Review: Tenchi Muyo OVA 5 episode 3 (episode 27)

After nearly 30 years, this anime series has finally surpassed the number of episodes of an average TV series *slow clap*.
The animation looks sloppy. I know its better than OVA 4 at least, but after rewatching Code Geass this week, which aired in what, 2006?, this series looks marginally worse.
The plot is really unthought of. Its a no brainer to have had an episode show Sasami's transition into Tsunami, but we got none of it.
In fact the whole episode, and series thus far, seems to be an animatic or radio drama with light animation.
This episode didn't tell any storyline that wasn't covered in its 2 minute trailer. The household visit the spaceship island. Oh and Kajishima inserts a bunch of new characters. The end.

REVIEW: Pogo- Ascend

For starters, I try before I buy. I'm no collector, So I dont think Star Charts nor any album before this is worth a purchase (not talking about EP's or singles). I consider Kindred Shadow the first REAL album from Nick. That was flawless. I'm no fan of artists like Pogo/Nick re-using samples in later songs. Its like they arnt happy with the original. There are 3 songs which I deleted off of Weightless because I felt they just didn't belong. These were Trumpular (god- no, not Trump), Hoo ba ba Kanda (its just more annoying Americans), and Dream Reaper (sounded evil- and it uses samples from the previous album). I'm pleased with this new album. In actual fact I think its solid. Its dreamy, the flow of the songs fit nicely, and nothing sounds off, apart from Take Those Pills, which doesn't have a place on the album but feels like the eccentric kid in the middle.

The mess that is Clamp, and why i'm now avoiding them

UPDATE:

I wont delete what I wrote originally. I am still pissed off, but at TsubaHolic rather than CCS. I just WISH the clear card prologue never existed. Its not canon. So let me be clear, The Clear Card anime series is 100% canon. I've watched it in full.




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 OLD:


I got into the anime of Cardcaptor Sakura when it was still known as Cardcaptors. I really loved it. After I learnt of the hack job that dub was, I got into the uncut version, Cardcaptor Sakura, which was absolutely amazing.

After its second movie I craved for more, though the ending was brilliant and didn't need any more.

Then Tsubasa RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE the manga came out. I couldn't help myself. I wanted to read up on events of what happened afterwards for the protagonists of Cardcaptor Sakura. Only, it wasn't them. Oh well, I continued reading in the hopes that the original characters would turn up one day. Sakura did, but only for a short time to hand over her magical staff and say her infamous line in chapter 224.

I also started getting into xxxHolic which tied into Tsubasa. It was a better story, and the likelihood of Clow Reed appearing was high, who was another character from Cardcapor Sakura.

Many years later these two stories have been ended with cliffhangers multiple times now. Meaning they occasionally come back to continue their stories. However I am seriously thinking now that they wont end. Ever.

Many fans may think that Tsubasa is over but the characters never found a place they can call home. That was the point of its story. Likewise in xxxHolic the story stopped dead and isn't going anywhere, even though it keeps repeatably teasing fans about a mysterious egg that could change the fate of things and bring a close to the manga. Well its not. Its just a fucking Pokemon GS Ball: a plot device to attract its audience but doesn't ultimately do anything.

As for the anime version of xxxHolic and Tsubasa? Forget about them. They never even tried to catch up with the true manga storyline.

With the return of Cardcaptor Sakura, the Clear Card arc, I'm now questioning why I ever commited myself to both xxxHolic and Tsubasa in the first place. You see, I've never read the Cardcaptor Sakura manga. Even if the characters turn up in xxxHolic and Tsubasa, they would never be the same true anime characters, they would be the manga characters that I never read.

And there is NO WAY the Cardcaptor Sakura manga could EVER top the anime version. The anime version is in colour, its in moving pictures, it has more stories than its manga, its in more depth, and its characters speak and the music is great. It has soul. Usually there is just NO WAY a manga can outshine its anime adaptation if its done right. If the anime cant keep up to its manga or has a whole bunch of filler episodes, only then do we have a problem. But the Cardcaptor Sakura manga is only something like 12 volumes long. Its too friggin short to outshine its anime.

So now we have a problem. Why did i comit to the very long Tsubasa and xxxHolic mangas?

Bring in the new Cardcaptor Sakura Clear card arc anime. We defiantly have a problem. Its episode 'prologue' adapts the last few chapters of the original manga. Its a different universe from the original anime. The events from the original anime are mostly the same but it diverts at exactly 22:36 seconds into episode 69. After this moment, time passes between the events of the showdown with Eriol. In that time, Shouron gives Sakura the bear, and admits his feelings to Sakura differently some time after that. She makes a bear for him and manages to give it to him just in time before his bus departs for the airport (but there is no sign on his butler on the bus too, strangely). Regardless, this diversion is separate from the original path of the anime and therefore the original anime is safe from being trashed or tarnished. Thank god. This episode is however mostly bland and rigid. the animation is static with not as much love put into it as the original. Also the animators seem to forget that the anime was ending in colder weather early in the year 2000.
Somehow its back to being warmer weather in this episode. Maybe a lot of time has passed since the ending of the Sakura card arc and that's why Shouron's butler has already gone home back to Hong Kong? weird.

Okay. Time to watch episode 1. Reactions below:

Episode one clearly repeated events showing Sakura and Shouron at the airport just before he left for Hong Kong. This means that the episode 'prologue' doesn't happen in the Clear Card arc. HOWEVER, the background during this shot is not exactly the same. The moment is the same yet the airport layout with the air hostess and the guy with the green bag are completely different.

AND THERE WE GO! We have modern TV's and smartphones now! this ISNT set in the early 2000's meaning its NOT the original anime canon.

Okay now I'm pissed off. This episode just said that Sakura stayed up all night to give Shouron a bear before he left. That never happened in the original anime, that was in the 'prologue'. Whats more that happened at a bus stop in the prologue, but this episode earlier referred to the airport scene in the original anime. And there is absolutely no way the prologue happened after the second movie so WTF?

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No way am I watching this clusterfuck. Seriously, how much effort does it take for writers to understand the previous plot? HELLO! WATCH THE FINAL FEW EPISODES! sloppy. No way am I watching a window into a CCS universe that is somewhere between the original anime and the 'prologue', yet set in modern times.

There are now 3 Cardcaptor Sakura anime universes because of this fucking mess.

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And that's why I have decided to stop out-rightly being interested in anything Clamp do ever again.

They never officially ended TusbaHoli, and have decided to undo any endings for Cardcapor Sakura too. This is a total clusterfuck. I never read the Cardcapor Sakura manga and therefore don't care for events that happen in that world, INCLUDING this clear card arc sequel. I realise now I'm only interested in watching a direct sequal to the original Cardcapor Sakura anime, leading off from its second movie.

Now that its 100% official that the Clear Card arc anime is NOT a direct sequel to its original anime, I'm past caring. I'm still interested in continuing the TsubaHoli manga though, just because I invested so much time into reading them.

But hell, I'm totally expecting this Clear card arc to never end anyway. Thats just how Clamp works.

GAME REVIEW: Sonic Mania

Most likely you've read a bunch of reviews about this game that say the same thing, so lets cut to the chase:

Its meh.

and whats more, I don't think its the creators fault. Yet again uncle Sonic Team got their way forced it to be boring.

How? Simple, they made sure that 60% of the game would be stuff recycled from other past classic titles.

I don't give a fuck if the second stages of all the classic levels apparently "change it up". Spoiler alert, it doesn't! They just contain gimmicks that have been found in other classic levels, like Oil Ocean act 2 basically being a mash up of Oil Ocean (obviously), Marble Zone from the first game, and Sandopolis Zone from Sonic 3. **YAWN**

What made Sonic 3 the best of the classic games was simply because it was fresh and didn't contain gimmicks from the previous titles.

Now don't get me wrong, I think the team behind the Mania game are the best folks for the job of a classic game sequel. I knew this all along, but Sonic Team are fucking twats and made sure the game would suck. Just look at the new levels for this game, no gimmicks from other games, just 100% fresh. That's Sonic Teams fault. The whole game could have been this fresh. Hell it was suppose to be! It was suppose to be fresh as a daisy with nothing recycled. Pure and simple. Stupid Japanese twats that don't trust western developers enough and have no fucking clue about their own franchise and quite frankly, haven't for a few decades already.

One thing I just cannot stand though was just how frustrating the blue sphere bonus stages are. This IS designed by the western developers and they have forgotten that Sonics a kids game. These levels are literally designed for the older players that have played the blue sphere levels often enough for years. So those new players would never ace them even after a LOT of tries and hair pulling, and whats the reward at the end? Nothing. that's what. A token that does nothing unless you have more. I WENT THROUGH LESS HELL IN SONIC 3 FOR A CHAOS EMERALD you bastards.

So yeah, Sonic Team forced this game to look and feel like a fan game. Frustrating.

ANIME REVIEW: Tenchi Muyo! Ryo Ohki OVA 4

As per usual, this series is OTT with too many new characters. Only this time you NEED to have watched GXP and read the GXP novels AND all the other crap like the Seikishi series to understand whats really going on, of which I cannot read it all due to NOT BEING JAPANESE!

Why alienate the viewers like this? Whats the point??!

Episode 1: The music in the background is kept to the background, and sparingly so too unfortunately, as I feel it suits the music style of OVA 1 and 2 more so. The character designs have changed yet again, this time the designs make everyone look fatter and fuller. Yucky.
Ditching an opening credits in favor of storytelling to the tune of a song works better for Tenchi. The show is suffering from lack of screen time as it is, so this is a good thing, however the love for the show is obviously not there at all. The quality of this OVA is worse than a typical television episode of things these days. The story is confusingly set in the past too, which doesn't help matters.

Episode 2: Just what the actual fuck is going on here?! This makes the overall original Tenchi series go down the crapper. Too many new characters, not much plot. Introduction to smartphones in the early 90's when this episode is set was a major head scratcher.

Episode 3: Meh. But it at least got to the end of the bloody pointless retelling of the wedding and focused on Reas background as she is accidentally brought into the universe from the Geminar one, to defeat a rouge sport robot. However thousands of years happen at a quicker rate than in the Tenchi world, and she for some bizarre reason, HAS to bring that world back HER child. Though that wasn't explained very clearly as to why. Still, its better than NO explanation, right?
Though it does state that she is created in a lab so her child would have the genes necessary to defeat the evil robot of that world.
Obviously her son would end up being Kenshin who would start the whole Seikishi spin off series.


Episode 4: Truly god awful. It was set years later (the year 2000 maybe??) and only consisted of plans of what to do with Kenshin, with a bunch of fucking pointless fanservice.

The end.

I'm sorry but I'm now putting this failed Tenchi Ryo-Ohki series under the classification of "dead to me".

What a fucking stupid pointless series. It didn't even make it to 26 episodes! BAH!

There is no hope for the series other than a reboot, and I renounce everything I ever said About Kajishima being the creator of the series. He's just a character artist, nothing more. That's why there are so many damn pointless characters in this fucking mess.

1-10

Once Kajishima is dead of old age, maybe AIC will actually consider a reboot. Tenchi Muyo has some things going for it with the goddesses and Tenchi being some sort of god. But its just not told in any sort of coherent way. I used to love this show. I seriously believe now that the original writers like Hasegawa left because of this stupid Kajishima dude. He is obviously no writer. I'm sorry, there is no way this guy can write, so why is he considered as the head of this franchise? Did he even create Tenchi Muyo in the first place?!? I seriously believe not. There is just no way.

Tenchi Universe is frustrating too because things are wrong with that show but in different ways. But no way is it as bad as the fragmented mess of the original.

My idea would be to have a 26 episode television show that tells a story about a farmboy that was actually god, but he didn't know it until goddesses messed with his life that forced him into a space opera adventure, that saw him finish off as a king of another planet with many different wives, but all the meanwhile he just wants to escape back to his farm boy lifestyle. Give it some zest, some life, some fun! some comedy! Some originality! Less talk, fewer characters, less garbage. Easy going great fun. That's all this series needed to be.

ANIME REVIEW: Cardcaptor Sakura- Clear card arc prologue episode

Weird. Not what I was expecting, and thankfully keeps the original anime and leaves it alone.

This weird episode adapts the last few chapters of the original manga, I think. I never read the manga. Not when the anime was soo damn perfect, so I cant say for sure.

Thankfully I can clearly say without a doubt that its setting up a tangent universe for the Clear Card arc anime series that is coming out next year. a totally different universe from the original anime, one that splits from the Sakura Card arc at exactly 22:36 seconds into episode 69, or rather the moment Sakura defeated Eriol and Keroberos is shocked to see Eriol and co disappear so suddenly. In the original anime, Syaoran admits his love for Sakura straight afterwards. Not long later he flies back for Hong Kong, but not before Sakura turns up at the airport and demands him to give her his bear that was meant for her anyway. In this anime divergent, Syaoran gives Sakura his bear off screen, and hangs around for a few months in Japan before admitting his love to her. Then Sakura makes him a bear and manages to give it to him just before his bus departs for the airport. She also admits her feelings to him during this moment.

Weirdly, there is no sign of Syaorans butler on the bus too, strangely.

Regardless, this diversion is separate from the original path of the anime and therefore the original is safe from being trashed. Thank god.

Unlike the original animation, this episodes animation is bland and static with not as much love put into it as the original. too many panning shots of static characters with only lip flaps moving. One weird animation moment had the teacher walk into the room portraying the children as being only white blobs with faces. WTF?! cheap and unkempt.

I'm just glad this doesn't touch the original anime. That's one of my all time favourite anime series.

MUSIC REVIEW: Gorrilaz- Humanz

I've just listened to the new Gorrilaz album on Spotify. My god, its terrible! 0_0 How did Damon decide that this mess was finished?!? 0_o Every song sounds terrible apart from 'We Got The Power'. That song was at least catchy, however it ends abruptly and falls too short. It could have done with having a second part to it, somehow. The rest of the tracks in the album are generic and highly forgettable. A bit like the songs in the first album (excluding the singles, those were good).
Overall, every singer in this new album sounds like they are singing to a melody that just isn't there. Damon's singing parts are equally as bad. He sings exactly the same way in every song, which mirrors his guests in this album, in that he's singing/rapping to a melody that doesn't match the actual music being played. Maybe the singers literally didn't have a melody to sing too when recording their parts??
There are 26 songs to this album, yet it seems like their shortest to date. Maybe this is for the best, as you can then go and listen to some decent, older, Gorrilaz tracks after you're done. This is easily the worst Gorrilaz album, including The Fall which was written during their American Tour 2010, and recorded within a week I believe.

Ai Tenchi Muyo! Episode 1 review

This was 4 mins. I turned it off after 1min 52 seconds after not being able to stand it any longer. I want my 112 seconds back :(.

Never again.

No comments for AGES means I gotta deal with it

Comments section is now linked with Disqus because I guess the old system was broken? Maybe?

Hilarious spice and wolf hiatus update

This is all I have written down for Spice and wolf volume ten-

Novel 10-
The gang travel by boat to the island kingdom of Winfiel, where Lawrence follows written instructions given to him by Lud Kieman from Kerube to meet with certain salesman in order to gain access to an abbey which may hold the wolf bones Holo is after.

The kingdom is on the verge of financial ruin. This is evident by their failing nobility and their nearly worthless currency. To make matters worse the worlds most powerful economic alliance, the Ruvik Alliance, are taking interest in the abbey our gang want to visit in what may be the first signs of taking control of the kingdom.
This bloke from the Ruvik Alliance escorts them up to the Abbey which ends up a 3 day trip by horse.
During the day or so Holo and Lawrence just chill out. Their banter involves him burying his head in her chest apologetically because he failed to find information that day, and there was another one before that where he and Holo shared a bed with her lying on top of him.

The bloke cannot find specific details which is relevant for lawrence, but is interested in using him as a means of breaking down the power that the kingdom of Winfiel has over the all important abbey.

I am burnt out from this series to the point I hate it. Reading it became a chore. Im now reading the Howls Moving Castle series which i will not be reviewing, yet find to be so uplifting. Its nice to read for the enjoyment of reading again. :)

REVIEW: Oh My Goddess!- the complete manga series

Like all good things that turn sour, I used to love this series. It had so much promise. Alas with each passing volume things never really kicked up a gear. The characters never grew and just stayed being the same. things became stagnant and pretty much stayed that way. The timeline is messed up. One could argue that the series took place over about 6 years, and yet everyone was still doing pretty much the same things they were doing originally, apart from Chihiro and Keiichi who ended up working together in their own garage. Even then K1 was officially still at Uni. What about Tamiya and Otaki? They were far older than Keiichi and were what, still at uni? See this is the problem with this manga. It was like the Simpsons in that there was no real aging or character development.

during my transition from loving the series to loathing it, I once came to a compromise and thought the series was split into 3 different universes. Fujishima was constantly evolving the series and altering its mood and changing previous events to fit the more recent stories. These 3 versions, or universes, were an 80's version; the first 3 volumes, a 90's version; ending before the introduction of the angels, and the cannon story; as the lack of angels in early volumes was a bit of a head scratcher.
Fujishima had a chance to shake things up around its peek at volume 20, but in my opinion it failed. From here on the story becomes dull, stale, boring and somewhat pointless.

Volumes 1-3 feel completely off compared with the rest. Technology is another issue. The series is always somehow set in the year the chapter was released, making it seem as if technology moves on extremely quickly in the space of what must be no more than 6 years. I'm talking about everything from CRT's, LD's and Betamax to more modern appliances.

I got confused with Keiichi's school terms at Nekomi tech. I mean how long can one be at uni for anyway?

By far the worst thing about this series is the reason why everyone was sucked into this series in the first place; the relationship between Belldandy and Keiichi.
As a reader you would always be wanting to see their relationship flourish but we never saw that.
We thought we were seeing Belldandy falling more and more in love with Keiichi as the series progressed, until the end when apparently she loved him before she even MET him. This was stupid.
Also, it was confirmed towards the end of the series that a spell was put in place over K1 and Bell's love for each other. Fate was literally repelling their love for each other, despite the fact it was apparently super strong.

On hindsight what was the point in this series? You cant say it was about Bells and K1's relationship as it was hardly EVER mentioned or touched upon. The relationship may have been the drive to continue on with reading the series, but now its over and nothing was accomplished from that, why was it the drive to read on? What is the hook? The comedy? The story? What story? All the story did was have good characters that never really grew to be stronger. Theres nothing to make me feel like re-reading the series again. And I mean it I probably wont.
I have sold my entire manga collection. I really feel this series was a waste of time and money.

Dark Horse released the series originally in a flopped format. I waited until 2006 when they started re-releasing the series in an unflopped format, which was a lot more uncut from the original. This trend they also aligned with their current releases, which were volumes 21+ from 2006. I bought these but I never read them until I caught up. They literally just sat on my shelf until volume 20 was re-released in 2012.

4-10. Progressively great artwork (that gets worse again from volume 20) but otherwise piss poor.

Anyone who hasnt done so already please read Love Hina instead! Its far shorter, tighter, has characters that grow, a better love relationship between the main characters, a better payoff at the end of the series and works to an accurate timeline.

REVIEW- The Wind Rises

A Hayao Miyazaki film. Evangelion director Hideaki Anno is the voice of the protagonist Jirō Horikoshi.
This film centers on the engineer who designed the plane used in the kamikaze attacks during World War II. It was a terrible film. The story was drawn out wayyyyy too much and there wasnt even too much of a story to tell in the first place! It was kinda depressing but still very captivating, and it had the usual Grade A Ghibli visuals. I think the word 'Meh' justifies this film a lot.
I also think its a bit creepy that Ghibli were romanticizing the story of a guy of whom would surely be a war criminal IRL.
This is Hayao Miyazaki's last film and he is now retired (thank god). Working with Hideaki Anno in this film, Miyazaki gave Anno permission to be the director of a possible Nausicaa sequel should Anno ever wish to make one. 5-10

Also, Captain Hastings was in the film-

Captain Hastings

Castorp

REVIEW: Oreimo / My Little Sister Can't Be This Cute

I'm going to keep this brief. Anything that promotes blood related brother and sister incest should be made illegal. For most of these 2 anime series I felt like they were just a couple of siblings that had fun together. Then towards the end shit got real. This makes things 10000x worse than say KissXSis where in that show the siblings are NOT blood related. Its wrong. In nature incest breeds disorders in the offspring. Its pretty much impossible to see a brother or sister as a potential mate because of this. This anime and its franchise is quite frankly SICK. Japan I am disgusted in you for allowing this project to get off the ground.

Shinichiro Watanabe and I

I went to the London MCM Expo yesterday (Sat 25 May 2013) and met the coolest guy from the anime industry, Shinichiro Watanabe. Its no secret that my favourite anime EVER is Samurai Champloo, so to see the director of it for a Q&A panel was fucking awesome, but to then actually meet the guy in person for an autograph and a photo is MINDBLOWING. This dude is my favourite anime director. Of all the people that could possibly have turned up for this London con and they go and get this guy. Holy shit.

me and the legend himself

Signed A4 poster of Kids on the Slope

The photo also lists his other works, including Cowboy Bebop (my #5 favourite anime) and Kids on the Slope (my #17 favourite anime).

Yeah. Yesterday was a good day.

Watch this interview from the con via crunchyroll-
http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2013/05/26-1/video-rare-english-interview-with-cowboy-bebop-director-shinichiro-watanabe

BTW, for those that have never seen my actual face until now, I couldn't look more far removed from my Mugan avatar, could I?

P.S. I went cosplaying as Slenderman. lol.

MUSIC: review: Daft Punk- Random Access Memories

My thoughts on the new Daft Punk album as I listened to it for the first time. Its currently streaming for free on itunes 1 week before official release.

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1) Give Life Back To Music- FUNKY

2) The Game of Love- slow dance funk.

3) Giorgio by Moroder- Ive had this in my head ever since hearing the leek. Fucking amazing when the beat drops. This will be a single minus the talking intro. BTW this is kinda Tron meets funk. HOLY HELL THE BEAT DROPPED AGAIN! FRIGGIN WOW!

4) Within- piano beginning. Robots singing. This is a slow dance. So far this album needs more of an uplifting feel to it to make it more awesome.

5) Instant Crush- instant uplift. It has that magical feeling that stardust has, but more indie somehow. Kinda Sonic the Hedgehog. The song has a slow beat. this is becoming a trend on the album.

6) Lose Yourself to Dance- slow beat- AGAIN!! AghHHHHHH!!!!! Think Prince. In fact why isnt it Prince singing? seriously?!

7) Touch- takes time getting into the song. Still waiting. spacy and weird. OK the singing has started. boring. OK here we go; the funk dropped. Keep expecting to hear "SHAFT!". OK its gone boring again. And there we go Its back, this section is quite cool. Its gone slow again. Its gone weird and spacy again. Not bad (not instantly great either). This is going to need a few more listen toos me thinks. Ok we need to wave lighters in the air now. crappy ending. erhayaaaaaacgggghhh yuck.

8) Get Lucky- HOLY SHIT THAT INTRO. ooh interesting midsection. WHA WHAT!? That bit was sweet. BUILD UP THAT FAILED IN THE RADIO EDIT. COME ON DONT DISAPPOINT! BAH Ive done this song better. Fuck i was expecting more somehow. FUCK.

9) Beyond- slow. fed up of this non dance album. *yawns*

10) Motherboard- Royksopp? slow again. Seriously this sounds like a Royksopp song. weird watery midsection

11) Fragments of Time- FUNK. still slow. Driving song in the warm breeze. Single quality

12) Doin' it Right- slow but really really cool. Indie flavours. nice and simple song.

13) Contact- uses NASA sound files. This is like their Tron songs again. wow this song has a fast-ish paced beat! too little too late.

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This album is like Daft Punk shooting themselves in the foot on purpose (maybe both feet). Its like they didn't want to make a dance album, and are saying screw you to the fans and the industry they helped create. Bah. Stick to Discovery folks. You're wasting your time with this one. Still waiting for another Discovery. They definitely have it in them to do it again, but like I said its like they don't want too. I may not buy this. Needs to grow on me but probably wont. I take it funk isn't suppose to make you dance? Thats the impression I get from this anyway.

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EDIT-
IT GREW ON ME.
Its a mellow album. Easy listening. Sort of like a spiritual sequel to Air's Moon Safari. Its something you don't always choose to listen too in one hit, but when playing on shuffle on your ipod/walkman/phone/whatever and it switches to playing one of these songs unexpectedly it will definitely give you a genuine smile

EDIT ONE WEEK LATER-
I don't think I have ever quite experienced such a change of heart for an album as I have for this. Once you get over the fact its not a dance album, MY GOD its a good album.

Evangelion- Essay on understanding the TV series universe

This is by no means fact. I have watched the show a great number of times and have come up with my interpretation of whats going on. I feel the need just having watched 3.33 to write SOMETHING about Eva, but I cannot write anything on the movie universe because the series is unfinished. Hence this essay on the TV series which I wrote and amended after every re-watch. I should have published this a while back, but I didn't have any incentive until watching 3.33 last night.

We are presented with 2 endings. The TV series, when followed correctly via the directors cut episodes, ended weirdly with Shinji forgiving himself and coming to terms with his personality. Then there was a recap called 'Death', which through in a few new scenes. Finally we get the epic movie of epicness; 'The End of Evangelion'.

Its safe to say the TV series ending happens within the movie End of Eva. These two endings may have been planned from the beginning. Personally I think Anno was too ambitious and was stretched for time and only 26 episodes. The series SHOULD have been planned as 52 episodes long, not 26. This was a production mistake but you have to forgive him (and Gainax) and move on.

The more complex side of the Evangelion story was the struggles between two idealistic plans for humanities future. Gendo V Seele.
Both Gendo and Seele wanted to fill the gap in everyone's hearts, that gap left after Adams rib was taken out to create Lilith. To refill the gap, Adam and Lilith must be fused together. But if you did that directly, humanity would go through an epic restart called the 3rd impact. Both Gendo and Seele agreed on the general way of going about doing it, but what Seele wanted wasnt what Gendo wanted. Gendo wanted to evolve the human race, whilst Seele wanted to see out what was written in the Dead Sea Scrolls, that being that everyone would merge together.

Seele’s plan was as follows:
To create an anti-AT field after the death of all the Angels. It involves using the Eva series’ S2 Organs, and Shinji within Unit 1. The Lance of Longinus is also needed. Then every human soul would revert back to Lilliths egg (Tokyo 3's Geo front) due to the human AT field breaking down. Everyone would then exist forever within the egg, talking to each other and trying to sort out their own existence and eventually becoming of one sound mind. As for what then, no one knows. Probably live forever creating any reality you want too in your thoughts.

Gendo’s plan was as follows:
He was to complete everyone’s hearts to evolve humanity into a happier existence. For this plan to work, he would have to let Seele get as far as letting the human AT field break down slightly, but then quickly take advantage of the situation and merge and control Adam (which he did), then assimilate with Rei (a clone of Yui and Lillith), then probably merge with Lillith, then transport and assimilate with Unit 1 and Shinji. Then Gendo and Yui (she was already assimilated with Unit 1) would use their combined willpower to evolve humanity to much the same as before, with no third impact/humanity reset button/world destruction. Only now everyone's souls would be connected and people would feel happier and more complete and fulfilled. He would then come back in human form along with Yui and Shinji and live out their life happily ever after. Not sure what would happen to Lillith, Adam and Unit 1, but Rei would no doubt come back as an adopted daughter of Gendo and Yui. I would like to think that the Lillith, Adam and Unit 1 entity would coexist with humans, and probably change its form to a more smaller humanoid one much like Kaoru was, to spend its days watching over the human race.

It was a good plan. However Gendo kept his cards too close to his chest, and Rei eventually became distrustful towards him and Seele. Instead she intended to help Shinji make up his own plan for humanity, and therefore she decided to play god a little and return humanity to Lilliths egg much as Seeles plan, but then let Shinji decide what happens next. Her DNA was always half Yui, half Lillith, but her soul was a copy of the original Lillith. It was enough to let her take charge when the time was right.

There is enough proof to suggest that ‘Air’ (movie episode 25) was the intended original TV episode 25, but they ran out of money and didnt plan the ending correctly, so they couldn’t do it. TV series episodes 25 and 26 express the end of movie episode 26, where everyone returns to Lilliths egg. Everyone is floating around, talking to each other, and trying to sort out their own existence with help from people they knew in life. This process can take years for some individuals. Even though Shinji is alive inside unit 1 at this point, his soul and mind is still mingling with everyone else. He becomes of sound mind (as seen in the end of TV episode 26) and decides he doesn’t like Lilliths’ system of living (souls being kept inside her egg, then you live, and then after you die you return to the egg, then repeat the process), and so he destroys the egg. Therefore the contents of the egg (LCL with souls) spread around the world, to create a sea of LCL.

You could say Seele's plan won over in the end. Only due to Shinji’s intervention, the process of death is changed. Souls of dead people are no longer trapped in an egg, waiting to be reborn. The new system makes anyone able to come back from the sea of LCL to the land of the living if they will it to happen. We know this as in one of the TV episodes, Shinji turned into LCL, then turned back into a human again when he willed it to happen (with help from Misato talking to him).

Shinji decided to live, so Rei/Lillith teleported him to Earths ravaged surface. She decided to give him company by bringing back Auska to join him at his side. This Auska has also undergone the same treatment of sorting out her thoughts much like Shinji did, and so has elements of Rei and Misato imbedded in her personality.


Its clear that anyone can come back to Earths surface if they will it to happen. But honestly I believe that most people would prefer mingling with each others souls and feeling connected that way. This is the fate of Yui and Gendo anyway.

What is unclear is how death and rebirth works now. Say Shinji and Auska have a child. Where would the soul come from? The egg is destroyed, and the will of the chosen soul now has a say in whether it would want to come back as a new person. Its more likely that the soul would come from the heavens itself, something akin to where the Angels come from.
As for when Shinji, Auska or anyone else on the planets surface eventually dies, where would the soul go? Would it go into the sea of LCL, or would it transcend into the same realm of the Angels?

I once thought that dying people would have the opportunity of returning to the sea of LCL, and that aging people would be able to return to the sea of LCL and come back younger a few seconds later. I even thought people would be able to move from one part of the world to the other simply by returning to the sea at one point and coming out of it at another a second later. However cool this hypothesis was, its a load of bull because the human AT field is restored. Technically speaking, technology could make it happen. Shinji turned into LCL inside Unit 1, so something could be made to lower the AT field on certain subjects.

The only thing left to say is why Shinji strangles Auska in the end of the movie. She was always his personal punching bag (and to some degree vice versa) and he had gone though a lot of shit only to find himself alive and confused again, being cut off from the souls of those in the sea of LCL. She reaches out to him and it becomes obvious that he lets his bad thoughts go again.

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Overall Anno did a fantastic job with Evangelion, but he did tell the story in a confusing way. I’m pleased he did do the movie, even if his hand was forced because the Japanese didn’t like the TV ending. Fair enough. The movie idea was the original plan after all. Once you understand everything, the story clicks and it’s a really good feeling. Even if it did take me years of re-watching it to figure it out. 10-10

My Top 10 Charts as of end of 2012

Anime series:

01. Samurai Champloo
02: Psalms of Planets Eureka seveN
03: His and Her Circumstances / Kare Kano (then into manga vols 8+)
04: Cowboy Bebop
05: Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex
06: Fullmetal Alchemist (2nd TV series universe)
07: Cardcaptor Sakura
08: Ergo Proxy
09: Trigun
10: Macross Frontier

Manga or Japanese novel series:

01: Haruhi Suzumiya (novel series)
02: Spice and Wolf (novel series)
03: Nagasarete Airantou
04: Kare Kano
05: Love Hina
06: Excel Saga
07: Oh My Goddess!
08: Detroit Metal City
09: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (Murakami novel)
10: Tetralogy of the Rat (Murakami novel series)

Anime movie series:

01: Whisper of the Heart
02: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
03: Kiki’s Delivery Service
04: My Neighbour Totoro
05: Akira
06: Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
07: Evangelion + Petit Eva ~Evangelion@School~
08: Tokyo Godfathers
09: Princess Mononoke
10: Howls Moving Castle

Thoughts: Oh My Goddess!

Yeah I dunno what happened. I decided in the summer just to read them all in one hit. So i did. I tried to blog my way through them, and kept a review in edit which was on the permanent back burner. It needed to be completed, so i did it just now. My love for the series diminished completely. Fujishima just keeps retconning things to the point that it ends up being nothing like the original vision. Im not saying its a bad series, its just been overdone. Things would have worked better if it just ended, and not come out with boring lack luster events. This series was all about K1 and bell's relationship, which may be getting sorted out now after the hell arc, but things still dont feel right. The movie did it better.

Thoughts: Cross Channel

I would have liked to have done a review for the game Cross Channel, but to be honest in a nutshell its a mind fuck.

I didnt watch Lost, but i would compare it to that because you enjoy the ride, but hate the outcome. true the main character had a bad ending, but this isnt what im talking about here. The game has contradictions, and then some. In fact I wouldnt be wrong in saying it has so many I dont know where to start, and that I think even itself didnt care in the end. No wonder this isnt an anime. I mean it could be, but the writers would need to sort out all these problems before even starting such a project. Its a mind fuck. that is all. Other then that its great. Totally worth it.

The Readable Timeline of Haruhi Suzumiya

Here's the timeline of events for the Haruhi novel series in its proper reading order. Each one are links to the relevant review page. Use this to get the full picture.

Adapted into the anime-

01) The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (April-May 2003)
02) The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya (Early June)
03) Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody (July 7th)
04) Mysterique Sign (July)
05) Remote Island Syndrome (Late July)
06) Endless Eight (August 17-31)
07) The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya (Mid-November)
08) The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00 (Mid-November)
09) Live Alive (Late November)
10) The Theater of Haruhi Suzumiya (Late November). See below
11) The Day Of Sagittarius (Late November)
12) Someday In The Rain (Early or Mid December)
13) The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (December 16th to 24th)

Not adapted into the anime-

10) The Theater of Haruhi Suzumiya (Late November).

14) Love at First Sight (26th December)
15) Snowy Mountain Syndrome (30th December)
16) Where Did The Cat Go? (31st December)
17) The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya- Prologue (part 1) (January 2nd 2004)
18) Random Numbers (3rd January)
19) The Melancholy of Mikuru Asahina (mid-late January)
20) The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya- Prologue (part 2) (Tuesday 3rd February)
21) The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya (early February)
22) Editor in Chief, Full Speed Ahead! (late February)
23) Wandering Shadow (early March)
24) The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya (April)
25) Rainy Day (September 2002)
26) The Surprise of Haruhi Suzumiya (April)
27) Seven Wonders Overtime (Late May)
28) Tsuruya's Challenge (June)