I am not a Trekkie. I've tried to watch several episodes of the different series but the show as a whole never appealed to me. I just think there are too much jargons thrown at me with each episode. Plus, I couldn't keep up with the various characters populating the series. Having said that, I do have general awareness of several characters mostly because they usually are more prolific than the others. When the news of the new casts were first released, for some reason I got a sudden desire to see this film. I don't know why. I just took one look at the new casts and thought that they will work well. There's a palpable chemistry between all of the new cast members even more so than the original cast members. I'll talk more about this a bit later but fast forward a few months later, I finally saw the movie. I didn't have much expectation since I can't remember ever enjoying any Star Trek TV episode or movie. However, by the end of the film, I was blown away. The film is not going to win any academy award for best writing but it was a fun, enjoyable ride from start to finish.

If this is an attempt by Kyoto Animation to sell the Blu-ray version of the series in the right order, well, it works! Put it out already and I'll buy it. I still love the series and still find it entertaining even after all of these times. Some people wonder why anime fans go crazy about this series. Well, generally it's because it's a fun, entertaining series. Something doesn't have to be academy-award winning to be enjoyable to see. And with Haruhi, it actually does have some interesting story of the week. The series also seems capable of keeping track of its storyline and characterization. That means what you see in one episode usually has repercussion or is a result of something someone did in another episode. That's a very hard thing to do in a series because it requires the author to keep track of who does what. Anyway, I don't know how many episodes will contain brand-new episodes. There's no OP for this one yet but the ED theme is new. The song and animation are not as good as the first ED though. They should just stick with the first ED.

Evangelion 2.0: You Can (Not) Advance Trailer (14.8MB, for iPod/iPhone)

I must be one of the few people who didn't realize until recently that the 2nd EVA movie is going to be released soon. It just shows how disconnected I have been with anime lately. I admit I kind of miss it at times and especially after watching something like this trailer. It reminds me so much of how excited I used to be when a new anime series will start. Anyway, the trailer for the 2nd movie looks hot. I didn't even know that Gainax will add in a new pilot called Mari until I saw this trailer. I was surprised when I saw her because the first film was pretty much a recap of the first few anime episodes so I didn't expect any new story to be told in this one either. To be honest, I don't think Mari is going to substantially alter the story or anything like that. I think I remember that the original series had a pilot for the failed Unit 04 but we never saw that pilot's story. Maybe Mari will just be a casualty for another EVA berserker, similar to Touji's Unit 03.

I used to hate horror when I was a kid but then I got exposed to more and more horror films, so eventually I'm addicted to the scare and the thrill. Anyway, I just got myself the entire season of Supernatural on DVD so I can catch up with the series. Prior to this, I didn't watch the series on a consistent basis and the episodes that I've seen weren't that scary, which is a cardinal sin in horror series. I used to watch this horror series called Friday the 13th, which was awesome and must not be confused with that slasher flick starring Jason and his hockey mask. And then there was The X-Files and that was quite good too from time to time. Supernatural, however, left me rather cold in terms of horror. That is until I watched the series right from the start. There are actually some good stuff early in the season and some episodes are surprisingly terrifying and gory. Maybe as the series became more popular, the writers tone down the scare and violence.

OP Theme: 「FALLING DOWN」 by OASIS - Eden of the East OP/ED (25MB, MP4 for iPod/iPhone)

Heh, how's everyone? It's been a while so I don't expect many to actually read this. I haven't completely solved all of my real-life issues but they're slowly getting better than they were. Love life is still a mess and in a way it's like a mutated version of Mayama/Rika and Morita/Hagu's story. Having said that, I am just going to take it slowly and hope that things take turn for the better sooner or later. I don't think I'll be able to go back to blogging week by week like I used to though. It took me days just to come up with this post. I know it's pathetic but I guess I just don't have the same enthusiasm for it due to everything else that's going on in my life. I have several small posts written about various topics but I'm not sure if anyone wants to read it since they're usually not anime-related. This one is though and although I don't have the intention of following the entire Spring 2009 anime season, several series have caught my eyes.

I especially like this one because the design is clean and simple and the character design reminds me of Honey and Clover. Akira looks like a Morita clone while Saki is like a younger, less miserable version of Yamada. The background is stunning and I'm impressed with the way Production I.G handled it. I hope the quality last throughout the entire series though. I am surprised that the background actually works really well with Umino Chika's character design. I thought they'd clash but I was wrong. The soundtrack is beautiful as well although I'm not including the OP/ED with that. I mean, the OP/ED are beautiful visually but I haven't been able to appreciate the songs used to accompany them just yet. I always like kinetic typography but they usually are accompany by beats that emphasize the type in question. This one doesn't exactly do that and the songs are not exactly the kind of songs I like to listen to.

I apologize for the lack of post lately. I know it's been 3 months since my last post but unfortunately blogging is the last thing that I should be doing these days. I've been having problem with real life ranging from personal, health and financial (not necessarily in that order). Everything has just been a big mess in the past few months and I have no choice but to deal with these problems because it affects my life directly. I also can't just churn out entries like it's nothing. Even a simple entry like this took me around an hour to make. One hour which I can use to do house hunting, for example, since I'm about to be evicted out of my current residence in the next two months.

Anyway, I did saw this trailer for the upcoming Terminator Salvation. Personally, the hype for this film kind of died a bit when Christian Bale went off on a rampage on the DP. As someone who's been a recipient of such abuse in life, I can't help but lose a bit of respect for anyone who abuses others like that. The only thing that still attracts me to the film is the presence of Sam Worthington, who is a very, very, talented Australian actor. I was very happy when I noticed that in the past few weeks, his name is suddenly given a more prominent marque position next to Christian Bale, suggesting that the producer has the confidence in him to carry the film.

Worthington will play the role of Marcus Wright, a man who can't seem to remember his past or where he came from. This trailer is quite a spoiler because it finally reveals that Marcus is actually a Terminator, albeit one who actually has the ability to have emotion. I'm guessing the writer want to take the Battlestar Galactica route by featuring human-like Terminator. It'll be interesting to see how Marcus came about since he was never mentioned in the original Terminator timeline. There's a theory that due to the events that Sarah Connor initiated in the first two movies, the timeline mutates and leads to the future that John Connor can't recognize anymore.

I have major interest in timeline-related stories. I once read a book called Flashforward, where the story is about a group of people who through a freak of accident, saw a brief flash of their future. The rest of the story then deals with the repercussion of the knowledge. What if you know your future and can decide if you want it to go that way or not? Lately I've been thinking about this because I feel that I've made some mistakes in my life which I wish I can undo if I had known they'd go that way. But I can't change what has transpired and it's really painful to realize that all you can do is to learn from that mistake. Anyway, enjoy the trailer if you haven't seen it.

Terminator Salvation - Trailer 3 (various size)
BaleOut Remix (because no Terminator Salvation post should be without this remix)

As usual, I apologize for not posting anything for a while. I have to admit that it's been weird to see my anime watching habit dwindling down to nothing. Maybe I just don't feel like watching them when my life has literally turned into every cliche romance anime or Japanese drama out there. I tried to watch some mecha anime but that requires me to invest some good time staying at home. Maybe that's the real problem here. These days, I keep wanting to go out almost every single day for some reason. I just feel that there are many social interactions that I've missed because I used to always just go home and watch countless anime after work. I went to an outdoor bar yesterday and while I wasn't completely comfortable with the situation, I have to admit that I like it. My social skill is kind of rusty but I do find myself wanting to belong to that kind of scene. Mind you, I'm not talking about being stupid drunk but more like spending my time talking to random strangers while watching the beautiful sight of the harbor.

I finally saw this film over the weekend and it turns out to be a good Bond movie, at least for me. It's not as entertaining nor impressive as Casino Royale but I think it's a lot better than any of Brosnan's Bond adventures. Having said that, the film is not for those who have short attention span. The story moves at a very fast pace and you have to pay attention to the scant little dialogues scattered all over the film. But if you actually engage your brain while watching it, I don't think you'll have problem understanding the story, which is actually easy to understand. That's why I can't help but rolling my eyes when the so-called 'critics' and fans claimed that the movie's plot is hard to understand. If you don't pay attention then obviously you're going to have difficulty catching up with the film. I also don't understand the complaints about the lack of Bond's elements. I personally don't care if the gun barrell is at the start or at the end of the movie. I'm also glad that neither Q nor MoneyPenny actually present in this movie. Most of all, thank God for the lack of cheesy and tacky lines.

Quantum of Solace trailers (various sizes, MOV)

First thing first, I should apologize to the readers who still visit the site. I forgot that not everyone subscribe to RSS feeds and therefore they do go here and refresh the site, hoping for an update. Having said that, it's not my plan to abandon writing even though it's hard to find the motivation to do so lately. I will, however, try to churn out something once every three days. I am not planning on giving up on the blog - not when it's close to its 5 years anniversary. I have to admit, however, that I'm not ready to dive into episodic review just yet but I can do a one-off review kind of thing. Right now I am in the middle of reading the English version of Honey and Clover and much to my delight, the story is as good as I remember it. Although the manga lacks the extra jazz that the anime provides (movement, background songs, voice acting), the core of the story and its heart are fully intact. I wish I can say the same thing about any of the live action versions of the story but I've said all I wanted to say about them. Anyway, this series is still as relevant as ever and I can now relate to almost every main character in the series except probably Shuuji and Morita.

OP Theme: 「輪廻-ロンド-」(Rondo)
Download: AVI version

I'm sorry for the lack of update lately. I've been pre-occupied with many things lately and none of them are very conducive to blogging. I have a presentation tomorrow, exam next week, and my mind is also clouded with personal issues. Anyone who has seen Honey and Clover and follow Mayama OR Yamada's story would know what I'm talking about. Anyway, at this point, not many people probably care about this review but I promised to update the blog and I already processed the images long before life started to take over and refused to let go up till now.

OP Theme: 「SKY HIGH」 by The Gospellers - AVI version (31MB)

The story of our favorite stalker and her subject of obsession continues in this sequel. I find it amusing that these two end up getting to know each other because Nodame basically follows Chiaki around. Now she ends up following him all the way to France, although to be fair, he did ask her to come with him. Anyway, the first episode is pretty good and solid from both story and animation POV. I do wonder how much of the Europe arc the anime is going to cover. I haven't been following the manga so I don't know if it's near completion or not. I sure hope that this will be like Honey and Clover, where the manga serialisation ends a few months before the anime is scheduled to end. That way we can have a perfect anime ending that is similar to the manga version.

OP Theme: 「PSI-missing」 by Mami Kawada - AVI version

I apologize that there's little to no update on the blog lately. Unfortunately real-life gets in the way of blogging once again. I'm starting to feel guilty as well because I haven't finished/completed several series from previous season and I think I should go and finish those before I commit to other new series. But as I promised, I'll preview some of them and this is one that I managed to write so far. A gaijin loli nun is being hunted by mysterious organization and ends up hanging over a young boy's balcony. That pretty much sums up the first episode. And oh, the boy in question is being chased around by another girl who likes to electrocute him. Speaking of gaijin, how does an anime character tell if another character is Japanese or not. After all, they all have strange and exotic hair color (ranging from grey to dark red). Surely there's nothing about Index that is more gaijin than Mikoto apart from her name.

I have to admit that I don't hate this one. Sunrise could have ended the series in an over-the-top manner but they chose to go with a more mellow resolution. A resolution that really gives a lot of credence to Lelouch as the main protagonist of the series and I appreciate that in a series. I see that a lot of people are in rage over his death but this is the only way his plan can work. Unfortunately a lot of details have been ignored to facilitate this ending. I can definitely use a lot more closing on several supporting characters, especially C.C. I also think that at the end of the series, we still didn't get a complete resolution of Britannia vs. Japan conflict although I assume with Nunnally in charge, things will change for the better. I'll talk more about that after the cut but in general, I feel that the episode left a better impression of the series for me than otherwise it'd have been. I feel that this is the reverse of Mai Hime, where the ending made me completely disgusted for that series. I don't think I'll ever list either series as one of my favorite series but at least with Geass, they don't squander Lelouch's character development for some over-the-top joke or complete reset of what he's done so far.

Once again sorry for the late review but it's not until now that I can watch and review the episode. I guess all of those PSN demo downloads do take a lot of bandwidth. And then there's the constant streaming of Japanese TV to my PC. Anyway, I'm not really enthused about this episode for some reason. I thought the story was rather non-eventful. I'm just not sure about Asagi's real motivation in the story. It seems to me that she's quite content with letting Akagane deciding what she should do next. It can be argued that she can't do anything since she has no corporeal body but she doesn't seem to make an active attempt to either scold him if he do something without her permission. The music is pretty good as usual though and it's interesting to hear a Koto performance because prior to this series, I didn't even know what a Koto was.

This episode turns out to be awesome. Everything from the animation to the way the story unfolds just scream quality. The anime elongates the fight between Kishin and Shinigami a little bit but it is surprisingly well done. Also of note is the soundtrack that is used in the episode. I was especially impressed with the piece that was used as a background of Shinigami vs. Kishin fight. The episode pretty much concludes the Medusa arc but by the end of this episode, it's obvious that the arc will have a lasting impact on subsequent arcs in the series. Although I was rather confused with what the Kishin said to Shinigami about how they won't see each other again after this. I got the impression that Kishin is meant to be the ultimate chaos so I don't understand why he won't return to create some more shenanigans for Shinigami-sama.