The Limitations of OS Information

First up, we have Rierie news. After another 3 weeks’ absence on her blog, finally an update. Said she was too busy with work to update, ごめんねーー＾＾； Also said she’s got zero breaks during the whole of Dec, so it’s a real test of her stamina. Looks like we won’t be getting any more updates in Dec because of that, but she promised to work real hard on her anime, radio and TV programmes (that double R thingy) to make up for it.

Pic of Rierie with Koyama and Hirohashi, her Akasaka co-stars. Actually I wonder what she’s busy with since this season, besides the sucky Akasaka, she again did mostly ninja cameos, e.g Toradora, Yozakura. Contrast that to earlier this year when I could count at least four prominent roles off the top of my head (HnG, Kimikiss, Mnemosyne, KimiAru). Seems like a slump? Then again, she’s got other engagements like miucomi and stuff which I don’t bother tuning in to, so it might possibly be a shift in focus after the agency switch. Who knows?

Oh, mentioned she’s hosting the net radio for online game Get Amped 2 as well. Check out the voice samples on the game’s page. She sounds like a gangster Suigintou.

Speaking of gangsters I’ve started watching Gokusen on crunchy roll. Rather ancient (by internet standards) drama about a Yakuza daughter who becomes homeroom teacher to a bunch of high school delinquents. Hilarity ensues. Kind of like a female version of GTO. Kagamisumi will be interested to know that the female lead played by Nakama Yukie (below) sports jet black twin tails with megane.

There’s an anime version in 2004, but that’s ancient as well (again by net standards). Dun think I’ll be following up on the cartoon version cos it happens to be one of the few shows where I think the 3D actress looks better than the 2D character. Haha, rare point for the 3 dimensional.

Lastly, random Youtube stuff:
Mami says p*nis! And got told off by Ayako. Hahaha….
Saiunkoku OP live by Hirahara Ayaka. Hajimari no kaze. 声音酷酷的蛮喜欢.
愛しい人へ live, Seirei no Moribito ED by Tainaka Sachi. Love her songs, except the hideous ones for F/SN.

Sky Crawlers and more

Okay so yeah, Sky Crawlers was not bad. As expected, the art for the characters weren't very appealing to me, but the drawing for the backgrounds were surprisingly nice, some looking downright realistic. Not a particularly thought-provoking show, and I also felt quite brain-dead during the show and just let the show bring me around the various places, up in the air and down on the ground. Everyone smokes. Nice music at the end. Mitsuya is cutest.

Also expanded my very limited Gundam knowledge by roughly 300%. Saw the mangas for virtually all the shows I've watched (which was rather shocking to me who lives in the animated world) and saw various figurines here and there (including some very disturbing ones). Oh and a large Asuka Langley figure, which I failed to get a closer look at.

Kusanagi Jr. has the least screentime for a named character.

May'n wasn't around PS when we were there? Aww I'm disappointed, thought I could catch a glimpse of her =P

Emirin's birthday indeed came and gone on Nov 26th. At least I remembered, it's the thought that counts.

Mononoke Hime's soundtrack is awesome. Ashitaka Sekki caught my mum's attention too.

Emo Sounds Too Cute

Watched The Sky Crawlers last night with the kagamisumi.

Won’t try to review it cos I’m too lazy to think. To put it in a nicer and more pretentious manner so that I’ll hopefully appear less dumb, I don’t see a need to analyse everything down to every nitty gritty detail. Maybe sometimes there’s just no “who, why, when, where, how”. Without thinking at all, I sat through the whole movie simply enjoying the ambience.

And right now I know not why I am so sad. =p Guess it’s one of those movies which leave a long aftertaste.

With that out of my system, it’s time for random stuff which may or may not have anything to do with anything else.

Mendelian inheritance says like begets like. Therefore lolis give birth to lolis.

Wait, or was that Lemarck?

People who don’t stay for the credits miss the ending.

I’m suffering May’n fatigue. Time to move on. Yes, kagamisumi, you can stop shouting “May’n’s over there!”. I won’t fall for it. My sources say she’s gone home.

Emirin's birthday was yesterday.

That onee-san from the ROC rep office is my new idol. Oh, the eloquence! Diplomats and actors/artistes have much in common I believe.

Waifu!

AHHHHH!

AHHHHH!

AHHHHHHHH!

Question: Identify the odd Ahhhhh out.

PS: That is Hirano Aya, deshou? My eyes aren't playing tricks on me at 2am, right?

Intelligence Means Winning the War Before a Single Shot is Fired

She arrives.

She giggles.

Me dies. Good Job to the guys who camped at the airport. Buddha knows how you got wind of the schedule but I love you bros. Whoever you are.

Nyan Blast

May'n and Nakajima Megumi doing stuff. Guess it's some Macross F promo thing.

公公 婆婆请喝茶...

Ranka looks bigger. This is BIG news.


これ、食べていいですか？

Korupsi

So I went to the cartoon convention.

Truth be told, much of the enthusiasm I had for it had worn out by the time it came around, so I ended up playing Elder Scrolls 3 the whole Sat instead of picking up my pre-reg ticket as planned. Missed Mizuki “Aniki” Ichirou’s concert, which I kind of regret. Missed several screenings of MS Igloo too, though that wasn’t as bad since the DVDs were on sale. (Not that I bought any.)

Got to the convention at 1400 on Sun, the ticketing queue was pretty much non-existent. Started off by recce-ing the place, mainly to locate the main objective, i.e. the concert stage. The gameplan was to be at the stage by 1500 to ensure an optimum view of the concert, so that left me with an hour to check out the other exhibits. The crowd was quite sparse, most of the people were cluster-*ucking at the stage where the Cosplay contest was due to begin.

First thing I looked at was the Gunpla. The Gunpla and figure exhibits were kind of cool, but most of the floor space was taken up by merchandise. Hadn’t budgeted for merchandise, therefore window shop only. Was really itching to get that Zaku if not for the thought of eating nothing but rations for the next 3 months.

The so called Anime Blockbuster zone was a disappointment. This was what the website promised: “This special content area will showcase some of Asia’s best and most successful animes, delivered to visitors via exclusive footage, artifacts, and rare materials behind the creative scenes, such as storyboards, character design, background design, and prop designs.”

This was what I saw: Giant Poster with blurb and mini-intro of main characters. TV screen looping trailers. Obviously aimed at the intro-level for newcomers. Seriously, a one minute visit to ANN is much more informative. Considering that the shows on exhibit (Code Geass, Toradora etc) have been running for some time now or have already ended, shouldn’t they attempt to engage those who can spot the Code Geass spoofs in Lucky Star? Oops, I forgot it’s illegal to spot Code Geass spoofs in Lucky Star.

The Sky Crawlers booth wasn’t bad though, it was the only which delivered. Btw, let’s go watch the movie, I think it’ll be good. Opens on 27 Nov.

I was done with all the exhibits in less than half an hour, there’s really nothing much to do if you’re not into the goods. Off to the stage I went. The amount of unintentional humour at the cosplay thingy was superb. The Knightmare Frame field repair was entertaining. Mizuki, one of the cosplay contest judges, performed three songs, the themes for Mazinger, Babel II and Captain Harlock. One word: GAR. How I wished I had turned up the previous evening.

The crowd dispersed after the Cos thing - my cue to move in and occupy a choice spot for the concert, a spot which I was to occupy for the next 4 hours. Next up was a screening of 次元爆弾 by Studio 4°C. Stunning visuals, but the surrealism just went over the top of my head, i.e. I dun get it. Ya, I’m a shallow bastard who understands only harem comedy and yuri action. Point to note was that one of the seiyuu for that episode was Kanno Youko. Like wow.

The next 2 hours were spent waiting at my chosen spot. I think I had probably gone mad. But thanks to that madness I managed a first row spot in the free section, with a largely unobstructed view of the stage. Local band Quis came on stage at 1830. They sang jap songs, mostly from anime like GTO, FMA, Deathnote. The L’ arc En Ciel-like stuff. They were pretty good, could probably give the band wannabes on TV a run for their money. The lead guitarist needs to work on his “showmanship” stat though. He looked bored.

May’n came on stage at 1920. Fantastic stage presence. I think she’s been working on her performance too cos I see marked improvement since her appearance on TV some time ago (that video with the Original May’n Greeting TM). Scary.

Nothing much more I can add, since you’ve got to see it for yourself to appreciate it. Maybe there's some video on Youtube? Anw, here’s the list of songs performed, from first to last:

Welcome to my Fanclub’s Night
What ‘bout My Star
Infinity
妖精
Diamond Crab Ass
Northern Cross
射手座午後９時Don’t be late

That’s about all of Sheryl’s songs. Oh, someone taught her to speak english sunny island south of Truly Asia style or something. "Many many people", she said.

My voice is hoarse from the shouting and I sprained my left big toe from tiptoeing. Maybe I should cancel my leave and get an MC instead.

Dompet is a Harimau

Emiri and Shiraishi Minoru's cameo on 女子大生会計士の事件簿. I'm trying to figure out which episode as well.

Went to the National Museum today and realised it has pretty good voice acting for its exhibits. FYI, every visitor is issued a "companion guide" which is essentially a giant walkman which narrates the story behind each exhibit. Risking the label of 汉奸走狗, I decided to be weaboo and select the Japanese language track. Several exhibits attempted to recreate certain scenes from the past, which is where the voice acting comes in. Going by the high standard of voice acting, they definitely got professionals to do it. I wouldn't mind spending a whole day there, since it's almost like a drama CD, haha. Then again, I'm judging by anime standards, so it might sound cheesy to native speakers, i wouldn't know. Found the idea of two leftist chinese school students (hey kagamisumi, look your sempais) conversing in Japanese extremely amusing though. Didn't have time to check out the other languages, but i hope they were just as good.

This is wols but...

你好，我叫玛丽亚。

Use it or lose it, man.

Tsundere Town Anthem

ツン　ツン　デレ　ツン　デレ　ツン　ツン
ツン　ツン　デレ　ツン　デレ　ツン　ツン
ヨウガインタ降りてすぐ
お店は九時にはしまいけど
早寝
早起き
いいじゃない！

あかいめがね くろいかみ しろいパンツ

Nah. I just tot it'd be white.

This post has nothing to do with rierie.

I'm turning into a tabloid reporter. Got to say i'm enjoying myself coming up with the most ridiculous and cynical conspiracy theories though. Crazy stuff like armed conflicts being started to justify defence budget increases. Stuff like blogs being used in info ops. Btw, i've got to stop updating from the office. Hits from the ministry in the logs gave me a mini surprise until i realised they coincided with my night duties.

haha.

Indon class is finally coming to an end. Though the lessons were rather draining, I'll definitely miss them; they were tonnes of fun. Over the course of five weeks, several running gags have come into being, providing side-splittingly hilarious moments of distraction.

Firstly, saying "Amb*lat belongs to Truly Asia" gets our nice indonesian lady teacher (who we call Ibu) all fired up, buying us 2 min of nap time while she disputes the offending statement. "What is 'burung unta'?" works as well, coz she was initially confused between ostrich and turkey. She's now absolutely clear that we don't (usually) eat ostriches on christmas. Oh ya, and there's the absolutely random proclamations of "harimau!" (tiger) which crack her up long enough for us to wiggle out of tough questions.

We invented our own words and phrases as well, the theory being adding the letter 'i' to the end of any english word turns it into an Indon one (see: reformasi, etc.). So someone would say something really random like "slashi" (/), to which our dear Ibu would gasp in horror then proceed to explain that it's actually "garis miring". The grandmother of all made-up phrases would have to be "kosong atas kosong" (zero on zero) - used when you can't remember how to say '8'.

It's fortunate that our teacher has got the patience of a buddha and takes all this nonsense in good humour. It's been a long time since i laughed like this.

Busy and Slack

You missed one pic. Sign seven extras. Wait, since it's one of rierie going Kira!, make it 21.

Michiko and Hatchin is a pretty good show, definitely worth a look at least. Got to admit that the presence of sekushi nee-san always sways my vote somewhat though.

Oh ya, please please cut the tsundere song and Miyukichi's "FU*K!!" for me once you get to Yozakura ep 6. I wanna use it as a HP ringtone.

Trawl...

Wow, amazingly today, just a brief scan online yielded an amazing field of pictures.

Without further ado, ikimashou!

Wow... Rierie... speechless.

Tomato's smile as sweet as ever. She seems to like pastel-ish colours for background.

Kawaii! Don't know who though.

AHH AHHH AHHHH!

Anyway, I've finally finished Nodame S1 after a long long time. Ending was sweet, rather saccharine, but still nice. The style of humour is fun and cute, and so far, Nodame herself can carry the whole series despite being rather quirky and weird. Her obsession with Purigota is rather... -_-" Chiaki is an ok male protagonist whose rise to fame-dom is rather expected and ok to watch. I like how the characters interact among themselves. Oh and the Special is funny, though I would have thought Nodame would have known of Chiaki's phobia of the sea already.

Toradora-wise, I still think Kushieda Minori is a much cuter character than Taiga herself... And I await with bated breath how Ami would develop as the series proceed on.

たくさんの思い出がある
他にはなにもいらない

さようなら

Working on Me Tabloid Reporting Skillz

After a 3-week period of inactivity this time, Rierie's blog is now updated. Seems she took a break bcos of some throat ailment but she's all fine now. In fact, she's fine enough to run around some Meiji University's campus carnival dressed in a nurse outfit. Now that's how a world class institution of learning runs its carnivals.

Kinky.

Btw, Rie's ailment was most likely a URTI but for all we know its actually a UTI. If i'm not wrong bunny suits are a risk factor for UTI because of poor ventilation. The timing was about right too. Then again, another hypothesis could be that she busted a rib in a catfight with amisuke. =p

Kangaroos Know Their Own Dongs

I just had another one of my retarded seiyuu dreams, i.e. dreamt of one. Been, what, 8 months since the last? Wonder what precipitated this particular one. Anyway, here goes the story this time…

Once upon a time, on a sunny island south of Truly Asia, there lived a guy called I, who decided to go to the shopping mall for some reason I (me) can’t quite remember. I (the guy) might have been attending some anime convention.

At the Entrance to the Shopping Mall was an apparel store. To get straight to the point, Rierie was the sales girl. Oh right! Being an ardent admirer of this Rie, I (the guy) stood there staring like an idiot. Note that I (the guy) is well behaved even if this was a dream. I (me) thinks I (the guy) is an idiot.

Just then, I (the guy) was approached by the Rie.

“What you looking for ah?” asked the Rie in perfect Sunny island south of Truly Asia accent (Ah Lian variant).

Somewhat disappointed but still excited like mad, I (the guy) muttered something incomprehensible and walked off towards the escalators. I (me) seriously thinks I (the guy) is an idiot.

However, a new Boss awaited on the next floor. Kugimi (in an apron and headscarf) was selling pancakes. I (me) forgot which kind, probably bcos I (the guy) didn’t really stay long enough too find out. I (me) really thinks I (the guy) is an idiot.

Fleeing from Kugimi, I (the guy) ran into Kikuko Inoue 17 Sai, who was milling around like an NPC in some SNES era RPG. By that time, I (the guy), was probably bloody sure that this must be the most awesome convention ever bcos even the auntie selling pancakes is Kugimi. I (the guy) was perplexed though, by how no one else seemed to recognize the celebrities(?), yet secretly bloody happy since he can now claim elite seiyuu fan status.

To cut a long dream really short, since I (me) am late for work, the convention was held on the top of the building. Somehow it was already nighttime. I (me) said “already” but I (me) didn’t actually know at what time of the day I (the guy) started climbing the Mall. Highlight of the day was a performance by, of all people, Nakahara Mai. Ya, the sharp-nosed one. But on closer inspection, it’s actually a trap. The trap sang Kohaku (by Shimokawa Mikuni) for some reason. I (the guy) sang along in the audience, even though he knew it was a trap. And despite the fact that he was sucking on a sweet. I (the guy) had one of the happiest days of his life.

The End.

Edit: uploaded 15 hours late bcos my net connection was down for some reason. it's been buggy since i got infected with some bloody spyware/trojan/virus from that supposed PS2 emulator. I think people can stop trying to reach me on MSN for the time being cos i'll most probably only receive the message the following day if i do at all.

Drunken Blogging

I’m now hooked on 雨が降る(?), the Linebarrels ED by Sakamoto Maaya. Really beautiful song. This is another example of a sucky show with great music. I swear there were others but I can’t quite remember right now. Brain’s a bit addled by alcohol.

Other new songs that are on my playlist this season:

Motto hade ni ne, Tomato Haruka (Kannagi OP). This one got on my radar more because of the dancing in the OP than anything else. Catchy tune, but I’m kind of getting sick of it already.

Discotheque, Mizuki Nana (Pantsu + Vampire OP). Dancing… Churu churu churu payapa… the choreography for the OP and Nana’s PV are identical if I’m not wrong. Love the churu churu churu payapa. Dun like the censor bats.

Pre-Parade, Kugimi + Kitaeri + Hocchan (Toradora OP). I just like the “pari-pari” bits. Otherwise quite retarded.

Forgot the title, Kemeko Gang (Kemeko DX OP). Crazy. Mad man. Imelda. Jesus, jesus, jesus, kami-sama!

Just Tune / Nagareboshi, can’t remember off-hand (Yozakura Quartet OP/ED). Can’t quite remember which is the OP and which the ED. Both are decent but not breathtakingly decent. Meaning they are not indecent. I might be drunk already.

Town Anthem aka Tsundere Song, Hime-chan (Fukuen Misato?), (Yozakura Quartet Insert). Tsun tsun dere tsun dere tsun tsun. Tsun tsun dere tsun dere tsun tsun. I seriously hope this comes out in the OST somewhere. Come to think of it we still dun have that musical number from Kurenai. Totally unacceptable. So unbecoming.

Northern Cross, May’n, (Macross F ED / Insert / whatever). Macross is over? Oops. I can sing the whole song now though. Somehow the tongue twistery bits are really fun to sing. Would you pay 100 bucks to watch her sing it live? Somehow I’m starting to think my $8 two-day pass isn’t even going to get me standing room during the gig. Time to break out my PLA surplus binoculars. Wait. Was it Soviet? Can’t quite remember what the PRC guy peddling it for 20 bucks said.

Gravity, m.e.o.v. (Raki Suta insert). Full version just came out. Amazing that the LS Holstein (I dun mean miyuki) is still being milked after one year. My favourite LS song, besides Sore Ga Ai Deshou, which doesn’t really count actually.

And thanks to okto’s split from Vasantham, I no longer get to watch anime in the office (though I caught bits of Tytania on NHK the other day. Dun think its airing, just some documentary.)