Archive for February, 2008

Proposal Daisakusen

Thursday, February 21st, 2008
KenZou

When I stumbled upon this drama I was looking for something light and fun, with a good mixture of emotions. Thankfully, the series provided more than I had hoped for. The showing by main characters was very good, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see an anime adaptation; it could work.

The basic premise is that Iwase Ken, well forget it, actually it is explained in the first 5 minutes, and deals with re-living regrets. Due to magical fairy circumstances, Ken gets that chance, and must win back his childhood friend. Sounds so generic, and it truly is, but usually if something is going to rely on smoke and mirrors, it won’t go far with me. Luckily, the premise was not the driving point [nor the finishing point], instead there is an interesting way about storytelling, through moments of Ken’s memory.

So I finished this drama the other night, which took a matter of a few days woven between eat, sleep, and school. It was most definitely worth it, and the writing turned out to be very good; coincidental but appealing. I didn’t cry, but some may, more importantly was the overwhelming feeling of heartbreak and failure; I don’t get those feelings everyday, and even though they are considered “negative”, I gladly welcome them.

Interesting, fulfilling, and highly enjoyable.
More info @d-addicts

Ryan A

Posted in Complete, Drama, Reflection | 5 Comments »

Clearing a Backlog, Building a Wishlist

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

If I had to guess, I’d say that 95% of anime fans currently have backlogs of some sort, and almost 100% have wishlists; things wished to be seen/read. When it comes to choosing a title from the usual plethora, how does one base the decision? How is it that a series on one of these lists gets the nice little check-off?

It would be interesting to see the various ways viewers go about these questions, which I raise from a stimulating thought that came to me while reading a couple posts on Hop Step Jump! As far as I’ve pondered, and as generic as possible, there exists a list of titles, each holding information; year, ratings, reviews, genre, focus, popularity (usually currently aired) etc. Do these pieces of meta-data direct viewers in certain ways so that one title gets viewed before another (not necessarily currently airing)?

I can understand the advantage of strictly viewing oldest to newest, that oldest title will be known every time, and an evolution of styles+influences would probably be more visible. Ratings and reviews are good as well, why not just watch whatever had the best results, every time, until the list is cleared (some day). This probably has more influence than a title’s age. Even though I don’t go by it, it does play in my decision to watch something before another title. Then there is genre or focus, not grouped, a big one being shounen, etc. Even if a list contains a variety of genres, a viewer could just stick to one genre experience after experience, clear the genre and continue. (I say clear and continue like it happens fast, but I’m sure logs and lists usually take years to clear, fully).

Honestly, my selections would be extremely random if considering the meta-data approach. I can’t recall choosing to watch based on age at all. Ratings yes, and genre sometimes, but usually its how I’m feeling, what I am seeing day-to-day, the atmosphere (my irc nick of the late). I like to feel out a title before I experience it, not really assuming the way it will be but taking a curious guess. Then, if I feel the moments are compatible, I may slide into a story without thinking twice and continue until the end. It could be things like, rainy day, hot day, Summer, Spring, seasons, beach day, forest day, exercise day, coding day, school day etc. that drive me to find a title that fits the moment. Eventually, it all works out and weaves into my days.

I still wonder though, are there more mysterious ways other use to clear their lists? Dart boards, coin flipping, etc.

Posted in Priority, Random | 2 Comments »

I look at the uTorrent

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

I feel pretty lethargic. Not good, I say, but not bad. Really, there isn’t much happening when I check out what’s downloading; I’m sort of oblivious. Here’s what I am keeping track of…

  • Bamboo Blade
  • Kimikiss
  • Shana II
  • Shugo Chara!
  • Gundam 00

Anything and everything else I’ve barely touched, just not in the mood. This ranges from Ghost Hound to Moyashimon!, but I want to be there. I just haven’t found a good moment for myself to say… Ryan! Enjoy this.

J-media is nice, because I still enjoy it, even though I’m twirling my anime habits around in thin air. Particularly, I’ve found small time for dramas. I’m not converted or such, but there is something about a 40-50 minute X 10-12 episode series when compared with a double-season (~25 episodes) anime, and I’d have to say it is the level of fulfillment.

Lately, the j-dramas I’ve experienced felt meaty. The equivalent amount of time in anime… wait, I’ll just use a metaphor:

If anime were Carmel-san’s BacoTomago thing, it would be 2 eggs and 2 strips of bacon, whereas a drama would be 3 eggs and 2 strips of bacon…. very small difference… it isn’t as definite as saying, bacon and eggs VS the fruit smoothie.

Anyone that eats eggs regularly for breakfast knows, 2 eggs vs 3 eggs is quite a difference; this has something to do with math.

Two eggs can theoretically satisfy two mouths, 3 eggs does the job surely. Thus one mouth should be able to enjoy 1.5 eggs, but because eggs come in shells, let’s go for 2 (rounding is fun). Now, increasing the amount to 3 eggs, when a belly is satisfied with 1.5 eggs… that’s double, 200%, therefore quite a difference.

Eggs are fun…episode to episode, dramas have fulfillment, but overall I still feel anime is better rounded in the end.

Enough about the why. In January, I went through GTO, First Kiss, and Nobuta wo Produce, while starting Kimi wa Petto, Yamada Tarou Monogatari (via TokiDoki), and this evening Proposal Daisakusen.

Of the bunch, Nobuta wo Produce is quite notable. It was fun, with interesting characters. GTO was fun, though a bit older. First Kiss had some relapse and psycho-analysis requirements, but addicting through the first half. Of the three I started, I will probably only finish Proposal Daisakusen; from 2007. The others were good, just I wasn’t feeling them; Yamada Tarou is enjoyable, but the chemistry was so-so, and Kimi wa Petto, I like the manga.

Hmm, well, I feel like I didn’t accomplish much this post, but dramas are a good way to keep the j-flow, since I’m not maxing out my anime entertainment. I may not write about it here, but one drama I am looking forward to watching is Galileo; science-mystery. One drama I probably won’t venture into, but I love the source is Honey and Clover; Garten is blogging that one.

So, yea. party on!

Ryan A

edit: I accidentally published this private, which is strange… so since I was logged in, I couldn’t tell. D:

Posted in Priority, Random | 4 Comments »

melative :: wp-reflections

Saturday, February 2nd, 2008

So this isn’t anything, but I’ve implemented a sidebar routine which loads the rss from a melative reflection feed on anime. Sorry, it doesn’t do comments at the moments, but jeeze even getting AB.net to load an external file (xml+rss) was like uh… fopen disabled lol.

The way around this is to use sockets, which I won’t go into detail about, but for now… reflections… partially. I find it really easy to just do reflections on whatever; feels like less content is needed (the concept is similar to that of Twitter’s micro-blogging, just with media stuffs).

Bongos!

Ryan A

Posted in Random, technology | 6 Comments »