Oh Look, it's Mrs. S&M de Complain; aka My Mum

Right, I have this love and hate relationship with my mum. One moment, she's all nice, but look beneath her surface and she turns into this horrible old S&M hag who loves to torture friends and family via through sadistic complaints. And every time she complains...it's like getting stuck with in a lonely dim-lit room...in the seventh circle of Hell.

And my advice to her, even though she's my mum...oh, for Fuck's Sake, nobody cares about your complaints. The more you complain to anyone, including me...the more that people will starting putting the hate on you and thus giving you a title worthy that Satan would be most proud of, instead of God. So, ha ha.

And as for Boxing Day...oh, fuck no. The Vietnamese Catholic Church had just cut the 'entertainment' part of the after party, meaning no music from my cousin. Fuck this and the same old dinner that we get every year, I'm staying at home and might as well make an excuse for not going to Church anyway. Plus, people at my age at not going to be here...it might as well be more like a school reunion for old people and not much of a 'wild' party to anyone between the ages of 18 - 24.

In the mean time, ordered, played and beaten the new Prince of Persia and my God, it plays similiarly well with Okami and ICO for some reason.

The Curse of Microsoft's Screen Death

And it was a woman...

Now I'm not really a fan of Microsoft's consoles, but it's really sad to see a precious being taken away from a mad person, in this case her husband.

May her soul rest in peace and let his soul suffer whatever Lucifer and his folks over at Hell are going to deal with him.

Art in Games

Good God, whereas I'm one of those people who actually love the new PoP trailers, but there some people who just have some negative comments about this. As the words of the wise Ben 'Yathzee' Croshaw from Zero Punctuation says...

The thought occurs that for all my banging at the "games are art" drum, art is only as good as the culture that surrounds it. A game could give the most extraordinarily emotional experience in the entirety of human culture, and bring tears to the eyes of a jaded war veteran with no eyes, but it's all for naught if it's not surrounded by self-important bearded tossers who read too much into things for a living...

In other words, you have the arty-Okami-type people who actually love the games that are basically 'not-going-to-hyper-realism-with-photorealistic-graphics' and have really distinct and different art styles than the other popular games and then there's the typical-fanboy-FPS-type people, who never actually understand and appreciate Klimt, Picasso and Aardman Animation, hate lots of brushwork that artists spent ages to put their efforts to the public and would rather wowed at the grapics that have realistic faces and all wanted blood to be as realistic as possible and just basically never put a foot on a fine art gallery, whatsoever. If you choose the second optiion, congradulations; you've just awarded to being a dumb person, who spends life not caring for the changing world and you never, ever seen the Culture Show, watched some documentaries and most importantly...you hate the colourful artistic direction that the games are going to that way, instead of going to crappy never-going-to-be-perfect-photorealistic graphics that are basically covered in browns, greys and dark tints that would best described as dull and lifeless.

If I were you, just don't be afraid and pick a damn art book, like Van Gogh or something, look at the beautiful illustrations, watch some Studio Ghlibi movies or the anime version of Metropolis; appreciate the world as it has some hope and most importantly...STOP SAYING TO DEVELOPERS ON WHAT YOU REALLY WANT! Ben Mattes has defended himself that he wanted the new PoP game on a more artistic and poetic direction and wants to join the Okami bandwagon and also says that the Sands of Time trilogy has already concluded AND is AND WILL NEVER, going to join the WW and T2T stuff ever again.

And possibly wanted to apologise to Jordan Mechner, for creating the 2nd and 3rd PoP game to the wrong direction. And I highly respect Mechner, because he really wants the PoP series to be more fantasy and poetic rather than the hyper-realism crap that has no soul and would rather put some dull environments that I'm going to say 'meh, where's the variety?' and some other stuff.

And if you're STILL denying that games can be art and they can have as many different art styles as they want, then your IQ must me really low and your soul is completely hopeless and would carry to purgatory when you die; that way, you'll regret it.

Doodles + Work = NOT FUN AT ALL

AAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!! This is pissing me off, so this is the reason why I'm going to rant this. Apparently, my older sister and my dad do not understand that if they call these doodles and pieces as 'work', I might as well throw everything in the bin and start doing some cosplay stuff and ignore anything that thwy're start asking me about work.

It really pisses me off as a design student. I'll give you many reasons why I don't like the word 'work' and mixing in what I love to do:

A) Work is like having no ideas at all, aside from a few research ideas and then expect to start drawing from day one and continue, until your soul has been consumed by the 'ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKE SHO-SAKA A VERY DULL GIRL' robot. I just hate it, it makes me want to cry.

B) My older sister and my dad always tell me to do 'work' for a few hours, but there's one problem that they'll never understand artists and designers who blog their rant on peer pressure: when they say a 'few hours', it's mostly taking a whole day staying in at home and expect to produce lots of drawing that you can mostly describe your own as 'shit' quality. And to be honest, I hate that peer pressure; they may like 'my work', but I'll always see this as 'shit' and 'something I'm going to regret later on'.

AND most importantly...

C) DRAWING IS SUPPOSED TO BE FUN!!! Get that, FUN!!! It's something that I'll always do on a whim and something that I really love. But one day, it's something that's going to be that I hate, thanks to her and my dad!!! And for once, I should really wish that they should call those pieces that I was supposed to do as DOODLES that can used to inspire later on, NOT works on the essay of what the word 'art and design' means to them!!! If they keep calling them 'work' one more time, I might as well give up the whole project altogether and lose my 'drawing' spirit forever.

I get really pissed off when they say 'work, work, work', but what ever happened to something like 'something you'll enjoy is something that you like to continue for your rest of your life'? It's really sad no one would see enjoyment of a hobby turned into a nightmare thanks to peer pressure. That's why if she and my dad think the 'work, work, work' attitude to me, then they made me go unmotivated on the doodle aspect and ending up ranting in my blog that neither her or he would find me here and expect some flaming in the comment box.

*Sigh*

Oh Noes! L's Name is Going to Change!

Death Note's been picked up by Hollywood! / O o O \

And what's worse? It's true and it's going to be developed by Vertigo Entertainment and Universial Pictures, which IMO, they make rubbish J-Horror remakes. Though only The Departed, which is based on some Hong Kong movie, Infernal Affairs, seemed to be good.

I'm really worried about this, because: A) Death Note's already had fans around the globe (including me) and B) When they see this news, they're going to go 'Oh no. Please not this!' sort of thing.

I just hope the screenplay writers would follow the manga storyline, otherwise, I'm going to stick to waiting for those two or maybe three Japanese live-action Death Note movies.

Insert Some Angry Emo Title Entry

I'm angry and emo for two simple reasons:

1) My Dad and my older sister keep bugging me about this crap coursework deadline that I was supposed to do over the summer. Yes, I know that universoty life is important into work and play, BUT that doesn't mean they should peek into my problem, aside from the "£3000" tution fee excuse.

I just wish my tutor should have given the whole class a better assignment, because robots and futuristic stuff are NOT sort of my cup of tea.

AND

2) That horrible 'Middle-Child-Peer-Pressure' syndrome that got me into emotionally stressful and at times, really depressing and emo. Let me explain: Ever since when I was eight or so, I didn't know that I had to SATs, meaning I was a happy child, until at the tender age of ten that when I found out that I was going to the same grammar school as my older sister, who I shall call her CQ. And then, I never forgave my Dad onwards, because during the summer, that old bastard kept bombing me with those English, Maths and Verbal Reasoning test papers all in one go and my childhood days of being a cheerful one soon ended, because of him. Then, there's the 11-year-old SATs and this is where I started to loathe the tests more in the coming years.

By the time I got accepted into a Grammar School (which is full of snobby type boys that I'll never go out on a date with them), I got depressed that some of the people, including my cousin, are cleverer than me and I thought whether I shouldn't have passed the entrance exam and pleased my Dad.

However, then things starting to turn for the worse. By the time I had done my end-of-year tests at the age 0f 14, I was depressed that my maths results were shit and that I nearly flunked Chemistry, though I did score well in English, Physics and French. And then I didn't realised that I could never be the academic type who likes to sit and concentrate in classrooms later on and when it came to GCSEs, I think that the only subject that I love is art: But my artistic freedom of expression was hampered down by my ex-art teacher who forced me to do stuff that I didn't want to. And when it came to academic types GCSEs, I just lost the will to carry on and my Dad and my older sister keep nagging that studying right now in the middle of an exam period is more important than just blogging your hatred to them (and hopefully none of them are going to read I'm complaining about them). I know they care for me, but I just really hate it when they start asking me the same questions EVERY SECOND!!!

And then when it came to AS and A2 Levels exams, they still KEEP bugging me like I'm some sort of a teenager refusing to grow up and change my personality!!! And this is where I start to loathe of why I didn't enrolled to a vocational 6th Form college like CQ. Oh, wait. I forgot, my Dad. He always insisting to go on an Academic 6th Form College, but what I realised is that I can never be like him and be a mathematical genius like him (and I start to even loathe more when he found some spiritualism in form of a REALLY Catholic guy and that he acts like some kind of person who is worse than a Jehovah's Witness coming through the door, telling me if I don't believe in God, then it's a one way ticket to Hell (yeah, like that's going to happen. I think I believe that devils and angels are no different to each other and that they like to hang out with each other and play a bit of Wii)) and that he just doesn't get with my unpredictable personality and what I actually feel. Even a help with the Francis House Hospice didn't help, because I hated my Dad for what I actually am.

A poor confused girl, who is looking for alternative paths in the future. I always hate his one-sided view and plus for the fact that I hate him for not accepting me that I'll never be as clever as them and that people with different minds and problems are always good, instead of trying to be clever, only to fail at life. I just hate him that he's trying to put some peer pressure on me and that he's conviced he's right.

I've got one word to him:

F**K OFF YOU OLD T**T! JUST STOP WORRYING ME AT ALL TIMES! I AM A GROWN PERSON WHO DOESN'T NEED SPIRITUALIST HELP FROM SOME CHURCH ORGANISATION THAT I'LL NEVER GOING TO FOLLOW (Yes, that's right. The Vatican's going to destroy humanity by not sending out condoms to Third World countries and thus AIDS spread and eventually killing them) AND CERTAINLY NOT GOING TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION, BECAUSE IT'S MY PROBLEM AND I SHOULD BE THE ONE SORTING THIS MESS OUT NOT YOU! YOU'VE GOT YOUR OWN PROBLEMS TO DEAL WITH, SO SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE! THE SAME GOES FOR YOU CQ. YOU MAY KNOW ME FROM THE OUTSIDE AND INSIDE, BUT YOU'LL NEVER SCRATCH THE SURFACE AND FIND WHAT I REALLY FEEL!

It's a Chaotic World

Yesterday, I've been on a long, chaotic, expensive train journey to London, so that I can go to the MCM Expo and play either that new Warriors Orochi 2 game, have an experience with a taiko drum game or just goofing off photographing cosplayers; needless to say, it was a great experience to see wonderful cosplayers and making new friends.

First off, the journey. Damn London and its Olympic construction. I hate the journey and what was worse, I went to the wrong DLR train. Thankfully by the time I found the queue and paid in, I finally was in the convention and then I started to find the Koei stand, so that I signed in the newsletter and got three character cards! ^_^ And what was brilliant about those cards are that they're 10p each, so I bought ten of them, five of them I bought for my younger sister. Next, looking for the World Ends with You cosplayers and thankfully, I wasn't the only TWEWY cosplayer out there. I've seen a Sho cosplayer, a female Neku (which both she and I exchanged email addresses to each other and she laughed about my email address; since it's sho_lover22 after all) and even a male Neku, who joked about me and my 'shady' ways. XD

I've seen a DDR tournament and it was intense (and loud), but then I walked away and tried to do Para Para Paradise round. Eurgh, I haven't been touch ParaPara for a while, since Las Vegas five years ago. And then I started shopping for that Neo magazine, because I thought buying a magazine here is a lot better than buying in a newsagent. And because I'm on a very tight budget, I spent only £10 buying a cute mini Gin plushie from Gintama. I even get the chance to hug a Dalek(?!), who wanted a kiss from me (XD) and then being an idiot I drew over at the Manga gallery.

And as the time goes by and there were fewer people, I had my hands full on this quirky Taiko game and at first, I kept banging so loudly, I didn't realize the blue dot was meant to hit on the side; next I was doing decent after a few tries and finally, the most important bit, having my hands-on with Warriors Orochi 2. It was great playing as Taigong Wang, Yoshitsune and Himiko and I was playing against a male(!) Mitsunari cosplayer. It was really intense, but in the end, I lost, but since it was a fair game, I shook hands with him. Damn, why didn't I get a photo of him?! >_<

And after the afternoon was gone, I decided to go home, but not without taking photos outside, which involves getting a random hug from a Naruto cosplayer and seeing a bunch of crazy cosplayers holding hands and doing a Mexican wave. XD The train journey back was tiresome, but at least I took a photo of chibi Gin sitting on the seat, having a nice Strawberry Milk. XD

You can have a look on a very small album here and enjoy my journey in reverse chronologically (XD) or just admire the 'crappy' photos, which involves a Kitty Balthier from Final Fantasty XII that my younger sister has a crush on him and a cheeky young boy saying he's not having a hug to me.

I'm going to have to post this link to my new friend now and I'll be posting a few that I can deemed themselves 'DeviantArt' worthy and make some funny comments. XD

Kishou Sentai Pinranger

Finsihed playing The World Ends with You and was shocked at the ending (though I'm not going to spoil it. Let's just say you'll need to play it for yourself and find something more unexpected), BUT Goddamnit it was a GREAT game! I haven't been addicted to the game since the Pokemon series for a while now.

And then there's Another Day, a post-game cleared chapter that had me laughing now and again. BTW, before I'll go into further detail...

MASSIVE POST-GAME SPOILER ALERT! IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS HERE, THEN DON'T READ FURTHER ON! YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!















Still with me? Okay....















Right at the start the screen told us that Another Day is unrelated to the main storyline whatsoever and Neku resists his 'Emo Urges' and decides to play Tin Pin Slammer! Eh? And then it gets weirder and funnier. Megumi 'Shades Conductor' Kitanji is now the Mayor of Shibuya (which I have no idea why), Joshua is Joshua (sorta) - only he's not really the Composer at all and as for Shooter...well, he's still himself. And just as the game starts, Yodai (the big, bruly man who is somewhat the 'Booth Babe' for the competition, which I don't know why), Uzuki and Kariya stole nearly everyone's Pins (except for Neku, which he hangs on, including the headphones) calling themsleves the Black Skullers in the process, in addition to Megumi and Joshua and then runs off to somewhere secretly. Shooter asks Neku for help and together they went to the 'Secret Base', i.e. the Ramen Shop to have discussions with Doctor Pin.

When the two youngsters arrived, they were joined by Joshua, Shiki and Beat on a quest to stop the evildoers from Tin Pin profit or something. But beforehand, Neku asks the Ramen Owner, Ken, about Doctor Pin and suddenly he glares at Phones for this reason! And then things start getting weirder and weirder. Shooter decided to turn Neku, Shiki, Joshua and Beat into some sort of Super Sentai team, but without the masks and lycra and then Shooter is Red, Neku Blue (originally Black/Brown and Blue), Shiki Green (hey, you don't see a Green female Ranger in Super Sentai series more often, though you can count Mele from Gekiranger as one of them, if you like two rival groups team up), Josuha Pink (Hey, there was a Pink male Ranger before *coughDynamancough*), which later on, changes to Rainbow and then suddenly, Doctor Pin joins in! And guess what, Doctor Pin (Jr) turns out to be...

Sho 'Zetta SOACAHTOA' Minamimoto who lives with Ken for some odd reason and then devised a plan to have Neku being the bait, which he objects, but nonetheless decided to do it. And so, our heroes must take up justice to save Tin Pin from getting into evil hands! I'm having some thoughts on imagining them doing the Super Sentai poses with their roll call, explosions right after their Sentai name (maybe Kishou Sentai Pinranger XD (and just for the record, Kishou = Badge in British English terms) for some odd reason, complete with their OP song, which includes the good guys vs. Black Skullers, only using PINS! And so, Pinranger set out to find the culprit, which they recruited Rhyme as Pin Black (Wah! Black Female ranger!) and ran into Higsahizawa, their first target. Our heroes won the game, but lost as in typical Super Sentai twist, Rhyme turns out to be a spy to the Black Skullers and Beat goes emo that he can't believe Rhyme is one of them! And what's worse: Shooter's Red Slammer has been busted! But Neku tells Beat and Shooter that not all is lost, so they went back to the Ramen asks Sho for help. Yes, I know getting help from your really twisted enemy, who isn't on the bad side is very strange and all, but hey. This is The World Ends with You after all.

However, when Ken took a look at Shooter's Red Slammer, he told the Red Spirit that Red Slammer being broken is beyond his and Sho's skills. Shooter was sad, but Ken brought out: THE PROTOTYPES of the Slammers, each with their own distinct colour (in total of six: Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Black and Rainbow), along with his part of the secret past: he was Doctor Pin Sr, until Mathematic Freak took over. And with newfound hope, the Pinranger head on to find their bad guys, which is in Miyashita Park, funnily enough. By the time they get here, the Black Skullers were having a nice curry lunch (cooked by Higashizawa surprisingly) and now the battle turns on!

Joshua vs. Tutorial Guy (no, I'm not kidding. That's his name); Beat vs. Rhyme; Shiki vs. Uzuki (who have some rivalry against each other on the hot lads' fan groups); Neku vs. Kariya (which at one point, Neku went emo) and finally Higashizawa vs. Shooter. Eventually they won, but Hizagawa refuses to give up and tells the history of his obsession with Tin Pin and his admired respect for Ken, who turns out that he used to design the Tin Pins, until he resigned suddenly, due to poor design work. But then, Ken appears and tell everyone the whole thing, which includes the reason why he left the company: his latest creation was half-finished and couldn't cope with it. And in another twist, Sho arrives in time to save the Pin Spirits (I don't know why he was in Taboo Form, but Neku thought if there was an explosion in the Ramen Shop's secret basment lab) from despair with his creation: Ken's original work - THE OMEGA Slammer! And so, Shooter easily defeats Hizagawa and the Tin Pin world is saved! And then they all live happily ever after. The End.

Blegh, I hate doing summaries, but at least I told you on what I could remember. Wiki it or something. My brain is dead after laughing so much.

Oh, I forgot there are also some funny moments in Another Day:

* Neku and the gang (which includes Joshua) meeting Joshua (the Composer) and the expressions they get on their faces, when Composer Joshua was just saying he was just killing time, until Emo Neku gets here. And then challenged the gang for a Final Attack Time Chained battle.

* Konishi the 'Iron Maiden Bitch', who turns out to be Beat's teacher.

* Beat and Rhyme used to be in a comedy duo stand-up, until Beat kicked her out.

I think I nearly died from laughing. And WEWY is getting so addicted, I don't know when I'm going to put the DS down.

The Taste of the Sea

Today (just now as I was writing at this time) was my Dad's birthday and this could only mean one thing: taking him out to a special place, i.e. a seafood restaurant somewhere in the city centre of Manchesster. It was such a goregous and delicious place (even though I only like to eat salmon, tuna and an odd bit of scallop and osyter...and squid), but somehow when it came to the bill, IT WAS EXPENSIVE. But I don't really care, as long as the food tasted great and my Dad loves eating seafood, since in his childhood days in Vietnam that he lived in a fishing village. I was amused and amazed that he ate lobster and crab, but at the same time, he said that he was full up when we were underestimated by the platter they ordered and yet he still eats; even my Mum did the same thing too (which explains why I said I'm full up and yet my mind presses the 'EAT' command button).

I'll post in the photos tomorrow, but I drank (white) wine too quickly, so I feel a little dizzy.

Cosplay Attempt No. 222

Blegh, I tried Lita, but that one sucked. I tried another one with Felt, but that went nowhere. Then Nobunaga (the teenager version) from Kessen III and then a few others, but THIS time! I'm not going to fail!!! This time I finally finished my Joshua costume from It's a Wonderful World (aka Subarashiki kono Sekai or The World Ends With You). Finally, a costume that has been made easy for me. And here's the photo to prove it!



Well yes, I know I need to buy a wig (most likely to be either dirty blonde or platinum blonde or something), but other than that, it's nearly 2/3 done. Now I all I need to do now is to get that wig and then MCM Expo in London here I come!

As for the game itself, I'm sorta halfway through the stage and I'm nearing the end of the week with Joshua (damn it). The story's getting more interested and weirder at the same time now.

Selling Myself

Well, since I was actually run out of money (thanks mum for the 'advice' you gave me...), now I'll have to set up the affiliate program with Play-Asia.com to sort my money out. Eurgh, I hate my life. And doing the financial stuff all by myself is miserable work too. T_T

Oh well, at least I bought the 'It's a Wonderful World' (now called 'The World End With You') OST from that site. Great bargain, though. Only around £10 for the CD!

Semi Nakedness Controversy

I was watching Space Pirates for some odd reason; it's a children's show, which might explains why it was for CBeebies, and what made me shout "OMG! THIS WASN'T TO BE FOR THE KIDS TO SEE!" were not Lolly singing awfully or some puppet rats singing a cover version of Van Halen's 'Jump', it was the last act: it was showing a bunch of Papa New Guineans 'sing sing' and although the editors managed to cut out the 'Boobies' bit, I can still see the 'flat-chested' women's breasts on screen! O_O

Hey! Wait! This was supposed to be a children's show, right? And not some kind of sexual innuendos for the adults to see, right?

Chobits THE LIVE

Sorry. I made that title up as you're not going to see the live action version of Chobits. Instead, I'm talking about Absolute Boyfriend aka Zettai Kareshi. Been to watch the first episode and here are my thoughts...

Surprisingly, it's actually very good, even though the JDrama had to change a few modifications, due to the fact that in Japanese schools, having an affair within the school is STRICTLY not allowed. Intsead, the JDrama takes place in a sweet/confectionery business building, which is owned by the Asamoto funnily enough and that our main herorine, Izawa Riiko has newly joined in the ranks as a temp and that Asamoto Soshi is now the heir to the Asamoto business (and his younger brother, (now turning 'older'?) is the Vice-President) and that his personality has changed a little to being a flirty guy (but he's played by Mizushima 'Path to Heaven' Hiro, which he really fits well as Soshi). As for Night, well, Night is Night, albeit with a few appearance changes (Plus, I like Mokomichi Hayami, he's hot X3). And even Namikiri, who I was a little disappointed that he wasn't the Namikiri I'm expecting from the manga intially, had still got that charm from the manga intact (the actor, Sasaki Kuranosuke must have been really good).

There are a few issues that I would love to see the JDrama follow the storyline, but having an open mind, I can't wait to watch the next episode. I wonder how Yuu Watase (my favourite shoujo manga-ka) reacts when she watched this.

Den-O Warriors

My younger sister and I played Samurai Warriors 2: Extreme Legends last night and what was funny about it was I looked closer at the credits, Japan Action Enterprises Co. came in. And what's really surprising: Ryutaros's suit actor is in the game! XD Now, I can see the connection between the DenLiner gang in Feudal Japan and seeing Sanada Yukimura as a surprise guest.

Damn, if only the DenLiner gang made special appearances in the SW series, I would have die happy more than seeing Yoshimoto getting nearly everyone to play kemari with him...XD

ARGH! I WANT TO SEE THE KIVA FANGIRE TRIO MORE!

Eurgh. Yesterday, I finally managed to watch Kiva with my younger sister and this is what I think so far on what I like about this series and what I wish they could have added more or what I'm not really fond of...

What I like

The Kiva Fangire Trio: Basically these three, who go on by the name of Garulu (who is like Godot, only he, erm, 'bites' people and really can't beat the Prosecutor's record of drinking 17 cups of coffee a day, PLUS, he's played by the same guy as Zanki from Hibiki), Bashaa (He's like Ryutaros, only he's a little less childish, doesn't have a sister/brother complex and more curious about Garulu's actions, but has that cheeky side to him; he's also played as that football guy from Den-O) and Dogga (I can only comment as he's a bit like Mori-san from Ouran High School Host Club); act as Kiva's assistants when he needs help, but when not beating Fangire; spend a lot of time stuck in Castle Dran on either playing chess, building a card pyramid or if the camera's not there, playing the PS3 or something. XD The reason why I like those characters are that they have each has a personality and their friendship seems very interesting. *Sigh* If only those three interact with Wataru/Kiva,Shizuka and Kivat more, then I would have made Kiva on the top three shows...

Kivat-bat the Third: Three reasons - (A) He's been voiced by the same guy who did Gintoki from Gintama and Ikkyu-san from [Zoku] Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and (B) A cute, but very cool mascot who doesn't act annoyingly like any other small cute mascot in any show that I watched and (C) His interaction with Wataru is just funny and cool at the same time. And even his interaction with Shizuka is just funny too.

Wataru: He's really cute, but also really shy. My younger sister told me that he reminds her of Sora from Sketchbook ~full colors~ and I would think so, too. He's like Ryotaro from Den-O, only Wataru's luck's better than him.

Shizuka: A female character who's not afraid to abuse Kivat. 'Nuff said.

Otoya: I couldn't stop laughing at his failed attempts, because of him...though I do feel sorry for him, every time he tries to be Urataros and hit on every woman, but ends up having none.

Castle Dran and its 'Castle' Companions: I found then cute for a Monster/Castle mecha, even though they're not to my taste, due to their bulkiness. Though I always wonder how the Kiva Fangire Trio managed to stay calm inside the room, despite the rocking and the shaking that's been going on, during the fight in episode 8.

What I Didn't Like

Kiva's Forms: The first one's good, but when it came to Garulu, Bashaa and Dogga Forms, I was a tad disappointed that the helmet didn't change. But I like the weapons and how each of the Form acts in a different way (Oh, I like Bashaa Form's Hissatsu Waza - Just one shot and then walking towards the Fangire, before touching it with one finger and POOF! Fangire defeated and gets eaten by Castle Dran for lunch. XD); I'm going to wait judgement for Dogga Form. Hmm, Hammer Time...

That weird alien music that changes the timeline: That music's been bugging me with that, though it did help me on when the narrative changes from one year to another, which reminds me...

Timeline CHANGE!: Yes, it does work on paper, but put into the TV screen and I get very confused when I least expected. Geez, I wish Inoue-san knows what he's doing, because I hate when the story for 2008 gets really interesting, the 'Alien Time Change Music' changes to 1988 or something and it ruins the flow, at least for me; don't know about the others.

The Opening and the Ending Themes: Sorry, but Break the Chain's not my cup of tea. And since Kiva has that Horror flair, why can't the Opening be, at least more like 'Dirty' by Nightmare from Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro? Oh, right...It's a children's show. My younger sister made a joke that if the Opening has changed the lyrics and be about despair, then the children would be screaming 'I'm in despair!' or something. XD And I was sad that the show's ending only had one: Tetra FANG. Oh come on, why can't Kiva, Kivat and the Kiva Fangire Trio have their own ending theme like Ryotaro and his Taros Imagin and Yuto and Deneb? It would make the series better...

Kiva's Henshin Chime: ARGH! SCREAMING OUT OF MY HEAD! IT'S BLEEDING MY EARS! Well, the Kiva Fangire Trio's Fustles calls (damn, I need to hear Dogga) have their own chimes.

Fanigre Hunters: I couldn't careless about them, because I know they're important to the storyline; it's just...that their personalities are...in a sense, pretty dull and spend some time saying that 'Fangire should be destroyed' or something. And IXA? Nah, I'm going to pass, since I don't really care if I like IXA or not. And I was on the verge of writing IXION on the blog. XD

And that's about it. *Sigh* I'll give Kiva another try when TV-N's done finishing the Den-O Special Talk Show or something...

Coming Soon: Miles Edgeworth - Perfect Prosecutor (TBC)

OMG! OMG! Now I've got one reason why I need for Apollo Justice to wait longer...



Courtesy of JapaneseGIRL from the best Ace Attorney fansite in the world: Court Records. I am SO excited!

In other non-AA related news, blegh. Got some stuff from uni to finish, so I might not have time to blog this every day. And sadly I'm going to have to cancel the Quote of the Moments as of now. My brain's dead... D:

Shooting My Opinion Out of My Head

Finished playing Persona 3 and then started again playing through the second time (NNNNNNOOOOOO!!! I WANT MY BEST PERSONAS AND MY SOCIAL LINKS BACK!) and my opinion...

Great game, storyline, characters, gameplay, art and music (eurgh, can't stop listening to Burn My Dread - Last Battle - now) and I cried when everything goes wrong. Well, it IS a Shin MegaTen game after all, so it's going to bound to happen. And I won't post those spoilers, since anyone who has yet to finish the game will have to find out what I'm talking about. And Ryoji.... ; ___ ;

Quote of the Moment - "..."

Must be Thursday Again

Blimey, just what have I bought?



Death Note: How to Read manga and that Another Note novel. Great, I need to add to my Death Note collection (excluding the merchandise). And what's this entering through my house?



YAY! Persona 3! Right, I'm going to name the student, Ryoutarou for this...



Funny thing is, you know Inoue Toshiki (guy who's currently doing Kamen Rider Kiva scipt)? He does the Death Note anime scriptwriting, as well as Devil May Cry the anime and Cutie Honey the LIVE. Though I like his scriptwriting in terms of narrative, I think he's pretty unsuitable to scriptwrite children's shows, even though anything to do with horror (or just emo-drama-crap) is his speciality. Oh dear. I think someone is going to shoot me for this.

Quote of the Moment - "I don't want to ruin this!" - Me on that Death Note: How to Read manga, which has a name card stuck on this manga. > ___ <

Absolutely Going to Watch This

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

I haven't seen any of my favourite shoujo manga-ka's, Yuu Watase, work, since the original Fusihgi Yuugi and Ayashi no Ceres, but I found this!

IT'S TURNING INTO A LIVE ACTION DRAMA!!!

/ ^ o ^ / I AM so HAPPY right now! \ ^ o ^ \

At least, it's not another anime adaptation, only to get dubbed poorly, like what the manga-ka's original works were. And the best part: two of the actors (one of them in Kamen Rider Kabuto, which I'm not a fan of that) are going to be cast as the main male characters! And who are two exactly?

Mokomichi Hayami as 'Tenjo Night' (wow, I haven't seen him since Densha Otoko the drama version (he was Hermes's brother if I recalled)

Mizushima Hiro as 'Asamoto Soshi' (For Kamen Rider fans (and especially Kabuto nutters), he was that 'Path-of-Heaven' guy, Tendou. But I like him when he's in the Lovely Complex movie as that shy guy (I forgot his name) and it's going to be interesting to see him play Night's 'human' rival.)

As for Izawa Riiko, she's going to be played by Aibu Saki (must be a newcomer; haven't seen her acting skills in any JDrama).

I really can't wait to see this! And it's going to be premiered in the Japanese TV channel, Fuji TV, on 8th April. Better start telling the forum members over at the TV-N forums (and hopefully start convincing the staff to sub this)...

Source: Sankei Sports (in Japanese)
ANN (English)

Quote of the Moment - "THIS MANGA IS SCI-FI?!" - Soshi and Riiko's amazement that the manga version of Absolute Boyfriend, is indeed sci-fi. XD

When Toku Goes Acid

Watched Phoo Action on BBC3 recently and all I could say was...

WWWWWWWWWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!

It's like watching Kamen Rider on acid, only the two main characters are not really Riders at all, they don't henshin, but they can kick butt on the baddies. And Buddha's loincloth; someone at the writing department must have been a genius of giving pants to Whitey Action (and it's a girl, BTW) and then make anything appear from in 'there', whether it's chocolate or...erm, a dog or whatever.

And being that it's based on a comic strip by Gorillaz designer, Jamie Hewlett, I'm automatically a fan of Phoo Action now. And as for the show itself, it's got plenty of action, some really funny moments and...it's fun. Okay BBC, just give us more dramas like this. Watching this really reminds me of watching a Toku show, only if the people behind the scenes were drunk...

Quote of the Moment - "Buddha is as Buddha does." - Phoo Action

Such a Shave that There's No Film Like This

Been to watch Sweeny Todd at the cinema just recently as I'm typing this post just now and although it's VERY bloody (though, to be fair, it wasn't that realistic to see Johnny Depp slicing his victims on the neck in that fashion), this was one bloody brilliant (excuse the pun) film that I've seen for a long time.

Got to give props to Tim Burton (my favourite director) for directing this film, otherwise the film would have been an entire put-off for me and Johnny Depp for who could not only act brilliantly as always, but he can sing like David Bowie! I like Helena Bonham Carter's performance very much, but I can't believe her character! I'm not going to spoil what really happened, but let's just say, the business relationship between her as Mrs. Lovett (eurgh, I'm not going to eat her pies) and Johnny's Sweeny was great, but yet something very devious about them. And the great thing about this film, is that, despite being an adapted musical by the same guy [Stephen Sondheim] who wrote for the film of the same title, the songs are NOT that cheesy and I like for the fact that the songs advances from scene to scene rather than another corny dance number. And thank God for it didn't detract from the storyline. And with Tim Burton, I knew that he directs such a brilliant visual look to the film. If it was owned by Disney, I knew that he would rather jumped off the cliff than work for them (thank God it's Warner Brothers and Dreamworks). I was a little disappointed that Danny Elfman wasn't involved in the film this time, but the really catchy music and songs just distracted me for a good reason.

*Sighs* If only 555/Kiva/Devil May Cry (anime)'s writer, Inoue-san would have watched this brilliant piece of movie and then followed the example of what makes a great movie/series, instead of writing some kind of alternative universe crap or make a musical that doesn't involve dancing or inserting horror in THE NEXT (to be honest, Kamen Rider wasn't meant to be a Horror series IMO) or write a brilliant story, only that the ending rushes in at the end unexpetedly. I felt that he's really unsuitable to write something for a children's show. He's brilliant in Cutie Honey THE LIVE, but...

Quote of the Moment - "My friend" - Sweeny Todd (Johnny Depp) talking or singing about his precious razors from Sweeny Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

OMG! IT IS REAL!

So a Den-O anime does exist after all (well, sort of).



Yay! All six Imagin are in it with the VOICE ACTORS! Yes, now I don't have to worry who's going to replace Yusa-san's voice as Urataros. Can't wait to see how it goes! \ ^ o ^ / In other news...OMG! Suit actors in the flesh!



I can't believe that the Ryutaros suit actor was THAT short! And it's very nice to see Seiji Takaiwa acting as all four Den-O Forms, as well as being Momo in the flesh. Too bad there wasn't any Climax Form antics. XD I would love to see him going crazy with his body. Source: 101fwy.net

Quote of the Moment - "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU BETRAYED ME!!!! *sobs and runs*" - Liner_Form from the TV-N forums after I tricked him about that there is such thing as Den-O video game.

Publishing, Somewhat different from Photoshop

Eurgh. Had a hard time doing some crap publishing skills for my dad's prayer book or something. Apparently, he wanted me to print a book in A5 and my mind must be lost somewhere. God, no wonder some Graphic Design (from GCSE to University) students are pulling their hairs when it comes to resizing stuff just for one client.

Maybe I should practice Adobe InDesign more often or something. That could help me on how to publish a book into more careful consideration.

Quote of the Moment - "If you are watching this, you're fired." - Some boring guy from Ratchet and Clank 2. God, when I played R&C: Tools of Desctruction on the PS3 in some Virgin (now called the stupidly named Zavvi) store yesterday, I just love on how the gameplay never manages to screw up, unlike the Jak games.

Concept Design Research or Just Pure Fanservice?

DAMNIT! I WANT THAT ONE!

AS WELL AS THAT ONE!

Eurgh, I'm so torn on whether or not I should buy these books, since I either need them for research inspiration for my University or that I'll just buy them for the sake of being a fan. Eurgh, help me!

Quote of the Moment - "..." - Me on running out of quotes...

Games = Sudoku???

Oh great. Another person claims that video games are bad for kids and is like Satan's sudoku.

But wait a minute, isn't Sudoku itself a game (and not just any game on paper, but it also has countless of video games itself)? Yeesh, someone should give her a slap on the back for not doing enough research properly. I play video games AND play sudoku on paper and yet, my soul did not sold off to the Devil. Perhaps she needs to play more Brain Training to keep her brain of hers active.

Quote of the Moment - "These are Satan's Sudoku, crack cocaine of the brain. Even the crappiest cartoon or lamest soap teaches a child about character, plot, drama, humour, life. Playing videogames, children are mentally imprisoned, wired into their evil creators' brains." - Janice Porter ranting about how video games are really shallow of the storyline. Geez, you do know that there are plenty of video games that HAVE character, plot, drama, humour and life into one package (take the Metal Gear Solid series for example).

Kamen Rider Den-O: The ANIME

Well, sort of...



XD Damn Pictaps and must like to thank that person for creating such a cute Ryuta dancing!!!

Quote of the Moment - "ONI!!!" - Some ninjas exclaiming at Momotaros from Kamen Rider Den-O: Ore, Tanjou! (Or I'm Born as the English translation). God, that movie was awesome.

And I Know Why This is Funny

Just recent;y finished watching Ouran High School Host Club and...IT'S REALLY FUNNY AND GOOD! And I laughed so much, it's like seeing characters with so much personality and it's good to see that although a shoujo series based on the manga of the same name; it's very much about the development of the friends, rather than girl meets boy and then developing love. Mou~, why did I watch it sooner?!

Quote of the Moment - "MAH?!" - Some random guy off from Ouran High School Host Club