Category: Past

Not Dropping Spring

Posted by Ryan A - May 13, 09

Call it M, or whatever, but with Spring in full-assault, I really don’t feel like dropping anything; I’m pleased with the mix. So though I won’t be dropping, I’ve purposely moved a couple series to the backlog (while others have wound up there from finals week v_v/sad).

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood

I still can’t believe corporate is calling this Brotherhood. Seriously, wtf, the damn show does not even mention Brotherhood anywhere. Small issue lol.

METAL

The real reason to backlog this is much in the same as 2008’s Xamdou; batch viewing. Naturally, I pretty much get the gist of FMA after the 2003 series, and I hear this one may stick to the manga material I’m unfamiliar with, fab, but…

At the moment, single-episode viewing is sort of meh, even with the extra-ordinary pacing. Sincerely, Bro, I’d rather watch 4-6 at at time.

Pandora Hearts

[this blank saves your eyes from anything that may have been considered a screencap]

Awesome Alice premise. Not sure about wonderland crossover, but this series has taken my interest even with the horrid rip/raw/4:3 and subgroups making 720p from SD (yes, sometimes we must invest in new lolmeters). I’ve viewed 3 episodes, they did get better with progress.

Anyway, I feel this would also be worthwhile in batches (The B in Backlog stands for Batch, right?). Somewhere in the first couple episodes I thought it was much too slow with details, but it turns out the pacing is rather nice, and that bothers me if Hearts is going to be a single-season swinger (13 weeks). SO, 綺麗なビデオよりを待たなければならないんです。(I think that particle needs to be moved :/).

Summer Storm

ARASHI

It was likely apparent that I would be watching this come June. I have absolutely no qualm with the series, as I enjoyed the first episode jump-in. The character designs were awkward from some angles, but its a minor viewer adjustment imo. As I am not familiar with the source material, I’ll assume this a sort of slice mix comedy seeing the first episode hinted some good details, but hardly any indication of plot. Summertime~

Basically everything else is cool, but I’m about 3 4 weeks behind in half the stuff I sampled from the premiers; roughly 24 episodes combined. Yup, tomorrow at 4pm I bounce out of Uni for Summer. This post was written over a week ago D:

More…

The Music and Me

Posted by Ryan A - September 3, 08

le mellow_bunny posted a nice inquisition about wanting for good music in anime, which reminded me of some past AMV’s. Dunno why it rings with me, but the band A.F.I., who I don’t particularly listen to, was mixed with Crest of the Stars (Sekai no Monshou, one of my favorites, Lafiel <3<3), on a track Morningstar. Here’s the vid. I just find something sweet and cadent about it; reminiscent.

Sadly, I could not find a streaming copy of the other video, of which I was originally I was reminded. It was another song by A.F.I (Death of the Seasons), tuned to Evangelion. Sweet and actiony.

I’m not really an A.F.I. fan, but I enjoy these songs for their relations to the series. I find they fit quite well, and that makes them a little better in my eyes.

Dry on Images

Posted by Ryan A - August 9, 08

Contrary to the title, this post isn’t about how I’ve basically abandoned using images on the blog (it takes too long, unless they are snapshots).

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Over Drive :: just quit now

Posted by Ryan A - July 26, 08

I recently finished this 2007 Spring series [as reflected], and though I found it far from spectacular, it has a nice shine.

Yuki

Fukuzawa Yuki, is just that. She is a strange, intriguing character, to me at least, because she is quite typical, but at times she gives that feeling of development, or an urge for development. On top of that, Yuki’s random antagonistic moments are questionable as enjoyment, but were a fine source of complexity + added interest. What the hell was she always so spiced about anyway?

There wasn’t enough development for Yuki [or megane Asahi] in the series. Most of the focus was spent on the local road race, but I have a hunch that better depth lies in the manga. Consequently, I purchased the next 4-5 volumes of the manga (v6+). Japanese, but scanlation isn’t looking peachy at the moment.

Recommending this is useless, but if one were to attempt a viewing, I would recommend using the fast-forward control often during episodes 19-22. These 4 episodes were approx. 1 episode of material, stretched extremely thin via flashbacks and scenes from earlier episodes (overuse is bad). In short, the series would have been better around 22 episodes, or possibly 50 if the production quality was better, which would have given character development more time to solidify.

Ryan A

Winged Wicked Things

Posted by Ryan A - July 23, 08

So after 8 login attempts, I’m here….

WordPress is freaking out on me, or perhaps I’m misinterpreting the 10 drafts (8 which have been published already). Anyway… crazy software

Guess what? I actually am watching anime once more, rather than? Well, I’m not sure what I was doing in the afternoons of recent weeks, but I think it had something to do with the Sukuran manga and/or 料理 (りょうり).

The important part is me watching anime, but it’s not current whatsoever. Gintama and OverDrive are the culprits, but the latter is proving quite a disappointment by way of direction and production; the story and characters are fine I suppose. I haven’t ridden far into Gintama, but I like the atmospheric yield (can one argue with spins on the Meiji ^^).

This is a blog

I have finally imported my Lifera settings from home server, to my current workstation, both (server and workstation) were revamped in recent weeks, and I was being lazy migrating my /home/ryan folder to the workstation (ubuntu server and desktop, respectively).

Just under 300 unread items, and I feel good about the “rain-checking” (if I watch the episode, I’m going to comment, really don’t care how late I am to the party… sometimes, that’s better, esp. if a certain law enforment agency was there previously).

Blogpocalypse is another blog, which I finally updated, though I lost some files in the migration, and yea, had to use some random image.

Ryan A

Note: the title, Winged Wicked Things is a wicked song by Sunset Rubdown :)

…and the water was warm

Posted by Ryan A - July 16, 08

Oh, Ryan, what?

So I decided to write this late evening, as I sat and threw some nice things at the uTorrent. Let’s see, it’s Summer, and I felt like screwing the season as usual and going for some Keroro Gunsou, Tsubasa, and Gintama seasons. Unfortunately, I have little to reflect upon aside from some jasmine tea brewing before me, which will be golden in a few minutes (it’s quite the drink before sleep).

Lately, I’ve been working on an API at melative and keeping up with athletic affairs; the API is basically good to roll, and FF extension + File Manager is in the mix. Oh, but what is this? School Rumble… mmmhmm, after about 5-6pm each day I’ve been catching up with the old acquaintance. Also, twitter has been a good outlet for randomness and such, but entirely unrelated to this blog ^_^.

I just don’t have much to write here, Blogpocalypse is going, but I am stalled with having files/writing on multiple computers (need less computers). Anything I experience will likely be reflected on melative, and dammit if I haven’t reinstalled my OPML blogroll to read around the otakusphere.

I cannot find boredom, it has forsaken me!

An Overlay :: Three Days of the Condor Bebop

Posted by Ryan A - June 3, 08

Sydney Pollack, pass away last week; quite sad :/. To tribute him, TCM has spent a large block airing his films. Last night, I caught 3 Days of the Condor [reflection], which was a decent film. Aside from the quality of conspiracy, it debuted in 1975, but the looming atmosphere held was something that quite reminded me of my experience with Cowboy Bebop.

I am not stating any influence, but the particular scene, where Turner and Hale parse each other is worthy of comparison to that of Spike and Julia. Perhaps many will never experience the film, so I shan’t go into it, but three notes: music, lighting, situation.

The error of this comparison is that of the heroine. Julia was much more involved in the overall thick of Bebop, than Kathy Hale (Dunaway). Still, Turner and Spike have decent character similarities, and Spike was always an interesting one to eye.

Ryan A

Note: Public library FTW, they had the film, and somehow I found the ADV release of Kanon there as well. OCLS is something.