Kyumei Byoto 24 Ji 4

Japanese title: 救命病棟24時 IV
Number of episodes: 7

Some info:
1) D-Addicts Wiki
2) Official Site (Japanese)

The 4th installment to this popular series, and it was one of the most (or was it the most?) anticipated series of its season of dramas. It’s a pretty short series this time though, only spanning 7 episodes. Even taking into account of the total airtime for all the episodes, it’s only about 9 episodes long. A pity that it was shorter than the average series, much less comparing to its prequels.

Not surprisingly, this time Shindo returns from his work in Africa again and joins a hospital which just had its entire ER department wiped out because all the doctors went on a mass resign after their chief doctor collapsed from overwork and the rest could no longer stand it to continue their medical work. other doctors from various departments were transferred in and as expected, they could not handle Shindo’s way of working, which is all too familiar to us, or at least to those who have watched the first 3 seasons.

Kojima got herself into a lawsuit due to an incident sometime after season 3 and has left the ER scene for a while but not surprisingly, goes back into ER work and work hand in hand with Shindo. However, it’s also due to the new director of ER department helping her out and resolving the lawsuit entirely.

Apart from the usual Kyumei Byoto things that I’ve seen in previous seasons, I would think this time the thing that stands out the most would be the ER director. He sometimes appears to be a devil, yet at times a really dedicated ER doctor who really wants to save more patients. He also has a big ambition of reforming the Japanese legislation and support for the ER cause, thus he has to be a little “devil” at times so that he can progress in his bigger ambition. He’s probably the key character that prevents this season to be just a mere extension of previous seasons.

The series ends off with Kojima being the new ER director with the above mentioned guy moving on to the political world as part of the reform group which hopefully will change the way ER is run in Japan for the better, mainly for the health care workers who are seriously overworked if they wish to save patients. And of course for the patients who are unable to receive critical treatment due to lack of ER resources and personnel.

With that, I won’t be surprised if there’s going to be a 5th season that might possibly continue on from here, though if I remembered correctly there was some mention of wanting to change ER in season 3 but looks like not much has been done since then. =P

p.s. there were some flashbacks of old seasons (like season 1) and you can see how much they’ve aged since then. Haha…

Bleach Movie 3

Full title: Bleach: Fade to Black, I Call Your Name
Japanese title: BLEACH Fade to Black 君の名を呼ぶ

Some info:
1) BleachWiki
2) ANN
3) Official Site (Japanese)

The third Bleach movie, in the third consecutive year since the movie spinoffs for this franchise had begun a few years back. To be honest, and some of you might already know this, I’m not particularly a fan of standalone movies from popular serialised anime/manga because it usually has nearly nothing which will involve the main storyline in anyway, and usually does certain things which are clearly an attempt to please fans with various trademark moves and actions.

I would say that this movie is also no exception. It’s probably just a side story that has practically no relation to the main, except some scenes from the early days of Ichigo and Rukia which has a purpose here since the story this time around is dealing with Rukia and her memories (or bonds) being erased from everyone else. If anything, I found the “morphed” Rukia image pretty interesting (the one when she went into “fusion” mode).

However, like its prequels (movie wise), it suffers from trying to dish out all the captains and their powers (revealed thus far based on the screen date of the movie with respect to the main anime story progress). Certainly, each captain (or vice or seated officer) have different levels of capabilities and powers, yet most of them are usually unleashing their powers against enemies of similar threat/calibre. It just screws the entire power balance in my opinion. Apart from that, some moves are clearly “abused” because I know there are many fans who like that. And furthermore, Ichigo has really weird decision making when it comes to using his powers. Sheesh, these elements really put me off quite a lot, and I would consider it the factors that make this movie less than desirable.

Overall, I thought there was an improved effort in covering some aspects of this spinoff movie, but the usual pitfalls really made it fall hard, at least in my opinion. Heh. Anyway, it seems that this year there is no Bleach movie being announced (it’s still 2009 when I drafted this. It’ll probably be published in early 2010). Does that end Bleach’s movie streak here, or will it resume again at a later date? I do hope they hold back on making the same mistakes the next time round, if there’s still a next time.

edit Feb 2010: yeah I know 4th Bleach movie is announced.

38

Seems like it’s been a while since I last updated this little space, particularly apart from posting entry after entry of videos. For one, it’s relatively easier (for me) to be putting up entries like those, in the sense that I just share whatever I see on my YT subscription list that I think is suitable for showing. In some sense, there is much less effort and time required in making an entry like that. This has caused a number of people to be rather annoyed and possibly unhappy about it. I apologise for any inconvenience caused. =) I’ll see what I can do to improve what I have been doing thus far.

Anyhow I realise more than 10% of the year has gone by, with something like 25% gone by for this semester. The year seem to have progressed pretty fast (from the looks of the numbers), but perhaps due to me taking it easy (or trying to do so), it doesn’t really feel that way. Just passing day to day mostly, without much motivation for most things apart from having to do what must be done (to avoid catastrophic consequences otherwise). Well, at least my timetable is good in the sense that there’s no early morning tutorial or lesson (officially), unless there’s a need to have group meetings or something which I foresee will have to appear sooner or later.

So far I suppose I could say that I am still somewhat staying afloat the modules that I’m taking this semester. But that’s just my perception of things at the moment. At least it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Then again, I will only really know when the midterms arrive about a week or two after we receive our ang pao. Lol. Probably a “nice” present from the respective lecturers, though more than half my lecturers this time are non-Chinese. Hahaha.

Speaking of which, it’s only one more week to CNY but I still don’t really feel the festive mood. Perhaps it’s because I’m either stuck at home, or simply at school cause I need to be. Haven’t been going out to the streets and shops, where I’m sure are more in the “festive” mood with all the associated products being sold, or promotions put up, or simply just due to the sheer amount of CNY songs being played here and there. Wonder what it’s like to be overseas during the CNY period. Maybe should ask those at SEP when the time comes. Lol.

Ok, rambled enough stuff for now I guess. Back to clearing assignments and what not. What joy. Everyone please take good care of your health. =D And I shall see you next week! Or so I think.

Fighting Game Videos Vol. 84

Shiku-san brings a short clip on a few KOF2002 speed bug combos, done using hex. The clip features Angel, Vanessa and Kim. Well, I wouldn’t want to imagine doing those things totally by hand… Way too fast (for me at least) =X

And a second one featuring Yamazaki, Iori and May Lee.

AZ brings a new SFIV Chun Li clip featuring 783 damage on Seth. That’s more than his life bar. Lol. And there’s a couple of bonus combos after that as he tries to break the 700 barrier for other characters.

A short SF4 combo video. Some interesting things in there. Take a look.

Some new things discovered by rock2no on KOF95. Features bugs and a combo.

Wooh, a very cool KOF XII CMV by Dark Chaotix. I wonder if this video might put people’s interest back into the game.

Athena combo integrating the infinite power gauge bug in KOF2001

A new Double Dragon CMV by CN Prince. Pretty flashy editing. Nice setups. Available at Ultracombos and this Megaupload link for download.

Maj (from SonicHurricane.com) brings his 7th SFIV TACV, this time featuring Abel. Need I say more?

Finally, Combonauts have come up with their own SFIV video, featuring Seth’s combos and some tricks and tactics. Download is available at this Megaupload link.

Fighting Game Videos Vol. 83

Barrenscottinc is nice to continue uploading more Super Battle Opera ‘09 footage, this time it’s none other than Guilty Gear XX Accent Core. Once again, I’m watching this more for general viewing as I am not a player of this game. Lol. There are still things worth looking out for/thinking about across fighting games though. =)

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Semi-Final 1

Semi-Final 2

Finals