Mindful.

Finished up the R.O.D. OVA, and it does indeed help to explain parts of the series, and I recommend it to all of you who a) are actually here reading this, and who b) are interested in anime. It's very good, and some of the fights are quite fun to watch. reen electricity rocks. Other than that I've watched the Naruto update which was average. Nothing too exciting, but at least Rock Lee fought a tiny bit, even if it was only a few strikes. I've also just watched the first 3 episodes of Paranoia Agent, and I already have an inkling as to who the real culprit of the attacks is, and the underlying pattern in who to target. I won't say anything here since you shouls watch it yourself, but it's fast becoming one of my favourites already. There's a Fight Club-esque scene where a woman with multiple personalities is being pulled around by them, and that's very interesting to watch.

It happy happy joy joy news, I received an e-mail stating my PSP had been mailed, with the appropriate tracking number. I checked up on it, and it should arrive either Saturday or Monday, depending on how fast it's flown out. So close now.... so close... The homework still looms over me however, and I have an ADDITIONAL homework for Monday, so that's a part of my Sunday gone too unless I do it on Friday. Blegh. Ah well, I suppose the grades will be worth it in the end, leading on to ridiculous University debt. Hurrah, go me. The light on the horizon is however that my mum is coming over to see me on Sunday, so she may take pity on my stolen PSP, and give me a bit of compensation money. It's a long shot, but what the hey eh? May as well try, and it's certainly help me repay my dad. I guess I'll watch the next two finished episodes of Paranoia Agent in a short break or so, listening to some music first. Till next time.

Read or Die.

I watched the remaining 25 episodes in a relatively single session (pausing after every 5 or 6 to get a drink, grab a snack, etc etc) and I enjoyed this anime too. I must be easy to please. The plot was good, with lots of character interaction, and the characters actually developed quite a bit throughout and how they worked together was shown really well. Even with the twists thrown at them, they still came through (as you'd expect, of course). Some parts probably would have made more sense if I had watched the OVA first, but since I didn't I'll just have to think retrospectively. I'll most likely watch the OVA either late tomorrow or on Friday, and by then I'll have finished downloading Paranoia Agent. I said I'd have a break, but meh, I like watching anime. After Paranoia Agent is finished downloading I'll either go for the Tenjou Tenge series and OVA, because I wanted to see it around the same time I got Ikkitousen but never got a chance, and Samurai Champloo. Both series look good, and so I'm looking forward to them. One problem happens to be that all the full seires Madlax torrents I've tried don't work, so it seems like that series is shelved permenantly for me. Dang.

I'm also laden with quite a bit of homework. A large Causation essay to write for Law, a rhythm essay to write for Psychology (infradian, circadian and ultradian rhythms to be precise), and a large poster to create for Sociology, based on an aspect of culture. All 3 pieces are due in for this coming Tuesday. There goes my free time during college on Friday then, and my Saturday. Admittedly I got the poster and Law essay set over a week ago, so it's entirely my fault, I just didn't expect a third piece to be set for the same day. Curses. At least by Friday or Saturday I'll have a PSP to provide recovery after doing all the homework. Mmmm... PSP.... So, till next time.

Booyah!

I love that exclamation. Booyah. It just rolls off the tongue. At any rate, I'm justified in saying it. Thanks for my sympathetic dad, through the use of a credit card a NEW and WHITE PSP is winging it's way through the air towards me by FedEx post. Woohoo! I should have it by Friday, or possibly even Thursday since postage is only 2 to 4 days total. Not to mention I have a 512MB memory card to arrive so I'll immediately be able to upgrade, and the game that was in the PSP when it was stolen was Wipeout Pure, which I don't play that much anyway. My beloved Bleach 2 is still with me, so I can keep playing that happily. I may have to clear a few stages of BlocKon again, but that's all good, gives me more to do.

Anime-wise, Lunar still haven't released Bleach 50, so hopefully that'll be done tomorrow. Mahou Sensei Negima was released at long last by Anime Council however, woohoo yet again. Not only that, but after a few -months- Girls Bravo Series 2 episode 10 was released by AnimeYuki, if the series is the same length as the first, only a single episode to go. Tsubasa Chronicle is at episode 23 now, and I reckon that there'll be 26 to finish the first season. Unfortunately Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex 2nd Gig hasn't advanced, still the last 2 episodes to be released by Laughing Man Fansubs. Ah well, I'm sure they'll be out eventually. I've also just finished watching the first episode of R.O.D. Read or Die. It looks rather spectacular, with some impressive moves utilising paper to create walls, weapons, animals and so on and so forth. It's only a few hours till all 26 eps have downloaded too, so I should be able to watch quite a few tomorrow. Once it's done, I'll download the OVA. Then after that, I think I'll give my computer a rest and just stick to the series updates. Poor poor Madlax shall be waiting even longer. Till next time.

Games Day.

Well, today was both good and bad. On the good side I got to play in several participation games, the most enjoyable being called 'Zombies in a minefield', where you take control of a zombie and race to the finish, trying not to be blown up. I bought a large Genivieve omnibus book, comprised of the 4 books she's in, so I should have a lot of reading to do when I'm bored. I also bought an Adeptus Titanicus Tech Priest engineer from Forge World. The model is ridiculously detailed for a 28mm model. It's really nice. Since I was bored I also got the multi-part Epic Space Marine, just because it was only £2 and I had spare change. In the conversion competitions for Warhammer and Lord of the Rings (the only 2 I partook in) my conversions of a dual scene both made it to the final cut, but in both cases only 1 of 4 judges wanted me to win, the other 3 picking something else. Well, damn, but at least I made the final cut.

Then on the way home, trajedy struck. I found out that someone at games day had stolen my PSP. I kid you not, I am now PSP-less. God. Fuck. It. Thankfully the PSP only had Wipeout Pure inside it, and not one of my favourite games, and nothing else was taken, but still, damn. It was being kept in my backpack, which was on my back THE WHOLE TIME. Graaahh! Damn it, I hate thieves, especially thieves who steal my precious items. It now means I have to wait 5 weeks or so to build up the money to buy another one, and until then I have to rely on my DS. It just won't be the same....

So, overall the day went well, with a major fucking bombshell of unhappiness at the end. Bah. Till next time.

Missing.

Wow, based on dat, I've missed 2 days of updates. If people actually bothered coming here to read my pointless ramblings then it may be a problem. Thank heavens no one really comes here eh? Just me, typing aimlessly about pointless things, mostly anime and how much I've slept recently, whenever I'm bored enough and around enough to type. So anyway... On friday I went to bed early, thereby avoiding the duty of posting, since college on friday wears me out. It's vaguely cruel, since I have a lesson, break, lesson, 3 and a half hour break of death, lesson. By the time I reach the last lesson, all motivation and enthusiasm has left my body and I just want to go home and sleep. Blarg. On saturday, i.e. an hour and 12 minutes ago, I just never got round to posting since I was messing around compressing the Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children movie to a ridiculous degree. I got it down to 192MB (freaking small for an hour and 40 minute movie) through compression then conversion to MPEG4 format. The slow bits look nice and normal, anything moving faster than a brisk walk has pixellated edges. It's not overly bad on a PSP, but it's still noticable. Oh well. Maybe I'll try encoding it to MPEG4 with 29.97 frames per second, instead of a lousy 15. Pity it'll double the size or so...

In anime related news (not much else to talk about y'know...) I managed to watch all of Last Exile in a row yesterday. It's quite enjoyable, though I kept getting the worrying impression that Dio was a girl from the drawing style and haircut he had. Even after it was stated several times that he was male, it just didn't seem to fit. The fact he acted -slightly- camp didn't help. The ending was also quite good, considering many series don't end well. Happiness nearly all round, and a nice deal of closure, leaving the mind at ease. I can't say the same for Neon Genesis Evangelion, since the ending of that seemed to be in a far more abstract viewpoint, as if from a mind, or set of minds, that was breaking apart. I preferred the End of Evangelion movie, which is a retelling of the last 2 episodes. It was far less abstract. Well, the first half was. Still, neither endings gave that much closure, and left a huge amount of questions unanswered. Irritating questions too, such as, "What the hell is supposed to happen now?" Overall I thought it was again a good anime, if slightly let down by the ending(s). I also found out that Mahou Sensei Negima episode 23, the unsubbed episode in the series, was released by a single guy. I downloaded it, and it was good, even though the guy himself said in a kind of 'forward' (readme file) that it was his first time typesetting, subbing etc. It certainly cleared up the strange plot twist in the series.

R.O.D. isn't doing too badly either. Admittedly it's downloading at half speed, but hey, that's the sacrifice you pay when keeping 2 torrents running at once. The first 5 eps are done, with the next 2 being a fair amount over 50% done, so it shouldn't be too long before I finish the first 10 and watch them, ready for the remaining 16. Madlax has unfortunately been pushed far back in my schedule beyond all recognition, just because after the R.O.D. TV series and OVA, I'll probably give myself and my computer a rest for a few days, or even a week if I go overboard. Looking at the time, it's only 2 hours till I need to make my way from Polegate, where I live, to Eastbourne to meet up at the Games Workshop store for 4am. Yes, 4am. Later today is a rather large event called 'Games Day' hosted in Birmingham, for followers of the hobby, and it's great to go to. I guess for those of you who go to anime cons, thick of an anime con without anime, and with a lot of wargames made by Games Workshop. Fans are -almost- as dedicated, and many cosplay. Unfortunately I myself have never been to a large Anime con, since I live in England and I don't generally hear of any nearby. It's quite a shame. So for the next 2 hours I'll be listening to music and reading Bleach manga. Till next time.

Mediocrity.

Yet another immensely boring day. The moment I got to college and started first lesson, I wanted to just go home and sleep. Seeing friends and joking around with them were all good, but overall it was boring. Not to mention I had Law last, and though I like Law as a whole, the lesson was incredibly mind-numbingly boring. It's what would be used on people about to die to put them into a state of coma limbo, allowing doctors time to find a good cure. Gah. On top of that, the wargames night wasn't on tonight. So instead of relaxing by nuking my mates in space, and on the Xbox, I was at home, still bored. Joy...

On lighter news, I'm watching the Neon Genesis Evangelion download like a hawk, waiting for the last episode to finish downloading. Then I can get some closure to this weird yet wonderful series, and continue waiting for the End of Evangelion movie to download. I've only really got round to watching a single episode of Last Exile today, so that leaves 19 to watch before I finish it, since the series finished downloading. Not too bad, and it means I'll have something to do tomorrow and on Saturday. Once Evangelion finishes (oh god yes, it's almost done, only another 10 hours...) I'll most likely start up downloading the OVA of R.O.D. Read or Die, since that's got great reviews and certainly sounds interesting. A librarian chick working for a sort of special secret agency. She even has a codename, funky. After that I'll be after the TV series, and after -that-, most likely Madlax. Poor poor Madlax, it's been pushed back in my schedule several times now, I swear I'll get around to it eventually. Till next time.

Marathon mk II.

Yet another marathon of anime and TV watching. I'm now seen the first 22 eps of Evangelion, and the first 6 of Last Exile. Evangelion is turning out to be really good, though I have a few reservations since I've heard so many fans say that the ending was bad, as was the 'End of Evangelion' movie, which is the different ending. So though I'm enjoying the series and only have 4 episodes left to watch and the movies, I'm slightly worried that they'll ruin it for me. Oh well, I'll just hope that the ending(s) give closure. Onto Last Exile, from what I've seen of it it looks good. Large flying ships, small aircraft, a messenger service, and some lead characters who're interesting with a largely unexplained backstory thus far. Though it seems slightly generic, I'm still enjoying it so it'll be interesting to see how the series pans out. It just seems ironic that Last Exile will finish downloading a few days before Evangelion, even though I started Evangelion far before it.

The TV part of the marathon has been watching the third series of Family Guy. Sheer class, I reckon this series is at, if not beyond, the level of the Simpsons (another show I like). It has some great moments, and it's up there with my other favourites, the aforementioned Simpsons, Futurama, South Park etc etc. Also if you want something funny to listen to, look for a song named 'Paracetamoxyfrusebendroneomycin' by Amateur Transplants. It has the tume and rhythm from Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but much better lyrics. It's a true wonderdrug. trust me, go to www.amateurtransplants.com and listen to it. Till next time.

Burning.

I've actually run out of burnable DVD's, since all my friends have asked for a copy of FFVII: AC. Damn, I guess I'll have to actually go out and buy some more. Curses. I haven't really had time to watch anime, which is a shame since Evangelion's finished the first 20 eps and I've only seen the first 17. Not only that, but 7 eps of Last Exile are done. I guess I'll watch them tomorrow, since I finish college on wednesdays at 12.30pm. College on wednesdays only lasts 2 and a half hours, it's quite good really. Since it also starts at 10pm I get to have a slight sleep in. Quite handy really.

Other than that there's not really to much to talk about. I've done a bit of work on the Bleach Soul Society forums, and finally have my character Jak actually doing something. Training to change class. Now I've run out of ideas, till next time.

Evangelion.

Well, Evangelion is still at only around 60%, but the first 15 eps are finished, with the next 2 at 98% each. Not too shabby. After watching the first 11 (I plan to watch the next couple of finished ones later) I now understand why many reviews said the series was angsty. The main male lead is indeed an angsty teenager, unsure of himself and marginally of those around him, in a very ditant relationship with his father. I quite like the series, since it's an anime genre I'm used to, and it involves big mechas without any Gundam. Excellent. (On a side note I don't dislike Gundam as a whole, I just dislike how much it's been repeated, and hyped up to a ridiculous degree.)

Rei and Asuka are two interesting characters, since they're quite oposite and both Evangelion pilots. Rei is quiet and quite antisocial in the degree of not really knowing how to react well with anyone, whilst Asuka is hugely dominant and extrovert, ensuring she gets her way. Coupled with the angsty hero, it's not a bad mix. Rei, though not shy, fits into my preferred 'quiet type' moe, so that makes the series more interesting, heh.

On slightly different news, I've started downloading The Last Exile. I've seen this in a few places (such as an EB Games Store in America within the Manhattan Mall) and had a few quick glances, but I don't really know what it's about. All I know about it is that it looks rather good, aethetically speaking. The first 2 episodes are finished, so I guess I'll watch them after I finish up the first 20 eps of Evangelion or so. It's times like this that I wish I had a 2MB connection like my friend, I'd get all this stuff so much quicker, and wouldn't have to wait so long. Dang. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be able to go out and get a job. I need to see how I cope with the college workload first, but I should be able to go out and get work. Then it'll just be a question of saving up for a better computer with a better connection. That'll be bliss. Till next time then.

UMD video.

My mum came round today, so I spent most of the day walking around Eastbourne with her, chatting and so forth. Out of sheer generosity, she bought me a DVD of Predator, and the UMD video of A Knight's tale. I like both films quite a bit, so that was handy. I can now watch A Knight's Tale on the train to college and back, handy. It's quite nostalgic watching Predator, since I haven't seen it for ages, and seeing 'The Terminator' (since I always think of Arnie as such) fight the Predator is just cool. Other than that not much happened, though I gave her a copy of FFVII: AC because she thought it looked very good, which of course it did.

Evangelion is plodding on at a slow pace. I have the first 11 episodes finished, after all this time. Overall it's at about 45% complete, which is pitiful. At least after it finishes I have more projects to go, such as Madlax, Read of Die (the OVA and series) and quite possibly Last Exile if I have no other projects appearing during Madlax or R.O.D. It certainly gives me something to look forwards to, so that's all good. In the background I still have FFVII: AC playing, and mostly the fight scenes since they're so damn cool. No doubt I shall watch it many more times before I fall asleep. So, till next time.

Weekend.

What an eventful Saturday. I spent my time sleeping, DVD burning, watching FFVII: AC (on TV, gotta love VOB files), listening to music, eating dinner idely, and watching more tv. Ooh, the excitement never ends at my house. I did a little bit of work on the forums today too, but that wasn't time consuming. I also finished my first homework in 2 minutes, which was entertaining. Not only that, but recently in Achaea I quit my position as a Guide. This means (and has already made a noticable difference) that I have more spare time, at least 5 hours a week. With college this is far more relaxing now, and gives me time to actually rest.

Not much has happened anime and manga-wise, and even though it's the weekend I haven't got any plans, so it looks like it'll be a quiet time where I gain a lot of sleep. Hurrah. Thankfully the second homework is for Tuesday and is about the same length as the previous one, it just needs the use of a library to look up some definitions in a specific text book. The joy of sociology. Ah well, I guess till next time.

Mmmm....

Sweet. Sweeeeeet. That's what I think of the Final Fantasy Movie. Sweeeeeeeeeet. It's like an hour and a half of pure eye-candy. The CG really is impressive, and at some points it really does look real. It's every bit as enjoyable as the FF Spirits Within film (which I also enjoyed immensely) and it now has pride of place on my hard drive, and soon on my PSP too. Though many people have stated elsewhere that it'd be impossible to follow the story unless you've finished the game, I understood it fine. Once or twice I did a bit of mental backtracking, but it flowed quite well and the kind-of-summary at the beginning was helpful. As long as you're relatively quick on the uptake, and remember wo is who, it's easy to follow. I won't go into the plot, or scenes, here at all since it really is a good movie and you should see it yourself, but suffice to say I reckon it's a damn good story, and it flows nicely.

I treated my friend at college to a DVD disc with the movie burnt on (after rubbing it in his face that I already had the movie) and that made his day. He was so excited it was almost worrying. Almost, since the excitement was understandable and he's a complete Final Fantasy nutter. On not related news, I managed to read chapter 195 of the Bleach manga. Oh damn yes, the plot is getting excellently cool. You can tell I'm easy to please when it comes to CG, anime, or manga, heheh. Now I'm anticipating the next chapter eagerly. Not only that but Lunar released episode 49 ridiculously fast, which was deeply impressive, and so I said goodbye to Bleach Society's version and hello to Lunar's. It's not that the Bleach Society are a bad group, far from it, they're very good. I just prefer Lunar overall due to the subbing font and quality, plus it makes my collection consistent.

In college lesson-wise nothing much happened except I've now got 2 pitifully small homeworks which isn't all that bad at all, and it should take me less than 30 minutes to finish them both when I can be bothered. Excellent. So, till next time I guess, since there's not much more to talk about.

Updates.

Well college today was marginally eventful. I played my friend on the PSP, Wipeout Pure and Coded Arms. I got beaten severely every time, but it was fun to play and receiving good head shots is actually slightly enjoyable, for pure entertainment value. Other than that lessons were the usual mix of boredom, happy chatting with friends, and some learning thrown in as an afterthought for good measure. After college I popped into Games Workshop, but since the games night no longer runs on a thursday, and because the hobby night wasn't on at my mate's house I ended up coming home early. Still, at least I got to see more mates.

This evening I downloaded and watched the latest Bleach and naruto eps, and in Bleach seeing another funky hollow was cool. Seeing Hinata in Naruto was much better, though in some parts she didn't look as well animated as usual. Ah well, nothing is perfect, and it was nice seeing her anyway. However I made a far more important discovery. On boxtorrents.com, Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children is up for download, as is the DVD extra's, and subbed too. Just. Hell. Yeah. Booyah. The only thing was, the tracker is currently down. Well that's no problem, I looked on other torrent sites and found a hard coded version (subs are in the same file as the movie, not seperate) which is even better. That way once it's done I can also compress it into MPEG4 and put it on the new 512MB PSP memory card when it arrives in a few days. Excellent, mwahahaha. I fully plan to buy the movie on DVD when it comes out, but this is too good a chance to miss, seeing it this early. Good stuff. At any rate it'll be another 2 hours and 25 minutes till it finishes downloading, and I'll be able to view it in all it's FFVII glory. Mmmmm. Till next time.

Existance.

Well, I've been playing a lot of Bleach 2 on the PSP. I reckon I'm quite good at it now, I can win nearly all fights relatively easily, and I'm able to get pretty high combo's with Rukia. Woohoo. Other than that, I've just been existing as usual. There's not really been anything interesting lately, apart from meeting a few new people at college. That's about it really. My second sociology teacher is only 26, looks 20, and dresses (and acts) like a slightly older version of a college student. It makes things interesting at any rate. It also makes me wonder what the teaching is going to be like later on. Strange.

Evangelion is going very, very slowly since I've not been so psyched with it. Only the first 4 eps are done, and I've still not seen them. I probably will eventually, it should just take some time. That's all I can think of to write, so till next time.

College.

The first and second days of college second year weren't that bad. No homework, and for psychology I have the same teachers, who're pretty good. For English Language the teacher is slightly odd, but funny, and for law the new teacher is better than the previous, but worse than the first. All in all she's not too bad then. AS level Sociology is funny though, the teacher there seems to be laid back, and she has a strong drive for everyone to talk to eachother and 'get to know' eachother. It's a bit of a bother, but much better than doing tedious work I suppose. It's just a pity I'm useless with names, I won't remember more than 4.

Anime-wise I haven't watched much recently, I've been more focused on catching up with my sleep, and after I finish writing this I'm going to have another early night. Each day of college is already wearing me out, but seeing friends is worth it, especially since a few people seem to be even nicer this year. Not too sure why, but I'm not complaining at all. One of my friends, Sarah, also told me this test to determine if a person has slight psychopathic tendencies -

You're at the funeral of a loved one, when you meet a girl/boy (based on sexual preference) and start chatting with them, and you get on really well. Afterwards when they've left, you realise you haven't got their number. The next day, you kill your brother/sister. Why?

Apparantly most normal people say 'because he/she was sleeping with him/her' whereas a psychopath (in all recorded tests) said 'so there would be another funeral and I'd see him/her again'. Pretty funny logic which had me laughing. My answer was because the brother didn't return the money I'd lent him, which just goes to show I really am materialistic and obsessed with the concept of money. Ah well. Lets just see howq the rest of the college week goes. Till next time.

Education.

Well dang, it's just past 2am, in another 5 hours I'll have to get up and start getting ready for the new college year. I'll be able to see friends again, and break down under the pressure of work once more. Nice to the former, damn to the latter. Meh. At any rate I suppose it'll be good to get out of the house more often and partake of natural light, which may improve my slightly sickly colour skin. More regular sleeping hours will probably give me more energy too, so I suppose routine is a good thing. It'll be interesting to see if I get another timetable riddled with free periods. In my first year I spent more time in college without lessons than I did learning. Got to love that shoddy timetable. Lesson first thing, 2 hour gap, lesson, hour and 50 minute gap, lesson. Full day with only 3 lessons....

On other news, I finished watching the Saikano series. It's not a happy series, and emotionally ebs low quite a bit, but it is moving, and the ending is kinda happy... I suppose... Upcoming **spolier** for those who want to watch it - Chise the ultimate weapon nukes the world, and the only person she manages to save is her love Shuji. She's reduced to a little glowing light, and he's left in a completely barren grey world where everything is pretty much grey ash. One of his tears falls on the light, and everything blooms back to how it was, though it's all in his mind. It's like a big hallucination, where he's the only 'real' person, even Chise and the other don't have real bodies, and all others apart from Chise are only made from Shuji and Chise's memories anyway. That way just the two of them can continue to exist, love eachother, etc till they both die. One bit was rather surreal, where he places his hand on her head (in the hallucination world) and it flicks to the grey world, where's he's all on his own with his hand in the air, looking at a face that isn't there. Kinda strange. **End Spolier**.

Still, it was an interesting anime, and I'd recommend it to those interested in exploring the whole gamut of genres. Happiness ahoy as well since the new episode of Tsubasa Chronicle, episode 21, has been released, and I'm looking forwards to watching that when I get home after college. Other than that I have no new anime to watch, since Evangelion will take years to get, since the series with movies is over 8GB. I'll have to wait for a bit, heh. I hope all of you who're already at school, college or Uni or about to go have a good time and don't get too stressed with beginning deadlines. Till next time.

VLC.

Well I spent most of the day sleeping. I kid you not, I stayed in bed till 9pm, just because a) the Civilisation game day wore me out, and b) I couldn't be bothered to get up. Not to mention it was comfortable. When I finally managed to actually get up, it was back to making my eyesight worse (as it is I'm already short sighted and the furthest distance I can see in good detail at is about 9 inches from my eyes, tops) and I watched the 13 episodes and special of Elfen Lied. Now I know why this anime turns up so much with reviews. It's a damn good anime. There's a lot of flashbacks, but it shows that even with the 'chance' meetings at the beginning, nearly everyone has a link from the past. Good stuff, and the ending gave closure with just enough hints of what'll happen next even though the series ended. When Lucy has her memory and is fighting, nice. The series certainly wasn't afraid to show breasts at all (depending on circumstance. Lucy breaking her way out of the complex at the beginning shows her naked which is reasonable, since she's in rubbish accommodation and is... well, breaking out) and the sheer level of gore is nice.

Basically for an impression of the gore level of this series, imagine people being ripped apart with unseen hands, exploding, tearing apart with organs spewing everywhere, and gallons and gallons of blood. Of course that isn't all the time, merely often. The blood splattering over walls and such looks good too. After I watched that series, I started to watch Saikano, or what had finished downloading at any rate. As such it was the first 3 episodes. Not as much as I usually like to watch in one sitting, but oh well. It's started out interestingly enough, and seems to concern itself mainly with the relationship between Chise and (forgot the male's name) and the troubles it goes through due to Chise's change into an 'ultimate weapon', thanks to the military. Interesting concept, but at the end of episode 3 you can already see the tension and wonder what (main male character) is going to do, especially now he's met someone else he was close with before.

Other than that is was business as usual, and thankfully the Soul Society forums have been gaining posts thanks to my storyteller post in the Invasion thread. The other storyteller seems to have been away even though I passed the reigns of the thread over to him, so I can only hope he's doing well and will be able to get back soon. That way my own characters will be able to do more. The other 2 roleplay forums haven't really been moving. At all. But, since it's early days for them I guess that can't be helped. I've also been waiting for series updates, namely for Tsubasa Chronicle, which hopefully is going to be released later today when it's afternoon or so, and Bleach. Though Bleach has already been released, I'm waiting for the Lunar Anime group release, since I started with them and though they take longer thay always have good quality subs and so forth. Naruto wasn't aired on TV in Japan this week, and that's the only other series I'm currently following. Mahou Sensei Negima's 23rd episode still hasn't been released by Anime Council, but I can easily wait for that since I have lots of other anime to watch. So all in all, it's been a very anime day. Till next time.

Civilisation.

Today was good fun, I went round a mate's house and played a game of Civilisation. There was 4 of us, and it lasted 8 hours. I came dead last. Had Michael not played an 'end the game' card, which got him a sneaky 5 extra points, I would've been third. As it was, he beat me by 2 points. Curses eh? It was great though, lots of truces, quite a bit of backstabbing, deals, 'innocent' army movements to bolster the line of defence, and I enjoyed it. However due to my eclectic sleeping hours when I got back home just under an hour ago I was completely tired, and I still am. It looks like I'll end up having an early night tonight, and actually get some sleep.

I have the first 4 episodes of Elfen lied done, and overall the series is at 44%. It's only slightly faster than Mai Hime, and half the speed Gunslinger Girl was downloading at, but still it's not to bad I suppose, since it's only a 13 part series and an extra special. Pretty much the same as Saikano, 13 parts with an additional special. By tomorrow, the last weekend before college starts for me again, I should be able to watch Elfen, and I'll hopefully finish Saikano too just before I get heaped with work to do. Ah well, nothing relaxing lasts forever, and the plus side is I'll see all of my college mates. That's something to look forward to at least. Till next time.

Gunslinging.

Well I watched the 13 episodes of Gunslinger Girl. It's a good series. At first I thought it'd be slow, with the opening, but then Henrietta opened up with a machine gun and shredded some 'bad guys'. Cool. Overall the series was generally slow and thoughtful, with bouts of action here and there. It was like the violent conditioned little girls whilst fighting were counterposed with their more human sides when at ease, or training. It also gave close attention to the relationships between the 'fratello', which is the 'sibling' pairing of an adult male watcher with a little conditioned girl killing machine. Henrietta and Jose have the best relationship, since he doesn't want to condition her and treats her nicely and like a person, rather than a tool, whereas some of the other pairings aren't quite so relaxed.

The ending was a little mix of sadness and hope, and what could have been a merely bleak drama about little girl's who had lives of hell was instead a kinda uplifitng series to watch. There was always an underlying hope that everything would turn out well, and that the girls (or at least some) were truly happy. At any rate, I recommend this series to all of you anime likers, and maybe to those of you anime beginners who just want to try a series that isn't too odd. Now I've moved on to Elfen Lied, a series which I've heard, and seen, a lot about. There seem to be reviews of it everywhere, so I decided to try it. In a day or two I'll be able to watch it all, so that's something to look forward too. Gaining Evangelion was put on hold, since it's over 8GB for the series and movies, and I'm quite content to bide myself with smaller series. Once I've watched Elfen I'll probably go for Saikano, since that looks interesting too.

At any rate, I guess I should get some sleep so I don't look and feel like a zombie. Till next time.

Marathon.

Well I just watched all 26 episodes of mai Hime in a row. What can I say..? Dayum, that's a good anime. It's full of seriousness, good fighting scenes, romance, and the animation looks very good. What surprised me most was that the creators weren't afraid to have important characters die (and quite often too) yet there's a really happy ending. **Spoiler if you plan to watch the anime.** Luckily they all get revived at the end, and it's really uplifitng to see that everyone's loved ones are back to normal. The premise is that a HiME fights, putting the person she cares more about on the line (though they don't know that till later on) so if they lose, of if their bound 'Child' monster thing is destroyed, their most important person's life is absorbed to finish the master plan, so the person pretty much dies.

I really enjoyed it, and to top it all off, Gunslinger Girl is almost finished too, so soon I'll be able to watch the 13 episodes of that, which also promises to be a very deep anime. My watching schedule seems to change from light hearted stuff to deep and moving stuff almost randomly. It all adds a nice bit of variety. The only bad thing is I've not been getting much sleep lately, and my sleep patterns are all over the place. That much is probably obvious if you have a look at the times these posts were written. Thankfully I don't start college second year till this coming Monday, so I have a change to actually get some normal sleeping hours in still.

That's about it news-wise, apart from my usual browsing forums, posting, chatting with friends and so forth. So then, till next time.

Evening.

Zomg, I'm posting before midnight. What's that? Why yes, that's the sound of theoretical angels rejoicing. At any rate, it was a pretty uneventful day for the most part. Due to not having any sleep yesterday, at all, I went to bed in the early hours of this morning, and slept till about 2pm. Feeling roughly revitalised, I stayed in bed till 4pm, and went to Games Workshop at 4.40pm. Lots of fun ensured, seeing how well my mates did at Bleach 2 on the PSP, as well as a few games on BlocKon against them. Then there was a big 'Warhammer' themed Inquisitor game, part of a recent campaign I've been in, and since I was in charge of the zombies, there was quite a bit of fun there. One of my zombies managed an almost matrix-like stunt, avoiding a mace to the face by grapping the haft and swinging it to the side, whilst simultaneously punching the guy in the stomach. Nice.

Then it was time to go home, relax, and generall mill around on the computer. I've only been in for about 50 minutes, and I'm currently waiting on Achaea, the M.U.D. I play, ready to start work when my time comes up. Exciting eh? On much better news, the Mahou Sensei negima series is now at 87% downloaded, which means it'll actually be finished in the morning! Woohoo! That means I'll happily be able to watch them all tomorrow, before my next gaining project, Gunslinger Girls. Huzzah and rejoice, Mai Hime will have finished. That's a big relief, since it's taken so insanely long.

I'm also waiting for Bleach episode 48 to be subbed. The raws are already out, so it'll most likely be tomorrow or the day after. It's always something to look forward to. At any rate, I hope you're all having something good happening or have something to look forward to, it makes things more bearable. Till next time.

Sleepless.

Well yesterday passed without too much excitement, for the most part. I got no sleep since I was on the computer chatting on an anime forum, gaining new manga works from there, and acquiring cute little mascots. It's brilliant to have Yazuki from Chobits, Nodoka from Mahou Sensei Negima and Shinobu from Love Hina all sitting on my desktop. I actually have many mascots downloaded on my comp now, and many of them even have conversations with eachother, it's quite funny. But anyway, later on in the afternoon I had to go into college for a quick tutor meeting, to discuss grades and finalise subject choice. That was immensely boring. However, when I got home, there was a beacon of hope, a shining paragon of uber-rockhard-coolness.

Yes my friends, Bleach Heat the Soul 2 for the PSP had arrived. Oh sweet. So very, very sweet. With more characters than the first game (phew) which all look just... amazing, and with far longer moves lists and combo's, not to mention far more extra stuff you can do, the game is needless to say, far better than the original. Sweet. I did scare myself a bit though, for a while it didn't work since I stupidly chose the 'Limited Site' option on the main menu without having a clue what it did. It proceeded to load, then the screen went blank and wouldn't respond. Exiting the game, I found the PSP no longer read the disc. At all. Well, 'crap' to put it bluntly.

However after half an hour of wondering how to get it working again, I decided to take the PSP battery out, then reinsert it and turn on, thereby rebooting the PSP with the game disc inside. Oh rock on, it worked, and I was back into Bleach goodness. It's such a rocking game, one of Urahara's funky combo's is where he summons bandages to wrap around the opponent, fires a load of needles into them to keep it in place, then crushes them with a really, REALLY big block of concrete or something similar. It looks so damn cool. Other than that (and practically giggling at the sheer coolness of the game) I haven't been up to much. So, till next time. (And Mai Hime is still only at 65% overall completed. Curses for only being able to download at night with a rubbish download speed.)

Download Nation.

Ah, I almost feel refreshed due to not updating the blog yesterday. I always seems to get around to it early morning, but yesterday I didn't really have much energy at all. Ah well, never mind. At any rate I spent a large amount of yesterday reading the Chobits manga. I started by reading chapters 86, 87 and 88, to see how the manga ending differed to the anime series which I'd watched long ago. Then I got a bit nostalgic, and spent several hours getting and reading all the other chapters, from beginning to end. It's such a good manga and anime, and I have to admit several times I almost cried since it was so touching. It's certainly different to the comedy fanservice stuff or normal shounen fare I usually go for.

Not only that, but I spent some time swearing at my Mai Hime download for still being so damn slow. I have 512 broadband which isn't all that good really, and with it I can usually get a download rate of 57kB/s or a tiny bit more. Mai Hime? Oh hell no. It usually never tops 30kB/s, and the highest I've seen it at, for a whole 30 seconds or so, was 40kB/s. Oh, joy. At the moment the whole series is at about 51% finished, and I have the first 7 episodes fully downloaded. Once I get to about 75% or so I'll start watching them, otherwise I'll have to face a long wait. I rather dislike those. (Grah, the download is at 11kB/s at the moment, flaming damnation!)

I've also been whiling away the time by listening to various music, specifically sifting through the vast amount of Shingetsutan Tsukihime series and Melty Blood game music, as well as the OST's for Hellsing. Rather nice chilly music, and some of it is even on my PSP for easy listening too. Reading Newtype USA also brung up a few interesting points, namely Gunslinger Girl. After browsing the Boxtorrents (i.e. "Gold mine") site for it, I saw it was only a 13 episode series, with good comments. Well that suits me nicely, and lies in wait for the fateful day when Mai Hime finally finishes saving itself onto my computer. I'll certainly have a lot to watch in the near future. Till next time.

The Best Man.

Well yesterday (since it's past midnight now) was my Dad's wedding. God, it was a hectic and tiring day. It was nice, seeing new people, having good conversations, nice food, and seeing one of my other friends kate, who I haven't seen much of, but there were exhausting bits. Reading the speech was draining, since I dislike talking infront of a lot of people, but everyone seemed to think I'd rehearsed it, and throughout the rest of the celebrations kept saying how good my speech was. This was quite ironic for me, since I didn't even write it, but rather my dad, step-brother and his girlfriend wrote it together. When reading it I mixed a few things round and added in a few more jokes to make it flow, and it seems like it paid off. Kinda odd.

My dad also allowed me to let the computer run for the full day, allowing more downloading goodness, but when I got back just before midnight the connection had been terminated at some point during the day. Naturally I hate it when that happens. Grr. It means that though I did indeed get bonus download time for Mai Hime, it wasn't all that spectacular at all. Oh well, I guess extra is extra afterall. Overall it was a good day, and on the plus side I'll now be able to most likely be able to have a good night's sleep, instead of laying in bed trying to go to sleep and only being able to wonder who else is online. Yes, sad I know, but oh well.

And be warned all those who don't want Mahou Sensei negima anime spoilers, they're coming up - what the hell?!? I watched episodes 21 and 22 and it seemed normalish, but Asuna was slightly sniffly and was hiding it. Well, a cold, that can't do much can it? I missed episode 23, since it's not subbed. I started up episode 24, and lo and behond, Asuna is freaking dead?!? DEAD? WTF happened there?? After watching the rest of the series it was clear Xebec had most likely gone "Damn, we've used 20 episodes and have 6 left, what do we do now? I know, make a main character die and completely ignore the manga and come up with our own storyline ending, instead of simply making the series close with the finale of the Kyoto manga arc!" Oh great, good idea. Negi ended up making a pacto with every member of the class. Every one. And Asuna's magic nullifying powers were explained away as a pact with a demon when she was younger, due to her early natural ability to summon demons. The only drawback was that the pact would kill her.

Umm... wtf. Not only that, but this "ultimate bad guy demon boss who'll kick you into next sunday beeyotch!" was killed in about 2 minutes. 2 small measly minutes. Asuna was revived with a time machine watch (taken from the manga but grosslym changed in what it could do) and Negi and the others all met Asuna as a child before the 'big' demon fight. Then, coming back to the 'almost-present' Negi's words to the younger Asuna shine through and she voices her predicament, prompting the building of a large scientific machine, untested, which -just happens- to cancel demon contracts. Umm... wtf. Also some changes near the end were just... wtf. Yue's reaction is completely overblown, and due to the wolf-boy not even showing, Nodoka my favourite character never gets to save Negi. Well, damn.

I'll give credit where it's due though, eventhough it didn't follow the manga and absolutely butchered the chance of favourite moments from the manga being well represented, the end battle was interesting since it showed the possibility of more pacto skills, which may just happen to turn up in the ongoing manga later on. That was admittedly cool. Also, it did have some 'Umm... wtf.' shock value, especially since I missed episode 23 where suna actually dies. It was a bit startling to start episode 24 and see Asuna in a funeral service, with the coffin lid lowering down onto her, Negi crying, subdued class after, etc etc. It was almost like a completely different parallel universe, just happening to have a different storyline. As such, I decided to eventually view it as a completely different storyline, and to just be grateful that Nodoka was animated and cute, and that the late pacto skills were nifty. Not only that, but I'm immensely thankful that the manga is still going. Phew.

At any rate, that was my day. Huzzah, and till next time.

More anime.

Quite a relaxed day today, and I spent most of it sleeping. When I did get up I started to watch the Mahou Sensei Negima anime, since I've read all the manga out so far. I watched the first 20 episodes, and whilst I agree with the majority view that the manga is better, I still think the anime is good to watch. It misses huge chunks, ignores certain plotlines, and rewrites vast amounts of the manga, but it's interesting to see everything moving and the changes they've made. Plus though using imagination to make manga move is good, watching the anime is easier for us lazy people, eheh.

I also finished gaining the anime eps apart from 23, since AnimeCouncil hasn't released that one yet. Since I finished getting it all and have only 5 episodes left to watch (which makes me wonder how much is going to be crammed into the end of the series) I've started getting Mai Hime. It's been highly recommended to me by several other anime fans I know, and in a few places when I hang out it's been talked about a lot. It can't hurt to try it, and after reading the general description of it from several sites I reckon I'll enjoy it too.

At any rate I should really go to sleep now, since tomorrow it's my dad's wedding and I'm the Best Man, so there's a lot for me to organise. So, till next time.

Square eyes.

Well, another eventful day. Spent another day in eastbourne with friends at Games Workshop (since the club nights are generally on tuesdays and thursdays), but yesterday's thursday was the last time the store would be opening on a thursday evening. It's a pity, but it does mean that until the 'games club' is set up by everyone elsewhere I'll actually have thursdays afternoons free to do work, homework, and relaz. Zomg indeed. After getting back from an enjoyably 6 and a half hours of being with friends, I went onto the Soul Society Roleplay forums as I always do every day. Since I'm pretty much the main Storyteller, it's up to me to update the plot, award experience points for good writing, and so on and so forth. Talked with a few friends on IRC too, so it was generally just relaxing.

To update on the manga for Mahou Sensei Negima, I spent in total something like 9 and a bit hours reading up to chapter 75 (with a small break in the middle for a drink and to write the last blog entry) and yesterday I spent 4 hours reading up to chapter 106 at a leisurely pace. The fan service is kept up at a constant pace, and it's rather nice. My favourite character happens to be the shy Nodoka. If you follow the series but aren't good with names, it's one of Negi's partners, the girl with the magical book that reads the mind of anyone who's name she says, and the one who really love him. Quite a cute character, it seems I get suckered for the shy ones in most series, it was the little Shinobu in Love Hina that I liked. It always makes me think that when it comes to anime, I'm probably a bit of a lolicon.....

Odd tastes aside, also managed to watch Bleach episode 47. Damn, the anime just rocks. Lots of cool training, and another funny scene with Ichigo and Yoruichi teasing him. It's good to watch such a series anime with lighthearted moments. Admittedly it's quite generic shounen fare, with the main character constantly fighting opponents who get more and more powerful, but there's good character design and the world depicted is pretty good. I also managed to watch naruto episode 150, Shino is just damn cool. Gotta like those good bug moves which are insanely poweful. And admittedly any episode with the lovely Hinata in it is good.... damn me eh? If I wasn't an atheist, I'd probably burn in some sort of hell for my taste in anime characters. Ah well. Till next time, limited readers.

Anime and Manga.

Quite an eventful day for me, even though I didn't really leave my computer. This morning (or rather, afternoon) when I woke up I was right on and started work on the online M.U.D. I have a job at, helping the newbies and answering questions. Quite hectic work really, since it was a really busy session, 3 hours. After that I decided to mellow out a bit and continued to watch the Yumeria series. I only had the last 6 episodes to watch, so that burned away more time. Whilst doing that I kept downloading more Mahou Sensei Negima anime, since it's a series I haven't seen and it's popped up a few times, as well as the fact I'd read a few pages of the manga at a local bookstore. When Yumeria finished I just let Mahou keep downloading, but also rooted around for the manga which I'd also bought (it looked good after all) and I spent a few hours reading it.

Currently I've read the first 40 chapters out of about 105 and it's quite good. A little different to what I'm used to, and a HUGE amount of fanservice, but hell I don't mind that at all. It's refreshing to read some light hearted stuff throughout watching other series such as Bleach and Naruto, even though Bleach has a few good comedic moments too. Other than all that which ate up most of my day I wasn't doing much, and I already have plans to get and watch the Mai Hime and Evangelion series, as well as the Eva movie. So much to read and watch.