towards an ending world's tomorrow.

School's OUT!!

2005-05-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

YES!!! Of course, taking 6 courses by day and 1 more course by night, I was bound to stop blogging for a while. But no more!!!! I'm free, I tell you!

Agenda: Catch up on the blogging status.
Will be posting up pics soon for the figures and DVDs in the past few months, as well as trying my best to give some description (NOT reviews) of them.

Stay tuned.

DVD: Bleach vol. 01

2005-02-11T15:14:00.000-08:00

Released a few days ago (~02/02?), the first volume of Bleach has finally been received and watched. Below are my impressions of the disc release. I leave the summary to other people, should they want to do it.

Bleach vol. 1 was released in two different versions. That is, as far as Amazon Japan is concerned (where you can still get it if you want). One contained a Drama CD issue 1 and the other, just by the disc itself. If you're having trouble which one to get, go get the version with the CD, as it's just priced the same. I went with the w/-CD route and am currently enjoying the CD itself.

In terms of packaging, it comes with a jacket-box to hold the DVD and CD cases together. Both discs come in a DVD-sized jewel box. For some reason though, both discs are turned upside-down and were very hard to remove from their respective cases initially. (Sadly I accidentally broke the CD case. [cries] ).

Cover art-wise, we get a standard shot of Kurosaki Ichigo in his Shinigami outfit, while posing as a badass with his Zanpakutou. The shot itself takes the entire cover art and when removed works as a small fold-out poster. The show's lettering are foil-stenciled, and are done somewhat lazily. Instead of having a reverse cover for this release, the DVD specs are listed on one side, while the other has "You are to become a soul reaper"-comment written all over it.
With the disc itself, we get to see no design image at all, except possibly the show's logo and the DVD logo. But that's about it. Heck, both the CD and DVD look almost exactly alike you can confuse the two.

Extras and Menu. Since these two are just going to be short, I'll link them together. If we're talking about the bundled version, the extras include the drama CD and the jacket-box. On disc itself, there's none. There might be some easter eggs but haven't found any so far. Considering this series is an anticipated release, I was really hoping to see even just the creditless OP or ED. The menu itself, leaves much to be desired as well. All you get are the play and menu-buttons, and depending where you are, some episode shots while browsing the chapter stops.

Impression of the episodes itself : If you've basically followed the manga version of the show, I highly suggest that you stick to that version as far as this first set of episodes are concerned. Too many things were moved here and there, and while they make it more cohesive somewhat, it's being done at neck-breaking pace. The episodes themselves weren't bad, but it definitely needed to be slowed down even by a bit. :sd: Of course, this being a manga-to-anime series, it follows the original relatively close, if not for the minor changes. Compared to some shows like Starship Operators or School Rumble, it doesn't take much to understand what is going on with the show.

As a recently aired series, the DVD release does look great in this format. Though I have to wonder if it's just me or do the episodes themselves do kind of look flushed out, if not blurry. In some cases, it's not bothering and serves as to enhance the presentation (like in episode 1), however, in most cases, it's very distracting (episode 4).

Overall, volume 1 serves as an introductory volume for the unfamiliar to the series, and that's just really what it does. No frills, no anything. Well, except the CD. I can only hope that volume 2 gets a nicer DVD cover art and some extras in that this volume didn't.

The much delayed post...

2005-02-05T23:41:00.000-08:00

After 1+ week hiatus, I'm finally able to post again in this thing. Y'know the deal, school + work = less anime viewing time. Though it may seem to have hampered my viewing sessions, I'm glad it happened. In a way, a breather was required for my part, what with the deluge of R1 DVDs I ordered from last year that I am slowly but surely reducing in size (just finished the underrated and often ignored Black Heaven and the first volume of Kino's Journey), as well as the still torrenting (hah!) wave of what's currently on in Japan (well, what I'm viewing anyway).

Just by looking around, looks like a lot has happened as far as the new shows are concerned. Bleach managed to pick up now. Xenosaga Animation is getting it's DVD release in April, and a lot of mysterious convoluted stuff is happening in My-HIME. Jinki EXTEND got a lot better too, from what other blogs are showing!! I guess it's time to do a marathon now. -_-

Xenosaga. As far as this anime goes, someone confirmed it that it's going to run only for 12 episodes. DVD version is to come out on Apr. Go check CDJapan for the actual release details. While I'm a heavy fan of the line, I'm having some serious doubts now as to how the anime is beind dealt with. First episode showed incredible promise, that while there were some significant changes, it catered to every fanboy's delight. Sure, we see some annoying cowlicks or that KOS-MOS used her special weapon too early on, nonetheless, it was animated good and it was really cool to hear some of the original seiyuu reprise their game counterparts here. But come the subsequent episodes, I can only ask, "what happened?" Things really got off-model, and not animated correctly. It's as if there were the same instances with the aired version of Bakuretsu Tenshi or the sudden nose-dive of Vandread's second episode (well, at least the CG remained intact). We're already at episode 5, and there's still no sign of improvement. KOS-MOS and Momo are two of the known characters that really get off-modeled. Junior is slowly joining their ranks as well...

With the DVD version coming and at a staggering price of $180 for the first box (contains 6 episodes), I'm not sure if I should buy it or not. That's almost the same price as getting the limited edition of Xenosaga Episode II. At least with that one, there are figures included. (Note: If you do the math, Xenosaga Animation boxset actually comes out cheaper than, say individual School Rumble DVDs).

Speaking of figures, my BLEACH figure (Kon and Rukia) along with the Fujisawa Yayoi (Stellvia) figure finally shipped from HLJ. Ichigo is still being held hostage for undisclosed reasons.. [cries]. In addition, it looks like there's a new set of gashapon set that's coming out probably in April. A search in ebay and Hobby Search turned up the results. IMO, this set looks more promising than the previous one.

My A!MG Terzetto figures have also arrived but with a very significant incident. Once I'm finally resolved the matter with the seller, I'll get the pics up for this set.

School Rumble. I'll have to drop this one from my viewing pile. Why? Because I'm getting the R2 release anyway. True that I'll end up waiting for a while til I see the next episode (uh, I think 17?) but then again, it works to my advantage. By not seeing it, the anticipation level increases. Besides, I'm doing my part to support our Japanese brothers' industry. Hmm.. still have to pick up Eri's OST.

By the way, pick up Starship Operators from Amazon JP. Not only is it an excellent show, first volume DVD is pretty cheap too. Of course, it's probably a ruse to sucker you in (much like School Rumble 1), but hey, it's an excellent show.

Did I mention that I got my computer fixed? Now I can take screencaps once again! ^_^

Bleach episode 16

2005-01-25T16:51:00.000-08:00

First part.. What the hell. Succeeding part til closing, kickass. They really should have opted out the angst part from Rukia. It didn't suit her at all. That and there's too much talking from the other Shinigamis. Good thing Ishida's ther to shut them all up. ^_^ Then he got beaten...

Bright side? Mood, episode setting, and animation are at an all-time high. Rukia's also like SailorMoon's Usagi. LMAO. Yes, I'm aware it's a code.

Downside ? Too much dialogue, and it all feels too familiar with other fighting anime shows, like Kenshin and Naruto. The whole transformation of Renji's sword was somehow out of place. Add this to the fact that you could get a sense of the rush from the production-side cramming and cutting a lot of stuff from the manga. Though I'm enjoying the anime itself as well as the manga, I don't know. I'm getting a deja vu aura (re: Tenjo Tenge) all of a sudden.

** patiently waits for the localized manga.

Fellow blogger Athena managed to obtain a copy of the new ending song for Bleach and translated it. Give it a look and read. It's very well done.

PITA...

2005-01-23T11:29:00.000-08:00

In my attempts to fix my machine, suffice to say it's more messed up than before. Now it has lost its DVD viewing and CD burning capabilities as well.. Piece of shit. Well, off to the repair center for this one. Good thing it's still under warranty.

Bleach episode 15

2005-01-18T22:56:00.000-08:00

* Note: Due to crappy setup and my funky computer acting up, I won't be able to get the pics up til this weekend.

Bleach 15. Interesting and crammed are two words that describe this episode. It's not a filler per se, but it's not a whole episode also. It's a combination of both. Basically, a simmering down of things that happened since the Quincy sub-arc, and a preparation for the upcoming Soul Society arc. Frankly, I just wish they had concentrated on the former so that it wouldn't have made the Kon-featurette seem out of place.

A word on the design and animation though. Animation is still high all throughout, and despite the color somewhat being a bit flushed out, the designs are still pretty consistent for the entire case. All except Orihime. She was actually fluctuating from a growth-spurting girl to a freakin' cow!!! [fanboys can be heard swooning in] I don't know if it's a joke of the episode alone, but Orihime's breasts were only second to Rukia's face, in terms of panning shots.

As for the Kon featurette, it's too bad that it was severely changed and reduced compared to the manga. We don't even get to see Chad chasing the poor guy. On the bright side, we get to see Kon by the end Rozen Maiden-style. LOL!

School Rumble 16

2005-01-18T15:24:00.000-08:00

Girl gang goes to remote location. Guys crash in. Yakumo and Harima do a 1-1 this time. Awesome. More misunderstanding, partially thanks to Tenma.. ^_^ After that, some minor revelations were made.

I have to admit the calibre presented by the last two episodes had me a bit wanting for more of the same story quality and feeling (They just had to tease us, didn't they?). Too bad, they reverted to do more gags instead. More Yakumo & Eri this time around, and still no Akira. [sigh] Or Itoko [double sigh].

On the bright side, got to love Jubei-chan Eri Sawachika. ^_^

The R2 Onslaught. (i.e. the beginning of the end).

2005-01-17T21:59:00.000-08:00

Remember when I said I was going to cut back? The good thing is I still am... as far as R1 purchases go. I've been R1-order free for a good 3 weeks now (Hooray for me! Hah!). The bad side, those supposedly saved funds are going to be diverted now on future R2 purchases. Looking at the current season, it appears it's going to be a hoozie. [cries] Fortunately enough, through the wonderful method of elimination, and other powers be, I have limited most of the items I want to the following:

- Bleach TV
- School Rumble TV
- Jinki EXTEND: the Animation
- XENOSAGA the Animation
- Mahoraba

Some of them haven't been listed yet, but you get the gist of which titles I'm going to be getting as far as the R2 is concerned. At the moment, my concern would be Bleach TV though. While it is theoretically the cheapest as far as per volume goes, it will most likely be the longest. Heck, rumors are already circulating it will be 13 volumes minimum. (Double gagging Ack!) As for the rest of the anime that I'm watching or expecting to watch, it's a wait-&-see deal.

I would still want to get Tsukuyomi and Rozen Maiden though, but those two cost a mighty arm and leg. [cries]

Describing the AoD forums...

2005-01-13T15:49:00.000-08:00

I'd post it here, but it would be space-hogging. So I'll just link it to my text file.

Enjoy wingednike's work. It's a classic.

Pretty much, the later half of the poem sums it up for the rest of us who frequent the AoD forums. Scary, isn't it..?

Xenosaga the Animation : Episode 02

2005-01-13T07:23:00.000-08:00

>
Let's see.. How to begin, without spoiling it? Albino psycho goes off loli-napping while Elfen Lied-massacre occurs. Hated traitor begins his agenda.. all the while KOS-MOS awakens, then proceeds to kick ass in the most awesome way (with scenes reminescent of the game, of course ^_^ ). If you've seen how she did it in the videogame, then yeah.. !! FANBOY!!! Racist bastard didn't die though.. why?!

All in all, this was a VERY fun episode with a lot to offer the fanboys' appetite. Of course, that goes to saying, it has a lot to offer to have it hated too.. Anyway, KOS-MOS was awesome. Only gripes are that her lines are somewhat forced and stilted. Hopefully this will change in the future episodes. Another thing is that the character animation/designs for this episode took a dive. This is especially noticeable at the last few minutes where KOS-MOS meets up with the scrappers. But.. aside from that, it was fun.

Toohoohoo. Toohoohoohohoo... :P

MS Negima TV 02

2005-01-13T07:10:00.000-08:00

[screencaps to be posted later]

I have no idea why I'm watching the second episode of this show, when I said I'll pass on it. Probably because I'm at least expecting some yuri with Kotoko and Se-chan. Anyway, this episode moved along rather slowly and followed the rest of the vol. 1 of the manga (in case you're following the manga)..and that's about it. Sadly we don't get to see any visible fanservice, other than having Asuna's clothes get ripped off off-screen.

What's with the cowlicks though?

Oh,Negi's sister. Hot! At last a redeeming point.:D

Interesting...

2005-01-11T20:04:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting useless trivia I noticed today. As of Dec 2003, my DVD collection was at 156. One year later, it was at 434....

That's freakin' 175% growth in just a freakin' year! And that was even after severely cutting down in the last two months of 2004. [stun] ~_~... I'm gonna cut back for now. This time, it's for real! (looks at R2 Pre-orders.. Aww..@!$#^%")

Besides, I'm off to figures now (gee, another hobby-weight to shoulder [ugh!]). :P Thanks to Narob, I was able to finally decide and purchase the AMG! Terzetto figurines. They're really nice, despite costing quite a penny. Ah well, it's all good. :) Can't wait.

School Rumble 15

2005-01-11T18:15:00.000-08:00

The (implied)two-parter continues with this episode as Tenma tries to reconcile Mikoto and Eri..only with Mikoto having some other problem to worry about. Harima reconsiders his manga submission, but ends up being harrassed by Eri and then sortied by Yakumo-obsessed-boy. Hmm.. that's about it, really. Mikoto had her moments in this episode and it was really enjoyable to watch it.

On a side note, this episode had more (static) bounce than the beach one. They even managed to use one of Sawachika's Character CD songs. Nice touch there! And guess what, who would have thought...

An interesting trend though, as SR progresses, it is beginning to lose its random titling for upcoming episodes and is starting to be more coherent.

Hmmm.. Eri, Yakumo, and Mikoto are done. That leaves us with Akira next.. though Itoko would be nice.

Bleach episode 14

2005-01-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

The current mini-arc continues to this episode and comes to a somewhat stunning conclusion. It's to no surprise that our Deathgod manages to finish the little obstacle set by Sasu..er, Quincy Ishida. Of course, he's most likely be the last member of Ichigo's little posse (haven't gone that far yet in the manga). Some funny moments interspersed here and there to make this rather dialogue-lengthy episode worth the watch. Be on the lookout for some rather odd Ishida-only moments though.. :D :D :D

Basing from the images above, I have to say the new ED sequence, though not as grabbing as the first one in terms of music value, is as creepy as the first. For some reason, the animation staff find it entertaining to have Rukia in a state of undress (or heading to that state). -_- Almost loli-ish if you ask me and I fail to see the reason behind the seduction (if there's any).. and to make matters worse, Bleach's ED sequence is way way too similar with 1 of Shaman King's ED. (Blech!)

By the way, anyone noticed that the seiyuus voicing minor characters in Naruto are here (well, most of them anyway)? Hmm..

Jinki: Extend Episode 01

2005-01-07T17:46:00.000-08:00

Wow... that's all I got to say for this series.

Actually, "wow" is not the proper term I need here as it simply doesn't do it justice. Two of my favorite seiyuus are here: Satsuki Yukino and Fumiko Orikasa.. so that gives it massive extra servings of brownie points. :D :D :D

Looking forward for more. For screencaps, I now refer you to Fencedude's and Momotato's entries.

Again... WOW!!

MS Negima TV 01

2005-01-06T13:24:00.000-08:00

I'll just call it that as the title is rather long. And no! It has nothing to do with Gundam or mecha. :P

As far as this series goes, I'm passing on it. Animation is rather crude, and the color palette is off way too much (pink overload). It doesn't help either that despite the rich seiyuu talent behind it, the character designs suck!! Asuna and Ayaka's seiyuus, Akemi Kenda and Junko Minagawa, sound too old to be playing as teenagers. It's sad to say that even with Ai Nonaka and Kikuko Inoue being here, it's simply not enough.. :(

Considering this is another series that relies on an unfinished manga, it's gonna end up a lot like Love Hina again... (no~~~~o!) I guess I'll be sticking with the manga as far as this one goes.
[sigh]

Go watch Jinki:Extend or Starship Operators instead.

Xenosaga the Animation : Episode 01

2005-01-06T11:55:00.000-08:00

I have to say this one is a definite surprise. The original cast of seiyuus from the videogame reprise their roles for this anime, and they (for those that have appeared so far) sound great!
[sigh]
Boy, did we really miss something as far as the R1 localized version of Xenosaga goes. Suzuki Mariko just really comes off great and pleasant to hear compared to her English counterpart. No offense intended, despite me an avid fan of KOS-MOS' VA (Ruby Marlowe?).

As far as the story goes, well, some important aspects and events in the game were moved around and some were definitely changed (like appearance of Albedo and KOS-MOS' use of the X-buster). I suppose it's to be expected, especially if the staff involved is considering to fit the entire first game (and Episode II as well) in a 13 or 24 episode series. I'm aware there's already an established world/database that the games are revolving in, but for now, I'll turn a blind's eye and just hope the anime-version manages to enlighten and entice fans and gamers alike, something the first game failed to do (atm).

Animation-wise. It's pure eye-candy. Just from the OP itself, although some are static, we see our favorites there, from our blue-haired loli (as others noted. :D) to our white-haired psycho. There's use of CG, but are contained during space battles and I would gladly prefer if they leave it at that. Sure, it ain't GONZO but it still sucks compared to others.

Anyway, I'm not gonna nitpick on this series too much, and just going to enjoy it for the ride. It has done a good job on the transitions of the changed events so far, so it's okay. I'm gonna definitely pick up the R2 release though, being a Xeno-fan that I am. ;)

PS: the OP and ED are cool, if not just for the animation associated with them.

Anime '05 season officially starts.

2005-01-05T11:48:00.000-08:00

Well, it has officially started in Japan already (due to different time zones), and from the looks of things this season has a lot to offer to a lot of fans. At the top of my head, the ones I'm looking forward are:

Starship Operators ( linkage )

Xenosaga Episode 1: Ger-shomething something. ( linkage)

Ah! My Goddess TV ( linkage )

Mahou Sensei Negima ( linkage )

AIR TV :D ( linkage )

Mahoraba ~Heartful Days~ ( linkage )

I'll have to pass on Transformers: Galaxy Force/Cybertron since it's basically a reset of the series. The toys are another matter though. ;) Hmm.. that's about it for me, I guess while continuing to watch already-running serieses like Naruto, School Rumble, Viewtiful Joe and etc.

2 weeks...

2005-01-04T21:12:00.000-08:00

That's the amount of time I have been package-free. Just where the hell are my packages? They should have been here a long time ago.

That's also the remaining time I have before school starts.. [sigh] again.

Hentai in my room? No way!

2005-01-04T16:41:00.000-08:00

Today is Tuesday. I hate Tuesdays, vacations or not. With that said, off we go...to two interesting threads from AoD as of late.

Year in Review
Well, I'm not doing it per se but Gatts, along with several other posters from the AnimeOnDVD Community Forums, is compiling some short thoughts of hentai titles released last year here in Japan (note: if you can't see it, you need to register). For fans and non-fans alike, it's a good read. A handy resource (no pun intended) for those who are interested in watching/buying the mentioned titles (well, some of them are already in R1). At the moment, the posts are up to April and May. It should be completed in a few days.. or weeks. :P

Personally, I have only seen less than a fourth of what they listed there. I never knew there was so much I missed. Granted, I might have seen more, but ultimately failed to recognize the name.. again, but still. That's a lot of hentai titles! Of my picks, Seifuku Shojo, Bible Black (da best!), Kao no Nai Tsuki (R1: Moonlight Lady), Lingeries Office (yum!) and Black Gate are the ones definitely worth looking at, if only for the animation and artwork themselves.

Rooms in Display (part II of the original thread)

I originally started this thread in the AoD forums in hopes to revive a similar thread that was done ~3-4 months ago, in addition to finally being able to contribute to it by showcasing mine as well. Of course, the latter didn't happen til recently since I wasn't able to acquire the camera much later. Anyway, participation is considerably high this time around, as we got prospective, and newcomers alike joining in. Gatts was finally able to post his stuff, thanks to his friend. :D :D And boy, was it a sight to behold. Similarly, fabio and lawson never fail to impress us with their very elite organization skills. Now we wait for Zanza Hiro's... [grin]

The surprise this time for this thread, as I mentioned, was the presence of newcomers. I'll say it again, some of those newcomers' rooms were a sight to behold. If put side by side, mine would be just less than 1/8th of theirs. Heck, Toys R' Us or even a Kimono My House has nothing when compared to the collections of some people. And these said people have rooms smaller than mine (10' X 10') too! To think, most of my visitors tell me I got a lot of stuff. They're wrong!

I guess I have found my inspiration for the year. :D

Oh, and ignore the title for this post, by the way. :P

Starting off the year...right.

2005-01-03T16:22:00.000-08:00

First academics. I got 'em, and I'm very happy to say I did very well last semester amidst the very long commute times (~4 hrs back and forth), 25+ hours of work/week, and 5 classes everyday. Of course, in return was 2-3 hrs of sleep every weekday, but it was worth it. I learned a lot, compared to when I was just taking 2-3 classes. (I guess I'm built as a pressure-learner as opposed to the other kind)

Let's see next semester should be around 20 units worth, so that's 1-3 hrs sleep. Not bad. Not bad at all..

* I'm really gonna die...

With the new year barely 3 days old, I am still managing to get things in proper perspective. Unlike others who are busying themselves setting "New Year resolutions", I plan on winging it. Last time I planned on my resolutions I quit my job, stopped on the said resolutions after 2 hrs, and got a lot unnecessary work to deal with. I'm not making the same mistake ever again.

Well, OK, there's only one I'm gonna work with and that would be cutting down on purchases, anime-related or otherwise. But then again... those stuff in Amazon STL sure are pretty tempting.

In other news, it seems that the departmental move is not gonna happen til next week. Delayed. Again. I hope we really get to move this time as 1) I wish to see my own work cubicle, 2) before school actually starts, and 3) move my crap in there. Hopefully, it's not going to be smaller than where I am right now. Speaking of the move, somebody in our department is pretty rich, as they threw out bundles of still-new software suites, such as MS Office 2000, and Visio 2000. Of course, some people I know could care less being them products of Microsoft, but... they're idiots if they're going to ignore the state of the software I found them in: STILL NEW!!! So being the person I am, I swooped in and will take them home (since the said software are to be thrashed already) later. What to do with them? Install them, of course -- in my friend's computer. No sense of installing it in mine, since I already have the XP-version installed.

By the way, for the curious, there's not much difference between the XP-edition, the 2K edition and the 2K3 editions of the MS suites. Aside from a few features, like XML compliance (don't really need it unless you're going to be publishing your *.doc files and related online), subtly re-arranged menus (read: more confusing arrangement), and more (useless) animated helpers, there's nothing new. For the casual user, it's like your using Wordpad but with Microsoft's name slapped on it.

Amazon is currently having a clearance sale of sorts for select TokyoPOP titles, which include GTO, Brigadoon, and Vampire Princess Miyu. For $10 a pop/volume, I recommend getting all of them. However, if you're selective, I recommend getting GTO, first. It rocks! I'm not sure when it's going to end though, so get it as soon as one is able.

1 more hour before work stops, and another day is done towards the end. What the hell have I been doing all morning?

Next time: Find out how to set up links in my blog's navigation side.

Star Ocean: TtEoT

2004-12-31T01:19:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to say, that while my brother has been endlessly clamoring it in front of my face that Shadow Hearts 2: Covenant is the best game as far as recent RPGs are concerned (which I'm not going to argue), I have to say Star Ocean: Til the End of Time is an excellent game as well. Of course, it doesn't have the humor and it surely borrows a lot of things from its PS1 counterpart, but hey, that's part of the appeal of the Star Ocean-series.

(He just sucks at Item Creation, that's why he doesn't like it!)

Of course, come Kingdom Hearts 2 next year, I wonder if he'll continue to say that.

Now if you excuse me, I have to go make sure I get to use the PS2 this time. If I don't, he'll end up using it and play SH2 for a couple more hours.

Severe Downtime

2004-12-31T01:01:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the non-post but due to coming down with a flu for this past week, I was unable to post anything. In addition to that, my wireless connection for my laptop has been acting rather wonky for the passed few days. I haven't found the exact reason why as I have already done two reinstallations of the router software. Probably the weather? I dunno.

I managed to survive another Christmas, and with any luck this upcoming New Year I should be able to do so as well. It's not that I'm expecting bad happening but you never know. Besides I'm not really a fan of such festivities as I find them rather superfluous and a bit hypocritical on many.

Speaking of the said festivities, I have been off from my current work for about a week now. Due to curtailment issue, that is, the campus is closed and though we could work in our little offices there it will be butt-clenchingly cold, well, I've been sitting here at home just playing some games from my rather large backlog ( around 20). Next week should prove interesting as both it being a new working year (**not necessarily mind-numbing drugdery as others might see it), and that holidays are finally over. Let's see how people are going to be then.

Holiday Loot. Not many, but I did get what I wanted for Christmas so I'm happy. I got another big bookshelf, for my ever-growing DVDs and other kibble collection. In addition to that, some toys -- literally, like Transformers, videogames, and some clothes that are unfortunately, small for me, and lastly DVDs. We, children as far as our family is concerned, also get some Christmas money, and for this year, well, it's rather decent. I'm not going to complain since I'm already freakin' too old for this, but hey, it's free money. :P Free money is always good and can always be used to buy more DVDs. Hehehe.

Ooh, I also got a spanking new digital camera. As a present, I got the Olympus C-725 camera. It's not top of the line or anything, but it does the job fine as far as I'm concerned. With 24X zoom, I could live with it. And I got free memory for it too! ^_^

Time to take some pictures, yo!

See ya next year.

Ritsuko Okazaki's Serenade

2004-12-21T15:51:00.000-08:00

There's only one word that could describe the late Okazaki's song, Serenade: MAGNIFICENT. This song is only seconded by her work on Fruits Basket's OP theme, "For Fruits Basket." Just like her previous works, the melody and the lyrics (from what I could understand of it) packs a lot of emotion behind it, that it gives a soothing aural ambience to the listener, regardless of familiarity with Ms. Okazaki's music. The transition from a semi-acapella to singing with background instruments is simply effective. I just love how the accompaniment drums compliments the beat of the entire melody.

At the moment, this song goes straight in my top 'must-listen-to' music. The others being Kiddy Grade's "Hoshizora no Yurikago", Kaleido Star's "real identity", and Bleach's "Asterisk". Yes, I still haven't grown tired of "real identity" yet, even after 5 months now. ;)

Unfortunately, for us R1 fans of Ms. Okazaki's music, the CD album won't be available til next February 2005. Oh well, I guess we could wait (of course, it's different story, if you have the mp3 version, where you can listen to it 24/7). The CD album can be ordered here : linkage.

This week's R1 haul orgy

2004-12-20T21:05:00.000-08:00

Taking cue from the AOD forum's R2 JPEG Orgy:, 3 packages arrived today at my room (not my porch, since my brother makes sure to intercept my packages before my folks get it. ;) ) -- all of them from tRSI. Sadly, 3 is such a low number, as my top was 7. Anyway, without further ado, the first part of my December preorders have finally arrived -- consequently further increasing my backlog. This included :

ROD TV 4
Requiem from the Darkness vol. 2
Last Exile vol. 7

with the rest presumably shipping later this week, or next year (Oh well). Of particular interest, however, is that I managed to get the limited run of the 13-pc set of postcards drawn by Last Exile's character designer, Range Murata. I was pretty sure I wouldn't get it due to the late shipping and the limited count, and resigned myself to just getting it if I chanced upon it on a local B&M. Imagine my surprise.. I did get it (pics later). ^_^ Anyway, this set is really cool, as it showcases some high-quality art for some Murata fans (Of course, you could always get the artbooks, but in exchange your arm and leg would be duly required). LE fans, Murata fans or even pack-in whores shouldn't miss out on this one.

ROD TV vol. 4. I won't bother saying stuff about this particular volume as it's a real treat to the viewer (provided the necessary background to appreciate the show itself). As Fencedude of AoD forums have previously mentioned, it ends with an evil cliffhanger because of a particular character... Actually, from here on out, every single volume is like that. Combine this with the 'Geneon lottery', one just have to give great credit to Geneon's marketing scheme for this series to sucker in a lot of anime fans -- casual or not.

With Requiem, things get much more interesting and darker for the most part. I'm really starting to think this is an anime counterpart of Tales of the Crypt show but with a very pleasant and welcome twist --- an actual storyline.

The other two packages contained several manga volumes from a recent In-Stock sale, and a shipped copy of the much awaited (as far as R1 goes) second movie of Inuyasha. Course, I still say that the third movie rocks much more than the first two, but I digress.

Now to read some more manga..

Of vacations.

2004-12-20T13:27:00.000-08:00

Well, today is the third day of my vacation since the Fall Semester officially ended..uh, three days ago. :D Two days passed by so quickly I feel I got rimmed badly. For some reason, I have no recollection of what the hell happened. Damn.. I want my 48 hours of life back.

On the bright side, I got my shopping done for Christmas, all except for 2-3 people. Freaking sale is killing my budget badly this holiday season. So much stuff to get, so little money to spare.. but lo and behold, the power of the mighty CREDIT CARD!!! hehehe.. Now to buy that digital camera I want, as well as some other stuff. :P

Oh, I attended several Christmas parties too over the weekend, and I'll try to get the pictures I took (using my brother's camera) uploaded later.

2004-11-29T19:23:00.000-08:00

Sakura kicking ass.

Hello! Hello to the new world!

2004-11-24T13:55:00.000-08:00

Hello world!

Currently re-testing the account as well as the stuff in it. :)