Save, Kill - Kill, Save

Takeuchi Rio: (thought) "No way! I've fallen right into Otouto-san's plan?!"
Narumi Ayumu: "You couldn't read it? That must be it. You've given priority to kill me. And I've given priority to save her. There lies the difference."
-Spiral ~Suiri no Kizuna~ Volume 04, Chapter 19: "All You Can Do"-

~~
Thoughts:
Killing is an act of desperation.
You fight to bring someone else down instead of surpassing him/her/himher/it.
You fight to make someone else lose instead of aiming to win. Granted, you will have to defeat people to win against them, but actions are always stronger when based on positively-oriented verbs (i.e. win, save, surpass).
Recognizing this is the key to gaining satisfaction in your achievements and living a happy and contented life.

Cynical Thoughts:
That is nothing but turning a blind eye to the dark side of reality.
It's like saying, "On your way up the ladder of the human race, count not the faces you step on, but the number of steps you take."
~Which, in the end, are equal, equivalent, and, well, the same.
So the concept of always keeping in mind positively-oriented verbs for the rainy days is similar to the concept people use to come up with terms such as: Special Child, Differently-Abled, and, the most uplifiting of them all, Vertically Challenged.
There is nothing to better slap people's faces with than names which reek of everyone's pity (not sympathy) for them.
Having to resort to such names means that one does not acknowledge the object of the term as his/her equal, as a fellow human being.

More Thoughts:
This quote can be pretty inspiring especially when you're caught up in the events of the manga and Ayumu's manga coolness.
But we must always remember that there is always a darker way of looking at everything.
I think it is best to evaluate or talk about quotes and other things once you're over that unconditional awe/opposite-of-awe you experience right after your encounter with that particular object/event/etc.
Like I said, talking about water you're in only leads to fishy-fish air bubbles.
And unless you can show me you can talk to your fish, I don't think I'll change my mind.
Plus, it's always more fun to talk about something when you're already capable of looking at it from different angles.
A nice analogy for a contrary situation to the above would be talking about a fishbowl while you're in it.
So, I guess the best choice is to accept both the dark and bright sides of stuff. You can always aim to save while keeping in mind that in doing so, it is likely that you will have to kill.
Also, killing an ant isn't exactly desperation, right? But using the word "save" does have its advantages.

End Thoughts:
But, we are always subject to emotions, so, uh, whatever. :P

Moral:
Better to save Cadbury and Nori-Flavored Potato Chips than positively-oriented verbs for the rainy days.

***
Disclaimer(s), etc:

1. Not claiming what isn't mine.
2. The life of an ant is hard.
3. But we can always drop bits of Nori Potato Chips to help them a bit.
4. And crush them without mercy at the moment they touch us or our precious food or our unattached appendages (I consider my laptop keyboard and mouse to be unattached appendages).
5. Moji-me is working!! It isnt asleep anymore, nyahaha. Weird that it thinks I'm bored though. Oh well. It's cute. XD

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Davao Airport

So, I'm in Davao Airport right now.
Okay, so yesterday wasn't my last day in Davao, today is.
But yesterday was my last day with Davao DSL, hahaha.
Not that DSL in Davao is specially different from DSL in Manila or something... The difference lies in the nonexistence of this DSL where I'll be staying there... Oh well.
Reading Naruto 404.
Madara is MIZUKAGE?? Ehh?
Hmm.. Better read it to the end...

***

Disclaimer(s), etc.

1. Not claiming what isn't mine.

2. Blah.

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Code Geass R2 10, Chess, and MojiKan

I just watched Code Geass R2 10. So, just a couple of screens and stuff.

Uh, what's with all the cheese-kuns? This is the part where they're escaping from the Chinese Fed forces pursuing them for kidnapping the Tian Zi. But, well, C.C. being C.C. she prolly found time to put all those there while everyone else was busy with less important preparations. And, I guess it's consistent with the nature of Geass as an anime, buut... wehe. So many cheese-kuns, it can't be helped that it caught my eye like that.
So, we know that Kallen likes Lelouch. A lot of girls in the series do--Shirley, C.C.(?), and Kaguya. In the past, 2 of his sisters even wanted to marry him--Euphemia and Nunnally. Erm. Yeah, Japanese freakishness. But they were kids, so, uh.. yeah. Anyway, look at Kallen here:

As she looks at this:

Okay, Geass attempt at love story stuff. Haha. It's just kinda funny.
Then Milly, Suzaku, and Anya were looking at her electronic diary thingy and they saw a picture of Lelouch from this season's Ashford Academy festival with a paper-bag-masked C.C. Then Suzaku goes something like, "What's Lelouch doing?? He already has Shirley......" Uhm. Yeah, uhm. Right, so Lelouch, the hot guy who, aside from being liked by many, likes many, blah. What a reputation? Really~~Anime and it's animeness. Oh well. Anyway, after Anya finds out that that guy's Lelouch, she goes to this picture:

Well, I'm surprised at the hairstyle, more than anything else. Hmm... makes me want to see a young Schneizel, hahaha! That guy is eviiiiil. But Kewl evil. And kinda gay evil? I mean, what was with Canon's gaaaay joke last episode?? o_O Anime animeness, once again. I swear, it isn't a deviation!!! Well, I guess it makes for more audience in the land of anime animeness (and actually everywhere else too). A~hem, next.
Sooo, all this time (since they boarded the iceberg thingy ship to China), I've been wondering what people at Ashford thought. I mean, so, yeah, Lelouch always had a habit of disappearing, but not for thaat long. Well, maybe it hasn't been that long, but he was going to China!! How was he gonna go back, etc? I know, I know. He's a mastermind at planning, blah blah. Still, though, makes me wonder what exactly is going on in school. I know Rollo is there and all but...
Then amazingly, this ep, I find a sort of answer:

EHHHH??? He was in school all that time?? But he was in China!! But he was in school? But he was in China!! But...-------- Okay. I'll stop. I knoooow, he's extraordinarily brilliant (though it seems Schneizel always gets the better of him? Ahaha~ eviiiil.), but isn't this kinda weird? Even for Lelouch. So, I tried to see if the one under the mask was really Lelouch:

Maybe it's fake?

Well, there's the Geass. So somehow, it's either Lelouch has managed to pull a trick of seeming to be in two places at one time, or he actually shuttles back and forth from Japan to China WHILE battling and blah blah-ing in China. Good grief?? NEXT EPISODE, dammit!!!
Well, so maybe the school thing was a fast forward to the future? Something.
~~

Now let's go back to episode 9 for a bit. Just the Chess match between Evil Schneizel and his baby brother Lelouch. The following screens show the chessboard in the anime. AND, believe it or not, they'e in proper chronological order.

Uhm. Okay, so first things first, I'm not a chess person. I DON'T PLAY CHESS. So, like hell I'd know about real matches. HOWEVER, I know the most basic basics of it, and I know you don't just have pieces appearing out of nowhere. I know Lelouch and Evil Schneizel are geniuses, but, UHM. Reeeaaally. At the end(sort of end, before Nina went crazy-berserk >_<) of the game, Lelouch moves his king behind the pawn at the right edge of the board (Lelouch POV), and that piece sure wasn't there a few seconds before!! Plus, piece count please... Sigh. Also, I wasn't really sure, so I checked out if a King is allowed to check another King the way Schneizel kinda did. It turns out it isn't allowed? So, at first I was o_O. Then it just made me appreciate more the evilness-geniusness that is Schneizel-denka. Zero gets a taste of his own poison? Lalala.. All that's left for Zero to do is to take the King or move away. So, Zero doesn't take it. More though, he actually moves his King behind a pawn out of the 2(?) places available. I know the chessboard is kind of weird, what with all the other pieces magically emerging and rearranging, BUT, well, MAYBE that's why it turned out that way. They decided to do the symbolism stuff too late and Geass does have its failures in the first season (.5 eps), so it would be logical to assume failures in the second season. But reeeeaally, anime symbolism. HAHAHA. Anyway, this shows us that Zero as he is now, is really no match for Evil Schneizelness. For all his talk of moving the King, blah blah, he himself is a coward in the face of Schneizelness. So, yeah, Schneizel won. Because he pushed Zero to a corner where he has no choice but to show at least one of his true colors. He may not have been able to unmask Zero completely, but he definitely achieved something by finding out that Zero is a.. hmm.. proud kid. I've also been thinking about the mask. I know not showing your face to the enemy is a kind of protection, but.. At the same time, won't that reveal that you have a reason to be hiding your face? If you were always with the order of the black knights anyway, etc etc, why would you need the freakin mask? That kinda points to how he is outside, etc. And worst case (which is true), he's someone who wouldn't want to be seen by the public? Anywaay. May be overinterpreting again. I mean, I know, the mask does have an effect, really. Costume superhero effect. Well, whatever. Chess power.
~~

Okay, so MojiKan's there, but it's sleeping. :)) It seems many others encountered this problem, so I'll just post more about this, perhaps-maybe, when I've found the solution. It seems the solution involves asking for help directly from admin people in the forums or something, and I kinda don't feel like doing that right now. Ahaha~ It's CUTE. XD For now, that's all that matters~ I also found this thingy through widgetbox. :D ~~ Uhm, so this is the first time I made 2 posts in a day? It's probably because it's my last day in Davao today. Well, I'll be back in three weeks anyway. But until then, I won't have any DSL. So, yeah. :)) During that time, I'm hoping to make more and faster progress on my thesis stuff. *crosses fingers* So, that's that.

***
Disclaimer(s), etc:

1. Not claiming what isn't mine.
2. Even though MojiKan's here now, Please don't forget about Ryuuki!!
3. Chess Powwwweeerrrr with amazing evil Schneizelness!

EDIT:
After a really long time....
The mask is useful. So, uhh, I forgot Lelouch is a Britannian prince. Well, not really. In any case, I was being stupid. The mask is dead useful in a lot of ways. Maybe chess power got into my head that day or something. Sheesh. -07/30/08-

EDIT: -09/08/08-
I don't like Schneizel anymore. He used to be that Evil Guy in the S1 OP, but the way it all turned out, his character is.. gone.. poof.. no one, really. Prolly just a way to spend the lst few eps with some kind of antagonist that gives off a final boss feeling. But he doesn't give off that aura! It was all hype! Whatever. Anyway, I just thought the Chess thing was all a big mistake. I can't really make any valid statements about it because the whole Chess match was invalid anyway, what with all the pieces appearing or disappearing, etc. I can't believe I wrote this entry.

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Updates 001

PET widget!!!! Hahaha. I know it's not remarkably amazing or cute blah blah, but its head SPINS!!!! Try moving the cursor around and be amazed!! Hahahaha!!
There should've been another widget, actually. Unfortunately, I'm not getting the confirmation email for it. weh.
Well, this widget supercedes GIF frame for now. Purple Panda!!!!!!!!!
And they have other animals too. Plus, here's the best surprise: they have the choices of pencil, scissors, and lightbulb too. I would've chosen those, but the Panda was too tempting, haha. Ryuuki!! XD It's purple Ryuuki panda!!! This is happiness. XD =))
Anyway...
So this is all a product of my belief that a widget a day keeps the boredom away. Of course, I'm too lazy to put widgets everyday, so let's just all believe that I have indeterminate blog time, something, blah.

Widget place: http://www.widgetbox.com/

~~

Now, why is it a purple panda?
Because it was inspired by this picture from Saiunkoku Monogatari Novel Volume 12:

Ryuuki with Pandas!!! He looks so lonely there. Well, he was lonely. Tsk tsk, the pains of royalty, hehe.
Well, it's purple because The color of the royal family is purple (Shi Ryuuki).
Hahaha~

~~
I was in a cab on the way to place A yesterday when I heard this radio ad.
(Not exact words, just the general idea of the thing.)

***start of ad***

Person A: Hey, where you gonna enrol for college?
Person B: I don't know yet, I'm looking for a cheap enough place with quality education.
(Yeah, dream on.)
Person A: Why don't you go to [name of school]. It's great, it's cheap, blah blah .
Person B: Oh yeah, I've heard of that! Isn't that the one at [exact address of school].
(This is where I kinda go O_O.)
Person A: Oh, so you already know about it/know where it is! (Hard to translate, it wasn't in English) Then go enrol now!

***end of ad***

I know, I know, it's not really that much of a big deal, there are tons of stupid ads out there buut... It's a freakin school ad!! They should've at least tried to make it more.. erm.. at least not that stupid-sounding? Maybe they did that on purpose though? Maybe it's just the advertising dept. that's stupid because they seem to get enrollees anyway (they have money for the ad)?
No clue.
Funny thing is I heard it in the cab on the way back home too. O_O
Lolz.

~~

With all these, I therefore conclude that panda head spinning is fun and that education in the Philippines generally sucks.

***
Disclaimer(s), etc:

1. Not claiming what isn't mine.
2. I actually hope the makers of that ad would find this blog and realize that that ad was a just a teeny-weeny bit wrong. Really.
3. Ryuuki Panda!!!! XD Feed it from time to time, 'kay? ^^

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Kira(a)

Yesternight, a friend and I were talking about Gundam 00. ~How it was similar to Wing, and how there is no Kira-type character since Setsuna was more of a Heero-type. They even look similar.

Okay, maybe they don't look that similar, but look at the expressions on their faces. And really, they were si~mi~lar. Their prospective romantic partners were also very similar (Relena and Marina).

Anyway, that led me to thinking about Gundam SEED and Kira Yamato. And thinking of the name Kira can't help but bring to mind the existence of another famous "Kira" character: Yagami Raito. Yes, I choose to write it as "Raito" rather than "Light" because I like it better that way. Writing it as Light takes away the fun kanji part. Why fun? Because according to the manga, Raito is a very unusual way of reading the kanji "月". Actually, the author only decided that Raito would be Light later in the series, IIRC. Well, it's also logical. I don't think the author would've assigned a kanji for his name if he intended it to be Light, it should've been just written as ライト. I think. Anyway, with all that said, the kanji version is better. Along with his family name, it fits Raito's character really well. Plus, it sounds cooler.
~~
So, in the end I decided to find more Kira characters.



They are:
1. Kira Yamato from Gundam SEED
2. Yagami Raito aka Kira from Death Note
3. Kira Izuru from Bleach
4. Takuto Kira from Full Moon wo Sagashite
5. Kira Sakuya from Angel Sanctuary

I've only watched the anime of items 1 and 3, read the manga of 2, heard of the anime for 4 and never heard of 5. So basically, I only knew of 1 to 3 and got 4 to 5 from google.
Since I don't know anything about the last two, I won't say anything about them.
Since I consider Kira Izuru to be somewhat a minor character in bleach and I find him uninteresting, I'm not gonna talk about him either.
In fact, what I really wanted to ramble about are Yamato and Yagami.
I know it's a deviation from Raito-Lelouch comparisons, and while I do agree that that comparison has a lot of stuff in it, I don't feel like thinking or rambling about something that a lot of other people already rambled about.
So, this is a Yagami Raito ~ Kira Yamato comparison. Yay.
Now that that's settled, let's move on.
Erm.. Just for the heck of it. This may contain spoilers about Gundam SEED and Death Note. Don't read if you don't want to be spoiled.
~~

Yamato Kira - Yagami Raito Comparison

Okay. Drawing-wise, I love Raito's Hair. Haha. No connection.
Next.
When you think about it, Raito and Kira have very different personalities, but have some similarities as well.

Kiraness
While Kira is named Kira just because (since IIRC, Kira's name was written in katakana, so no meaning attached there. But I haven't tried looking for what the creators have to say, etc.), Raito got the title of Kira because he's a Kira (キラー) which is how you would katakanize the english word "killer". Actually, I just realized that there's something wrong with my comparison because while Kira is キラ, Raito is キラー. But it's just a matter of a prolonged "ra". Big deal. :P So, I'll go on. So there we have the difference. The similarity here is that they are both Kira. Yeah, okay, Raito's "Kiraa". Whatever, go away. :P

godness
Raito/Kiraa was regarded by a lot of people in the Death Note world as a god who came to punish the criminals and other bad people.
This god does his god thing by killing people.
Kira, in my opinion, is also like a god, in his own right (the Destiny Kira, at least). When he's in a Gundam (particularly Strike Freedom), it's like nothing can stand in his way. *worships*
Ahem.
Plus, in SEED Destiny, he does all this without killing people. How amazing is that? (I have a bias in favor of Kira Yamato, don't I?) In other words, he's really powerful. Well, he's the ultimate coordinator, after all.
Soooo, this god does his god thing by not killing.
Although both characters have similar objectives (saving the various things important to them), their methods were polar opposites.
One might argue that Raito didn't really have anything important to him anymore, and he was just a psycho who got consumed by his own ambitions and got crushed by his own power. But he did start off as a decent kid who wanted to change the world for the better. I say this because even though the change into a psycho was almost instantaneous (remember that early in the series he killed that guy on TV pretending to be L while emitting psycho aura?), the Raito who lost his memories was a decent guy who believed in justice and even believed that Kiraa should be punished. I know he was also trying to prove his innocence at that time, but come on, the amnesia Raito was a really good boy. No psycho aura at all.
This brings us to another difference to the godness of Kira and Kiraa.
While Raito's god value descended as the series progressed, Kira's god value was increasing.
Raito wasn't exactly a god without the death note, but he was, well, near-perfect. He was good-looking, good at sports, sociable enough, and was a genius to boot. However at the taste of a death note, he turned into a sinister god and went even further downhill from there. Well, I guess that kinda points out the value of all the apples in this anime. The real apple is the death note, the power to kill is knowledge, and Raito using it is like taking a bite out of the apple. Ryuk is the serpent. So, I guess with these, you could've actually predicted that there would only be utter downfall for Raito in the end. In this case though, there was no God to punish the serpent Ryuk and there was no Messiah to save Raito in the end. Darker, huh? Haha, anime symbolism, reaaaally. :))
Moving on...
Kira, on the other hand started off as a confused teenager. The whole SEED was mostly about Kira finding his place in this universe. Then in Destiny, Kira was in a much better state and his god value spiked up. (^__^. Bias. lol.) He was much more composed in Destiny. He was so kewl. Although his conversation with Athrun in the car in some Destiny episode reveals that they both haven't really found the answers to their philosophical(?) questions in SEED, Kira didn't falter like he did in SEED anymore. In a way, he was really like a god. *worships*
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. I miss SEED. Just an insert, but really, SEED and Destiny definitely have their flaws as a series, but I'm this kind of person who really gets attached to characters. SEED and SEED Destiny were among the things which comforted me in my dark college days. I know it sounds like.. hmm... pathetic? But I'll never trade this for anything else. Anime and books are friends and are much better than most living moving entities in this twisted world. Ahahaha~ bitter me. :P Of course I have living friends and I'll never ever trade them for anything either. Of course, if I'm offered infinite cash source, I might consider it. HAHA. Of course not. What would I do with cash without people to spend them with? That'd be lonely. Aww, shucks, the drama is killing me. Whatever. Next.
So the point made here was that I'm such an emotional sucker though Kiraa and Kira were gods, they differed in their principles and god journeys.
Next.

Humanness
Human=person. Ness=ality. Personality. But I'll focus more on their being (or not) humane.
Raito is a psycho. Okay, that about sums it up.
Seriously, Raito was a like a kid who suddenly had a machine gun fall into his hands and got overwhelmed by this POWER. And in the end, he didn't care who got in his way, and really got this illusion that he was a god. I'm sure he would've killed his family, etc if he had to. Psycho mode.
Well, even though it seems that I disapprove of Raito, the truth is that I don't. I do like him as a character. Plus he also had a huge influence on me, really. Just not in the same way as Kira. And really, I thought it was kind of sad that there was nothing but doom that awaited him at the end. While he was like psycho-evil, he was really just a victim. Ryuk was the evil one. >:) And he was just BORED. Well, it seems like Shinigami weren't exactly moral creatures, but really, even for a Shinigami, Ryuk was kind of evil. But I don't hate Ryuk either. I have an evil side in me that gets amazed at amazing evil too. Ryuk's existence was like an eviiil lie. Though he spent most of his anime screentime just eating apples and being a seemingly passive character, he was in fact the one who set this whole story in motion, and in the end, he was the one who put the final period on the last sentence by killing Raito. Well, he's just doing his job huh? Wakeke.
Kira on the other hand really values human lives. He wouldn't even sacrifice the lives of soldiers he didn't know (despite the fact that soldiers go to war knowing fully well the possible consequences--i.e. death). Polar opposites, for this one.
I guess a bit of a similarity would be that they both wanted to fight for the good of the world. Does it count?
Next.

Lness
Raito's archenemy was L. I don't know if it's right to label him so because, first, L died around halfway through the manga which was o_O-wtf. That was the start of Death Note's descent into a mixture of tl;dr, boringness, and zomg-when's-it-going-to-end-not-to-mention-how-??-ness. But I still read all the way to the end since I already started it and I did want to see how it ends. Fortunately for me, when I read the Death Note manga, it was already done. This could also be the reason I had a o_O reaction to L's death--I already knew how many chapters the whole thing was. Well, I could only imagine how it would've been if I read it as it was ongoing--THE HORROR. I would compare the experience to Naruto filler seeasons (though Naruto would be worse I guess--so bad that I decided not to watch), but that's only me.
Anywaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.
Second, L and Raito were friends at school. Plus, when Raito was in his good-boy mode (when he lost his memories of the Death Note), they were like BFFs. Weeeell, I know that in the end, they were still enemies, so this is really useless stuff, but well, the thing here is that no matter what L was to Raito, he was an enemy to Kiraa.
So now, on Kira, who is his L? I'll look at this the SEED way and not the Destiny way, because, well, Kira wasn't the main deal in Destiny. But he was reeaally kewl there ^____^. So, in SEED, Kira's L would be no one other than the masked character Rau Le Creuset. They weren't BFFs, but they had deeper ties, Le Creuset being the funding source for the creation of Kira, IIRC. But I guess they weren't friends. Well, Kira did have a friend-enemy in the form of Athrun ZaLa though. But he and Athrun weren't exactly enemies. So I guess, somehow, in a way, Kira's L was split into different people. Ok, I know, this comparison is forced, isn't it? Fine. :P
Now, despite the fact that I'm not a fan of the deviation (is it even a deviation in anime?) called shounen-ai, I would just like to point out that there's another possible L counterpart in SEED in this context, and that is: Lacus. o_O :))
Now why did I point this out? Because I just encountered an amazing discovery by someone in a forum somewhere while looking for pictures to place in this entry. This discovery may just hold the answer to whether there is truth in the Lacus theory.
The answer lies in spelling YAGAMI backwards.
HAHA. Isn't it just lol stuff?
:P
~~

End Commentary

In the end, I guess I managed to make a rather lengthy comparison. Well, it did include so many other things about the animes involved. Waha. Anywaay, I think I've said so much about this that I don't have anything for the end commentary anymore.
So I'll just end this with: VK OP is in last week's Oricon Top 20. o_O Haha. Oh well, I'm not a god, so my judgment isn't infallible. Hm. Maybe I should make Oricon top 20 into post material? We'll see if I have the patience. :))

***
Disclaimer(s), etc.

1. Not claiming what isn't mine.
2. All images are from somewhere else and info links go to sites that are not mine. :P
3. You may have noticed that the order in which I write the surname and given name changes. This is based on the anime (at least for those I have watched). For example, Kira Yamato is Kira Yamato because he isn't from Japan in Gundam SEED, he's from Orb, blah blah, you get it. Yagami Raito on the other hand is Japanese and that's how they write their name. Ok.
4. Wow, I didn't know Death Note Anime had so many awards. Maybe I should watch it.
5. O_O LONG post.

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Updates 000

• New banner... Don't complain about the "off" stuff on it (a pixel off, missing border, white part not "green-multicolor-noised" etc.). I see it too, but I don't feel like changing anything for now. In fact, the next time I change anything for that banner, it would prolly be an overhaul. Well, banner overhaul. ~which can hardly be called an overhaul, cuz zuh, iz juz zi banner. Read it out loud and it'll make sense. :P
• The banner is from some chapter of bleach. Okay, I just checked, it's from chapter 285. Original art by Kubo Tite ---- NOT MINE. Well, modified it to suit my own needs, of course.
  
• I changed the GIF frame. I know it's not Seiran even though I said it would be Seiran. Okay, my prediction powers failed the world. Big deal.
• New discoveries for the day include: (1) Justice is an illusion. Or at least that I'm not the only one who thinks so... (2) Some css stuff. Hardly big stuff though... (3) Shivering is not a direct consequence of cold weather. Sometimes, it just occurs on it's own, for no particular reason. KSP.
• I don't know. It just seems weird to have such a short entry since all my entries are always long...
• Ah, Apple stuff. Why do people like Apple? It's like Apple fanboys are subjects who have sworn eternal and unwavering loyalty to his Steveness. It just kinda' amazes me. I guess Apple stuff are aesthetically pleasing. But I would still say what I said earlier in a conv. Apple is just for people to go "Look at me, I've got an Apple wachamakallit~ I'm soooooo keewl and techie and rich and high-class and etcblahetc!! PRAISE ME!!". MacbookAirheads.
• Blah Blah end.

***
Disclaimer(s), etc:

1. Not claiming what's not mine.
2. Did I break my record?
3. Flower Power!!

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Saiunkoku Monogatari Novel Translations

For my own purposes:
Saimono Novel TLs
~~
So I just finished reading all the summaries and excerpt TLs. I can't wait for the next book.
Saimono novels were... moving. Not just in a teary emo way, but in a lot of ways. But maybe that's just 'cuz I'm such an emotional wretch, but it's good to cultivate one's life, once in a while.
I don't have a favorite character anymore. I love them all~ ^_______^
Yeah, even Eigetsu isn't very hateful now... Actually, maybe he isn't, he's just, well, boo~o~ooring. Screentime entertainment value is like... 2 stars. And I'm still being kind with that rating.
~~
About Reishin's saving grace, it only saves him from being a jerk. It's like... a double-edged sword, in cliché-speak.
~~
It's amazing, isn't it? Fiction.
Another human we know hardly anything about creates characters, a story, events, and an entire world that we, readers/watchers, look forward to, grow attached to, and, well... in the end, this handiwork of another human being leagues away from us (literally and not) becomes a part of our lives and can even have such enormous influence on us.
In a way, that's a form of manipulation, isn't it?
Ahaha~ I love Ender's Game. It speaks nothing but truth. And even if I'm being manipulated, I still love Ender's Game and Saimono Novels~
One might argue that Ender's Game is totally unrelated, but that's only if one hasn't read it. :P
~~
So, amongst all the events, things, people, blah that I encountered in my Saimono journey, it seems that this phrase left the strongest impression on my messy brain:

"...an absolute, unbetrayable existence."

It reverberates. o_O
I better fix this...

***
Disclaimer(s), etc:

1. Not claiming as my own what isn't mine.
2. The TLs most especially aren't mine, they're done by a generous soul that goes by the name of 'charmian'.
3. I guess the phrase doesn't leave much of an impression if you don't know how it was used, but if I didn't get it out of my system, it'll just keep on bouncing on my internals and I don't see anything good in that.

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messiahship

I didn't know there was a noun for this until now.
~~

"When you're trying to save someone, you have to consider your own safety too.
If you can't say 'I'm happy that we're together' afterwards, then you weren't really able to save that someone."
-Rokujo Miharu-
-Nabari no Ou episode 4-

~~

'kay, so basically, I'm just trying to come up with random post material since I've been immersed in nothing but Saimono novel stuff for the past two days. I would have made that my material but... I have this belief that you shouldn't talk about water you're currently immersed in, or something like that. They'll just come out as air bubbles and I'll resemble fishy-fishy-fish over there in the bowl. Oh wait, our fish died days ago.
~~
This is totally unrelated, but there sure are a lot of silly unresonable people in this world. In fact, it sometimes gets to the point that even though you know that o_O-silly-unreasonable--ness isn't something that should ever change your blood temperature, somehow it's just too o_O that the temperature just drops to absolute zero and you're left to gape o_O at the paranormal phenomenon of o_O-silly-unreasonable--ness.
So is it better to have it boil and evaporate away instead in the hopes of a total renewing process for one's body fluids?
Well, just random thoughts from a spectator. I wasn't actually the one involved.
~~
Well, just a bit on Saimono, I guess. It seems that people's comments on the TLs about Reishin were almost always synonymous to "freaky jerk". Well, I guess that has some basis since he did want to marry Shuurei. *ahem*
Well, I think in the anime he only said it in passing but knowing Reishin, I wouldn't put it past him to be serious about marrying his niece. Okay, so he is a freaky weird character BUT, I never thought of him as a jerk. This is probably because I am inclined to liking highly-entertaining characters. And I don't think that I'm mistaken when I say that the entertainment value of Reishin's screentime is, like, 10 stars.
Well, thanks to the Gaiden TLs, it seems that Reishin, has other stuff aside from his entertainment value as his saving grace(s). Saimono novels are muuuch darker than the anime, really. IMO, this makes the funny moments funnier. :))
Also, Kouyuu's utter lack of any form of a sense of direction is explained. lol.
Poor Kouyuu. :(
Okay, I give up, I'm really laughing inside. :))
I take this opportunity to officially declare myself a Saimono fan!! Yeyey!!

***
Disclaimer(s), etc:

1. I don't claim what isn't mine as mine.
2. The TL of the Nabari quote above is from Rumi subs. However, I took the liberty of modifying it. Not because I have better Japanese knowledge. My adjustment is mostly based on context.
3. weh.

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Foul

Okaaay.
Procrastination is bad. And it just seems to be in my nature.
Basically, I've been reading saimono novel summaries the whole afternoon.
So, uh, whatever.
~~
My brother was skimming through the Spurs game we didn't get to watch, thanks to the universe, and interestingly, there was supposed to be a call on the Barry Fisher thing. BUT, it couldn't be changed anymore because DUH game was over. I know this is late and all, but there were other downloads with the game caps (dot dot dot saimono eps-------). Plus, it was in super HD, so it was big. I call it super HD because it was in 60fps o_o.
Well HD is really good for games, though I never really thought about that before.
--/me now wonders if game caps are illegal.
But what the heck.
I was never one to go and read stuff about something, I usually go and look for that something to find out stuff for myself. So, uh, there, the lateness.
So, if anyone actually reads the stuff here... And that someone's actually happened to stumble on sports stuff out there... Is there actually basketball politics? Like, you know, LAL is an ancient franchise with ancient championships in their pockets, so.. I dunno. Makes you wonder if there is basketball politics.
But I guess I've a limited view on this? v v v v limited.
So, with all that has transpired in my boring little life between the last non-jap post and this one, uh.... whatever.

***
Disclaimer(s):

1. Not claiming what isn't mine.
2. Wow, that was short.

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define: SM

Saiunkoku Monogatari
.proper noun.
1) It's an anime. What else do I write about anyway? :))

If I really think about it, SaiMono has a lot of stupid-anime moments.
For instance. There's a cute little kid

in the middle of an angry crowd

and ZOMG!! No one notices.
Convenient. Then they only notice her when she starts yelling and crying and saying touching, true things that will supposedly move the angry crowd's hearts.
Owww... touching moments~ XD
NOT.

BUT, in the end, the world of anime is a strange and unexplainable one.
I still fell for this series. It's doing me a lot of harm... But I can't stop!!
Agh, need SM air!!!!!!

*Ahem*
Moving on... (Yeah right, this thing has no flow~ how zu movezz?)
Take a look at this:

Ah, looks like those crystal ball pictures, huh... Reading the future from candle light? So, like, SaiMono has those stuff too....
NOT (again).
Actually, this guy was just about to smack the table with his hands. It's just so funny that the animation had to contain this frame... Actually, it makes me wonder whether they did that on purpose. Well, though it isn't laughable funny, it was still funny. ^_^

*Ahem*
(It's a separator for all the random stuff that pops up here)
I've never bothered finding out what's with all the fans in anime and all that...
But, in SaiMono, Yuushun received a fan from Shujou after agreeing to become his majesty's prime minister. This royal token took the form of:

Feathered fan. o_O
Well, it seemed he was happy about it though.
But then, it DID prove its use later!!!! And I SO get it now, the power of fans, that is.
This is what happened, in chronological order:

• Some court official says something that makes emperor feel uncomfortable.
• zohnoooez~ emperor is tongue-tied!!!
• CALLING FOR BACKUP!!!
• ahhhh~ kaze da~ Calming breeze~
• Woah, it's prime minister fanning emperorness-related pressure away!!
• Fan saves the day. ^_^

I think the feather-y structure also helped. I can't tell how, but I shall continue to believe that the Prime Fan (short for PrimeMinisterFan) is a powerful object with special abilities designed to be used only when all else fails. Such power just cannot be waved around carelessly. Thus, it is entrusted to the Prime Minister who is believed as capable of wielding such awsome and unrivaled power. This is only the beginning of the demonstration of its power, I'm sure.

*Ahem*
~~
Seiran Mania
.proper noun.
1) Funny guy Mania. :))

SM is a very dynamic series. Although I can't believe I said that and probably don't really believe that, I'll still say it and, oh, look~ I already said it.
I said that because this is one anime you can't really choose a favorite character out of. Not that I usually have favorite characters in other anime... but...
Ah, just don't mind everything before this line then.
Anyway, in SaiMono, accdg. to a friend, there's a funny guy, a funnier guy, and a funniest guy. But I have to disagree. Right now, I think there's even a funnierfunniest guy~in the form of:

and, omg, who's that???? (below)

Did the world just end?
Since it seems it hasn't, I would just like to make my point here, though perhaps I have already made it with those visual aids.
In the last few eps of Saimono, there were too many funny-Seiran moments. WAAAAAAAAHAHAHA!!!!! FUNNY SEIRAN!!
*ahem*
Thank you, TanTan-kun, for bringing out this kind of Seiran~~~
So, with all that has happened thus far, Seiran currently holds the position of my fave Saimono character~
So, I dedicate the GIF frame to him. ^_^ For today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow.. and, until I feel like changing it. ;P AND I am planning to change it, to another funny seiran sequence. =))
When?
----
So now, I end this entry with a quote from Seiran~
"A living human who doesn't exercise his brain will descend into stupidity."
ZOMG, the wisdom!!!!!!!!!!
...
...
...
ahahaha..................
Why does it feel like I've been hit somewhere?
Yosh!!!! I shall then continue reading on wavelets!!!!
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell, at least after this Saimono ep. ^__________^
ahahahaha.. stoopid? whoosh schupid?
argrooooooeeeenoooooeeeezzzz!!!!!!!
mei spitchz!!
End.

***

Disclaimer(s), etc:

1) All not mine = not mine. And I'm not claiming them. Hmm. It's getting shorter. I wonder if the time will come when I can say this in one word.
2) Screens mostly from crystalis-DreaM subs. I think there's one from FLC/SSF/SSF-FLC/FLC-SSF though... The crystal ball one.
3) GIF frame is from crystalis-DreaM subs and so is the Seiran quote.
4) Now then... Off to more Saimono goodness~~~

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Crowned Clown, etc.

Okay, read that title again and tell me you don't think it's funny.
It doesn't have to be laughable funny... just funny.
If it still isn't funny, think of it as a "title" for an anime character in a naruto-bleach-type anime.
I know D.Gray-Man has can be distinguished from Naruto and Bleach in a LOT of ways, but let's accept it. These three have a couple of very basic anime things in common:

1. They all come from manga.
2. Sho-u-ne-n
3. Action/Fighting/Oh-KewL-moves/etc
4. Sense of humour (so I like brit spelling, so what?) sandwiched within battles
5. LONG -> ongoing manga and ongoing anime and hundreds of chapters (well, d.gray is newer than the other two)
6. Well, the others are hard to put into items.
7. BE-SIDEZZZzzz, a LOT of anime have a LOT in common. In fact, my addiction to anime seems to be just as unexplainable as my addiction to Ragna back when PvP and Guild wars were still nonexistent >> Logically, they should be boring already, right? I mean, with the way I so can so spot a lot of similarities and stereotypes and all those... And that's coming from a person who only discovered the world of anime-internet-anime a little over 2 years ago. So.. the 500 gold ryou question-- What in the name of the crowned clown keeps me hooked??? And why is this part of this ordered list?
   

Moving on...
Among the three, I think Bleach is the best and Naruto is the worst. I don't hate Naruto the anime... I just really dislike Naruto the character. He's this super-idealistic kid who always wins despite being stupid, has a supposedly very dramatic past, isn't especially good-looking, isn't particularly funny (as his jokes are mostly perverted or just an extreme display of inhuman idiocy), and... well, in other words, he has no ounce of coolness in him at all. And I'm a girl, so that's really bad. Maybe he isn't all that bad, but bad things tend to get amplified if you see those over and over and over and over....... ........
I like Kakashi. He's kewl. ^_^ Place him beside Naruto and tell me I'm wrong.
Sasuke used to be kewl too, but he just had to have those snakes, that new outfit, and that really ugly transformation, so... ...
Ah, Itachi's kinda' kewl too. Well, if I ignore a few minor details....... Too bad he's ****.

Bleach. Now that's KEWL. And funny too. ^_^ I like Bleach~ Sure it has its not-so-great moments too, but... Well, it's this type of anime, after all. ^_^
~~
However, today is Crowned Clown Day. So, let's cheer Allen-kun as he fights Tyki, the kewl funny Noah~ yay.
On Crowned Clown anime, there's a new group releasing it, a joint project actually. Let's welcome the HD goodness of Higure-Rumbel releases~!! They did a 720p h264 AAC mkv softsubbed release~ Hope they won't stop and that they'll keep up the speed. ^_^ I mean, they aren't that fast, but it's a good balance between speed and quality. Who could resist?
That PLUS they actually made sensible lyrics for the OP. I've been watching Your-Mom releases before this, so I don't really know about the other groups, but... Well, I have made it a habit to look forward to watching D.Gray-Man OP for the entertainment of the Your-Mom lyrics. lol. But I have to say, it isn't poor hearing on their part, the lyrics actually match the sounds. Haha. Except for the fact that it's by Uverworld, and my image of Uverworld doesn't match with a song that goes:

In da house there is some strange guy.
Crackpot, see my cutter go shatter---

And that sent me into a fit of laughter.
Well, I guess the lesson learned here is that Japanese words and an attempt at american-accent-rap just doesn't mix right.
First thing I thought after watching their OP was, "This OP single has been released? I better check and download later." It's the natural conclusion you'd come up with if you've heard the song, believe me!!! But it's not on Nipponsei or anywhere on TT yet, so, I guess it hasn't been released yet? Too lazy to look anywhere else though.
After that was that moment came the thought that went, "omg, what if Your-Mom lyrics were the right one??". I think that would bring about another fit of mental laughter, after which I would finally feel the cuts I got from the pieces of my Uverworld image. But I think I'll recover fast. I'm not that big a fan of Uverworld, and I tolerate YUI engrish, after all. Like, "Sixteen my dream" and "I want to fry werr" are kinda' bad, right? But I'm still a YUI fan. ^^,
AND don't tell me that's impossible. Remember "Tonight love is rationed"-"Tonight love infects worldwide" song from Bleach? I never bothered finding out if those were the real lyrics buut... Considering my experience with J-Pop song lyrics, it's highly probable that they were.
~~
Next event for Crowned Clown Day...
Please welcome------
ZORRO!!!

His best move of the night: "Clown Belt!!!" LAWL.
Now, remember Tuxedo Mask from that.. aherm... classic series about girls who leave their enemies awestruck with their ballet-dancing disappearing-clothes transformations?
Spot the difference:

Too hard? I'll help you. :D

1. Cape color
2. No rose-biting
3. Exterminated Tease pieces for petals

It may seem like I'm making fun of D.Gray-Man...
and I am. lol
But, I do like this series (zuh, I watchz itzz). It ranks higher than Naruto, remember? And that's mostly because of the concept of Akuma and all that. It's a really unique idea, in my rather-limited-but-not-all-that-limited anime experience. There is no stand-out cool/funny character though.
Wait, scratch that. Tyki is cool and funny. But he's, well, what you'd call an antagonist, I guess. But it doesn't stop him from being on the cool and funny characters list. ^_^ He still doesn't stand out though.
Well, that's it for Crowned Clown Day, I guess~
Zorro, FIGHT!! Beat them with your Crown Belt!!!!! =))
~~
Just another thought...
Nabari no Ou is also similar to these anime. I guess it's most comparable to Naruto because it's a Ninja story, but as far as I'm concerned, the comparable-ness ends there. Miharu-kun is so much cooler and funnier than Naruto. That, and, well, I think Nabari no Ou presents Ninja life in a darker light. What I mean is that it isn't all about cool moves and fighting-is-a-good-thing-cuz-omg-it's-so-keeewl-to-be-strong stuff. Both main characters have thingies inside them though. Poweeerfuuulll thingies. Supposedly.
Also, Nabari no Ou is by J.C. Staff and I can't recall any bad experience with their anime, so... ^_^ I think I also remember seeing at anidb that Nabari would have only 26 episodes, so, I guess that means freedom from arrrrgh-fillers, so that's a YAY!!
With all that said, I like Nabari no Ou more than Naruto. Definitely.
~~
Just so you know, I didn't mean for this to be a Naruto-bashing post, it just ended up that way on its own. Ah, the ways of blogging are as mysterious as anime and ragna addiction.
~~
Itazura ni karamaru unmei~Bokura~zutto sagashitetanda~
Anyway, I was watching ep.9 earlier and I noticed this poster.


I thought it was one of those silent joke things, but, as it turns out, the cyborg~main character was supposed to look like Irie-kun. Haha, oh well.
There was a better shot of that movie poster/picture, but if I got that one, then it wouldn't reflect my silent mental laughter moment. Well, it wasn't that funny. I just wanted to photoshop something. It gives the feel of having accomplished something.
Okay. I concede!! It isn't worth it, making this picture and making it ugly!! I was just being my stupid self.
In other words, I'm making excuses for having done nothing major today.
And down the drain, my future goes~
~~
NO GEASS TO LOOK FORWARD TO THIS WEEK!!!!!! T_T
Life is cruel.
There was a preview for 09-10 though...
And it didn't make things any better... T_T
~~
I guess that would be all for etc.

***
Disclaimer(s):

1. All that isn't mine, isn't mine. And guess what? I don't claim them as my own either. So there.
2. And yeah, ordered lists are the in-thing right now, you didn't know? tsk tsk.
3. Crown Belt-o!!!!!!!
4. Now I remember why I never used ordered lists before. It becomes a bunch of yellow dots aka bullets for this skin.
   

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