The Sky is a Little Bluer

Long time no post, indeed!
Since my last post was on Neil Young's latest album, I figured I should post again expressing my utter delight at the recent elections.
True, we are still stuck in this terrible war, but at least W won't be getting a free ride from Congress any longer to pass all the crap legislation he has been shoveling through. Perhaps this will even force him to nominate better people ... no more Rummies, Bolton's, or FEMA disasters. I can hope at least.
We shall see ...

Neil Young - Living with War

Neil Young's new album, Living with War, is available to listen to in it's entirety online:

http://www.hyfntrak.com/neilyoung2/AFF24795/

A good album that expresses what more and more of us Americans feel - enough with the lies, corruption, cronyism, and horrible ineptitude of the current government. Enough with using the Constitution to wipe their asses, with hiding behind the flag and using the word "terrorist" to manipulate the public and serve their selfish interests.

Track 7 says it well.

Informational: Enhancement slotting

Just a quick and convenient posting of my mains enhancement slotting in CoH for informational purposes for CDog.

Canvas 2

Canvas 2 (fansub, ep1.)
Anime stores in Japan will frequently include promotional items, such as bookmarks or mini posters, in you bag with your purchase. On my trip to Japan in the fall of '05, I received a number of bookmarks featuring characters from Canvas 2. I knew nothing of Canvas 2, or even Canvas, other than (from my minimal Japanese knowledge used to read the bookmarks) it was a upcoming bishoujo (beautiful girl) game (presumably ero, at least the PC version) and anime series, and it had character designs I liked. So, I grabbed the fansub for episode 1, and this past week finally got around to viewing.

At the very least, I usually expect to enjoy the character designs in bishoujo series, and probably some fan service. Sometimes, though, a series surprises and has quite a bit of depth beyond cute girls. From the first episode, Canvas 2 appears to be one of these latter series.

The male lead, Kamikura, is a year away from graduating college (putting him older than most bishoujo male leads are) and plans to be an art teacher. He works as an art club advisor at a local high school (enter all the girls). He has an artistic eye and is an excellent teacher, but something in his past causes him to never draw or paint anymore himself ...

Elis, his cousin, has come to live with him, and is transferring to the school he advises at, and has newly joined the art club. Since witnessing her parents die in a car accident, she has an extreme aversion to red - which creates difficulty with her otherwise tremendous artistic ability.

While there has been a small amount of fan service, it really is rather mild, and should not put off people that are adverse to it in their anime. The series appears to be very much story and character driven, and is one I plan to follow. It is nice when a random show gives you a pleasant surprise. 

Disgaea Epidode 1

Disgaea (ep 1, fansub)
Finally, the Disgaea anime is being released. Hopefully, it will be picked up and released domestically soon (I had though I heard word it was licensed, but none of the licensing lists seem to have it).

So, what did I think of it, Disgaea fanboy that I am? I loved it. So far, I like the approach of keeping the same basic story of game - Laharl, son of the Demon King, is awoken from a two year nap to find that his father is dead (having choked on a sweet bun), and his kingdom is in disarray - while actually doing an alternate telling of those events. For instance, instead of Etna using an array of weapons, construction equipment, and heavy artillery to wake Laharl up from his long slumber, it is the kawaii angel assassin Flonne (seen above about to launch a bunch of missiles).

The themes, characters, and their idiosyncracies appear to be consistent with the game thus far, including Flonne's "love mania." The first episode even sees an appearance by one of the games sci-fi parody characters, Captain Gordon (along with the buxom Jennifer and b-movie robot Thursday). With luck we will see the Prism Rangers in a later episode ...

The music is primarily taken from the games, which had a unique and memorable sound track. So, I was happy to hear full arrangements of appropriate music at the right moments.

The animation was on par with good quality TV animation.

The only downside? Only 5 seconds of Etna in the episode! Fortunately, they have kept the video game tradition of Etna voicing the preview, and the preview itself being a complete fantasy of Etna's as to what happens... 

Etna

Simply because she is one of the best characters to grace a video game, here are more Etna screenshots taken from the Disgaea anime trailer, including the added cuteness of Flonne!

Disgaea, the Anime

I finally had a chance to view the trailer for the upcoming anime based on one of the best video games ever, Disgaea. The trailer is very promising - featuring the same vocal cast as the game, it appears to capture the main characters - Flonne, Laharl, Etna - and their combined evil-cute-insanity very well. Geneon will be distributing it in the US, and it can't come out fast enough. If you've played the game, then there is probably no need to convince you to give Disgaea a spin. If not, should this series live up to the humor of the game, this will be an anime that will likely be an easy recommendation.

Oblivion

The Elder Scrolls:Oblivion is pretty much consuming all my entertainment time recently. There are plenty of sites with reviews and opinions out there, so for now I will leave it at "I love this game!"

A sample of screen captures from playing:

Air

Air (ep 1 fansub)
I wrote a longer post of impressions of Air, but then blogger decided to eat it (>_<)So here is a much shorter post...Air is another anime that started its days as an H-game (adult). Surprisingly, some H-games tend to have a decent story, and eventually see their way to being made into non-H games and anime.

The first episode is mostly setup, introducing several of the female characters, as well as the male lead, Yukito. The setup is fairly simple so far - Yukito is a mysterious traveller unable to make money. He meets the flighty, kind hearted Misuzu, who offers to let him stay with her and her mom. The mom, Haruko (played by a fav of mine, Hisakawa Aya, forever Kero-chan to me) finally agrees, and gets Yukito to agree to watch out for Misuzu, and help cure here of a tendency to make a dinosaur sound ("Gaou!") any time she gets emotionally.

The character designs are well done, important in any harem show. Additionally, despite its ancestory, there is no fan-service so far. There are hints of a deeper story, though this ep was all setup. Finally, the show is quite humorous so far, particularly the boisterous Haruko.Overall, if the story pans out (I know the original game was a fan fav), this is certainly something I would like to see come stateside.

Content Ratings (out of 5)
Humor - 4
Character Designs - 4
Ecchi - 0: I put this down only because it is something that usually comes with the territory for anime that descend from H-games (for example, Popotan). So, the absence of it thus far is noticeable. 

Club-to-Death Angel Dokuro-chan

Club-to-Death Angel Dokuro-chan (Ep. 5/6, fansub)
The title and image above do a pretty good job of telling you all you need to know about this very strange and quirky, yet highly amusing show. I tend to be a fan of the more off the wall series, and throwing in copious amounts of gore into the mix certainly helps!

The basic premise is that Dokuro-chan is an "angel" living with the main character, Sakura-kun. I put angel in quotations as she and the other angels, such as her rival or a overtly gay punk angel, are a lot closer to demons in many of their actions. In particular, Dokuro-chan's tendency to get out her spiked club, Excalablog (forigve the spelling), and violently kill Sakura-kun whenever she thinks he is doing someting ecchi. Not to mention numerous other ways she accidentally kills him (for instance, in these episodes she also poisons him by putting mushrooms she found growing on the bathroom wall in his curry...)

The angel bit of her comes out in that she does use her powers to bring him back to life each time he dies, with a Magical Girl-esque chant of Pi-piru-pi-piru-pi-piru-piii!

As you may have guessed, this is not a show one is meant to take seriously. Each episode is only 13 minutes long, which works well for a series of this nature. Each episode is full of gore, ecchi, twisted humour, gross-out humour, and parody (episode 6 features some otherwise harmless characters from other anime cast into parody images of them as evil monsters in a forest - I always knew there was something evil about Doraemon). Overall, Dokuro-chan is a highly amusing diversion. The series is only 8 episodes long, which is probably perfect, as you can't keep this premise going forever. What is there is quite humorously macabre and bizarre enough, should you enjoy that sort of thing.

Content Ratings (out of 5)
Gore - 5: Lots and lots of blood and guts, of the cartoon, excessive, fun variety.
Ecchi - 3: A fair amount of fan service, typically as the setup for jokes and death.
Character Designs - 3: Dokura-chan herself gets a 5 - you can't help but think how kawaii she is as she beheads or disembowels Sakura-kun - but the most of the rest of the design are rather average.
Gross-out humour - 5: Just consider the fact that taking an angels halo away causes them to have explosive diarrhea, and you can see that there is going to be a lot of gross out humour. I am not a big fan of gross-out humour, but there is enough just plain bizarre and macabre humour that the gross-out doesn't detract too much.

Fansub Backlog list

I've a directory quite full of yet-to-be-watched fansubs. I decided to make a list for myself, and figured why not post it here. I am going to break it down into three sections: unlicensed episode 1 fansub, unlicensed fansubs that I've watched previous epsidoes, and licensed fansubs.

Some of these anime I have at least seen character designs, but many I have no idea what they even are - part of the fun of finding new shows ( ^ _ ^ ) If it is on the "watched previously episodes" list, then it means that it is one that I have found interesting enough to watch, so those probably have the highest chance of getting review.

If there is anyone reading this that is interested in hearing about any of the ones in the list, please feel free to leave a comment and I will make it priority to watch ( ^ _ ^ )

Unlicnesed Fansubs, episode 1
Air
Amaenaideyo
Canvas 2
Akazukin Chacha
Cluster Edge
Fate/Stay Night
Gakuen Alice
Gallery Fake
Ginban Kaleidoscope
Ginga Densetsu Weed
Ichigo 100%
Idaten Jump
Jigoku Shoujo
Kamichu
Kasimasi ~Girl Meets Girl~
Love Love?
MAdical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's
Magikano
MaR
Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi
Nurse Angel Ririka SOS
Paradise Kiss
REC
Sugar Sugar Rune
Shurato
Wings of Rean
Xenosaga
xxxHolic Trailer


Unlicensed, watched previous ep
Beat Angel Dokuro-Chan
Futakoi
He is My Master
Mahou Shoujoutai
Pani Poni Dash
Peach Girl
Pretty Cure
Rozen Maiden
Shuffle
Ultimate Girls

Licensed
Blood+
Solty Rei
Starship Operators

Life is Tetris

I found this unattributed passage on Slashdot today, and thought it was clever enough to post here as a random thought for the day. If anyone happens across the source, let me know.

"Apart from being a fine game, Tetris is also a perfect mirror of the human condition. For a while the game is entertaining, and we seem to have mastered it and are having fun. Then, something goes wrong -- a rash mistake, or an unfulfilled wish, and we're fighting to repair the damage, but we've been thrown off-balance, and everything is piling up. Blocks that were once orderly and harmonious are jumbled and filled with holes, and our cup is on the verge of running over. There's always a point at which we stop planning for the future, and realize that we don't have one -- all we can do is cling to the present and concentrate, focus our minds on what it's like to be alive, to play the game, before it's all over.

You were waiting for a four-by-one block that never came.

Sometimes we resist to the bitter end, moving blocks left and right without thought or care, just to hang on, and sometimes we accept the inevitable and pull the blocks down to us, smiling inwardly at the great joke. The rest is silence."

Magical Canan

Back with more fansub impressions, this time:
Magical Canan (ep 1, fansub)
If the title and screen capture weren't enough to clue you in, "Magical Canan" is another entry in that fascinating genre of Magical Girl. One episode in, "Magical Canan" follows the formula fairly well - unsuspecting school girl has magical abilities imparted upon her by/with the aide of a cute sidekick, and must begin to fight forces of evil, or something. So yea, nothing much original or new so far.

There are a couple indications that there could be more, or at least a little bit different, in this series. The threat of the cute sidekick getting dissected by school nurse, along with a smattering of ecchi (one focal point of the transformation sequence is the increase in size/roundness of the main character, Chihaya's, assets), indicate that this is not targetting the typical mahou shoujo audience, but is rather going for a male one.

The character designs are solid and quite enjoyable so far. Animation is average for a tv show.
There really isn't enough in this first episode for me to make any solid decision on this series. It was just setup for the main character; nothing that grabbed me, though. I will likely watch another one or two episodes before I decide if it is worthing continuing to watch.

Magical Canan ran a few seasons ago, and has not been licensed yet, so my suspicion is we will not see this one released in the West.

Content Ratings (out of 5)
Character Designs - 4: I find the designs to be pleasing and varied, including quite an elaborate and impractical bow on the school uniforms, but it still works.
Animation - 3: Normal TV animation - well drawn, but not too fluid or movement-rich.
Ecchi - 2: Maybe I am going down the wrong trail, but it seems the series may put some H in it - not much here, but a little, so it warrants the Ecchi label.

Here We Go, indeed!

.hack

.hack//* has been an entertaining multiple-media experiment, crossing over storylines in games, TV anime, OVA, manga, and novels. After completing the 4th game, .hack//Quarantine last night, I have now finished all parts of the main story, excepting the novels. Each piece exists nicely on its own (with the possible exception of the OVA, which really supplements the games and shows what is going on in the real world at the same time as the games), but they also tie together to give a broader story. Familiarity with one aspect of the story adds to the enjoyment of the others; besides a better understanding of the root story, there are numerous references, cross-overs, and inside jokes you will get. For instance, the game features cameos from the TV anime characters and items, while the TV anime and manga reference areas and events in the games.

Nowhere is this crossover more entertaining than in .hack//GIFT (pictured above), a bonus pardoy episode on the last OVA disc. It has characters from both the games and the TV anime, and is full of self-referrential humor and inside jokes. The basic plot has Orca killing Bear (who both look similar) and pretending to be him, since Orca was knocked out in the beginning of the games and never got to do anything. Meanwhile, the other characters try to find the killer / find a hot spring ... with BlackRose and Mimiru (who look similar) constantly fighting, as well as Tsubasa constantly bludgeoning/abusing the Silver Night. Very odd and very amusing if you are familiar with both the games and the TV anime.

Overall, the .hack franchise has been a fun ride. I plan on getting the novel, .hack//AI Buster eventually. There are other novels slated for release in the US, as well as another game, .hack//G.U. coming out down the road. If you are an anime/RPG, I certainly recommend giving at least the TV anime a look.

Yum, food.

At the Shilin Night Markey, food similar to "Hibachi" resaurants, only it costs only 10% of what it does in the US. 

Shilin Night Market

I was only lucky enough to get one whiff of "stinky tofu". 

Why Breath It When You Can Drink It

Nothing is more mouthwatering than a bottle full of SARS! 

Pimped Out Ride

 

C.K.S.

Chiang Kai-Shek does his best Abraham Lincoln impression.

Is That Taipei 101, or Are You Happy to See Me?

 

What Kind of Walker?

Spotted in Ximenting. 

Honey, Where Did We Park?

Near Taipei 101, some sort of scooter spawning ground. 

Home Again

Been up for 27.5 hrs and counting now (since 5:30 am Taipei time).

Trip was mostly uneventful ... at least until the O'Hare connection. Oh, the flight was on tiem and all, but I knew I was fucked as soon as I saw they were boarding 4 separate flights from the same gate in a span of 25 minutes ...

Sure enough, get to SYR, and no baggage. Well we will see ... it is supposed to come in on the 8:55 flight, but after the above mentioned number of hours up, I wanted to get my sleepy driving on snow out of the way sooner, rather than later. It is supposed to be delivered tonight (yea right), or tomorrow morning. We shall see ...

34 - 17

And Pittsburgh is on its way to Detroit.

And kVn is on his way to breakfast.

Mid trip update

A good morning to all, or at least all on this side of the world. A good eve to all you wacky western hemispherians.

Yesterday was a day off for kVn here in Taiwan, so I took the opportunity to go see some sites. After lazying around a little in the morning, I headed out and hopped on the MRT. One line change and five stops later, I arrived at the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. Many pictures were taken, including a number of short videos of the changing of the guard. The hall itself, along with the National Concert Hall and National Theatre are quite impressive and large affairs; hopefully some of the pics will turn out decent. (Unfortunately, kVn neglected to bring his camera USB cable, so he must wait until he is home to see the pics).

The weather was somewhat cooperative - it was warm, but there was an on-and-off drizzle most of the day. Fortunately, the haviest rain occured when I was looking at the exhibitions in the C.K.S. Memorial Hall.

After a quick trip to the hotel, it was off to Taipei 101 for lunch, shopping, and more pictures. Lunch was had at a pretty neat restaurant whose menu had quite the mix of asian, western, and european foods. I had a set meal with pumpkin soup, caesar salad, chicken and steak fajitas (fah-jee-ta, according to the waiter), honey cake, and iced tea. All quite delicious. Entertainment out the window was watching one man using a lift to paint the underneath of a bridge-like sturcture by himself. In the States, there would be at least one or two others working on it for, at the very least, safety considerations. One thing you discover quickly is safety standards are not quite the same here ^_^

Taipei 101 itself was really frickin' tall. I didn't go up in it, but did hit the connected mall (which contains mostly expensive stores like Gucci), and hit a nice bookstore in there.

After Taipei 101, I took the MRT to the Nanjing E. Rd. exit, and hit an FNAC (fun to say as F'n AC, heehee) for browsing DVDs, CDs, and electronics. Unlike Japan, CD and DVD prices in Taiwan (talking legit here, not bootlegs) are on par with US prices. Since J-Pop is reasonably popular in Taiwan, this made kVn quite happy. I was able to pick up the latest cd from Ayu, as well as the most recent release from Aikawa Nanase for quite reasonable prices ... 1/3 of what I'd have paid in Japan.

I ended the day wandering around Ximenting, a cool shopping/restaurant area frequented by the Taiwanese youths. It felt like a mix between Shibuya and Harajuku.

Well, kVn must get some work done, but will be posting pictures on his return to the states.

Ni-hao!

After 24 hours spent in the timeless and dateless airport/airplane limbo, I have arrived at my hotel room in Taipei, Taiwan. So, yea, it is a nice room .. complete with balcony, and most importantly, hi-speed internet!

On the ride from the airport, the radio was playing none other than Gorillaz, as well several R&B english pop songs that I am sure the kids know and love, but which all sound the same to me ...

The most amusing portion of the ride, though, was all the mopeders, who increased in number the closer to the hotel that we got. At a stop light, they would all filter through the cracks between cars, and for at the front; as soon as the light turns green, there is a horde of literally 30+ mopeds fighting for lanes with the cars. Rather interesting ...

Well, kVn must shower and get to bed, so he can wake up at 3 in the morning local time ...

The Icing is Sweet

In a heart stopper of a game, the Steelers went from certain victory (1st and goal with 1:20 left), to certain defeat (Bettis fumble being returned, a great saving tackle by Big Ben), to certain OT (46 FG attempt by the Colts), and finally swung back to certain victory (horrible, horrible FG attempt). The game saw some strange calls (blowing the play dead without calling a false start or offside) and some horrible calls (overturning the Polamalu INT) by the officiating crew. In the end, though, the Steelers played the game they had to play, and did what no one thought they could do - beat the Colts in a playoff game in Indy, becoming the first 6th seed to make it to a Championship game.

My main desire 3 weeks ago was for the Steelers to make it to the playoffs and defeat Cinci. I felt Steelers were the better team, and would prove it on a rematch. Everything after that win would be icing. Well, this icing tastes pretty sweet.

Media Plaaaay ... is dead.

I made what is likely my final trip to Media Play today, to score some heavily discounted anime DVDs that were needed to finish off a few series I was collecting.

Media Play was one of the first B&M stores where I spent my younger years that actually began stocking a decent amount of anime titles, especially on DVD. It played a large role in not only my interest in the genre (the ability to browse at a store is very helpful for finding new titles), but played a larger role in the past several years where anime and manga has become more "mainstream." While people like to debate whether it is a good thing for anime and manga to become mainstream in the US, it does lead to far more series being picked up and brought over here; series that a decade ago would have never seen a US release.

More than that, Media Play served as a bit of a hang out place in HS/college - a place to meet and get the night started. There is nothing quite like memories of chasing your friends around and hitting them with sticks in the parking lot ^_^

Recently, though, I have been buying less and less from MP. I have cut down my spending on entertainment, but more than that Best Buy and online stores usually have MP beat on price - most titles at MP are only 10% off the suggested MSRP.

I do have to wonder if Media Play was losing money for Musicland, or if it just wasn't making enough money. And if it was losing money, was it due to mismanagement, or a failure to price aggressively enough?

Whatever the reason, by the time I return from my trip out of the country, the old stand-by will be closed.

My final, nicely discounted, haul:

• Texhnolyze 5
• Requiem from the Darkness 2 - 4
• Kaleido Star 5, 6
• Burst Angel 4, 5
  

OH the Games They Will Play

As my earlier loot list indicated, kVn has acquired quite a few more games to waste hours on. In the past I have tried to focus on just one (for instance, recently completing the excellent Nippon Ichi game Phantom Brave). For now, though, I am juggling between Dragon Quest 8, .hack//Quarantine, Phoenix Wright, Mario Kart DS, and Animal Crossing: Wild World. Each of these games are quite excellent in their own right (although to be honest I am more into the .hack series for the story than for the gameplay). I plan on writing impressions as I feel like it ^_^

Dragon Quest 8 (PS2)
Formerly known as "Dragon Warrior" in the US, Squenix has decided to use the Japanese title at last. It never really concerned me, but always seemed like an odd change to make. Of course, quite a few liberties were taken in the original NES translation of Dragon Quest, that I guess the change is not too surprising.

Unlike what we see in the included FFXII demo, Dragon Quest 8 sticks to its roots. If you have played past games in the series, you know what you are getting. If you like those games, then DQ8 is a real treat - it puts a lot of polish and production values on the traditional DQ formula. The cell shading is perfect for the series, and well done (funny, all the people that screamed "Celda" and wouldn't play wind waker because of the "cartoon" graphics - which perfectly fit the Zelda world, if you look at the art several past iterations - seem to be quiet about DQ going cell shaded ...). Combined with the fluid animations, the game is a real treat to watch.

Dragon Warrior was the first console RPG, hell, first electronic RPG I played, and so has always had a nostalgic spot for me. When I think of the essence of how I like console RPGs to play, I think of the NES Dragon Warrior and the NES Final Fantasy. The Final Fantasy series has strayed far from its roots - I certainly have enjoyed even the more recent ones, though - whereas Dragon Quest still offers old-school RPG goodness.