DEAD 4 Midterms

Disclaimer: If you really dislike wall of text, please feel free to skip this entry. =P

Yeah well, I’ve pretty much messed up my midterms so far. Before I go onto it, I thought I’ll explain the entry title a little =P Of course, you can take it at face value and it fits nicely into place. Well, another way of looking it (rather “forcefully”) is that 4 represents the number of midterm papers I’ve sat for in these 2 days, and DEAD basically stands for (or something-related to) the 3 modules. For those who know what papers I took, you can use some imagination to figure out what words I used for them. They happen to be in order of appearances too! Wahahaha.

Shouldn’t rant too much here, even though it might actually serve as a pretty good channel for releasing some built-up (negative) emotions and stress. Later kena accused of this and that. While it’s my blog and I’m entitled to write whatever I like (as long as I don’t end up making racist comments or anything other thing that will definitely incur the wrath of the law enforcers over here), there’s very little point in writing that I feel and then get bugged like crazy over it because people have this and that opinions strongly against to what I have to say. Heh. Seems like I prefer to do this. I wonder why… =P

It’s been like 3.5 weeks since I’ve blogged a “wall of text”, in other words, an entry that’s actually about me and my life [or whatever is left of it]. But it seems that I’ve nothing much positive things to contribute this time. Perhaps because things aren’t really going well in real life either. As much as I want to share something happy and joyous, I can’t seem to find one this time. It’s pretty much getting more and more messed up in the world out there, be it globally or locally. Or perhaps knowing a bit more information over time isn’t all that good. Perhaps having a good memory of (random) things isn’t good when comparing the past to the present, and then trying to extrapolate into the short run future. Maybe the whole notation of extrapolation is wrong. But oh well, some things are probably going to be rather accurate. I shall wait and see =)

I think I better stop here, before I unknowingly go type stuff. Anything can happen given that I’m not exactly in a very right state of mind now. Haha.

p.s. got 1 more midterms this Saturday! closed book again! Fabulous combination I’m taking this semester. I shall try not to repeat such a spectacular combination as much as I can, though it would seem that sometimes it can’t be avoided.

Install [Jap Movie]

Japanese title: インストール
Some info @ IMDB Profile

Rating: NC-16
Running time; 94 minutes

Once again, the square brackets in the title is just to make it appear more specific. Not a marker to indicate the existence of drama (or anime) version.

Quite clearly, it is not hard to see why this movie is branded NC-16. It deals with some sexual references, the online cyber-chatting/sex world, as well as juvenile problems such as running away from school/home, suicidal thoughts etc.

While the movie tries to address some of these issues that are present in the modern day society, it often tries to pull away from the serious “confrontation” by masking it with either some joke to laugh it off or something else to totally divert the attention away from these things. So it’s like a good effort that gets killed off abruptly ever so often.

Anyway, this movie stars Ueto Aya, who plays a school girl who wants to run away from reality, and chances upon a 10 year old boy. The boy then introduces her to the world of internet, cybersex [he's working part-time there under a fake female name. eeks?] etc. Ueto helps out [secretly] and learns many things from spending much time online in the chatroom, facing various sorts of men every day. But of course, you can’t online forever, as the real world will soon catch up on you, and indeed she’s found out one day.

After that, she does some kind of soul searching or something and realises she hasn’t gained anything from all the running away from reality. I can see what the director intended by putting all these messages into the movie, but somehow I thought the delivery was way less than fantastic to achieve [what I think are] the intended effects.

One thing to note though, is that the little boy is real lucky as he gets to rest his hand on Ueto’s chest [ahem, you know what I mean] for don’t-know-how-many minutes. Lucky him =P Not like I gian or anything either. Haha.

Didn’t really like this. My take: 5.5/10

p.s. special credits and thanks to Dom ;)

[YouTube] KOFUnion Clips Part 2

This entry continues from an earlier post.

Matrimelee CMVs

NGBC Basic CMVs

KOFXI Basic CMVs

Finally, DarkOne’s combo clips! Yay. One of the more legendary people in the community =P Old clips though.

Breakers Revenge Clip

Gundam Wing Endless Duel CMV

Martial Masters CMV

Heroes Season 1

Number of episodes: 23
Some info:
1) Wiki
2) TV Summary
3) Official Site (English)

For all the MHA I’ve been playing on Facebook, it sure took me long before I actually finished season 1 [yeah I know there's a 3rd season]. This series became popular since the days of its season 1, and I can understand why it is so. Firstly, the idea of having superpowers has always been a fantasy for many, and having various types of special powers existing in this fictitious story adds more variety and dimension to the kinds of possible expansion and development the story can head towards.

Having knowledge from MHA, it does help in some way or other in understanding who has what ability and roughly what they can do. After all, I believe the application referred to many ideas for their implementations of the various abilities. Another highlight of the show would of course be the special visual effects they put into this show in order to make the superpowers look nice, awesome, and of course special. Some parts may be a little uncomfortable for some viewers though, as there are scenes where the regeneration powers are shown may be a bit disturbing. Of course there’s also the scenes of blood and slight gore. After all, I think the show is rated 14+ or something. So should be all right if you’re in the “right” age group. Heh.

Story wise, it moves quite slowly in the beginning probably because the various characters need to be introduced, as well as providing some background information and history to the viewers so that these heroes will be more “complete” instead of just having pop out of nowhere and move on the main plot itself. Things may seem draggy here and there, but you can’t really skip them ‘cos there are indeed important clues, hints or actions that may be inserted in those slightly long-winded parts. Although I didn’t quite like all those long-winded and draggy parts, the crew and producers do manage to throw in some masterful moves in the way they bring these various characters together and a step closer to the foretold event [or the supposed event].

With powers like painting the future as well as time manipulation [teleporting to the past or future etc], one would think that [space/time] continuity will become an issue, but for the most part it does end up rather okay-ly handled [cos I'm not *that* picky lahz]. However, probably due to the need for several takes from different angles as well as some post production editing + effects handling, there are really some shots and scenes that do have continuity errors. Oh wells, I guess it’s unavoidable.

Season 1 is just the beginning of a story that has potential to be developed into a big and successful one as long as it is handled nicely by the production crew, scriptwriters and those closely involved. Season 2 will continue where season 1 left us, and the story of the heroes continue…

I’d say it’s quite nice overall, though there are some parts that are rather turn off due to its slow pacing and progress. Expect to have an entry for season 2 some time in the future. You don’t need special powers to be able to envision that. Haha.

Gekijouban Aquarion

Japanese title: 劇場版アクエリオン
Number of episodes: 1 (movie)

Some info:
1) AniDB
2) Official Site (Japanese)

Even though it’s being labelled as a movie, the duration of this “movie” is something like that of an OVA episode. It’s under half an hour, so it really didn’t feel like a movie at all.

On top of that, the introduction at the beginning was really quite brief, and non-viewers of the series might not be able to really understand what is going on later. While all of the important characters get to appear in this short movie, new viewers will not be able to really tell a lot of their relationships among each other etc, as there isn’t much of time to do any further introduction.

Content wise, the bad guys get to send 1 mecha. The good guys get to show off their mecha. Oh, and the theme song gets sung a lot, as it’s supposed to be some kind of song that will give life or something. Story wise, it’s doesn’t tell viewers much about the overall plot even though there’s a brief introduction at the beginning. Heh.

Maybe there was some other motive in releasing this movie. Because it really seemed like some sort of gimmick to let more people know about such a series without actually letting them know enough. Lol. I’d suggest watching the TV series, and maybe the OVA [which is supposed to be an alternate retelling. haven't watched this yet].