Recent news & updates
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare · 11 July 2007
Late to the party by three months, but I just saw the trailer at GameSpot for COD4: Modern Warfare.
I’m actually a bit depressed with this new ‘modern’ thing. Honestly, the reason I adored the COD franchise so much was because it was a hardcore WWII shooter that just better and better with each installment. When I saw COD4, I leaped, I jumped, I was ecstatic, another COD installment! To add to my Halo 3 obsession I’d have another COD game to look forward to.
For those of you who do not know, I indulge in military history, specifically that of the Second World War. However, in relation to recent current events, my interest in modern warfare has dwindled. Battlefield 2 disappointed me to a certain degree and the Rainbow Six and other Tom Clancy games just never really appealed to me.
However, I’m willing to take a chance with this COD4. I’ve been following Activision and COD for too long to give it up. The trailer was impressive as ever. I doubt the game play and graphics will disappoint. COD3 was already a knockout, so, with the exception that it’s not a WWII shooter, I’m pretty sure COD4 will be good. Can’t wait to put my 360 to work.
The Silvery Crow – Chapter 1 · 11 July 2007
Random browsing on OneManga while waiting for Zombie Loan to finish downloading, I came across this new manga. Main reason I stopped to read was because it was only one chapter, which means I won’t spend half my life trying to catch up to chapter three million and a quarter.
So anyways, the Silvery Crow, from the creator of Samuria Deeper Kyo (I’ve yet to read, or watch, this) did not disappointed. In fact, it was pretty damn good. I liked it. I like a lot of things, but this was worth blogging about.
The prologue Once upon a time, a king of a war ravaged land entered into a contract (heh, Darker Than Black) with a demon lord for peace and prosperity of his kingdom. Made from strands of his own hair, blood and breath, the demon lord created a magical gem and gave it to the king. After the king died, the gem was broken into thirteen pieces (heh, Inuyasha, at least we know how many pieces we need) and the kingdom fell once again into violence and poverty. A child, a spawn of SATAN the demon lord, was born into the land, a ‘crow’.
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann – Episode 15 · 11 July 2007
The finale of all possible finales, and the best part of it is, it’s not even the actual, end of series, finale of Gurren Lagann. It’s the halfway point, it’s just the beginning and the English language, with all of it’s words, fails miserably at providing me an adequate word to describe the enormity of how epic it was. Epic, epic no longer cuts it. I’m satisfied with just sitting, sitting and staring, and just absorbing like a sponge everything that is being handed to me.
All I can do is just sit in that same old red Ikea swivel chair, that’s falling apart, at my desk, my ancient lumbering elephant of a PC, and just watch. I believe in Simon, I believe in Simon, I believe in a 2D slice of animation, I believe with all my heart. I, the cynic, the skeptic, the faithless, the believer. “Believe in me, who believes in you.” Those words are going to stick with me for the rest of my life. I can almost feel it brushing past my fingertips. The show’s made for the hopeless dreamer. Take my dreams, carry them on your wings, fly with them, soar, touch the sky and give me a taste of hope. God, I’m out of words. I’m not even making sense anymore, am I? Eh…it was just beautiful.
Random Musings Alright, so next episode is a recap. I’m actually looking forward to the recap, I’m sentimental, I miss Kamina. And Viral being the storyteller, my take on that is, you know how there’s an old guy at the beginning of every episode, kind of telling the story, I’m betting that’s Viral. And I can’t wait to see Simon grown up. I can’t wait to see him kick ass, Kamina style. And the cutest thing, Nia and Simon, in Gurren Lagann, when he put his arm around her and she nuzzled him, and he blushed. That scene was so sweet. I loved the ending, the ending was so satisfying, the sunset, everyone in the Dai Gurren. Content, with a nice warm and fuzzy feeling, loved it.
In short, epic warm and fuzzy feeling that’s the light and love of my life. Yeah, that works, barely, but at least it gets something across.
New Evangelion Movie Tetralogy · 10 July 2007
This really shouldn’t be considered news anymore, it was first announced back last year. However, it just occurred me today that they were making new NGE movies, Rebuild of Evangelion! I didn’t really freak out from excitement, I wasn’t overly ecstatic about the whole deal, I actually panicked somewhat.
Darker Than Black – Episode 13&14 · 10 July 2007
Alright, quite simply, I’m short on time and I don’t remember things too well. I saw Darker Than Black 13 and 14 last night, I’ve been too distracted by Death Note. I took some screens, made some mental notes and failed to get back to this, so now I remember, basically nothing. These two summaries are going to suck, you’ve been warned. I just needed to get this out there, so much random stuff to talk about regarding this arc.
To the episodes! The double feature, since I saw them together and not to mention they go together as in, Episode 13 and 14!
Death Note – The End · 9 July 2007
So, I’m bittorrenting all 37 episodes of Death Note. I’m saving them for when I’m bored, because from what I garner, the whole thing is almost identical to the manga and I, judging from the few episodes I’ve seen, enjoyed the manga more. Aside from the fact that Takeshi Obata is the God in my world, his art is amazing. Amazing, it’s so detailed and meticulous, it’s gorgeous.
Death Note · 7 July 2007
Alright, it’s not really my first impression. I picked up Death Note the manga a while ago, before all of my friends got obsessed with it. Due to the slow pace with which translated manga is published and shipped to my local Barnes&Noble, I gave up on Death Note, despite the fact that Light is hot and a complete maniac who’s also a genius.
With all this talk of the end of Death Note and having it spoiled for me even though I have no idea what the bloody hell happened, it got me interested. Now that I know the end, I’m going to find out the rest.
Here’s to obsessive anime and manga reading.
Suzuka Chpts. 1-64 · 6 July 2007
Okay, okay, I can’t take this anymore, I can’t take this anymore! I’ve been trying to plow through all 150 something chapters of Suzuka before I watch the anime and what not. I’ve been trying to not say anything until I’m completely done with all of it, trying not to rant about anything. But! But! I can no longer stand this. I can’t! It’s so painful!
ASuzuka, for whatever Godforsaken reason, is the most annoying female love interest I’ve ever, ever seen in media of any sort be it a book, movie, manga or anime.
That’s it. Oh man, I want to rip her into little tiny pieces and burn them and then bring her back from the dead and do it again. I can’t stand her! I don’t understand her to begin with and it adds to my irritation. Moreover, the fact that she is the main protagonist’s love interest and that eventually they will end up together bothers me even more! What do Yamato see in her? What does he see? Is true love really blind? She is, quite frankly, a bitch!
So, Yamato spends the entire 64 chapters pining for her attention. He asks her out, gets rejected. He’s going out with Honoka, breaks up because he still has feelings for her. And all the way she acts like she’s the fucking queen of the goddamn world. The most disturbing and most childish thing is how fickle, how aggravatingly fickle she is.
To illustrate: Okay, so Yamato and Suzuka are together in a laundromat. Alright, that’s normal. She comments on how she would never keep so much dirty laundry. Yamato just laughs. Some pages later, Yamato offers her cake. She blatantly rejects his offer. Alright, he’s used to being rejected by her. She then asks for him to go the store because she doesn’t want to take out her underwear in front of him. Before he leaves, she suddenly gets hungry and now wants cake! And then, and then! For the first time, I think, Yamato comments on how childish her behavior is. I’m screaming and jumping for joy! Couple panels later, “I still like Asahina-chan very much!”
God, how can anyone stand her? Why is so bitchy and fickle and unpleasant? Why is she the title character? Why does Yamato have to be in love with her? Why? WHY!?
At first, I thought she was alright, I mean, eh, so she’s up tight and bossy, they all start out that way. But her personality has just been getting worse. It’s cliche, I know, to have a love-hate relationship in romance, but this is a I want to kill you because you are just so damn annoying romance. Everything she says, everything, is mean and negative and obnoxious. She has nothing nice to say to Yamato at all, yet she insists on opening her mouth.
What is the most disturbing and irritating of all of her personality traits is the fact that you can tell so goddamn easily that she likes Yamato. Yet, yet, every time anyone brings it up she runs away screaming, “I hate Yamato!” Right then and there, the little short haired, semi-disproportional, high jump track team star just turned into silly high school girl with a stuck up her ass.
She has a problem with people who are careless, I have a problem with people who have a total disregard for other people’s feelings and are just plain stupid!
I must sound so silly right now, yelling and screaming about how stupid dear ol’ Asahina-chan is, but I can’t help it. She pisses off, people like her piss me off.
Honestly, Asahina as a character is a collage of things I hate in people. Her character doesn’t even feel coherent, she goes from one phase to another and you wonder if there are really people like that other. There are no explanations behind her enigmatically annoying actions. She’s practically in love with Yamato but acts like a bitch anyways towards him. Can she not see past her own face and accept other people? Am I missing some big hidden plot development? Why must she be this way?
Who the hell does she think she is? WHO THE HELL DOES SHE THINK IS?!
She’s making me want to stop reading Suzuka. Shame really, I was just starting to get into it.
Saikano · 6 July 2007
Don’t ask me about it. I just watched it. I don’t even have words, I don’t have anything coherent to say, I can’t even think. I cried. Honestly. Don’t ask.
Claymore – Extra Scene (Manga) · 4 July 2007
When it comes to manga and anime, I’m there mainly for plot and characters. Since, from what I hear, the plot and characters of Claymore are identical in manga and anime, I’m not going to read through all of the manga. It’s, for one thing, going to spoil very nicely the rest of the anime, and for another too much work, it’s already 73 chapters and I’m going to have to start from scratch!
But, scanning through One Manga, I saw Claymore Extra Scene and decided to read it. It’s an extra scene, 30 something pages of scanlations about Teresa, I’m in!
The plot is pretty straight forward, Teresa of the Faint Smile, current number one, all out powerhouse is sent a black card from the current number two and former number one. At this point, I’m thinking the sender, number one, wants someone who bested her into end her life. I hit kinda close. Turns out, Rosemary really just wanted to challenge Teresa to a match. She’s already awakened though and the two are fighting it out. Teresa, I have to, is really bloody arrogant, but I suppose she has reason to be. So anyways, Rosemary after awakening, thinks she has the upper hand. However, as Teresa releases her yoki, Rosemary is easily defeated. As she dies, she calls Teresa a monster and Teresa replies, “Monster, that makes two of us.”
I thought it was a nice short side story. It didn’t tell us a whole lot about Teresa, but I suppose in comparison to her character when she meet Clare, you can see how it changed her. I liked the whole arrogance, superiority feel to her former self. It’s the confidence she has and that awe and fear she generates. She’s totally kick ass, not like Kamina from Gurren Lagann kick ass, it’s similar to Vicious from Bebop’s cool, menacing kick ass-ness. I’d compare her to Spike, but he’s just too damn cool. If I had to pick a character to call my favorite from Claymore, it’d be Teresa. Clare is runner up, with Raki. Then, from the characters I’ve been exposed to, would be Ophelia, ironically.
And a thing about yuri, heh. When I first started watching Claymore and learned the entire organization were girls and Raki, from the looks of it, was going to be the only male lead, disappointed me a lot. I really don’t swing that way, although I can’t complain. The girls, though I’m not that fond of the character design, are just as good at demon slaying and ass kicking as the guys. Maybe even better, because there’s a calmness to them that male heros don’t have, see Inuyasha, Naruto, possibly Bleach. And in another sense, it’s a bit refreshing to see instead of a mob of girls chasing after the hero, it’s one kid with a bunch of silver eyes, bleach blonde girls.