Steamboat!

Been a long time since I last went for a buffet and boy, was I really full that day.

Food was not bad, spammed the fish and pork over there, coupled with crabs here and there, and continue to spam more meat into the tom yam soup base. Pure food awesomeness :D

crab shellsssssss failed in an attempt to crack its claw with teeth power :/

more fish and sotong and fish and sotong and fi-

didn't actually went to count the no. of plates of food we actually took but I was pretty sure we ate alot. Like really A LOT. :P 

Nice refuel after a tiring morning activity, really had fun over at the dinner, going crazy at jokes and spamming food at the same time :)

OH YEAHHH! :D

(picture courtesy from photographer friend, thanks always for the awesome group photos!)

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This week's series episodes were kinda weird in their own various story developments. Either the writers pushed the story too fast resulting in a less than desired result, or perhaps giving a stated fact that I don't actually see that it was actually a said or made fact.

Over this week's Psycho-Pass episode, apparently Kogami has now been deemed as an individual that is not able to get near to Makishima due to his desire to kill him rather than the Chief's decision to capture him alive to add him into the Sibyl System. Seeing the chief all alive again would mean that the one that Makishima had killed was not the only "shell" that she or "they" had, and they are still very interested in obtaining Makishia's brain to add into the Sibyl System. And so goes the marvelous plan to attach Kogami to another division so that he can continue to track Makishima down discreetly which unfortunately led to him almost being killed by the Chief's altered dominator that was swtiched to Eliminator mode, in the same way that killed Kagari off. Akane had asked Kogami to promise her that he'll be an inspector and not a dog that just hunts Makishima down and at the exact same episode, he breaks his promise and asks Akane to forgive him as he had chosen the path to hunt down Makishima Shogo. Normally it would've been a rather emotional scene with Kogami now having left the team and is now acting on his own, but the "promise" sequence was too short to actually made it prominent enough to be emotional. I mean who makes a promise and then later breaks it so so soon?! Kinda predicting now that Kogami might not survive the end of the series (sense a death flag somewhere) where it's entirely possible for Akane to actually finish Kogami off, in whatever reason, but I definitely hope for a happy ending to this. By far the story has been good and I'm hoping that the end would not ruin this wonderful original series.

Shin Sekai Yori brought a rather interesting surprise and a pretty weird declaration by Satoru too near the end of the episode. Apparently the fiend itself was said to be Maria's and Mamoru's child and as a fiend that does not have the effect of death feedback, he/she was able to kill Shisei off, who wasn't able to kill the fiend due to his death feedback. And that's another big powerhouse gone and the rest finally discovers Yakomaru's true plan to take over the human race. Which was to capture human infants and make them grow into fiends to help overthrow the human race. And the first one that was released, was the child of Maria and Mamoru. For a moment, I actually thought that it was Maria herself, until I saw the child build and I questioned myself again. It was until the end of the episode, where Satoru actually openly said that the first target Yakomaru was after was Maria and Mamoru's child, and that didn't surprise Saki at all. Which was when I went "Wha-?" I didn't actually see how the identity of the child was identified. There were no clues or whatsoever that led to them thinking that it was their child in the 1st place. Nor did the child openly declare that he/she was their child. The fiend only beared similar looking hair and eyes as the two, but by the way Satoru sounded, he was pretty confident, as though it was already a known fact. Awkwardness awkwardness... What Yakomaru did might have reflected what the older generations of humans actually did, when the Cantus users went against the normal individuals and "took" over the world, where every human being was able to control the power of Cantus. And so it seems that the age of fiends and Queerats would be arriving. Am really quite interested in how the issue of the fiends would be settled, and with the fact that the child was risen by the Queerats, it would be rather obvious to say that there is a very high possibility that Maria and Mamoru are really dead now. Perhaps they were taken in to "protect" them, until their child is born and the two were killed off to let the fiend breed until the time was right to lead the rebellion. Looking back at how the story connects all the way back when they were still kids, it hurts me to see how much the group of 5 has suffered and now only Saki and Satoru are left.

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Had been ironing out pick picking skills over the guitar over the past weekends, having learnt like 3-4 songs where only one actually had a playable solo portion. Magia's one was so damn fast :X

had managed to almost complete Aozora no Namida, all except this weird looking part over here, at the start of the 2nd verse. Sounded rather weird and the finger positions are really awkward IMO. Gotta get used to this and the up-down strumming method rather than just constantly going one direction :/

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God Eater 2 latest PV! The new weapons look real cool! Hoping for more variety or monsters and added difficulty since the link-aid function is present. Localization please! :P




Another chord cover for Alteration. Gotta try and learn this :X

THAT'S IT?

Back last week on Boku wa Tomodachi no Sukunai NEXT, when a fake time travel device made by Rika made Kodaka reveal his secret that he and Yozora were actually childhood friends, I had looked forward to what could happen next since that's really plot breaking in many ways:

Firstly, the whole neighbour club was set up in order for the club members to learn how to make friends (although it's getting a little lame that they still do not see each other as friends yet...) and in light of Kodaka and Yozora's relationship in the past, it would seem like the two were friends before and had joined this club, all the while knowing that they were still friends, just that that was in the past. So does the neighbour club still have a place for them?

Secondly, what would the others actually think? For Sena, perhaps it was the romance sided question that she might question Kodaka. She might not realise it yet but she does harbour some feelings for Kodaka and knowing that Yozora and Kodaka were childhood friends, it does seem that she had just lost an advantage if she ever had any. And for the rest? Acknowledge that they were still friends? Or perhaps probe on what exactly happened in the past. 

It was all hopes and wishes that the climax of the series would finally appear, but WAIT. how about : no. 

That was exactly what the latest episode brought to the viewers. Almost nothing particular about the whole "childhood friend" saga. All it took was Yozora saying that it was the truth and that saying it out would have no benefit or whatsoever. And that was all that it was for the conclusion of the supposedly good climax. I had been expecting more, and I believe many others too, about the secret being finally let out of the bag... The large load of the episode instead focused on the normal everyday activities in the club, and Yozora and Sena may be becoming friends after Sena's honest opinion on Yozora. Disappointing plot progression... Does the "childhood friend" saga makes no meaning?!

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On the other hand, I am very impressed over how the plot for Sasami-san@Ganbaranai has progressed so far. And with the latest episode: I was speechless over the last part of the episode and an epic cliffhanger to boot. Awesome much?

First it all started with a vision of Sasami's deceased mother, which was perceived to be an illusion at 1st, and then later, Sasami got to go shopping and have fun with her like a normal family. Which I thought was an alteration of the world by Sasami who might have wished to spend time with her mother again... Until the atmosphere started to get serious and her mother was actually real, returned from the dead to remind Sasami of her mission as a Tsukuyomi priestess and to use her alteration to help the world progress.

Coming to Sasami's rescue were the 3 Yagami sisters who are divine beings but were powerless upon Sasami's mother, who held the sword that could slay divine beings and at the same time, have the protection of the underworld. And what we got was:

the 3 sisters, 2 were defeated, with Tsurugi being sent into the underworld and Tama being spared after Sasami gave in to her mother's request and she brings Sasami over to the "real" world where she can become a Tsukuyomi priestess.

Now that leaves a question behind: was the fall of the Yagami sisters all a lie? And that the world that Sasami saw who had them defeated was a fake and her mother had brought her to the real world? Or could the "real" world be the analogy on the world that Sasami should be in, in her shrine to train, rather than the "fake" outside world of freedom and joy in life. I was pretty surprised over the lack of Kamiomi's presence over this episode, but boy does this keep the tension high. Was glued to the screen over the last few scenes. And of course another cliffhanger to end it all. Bravo.

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What came just as surprising as Sasami was the preview of the upcoming episode of Shin Sekai Yori. Although there might have been hints hinting to the last foe that Saki and Satoru would face, the possibility has risen again after looking at:

Maria?! 

The possiblity of Maria being the fiend is definitely not zero and seeing how the previous few episodes had played out, the chances are, it might be true. Seeing how the ED of the series had become the insert where Maria and Saki had separated, and that Saki's being constantly reminded of Maria, I see no way that Maria is actually dead and that she won't be making a comeback. Acknowledging the fact that Maria and Mamoru had been left with the queerats before they leave Saki and the others, it adds on to the possibility that somehow she had begun working with Yakomaru. Perhaps she just wants revenge for Mamoru who was forced out of the village after deeming his existence as useless? I really wouldn't be surprised if Maria was the fiend itself. Next episode please!

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wonderful cover IMO, do want the tabs @_@

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!

新年快乐， 万事如意，心想事成，身体健康，步步高升，学业进步，年年有余！

Over the course of the festive season, it was a pretty wet occasion too, where it rained through the 1st and 2nd day of CNY. Not sure where did the rain suddenly came from but perhaps some cloud seeding problems? O.o

This year was a fairly chill year, and the 2nd day was more free of house visiting that we actually headed down to the Gardens by the Bay last night, before planning to head to the River Hongbao later that night. Unfortunately the rain didn't quite stop last evening and by the time we got there, the drizzle made it quite impossible to bring out the camera and had to head back into the shoppes at MBS instead. Thankfully the rain subsided later that night and the River Hongbao was lighted quite nicely this year. In fact, I believe this year had one of the best lightings over the past few years.

It was a new concept where the 12 animals in the chinese zodiac are all displayed being in a vase rather than the usual statues of them just chilling there. The giant lantern portrait was amazing. Through certain views, it really seemed like the fishes where cruising along the frames of the portrait.

rather nice don't ya think? :D

andddd of course not forgetting the usual "hit the bell for wishes", this year was slightly different too since they actually did went to label the different bells with different wishes. Which made it harder since you had to aim for the specific one. There was only one that I could actually hit, which was 身体健康，as others were not that related to me, like 生意兴隆 and 早生贵子.

and so after a few tries, it was a hit! ting!

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Over in Japan, it was the time of WonFes 2013! Many pre-release PVCs, figmas, and nendos were being displayed over at the event, and they are looking great :)

following are 3 links over the coverage of the event itself:

WonFes 2013 Winter Figma Line-up
Winter WonFes 2013 Nendoroid Line-Up (Updated)
AMIAMI WONFES 2013 WINTER COVERAGE

some of the highlights that I see are:

Sasami-san nendo

STRength TV animation series?

Chariot nendo (here chariot looks real cool :X)

Akane nendo

STRength TV animaton figma? or perhaps a PVC?! :P

NENDO PETITES! DO WANT x__x!

seems like we do need to wait for some of them to be painted and release, so perhaps some can be seen over at AFA this year! :D

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it was an emotional 2 episodes, with Psycho-Pass and Robotics;Notes itself. For both, the same feeling that occurred was "now this is gonna be some serious sh-t"

and for the former, the Sibyl System's secret was almost revealed when Kagari actually went face to face with Makishima Shogo's underling and confronted him over at the core of the Sibyl System, but little did he knew that by knowing the system's secret, he was eliminated by none other than their own Chief, who turns out to be not human and more of a cyborg? Or perhaps I should say Sibyl herself? O.O now THAT was just plain speculation.. From the start of the episode where Kagari actually split up with Akane and Kogami, I could already sense his death flag being triggered and I was feeling a little successful since I wasn't good at sensing death flags at all so this could actually be my 1st and the most accurate one to date. Leaving that aside, I was pretty impressed over the fight between Kogami and Makishima which was initially featured over at the very start of the series. Which impresses me further more where I had almost forgotten all about the starting sequence of the series and "BAM" it's here. That's some nice plotting over there too. Not forgetting Akane's helmet whack. Quick and efficient. Looking at her hesitating over to kill Makishima or not reminds me of Kirito hesitating over killing Sugou as well, the two scenes do seem similar yeah, but seeing the flashbacks that Akane was faced with, it was heart-wrenching for her to see her hesitate between choosing the right decision or taking revenge which would most probably make her into a latent criminal. Back to Kagari's side, for a moment when the Chief actually shot the real criminal, I was like ooh, so she could kill too, until she pointed the Dominator onto Kagari which initially read to be non-lethal paralyser, until she forces it into Lethal Eliminator and finishes off Kagari with it, and takes the secret of the Sibyl System together with him. Which no one actually knows what exactly is the system about. Seeing how the Sibyl System was labelled to be, it could be possible that living brains were actually used to give "eyes" to the system itself and the core was the Chief herself. 3/4 into the series and this is what we had received, well done I would say :)

Following Robotics;Notes, the group's giant robot was now complete with a virtual cloak that made it seem like Gunvarrel when looked through an Iru-O. When things start to seem all calm and normal, trouble ensues and Kai was pretty much caught in it while searching for the next Kimijima report. At a certain evening, Subaru was checking the mobility issue of the giant robot when the gust of wind actually tilted the robot over, onto Subaru, which ended with a cutscene and was never revisited. I don't think he'll actually die but that's some serious business. At the same course of time, Kai discovered the next Kimijima report just as Shizuka approaches him to confront him again for his curiousity of the Kimijima reports, until the Iru-O started to play Kagome-Kagome again, leading to Shizuka's exoskeleton going out of control, forcing her to walk off the cliff and losing her life as she hit the rocks below. That was a truly emotional scene with Kai getting hang of the seriousness of the event and tried his best trying to stop Shizuka but to no avail. And the parting sentence where Shizuka asks Kai to tell Aki's sister that she thanks her for the "legs" she had given to her. Heart-wrenching. It was just sad. And seeing how Kai actually had to witness someone's death right in front of him, I wouldn't be surprised if he actually broke. His seiyuu really did a great job bringing out his emotions too. Now I can't wait for the next episode to be aired!

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live drawing of Hatsune Miku by original artist Kei!

Till next week!

The power of Originality.

Yes. I do know that almost all Gundam series are original productions but I shall not move over to talking over the large mobile suit franchise. Nor am I gonna rant over adapted series since I enjoy watching them nonetheless, but this post is going to be about two more important trait that seems to be present in original series. "Debatable" and "Reconstruction". And that is exactly one of the reasons I actually enjoy most of the original series, unlike the downfall of Guilty Crown (yes, it's too bad to be forgotten). Perhaps I'll leave the "Reconstuction" part at a latter time, when the genre dissection through Madoka Magica would be a returning post or some sort when the series had ended.

Back in the times, there was this series that caught me off guard, through it's unique storyline, an awesome background story and a widespread of characters of unique personalities. All happening in the real world, with societal changes and effects. And that, is the Eden of the East.

The story revolves around 12 individuals or otherwise known Selecaos, as the players of the game that was laid out for them to "save" Japan in anyway possible. In the game, each of the players receive a cell phone with an internal balance worth 10 billion yen, and a phone operator known as Juiz which helps to fulfil any tasks the players request for in return for a price to pay from their stash of money. When a player's balance reaches zero or the money is used or any selfish purposes, the player gets eliminated from the game by the Supporter, or an anonymous player from the group of 12.

It gave the idea or spread it, in terms of how actually one might think they can use the money for. With 10 billion yen, one can do many many things, but what exactly is the "correct" way of saving Japan? With that, it brings upon the "Debatable" factor that was present in the series

And that paved the way for the series to head in the correct direction, with each of the Selecaos trying to clear the game in their own way and the main protaganist, Akira Takizawa chooses to crown himself king of Japan and wipes his memory at the end of the TV series. Following the original series, it lead to 2 subsequent movies that concluded the whole story of the Eden of the East. It was a truly awesome series, with quite little recognition over it, or should I say a series made to be not as prominent due to perhaps it's little advertising and campaigning? There was much much more hype when Guilty Crown arrived but in the end, the hypes proved to be false when the story got clotted halfway through, sending it into a downward spiral.

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That was however, not the main discussion I was intending to head towards, but rather Psycho-Pass, which was another original series that is currently being aired now.

The "Debatable" factor was more strongly present in Psycho-Pass as compared to Eden of the East, with the idea of the Sibyl System, where decisions, whether it's job related or crime related, are all decided by the AI, resulting in a peaceful society, or so they hoped. From the start, the Sibyl System, when came into light, already gave itself as a highly debatable topic, in the end, does the Sibyl System do more harm than good? I would personally feel the former. "Reconstruction" was instead hinted rather than the strong Madoka Magica series (which reconstructed an entire genre), where the idea of keeping a society in check was something new, in a form of an AI. It was true that the government in Psycho-Pass were still human beings, but since they themselves were also chosen by the Sibyl System, does it really make them good leaders even as they continue to rely on the system?

The Sibyl System basically helps to scan an individual's mind, determining his or her aptitude in terms of working abilities and thus helps to sort the people according to their ability and employ them in their relevant job scopes. This then raises the first debatable point: Aptitude, does it really matter that much in an individual? And does someone with an aptitude to work in a certain job would certainly become a better worker? What I believe is the experience that makes a person a better worker and someone with an aptitude does not 100% adapt to the working environment but it does, in a way, make the job easier for the individual to work in. Lets just take an electronics assembler for an example. A person with the aptitude for it may be someone who is able to see small electronics parts easily and fit them into the correct regions, whereas another individual who does not have the aptitude but possess electronics knowledge has little to know about the basis of the electronic parts. In time, the latter would surpass the former as a better worker as he now knows more about assembling too, inclusive of his background knowledge, unlike the former, who at most can only get better in assembling but never being able to understand the logic or basis behind the assembly. So now, who's the better worker? That would be one of the flaw I discover in the Sibyl System.

In accordance to the working selection by the system, another flaw would be the discrimination among the minorities. For individuals who are chosen by the Sibyl Systems to be having an aptitude to working in a high flyer job in the future and thus enrol them into top institutes regardless of whether they are studious to begin with or not. And that actually raises the question on what about the others? Higher education can be a factor in bringing out the aptitude within a person and through the System, some with future aptitudes or have even better aptitudes than the rest are overlooked by the Sibyl System and filtered off the list early to make it easy for the city to operate. Basically as an AI, it does not regard more on the "what if" part but just take action on the present, rather than wasting memory space in computing on whether individual A will or will not perform better than individual B if both goes for the same education when individual A already has an aptitude of working which B does not. This discrimination brings about upset feelings among many others but no one can do anything about it in fear of being eliminated from the city.

Which comes to my next flaw of the System, in the way it decides a person on whether he is a criminal or not. The Sibyl System monitors the stress level of areas of the town, the stress and mental state of an individual and the likelihood of he or she wanting to commit a crime depending on their Crime Coefficients, and their mental states are like an IC to the individuals, or their Psycho-Pass which determines their future. It is perhaps a good system in terms of ease but it ultimately boils down to the topic of whether the mental state does decide a person's likelihood of committing crime. What I believe is that the system could have analysed the mental state of past criminals and through it's wide pool of data, it enables it to capture all those individuals with similar mental state as a tendency to commit a crime. But what the Sibyl System has resulted in, is a forced flat society where people just do what the system tells them to do, never letting anything to stress them or to think about what bad things that might happen to them as they know that the streets that they walk are safe as any "criminal" do not exist in the streets. That results in the situation where there is over reliance on the system and when it fails or when it crumbles in efficiency, the society falls apart as seen in the latest episode, where people who were once sane turn into possible criminals as they no longer know who they can trust in the streets since Sibyl's eyes no longer work.

Following that, the mental state does not show that the person in question is really going to commit a crime or not. Based on the case of Makishima Shogo, the Sibyl System has proved to be useless in terms of judging criminals like him who is able to commit crimes without his crime coefficient going up, making him invulnerable to the Dominator, a flawed weapon that is based on the Sibyl System, or a gun used for judging through Sibyl's eyes. In the incident where Akane's friend was killed by Makishima, it clearly shows the flaw in the Dominator system, which locks its trigger when pointed at someone who is determined as a good citizen, even when he was about a slit the throat of another individual. At that point in time, the Dominator is reduced to just scrap metal, a useless piece of weapon. Furthermore, the usage of the Dominators just result in greater reliance over the Sibyl System and just "shoot when you are told to" instead of thinking it over as to whether it was for the better or not. Which was perhaps the shine from Akane where she stops Kogami from shooting the woman victim at the start of the series when Sibyl judged her to be an individual not fit to be living in the society, until Akane goes forth to appeal to her, resulting in her returning to her calmer state of mind and saving her life as a result. The issue of having the Crime Coefficient also heads to the debatable issue of whether its a split of the moment thing or a lengthy one. Based on the 1st crime case that Akane was involved in, the woman victim had her psycho pass tainted due to be abused, resulting in her mental state to be highly unstable and Sibyl deem her as a potential criminal, turning the mode on the Dominator to being the Eliminator mode. But Akane manages to calm her down, the Eliminator mode returns to its normal stun mode and as a result, her life was saved and this clearly shows that it was a gun that can eradicate anyone as long as the person show signs of being a criminal even for only a second or so. So it isn't that trustable after all, more like a horrific weapon that misleads the user into killing other people.

Unfair would be another way to put it, where Kogami got demoted to an Enforcer after his crime coefficient goes up after he sees his partner being killed brutally and from that moment on, he remains as a latent criminal, not being able to return his psycho pass to normal.What he could have possibly felt at that moment could have been anger and revenge which for his friend, its an acceptable thing to feel but as a result, Sibyl deems him as a criminal, without looking at the reason of how the mental state was affected. And that is yet another flaw of the system with being too shallow in making decisions.

From the current way the story is heading, people are already doubting the Sibyl System's effectiveness and the society has collapsed from the over reliance of the artificial intelligence. This has already shot up to one of the more promising series since it first aired, and hopefully it doesn't disappoints or adopt the GC effect.

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Sidetracking from here on, Sasamisan@Ganbaranai does really show how crazy the show already is from the start. From a recorded DVD to Shinto priest slaying another personality to a sudden UFO descent and armed forces heading to intercept the UFO... this just can't get more crazy than it already is. And not in a bad way so it seems. No matter how crazy the story gets, or how much weird transitions that the story has in their flow of time, the dots always connect to each other in the end, making one go: "Oh, so that's how it is". And that is one of the reasons why I really like the series' uniqueness. There was quite an inception styled work over at its 3rd episode, where after we do know that Sasami-san's brother actually holds the power of a certain divine being possibly being transferred from Sasami but the true answer that we received was that the divine being was actually one of the 3 Yagami sisters, known as Yagami Tsurugi. And it was in the past when she didn't want to be bothered by humans for her powers that she passes the power on to the Tsukuyomi family and had it reside in the females of the family, and now, in Sasami-san. The power was never in her brother in the first place and has always been inside her. The power allows the wielder to alter the world in a way to fulfil her wishes and at that moment, she had changed the world to let her brother have happiness and to her brother, his happiness comes from the ability to have the power of the divine being so that Sasami would no longer have to carry the burden of the Power of Amaterasu. And so as a result, the world had been altered in a way so that it seems that her brother has the power whereas the origin was still inside Sasami all along. That was some nice plot twist over there right in the 3rd episode and I do see the plot going well, no matter how crazy it does seem to be.

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Shin Sekai Yori has finally shown the children all grown up, at the age of 26, with the 2 being left out of the initial 5. And after all this years, it has finally come to light that the sly Yakomaru or Squealer the Queerat, is officially evil after it attempted to rebel against the humans and attacked the town square. It was really a matter of time since it was always portrayed to be the evil one but what was even more disturbing was the fate of Maria and Mamoru. At the start when Saki actually had thought that she had seen them along with Shun, and that Satoru tells her that it was in this festival that the dead returns as spirits, possibly allowing her to see them. And that was perhaps the 1st hint. Next then comes the statement given by Tomiko-san. Where she denies the suspicion of Maria and Mamoru from helping the Robber Fly colony by stating clearly that the both of them are dead and that through inspection of their remains being brought by Squealer, it was really Maria and Mamoru's remains, even their DNA were matched. That surprised Saki as well as she might have realised that at that moment when Squealer had suggested to leave the issue of having fake remains to them instead might have been actually Squealer actually going to hunt down the two. Now that just gives 2 possible situations that might happen, one of which Maria and Mamoru were really hunted down by the Queerats and the remains were really theirs, or that the both of them had escaped and Tomiko-san had made her statement just to help Saki and to remove any suspicions over the two of them. As little as I want to accept, but personally I do feel that the former is true after all those hints and even a short "dream" sequence of Maria talking to Saki, as though it was a former goodbye. If it really was, that would be depressing since I really wished for the four of them to be reunited once more. Seeing how their official webpage does not have the character designs for 26 years old Maria and Mamoru, I do feel that the former is really true. This has since been a strong series after leaping back from the start, and it's really getting more and more interesting as the plot gets developed even further. 

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and here's the 2nd ED to Shin Sekai Yori, it was pretty depressing after it was first played in depiction of Maria and Mamoru's departure. A beautiful song :)

Nanimo iranai 
Anata ga ireba ii 
Sotto yokogao iki wo korosu 
Mabataki sureba kieteshimaisou de 
Mitsumesasete suki da yo 

Akiki ga furue furidashita yuki 
Ashiato futatsu shiroku 

Toki yo tsumore 
Kami ni mune ni futari dake no yume ni 
Sakenai hana no 
Tane wa yuki ni dakare 
Yorisou no  
Shizuka ni wasureraretai 

Mou kore ijou  
Shinpai iranai yo 
Kitto watashi ga tsureteku kara 
Toomawari demo ikidomari demo ii 
Isshou dakara kowakunai  

Ne yamanai yuki ne yuki ni naru ne 
Tsunaida te dake atatakai 

Toki yo fubuke 
Yureru omoide ni omokage ni ima 
Daiji datta  
Subete te mo furazu ni  
Toozakaru 
Honto wa nakushitakunai 

Aishiteru hajimete iu yo 
Aishiteru tsuyoku naru tame 
Aishteru hajimete kiku yo 
Aishiteru wakatteru kara ne 

Toki yo tsumore 
Kami ni mune ni futari dake no yume ni 
Shiroi yuki ni 
Kumore 
Hito shirezu sotto saku hana  
Kasuka na hikari  
Kao wo agete  
Shizuka ni wasureraretai 

Unexpected turn of events

over the past week, a couple of things took their turn in events, some for the better while some for the worst. what was most significant was the end to the Cage Of Eden manga.

when it all started, it had the typical "LOST" setting where a plane crash sends a group of students and a couple of adults onto an unknown island that is not located anywhere on the world map and the rest of the group have to find a way to survive on the island which is infested with extinct animals. The plot was all right where the ending to these type series would prove to be the most defining moment of the whole manga, but all we got in the end was some bad cramping of information, lots of questions left unanswered, a big turn of event that was out of nowhere, in short, a nonsensical ending. I believe that many readers would agree that this was a total bad failure as an ending since the flow of the story and its ending was like two ends of the world. There wasn't even a slight connection, or any clues that may hint that the ending was to be like that. What I believe was that the series had to be cut and from the current progress where there was a name of Miina on one of the four towers, the idea of "grave" and "time-travel" became the way to end the series abruptly. 

The series was mainly focused on real science and facts, including biological terms and time travel was something I had least expected as an explanation for the disappearance of their plane onto the island. So what the story was set on was a time travelling incident where their plane somehow managed to cross over to the future, where the island was created as a memorial of those who lost their lives in the plane incident. No answers were given on why the monsters were actually created for, or why the plane had travelled into the future, or even the reason on why the island became abandoned and barren. And if the island was created by many nations, wouldn't it be strange if no one were to keep watch on the island's progress? And was it really the future since in the end, it only showed the rest departing the island to try and get back home, but it just ends there. So much for a promising manga with so much potential that it could stretch for, only to befall a fate of an abrupt end and a disappointing one to boot. True enough it started to feel all draggy and stuff and bringing in more questions which lead to more anticipation and all went down the drain in a couple of chapters. Truely disappointing...

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Shin Sekai Yori took another turn of events, with another time skip in the next episode, where the group of friends were reduced from a number of 5 to a mere 2 now. This is definitely gonna one of the few series that actually show the children grow up all the way to young adults. There was the case of Nanoha, but unfortunately the "Force" arc wasn't animated as of yet. And Shin Sekai Yori had the children grown from 12 years old, to 14 and now to 26. The flow of the story was kinda weird, it seemed to me like a level similar to SHAFT style especially in the latest episode with all the character screen animations. Some say that the anime series had plucked out bits and pieces out from the novel  and some of the progress was ignored, which led me into actually trying to find Taiwan version of the novel but unfortunately there wasn't any that was translated into chinese so a hardcopy would be a no-go...

The turn of events was actually a good one, with the current lost of two more friends being more emotional than the time where Saki lost Shun as he turned into a Karma Demon. At that time perhaps the story development wasn't that deep for Shun and Saki's relationship, thus leading to the lost of Shun not as impactful as the one in the latest episode. At this time, Saki and Satoru are now left in the group, with Mamoru and Maria now leaving the town, in fear of being eliminated by the village's decisions. 

Perhaps it was the flow of the episode that made the loss of the two extremely depressing and up to the end, where Saki was talking about the possibility that the they could meet again, the fact that the two was gone forever stabbed right into her and she broke down once again. At that point, I was already feeling sour after seeing Maria's letter and the backflash of Maria and Saki during their childhood times. With the letter basically telling Saki to not look for them and to treat them as dead to avoid the village from finding them, I guess that was the stated fact that the they would most probably not be able to meet each other again. And that was the the loss of a lover and a dearest childhood friend for Saki and Satoru. 

Would be anticipating the events that may come after they turn 26, with the two of them left, would they in the end, manage to reunite with Maria and Mamoru? And what would Saki do once she take over as the head over the Ethics Committee? And to the history of their city, what exactly happened that brought the world to the current state that it was now. And the queerats aren't taking the humans lightly too and a possible rebellion might be possible in the near future and that, gives this series quite a lot of routes to discover into. 

Character designs for Saki and Satoru at age 26 has been put up on the main webpage too

looking good as young adults too :)

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And of course we have Sasami-san@Ganbaranai with a load of explanation being given after a unique and clueless 1st episode that it had shown to us. Basically, it was a show on divinity, on sacred beings with the power to manifest anything that they wish as long as they desire it strong enough. Basically, the power had belonged to Sasami-san and had, by unknown reasons as of yet, been transferred over to her brother and in the 1st episode, his wish to get chocolates turned the whole world into one, and it was up to the 3 sisters to save the altered world and return it to its original state. That was quite a fast story development there, where actually SHAFT reveals the true state of the series. Madoka's true colors was revealed over at the 3rd episode, so this, considering on its 2nd, was a little faster. Wasn't all that surprised at how the series had actually turned out to be, was however happy that we were getting another unique show by SHAFT itself (although its a novel adaptation), but it does suit SHAFT's taste after all. Would be looking closely at how the story would develop and I am highly looking forward to this series' performance this season :)

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another song by ZAQ (Sasami-san@Ganbaranai OP)... she really has a good voice eh, after that insert song in Chuunibyou's confession scene. 

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there wouldn't be any entry for next week, so till the week after!

SHAFT does it again!

Ever since Bakemonogatari and Madoka Magica being aired, I've been a large fan of SHAFT animation mainly from the way they animate the backgrounds and the characters to creating an amazing story like what they did with Madoka Magica. It was the uniqueness that stood out nicely among the rest of the other anime series. And what we had for this season was Sasami-san@ganbaranai. A pretty "SHAFT-y" title we got there, but that's what SHAFT is good at anyway. Perhaps it's just as my liking to weird shows since after watching the 1st episode, I looked back and wonder what exactly went through my eyes for the past 20 minutes or so.

It was a pretty weird series, nothing much is explained about the characters as of yet, but with the prominent seiyuus being featured in the series, this has became my "must-watch" series for this season. At first glance the series had seemed to be a more of a "nichijou" kind of style anime series which would be rather weird since it's SHAFT we're talking about. Our main protagonist Sasami-san apparently is a hikkimori and stays at home, pampered by a brother that doesn't show his face. Accompanying his brother in school (which he is a teacher), are the 3 sisters, who are each voiced by familiar seiyuus. It was kinda easy to recognise them too :D And then as it all seemed rather normal with Sasami-san being all jealous over his brother giving away her valentine chocolate away to someone else, that turning point came when Sasami-san apparently doesn't seem like she's able to leave the house in which there seems to be a barrier or some sort, or that the house remains as her only sanctuary or some sort? Further adding to the mystery, the world as she knows it started to change to become all full of chocolate and the 3 sisters started to eliminate the chocolate familiars and in the end, a chocolate dragon, before the copy back the real world and everything returned to normal. In short, it was a start of a story about a girl who can't leave her house, a brother who doesn't reveal his face and a fight with chocolate monsters. Weird isn't it? But as it all goes like this, I am actually liking this series, A LOT. The amount of mystery being build up was great, little is known as of yet but it makes one interested into knowing what is going to happen in the next few episodes. Is her brother or her, herself, a divine being that can change the world like haruhi? And the 3 sisters are being the "correcters" of the world? It would be awesome if it was since it would definitely leave a deep impression with an interesting storyline. Definitely following this series, can't wait to see what happens next! Hopefully it doesn't turn out to be disappointing!

she does look like Kyoko isn't it? :P

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And of course, this season had Maoyuu Maou Yuusha and Tamako Market being aired as well, both are rather normal series, one of which is a fantasy themed series and the later is a slice-of-life series that Kyoto Animation is famous for. Maou and Yuusha's story seems pretty political and economical but with it's sense of character naming, Maou and Yuusha (lol), this series would seem to be promising. 

Tamako Market is a original story, nothing is known as of yet, but I do think it'll become a pretty normal series, nothing much to expect, but since it's an original series, no harm watching it to see how it goes :)

and here is Tamako Market's ED, does seem to have a K-ON! feel to it too :D

will update with the other series airing this season in next entry :)

Gogo SHAFT!

Pre-season special

over the past week, there has been a continuation and a prequel of previous series, one of which gave a teaser for another awesome upcoming sequel in 2013.

kicking start the 1st special, it was Kokoro Connect. 

 

The ending from its 13th episode did seem a little weird since the conclusion was left hanging on Iori's thoughts and I was actually predicting a 2nd season to be coming, following the progress of the light novels. Nonetheless the continuation of the series, or perhaps to give it a proper closure, was the introduction of the 4 special episodes up to the 17th. That indeed sheds more light on the character of Nagase Iori and clears up her personal problem that she had always carried with her since she was young. For too long, Heartseed has been giving the five many emotional problems through various experiments such as body swap, time reversal etc. to reveal some secrets that friends might have been keeping from each other. Whether or not it was a good or bad secret, all of those resulted in a stressful relationship between them and overcoming them made their friendship stronger, and perhaps love too. That was when the start of the extra episodes stunned me when Taichi actually got rejected by Iori who realises that her main problem of adopting personas wasn't solved. 

And that resulted from the last and worst phenomenon that could befall them, emotional link and transfer. Basically it transmits a person's thoughts and randomly transmits it to another of the five, where the originator only knows that his or her thoughts has been sent and only those who have received would know. Basically for a person who constantly puts up a persona and does not know her "real" self, it was perhaps most beneficial for Iori to discover her true personality, but that doesn't mean it'll turn out to be a easy thing or that her personality is the same. In fact, it took the turn for the worst, and with the phenomenon going on coupled with the emotional stress, Nagase Iori broke. 

The moment when Inaba started questioning about Iori's rejection of Taichi and her thoughts of thinking that Inaba was a busybody shot through to her mind. In reality, what a person says on the outside might not be what the person thinks inside and for Iori's case, it took a much worse turn when she actually realises that THAT was "her" that she has always been searching for. A cold, negative, and an exact opposite of who Iori is to the rest of the group. And that was probably her 1st realisation and the 1st stress point that broke her. In other cases where being honest with your feelings and being willing to share the pain or to give help didn't quite help Iori here and even Taichi wasn't much of a help. As a person looking from a 3rd person viewpoint,  it was pretty obvious why Iori wasn't fixed by her friends' emotional support and their willingness to help. It was the same phrase that they had kept repeating themselves: "Wanting to see the old Iori back" or "Iori wasn't like that in the past, please return to your usual self". It was pretty obvious when the same subject was stressed multiple times, that her usual self wasn't exactly Iori's "real" self, but instead just a persona of being a cheerful girl that people would love to be near her. And for the others, they didn't realise this fact that wanting Iori to return to her usual self was just adding to her own stress when she herself knows that the Iori that they wanted to see return wasn't her, or Iori herself. 

The possible reason why Iori had rejected Taichi was simply because she guessed that Taichi was in love with the "ideal" Iori that he has always been interacting with and not of the "real" Iori that he does not know. She was possibly afraid that one day when her persona fades, she might have betrayed Taichi's feelings since it wasn't what he had imagined her to be. The confrontation between her and Inaba was truly impactful, since  it clearly shows how Iori had seen Inaba as, a selfish girl who wants to her and Taichi to be together and when they're close to being a pair, comes into them and says that she loves Taichi too. Ultimately, it all boils down to Taichi's honest words that had triggered Iori to return to being their friend even though her persona was lost. It did take quite a long time before Taichi could put his feelings into words, in an answer to the question on which Iori did he fall in love with. What Taichi had told her was that he loves her as an individual and not as how a person seems or act on the outside. He knows that inside the cold Iori, she was still a caring girl who treasures their friendship and that was the trait that he had fallen in love with, not with just the mere exterior of how a person acts or display her own emotions. 

Unfortunately, their new found feelings didn't actually quite last since Taichi realises that he had been a selfish one as well, ignoring Inaba's feelings for him and just going for Iori. He did accept the fact that Inaba was in love with him but yet still decided to confess to Iori without considering Inaba's feelings. The relationship between Taichi and Iori has went through many ups and downs and ultimately, it was the best for them to return as friends since their feelings for each other has been cleared up from it and for love, they're both not quite ready yet since Iori has since decided to live as her new self, an independent person who does what she wants. And so in the end, they both admit that they were in love with each other once and Taichi returns Inaba's feelings and the two got together in the end. 

A much more ideal ending I would say, with the love triangle being resolved and Inaba and Taichi becoming a pair in the end. The both of them sure look good together :) Overall this series has the most cliché moments as a love drama but at the same time, the most emotional and dramatic series I've seen since perhaps Clannad. This series clearly shows the strong bonds of friendships, how people interact with each other, some of which hide their feelings for various reasons and just saying "sharing" wouldn't quite make it. You could actually feel from the characters when they realise that their relationship as friends are threatened when a emotional phenomenon begins and after every incident, their bonds get stronger and looking at that, makes you feel good for them as well. A story of friendship and it's development, a rather good series I would say. 

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The series that actually gave a preview of an upcoming sequel in 2013 was Bakemonogatari. Yes, the famous animated work by SHAFT. And so what actually came along was Nekomonogatari - Kuro. Where it depicts the story of Araragi and Hanekawa before he first encountered the falling Senjougahara who at that time had suffered the oddity of the weight crab.

The extra four episodes actually gave more insight on the relationship between Araragi and Hanekawa, where the two were already very good friends in the past and at that time, Hanekawa was probably Araragi's first love. The episodes showed Hanekawa's first encounter with the Meddlecat and more light was shed on her own family who were not her legitimate parents. And that personality that she had created to fit into the household made it possible for the Meddlecat to take over her as an oddity. 

From what Oshino says, Oddities exist because people think they exist and in the end , it wasn't clearly shown that it was the meddlecat that had possessed Hanekawa but rather it was Hanekawa who had took control of the oddity. What actually gave an opening to the meddlecat was through Hanekawa's actions that she gives on the outside, being a star student and all that, and just going along with the flow in her own family, where she does not argues or talk back even when she was fit by her "father". Even Araragi got all shocked when he realises that Hanekawa doesn't actually has her own room in her own house and had just put up with that silently over the years, resulting in amounting stress which the meddlecat took its chance and got into her body. 

Normally for an oddity that just takes over the owner and hurts her, what the meddlecat had told Araragi was that it felt sorry for Hanekawa who had buried it (in the appearance of an injured cat) because she knew that it was the right thing to do and not because she was actually sympathetic towards it. And that course of thinking disgusted Oshino and that pissed of Araragi as she was his dearest friend and Oshino's insulting words were enough to make him angry. Now that's just weird in seeing that a vampire like Araragi got all injured badly with the fight between the two, until the answer was given that its strength was not from the meddlecat itself but instead was coming from Hanekawa herself, who was a clever student and knew about many many things and strategies to counter, which perhaps had included the vampire and Oshino's methods as well. It didn't take quite long before Araragi actually thought up of a way to kill or remove the meddlecat from Hanekawa, which included the use of a katana that slices only the oddity and not the human. And since Oshino didn't actually knew such a sword exists, Hanekawa was clueless about it and Araragi succeeded in his plan, although almost losing his own life. 

I was pretty surprised when the final confrontation between the two when Araragi sent Hanekawa a message that he was in danger, that the person or neko in front of Araragi was actually Hanekawa herself and not the meddlecat. So that actually proves that Hanekawa was in control of the meddlecat all this while and attacking people while in the form of the oddity was a stress buster for her, for someone who has to retain her own star student image that she has always been keeping up with. What came even more shocking was Araragi's method of slicing the meddlecat: by swallowing the katana and making Hanekawa slice his body into half, resulting in the blade cutting into Hanekawa. I didn't actually quite get the idea on what Araragi had planned to do, but what I am guessing is that he was afraid of Hanekawa's knowledge of the katana and that seeing it might give her an idea of how the blade works and instead gave her a surprise by cutting her from a blind spot. A rather nice provoking plan but with half the body severed, that actually really almost cost Araragi his life, as his regenerating abilities don't quite work with the cat's energy drain. The fight was all cool until Shinobu joins in, plucks her hand out and let her blood flow over Araragi, which regenerates his lower body.

OK... so apparently when a body regenerates, it regenerates the pants, socks and shoes as well?! That was really out of the context. I mean the Monogatari series has always been weird and can be explained even with supernatural happenings, but this was just way out... A rather nice way to use the oddity killer blade too, swallowing it and then using teeth to bite instead... classic vampire style but why the katana then? That was pretty anticlimax... 

And so Araragi knows that he now isn't quite in love in Hanekawa but has developed into a wanting to die for her to save her kind of thing which to him, doesn't quite means love and from then on, it was then that he first met with Senjougahara and the bakemonogatari series begins.

It was a good backlight story for Araragi and Hanekawa and her 1st encounter with the meddlecat, more is now understood from their relationship back in the Bakemonogatari series and that the meddlecat appeared again in that series was that the stress source was now Araragi who Hanekawa had fallen in love with. Now that explains more about Hanekawa's new behaviour in the Bake and Kizu series where she doesn't behave all star-student style like in this four episodes and rather 

"I do not know everything, I only know what I know"

So that's where her experience had came from...

Being a monogatari series follower, boy am I happy to see the short preview over at the end of the four extra episodes, that a full monogatari series would be arriving in 2013, which includes a full arc of each of the individual stories between the different oddities and the girls, which I believe will be more of plot building and character development that surpasses the bakemonogatari series which only gave a few background on each character. Definitely looking forward to that this year!