Review: Fate/Zero (anime)

At first I wanted to combine the first season together with season 2, but then there’ll be a lot of mixed feelings. Because I find the second season much more exciting that the first. And the main reason is to see more of Broskander.... and to hear the OP by Kalafina.

Season 2 is simply the continuation of the first season, and there’s no ‘RESET’ story mode as seen in Code Geass and Kimi ni Todoke. Those who died in the previous season, just died. In this season we have 2 episodes for Emiya Kiritsugu (and more insert song by Kalafina aw yiss), on why he has such principles and his goals in reaching the Holy Grail.

After knowing what the Holy Grail is all about, I really think that the invention is pointless. And all the battles I saw is just totally a waste of time, a waste of property damage. And the fact that the Servants aren’t exactly having the same wavelength as their masters makes me think that it’s even more pointless. Oh but at least you have an (imaginary) friend to talk to, moreover, they’re heroes from ye olden days WHO WOULDN’T WANT THAT weh.

But I gotta admit they’re all really good and nice to watch. As I said in season 1, no abra kadabra POOF you turn into a frog thingy but you gotta use your magic wisely as though you’re in a real battle. Speaking of battles you’ll also see some jet fighting… which makes me wonder where the aircrafts came from. I don’t think it existed during Arthurian legend or Epic of Gilgamesh. But hey it’s magic! Gilgamesh, or also known as “Archer” does not even use bow and arrow to attack, but he opens up a portal to take out the collection of his huge dildos.

sorry i just had to post this w

Going back to Kiritsugu, the probably the second last episode made me go WOW about F/Z (other than Broskander and Yuki Kajiura). All this while I had been supporting Kiritsugu to win the battles (although I still fukken hate Saber) and KILL THE MAGES WITH FAIYAAAA~N , but then he’s given this psychological mindfuck and I got mindfucked as well. I felt guilty all over. Felt guilty for supporting him, felt guilty for having such mindset. But that particular episode OWNS and it made me realized how the second OP very much relates to Kiritsugu. And since then, when I listen to “to the beginning” I feel a sharp pain inside…

Speaking of endings, here’s a bit of spoiler… THE GOOD GUY DIDN’T WIN.

If you've seen or played Fate/Stay Night you would've known this spoiler already but still it answers your curiousity on how it happened. You might feel like your probably favourite team should’ve deserved to become the champion… but this isn’t a contest of how awesome you are as a character, or as partners . No matter how strong your servant is, doesn’t mean that you’re gonna win. No matter how smart you are as a Master, doesn’t mean you’re gonna win either. Ah, Holy Grail is about luck i guess?

And there’s nothing bad about that because we’ve all seen how often the good guys win, and how often the main team of a sports manga always have to win because the plot is about them. Now we see how the good guy had his ass kicked, and how the ‘bad guy’ is satisfied about his so-called goals. And it’s sad that the winner didn’t really have any great wishes to attain the grail, so it’s a waste that it was not given to the ‘supposed’ winner. But at least he did not destroy the whole world. Oh yeah, this is another story where the the shit only happens in one area but they act like it’s gonna affect the whole world, and everything had to happen in JAPAN although you obviously have gaijins as participants.

Art by Yukasu

While it is true that most of the characters are given backstories, I’m just sad that characters like Assassin and even Gilgamesh aren’t given any flashbacks. Assassin is like something to fill in the blanks in the Servants slot, they just can’t wait to finish him off. Gilgamesh on the other hand is just there like a douchebag acting like he deserves to be fangirled over. There doesn’t seem to be any development for this guy either cos he’s an arrogant bastard from the beginning to the end (if turning into a psycho ex kind of character is some kind of development then...okay...). And then there's Irisviel being the isteri solehah, which I personally don't like but sometimes having a character like that is OK.

There’s no need to tell me to start reading the novels or play the VNs etc to understand more about them, I pretty much can refer to their wikia. I’m disgusted by the mage system used in Fate series that I’d rather not indulge in it, disgusted by the battle royale, disgusted by how each of the characters want the Holy Grail for their own selfishness. Especially Saber… seriously, “restore Britain?”. Is she aware about how UK is during that time period? Probably the other Servants too have really dumb goals, unrealistic towards their current state of existence and makes this whole battle royale stupid – except for Broskander’s wish because IT MAKES MORE SENSE TO COME BACK TO LIFE AND DO WHATEVER THE HELL YOU WANT.

In spite of all that, this anime is highly recommended, but you gotta endure the dullness of the first few episodes of season 1 (I know some of you suffer this, I did too). And keep in mind there’s the awesome Servant called Rider/Iskander and there’s episode 24 to writhe in pain with. Battle scenes are great too. Oh yeah a friendly reminder; OST by Yuki Kajiura.

i have no regrets

Animax Carnival 2013

I didn't go to Animax Carnival last year but this year the event took place in a confined area somewhere in Sunway Pyramid. No entrance fee but you have to queue up if you want to enter the Animax realm, but it's not as bad as ComicFiesta.

thank goodness it did not rain inside

Once you enter the realm you're obliged to do some rituals before exiting - in order words you don't have freedom to wander around but since it's small and there's nothing much to see, then it's understandable. No official merchandise and doujin booths. So you had your body stamped with some symbols from hunter x hunter or Fairy Tail. Fairy Tail's mark is finished, so I took Cait Shelter guild logo cos I like Wendy. Then you play three of the games usually found in Japanese festivals. Forgot what they're called but I like the Daruma game... too bad I can only hit once -_-

Then there's the lolwhut photobooths and wheel of fortune thingy. Me and future-dr Lime had fun giggling at the shotas wearing the sailor costume sdkdshfkhsdfhsdkfhdfk.

Then once our rituals are finished, coincidentally the cosplay competition started. Unfortunately the competition is biased towards Fairy Tail only but good thing I'm a FairyFag so I enjoyed most of it.

You can also see the event happening from up above. I forgot to mention May'n did a performance on Saturday but I had class that time. I'm not a huge fan of May'n but I do love her Brain Diver song ;_;

Cosplayers were scattered everywhere. My friends and I planned to have lunch at Sushi King but then obviously that the place is weeabo infested. Even Sakae sushi. So we opt for Teppanyaki!

Anyway I love this Kuroko, it reminds me of this Kurokonyan

and then my kokoro went どきどきどきどきどきどきどきどきどきどきどきどきどき when I saw these two!

here's the rest of the photos I took

Overall I wasn't so satisfied with the event itself, but I'm happy enough to find the nice cosplays and the most important thing is to get to gather with friends no i'm not being tsundere or anything

One thing I dislike most is the tendency for event organizers to give really big and wide goodie bags, but there's not even a thing inside it. The last huge goodie bag I got was from AFA Singapore, with One Piece pictures and I had to buat muka tebal walking from the MRT station to the KTM checkpoint. The WORST part is it's very inconvenient in the crowds cos it may get stuck or hit random people. Once the bag accidentally hit some arab girl and she was glaring at me like I did the most wonderful sin.

This is short and simple okay bye (i gotta focus on reviewing anime next...)

Review: Jack the Giant Slayer

I know I have a lot of pending animes to review, but it's just that I haven't found the mood to rant about them yet. But this particular film is disturbing my thoughts lately so I had to let it out.

Jack the Giant Slayer is a film adaptation of the infamous Jack and the Beanstalk and also Jack the Giant Killer. With some unnecessary romance and a really cool supporting character. Unfortunately the story is not as badass as the title sounds, not even the main character himself.

Story starts with a little boy listening to the story about Giants. I assume this is Jack as a child so I thought it was a neat intro. Then the scene switched to the little girl listening to the same story and I was like "oh crap this story is going to have a fukken heroine". At this point I could sense that the predictability is very high. Fast foward, Jack has to run an errand for his uncle and went to the city and got fascinated seeing the first girl he met. As if there aren't any fine maidens in the village area. Turns out the girl is a princess (why does this sound so damn familiar?). And then this girl is a rebel princess; she wants adventure and seek for her true love. I'm pretty sure this kind of princess is overused, and as I predict the princess ran away from home. And then she meets the main character, all the cheesy lines start from here.

So I'm gonna be straight-forward; the script made me cringe in many parts especially when it comes to Jack and the Princess. So I was like can I skip this part? no? Hurry up and finish talking you two! Wow, I don't mind boy-meets-girl kind of cliche but we need a little more revamp ith the interaction between them (I guess I watch to much anime).

But what I enjoy most is the action part; the fights, the battles, the giant slaying - to the point I think they could've made the story work even WITHOUT the presence of a heroine. The princess role is just as a damsel in distress, and a reason to get the plot moving. Don't be fooled by the armour she's wearing ok, it doesn't mean anything. But I'm sure we've expected more from her considering the fact that she wants one hell of an adventure. Jack on the other hand is some kind of Gary Stu, like the writers have no idea how to create an epic protagonist other than a hormone raging one. Yes I understand that he's a teenager but he's just meh. The best character here is Elmont, cos he's cool in everything, and he's the most significant. Plus he's the loyal vassal type (ultimate weakness!).

The villain isn't even worth mentioning, but the Giants are brilliant in their own way. To be honest I was almost disappointed 30 minutes before the movie ends cos I thought there wouldn't be any Giant vs Humans battle. As I mentioned earlier, I expected Jack to be more badass - before watching I had a picture of a BAMF hero slaying giants like they're frail bamboo trees with blood splattering around but NO! No no no you only got Jack trying to impress a girl he just met before all this crisis happened. Therefore, I can conclude that the character development is bad.

The story doesn't have that much plot twist... as I said it was mostly predictable (except for Elmont). But if I consider it as a kid's show then I say it's pretty decent and enjoyable. But since it's PG-13, which implies that it's for older people then... they could've written a less shitter princess, script.... and plot.

Ah now I'm relieved.

Review: Ookami Kodomo no Ame to Yuki

Yeahhhh I have a lot of pending reviews but this one deserves to be reviewed now, before I forget all the feels cos the movie is so damn awesome.

Studio: Madhouse, Studio Chizu

The trailer shows the basic stuff, like a girl falling in love with a werewolf (why does this sound so familiar) and have a couple of children with him. What the trailer DID NOT show is how totally different it is from the typical werewolf romance and shoujo shit the story is all about. Which is why you really HAVE to check this out even if it's not your preferred genre.

So you have the usual girl meets boy story, and the girl is attracted to the boy because he seem different. Familiar again? But good thing it wasn't set in a freakin' high school and the girl isn't a Mary Sue although she is kind of ordinary. At least there aren't any intervening characters that drags the whole story into some love triangle/reverse harem crap. It's free from soap opera and illogical happenings (okay except for the werewolf part). The girl isn't freaked out when the guy reveals who he really is, much like a certain empty shell who has the hots for a certain sparkly undead. That aside, the best thing about their relationship is that everything went naturally from just friends to lovers. There wasn't a need for either of them to try too hard to impress one another, those pointless blushings, the in denial scenes and what not. The guy may come off as cold at first but good thing he isn't like Uchiha Sasuke.

And the wolf guy is so sweet that I think I'm diagnosed with diabetes right now.

cooking for his pregnant wife = perfect husband

The art may be simple, yet the animation is pleasant. No one looks as though they're wearing special costume for a fetish-themed AV. The backgrounds deserved the details more than the character designs do.

Now allow me to rant out what I analyzed from the show. So prepare for possible spoilers.

Stories about a single parent is common in anime nowadays but this time it's a single mom who had to raise a pair of supernatural being. I'm amazed at how strong she is dealing with her loss and the burden she had to carry all alone. Deep down I expected her to snap and dump her wolf kids and moved on with her life. But she didn't. She fukken dealt with it. She knew that the children carries their father's abnormal genes that she even studied really hard on how to specifically raise them. So basically the story is about how to raise weird kids if you wanna compare it real life. And it had never crossed her mind to find a new lover/husband just to ease her burden. Rather than blaming her children for being that way, she made a drastic decision that prioritize what is CONVENIENT for the kids. She's patient and works hard all the way, never complaining.

Seriously, are all Japanese moms like that?

Now let's talk about the kids. I think there's a really strong message behind their character developments.

Being born 'special' has its advantages, and at the same time it has a drawback. Yuki (the elder sister) and Ame (the younger brother) both have the dilemma of being born as not normal, but each with their own way. Each of the siblings have their own stories to tell. Yuki was proud to be a wolf at first, but as she grew she felt more connected to the human side. Ame on the other hand was upset that wolves are often portrayed as the bad guy causing him to hate who he is, but the opposite happened. Ame and Yuki had a conflict on 'which is the right way for them to live?'; as a human or as a wolf?

The strong message here is, who are you to say which is the right path and which is not? One may think that the 'normal life' is the best way to live, the other may think that the 'road not taken' is what is best for him. But did it really matter? If you think the path makes you happy, then go on with it. Parents should really take note of this. I'm sure you'd be happier if your kid picks the stable choice (of occupation or degree), but don't turn a blind eye to the one who wants to do something different. Just support him, even if shit happens to him don't go all "told you so!".

I'm proud of both Yuki and Ame. Yuki, for putting a lot of effort to adapt with the normal life. Ame, for choosing the path as a lone wolf. Either way is a courageous thing to do.

Moral of the story, mothers and future mothers should take a leaf out of Hana's book :D

Last but not least, the OST!! The OST!!! By Takagi Masakatsu (not someone from anime industry world apparently). Here's the track I love most (I think it's the one where the wolf boy runs around the mountain with his 'sensei')

Fictional Characters I Want to Marry

Today's Twitter Trending Topic is #FictionalCharactersIWanttoMarry and also inspired by Klux Nee-chan's blogpost, so I'm gonna do my version of husbandos.

Oh yeah... please note that not all my fave male characters, and the ones i find incredible sexy and incredibly GAR are in my husbando candidate list. So you may wonder where they stand cos I have another category for them XD

[disclaimer: images do not belong to me but their respective owners/artists]

10. Sarutobi Sasuke (Sengoku Basara)

I'm pretty much drawn to characters who are vassal to a lord or royals, I get turned on by the protectiveness and loyalty. Initially I wanted to include waifus (female characters in the list) and you'd see most of them are the vassal/knight type characters. Plus being with Sasuke allows me to side Sanada too, and I'd rather side with the Crimson Warrior rather than the One-Eyed Dragon.

9. Kanji Tatsumi (Persona 4)

gay domestic BAMF husbando

8. Edgar Roni Figaro (Final Fantasy 6)

play the game, put in him in your party, enjoy his TOOLS skill. His job class is a technician, kinda weird to exist in a fantasy setting (but then FF6 is considered as steampunk), but i'm sure we'd have fun inventing the funny tools XD

7. Lestat de Lioncourt (Vampire Chronicles)

pre-Twilight vampire, a TRUE VAMPIRE and is as sexy as the vampires in Vassalord. He's a rock star too. Oh and he's not really a bad guy, he's just... unorthodox. Unorthodox is my thing~

6. Sirius Black (Harry Potter series) 

Harry has a sexy godfather. 

Actually the latter 5 is harder for me to think so it may not be in order. But the next five is confirmed to be the characters I want to marry.

5. Suoh Tamaki (Ouran High School Host Club)

Reading the manga, I realize that he's more than just a narcissistic prince-type character. Most shoujo mangas often portray the prince type as cool, ridiculously perfect and seemingly flawless (although personally I think their flaw is being picky about who they want to be nice to). Tamaki isn't forever stuck as that shallow bastard but he really grows up. I'm glad he didn't become the typical "fuck what everyone thinks of me" but he definitely tried his best to make his worst 'enemy' approve of him ^^ 

4. Kusama Nowaki (Junjou Romantica)

I'm into semes like him

3. Yatogami Kuroh (K-Project)

Just another vassal-type character like number 10, but he's the only guy who I can consider as a WAIFU rather than husbando. Even his character song is about cooking.

2. Kotetsu T. Kaburagi (Tiger & Bunny)

=//////= Blue Rose + Barnaby Brooks Jr = me

1. Kamina (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann)

I need an optimistic guy in my life, to keep me going. It was thanks to him that I reached a turning point in my life (from being pointlessly emo into someone who knows how to appreciate herself). I doubt there are any real life men who can beat this guy... I mean, my forever-sorrowful days have been taken away by him so you really can't just come into my life expecting me to worship you as a hero. F*ck 3DPD, you're just a bunch of oppurtunists t(^0^t

 Okay finish.
I feel sad that I can't include Midorima Shintarou, Vincent Valentine, Grell Sutcliffe and even my first anime crush Sanosuke Sagara... but I love them anyways (as favourite gundiks wwwww)

End note: OMG I AM A NECROPHILE.

Review: Jormungand (S1)

Author: Keitarou Takahashi

Studio: White Fox

Jormungand is like a reverse harem anime (adapted from a manga), but with lots of violence and guns and knives. You have an arms dealer as the main character, and it’s a half-albino girl. She reminds me of Raito Yagami (Death Note) and Lelouch Lamperouge (Code Geass) in a way, hence making her one of the best female characters in 2012 anime. No, not them… I think she’s more similar to Hiruma Yoichi from Eyeshield 21 as I feel the same demonic vibe from her. Her team consists of random mercenaries who specializes at different things, and are from different background. Unlike the shoujo or otoge harem at least these guys work together to protect her. Most significant character would be the child soldier and the dyke.

In fact the female characters are the only ones who seem very eccentric or maybe autistic while there isn’t much to say about the guys. I thought it was weird for a really cool anime to have a few dumb femme fatales.

oh yes please enjoy this song

Or the whole plot even – not sure if I was confused, not paying attention or forgot. What I understood is it’s all about Koko Hekmatyar using her silvertongue to do business. Plus I enjoyed the tactical battle scenes more than anything lol. Obviously it’s all about going for missions, protecting their leader and finding who they are. And then there are episodes which focuses on the individual characters as well. Not sure how all these are connected to the plot though.

It’s really sad that I can’t put much input in this review. I guess this anime isn’t something I could connect with (maybe due to the fact that I’m not a military faggot). It felt like a waste of time as it personally wasn't too memorable, which is why I am hesitating to watch season 2. But I do like certain parts of it, and I don’t regret meeting Koko.

doing it right: military girls aren't supposed to look moe

Anime vs K-pop

ecently I saw this ongoing immature feud between Anime fans and K-pop fan(s) in lol facebook. I dunno how it all started but from my POV it was fail, fail everywhere. Each of them defended their fandoms like it's some kind of jihad, and acting like jahiliyah to each other in attempt to troll.

The hatred is ironic

But from what I can see is the one side, although many in numbers, fail badly at the art of trolling. The other one, although she may seem completely delusional seems like she had successfully made everyone's attention turn to her. Congrats Datin Comel for being epic! Once in a while it's nice to see low class 'anime people' being bashed by someone other than those from our circle, and it was one hell of an entertainment.

Look, I'm no fan of K-pop, I just grew tired of saying bad things about things I didn't even try out. And I have a few friends who are into K-pop so it had taught me to be less of a hater (yeah right I still act like a hater now and then for a the heck of it). I think it takes time to get used to it. In general, pop is one of my least favourite music genre (though I may enjoy some) and I don't really like hearing repetitive words in songs. Lyrics of popular K-pop songs are too simple and straightfoward, and Korean language doesn't sound as beautiful as Japanese (to me), hence my disinterest towards K-pop. I don't like the idea of the idols having to train too hard for a few years and reconstruct their looks to appear as an ideal celebrity, although I salute them for working that hard. I don't like the fact that I can't see any difference between their looks though - perhaps I should squint harder (and sometimes they look like anime cosplays - come on, those are real life bishins and bijins!) However, one thing I gotta admit is their choreagraphy is waaaaayyyy more entertaining to watch than how J-pop's, and the Korean idols have better vocals than average Japanese ones. I'm serious.

Also one of the factors that makes me dislike K-pop is how the fans can be so obsessive overreact to worthless insults when you can just simply overlook it.

a surprise to those who are ignorant. 

The thing is K-pop knows how to market, consequently overshadowing J-pop worldwide, although J-pop has quietly reached the shores of those who are aware. Hey, they can sing in English (WonderGirls at least) and they can sing in Japanese too (TVXQ, Girls Generation, 2pm, etc) that they even invade anime OPs and EDs. Can the Japanese do that? English pun tak lepas.

It makes the whole anime vs k-pop thing very irrelevant.

So these low class anime people are attempting to hurt them K-pop fans, or maybe one particular fan with all the k-poop hatred and calling her delusional for thinking that she's above everyone and her boyfriend is one of the K-pop idols. Well these anime fans or no better; they're arguing as though their life depends on it. Perhaps if they win their 2D waifu would materialize and agree to marry them. I don't know. I lost it when they start involving heaven and hell into their childish debates. I'm still having a hard time figuring out why are they trying to hard to defend or explain to their enemy when they can just ignore Datin Comel's insults. She seems to be having more fun entertaining these anime macaques rather than actually experiencing butthirt. I dunno how it is on the K-pop fans side but somehow this further proves the fact that anime is for kids.

To be fair, both parties are dumbfucks. Your social life probably fail really hard if you keep locked up in your own world.

Here's something to entertain yourself with (OP performed by TVXQ/Touhou Shinki/DBSK)

Conclusion: before thinking that you know what is the root of all of your hatreds... to them low class anime people, you should try listening to one of the K-pop songs and low class K-poppers should watch one of the casual non-mainstream animes.

Otherwise just stop wasting your time displaying tl;dr of your hatred and replace it with whatever you enjoy most (unless you enjoy failtrolling then go on).

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

I watched this very late. And I even entered the hall 30 minutes late. Long story. Also this won't be so review-ish because I'm sort of out of analytical words to say :P. Just here to let out my after-effects of the film so if you want a proper review go look somewhere else. Don't trust this one (I only like to attack anime)

Also read the summary in wiki or something, too lazy to recap atm. What I'm excited about they're gonna deal with a DRAGON YYAHGSJAHGJHGSFHGHDFSHGFHDGSFHDG

The 3 hour long movie wasn't a waste. It was fun and it felt like we went through the adventure with them. Throughout the film I was often reminded by Gurren Lagann; on how Gandalf chose an experienceless hobbit into the party of drawves and believed in him. Also on how Gandalf sort of admits why he'd choose Bilbo Baggins was thanks to his own weakness.

Of course the necessity of a fantasy-themed story is good vs typically fated to be evil race. It is a nice change to see dwarves being primary main characters rather than secondary main characters. And lolwhut a few of them are surprisingly handsome especially Thorin and Kili. It's only one third of the book, but I see the character development done pretty well (perhaps just for this adaptation, not that I read the novel). Even Bilbo who I think is just a bystander (this also reminds me of Final Fantasy XII), though i thought it was a bit fast. Still, the whole movie does feel like an introduction episode.

they don't look the same!

The lulz parts are Radagast the Brown and rock giants boxing in the rain. That was one hell of an adventure huh. With the many people in one party I was expecting they die one by one but the dwarves are extremely tough (oh no maybe it would happen in the next 2 movies?!). I'm glad they're extending this to multiple films because often one book adaptations is not enough to be compressed in one film.

My favourite scene is the battle in the orc underground cave; it was damn complicated but really got me at the edge of my seat. And speaking of scenes I think most of them are filled with important ones - maaaaaaaaaaaybe the troll and Gollum cameo felt like a waste of time but it was still really entertaining. More like it gives a chance for Bilbo to display his character.

Eh and let's not forget about the epic choir songs during battles! You know I'm weak for folk-ish music too.

If my mom was watching this she'd wonder why a wizard isn't using his for every little thing. But I was thinking that Gandalf is saving his MP wisely.

While watching The Hobbit I keep thinking of the game Dragon Age, the world is almost similar but DA has its own twists and tweaks. The dwarves are given a chance to shine and show how noble they can be (apart from acting similarly like Meleis), so thanks to that I'm more open to select the dwarf race in my next playthrough.

Review: Kamen Rider OOO

This is the second Kamen Rider series I’ve ever completed, after Fourze - and it might probably be the last. Mind you I’ve never been a KR fan, nor have I become one after seeing OOO and Fourze. I did watch a few episodes of Kabuto, W and Wizard but I wasn't really impressed. This might be the only KR I like very much... and n-no it's like I love it because there are ikemens!

fanart does not belong to me

So I was first introduced to OOO when I visited a Reppu_kiri's house during Eid festives, and part of our gang was there. He imprisoned us in his otaku room and forced us to watch a few tokusatsu series. He showed us the movie where W, OOO and Fourze teams up and there are the first 7 riders as cameo. Taichou skipped the parts where I am not familiar with, so it was later I got struck by a cupid’s arrow seeing how stupidly angelic Eiji Hino looks when he invites Gentarou Kisaragi (Fourze) to team up.

To be honest I LOL’d at the funny song when he henshins. But what made me attracted to watch OOO is where he spawns clones in his Gatakiriba combo.

My first impression of OOO is… well…

First I was mesmerized by the opera version of the “Happy Birthday” song.

Secondly, halfnaked protagonist.

Thirdly, the main girl isn’t annoying.

This is the best introduction episode I've ever seen in my whole life.

Then I kept watching mainly because I was attracted to the OST and then… there’s Ankh (the red bird guy who likes icecandy). Plus there are the eccentric characters like Kougami (aka cakeboss), Chiyoko (restaurant owner of a cultural restaurant) and Dr. Maki (the doll-freak). Not to forget the bromantic Kamen Rider Birth team; Date Akira and Gotou Shinjurou. However, the main villains called GREED, in spite of being 800 years old are literally like kindergarden kids. But they can be pretty cute, especially Ankh who's very much fascinated by human technology.

zomg coolest human invention evarrrrr

In spite of the typically childish monsters, and lame SFX, the story proved to have a deeeeeeeeeeeep message wrapped around it. Some parts were kinda predictable, but that didn’t matter cos the way it’s presented is rather intriguing. It teaches you how your selfish desires could bring harm to those around you… and OOO takes it too literally and exaggerated it. On the other hand, Eiji and Hina (the not irritating girl with some kind of brother complex) believes that it’s okay to have desires, but it depends on how you make use of it or something like that. So they don't spread the message that we should all become moralfaggots.

They should get married, you know, but I’d think that it’ll make OOO too cheesy if there’s too much romantic stuff. I mean, it’s a children’s show to begin with, ne?

Personally, it’s the crapload of bromance is what made me hooked. It’s what W failed to do (Phillip looks too girly to me o__o|ll and the female assistant is an eyesore ). Other than that, there’s the COMBO THEME SONGS which excites me whenever Eiji does the combo henshin thingy.

I love the songs so much I listen to them everyday~

Review: Hyouka

One look at Hyouka, you’d think it’s just another slice of life genre about high school kids. Little did I know it’s a mystery-themed adaptation of a 2001 novel of the same name. Even the title of the series has a mystery behind it.

Original Author: Honobu Yonezawa

Studio: Kyoto Animation

Well, but guess what, it’s not your average mystery. Hyouka is about the members of the culture club solving unimportant mysteries, instead of the usual murder cases like you see in CSI. And you’ll be surprised to see how mature the characters are in spite of their age, cos you don’t see teens not acting like children fighting over a toy everyday.

How it all began, is when the main guy Oreki Hotarou meets Chitanda Eru (typical boy meets girl scene yay!) in his club room, and they start figuring how Chitanda was locked inside. So Chitanda got all fascinated by Oreki’s deduction skills, so she keeps forcing him to solve petty mysteries. Since she gets totally turned on by curious happenings, the cases needed to be solved in order for her to reach orgasm. So she went on ahead to ask Oreki’s help to solve her uncle’s mystery related to the school and the club like a selfish little bitch.

The mystery of her uncle was a success, but the detective play didn’t stop there, to Oreki’s displeasure. Cos Chitanda would unknowingly force him to SOLVE anything she finds curious by putting her face really close to his, activate her sparkly eyes and would look like it’s the end of the world if he refuses. Good thing Oreki is a nice guy so that little bitch would always get what she fukken wanted. Of course, she gets away with it because she's cute and innocent.

The art and animation is goddamn excellent that's for sure. They sure overdid the sparkling eyes

I appreciate that Hyouka maintains the fact that it's all about solving (not-so-important-and-unnecessary) mysteries in the rest of the episodes. I’m sure it got us all KININARIMASU. But the best case among the rest is the case of the Hyouka Anthology. Nothing can beat that. The next best case is the one about filming a detective story (because there's Irisu-senpai!)

I do acknowledge that without Chitanda, the story wouldn’t advance. Without her Oreki wouldn’t show his detective skills to the world and make the story awesomely unique. But there’s a lot of listening version of tl;dr, you know, like Death Note. Since you gotta explain the logic behind what happened. Sometimes it feels like the girls in the team is for mere decoration, as not only Oreki but Fukube is a very very GREAT character. I’m more than impressed by him (at how he envies Oreki but isn’t angry about it, his opinion on ‘obsession’) although he's just self-proclaimed biological 'database'. Mayaka on the other hand is an adorable character, but it feels like she's just a mascot girl who exists to fill in the blank. Minus the tsundere trait, I notice that are actually a lot of real life girls who has Mayaka’s dilemma.

Chitanda and Oreki appears to be canon, but due to fetish reasons I ship Oreki with Irisu. But seriously, if Oreki does go out with Chitanda later I can only hope that by the time he enters college, he’d dump her and get a new girlfriend who respects his energy conserving habits.

which is why I feel like punching the air in triumph when I see her disappointed face

Even so it’s one of the best animes of 2012 – not exactly my favourite but it’s better than most. I recommend this, but you gotta endure the long dialogs.

Review: Sakamichi no Apollon

Author: Kodama Yuki

Studio: MAPPA

Also known as “Kids on a Slope”, this is about a transfer student (again with the transfer student!) who belongs to a rich family that complains about climbing the slope to get to school. He thought his life would suck at a new place until he has an instant crush on the first girl who is nice to him for no apparent reason. When frustrated, he likes to escape to the rooftop (again with the rooftop!) but when the first time he wanted to go there at his new school the door was blocked by a badass looking guy sleeping under a white sheet. Upon waking him up, the badass grabs the transfer student’s hand and calls him an angel.

Then I became confused, is this anime supposed to be straight or gay…?

Later it is revealed that the sexual orientation of this anime doesn’t even matter, because the best part is you’re introduced to the wonders of Jazz music, and Jazz rendition of well-known songs (at least I know Someday My Prince Would Come and also Favourite Things). I’m never really into jazz but I do enjoy the jazzy songs found in video game OSTs and such. So I pretty much can appreciate Jazz music more thanks to this one. That said, Apollon has one of the best OSTs in 2012 anime, composed by Yoko Kanno. On related note, I love the OP; "Sakamichi no Melody" by YUKI.

Since the setting is like, 50 years ago in Japan, and the fact that the demographic is josei, you don’t see any of those typical shits you see in high school anime nowadays. Firstly, NO SHORT SKIRTS. Then you have a record shop. Then you have a couple who actually eloped (I think the development is rather stupid but I guess that’s how the youths of the old days was like?). A confession that didn’t cocktease you until you reach the last episode. Stuff about student activism somewhere. And also a different music genre that emerges to cockblock the two boys’ relationship. And this jazz medley:

Kaoru (the pianist) and Sentarou (the drummer) is the typical combination of 'opposites attract'; the former is the clever, rich guy, and rather weak... the latter is the trouble-making dumb guy who can easily beat up a bunch of third years. What the have in common is both are strong-willed, and both are familiar with music... just that initially their views on music were really different. They may be opposite, but that's the ideal formula for BROMANCE - no doubt about it! Now don't get the wrong idea as these guys do have the girls that they fancy nah they're probably  bisexual. Character development is great, not just individually and between those two but also with other characters as well. One of the things about the ending would give a you a bit of shock, when it's really not supposed to be that shocking.

The story stays true to the manga at least, except a few scenes/chapters have been cut to compress it into 12 episodes. But at least you get to hear the songs come to life.

If you like something different from typical shoujo shit, or typical music-themed anime go ahead and try this one. If you're a girl who enjoys "bromance" then this is for you too :3

The Bolehland Culture

Today I will take a break from anime stuff and talk about a wonderful country called Bolehland. It is a multiracial country and has a very unique culture that can never be found in other places! So since it's a multiracial country obviously there are racist issues here and there. I'm so bad at intros so I'm gonna cut to the chase. Oh no this won't be the typical tourism post, I'm just gonna rant about the special things of Bolehland that many may not notice. Or too dumb to notice. Whatever.

Since I am one of the so-called natives of Bolehland, I would like to refer a subsection of the natives as "Meleis" (courtesy of 1Obefiend). I've exclude myself from being part of them because I'm one of the already evolved ones, and yet they'll be the main character of this story. So here we go!

1. Time Dilation Technique

I remember once we have a group camp back in matriculation college, before the day we depart to the camping site we had an assembly. A representative said to us "Tomorrow, you must assemble at the foyer 7am SHARP"

The next day, 7 am sharp, I was the only one at the foyer.

Apparently, according to Meleis culture; SHARP means at least 30 minutes from expected time, and it is "better late than never". They do not respect those who wait, but the person who wait is often too soft to get angry. In Meleis culture it is inappropriate to tell what the other did wrong, but it is okay to talk sh*t behind the person's back and allow him to keep doing the wrong thing.

FYI, this Time Dilation Technique is infectuous! I had not realized this until a few years back, where I was the only Malay in class and I'm always the first to arrive (see I told you that I am evolved)!Thus, it has become a Bolehland culture!

And sometimes they use this habit of theirs when they visit other countries. This may irritate foreigners but foreigners need to understand that time is NOT gold to Bolehlanders. Thank you Meleis, for sharing your secret technique!

2.  Respect Your Elders

Respect your elders regardless of how rude s/he is. Even if you want to share a new knowledge where the older generation did not earn, YOU CAN'T. You really can't show off that you're smarter because it would hurt their ego feelings. Yet they want the younger generations to study hard, encourage critical thinking, but when your opinion differs, you're just being disrespectful!

It is also okay for adults to be obnoxious towards younger people, whether or not the young ones show respect. They demand respect, yet as more experienced people, by their actions, are not setting a good example to youths so that they can follow. So how would the younger generation know the true meaning of respect if they keep doing that?

Because in Bolehland, "respect" means keeping quiet and let yourself be walked over.

3. The Way of Envy

When an evolved native (or even members of the other races) is financially or intelectually better than most, the Meleis get envious of him. But when they envy, they do not put an effort to become the same level as the evolved native. They insult him, spread bad rumours about him, or worse, bring him down.

And these Meleis sometimes see criticism as "envy" too. When they see a critic (rather than 'support'), they will ask you how will the race advance/develop if another member of the same race keep on criticizing them? It's just part of their culture for people to baby them, so it's completely okay to have a half-assed effort. Better than nothing, right?

4. Complaining means you're ungrateful

"hey this nasi goreng is tasteless, why not put a bit of salt"
"STFU YOU UNGRATEFUL BASTARD!"

You just really can't question, criticize and offer suggestions (or hold a protest/demonstration) to the higher ups. The higher you go the more limited your vocab is, so they take that course of action as 'complaining'. Consequently, it breaches their ability to think in other perspectives that they'd label you for being ungrateful. Perhaps it is because they think that they're gods.

5. GTFO country

When you stir up trouble by criticizing Bolehland in any way, for instance, showing how ungrateful you are, Meleis who are not mentally evolved enough to come up with a sophisticated rebuttal would instantly tell you to get out of the country. Even worse if the person is of a race different from the natives, they're often told to go back to their respective countries where their great great grandparents belonged to.

The argument is very weak because these people and their generations have long lived in Bolehland, and oblivious to the culture of their 'original' country. In fact, it is a very invalid argument for this people have grown up and got used to things in Bolehland. But telling them to GTFO is the best thing Meleis can do (and I also found out that this can be infectious too)

6. Meleis are superior

Because they are God's chosen ones. There are no reference text for this because it's merely their own assumption.

7. Wormhole Digger

(aka, Wormhole Hunters, Wormhole Raiders, etc)
When you hurt a Meleis's butt, he is bound to tell you this: "aku akan cari kau sampai ke lubang cacing!" (translation: "I will find you even if i have to dig a worm hole!")

But don't worry, they will never find you. They're Meleis, they don't have that kind of motivation.
(as of now I am still waiting for a certain keyboard warrior to find me at the wormhole).

8. "Apology" means "Cowardice"

According to Malay Beliefs, when you did a huuuuuuuuuuuge mistake and apologize later, it means that you're a coward. This is why many Meleis (is this also infectuous?) love having a cold war with one another because the unapologetic attitude is very honourable and courageous. Yet they love to demand an apology, and when the person says sorry, other than calling him a coward you know what is even better?

They'll question his sincerety.

Perhaps apology is not enough, they'd expect these wrong-doers to exile or kill himself. Or find him deep in a wormhole to beat him up. Such sadistic people my unevolved fellow natives are.

The irony is, they call themselves Muslims, who believes in God (and believes that they're the chosen ones), and yet their belief contradicts to the Islamic way on forgiving others

i can't find a better screenshot lol

I think there are more silly things Bolehland has but I'll leave it up to here. If I get any ideas, there'l be part 2!
So if you're butthurt and is about to rage on the comments section, then CONGRATULATIONS! You've just proved that I am right! But if you're thinking "omg I can't believe I've been so horrible, I should change my attitude" then CONGRATULATIONS you're about to evolve into a pokemon! Forgive me for hurting your feelings then but it is what I intended.

You can call me a race traitor, sure I don't mind being exiled.
You can tell me to gtfo of Bolehland... would you care to sponsor me?
You can tell me that my mouth has no insurance/license, that's because I can't find any.
You can tell me "ingat ko bagus sangat?", no, I am not, but I know I'm definitely better than you.
[Edit: tak puas hati? Talk to my representative here]

oh don't get me wrong, I love my Bolehland. It's just that I hate this kind of people aaaaand of course there are people better than this lot. So do visit the country on your next vacation - think of the FOOD! The food is great here.

Now back to henshin-ing myself into a Japunis.

Anime is for Kids

Sometimes I'm starting to agree with this.

ohlolwat i cannot brain this

I mean considering the fact when average otakus are told by their normal friends that "anime is for kids", the otaku would be like "OH YEAH? HERE LOOK AT ALL THESE HENTAIS". I mean seriously is that all you can do? Show hentai to prove that anime is NOT for kids?

That's child's play.

What if the plan backfired and your friend starts to think anime = hentai?

This is probably a popular retort among newbies but bet you haven't heard about the anime being accused as hentai back in 2006. Unless you have, then this is a reminder. Oh the OUTRAGE! Of course I was one of those who were pissed. Nowadays I couldn't care less about what people wanted to say; anime is cartoon, anime is for kids, anime is hentai... because majority of it it's true because we keep getting derpy moeshits every season - it's meant for light hearted purposes. And you can simply get excited watching the bug eyed creature acting dumb or your ridiculously perfect blonde Asian guy being princey. Seriously, if these shits can't utilize your adult brain then I have to agree that anime is for kids (or maybe your adult brain has reached the maximum value that you cannot fuck your mind further). However, I allow you to consider this statement invalid if you think your fave moeshit or fujoshit is not as dumb as I think it is.

You want to disprove the fact that anime is for kids? Go watch something mindboggling (other than your fanservicey stuff), learn stuff from it and grow. Anime is not just mere entertainment, at least that is what I think. I am aware that half my life lessons were taken from shounen influence. No you don't have delude yourself by pretending you can do Kamehameha or BANKAI (unless you cosplay). What I mean is, when you see the annoying naive hero work hard, then work hard as he does even if it seems stupid. If you see the shoujo manga heroine moves out of her anti-social shell, then try it yourself. However, I see you guys still whining about how your life sucks, no friends, no confidence blablabla-

But then your idol is Naruto and Ichigo.

Don't give me that "easier said than done" shit. Even them anime/manga is realistic enough to show their hardships.

Even that emofag Sasuke has a motivation yo. It's evil but at least he doesn't wallow in self pity.

i guess you can show guro too

I proudly say that I am one of those "shut ins" who used to be a tad too antisocial and I broke out of it. I even have people envying that I have many friends (ONLY ON SOCIAL NETWORK DAMMIT NOBODY TEXT MY PHONE UNLESS IT'S SOMETHING IMPORTANT but it's fine cos I'm too lazy to entertain people via text all the time), because it naturally comes when I try. Heck I'm still a quiet person and I prefer doing stuff alone but i do socialize.

Okay the point is, when you watch anime show them that 'anime is not for kids' by your attitude. Don't be so quick to be pissed off at the statement. Remember that this ignorant friend of yours have never seen such animes with hentais serious plots and life lessons better than talent shows. Just smirk and tell them that you're sorry that they have so very little knowledge of what you're passionate about. Learn from the mistakes the characters did, even if it's fictional, you can prevent it from happening to your life. Learn how to experience a character development with them. Just prove that you can still become mature even if you're into something childish.

Also, do open your heart to your normal friends. Try something else, completely different from anime - maybe reading or outdoor activities. If they know you're not just an obsessive anime-tard, and you're capable of talking about other things than anime, then I'm sure they can accept your childish hobby like it's breakfast. By now I'm sure a lot of my acquaintances is aware of me being a fan of anime and video games, and I've never heard them saying negative things about my interests.

And speaking of mindboggling animes, well, sometimes no matter how ridiculous it seems you can still relate it to real life (the politics, the society, the philosophy etc). You could slip in some deep quotes or mention something hypothetical you extracted from an anime while talking about related real life topics with others. Well I dunno if it would work but I think I've done this a few times. No significant impact but then I'm not desperate to bust the myth.

But just in case I meet someone who has this "anime = kids" mindset, I'm just gonna blab about how much anime has changed me throughout the years... lessons that unfortunately real life stuff couldn't teach, where I sometimes wish boring fandomless people need to know.

In conclusion: if you don't wanna grow up (with your anime) then just accept the fact that anime is for kids, because you are one.

Review: GOSICK (Anime)

This is another 2011 anime that I forgot to review. And I liked it a lot.

Based on a light novel, GOSICK is about a tsundere loli detective with her unintentional assassistant who came from Japan. The year is 1924 and set in European country called Saubure. In spite of it being a fictional country, the reasoning behind the mystery solving session is not too farfetched. And at least they don't disturb too much historical facts for being a fictitious country. I have never seen or read any mystery-themed anime/manga (I don't Conan), but I've seen an episode of CLAMP School Detective but the mystery of that particular episode is not mysterious at all. I had to restrain from laughing at the detectives wondering about what happened derp-ishly. However, what makes GOSICK an interesting mystery, is not because it's another typical Sherlock Holmes mystery (not that I dislike) him, but most of the time Victorique deals with revealing the truth about urban legends. Yeah she can even deduce how magic trick works. So yeah it's not an actual detective story but more like doing some mythbusting the classical way.

Apparently, in an anime world, regardless of where you are as long as you look weird and foreign you're often the topic of urban legend gossip. Like the classmate's are like "omg he's a death god" just because his has black hair and is Asian but lulz Kazuya Kujou doesn't even look Japanese for heaven's sake. But then it's typical of anime artists to make Japanese having big eyes and colorful hair. And as a desperation move the author just had to use that popular stereotype probably to attract moetards. But surprisingly I like this loli tsundere, maybe it's because she's smarter than most tsunderes out there. Then there's also the cockblocker character whom I think would be good friends with the anti-social detective but turns out she's just there to be a busybody. I am a little disappointed at the relationship between characters part, especially when it comes toVictorique Du Blois who only wanted to open up to just one person.

he does not look Japanese

While I like all the cases they involved themselves in, the only thing I am disturbed with is the fact that the 'grey wolves' clan has some kind of superpowers thing. Here I thought it would be another urban legend thing to unravel, but turns out the bad guys were obsessed with the idea until the end. Now I am not sure what the 'superpower' really is (was it to bring fortune?), but it seem to indicate having a genius mind. But lol is that even an inheritence thing? The bad guy could just take any genius to help him take over the world or something instead of making a woman suffer thanks to a prophecy he believed in. good thing that's the only shit stuff about GOSICK and you can only see it at the last few episodes and suddenly the ending looks like the writers forgot the show is about mystery. Or maybe it wasn't in the first place. I pretty much enjoyed the mysteries rather than the actual plot... It's probably just me because the real story seems out of place with the whole thing we see.

The romance here, between the main characters is naive and pretty common, high school crush and one love triangle thing. What you see in the promo poster is what the canon pair is, so there's no suspense there. However, when it comes to the adults they have a rather mature and unorthodox take on it. Personally I love how they write the adults compared to the little kids.

and i love his hair

While I like the ED, the OP sounds too modern poppish it looks out of place for the gothic setting.

If you're a moetard do pick up this show, and even if you're not a tsundere loli fan do try this out and watch it for the urban legend mythbusting. Eventually you'd find Victorique to be charming too.

Review: Fairy Tail - Houou no Miko

After Naruto and Bleach failed me, Fairy Tail is the only shounen I cared about (at least until Magi came along). I shall explain why another time, but not here or else it'll become a super long post.

Since the movie is shown in local cinemas, and only on certain dates, coincidently yesterday the schedule was perfect and the cinema is quite near my area. Now I'm not realy of movie spin-offs so I didn't expect much from Houou no Miko (I'm not really gonna summarize the plot since you can read it elsewhere). By the way there were probably like ten people inside the cinema w.

Yes it is a very generic shounen movie, it's just like the story arc. You have a client, you have good vs evil, you have teamwork, you have amnesia, manry tears, friendship, ecchi (with Lucy as the main p0rn Star but why not erza??) blablabla but nonetheless I enjoyed it.

The art isn't very impressive, just as the anime is. I sorta expected they'd refine the art style in animation. Okay maybe Gray's body is the only thing worth mentioning LOL! Not until they went to a city with some kind of Indian-like culture where suddenly the anime looks beautiful. The city reminds me of Magi's Magnoshutat in a way except that Fairy Tail doesn't have any twisted things regarding magic power unless it's Edolas. But the was one thing which is rather effective to me is their 'night time'; you can really feel that the events happened at night and how creepy it is especially when you have a villain who lurks in the shadows. Of course the series have events that occur at night too but in the movie it's really dark.

Speaking of villains, none of them were very interesting. The antagonists are another magic guild called Carbuncle, with rather typical villains whose leader want nothing more than power and immortality. But meh I figured that they have no time to develop the bad guys so I just consider them as cockblockers. One of the villain minions is also a Holder Mage who uses requip, so it's an Erza rival... but the most challenging part is she keeps dispelling Titania's requips until she puts on the wedding dress (she looks awesome fighting as a 'bride'). However, among all the Erza battles this one is the most dull. In fact, most of the battles are not so memorable and by the end of the movie it looked rather messy. I mean, even by reading the manga I can feel how epic the battles are but the movie didn't give me the same feel. Gray and Juvia did another Unison Raid against a magic bullet shooter which I think is the best fight scene here.

I expected some kind of omfg plot twist but then it's just, well, okay whatever the backstory is, is still kinda acceptable. I think if I was a child watching this I'd probably cry at the sad ending (It made me remember the first time I secretly cried over a fictional character's departure - it was a Doraemon movie) but for an oldfag like me the connection isn't enough to move me.

The only thing that made me smile, are the OSTs which I recognized rather quickly especially at the beginning so I thought I could just enjoy the movie thanks to the audio. As expected from Takanashi Yasuharu! I think they have new rendition of Fairy Tail main theme. And then there's Erza in Bridal gown. And then the epic Fairy Tail bromantic teamwork scene.

One questionable thing is that at which timeline did the movie occur in? I'm sure it's after the 7 year timeskip but then the guild is back in their original building. And if I'm not mistaken they mentioned Bacchus somewhere. So I'm guessing that this happens some time after the Grand Magic Games, or else I'd just consider this as not important.

I'm not a NaLu fan but Hiro Mashima himself has confirmed that they're canon, the movie justifies that but I'm glad Natsu isn't the horny guy type so Natsu is still being himself, telling that you have friends to back you up etc (instead of "oh it's ok i'll be there for j00")