Let there be Light

I got to downloading a bunch of new Japanese songs (bunch = a few gigabytes) err… guys, don’t support piracy… ok with the community service out of the way, i wanna share some song i think u ppl should listen to too! I’m only gonna list the not too famouse/ non-anime songs this time (with a few exceptions if the song is uber-cool)

1. songs by Every Little Thing, they are sugoi. J-pop mostly. The best songs in my opinion are ‘Ai no Kakera’, ‘Deatta Korono Youni’, ‘Ai no Uta’, Mou Ichido’, ‘Grip!’, ‘Graceful World’, ‘Futaride Jidai O Kaetemitai’, and ‘Swimy’. The others are nice too of cos.
2. songs by Kiroro. Kiroro is japanese for "OMG, this band rocks!". OK, i lied, it is based on some Ainu word for "broad road" or sumthin. BUT there is no arguing that KIRORO rocks. J-Pop as well, my fave picks r ‘Himawari’, ‘Nagai Aida’, ‘Mirai e’, ‘Ikite Koso’, ‘Piano’ and ‘Sayonara Daisuki na Hito’.
3. songs by Kuribayashi Minami. Minami is japanese for "OMG! This seiyuu rocks!". OK lame joke, twice… Minami is just her given name (it means South in case u r wondering). She sings nice J-Pop songs too.
4. ‘Glass Dama’, ‘Mafuraa’, ‘Roozu’, ‘Seagull Beach’, ‘ Namida ha Mise Rare nai’ by Antique Toy. Antique Toy is the singer, take note, unlike the previous entries where i bolded the singer.
5. ‘Break the Cocoon’ by Yoriko. This is a funky J-pop-rock song from the anime ‘Speed Grapher’. i haven’t really watched the anime but the song rocks! In fact i drew a bloody artwork inspired by it. Browse it out at my DeviantArt! http://hikarikun.deviantart.com/
6. ‘Kasa’ by Suara. This is a slow, moving piece. Kasa means umbrella… dunno what the whole song means tho… check it out.
7. ‘I Will’ by Miliyah Kato. Another nice, powerful, moving piece. Go Go Go!
8. ‘A Little Pain’ by OLIVIA inspi’ REIRA. From the anime series ‘NANA’. A nice song, i love it.
9. ‘Ai no Melody’ by KOKIA. Oh KOKIA’s other (non-anime) songs are ok too… but not as good as this one in my opinion. From the GONZO anime-movie ‘Giniro no Kami no Agito’ (which feels like a Mononoke Hime rip-off).
10. ‘Meri Kuri’ and ‘Winter Love’ by BoA. Dunno much about her… think she’s Korean. Might b wrong, Meri Kuri is a shortened pronounciation of Merry Christmas (meri kuri-sumasu in japo).
11. Also these anime-songs r nice - ‘Dust trail’ from Soul Link, ‘Pure Snow’ from Himiko Den, ‘Canvas’ & ‘Himitsu Kichi’ from Eureka 7, ‘Na Na Iro’ from Canvas 2, a LOT OF SONGS from Honey and Clover (both seasons), ‘Innocence’, ‘In the Sky’ and Fuyou Kaede from Shuffle! (Fuyou Kaede is a character not a song… whoops?).
12. YURI animes! YURI animes rock! Yuri is japanese for ‘lily’, but is also a jargon used in anime/manga world for lesbian animes/manga, not just the hentais u perverts. This is not a song entry and is totally unrelated to the post, but what would Lin be without randomness?

Well i think that’s enuff… ermm… tata.

Lin is groupie. Kaede is da bomb.

Was just checking up on an
anime series that is just released in Japan. ‘Shuffle! Memories’.
Brings back memories (no pun intended) of Kaede-chin. KITTO KITTO
KAEDE! (For the uninitiated, kitto = always/forever, and KKK (Kitto
Kitto Kaede, not Klu Klux Klan) is a groupie cult for Kaede, a
character from ‘Shuffle!’)

Kaede is la bomb - she can cook, sew, housekeep, drop cardboard-cutter
bombs, go into psychotic shock, initiate naked seductions, break model
ships, attack evil sempais (seniors), make an air-stew (no it’s not
edible), indirectly kill off parents, holds the All-Japan record for
most "Gomenasai"s said continuously, and is a nice, delicate girl to
boot (except when she is in the aforementioned psychotic shock).

What
more can u ask for from a 2-Dimensional lover?!
Well, to be 3-dimensional OF COURSE! To quote some dude in some song;
"Get out of my dreams! Get into my car!"

PS - this is for pure random rambling value!
PPS - NO IT’S NOT! Kaede is teh r0xx0r!
PPPS - All your bases are belong to us.
PPPPS - Somebody set us up the bomb!
PPPPPS - For great justice!

Chiwasu, this is Lin.

I care about this country that i’m living in, Malaysia. I honestly do, i might bitch about it but deep inside i wish for this country to be better (but then most of the time, bitchin IS intent without direct action… Lin u bastard). There has always been debates about this country and a national identity. Racial harmony also seems forced and superficial. In short, this country is NOT UNITED ENOUGH. How do we go about uniting a country? There are 3 things i deem important when trying to create a strong, united nation; pride, patriotism and political education.

Pride? How does it fit in here? Well, pride is essential because it breeds patriotism (OK, so i cheated, pride and patriotism are actually the same issue… GOMENASAI!!!). A citizen that is proud of his nation is usually patriotic, but one who is patriotic may not be proud of his nation n might b doing it out of obligation or what-not. Look at those facist governments of old, they may not be champions of human rights and saintly action but, boy were they united! Look at Nazi Germany, a country recovering from the burdens of a world war (which they had started so the others thought it was fair that they took most of that burden (and punishment)). What did they do? They started ANOTHER world war and took over almost all of Europe before they wer stopped (and the European countries weren’t some backwater medieval nations too) (Ok, so they had the Italians supporting them too i guess). Even the Japanese Empire, and how they swept across Asia with almost no resistance. Even after their defeat in World War 2, their countries bounced back and currently r still superpowers to some measure. How?! Pride, overwhelming amounts of it. The Germans accepted that the Nazis were wrong but that never lowered how much pride they had in their country. The Japanese hav so MUCH pride that they would not even fully admit their war-crimes!

When u hav pride in ur nation, u love it dearly, u wish to see it prosper, u would work towards making it prosper. With pride u hav patriotism. Of cos, pride is somethin best taken in controlled doses, what we are tryin to achieve is, to quote what a wise Lin once said, "pride without err." (err is not the "errrr… what r u doing??" kind of err… it’s ‘err’ = ‘make a mistake’/'go astray’) We need pride to be able to really love our country but TOO MUCH pride is always a sure way to one’s downfall (*cough* Japanese *cough* *cough*) (ok they arn’t actually down-falling but they sure r gettin lotsa hostility from their neighbours bcos of their cover-ups in WWII).

So hopefully i have convince u that pride is essential for the growth of a country. How do we sow it n where does political education fit in? Easy, political education is HOW we sow the seeds of patriotism. Being loyal to ur country without knowing much about its workings, structures n machinations r at best BLIND and SHALLOW. Althou Malaysia has stated the ‘no politics in school’ thing, i think it must b taught in school, in a CONDUSIVE atmosphere by a NEUTRAL teacher. We don’t need opposition/government loyalists brainwashing students. The syllabus should cover basic things like the structures, elections, voter rights, citizen rights, the constitution. …. When i put ti that way, it rings a bell, ‘Sejarah Malaysia’ (malaysian history) and ‘Pengajian Malaysia’ (malaysian studies), 2 subjects alredi in circulation….

Ok, mayb we don’t need to introduce a NEW subject but the way these subjects r handled should b reviewed. When u r teaching ppl a SOCIAL subject (as opposed to SCIENCE), u do not hammer stuff in! It’s ok to force kids to memorize n regurgitate (proven) formulae in Science subjects bcos (once proven correct) they are NOT OPEN FOR INTERPRETATION.  You CANNOT (CANNOT (CANNOT)) go up to some scientist and ask him,

"Hey dude, r u sure kinetic energy is ‘E = 1/2 mv^2′? What if there’s like a recent revolution or a shift in the social structure, philosophy or perception in the Kinetic Energy world??"

However social subjects are ALWAYS open for interpretation, there r s many rights n wrongs s ther r differing opinions in the world. Not to mention it is BORING to read about these things without interaction (if they cannot do anythin with/about it, it bcomes nth more than numbers n names of dead ppl to the students). Therefore, forcing students to memorize social studies is the best way to kill their interest in it (not to mention it stinks heavily of ‘brain-washing’/propaganda). We need classes where the students discuss and debate about the political and social aspects of their country under the supervision of a fair mediator (teacher). This way, they can see a more wholesome picture of their country. When u see the soul of something, that’s when u can really fall in love with it. It’s not a case of "Malaysia is a tropical country, w00t, i love it!", it’s wher u see the fallacies of ur nation, u see the weaknesses in her people, n urself, u also see the gems hidden in her, n u learn to TRULY love her (the country) for what she is n not u r made to think she is. Even if u cannot love ur nation after seeing all those flaws, mayb the debates n knowledge would inspire u to correct these things about ur country. And of course if that happens, that is THE MOTHER of patriotism, it’s the "we-built-this-nation" kind of patriotism (which coincidentally may border on the ‘err’ line (especially when it comes to interactin with fellow countrymen/women)).

Even though i’m not Malaysian (tho i hav been living here since 11 months old, so i’m basically Malaysian by upbringin even if my MyKad n Passport disagree), i want to know about the social n political issues in Malaysia. n when i see the bright parts of it, i feel a warm fuzzy feeling inside. When i see somethin undesirable, i feel a bit disappointed but at the same time i feel charged with an energy to do somethin about it (even tho with my laziness + passivity, i end up not doin anything…).

Malaysians who read this, do do somethin about ur country. If u think i can help, let me help u. Malaysian government, if  (by some chance) u read this, let’s work together to make a nation everyone here, regardless of race, religion, occupation or even nationality can love and b proud of!

Many of u (me not included) hav phobias of relationships that u do not deem ‘normal’. U may pretend to accept them but u KNOW deep inside u r secretly being disgusted by them. What type of relationships m i talking about? The most popular one would be homosexual ones, there r also those less popular but still persecuted ones like incest, inter-racial/religion, teacher-student, etc….

What my ultimately intelligent mind cannot percieve is how u ppl disgust urselves so easily at these. U call them UNNATURAL n stuff n u think that makes hating them politically correct. If u think these things should b hated bcos they r ‘unnatural’ i think ther r many other vices we r overlooking. (please note that i’m not saying all these following r bad or evil, but if we judge unnatural things 2 b evil, u should probably hate these too)
For example, vegetarians, we should probably burn them on stakes right? After all we humans r made to eat meat AND vegetables, we hav CANINES (those fangish teeth)! Do u think those r for tearing evil apples n brocollis into shreds?! NO! they r to TEAR FLESH FROM BONES! So vegetarianism has 2 b unnatural right?!

How would u define natural then? Is it followin our instincts? That has to b natural right? Animals r natural bcos they rely on instinct alone (tho we torture poor animals into cross-dressing, juggling, riding monocycles n stuff, breedin unnaturality in them). Apparently there r homo animals too, male animals that ‘love’ each other… monkeys that screw their siblings… so then how would u justify ur ‘unnatural’ judgement when u know the natural animals r s wild s us? (altho to b fair, these animals may just b havin sex, they may not hav much emotional bonding… (i repeat, they MAY not have… i’m no Dr. Dolittle))

Once again, i hav kept myself separated from the above views bcos my view on love n relationships is totally different. In my opinion, in a relationship, what is the most important thing is LOVE. If u REALLY love the person n that person LOVES u, i don’t giv a friggin damn if he’s a married man with 2 children n u r a married man with 2 grandchildren, u can fall in love n into a relationship (of cos this given example contradicts my belief that marriages r words of honor, n that we should respect n obey them til death does us part, n that if u aren’t willin to do so, DON’T get married).
We r at best bystanders in their relationship, wat gives us the right to choose who they love? We’r not the ones who r going to work to make the relationship grow, we aren’t the ones lookin out for each other, plannin for the future, we’r just BYSTANDERS in their relationship. We have NO authority or RIGHT to critisize whatever they do in their love (if it is consensual of cos).

Besides, i actually admire these forbidden love-types. I have never fallen in one, n i don’t think i probably will in the future, but they move me. 2 ppl (or more if that’s what their love/relationship is) fighting all the odds that may or may not come from their union. To b able to love 1 another when doing so may b earnin them the disgust n scorn of those around them. To devote ur lovelife to a person knowing u cannot have a real family (as in with offspring, not the surrogate kind, the husband sleeps with wife kind) (and of cos this only applies to homosexual relationships n probably incest).
Yes, u read that one correctly, i hav no qualms about siblings, relatives fallin in love, as long s they ARE IN LOVE, n not just wild sex animals. But a parent-child relationship is a bit too daring to me… i just believe that a good parent already has a love-relationship with a child (father/mother-son/daughter) n a responsibility to care for n guide the child, n not engage in a romantic relationship with them knowingly.

So y can’t u ppl b more accepting about these relationships (the authentic ones, not the Wild Sex Animal ones)? They hav love too, n judgin by how they put up with all ur scorn n malice, they probably hav more than most of u….

Lin, signing off. Cheerios

I was in the middle of creating a composition for an artwork, involving a tower and a plane, a man and a woman. The end result i achieved was remisniscent of a certain September 11th, and it got me thinking about whether my work would offend anyone and also about lives and deaths (as in the plural forms, not broken english!).

Death. There will always be people who die. There will always be people who get left behind. There will always be people who get dragged by it and there will always be people who fall because of it. Although we only notice the deaths that are close to us or those that impact us, death is always around. Most of them are not dramatic but it does not mean they are less noble, or more noble. In all things in my universe, i believe that death is by far one of the greatest miracle in its flawless consistency and neutrality - as it is said "Death is the greatest equaliser".
I have not met death personally so i cannot be too sure of it, but currently i do
not abhor it. I don’t enjoy the thought of leaving behind this life i
know now but i cannot hate something so perfect in its dedication to
its duty. The one thing that disturbs me about death tho is the
reaction people have for it. The saddest thing when someone/something is dying is the fact that it is leaving behind everything it knows in whatever short life it had. The saddest things when someone is dead are the things that he/she/it takes along with it; namely the happiness of those to whom he/she/it mattered. It is OK to mourn for our losses and theirs, but isn’t it a waste if we had to forever carry the baggage of their passing with us? There will always be people who die, and there must always be those who move on after it.
On that note, when i die, i’m alright with any reaction anyone would hav with my death. If u cannot mourn, do not. I don’t feel like makin any requests except for this - live and live well. I’ve never wanted to burden people with my life and i don’t have the intention of burdening them with my death either. Oh if u wanna be happy and evil about my death too, i forgive u. Besides i’m dead, if u think u can offend me then, i’ll make sure i laugh at ur stupidity now while i still can.

Of cos, a discussion about death is rarely complete without its twin-sister; life. What is life? We all acknowledge animals are alive, how about plants? Plants are alive too right? After all they breathe, eat, drink, grow and even breed! Then it makes me think of vegetarians, why eat only vegetables only? Plants are alive too, and by eating them u havta kill them no? If they don’t struggle or resist they aren’t alive (but then some plants have thorns…)?
So, how do u REALLY define life? If u say, "it’s by action, only things that act are alive, plants don’t act!" i say, "all action is just a reaction right?" Every action we take is actually a reaction - we eat to react to hunger, we waste money during sales because we react to impulse, we kill other ppl because we are reacting to some emotion (sadness, anger, insanity), even the most random act (e.g.- suddenly runnin out of a bath naked for no reason) is still a reaction to some whim in our minds. Now for the plants, they react too. Their roots react by growing towards water, their sprouts react to light and grow towards it…e.g.- there’s a demand (photosynthesis), there is a solution (sunlight), there is a reaction (grow towards the light). So if u define life by action, plants are as alive as us.
Although most people who hav thought about it and sanctioned the killin og plants as non-living probably agree with this as the definition of life; sentience. Sentience is free-will, free-will i believe is the ability to voluntarily NOT react. Plants cannot do that, they will always follow the light, they cannot turn away. So in that sense we can approve that killing plants is OK, they are not alive. How about jellifish then? Most consider them animals, and alive… but do they hav sentience? They are little more than weirdly shaped floating plants in my opinion. They float about, they react, but they don’t seem to show sentience… so are they plants? Or animals?
So i wanna ask the vegetarians, I’m sure u hav a reason u don’t eat meat… y? To not take life? What is life then? Can u really kill plants? If u’v never thought about the meaning of life do u really belief in ur vegetarian philosophy? If u have never pondered on it beyond what some1 else tells u, do u really believ ur faith is SOUND?

Me, i believe all that live are alive, including plants. So y do i eat both meat n vegetables? Isn’t that killing? OK, while i do not activly run arnd n kill those animals n plants, i acknowledge my actions r indirectly influencing those who do. But there is nothing wrong about killing, what’s wrong about the instances when people/animals/plants get murdered is the reason. The act of taking someone’s life is not an abomination, the reason why they do it is

(example, a friend is being accidently fed into a grinder, leg first, so he’s being slowly turned into mince-meat, half an inch a second, LEG-FIRST, there is no way to stop the machine or to get him out. He screams in his pain, "Make it STOP" when he realises it can’t/he gives up, he screams "KILL ME! I CAN’T TAKE IT!" is the act of killin him then evil? No, we can justify it becos of its reason, our friend is gonna die anyways, let’s make it short and quick instead of long and minced. Besides to kill is to give death, death is neutral, but the act is often tainted by the INTENTIONS).

What’s my reason that makes my eating plants and animals acceptable? I can only give one reason, to survive (please take note that i treat them both animals and plants (n to some degree humans) on the same level, so if i ever decide
to stop taking lives, i’l havta give up eating BOTH, which will mean
inconvenient things for me).

Jiji told me i think too much, and it might be true, but i love thinking about things in/about life. More than a student of the arts which i am now, i believe i (along with everyone else) am also a student of a greater subject, life, and that in the end, i (along with everyone else) will attend the graduation called death. What happens when after that? I don’t know, who really knows where u’l end up after u graduate right?

PS - in that last paragraph, some of the sentences seem grammatically incorrect due to the (along with everyone else), but i assure u they are grammatically sound.

PPS - err… on that note of me thinking too much, i’m sorry my train of thought led me from an artwork to 9/11 to death and life to vegetarians… haha.

We just had a discussion about race in college. I think there is nothin wrong with races, it’s just a method of categorization, mostly assumed to be based on physical appearances. This method was rather accurate in its hey-days when the different ‘races’ did not intermingle n mate with each other… but now with all the half-halfs running around the globe, this method of categorization by physical appearances gets a little blurry. Nowadays i think race is more of a self-identification, what determines ur race is what u think u r. Some ppl think race is an evil thing, they think race is a weapon that is built to divide the civilization of homosapiens. I say "rubbish", it’s not race that divides us, it’s humans that love to gang up in groups n hate n fight other groups. Even if we all happened to be one race, we’d still gang up on each other on different grounds. E.g.- in the middle-east, (not the Israeli crisis) they r all Arab n they r all Muslims, but yet they still gang up in sects that interpret Islam differently n beat each other up. Even if we ran out of dividers like race n religions, i believe we’d probably gang up in groups like Blue, Red or some other favourite color. So the root of human division is our mindset of wrestling for supremacy… if we could we’d do it alone, but we find strength in numbers so we form groups n compete with other groups for supremacy.

I don’t hate race, but i do dislike culture. Unlike race, one chooses to follow a culture. It is a choice. Most do not have a proper reason to do so other than the lame n jaded, "It’s a culture… it’s our identity". Our ancestors did a great job in makin us good sheep. From pure scientific logic, culture is a waste of resources, n useless. I mean look, i think history has proven it. The Westerners, they wer uncouth barbarians when us Asians used to build funky monuments n did other funky civilised stuff. But we loved to stay traditional, we loved to abide by the rules set by our ancestors, we did not allow ourselves room for growth. So our progress grinded to a halt, we wer content with our ’stable’ culture n civilisation. Them Westerners thought otherwise… do u think they colonized the world by continuing to buy Indulgences? Or staying oppressed under tyranical monarchs? By accepting facts because their ancestors told them so? NO! They refuted, they thought, they debated, they took arms, THEY TOOK ACTION! And the rest is history.

Now i know some ppl say Culture n identity give us a relative unity in a world divided by the smallest issues possible. So i got to thinking, what is it about unity and dispute that divides the currently developed nations from the developing? I have no qualms that stability is crucial in development; a country which is constantly havin its brains n manpower killed off in wars is not going to develop that well i predict. But the LACK of unity is a better driving force for development than the presence of it.
Examples, take for instance the arms race, the so-called escalation of arms. If all of us hugged and gave flowers to each other, i doubt human weapons would have evolved much from sharp sticks and hard rocks. It is because humans r not united that they need to find better weapons to kill the others off, n that leads to the escalation of arms n the evolution of warfare. Look, i did not say development was a saintly thing made of rainbows n pretty things… it can also give birth to morally debatable things.
Another nice example (though a little bit of an oxymoron) is Democracy. Democracy was not the child of absolute unity, democracy was born because ppl realised they hav different opinions n that the best way to resolve this is to pick a majority. Democracy is not the symbol of unity, it is unified chaos, a system where individuals who may not see things the same way r kept together.
How about the Space Race? The space-gadgets n technologies did not evolve at this rate because Americans n Russians wanted to have tea together on the Moon.
Stability brings about development, there is no doubt about that, but does unity really help us develop? Maybe it does, but without the adrenaline of competition, the acceleration leaves much to be desired.

Ah, technically this isn’t fully an anime topic but who’s keeping tabs anyways, ne? Besides, this is my blog n my godliness overextends itself so if I say it belongs, it does.
Ah, first off, i like songs, daisuki desu… any1 who has shared a classroom with me would know that i sing a lot, i might not b ur next William Hung or Elton John but boy do i sing. So it’s only natural that when i watch animes i pick out nice songs n acquire them. Now i wanna share these lovely songs with u, cos like they say, some things r better shared. Note- the following order is random, not in order of preference.

1. ‘Hare Hare Nochi’ by Tomita Maho. This is from ‘Kamichu!’, althou the upbeat tune doesn’t really reflect the breezy story of a middle-schooler turned goddess, it is nonetheless a catchy song, n u can’t fault if for that.
2. ‘Kioku no Kakera’ by Nobuko. This nice, nostalgic, romantic song is from ‘ Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora’. It is very soothing and captures the bittersweet atmosphere of a love that is destined to end but still nurtured.
3. ‘Agony’ by KOTOKO. This is one of my personal favourites. It is one of my personal favourites (in case u missed that first one). KOTOKO’s songs mostly hav a techno beat, n i usually dislike techno. But i couldn’t hate this, in fact i loved it. From the unconventional love-triangle anime of ‘Kannazuki no Miko’.
4. ‘Motherland’ by Crystal Kay. The 3rd ED song of Full Metal Alchemist. Unlike the other FMA songs, this is not rock-ish. It chooses to portray Winry (my fave character in FMA) instead of the Elric bros; how she is waitin for them (more probably Edward) to return home to her.
5. ‘Sore ga Ai Deshou’ by Shimokawa Mikuni. This doesn’t do her justice becos i love a LOT of her songs. Shimokawa sings the OP n ED for all the Full Metal Panic! series, the Grenadier anime, the 2nd ED for Gensomaden Saiyuki, Kino no Tabi, Dragon Drive, Hunter X Hunter, n probably more. I enjoyed all her songs, ‘Sore ga Ai Deshou’ from FMP! Fumoffu being my top choice among those, followed by ‘Alone’ from Saiyuki.
6. ‘Aozora’ by Lia. AIR was a blue ribbon anime in my opinion, it had a kawaii lead, fantastic animation, n a good n touching story. It also had this song in it, Aozora. The song is as touching as the series itself.
7. ‘Himawari’ by Imai Chihiro. The ED of ‘Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu’. Tho the anime was like a carbon copy of Saikano, i fell so in love with this song i spent days browsing thru P2P software n websites to find this song, even tho i didn’t know what the real name or singer was then. Why do i love this song? It sounds nice n it captures the essense of the entire anime, a struggle to save a love from an inevitable doom.
8. ‘Sayonara’ by Yato Yuria. The ED song of ‘Saikano’. Like Himawari, this too captures the atmosphere of the series, one of grief and sadness, a sayonara, a farewell.
9. ‘Houkiboushi’ by Youna. I’m sure i got the spellin of her name wrong. This is from Bleach, the 3rd ED. It is about how she wants to be a comet to travel to her love. It is catchy, it is a nice song. Also while i’m in Bleach mode, ‘Life is Like a Boat’, ‘Life’ and ‘My Pace’ are also songs i liked.
10. ‘Rumbling Hearts’ by Kuribayashi Minami. From ‘Kimi ga Nozomu Eien’, the H-game turned uber-hit drama anime (the anime is clean). This is the ED for episode 2 of the anime n the OP for the game. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, other songs in Kiminozo r fantastic too, e.g.- ‘Precious Memories’, ‘Hoshizora no Waltz’ n ‘ Kimi ga Nozomu Eien’. Oh, other songs from Kuribayashi that i like is ‘Muvluv’ from Akane Maniax (a Kiminozo spin-off), ‘Crystal Energy’ from Mai Otome and ‘Sayonara Solitaire’ and ‘Tsubasa wa Pleasure Line’ from Chrono Crusade.
11. ‘Kimi no Koe’ by Heart. This is from ‘Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho’. As beautiful as the anime was, this song, without all the SFX and detailed animations outshines the anime in my opinion. Or mayb i think the song is so good bcos it complements such a beautiful anime. Lovely.
12. Misc songs from animes. ‘Alive’ n ‘We are the Stars’ from Ragnarok the Animation. ‘Dramatic’ from Honey and Clover. ‘Karinui’ and ‘Sakasama no Chou’ from Jigoku Shoujo. ‘Energy’ from Ginban Kaleidoscope. ‘Namida wa Shiteru’ from Rurouni Kenshin. ‘Hare Hare Youkai’ and ‘ Bouken Deshou’ from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. A lot more.
13. Oh i also a lot of songs from Le Couple, Kiroro and Every Little Thing. These are J-Pop of cos.

Anyways, enjoy my lovely playlist. Mata ne.

Well as u guys know, explosions are supposed to be Chaotic Evil things. But mayb they are just misunderstood, look at them carefully, aesthetically, especially them big fireballs, such as the one i have inserted right here. How can something this bright be evil? Look at how it is crowned in a magnificent halo to boot. Of cos some not-so-innocent (there is no such thing as innocence, only varyin degrees of guilt) bystanders happened to be where they r n a lot of ballyhoo happens…. Explosions are like angels, angels of ephemeral beauty and unbridled strength. In a flash they bloom, a fiery flower of force. In a flash they disappear, leaving the debris and dead as their only evidence of existance. So a lot of them happened to kill a lot of people but who’s the guilty one? The bomb or the one who drops/detonates it? Let’s appreciate explosions as what they really are, works of art.

Talking about misunderstood stuff, i’l move on to butterflies. Everyone looks at a butterfly n goes, "Oh it’s so pretty!" n goo-goo-gaa-gaa. Little do they know that they r but pawns in these evil sinister insidious insects’ deception. People, this might b news to a lot of u, butterflies r EVIL. They pretend to b all pretty but i can see right thru their schemes, look at those COMPOUND EYES, look at those SEGMENTED BODIES, they r just radiating with EVIL. The real reason they hav those pretty patterns is bcos the pattern’s prettiness offsets their PURE EVIL, otherwise butterflies would b BLACK HOLES of PUTRID VILENESS, dark matter so dense with evil they will collapse on themselves and rip a DEMONICALLY BIG hole in the space-time fabric, causing a chain-reaction that would almost instantly cause the degeneration of EXISTANCE as we know it. In fact, my prediction is that the density of the EVIL would be so tremendous that it would tear thru a lot of parallel universes, causing a MULTIVERSE (uni=one, multi=many + verse) WIPEOUT. For more evidence, look at this picture.
Caterpillars are even more evil than butterflies bcos they are UGLIER, a LOT UGLIER (yes, butterflies are ugly too). They have those wiggly evil furry bodies and evil appendages to destroy innocent leaves and flowers. Look at this picture, see the space-time distortion caused by its evil existance (those black circles)… see, it’s eying that innocent leaf, probably goin to devour it n digest it in its abyssal bowel… Argh, my Holiestness is finding it hard to stand the sight of something this EVIL and UGLY. Must end this blog…. remember… explosions = pretty and misunderstood, butterflies n their caterpillar friends = UGLY, DECEPTIVE, DEVIL’S ADVOCATES, PROPOGATORS OF DOOM and ABSOLUTELY EVIL.

I’ve just finished watchin this and it was so touching and nice i felt instantly inspired to review it. The name of the anime is very long, ‘Kumo no Mukou, Yakusoku no Basho’, translation = "beyond the clouds, our promised place", though the English version is named ‘The Place Promised in Our Early Days’ (which i think sounds funny). I decided to watch this bcos some1 in NZ told me ‘Hoshi no Koe’ was a good anime n since this is directed by the same director i thought it’d b good too.

This is a beautiful romantic drama anime movie with a mix of sci-fi elements. The setting is a parallel Earth where Japan has been divided into 2 after World War 2; North (hinted to be taken over by the Soviet Union) and South (under American control). Also there is now the mysterious Union Tower in Hokkaido, a white tower so tall it is visible from hundreds of kilometers away. This tower is featured prominently throughout the movie, both visually and plot-wise.

The story centers around Hiroki, a middle-schooler, his friend, Takuya, and his crush, Sayuri. Living in Southern Japan, the Tower always fascinated Hiroki and Takuya, reaching for the heavens and out of reach (in this screenshot, that white horizontal line in the skyline is the Tower). For the purpose of flying to that enigmatic white tower, the 2 boys have been building a small airplane. One day, together with Sayuri, the 3 of them made a promise, to fly to that tower, someday, somehow. When Sayuri suddenly disappears at the end of summer, their world falls apart. Depressed, the 2 friends abandoned their dream and their promise and slowly grow apart. 3 years later, as a war between Northern and Southern Japan grows inevitable, the 2 friends find themselves reunited by the 2 most important things in their childhood, Sayuri and the Hokkaido Tower - their promised place beyond the clouds.

Somethings are not properly explained in the movie and left to speculation and the side-characters are under-developed (in the sense that instead of not showing us anything about them, they show us bits and pieces of their lives, raising questions that aren’t answered) (but then u can’t fit everything into one and a half hours). On a more positive note, i was too distracted by the visuals and audio to bother about it. Speaking of which, this movie has superb graphics and animation and a brilliant soundtrack and voice-acting to match. The violin BGM for those emotional scenes really hit the spot and the theme song ‘Kimi no Koe’ (your voice) is also a gem. When i mentioned that this was a beautiful anime, it is, every scene is animated in detail and the backdrops featured complement and amplify the atmosphere of their given scenes.

This anime deserves an 8 out of 10, for being so beautiful and touching. If only they made it a little longer, like Spirited Away, i’m sure they would have a lot more room for improvement. This has inspired me to buy Hoshi no Koe too now.

From 1st to last: 1)Hiroki and Sayuri, 2)pretty scene, 3)Tayuki, 4) Hiroki and Sayuri again

This is a gem of an anime, ‘Kimi ga Nozomu Eien’ (the eternity you desire). I watched it a year ago but  my sudden rebirth of interest in it has inspired me to write this review for it. This 14-episode anime is based on a dating simulation game (with the erotic elements removed). Apparently it is also known as ‘Kiminozo’, ‘The Eternity You Wished For’, and ‘Rumbling Hearts’.

This is a romantic drama anime, and for an anime it has very few comedy scenes, the bulk of the series being emotional drama. The story revolves around Haruka, Mitsuki, Takayuki and Shinji, 4 friends in high-school. Haruka has a crush on Takayuki and with Mitsuki’s help manages to become his girlfriend. With the birth of this dreamy relationship, high-school life was changing for the better… until disaster struck. One fateful day, Haruka and Takayuki were supposed to go out on a date but while waiting for him to show up, Haruka got involved in an accident. She was seriously injured and fell into a coma. This turn of event took a particularly heavy toll on Mitsuki and Takayuki because they felt it was their fault it happened (Mitsuki waylaid and distracted Takayuki while he was on his way to meet her, making him late, if he was on time Haruka would not have been anywhere near the accident). The story then progresses to 3 years later, Mitsuki and Takayuki are now a couple and are trying to get by in life. Their seemingly blissful world slowly crumbles when Haruka reawakens from her coma, ignorant of the 3 years that have passed. Since she is a fragile girl, the doctor wishes to break the news (of her losing 3 years of her life, and her youth) to her slowly so she persuades everyone to pretend that not much time have passed since the accident; she’s still in high-school, Takayuki is still her boyfriend, etc…. While this was supposed to be just a charade, Takayuki and Mitsuki find their lives falling apart as they play this make-believe world for Haruka. Mitsuki’s guilt is growing as she remembers why the accident happened and how she has now stolen Takayuki away from her. Takayuki is slowly being torn by his feelings for both the girls, but is it really love he feels for either? Is Mitsuki just a replacement for Haruka? Is what he feeling for Haruka now love or just pity and guilt? Will there be a true happy ending for these 3; caught in a love-triangle and a tragedy they cannot change or forget. (Yes, Shinji the 4th friend, is just a small character)

When i first watched this, I was so fanatical about Haruka that i was biased into thinking everyone was an idiot for letting her suffer. Basically my first opinion was pretty biased and unfair. But now when i watch it without prejudice, i realise that this is a very touching emotional story of love and tragedy. Anyone who is interested in romantic-drama animes should definitely catch this.

The animation and sound are decent, the songs are mostly superb (e.g.- ‘Precious Memories’, ‘Hoshizora no Waltz’ (Waltz of a starry sky), ‘Kimi ga Nozomu Eien’(the eternity you desire), ‘Nemuri Hime’(sleeping princess(i think)), and ‘Rumbling Hearts’). Oh another note is if you watch this, make sure you catch the ‘Ayu-Mayu Theatre’ which are short comedic skits, usually a parody of the original, very emotionally heavy series. They should be after the end credits for each episode (except a few).

The 4 friends during happier school times. From left:- Shinji, Haruka, Mitsuki and Takayuki.

My favourite girl in the anime, Haruka, doing what most viewers do when watching the series, crying (not very clear the picture but trust me she is).

This is one of the Ayu-Mayu theatres, it’s a comedy parody scene, the 2 girls on the left are Ayu and Mayu (Mayu is being strangled by Haruka’s braids, and no they can’t do this in the real series).

It’s been a while since i gave a 10 out of 10, but this one here is definitely 10 out of 10. It’s a real tear-jerker, a feast of raw emotions, shame on u if didn’t cry during this show (i did…) (In fact, Kiminozo is currently the #1 anime in animenfo’s Top 200 Animes List (www.animenfo.com)).