Review: Life of Pi

Went to a movie marathon the other day and one of the movies I watched was Life of Pi.

It wasn't in one of my priority list but like the Avengers I only intended to accompany a friend.

But after watching, it was not a regrettable experience.

I went to watch the film in 3D, but the silver screen lost its 3D feel somewhere in the middle of the movie... but at least the glow in the dark part reminded me that I'm watching something in 3D.

Life of Pi is about a guy who is named after a pool; grew up in Pondicherry - the French Part of India and is often teased by having a strange name. But the boy had a strong heart, he had worked hard in diverting his name from something dirty into something really awesome. And also how he dealth with love and his first heartbreak. It seems like the childhood flashback of his was a waste of time in the film... but I think it's an important introduction on what type of guy is Piscine "Pi" Patel :3

Lesson number 1; find a way to stop yourself from being bullied. Be your own hero, don't expect someone else to come save you.

The next part is, the story is about how to survive when you're stranded in the sea... with a tiger. Follow the adventures of his survival, alone, with a wild animal. And I assure you, this tiger is NOT the Disney happily-ever-after type of company, so you might as well get eaten by it... if not the sharks. Makes you wonder how he'd survive and tell the story... yeah he survived because at the 'spoiler' is right at the beginning lol.

Lesson number 2; do not give up hope even when you're caught between the devil and the deep blue ocean.

By the end of it you learn that all those one hour of sufferring may be just a delusional story... yet it was worth watching and listening to. Turns out there were metaphors here and there.

Lesson number 3; be creative in your storytelling - life is more interesting that way :D
Lesson number 4; who are we to question the truth of the story when we have not seen or experience it ourselves?

Back at school we learn literature the very textbook-ish way (BORING), and I remember themes like "Man vs Man", "Man vs Nature" and "Man vs Himself". The whole point of Life of Pi is "Man vs Himself", more than "Man vs Nature". Lesson 1 relates to this a lot, how he has the will to survive. Because it's in his core. He's no wimpy kid, he's never been a wimpy kid.


Now you too stop being a wimpy kid or you won't be able to survive anything.   Oh yeah one more thing. I forgot to mention that Pi, in spite of all those shit he went through, he is still a religious person. Though I do not like the idea of the pantheism, I think there are stuff there to ponder about... whether you're a believer or a non-believer. And for those who still believe.... 

Lesson number 5; "Even when God seemed to have abandoned me, he was watching. Even when he seemed indifferent to my suffering, he was watching. And when I was beyond all hope of saving, he gave me rest. Then he gave me a sign to continue my journey." - Piscene Molitor Patel

Review: Fate/Zero (S1)

I tried to avoid this show, since it’s based on a novel. If I wanted to tweet about every episode, surely one or two type-moon fag would retort when I criticise something. Also, Fate/Stay Night was completely horrible. But since they say this show is a lot better than FSN (and I heard the composer is Yuki Kajiura, plus the season 2 OP artist is Kalafina), why not give it shot?

Just for your info, I’m not a type-moon fan, I don’t follow the visual novels or any other stuff related. So forgive me if my thoughts on certain things seem ignorant. Just consider me as a regular anime watcher. You have been warned.

Unfortunately, the first four or five episodes were incredibly dull for me. Too much verbal version of tl;dr, too much explanation about the master-servant system, where I think they can easily explain ‘visually’ or through one of the action scenes than giving us a full 40 minutes lecture on it. You have seven masters, they’re mages but not necessarily the most powerful mages ever – and each of them has ‘Servants’, of which some of them were kings/leaders of ye olden days, ironicaly. I thought Yuki Kajiura’s music would make me stick to it but the boringness of the initial storyline was overwhelming. And I’m rather disturbed by how the three biggest family of mages act all pompous – which makes me happy that the kid called Waver Velvet decided to prove them wrong. And this piqued my interest.

a tea party before they beat the crap out of each other

Then we have two daddies who fights in the field in the dark; one is the father of one of the most popular tsunderes in the anime world, and the other had a baby with a bimbo-ish homunculus D:

The former, hides in the ‘command room’ with Gilgamesh as his Servant, while the latter, in spite of being a mage prefers to use firearms in his fights. His Servant is Saber, which is disappointingly as bland as she was in FSN. Yeah yeah she’s an honourable knight, cute and all but as a warrior princess not even as GAR as Erza Scarlet (Fairy Tail) or the newcomer Morgiana (Magi). Or perhaps I dislike her because I cannot accept that King Arthur is a girl :P. Meh it would work better if the female Arthur is not a small sized sixteen year old.

i think i know why King Arthur is a girl now... a wizard did it...

Which is why I became super delighted when Iskander pwn’d her with his army of bros, and this guy became the main reason why I had continued watching F/Z and all the way to season 2. Even her Excalibur final blow was like meh. His character is really has great as the size of his muscles!

The fights are unlike most shounens, I guess. You can see that they’re more tactical, even with the use of magic. So magic isn’t just any wand waving avada kadavra thingy. I think I can call the Masters in this anime ‘mahou seinen’. Plus there’s no definite good or evil sides, but you can tell which character is mentally sick (which makes him seem evil) and it makes you think… “DEFINE ‘GOOD’”. In this season there is not much of Gilgamesh in action, you can only see him with the kimochi warui priest guy talking about something psychological and philosophical blablabla.

Speaking of kimochi warui the concept of magic used makes me hate this ‘fandom’ so much, that I feel relieved that I have not indulged deeper into it. I think I’ll cover this in the second season’s review, along with other questionable stuff.

IMHO for the first season, they did a really grave mistake on making those 'lecture sessions' because I know some people especially the non-fate series fans got bored of it after a couple of episodes. It's a huge waste because the show is really worth watching, but the first impression was really repelling.
In conclusion, season 1 is not that special yet (just wait for my thoughts on S2). Except for Broskander :3

Tbh I dropped the show until someone told me to "watch it for Rider". I did. And I have no regrets.

Review: Star Driver

I can’t believe I missed this out too.

I think by now I’ve forgotten most of the things happened in the story. Let’s see if I can remember the plot…

Star Driver begins with a red haired guy who drifted ashore, interrupting a young engaged couple on their date on the beach. The girl gave him a CPR, and cue love triangle, because from then on they stick together as they go to a HIGH SCHOOL. And then we have a group of fabulous bad guys in masks, and fancy codenames planning to free the island off a magical seal by tainting the shrine maidens.

not sure how the love triangle really works lulz

The power of GINGA BISHOUNEN (Galactic Pretty Boy roflmao) is bestowed upon the red haired boy, which made him transform into some kind of mahout shounen piloting a gay-looking mecha. His primary goal is to protect the shrine maidens from the bad guy team, which are called Glittering Crux or more infamously known as KIRABOSHI~

(^_−) > ☆

But the only maiden he knew at first was the girl who gave CPR to him.

And when the battle starts, the first tainted maiden sings…

Just like superhero stories I think it’s obvious that the primary people in the bad guy team can be found in their school. The subchiefs may not know each other, or at least they suspect who is who, but they do know their minions. Every Kiraboshi member, subcheifs or minions has their own weird mecha – which are named after the greek alphabets, and each has unique abilities that matches what the pilot can do (like kendo, boxing, motorcyces etc). So Star Driver is like a slightly manlier version of a mahout shoujo since he beats up the minions first before the subchiefs decide to face Tauburn (the good guy’s mecha, pic above) which is why I can simply call this show a “mahou shounen” lol.

I was actually expecting that Tauburn would eventually have a partner to fight alongside it since the KIRABOSHI members are many. But instead Tauburn keeps surprising us with new attacks everytime he breaks away from being in a pinch. Like drawing out double swords and flying missles.

And of course, there’s the plot twist. A very unpredictable one. Which I believe what every show needs just to become less typical. For example, there was one of the maidens inside the bad guy team – we wonder what she was doing there, we wonder if she’s gonna betray the party or is she a double agent. Then we have one of the good guys, who seems to be the protagonist’s best friend. We don’t know really know what he’s thinking. Is he okay with the third wheel hanging out with his fiancée? Does he have the powers too? With all this fiasco, he seems to have his own plans on how to deal with it, but what does he intend to do?

And why is he in such a gaudy costume all of a sudden?

And… oh, I can’t resist mentioning this; how about a “father and son” showdown?

The ending… is… well, it’s not even a cliffhanger but… I guess the world is saved but it does not look like a happy end for the main three characters… does it?

I have no problems with the art, and I think I remember that I like how the fight scenes were animated. In terms of OST, nothing special except for a few tracks. But the best part of this show is the insert songs by the four maidens.

Personally, I feel sorry for the maidens that they had to stay in the island to protect whatever they’re sealing. It sounds like a cultural taboo thing. And part of me wishes that they’d lose their virginity (figurative speech! or maybe it's symbolic...) already. But what horrible thing would happen to the island, or the whole world if they’re released? It’s kind of twisted, and probably not well thought of, or I might have missed out something. But it really sounds kind of contradicting.

oh look, mecha p0rn!

Review: Katanagatari

It's a 2009 anime I almost forgot to review. I stumbled upon a samurai themed manga and suddenly remembered about it.

Studio: White Fox
Author: Nisio Isin

Katanagatari is based on a light novel, which explains all the dialog version tl;dr throughout the series. even the words of a dying person is very looooooooooooooooooooooong. The story is about Togame, a self-procaimed strategist who seeks to collect 12 legendary deviant swords forged by the legendary swordsmith Kiki Shikizaki. She can't fight, however, so she finds the head of Kyotouryuu style, Yasuri Shichika to help her out. The reason why she finds this particular guy is because this fighting style requires no sword, hence he will be least likely to be obsessed with the legendary swords.

For an extremely mysterious girl, she talks quite a lot. And Shichika originally begins as a bland character, but this is due to him growing up in an isolated island, alone with his sick elder sister. While they travel together, i expected some typical awkward romance between the main guy and the girl. But I'm glad the emotions weren't that obvious and focused more on hunting the swords. I guess the reason why I picked this up is because I LIKE SWORDS and to my surprise the blades aren't really your typical looking katanas.

apparently this is also a sword

Each of the people wielding the swords, are either good guys, or bad guys. And Shichika, having no sense of right and wrong, does not feel guilty killing anyone. Which is great because I'm sick of looking at goody-two-shoes dragging through the episodes just because of his sense of justice. And Togame herself isn't that weak emotionally - maybe it has something to do with her tragic past. So it doesn't disturb the pace of the story much.

As they collect all the swords, I wondered if they can really fit into the each of the 12 episodes. And I also wondered what are they doing to do once they collect them, what would happen once they do so? In the end we're surprised with a plot twist, and the ending has another twist which I'm glad isn't so emotional in spite of a certain great loss.

Long story short, the whole thing is about honourable and fearless samurais. For something fresh there isn't much talk about relationship and bonds, just personal inner dilemmas about warrior related things. Politics, selfishness, loyalty, hunger for power and greediness. Just those. And oh I forgot to mention that the antagonists are a group of ninjas. And they're defeated sobs.

I absolutely love the art and graphics of the anime. It reminds me of the game Okami, but not exactly the same. Just that it's nice to see something else for a change than the standard anime art. Maybe I like to see colourful things?

I didn't pay much attention to the EDs, but the whole OST is superb!! Composed by Iwasaki Taku, especially this one below

Review: Phi Brain - Kami no Puzzle (S1)

Again, was deprived of shounen, so I decided to check out Phi Brain.

Unfortunately, the fandom of this anime (or manga) isn't big, so it's very hard to find fanarts or the specific fanarts in the internet. Maybe the anime doesn't have the charm other shounen shows have and i think I can understand why. But as someone who has seen this, I'd like to recommend it to you. It's not that great, but it's not so bad either. If you're bored and have nothing else to watch, just try this for the sake of killing time.

Studio: Sunrise

Previously I said that KARUTA is serious business. This time, PUZZLE is serious business.

Rather than having magical powers or ninja skills, this is a battle between intelligent people. Oh but it's not like they're challenging who's more knowledgeable than the other... it's more like how'd you use tactics to play an over-exaggerrated board game. It's not about quizzes or math whiz, but you're fighting against bad guys using the power of the brain - the typical shounen way. I think what makes this show unique is that almost all the main characters are very bright, regardless of their personality, and same goes for the villains' side. Like just because you look badass and lazy, doesn't mean your muscles overpower your brains. It's very different from an average shounen genre where you need to have at least one smart guy, average guy and dumb guy in one team.

So Phi Brain is about a high school kid named Daimon Kaito who walks around in casual clothes just because he has the priviledge as a title holder (Einstein). He's obsessed with puzzles, and he eats, sleeps and drink puzzles much to his childhood friend, Nonoha's annoyance. These two stumbled upon an unsolvable puzzle near their school and Kaito can't fight the urge to solve it. After going through one hell of a time solving it successfully, he was appointed as a Solver to solve other Kami no Puzzles. And the challengers are often the villain team called POG. But he does not fight alone, of course, there are a few other kids in his school with the 'title' (acknowledged as excellent Solvers) teams up with him.

And you'd think you have one character, who's not part of the smart guys, you might find her annoying but somehow I'm able to accept this 'busybody' girl. Well, she makes up with it with her power of memory and also as an all-rounder sporty girl.

something to look forward to?

But to conquer the world using puzzles and optimizing the "Phi Brain" kind of doesn't make much sense. For when the bad guy loses they'd honourably accept it... which i think, as bad guys they should've just cheated their way in. And other than puzzles another important theme is the bond between the characters. Other than that, there's this strange thing about feeling the emotions and meaning behind the puzzle. They can detect wether the puzzle has affection or hatred lolwhut i guess it takes another level of intelligence to comprehend that.

The most pointless thing about the show is that you can't seem to follow how the kids are solving the puzzle. It doesn't allow you to 'connect' with them, how they think and how they strategise, and learn to be as tactically smart as they are. They show you how the character hops from one point to the other, but not really see how the game went. Suddenly, you have a winner. If not, it's the climax where they need to decide which piece should they move. Rather than motivating viewers to improvise on their thinking skills, we're fed with the same old bonding and friendship thing. Not that it's bad but then I think it's missing the point. Well, at least this show makes the genius kids are the popular and most enviable schoolmates you could ever meet.

And then comes the even more supernatural stuff, other than the Orpheus armband which seem to accelerate your puzzle solving abilities. This supernatural interference is also one of the factors that prevents us from being able to 'connect' with the Solvers. Unfortunately, the supernatural stuff becomes even weirder near the end.

And they also have a yandere antagonist who seems pretty gay towards the protagonist. Oh don't be discourage to watch just because of that. There aren't that many subtle hints of homosexuality...

owait...

Art-wise, is just so-so. Character designs look cool too.

The reasons why I stayed loyal to the show is because of FukuJun (he played as a deliquent-like character and I love that guy most), the OST and the OP + ED is great too.

this one is by MAY'N and thanks to this i just realized how awesome her voice is. addicting song is addicting :3

If you want something a little different, like Chihayafuru, go ahead and digest this.

Review: Chihayafuru

KARUTA IS SERIOUS BUSINESS!!

Chihayafuru is about kids who are so obsessed with Karuta that they don't even think much about their future carreers, hence making the main character Chihaya Ayase lagging in Academics. However, she's so ambitious that she tries extremely hard to find members for her Karuta club. Two were people she knew from childhood who also plays Karuta, and the other two are completely new to the game but finds it very much related to their interest.

What is Karuta? Google it.

it all started with the tomboy Chihaya, who initially was only obsessed with her pretty sister who dreams to become a model... until she met Wataya Arata, a Karuta prodigy. After Wataya criticizes her childhood 'ambitions', she became intrigued with the card game. Before Wataya left the primary school, they made a promise that they'll forever be Karuta players and meet in a competition. And the habit is stuck with her until high school. Unfortunately, when she reunites with Wataya several years later, it seems that he has given up on his dreams to become the Karuta... king(?). So what to do? She has worked hard for years to become his rival, and suddenly he's no longer interested?

So being a weeabo of course I'm attracted to this anime. And in spite of being a shoujo genre, everything reminds you of your typical sports anime. Well, you have rivalry, challengers and challenges and practices. And we also learn that even if it's just a mere indoor card game, you still need to build up your stamina to endure the throughout the gameplay and improve on your speed. Chihaya, even after years of obsessing with the game, finds that she still has a lot to improve on. She may be a pro, but when she gets emotionally furstrated, that ruins all her perfect plays. By meeting her childhood friends and the newbies, it helped her improve as they provide her with statistic, morale support and a more effective way to memorize the cards.

Just like certain sports anime, the movement or skills of the characters sometimes look exaggerated. But what the heck? you want to make the story interesting, let's just consider them as metaphors.

this anime has a lovely OP

Like Kanade Oe, I'm more interested in the 100 poems and the meanings. Plus, thanks to her their school's Karuta club look loveliest in their traditional costumes. She reckons is a MUST in a traditional game, although in the modern world it is no longer practical. But the obi seemed to helped her in the game.

The show ends with some kind of hint that there'll be a second season. By the end the team has not entered the final battle yet. I guess if we're curious we should go read the manga.

I have nothing else to say but if you want a mix of sport shounen feel with a Japanese traditional indoor game, and a dash of shoujo mood, then do try this anime :3

Review: Guilty Crown

So we have another anime about some weird mecha and rebel vs goverment thingy.

We also have a high school dude with the mysterious waif, and the childhood friend. Oh let's not forget about the classmate who has a crush on the main guy.

Great... it's Code Geass all over again.

Studio: Production I.G.

Unfortunately Guilty Crown isn't as good as Code Geass, of course. I think I only watched this because there weren't many action genre during 2011 fall. And then you have a very addicting OP song by Supercell entitled "My Dearest".

In GC we have a guy with a low self-esteem who accidentally stumbles into a pink haired slut who gave him some kind of sciency magical thing that made him able to extract weapons out of people's hearts. They're called VOIDs. And from an unexplained logic only people below 17 years old can produce these Voids, and hence the rebel army consists of a bunch of teenagers who just want to kick adults' arses. High school kids have an excuse to rule the school or something. Also, the most interesting part is each person has a unique Void; it can be a sword, a camera, bandages etc... and each has its own property.

And then this slut shamelessly barged into the boy's house, and not to mention he lives with a MILF who's completely okay with the slut living together. And eventually, as predicted, they fell for each other probably they were attracted to one another's insecurities (let's not consider that as a spoiler). The boy was obliged to join the rebel army (Funeral Parlor) because he has the power that was meant for the fukken hot blonde leader. This blonde guy can see Voids within the youths so they have to work together to make their terrorsit mission effective.

So all this chaotic thing is due to the Lost Christmas which happened 10 years prior to the story (it must alwaaaayyyyssss be ten years ago). Useless boy, hot blonde and slut seemed to be related to it, just that one of them experienced amnesia (oh this is so uncommon!). And since then some kind of magical cancer that turns people into breakable crystal started to spread. There are also science facility, which makes me question IS THIS REALLY SCIENCE FICTION with all your magical Void and magical cancer stuff??

you'll have a mahou shoujo transformation scene in a sci-fi show... and it makes me wonder where did she get those clothes?

Towards the end the supernatural magical part becomes even more ridiculous. I don't even want to mention it here lol.

pfft- i have nothing else to say about the plot. So I'm moving on to the characters a bit. Some of them are really great, but unfortunately for the main hero, he isn't anything special. There isn't much improvement in his character, but he did went downhill in the second half. Pink haired slut isn't anything special either. I don't feel anything between them, the so-called romance part, that's why i'm just guessing the attraction is due to both being boring characters. When hot blonde is the leader, all the tactical war stuff was superb. Then the low self-esteem guy takes the lead, things became stupider. But he has his 'shadow king', codename "Sugar". He's a bit of a scumbag but I kind of liked him. And also the seitoukaichou girl deserves to die, rather than that particular helpful girl... :(

Let's not forget the girl in the wheelchair, the GAR-est character in the anime, and the best partner for the useless guy if she's not always with the neko-girl. I also love the other blonde guy who sides the gov, he reminds me of Draco Malfoy, and it's really too bad he isn't given enough time to... like... join the good side because I think he's really a sweet boy.

in GC you control mechas by sleeping, and once you get attacked you'll experience some kind of orgasm lol. So where's Daryl's version...

Art and animation are pretty. Just that I'm most disturbed by slut girls impractical combat costume. Yeah i know she's an idol in the story (but that doesn't seem to be a big deal, and then she has no personality) but that doesn't mean it's completely okay to dress like a whore while you're fighting robots. Not gonna get started with why only the girls are given fanservice-y costume compared to the guys lol. Now let's move on to the mecha - not very memorable. I'm no mecha fan but from the very few robot themed shows I know a good mecha when i see one (I think? LOL).

I know some may enjoy this show but the overall quality isn't that great. Well, if the show is that terrible I would've dropped it halfway. But I successfully finished it, only to provide a negative review for those who stumbled upon my humble blog.

Gai and Daryl. I'm not even gonna bother putting Shu here cos he looks as boring as his character is muahahahah