A Day in the Life

Hey, I just realized that my last post was on my birthday (haha, I forgot). Anyway, I haven't posted in a while on this excuse for a blog, so I decided to add an entry.

On to my anime! Since I last posted, I have watched:

• Devil May Cry - Although Dante was way too powerful at the beginning (and throughout the entire anime), Devil May Cry was very exciting and enjoyable. The story was excellent, and the characters were hilarious. Don't forget that real men eat strawberry sundaes and pizza.

• G Gundam - One of the first Gundam series I ever saw as a child. I vaguely remembered some things about it (specifically Neo France's pilot), but I didn't remember any of the story. The characters were cool and the love plot was... interesting. However, the Dark Gundam was destroyed three times.. I think one would be enough. Anyway, it was a pretty good anime.

• Paranoia Agent - This was definitely one of the weird Anime out there. The plot focuses on traits of people involving depression, paranoia, and other psychological issues. It was really interesting and highly unreal; however, that "talking stuffed animal dog" was hilarious. It was fun to watch and be confused at its intricasy.
  

• Hikaru no Go - Have you ever had fun playing chess? Sure, most people have, but imagine a game one hundred times more boring than chess. That game would be Go, and Hikaru no Go was about that game. Even though the game itself is boring, the anime certainly is not. Hikaru no Go sheds a new light on Go and actually makes me want to play that riciulously boring game (because the anime makes it look so cool).

• Soul Eater - The first episode was a little odd.. but the series was hilarious and epic at the same time. Every episode with Excalibur in it was way funny and Maka's father was so hopelessly pathetic that you actually wish he was cool (but he also got a lot of laughter out of me). The storyline focuses on "madness" and how it can be very controlling of peoples' minds; however, it can be over come with a little "shaja'at."

• Gundam 00 - Gundam 00 was really good. The only problem was Setsuna's disbelief in a God (however, it's kind of understandable because of his situation). In this series, a group of people, calling themselves Celestial Being, try to eradicate war by intervening in all armed combat on the Earth, destroying both sides. This disrupts all the major countries and causes everyone to join together to take down Celestial Being. It is really interesting and I really enjoyed it (however, there are two characters that have absolutely nothing to do with the plot until season 2).

• Bleach (to the current episode, 224) - I was expecting Bleach to be a boring school drama; however, I was proven wrong the first episode. Shinigami (also known as Soul Reapers) take human souls to the afterlife known as Soul Society (after the humans are dead, of course), but somehow a human, Ichigo Kurosaki, gets in the way of one Shinigami and, through the course of a few events, gets shinigami powers. It is action-packed and fun to watch (despite the random Lurichiyo arc).
  

So, lately I've been playing some games. Here they are:

• Starcraft - This game was created in the late 1990's, but still has decent graphics, an excellent storyline, and awesome gameplay. I started the campaign mode and decided to beat the game (original, not the Brood War expansion) without using any cheats, a feat I was never able to accomplish as a child. I am currently only 2-3 missions away from completing it.

• Loradon Online 2.1 - This game is my favorite online game. It's an MMO (well, kind of...) but the graphics are 2d. The gameplay is great, yet there is no obvious story behind it. Anyway, you start out as a character with the class of Knight, Thief, Mage, Archer, Titan, or Dwarf. The object is to level up your character and make it through the different dungeons and temples. The best part is that it was created by only a few guys (in High School when they made the first version). They made a company, IfThenSoftware, and are currently creating a new game under the codename "Loradon 3.0."

• Stick Adventures Online - Also made by IfThenSoftware, this game resolves around the idea of stickmen. The player takes control of a stick person and has to level his/her character by defeating enemies (Stinkbugs, Pollenators, and the newly added Itsie Bitsies). This is a fun game and has a surprisingly large fanbase.

One last thing. In a few weeks (July 2 - 5), I will be at AX (Anime-Expo) in LA. It will be my first time going, and I expect it to be a lot of fun.

See you later.

What's been happening.

Well, I haven't posted a blog in a while, so I thought I'd write one.

Today is my birthday and I am now officially 18 years old. This will not change anything and I'll still be doing the same things I do now. I have also been accepted into two colleges (the only two I applied at, so I got 100% acceptance): CSULB and CSUCI; I will be going to the latter one.

Anyway, back to anime. Since the last post, I have watched:

Fushigi Yuugi - Really boring and most of the plot twists were similar; also, the OVAs were uneeded because the storyline was the same as the series and nothing new was really added.

Zoids: Chaotic Century - First half of Zoids - This was one I remember from my childhood, so I was familiar with it. The story was good, but totally unrealistic.
Zoids: Guardian Force - Second half of Zoids - This was also good, but it became really weird when Zoid Eve showed up.

Rurouni Kenshin - This was a really interesting show. I really like how he reformed his ways after realizing that his actions were wrong. This was also unrealistic at some parts, but there was also some real history involved in this show. I liked it.

Zoids: New Century Zero - Probably my favorite Zoids series. I like how this was not a war but was just a series of competitions with an evil group.

YuYu Hakusho - The first few episodes are terrible, but once Yusuke starts training, the series picks up. However, the series dragged on after every season because he is continuously the best and then meets someone stronger and overcomes his challenges.

Zoids: Fuzors - The most unrealistic Zoids series. There is no way that big machines could combine when they were not built that way, plus they would not be able to combine in the way they do. However, the story was good and very enjoyable.

D. Gray Man - D Gray Man was amazing. Well, the ending was left open because the anime caught up to the manga and the director didn't want to make part of the story up, so it ended ubruptly. The story was good and I was not bored and didn't see very much repetition in it. Plus, the characters were hilarious.

Zoids: Genesis - The only Zoids series to not be dubbed in English. This was the most believable Zoids series because it was completely based on technology. However, the main character is only a kid, yet he is a tactical genius and skilled pilot at the end of the series.

Trigun - Trigun is hilarious as well as serious. Similar to Rurouni Kenshin because the main character vowed to never kill. It was very enjoyable.

Gundam SEED - Great story, great soundtrack, great anime. The only part I didn't like was that all of the explosions were pink. This anime stressed me out because of how intense it was, but it was definitely worth watching. I really like it.

Gundam SEED Destiny - Same as the first season, but I was a little disappointed when this series started out being focused around Athrun and not Kira. However, it was great and I liked it (but still, you would thing that Athrun would learn from his mistakes he made in the first season).

Bamboo Blade - Bamboo Blade was really funny. This wasn't very serious and it kept me cracked up the entire time. The energetic main character is always a plus when working with a high school drama, as well as the nonsocial character that is good at everything.

Gundam Wing - I was a little disappointed with this series after watching Gundam SEED. I should have watched this one first. I found it interesting how there were five main characters that started with the same goal without knowing of the others. However, the anime kept me a little bored because there was a lot of talking that wasn't really needed. And there wasn't really that much character development.

Vampire Knight - I was expecting Vampire Knight to have a similar story to the book Twilight (which I never read, but have heard a lot about). I was surprised when it was different (not completely, though). This seemed to present vampires as beings that only work for themselves and the smell of blood triggered their instincts.

And I am currently watched Ranma 1/2 - So far I've only seen the first few episodes, but it has been interesting. A boy turning into a girl when he touched cold water and another boy falling in love with the girl form without knowing the boy and girl are the same.

Wow, that is quite a bit of anime there.
Until next post, I'll see you later.

Final Fantasy

Well, I recently took a break from watching anime and played Final Fantasy IX for about two weeks. This game has long been in my heart because I've played and loved it since I was little; however, I never actually beat it on my own. It took about 2 weeks of playing to beat it; the Chocobo Sidequest took a lot of the time (I ended up wasting hours searching for Chocograph pieces that weren't available yet).

Anyway, the game was fun and I really enjoyed playing it; however, I missed my anime and am happy to finally watch it again.

Since my last post, I have watched Eureka Seven, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and Full Metal Alchemist. I am currently watching Kiba.

Eureka Seven had a really good storyline and the animation was pretty cool, but the character development was a little odd. It had a futuristic setting on another planet. Anyway, it was good.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (just Gurren Lagann for short) was very interesting. This was also a futuristic anime where beastmen are ruling the Earth, forcing humans underground to keep the population low. The main character, a human from an underground village, drills his way up to the surface and somehow activates a robot that only he can control. His "bro" is his main motivation and helps him along the way. It was pretty good, but I didn't care too much for the swearing.

Full Metal Alchemist was a really sweet anime. Using transmutation circle and energy from one's own body, people called alchemist can make objects out of other objects. The main character lost his arm, and legs and his brother lost his whole body when they tried to transmute their dead mother into life. The main character then sealed his brother's soul into a suit of armor. They then traveled around to find the Philosopher's Stone which allows alchemists to bipass the law of equivalent trade (to get one thing, something of equal value must be given up). It was a very good anime, and I recommend it (don't forget to watch the movie after you finish the series).

The currect anime, Kiba, has been very interesting and very upsetting. It's a good concept but some of the characters' actions make me mad at them. Especially when people follow "the Ultimate Rules." Anyway, I might talk more about it later.

Adios.

Tadaima! (I'm back!).

Thank you, for that warm welcome. Ha, I wish. Oh well. I guess I'll fill you in on what's been happening lately. I have been working a lot which is good because I get money, but is bad because it's really boring and it doesn't allow me any free time because I also have school. 

School this year has been really easy so far. My english teacher, Mr. Lion (rawr), barely gives any work to do; basically we go into class, do a journal which takes half the class, and then we go over the journal which takes the rest of the class (did I mention we also get a 10 minute break in that class too? Odd, eh?) and we will rarely do any actual work. Then there's my Economics class, which has the best teacher ever. Mr. Toomer (the businessman) as a great sense of humor and he knows how to treat high school students, so that class is really easy. And my third and final class is being a Teacher's Aide, which means I do something usefull for the first 10 minutes and then read for the rest of class. I have the best grade in all my classes... I'm not a studier, but I just use common sense.

Anyway, time to get to the title. I watched some anime in the past two weeks. One was called Blood+ which was better than I expected it to be, so I enjoyed it. It was about this girl, monsters called Chiropteran, and guys called Chevaliers. It was very interesting.

Next, I moved on to the .Hack Series. There are four anime within it: .Hack//Sign, .Hack//Liminality, .Hack//Legend of the Twilight, and .Hack//Roots. Sign was the worst, in my opinion because it had low quality graphics and it's storyine was completely based on dialogue and not action, so it was slow. Roots was pretty much the same thing, but had better graphics and had a little more action. Then comes Twilight, which had pretty good graphics and a lot of action. Then finally, my favorite, is Liminality which had a lot of action and had good graphics. All of the .Hack anime (and Video games) are based on an online video game called The World which is a virtual reality game. Sign, Roots, and Twilight were all mostly in the game (with very few scenes in the real world), but Liminality was almost completely in the real world. The whole point of almost all of the series is that players are mysteriously going into comas and no one knows why.  The storylines were great, but a little more action could have been used. Also, I enjoyed all of the soundtracks. The order in which the series take place is Signs, Liminalty, Twilight, and then Roots.

Oh well, that's enough blogging for now. Sayonara.

Spore

Well, the highly anticipated video game known as Spore came out last week and I purchased it on the day it came out (got the last one in stock at Target).  The game is very well made and gigantic; Over three gigabytes of my computer's hard drive is now filled up and was not a week ago. Anyway, it is a great game.

You start off creating a cell. You then swim around in a pool of water with other cells. You then evolve (I don't believe in evolution because I'm a Christian, but the game is really fun) into a creature with some limbs. Eventually you build a brain and create a tribe. After allying or defeating other tribes, you build a civilized nation. Finally, after conquering the world, you can travel to space and to other star systems.

Throughout the creature and cell stage you can evolve your creature into any form with any type of body part as long as you have unlocked it. Also, during the tribal stage, you can wear different types of "clothing" (mainly just chest pieces and hats). Finally, during the civilization stage and space stage, you get to build houses and vehicles.

The point of the space stage is to get your pilot to become the most renowned in the galaxy (well, not really, but you gain ranks; the highest rank is called "Omnipotent" meaning all-powerful). Also, you are trying to reach the center of the galaxy, a feat hard to accomplish because it is surrounded by hundreds of star systems full of The Grox Empire, the most notoriously evil species in the galaxy.

Once you reach the center of the galaxy, one of the most hilarious cutscenes you will ever see takes place. It's pretty awesome (did I mention I beat the game already, almost twice).

I'd recommend the game for anyone who likes creating creatures, vehicles, spaceships, etc and for people who like virtually interacting with other species.

Conclusion [And Saiunkoku Monogatari]

Yes, I foreshadowed this post in the last one, kind of. I foreshadowed the title (minus the Japanese part), but it's still the same and makes no difference whatsoever to the actual post except when I explain what a conclusion is.

A conclusion usually pulls all the points together that were made in the essay by summarizing the points and restating the thesis in new words. However, a problem people have is with the "conclusion" part. Students tend to add a point in their conclusion that they did not have in the rest of their essay. That is bad. A conclusion concludes, and should not be an introduction to other points. Conclusion paragraphs also state a closing statement, which explains the entire essay in one sentence. A quotation is often a good closing statement as long as it fits well with the essay; however, it is sometimes best to just make up some philosophical sentence because those are always fun.

Anyway, time for the purpose of this post: to talk about a specific anime called Saiunkoku Monogatari, or The Tale of Saiunkoku. in it's English dub. I won't give the plot away very much, partly because I haven't watched the entire thing yet, I don't want to spoil it, and there is way too much plot to be able to spoil. I'll just talk about general aspects of it.

Saiunkoku Monogatar takes place in a land called Saiunkoku where a Young leader ascends through the throne, but not because he is the first born. He is actually the fifth born son. Three of his older brothers died in a war and the his other older brother was banished a long time before. Anyway, the main character is a girl who is originally assigned to be the emperor's consort for six months in order to get the new emperor into shape (he was slacking off and not taking care of his responsibilites). Well, the plot thickens and a lot happens after that six months.

I'm here to explain why this anime is interesting. One, it's a romantic, action comedy, so it's very funny and has a lot of action.

Two, at first the anime seems like it has no where to go because time flies in the anime, with six months passing in only a few episodes. This made me think that it wouldn't go anywhere and would be over soon, However, the anime's first season has 39 episodes and a second season with 39 episodes as well. After watching for a while, I am very surprised and entertained about how they keep developing the plot further and further.

Third, the music is pretty good. Not only is there music throughout the anime, but the main character plays the Erhu, an oriental Japanese instrument. It sounds pretty cool.

Fourth, the characters are just hilarious. One character passed the national exams at the top of his class and is an excellent soldier, but he always gets lost. Like, he gets lost in his own house. There are several other characters, but I'll leave you to find out what they're like.

Anyway, it's a pretty good anime. I'll give it an 8/10 so far (I'm over halfway through the first season). So, if you have time, you should watch a few episodes. You never know, maybe you'll like it.

Body paragraph

Indeed, I am using an essay format to name my posts, for now at least. However, there is a point to that (not really) that I will mention later (first I need to find a reason). Actually it's because I could not think of a name for the first one and I just felt like continuing it here. Also, I was going to say some lame joke about a body of a paragraph; something that personifies the paragraph. Anyway, it was too lame, so I'm not going to say it.

Body paragraphs are supposed to do one thing: get the point across in a strong, clear way using evidence and explanations of said evidence to strengthen the point. That is not what I am going to do here. This blog post is simply going to underline some of my key interests (the ones mentioned in my blog profile). So, here I go.

Rawr. My main interest is anime at the moment. Anime is Japanese animation, like cartoons (American animation), but better. Ever heard of Sailormoon, Pokemon, or maybe Naruto? Well, those are anime. I have watched a lot of anime, but most of it I watched last year when I wasn't in school (I watched an average of ten episodes every school day last year). For a list of the anime I have watched and wish to watch, go see the link at the end of the post, or go to my profile and click "My Website."

I like all anime, even the girly romatic ones. Indeed, I am quite the emotional person. Anyway, anime for me is to allow me to watch something that I wish I could be a part of. It allows me to be a samurai, be in a Japanese high school with little adventures, pilot a giant robot, and much more. It's very fun and exciting. However, sometimes I get way into the anime and get stressed out when a character makes the wrong choice or jumps to conlclusions.

Anyway, another interest of mine are video games. I grew up with Atari at my Grandparents house and a Super Nintendo (SNES) at my house (I didn't get the NES until a few years ago). Super Mario All Stars was my game of choice; it was the rarer game cartridge that includes Super Mario World. Also, there was Kirby and Donkey Kong, and many others. Then came the gameboy, N64, Playstation, Gameboy Advance PS2, Gamecube, Xbox, Wii, and finally the DS. I've played many games, but my favorite game series are Mario and Final Fantasy. My favorite game is Final Fantasy VI because of the great storyline, controls, emotional responses, and gamplay. Video games are definitely very entertaining.

Finally, I will talk about sports. I love sports, but I hate being on sports teams. I also dislike watching most sports (with the exception of tennis and volleyball). Even though I don't play on official teams, I do play sports. My favorite sports require a net and a ball; Tennis, Volleyball, pingpong, Badminton, etc. Not only are they my favorite, but I am pretty good at them as well. I'm an all-around player, so I am pretty athletic and can play almost any sports, but I generally like to stick with the net sports because they are the most fun for me.

Okay, so one last thing to talk about. McDonald's Happy Meal toys. Yes, I said it; Happy Meal toys. The Star Wars Happy Meal toys that just came out caught my eye and I have been collecting them over the past week. I have eight of them at the moment and I plan to collect some more. I hadn't had a Happy Meal since around 10-12 years ago, but when I saw the toys, I figured it was time to have the again.

Anyway, that concludes (foreshadowing?) this post. The only thing left for me to do is post my anime list, so here it is: http://myanimelist.net/animelist/jaythegreat