tired

Life is busy. One semester ends and the next one starts straight after, and I'm studying stupidly long hours again. I keep meaning to write something, but then I don't. No loss to anyone, I'm sure. Orientation weeks are always terrible experiences, and 9-5 lectures on barely relevant topics make each day feel like a small eternity. Thank god that's over.

I'm taking the day off tomorrow and flying to Melbourne for an early weekend. I hope it's nice there.

Me skipping out on class tomorrow

Getting annoyed at the internet

I'm all for a certain amount of elitism when it comes to online communities. Lurking seems to be a lost art these days, and a healthy dose of hostility towards those who obviously haven't put any effort into learning the etiquette for a particular community can be a good thing. And as much as people constantly deny it, it works. On boards like /a/ you still see posts by people that are painfully new, and they're often ridiculed for using emoticons, told to watch Boku no Pico, told that their favourite anime is shit and all the rest of it. But the fact that the only posts that stand out are from people who are very new suggests that they quickly leave, or they stay and learn the ways of the community. (/jp/ is a possible exception, with all the ironic shitposting xD I honestly can't tell who's who any more.)

That's all well and good, but it annoys me when this elitism seeps into other areas. I'm referring largely to people dismissing anime as being mainstream, for plebs, [word]shit, and so on. I'm aware that it's largely just trolling, or what passes for trolling these days, but it does make it hard to have a meaningful discussion if the topic of discussion can just be dismissed as being, say, haremshit. Why are harem anime intrinsically bad? Cue the circular reasoning. What if you criticise something for being needlessly and pointlessly complex? It's clearly 3deep5u. On the other hand if the plot seems a bit too superficial, well you're just a DEEPfag. Anything that has any female fans must be fujoshit, and the only possible way you could like something like Madoka is if it's the first anime you've ever watched - babby's first, if you will. "Otaku pandering" is another great one, which can pretty much be applied to any title ever, and let's not even get started on the 2ch imports like niwaka and chuuni.

The worst offenders at the moment tend to be the MATURE ANIME FOR MATURE PEOPLE SUCH AS MYSELF type, who can get quite aggressive against anything that doesn't live up to their sophisticated standards - mostly stuff that you'd call shounen or moe. Upotte!! didn't look very interesting to me, I enjoyed Nyarlko but would hardly call it a masterpiece, but calling people morons for liking these shows is a bit off base. I don't think that anyone would argue that these shows are great literary works, but they can still be enjoyable and (dare I say) fun*. I like the more complex shows too, but that doesn't mean I look for intellectual validation from every show I watch. These shows certainly have their flaws but if you want to talk about them you'll have to make a stronger starting point than "moeshit".

One of the things I really like about 4chan is the unfiltered nature of it. If someone's an idiot, you can tell them as much. But this doesn't mean a whole lot if you don't also tell them why they're an idiot, and that's something that's best done with more than just a one-word label. Don't get me wrong, I still much prefer it to the forum-style heavily moderated approach ("you say it's bad but i don't see YOU making better anime :)") as well as the more "intellectual" forum approach that requires you to write a damn essay every time you want to make a point, but there's got to be a happy medium. And despite the problems, I still much prefer 4chan to other forums/boards.

I guess I'll just blame it all on summer, put on my nostalgia goggles and relive the glory days of the past. Remember when /a/ was good? /a/ was never good.

*I think that it's perfectly valid to enjoy something without being able to explain why, but you're still stupid if you bring that up in a discussion thread. It's no more conducive to discussion than any of the words and phrases I'm complaining about.

I could also rant about how the internet at large doesn't understand what the fuck an opinion is, but I think I'll stop for now and leave you with a picture of the alert system at the hospital I'm at.

>implying we need a nurse in the female bathroom

I want winter to leave

My weekend was a little bit of a disaster. Late last week my external hard drive died, and so did the power adapter for my laptop. This was very annoying at the time, and meant that instead of spending the weekend playing Diablo 3 and Dota 2 at home, I had to chase around new parts on short notice as well as frantically try and organise a whole lot of unrelated administrative stuff (where I'm studying next month, next year, and some parts in between). The real downer is that I'm only getting every other weekend off at the moment, so I won't be going home for another two weeks.

It's not all bad though, I at least grabbed enough new shows/games to keep me entertained in the meantime. And when I got back to my accommodation just an hour ago, one of the nurses I'm staying with told me she's cooking a stew for everyone tomorrow, which will be a very welcome break from instant noodles.

I finished Symphonic Rain earlier last week. I didn't like it as much as I hoped I would (vague spoilers follow). The end of Fal's route seemed like a big "fuck you" to the reader, and the "twist" at the end of Lise's wouldn't have happened if the protagonist hadn't been a complete moron. Seriously, I'm all for twists and sad endings and what have you, but there's nothing particularly gripping about a "rocks fall, your love interest dies" type scenario.

Torta's and Phorni's routes were better (no surprise as they're the main girls) and the events towards the end of their stories weren't nearly as out-of-nowhere. I predicted what would happen beforehand, but it's not a massive twist or anything so it didn't matter. I liked the game music, didn't particularly care for the art though.

Next is Deardrops. I liked Kirakira, so we're off to a promising start at least.

I've also watched the first couple of episodes of Horizon. I have no idea what's going on, but I'll keep watching.

Have a good week.

Backlog

One of the (few) perks of having terrible terrible internet is that I've found myself watching a lot more anime and playing a lot more games in my free time. With decent internet I find myself wasting most of my time just sort of browsing around different sites, so this temporary change of pace is quite nice. Well, not nice, but bearable.

Over the last two weeks I've watched two shows from my backlog: Baccano! and Kaiba. Only two? It doesn't actually seem a lot, but I had a lot of shows from this season to catch up on, and some assignments to complete as well.

I didn't go into Baccano expecting a lot. I'd seen Durarara, by the same author, and thought it was above average but nothing amazing. I remember liking the first half of the series but feeling that it dragged a bit towards the end, and I didn't much care for some of the characters. The first episode of Baccano didn't do much to change my mind, it was very hectic and I wasn't quite sure what was going on. I'm glad I stuck with it though, because as the cast were introduced and the plot was set into motion, I was getting hooked. I liked pretty much all the characters. Isaac and Miria were great, and I also liked Ladd, Claire, Rachel, the various mafia families, I could go on. The English/Italian names were a bit dubious though, with "Jacuzzi Splot" being one of the odder ones.

I'm glad I finally watched it, I thought the show was pretty damn good, and definitely better than Durarara.

No context needed

Kaiba on the other hand was a show I had quite high hopes for: I loved Tatami Galaxy and Mind Game, both also directed by Yuasa. Kaiba certainly had a pretty distinct art style to it - the detail was kept low, and outlines and body shapes were kept fairly loose. The music was very atmospheric starting from the OP, which was pretty good for having English lyrics sung by a non-native speaker. The setting and story itself were both very interesting, with the amnesiac protagonist escaping from his pursuers across multiple worlds and bodies while trying to find out who he is. There were lots of side characters along the way, and I felt really quite attached to some of them even if they might have only been in a single episode.

The last few episodes were a bit hard to follow in parts, and some of the revelations were a bit unexpected. It was a very good show, though I probably preferred Tatami Galaxy (yes I know they're not exactly comparable).


I've also been playing a bit of Master of Orion 2. My laptop isn't very powerful but it can handle DOS games at least. I'm not very good at the game yet, though I'm sure I'd be better if I didn't keep running my colony ship into the Guardian in the very early game. It turns out it's usually best to scout with scouts rather than very expensive non-combat units. My race of rock-eating fish-men-things would live to see another day, thanks to the easy AI very much living up to its name.

I'm also going to finally start on my VN backlog, like I've been meaning to for ages. I have Symphonic Rain and Deardrops installed, and I think I'll start with Symphonic Rain as soon as I'm done with this post.

Oh, and after reading the comments on my last post I downloaded Sakamichi no Apollon and Natsuiro Kiseki. Then completely forgot to transfer them to my external hard drive. If I were an anime girl I'd probably bump myself on the head while sticking my tongue out to the side and making a cute noise right about now.

It's a bit late in the season to be talking about what I'm watching, but with my posting schedule it can't be helped.

Fate/Zero - No explanation needed really. I'm always hearing about how the novels did things better, but having not read them I'm very happy with the quality of the anime. We're heading towards the climax now and I'm expecting some amazing scenes for the final battles. Lancer got the short end of the stick (lance?) as expected, but there's always his forbidden love with Fast Wheels.

Hyouka - It's as much about mystery as K-On! was about music, but I'm ok with that. Chitanda's dangerously cute and as far as Male Highschool Protagonists go I much prefer them lazy than oblivious. I'm a little worried about it being 21 episodes; time will tell if it holds my attention that long.

Kore wa Zombie desu ka? of the Dead - Still as funny as the first season. It's rare that I find anime funny let alone me actually laughing at it, but I do with this show all the time. It's a shame it's got such a short run this season.

Lupin the Third - I like the way it's drawn, and I like the episodic tales of thievery, but dear lord Fujiko you truly never pass up an opportunity to get your tits out. I feel like there should be a gap between being a femme fatale, using her body to get what she wants, and being some sort of nudist who walks around everywhere naked just because.

Saki: Achiga-hen - Less superpowers than the first season so far, but more ridiculous clothing. The characters aren't as memorable as the crew from the main series, and there's been much less time spent on the other schools involved in the competition. The amount of lesbianism has remained constant though. I just wish the manga author would hurry up so we could have a proper season 2 already.

She is wearing a jacket and shoes. Nothing else. You'd think she'd get cold.

Sankarea - I came for the promise of zombie Saten. They do look pretty similar, even their names sound alike (Sanka Rea, Saten Ruiko). Aside from her the show's watchable but hardly spectacular. I still don't know much about the protagonist apart from him having an obsession with zombies.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia - I wasn't sure if this was meant to be a horror or not at first, but no it's a highschool comedy with some horror elements. The Japanese do like to mix their horror with comedy, which I've always found a little strange, they don't naturally go together. The show's heavy on the fanservice (not Nise-heavy, just regular heavy) but the story and the characters are interesting in their own right.

I'm not watching either of the noitaminA shows, nor am I watching Polar Bear Cafe. There's no real reason for this, I just never picked them up. If you're watching any of them, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Every time.

I've been playing a lot of Diablo 3 lately. I bought it on release day, which was a terrible choice. The login screen took me a good few hours to get through and in retrospect I could probably have done better things with my night than sitting at the computer pressing Ctrl-V-Enter-Enter until my wrists were sore. Now that the servers are (mostly) working it's been quite fun. I'm playing with a few friends that I played Diablo 2 with back in high school and we've just hit level 60 and are onto the hardest difficulty. My character's a wizard, and it's pretty satisfying spamming various flashy spells at groups of hapless enemies until they explode. I hope the difficulty ramps up a bit though, because so far it's been pretty easy apart from the occasional group of bullshit elites that just kill me over and over. The server lag doesn't help.

I'm a bit worried about the longevity of the game too. In Diablo 2 getting to level 99 was a far-off goal that took months of playing, and few ever achieved it. In Diablo 3 getting to level 60 is a few weeks worth of playing. Both games are all about grinding for loot, but I think it's good to still have some sort of longterm goal rather than just always aiming to get higher numbers on weapons. Maybe beating inferno mode will be that goal, I'm yet to see how hard that is. I do hear that it gets pretty damn tough, which is encouraging.

I won't be playing it much in the near future though. From next week I'm going to a small rural town for 6 weeks. It's not like I'll be completely removed from civilisation (I get a wireless modem with 2GB of internet quota!) but my old laptop isn't up for much besides web browsing and watching video.

I walked past here the other day and saw this, it made me think of /jp/.

Take it easy.

Lest I Forget (to update this blog)

Public holidays in the middle of the week should really happen more often. Being able to sleep in on a Wednesday morning is a rare pleasure.

The last few weeks have been pretty hectic for me. Being on placement some 40km away from home is really making me realise how much I took it for granted when I could get to uni in a 15 minute bus ride. Now it's a 45 minute commute in the morning, and longer on the way home if I'm a bit late leaving and get caught up in the rush hour traffic. I don't really mind the time that much (at least I can listen to music and relax), but the fuel costs are putting the pressure on, especially since my car isn't very fuel efficient in the first place (~$100 a week).

The riverside "express"way. It would be about 5 more minutes before I got to that  overpass.

To make matters worse, last week I noticed my car felt a bit funny to drive. I was still half asleep so I didn't think too much of it, but as I drove it really started feeling bumpy, so I had to try and get through the traffic and off onto a sidestreet, where a quick look confirmed my suspicion: I had an incredibly flat tyre. Now, and I know this may come as a bit of a shock to you, I'm not very mechanically inclined. I knew there was a spare in the boot, but I had no idea what to do with it, so I had to call for roadside assistance. I then had to sit in my car twiddling my thumbs for an hour and a half before the guy showed up and changed the tyres over so I could get to my classes. I was worried about getting into trouble for being late, but thankfully everyone was understanding.

I then went to a tyre shop where the guy took a look at my flat and told me, rather succinctly, "Tyre's fucked mate". So in the end I had to pay almost $150 for a new one - I was almost definitely ripped off but by that stage I just wanted to get the problem sorted and not have to think about it any more.

Thank god I have exams in two weeks and that'll be the end of that placement. Of course my next one is even further away, but at least I get accommodation out there for the duration.

Late September? Heaps of time!

It's a good thing my figure preorders aren't coming in for a few months, I'm counting on being able to scrape the money together somehow. I'm looking at a pretty expensive May order (Panty and Saber Motored Cuirassier - I spelled that wrong and the first spellcheck suggestion was "circumciser". That's not a Saber figure I ever want to see made) but I should just be able to afford it, and then I've got nothing coming in until the end of July.

delicious Aoko

My copy of Mahou Tsukai no Yoru came in just a few days ago, and I'm excited to play through it. I've heard mixed opinions, though I'm trying to steer clear of internet discussion just to avoid spoiling myself. I'm sure it'll be a painfully slow read considering I'll need to make very heavy use of a dictionary but I think it'll be worth it. I got the first edition so it comes with this neat booklet with character profiles, concept art and some full-page drawing in it.

I'm hoping it will give me motivation to get back into VNs in general. There's a number of VNs that I've been meaning to read (Kara no Shoujo, Symphonic Rain, Deardrops etc) but it's hard to get the motivation to start knowing that I won't be able to read much per sitting and certainly won't be able to marathon them. I tend to get hooked easily, and staying up all night to read chinese porn games is just going to end badly. I remember when I first read Tsukihime - I just shut myself in my room for a few days doing nothing but sleeping and reading. I ended up feeling just like Shiki did during most of Hisui's route. Good times.

I was going to talk about this season's shows but I think that should probably be left to another post. My favourite show so far is Game of Thrones, but it's a solid season for anime and there's a lot that I look forward to watching every week.

The season that was

I watched a few shows that ended recently, namely Another, Black Rock Shooter, Chihayafuru, Nisemonogatari, Persona 4 and Rinne no Lagrange.

Another was pretty enjoyable, even though it didn't quite end up as I thought it would from watching the first few episodes. It sold itself as a horror anime, revolving around a curse that was causing students in a particular class to die rather gruesome deaths. It got a bit cheesy in parts, with things like cliche horror music playing before something bad happens, and I'm not entirely sure whether that was intentionally cheesy or not. The characters were a bit underdeveloped, particularly the side-characters, but the story of the curse was told quite well and I enjoyed the ride. 

Mei >>> Twintails. Not to say twintails was bad at all, but eyepatch wins out.

Just when you thought teen angst was bad, Black Rock Shooter introduces you to the wonderful world of pre-teen angst. Girls with ridiculous problems deal with them in the worst possible ways, then we find out it's all because of magic. And possibly rainbow birds. In its defence I did quite like the otherworld CGI animation. A lot of people dislike CGI on principle, but it can look good and this is a reasonable example of that. 

I do think it's time to lay the BRS franchise to rest though. It's come pretty far considering it's all based on some illustrations, but I'm not sure how much further it can go considering the lack of underlying story. Having said that, the characters and setting is very visually appealing and I'd quite like to see an OVA that just completely abandons story for some fight-scene eyecandy.

I really liked Chihayafuru. I'd never even heard of karuta before watching it, but I do like game/sports anime in general and this one was certainly presented in an interesting way. The shoujoesque parts (i.e. the Taichi-Chihaya-Arata love triangle) don't get a lot of attention with the anime squarely focusing on the game itself, which to me is a good thing. I also quite like the way that the protagonists don't win all their games, and while I've seen some complaints about the fact that they seem to lose more often than not, you can still look back and see how far they've come over the course of the show.

The characters are all very likeable (except for Taichi being a little brat as a kid), and I really enjoyed the show as a whole. I hope it gets a second season.

I didn't like Nisemonogatari as much as I liked Bakemonogatari. The clever dialogue was still there but the plot felt very pointless compared to Bake and the fanservice was really ramped up to compensate. My memory is probably playing down the amount of fanservice in Bake, but I remember feeling like there was an underlying story and that it was pretty important, whereas I really don't get that feeling with Nise. The character designs are still great, but I wouldn't be eager to watch it again. I'll still probably watch future adaptations in this series as I hear that the plot picks back up again.

Persona 4 was alright. As an adaptation it was pretty good, especially considering the scope of the game and the limited number of episodes, though it did feel a bit rushed leading up to the ending. The fight scenes were also fairly short, and it's a bit annoying that the final episode/OVA won't be out until October. It was a good watch if you've played the game (which was obviously the target audience for the show), but I'm not sure how much you'd enjoy it otherwise.

Rinne no Lagrange was my mecha show for the season, although I'm considering watching Aquarion at some time as well, since it seems to have been fairly well received. Rinne was a good show from the visual aspect, as to be expected from Production I.G., and I really liked the three main girls - Lan is damn cute, Madoka pulls off being relentlessly positive without it just getting irritating, and Muginami is fine too. 

From a story perspective it's less impressive, with the whole mecha thing being largely sidelined for slice-of-life school activities. This creates a jarring contrast on the few occasions where shit suddenly gets real, since afterwards the characters invariably cheer right back up and move on like nothing ever happened.

The OP was the best of the season. I liked the show and will watch the next season, but you may be disappointed if you're watching it only for the mecha.

As for the coming season, I really haven't looked at what's coming up. I know I'll at least be watching Fate/Zero but I'll play it by ear for the rest. What do you think looks interesting?