To make up for the lack of updates, I’ll be posting a series of travel posts, photos and journals (backdated) related to my stints in Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo, both to relive the moments of fun and to give tips to other travellers looking to travel to Japan.

Now… back to processing the 1500+ photos for my blog.. Ciao!

Ok, I should probably give a brief summary about this series before plunging head in. The story focuses around a futuristic Earth, which has divided into 3 blocs, each owning a source of energy – essential in fossil fuel-depleted Earth. Hence, many conflicts ensue over ownership and usage of these power sources. In the midst of all these fighting, an organization with previously-unknown technological prowess unleashed its Gundam units on places with ongoing warfare. Known as Celestial Being, it proclaimed itself to be using violence and Gundams to stop warfare and bring about change in the world.
(Sorry, no pictures this time!)

I must confess, I started watching the series because the opening of the first episode seemed to hint that religious conflicts would be the main theme. (I don’t usually read detailed summaries of series before watching as I hate spoilers.) But I was proven wrong. That was only the introduction for the protagonist, Setsuna F Seiei.

Not that I would object, but the series seemed to be aiming for the moon, but possibly did not move above a few feet away from the ground. Part of the appeal came from claims that this Gundam series was critically acclaimed. The artsy snob in me decided to give it a try. But I was bitterly disappointed. Characters were introduced haphazardly, re-introduced as if the writers suddenly remembered their existence, and very possibly killed rather suddenly. I guess they are setting up the stage for Season 2, but with the way things go, I have to be rather bored before I ever start on it. My favourite part of the show was the second ending song, “Friends” by Stephanie, which really explains how blah I found the show to be.

I guess it should be quite easy to discern what I felt about this anime. Disappointed, to say the least, especially when it came packaged with the high expectations built from previous Gundam animes.

Edit: Some of my classmates have repeatedly tried to convince me that this series is not as bad I make it out to be, and truth be told, I AM rather tempted to see how it all works out in the second season. If I manage to find the strength to watch it, that is.

Set in the “shinigami technical school for weapon meisters”, the series revolves around three groups which consist of a weapon meister and (at least one) human weapon. Trying to make the latter a “Death Scythe” and thus fit for use by a shinigami, they must collect the souls of ninety-nine evil humans and one witch, in that order.

I was recommended by my friend to watch this anime. The title of the anime made it sound pretty interesting. Before watching it, I deduced that the anime would probably have references to beings who can devour souls. But, how on earth do you eat souls? What do souls look like? (Do drawings of Casper depict a soul? How do you even EAT CASPER?). The thought of eating Casper sure sounds scary and absurd. 

So was it really scary? Well, not quite. Read on to find out. 

The anime is drawn in a very cartoonish fashion, with bold colors and little details in the drawings. Houses are just cominations of curved blocks of stone and the castle is adorned by 3 giant candles. The sinister looking moon (which appears throughout the anime) looks kinda…. well..retarded? There you go, a picture of it from ~sandaimehokage’s deviant art website. I have to highlight this because it just looks so retarded.

If there’s anything good about the anime, I’d say it’s the attempt of the author to differentiate the anime using a very unique way of portraying the world that the Shinigamis and weapon meisters live in. The bold use of colors made the anime very vibrant and lively. However, if you are looking for cutting edge fighting scenes that keep you on the edge of your seat, then you should probably give this anime a pass. 

The plot of the anime seems to be quite predictable. A female protagonist, Maka, has allegedly inherited some special demon hunting ability, and she is expected to kill the Kishin (demon god) and save the world. Black star, is portrayed as a very Naruto-like fashion. How novel is that? But wait, before this, she has to deal with Medusa and Arachne first. Why are there so many different enemies? Where do they come from? What’s their purpose? None of these questions are explained in the anime. That’s probably the reason why I find that the depth of the anime, portrayed in a dichotomy of insanity versus courage, was lacking in persuasiveness due to the piece-meal like approach the story was  created (at least in my opinion). 

That aside, it’d have been better if the series stretched a tad longer and gave us glimpses into the past of the characters to help us identify with them. 

Overall, even though this anime is not on the top of my “must-watch” list, it’s a decent anime to watch if you just wanna pass time.  With a bit more effort and research, you could probably make your time more worthwhile by watching another anime though. 

Anime rating: B-

Also, just a treat for you. A video I came across during my Post Modern Theatre Studies class. Two guys, one nursery song iced with cultural toppings. End result? You get a whopping hilarious tub of laughter! 

You watch the video and you laugh at it for being so comical. What happens if I put myself in the shoes of a person with the same ethnicity as them. Will I still be able to laugh over it and treat it like a joke? 

Mocking your own culture probably does not go well with some. ( I saw some displeased faces during my seminar when this video was screened by our prof).

However, I did laugh when Russell Peter made fun of Chinese, saying how they couldn’t even “last one second”.

Not everyone’s a Russell Peter fan though. Hmm. Food for thought…

President Barack Obama 2009 Inauguration and Address

I was so inspired by his speech that I began chomping on every Obama vid I can find on youtube’s related video column.  BUT, before you start labeling me an Obama fanatic, let me clarify my stand.

A measure of a good president or leader is never gauged on the basis of his eloquence. Adolf Hitler was an eloquent speaker too.  But the subject of his eloquence leaves much to be desired.

Next, just out of sheer curiosity, I typed in “George Bush” into the youtube search box and I found a list of results. My mouse seemed to magically gravitate to this link titled…

George W Bush – American Idiot

That line at the end of the video takes the cake. 

“and America needs a military where breast and brightest are proud to serve…”

Now do you see why Americans picked Mr. Obama ? (Given John McCain’s strong links with Bush)  You don’t need to be a PhD holder to figure out why! 

Gee! Keh Zua? Tell me about it?

PS: For those of you who do not know what’s Keh Zua, it’s Hokkien dialect and it literally means firing more bullets (from a gun) than needed to kill an easy target.

Its Hikari-Chan! Douzo yoroshiku.

I have just posted my first anime review on Gundam Seed. Do check it out!

Just a short update here!

A dear fellow otakqueen is also going to contribute some reviews to this blog!  Let’s welcome *drum roll* Hikari chan!!!!

I know Hikari chan in real life and we’re just a bunch of closet otakus who wishes to use this channel express our otaku-ism and to reach out to like-minded fellows.  She will probably post and introduce herself some time later.  

And again, do send an email to me at feedback.to.anime.zen at gmail.com if you wish to do an anime review for us! Meanwhile, stay tuned for an upcoming Gundam series review by Hikari chan!