The Mind of Sho's Memoirs

World Embryo in a Manga Chart?!

2009-02-04T17:36:00.002Z

Yes, you better believe it.

BTW, this got me thinking, if World Embryo is slowly gaining some fame and by the time volume six shows up or something, would it mean that an anime series would show up? Or even a J-Drama similiar to GARO or Cutie Honey the Live, someday?

*Thinks for a moment*

Hmm, maybe a J-Drama might be likely, though the only thing that's going to cause some production trouble; would be someone (prefably a young girl) playing Neene. T_T I would like to see Konishi Hiroki (now called Ryusei or something) to play as Takao, but he's a tad older, so maybe Fujita Ray might a replacement for him, considering he's good at swordfights and being badass (or maybe that guy who played as Rio from Gekiranger might be the one playing as him). And then there's Riku...hmm, I doubt Satoh Takeru would get the lead role, but maybe that guy who plays as Ramon/Bashaa from KR Kiva could possibly be him, since he definitely fits the 'cute-guy-gone-absolutely-nuts' type (trust me, after reading nearly 4-5 volumes of WE, Riku does crazy and possibly dangerous things to protect Neene and his family. Kinda like Light from Death Note for some reason, as he too, protects his family by killing a lot of criminals and a few people that he deems to see them as annoyances to his plan. Especially L) or maybe that guy who was Kojirou from Fuuma no Kojirou might be one, though he's a bit too cheerful for his role and a little older.

As for girls...erm, boys, I think you're on your own on dreaming a good female cast.

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

2008-12-21T20:03:00.002Z

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

2008-08-04T01:17:00.002+01:00

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

2008-07-18T17:13:00.003+01:00

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

2008-06-23T00:28:00.004+01:00

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!

2008-06-05T13:39:00.002+01:00

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

2008-05-30T00:19:00.003+01:00

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

2008-05-25T11:49:00.003+01:00

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

2008-05-19T01:49:00.004+01:00

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

2008-05-12T23:15:00.002+01:00

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

2008-05-07T18:47:00.004+01:00

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

2008-04-26T22:45:00.003+01:00

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

2008-04-24T15:36:00.003+01:00

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

2008-04-22T21:25:00.004+01:00

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

2008-04-13T14:50:00.002+01:00

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!

2008-04-12T11:40:00.005+01:00

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)

2008-04-10T15:20:00.002+01:00

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

2008-03-21T10:27:00.002Z

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

2008-02-28T15:19:00.003Z

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

2008-02-24T15:22:00.003Z

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

2008-02-12T22:35:00.000Z

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

2008-02-06T21:11:00.000Z

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!

2008-02-02T13:08:00.000Z

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

2008-02-01T23:27:00.000Z

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?

2008-01-24T15:44:00.000Z

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???

2008-01-22T11:51:00.000Z

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

2008-01-16T17:56:00.000Z

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

2008-01-11T13:36:00.000Z

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

IDie

2007-12-18T12:57:00.000Z

Watched yesterday's The Gadget Show and I'm really pissed about the Apple's I[Pod (shuffle/nano)/Tunes/Touch/Phone/Whatever] stuff being the greatest gadget in the world. Even the IPhone's been given the Gadget of the Year 2007. Seriously, I think they are IOverrated and I'll tell you why I hate them more than my Creative stuff...

- They're a pain in a butt when it comes to converting .mp3 files into .aac files and I'm not really a fan of those. They take so long to convert, I'm going to have to smash the Ipod plug in half. Plus, I'm not that patient to have to wait for the files converting and then listen to enjoy.
- IPhone's rubbish. I'm sorry, but at £35 on the monthly contract via O2? Yeah, right. That's a total ripoff! I rather go and buy a Sony Ericsson with Pay as You Go Top-up fee than this. And then it has a rubbish 2 Megapixel camera and the music in there is awful.
- So popular, I'm going to have a fit here. I just hate how one minded the Technology magazines say they're really good. Oh, for God's sake, have you ever heard of the proverb 'Don't judge a book by its cover'. Please, let me find at least one person who hates the IPod/whatever.

So, there you have it. The reasons why I want to buy a Creative Zen M, instead of ICrap stuff.

Quote of the Moment - "ARGH! LEAVE ME ALONE!" - Me, when playing Warriors Orochi and lots of CPU characters are following me. Creepy...

^_^ That was Great

2007-12-17T14:33:00.000Z

Been watching the Den-O Special Talk Show and here's the list of what I found so great about this:

- The opening scene, Takeru-san and Yuichi-san (well, Yuichi mostly) guessing the Taros' voice actors and got the Kintaros and Ryutaros voices wrong with hilarious results.
- Whoa. I found loads of girls, some couple of loli goth ones, going gaa-gaa over the Imagin, voice actors and the two actors. And yes, I went gaa-gaa, whenever I see Takeru-san.
- Suit actors interview! Wow! This is great; very rare to see them their real selves in person and getting interviewed by Suzuken and Yusa 'Ichimaru Gin' Kouji (btw, those two voice actors have their own radio talk shows in Japan, which might explain the interview part). Just love the Sieg suit actor doing 'the Prince' bow and 'Zu gu takai!' pose. XD
- The songs - Well, Yuichi-san was lip-syncing in the Action Zero one, but by God, he did a good one at pretending to sing. And Double Action wasn't bad as well.
- Climax Jump HIP HOP version with Takeru-san breakdancing in front of the audience. Oooh, I just love actors having a secret ability to do something.
- And finally...Sword Form appearing at the end of the show. That one was surprising for me.

And guess what? TV-N's going to sub this show, which means...<3 I am DEFINITELY CAN'T wait to see this, the Hyper Battle and the rest of the upcoming episodes more than Kiba.

Quote of the Moment - "The viewers were mostly 2 - 30 years old female." - Takenoko from the TV-N group commenting about the gender majority of the Special Talk Show audience, which includes me. Too bad I didn't go to Japan and go gaa-gaa over them. T_T

YOSH! Xmas comes early for me!

2007-12-16T14:11:00.000Z

From the box that contains a lot of Chibi Voice I-doll figures...

To a complete set of the six Den-O characters! Complete get indeed. Okay, so it's technically four, since Momo, Sword Form and MomoRyo are the same person.

Quote of the Moment - "[Insert random Japanese-gibberish nonsense]" - My older sister making fun of my collection and the catchphrases. > _ <

Mindless Brain Coming In

2007-12-06T01:55:00.000Z

Eurgh. It's nearly 2 in the morning and here I am, typing like a mindless zombie, attemping to do some last minute coursework done for the course. Because, let's face it, no matter how much you really want to avoid, if it's BA (HONS) Whatever Degree, YOU'LL HAVE TO DO THE ESSAY, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.

And time for some random bit: You know, when I was watching Kamen Rider Den-O, I always think that the suit actors must have watched a lot of silent movies somewhere and I was pretty amazed that the way they acted reminds me of seeing as a homage to Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton; past time's two great legends of silent films. And I bet, Takaiwa Seiji-san (the suit actor for Momotaros/Kamen Rider Den-O) must have studied Chaplin and Keaton's movements very well. Hence, all that funny and hilarious stuff that I've been watching their show for a while now, including his convincing and brilliant performance in his Climax Form stuff (must have been really hard to play all four characters in one body); I've got to give him some great respect for all his hard work. God, now I want to watch Chaplin's 'The Great Dictator' sometime, even though it's not technically silent.

Quote of the Moment - "hrhhjdhdgsfgdghdhddflfhfglhh;l" - someone in the Internet, discovering something really unexpected happened.

BEST One Hit-Wonder Music Video Promo. EVER!

2007-12-03T20:58:00.001Z

Or not, depending on your view if you haven't seen Kamen Rider Den-O. This is going to be in the top five Christmas Chart hits, isn't it?

Come to think of it, the Taros Imagin singing in front of their microphones really reminds me of seeing the British pop quartet, Take That in their 'Rule the World' PV for some odd reason. I bet the suit actors were having a really fun time pretending to sing in front of a virtual audience. XD

Quote of the Moment - "Ii jan! Ii jan! Sugee jan!?" - Climax Jump (either the Den-O Form or the Denliner Form is fine)

Now, This is How You Make a Good Film

2007-11-24T01:33:00.000Z

Recently at a Friday night (okay, late), I've been to watch Pan's Labyrinth with my sisters and yes, I must say, I should give the Hellboy and Sin City director lots of credit for making this incredibly excellent film. Basically, this is a fantasy/period drama (taking place in the middle of a WWII-Spanish mill) film about a young girl named Ofelia, who is the reincarnation of the Underworld's Princess, Moanna, and she has to do three tasks in order to return to her Underworld, as she is the rightful heir to the throne. Yeah, despite the somewhat cliched description that I've made, the storyline is really good; with really good actors and actresses, including the main herorine, portraying their role convincingly. Even that Captain Bastard as I dubbed him, is really convincing to play as the arsehole character. I just love the herorine, because A) she's pretty a strong-willed lass, despite her age and looks and B) she's not afraid to die, even it means it's going to cost her life.

Storyline-wise, I just love it; really good fairytale, with none of that cheesy Hollywood-crap that was in the film and the ending is what I should describe it a bittersweet story, even though that there are scenes that would be really scary/gross for non-horror fans. If you want to know what really happens, then go buy/rent/borrow or your friend's/sibling's/family member's DVD and check it out. This is one film that you should NOT avoid and a MUST-SEE for all you Del Toro fans.

Quote of the Moment - "Damn bleach" - Me, after applying the spray to the laptop monitor. I swear, I'm never going to use that thing again. It stinks. >_<

Who Needs Heroes when you have Villains as the Main Characters?

2007-11-13T23:22:00.000Z

After recently finished reading the children novel, H.I.V.E. - Higher Intsitution of Villainious Education - via my younger sister's permission as she bought the book; I can now say a few things about this book:

- Finally, a book about the villains being in the spotlight, instead of heroes who have the destiny to fight against them.

- Otto Malpense, the main character and anti-hero of the story, kinda reminds me of that short white-haired boy, whose name escapes me, from BLEACH, only he's not a high ranking Shinigami/Soul Reaper captain or something and that he uses his wit.

- It's really funny. No seriously, by the time you're going to read this book, you will forget that this is a Harry Potter-a-like story with emo characters in it. Well, okay, there is one in H.I.V.E, but he doesn't act all emo later on.

- Lots of twists and turns and better writing than HP book 7. Plus likable characters, even though they ARE villains. And you will sympathise Dr Nero, the headmaster of H.I.V.E. later on. I'm not going to spoil the storyline.

All in all, I'm definitely going to buy the second book, just for my younger sister's late birthday present. And oh yes, if young/old teenage girls and young female adults are going to pick H.I.V.E up, I'll bet there's going to be lots of yaoi fanfiction/fanart of Otto Malpense and Wing Fanchu (the second main male character) doing some 'inappropriate' stuff to each other. What?

Quote of the Moment - "I'm on the verge of breaking my pencil." - Me on that life-drawing teacher telling me that I drew the naked woman's head to small.

The Force is TOO Strong!

2007-11-08T16:54:00.000Z

After finish playing the original Shadow Hearts, my mind now wants me to play Shadow Hearts II. And now, I can't stop it. It makes me want to go down memory lane, like Terranigma a few years ago.

So much for replaying From the New World just to get that Bad ending, which I couldn't be bothered as the storyline and characters didn't have enough 'spark' and substance on what makes the Shadow Hearts series so good.

Come back Sancoth/Nautilus! All is forgiven! Please don't end up dissolving like Clover Studios (team that did Okami)!

Quote of the Moment - "He acts like a dog." My younger sister talking about that robot from Crimson Sea 2 in my memory card or something.

And Why I Thought Yuri was Better than Johnny

2007-11-07T15:01:00.000Z

Just been finishing playing on the original Shadow Hearts recently and I must say, I actually like the first two games better than From the New World than I've just finished. And I could tell you why...

1. Characters - Yuri is the best male main character in the whole of the PS2 RPG range. You can forget about Vaan from FFXII or Cloud from VII. He's the anti-hero and does everything opposite to what the main male typical RPG characters should do. He's sarcastic, a bit of a pervert (oh come on, when he picked up that 'Erotic Book' from the first game, he refuses to exchange with Roger Bacon, because 'it was more valuable than the Pulse Tract' XD), has really got a dark sense of humour and above all else, he's a total badass. Reminds me of Tendou from Kamen Rider Kabuto, only without the 'Path to Heaven' crap and less arrogance. Plus, I found ALL of the SH1-2 characters have greater and more charming personalities than FTNW.

2. Storyline - I didn't particularly like FTNW's storyline, because it felt more like a tragic love story between Killer and Lady (two main villains) than really focusing on Johnny and Co. Plus it felt a little short on the story than I've realised when I played the game. The first one was short too, but that didn't stop me playing further as it was more interesting than FTNW, but it's the second game that actually nails on how should a sequel be. Lots of twists and turns, funny, scary and sad at the same time. No, I'm not giving you the in-depth stoyline, just go to Wiki or something.

3. Voice acting - Okay, Shadow Hearts 1 was a bit of a mixed bag (I couldn't stand Sea Mother's 'SHLOOP' sound effects and some of the voice acting are either a bit of a hit and miss occasionally) and so did FTNW (I'm lookinng at Frank here, along with Roger Bacon, but Ricardo's Spanish-accent voice just blew me away as it actually fits his personality); but neither of these can topple SHII's for really good reasons: A) All of the voice-acting really fits in the character that they're supposed to sound like and thus, enhancing them really more to make them even more likable. And I definitely love Yuri's voice. His sarcastic nature really fits his somewhat rough voice and Joachim is full of lolz. And Alice's voice is definitely an improvement and so does Albert Simon (I hated his voice as he reminds of a typical villain in the first game, but in the second, he's a bit more likable now, with his voice becoming more mature and gentle) and B) no matter how many years has it been since I last played SHII, it's always been the spoken dialogue that I still remember (I just can't get 'Yuri tricking Lenny' bit out and made me laugh, even now). Forget about Kingdom Hearts - the 'other' Hearts or any other Square Enix games, not every RPG, including FFXII and FFVII, can topple the best voice acting in the game that I've been listening.

And finally...

4. Humour - The first Shadow Hearts that I've played, surprisingly has so much more humour than FTNW, but it only came second place, being SHII being the funniest out of the three. There's so many scenes in that game that I had no choice, but to laugh out loud...and I mean really LOUD. FTNW has humour too, though for some strange reasons, it wasn't that 'LOL' when I saw the scenes; more like 'WTF' to me. Yeah, I know SH and SHII were very dark in terms of its storyline and atmosphere, but there was so many funny scenes that are scattered in many places and even some of them even in unexpected places. Like the time in SHII as I was fighting Garan for the last time in the main storyline and while he was too busy talking some 'YOU WILL DIE' stuff, the Kurando, Lucia and Anatasia were looking at his pillow he was sitting and Yuri and the rest of the party were discussing about the same thing and when Garan ask for his final request, this is what Yuri said...

"That pillow...where can I get one?"

...and at the end of the boss battle, Yuri was still wondering about Garan's pillow and felt disappointed he doesn't know where to get one. XD And don't get me started about the Man Festival and the 'other' alternative ending to both the bad and the good, but in the Man Festival sidequest, it was all Fourth-Wall breaking chaos that I found it hilarous and at the end, let's just say this wasn't the gift that I has hoping for. XD

And the conclusion is...if you want the characters, storyline, gameplay and humour all rolled into one, try going for the first two Shadow Hearts games (good luck finding the first one; I had trouble finding that game, until my younger sis bought the game for my birthday, albeit without the instruction manual); FTNW is great too, but you'll be disappointed by the lack of things of what made the first two so great.

Aw man, I feel like I should play the second game again, after playing the original and third game. So, should I play II again?

Quote of the Moment - "You can't be serious...Not in such a pure, clean, Mega-hit RPG as this...!" - Yuri Hyuga from Shadow Hearts II commenting about the Man Festival. God, I can't stop laughing, even though I haven't played it since 2005.

That's Not How God Wanted

2007-10-30T23:47:00.000Z

That's it. I'm tired of nightly Prayer sessions with a family. I'm tired of praying to God via the Church, which I have great delusion about the Pope and its shady Cardinals and clearly there is something wrong with the Vietnamese Catholic Church. Oh come on, I don't see my cousin saying prayers with his family when I used to do sleepovers at their house and the rest of my mother's side and even my father's side (in America with lots of really religious Catholic families ironically) don't really pray as they want to. I just really hate on being forced to pray as a family altogether ever since that priest (which I blamed him namelessly) in Birmingham tell my dad that it was a good idea to pray as a family every night somewhere over a couple of years ago.

Unfortunately, I'm having none of it, as it seems this idea came into something that I thought of being like in a communist country (not saying if it's China or Vietnam itself), where you were forced to do something that you don't like altogether. Whatever happened to nightly individual prayers that you can get away with by shutting the down and not really praying all of the time?

Oh sure, I'm going to get flamed by the Vietnamese Catholic Church and other Catholics, but this is the truth. Admittedly, I only pray to someone up in the clouds, which is neither God nor Jesus, but the Virgin Mary; when I'm in deep shit and my life is getting worse by every day, but that's just the only in the last resort. I just want to do something in action, rather than praying like a religious fanatic and let God and the miracle do all of the work.

Nightly family prayers can only work with younger children, but with teenagers and young adults straight away, that's impossible to do, as they start to question about the existance of God and whether it's the Church who's in some conspiracy to say that they over exploited Jesus's intentions or not and they get more relunctant to be with a family for a nightly prayer every night and there would be students out partying at night or just saying an excuse they've got this last-minute essay they need to finish, before the next morning. I've got to tell that priest that the system that he told my dad to do is just simply not working for the target market audience (and come up with a graphic/advertising design plan, so that I can have money). And I've got to tell my younger sister that I'm an adult and I can do whatever I want and tell her that she's an adult too and she would have to stop being a mummy or daddy's pet once in a while.

Quote of the Moment - "Wrong person." Gintoki and Shinpachi from Gintama

When Insanity Has a Place in History

2007-10-13T16:27:00.000+01:00

For some odd reason, I started to watched Gintama recently and the result was a real laugh-out-loud JUMP anime. I just couldn't stop laughing from every episode.

Well, okay. I'm not into JUMP anime that has fights lasting for five episodes, BUT then they're too busy powering up for another few episodes; with exceptions to Death Note (well, I only read the manga, but the anime looks a bit...meh), Rurouni Kenshin and Busou Renkin. However, Gintama is such an extremely funny JUMP anime, that I can watch it easily, without ever knowing to get confused with the storyline or be bored with the really long fight, only to be powering up and then the fight took longer. So what I like about Gintama more than BLEACH or Dragonball Z or other JUMP manga/anime:

- There are a few serious moments that are sweet, though that usually sweep aside and let the chaos come in.
- The characters. Finally, not one of them are EMO imo. I mean, everyone has a colourful personality and all of them, except for Shinpachi (the guy with glasses who's normal, but then again, he's funny too), are really odd and funny in their own way.
- The anime doesn't take itelf really seriously, thus making fun of Gintoki himself and the rest of the gang. Plus they usually break the fourth wall of a typical JUMP anime.
- The episodes themselves are short and thus seem to have no main storyline whatsoever, other than the fact Gintoki was in a war, but have left for some reason.
- It's extremely funny. REALLY EXTREMELY FUNNY. I just couldn't stop laughing at seeing from the Gin-tachi going on misadventures to Sougo trying to kill Toushi with extreme methods just to get the Vice Commander position and then make a riduculous excuse to him (though he was already aware of that).
- I'm really surprised Gintama has so many parodies of anime, manga, video game, real life and even Toku itself.

Aaw man. Now I know why Gintama's been such a huge hit in Japan. And I didn't know the manga-ka behind the series was actually trying to pay his student debts off while drawing for JUMP.

Quote of the Moment - "I just want an electric fan!" - Sataka Gintoki from Gintama

I Told Her I'll Be Pissed...

2007-10-09T17:13:00.000+01:00

...when I post this to my blog.

Now, I'm very angry at my older sister for abusing my laptop. I'll never forgive her for that. The next time she comes abusing my poor laptop, I'll make a laptop that she cannot bear. >:(

Quote of the Moment - "When are you going to play?" - My younger sister asking me a million times so much, I just gave up saying 'yes'.

In Which My Paypal Account is Going to Suffer

2007-10-06T10:57:00.001+01:00

Aaaw man, I sooooo want those figures!

*Rushes off to the HLJ site...*

Quote of the Moment - "I had a hamster called Sephiroth." - Lucrecia on the Lucrecia/Hojo Gold Saucer Date trip from FFVII. God bless that girl for making this funny video.

Bashing Younger Sibling Time!

2007-09-30T23:26:00.000+01:00

Oh God, what is wrong with my younger sister?! Acting like she still got her 'teach-me-everything' inside her brain, always trying to be good to our mum and dad, which all adds to the absolutely opposite of me. My older sister can leave this behind as she already became an adult, but to be honest, I would rather let see my younger sister turn into a proper adult who can think for herself, rather than saying out loud to tell me my head is a size of shoe and that hers is like all things inside Wikipedia and out. And the way she told me about it was really offensive.

What I can describe best about my younger sister is that she's like a total Political Correctness machine gone berserk when it came to obeying parents and what really annoys me the most is that she's not the younger sister that I knew, since at a very young age. We were young, rebellious; always being so curious. But by the time we were old, I still have my curious trait intact, whereas my younger sister just abandoned and live in an oppressed world where your insanity is wiped clean.

In other words, this what happened last night; arguing each other to see who can have my bedroom, but I'm having none of that, because I need my bedroom to SLEEP, STUDY (well, okay not studying, but more like drawing things for University) AND GETTING CHANGED, but all that my younger sister has is that PC machine stuck in 'Nanny Mode' and trying to beat the crap out of me. And I hate that sort; younger siblings trying to turn me into them; being a emotionless git who always going to say 'yes' to my parents. Sorry, but I'm going to tell my younger sister that I do things the way I like and being an anarchist to a family is a nice change. Even my older sister was one of them. Except I'm going on to a different path. I'm going to teach my younger sister that there's always a time where you sometimes do need to break their laws and just do what you have to do. I'm going to abandon our sisterly ways and get her 'Always-Not-thinking-about-her-actions-and-tries-to-be-the-parents'-gold-star-attention' out of her systems.

Quote of the Moment - "She's crazy!" - My younger sister, *coughHANHcough*, describing about me and my personality. Good thing, my younger sister has never touched a blog and then write back on how much she's pisses me off back as I pissed her in the past on my blog entries. And better if she never started a blog account in the first place.

IT'S TOO BIG!!!

2007-09-28T16:57:00.000+01:00

Been to Ikea in Ashton today, but let me tell you one thing...IT'S FRICKIN' HUGE! Both outside and inside! I mean look at the photo below!

And if that isn't enough, the store inside was confusing as my older sister and I were trying to find a nice desk, but it ended up like one hell of a maze. T-T Luckily for me, I know what the Ikea map system is like the last time I came (that was with my older sister and my dad at Warrington, but the size of the store wasn't that bad), but even the perils of 'Follow the Arrows' trail had cursed us with getting lost in such a huge store. And if that wasn't bad enough, the queue for the check-out is ridiculously long, but thankfully my older sister was paying by card and after some trouble (and a hot dog) we finally got what I want for (BTW it's a desk), went to the car park with no troubles on packing the boxes and went home. One piece of advice if you have the nearest Ikea store: Whatever you do, don't follow the arrows. You'll get lost easily. And go to the toilet before entering the showroom.

And just for a little bonus, here's a picture of Ryutaros laying down on some Swedish name rug. I wish I had one, but at roughly £60? Yeah, right! Hmm, all that Ikea experience, makes me want to make a Den-O/Ikea crossover fanfiction. Yeah, maybe I should make one right away!

And sorry, no QOTM. My throat's a little dry and sore.

And you thought Cat Fights weren't the only thing girls do

2007-09-23T09:10:00.000+01:00

Today, my older sister and I have a sibling fight. Well, it's not one of those Cat Fights literally, but both of us have a really on-off relationship with each other. In fact, I love her when I feel depressed and that I needed help, but I also hate her, because she always thinks that she's the boss and that she tells me something that I disagree with her and that I would rather take things my way. And the same thing goes for hobbies, academic skills and interests. Worse still, she always tries to force me into something that not in a million years that I become her and if she still tries to make me become a better person, I rather do this myself.

And so the cat fight begins. She tries to make the offensive, I block her with my defensive skills up and manages to get away. If my older sister has read this blog entry, I would have been in deep trouble, because this blog is how I verey personally feel towards them and I'm going to have to explain, which I'm unprepared.

One thing to say to my older sister: *Raises a middle finger gesture* Me love controversy. I rather be kind to everyone and my younger sister than you. You always think of me on the outside, rather than the inside on what I'm really saying.

Quote of the Moment - "Oh shi-" Me when in deep trouble. I'm really hoping that my older sister doesn't know how to write a blog and then discover my blog.

Extremely Happy!

2007-09-18T22:38:00.000+01:00

I am absolutely, positively happy about being successfully granted an internal transfer from Graphics to VFX (Visual Effets) in University. Now I can spend three years making my dream come true on getting into the video games industry. Just need to sort the enrolment out and I'll be set for the rest of my year.

So, You're Saying that you don't like women in real life?

2007-09-12T12:20:00.000+01:00

Right, that's it! I'm now completely disgusted of what those men over at Rangerboard think of Hana during the Den-O discussion.

And to Black Fang and the other few men who think that Hana is useless: *Uses the middle finger on her left hand*

If you think that Hana is really useless in the last several episodes, then why do the Taros Imagin are not wrecking havoc inside Ryotaro's body, as well as outisde, if it wasn't for her keeping them in line from getting the poor boy in more trouble than he would have expected?! Or how about the time when young girls in Japan watching Den-O need a female role model, like her, so that they can be stronger in the future and stand up to them when they feel they've been hurt? Have you even thought about the kids who are younger than yourselves who needed a good role model than yourselvves?! For Christ's sake, you people should know that Kamen Rider Den-O is meant to be towards for young children, who are still learning and growing up. And you people, including Black Fang, have you got any shame that you're just being selfish towards others, including women in real life?

And if my evidence wasn't enough, how about strong women, like Hana, in dramas (whether it's Japanese or global), other Toku shows, anime, manga, video games, movies and other type of media? And here's just a few examples:

Chun Hyang from CLAMP's Legend of Chun Hyang manga
Rukia and Orihime from BLEACH
Takiko from the manga; Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden
Chun Li from the Street Fighter series
Akira and Izm from the Akihabara@DEEP TV series
Mia Fey from the Ace Attonery series
Martha Jones from Doctor Who
Osaka from Azumanga Daioh (well okay, she's not really the type of strong women, but she's the recently most influenental character the world has ever seen)
Aerith Gainsborough from Final Fantasy VII
Fuu from Samurai Champloo (she's a bit like Hana, only she's the one keeping Jin and Mugen in line)
Asuna from Mahou Sensei Negima
Sakura from Cardcaptor Sakura
Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series
Karou from Rurouni Kenshin
Tokiko from Busou Renkin
Jun Kazama from the Tekken series
Zelda from the Legend of Zelda
Lisa and Maggie Simpson from the Simpsons

And that's just more than a list. There's also girls and women, including me in real life who watches Den-O and when I saw your comment, I was deeply offended by you. So, in other words, do you hate women in real life who have very strong personalities and able to shut the men up or when they stand up for themselves to men who feel they are like second-rate citizens? Do you prefer women who are annoying, naive and weak-willed? Are you guys really one-minded if you don't like girls, who at first, look useless, only that they are very important? If you're like Black Fang from the Rangerboard forums, then I suggest you go out, take another hobby besides watching Toku, and see how you look at women in real life, as well as in fiction. There, I hope that opens your eyes men.

And as for you, Black Fang, WHY DON'T YOU WATCH ANOTHER TOKU SHOW BESIDES THE KAMEN RIDER SERIES, LIKE LION MARU G OR WECKER SIGNA OR EVEN GUYFRED?! OR EVEN WATCH AN ANIME SHOW AT LEAST ONCE?! OR EVEN BETTER, TAKE ANOTHER HOBBY BESIDES WATCHING!!! GEEZ, it's like your future is going to worse than bleak for you.

Quote of the Moment - "For thine is the high school, the home and the kokatsu, A! MEN" - The Osaka Prayer that I found on the /azu/ board.

The Problem with Nightly Prayers (or why being a Catholic isn't working for me)

2007-08-27T23:54:00.000+01:00

Most of my family will never going to understand me of why I skip nightly prayers for most of the time (that's pretty much tradition to Vietnamese Catholic families, but I don't see my cousin's family do that or the majojrity of the Vietnamese families themselves) is because of this: My most lame excuse is that I went to the bathroom for so long, but that isn't my true reason for this - it's my struggle to accept that there is a God and that I should say some prayers to him is the one that I can't accept the fact, plus the fact that being a Catholic makes me feel un-enlighten. It's a good thing neither of my family members are going to read this blog, since none of them has got a blog and start doing some emo entries on me (well, at least my mum's not computer-literate).

Because I was brought as a Catholic, my dad (the strongest Catholic of all my family) expects me to do some Catholic things, while at the same time blend in with normal stuff. However, as I grew up and my dad wants everyone to say prayers every night, I just simply lost myself between being an agnostic or being an atheist, because when I tried to pray to God night after night, the expected results aren't always working and then afterwards, I gave up that praying isn't working to someone who neither exists nor just made-up and that I should put my faith into myself and start doing things to get the work done, instead on relying Him.

Another reason is that I have secretly got manic depression and have some suicidal thoughts in my head. Yes, I was the middle child, but neither my parents nor my older sister really cared for or how I'm actually feeling, because if I say things that's anything controversial or something to do suicidal, then they want me to get psychiatric help. But that doesn't work for me, because the specialist never thoroughly looked at me - he or she just looked what's on the outside with the body language, instead of what's really inside my mind. So I keep those thoughts to myself and only tell my darkest secrets to someone that truly understands on what I feel. The same goes for my disillusions of my spiritual enlightenment of being a Catholic.

And there's no way I'm going to convert to Jehovah's Witness (too many people say that modern medicine = No-no); Evangelical Christian (their high-energy music about how great Jesus Christ is, is just too much for me, they make me want to commit suicide); Islam (oh no, I'm not ready to give up alcohol forever); Scientology (Eeew, who would want to believe Tom Cruise and the silly little Church that has some issues with animals) or any other cult religion. They're just wanna make me commit suicide after one day of joining.

*Sigh* I rather want to enjoy life without the need of a Prayer than doing that.

Quote of the Moment - "I knew it! Cheesy storyline!" - My younger sister talking about Hoshigami Remix.

Woohoo! Got Someone Converted!

2007-08-24T22:04:00.000+01:00

I managed to convince my younger sister to watch the JDrama, Akihabara@Deep after I told her the basic storyline and that it had some anime and manga references in there.

After watching the first episode (btw, this is a Director's Cut version we were watching), she found is very amusing and she likes it! ^_^

Oh yeah! Next stop, attempting to make her watch Kamen Rider Den-O!

Quote of the Moment - "P-p-p-p-p-p-planning Time!" - Page from Akihabara@Deep. God, I love this show more than Densha Otoko!

Why on Earth Excel and Me Hate Each Other #23232

2007-08-22T11:06:00.000+01:00

Grrr. I hate that stupid job. It's just that, when it comes to anything to do with Excel-related and either my Dad or my older sister wants me to do, I actually drop that interest immediately. Microsoft Excel and me do not get along well with each other. EVER . It's all that jumbled ICT skill crap and Spreadsheet shit, as well as a pinch of mathematics, that made me wanna murder Excel. Literally with a knife. I hate Excel more than Word. I hate putting things that was written on the sheet.

I rather have my Dad or older sister ask me to do some graphic design on the leaflets or the shop sign, than doing this Spreadsheet crap. I hate is when either of them have never recongised my artistic potentials on getting more money for my Dad's business. Especially them. They don't really care on artistic people like me. One minute they look at an object that was created by a person who worked really hard on making this beautiful and the next minute, they shrugged and leave without a comment and instead, focus on business this, business that. Only my younger sister really does care about that. ~~My Dad and older sister should burn in Hell and suffer for making me suffer Middle Child Syndrome~~. I wish I was born under a Japanese family who have artistic background.

Quote of the Moment - "I knew I should have swapped Grapic Design instead of ICT." - Me talking about my GCSE results. I got a D in ICT if you want to know.

Anothr Kind of Sentai (SPOILER!)

2007-08-13T16:08:00.000+01:00

Been watching Chou Sei Shin Gransazer a few days and I must say, I'm crying. At first, I thought it's another Super Sentai clone, but instead, it became such an emotional series, due to the right combination of drama, comedy and action all rolled into one. Let's see, I love the suit design (no surprise it's from the guys behind Ultraman) and even the villains are likable too. Damn, I felt extremely sorry for Impactors Logia when Lucia died. Even though they're the main villains so far (haven't watched all of the episodes), they do have a heart and feelings and even Logia loves Lucia (and their suits desgin were way better than the Super Sentai that I've seen). It's like Shadow Hearts: From the New World all over again.

I want to give Logia a reat big hug. So, seriously.

Quote of the Moment - "How many...dyed?" - Rufus Shrina from that FF7 skit. I lol'd. A good medicine after crying over Lucia's death and Logia's loss.

To the People who Email Me about their Problems...

2007-08-11T00:51:00.000+01:00

...STOP F**KING SENDING THOSE PERSONAL PROBLEM EMAILS TO ME!!! YOU, PEOPLE DRIVE ME MAD THIS INSTANCE ON EVERY TIME YOU GIVE ME AN EMAIL SAYING THAT YOU HAVE DEATH THREATS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES OR YOU NEED GETTING THEIR ATTENTION OR SOMETHING!!! IF YOU WANT TO HAVE THOSE PROBLEMS SOLVED, THEN DO IT BY YOURSELF!!! I know that it will risk your exposure, but at least it's better than sending out emails that I don't know about you!

Quote of the Moment - "17 August - 5 September" - Estimated delivery date for that Okami artbook from Amazon.co.uk. Damn.

Insert GASP! Here

2007-08-06T19:33:00.000+01:00

Is that even the Amani Riku that I know? I thought it was just Allen Walker from D. Grayman replacing him while being kidnapped by Takao or something.

Quote of the Moment - "Can I erase you? Can't hear you!" - Ryutaros from Kamen Rider Den-O

Oh Look! Emo Girl Entry Time!

2007-08-03T13:09:00.000+01:00

It's official. I'm now more depressed than crack. I'm one of the few Vietnamese people who doesn't act like Vietnamese at all. I mean, I know I have potential for all things creative and anything to do with art and design, but when it comes to family values, none of my family members, not to mention my ENTIRE family tree has ever done art and design as their careers, though I begin to suspect my father was regretting that he sacrificed photography for computer science (I can tell. He has a really good traditional SLR camera somewhere), which he took beautiful pictures.

And then, there's the middle child syndrome in my family. Unfortunately, when I read some articles about the middle child syndrome on the web, a lot of them are really true and it's pretty scary to see why. My parents and my sisters, they're always treating me like a second citizen or they're just ignore me or blaming me for things that I haven't even done wrong or worse, all of them above. And yeah, I never take orders from my younger sister, just because she said she's got a 'job' (IMHO, that's just her favour to help our father) and claimed she's doing it for money and she thinks she's all high and mighty and would just be a very spoiled brat on telling on what she wants as long as she's got money around. But, I always think that money has more problems than solutions *coughallworkandnoplaymakeHanhaveryveryverydullgirl*. The same goes for my older sister, though that's from a different path, but still, she never undersatnds on what I'm actually saying, as well as actually feel when my younger sister and/or my parents blame me for the wrong reasons. And the worse thing is...

...my parents have more attention toward my older sister and younger sister than me, just because I'm more creative and have some potentials that would have make such an impact to gain some profit for my father's shop. ;_; I just wish they would listen to me and understand me more by reason, rather than just looking at me straight away. And yes, I'm the oddest out of my family. I need a hug.

Quote of the Moment - "I've got suicidal thoughts in my head and yet, I always discussed with my only friend that I trust apart from my family member...my brain." - Me.

Making a New Blog

2007-07-26T12:25:00.000+01:00

Damn you Yulyang (Scions of Fate)! Why do you always make this game addictive?

Oh, well, going to make a Yulyang blog, just for any SoF people out there and telling them about my latest journey.

Quote of the Moment - "Prisoner breathe new life into Michael Jackson classic" - Yesterday Metro's headline. Erm...

EDIT: I finally made my Yulyang/Scions of Fate blog, which you can click this very blog here. And it's called 'Across the Border of Order and Chaos'. Ugh, I should have made the title better.

W00T! 100th Post!

2007-07-21T17:43:00.000+01:00

And also...

DO NOT DISTURB ME!

As I'm going to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I'm on up to chapter 10 as of now. And no, I'm not giving any summary, as I couldn't be bothered writing this down. So, haha!

And no, Quote of the Moment this time. I knew Baileys with strawberries was a bad idea. D:

More Den-O in Anime!

2007-07-20T22:58:00.000+01:00

If you thought people in Japan just couldn't get enough of seeing more Den-O in anime, then think again!

Recently, I got interested in this manga and anime called Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (or the official translation, according to the animation staff, called So Long, Mr. Despair) and what I found while watching episode 2 was seeing Momotaros' famous catchphrases appearing on the wall and the chalkboard! XD If you don't believe, try clicking on these two links below.

'Ore, sanjou! (P.S. Look at the right hand side of the wall)'

'When I start, it's already the climax!'

Quote of the Moment - "I'm in Despair!" - Nozomo Itoshiki from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (or So Long, Mr. Despair, depending on which side you're on).

Yay! Den-O's going to be an Anime

2007-07-15T14:21:00.000+01:00

Not! I'm just kidding, but right after I watched the RAW version of Den-O episode, I saw this screenshot from this anime I don't know. What's so surprising to me, is that for some odd reason, not only does this strange-looking DenLiner appears, but also Owner, Hana and Momotaros are in there as well! O_O What? You don't believe me, why not look at the screenshot below (and if some kindly person would tell us what anime is this from, I would be grateful).

Oh yes, before I go, even Keroro Gunsou (Sgt. Frog for those who don't know Japanese), parodies Den-O too. Seriously, I think TOEI might going to do an anime spin-off of Den-O!

Quote of the Moment - "Listen very carefully. I shall say this only once." Michelle from 'Allo, 'Allo! God, I love this show, even though it's only a couple of years old.

EDIT! I know now that the first screenshot is actually from Hayate no Gotoku (or Hayate the Combat Butler for those who have the VIZ manga).

Gonzo's Making Mark AnthonyXCleopatra!

2007-07-13T16:54:00.000+01:00

Okay, I lied. It's actually RomeoXJuliet that I'm going to watch (no good thanks to my younger sister when she told me about this), since I read (and studied in Secondary or High School if you're not British) the original William Shakespeare play (which is Romeo & Juliet), then watched the 70s film (which has some medieval clothes in it) and finally my favourite out of the two films, Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (which, thankfully, has kept the original dialogue, even though this takes place in the modern version of Verona), as well as flicking through the UK manga version (which was surprisingly better than I first thought) of the tragic star-crossed lovers.

Well, it all started when my younger sis told me that Gonzo's own version was a lot different than the original play, I couldn't believe, so thankfully, I sat down, download a few episodes and I can come up to the conclusion of what I think about:

The setting takes place in Neo Verona that has full of winged horses. Yes, you heard me right, winged horses.
Capulet gets overruled by Montague (through killing) and has full control of Neo Verona. Hey, wait a minute. Where's the frickin' Prince?! He's supposed to quell the fighting between the two.
Years later and somehow for some odd reason, Romeo and Juliet had swap role reversal, with Juliet being the main focus instead of Romeo, even the fancy dress ball scene.
Hey, what happen to Mercutio? Isn't he supposed to be the more eccentric friend of Romeo? And since when did he filled Tybalt's shoes?
The opening song really is something similar to what that stupid Irish pop band, Westlife, had sung not long ago.

But despite my constant bickering that Gonzo went off-tangent from the original play, I still find it a very interesting take on Romeo and Juliet and I like the animation, as well as the characters and storyline, so I'm continue to watch this show and find out if Gonzo's going to take the tragic ending, like the original play, or just gone completely different in a way that would either delight people or just enraged Shakespeare fans further more (which I doubt, since there's not a lot or young fans ranting about this). I'm also delighted that Gonzo put some homages and references to Shakespeare plays, including William himself (though I don't remember him, being blond).

Quote of the Moment - "Why isn't Gonzo going to make Julius Caesar?!" - Me in thought that the chances of getting my favourite Shakespeare play (which I studied as part of that GCSE English literature exam) turned into an anime is going to be slim.

How Not to Get Your 15 Minutes of Fame

2007-07-11T13:11:00.000+01:00

Mwahahahahaha! My Bleach fanart and even though I'm not much of a fan myself (my younger sis is and she got me into this manga and anime), I sometimes watch some episodes just to get some heartful laughs, whether it's the side story episodes, that Shinigami Colour Illustration Golden shorts or something or that Arrancar Research Timeshort Gin 'Urataros' Ichimaru hosts or something. And now, thanks to Kamen Rider Den-O (and mainly the voice actors who were in BLEACH), I have this funny dream recently about Ryotaro, Hana, Yuto and the others ended up visiting that Soul Society place and follows in really unexpected events. XD

Quote of the Moment - "Ka-GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-mi!" - Tsurugi Kamishiro from Kamen Rider Kabuto

Gorillaz + Saiyuki - Three Good-Looking Men = Monkey

2007-07-03T10:35:00.000+01:00

Last night, I went to see Monkey in the Palace Theatre in Manchester (England) with my cousin and what we watched as really amazing. At first, he and I thought this opera might not have the appeal to many young people and children, but once we found our seats, I was surprised to see that so many of them were waiting to see this collaboration by the makers behind Gorillaz (aka Jamie Hewlett and Damon 'Blur' Albarn) and Chen Shi-Zheng. And once the curtain draws up, the intro started wonderfully as our main hero, Monkey was born out of the egg (via stone) with wonderful animation and really amazing music that blends Western orchestra with Chinese traditional music and under the 'Gorillaz' music.

So, what are the bad points? Well, because the all of the songs were in Mandarin Chinese, I had a hard time trying to look for the subtitles (and it was below, dammit). However, that was only the bad point I've ever come across.

Now that the bad points out of the way, it's now time for the good points. I really love how this production mixes live-action with animation (that's really some great animation I've ever come across, plus it's British!) and I love the set and costume designs. I just want to hug Jamie Hewlett for producing this wonderful design, as not only original, but very charming indeed.

And then there's the music. It's really endearing and wonderful to listen to the performers singing Chinese harmonically with his [Damon Albarn] compostion and in actual fact, I want to get the soundtrack ASAP. No, really.

And what about the performances? The most important factor of them all and safely to say, they were wonderful and surprisingly funny. I love how Monkey is the star of the show and how the actor portrays him as a very comedic character (and I lol'd when he said about the Smoking Ban in England). I just love the acrobat and the action scenes that were choreographically spectacular (and better than the musicals I've ever come across).

I won't spoil the ending for you, but here are some pics of the programme that I picked up; with beautiful artwork by Jamie Hewlett.

Just click on the pictures to enlarge them, if you want. Whew, that's done, so now I'm going. For some odd reason, my favourite character happens to be Sandy. Not sure why.

Quote of the Moment - "The catchy chorus makes it a perfect attention-getter at karaoke parties." - Newtype USA's Climax Jump review. Now, how did this Toku opening from Den-O got to a mainly anime and manga magazine is beyond my knowledge. No, really.

Me Going to See Monkey Tomorrow

2007-07-01T17:13:00.000+01:00

Yes, Riku-kun. You heard Rena-san right. Can't wait to see this interesting collab 'Circus' Oprea tomorrow at the Palace Theatre with my cousin (in Manchester, England of course), because it has the makers of Gorillaz did most of the music composition and art for this and I'm a fan of these two men.

Quote of the Moment - "When you put that way, it's a strong weapon. But, a skewer?!" - Johnny Garland from Shadow Hearts: From the New World. Aah, good ol'Nautilus. Still as crazy as ever with those final weapons. Though a rocket-launcher-flamethrower-shotgun-inside-one-guitar would always be my favourite unorthodox weapon. What?

OMG! Lil' Sis is RIGHT!

2007-06-26T19:09:00.000+01:00

So there is a Tesco in China! And it's in Shanghai?!

What?

Quote of the Moment - "The British chain has become the latest foreign retailer to enter the fabled gold-mine of China." - BBC.co.uk - News Section. Though, I'm not really sure if a Tesco Bus in China ever existed...

Sisterly Tough Love

2007-06-20T12:08:00.000+01:00

My little sister got pissed today. She wants to know why she didn't tell me that the Disgaea 2 manga's out now and now she wants me to buy it, when I know that the Manchester's Forbidden Planet and Travelling Man had sold out due to stock, but I either said that I refuse to get it for her or she would have to go by herself and order one from these two stores.

To be honest, I felt rather please on taking the role as her older sister, because I act like one and giving her the more tough sisterly love shows that she would have to stop relying on me to get her own desire by giving money to me, so that I could buy for her more and start going out more to do some more social stuff to enjoy herself and do something for herself.

Otherwise I have some fears that she would be isolated from her friends than anyone else in the world and instead of going out to enjoy herself (mentally and physically), she would choose to stay at home doing absolutely nothing (this is going to be worse when Summer arrives, as well as her taste as an university student in September when a lot of new friends came be made) and start relying on other people just to get things that she wanted and give money to me/him/her when she would have just do it by herself (yeah, I'm not much of a trustworthy sister to her, but I might have fears that other people as well as me, would just use her money just to buy his/her/my own desires and have some lies telling her and she would believe one bit).

*Sigh* I just want to teach her that she would only rely on me when things get serious on her and I have no choice, but to help as a sister or when she desperately want to get some emotional help.

Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to research on this anime called Lucky Star (and finding that damn manga!).

Quote of the Moment - "It's a love 'Y'!" - Will Powers talking about the Nickel Samurai's storyline from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attonery Justice for All.

Dammit! How long is Tokyopop not going to answer?!

2007-06-17T14:56:00.000+01:00

Tired that Tokyopop is keeping secrets on how long they're just going to keep World Embryo and not really translating the whole first two (and beyond) manga volumes at all, I'm going to make some summaries on each chapter Young King Ours had just released each month.

I got fed up on why Tokyopop hadn't set a release date for this, ever since they got the first two volumes and managed to file a threating lawsuit to one scanlation group *coughM7cough*on preventing them to scanlate further chapters, so starting somewhere in the beginning of July, I'm starting this whole World Embryo summary beginning with chapter 17 and make a new blog dedicated to my favourite manga-ka's work, just like Igadevil's Kamen Rider blog. Only you just have to deal with the Japanese kanji for now, until Tokyopop was ever bothered to release them.

And although I got the jist of the storyline a bit since chapter 17, there's some dialogue that are beyond my basic Japanese language skills and I need some very skilled people who can translate the RAW chapters, though not pretty much going as far as scanlating them in actual fact (I just want the whole summary). Or I can just guess what the characters are saying on my own and get the readers to correct me or something. So you readers better tell me which is the better choice! RIGHT NOW!

Quote of the Moment - "If something smells, it's usually the Butz." - A way of saying Larry Butz is in trouble again in Phoenix Wright.

Squirrelking is a Genius

2007-06-10T01:00:00.000+01:00

I managed to find the 'genius' behind Half Life: Full Life Consequences on the Fanfiction.net site and I got to say, I laughed really hard when I read its sequel: What Has To Be Done. I laughed so hard, I really want to know if there's a YTMND.com version of the sequel or an animation of this! You can visit the genius' FF.Net account here.

Right, if someone has got links to What Has To Be Done adapted animation or the YTMND stuff, I'll be glad to put theme here and smile at your risk.

Quote of the Moment - "You fail at life. Go do the suicide thing NOW." - Kung Pow Skwurul's review on squirrelking's Half Life: Full Life Consequences.

The 'Other' Alchemy Anime (BUSOU RENKIN SPOILER!)

2007-06-09T11:17:00.000+01:00

Man, last night I watched the rest of Busou Renkin (the anime) and safe to say, the last three episodes made me cry, ESPECIALLY when Kazuki said sorry to Tokiko as he let go of her hand from his Buso Renkin, Sunlight Heart and then thrusted Victor to the Moon (that was 24). Seriously, I want to say the manga-ka (Watsuki-sensei, aka the guy who did Rurouni Kenshin) is a master when it comes to romance and drama in a shounen manga and I love how Kazuki really cared for EVERYONE, including Victor himself; even though he's Kazuki's 'enemy'.

Episode 25 was the most intense that I even seen, because it shows the aftermath of what happened to 24 and I felt really sorry for Tokiko, because she geniunely loves Kazuki from the beginning of the series and she doesn't want to let him go, even as far as protecting him, willing to give her life to save him. Even Kazuki's classmates, his sisters, her friends, Gouta, Captain Bravo and even his 'rival', Papillon were feeling sad that Kazuki has 'disappeared' for over a month and feeling empty without him.

As for episode 26, now that was beautiful...I cried in the middle and this was just...*sob*...I won't tell you what happened at the end, as I don't want to spoil you, so just watch the whole series, okay?

Well, that's Busou Renkin don, next stop, getting the manga itself! (And yeah, I'm a fan of Watsuki's works, especially when he mixes drama, comedy and romance into one shounen manga. ^_^) Just like to say thanks to XEBEC (and the director) for adapting the manga to the anime very nicely (as B.R. was already finished last year) and closely for once, even though I hate them when they adapt Negima to the TV screen and saying thanks to that 'group' for translating this wonderful series.

Quote of the Moment - "If you die, I will die as well." - The episode title from Busou Renkin

These Two = Great Comedy Duo (SPOILER!)

2007-06-06T12:40:00.000+01:00

Just seen Den-O 19 and I have to say, Yuuto Sakurai and his Imagin 'butler', Deneb, would make a really great comedy duo. XD There, I said it.

Even though I have fears that Yuuto would be more of an asshole, like Kusaka from Faiz and the actor's Kiriya from Hibiki, Deneb serves as a foil to him making him more likable (if you watch Ryukendo and the later episodes, you know what I mean) and humanize a bit, as he knew Yuuto the most, since he made a contract to the 'butler' Imagin and knew that beneath his contract's spoiled personality and body, lies a kind and noble soul inside his heart. I'm actually loving Deneb as a whole and is adding to my favourite list alongside Ryotaro's Imagin. It likes their roles were reveresed from Ryo and Momo; with Deneb = Ryotaro and Yuuto = Momotaros. XD It's a good thing that Den-O doesn't try to be Kabuto ver.2 or the sequel to Hibiki and Faiz. Now, that wouldn't fit the light-hearted atmosphere to Den-O's world.

Now, I'm enjoying Den-O more than Gekiranger (only being saved by Rio and Mele (with Bae as the 'other comedy duo'). Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to do some Takeru Sato fanart that I was supposed to finished or something.

Quote of the Moment - "We were Romeo and Juliet! Cleopatra and Mark Anthony!" - Larry Butz from Phoenbix Wright: Ace Attonery. Man, he sucks at getting the women!

All Things in Pirates, Court and My Enemy - Hayfever

2007-06-04T12:05:00.000+01:00

YOSH! FINALLY! I got the first Phoenix Wright game and yes, Manfred von Karma is on my favourite lists of villains. He's a really cool (OMG! Headbang!) and yet at the same time, scary prosecutor who wants to get anything to have a guilty verdict. And then there's Damon Gant - *shudders* seriously, he's one really scary Police Chief when you meet him.

And then recently I watched Pirates of the Carribean 3. And although the movie had some cool fights, characters and managing to fill up the loose ends to the last two movies, the storyline was pretty much weak (a wee confusing to me, even though I watched the last two Pirates) itself, only being saved by Johnny Depp's performance on Jack Sparrow and cameo appearances from The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and Chow Yun Fat (Dammit! Why did Sao Feng had a *CENSORED FOR SPOILER'S SAKE* appearance?! He was such a cool Pirate Captain!).

Eurgh. June...I hate that month, because there's only one thing that Ladymercury didn't have in her nice home in Flordia, while I'm suffering from - Hayfever. I hate that month, because whenever I go outside and see flowers everywhere, my nose would increase the sneezing by about ten times from normal and then follow the 'itching' inside my mouth (just don't ask) and sometimes rubbing my eyes (until I rub them too much).

Just give me July...I would do anything to make the Hayfever stop coming to ruin my life evey year!

Quote of the Moment - "Elizabeth: This is madness!
Capt. Jack Sparrow: This is politics!" - Pirates of the Carribean 3: At World's End; on about that even Pirates have their own Organization and not just going around at sea looting and killing random people.

Oh, look! A Spam in My Comment Box

2007-05-27T08:38:00.000+01:00

-_-; Yeah, right. I may a great spiritual faith in my body and soul, but I don't exactly follow the Pope's rules! Eurgh. One sentence to Jehovah's Witnesses:

LOL! YOU NEVER GOING TO WIN PEOPLE'S MIND! JENOVA'S WITNESSES WILL TAKE OVER YOUR ORGANASATION AND WE WILL RULE THE WORLD BY SAYING THAT SEPHIROTH IS GOD AND YOU MUST WORSHIP HIS GOOD LOOKS AND LONG PLATIUM HAIR, ALONG WITH HIS DEAR OLD MOTHER! LOL!

(Oh, yeah. To people who have a good sarcastic sense of humour and are really pissed at seeing Jehovah's Witnesses coming to knock your door, Jenova's Witnesses does not exist and if there is one (yeah, right. Prove me wrong), I doubt anyone would worship a popular villain with his mother who really doesn't look like a popular villain.)

Quote of the Moment - "WE ARE ALL DOOMED!" - My thoughts of seeing a typical Jehovah's Witness.

Yay! \^_^\ Good News /^_^/Yay!

2007-05-26T11:10:00.000+01:00

Ladymercury had just finally opened the Takeru Sato Fanbook Project/Fanlisting site! If you're a fan of the star from Kamen Rider Den-O and PuriPuriD (that's Princess Princess D for curious-minded girls or men who wouldn't want to go to crossdressing), then I strongly suggest you should visit this website that took the webmistress more effort than me trying to work out the differences between JavaScript and Flash.

m u l t i t a l e n t e d: A Takeru Sato fanlisting + fanbook

And for added bonus, she also added a Kamen Rider Den-O fanlisting for any fan to join and say you like Den-O (and for the fact that you like the main characters and supporting characters more than Souji 'Asshole who Walks the Heaven' Tendou!

catch the wave...a kamen rider den-o fanlisting

Eurgh. Tomorrow, I'm going to move back to Manchester, which means I only got a few hours to watch the next RAW episode of Den-O. T_T Damn.

Quote of the Moment - "Oh no. Not another Big Brother shite show!" - Me getting angry that Big Brother's coming to ruin UK television screens, yet again.

Kweh!

2007-05-24T18:30:00.000+01:00

I would like to thank toranoko for fixing the blog addon problems to the minigame over at the HJU. Thanks to you, now any curious person would just like to have fun on my blog, if they got bored by my post! ^_^

Quote of the Moment - "Kweh!" - Chocobo from any Final Fantasy or something.

We all know who Sakurai is....

2007-05-22T11:19:00.000+01:00

...he's actually The Doctor himself! No wait, wrong show!

Igadevil's Kamen Rider Blog: KR Den-O Episode #17: "That Person Just Now! Already in the Past?"

Dammit! I need to know the next episode on who he really is!

Quote of the Moment - "But without my big old comforters...what am I supposed to wrap myself in now?" - Osaka from Azumanga Daioh

One Really Annoying Person Rant Time

2007-05-19T21:16:00.000+01:00

Eurgh. >o<

You know what pisses me off more than Ukraine getting second place in this year's Eurovision Song Contest? One certain member *coughblackfangcough* over at the Rangerboard forums, whose mind is stuck somewhere between 'Me like Den-O' and 'I like Den-O, but I hate some elements to the show, so I'm comparing to Kabuto and older Kamen Rider shows'. I would like to say this to him/her...

FOR GOD'S SAKE! LEAVE KABUTO AND OLDER KAMEN RIDER SHOWS OUT OF DEN-O AND LEAVE YOUR SO-CALLED 'INTELLECTUAL' THOUGHTS SOMEWHERE IN YOUR BLOG OR SOMETHING, WHERE NO ONE IS GOING TO LOOK AT YOUR RANT/MUSING/POST!

Geez, your comparisons between Den-O and Kabuto and older Kamen Rider shows are like comparing the Final Fantasy series: same franchise, different storyline, world and characters. And before you flame me (yes, you know what I mean), comparing Den-O and Kabuto doesn't work at all. In other words, you're comparing to shows that have come from the same franchise, but they are completely different to each other and they are NOT COMPATIBLE TO EACH OTHER AT ALL TO COMPARE. Just look at Final Fantasy VII and VIII: They may have come from the same franchise, but by just looking at the surface, as well as deeper inside, their storylines, worlds and characters are completely different in directions. And the same applies to every Final Fantasy game. The only comparison that you can compare is the sequels to the game itself; the best examples being Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X. And if you don't know what Final Fantasy is, try going to Wikipedia for yourself.

And really, don't really take the Kamen Rider series seriously. I would laugh my arse off, if you gave me a serious comment. And just to let me saying that should really drill in my head: KAMEN RIDER IS A JAPANESE CHILDREN SHOW, NOT SOME POLITICAL SHIT THAT GET THE PEOPLE TALKING THROUGHOUT THE WORLD! And I hate the way you say you can compare Den-O and Kabuto specifically. The only valid comparison that I can think of, is Kamen Rider Black and its sequel, Black RX.

This maybe going to dismiss you, but apparently Den-O is a far lighter affair than the last couple os KR shows that have gone a bit too dark, but is as unique as any Final Fantasy game you come across it with and thanks to the show's uniqueness, a lot of female viewers from everywhere, not just Japan, along with young parents with children can enjoy the series, without taking it seriously.

The bottom line is, 1) don't take the Kamen Rider franchise seriously, like some really hardcore KR fan who has no life outside your hobby at all. Have you even considered doing some real life stuff, like paying taxes, worrying about your appearances or something else? 2) your comparisons between the current and past KR shows are rubbish and you're comparing it like a Final Fantasy VII/VIII (delete where appropriate) fan who endlessly babble to compare TWO completely different games that have no connetion to each other whatsoever and 3) stop being an asshole who just whine about the show and just enjoy watching the show! IT IS A SHOW, AFTER ALL, TARGETING THE YOUNG CHILDREN!

Thank God I didn't joined the RB forum immediately and I have an open mind that there is more to life than just Kamen Rider all the way.

Quote of the Moment - "Excuse me, while I kiss the sky!" - Jimmy Hendrix and the song Purple Haze. And yes, the lyrics clearly say 'kiss the sky', not 'kiss this guy'.

Reggae, Reggae...

2007-05-16T11:52:00.000+01:00

Just today, I went food shopping and thanks to Levi Roots and his catchy song over at YouTube, I managed to buy...

Reggae Reggae Sauce! XD Heehee, I'm going to have my tastebuds a nice kickstart and after a nice pop into Sainsburys, I went to the Post Room to get some mail and look at what just have arrived...

A John Barrowman autograph! \(^_^\ /(^_^)/ Oh yeah! Let's celebrate! And in case you don't remember, John Barrowman's Captain Jack in not only Doctor Who, but also in its spinoff series, Torchwood! Gotta thanks BorgmanJayce for bringing such a nice autograph to me after the 'Doctor Momo' incident over at dA and the HJU Forums. Oh yeah! To celebrate, I'm going to cook Bacon sandwich with...Reggae Reggae sauce!
Quote of the Moment - "Put some music in your food!" - Levi Roots and that catchy Reggae Reggae Sauce song! ^_^

Things that I want to shut up

2007-05-13T19:52:00.000+01:00

Tony Blair not actually keeping his promises since 1997. Seriously, what were you thinking?
Gordon Brown putting more taxes in than what the Conservatives have done.
Some Fundamental Christians (Strictly speaking Evangelists or Jehovah's Witnesses)/Muslims proclaiming that other religions are not true and would do anything to convert them into their own religion. (If they come to my house, I just say to them I'm Catholic and always been following the Church. Okay, scratch the 'always following the Church' bit.)
A bunch of sensitive British Muslims who have big anger problems when it comes to small or harmless issues.
News after news, I keep hearing a bunch of Shia militia Muslims bombing crowded streets, killing at least dozen of people in Iraq. I must be thinking that Shia militia Muslims really love gaining attention toward newsreaders and journalists.
American humour trying to copy British humour.
People comparing American humour with British humour. Get over with it. You can't compare these two. It's like comparing Kabuto and Den-O all over again.
John Mc Cricky or something. He's the most sexist and disgusting person who is a total slob and won't just listen to any women other than ordering his wife. And won't change for good.
George W. Bush Jr. 'Nuff said.
UK entries to the Eurovision Song Contest post-2000. Gemini was complete utter tripe; Daz Sampson's a rubbish black rapper wannabe and Scooch is a complete waste of time who wants to be like AAA or Morning Musume, only the British Music Industry just threw them away for good.
This year's Ukraine entry to Eurovision Song Contest. If I send Ladymercury a YouTube video of an Ukrainian Drag Queen dressed in tin foil, she'll going to vomit over that one and vowed that she'll never going to speak to me again. I wish Lordi would come back and entertain me.
Chavs and Lauren-a-likes who think they rule the world and just do what they like. Too bad they have an IQ of a brainless idiot.
Snobby female students, who I like to call them 'Plastics' who just exploded their computer volume into full and disturbing other students, including me.
Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith and other dumb blonde women who have a lack of education and their parents were lazy slobs raising their children.
Younger/shorter sisters/brothers/cousins/friends/people than me, who are really arrogant/rude/annoying to me.
That 'Poo Obssessive' woman from 'You Are What You Eat' or some Channel 4 programme. Seriously, she's going to need some help on her 'poo' obssession problems.
One minded anime and manga fans who think that Tokusatsu is just a Power Rangers rip-off without realising Tokusatsu is a product from Japan that goes beyond Power Rangers itself.
Eastenders, Hollyoaks, Emmerdale and other British Soap Opreas that are more like not depicting real life than comedy dramas and Doctor Who themselves. Same goes for American Soap Opreas.
McDonalds and Burger King adverts. Well, at least KFC avoided the 'Toys of the Moment' bit, whereas the latter two were at least annoying and one of them have that annoying Gina whatsherface as the voiceover.
Barbie Dolls and its spinoff merchandise. Women, just get over with it. You can't have the same perfect breasts and body as her and she's a toy with no sense of what's going around the world and an IQ of 0.
Bratz. Oh dear God. Four teenagers dressed up as prostitutes and have the worst character designs I've seen. I want to slap the one who are responsible for this shit.
One minded console fans (i.e. Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft), who wasted their time bickering and bitching each other on which console 'rules'.
Disney animated movies post-1998. Ugh, first came second rate animation that I think Dreamworks animation (in the 2D kind) had actually spent of a lot of their efforts making their films and then their attempts to do 3D CGI films. Seriously Disney; they failed, because they spend more time doing shit merchandise to the films than the movies themselves and only a stupid short attention group of children who would go 'wow!' over at the graphics.
The Vatican's reaction to the 'Da Vinci Code' film and attempts to ban it. Sadly, they haven't realised that the film itself was rubbish itself, with wooden acting and dialogue that I would just laugh at it. 'Quick, we must go to the library!': I lol'd over that one (sorry Ladymercury for breaching copyright act). And yes, I am Catholic.
British Vietnamese males who just wouldn't care for British Vietnamese females, including me. Grrr.
My female AS/A2 Level chemistry teacher who always catches me out; from sleeping in her class (God, the way she teaches is sooo boring!) to bringing out endless past exam papers that she always brings out and scold me off for not getting the answers right. The worse came from my GCSE female chemistry teacher who not only used to be my older sister's form teacher back at secondary school, but she taught me up to AS/A Level!

Man, that's a lot things that I hate. No wonder I have a sarcastic and miserable view to the world. Well, thank God for British comedy, Have I Got News For You, Boris Johnson, Paul Merton, Ian Hislop and Never Mind the Buzzcocks to keep my sense of sanity. No Quote of the Moment tonight, due to that I have to prepare for this Level Zero and Foundation Art and Design Exhibition I'm supposed to hang, so you would just get used to one big list I have written. *Sigh* Come back Leavers' Ball! All is forgiven!

And now, a response from Shit-saka, uh I mean Sho-saka...

2007-05-13T10:46:00.000+01:00

Following yesterday's really angry rant that I've just written about and then followed from Ladymercury's Lj's entry about my reaction (and obviously she read my entry, too), I would like to say this. Though be warned, it's going to be one hell of a long entry (or short, depending on your view)...

Yes, I have realize that after reading your entry and how you look at me (uh, well technically-speaking, it's more like virtually looking at me), I am one complete stupid, stubborn, sarcastic, angry, skeptical, really insensitive to other people beside me; immature and unknowingly melodramatic bitch who just won't know the consequences when I press the 'Publish' button. Yes, I know the internet is for everyone to do what they want, regardless if this goes to the comedy side or the serious side. And unfortunately, thanks to my father's gene and personality inheritance, when something small happens somewhere, I get very sensitive to the subject matter quickly and instead of destroying everything to the buildings or room, I immediately use the internet to attack the ones that have something small and harmless to say with, only ending up tearing the living daylights of them without knowing the consequences.

It's like the Islamic World's reaction to the Danish satirical cartoon drawings; they get offended on something small and harmless to non-Muslim people and then suddenly starting to destroy everything within sight without actually thinking on what people would react back to them. And then there was one really frightening and incited-hateful rally in London, England; where sensitive Muslim people shout 'BEHEAD THOSE WHO OFFEND ISLAM!' and then broadcasters, newspaper journalists and other people were really scared and instead of publishing the satirical cartoons that would bring forth the Dogs of War (i.e. the Muslim mob complete with boards, machine guns and other typical weapons that you would find from a stereotypical view of a terrorist). they don't published them at all and...

*Hey, Sho-saka! [SLAP!] You idiot! Get back to the subject! This is clearly off the mark that you were supposed to do; you ungrateful, long-winded, insensitive, melodramatic piece of bitch, Shit-saka...*

Oh fine, Little Miss 'Opposite-to-me-in-my-brain'. The point is that if I said something that would demoralise your self-esteem and unknowingly psychologically scarred your personality for the rest of your life, then...

I am absolutely sorry for the trouble that I have caused this one stupid rant that seemingly to be harmless for everyone else, but really sensitive to anyone else. I promise to grow up and take some things less seriously and not being end up like a sensitive British Muslim who would just destroy and incite hatred towards people who do not wish to get involve. If there's something that we would like to reconcile with each other and not ending up rant after rant on our blog/journal; then your request of a fanart from yours truly is on the house.

There, I said it. Now, in other news...Serbia won this year's Eurovision song contest (yay!), with Ukraine in second (eurgh...) and as for UK...well, at least we're not getting 'nil points', though 19 points is just as rubbish as Scooch's music and Ukraine's Drag Queen in tin foil with lyrics that would make Crazy Frog proud.

Quote of the moment - "Don't end up like that Korean guy in America." - My father giving me advice to be more open to myself and make friends in real life, so that I won't end up with that isolated and psycho Korean guy in America. No, making friends online is not part of my real life (my father's suspcious of what my friends are like online and if I was making friends with an older man...).

One Stubborn Lady + One Daydreaming Lady = Two Troublesome Posts

2007-05-12T13:58:00.000+01:00

Okay, I think I want to give Ladymercury (now called Smart Lady for some reason) over at the HJU forums a slap on her head for being such a stubborn bitch when it comes to the Den-O movie dispute (after I posted a picture of Princess Fuse from Okami and use the Den-O picture as a comparison between the two). Here's what she said:

"That looks like a shop so bad its not even funny."

While I respect her opinions on other things, this is one post that I want to wrestle with her for this. Has she even been to the Movie's Official Site and checked under the News section? -_-; Hey, Smartass Lady, if you think this photo looks like it's been Photoshopped, how come that photo you claimed it's been 'Shopped is on the Official Website?! Huh? Have I made my point clear?

Geez, you should look at the site for some time, you stubborn Smartass Lady bitch...

Quote of the Moment - "8 guys, in the gayest set of gym wear from a 1970s sports film wearing the gayest sailor's hat from the 1940s marching and making dumb retarded expresses with CGI tears rolling from their eyes." From Ladymercury's Livejournal entry on this Eurovision-camp-Jpop band or something.

AAARGH! DOCTOR WHO DELAYED?!

2007-05-12T10:00:00.000+01:00

WHY?! Judgement Day has come upon us and it's...

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST!!!

Eurgh...I hate this contest and yet, I have watched this shit for the last couple of years. The music is shit, the costumes are shit, the singers are shit with tuneless pitch and uninspired lyrics that are mostly either about love or some novelty act that doesn't make sense at all and worst of all...Britain's in it, along with France (Grrr...) and Germany. If I hear another cheesy Jpop-cum-Eurobeat-cum-techno-style song again from either of the countries ever again, I'm turning the mute button on and go straight to listen to the British Music Industry...permanently. Thank God for pure music talent.

Oh, for those who don't know what I'm talking about, the Eurovision Song Contest is an annual music competition, where European countries come all the way to sing. And their songs are like Jpop-type, only five hundred times worse than AAA (Attack All Around), Ayumi Hamasaki and KOTOKO combined altogether. And Britain hasn't won a thing since ten years ago. And I'm betting that Scooch or whatever would get 'nil points' (in a French accent) from other countrie; I remember in 2003, where Gemini is just do rubbish, I just turned to the other channel and listen to Coldplay. Or something...

Quote of the Moment - "We're flying the flag!" - Scooch, verse from their song. God, this is pointless! >_<'

Paint and Nomura

2007-05-10T15:40:00.000+01:00

Blegh. Today, I had to paint the walls and fill some holes in studio. Got really tired, but in the end, it was all worth the effort. Except for that Polish bitch who acts so arrogant and thinks she can rule the world with her fist.

Anyway, this picture is going to either make my younger cheer or cry, because of this (excuse the Kintaros pun):

At first, I thought an illustration of Zidane from Final Fantasy IX looked like it came from one of Tetsuya Nomura's portfolios, but when I looked at the source, I found out that this IS one of his character designs. Still, at least he didn't add any extra accessories on him. BTW, this is from Dissidia: Final Fantasy and it's like a beat 'em up, only with more Super Smash Brothers into it or something.

Quote of the Moment - "Zzzz...." - Me sleeping after having enough of reading volumes 10 and 11 of Death Note.

Goodbye Zero, Hello Degree

2007-05-08T15:17:00.000+01:00

Well, here it is. A photo of me, saying my last farewell to the studio that I've been here for some months or something and when September comes, then my dream is coming true! 3D Design and Concepts here I come! And yeah, I recently bought a DS Lite along with a couple of extras and a copy of Hotel Dusk and Children of Mana each, hence the hands position holding this white box.

And before the walls are going to completely covered up them with a lick of white paint, here's a picture of my wall drawing of a random girl. Man, my drawing styles did change for the better, huh?

Quote of the Moment - "My final project involves a little girl, a sheep and a rabbit." Me, saying on what my final project for the exhibition that I'm supposed to do.

Catholic Manga

2007-04-27T10:46:00.000+01:00

Is it just me or is the UK Catholic Church now going to the manga scene? Yeah, don't stare at me like that, as a manga, anime, video game and TV fan for around 6 years or so ago, as well as being a Catholic for all my life; I'm pretty surprised that even manga has spread the Catholic Church too.

Hmm, if I see a Catholic Manga coming out in print sometime on the shelf, I might take a flick arond the pages and see it they can keep up with actual Japanese mangas. The Alex Rider manga was good enough, because it actually has Japanese artists; so I'm intrigued to see on how the UK Catholic Church take on this format. (Haha, to Pope Benedict XVI and the folks over at the Vatican. Why haven't you come up with a plan like the UK one?)

Oh, if you don't believe me, here's the source.

Quote of the Moment - “We have chosen the Manga cartoons for the 2007 campaign, because we hope it will appeal to young people under twenty as well as people in their thirties.” - Fr. Paul Embery, Director of the National Office for Vocation

I Knew It...

2007-04-22T23:42:00.000+01:00

I knew there would be a Den-O Yaoi trend increase somewhere, like this.

In other news, watched Den-O 13 and oh yeah, gotta love Ryuutaros and Gun Form! Heehee, I love how Takeru-san used his years of breakdance training into the screen and that he ACTUALLY does it, instead of a stunt double. Plus:

I love the fact that despite the fact Ryuutaros has a childish behaviour, he has a very carefree personality and is different from the trio (Momotaros, Urataros and Kintaros).
He's an animal lover! So he does have a good heart, after all. And he gets pissed off if someone, whether it's human or Imagin, harms an animal. Like when he 'breakdance-pwned' the young folk for scaring the cats away via loud music or he henshins into Gun Form and attack the Owl Imagin (which I dubbed Yaibataros, due to the fact that the seiryuu who provided the Owl Imagin's voice did a lot voice acting in Boukenger as Yami no Yaiba) for breaking a birdhouse.
Gun Form = Successor to RyuGunOu. His shooting skills is bit off the aim, but at least he's more active than Drake. Plus, he even breakdances after his henshin! ^_^
And despite the rumours that Ryuutaros is the only Imagin that was not controllable by Ryotaro, our main man managed to get him out of his body (yeah, it's weird writing this entry) in the end, which I was glad that the Dragon Imagin isn't the strongest and difficult (well, at least a bit) to control.
Ryuutaros' voice is sexy. Rawr. Thank you Kenichi 'Zack from Final Fantasy VII' Suzumura for providing his childish, yet really sexy (though not as sexy as Urataros) and mild-mannered voice.

Airi and Watch Guy seemed to have some sort of relationship in the past and Ryotaro smiled at them, so now I want to know more, but maybe later. I don't want to get disappointed if Watch Guy gets revealed really too soon. Bleh, need to sleep soon.

Quote of the Moment - "Okay? I can't hear an answer!" - Ryuutaros from Kamen Rider Den-O. Ryuutaros' voice is really sexy. Rawr.

Okami = Addictive

2007-04-17T19:39:00.000+01:00

Damn you Capcom (in a good way)! Thanks to you and ex-Clover Studios staff members, I'm now addicted to Okami! So addictive, I'm playing the game, again.

I never knew that playing the game as a wolf goddess has never been so good, since...er I don't know any game that has leading wolves, regardless of their gender.

Quote of the Moment - "Busty Babe!" - Issun from Okami on commenting Rao's er, 'Melons'...

OMG! Now even FFVII is invaded by Kamen Rider

2007-03-29T23:34:00.000+01:00

Here's my reaction when I found out that Kenichi 'Zack' Suzumara is going to do the voice of Ryuutaros from Kamen Rider Den-O:

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

*Slaps herself to regain control*

I can't believe it! The seiryu who provided the voice of Zack from Final Fantasy VII - Advent Children and Crisis Core is apparently doing the voice of Ryuutaros from Kamen Rider Den-O! OMG! \(^_^)/ Huzzah! I can't stop dancing for joy!

Quote of the Moment - "OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG" - Me screaming for joy for Ryuutaros' and Zack's voice actor while clattering my laptop keyboard.

Reflection on an Unlucky Rider

2007-03-23T12:38:00.000Z

ARGH! That's it. It's official. I think I ran out of steam when it comes to do anything for University. Yeah, what's worse is that I have to do this exhibition work this year and already, my brain has had enough for me on to work (and that includes portfolio work on the course that I really wanted to do so badly! T_T). I had enough of having some advice to my female Level Zero Art and Design teacher and I'm going to take an Easter Break, to get my brain refresh.

In other news, I just love Takeru Sato's (or the guy who's portraying Ryotaro Nogami from Kamen Rider Den-O) blog. Always witting and sarcastic and yet; very mature and calm at the same time; unlike Hidenori Tokuyama's blog (or that guy who portrayed 'Kick Hopper' Yagurama from Kamen Rider Kabuto), whose entries are just full really random hyperactive stuff on his views on everyday life, anime and manga (though I suspect that he should get the Ryutaros part. I just somehow knew that his 'Yotsuba' personality should be perfect for Ryutaros' voice. What? I'm just saying...) But this particular entry, how should I say it? Just beautiful and emotional (I nearly shed a tear on that). Though I laughed a bit when I found out that he always sleeping in class and got told off by his teacher; which is exactly like mine (my chemistry 'Pike' teacher always told me off for sleeping in class for example, and another is when I was in 2nd Year of secondary school, where I fell asleep in History lesson for 5 minutes, until my friend woke me up and I had to catch up big time)! XD

And for an extra treat for those who are Takeru Sato fans, you can read the interview and discover why he has cat pictures on his mobile/cell phone. I've got to thank my Toku friend and HJU'er (Surprisingly, I'm also a HJU'er too!), Ladymercury, for translating on the Kamen Rider actors' blog, even though they're not 100% accurate! Now, if you excuse me, I've got to dash off for this crappy Contextual Studies lecture, where I'm going to ask people in front some silly questions that came from either trivia things or the 'Book of General Ignonrance' (thank you QI, Stephen Fry and Alan Davies).

Quote of the Moment - "All the people I made friends with. I have to realistically consider it'll be difficult to gather everyone again, though I will be happy that if they haven't changed (over the years)." - Takeru Sato on how he's going to miss his friends after graduating. Cheer up, boy! I'll be supporting you all the way! And thanks Ladymercury for the translation. Where would I be without you?

I Hate ResNet

2007-03-20T01:13:00.000Z

ARGH! Stupid University! I tried to download the latest episode of Den-O via BitTorrent, but University got restricted and it's now slowing, even though it's broadband (surprisingly 10MB) and it's supposed to be fast! >_< I hate ResNet. I've now decided that I should go back to Manchester, buy a wireless router and go straight to Wi-Fi Mode! I'm now sick of cable broadband.

I'm complaining to the Accomondation Office about this.

Quote of the Moment - "ARGH! STUPID RESNET!" - Me in Internet rage.

OMG! SUGARBABES!

2007-03-16T19:03:00.000Z

I only just realised now, but for some reason, looking at the Britpop group, Sugarbabes , is like looking at JPop group, Morning Musume.

Similarly, both of them has some member change, which is somewhat reasonable enough to realise now.

Quote of the Moment - "YOU DAMN TURTLE!" - Momotaros from Kamen Rider Den-O, after being drugged by Urataros. What?

And I thought Lonndon wasn't big enough

2007-03-13T16:55:00.000Z

Today was really relaxing from the stressful times, as I went to Birmingham. And bloody hell, what a trip it was.

Went into the Art Gallery, but it didn't interested me at all (though the interactive parts were fun; reminded me that I felt like a giddy kid again XD). Though I went into the Gas Hall and my reaction is this: WTF?! Why am I surrounded by a bunch of crappy objects?! And somehow, I saw a bunch of Nintendo knitted pillows. Hmm...

After some lunch and got lost as I went into the Jewellery Quarter, I managed to get back to the Central Shopping Area and visited Birmingham's Forbidden Planet (and bought Mushishi volume 1 and some Japanese Cosplay magazine (yeah, don't ask. Research purposes only). Then before I went back to the station to catch a train, I went into HMV and played a bit of Final Fantasy XII (argh! And it's in the middle of the game that I don't know where the bloody know I am! >_<) and then Waterstones to buy the book that I always have trouble into finding the author's name, but know the title: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Gonna read it before bed.

Now that I'm back in boring Stoke-on-Trent, I'm too tired to eat some shit. Gotta go to Sainsburys to buy some food tomorrow. Ja ne.

Quote of the Moment - "And so now I'm drawing this kind of story." - Yuki Urushibara, manga-ka of Mushishi

Ewe must see this (Sorry, baaad Sheep Joke)

2007-02-28T17:44:00.000Z

Straight from the Shaun the Sheep's official website, comes a selection of some very nice video clips from the show and here's my comments from my favourite little sheep from the Wallace and Gromit series (BE WARNED: Because I uploaded all of the six clips from the official website, you might need to pause the videoes and choose one of them for your viewing pleasures):

In response to the news that involves an eight year old kid who is so obese, this is what the authority should handle. And it's pretty funny too.

XD I felt so sorry for the duck when it dived down to the sheep dip. Just love the glass tipping SFX.

XD If you're a football fan, you should know this. Or not.

Aaaw! is what I can describe about this cute little lamb. So kawaii~! That farmer bastard should be in Hell for taking his teddy bear away.

The same can be said for the pigs.

And this is where Shaun get his artistic with his drawing and painting, though is it me or is the picture looks like John Constable one?

Oh man! I can't wait to see the first episode on Monday, though that means I have to get off my arse in the Art Studio and run down to my room, as the program starts at 3:45 pm. >_<

Quote of the Moment - "Baa." - Er, random sheep noise.

Insert Monty Pyhton Joke

2007-02-28T11:21:00.000Z

Oh yeah! There's going to be a Life of Brian Musical soon!

After watching the Monty Python movie twice (one on rented DVD and the other on New Year's Day with my lil sis), I can't wait to see if that 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' bit is still intact and let's face it, it wouldn't be a complete Life of Brian without it. That, or the now-infamous line of 'He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy'.

As for what I'm going to do for my art project, hmm, well after seeing some rather grim pictures of wooden warp sculptures and stuff, I think I'm going for the Yotsuba&! path and blend it with some art satire where I take the piss out of my Level 0 art and design teacher. Heehee, that'll teach her when it comes to observation and declare it as art.

Quote of the Moment - "Be careful. Each word is a hundred hooks, a thousand meanings and ten thousand lies." - Urataros (Smexy-Glasses-possessed-Ryoutarou) from Kamen Rider Den-O; probably the best quote for ages IMO, since Godot from Gyakuten Saiban 3 (aka Phoenix Wright: Ace Attonery) came up with the coolest lines.

Vampires and Pancakes

2007-02-20T16:10:00.000Z

Just watched Black Blood Brothers last night and safely to say, that has a damn good, if short, anime series! I just love the relationship between the vampire Jirou (who is a bit like Arucard or whatever from Hellsing, only replacing his personality with the mild-mannered approach) and the Compromiser, Mimiko. They're make a great couple when I see those two together and I laughed when they tend to do the wrong things, plus they act like Rosette and Chrno from Chrno Crusade (best couple in the manga, IMO) in terms of relationships.

And also, there's Jirou's younger brother, Kotarou; at first I found him to be very irritating and annoying in the first episode, but then later, I discovered his identity and past and I suddenly like him as a cute boy. And no, I'm not going to tell you the whoke story, so click on the link that says 'Black Blood Brothers' and do your own research.

Urgh, I feel like I want to do some pancakes tonight, but I can't, because I have to wait for my friends, coming back from lectures and such, to bring on the stuff and eat some lovely pancakes! Urgh...Must...wait...longer...

Quote of the Moment - " re-posed my Faiz SIC. He looks badass, and I love him." - Some female Kamen Rider fan talking about reposing her Faiz SIC for either a more Kingdom Hearts pose or the famous 'Sephiroth' pose without the riduculously long Masamune.

Why did I imagine that Ryutaros and Jan make Great Friends

2007-02-19T20:13:00.000Z

Argh! I can't get my imagination out of my head, but seriously. I think that Ryutaros, a.k.a that purple Gun Form Ryo (when in Ryotaro-possessed mode) from Kamen Rider Den-O and Jan Kando from Jūken Sentai Gekiranger would make great friends (well, Momotaros was the alternative choice, but even this punk Imagin wasn't as crazy as Ryutaros), because:

Both of them really have a mind of a mischevious child, who wanted nothing, but shear mischief and fun to the environment they live in.
They're both difficult to control themselves down and both giving the main cast of Den-O and Gekiranger a hard time to deal with.

The only difference I can think of is their appearances, but that's about it. And if both of them should meet each other up and hang out together, this is my imaginative scenario...

Ryutaros: Hey Jan, wanna hang out with me and have some 'fun'?
Jan: *Nods head very cheerfully with a devil's smile on his face and speaks in a 'Jan' language ir whatever*
Ryutaros: All right! Let's dump this place!

*Several minutes later and Tokyo becomes from a clean city, to one hell mess of a place, where lots of Rinseries, some famous previous Kamen Rider Kaijins are running amok, with buildings on fire, people running and screaming all over the place and with the main cast members' faces from Den-O and Gekiranger varied from Hana's mouth wide open in shock to Ran and Retsu's expressions to shear horror.*

Ryutaros: *Laughs like a complete idiot* That was fun, wasn't it, Jan?
Jan: *Grins very happily*

*Then the main cast of Den-O and Gekiranger appeared from behind them...*

Everyone (including Ryotaro's voice, whose body is currently possessed by Ryutaros): NO, WE'RE NOT! YOU'VE RUINED TOKYO FOR JUST SHEER FUN!

And that's about it. XD I so want to see this as a good crossover bit, like the one in Kamen Rider Kabuto/Boukenger bit, where BoukenRed enters into the cafe in Kabuto with Tendou and let the hilarious interaction take place. And I'll say one more time: if Jan from Gekiranger was asked on what his best friend other than a panda is, it would have to be Ryutaros from Kamen Rider Den-O. The chemistry between the two in terms of friendship would be hilarious and horrifying, depending on the characters' view, as well as the fans.

Quote of the Moment - "He was scouted by Scratch because he personifies the "Body" (体 Tai^?) of a Gekiranger: he can be pinned against the ground by a big log with no harm at all." - Gekiranger's Wikipedia entry on Jan. At least, unless someone changes it...

No Reason at All

2007-02-16T19:29:00.000Z

Being bored during the morning to this evening (and going back to Manchester for the VIETNAMESE New Year (also known as Tet) this weekend, I decided to put a few pictures of my room (now organised) in the Halls.

Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to finish my dinner...

Quote of the Moment - "You've got to be able to break the wall..." - Nicolas Cage talking about his life of whatever in the Film & Music section in Friday's Guardian.

Maybe Teaming Up Might Be a Bad Thing After All

2007-02-16T17:46:00.000Z

I don't know, if my head's going a bit crazy or something, but for some reason, I had this dream where I was in the Denliner (though in the Cafe carriage part, where Naomi serves coffee), feeling a bit blue, until I saw Jan (a.k.a GekiRed) from GekiRanger having a nice chat with...Ryutaros in Ryo-possessed mode (a.k.a. that purple crazy and somehow artistic bloke) from Kamen Rider Den-O and that Green Emo Ranger from Mighty Moshin' Emo Rangers. Only, it wasn't such a nice chat, but these three crazy, but cool blokes were on high on crack and then causing not only in the Denliner, but somewhere in Japan and England too. O_O' Er, yeah. I always imagine those three would somehow team up and instead of saving the world, they causing mass destruction to the buildings while fighting monsters and then shock (and horrify) the remaing cast from the three series (okay, the MMERs are not really bothered about it, but come on) when finding out after slashing monsters and saving the world, they actually find these three smoking crack and weed in one room. Hmm, I would like to see this, but I doubt it...

Quote of the Moment - "Momotaros!?" - Er, Momotaros from Kamen Rider Den-O, when Ryoutarou Nogami poorly names this punk Imagin.

And Yes, He gets to Keep his Kanshu hair

2007-02-11T02:30:00.000Z

Dammit! I knew I shouldn't skip chapter 17 on the World Embryo raw, but since that guy's forgot to add some seeds in the torrent, the only completed file that I can read is chapter 18 and there's a bit of a spoiler, but yes...

For fans waiting to see if Riku's hair has changed, since he got his weapon from his, uh 'dead friend', he still manages to keep his lovely (and sometimes sexy) Kanshu hair. And because of that, I made an icon for my blog (oh man! Sexy Kanshu boy + With his Smexy Glasses on = FULL DROOLAGE CONTROL XD). And if you want to see a sneak preview of tha manga chapter that I just found, just bear with me for a second.

EDIT - I manage to upload one of the pages of the World Embryo scans, but this is a minor spoiler to those who are too late to get the scanlations of the previous 16 chapters, so here it is and click the image for the full page of seeing Kanshu Boy again:

Quote of the Moment - "I just hope that Harry Potter dies in the last book..." - My younger sister, who is not much of a Harry Potter fan, wants everybody's favourite wizard to die. Blame her, not me!

Tatsu no Ko Tarou and the Train

2007-02-10T01:45:00.000Z

You're wondering why the two items above the titles have some kind of connections to the article that I'm talking. Well, uh...this is kind of awkward, but apparently, the Gun Form of Kamen Rider Den-O from this titular show is based on the dragon from the same anime movie (to which it's based from the novel or from some kind of Japanese fables that someone either forgot to research the missing fables or are actually too lazy to gather their brain cells moving) that I've mentioned. And what was really ironic about these two shows (or alternatively the movie and the long running franchise) are that they are both produced by the same company: Toei (which would explain why there is a Toei Animation company, as well as the Live Action company) . Well, okay, Kamen Rider wasn't animated in a typical anime kind of way like Tatsu no Ko Tarou (or Tarou the Dragon Boy), nor that TnKT wasn't made into live action kind of way, but I wonder why the Den-O people in Wikipedia are still arguing about the Forms (one minute someone said their Forms was based on Chinese constellations, the next they were based on the Japanese Mythological Heroes). Can't they just stick to on the final decision they've made (and I'm looking at the World Embryo Wiki people too, since I'm dying to know what the heck is going on after chapter 16 and whether or not Takao is an ally or not)?

And if you don't believe me that Tatsu no Ko Tarou (a Toei animated film apparently) is going to be a trivial point in the Kamen Rider Den-O Wiki page (and hopefully, they're not going to change it, as I'm sick and tired of having the pages changed so many times), then why not go to these webpages below, if you'r really curious about it:

ANN's Info about Tatsu no Ko Tarou (aka Tarou the Dragon boy)
Some interesting articles about Tatsu no Ko Tarou and the long lost anime films
Some site with the Tatsu no Ko Tarou pics made by Toei (ironically)

P.S. Come to think of it, the dragon from the Tatsunoko Tarou film really reminded me of Haru in his dragon form from Spirited Away X3.

Quote of the Moment - "Also, side note, stop adding pointless information, dumb shit, and otherwise irrelevant information. I've finally cleaned the article up, don't screw it up again. Add information thats actually about Den'ou." - One of the Den-O Wikipeople who is fed up with people changing the Kamen Rider Den-O article back and forth.

And I thought Blackpool's going get it...

2007-01-30T15:38:00.000Z

Great. I'm feeling under the weather, my throat hurts and it seems the flu caught me, but that doesn't stop the surprise news to me.

It all started when I was going to the toliet and then suddenly as I 'went there', at the same time, the radio announced that Manchester has won the bet to have a super casino. And this is my thought about this:

EH?!

Of course, I was born and lived in Manchester (though I now live in Stoke-on-Trent for university purposes), but this is very much surprising to me. I thought that either Blackpool or Greenwich were getting it, but since Blackpool is part of the North West region and Greenwich already has the Olympics to worry about, I guess it makes sense. But now, I'm starting to worry about the gambling addiction or something. Oh well, if Manchester's super casino doesn't have an arcade with at least one DDR machine, I'm not going in!

BTW, if you want to see the whole news, you can at least click here.

Quote of the Moment - "I hope this show stays on track." - One of the messages from some Henshin forum, where they are making some Kamen Rider jokes (oh come on, what's wrong with comparing Densha Otoko?)

God! I love this cute, yet really weak Rider!

2007-01-29T17:31:00.000Z

Just watched a RAE episode of Kamen Rider Den-O and by God, not only it was funny and nicely serious at the same time, but I'm starting to <3 that Ryotaro guy! OH come on, guys, at least it's a nice refreshing change from the previous Kamen Rider series that I've seen (ok, I only watched a bit of Ryuki (until I put off after 3 episodes, as I couldn't stand Shinji's character), some Blade (argh! Now why do I have a crush on that Undead Rider guy?) and most of Kabuto (Grandmother says: "I forgot that line."), though not Faiz or 555 or whatever, as well as the other older Kamen Rider series)! And I think there are some potentials in the show, like for one scene, where the 'Punk possessed' Ryo started to kick really big ass on the bullies, only that 'wimpy' Ryo actually 'stopped' him from doing so. He may seem to look like he's a wimp physically, but mentally, now that's what I called strength!

Urgh, I have to do some art stuff and I think my female art tutors, as well as that damn lecturer are starting to hate me for this....

Quote of the Moment - "H-h-henshin!" - Ryotaro Nogami from Kamen Rider Den-O and yes, he IS the unluckiest and weakest Rider in history...BUT it's impossible to love him! I want a Ryotaro plushie!

No More Drawing with Mouse

2007-01-24T14:12:00.000Z

Finally, after spending my time in Photoshop on painful hours of drawing, colouring and manipulating the pictures with the mouse (and sometimes my laptop touchpad), I finally decided to buy one thing my parents and older sister refuse to do: buy a graphics tablet off from Amazon UK. And now, since it has arrived from my doorstep today, I rushed off from my room in some Halls of Residence to the Post Room in a matter of minutes, whilst mournfully doing some sort of presentation for the contextual studies. Uh, yeah.

And if you wanted some proof that I bought it, why not look at the photos below:

Well okay, the graphics tablet is an A6 size one, but that doesn't mean I can moan about it. It's perfect for my laptop, as it has an USB connection, plus, since my deskspace in my room is bloody small (as it has been invaded by my all-in-one printer and TV), it's practically perfect for me to store it besides my laptop and when I'm fed up with my creative mind, I can just easily store it away to a nice place. Now, if I can install them later and get on with my presentation (must...resist...getting...my...graphics...tablet...started...must...finished...presentation...)

Quote of the Moment - "I'm in love...with Chiaki-sempai?" - Noda Megumi (a.k.a. Nodame) from Nodame Cantabile. My God, this is the funniest anime (and live-action drama) I've watched for ages now.

When Latex in Japan isn't just enough

2007-01-20T12:14:00.000Z

Well, Japan is famous for having the Kamen Rider series, as well as Super Sentai series (and GARO, of course ^_^), Thailand has got Sport Ranger and Crystal Knight, America has the most terrible thing in the world that is known as Power Rangers, France has that tonkatsu, to which I forgot the title again, and yes, even Britain has one (in the shape of Doctor Who, but come on! When the Doctor regenerates, that's called 'henshin', right? Oh, so some people think I'm mad enough to say that). And now, get ready to meet South Korea's version of their tonkatsu - Erexion. I'm not sure why this is very different to the Super Sentai series, but so far, it looks very impressive and the villains look so cool, they make the villains in the Super Sentai series green in envy. And let's not forget the cool opening song for Erexion - simply saying it's better than the Super Sentai series (I like the opening song to Super Sentai series; the only problem is that I don't like Boukenger's opening, so don't say 'BOO! YOU'RE NOT A TRUE SUPER SENTAI FAN!'). The only complaint that I'm griped about this, is that that the colour scheme is a little too bright for the show. I've seen a few clips of the show, so I'm pretty excited when it gets fansubbed. In the meantime, you can visit Erexion's site here.

Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to draw some sketches on the novel, on the homage to the tonkatsu shows in the world (except for the new Power Rangers shows from 2000 - present, i.e. America).

Quote of the Moment - "Why do you think they call me the devil?!" - Yoshihrio Shimazu from Samurai Warriors 2 (a.k.a Sengoku Musou 2).