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!
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?
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.
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
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...
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:
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 - "..."
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. > ___ <
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
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
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
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.
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.
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...
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).
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.
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
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...
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
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. > _ <
