything was ok up to that point, why the sudden change?!

What came more awkward after that, was all the "let's all work together and create a giant robot to save the world" where students, the Principal of the school, JAXA engineers all gathered mysteriously at their hangar and started to help build the final giant robot. There wasn't actually much student interaction between the main cast and the school as well so seeing that happen was really too dramatic / cliché in a way. Which shows the point where things are made to be there just to fill in any possible loopholes. Making it seemed all awkward and out of nowhere. There was then this romance aspect of the series by itself. Sure, it was hinted here and there, perhaps with Frau and Kai being the most obvious but I was quite sure that if there was, it would most likely be between Kai and Akiho. Not only did the production team didn't give much screentime or build up of the duo's romantic relationship, we were slammed with a extremely awkward, rushed, and out of nowhere confession by Kai and followed by a kiss before the final battle. Were they trying to add in a serene atmosphere before the final climax began? Or were they trying to forcefully fit in a romance element in the series while fully knowing that it was insignificant and there was absolutely no need for the whole romance thing at all. Furthermore, even at the last episode itself, the whole romance chemistry between the two seemed to be forgotten and their seemed more like mere friends even after their confessions. If it was going to end like that then what is the significance of squeezing in a romance element right near the end of the whole series?

Abnormalies were plentiful through the course of the series too. One of the more significant ones is the appearance of the monopoles. Scientifically, monopoles cannot exist and even if they did, where they mysteriously drop from the sky, little answers were given for its origin. It all feels like a filler for the gap where crazy-powered motors can be created for giant robots. It seemed like the problem surfaced when in a practical fact, there wasn't a powerful motor that was strong enough to move a giant robot with more freedom and the answer to that was to create / introduce something to tackle the problem and the monopole was the key. There was this mysterious character of Tennouji Nae that bears resemblance to the Steins;Gate series and ultimately, what exactly was her purpose there? It doesn't seem like she was a normal JAXA employee that just helps people to realise their dream of building a giant robot, since she was practically kicking ass on armed forces near the end of the series and then, nothing was explained about her existence as well even till the end. And how did building a giant robot to display at the Expo become saving the world which in Kai's mind, was to have Akiho reunite with her sister once again. Conflicting ideals it would seem, since there was the threat of a black hole missile being fired, and then what Kai actually seemed to be doing was to get Akiho back together with her sister once again. Miscommunication? Or just pure plot confusion? Didn't quite actually get what the story was heading to in the end, it was filled with so much uncertainty!

Whatever happened to the Kagome-Kagome song as well? What happened to the robot going out of control? Whatever happened to Mizuka's death and link to the black hole missile thing? What happened to the Sister Centipede that was sent by Misa in the end? What exactly has Gunvarrel got to do with the whole series? What exactly happened to Frau's mother and the brainwashing phenomenon? Questions, questions and more questions...

So many plot changes and unanswered questions... Seriously? Would the game be better? I'm not so sure about that but this really lowers my expectation for the game itself as a whole too. Looking at how the genre of Robotics;Notes and Steins;Gate were so different, I'd been trying to see Robotics;Notes in a different light, but such confusion cannot be unseen. True enough that Robotics;Notes was a successor to its previous masterpiece, expectations would be generally higher but ultimately, it was a series that was a total let down.

Guess that the few plus points of the series would be how mysterious and haunting the Kimijima Reports were and the few emotional scenes like Frau's attempted suicide and Mizuka's death that really resounds the sour atmosphere. It really was good... "was".

Overall, this has been a series with lots of ups and downs, and a headed down slide near the end. Disappointing series as a whole, seems like the Guilty Crown effect has occurred once again...

Nanoha The Movie 2nd

Impressive.

Just that one word would be enough to describe just how good the movie was.

The story in the movie and in the TV series itself bears much resemblance, only a small number of anomalies but comparing both sides, the way the movie tells the story and its additional details, the movie wins hands down.

Looking at how the 1st movie was shown with modifications to both Nanoha and Fate's barrier jackets and their devices as well, it makes more of a sense in the 2nd movie, where the more device-like Raising Heart makes more sense in terms of switching modes rather than the conventional one in the TV series.

The animation is good, the whole movie was reanimated, something different from the Madoka movie where the scenes were just enhanced from the TV series. In fact, Nanoha really need such great animation to make it really cool to watch, especially this time round when the devices are enhanced with their new cartridge loading system.

Other than the devices having a major animation upgrade, the plot itself did added some new details and also some backstory in which certain things can be clarified. There were some loopholes here and there still but overall it was still entertaining to watch. Certain scenes had more emotion in it, like how they show Vita becoming all desperate to save Hayate from her fate,

Signum acknowledging in tears that she is unable to cease her actions as Hayate was very important to her, Hayate losing her knights to the Book of Darkness, and the dream where Fate reunites with her mother and sister before leaving them behind to return to the real world to save Nanoha.

One of the more significant changes would be Admiral Lindy's backstory on her family. It was although clear in the TV series where Chrono was her son but little was shown, or known about her family. The movie version shed more light on her family, showing that her husband had once fell victim to the Book of Darkness 11 years ago, leaving Chrono and her behind and that could possibly be the reason why Chrono wishes to take on the case in secret, maybe to avenge his father? A plausible argument but nonetheless a meaningful addition to the plot itself.

Another was the explanation of why Nanoha and Fate didn't get attacked for their Linker Cores later in the TV series that was left unexplained. Which the movie backed it up by listing that Linker Cores can only be collected once per individual.

It does seem that the additional plot developments tend to centre around Admiral Lindy, but this time, it was possibly a loophole in the storyboard itself.

When Lindy was attacked by the Knights who were after her Linker Core, she held Durandal in her hands and had only shown some slight attack movements before getting reinforced by Nanoha and Fate. Which in the end led to the fight between the knights and the duo, leaving Lindy behind... somewhere... Basically right after Nanoha and Fate arrived with their new devices, Lindy just disappeared. I was so looking forward to perhaps seeing Lindy in action with Durandal but oh well, just the staff members just somehow forgotten about her.

There was this awkward moment too, where Nanoha just seems too optimistic. Although her character is one of the more optimistic type of person, but having seen almost all her attacks making no scratch to the Book of Darkness even when fired at point blank range, it'd be about time to start feeling despair but the movie made her think that maybe she's just not trying hard enough. Well in my POV, if you are not trying hard enough yet, then something is really wrong when your friend had already be absorbed in, the world is getting destroyed and yet there is still room for power upgrades? I do believe that the ACS Strike Flame is already one of her main powerhouse moves that she has and THAT was even denied? Time to feel pessimistic girl... It would have felt more normal if she were to say "No way..." instead of "Looks like we got to try harder"

Leaving those aside, I actually enjoyed the amplification of the emotional scenes in the movie itself.

At the point where Hayate is shown her knights being stabbed by NachtWal, the seiyuu really did a great job in expressing Hayate's despair, her scream felt like pure sadness piercing through the air while she took on the despair after losing her loved ones. Similarly with Fate's dream world, her feelings with her mother and Alicia and Fate herself breaking down after seeing what she had always dreamed to have materialised in front of her, it was painful to accept that all those were not real and were mainly just to delay Fate no matter how real they seemed to be. Accompanied by Alicia's touching speech with Fate and her wish to stay together forever and hoping that this would all be possible in the real world before she faded away, really brought tears in my eyes. After seeing the 1st movie and understanding Fate's situation, and seeing how she's confronted with a dream-like scene while being still attached to her old lingering feelings of her mother and Alicia, its real sour to see them having to part like that.

Moving on to the upgrades, 1st of all, Durandal itself got a upgrade for itself,

with detachable "dragoon-like" systems like those in the Gundam series, amplifying Durandal's freezing abilities.

The darkness of the Book of Darkness also got a massive animation upgrade,

looking clearly more badass and destructive now compared to the old one in the TV series.

Fighting scenes were more badass now, more detailed and looking more professional than the TV series itself.

Minor details of the devices that each mage holds were also looked into, especially the new cartridge system and the mode changing mechanisms. Back in the TV series where little transformation of the device itself was made, the movie showed the changing of mode rather clearly, transformers-style. The more obvious device change would be Vita's Eisen when changing into Gigant Form, where the device is shown slowly transforming into a larger size hammer rather than the more magical "disappear and re-appear" kind of transformation the old TV series had.

What came as the more badass and detailed animation would be Fate's mid-air reloading of Bardiche, now that explains why their devices always had sufficient cartridges inside them, at least the movie did take the effort to "explain" this, in a cool way too.

Overall, this is really an impressive movie for all Nanoha fans and an even better summary of the series itself for non-Nanoha viewers. Leaving the TV series aside, the movie itself would already be sufficient for the plot and watching the action scenes in the movie is really candy for the eyes. Having a deeper plot development and a more emotional remake of Nanoha A's, this is truly one remarkable movie.

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credits to Animesuki users for their awesome animated gifs

The New World is absolutely brilliant!

Among all the other series that had concluded this week, namely Robotics;Notes and Psycho-Pass, Shin Sekai Yori (From the New World) gave the most sour twist and truth which meld together to create the most satisfying ending I could've ever imagined it to have. Kudos to the story itself and I'm really glad that I followed this all the way to the end.

The series all began with a intriguing scene of the current society being taken over by humans who have the ability of Cantus, a superior power that makes the users the top of the human rankings, and followed by the world, hundreds of years later, where Cantus users are everywhere and schools are created to educate the young on their controlling of their own Cantus and preventing them from learning the evil ways of misusing such power.

From the start, it all seemed to be a normal school-life kind of thing for Group 1, which had initially made up of Saki, Satoru, Shun, Mamoru and Maria and it revolves around the time they spent in their school while they were still 12 years old. The plot slowly darkens when the group discovers the Fake Minoshiro which was actually a portable digital library, consisting of records of the ancient civilisation, which refers to the current time we are living in now. At that point in time, what I had expected the series to cover, was the truth about the world before them and how the Cantus users have managed to take over the world and in what means they had done so. Truthfully speaking, what I believe have led to the victory of the Cantus users was indeed full of bloodshed as shown in the opening scenes of the series where Cantus users are seen killing off humans in the ancient civilisation. It was then up to Saki and the rest of the group to perhaps starting to learn about the past and maybe induce certain changes in the society.

Soon after the group returns from their own field camp and encounters with Queerats and Death Feedback, where they learn that fellow humans cannot kill each other with Cantus and the 1st time skip began to when they were 14 years old. And that was the time where the most twists happen in the story, with the introduction of the Fiends and the lost of more than half of group 1. There was always the possibility of having someone who misuses the power of Cantus, but little did I expect that there was actually a more defined term for it, namely the "Fiend", who indiscriminately kills off anyone it sees in its path, and is hence no longer able to think rationally. It was after the first appearance of the fiend that the Death Feedback policy came into place to prevent mutual killings of humans and the tight education level of the children.

Things started becoming serious when Shun realises that he is starting to become a Karma Demon, another type of categorisation for humans who can no longer control their own Cantus and it mutates things around them, as their Cantus leaks out uncontrollably. And that was the time that Saki lost Shun. Following Shun's lost, Mamoru started to feel targeted as his existence seems to be denied by the higher ups and decides to run away, leading the others to search for him and ultimately, Maria stayed with Mamoru while Saki and Satoru left to find a way for Mamoru to return to the town but that was when Maria and Mamoru bid farewell to the them, and it's goodbye forever.

Another timeskip follows slowly afterwards and Saki and Satoru are now 26 years old. What came as the climax of this arc was the rebellion of the Queerats against the humans. Without Cantus powers, it would seem impossible for the Queerats to win the war, but with the power of a Fiend that they control, countless humans fall in face of the fiend which Saki despairingly discovers that it was the child of Maria and Mamoru and that they both have been lied to by Yakomaru, a Queerat that was supposed to help in their escape but had instead took hold of their child and raised it into a Fiend. And ultimately the Fiend wasn't actually one, but was instead seeing itself as a Queerat instead of a human and by killing Kiroumaru, it triggers the Death Feedback inside and it was finally defeated, leading to the end of the Queerat's rebellion and the final truth of the whole world that they were living in.

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Looking back at the series as a whole, I guess this is the first series that I have seen going through so much of a time skip. From when they were 12, to 14, to 26 and lastly to 36 years old. I guess that's one of the factors that brought forward the interesting element of the show as it hints the long progression of the world that Saki and the rest are living in. What I believe had made this show most unique was how nicely the different pieces of the story, throughout the years, have fitted so well with most parts of the arcs and of course the ending itself.

Considering the first flashback during the appearance of a possible Cantus user that sides with Yakomaru and its colony, the elders have suspected that the helpers might have been someone who is out of control of the Committee itself and have suspected Maria and Mamoru to have been helping the Queerats. But Tomiko declared that she is able to confirm the death of the duo as bones that have the same resemblance and DNA have been found in the area where Yakomaru had previously promised Saki that it would provide bones of similar structure to conceal the fact that Maria and Mamoru are indeed alive, or so it seems.

The fact about matching DNA was indeed disturbing, and it also took a large impact on Saki who now had guessed that perhaps the duo are really killed by Yakomaru and that he was really planning something huge behind everyone's back. Now the suspicions are clear but with instances where a child with red hair starting to appear near the end of the arc where Maria and Mamoru had left the group, it became rather predictive that the Cantus user that had helped Yakomaru could have been their child all along.

The fact about that didn't quite come into light until Saki actually seen the child with her own eyes. The long red hair, blue eyes and the face shape of that of Mamoru's, it was an uncanny resemblance to the two and is now classified as a fiend and is to be eliminated before it manages to kill off the other humans left in the world. At that moment, you could feel the despair that Saki had felt, where she had two of her best friends being betrayed by Yakomaru and their child have now been raised as a monster to help in the Queerat's rebellion.


Up to the end of the final arc, there were 2 major plot twist that left a rather deep impression of the series. The first being that the child was not actually a fiend at all. What I had believed was that by being raised by the Queerats and not humans, it was either not given the opportunity to be genetically coded with Death Feedback or that the lack of human education in school actually will result in a outbreak of Cantus power but not necessarily referring to a fiend. Saki fortunately happened to guess the existence of the child correctly, that it was just a normal human who just happens to see humans as enemies as it sees itself as a Queerat and not a human. The theory of Death Feedback was also tested in the final confrontation where Kiroumaru dies under the fiend's Cantus in which it suffers the feedback and dies as well.

Honestly, seeing your best friend's child die in front of you isn't a heroic scene or a scene that one could be proud off, even after the danger in finally eliminated.

It was really bitter to see the flashbacks of Maria and Mamoru after their child has been killed by Death Feedback. Really sad to see the fate of the whole family destroyed by Squealer itself.

What comes as the final twist of the story, and also the final pieces of the story being put together, was the fact that the Queerats are indeed humans as well. I was really surprised and shocked after hearing that twist in the story as I really didn't expect it to come so literally. It was indeed true that Yakomaru, or Squealer, had told the humans that their species are humans as well but I took that sentence as a declaration from Squealer that their intelligience are of equal level as humans and they want to be treated of as an equal human. Little did I know that was a literal meaning and I kinda guessed it after Satoru told Saki that he had went to check on the Queerat's DNA structure. It was then that I finally saw the final truth of this New World that the people has been living in.

With the Cantus users having Death Feedback, it seems like a passive thing that would have already occurred in the past and thus Cantus users cannot kill fellow humans but humans without the power is able to kill the Cantus users. Thus in order to show their superiority, they decided to alter the genes of the humans so much that they become Queerats and although their DNA structure still remains similar to humans, their genetics have changed so much that the Cantus users no longer suffer Death Feedback from killing the Queerats.

Now that is some final twist that the plot has been holding on to all this while. Back when they were 12 years old when they discovered the portable library device, it was unable to answer to them why some people who didn't have Cantus mysteriously disappear without records with Death Feedback being active. What remains still controversial is how indeed does Squealer and Kiroumaru actually had worked together in the past? Saki had realised that while they were running away from the other Queerats when they met with Squealer, it has been reporting their position to Kiroumaru all along. Which makes me puzzled, did Squealer and Kiroumaru actually wanted to overthrow the human race at that time, or is it just Squealer making the major planning in wanting to be on good terms with Saki and the rest before he could realise his master plan and Kiroumaru had just been under his lead in wanting to protect his colony in case some humans decide to go insane and wipe out other colonies of the Queerats. Another issue was about Squealer's knowledge of himself and the Queerats. How does he know that much even though he was not taught all these things, just where did he get his knowledge from? What I guess would be another Minoshiro like the one Saki and the rest had, which most probably taught him about crafting weapons of the ancient civilisation like muskets and bombs and it could have just told Squealer about their true form of existence.

Overall, this series has been absolutely fantastic, it was pretty rough when the story started progressing in the middle, but soon smoothed out as the arcs went by and hitting the correct spot at the end of the series. Seeing how everything that has happened in the past tied up nicely with the fact that the Queerats are actually humans without Cantus, I would actually applaud this series as being one of the best, or even the best of its season as compared to the other counterparts. The plot has been good, the twists are as shocking as it comes, the character developments are good too after seeing them grow up. The suspense is there, the mystery is deep and ultimately, this series is just as good as it started out to be. It would seem that this series is a little underrated as compared to perhaps let's say Robotics;Notes, but trust me, this is a series you wouldn't want to miss. Kudos to the next best series I've seen after Madoka and Steins;Gate. Absolutely brilliant.

In all seriousness...

Well it's about time someone said something about the current situation of the Neighbour's club. For the viewers, it was kinda late or lag, I would say, that none of the characters actually realise that they were all already friends in the club and either they don't realise it or is afraid to acknowledge it. Perhaps the former only applies to Sena and Yozora, but clearly, Rika and Kodaka appears to have known about the fact long ago.

Honestly speaking, I was pretty surprised when Rika actually had went ahead to confront Kodaka about the fact of the club, perhaps she knew that he had already knew it long ago, and was just afraid to say it out loud, in an attempt to preserve the current relationship with everyone. There was the romance side of the story when Rika actually tells Kodaka that he himself is afraid to take another step forward even as he realises that there are people around him that has feelings for him, but he has taken an extra step to prevent himself from acknowledging the fact, possibly in fear of losing the friendship that he has finally formed with the others. It was pretty neat in seeing how Kodaka continues to reject the idea of "taking a step forward", when he clearly know that the members of the Neighbour club are already friends with each other and I believe he too, does know that there are others who harbour feelings for him as well. It was really late before  the story itself actually touched on the topic of "friends" when it was already pretty obvious for the viewers, but the seriousness and the change of pace was a plus point and we'll get to see this aftermath when Kodaka now knows that Rika does acknowledge the fact as well.

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Shinsekai Yori never cease to surprise me, as a matter of their plot progression towards the end of the series. In the end, it seemed like Kiroumaru never had the intention to betray Saki and the others from the start by bringing them to Tokyo, but what was suspected of him when he came to Tokyo in the past was indeed correct. He had travelled here to find weapons of the ancient civilisation that could be used against the humans who had Cantus as their trump card but for Kiroumaru, his objective after having such weapons was not to overthrow the humans, but to maintain their current peaceful relationship with each other. He knows that with Cantus, his colony could fall to a single human if they were to be eliminated for whatever reasons and he himself has seen many colony fall mysteriously, most likely due to Cantus users and to protect his own colony from such danger, he sought the weapons from Tokyo but could not find any.

Looking at Yakomaru's point of view, his choice of wanting the human race eliminated wasn't as despicable as it seems to be. Both are intelligent creatures and have their own mindset, rights and knowledge, the only thing the Queerats are lacking are the power of the Cantus. And with that inferiority, they are forced to served the humans in order for them to survive even as both share almost the same level of intelligence  And it is only "right" for them to fight and to obtain their rights back and be accepted as an equally intelligent species.

What came more as a twist was that it can be now accepted that Maria and Mamoru's child wasn't actually a fiend at all. And what Saki believes is that it is just raised as a Queerat, not knowing that it is a human instead. That hypothesis seems to be true after seeing how shocked it became when it sees itself in the mirror, looking just like the targets that he has been killing and hunting all this while. What comes as a follow-up question would be: so what exactly makes it able to avoid death feedback. What we believe is that the death feedback is genetically programmed in every human and the only exception is being a fiend. If the child is not a fiend, how is it able to avoid death feedback? Or only does it occurs inside the barrier, or perhaps only when the individual itself doesn't consider itself as a human. With the psychobuster wasted and Shun's advice, Saki might just bet on showing the child the faces of its parents, hoping to trigger some human emotions back into it, since Shun suggests something along the line, when Saki sees Shun as a cover over Kiroumaru at the start. I wouldn't actually be hoping that the child would die but there is still a possibility that the death feedback might return when it realises that it itself is human and that would be a cruel and sad ending, with the Group 1's fate being led to such disarray.

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Robotics;Notes has just became awkwardly awkward. So now it's like a gundam-like fight sequence that's gonna happen, with high school kids making a combat robot?! Now that's against the law isn't it. With SUMERAGI still active with its missiles and stuff like that, the whole story of R;N just took on a whole new level.

I did had a hint of a romance element being actually hinted here and there, but I didn't expect a romance scene right at the near end of the season. It just didn't fit quite well in the atmosphere, there wasn't much romantic development between Aki and Kai, there wasn't much mutual relationship development and BAM! we get a confession and a kiss out of the blue and that's it. It was so awkward that even if it didn't happen, there wouldn't be much changes anyway. It all seems more like a "oh I need some romance scene here" and in it goes, making it so weird and would've been better if romance wasn't even part of the genre in the 1st place. It wasn't impactful or even sweet in the slightest bit, and now we're down to the last few episodes. I shall forget about what exactly had happened at the end of the episode and see how exactly this is going to close as a series. Comparing this to the Steins;Gate level, I would say R;N has not quite make the mark yet, as a story and the way it touches the viewer's heart. I would dare say I felt more emotional seeing how Mizuka plunged to her death rather than the "I promise I would not die" scene of Kai and Aki. Oh well. :X

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I think I am pretty late on this since I actually just realise that GUMI Megpoid's voice bank actually belongs to Megumi Nakajima, the singer and seiyuu of Ranka Lee from Macross Frontier. Didn't actually quite expect it but seriously, GUMI's voiceback is good and sounds more natural and smooth as compared to Miku's but both does have their own uniqueness in their songs and voice so I still like both nonetheless.

here's Gumi's cover on Senbonzakura, quite fitting too :)



anddddd of course we have Miku's latest appearance in Kansai with Secret Police. Her 3D model looks real good now and with additonal movement sets and projected speakers... it looks so good!



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have been trying to get the sound right for the Secret Police guitar side over the last few days, could't actually quite get the right sound from the vibrato at the start... Oh well, guess my pickups can't actually make that sound :(

Twists, Twists, Twists

Having taken a break from Little Busters! over the past month and getting past the last few episodes of the season, by far it hasn't been exceptionally emotional as it was supposed to be I guess. Character developments were plentiful, none of which were actually developed enough to bring out the emotional scenes of each arc. However for various arcs, some actually make you feel sour, or feel sad for the characters that were involved but to the point where tears might be shed, Little Busters! can't quite get to that level yet.

What I'm actually looking forward to would be a presumably 2nd season that would reveal about the true world or the "truth" that the world of Little Busters! hold. As unfortunate as it has been, I've been spoiled by the plot and have hence stopped looking at more spoilers since about 50% of the show has been ruined by that. Basically it was about the "truth" of the world that the unknown person has been writing notes to Riki and Rin, asking them to complete various tasks to reveal the truth to them, but what exited me was the latest Riki flashbacks where various unknown scenes about the different story arcs were seen and that makes me more curious about what exactly it this truth that they were talking about.

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For Robotics; Notes, it has been a roller coaster ride over the past few episodes with that sudden plot development. Even I was so surprised by it that it actually felt that the ending seemed a little forced in an attempt to leave an impactful ending. They didn't quite explain Tennouji Nae's skills in taking down the terrorists, or even a follow-up of what they had said about S Braun in the previous episode. It was nice to see how Steins;Gate references were used in Robotics;Notes itself, coupled with Nae's appearance, it all seems like a different timeline to begin with, or perhaps a different world line as a matter of fact.

Aki's speech about the giant robot becoming the saviour of the planet was elaborate and quite out of the picture I would say, especially when you have a gun pointed at you. Doesn't seem like a right choice of words isn't it... Together with the rest of the students, JAXA engineers etc joining in to rebuild Gunz-1, the overall atmosphere that was brought up was a little cliché. Kinda exaggerated? Overall, it was a relief to see that Misa has still retained her old self, only being manipulated by Kimijima Kou himself and the SUMERAGI is really one hell of a giant robot. Seriously that just look like a military weapon at 1st sight! Not quite sure about the significance of Sister Centipede too after Misa decided to send "it" over to Aki and Kai, wouldn't the real Airi there be shocked when she sees her AI self? And with Airi having awakened, why does Sister Centipede still exist? A standalone program by its own? Or a similar entity to Kimijima Kou? A couple of episodes more and hoping that the ending would be benefiting to the series as a whole.


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What came as the more shocking twist and a plot twist was Shin Sekai Yori itself. Heading into the last few episodes in the series, it has been a joyful, confusing and enjoyable series. Looking at how Saki and the rest are finally heading to their final destination to find the biological weapon to kill the fiend and how Kiroumaru has brought them to Tokyo to look for it, it all seems too normal of a plot and even I had suspicions on Kiroumaru after he was the only alive in his colony. The suspicions weren't as high since I do see that Kiroumaru has been warning Saki and gang about the dangers of Tokyo and was clearly hating Yakomaru to the point that I believe he would follow Saki to kill it and the fiend as well. All until Inui actually brought up a good point in thinking that Kiroumaru might not be as trustable as it seems. 

Looking at Kiroumaru's own trip to Tokyo with his own troops, it does seem fishy that even as his troops started to succumb to the monsters living in Tokyo, he still perseveres on, perhaps in search for something, which I believe is the bio weapon itself. Perhaps in the past, Kiroumaru already had the plan to overthrow humanity, and that he was looking for the virus too but was somehow unsuccessful and had to turn back after looking much of his troops over in Tokyo. Another major twist to the series was that Saki actually could remember and see Shun now, which makes me think if the Shun that she sees is real or not. There wasn't a concrete evidence that Shun is totally dead, or that he could have just turned into Cantus itself and flows through the air, manifesting himself as much as he wants outside of the Holy Barrier, what comes more unsettling was when Shun tells Saki that the fiend that they were out to kill, might not possibly be a fiend. Does Shun actually know what the real definition of a fiend meant? Or it could be just a mental illness or somesort? A possible conclusion I could think off was that the kid is just a normal human that was being brought up by the queerats and was taught to kill the humans as enemies. And that the term "fiend", merely generalises individuals who do not have death feedback or are immune to it, acting like anomalies in the world. 

Inui seems to have lost his life to the bogworm as well, leaving Saki now being alone (with maybe Shun) and Satoru is now being stuck with a possibly sly Kiroumaru. A few more episodes to go and this is getting more exciting as it goes.

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Makishima Shogo, the next man of bio terrorism, now being closely followed by Kogami and the rest of Division 1, is about to unleash a deadly strain of virus that will destroy lives of millions with the lost of the main food supply from hyper-oats. Sounds deadly enough and fortunately, Kogami is on track and is on his way to stop him. 

I wasn't as surprised to see that Akane was being shown the secret of the Sibyl System itself, since I had the feeling that with her stability of he rown Psycho-Pass, it's likely that the system would take note of her as as exceptional individual. And it is true that her Psycho-Pass remains calm even after being shown the truth of the Sibyl System, but she's unable to deny the whole system itself even if it was not a perfect system and the bare sight of real human brains being used to judge criminals and individuals. It was a difficult choice, where choosing the destruction of the system might be a politically correct answer or even a humane answer, but what actually causes the dilemma was how the society has already been brought up. The Sibyl System has already created something called peace and security of mind, even if it was fake, but it did gave many people more happiness based on their lack of fear for criminals running along the streets. The initial failure of the system had already created riots all over the state and Akane knows that the complete collapse of the system would mean a complete collapse of the current social stability right now. 

I just had the gut feeling that Akane belongs to one of the anomalies too, just like Makishima Shogo, where his will and Psycho-Pass doesn't match up, and for Akane's case, it's a more gentler, and calm Psycho-Pass where even stress can't change the level of her Psycho-Pass by much, which might be something that the System desires too. Given the choice of whether or not to join the system, there is a possiblity that she, having learnt so much about human wills, might decide to make the system more perfect by contributing herself to the system, or perhaps Kogami too? 

Whether or not the Sibyl System would remain or be completely disregarded will depend on the outcome of Akane's decision and to whether Makishima Shogo would be judged or added to the system as an anomaly. It certainly doesn't feel right when a criminal like Makishima would in return help to judge other people in whether they are criminals or not.

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Took a trip down to Kino and JCube Gaming over at Dhoby Ghaut last week, finally got the recent volumes of Hayate no Gotoku!, with the bonus volume 0 also released together with it. There seems to be a volume 99 hanging around but now I wonder how the series would continue if there was actually a real volume 99. 

multiple color pages to boot! awesomeness :D

and of course since JCube's card shop does have some luck to it, looted a SAO pack from there and tadah! a lucky RR card. Planning to sell this away or getting trades for madoka cards too :) Thank goodness I ain't a hardcore SAO fan or I'll possibly be playing this series too.

This is really an interesting vocaloid song by Kagamine Rin and Len. Two different lyrics that harmonize with each other. Really unique :D

Unprecedented Turn of Events

Just when I thought Robotics;Notes was all about High School Students building their own giant robot and stumping into some secrets about the eradication of human beings and the revolution of robots in the country, the latest episode literally turned the tables around - to the point that I don't really believe that whatever I had just watched was the same anime as the past few episodes.

Sure did the Kimijima Reports bring up quite a few high tension moments here and there, and Mizuka's death was indeed saddening. But with the main question of "What exactly happened in the SS Anemone" being answered, I am finally seeing where the series is headed, and it really is something big and serious at the same time. I a indeed shocked by the fact that how much the tone of the series has changed. Depending on how the Robot Fair was going all well, until this came. Apparently a show with just normal robots had suddenly spawned missiles, robot destroying robots, a fake solar flare, human experimentation and transferring a human mind into software itself. Little did I expect too that Kimijima Kou was still alive, only that he is now a "software" in that sense, "living" in the network world after most possibly experimenting on Airi before. And all those reports were leaked by him from the network itself, mainly the Iru-O and that Misaki has now turned into a terrorist or some sort, working under the Committee of 300 and wrecking havoc with the new spider like robot: SUMERAGI. What came more serious was the ultimate goal of generating a huge solar flare that will most probably create illusions in the "real" world through the use of Iru-O technology that everyone is depending upon now.

What comes as a even more shocking point was Tennouji Nae's change in personality. I didn't expect her to play a huge role in this series even as she bears the same name in Steins;Gate, but in fact, she does. And she single-handedly disarms intruders to Frau's house and that makes me wonder who is she exactly. Does this story has any connection at all to Steins;Gate? And what about S. Braun that they were talking about? That's some huge Steins;Gate reference and I am really looking forward to how they progress the story after this. It was a fast paced episode and a little rushed in that, but so far it has been good.

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Shin Sekai Yori has now finally, linked back to the ancient civilization, which is the time in which we are in now. And that since death feedback exist, the only way to kill the fiend would be to use ancient weapons, which were weapons of our time now. I was initally thinking about ballistic weapons or some sort, but since Cantus would dispel that rather easily, I reckon that it wasn't that easy, until they mentioned a biological weapon. Now that, would be something rather easy to use on the fiend, but finding it wouldn't kill Saki and Satoru as well? *death flag alert*

Seems like Yakomaru are following them as well as they continue to search for that weapon of mass destruction. And it does show that the past humans have attempted to eradicate the Cantus users as well but they have truimped instead which makes me more interested in the way that won against the biological weapon and furthermore, the similarity of the Queerat's rebellion on the Cantus users as the same as the ancient civilization.

Not a bad series, would really hope that the novel would be localized though, would appreciate the full work of the author since some information was left out in animation too.


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Spring 2013 Anime Chart

And with the above linked, the Spring 2013 schedule almost fully out. 

New series that actually do seem promising are:

Shingeki no Kyojin

The music is totally cool, concept wise is interesting, and the way the dude carries out his attack, mecha-style? Just totally cool.

Kakumeiki Valvrave



Another Sunrise production. Looks good too.

And of course........

Hayate no Gotoku's another season (lost count of this already) and To Aru Kagaku no Railgun 2nd season.

Much more looking forward to the latter one, better storyline and looking forward to see more Level 5s.

The next season is gonna be great! :D


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And.... here we have the latest PV of SAO's psp game. Looks real fun, lots of customization, psp rpgs really need such flexibility, really like this kind of game too :)