In motion

I started working at a warehouse today, the work's not thrilling but it pays the bills, as they say. The people aren't bad either, there's a couple of disagreeable people but everyone seems more than happy to be cool, and most importantly the management is an especially friendly bunch. The group of what looked like typical British lads working on packing even turned out to be WoW addicts (because no one plays WoW casually), unfortunately they're Horde scum so I had nothing to say to them. One of the other pickers looks exactly like Tom Sizemore, another like Olivia Colman, and another is a rather attractive Eastern European female type. Among other workplace stereotypes I think they're all quite a merry bunch that should provide some entertainment during my employment.
As mundane as the work is I can't complain, a warehouse position is what I've been looking for, and being left to get on with my job all day with no one on my case asking me if we've got any fething Wiis in stock was a rather nice experience. We're also allowed to wear whatever we want, the radio's on in the warehouse all day or we can listen to MP3 players, it's a very relaxed environment.
At one point I was slowly walking along through the rows of boxes, hunched over my trolley, it made me feel like that dude in the government warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, which is awesome. Later when listening to my iPod Sweetness by Jimmy Eat World started playing, and it quickly reminded me of what I'm working for.

Paul also passed his driving test today, with only four minors.
Now only clutch and accommodation problems hinder our attendance of the epic event that will be Wales Rally 2007.

Whatever happens, happens

Just as promised the rally has provided yet more excitement. Latvala and Pons are added to the list of victims as they both take small yet deadly offs on the blind and slippery corners of day two, but more dramatically than their misfortune is the absolutely shocking end of Sébastien Loeb's run due to an extremely rare mistake by his co-driver. Japan really does take no prisoners as the point scoring positions are filled with what would usually be drivers at the bottom of the table, and with Loeb's retirement this year's title of World Rally Champion is completely open for the taking, the next two stages in Ireland and Wales are anyone's game, and this madness is simply off the chain.

I finished watching Cowboy Bebop again today, and it easily reaffirmed its place as one of my favorite anime titles of all time, with Ghost in the Shell and Samurai Champloo making the top three. The art is fantastic, the direction is brilliant, the characters awesome, the stories outstanding, and just like GitS and SamChamp the soundtrack is simply amazing. I definitely have to buy the collections of both of them to go with my Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex box set.

In trying out something new I've taken a look at Texhnolyze and Planetes.
The former has turned out to be a mind numbingly boring series, trying too hard to be dark and mysterious with uninteresting characters, cheap art and animation, and so far a dire story, BALEETED.
The latter, on the other hand, is quite good. It provides a satisfying cast of characters, excellent animation and from what I have seen an interesting story, all with incredible attention to detail, realism and accuracy. I have also acquired the series at DVD quality, quite a rare occurrence which nicely adds to the enjoyment.

Five of the seven books I ordered have arrived, the previously mentioned Double Eagle among them, and the other novel in the pack being Count Zero, William Gibson's cyberpunk sequel to Neuromancer.
Three of the five manga titles I've been expecting also made it, volume 5 of Initial D thankfully included, as that's the first book I've been intending to read, while volume 6 is absent along with volume 3 of Genshiken. Volume 2 of Rozen Maiden and volume 5 of Lament of the Lamb completing the order.

Over and out

Day one of the Japanese World Rally stage has proven to be an absolutely incredible event.
Things were set up to be tense between the leading Gronholm and Champion Loeb as Japan provided the closest finish of 2006 with Loeb beating Gronholm by 5.6 seconds, while the last gravel event of this season in New Zealand gave us the closest World Rally Championship finish in history with Gronholm claiming victory over Loeb with just 0.3 seconds to spare.
But things aren't going to be that simple, on day one Gronholm has shockingly gone off and taken big impact damage to the side of his Focus, having to retire with the roll cage deemed too badly damaged for him to continue, giving Loeb exactly the sort of lead he needs.
Fortunately Hirvonen has unleashed the beast once again and finishes with a 10 second advantage, which will thankfully steal two points from Loeb if he can hold it until the end.
The rising star in Latvala also gave a display of his skills by taking an early lead, but by the end of the day drops to third, three seconds behind Loeb. While Loeb is known for his consistency Latvala has posted some fastest stage times, so hopefully he will pull his way back into second before the end of the rally, anything to give Gronholm a bit more of a chance.
Hokkaido proves its courses to be extremely treacherous as Gronholm is not the only victim on the first day, both Petter and Henning Solberg take almost fatal offs on the same crest, with Hirvonen and Latvala barely surviving exactly the same mistake.
Subaru will have disappointed its fans in its home country, with its two main drivers already out of the game, Petter having retired with gearbox problems, and Atkinson tearing the roof off his car as he loses control and spins off for a second time.
With so many early retirements of such key names spaces have been made for drivers lower down the ladder to come into the point scoring positions, such as Stohl, Pons and Companc, leaving Hirvonen as almost the sole character with a real chance of holding off Loeb, in which I will be supporting him all the way. And as the first day ends with heavy rain it looks like the action isn't over by a long shot.
While the burning rivalry between Loeb and Gronholm has been damaged, the long sweeping gravel and dirt stages of New Zealand and Japan have ultimately proven what spectacular competition the surface type and course style provides, and with Wales spoken of as the same design it has only made me more excited about the end of November.

Today's genre is...

Thursday was a day of films.
Hot Fuzz proved to be much better than the trailers would suggest, providing another pleasingly humorous performance from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, a highly recommended comedy.
Later that night I sat back for Sunshine, which kept me entertained largely because I absolutely love the space borne sci-fi genre, but the rather disappointing plot direction of throwing in a crazed killer when they were already in a situation that could have provided more than enough excitement let it down severely. None of that was aided by the constantly ridiculous scientific inaccuracies, and while one would argue that it is science fiction, there are still rules you must play by, as all respectable sci-fi media will either take the line of completely creating its own world of scientific rules and laws, much like the 40k Black Library novels, or stick to hard science fiction and only explore within theoretically possible scenarios. Danny Boyle seems to think he has Hollywood's golden thumbs up of approval to do whatever the hell he wants and make science his bitch, unfortunately he does not, and this only leads to bad film making.

In my search for another anime title to keep me occupied as I wait for Black Order's infrequent Gurren Lagann releases I decide to give the ever so popular Fate/Stay Night a try, but unfortunately the fantasy format takes exactly the same turn as Shakugan no Shana and quickly wears out my patience. There are two facets to these type of fantasy titles, magical combat and character relations, the latter rarely ventures any deeper than the most basic of introductions and provides nothing in the way of substantiality, and the former almost unfailingly manages to make itself a poorly animated chore to sit though.
I've got a couple of titles more along the lines of my preferred genres downloading, so hopefully they're safe bets that will secure me some enjoyable viewing.

Recruit may finally be the first job agency to actually come through for me, as things are going it looks like I might be lucky enough to get thrown a few shifts here and there over the Christmas period doing some menial labour for some suits and ties organization or another.
Not permanent, but money's money.

Guns in every medium

I've been watching quite a few films recently, all thanks to aXXo.

The night before last featured Die Hard 4, otherwise known as Live Free or Die Hard, running me through exactly the sort of mindless action film you'd expect to cash in on the Die Hard name. Of course if you excluded the name John McClane the film had absolutely no relation to any of the previous Die Hard titles, replacing all of the directional and plot styles that fans had come to love in the series for all the high budget blasts rolled out in every cash cow, seen in the fact it was directed by Len Wiseman whose only other notable direction is Underworld.
The fact isn't necessarily that the film is trite and unoriginal, utterly relying on big spectacular special effects, but that it's trite and unoriginal as a 21st century action film. The original Die Hard's plot was lead by absolutely stereotypical German terrorists, but that was the style at the time and is what is now associated with the Die Hard series. That is almost 20 years old now and is a type of film we will never see again, so I think it would have been better for everyone if they had left the Die Hard series as it was, changed a few of the main characters names and released Die Hard '4.0' as an entirely original film with us -the viewing public- none the wiser.
That having been said, despite the ridiculously increasing levels of absurdity throughout the film it was an enjoyable experience, but not one I am planning on revisiting any time soon.

Last night's movie was Smokin' Aces, another shoot 'em up that quite surprisingly managed to deliver something original.
The story is laid out as multiple groups of professional killers all move in to take out Buddy 'Aces' Israel simultaneously, providing a very attractive premise. Although the film will never completely sit well with me as it is lead by Jeremy Piven, Ben Affleck and Ray Liotta, three actors I really have to exert effort to tolerate. Yet at the same time Alicia Keys contributes a very entertaining performance, not often seen from such musician trying their hand at acting.
As expected the film leads up to a very large twist, quite predictably, yet not not disappointingly as the film pulls no punches. Plenty of main characters on both the good and the bad side die from quite early on in the film, and things do not end happily ever after.
My only real complaint would be that the film feels quite sparse, as the first half builds it up to be the most epic confrontation of professional murderers in the history of time, yet when the bullets start to fly things go sour and end all too soon, leaving you to feel like you've just been cheated out of all the real action.
That aside, the film is an entertaining number, and if it wasn't for the relatively unspectacular script and forgettable action scenes I'm sure it could have been a film that would've been remembered.

On the otaku front I have started watching Cowboy Bebop again, as I believe I have shamefully only seen the entire series once, and in doing so I have truly been reminded of how absolutely excellent this anime is, and of how freakin' spectacular the music is. Definitely one of my favorite titles, really awesome stuff.

By night I have been reading the brilliant Horus Rising, which has clearly reminded me of why Dan Abnett is my favorite author, his writing is simply spectacular and so incredibly skilled it has motivated me to buy Double Eagle, a stand alone novel set in the Sabbat Worlds Crusade and based on a chapter about a bomber squadron in the Gaunt's Ghosts book, The Guns of Tanith.
But I don't think I'll be reading it particularly soon, as the latest Gaunt's Ghosts novel Only in Death is due for release next month, which I will hopefully be able to buy in London's Forbidden Planet at an Abnett book signing.
I hope Double Eagle arrives soon though, as I ordered a handful of other books with it and am quite eager to get my read on.

See you, space cowboy...

The weekend is over, everyone has gone home, and I can't wait for a good night of catchin' Z's. Sleep deprivation aside, it was a lot of fun.
The Saturday at the MCM expo was quite different from last time, with the most notable addition being the hour long queue for a ticket, the MCM staff seemingly unable to summon more than the barest of recourses to man the ticket booth. But it wasn't such a tragic wait and once we were in things progressed as you'd expect, wandering around aimlessly dodging cosplayers as we check out the goods. The whole experience was significantly less exciting than last time, probably because we all knew exactly what to expect, and the repetition of some kids marauding around shouting "Free hugs!" did begin to irritate.
As much as the popularity of anime and manga is growing in the UK far too much of it centers purely on Naruto and Bleach, and as enjoyable as both the titles are too many of their die hard fans dedicate themselves to them and ignore all of the many superior anime and manga titles available, which is a shame for them and an annoyance for me. I did see a reasonable amount of people wearing Laughing Man related products, but as most of these people were in the more mature looking types in the age range of 20 to 35 years old, and the vast majority of the hardcore Naruto and Bleach fans are in their teens, you can guess which is going to get shoved in my face at every corner. I'm not really bitter about it or anything, I just wish there was a little more 'proper' anime at MCM, I guess I'm thankful for the ever increasing popularity of titles such as Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky Star and Gurren Lagann, introducing the scope of possibility and the breadth of variety to many of these people.
Anyway, that isn't to say I didn't enjoy the experience, the weather was great and we were all there so it was lulz tiems for all. And thankfully I didn't spend a huge amount of money this time round, with the entire day costing me £45. The only item I bought was the extremely well made Revoltech EVA-02 for a bargain £10, in the future if they make Rei's blue unit 00 to go with Asuka's 02 I'll definitely buy it for a pair.
After MCM we were off to Leicester Square for the mandatory meal at Wagamama, as always featuring the delicious and expertly prepared chicken katsu curry for me. I thought after that things were going to start winding down, but I was wrong.
We had left the restaurant and were heading back through the square towards the train station when we saw a large group of people walking along with an assortment of drums centered around a man with an amp on his back, a microphone attached to his head and a ukulele in his hands. People flooded to join them and we ran over to do the same, the mini-carnival was being lead by a group of Hindus reciting the Hare Krishna mantra and things were getting religiously off the chain. I was glad to see Haku totally had my back as we got in the thick of the dancing and chanting, completely forgetting about going home we followed the group around partying for a good long while, and the night was absolutely revitalized.

The rest of the weekend was spent watching anime and playing games, I gave Colin, Haku and Neil a proper introduction to Lucky Star, Gurren Lagann and My Otome, but most of the time was spent revisiting Naruto 3, Mashed and Puzzle Fighter.
We played Naruto 3 enough for me to finally unlock Itachi the final character, just in time for the new Naruto: Rise of a Ninja, which -soon to be released on the 360- had playable demos at MCM. While it is an attractive game that holds a lot of potential it had one fatal flaw in freezing for a split second on every hit, which is going to be sure to drive everyone insane and absolutely slaughter playability. I pray it is removed from the retail version, but so close to launch I realize that is basically an impossibility.
I was also able to hone my skills on Puzzle Fighter after playing opponents of a similar aptitude, almost all the challengers I have met online have been ridiculously skilled and have absolutely smashed me. So now I've learnt some tricks I might hope to withstand worldwide adversaries once again, and for the rest of the time I'll have Neil to play online, who has been converted unto the puzzling sensation.

Otherwise, back to the same old job hunting for me.
Although I may spend some of the money I've saved on a few manga tankobon...

Going with the flow

Slow news week has been slow.

Black Order has finally released the first episode of the second arc of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, which filled me with a feeling of joy before quickly being replaced by despair, because not only is their website down but their Gurren Lagann torrents have been removed from a hosting site as it is now being listed as licenced outside of Japan. I just hope that's the problem of the hosting site, and that Black Order continue to work on and release their GL subs.

The Rally has been absolutely brilliant throughout the last two stages in Catalunya and Corsica, the former very much favoring Loeb with its almost track like tarmac stages and the latter being his home ground in France, securing victories in both the flying Frenchman manages to cut Gronholm's lead from ten to four points. The way things are going the final stage in Wales looks like it could be the most exciting the World Rally Championship has seen for a long time, which of course has got me very excited about going to see at the end of next month, with all prayers on Paul passing his driving test in a couple of weeks time.
The thing is, I have complete faith that he has the ability to pass it, there's just all this politics crap with driving instructors having to fail X amount of people a year and marking people down for faults when they otherwise wouldn't, I really hope he isn't caught out just because of that.
Either way, the Japanese stage is next weekend, so I've got that to look forward to for now.

I finally got round to watching 300 last night, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Although I can't help but feel as if the actual plot was implemented in a very simplistic manner, as if to keep it as accessible as possible to the main audience it is going to attract. But thinking about it, I'd much rather it was like that than Troy, which had such horrific contrast between the combat and the 'drama' that it was almost unwatchable.
Great film anyway, excellent battles and plenty of quotes that will be reiterated on the field of combat for years to come.

In the mundanity of trying to keep myself occupied I have thankfully been shown a /b/ story by the name of Blindmute Loli, the heart breaking drama of a 19 year old guy and his quest to adopt an orphaned blind and mute little girl he finds on the street. I even had tears in my eyes at one point, it is truly an epic tale and a great (if addictive) way to pass the time when you're bored in those early hours.
Update: This is truly the most amazing story I have ever read, I'm close to getting up to date and the phrase 'stranger than fiction' seems to be made for these people, it has the most incredible turn of events that sends you on such an emotional roller coaster, truly an epic read for anyone with the patience to sit through it all.

I still do not have a job.

I post this now as I most definitely will not post again until Monday, Neil and Colin are set to arrive late tomorrow, and we'll be meeting up with Haku, Paul and Swifty on Saturday for much lulz at the MCM expo over the weekend, with absolutely epic raves guaranteed in between.
It's gonna be fun, and I'll be sure to have loads of pictures to post.

To feature not a single maiden

Personally, I am more of a science fiction character, drifting between the breathtaking vistas of binary systems and gigantic nebulas at the mercy of untold scientific wonders, so the proposition of a low fantasy tale of fighting my way through fabled serpents, powerful wizards and uncooperative wenches to save the princess became relatively attractive in a novel sort of aspect. This theme was introduced to me via Conan, the famous anti-hero who's a bit like Chuck Norris with a sword instead of an uzi.
I loaded up the demo expecting to be the pinnacle of killing intent in human form, cutting my way through swarms of flailing henchmen with naught to my name save the blade in my hand and the loincloth round my waist. Instead I encounter some uppity lady shoving an arrow in my face and telling me about how there's a plague killing everyone and that we've got to get the hell out of dodge, true to form good ol' Conan throws caution to the wind and submits highly sexist propositions every time Missy Arrowface stops for breath. Unsuccessful my advances are utterly rejected and I find myself on the leash of the woman who was but moments before threatening to kill me, doing her dirty work in cleaning out her boat of a seemingly motiveless group of enemies. These baddies tend to mill around in groups daydreaming until they don't have to run too far to attack me, and all look so remarkably similar that I have a sneaking suspicion I might have just discovered the final fate of the discarded clone troopers that failed their training on Kamino.
So I run around for a while pressing ever increasingly creative combinations of buttons to see what pretty acrobatic moves I can create as the deck beneath me is quickly painted red, unfortunately much of the blood I'm trying desperately not to slip up on is that of my own, and an angrier looking enemy with bigger muscles, a bigger helmet and a bigger sword finishes me off.
As I die the text 'The maidens question your virility.' appears on screen, this both angers and intrigues me at the same time. I am resentful of the fact that as my spirit ascends to Valhalla the best I can be offered in regards to final thoughts on the many achievements in my life is that my virility has been questioned, yet I am inversely intrigued as my virility is being questioned by a group of as yet unseen and unknown maidens whom are somehow watching my every move. My only venture that they are possibly some of sort of omnipotent maiden race that reside in the holy Valhalla and are displeased in the fact that while I have died gloriously in battle, it was on the deck of some bossy broad's yacht, so I can guess the best course of action at this point would be to commandeer the dinghy and set sail it in the direction of more exalted locations, such as a nice throne room or holy temple, so that I may preferably die there instead.
I reload the last checkpoint (otherwise known as the beginning of the game) and swiftly make good use of my aptitude in both hacking and slashing my way to each imprisoned sailor, who all upon salvation give their thanks and lovingly refer to me as 'barbarian' before running away.
Tragically, absolutely nothing about this game stands out, it is precisely what we have seen in every concoction of this genre since the days when Mario was a faceless plumber running up girders to save some chick in a dress. The game is so uninspiring that the Wikipedia page fails to clock even two and a half lines of text. The demo itself is rather short and leaves me with the sight of Conan being marched off into the jungle to find more of the overbearing dame's lackies, hardly the testosterone fueled bloodshed I signed up for. Yet if I can be thankful for anything it is in the fact that many of the more cinematic deaths have once again reminded me to look into acquiring the film 300, which if I am lead to believe correctly will provide me with exactly the manly experience I have been provoked into desiring.
I might spare a thought for Conan as I watch Leonidas lay waste to the Persian Empire's armies, Conan who at this moment is probably still traipsing through the jungle with the whiny spinster shouting after him to pick up her washing from the laundrette or whatever else she can find for him to do, otherwise I can't see myself ever going near Conan again for as long as I live. Unless it's to watch Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger play Conan the Barbarian on a rainy night, but I dearly hope that night does not come to pass.

Temporary change of tyres

With restraints on my budget and a whole host of great games soon to be released, along with the fact I'm still working on Forza 2, PGR 4 has not been the center of my attention throughout its development. However, I am not going to sit idly by while the demo is floating about the 360 Marketplace waiting for me to test the treads.
As popular and enjoyable as PGR 3 was, I could never claim to be all that enthralled by the game. Although when released the graphics of the game were quite stunning, and the most recent Project Gotham has made the same impression with new weather affects involving varying degrees of rain and snow. Along with the visually fabulous changeable weather, it provides as much of an affect on handling as you'd hope. And not by simply lowering the traction level a few notches, but by actually going to quite a considerable length to make the snow feel as if you are driving across the powdery snow of fresh banks and the slushy tarmac of racing lines, instead of the universal sheet of ice that many games use.
Along with the previously featured London and Tokyo, the latest incarnation of Metropolis Street Racer introduces Shanghai and Leningrad among others, expanding the game to what looks to be a very nicely diverse set of tracks. Despite expansion usually being a thing to rejoice, the inclusion of motorbikes acutely denies any possibility of me becoming truly excited about this game, as I am very much subscribed to the opinion that cars and bikes are simply too far removed for them to seriously compete in an even standing. Yet in saying that I did thoroughly enjoy Test Drive: Unlimited, which while not featuring motorbikes as heavily as PGR 4, were far less unrealistic and thus much more unbalanced.
Arguable assets and drawbacks aside, the game generally plays much more like an arcade racer to the preferred Forza, though nothing like to the degree of Sega Rally. With more lax and charitable handling and the acquisition of 'kudos' by performing maneuvers like wheel spinning and powerslides, the whole game is going to be much more inviting and easier to jump in and out of. But I can't yet decide if I am attracted to that fact or not, as fun as it seems I did find the rounded edges of realism to be slightly irritating.
With the long and expansive list of other games and things in general I would rather spend my money on, I can't see myself buying PGR 4 in the near future, while that does not mean I necessarily dislike the game, I certainly won't be lifting myself up by the ankles to get my hands on a copy.

Following today's theme of motorsports, the World Rally Championship has returned with the recent Catalunya stage! And in a few days I will be watching Rallye de France, soon followed by the Japanese stage before the WRC comes to visit us, first in Ireland and then in Wales, at which point Paul and I will be standing at the side of dirt tracks in torrential rain cheering on Marcus Grönholm in his last ever rally event, and hopefully last ever victory.
I can't wait.

The wait is over

The Orange Box is finally here.
In almost three hours of Episode Two game time I have progressed into the fourth of seven chapters. Surprisingly first impressions did not blow me away as a little too much 0f it involved trawling through disappointing caves, the bland and uninteresting tunnels of stone that they are. But upon exiting these environments things quickly took off and I was inundated with superbly designed building and outdoor sections, and thankfully from what I can tell things seem to continue more towards the latter theme throughout the remainder of the game.
Enemy design has been a bit hit and miss with the Antlions getting some new family members that it could have done without, adding even more heartache to the already depressing early sections. But opposing them are the Combine Hunters, brilliantly designed, extremely intimidating and all round fun to fight, these are an enemy type I will look forward to seeing more of.
I was delightfully unsurprised to see that the Source engine had been pushed forwards once again. The new blood spray is acceptable, but the fire effects are simply amazing, along with the scenery and buildings exploding and tearing apart into a ridiculous number of pieces along the way, it's all a very impressive visual treat.

Although as much as I love Half-Life, most of my day has been spent playing Portal. The immediate attraction of the institution being very much like the Dharma Initiative and the film Cube are exquisitely consistent throughout, providing a genuinely chilling experience not often found in videogames. Unfortunately the game is desperately short and almost painfully easy, but both of these detrimental points are utterly balanced out with the Bonus Maps.
The Bonus Maps are not actually any entirely original content, but instead takes six of the best test chambers from the main game and adds extenuating circumstances to increase the difficulty. Currently it consists of two game modes, first being the Advanced Chambers, which take the test chambers and simply modify them to make them as difficult as possible while still being achievable. I have completed four of the six chambers on this mode with relative ease, yet two have utterly confounded me with no clear method to progress. The second mode is the Challenge mode, in which most of the time will be spent wracking your brain to come up with the most ingenious methods to overcome the obstacles present. Each area has portal and footstep modes, in which you try to navigate the chamber using the least amount of portals or taking the last amount of steps, and time trail where you must reach the goal as fast as possible. Within each challenge you receive gold, silver and bronze achievements, and are in no way easy, with the first chamber alone requiring you to create no more than four portals to claim the gold medal.
Each area is very cleverly designed and leaves you with an immense sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when you clear them with the harder restrictions. Bragging rights would be earned like never before for any such person to collect three gold completions on every map, but it is a shame that undoubtedly walkthroughs and guide videos will be appearing all over the internet before you can clap your hands at a job well done.
Interestingly it seems the game has been designed to accept additional downloaded maps in a very trouble free manner, encouraging the modding community to start creating their own challenges and puzzles, which will lengthen the longevity, originality and diversity of the game to no measurable end.

Of course the Orange Box also includes Team Fortress 2, Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One, the latter two being released a long time ago and my impressions of the foremost already having been recorded.
I can scarcely imagine the epic proportions of gaming the Orange Box will be providing to all of the lucky people intelligent enough to buy it while having never touched a Steam product in their lives. Truly and unquestionably this is the purchase of the year.

This is your brain on anime

I began writing this blog entry to tell a tale of how Shakugan no Shana had survived the purge, about how I gave it one last chance, was dragged through to the eighth episode and have decided to let it live. But in review my benevolent nature has been tested.
Much of the plot and theme still remains reasonably tacky, but the characters developed enough of a personality to keep me interested. When I sit down to watch an episode it always manages (beyond all reason) to keep me entertained, yet in between episodes I always look back on it and wonder why I bother. I know it's not going to improve drastically, and in having a sneak peek into later episodes I can see that this deep feeling of doubt is not going to lift. With a continuation of generally poorly designed and minimally animated supernatural monsters playing a heavy role in this title, I have made an executive decision to scrap it and find another series to follow.
I'm sure it would be brilliant if that style was more to my tastes, but while it unfortunately is not I am left with a sense of satisfaction that I gave it a damn good try.

On the other hand, Paprika certainly lived up to the hype. It reminded me of Otomo Katsuhiro's Memories, with the surrealist difficulty to define the difference between sleep and waking consciousness in the dream like scenes of Magnetic Rose, smoothed over with the playful and frivolous comedy of Stink Bomb.
Stunningly animated with brilliant direction and an excellent soundtrack, I would have happily watched this in a full sized cinema.

Lucky Star unfortunately reaches an end with its 24th episode.
The series wafts carefree through its light and wonderfully humorous climate making it a mercifully relaxing title to watch, often resembling the 2002 title Azumanga Daioh. Many of the similarities arise from the fact they were both adapted from a serialised 'yonkoma' 4 panel manga, which gives it plenty of topics for discussion entirely unrelated to a plot or any running story.
However, unlike Azumanga, Lucky Star is far less inviting to people watching anime for the first time, as what seems like most of the jokes play reference or parody to other anime and manga titles and much of Japan's export culture, which only people heavily involved with up to date online communities based on such things will pick up on completely. While being unfortunate for them, is exquisite for us.
And as if Lucky Star hadn't secured its place in history enough, they just had to go and have their own dance. Which will no doubt compete with 'that dancing anime', and if I don't see both dances performed at this month's MCM expo I will be intensely disappointed.

Last on the rota is the brief and fleeting Jigoku Shōjo.
The name had sat on the stangant list of titles to look into for quite a long time, but was bumped up to first priority when I saw it had been dubbed and rereleased in the west, and due to a sudden desire for a dark and gothic title. In the past most anime titles to follow the style have been poorly funded, resulting in both cheap animation and an uninspired plot, unsurprisingly Jigoku Shōjo is no exception.
I did consider giving it more of a chance and sticking with it before reminding myself that if Shakugan no Shana is going to receive exile after seven mediocre episodes, this cannot be allowed to remain after three dire performances.

Wonderful: Here today, gone tomorrow

If the words 'Korean animation' bring a slight skepticism to your mind then I can assure you that not only are you not alone, but while your preconceptions may be unfounded they are entirely substantial. While discussing animation online with a friend in Belgium the title Wonderful Days was mentioned, I checked out the trailer and although it verily failed to impress me I was still willing to give it a shot.
The unavoidable tragedy of the film is its terrible animation, it features CG environments with cel animated characters and ultimately fails on both counts. It's not like I don't accept anything less than perfection, I do often happily watch low budget titles with complete disregard for the poor animation in favor of a good story or well written characters. But with Wonderful Days the style of CG animation would have been acceptable only in the 20th century, and the cel animation was incredibly reminiscent of the amateur animated short films screened in London at the International Manga and Anime Festival a few years ago. The art was simply another cheap imitation completely devoid of its own style, a throwaway product destined for a debut in the bargain bin. I couldn't help but laugh hysterically when I read on the Wikipedia page the words "It features backdrops rendered using photo-realistic computer-generated imagery, comparable to those in the film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within." If there is any more of a perfect contrast to Wonderful Days than the first Final Fantasy film (with a budget of just over £67 million) then I am not aware of it.
But enough about the animation, is the film worth it for the many other factors that create a good production? In short, no.
Everything about the characters and story is trite and uninvolving, the world it is set up in suffers a dire amount of unexplored potential and the directing shares the pungent amateur air about it. I even suspect a thinly veiled commentary on modern politics, but am not sure if I should condemn it any more than I already have.
I would not recommend this film under any circumstances, and deeply regret not spending the time watching either Paprika or Studio Ghibli's My Neighbor Totoro or Howl's Moving Castle, all brilliantly acclaimed films I will be making up time with in the near future.

Is that Bunta?

I made an epic discovery on Tuesday, the magnificence of which I can entirely contribute to my good friend Danny M for informing me about.
Daniel currently resides in the dorms of Surrey University, and Andrew and Bertie decided it was high time for a visit. The night was very enjoyably spent chatting away while they knocked back Fosters and I knocked back J2Os, and with some exploration we quickly found the university to be a top notch establishment brilliantly laid out with a lot of very pretty modern buildings. It was like a self contained town and community with its own shops, laundrette, post office, club and every other outfit you need to survive.
It was in the club that it resided. Hidden away a few floors up and at the back of the then desolate discotheque was a cool chill-out café with pool tables, a small bar and arcade machines. One of these arcade machines just so happened to be the incredible Initial D Arcade Stage Version 2! I thought I'd have had to travel to Japan to play on one of these legendary devices, I never imagined that there would be one hidden away at the back of a University club, of all places. Needless to say I was not disappointed, the list of cars is amazing, it included everything from the series and plenty more never seen, including my beautiful S14a! The opponent list was comprehensive enough to include characters that only featured for a single episode. But most importantly, even though it hosted the American editions such as many of the bastardized character names, they still kept all the best tracks of the amazing Initial D eurobeat soundtrack! Visiting Daniel is going to become an extremely expensive expedition.
The night was spent rather uncomfortably with the three of us squeezed onto his floor, and the first act of Wednesday was to witness Daniel's mathematic prowess in action as we sat in one of his calculus lectures. Of course most of it was a little too complicated for me to follow so I ended up making an origami crane and drawing a picture of myself drifting my Dad's Ford Focus estate into a lamp post, to make best use of my time.
I had a lot of fun touring Daniel's university and it was good to see him and hang out again, even with it being a quiet study night we managed to have a brilliant laugh, next time we'll be sure to time it with a busy night at the club for massive party damage.

For Valentine

I was introduced to the novel Ender's Game via a strip from the webcomic Real Life Comics, I immediately looked it up and being a big fan of science fiction and militaria the concept instantly grabbed me.
The story follows an extremely gifted, very young child nicknamed Ender and his two similarly talented siblings as he is sent off to 'battle school' to become the greatest military commander ever seen in humanity's last hope against a third coming alien invasion. The key theme revolves around the isolation he suffers caused by his genius, which is well portrayed and will have many people able to relate to it.
Before departing for the space station bound institution Ender is constantly tormented by his older brother and bullies at school, but during this he always has a retreat available in his sister, whom is the only person he truly cares for. Upon arrival at the military school the teachers swiftly segregate him because of his intelligence, once again making him an outcast from his peers, his hardships now exacerbated by his withdrawal from the single person he could find solace in. As he progresses through the years he is hurriedly promoted and thus separated from the few friends he manages to make via the chain of command, and when charged with his own army he begins to question his morality as he sees himself mirrored in his former antagonists through his actions and methods.
While Ender is honed into becoming the ultimate tactician, his brother and sister refine their lexis on the political field and eventually become another factor in controlling the fate of Ender Wiggin, whom up to that point has had every decision made for him save one, the exception being that of attending battle school. His isolation then worsened through his inability to shape the course of his own life.
The story experiences some surreal moments through a game he plays in his spare time, while they do deepen the perspective into Ender's psyche they also cut rather unceremoniously into the atmosphere of seclusion already established. An excellent and often imitated plot twist is revealed in the penultimate chapter, and I am tempted to pose the opinion that the book should have ended there. The final chapter does add a lot to the story and is integral to the most important aspects Orson Card was trying to convey, but it feels so unfaithful to the rest of the book that I can help but remember it as a lacking conclusion to what is otherwise a brilliant novel.
But by no means should that dissuade anyone from reading this book, if any other part of the novel were to appeal to the interests of the reader I would strongly recommend it. The Ender's Game series currently consists of eight other novels and various short stories with more still being written, unfortunately from what I have read none of them particularly peak my intrigue, but Ender's Game is a novel in which I believe it is vital for every ardent science fiction fan to claim they have at least attempted to read.