{Interpost} iCrap (haters gonna hate a smartphone post)

[HorribleSubs] AIURA - 01 [480p].mkv_snapshot_00.49_[2013.04.11_18.36.22]


The hime (sort of).

The hime (sort of).

I have just watched the second episode of Red Data Girl and Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge a few hours ago. I have acquired just enough knowledge about these two shows and is almost ready to write a review on them. I will probably post them tomorrow though I am in doubt about it because my Friday has always been too wonderful with new anime episodes often released that I had to watch some in Saturday too to complete them.

This is also some sort of a hime too.

This is also some sort of a hime too.

Between the above two shows I watched AIURA and found this short 4-minute anime to be very cute. However I still can’t really get what it is all about because the first episode didn’t tell much. The best thing about it however is the Steve Jobs parody in the OP which I didn’t expect and failed to see the connection (maybe there’s some pun involved) but still made me laugh hard.

[HorribleSubs] AIURA - 01 [480p].mkv_snapshot_00.49_[2013.04.11_18.36.22] [HorribleSubs] AIURA - 01 [480p].mkv_snapshot_00.07_[2013.04.11_18.34.32] [HorribleSubs] AIURA - 01 [480p].mkv_snapshot_00.13_[2013.04.11_18.34.53] [HorribleSubs] AIURA - 01 [480p].mkv_snapshot_00.13_[2013.04.11_18.35.00] [HorribleSubs] AIURA - 01 [480p].mkv_snapshot_00.22_[2013.04.11_18.35.23] [HorribleSubs] AIURA - 01 [480p].mkv_snapshot_00.23_[2013.04.11_18.35.29] [HorribleSubs] AIURA - 01 [480p].mkv_snapshot_00.37_[2013.04.11_18.35.57] [HorribleSubs] AIURA - 01 [480p].mkv_snapshot_00.37_[2013.04.11_18.36.02] [HorribleSubs] AIURA - 01 [480p].mkv_snapshot_00.47_[2013.04.11_18.36.16]

A little about my future magazine-style blogging, currently I’m still doing some researches on how it should look like. I already have a ‘dummy’ set and still experimenting with different formats but I think I’m going to stick with PDF distribution. I’m also thinking about hosting it as a free magazine in iTunes store though I might have to drop the idea since it costs some money to host my magazine there.

Did I unconsciously learn Japanese for the past 10 years?

[Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_stitch_11.36_[2013.04.03_18.58.54]


I have more than 20 years of anime-watching experience, probably as early as I was 5 or so. Back then I have no interest in western cartoon but I didn’t know the term people are using to refer to anime so I just call them “Japanese cartoon”, at least until I was 15 when the emergence of locally-published anime magazines started to popularize it. However it took me another 5 years to start watching anime in their original Japanese audio, and that was solely thanks to digital distribution of fansubbed anime. Although local TVs did air a substantial number of anime since the 80′s it was only in 2007 that they started to take initiative to air them in the original Japanese audio. Haruhi season 1 was among the first few titles to air in Japanese language instead of Malay-dub. In fact even Gundam SEED which was aired in 2005 was dubbed too.

I watched Dakara Boku wa H ga Dekinai OVA a few hours ago, using MPC-HC player. Last night I turned off the player’s subtitle feature because I was watching a movie (of which subtitle was unnecessary) and forgot to tun it back on. However when I watched the anime I  realized that the subtitle was turned off only after 15 minutes of watching it. Then I got this strange feeling that I was watching the anime without the need for the subtitle as if I was fluent in Japanese. Usually I would realize the subtitle was off the first time a line was spoken in the anime but it was not the case just now. It made me think if I’ve had learned Japanese unknowingly all this time after consuming too much anime in their original Japanese audio. Too bad I could not recreate the situation but if only it was true then it would be great since that would enable me to enjoy my anime more.

Since I mentioned about Boku-H OVA then here are some sexy poses by Lisara in her preparation for a swimsuit contest. Enjoy!

[Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_stitch_09.29_[2013.04.03_18.39.00] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_snapshot_09.38_[2013.04.03_18.41.01] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_stitch_10.01_[2013.04.03_18.42.32] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_snapshot_10.13_[2013.04.03_18.49.12] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_snapshot_11.12_[2013.04.03_18.53.05] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_stitch_11.19_[2013.04.03_18.53.47] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_snapshot_11.23_[2013.04.03_18.56.16] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_snapshot_11.30_[2013.04.03_18.57.42] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_snapshot_11.31_[2013.04.03_18.57.47] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_snapshot_11.32_[2013.04.03_18.57.52] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_stitch_11.36_[2013.04.03_18.58.54] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_snapshot_11.48_[2013.04.03_19.12.20] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_snapshot_12.10_[2013.04.03_19.13.54] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_stitch_12.07_[2013.04.03_19.13.37] [Anime-Koi] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai. - OVA [BD][h264-720p][A8E911F7].mkv_stitch_16.21_[2013.04.03_19.40.17]

[Work in Progress] Ingress-tan

First proposed design of Ingress-tan, with short blue hair. Done with Autodesk Sketchbook Ink on iPad.


I am pretty much have finished most of my pending anime task which includes watching winter 2013 anime and making preliminary reviews of selected titles of the upcoming spring 2013 anime. While waiting for the first show to air (Red Data Girl and Date A Live are already pre-airing by the time of writing) I think I should do something about things I like other than anime, which is gaming. I’ve been playing Ingress for a while though I am quite inactive right now due to various reasons.

First proposed design of Ingress-tan, with short blue hair. Done with Autodesk Sketchbook Ink on iPad.

First proposed design of Ingress-tan, with short blue hair. Done with Autodesk Sketchbook Ink on iPad.

So instead of staring at my G+ stream for hours I decided to do something productive towards the anime+gamer community. I found that there is no such thing as “Ingress-tan” yet which makes me wonder why nobody has come up with it yet considering Ingress is some kind of a geek’s game. That is why I feel ‘obliged’ to do it and this could be the first public and open attempt to create Ingress-tan.

Right now I’m still piecing together parts of ideas like what color her hair/eyes should be, her hair length/style, her costume, her accessories (and possibly her weapon too). This will take a while to finish though because it is my first attempt to actually design a character from scratch. I must also be able to give her a ‘persona’, similar to what Miku enjoys. This is a big task but I’m willing to do it and I hope I won’t lost my motivation.

Halfey-san@Ganbaranai.com (I barely survived January)

pixiv33099977


I barely survived January, and I’m not sure if I’m gonna survive February either. The issue I’m having here is not just health but also time. Yes, I’m probably running out of time and therefore I’m doing my best to utilize whatever is left for me so that I won’t regret it later.

pixiv33099977

Hanazawa-san… er, I mean Kagami Yagami from Sasami-san@Ganbaranai

I was hit by hyperpyrexia (fever exceeding 41.5°C) two times since my 30th birthday on January 19. Even the second one just healed a couple of days ago. To explain how bad it was, I can say the first one made me unable to speak for 2 days and the last one was worse that resulted in abulia (inability to make decision), though luckily it was only temporary.

If that doesn’t sound bad enough to you then maybe my absence in blogging for the last couple of weeks could explain something to you. Ever since the first recovery I’ve become too unmotivated to do blogging, let alone to resume the Project 360. I’ve lost count of how many days I’ve fallen behind but at least I’m still finding my way to resume it though it might not be the same again (and posting 2 or 3 of them to make up for the loss of days wouldn’t really solve it either).

By the way I hope it’s not too late to wish a Happy Chinese New Year to all Chinese friends out there. Because of the hyperpyrexia I wasn’t properly prepared for it and by the time I realized other people around me are already celebrating it. Not that I’m missing much but I’ve always been in a very good shape in every CNY celebration since I was born.

As I have turned 30 last month, I also have quit the street dance group I’ve been with since the past 5 years. The group has now been disbanded, well not really but some new faces decided to form a new group, with a new name, without any of the original members but with credits to us. I, as one of the founding members feel a bit proud and I hope those new faces will be more successful than us.

A bit into anime, I have officially dropped OreShura because I can’t stand the Silver Hair anymore. I mean even after 3 episodes she is still as selfish as she was and wouldn’t mind hurting other people for her own sake. I don’t care anymore if she got raped at this point, actually I do hope that somebody could make a h-doujin showing her getting gangraped or something.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha has unexpectedly become my must watch series despite a few issues I had with it in the first few episodes. It’s not that because her ‘plan’ has worked but because it is less about war now and more about development and improvement of human life. However war is still part of the story and I still hate how she is still vague about it when she is asked about the possibility for a world without war. Let me tell you something; a world without war is possible but the war keeps erupting because some jerks have access to power and would misuse the power to start the war.

Kotoura-san is getting more ‘friendly’ with Hiyori regretted her actions and now becomes a friend with Kotoura. The most recent episodes no longer show the ‘dark’ side of Yoriko and the anime itself is now more like slice-of-laifu than a heartbreaking drama. Well maybe this is just the calm before the storm but better be prepared for more suffering.

[Commie] Vividred Operation - 04 [5B728DA8].mkv_stitch_20.00_[2013.02.02_00.47.00]

Vivid Yellow: henshin in progress.

I have never said I’m going to drop Vividred Operation although the story so far has never been something interesting to talk about. With the introduction of Himawari, and the docking that produced Vivid Yellow that looks pretty much like Mami-san, there’s no way I could drop this show at all. To show you how much similar they are just look at the two pictures below.

pixiv33284387

Mami-san

Vivid Yellow, henshin completed.

Vivid Yellow, henshin completed.

If Vivid Blue resembles KOS-MOS, and Vivid Green resembles Miku, does Vivid Yellow resembles Mami-san? I don’t know about you but that is how it is to me. No, I’m not complaining.

About Senran Kagura, this anime is a shit that I can tolerate solely because of oppai (without important information) and underwear/swimsuits. I mean other characters are all OK except for Hibari that makes me think how on Earth did that girl made her way into shinobi training? Did she bribe the management/administration with her body or something? Seriously she can’t do anything without Yagyuu; no, she can’t do anything at all even with Yagyuu around! Even if Yagyuu is spoiling her there’s no way someone as shit as her could exist in anime except for the sake for being shit. I don’t care if she is sexy or what. Shit character is still shit regardless how sexy it is.

Mondaijitachi ga Isekai Kara Kuru Sou Desu yo is another anime I no longer care to watch. I’m not really dropping it but waiting for an episode that is actually worth watching. I still don’t get what is actually happening in the anime and why some characters doing what they are doing. In the end something maybe done but without anything to judge why it has to be done. I could even say narutah is better than this.

Cuticle Tantei Inaba is also surprisingly watchable until this point. It didn’t wait too long to introduce Inaba’s lost little brother and since then everything about this anime is like a goddamn funny deconstruction/parody of various genres/cliches. And oh the ‘trap’ has somehow found himself a ‘girlfriend’.

Finally about Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT, which I think is quite lame if compared to the previous season. I think the lameness can all be attributed to Yozora’s bitchiness who still can’t get over of being annoyed by the presence of other club members, especially Sena. She hasn’t grown up from being tied to the past and bitches about other people every now and then. I was quite happy that they finally discovered Yukimura’s true gender but then Yozora being somewhat disappointed by it as if her plan went wrong spoiled the fun. I don’t get what is she doing with playing with Yukimura’s determination to become a man, as if she was doing it to amuse herself. No matter how I see it and how she denies herself being a bully, she already have the reputation of being a bully in my eyes.

So that pretty much summarized most of the anime I watched since I last posted something here. About Project 360 I think from now on I’m going to update it monthly instead of daily. It would require a lot of work to dump them in galleries but it’s better that way because I have no intention to abandon this project anytime soon.

2012, one year of A & B (anime & blogging)


Today I feel proud as one of the survivors of the apocalypse (that did not happen and I already know it was stupid yet many people fell into its hype or take advantage of it just like the Y2K). 2012 was both interesting yet a terrible year for my life as anime lover and blogger.

Looking back at all anime offerings from last year (that I cared to watch), let’s start by listing all titles that I cared to know (both that I watched and didn’t):

  1. Mouretsu Pirates
  2. Nisemonogatari
  3. Zero no Tsukaima F
  4. Persona 4
  5. Beelzebub
  6. Bakuman season 2
  7. Gundam AGE
  8. Aquarion EVOL
  9. Rinne no Lagrange (season 1)
  10. Rinne no Lagrange season 2
  11. Phi Brain
  12. Another
  13. Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou
  14. Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai
  15. Inu x Boku SS
  16. Kill Me Baby!
  17. Amagami SS
  18. Haiyore! Nyaruko-san
  19. AKB0048
  20. Tasogare Otome x Amnesia
  21. Sankarea
  22. Saki Episode of Side A
  23. Hiiro no Kakera
  24. Space Brothers
  25. Nazo no Kanojyo X
  26. Kuroko’s Basketball
  27. Upotte
  28. Fate/Zero
  29. Acchi Kocchi
  30. Accel World
  31. Sword Art Online
  32. Sengoku Collection
  33. Oda Nobuna no Yabou
  34. Polar Bear Cafe
  35. Medaka Box
  36. Medaka Box Abnormal
  37. Gueen’s Blade Rebellion
  38. Lupin The Third
  39. Jormungand
  40. Jormungand 2
  41. Zetman
  42. Phi Brain 2
  43. Another
  44. Saint Seiya Omega
  45. Kimi to Boku
  46. Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon 2
  47. Hakuouki Reimeiroku
  48. Uta Koi
  49. Tari Tari
  50. Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse
  51. Chitose Get You!
  52. Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita
  53. Joshiraku
  54. Arcana Famiglia
  55. Campione
  56. Dog Days season 2
  57. Kokoro Connect
  58. Dakara Boku wa H ga Dekinai
  59. Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate
  60. Kono Naka ni Hitori Imouto ga Iru!
  61. Moyashimon Returns
  62. Binbougami ga!
  63. Natsuyuki Rendezvous
  64. Kingdom
  65. Eureka 7 A0
  66. Hiiro no Kakera 2
  67. Space Brothers
  68. Shinsekai Yori
  69. Ebiten
  70. Hagure Yuusha no Estetica
  71. Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai!
  72. Hayate no Gotoku! Can’t Take My Eyes Off You
  73. Kamisama Hajimemashita
  74. Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun
  75. Girls und Panzer
  76. Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojyo
  77. Code Breaker
  78. Magi
  79. Ixion Saga DT
  80. Teekyu
  81. Busou Shinki
  82. Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb
  83. Robotics;Notes
  84. BTOOM!
  85. Project K
  86. Psycho-Pass
  87. Zetsuen no Tempest
  88. Aikatsu
  89. To-Love-Ru Darkness
  90. Chousoku Henkei Gyrozetter
  91. Bakuman season 3
  92. Sukitte Iinayo
  93. Seitokai no Ichizon Lv. 2
  94. Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne!
  95. Little Busters
  96. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure 2012

As you can see above there are nearly 100 titles I was able to list down based on the download record in my bittorent client. The titles in bold are those I’ve finished. Although I did download all the titles above, only titles in bold are downloaded entirely (the whole series) while others have only the first few episodes downloaded. It appears that I have avoided many titles and I’m not denying that but the truth is I didn’t get to watch many of last year’s titles due to time constraint, especially when my anime watching schedule were often continuously interrupted by my work since October and only ended last week. The interruption also greatly affected my blogging schedule. Thank goodness I had the Project 360 (which I started earlier last year) to fill the gap so that my blog could have daily updates without having to force myself writing low quality posts only for the sake of updating. I mean at least posting pictures is better than posting craps.

The above covers my regret in anime watching in 2012. My greatest regret in blogging for last year is the I failed to keep my promise to post the “Halfey’s Most Influential Anime Girls” which has been an annual occurence in my blog since 2010. Also I failed to hold the “12-days of anime” blogging event which I did in 2011. I hope I could do something this year to make up of my failures. I just had a job interview a few weeks ago (as a laboratory assistant) and I hope the new job (if I could secure it) would be less interrupting than my current job now. If everything goes well this year I would get to work closely in scientific field, something I’ve been dreaming of doing since I was a kid. May the force be with the mahou shounen!

[Interpost] Celebritism

Mikupan.... Oh no! I'm supposed to talk about "celebritism" here (>_



My thoughts about celebrity and related stuff

Mikupan…. Oh no! I’m supposed to talk about “celebritism” here (>_<)

I don’t coin the term ‘celebritism’ and it has existed long before I thought about it (don’t believe me? Google it and you’ll find notable entries in the search result). In my own words celebritism is what I think is ‘fakery’, ‘manufactured’ and some sort of marketing ploy. I’m saying this because I know all celebrities faked their appearance, I mean if they are not then why would people want to know about their real life so badly (which implies that people unconsciously know they’re seeing a ‘fakery’).

My ideas of celebritism is I only interested to know how the celebrity is doing his/her job and how well he/she is doing it. I don’t care about their real life, who they’re going out with, their birthday, their hobbies, etc. I mean it’s their job that is supposed to be entertaining us, not their life. That said I’m not into those celebritism hypes like the AKB48. I do admit that I like Kalafina as a girl band but that’s where I stop; I don’t look around for news or gossip about them because I think that’s stupid.

Maybe I should just say that I don’t really care about 3D celebrities as I think 2D celebrities like Miku is way better and not disgusting like those ‘pigs’. For 2D characters, although they’re really ‘manufactured’ and ‘marketed’, they’re not ‘fakery’ because that is their nature, that is what they are. They have no “real life” to follow because their ‘job’ is their ‘life’, and the most important thing is they are immune from wild gossips and scandals, which makes them superior by default.

Joshiraku: So much to enjoy yet not that much to write about.

Well I may have said those things above although I know that those ‘virtual’ are voiced by real people behind them. However I see them nothing more than being ordinary person doing their job and in the end its the characters, those 2D celebrities that matters. Let’s take Joshiraku for example, a show ‘heavy’ of ‘light’ dialogues yet I don’t really care who are the voice actresses behind those cute girls as long as the job is well done without much noticeable defects. Oh yeah just so you know those ‘virtual’ celebrities are not fake. They are more ‘real’ than your favorite 3D celebrities.

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While I’m waiting for Summer 2012 Anime… (We’re recruiting!)

Picture probably unrelated but it's Christina so there should be no problem.


Picture probably unrelated but it’s Christina so there should be no problem.

Many things happened since last week. First Microsoft announced their first “in-house-made PCs” or more specifically tablets named “Microsoft Surface Pro” and “Microsoft Surface RT”. They look beautiful to me and the most important thing is they don’t look too similar to iPad. The tablets invited mixed reactions where some (including me) appreciated it while some others hate it for various reasons. For me not knowing the price, the battery life and the launch date is not a reason to hate it as I can always wait and see. Besides just announcing doesn’t hurt my pocket and my planned purchase.

In the last few days Google on the other hand announced their take on tablet business by launching the ASUS-made “Nexus 7″ which immediately made available for purchase after the Google I/O event. For me Nexus 7 is more like a competitor to the existing 7″ Android tablets like Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook rather than iPad. Alongside that they also announced another Nexus-branded product which is the “Nexus Q” streaming media player, together with the recommended premium-priced Triad bookshelf speaker. I’m not interested in that player but if I got the money I’d get the speaker for sure.

With both Microsoft and Google already have their own tablet hardware let’s not forget about another company that is new to this tablet business. Vizio, one of the major household names in the US when it comes to LCD TVs are making their own PCs that look as beautiful as Macs if not prettier. For the first time I feel Macs now have a serious competitor that even longtimers in the PC business failed to achieve that reputation. They are also making tablets but so far the focus is more on their laptop and desktop offerings. Now I wonder if they would make their way to this part of the world.

And the tech thing that happened to myself this week is I was offered a broadband speed upgrade by my ISP (TMnut) to 4Mbps. I accepted the offer but not after I trolled them good for about 10 minutes, citing their various failures like the capping in their UniFi packages. They told me so far none of their existing customers have exceeded the allocated download volume limit ever since the introduction. I told them that’s bullcrap because if the ‘higher’ product (UniFi) comes with a limit that it’s ‘lower’ counterpart (Snailmyx) doesn’t have then it means the product isn’t worth getting for.
Oh do you remember sometime last year and earlier this year where I wrote about customizing my own smartphone and tablet? Well now I have another new interest to add to the list, which is to play with the reduced-sized ARM-powered computers, now that ‘toys’ like Raspberry Pi, FXI Cotton Candy and Pandaboard are getting closer to my hand. I hope more of these ARM ‘PC’ being made so that Microsoft would reconsider their decision of not selling Windows RT (ARM version of Windows 8) as a standalone purchase, unless they don’t mind Android dominating that market too.

About anime, yeah most of Spring 2012 titles have ended this week and we’ll be watching Summer 2012 anime starting next week. This spring I enjoyed titles like Tasogare Otome x Amnesia, Sankarea, Haiyore! Nyaruko-san, Acchi Kocchi and a few others, including titles carried from winter (Aquarion EVOL). Titles like Shining Hearts and NazoKano will end this week too (the finale for those series is not available yet by the time of writing). Other than that, Mouretsu Pirates, another title carried from winter will have its finale aired by tonight and I’m going to see Chiaki-chan again (^_^)

Speaking of ‘pirates’….. for now I’m happy with me being able to watch anime almost as the same time as it was airing in Japan. Earlier this week Apple has launched iTunes music store in my country after so many years waiting. The only problem is I can’t purchase anisongs from it without registering to the Japanese iTunes music store. Of course I could always register by using the iTunes prepaid card and use a random Japanese address but it shouldn’t have been that tedious! Record labels nag about piracy but then they never make it easy to get although I’m willing to pay! Bullcrap!

By the way do you have a blog? If you do then I would like to have a link-exchange with you. If you don’t have any then I’m inviting you to become a co-blogger at my blog. Currently I have only one co-blogger and I’d like to expand that number. I don’t set any particular requirement to become my co-blogger; as long as you’re interested and passionate about it then it’s enough. You may also give it a try by becoming a guess writer first so if you’re thinking of joining my team then reply to this post and I’ll guide you to the next step. Note: you may write about things other than anime/manga/games.

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[Not really anime] Of new theme, seriousness and moe (Sengoku Collection ep. 11)

[FFFpeeps] Sengoku Collection - 11 [10bit][249B3D50].mkv_snapshot_11.57_[2012.06.15_18.15.31]


With the new WordPress version, the time has come for this blog to have a new theme as well. Actually this has been planned since last year but I always have the trouble looking for the fully customizable theme. This time I’ll just use the modified version of “The Akiba – Danny Choo” theme which is already undergone 50% of the modification process.

Of course my greatest dream for blogging is to develop my own blog platform but with my limited programming skills that is impossible. WordPress is good but it is still quite restrictive in doing things right out of the box for me. The only reason I still using it is it is the best standalone blogging platform so far as it is backed by the largest plugins and themes developer community.

I must say most of the so-called “customizable WordPress themes” out there are deceiving or misleading in their claims and descriptions, like saying everything was customizable although most of the times it only applies to header and background. Another thing that made it sounds misleading is most of the time customizations are only available via CSS editing (or even template files editing) which is not what most people would expect. Being customizable should be having drag-drop element support, adjustable height-width and not relying to FTP to replace theme-related images.

Currently I’m still trying to develop my own WordPress theme but by the time I  finished I think the Mars would already be colonized.

There’s no new anime for me to watch today except for Sengoku Collection ep. 11. The last time I wrote a review for this show was for episode 04 but that doesn’t mean I have lost interest. In fact I still manage to watch it on time, and the real reason for no review is that I planned for a series summary once this show finishes.

The latest episode carries the similar serious plot to episode 04 but lighter and the only bloodshed was fake blood. I don’t mind with the seriousness and I could I say I love it like that as it feels fresh and does not restrictive in plot progress. Too bad though not everybody are able to accept it that way just because it was beyond their expectation of moe and stuff.

I’m always fine with moe but it doesn’t mean I would like to see everything moe. If you ask me what is moe I’d say it’s similar to a feeling of you seeing babies or kittens. In my place we have something called ‘geram’ which is quite similar to moe (and in this state I’m living in we have another situation called ‘rindok’ which is also similar but the usage is a bit different from ‘geram’).

For me Sengoku Collection is already cute enough even with one or two serious episodes in between. Honestly the seriousness doesn’t affect how much I enjoyed the series either, it even made me want to see more. Now if only haters could stop hating and complaining about it.

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[Trollpost] What have you done??!!


Cute turn uglee

The above pic maybe old but I decided to put it up after seeing it in my G+ stream yesterday and I didn’t get the chance to write about it back then so I could say this is a ‘delayed’ criticism. Actually I’m not going to criticize the immediate subject in the above pic but about how ‘rude’ some people are when they write about something without consulting the people who know best about the subject even if they wanted to write something positive about it. I’ve read the related article in the above magazine and I must say it’s a positively written article but the author was being too arrogant and showing no respect to the existing Miku fans is actually what makes me pissed off.

I don’t have to name the author but the worst part about him is he didn’t feel guilty about it, let alone apologize to the fans for using real human to represent Miku. He said since Miku isn’t a person so anybody would have to use some fanarts to represent her, thus he used a real model because it’s his form of ‘fanart’. Well it should be fine if it was an article about cosplay but if what he wanted to write about was Miku then using real model would not work because due to how our brain function (read about “Uncanny Valley” and you’ll understand).

Originally uglee

Most gamers would know immediately the character shown above. Going straight to the point I must say I haven’t seen any uglee female game character like this since Lara Croft (Tomb Raider). Yeah those who think they appreciate the beauty of art out there might disagree with me but let me tell you something; beauty is art but not all art is beauty. Bayonetta might be one of the best example of the ‘art’ in games but sorry she is just artistic but not beautiful.

Monster girl

So I heard you like catgirls? I’ve written somewhere that I see catgirls as monster girls, and I dislike monster girls. For me monster girls are including (but not limited to) female angels and elves, as well as those with demon wings, horns, fangs, vampires, claws, tentacles, etc. No matter how cute they are I’d still prefer human girls though I admit that I do have a few exceptions like Xiao Mei from Shining Hearts (pictured above) probably because I love cats and catgirls are the most tolerable species of “animal girls” to me. I did say I ‘dislike’ so here I must say I ‘hate’ a certain “species” of monster girls too such as foxgirls (kitsumimi), dawggirls (inumimi) and a few more.

The real reason I’m writing this was because I feel hesitated to write a review for the latest episode of Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan (ep. 07). I also didn’t write the review for 6th episode either last week. If you ask me the real reason behind that was there hasn’t any awesome snapshots I could get from the 2 episodes. To be honest I can’t come up with a proper episode review without snapshots from the said episode.

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Me and the Japanese language


The Japanese table, written by Hiragana, Katak...

First and foremost, I am no Japanese, neither speak any of the language nor having anything related to Japan. I only have a 50-50 compatibility with Japanese language (meaning that I may or may not be able to master the language in a relatively short time). However there is not really a need for me to master the language other than me having high interests in Japanese entertainment materials such as anime, manga (including light novels), games (including eroge and visual novels) and Japanese music.

My involvement with Japan started when I was still a few weeks old. Back then (in early 80′s) the Malay-dubbed 30-minute Japanese dramas was a popular thing together with Malay-dubbed kids show like Ultraman. That, added with my face “looked like a Japanese” granted me a nickname “Hachi Yokomura” (complete with surname) by my naughty uncles and that name continued to be in use until today.

I can’t really remember my real first experience with anime but the Malay-dubbed Macross and Mospeada were among my firsts. Back then I didn’t really bother to watch western cartoon but I’d watch anime regardless in what language they are, even if that means reading the subtitle (I’m lucky that I can read since I was 4). If only anime was aired in Japanese language back then I might have mastered the language today because of my passion.

After I graduated from elementary school, under a scholarship I was able to go to a newly established elite private school (on top of that it was boarding school too), thanks to my good grades. Despite its damn restrictive rules, I really excited because it was among a very few schools here that teaches Japanese language formally. However it was outside of school curriculum and the student would have to pay separate tuition fee for it.

The tuition fee for the Japanese language course was quite on the high side for me. My scholarship only covers 75% of my school expenses so I didn’t really have money to afford the tuition. However due to the lack of interested student the Japanese language course was discontinued after 2 years.

When I was in high school the I started to see the chance ofbeing exposed to Japanese language again, thanks to the J-drama and J-pop boom in the late 90′s. The boom also started the anime boom and the trend continues until the early millennium until it swallowed by the annoying Korean entertainment invasion. If only the ‘boom’ was longer I might already be able to speak Japanese now.

Now with most people around me know more about Korean entertainment than Japanese I have nobody to talk about it other than the internet. Although many learning materials are available for free or really affordable now (like the Android app JA Sensei and the Moekana cards by dannychoo.com) I fear that I’m no longer be able to learn new language. After all I took more than 20 years to learn informal English (reading/writing only) so I can’t imagine how many more years I’d take to master the Japanese language.

So did I able to pick some Japanese from watching anime? I’d be lying if I say I don’t. At least I know the Japanese terms for a number of things. At one point in my life I even managed to read Katakana and Hiragana texts with 50% accuracy (reading only, without knowing the meaning). At that time my uncle was taking Japanese classes sponsored by the Japanese company where he worked at so I got to read the books he used in the class. Too bad he quit his job there after one year taking the class and moved to other company so that’s where my learning ended as well.

Now do I still have the chance? Next year I’ll turn 30. I think what I really need right now is not the chance (it’s always there after all) but the courage to learn something new.

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