KOF Clips Vol. 8

Don’t really have a main theme this time. I’ll just *try* to introduce more along the way, of course trying to reach into the depths of my memories cos I’ve watched too many such videos already :P

All right, first up is FF-X Yuna (it’s a username) from Battlepage. This kof99 combo video does contain some stuff that are not low-level though it’s not considered revolutionary since it has been done before. Judging from the other videos by the same person that I’ve seen before, he (or she) seems to be a player like me, imitating and emulating other expert’s combos but of course he does a better job than me. Heh. Anyway, enjoy the video =)

Next up is a video edited by another of my online buddies, Robot Hero. Contains KOF 98 and ‘02 stuff, though they are mainly old stuff, just re-edited to make it look better =)

Inside

Finally, another video from Y-AV. This should be part of the 梦系列, though I dont really know how the series came about. Simple yet nice editing from hu-re, who’s mainly in charge for editing the videos in this series. Pretty nice combos, looks seemingly more achievable than some of the videos I’ve shared before. Haha. Enjoy.

Can’t believe this series of entries has reached 8, and probably will continue growing strong.

Honey & Clover [JMovie]

Japanese title: ハチミツとクローバー

Running time: 116 minutes
Now out on DVD

Some info:
1) Wiki Article
2) IMDB Profile
3) ANN
4) Official Site (Japanese)

Once again, I still haven’t watched the original anime series (which I think is according to the manga), so I still wouldn’t know how loosely adapted this movie is. I have, however, watched the [Jap] drama series, so I’ll be kinda comparing between this movie and the drama series. For those who don’t know, the movie came much earlier than the drama series.

Anyway, according to my rough description of the main events in the drama series, my friend Jon who has watched the anime series has commented that the drama series was already quite fast in terms of progression. If that’s the case, then I can only say this movie is a super duper summary. Basically, the main events are that of the drama series (more or less). Just imagine 11 episodes worth of drama condensed into a sub-2-hour movie. I wouldn’t even need to compare this to the anime (or manga) which many people say it’s still the best version so far to know that this movie is actually somewhat disappointing.

There are a few problems with this movie:
1) As I’ve mentioned earlier, it’s too condensed. Hence, it’s not surprising each main character of the gang doesn’t get very much time to develop their role fully. There’s only that much you can do in 2 hours (including ending credits)
2) It seems to be a low budget movie, or maybe the drama series has a (much) higher budget. That’s how I felt after watching the movie. Both the drama and movie starred Japanese artistes that I’m hardly familiar or do not even know about and yet, I still find that the movie counterpart is actually less impressive and convincing. Shrugs.

Oh well, I’m suspecting the temple that Takemoto ended up during his “journey” seems super similar to the one I see in the drama series. Or maybe it’s because many temples have this identical look. Shrugs. Besides that, the settings for the movie are actually quite different from the drama (actually should be comparing the other way round since the movie came first).

Overall, if you just want to watch a live-action version, I’d recommend the drama series over this movie. Now I am not intrigued as to why this movie wasn’t very well received among many fans. Hic. Lalala~ Oh, once again because this story is related to anime/manga/drama, I’ve decided not to rate it. It’s not like it’ll get a very nice rating from me either. =P

Biz Writing Came and Gone

Yay! Another exam over! *zips up another folder meant for a NUS module* Realises not much space saved. LOL. Yeah well, the paper isn’t very difficult to pass I guess, though I made a few minor blunders anyway. Couldn’t spot them even after checking through although I salvaged a few grammatical errors. Hehe. Either I’m comfortable with the module, or I’m gonna get killed cos I missed out a lot of things while finishing the paper in 1.5 hours. Sigh. Anyway, this module shouldn’t be a biggie when it comes to passing or failing. Almost certain it’s a pass liao.

Something totally unrelated to my exams. Just now while eating dinner and watching news on Channel U, during the advertisements, they showed a trailer for 妙手仁心 III, and the background music is from Iryu, also a medical drama! Bah, can’t remember the title of the track. Ah well, at least it confirm suits the theme of the show. Wonder how many people will recognise. Lalala. I notice useless stuff. Yay!

3 more papers to go. 3 more days to my most dreaded paper. Good luck for those taking uber tough papers tmr.

Honey & Clover [JDrama]

Japanese title: ハチミツとクローバー
Number of episodes: 11

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

Noticed the [JDrama] tag I added behind? Well, that’s cos Honey & Clover has 2 seasons of anime (S1, S2) and 1 Live-Action Movie, so there’s a need to differentiate them apart. Lol, and also easier for me to manage my entries should I ever watch either of the other 2 categories. Actually, there’s also a Taiwanese version, but I’m almost certain that I’ll never be touching that adaptation.

There was quite a hype on this one prior to its airing, probably due to the fact of the popularity of the anime/manga. After all, it’s so nice that even Jon rates it as his favourite anime series of all time. I mean, not many things actually capture his attention. Well, after watching this show, I do think that the feel of it is somewhat different from other drama series, even though the storyline supposedly is much faster pace (maybe leaving out certain mini-”arcs”) and some details were changed here and there. I’ve also read certain reviews and discussions that the anime/manga is actually better than the drama version, though the latter is still rated better than the live-action movie.

I’m not sure how loosely adapted this is over the anime/manga storyline, but the focus of the drama seems to be on the love triangles of this group of friends. Yeap, the 1-liner synopsis in the wiki article aptly covers the main content of the series. Of course, they also do spend some time on the friendships among the 5 of them, the main concern at the end of the day is still all the relationship issues. In fact, I would have thought this is more of a love-story type of show more than friendship + slice of life type of drama. Heh.

Ends up my prediction of Hagu’s “choice” of partner is somewhat accurate, as compared to the anime version. Lol, that one was somewhat clear ever since she and Morita didn’t quite work out. Lol. Overall, it ain’t exactly a happily ever after kind of ending but at least it roughly shows how each of their lives will go on in the future.

To sum up, I think the overall experience of watching this drama without any significant prior experience to reading the manga or watching the anime is definitely quite an enjoyable one, though I can’t say otherwise for those who have done either of the 2 things I’ve mentioned. Do give it a watch. And <3 Haguuuu =P

Java Came and Gone

Had my first exam of the semester earlier this afternoon. Being the not so competent me, I could hardly find the paper easy, as the Prof has claimed. Well, he did benchmark it to his own midterms, so it’s supposed to be more of an accurate gauge isn’t it?

Ah well, I didn’t find it easier than his midterms, though I thought the better ones will be able to somewhat breeze through the paper. Turns out there’s varied opinions on the difficulty of the paper. Personally, I found it quite a pain to write java code on paper, especially when I realise I left out something (oh well I sux mah) then wanna insert, a bit hard cos cannot press enter and make space. Somehow, the experience with Scheme wasn’t as traumatising. Heh.

Oh well, I just hope for a pass or better can liao, since my midterms isn’t very good, statistically. At least I’ve finished my 2nd most dreaded exam paper this semester. /me needs to concentrate on the right things. 4 more papers to go…

In other things, the picture beside (click it to see it in full) shows the statistics of some of the regular counters (counters is coined as a term referring to people who count in counting threads) in this count to 1,000,000 thread.

As you can see (if you bother to see the picture in full anyway), I’ve been counting too much. Well, I have weird hobbies I guess. To me, counting is seemingly effortless and most importantly not much pressure to be constantly persistent at it. A long way to the final goal, though I’m not really expecting much help from viewers of this blog. Hahahaha.

(credits goes to swingdjted and QOAL for their efforts in the stats-related matters on the thread)

p.s. someone really spoilt my mood siah. you’ve done well, once again. keep up the good work.

KOF Clips Vol. 7

This time I’ll be sharing 1 KOF98 video, and the other one will be one of my friend, Scott’s work.

First up is a KOF 98 video, titled Revolution, by KOF Destiny and CX. It’s quite a recent video and considering so much has been done for KOF 98 already, this video still produces something that’s slightly different from the other videos out there. Nice editing as usual. =D

Revolution part 1

Revolution part 2

Next up is Scott’s older work. Actually just the one before his most recent one. This video is kinda BIG project, spanning over 20 minutes. Of course, being a good friend, I did participate and help him (if I could be of use :P). And yay, I’m in the credits too ^_^v Enjoy~

ST-CMD Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Okay, that’s more than 30 minutes of videos. Should be enough for now. Vol 8 anyone? =D

Iryu Season 2

Japanese title: 医龍 2
Number of episodes: 11

Some info:
1) D-Addicts Wiki (Season 1 info also available there)
2) Official Site (Japanese)

I did mention some time back that I would be reviewing this series after I’m done with it. Yeap, I’ve kept my word and this entry will be on this medical-based drama. Though season 1 was rather well received if one were to judge on the viewership ratings, I think that the show was kinda under-rated since I don’t hear much discussion about it as much as I thought the show deserved. Probably the heavy medical jargon plus all the operation scenes put quite many people off, but I thought it’s one of the better shows.

If I got my stuff right, this is adapted from a manga series though of course I will have no idea how close the adaptation is. Well, being a story that came from a manga, certainly there will be some elements that seem rather impossible to achieve in reality. As for all the medical terms and facts, I’m not sure how much of it is true since it’s not something an average person would pick up and read about if he/she is not a doctor. Well, but I don’t think the accuracy of such things are of the main concern here.

Other than all the surgery action, the storyline this time is similar yet different from season 1. Due to some circumstances, the original Team Dragon is made to split up into 2 groups even though it wasn’t easy to get all of them back together again. So, Asada (the main lead) has to build up his team again, but this time at a hospital that’s planned for shutdown, with many “incompetent” medical staff being posted there to further facilitate the downfall of the hospital (for more details, watch the show). With some of the “condemned” staff there with various problems, the 2nd Asada team isn’t as easy to form. Eventually both teams combine to operate on a huge surgery which is like the highlight of the show in terms of the surgery difficulties and stuff. Well, there’s also another main plot of the story that isn’t exactly centred around Asada. Some twists for this one though, which I really didn’t foresee them during the course of watching the show.

As for the cast, basically all the important characters from season 1 retained the same actors/actresses, but many of them saw a much less screen time probably due to the fact that season 2’s focus is slightly different since there’s the need to form a 2nd team.

The background music played throughout the show is pretty nice too, with some tracks re-used from season 1, while some others were re-arranged slightly in this new season. However, I didn’t quite like the theme song of the show, which is played at the end of every episode during the credits. Personal preferences I guess. The editing is generally quite well done too. Hehe.

Overall, it is a nice drama to watch even though at certain parts, it is very easy to tell that the non-realistic scenes (after all it’s manga-based story…) and stuff. The medical jargon can be quite heavy at times but it should be all right as usually the critical parts will be visually shown as a demonstration as well for the viewers to better understand the procedures taking place etc. Please do take a look at this one if you’re looking at this genre of drama serials.

p.s. I wonder if this story will ever be ported to an anime version (or has it already been done so?) I also wonder if there’ll be a season 3, since the way the drama ended is possible to fit in another season.