More anti-Twilight propaganda!

Twilight: The Broodening

Complete with cheesy narration, bad storytelling, one-dimensional characters and more bad storytelling. Just like the real thing.

 

The next step towards total cyberization?

The MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group has cobbled together several relatively inexpensive and commercially available components to create a constantly reacting interface that might actually be the next big thing. I think it’s pretty cool anyway.

 

Make some noise!

…seems to be the central theme of the anime I’ll be reviewing today, after something that seems awfully like a hiatus but really wasn’t. I have about half a dozen drafts written up, and this is the first one to be finished.

Tommy guns, gangsters, drive-by shootings, knife fights, and dashing dames? Check.
Alchemists, elixirs, immortals eating other people, getting blown to bits and regenerating? Double check.
After two statements like that, I expect some raised eyebrows among my [miserably small] audience, but rest assured it will all become clear as you read on.

From the very beginning, Baccano! demands the viewers’ attention, because it’s hyperactive, frenetic pacing becomes almost addictive as the show progresses. Baccano! means ‘noise’ or ‘ruckus’ in Italian apparently, though the author of the light novels has chosen to interpret it as ’stupid commotion’, but either or both work in this context. It’s events are portrayed in a delightfully nonlinear narrative, with the time jumping from 1711 to the early 1930s and many ‘meanwhile…’ moments. In fact, only four things ever really happen in the story, but these four things are retold from the points of view of each little group of main characters, of which there are many. And I mean A LOT, as you can see from the poster below.

Everyone who appears in this poster is a main (or secondary) character. I’m serious.

The gang(s).

Astute readers will already have guessed that the aforementioned gangsters are mafia, since most of the series is set in the 1930s (ie the Great Depression and the Prohibition era). This is in itself quite unique, and I know of no other anime which chooses to place its events during this period.

Most of the plot is somewhat cliched, and the characters are relatively flat, but this does not detract from the superlative production which makes it one of the most consistently enjoyable series I have watched to date. The fact is, it seems so self-aware of its own absurdity that I can not fault it for being cliche. It should be the archetype for which all anime even tangentially related by genre should model themselves.

The first thing one will notice upon watching an episode is the opening song, which introduces the  main characters (seriously, the proper main characters). It’s a brilliant big band jazz piece by this group, Paradise Lunch, which I have not been able to find much about, leading me to believe it’s a Japanese group. When an opening song is reminiscent of the Cowboy Bebop opening – Tank!, you know it’s a perfect setup to a series, and Baccano! does not fail in the delivery.
EDIT: Yep, it’s Japanese, and seems to be an all-girl group, 9 of them.

The short intro:

The full opening:

This link for the (in my opinion) inferior vocal version, which has the band picture as a background:
Vocal version.

Even if you choose not to watch the anime, at least watch the videos above, you won’t regret it.
Doesn’t it just make you want to snap your fingers, tap your feet, have you started nodding to the rhythm yet? I didn’t skip this opening even once, which is rare for me. (In an age where practically all anime themes are sung by J-Pop singers – boring mostly.)

This is normally where I’d introduce the characters, but I’ll instead do that at the end, since there are so many of them.

Animation for Baccano! was done very well by Brains Base studio, which also did Kamichu! (another exclamation mark in that title), Kurenai, Natsume Yuujinchou (a wonderful series), and will be handling Spice and Wolf’s second season (YES! >.<). There is hardly a moment where characters stop moving, and I must say I love the eyebrows on most of the male characters. Fights are fluid and varied, with the shootouts being particularly good (not because the hand-to-hand and knife bits are bad, but because the shootouts are done almost like those in classic mafia movies). I can’t say much about the backgrounds, because most of my attention was on the characters, but they are quite crisp and do their job.

There is frequent and plentiful bloodletting, Elfen Lied levels of explicit violence at times, which keeps up with the premise of the show, and man is it well-animated. Guts, brains, fingers… Half the time I was going ooh, ouch, GAH, how can they- OH MAN. However, while the faint of heart might not enjoy this as much, I believe it is all part of the viewing experience. Even better is when all the gore reverses itself and- oh, I almost spoilt the plot.

Music is handled admirably, by composer Makoto Yoshimori, who did the music for Natsume Yuujinchou and Alice Academy. It’s jazzy to fit in well with the theme and overall feel of the show, but you know that when there’s a violin trill, something suspenseful is going to happen.

The voice acting for this show is over the top, but when I see some gangsters on screen, I can’t help but expect them to ham it up a little. The voice actors and actresses outdid themselves for this one, it’s really amazing, superlative if I may say so. Baccano! has an all-star cast, and I’ll list down a few of the bigger names and their most well-known other roles.

Firo is played by Hiroyuki Yoshino, who also plays Treize in Allison and Lilia, as well as Idris Tytania in Tytania.
Ladd Russo is played by veteran Keiji Fujiwara, who was Maes Hughes in Fullmetal Alchemist, Shuuji Hanamoto in Honey and Clover, Eichiro Kushima in Real Drive, mostly men in their 30s or 40s.
Eve Genoard is voiced by the very popular Marina Inoue, who was also Yoko in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Kana in Minami-ke, Cosette in Le Petite Shoujo Cosette, Iku Kasahara in Toshokan Sensou, and Chiri in Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, mostly strong girls, though not really in this case.
Chane (Sha-nay) Laforet (who doesn’t speak except in flashbacks) is voiced by Ryo Hirohashi, who was Alice Caroll in the Aria franchise, Rakka in Haibane Renmei (woohoo!), Saya in Seirei no Moribito, sort of quiet or observant yet feminine types.
Sanae Kobayashi provides Ennis’ voice, as well as Reika’s in Sousei no Aquarion, Lucy’s/Nyuu’s in Elfen Lied (woohoo again!), the titular character of Madlax, she’s quite versatile.
Yu Kobayashi is Nice (the French town) Holystone and is also Mariya Shidou from Maria+Holic and Kaere Kimura from Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.
Claire (it’s a man) Stanfield is played by Masakazu Morita, aka Ichigo from Bleach, though not very much else besides.

There are also numerous cameos or minor roles by: Daisuke Namikawa (Rock from Black Lagoon, Fai from Tsubasa) as Gerd Avaro; Shizuka Itou (Nadie in El Cazador de la Bruja) as Rachel (the informant) and Takehito Koyasu (Hotohori from Curious Play) as Luck Gandor.

A special mention must be made for Tomokazu Sugita, well-known for his roles as Hideki in Chobits, Kyon in The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi and Mayama in Honey and Clover, as he plays Graham Spector, a deranged, mad, should have been admitted years ago psycho in the three special DVD-only episodes.

Now for the characters, who I’ve put in a special ‘Keep reading for more’ section, since by now I’m sure you’ll have gotten tired of my rambling. I’ll just say, first of all, that Baccano! is not just an anime. It is something that someone who doesn’t like anime, who doesn’t like the entire medium of animation, will like. It is something which people who throw up at the sight of blood will enjoy, despite aforementioned gory bits. It is brilliant and unique in concept and follows through with excellent execution, and should not be missed by anyone.

 

In life…

Of all the people in the world,
There are those whose lips curl
At commoners;
Those whose heels are taller
Than their wit;
And those who plod along,
Like horses chewing their bits.

In life,
There are the leaders,
Wisionaries, Missionaries and Dictators.
They do the dreams of others,
And much else besides. No time for
Asides, waysides, fox hides.

Then come the followers,
Two by two, three by three,
Roots for the politic tree,
The religious bee, the
Stagehands of a ballet.

The dregs come next,
Always last to act,
Or, if first, last
To get done acting.
Beggars, choosers and losers.
And the odd dot-com
Entrepreneur.

Maybe another category is present,
Those who don’t regret, resent.
Neither prince nor peasant,
Hell-bound or heaven-sent.
To waft through life, content.
Not just their lives,
But the lives of others;
Leaving the merest odour, or scent,
And perhaps a half eaten hors d’oeurve.

 

Only Kings and players…

Once more, I am pleasantly surprised. Who would have known a show about chess could be so interesting. Not just any chess though, but shogi (将棋), the Japanese variant of the popular game. What I am talking about, is, of course, Shion no Ou (Shion’s King).

What makes this anime so interesting is the way it combines the classic ‘tournament sport’ genre with the detective mystery genre, and does it at an almost perfect level.

Shion is 13 years old. Eight years ago, her parents were murdered in front of her eyes. A shogi ‘King (technically general, but seeing as shogi has three types of generals)’ piece was found on her father’s forehead. She forced herself to forget the incident, and became mute as a result. Her next door neighbours adopted her, and encouraged her to take up the game, seeing as she is a natural at it.

The story starts with her on the way to becoming a professional ‘kishi’ (棋士). Quite a few characters are introduced, each of them with an interesting and complex background. Then the plot takes off and doesn’t stop until the very end. One of the few shows of any kind that has ever captivated me completely, it is almost a guilty pleasure, with a couple of red herrings, proper character development and a sensation of reality, merely through the playing of a board game.

The problem with writing a review for a show like this one is that one finds it difficult to discuss without going into the plot, and if one chooses to go into the plot, it is spoiled for everyone reading.

Animation-wise, it is quite standard for this day and age, having been produced in late 2007 to 2008 (Winter season). Crisp lines and expressive characters combined with a good use of colour to indicate mood bring this story to life. This is especially true of Shion herself since she is mute, and I commend the animators for making her character expressive. One small thing I noticed was that even indoors, during the shogi matches, they paid homage to older physical battle oriented tournament, with sudden winds popping up every time a player used an unexpected move or exceptional strategy, and hence, hair flying everywhere.

The shogi matches were quite well done, though it seems one has to properly understand the game mechanics and some terminology to really appreciate the subtlety of the gameplay. As another reviewer stated, they often focused the ‘camera’ on the faces of the players and spectators, instead of the board, leaving many viewers, I’m sure, confused. However, once I’d looked it up online and played a couple of games against the computer, I began to get the gist of it. After a few episodes, I got caught up in the tension of each game, with the interplay of personal and impersonal elements making every pairing unique and exciting.

The sound was quite well executed, with primarily classical music and some synth rhythm for flavour during intense matches. The opening is some J-Rock/Engrish (though not really bad Engrish) song which really doesn’t do much as an introduction, because the overall tone is much softer than one might expect after listening to it. The ending is worse, with a generic J-Pop tune that really doesn’t do much for me.

Voice acting, though, is where the producers got it right. Every character is believable from the start, and even Shion’s voice actress does a bang-up job with the few lines of inner monologue she has during each game. Romi Paku makes an appearance as Ayumi Saito (lighter blue hair in the pic above) who has a very interesting secret.

As I’ve mentioned, the characters really make this anime shine, with Shion providing the quiet, unassuming base of the story, with her tragic background, until she achieves self-realisation in the final episodes. Her foster parents, the Yasuokas (whose last name she now shares) are very well done, her mother is overprotective and her father quite a highly-ranked player himself. There is her father’s apprentice, Hisatani, who is the elder sibling figure for her, though later she surpasses him in skill.

And of course in every sports or game based show, there must be rivals. Saito is one of them, Saori Nikaido is the other. Saito gets fleshed out early on, with plenty of screentime. Saori is shallower, though she becomes a welcome friend to Shion, black haired in the picture above. Rounding out the cast of kishi are the Meijin (名人) (the highest and most prestigious rank for professional players), Makoto Hani; and the 9th dan Osamu Kamizono (an alcoholic and also Saito’s master)

Also integral to the plot are Satoru Hani, the Meijin’s estranged younger brother and the two police officers still investigating Shion’s case, whose names I can’t recall and aren’t very important anyway since everyone calls them ‘Detective’ in conversation.

Several characters in this rather large ensemble cast truly evolve throughout the series, with some becoming tragic rather than hateful, passionate instead of greedy, and, notably, the villain emerges from his ‘cool’ shell as an utter madman.

The plot is perfect and perfectly paced. I felt completely satisfied after finishing the last episode, and the production team is to be commended for it. Shogi matches take place frequently and somehow managed to draw me into the palpable atmosphere during the tournament, especially in the last half-dozen episodes, where the plot unravels itself to a final episode climax. As it is not an episodic series, I cannot say much more without giving away critical story elements, so I’ll stop there.

Somehow, this odd hybrid of a series, with chess as a focus, manages to be entirely entertaining without being at all tiresome. Again, the only small grouse I have is that shogi is too complex a game for laypeople to grasp, and without being able to see the board, even more difficult. But this is easy to forgive once viewers have been caught up by the drama and endearing courage that surrounds Shion and her shogi.

By the way, this is a standard shogi board with pieces laid out, and some notes beneath:

The side facing you shows the starting pieces and positions and the side facing away shows the promoted pieces in the same order. The pedestals at the side are where captured pieces are placed.

From left to right, or right to left, in the first row from you, are, the lance, the knight, the silver general, the gold general and the king.
In the second row are the bishop on the left and the rook on the right.
The third row is where each player’s nine pawns are placed. As you can see, the pieces can easily be distinguished according to size, and pieces for both players are identical, except the kings. One king is the reigning general (王将), the player of whom is the second to move, and the jade general (玉将) who, in effect, is challenging the reigning general, and therefore first to move.

Some differences from international chess: the lance moves in a straight line forwards, any number of spaces; pawns move forwards one space only and capture in the same way; the silver general can move one square diagonally or one square forward, hence five possible destinations; the gold general moves one square orthogonally or one square diagonally forward, hence six possible destinations. The knight jumps one row and moves one space diagonally forward, and like most pieces, cannot move in reverse.

Promotion:
Once any piece (except the gold general and the king) has moved to the opponent’s ‘home rows’, there is a choice to promote that piece. Pawns, lances, knights and silver generals are promoted to gold generals. The rook and the bishop gain the ability to move like a king in addition to their own capabilities, making them especially valuable.

Capture:
Once any piece is captured, it is returned to it’s unpromoted state, and retained for later use by the capturing player. A noted chess writer attributes this to mercenaries who switched alliances rather than be executed when captured. Pieces can then be dropped anywhere on the board to give an advantage where needed. Pieces can be captured and dropped any number of times. This can lead to a true numerical advantage in late-game scenarios, making for an added layer of complexity and strategy, due to a single drop being able to alter the course of a game.

There are a few restrictions when it comes to dropping pawns:
A pawn cannot be dropped in and column where there is an unpromoted pawn controlled by the same player, and a pawn cannot be dropped to give immediate checkmate, though other pieces can.

It is interesting to note the hierarchy of the pieces and the way they are traditionally written (Here in terms of intrinsic value):

King: 王将, 玉将 (Reigning general and jade general; current ruler and challenger for the throne.)

Rook: 飛車 (Flying chariot.)
Promoted Rook: 龍王 (Dragon king.)

Bishop: 角行 (Travels through corners. Apt, no?)
Promoted Bishop: 龍馬 (Dragon Horse.)

Gold general: 金将 (No difference.)

Silver general: 銀将 (No difference.)
Promoted Silver general: 成銀 (Uh, promoted silver, though on the piece it says whole (全), as you can see above.)

Knight: 桂馬 (Cassia (?) horse)
Promoted knight: 成桂 (Promoted cassia, though on the piece it’s written differently in a difficult to read cursive as today (今).)

Lance: 香車 (Fragrant chariot.)
Promoted lance: 成香 (Promoted fragrance/incense, though on the piece, again, it’s written in a difficult to read cursive as (仝).)

Pawn: 歩兵 (Infantry.)
Promoted pawn: と金 (Achieved gold. On the piece it merely says achieved, possibly accomplished. と is pronounced to (toe).)

Players of this game are divided into professional and amateur leagues, and for a long time (until 2006, in fact), there was male-female segregation. The male and female leagues still exist, but female players are now allowed to join the male professional league.

The amateur league has ranks from 15 kyū (級, Kyū) to 1 kyū and then from 1 dan upwards. The professional leagues have their own ranks, starting from 4 dan to 9 dan and are offset from the amateur ranks.

,

 

Running in heels…

is what Superintendent Ryoko Yakushiji does. She kicks ass in them too.

It’s not often I find something that utterly captivates me, but this anime series managed to, in the best way possible. It’s called Yakushiji Ryoko no Kaiki Jikenbo (薬師寺涼子の怪奇事件簿) or Ryoko Yakushiji’s Strange Case Files (hereafter referred to as Yaku). It follows the exploits of Superintendent Ryoko Yakushiji of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police in her investigations of unusual cases, the kind regular cops can’t handle. Her sidekick: Long-suffering Assistant Inspector Junichiro Izumida.

First, some background. It is around the present day, with two major security firms making up 80% of the market share in Japan and throughout Asia, one is JACES and the other is the NPP (Japan Private Police, Japan -> Nippon). JACES was founded by Ryoko’s grandfather before WW2 as the Japanese Empire Security Service, and so, with her father currently head of the company, she has it’s considerable resources to call upon where the police fall short.

More on Ryoko: A Law graduate from Tokyo University, she is multilingual, well-versed in the use of firearms and a competent martial artist. She looks like this (front and centre, in red):

When you have so many defining traits in one character, there exists the possibility that said character will spontaneously turn into a Mary-Sue. From the outset, this seems to be the case. Ryoko just might be the most arrogant female lead I’ve seen in an anime of this genre. She orders everyone around because she can (and also because JACES has informants everywhere so she has all kinds of dirt on people), and freely makes use of her familial connections to further her own ends. Nevertheless she is in fact a supremely competent investigator and has a strong sense of justice, regardless of how she achieves it.

Asst. Insp. Izumida begins some episodes with a narration, usually ‘I am Junichiro Izumida, and I am Ryoko Yakushiji’s …, or so it seems.’ with ‘loyal retainer’, ‘butler’, ‘confidant’, or whatever else might be pertinent taking the place of the ‘…’. He seems to be the one through which we see most of the series, with a few monologues detaling his thoughts on her treating him like a slave. As you might have guessed, he’s standing back to back with her in the picture above. However, he is utterly loyal to her, and it is shown that she possesses considerable leadership abilities. She also happens to be infatuated with him which makes for a couple of amusing scenes and a very poignant turning point in the plot.

Working alongside him are Asst. Insp. Mario Abe, another subordinate; Inspector Maruoka, an older man who has also been placed under Ryoko; and a uniformed officer, Satomi Kaizuka, who handles most of the paperwork. They provide some colourful dialogue here and there but this 13 episode series doesn’t provide enough screen-time to properly flesh them out.

While Ryoko works in the investigative section of the Metropolitan Police, her onetime classmate and sometime rival, Yukiko Muromachi, also a superintendent, is part of the security section, and their jobs often cross since Ryoko’s investigation of corrupt officials brings her into contact with men Yukiko is supposed to be escorting. Yukiko is the straight (wo)man to Ryoko’s disregard of the rules, and much of their conflict arises from this. However, they have some fun conversations which eventually show how much they value each other as colleagues. This is especially true in the last episode, where Yukiko snaps in the heat of the moment, going completely nuts because she envies Ryoko’s ‘gung-ho-ness’ and dual wielding assault rifles to great effect. She recovers later on though. (Dang.) In the pic above, she’s in blue with glasses. She’s assisted by Akira Kishimoto, a weak-willed and, frankly quite useless character who idolises Ryoko.

Ryoko being the rich girl that she is, has maids. Not just any maids, but a pair of them imported from France. So French maids… Yay. Of course this is a chance to showcase her multilingual skills, and we are treated to some oddly accented conversations between the three of them. And her maids aren’t just maids, more like spec ops people posing as maids. This again, is used in a near comic scene towards the end of the anime. Lucienne (blonde, hacker) and Marianne (NRA rep girl with guns) are dangling off a helicopter in the pic above.

Enough about the characters, though it is quite a character driven drama. There are crimes occuring in Tokyo. Strange ones. Am I being redundant? Ah, well.

This may sound like your average supernatural crime thriller, but it’s not. It is firmly grounded in science, or at least pseudo-science. People dessicating on the street? It’s not a curse but actually an experiment with hormones or something! People commiting suicide for no reason? Nothing paranormal about it – a previously unknown species of cricket that emits radio waves that cause depression when received on a cellphone! You’re thinking ‘what?!’ right now, aren’t you.

This could have been a comedy had it chosen to be, with the amount of suspension of disbelief one has to put up with to watch it. However, it chooses to take itself completely seriously, and with excellent voice-acting (except the aforementioned French bits) making for expressive and believeable characters, it really took me by surprise.

When I looked it up on Wikipedia, I learned that this series was originally released as light novels, beginning in 1996, and also a manga in 2004, this anime, however, only came out in July 2008. All three follow different continuities and plots, albeit with the same main characters. Ryoko’s Case Files was created by none other than Yoshiaki Tanaka, of Legend of Galactic Heroes fame.

LoGH is renowned in Japan as being their answer to Western space opera, it is an unusual thing, in that it spanned 110 direct-to-video episodes over the course of 9 YEARS (1988 to 1997). Hence it is possibly the longest-running OVA series ever. I’d love to watch that some day, but it’s really a bit too much. However I’ve heard a lot about it’s complex plot, deep characters and brilliant pacing, and Yakushiji Ryoko no Kaiki Jikenbo seems to follow this formula.

The thing that immediately caught my attention, even from the first episode, was the opening and ending themes, or rather lack thereof. Most anime are characterised by utilising pop idols to gather publicity through the use of singles as themes. This anime does not. The opening and ending credits are jazz/swing pieces with a little scat singing and a healthy dose of style, providing an excellent intro and outro to every episode. The background music is in the same tone and helps with the immersive nature of this kind of crime drama, as I mentioned, I was drawn in from the start.

The artwork is another area where I’d like to compliment the creator and animators. As a commenter in a forum mentioned, it is almost vector-like in it’s use of light and colour, and the cliched phrase ‘less is more’ comes to mind. Focus is practically always on the characters, although if you choose to pause at any time (your loss – breaking the flow of the story) you will see that backgrounds are just as lovingly detailed.

Plotwise, it seems relatively episodic from the beginning, though in the last two episodes (actually a two-part), almost everything seen earlier makes an appearance. I mentioned earlier that this series is grounded in fact, but I lied a little, there are some pseudo-scientific ramblings about alchemy and such, but for me it’s not a major bone of contention. I might also mention that Ryoko is nicknamed (by her subordinates) WTED Ryoko with WTED standing for Walks-Through-Even-Dracula because she fears nothing, and SLD (Summons-Like-Dracula) because strange occurrences tend to be drawn to her (I.e. she ’summons’ things from the nether).

This is on my ‘Best of 2008′ list, for three reasons: tone, content and Ryoko herself. A must watch. Period.

 

Obligatory ‘just returned after night of debauchery’ post.

The year: 2009. You know what I mean.

The time: 4.23 AM sharp.

Status: Beat, bushed, aching, sore, graaah!, feet…, shoulders…, vocal chords…

It’s been 10 minutes, roughly, since I got back. It’s been eight nine almost ten hours since I left. I am tired. Please forgive short sentences, bad grammar, sp. mistakes. Can’t be bothered atm. I ache. From around 8.45 till the end of the year, I was at Victoria Embankment, mostly rocking on my heels to ward off the cold in (I think) -2 Celsius temperatures. With only a handful of Fox’s Glacier Mints for sustenance. Uh huh.

Anyhow, I was with a bunch of ex-Wesleyans, Albert, Kenneth, Kuo Jian and some others. Together we saw in the New Year. All the while avoiding horse shit; drunks spouting nonsense; lovers joined at the hip and unwilling to separate under any circumstances, thus forcing us to walk around them; noisy kids trying to speak faux-Chinese at us. It was like Hell, if Hell was frozen over. If England was Hell and Hell was England, maybe the English (Hellish) would have more to talk about than the weather.

I’m not trying to give the impression that I regret going, though I only made the concious decision to go at about 6.30. (I was lazy.) The music was bad, the DJs were obnoxious and the fireworks were awesome. That’s a helluva lot of money going up right there, was what I was thinking. But dazzling all the same. Apparently LG leased the ‘best projection system in Europe’ and put up a looping slideshow on the Shell building behind the London Eye. Towards the end, though, the individual projectors started lagging and going out of sync.

Ah, there were some kind words put up on screen by the Mayor of London; an older woman who, I believe, is in the USA and blew kisses at everyone (disturbing even the second and third times); The Simpsons (best one, obviously, lots of fun stuff about the recession and American bailout schemes.); Rio Ferdinand (why, just why?); Jamie Oliver (ditto.); an ex-hippie lady (OH, SAVE THE RAINFORESTS! IT’S 2009! SAVE YOURSELVES!); Rod Stewart (what?); some BBC person and Michael Caine (again, what?). This looped twice and was changed a little for the final broadcast.

Eh, well, eventually (it seemed like a lifetime) Big Ben’s minute hand (MOVE FASTER DAMN YOU!) got to the 12 when the hour hand was nearly there. Then a timer with a fuse running round it showed up on screen and I was stuck remembering V for Vendetta. Then it was 10, 9, … etc. 0. YAY 2009. BOOM. Nah. Not really. Things like that never happen in real life except for things like 9/11. Oh well. I enter the 20th year of my life. Whoop-de-doo.

Kenneth and I went to Victoria Station, reaching there around 1.25. We had McD’s. I left at about 2, towards Temple, where I thought I’d catch a bus back. Dead wrong. It was 2.30 when I realised the police were putting up cones so the cleaner trucks could do their thing. So I took the District line back to Embankment station, switched for the Bakerloo and went down to Elephant and Castle to catch my bus. I arrived there at about 3. The bus didn’t until 4. And the people. Oh my god.

So I arrived back at halls in a rather tired and foul mood, thinking nasty thoughts about the 1812 Overture and putting on my best smile for the receptionist. Anyhow I came up with a couple of lists, since people should list down what they want to forget.

9 kinds of drunk people:

1. Drunk and spouting profanities
2. Drunk and making out (straight)
3. Drunk and making out (not straight)
4. Drunk and can’t walk straight
5. Drunk with a harmonica (Oh, my ears…)
6. Drunk kicking a box (Ouch, my leg…)
7. Drunk and throwing up (On the bus…)
8. Drunk and saying ‘Happy New Year’ (Multiple)
9. Drunk and smoking (and almost set fire to himself)

That’s all for now, TTFN. Sleepy time.

 

Painted Black, Redux. aka A Red Door.

It’s time for another post filled with randomosity! (Which, admittedly, I haven’t had many of but feel like it’s about time for one.)

This morning, I was thinking about beverages, the consumption of. Well, rather I was thinking about the refilling of glasses and such. Now, when we drink something, usually there’ll be a little left over at the bottom, the dregs so to speak. And especially in Chinese restaurants the waiters are, I believe, paid to burn their patrons tongues (not to mention palettes) with permanently hot tea, and therefore top up your little cup as frequently as possible.

Thus, I wonder, every time you top up a drink, perhaps 10 or 15 glasses down the line, is there any of your original drink left over? (I know this is the basic tenet of homeopathic remedies, but when applied to a common beverage…) So, is there a part of your drink which never, ever gets drunk?

I know from statistical probability and turbulent flow theory and Brownian motion, that the bit at the bottom is unlikely to stay there due to convection currents (besides random particulate motion), but nevertheless, due to adhesion, some ought to stick to the sides bottom and therefore never come towards the mouth…

It’s a scary thought. This little bit of whatever it is, stuck to the bottom of the glass, like the entrepeneur who thought the dot com business was a good thing 10 years ago and still thought it when he was forcibly evicted from his apartment 28th storey penthouse.

On a sidenote, Twix is awesome. Another sidenote, Sainsbury’s is awesome for selling Twix. Another another sidenote, Sainsbury’s prices are great. ‘Cos when you can get seven (technically 5+2 free) twinpacks of Twix for £ 1.50, well YAY. And Schweppes Diet Lemonade was going at two bottles for £ 1.00. W0ot! And as usual, Sainsbury’s juices are sold at 3l (i.e. 3×1l cartons, any 1l cartons) for £ 4.

Oh, in this post I’ve written one ‘o’ as a zero. If anyone can find it you get… well, nothing concrete but you get a choice between a fuzzy feeling of satisfaction and an e-cookie.

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Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Mick Jagger’s mouth is huge! And Keith Richard is awesome!

Richards made a cameo appearance as Captain Teague, the father of Captain Jack Sparrow (played by Johnny Depp), in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, released in May 2007,and won the Best Celebrity Cameo award at the 2007 Spike Horror Awards for the role. Depp has stated that he based many of Sparrow’s mannerisms on Richards.

- Wikipedia

I had no idea…

EDIT: I just realized Jack Sparrow’s ship is called the Black Pearl. Oh. My. God. PAINT IT, BLACK FTW!!!!! The Rolling Stones forever!

 

Frankenstein’s Monster Actually…

I found something on Newgrounds recently which is an example of fun ranting about bad movies. I.e. Twilight. Yes that Twilight. I read the book. Holy ****. At the time, I didn’t consider it to be much of anything, but with more and more hype and squealing fangirls clogging up the Interwebs due to the release of the movie, it’s high time someone said something.

Be warned, strong language – 15+.

The more I think about it, the more Twilight seems like an adolescent wish for a fantastic (and by fantastic I mean fantasy-like) life. By the time you get to the second, third and fourth books (which admittedly I have not read but have had to rely on my sis for summaries thereof), it just feels forced. Come on. Say it with me, ‘Die already, will you, you stupid useless sparkly hairy Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu oh for goodness’ sake prats!’

So yeah. VAMPIRES AND WEREWOLVES SHOULD JUST GET ALONG. Dammit. Besides, everyone knows Frankenstein’s Monster played by Robert de Niro pwns all.

 

Whistling round the world.

Unfortunately I cannot take credit for the above title, because it comes from the lyrics for a Japanese (Engrish rather) song – ROCKY CHACK’s Wolf Whistling Song, which was used as the ending theme for the anime Wolf and Spice (Ookami to Koushinryou).

This is one of the most fun and relaxing examples of the genre I’ve seen, ever. The setting: medieval times, the Church is in power and wandering merchants ply their trade between the scattered towns and villages. In fact, many of the episodes have something to do with trade and the inevitable haggle. This may be due to the fact that the main character, called Craft (Kraft?) Lawrence is a trader. Basically, it is about the microeconomics of the medieval period. ‘What the hell,’ you say? Read on please.

In the course of wandering around trying to make a profit, he picks up a pagan wolf spirit called Holo (Horo?). She has been the fertility goddess of a small village for centuries, but now wants to return to the colder climes of the North where she was born (or something like that) since human invented planting techniques and such have made her obsolete. Of course, being the opportunistic bastard that he is (alright, actually he’s a really nice guy), Lawrence isn’t just going to let her freeload. Luckily she turns out to have a quick wit and deep insight into the human psyche, and manages to pull her weight. She appears mostly as a 15 year old anthropomorphic wolf (classic ears and tail stuff) but can transform into a 12 foot tall red wolf.

If this show was all about haggling and bargaining, it would get rather stale after a few episodes. Thankfully, religion saves the day. Earlier I said the Church was in power. Now, having a pagan wolf spirit running around is going to ruin the credibility of anyone who promotes monotheism, and so we have a subplot about the two protagonists evading the religious authority as well as their economic partners who are hoping to get rewards from turning her in

Combine this with another subplot where a minor noble and his trading firm are hoping to make a profit from buying and selling coinage in anticipation of a city-state revaluing and reminting it’s currency and there’s quite a bit going on. And that’s just ther first half of this 13 episode series.

However the focus remains solidly on the relationship between Lawrence and Holo, and some business dealings of theirs, her obsession with apples, his obsession with eventually settling down and opening his own store, and so on.

At the beginning, the pastoral feel of this show really helped me relax after hours spent on solving equations combining Taylor expansions with complex numbers through judicious use of Euler’s formula (one of his formulae anyway). Then the characters started to capture my imagination and it went uphill from there.

The animation isn’t amazing by today’s standards, and Holo’s wolf transformation especially is done hastily and then skipped over by showing shadows and whatnot, but it serves it’s purpose as well as can be expected since it isn’t being done by a major studio (IMAGIN, which has never produced a full anime solo before). Lawrence’s character design is nothing new as well, and most of the side characters are generic except this guy with long sideburns.

Voice acting is not bad, with noted voice actor Jun Fukuyama (who’s really been working quite hard, I think he’s had half a dozen leading roles this year alone, Code Geass; Special A; Ghost Hound and aww hell there’s too many.) and voice actress Ami Koshimizu (Special A and Code Geass again, as well as School Rumble) taking the lead roles.

Soundwise, Wolf and Spice has a functional set of background music which tries very hard to go unnoticed and succeeds. It’s quite pastoral for the most part and works very well with the subject matter. The opening and ending are perfect for this anime though, possibly the best combination of the year. Opening every episode is Tabi no Tochu (In the Middle of a Journey) by Natsumi Kiyoura that’s a nice quiet J-Pop song. The ending, though is the most fun song done for anime in almost forever. Beatles-esque lyrics with a simple rhythm and soft vocals highlight the tone the creators wanted to portray.

Here it is: The Wolf Whistling Song by ROCKY CHACK.

Lyrics:
Seven apples on a witch’s tree
With seven seeds to plant inside of me
In springtime I grew a magic song
Then skipping along, oh I sang the song to everyone

I looked at the world through apple eyes
And cut myself a slice of sunshine pie
I danced with the peanut butterflies

Till time went and told me to say hello but wave goodbye
A thousand sugar stars
Oh put them in a jar
And then whistle round the world
Oh whistle round the world
I’m a little wolf inside a girl, you say
And off I’ll go from June to May
Oh whistling round the world

I met a golden swan upon the road
Who was a handsome prince, so I was told
I asked it the way to yesterday
Then I was a sailor, and through the day I sailed away

Bluebird seas I sailed
With mermaids riding whales
Oh whistle round the world
Oh whistle round the world
I’m a little wolf inside a girl, you say
And off I’ll go down Wonder Way
Oh whistling round the world

Through apple eyes
Oh there are rose-coloured skylines
Where flying silver spoons
Eat melting marmalade moons

Through apple eyes
I see for millions of miles
The sun’s a diamond shining
In the nighttime of a summer day

A thousand sugar stars
Oh put them in a jar
And then whistle round the world
Oh whistle round the world
I’m a little wolf inside a girl, you say
And off I’ll go (I can not stay)
Oh whistling round the world
Let’s whistle round the world
Whistle round the world

The piano bit at the beginning reminds me of ELO’s Mr Blue Sky up until the sibilant ’s’ which marks the the first word of both songs.

Oh, hooray for my second review piece. Also, I think this is my longest entry yet.

PS:

If you don’t get this, you probably haven’t watched: Space Pirate Captain Harlock

Or perhaps: Queen Emeraldas

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