Gokusen Season 2

Number of episodes: 10

Some info @ D-Addicts Wiki

I once thought that I wouldn’t continue the Gokusen series after finishing season 1, but somehow I did end up taking a looking at the sequel series, which still received high viewership ratings as well as being well-received by fans around the world.

Well, so our beloved teacher ends up at a different school this time, and in fact is sent there due to some kind of mistake that occurred in the Ministry (or whatever organisation is in charge of). Not surprisingly, she ends up having to take charge of the worst class in the entire school, with many “victim” teachers who were not up to the task and gave up.

Another familiar character would be the Head Teacher, who still pretty much retains his style and role as from the first season (based on my fuzzy memory). Anyway, Yamaguchi-sensei will once again touch the lives of their students by showing them her utmost sincerity and concern for them, even if it means stepping into dangerous situations (which is nothing much for the daughter of a well known mob. Lol). Yup, in this sense, the formula is pretty much the same, but of course there are some “lessons” that can be learnt from all that, and it’s those things that make the “delinquent” students end up becoming a better person overall.

Among the students, there are actually quite a number of familiar faces (to me as of present times), particularly those prominent few ones who get a lot of screen time in the series. Perhaps this show was one of the more important stepping stones in their careers so far. Good for them I guess, since many people who have gotten a look at them, judging from the average viewership. Haha.

Actually, there’s also an SP for this series, but it seems that almost all of it is recapping the events that have already taken place in the main series itself, with minor additions so I guess there isn’t much loss in not seeing the SP. Lol. Anyway, I think I just might take a look at season 3, which still had good viewership rating someday, but it may not be that soon. No hurry after all… =P

Day After Results

Yep, by now I would think almost all NUS students would have already taken a look at their results, except for those who, erm, happen to take a trip overseas and have no free access to the internet. Met up with the JC gang yesterday again, mainly to try out the 1-for-1 Swensen’s promotion as well as to check our results. We did something similar something like a year ago.

Well, for the Swensen’s 1-for-1, I’m not sure if it’s because my appetite is too huge plus the fact that I didn’t eat breakfast even though I woke rather early (for my usual standard during hols), but I found the average portion of a dish served to us is just rather small. I definitely wouldn’t want to dine there if not for the 1-for-1 deal. It’s not worth the full price imo. However, my mom who had tried the 1-for-1 deal before thought that the portions were quite generous, at least she didn’t think that I would need to eat the 1-for-1 alone in order to feel that it is filling. Shrugs, maybe it’s the outlet, maybe it’s because too many people are chionging this 1-for-1 thing, or maybe they have “special” treatment for those who go for this promotion now, or maybe…

Seeing that wireless@sg didn’t work inside the restaurant, we shifted location to the library where wireless *should definitely* work. Turns out that everyone else was too nervous about their results so I offered to check first. Lol. Though my results aren’t anything you would call good, but at least my damage control was done. After all, I expected something worse for signals, but apparently there are sufficient people worse than me to give me a result better than I had feared. Heh, wonders of the Bell curve isn’t it. Anyway, it seems that no one (I know) is going to continue the minor programme, so now I do have extra modules to plan for, or at least shortlist the ones that I think I would take. Well, I guess I’ll most likely push this off until it’s somewhat near the bidding period before I actually bother to take a look and “scout” for modules. If anyone has good (and sane) options or wants to jio me to take together, feel free to drop me a message on MSN or something and I’ll consider it when the appropriate time comes.

Anyway, back to yesterday, I actually wanted to watch Terminator, but seeing how the rest weren’t exactly in the right mood and I think they are not exactly interested in the movie anyway plus we could just chit chat away, so I just put off the idea. Perhaps I’ll go watch alone, or maybe wait for home release. Oh wells, as usual you can try asking me if you wanna watch. No sponsorship though =P

May is coming to an end, which means holidays are almost a third gone. And it’s also holidays for those in primary-jc which simply means it’ll be much more crowded out there even on weekdays now. Perhaps it’s time for me to stay at home (even) more often to finish up things I ought to. Meanwhile, enjoy your holidays while they’re still here. =D

p.s. it’s the 777th day of my blog. Nice number.

Toradora!

Japanese title: とらドラ！
Number of episodes: 25

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

This anime was actually recommended to me by a couple of people on different occasions, so I thought it must be pretty good, and yup it turns out to be a very enjoyable series. It revolves around high school students, with the main characters being the 2 most prominent figures in the picture, but of course, those behind do have important roles in the show too.

It starts off with Taiga and Ryuji getting together to work towards getting to date the one that they like, but as they spend a lot of time together, they end up falling for each other. Of course, there are many interesting and funny things that happen along the way, which I don’t know how to put it in words. It’s easier to watch the show and enjoy how the story develops and unfolds.

Some parts of the show are also kinda bittersweet, and it’s the careful and right combination of all these elements that makes the show very enjoyable for me, I suppose. It’s been a fun and enjoyable experience watching this show, and I can really see why people have recommended this to me much earlier on. I may have started on this much later than many people, but hey, it’s better late than never to enjoy such a nice anime series. =)

p.s. go watch.

Eve of Results

Almost another week has passed since my last wall-of-text post, and for a change I wasn’t really clearing much of my backlog because I was out on a couple of occasions. I suppose it’s a good change once in a while, but not exactly the best of choices in the long run, considering it is both financially and physically more taxing to be out than being at home. Hic.

Anyhow, 3.5 weeks of holidays (for me) have passed by rather quickly, and it’s that dreadful time again – release of results. Yeah, only 1 more day before I get to know how I fared, though deep down I know it’s probably not going to be very pleasant. Just hope that damage control was kind of effective. Oh well, if anything at least I’ll be meeting up with JC buddies again to face the dreadful moment together. Maybe can watch Terminator Salvation after that, but that’ll have to wait till we know how we fared.

Let’s see, I guess I’ll briefly share about the outings I had since my last “update”. Ok, so on Sunday I met up with a bunch of people I got to know from a Facebook app for the first time. Probably not the kind of thing that some of you might think I would do, but actually it’s not the first time that I’ve met with people like this. It’s just that this group are only meeting up for the first time. I guess it’s a simple gathering, though being a family day for most people, not all those residing in Singapore are available so perhaps there’ll be another one sometime in the near future. /Shrugs. Anyway, the people I met are sort of from different walks of life so to speak, and as such the personalities and all are quite varied. It isn’t easy to understand and mix easily, or maybe it’s due to the way I adopt to interact with people. Overall, I suppose it’s an interesting experience, since I did learn some things from this 1 outing.

And yes, I went out again on Monday, this time the main objective was to meet up with Mark who’s back in Singapore. WaiKit did write about it on his blog, so feel free to read his entry instead of mine if you find it a little boring to read on. =X Anyway, after a quick simple lunch at the Cineleisure food court it was off to E2Max (Mark’s plan from the start), which I suppose is considered the highlight of the day. Haha. Let’s see, we first tried Left 4 Dead, which was also part of Mark’s plan. I wasn’t really keen but I guess sooner or later I would have to give it a shot anyway since it’s like the one game that I hear every time when LAN gaming is part of the plan. Turns out it’s really not my kind of game, although I can understand why there are so many people who are enjoying it. Took some time to understand how the game really works though, and it is really a bummer when you don’t know where you’re supposed to escape to in order to survive. We also did try a bit of Team Fortress 2, but it’s nothing much so I’ll skip over it.

I guess the most interesting part for me in the entire E2Max episode is the Wii part, where Mark picked out a Bleach (fighting) game. Of course, it is not easy trying to learn a new fighting game, what more with controls totally different from the conventional means I’m accustomed to. Took me a while to get somewhat used to the rough controls and finding some cheap tricks to be used. Turns out Byakuya is indeed stronger without Bankai (according to some FAQ WK saw later on that night) =_= The only sad thing is that whoever played on it previously only unlocked Yoruichi among the unlockables so there weren’t enough kickass characters to test out later on. Anyhow, this game made me realise that my best and favourite genre of games still remains as… Well, after that, it was just some walking around before having dinner then heading home. Speaking of which, we still owe Mark some money. Lol, need to remember to pay up next time. Not good to owe people money ><

Yup, other than outings much time was also spent on Guild Wars, but of course it’s not comparable to WK. Hic, and looks like this coming weekend’s event will make me sink more time into it. Well, of course that’s assuming whatever happens tmr won’t affect me so much that I don’t feel like playing. Haha. Hopefully that dreadful scenario won’t happen =D Meanwhile, I should continue to enjoy my holidays while I’m sure I still have the right mood. But don’t worry, in the event that results are really bad, it’ll probably make me down for a few days at most before I move on and continue clearing my backlog and perhaps begin on my holiday projects. Yes, I haven’t officially begun on my holiday projects yet (shame on me =P). Well I guess the next time you see such an entry would be some time after the release of results. Till then~~~

p.s. wish everyone who’s getting results tmr all the best, although there’s nothing that can be done, except maybe S/U-ing if it’s possible/suitable/advisable.

Handsome Suits

Japanese title: ハンサム★スーツ
Rating: PG
Running time: 115 minutes
Now out on DVD!

Some info:
1) AsianMediaWiki
2) IMDB Profile
3) Official Site (Japanese)

This movie is actually quite predictable even without watching it, as long as you know that the theme of the movie revolves around this suit that can make its wearer into a very good looking person. But at least there’s still some fun and entertaining bits in the show, so it’s not as bad as it could have been.

Not surprisingly, the invited wearer is one who does not look very handsome/attractive (as seen from the guy on the right). Perfect candidate to experience the “transformation” and see how people generally treat him differently based on how he looks. While there is some truth in that better looking people get treated better/get more benefits, the movie tends to make things rather exaggerated quite often. I suppose it’s a way to better contrast between the two “worlds”, which play a somewhat important role in making the main lead hesitate over whether to permanently wear the suit and abandon his real identity, taking on the handsome version of “him”.

In order to guide him on the right path, it turns out that a good looking girl actually got herself an “ugly suit” so that she could become very much unattractive so that people might actually get to know the real her, rather than just based on her own real looks alone, which she seems to appear to hate because no one bothers to find out the real her. The only thing is that the fact that she used an “ugly suit” wasn’t revealed till the then so I didn’t really expect that but instead was thinking how the movie was going to end when I know it’s nearing the conclusion.

While this role serves its part well in the story in terms of conveying the importance of knowing someone’s real character and personality being more important than just based on looks alone, I wonder if there are really good looking people who actually want to “ugly-ify” themselves so that others can look at them in a different light.

On a side note, I think the movie used quite nice selection of music and songs throughout the duration that added some points to an otherwise very ordinary show. At least it gave the movie a better feel overall. =) Oh, and another thing is many of the comedy acts imitated by the main character didn’t appear very funny to me. Either it’s a generation gap thing (because it’s supposed to be old acts) or I don’t quite get the Japanese humour. Heh.

Overall, a pretty predictable show with some obvious messages being put across though the situations are generally quite exaggerated. Nothing outstanding but it ain’t bad either. My take: 6/10