Saturday, May 11, 2013

The good and the bad.

I really have no idea what the writer for Kakumeiki Valvrave is thinking. Honestly speaking, with a group of children in the school declaring their independence just because they have the Valvrave as a bargaining chip, this story could have already headed into a deadzone. Just as I thought things couldn't get any worse, I literally face-palmed myself once again after the latest episode.

And so the episode shows how the students are enjoying their independence with all their freedom and stuff like that, and somehow, they appear to have enough food supplies to last them even after they have separated themselves from the colony. The first of their worry came when some temperature sensor on their module started to screw up and resulting in the entire module to experience cold winter almost immediately. This then later results in conflicting parties on the declaration of independence and an argument arose between the girls. In an attempt to stop the heated argument, Shouko decides to sing "twinkle twinkle little star".

...

=.=lll

wait. what?! Are you kidding me? ... That was as awkward as it already is and somehow the plot management made it seem very normal and to portray Shouko as a carefree individual. But seriously a song?! That didn't even fit the atmosphere at all. Or I would say, it ruined it.

That wasn't the end, until the students decide to take a video of themselves singing a song, with Haruto driving the Valvrave like as though it was a mascot. That was out of the blue and had no significance to the plot at all! I watched this series to see how a marvellous writer had planned the plot to be, and to see some mecha action with the Valvraves, but all I got from the past 4 episodes was it acting like a mascot and nothing else.


The ending of the episode did however deliver a small hope to save the series, where they are already bringing in the other Valvraves, and what's more, Saki seems to have developed feelings for Haruto? To me it seems more like she was trying to investigate Haruto's body switching abilities by kissing him though. Nonetheless, the Valvrave's AI seems to pick up the kiss too, so I guess it does possess a certain level of intelligence?

Hopefully this series gets saved in some way or if this state of plot development continues, I really can't bear to continue this any longer :X

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Was rather disappointed over this week's Date a Live episode too. Only a few episodes in and already a filler episode? The whole business of having Shido make Spirits fall in love in him to suppress their powers was a basic plot starter but I'm definitely looking at more things that the plot can deliver, in terms of perhaps the secret of spacequakes, the exact phenomenon of Spirits, and of course, the outcome of this harem series. I wouldn't be surprised if Shido didn't choose any specific girl in the end, (this kinda always happen in harem series anyway) but if he did, I would be guessing Tohka personally. There's still more spirits that will appear as the OP has already hinted, but I guess, knowing the secret of Kotori and on the mysterious girl in AST combat suit that appeared at the last scene actually makes me more curious and to find out more.

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Suisei no Gargantia does seem to get rather monotonous after some time, where all we see is still Ledo and Chamber being left on Earth, away from home, and being taught by everyone how to live on Gargantia itself. The plot is good, with the interesting transition and use of different communicating languages, but I am too, looking out for more in this series itself. The debut of the series with Ledo and the others fighting the enemy definitely caught my attention and I would actually quite like to see more action of Ledo and Chamber. In the episode of pirate attacks, even though Chamber was totally overpowering the opponents, it was exciting to see some action here and there but at the same time, hoping for more. Do hope that the series wouldn't be just showing Ledo get accustomed to living on the Gargantia. There is still a possibility that Ledo might leave Earth for him home once again (perhaps at the end?) or that his enemies actually tracked him all the way to Earth, and that his comrades all begin living on the Gargantia... A possible route for the plot to go but at this time, no one actually can predict what's gonna happen next with this original series.

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Hataraku Maou-sama is still as good as ever, the slice-of-life pacing is good and with occasional comedy and serious business all mixed together, this is currently the series I'm most looking forward to every week. With Lucifer now practically a NEET, he actually managed to lure Maou and the others to find his gaming console for him which he had lost when he came to this world. Seems like Emi and Maou are now more open to Chiho now and it was pretty funny to see Emi getting prank called halfway in work by Lucifer's internet hacking skills. Now that is pretty clever for a devil to learn :D We have a new girl arriving at Maou's house, no idea who exactly is she yet, but her seiyuu's pretty prominent yea, with the same voice of Saten from Railgun, Yui from SAO, Elsie from Kaminomi, Sena from Sukunai and many more.

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Even after actually appreciating the fact that Railgun S is following the main plot rather closely and with the Sisters arc having shown so quickly in this series, I was still surprised how detailed and gory they had tried to make the sisters experiment so brutal and sad at the same time. For most of the time where the first Sister (shall refer Sisters as Misakas instead) that Mikoto had met until the experiment, they were frequently focusing on the badge that Mikoto had gave to Misaka, stressing that even as a clone, Misaka still has feelings for "siblings" and really do treasure that first gift alot. Which makes it even more sad when she died at the hands of Accelerator while trying to retrieve the badge that had fallen off while she was fighting Accelerator. The violent part wasn't just the final smashing of her by a train but the scene where Accelerator actually tore her leg off. It wasn't exactly graphic but it was something I wouldn't expect to see in the Railgun series. Which now makes me think that: hey, this series means serious business" Would expect to see Touma soon, which either depends whether they decide to follow the Index route or the Railgun route. Nonetheless, I am expecting a serious fight between the 2 Level 5s next week.

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quite an addictive song after listening to this multiple times :)

Sunday, May 5, 2013

That disappointing moment...

I would say that Valvrave's latest episode practically gave a hint on a possible Guilty Crown Effect after seeing how an interesting plot starting to head towards a impractical and somewhat ridiculous one. Honestly, this series has held rather high expectations with Code Geass's writer driving this series and with prominent singers covering their OP and ED, namely Nana Mizuki, T.M. Revolution and Angela, this has gotta head the right way, or so I thought. The plot is becoming more ridiculous and awkward as it already is and after some quality facepalms over this episode, I could almost foresee the downfall of this series even faster than Guilty Crown itself.

"Call me Moses!"

After a supposed attack by Dorssia on JIOR, ARUS takes the chance to "take over JIOR" through their senator who attempts to make Haruto follow them so that they could exploit the Valvrave's power in their battle against Dorssia. But ultimately as a politician, he decides that he was only going to save himself and the Valvrave only and to leave the JIOR students behind. Unfortunately for him, the Valvrave apparently kills any other pilots other than Haruto himself, resulting in Haruto becoming an important asset for ARUS. Typical plot development, a pilot getting "whisked" away as the different factions attempt to seize power, which in this case, was the Valvrave. About halfway through the episode, facepalm moments started to arise! "Call me Moses!" as said by the Senator, as he "splits" the sea of students through the use of his own weapon. What.... =.=

Not forgetting Shouko's attempt to make people belief her words... by undressing herself?! That's some idea over there .___. *facepalm*

So after the senate shows his true colours, he got stopped by our heroic protagonist Haruto but L-Elf starts to stir confusion after spreading the words that JIOR is now under attack by Dorssia and he would hope Haruto would cooperate with him. And then, came the proudest proclaiming moment of all time by Shouko: "Let us become an Independent State!"

What in the world is she thinking?! OK, perhaps her thinking of using the Valvrave as a hostage had some, SOME, logic but separating from the entire colony and thinking that you can survive as a State run by students?! That is just not thinking straight. What worse is that using the Valvrave as a hostage also has it's flaws as well. What Shouko believes is that they could stop Dorssia's attack by claiming that they will hand over the Valvrave over to ARUS, giving them superior fighting abilities and that they could force ARUS to help them, as they could hand the Valvrave over to the Dorssia, which would give them an upperhand on ARUS. And with that, both sides will not be able to move on their own and has to listen to JIOR's demands. I say that is pretty naive. In the first place, if ARUS were to help JIOR and defend against Dorssia, Dorssia's fleet will easily wipe out ARUS's army other than the Valvrave, and with that alliance, Dorssia will acknowledge that the Valvrave is now working together with ARUS and thus eliminate JIOR as part of the ARUS colony. And if ARUS will not comply to JIOR's request, it is obvious that Haruto will not hand the Valvrave over to Dorssia as well, just by looking at the outsider's point of view, it seems pretty obvious that ultimately, it's JIOR who is in a pinch. With either factions deciding to stop aiding JIOR or stop listening to JIOR's demand, JIOR's over.


What's more, look at the colonies that are interconnected. With Shouko's leadership to make JIOR an independent state, I guess Haruto made the extreme move of severing the entire JIOR module from the rest of the colonies. So I hope the students actually know a way to get food by themselves, set up an economy, create a defence force and obtain other necessities by themselves without the help from other modules? What I believe from the way the modules are connected, is that every module's economy is linked to each other, like Earth itself, and everyone helps each other out by providing different resources to each other. And now with JIOR's module being separated from from the rest, I have no idea how the heck they will be able to survive as an independent state. What's more, being run by students, and protected with 1 Valvrave unit. 

I have no idea where the plot is headed now, but honestly, this was pretty ridiculous. Had high hopes for this series so hopefully it doesn't become another mirror of Guilty Crown.

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Am loving Hataraku Maou-sama! even more with each passing episode. It was absolutely entertaining and hilarious at the same time and it all comes when you least expect it. With all the serious atmosphere being built up by Lucifer's appearance and Maou and Emi are both helpless under their assault, the fight turned out to be just as entertaining as how it would always be in Maou-sama. We have Emi holding on to her pride after refusing to help Maou after his heroic speech (talk about a break in momentum), we have Ashiya complaining on Maou's spending on movies and asking him to not forget to go for sales even on the verge of death. What's more are momentum breakers such as Lucifer's magic ball gets deflected by Emi and ends up hard on Maou's head. I guess that's pretty epic and hilarious at the same time. Last but not least, we have Maou scaring the shit out of Lucifer after going all demon mode as he might have lost his employee of the month due to Lucifer's actions that might have caused him to be late at work. Their epic scenes truly appear out of nowhere and nonetheless, the comedy level is still held rather high. So now Chiho knows the true identity of Maou and Emi, with makes me interested in seeing how their interactions change after this episode. Not forgetting the addition of Lucifer into their "human" world, who looks like he has become a NEET at Maou's house this time round. Loving this series which is as funny as always :D

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OP of Railgun S by fripside, their style still remains unique yeah. :)


Thursday, May 2, 2013

In the middle of the week :)

Just had a cohesion event on Tuesday, headed to someone's condo which apparently has a bowling alley inside the condo itself. I do think that that's pretty rare since I've rarely actually seen one that houses a bowling alley. Gyms and pools are the common few so I was pretty surprised at first when I heard that it was there.

into the longkang D:

Been quite some time since I last bowled, bobo-ed over quite a lot of shots haha. Ain't a good bowler in the first place so *ahem* getting a few dashes here and there isn't surprising. For most of the time I was trying to spin the ball not to make it curve at the end, which competitive bowlers usually do, I was just trying to make it go straight, too bad the ball didn't quite understand this and into the longkang it goes :X It was a fun afternoon, with small competitions here and there and the seeing the different bowling poses by everyone was rather enjoyable. Even a "earthshaking" attempt managed to make a pin drop at the last minute. Talk about special tactics! 

awesome session!

headed down to 85 Market for dinner later that evening. Been a really long time since I last went there, after it was renovated too, like let's say... 3+ years? Indulged ourselves with BBQ food over there, the stingray was pretty good, lots of meat, the potato leaves were good too (kinda prefer this to kangkong now) and the oyster omelette was rather unique. It wasn't the normal fried egg with oysters all around, but instead it was the "soft" kind of omelette, which was on a hotplate and served to be watery at 1st before it slowly gets cooked by the hotplate. Interesting way of serving the oyster omelette, tasted good too and with the not-so-pricey tags, this is actually quite worth the money. The 汤圆 stall was still there even after renovation. It was at the exact same spot as it was the last time I went there. Their ginger soup is one of the best, with its strong ginger smell that many places do not have. Pretty concentrated and I absolutely loved it. I do think that the Green Tea filling for the 汤圆 tasted pretty weird but the black sesame and peanut fillings are both equally awesome :D

Looking forward to the next cohesion! :)

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Went down to Hong Lim park on Labour Day in the morning to have a "supposed" meetup and picnic with Secondary school mates which in the end, turned up to be a community event organised by StandUpFor.SG

As written on their leaflet that marked the end of the event:

"StandUp is a citizen initiated movement that began a little over a year ago. A group of 14 friends decided that we really wanted to do something for the Singaporean community, to remind each other that we have much to love and contribute to. Pooling together our resources and talents, we have so far organised 2 StandUps movements, addressing graciousness on our public transport and kindness to our public transport drivers. The StandUp project that you are now a part of is our largest yet and also perhaps one of our most significant."

It was a rather interesting event, and one that really creates the community feel without all the technology driven social media that everyone's so engrossed in. The event gives every participant a gamecard, which includes 5 tasks that you have to complete with a complete stranger that you meet at the event. Each task will enable you to get 1 unlock point per person, which means 2 when you complete it with a stranger, and using these points, you can unlock booths with it. For example, there was the ice cream booth that will not serve any ice cream until it's unlocked by the participants and it started off with like 100+ points that will reduce when people come forward to use their unlock points to unlock the booth. The final task then allowed people to write qualities that one think would be beneficial to Singapore onto the balloons, which will then be allowed to fly off, carrying everyone's hopes up high.

It was kinda fun meeting and talking with people you do not know and interacting with them through the completion of various tasks. Was really an eye-opener for me and an enjoyable experience for me :)

and of course, we still had our small picnic :D cya all again soon!

"-stand- UP for the Rest"

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Evangelion 3.0

Evangelion 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo


For viewers who didn't actually watch the Evangelion series when it aired, this movie can get extremely confusing with the bombardment of unknown terminologies and a rather segregated time frame from where 2.0 left off. It honestly didn't feel quite a sequel to 2.0 with so much confusion and for a moment, it all felt like a separate movie by itself. It wasn't as exciting as compared to 1.0 and 2.0 with bare moments of mecha action, but the plot does rev up quite a bit as we approach the end of the whole story of Evangelion.

3.0 takes place 14 years after 2.0 had left off, which we see Shinji awakening Unit 01 in order to save Ayanami Rei and causing the Third Impact to almost occur before Unit 01 was pierced by the Spear. (it's said to be the spear of cassius) and thus the phenomenon was called the Near Third Impact. Shinji is left unconscious in Unit 01 for 14 years before waking up and was taken into custody by Misato who is now the Captain of an Anti-Nerv organisation called Wille. She instructs him never to pilot an Eva again and would kill him if he did but Shinji does not accept that fact and flees with Rei back to Nerv HQ. It is there where he learns the truth of the Near Third Impact that he caused from a new chosen child called Kaworu and Shinji later learns the truth about Unit 01's core and the plan of Nerv called the Human Instrumentality Project. Wanting to return the world to its previous form, Shinji and Kaworu pilot the Eva Unit 13 to retrieve the Spears of Longinus and Cassius which wields the power to return the world to its previous state. Asuka and Mari tries to stop them from succeeding and even with Kaworu's uncertainty of the spears, Shinji heads in front and pulls out both spears, resulting in the occurrence of the Fourth Impact. Kaworu, who is the 1st Angel is converted to the 13th as a result of this phenomenon and in order to stop the Fourth Impact, he sacrifices himself and Shinji is later rescued by Asuka after his plug gets ejected out from Unit 13. 


Lots and lots of terminology that keeps bombarding the viewers, making this movie more confusing than the previous 2. It was pretty irritating to see how Shinji behaves in this movie as well, all immature and doesn't really want to listen to others and always thinking what he is doing is right. It wasn't entirely Shinji's fault after all, since he didn't actually expect the Third Impact to occur just by trying to save Rei. Basically the feeling that he had to save Rei was the catalyst that brought upon the Third Impact but that of course, was unpredictable as how Unit 01 had awakened. After 14 years and in Misato's Wille organisation, no one even bothered explaining to Shinji what exactly happened to the world after that event. Shinji didn't even know that 14 years have already passed since that fateful day and what exactly happened to Rei and Nerv that Misato had decided to form a Resistance. Putting yourself into Shinji's shoes I bet anyone would be equally frustrated as no one wishes to disclose anything while you yourself wants to know the truth behind it all. 
Ultimately, for answers, Shinji had returned to Nerv HQ instead. No one actually told him why Wille was formed, why the Nerv Evas had to be destroyed, and the exact reason why Shinji is told not to pilot an Eva again. Protecting the world and protecting him is one thing, but not telling him the exact reason would only produce more thirst for the truth itself, causing Shinji to find the truth in whatever means necessary. Later on, Shinji is shocked to find out the exact truth of what his actions to save Rei had cost the world, where the Near Third Impact had wiped out the entire town and the people living in it, and that his mother's conscience or soul is merged into Unit 01's core, which was predictable all along since 1.0 where this has been hinted many times. And finally, the Human Instrumentality Project. Where Nerv's aims, or Shinji's dad's aim, was to cause the entire human population to become extinct so that new lives that holds a certain characteristics can be born. Back to back, Shinji must have felt all the stress pinning onto him. Furthermore, the Rei that Shinji had saved doesn't seem to exist anymore and is "replaced" by another Rei that feels like a completely different person as compared to the Rei from 1.0 and 2.0


And given the opportunity by Kaworu that he could return the world to how it used to be, Shinji decided to pilot an Eva once again, with Unit 13 which boasts the Twin Plug System. Not heeding Kaworu's advice to stop pulling out the spears that were plunged into Lillith, driven by his will and determination to return the world to its previous state, Shinji carries on his actions, resulting in the Fourth Impact as the two spears weren't actually the Spears of Longinus and Cassius, but rather both were Longinus types. (Can't really help to explain this since I din't actually watch the original evangelion series too so this was pretty confusing) Kaworu then reveals to Shinji that he's actually the First Angel and now he became the 13th Angel under the influence of the Fourth Impact and the awakening of Unit 13. Shinji's father calls him Seele's Child too and in order to succeed his Human Instrumentality Project, he shuts down the Seele Panels that he talks too which left me blur and not knowing what things were actually going on at that moment. How exactly did Kaworu become the 13th Angel? Wasn't Lillith supposed to be dead? And was Kaworu's character an antagonist as an Angel or a protagonist beside Shinji? True enough he was an Angel, but it does seem that he has a human heart after all, and possibly that he does not wish to see the destruction of the world? Was that why he sacrificed himself to stop the Fourth Impact? Many many questions here and there, even having the prior knowledge of the End of Evangelion didn't really quite helped in this movie. How exactly was Wille formed too? If the Near Third Impact had destroyed the city, why are some who were never in the Geofront saved? And how exactly did Misato find out about the truth of Nerv and in building of the Wunder, a Wille airship that houses the Eva Unit 01 as its engines and is able to take out "fake" angels such as the Nemesis series, which brings across to another question (or perhaps 2): what was the outcome of the angels after 14 years? and what are these Nemesis series angel-look-a-likes?

The action scenes were great, the animations were detailed, there could be a little more action scenes in this movie rather than the blatant piano playing that took precious minutes away from the movie and they would have cared to explain more about their own terminologies and not just cater this rebuild of evangelion for ex-eva fans. Do hope that 4.0 would shed more light on this but I can say that this is getting more interesting as a series and a story in itself. 


Sunday, April 21, 2013

Little Busters. The End and the Beginning.


With the recently concluded Little Busters! adaptation, little is still known about the secret of the world which was only barely hinted in the 1st season. Which brings across the confirmed 2nd season of Little Busters! Refrain, that will touch on the true secret of the world and bring out the darker side of a story that we have seen so far. As a key visual, Little Busters! sure had their emotional moments in the 1st season, but the emotional impact wasn't as great as they were compared to Clannad. Perhaps the series decided to focus on the different routes over the whole course of the series, each arc being of 3-4 episodes that didn't really quite bring out the feelings of the characters or actually make the viewers feel as emotionally touched as Clannad was. Nonetheless, it was just the preview of what the true story of Little Busters! was, would've appreciated if the 2nd season would be aired simultaneously after the 1st season had ended but oh well, looking forward to the awesome 2nd season of Refrain. :)

I guess for a slice-of-life series or an emotional one at the very least, there were some arcs that went pretty well with the emotions that they were trying to bring across. What came as the most significant one would be Mio's arc. Where the "supernatural" actually revisits the Key Visual once again with someone without a Shadow. That arc really brought out what someone would feel when the individual is being isolated or just purely being deemed as an insignificant being and seeing how she returned to her normal self once again after Riki's help really made the arc end on a happy note. 

Leaving that aside, I honestly do felt quite annoyed by some of the seiyuus of the series, which seems to be of extremely high pitch as compared to the other series. Particularly Komari's seiyuu. Her voice was so high pitch that hearing it for her entire arc and the rest of the series made me a little irritated when she speaks. Ku-chan's seiyuu was about the same as well, being all high pitch and piercing at the same time. Rin and Mio's were all right so I guess it was all to bring out their characters? I would rather they had chose a more similar voice for the two characters as compared to Rin and Mio's for example. 

Would leave the final series impression after the 2nd season has aired and ended, so here's all the best to Refrain. Looking forward to the true completion of the story itself. :)

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Andddd I've decided to drop Karneval after the 2nd episode. Nothing surprising over there, was already expecting this come pretty soon, since it started to feel more and more of a Shoujo series than a shounen one. The series bear some resemblance to K in terms of their male characters so nope, not a series I would follow at all. 

Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko 



Leaving Katanagatari aside, this was another series that I've picked out of the the blue and boy was I glad to have watched this. Wasn't that interested in it after seeing the PVs and such but the 1st episode was hilarious. It revolves around the male protagonist Yokodera Youto, who has this inner pervertedness that is held behind by his facade making him unable to speak out his true feelings that gets him into some pinches in school. Determined to remove that facade, he decides to pray to a Stone Cat to remove his facade, who is later given to someone else who needs it. Joining his prayers is Tsutsukakushi Tsukiko, a girl who wishes to change as she lets out her emotions too easily. And so their prayers are unanswered and Yokodera's pervertedness is now released and Tsutsukakushi is now free from showing any emotions. The story begins as Yokodera tries to save his image by attempting to get his facade back. Interesting plot and as a romance series too, this looks good.

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Valvrave is running over a course of 2 seasons, as announced in Animenewsnetwork:


seems like the story is too complicated to be finished in one season itself. Seeing how the writer of this original story is the same as Code Geass, I'm definitely having high hopes for this one. Is the pilot a vampire or a virus carrier now? Interesting question to ponder about the Valvrave pilot's hidden abilities... The series so far has still been predictable, was pretty obvious of the reason why Haruto didn't want to confess to Shouko. The moment he did that, I was like "hey, I know this, bet he's gonna say he's not human anymore and thus cannot accept her love". And... Bingo. Overused? Just saw this exact same scenario over in Madoka and perhaps in Maou-sama soon? I still do believe that the love between them wouldn't be over just like that, perhaps the normal "I wouldn't care who or what you are, you are you" kind of thing? Furthermore both Saki and Shouko are seen in the OP so I guess it's pretty much a love triangle then...

Maou-Sama is still as hilarious as always. Seeing how the devils quarrel with the hero really makes it entertaining to watch. Furthermore now with someone falling in love with Maou, I wouldn't see how Yusa would be excluded from the love triangle thing after seeing how much Maou has changed, helping people even though he was a devil. Honestly speaking, I wonder how does the devils survive on eating pickles and cucumbers for meals... Some money issues revolving the great Demon King Satan I would see :X

Pretty quick of Railgun S to bring back the Sisters once again, wasn't expecting the plot to move so fast, considering how another Level 5 was just introduced in episode 1. No complains over here, the Sisters still play an important role in the plot anyways. Hoping to see the other Level 5s soon and Touma as well! 

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Amazing OP of Kakumeiki Valvrave by T.M. Revolution and Nana Mizuki. awesome duet!

Sunday, April 14, 2013

Juz Chilling


Awesome day out yesterday to meet up with buddies and a BMT mate who was overseas :) Headed down to Newton Food Centre to have some casual local foodstuff, it was just too bad that many of the stalls were closed in the afternoon... Perhaps this's a night food centre? The food there is rather expensive too. Shocking prices I would say to expect something from a hawker centre. A glass of drink would already cost around 3 bucks which is like 50-70% more expensive than other hawker centres... Thankfully the food there is still acceptable compared to their drinks though.

Detoured to Marina Square later on for pure arcade and pool session :D Really appreciate the fact that the Marina Square arcade still accepts normal coins rather than most of the arcades now that only accept their own cards. Furthermore the prices for the games were cheaper too. Been quite some time since we last filled almost the entire row of Daytona machines :P Exciting session over at After Burner Climax too and then a chilling session of pool after that.

Been quite some time since we last met up so take care dude! See ya again soon! :)

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Following the previous post, here's the next portion of series that has caught my eye for this season. I would really say that this is really a good season seeing the amount of promising series this time round.

Shingeki no Kyojin


The 1st thought that came into my mind when I first watched this was "wow. Gantz?" Putting the artwork aside, this series is absolutely violent and gory similar to Gantz itself. There are the Titans who consume humans, by just hand picking them up and chomping them right their own mouth, that is already some pretty gory stuff. One of the eye-catcher for this series would be the actual weaponry that the military uses in the series to fight against the Titans. It has yet to show just how much their devices is capable of by honestly, the technology is simple and rather original I would say. Can't wait to see the protagonists' counterattack on the Titans. Hoping that the animation would be pretty cool :)

Suisei no Gargantia


By the same producer as Eden of the East, Psycho-Pass and Guilty Crown (can't leave this out yeah), comes another original series by Production I.G. The setting for the story is pretty neat, with humans from the future / other side of the universe come into contact with Earth, both sides seem to be aliens of the other. Pretty interesting to see how they actually made it all seem like our protagonist being unable to understand normal Japan as he's from another universe. Finally a series that actually makes note of how different human beings communicate with each other even if they do not know a common language. Accompanied by the male protagonist is an AI called Chamber that controls his unit and is like a kind of personal helper. I.G. does seem to have set a trend on AI being included in the original series. Like Juiz in Eden of the East, Sibyl System in Psycho-Pass and now Chamber in Suisei no Gargantia. Ain't complaining about this but it does look like a real good series right from the start.

Kakumeiki Valvrave


Dear Sunrise, does most mecha anime series that you make have to consist of youngsters infiltrating facilities to obtain secret machines and having protagonists that only wants to protect the loved ones around him and have no choice but to fight? While watching the 1st episode take its course, it really seems like a normal Gundam Seed opening style if you ask me. People living in space, intruders barge in and killing people that get in their way and finally almost attempt to steal the giant robot but failed. Happens to fall into our male protagonist's hands, fights the enemies and win. The romance part was kinda awkward too with Shoko losing her life that quickly, although I do know that it was mainly a setting for Haruto to take his seat in the machine. Pretty common and bland for an original series by Sunrise though, UNTIL the end when I actually do realise that piloting the machine kinda turns the pilot into a vampire. What.......?! Vampire and mecha series?! Interesting...

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S


More Touma, more Accelerator, more Sisters, and more Biribiri. That pretty muchs sums up how this 2nd season of Kagaku no Railgun would be. Seems like for this season they are following much of the manga itself with more Level 5s making their appearances. Including Misaki Shokuho who already made an appearance in the 1st episode, and Shizuri Mugino who was hinted in the OP. Would've appreciated more if Index were to have more seasons since the novels are still going strong and the story really gets more exciting at the back so while that perhaps is taking a back seat, I wouldn't mind having this spin off series to take it's place, for now.

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Finally an official PV of Senbonzakura by Hatsune Miku in PS3's Project Diva F! :)




Sunday, April 7, 2013

New season!

This season does seem to be a better season as compared with the previous season line-up, more promising shows, SHAFT's taking a break this season and here comes SUNRISE as well.

With the exception of Shingeki no Kyojin, Valvrave and Railgun S that has yet to be aired, the others has made their debut and I would say almost all does seem promising just by their opening episode alone. Just hope that a large portion of them still remains till the end of the season and not suffer a repeat of Guilty Crown or the GC-Effect (haha, kinda like to use this term nowadays).

Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabukome wa Machigatteiru


Now THAT is some long title for a series. I even have difficulty even trying to remember that title now, perhaps let's just call it "Yahari Ore no Seishun" instead...

Typical slice-of-life anime series, revolving around a guy protagonist that has no interest in his youth days, fails at interacting with girls, lives in sub-self denial and simply does not like to mix around after he was rejected by a girl once, losing his main interest in his colourful high school days.

On 1st sight, it does remind me a little on Toradora! based on the simple drawing the male protagonist has and similarly, both doesn't get quite a lot of attention, except the fail romance factor where it was more prolonged and was the key to the Toradora! series itself which I don't quite see the romance side of this series coming as quickly as it did for Toradora!

For a moment I initially thought that Yui had feelings for Hiki after all she seems to have known Hiki for quite some time? Although he doesn't seem to remember her at all. This series does seem to have a simple plot but with its 1st episode, it does seem to be one of the more carefree type of series that I believe I can relax and watch as a slice-of-life.

Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince 


Here we see a mecha anime series, been quite some time since we last saw one. (can't count Robotics;Notes as a mecha series though). And boy does the animation shine. Great space combat animation, marvelous mecha quality. Take Macross Frontier and add a little light humour in it and Ginga Kikoutai would be the end result.

Honestly, this series has the most "anti-climatic" scene right at its very 1st episode. The light humour is there, the characters are each unique and fun in their own personality and it would be interesting to see how the five would work as a team together in the future. The plot got a fast headstart with a big battle driven in early in the episode and I personally do like how the mechas are organised, in the terms of its specifications. Unlike other mecha shows like Macross and Gundam, there were little discrepancies on the types of mechas being used, which was distinct in Ginga Kikoutai. A team of five, which includes a Leader, a Forward, a Control, a Booster and a Gunner each with their robots, or AHSMB units as they called it, stressing the importance of teamwork to win the battle by taking into account of each other's strength and weaknesses.

Promising series with great animation quality, wouldn't want to miss out on this one. :)

Hataraku Maou-Sama!

Been a long time since I actually burst out laughing watching a series. Last I can recall was the time of Baka to test, really missed that hilarious series, but nonetheless, here comes another!

The start of the episode did gave a false impression of how the series would turn out to be. A war between the humans and the demons, an all-out war, violence, fighting, action everywhere and the Maou Satan got chased out of its castle by a Yuusha and retreated into another world with its servant in wait of regaining its own land again. And guess where did Maou and his servant ended up in? The human world as we know it. And THAT is where the real story begins, with Maou Satan getting used to the human world, working at Mcdonalds, getting all happy with a pay raise and then finally meeting the Yuusha in the human world, who was girl that he had helped once when he was going to work. Where else would you see a Maou actually wanted to use his last remaining magic power to fix the cooker to make black pepper fries?!

Funny serious and an interesting start. Would definitely be following this :D

RDG: Red Data Girl


A shinto shrine -type of series again. Supernaturals and mysteries revolving around the Himegami. Divine beings again? Do want! :) Mysterious girl who is unable to touch any electronic devices due to some unknown reasons and from the trailers itself, it does seem to be one promising show even though our main protagonist doesn't seem to stand out as one yet, more typical common type of protagonist that we have here.

Karneval


Interesting interesting series. Supernatural coupled with internal rivalry / conflicts / thieves and defence organisations? Seems a little similar to Pandora Hearts, not exactly sure how or where this series would be headed but it does seem to be "not bad"

Date a Live


Kaminomi?! A harem series it might seem to be, similar to Kaminomi. Might be dropping this if it gets too out of hand but for now, its a little bearable. Just. A. Little.

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andddd a rather interesting and catchy song by Miku and GUMI: